ENGLISH PVRITANISME CONTAINING The maine Opinions of the rigidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the Realme of ENGLAND Written by WILLIAM AMES D. of Divinity ACTS 24. 14. But this I confesse unto thee that after the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers beleeving all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets ACTS 28. 22. But we will heare of thee what thou thinkest for as concerning this Sect we know that every where it is spoken against Printed in the yeare 1641. To the Indifferent Reader IT cannot be unknowne unto them that know any thing that those Chistians in this Realme which are called by the odious and vile name of Puritans are accused by the Prelates to the Kings Majestie and the State to maintaine many absurd erronious Schismaticall and Hereticall opinions concerning Religion Church-government and the Civill Magistracie Which hath moved me to collect as neare as I could the chiefest of them and to send them naked to the view of all men that they may see what is the worst that the worst of them hold It is not my part to prove and justifie them Those that accuse and condemne them must in all reason and equity prove their accusation or else beare the name of unchristian slanderers I am not ignorant that they lay other opinions yea some cleane contradictory to these to the charge of these men the falshood whereof we shall it is to be doubted have more and more occasion to detect In the meane time all Enemies of Divine Truth shall finde That to obscure the same with Calumniation and untruthes is but to hide a Fire with dry Straw or Towe upon it But thou mayest herein observe what a terrible Popedome and Primacy these riged Presbyterians desire And with what painted Bug-beares and Scar-Crowes the Prelates goe about to fright the States of the Kingdome with all Who will no doubt one day see how their wisedomes are abused Farewell ENGLISH PVRITANISME CHAP. I. Concerning Religion or the worship of God in generall IMPRIMIS They hold and maintaine that the Word of God contained in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles is of absolute perfection given by CHRIST the head of the Church to be unto the same the sole Canon and rule of all matters of Religion and the worship and service of God whatsoever And that whatsoever done in the same service and worship cannot be justified by the said Word is unlawfull And therefore that it is a sin to force any Christian to doe any act of Religion or Divine Service that cannot evidently be warranted by the same 2 They hold that all Ecclesiasticall actions invented and devised by man are utterly to be excluded out of the exercises of Religion Especially such actions as are famous and notorious Mysteries of an Idolatrous Religion and in doing whereof the true Religion is conformed whether in whole or in part to Idolatry and Superstition 3 They hold that all outward meanes instituted and set apart to expresse and set forth the inward worship of God are parts of Divine worship and that not onely all morall actions but all typicall Rites and Figures ordained to shadow forth in the solemne worship and service of God any Spirituall or religious Act or habit in the minde of man are speciall parts of the same and therefore that every such Act ought evidently to be prescribed by the Word of God or else ought not to be done it being a sinne to performe any other worship to God whether Externall or Internall Morall or Ceremoniall in whole or in part then that which God himselfe requires in his Word 4 They hold it to be grosse Superstition for any mortall man to institute and ordaine as parts of Divine worship any mysticall Rite and Ceremony of Religion whatsoever and to mingle the same with the Divine Rites and Mysteries of Gods Ordinance But they hold it to be high presumption to institute and bring into Divine worship such Rites and Ceremonies of Religion as are acknowledged to be no part of Divine worship at all but onely of civill worship and honour For they that shall require to have prformed unto themselves a ceremoniall obedience service and worship consisting in Rites of Religion to be done at that very instant that God is solemnely served and worshipped and even in the same worship make both themselves and God so an Idoll So that they judge it a farre more fearefull sinne to adde unto and to use in the worship and service of God or any part thereof such mysticall Rites and Ceremonies as they esteeme to be no parts or parcels of Gods worship at all then such as in a vaine and ignorant Superstition they imagine and conceive to be parts thereof 5 They hold that every Act or action appropriated and set apart to Divine Service and Worship whether Morall or Ceremoniall reall or typicall ought to bring speciall honour unto God and therfore that every such Act ought to be apparently commanded in the Word of God either expresly or by necessary consepuent 6 They hold that all actions whether Morall or Ceremoniall appropriated to Religious or Spirituall persons Functions or Actions either are or ought to be Religious and Spirituall And therefore either are or ought to be instituted immediately by God who alone is the Author and Institutor of all Religious and Spirituall actions and things whether Internall or Externall Morall or Ceremoniall CHAP. II. Concerning the Church 1 THey hold and maintaine that every Company Congregation or Assembly of true beleevers joyning together according to the order of the Gospell in the true Worship of God is a true visible Church of Christ and that the same Title is improperly attributed to any other Congregations Synods Societies Combinations or Assemblies whatsoever 2 They hold that all such Churches or Congregations communicating after that manner together in Divine worship are in all Ecclesiasticall matters equall and of the same power and authority and that by the Word and Will of God they ought to have the same Spirituall Priviledges Prerogatives Officers Administrations Orders and Formes of Divine worship 3 They hold that Christ Jesus hath not objected any Church or Congregation of his to any other Superiour Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction then unto that which is within it selfe So that if a whole Church or Congregation shall erre in any matter of Faith or Religion no other Churches or Spirituall Church-Officers have by any warrant from the Word of God power to censure punish or controule the same but are onely to counsell or advise the same and so to leave their Soules to the immediate judgement of Christ and their bodies to the sword and power of the Civill Magistrate who alone upon earth hath power to punish a whole Church or Congregation 4 They hold that every established Church or Congregation ought to have her owne Spirituall Officers and Ministers resident with her and these such as are joyned
submission and acknowledgement if the crime be private and a publicke if the crime be publike and notorious 9 They hold that if a member of the Church be obstinate and shew no signes and tokens of repentance of that Crime that if they by evidence of Scripture have coevinced it to be a crime that then by their Ecclesiasticall authority they are to denounce him to be as yet no member of the Kingdome of Heaven nor of that Congregation and so are to leave him to God and the King And this is all the Ecclesiasticall Authority and jurisdiction that any Spirituall Officers of the Church are to use against any man for greatest crime that can be committed 10 They hold that the Officers of the Church are not to proceed unto excommunication against against any man without the consent of the whole Congregation it selfe first called for in publike Assembly 11 They hold that the Minister or any other particular Officer offending is as subject to the censures as any other of the Congregation 12 They hold that if any member of the Congregation having committed a srandalous sinne shall of selfe forsake the worship of GOD and the Spirituall Communion with the Church that the Church shall then send for the said person and if hee refuse to come they shall after much seeking and long patience openly declare that he hath no part nor portion in the holy things of God among them that then the Ecclesiasticall Officers hove no authority or jurisdiction over him but onely the Civill Magistrate and those unto whom he oweth civill subjection as Parents Masters Landlords c. CHAP. VI Concerning the Civill Magistrate 1 THey hold that the civill Magistrate as he is a civill Magistrate hath and ought to have supreame power over all the Churches within his dominions in all causes whatsoever And yet they hold that as he is a Christian he is a member of some one particular Congregation and ought to be as subject to the spirituall regiment thereof prescribed by Christ in his word as the meanest subject in the kingdome and they hold that this subjection is no more derogatory to his supremacy then the subjection of his body in his body in sicknesse to Physitians can be said to be said to be derogatory thereunto 2 They hold that these civill Magistrates are the greatest enemies to their own supremacy that in whole or in part communicate the vertute and power therof to any ecclesiasticall officers And that there cannot be imagined by the wit of man a more direct meanes to check-mate the same then to make them Lords and Princes upon earth to invist them with civill jurisdiction and authority and to conforme the State and limits of their jurisdiction to the state of Kings and bounds of Kingdomes 3 They hold that there should be no ecclesiasticall officer in the Church so high but that he ought to be subject unto and punishable by the meanest civill officer in a kingdome city or town not onely for common crimes but even for the abuse of the ecclesiasticall offices yea they hold that they ought to be more punishable then any other subject whatsoever if they shall offend against either civill or Ecclesiasticall Lawes 4 They hold that the Pope is that Antichrist and therefore that Antichrist because being but an Ecclesiasticall officer he doth in the hight of the pride of his heart make claime unto and usurp the Supremacy of the Kings and civill Rulers of the Earth And they hold that all defenders of the Popish Faith all indeverours of reconcilement with that Church all plotters for toleration of the Popish Religion all countenancers and maintainers of Seminary Priests and professed Catholicks and all denyers that the Pope is that Antichrist are secret enemies to the Kings Supremacy 5 They hold that all Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Officials c. have their Offices and Functions onely by will and pleasure of the king and civill States of this Realme and they hould that whosoever holdeth that the King may not without sin remove these Officers out of the Church and dispose of their Temporalities and maintenance according to his owne pleasure or that these Offices are jure divinâ— and not onely or meerely jure humanâ— That all such deny a principle part of the Kings Supremacy 6 They hold that not one of these opinions can be proved to be contrary to the word of God and that if they might have leave that they are able to answer all that hath been written against any one of them FINIS
claime unto and is in possession of the like universall Supremacy hath more warrant in the word of God to the same then any Metropolitane or Diocesan not dependant upon him hath or can have So that they hold that by the word of God either there must be no Metropolitans and Diocesans or else there must be a Pope 5. They hold that no Ecclesiasticall Minister ought to exercise or accept of any Civill publique jurisdiction and authority but ought to be wholly imployed in spirituall Offices and dueties to that Congregation over which he is set And that those Civill Magistrats weaken their owne Supremacy that shall suffer any Ecclesiasticall Pastor to exercise any civill jurisdiction within their Realmes Dominions or Seignories 6 They hold that the highest and Supreame office and authority of the Pastor is to preach the Gospel solemnely and publickly to the Congregation by interpreting the written word of God and applying the same by exhortation and reproof unto them They hold that this was the greatest worke that Christ and his Apostles did and that whosoever is thought worthy and fit to exercise this authority cannot be thought unfit and unworthy to exercise any other Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall authority whatsoever 7. They hold that the Pastor or Minister of the word is not to teach any Doctrine as to the Church grounded upon his owne Judgement or Opinion or upon the judgement or opinion of any or all the men in the world But only that truth that he is able to demonstrate and prove evidently and apparently by the word of God soundly interpreted and that the people are not bound to beleeve any Doctrine of Religion or Divinity whatsoever upon any ground whatsoever except it be apparently justified by the word or by necessary consequent deduced from the same 8. They hold that in interpreting the Scriptures and opening the sense of them he ought to follow those rules onely that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writing to wit by waying the propriety of the tongue wherein they are written by waying the Circumstance of the place by comparing one place with another and by considering what is properly spoken and what tropically or figuratively And they hold it unlawfull for the Pastor to obtrude upon his people a sence of any part of the divine word for which he hath no other ground but the bare testimonies of men and that it is better for the people to be content to be ignorant of the meaning of such difficult places then to hang their Faith in any matter in this case upon the bare Testimony of man 9. They hold that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any such for their Pastors as are not able by preaching to interpret and apply the word of God unto them in manner and forme aforesaid And therefore that no ignorant and sole reading Priests are to be reputed the ministers of Jesus Christ who sendeth none into his ministery and service but such as he adorneth in some measure with Spirituall gifts And they cannot be perswaded that the faculty of reading in ones mother tongue the Scriptures c. which any ordinary Turke or Infidell hath can be called in any congruity of Speech a ministeriall guift of Christ 10. They hold that in the assembly of the Church the Pastor only is to be the mouth of the congregation to God in prayer and that the people are onely to testifie their assent by the word Amen And that it is a Babilonian confusion for the Pastor to say one peece of a prayer and the people with mingled voices to say another except in singing which by the very ordinance and instinct of nature is more delightfull and effectuall the more voices there are joyned and mingled together in harmony and consent 11. They hold that the Church hath no authority to impose upon her Pastors or any other of her Officers any other ministeriall dueties Offices Functions Actions or Ceremonies either in Divine worship or out of the same then what Christ himself in the Scriptures hath imposed upon them or what they might lawfully impose upon Christ himselfe if he were in person upon the Earth and did exercise a ministeriall office in some Church 12. They hold that it is as great an injury to force a congregation or Church to maintaine as their Pastor with tithes and such like donations that person that either is not able to instruct them or that refuseth in his owne person ordinarily to doe it as to force a man to maintaine one for his wife that either is not a woman or that refuseth in her owne person to doe the dueties of a wife unto him 13. They hold that by Gods Ordinance there should be also in every Church a Doctor whose speciall office should be to instruct by opening the sense of the Scripture to the Congregation and that particularly in the maine grounds and principles of Religion CHAP. IIII. Concerning the Elders 1 FOr as much as through the malice of Sathan there are and will be in the best Churches many disorders and Scandals committed that redound to the reproch of the Gospel are a stumbling block to many both without and within the Church and sith they judg it repugnant to the word of God that any Minister should be a Sole Ruler and as it were a Pope so much as in one Parish much more that he should be one over a whole Diocesse Province or Nation they hold that by Gods Ordinance the Congregation should make choise of other officers as Assistants unto the Ministers in the spirituall regiment of the congregation who are by office jointly with the ministers of the word to be as Monitors and Overseers of the manners and conversation of all the Congregation and one of another that so every one may be more weary of their wayes and that the Pastors and Doctors may better attend to prayer and Doctrine and by their means may be made better acqainted with the estate of the people when others eyes besides their owne shall wake and watch over them 2 They hold that such onely are to be chosen to this Office as are the gravest honestest discreetest best grounded in Religion and the Ancientest Professors thereof in the Congregation such as the whole Congregation doe approve of respect for their wisdome holinesse and honesty and such also if it be possible as are of civill note and respect in the world and able without any burden to the Church to maintain them selves either by their lands or any other honest civill trade of life neither doe they thinke it so much disgrace to the policy of the Church that tradesmen and artificers indowed with such qualities as are above specified should be admitted to bee Overseers of the Church as it is that persons both ignorant of Religion and all good letters and in all respects for person quality and state as base and vile as the basest in the Congregation should be