be Governours of it Christ speaketh it of such a Church to whom wee may ordinarily and orderly complain now this cannot be to the whole multitude This Church hee speaketh of hee doth presuppose it as the ordinary executioner of all Discipline and censure But the multitude have not this execution as all but Morelius and such Democratical spirits do affirm P. 81. The Church in the Old Testament noteth an assembly of Priests sitting together as Judges in the causes of God and Christ doth here onely presuppose the joynt authority and joynt execution of a representative Church a Presbytery of Elders who were Pastors and Governours P. 82. The Apostles in determining the Question Act. 15. had the joynt-suffrages of the Presbytery with them because it was a thing to be determined by many all who mark that had received power of the Keyes doing it ex officio and others from discretion and duty of confessing the truth P. 83. Ordinary power with the execution thereof was not given to the Community of the Church or to the whole multitude of the faithful so that they were the immediate and first receptacle receiving it from Christ and vertually deriving it to others P. 84. Ordinary power of Ministerial Government is committed with the execution of it to the Senate or Presbytery of the Church If any fail in any office mark that the Church hath not power of supplying that but a Ministery of calling one whom Christ hath described that from Christ hee may have power of office given him in the place vacant So much for Mr. P's correction One thing more I have to consider and so shall end this Section P. 46. Let it be seriously considered that the Bishop of Rome is not reckoned the Antichrist from what time hee got the peaceable possession of his Universal Bishoprick But from what time hee aspired to and carried it ambitiously and had it usually yeelded to him to sway Bishops and Churches at his pleasure Wee have considered it and finde no very good sense in it For when hee had it usually yeelded to him to sway Bishops and Churches at his pleasure hee had the peaceable possession of his universal Bishoprick And as to what you mean that hee did aspire to an Universal headship long before hee was possessed of it and that from that time of aspiring hee is reckoned Antichrist you bring no Scripture nor reason for it but onely quote a place of Mr. Cotton as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would do the deed Now what saies Mr. Cotton The head was in conception long before Phocas his grant True for 't was in conception in the Apostles daies and yet I suppose he would not say the Bishop of Rome was Antichrist then Is it likely the Holy Ghost should speak of him as of a formed apparent compleat head so visible that all the world should wonder after the Beast upon the hearing of it whilst hee was but yet in his conception And it is certain there was not any claim laid by the Bishops of Rome to the Vniversal headship any long time before it was possessed by them The first that laid claim to it was not the Bishop of Rome but John the fourth sirnamed the Faster Bishop of Constantinople about the year 580. six and twenty years before the matter was determined by Phocas for the Bishop of Rome in the year 606. The Bishop of Rome at the same time strongly opposing and disputing against the name and title of Universal Bishop as the name of the Beast and a new and prophane title contrary to the scope of the Gospel which none of his Predecessors did ever use Saying that whosoever calleth himself or desireth to bee called Greg. Magn. lib. 6. Ep. 30. lib. 4. Ep. 34 38. the Universal Priest or Bishop is the fore-runner of Antichrist and that in regard the said John did assume it it appeared that the time of Antichrist was now at hand And to that John hee saith What wilt thou answer to Christ in the tryal of the day of judgement seeing that by this name Universal thou seekest to inthral the members of his body to thy self What Mr. P. proceeds to say upon his supposition is not worth the considering and so I come to see how well hee answers the objections that hee considers as made against his separating device SECT VI. An examination of Mr. P's Answers to the Objections hee mentions as made against his doctrine of Separation and of his Reasons for Separation OBject 1 It will bee said this way of separation that you press P. 49 50 51 52 nulls all at least the most part of the reformed Churches in the world Answ This tends not to null or make void the faith of true beleevers that shall bee found in the aforesaid waies of church-Church-order I deny not their faith whereby by they are of the Mystical Church and accordingly destroy not their Mystical Churchdome but assert that though their faith hee Christian their order is Antichristian I deny them to bee such Churches as Christ hath instituted and to bee the Candlesticks that stand before the God of the earth Some have had power to set up Christs order in the face and to the teeth of the Beast though they were slain for it Such was the Congregation in Queen Maries time which Mr. Fox mentions and those hundred persons which Mr. Cotton mentions Congr Way cleared p. 4. that were in Queen Elizabeths days 1576. 'T is one thing for Churches to bee looked upon as Churches in point of salvation another thing for them to bee looked upon as Churches in respect of outward constitution in the former account wee cannot but give the right hand of fellowship to all that look to no other way of salvation but by the blood of the Lambe in the latter account wee can give the right hand of fellowship onely to those that are after the heavenly pattern Answ Hee needed not to say that his way nulls at least the most part of the reformed Churches for it clearly nulls them all The Churches of his way and principles being not to bee numbered among the Reformed Churches since they renounce them and account them Antichristian So that his way clearly nulls all the reformed Churches in the world at this day yea generally all the Churches that have disowned the Papal Church of Rome throughout the ages since the rise of it His Answer whereby hee would salve the matter is exceeding frivolous and childish Hee denies not the faith of true beleevers in reformed Churches nor their mystical Churchdome But what is that to the purpose whilst hee denies them to be Churches of Christ and to bee the candlesticks that stand before the God of the earth by which hee weakly understands Churches of which Sect. 4. doth hee not utterly null them as Churches Neither will that passage shield him wherein hee clearly contradicts himself that 't is one thing for Churches to bee
looked upon as Churches in point of salvation another to bee looked upon as Churches in respect of outward constitution c. For if they are not to bee looked upon as Churches in respect of outward constitution they are not to bee looked upon as Churches at all unless hee can make it appear that beleevers out of church-Church-order make up Churches and that there are many mystical Churches And if reformed Churches are to be looked upon as Churches in point of salvation they looking to no other way of salvation but by the bloud of the Lamb and he can give the right hand of fellowship to them on that account hee thereby asserts their Churchstate and separates practically from them therefore without sufficient ground For if they are Churches in point of salvation they have the essentials of church-Church-order and are not to bee separated from The Protestants would not have separated from the Church of Rome if they could have looked upon her especially after the Sanctions of the Trent Council as a Church in point of Salvation looking to no other way of salvation but by the blood of the Lamb. So that notwithstanding his distinctions Mr. P's doctrine doth absolutely null all the Reformed Churches and all Churches that have disowned Papal Rome from the rise of Antichrist to this last age And thereby denyeth that there hath been a true Ministery and a true Church-state during many hundreds of years since Christ in the world Directly contrary to Matth. 28.19 20. Eph. 4.11 12 13. Rev. 11.1 2. Rev. 14.1 8. Eph. 3.21 To the instances which hee brings of Churches of his way ushering them in with a boast of their setting up Christs order in the face and to the teeth of the beast though in danger to bee slain for it I Answer that surely the Congregational Brethren of our daies have not waded through such great dangers in contending for and setting up their popular government They have had and have as much countenance from the Civil Powers as they can desire On which account many have struck in with Independency to bee of the rising side Surely there are some whom they know that have out-gone them in sufferings for cleaving to their principles and whilst the Powers did oppose their way heretofore flying to New-England and Holland was not a setting up of the order which they deemed to bee Christ's in the face and to the teeth of the Beast But to his instances I suppose that Congregation in Queen Marie's daies to have consisted of holy persons but cannot from the relation that History gives us of it see upon what grounds hee presumes them to have been a party of his own way in point of order and government Mr. Bentham their last Minister is there said to have been soon after Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield and therefore in all probability no Independent As to the hundred persons in Queen Elizabeths daies which Mr. Cotton mentions I should have liked their witnessing against the corruptions in the Church so far forth as their call would bear them out but if they separated from the Congregations in England in general as no true Churches no man is able to prove their separation lawful by the word of God and the words of the same Mr. Cotton pag. 14. of that book will condemn them where hee saith Mr. Robinsons denial of the Parishional Congregations in England to bee true Churches was never received into any heart from thence to infer a nullity of their Church-state Neither was our departure from them even in those evil times a separation from them as no Churches So that grant these two companies to have been Independent Churches yet if they separated from the Churches of England as no true Churches they were in Mr. Cottons judgement so farre in an errour and much more is Mr. P. for nulling all the reformed Churches in the world whereby he maketh his Independentism to become Donatism Hee addeth to justify himself Wee must not for respect to a right faith swallow a wrong Order hath not the letting go the right Order p. 52. let in a wrong faith Yes it hath indeed by those of your way most evidently For whereas the word of God placeth most evidently the power of Church-government in the Officers of the Church as hath been above proved your letting go this Gospel Order and bringing in the room of it a phantastick Democratical government strange to the word of God hath let in a wrong faith with a witnesse for at this back door have entered all the rabble of Sectaries Anabaptists now generally at least semi-Papists Seekers Quakers and Fifth-Monarchy-men of the last edition enemies to Magistratical and Ministerial power as their seditious Pamphlets Sermons and practices tending to imbrew the State in blood and Church in confusion do witness Object 2 It will be said this laies a ground to question all the Ordinances that have been administered in any other way P. 52. to 55 than that which you press for whether they are to be counted null and void Answ Some Ordinances have been corrupted in the essentials of them as the Lords Supper in the Popish-Churches and when so they become no Ordinances and of no efficacy Others were circumstantially corrupted onely as Baptism and when so though wee have cause to be humbled yet wee cannot reject the Ordinance When 't is promised that the Woman should be nourished in the Wilderness Rev. 12.6 it must needs imply that there should be some Ordinances preserved from corruption in their essentials and that Gods people should be accepted in the use of them Yet that is no argument against coming out of the Wilderness no more is the validness of Ordinances in the Episcopal Classical Parochial Churches against separating from them And this separation doth not require rebaptization for 1 The Scripture speaks nothing of it 2 Wee must either own our Baptism received in the Catholick visible Church of Rome the Mother or in the Diocesan or National Churches the Harlot Daughters or else wee must conclude that the Churches owned of God during the four and twenty months of Antichrist of which Rev. 11.4 shall want utterly the initiatory seal of the New Testament and of this wee finde no president or hint in Scripture Or else there must be an extraordinary way of reviving the lost Ordinance of Baptism in these Churches and of this I know neither promise nor experience for these hundreds of years since there have been such Churches Therefore the first must be granted for from the Churches rest till the Wilderness began to set up particular visible Churches by the Waldenses and Albigenses 't is rare to finde a man that would acknowledge any other Church than the Beast and his Images that would acknowledge a particuliar visible Church Answ It is hard for Mr. P. to manage an argument that doth not fall back upon his cause In answering this second Objection hee overthrows what hee had said and
the outward call to Office and that belongeth to a Church of beleevers without Officers Ergo they may give the adjunct Ordination Answ This is another false Hypothesis of theirs and a main cause of their many mistakes that Election gives the essence of the call to Office nay the whole essence of it p. 242. and that Ordination is but an adjunct But because this point is largely discussed between the Reverend Authors of Jus Div. Min. and them I shall say the less to it 1 If Election did give the Essence of the Call to Office and Ordination were but an adjunct yet it follows not that Private beleevers may ordain Because whatever ordination bee Christ hath made it the work of Officers and no where of the People as hath been said Their reasonings will do them no good without a Precept or Example 2 If Election did give the whole essence of the Call to Office yet it follows not that the Peoples Election alone doth do it Surely Ministers have an electing Power also When Titus is appointed to ordain to constitute Elders in every City hee is charged to look that they bee such as were able to convince gain-sayers Tit. 1.5 9. and that ordinarily private Beleevers yea Churches of private beleevers are not sufficient to judge of nor any where appointed Judges of it If then the Ministers who are the proper Judges of this do not approve and chuse as such persons those whom the People chuse the peoples choice hath no validity in it and so doth not constitute them Ministers In vain should Paul tell Titus what abilities Elders should bee found by him to have in order to his constituting them in every City if the people might chuse men whom hee judged unable and their election stand valid 3 If Election did give the essence of the Call to the Office of Eldership yet these Brethren cannot prove from Scripture that it belongs to private Beleevers as giving such a Call No Scripture that I know of gives power to people to chuse their Elders so as to give them thereby a Call to Office They may chuse them in order to the exercise of their Ministerial Office among them but do not by that choice confer the Ministerial Office upon them no nor empower them to exercise that office among them The Scriptures commonly urged for it prove no such thing For which see Sect. 7. of this book about the the end That Ministers have power to chuse and set Elders in the Churches that mentioned place in Titus proves That People have such an electing power no Scripture proves There is some shew of their power to chuse Deacons but not Elders and that choice Act. 6. doth not appear to have constituted them such Besides there is a great deal of difference between chusing those who are to look to the goods of the Church and those who are to watch over the souls of the Church and to rule them in the Lord. The Deacons are the Churches Servants but Elders their Rulers 4 That Ordination gives the essence of the Call to Offfice the Authors they answer have proved and will I suppose vindicate their proofs from what they have said against them if they shall finde it to bee tanti The very first of them from the New Testament is sufficient to conclude this which is concerning Deacons an Office inferiour to Eldership Act. 6.3 Look ye out among you say the Apostles seven men whom wee may appoint over this businesse They cannot bee deemed to have had the Essence of the call to Office till they were appointed to it the looking of them out did not appoint them to it the setting them before the Apostles did not appoint them to it for it is whom we not you may appoint Appointed to it they were then by the Apostles laying of hands on them with prayer Therefore the Apostles Ordaining them with prayer and imposition of hands gave them the essence of the call to office and so Ordination gives the essence of the call to office and is not an adjunct This Argument then is farre from proving that people may ordain Arg. 6. If Ordination consisteth in Preacher sent p. 338 c. or be made up of such acts only as Beleevers may undoubtedly perform and these acts be not limited in their use upon this occasion to Officers only then in a Church which hath no Officers some beleevers may lawfully and warrantably ordain without Officers But Ordination consisteth c. Ergo. The minor they endeavour to prove by saying that The three things belonging to Ordination on the part of the Ordainers fasting prayer imposition of hands may be all performed by Beleevers Ans The minor is exceeding weak That private beleevers may joyn with the Ordainers in fasting and prayer none deny but what is that to the purpose That Ordination consists in prayer as they say we deny and they can never prove it It consists in mission appointing setting apart which Scripture precepts and examples teach us doe belong to Officers and no where hints to belong to the People That private beleevers may lay on hands on Officers in Ordination no Scripture proves Numb 8.10 is farre from it for 1. Nothing can be certainly concluded from Mosaical Ceremonies for practices under the New Testament unless they bee there opened and the practices there confirmed by precept or example and this might be answer enough 2. They are told that those of the People who laid on hands had a command to doe it their talking of mediate and immediate is to little purpose but there is no such command express or included in the New Testament And will they say from that command that there is now a necessity of the peoples laying on hands in Ordination They must say it if they will make use of this text their way and then it will follow there have been none rightly ordained for one thousand six hundred years since Christ 3. It is clear from this eighth of Numbers by reading the following verses that the Levites being taken instead of the first-born which were Gods by his appointment vers 16 17 18. the people whoever of them they were did by this Ceremony only declare that they closed with the Lords appointment and desired the Levites might according to it be accepted and taken in the room of the first born and therefore they are called an offering of the children of Israel vers 11. they offered them by Gods appointment to the Lord instead of the first-born and the laying on of hands was a sign thereof After this sacrifices being offered for them and they offered to the Lord by Aaron and his sons vers 12 13. they were to enter upon their Office vers 14 15. Now what analogy is there between the Peoples offering of the Levites with imposition of hands upon such a special reason and account and but in order to their being constituted Officers and admitted to the service of the
Tabernacle which they were afterwards by Aaron and his Sons and the ordaining of Ministers with impositions of hands by the people and that without Officers now under the New Testament where we have clearly institution and example to declare it to be the Ministers work They proceed to say None of the texts which speak of Ordination limit it to Officers only Let our brethren prove any such limitation else private beleevers may warrantably ordain VVhat Readers did these Brethren think their Book would meet with to urge this reasoning again and again as an argument for popular Ordination They might have considered how easie the proof is Either it is limited to Officers only or committed to others as well as them But it is not committed to others therefore it is limited to Officers only Let them shew by Scripture-precept or example out of the New Testament that it is committed to others else private beleevers Ordaining must needs remain unwarrantable Let them shew private Beleevers warrant as Ministers can theirs We prove it is committed to Officers they cannot prove it is committed to others doth it not then follow that it is limited to Officers only May they not by their way of reasoning as well say that Magistrates as such may ordain Ministers because they are not by name excluded and so screw Erastus his way one pin higher than ever he durst bring it to Nay may they not by this reasoning argue that private beleevers may administer the Sacraments since no place of Scripture doth express the administration of them to be limited to Officers by excluding the people from it These Brethrens Arguments then are not at all conclusive for their purpose The Holy Ghost hath committed Ordination to Ministers and no where to the people for them therefore to act in it is a gross and very sinful usurpation Hence also it will follow that people cannot without sin own unordained persons or such as are ordained only by the People as Ministers of Jesus Christ As these may bee justly charged to run before they are sent as those did Jerem. 23.21 so those may be charged justly as the Israelites about their Kings Hos 8.4 to set up Pastors but not by him and Ministers but he knew not approved not of it Therefore let such supposed Ministers bee humbled for their rash intrusion and seek for Ordination at the hands of Gospel-Ministers And People who have such Pastors urge them to it and upon their refusal and neglect of it let them know that they cannot own them as Ministers of Christ SECT XIII Containing the Author's humble supplication to those in Authority for Reformation SInce notwithstanding the Criminations of the Accuser whom this Book answereth and the several charges from others our Churches remain true Churches of Christ and need not new making but reforming and our Ministry a true Ministry and that it appears that such only are lawful Ministers of Jesus Christ and Embassadours for him among us who have a constituted Church as have been ordained by a Presbytery of preaching Elders My humble request to the Magistrates of our Land is 1 That they would improve to their utmost the power put into their hands by the King of the Church Jesus Christ for Reformation in our Churches by stirring up and enjoyning Ministers to lay out themselves more fully for the instructing admonishing and reforming of the flocks committed to them and people to receive yeeld and submit unto their Ministerial labours and authority in order to the due use of all the Ordinances of Christ and such a conversation as becometh the Gospel And that therefore they would bee pleased to countenance and enjoyn the nâ—cessary works of Catechising and private instruction and by their authority to strengthen the hands of Christs Ministers in their keeping the Ordinances of Christ and particularly that of his Supper from profanation 2 That they would take care that every Congregation so farre as may be stand furnished with a Minister of the Gospel rightly qualified and invested into office by Ordination received from Ministers of the Gospel according to Christs institution Jehosaphat sent none with his Princes to teach the People the Law of God but Levites and Priests persons regularly invested with office 2 Chron. 17.8 9. The Churches of God in Primitive times in after ages at this day in Scotland France Sweden Denmark Helvetia Germany the Netherlands New-England all the Presbyterian Churches in England yea of Congregational Churches almost all doe with one consent affirm that authoritative preaching of the Word and dispensing of the Sacraments belong only to a lawfully Ordained Ministry I beseech our Rulers in the bowels of Christ that effectual care bee taken that all our Ministers may be such that countenance publick places and publick maintenance bee afforded only to such How should wee expect our comforts should bee dear to God if wee are not zealous for that which so nearly concerns his glory 3 That they would be pleased effectually to suppress to their power all Blasphemies Heresies and Anti-fundamental Errours that they may not bee written taught vented promoted to the prejudice of the Truth trouble of the Church and endangering the immortal Souls of people and that men may not have liberty to defame and every Blatero to rail at and charge with Antichristianism the Churches and ways of God which Protestants have generally owned and sealed their testimony unto with the bloud of multitudes of Martyrs Then would their light break forth as the morning and the glory of the Lord would be their rereward Let timid spirits cry out of Lions in the way and fear that if there bee an owning of thorow Reformation erroneous and loose persons will bee discontented and ready to joyn with forreign enemies to disturb the publick peace and procure the ruine of Church and State But let Magistrates who are the Ministers of God and bear his Name zealously goe through with the work of the Lord and expect confidently protection and a blessing from him in it setting before them that excellent pattern Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17. whose care and zeal for Reformation was remarkably owned and rewarded by God for He stablished the Kingdom in his hand all Judah brought him presents and the Philistines and Arabians tribute he had riches and honour in abundance and the fear of the Lord fell upon the Kingdoms of the Lands that were round about Judah so that they made no warre against Jehosaphat Thus will the Lord reward Rulers that are zealous for his honour and against whatsoever strikes at it And our Supream Magistrate and Chief Rulers may in the discharge of this work look for like success SECT XIV Of Mr. P's conclusion abusing that of the Lord Du Plessis his Book I Shall conclude all with that noble Speech P. 95 96. of that noble Lord Du Plessis May we not lawfully say with the Prophet We would have cured Babel but she would not be cured forsake her
hearts stand seized of the power of the keyes in them because the major part are such in our Churches Petitio principij As if the people had the power of the keyes committed to them you know wee owne not that doctrine Church-guides have the power of the keyes committed to them and many of such among us are to bee reputed godly And if in most places wicked men stand seized of the power of the Keyes yet this will not serve to justifie separation from our Churches as false and Antichristian The wicked Scribes and Pharisees stood seized of the power of the Keyes in the Church of the Jews and yet Christ with his Disciples held communion with that Church and gives no encouragement to separation from it whilest hee had not set up a new Church-State Mat. 23.1 2 3. Your prudential consideration for separation That there is no probability of reforming our Churches P. 20 21 22 because the greatest part in them are wicked and will hinder the work which you strengthen with a passage out of the Epistle to the Little Stone Is certainly an argument which the Prophets and holy people of God in the Church of the Jews were not acquainted with or thought not to bee of force to warrant them to separate or to neglect indeavours for reformation Neither doth Jesus Christ look upon such a reasoning or the ground for it as sufficient to excuse the Angels of and Christians in the Churches of dead Sardis and wretched Laodicea who might plead the same improbability of reformation from putting forth their utmost indeavours for it Your Prudence would it seems have taught them that they might spare themselves a labour and rather gather new Churches than stand about a work so unlikely to bee effected as the reforming of the old But surely the Spirit that spake by the Prophets exhorting to indeavours for reformation in the Church of the Jews as miserably corrupted at least as our Churches and the command of our Lord pressing the same duty upon the Churches of Asia do excuse us from practising by your prudential consideration and teacheth us to do our duty for reformation and leave the successe to the Almighty God depending upon him by faith And I doubt not but that it all Church-guides and pious Christians in our Churches would to their power joyn and set about this work wee should finde the Lord dispelling our fears facilitating the work and shaming us for our distrust But you say 〈◊〉 16. If wee would make a kindly reformation wee must not build on Antichrists foundation but returne to primitive practice Agreed But in regard it doth not appear that parish-Parish-Churches had their original from Antichrist and that it appears that Primitive Churches were made up of co-habiting or neighbouring families this puts no necessity upon us of demolishing or forsaking parish-Parish-Churches in order to a reformation no more than the duty of repenting reforming and conforming to Primitive patternes did upon Sardis and Laodicea to forsake their then Church-standing and erect new Congregations Christs Church-State and Antichrist are opposed Rev. 11.1 2 3 4. The witnesses against this are impowered and specified to bee the two Olive-trees noting Magistracy and Ministery and the two Candlesticks noting Churches that arise against the Antichristian Church-State At least at the latter end of Antichrists reign 〈◊〉 17 18 shall the testimony bee mannaged by separating Congregations The Holy Ghost speaks plainly for separating not onely from the corruptions of the Antichristian Church but from the Antichristian Church-State it self Can Mr. P. bee so blind as not to see or so wilful as not to acknowledge that Protestant Churches are Churches separating from the Antichristian Church and from its Antichristian Church-State and that they have been witnesses against them from the beginning of their appearing to this day What was the Antichristian Church and Church-State never separated from till Independent Congregations came of late to bee erected who separate from Churches that separate from Rome Grant that there remaine some Antichristian corruptions in Protestant Churches I am sure there do in the Independent and those of a higher nature For Schisme and Separation from all the Churches of Christ but their own is an Antichristian corruption of one of the first magnitudes The Romanists being the great Schismatick and Separatists will it follow that Protestant Churches while they in the main renounce forsake and protest against Romes pretended Supremacy and her abominable doctrines Idolatry and worship are not Churches separating from Rome and witnessing against her What Churches in the last ages to these late years have mannaged the testimony against Antichrist but Protestant Churches that separated from him and sealed their testimony with their blood whereon ours have not done the least And must wee now look upon them as Churches still in Rome strip them of the glory of being witnesses against her despise the sufferings undergone by them for refusing to own and subject to her And own as Churches separate from Rome and witnessing against her onely a very small number of late Congregations in this corner of the world who have little by profession and nothing by suffering witnessed against Rome but much inveighed against and separated from Protestant Rome-opposing Churches to the great service of Rome Surely Mr. P. must bring better proof of it than hee doth before it can perswade or deserve our beleef But let us weigh his device concerning the witnesses whereby hee presumes to make it out 1 Hee will have the two Olive-trees to note Magistracy and Ministery and the two Candlesticks Churches But wee have but his word for it The holy Ghost doth not there distinguish the witnesses but saies of them both These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks 2 Hee saith In the latter end of Antichrists reign the Testimony shall bee mannaged by separating Congregations Whereas the holy Ghost doth not set forth two sorts of witnesses in different times but saies that the same shall prophesie in sackcloath one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes during the whole time of Antichrists reign My apprehensions of the witnesses according to Scripture are these Three paire of Types wee finde of them in the Old Testament Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness Elias and Elisha under the Baalitical Apostacy Zerubbabel and Joshuah under the Babylonish Captivity And the holy Ghost alludes to somewhat famous in the history of the lives of these persons which is answered with something parallel in the two witnesses Verse 4. alludes to Zerubbabel and Joshuah who are called two Olive-trees that stand by the Lord of the whole earth Zach. 4. Verse 3 5. And the former part of the sixth allude to Elias and Elisha who witnessed against the Apostacy and Idolatry of their times and more particularly to Elias who destroyed his enemies by fire and did by his prayers open and shut Heaven 2 Kings 1. James 5.17 18. Verse 6. the latter part alludes to
Of Congregational Presbyterial Classical Churches and of the Church Catholick and Synods P. 25 26 WEe come now in the second place to interpret Antichristian Churches by Episcopal Churches that are the greater territories formed into Diocesan Provincial and Oecumenical Churches under the several orders of Bishops Episcopacy of the kind you mention being now discharged among us you might have spared your reader about this matter Let those that would see what is said for and against that Government read the treatises of learned men on that subject I shall onely here say to you in general that corruption in Church-Government is no sufficient cause for separation from a Church Wee must not say you p. 52. for respect to a right faith swallow a wrong order And wee must not say I because of some corruptions in the form of Church-Government forsake communion with a Church professing the true faith Your assertion in your sense stands onely upon your own authority Mine stands in the very light of the Scripture The Apostle John in his third Epistle mentions a great corruption in Church-Government but giveth not thereupon any precept for or encouragement to separation There were great corruptions crept into the form of Church-Government among the Jews in Christs time The Lord had appointed that there should bee onely one High-Priest at a time and hee was to continue in his office during life But there were then two High-Priests together that acted in the function each his year successively John 11.47 49. Besides the High Priesthood was at that time bought for mony procured by favour at the hands of the Romans Multitudes of corruptions there were also in the Priests actings c. Yet the Lord Christ gives no command or intimation to his Disciples to separate from them as from a false Church but onely bids them take heed of being leavened with their corrupt doctrines and drawn to an imitation of their wicked actions And the Lord himself held communion with them as a true Church in his life time Jesus Christ hath instituted no other visible integral Organical Church or Church with Officers P. 26. for the practice of his visible publick and solemn worship but one particular Congregation that may meet together ordinarily in the same place to worship in all the Ordinances of Gods house Such was the Church at Jerusalem there were added to it about three thousand Act. 2.41 They grew to five thousand more Chap. 4.4 yet they were all in Solomons porch Chap. 5.12 Multitudes were added Chap. 5.14 yet the Apostles call them together to them Chap. 6.2 5. And Chap. 15.4 Paul and Barnabas were received of the Church that is all the multitude verse 12. who were present at the disputation verse 6 7. Here indeed is the Hinge of the Controversies between us and our Reverend Brethren of the Congregational way in Old and New England who stand to their first professed principles owning our Congregations as true Churches but scrupling the Government of them by their Guides united confining all power of Government to a single Congregation and contending that it ought to bee so with all Gospel-Churches Had Mr. P. been such a one I should more gladly have entred the lists with him than I do But hee hath much out-grown his Brethren in Scruples and nothing will satisfie him concerning our Churches but what the Edomites wish'd against Jerusalem even the rasing of them to the foundation thereof For our parts wee beleeve that Gospel Churches may and commonly ought to consist of divers single Congregations united under and governed by their Elders in common and that wee have primitive examples for it and among them in the first and chief place that of the Church of Jerusalem in the Apostles times which is that that Mr. P. instanceth in to establish the contrary opinion Before I enter upon the dispute I desire it may bee considered that the enquiry is not of what number of members a Church consisted when it began first to bee planted But the inquiry is how it was with Churches when arrived to strength and maturity during the times in which the Apostles lived This premised I begin with the Church of Jerusalem and say that the Church of Jerusalem 1 Of the Church of Jerusalem when it grew numerous enough for it consisted of divers single Congregations as of so many parts making up one intire and compleat Church For proof whereof let it bee considered that 1 There was a Church at Jerusalem before the addition of the first three thousand Act. 2.41 And the members of the Church at that time cannot bee conceived to have been conteined within the limits of one single Congregation For the Ministery of Christ was exceeding successeful Mark 5.31 John 2.23 John 12.19 It is said of John Matth. 3.5 6. Jerusalem and all Judea and all the Region round about Jordan went out to him and were baptized of him And yet of Christ it is said hee made and baptized more disciples than John John 4.1 Visibly more so that the Pharisees could take notice of it Unto these converted by Johns and Christs Ministery add those brought in by the Ministery of the Apostles and seventy Disciples whom Christ endued with a power to work miracles that thereby they might gain faith to their doctrine Mark 6. Luk. 10. and yet still there is great want of labourers the Harvest was so great Luk. 10.2 and besides these more are found not without Christs approbation labouring in his Vineyard impowered also to work miracles to confirme Christs doctrine which they taught Mark 9.38 39. and of those there seem to have been many Matth. 7.22 Now seeing our Brethren will not grant that by Baptisme men are admitted into any other than a particular Church and there is no mention in Scripture of any other particular Church till long after this time but that of Jerusalem onely Let them from the premises judge whether the Church of Jerusalem even before the addition of the first three thousand must not needs consist of more Congregations than one But supposing that as yet there might bee but one Congregation in Jerusalem yet when wee consider from the Texts Mr. P. quotes the addition of the three thousand and of five thousand more and afterwards of multitudes and adde hereunto Act. 6.1.7 and 12.24 which speak of the farther prevailing of the Word and great increase of the number of the Disciples and together therewith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reflect on that Act. 21.20 Thou seest how many ten thousands of the Jews there are which beleeve mee thinks reason should compel men to acknowledge that the Church of Jerusalem must needs in the Apostles time consist of divers single Congregations What is said against these Texts shall bee anon considered 2 There was a great number of labourers in the Church of Jerusalem There were at first the twelve Apostles and one hundred and eight Disciples and most likely 't is there
were more afterwards men of rare abilities and extraordinary indowments all whose labours cannot well be imagined to have been spent in the service of one single Congregation 3 The time when there was a full imployment for so many labourers was the first year after Christs Ascention and 't is likely 't was early in that year for in the second year Paul was converted whereupon the persecution begun at Stephens death slacked and the Churches were multiplied Act. 9.31 Now many more might bee brought in by the Apostles during the persecution for they abode at Jerusalem Act. 8.1 And they continued in Jerusalem divers years after the persecution was ended Act. 15.2 this Council being held about seventeen years after Christs Ascention Now that all this while the number of beleevers in Jerusalem should not bee encreased beyond the bounds of one single Congregation that might meet ordinarily together in the same place to use the Ordinances of Gods service and worship is to mee beyond beleef 4 At this time there were divers languages spoken in Jerusalem by persons dwelling there Act. 2.5 sixteen several languages are reckoned up verse 9 10 11. Now many of these persons being converted to the profession of the Christian faith Reason teacheth us to apprehend that they were distributed into several Congregations according to their several languages to have in them the mysteries of the Gospel preach't unto them for their edification in the faith of Christ For which cause and that some of them might preach unto strange Nations Christ poured out the gift of tongues on the twelve Apostles and one hundred and eight Disciples Act. 1.8.15 with Act. 2.1 2 3 4. These considerations prevaile with mee to conclude that in Jerusalem there were divers Congregations under several Teachers and yet all making up but one compleat Church All these several Congregations being called in the singular number the Church of Jerusalem This instance is granted by the learned Mr. Thomas Hooker who saith It doth not appear that setting aside the Church of Jerusalem they the Christians of one Church should needs meet in several places Survey part 1. P. 129. Therein acknowledging that it appeareth the Church of Jerusalem must needs and did and I doubt not but others did also But because your self and others much deny this of the Church of Jerusalem and that if this instance bee made good the cause is ours in the point of Presbyterial Churches consisting of divers Congregations I shall answer the Objections made by you and others Object 1 The three thousand Act. 2.41 say the Reverend Authors of the defence of the nine positions p. 125. were added to the one hundred and twenty They have their communion together described c. Answ 1 If this one hundred and twenty were the whole number of Disciples in Jerusalem gathered into a Church-way at this time then no account can bee given of those multitudes converted by the Ministery of John Christ the Apostles and seventy Disciples how they were disposed of Neither is it any way probable that the three thousand should bee added to the Church before those 2 Either these were added before the three thousand or not at all for ought appears from Scripture 3 That there were at this time many more beleevers of the Church of Jerusalem before the hundred and twenty is to mee out of doubt Christ appears to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 These may be conceived embodied brethren of the Church of Jerusalem met together in the exercise of the duties of Gods worship Luk. 24.33 36. and a part of those converted by John Christ the Apostles c. And I am of opinion that Christ during his forty daies converse with his Apostles Act. 1.3 speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God gave them directions for his worship and the Government of his Church and that during that time and between it and the mission of the holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost the Apostles did by Christs direction cast Christians into a certain gospel-Gospel-order which possibly till now they were not fixt in for the use of all the Ordinances of Christ in several societies under their proper officers and that these made up the Church of Jerusalem to which the three thousand were added to share in those priviledges which the rest enjoyed before which is implied Act. 2.42 4 The hundred and twenty were onely the Guides of the Church their number is made up of the twelve Apostles seventy Disciples and thirty eight Persons more all of Christs retinue whilst hee was on earth Act. 1.15 21. The Apostles and seventy Disciples were wee read in the Gospel made Ministers by Christ and the other thirty eight cannot well bee looked upon as no Ministers For 1 They conversed in the same special manner with Christ both before and after his resurrection as the Apostles and seventy Disciples did Act. 1.21 22. 2 Any one of the thirty eight was in as neer a capacity to bee made an Apostle in the room of Judas as any of the Seventy which argueth them to bee men of the same rank with the Seventy 3 All the hundred and twenty were to stay at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of pouring the Holy Ghost on them by which they should be endued with the gift of strange tongues Act. 1.4 5 13 14 15. with Act. 2.1 2 3 4. 4 From these last texts it appeareth that the whole hundred and twenty received the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost the end of which was to preach the Gospel to people of divers languages now in Jerusalem and hereafter in other Nations Therefore all the hundred and twenty were Ministers and the three thousand were added to the Church of Jerusalem where they Ministred and they were the standing Presbytery the Guides and Governours of that Church and not any of them of the governed The multitude of baptized beleevers at Jerusalem being in all likelihood many hundreds if not some thousands Else what account can bee given of the success of Christs Ministery in Jerusalem mentioned Joh. 2.23 and 4.1 and 7.31 and 8.30 and 11.28 45. and 12.19 And this standing Presbytery of the Church of Jerusalem is the basis of the discourse of the Evangelist concerning the Church in this book of the Acts unto which many passages in it do particularly relate which by many and Mr. P. are thought to relate to the whole Church of Jerusalem as shall bee made to appear Object 2 All that beleeved were together Act. 2.44 continuing daily with one accord in the Temple verse 46. Therefore they were but one single Congregation Answ Together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relates not to the place of their assembling but to their oneness in heart spirit and practice The phrase is often used by the Septuagint in this sense to note mens concurrence in the same actions though distant in place Psal 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ariter
I Answer no nor over their own Church neither But it is but supposed by him that the Brethren out of office concurred in making the Decrees They consented to the making of them or to them made and might use their power of Liberty as Mr. Cotton speaks but concurred not in the act of making them for if so they had been their Decrees but they are not so called but expresly otherwise Act. 16.4 Much lesse can wee conceive with Mr. P. that the Brethren concurred with the Elders in a way of the same nature assigning the difference to bee onely in the order of their concurrence For hence it follows that all in the Church are Rulers and guides and have the Key of Authority and binding power which is another absurd attainment wherein hee goes beyond many of his brethren and the vanity of which hath been already observed The whole Church here cannot hee saith mean the Synodical Church onely because the reason given for it the impossibility of the meeting of the Church of Jerusalem together in one place hath been refuted by him The Reader may look back and see what cause hee hath to boast and if his triumph bee but imaginary then hee hath brought in an argument against himself But you must not think that if he do shut out the Brethren from a concurrence of the same nature with the Elders hee hath not strength enough left him to prove that in this Assembly there was no Rule exercised and for that hee will but cast an interrogation at us Will they say that the Elders of a Classical Presbytery at Jerusalem did exercise Rule over all these Churches so far distant and not of their combination This being the Tail of his arguing a sting might bee feared in it but 't is quite unarmed Wee will not say so and yet hee gets not any thing by it for though wee say not that the Elders of the Church of Jerusalem singly considered did exercise Rule over the Churches concerned yet wee will say by his leave that these Elders and the Elders of the Churches concerned united in Synod and acting joyntly did exercise Rule over those Churches which appears both by the tenour and by the use of the Decrees Act. 16.4 So that Mr. P. is more bountiful than maketh for the profit of his cause in granting his adversaries to make the most of Act. 15.6 and Act. 16.4 For besides that in these wee finde not the Elders of the Churches concerned excluded but included and as one in the latter wee finde the Decrees imposed on some of the Churches concerned as ordained of the Apostles and the Elders which were at Jerusalem at the time of the making of them none excepted and therefore their joint-act of authority and rule Hee hath now but an answer to an Objection left him and therein hee comes off worst of all For to that which is said for the exercise of authority by this meeting over the Churches and accounted an unanswerable argument by most and which if hee remove not all his talk against that Synod is to no purpose that the 28th vers calleth the Apostles and Elders Decrees the laying a burden of necessary things upon the Churches Hee onely saies Let it bee considered whether there be not as much said of the assertion of the Pharisees vers 5. and 10. Which Gersom Bucer's answer in another case will suit well Quis adeo ineptire sustinuerit Who can chuse but wonder at his weakness to put forth such a reasoning as an argument and at his confidence to undertake a debate of that moment as is that which hee is upon whilst hee appears so much a stranger to the Laws of a true Syllogism and reasoning If some of the Sect of the Pharisees contending for the necessity of circumcision and keeping the Ceremonial Law are said thereby tempting God to put a yoak of Jewish bondage upon the neck of beleevers and this their imposition was not authoritatively binding Then when the Apostles and Elders say that they lay by their Decrees a burden of necessary things upon the Churches their Decrees are not to be accounted authoritatively binding But some of the Pharisees c. Ergo. This is his sad arguing of the deplorableness of which I need not any farther inform any intelligent Reader But there is nothing like a good courage and therefore hee concludes bee it how it may Thus you see how hard it will be to grant any more with Scripture warrant if we should grant Classical Elderships and combinations Which difficulty I suppose those that have considered what hath been said do not see at all But lest men should take his Supposition of Classical Elderships for a grant hee now returns to renounce them and tells us 1 That hee hath proved the most numerous Churches to have been congregational To which I answer I have disproved it 2 That they are called severally by the name of Church in the singular that is alwaies or else hee saies nothing Witness say I the seven Churches of Asia concerning each of which his words have been made to grant that it is said without reference to or reflection upon the rest hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches 3 That the numerous Church of Corinth in particular was congregational To which I say witness 1 Cor. 14.34 Let your Women keep silence in the Churches What hee subjoyns that the body of that Church did exercise the power of the Keyes and that the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. wraps up Elders and People together with a concurrence of the like nature is gratis dictum as hath been shewed I shall adde Though the Apostle there mention no express limitation of the power of the Keyes to the Eldership it follows not that it is not to be understood for to whom should acts of rule be appropriated but to the Rulers A concurrence with them may be granted to the community in the use of their power of liberty as they speak but a concurrence with them in the thing of the like nature with the power and acts of the Elders hee will never prove till hee hath proved that all are Rulers in the Church and have a power of Office which hee will do ad Graecas calendas And if the Apostles silence there concerning the appropriation of the power of exercising Discipline to the Eldership bee an argument for the communities like power then the sole mention of the Angels of the Churches Rev. chap. 2. and 3. who are commended for blamed upon the neglect of and exhorted to exercise Church-Discipline is an argument against the communities like power therein and a far stronger argument against it than the other is for it in regard that here the Holy Ghost appropriateth the power and there hee doth not and so by this place the other is to bee expounded Neither hath any known Writer of note in the Church for these sixteen hundred years past until some of the late risen
Ministry from Antichristianism as I am confident can never be fairly answered Mr. P. as his manner is in other points takes no notice of what they or others have said in this argument But cries out Antichristian Ministers Antichrists Brokers c. How easy is it but how unreasonable and absurd thus to keep fresh and renew charges without removing the answers that have taken them off And upon what ground can men that act so expect that any notice bee taken of what they say But one good turn is that Mr. P. in this charging book answers himself and saies that which doth in effect establish the mentioned Plea for the validity of our Ordination and Ministry When Ordinances saith hee page 53. are but circumstantially corrupted wee cannot reject them no more than the Israelites could reject the Ark because it was carried in a Cart of the Philistims making And hee instanceth in Baptism in which though much were added as Annointing Crossing c. yet the essentials were retained whilst it alwaies was administred by washing sprinkling or dipping in water in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Let any man now apply this to our Ordination and Ministry and see whether it will not fit them as well as Baptism The essentials of Ordination have been alwaies retained Ministers being ordained by Ministers of the Gospel with Prayer and imposition of hands according to Christs institution Act. 13.1 2 3. 1 Tim. 4.14 5.22 Therfore though some Circumstantial Corruptions cleaved to our Ordination received through Rome yet according to Mr. P's own conclusion wee may not renounce it Neither can hee say any thing against the validity of Ordination so received which will not equally strike at Baptism received through Rome also Our Ministers are no more Antichristian Ministers or Antichrists Brokers because they received their Ordination through Rome than those that have undergone the Ordinance of Baptism among us and Mr. P. among them are Antichrists Christians or Antichristian baptised persons because the Ordinance came to them through Rome Wee must saith hee own our Baptism received in the Church of Rome and is there not as much ground to say wee must own our Ordination received in the Church of Rome Especially in England which had a true and pure Ministry in primitive times as the Congregational Brethren confess Now this Ministry for the Essentialness of it hath been derived successively to our times wherein it is purged from those corruptions that did during the prevalency of Popery cleave unto it And our Ministry thus derived can no more bee called an Antichristian Ministry than the Ministry and Priest-hood of those Priests under the Law that were consecrated during the prevalency of Idolatrey in that Church or of those that succeeded them could bee called when the service of the Lord was restored in purity and they attended upon it a Heathen Ministry or Priesthood 2 Though I account that answer good and strong and beleeve that our accusers will never bee able to remove it Yet I conceive wee need not grant them so much as that our Ministery is descended to us through Rome The Congregational Brethren say some of them that wee are Antichristian Ministers because wee received our Ordination from Rome Papists say wee are not Christian Ministers because wee do not receive our Ordination from Rome Well let those two parties dispute it out Wee need not trouble our selves with the controversy Wee may assert the Christianity of our Ministery upon another account which is this The Ministers of the Protestant Reformed Churches have their Doctrinal and Lineal Succession from the hands of Christ and his Apostles FROM and THROUGH the hands of the witnesses prophecying in Sackcloath during Antichrists reign To evidence this let it bee considered 1 That there have been true Churches of Christ in the World yea in the territories and Nations where Antichrist hath prevailed more or fewer all along the time of his reign to this last age maintaining the profession and Ordinances of the Gospel of Christ in opposition to his corruptions though he hath persecuted and sought to destroy them for it And among these those of Bohemia and the Waldenses and Albigenses are famously known to have continued a long while Enemies themselves acknowledge concerning these last that in all likelihood they had their beginning though possibly under other names near the time of the Apostles 2 That in these Churches considered in their order of time there was both a Doctrinal and lineal succession from Christ and his Apostles unto the rise of the Churches called Protestant 3 That the Protestant Reformers and the Churches that with-drew with them from Rome did own the same fundamental truthes in Doctrine and Discipline that those did as sufficiently appears by the History of the Waldenses and the conferences that passed between the Protestant Reformers and them about it 4 That although whereas it is certain that the Waldenses being by persecution scattered did sow the seeds of the true religion in sundry Countries where afterwards Protestant Churches were established which did lay a ground-work for their arising we have not much evidence of the Protestant Ministers receiving Ordination from their Ministers yet wee are assured from the Histories of those times that there was a very cheerful and unanimous consent between those Waldensian Churches and the Protestant Churches and a full concurring in matters of Doctrin Worship Discipline and Ministry as also there was for the main between the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas and ours afterwards in England in their time of Reformation Now in cases so extraordinary as those of the Protestant Churches in their first rising were the right hand of fellowship which some of the Congregational Brethren judge in ordinary cases sufficient being given in effect to the Ministery of beyond-sea Protestant Churches by the Ministery of those former Churches and to the Ministery of our Churches by the Ministery of those Protestant Churches may well bee thought enough to supply the want and stand in the room of formal Ordination from them And this Ministery of Protestant Churches received from Christ through the Witnesses prophecying in Sack-cloath hath been since continued by formal Ordination both beyond Seas and among us as that which in fixed Churches and where it may be had compleatly is of necessity according to the rule of the Word to be maintained and used formally for the continuation of a Gospel Ministry SECT 12. A Question discussed Whether any unordained persons among us are lawful and compleat Ministers of the Gospel With An Answer to the six Arguments for Popular Ordination brought by the Answerers of Jus Div. Min. Evangelici in their Book called The Preacher sent VVHilst Mr. P. and the Congregational Brethren of his form are so forward to condemn our Ministry as Antichristian it will bee hard for them to free their own from that charge This proposition I will engage to make good Those Preachers that are
hath no Officers For Scripture doth not evidence that Ordination is so great work as Preaching or that it is more limited or restrained to Officers than preaching is Answ That Beleevers who are no Officers may publikely and ordinarily Preach they have not proved as Reverend Mr. Collings his late Vindicia Min. Ev. revind doth abundantly manifest to which I refer them and the Reader to see how poorly they have acquitted themselves under that attempt All reformed Churches condemn the practice of such persons as Antiscriptural that without Ordination take upon them to bee Preachers in a constituted Church allowing them to Preach onely for Probation in order to Ordination desired by them As for their Argument and the Reason of it they are very wilde For were it granted that Beleevers that are no Officers might ordinarily Preach yet they themselves will grant they preach not as Officers But Ordination they cannot finde in Scripture neither do they say they do committed to or performed by any but Officers Therefore it is an act of Office and so it no way follows that if Beleevers may preach as no Officers they may also Ordain But say they Ordination is not more limitted or restrained to Officers than Preaching Well but what Preaching mean they Extraordinary occasionall probational preaching is not so much limitted or restrained to Officers as Ordination but Authoritative preaching is as much restrained to them as Ordination and Ordination as that But it is not say they so great a work as Preaching therefore if beleevers may Preach they may Ordain Alas is the Preaching the Scripture magnifies the preaching of private Beleevers or of Officers certainly their Argument and their Reason speak not ad idem The Scripture magnifies an authoritative Preaching of the Gospel by Church-Officers above other acts These Brethren speak of the preaching of gifted Brethren out of Office which is not authoritative and then tell us they may Ordain because they may Preach which is the greater work How unhandsome is this arguing for men of parts And if unordained gifted Brethrens preaching bee that great work which the Scripture magnifies above other Ministerial acts may they not at well say such may administer the Sacraments every whit as well Argum. 4 Some Beleevers may with Christs allowance act in other publike special Church-works and such as that there can be no special reason given against their ordaining more than against their doing those other works Therefore in a Church that hath no Officers they may ordain Act. 15.2 22 23. 2 Cor. 8.18 19 23. Answ If their proposition were true yet they could gain nothing by it for it is Reason enough against private Beleevers Ordaining that the Holy-Ghost hath expresly put this work upon Officers and no where upon private Beleevers But they are far from proving what they say Act. 15.2 speaks in all probability of the Officers of the Church at Antioch onely read 1 2 3. verses They that determined to send were those between whom there was no small dissention and disputation The certain other of them are some of those Teachers sent with Paul and Barnabas and they are all distinguished from the Church as Officers from the people That they were all Teachers the 32. verse also evinceth But if the Church of Beleevers had chosen and sent these their Officers for this work will it follow hence they might put men into Office Apage That there were any private Brethren in the number of the chosen and sent here let them prove they cannot The 22. 23. verses whence they say that the brethren acted in the Synod and therefore Beleevers may act in ordination unlesse wee will say that men may act in making Decrees in a Synod that may not ordain give them no sufficient ground thus to speak and are much mistaken by them as by what hath been said Sect. 5. of this Treatise may appear The whole Church may mean that Synodical Church The Brethren are mentioned to signify their consent to what was decreed Yet it cannot bee proved that private Brethren much lesse that the whole Church of Jerusalem were present at the Synod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then vers 22 can bee no way necessitated to signify immediately upon the conclusion of James his speech no more than so when they were dismissed vers 30. signifies that the Messengers from Antioch went away that night The Decrees might bee written out and the consent of the Church of private Brethren might bee had in due time and place though not at that particular season And though the private Brethren are mentioned as consenting to the Decrees yet as it inferres not that there was a necessity of their consent So doth it not at all prove that they concurred in making the Decrees for then they had been their Decrees But as they are not said to come together to consider of this matter but onely the Apostles and Elders vers 6. though it is possible some of them might bee there to hear how it was considered of So the Decrees are not called their Decrees but expresly the Deerees ordained of the Apostles and Elders Act. 16.4 That the Brethren are taken into the inscription of the Letter is farre from proving that they concurred in making the Decrees or had any joynt power with the Apostles and Elders in imposing them Because it is frequent for the Epistles of the New-Testament to take into their inscriptions for Salutation and by way of consent to what is written those who cannot bee reputed to have had joynt power with the Writer of them and of whom all that is spoken even without limitation cannot bee affirmed c. as Gal. 1.2 8. and other places These Brethren therefore are too too weakly confident in saying Either our Brethren must say that some Beleevers may ordain or else That men may act in making decrees in a Synod that may not ordain It is denyed them that private Beleevers may act in making Decrees in a Synod and that they did it in that Synod and they have not proved nor will ever bee able to prove it That other place 2 Cor. 8.18 19 23. helps them not at all neither For it doth not appear that these messengers were any of them private Beleevers nor that they were chosen and sent by private Beleevers and if they had what can they infer from hence for private Brethrens ordaining Nothing certainly by all their Logick Messengers are chosen by the Churches to carry their contribution to necessitous Brethren Therefere they may depute private Beleevers to whom Christ never gave power for it to ordain Ministers Who sees not the weaknesse of this consequence is there any equality or analogy between these acts Arg. 5. Those that give the essence of the Call to Office Preacher sent p. 337. may also give the adjunct But some Beleevers without Officers do give the essence of the call to Office For Election is that which giveth the essence to
of their evil carriage c. Here in some things you apprehend not our mind rightly and in others you overthrow your cause 1 Wee hold that the power of Government residing in the Eldership a particular Congregation may and ought to have an appropriate Eldership belonging to it 2 That a single Congregation having an appropriate Eldership is a true Church 3 That such single Congregations have equal power severally considered 4 That though a single Congregation bee a Church yet it is or ought to bee also when it may a part or member of a Presbyterial Church and hath not so much power as a Classical Church hath 5 That the Presbytery of a single Congregation have power to end differences among themselves in cases that are ordinary 6 That in cases weighty and extraordinary as excommunication The Presbytery or Eldership of consociated Congregations are concerned as well as the Presbytery of that single Congregation of which the offending Brother is Paul writeth not to the Eldership of that particular Congregation of which the incestuous person was more peculiarly a member but to the Presbytery of all the Congregations belonging to the Church of Corinth to cast him out 7 That there is no example in all the New Testament of excommunication by the particular Eldership of one single Congregation 8 That therefore a single Congregation ordinarily is not a compleat entire Church furnished with full power for all acts of Church-discipline 9 That wee finde in the New Testament Church-Discipline commonly executed in a Presbyterial Church consisting of divers Congregations Such was the Church of Ephesus and the Eldership of this Church as such did commonly exercise Church-Discipline tryed false Prophets and those that called themselves Apostles and convicted them as lyars Rev. 2. The like wee might say of other Churches 10 That in extraordinary cases wee have an example of appeal from one Presbyterial Church to an association of such Churches to guide us The Church of Antioch and probably also those of Syria and Silicia Act. 15.23 appeals to an assembly of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem and the Elders of that Church united probably also of the Elders of the Churches of Syria and Cilicia and the controversie which could not bee ended otherwise is ended in and by that Synod And thus larger Synods and Councils may bee necessary even an Oecumenical to heal publick and spreading evils If the Church saith Mr. Cotton where the offence lyeth Way p. 108 persisteth in the neglect of their duty and the counsel of their Brethren the matter would be referred to a Congregation of many or all the Churches together That is sure to the Elders of all the Churches for to them hee saies the power of rule or Government doth properly belong Hence you may rectifie your mistakes wee exclude not the Eldership of a single Congregation from power of Government but say it hath not ordinarily power for all acts of Church-Discipline And in that wee arise from a Congregational to a Classical Synodal and Oecumenical Eldership wee have respect to the need of the Church so requiring it and to the precedents given us of the two first in Scripture which are also a sufficient ground for the latter What you say of Jerusalem and Corinth helps you not for it hath been evinced that they were not single Congregations What you adde against higher Elderships or larger combinations of Churches than those of the first step from single Congregations from the consideration of the Churches of Asia doth you no service but è contra For 1 By granting the Churches of Asia to have been collective Churches you pull down what you had said for the congregationalness of Churches Grant them collective Churches and the greatest part of your book is una litura 2 By saying that it appears not from Scripture that there are any larger combinations of Churches than those of this first form You look beside the Scripture and the state of the Question The state of the question because wee stand not for stated and fixed combinations of Churches beyond that first form but onely occasional ones and the Scripture because as hath been and shall bee shewed there was a higher Eldership and larger combination of Churches in the Synod at Jerusalem than those of the first step from single congregations the Elders of the Presbyterial Churches of Antioch and Jerusalem being there combined and in all probability those also of Syria and Cilicia as hath been said 3 If you will stand to what you say that the Churches of Asia do severally receive praise or dispraise each for her self without reflection on the rest I will compel you to grant positively and not onely suppositively that they were collective Churches For the Epistle to every one hath this close Hee that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches If what Christ saies to one Church hee says to the Churches and yet the several Churches do each for her self restrainedly receive praise or dispraise It follows unavoidably that every one of the seven Churches was a collective Church and so you dispute against and confute your self 4 'T is not strange as you say it is that Christ should not speak of a combination of these seven Churches as an Ordinance of his for their remedie and blame them for the neglect of it For they were first to use and Christ directs them accordingly to the use of the first means the help of the Presbytery of each Church If this would do there was no need of carrying the cause higher if upon tryal it would not do they knew what course was next to bee used and had an example of it in the practice of the Church of Antioch To your question Whether it bee likely that go tell the Church should mean go tell the Elders of the combination I answer it is likely and it hath been proved to mean so yet not firstly as you seem to insinuate that wee hold but secondarily when the Eldership of the particular Church where the offence is given prevail not to remove it Here was no Synod Act. 15. that is an assembly of Officers resulting out of many inferiour Presbyteries P. 35. 10 p. 45 1 Because we read not of any such combination of the Churches there mentioned to become subject to the rule of one Superior Eldership 2 Because wee read of no forreigners that came to this Synod but those of Antioch who concurred not in the Decrees of it and are excluded from the decision of the controversy Act. 16.4 3 Here was no appeal from the censure of the Church at Antioch there passed no censure but onely had been a dissention and disputation and so the errand of the Messengers was to get satisfaction that the same doctrin was taught at Jerusalem as at Antioch 4 Here was no rule exercised over the Churches for it would argue a diminution of Pauls Apostolical Authority that the Decrees of the
Apostles should more than materially bind him And these Decrees are made by a joynt act of the Apostles Elders and Brethren difference in the order of their concurrence we grant but in the nature of the Act wee cannot grant but it will not bee granted that the Brethren did exercise an Act of Rule over other Churches To say that by the whole Church is meant the Synodical Church is without ground being built on the impossibility of the meeting of the Church of Jerusalem in one place which hath been refuted And if the Brethren were shut out from a concurrence of the same nature with the Elders will they say that the Elders of a Classical Presbytery at Jerusalem did exercise rule over all these Churches so far distant that could not be of their combination If vers 28. of laying a burden bee objected Let it bee considered whether there be not as much said of the assertion of the Pharisees ver 5 10. Thus if wee should grant Classical Eldership it will bee hard to grant any more with Scripture warrant But wee shall not grant these having proved the most numerous Churches to have been Congregational and called severally by the name of Church in the singular and the numerous Church of Corinth was not onely Congregational but had and exercised the power of the Keyes Paul wraps up Elders and people together in the exercise of discipline with a concurrence of the like nature And thus the whole fabrick of the Classical way falls to the ground Mr. P. as one observes is a man of growing scruples and hath much out-stript in them the Reverend New-England Congregational Brethren Keys chap. 6. and that in weighty points rejecting Ruling-Elders c. and here Synods Mr. Cotton tells him that Synods are an Ordinance of Christ grounding himself on Act. 15. saying 'T is a precedent for succeeding Ages And that they have power by the grace of Christ to command and injoyn the things to bee beleeved and done for which hee cites the express words of the Synodal letter vers 28. And that this power to binde burdens ariseth not onely materially from the weight of the things imposed but formally from the authority of the Synod as an Ordinance of Christ Adding that the fraternity have onely a power of liberty not of authority for which hee quotes Act. 16.4 And excepts from the power of a Synod onely the injoyning of things in their use indifferent not denying them power of Ordination and Excommunication But Mr. P. is an Independent of an higher form Let us consider what he saith 1 His first reason against the Synodicalness of this Assembly that wee Read not of a combination of Churches is untrue For the deputed Elders of the Church of Antioch combined with those of Jerusalem and there is no reason to exclude those of the Churches of Syria and Cilicia since the Decrees reach them and that not onely the Church of Antioch but also those Churches are subjected to them Will Mr. P. grant no more than what hee reads in express words 2 His second is as weak That we read of no forreigners there but those of Antioch and that they concurred not in the making of the Decrees For if there were no more forreigners yet forreigners they were but where doth hee read that the Elders of Syria and Cilicia were not joyned to them There is sufficient reason to conclude they were since the Decrees reach those Churches In saying that these forreigners concurred not in making the Decrees hee speaks clearly besides the book For they being Elders and at Jerusalem met with the Elders of that Church and hee being so punctual in holding no more than he reads in express words Let him see whether he can exclude them from those Texts vers 6 20 22 25 28. Act. 16.4 If the Forreigners were Elders certainly these texts include them and 't is one of the mysterious reaches of his wit to apprehend them excluded from the decision of the controversy by Act. 16.4 for were not the Forreigners Elders and were they not at Jerusalem and in the Assembly at the making of the Decrees how then doth this text exclude them 3 His third is frivolous That there was no appeal from the censure of the Church at Antioch Grant there had passed no formal censure which is more than hee can prove might they not appeal for the deciding of what was debated and which there could bee no joynt agreement upon His fancied main end of their applying themselves to the Church of Jerusalem to get satisfaction that there was the same doctrin taught at Jerusalem that was at Antioch sheweth that hee looketh on the Chapter through spectacles of pre-occupation Else hee would have seen that comming about the Question of difference vers 2. and the Apostles and Elders comming together to consider of the matter ver 6. and together decreeing and laying a burden upon the Churches concerned vers 28. must needs evince that the main end was to have the question authoritatively decided The knowing of the minde and practice of the Church of Jerusalem needed not all this work Paul and others might have informed the Church of Antioch of it before Any Messengers sent might soon have certified them of it Those that came might without such a solemn convening have been assured of it The Apostles and Elders in their Epistles shew not that they minded such an end chiefly in assembling For though they disown the erroneous Teachers doctrine and declare that they gave them no incouragement for it in those words To whom wee gave no such commandement which is all that Mr. P. can build upon yet they clearly manifest that the end of their convening was upon the hearing the difference in the Church of Antioch to decide the Question authoritatively and that the end of sending chosen men with Barnabas and Paul was to give them the greater assurance of this decision as the dependance of the 28. vers on the 27. by the illative for doth clearly shew 4 His fourth is a huddle of groundlesse surmises Here was hee saith no Rule exercised because 't would bee a diminution of Pauls Apostolical Authority But Paul acted not then as an Apostle but as an Elder of the Church of Antioch When the Elders there could not prevail against the corrupt Teachers and their Doctrin they have recourse to a Synod joyning themselves as Elders to the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem giving herein an example of the right way of healing Church-divisions that cannot bee remedied in the respective Churches to the end of the world The Apostles themselves acted not meerly as Apostles but as members of the Synod yielding to a fair dispute on both sides Next hee saith The Brethren concurred with the Apostles and Elders in making the Decrees therefore there was no rule exercised thereby for it will not bee granted by us that the Brethren can exercise an act of rule over other Churches