preaching abroad out of his own precincts whether upon intreaty or otherwise we need not inquire seeing he had an Apostolical power which was of universal extent in it self and such as no Minister now can lay claim to His Commission was as the rest of the Apostles were general and originally not confined to any one place as other Ministers are but they were to teach all Nations Yet because every one of them could not travel and preach in every Countrey therefore it pleased the Lord afterwards in Wisedom for good Causes to order it as it were by a second Decree that Paul should specially have a care of and preach to the Gentiles Yet this did no way diminish his Apostolical Authority nor forbid him from preaching at all to the Iews or Peter to the Gentiles if occasion did serve for of Paul it is expresly said that he was to carry Christ's Name both to the Gentiles and to the Children of Israel And it is generally believed that he was the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews And of St. Peter it is not doubted that he both at Antioch and elsewhere preached the Gospel both to Iews and Gentiles The Apostolical power did extend to all Nations but the Conveniency of the Church did require that some of them should be fixed to one sort of People in one place and some to another 'T is true St. Paul saith he was troubled with the care of all the Churches i. e. as he was an Apostle so the care of all the Churches lay upon him quod ad jus attinet potestatem saith Camero he had right and power to take care of all the Churches as an Apostle and so differing from all Bishops and Presbyters now And doubtless as all good Ministers of Christ do he did take all the care that lawfully he might or could of the whole Church of Christ especially of all those within his own precincts and of his own planting which by an usual Synecdoche in Scripture are termed all Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for order and peace sake it pleased God that their persons and labours should be appointed for several distinct parts of the World as in his infinite Wisedom he saw was most convenient for the better propagation of the Gospel of Christ in all the World And it is the observation of the Excellent Divine Martin Chemnitius in his Commentary on that temporary precept of our Saviour Christ to his Disciples Goe not into the way of the Gentiles c. Hoc temporarium praeceptum fideles verbi Dei ministros admonet ut singuli se intra metas legitimae suae vocationis ad pascendum illum Dei gregem qui ipsis commissus est 1 Pet. 5. 2. contineant nec latiùs evagentur aut falcem suam in alterius pastoris messem nisi speciali concessione vel vocatione mittant This temporary percept doth warn all the faithful Ministers of God's word that all of them should contain themselves within the bounds of their lawfull Calling to feed that flock of God that is committed unto them and not to wander abroad or thrust their hook into the harvest of another Pastour without his special leave or calling By all which it appears that a forcible or surreptitious entry of one Minister into another's charge is destitute of all Scripture president or allowance and therefore cannot be the Ordinance of God The Example of the Apostles meeting and preaching sometimes in private Houses I conceive cannot but most impertinently be urged to defend the practice I here dispute against For 1. 'T is not to the question which is of a setled constituted Church where a preaching Ministry is established by Law The Christian Church in the Apostles days was not â—etled and established as is ours but in a way to be so 2. The Magistrate was then heathen all the World over ours now Christian Publick preaching and Christian meetings were not then suffered our Church-Assemblies are not onely allowed and protected but commanded by Sovereign Authority 3. They had then either none at all or very few Christian-Churches erected and so were forced to meet where they could we want not Churches but hearts to resort to them 4. The Apostles had a general and extraordinary call to preach any where through all Coasts and Parts of the World where they were appointed to plant Churches so have not the Persons in question The office of an Apostle or Evangelist is now ceased 5. It can never be proved that the Apostles did or would have made use of their private meetings either in competition with or opposition to the publick Ordinances of God as our modern Conventicles are but in subserviency according as the necessity of those times did require to what publick and solemn Assemblies they could then or might in after-times enjoy For as our Saviour made use of all private Conferences and Meetings not in separation from competition with or opposition against but in professed subserviency to the Synagogue-service and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church so I am perswaded that the Apostles of Christ together with the primitive Christians would have done the like had the case in their time with respect to the publick exercise of Christian Religion been the same or the like to what it was in our Saviour Christ's time with respect to the publick exercise of the Religion of the Iews But forasmuch as there were no Conventions for publick exercise of Christian Religion permitted or commanded in those times untill the Roman Empire and other Kingdoms of the World became Christian it was therefore a thing impossible that the private Meetings of the Apostles and those primitive Christians should be so made use of in subordination to the publick Assemblies as were the private Meetings of our Saviour and his Disciples in the Jewish Church So that the case and condition of Christianity in the primitive times is so different from and contrary to what it is in the Church of England where the publick worship is protected and commanded by Authority that their private Meetings cannot possibly hold any proportion or similitude with ours So that to argue from private Meetings in those times of persecution of Christianity to private Meetings in England in these days is to take away the subject of the question and then to argue the case 6. Neither did one Apostle then thrust himself into the place where another was to labour but contained himself within the compass of his Line and portion of God's People that he was appointed to preach to But the matter in question is of a quite contrary nature viz. of a silenced Minister's intruding himself in amongst a People over whom there is a preaching Ministry established and there taking upon him to gather Conventions teach that People and perform ministerial Acts amongst them contrary to good Laws without the consent yea against the allowance of the Pastour of the place So that neither the
by Law should be bonum positive that it should be an act of vertue but it is sufficient if it be bonum negative that is nothing sinfull or morally evil as all vices are Otherwise there should be no room for Laws about middle and indifferent things And suppose a Law should be defective in regard of the efficient final or formal cause yet if the matter of it be such as may be done without sin â—t binds the Subject to obedience And that the forbearance of such illegal meetings as are in question may be done without sin and that those dissenting brethren who have been ejected for their non-compliance in Uniformity to the present legal establishment being under a legal restraint as to the use of their Ministerial Function may without sin forbear the irregular use of their gifts and labours in the said private meetings to the undermining and confronting of the Laws the increase of Sedition Schism and divers other Horrid Evils I think is out of question Learned Beza thought so or else he had never returned such an answer as he did to that Case of Conscience which was proposed to him by certain English Ministers who in the Reign of Q. Eliz. were silenced for non-conformity The case proposed being Whether they might or ought not to preach notwithstanding their being prohibited by man's law His answer verbatim is Tertium illud nempe ut contra Regiam Majestatem Episcoporum voluntatem Ministerio suo fungantur magis etiam exhorrescimus propter eas causas quae tacentibus etiam nobis satis intelligi possunt He was so far from thinking it lawfull that he trembled at the thought of such a thing that they should exercise their Ministry contrary to the Queen's Laws and the will of the Governours of the Church And the same hath been the judgment of Antiquity in the like case The ancient and orthodox Fathers of the Church being met together in Council at Antioch in the first year of the Reign of Aurelianus the Emperour and in the year of Christ according to Eusebius 269. decreed Non licere Episcopo vel Clerico si exauthorizatus fuerit ministrare That if any Bishop being condemned by a Council or any Presbyter or Deacon by his Bishop should presume to Preach or meddle with any thing of or belonging to the Sacred Office of the Ministry there should never be any hope for him ever to be restored again by any other Council or Synod And all that Communicated with him should be cast out of the Church As may be seen more at large in that Canon Of the like judgment were the Divines of the Presbyterian-way touching those learned Godly and orthodox Ministers who suffered ejection out of their livings and deprivation of all they had in the late times of troubles by a pretended authority of Parliament for their adherence to his late Majesty of ever Blessed memory When the Earl of Northumberland discoursing with Mr Calamy about the supplying of above fifty Churches in London void of Ministers told him That they must restore some of the sequestred Clergy of London and admit them to preach again for unless they did so the Parliament could not find men of ability to preach in London Mr Calamy replied God Forbid As it is recorded and published to the world in a Book called Persecutio undecima Printed in the year 1648. page 42. And if the thought of the Restauration of those worthies to their Office how unjustly soever they were suspended from it was in the judgment of that person rejected with indignation as a thing offensive and either forbidden or wished to be forbidden of God how much more execrable and abominable a thing would he have thought it to be if they should have taken upon them as some now do under a lawfull power to preach again without any readmission by that power that silenced them yea in opposition and defiance of it And because no testimony is so fit to convince any party as that which proceeds from their own Mouths Let therefore the Judgment of a Non-conformist otherwise a Person in Learning Sobriety and Solidity inferiour to few of his generation be heard and weighed in this case He writes in defence of our Church assemblies against those who being silenced for Non-conformity as he was yet not as he did separated themselves from the publick Congregations and not enduring to have their Mouths stopped or to sit down in silence thought themselves bound according to the Example of the Apostles Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29. to exercise their Ministry though not in publick yet in private Meetings notwithstanding any Legal prohibition to the contrary First he distinguisheth betwixt the calling of the Apostles and that of the Ministers now The former as they had their ministry immediately from God so had they the designation of that ministry to their persons immediately from God also And therefore the exercise of it was not restrainable or to be forborn at the Commandment of men The latter though their ministry be from God also yet have their Calling to that ministry or the designation of that office to such and such particular persons from men in God's ordinary way and cannot exercise that function but by virtue of that Calling wch they have from men And therefore saith he in common sense they ought to obey man forbidding them the exercise of a Calling which they do exercise by virtue of a Calling from men Otherwise there should be no power so to depose a man from his Ministry but that notwithstanding any Command from the Church or State he is still to continue in the exercise of his ministry and should be bound to give that example which the Apostles did which is not onely absurd but a conceit tending plainly to manifest Sedition and Schism Afterwards he hath these words Neither were some of the Apostles onely forbidden so as that others should be suffered to preach the same Gospel in their places but the utter abolition of the Christian Religion was manifestly intended in silencing them But over Churches whereof we are Ministers are no private and secret Assemblies such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting Magistrate but are publick professing their worship and doing their Religion in the face of the Magistrateâ— and State yea and by his Countenance Authority and Protection And we Are set over those Churches not onely by a calling of our People but also by Authority from the Magistrate who hath an armed power to hinder such publick actions who is also willing to permit and maintain other true Ministers of the Gospel in those places where he forbiddeth some And thereupon the said Authour makes this threefold Conclusion 1. If after our publick Calling to minister in such a known and publick Church not by the Church onely but by the Magistrate also the Magistrate shall have matter against us just or unjust as to our obedience it matters not and shall
of the bond of Charity is equally as dangerous and damnable as Apostasie from the Faith and as destructive and inconsistent to the nature and being of the Church one as the other 4. What sufficient convincing proof can our Church-forsakers make that they are not faln from the true Faith as well as from Christian Charity seeing they are subdivided into so many severall Parties and Sects some whereof and not the smallest number viz. the Quakers are totally apostatized from all Christianity others are faln in part as the Anabaptists Antinomians c. And those of them that do now and then come to Church perhaps because they cannot tell how to dispose of themselves otherwise studiously absent themselves from the profession of our Faith contained in the Creeds and if any of them chance to be there at that time yet they willfully refuse to observe and obey that godly and laudable command and custome of the Church grounded on good authority of God's word to stand up to their Belief 5. If they are not yet quite faln from the Faith yet their Schism and departure from the Church is a fair step towards it where are they likely to stay unless God marvellously stop them who are departed from his house The Prodigal Son 's leaving his Father's Family was the first step to all that lewd course of Life that afterwards he took The Donatists of old did not at first dissent in matters of Faith from the Catholick Church but their Schism did soon produce Heresie as an Ulcer or Wound being inflamed doth soon beget a Fever In the mean time whatever they esteem themselves or are esteemed of others to be they are indeed no more true Members of the Church than Tares or Chaff are part of the Wheat or than Mutineers are part of an Army Haeretici Schismatici non sunt ex vera Ecclesia sed tantummodo Ecclesiae immisti sicut excrementa sunt quidem in corpore sed non de corpore Alsted Lexic Theol. p. 359. Now whilst I write these things I weep mine eye mine eye runneth down with water I cannot refrain my self but must cry out alas alas for my dear mother the poor distressed distracted and divided Church of England I will bewail thee with the weeping of Iazer I will water thee with my tears my bowels shall sound like a harp for thee and my inward parts like pipes That thine own Children like Iacob and Esau should so jar and disagree in their Womb as to endanger the very life of her that bore them by their strugling What Brethren have we not all one God one Christ one Spirit one Baptism one Scripture one hope of Eternal Salvation And can we not close and communicate together in the Worship and Service of that one blessed Creator mercifull Saviour and most sweet Comforter Are our differences about I know not what grown to such an height that we cannot goe to Church together joyn in one confession of Sin profession of Faith Prayer each with and for other hear the same Scriptures read and preached and sit together at the same Table partake of that same heavenly Feast to which we are altogether most lovingly invited So great is the crime of our present Age in this that Posterity shall never be able to add to it Oh tell it not in Gath publish it not in the Streets of Ashcalon lest the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce lest the Daughters of the uncircumcised triumph What will very Pagans say when they shall see Christians thus divided As Clemens Alexandrinus brings in the Heathen exprobrating our Religion for untrue Quia omnis secta Christianismi titulum sibi vendicat tamen alia aliam execratur condemnat because every Sect challengeth to it self the Title of true Christianity yet one curseth and condemneth another What can they otherwise think but that the God and Christ whom we all pretend to serve is what he abhors to be the authour of confusion Oh what Musick is this in the Ears of Papists to hear of our discords Did Herod and Pontius Pilate agree as friends to crucifie Christ and shall Christians that profess themselves to be his Members disagree as mortal Enemies about their Service of him Oh Religion Religion Hast thou not Enemies enough abroad in the World that seek thy destruction but thy deadliest wound must be received in the house of thy friendâ— Like Ioseph thou art basely sold by thine own Brethren when thou art bringing them necessary food like Sampson thou art betray'd into the hands of the Philistines by those that pretend zeal for thee and like thy blessed Master thou art delivered up to thy mortal Foes by thine own treacherous Disciples what Ocean can furnish mine eyes with tears enough to pour out for the scandal and matter of rejoycing that these things do give to thine adversaries and for thy much feared ruine that this portends Alas Alas that those who pretend much tenderness in lesser matters should make no Conscience at all of endeavouring thy Preservation and Prosperity by keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace What shall I say of those Men but as our Saviour of his Enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they doe The Lord open their eyes that they may see and perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. Oh all ye my Brethren that make an unchristian separation from the Society of your Christian Friends and Neighbours in the publick worship of God especially you to whom I stand nearest related I beseech you in the bowels of our common Saviour do not thus give advantage to the adversaries of our Religion to endeavour and hope for the speedy overthrow both of us and it and in the mean time to laugh in their sleeves at our divisions saying there there so would we have it I beseech you Brethren in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no Schisms amongst you that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment If there be any Consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if there be any bowels of Mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves It is promised as a blessed Fruit of the Gospel the envy of Ephraim shall cease and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not vex Ephraim but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the West they shall spoil them of the East together they shall lay their hands upon Edom and Moab and the Children of Ammon shall obey them Oh that all animosity and prejudice were banished from
are baptized into one body so by the other we are made to drink into one spirit And therefore the Apostle from our Communion together at the Lord's Table concludes our Union one with another incorporation into not the essential but the spiritual body of Christ. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread A Father thus comments on that place Omnes unum corpus sumus in Christo quia etsi multi sumus unum támen in eo sumus omnes enim de uno pane participamus We are therefore all one body in Christ because though we are many in our selves yet in him we are all one for we all partake of one bread Nam si in humanis mensoe salis communicatio amoris causa est signum quanto magis id erit in communione mensoe panis Domini If among men the communicating together at one table and in one dish is both a cause and sign of love how much more then would it be so in the communicating together at the Table and of the bread of the Lord Yea the very assembling of Christians together in the Church is by St. Chrysostome called the Communion of Saints That then which tends to make rents and parties in the Church and divides Christians each from other in external Conjunction of publick duties as well as internal concord of hearts and affections as the practice in question hath been proved and by experience is found to doe must needs hinder the Communion of Saints Union being broken there can be no Communion for it flows from Union and is no other in the Etymology of the word than common Union And as there is nothing that obstructs Christian Communion so much as divisions do so when once they are made there is nothing more hard to be composed again A Brother offended is harder to be won than a strong City and their contentions are like the barrs of a Castle For as no bond is so strong as that of Religion so no Hostility so cruel and outragious as that which difference in Religion occasioneth Think not saith our Saviour that I am come to send peace on the earth I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and a man's foes shall be they of his own house This is commonly through the policy of Satan and malice of men the fruit of divisions in point of Religion amongst Brethren And if the bond of Communion betwixt the members be broken I see not but that the bond of Union with Christ their head must be broken also How can they exist as members of Christ's body which have left their coupling and conjunction with the other members of the same Neither they nor those that cause it can in the judgment of St. Austine Ii qui a compage corporis membra alia avellere conantur seipsos a Christi unitate separant They that draw the members from Communion one with the other do cut off themselves from their Union with Christ. Impium enim sacrilegum divortium est eos qui in Christi veritate consentiunt distrahere Saith Calvin It is an impious and sacrilegious divorce to divide those who would otherwise agree in the truth of Christ. The same is acknowledged by the Presbyterian Divines If we be the body of Christ do not they who separate from the body separate from the head also And by the unanimous consent of the ancient godly and learned Nonconformists in their grave and modest confutation of the errours of the Brownists and Separatists where in the first words of their Book they say That the Church of England is a true Church and such a one as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself cutteth himself off from Christ. And they prove it at large by unanswerable arguments in the following pages of their Book A proesumptione igitur illicitâ excusari nequeunt qui nimis amando sententiam suam usque ad proecidendoe communionis audaciam perveniunt They are therefore no way to be excused from sinfull presumption who out of a fondness to their own opinion proceed to that boldness and hardiness as to interrupt Christian Communion Malunt nullam habere quam non suam They had rather there should be no Religion at all than that their own should not take place They that are any way instrumental to break unity that true-Lovers knot which every Christian should wear in his breast all days of his life will find at last by miserable experience that destruction will follow it if repentance precede not to prevent it For if the God whom we serve be the God of peace Iesus Christ our head and Saviour be the Prince of peace the spirit of Holiness the worker of peace the Blessed Trinity in Unity of Deity the authour of peace and lover of concord as our Church expresseth it how then can it join it self with the disturbers of both and not rather separate from those which separate from their Brethren and are instrumental to draw as many after them as they can Fourthly It gratifies at least two main sinfull Corruptions to which people are naturally prone both mentioned together by St. Paul in one place The first is their discontent with their own Pastors who are regularly and orderly sent of God to them After their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers 1. The great fault here prophesied to be in the latter times was heaping up many teachers One will not serve a peoples turn but they must have a multitude A woman that forsakes her Husband's bed will be ready to pour out her fornications to every one that passeth by and not content her self with the embraces of one single stranger alone but be ready to prostitute her body to any one 2. And there is an Emphasis in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to themselves They will be their own chusers They will not accept nor submit to those who by the hands of the Rulers of the Church God shall place over them but take to themselves upon their own judgment and choice whom they please This is according to his opinion who expounding the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place by St. Paul saith quod sine judicio temere sunt collecturi doctores suos They shall rashly gather together teachers of their own 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers as they esteem and use them in contradistinction to Pastours for they will not admit of any to have a pastoral rule and care over them but teachers to tickle their Ears and please their fancies And which is yet worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own Lusts. Such as do best please their humours such as are of the same party with themselves that are in