other Two according to common acceptation rather respect the governing and cleansing of Christs Church and therefore in the opinion of some no reason they should be committed to the power of every Presbyter as the Word and Sacraments are as Independents and Presbyters would have it For as there can be no order but confusion in a Common-wealth where every man ruleth so would there be no peace but confusion in the Church of Christ if every Presbyter might impose hands and use the Keys at his pleasure Though the Presbyter of each Church had charge of the Word and Sacraments even in the Apostles times yet might they not impose hands nor use the Keys without the Apostles or such as the Apostles departing or dying left to be their Substitutes and Successors in the Churches which they had planted At Samaria Philip preached and baptized 8 Acts 5.12 and albeit he dispensed the Word and Sacraments yet could he not impose hands on them but Peter and John came from Hierusalem and laid their hands on them and so they received the Holy Ghost 8. Acts 14.17 The Churches of Lystra 14. Acts 20. Iconium and Antioch were planted before yet were Paul and Barnabas forced at their return to increase the number of Presbyters in each of those places by Imposition of their hands v. 23. The Churches of Ephesus and Crete were erected by Paul and had their Presbyters yet could they not create others but Timothy and Titus were left there to impose hands and ordain Elders in every City as occasion required Tim. 1.5 Tit. 1.5 § Having thus briefly seen what Powers Christ left unto his Ministers to continue in the Church let us now consider to whom he committed them To whom were committed the Powers Christ left to continue in the Church I find several persons under several Names and Titles to whom these powers were committed and by them shared as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Teachers Pastors and Deacons § Touching the Apostles whom the Bishops did succeed they probably had a superior Vocation and Jurisdiction above Prophets and Evangelists Pastors Teachers Deacons and the 70 Disciples in the Church of God and had the government and oversight of them which will soon appear If we consider what Paul writeth of himself and unto them directing and appointing what to do and how to be conversant in the Church of God what to refrain in themselves what to rebuke in others In which cases it is not to be said that the Apostle presumed above his calling or had a several Commission distinct from the rest of the Apostles But in his doings and Writings we may perceive the height and strength of Apostolic Authority so guided by the spirit of wisdom that it displeased none in the Church but the proud and contentious troublers of the Church such as drew Disciples after them to reign over their Brethren or seduced the simple to serve their own turns as Diotrephes 3 John 9. These Prerogatives were so proper to the Apostles that no Evangelist nor Prophet in the New Testament came near it § Touching Prophets Prophets they were such as having otherwise learned the Gospel had a special gift of expounding Scriptures bestowed on them from above and of foreshewing things to come of this sort was Agabus and sundry others in Jerusalem Acts 11.27 Acts 21.10 who notwithstanding are not therefore to be reckoned with the Clergy because no mans gifts or qualities can make a Minister of Holy things unless Ordination do give him power And we no where find Prophets to have been made by Ordination but all whom the Church did ordain were to serve either as Presbyters or Deacons § Touching Evangelists they were Presbyters of principal sufficiency Evangelists whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical affairs wheresoever they saw need such were Annanias Acts 9.18 Apollos Acts 18.27 Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15.5.14.28 and others and were thus employed In Trajans days according to Eusebius many of the Apostles Disciples and Scholars to shew their willing minds in execution of that which Christ first of all required at the hands of Men they sold their Possessions gave them to the poor and undertook the labour of * Evangelista 1º qui Evangelium scripsit ut Matcus Luca c. 2º qui annunciat missus vel primo a Christo ante mortem sio 70 discipuli 10 Luke Vel 2º ab Apostolis sic Timotheus dicitur Evangelista a Paulo constitutus Presbyter Episcopus 3º A Christo post resurrectionem sic Annanias Acts 9.18 Evangelists they painfully preached Christ and delivered the Gospel to them who as yet had never heard the Doctrine of Faith § Touching Pastors and Teachers Pastors Teachers they were no other than Presbyters howbeit setled in some certain charge and thereby differing from Evangelists which title the Apostles likewise gave themselves 1 Pet. 1.5 The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Albeit that Name was not proper but common unto them with others for of Presbyters some were greater some less in power and that by our Saviours own appointment the greater they which received fulness of spiritual power the less they to whom less was granted § Unto these 2 degrees appointed by Christ the Apostles soon after his Ascension annexed Deacons by Ordination Deacons whose office at first was to distribute the Churches Goods to provide therewith for the Poor and to see that all things of expence might be faithfully disposed of and they were also to attend upon the Presbyters at the time of Divine Service § By all which it appears that Churches Apostolic did know but 3 degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical order 1. Apostles 2. Presbyters 3. Deacons and afterwards instead of Apostles Bishops whether Bishops and Presbyters were two distinct Orders or one and the same I will not here enquire into only this is plain and beyond all contradiction viz. they have one and the same Ordination and Commission and not different and distinct and thereby become more essentially Officers of the Church § Many Errors have been broached and maintained and not without some more than ordinary warmth among the Ecclesiasties meerly through inadvertency through confounding and want of right distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity during which execution only they differ from others of the Laity which works and services they also may give over at any time and are no more of the Essence of the Church than Widows or indeed any other Laicks now are or were of old for that they are not admitted into the Church nor tyed by irrevocable Ordination as Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are which makes them to be of the Essence or more especially Officers of the Church These things considered there is no reason we should alter the Apostles Discipline without the Apostles warrant Produce that and we
Command or Power so to do If he have Power why so angry that he makes use of it If you know a better way teach it if not submit to this and acquiesee This our Author seems to contradict by opposing experience to the contrary and therefore f. 63. he desires that none would be offended if as his own apprehension he affirms that the Introduction of Liturgies was on the account insisted on the principal means of encreasing and carrying on that sad defection and apostacy in the guilt whereof most Churches in the World had enwrapped themselves A bold Charge I confess but not against us and much they have to answer for that impose and use such Liturgies and therefore I shall not be offended at this his Affirmation but shall grant him his desire and conclude upon the truth of it that if Idolatrous Superstitious erroneous and Heretical Liturgies Mass-Books call them what you will for such he must mean have been so powerful and effectual to keep out Truth and prevent the true Worship of God through most Churches in the World what should hinder but that Liturgies teaching nothing but what the Word of God teacheth nor prescribing any thing in the Worship of God but what is according to Scripture I must mind him that I plead for no other should be as powerful and as effectual for the keeping out of Heresie Idolatry Superstition and what ever is contrary unto sound Faith and Doctrine And that they have been so is as certainly verified and as plainly to be demonstrated in all Places where such Liturgies nay though happily not altogether such though I wish they were all reduced to such have been used as that which he affirms of erronious Liturgies § At the Conference that was before King James at Hampton-Court the Bishop of London put His Majesty in mind of what Monsieur Roguë the French Ambassador gave out concerning our Service and Ceremonies upon the solemn view and audience of them viz. That if the Reformed Churches in France had kept the same order among them which we have he was assured that there would have been many thousands of Protestants more there than now there are f. 38. If some Innocent Ceremonies were not commanded and others not so Innocent abolished what could hinder but that Shrines covering of Shrines Trindilles Rolls of Wax Pictures Painting and all other Monuments of feigned Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition long since razed out of the Walls and Glass Windows might be brought into use again If no Liturgies were established and imposed what should hinder but the use of the Service of Th. Becquet and Prayers having Rubricks containing Pardons or Indulgences and all other Superstitions Legends and Prayers should be again introduced And also the use of Hallowing Water Bread Salt Bells Candles on Candlemas-day Ashes on Ash-Wednesday Palms on Palm-Sunday the Font on Easter Eve Fire on Paschal and a Sepulcher on Good-Friday and several Masses contrary to the Form and Order of the Book of Communion all long since abolished in Edw. 6. and Queen Elizabeth's days and we may conclude confidently yet without Arrogancy that such Liturgies are warrantable and profitable and that as many as do walk according to such Liturgies neither overthrowing that which they have built by superinducing any damnable Heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their Holy Faith with a lewd and wicked conversation Peace shall be upon them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God and I appeal to all that shall read this if I may not with as good a Warrant affirm that our Liturgy hath kept out Popery and its Trinkets as he affirm as he doth and certainly they are both equally and alike powerful towards the encreasing and suppressing of true and false Faith Doctrine and Worship And it cannot be denied but that since 1640. since our Liturgy hath been thus vilisied set at naught and disused but that whole swarms of Sectaries like the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt have overspread the Land and that open Profanation Blasphemy Atheisme more in vogue since than before We have hitherto been openly battering his Out-works his main and strongest Forts are yet behind Vide Act Vniform f. 82.140 Car. 2. viz. That Liturgies are a Humane Invention that they occasion neglect and disabilities 63. That they hinder the due exercise and improvement of Spiritual Gifts and it is accordingly done in the imposed Liturgy 67. It says expresly That the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift in the Administration of those Ordinances for which provision is made in the Book 68. That the Imposition of a Liturgy to be used always as a Form in all Gospel Administrations which he says do consist in Prayer Thanksgiving Instructions and Exhortations sutably applied unto the special Nature and End of the several Ordinances themselves and the use of them in the Church 63. is an unwarrantable Abridgement of that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and therefore sin in the Use and Imposition thereof And as it is a Sin in others to abridge us of the Liberty purchased for us by Jesus Christ so it is in us to give it up and not to suffer in our Testimony for it 69. and then concludes That the great Rule of Administrations is That all things be done to Edification And this is the main End of the Ministry it self in all the Duties thereof that are purely Evangelical and what ever is contrary unto or a hindrance of Edification ought not to be appointed or observed in the Worship of God and such is the state and condition of this Imposed Liturgy in Church-Administrations for the Reasons mentioned c. 10. f 65. § By which it appears that one great Objection in their Esteem though opprobrious only against Liturgies is That they are an Humane Invention Be it so what then Therefore nothing of Humane Invention be it never so consonant and advantagious unto the Truth or the true Worship of God is to be necessarily and indispensibly used in the publick Worship of God If so then by the same Rule and Reason we may conclude that no Man must teach in private or preach in publick for that such Sermons such Catechisings are as truly the Inventions of the Brains of every Individual Person as Liturgies are of the whole Church or its Representative for be it that the Forms of Liturgies were never instituted nor commanded by Christ no more were the Forms of any Sermon or Prayers preached or prayed by particular Men since the days of Christ and his Apostles It is enough that the Subject Matter both of the one and of the other be according to Holy Writ And we may rest assured that as God will bless the Gifts and Labours of private Men in publick Prayers and Sermons so will he also bless the publick delivery of his Word and Mind by such stinted Prayers and such selected portions of Scripture as many learned pious and gifted Pastors
that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other Enormities committed which they seconded by oppugning the established Ceremonies and it is not improbable but that if the Liberty here pleaded for were granted but that the same disorders and confusions would also return and therefore for these also amongst many other reasons Antecedent also as for avoiding diversities of Formes and Opinions and for establishing Consent touching true Religion and Worship and for removing of some Offences taken by Calvin and his followers whose design it was to have this as well as other Churches to depend on his direction It was thought fit by our Learned and prudent Governors both of Church and State the better to settle peace and truth and to keep out Error and Superstition to Establish a Liturgy and Rubrick As Reformation was a Work most glorious so it was a work most difficult because it was to Null and cancel such Customs and usages in Divine Worship as tract of time Age after Age for many Generations had made so habitual and had taken such deep root and Impressions in the Hearts and Souls of the People of all sorts from Father to Son that in humane reason it appeared almost impossible And therefore a Work not to be undertaken by blew-Apron or Tradesmen nor yet by giddy Phanatick Multitude nor indeed by any but by the Supream Magistrate and therefore a Work fit only for a King and such a King only as was fit for such a Work fit to match the Empress of Abominations and of the World and such a King proved Henry the 8th Having great courage and great understanding and great resolution without which requisites he could never have done what he did § As our Author in his sixth Chapter hath given us his Account of the Reformation and of the Introduction of our Liturgy not without some unbeseeming reflections on so great so good a Work to make the better way for the design of his Book so I shall take leave to give you also a short account thereof for the better Justification of our Liturgy and leave the Reader to Judge and favour which he please Tho Henry the 8th from his Cradle lived in an Antichristian Age and Church so that he suckt in the very Milk of the Mother of Harlots and Abominations and tho he made great havock of the Blood of Saints and Martyrs scourging them to Death with his Six knotted-Whip of Articles And tho he made great havock of the Popes Power and Patrimony wrongfully so called and not excrescences For indeed Monasteries c. That he destroyed and took away were for the most part exempt from Episcopal Jurisdiction and wholly depended on the Pope who was not so much the rightful Head of the Church then as was this Henry the 8th and therefore were not so essentially belonging to the Church as were the Bishops and their Patrimony yet it cannot be denied but that he left the Officers and Fathers of the Church that were more truly so the Bishops in many respects in a better condition then he found it both in respect of the Polity and the Endowments of it and also in order to a Reformation of Doctrine and Worship the Polity was mended in that he banished the Power of the Pope and setled it on himself to whom it did more rightfully belong and on his Bishops moderated the extream Severity of the Six Articles abolished the superstitious usages observed on St. Nichola's day all which may abundantly be seen in the Church History and by his Proclamation of Sept. 19. 1530. by a Publick instrument of the Convocation dated March 22. after acknowledging him to be Supream Head of the Church of England as also by several Acts of Parliament viz. H. 24.8 c. 12.25 H. 8. c. 1.20 21. and 28. H. 8. c. 10. In Order to a Reformation H. 8. first permitted the Bible to be Translated by Mr. Tyndall Anno 1530. afterwards Martyr But some Bishops having ill Characterized him to the King it was afterwards suppressed But the Popes Authority declining about the year 1536. the King issued out an Order for a New Translation indulging in the Interim the use of a Bible then passing under a feigned Name of Mathews Bible not much differing from Tyndalls which came forth Anno 1540. which was called the great Bible and sometimes Coverdales Bible or Translation the publick uses thereof and of all other Translations was interdicted 1542. and so continued without leave of the King or Ordinary first had until Edward 6. repealed that Statute and introduced the publick use thereof again according to Miles Coverdales Translation which doth not much differ from Tyndalls from this Translation doth our Liturgy derive the Translations of the Psalms and other Portions of Canonical Scripture since which time we have had two other more exact and refined Translations one in Queen Elizabeth her time called the Bishops Bible another in King James's time that the Psalms and other Portions of Scripture in our Liturgy were not altered in Queen Elizabeths days according to the best Translation then extant was because it could not be done without altering the whole Frame of the Liturgy which the Sages of those times thought not prudent to endeavour by reason of the different temper of those Parliaments in which it had always some potent Enemies but why they were not lately altered with our Liturgy and as the Scotch Liturgy before had been I can give no account If the last Translation be the most perfect why were they not made Conformable to that and so compiled if it be not the best why is it commanded to be used at all H. 8. by his Injunctions 1536 and 1538. abolished Church Holy dayes and Holy dayes in Harvest time he banished the Popes Supremacy and asserted his own he forbade Images and Pilgrimages commanded Prayers in the Mother-tongue and every Parish to provide a Bible in English and to place it in the Quire for every Man to Read therein and no Man to be discouraged from it but to be exhorted thereunto the Lords Prayer to be Learned in English Sermons to be made Quarterly at least with Instructions not to trust in Works divised by Mens fantasies besides Scripture as in wandring to Pilgrimages offering of Money Candles or Tapers to feigned Reliques or Images or Kissing or Licking the same saying over a number of Beads not understood or such like Superstition and therefore all such Images to be pulled down that that most detestable offence of Idolatry may be avoided the commemoration of Tho. Becket to be quite omitted Fox 1247 1250. In farther Order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first caused his Convocation Anno 1537. to Compose a Book expounding the Creed the Lords Prayer the ten Commandments the Avy Mary and the seven Sacraments more agreeable to the truth then formerly and it was called the Institution of a Christian Man But this Book lay
I abhor the thoughts of it as will appear hereafter there being a Vast difference between such a Tolleration of Idolatry Superstition crying sins and therefore absolutely unlawful and a Remission only of some few severities in some Acts Canons and Injunctions which relate only to Formalities that tho in construction of Law may be exacted yet may be dispensed withal without prejudice to sound Doctrine or good Conversation and without which the Worship of God would be as pure and sincere Indeed all Acts Canons and Injunctions whether they relate unto Uniformity or not ought according to their own Nature to be sincere and free from all Traps and Covert designs to exclude any that Profess the same Faith and Worship tho many cannot perhaps thro meer tenderness of Conscience submit to every thing therein enjoyned In Concerns of this Nature Scripture in a more especial manner ought to be the Rule of Resolutions and that abstractly and purely without mixing and bringing with them Interest Usurpation or Artifices of men else what were it but by Edicts to lay Snares in Mispah and spread Nets upon Tabor to use Laws Menaces and subtleties to keep Gods People from his Court and Sanctuary and Confine them to State-Religion and to Walk after the Mode of the Commands of men Those Non-conformists Non-assenters that have received Order which they could not have had but permissu superiorum by the Licence and under the Authority of the King in our Laws expressed For no Man hath Power to give himself either Orders to be a Priest or Institution to a Pastoral Charge but must depend upon another Power who by Acts Canons and Edicts long since published and extant hath directed the qualifications of the Persons to be Ordained the manner and Form how the Persons who ought to Ordain them c. and they could not be ignorant that the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies were by the Imperative Constitutive Government of this Church and State to be Countenanced and used in publick Churches by the Bishops Presbyters and Pastors either they consulted their Consciences when they entered on the Ministery by taking Holy Orders whether they could Comply and Submit unto the whole Frame of Government and Polity of this Church Constituted by Act of Parliament from whom they were to receive Authority and Licence to Exercise their Function Gifts and Talents or they did not If they did not they are inexcusable for entring on so Sacred a Calling Stamped with an Indelible Character so rashly so unadvisedly without perspect or foresight of Consequences and yet if they were so pur-blind as not to see one step before them yet their neglect herein cannot be Pleaded in their Excuse it being their own Fault in Common Justice no Court will permit any man to take Advantage of his own misdemeanors or failings Besides hath not every Minister that hath receiv'd Pastoral Charge twice or thrice if not oftner witnessed his allowance of all and singular the 39 Articles of our Church once at his Ordination before the Bishop then at his Institution into his Benefice before his Ordinary and both these by Subscription under his own hand and afterwards upon his Induction before his own Flock and that by verbal Approbation he hath not only acknowledged in the Church the Power of Ordaining Rites and Ceremonies 20 Articles But he hath after a sort bound himself openly to rebuke such as willingly and purposely break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church as Offenders of the Common Order of the Church and Wounders of the Consciences of the weak Brethren and hurters of the Authority of the Magistrate Artic. 34. and is it not enacted 1º Eliz. c. 2. that they shall be punished pro ut in the Act that shall Preach declare or speak any thing in derogation or depraving our Liturgy c. Are not then such Dissenters obliged both in Conscience and by virtue of their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions to be constant to their own Hands and Tongues if they would be accounted Faithful in Gods House as was Moses And is it reasonable then to hearken unto such Pleading against their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions their own Hands and Tongues Besides quo jure with what Face or Conscience can they expect Temples maintenance protection and all things requisite for their Ministery from that Law and Government that they will not Protect Countenance nor submit unto § Indeed it seems to me an old piece of Conscientiousness if not Impiety to enter the Holy Ministerial Function to day when they are sure without Conformity to be silenced to morrow Besides it is Nicety and Indiscretion to exact an express Rule of Scripture or Faith for the Cross in Baptism for standing at the Creed Kneeling at the Lords Beard for Habits in Divine Service the usual sear-Crows of scrupulous men In these cases consent of the Church or Tradition may suffice so there be no express Law of Command to the contrary He that exacts in these Points as express Rules of Faith or Warrant of Scripture for his Obedience to Ecclesiastical Government as he would or as every man ought to do for adventuring upon Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints c. doth make his Brain or Fancy the chief Seat of his Religion which should be seated in the Heart and Intitles God to the Fancies and Chymaeraes of their own Brains Thus to disobey the Church in these Cases wherein it hath Authority to Command Obedience is to disobey those Mandates of God which give the Body of the Church Authority to make Laws to Govern it self by in things indifferent neither expresly Forbidden nor expresly Commanded by the Law of God I know the Apostles Rule is let every man be fully persâ—â—ded in his own mind 14 Rom. 5. And this full perswasion or assurance of Faith is in the Cases there mentioned necessary because whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin v. 23. This last Maxim is undoubtedly true and the former Precept most exactly to be observed in such Causes as the Apostle there speaks of that is where the positive Practise unless our Warrant be Authentick in it self and evident to us is very dangerous or deadly whereas on the contrary the forbearance of such Practise is either safe or not prejudicial to our Souls but to our Bodies only or State temporal such Ceremonies as be neither against Faith nor adverse to good manners in the Judgment of St. Austin ep 11.8 go for indifferent and may be Born in Christian Unity without Offence or Confusion If God hath left things indifferent what Authority can make them necessary Let them be so still and their nature not changed by any Injunction and Unity will necessarily ensue Quodam modo it may be true that in Ordination there is something which they receive thereby from God Independent of the King or any Civil Power viz. Authority to Tâ—â—ch Baptize and Administer Sacraments by Virtue of Ordination And â—â— is as true that
and Orders for the better reglement of the whole as they did whilst the Churches were in small particular Congregations or Cities in a Jewish or Gentile State And yet all Laws are presumed to be made by universal and common consent in which regard the Churches have been enforced to have as well Churches as Bodies Politick Representative and in as much when partly by the Supineness and inadvertency of the Brethren without foresight of any Peril or Incroachment upon their Rights and Powers by the Clergy and partly by the dexterity and usurpation of the then degenerating Clergy designing to advance themselves by ingrossing all Powers and Revenues to themselves not by any right derived to them by any Gospel precept the practise and custome injuriously enough to the Laity and consequently to the Church of God in the truest sence began soon to admit none but Clergy and Church men only as Members of the Body ecclesiastick or Church representative The name of the Church hath by such their wiles been in a manner appropriated and monopolized to the Clergy or Church-men only when in truth the Church in its truest and Scripture sence consisting of Laity and Clergy can have no representative of both which only makes the Church compleat except both have their peculiar Representatives in Councils Synods Convocations c. whether Provincial National or Oecumenical This Doctrine of which more hereafter though never so demonstrable and obvious to every understanding was so bitter a Pill that it could by no means be swallowed at Trent and therefore in the Consults and Discourses concerning the very title of that Council concerning which there were very great Debates and Disputes the Bishop of Feltre would not have it Christened Ecumenical and general least the Protestants should from thence argumentize that some of every Order of the universal Church ought to be present which because it consists of Clergy and Laity it cannot intirely and compleatly be represented if the Laity be excluded But on the contrary the Bishop of St. Mark did as erroneously as magisterially affirm that the Laicks were most improperly called the Church and that for that very reason it was very requisite to use the title that the Synod representeth the Church universal to make the Laity be understood that they are not the Church but ought to hearken unto and obey the Church which in Romish dialect is nought else but the Pope by which it is apparent that if packt Synods canonize us out of the Church to day they may canonize us out of our Christian names to morrow and out of our Christianity the next day But of this more hereafter when the Clergy and Laity shall be more fully discoursed Yet by the favour of the great Bishop of St. Mark nay by the favour of the Council of Trent it self in the beginning it was no so for in the Council of the Apostles and a more early and more Authentick could not be and which ought to be a Rule and Pattern the decree was not made by the Apostles alone but the Epistle was entituled with the names of the 3 degrees assisting in that Congregation viz. Apostles Elders and Brothers and Peter esteemed and stiled by the Romanists Princeps Apostolorum by the Popes good leave was included in the first without Prerogative though not always Sans reprimand by which it is apparent that the assembling of a whole Church to handle the Name of God the Disputes about Doctrine and Discipline is a thing most profitable used by the Holy Apostles in the choice of Matthias and the 7 Deacons with which the Diocesan Councils have great resemblance But of the meeting of Christians from many remote places to consult together the forementioned place 15. Act. is a famous example when Paul and Barnab as with others of Syria met with the Apostles and other Disciples in Jerusalem who were assembled about the question of keeping the Law By all which it is manifest that in the beginning of Christianity the Churches were Democratically Governed by a kind of Common Council as St. Jerome and others do confess but as the Ecclesiasticks by insensible gradations got Reputation and Power so they endeavoured a Monarchical Regiment which in tract of time they instituted and got to be established giving all the Superintendency to the Bishops whom all Orders of the Church did obey The neighbouring Bishops whose Churches were under one jurisdiction had likewise their commerce and communion and did govern themselves also as it were in common by Synods attributing much to the Bishop of the most Principal City ordaining him as it were the Head or Governour of that Body and in process of time by a more ample communion which all the Provinces of one Jurisdiction or larger Government held together the Bishop of the City where the Prince did reside gained a kind of Superiority or rather Priority by custom not by any right The more chief Jurisdictions were the imperial City of Rome with its neighbouring Cities Alexandria which governed Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis Antioch for Syria and other Provinces of the East There were other lesser Jurisdictions wherein the same was observed This Government being at first meerly prudential introduced and approved only by Custom was afterwards established by the first Council of Nice Can. 6. under Constantine and ordained by a Canon that it should continue yet withal it did ordain that those many Honorable preheminences which the Bishop of Hierusalem had should be continued unto him Cant. 7. yet so that nothing should be taken from the dignity of the Metropolitan then Bishop of Caesaria This Government which hath been ever held in all the Churches of the East was altered in the Latine not without great endeavours to make all other Churches stoop to the Lure and submit to the Will and Pleasure of the Bishop of Rome After that it pleased God to give peace to the Christians and that the Roman Emperors received the Holy Faith there then happening more difficulties in Doctrine and Discipline which did disturb the publick Peace and quiet another sort of Episcopal Assemblies had beginning congregated by Princes or their Lieutenants to remedy their troubles these Assemblies were guided and governed by those Princes and Magistrates yet so that the decision of the principal matters for which the Council was congregated was left to the common opinion of the Assembly After the Eastern and Western Empires were divided there remained still in the West some Marks of the Antient Councils and many were celebrated in France and Germany under the Posterity of Charles the Great and not a few in Spain under the Kings of the Gothes At last Princes being absolutely debarred to intermeddle in Ecclesiastical matters that kind of Council grew in disuse and that alone remained which was called by the Ecclesiasticks themselves the Convocation of which Provincial Councils was almost wholly ingrossed and usurped by the Pope by intruding and sending his Legats to be Presidents
not the most antient § With all wise and sober-minded persons Custome and Usage obtaineth that reverence and esteem as to yield a just ground for deliberation before it be altered or abrogated though not of absolute direction and adherency All Constitutions and ordinances concern the Church or State be they never so pure in their first institution may corrupt and degenerate and why the Civil State should be purged and reformed by new Laws devising remedies as fast as times breed and discover inconveniences and mischiefs And the Ecclesiastical State of this or that Kingdom should still continue on its lees or dreggs without refining or purifying by new Canons and Constitutions is beyond the comprehension of all sober minds and reason H. Grotius makes this observation on the 2 Kings 18.14 He removed the High places and brake the Images cut down the Groves and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made Nota quem secerat Moses Egregium Regibus documentum ut quamvis bene instituta sed non necessaria ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 male usurpanturè conspectu tollant ne parant offendiculum caecis This H. Grotius notes as an excellent document for Kings that things never so well never so lawfully instituted as the Brazen Serpent was by Moses himself if not necessary and grow to be abused ought to be taken away as King Hezekiah did the Serpent least they prove a Snare and an offence unto the weaker Brethren Moreover if an absolute necessity be laid upon all men to subscribe and conform to the present established Religion and Worship by the very self same reason the next year he may be obliged to subscribe and conform to the contrary and so unto all Religions in the world successively § As a perverse and a morose retaining of Customes and Usages may be as prejudicial to right Reformation as Innovations so to remove Abuses nay Customs or Rights that may be spared without prejudice unto true Worship and the Doctrine of Faith doth not impeach good Orders nor lawful Authority but ratify and establish them Gods Church is compared to a Vineyard and a good Husband who is ever pruning therein not unseasonably not unskilfully but lightly and prudently he findeth ever somewhat to do If men were peaceably minded methinks it were not hard to agree in this That every Church be it of England France Sweden c. do that which is convenient for the State of it self and of the Common-wealth The antient and true bounds of Unity being one Faith one Baptism and not one Ceremony one Policy suppose another were a better form yet not always that which is best but of good things that which is best and may be had with least prejudice is to be embraced Our Church is not now to plant it is settled and established In Civil States suppose a Republick in the opinion of some to be a better policy than a Kingdom yet God forbid that lawful Kingdoms should be obliged to innovate and make alterations as often as men given to change desire or plead for it Gods Providence is to be consulted as well as his Word There are Schismatical Customs as well as Schismatical Doctrines and Opinions So as the Civil Magistrate take care that the general Rules be observed viz. That Christs Flock be duly fed that there be authentick Ordination a Succession in Bishops and Ministers that there be a due and reverend use of the Keys a due Administration of the Sacraments that those that preach the Gospel do live by the Gospel that all things tend to Edification and that all things be done in order and with decency the rest may be left to the discretion and prudence of inferiour Labourers and we ought to acquiesce The President of that City is very severe which permitteth none to propound new Laws that had not a cord about their Necks ready for vengeance if it were found unprofitable but by their leaves all Innovations are not to be rejected for divine Plato teacheth us in all Common-wealths on just grounds there ought to be some changes and that States-men therein ought to imitate skilful Musicians Qui artem Musices non mutant sed Musices modum And it is not unworthy our observation that even evil forms of Policy have been sometimes well ordered and rectified by good Governours and Commanders and so the State of Boetia flourished once under Epaminondas and Pelopidas and yet it owed this Prosperity not to the Government of the City for that was ill constituted but to the Governours for they were wise and virtuous The contrary also happened to Lacedemon for that fared ill sometimes and suffered much distempers because though its fundamental Laws were good yet its Kings and Ephori were many times tyrannous and unjust § More particularly the Congregational Government though ab initio it were in use and may be again if the National Church thought it convenient And I do not know but that it will suit now with any Government as well as when Christ did institute it but the truth is it hath been quite of date and doors as they would now set it up ever since whole Cities Commonwealths and Kingdoms became Christian and have been mutually incorporated and interwoven one with the other however the Doctrine and Tenet thereof is as sound and as practicable now as ever The Arguments which the Independents bring to prove the consistency of their Congregational way with our Kingly and Civil Government are only prudential and probable which I shall not go about to contradict or examin but exmantissa grant not only their Consistency with our Government but that also the Civil Magistrates may so govern if they please they submitting to Indubitable Ordination as I take Episcopal to be for it is not sit that any Ordinance so very essential to the very making and perpetuating of a Gospel Ministry should be left upon a Moot point as it would be if either Presbyterian or Independent Ordination should take place But then I hope the Congregational men will be as ingenuous and confess that the Ecclesiastical Discipline and Government already established is as consistent with our Civil Laws and Government and that the legislative power may continue the same Government or alter it to any other form so it be of force to suppress Vice and to maintain true Faith and Religion even to that Gallintaufrey Platform establishing Presbytery which is but a minced or cantonized Papacy in point of Rule and Domination by order and ordinance of that demy-parliament 29. August 1648. which hath no good foundation in Scripture no ground in Reason no Authority beyond Jo. Calvin to make it good But Christian Common-wealths and Civil Magistrates may establish what Government so qualified they please the thing I contend for It s true that the Priests of divers perswasions will highly caress Majesty in words But if the Civil Magistrate offer to impose but a Cap a Surplice a cross in
latter years Cardinal Bellarmine set forth a Book wherein he is so bold as to labour to make Princes subject to the Pope in Causes Temporal and most impudently dares to treat them all as Hereticks which say that the Prince in Temporal Affairs hath no Superior but God only thereby preferring the Ambitious ends of the Court of Rome before the Publick ends of Gods Holy Truth and of his Vice-gerents He pretends therein to write against Barclay but his main drift and design is to advance the Popes Power to the Zenith and top of omnipotency it self In this Book he treats of nothing but of the Popes Power over Princes wherein it is more than five and twenty times inculcated viz. That when the Pope judgeth a Prince for faults or unfitness unworthy to Govern or that he knows that it is profitable for the Church he may deprive him of his Government And he sundry times affirms therein That when the Pope commands that Obedience be not given to a Prince that is deprived by him that then he is no more a Prince but a private Person Nay he is so bold as to affirm That the Pope if he shall deem it expedient may dispose of all the goods of any Christian whatsoever and all must go for nothing if he only say it is his opinion Nay farther averrs That it is an Article of the Catholick Faith viz. that he is a Heretick that doth not believe the same and all this with strange impudence scarce to be parallel'd This Book was written by Bellarmine presently after the Murther of Henry the Great of France before whose death such Doctrines were but whispered and covertly broached but soon after his death they vomited them out most impudently leading Princes then as it were in Triumph as that they might be Excommunicated by the Pope deprived of their Kingdoms for unskilful Governing weakness of strength or any other cause or ineptitude that His Holiness shall deem just This Book was so offensive to some of the Roman Catholicks themselves not only because of those false Doctrines so broached but because he asserted those Doctrines to be the Doctrines and Faith of the Catholick Church and pronounceth all those that did think otherwise to be temerarious and scandalous Hereticks Parasites of Princes Ethnicks and Publicans Notwithstanding all these bold Averments the wise State of Venice fore-seeing the evil consequences of such Doctrines might follow to the disturbance of the Peace of a Nation they presently forbid the coming in of that Book into their Dominions lest their Subjects thereby should be seduced into the same errors Whoever shall wisely consider that Murder perpetrated by Ravillac 1610. throw the Instigation of the Jesuits and the Decree of the Sorbon clearing themselves and laying all the guilt thereof and of all Assassinating Doctrines and Principles on the Jesuits and shall also consider Anti-cotton's Refutation of Father Cotton a Jesuit and Confessor to the said Henry the Fourth who had highly oblidged him and the Society by giving them his House at La Flesche for a Colledge with 1000 Crowns yearly Pension for Twenty years and had otherwise marvellously obliged them by many favors thereby hoping to secure his Life but all in vain his Declaratory Letter to the Queen and shall also consider the Discourse to the Lords of Parliament at Paris touching the said Murther all manifestly proving the Jesuits to be the Plotters and Actors in that horrible Murther all printed soon after that detestable stroak viz. 1610. and shall also consider that the said Book of Bellarmine was the very same year Printed at Rome under the Popes Nose with an Imprimatur by Fr. Ludovicus Ystelli Magistri Sacri Palatii Apostolici And shall also consider the Popes silence and calmness in all these great concerns may well conclude that if the Pope were not Particeps Criminis yet he seemed to be accessory by his silence and to be content and very well pleased and that there was a right understanding between him and the Jesuits About this time also viz. 1610. as if Hell-hounds had been breaking loose the Jesuits were so insolent fierce and zealous to make His Holiness Almighty on Earth that there being in Rome a very great number above 150 Catchpoles Serjeants or Bayliffs whom they perceiving to be men of dissolute lives of profligated honesty and living very little like Christians the fitter for their turns they designed to erect in their Church a Society of them only pretending to teach them Christian Doctrine and to exercise them in frequent Confessions which the Governor and Court of Rome understanding and suspecting so strict a Practice of the Jesuits with such their Ministers they complained with the Pontiff Wherefore the Bishop of who had advanced them 30000 Crowns in order thereunto being near to death and died soon after then the Apostolick Chamber not approving the Donation took the Money as a Booty and applied it as they thought fit § That Reverence which is due and deservedly given to Religion hath been the cause that many abuses which came under the Vmbrage of that Sacred Canopy have had such easie admittance whereby the evil designs that have lain couchant under that pretence and the true ends of the designers have not appeared until time hath made a discovery when â—â— hath been too late to remedy them without great disturbances The Covetous desire of inlarging Phylacteries Wealth and Authority doth so naturally blind men even Ecclesiasticks that without any respect to plainness and sincerity of Gods own Holy Writ they betake themselves to Cavils only pittiful Blasphemous Cavils Averring that if God doth punish and hath punished Sinners the Pope and Inquisitors his delegates may and ought also to punish them Certainly to say no worse to draw Arguments from the Divine Omnipotency to Humane Authority agrees in no proportion with the Reverence due to the Divine Majesty Nothing more frequent and ordinary than for Judges whose Jurisdictions and Powers are limited by Paramount Authority to seek the enlargement thereof tho by the disabling of the General Jurisdiction as well Civil as Ecclesiastick And this proceedeth as well from the natural Inclination which all men have to command in chief as also from the profit and Grandeur which necessarily attends Soveraignty But if such Ecclesiasticks or others do seek enlargement of their Power beyond their Commission and natural duty the Supream Civil Magistrate is most to blame if he suffer it tho sometimes with good intent and success for that it can never be with Wisdom Therefore if Ecclesiastical persons shall fail in their duties the power will return to that Body who gave it without depriving it self of it Wherefore it is no wonder if the secular person ought to be an Overseer of him that exerciseth a charge which he himself hath given him The old and true Legitimate Romanists for the first 300 years and more whose Faith and Doctrine the Protestants at this day both own and defend
Lord and the Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost v. 19. and non obstante to avoid Fornication Marriage was Ordained 1 Cor. 7.2 can they be so ignorant trow you as not to know that our Bodies are the Members of Christ or can they be so peerlesly wicked as to justifie the making of the Members of Christ to be the Members of an Harlot Know they not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body 1 Cor. 6.15 16. and yet such are they and such are their Abominations All this and much more non obstante Fornication is enrolled in that black and dismal Catalogue Gal. 5.19 with those horrid sins of Murder Idolatry witch-craft c. which all Nations abhor and make Laws against and tho branded with the dismal irreversible decree that such shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 6.9 and non obstante we are commanded to mortifie the very lusts thereof Colos 3.5 and non obstante the variety of Judgments for the guilt thereof shews its hainousness viz. wast of goods Job 31.12 blemish of name Prov. 6.33 rottenness of bones Hos 4.11 hardness of heart and plagues of all sorts threatned to deter us And non obstante executions of such Judgments have been grievous on Sodom the old World Israelites of whom there fell in one day 23000. 1 Cor. 10.8 and Sodom and Gomorrha are set for an example suffering the vengeance of Eternal Fire for giving themselves over to Fornication Jude 7. nay fire and Brimstone hath not to this very day so cleansed Sodom and Gomorrha of it but that the venom thereof still appears there in a poysonous and stinking Lake A sin which the Lord hath severely threatned grievously punished from Heaven cursed to the Pit of Hell and yet generally reckoned by our Holy Fathers at Rome amongst Leviora delicta venial sins tho it brought in the Flood upon the World of the ungodly Gen. 6. Fire and Brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrha Pestilence on Israel Besides this mischief naturally attends this sin more especially above others viz. those sins are most dangerous that are most delightsome in which this sin hath a more principal and natural share above others because the affections are most ravished and held captive by it above others which made Solomon who was first luxurious then slackned devotion then tollerated the Idolatries of his strange Wives say of Harlots their Hearts are Snares and their hands are bands Eccl. 7.26 so easily are men ensnared so hardly rescued being once bewitched and Captivated by Harlotish and Adulterous embraces This is not all they are not content to allow of Fornication but also with the Apostolici old Hereticks of Pisidia 255 years and those other Haeretici Origiani 274 years after Christ to condemn and prohibit Marriage whilst they with them committed all uncleanness and silthiness and Pelagius Anno 578. Bishop of Rome Decreed that Sub-deacons should leave their Wives or their Offices the like was practiced here in Queen Maries dayes Bonner's Orders are yet extant whereby the Clergy were appointed to bring their Wives within a Fortnight that they might likewise be divorced from them as they were deprived of their Livings and Benefices and this done non obstante St. Paul hath declared Marriage Honorable in All and the Bed undefiled but Whore-mongers and Adulterers God will Judge departing from Faith and giving heed to seducing Spirits speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie having their consciences scared with a hot Iron The whole Bulk and Body of Romish Religion being but a Dunghill of Lyes the greatest and most Catholick Heresie in the World an intire Apostacy from Gospel truths not worthy the name of Religion nor to be mentioned with that civility as is decent to be used in Disputes about Religion Bethel being now become Bethauen once a Faithful City now become the Mother of Fornications and of all abominations of the Earth having forsaken her first love commanding to abstain from meats as the Pope doth which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth All which Doctrines are stigmatized by Paul himself for Doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. and therefore I hope I shall not be thought falsly to Calumniate them whilst I only with St. Paul paint them and their Off-spring their Lineage and Parentage To these give farther Testimony their prohibiting their Laity to read the Bible in their own Tongue acknowledged by all to be from Heaven and the only record by which poor mortal Wights can lay any claim to their Inheritance in Heaven and yet at the same time sequestring in into the hands and management of Priests Participes Criminis the better to keep the Laity ignorant of their Impostures and cheats which as St. Paul said to Timothy who had known them from a Child are able to make wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 And Paul hath written the whole 14. Chap. 1 Cor. designed to demonstrate the impossibility of Edification without understanding And yet so notoriously Impudent and Blasphemous have some of Rome's Janizaries been as scurrillously and disdainfully to call the Scriptures a Dumb a Pighius 3. de Hier. Eccl. Judge a Black b Eccius Gospel Inken Dignity and that the People wâ—re permitted to read the Bible was the Invention of the c Peres de tradit par assert 3. Devil That if they were not supported by the Authority of the Church they were of no more value than Aesop 's d V. Chemnit ex 5. can p. 47. Fables And therefore they have placed the Bible in the Front of Prohibited Books and thereby in as much as in them lieth taken away the Key of knowledge from the Laiety What is this less or other than Blasphemously to make God I tremble to mention it that D. For if to permit the People to read the Bible be the invention of the Devil what must then be the Conclusion For all the World knows 2 Tim. 3.16 John 5.39 Acts 17.11 that all Scripture was given by the Inspiration of God and that Christ himself commanded all to search the Scriptures and the Bereans were esteemed more noble than those of Thessalonica because they dayly searched the Scriptures And that all the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament were written for the use of all the World tho more particularly directed to the Romans Corinthians c. and recommended to all to read Then what the undeniable Conclusion from such premisses must be I tremble to name Of the same Father the Devil is their prohibiting the Cup to the Laity tho Christ Instituted and commanded all to eat the Bread and drink the Cup Matth. 26.26 Mark 14.23 Nay they themselves confessing in the very Body of the Canon it self at Trent 21. Sess c. 1.2 that altho at the beginning of Christian Religion the Communion of both kinds was very much used yet the Holy Mother or rather Step-dame hath decreed that it
by avowing that the spirit of the Prophets must be subject only to the Prophets What Rule have these Presbyters to judg by what Logick what way of Ratiocination that the Laity have not and know not and understand not as well as they what Infallibility above Kings and other the Laity have these men I must confess I never found them writing in terminis for this Infallibility But if we may guess at their meaning by their mumping their Actions and their Arguments are premisses which to some may seem to yield such conclusions that they would fain have their Doctrines though treasonable to be embraced as Oracles Are not these Doctrines purely Romish surely yes St. Paul was certainly more infallible than they and yet he submitted his Preachments to his Auditory in general not exclusive the Laity Judg ye what I say Nay the Layity as well as Priests are commanded to search the Scriptures and try Spirits and shall not the King and his Sages Judg of Doctrines because delivered in a Pulpit which may concern the bene esse nay perhaps the very esse quiet state and weal of a Kingdom If I were put to it I should not doubt but to make it out that there is as good warrant in Scripture for the infallibility of Kings as there is for either Pope or Presbyter though I must profess there is no sound ground no nor yet probable appearance for either If the Presbiter will have his Doctrines received without controulment and contradiction he must shew better warrant than the Pope because he pretends to judg what I think the Pope doth not even Affections Spotsw Hist Mr. Andrew Melvil in his form of Church Policy presented by him to the Parliament sitting in Striveling Anno 1578. hath this head The Magistrate commands in external things only and actions done before Men But the Spiritual Ruler such as Mr. Melvil and his fellow Presbyters are judgeth both the Assections and the external Actions in respect of conscience by the word of God In which form there are other dangerous heads sutable to what Mr. Blake and the Presbyteries so sharply contended for in his cause and what tumults c. ensued thereupon in the Contest for that desperate form Histories do abundantly shew but I forbear But seeing they make so desperate ill use of 1 Cor. 14.32 by perverting very plain texts I am resolved though no Presbyter to try if I can hit the true and natural sense and meaning thereof seeing they have not and perhaps will not it not being for their interest and prerogatives § It s true the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14.32 but what doth this avail Pope or Presbyters surely they will not say that the Prophets of the New Testament since the Apostles days are so authentick and infallible as those of the Old Besides what if the terms Prophet and Prophesying are in some senses and places and happily in this as applicable to the Laity as to the Clergy nay what if in this very Text by Prophets is meant in general all Believers those within the Pale of the Church excluding those only without as unfit to judg such matters Mark the Contest First Prophesying in general serveth not for them that believe not but for them which believe v. 22. Secondly If therefore the whole Church not Priests only come together in one place and all speak c. v. 23. and All prophesy v. 24. And every one of you hath a Psalm hath a Doctrine c. 26. If any man speak v. 27. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judg v. 29. If any thing be revealed to Another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace v. 30. For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted v. 31. And the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets v. 32. Let the Women keep silence c. v. 31. wherefore Brethren covet to prophesy v. 39. Now if the words or terms of Whole Church All Every one Any man The other Another Brethren be words and terms of universality and differencing then certainly the words Prophets and Prophesying are in this Chapter more especially applicable to the Auditory the Brethren than to the Presbyters themselves and is an admonition and warrant to the faithful to assemble and speak to edification besides the commanding of the Women silence is a pregnant presumption if not an affirmation That all the Brethren might speak so likewise is the command to the Brethren to covet to prophesy But be it as they would have it that by Prophets are meant Presbyters only which is impossible in true construction but the contrary yet those Presbyters by the command of the same Apostle v. 29. are to be judged by the other that are not Presbyters which is a better warrant to the King and his Council and Judges to judg them than they can shew to Judg King and Council and to usurp Judgment to themselves only Besides the very command in the very first verse is to all to follow Charity to desire Spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesy and by prophesying by the scope of this Chapter is clearly meant speaking to edification and exhortation and comfort that our words might minister Grace to the Hearers which certainly is the duty of every man and which if Mr. Blake had observed he had never been called in question Now tell me how much less doth the Presbyter claim than the Pope who pretends that every Clergy or Church-man both they and their Family nay the very Concubines of Priests are exempt from all Jurisdiction Temporal and that jure divino and that from the same Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 2.15 He that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man The same Scripture is as strong for the Presbyter as the Pope and it is to be feared that if he were as fast in the Saddle as the Pope is that he would claim it as peremptorily and therefore sit to be prevented by the wisdom of Princes But were the Allegations true and pertinent either there should be no Spiritual man besides the Pope or Presbyter and so the subject of the Proposition should be homo singularis one man only or if there be more Spiritual men they should all of them be Popes or Presbyters to judg all others and be judged of none no not of the Pope of Rome himself unless he be no body For those are convertible he that saith all excepteth none and he that saith none excepteth all Touching the Prophesy we hold saith J. Robinson f. 45 46. the very same that the Synod held at Embden 1571. hath declared Harm Synod Belg. p. 21 22. viz. 1o. In all Churches whether but springing up or grown to some ripeness let the order of Prophesy be observed according to Pauls institution 2.o. Into the Fellowship of this work are to be admitted not
only the Ministers but the Teachers too as also the Elders and Deacons yea even of the Multitude which are willing to conser their gifts received of God 2 Cor. 4.13 to the common utility of the Church Luke 2.46 47. and c. 4.15 16. c. fol. 47.48 § During the Contest between Adrian the Sixth and the German Princes in Anno 1523. in the case of Luther they thinking it reasonable did signify unto his Holiness from the Dyet at Noremberg that married Priests and Religious persons who returned to the world in case they did commit any wickedness that the Prince or Magistrate in whose Territory they shall offend ought to give them their due chastisement which did not please the Pope and therefore he did reply That it would be against the Liberty of the Church and the Sickle would be put into another mans Field and those men would be censured by the World who were reserved unto Christ For Princes should not presume to believe that they were devolved to their Jurisdiction by their Apostacy nor that they could be punished by them and for their other Offences in regard the Character remaining in them and the Order they are ever under the power of the Church neither can Princes do more than delate them to their Bishops and Superiors that they may chastize them Conc. Trid. 27.28 Thus let Pope and Presbyter go hand in hand as to Spiritual Empire and Dominion Though it be besides my purpose to examine particulars yet in the general I cannot but wonder that so many learned and conscientious persons men of great abilities and good lives should countenance and defend that Church Discipline and Government as it is composed and compounded by Calvin the first Brocher and Hammerer thereof as taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God when no Father ever witnessed no Council ever favoured no Church ever found out or practised it since the days of the Apostles and when the general and successive consent of all succeeding Ages is resolute against it as never expounding Pauls words in favour of it till about this last Century and this in opposition unto and derogation of Episcopal Regiment which on the contrary hath been observed every where for many Ages and Generations throughout the Christian world nemine contradicente except the old Heretick Aerius No Church till Calvins time ever alledging or perceiving the Word of God to be against it for if but any one Church upon the face of the whole earth that hath been governed by Calvins or the Scotch Presbytery or any one Church that hath not been ordered by Episcopal Regiment since the death of the Apostles could possibly have been found out no doubt but that we should long since have heard of it with our ears and seen it with our eyes in their Writings for that the Favourers and Abettors thereof have wanted neither abilities industry nor stomack neither to make it known Besides to me it seems strangely improbable I might say impossible that the Church of Christ should never know what belonged to the Government of her self till of late and that the Son of God should be spoiled of half his Kingdom by his own Servants Citizens nay Martyrs for 1500 years together without remorse or remembrance of any one man that so great injury was offered him and without one Champion to throw out his Gauntlet in the demand and challenge of his right Moreover how is it possible that all the Churches in the world should with one consent immediately on the Apostles deaths reject that form of governing the Church according to the Geneva cut which they would fain perswade you to believe was setled and approved by the Apostles and embrace a new and strange kind of Government Episcopal without Precept or Precedent for their so doing for my part I think it much more safe prudent and reasonable to esteem this a new device of Calvins a Chintera of his own brain set up to serve his own ends and to introduce his own Domination than to proclaim so many Apostolick men and antient learned Fathers to be manifest despisers of Episcopal Discipline and voluntary Supporters if not Inventers of Antichrists Pride and Tyranny § I find four Priviledges extraordinary given by Christ to the Apostolic Function requisite for the first founding of the Church What Privileges peculiar to the Apostles which died with them 1. Their Vocation immediate from Christ not from Men nor by Men Gal. 2.12 and their immediate instruction in the mystery of Christ by Christ himself 2. Their Commission extending over all the Earth without limitation to any place 3. Their direction infallible the Holy Ghost guiding them whether they wrote or spake This Office by consent of all Divines begun and ended in their persons to whom at first it was committed And except that Man of sin that hath entred by intrusion and violence into the Prerogatives royal of Christ no man would dare to arrogate the Privileges of this Calling He indeed challengeth as in the right of Peter universal power over the whole Church on earth He assumeth and appropriateth to himself glory of Miracles but all lying in form or end and if we were so mad as to believe infallible assistance of the Spirit in all things that he shall sententiously deliver to the Church out of his Chair of Pestilence Sapientum octavus Apostolorum 41. 4. Their power wonderful as well to convert and confirm Believers as to chastize and revenge Disobeyers whereby they did not only speak with tongues cure diseases work miracles know secrets understand all wisdom but gave the Holy Ghost to others that they might do the like and that they might store the whol world out of hand with meet Pastors and Teachers All which were given to their individual persons and were thought requisite by that wisdom which is above for the first spreading of the Faith and planting of Churches amongst Jews and Gentiles that all Nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight of their Miracles and directed by the truth of their Doctrine § But although all these died with their persons But and what delegated to their Successors to remain for ever yet are there other three and some make four points of Apostolic delegation which have and must have their permanency and perpetuity in the Church of Christ the better to maintain and propagate the Church once setled and Faith once preached As 1. Dispensing the Word 2. Administring the Sacraments 3. Imposing of hands 4. Guiding the Keys to shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven These especially the three first parts of the Apostolic Function are not decayed and cannot be wanted in the Church of God and are now seated in our Bishops and Presbyters by Apostolic successive delegation The first Two by reason they are the ordinary means and instruments by which the Spirit of God worketh each mans salvation must be general to all Pastors and Presbyters the
so but that they may all serve to one and the self-same general if not particular End and Effect and in our Case to the edification of the Church The Apostles indeed could not write with their Tongues but they did preach as well with their Pens when they writ as with their Tongues when they spake the Gospel of Christ and our usual publick reading of the Word of God with the rest of the Liturgy for the Peoples instruction by his good leave is Preaching Acts 15.21 22. Can any Man imagine or shew a Reason that reading it self is not one of the ordinary Means and Gifts which God hath appointed for the conveying of his Truths into the Hearts of Men which being received may be effectual for the saving of their Souls Belief in all Sorts doth come by hearing and attending to the Word of Life whether it be preached or read The Word it self whether read or heard some time convinceth the Judgment and perswadeth the Affections Sometime Truth is wrought in the Heart by private conference and instruction from private Persons so Apollos though an Eloquent Man and mighty in the Scriptures yet was taught the Way of God more perfectly by Aquila and Priscilla a Woman Acts 18.26 Some Truth is taught by those whom the Church hath publickly called to the publick reading or interpreting of the Word All these tend unto one and the same Glorious End viz. to the Knowledge of Jesus and him Crucified And as Preaching which is explaining by lively Voice and applied according to the Wisdom of the Speaker doth not in its own Nature justle out or prejudice the Efficacy of any other means or way of publick Instruction be it by Liturgy or otherwise or inforce the utter disability of any other means thought requisite in this Church for the saving of Souls So Liturgies in their own Nature are not exclusive of any other provision of Means that Christ hath ordained for the benefit and service of his Church as this Discourser avers For the saving Force of the Word is not restrained to any one certain kind of delivery but how ever the same shall come to be made known it hath its Force and Energy and doth ordinarily save by every Mean whether publick or private reading Liturgies or hearing Sermons or private Conference and Instruction whether they be premeditated or extemporary O! but though Liturgies are not in their own Natures exclusive of the use of other Talents yet the English Liturgy there is the grand Pique doth avowedly and expresly say That the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift in the Administration of those Ordinances for which provision is made in the Book f. 67 68. And consequently the necessary and undispensable Use of Liturgies is directly exclusive of the Use of the Means provided by Christ and for the End for which the Liturgy is invented and imposed 63 67 68. And farther he saith That the Liberty which some say is granted for a Man to use his own Gifts and Abilities in Prayer before and after Sermon will he fears as things now stand upon due Considerations appear rather to be taken than given and is very questionable 42 43. And that however it concerns not our present Question because it is taken for granted by those that plead for the strict observation of a Book that the whole Gospel-worship of God in the Assembly of Christians may be carried on and performed without any such Preaching as is prefaced with that Liberty pretended 42 43. and for that many that are looked upon as skilled in that Law and Mystery of it do by their practise give another Interpretation of the intendment of its Imposition making it extend to all that is done in publick Worship the bare preaching or reading of a Sermon or Homily excepted 64. nor saith he is that the matter enquired into whether Ministers may at any time or in any part of Gods Worship make use of their Gifs but whether they may do it in all those Administrations for whose performance to the edification of his Body they are bestowed on them by Jesus Christ which by the Rule of the Liturgy we have shewed that they may not and he doubts not but it will be granted by those who contend for the Imposition of the Liturgy that it extends to the Principal Parts if not to the Whole of the publick Worship of God in the Church 64. § If all were true that is here alledged the day might probably be his own but me thinks in thus arguing our Author is not so candid as his other very Learned and Ingenious Writings speak him to be when he deals with others in Points of difference of a far more dangerous concern and consequence For though he cannot but most assuredly and demonstratively know that here all Ministers of the Gospel have not only a liberty but are expresly commanded to use and improve their Talents even in publick as often as they are called either to implore Blessings or deprecate Sins and Judgments to render Thanks or to discourse and enlarge themselves on all or any part of the Worship of God or Christian Doctrine and that it is the daily practise of them so to do throughout all the Kings Dominions yet for him to say that it is a Liberty rather taken than given and is very questionable and that upon what this Man says and that Man thinks or practises is not to be ingenious according to his old wont but to avoid all Sophistry and to come to the demonstration of the Truth this is meer matter of Fact and we cannot erre in it the demonstration of which will and must clear this Point and we must stand and fall thereby and therefore sit liber Judex together with the constant practise of the Church from the very Birth and first Introduction of our Liturgy unto this very day for we must take both together for that the constant and uninterrupted Practise Use and Custom is of that very great Force and Vertue as sometimes to wear out and obliterate the very Force and Vertue of an Enacted Law to the contrary The Matter of Fact alledged on his part is That the Liturgy says expresly that the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use nor exercise any Spiritual Gift c. but how or where to find this in the Liturgy I know not for I have turned it over once and again and cannot find the least footsteps of any such Prohibition yet I will not affirm that it is not there It 's possible I may have over-look'd it but grant it be in terminis as he hath worded it yet if from the first Institution of Liturgies the Use and Practise hath been contrary as most certainly it hath been and no Man ever questioned for using his Talents nay all commanded by Injunctions and Acts of Parliament to improve them and strict Inquiry made accordingly at the Bishops Visitations according unto Articles of
Visitation then undoubtedly no such Prohibition was ever intended by the Imposition of our Liturgy what ever the words may import Indeed in the late Act of Uniformity it is Enacted That no Form or Orders of Common-Prayers Administration of Sacrament Rites and Ceremonies shall be openly used in any Church or Chappel c. other than what is prescribed and appointed to be used in and by the said Book What doth this hinder but that every Priest may use his own Talents in praying before and after Sermon and in his Sermons to illustrate or declare any thing that best pleaseth him concerning any Doctrine Ordinance or Administration This may be a Prohibition of the Use of any other Form or Book Popish Turkish or other to be used in publick in the Nature of a Liturgy but can never be fairly interpreted to be a Prohibition of the Use of Ministers Talents which they may have occasion to exercise in their Oraisons Preachings Collations Catechisings or other Teachings in publick Nay were the words as he relates them yet the general and constant practises of the Church having been diametrically contrary to those very words and sense of them doth manifest to all the World that the Intendment of them was never to be exclusive of the exercise of the Ministers Gifts and Graces in the publick Worship of God as this Author suggests it to be Nay suppose there were such a Prohibition in the strictest sense and that it were to be strictly observed which were as much as in them lieth to null the very Ordinance of God and to stifle his Spirit which blows where it listeth yet that makes nothing against Liturgies in General that may be composed and enjoyned without any such Sting or Venom in the Tail of them Surely our Author cannot intend that whilst he is reading of the Liturgy or administring according unto it either of the Sacraments or any of the Ordinances that he cannot use his own Talents eodem momento if he should thus vainly argue I must then refer him unto the Commands and Power of the Civil Magistrate and unto the 1 Cor. 14.26 27. where all things are commanded to be done for Order and Decency and in course one speaking after another and one Gift used after another for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints v. 33. I did at first resolve to wave the Justifying of the Particulars of any one or other Liturgy but being unavoidably cast upon it I must go on a little farther though never so contrary to my resolution and design We have already considered Matter of Fact on the behalf of the Author let us see now Matter of Fact making against him in the very Body of our Common-Prayer-Book After the Nicene Creed c. it ordains That then shall follow the Sermon which is far from a Command That Ministers shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift c. the same Book also directs That the Curate of every Parish shall after the Second Lesson at Evening Prayer openly in the Church instruct and examine Children c. which is so far from prohibiting the Vse of the Ministers Gifts and Talents that it commands the exercise of them Then consult the Book of Ordering Priests and Deacons and then you will find that the Bishops give many pious Exhortations to those that are to be ordained declaring it to be their Duty and Office to instruct preach premonish teach seed and provide for the Lords Family and withal faithful diligence to use both publick and private Admonitions and Exhortations as well to the Sick as to the Whole c. and then ordaining them bids them to be faithful Dispensers of the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments Are not these Liberties nay Commands that they shall not Napkin-up their Talents but shall employ and put them out unto Feneration Spiritual and Heavenly Then consult all the Injunctions and Articles of Visitation from the days of Edw. 6. unto this our Age and you will find them all full of like Commands Exhortations Inquiries c. I shall only trouble you with some few things out of the very first Injunctions as the purest in the days of Edw. 6 15.47 where all Ecclesiastical Persons having care of Souls are enjoyned to the uttermost of their Wit Knowledge and Learning sincerely and purely to teach in their Sermons the Word of God and in the same exhort their Hearers to the Works of Faith Mercy and Charity specially prescribed and commanded in Scripture and that Works devised by Mens Phantasies besides Scripture as Pilgrimages c. are detested and abhorred by God they are therein also charged to exhort and counsel by all the ways and means they may as well in their Sermons and Collations as otherwise Fathers Mothers Masters to bestow their Children and Servants in Learning c. and that they provide that the Sacraments be duly and reverently ministred in their Parishes Nay they are in those Injunctions charged that if any do or shall know any Man within their Parish or elsewhere that is a Letter of the Word of God to be read in English or sincerely preached c. they shall discover them to the Council or the next Justice of Peace in order to their punishment s 3 4 5. The same Injunctions command That the Sabbath be spent in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publick Prayers c. Arch-bishop Cranmer in pursuance of these Injunctions by his Articles of Visitation the same year made Inquiry Whether the Ministers did preach purely and sincerely the Word of God in every of their Cures Ridley Bishop of London in the Year 1550. prefixed before his Articles of Visitation 2 Tim. 4.12 viz. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine And in the Body of them there are several Articles of Inquiry after the preaching of the Pastors one whereof is Whether any do preach any thing in derogation of the Book of Common-Prayer And not without good cause for that it was the Decree of a very Ancient Council that no Man should be admitted to speak against that whereunto he had formerly subscribed and it is against the Statute 1 Eliz. to speak against the Liturgy and Discipline established Confer 26 27. in the Year 1564. there were Articles framed purposely for Doctrine and Preaching Much after the same Tenor and purport have all our subsequent Injunctions Articles Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical in our several Princes Reigns been Nay in our very Acts of Parliament there is much concerning Preachers and Preaching And is it then possible that all this should be and yet the liberty which some say is granted for a Man to use their own Gifts and Abilities should