the habitation of thine house and the place where thine honour dwelleth And of his desire to remain in God's house all the days of his Life that he might behold the beauty of the Lord. And we have waited for so the word may be read for the loving kindness of the Lord in the midst of thy Temple There promises of God's special and extraordinary blessings on the Church Assemblies of his People in former ages were so generally known and believed of holy men in those times that when any of them prayed for any spiritual grace or mercy in behalf of any other they usually expressed it in this from The Lord bless thee out of Sion For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore So again We bless you out of the house of the Lord. They seem to be the words of the Priests whose office it was at the dismissing of the Congregation of God's People to bless them in his house They being appointed of God there to bless in his name Whose benedictions there pronounced did not prove an empty sound of words in the air but from the Temple at Ierusalem where they were spoken they mounted up to Heaven where they were heard and answered For the Priests and Levits arose and blessed the People and their voice was heard and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place even unto heaven In which respect the publick worship of God is called his face and presence Cain for the Murther of his Brother being debarred the benefit of God's publick worship complains I shall be hid from thy face i. e. from the face and presence of God in his Church as appears afterward And Cain went out from the presence of God and dwelt in the Land of Nod i. e. from the place of God's publick worship which in all likelyhood was celebrated by Adam the Father who being a Prophet had taught his Children how to sacrifice and to serve the Lord. Thither God's People resorted in multitudes and David professeth that nothing in all his Life hapned to him more pleasant than to see such flocking to God's house and that he could goe thither with them as nothing aggravated his misery more in his persecution by Saul or by his Son Absolom's rebellion for 't is uncertain whether of the two was the occasion of Psal. 42. than that he could not have the happiness that formerly he enjoyed of being one of the first and forwardest in going thither When I remember these things saith he I pour out my Soul in me And why because there he enjoyed God in a more special manner than he could elsewher thither he came and appeared before the face of God What longings he shewed for God's publick worship at another time when By Saul's persecution he was forced from the Temple at Ierusalem into the Wilderness of Iudah and wandered in the desart may be seen in Psal. 63. Though it was grievous to him to fall from that dignity and favour he formerly had and wherein he flourished in Saul's court though it was hard for him to lose all his goods to be alienated from all his friends to be forced to converse among strangers and infidels and to expose his life to all sorts of hardships and hazards yet all these he counted small and Light matters in comparison of this one great evil that he was forced to be absent from Church and to abide there where there was no publick Ministry or worship of God And therefore making no mention at all of any of those other evils he makes this his onely request that he might be restored again ut sacris publicis Coetui piorum interesse possit that he might have the liberty of God's house again Though he might and doubtless did converse with God in the Desart pouring out his Prayers to him which was the onely support he had in his exile And though no doubt those godly friends he had left about him for he had such in whose society he might take great comfort in his banishment he had both a Prophet and a Priest did join with him in the private service of God yet this contented him not he longs still for the publick worship bewails greatly the want of it his speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of it and the happiness of such as had free access to it He know he could no where perform divine worship with so free and glad an heart with so much comfort and assurance of so large a blessing as in that place where the Ministry was publick and where the Multitude of God's people did serve and worship him There he vows his service I will give thee thanks in the grâ—at Congregation I will praise thee among much people I will praise thee with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the Congregation And calls upon others to doe the like Give the Lord the glory due to his Name worship him in the beauty of holiness It was no small blessing promised to good King Hezekiah that his recovery from his sickness should be so soon effected that he should not be detained from going to Church but the third day he should be able to go up to the house of the Lord. The hearing whereof was equal comfort to him with the news of the enlargement of the lease of his life It hath even been a sad affliction to the Souls of God's people to see the Church-assemblies neglected and the Congregations more empty than they were wont to be and to be debarred the liberty of frequenting them as being thereby deprived of the most lively representation of Heaven on Earth to the obscuring much of God's Glory which is seen and spoken of in the Sanctuary and the seducing them from the mutual and comfortable Fellowship one of another in his ordinances and from much refreshing and help they had by these means I will gather them which are sorrowfull for the solemn Assemblies who are of thee to whom the reproach of it is a burthen 'T is the Character the Holy Ghost makes of a true Child and Member of the Church to be thus affected When ever God's people did shew a more then ordinary desire to prevail in prayer they have shewed more than ordinary care that the Assemblies might be as publick and as full as could be as 't is noted by a worthy Divine of Ours Blow the Trumpet in Sion sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly gather the People assemble the Children c. In the Fast which King Iehosaphat proclaimed it is said All Judah stood before the Lord with their Little ones their Wives and their Children And it was in the publick place of God's worship the house of the Lord that they met The People of Israel went up to the House of the Lord to ask counsel concerning their
it ought to be nothing else as if the whole day were to be spent at Church and in keeping publick Assemblies so far as conveniency and edification of the people will permit Why else did Holy David desire to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Why prayed he that he might be so happy One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Therefore if Conscience to obey God or desire to doe him service did draw them to his house at any time or to any part of his Worship the same would induce them at all times and to all parts of it The liberty then that such persons take in God's service as if all were Arbitrary argues much of hypocritical wantonness nothing of sound or sincere godliness They who are fed with Corn from Heaven meat to the full are thus faln to loath the Mannah that Rained down upon them twice every Sabbath-day Of a third sort I could inform the Reader who being weak yet I hope well-meaning Christians not knowing the depths of Satan under a specious pretence of Piety are not content with what they hear at Church but must afterwards fill their heads with notions which they hear at Conventicles wherewith they feast themselves without fear after they have been fed to the full in God's house with Angels food Without fear I say of offending God by breaking the order he hath set in his Church by countenancing abetting or joining themselves with such unlawfull and ungospel-like Assemblies without fear of offending or provoking the Rules of the Church which they are bound to obey by seeing their Laws despised and affronted without fear of exposing themselves to the temptation and hazard of falling so fearfully as they cannot but see that some of their Brethren and Neighbours have done And without fear of losing what they have heard in publick by departing immediately from the Church to a Conventicle as if all Religion did consist in nothing but hearing and all the Service of God were but according to the French scoff a mere Preach If this be the way of keeping the Sabbath where is room then for Meditation which the Scripture as much enjoins as hearing Thou shalt meditate on the Law that thou mayst observe to doe according as is written Mary therefore kept Christ's sayings because she pondered them in her heart David therefore grew to be wiser than his teachers because God's Law was his meditation Conference with Neighbours and Family-instructions will by this means also be issued out Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour and every one to his brother what hath the Lord answered and what hath he spoken The best of Hearers even Christ's own Disciples took another course than these now doe When they had heard their Master Preach they spent their time after Sermon in conferring among themselves about what they had heard and went to their Teacher to be better informed and to have all doubts resolved For want of so doing it comes to pass with too many as sometimes it did with some of them that though they had seen their Lord's mighty power in feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes yet their Faith was never the stronger And this was the reason They considered not the miracle of the Loaves for their heart was hardned They had seen the miracle but they had not considered it nor meditated on it and therefore it did them no good at all In the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves the way these people take is not the right For the Assembly of Divines in their Directory for Worship give this rule for the Sanctification of the Lord's day that what time is vacant between or after the Solemn meetings of the Congregation in publick be spent in Reading Meditation Repetition of Sermons especially by calling their Families to an account of what they have heard and Catechising of them holy conferences prayer for a blessing upon the publick Ordinances singing of Psalms visiting the Sick relieving the Poor and such like duties of piety charity and mercy accounting the Sabbath a delight In a word I could inform the Reader what impious devices have been used not onely to make a rent in the Church but also to keep it open that it should never close again by endeavouring that an irreconcileable prejudice might be perpetuated in the minds of people against the publick Ministry and Ministers of the Church And to the end that those poor deluded Souls which have been drawn off from their due attendance to God's publick Ordinances to wait on these men in their clanculary and irregular conventions might never return to the Church any more I have observed that the absence of one of these Masters of Conventicles in the places where they are held have ever been carefully supplied by the presence of some other Domestick Chaplain to keep up their House-meetings As if Ieroboam's impious policy should never be forgotten who not daring to trust his new divided Tribes in a joint resort to the Temple at Ierusalem set up his Calves to be Worshipped by them nearer home But I will not rake any longer in this puddle lest it stink in the nostrils of pious and sober Christians as it cannot but doe in God's already Now I appeal to all my judicious and learned Brethren of the Clergy and to all persons else of stayed principles and piety whether for a stranger thus to pluck the work of a Pastour of a Congregation out of his hands be tollerable in the Church of Christ or no Whether this practice that tends thus to divide betwixt Minister and People breaking the near bond of relation that is and ought to continue between them robbing him of his flock and taking them off from dependance on him for the enjoyment of the work of his ministry be of God or no And whether he hath ordained any such course as the means of Grace in his Church or whether this be not rather a strategem of Satan to introduce all manner of impiety and ungodliness The Presbyterian Divines themselves have given their judgment on my side already in this case In these words To make a Rupture in the body of Christ and to divide Church from Church and to set up Church against Church and to gather Churches out of true Churches And because we differ in something therefore to hold Communion in nothing this we think hath no warrant out of the word of God and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and Families and not onely disturb but in a little time destroy the power of Godliness purity of Religion peace of Christians and set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism Popery Heresie and all manner of wickedness So also in their Preface to the Ius divinum of Church-government
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
spiritualiter nati sint Saith St. Augustine He may upon just Cause depose discharge and put to silence any Minister whatsoever within his Dominions as to the Execution of his Ministerial function either in publick or private Ministers as well as others are under civil jurisdiction for Every Soul is bound to be subject to the higher powers And St omnis anima cur non est vestra Quis vos excepit ex universalitate If every soul then the Souls of Ministers as well as others For who excepted them from the universality Qui dicit omnem excludit nullam He that saith every Soul excludeth no Soul It was impiously said of That the Clergy ought not for any cause to be cited before the civil Magistrate or to be judged by him it being absurd that the sheep should judge the shepherd Christ himself taking upon him man's nature was subject to humance Authority submitting himself to Caiaphas and Pilate so far as to be apprehended arraigned condemned and executed True saith Bellarmine de facto Christ was subject to Pilate but de jure he ought not to have been so And that power over him which he did acknowledge was given to Pilate from above Iohn 19. 11. was onely a bare permission To which we answer if we simply respect the Dignity of Christ's person being the Son of God then we acknowledge that he neither was nor could be subject to any man But if we consider the dispensation of his incarnation and that form of a Servant which he took on himself whereby he became Man and under the Law then de jure as he was a Jew he was a Subject to that power which at that time had the rule And what Pilate unjustly did against Christ that we grant God did onely permit But he had a lawfull Jurisdiction over his person not by God's permission onely but by his effectual will But suppose it were true which Bellarmine saith yet the Example of Christ maketh never the less for the Confirmation of the truth for which I allege it For if he submitted himself to a power over him that was usurped onely and not approved of by God but barely permitted then certainly they are very far from the Humility that was in Christ Jesus that refuse to be obedient and subject to just and lawfull powers which are ordained of God and set over them And therefore when Christ said date quae sunt Caesaris Caesari give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's he spake as well to the high Priests Scribes and Pharisees as to the People St. Paul whose apostolical authority and spiritual Weapons were able to bring down every opposition yet acknowledged that he must be judged by Caesar as his lawfull Superiour Bellarmine's distinction of de facto and de jure will stand him in no more stead here than it did before for to say the Roman Emperour was St. Paul's Judge de facto but not de jure is to doe St. Paul a manifest injury For if the emperour had no right to judge him why would he then make use of the benefit of an appeal to Caesar when no body compelled him so to doe and why did he at another time shelter himself under the Privilege of a Citizen of Rome By his very professing himself to be a Roman he doth acknowledge himself to be subject to the same Laws and to the same Lord that other Romans were and that he had no more exemption or immunity from subjection and obedience to the Roman Laws than that Tribune who said with a great sam have I obtained this freedom The Scriptures do give us an instance of King Solomon's deposing Abiathar from the Priesthood The text saith that King Solomon did thrust out Abiathar from being Priest before the Lord. Neither doth the Holy Ghost mention this historically onely as thing done but by way of approbation as a thing well and rightly done This the Iesuites themselves who are the onely men I know who question the Sovereign power in this Case confess Remarkable to this purpose are the words of one of them Alii non dubitant dicere Solomonem in eo facto injuste egisse usurpando potestatem quam non habebat ego vero id affirmare non audeo propter verba Scripturae quae ex Cap. 3. allegavi Et quia apud antiquos patres expositores non invenio factum illud inter peccata Solomonis numeratum sive in culpam tributum Some saith he doubt not to say that Solomon in that Act did unjustly in usurping more power than did belong to him But I dare not say so both for the words of the Scripture which I have before alleged out of the third Chapter and also because among the ancient Fathers and Expositours I find not this Act of his reckoned for any of Solomon's sins or him blamed for it The words which he saith he alleged out of the third Chapter are these And Solomon loved the Lord his God walking in the ways of David his Father onely he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places Which exception saith he shews that Kings Solomon untill that time had kept the Commandments of God and consequently sinned not in that fact in deposing Abiathar And if the Kings of Israel might execute such power why not the Kings of England also Who will say that the Power of Christian Kings and Princes is shorter now than that of the Kings of Iudah and the religious Princes of the Primitive Christian Church was That the nursing Fathers under the Gospel are abridged in Authority of what they were under the Law And the reason and wisedom of this Nation in Parliament hath adjudged this to be a just Cause of such deposition and silencing of any when he shall refuse to submit and be obedient and conformable to such Laws and Constitutions as they have declared to be Very comfortable to all good People desirous to live in Christian Conversation most profitable to the State of the Realm upon which the Mercy Favour and Blessing of Almighty God is in no-wise so readily and plentifully powered as by Common-Prayer due using of the Sacraments and often preaching of the Gospel with devotion of the hearers And that nothing conduceth more to the setling the peace of this Nation which is desired of all good men nor the honour of our Religion and the Propagation thereof than an universal Agreement in the publick Worship of Almighty God Which is a thing so amiable and excellent in it self that it hath extracted an acknowledgment and commendation of it from the Mouths of the Divines of the Presbyterian persuasion themselves For in a Book of theirs entitled A Vindication of the Presbyterial Government published by the Ministers and Elders met together in a provincial Assembly November 2 d. 1649. They have these words It is the Duty of all Christians to study to enjoy the
Ordinances of Christ in unity and uniformity as far as is possible Which our Liturgy sets up by prescribing the manner of it Whereas otherwise all will be left to the chance of mens wills which saith Doctour Hammond can no more be thought like to concur in one form than Democritus's Atomes to have met together into a world of beautifull Creatures without any kind of providence to dispose them For the Scriptures call for unity and uniformity as well as purity and verity And surely it is not impossible to obtain this so much desired unity and uniformity because that God hath promised that his Children shall serve him with one heart and with one way and with one shoulder And that in the days of the Gospel there shall be one Lord and his Name one And Christ hath prayed that we may be all one as the Father is in him and he in the Father And he adds a most prevalent reason That the World may believe that thou hast sent me Nothing hinders the propagation of the Gospel so much as the division and separation of Gospel-professours If it be God's promise and Christ's prayer it is certainly a thing possible to be obtained and a duty incumbent upon all good Christians to labour after Secondly as it cannot be denyed that the Civil Magistrate hath authority over the persons of Ministers so 't is as true that he hath power to act for the regulation of all their Ecclesiastical meetings and assemblies though not to act in sacris Yet circa sacra non ad docendum quod est sacerdotale yet ad jubendum quod est regale As Constantine the Emperour told the Bishops whom he invited to a banquet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are Bishops within the Church and I am ordained by God's Grace a Bishop without the Church That the King of England saith Sir Henry Spelman is persona mixta endowed as well with Ecclesiastical authority as with temporal is not onley a solid position of the Common Law of this Land but confirmed unto us by the continual practice of our ancient Kings ever since and before the Conquest even in hottest times of Popish fervency For this cause at their Coronation they are not onely Crowned with the Diadem of the Kingdom and girt with the Sword of justice to signisie their temporal authority but are anointed also with the oil of Priesthood and cloathed stola Sacerdotali and veste Dalmatica to demonstrate this their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction whereby the King is said to be in Law the Supremus ordinarius and in regard thereof among other Ecclesiastical rights and prerogatives belonging to him is to have all the tithes through the Kingdom in the places that are not of any Parish for some such there be and namely divers Forests Magistrates we grant can neither preach the word nor administer the Sacraments any more than Vzziah could burn incense or offer Sacrifice to God Yet they are nursing Fathers of the Church not to give the milk of the word and Sacraments but of disclipline and Government During the old Testament times the King's power extended to the instituting and commanding of such Religious meetings as do no where appear to be either instituted or commanded of God or his Servant Moses v. g. The solemnity of the Passover which was to be kept by the Law of Moses but seven days by a special Command of King Hezekiah with the consent of the people was commanded to be kept other seven days The Feast of Purim in Commemoration of the deliverance of the Nation of the Iews under Ahasuerus the Persian King was instituted by Hester and Mordecai Moses onely Commanded one day of Fasting to be yearly observed viz. in the seventh month But the Kings and Magistrates of the people instituted other yearly solemn Fasts So that in the times of the latter Prophets there were four yearly Fasts observed viz. besides that yearly in the seventh month three others in the fourth fifth and tenth month Now if they may by their authority institute and enlarge why not then as well abridge and restrain Provided the publick assembling together of God's people according to Divine appointment be no-way prejudiced or infringed If the Magistrate may appoint then he may forbid too Law reason and sense teach that appointing and forbidding belong to one power Thirdly neither can there be any ground of quarrell made against the justness of these Laws forbidding Conventicles For as it is well observed by a worthy Divine before me that Law is undoubtedly just in which there is a concurrence of the justice of these four causes of Law wherein the whole of a Law doth consist viz. the justice of the final efficient formal and material causes of Laws 1. The final Cause of End of a just Law is that it tend to the common and publick good And of this the Lawgivers are to be Judges and not the Subjects And most unreasonable it were that what the Lawgivers shall adjudge to be for the publick good should be made to yeild to private and particular mens interests 2. The efficient Cause of a just Law is the lawfull power of the person or persons in authority that made the Law Otherwise Laws are onely so in name and not indeed And as Aquinas Violentiae magis quam leges They are rather acts of violence than Laws And it is a sure rule in Logick Causa aequivoca non infert effectum a sentence passed by one that is no Judge binds not the party 3. The right form of a Law is that it be a rule of rectitude for humane actions according to the guidance of distributive justice giving to every one according to his demerits 4. The matter of a Law must be a thing that is good according to the rule of universal justice at leait indifferent A Law wherein these 4 things concur must needs be good and obligatory to all persons that are concerned in it Now in which of these the aforesaid Laws against Conventicles are faulty I know not Perhaps some will say in the latter the Matter of it is not good to lay a restraint on Religious Assemblies and Meetings It were so indeed if Religious Assemblies and Meetings were forbidden But I think it will appear in the sequel that these in question are not such whatsoever some conceive them to be It were so if all Religious Meetings or Assemblies were forbidden But blessed be God 't is otherwise We have still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick ancient lawfull and orderly assemblies allowed commanded and encouraged by Authority in all places of the Kingdom and onely such meetings by the Law forbidden as are private new and disorderly and tend to Faction and Schism and such other evils as are not without trembling to be mentioned Lastly I answer with that learned Casuist Dr. Sanderson that it is not necessarily requisite that whatsoever is established
War with Benjamin And this they did more than once and till they did so they prevailed not The like course took king Hezekiah at his keeping the Passover to make the Congregation in the house of the Lord the Temple at Ierusalem as great as he could Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Iudah and wrote Letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Ierusalem and keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel And as there they have prevailed with God in Prayer more than they could any where else so there God hath taught them more than they could learn any where else When I sought to know this viz. the Doctrine of God's providence and wisedom in the just and righteous management of the affairs of the world it was too painfull for me saith David till I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end When all means else did fail the publick Ministry through God's blessing on it became effectual to bring him to understanding in this Mystery Therefore he concludes thy way O God is in the Sanctuary And as in Gospel-times we have the like promises of God's special presence in the publick Congregations of his People Mat. 28. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 1. 13. so it was professed long before that there the Godly should exhort and stir up one another to seek the true Knowledge of God and his ways Es. 2. 3. Mic. 4. 2. which was fulfilled accordingly both in the Disciples of Christ after his Ascension who continually were in the Temple And also in the converted Jews and Gentiles who continued daily in the Temple with one accord So did the Christians in the primitive times in their Churches their Ministers did preach as frequently as the persecution of those times would permit And there the People assembled themselves together to hear They did not divide themsleves some of the Congregation going one way and some another but they came together in one place And that place was the Church If not the publick place of worship so called as most think yet the place where by reason of the hot persecution of those times the whole Church did or could meet together And St. Hierome gives this commendations of the Faith of the primitive Christians at Rome Vbi alibi tanto studio frequentia ad Ecclesias concurritur ubi sic ad similitudinem Coelestis tonitrui Amen reboat vacua Idolorum templa quatiuntur non quod aliam habeant Romani fidem nisi hanc quam omnes Christi Ecclesiae sed quod devotio in iis major sit simplicitas ad credendum In what part of the World else is there such studious flocking and resort to Christian Churches as here Where else doth the Amen of the Congregation sound so loud as that it seems to equalize a Clap of Thunder in the Air insomuch that the Idol-temples being left empty are made to tremble therewith Not that the Romans had any other Faith than the other Churches of Christ but they had more devotion and singleness of heart in believing To this also agrees the Testimony of St. Augustine primi credentes in templo veteri Domino servierint the first and new Christians did serve God in the old Temple It will be said by some to what purpose is all this that hath been alledged out of the old Testament touching God's promises to or benediction of the Church-assemblies of the Iews Their Tabernacle and Temple were holy places and the sanctification of them was Levitical and therefore now abolished and not to be applied to our Churches This passeth with some for an objection that hath force enough in the bowels of it to overthrow and demolish the whole fabrick of this my third Argument But if we carefully look into the inside of it and not tamely deliver up our hold we shall find no such formidable matter in it For as for the City of Ierusalem the Tabernacle and Temple they were in themselves places no more holy or religious than any other places in the Land of Canaan were or than any other places now in England are But they were therefore holy Partly because they had many things in them and their worship that were typical and ceremonial which are now abolished The Temple and Tebernacle were types of the body and humane Nature of Christ. Ioh. 2. 19. 21. Heb. 8. 2. Heb. 9. 11. And this I grant might be one reason that moved David in his banishment so earnestly to desire his return to the Temple Ps. 42. 3. And in the beginning of the New Testament we reade of certain holy and devout persons that when they prayed they went up to the Temple to perform their devotion And those that could not repair to Ierusalem they might and did pray elsewhere but it was with their faces towards the Temple And Partly because God placed a memorial of his Name there or caused his Name to be remembred there i. e. did set apart those places for his publick worship and service as monuments of him For as Absolom erected a Pillar to keep his Name in remembrance so did God chuse out those places to put his Name there And therefore they were called his habitation In this respect our Churches now are every whit as holy as Ierusalem the Tabernacle or Temple there was being places lawfully set apart for God's publick worship to have his Name remembred and placed there And so the Tabernacle and Temple had this in them and their worship that was moral and consequently of equal concernment to us now as to the Jews then that publick places ought to be assigned for God's publick worship every way fitting and convenient for Ecclesiastical conventions where all the Congregation ought to meet as in a place where God will vouchsafe to be more graciously present in his worship than elsewhere according to all those his gracious promises And touching the holiness of the Tabernacle and Temple that is excepted against in the objection as being not to the present purpose Let the answer of that learned and pious Gent. Sir Henry Spelman in his book de non temerandis Ecclesiis be heard and well considered and the reader will easily find what hath been alledged out of the Old Testament maketh much for my present purpose his words are these The Temple was sanctified unto three functions which also had three several places assigned to them The first belonging to the divine presence and had the custody of the holiest types thereof the Oracle the Ark the Mercy-Seat c. And was therefore called Sanctum Sanctornm the Holiest of all The second was for ceremonial Worship and Atonement viz. by Sacrifices Oblations and other Levitical Rites the place thereof being the Sanctuary wherein were the holy Vessels and the Court of Priest wherein the Altar of burnt Sacrifice did stand The
God stands upon Circumstances as well as Duties It shall be then our righteousness if we observe to doe all the Commandments before the Lord our God AS HE HATH COMMANDED VS Say we doe what is commanded yet if we doe it not as he commanded us it is not right in God's sight who requires that a thing be not onely good but also regularly performed It is not the material goodness of the work that will free us from sin but the Command we have out of God's word for the doing it Neither can we depend upon any promise for a blessing when we have not God's Precept for the action The promise of edification in faith knowledge and holiness is specially appropriated to the Ministry of that Person who is regularly and orderly in God's ways set over a Congregation Christians own pastours have a more special dispensation of the Grace of God given them to them-ward as St. Paul the Doctour of the Gentiles had towards that People of whom he was appointed the proper Minister And saith Mr. Baines If this were well considered it would cure in us that affectation of the confluence of strangers when our hearts do not so fervently embrace our own Pastours And it should instrâ—â—â— People to depend especially upon those who are set over them for these are they who are furnished from God in 〈◊〉 eminent manner with grace towards them They are foolish sheep that know not theâ— own shepherds voice and foolish People that know not their own Ministers And in reason whose Ministry may we think God will bless either his to whom the Flock is committed by himself who is over them in the Lordâ— whom God hath made their overseer who have the rule over them watching for their Souls as those that must give an account Or his who runs before he is sent who hath no lawfull call to the Congregation ordinary or extraordinary who hath no relation at all to the Flock whose own the sheep are not he having no charge of them nor any account to make for them other than for his irregular intrusion amongst them taking upon him to doe that he hath no right to doe and for seducing them away from their own Pastour be his parts and qulifications otherwise Angelical and his Doctrine never so Evangelical Pastours of Congregations are called Christ's Ambassadours to their People It is their Commission that makes their Embassie succesfull Another perhaps may be of equal or greater fitness for the Employment but he onely that hath deputation for the service is received and hath audience Those that have no lawfull mission to a Congregation but intrude themselves amongst them may speak the truth as well as they that have yet of him that acts by lawfull appointment we may say that he preacheth with Authority and not like those that come in by stealth and usurpation and have no other right there to preach than what themselves have made They are called overseers It is not for every man to oversee the estate of another they onely can do it who by some Deed or Commission are impowered to undertake it Nay which is a dreadfull Consideration they must so oversee the Flock that they may give an account for their Souls Is there any such charge given to or undertaken by those unsent teachers who love to be heard and seen in exercising their parts but not in taking cure or charge of Souls They are called Stewards It is not for any one to be a steward in another man's house to feed the Family but for him onely whom the master of that house shall appoint The ministerial parts performed by a lawfull Pastouâ— to his own Flock are like Iacob's blessing his Sons another man might have done it as rhetorically and perhaps as affectionately but not so effectually because none had that Rightâ— and Authority to doe it as he Of all acts those that are done ex officio by virtue of an office and from a lawfull designation and appointment for the execution of that office to or for such a Person or People are under a more solemn assurance of a blessing It is no Solecism to say God will hearâ— their Prayers and bless their Pains when he will neither hear nor bless the Prayers or Pains of any else My Servant Job shall pray for you saith God for him will I accept Eliphaz and his two friends were good men yet God would not give answer to them but to Iob onely See Gen. 20. 7. Es. 37. 4. Iam. 5. 14. If that place in Matthew be urged to prove a promise of a blessing to such preaching and meetings as are in question Where two or three are met together in my name there am I present in the midst of them I answer that although I conceive the primary and principal Intent and Scope of our Saviour in that place was not to speak of religious Meetings for the preaching and hearing of his word but of the Meetings of Ecclesiastical Judges of the Jewish Sanhedrin in their Consistory as the Context doth declare yet because all God's promises are great and pretious and we ought not to lose ought of them but improve them to the utmost for his Glory and our Comfort therefore suppose it be taken and to be understood of religious Meetings also as 't is so applied by the Church of England in her Liturgy yet to no other but our Church-assemblies yet I say that text annexeth a Promise onely to such Meetings as are in Christ's Name Now the meaning of that phrase is commonly expounded to be at my Command Nam in nomine Christi idem est quod eâ—â—authoritate So our Saviour himself useth the phrase I am come in my Father's Name id est at his Command as he expounds it himself This Commandment have I received from the Father So St. Paul useth the phrase Now we command you brethren in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ id est by the Authority of our Lord Christ committed unto us by him as if Christ should command by us So every inferiour officer amongst us doth use the phrase I require you in the King's Name id est by Authority derived from him See Act. 4. 7. And should we extend the promise without restraint to other Meetings under pretence of religious Worship than such as are grounded on Christ's Authority 1. Then we should make our own wills fancies and affections masters of our actions and endeavour to bring down the presence of Christ to such irregular Conventions as are altogether disagreeing with yea contrary to his Will and Command which were not onely absurd but impious to attempt or think 2. Then also may a Congregation of 1000 People divide themselves contrary to good Laws of God his Church and the Realm into 500 Couples in so many several places and in so many several forms of worship and yet expect
Christ to become followers of him Then amongst others as they were added to the Church they were called by the word witness that great work of conversion wrought by the Ministry of St. Peter At one Sermon three thousand were severed from the rest of the world and added to the Church Next for the Sacraments these rightly administred are certain marks of a true Church for they are the Seals set by God to his word the signs of his Covenant whereby he binds himself to be our God and receives us to be his People They are sure pledges of his love to us which we really have till we come actually to be possessed of perfect holiness and glory with Christ Whilst we have these blessed ordinances of his amongst us his word truly preached and his Sacraments rightly administred it is not the rash censure of a few giddy heads that can unchurch us If they say we are a true Church then God is ever with us Es. 45. 14. in our assemblies at all times and in all parts of his worship Lo I am with you always to the end of the world Anâ— I will dwell in theâ— and walk in them and will be their God and they shall 〈◊〉 my People Thence the Holy Ghost iâ— Scripture calls the Church his house the dwelling place of his Name thâ— place where his honour dwells the Presence Chamber of the great King c. And as the glory of the Lord did Sensibly appear in the Tabernacle Exod. 40. 34. and in the Temple 1 kings 8. 10. So doth it now in our Church-assemblies as really and truly though not as visibly as then For if the Ministration of Death was glorious how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be glorious If the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory If that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Now if God be present with and in our assemblies how dare any that are or ought to be Members thereof absent themselves Dare ye to withdraw at any time from God's presence whose face at all times ye are commanded to seek I speak not of his omnipresence in regard of the immensity of his essence which fills all places God fills every place and fills it by containing that place in himself But I speak of that special presence which he hath promised to afford to his Church manifesting himself in that place and assembly more graciously than elsewhere If then we retain our Conjunction with Christ why do ye refuse Communion with us May we not therefore justly charge you as guilty of making a Schism in the Body of Christ That we may by your own Doctrine For say the Presbyterian Divines If the Apostle calls those divisions of the Church of Corinth wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Schism 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us and profession that ye cannot joyn with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism And presently after they distinguish out of Camero of a twofold Schism negative and positive The former is when men do peaceably and quietly draw from Communion with a Church not making a head against that Church from which they are departed The other is when persons so withdrawing do consociate and draw themselves into a disitinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church which Camero calls Schism by way of Eminency Now if this were true Doctrine in those days against those who were then concerned in it I know no reason why the space of a few years should so alter the case but that it is as true now against themselves who now doe what they then condemned in others viz. not onely withdraw from our publick assemblies but set up Church against Church And therefore to use their own words Ye must not be displeased with us but with your selves if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism And that is no small fault in the judgment of any sound Divine but a far greater than the fault upon which they pretend separation The things for which they make a rent are not so great a fault in the Church as the want of Charity in them which prompts them so to doe It is a sin of the first rate and one of the greatest size that a Christian can commit in the judgment of the Brethren of the Nonconformists themselves though now it goes down gliâ— with too many of them who not withstanding are obliged to the extirpation thereof not onely by the common bond of Religion and Christianity but also by the second Article of their solemn League and Covenant taken with hands lifted up to the most high God wherein they rank it with Popery Superstition Heresie Profaneness and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness Let the words of Mr. Baxter be noted as an evidence of this truth If the Scripture were Conscionably observed men would take Church-divisions for a greater sin than Adultery or Theft Mutinies and Divisions do more infallibly destroy an Army than almost any other fault or weakness and therefore all Generals do punish Mutineers with death as well as flat Traytors Our Union is our strength and beauty commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice do but destroy that truth and piety that was there before I like not him that will cure the head-ach by cutting the throat yea it is a greater sin than Murther saith Mr. Paget A Murtherer killeth but one man or two but a Schismatick goes about as much as in him lies to destroy the Church of God Yea it is worse to make a Schism in the Church than to Sacrifice to an Idol saith Mr. Calamy out of St. Cyprian And may Christians then play at sast and loose with the bonds of holy Communion at their pleasure St. Peter could say Lord whither shall we goe thou hast the words of Eternal Life Where this word is truly Preachâ—d in the way of Christ's appointment and the rest of his worship celebrated accordingly wo be to those that are not found there also Christians in the pure and primitive times did not take this Liberty in point of Church-fellowship but by the acknowledgment of the Divines before mentioned and Oh that their Practices now did not contradict their words then All such who professed Christianity held Communion together as one Church notwithstanding the difference in judgment in lesser things and much corruption in Conversation Cain was the first that ever separated from the Church he went out from the presence of God God is every where the meaning therefore is from his Church the place of his publick worship which was then in his Father's Family And will it be
no wise take well at their hands viz. that they should put themselves under the Ministry of another they will grow to such a degree of strangeness to him as to shun common neighbourhood and acquaintance with him yea they will easily account him their greatest Enemy as Ahab did Elijah or the Galatians did St. Paul because he doth not flatter them in tha◠which how wicked and unlawfull soever it be is therefore the sweeter to them because forbidden and enjoyed as it were by stealth For stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant though the end of such ill gotten delight be in the depth of hell What esteem can they have of their Minister's Person or Office which are look'd upon by them as either needless or indifferent if not tedious and burthensome What regard to his Doctrine which as experience shews us is and will be so lightly set by that some will wholly forsake attendance on it others come to hear as there is too much cause to doubt more out of curiosity than necessity and as some have not been ashamed to confess rather to 〈◊〉 as those that listned to our Saviour's Sermons to catch him in his discourse than to learn or to practise And so the Pulpit which is God's Tribunal is made their bar and they become not doers of the Law but Iudges What dependance can a People have on their own pastour in his discharge of ministerial Duties amongst them where some are reduced into a perfect revolt from him other brought to a loose indeterminacy in Divine worship and Church-communion and all to a Lukewarm indifference what Ministry they enjoy and Church-Assemblies are made matter of Complement rather than necessity Usurpation and intrusion as it shall never want store of friends and favourers among the ignorant and unstable vulgar be it never so unjust so the more abbettours and maintainers it hath in any place the greater must the defection needs be from him to whom they own their adherence And thus will that golden chain of relation that is and ought to be betwixt a Pastour and his People by this means be wholly dissolved and those put asunder whom God bath joined together For as it is in a marriage it is not the having of an Husband that makes the Wife honest chast and undefiled but her loving her Husband and keeping her self wholly to him otherwise the Wedlock bond is broken so in this union betwixt Pastour and People it is not the having a Minister that maintains and upholds the relation and conjunction that God would have to continue between them but the acknowledging of him keeping to him and depending on him in the Lord for all ministerial Acts to be performed by him among them otherwise the knot of unity that ought to be betwixt them is untyed Now here I could tell the Reader so lamentable a story of the truth of this sad effect which upon mine own experience I have found of this usurpation and intrusion I am now disputing against that if he be such a one as hath any fear of God before this eyes any zeal for his house worship and service or any care of the Unity and Peace of the Church it would make both his ears at the hearing of it tingle My Parish was a Virgin pure and undefiled free from all invadours and underminers of her Chastity till about four years since when the Act of Parliament for the removal of such of the Nonconformist ministers as refused to take the oath therein prescribed out of all Corporations sent or occasioned one of them not to preach but to inhabit amongst us Before whose coming there was not a Congregation in the Country that I know for so many People being near 1000 souls more entire more unanimous more constant at all parts of publick worship more free from all inclination to schism separation or any of the raigning Epidemical faults of this Age. We had then what happiness we could desire and it seems greater than we deserved When the ground all about us was wet with the showres of schism and prophaneness we like Gideon's fleece were dry But because we gave not God thanks sufficient he suffered Satan to erect Altare contra Altare for so went the style of the ancient Church for schism which in our modern Dialect is a Conventicle against the Church Now that Congregation which was before entire is now miserably divided and those that lived under the oversight and teaching of one lawfull Pastour as a chast Wife under the guidance of her own Husband according to God's Holy Ordinance are gone aside to others and admit of the unlawfull embraces of strangers I could tell the Reader of some of those people who were formerly constant attendants on all parts of divine Worship that are now by this means totally gone off non fugati sed fugitivi as say the Brethren of the Presbyterian way of the Independents and for the space of several years have not set their foot over the threshold of God's house yea so far are they withdrawn and to so high and impious an abhorrency of God's publick Worship are they brought as to detain their very Children from publick Baptism They are modelled as they call it into a new Church-way for the enjoyment of Ordinances And no wonder for the Scripture tells us that besides God's Church Satan will have his too There is Ecclesia Credentium and Ecclesia Malignantium according to that of David odi Ecclesiam malignantium I have hated the Congregation of Evil doers And Tertullian tells us faciunt favos vespae faciunt Ecclesias Marcionitae Wasps make Combs but empty ones Schismaticks and Sectaries make Churches but false ones Singuli quique coetus haereticorum se potissimum Christianos suam esse Ecclesiam Catholicam putant saith Lactantius Of others I could relate that upon this sad occasion are in part revolted from the publick Assemblies of the Saints and though they live near enough to the Church yet come thither but now and then and that to hear a Sermon onely and to no other part of divine Service To satisfie curiosity I suppose rather than Conscience wherein they seem to discover much of Hypocrisie but nothing of Piety For I would demand of them doe they well or ill when they come If well why then come they not at all times when they may If ill why then come they at any time What moves them at any time to approach the place where God's honour dwells Is it because he hath commanded it or to doe him any service thereby I ask him again whether hath not he commanded the publick Service of the whole day as well as a part A Lamb at the Evening as well as a Lamb in the Morning Of every Lord's day as well as of one now and then Why else did the Lord call the Sabbath of old an holy Convocation As if