parcell of the Ceremoniall Law 2. That God by Christ hath restored men to that spirituall worship which Adam had in time of his Innocency 3. That Christ hath not appointed any set or absolute form of Government in his Church binding to all times and Nations 4. That whatsoever the Apostles wrote concerning outward Government it was not in nature of an universall Law but only by way of order and advice answerable to these Primitive times and occasions 5. That the Ministers of the Church as they are Ministers have no temporall Power Iudicature or maintenance positively and particularly alotted them by Christ or his Apostles but only in the generall that it be sufficient and plentifull that thereby they may be examples unto others of hospitality and good workes learning the manner and speciall determination to the Christian Magistrate and the Lawes of the Land 6. That the Christian Magistrate hath the highest power of ordering and governing the Church of God which is a visible company not onely of Ministers and Officers but of all Beleevers and is intrusted to him forasmuch as the Church is in the Common-wealth and not the Common-wealth in the Church 7. Whosoever hath a Mission to undertake the Ministery ought first to find himself inwardly called then undergo a lawfull Tryall and receive approbation with the prayers and benediction of the Presbitery Now concerning this great controversie in our Common-wealth about the government of the Church I shall from these Principles according to the small ability God hath given me unbyassed by any opinion or affection to any kind of Government nor yet for any covetous nor ambitious desire or designe in my self but meerly ayming at the good of Gods Church and of my Country set down how I conceive our supream Magistrate may establish such a Church government as might preserve Amity among Brethren yet not oppugne any rules Christ hath left behind him The two houses of Parliament have already upon ripe deliberation passed an Ordinance for a Presbyteriall government with all the limitations thereof Which government I am verily perswaded if it be duly executed will prove the best Moderator betwixt dissenting Brethren For it is such a government as taketh away the ill and exorbitance of any other reserving that which is good in them and so much the better it ought to be liked because it disliketh those parties that oppose it for surely hee is esteemed the best and most unpartiall Moderator who in reconciling parties in such indifferences displeaseth them all yet if this government may not have so much as an Vmpires power to constrain obedience or else putteth not that power in practise then it will be vilified and of no esteem Therefore that it may not prove a dead uselesse letter I doe first conceive that it should be established with Penalties and put in present execution and made positive without allowing a limited time unto it for approbation For without that it may be altered in whole or in part at the Judgement of the Makers but with that it would leave every man doubtfull and indifferent which will lessen or take away the true value and operation of it In the next place I conceive as an especiall wheel of this motion and a strong fortification of the Government that care be taken to keep and incourage the Ministers of the word in a perpetuall and constant practise of their Function and to remove all occasions which might any way divert them from their holy calling Howsoever it comes about I know not but certain it is that â—â—thence the Church was poysoned with a temporall revenue and carnall estimation given to Ministers for their masters sake Pride and covetousnesse have predominated amongst them who have bin and ever will bee the roots of much evill and combustions in those States and Churches where they have had any power so farre as forgetting their calling and the patterne of Christ they have ever bin observed for the maintenance of their secular pomp and greatnesse to bee the chiefe hinderers of Reformation to the purity and humility of the Gospell knowing it must first begin at themselves Therefore for the rooting out and preventing ambition among them it might bee good to take away those titles of separation and division which have had their originall from 〈◊〉 As to be called Clergy as if they were holy and the people prophane or Divines as if they were all heavenly and 〈◊〉 formed of the same earth with the people certainâ—y they can have 〈◊〉 higher title then to be called Ministers of the Gospell bringing from God to man the glad tyding of reconciliation and 〈◊〉 For place and dignities they are either Officiall which are 〈◊〉 taken away or Personall which should be left to the 〈◊〉 discretion of every man for if in humility they strive 〈◊〉 behind all men in place and before them in goodness the people will be ready to give even their eyes in testimony of their love and estimation of them I shall forbeare in this place to set down particularly how Covetuousnesse may bee also removed from the Ministery because the remedy thereof as of many other things conducing to the good of the Church how Religion may bee kept and perpetuated in truth and purity freed from the danger of relapsing to Popery how the Ministers may be for ever provided with a plentifull maintenance over all the Kingdome how their Widowes and Orphans if there be need may be relieved are already plainly and largely laid down in another Treatise by a well-wisher to the Peace of our Sion which wayteth only for a fit occasion to bee produced Wherein no new charge is laid upon the people but only part of the pious donations of our Ancestors to the Church and good uses are rectifyed and reduced This being done it may then seeme necessary so to hedge and defend this Government held forth by Parliament that it may neither receive damage from Enemies without not bee uncharitably torne and shattered by Schismes and opinions within It hath pleased God so miraculously to blesse this Kingdome that we have thrown off the yoke of Rome which neither we nor our Fathers could bear The Pope and the Bishops the head and the tayle are sent back from whence they came The gap which they had made is by Gods goodnes and care of this Parliament filled up with a moderate Presbyteriall government sufficiently armed to keep out the wild Boare that destroyed our Vineyard and that common implacable enemy from returning But there are some little Foxes yet among us that earth in our ground and annoy our Vineyard and by craft or rudenesse weaknesse or wilfulnesse bring scandals upon our holy profession That therefore our Church may injoy her peace and bee onely Militant against sin and Satan The Magistracie must take care to preserve it from disturbance As the present conjuncture of our Church standeth they who seeme most to distast or oppose this kind of government are
AN EXPEDIENT TO PRESERVE PEACE AND AMITY AMONG DISSENTING BRETHREN By a Brother in CHRIST LONDON Printed for H. R. and are to be sold at his Shop at the Signe of the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard 1647. AN EXPEDIENT TO PRESERVE PEACE and Amitie among dissenting BRETHREN SEeing it hath pleased Almighty GOD 〈…〉 at this time to put a stop to the effusion of Bloud so prodigally powred out in our native Country and thereby given a hope of speedily stating the whole Kingdome in a firme and durable Peace It doth not a little grieve my soul that this happinesse should be clouded or retarded under the pretence of Religion which is the best cimenter of Peace But herein I take comfort that God hath his own work no lesse in these controversies then before hee had in the warres and will reap glory out of both We must neither start nor stagger when we see Schismes and Heresies rise in the visible Church They are the Tares which the envious man soweth among Gods Wheat and Christ hath fore-warned us and so hath his Apostles that through the rage of Satan and corruption of men there must of necessity in all times and ages arise scandals dissentions and Heresies in the Church for the exercise of the godly that their faith might be proved and manifested to the world by holding their ground and cleaving to the truth Yea the very Gospell of Christ which in it selfe is a Gospell of peace by the bloud of the Son reconciling of us to the Father Meeteth with such Malignancy and opposition in the world that to the true professors of it it becometh a Gospel of warre and hatred and persecution This is the condition of the faithfull to be alwayes in outward troubles wherein were they not supported with inward peace they were of all men most miserable Upon this ground Martin Luther that undanted champion of the truth being taxed by the Emperour in a great Councell that he was the man who by his Doctrine had disturbed the long continued Peace in Germany Answered that what others thought he could not tell but it rejoyced his heart to see that there was divisions about the word of God for Christ came not to bring peace but the Sword By all this it appeareth that as every true beleever must expect tribulation in this world so hee shall have peace with God and ought to have peace and communion one with another Christ when he left his Disciples left them Peace for a Legacy and a commandement to love one another we are also frequently exhorted to follow after Peace to bee of one mind and preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace How comes it then about that we see so many minds among brethren who will all passe for the Disciples of Christ and that from the diversity of minds wee see so many rents and separations whereby the bond of Peace is broken and the spirits of men disunited Certainly when it commeth so far it can proceed from no other root then from our lusts which war in our earthly members Otherwise difference of judgement among true beleevers in the sincere search of truth may well stand with unity of affections without breach of Peace For it is manifest enough that the true beleevers over the whole world are not of one mind in all things that concerne Religion and the worship of God Witnesse the severall formes of outward worship among all Nations no lesse various then their fashions And this may also happen among the faithfull aswell in the same as in severall Nations nay if we consider it home wee shall find the like difference in our selves that we need not wonder at it in others for what Christian is there who in pursuit and study for truth observeth not in himself degrees and diversities of judgement every day teacheth knowledge this life being a time of growth not of perfection neverthelesse no man hateth himself because he formerly knew not so much as now he doth but rather praiseth God for hauing revealed to him a greater measure of knowledge by this rule wee should deale with others as we do with our selves for that is the rule of Charity We are all Gods building and albeit they may chance to differ among themselves They are not for that to make a breach in the building but in Love and Peace suffer their opinions to bee tryed by the word of God making that the decider not the breeder of controversies This being premised I will proceed to the subject lying before me and take my beginning from the beginning it self Almighty God doing all his own works in order was pleased to make Man a sociable creature first in himself associating an earthly and heavenly nature that one might guide and governe the other and himselfe receive glory from both Then by ingrafting in that compounded nature rules of spirituall and humane duty whereby he might be fitted for a well-being in the society of others For as the conjunction of flesh and spirit though parts far differing in nature make one man so the conjunction of many men though of severall ages complections humors passions callings and degrees make up a common-wealth for the good of all in their temporall well-being Even so likewise the conjunction of many spirits and minds of men though dissenting in opinions wayes and strength of judgement yet ayming at the same end by faith in Christ to attain salvation Maketh a common union or a Church for the good of all in their eternall wel-being Flesh alone nor spirit alone cannot make a man but the union of both no more can a Common-wealth by it self nor a Church by it self make men temporally and eternally happy but the unity and harmony of both They are so conjoyned and intwined together that as the soule is in the body so is the Church in the Common-wealth single they cannot subsist For there never was nor can there be any multitude of men that bodied themselves into a Common-wealth who agreed not in some kind of Religion neither can any multitude of men body themselves into a Church but they must be subject to some kind of government These two cannot be separated without the ruine of both Seperation destroying Society wherein consisteth the happinesse of man for in heaven wee cannot bee happy alone nor on earth without society These principles are written by the God of order in the tables of humane nature which are commonly called the light or the Law of nature But sin and time having so fullyed that Character that it was scarce legible by posterity God was pleased to revive it againe to his peculiar people writing it with his own finger in Tables of stone to authorize and moralize it to all generations for their good therein giving power to the Magistrate to take care for the keeping and preserving of both Tables placing our duty to him between our duty to God and towards our neighbour that hee might
looke for the good of man both wayes Our duty to God is contayned in fewer precepts but more words it seeming necessary that God should explaine himselfe in his own cause leaving no power to any man to adde or diminish or interpret his Lawes but by his own word which made Moses though he were a Law-giver in Israel yet he would not judge the gatherer of sticks upon the Sabbath day without consultation with the Lord Before the written Law every father of a family was both Priest and Magistrate to looke to both and the greater the family or society was so much higher was the Magistrate and reverenced with more honour as being the common parent caring for the whole Country This Law therefore of Nature being the very dictate of God himself may not improperly be termed a divine Law There were also other Lawes which God prescribed by his servant Moses to the people of Jsrael politicke and Iudiciall Lawes for preserving humane society and governing the Common-wealth and Ceremoniall Lawes for the outward manner and forme of his publike worship for performance whereof he ordained divers Sacrifices and Sacrificers allotting maintainance for them both But when the time fore-appointed came that God would restore man to that happinesse he had deservedly lost by the sin of the first Adam he sent his onely Son Iesus Christ the second Adam in the flesh who after he had manifested his divine power to the world by his Doctrine and miracles did by his last words on the Crosse and by the first visible testimony of the power of his death finish and consummate the Law and rent from the top to the bottome the vaile of separation by both declaring the necessity of types and ceremonies places and times of worship differences of people Sacrifices and Sacrificers fixed and impropriated maintainance for any of them was no longer to bee continued strictly in the letter although a morall equity shadowed by them was to be perpetuall Neither did our Saviour in the constitution of his Evangelicall Church revive any of them nor ordain any set form of worship rule for goverment or a certained and speciall maintainance for his Ministers but only repaired and restored man to that way and manner of worship which Adam had in his innocency prescribing him to serve God the Father of spirits in spirit and in truth without otherwise confining him to time place gesture posture or other circumstances which of their own nature are not permanently confineable In like sort the blessed Apostles whom Christ sent into the world to publish the glad tydings of Salvation laid no other foundation as necessary thereunto then Iesus Christ and what he had laid himself for they were only master builders on that corner stone Christ Iesus What they declared to any people converted to the Gospel concerning any rule of order about the outward man or his Christian behaviour in publike service it was only a temporary advise sutable to the times Countries and occasions wherin they lived not universally binding to all Nations and generations to come In their dayes there was neither Christian State nor Christian Magistrate nor any publike power to countenance or appoint the outward government of the Church in default whereof it was necessary for them to make such orders and constitutions as might serve for those present times neverthelesse as Christ himself took upon him no civill authority so gave hee none to his Apostles nor they to the Ministers succeeding For when Christ was required to divide an inheritance betwixt two brothers he asked with indignation who had made him a Iudge or divider over them and when the case of the Incestuous person fell out at Corinth St. Paul inflicted no temporall punishment upon him only advised the brethren that whiles hee stood obstinate against all reproof to shun his company and cast him out of their communion that the shame thereof making him sensible of his sinne it might beget repentance and make him returne to the fellowship of true beleevers I verily thinke that if all the directions which the Apostles have left recorded in Scripture were laid in one view together no man nor multitudes of men how learned soever could collect or frame out of them all an exact body of Church government in all the parts and Circumstances thereof to bee imposed as a divine binding infallible rule upon all Christian Churches and Kingdomes in the world Indeed where we meet with any Councels or constitutions of the blessed Apostles who were holy men indued with more immediate power from Christ with a larger measure of the spirit of truth and consequently with a greater certainty of judgment then any of their Ministeriall successors we may rely upon them and make them our patternes only remembring the distinction of times that the Apostolicall Church was in infancy and under persecution and the English in full growth and dominion in so much that in the framing of Ecclesiasticall orders an eye and regard must ever bee had to the civill Government which alwayes aymeth at the publike good both of Church and State wherein the Church is lodged The Ministers doubtlesse have power by their office to advise and instruct exhort and rebuke out of the word in a brotherly way but it is as doubtlesse that the power is in the Christian Magistrate upon hearing their advice to constitute and establish under the naturall notion of order such decrees as upon due debate and deliberation they shall find most wholsome and agreeable to the present State This is also to be observed that no man ought to take unto himself the office and honour to Minister for his brethren in things pertaining unto God unlesse hee be lawfully called thereunto Christ himself was sent by the Father and annointed by the spirit to his heavenly office by Christ the holy Apostles were sent into the world from whom they had their immediate Commission and the blessed Apostles following their pattern did not only send and appoint Pastors over all Churches in their present times but also lest rules and directions for ordaining all others for the time to come till the worlds end I make no question but God doth in our dayes call and stirre up many to this holy office by particular motions of his Spirit yet that exempteth not the persons so called from manifesting and approving their vocation according to the rules left in Scripture where we are commanded to try the spirits of men whither they be of God and the Spirits of the Prophets peculiarly such as are called to the Ministery are subject to the Prophets as fitting to be tryed and examined by them who by long experience and without reproach have conversed in the Church and dispenced the misteries of Salvation From this brief and plaine deduction I shall lay down some few Positions as ground-lines of the discourse ensuing 1. That God hath by his Son taken away all ties of necessity for observing any part or
ought not to be condemned by one another In this case therefore things by nature indifferent should make no difference betwixt brethren but so to be used or not used that now and then for charity sake the expediency of them should suspend their lawfulnesse This is the Apostles doctrine instructing private Christians about indifferent things Which though they reach not the Magistrate in his office yet they do in his profession having given up his name to Christ and living in a Christian society And hath our religious Magistrate transgressed these rules Let us see what he hath done for the reliefe of tender consciences many grievances were complained of in the Episcopall times which the Parliament hath removed They have taken away consecration of dayes and places the superstition of meats and drinks Images and Altars Crosses and Surplices the usurpation of spirituall Courts and temporall Bishops which were all abused with a danger to introduce Popery and Idolatry will not these things satisfie weake and tender consciences unlesse they take away Government also which is commanded and sanctified by the Word therefore we must know that government of the Church in publike Assemblies is no indifferent thing nor to be reckoned in their number God is not the Author of anarchy and confusion but of order comlinesse and peace and when the manner of government and Gods worship in the circumstances thereof are rightly ordered according to the light of nature and Christian prudence deducted from the generall rules set down in the Word and setled by just and lawfull authority It is no longer left to the liberty of any man subject to the same authority to conform or not conforme thereunto as though it were a thing indifferent much lesse to pretend that because their consciences cannot approve thereof it should be permitted to them to set up another government which seemeth to be a most unreasonable demand that whiles they deny obedience to the Magistrates lawes they should neverthelesse seek for liberty and power from them to overthrow their own orders and make them crosse shinns with their own authority The power of the Magistrate and liberty purchased by Christ do not destroy but support one another for they are both truths avowed in the Word and no truth can overthrow another And if any man say that a weak conscience though it be in an error yet till it be convinced should sin in obeying the truth it may be replyed à fortiorâ— that the Magistrate determining the truth cannot tolerate any error without sinning against his conscience and partaking of those errors he condemneth 6. But the other objection proceeding from a conceit of strength marcheth with more assurance for some imagine that forasmuch as they are justified by grace and freed from sin and heirs of the promise they are consequently in a state of peâ—ection able to fulfill the law of God and delivered from all lawes of men For lex non ponitur justo They have no need of repentance being secur'd from falling Nor much of faith being already in fruition they are a law unto themselves under no Magistrate above all penalty as if they were out of the flesh having shaken off frailty and mortality and climed up to the new Jerusalem where there is neither sin nor sorrow This being a sweet fancy to them that are possessed with all will hardâ—y suffer it selfe to be removed by force of argumentation Otherwise we might say That never any man was without sin but Christ alone who was like to man in all things sin excepted That the blessed Apostle felt a law in his members which made him doe that he would not and will that he did not He biddeth us work out our salvation with fear and trembling not with surquedry and presumption when we have done our best and seem to be most perfect we are but unprofitable servants Many such divine testimonies might be brought to convince this opinion but it refuteth it selfe being contrary to the rule of faith and condition of humanity We must not think that the grace of God worketh against his will his will is that we should be militant in this life wherefore we must not expect to be triumphant till the warre be done his will is that we should grow to our full stature by degrees and scale the ladder of heaven not be taken up in a whirlwind His will is that we should be tempted and buffeted and fall and rise that seeing our frailty and our misery we should seek for the renewing of his grace and every day beg our daily pardon more duly then our daily bread Forasmuch as by strength of nature we may abstain awhile from food but by corruption of nature we cannot abstain awhit from sin This error puffing up the hearts of unstable men hath heretofore brought forth furious and pernicious effects The story of John a Leyden and Knipperdolling and of their phrensies at Munster is not yet forgotten I pray God our times be not pregnant of some such monster What is the meaning that so many in our dayes separate from their brethren as if all others were prophane Why do they gather in heaps together like biles and ulcers drawing the corruption with them and yet say the body is unclean In such manner began they of Munster they took upon them a garb of simplicity they seemed grave and dejected fervent in long prayers full of revelations lamenting the fashions and prophanesse of the times contemning honours despising money and neglecting Matrimonie wishing and weeping for reformation by such hypocrisies they captivated weak and wandring soules who tooke them onely to be the little flock of heaven that lived among wolves and was persecuted on earth Till having made up their musters and assembled their troops they set up a standard calling the multitude into their snare under the promise and proclamation of liberty Now the blessed time was come that the meek should inherite the earth that the Kings and Potentates and Adonibezecks of this world who had done dispite and violence to the Saints should be broken with a rod of iron and dashed in pieces like a Potters vessell Thence they fell into revelations and found it written in the beams of the Sun that John a Leyden was appointed by Christ to be King over all the world and rule the Nations in righteousnesse and in power After this the King was inspired to set up sundry Queens and to take to himselfe many wives at once to increase and multiply the holy seed upon earth But this imaginary kingdome was of short durance for the neighbour Princes finding their designe joyned against them as against the enemies of mankind and after they had indured a long siege their King by revelation assured them that before Easter they should have deliverance But when none appeared he told them that he had been in a trance six dayes in which time he had ridden on a blind Asse and that God the Father had laid upon
his back the sinnes of them all whereby they were set free and delivered from them And this was the deliverance he promised wherewithall they ought to rest contented Thereupon the Town was taken the deluded people disabused the King impostor executed to death and hung up in chaines upon the highest steeple thus ended this tragedy and ever tragicall is the end of such follies The Apostle noteth that factions and divisions are signes of carnality first men separate from others as unclean then they speak evill of government the next step is to blind the people with revelations from thence they fall into snares of the flesh at last they stir up sedition and last of all their end is destruction Hitherto I have laboured to shew that the Magistrate by his office being an ordinance of God is bound to provide for the Publick peace and safety in Church and Common-wealth which is done first by enacting just lawes and wholsome orders consonant to wisdome and the word of God and secondly by using his power to preserve them in vigor and execution as also to shew that the people are bound in conscience to give willing obedience to such Lawes and orders of the Magistrate whose duty it is to restrain the disobedient and reduce them to their duty Neverthelesse forasmuch as the power wherewithall God hath invested the Magistrate is alwaies to be used for publike good and requisite it is that a due distinction be made in the punishment of offenders between such as erre out of mistake or ignorance and those that resist out of wilfulnesse and contempt I shall in all humblenesse propound some few expedients how farre the Magistrate may please to slacken his power and so temper the lawes and penalties thereof as they may serve both waies as lenitives for the simple and corrasives for the stubborn who will not otherwise be reformed 1. I conceive that as it is unreasonable to demand so it would be dangerous to grant any toleration of Religion besides that which is established for such a liberty of conscience would breed a freedome of will and freedome of will would beget liberty of life which would breed a fearfull Independency when every one might do what they list In matters of faith necessary to salvation there is but one way and one truth all the rest is obsiquity and error Therefore when the truth hath been tried by the Word and ratified by the Magistrate he cannot suffer any falshood without being accessary thereunto Yet in matters of discipline and government there is a greater latitude for when it shall appeare that weak brethren agreeing in the same confession of faith but dissenting in outward forms out of tendernesse or ignorance to such a toleration or connivence or suspention of laws may be harmlesse and charitable till they be further satisfied and instructed 2. That whosoever living under the subjection of this state should be so far destitute of grace as to renounce Christ or speak blasphemously of him or any person of the Trinity contrary to the faith established in the Church he shall upon conviction be informed of the truth with a brotherly admonition not to divulge his error to the corruption or scandall of others or disturbance of the civill peace For the second offence he shall indure a years imprisonment be disabled in his testimony put out of protection of the Laws and wear some publike mark noting him for a Blasphemer For the third offence he shall suffer banishment or close and perpetuall imprisonment and if banished it shal be capitall for him to return without licence of the State For if he by our lawes deserveth death that seduceth any subject from the allegeance of his naturall Prince what deserveth he that seeketh to alienate the soule of any Christian from the dependance of God unto the divell 3. If any one out of an evill heart shall break forth into open reviling scorning disgracefull words against the present Church-government now established he shall not be connived at as a man of tender conscience for as he giveth himselfe power and liberty to dis-joyn from it so it is also in his power not to speak evill of it but doing it by choice and deliberation he cannot fall within the compasse of weaknesse For he that maketh no conscience of giving offence and scandall to the Christian Magistrate and all his godly brethren living in peaceable obedience cannot imagine that his private fancies though covered with weaknesse should be more tendered then the publike conscience of the Common-wealth Such a one therefore ought to be punished as a contemner of the civill power First by reproof and exhortation not to disquiet the peace of the Land Secondly by a pecuniary mulct for some publike use with disability of his credit Thirdly if he still persist with close imprisonment till he give publike satisfaction of his repentance 4. Forasmuch as no man ought to undertake the office and function of the holy Church Ministry without he be well assured of his inward calling thereunto neither can such men conceive themselves awhit the worse or that it might be any prejudice to their spirituall gifts to have an outward approbation by laying on the hands of the Presbytery and praying for divine blessing upon their persons and giving them an orderly mission into Gods harvest Therefore whosoever shall take unto himselfe the holy calling presuming to preach the Word or administer the Sacraments not being admitted nor ordained thereunto by lawfull authority he ought to be punished as the former were that contemned the civill power or rather more severely especially if they be found in their publike preaching to sow sedition among the people provided that such persons Masters of families or others meeting in their own houses or in their neighbours to repeat what they heard or learned out of Sermons preached by authority and upon that or the like occasion worship God by praying or singing of Psalmes conferring or arguing upon any part of the Word preached as also such who being required by any friend or neighbour when the advice of Ministers cannot be had to open or expound some text of Scripture or deliver his judgement upon any case of conscience for satisfaction of the parties be not comprehended under this Article or any penalty thereof because we are commanded to exercise the gifts and talents God hath given us in a sober and orderly way for the edification of one another 5. Whereas out of all doubt many things are contained in holy Scripture which are not yet fully manifested nor clearly understood and we know the Spirit of God bloweth where he listeth and is not confined to time place nor person but inspireth whom he pleaseth If therefore any man shall pretend to have a new opinion or new light revealed unto him of the sence of any part of Scripture fitting it were he should bring his knowledge to some godly Minister approved of or to the next Classiâ— where he liveth
there to be tried and examined by the spirit of the Prophets judging and determining by the word of God and if perchance they neither approve of his opinion nor yet be able to convince him then to refer him to the next Nationall Councell to which he must stand or fall In the mean time if he publish his opinion under hand to the breach of brotherly unity in the Church he ought to be taken as a disturber of publike peace and subject to the penalties mentioned in the third Article By these and such like means the power of the civill Magistrate may be preserved from contempt and the consciences of weak brethren from constraint till they shall pluck off their mask and discover themselves to be obstinate and unsufferable clamouring for toleration under pretence of weaknesse but indeed making a breach and separation in confidence of their own strength and perfection disdaining with supercilious eies the infirmities of their brethren by which falacie they think to blear the eye of the Magistrate and make the weak to overthrow the strong To such wolves in sheeps cloathing whether they be Papists Hereticks Schismaticks or whatsoever they be for a weak conscience is now-adaies become a cloak for all shoulders my meaning is not that any indulgence or connivence of the Magistrate should be extended to them who it is plain enough are employed in malicious designes working under-ground the divisions and ruine of the State Therefore to conclude with the same spirit as I began which is a spirit of unity peace and love In the fear and before the face of Almighty God and by the bowells of that love wherwith Christ Jesus loved us all I do beseech the brethren whether they be leaders or followers that agree with us in the same doctrine but dissent in government to lay their hands upon their hearts and examine what they would be at Is it at the advancement of truth the practise of holiness the purity of Gods worship Let them consider whether all these may not be had as they are all intended under the present government is it at spirituall perfection whiles they are present in the flesh Let them consider that the perfection of a Christian consisteth in humility love peace meeknesse sobriety and uprightnesse which are truly spirituall and none of them excluded by this government Is it at the setting up of the kingdome of Christ Jesus that he might raigne as Lord omnipotent upon earth Let them consider that the kingdome of Christ Jesus is not of this world he prescribeth no forms nor modells of civill government as he findeth them so he leaveth them where he is received he sublimeth and refineth them where he is not received hee doth not destroy them Let them consider that this present governmet doth no waies eclipse the kingdome of Christ Jesus for whither it be placed in a single Congregation or in a generall Assembly or in the last resort of the supreme Magistrate all are under the government of Christ Jesus who ruleth among them by his Word whereunto they conform their government is it at the setting up of any other government which they think is onely divine and necessary to salvation Let them consider that by such assertions they do not onely blast all reformed Churches at this day and leave them in a state of condemnation living under another government but also condemn multitudes of soules departed which under other governments lived Saints upon earth died martyrs for the faith of Christ and are now triumphants in heaven Or els is it at no government at all till they receive on revealed from heaven Let them consider whether any such promise be made us in Scripture which we ought to expect This wee find that God is not the Author of confusion but of peace order and government which ought to be setled in all Churches of the Saints Or lastly is it to set up an infallibility of private judgement taking themselves to abound in the spirit and be able to judge all above them Let them consider that the hearts and spirits of men are deceitfull above all deceits aâ—â— that to strive and contend to make rents and separation for these things to despise the powers and ordinances of God are reckoned among the workes of the flesh rank and carnall But if it be as I will hope it is a pure and sincere weakness of conscience arising from a weaknesse of judgement not yet seeing the clearnesse of that light which hath in lightned the Magistrates and Ministers and greatest part of the Kingdome Let them be intreated in the fear of God to seek to him for further illumination and in the mean time to suspend their opinions and forbear contentions by Christian modesty and moderation becomming the Saints to maintain Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and make it manifest unto the world and to the Angells in heaven that they are not led by the spirit of error strife and vain-glory but by the spirit of truth which worketh by love and lowlinesse patience and meeknesse minding the same things and improving the gifts of faith grace and knowledge whereunto they have already attained And in other things of lesser moment concerning the formes of discipline and government and the outward face of order and decency in the publike worship whereunto perhaps not having yet attained they may be otherwise minded therein to wait Gods time with quiet and patience who hath promised to reveale even that also unto them that one may not be perfect without another It may be they may thinke themselves unkindly dealt withall and very ill requited that having so frankly adventured their lives and estates and done so valiantly against the enemies of God and the Land they should after all this be denyed any request especially that which so nearly toucheth their freedome of conscience and inward peace Truly it is on all hands confessed and no man that I know seeketh to cast a vaile over their worth or suppressed their atchievements God hath done wonderfull things by many of their hands and the lesse honour they take to themselves the more will be given them by the voice of the Nation and Rulers of the band who ought to take care that their names be written in the Registers of fame from generation to generation But what will our dissenting brethren say if Jesuits and Malignents converse among them in sheeps-clothing If transformed into Angels of light they carry on these workes of darknesse and by secret suggestions and insinuations of the Serpent make them blow this cole and widen this breach against their own intentions It is not for nought that there be so maâ—y popish spies and Agents among us whose employment is to weaken the hands of the Magistrate by sowing factions and disobedience among the people They feele their blow and know well enough that their form is broken they are upon their last gaspe and their last refuge is this to compasse that by trechery and mischiefe which they could not do by force in the field If they can divide the civill and Military power and fling fire-balls of division into the tents of brethren they have yet a fainting hope to recover strength and destroy them both Let not our brethren think this to be an eary or empty admonition for there be men so finely spirited and rarified to the invisibility of the divell that if it were possible they would deceive the very Elect and weave their hypocriticall webbs with liberty that commonly the simple and many times the circumspect are involved and taken Happy it were that by some marke they might be known for then they were easily avoided but when they come to strike up division and separate the hearts of the brethren the safest remedy is to stop our eares as against Inchanters and Negotiators for the divell Return then ô Shulamite return return be not intrapped in the snares of division but return to the tents of peace what will ye see in the Shulamites we shall see when he returneth and joyneth his body to the State and his conscience to the Church that his countenance is faire as the Moon clear as the Sun terrible as an Army with banners and that his company united to the Common-wealth is like the association of two Armies linked together by one heart invincible and undissolvable by the powers of darknesse and of Antichrist Thus have I delivered my poor judgement and discharged my duty which I owe to the publike peace I pretend not to revelations nor an unerring spirit but being privy to the evennesse of mine own heart and unbyassed intentions my conscience is my testimony that I have not erred to cause any other man to erre In regard whereof I may hope that all men who are spirituall and dis-interessed in their ends will acknowledge this to be the mind of Christ so far-forth at least as it aimeth and tendeth to piety and peace Neverthelesse if any will be still contentions and dissent neither I nor the Churches of God have any such custome nor do I intend for this difference of judgement to breake charity and communion with them But I rather beseech them for a close of all to put on milde and gentle affections and whiles they approve of our faith not to disapprove our workes by excommunicating of us or separating from us till our workes go before us and condemn our selves Leaving them in this assurance that when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come the Judge and Master of us all to whom we must stand or fall it will be better for them and for us in that day that he find our hearts established in grace then our selves at variance about Church-government FINIS