are against the great undoubted Truths of Christ from infecting others and own all that hold the Necessary Truths in Godliness and Charity you will please both God and most good men And if you hold your personall Communion with those that are of your own judgement in lesser differences this will not lose you the affections of the godly though of a few factious persons it may as long as you are a tender Father to them all though you Communicate but with some The Godly Emperours that supprest the Arrians and many Heresies maintained the Novatians in the Liberty of their Churches and were beloved both by the Novatians and the Orohodox But if you couâ—â— be the happy instrument of taking away the Divisions of the Godly that there might be no such thing as Parties or Separations known among them though diversity of opinions there will be and if you could give all the Ministers of the Nation a pattern of such union of the tolerable dissenting parties in your own Pastors with whom you shall Communicate this would be the way to lift you highest in the Esteem and Love of all your people and make them see that you were appointed of God to be a Healer and Restorer and to glory in you and bless God for you as the instrument of our chiefest peace And O what a precedent and preparative it would be for the Healing of all the Protestant Churches through the world And certainly your Highness hath a fair opportunity for this happy work You enter in a season when we are tired with contention and sensible of our loss and danger and tenderer then formerly of one another and the most angry parties are much asswaged and there is not so much reproach and bitterness among the Godly as lately there hath been A Spirit of Peace and Healing is lately risen in the hearts of many thousands in the Land and Ministers that differed do lovingly associate and most do feel the smart of our Divisions and are so prepared for a perfecter closure that they wait but for some Leading hand I am certain that there are Healing Principles before us and a temperament is obvious to judicious charitable men upon which we might accord And though some are too rough to lie in any building yet moderate men are to be found of every party that deserveth your encouragement whom you may use as a precedent to the rest and instruments to promote this work It is you that have those great advantages that can facilitate that which to others were impossible and from you it is expected In this Book and one of Confirmation which I lately published I confidently affirm is contained much of that Reforming Reconciling Truth which must heal us if ever we be healed And though the study of such matters require much time yet seeing God commandeth Princes that the Book of his Law depart not out of their mouthes but that they meditate in it day and night that they may do according to it Iosh. 1.8 I may suppose that they will be willing also to meditate on such Books as help them to understand it I should have been as ready as another to censure such an address as this as guilty of presumptuous boldness but that I consider what is the work of my Calling and what it is to be faithfull to the Eternall God and am conscious of fidelity to your Highness in my boldness and know that these are necessary Truths and that to the Counsellors of Peace is joy Prov. 12.20 and have no interest in this world that I regard in comparison of the Churches happiness My earnest Prayers for your Highness shall be that your own soul being first subjected and devoted wholly unto God you may Rule us as one that is Ruled by him and never know any Interest but his and that which is subservient to him and may escape that stumbling stone on which the Princes of the earth do commonly dash themselves in pieces even by espousing an Interest contrary to Christs and so growing jealous of his holy waies and falling out with them and that God would endue your Highness with that heavenly Wisdom that is first Pure and then Peaceable Jam. 3.17 and you may escape the flattering suggestions of the Wisdom of the flesh and serious Piety may be the first part of your Policy that so the Eternall God may be engaged in the Protection of your Dominions and You That you may alwaies remember that you are Christs and your Peoples and not your Own and that the diligent promoting of GODLYNESS and CONCORD may be the study and resolved work of your Life This is the way and only this let flesh and blood say what it will to make you truly Great and Happy God is the Center and Common Interest of all his servants Keep close to him and they will all keep close to you There is no other Common Interest nor any thing that the Godly do so highly value If they see that it is indeed for God they can bear any thing or do any thing for they are wholly devoted to him alone The more of God appeareth on you and the more you promote his Interest in the world the highlyer will you be advanced and the dearer will you be to all that Love him And even with the ungodly multitude that Piety is honoured in Princes that is despised in their neighbours and the hand of God is plainly demonstrated in their surviving Honour the names of Pious Princes being Great when the Greatest leave a name that is vile even in the mouthes of common worldly men who are ready to keep a Holy-day for a Saint when he is dead though they hate or will not imitate the living Your Zeal for God will kindle in your subjects a Zeal for you The moâ—e your Life and Government is Divine the more Divine will you appear and therefore the more Amiable and Honourable to the Good and Reverend to the evil Parliaments will Love and Honour you and abhor the motions that tend to a division or your just displeasure Ministers will heartily Pray for you and Praise the Lord for his mercies by you and teach all the people to Love and Honour and Obey you The people will rejoyce in you and you will be Loved or Feared of all Such happiness attendeth serious Piety when impiety selfishness and neglect of Christ is the shame and ruine of Prince and People I crave your Highness pardon of this boldness and your favourable acceptance of the tendered service of A faithfull subject to your Highness as you are an Officer of the Universall King Richard Baxter A PREFACE to those of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of this Land that adhere to PRELACY Honourable Worshipful and Beloved Country-men IT being much for your sakes that I have published the following Disputations it behoveth me here to address my self to you in a few preparatory words What distance there hath long been and still continueth
between you and your Brethren for so they are is too much known to friends and foes at home and abroad and too much daily manifested by each side Shall it still continue or would you have it healed If it must continue tell us how long and tell us why Would you have it go with us to Eternity and will you not be reconciled nor dwell with us in Heaven It is not in your Power to shut us out And will you not be there if we be there Or do you think there will be any Discord where Love is Perfected and we are One in God If you can be content to be saved with us and believe that all of both Opinions that truly love and fear the Lord shall live there in dearest Love for ever how can you chuse when you forethink of this but Love them now that you must for ever Love and long to be reconciled to them with whom you must there so harmoniously accord You know that Earth is our preparation for Heaven and such as men would be there they must begin to be here As they must be Holy here that ever will there see the Lord in Holiness so must they here be Loving and Peaceable that ever will live in that perfect heavenly Love and Peace And why is it that the distance must be so great Are we not all the Children of one Father Have we not all the same God the same Redeemer the same Spirit in us if we are Christians indeed Rom. 8.9 Are we not in the same Baptismal Covenant with God Have we not the same holy Scripture for our Rule and are we not in the same universal Church and of the same Religion some of you say No to the grief of your friends and the shame of your own understandings and uncharitableness I beseech you bear it if I touch the sore For my work is Healing and therefore though it Must be touch't it shall be as gently as the case will bear If I may judge by such as I have had any opportunity to know I must say that the distance on your part is continued in some by confused apprehensions of the case and not distinguishing things that differ In some by discontents of mind and too deep a sense of worldly losses and the things that you take as injuries from others In some by the advantage of a co-interest and consociation with those Divines that are of your way and so by a Willingness to think them in the right and those in the wrong that you take for adversaries In some by a stiffness and stoutâ—ess of disposition that cals it Constancy to hold your own and Manliness not to stoop to others and takes it as dishonourable to seek for Peace even in Religion with your supposed adversaries or to yield to it at least without much importunity With too many miserable souls it is meer ungodliness and enmity to that way of Piety that in many that you differ from appears And in the best of you it is a Remissness of Charity and want of Zeal for the Churches Peace and the Love and Vnity of Brethren To confute the reasonings of all these sorts would draw out this Preface to too great a length The first sort my experience hath caused me to observe Oft have I faln into company with men that pour forth bitter odious words against Presbyterie and I ask them what that Presbyterie is that they speak of with so much abomination Is it the Name or the Thing which they so abhor If the Name is it not a term of Scripture used by the Holy Ghost 1 Tim. 4.14 Are not the Pastors of the Church most frequently called the Presbyters or Elders Tit. 1.5 Act. 14.23 15.2 4 6 22 23. 1 Tim. 5.17 Act. 20.17 James 5.14 1 Pet. 5.1 c. It must needs then be the Thing and not the Name which they abominate And what is that Thing most of them cannot tell me Some presently talk of the disuse of the Common Prayer as if that were a part of Presbyterie and Government and the form of worship were all one Some presently run to Scotland and talk of forcing men to Confession of sin and of their secular enforcement of their Excommunications But 1. If this be odious why was it used by the Bishops Is it good in them and bad in others 2. And why plead you for Discipline and against Toleration if you so loath the things you plead for 3. But will you not when it s known so openly distinguish the Ministerial Power from the secular It s known by their Laws and constant Practice that all the Power that was exercised by Violence on Body or Estate by the Assemblies was derived from the Magistrate whose Commissioners also sate among them And the Bishops in England were seconded by the Sword as much as they It s known that the Presbyterians commonly maintain in their Writings that Pastors have no Coercive or Secular Power but only the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to exercise on the Conscience committed to them by Christ. 4. And the writings and practice of those in England openly manifest it and its them with whom you have most to do Some tell me that Presbyterie is the Government of the Church without Bishops And is it only the Negation of your Prelacy that is the odious thing Is there nothing Positive odious in Presbyterie Thus our Belief is condemned by the Papists even because we Believe not so much as they when in the Positives of our Faith there is nothing that they can blame Some make it the odious thing that they have Lay-Elders But 1. The Presbyterians account them not Lay but Ecclesiasticks 2. And what is the Odious harm that these men do among them They are present and Consent to the admonishing and censuring of offendors And what great harm doth that to the Church Is it because they do not Preach No sure in that your Readers are much like them What work can you Name that these Elders are appointed to that by your Confession is not to be done It is not the Work then that you blame but that these men do it 3. But what is this to all that are in this point of your mind and think that unordained Elders wanting Power to preach or administer the Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of Gods appointment As far as I can understand the greater part if not three for one of the English Ministers that you stand at a distance from are of this mind and so far against Lay-Elders as well as you of whom I confess my self to be One. and that M r Vines was One I have shewed you in the End Surely then all we are none of the odious Presbyterians in your eyes Why then is there such a distance And are Lay-Elders as bad as Lay-Chancellors So also when some have been hotly condemning us as being against Bishops I ask them what a Bishop is and what
5.1 2 3. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but as ensamples to the flock See Dr. Hammond expounding it as spoken to Bishops q. d. The Bishops of your several Churches I exhort take care of your several Churches and govern them not as secular Rulers by force NB but as Pastors do their sheep by calling and going before them that so they may follow of their own accord Heb. 13.7 Remember them that have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God Dr. Hammond Paraphr Set before your eyes the Bishops and Governors that have been in your Church and preached the Gospel to you O all you Inhabitants of Yorkshire Lincolnshire Norfolk Suffolk Essex Middlesex Kent Worcestershire c. how many of your Parishes did ever hear a Bishop preach the Gospel to them Vers. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account D. H. Obey those that are set to Rule you in your several Churches the Bishops whose whole care is spent among you as being to give account of your proficiency in the Gospel O dreadful account for him that must give it for so many thousands whose faces he never saw and whose names he never heard much less did ever speak a word to them 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and doctrine see Dr. H. expounding it of Bishops 1 Thes. 5.12 And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake Dr. H. Pay all due respects to the Bishops of your several Churches Tell us ye Parishes of England what labours have Bishops bestowed among you or how many of you have they admonished and which of them are you hence obliged to honour for their works sake and is it them or is it the Presbyters I mention none of this as blaming Bishops for negligence but as blaming them that will plead for and undertake an impossible task and after all with an hardened forehead will defend it with violence and separation from dissenters when so many ages have told the world to their faces that the undertaken task was never done 3. It is the work of Bishops to confirm the Baptized and is now made peculiar to them D. H. on Heb. 13. a. To teach exhort confirm and impose hands were all the Bishops office in that place And if so then the examining all the persons in a Diocess till they have just satisfaction that they are fit to be confirmed and the actuall Confirmation of them all will be a considerable task of it self 4. It is the Bishops work to exercise Discipline in the Church by admonishing the unruly and disorderly and hearing the case when the Church is told of those that have continued impenitent and openly to rebuke them and to cast them out by Excommunication if they remain impenitent and unreformed Dr. H. on Tit. 3.10 It is thy office and duty toward such an one first to admonish him once or twice and if that will not work upon him or reduce him then to set a mark upon him to inflict the censures on him and to appoint all men to break off familiar converse with him And O what abundance of work is this in the several parts even in one Parish much more in a Diocess see Dr. H. on Mat. 18.17 18. 5. It is the Bishops work to take the principal care of the poor and their stock or the contributions for them which contributions were made at every Assembly See Dr. H. on 1 Cor. 12.28 e. The supream trust and charge was reserved to the Apostles and Bishops of the Church So in the 41. Canon of the Apostles A Bishop must have the care of the monies so that by his Power all be dispensed to the poor by the Presbyters and Deacons and we command that he have in his Power the goods of the Church So Iustin Martyr Apol. 2. That which is gathered is deposited with the Prefect or Bishop and he helps relieves the Orphans and Widdows and becomes the Curator or Guardian to all absolutely NB that are in want So Ignatius to Polycarp After the Lord thou shalt be the Curator of the Widdows And Polycarp himself speaking of the Elders or Bishops They visit and take care of all that are sick not neglecting the Widdow the Orphan or the poor So Dr. H. read him further Remember this all you that are for our English Prelacy See that the Bishop be at once in every Parish in his Diocess to receive the contributions Or see that you put all into his hands and custody see that he take care of all the poor and widdows and orphans in all your Country and that all their monies be disbursed by him or his special appointment and be the common Overseer of the poor for his Diocess And when you and he have tryed this one seven years come then and tell us whether he will be any longer a Prelate or you will any longer be for Prelacy In the mean time judge in your Consciences by these passages of Antiquity cited by D. H. whether the antient Bishops had one Congregation or many score or hundred to be their Pastoral charge 6. Also it is a part of the Bishops work to visit the sick and pray with them and for them Iam. 5.14 Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him see Dr. H. that by Elders is meant the Bishops e. Because there is no Evidence whereby these inferiour Presbyters may appear to have been brought into the Churâ—h so early and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural doth no way conclude that there were more of these Elders then one in each particular Church any more then that the sick man was bound to call for more then one and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders of the Church was both in the Scripture stile and in the first writers the title of Bishops and lastly because the visiting of the sick is anciently mentioned as one branch of the Office of Bishops therefore it may very reasonably be resolved that the Bishops of the Church one in each particular Church but many in the Universal are here meant so far Dr. H. Remember all you that are all for Prelacy to send for the Bishop when you are sick every person in the Diocess according to this express command And if he would do his work by a Deputy remember that in all that Diocess which was the Bishops charge in the Scripture-times
abomination to exhort and direct men to preach and pray and praise God If it be the Omission of his forms and Ceremonies that is no Part of the book and if it be some Directions that are against them they that revile the Common Prayer book as most Papists have done or they that count such Ceremonies and Forms indifferent things as others have done have little reason to account that so great an abomination that directeth men to omit them What abominable thing is imposed by the Directory Tell us if you can What excellent things doth Thuanus speak of the Presbyterians or Calvinists and how highly doth he extol the most of their Leaders or Teachers whom he mentioneth But to Mr. Pierce what a bloody perfidious sort of men are they unfit to live in a Commonwealth And to Grotius the Protestants are not only of bad lives but by the Power of their Doctrine they are such I have shewed you in my Key for Catholicks how great the praises of Calvin are in the mouth of Papir Massonius and other sober Papists and the same may be said of others of our Divines who are mentioned by you with most calumniating odious words Even Maldonate the Jesuite when he is railâ—ng at the Calvinists confesseth of them in Matth. 7.15 that Nothing was in their mouths but the Lord and our heavenly Father and Christ and Faith an Oath was not heard nothing appeared in their deeds but Alms-deeds and Temperance and Modesty Is this like your language of them Nay if Satan had dictated to him how could he have uttered more falshood and detestable calumniation then Mr. Pierce hath done p. 73. when he saith were Hacket Lancaster Arthington and others hanged for Non-conformity or was it nothing but Ceremonial which Coppinger c. designed against the lives of the whole privy Council and against the person of the Queen were not Cartwright and Travers and Wentworth and Egerton and other Presbyterian Ministers privy to the plot The Lord will rebuke this slanderous tongue Did ever Cochlaeus or Bolseck go beyond this man How fully is it known that Hacket and his Companions were Grundlâ—tonians or Familists just such as James Nailor and the Quakers who are far nearer the Papists then the Puritans or Presbyterians and that they madly came into London Coppinger and Arthington as his two Prophets proclaiming Hacket to be Iesus Christ and that for obstinate insisting on this Blasphemy Hacket was hanged and dyed blaspheming and Arthington upon his Repentance published the whole Story of the begining and progress of the business as you may see it in the Book called Arthingtons Seduction In which their madness blasphemy or any Treason of theirs or others this man might as honestly have said that Augustine or Luther or Cranmer had an hand or were privy to the plot as Cartwright Travers and such Presbyterian Ministers What he hath read in Bancroft I know not nor much regard till Bancroft himself be better cleared of what he is by writers charged with concerning Ficlerus Dolman c. and while he was known to be the most violent persecutor of the Puritans But I see as the Papists will take it for a currant truth that Luther was fetcht away by the Devil and that Calvin was stigmatized for Sodomy and dyed blaspheming c. if they can but say that one Cochlaeus or Bolseck of their own hath spoke it so such men among us dare tell the world the most odious falshoods of Cartwright Travers and the Presbyterian Ministers if they can but say that Bancroft said it before them And now the rest may take it as unquestionable when Mr. Pierce hath said it Do these men believe that there is a day of Iudgement If they do they make but lamentable preparation for it And his assertion pag. 77. that Excommunicating Kings and killing them is the doctrine of the Presbyterians and much more of his writing is of the same kind To this I have given him an Answer in my Key for Catholicks where he shall see whether Papists or Protestants are for King-killing Had you not gone so far beyond such moderate Papists as Cassander Hospitalius Massonius Bodin Thuanus c. in your enmity and bitterness against the Protestants as clearly to contradict them and to speak blood and venom when they speak charitably and honourably we might have had more peaceable neighbours of you though none of your Communion And I suppose that those who separate from us as having no true Ministry or Churches would have all these Ministers that they take for none to be silenced and cast out I do not think you will deny this to be your desire and your purpose if ever you should have power And if so what men are you and what a case would you bring this Nation in To your Objections I have answered in this book and said somewhat more to you in another Preface And upon the whole matter am forced now to conclude that it is an Enmity to holiness in unsanctified hearts that is the principal cause of our distance and divisions and that the way to convince such men as too many are that we deal with is not Disputing but praying to the Lord to change their hearts And that if we could once perswade them but to the Love of God and Holiness and to a serious practice of Christian Religion and if they be Bishops to a faithful practice of those works of a Bishop which they confess are his duty and to try Church-Government before they plead for what was never tryed by them our Controversies would then be ended they would never more plead for such a Prelacy that destroyeth Piety and Discipline nor never revile the Servants of the Lord nor never desire so much to promote the work of Hell as the casting out all that they account no Ministers and the casting off of all that they account no Ordinances or valid Administrations would be Farewel Disputing with such men in order to their Conviction and an healing peace Hoc non est artis sed pietatis opus POSTSCRIPT WHat the Publisher of Dr. Stewards Sermon doth mean by his Commmending it to my Consideration when there is not a word in it that I am concerned in more then he I understand not If he thereby intimate that I charged Dr. Steward to be of Grotius's Religion or any other that disowneth it he egregiously abuseth his Reader and himself If he intend to argue that none of the Prelatical Party were Grotians because Dr. Steward was not Let him prove his Consequence I disprove it 1. From the testimony of Grotius himself 2. From the mouths and books of those that have owned Grotius among us even since they were acquainted with his judgement and have owned his Votum Discussio in particular If his meaning be that Dr. Steward was a Grotian and yet no Papist therefore Grotians are no Papists one branch of his antecedent is false Either he
Bishops who gathered as many as they could under their own Government when they should have erected new Churches as free as their own Reason 12. If the Description of the Bishops settled in the New Testament and the work affixed to them be such as cannot agree to our Diocesan Bishops but to the Pastors of a single Church then was it never the mind of the Holy Ghost that those Bishops should degenerate afterwards into Diocesan Bishops But the Antecedent is certain therefore so is the Consequent I here still suppose with Learned Dr. H Annot. in Act. 11. passim that the name Presbyter in Scripture signifieth a Bishop there being no Evidence that in Scripture time any of that Second Order viz. subject Presbyters were then instituted Though I am far from thinking that there was but one of these Bishops in a Church at least as to many Churches Now as we are agreed de facto that it was but a single Church that then was under a Bishop and not many such Churches for that follows undenyably upon the denying of the existence of subject Presbyters seeing no such Churches can be nor the worshipping Assemblies held without a Bishop or Presbyter so that it was the mind of the Apostles that it should so continue is proveed by the Desciption and work of those Scripture Bishops Argument 1. From Acts 20.28 29 31. The Bishops instituted and fixed by the Holy Ghost were and are to take heed to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them overseeers to feed the Church of God and to watch against Wolves and to warn every one night and day But this cannot be done by Diocesan Bishops nor any that have more then one Church Therefore Diocesan Bishops are not the Bishops that the Holy Ghost hath so fixed and instituted such as Paul describeth were to continue and that 's such as can do that work Argument 2. The Bishops that the Holy-Ghost settled and would have continue and had the Power of Ordination given them were such as were to be Ordained in every City and every Church Acts 14.23 Tit. 1.3 4 5. See Dr. Hammonds Annotat. But it is not Diocesan Bishops that are such for they are over many Churches and Cities therefore it is not Diocesan Bishops that were settled by the Holy Ghost nor meant in those texts Ar. 3. The Bishops which were instituted by the Holy Ghost and are meant in Scripture were to watch for their peoples souls as those that must give account Ruling over them and to be obeyed by all and speaking to them the word of God Heb. 13.7 17 24. But this cannot be done by a Bishop to a whole Diocess nor will they be willing of such an account if they be wise therefore it is not Diocesan Bishops that are meant in Scripture Argument 4. The Bishops settled for continuance in Scripture were such as all the people were to know as labouring among them and over them in the Lord and admonishing them and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake 1 Thes. 5.12 13. But this cannot be meant of our Diocesan Bishop whom the hundreth part of the flock shall never see hear nor be admonished by therefore it is not such that were settled for continuance in the Church Argument 5. The Bishops settled by the Holy Ghost must by any that are sick be sent for to pray over them But this a Diocesan Bishop cannot do to the hundreth or thousandth person in some places therefore it is not Diocesan Bishops but the Bishops of a single Church that are capable of these works that are meant by the Holy Ghost to continue in the Church and consequently to whom the power of Ordaining was committed If any question whether the Texts alleadged do speak of subject-Presbyters or Bishops I refer them to the foresaid Reverend Doctor with whom I am agreed that there were no subject-Presbyters instituted in Scripture times Reason 13. It was not one or two or all Churches for a year or two or more in their meer fieri or infancy before they were well formed that consisted only of one settled worshipping Assembly and its guides but it was the formed and stablished state of the particular Churches To prove this I shall briefly do these three things 1. I shall shew it in respect to the Jewish Synagogues 2. As to the Churches in the Apostles dayes after many years growth even of every Church that 's mentioned in the New Testament as a particular Political Church 3. As to some of the Churches after the Apostles dayes mentioned by the ancients 1. It is apparent that the Jews Synagogues were particular Congregational Churches having each one their several Rulers and as many Learned men suppose they had an Ecclesiastical Judicature of Elders belonging to each of them where fit men could be found and this distinct from the Civil Judicature Or as others think they had a Sanhedrim which had power to judge in both Causes and one of these was in every City that is in Places of Cohabitation For in every City of Israel which had one hundred and twenty families or free persons say others they placed the Sanhedrim of twenty three And in every City which had not one hundred and twenty men in it they set the smallest Judicature of three Judges so be it there were but two wise men among them fit to teach the Law and resolve doubts See Aâ—nsworth on Numb 11.16 citing Talmud Bab. Maimonides more at large And doubtless many of our Country Villages and almost all our Parishes have more then 120. and every Country Village may come in in the lesser number below 120. which are to have three Elders and that say some was every place where were ten men And that these were under the great Sanhedrim at Ierusalem is nothing to the matter For so we confess that such particular Churches as we mention have some such General officers over them de jure as the Apostolical men were in the Primitive Church but not that any of these Synagogues were under other Synagogues though one were in a great City and the other but in a small Town And that these Synagogues were of Divine institution is plain in divers texts particularly in Lev. 23.1 2 3. where a convocation of holiness or a holy Convocation is commanded to be on every Sabboth in all their dwellings which most plainly could be neither the meeting at Ierusalem at the Temple nor yet in single families and therefore it is not to much purpose that many trouble themselves to conjecture when Synagogues began and some imagine it was about the Captivity For as their controversie can be but about the form of the meeting place or the name so its certain that some place there must be for such meetings and that the meetings themselves were in the Law commanded by God and that not to be tumultuary confused ungoverned Assemblies If the scourging in
way or other feel ere long that they have owned a very unprofitable cause and such as they shall wish they had let alone and that it made not for their honour to be so much enemies to the welfare of the Church as the enemies of the abolition of that Prelacy will appear to be Cons. II. The matter of that clause in the National Covenant which concerneth the abolition of this Prelacy before mentioned was so far from deserving the Reproaches and Accusations that are bestowed on it by some that it was just and necessary to the well being of the Church In this also I purposely mean the Civil controversie about the authority of imposing taking or prosecuting the Covenant and speak only of the Matter of it to avoid the losing of the truth by digressions and new controversies They that by reproaching this clause in the Covenant do own the Prelacy which the Covenant disowneth might shew more love to the Church and their own souls by pleading for sickness and nakedness and famine and by passionate reproaches of all that are against these then by such owning and pleading for a far greater evil Cons. III. Those of the English Ministry that are against the old Episcopacy and are glad that the Church is rid of it are not therefore guilty of Schism nor of sinfull disobedience to their spiritual superiours If any of them did swear obedience to the Prelates a tyrannicall imposition that God never required nor the Primitive Church never used that 's nothing to our present case which is not about the keeping of oaths but the obeying or rejecting the Prelacy in it self considered It is not schismatical to depart from an â—â—â—rpation that God disowneth and the Church is endangered and so much wronged by and to seek to pull up the Roots of Schism which have bred and fed it in the Churches so long Cons. IV. Those that still justifie the ejected Prelacy and desire the restauration of it as they needlesly choose the guilt of the Churches desolations so are they not to be taken for men that go about to heal our breaches but rather for such as would widen and continue them by restoring the main cause Cons. V. If we had had such an Episcopacy as Bishop Hall and Bishop Vsher did propound as satisfactory and such men to manage it Episcopacy and Peace might have dwelt together in England to this day It is not the the Name of a Bishop that hath been the matter of our trouble but the exorbitant Species introducing unavoidably the many mischiefs which we have seen and felt Cons. VI. Ordination by the ejected Prelacy in specie is not of necessity to the being or well-being of a Presbyter or Deacon If the Species of Prelacy it self be proved contrary to the word of God and the welfare of the Church then the Ordination that is by this Species of Prelacy cannot be necessary or as such desirable Cons. VII A Parochial or Congregational Pastor having assistant Presbyters and Deacons either existent or in expectance was the Bishop that was in the dayes of Ignatius Iustin Tertullian and that Dr. Hammond describeth as meant in many Scriptures and existent in those dayes I speak not now to the question about Archbishops Cons. VIII The Ordination that is now performed by these Parochial Bishops especially in an assembly guided by their Moderator is beyond all just exception Valid as being by such Bishops as the Apostles planted in the Churches and neerer the way of the Primitive Church then the Ordination by the ejected Species of Prelates is Cons. IX As the Presbyters of the Church of Alexandria did themselves make one their Bishop whom they chose from among themselves and set him in a higher degree as if Deacons make an Archdeacon or Souldiers choose one and make him their Commander saith Hierom ad Evagr. so may the Presbyters of a Parochial Church now And as the later Canons require that a Bishop be ordained or consecrated by three Bishops so may three of these Primitive Parochial Bishops ordain or consecrate now another of their degree And according to the Canons themselves no man can justly say that this is invalid for want of the Consecration by Archbishops or of such as we here oppose Cons. X. Those that perswade the People that the Ordinanation of those in England and other Churches is null that is not by such as the English Prelates were and that perswade the people to take them for no Presbyters or Pastors that are not ordained by such Prelates and do make an actual separation from our Churches and Ministers and perswade others to the like upon this ground and because the Ministers have disowned the English Prelacy and withal confess that Church of Rome to be a true Church and their ordination and Priesthood to be just or true are uncharitable and dangerously Schismatical though under pretence of decrying Schism and many wayes injurious to the Church and to the souls of men and to themselves This will not please but that I not only speak it but further manifest it is become Necessary to the right Information of others FINIS The Second DISPUTATION VINDICATING The Protestant Churches and MINISTERS that have not Prelatical Ordination from the Reproaches of those Dividers that would nullifie them WRITTEN Upon the sad complaints of many Godly Ministers in several parts of the Nation whose Hearers are turning Separatists By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1658. The Preface Christian Reader IF thou be but for the interest of Christianity more than of a party and a Cordial friend to the Churches Peace though thou be never so much resolved for Episcopacy I doubt not but thou and I shall be one if not in each Opinin yet in our Religion and in Brotherly affection and in the very bent of our labours and our lives And I doubt not but thou wilt approve of the scope and substance of this following Disputation what imperfections soever may appear in the Manner of it For surely there is that of God within thee that will hardly suffer thee to believe that while Rome is taken for a true Church the Reformed that have no Prelates must be none that their Pastors are meer Lay-men their Ordination being Null and consequently their administrations in Sacraments c. Null and of no Validity The Love that is in thee to all believers and especially to the Societies of the Saints and the honour and interest of Christ will keep thee from this or strive against it as nature doth against poyson or destructive diseases If thou art not a meer Opinionist in Religion but one that hast been illuminated by the spirit of Christ and felt his love shed abroad in thy heart and hast ever had experience of spiritual communion with Christ and his Church in his holy Ordinances I dare then venture my cause upon thy judgement Go
to the being of the Ministry some but to the well being It s the first that I now speak of Sect. 5. Before I name them lest you misapply what is said I shall first desire you to observe this very necessary distinction It s one thing to ask Who is to take himself for a called and true Minister and to do the work as expecting Acceptance and Reward from God and it s another thing to ask Whom are the people or Churches to take for a true Minister and to submit to as expecting the Acceptance and blâ—ssing of God in that submission from hiâ— adminâ—stratioâ—s Or its one thing to have a Call which wil before God justifie his Ministration and another thing to have a Call which will before 〈◊〉 justifie the Peoples submission and will justifie in foro Ecclesia both him and them And so it s one thing to be a Minister whom God and Conscience will justifie and own as to Himself and another thing to be a Minister to the Church whom they must own and God will own and bless only as to their good In the first sence none but truely sanctified men can be Ministers but in the latter an unsanctified man may be a Minister As there is a difference among Members between the Visible and Mystical of which I have spoken elsewhere So is there between Pastors Some have a Title that in foro Ecclesiae or Ecclesia judice will hold good that have none that is good in foro Dei In one word the Church is bound to take many a man as a true Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in faith and expectation of a Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it As in worldly Possessions many a man hath a good Title before men and at the bar of man so that no man may disturb his Possession nor take it from him without the guilt of theft when yet he may have no good Right at the bar of God to justifie him in his retention So it is here Sect. 6. It is too common a case in Civil Governments the ignorance of which occasioneth many to be disobedient A man that invadeth the Soveraignty without a Title may be no King as to himself before God aod yet may be truly a King as to the People That is He stands guilty before God of Usurpation and till he Repent and get a better Title shall be answerable for all his administrations as unwarrantable And yet when he hath settled himself in Possession of the Place and exercise of the Soveraignty he may be under an obligation to do justice to the people and defend them and the people may be under an obligation to obey him and honour him and to receive the fruits of his Government as a blessing Mens Title in Conscience and before God for Magistracy and Ministry themselves are most to look after and to justifie and it s often crakt and naught when their Title in foro humano may be good or when the people are bound to obey them And those miscarriages or usurpations of Magistrates or Ministers which forfeit Gods Acceptance and Blessing to themselves do not forfeit the blessing of Christs Ordinances and their administrations to the Church For it is the guilty and not the Innocent that must bear the loss A Sacrament may be as effectual and owned by God for my benefit when it is from the hand of a man that shall be condemned for administring it as when it is from the hand of a Saint that hath a better call supposing still that I be innocent of his usurpation or error This necessary distinction premised I say that special Grace is necessary to that Call of a Minister that must be warrantable and justifyable to himself before God but it iâ— not necessary to that call that 's justifyable before the Church and is necessary to our submission and to the blessing of the Ordinances and their Validity to our good Sect. 7. But yet here are some Qualifications essentially necessary to Dispose the man to be Receptive of the Ministry coram Ecclesia though saving grace be not As 1. It is of Necessity that he be a Christian by Profession and so that he Profess that faith repentance love obedience which is saving For the Minister in question is only A Christian Minister and therefore he must be a Christian aliquid amplius by profession 2. It is therefore Necessary that he Profess and seem to Understand and Believe all the Articles of the faith that are essential to Christianity and do not heretically deny any one of these what ever he do by inferiour Articles 3. He must be one that is able to preach the Gospel that is in some competent manner to make known the Essentials of Christianity or else he cannot be a Minister at all 4. He must be one that understandeth the Essentials of Baptism and is able to administer it Though the actual administration be not alway necessary 5. He must understand the Essentials of a particular Church and profess to allow of such Churches as Gods Ordinance or else he cannot be the Pastor of them 6. He must Profess to Value and Love the Saints and their communion Or else he cannot be a Minister for the communion of Saints 7. He must Profess and seem to understand believe and approve of all the Ordinances of Christ which are of Necessity to Church-communion 8. And he must be tolerably able to dispense and administer those Ordinances Or else he is not capable of the office 9. He must Profess and seem to make the Law of God his Rule in these administrations 10. And also to desire the saving of mens souls and the wellfare of the Church and Glory and Pleasing of God If he have not beforehand all these Qualifications he is not capable of the Ministry nor can any Ordination make him a true Minister Sect. 8. If you demand my proof it is from the common principles that 1. The form cannot be received but into a disposed capable matter but such are no disposed capable matter therefore c. 2. The office is for the work and therefore presupposeth a Capacity and ability for the work The office containeth 1. An Obligation to the Duty But no man can be obliged to do that which is Naturally Impossible to him though a Moral Impossibility may stand with an obligation to duty and a Natural only as founded in the Moral 2. It containeth an Authority or Power to do the work But such Power which is but a Right of excercising Naturall Abilities doth presuppose the Abilities to be exercised Natural Power is presupposed to Civil Authority 3. It is Essential to such Relations that they be for their Ends And therefore where there is an apparent incapacity for the end there is as apparent an incapacicy of the Relation But enough of this