sin shal excuse you for not submitting vnto a true nor your prophane scoffing at a true constitution as at the Diana of the Ephesians discourage vs from reioycing in our portion It is with you in this case as it was sometimes with Rechum Shimshay who making a shew as though they would have built the temple Zerubbabel but not being the men to whom this work appertayned laboured afterwards to hinder discourage him the Iewes with him whom it did concerne Ezra 4. 1 2 3. 8. 9. Once you know Mr B. you did separate from the rest an hundred voluntary professors into covenant with the Lord sealed vp with the Lords supper to forsake all knowne sinn to hear no wicked or dumb Ministers and the like which covenant long since you have dissolved not shaming to affirme you did it onely in policy to keepe your people from Mr Smyth Well Mr B. be not deceived God is not mocked neither wil he hold them guiltlesse that so take his name in vayn but as you have sowen so shall you reap To conclude you would have no man blame you for your contumelyes against the planting of the Lords vineyard the building of Gods house the composition of Christs body the constitution of his Church And wherefore because Mr Robinson held as much before into separation And if it were so should myne iniquities excuse yours But it is most vntrue you affirme There never entred into my hart a thought nor passed a word out of my mouth so contumelious against the true orderly constitution of Christs Church though I have and that worthily disliked as I stil doe that hard rash censure passed by some vpoÌ„ the persons of such as of whoÌ„ the Lord by the evideÌ„t work of his spirit gives a better testimony And for the poynt in hand I am perswaded and so professe before all men that I see not by the revealed will of God in his word how to iudge otherwise of any ordinance of the Church or exercise of communion out of a true constituted Church then of the sacrifices out of the tabernacle or temple within whose circle they were concluded by the word of God The third errour is thus set down That such as are not of a particular constituted Church to wit such a one as theyrs is are no subiects of Christs kingdome And since our Church is a particular congregation separated from Antichristianism into covenant with God by voluntary submissioÌ„ vnto the gospel we do avow it for truth that such â—â— are not of a particular c. For since the visible Church is the visible or externall kingdome of Christ which he as mediator collecteth protecteth and administreth he that is not a member of the visible Church is not in this regard a subiect of Christs kingdome Neyther are your exceptions against this doctrine of any force The scripture you say in the first place never sets forth any of Gods people by this mark Yes that it doth and that oft tymes without any other mark How oft doth Moses and the other Prophets with him entreat the Lord to spare Israel when they sinned for their constitution that is for the covenant of his mercy into which he had admitted them with their forefathers Abraham Isaak and Iaakob The Lord protesteth Is. 1. that Israel did rebel against him that they did not vnderstand but were a most sinfid nation yea as Sodom Gomorrah and yet he calls them children his people v. 1. 2. 3. 4. 10. yea passing Sodom in iniquity and yet the daughter of his people daughter Zion Lam. 4. 6. 22. And what do these and infinite other the like places but coÌ„clude that where there was little or nothing els to be seen the Lord marked out his people by this that he had established them a people vnto himself by covenant which though they for their part had broken by their iniquities yet was for the present on his part vndissolved And where it is graunted by Mr B. that the godly ought to ioyn with the visible Church if possibly they can why doth he blame vs which intend no further If men truely desire it but cannot possibly accoÌ„plish it the Lord in this as in other cases accepts the will for the deed And so I answer your 3. ExceptioÌ„ in order touching the martyrs in Queen Maryes dayes and other godly persons there named that some of them were members of the true visible Church actually others actually separated from the false Church and in will which God accepteth ioyneth with the true Church others walking faithfully according to their knowledg whether living or dead are and were Gods people though in Babylon Your second exception is certayn scriptures to which you say this doctrine is contrary The first is Gal. 3. 7. 9. And how to this They that are of the faith of Abraham separate themselves by faith from the world into covenant with the Lord as AbrahaÌ„ did Gen. 12. 1. 2. 3. Heb. 11. â— To the 2. place which is 1 Ioh. 3. 14. I do answer that Iohn speaks of such as were of the true visible Church neyther can any other according to the true visibility manifestation of the love which the Lord requireth love his brother which is not of a true visible Church He that doth not admonish his brother if he offend after that order and in those degrees which the word prescribeth doth not love his brother Lev. 19. 17. But onely he that is of a true visible Church and that furnished with the power of Christ the keyes of the kingdome for the censures can admonish his brother in that order and those degrees which the word prescribeth Mat. 18. 15. 16. 17. And so this scripture Mr B. overthrowes both your opinion and standing The third scripture is 1 Cor. 1. 1. Paul wrytes there onely to visible Churches to the Church of Corinth primarily and so by proportion to all other visible Churches in the world for to them alone the censures sacraments prophesying and other matters there handled do appertayne 1 Cor. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. and 11. 20. and 14. 4. 5. The brother spoken of in the fourth and last place which is 2 Th. 3. 15. was a member of the visible Church and subiect of Christs kingdome though walking inordinately in his calling as appeareth v. 11. and therefore to be discountinanced and made ashamed by the Church that he might the more faythfully apply himselfe to his busines These scriptures then do none of them wash this mark from of Gods people but some of them if not all print it far more deeply vpon them Lastly you ask whither Christs kingdome be not spirituall and invisible also Iob 18. 33. and 10. 16. No man will deny it though the places you alledge do not so necessary prove it But as Christs kingdome is spirituall and invisible also so is it spirituall and visible
wheat be plucked vp with theÌ„ as though the Lord would have the persons of men respected in judgement yea verily there is more need to look to them in such cases then to any private meÌ„bers whomsoever as whose sinns are more displeasing vnto God more scandalous to them without more pernitious to the Church then of any others Some again wil have this prohibitioÌ„ onely to take place when the multitude of the offenders is so great as that they cannot be censured without danger of schisme and distraction as though the multitude of offenders should priveledge the offence and as though the Lord Iesus by his power given to his Church 1 Cor. 5. 4. should fear to meddle with them for their multitude and might as David feared to meddle with the sonnes of Zeruiah because they were too hard for him The Apostle sayth speaking of the incestious man that little leaven leaveneth the whole lump how much more a great deal which makes all more sower And for answer to both it is apparant the Lord here forbidds the rooting out of any tares whither fewer or more in number whither of high or low growth Let men then cease to draw in by the hayr of the head these parables for the tolerating of the wicked in the Church an intollerable wickednes as most prejudicial to the name of God which is by this meanes blasphemed to the partyes salvation who by this connivency is hardned in his sinne where by due censuring he should be humbled to the health and safety of the body which is hereby corrupted and defyled and to the conversion of them without who by the holy converversation of the Church should be provoked to the love of the truth These things being thus cleared I come in the next place to the true and naturall exposition which I doubt not these scriptures will well bear I do then find two interpretations eyther of both I am assured more agreable to the truth then this forced glosse by me coÌ„futed and neyther of them conteyning in it any thing which the words of the Parable will not beare or which is dissonant to the analogy of faith or any other scripture First admit the feyld be the Church which Christ expounds the world then say I by tares in the feild are meant not notorious offenders but hypocrites not so throughly discovered which by the envy of Satan are foysted into the Church It wil be sayd that tares are easily discerned froÌ„ wheat I answer not alwayes so though oakes may as one of your owne hath spoken upon this scripture and it is certainly reported by such as have travayled Iury those parts to which the Lord hath reference that the weeds we call tares are there very hardly discerned from the true wheat If it be further pressed that the tares are espied I do further answer that it is in parables both curiosity and danger to labour to make all partes meet in every particular and since this particular of spying the tares is omitted by Christ in the exposition wee may well be modest in it But let it be that the tares are seen as the words are the question is who those servants are espying them and so desiring to have them rooted out These servants may well be some speciall persons in the Church endued with a singular spirit of watchfulnes and discerning by which they do discover in some persons this tarish disposition vnder the â—ayl of holynes so Paul spied out that bitter root of envy and pride by which some were set a work to preach Christ such persons notwithstanding must be born till their sinnes be ripe and the Lord lead them forth amongst the workers of iniquity Or by the servants may be here meant the Angels who by conversing much with the Ch both can without doubt do through the subtilty of their nature long experience spy out in the Church much cloked wickednes impiety which as the zealous ministers of Gods justice they are ready to revenge But since the Lord Iesus who best knew his owne meaning calls the feild the world and makes the harvest which is the end of the field the end of the world and not of the Church why should we admit of any other interpretation Neyther is it like that Christ would in the expounding of one parable speak an other as he should have done if calling the feyld the world he had meant the Church As God then in the beginning made man good placed him in the field of the world there to grow where by the envy of the serpent he was soon corrupted so ever since hath the seed of the serpent stirred vp by their father the Divel snarled at the heel of the womans seed and like noysome tares vexed and pestered the good and holy seed which though the children of God both see and feel to their payne yet must they not therefore forgetting what spirit they are of presently call for fyre from heaven nor prevent the Lords hand but wayt his leasure eyther for the converting of these tares into wheat which in many is dayly seen and theÌ„ how great pitty had it been they should so vntimely have been plucked vp or for their finall perdition in the day of the Lord when the Church shal be no more offended by them And that the Lord Iesus no way speaks of the toleration of prophane persons in the 〈…〉 Church doth appear by these reasons First because as hath been observed he doth not contradict himself by forbidding the vse of the keyes in one place which in an other he hath turned vpoÌ„ impenitent offenders Mat. 18. 15. 16. 17. 2. In the excommunication of sinners apparantly obstinate with due circumspection and in the spirit of wisdome meeknes long suffring with such other generall Christian vertues as with which all our speciall sacrifices ought to be seasoned whaâ— daunger can there be of any such disorder as the plucking vp of the wheat with the tares which the husbandman feareth vers 29. Lastly the Lord Iesus speaks of the vtter ruinating destruction of the tares the gathering and plucking them vp by the rootes vers 28. 29. and to this end they are reserved by the husbandman v. 30. ever presupposed they so continued but excommunication rightly administred is not for the ruyne and destruction of any but for the salvation of the party thereby humbled 1 Cor. 5. 5. But to conclude admit of Mr B. exposition that the field here is the visible Church the good seed the good godly the tares wicked and vngodly persons I am contented that the difference in this place betwixt him and me be tryed at the tribunall of this very scripture even thus expounded and I doubt not but it will pronounce a cleare sentence on my side in the thing for which I contend and that is that the Church in the right gathering
them and therefore reproved neyther is it materiall if the scriptures do not expresly tax the whole Church for connivency every time they rebuked some persons in it It is sufficient they do it in some places and in some Churches there is the same reason of all neither hath one Church priviledge above an other or for one sin more then an other And this also may serve for answer to the 2. 3. of your twenty Reasons in your 2. book Onely you must take knowledg of your grosse oversight in the latter reason where the question being of the true matter of the Church you bring in Noah in the old world Lâ—t in Sodom vnpolluted as though the world and Sodom had been true matter of the Church Noah and Lot of the same religious communion with them The like ignorance you shew in the 8. Reason where you demaund why the fellowship in civil society should not be polluted as well as religious communion As though you had never read that the vnbeleeving husband is sanctified to the beleeving wife for civil society which is no way dissolved no not though the one party be a Turk Iew or Atheist And do you think Mr B. that religious communion may be held with such without pollution In the next scripture which is Gal. 5. 10. the Apostle no way acquites the Church of transgression but speaks vnder hope of their repentance which they were to manifest by avoyding cutting off such as had troubled and seduâ—ed them Gal. 1. 8. 9. and 5. 12. In Mat. 5. 24. 25. Christ commaunds that before a man offer his gift he reconcile himself vnto his brother True but where hatred is there is no holy reconciliation and where brotherly admonition is not and that to the reformation of the brother offending there is hatred as is manifest Lev. 19. 17. And if you would improve to the right vse this scripture it would drive you and others from your Corban till you had discharged the dutyes of mercy to your brethren which the Lord accepts above sacrifice Touching 1 Cor. 11. which is the next scripture I will speak something more largely bycause Mr B. thinks it most pregnant for the decyding of the controversy for that the Apostle speaking purposely of the pollution of the sacrament bids every man examine himself and not one an other and that vnder peyn of eating damnation to himself and not to an other if he come not reverently notwithstaÌ„ding there was much evil in the Church And is it so in deed that bycause men must examine themselves therefore not others what warrant then have you for your Eastershrift your examining the people before they communicate You I hope are to examine your self as well as others And might not your people tell you out of your own book that you have nought to do to examine them Might not the meanest of them say vnto you examine your self if I eat and drink vnworthily it shal be myne own damnation not yours Yea might not any vngodly person thus answer eyther officer or brother that should reprove him eyther publikly or privately This indeed is the common fashion in the Church of England and nothing more common and it is a received rule that every man shall answer for himself and every tub stand vpon his own bottom and brotherly admonition is accounted by the most but a precise curiosity of busy-headed people And in this you confirm them by your collection teaching the offenders to pull away the shoulder and to stop the â—are that they might not heare to make the hart hard as an adamant stone You do then erre Mr Bern. in expounding 1 Cor. 11. 18. exclusively It doth not follow that because I am bound to examine my self therefore not my brother that is not to observe him admonish him bring him to repentance for apparant sinne for of such an examination we onely speak leaving to a mans self the examination of the hart and of things secret You may as well argue thus We are to save our selves Act. 2. 40. to speak vnto our selves in psalmes c. Ephe. 5. 19. to teach and admonish our selves Col. 3. 16. to comfort our selves 1 SaÌ„ 30. 6. to edify our selves Iud. 20. and therefore neyther to save nor to speak to nor to teach nor to admonish nor to comfort nor to aedify others which is contrary to these amongst many other scriptures Iud. 23. 1 Thes. 4. 18. 5. 11. 14. Furthermore you your self pag. 120. of this book make and that truely the Lords supper a testimony of that visible communion of love amongst the members Except then there be that love which is there testifyed the Lords ordinance is prophaned and his name taken in vayn Now where admonitions are not for the purging gayning humbling and saving of the the offender Mat. 18. 15. 1 Cor. â— 5. 2. 6. 7. there is not true love but hatred Levit. 19. 17. And that true spirituall love required in the members of Christs body should be betwixt the servants of God notorious prophane persons eyther way passeth both myne vnderstanding affections And to conclude this point I would but desire you Mr B. to read the marginall note given in your authorized Bible printed at London 1603. vpon the 31. verse of this Chapter And thus you see how pregnant this scripture is to decyde the contreversie and to determine against you that except reformation of sinne be orderly sought and seasonably obteyned there can be no right or lawfull communion in the Lords supper And Paul in writing as he doth provokes as every man specially to look to himself so the whole Church together to see the reformation of the disorders amongst them ver 17. 18. 33. 34. Lastly for 2 Cor. 12. 11. it must be considered that the case was depending and in hand concerning such as had sinned and not repented and as the issue of things should be so were the godly to carry themselves towards them if they would be drawn to repentance by admonition they were to forgive them as 2 Cor. 2. 7. if not the Church was bound to judge and cut them of whether Paul came or no. 1 Cor. 5. 11. 12. 13. Wherein if they fayled God would punish their carnall security and want of zeal as he threatneth Rev. 3. 14. 16. 19. To proceed where you affirm that our position insinuates that the sinne of one dissolves the bâ—nd of alleageance between God and another it it is no thing so The sin and apostasie of others can no way hinder or praejudice our salvation or standing with God if wee discharge our duty towards them But here is the oversight that men coÌ„sider not that as God hath commaunded men to worship him receive the sacraments and to vse other his ordinances so he hath also called and separated vnto himself a Church a communion or fellowship of saynts and holy ones in amongst
the world yet not of it but chosen out of it and hated by it men fearing God and working righteousnes and so being accepted of God in what nation soever purchased with the blood of Christ and so made his flock saynts by calling and sanctifyed in Christ Iesus and calling vpon the name of the Lord Iesus Christ in every place such were the Churches in Iudâ—a Galily and Samaria the Churches in Galatia the 7 Churches in Asia and of such people gathered into so many distinct assemblyes ech entyre in her self having peculiar Bishops or Elders set over her for her feeding by doctrine and government did those particular Churches consist they thus separated from the rest both Iewes and Gentiles in every nation whether more or lesse were that chosen generation that royall Preisthood that holy nation and purchased people of the Lord. But that ever the whole nation and all the Kings naturall subiects in it should have been within the covenant of the Lord entituled by the word of the Lord to the seals of the covenant and all the other holy things depending vpon it is a popular and popish fantasy as ever came into mans brayn requyring a new-found land of Canaan for a seat of this national Church wherein no vncircumcised person may dwel and a new old testament for the policy and government of the same And lastly it makes all one them that Christ hath chosen out of the world and the world them that fear God work righteousnes and whom he accepteth in every nation and the nation it self the beloved of God at Rome and the sanctifyed in Christ Iesus at Corinth with the City of Rome and of Corinth then which what confusion can be greater But to admit that for truth which you so take namely that Rome in the sence wherein we speak sometymes was the true Church of God as Iudah and more specially that the English nation was as the nation of the Iewes and all and every person in it high and low received into covenant with the Lord to be his people and that he might be their God yet can it not be sayd of Rome that she stil remayns the true Church of God as Iudah did in her defection but on the contrary as she brake her covenant with God advancing by degrees that man of syn the sonne of perdition and adversary Antichrist till he was exalted into the throne of Christ and that mistery of godlynes in and according to which that Church was planted at the first degenerated into the mistery of iniquity so did the Lord for her adulteryes wherein she was incorrigible when they were come to the height break the covenant on his part and gave her as an harlot a bill of divorce and put her away and her daughter Engl. with her amongst the rest Now for the more full clearing of this truth I wil in the first place answer such reasons as Mr B. brings against it and that done lay down certayn arguments to disprove his Popish plea for that Romish Synagogue Onely in the mean whyle I wish him to consider that if Mr â—m deserve so severe a censure as he layes vpon him pag. 281. of this book for some favourable affirmations touching some things â—â— persons in Rome he himselfe is much more blame worthy that both professeth and pleadeth her the true Church of Christ and in the covenant of grace and salvation then which what greater and more notable plea can be made for her Nay if it be probable that he which pleads for Rome as Mr Smith doth will in tyme become â—n love with it and sit downe a blind Papist it is necessary that he which thinks it a true Church return vnto it from which he hath wickedly schismed as all men do that separate from the true Church of Christ for any corruptions whatsoever Here I do also entreat the prudent Reader to beare it in mynd that the constitution of England cannot be iustifyed nor she proved to be rightly gathered but with the defence of Rome yea of that great and purpled whore to be the true spouse of the Lord Iesus The Reasons by which Mr B. would prove Rome a true Church are by him reckoned five in number we wil consider of them in order The first is taken from the first planting of that Church in S. Pauls tyme by vertue of which former calling and constitution sayth he Rome still remaynes the Lords people as Israel did in the wildernes notwithstanding her idolatry I do answer first that Rome as we now consider of it was never the Lords called nor under his covenant though a Church or assembly in that city or it may be more then one of saynts were and secondly that though she were yet is the covenant broken through her fornications and impenitency in them both on her part and the Lords visibly and she devorced long a goe and her daughters in and with her His secoÌ„d Reason is grounded vpon 2 Th. 2. 4. because Antichrist that is sayth he that head with his body sitteth in the temple of God which he further tels vs must be vnderstood visibly in respect of the truthes of God in doctrine and ordinances of Christ held there of which Gods people among them partake in his mercy to their salvation and others from tyme to tyme have mayntayned openly to the preservation of some fundamental poynts of the Apostolical constitution Wherevpon he also concludes that since the temple of God typing out the Church wherein he sitteth hath a true constitution Rome and that in respect of the tyme present hath a true constitution and is a true Church He might also have added and ever shal be a true Church for Antichrist ever shal sit there til Christs second coÌ„ming v. 8. Many men have written much about the notes marks of the true Church by which it is differenced and discerned from all other assemblyes and many others have sought for it as Ioseph and Mary did for Christ with heavy hearts Luk. 2. 48. that they might there rest vnder the shadow of the wings of the Almighty enioying the promises of his presence and power But what needs all this a doe Mr B poynts vs out with the finger a mark of the true Church most evident and conspicuous and like a beacon vpon an high hill and that is the exaltation of Antichrist I had thought the Churches and people of God should have been known by his dwelling among them walking there and by Christs presence in the middest of them but I now perceive Antichrists power presence and exaltation is a sure signe by which the Churches of Christ must be discerned If any therefore desire to plant his feet in the courts of the Lords house and there to abide for ever let him be sure to chuse such a Church to ioyn to as wherein Antichrist sitteth
visible body the Church of Rome as it is called vnder that visible head Antichrist the Pope be the true visible body of Christ vnder him the head The Apostle wryting vnto the Galatians calles the Church of the new â—estameÌ„t Ierusalem which is above the mother of the â—aythfull and Iohn in the book of the Revelâ—tion opposeth vnto Babylon spiritual the â—â—w Ierusalem coÌ„ming down from God out of hâ—â—ven and the tabeâ—nâ—â—le of God where he dwelleth with men making thâ—m his people and himself 〈…〉 heir God Now as the people of God in old tyme were called out of Babylon civile the place of their bodily bondage and were to come to Ierusalem and there to build â— new the Lords temple or tabernacle leaving Babylon to that destruction which the Lord by his servants the Prophets had dâ—nounced against it so are the people of God now to gâ—â—e out of Babylon spiriâ—â—â—â— to Ierusalem and to build vp themselves as lively stones into a s 〈…〉 or temple for the Lord to dâ—vel in leaving Babylon to that dâ—â—truction and desolation â—ea furthering the same to which she is devoted by the Lord. Bâ—â— if the people of God should receive Mr B. doctrine they were not to come out of Babylon nor to endeavour her destruction but to tarry in her still labouring for her reformation and the reparation of her decayed places neyther were they to build my new spiritual temple or to constitute any new Church from Rome present for of such a new constitution we speak but there to abydâ— reproving her corruptions and endeavouring the reformation of them It is therfore vntrue which you â—â—y Mr B. that the Romish Church must be dealt with onely as the Church of God was in Iudâ—th it must be dealt with as was Babylon eâ—en abandoned and forsaken by the Lords people vpon pâ—â—ill of the curses and plagues due vnto it and denounced against it and against all that abyde in it To this which Mr B. in this place so greatly contends for namely thaâ— Rome is the true Church of Christ though under corruptions as Iob was a true man vnder his sores let that be added which he wryteth els where in this book that corruptions are made matter of reproof but no cause of separation from the Church and further that they that separate from a true Church the body cut of themselves from Christ the head and to these two a third graunt and profession he makes as that their profession and lawes in England separate a protestant from a Papist that the Church of England is separated by profession lawes and publique mâ—etings from Papists that the very societyes of Papists are to be left as no people of God and his writings will appeare to all men like a beggars cloak patched together of old and new peices scraped vp here and there scarce two of the same eyther colour or thread Let me a little stich his patches together and set them in some order They that separate from the true Church cut of themselves from Christ. Mr B. pag 110. 111. But the Church of England in separating from Rome is separated froÌ„ the true Ch Mr B. pag. 114. 129. 14â— with 131. 132. 133. Therefore by Mr B. both graunt and proof the Church of England is separated from Christ. And is this your piety and thankfulnes Mr B. towards your mother for want of which you cast so many bitter curses vpon the separatists you are so far caryed in honouring your grandmother Rome as a true Church that you clean forgot your mother England and condemn her for a schismatical Synagogue Yea well were it or at the least more tolerable in you if you thus dealt onely with your selfe and your owne but this vile iniury which you here offer extends it selfe far and nere even to Luther Zuinglius and the other godly guides of separation and to all the reformed Churches separated from the Church of Rome yea to the martyrs in King Henryes and Queen Maryes dayes and to all other the like godly mynded through the whole world whom you condemn as wicked schismatiques and separated from Christ the head in separating themselves from his body your true Church of Rome Lastly the Apostle Paul wryting to the Church of Rome in her first and best estate praemonisheth her to stand fast in the fayth received least he which had not spared the natural branches the Iewish Church but broken them of for vnbelâ—if should not spare the wild branches whereof she consisted How then Mr B. can you deny that Rome is and hath been long broken of which so long hath â—â—yned works in the cause of salvation which you your selfe affirm to be against the true nature of fayth in the â—oâ—â— of God and that which destroyeth â—â— And that all may take knowledge how the Lord dealeth with his Churches vnder the new testament and may learn both to fear in themselves and how to iudge of the present state of Rome let it be observed what Christ Iesus by his servant Iohn wryteth vnto the Churches in Asia especially to the Church of Epâ—esuâ— which he having blamed for leaving her first love exhorts to repentance and to the doing of her first workes threatning withall that otherwise he will come against her shortly and remove her candlestick out of the place except she amend The same thing in effect he denounceth against the Churches of Pergaâ—us and Thyaâ—yra and so against the rest vpon the like occasions And if the Lord dealt so severely with the Church of Ephesus notwithstanding the many excellent things which were found in her and so acknowledged by the Lord himselfe v. 2. 3. as to remove her candlestick 1. to dis-church her as ch 1. 20. for leaving her first love and that speedily except she repented how can it be that the golden candlestick should stil stand in Rome and shee remayn the Church of Christ which so many hundred yeares since hath left not onely her first love but her first fayth also chaunging her fayth into haereâ—y and Idolatry and her love into most bloody cruel persequutions against all that have endeavoured her repentance and so hath continued a long space and doth continue at this day None but professed Romanists will plead any Charter for Rome above other Churches These things thus opened and these two capital errours confuted the former Iewish namely that England now is as Iudah was and that as then all the Iewes in that nation so now all the English men in the Kings dominions should constitute a national Church the latter Popish viz. that the Romish Church is the true visible body or Church of Christ it is evident both that the Evangelical Churches must be new planted or constituted by profession of fayth as the temple was new built after the captivitie of Babylon as also that not Iosiahs sword that is the coactive
do take hold of the promise of the spirit beleeving that they are his people and he their God and that thru God and man are invisibly vnited and 3. by love by which men take hold one of another and so are vnited together invisibly And all this he confirms sufficiently by the scriptures Answerable vnto which 3. invisible hands for this invisible vnion he makes 3. visible handes for the visible vnion 1. vnto the spirit the word 2. vnto faith the profission of faith 3. vnto love the sacrament of the Lords supper for â—o he proportioneth them The colour of truth which these things may seem to haue in their mutuall reference will â—ub off in the very touching of the particulars But if Mr B. would haâ—e observed just proportion and haue set things down playnly he should haue said thus or to this effect As the invisible internall and effectuall vnion of God with man of man with God and of one man with another is raysed from the invisible internall and effectuall work of the spirit invisible internall and effectuall faith and love which are onely seen and known of God and of the parties themselves in whom they are so must the visible externall and apparant vnion of God with man of man with God and of one man with an other arise from the visible externall and apparent work of the spirit visible externall and apparant faith and love which are seen of men and made sensible to the ey of charity which judgeth probably of thinges which are not seen by the things which are seen For albeit it be true which Mr B. hath in his 2. book that wee are not therefore a Church of God bycause men so judge vs but bycause God hath received vs into covenant with himself yet it must also be considered that the Church is not called visible in respect of God but of men to whom it doth or may appear by whom it is so discerned and judged probably The scriptures do speak of a iustification before God which is by â—aith alone and of a iustification before men which is by workâ— the former of which we may truely call invisible justification as known to none but God and the conscience of the party justifyed the other visible justification as being manifest and made visible vnto men by works as ver 18. of the Chapter before named where the Apostle speaketh of shewing manifesting or making visible faith and so consequently justification by works And look what is here sayd of visible and invisible faith and justification the same from other scriptures compared together may be affirmed of visible and invisible election redemption sanctification as also of visible and invisible saynts for the matter and of the visible and invisible vnion for the form of the visible and invisible Church the invisible being certayn infallible and so known to be of God the visible morall probable and so appearing vnto men There is in deed and in the right disposition of things by the revealed will of God but one Church of Christ which is his body whereof he is the head and which he hath purchased with his blood for Christ hath not purchased two Churches with his blood but one neyther is the head of two bodyes but of one and according to this purchase of Christ and ordinance of God all that are of the visible Church are also of the invisible and all of the invisible of the visible Church which are indeed not two but one Church in two sundry respects as I have formerly shewed I deny not but that as it hath been sayd of old there are many sheep without and many wolves within many of the visible Church which are not of the invisible Church and so answerably many of the invisible Church which never come into the visible Church But this say I is not according to the revealed will of God in his word but by mans default and sin It is their sin of ignorance or infirmity which being of the invisible Church do not if possibly they can joyn themselues vnto the visible Church there to partake in the visible ordinances it is their sinne of hypocrisie and presumption which not being of the invisible Church do adjoyn themselves to the visible Church there to prophane the Lords covenant ordinances to which they have no right For how can they being wicked and vnholy chalendge the LORD to be their GOD that is all happines goodnes vnto them which is one part of the covenant or professe themselves to be his people which is another part when the Divel is their God and their lusts and they his their people and servants to whom they obey or what have they to do to meddle with Gods covenant whom he expresly forbids to take it in their mouthes It is therefore a vile profane defence which you are driven to Mr B by pleading that wicked persons are true matter of the Church and so admitted into covenant with God in the 2. book that obedience onely followes the covenant as the fruit of it and that God requires not actuall obedience or that wee should be actually good or holy before or when we covenant with him but that he should make vs good and that wee should be good and perform actuall obedience afterward which as it is notable Anabaptistry and in deed the ground of that haeresy being applyed to the covenant of the Iewish Church so being applyed to the covenant of the Church now it is worse then Anabaptistry And consider this man he makes the sacrament of the Lords supper a ground and part of the covenant and yet affirms that God for mens entering into this covenant requires not that they should be holy and good and so by this deep divinity it must needs follow that the Lord requires not that men should be good or holy for their partaking in the sacrament of the Lords supper The particulars now follow in which you place this visible vnion and covenant of the Lord with his people of them with him and of one of them with another The first whereof is his word which say you is the onely first visible note and testimony from God by which he makes a people his people Ps. 147. 19. Rom. 3. 1. 2. Ioh. 17 6. and so you go on to prove that this word is Gods outstretched hand to subdue people vnto him the sword of the spirit by which he smiteth the immortall seed by which he begetteth and maketh alive the word of reconcilation by which he reconcileth his Church and people And therevpon you conclude that to whomsoever God sends his word to them he testifieth his love and desire to make them his Church and people To let passe the repugnancy in your words as first where you speak of the onely first note as though there could possibly be more firsts then one and 2. where you make the word a note and testimony
men It is an outward pledge or symbole of the coÌ„munion which the faithful haue with Christ for of that the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 10. 16. 17. directly and so by coÌ„sequence one with another bycause it vnites Christ the head with his own members one of them with another doth it therefore vnite Christ or his true members with the true apparant visible lims of the Divil which all vngodly men and women are This is the force of Mr Br. arguments Bycause the L. supper is of this or that vse unto them to whoÌ„ by the word of God it apperteyns therefore it hath or must be judged to haue the same vse amongst them which are apparant vsurpers of it and to whom by the word of God it apperteyns not There is nothing more coÌ„mon in both his books then this kind of deceiptfull arguing Here is yet an Arg of coÌ„parisoÌ„ to be taken knowledg coÌ„sidred of the rather because the author both wills the reader to note it in the margent and repeats it himself over over in the text The Argument is that aâ— continual siâ—nes corruptions of the hartâ— of the elect do not make theÌ„ false Christians before God or no true invisible meÌ„bers of Christ so neyther do outward offences or corruptions mâ—k open professors of the saith false Christians before men or no true visible members of Christ. True no more due proportion observed namely thaâ— those outward offences do not reign in the mortall bodyes of men â—â— the inward corruptions do not reign in the hearts of the elect But let the reader here remember the subiect of the quaestion which is men of lewd conversation and deserving to be excommunicated and then the noting of Mr B. Arg wil be like Davidâ— noting the Amalâ—kites tydings of the death of Sâ—ul and Ionathan to the destruction of him that brought them For by the same rule of proportion I argue thus As they in whose hearts sinns and corruptions reign inwardly are no true Christians before God nor actuall members of Christ invisibly so they in whose lives and conversations sinnes and corruptions reign outwardly are no true Christians before men nor members of Christ visibly And here comes to my mind an other argument much what like this in Mr B. 2. book where he will have a mixt company of godly and wicked persons to be called holy or a company of saynts as well as a person holy in whom there is a mixture of the spirit and flesh But the difference is playn In this mixt body of godly wicked sin reigns in some of the members but in no part of body or faculty of soul of a person in whom the spirit is though never so much flesh be mingled with it doth sinne reign He might as well say the whole Church so mixt shal be saved for the whol man shal be saved by faith in Christ notwithstanding all mixture in him Now the conclusion Mr B. makes that their congregations professe Christ as is before sayd that God hath given them his holy word and sacraments moved the harts of all of them outwardly to receive both the one and the other is vnproved and vntrue For first there is no one congregation in the Land whose particular members made that holy profession in any measure by according to which the Apostles did constitute and vnite visible congregations Secondly I deny that the Lord hath given his sacraments to any congregation in the Land there are very many in the best ordered parishes which take them without the Lords gift as being wicked vsurpers of them vnto which by the revealed will of God they have no right But here I must needs discover Mr Bernards haunt and the turning by which in his second book he vsually declines both Mr Ainsworths Mr Smyths Arguments of this nature and that is by telling them that all are not wicked amongst them that some or many haue the true knowledge of Gods word and that the fear of God possesseth the hearts of many as in this place that God hath moved the hearts of many of the people effectually and the like and that therefore we do them wrong in condemning all for some and in denying the good their right for others default To this I answer first that those that can be truely judged to fear God are thin strewed in the best places and not many in comparison of the rest as is pretended but a very small handfull and besides it is but casuall and accidentall to the congregation and nothing to the constitution of it that there is one man truely fearing God in it The parish must be a true vivisible constituted Church as well one as another and so receive the sacraments together whether the Lord have had any such work as is here spoken of in the hearts of any or no. And 2. it must be considered I pray the teader well to observe it that the quaestion here betwixt Mr B. and me and so ordinarily betwixt him and them is about the congregation which consists of all the members ioyntly and not about some particulars coÌ„sidered severally from the rest of whom the congregation consists not I am verily perswaded there are in many congregations many that truely feare God and the Lord encrease their number and graces and if they were separated from the rest into visible communion I should not doubt to account them such coÌ„gregations as vnto which God had given his sacraments but take them as they are even one with the rest in one ioynt communion as members of one body making all together one Church congregation so joyned at the first and so still remayning I deny that this Church or congregation is the Lords people in covenaunt with him or that he hath given vnto it his sacraments yea or that those which truely fear God are accepted of him in their persons have in that communion the right and lawfull vse of them in many particulars They cannot take them for pawnes and pledges of Gods love and the forgivenes of sinns to that congregatioÌ„ wherewith they ioyn in the vse of them nor as testimonies of true spirituall love amongst the persons communicating in them nor as notes badges of dâ—stinction of that assembly from all profane vnhallowed assemblies in the world And yet are all these common ends and vses of the sacrament as it is a communion or coÌ„mon vnion of the members with the head and one with another mutually Since therefore your congregations or parish assemblies are alwayes have been so constituted as that neyther the greatest part of them being prophane have any interest in the sacraments or can have any right vse of them in their persons nor yet the rest in their communion it must needs follow except the Lord have given his sacraments to them which can haue no right vse of them and to whom they apperteyn not that the Lord
other impietyes and this both the practise of your Church and your doctrine pleading for succession and ordination from Rome Romish Bishops do necessarily confirm All the massepreists ordeyned in Queen Maries dayes for that end were vpon their conformity to the orders then continued Ministers in their severall congregations in Queen Elizabeths dayes by vertue of their former ordination And so are such masse-preists at this day though ordeyned at Rome received and continued amongst you vpon the aforenamed conditions Now it is your own constant affirmation every where that ordination makes the minister Wherevpon it followes that no new ordination no new minister but the old massepreist reformed of such impieties wherein Rome exceeds England 2. it is your doctrine in your first book that the ministery makes the Church gives denomination vnto it in your 2. book that the Church of Rome is a true Church wherevpon it followeth necessarily that the ministery in the Church of Rome is a true Ministery except a false ministery can make a false Church And if any order of ministery be it is that of the parish preists for they are the likest the Pastours in their severall charges Whence I do also conclude that since the Romish preists office is a true office though vnder corruptions as it was true Iob overshadowed with byles eyther the English preists must haue the same office with thē though with the byles cured or els they are not the true ministers of Christ. And for the name preist at which you say we catch you do idly draw it from the Greeks since it is most evident that with the office the name was tanslated vnto you from the Latine and Romish Church their sacerdos being your Priest in your books of ordination and common prayer which you haue from them otherwise why do you not turn the Greek words praesbyter proistamenos preists in your English Bibles which are translated from the originalls The sum of the 2. Arg. is that the Ministers of the Church of Engl are Pastours and Teachers that is good sheepheards such as do keep feed and govern the flock and as are qualified with gifts and vnderstanding and instruct them that are vnlearned If in stead of Pastours and Teachers you had put Parsons Vicars your writtes of presentation and institution would haue proved it But that you are Pastours and Teachers such as Paul speaks of Ephe. 4. by holy writ you can never manifest 2. though the things were true you speak both for your power and practise yet except you administred those things by a lawfull calling in a lawfull office and to a lawfull assembly you were not true Pastors and Teachers But it is not true you say of your selves that you play the good sheepheards in feeding that is in providing pasture for the sheep and in governing ordering them to fro at it Your Prelates govern or rather reign but teach not your parish Preists some of them that can list teach so much as they dare for feare of their imperious Lords but govern not Your 3. Arg for your Ministers is that they are called sent of God of his Ch therefore are true ministers Their calling sending of God you make his preparing of them with gifts graces to be able to exequute in some measure the office wherevnto he doth appoint them But herein you are greatly mistaken the Lords inabling men with gifts is one thing and his calling them to vse them in such and such an order is another thing and though the Lord calls none but he inables them yet he inables many he never calls Many counsellers judges lawyers and others in the land are very able to discharge the office of ministery but are not called therevnto of God if they be it is their sin not to obey the heavenly calling and to become ministers And as a man may be qualified with gifts for the ministery and yet not called of God to vse them so being qualified accordingly he may be a true Minister of the Church though he be never called of God at all as we now speak So was Iudas who was never inwardly called of God that is perswaded by the work of Gods spirit in his heart in the zeal of Gods glory and love of the salvation of men to take vpon him the office of an Apostle And what true calling of God the Ministers in the Church of England haue to take vpon them their offices charges as they do appeares in their easy forsaking them vpon a litle persecution yea before it come near them Of which more hereafter Now for the calling of the Ministers by the Church albeit we put of the more full handling of it to the 4. Arg. yet something must be sayd for the present And first though it were true you say that the Church of England were the true Church of Christ yet were not your Ministers called and sent by the Church except a Lordly Prelate be the Ch of England for by such a one is every Minister amongst you called and made 2. I deny here as alwayes your nationall Ch to be the true visible Church of Christ and that which in this case you say is largely proved I hope is sufficiently refuted But here a demand you make in your answer to Mr Sm must be satisfied namely why true ministers may not arise as well out of a false Church as a false ministery out of a true Ch The latter I agree vnto for the Church may erre and through errour or otherwise chuse a man uncapable of the Ministery by the word of God Whereupon it followes that the Minister makes not the Church as you erroneously affirm for then the Church should in the very instant become a false Church when she sets vp a false Minister But your inference I deny For first evil may arise from good though by accident without any externall cause comming between as sin did from the angels in heaven and our first parents in paradise but so cannot good from evil 2. the officers are 1. of 2 by 3. in and 4 for the Church 1. of it as members of the body and so must be members of a true Church before they can be true officers 2. by it in respect of their calling as Gal. 1. 1. and therefore except they can eyther be true officers by a false calling or that a false Church can give a true calling they cannot be true in it 3. in it as the accidēts or adjuncts in the subject without which being true they can have no more true existence then reason can have without a reasonable soul or subject 4. for it and therefore since the Lord hath appointed no ministery for a false Church there can by the word of God be no true ministery in it and this I wish them to consider which still adhere to the Church of England though they wholy dislike
duties to be done by their men furnished by other scriptures then the divine scriptures the Bishops scriptures their Canons coÌ„stitutioÌ„s wherby they ar fully furnished indeed with ring surplus service-book and other preistly implements for the busines The Apostle Paul Eph 4. 8. 11. 12. teacheth that when Christ ascended on high he gave vnto men such gifts that is such ministeryes of the Church as should serve for the repayring of the saynts and aedification of his body till the work of grace were perfected in all his and so he makes the work of the ministery and the aedification of the body of Christ all one Now who will say that the celebration of mariage or buryall of the dead are in themselves matters of aedification or which further the vnity of fayth They serve for the generall administration of the world and so are lawfull amongst Turkes and Heathens as to eat and drink or to perform any other naturall or civil work and not for the speciall administratioÌ„ of the Church or body of Christ and therefore no works of the ministery which is peculiar vnto the Church The Church is a religious society and so the ministery which is given to the Church is a religious calling and so the proper works of the ministery must needes be workes of religion which if mariage or burying the dead were then were it vnlawfull for a faythful husband to communicate with his wife being an infidell or excommunicate in the dutyes of mariage or for a brother being a faythful person to ioyn with his brother being an infidell or excommunicate in the buryall of their dead father for with such persons religious communion may not be kept whereas the scriptures do coÌ„mend vnto vs these duties so performed both as lawfull and necessary Gen. 25. 9. 35. 29. 1 Cor. 7. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. These are then civill duties and so practised by the servants of God in all ages whose practise also for our learning is recorded in the scriptures and commended vnto vs accordingly Gen. 24. 50. 51. 58. 59. 67. 25. 34. Ruth 4 1. 2. 5. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Math. 27. 57. 59 60. Act. 8. 2. Whether it be an errour in vs as in the 11. place â—e are accused to hold that Ministers ought not to live of tythes and offerings but of the peoples voluntary contribution let the Reader considering what is answered both by Mr Aynsworth Mr Smyth and what is more fully written in the book before named judge But This sayth Mr B. is against the wisdome of God who alloweth a setled maintenance vnder the law and there is nothing against it in the gospel But say I as the Lord appointed vnder the law a setled maintenance by tythes offerings so did he a setled land of Canaan which was holy and a sacrament so did he also appoynt that the Levites to be maynteyned there should have no part nor inheritaÌ„ce with the rest of the Israelites their brethren And hath Gods wisdome so appoynted now If it had I feare many would not rest in it so wise are they for their bellyes And where you adde that there is nothing in the gospel against this ordinance â—â— the law the authour to the Hebrewes might have taught you that the law is abolished by the gospel in the sense we speak of and the old testament by the new in respect of ordinances whereof this was one If it be sayd that tythes went in vse and given by Abraham to Melchizedek Preist of the most high God before the law or old testament was given by Moses I do answer that so was circumcision ministred and sacrifices offered before Moses which notwithstanding were parts of the old testament and assumed by Moses into the body of it and so are abolished by the new To conclude this poynt since tythes and offerings were appurtenances vnto the preisthood and that the priesthood both of Melchizedek and Levi are abolished in Christ as the shadow in the substance and that the Lord hath or deyned that they which preach the gospell should live of the gospell we do willingly leave vnto you both your preistly order and maintenance contenting our selves with the peoples voluntary contribution whither it be it be lesse or more as the blessing of God vpon our labour the fruit of our ministery and a declaration of their love and duety The 12 and last errour imputed to vs is that your Churches as you call them ought to be raced downe and not to be imployed to the true worship of God Our mayn reason of this assertion being as you say by making equall Paganism and Antichristianism you endevour to weakeÌ„ by sundry exceptions As 1. that there is great difference between Antichristianism and Pagnism for this is the worshipping of a false God and without any profession of the true God but the other worship the true God hold many truthes of God Paganism was wholly without the Church but Antichrist sits in the Church of God c. 2. that we are to prove your Churches to have been built by Antichrist We do not make equall Paganism and Antichristianism in the degree though wee put not such difference between them as you do And first we do affirm that both the one and the other are not onely agaynst that 2. connaundement but the first also 2. that both of them may in their degree and for a tyme be in the Church as also that both of them may in tyme and in their degree destroy the true Church of Christ. 3. that as well the reliques ornaments and monuments of the one as of the other are by lawfull authority to be abolished and in the meane while to be forborn especially in the worship of God by all such as fear him his judgements denounced agaynst the same let vs heare what the scriptures teach in these cases The Apostle Paul writing purposely of that man of sin Antichrist testifieth that he is an adversary and exalteth himself agaynst all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he sitteth in the temple of God as God shewing himself that he is God And as Antichrist caÌ„not be rightly discerned of vs but in his oppsition vnto Christ exaltation above him so doth this his exaltatioÌ„ appear sudry wayes by which he doth translate vnto himself the honour due vnto God alone his sonne our Lord Christ as in dispensing with the morall law professedly bynding and loosing conscience devising and imposing forms of religion traÌ„sferring empires kingdoms al these doth this earthly God as he is called by the plenary power of the seat Apostolicall The same also it was which Iohn for saw in the Revelation namely that the Antichristians worshipped Divels Idols of gold and silver brasse stone wood which can neyther see nor hear nor walk agayn that they worshipped the beast which