their Faith their Religion nor the guidance of their manners to an Authority which is subject to errour but only to the Word of God which is an infallible Authority Upon this ground the Bishop of Condom hath reason to condemn the Synod of Charenton for having taxed the Judgement of the Independants with Errour which consists as sayes the Synod in what they teach that every Church ought to be governed by its own laws without any dependance upon any in matters Ecclesiastical and without any obligation to acknowledge the authority of Synods for its governance and conduct THEN a little after this same Synod decides that this Sect is as prejudicial to the State as to the Church that it opens a door to all sorts of Irregularities and extravagancies that it takes away all the means of bringing any remedy to them and that if it had field-room enough it would form to it self as many Religions as Parishes or particular Assemblies THESE last words sayes the Bishop discover that it is principally in matters of Faith that the Synod would establish dependancy since the greatest inconvenience that he takes notice of into which the faithful people of God would fall by independancy is that they would frame as many Religions as Parishes then says he of necessity according to the Doctrine of that Synod each Church and by a stronger reason each particular must depend as to what respects faith upon a supreme Authority which resides in some Assembly or in some body to which Authority all the faithful people of God ought to submit their Judgement THIS Bishop could take notice of nothing more unreasonable and more extravagant in our Synods than to oblige a private person to submit himself in matters of Faith to the Judgment of an Assembly whose decisions are not the Word of God that is to say not infallible 'T IS true that pre-supposing all Supreme Authority in the Church whether in the Protestant or Romish is subject to errour the Government of the Adversaries of Rome of Independants or other Protestants is equally justifiable when they refuse to pay submission to the Authority of Rome since that it is incomparably more defective than that which the Protestants set up in their Churches BUT on the other side if it be true that upon this ground the Government of the Independants is more justifiable and more reasonable than that of other Protestants who blindly submit themselves to a Tribunal subject to errour and whose conduct and gonance is beyond all comparison further off from Reason than is that of the Papists for pre-supposing that the Authority of Rome is infallible the submission which the people pay to that supreme Authority is so much the more reasonable as that of the Protestants is the less when they submit to a supreme Authority which they themselves believe is subject to errour IN short the Bishop of Condom hath great reason to be sure that the Protestants are mightily beside the Cushion and to blame for condemning the Infallibility of Rome so long as the Incontestability and indisputableness which they invest their supreme Authority withal carries the same Obligation along with it to obedience and submission A great Divine of ours who relates the Judgement of the Protestants hereupon libr. 1. cap. 8. de Clavibus expresses himself in these words Hujus ligamenti quo Pastores Ecelesiae constringunt peccatores tanta est vis certitudo ut Christus pronunciet si quid ligaverint pastores in terris id fore ligâ—tum in coelo id est Deum Ratum habiturum hanc ligationem potest fieri aliquando ut ligatio sit injusta vult tamen Christus eam ratam esse non enim fas est homini qui injuste excommunicatus est invaaere sacram Coenam invitis Pastoribus irrumpere in communionem Ecclesiae IS not that to tell us that a man excommunicated unjustly is as much obliged to submit himself to the excommunication pronounced against him by an Authority which hath erred as when it is given by an Authority which hath not erred And is not that to tell us that in every way whither justly or unjustly a person delivered to Satan as is the general opinion of all Protestants excepting my Father that to deliver to Satan and to excommunicate are one and the same thing ought not to dispute oâ—â— resist that Authority which hath delivered him up to that evil Spirit To conclude is not that to speak in the Language of the Canon Si papa distinct 40 which will by no means permit a person cast thus to the Devil although against all right and justice by the Authority of the Pope to resist that supreme Authority THE Bishop likewise hath no less good Reason to be sure that the conjunction of all the parts of Romish Church in one body would be unreasonable if they were not cimented by infallibility and to divest it of its Infallibility is to break it in pieces is to cast every of its least parts into Independancy and to give liberty to every of them to govern themselves according to their own mode and way and to do their business by themselves BUT here we should observe as we go along that of two depths of Satan the Ecclesiastical Power and Infallibility the first is a Lie an Imposture and a cheat but that presupposing that it is not a cheat but a thing that is good and true and the use of which is necessary in the Church Infallibility is naturally and reasonably a consequence of it And in truth our Reformers have placed Incontestability in the room of Infallibility But it is true also that if Infallibility be a pure cheat the other is a pure and absolute tyranny and it is less reasonable in not being a natural consequence of Ecclesiastical power incontestability is a thousand times worse than Infallibity except it be in one thing and that is that it hath not been of so long a Duration 'T IS here no doubt wherein the illuminations of humane Reason were not so great to our first Reformers as to the generation of men in this Age For as those soresaw in it that a submission of so many Princes and people who differed in Customes Laws and Languages to an Authority subject to errour was not only unreasonable but also impossible to prevent the revolt both of Kings and people they with a great deal of Justice invested it with Infallibility AND 't is here too that the Bishop of Condom triumphs over us and has great reason for it on his side when he reproaches us that we have been deficient in our Politicks in not erecting among us an infallible Tribunal and that we are much to blame for obliging the faithful people of God with so much rigour and severity to submit to a tribunal subject to errour but those of Rome are not so for they oblige their people to submit to one that is infallible BUT the Independants as they are led by
to obey him reasonably without making use of our iwn illumination to know it and to judge whither it be just and reasonable to obey him in all things If he would not have a humane Judgement submit to that which discovers it's Infallibility with so much dazling and lustre unless reason lead one to it by an Argument à fortiori would he approve of the conduct of the Independants as reasonable when they refuse to submit to a Judgement that is humane and fallible BUT the true Constitution of Synods according to them when they look upon them as the Assemblies of the Ministers of Jesus Christ of Divines and of faithful people and the true use they make of them and which ought to be made of them is to ask and receive from them advice and counsel as one expects and as one ought to receive it from wise and experienced men and not by way of command and impulse That is all the Authority that the great Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Mr. Baxter gives them when they consider them as such And also the Oecumenical Synods which were held under Constantine and Martian had no more before those Emperours gave to their conclusions the force and prevalence of Canons and the Sanction of Imperial Laws THEY take the Apostolical Synod for the model of the Authority of all Synods at least of that which they would attribute to themselves and although it was the onley Synod that was guided by the spirit of Infallibility and its Authority was much more eminent otherwise than that of all the Synodal Assemblies in the succeeding Ages yet it never went as the others have done since to throw out Anathema's at the heads of those who refuse to be obedient to them but it only concludes with this exhortation if you keep these Canons you will do well THEY speak of the nature of the Church of the power and calling of Pastors and of their Ordination and according to the good maxims of Monsieur Mestrozat Monsieur Pajon and Monsieur Claude and their Doctors were the first who have established the true nature of Schism AS to what respects the Power the Authority and the Jurisdiction of Pastors they acknowledge no other in the Church than that which is confined in every particular Church and which goes not beyond perswasion or at the farthest a declaration that it makes that it no longer owns such and such either for the Pastors or Members of its Society And this is what is done by a natural right and not in shooting out the thunderclaps of Excommunication or deposition against them for Excommunication is not a business that is much disputed of among them The hereticks and the wicked being condemned by their own confession have no need to be excommunicated because they are excommunicated of themselves as the Bishop Godean tells us in his Paraphrase upon the eleventh Verse of the third Chapter of the Epistile to Titus A man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself and it is what he says after Saint Jerome If any one of their Assemblies practise Excommunication it is that of the Ancient Christians it is not a privation from the holy Supper but an ejection of the body out of the Assembly no longer to be reckoned any of their Members CHAP. VI. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is Incompatible with the Civil power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the Right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is Introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church THE four and twentieth Chapter of their confession of faith condemns those who speak of them as of persons that despise Superiour Powers For it is easiy to demonstrate that their way is so far from being as Monsieur Daille believed pernitious and such as troubles the peace of the world or which over-throws the Governments of it and the authority both of Soveraigns and their states that on the contrary there is no way in the world which contributes more to the strength'ning of Empires Especially of Monarchies and which ought lesse disquiet the Crowned heads for fear least they should cause by it any commotions in the State than theirs For as they do not set up and establish any Ecclesiastical tribunal independant on the Magistrate which draws along with it the two thirds of the most considerable persons of the State especially those who are most nice and Scrupulous in Religion it is impossible that there should be any troubles made by leagues and confederations in that manner as may be in all the Presbyterian Churches of a Nation and as those practise it when they forme to themselves as oft times they have done an Assembly of their deputies ALL the world knowes that these general and National Assemblies of the Clergy have been formidable to Kings and Parliaments because they are as an Altar and a Soveraign Ecclesiastical power opposed to a Soveraign and civil power of which there have been seen pernitious effects in Scotland and which France would have found if the reformed Religion had prevailed over the Romish And I am very much persuaded that nothing so much diverted Henry the fourth from the thoughts he might have had to establish the Reformed Religion in France as the apprehension he had that his actions being somewhat free might be too far lookt into and examined by the Synods and the Consistories and that his person should be brought under their Jurisdiction AS therefore the Independants do condemn these Maxims and these practises which are absolutely contrary to theirs how ill intended soever they were or might be it is no more possible for them to set up in a Kingdom a Soveraign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than for all the Companies of Merchants and Tradesmen or for all the Families of France to erect a Tribunal and a Merchandizing or Oecumenical Power which may be equal with that of the Civil State IN a word as the Congregational Churches do neither receive Ordinances nor Commandments from their Synods but only counsells and advice and that they cannot assemble in a body by their deputies they give a great advantage unto Magistrates to possess an intire and perfect Soveraignty and to take for their Motto Divide Impera For those who deprive their Synods of all Authority and who do not attribute to themselves any other power than that of persuasion are the most remote of all from framing to themselves either an Empire or one to be chief over them 'T IS true their weakness is their subscribing to that Maxim of Cicero libr. de Officiis Vt tutela sic procuratio Reipublicae ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt non ad eorum quibus commissa est gerunda est and to that of Salvian libr. de Providentia Infinitam Regiae Majestatis potestatem isti agnoscunt qui infinitam divini Numinis
in his Catechisme yet it is most certain that from the second age they were distinguished in names and offices that the first Priest or Bishop attended more peculiarly upon preaching in publique and the Priests and Deacons upon the functions of lesser consequence as alms-giving c. from whence it is that we read so often of the first Bishops of Rome that such a one created so many Priests so many Deacons and that Hyggen in the year 141. created fifteen Priests fifteen Deacons and six Bishops That Eleutherius in the year 184 ordained 12 Priests 8 Deacons and 15 Bishops not to serve in the Church of Rome but in other places where the Bishop who had ordained them was to attend upon the preaching in publick and the Priests and Deacons upon the other functions of the holy Ministry for their Ministry was less fixt they went to break bread from house to house they instructed they comforted they confirmed Christians and those whom they called Fideles in the profession of the Christian Religion and in the Practise of Piety and drew over Jews and Gentiles to them and they baptized them adding every day some or other to the Church of Jesus Christ to be saved In a word they formed almost as many independant Churches as there were families but which then did not constitute a Communion distinct from that of the same Fideles in the greater and more numerous Assemblies and where they assisted not only at the hâ—aring of the word but also at the participation of the holy supper and all the sacred Ceremonies as Mounsieur le Sueur tells us I must needs make one observation here which will be of no mean consequence as to what I have said about the diversity of the names of Bishop Priest Elder Sacerdote and Deacon in the same Ministry against those who would fain perswade us that not only this Intendance of a Bishop over the Priests but also the prerogative that they attribute to themselves of having alone the Authority and the right to ordain Pastors is of divine right and by the Institution of the Apostles I must needs observe I say that since the words and the Offices have been distinguished Christian Antiquity never thought this Intendance and Prerogative to be of divine right because it was in the liberty of a Bishop to abandon the order or office of Bishop without quitting the office of Priest or of Minister of Jesus Christ and indeed without being able to do it unless he were constrained to it by the sentence of deposition They did deprive themselves then of an humane arbitrary and Mutable order unto which they were called by men but they could not divest themselves of that which they had received from Jesus Christ That was the Judgment of the Councel of Ancyra in the year 314. which having deposed some persons from the Episcopacy lest them in the Presbytry This is what the sixth Oecumenical Councel did Canon twenty which deposed a Bishop but did not take from him the Presbytry so that if there was then an Indelible Caracter it was not that of Bishop but that of Tresbyter and this is the farther confirmed and more strongly by this consideration that as it was an Usurpation or at least a Right purely humane when one of the Members of the Presbytry who was called Bishop attributed to himself alone the right and the office of Preaching in publick and not of communicating it to others but only as far as he pleased The same Judgment ought to be made of this Intendance over Priests and this prerogative to ordain and to conclude that neither Episcopacy nor the power to ordaine nor that to preach in publick which one person reserved peculiarly to himself were of Christ's Institution THIS is if I am not mistaken an observation which has not as yet by any been thought on but which is the unravelling of all the difficulties that those great men Mounsieur Daille the Father Mounsieur Larroque c. On one side and Mounsieur Pearson Bishop of Chester on the other have formed concerning either the Establishment or the overthrow of Episcopacy And here now is the Resolution of the words of Saint Jerome which have put so many people on the rack and have spent both so much pretious time and paper Quid facit Episcopus quod non facit presbyter exceptâ— ordinatione Which words Marsillius de Padoüa understands of the power that the Bishop reserved alone to himself by a right purely humane to regulate the Affairs of the Church because it would be a thing altogether absurd to make Saint Jerome say that Jesus Christ had in all things equalled the Priest to the Bishop except the power to ordain And now also you may see by all these declarations and discoveries a very strong establishment of the Congregational way But I now will return from this digression to pursue the subject I left off for it THE conduct and Government of the Christians under the time of Persecution and before that of Constantine differ'd very much from the manner which was observed when the Emperours were Christians and when they assembled together both more publickly and in greater numbers enjoying their full liberty As a Rigorous discipline under those Christian Emperours could not be practised but upon a small number in great Towns as Rome Antioch Alexandria Canstantinople c. Most of the persons who could not be distinguished one from another in the Crowd and Multitude and on whom they could lay nothing by way of reproach either entred into no discipline and were neither Poenitentes nor Catechumeni or else they passed for those who were called fideles and whom they never so much as question'd whether they were baptized or not For Saint Ambrose who was looked upon as a very good man and one of the fideles that frequented the Religious Assemblies both in publick and private was neither in orders nor baptized when the people of Milan took him and carried him away as a holy body to be a Bishop Will they say that after he was a Bishop he passed through all the degrees of discipline or penitence and that he was a Catechumen and afterwards a fidelis which name was given only to those who were called Lay or Secular persons And the example of Constantine the great who was baptized at the very point and moment of his death and that of Satyrus the brother of Ambrose and of Valentinian whom that Father so highly commends and who died before they were baptized are a very strong proof and argument for that which I here maintain NOW those of the faithful who were so rather in reality than the name did not under those Christian Emperours quit their good custome of converting their houses and their families into so many little Churches they performed there the same exercises of Piety both during their repasts and out of them BUT I must here make one remark by the way upon the passage of
nor learned enough to give a right judgement about matters of Religion Carneades said that the State of Athens was unhappy in which wise men made fair Overtures and gave good Counsels but Fools judged of them and ordered all things according to their idle and extravagant fancies And indeed Wise men may consult but it is the greatest number or the longest and best sword that determines which is too often in the hands of those who have more strength of power than force of judgement so that by this establishment of a National Ecclesiastical Government thousands of Christians and faithful Souls are as much obliged to submit themselves to the Religion of a whole Empire according to the establishment which shall be made of it by an Idolatrous Rehoboam by an Arrian Constantius by an Apostate Julian by a Popish Mary Queen of England as to that which shall be set up by a David by a Constantine the the Great and by a Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed memory which Inconveniencies neither can nor ever will be able to happen in a place where the Congregational way shall be established It may be one Soveraign who shall be as Heretick as Constantius will issue forth his commands for the establishment of his heresie in all the places of his dominion as Theodosius the second made another for that of the Orthodox Faith when he commanded that all the Subjects of his Empire should receive the faith from Damaseus of Rome and from Peter of Alexandria But it may likewise fall out that that same Emperour to wit Theodosius the second might make two Ordinances which may mutually destroy one another for he convoked the first Synod of Ephesus which condemned the Opinion of Nestorius and some years after he convoked the second Synod of Ephesus which contradicted it and allowed the opinion of Nestorius 2. THIS same inconvenience is verified by the establishment of the best reformed Churches in the World I mean that of Luther and of Calvin For as the Reformation was that of a National Church of the same extent with that of the Territory of the Soveraign where it was established so likewise did it carry the Obligation into Germany Sweedland and Denmark that they should submit to Consubstantiation without any bodies having the liberty to form assemblies to themselves which may reject it which Churches might do if they were Independant The same inconvenience is happened and must happen from the National establishment of the Reformation which Calvin hath made in England Holland some parts of Germany and elsewhere and how pure soever the Reformation was as for the Doctrine of that holy man it is extremely defective as to the Discipline the power Ecclesiastick and that Tribunal which he Erected in Geneva distinct and Independant on the Magistrate by vertue of a pretended Divine right and power which hath been the cause of all those infinite disorders confusions and even Schisms in England Scotland Holland and Geneva even in the time of Calvin as we read in his Epistles 3. ONE great convenience which is found in the Establishment of a National Government is that it is always grounded upon humane principles cruel and barbarous as to constrain to persecute and even to burn those who in matter of Religion do not embrace that of the Ecclesiastical State or of the Magistrate that establishes it and do not conform to all the practices that he appoints and commands 4. THEY say that this National establishment of Ecclesiastical Government deprives Man of his Reason and his natural and Religious liberty in the choice he ought to make of his God and of the worship he ought to render him and to which he should not be constrained but perswaded neither to be brought to it by custome nor by birth nor likewise by the Law of the Magistrate unless he be convinced that his Ordinances and commands in matters of Religion are conformable to the word of God for they press mightily upon this consideration that this establishment divests Man of the same liberty in his religious life as he hath in the Civil where he is not restrained by any Law of the Magistrate to choose his house his Wife his Master his Servant his Lawyer his Physitian his Calling nor any one particular manner how to govern his Family provided it may be done without breaking the publick peace 5. THEY say that how unjust or how extravagant soever the Laws of the Magistrate might be for the regulating of Politie yet there is nothing unreasonable neither in the Magistrate generally to command the practice of them nor in all Subjects submitting to them without reserve or exception so long as the importance of those Laws do not extend beyond the present life but if it reaches further and Conscience and Eternal Salvation be concerned therein they believe that an uniformity of Faith and of Religion which should be imposed upon us how good so ever the thing might be in its self it would be wicked and unreasonable because it would do violence to the Conscience of which the Magistrate is not the Master nor the Arbiter as he is of the Bodies and estates of Men. CHAP. III. That upon the ground of this Hypothesis That every Supream Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to Error Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational way and the Independency of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his VVord BUT there is nothing which does more reasonably establish the Independancy of particular Churches nor which more powerfully destroyes this Authority in the Church by a divine right and the necessity there is that a person or a particular Church should depend upon its Ordinances unless that Supream Authority is infallible for if it be subject to Error it must of necessity do violence to the Christian liberty of the faithful and so degenerate into a Tyrannical Authority there is nothing I say which establishes more reasonably the Independency of particular Churches nor which more powerfully destroyes their dependency than the account which the Bishop of Condom gives of the judgements of the Independants and of the Sentence that the Synod of Charenton pronounced against them THEY believe sayes he that every faithful Member ought to follow the illuminations of his own Conscience without submitting his judgement to the Authority of any Body nor any Ecclesiastical Assembly and they do not refuse to submit to the word of God nor to embrace the decisions of Synods when after a due and through Examination of them they find them reasonable That which they refuse to do is to submit their judgement to that of any Assembly because it is a Society of Men that are subject to Errour THE Gospel it self is not more true than this perswasion of Independants and that Bishop could not approve of one more reasonable to wit that a particular person or Church ought not to submit
Omnipotentiam non credunt 'T IS true they are accused for depriving the Magistrate from the same Authority and Soveraign Intendence over the Ecclesiastical State as over that of the Civil But notwithstanding they do sufficiently satisfy all reasonable and considerate persons of this in the four and twentieth Chapter of their Confession Beside those who condemn that collaterality of Governments and of Tribunals the one Ecclesiastical and the other Civil in one and the same territory and who believe that it comes from the forge of Antichrist and that it hath introduced Popery into the world do not trouble themselves about resolving the difficulty nor about assigning to each his Lawes his Courts his Officers his Soveraign and the measure of his Power and Authority I add that as the force and efficacy of Laws does not consist in whither they are Ecclesiastical or Civil nor in their goodness justice and truth but in the will of him or those who sit at the Helm of Affairs the Congregational Churches must of necessity acknowledg the force of all those Laws whither for the Ecclesiastical or the Civil State only they affirm that as the Magistrate is not Infallible he may possibly abuse his right and orr either in the publication or the execution of his Laws of what Nature soever they be and as they are not obliged to obey all Civil Laws no more are they obliged to obey all Laws Ecclesiastical they affirm also that as the Empire of Jesus Christ in matters of Religion is not over the bodies but over the hearts of men the Magistrate who is the Protector and Defender of the visible Church of Jesus Christ in his Territories sins extremely when he makes Laws and Ordinances that do violence to the bodies of his Subjects and that take from them that liberty which every man ought to have in the choice of his Religion and in the manner of serving God BUT that crime which is imposed on them supposing it to be one is incomparably less than that of Presbyterian Churches all which follow the establishment and the practise of Calvin who set up in Geneva an Ecclesiastical Tribunal Independant and distinct from that of the Magistrate insomuch that a learned man named Monsieur Jurieu has writ a large Book wherein he endeavours to prove that the Soveraign Magistrate considered as such has not any jurisdiction nor Intendence over the Collected Churches in his Dominions and that he hath no other right than that of Inspection and considered as a Christian and one of his principal Members wherein Monsieur Jurieu is more Independant than the Independants themselves and he does not afford so much Authority to the Magistrate over the Churches that are collected within his Territories and Dominions as the Independants do THE Independant Churches and their Pastors are very wide from these thoughts and practises For the Authority of every Congregation being as that of every Family what liberty soever it has to govern it self according to its own way and humour it is not neither in right nor in power nor even in will to set up a Tribunal distinct from and Independent on that of the Magistrate AFTER all a Prince who should endeavour to establish an Arbitrary Power in his Kingdom that should depend only upon God and his Sword might imagine he should be less hindred by several thousands of Independant Congregations not only on him and on his Courts but also the one Independant on the other than by one entire body of all those Churches which should set up by their deputies an Ecclesiastical Tribunal distinct from and Independant on the Civil For the strengeh of all those Independant Congregations would be like that of several threads which may easily be broke one after another whereas the strength of all those Churches joyned in one body would be like to that of all those threads twisted together which it would be almost if not absolutely impossible to break or to undo but by the same way that Alexander took to break the Gordian-knot AS the Independent Churches do come the nearest to those of the Apostles so likewise they are further off than any of the other reformed Churches from that thought and practise which has accomplished the Mystery of Inquity which is nothing else but the Empire of the Clergy and so consequently That of the Pope in the Empire of the secular Powers under the Mask and Disguise of Religion and Ecclesiastical power AS to the Objection that is made against them that in case there should be no other Ecclesiastical Establishment in a Kingdom than theirs the three fourths of the Inhabitants would live in great negligence and a gross Ignorance of Religion To that they say that their way does not exempt Pastors from attending upon the Office of their Ministry at all times and places both within and without their particular Congregations and to take the same pains as the Presbyterian Ministers do for what repects the preaching of the word in the most publick places also they do very much approve that the Magistrate should erect Academies and Colledges assign Tithes and Revenues and Temples establish persons to be imployed in the instruction of people in publick to invite them to it and to excite the Ignorant to frequent the Schools and the Lectures of the Professors of Arts and Sciences where they should go for the love of vertue and knowledge without being constrained AS to the crime of Schism which is imposed on them as their being seperate from all the visible Churches of Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Donatists the Novatians and the Luciferians did 't is a false Accu sation Those who accuse them of Schism do not understand the nature of Schism 1. 'T IS not Schism when a particular Church separates from another Church as the Church of Luther from that of Calvin nor the Protestants from the Papists nor even one particular reformed Church from some other with which it made before but one body of a Church But true Schism is formed among the Members of one and the same particular Church as was that of Corinth 2. 'T IS not Schism when a number of Hereticks separate from the Orthodox party of a particular Church to make a Congregation apart to the end they may profess their heresie with greater liberty but it is an Apostasie and an abandoning and forsaking of the Orthodox faith or Church of Jesus Christ which is Catholick and visible and upon this ground the Church of Rome is not a Schismatical but an Apostate Church although it be one for the first reason because that what ingagement or tye soever all its Members have to one head however they are not all agreed together Schism properly is when the Members of one Church are at variance as were those of the Church of Corinth and upon that account there is alwayes a Schism in the Romish Church 3. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that
is impossible I say that he can suffice and attend upon the Instruction of all those Auditors and of every one of them in particular which is most easy to be done by the way that the Pastors of Independant Churches take whereof every Congregation is not at the most above two hundred persons and who are also eased and help'd by their Coadjutors in the work of the holy Ministry so that this kind of Congregational way seems to be the accomplishment of the Prophesy concerning the Covenant of Grace which God was to make in the lest times with his people where there shall be no more need to have recourse to the Bishop or to his Curate for receiving instruction because every person who is in the Covenant of Grace as the greatest number of those who compose those Congregations do belong to that Covenant shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord and the Pastor himself shall go to visit his sheep and take a particular care of them So likewise this is the way of the Pastors of the little flock of Jesus Christ to whom he will give the Kingdom THERE are also other Considerations which confirm me absolutely in this opinion that God in a more especial manner approves of the Congregational way One is that most an end in all others the Ministers are influenced by worldly interest by ambition and the desire of ruling that its Establishment could never be made without noise and without the opposition of the Magistrate and the people for they have been always against this erection of a National tribunal Independant on the Magistrates who never had given their consent to it till after the advocates and pleaders for this national tribunal had been indefatigably buzzing into their ears these fair and specious Remonstrances that it was the voice of God and of Jesus Chriâ—t that the world should be governed by two Collaterall powers This is what the Decretals made the Kings and the people to believe in the ninth age and they strongly insisted that the Bishop of Rome was to be at the head of the Ecclesiastical power and to prescribe laws to them by the Ministry of his Clergy for the regulating of Religion and for the Affaires of the Church And this is what Calvin also made those to believe who left the Church of Rome when he erected a Tribunal for the matters of Religion in which the Magistrates should not be seen in the quality of Magistrates but only as Members of the consistory But yet a Tribunal that should be as much invested with Incontestability and with a power not to appeal from it as that of Rome is with Infallibility And this is what Calvin carryed by main force not only against the will of the Magistrate and of the people of Geneva but against the practise of all Churches and against the Judgment of all the Divines of his time BUT it hath not been so with the Establishment of the Congregational way to which the people have had as great an Inclination and natural forwardness as the Pastors themselves Which has been seen in England for above this forty years For of more than sixscore persons who made up the Assembly of Ministers there was above a hundred of them for the Presbyterian Government and about eight or ten for the Congregational way and two only Coleman and Lightfoot for the opinion of Erastus Yet nevertheless when it came to the Execution and practise there was not one of ten thousand people that would submit to the Presbyterian Government And one of them who was the most Eminent confessed to me that being Pastor of the greatest Parish in London he was never able to establish in it a consistory nor find any that would be of it but a pitiful Scotch Taylor This difficulty was not seen as to the Congregational way for whereas only the Pastors were for the Presbyterian way there were proportionably as many people as Ministers who joined in the Assemblies of the Congregational way Which they did with more heat and fervour than the Parliament would have had them in so much that they were forced to publish a Declaration by which they exhorted the people to put off the gathering of Churches till the Parliament had made a more publick regulation thereof As to the opinion of Erastus though it was not approved in the Assembly but by two Divines it had notwithstanding the applause of most of the Magistrates of the learned and more illuminated who were not of the Gowne which discovers 1. THAT Interest is the Toole and Engine that moves most men in the world and that if the Magistrates were for an Intendance which the Presbyterians would take away from them these were no less in love with and eager of it 2. THAT it is very probable that the Advocates of the Congregational way were sincere whilest their number had a just proportion of Ministers Magistrates and People that were much for it I proved in the sixt Chapter of my Jugulum causae that of these two truths the first was put beyond all peradventure that Totus Mundus exercet histrionem that the greatest men do oft times mix some grain of wordly interest with that of Heaven adding not the Vtile to the honestum but the honestum to the Vtile espousing or quitting their Opinion according as they are actuated by the moving principle of sua cuique Vtilitas as Tacitus speaks For they resemble Pope Pius II d. who being a Cardinal submited the Pope to the Council but he changed his Opinion as soon as ever he came to be Pope himself Much about twenty years since the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet preferred the Presbyterian Government to the Episcopal but now he has had several fat benefices bestowed upon him and he is advanced to the Deanry of S. Paul Episcopacy is most excellent both in his esteem and opinion and in his writings THIS way is so much the more excellent just and reasonable as it hath a Compatibility with the Government of a National Church which makes but one entire body with that of the Republick as under the legal Oeconomy whereas the Government of a National Church distinct and Independant upon that of the Republick is not compatible with any government neither with that of the Magistrate nor with that of the Congregational Churches though the government of this latter might be compatible with all kinds of Government if it would be suffered for a multitude of small Congregational Churches is as much compatible with the Civil State as is a multitude of Families because neither the one nor the other do form to themselves a body by their deputies which establishes a Tribunal distinct from and independant on that of the Civil State whereas the Popish Episcopal and Presbyterian Government erects a Tribunal in every Territory independant on all others Calvin gave the first Model of it in Geneva Volui sayes he ut Judicium Ecclesiasticum disticium esset à Civili
XIV Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse I Will finish these conderations by the discussion and explication of the Title of this discourse to which some have excepted because they find there is not one Ecclesiastical Government even of those which differ most from one another that do not pretend to this Conformity as indeed they have either more or less for there is not one of them no not even of those that are the farthest off from the Doctrines and Government of the Ancient Christians and that have but very little agreement one with the other there is not one I say but what hath in something a conformity with them Every way of Government boasts of their retaining this conformity with the Ancient Christians I my self pretend to this glory in favour of the Congregational way Not long since a Learned Minister of Roüen published a Book intituled the Conformity of the discipline of the Churches of France to that of the Ancient Christians Beside though the discipline of the Church of England hath not any agreement with that of the Churches of France and it is impossible that two disciplines so disagreeing to each other should have both of them much conformity to the discipline of the Ancient Christians yet it hath so happened that a Famous Divine in his preface to his English Translation of the Novelty of Popery maintains very zealously the same thing in favour of the Discipline of the Church of England as Monsieur Larroque has done in favour of those of France If I were sayes he to speak to Frenchmen I would indeavour to convince them fully that we retain in England more of the Primitive and Apostolick Government than all the other Churches in the world Dr. Floyd and Dr. Tillotson say the same thing But I believe that this conformity is much what like to that which is between Jesus Christ and St. Francis For I do openly maintain that of all the Establishments of Religion That of the Church of England is widest from the discipline and practise of the Ancient Christians But he is not the only person hath spoke after this manner England is full of Books upon the subject of the Conformity of its Hierarchy and of its Episcopal Government to that of the Ancient Christians The Bishops Bilson Andrews Hall Morton and Pearson find it in Clemens Romanus and in Ignatius some of the Doctors of Rome meet with it in Denis the Areopagite but unless this Conformity be restrained to the times of the Apostles to which I find more footsteps in the Congregational way than in any other I believe we are all in an error as to what concerns our conformity to the Doctrine Discipline and Life of the Ancient Christians Above all the disagreement is found in the life which was heretofore much more exact and exemplary than in these last times it is the Devotion of our days is but cold and languishing in comparison of theirs It was in that that their glory did consist whereas ours is in having a greater knowledg and a more full and ample illumination into the mysteries of Faith than the first Christians had also to be better versed at this day in the knowledg of the Apostolical conduct of the nature and Government of the Church of its Authority and of that of its Pastors who were the Christians that immediately succeeded the Apostles I will finish where I began and that shall be by the force of those prejudices wherewith all Christians as well Protestants as Papists are anticipated and prepossest when they generally imagine that the Primitive Church was more Orthodox and pure in Doctrine than that of the following Ages because of their nearness with the times of the Apostles but I am as much perswaded of the contary as of any thing in the world 'T is said that God never built a Temple near to which the enemy of our Salvation has not built a Chappel but than it was a Chappel both greater and more spacious than the temple it self For during the time whilest God built a little Temple wherein he had circumscribed the twelve Apostles and a small flock of faithful people who conformed themselves to the purity their Doctrine and the holiness of their lives a number incomparably greater of false Apostles false Doctors and false Brethren separated from them For even in the first three hundred years of Christianity all or the most part of sincere persons and also of Fathers had a great deal of false allay mixt among their gold This is what we learn from Eutychius who lived in the first Ages of Christianity from whom we have the History of the Church in Arabyck published by Mr. Selden and Mr. Pocock and whom they recommend for an Author of an irreprochable fidelity There he tells us that Constantine the Great sent to all the Churches of his Empire Letters to let them understand that they were to make choice of the most Religious Bishops and those that were most learned in the Mysteries of the Christian Faith and that they then immediately set themselves to obey the Orders of the Emperour and that two thousand and forty eight Bishops came to the Town of Nice whereof near two thousand how pious and sincere soever otherwise they were were either most ignorant or most erronious in the knowledg of the Christian Religion For they were either Manichees or Murcionites or Montanists or Valentinians or Samosatenians or Arrians and in that great number of Bishops there were but three hundred and eighteen who had an affection for and ingaged themselves to the Orthodox Faith which was that of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria THIS Relation according to Eutychius is much more probable than after that manner as it is reported by Eusebius by Socrates by Baronius and by Monsieur Claude For what likelihood is there that that number of Bishops convoked from all places of Europe a great part of Africa and also of Asia Phaenicia Greece Maceaonia Thessalia Palestine Arabia Pamphilia Bythinia Capadocia Thrace Cilicia Pontus Persia and Scythia should amount but to three hundred and eighteen Bishops There is also less likelihood that those three hundred and eighteen Bishops should appear so sharp and so divided among themselves as to put out Libels of accusation one against another and that during their Session they made a cruel War within themselves These Accusations might be true as to the other Bishops who were as much divided in affections as in Judgments but not of these three hundred and eighteen who because they were all Orthodox and Children of peace and well united in their affections such as were Alexander Spiridion and Paphnutius were chosen by Constantine and Alexander out of the multitude of Hereticks Factious and contentious persons Beside the unanimity of these three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the composing of the Faith of the Council having but four Bishops that refused subscribing to it plainly shews
that their spirit was not that of contention nor animosity one against another but of peace and concord IF the Book of that excellent Author Eutychius the Patriarch of Alexandria had appeared with all its Truths and had been seen by all those that had eyes and would use them during the lives of Monsieur Salmasius Monsieur Blundel c. they had been yet more strongly perswaded than they were that all those circumstances so distant from the relation that Eutychius makes of them savours as much of Romance as those three Crosses which Helena Mother of Constantine found or as the donation of that Emperour to Silvester CERTAINLY the providence of God did clearly appear in the choise of those three hundred and eighteen Bishops 'T was an Act of God and not man when he raised up the good Bishop of Alexandria to recommend them to Constantine and when he inclined the heart of that Prince to hearken to his Counsel For if the Emperour had let himself been overruled at the beginning of that Counsel by any other Bishop as he did at the end of his Life the first Establishment of Faith and Religion had been that of Arrianisme whereas the orthodox Faith taking the first possession under the first Christian Emperour this served most powerfully to gain it credit and to make it pass and transmit it to posterity I would ask here by the way those that deprive the Soveraign Magistrate of the Intendance of regulating by a Soveraign Authority in all places either of an Empire or a Territory the matters of Religion and give him no other Authority than that of a private person I would ask those I say what expedient a good Bishop such as this of Alexandria could be able to find out to authorize the Faith that was contrary to that of Arrius in case God had not inclined the heart of Constantine to establish it by his commands in all the places of his Empire I ought not to forget here one circumstance in our Author that extreamly fortifies the right of the Magistrate especially if he be Orthodox to the Soveraign Intendance in the Government of the Church and which moreover strongly proves that the Rules Canons Censures and Anathemas of Councils are only Councils and the declarations of wise and experienced men before the Magistrate hath given them Authority by his Sanction In short this passage of Eutychius is the accomplishment of the prophesie of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 2. Know you not that the Saints shall judge the World that is to say know you not that God will one day establish Faithful Magistrates who shall be governours in chief of the Church he says than that the choice of three hundred and eighteen Bishops being made Constantine entred into their Assembly and after he had saluted and harrangued to them he laid his Scepter upon the Table his Ring and his sword and said to them I give you the power of regulating the affairs of the Church that done the Fathers humbly thanked him for the Authority which he was pleased to fortifie them with and rendered him his Scepter his Ring and his Sword 'T IS true if Constantine had been an Arrian his erronious opinion had done as much mischief as the contrary opinion to that of Arrius and wherewith he was possessed did good by its Establishment but it is true also that if the Soveraign of an Empire hath no other authority in the Church than that of a private person it will never be possible and it can never happen that an Orthodox Prince will be able to establish the true Religion by his Commandments in all the places of his Empire 'T is true by this Soveraign Authority of the Magistrate Errour and Impiety may as well be established by Lawes as truth and piety but it is true also that when the Soveraign Magistrate either hath no part nor is interessed in the affairs of Religion as during the three first Ages of the Church nothing could keep the Bishops as were those two thousand and forty eight of whom Eutychius speaks from divinding into many erronious parties and the Orthodox party to be always the least in number and this cannot happen when God gives to the Church such Princes as resemble Constantine the Great Theodosius and Martian IT happens notwithstanding that during such disorders and such confusions of diverse opinions as were those of the two thousand and forty that God reserves always a small number of good Pastors as were those three hundred and eighteen who form in a great Empire such as was the Roman several little Congregations all like to those of our Independants whom God makes use of amidst the greater corruption and confusion to keep and perpetuate to himself an Orthodox and faithful people in the world 'T IS true then that whither God gives a Christian Magistrate but a Heretick or whether he does not give any if he be not possibly a Heathen as during the three first Ages the inconvenience is great but it is otherwise certain that when God blesses his Church with a Magistrate that favours the Orthodox and true Worshippers of Jesus Christ the condition of the Church of God is incomparably more happy than under any other establishment of Religion or of the State For although persecution ought to unite Christians by a holy and the same Faith and by a life correspondent to it yet it hath not that Efficacy nor that vertue to produce those two good effects which commonly follow under the Reign of good Princes as David Hezekiah Josiah Constantine Theodosius c. under whom the people are united well otherwise and kept in good order and in the profession of one and the same and a good Religion which they are not under persecution For even the Church is not without disorders and violent shakings under the best and most Orthodox Princes which happens by their Indulgence who keep not up that Authority they ought to take in the government of the Church and who delegate it to the Clergy and permit them to exercise by a pretended power derived from Jesus Christ Independant on the Magistrate and who in short raise up Bishops to such a greatness and wealth as to have credit enough to partake and share the Soveraignty and to dispute the moiety of it with him who of right is the Soveraign of the whole leaving him the temporal Soveraignty and reserving to themselves the spiritual as they call it BUT these matters I discourse of in my Book not yet Printed intituled An Essay towards a true Ecclesiastical History One Theophilus of Alexandria and his Successor Cyrillus were equal and went check by jole in Authority with the Emperour and had built an Empire in that of their Soveraign For even those and their Successours had built several of them when a Pope was set up among them who subjugated them all and made them all agree to set up but one Catholick Church for before there were in