them when written and the like after the printing for the collecting the Errata of the Press I find by this hasty review and by some observation of mens readiness to misunderstand me that it is necessary to speak a little more about the following particulars that I may be understood by such as are willing to understand me and the mistakes of others I shall easily bear Sect. 1. Pag. 89. There is somewhat that requireth correction of the pen and somewhat that requireth explication In translating that passage of Ignatius Unus panis qui pro omnibus fractus est must be written next effusus est before unus Calix And for the following objection though it was made by a discreet person yet I know no ground for it unless Is. Vossius his Edition leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I have not now at hand but is likelyest I know not of any Greek copy that leaves it out Indeed Bishop Ushers Latine doth and the Vulgar Latine leaves out the translation of the next words before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which saith Bishop Usher Ex interpretatione hac excidisse videantur And noting the corruption of the Vulgar Translation in this very place I there premised to my Answer that it might occasion a change in the Text that it hath done so in many places I think is easie to prove but that it hath done so here there is no probability if any Greek Copy be as is objected and the Reasons of my conjecture of the possibility are so little for a probability that as I express them not so I think them not worth the expressing but rather bid you take that as non dictum Though of the general I find Bishop Usher himself saying both of his Latine Version Ex eâ solâ integritati suae restitui posse Ignatium polliceri non ausim and of the first Greek Edition Hanc reliqui sequuti sunt editores non ex Graco aliquo codice alio sed partim ex ingenio partim ex vetere Vulgato Latino Interprete non paucis in locis eandem corrigentes Epist. ad Lect. ante Annot. pag. 26. Dissert Sect. 2. I must intreat the Reader to observe that my drift in this writing is not so much to oppose any form of Government meerly as contrary to the Institution or Apostolical Rule as to plead against that which I take to be destructive to the Ends of Government Not that I desire not a careful adhering to the sacred Rule but 1. Because I suppose that many circumstantials of Discipline undetermined in the Word are feigned by some to be substanstantial necessary things and that many matters are indifferent that some lay the Peace if not the being of the Church upon 2. Because I so far hate contention that if any Government contrary to my Iudgement were set up that did not apparently in the nature of it wrong the Church I would silently live under it in peace and quietness and accordingly would be now loth to enter a quarrel with any Writers that differ from us in tolerable things But if I know that their judgement reduced to practice is like to be the undoing of many souls and to cast Discipline almost wholly out of the Church I think it better to displease them then let them undo the Church without contradiction The best is the serious Christians of this age have experience to help them to understand the case and I suppose my Disputation to be unto them as if I Disputed before a man that is restored from want or banishment or sickness whether he should be reduced to the Condition from which he is restored Sect. 3. Some passages here will occasion the Question as p. 5. Whether and how far Church Government is jure Divino But of this in the main I am agreed with them that I dispute To speak further my own judgement is 1. That the Spirit of God hath established all the Officers and worship-Ordinances of his Church and that no new Church-office or Ordinance of worship as to the substance may be instituted by man 2. But that there are many Circumstantials about the Exercise of those Offices and Ordinances that are not determined particularly by a Law but are left to humane prudence to determine of by the General directions of the Law And so I suppose that Bishops and Presbyters are but one Office of Gods institution but in the exercise of this Office if one for order be made a Moderator or President of the rest or by agreement upon a disparity of parts or interest do unequally divide their work between them in the exercise it is a thing that may be done and is fit where the Edification of the Church requireth it but not a thing that always must be done nor is of it self a Duty but a thing indifferent The following Case therefore I hence resolve Sect. 4. Quest. Whether the Order of subject Presbyters might lawfully be created by Bishops or any humane Power and whether the Order of Bishops might lawfully be created for the avoiding of Schism by the consent of Presbyters or Metropolitans by Bishops Answ. If you understand by the word Order a distinct Office none may create any of these but God But if by Subject Presbyters be meant only men of the same Office with Bishops that do for the Churches benefit subject themselves to the direction or Presidency of another upon some disparity in their gifts or the like in the exercise of that Office I suppose that this is a thing that by Consent may be lawfully done And so I verily believe that betimes in the Church it was done of which anon So if by Bishops be meant no distinct Office but one of the Presbyters chosen from among the rest to exercise his Ministery in some eminency above the rest by reason of his greater Gifts or for Peace and Order I doubt not but it is a thing that consent may do And accordingly the Canon Law defines a Bishop that he is Unus è Presbyteris c. So if by a Metropolitan be not meant another Office but one in the same Office by reason of the advantage of his Seat chosen to some acts of Order for the common benefit I doubt not but it may be done but every such Indifferent thing is not to be made Necessary statedly and universally to the Church Sect. 5. When I do in these Papers plead that the Order of Subject Presbyters was not instituted in Scripture times and consequently that it is not of Divine Institution I mean as aforesaid that as a distinct Office or Species of Church ministers as to the Power from God it is not of Divine Institution nor a lawful Institution of man but that among men in the same Office some might Prudentially be chosen to an eminency of degree as to the exercise and that according to the difference of their advantages there might be a disparity in the use of their
Presbyters and then the Government of the Church will be such as you blame Ans. It is the thing I plead for that every Church may have such Bishops as they had in the Apostles days and not meer new devised Presbyters that are of another Office and Order Sect. 23. Object Bishops had Deacons to attend them in the Scripture times though not Presbyters therefore it follows not that Bishops had then but One Congregation Answ. Yes beyond doubt For Deacons could not and did not perform the Pastoral part in the whole publick worship of any stated Churches They did not preach as Deacons and pray and praise God in the publick Assemblies and administer the Sacraments It 's not affirmed by them that are against us therefore there were no more Churches then Bishops Sect. 24. Object But what doth your Arguing make against the other Episcopal Divines that are not of the opinion that there were no meer Presbyters in Scripture times Answ. 1. Other Arguments here are as much against them though this be not if they maintain that sort of Episcopacy which I oppose 2. They also confess the smalness of Churches in Scripture times as I have shewed out of Bishop Downam and that is it that I plead for Sect. 25. Object But if you would have all reduced to the state that de facto the Church Government was in in Scripture times you would have as but one Church to a Bishop so but One Bishop to a Church as Dr. H. Dissert 4 c. 19 20 21 22. hath proved copiously that is that Scripture mentioneth no assistant Presbyters with the Bishop and would that please you that think a single Congregation should have a Presbyterie You should rather as he teacheth you c. 21. p. 237. be thankful to Ignatius and acknowledge the dignity of your Office ab â—o primario defensore astrui propugnari Answ. As we make no doubt from plain Scripture to prove and have proved it that single Churches had then many Presbyters some of them at least So having the greatest part of Fathers and Episcopal Divines of our mind herein even Epiphanius himself we need not be very solicitous about the point of Testimony oâ— Authority 2. We had rather of the two have but one Pastor to a Congregation then one to a hundred or two hundred Congregations having a Presbyter under him in each authorized only to a part of the work 3. Either the distinct Office of the Presbyters is of Divine Institution to be continued in the Church or not If not Bishops or some body it seems may put down the Office If it be then it seems all Gods Vniversal standing Laws even for the species of Church Officers are not contained in Scripture And if not in Scripture where then If in the Fathers 1. How shall we know which are they and worthy of that name and honor 2. And what shall we do to reconcile their contradictions 3. And what number of them must go to be the true witnesses of a Divine Law 4. And by what note may we know what points so to receive from them and what not But if it be from Councils that we must have the rest of the Laws of God not contained in the Scripture 1. Is it from all or some only If from all what a case are we in as obliged to receive Contradictions and Heresies If from some only which are they and how known and why they rather then the rest Why not the second of Ephesus as well as the first at Constantinople But this I shall not now further prosecute unless I were dealing with the Papists to whom have said more of it in another writing 4. Ignatius his Presbyters were not men of another Office nor yet set over many Churches that had all but one Bishop But they were all in the same Churches with the Bishop and of the same Office only subject to his moderation or presidency for Vnity and Order sake and this we strive not against if limited by the general Rules of Scripture Sect. 26. Object Those that you have to deal with say not that There were no Presbyters in the Apostles days but only that in the Apostles writings the word Bishops always signifies Bishops and the word Elders either never or but rarely Presbyters But it is possible for them to be in the time of those writings that are not mentioned in those writings and the Apostles times were larger then their writings as you are told Vind. against the Lond. Minist p. 106. Ans. 1. The words I cited from Annot. in Act. 11. faithfully which you may peruse which say that there is no evidence that in Scripture times any of the second Order were instituted So that it is not Scripture writings only but Scripture times that 's spoken of And 2. If there be no evidence of it the Church cannot believe it or affirm it for it judgeth not of unrevealed things and therefore to us it is no Institution that hath no evidence 3. The Apostles were all dead save John before the end of Scripture times So that they must be instituted by John only And John dyed the next year after Scripture times as the chief Chronologers judge For as he wrote his Apocalypse about the 14 th year of Domitian so his Gospel the year before Trajan and dyed the next year being after the commoner reckoning An. D. 98. and some think more And what likelihood or proof at least that John did institute them the year that he dyed when the same men tell us of his excursion into Asia to plant Elders bâ—fore that year it 's like 4. And if they were not instituted in Scripture time then no testimony from Antiquity câ—n prove them then instituted But indeed if we had such testimony and nothing of it in the Scripture it self we should take it as little to our purpose For 5. doth Antâ—quity say that the Institution was Divine of Universal obligation to the Church or only that it was but a prudential limitation of the exercise of the same Office the like I demand of other like Testimonies in case of Diocesses Metropolitans c. If only the later it binds us not but proveth only the licet and not the oportet at least as to all the Church And then every Countrey that finds cause may set up another kind of government â—ut if it be the former that is asserted as from antiquity then the Scripture containeth not all Gods Vniversal Laws Which who ever affirmeth must go to Fathers or Councils instead of Scripture to day and to the infallibility of the Pope or a Prophetical Inspiration to morrow and next Sect. 27. Once more to them that yet will maintain that the Apostles modelled the Ecclesiastical form to the Civil and that as a Law to the whole Church we take it as their Concession that then we ow no more obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury then to the Civil Magistrate of Canterbury and especially
mistake Prop. 11. He that disobeyeth the Word of God in the mouth of a Minister or Church governor committeth a double sin in comparison of him that disobeyeth the same word in the mouth of a private man for bsides the sin which he first committeth he breaketh also the fifth Commandment and despiseth Christ in his Messenger As a man that shall refuse to worship God to use his name reverently c. when a private man telleth him that it is his duty doth sin by that refusal but if he refuse it when his own Father or Mother or Minister command him he also breaks the fifth Commandment besides the rest Ministerial Authority therefore doth aggravate the sins of persons that are disobedient Prop. 12. Yet for all this one private man that evinceth out of Scripture a sin or a duty contrary to the doctrine or commands of our Guides must be regarded in that before them and the evidence and divine verity which he bringeth must not be refused because Church Governors are against it Otherwise we should make Gods Officers to be greater then himself and the Promulgators and Preachers of his Law to have power to null or frustrate the known Law which they should proclaim and that the means is to be preferred before the end and when it destroyes the end and so ceaseth it self to be a means which are things not to be imagined Prop. 13. Yet is it a great sin for any men lightly and rashly to suspect their Teachers and Rulers and much more Councils or the whole Church and too easily to credit the singular opinions of any private man or dissenting Pastor But we should be very suspicious of the private man rather and of the singular man and therefore should search well and see good reason for it before we credit them though we may not refuse any truth which they shall bring Prop. â—4 The uses of Synods or Councils is not directly to be superiour Governours of particular Pastors and Churches but it is Directly 1. For the Information and Edification of the Pastorâ— themselves by the collation of their reasons and mutual advice 2. For the Vnion and Communion of the said Pastors and of the particular Churches by them that they may agree in one and go hand in hand to do Gods work and so may avoid the crossing and hindering of each other and one may not receive those to communion without satisfaction who are excommunicated by others and so that by this concord of Pastors they may be strengthened to a more successfull performance of their duties But then these Direct ends of Synods being presupposed Indidirectly they may truly be said to be for Government Because God in general having commanded us to carry on his work as much as we can in Unity and Peace and it being the proper work of Councils to agree upon wayes of Unity it followeth that for Unity sake it becomes our duty to submit to their just Agreements and so that the forming of such Agreements or Canons is consequently or Indirectly a part of Government though Directly it is but for Unity and Concord Pastors in Synods have the same power over their people as they have out and therefore what Canons they make justly for the Government of the people as Pastors are Directly acts of Government but as Assembled Pastors and also as to the Canons by which they bind each other they act but by consent or contract in order to concord and communion and not by a superiour Ruling power So that Synods as Synods are Directly only Gratiâ Vnitatis Communionis and not Gratia Regiminis but Indirectly and by consequence from the first use they are after a sort Regimental To conclude this about the Nature of Church-Government in the two former similitudes it is somewhat apparent For Christ calls himself the Physitian that comes to heal diseased souls and his Church is also a School and his people are all Schollars or Disciples and Ministers his Ushers or under-Schoolmasters Now the Physitian may prescribe to his Patient the times the quantities of taking Medicines and what diet to use and what exercise in order to his health and also Physitians may make a Colledge and frequently meet for mutual Edification and Agree what Patients to meddle with and what not and that they will not receive those Patients that run from one to another to their own hurt and that they will use none but such and such approved Medicaments with divers the like circumstances But yet no Physitian can either compell men to be their Patients nor compell them any otherwise then by perswasion to take their Medicines when they are their Patients nor can they corporally punish them for any disobedience to their directions But this they may do they may tell them first that if they will not be ruled they shall be without the Physitians help and then their desease will certainly kill them or endanger them and if the Patient continue so disobedient as to frustrate the means of cure the Physitian may give him over and be his Physitian no more and this is the Power of a Church Guide and this is his way of punishing Only he may further acquaint them with a Divine Commission then a Physician can do to his Patient at least gradually and so press obedience more effectually on their consciences So a Schoolmaster may make orders for the right circumstantiating of matters in his School supposing one Grammer enjoyned by superiour Authority and he may order what Authors shall be read and at what hours and how much at a time and dispose of the seats and orders of his Schollars But yet if he be a Teacher of the Adult according to our case he cannot corporally punish those that either refuse to be his Schollars or to learn of him or obey him but the utmost that he can do is to put some disgrace upon them while they abide in his School and at last to shut them out And then all the Schoolmasters in the Countrey may well agree upon one Method of Teaching and that they will not receive those without satisfaction into one School who are for obstinacy and abuse cast out of another But such Agreements or Meetings to that end do not make either one Physitian or Schoolmaster to be the Governour of the rest or above another nor yet to have the charge of all the Schollars or Patients of all the rest so is it in the case of Ecclesiastical Assemblies HAving said this much concerning the Nature of Church-Power and Government I come to the second thing promised which is to enumerate the several sorts of Bishops that are to fall under our consideration that so we may next consider which of them are to be allowed of And here I suppose none will expect that I shew them all these sorts distinctly existent it is enough that I manifest them to be in themselves truly different 1. And first the name Bishop may be given
by another that could not have any power to Rule him without that consent of his own and voluntary Condescension 5. As for the fifth sort that is The standing President of a Classis having no Negative voice I should easily consent to them for order and Peace for they are no distinct Office nor assâ—me any Government over the Presbyters And the Presbyterian Churches do commonly use a President or Moderator pro tempore And doubtless if it be lawful for a Month it may be lawful for a year or twenty years or quam diu se bene gâ—sserit and how many years had we one Moderator of our Assemblies of Divines at Westminster and might have had him so many years more if death had not cut him off And usually God doth not so change his gifts but that the same man who is the fittest this month or year is most likely also to be the fittest the next 6. And for the sixth sort viz. A President of a Classes having a Negative voice I confess I had rather be without him and his power is not agreeable to my Judgement as a thing instituted by God or fittest in it self But yet I should give way to it for the Peace of the Church and if it might heal that great breach that is between us and the Epâ—scopal Brethren and the many Churches that hold of that way but with these Cautions and Limitations 1. That they shall have no Negative in any thing that is already a duty or a sin for an Angel from heaven cannot dispense with Gods Law This I doubt not will be yielded 2. That none be forced to acknowledge this Negative vote in them but that they take it from those of the Presbyters that will freely give or acknowledge it For its a known thing that all Church-power doth work only on the Conscience and therefore only prevail by procuring Consent and cannot compell 3. Nor would I ever yield that any part of the Presbyters dissenting should be taken as Schismaticks and cast out of Communion or that it should be made the matter of such a breach This is it that hath broken the Church that Bishops have thrust their Rule on men whether they would or not and have taken their Negative voice at least if not their sole Jurisdiction to be so necessary as if there could be no Church without it or no man were to be endured that did not acknowledge it but he that denyeth their disputable Power must be excommunicated with them that blaspheme God himself And as the Pope will have the acknowledgement of his Power to be inseparable from a member of the Catholike Church and cast out all that deny it so such Bishops take the acknowledgement of their Jurisdiction to be as inseparable from a member of a particular Church and consequently as they suppose of the universal and so to deny them shall cut men off as if they denyed Christ. This savoureth not of the humility that Christ taught his followers 4. Nor would I have any forced to declare whether they only submit for Peace or consent in approbation nor whether they take the Bishops Negative vote to be by Divine Institution and so Necessary or by the Presbyters voluntary consent contract as having power in several cases to suspend the exercise of their own just authority when the suspension of it tendeth to a publike Good No duty is at all times a duty If a man be to be ordained by a Presbytery it is not a flat duty to do it at that time when the President is absent except in case of flat necessity why may not the rest of the Presbyters then if they see it conducible to the good of the Church resolve never to ordain except in case of such Necessity but when the President is there and is one therein which is indeed to permit his exercise of a Negative vote without professing it to be his right by any Institution It is lawful to ordain when the President is present it is lawful out of cases of Necessity to forbear when he is absent according therefore to the Presbyterian principles we may resolve to give him de facto a Negative voice that is not to ordain without him but in Necessity and according to the Episcopal principles we must thus do for this point of Ordination is the chief thing they stand on Now if this be all the difference why should not our May be yield to their Must be if the Peace of the Church be found to lye upon it But 5. I would have this Caution too that the Magistrate should not annex his sword to the Bishops censure without very clear reason but let him make the best of his pure spiritual Authority that he can we should have kept peace with Bishops better if they had not come armed and if the Magistrates had not become their Executioners 7. As to the seventh sort viz. A President of a Province fixed without any Negative voice I should easily admit of him not only for Peace but as orderly and convenient that there might be some one to give notice of all Assemblies and the Decrees to each member and for many other mattters of order this is practised in the Province of London pro tempore and in the other Presbyterian Churches And as I said before in the like case I see not why it may not be lawful to have a President quam diu se bene gesserit as well for a moneth or a year or seven years as in our late Assembly two successively were more as I remember so that this kind of Diocesan or Provincial Bishop I think may well be yielded to for the Churches Order and Peace 8. As to the eighth sort of Bishops viz. The Diocesan who assumeth the sole Government of many Parish Churches both Presbyters and People as ten or twelve or twenty or more as they used to do even a whole Diocess I take them to be intolerable and destructive to the Peace and happiness of the Church and therefore not to be admitted under pretence of Order or Peace if we can hinder them But of these we must speak more when we come to the main Question 9. As for the ninth sort of Bishops viz. A Diocesan Ruling all the Presbyâ—ers but leaving the Presbyters to Rule the People and consequently taking to himself the sole or chief Power of Ordination but leaving Censures and Absolution to them except in case of Appeal to himself I must needs say that this sort of Episcopacy is very ancient and hath been for many ages of very common reception through a great part of the Church but I must also say that I can see as yet no Divine institution of such a Bishop taken for a fixed limited officer and not the same that we shall mention in the eleventh place But how far mens voluntary submission to such and consent to be ruled by them may authorize them I have no mind to dispute
Institution not by inspired Apostles but by Ordinary Bishops then 1. They make all Presbyters to be jure Episcopali and Bishops only and their Superiours to be jure Divino as the Italians in the Council of Trent would have had all Bishops to depend upon the Pope But in this they go far beyond them for the Italian Papists themselves thought Presbyterie jure Divino 2. Either they may be changed by Bishops who set them up or not If they may be taken down again by man then the Church may be ruined by man and so the Bishops will imitate the Pope Either they will Reign or Christ shall not Reign if they can hinder it Either they will lead the Church in their way or Christ shall have no Church If man cannot take them down then 1. It seems man did not Institute them for why may they not alter their own institutions 2. And then it seems the Church hath universal standing unchangeable Institutions Offices and binding Laws of the Bishops making And if so are not the Bishops equal to the Apostles in Law making and Church Ordering and are not their Laws to us as the word of God and that word insufficient and every Bishop would be to his Diocess and all to the whole Church what the Pope would be to the whole 3. Moreover how do they prove that ever the Apostles gave power to the Bishops to institute the order of Presbyterie I know of no text of Scripture by which they can prove it And for Tradition we will not take every mans word that saith he hath tradition for his conceits but we require the proof The Papists that are the pretended keepers of Tradition do bring forth none as meerly unwritten but for their ordines inferiores and many of them for Bishops as distinct from the Presbyters but not for Presbyters themselves And Scripture they can plead none For if they mention such texts where Paul bids Titus ordain Elders in every City c. they deny this to be meant of Elders as now but of Prelates whom Titus as the Primate or Metropolitane was to ordain And if it be meant of Elders then they are found in Scripture and of Divine Apostolical Institution 4. If they were Instituted by Bishops after the Scripture was written was it by one Bishop or by many If by one then how came that one to have Authority to impose a new Institution on the universal Church If by many either out of Council or in if out of Council it was by an accidental falling into one mind and way and then they are but as single men to the Church and therefore still we ask how do they bind us If by many in Council 1. Then let them tell us what Council it was that Instituted Presbyterie when and where gathered and where we may find their Canons that we may know our order and what Auâ—hors mention that Council 2. And what authority had that Council to bind all the Christian world to all ages If they say it bound but their own Churches and that age then it seems the Bishops of England might for all that have nulled the Order of Presbyters there But O miserable England and miserable world if Presbyters had done no more for it then Prelates have done I conclude therefore that the English Prelacy either degraded the Presbyters or else suspended to ally an essential part of their office for themselves called them Rectors and in ordaining them said Receive the Holy Ghâ—st Whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are retained And therefore they delivered to them the Power of the Keyes of opening and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven which themselves make to be the opening and shutting of the Church and the Governing of the Church by Excommunication and Absolution And therefore they are not fit men to ask the Presbyters By what authority they Rule the Church by binding and loosing when themselves did expresly as much as in them lay confer the Power on them And we do no more then what they bid us do in our Ordination Yea they thereby make it the very work of our office For the same mouth at the same time that bid us tâ—ke authority to preach the word of God did also tell us that whose sins we remit or retain they are remitted or retained and therefore if one be an Essential or true integral part at least of our office the other is so too From all which it is evident that if there were nothing against the English Prelacy but only this that they thus suspend or degrade all the Presbyters in England as to one half of their offâ—ce it is enough to prove that they should not be restored under any pretence whatsoever of Order or Unity Argum. 5. THat Episcopacy which giveth the Government of the Chuâ—ch and management of the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution into the hands of a few Layâ—men while they take them from the Presbyters is nâ—t to be restored under any pretence of Vnity or Peace But such was the English Prelacy therefore c. The Major is plain because it is not Lay-men that are to be Church Governours as to Ecclesiastical Government This is beyond Question with all save the Congregational and they would not have two or three Lay men chosen but the whole Congregation to manage this business The Minor is known by common experience that it was the Chancelor in hâ—s Court with his assiâ—â—ants and the Register and such other meer Lay-men that managed this work If it be said that they did it as the Bishops Agents and Substitutes and therefore it was he that did it by them I answer 1. The Law put it in the Chancellors and the Bishopâ— could not hinder it 2. If the Bishops may delegate others to do their work then it seems Preaching and Ruling Excommunicaâ—ing and Abâ—olving may as well be done by Lay-men as Clergy men Then they may commission them also to administer the Sacraments And so the Ministry is not necessary for any of these works but only a Bishop to depute Lay-men to do them which is false and confusive Argum. 6. THat Episcopacy whâ—ch necessarily overwhelmeth the souls of the Bishops with the most hainous guilt of neglecting the many thousand souls whose charge they undertake is not to be restored for Order or Peace For men are not to be oveâ—whelmed with such hainous sin on such pretences But such is the English Prelacy and that not accidentally through the badness of the men only but unavoidably through the greatness of their charge and the Natural Impossibility of their undertaken work How grievous a thing it is to have the blood of so many thousands charged on â—hem may soon appear And that man that undertakes himself the Government of two or three or five hundred thousand souls that he never seeth or knoweth nor can possibly so Govern but must needs leave it undone except the shadow
Vna enim est caro Domini nostri Iesu Christi unus illius sanguis qui pro nobis effusus est unus calix qui pro omnâ—bus nobiâ— distributus est unus panis qui omnibus fractus est unum altare omni Ecclesiae unus Episcopus cum presbyterorum Collegio Diaconis conservis meis Here it is manifest that the particular Church which in those dayes was governed by a Bishop Presbytery and Deacons was but one Congregation for every such Church had but one Altar Object But some Greek Copies leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answ. 1. The corrupt vulgar translation might occasion the change of the text saith Bishop Vsher Annot. in loc page 40. intermedia illa ex interpretatione hâc excidisse videantur 2. The old translation of Bishop Vsher which leaves it out yet hath Vnum Altare unus Episcopus c. and the sence is â—he same if the other words were out 3. Ignatius hath the like in other places as we shall see anon which forbiddeth such quarrels here Object But saith the Learned and Godly Bishop Downame Def. li. 2. cap. 6. page 109. the word Altar being expounded for the Communion table is not likely aâ—d too much savoureth of Popery but by one Altar is meant Christ who sanctifieth all our Sacrifices and Oblations and maketh them acceptable to God as Ignatius expoundeth himself in hâ—s Epistle to the Magnesians All as one run together into the Temple of God unto one Iesus Christ as it were unto one Altar To this I answer that it is some confirmation to me that the words are so express that so learned a man hath no more to say by way of evasion For doubtless this is too gross and palpable to satisfie the judicious impartial reader 1. That the very text which he citeth of the Epistle to the Magnesians doth make fully against him I shall shew anon 2. That it is not Christ that is meant here by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is evident 1. In that Christ his flesh and blood are before distinctly mentioned 2. In that the word is put in order among the external Ordinances 3. In that it is so usual with other ancient writers and Ignatius himself to use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sence as we now take it that it will be plain violence to imagine that it is Christ that was meant by it And for Popery there is no such matter of danger in using a word Metaphorically Otherwise we we must make the Ancients commonly to be friends to Popery for they ordinarily call the Lords Table and the place where it stood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say The Table and the Sacrarium or place of its standing for this seems plainly the meaning of Ignatius so saith Bishop Vsher Annot. in loc ubi sup Altare apud Patres mensam Dominicam passim denotat apud Ignatium Polycarpum Sacrarium quoque So H. Stephens Altarium Sacrarium See what Learned Mr. Thorndike himself in his Right of the Church c. page 116. saith to this purpose more largely where concerning Ignatius his use of the same word to the Ephesians he saith Where it is manifest that the Church is called a Sanctuary or place of sacrificing Mr. Mead in his Discourse of the name Altar page 14. sheweth that Ignatius by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means the Lords Table and takes Videlius his concession as of a thing that could not be denyed In the Epistle of Ignatius or whoever else to Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna he saith Crebrius celebrantur conventus Synodique Nominatim omnes inquire Servos ancillas ne fastidias as Vairlenius translateth or as Bishop Vshers old Translation Saepe Congregationes fiâ—nt Ex nomine omnes quaere Servos ancillas ne despicias Whether this were Ignatius or not all 's one to me as long as I use it but historically to prove the matter of fact in those times But surely no man should marvail if I hence gather that great Polycarp was Bishop but of one Congregation when he must enquire or take notice of every one of his Congregation by name even as much as servants and maids I would every Parish Minister were so exactly acquainted with his flock Another passage there is in Ignatius to the same purpose Epist. ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Omnes adunati ad Templum Dei concurrite sicut ad unum Altare sicut ad unum Iesum Christum as the vulgar translation Or as Vairlâ—nius Omnes velut unus quispiam in templum Dei concurriâ—â— velut ad utum Alnare ad unum Iesum Christum So the old Latine in Vsher to the same purpose And in the words before going he bids them Come all to one place for prayer Here is no room for Bishop Downams conceit that its Christ that 's meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they are plainly put as distinct things as if he should say come all to one Altar as to one Christ. i. e because it is but one Christ that is there to be partaked of All this doth so evidently prove that in those dayes a Bishop with his Presbytery and Deacons had but one Congregation meeting at one Altar for Church Communion in the Eucharist that it caused Mr. Mead in his Discourse of Churches pag. 48 49 50. Cent. 2. to say as followeth having cited these words of Ignatius Loe here a Temple with an Altar in it whether the Magnesians are exhorted to gather themselves together to pray To come together in one place c. For it is to be observed that in these Primitive times they had but one Altar in a Church as a Symbole both that they worshipped but one God through one Mediator Iesus Christ and also of the Vnity the Church ought to have in it self Whence Ignatius not only here but also in his Epistle to the Philadelphians urgeth the unity of the Altar for a motive to the Congregation to agree together in one For unum Altare saiâ—h he omni Ecclesiae unus Episcopus cum Presbyterio Diaconis conservis meis This custome of one Altar is still retained by the Greek Church The contrary use is a transgression of the Latines not only Symbolically implying but really introducing a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nay more then this it should seem that in those first times before Diocesses were divided into those lesser and subâ—rdinate Churches we caâ—l now Parishes and Presbyters assigned to them they had not only one Altar in one Church or Dominicum but one Altar to a Church taking Church for the company or Corporation of the faithfull united under one Bishop or Pastor and that was in the City or place where the Bishop had his See and Residence like as the Iews had but one Altar and Tempâ—e for the whole Nation united under one high Priest And yet as the Iews had their Synagogues so perhaps might they have more
more have Ministers Ordained by Presbyters a lawfull call to their Ministry But the Prelates say that they had a lawfull Call to their Prelacy therefore c. The reason of the Consequence which only will be denyed is 1. Because the Presbyters are Ordained to an Office that is of Christs Institution but the Prelates are Consecrated to an Office that is not of Christs Institution but against it and against the light of Nature in taking on them the impossible Government of an hundred or many hundred Churches as was shewed in the former Disputation 2. Because the Prelates hold an uninterrupted Succession of Legitimate Ordination necessary to the Being of their Prelacie I mean such as now we dispute against hold this but so do not the Presbyters The said dissenting Prelates are still upon their Nâ—mo dat quod non habet which therefore we may urge upon them And 1. They cannot prove an uninterrupted Succession themselves on whom it is incumbent according to their principles if they will prove their Call 2. We can prove that they are the successors of such as claimed all their Power from the Roman Vicechrist and professed to receive it from him and hold it of him as the Catholick Head and so that their Ordination comes from a seat that hath had many interruptions and so had no power of Ordination by their Rule For when the succession was so oft and long interrupted Nemo dat quod non habet and therefore all that followed must be usurpers and no Popes and those that received their Offices from them must be no Officers But the Presbyters that Ordain will give a better proof of their Call then this Sect. 61. Argument 19. Where the Office is of Gods Institution and the persons are endued with Ministerial abilitities and are Orderly and duly designed and separated to the Office of the sacred Ministry there are true Ministers and Valid administrations But all these are found in the Reformed Churches that have Ordination without Prelates therefore c. The Major is undenyable as containing a sufficient enumeration of all things necessary to the Being of the Ministry Sect. 62. The Minor is proved by parts 1. That the Offiâ—e of a Presbyter is of divine institution is confessed by most And I suppose those that deny it to be of Scripture insâ—iâ—ution will yet have it to be Divine But if they deny that yet it sufficeth us that it is the same officer that they call a Bishop and we a Presbyter that is the chief Pastor of a particular Church Sect. 63. 2. And that the persons are duly or competenly qualified for the Ministry nothing but Ignorance Faction and Malicâ— that ever I heard of do deny Supposing the humane frailties that make us all insufficient gradually for these things The Ignorant that know not what the Ministerial qualifications are do judge as carnal interest leadeth them The Factious rail at all that be not of their mind Grotius thought the opinions of the Calvinists made them unfit materials for the Catholick Edifice that by his Pacification he was about to frame So do most other Sects reject those as unworthy that suit not with their minds And malice whether â—nâ—mated by Heresie Prophaness or Carnal interest will easily find faults and unweariedly slander and reproach But besides such I meet with none that dare deny the competent abilities of these Ministers Sect. 64. And 3. That the persons are Orderly and duly separated to the work of the Ministry is thus proved Where there is a separation to the Ministry by mutual Consent of the person and the flock and by the Magistrates authority and by the Approbation and Investiture of the fittest Ecclesiastical officers that are to be had there is an orderly and due separation to the Ministry But all this is to be found in the Ordination used in England and other Reformed Churches without Prelates therefore c. This proves not only the Validity of their Ordination but the full Regularity Sect. 65. God himself as hath been shewed doth by his Law appoint the Office of the Ministry imposing the duty upon the person that shall be called and giving him his power by that Law And then there is nothing to be done but to detertermine of the person that is to receive this power and solemnly to put him in Possession by Investiture Now the principal part of the former work is done also by God himself by his Qualifying the person with his eminent Gifts and giving him opportunities and advantages for the Work So that the people and Odainers have no more to do but to find out the man that God hath thus qualified and to elect approve and invest him and usually he is easily found out as a candle in the night So that the two great acts by which God maketh Ministers is his Instituting Law that makes the office and his Spiritual and Naturall Endowments given to the person which the Church is but to find out and call into use and exercise And therefore we may still truly say that the Holy Ghost maketh Pastors or Overseers of the Church as well as formerly he did Act. 20.28 because he giveth them their Gifts though not such Miraculous Gifts as some then had By his common Gifts of Knowledge and Utterance and his special Gifts of Grace it is the spirit that still makes Ministers and still Christ giveth Pastors to the Church Sect. 66. It is therefore to be noted that Eph. 4.6 7 8 11 the way of Christs giving officers to his Church is said to be by giving Gifts to men and the diversity of Offices is founded in the diversity of the Measure of Grace or these Gifts To every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he saith Ascending on high he led captivity 〈◊〉 and gave Gifts to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastors and Tâ—â—chers So that giving Gifts and giving Apostles Prophets c. are here made the same work of God Not that 〈…〉 and Approbation of these gifts is hereby made unnecessary but 〈◊〉 this is Gods principal act by which â—e giveth Pastors and Teachers to the Church and by which the Officers aâ—e distinguished For the Church is to discern and submit to those that are thus gifted and to follow the Spirit and not either contraâ—ict or lead him When God hath thus gifted men the main wâ—rk is done for making them Ministers iâ— withall he give tâ—em opportunities and advantages for the work and it is the Churches Duty â—o Own and Approve these Gifts of God and to do their parts to introduce the person And if the Ordainers refuse this in case of Necessity the gifted person is bound to improve his Gifts without them I say in case of Necessity using the best Order that is left Sect. 67. This being premised I come to the Argument § 64. And the
unworthy though they were Ordained by Bishops adding Ordinari nonnunquam indignos non secundum Dei voluntatem sed secundum humanam praesumptionem haec Deo displicere quae non veniant ex legitima justa Ordinatione Deus ipse manifestat c. Necessity may justifie some things that otherwise would be irregularities but when Per urbes singulas that is in every Church Ordinati sint Episcopi in aetate antiqui in fide integri in pressura probati in persecutione proscripti ille super â—os creare alios pseudo-Episcopos audeat this is a fact that the poeple should disown And Qui neque unitatem spiritus nec conjunctionem pacis observat se ab Ecclesiae vinculo atque à Sacerdâ—tum collegio separat Episcopo nec potestatem potest habere nec honorem qui Episcopatus nec unitatem voluit tenere nec pacem Cyprian Epist. 52. ad Antonian Sect. 57. Prop. 5. Solemn Investiture is the last part of Ordination by which the man that by consent of the people and himself and by the Pastors Approbation had received from Christ a Right to the Power and Honour and Priviledges and an Obligation to the Duties of the Office is solemnly introduced and put in Possession of the place Sect. 58. Though in some cases a man may exercise the Ministry upon the foresaid Approbation and Election which are most necessary without this solemn investiture yet is it ordinarily a duty and not to be neglected And the people should require the performance of it I need not stand upon the Proof for it is proved before by what was said for Approbation seeing they have ever gone together Though fundamentally he be a Christian that hath entered Covenant with Christ yet before the Church he is Visibly no Christian that hath not been Baptized or at least made open Profession of that Covenant Though fundamentally they are Husband and Wife that are contracted or knit together by private Consent yet in foro Civili in Law sence and before men they must be solemnly married or else they are judged fornicators And should any fantastical persons seek to cast by this publick investiture or solemn Marriage as unnecessary he would but let in common Whoredoms The solemnity or publication in such Cases is of great Necessity And it s much conducible to the greater obligation of Pastor and people to be solemnly engaged together and to have solemn Prayer for Gods blessing tendeth to their prosperity Sect. 59. When men are Ordained only to the Ministry in General it may be done in one place as well as another that is otherwise convenient But if they are also Ordained to be Pastors of a Particular Church it is the fittest way by far that they be Ordained in the face of the Church that the people and they may be mutually engaged c. Though yet this be not absolutely necessary Sect. 60. And thus I have dispacht with the brevity intended this weighty point concluding with these two requests to my Brethren that shall peruse it 1. That before they let out their displeasure against me for contradicting any of their conceits they would humbly impartially and with modest self-suspicion both study and pray over what they read and not temerariously rush into the battell as pre-engaged men 2. That they will alway keep the faith and charity and self-denyal and tenderness of Christians upon their hearts and the great Ends and Interest of Christ and Christianity before their eyes and take heed how they venture upon any controverted points or practice as a Means that certainly contradicteth the Spirit of Christianity and the great Ends the Churches Unity Peace and Holiness c. which all true means are appointed and must be used to attain And whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule and mind the same things Phil. 3.16 Remembring that in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy and on the Israel of God Gal. 6.15 16. Finitur May 19. 1658. The Third DISPUTATION FOR Such sorts of Episcopacy or Disparity in Exercise of the Ministry as is Desirable or Conducible to the Peace and Reformation of the Churches By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster Anno Dom. 1658. AN Episcopacy Desirable for the Reformation Preservation and Peace of the Churches CHAP. I. Of General unfixed Bishops or Ministers § 1. IT is but delusory dealing of them that make the world believe that the question between the Prelatical Divines and the rest of the Reformed Churches is Whether the Church should be Governed by Bishops This is a thing that is commonly granted But the controversie is about the Species of Episcopacy Not whether Bishops but what sort of Bishops should be the ordinary Governours of the Church of Christ § 2. And therefore it is also very immethodical and unsatisfactory of most that ever I read for Episcopacy that plead only for Episcopacy in General but never once define that sort of Episcopacy which they plead for but go away with it as smoothly when the question is unstated as if they understood themselves and others were capable of understanding them and so they lose their Learned labours § 3. I have already in the first Disputation told you among ten several sorts of Episcopacy which they be that I think desirable and which I judge tolerable aad which intolerable And I have there already given you the Reasons why I judge such a general unfixed Bishop to be of standing use to the Church and world as here we are speaking of and therefore I shall forbear here the repeating of what is said already § 4. That the world and Church should still have such a General Itinerant unfixed Ministry as that was of the Apostles Evangelists and others having there already proved I have nothing to do more but to shew the use of it and to answer the objections that some very learned Reverend Divines have used against it § 5. The principal use of a general Ministry is for the converting of the unconverted world and Baptizing them when converted and Congregating their Converts into Church order and setling them under a fixed Government And the next use of them is to have a Care according to the extent of their capacity and opporunities of the Churches which they have thus Congregated and setled and which are setled by other Ministers § 6. Let it be remembred that we are not now disputing of the Name but of the Thing It is not whether such an Officer of Christ be to be called an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet or a Bishop or a Presbyter But whether unfixed general Ministers to gather Churches and settle them and take the care of many without a special Pastoral charge of any one above the rest were appointed by Christ for continuance in his
and therefore Novelty must not be permitted to exclude them Answ. 1. Let Scripture be the Rule for deciding this which is the chief witness of Antiquity and let the oldest way prevail 2. Forms were at first introduced in Variety and not as necessary for the Churches Unity to Agree in one And they were left to the Pastors Liberty and none were forced to any forms of other mens composing When Basil set up his New forms of Psalmodie and other Worship which the Church of Neocaesarea were so offended at he did not for all that impose it on them but was content to use it in his Church at Caesarea Object 10. No man can now say what is the worship of God among us because there is no Liturgy but its mutable as every person pleases Answ. We have a Liturgy and are agreed in all the parts of worship To have forms or no forms is no part of it but a circumstance or mode THE summ is this 1. We have already a stinted Liturgy 1. A form of Doctrine in Scripture 2. Real forms in Sacraments 3. A verbal form in Baptizing 4. A form in delivering the Lords Supper 5. A Creed used at Baptism as a form of confession 6. We Read the Psalms as Liturgical forms of praise and prayer 7. We have forms of singing Psalms 8. We have a form of blessing the people in the End 9. And of Excommunication see the Government of the Church c. 10. And of Absolution 11. And of Marriage 12. And Ministers preparation makes much of their Sermons a form 13. And they are at liberty to pray in a form if they Please 2. No more is necessary of it self unless accidentally Authority or Peace c. require it 3. If Peace c. require a form let it be one by common Agreement as neer as may be taken out of Scripture even in words and as much of the old as is consistent with this Rule retained 4. Let it not contain any doubtfull or unnecessary things but be as much certain and necessary for the matter as may be 5. Let none be forced to use it but such as by Ordainers or Approvers are judged insufficient to worship God without it and yet are allowed or Tolerated in the Ministry 6. Let no Tolerated Ministers be Absolutely forbidden to use it 7. Let none be suffered to lay the Vnity and Peace of the Church on it and suspend excommunicate or reproach all that dissent from them in using or not using it 8. In times of Liberty let none use it constantly but the unable before excepted But let the weaker use it ofâ—â—er and the abler seldomer yet sometimes voluntarily and caeteris paribus still looking to the state of their flocks and fitting all to their Edification 9. When Magistrates command it or the Agreement of Pastors and Peace of the Churches though accidentally by mens infirmity require it let none refuse the frequent use of lawfull forms 10. But let none desire or endeavour the introducing of any such Necessity of this or any indifferent thing that is not first Necessary by some considerable antecedent occasion to the Edification of the Church This much will please the moderate but not the self conceited FINIS The Fifth DISPUTATION Of Humane CEREMONIES Whether they are necessary or profitable to the Church and how far they may be imposed or observed By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster Anno Dom. 1658. Qu. Whether Humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Church CHAP. I. Distinctions and Propositions in order to the Decision § 1. THE discussion of the Controversie about the Etymologie of the word Ceremony is unnecessary to our ends and would be more troublesome then usefull Whether it be derived ab oppido Caere or à carendo or à Caritate or à Cerere as several mens conjectures run or rather as Scaliger and Martinius think from Cerus which in veteri lingua erat sanctus it sufficeth us that it signifieth a sacred rite Servius saith that all sacred things among the Greeks were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and among the Latines Ceremoniae But by Ceremonies we mean only external Rites or Orders in or about the worship of God And by Humane we mean such as are devised and appointed to be used by men without any special Revelation from God or any extraordinary inspiration of his Spirit by which the institution might have been justly ascribed to God as the certain principal cause § 2. There is so much ambiguity partly in the terms and partly in the supposed or implyed passages that will rise before us in the dispute that I judge it necessary to make the way to the true decision of the controversie and your right understanding of it by these distinctions following and then to lay down the truth in certain Propositions § 3. Dist. 1. We must distinguish between such Ceremonies as God hath left to humane determination in his worship and such as he hath not so left but hath either 1. Expresly forbidden them in particular 2. Or in a General prohibition forbidden them or 3. Hath given no man authority to institute them So great difference is there between things that commonly go under the name of Ceremonies that they are not in this Controversie to be confounded if we would not lose the truth § 4. Dist. 2. We must distinguish between Ceremonies commanded by man as in Gods name and by pretence of a Commission from him and such as are only commanded in mens own names or at least on pretence of nothing but a General Power § 5. Dist. 3. We must distinguish between Ceremonies commanded by men as necessary duties or means of worship and such as are only commanded as indifferent things § 6. Dist. 4. We must distinguish between Ceremonies imposed by a Lawfull Magistrate or Church-Governours and such as are imposed by usurpers or men without authority § 7. Dist. 5. We must distinguish between Ceremonies imposed as Vniversally to be practised by all ages or all people in the Church at least and such as are imposed only on some one Congregation or Nation by their proper Governours and that as things mutable that upon special occasion were taken up and may so be laid aside again § 8. Dist. 6. We must distinguish between Ceremonies commanded as things necessary to the being of the Church or Worship or only necessary to the Order and convenient administration and better being of them in the judgement of the imposers § 9. Dist. 7. We must distinguish between the absolute command of Governors imposing such ceremonies upon grievous penalties or without tolerations and the simple recommending them or requiring them to be used with expressed or implyed exceptions § 10. Dist. 8. We must very much difference the several Countreys where such things are imposed and the several sorts of People on whom and the several seasons in which they are
imposed and thence foresee the effects or consequents that are like to follow § 11. Dist. 9. We must distinguish between the Commanding of such Ceremonies and the Obeying of such Commands It s one thing to ask whether it be necessary profitable or lawfull to Impose them and another whether it be necessary or lawfull to use them when commanded § 12. Dist. 10. We must distinguish between that which is Necessary or Profitable to the order or Peace of one Church or Nation and that which is necessary or profitable to the order peace or unity of many Churches or Nations among themselves or supposed to be so § 13. These Distinctions premised to remove ambiguity I lay down that which I conceive to be the truth in these Propositions following which having mentioned I shall re-assume and confirm such of them as seem of neerest concernment to the Question § 14. Prop. 1. Such Ceremonies as God hath wholly exempted from humane power to determine of or institute or hath given man no power to institute are not necessary or profitable to the Church nor may they lawfully be instituted by man § 15. Prop. 2. In such unlawfull Impositions it is a great aggravation of the sin if men pretend that they are the Institutions of God or that they have a Commission from God to institute or impose them when it is no such matter and so pretend them to be Divine § 16. Prop. 3. If things unlawfull either forbidden or that want authority are commanded as indifferent it is a sinfull command but if commanded as parts of Gods Worship or necessary to the Being or well being of the Church it is an aggravation of the sin § 17. Prop. 4. Things indifferent lawfull and convenient are sinfully Commanded when they are pretended to be more necessary then they are and as such imposed § 18. Prop. 5. A thing convenient and profitable is sinfully commanded when it is commanded on a greater penalty then the nature and use of it doth require and the common good will bear § 19. Prop. 6. It is not lawfull to make any thing the subjects Duty by a command that is meerly Indifferent antecedently both in it self and as cloathed with all accidents § 20. Prop. 7. Some things may be lawfully and profitably commanded at one time and place and to one sort of People that may not be lawfully commanded at another time or to another people no nor obeyed if so commanded § 21. Prop. 8. Those Orders may be Profitable for the Peace of the Churches in one Nation or under the Government of one Prince that are not necessary or profitable in order to the unity or Peace of the Churches under divers Princes § 22. Prop. 9. There is no meer humane Vniversal Soveraign Civil or Ecclesiastical over the Catholick Church and therefore there is no power given to any from God to make Laws that shall universally bind the Catholick Church § 23. Prop. 10. If it be not our own Lawfull Governors Civil or Ecclesiastical but Vsurpers that command us we are not therefore bâ—und to obey them though the things be lawfull § 24. Prop. 11. The Commands of lawfull Governors about lawfull Ceremonies are ordinarily to be understood with exceptions though there be none exprest as that in certain cases it is not their will that such commands should bind us § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used by the subject when they are commanded § 26. Prop. 13. Though they are not Commanded nor called Necessary but professed to be indifferent yet constantly to use Indifferent things doth breed that custome which maketh them to be taken as necessary by the people and usually doth very much hurt § 27. Prop. 14. Yet certain things that are commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no person should disobey the commands of their lawfull Governors in such things § 28. Having laid together these Propositions I shall review them in a very short explication and confirmation and insist more largely on those of chief concernment CHAP. II. Such Ceremonies as God hath forbidden or given man no Power to institute are not to be imposed on the Church as profitable or lawfull § 1. THAT some Ceremonies things commonly so called may Lawfully be commanded and some not me thinks should easily be yielded I meet with none tâ—at are against all indeed though some think the name Ceremony unfitly applyed to those Circumstances which they consent to And that any should think that the wit and will of Ceremonie-makers hath no bounds imposed by God is most unreasonable All the business therefore is to know what God hath authorized Governors to institute and what not § 2. And here they that claim a Power of introducing new Institutions must produce their Commission and Prove their power if they expect obedience For we are not bound to obey every man that will tell us he hath such Power § 3. For the right understanding of this it must be supposed as a Truth that all Protestants are agreed in that the written word of God is his law for the government of the universal Church to the end of the world and consequently that it is sufficient in its kind and to its use and consequently that nothing is to be introduced that shall accuse that law of imperfection or which did belong to God himself to have imposed by his law If we once forsake the Scripture sufficiency what ever the Papists or Infidels vainly say against it we have nothing left in which we may agree § 4. God hath already in his written Laws instituted his publick worship-ordinances and therefore he hath done it perfectly and therefore he hath not left it unto man to come after him and mend his work by making other ordinances of worship as to the substance of them He hath given us one faith and no man may preach another and one Baptism and no man may institute another and so of the like If any one bring another Gospel though an Angel he is to be accursed Gal. 1.7 8. § 5. Yet is it in the Power of man to determine of such Modes and Circumstances as are necessary to the prrformance of that worship which God hath instituted in his word And therefore lawfull Governors may in such cases bind us by their commands § 6. The things that are committed to humane determination are such as are commanded in general by God himself either in Scripture or nature but are left undetermined in specie vel individuo so that it is not a thing indifferent whether a choice or determination be made or not but only whether it be this or the other that is chosen by the determination But where the thing it self in genere is not necessary or no humane election or determination necessary because God himself hath determined
souls are said to be the greater and remoter ends â—nd the glory of God the ultimate end If then I have good assurance that I cannot use such or such a ceremony but it will prove the subversion of Order or Edification though it should be by accident through the infirmity of men I know no reason I have to use them when such a mischief would follow unless they can shew me some greater good that also will follow which may recompence it § 3. Therefore the commanding of unnecessary ceremonies on such Penalty as was done in England and Scotland to the silencing of the Preacâ—â—rs and dissipating of the flocks and casting out that worship or hindring that Edification that was pretended to be their end was preposterous both in the commanders and obeyers and proved not convenient means to the ends pretended § 4. If I be enjoyned by the Magistrates whom I mention as of more undoubted authority then our Bishops to read such and such chapters and preach on such and such texts through the year I am in reason to interpret their commands with this exception when it doth not apparently cross the main end So that if in my course I should be commanded to read and preach of an aliene subject when my hearers are running into schism sedition heresie c. I will suppose that if the Magistrate were present he would allow me to read or preach according to the matter of present necessity And if I were commanded to read the Common prayer in a Surplice and other formalities I hope if the Church were all in an uproar and the stools flying about my ears as the women at Edinburgh used the Bishop I might think it would not tend in that Congregation to order or Edification to use such Ceremonies Were they things of Gods institution they would not edifie the people till they were prepared to receive them and therefore that preparation should go first § 5. Indeed it is the Pastors office to be the guide of his flock in the worship of God and therefore to judge pro re nata what subject to speak on to them and what circumstances to choose that may be most suitable to time and place and persons to promote his ends even the good of souls And therefore no Magistrates should take the work or power of Pastors from them though they may oversee them in the use of it CHAP. XII Prop. 12. It may be very sinfull to command some ceremonies when yet it may be the subjects Duty to use them when they are commanded § 1. I Add this Proposition as necessary both for Rulers and for Subjects For Rulers that they may not think that all may be lawfully Commanded which may be lawfully done when it is commanded And for subjects lest they think that all things are unlawfull to be done which are sinfully commanded § 2. Some Governors think that the Sermons and Arguments that charge the people with sin for disobeying them do all justifie them for making the Laws which others should obey And all the words that are spent in aggravating the sin of the disobedient they think are spoken in justification of their commands And on the contrary many people think that all that is said against the laws or penalties is said in justification of their disobedience And they are so lamentably weak that they cannot discern how that can lawfully be obeyed that is sinfully commanded when yet the case is very plain § 3. If a thing be simply unlawfull as being forbidden by God himself there no command of man can make it lawfull But if it be but inconvenient or evil only by some accident or circumstance it is possible for the commands of Governors to take off the accidental evil and make it become a duty For example It is not lawfull for me to travail one mile in vain nor is it lawfull for a Prince to command me to travail a mile in vain And yet if he send me such a command to appear before him at such a place yea though it be many miles it may become my duty to obey him Otherwise subjects should not be bound to appear before any judicature till they were satisfied of the cause which is absurd I a Prince command his officers to execute some unjust sentences if they know it not at least it may be no sin of theirs in many cases though it be his Every war that is unlawfully undertaken by the Prince is not unlawfull in all his Souldiers Some of them that have not opportâ—nity to know the evil of his undertaking may be bound to obey the case of others I determine not § 4. So if a Pastor call the Assembly at an inconvenient hour or to an inconvenient place though it be his sin to do so yet is it their Duty to obey If in the manner of Prayer he tolerably miscarry they may not therefore refuse to join with him If of two Translations of Scripture or two versions of the Psalms he use the worser so it be tolerable they must obey § 5. Yet if the miscarriage be so great in the ordering even of these circumstances or in the Manner of Duties as shall overthrow the Duty it self and be inconsistent with the ends or bring greater evils upon the Church then our refusing to obey the Pastors in those cases can do then as I have before shewed we are not bound to follow him in such a case But otherwise we are § 6. The Reasons of this are obvious and clear Even because it is the office of the Governours to determine of such Circumstances It is the Pastors office to guide and oveâ—see the flock And so the determining of Time and Place of woâ—ship that 's undetermined belongeth to his office and the choice of the subject on which he shall preach the leading them in prayer and praise and choice of versions translations and other ordinary helps in his work And therefore when he determineth these he is but in his own way and doth but his own work and therefore he is therein the judge if the case be controvertible If none shall obey a Magistrate or Pastor in the works of their own office as long as they think he did them not the best way all Government then would be presently overthrown and obedience denyed We are sure that God hath commanded us to obey thâ—m that are over us in the Lord 1 Thes. 5.12 Heb. 13.7 17 c. And therefore a Certain duty may not be foâ—born upon uncertain conjectures or upon every miscarriage in them that we owe it to This would unchurch aâ—l Churches as they are Political Societies For if Pastors be taken down and the work of Pastors the Church is taken down And if Government and obedience be taken down then Pastors and their work is taken down Which will be the fruit of this disorder § 7. And the things in which the Pastor is now supposed to err are not of themselves unlawfull
abomination to exhort and direct men to preach and pray and praise God If it be the Omission of his forms and Ceremonies that is no Part of the book and if it be some Directions that are against them they that revile the Common Prayer book as most Papists have done or they that count such Ceremonies and Forms indifferent things as others have done have little reason to account that so great an abomination that directeth men to omit them What abominable thing is imposed by the Directory Tell us if you can What excellent things doth Thuanus speak of the Presbyterians or Calvinists and how highly doth he extol the most of their Leaders or Teachers whom he mentioneth But to Mr. Pierce what a bloody perfidious sort of men are they unfit to live in a Commonwealth And to Grotius the Protestants are not only of bad lives but by the Power of their Doctrine they are such I have shewed you in my Key for Catholicks how great the praises of Calvin are in the mouth of Papir Massonius and other sober Papists and the same may be said of others of our Divines who are mentioned by you with most calumniating odious words Even Maldonate the Jesuite when he is railâ—ng at the Calvinists confesseth of them in Matth. 7.15 that Nothing was in their mouths but the Lord and our heavenly Father and Christ and Faith an Oath was not heard nothing appeared in their deeds but Alms-deeds and Temperance and Modesty Is this like your language of them Nay if Satan had dictated to him how could he have uttered more falshood and detestable calumniation then Mr. Pierce hath done p. 73. when he saith were Hacket Lancaster Arthington and others hanged for Non-conformity or was it nothing but Ceremonial which Coppinger c. designed against the lives of the whole privy Council and against the person of the Queen were not Cartwright and Travers and Wentworth and Egerton and other Presbyterian Ministers privy to the plot The Lord will rebuke this slanderous tongue Did ever Cochlaeus or Bolseck go beyond this man How fully is it known that Hacket and his Companions were Grundlâ—tonians or Familists just such as James Nailor and the Quakers who are far nearer the Papists then the Puritans or Presbyterians and that they madly came into London Coppinger and Arthington as his two Prophets proclaiming Hacket to be Iesus Christ and that for obstinate insisting on this Blasphemy Hacket was hanged and dyed blaspheming and Arthington upon his Repentance published the whole Story of the begining and progress of the business as you may see it in the Book called Arthingtons Seduction In which their madness blasphemy or any Treason of theirs or others this man might as honestly have said that Augustine or Luther or Cranmer had an hand or were privy to the plot as Cartwright Travers and such Presbyterian Ministers What he hath read in Bancroft I know not nor much regard till Bancroft himself be better cleared of what he is by writers charged with concerning Ficlerus Dolman c. and while he was known to be the most violent persecutor of the Puritans But I see as the Papists will take it for a currant truth that Luther was fetcht away by the Devil and that Calvin was stigmatized for Sodomy and dyed blaspheming c. if they can but say that one Cochlaeus or Bolseck of their own hath spoke it so such men among us dare tell the world the most odious falshoods of Cartwright Travers and the Presbyterian Ministers if they can but say that Bancroft said it before them And now the rest may take it as unquestionable when Mr. Pierce hath said it Do these men believe that there is a day of Iudgement If they do they make but lamentable preparation for it And his assertion pag. 77. that Excommunicating Kings and killing them is the doctrine of the Presbyterians and much more of his writing is of the same kind To this I have given him an Answer in my Key for Catholicks where he shall see whether Papists or Protestants are for King-killing Had you not gone so far beyond such moderate Papists as Cassander Hospitalius Massonius Bodin Thuanus c. in your enmity and bitterness against the Protestants as clearly to contradict them and to speak blood and venom when they speak charitably and honourably we might have had more peaceable neighbours of you though none of your Communion And I suppose that those who separate from us as having no true Ministry or Churches would have all these Ministers that they take for none to be silenced and cast out I do not think you will deny this to be your desire and your purpose if ever you should have power And if so what men are you and what a case would you bring this Nation in To your Objections I have answered in this book and said somewhat more to you in another Preface And upon the whole matter am forced now to conclude that it is an Enmity to holiness in unsanctified hearts that is the principal cause of our distance and divisions and that the way to convince such men as too many are that we deal with is not Disputing but praying to the Lord to change their hearts And that if we could once perswade them but to the Love of God and Holiness and to a serious practice of Christian Religion and if they be Bishops to a faithful practice of those works of a Bishop which they confess are his duty and to try Church-Government before they plead for what was never tryed by them our Controversies would then be ended they would never more plead for such a Prelacy that destroyeth Piety and Discipline nor never revile the Servants of the Lord nor never desire so much to promote the work of Hell as the casting out all that they account no Ministers and the casting off of all that they account no Ordinances or valid Administrations would be Farewel Disputing with such men in order to their Conviction and an healing peace Hoc non est artis sed pietatis opus POSTSCRIPT WHat the Publisher of Dr. Stewards Sermon doth mean by his Commmending it to my Consideration when there is not a word in it that I am concerned in more then he I understand not If he thereby intimate that I charged Dr. Steward to be of Grotius's Religion or any other that disowneth it he egregiously abuseth his Reader and himself If he intend to argue that none of the Prelatical Party were Grotians because Dr. Steward was not Let him prove his Consequence I disprove it 1. From the testimony of Grotius himself 2. From the mouths and books of those that have owned Grotius among us even since they were acquainted with his judgement and have owned his Votum Discussio in particular If his meaning be that Dr. Steward was a Grotian and yet no Papist therefore Grotians are no Papists one branch of his antecedent is false Either he
4. So great is the difference between men and men times and times that forms may be a duty to some men and at some times and a sin to other men and at other times p. 368. Prop. 5. The Ministers and Churches that earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be absolutely and generally prohibited the use of a convenient stinted Liturgy p. 372. Prop. 6. To prescribe a form of prayer preaching or other service where is no necessity of it and to lay a Necessity on it as to the thing it self or the Churches peace c. and to punish silence suspend excommunicate or reproach as Schismaticks the able godly peaceable Ministers or People that justly or unjustly dare not use it is so great a sin that no godly Ministers should desire or attempt it nor any godly Magistrate suffer it p. 373. Prop. 7. The safest way of composing a stinted Liturgy is to take it all or as much as may be for words as well as matter out of the holy Scripture p. 378. Prop. 8. Yet is it lawful to use a Liturgy that is not so taken out of Scripture as to words p. 380. Prop. 9. The matter of a Liturgy in which the Concord of many is expected must not be doubtful or unnecessary things ibid. Prop. 10. Humane forms of publick prayer or other worship excepting the fore-excepted necessary cases as Psalms c. should not be constantly used by Ministers that have liberty and are able to pray without them Nor should any ordinarily be admitted into the Ministry except in great Necessities of the Church that are not able to pray without such forms p. 381. Objections on both sides p. 386. The summ of this Dispute p. 392. DISPUTATION 5. Qu. WHether humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Church p. 395. Chap. 1. Distinctions and Propositions in order to the decision ibid. Chap. 2. Ceremonies forbidden or which man hath not power to institute are not to be imposed as profitable or lawful p. 399. which those be Instances of all our commonly controverted Ceremonies considered p. 409. Chap. 3. In such unlawful impositions it is an aggravation of the sin if Ceremonies are pretended to be Divine p. 425. Chap. 4. If things unlawful are commanded as indifferent or things indifferent as necessary they are sinfully imposed and the more because of such pretenses p. 427. Chap. 5. A lawful and convenient thing is sinfully imposed when it is imposed on a greater penalty then the nature and use of it doth require or then the common good will bear p. 429. Chap. 6. It is not lawful to make any thing the subjects duty by a Command that is meerly indifferent antecedently both in it self and as cloathed with its accidents p 433. Chap. 7. Some things may be lawfully and profitably commanded at one Time and Place and to one sort of People that may not at or to another no nor be obeyed if commanded p. 439. Chap 8. Those orders may be profitable for the peace of the Churches in one Nation that are not necessary to the peace of the Churches of many Nations p. 445. Chap. 9. There is no meer Humane Vniversal Soveraign Civil or Ecclestastical over the whole Church and therefore none to make Laws obligatory to the whole p. 448. Chap. 10. If it be not our Lawful Governors that command us but usurpers we are not formally bound to obey them though the things be lawful which they command p. 452. Chap. 11. The Commands of lawful Governors about lawful Ceremonies must be understood and obeyed with such exceptions as do secure the End and not to the subverting of it p. 458. Chap. 12. It may be very sinful to command some Ceremonies when yet it may be the subjects duty to use them when they are commanded p. 460. Chap. 13. The Constant use of things indifferent should not be commanded ordinarily see the exceptions but they should be sometimes used sometimes not p. 464. Chap. 14. Thirty Reasons against the imposing of our late Controverted Mystical Ceremonies as Crossing Surplice c. p. 467. Chap. 15. Reasons perswading to Obedience in Lawful things p. 483. ERRATA PAge 10. l. 4. r. had not been by themselves p. 24. l. 23. for Philetas r. Alexander p. 30. l. penult for Perfect r. President p. 33. l. 34 35. r. the 2000th or 3000th person p. 37. l. 34. for it r. is p. 41. l. 9. r. Presbyterie p. 72. l. ult for that r. the. p. 77. l. 24. r. occasioning p. 78. l. 16. r. had in it p. 81. l. 1. blot out any l. 28. for at all r. all l. 29. blot out the. p. 87. l. 17. for had r. have Marg. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 88. l. 17. for Prelacy r. Policarpe l. 37. for there that r. that there p. 89. l. 2. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 93. l. 3. r. he was and l. 34. for ad r. at p. 94. l. 29. r. we well p. 95. Marg. l. 31. r. Blondel and l. 33. for yet r. and. p. 96. l. 9. r. Churches p. 97. l. 5. for Scholarum r. Scotorum p. 100. Marg. l. 13. for no r. on p 104. l. 8. for I mean r. I wave p. 106. l. 4. for that r. the. Disp. 2. Pref. p. 117. l. 16. for pass r. pasâ— p. 118 l. 30. blot out and. p. 121. l. 14. r. Bishop p. 124. l. 17. r. Iansenius p. 137. l. 5. r. Members p. 139. l. 5. for men r. run p. 157. l. 3. 4. r. pleasure Pastors l. 34. r. and. p. 160. l. 2. r. will p. 163. l. 11. for Proctors r. Doctors p 166. l. 14. r. sin in the. p. 169. l. 6. blot out upon p. 181. l. 26. r. owed p. 182. l. 11. r. And yet p. 18â— l. ult for as r. at p. 184. l. 3. for Art 11. r. Act. 11. p. 191. l. 29. for he r. the l. 37. for decase r. depose p. 194. l. 29. for and r. c. p. 199. l. 13. for Art 11. r. Act. 11. p. 219. l. 1. r. Arrianus p. 229. l. 32. for three and four r. third fourth p. 241. l. 22. for name r. main p. 245. l. 14. for Davenant r. Davenport p. 253. l. 18. blot out do p. 265. l. 12. blot out to p. 277. l. 2. r. one the. l 12. r. works p. 291. l. 18. for the r. that p. 316. l. 16. r. as their p. 317. l. 23. for Overseers r. Others p. 328. l. 21. r. Bâ—hmenists p. 339. l. 16. r. had no other p. 340. l. 9. r. the least p. 367. l. 9. r. add to p. 372. l. 21. for hâ— r. the. p. 409. l. 34. r. but what was p. 420. l. 16. r. of the Will p. 421. l. 26. for them r. than p. 430. l. 28. r. Law An Advertisement to prevent misunderstanding MY exceeding scarcity of time constraining me to write these Papers in much haste and allowing me but a cursory perusal of
authority and gifts I think was done in Scripture times and might have been after if it had not then And my judgement is that ordinarily every particular Church such as our Parish Churches are had more Elders then One but not such store of men of eminent gifts as that all these Elders could be such But as if half a dozen of the most judicious persons of this Parish were Ordained to be Elders of the same Office with my self but because they are not equally fit for publick preaching should most imploy themselves in the rest of the Oversight consenting that the publick preaching lie most upon me and that I be the Moderator of them for Order in Circumstantials This I think was the true Episcopacy and Presbytery of the first times From the mistake of which two contrary Errors have arisen The one of those that think this Moderator was of another Office in specie having certain work assigned him by God which is above the reach of the Office of Presbyters to perform and that he had many fixed Churches for his charge The other of them that think these Elders were such as are called now Lay-elders that is Vnordained men authorized to Govern without Authority to Preach Baptize or Administer the Lords Supper And so both the Prelatical on one side and the Presbyterians and Independents on the other side run out and mistake the ancient form and then contend against each other This was the substance of what I wrote to Mr. Vines which his subjoyned Letter refers to where he signifieth that his judgement was the same When Paul and Barnabas were together Paul was the chief speaker and yet Barnabas by the Idolaters called Jupiter Nature teacheth us that men in the same Office should yet have the preheminence that 's due to them by their Age and Parts and Interests c. and that Order should be kept among them as in Colledges and all Societies is usual The most excellent part of our work is publick preaching but the most of it for quantity is the rest of the Oversight of the Church in Instructing personally admonishing reproving enquiring into the truth of accusations comforting visiting the sick stablishing the weak looking to the poor absolving answering doubts excommunicating and much more And therefore as there is a necessity as the experienced know of many Elders in a particular Church of any great number so it is fit that most hands should be most imployed about the said works of Oversight yet so as that they may preach as need and occasion requireth and administer Sacraments and that the eminent Speakers be most employed in publick preaching yet so as to do their part of the rest as occasion requireth And so the former Elders that Rule well shall be worthy of double honour but especially these that labour in the Word and Doctrine by more ordinary publick preaching And such kind of seldom-preaching Ministers as the former were in the first times and should be in most Churches yet that are numerous Sect. 6. When I speak in these Papers therefore of other mens Concessions that there were de facto in Scripture times but One Bishop without any subject Presbyters to a particular Church remember that I speak not my own judgement but urge against them their own Concessions And when I profess my Agreement with them it is not in this much less in all things for then I needed not disspute against them but it is in this much that in Scripture times there was de facto 1. No meer Bishop of many particular Churches or stated worshipping Congregations 2. Nor any distinct Office or Order of Presbyters that radically had no Power to Ordain or Govern or Confirm c. which are the subject Presbyters I mean Sect. 7. Specially remember that by Bishops in that dispute I mean according to the Modern use one that is no Archbishop and yet no meer Presbyter but one supposed to be between both that is a Superior to meer Presbyters in Order or Office and not only in degree or modification of the exercise but below Archbishops whether in Order or Degree These are they that I dispute against excluding Metropolitans or Archbishops from the question and that for many Reasons Sect. 8. If it were proved or granted that there were Archbishops in those times of Divine Institution it would no whit weaken my Arguments For it is only the lowest sort of Bishops that I dispute about yea it confirmeth them For if every combination of many particular Churches had an Archbishop then the Governors of such Combinations were not meer Bishops and then the meer Bishops were Parish Bishops or Bishops of single Churches only and that is it that I plead for against Diocesan Bishops that have many of these Churches perhaps some hundreds under one Bishop of the lowest rank having only Presbyters under him of another Order Sect. 9. If any think that I should have answered all that is written for an Apostolical Institution of Metropolitans or of Archbishops or of the subject sort of Presbyters or other points here toucht I answer them 1. In the former my work was not much concerned nor can any man prove me engaged to do all that he fancieth me concerned to do 2. Few men love to be contradicted and confuted and I have no reason to provoke them further then necessity requireth it 3. I take not all that I read for an argument so considerable as to need Replyes If any value the Arguments that I took not to need an Answer let them make their best of them I have taken none of them out of their hands by robbing them of their Books if they think them valid let them be so to them Every Book that we write must not be in folio and if it were we should leave some body unanswered still I have not been a contemner or neglecter of the writings of the contrary-minded But voluminously to tell the world of that I think they abuse or are abused in is unpleasing and unprofitable Sect. 10. And as to the Jus Divinum of limited Diocesses to the Apostles as Bishops and of Archbishops Metropolitans c. I shall say but this 1. That I take not all for currant in matter of fact that two or three or twice so many say was done when I have either cross testimony or valid Reasons of the improbability I believe such Historians but with a humane faith and allow them such a degree of that as the probability of their report and credibility of the persons doth require 2. I take it for no proof that all that was done in all the Churches that I am told was done in some 3. I take the Law of Nature and Scripture to be the entire Divine Law for the Government of the Church and World 4. And therefore if any Father or Historian tell me that this was delivered by the Apostles as a Law to the Vniversal Church which is not contained in Scriptures
nor to be proved by them I will not believe them no more then I would have believed Papius and all his Millenary followers that pretended Tradition from Saint John nor any more then I would have believed the Asians or Romans that pretended different times for Easter as a Tradition Apostolical binding the whole Church 5. If it were proved that de facto the Apostles did thus or thus dispose of a circumstance of Government or Worship which yet is undetermined in Scripture I take it not for a sufficient proof that they intended that Fact for an Universal Law or that they meant to bind all the Churches in all ages to do the like no more then Christ intended at the Institution of his Supper to tie all ages to do it after Supper in an upper room but with twelve and sitting c. 6. Yea if I had found a Direction or Command from the Apostles as Prudential determiners of a Circumstance pro tempore loco only as of the kiss of love hair covering eating things strangled and blood c. I take it not for a proof that this is an universal standing Law One or two of these exceptions wil shake off the proofs that some count strong for the universal obligation of the Church to Diocesans or Metropolitans Sect. 11. That the Apostles had Episcopal Power I mean such in each Church where they came as the fixed Bishops had I doubt not And because they founded Churches according to the success of their labors and setled them and if they could again visited them therefore I blame not the Ancients for calling them the Bishops of those Churches But that each man of them was really a fixed Metropolitan or Patriarch or had his proper Diocess in which he was Governor in chief and into which no other Apostle might come as an equal Governor without his leave this and such like is as well proved by silence as by all that I have read for it of Reason or History that is the Testimonies of the Ancients I find them sometime claiming a special interest in the Children that they have begotten by their Ministry But doubtless when Paul Barnabas or Silas went together some might be converted by one and some by another within the same Diocess or City If any man shall convince me that any great stress doth lie upon this questioÌ„ I shal be willing to give him more of my reasons for what I say Sect. 12. And as to them that confidently teach that the Apostles suited the Ecclesiastical Government to the Politick and that as by a Law for the Church universally to obey All the confutation at present that I will trouble them with shall be to tell them that I never saw any thing like a proof of it to my understanding among all the words that are brought to that purpose and to tell them 1. That if Paul chose Ephesus Corinth and other the most populous places to preach in it was but a prudential circumstantiating of his work according to that General Law of doing all to Edification and not an obligation on all the Pastors or Preachers of the Gospel to do the same where the case is not the same 2. And if Paul having converted many in these Cities do there plant Churches and no other can be proved in Scripture times it follows not that we may plant no Churches but in Cities 3. And if the greatest Cities had then the most numerous Churches and the most eminent Pastors fitted to them and therefore are named with some note of excellency above the rest it followeth not that the rest about them were under them by subjection 4. Yea if the Bishops of the chief Cities for order sake were to call Provincial Assemblies and the meetings to be in their Cities and they were to be the Presidents of the rest in Synods with such like circumstantial difference it followeth not that they were proper Governours of the rest and the rest to obey them in the Government of their proper charges Nor that they had power to place and displace them 5. Much less will it prove that these Metropolitans taking the name of Diocesans might put down all the Bishops of two hundred Churches under them and set up none but Presbyters in order distinct from Bishops over the flocks besides themselves and so the Archbishops having extinguished all the first Order of Bishops of single Churches to take the sole Government of so many Churches even people as well as Presbyters into their own hands 6. And I do not think that they can prove that the Apostles did institute as many sorts of Church-Government then as there were of civil â—olicy in the world All the world had not the Roman form of Government Nor had lesser Cities the same dependence upon greater in all other Countryes 7. Was it in one degree of subordination of Officers only or in all that the Apostles suited the Ecclesiasticall Government to the Civil If in One how is it proved that they intended it in that one and not in the rest If in all then we must have many degrees of Officers more then yet we have Inferiors very many and Superiors some of all conscience too high then we must have some to answer the Correctors the Consular Presidents and the Vicars and Lieutenants the Pro-consuls and Prefects and the Emperor himself Even one to be Vniversal in the Empire that 's yet some Limit to the Pope and will hazzard the removing of the Supremacy to Constantinople by the Rule that the Apostles are supposed to go by And great variety must there be in the several Diocesses of the Empire which Blondell hath punctually described de primatu in Eccles. pag. 511. to 519. shewing the causes of the inequality of Bishopricks and Churches 8. According to this Opinion the form of Church must alter as oft as Emperours will change their Policy or Wars shall change them And upon every change of the Priviledges of a City the Churches Preheminence must change and so we shall be in a mutable frame Which if Basil and Anthymius had understood might have quicklier decided their controversie Yea according to this opinion Princes may quite take down Metropolitans at pleasure by equalling the priviledges of their Cities The best is then that it is in the power of our Civil Governours to dissolve our obligation to Metropolitans yea and to all Bishops too if Cities must be their only residence as I have shewed Sect. 13. As for them that pretend humane Laws for their form of Government that is the decrees of General Councils I answer 1. I disown and deny all humane Laws as obligatory to the Church Vniversal It is the prerogative of God yea the greatest point of the exercise of his Soraignty to be the Law-giver to his Vniversal Church There can be no Vniversal Laws without an Vniversal Law-giver and there is no Vniversal Law-giver under Christ in the world 2. And for General
Councils since Scripture times at least there have beeen no such things nor any thing like them unless the Roman Empire yea a piece of it be the whole world I know therfore no humane Vniversal Laws whether it be for forms of Government Liturgies Holy dayes or any thing else Sect. 14. But the principal matter that tends to end our dâ—fference is the right understanding of the Nature of that Government that is properly Ecclesiastical What is it that we must have Diocesans and Metropolitans to do besides what I have granted to Apostolical Bishops in the third Dispute Is it to Teach or Rule the people of the particular Churches They cannot do it at so great distance not knowing them nor conversing with them at least so well as they that are on the place as the ancient Bishops were Is it to Rule the Presbyters only Why then hath not every Church a Bishop to Rule the flock but a Presbyter that is forbidden to Rule them in all that which they call Iurisdiction themselves And how is it that Presbyters shall be Ruled by Diocesans and the Diocesans by Provincials not by force For the Pastors have no coercive power by violence or touching mens bodies or estates Is it by bare commanding Why what will that do on dissenters that disobey shall they depose the Bishops or Presbyters that disobey them But how Not by any force but command or exhortation or Excommunication They can do no more that I know of And what if they excommunicate a Pastor Let the case be supposed as now it is among us What if a Bishop with the few that adhere to him excommunicated all the Pastors in the County that are not satisfied of the Divine Right of Diocesans or of the lawfulness of all his imposed Ceremonies and Forms The people will take it to be their duty most generally where the Ministry hath been savingly effectual to own their Pastors notwithstanding such an Excommunication and the Pastors will take it to be their duty to go on with their work and the excommunication will do no good unless perhaps to make some Division and make both parties the scorn of the ungodly or procure the rabble to rail more bitterly at their Pastors and hate all their advice be a desireable good And as when the Pope excommunicated them some Bishops again excommunicated the Pope so some of these Pastors its like would excommunicate their Metropolitans And why a Bishop or at least a Synod of Bishops may not cast a wicked Metropolitan out of their communion is past my understanding to conceive Synods are for Communion of Churches and if we had a Monarchical National Church in conformity to the Common-wealth I know not how it would stand with the Law of God for the whole Nation to hold Communion with an Heretical Primate A Roman Synod deposed John the thirteenth and other Popes have been deposed by Councils I conclude therefore that what ever power men claim if the Magistate interpose not which is extrinsick to the Church-Government in question it will work but on mens Judgements call it Deposing Excommunicating or what you please and this power no man can take from you but by hindring you to speak You may now depose thus and excommunicate whom you please and when they have sleighted it or excommunicated you again you will have done Nay I think you do excommunicate us already For you withdraw from our Communion and draw many with you and so you exercise your power I mean it of that party that in the second Disputation I have to do with Sect 15. Much of my Opposition to the English Prelacy dependeth on the supposition that they took all the people and not only the Presbyters for the objects of their Government or for their charge And I find some of the younger sort that are sprung up since their fall do doubt of this But 1. all men in England that knew but twenty year ago what belonged to these matters are past doubt of it And I have no mind to dispute against them that contradict the common knowledge of the Nation as if they should doubt whether we had ever a King in England 2. Read over the Canons and the yearly Visitation Articles which the Church-wardens ordinarily sware to present by before they had ever read the Book or heard what was in it and then judge 3. Their arguing for the sole Iurisdiction of Bishops and that they only were properly Pastors and that Presbyters had not the Key of Discipline but of Doctrine is some evidence 4. It is known to the Nation that the Pastors of the Parish Churches had no power by their Laws or sufferance to cast out any the most enormous sinner or Heretick from the Church nor to bring them to open confession of their sin nor to Absolve the penitent but by Reading of their Sentence and publishing what they sent from their Courts and consequently could do nothing of all the means in order hereto For the means cannot be used where the end is known to be impossible All the obstinate scandalous persons and scorners at a holy life we must take as members of our Churches having no power to cast them out Indeed we had the same power as the Church-wardens to put our names to their presentments But a power of accusing to a Chancellors Court is not a Power of Governing especially when Piety under the name of Preciseness and Puritanism was so hated and persecuted that to have accused a man for meer prophaness would have been so far from obtaining the end as that it was like to have been the undoing of the accuser except he had been out of the suspicion of Preciseness as they called it himself But I need not dispute the with any but those that being bred iâ— better times though far from what we desire are unacquainted with the casâ— of their Predecessor Sect. 16. Object But do you not contradict your self in saying the Pastors were degraded or suspended as to the exercise of so great a part of their work and yet say here Pref. to the Reformed Pastor that the Power of Discipline was given them Answ. 1. In their Ordination the Bishops said to them Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are detained And in the Book of Ordination it was asked of them Whether they would give their faithful diligence always to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same according to the Commandements of God And the Rubrick of the Common Prayer Book enableth the Curate to admonish open and notorious evil livers by whom the Congregation is offended and those that have wronged their neighbors that they come not till they have openly declared that they have repented and amended But 1. This doth but serve to leave them unexcusable that acknowledged Discipline to
belong to the Office of a Presbyter when yet he might not exercise it The Bishops in the Ordination of Presbyters enabled them to preach the Gospel And yet they were after that forbidden to preach till they had a License and it was put into the Visitation Articles to present those Ministers that preached without License If they will deny us the exercise of the Power that they first confess belongeth to our Office we are not answerable for their self-contradictions 2. By Discipline I suppose they mean but our Instruction and our publishing their Orders for Penance Excommunication or Absolution 3. They were the Judges of the sense of the Laws as far as the executâ—on required And the Vniversal Practice of England with their writings shewed us to our cost their judgement What good would it do us if the Law had been on our side while the Concurrent Iudgement and Practice of the Governors denyed it and went against it 4. He that had kept a man from the Sacrament according to the plain words of the Rubrick was to have been accountable for it at their Courts and so likely if he had been a man of serious piety and not a persecutor of Puritans to have been undone by it and was like to make so little of it as to the Ends of Discipline all men being compelled by the Presentments to receive the Sacrament that I never knew one to my best remembrance in 25 years time that I lived under the Bishops that was kept from the Sacrament except a Puritan that scrupled to take it kneeling And what was this to true Church-Government Sect. 17. Object But either they did it according to the established Law or not If they did the fault was in the Law and not in them If they did transgress the Law then the fault was in mens abuse and the Law and Order cannot be blamed Answ. A sad case to poor ignorant miserable souls that they must be left in obstinacy and deprived of Gods means of Reformation without Remedy because either the Law or Iudges must be excused The Iudges are the mouth of the Law to us that is Law in the issue to us which they unanimously call Law If the fault were in the Law it was time it should be altered if it was in the Bishops universally it was time they should be altered Let us but have a Remedy and enjoy Gods Ordinances which he that is the Churches Head and King hath appointed for our benefit and we have done Sect. 18. Object But may not Bishops when they Ordain Delegate what measure of Ministerial Power they please and if you never received more why should you use it Answ. A poor relief to the forsaken Church Deprive her of Government and then tell us that we had no power Is the Power desirable to us if the Ordinance were not desirable to the Church 2. What Power have Bishops and whence did they receive it to change the Office of Christs institution or his Apostles If so they may turn the three Orders which the Papists themselves say the Pope cannot alter into as many more Then they may create an Office for Baptizing only and another for the Lords Supper only and another for praying only and so of the rest which is worse then making Lay-elders or then taking away the Cup in the Sacrament Hath Christ by his Spirit instituted Church-offices and are they now at the Bishops power to transform them 3. If they had power to distribute the work in the exercise part to one and part to another yet they have no power to deprive the particular Churches of the whole or any part but one or more must do it and the Office must be the same and the power exercised to the edification and not the confusion and corruption of the Church Sect. 19. Object But the Keys were given only to the Apostles and not to the seventy Disciples nor to Presbyters Answ. 1. If the seventy were only Disciples and not Church-officers the Ancients and the English Bishops have been much mistaken that have so much urged it that Presbyters succeed them as Bishops do the Apostles But if they be Officers then they have the Keys 2. The Episcopal Divines even the Papists commonly confess that part of the Keys are given to the Presbyters and Christ gave them together 3. Were they given only to Apostles for themselves or to convey to others If to themselves only then no one hath them now If to convey to others then either to Apostles only as their Successors but there 's none such or to Patriarchs or Primates or Metropolitans or Archbishops only but none of this will please the Bishops or to Bishops only which I grant taking Bishops in the Scripture sense And I desire to see it proved that it was not a presumptuous Innovation in them whosoever they were that after the days of the Apostles Ordained a new sort of Presbyters in the Church that should have no power of the Keys 4. They that must use the Keys must have Power to use them But Parish Bishops must use them as the nature and necessity of the work doth prove Therefore Parish Bishops must have the Power If only one man in a Diocess of an hundred or two hundred Churches shall have the power of the Keys we may know after all the talk of Discipline what Discipline to expect Sect. 20. Object Why blame you Lay-chancellors Registers Proctors c. when you set up Lay-elders we are as well able to call Chancellors Ecclesiastical as you can call Lay-elders so Answ. I never pleaded for Lay-elders If other men erre will it justifie your error But I must tell you an unordained man in a single Parish having power only to assist the Pastor in Government is far unlike a Lay-Court to Govern all the Churches of a Diocess Sect. 21. Object Do not your Arguments against Bishops for excluding Discipline make as much for the casting out of Ministers of whom you complain in your Reformed Pastor for neglect of Discipline Ans. 1. The Nature of Prelacy as set up in England â—here only one man had the Government of so many Churches unavoidably excludeth it if the best men were Bishops till it be otherwise formed But the nature of a Parochial Episcopacy is fitted to promote it 2. Those Presbyters that I blamed for neglecting the higher acts of Discipline do yet keep away more prophane persons from the Lords Supper in some one Church then ever I knew kept away in all places under the Prelates 3. If Ministers sinfully neglect Discipline yet as Preachers and Guides in publick worship c. they are of unspeakable need and value to the Church But few Bishops of England preached ordinarily And 4. We are desirous that Bishops shall continue as Preachers but not as Diocesan excluders of Parochial Church-Discipline Sect. 22. Object By pretending to agree with them that say there were no Presbyters in Scripture times you would put down
London sure is exempted from his superiority And I yet know not that any Civil Magistrate of Canterbury or York or London or Worcester hath any government in this Countrie except the Soveraign Rulers at Westminster be meant And I hope our Itinerant course of Iudges will prove the right to the Objectors of Itinerant Apostolical Overseers of the Churches for settlement at least Sect. 28. Object But Parishes being not divided till long after the Apostles days there might be then no ordinary Assemblies but in the City and yet the whole Territory adjacent be the Diocess Answ. Were there in the Territories persons enough to make many Assemblies or only so few as might travel to and joyn with the City Assembly If the latter it 's it that I assert as usual in the first age at least If the former then either all those in the Territories met for publick Worship and Communion or not If not they sinned against the Law of God that obliged them thereto as well as Citizens If they did then they must have either Bishop or Presbyter with them for the due performance of that worship Sect. 29. If any think all these stragling objections and advertisements here unseasonable I render him this true account of them This first Disputation was prepared only for our ordinarily Monthly Exercises here and so written long ago before the London Ministers Book or the Answer to it and the rest that have followed and therefore could not take notice of much that hath since passed and withal was not intended for publick view But when I saw sâ— many of the Gentry and Commonalty withdraw from the publick worship and the ignorant and prophane had learnt to refel their Pastors Instructions by calling him a Lay-man and saw how the new separation threatned the perdition of multitudes of the people especially was awakened by the Calls of Ministers in other Countries that were far more troubled with them then we I thought meet to prefix this to the Second Disputation which was it that was desired of me and therefore to take notice of those things so late Sect. 30. And the common experience tells you that it is not a few that go the way that lately was singular even among the Episcopal to which I may add the Testimony in Vindic. against the London Ministers p. 104. And though I might truly say that for those more minute considerations or conjectures wherein this Doctor differs from some others he hath the suffrages of many of the Learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knows of all that embrace the same cause with him c. Sect. 31. And this at least I may expect from the Reader that if he think we argue weakly he will confess that we argue not for worldly greatness but go against our carnal interest We contend against Bishopricks of the English mode as desiring no such Wealth or Honour Some of us have as good opportunities to have a part in that kind of Greatness if it were again introduced as they But I am not able alone for a Parish charge and am loth to have more on my hands and my accounts which is I suppose the mind of my Brethren also Sect. 32. One more Advertisement I owe the Reader that this being written so long since I was made confident by Bishop Usher de Primordiis Eccl. Brit. that Ireland was the Ancient Scotia where Palladius c. planted the Gospel which pag. 97. I have signified But I should wrong Scotland if I should not tell thee that I have received such Arguments to the contrary since then from the Right Honourable and my highly valued friend the Earl of Lawderdail that I am forced to suspend my judgement in that point till I have leisure better to study the point being yet unable to answer the said arguments Whether it be Necessary or Profitable to the right order or the Peace of the Churches of England that we restore the extruded Episcopacy IN this Question here are these three things supposed 1. That there are yet particular Churches of Christ in England and therefore those that conclude that there hath been no Church among us since the Diocesan Bishops were laid by are none oâ— them that we are now disputing with and indeed we think so gross a conceit unworthy of a Confutation 2. It is supposed that both the right Order and the Peace of these Churches are matters highly to be valued 3. And also that its our duty for the obtaining of it to do that which is necessary or profitable thereto But the doubt is Whether the Episcopacy in question be necessary or profitable thereto For the decision whereof I shall briefly tell you my Judgement in these propositions whereof the two first are but preparatory Proposition 1. A Peace with the Divines of the Episcopal judgement is much to be desired and earnestly to be endeavoured Prop. 2. A certain Episcopacy may be yielded to for the Peace if not for the right order of the Church Prop. 3. The Diocesan Episcopacy which was lately in England and is now laid by may not lawfully be re-assumed or re-admitted as a means for the right Order or Peace of the Church 1. For the first of these I think it easie to prove that we ought to seek an Agreement in the Episcopal controversie with those that differ from us in that point For 1. They are brethren of the same faith with us whom we are bound to love and honour and therefore to use all just means for peace with them If we must as much as in us lyeth if possible live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 much more with Brethren of the same family and profession 2. They are very many and the far greatest though not the purest part of the Church is of their mind All the Greek Church and the Ethiopian Church and the Jacobites Armenians and all other parties without the verge of the Reformation from Popery here in the West that ever I read or heard of are all of that way besides all the Romane Church And though I know that much ignorance and imperfection if not superstition and fouler errors may be justly charged on the Greek Ethiopian c. Churches as well as on Rome though not Popery it self yet I think there is scarce a good Christian that is not unwilling to cast off so great a part of the Church of Christ as these are Indeed he that dares so far despise all the Churches of Christ on earth except these few that are happily reformed as to think that it is no duty of ours to seek unity and peace with them by all just means I think is no meet person for us to dispute with It is the hainous sin of Rome to despise and unchurch Greeks Ethiopians and all save themselves which I hope Protestants will never imitate who have justly condemned them so deeply for it Let the Donatists shut up the Church of Christ
to one that is only the Overseer or Ruler of the People of one particular Church and not of any Church-rulers themselves That ruleth the flock but not any Shepherds 2. Those also may be called Bishops who only are Ioint-Rulers with others of a particular Church and Presidents among the Elders of that one Church for Vnity and order sake without assuming any Government over those Elders 3. A third sort there are that are Presidents in such an Eldership and withal do take a Negative voice in the Government so that nothing shall be done without them in such affairs 4 A fourth sort are the sole Pastors of such a particular Church that have many Ministers under them as their Curates who are properly to be Ruled by them alone so that the Pastor is the sole Ruler of that Church and the Curates do only teach and otherwise officiate in obedience to him Which is the case of divers Ministers of great Parishes that keep one Curate at their Parish Church and others at their Chappels Yet it s one thing to be the sole Ruler of the Parish and another to Rule the rest of the Elders 5. A fifth sort of Bishops are those that are the fixed Presidents of a Classis of the Pastors of many particular Churches who hold the title durante vitâ or quà m diu bene se gesserint though they are in use only while the Classis sitteth and have only a power of Moderating and ordering things as the foreman of a Jury or a double or casting voice as the Bayliff in Elections in most Corporations or as the President in some Colledges but no Negative voice which maketh a Power equal with all the rest 6. A sixth sort are the heads of such Classes having a Negative voice so that the rest can do nothing without them 7. A seventh sort are the Presidents of Provinces or Diocesses containing many Classes which have only a Moderating Power but no Negative voice 8. An eighth sort are the Bishops of particular Cities with all the Rural parts that are near it containing many Churches who assume the Power of Governing that Diocess to themselves alone without the Presbyters of the particular Churches either not using them at all in matter of Government or only consulting with them in Assemblies but giving them no determining votes 9. A ninth sort is a Diocesan Bishop of such a City who doth not take upon him the Rule of the people of the Diocess beyond his own Congregation but only of the Pastors supposing that the several Pastors or Presbyters have power to Rule the several Congregations but withall that they themselves are to be ruled by him 10. A tenth sort are such Bishops as assume the Government of these Diocesan Bishops which are commonâ—y called Archbishops to which also we adjoyn Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs who assume the Power of Governing all below them as under the seventh rank I do also for brevity comprehend Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs who assume no Governing Power over other Bishops but only the primam sedem and the moderating Power in Councils 11. The eleventh sort are unfixed general Pastors called Ambulatory or Itinerant that have a care of all the Churches and are no further tyed to any particulars then aâ— the necessary defect of their natural capacity seeing they cannot be in all places at once or else the dispatch of that work which they there meet with before they go further and some such occasion doth require and being excluded out of no part of the Church further then by consent for the common good they shall exclude themselves such I mean as the Apostles were 12. The twelfth and last sort is the Judas that goes under the name of St. Peters Successor and Christs Vicar General or the Vice-Christ who claimeth a power of Governing the whole universal Church as its Head having Infallible power of determiâ—ing Controversies and matters of Faith and whose Office must enter the definition of the Catholick Church and those that separate from him are no Catholikes or true Christians This is he that beareth the bag and maketh the twelfth sort 3. I Come now in the third place to tell you how many and which of these sorts of Episcopacy I think may be admitted for the Peace of the Church And 1. Of the first sort â—here is no Controversie among us few will deny the Ius Divinum of Presbyters as having the Rule of the people of a particular Church and the sole Rule supposing that there is no other Pastor over that Church but himself 2. Of the second sort of Parish Bishops who are meer Presidents over the whole Eldership of that particular Church and that continually or fixedly I think there is little question will be made by any but they also will easily be admitted 3. The third sort A Parochial Bishop having a Negative voice in a Parish Eldership I should be content to admit for the Peace of the Church but whether of it self it be desirable I do not dispute for if one Pastor even in a Parish may have a Negative voice among two or three Curates it will follow that the thing it self is not unlawful viz. for one Minister to have a Negative vote among many and so among an hundred if there be nothing else to forbid 4. The fourth sort for brevity Comprehendeth two sorts 1. Such Pastors of a single Congregation which having diverse Curates under them who are Presbyters do yet themselves take upon them the sole Government of the people and of their Curates I think this is intolerable and indeed a Contradiction or a Nulling of the Presbyters office for it is essential to the Presbyter of any Church to be a Guide or Ruler of that Church to put them out of all Rule therefore is to Null or suspend the exercise of their office which cannot statedly be done without destroying it But then 2. if we speak of the second sort that is such Pastors of particular Churches as have Curats who are Presbâ—ters and they govern their Curates but take the Curates as true Governors of the flock these as I dare not simply defend for if it be lawful for one Pastor to Rule two or three in a Parish then why not twenty or an hundred if nothing else forbid so I confess I should be ready to admit of them if it might attain the Churches peace for I see many godly Divines that are against Episcopacy yet practice this and will have no Curates in their Parish that will not be Ruled by them And there is a certain Obedience which Juniors and men of weaker parts do owe to their Seniors and men of far greater knowledge though the Office be the same And the Nature of the Government being not Compulsive and Coercive but only upon the voluntary whose judgements approve and their wills consent its considerable how far even a Ruler of others may voluntarily consent and so oblige himself to be Ruled
Only this I will say that though I allow not in my judgement this sort of Episcopacy yet I think it incomparably more tolereable than the eighth sort which taketh the whole Government of the people from the Presbyters to themselves And if I lived in a place where this â—overnment were established and managed for God I would submit thereto and live peaceably under it and do nothing to the disturbance disgrace or discouragement of it My reasons I le not stay to produce 10. As for the tenâ—h sort of Bishops viz. Archbishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs having not only the moderation of Synods but also either the sole Government of all the Clergy and cheif Government of all the people or a Negative voice in all I am much more in judgement against them then the former and so much the more against them by how much the larger their Jurisdiction is for reasons which I shall anon have occasion to produce 11. As for the eleventh sort of Bishops that is such as succeed the Apostles in the office of Preaching and Governing to wit as unlimited universal Officers it is a great doubt among many whether any such should be For though it be certain that such were yet we are in doubt whether they have any successors For my own part I confess my self satisfied in this that the Apostles have Successors though not in their extraordinary Immediate manner of Mission nor in their extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit yet in all that part of their office which is of standing Necessity to the Church And I am satisfied that their general Ministry or ambulatory pâ—eaching as unfixed officers and their Government of the Church by Office such as they did then use are of standing Necessity to the Church And therefore that as such unfixed general Officers the Apostles de jure have Successors And this I have formerly proved to you in my Theses de Polit. Ecclesiast briefly thus Argument 1. Christ promised when he instituted this General Office to be with them to the end of the world therefore it was his will that it should continue to the end of the world Mat. 28 20 21. It was to a Ministry that were sent to preach the Gospel to every Creature or to all the world and to Disciple Nations that this promise was expresly made therefore such a Ministry is to be continued Argum. 2. The same work and Necessity still continueth Foâ— 1. There are still most of the Nations on earth unconverted 2. The Converted and Congregated to be Confirmed and Governed therefore the Office continueth Argum. 3. We can fetch no Argument from the Apostles Example or from any Precept or Promise to them to prove the succession of fixed Pastors which is stronger then this by which we prove the succession of General unfixed Officers therefore either we must yield to this or by the same reasons as we deny it we must deny the Ministry too Which is not to be done Argum. 4. The Apostles had many Associates in this General Office in their own times Therefore it was not proper to them nor to ceâ—se with them Barnabas Sylas Timothy Titus Apollo with multitudes more in those times were unfixed General Officers that went up and down to convert the world and staid only to order and confirm the new gathered Churches and then went further sometimes returning to review preserve and strengthen their converts Argum. 5. If we can prove that such unfixed General officers were by Christ settled in his Church and that by such the Churches were in any sort then to be governed then our cause is good till the repeal or revocation of this office and order be proved Let them therefore that affirm such a revocation prove it for till then we have proved enough in proving that once it was instituted But they cannot prove that revocation I think nor yet any Cessation or that the institution was but pro tempore Argum. 6. It is not a tolerable thing to charge God with such a sudden Mutation of his Law or Order of Church Government without very certain proof If we find Christ setling one way of Church-Government in his own time and presently after for the first age it is a most improbable thing that he should take that down again and set up another kind of Government to continue ever after This seems to charge Christ with so great mutability that it is not to be done without very clear proof But such proof is not produced I know it is easily proved that the immediate Mission and extraordinary measure of the Spirit for Miracles â—nogues Infallible delivery of the doctrine of Christ are ceased But this is nothing to the general office of Preaching or Governing the Church which is of standing use So that I am satisfied of this that the Apostles as General Preachers and Governours have successors But then I must confess my self not fully satisfied what Governing Power it was that the Apostles had over the Pastors of the Church I find that when Saravia and after him the Disputants in the Isle of Wight do insist on this Argument from the way of Church Government by the Apostles that their Antagonists do presently grant the Minor that The Government of the Church at first was by men authorized to Rule the Presbyters and their Churches but they deny the Major that the Government which was then in the Church should continue till now because it was by Apostles whose Office they think ceaseth Whereas I must confess I am unavoidably forced to yield the Major that we must have the same kind of Government that was at first instituted unless we had better proof of a change For the stablishment of particular Churches and Presbyters was no change of the Apostles power seeing they gave not away their power to the Presbyters nor ceased to have the same Apostolical power which they had before Only the Apostles extraordinary Mission Gifts and Priviledges I confess are ceased But then I conceive that the Minor which is so easily granted viz. that the Apostles had the Government of the particular Presbyters will hold more dispute at least as to the nature and degree of their power and were I as fully satisfied about the Minor as I am of the Major I must by this one Argument be forced to be for the Ius Divinum of Epâ—scopacy What at present seems truth to me I shall lay down in these Propositions Prop. 1. It is certain that the Apostles were general unfixed Officers of Christ having the care of the whole world committed to them within the reach of their natural Capacity and that their business was to take that course in the particular management of their work as is most conducible to the propagation of the faâ—th through the whole world and that in all places where they came they had the same power over the Churches gathered as the fixed Pastors of those Churches have This much is past
doubt Prop. 2. It is as certain that common prudence required them to make a convenient distribution of the work and not go all one way and leave other places that while without the Gospel But some to go one way and some another as most conduced to the conversion of all the world Prop. 3. It is certain that the Apostles were not armed with the sword nor had a compulsive coercive power by secular force but that their Government was only forcible on the Conscience and therefore only on the Conscientious so far as they were such unless as we may call mens actual exclusion by the Church and their desertion and misery the effect of Government Prop. 4. It is most certain that they who had the extraordinary priviledge of being eye-witnesses of Christs Miracles and Life and ear-witnesses of his Doctrine and had the extraordinary power of working Miracles for a Confirmation of their Doctrine must needs have greater Authority in mens Consciences then other men upon that very account if there were no other So that even their Gifts and Priviledges may be and doubtless were one ground at least of that higher degree of Authority which they had above others For in such a Rational perswasive Authority which worketh only on the Conscience the case is much different from the secular power of Magistrates For in the former even Gifts may be a ground of a greater measure of Power in binding mens minds And here is the greatest part of the difficulty that riseth in our way to hinder us from improving the example of the Apostles in that it is so hard to discern how much of their power over other Presbyters or Bishops was from their supereminency of Office and Imperial Authority and how much was meerly from the excellency of their Gifts and Priviledges Prop. 5. It s certain that the Magistrates did not then second the Apostles in the Government of the Church but rather hinder them by persecution The excommunicate were not punished therefore by the secular power but rather men were enticed to forsake the Church for the saving of their lives so that worldly prosperity attended those without and adversity those within which further shewes that the force of Apostolical Government was on the Conscience and it was not corrupted by an aliene kind of force Prop. 6. Yet had the Apostles a power of Miraculous Castigation of the very bodies of the Offenders at least sometimes which Peter exercised upon Ananiaâ— and Sapphyra and Paul upon Eâ—â—mas and some think upon Hymenaeus and Philetas and those other that were said to be delivered up to Satan certainly Paul had in readiness to revenge all disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 which its like extendeth somewhat farther than to meer censures But it s most certain that the Apostle used noâ— this power oâ— hurting mens bodies ordinarily but sparingly as they did other Miracles perhaps not according to their own wills but the Holy Ghosts So that this did not corrupt their Government neither and destroy the Spirituality of it Yet this makes it somewhat more difficult to us to improve the Apostles example because we know not how much of their power upon mens Consciences might be from such penal Miracles Prop. 7. The Apostles had power to Ordain and send others to the work of the Ministry But this only by the consent of the ordained and of the people before they could be compleat fixed Pâ—stors for they forced not any to go or any people to entertain them And it seemeth they did not Ordain singly but many together Acts 14.23 Timothy had his Gift by the laying on of Pauls hands and of the hands of the Presbyterie 1 Tim. 4.14 and 2 Tim. 1.6 Prop. 8. It seems that each Apostle did exercise a Government over the Churches which were once planted but this was principally in order to well setling and confirming them Prop. 9. No one Apostle did appropriate a Diocess to himself and say Here I am sole Governor or am chief Governor nor did they or could they forbid any others to Govern in their Diocess though as is said they did agree to distribute their work to the publike advantage and not to be all in one place at once but yet successively they might Prop. 10. Nay it s certain that they were so far from being the sole Bishops of such or such a Diocess that they had usually some more unfixed general Officers with them Paul and Barnabas went together at first and after the Division Barnabas and Mark Paul and Silas and sometimes Timothy and sometime Epaphroditus and sometime others went together afterward And others as well as Iames were usually at Ierusalem and all these had a general power where they came And it cannot be proved that Iames was Ruler of Peter Paul and the rest when they were at Ierusalem nor that he had any higher power then they Prop. 11. Yet it seems that the several Apostles did most look after those same Churches which themselves had been the instruments of gathering and that some addition of respect was due to those that had been spiritual Fathers to them above the rest 1 Cor. 4.15 Prop. 12. It was therefore by the General Commission of Apostleship that they Governed particular Churches pro tempore while they were among or neer them and not by any special Commission or Office of being the Diocesan or Metropolitane of this or that place 1. It was below them and a diminution of their honor to be so affixed and take the charge of any particular Churches 2. We find not that ever they did it 3. If they had then all the disorders and ungovernedness of those Churches would be imputable to them and therefore they must be still with them as fixed Bishops are seeing they cannot govern them at such a distance as makeâ— them uncapable 4. When Peter drew Barnabas and many more to dissimulation and almost to betray the liberties of the Gentiles Paul doth not say This is my Diocess and I must be the Ruler here nor doth Peter plead this against him when Paul and Barnabas fell out whether Mark should be taken with them or not neither of them did plead a Ruling Authority nor say This is my Diocess or I am the superior Ruler but they produced their reasons and when they could not agree concerning the validity of each others reasons they separated and took their several companions and waies Prop 13. It was not only the Apostles but multitudes more that were such general unfixed Ministers as the seventy Barnabas Silas Epaphroditus Timothy and many others And all these also had a Power of Preaching and Ruling where they came Prop. 14. None of these General Officers did take away the Government from the fixed Presbyters of particular Churches nor kept a Negative vote in their own hands in matters of Government for if no fixed Bishop or Presbyter could excommunicate any member of his Church without an Apostle then almost all
Churches must remain polluted and ungoverned through the unavoidable absence of those twelve or thirteen men The Apostles therefore did admonish Pastors to do their duties and when themselves were present had power to do the like and to censure Pastors or people that offended but they did not take on them the full Government of any Church nor keep a Negative vote in the Government Prop. 15. It seems utterly untrue that Christ did deliver the Keyes only to the twelve Apostles as such and so only to their Successors and not the seventy Disciples or any Presbyters For 1. The seventy also were General unfixed Officers and not like fixed Presbyters or Bishops and therefore having a larger Commission must have equal power 2. The Apostles were not single Bishops as now they are differenced from others but they were such as had more extensive Commissions then those now called Arch Bishops or Patriarchs If therefore the Keyes were given them as Apostles or General Officers then they were never given to Bishops For Bishops as fixed Bishops of this or that Diocess are not Successors of the Apostles who were Geneâ—al unfixed Officers 3. It is granted commonly by Papists and Protestants that Presbyters have the power of the Keyes though many of them think that they are limited to exercise them under the Bishops and by their Direction and Consent of which many School-men have wrote at large 4. The Key of Excommunication is but a Ministerial Authoritative Declaration that such or such a known Offendor is to be avoided and to charge the Church to avoid Communion with him and him to avoid or keep away from the Priviledges of the Church and this a meer Presbyter may do he may authoritatively Declare such a man to be one that is to be avoided and charge the Church and him to do accordingly The like I may say of Absolution if they belong to every authorized Pastor Preacher and Church guide as such then not to a Bishop only but to a Presbyter also And that these Keyes belong to more then the Apostles and their Successors is plain in that these are insufficient Naturally to use them to their Ends. An Apostle in Antioch cannot look to the censuring of all persons that are to be Censured at Athens Paris London c. so that the most of the work would be totally neglected if only they and their supposed Successors had the doing of it I conclude therefore that the Keyes belong not only to Apostles and their Successors in that General Office no nor only to Diocesan Bishops for then Presbyters could not so much as exercise them with the Bishops in Consistory which themselves of late allow Prop. 16. The Apostles were fallible in many matters of fact and consequently in the Decisions that depended thereupon as also in the Prudential determination of the time and season and other Cirumstances of known duties And thence it was that Paul and Barnabas so disagreed even to a parting where one of them was certainly in the wrong And hence Peter withdrew from the uncircumcision and misled Barnabas and others into the same dissimulation so far that he was to be blamed and withstood Gal. 2. Prop. 17. In such Cases of misleading an Apostle was not to be follownd no more is any Church-Governor now but it is lawful and needful to dissent and withstand them to the face and to blame them when they are to be blamed for the Churches safety as Paul did by Peter Galatians 2.1 Prop. 18. In this Case the Apostles that by Office were of equal Authority yet were unequal when the Reasons and Evidence of Gods mind which they produced was unequal so that a Presbyter or Bishop that produceth better Reasons is to be obeyed before another that produceth less Reason or that Erreth And the Bishop of another Church that produceth better Evidence of Gods mind is to be obeyed before the proper Bishop of that same Church that produceth weaker and worse Evidence Yea a private man that produceth Gods Word is to be obeyed before Bishops and Councils that go against it or without it in that case where the word bindeth us so that in all cases where Scripture is to determine he that bringeth the best Scripture proof is the chief Ruler that is ought chiefly to prevail Though in the determination of meer Circumstances of duty which Scripture determineth not but hath left to Church-Guides to determine pro re natâ it may be otherwise so that the Apostles power in determining matters of faith was not as Church-Governors but as men that could produce the surest Evidence Prop. 19. It is not easie to manifest whether every Presbyter in prima instantia be not an Officer to the Church Universal before he be affixed to a particular Church and whether he may not go up and down over the world to exercise that office where ever he hath admittance And if so what then could an Apostle have done by vertue of his meer office without the advantage of his extraordinary abilities and priviledges which the Presbyter may not do May an Apostle charge the people where he comes to avoid this or that seducer or heretick so may any Preacher that shall come among them and that by authority May an Apostle Excommunicate the very Pastor of the place and deprive him why what is that but to perswade the people and Authoritatively require them to avoid and withdraw from such a Pastor if the Cause be manifest And so may any Pastor or Preacher that comes among them For if as Cyprian saith it chiefly belong to the people even of themselves to reject and withdraw from such a Pastor then a Preacher may by Authority perswade and require them to do their own duty Yet I shall acknowledge that though both may do the same duty and both by Authority yet possibly not both by equal Authority but an Apostle Majore authoritate and so may lay a stronger obligation on men to the same duty but the rest I determine not but leave to enquiry Prop. 20. In making Laws or Canons to bind the Church which are now laid down in Scripture the Apostles acted as Apostles that is as men extraordinarily Commissioned illuminated and enabled infallibly to deliver Gods will to the world And therefore herein they have no Successors In Conclusion therefore seeing that matters of meer Order and Decency depending on Circumstances sometime rationally mutable sometime yearly daily hourly mutable are not to be determined Vniversally alike to all the Church nor to all a Nation nor by those that are at too great a distance but by the present Pastor who is to manage the work and being intrusted therewith is the fittest Judge of such variable Circumstances and seeing for standing Ordinances that equally belong to all ages and places Gods word is perfect and sufficient without the Bishops Canons and seeing that Scripture is a perfect Law of God and Rule of Christian faith and seeing that
in the expounding of the Scripture they that bring the best Evidence will beget the most Knowledge and they that produce the clearest Divine Testimony will beget most effectually a Divine belief and those that are known to be of far greatest abilities in learning experience and grace and consent with the most of the Church will procure more effectually an humane belief then a weak unlearned unexperienced Pastor of our own therefore the Jurisdiction of supereminent Bishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs will appear to be reduced into so narrow a room and written in so small a character that he hath need of very quick sight that can read it and humble men may be easily drawn to think that the Unity Happiness and Safety of the Church lyeth not in it and that if it had been only for Christ and not their own Greatness there had not been such Contention and Division made about it in the Church as there hath been TO draw some of this which I have said into a narrower room I shall briefly tell you what I could heartily wish both Magistrates and Ministers would speedily accomplish for the order and Peace of the Church in these matters 1. I could wish that they would choose out the ablest Godly men and let them be appointed General Teachers and Guides to call the uncalled and to order confirm and so take care of the Churches that are gathered And if by the Magistrates consent and their own they divide their Provinces it will be but meet These I would have to go up and down to the several Parishes in their Provinces and to have no particular Parishes of their own nor to take the fixed Pastors power from them but to take care that it be by themselves well exercised And I would have the Magistrate keep his sword in his own hand and let these prevail with mens consciences as far as they can and in that way if they would exceed their bounds and arrogate any unjust power to themselves we shall dissent and deny it them and stand upon our ground and deal with them upon equal terms and so need not to fear them And I have cause to think that neither Presbyterians nor all the Independents will be against such General Officers Successors of the old ones as I here describe Not the Presbyterians for in Scotland they appointed and used such in the beginning of their Reformation when they made Visitors of the particular Churches and assigned to each their limited Provinces and so they were Commissioners to cast out Ministers put in others and plant Kirks and they had several Superintendents all which is to be seen in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Kirk of Scotland printed not long agoe again And the Itinerant Commâ—ssioners in Wales that were set there to go about preaching and Reforming doth shew that their Judgements were not against the Power 2. I could wish that every Parish Church may have one Eldership where they may be had or some Elders and Deacons with one Constant Fixed Perfect for Order and Unity 3. I could wsh that Ordination and Constitutions for Unity and Communion may be done only in Synods less or greater and that of many Presbyteries there may consist a Classis as commonly called and of many of those a Province And that the Classical meeting may be frequent and that some one the fittest man may be standing President of that Classis during life except he deserve removal 4. I could wish also that the Provincial Assembly to be held once a quarter or half year in each County may have the most able discreet godly Minister chosen to be the standing President also during life unless he deserve removal So that here are four several sorts of Bishops that for Peace and Order I could consent to to wit 1. A General unfixed Superintendent 2. A fixed Parochial Bishop President of that particular Presbytery 3. A Classical Bishop President of that Classis 4. A Provincial Bishop President of the Provincial Assembly But there is no necessity of these 5. Of the degree of their Power I said enough before It is intolerable they should have a Negative vote in Excommunications and Absolutions and such Government of the people except the Parochial Bishop save only in case of appeals and there I leave it to each mans consideration though I had rather they had none But whether they should be admitted a Negative in Ruling the Pastors I determine not Only in case of Ordination I would have all resolve to do nothing except in a case of Necessity but when the President is One and stop there which will permit him de facto the use of his Negative and yet trouble no mans conscience to acknowledge de jure that it Must so be for to that none should be forced This much I could willingly yield to for reconciliation and unity And I doubt not but I shall be sufficiently reproached by some for yielding so far and by others for yielding no further AND now at last after these not needless preparations I come to the main Question it self Whether it be Necessary or Profitable for the right Order or Peace of the Churches to restore the extruded Episcopacy And this I deny and having said so much already for explication shall presently give you the Reasons of my denyal in which the rest of the necessary explication will be contained Argument 1. That sort of Prelacy or other Government which destroyeth the End of Government and is certainly inconsistent with the Necessary Government and discipline to be exerciâ—ed in the Churches is not to be restored under pretence of the Churches Order or Peace nor can be consistent with its right Order and Peace But such is the Episcopacy which was of late exercised in England and is now laid by Therefore c. The Major needs no proof for few Christians I think will deny it If Episcopacy as lately here exercised be the certain excluder of Government it self and Christs discipline while it only retains the empty name then doubtless it is not to be restored The Minor I prove thus If there be a very Natural Impossibility that the late English Episcopacy though in the hands of the best men in the world should Govern the Churches as Christ hath appointed and as they should and may otherwise be Governed then the foresaid inconsistency and destructiveness is apparent But that there is such a Natural Impossibility for the late English Episcopacy to Govern the Church thus I shall prove 1. By shewing you what is undoubtedly necessary in Christs Government 2. And then what was the late English Episcopacy and then 3. The Impossibility will appear of it self when both these are opened and compared together without any more ado 1. And 1. It is past controversie among us that Church Governours should watch over each particular soul in their flock and instruct the ignorant admonish the faln convince gainsayers counterwork seducers among them
they might nor possibly can do it To be for them is to consent that all should be undone and that Drunkards and Railers and all wicked persons shall continue so still or continue members of our Churches in all their obstinacy and that there shall be nothing but the name of Government and Censure without the thing It s hard making men of Conscience believe the contrary that have had the triall that we have had If where good men were Bishops thus it was what hope of better by that way We cannot shut our eyes against so great experience And certainly those Learned men among us that think so much Discipline may serve turn to all the Congregations in the whole Diocess as the Bishop can perform or have a Negative Vote in do too manifestly shew that they are less friends to real godliness and greater friends to sin and care too little for the matter it self while they contend about the manner or agent then serious Christians should do If men once plainly shew themselves meer formalists and would set up a scarecrow and pull down all true Discipline by setting up one man to do the work of five hundred and making the exercise of it impossible what serious Christian will ever take their part Not I while I breath Who can choose but see that such do seek their dignity and Lordships and worldly Mammon more then the Kingdom of Christ. I know they will be angry with me for this language but so are most impenitent persons with reproofs I would advise all of them that survive to lay to heart before the Lord what they did in undertaking such an impossible task and leaving so many souls and Congregations without Christs remedy and suffering the Churches to be so foul while they had the Beesom in their hands This being so manifest that it is impossible for an English Bishop to Govern as they undertook so many Congegations I may well next argue from the mischiefs that follow Argum. 2. THat Government which gratifieth the Devil and wicked men is not to be restored under any pretence of the Order or Peace of the Church But such was the English Episcopacy therefore c. The Major is unâ—enyable supposing that it do not this by an avoidable accident but by natural Necessity as I have proved I confess some of the Men were so Learned and Good men that I think few men honour their names more then my self But it is the way of Government that I have spoke of And for the Minor it is as plain from experience and the argument before used If it necessarily exclude the exercise of Christs discipline from most Congregations then doth it gratifie Satan But c And if it keep wicked obstinate sinners from the power of discipline then doth it gratifie sinners in their Sins and consequently please Satan But this it doth therefore c. Who knows not for it cannot be denied that the generality of the rabble of ignorant persons worldlings drunkards haters of Godliness c. are very zealous for Episcopacy whilest multitudes of truly conscientious people have been against it And who knows not that they both fetcht their chief Motives from experience The ungodly found that Bishops let them keep their sins and troubled them not with this preciseness but rather drove away the precise preachers and people whom they abhorred And the godly people that disliked Epâ—scopacy did it principally on the same experience observing that they befriended the wicked at least by preserving them from the due rod of discipline but exercised their zeal against them that scrupled or questioned at least their own standing or assumed power or the abuse of it And then further Argum. 3. THat Government which unavoidably causeth separations and divisions in the Church is not â—o be restored under any pretence of its Order and Peace But such is the English Episcopacy therefore c. I know the clean contrary is strongly pretended and they tell us that we may see how Episcopacy kept men in Unity by the many Sects that since are risen But let it be observed 1. That these Sects were hatched in the separation which was caused by themselves 2. That the increase hath been since there was no Government at all 3. It was not Episcopacy but the Magistrates Sword whose terror did attend it that kept under heresies in that measure that they were Had Episcopacy stood on its own legs without the support of secular force so that it might have workt only on the conscience then you should have seen more Sects then now Do you think that if Episcopacy were in Scotland in the Case as Presbytery is now without the Sword to enforce it that it would keep so much Unity in Religion as is there It s known in France and other places that Presbytery hath kapt more Unity and more kept out Heresies and Schisms even without the Sword then Episcopacy hath done with it 4. But the thing that I speak of it undenyable that it was the pollution of our Churches that caused the Separatists in the Bishops dayes to withdraw This was their common cry against us Your Churches bear with Drunkards Whoremongers Railers open Scorners at Godliness with whom the Scripture bids us not eat And we could not deny it for the Bishops did keep it so by keeping out all effectual Discipline Only we told them that it was the Prelates sin and not theirs that could not help it and that a polluted Church might be a true Church And so the Disciplinarian Non-Conformists were fain by many painful writings to suppress the spirit of separation or else it had been like to have overwhelmed all Mr. Iohn Paget Mr. Bradshaw Mr. Arthur Hildersham Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Brightman Mr. Paul Bains Mr. Dod Mr. Parker Dr. Ames and many other such were fain to make it a great part of their business to quench the fire of separation which even their persecutors kindled by the exclusion of Discipline And yet the sense of the Churches uncleanness was so deep in mens minds that it had bred such abundance of discontended humors that they easily broke out and turned into this disorderly swarm which we have seen as soon as the wars had but given them liberty And even to this day it is the uncleanness of our Churches wherein I would the Pastors were wholly innocent which maintaineth much of the separation among many sober godly men For the Churches were left so polluted by the Bishops that in most places the Presbyters dare scarce go roundly about the cure unless they had the help of the sword wherein yet for my part I think them deeply sinful Argum. 4. THat Episcopacy which degradeth all the Presbyters in the Diocess or causeth them to suspend the exercise of an Essential part of their Office is not to be restored under any pretence of right order or peace But such was the late English Episcopacy therefore I confess this is the
intimations of Scripture and the discord of these reporters among themselves Only it is certain that nature it self would so restrain them that as they could be but in one place at once so they could not be in perpetual motion and prudence would keep them longest in those places where most work was to be done And therefore Pauls three years abode at Ephesus and the neighbouring parts of Asia did not make him the fixed Diocesan Bishop of Ephesus And what I say of the Apostles I say also of many such Itinerant unfixed Ministers which were their helpers as Silas Apollo Barnabas Titus Timothy c. For though Timothy be called by some Anâ—ients the first Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete yet it is apparent they were no such fixed Ministers that undertook a Diocess durantâ— vita as their proper charge which were then called Bâ—shops but they were â—tinerant helpers of the Apostles in gathering planting and first ordering of Churches And therefore Titus was left in a whole Nation or large Island to place Bishops or Elders in each City and set things in order and this but till Paul come and not to be himself their fixed Bishop and Timothy is proved by Scripture to have been unsetled and itinerant as a helper of Paul after that he is by some supposed to be fixed at Ephesus I will not needlesly actum agere let any man that is unsatisfied of this read impartially Mr. Prins unbishoping of Timothy and Titus and note there the Itinerary of Timothy from Scripture Texts If therefore our Bishops would have been of the Apostles and their General helpers race they should have gone up and down to gather and plant Churches and then go up and down to visit those which they have planted or if they live where all are Enchurched already they should go up and down to preach to the rudâ—r sort of them and by the power of the word to subdue men further to Christ anâ— to see that all Ministers where they come do their duty reproving and admonishing those that neglect it but not forbidding them to do it as a thing belonging only to them And by Spiritual weapons and authority should they have driven Ministers to this duty and not by meer secular force of which more anon 2. And as for the fixed Bishops of Apostolical Institution our English Prelacy are not like them For the fixed Bishops established by the Apostles were only Overseers of one particular Church But the English Prelates were the Overseers of many particular Churches Therefore the English Prelates were not the same with the old Bishops of the Apostles institution The course that the Prelates take to elude this argument is by giving us a false definition of a particular Church That we may not therefore have any unprofitable strife about words I shall signifie my own meaning By a Particular Church I mean an Associated or combined company of Christians for Communion in Publick Worship and Furtherance of each other in the way to heaven under the Guidance of Christs Church Officers one Elder or more such as are undivided or Churches of the first order commonly called Ecclesiae Primae as to existence and which contain not divers Political Churches in them A family I mean not for that 's not a Political Church having no Pastor An accidental company of Christians I mean not For those are no Association and so no Political Church Nor do I mean a National or Diocesane or Classical Church or any the like which are composed of many particular Churches of the first order conjunct It is not of Necessity that they alway or most usually meet in one Congregation because its possible they may want a capacious convenient room and its possible they may be under persecution so that they may be forced to meet secretly in small companies or there may be some aged weak people or children that cannot travail to the chief place of Meeting and so may have some Chappels of ease or smaller meeting But still it must be a number neither so big nor so small as to be uncapable of the ends of Association which enter the definition how ever weaknâ—ss age or other accidents may hinder some members from that full usefullness as to the main end whith other members have So that they which are so many or live at such a distance as to be uncapable of the ends are not such a Church nor are capable of so being For the number will alter the species In a word it cannot I think be proved that in the Primitive times there was any one fixed Bishop that Governed and Oversaw any more then one such particular political Church as was not composed of divers lesser political Churches nor that their Churches which any fixed Bishop oversaw were more then could hold Communion in Worship in one publick place for so many of them as could ordinarily hear at once for all the families cannot usually come at once they were not greater then some of our English Parishes are nor usually the tenth part so great I have been informed by the judicious inhabitants that there are fourscore thousand in Giles Cripple-gate Parish in London and about fifty thousand in Stepney and fourty thousand in Sepulchres There cannot any Church in Scripture be found that was greater nor neer so great as one of these Parishes No not the Church at Ierusalem it self of which so much is said No not if you admit all the number of moveable Converts and Sojournours to have been of that particular Church which yet cannot be proved to have been so I know Bishop Downam doth with great indignation Dispute that Diocesses were beâ—ore Parishes and that it was more then one Congregation that was contained in those Diocesses We will not contend about the name Diocess and Parish which by the Ancients were sometime used promiscuously for the same thing But as to the thing signified by them I say that what ever you call it a Diocess or a Parish there were not near so many souls as in some English Parishes nor take one with another their Churches commonly were no more Numerous then our Parishes nor so numerous A Diocess then and a Parish were the same thing and both the same as our particular Churches now are that is the Ecclesiae primae or Soceities of Christians combined under Church-Rulers for holy Communion in Worship and Discipline And there were no otherwise many Congregations in one Church then as our Chapples of ease or a few meeting in a private house because of rainy weather are many Congregations in one Parish The foresaid Learned and Godly though angry Bishop Downame saith Def. li. 2. cap. 1. page 6. that Indeed at the very first Conversion of Cities the whole Number of the people converted being some not much greater then the Number of the Presbyters placed among them were able to make but a small Congregation Call that Church then a Diocess or a Parish I
care not so we come near an agreement about the proportion of Members that the definition be not overthrown and the ends of it made impossible by the distance number and unacquaintedness of the members that cannot have any Church communion immediately one with another If there be no communion how is it a Church Nay or if there be no such communion as consists in mutual assistance and conjunction in Worship and holding familiarity also in our conversation which the excommunicated are excluded from And if a communion there be it is either Immediate by the members themselves Assembled or else but Mediately by their Officers or Delegates If it be only by the latter Mediately then it is not the Ecclesia prima but orta It is an association of several Political Churches For that is the difference between the communion of a single particular Church and many combined Churches that as the first is a combination of persons and not of Churches so the communion is held among the Members in common whereas the other being a combination of Churches the communion is maintained orderly by Officers and Delegates joyning in Synods and sent from the Congregations If therefore it be an Immediate ordinary communion of members in Ecclesiastical affairs viz. Worship and Discipline that is the Particular Church that I intend call it what you will else and whether there may be any private meetings in it besides the main body or not as possibly through some accidents there may be and yet at Sacrament and on the most solemne occasions the same persons that were at Chappels or less meetings may be with the chief Assembly But I shall proceed in the proof of this by the next Argument which will serve for this and the main together Argum. 11. THat sort of Church Government may most safely be now practised which was used in the Scripture times and that 's less safe which was not then used But the Government of many Elders and particular Churches by one Bishop fixed and taking that as his proper Diocess such as the English Bishops were was not used in Scripture times Therefore it is not so safe to use it or restore it now The Major is proved hence 1. In that the Primitive Church which was in Scripture times was of unquestionable Divine Institution and so most pure And it is certainly lawful to practice that Church-Government which alone was practised by all the Church in the Scripture times of the New Testament 2. Because we have no certain Law or Direction but Scripture for the frame of Government as jure Divino Scripture is Gods sufficient and perfect Law If therefore there be no mention of the Practice of any such Episcopacy in Scripture no nor any precept for the practice of it afterwards then cannot we receive it as of Divine Institution The Objections shall be answered when we have proved the Minor And for the Minor I shall at this time argue from the Concessions of the most Learned and Reverend man that at this time hath deeply engaged himself in defence of Episcopacy who doth grant us all these things following 1. That in Scripture times they were the same persons and of the same office that were called Bishops and Presbyters 2. That all the Presbyters mentioned in Scripture times or then instituted as far as we can know had a Power of Ordination 3. And also a Power of Ruling the Church Excommunicating and Absolving 4. That there was not then in being any Presbyter such as the Bishops would have in these times who was under the Bishop of a particular Church or Diocess His words are these And although this title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders have been also extended to a second Order in the Church and is now only in use for them under the Name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture times it belonged principally if not alone to Bishops there being no Evidence that any of that second order were then instituted though soon after before the writing of Ignatius Epistles there were such instituted in all Churches 5. It is yielded also by him that it is the office of these Presbyters or Bishops to Teach frequently and diligently to reduce Hereticks to reprove rebuke Censure and absolve to visit all the sick and pray with them c. And therefore it must needs follow that their Diocess must be no larger then that they may faithfully perform all this to the Members of it And if there be but one Bishop to do it I am most certain then by experience that his Diocess must be no bigger then this Parish nor perhaps half so big 6. And it must needs follow that in Scripture times a Particular Church consisted not of seveâ—al Churches associated nor of several Congregations ordinarily meeting in several places for Christian communion in the solemn Worship of God but only of the Christians of one such Congregation with a single Pastor though in that we dissent and suppose there weâ—e more Pastors then one usually or often That this must be granted with the rest is apparent 1. The Reverend Author saith as Bishop Downam before cited That when the Gospel was first preached by the Apostles and but few Converted they ordained in every City and region no more but a Bishop and one or more Deacons to attend him there being at the present so smal store out of which to take more and so small need of ordaining more that this Bishop is constituted more for the sake of those which should after believe then of those which did already 2. And it s proved thus If there were in Scripture times any more ordinary Worshiping Assemblies on the Lords dayes then one under one Bishop then either they did Preach Pray Praise God and administer the Lords Supper in those Assemblies or they did not If not then 1. They were no such Worshipping Assemblies as we speak of 2. And they should sin against Christ who required it 3. And differ from his Churches which ordinarily used it But if they did thus then either they had some Pastor Presbyter or Bishop to perform these holy actions between God and the people or not If not then they suppose that Lay-men might do all this Ministerial work in Word Sacraments Prayer and Praise in the name of the Assembly c. And if so what then is proper to the Ministry then farewell Bishops and Presbyters too If not theâ—â—â—her the Bishop must be in two Assemblies at once performing the Holy Worship of God in their communion but that 's impossible or else he must have some assisting Presbyters to do it But that 's denyed Therefore it must needs follow that the Church order constitution and practised Government which was in Scripture times was this that a single Worshipping Congregation was that particular Church which had a Presbyter or Bishop one or more which watched over and ruled that only Congregation as his Diocess or proper charge having no Government
of any other Church Congregation or Elders De facto this is plainly yielded Well this much being yielded and we having come so far to an agreement about the actual Church Constitution and Government of the Scripture times we desire to know some sufficient reason why we in these times may not take up with thaâ— Government and Church order which was practised in the Scripture times And the Reason that is brought against it is this Because it was the Apostles intention that this single Bishop who in Scripture times had but one Congregation and Governed no Presbyters should after Scripture times have many settled Congregations and their Presbyters under them and should have the power of ordaining them c. To this I answer 1. The Intentions of mens hearts are secret till they are some way revealed No man of this age doth know the Apostles hearts but by some sign what then is the revelation that Proveth this Intention Either it must be some Word or Deed. For the first I cannot yet find any colour of proof which they bring from any word of the Apostles where either they give power to this Presbyter or Bishop to Rule over many Presbyters and Congregations for the future Nor yet where they do so much as foretell that so it shall be As for those of Paul to Timothy and Titus that theâ— rebuke not an Elder and receive not accusation against them but under two or three Witnesses the Reverend Author affirmeth that those Eâ—ders were not Presbyters under such Bishops as we now speak of but those Bishops themselves whom Timothy and Titus might rebuke And for meer facts without Scripture words theâ—e is none that can prove this pretended Intention of the Apostles First there is no fact of the Apostles themselves or the Churches or Pastors in Scripture time to prove it For Subordinate Presbyters are confessed not to be then â—nstituted and so not existent and other fact of theirs there can be none And no fact after them can prove it Yet this is the great Argument that most insist on that the practice of the Church after Scripture times doth prove that Intention of the â—pâ—stles which Scripture doth not for ought is yet proved by them that I can find at all express But we deny that and require pâ—ooâ— of it It is not bare saying so that will serve Is it not possible for the succeeding Bishops to err and mistake the Apostles Intentions If not then are they Infallible as well as the Apostles which is not true They might sin in going from the Institution And their sin will not prove that the Apostles intended it should be so de jure because their followers did so de facto If they say that it is not likely that all the Churches should so suddenly be ignorant of the Apostles Intention I answer 1. We must not build our faith and practice on Conjectures Such a saying as this is no proof of Apostolical intentions to warrant us to swerve from the sole practised Government in Scripture times 2. There is no great likelihood that I can discern that this first practised Government was altered by those that knew the Apostles and upon supposition that these which are pretended were their intents 3. If it were so yet is it not impossible nor very improbable that through humane frailty they might be drawn to conjecture that that was the Apostles intents which seemed right in thier eyes and suited their present judgements and interests 4. Sure we are that the Scripture is the perfect Law and Rule to the Church for the Establishing of all necessary Offices and Ordinances and therefore if there be no such intentions or Institutions of the Apostles mentioned in the Scripture we may not set up universally such Offices and Ordinances on any such supposed intents De facto we seem agreed that the Apostles settled One Pastor over one Congregation having no Presbyters under his Rule and that there were no other in Scripture time but shortly after when Christians were multiplied and the most of the Cities where the Churches were planted were converted to the faith together with the Country round about then there were many Congregations and many Pastors and the Pastor of the first Church in the City did take all the other Churches and Pastors to be under his Government calling them Presbyters only and himself eminently or only the Bishop Now the Question between us is Whether this was well done or not Whether these Pastors should not rather have gathered Churches as free as their own Whether the â—hristians that were afterward converted should not have combined for holy Communion themselves in particular distinct â—hurches and have had their own Pastors set over them as the first Churches by the Apostles had They that deny it and Justifie their fact have nothing that we can see for it but an ungrounded surmise that it was the Apostles meaning that the first Bishops should so do But we have the Apostles express Institution and the Churches practise during Scripture times for the other way We doubt not but Christians in the beginning were thin and that the Apostles therefore preached most and planted Churches in Cities because they were the most populous places where was most matter to work upon and most disciples were there and that the Country round about did afford them here and there a family which joyned to the City Church Much like as it is now among us with the Anabaptists and Separatists who are famed to be so Numerous and potent through the Land and yet I do not think that in all this County there is so many in Number of either of these sects as the tenth part of the people of this one Parish nor perhaps as the twentieth part Now if all the Anabaptists in Worcestershire or at least that lived so neer as to be capable of Church communion should be of Mr. T 's Congregation at Bewdley or of a Church that met in the chief City Worcester yet doth not this intimate that all the space of ground in this County is appointed or intended for the future as Mr. T 's Diocess but if the successive Pastor should claim the whole County as his charge if the whole were turned to that opinion no doubt but they would much cross their founders mind And if the comparison may be tolerated we see great reason to conceive that the Ancient Bishops did thus cross the Apostles minds When there were no more Christians in a City and the adjoyning parts then half some of our Parishes the Apostles planted fixed Governours called Bishops or Elders over these particlar Churches which had constant communion in the worship of God And when the Cities and Countreyes were converted to the faith the frailty of ambition co-working thereto these Bishops did claim all that space of ground for their Diocess where the members of their Church had lived before as if Churches were to be measured by the
acres of Land and not by the number of souls whereas they should have done as the Bee-hives do when they are ready to swarm so that the old hive cannot contain them all the swarm removes and seeks them another habitation and makes them a New hive of their own So when a Church grows big enough for two Churches one part should remove to another meeting place and they should become two Churches and the later be of the same sort as the former and as free and not become subject to the former as if men had right to be Rulers of others because they were Converted before them or because they dwell in a walled City and others in the Villages This Error therefore was no contrived or suddain thing but crept on by degrees as Countries were Converted and Churches enlarged we are agreed therefore de facto that it was otherwise in the Apostles daies and that soon after in some places it came to that pass as the Prelates would have it in some degree But whether the Apostles were willing of the change is the Question between us we deny it and expect their better proof And till they prove it we must needs take it for our duty to imitate that Government which themselves confess was only practised in Scripture times supposing this the safest way BUt yet though the proof lye on their part who affirm the Apostles to have had such Intentions that Pastors of single Congregations should afterward become the Pastors of many I shall ex super abundanti give them some Reasons for the Negative 1. And first we are most certain that the holyest Pastors of the Church had so much Pride and Ambition that might possibly make them guilty of such a mistake as tended to the â—ncrease of their own power and rule We find even the twelve Apostles contending in Christs own presence for the Primacy till he is put sharpâ—ly to rebuke them and tell them the Necessity of humility and teach them better the state of his Kingdom Paul met with many that contended against him for a preheminence and put him upon all those defences of the dignity of his Apostleshipâ— which we find him using Peter found it necessary to warn the Pastors that they should not Lord it over Gods Heritage And Iohn did meet with a Lording Diotrephes that loved to have the preheminence While they lay under the Cross the Bishops were aspiring and usurping authority over one another or else Victor of Rome had not presumed to Excommunicate the Asian Bishops for not conforming to his opinion What abundance of unworthy contentions did the Bishops of the first ages fill the Churches with and much about superiority who should be greatest what should be the priviledges of their several Seas c. Their pride no doubt was a great cause of their contention and those contentions necessitated the interposition of Emperors to reconcile them that could not agree of themselves If the Emperors called a Council to that end even the Council it self would fall to pieces and make all worse if the Magistrate did not moderate them Had not Constantine burnt the Nicene Schedules and done much to maintain an Union among them the success of that Council might have been such as would have been no great encouragement to succeeding ages to seek for more What bitter quarrels are there between the most eminent of all the Fathers and Bishops of the Church between Chrysostom and Epiphanius Chrysostom and Theophilus Alexandrinus Hierom and Iohn of Ierusalem Ierome and Ruffinus besides his quarrels with Chrysostom and Augustine I open not the concealed nakedness of the Saints but mention those publike doleful tragedies which made the Church an amazement to it self and a scorn to the Heathens that lived about them witness the well known censure of Ammianus Marcellinus when so many people shall be murdered at once in contention for a Bishoprick as were at the choice of Damasus ambition was too predominant The mentioning of the contentions of those most excellent Bishops and the first four general Councils makes Luther break out into so many admiring exclamations in his Treatise de Conciliis that ever such men should so ambitiously quarrel about toyes and trifles and childish things and that even to the disturbing of all the Churches and setting the Christian world on a flame Of the two Churches of Rome and Constantinople he saith Ita hae â—uae Ecclesiae ambitiose râ—â—atae sunt de re nihili vanissimis nugacissimis naeniis doneâ—â—â—ndem utraque horribiliter vastata deleta est pag. 175. This caused Nazianzen who complaineth so much himself of the â—dium or displeasure of his fellow Bishops to profess himself to be so affected that he would avoid all Assemblies of Bishops because he had never seen a good end of any Synod and which did not rather increase the evils than remove them and his reason is not as Bâ—llarmine feigneth only because they were all Arrians but because The desire of contending and of preheminency or principality and their emulation did overcome reason which Luther mentioning ib. pag. 225. wondereth that for these words he was not excommunicated as an arrant heretick Who knoweth not that knoweth any thing of Church history how the Church hath been torn in pieces in all ages except the first by the dissention of the Bishops till the Pope drew part of them to unite in him And who knoweth not that knoweth any thing of the present state of the Christian world into how many fractions it is broken at this day and almost all through the Division of these Guides If therefore we shall imagine that the Pastors of the Church could not be tainted with so much ambition as to inlarge their own Diocesses and gather the new Chuches under themselves when they should have formed them into the same order and freedom as were the first we shall shut our eyes against the most full experience of the Christian world especially when the change was made by degrees 2. The second Reason that perswadeth me to stick to the sole practised Government in Scripture times and not to alter it upon pretended Intentions of the Apostles is this Nothing that intimateth temerity or mutability is to be charged upon the Holy Ghost but to institute one frame or species of Church-government for Scripture times and to change it presently into another species to all succeeding ages doth intimate temerity or mutability or at least is so like it that therefore without good proof it is not to be charged on the Holy Ghost That they are two distinct species of Government is plain one is the Government of a Particular Congregation without any other Congregations or Elders under that Government the other is the Governing of many Elders and Churches by one supereminent Prelate and if these be not two differing sorts of Government then let the Prelates confess that the Government which we would continue is of the same
sort with theirs for ours is of the first sort and if theirs be of the same we are both agreed And that the Lord Jesus Christ should settle one kind of Government de facto during Scripture time and change it for ever after is most improbable 1. Because it intimateth levity or mutability in a Law-giver so suddenly to change his Laws and form of Government either something that he is supposed not to have foreseen or some imperfection is intimated as the cause Or if they say that it was the change of the state of the body Governed viz. the Church I answer 2. There was no change of the state of the Church to necessitate a change of the kind of Officers and Government for as I shall shew anon there was need of more Elders then one in Scripture times and the increase of the Church might require an increase of Officers for Number but not for Kind There was as much need of assisting Presbyters as of Deacons I may well conclude therefore that he that will affirm a Change of the Government so suddenly must be sure to prove it and the rather because this is the Bishops own great and most considerable Argument on the other side when they pâ—ead that the Apostles themselves were Rulers of Presbyters therefore Rulers over Presbyters and many Churches should continue as Gods Ordinance many on the other side answer them though so do not I that this Ordinance was temporary during the Apostles times who had no Successors in Goveâ—nment to whâ—ch the Prelates reply that it s not â—â—agiâ—abâ—e that Christ should settle one sort of Church-Governmeâ—t for the first age and another ever after abolishing that first so soon and thaâ— they who affirm this must prove it For my part I am overcome by this Argument to allow all that the Apostolical pattern can prove laying aside that which depended on their extraordinary gifts and priviledges but then I see no reason but they should acknowledâ—e the â—oâ—ce of their own Mediâ—m and conclude it s not imâ—ginable that if God setâ—led â—ixed Bishops only over particular Congregations without any such order as subject Preâ—byters in the first age he should change this and set up subject Presbyters and many Churches under one man for ever after If they say that this is not a change of the speâ—ies but a growing up of the Church from Infancy to Maturity I answer It is a plain change of the Species of Government when one Congregation is turned into Many and when a new order of Officers viz. subject Presbyters without power of Ordination or Jurisdiction is introduced and the Bishops made Governours of Pastors that before were but Governours of the People this is plainly a new Species Else I say again let them not blame us for being against the right Species 3. The third Reaâ—on is this They that affirm a change not of the Governours but also of the very nature or kind of a particular Governed or Political Church from what it was in Scripture times do affirm a thing so improbable as is 〈◊〉 without very clear proof to be credited But such are they that affirm that Congregational Bishops were turned to Diocesan therefore c. The Church that was the object of the Government of a fixed Bishop in Scripture times was A competent Number of persons in Covenant with Christ or of Christians co-habiting by the appâ—intment of Christ and their mutual expressed consent united or associated under Christs Ministerial Teachers and Guides for the right worshipping of God in publick and the Edification of the Body in Knowledge and Holiness and the maintaining of obedience to Christ among them for the strength beauty and safety of the whole and each part and thereby the Pleasing and Glorifying God the Redeemer and Creator Iâ— would be too long rather then difficult to stand to prove all the parts of this Definition of the first particular Political Church That part which most concerneth our present purpose is the Ends which in Relations must enter the Definition which in one word is The Communion of Saints personally as Associated Churches consisting of many particular Churches are for the Communion of Saints by officers and Delegates And therefore this communion of Saints is put in our Creed next to the Catholick Church as the end of the combination I shall have occasion to prove this by particular Texts of Scripture anon A Diocesan Church is not capable of these Ends. What personal communion can they have that know not nor see not one aonther that live not together nor worship God together There is no more personal communion of Saints among most of the people of this Diocess then is between us and the inhabitants of France or Germany For we know not so much as the names or faces of each other nor ever come together to any holy uses So that to turn a Congregation into a Diocesan Church is to change the very subject of Government Obj. This is meer independency to make a single Congregation the subject of the Government Answ. 1. I am not deterred from any truth by Names I have formerly said that its my opinion that the truth about Church-Government is parcelled out into the hands of each party Episcopal Presbyterian Independents and Erastian And in this point in Question the Independents are most right Yet I do dot affirm nor I think they that this one Congregation may not accidentally be necessitated to meet in several places at once either in case of persecution or the age and weakness of some members or the smalness of the room But I say only that the Church should contain no more then can hold communion when they have opportunity of place and liberty and should not have either several settled Societies or Congregations nor more in one such Society then may consist with the Ends. And that these Assemblies are bound to Associate with other Assemblies and hold communion with them by the mediation of their Officers this as I make no doubt of so I think the Congregational will confess And whereas the common evasion is by distinguishing between a Worshipping Church and a Governed Chuch I desire them to give us any Scripture proof that a Worshipping Church and a Governed Church were not all one supposing that we speak of a settled society or combination I find no such distinction of Churches in Scripture A family I know may perform some worship and accordingly have some Government And an occasional meeting of Christians without any Minister may perform some Worship without Government among them But where was there ever a Society that ordinarily assembled for publick worship such as was performed by the Churches on the Lords dayes and held communion ordinarily in worship and yet had not a Governing Pastor of their own Without a Presbyter they could have no Sacraments and other publike Worship And where was there ever a Presbyter that was not a Chuâ—ch Governour
no necessiâ—y and the Non-necessity is but preâ—ended First it is preâ—eâ—â—ed that there were so few fit men that there was a Necessity of forbâ—arance But this is not so For 1. The Church had larger gifts of the Spirit then then now and therefore proportionable to the flocks they might have had competent men then as well as now 2. They had men enough to make Deacons of even sâ—ven in a 〈◊〉 And who will believe then that they could find none to make such Elders of Was not Stephen or Philip sufficiently qualified to have been a subject Elder 3. They had many that prophesied and interpreted and spake with tongues in one Assembly as appears 1 Cor. 14. And therefore its manâ—fâ—st that there were enough to have made Ruled Elders At least sure the Church at Ierusalem where there were so many thousands would have afforded them one such if it had been requisite But secondly its pretended not to have been Necessary because of the fewness of the people But I answer 1. The same persons say that in Ignatius his time all Churches had such Presbyters And its manifest that many Churches in the Scripture times were more populous or large then many or most beside them were in Ignatius time 2. Did the numerous Church at Ierusalem ordinarily meet on the Lords dayes for holy communion or not If they did then it was but a Church of one Congregation which is by most denyed If not then the several Assemblies must have several Presbyters for several Bishops they will not hear of Doubtless they did not celebrate the holy communion of the Church and Ordinances of God by meer Lay-men alone 3. What man that knows the burden of Pastoral Oversight can say that such Churches of thousands as Ierusalem Rome Alexandria c. had need of no more than one man to Teach them and do all the Pastoral work and so that assisting Ruled Presbyters were then needless If they were needless to such numerous Churches then let us even take them for needless still and set up no new orders which were not seen in Scripture times Reas. 8. The Apostles left it not to the Beshops whom they established to make new Church-offices and orders quoad speciem but only to ordain men to succeed others in the offices and orders that themselves had by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost appointed or else Christ before them A Bishop might make a Bishop or a Deacon perhaps because these were quoad speciem made before and they were but to put others into the places before appointed But if there were no such creature in Scripture times as a subject Presbyter that had no power of Ordination and Jurisdiction then if the Bishops afterward should make such they must make a new office as well as a new officer So that either this new Presbyter is of the institution of Christ by his Apostles or of Episcopal humane institution If the former and yet not institututed in Scripture times then Scripture is not the sufficient rule and discoverer of Divine Institutions and Church Ordinances and if we once forsake that Rule we know not where to fix but must wander in that Romane uncertainty If the latter then we must expect some better proof then hitherto we have seen of the Episcopall or any humane power to make new Offices in the Church of Christ and that of universal and standing necessity Till then we shall think they ought to have made but such Presbyters as themselves Reason 9. If there be not so much as the name of a Ruled Presbyter without power of Ordination or Iurisdiction in all the Scripture much less then is there any description of his Office or any Directions for his ordination or the qualifications prerequisit in him and the performance of his office when he is in it And if there be no such Directory concerning Presbyters then was it not the Apostles intent that ever any such should be ordained The reason of the consequence is 1. Because the Scripture was written not only for that age then in being but for the Church of all ages to the end of the world And therefore it must be a sufficient directory for all The second Epistle to Timothy was written but a little before Pauls death Surely if the Churches in Ignatius daies were all in need of Presbyters under Bishops Paul might well have seen some need in his time or have foreseen the need that was so neer and so have given directions for that office 2. And the rather is this consequence firm because Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus doth give such full and punctual Directions concerning the other Church-officers not only the Bishops but also the Deacons describing their prerequisite qualifications their office and directing for their Ordination and conversation Yea he condescendeth to give such large Directions concerning Widows themselves that were serviceable to the Church Now is it probable that a perfect Directory written for the Church to the worlds End largely describing the qualifications and office of Deacons which is the inferiour would not give one word of direction concerning subject Presbyters without power of Ordination or Rule if any such had been then intended for the â—hurch No nor once so much as name them I dare not accuse Pauls Epistles written to that very purpose and the whole Scripture so much of insufficiency as to think they wholly omit a necessary office and so exactly mention the inferiour and commonly less necessary as they do Reason 10. The new Episcopal Divines do yield that all the texts in Timothy Titus and the rest of the New Testament that mentitn Gospel Bishops or Presbyters do mean only such as have power of Ordination and Iurisdiction without the concurrence of any superiour Bishop The common Inerpretation of the Fathers and the old Episcopal Divines of all ages of most or many of those texts is that they speak of the office of such as now are called Presbyters Lay both together and if one of them be not mistaken they afford us this conclusion that the Presbyters that now are have by these texts of Scripture the power of Ordination and Iurisdiction without the concurrence of others And if so then was it never the Apostles intent to leave it to the Bishops to ordain a sort of Presbyters of another order that should have no such power of Ordination or Jurisdiction without the Bishops Negative Reason 11. We find in Church History that it was first in some few great Cities especially Rome and Alexandria that a Bishop ruled many settled worshipping Congregations with their Presbyters when no such thing at that time can be proved by other Churches therefore we may well conceive that it was no Ordinance of the Apostles but was occasioned afterwards by the multiplying of Christians in the same compass of ground where the old Church did inhabite and the adjacent parts together with the humane frailty of the
the Synagogues prove not this power which is much disputed Mat. 10.17 and 23.34 Luke 6.22 and 12.11 and 21.12 Acts 22.19 and 26 11. Yet at least excluding men their Synagogue Communion may Iohn 9.22 34. and 12.42 and 16.2 But because this argument leads us into many Controversies about the Jewish customes lest it obscure the truth by occasion in quarrels I shall pass it by 2. I find no particular Political Church in the New Testament consisting of several Congregations ordinarily meeting for communion in Gods Worship unless as the forementioned accidents might hinder the meeting of one Congregation in one place nor having half so many members as some of our Parishes When there is mention made of a Country as Iudea Galile Samaria Galatia the word Churches in the plural number is used Gal. 1.2 Acts 15.41 and 9.31 2 Cor. 8.1 But they 'l say These were only in Cities But further considâ—r there is express mention of the Church at Cenchrea which was no City and they that say that this was a Parish subject to Corinth give us but their words for it without any proof that ever I could see and so they may as well determine the whole cause by bare affirmation and prevent disputes The Apostle intimateth no such distinction Rom. 16.1 1 Cor. 11.18 20 22.16 When ye come together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you When ye come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper 16. We have no such Custome nor the Churches of God Here the Church of Corinth is said to come together into one place And for them that say This is per partes and so that one place is many to the whole I answer the Apostle saith not to a part but to the whole Church that they come together in one place and therefore the plain obvious sence must stand till it be disproved And withall he calls the Christian Assemblies in the plural number Churches for its plain that it is of Assembly Customes that he there speaks So 1 Cor. 14. there is plainly expressed that it was a particular Assembly that was called the Church and that this Assembly had it in many Prophets Interpreters others that might speak Verse 4. He that Prophesieth Edifieth the Church that is Only that Congregation that heard And Verse 5. Except he interpret that the Church may receive Edifying And Verse 12. Seek that ye may excell to the Edifying of the Church Verse 19. In the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that I may teach others also And Verse 23. If therefore the whole Church be come together into one place and all speak with tongues One would think this is as plain as can be spoken to assure us that the whole Churches then were such as might and usually did come together for holy communion into one place So Verse 28. If there be no Interpreter let him keep silence in the Church And which is more lest you think that this was some one small Church that Paul speaks of he denominateth all other particular Congregations even Ordered Governed Congregations Churches too Verse 33. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints So that all the Congregations for Christian Worship are called All the Churches of the Saints And it seems all as well as this so stored with Prophets and gifted men that they need not take up with one Bishop only for want of matter to have made subject Elders of And Verse 34. Let your women keep silence in the Church for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the Church So that so many Assemblies so many Churches Obj. But it seems there were among the Corinthians more then one Congregation by the plural Churches Answ. 1. Many particular seasons of Assembling may be called many Assemblies or Churches though the peoole be the same 2. The Epistle was a Directory to other Churches though first written to the Corinthians 3. Those that say it was to Corinth and other City-Churches that Paul wrote need no further answer It seems then each City had but a Congregation if that were so 4 Cenchrea was a Church neer to Corinth to whom Paul might well know his Epistle would be communicated and more such there might be as well as that and yet all be entire free Churches So in Col. 4.16 And when this Epistle is read among you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea This Church was such as an Epistle might be read in which doubtless was an Assembly The whole matter seems plain in the case of the famous Church at Antioch Acts 11.26 A whole year they assembled themselves with the Church and taught much people Here is mention but of One Assembly which is called the Church where the people it seems were taught And its plain that there were many Elders in this one Church for Acts 13.1 it said There were in the Church that was at Antioch certain Prophets and Teachers And five of them are named who are said to Minister there to the Lord And though I do not conclude that they were all the fixed Elders of that particular Church yet while they were there they had no less power then if they had been such In the third Epistle of Iohn where there is oft mention of that particular Church it appeareth Verse 6. that it was such a Church as before which the â—rethren and strangers could bear witness of Gaius Charity And it s most probable that was one Assembly but utterly improbable that they travailed from Congregation to Congregation to bear this witness And Vers. 9 10. it was such a Church as Iohn wrote an Epistle to and which Diotrephes cast men out of which is most likely to be a Congregation which might at once hear that Epistle and out of which Diotrephes migâ—t â—asilier reject strangers and reject the Apostles letters then out of many such Congregations Gal. 1.22 When Paul saith he was Vnknown by face to the Churches of Iudea it is most likely that they were Churches which were capable of seeing and knowing his face not only by parts but as Churches And its likely those Churches that praised Luke and sent him with Paul as their chosen messenger were such as could meet to choose him and not such as our Diocesses are 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Paul gives order both to the Church of Corinth and the Churches of Galatia that upon the Lords day at the Assembly as it is ordinarily expounded they should give in their part for the relief of the Churches of Iudea So that it seems most likely that he makes Churches and such Assemblies to be all one Acts 14.23 They ordained them Elders Church by Church or in every Church Here it is confessed by those we plead against that Elders signifie not any subject
whether they were Bishops of a County or Bishops of a Parish that were there in those daies For my part I heartily wish that Ireland had three hundred sixty five good Bishops and Churches at this day even when the whole Nation profess themselves to be Christians which then they did not To this purpose runs the 14. Canon Concilii Agath and if it were so then much more long before Si quis etiam extra Parochias in quibus legitimus est ordinariusque conventus oratorium habere voluerit reliquis festivitatibus ut ibi Missam audiat propter fatigationem familiae justa ordinatione permittimus Pascha vero Natali Domini Epiphania Ascensione domini Pentecoste Natali Sancti Johannis Baptistae siqui maxime dies in festivitatibus habentur non nisi in Civitatibus aut Parochiis audiant Here it appeareth that there was but one legitimus ordinariusque conventus in a Parish though they tolerated an Oratory or Chappell of ease And that a Parish here is taken for a Diocess or such a Church as had proper to it self a Bishop and Presbyterie as it is probable from the ordinary use of the word by Eusebius and other antients in that sence so also from what is further said in the following Canons of this Council And so the word Parish here may be expository of the word City or else denote a Rural Bishoprick For Can. 30. saith Benedictionem super plebem in Ecclesiâ fundere aut paenitentem in Ecclesia benedicere presbytero penitus non licebit And if a Presbyter may not bless the people or the penitent when the blessing of the people was part of the work in every Solemn Assembly for Church communion then it is manifest that a Bishop must be present in every such Assembly to do that part which the Presbyter might not do and consequently there were no more such Assemblies then there were Bishops And to prove this more fully mark the very next Canon of that Council viz. the 31. Missas die dominico secularibus totas audire speciali ordine praecipimus ita ut ante benedictionem Sacerdotis egredi populus non praesumat Quod si fecerint ab Episcopo publicè confundatur So that its plain that on every Lords day all the people for here is no distinction or limitation were to be present in the publick worship to the end and the Bishop to pronounce the blessing whoever preached and openly to rebuke any that should go out before it From whence it is evident that all such Church Assemblies for communion every Lords day were to have a Bishop present with them to do part of the work and therefore there were no more such Assemblies then there were Bishops In the 38. Canon of the same Council we find this written Cives qui superiorum solennitatum id est Paschae Natalis Domini vel Pentecostes festivatibus cum Episcopis interesse neglexerint quum in Civitatibus commnionis vel benedictionis accipiendae causa positos se nosse debeant triennio communione priventur Ecclesiae So that it seems there were no more Church-members in a City then could congregate on the festival daies for Communion and the Bishops Blessing therefore there were not many such Congregations when every one was to be three years excommunicate that did not Assemble where the Bishop was Moreover all those Canons of several Councils that forbid the Presbyters to confirm by Chrysm and make it the Bishops work do shew that the Diocess were but small when the Bishop himself could do that besides all his other work In the Canons called the Apostles cap. 5. it is ordained thus Omnium aliâ—rum primitiae Episcopo Presbyteris domum mittuntur non super Altare Manifestum est autem quod Episcopus Presbyteri inter Diaconos reliquos clericos eas dividunt By which it appeareth that there was but one Altar in a Church to which belonged the Bishop Presbyterie and Deacons who lived all as it were on that Altar And Can. 32. runs thus Si quis Presbyter contemnens Episcopum suum seorsim collegerit Altare aliud erexerit nihil habens quo rebrehendat Episcopum in causa pietatis justitiae deponatur quasi principatus amator existens Haec autem post unam secundam tertiam Episcopi obsecrationem fieri conveniat Which shews that there was then but one Convention and one Altar to which one Bishop and Presbyters did belong So that no other Assembly or Altar was to be set up apart from the Bishop by any Presbyter that had nothing against the Bishop in point of Godliness or Justice And I believe if Bishops had a whole Diocesse of two hundred or three hundred or a thousand Presbyters to maintain they would be loth to stand to the fifty eighth Canon which makes them Murderers if they supply not their Clergies wants But let that Canon pass as spurious And long after when Concilium Vasense doth grant leave to the Presbyters to preach and Deacons to read Homilies in Country Parishes as well as Cities it shews that such Parishes were but new and imperfect Assemblies In the Council of Laodicea the 56. Canon is Non oportet Presbyteros ante ingressum Episcopi ingredi Ecclesiam sedere in tribunalibus sed cum Episcopo ingredi nisi forte aut aegrotet Episcopus aut in peregrinationis commodo eum abisse constiterit By which it seems that there was but one Assemby in which the Bishop and Presbyters sate together Otherwise the Presbyters might have gone into all the rest of the Churches without the Bishop at any time and not only in case of his sickness or peregrination The fifth Canon of the Council of Antioch is the same with that of Can. Apost before cited that no Presbyter or Deacon contemning his own Bishop shall withdraw from the Church and gather an Assembly apart and set up an Altar By which still it appears that to withdraw from that Assembly was to withdraw from the Church and that one Bishop had but one Altar and Assembly for Church Communion So Concil Carthag 4. Can. 35. which order the sitting of the Presbyters and Bishop together in the Church And many decrees that lay it on the Bishop to look to the Church lands and goods and distribute to the poor the Churches Alms do shew that their Diocesses were but small or else they had not been sufficient for this All the premises laid together me thinks afford me this conclusion that the Apostolical particular Political Churches were such as consisted of one only Worshipping Congregation a Congregation capable of personal communion in publick worship and their Overseers and that by little they departed from this form each Bishop enlarging his Diocess till he that was made at first the Bishop but of one Church became the Bishop of many and so set up a new frame of Government by setting up a new kind of particular Churches And thus
among them that unchurch our Churches and degrade our Ministers and perswade all people to fly from them as a plague and try their doctrine their spirits their publick worship their private devotion and their whole conversation and when thou hast done come into our Assemblieâ— and spare not if thou be impartial to observe our imperfections judge of our Order and Discipline and Worship together with our Doctrine and our lives and when thou hast done unâ—church us if thou darest and if thou canst We justifie not our selves or our wayes from blemishes but if thou be but heartily a friend to the Bridegroom offer us then if thou darest a bill of divorce or rob him if thou darest of so considerable a portion of his inheritance Surely if thou be his friend thou canst hardly find in thy heart to deliver up so much of his Kingdom to his Enemy and to set the name of the Devil on his doors and say This is the house of Satan and not of Christ. If thou have received but what I have done though alas too little in those Societies and tasted in those Ordinances but that which I have tasted thou wouldst abhor to reproach them and cut them off from the portion of the Lord. Remember it is not Episcopacy nor the old conformity that I am here opposing My judgement of those Causes I have given in the foregoing and following disputation But it is only the New Prelatical Recusants or Separatists that draw their followers from our Churches as no Churches and our Ordinances of Worship as none or worse then none and call them into private houses as the meetest places for their acceptable worship Who would have thought that ever that generation should have come to this that so lately hated the name of separation and called those private meetings Conventicles which were held but in due subordâ—nation to Church meetings and not in opposition to them as theirs are Who would have thought that those that seemed to disown Recusancy and persecuted Separatists should have come to this Yea that those that under Catholick pretences can so far extend their charity to the Papists have yet so little for none of the meanest of their Brethren and for so many Reformed Protestant Churches Yea that they should presume even to censure ut out of the Catholick Church and consequently out of heaven it self I have after here given thee an instance in one Dr. Hide who brandeth the very front of his Book with these Schismatical uncharitable stâ—gmata The sensless Queres of one Dr. Swadling and others run in the same channel or sink If these men be Christians indeed me thinks they should understand that as great that I say not greater blemishes may be found on all the rest of the Churches as those for which the Reformed are by them unchurched and consequently they will deliver up All to Satan and Christ must be deposed And how much doth this come short of Infidelity At least me thinks their hearts should tremble least they hear at last In not loving theâ—e you loved not me in despising and reproaching these you despised and reproached me And yet these men are the greatest pretenders next the Romanists to Catholicisme Vnity and Peace Strange Catholicks that cut off so great and excellent a part of the Catholick Church And a sad kind of Vnity and Peace which all must be banished from that cannot unite in their Prelacy though the Episcopacy which I plead for in the next Disputation they can own The summ of their offer is that if all the Ministers not Ordained by Prelates will confess themselves to be meer Lay-men and no Ministers of Christ and will be Ordained again by them and if the Churches will confess themselves No Churches and receive the essence of Churches from them and the Sacrament and Churh Assemblies to be Null invalid or unlawfull till managed only by Prelatical Ministerâ— then they will have Peace and Communion with us and not till then And indeed must we buy your Communion so deer As the Anabaptists do by us in the point of Baptism so do these Recusants in the point of Ordination You must be Baptized saith one party for your Infant Baptism wat none You must be Ordained saith the other sort for your Ordination by Presbyters was none The upshot is We must be all of their Opinions and parties before we can have their Communion or to be reputed by them the Ministers and Churches of Christ. And on such kind of terms as these we may have Vnity with any Sect. If really we be not as hearty friends to Order and Discipline in the Church as they we shall give them leave to take it for our shame and glory in it as their honour But the question is not whether we must have church-Church-Order but whether it must be theirs and none but theirs Nor whether we must have Discipline but whether it must be only theirs Nay with me I must profess the question is on the other side whether we must needs have a Name and shew of Discipline that 's next to none or else be no Churches or no Ministers of Christ The main reason that turneth my heart against the English Prelacy is because it did destroy Church Discipline and almost destroy the Church for want of it or by the abuse of it and because it is as then exercised inconsistent with true Discipline The question is not whether we must have Bishops and Episcopal Ordination We all yield to that without contradiction But the doubt is about their Species of Episcopacy Whether we must needs have Ordination by a Bishop that is the sole Governour over an hundred or two hundred or very many particular Churches or whether the Bishops of single Churches may not suffice at least as to the Being of our office I plead not my own cause but the Churches For I was ordained long ago by a Bâ—shop of their own with Presbyters But I do not therefore take my self to be disengaged from Christianity or Catholâ—cism and bound to lay by the Love which I owe to all Christs members or to deny the Communion of the Churches which is both my Duty and I am sure an unvaluable Mercy And I must say that I have seen more of the Ancient Discipline exercised of late without a Prelate in some Parish Church in England than ever I saw or heard of exercised by the Bishops in a thousand such Churches all my dayes And it is not Names that are Essential to the Church nor that will satisfie our expectations We are for Bishops in every Church And for Order sake we would have one to be the chief We dislike those that disobey them in lawful things as well as you But let them have a flock that is capable of their personal Government and then we shall be ready to rebuke all those that separate from them when we can say as Cyprian Epist. 69. ad Pupian Omnis Ecclesiae populus
collectus est adunatus in individua concordia sibi junctus Soli illi foris remanserint qui etsi intus essent ejiciendi fuerant Qui cum Episcopo non est in Ecclesia non est that is in that particular Church Cyprian had a people that could all meet together to consult or consent at least about the Communion or Excommunication of thâ— members Epist. 55. Cornel. he tells Cornelius how hard the people were to admit the lapsed or scandalous upon their return if the manifestation of repentance were not full The Church with whom the person had Communion was then it that had a Bishop and was no greater then to be capable of the Cognizance of his cause and of receiving satisfaction by his personal penitence Brethren for so I will presume to call you whether you will or not Some experience hath perswaded me that if we had honestly and faithfully joyned in the practice of so much of Discipline as all our principles require it would have helped us to that experimental knowledge by the blessing of God which would have brought us nearer even in our Principles then our idle Disputations separated from practice will ever do As Augustine saith of the disputes de causa mali Lib. de utilitat Credendi cap. 18. Dum nimis quaerunt unde sit malum nihil reperiunt nâ—si malum so I may say of these disputes while we thus dispute about the causes of disorder and division we find nothing but disorder and division It is easie to conjecture of the ends and hearts of those that cry down Piety as preciseness while they cry up their several waâ—es of order it seems they would have ordered impiety and their order must be a means to keep down holiness which all just order should promote Those men that can fall in with the most notoriously ungodly and favour and flatter them for the strengthening of their interest do tell us what Discipline we may expect from them If they tell us that our Churches also are corrupted and all are not truly or eminently godly we can say to them as Augustine lib. de utilitat Credend cap. 17. Pauci hoc faciunt pauciores bene prudenterque faciunt sed populi probant populi audiunt populi favent yea we can say much more But fâ—r those that go further and clap the prophanest railers on the back and hiss them on to hiss at those that diffâ—r from them and are glad to hear the rabble revile our Mâ—nistâ—y and our Churches in taking part with their Prelacy and Liturgy they tell us lowder what unity and order they desire and what a mercy of God it is that such as they have not their will and though among themselves the slanders and reproaches of such men may go for credible or be accepted as conducing to their ends yet in the conclusion such witnesses will bring no credit to their cause nor with just men much discredit ours at least it will not diminish our reputation with God nor abate his love nor hinder his acceptance and then we have enough Saith Cyprian Epist. 69. ad Pupian Quasi apud lapsos prophanos extra Ecclesiam positos de quorum pectoribus excesserit Spiritus Sanctus esse aliqâ—id possit nisi mens prava fallax lingua odia venenata sacrilega mendacia quibus qui credit cum illis necesse est inveniatur cum judicii dies venerit That is As if with the scandalous and prophane and those that are without the Church from whose brests the holy Spirit is departed there could be any thing but a naughty mind and a deceitful tongue and venemous hatred and sacrilegious lies and those that belâ—eve them must needs be found with them when the day of judgement comes Me thinks rather the hatred and railing of the ungodly should intimate to you that our Ministry is of God! why else do all the most obstinaâ—ely wicked maligne us as their enemies though we never did them wrong why seek they our destruction and are glad of any Learned men that will encourage them in their malignity and to strike in with any party that are against us when all the harm we wish or do them is to pray for them and perswade them and do our best to save them from damnation As Cyprian ubi sup said to Pupian ut etiam qui non credebant Deo Episcopum constituenti vel Diabolo crederent Episcopum proscribenti so say â— They that will not believe Gods testimony of our Ministry let them believe the Devils testimony as the confession of an enemy that by the mouths of the wicked revileth us as Ministers and persecutâ—tiâ—us for doing our Masters work Another reproach is commonly laid upon our Minâ—stry by those that vilifie them in order to their endâ— viz that they are boyes and raw and unlearned and manage the work of God so coursely as tends to bring it into contempt I would there were no ground for this accusation at all but I must needs say 1. That no men are more unmeet then you to be the accusers Have you so corrupted the Ministry with the insufficient and ungodly that we are necessitated to supply their places with men that are too young and now do you reproach us because we imperfectly mend your crimes yea because we work not in possibilities It is the desire of our souls that no able useful man may be laid by however differing in smaller matters or controversies of policy But we cannot create men nor infuse learning into them but when God hath qualified them we gladly use them the bâ—st that can be had are chosen and what can be done more And I hope yâ—u will acknowledge that godly and tolerably able young men are fitter then impious ignorant Readers We excuse no mans weakness but to speak out the truth too many of the adversaries of our Ministry accuse our weakness with greater weakness when they are unable or undisposâ—d themselves to manage the work of God with any of that gravity and seriousness as the unspeakable weight of the business doth require they think to get the reputation of learned able men by an empty childish trifling kind of preaching patching together some shreds of sentences and offering us their Centons with as much ostentation as if it were an uniform judicious work And then they fall a jâ—ering at plain and serious Preachers as if they were some ignorant bawling fellows that were nothing but a voice and had nothing to produce but fervent nonsence Brethren will you bear with us a little while we modestly excuse our simplicity which you contemn We will not say that we can speak wisedom to the wise nor make ostentation of our Oratory but we must tell you that we Believe what we speak and somewhat feel it and therefore we endeavour so to speak whâ—t we believe and feel that others also may belâ—eve and fâ—el us If a man speak smilingly or
themselves in Execution But he leads them the way by Teaching them their duty and provoking them to it and directing them in the execution and oft-times offering himself or another to be their Teacher and Leading them in the Execution So that it belongeth to his office to gather a Church or a member to a Church Sect. 18. 11. Hence is the doubt resolved Whether the Pastor or Church be first in order of time or Nature I answer The Minister as a Minister to Convert and Baptize and gather Churches is before a Church gathered in order of Nature and of time But the Pastor of that particalar Church as such and the Church it self whose Pastor he is are as other Relations together and at once as Father and Son Husband and Wife c. As nature first makes the Nobler parts as the Heart and Brain and Liver and then by them as instruments formeth the rest And as the Philosopher or Schoolmaster openeth his School and takes in Schollars and as the Captain hath first his Commission to gather Soldiers But when the Bodies are formed then when the Captain or Schoolmaster dieth another is chosen in his stead So is it in this case of Pastors Sect. 19. 12. Hence also is the great controversie easily determined Whether a particular Church or the universal be first in order and be the Ecclesia Prima To which I answer 1. The Question is not de ordine dignitatis nor which is finally the Ministers chief End For so it is past controversie that the Universal Church is first 2. As to order of existence the universal Church is considered either as consisting of Christians as Christians converted and Baptized or further as consisting of Regular Ordered Assemblies or particular Churches For all Christianâ— are not members of particular Churches and they that are are yet considerable distinctly as meer Christians and as Church-members of particular Churches And so its clear that men are Christians in order of Nature and frequently of time before they are member of particular Churches and therefore in thâ—s reâ—pect the universal Church that is in its essence is before a particular Church But yet there must be One particular Church before there can be many And the Individual Churches are before the Association or Connection of these individuals And therefore though in its essence and the existence of that essence the universal Church be before a particular Church that is men are Christians before they are particular Church-members yet in its Order and the existence of that Order it cannot be said so nor yet can it fitly be said that thus the Particular is before the universall For the first particular Church and the universal Church were all one when the Gospel extended as yet no further And it was simul semel an ordered universal and particular Church but yet not quâ— universal But now all the Vniversal Church is not Ordered at all into particular Churches and therefore all the Church universal cannot be brought thus into the Question But for all those parts of the universal Church that are thus Congregate which should be all that have opportunity they are considerable either as distinct Congregations independent and so they are all in order of nature together supposing them existent Or else as Connexed and Assoâ—iated foâ— Communion of Churches or otherwise related to each other And thus many Churches are after the Individuals â—he single Church is the Ecclesia prima as to all Church forms of Order and Associations are but Ecclesiae ortae arising from a combination oâ— relation or Communion of many of these Sect. 20. The fourth part of the Ministerial work is about particular Churches Congregate as we are Pastors of them And in this they subserve Christ in all the parts of his office 1. Under his Prophetical office they are to Teach the Churches to observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded them deliver open to them that Holy doctrine which they have received from the Apostles that sealed it by Miracles and delivered it to the Church And as in Christs name to perswade and exhort men to duty opening to them the benefit and the danger of neglect 2. Under Christs Priestly office they are to stand between God and the People and to enquire of God for them and speak to God on their behalf and in their name and to receive their Publick Oblations to God and to offer up the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving on their behalf and to celebrate the Commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and in his name to deliever his Body and Blood and Sealed Covenant and benefits to the Church 3. Under his Kingly office a Paternal Kingdom they are to Proclaim his Laws and Command obedience in his Name and to Rule or Govern all the flock as Overseers of it and to reprove admonish censure and cast out the obstinately impenitent and confirm the weak and approve of Professions and Confessions of Penitents and to Absolve them by delivering them pardon of their sin in the name of Christ. Sect. 21. 14. This work must be done for the ends mentioned in the Definition To his own Safety Comfort and Reward it is necessary that those Ends be sincerely intended For the comfort and Satisfaction of the Church and the validity of the Ordinances Sacraments especially to their spiritual benefit it is necessary that these ends be professed to be intended by him and that they be really intended by themselves Sect. 22. 15. By this the Popish case may be resolved Whether the Intention of the Priest be necessary to the Validity and success of Sacraments The reality of the Priests Intention is not necessary to the Validity of them to the people For then no ordinance performed by an hypocrite were Valid nor could any man know when they are Valid and when not But that they may be such administrations as he may comfortably answer for to God his sincere Intention is Necessary And that they be such as the People are bound to submit to it is necessary that he profess a sincere Intention For if he purposely Baptize a man ludicrously in professed jest or scorn or not with a seeming intent of true Baptizing it is to be taken as a Nullity and the thing to be done again And that the ordinances may be blessed and effectual to the Receiver upon Promise from God it is necessary that the Receiver have a true intent of receiving them to the ends that God hath appointed them Thus and no further is Intention necessary to the validity of the Ordinance and to the success The particular ends I shall not further speak of as having been longer already then I intended on the Definition Sect. 23. But the principal thing that I would desire you to observe in order to the decision of our controversie hence is that the Ministry is first considerable as a Work and Service and that the Power is but
a Power to be a servant to all and to do the work And therefore that the first Question is Whether the great burden and labour of Ministerial service may be laid on any man without Ordination by such as our English Prelates Or whether all men are discharged from this labour and service on whom such Prelates do not Impose it If Magistrates Presbyters and People conspire to call an able man to the work and service of the Lord whether he be justified for refusing it what ever the Church suffer by it meerly because the Prelates called him not Sect. 24. Though the forementioned works do all belong to the Office of the Ministry yet there must be Opportunity and a particular Call to the exercise of them before a man is actually obliged to perform the several acts And therefore it was not without sence and reason that in Ordination the Bishop said to the Ordained Take thou authority to Read or to preach the word of God when thou shalt be threunto lawfully called Not that another call of Authority is necessary to state them in the office or to oblige them to the Duty in General But we must in the invitation of people or their consent to hear us or other such advantagious accidents prudently discern when and where we have a Call to speak and exercise any act of our Ministry Even as a Licensed Physitian must have a particular Call by his Patients before he exercise his skill This call to a particular act is nothing else but an intimation or signification of the will of God that hic nunc we should perform such a work which is done by Providence causing a concurrence of such inviting Circumstances that may perswade a prudent man that it is seasonable Sect. 25. A man that is in general thus obliged by his office to do all the formentioned works of the Ministry that is when he hath a particular call to each may yet in particular never be obliged to some of these works but may be called to spend his life in some other part of the Ministry and yet be a compleat Minister and have the obligation and Power to all upon supposition of a particular Call and not be guilty of negligence in omitting those other parts One man man may live only among Infidels and uncalled ones and so be obliged only to Preach the Gospell to them in order to Conversion and may die before he sees any ready to be baptized Anoâ—her may be taken up in Preaching and Baptizing and Congregating the Converted and never be called to Pastoral Rule of a particular Church Another may live in a Congregated Church where there is no use for the Discipling-Converting-Preaching of the Gospel and so may have nothing to do but to Oversee that particular Church and Guide them in holy Worship And in the same Church if one Ministers parts are more for Publick preaching and anothers more for Private instruction and acts of Guidance and Worship if one be best in expounding and another in lively application tâ—ey may lawfully and â—itly divide the work between them and it shall not be imputed to them for unfaithfulnss and negligence that one forbeareâ—h what the other doth For we have our guifts to the Churches edification Thus Paul saith he was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Goâ—pel Not that it was not in his Commission and a work of his office but quoad exercitium he had seldome a second particular Call to exercise it being taken up with that Preaching of the Gospel and settling and confirming Churches which to him was a greater work Sect. 26. This Ministry before desâ—râ—bed whether you call it Episcopatum Sacerdotium Presbyteratum or what else is fit is but one and the same Order for Deacons are not the Ministers defined by us It is not distinguished into various Species Even the Patrons of Prelacy yea the Schoolmen and other Papists themselves do ordinarily confess that a Prelate and Presbyter differ not Ordine but only Gradu So that it is not another office that they ascribe to Prelates but only a more eminent Degree in the same Office And therefore they themselves affirm that in Officio the Power of Ordination is in both alike the office being the same But that for the honour of the Degree of Prelacy for the unity of the Church Presbyters are hindered from the Exercise of that Ordination which yet is in their Power and Office Sect. 27. As far as Ordination is a part of the Ministerial Work it is comprised in the forementioned acts of Congregating Teaching Ruling c. and therefore is not left out of the Definition as it is a duty of the office though it be not expâ—essed among the Efficient causes for the reason above mentioned and because I am now more distinctly to treat of it by it self and to give you fuâ—ther reasons hereof in the explication of the Nature and Ends of this Ordination CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Ends of Ordination Sect 1. THat we may know how far the Ordination in question is necessary to the Ministry and whether the want of it prove a Nullity we must first enquire what goes to the laying of the Foundation of this Relation and how many things concur in the efficiency and among the rest what it is that the Ordainers have to do as their proper part and what are the reasons of their Power and Work Sect. 2. As all that deserve the name of men are agreed that there is no Power in the world but from God the Absolute Soveraign and first Cause of Power so all that deserve the name of Christians are agreed that there is no Church Power but what is from Christ the head and Soveraign King of the Church Sect. 3. As the will of God is the Cause of all things And no thing but the Signification of it is necessary to the conveying of meer Rights So in the making a man a Minister of the Gopel there needeth no other principal efficient cause then the Will of Jesus Christ nor any other Instrumental Efficient but what is of use to the signifying of his Will So that it is but in the nature of signs that they are Necessary No more therefore is of Absolute Necessity but what is so necessary to signifie his will If Christs will may be signified without Ordination a man may be a Minister without it Though in other respects he may be culpable in his entrance by crossing the will of Christ concerning his duty in the manner of his proceedings Sect. 4. There is considerable in the Ministry 1. Beneficium 2. Officium 1. The Gospel pardon salvation-Ordinances are those great Benefits to the sons of men which the Ministery is to be a means of conveying to them And is it self a Benefit as it is the means of these Benefits In this respect the Ministry is a Gift of Christ to the Church and his Donation is the necessary act for their
Ministration But of this gift the Church is the subject He giveth Pastors to his Church 2. But in conjunction with the Churches Mercies the Minister himself also partakes of mercy It is a double Benefit to him to be both receptive with them of the blessing of the Gospel and to be instrumentall for them in the conveyance and to be so much exercised in so sweet and honourable though flesh-displeasing and endangering work As in giving Alms the giver is the double receiver and in all works for God the greatest Duties are the greatest Benefits so is it here And thus the making of a Minister is a Donation or act of bounty to himself Christ giveth to us the Office of the Ministry as he giveth us in that office to the Church As a Commanders place in an Army is a place of Trust and Honour and Reward and so the matter of a gift though the work be to fight and venture life Sect. 5. The Duty of the Minister is caused by an Obligation and that is the part of a Precept of Christ And thus Christs command to us to do his work doth make Ministers Sect. 6. From the work which the Ministers are to perform and the command of Obedience laid upon the people ariseth their duty in submission to him and Reception of his Ministerial work And in Relation to them that are to obey him his office is a superiour Teaching Ruling Power and so is to be caused by Commission from Christ as the fountain of Power that is to command both Pastor and People Sect. 7. So that the Ministry consisting of Duty Benefit and Power or Authority it is caused by Preceptive Obligation by Liberal Donation and by Commission But the last is but compounded of the two first or a result from them The Command of God to Paul e. g. to Preach and do the other works of the Ministry doth of it self give him Authority to do them And Gods command to the People to hear and submit doth concur to make it a Power as to them And the Nature and ends of the work commanded are such as prove it a Benefit to the Church and consequentially to the Minister himself So that all is comprehended in the very imposition of the Duty By commanding us to preach the word we are Authoâ—ized to do it and by Doing it we are a Benefit to the Church by bringing them the Gospel and its Benefits Sect. 8. Our Principal work therefore is to find out on whom Christ imposeth the Duties of Church Ministration And by what signs of his will the person himself and the Church may be assured that it is the Will of Christ that this man shall undertake the doing of these works Sect. 9. And therefore let us more distinctly enquire 1. What is to be signified in order to a Ministers Call and 2. How Christ doth signifie his will about the several parts and so we shall see what is left for Ordination to do when we see what is already done or undone Sect. 10. 1. It must be determined or signified that A Ministry there must be 2. And what their Work and Power shall be 3. And what the Peoples Relation and duty toward them shall be 4. What men shall be Ministers and how qualified 5. And how it shall be discerned by themselves and others which are the men that Christ intends Sect. 11. Now let us consider 1 What Christ hath done already in Scripture 2. And what he doth by Providence towards the determination of these things And 1. In the Scripture he hath already determined of these things or signified that it is his Will 1. That there be a standing Ministry in the Church to the end of the world 2. That their work shall be to preach the Gospel Baptize Congregate Churches Govern them adâ—inister the Eucharist c. as afore-mentioned 3. He hath left them Rules or Canons for the directing them in all things of constant universal necessity in the performance of these works 4. He hath described the persons whom he will have thus employed both by the Qualifications necessary to their Being and to the Well-being of their Ministration 5. He hath made it the Duty of such qualified persons to desire the work and to seek it in case of need to the Church 6. He hath made it the Duty of the people to desire such Pastors and to seek for such and choose them or consent to the choice 7. He hath made it the Duty of the present Overseers of the Church to Call such to the work and Approve them and Invest them in the office which three acts 〈◊〉 are called Ordination but specially the last 8. He hath made iâ— the Duty of Magistrates to encourage and protect them and in some cases to command them to the work and set them in the office by their Authority All these particulars are determined of already in the Laws of Christ and none of them left to the power of men Sect. 12. The ordainers therefore have nothing to do to judge 1. Whether the Gospel shall be preached or no whether Churches shall be Congregate or no whether they shall be taught or governed or no and Sacraments administred or no 2. Nor whether there shall be a Ministry or no Ministry 3. Nor how far as to the Matter of their work and power their office shall extend and of what Species it shall be 4. Nor whether the Scripture shall be their constant universal Canon 5. Nor whether such qualified persons as God hath described are only to be admitted or not 6. Nor whether it shall be the duty of such qualified persons to seek the office or the Duty of the People to seek and choose such or of Pastors to ordain such or of Magistrates to promote such and put them on None of this is the Ordainers work Sect. 13. If therefore any man on what pretence soever shall either determine that the Gospel shall not be preached nor the Disciples Baptized the Baptized Congregated the Congregations governed the Sacraments administred c. or that there shall be no Ministers to do those works or if any man Determine that which will infer any of these or if he pretend to a Power of suspending or excluding them by his Non-approbation or not-authorizing them he is no more to be obeyed and regarded in any of this Usurpation then I were if I should make a Law that no King shall reign but by my nomination approbation or Coronation And if any man under pretence of Ordaining do set up a man that wants the Qualifications which Christ hath made necessary to the Being of the Ministry his Ordination is Null as being without Power and against that Will of Christ that only can give Power And so of the rest of the particulars forementioned Where the Law hath already determined they have nothing to do but obey it And though the miscarriages of a man in his own calling do not alwaies nullifie his
if Pastor must cease when Ordination ceaseth For though wâ—thout Pastors there may be communities of Christians which are parts of the universal Church yet there can be no Organized Political Churches For 1. Such Churches consist essentially of the Directing or Ruling Part and the Ruled Part as a Republick doth 2. Such Churches are Christian Associatioâ—s for Communion in such Church Ordinances which without a Pastor cannot ordinarily at least be administred And therefore without a Pastor the Society is not capable of the End and therefore not of the form or name though it be a Church in the fore-granted sence Nay indeed if any should upon necessity do the Ministerial work to the Church and say he did it as a Private man it were indeed but to become a Minister pro tempore under the name of a private man If Paul had not his Power to destruction but to Edification neither have Prelates And therefore the Acts are null by which they would destroy the Church Their Power of Ordering it such as they have occasionally enableth them to disorder it that is If they miss in their own work we may submit but they have no authority to destroy it or do any thing that plainly conduceth thereunto Sect. 29. The ceasing of Ordination in any place will not either disoblige the people from Gods publick Worship Word Prayer Praise Sacraments Neither will it destroy their Right to the Ordinances of God in Church communion But this it should do if it should exclude a Ministry therefore c. The Major is proved 1. In that the Precept for such Publick worship is before the precept for the right ordering of it He that commandeth the Order supposeth the thing ordered 2. The precept for publick worshâ—p is much in the Law of Nature and therefore indispensable and it is about the great and Necessary duties that the honour of Gods add saving of men and preservation of the Church lieth on It is a standing Law to be observed till the coming of Christ. And the Rights of the Church in the excellent Benefits of Publick Ordinances and Church order is better founded then to depend on the Will of ungodly Prelates If Prince and Parliament faâ—l and all the Governours turn enemies to a Common-wealth it hath the means of Preservation of it self from ruine lest in its own hands or if the Common-wealth be destroyed the Community hath the Power of self-preservation and of forming a Common-wealth again to that end The life and being of States specially of mens eternal happiness is not to hang upon so slender a peg as the corrupt will of a few Superiours and the mutable modes and circumstances of Government nor a Necessary End to be wholly laid upon an uncertain and oft unnecessary means The children lose not their Right to Food and Rayment nor are to be suffered to famish when ever the Steward falls out with them or falls asleep or loseth the Keyes Another servant should rather break open the doors and more thanks he shall have of the Father of the family then if he had let them perish for fear of transgressing the bounds of his calling If incest that capital disorder in procreation were no incest no crime but a duty to the Sons and daughters of Adam in case of Necessity because Order is for the End and thing ordered then much more is a disordered preservation of the Church and saving of souls and serving of God a duty and indeed at that time no disorder at all Sect. 30. 7. Moreover if the failing of Ordination should deprive the world of the preaching of the word or the Churches of the great and necessary benefits of Church Ordinances and Communion then one man yea thousands should suffer and that in the greatest matters for the sin and wilfulness of others and must lie down under such suffering lest he should disorderly redress it But the consequent is against all Justice and Reason Therefore the Antecedent is so to Sect. 31. In a word it is so horrid a conclusion against Nature aâ—d the Gospel and Christian sence that the honour of God the fâ—uits of Redemption the being of the Church the salvation or comfort of mens souls must all be at the Prelates mercy that a considerate Christian cannot when he is himself believe it that it should be in the power of heretical malicious or idle Prelates to deny God his honour and Christ the fruit of all his sufferings aâ—d Saints their Comforts and sinners their salvation and this when the remedie is before us and that it is the will of God that all these evils should be chosen before the evil of an unordained Ministry this is an utterly incredible thing Sect. 32. Argument 2. Another Argument may be this If there may be all things essential to the Ministry without humane Ordination then this Ordination is not of Necessity to its Essence But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the consequent That there be a people qualified to receive a Pastor and persons qualified to be made Pastors and that God hath already determined in his Law that Pastors there shall be and how they shall be qualified is past all dispute So that nothing remains to be done by man Ordainers Magistrates or People but to determine who is the man that Christ describeth in his Law and would have to be the Pastors of such a flock or a Minister of the Gospel and then to solemnize his entrance by an Investiture And now I shall prove that a man may be a Minister without the Ordainers part in these Sect. 33. If the will of Christ may be known without Ordination that this man should be the Pastor of such a People or a Minister of the Gospel then may a man be a Minister without Ordination But the will of Christ may be known c. ergo Sect. 34. Nothing needs proof but the Antecedent For it is but the signification of the will of Christ that conferreth the Power and imposeth the Duty And that his will is sometime signified concerning the individual person without Ordination is apparent hence 1. The Description of such as Christ would have to preach the Gospel is very plain in his holy Canons in the Scripture 2. His Gifts are frequently so eminent in several persons as may remove all just occasion of doubting both from the persons themselves and others 3. Their suitableness to a People by interest acquaintance c. may be as notable 4. The Peoples common and strong affection to them and theirs to the People may be added to all these 5. There may be no Competitor at all or none regardable or comparable and so no controversie 6 The Necessities of the People may be so great and visible that he and they may see that they are in danger of being undone and the Church in danger of a very great loss or hurt if he deny to be their Pastor 7. The Magistrate also may call and command him
to the work 8. The People and he may consent and they may unanimously choose him and he Accept their choice And in all these the will of Christ is easily discerned that this is the person whom he would have to undertake the Ministry Sect. 35. For 1. Where â—â—ere are so many evident signs of his Wills and Characters agreeing to the description in the Law there the will of Christ maâ— be discerned and it may be known that this is the described person But these are here supposed oâ— enough of these And indeed it is no very strange thing for all or almost all these to coâ—cur where there are persons of excellent qualifications Sect. 36. And 2. Where there is no Controversie or room for a Controversie the determination may be made without a Judge The Principal reason and use of Ordainers is that there may be standing Judges of the fitness of men to prevent the hurt of the Church by the withdrawing of the Worthy and the intrusion of the unworthy But here is no Controversie or place for Controversie therefore c. Sect. 37. But I suppose some will say that Though the Approbation of the Ordainers be not alwaies of Necessity because the person may be easily known without them yet their Investing the person with the Power iâ— of Necessity because without that he is but a person fit for the Office but cannot receive it till some authorized person shall deliver it Because the great mistake is involved in this objection I shall answer it fully Sect. 38. The Law it self is it that directly gives the Power and Imposeth the Duty when the person is once determined of that falls under it There needs no more but the signification of the Wâ—ll of Christ to confer the Power or Benefit or impose the Duty As an act of Oblivion pardoneth all the described persons and an Act that imposeth any burden or office upon every man of such or such an estate or parts doth immediately by it self oblige the persons though some Judges or others may be appointed to call out the persons and see to the execution who do not thereby impose the duty so is it in this case Gods Law can Authorize and oblige without an Ordainer sometimes Sect. 39. The Investiture performed in Ordination by man is not the first Obligation or Collation of the Power but only the solemnization of what was done before And therefore though it be necessitate praecepti a duty and ordinarily necessary to Church Order and preservation yet is it not necessary to the Being of the Ministerial Office or Power Sect. 40. And this will be made apparent 1. From the common nature of all such subsequential Investitures and inaugurations which are necessary to full possession and exercise of Power sometimes but not to the first being of it nor to the exercise neither in cases of Necessity when the Investiture cannot conveniently be had Sect. 41. Ordination as to the Investing act is no otherwise necessary to the Ministry then Coronation to a King or listing to a Souldiour or solemn investiture and taking his Oath to a Judge or other Magistrate c. But these are only the solemn entrance upon Possession and exercise of Power supposing a sufficient Title antecedent and in cases of Necessity may be unnecessary themselves and therefore so is it here as a like case Sect. 42. 2. If want of Investiture in cases of Necessity will not excuse the determinate person from the burden of the Ministerial work then will it not prove him destitute of the Ministerial Authority For every man hath Authority to do his Duty in that he is obliged to it But the Antecedent is plain If once I know by certain signs that I am a man that Christ requireth to be imployed in his work I durst not totally forbear it in a case of such exceeding moment for want of the regular admittance when it cannot be had while I know that the work is the End and the Ordination is but the means and the means may promote the end but must not be pleaded against the End nor to destroy it it being indeed no Means when it is against the end Ordination is for the Ministry and the Ministerial Office for the Work and the Work for Gods honour and mens salvation And therefore God must be served and men must be saved and the Ministry to those ends must be used whether there be Ordination to be had or not Necessity may be laid upon us without Ordination and then woe to us if we preach not the Gospel The Law can make Duty without an Ordainer Sect. 43. If this were not so a lazy person that is Able for the Ministry might by pleasing or bribing the Ordainers be exempted from abundance of duty and escape the danger of Guilt and Judgement upon his Omission And truly the burden is so great to flesh and blood if men be faithful in their Office the labour so uncessant the people so unconstant ungrateful and discouraging the worldly honours and riches so tempting which may bâ— had in a secular life with the study and cost that fits men for the Ministry and the eneâ—ies of our work and us aâ—e so many and malicious and times of persecution so frequent and unwelcome that if it were but in the Prelates power to exempt all men at their pleasure from all the trouble and care and danger and sufferings of the Ministery they would have abundance of Solicitors and Suitors for a dispensation especially where the Love of God and his Church were not very strong to prevail against temptations for this would free them from all fear Sect. 44. 3. If a man and woman may be truly husband and Wife without a solemn Marriage then a Minister and People may be truly conjoined in their Relations and Church-State without his solemn Ordination For these are very neer of a Nature A private Contract between themselves may truly make them Husband and Wife and then the standing Law of God conveyeth to the man his Power and obligeth him and the woman to their duties without any Instrumental investiture And yet if there be opportunity it is not lawful for any to live together in this relation without the investiture of Solemn Matrimony for Order sake and to prevent the fornication and bastardy that could not be avoided if Marriage be not Ordinarily publick Just so it is a very great sin to neglect Ordination ordinarily and where it may be had and tendeth to the bastardy of the Ministry and of Churches and soon would most be illegitimate if that course were taken And yet if Pastor and People go together without Ordination upon private Contract in case of Necessity it is lawful And if there be no Necessity it is sinful but yet doth not Null the Baptism and other Ministerial administrations of any such person to the Church of Christ or the upright members Sect. 45. 4. If a man may be a true
occasioning the disorders of other men It s better that men be disorderly saved then orderly damned and that the Church be dissorderly preserved then orderly destroyed God will not alllow us to suffer every Thief and Murderer to rob or kill our neighbours for fear lest by defending them we occasion men to neglect the Magistrate Nor will he allow us to let men perish in their sickness if we can help them for fear of encouraging the ignorant to turn Physitians 2. There is no part of Gods service that can be used without occasion of sin to the perverse Christ himself is the fall as well as the rising of many and is a stumbling stone and Rock of offence and yet not for that to be denyed There is no just and reasonable cause of mens abuse in the doctrine which I here express 3. True Necessity will excuse and Justifie the unordained before God for exercising their Abilities to his service But pretended counterfeit necessity will not Justifie any And the final judgement is at hand when all things shall be set strait and true Necessity and counterfeit shall be discerned 4. Until that day things will be in some disorder in this world because there is sin the world which is the disorder But our Remedies are these 1. To teach men their duties truly and not to lead them into one evill to prevent another much less to a mischief destructive to mens souls to prevent disorder 2. The Magistrate hath the sword of justice in his hand to restrain false pretenders of Necessity and in order thereto it is he and not the pretender that shall be judge And 3. The Churches have the Power of casting the pretenders if the case deserve it out of their communion and in order thereto it is not he but they that will be Judges And other remedies we have none till the last day Sect. 54. Quest. But what would you have men do that think there is a Necessity of their labours and that they have Ministerial abilities Answ. 1. I would have them lay by pride and selfishness and pass judgement on their own Abilities in Humility and self-denyal If their Corruptions are so strong that they cannot that is they will not do this that 's long of themselves 2. They must not pretend a Necessity where is none 3. They must offer themselves to the Tryal of the Pastors of the Church that best know them 4. If in the judgement of the godly able Pastors that know them they are unfit and there is no need of them they must acquiesce in their judgement For able Godly men are not like to destroy the Church or envy help to the souls of men 5. If they have cause to suspect the Pastors of Corruption and false judgement let them go to the other Pastors that are faithfull 6. If all about us were corrupt and their judgements not to be rested in and the persons are assured of their Ability for the Ministry let them consider the State of the Church where they are And if they are sure on Consultation with the wisest men that there is a Necessity and their endeavours in the Ministry are like to prevent any notable hurt without a greater hurt let them use them without Ordination if they cannot have it But if they find that the Churches are so competently supplied without them that there is no Necessity or none which they can supply without doing more hurt by offence and disorder then good by their labours let them forbear at home and go into some other Countries where there is greater need if they are fit there for the work if not let them sit still Sect. 55. Argument 4. If unordained men may Baptize in case of Necessity then may they do other Ministerial works in case of Necessity But the Antecedent is the opinion of those that we now dispute against And the Consequence is grounded on a Parity of Reason No man can shew more for appropriating the Eucharist then Baptisme to the Minister CHAP. IV. An uninterrupted Succession of Regular Ordination is not Necessary Sect. 1. HAving proved the Non-necessity of Ordination it self to the Being of the Ministry and Validity of their administrations I may be the shorter in most of the rest because they are sufficiently proved in this If Ordination it self be not of the Necessity which the adversaries do assert then the Regularity of Ordination cannot be of more Necessity then Ordination itself Much less an uninterrupted Succession of such Regular Ordination Yet this also is asserted by most that we have now to do with Sect. 2. By Regular Ordination I mean in the sence of the adversaries themselves such as the Canons of the Church pronounce not Null and such as by the Canons was done by such as had Authority to do it in special by true Bishops even in their own sence Sect. 3. And if the uninâ—errupted succession be not Necessary then neither is such Ordination at this present Necessary to the being of the Ministry For if any of our predecessors might be Ministers without it others in the like case may be so too For we live under the same Law and the Office is the same thing now as it was then Sect. 4. Argument 1. If uninterrupted Regular Ordination of all our Predecessors be Necessary to the Being of the Ministry then no man can know that he is truly a Minister of Christ. But the Consequent is false and intolerable therefore so is the Antecedent Sect. 5. The truth of the Minor is apparent thus 1. If we could not be sure that we are true Ministers then no man could with comfort seek the Minstry nor enter into upon it For who can have encouragement to enter a calling when he knows not whether indeed he enter upon it or not and whether he engage not himself in a course of sin and be not guilty as Vzza of medling with the Ark unlawfully especially in so great and tender a case where God is so exceeding jealous Sect. 6. And 2. who can go on in the Calling of the Ministry and comfortably do the work and bear the burden that cannot know through all his life or in any administration whether he be a Minister or a Usurper What a damp must it cast upon our spirits in Prayer Praise administration of the Eucharist and all publick worship which should be performed with the greatest alacrity and delight when we remember that we are uncertain whether God have sent us or whether we are usurpers that must one day hear Who sent you Whence had you your Power and who required this at your hands Sect. 7. And the Consequence of the Major that we are all uncertain of our Call and office both Papists and Protestants is most clear in case of the Necessity of such successive Ordination For 1. No man ever did to this day demomstrate such a succession for the Proof of his Ministry Nor can all our importunity
no peculiar Diocess of Paul Sect. 14. And 3. We still find that there were more then one of these general itinerant Ministers in a Place or at least that no one excluded others from having equal power with him in his Province where ever he came Barnabas Silas Titus Timotheus Epaphroditus and many more were fellow-labourers with Paul in the same Diocess or Province and not as fixed Bishops or Presbyters under him but as General Ministers as well as he We never read that he said to any of the false Apostles that sought his contempt This is my Diocess what have â—ou to do to play the Bishop in another mans Diocess Much less did he ever plead suâ—h a Power against Peter Barnabas or any Apostolical Minister Nor that Iames pleaded any such prerogative at Ierusalem Sect. 15. And therefore though we reverence Eusebius and other Ancients that tell us of some Apostles Diocesses we take them not as infallible reporters and have reason in these points partly to deny them credit from the word of God The Churches that were planted by any Apostle or where an Apostle was longest resident were like enough to reckon the series of their Pastors from him For the founder of a Church is a Pastor of it though not a fixed Pastor taking it as his peculiar charge but delivering it into the hands of such And in this sence we have great reason to understand the Catalogues of the Antients and their affirmations that Apostles were Bishops of the Churches For Pastors they were but so that they had no peculiar Diocess but still went on in planting and gathering and confirming Churches Whereas the Bishops that were setled by them and are said to succeed them had their single Churches which were their peculiar charge They had but one such charge or Church when the Apostles that lead in the Catalogues had many yet none so as to be limited to them And why have we not the Diocess of Paul and Iohn and Mathew and Thomas and the rest of the twelve mentioned as well of Peter and Iames Or if Paul had any it seems he was compartner with Peter in the same City contrary to the Canons that requireth that there be but one Bishop in a City Sect. 16. It s clear then that the English Bishops were not such Apostolical unfixed Bishops as the Itinerants of the first age were And yet if they were I shall shew in the next Argument that it s nothing to their advantage because Archbishops are nothing to our question And that they were not such as the fixed Bishops of Scripture times I am next to prove Sect. 17. The fixed Bishops in the Scripture times had but a single Congregation or particular Church for their Pastoral Charge But our English Bishops had many if not many hundred such Churches for their charge therefore our English Bishope were not of the same sort with those in Scripture The Major I have proved in the former Disputation The Minor needs no proof as being known to all that know England Sect. 18. And 2. The fixed Bishops in the Scripture times had no Presbyters at least of other particular Churches under them They Governed not any Presbyters that had other associated Congregations for publick Worship But the English Bishops had the Presbyters of other Churches under them perhaps of hundreds therefore they are not such as the Scripture Bishops were There is much difference between a Governour of People and a Governour of Pastors Episcopus gregis Episcopus Episcoporum is not all one None of us saith Cyprian in Concil Carthagin calleth himself or takes himself to be Episcopum Episcoporum No fixed Bishops in Scripture times were the Pastors of Pastors as least of other Churches Sect. 19. This I suppose I may take as granted de facto from the Reverend Divine whom I have cited in the foregoing Disputation that saith Annotat. in Art 11. that Although this Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders have been also extended to a second order in the Church and now iâ— only in use for them under the name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture-times it belonged principally if not alone to Bishops there being no Evidence that any of that second Order were then instituted though soon after before the writing 〈◊〉 â—gnatius Epistles there were such instituted in all Churches So that he granteth that de facto there were then no Presbyters but Bishops and that they were not instituted and therefore Bishops had no such Presbyters to Govern nor any Churches but a single Congregation For one Bishop could guide but one Congation at once in publick worship and there could be no Worshipping Congregations in the sence that now we speak of without some Presbyter to guide them in performance of the worship Sect. 20. So saith the same Learned man Dissertat 4. de Episcop page 208 209. in quibus plures absque dubio Episcopi â—uere nullique adhuc quos hodie dicimus Presbyteri And therefore he also concludeth that the Churches weâ—e then Governed by Bishops assisted by Deacons without Presbyters instancing in the case of the Church of Ierusalem Act. 6. and alledging the words of Clem. Roman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How Grotius was confident that Clemens was against their Episcopacy shewed before To the same purpose he citeth the words of Clemens Alexandrinus in Euseb. of Iohn the Apostle concluding Ex â—is ratio constat quare sine Presâ—yterorum mentione intervenientâ— Episcopis Diaconi immediate adjiciantur quia scilicet in singulis Macedoniae civitatibus quam vis Episcopus esset nondum Presbyteri constituti sunt Diaconis tantum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubique Episcopis adjunctis Dissertat 4 cap. 10. Sect. 19 20 21. So also cap. 11. Sect. 2. alibi passim Sect. 21. Object But though de facto there were no Bishopâ—â—uling Presbyters then nor ruling any more then a single Worshâ—pâ—ing Church yet it was the Intention of the Apostles that they should afterwards enlarge their Diocess and take the care of many Churches and that they should ordain that soâ—t of subject Presbyters that were not instituted in Scripture-times Answ. Do you prove the secret Intention of the Apostles to be for such a Mutation and then we shall be satisfied in that But till then it is enough to us that we have the same Government that de facto was set up by the Apostles and exercised in Scripture times And that it s granted us that the office was not then instituted which we deny For it is the office of such subject Presbyters having no Power of Ordination that we deny Sect. 22. Object But though in Scripture times there were no Bishops over many Churches and Presbyters yet there were Archbishops that were over many Answ. Because this objection contains their strength I shall answer it the more fully And 1. If there were no subject Presbyters in those times then Archbishops could rule none But there were
none such as is granted therefore c. And what proof is there of Archbishops then Sect. 23. Their first proof is from the Apostles But they will never prove that they were fixed Bishops or Archbishops I have proved the contrary before But such an itinerant Episcopacy as the Apostles had laying by their extraordinaries for my part I think should be continued to the world and to the Church of which after Another of their proofs is from Timothy and Titus â— who thy say were Archbishops But there is full evidence that Timothy and Titus were not fixed Bishops or Archbishops but Itinerant Evangelists that did as the Apostles did even plant and settle Churches and then go further and do the like See and consider but the proofs of this in Prins unbishoping of Timothy and Titus Such Planters and Itinerants were pro tempore the Bishops of every Church where they came yet so as another might the next week be Bishop of the same Church and another the next week after him yea three or four or more at once as they should come into the place And therefore many Churches as well as Ephesus and Creet its like might have begun their Catalogue with Timothy and Titus and many a one besides Rome might have begun their Catalogue with Peter and Paul Sect. 24. Another of their proofs is of the Angels of the seven Churches which they say were Archbishops But how do they prove it Because those Churches or some of them were planted in chief Cities and therefore the Bishops were Metropolitans But how prove they the consequence By their strong imagination and affirmation The Orders of the Empire had not then such connection and proportion and correspondency with the Orders of the Church Let them give us any Valid proof that the Bishop of a Metropolis had then in Scripture times the Bishops of other Cities under him as the Governor of them and we shall thank them for such unexpected light But presumption must not go for proofs They were much later times that afforded occasion for such contentions as that of Basil and Anthymius Whether the bounds of their Episcopal Jurisdiction should change as the Emperours changed the State of the Provinces Let them prove that these Asian Angels had the Bishops of other Churches and the Churches themselves under their jurisdiction and then they have done something Sect. 25. But if there were any preheminence of Metropolilitans neer these times it cannot be proved to be any more then an honorary Primacy to be Episcopus primae sedis but not a Governour of the rest How else could Cyprian truly say even so long after as is before alledged that none of them was a Bishop of Bishops nor imposed on others but all were left free to their own consciences as being accountable only to God Sect. 26. Yea the Reverend Author above mentioned shews Dâ—ssertat de Episcop 4. cap. 10. Sect. 9 10 alibi that there were in those times more Bishops then one in a City though not in una Ecclesia aut Coeâ—u And the like hath Grotius oft So that a City had oft then more Churches then one and those Churches had their several Bishops and neither of these Bishops was the Governour of the other or his Congregation much less of the remoter Churches and Bishops of other Cities And this they think to have been the case of Peter and Paul at Rome yea and of their immediate successors there And so in other places Lege Dissert 5 c 1. Sect. 27. When the great Gregory Thaumaturgus was made Bishop of Neocaesarea he had but seventeen Christians in his City and when he had increased them by extraordinary successes yet we find not that he had so much as a Presbyter under him And if he had it s not likely that Musonius his first and chief entertainer would have been made but his Deacon and be the only man to accompany him and comfort him in his retirement in the persecution and that no Presbyter should be mentioned which shews that Bishops then were such as they were in Scripture-times at least in most places and had not many Churches with their Presbyters subject to them as Dâ—ocâ—san Bishops have And when Comana a small place not far off him received the faith Gregory Ordained Alexander the Colliar their Bishop over another single Congregâ—tion and did not keep them under his own Pastoral charge and Government Vid. Greg. Nysâ—n in vita Thaumat Sect. 28. But because that our Dâ—ocesan Bishops are such as the Archbishops that first assumed the Government of many Churches and because we shall hardly drive many from their presumption that Timothy and Titus were Archbishops besides the Apostles I shall now let that supposition stand and make it my next Argument that Argument 3. Ordination by Archbishops is not necessary to the Being of Ministers or Churches Our English Bishops were indeed Archbishops therefore Ordination by them is not Necessary It is not the Name but the office that is pleaded Necessary Sect. 29. And for the Major I think it will not be denyed All that I have to do with Protestants and Papists do grant the Validity of Ordination by Bishops And for the Minor it is easily proved The Bishops that are the Governours of many Churches and their Bishops are Archbishops The Bishops of England were the Governours of many Churches with their Bishops therefore they were Archbishops The Major will be granted And for the Minor I prove it by parts 1. That they were by undertaking the Governours of many Churches 2. And of many Bâ—shops Sect. 30. He that is the Governour over many Congregations of Christians associated for the publick Worship of God and holy communion and Edification under their Proper Pastors is the Governour of many Churches But such were our English Bishops therefore c. That such Societies as are here defined are true Churches is a truth so clear that no enemy of the Churches is is able to gainsay with any shew of Scripture or reason they being such Churches as are described in the Scriptures And 2. That our Ministers were true Pastors if any will deny as the Papists and Separatists do I shall have occasion to say more to them anon Sect. 31. Argument 4. If Ordination by such as the English Bishops be of Necessity to the Ministry and Churches then was there no true Ministry and Churches in the Scripture times nor in many years after But the consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The reason of the Consequence is because there were no such Bishops in those times and this is already proved they being neither the Itinerant Apostolical sort of Bishops nor the fixed Pastors of particular Churches besides which there were no other Sect. 32. Argument 5. If Ordination by such as the English Prelates be Necessary to the Being of the Ministry and Churches then none of the Protestants that have not such Prelates which is almost all are
in other passages of Scripture had the power of Ordination and that it belonged not only to the Apostles and Evangelists and such as they call Archbishops but that the fixed Bishops of particular Churches had it Sect. 3. The Minor I prove thus that our Ordination is by Scripture Bishops The Scripture Bishops were the Pastors of Particular Churches having no Presbyters subject to them Most of our Ordainers are such Pastors therefore most of our Ordainers are Scripture Bishops Sect 4. The Major is asserted at large by the foresaid 〈◊〉 Dr. H. H. Annot. in Art 11. b. p. 407. Where he shews 〈◊〉 though this title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders have been also 〈◊〉 second Order in the Church is now only in use for them under 〈◊〉 name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture times it belonged princâ—pally if not only to Bishops there being no evidence that any of 〈◊〉 second order were then instituted So that the Scripture Bishops were the Pastors of single Churches having no Presbyters under them for there were no inferiour Presbyters that had not the Power of Ordination instituted in those times This therefore may be taken as a granted truth Sect. 5. And that our Ordainers are such is commonly known 1. They are Pastors it is but few of the Prelates that denyed this They are Rectors of the People and have the Pastoral charge of souls 2. They are Pastors of Particular Churches 3. They have for the most part at least no subject or inferiour Presbyters under them therefore they are Scripture Bishops Sect. 6. Object The difference lyeth in another point The Scripture Bishops had the Power of Ordination Your Pastors have not the Power of Ordination thereefore they are not the same Answ. That is the thing in Question I am proving that they have the power of Ordination thus In Scripture times all single Pastors of single Churches had the Power of Ordination there being no other instituted But our Ordainers are the single Pastors of single Churches and of Christs institution therefore they have the Power of Ordination If the Pastors now are denyed to be such as were instituted in Scripture times 1. Let them shew who did institute them and by what authority 2. The sole Pastors of particular Churches were instituâ—ed in Scripture times But such are ours in question therefore c. Sect. 7. There is no sort of Pastors lawfull in the Church but what were instituted in Scripture times But the sort of Pastors now in question are lawfull in the Church therefore they were instituted in Scripture times The Minor will be granted us of all those that were Ordained by Prelates They would not Ordain men to an office which they thought unlawful The Major is proved thus No sort of Pastors are lawful in the Church but such of whom we may have sufficient evidence that they were instituted by Christ or his Apostles But we can have sufficient evidence of none but such as were instituted in Scripture times that they were instituted by Christ or his Apostles therefore no other sort is lawfull The Major is proved in that none but Christ and such as he committed it to have power to institute new Holy Offices for Worship in the Church But Christ hath committed this to none but Apostles if to them therefore c. Whether Apostles themselves did make any such new Office I will not now dispute but if they did 1. It was by that special Authority which no man since the planting of the Churches by them can lay claim to or prove that they have 2. And it was by that extraordinary guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost which none can manifest to have been since that time communicated Sect. 8. Moreover if there were a Power of instituting new Offices in the Church since Scripture times it was either in a Pope in Councils or in single Pastors But it was in none of these not in a Pope for there was no such Creature of long time after much less with this authority Not in a Council For 1. None such was used 2. None such is proved 3. Else they should have it still Not in every Bishop as will be easily granted Sect. 9. If such a Power of instituting New Church-Offices were after Scripture times in the Church then it is ceased since or continueth still Not ceased since For 1. The Powers or officers then lâ—â—t continue still therefore their authority continueth still 2. There is no proof that any such temporary power was given to any since Scripture times Nor doth any such continue still Otherwise men might still make us more New Offices and so we should not know when we have done nor should we need to look into Scripture for Christs will but to the will of men Sect. 10. Argument 2. No men since Scripture times had power to change the Institutions of Christ and the Apostles by taking down the sort of Pastors by them established and setting up another sort in their stead But if there be lawful Pastors of particular Churches that have not power of Ordination then men had power to make such a change For the sort of Pastors then instituted were such as had but one Church and were themselves personally to guide that Church in actual Worship and had the power of Ordination and there was no subject Presbyters nor no single Pastors that had not the Power of Ordination All single Pastors of particular Churches had that Poâ—er then But all or almost all such single Pastors of particular Churches are by the Dissenters supposed to be without that Power now Therefore it is by them supposed that Christs form of Church Government and sort of Officers are changed and consequently that men had power to change them for they suppose it lawfully done Sect. 11. Argument 3. The Pastors of City Churches may ordain especially the sole or chief Pastors Many of our present Ordainers are the Pastors of City Churches and the sole or chief Pastors in some Places therefore they may Ordain The Major is proved from the doctrine of the Dissenters which is that every City Church should have a Bâ—shop and that every Bishop is the chief and sometimes only Pastor of a City Church If they say that yet every Pastor though the sole Pastor of a City Church is not a Bishop I answer that then they will infer the same power of changing Scripture Institutions which I mentioned and disproved before Let them prove such a Power if they can Sect. 12. The Minor is undenyable and seen de facto that many of our Ordainers are such Pastors of City Churches and that of two sorts some of such Cities as have both the Name and Nature of Cities And some of such Cities as have truly the nature but in our English custom of speech have not the name such as are all Corporations in the several Market Towns of England Sect. 13. Argument 4. Those Pastors that have Presbyters
our Ordination is Valid The Major is proved from 1. Tim. 4.14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given theâ— by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Pres-Presbyterie Also from Act. 13.1 2 3. They were the Prophets and Teachers of the Church of Antioch that imposed hands on Barnabas and Saul whether it were for their first Ordination to the Office or only for a particular Mission I now dispute not The Church of Antioch had not many Prelates if any but they had many Prophets and Teachers and these and none but these are mentioned as the Ordainers As for them that say these were the Bishops of many Churches of Syria when the Text saith they all belonged to this Church of Antioch they may by such presumptuous contradictions of Scripture say much but prove little Sect. 24. As for them that grant us that there were no subject Presbyters instituted in Scripture-times and so expound the Presbyterie here to be only Apostles and Bishops of the higher order I have shewed already that they yield us the Cause though I must add that we can own no new sorâ— of Presbyterie not instituted by Christ or his Apostles But for them that think that Prelates with subject Presbyters were existent in those times they commonly expound this Text of Ordination by such subject Presbyters with others of a Superior rank or degree together Now as to our use it is sufficient that hence we prove that a Presbyterie may ordain and that undeniably a Presbyterie consisted of Presbyters and so that Presbyters may ordain This is commonly granted us from this Text. That which is said against us by them that grant it is that Presbyters did Ordain but not alone but with the Bishops Sect. 25. But 1. if this were proved it s nothing against us for if Presbyters with Bishops have power to Oâ—dain then it is not a work that is without the reach of their Office but that which belongeth to them and therefore if they could prove it irregular for them to Ordain without a Bishop yet would they not prove it Null Otherwise they might prove it Null if a Bishop Ordain without a Presbyterie because according to this Objection they must concur 2. But indeed they prove not that any above Presbyters did concur in Timothies Ordination whatever probability they may shew for it And till they prove it we must hold so much as is proved and granted Sect. 26. As for 2 Tim. 1.6 it is no certain proof of it It may be Imposition of hands in Confirmation or for the first giving of the Holy Ghost after Baptism ordinarily used by the Apostles that is there spoken of which also seemeth probable by the Apostles annexing it to Timothies Faith in which he succeeded his Mother and Grandmother and to the following effects of the Spirit of Power and of Love and of a sound mind which are the fruits of Confirming Grace admonishing hâ—m that he be not ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord which is also the fruit of Confirmation However the pâ—obâ—bility go they can give us no certainty that Paul or any Apostle had an hand in the Ordination here spoken of when the Text saith that it was with the laying on of the hands of the Presbâ—terie we must judge of the office by the name and therefore 1. we are sure that there were Presbyters 2. And if there were also any of an higher rank the Phrase encourageth us to believe that it was as Presbyters that they imposed hands in Ordination Sect. 27. Argument 9. If Bishops and Presbyters as commonly distinguished do differ only Gradu non Ordine in Degree and not in Order that is as being not of a distinct office but of a more honourable Degree in the same office then is the Ordination of Presbyters valid though without a Bishop of that higher Degree But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the Consequent The Antecedent is maintained by abundance of the Papists themselves much more by Protestants The reason of the Consequence is because ad ordinem pertinet ordinarâ— Being of the same office they may do the same work This Aâ—gument Bishop Vsher gave me to prove that the Ordination of meer Presbyters without a Prelate is valid when I askt him his Judgement of it Sect. 28. Argument 10. If the Prelates and the Laws they went by did allow and require meer Presbyters to Ordain then must they grant us that they have the Power of Ordination But the Antecedent is true as is well known in the Laws and common Practice of the Prelates in Ordaining divers Presbyters laid on hands together with the Bishop and it was not the Bishop but his Chaplain commonly that examined and approved usually the Bishop came forth and laid his hands on men that he never saw before or spoke to but took them as he found them presented to him by his Chaplain so that Presbyters Ordained as well as he and therefore had power to Ordain Sect. 29. If it be Objected that they had no power to Ordain without a Bishop I answer 1. Nor a Bishop quoad exercitium without them according to our Laws and Customs at least â—â—â—ually 2. Ordaining with a Bishop proveth them to be Ordainers and that it is a work that belongeth to the order or office of a Presbyter or else he might not do it at all any more then Deacons or Chancellors c. may And if it be but the work of a Presbyters office it is not a Nullity if Presbyters do it without a Prelate if you could prove it an irregularity Sect. 30. Argument 11. If the Ordination of the English â—relates be valid then much more is the Ordination of Presbyters as in England and other Reformed Churches is in use But the Ordination of English Prelates is valid I am sure in the judgement of them that we dispute against therefore so is the Ordination of English Presbyters much more Sect. 31. The reason of the Consequence is because the English Prelates are more unlike the Bishops that were fixed by Apostolical Institution or Ordination then the English Presbyters are as I have shewed at large in the former Disputation the Scripture Bishops were the single Pastors of single Churches personally guiding them in the worship of God and governing them in presence and teaching them by their own mouths visiting their sick administring Sacraments c. And such are the English Presbyters But such are not the late English Prelates that were the Governors of an hundred Churches and did not personally teach them guide them in worship govern them in presence and deliver them the Sacraments but were absent from them all save one Congregation These were unliker to the Scripture fixed Bishops described by Dr. H. H. then our Presbyters are therefore if they may derive from them a Power of Ordination or from the â—aw that instituted them then Presbyters may do so much more Sect. 32. Argument 12.
Major is undenyable because there are all things enumerated that are Necessary to the determination of the person qualified that is to receive the power from Christ Sect. 68. And the Minor I prove by parts 1. That our Ministry have usually the peoples consent is a known case that needs no proof 2. So is it that they have the Magistrates allowance and his Authority appointing Approvers for their Introduction and allowing Ordination and commanding Ministerial Works Sect. 69. And doubtless the Magistrate himself hath so much Authority in Ecclesiastical affairs that if he command a qualified person to preach the Gospel and command the people to receive him I see not how either of them can be allowed to disobey him Though yet the party ought also to have recourse to Pastors for Ordination and people for consent where it may be done And Grotius commendeth the saying of Musculus that would have no Minister question his Call that being qualified hath the Christian Magistrates Commission And though this assertion need some limitations yet it is apparent that Magistrates power is great about the Offices of the Church For Solomon put out Abiathar from the Priesthood and put Zadeck in his place 1 Kings 2.27 35. David and the Captains of the host separated to Gods service those of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Ieduthun who should Prophesie with Harps c. 1 Chron 16.4 And so did Solomon 2 Chron. 8.14 15. They were for the service of the house of God according to the Kings Order 1 Chron. 25.1 6. And methinks those men should acknowledge this that were wont to stile the King In all causes and over all persons the supream Head and Governour Sect. 70. But 3. We have moreover in the Ordination of the Reformed Churches The approbation and solemn Investiture of the fittest Ecclesiastical Officers that are to be had And no more is requisite to an orderly Admission There being nothing for man to do but to determine of the qualified person and present him to God to receive the power and obligation from his Law it is easie to discern that where all these concur the Peoples Election or Consent the Magistrates Authority the determination of fit Ecclesiastical Officers and the qualification and consent of the person himself there needs no more to the designation of the man Nor hath God tyed the essence of the Church or Ministry to a certain formality or to the interest or will of Prelates nor can any more ad ordinem be required but that a qualified person do enter by the best and most Orderly way that is open to him in those times and places where he is And that we have the fittest Approvers and Ordainers I prove Sect. 71. If the most of the Protestant Churches have no other Ecclesiastical Officers to Ordain but Presbyters then is it the most fit and orderly way to enter into the Ministry in those Churches by their Ordination and those Presbyters are the fittest that are there to Ordain But the Antecedent is a known truth If any in denyal of the Consequence say that the Churches should rather be without Ministers then have Ordination by such they are confuted by what is said before Sect. 72. And if you say that they should have Bishops and it is their own fault that they have not I answer Suppose that were a granted truth it can reach but to some that have the Rule It is not the fault of every Congregation or expectant of the Ministry It is not in their power to alter Laws and forms of Government and therefore they are bound to enter by the fittest way that is open to them Sect. 73. Moreover even in England the Presbyteries are fitter for Ordination then the present Bishops as to the Nation in general therefore the Ordination by Presbyteries is done by the fittest Ecclesiastical officers and is the most regular and desireable Ordination Sect. 74. I prove the Antecedent by comparing the Ordination of the Presbyteries and the present Prelates 1. I have before shewed that the English Prelacy is more unlike the Primitive Episcopacy then our Parochial Presbytery or Episcopacy is and therefore hath less reason to appropriate to themselves the Power of Ordaining 2. The Ordaining Presbyters are Many and known persons and the Prelates few and to the most and except three or four to almost all that I am acquainted wiâ—h unknown 3. The Presbyters Ordain Openly where all may be satisfied of the impartiality and Order of their proceedings But the Prelates Ordain in Private where the same satisfaction is not given to the Church 4. Hereupon it is easie for any vagrant to counterfeit the Prelates secret Orders and say he was Ordained by them when it is no such matter and who can disprove him But the publick Ordination of Presbyters is not so easily pretended by such as have it not and the pretence is easily discovered 5. The Prelates for ought I hear are very few and therefore few can have access to them for Ordination But Presbyteries are in most countreyes 6. The Prelates as far as I can learn Ordain Ministers without the peoples consent over whom they are placed and without giving them any notice of it before hand that they may put in their exceptions if they dissent But the Presbyters ordinarily require the consent of the people or at least will hear the reasons of their dissent 7. The Presbyteries Ordain with the Magistrates allowance and the Prelates without and against them Those therefore that are Ordained by Prelates usually stand on that foundation alone and want the consent of People and Magistrates when those that are Ordained by Presbyteries have all 8. Ordination by Prelates is now pleaded for on Schismatical grounds and in submitting to it with many of them we must seem to consent to their Principles that all other Ordination is Null and the Churches are no true Churches that are without it But Presbyteries Ordain not on such dividing terms 9. We hear not of neer so much care in the Prelates Ordinations in these or former times as the Presbyteries I could give some instances even of late of the great difference which I will not offend them with expressing 10. Most of them that we hear of Ordain out of their own Diocesses which is against the ancient Canons of the Church 11. Some of them by their Doctrines and their Nullifying all the Reformed Churches and Ministry that have no Prelates do shew us that if they had their will they would yet make more lamentable destructive work in the Church then the hottest persecutors of their late predecessors did For it is plain that they would have all the Ministers disowned or cast out that are not for the Prelacy And what a case then would this land and others be in Of which more anon So that we have reason to fear that these are destroyers and not faithful Pastors I speak not of all but only of the guilty For
of the Churches and Ministry and the substance of worship it self and the Salvation of men souls As if it were better for Churches to be no Churches then not Prelatical Churches or for souls to be condemned then to be saved by men that are not Prelatical I speak not these things to exasperate them though I can expect no better but in the grief of my soul for the sad condition that they would bring men into Sect. 32. 26. They lay a very dangerous snare to draw Ministers to be guilty of casting off the work of God Flesh and blood would be glad of a fair pretence for so much liberty and ease O how fain would it be unyoakt and leave this labourious displeasing kind of life And when such as these shall perswade them that they are no Ministers they may do much to gratifie the flesh For some will say I am at a loss between both wayes I cannot see the lawfulness of Prelacy and yet they speak so confidently of the nullity of all other callings that I will forbear till I am better resolved Another will say I find my self to be no Minister and therefore free from the Obligation to Ministerial Offices and I will take heed how I come under that yoak again till I have fuller resolution Another will scruple being twice Ordained and so will think it safer to surcease At least they tempt men to such resolutions that would discharge them from so hard a work Sect. 33. 27. By this means also they make the breaches that are among us to be uncurable and proclaim themselves utterly unreconcileable to the most of the Protestant Churches For if they will have no reconciliation or communion with them till they shall confess themselves no Churches and cast off all their Ministers they may as well say flatly they will have none at all For no reasonable man can imagine or expect that ever the Churches should yield to these terms When they are declared no Ministers or Churches you cannot then have Communion with them as Ministers or Churches Sect. 34. 28. And it is easie to see how much they befriend and encourage the Papists in all this Is it not enough that you have vindicated the Pope from being the Antichrist but you must also openly proclaim that Rome is a true Church their Priests true Priests their Ordinances and Administrations Valid but all the Protestant Churches that are not Prelatical are indeed no Churches their Ministers no Ministers c. Who would not then be a Papist rather then a member of such a Protestant Church How can you more plainly invite men to turn Papists unless you would do it expresly and with open face Or how could you gratifie Papists more Sect. 35. 29. And truly if all these evils were accomplâ—shed the Ministers forsaken iniquity let loose the Ordinances prophaned by unworthy men c. we could expect nothing but that the judgements of God should be poured out upon us for our Apostacy and that temporal plagues involuntary should accompany the spiritual plagues that we have chosen and that God should even forsake our land and make us a by word and an hissing to the Nations and that his judgements should write as upon our doors This is the people that wilfully cast out the Ministers and mercies of the Lord. Sect. 36. 30. And if all this were but accomplished in the Conclusion I may be bold to ask what would the Devil himself have more except our damnation it self If he were to plead his own cause and to speak for himself would he not say the very same as these Learned Reverend Disputers do would he not say to all our graceless people Hear nâ—t these Ministers they are no true Ministers Ioyn not in Communion with their Churches they are no true Churches I doubt not but he would say many of the same words if he had leave to speak And should not a man of any fear be afraid and a man of any piety be unwilling to plead the very cause of Satan and say as he would have them say by accusing so many famous Churches and Ministers as being none indeed and drawing the people so to censure them and forsake them This is no work for a Minister of Christ. Sect. 37. Besides what is here said I desire those whom it doth concern that are afraid of plunging themselves into the depth of guilt and horror that they will impartially read over my first sheet for the Ministry which further shews the aggravations of their sin that are now the opposers and reproachers of them Consider them and take heed Sect. 38. But again I desire these Brethren to believe that as it is none of the Prelatical Divines that I here speak of but those that thus nullifie our Church Ministry while they own the Ministry and Church of Rome so it is none of my desire to provoke even these or injure them in the least degree But I could not in this sad condition of the Church but propound these hainous evils to their consideration to provoke them to try and to take heed lest they should incur so great a load of guilt while they think they are pleading for Order in the Church How can there be any charity to the Church or to our brethren in us if we can see them in such a gulf of sin as this and yet say nothing to them for fear of provoking them to displeasure Sect. 39. And I think it necessary that all young men that are cast by their arguings into temptations of falling with them into the same transgressions should have the case laid open to them that they may see their danger and not by the accusations of Schism be led into far greater real Schism with so many other sins as these Sect. 40. Yet is it not my intent to justifie any disorders or miscarriages that any have been guilty of in opposition to the Prelacie And if they can prove that I have been guilty of any such thing my self I shall accept of their reproof and condemn my sin as soon as I can discern it Only I must crave that the usual way of presumption affirmation or bare names of crimes be not supposed sufficient for Conviction without proof and before the cause is heard And also I do profess that for all that I have here said against the English Prelacy and though I earnestly desire it may never be restored yet were I to live under it again I would live peaceably and submissively being obedient and perswading others to obedience in all things lawfull CHAP. IX The sinfulness of despising or neglecting Ordination Sect. 1. IT is a thing so common and hardly avoided for men in opposing one extream to seem to countenance the other and for men that are convinced of the evil of one to run into the other as the only truth that I think it necessary here to endeavour the prevention of this miscarriage and having said so much
for half a year or a year or seven year then is it lawfull to choose and fix such a President for life on supposition still of a continued fitness But it is lawful to choose such a one for a year or seven year therefore also for life § 7. The Antecedent is granted by the Presbyterian Congregational and Erastian party which are all that I have now to do with For all these consented that D. Twiss should be President of the Synod at Westminster which was till his death or else was like to have been till the end And so another after him And ordinarily the Provinces and Presbyteries choose a President till the next Assembly And I remember not that ever I heard any man speak against this course § 8. And then the Consequence is clear from the parity of Reasons For 1. Seven years in contracts is valued equal with the duration of a mans life 2. And no man can give a Reason to prove it Lawfull to have a President seven years or a quarter of a year that will not prove it Lawfull in it self to have a President during life And Accidents must be weighed on both sides before you can prove it Accidentally evil And if it be but so it may be one time good if by accident it be another time bad The weightiest accident must preponderate § 9. 3. Order is a thing lawful in Church Assemblies and Affairs the staâ—ed Presidency of one is a stated Order in Church Assemblies therefore it is lawful that all things be done in Order is commanded 1 Cor. 14.40 And therefore in general Order is a duty which is more then to be Lawful And though the particular wayes of Order may yet be comparatively indifferent yet are they Lawful 〈◊〉 the Genus is necessary § 10. And that this Presidency is a point of Church Order is apparent in the nature and use of the thing and also in that it is commonly acknowledged a matter of Order in all other societies or Assemblies though but for the low and common affairs of the world in a Jury you will confess that Order requireth that there be a Foreman and in a Colledge that there be a Master and that an Hospital a School and all Societies have so much Order at least as this if not much more And why is not that to be accounted Order in the Church that is so in all other societies § 11. 4 That which maketh to the Unity of the Churches or Pastors and is not forbidden by Christ is both lawful and desirable But such is a stated Presidency therefore c. The Major is grounded 1. On nature it self that tells us how much of the strength and beauty and safety of the Church and of all societies doth consist in Unity The Minor is apparent in the Nature of the thing 1. That Presidency makes for Unity is confest by all the Churches that use it to that end 2. And the continuance of the same makes somewhat more for Unity then a change would do there being some danger of division in the new elections besides other and greater inconveniences § 12. 5. The person that is most fit Consideratis Considâ—randis should be chosen President But one and the same person ordinarily is most fit durante vita therefore one and the same person should be continued President God doth not use to change his gifts at every monethly or quarterly Sessions of a Classis or Provincial Synod Either the President chosen was the fittest at the time of his choice or not if he were not he was ill chosen if he were so then its like he is so still at least for a long time And a mans ability is so great and considerable a qualification for every imployment that it must be a very great accident on the other side that must allow us to choose a man that is less able A change cannot be made in most places without the injury of the Assembly and of their work The worthiest person therefore may lawfully be continued for the work sake § 13. 6. That way is lawful that conduceth to the Reconciliation of dissenting and contending Brethren supposing it not forbidden by God But such is the way of a stated Presidency durante vitâ therefore c. Though the Major be past doubt yet to make it more clear consider that it is 1. A Learned party as to many of them with whom this Reconciliation is desired and therefore the more desirable 2. That it is a numerous party even the most of the Catholike Church by far All the Greek Church the Armenian Syrian Abassine and all others that I hear of except the Reformed are for Prelacy and among the Reformed England and Ireland had a Prelacy and Denmark Sweden part of Germany Transilvania have a superintendency as high as I am pleading for at least And certainly a Reconciliation and as near a Union as well may be had with so great a part of the Church of Christ is a thing not to be despised nor will not be by considerate moderate men § 14. And it is very considerable with me that it is the future and not only the present Peace of the Churches that we shall thus procure For it is easie to see that Episcopacy is neither such an upstart thing nor defended by such contemptible reasons as that the Controversie is like to die with this age undoubtedly there will be a Learned and Godly party for it while the world endureth unless God make by Illumination or Revelation some wonderful change on the Sons of men that I think few men do expect And certainly we should do the best we can to prevent a perpetual dissention in the Church Were there not one Prelatical man now alive it were easie to foresee there would soon be more § 15. Yeâ— do I not move that any thing forbidden by God should be used as a means for Peace or Reconciliation with men It is not to set up any Tyranny in the Church nor to introduce any new Office that Christ hath not planted it is but the orderly disposal of the Officers and affairs of Christ which is pleaded for § 16. Object But some will say your Minor yet is to be denyed for this is not a way to Reconciliation A stated Presidency will not please the Prelates that have been used to the sole Iurisdiction of a whole County and to sole Ordination Answ. 1. We know that the moderate will consent 2. And some further accommodation shall be offered anon which may satisfie all that will shew themselves the Sons of Peace 3. If we do our duty the guilt will no longer lie on us but on the refusers of Peace but till then its as well on us as on them § 17. 7. That which is lawfully practised already by a Concurrence of judgements may lawfully be agreed on But the Presidency or more of one man in the Assemblies of Ministers is in most places practised and
that lawfully already therefore c. There is few Associations but some one man is so far esteemed of by all that they give him an actual or virtual Presidency or more why then may they not agree expresly so to do § 18. 8. Lastly The so common and so antient practice of the Churches should move us to an inclination to reverence and imitation as far as God doth not forbid us and we have no sufficient reason to deter us of which more anon § 19. Yet are not they to be justified that raise contentions for such a Presidency and lay the Churches Peace upon it I see not yet but that it is a thing in it self indifferent whether a man be President a moneth a year or for his life and therefore I plead only for condescending in a case indifferent for the Churches peace though accidentally order may make it more desirable in one place and jealousies and prejudice or danger of usurpation may make it less desirable in another place But none should judge it necessary or sinful of it self § 20. If you ask What Power shall these stated Presidents have I answer 1. None can deny but that it is fit that in every Association of Churches there should be a certain way of Communication agreed on And therefore that some one should be chosen to receive such Letters or other matters that are to be Communicated and to send them or notice of them unto all This is a service and the power of doing such a service cannot be questionable while the service is unquestionable § 21. 2. It is meet that some be appointed to acquaint the rest as with business so with times and places of meeting the nomination of such times and places or the acquainting others with them when agreed on is a service that none can justly question and therefore the lawfulness of the power to do it may not be questioned § 22. Object But what 's this to Government this is to make them Servants and not Governors Answ. It is the more agreeable to the will of Christ that will have that kind of greatness sought among his Ministers by being the servants of all § 23. But 3. He may also be the stated Moderator of their Disputations and Debates this much I think will easily be granted them and I am sure with some as I shall shew anon this much would seem satisfactory The Principal President or Master of a Colledge is thought to have a convenient precedency or superiority though he have not a Negative voice And why the President in an Association of Pastors should have a greater Power I see as yet neither necessity nor reason § 24. But 4. If Peace cannot otherwise be obtained the matter may be thus accommodated without violation of the Principles or Consciences of the Episcopal Presbyterian or Congregational party 1. Let it be agreed or consented to that no man be put to profess that it is his judgement that Bishops should have as jure divino a Negative voice in Ordination This was never an Article of Faith it is not necessary to be put among our Credenda It is only the Practice that is pretended to be necessary and a submission to it Seeing therefore it is not to be numbred with the Credenda but the agenda let Action without professed Belief suffice 2. Yea on the same reasons if any man be of a Contrary judgement and think himself bound to declare it modestly moderately and peaceably let him have liberty to declare it so his practice be peaceable 3. This being premised Let the President never Ordain except in case of necessity but with the presence or consent of the Assembly of the Associated Pastors 4. And let the Pastors never Ordain any except in cases of Necessity but when the President is there present nor without his Consent And in Cases of Necessity as if he would deprive the Churches of good Ministers or the like the Episcopal men will yield it may be done § 25. If some think the President Must be one and others only think he May be one it is reasonable if we will have peace that our May be yield to their Must be For so we yield but to what we confess lawful but if they should yield it must be to what they judge to be sinful If it be not lawful to hold their Must that is that a Bishop hath a Negative voice yet is it lawful to forbear de facto to Ordain till he be one except it be in case of Necessity § 26. If in an Association there be a company of young or weak Ministers and one only man that is able to try him that is offered to the Ministry as to his skill in the Greek and Hebrew tongues and his Philosophy c. is it not lawful here for all the rest to consent that they will not Ordain any except in cases of Necessity but when the foresaid able man is one Who can doubt of this And if it be lawful in this case it is much more lawful when both the ability of the said person and the Peace of the Churches doth require it or if it be but the last alone I think it may well be yielded to § 27. But the Episcopal men will object if every man shall have leave to Believe and Profess a Parity of Ministers the President will but be despised and this will be no way to Peace but to Contention Answ. You have but two remedies for this and tell us which of them you would use The first is to force men by Club-law to subscribe to your Negative voice or not to hold the contrary The second is to cast them all out of the Communion of the Churches that are not in judgement for your Negative voice though they be Moderate Peaceable Godly men And he that would have the first way taken is a Tyrant and would be a Cruel Persecutor of his Brethren as good as himself And he that would take the second way is both Tyrannous and Schismatical and far from a Catholike peaceable disposition and if all must be cast out or avoided by him that are not in such things of his opinion he makes it impossible for the Churches to have peace with him § 28. But they will further object If in Necessity they shall Ordain without the President this Necessity will be ordinarily pretended and so all your offers will be in vain Answ. Prevent that and other such inconveniences by producing your weightiest reasons and perswading them or by any lawful means but we must not have real Necessities neglected and the Churches ruined for fear of mens unjust pretences of a Necessity that 's but a sad Cure § 29. But on the other side it will be objected This is but patching up a peace If I think that one man hath no more right then another to a Negative voice why should I seem to grant it him by my practice Answ. As when we come to Heaven
and not till then we shall have perfect Holiness so when we come to Heaven and not till then we shall have perfect Vnity and Peace But till then I shall take that which you call Patching as my Duty and our great Benefit If you think one man have not a Negative voice we neither urge you to say that he hath nor so much as to seem to own his claim You shall have leave in the publike Register of the Association to put it under your hand that Not as owning the claim of the Presidents Negative voice but as yielding in a Lawful thing for Peace you do Consent to forbear Ordaining any without him except in Cases of Necessity This you may do without any shew of contradicting your Principles and this is all that is desired § 30. Quest. And may we not for peace sake grant them as much in point of Iurisdiction as of Ordination and Consent to do nothing without Necessity but when the President is one and doth Consent Answ. Either by Iurisdiction you mean Law making or Executive Government The first belongs to none but Christ in the substance of his Worship and the Circumstances no man may Vniversally and Vnchangeably determine of but pro re nata according to emergent occasions the Magistrate may make Laws for them and the Pastors may make Agreements for Concord about them but none should determine of them without need and therefore here is no work for Legislators the Usurpers that have grievously wronged the Church And for Executive Government either it is over the People or over the Pastors To give a Negative voice to the President of an Association of the Pastors of many Churches in Governing the People of a single Church is to set up a new Office a fixed Pastor of many Churches and to overthrow Government and introduce the noxious sort of Prelacy which for my part I intend not to be guilty of And for proper Government of the Pastors I know none but God and Magistrates that have that Power Every Bishop saith Cyprian and the Council of Carthage hath Power of his own will and is responsible for his Actions to God and none of us are Episcopi Episcoporum Bishops of Bishops But there is a Communion among Pastors and Churches to be exercised and so an avoiding or rejecting from Communion and this some call improperly a Government And in this for my part I should consent where peace doth require it that we will not agree upon the rejecting of any Pastor of our Association no more then to the Accepting or Ordaining of them without the President but in cases of Necessity and that just on the terms exprest about Ordination § 31. As for instance in a particular Church there is a Communion to be held among all the members though none of them but the Officers are Governors of the Church And in many cases where the Peoples Consent is needful its common to stand to a Major vote and so great a stress is laid on this that by many of the Congregational way the Government of the Church is said to be in the Major vote of the people and yet 1. This is indeed no Government that belongs to them but Consent to Communion or Exclusion and 2. No Scripture doth require a Minor part to stand in all cases to the decision of a Major vote nor give a Major vote any Rule over the Consciences of the Minor part shew us this voting power in Scripture And yet 3. All agree that upon natural Reasons and General Rules of Scripture the Churches are allowed yea obliged in lawful things for maintaining Vnity and Peace to stand to the judgement of a Major vote in Cases that belong to them to vote in though there be no particular word for it in the Scripture Even so Associate Pastors have not a proper Government of one another neither by Presidents or Major votes though over the people they have but are all under the Government of God and the Magistrate only And yet they may in acts of Consent about Communion or Non-communion with one another prudentially agree to take the Consent of the President or of the Major vote of Pastors or of both where Peace or Order or Edification requireth it except in cases of Necessity § 32. Quest. But what will you take for a Case of Necessity which you will except Answ. 1. If the President be dead 2. Or sick or absent and cannot come 3. Or if he be malignant and wilfully refuse to Consent that the Church be well provided for or Governed 4. And withall supposing that without the great hurt or hazzard of the Churches we cannot delay the business till he be one or do Consent 5. Especially if he be set in enmity against the welfare of the Church and by pretence of a suspending vote would destroy the Church and bring in unworthy hurtful persons or things In all such Cases of Necessity its time to lay by our humane Rules for peace and Order § 33. Object But who shall be judge of this Necessity Answ. The Magistrate only shall be the Compelling Iudge The people shall be the Discerning Iudges the Pastors shall at least have as much power as the People each of them shall Discern so far as they must obey and execute And God only shall be the final Iudge § 34. Object But this will but cause Divisions and Confusions while the President thinks one thing Necessary and the Pastors another and the People another Answ. I answered this before Reason must not be cast by and the Churches ruined and poyson and destruction taken in on pretence of such inconveniences If such a Case of difference fall out each man will execute as he discerneth or judgeth being to answer for his own actions and having none that can undertake to answer for him And when we all come to the Bar of God for final Judgement he that was in the right shall be justified and he that falsly pretended Necessity against duty shall bear the blame § 35. Object But in the mean time the Churches will be divided Answ. 1. I told you there is no more hope of â— perfect Vnity on earth then of perfect Holiness 2. When two evils are before us though neither must be chosen for Evil is not an Object of choice unless as seeming good yet the Greater Evil must be first and most studiously repelled And the deformity and destruction of the Churches and the casting out of the Gospel and Worship of God is a greater Evil then disorder about good actions and differences about some Circumstances of Necessary works § 36. All this that I have said about the Negative de facto though not de jure that I would have Consented to for peace I intend not to extend to those Cases and Countries where peace requireth it not but rather the contrary muchâ—less to encourage any to think such a Negative Necessary in it self Some things may be Lawfully
granted that are unlawfully and upon mistake desired § 37. Lastly understand also that when I speak of yielding to this Negative voice in Ordination to the President of such an Association I intend not to exclude the Presbyterie of a particular Church where it is sufficient from the said Power and exercise of Ordination of which I am to speak in the the following Chapter which is of the President of such a Presbyterie CHAP. IV. It is Lawful for the Presbyters of a particular Church to have a fixed President during life § 1. I Come now to the most Ancient fixed Bishop that the Church was acquainted with except the meer Episcopus Gregis the Overseer of the flock and that is A President of many Elders in one particular Church The Diocesan Bishop was long after this The first Bishops if you will call them so in the Church were the first mentioned Itinerant Bishops that were sent abroad to convert souls and gather Churches and afterward took care to water and confirm them The next sort of Bishops and the first so called were the fixed Pastors of particular Churches that cannot be proved to have any superiority over Presbyters The third sort of Bishops in time and the first fixed Bishops that were superiours to other Pastors were these Presidents of the Presbyteries of particular Churches And these are they that now we have to speak of And I shall prove that it is not unlawful to have such § 2. But first I must tell you what I mean and shew you that such may be had among us I have in one of the former Disputations defined a particular Câ—urch It should ordinarily consist of no more then may hold personal Communion together in Gods publick Worship But yet take notice 1. That it tendeth to the strength and honour of it that it be not too small but consisting of as many as are well capable of the Ends. 2 And it is lawfull for these to have some other meeting places for part of the Church besides the principal place which is for the whole Chappels of ease may lawfully be made use of for the benefit of the weak and lame and aged that cannot alwayes or often come to the common Assembly And where such Chappels are not it is lawfull to make use of convenient houses Yea if there were no Place to be had sufficiently capacious of a full Assembly or else if persecution forbad them to meet it might still be but one Church though the members met in several houses ordinarily as five hundred in one and three hundred in another or one hundred only in several places every one going to which house he pleased and having several Pastors that in Society and by Consent did guide them all But though somewhat disorderly may be born with in cases of Necessity yet 1. As it is Necessary to the Ends and so to the Being of a particular Church that they be a Society capable of personal Communion and the personal Teaching Guidance and Oversight of the same Pastors So 2. It is desirable as much tending to Order and Edification that all of them that are able do frequently meet in one Assembly for the Worshipping of God with one heart and mouth And this is the Church I speak of § 3. It is not of Necessity to the Being of such a particular Church that it have more Pastors then one And when one only is the Pastor or Governour that one alone may do all the works of a Pastor or Governour For what else is his Office but the state or Relation of a man obliged and authorized to do such works The Learned Dr. H. H. thinketh that the Apostles planted none in Scripture times but single Pastors or Bishops called also Presbyters in every Church with Deacons under them without any other Presbyters subject or assistant over that Church This I conceive cannot be proved nor so much as the probability of it nay I think at least a probability if not a certainty of the contrary may be proved of some Churches But yet it is most likely that it was so with many Churches And reason tells us that the thing being in it self indifferent was suted by the Apostles to the state of the particular Churches that they planted A small Church might well have a single Pastor when a large Church especially in times of persecution when they must assemble in several houses at once required more Some places might have many persons fit for the Office and some but one Which cases must needs have some Variety § 4. Where there are more Pastors in such a Church then one I know of no Necessity that one should have any superiority over another nor can I prove that it was so from the beginning Some Divines of the Prelatical Judgement think that this was an Ordinance of the Apostles at the first planting of such Churches Others of them think that it was of their appointment but not actually existent till after Scripture times Others of them think that as Hierom saith it began when factions rose in the Church not by Divine Ordination but Ecclesiastical agreement for the preventing or cure of schism § 5. The first Church that we find it in in History is that of Alexandria And Alexandria was a place exceedingly given to sedition tumults and divisions the contentions between Cyril and Orestes the murder of Hypatia by Peter and his company the assault made upon Orestes by Ammonius the other Nitrian Monks and many such feats in the dayes of Theophilus Dionysius and up to the beginning do shew what they were And Socrates saith of them expresly li. 7. cap. 13. that The people of Alexandria above all other men are given to Schism and contention for if any quarrel arise at any time among them presently hainous and horrible offences use to follow and the tumult is never appeased without great blood-shed such were the Alexandrians § 6. But yet it is certain that the Original of this custom of setting up one as President or chief Presbyter in a particular Churâ—h cannot be found out so as to say by whom and when it was first brought in But if it began upon the death of Mark at Alexandria it must needs be long before the death of Iohn the Apostle in that Church what ever other Churces did But it seems that there was then a difference and indifferency in this point and that other Churces did not presently imitate the Churches of Alexandria and Rome herein He that reads Clemens Epistle to the Corinthians without partiality I think will be of Grotius mind before cited Epist. ad Gal. ad Bignon that Clemens knew not any such Prelacy among the Corinthians when he wrote that Epistle And so we may say of some other Witnesses and Churches in those times and afterwards in many places § 7. It is not another Order of Ministers or Office that was in such Churches distinct from the Presbyters that assisted them
the point For 1. It seemeth a most improbable thing that all the Churches or so many should so suddenly take up this Presidency Prelacy or Disparity without scruple or resistance if it had been against the Apostles minds For it cannot be imagined that all these Churches that were planted by the Apostles or Apostolical men and had seen them and conversed with them should be either utterly ignorant of their minds in such a matter of publike practice or else should be all so careless of obeying their new received doctrine as presently and unanimously to consent to a change or endure it without resistance Would no Church or no persons in the world contend for the retention of the Apostolical institutions Would no Chuâ—ch hold their own and bear witness against the corruption and innovations of the rest would no persons say you go about to alter the frame of Government newly planted among us by the Holy Ghost It was not thus in the dayes of Peter or Paul or John and therefore we will have no change Thâ—s seeâ—s to me a thing incredible that the whole Church should all at once almost so suddenly and silently yield to such a change of Government And I do not think that any man can bring one testimony from all the volumes of Antiquity to prove that ever Church or person resisted or disclaimed such a change in the times when it must be made if ever it was made that is in the first or second ages § 17. Yea 2. It is plain by the testimony of Hierom before mentioned and other testimonies of antiquity that in Alexandria at least this practice was used in the dayes of the Apostles themselves For they testifie that from the dayes of Mark the Evangelist till the days of Heroclas and Dionysius the Presbyters chose one from among them and called him their Bishop Now it is supposed by the best Chronologers that Mark was slain about the sixty third year of our Lord and the tenth of Nero and that Peter and Paul were put to death about the sixty sixth of our Lord and thirteenth of Nero and that Iohn the Apostle died about the ninety eighth year of our Lord and the first of Trajan which was about thirty five years after the death of Mark. Now I would leave it to any mans impartial consideration whether it be credible that the holy Apostles and all the Evangelists or Assistants of them then alive would have suffered this innovation and corruption in the Church without a plain disowning it and reproving it Would they silently see their newly established Order violated in their own dayes and not so much as tell the Churches of the sin and danger Or if they had indeed done this would none regard it nor remember iâ— so much as to resist the sin These things are incredible § 18. And I am confident if the judicious godly people had their choice from the experience of what is for their good they would commonly choose a fixed President or chief Pastor in every Church Yea I see that they will not ordinarily endure that it should be otherwise For when they find that God doth usually qualifie one above the rest of their Teachers they will hardly consent that the rest have an equal power over them I have seen even a sober unanimous Godly people refuse so much as to give their hands to an assistant Presbyter whom yet they loved honoured and obeyed though they were urged hard by him that they preferred and all from a loathness that there should be a parity I know not one Congregation to my remembrance that hath many Ministers but would have one be chief § 19. Object But the Prelatical men will say our Pariâ—shes are not capable of this because they have commonly but one Pastor nor have maintainance for more Answ. 1. Though the greâ—ter number have but one yet it is an ordinary case to have two or three or more where there are Chappels in the Parish and the Congregations great as in Market Towns And if ever we have Peace and a setled faithfull Magistrate that will do his part for the house of God we shall certainly have many Ministers in great Congregations Or else they are like to be left desolate For Ministers will over-run them for fear of undertaking far more work then with their utmost pains they are able to perform § 20. And 2. There are few Congregations I hope of Godly people but have some private men in them that are fit to be Ordained Assistant Presbyters though not to govern a Church alone without necessity yet to assist a Learned judicious man such as understand the body of Divinity as to the great and necessary points and are able to pray and discourse as well as many or most Ministers and to exhort publickly in a case of need He that would imitate the example of the Primitive Church at least in the second Century should Ordain such as these to be some of them Assistant Elders and some of them Deacons in every Church that hath such and let them not teach publickly when a more learned able Pastor is at hand to do it but let them assist him in what they are fittest to perform Yet let them not be Lay Elders but authorized to all Pastoral administrations and of one and the same office with the Pastor though dividing the exercise and execution according to their abilities and opportunities and not comming in without Ordination nor yet taking up the Office only pro tempore And thus every Parish where are able Godly men may have a Presbyterie and President § 21. Till then 3. It is granted by the Learned Dr. H. H. that it is not necessary to the being of a Bishop that he have fellow Presbyters with him in that Church If he have but Deacons it may suffice And this is easie to be had § 22. And indeed 1. The parts of many very able Christians are too much buried and lost as to the Church for want of being drawn into more publick use 2. And it is it that tempteth them to run of themselves into the Ministry or to preach without Ordination 3. And yet few of these are fit to be trusted with the Preaching of the word or guiding of a Church alone no nor in equality with others for they would either corrupt the doctrine or divide the Church But under the inspection and direction of a more Learned judicious man as his assistants doing nothing against his mind they might be very serviceable to some Churches And such a Bishop with such a Presbyterie and Deacons neither Lay nor usually very Learned were the ancient fixed Governours of the Churches if I can understand antiquity CHAP. V. Objections against the Presidency forementioned answered § 1. BUT it is not likely but all these motions will have Dissenters on both sides It were strange if in a divided age and place and among a people engaged in so many several parties and that
so deeply as now men are there should any healing remedy be propounded that should not have abundance of opposers Most men are prejudiced and affected at their Education or opportunities or parties or several interest sway them And therefore I expect that most should reject all that I say and some of them with much reproach and scorn Our disease were not so great and dangerous if it could but endure the remedy But let us consider some of their Objections § 2. Object 1. The unpeaceable men of the Prelatical way will say This is but to turn a Bishop into a Parish-Priest and to make him the Ruler of a Parish and a Curate or two and in many places of no Ministers at all A fair Promotion It seems you would leave them but a name and shadow and make them to be contemptible § 3. Answ. 1. Remember that I grant you also the Presidency of Associations c. which you may call an Archbishoprick if you please 2. Is it honour that you contend for or labour and service to the Church If honour you must get it by being the servants of others and not by being Lords of the Clergy or heritage of God If you are seeking honour of men and founding officeâ— in the Church by such directors as ambition you are not the men that we can hope for Peace or Holiness from and therefore can have little treaty with you but to lay by your wickedness But if it be service that you contend for in order to the Churches good try first whether a Parish will not find you work enough I have tried it and find that if I were ten men I could find as much as I am able to do in this one Parish Though I do as much as I am well able night and day and have so many helpers yet it is so great a trouble to me that my work and charge is quite too great for me that I have been often tempted to desert it and go to a smaller place And nothing stayes me but this consideration that God requireth no more then I can do and that its better do what I can then nothing and that if I leave them the next is like to do no more Could I but speak with each man in my Parish by personal Instruction once a moneth or once a quarter or half year it would put me into high expectations of making a very great change among them by this means But when I am not able to speak to them past once a year or two years I must needs fear lest the force of former words will be lost before I come again And yet must you needs have more work and service and more souls to answer for To deal plainly and faithfully with you Brethren impartial standers by conceive that its time for you rather to be more diligent in a smaller charge and to lament your negligence in your Parishes and publickly to bewail that you have by your idleness betrayed so many souls letting them alone in their ignorance and ungodliness and commonly doing little in your charges but what you do at Church in publick Overseers think that most of you are fitter for smaller charges rather then for greater I doubt this will offend many But you were better use it to your Repentance and Reformation then your offence § 4. And 3. I pray you consider how your Passion and partiality maketh you contradict your selves Do you not use to 〈…〉 the Presbyters that they would all be Bishops and they would have a Bishop in every Parish and so are against Bishops that they may be Bishops themselves And what is a Parish Bishoprick so great a prize for our Ambition and yet is it so contemptible to yours Are we proud for seeking to be Parish Bishops and do you take it as an empty name or shadow At least then confess hereafter that your Pride is so much greater then ours that the Mark of our Ambition is taken by you to be a low dishonourable state § 5. And 4. I would intreat you impartially to try whether the Primitive Apostolick Episcopacy fixed in particular Churches were not a Parochial Episcopacy Try whether I have not proved it before And if it were will you pretend to antiquity and Apostolick institution and yet despise the primitive simplicity and that which you confess was settled by the Apostles Let the Eldest carry it without any more ado § 6. And 5. At least say no more that you are for Episcopacy and we against it when we are for Episcopacy as well as you It is only your transcendent or exorbitant sort of Episcopacy that we are against Say not still that we have no Power of Ordination because we are not Bishops but because we are only Bishops of one Church Put the controversie truly as it is Whether it be lawful for the Bishop of one Church with his Prebytery to Ordain Yea or whether many such Associated may Ordain Or rather whether it be tyed to the Bishop of many Churches as you would have it that is Whether Ordination belong to Archbishops only Is not this the controversie § 7. And then 6. Why do you in your Definitions of Episcopacy which you very seldom and sparingly give us require no more then a Parochial Episcopacy and yet now despise it as if it were no Episcopacy at all Tell us plainly what you mean by a Bishop I thought you meant a Primus Presbyterorum or at least a Ruler of People and Presbyters And is not this to be found in a Parish Bishop as well as in a Bishop of many Parishes or Churches Change your Definition from this day forward if you must have a change of the thing defined as it seems you must § 8. And I wouâ—d know whether you can prove that it is Essential to a Bishop to have more Churches or Parishes then one Prove it if you are able Was not great Gregory of Naocesarea a Bishop with his seventeen souls And was not Alexander the Colliar whom he Ordained at Comana a Bishop though but of a small Assembly Do not some of you confess that Bishops in Scripture-times had no subject Presbyters and consequently had but a single Congregation If then a Parish or Congregational Bishop were a true Bishop why may he not be so still § 9. Object 2. But the Church under Christian Princes should not be conformed to the model of the Church under persecution Shall Bishops have no more power and honour now then they had then We see in Constantines dayes a change was made Must they be tyed to a Parish now because they were Bishops only of a Parish in Scripture-times § 10. Answ. 1. We would not have them persecuted now as they were then nor yet to want any due encouragement or assistance that a Christian Magistrate can afford them But yet we would have Gods Word to be our Rule and Bishops to be the same things now as then and we would
not have men make the prosperity of the Church a pretence for altering the Ordinances or Institutions of Christ and making such changes as their conceits or ambitious minds incline them to We shall never have a Rule nor fixed certainty if we may change thâ—ngs our selves on such pretences Pretend not then to Antiquity as you do § 11. And 2. I have in the former Disputation proved by many Reasons that it was not the mind of the Apostles themselves that the Parochial or Congregational Churches which they planted should be changed into another sort of Churches Nor is there any reason for it but against it in the prosperity of the Church and piety of Magistrates For 1. Pious Magistrates should help to keep and not to break Apostolical institutions 2. And pious Magistrates should further the good of the Church and not hurt it to advance ambitious mâ—n § 12. For 3. Ministers are for the Churches and therefore no change must be made on such pretences that is against the good of the Churches If every Parish or Congregation then were meet to have a Bishop and Presbyterie of their own why shall the Church be now so abused as that a whole County shall have but one Bishop and his Presbyterie If every Hospital or Town had a Physitian with his Apothecaries and Mates in your Fathers dayes would you be their benefactors by procuring that all the County shall have but one Physitian with his Apothecaries Or if every School had a Schoolmaster in your Forefathers dayes will you say there shall be but one in your dayes in a whole County Do you thus think to honour Physitians and Schoolmasters to the ruine of the people and the Schools So do you in your advancement of Bishops Upon my certain experience I dare affirm it that every Parish of four or five thousand souls yea of a thousand souls hath need of such a Presbyterie for their Oversight And is not he that hath a County on his hands like to do less for this Town or Parish then if he had no more then this If your Bees swarm you will not keep them all still in an hive nor think of enlarging the hive to that end but you will help the swarm to an hive of their own If your Children marry you will rather settle them in Families of their own then retain all them and all their Children in the Family with your selves So if a Bishop of one Church should Convert all the Countrey he should rather settle them in several Churches proportionable to their numbers and distances then to call them all his own Church § 13. Object 3. But by this means the Church wouâ—d be pâ—stered with Bishops What a number of Bishops would you have if every Parish-Priest were a Bishop We read not of such numbers as this would procure in the antient times § 14. Answ. 1. I find where Christ commandeth us to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth Labourers that is more Labourers into the harvest because of the greatness of the harvest But I find not where â—e once requireth us to pray or wish that there may not be too many for fear of pestering the Church or diminishing the honour of the Clergy Mens purses I warrant you will hinder the over-abounding of them aâ—d Gods providence doth not enrich too many with abilities and willingness for the work Do you undertake that they shall not be too bad and I dare undertake they will not be too many § 15. And 2. Is it not the felicity and glory of the Church which you object as an inconvenience or reproach O blessed time and place that hath but enow that are able and faithfull But I never knew nor heard nor read of the age that had too many that were good and faithfull in the work Would you not have a chief Schoolmaster in every School or Town for fear the Land should be pestered or overwhelmed with School-masters Why how can there be too many when people will imploy no more then they need O miserable Church that hath such Bishops that are afraid Gods vineyard should be furnished with labourers lest their greatness and honour should be diminished Do you not see how many thousand souls lie still in ignorance presumption and security for all the number of labourers that we have And see you not that six parts of the world are Infidels and much for want of Teachers to instruct them And yet are you afraid that there will be too many What could the enemy of the Church say worse § 16. Object We do not mean too many Teachers but too many Bishops that is too many Governours of the Church Answ. 1. God knoweth no Governours Ministeriall but teachers It seems you would have somewhat that you call Government and leave the labour of Teaching to others As if you knew not that it is they that are especially worthy of the double honour that labour in the word and doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 Or as if you knew not that even the Government of Pastors is mostly by teaching 2. Government and Teaching go together and are both necessary to the Church And the diminishing the number of Governours and of Teachers is all one As a Physitian doth Govern all his Patients in order to their cure and a Schoolmaster all his schollars in order to their learning so doth a Pastor all his flock in order to their sanctification and salvation And for the Government of the Ministers themselves the number shall be increased as little as may be Parish Bishops will Govern but a few and therefore they can wrong but few by their mis-government § 17. Object 4. But by this means we shall have unworthy raw and ignorant men made Bishops What kind of Bishops shaell we have if every Parish Priest must be a Bishop Some of them are boyes and some of them empty silly souls to make Bishops of § 18. Answ. I shall lay open the nakedness of this Objection also so that it shall be no shelter to domineering in the Church 1. Awake the sparks of humility that are in you and tell us openly whether you think your selves more able worthy men to Govern a County or a hundred Parishes then such as we are to Govern one Though I have been many and many a time tempted with Ionas to run away from the charge that is cast upon me as a burden too heavy for me to bear and I know my self to be lamentably insufficient for it yet I must profess that I am so proud as to think my self as able to be the Pastor or Bishop of this Parish as most Bishops in England yea or any one of them to be the Pastor and Governour of a County or an hundred or two hundred Parishes Were you humble or did you dwell at home or take an account of your own abilities when you reproach others as unable to be the Bishops of a Parish and think your selves able to be the
Bishops of a Diocess and contend for it so eagerly § 19. And 2. I further answer you We will leave you not a rag of this Objection to cover your nakedness For if any Pastors or Parish Bishops be more ignorant then others and unfit to Teach and Rule their flocks without the assistance teaching or direction of more able meâ— we all agree that its the duty of such men to Learn while they are Teachers and to be Ruled while they are Rulers by them that are wiser For as is said a Parity in regard of office doth not deny a disparity of gifts and partâ—â— And we constantly hold that of men that are equal in regard of office the younger and more ignorant should learn of the aged that are more able and wise and be Ruled by their advice as far as their insufficiency makes it necessary And will not this suffice § 20. And 3. If this suffice not consider that Associated Pastors are linked together and do nothing in any weighty matters of common concernment or of private wherein they need advice without the help and directions of the rest And a young man may govern a Parish by the advice of a Presbyterie and also of Associated able Pastors as well as such Bishops as we have had have governed a Diocess § 21. And yet 4. If all this suffice not be it known to you that we endeavour to have the best that can be got for every Parish and Novices we will have none except in case of meer necessity And we have an act for rejecting all the insufficient as well as the scandalous and negligent and any of you may be heard that will charge any among us with insufficiency Sure I am we are cleansing the Church of the insufficient and scandalous that the Prelates brought in as fast a we can if any prove like them that since are introduced we desire that they may speed no better What side soever they be on we desire able faithfull men and desire the ejection of the insufficient and unfaithfull And youth doth not alway prove insufficiency Witness Timothy whose youth was not to be despised At what age Origen and many more of old began is commonly known Vigelius was Bishop at twenty years of age the Tridentine Bishop We will promise you that we will have none so young to be Parish Presbyters as Rome hath had some Popes and Cardinals and Archbishops and Bishops Nor shall any such ignorant insufficient men I hope be admitted as were commonly admitted by the Prelates § 22. Object 5. But the Apostles and Evangelists had a larger circuit then a Parish and therefore so should their Successors have Answ. I grant you that they had a larger circuit and that herein and in their ordinary work they have successors And we consent that you shall be their Successors Gird up your loins and travail about as far as you please and preach the Gospel to as many as will receive you and sure the Apostles forced none and convert as many souls as you can and direct them when you have done in the way of Church-communion and do all the good that you can in the world and try whether we will hinder you Have you not liberty to do as the Apostles did Be ye servants of all and seek to save all and take on you thus the care of all the Churches and see who will forbid such an Episcopacy as this § 23. Object 6. But it seems you would have none compelled to obey the Bishops but they only that are willing should do it and so men shall have liberty of conscience and anarchy and parity and confusion will be brought into the Church Answ. 1. I would have none have liberty for any certain impiety or sin And yet I would have no sin punished beyond the measure of its deserts And I would not have preachers made no Preachers unless the Church may spare them because their judgements are against Diocesan Bishops and therefore I would have none silenced or susspended for this 2. And what is it that you would have that 's better Would you have men forced to acknowledge and submit to your Episcopacy And how Small penalties will not change mens judgements nor consciences Silencing or death would deprive the Church of their labours and so we must lose our Teachers lest they disobey the Bishops If this be your cure it disgraceth your cause We desire not Prelacy at so dear a rate It s a sad order that destroyes the duty ordered § 24. Object But this is to take down all Church-Government if all shall have what Government they list Answ. 1. Was there no Church-Government before the dayes of Constantine the Emperour 2. Do you pretend to antiquity and fly from the Antient Government as none You shall have the same means as all the Bishops of the Church had for above three hundred years to bring men to your obedience and is that nothing with you Why is it commonly maintained by us all that the Primitive state was that purest state which after times should strive to imitate if yet it was so defective as you imagine 3. And why have you still pretended to such a power and excellent usefulness in the Prelatical Government if now you confess that it is but anarchy and as bad as nothing without the inforcement of the Magistrate What Magistrate forceth men to obey the Presbyteries now in England Scotland or many other places 4. Yet it is our desire that the Magistrate will do his duty and maintain order in the Church and hinder disorders and all known sin but so as not to put his sword into the hand or use it at the pleasure of every party that would be lifted up Let him prudently countenance that way of Government that tendeth most to the good of the Churches under his care but not so as to persecute silence or cast out all such as are for a different form in case where difference is tolerable 5. And in good sadness is it not more prudent for the Magistrate to keep the sword in his own hands if really it be the sword that must do the work If Episcopal Government can do so little without the compulsion of the Magistrate so that all the honour of the good effects belongeth to the sword truly I think it prudence in him to do his part himself and leave Bishops to their part that so he may have the honour that it seems belongs unto his office and the Bishop may not go away with it nor the Presbyterie neither Let the secular Bishop have the honour of all that Order and unity that ariseth from compulsion and good reason when he must have the labour and run the hazzard if he do it amiss and let the Ecclesiastical Bishops have the honour of all that order and unity that ariseth from their management of the spiritual sword and Keyes 6. And lastly I answer that this is not the subject that you
Answ. That this is utterly untrue I thus demonstrate 1. When the Covenant was presented to the Assembly with the bare name of Prelacy joyned to Popery many Grave and Reverend Divines desired that the word Prelacy might be explained because it was not all Episcopacy that they were against And thereupon the following Concatenation in the parenthesis was given by way of explication in these words that is Church-government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy By which it appeareth that it was only the English Hierarchy or frame that was Covenanted against and that which was then existent that was taken down § 44. 2. When the house of Lords took the Covenant Mr. Thomas Coleman that gave it them did so explain it and profess that it was not their intent to Covenant against all Episcopacy and upon this explication it was taken and certainly the Parliament were most capable of giving us the due sense of it because it was they that did impose it § 45. 3. And it could not be all Episcopacy that was excluded because a Parochial Episcopacy was at the same time used and approved commonly here in England § 46. 4. And in Scotland they had used the help of Visitors for the Reformation of their Churches committing the care of a County or large Circuit to some one man which was as high a sort of Episcopacy at least as any I am pleading for Besides that they had Moderators in all their Synods which were temporary Bishops § 47. 5. Also the chief Divines of the late Assembly at Westminster that recommended the Covenant to the Nations have professed their own judgements for such a Moderate Episcopacy as I am here defending and therefore they never intended the exclusion of this by the Covenant § 48. Object 2. By this we shall seem mutable while we take down Episcopacy one year and set it up again the next Answ. We desire not the setting up of that which we have taken down and therefore it is no mutability § 49. Object 3. But this will prepare for the restauration of the old Episcopacy By such degrees it invaded the Church at first and if we let in the preparatory degree the rest in time is like to follow all that we can do is little enough to keep it out § 50. Answ. 1. If we had no other work to do we would do this as violently as you desire but we have the contrary extream to take heed of and avoid and the Churches Peace if it may be to procure 2. As we must not take down the Ministry lest it prepare men for Episcopacy so neither must we be against any profitable exercise of the Ministry or desirable Order among them for fear of introducing Prelacy 3. Nor is there any such danger of it as is pretended as long as the Magistrate puts not the sword into their hands and no man can be subjected to them but by his own Consent what need we fear their encroachments on our liberties 4. It is not in your power to hinder the Species of Episcopacy that is pleaded for from being introduced but only to with-hold your own consent and hinder peace and unity For any Minister that will can esteem another his superiour and be ruled by him and do nothing without his consent These are the actions of his own free-will 5. As long as you are free from violence if you find an evil or danger you may draw back § 51. Object 4. Have we not smarted by them late enough already shall we so soon be turning back to Aegypt Answ. That which you have smarted by we desire you not to turn back to but that which is Apostolical pure and profitable to the Church and that 's not Aegypt § 52. Object 5. You do all this for Peace with Episcopal Divines and where is there any of them that is worthy so studious a Pacification Do they not commonly own their former impieties and persecutions 〈◊〉 they not meer formalists and enemies to practical Godliness Would they not ruine the Church and do as they have done if they had power Hath God brought them down for their own wickedness and shall we set them up again § 53. Anâ—w 1. All are not such as you describe Many of them are godly able men that desire and endeavour the good of the Church 2. If there were none in this age worthy of our communion yet if we will have a lasting peace we must extend the terms of it so far as to comprehend all that are fit for Communion And such we may easily know there will be of this opinion throughout all ages 3. And most of the Churches in the world being already for a higher Prelacy then this we should agree with them as far as well we may § 54. Object 6. But the â—arliament have enacted in the settlement of the Civil Government that Popery and Prelacy shall not be tolerated Answ. That is the English Prelacy excluded by the Covenant and that as it would be exercised by violence and forced upon dissenters It s known what Prelacy was in England and they cannot rationally be interpreted to speak against any but what was among us and taken notice of under that name You see the same Power allow a Parochial Episcopacy and also Approvers of all that are admitted to publick preaching and you see they allow an Itinerant Ministry in Wales and they join Magistrates and Ministers for the ejecting of the insufficient Minister and they never forbad or hindered a stated Presidency or any thing that I have pleaded for yea they continued a Moderator of the Assembly at Westminster for many years even to his death And what fuller evidence would you have that it is not any such Episcopacy whose liberty they exclude under the name of Prelacy Only they would not have the Hierarchy by Law-Chancellors to govern the Church and that by force of the secular power annexed unto theirs and so they deny them Liberty to deprive all other men of their liberty But this is nothing to the mattâ—r in hand § 55. To conclude let it be noted in answer to all other objections that the Presidency or preheminence pleaded for doth enable no man to do harm but only give themselves advantage to do good They can hinder no man from preaching or praying or holy living or improving his abilities to the good of the Church Nor can they Govern any man further then they have his own Consent All which being well considered I may conclude that this much may be granted in order to the healing and Reforming of the Churches CHAP. VI. The sum of the foregoing Propositions and the Consistency of them with the Principles of each party and so their aptitude to Reconcile § 1. THE summ of all that I have propounded is that though we cannot we may not embrace the Government by Prelacy as lately
exercised here in England how confidently soever some appropriate the title of the Church of England to the adherents of that frame yet would we not have the Church ungoverned nor worse governed nor will we refuse for peace such a kind of Episcpacy as is tolerable in the Church And there are four sorts of Exercise of the Ministry which if you please you may call Episcopacy which we shall not refuse when it may conduce to Peace § 2. I. We shall consent that the Ancient Parochial Episcopacy be restored that is that in every Parish that hath a particular Church there may be a Pastor or Bishop setled to govern it according to the word of God And that he may be the chief among the Presbyters of that Church if there be any And may assume fit men to be assisting Presbyters to him if there be such to be had If not he may be content with Deacons And these Parochial Bishops are most antient and have the Power of Ordination § 3. Yet do we not so tye a Church to a Parish but that in places where the ignorance infidelity or impiety of the people or the smalness of the Parishes is such as that there are not fit persons enough in a Parish to make a convenient particular Church it may be fit for two or three or four in necessity Neighbour Parishes to joyn together and to be formed into one particular Church The several Ministers keeping their stations for the teaching of the rest as Catechumens but joyning as one Presbyterie for Governing of that one particular Church that is Congregate among them And having one President without whom nothing should be done in matters left to humane determination Yet so that the Presbyters be not forced to this but do it freely § 4. II. We shall consent that these Parish Churches be Associate and that in every Market Town or such convenient places as shall be agreed on there may be frequent meetings of the Pastors for Communion and Correspondency and that one among them be their standing Moderator durante vita or their President for so I would call him rather then Bishop though we would leave men to use what name they please And to him should be committed the Communicating of times and places of meeting and other businesses and Correspondencies And the Moderating of the debates and disputations § 5. And for my part I would consent for peace that de facto no Ordination be made in either of the foresaid Presbyteries without the President but in cases of Necessity so be it 1. That none be compelled to own any other Principle of this Practice then a Love of Peace and none be compelled to profess that he holdeth the President to have de jure a Negative voice yea that all have liberty to write down on what other Principles they thus yeild that the Practice only may suffice for Peace § 6. III. We shall consent also that one in a Deanry or Hundred or other convenient space may by the Magistrate be chosen a Visitor of the Churches and Countrey about him having Power only to take notice of the state of things and gravely to admonish the Pastors where they are negligent and exhort the people and provoke them to Holiness Reformation and Unity only by perswasions from the Word of God Which is no more then any Minister may do that hath opportunity only we desire the Magistrate to design a particular person to do it requiring Ministers and people to give him the meeting because that which is every mans work is not so well done as that which is specially committed to some And we desire that he may acquaint the Magistrate how things are § 7. And to avoid the inconveniences of dividing these works we are desirous that these two last may meet in one man and so he that is chosen by the Pastors the President of their Association may be chosen his Visitor by the Magistrate and do both which may be done by one in every Market-town which is truly a City in the antient sense and the circumjacent Villages Yet this we cannot make a standing Rule that one man do both because the Pastors must choose their President and the Magistrate his Visitor and its possible they may not alwayes concur But if the Magistrate will not choose such a Visitor the Pastors may But then they can compel none to meet him or hear him § 8. IV. Besides these three or two whether you will before mentioned we shall consent that there be a general sort of Ministers such as the Apostles Evangelists and others in those times were that shall have no special charge but go up and down to preach the Gospel and gather Churches where there are none and contribute the best assistance of their Abilities Interest and Authority for the reforming confirming and right ordering of Churches And if by the Magistrates Command or Ministers consent there be one of these assigned to each County and so their Provinces prudentially distinguished and limited we shall not dissent Yet we would have such but where there is need § 9. V. Besides these four sorts of Bishops we are all agreed on two sorts more 1. The Episcopi gregis or Pastors of every Congregation whether they have any assistant Presbyters or no or being themselves but such assistant Presbyters 2. The Magistrate who is a secular Bishop or a Governor of the Church by force And we desire the Magistrate to be a nursing Father to the Church and do his duty and to keep the sword in his own hand and for forcible deposing Ministers or any punishment on body or estate we desire no Bishops nor other Ministers may be authorized thereto But if Pastors exclude an unworthy Pastor from their Communion let the Magistrate only deprive him forcibly of his place and maintenance if he see cause When the Council of Antioch had deposed Paulus Samosatenus he would not go out of the house And all the Bishops in the Council could not force him out but were fain to procure the Heathen Emperor Aurelian to do it It lyeth as a blot on Cyril of Alexandria that he was the first man that arrogated and exercised there a secular Coercive Power under the name of a Bishop of the Church § 10. There is enough in this much to satisfie any moderate honest men for Church-government and for the healing of our Divisions thereabout And there is nothing in this that is inconsistent with the Principles of the moderare of any Party § 11. 1. That a Church organized called by some Ecclesia prima should be no greater then I have mentioned is not contradictory to the Principles of the Episcopall Presbyterians Congregationall or Erastian Indeed the two first say that it may be bigger but none of them say It must be bigger The Presbyterians instances of the Church of Ierusalem which sâ—rued to the highest cannot be proved neer half so great
either Prayer Praise or other part but we speak of the whole frame and therefore of a Liturgy or Prescribed words in General because that is the controversie that the times call us to decide That which I take to be the Truth and usefull to our Healing I shall lay down in these ten Propositions following Prop. 1. A stinted Liturgy is in it self Lawfull 2. A stinted Liturgy in some parts of publick holy service is ordinarily necessary 3. In the Parts where it is not of Necessity it may not only be submitted to but desired when the Peace of the Church requireth it 4. There is so great dâ—fference between Ministers and People and Times that it may be convenient and eligible to some at some times and unfit and not eligible to others and at other times 5. The Ministers and Churches that earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be generally or absolutely forbidden the use of a convenient prescribed Liturgy 6. To prescribe a frame of stinted service or Prayer c. and lay a Necessity or the Peace of the Church upon it and to punish siâ—ence suspend excommunicate or reproach the able peaceable godly Ministers or people that justly or unjustly scruple the using of it is so great a sin that no conscionable Ministers should attempt it or desire it nor any godly Magistrate suffer it 7. The safest way of composing such a Publike Form is to take it all for matter and words out of the Holy Scriptures 8. Yet is not this of such Necessity but that we may join in it or use it if the form of words be not from Scripture 9. The matter of a common Liturgy in which we expect any General Concord should not be any unnecessary things much less things doubtfull or forbidden 10. Forms of Publick Prayer should not be constantly used by Mâ—nisters that are able to pray without them and none else should be admitted ordinarily to the Ministry but such as are able competently to pray without such Forms unless in great Necessities of the Church These ten Propositions are the summ of all that I shall trouble you with which I shall now review and prove in order Prop. 1. A Stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful This is thus proved Argument 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawfull A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God therefore it remaineth lawfull The Major is undoubted because nothing but a Prohibition can make a thing unlawfull Sin is a transgression of a Law Where there is no Law there is no transgression And yet I have heard very Reverend men answer this that it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden Which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil Principles Precept makes Duty or a Necessity ex praecepto Prohibitions make an action sinfull which is prohibited as Precepts prove an Omission sinfull of the Duty commanded But Licitum which is between Duty and sin is that which is neither commanded nor forbidden And such an act is not Actus Moralis being neither good nor evill Here note these two things 1. That though we say that a Liturgy is in it self lawfull and that all things not forbidden are Lawfull yet in the actuall exercise hic nunc it will be hard to find one actuall use of it which is not a duty or a sin For though I am not of their mind that think every act both simply and respectively considered is a duty or a sin For 1. then every act must be Actus Moralis and so deliberate and chosen which is not true as for instance the winking of the eye c. 2. Then nothing were indifferent 3. Then every act must have a Reason for it 4. And the Consciences of Christians must be perpetually tormented as e. g. to give a reason when I walk why I set the right foot forward before the left or when two eggs of a bigness are before me why I take one rather then the other these are not moral acts Yet I must needs think that in the worship of God its hard to imagine such a case in which the using of a Liturgy will do neither good nor harm Or in which a man cannot discern whether it be like to do more good or harm and so make it the matter of election or refusal And therefore as Paul makes Marriage indifferent in it self when its hard to find a case in which it shall not be a duty or a sin to particular persons so say I of the point in question and yet possibly sometime such cases there may be A man sometimes in Prudence may find that constantly to use a form would be to him a sin by reason of the ill consequents and so it would be constantly to disuse it And therefore may find himself bound by accident sometimes to use and sometimes to disuse it And yet may see no reason at all as to the particular day and hour why he should use or disuse it this day rather then another or in the the Morning rather then the Evening 2. Note also that God being the supream Lawgiver of the Church having by Moses given a Law to Israel did in general command Deut. 12.32 that they should add nothing thereto nor take ought therefrom And consequently we may conclude it prohibited under the Gospel Nay indeed the very prohibition of self-idolizing makes it a sin for any man to arrogate that Legislation which is the Prerogative of God For that were to deifie himself And so this General prohibition doth make all unwarrantable Additions to be sinfull that is all Additions which God hath not authorized men to make But then such additions are not sinfull formally because not commanded but because forbidden by the General prohibition of not adding Now for the Minor that a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof then that no Prohibition can be produced If it be prohibited it is either by some special Prohibition or by the General prohibition of not adding But it is by neither of these therefore not at all Speciall prohibition I never yet saw any produced God hath nowhere foâ—bidden a form of Prayer And the General prohibition of not adding extends not to it For 1. It is the Worship of God which is the matter that we are there forbidden to add But the Praying with a form or without a form as such are neither of them any part of the worship of God nor so intended as we now suppose by them that use it It is but an indifferent Mode or Circumstance of Worship and not any part of Worship 2. If Prayer with a form be an Addition to Gods Worship then so is praying without a form for God only Commands Prayer but neither commands a form nor that we forbear a form But the Consequent is false as the Opponents will confess therefore so is the Antecedent 3. Undetermined mutable Modes and Circumstances
the Pastors prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a Book They are to follow him in his method and words as if it were a Book prayer Argum. 7. It is lawful to use a form in Preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for prayer as for that in the main Now that studyed formed Sermons are lawful is so commonly granted that it shall save me the labour of proving it which were easie Argum. 8. That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful buâ— such is the use of some stinted forms of publick service therefore c. That it was so in the Jews Church and approved by Christ I have shewed That it hath been of antient use in the Church since Christ and is at this day in use in Africk Asia Europe even among the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I think I need not stand to prove it yea those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of worship of which more anon Prop. 2. A Stinted Liturgy in some parts of publick holy service is ordinarily necessary This Proposition is to be proved by instances and the proof of the parts The parts where a set form is usually necessary I shall enumerate desiring you by the way to understand 1. That I speak not of an Absolute Necessity ad finem as if no other could be accepted but a Necessity of Duty it ought to be done as the best way 2. That I say but ordinarily as excepting some unusual cases 1. The Communication or revealation of the will of God to the Church by Reading of the Holy Scriptures is part of the publick service of God As Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day so by parity of reason should the Gospel and Paul required the publick reading of his Epistles Act. 13.27 15.21 2 Cor. 3.15 Luk. 16.29 Col. 4.16 1 Thes. 5.27 Rev. 1.3 But this Reading of the Scriptures is the using of a set form in publike service For they are the same words that we read from day to day and usually Must read 2. The Publick Praysing of God by singing of Palms is a part of publick worship and a most excellent part not usually to be omitted But this part of worship is ordinarily to be used in a stinted form because the gift of composing Psalms ex tempore without a prepared form is not usual in the Church and if it were so to one it is not to the rest that must use this worship Had we not stinted forms of Psalms we should have ill-favoured work in the Church 3. Baptisme is usually to be administred in a form of words for Christ hath prescribed us a form Matth. 28.19 Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost I think few sober men will think it ordinarily meet to disuse this form 4. The use of a form in the Consecration and Administration of the Lords Supper though not through the whole action is ordinarily most fit for Christ hath left us a form of words Take ye Eat ye c. which are most exact and safe and none can mend And Paul reciteth his form 1 Cor. 11. And small alterations in the very words of Baptisme or Delivering the Lords Supper may easily corrupt the Ordinance in time 5. The very Sacramental Elements and Actions are stinted forms of Administration which none may alter As the washing with water the breaking of bread and powring out of wine and giving them and taking them and eating and drinking c. These are real forms not to be changed at least without Necessity if at all 6. The Blessing of the people in the Name of the Lord was done by a prescribed form of old Num. 6.23 and is usually to be done in a form still For in all these forementioned parts of worship should we still use new expressions when so few and pertinent must be used we should be put to disuse the fittest and use such as are less fit 7. In our ordinary Preaching a form not imposed unless in cases of great Necessity and unfitness but of our own premeditating is usually fittest I think few men are so weak as to prefer with most preachers unprepared Sermons before those that have more of their care and study And then at least the Text Method and somewhat of the words must be premeditated if not all 8. Ordinarily there should be somewhat of a form in Publick Confessions of the Churches faith For how else shall all concur And it is a tender point to admit of great or frequent mutations in so that in Baptisme and at other seasons when the Christian faith is to be openly professed by one or more or all a form that is exact is usually meet to be retained though in many personal Cases explicatory enlargements may do well 9. If there be not a frequent use of many of the same words and so somewhat of a form in Marriage Confirmation Absolution Excommunication the danger will be more then the benefit by mutation will be 10. And with some Ministers of whom anon even in Prayer especially about the Sacraments where there must be great exactness and the matter ordinarily if not alwayes the same the ordinary use of a form may be the best and fittest way In the most of these Cases 1. The Nature of the thing sufficiently proves the ordinary fitness of a form 2. The constant Practice of almost all Churches if not all is for it even they that scruple forms of Prayer use constantly forms of Praise of Reading of Sacraments c. 3. The rest are proved fittest as aforesaid by the Apostles generall Rules 1 Cor. 14.26 40. Let all things be done to Edifying and Let all things be done decently and in order Now in the cases before mentioned the Edification of the Church to say nothing of Order requireth the ordinary use of forms Prop. 3. IN those parts of publick worship where a form is not of ordinary necessity but only Lawfull yet may it not only be submitted to but desired when the Peace of the Church doth accidentally require it This Proposition needs no proof but only explication For he is far from the temper of a Christian that sets so light by the Peace of the Church that he would not use a Lawfull means for the procurement of it when Paul would become all things to all men to save some and would eat no flesh while he lived rather then offend his weak brother But here you must take these cautions lest
do more hurt by breaking the Churches peace then they do good by converting souls But who was it that laid these snares in their way Who laid the Churches peace upon your inventions Had not the Church a sure Rule and an happy order and unity and peace before your Common prayer Book or Ceremonies were born Why must the Church have no peace but upon such terms Who made this Necessity that all men must be taken for intolerable schismaticks that dare not stint themselves in the publick worship by your impositions Will you not be confounded before God when these Questions must be answered The Church might have kept both Peace and her Pastors if you had let all alone as the Apostles left it and had not turned the forms of your Devotions to be a snare for others 9. And it is great unmercifulness to the Souls of particular men when you will drive them into such snares and câ—mpell them to go against their consciences in indifferent things what ever is not of faith is sin And whether they believe it good or bad you will compell them to practise all that you impose Have you not Consciences your selves Do you not know what it is for a man to be driven against his Conscience If not you are no Christians and then no wonder if you want the Charity and compassion of Christians and so easily for nothing abuse and injure the Christian cause 10. And in thus doing you deal unjustly and do not as you would be done by You would have Liberty your selves now to use a Liturgy And why should not others have Liberty to disuse it Either you take it for a thing Necessary in it self or for Indifferent If as Necessary then you are so much the more arrogant and injurious to the Churches and your usurpation is the more intolerable and you do much to Justifie them that deprive you of your own liberty For I know no Liberty that you should have to make universal Laws for the Church or to make new duties by your own meer wills or turn Indifferent things into Necessary and so to multiply our work and burden and danger and to silence suspend or excommunicate all that dare not submit to your usurped Dominion But if you take it for a thing in it self Indifferent whether we pray in a Form of prescribed words or not then as we are content that you have your Liberty on one part you have as just cause to allow us our liberty on the other and to do as you would be done by 11. And by these Impositions you set up a New Office or Power in the Church Consisting of a New Legislation and a Government of the Church by such new humane Laws We know no Law-giver but 1. Christ as to universal Laws of standing necessity to the Churches in the matters of Salvation And 2. Magistrates to make by-laws under Christ for a just determination of those mutable circumstances that ought to be determined by humane Prudence and 3. The Ministers or Pastors of particular Churches to direct and guide the people as there is cause As for Bishops or Councils we know of no Legislative Power that they have over their Brethren though Agreements they may make which may be obligatory 1. by consent as other contracts 2. and in order to unity where the case requireth such Agreements But to set up a New sort of Jurisdiction in the Church by Legislation to make Forms and Ceremonies obligatory and by Executions to punish Pastors that will not practise them is a dangerous device 12. Lastly by this means you will harden the Papists that by their Inventions and Impositions have divided the Church and been guilty of so much usurpation and tyrannie For how can we condemn that in them that is practised by our selves And though in number of Inventions and Impositions they exceed yet it is not well to concur with them in the kind of unnecessary Impositions and so far to Justifie them in their injury to the Church If none of these or other Reasons will alloy the Imperious distemper of the Proud but they must needs by a usurped Legislation be making Indifferent things become necessary to others and domineer over mens Consciences and the Church of God we must leave them to him that being the Lord and Lawgiver of the Church is Jealous of his Prerogative and abhorreth Idols and will not give his glory to another and that delighteth to pull down the Proud and humble them that exalt themselves But yet how far an Agreement or voluntary Consent of the Churches is desirable as to a Liturgy I shall shew more anon Prop. 7. THE safest way of composing a stinted Liturgie is to take it all or as much as may be for words as well as matter out of the Holy Scriptures Reas. 1. This way is least lyable to scruple because all are satisfied of the infallible Truth of Scripture and the fitness of its expressions that are not like to be satisfied with mans And it is a laudable disposition in the Creature to prefer the words of God before all other and therefore not to be discouraged in any Reas. 2. This way tends most to the peace of the Church All will unite in the words of God that will not unite in the forms and words of men If they understand not a word of God yet knowing it to be true they will not quarrel with it but submit But if they understand not the words of men they will be ready to suspect them and so to quarrel with them and so the Churches peace will be broken Besides the judgements of men being fallible many will suspect that its possible there may be some error in their forms though we see them not and God should be worshiped in the surest way Reas. 3. There is no other words that may be preferred before the words of God or stand in Competition with them and therefore me thinks this should easily be decided Object But the Scripture hath not forms enough for all the Churches uses Answ. It hath matter and words for such Forms Without any additions save only terms of Connection the sentences of holy Scripture may suffice the Church for all its uses as to forms Object But men may speak untruths in Scripture words if they will and by misplacing and misapplying them may make them speak what was never meant in them Answ. But 1. When they use no expository terms of their own but meerly recite the words of Scripture the perverting them will not be so easie or common And 2. When they have placed them how they please the people are left at liberty 〈…〉 to the sence they have in the 〈…〉 to what mens misplacing 〈…〉 put upon them when we professedly make our forms out of Gods word we do as it were tell the people that they must give each sentence its proper interpretation as it s meant in Scripture because we pretend not to change it
the Magistrates persecution No means can be justly pleaded against the end and least of all a bare ceremony For it is no Means when it destroyeth the end § 10. On this account it is that it hath alwaies by wise men been reckoned a tyrannical unreasonable thing to impose all the same ceremonies and circumstances upon all places as upon some and it hath been judged necessary that every Church have their liberty to â—iffer in such indifferent things and that it hath been taken for a wise mans duty to conform his practice in such indifferent circumstances to the several Churches with which he shall have communion as Ambrose professeth he would do and would have others do the same § 11. If any think as too many do that such a diversity of circumstances is a disorder and confusion and not to be endured I shall further tell these men anon that their opinion for an hypocritical unity and uniformity is the true bane of Christian unity and uniformity and that which hath brought the confusion and bloody wars into the Christian world and that our eyes have seen and our ears have heard of And it were as wise an objection for them if they should charge us in Britanie with Confusion and drive us to a separation or division because the Scots wear blew caps and the English hats or because some English wear white hats and some black and so of other circumstances § 12. Did I live in France or other Popish Countries or had lived in England at the abolition of Popery I should have thought it my duty in many indifferent circumstances to accommodate my self to the good of those with whom I did converse which yet in another Countrey or at another time when those things were as offensive as then they were esteemed I durst not have so done And therefore our Common Prayer-Book it self with its Ceremonies might be then commendable in many particulars which now are reformable And so in Ethiopia Greece or Spain those things would be very laudable that are now in England deservedly vituperable And several Ceremonies in the primitive times had such occasions and concomitants that made them tolerable that now seem less tolerable The case is not the same though the Materials be the same CHAP. VIII Prop. 8. Those orders may be profitable for the Peace of the Churches in one Nation that are not necessary to the Peace of the Churches in many Nations § 1. I mention this 1. Because the Romanists are so peremptory for the Necessity of their ceremonies through all the world as if the unity peace or well being of the Church at least did hang on these And yet sometimes they could dispence with the different rites of the Greeks if they could but have got them under their power by it § 2. Also 2. Because the Protestants called Lutherans stick so rigidly on their ceremonies as Private Confession Exorcism Images Vestments c. as if these had been necessary to the unity of the Churches And the Pacifiers find a difficulty in reconciling the Churches of several nations because these expect an uniformity in ceremonies § 3. And so necessary doth it seem in the judgement of some deluded souls that all Churches be one in a visible Policy and uniformity of Rites that upon this very account they forsake the Protestant Churches and turn Papists As if Christ were not a sufficient Head and Center for Catholick union and his Laws and waies sufficient for our terms of uniformity unless we are all of a mind and practice in every custome or variable circumstance that God hath left indifferent § 4. I need no other Instance then 1. what Grotius hath given of himself in his Discuss Apologet. Rivet who professeth that he turned off upon that account because the Protestants had no such unity And 2. What he said before of others by whom he took no warning but did imitate them in his Epist. to Mr. Dury cited by Mr. Barksdale in his Memorials of Grotius life where he saith Many do every day forsake the Protestants and joyn with the Romanists for no other Reason but because they are not one Body but distracted parties separated Congregations having every one a peculiar Communion and 〈◊〉 And they that will turn Papists on such an inducement deserve to take what they gâ—t by their folly § 5. Did not these men know that the Church hath alwaies allowed diversity of Rites Did not the Churches differ till the Nâ—cene Council about Easter day and one half went one way and another half the other way and yet Polycarp and the Bâ—shop of Rome held communion for all their differences and Ireneus pleads this against Victors temerity in excommunicating the Asian Churches Dâ—d they not know that the Greek and Armenian and Romane Churches differ in many Rites that yet may be parts of the Catholick Church notwithstanding such differences Yea the Romanists themselves would have allowed the Greeks and Abassines and other Churches a difference of ceremonies and customes so they could but have subjugated them to the Pope § 6. Yea more the several orders of Fryars and other Religious men among the Papists themselves are allowed their differences in Rites and Ceremonies and the exercise of this allowed Difference doth make no great breach among them because they have the liberty for this variety from one Pope in whom they are all united What abundance of observations do the Iesuites Franciscans Dominicans Benedictines Carthâ—sians and others differ in And must men needs turn Papists because of the different Rites of Protestants when they must find more variety among them that they turn to The matter 's well amended with them when among us one countrey useth three or four Ceremonies which others do disuse and among the Papists one order of Fryars useth twice as many different from the rest yea in habit and diet and other observances they many waies differ What hypocrisie is this to judge this tolerable yea laudable in them and much less so intolerable in us as that it must remove them from our Communion § 7. And how sad a case is it that the Reconciliation between the Lutherans and other Protestants should in any measure stick at such Ceremonies what if one countrey will have Images to adorn their Temples and will have exorcism and other Ceremonies which others do disallow and desire to be freed from may we not yet give each other the right hand of fellowship and take each other for the Churches of Christ and maintain brotherly Charity and such a correspondency as may conduce to our mutual preservation and edification § 8. Yea in the sâ—me Nation why may not several congregations have the liberty of differing in a few indifferent ceremonies If one part think them lawfull and the other think that God forbids them must we be forced to go against our Consciences for a thing of no necessity If we profess ouâ— Resolution to live peceably with them that
Christianity and the two Sacraments of Christs institution and some short Catechism that containeth these And when we have done our best in publick and in private we leave many of them ignorant what these two Sacraments are yea or who Christ himself is And must we put them to so much more labour as to learn a Rationale or exposition of all the Ceremonies holy dayes c We shall but overwhelm them or divert them from the Essentials And here you may see the unhappy issue of humane wisdom and false means It is to be teachers of the ignorant that men pretend these Signs Images and Ceremonies to be usefull And yet they are the causes of ignorance and keep men from necessary knowledge If you doubt of this do but open your eyes and make use of experience See whether among the common people the most Ceremonious are not commonly the most ignorant yea and the most ungodly too It is a truth so notorious that it cannot be denyed Who more ignorant of the Sacraments then they that rail at them that fit in the act of receiving Who more ignorant of the doctrine of the Gospel who more obstinate enemies of a holy life more worldly self-conceited licentious prophane despisers of their faithfull Teachers then the most zealous persons for all these Ceremonies § 23. Reas. 21. Moreover these new Laws and services introduce also a new office into the Church There must be some of pretended Power to impose all these Ceremonies and see them executed or else all is vain And no such office hath Christ appointed Because men thought it necessary that all the Christian world should have but one way and Order in the Ceremonious worship which was commonly approved therefore they thought there was a Necessity of one Head to maintain this unity of order and so came up the Pope as to one cause And so in a Nation we must have some one or more Masters of Ceremonies when Ceremonies are kept a foot And so whereas Christ hath placed officers in his Church to teach and guide them and administer his own Ordinances we must have another sort of officers to make Laws for Mystical signs and Ceremonies and see them executed and punish the neglecters and teach the people the meaning and the use of them The Primitive Bishops had other kind of work we find directions to the Pastors of the Church containing the works of their office as to Timothy Titus c. But we no where find that this is made any part of their work to make new Teaching signs and Ceremonies and impose them on the Church nor have they any directions for such a work which surely they much needed if it had been their work indeed § 24. Reas. 22. When we once begin to let in humane Mystical Rites we shall never know where to stop or make an end On the same ground that one Age inventeth three or four the next think they may add as many and so it will grow to be a point of devotion to add a new Ceremony as at Rome it hath done till we have more then we well know what to do with § 25. Reas. 23. And the miserable plight that the Christian world hath lain in many ages by Ceremonies may warn us to be wise Augustine complaineth that in his time the Church was burdened with them and made like the Jewish Synagogue The most of the Churches in Asia and Africa are drowned too deeply in Ceremonious formality turning Religion into ignorant shews The Church of Rome is worse then they having made God a worship of histrionical actions and shews and signs and Ceremonies so that millions of the poor blind people worship they know not whom nor how And if we abate only of the number and keep up some of the same kind even Symbolicall Rites of mans institution to teach us and excite our devotion we shall harden them in their way and be disabled from confuting them For a Papist will challenge you to prove just how many such signs are lawfull And why he may not use threescore as well as you use three when he saith he is edified by his number as you say you are with yours § 26. Reas. 24. It is not inconsiderable that God hath purposely established a spiritual kind of worship in the Gospel telling us that God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Such worshippers doth God require and accept Bodily exercise profiteth little The kingdom of God is not in meats or in drinks but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Neither Circumcision availeth any thing in Christ Jesus nor uncircumcision but a new creature and faith that worketh by Love God would never have so much called men off from Ceremoniousness to spirituality if he had delighted in Ceremony § 27. Reas. 25. The Worship of God without his blessing is to little purpose No man can have encouragement to use any thing as a Means to teach him and help his devotion which he hath no ground to believe that God will bless But there is no ground that I know of to believe that God will bless these Instituted Teaching signs of mans inventions to the Edifying of our souls For God hath no where bid us devise or use such signs 2. Nor no where promised us a blessing on them that ever I could find And therefore we have no encouragement to use them If we will make them and impose them our selves we must undertake to bless them our selves § 28. Reas. 26. As vain thoughts and words are forbidden us in Scripture so no doubt but vain actions are forbidden but especially in the worship of God and yet more especially when they are Imposed on the Church by Laws with penalties But these Mystical Rites of humane institution are vain You call them your selves but Things indifferent And they are vain as to the use for which they are pretended that is to Teach and Edifie c. having no promise of a blessing and being needless imitations of the Sacraments of Christ. Vanity therefore is not to be imposed on the Church My last Reason will fullier shew them to be vain § 29. Reas. 27. We are sure the way in which Peter and Paul and the Churches of their times did worship God was allowable and safe and that Princes and Prelates are wise and righteous overmuch if they will not only be more wise and righteous then the Apostles in the matters of Gods worship but also deny their subjects liberty to worship God and go to heaven in the same way as the Apostles did If Peter and Paul went to heaven without the use of Images Surplice the Cross in Baptism kneeling in receiving the Lords Supper and many such Ceremonies why should not we have leave to live in the Communion of the Church without them would you have denyed the Apostles their liberty herein Or will you be partiall Must they have one way and we
another They command us to imitate them give us leave then to imitate them at least in all things that your selves confess to be lawfull for us § 30. Reas. 28. Hath not God purposely already in the Scripture determined the Controversie supposing your Ceremonies which is their best to be indifferent He hath interposed also for the decision of such doubts He hath commanded Rom. 14.1 3. that we Receive him that is weak in the faith but not to doubtfull disputations much less to imprisonment or banishment Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Nay we must not so much as offend or grieve our brother by indifferent things Verse 13.15.21 to the end And so Chap. 15.1 We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves So that the case is decided by the Spirit of God expresly that he would have weak Christians have liberty in such things as these and would not have Christians so much as censure or despise one another upon such accounts And therefore Prelates may not silence Ministers nor excommunicate Christians on this account nor Magistrates punish them especially to the injury of the Church § 31. Object But this is spoken only to private Christians and not to Magistrates or Prelates Answ. 1. If there had been any Prelate then at Rome we might have judged it spoken to them with the people And no doubt but it was spoken to such Pastors as they then had For it was written to all the Church of whom the Pastors were a part And if the Pastors must bear with dissenters in things indifferent then most certainly the Magistrates must do so 2. If Magistrates are Christians then this command extendeth also unto them God hath sufficiently told us here that he would have us bear with one another in things of such indifferency as these If God tell private men this truth that he would have men born with in such cases it concerns the Magistrate to take notice of it Either the error is tolerable or intolerable If intolerable private men must not bear with it If tolerable Magistrates and Pastors must bear with it It is as much the duty of Private Christians to reprove an erroneous person and avoid him if intolerable and impenitent as it is the duty of a Magistrate to punish him by the sword or the Pastor by Church-censures If therefore it be the duty of Private men to tolerate such as these in question by a forbearnce of their rebukes and Censures then is it the duty of Magistrates to tolerate them by a forbearance of penalties and of Pastors to tolerate them by a forbearance of excommunication Who can believe that God would leave so full a determination for tolerating such persons and yet desire that Prelates should excommunicate them or Princes imprison banish or destroy them Some English Expositors therefore do but unreasonably abuse this text when they tell us that Magistrates and Prelates may thus punish these men whom the rest of the Church is so straitly commanded to bear with and not offend § 32. So Col. 2.16 to the end Let no man judge you in Meat or Drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbaths c. ver 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances Touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Here also God sheweth that it is his will that such Matters should not be made Laws to the Church nor be imposed on his servants but their freedom should be preserved Many other texts express the same which I need not cite the case being so plain § 33. Reas. 29. Moreover me thinks every Christian should be sensible how insufficient we are to perform the great and many duties that God hath imposed upon us already And therefore they should have little mind to be making more work to the Churches and themselves till they can better discharge that which is already imposed on them by God Have not your selves and your flocks enough to do to observe all the precepts of the Decalogue and understand all the doctrines of the Gospel and believe and obey the Gospel of Christ but you must be making your selves and others more work Have you not sin enough already in breaking the Laws already made but you must make more Laws and duties that so you may make more sin If you say that your precepts are not guilty of this charge you speak against reason The more duty the more neglect we shall be guilty of See how the Lord Falkland urgeth this Objection on the Papists And it is considerable that by this means you make your selves unexcusable for all your neglects and omissions toward God Cannot you live up to the height of Evangelical Sanctity Why then do you make your selves more work Sure if you can do more it may be expected that you first do this that was enjoyned you If you will needs be Righteous materially overmuch you are unexcusable for your unrighteousness § 34. Reas. 30. Lastly consider also that all your Mystical Teaching Signs are needless things and come too late because the work is done that they pretend to God hath already given you so perfect a directory for his worship that there is nothing more that you can reasonably desire Let us peruse the particulars 1. What want you in order to the Teaching of our understandings Hath not God in his word and his works and his Sacraments provided sufficient means for our instruction unless you add your Mystical signs Will your Ceremonies come after and teach us better then all these Means of God will do We see by the Disciples of Ceremonies what a Master they have 2. What want you for the exciting of dull affections that God hath not provided you already Have you Ceremonies that can give life and are more powerfull remedies against Corruptions and more effectuall means of Grace then all the institutions of God Or hath God left any imperfection in his institutions for your Ceremonies to supply Would you have plain Teaching in season and out of season This God hath appointed already and setled the Ministry to that end Would you have men taught by a Form of words Why you have a copious Form The whole Scripture is a form of words for mens instruction And yet we deny not but out of this Form you may gather more contracted forms for the instruction of your flocks Catechizing and publick and private teaching are Gods own Ordinances Would you have a Directory for Prayer Confession and
Thanksgiving Scripture is a Directory and out of it we shall be glad of any direction that you will gather for us Would you have forms of Words for Prayer and Praise Scripture hath given you many the Lords Prayer the Psalms and many more And if you think you can do better you have liberty to do it your selves And is not that enough God hath left it indifferent to us whether we use a stinted form or not If you be not wiser then God do you leave it indifferent also Would you have a stated day for Gospel-worship in Commemoration of the work of our Redemption Christ and his Apostles have taught you to observe one even the Lords day to these Ends. Would you have exciting mystical instituted signs Christ hath appointed you Baptism and the Lords Supper which signifie the very substance of the Gospel Can your signs do more Or is a greater number more desirable Why may not a few of Christs institution full and clear that have a promise of his blessing serve turn without the additions of mens froathy wits Use the Lords Supper ofter and with more preparation and you will need no Sacramental Riâ—es of your own If Christs signs will not do it in vain do you hope for it from the devises of men Gods Ordinances have no blemishes and wants that need your patches Do that which Scripture hath cut out for you and I warrant you you 'l find no want of such additions The making of the Law and Rule of Worship is Gods work the obeying it is yours It s a course most perverse when you fail and deal falsly in your own work to fall upon Gods work and take on you to mend that Do your own well in obeying and judge not the Law and trouble not the Church with your additions § 35. Yet still remember that we allow both Magistrates and Pastors to see to the execution of Gods laws and to determine of Circumstances in order thereto that are necessary in genere But it is only 1. Such Mystical signs as in genere are not commanded us and left to mans determination that I speak of 2. And also the needless determination of circumstances and making Laws for such things as should be left to the prudence of every Pastor to be varyed as occasion requireth CHAP. XV. Reasons for Obedience in Lawfull things § 1. LEST men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade men to just obedience and preserve them from any sinfull nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evill effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But first I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey mens precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them and so cannot obey them in faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawfull which belong to their offices to command 2. It belongs not to their office to make God a new worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of worship belongeth to their office for guiding them wherein God hath given them generall rules 3. We must not take the Lawfull commands of our Governours to be unlawfull 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawfull things to be unlawfull that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our sin and one sin will not excuse another sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawfull to be lawfull that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying men 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgement will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgement cannot obey in plenary faith so much less can he disobey in faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no word of God against the act of obedience now in question It is their own erring judgement that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtfull cases it is our duty to use Gods means for our information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we reâ—ain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispense with us if it may not be dispensed with without a greater injury to the Church or cause of God then our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a humane faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer side 9. Yet must we in great and doubtfull cases not take up with the suspected judgement of a single Pastor but apply our selves to the unanimous Pastors of other Churches 10. Christians should not be over-busie in prying into the work of their Governours not too forward to suspect their determinations But when they know that it is their Rulers work to guide them by determining of due Circumstances of worship they should without causeless scruples readily obey till they see just reason to stop them in their obedience They must not go out of their own places to search into the Actions of another mans office to trouble themselves without any cause § 4. And now I intreat all humble Christians readâ—â—y to obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all Lawfull things and to consider to that end of these Reasons following Reas. 1. If you will not obey in Lawfull things you deny authority or overthow Government it self which is a great ordinance of God established in the fifth commandment with promise And as that commandment respecting societies and common good is greater then the following commands as they respect the private good of our neighbours or are but particular Means to that Publick good whose foundation is laid in the fifth commandment so accordingly the sin against this fifth commandment must be greater then that against the rest § 5. Reas. 2. In disobeying the lawfull commands of our superiors we disobey Christ who ruleth by them as his officers Even as the disobeying a Justice of Peace or Judge is a disobeying of the soveraign Power yea in some cases when their sentence is unjust Some of the ancient Doctors thought that the fifth commandment was the last of the first Table of the Decalogue and that the Honouring of Governors is
sunt sed quâ— ministri Ecclesiae Catholicae Grotius ibid. p. 273. Pastores tales ubi nâ—llâ— sunt Episcopi etsi cum 〈◊〉 Presbyteris id commâ—â—â— habent quod aliis non praesunt habeâ—t tamen illud Episcopale quod nâ—mini Pastori subsâ—nâ— at 〈◊〉 adâ—o dubium est Episcopisnâ—â— an meris Presbyteris 〈…〉 Idem pag. 320. Communi Presbyterorum Concilio gubernabantur saith Hier. See Grotius ubi sup p. 354 355 356 357. proving that Prelacy is not of Divine precept and that of old many Cites had many Churches and Bishops in each and that Presbyters except ordination as Hier. and Chrysost. may do all that a Bishop and he addeth Quid obstat quo minus id ita â—nterpâ—â—temur ut Presbyteri neminem potuâ—rint ordinare contempto Episcopo And pag. 359. He shews that where Bishops are not Presbyters do rightly ordain See the beginning of Bishop Ushers Reduction of Episcopal Government I have it and can pâ—oduce it under the Kings own hand and seal wherein he forbids that any Church man or Priest in holy orders should be a Câ—â—ncellor And this was the occasion of all the corruptions c. They must for their own advantage and profit have instruments accordingly So the Râ—gisters Proctors Apparatoâ—s were pâ—ssiâ—um genus hominum G. Goodman Bishop of Gloâ— in the Preface to his Two Mysteries c. Object Answ. Object 2. Answ. Dr. H. Dissert 4. p. 208. §. 9. Prius non usquâ—quaque verum esse quod pâ—o concesso sumitur in una civitate non fuisse plurâ—s Episcopos Quamvis enim in 〈◊〉 Ecclesiá aut Câ—â—tu plures simul Episcopi nunquam fuerint nihil tamen obstare quin in eádem civitate dâ—o aliquando disterminaâ—â— Coeâ—us fuerint duobus Apostolis ad fidem adducti di versiâ—â—orsaâ— dialectis aliquando ritibus disjuncti quibus duo itidem Episcopi scorsim divisis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praesidereâ—t Et p. 211. §. 21. Ex his ratio constat quare sine Presbyterorum mentione interveniente Episcopis Diaconi immediate adjiciantur quia scilicet in singulis Macedoniâ—e civitatibus quamvis Episcopus esset noâ—dum Presbyteri constituti sunt Diaconis tantum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubique Episcopis adjunctis Mark well the stating of the question by Dr. H. Dissert Epist. §. 30 31. The controversie is not Quibus dâ—mum â—ominibus cogniti fuerint Ecclesiarum Rectores sed an ad unum in singulari Ecclesia an ad plures potestas ista devenerit Nos ad unum singularem Praefectâ—m quem ex famosiore Ecclesiae usu Episcopum vulgò dicimus potestatem istam in singulari Coetu ex Christi Apostolorum institutione nunquam non pertinuisse affirmamus You see here that it is but in singulari Ecclesia in siâ—gulari Coetu that he affirmeth an Episcopacy of Christs and the Apostles institution And such Bishops most Churches in England have already Reason 1. Conquâ—ritur jam olim Socrates Episcopatus quosdam suis temporibus extra sacerdotii sines â—gressos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse delapsos Conqueritur apud Pelusiotam Hierax lenitatis mâ—nsuetudinis dignitatem in Tyrannidem tranâ—â—sse conqueritur de Episcoporum ambitione Nazianzenus propterea si non Episcopatum câ—rte civiâ—atum 〈◊〉 perpetuum in retinenda Episâ—opali dignitate mutatum velleâ— He addeth yet more such and concludeth that Ecclesiastical Ambition never made such progress from the Apoâ—tles daies to those as it hath done since to ours almost â—ncurably Grotius de imperio pag. 360 361. Reason 2. Reason 3. A particular Church what Reason 4. Reason 5. Reason 6. Râ—ason 7. Reason 8. Reason 9. Reason 10. Reason 11. Reason 12. Reason 13. See Grotius de â—mperio p. 351. Proving that the Christian Church-Government was not fitted to that of the Temple but that of the Synagogues and endeavouring to prove Bishops he doth it thence that they are such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them then hold to such a Congregational Episcopacy Heb. 13.17 proveth that Churches should be no bigger then that the Ruler may watch for all their souls as one that must give account of all On which text Dr. Ier. Taylor in his late Book of Repentance Pref. saith I am sure we cannot give account of souls of which we have no Notice And so presseth to personal conduct Let them then be Bishops of no bigger a Diocess then they can take such personal notice and conduct of lest they judge themselves See the same thing proved at large by Grotius de Imperio page 355 356 357 Yet I think as Bloudell that he mistook Epiphanius de Alex. Eccl. * Pag. 54 he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Per regiones igitur Uâ—bes praedicantes constituerunt primitias eorum approbantes in Spiritu Episcopos Diacoâ—os â—orum qui Credituri erant I know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is supposed by some to respect only the place of their preaching and not of their settling Bishops But the words according to the more obvious plain sence do seem to extend it to both and make no such difference at all * Very many passages in Cyprian do intimate that then the Diocesses were small perhaps having yet but unum Altare As when he saith that à primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine concilio vestro sine consensu plebis meae privata sententia gerere c. And Prohibeantur offerre acturi apud nos apud confeâ—â—ores ipsos apud plebem universam causam suam And Haec singulorum tractanda sit limanda plenius ratio non tantum cum collegis meis sed cum plebe ipsá universá And Vix plebi persuadeo immo extorqueo ut tales patiantur â—dmitti justior factus est fraternitatis dolor ex eo quod unus atque alius obnitente plâ—be 〈…〉 mea tamen facilita e suscepti pejores extiterunt How the Universa plebâ— of many Congregations or a Diocess like ours should be consulted and hear and do any thing to admission or exclusion from Communion and be advised with by Cyprian in all such affairs is not easie to conceive See his Epist. 3.6.10.13 14 26 31 27 28 33 40 c. Peruse all the citations of Bloudwell de jure Plebis in Regim Eccles. and see whether they intimate not the smalness of their Diocesses Though I believe they prove no such thing as proper Government in the people Yet peruse all the Authors cited by him there to prove that 〈◊〉 Eccleâ—iae Mâ—th 18. refers to the Congregation of Pastors and people together and it will much confirm the point in hand I shall not recite any of them because you may there find them in the end of Grotius de Imperio Sum. Potest * And it seems the Churches were not so large as some imagine even at the sixth General Council at 〈◊〉 in Constaâ—tiâ—op when Canon 78. it was ordâ—â—ed that
no the fifth day of the week the Baptized were to say over their Belief to the Bishop or the Presbyters And it was not such Diocesses as ours that this work could be thâ—â— done for * As many of them d◠〈◊〉 when they hold it in terms of which see what I have said in the Preface to the Reformâ—â— Pastor And even in this while they confess that Pastors are Rulers and the People must obey according to the express words of the text Heb. 13.17 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Thes. 5.12 c. They grant us what we plead for Cons. 1. Cons. 2. Cons. 3. Cons. 4. Cons. 5. Cons. 6. Cons. 7. Cons. 8. Cons. 9. Cons. 10 * Dispute of Right to Sacraments Rom. 1.1 2. 1 Pet. 2.5.9 Rom. 1.6 Mat. 28.20 Heb. 2.3 4 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Jam 5.14 Acts 2.41 42. 4.35 1 Cor. 11.23 Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 10.16 Acts 20.28 2 Cor. 5.11 1 Tim. 5.17 20 22 24. 2 Cor. 2.10 Mat. 18.18 Of this Voctius hath written at large de desperata causa Papatus to which I refer the Reader Fit autem missio aut per Deum mediante c. aut per Deum mediante superiorum authoritate c. Fit rursus nonnunquam ipsa necessitatis lege quando non aliter posset fidei seu morum veritas inviolata servari Ubi verum est illud Pasce fame morientem si non Pavisti Occidisti Voetius Luke 2.34 1 Pet. 2. â— 7 8. Of this I desire the Reader to peruse what is written by Voctius de desperata Causa Papatus l. 2. Sect. 2. c. 21. passim Arg. 3. 〈…〉 c. Read their words * Mr. T. P. calls himself Rector of Brington Cyprian Ep. 28. p 64. ad Clerum de Gaio Desiderasâ—is ut de Philumeno Fortunato â—ypodiaconis Favorino acoluthore sâ—ribam cui rei non potui me solum judicem dire cum multi adhuc de clero absentes sint nec locum suum vel sero repetendum putaverint haec singulorum tractanda sit limanda plenius ratio non tantum cum collegis meis sed cum plebe ipsa universa How big was the Diocess then and how much the Bishop ruled alone may be hence conjectured and whether Presbyters had any hand in ruling Why doth Ignatius and Tertullian command them to be subject to the Presbyters as to the Apostles of Christ if they had not the Key of Government Alphonsus à Castro doth maintain that Hâ—eroms opinion was indeed the same that from his plain and frequent expressions we averr it to be and rebuketh them that pretend the contrary Hector Boethius before cited saith Scoâ— Histor. l. 7. fol. 128. b. that Ante Palladium Populi suffragâ—is ex Monachis Culdaâ—is pontifices assumerentur No Bishop then ordained them but Presbyters And Balaeus Centur. 14. c. 6. saith Habebant antea Scoti suos Episcopos ac Ministros ex verbi Divini Ministerio plebium suffragiis electos prouâ— Asianorum more fieri apud Britanaos videbant ☜ Cyrian Epist. 11. Plebi Contra Episcopatum meum immo contra suffragium vestrum Dei judicium c. * This is not the way of our Prelates Ordination And thâ—s shewâ—th that the Churches in 〈◊〉 â—ays were not Diocesan consisting oâ— many particular Churches else all the people could not have been present beholders and consenters at the Ordination of the Bishops †Still this shews that the Churches of Bishops were then no greater then that all might be personally present and fore-acquainted with his life Yea that it was the pâ—â—ples duty noâ— only to elect but to reject there 's more then Cyprian affirm Euseâ—â—us Hâ—st Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. out of Apolâ—onus telleth us that Alexander a Mâ—ntanâ—st being a thief the Congregation of which he was Pastor so that was his Diocess would not admit him 〈…〉 11. 〈◊〉 Secundum 〈…〉 〈◊〉 de 〈…〉 Constâ—ntinâ— in his 〈◊〉 to the 〈…〉 tells them that in the election of their Bishops all men should freely deliver their opinion and the general suffrage of all should be equally considered becausâ— Ecâ—lesiastical Honours should be obtained and conferred wâ—â—â—out 〈◊〉 and diâ—cord 〈…〉 3 〈◊〉 Even those Protestant Churches that have Superintendents are unchurched by them too for want of a true Ordination For their Superintendents were commonly ordained by meer Presbyters or settled only by the Princes power So in Denmark when their seven Bishops were deposed seven Presbyters were Ordained Superintendents by Iohan. Bugenhagius Pomeranus a Presbyter of Wittenberge in the Presence of the King and Senate at the chief Church in Haffnia See Vit. Bugenhagii in Melch. Adâ—m vit Germ. Theolog. page 315. * The Jesuits and Fryars do not take the Generals or Governors of their Orders to be men of another Order though they have a Power of Ruling and that Tyrannically ☜ It s more then Dr. H. H. speaks of the Primitive Bishops that had no Presbyters under them but one or more Deacons 1. Parochial Bishops 2. The stated Presidents of Associated Pastors 3. A Visitâ—r of the neighbour Churches and Countrâ—y These two to be in one man 4. General unfixed Ministers * So Constantiâ—e calls himself a Bishop Euseb. vit Coâ—st l. 4. c 24. And he made his Court a Church and assembling the people did use to take the holy Scriture and deliver Divine contemplations out of it or else he would read the Common-Prayers to the whole Congregation cap. 17. And it is plain that it was Constantine that kept the Churches in Unity and Peace when the Bishops else would have broken them to peices And the Emperours frequently took down and set up Bishops at their pleasure especially in the Patriarchial Seats as Rome Constantinople Antioch Alexandria ☞ * And Mr. Burroughs Irenicoâ— Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Forbs Gataker The London Pâ—â—â—ince Beza Calvin See also Dan. Colonius in his Disputat ex Iâ—stâ—tut Calv. l. 4. Dâ—sp 2. §. 18.24 ☞ Argum. 2. Argum. 3. Argum. 4. Argum. 5. Argum. 6. Argum. 7. Argum. 8. Prop. 2. Prop. 3. Prop. 4. ☜ Prop. 5. Prop. 6. Prop. 7. Prop. 8. prop. 9. Prop. 10 Object 1. Object 2. Object 1. â—â—ject 2. Object 3. Object 4. Object 5. Object 6. Object 7. Object 8. Object 9. Object 10. The summ Besides sâ—â—ms of Catechisms * In point of Lawfulness For Conveniency is according to several accidents * The Provincial Consil. Agath Can. 14. is the first that I remember mentioning them * The Pope 〈…〉 King 〈…〉 that 〈◊〉 cannot be done without tumult or 〈◊〉 Dâ—â—ila p. 1362. an 1595. So that when he feareth losing by it himself the good man makes conscience of murdering them that he will câ—ll hereticks but at another time 30000. to be murdered in France in a few daies Dâ—â—ila saith 40000. was a blessed work And therefore when I said before that in case of Necessity I would rather Kneel then not communicate yet I now add that I would for all that rather be imprisoned or otherwise persecuted then cast out of the Churches Communion all that dare not kneel or conform in such a circumstance And yet this were Ministers then commanded on great penalties to do ☜ Luke 4.18 Matth. 11.28 Matth. 12.20 Isa. 42.2 3. 40.11 Mat. 18.6 Luke 17 2. Rom. 14.1 15.1 2. 14.13 15 20 21 23. * See my writing of Grotius Râ—ligion