Iur. Illud decitum quod logibus definitum Reg. jur is not true and vertuous liberty but inordinatenesse and excesse Yea and in some cases of severer restraints Prudenter aliquando liciâ—a prohibenâ—tur ne si permitterentur eorum ocâ—â—sâ—â—â—e ad illicita perveniatur Reg. Iur. Ioh. 8.30 Free Indeed Libertâ—â— verâ— Christianae â—â—ferâ—â— aut extrinsecus spoliari nescit quum non minus parâ—endo quam agendo exercetur Aust by which Governors doe indeed trench upon those rationall or religious liberties which God hath allowed to men and Christians yet in these cases a true Christian onely wraps himself up in that liberty of patience which knowes when and how to suffer without injury to the publique tranquillity or to his private peace of conscience still keeping a * 1 Pet. 3.4 meek and quiet spirit with the love zeal and profession of that which he conceives to be the truth of God these are the fruits of that * 2 Cor. 3.17 free Spirit of Christ in Christians which appeared most eminently in Christ which makes us free to all things but not to sin in thought word or deed Looking upon sin as the great * Eo sumus liberiores quo a peccato â—â—â—â—â—â—niores Gibeuf tyrant usurper and waster of the true liberty of every man and Christian It is then as farre from Christian liberty 4. Divels Liberty as sicknesse is from health madnesse or drunkennesse from sobriety rottennesse from beauty or putrefaction from perfection for any Christian to beleeve what he lists though it be a lye or to disbeleeve and deny it Libertas omni servitute servilior Ber. Ep. 47. though it be a truth of God to take up what opinions and wayes of religion he most fancies and to refuse what ever he please to disaffect upon light popular and untryed grounds or openly to speak and dispute what ever he lists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. and publiquely to act according as his private perswasions passions lusts or interests or other mens tempt and carry him wherein neither right reason nor common order nor publique peace nor conscience of duty nor * 1 Pet. 2.17 reverence of men nor fear of God have any such serious and holy ties upon men as are necessary for the common good In which regard private Christians are never so free as to have no yoake of Christ upon them Haretica conversatio quam futilis quam terrena quam humana sine gravitate sine autoritate sine disciplina cujus penes nos curam lenocinium vocant pacem cum omnibus miscent dum ad unius veritatis expugnationem conspirant Tertul de praes ad Hae. c. 41. no exercise of patience self-denyall mortification meeknesse charity modesty and sobriety together with that comelinesse and decorum which beseemes Religion and a Christian spirit beyond which the most transporting zeal may not expatiate For that is no other than such freedome as water enjoyes when it overbears and overflowes all its banks and bounds or as fire seising on the whole house Such as drunken men in their roarings and mad men in their ravings contend for such as wild beasts and untamed Monsters struggle for yea such as the envious and malicious divels affect and are most impatient not to enjoy In whose nostrils and jawes the mighty * Ezek. 38.4 Esa 37.29 wisdom and goodnesse of God who is Potentissimum liberrimum agens the fountain of all true rationall morall religious and divine freedome hath his hooke of power and bridle of terror not of love Such are those liberties which those * As St. John called Corinthus who was of this sect of Libertines Irenae l. 1. Congredere mecum ut te ad principem deducam vox lascivientium Gnosticorum Nicolaitarum aliorum Haeret. Iren. l. 1. primogeniti Diaboli prime birds of the Divels brood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Nis v. M. some impudent Libertines and dissolute wretches now as of old aim at who have cast off all sense of justice order shame and humanity while they clamour and act for liberty that is that their blasphemies profanenesses impudicities scurrilities impudencies and violences against all publique civill peace as well as against all religion order and Ministry of the Church of England may be tolerated if not countenanced notwithstanding they professe to hold with us some common grounds of Christian Religion and stand responsible to civill duties and relations True Christians should be as fearfull to enjoy the divels freedome not which he hath but which he desires that is to will and to doe whatever he lists And as they should be zealous for their own true holy and humble liberties which lead them quietly to doe or suffer Gods will in Gods way so they should bee tender of encroaching upon those publique liberties which are by right reason order and Scripture granted to some men as Magistrates and Ministers for the generall good of Christians Men must not so please themselves in any thing they fancy of liberty as to injure others No mans liberty may be anothers injury Nullius emolumentum jure nescitur exalterius damno injuria Reg. Iur. since no mans right can consist in the detriment or damage of anothers rights or dues As then no man rationally can think it a liberty denyed him when he is forbid upon idle visits to goe to infected houses or being infected with the plague to goe among others that are sound or to drink poison and propine it to others no more can any Christian religiously plead for a liberty to broach and publish to others any opinion he pleaseth or to invade any place and office he hath a minde to or to disturb others in their duties and power or to contemne with publique insolence or violently to innovate against established laws and orders in Church or State much lesse hath he any freedome openly to blaspheme or disturb that religion and way of devotion wherein sober and good Christians worship God by that authority and order which is setled in publique according to their consciences and best judgements Here neither Christian Magistrates 5. True Liberty and good government in Church and State agree well together nor Ministers are to regard such pleas for private Liberties as overthrow the publique order and peace nor are they to regard those clamours against them and the Laws as persecuting when they doe but oppose and restrain such pernicious exorbitancies nor are they in this infringers of the peoples freedome but preservers of Liberties which are bound up onely in the laws nor are they oppressours of others mens consciences but dischargers of their own duties * Leges sunt corporis politici nervi sine quibus luxata infirma fient omnia membra Verul and consciences which they bear to Gods glory and the publique good whereto as they stand highly related by their place and power so
this self-condemned and without excuse Nor are any of a different beleif to what is established to be tolerated in giving any factious and seditious scandals against that Religion which is by the wisdome and piety of any Nation and Church there setled as sacred being always presumed that it is judged the truest and best for no men can be supposed to binde themselves and their posterity to any religion which they think false Two wayes of just restraints in the Church There are two wayes of coercive power established by God over men in matters of religion either of the Word by Ecclesiasticall admonitions reproofes and censures which onely reach those in matters of error 1 Tim. 5.20 Tit. 2.15 Tit. 3.10 1 Cor. 5.12 or scandall that are under the same form beleif and profession of Religion for these onely doe consider them And where this discipline is as in primitive times it was rightly dispensed with gravity wisdome charity and due solemnity by wise and worthy men it carries a great weight with it being in the name and authority of Jesus Christ 1. By Church discipline and is of excellent use to the well being of the Church of Christ to preserve the honour of Religion and credit of Christianity Nor is any thing of extern order and policy more worthy to be seriously considered and restored by Christians which can never be done till the right government of the Church be first setled nor can this now be easily done without the favour and concurrent authority of the Christian Magistrate so far hath licentious contempt and insolency prevailed against all ancient order government and discipline in the Church even by the Libertinism of such as would most be counted Christians And 2. Magistâ—atick power 2. A second way of animadversion or restraint of publique disorders in Religion is by the power of the sword in the hand of the Christian Magistrate who is to regard not onely the civill peace of subjects but also that trust which lies on him to take care for their religious interests and their souls welfare Quâ—â—to plus potes interrena republica tanto plus imperdeas â—â—lesti civitati Aust Ep. c. 24. that they may be taught and preserved in the right way of knowing and serving God The happye â—ondition of any Christians is when both these powers are wisely and sweetly twisted together so as the Ministry directs the Magistracy by the Word and the Magistracy assists the Ministry by the sword where the censures of the Church act by charity and the censures of the Magistrate by a just severity yet so as neither love to the offender nor dislike of the offence be wanting That all be done to the edification not to the destruction of the Church or of any member of it so farre as its welfare is consistent with the publique Neither civill nor Church power among Christians should be as a sharp and hard rock dashing presently all in pieces that touch or strike at it in the least kinde though never so modestly differing from the received Religion nor yet ought they to be as pillowes and sponges yeelding so soft a reception to every new opinion and practise as to invite all errours and novelties to a recumbency or rest in their bosome A Church or Christian State will soon be full of all noisome vermine if they allow as a work of charity and liberty every sordid errour and beggerly opinion publiquely to lodge and nestle under their roof yea and to contend for place and crowd out that Religion which is established Moderation differs from grosse toleration Christian Magistrates should neither use the sharp rasor or two edged sword of the Spanish Inquisition which forceth with terror either to deny what men hold for truth or to professe which that they hold not nor yet should they content themselves with the wooden daggers of Amsterdam where civill authority excuses its lukewarmnesse and gilds over its tolerancy of any Religion with the benefit of trade and commerce I doe not think it Christian to extirpate Jews or Turkes much lesse any of Christian profession but I think it both wisdome and charity first to endeavour by all fair means to convince all And secondly 2 Tim. 2.24 to restrain by just penalties all those under civill subjection however of a different religion from saying or doing any thing publiquely scandalous to and derogating from the honor peace and order of that Religion which is esteemed and therefore setled as the best and truest As civill seditions and treasons are intolerable so are religions nor are such endeavours veniall which by printing blasphemous bookes and divellish Libels seek to revive old rotten errors and heresies or to bring publique reproach and scorn upon the reformed Christian Religion in this Church no not although those infamous pamphlets were attended with learned confutations since it 's safer to forbid the use of poysons to the incautious people than to permit them to drink them up upon confidence of the virtue which may be in the antidotes applyed The nature of man is proner to imbibe noxious things then to egest them It is a tempting of God to tolerate evils and errours which we may prevent onely upon confidence of the remedies we can apply This is more like Mountebanks than like good Magistrates or Ministers Since then neither in right reason and true policy of State it is either becoming or safe for Christian Magistrates to have no acknowledgment of any face of Religion Christians must not be Scepticks in Religion Ephes 4.14 so farre among their people and subjects as to establish own and command it nor is it any piety for Christians to be alwayes scepticks in Religion ever unsatisfied and unresolved and unestablished in matters of Gods worship and mans salvation still ravelling the very grounds of Religion with endlesse cavils and needlesse disputes Since the Word of God is neer and open to direct all men in the wayes of God and since what is necessary to be beleived and obeyed in truth and holinesse is of all parts in Scripture most plaine and easie No doubt but Christian Magistrates are highly bound in Conscience to God and in charity to the good of their subjects to whom they must doe more good then they are desired to doe by the Vulgar to establish those things as to the extern order Ministry form and profession of Religion both in doctrine and duties which they shall in their conscience judge and conclude upon the best advice of learned and godly men to be most agreeable to the will of God as most clearly grounded on the Word in the generall tenor and analogy of it and as most fundamentally necessary to be beleived and obeyed by all Christians whereto the Catholick beleef and practise of all Churches more or lesse agreeing gives a great light and direction Christians must not be alwayes tossing to and fro in religion but come to an Anchor
their own or others clothes for their plainnesse or costlinesse for their novelty or Antiquity yea in the length or shortnesse in the laying out or hiding of their hair Hence their censures scandals or approbations of others their confidences and oftentations of themselves even as to piety purity and holinesse which are indeed seldome seen in ruffianly and dissolute fashions yet often in those proportions of elegancy and decency as to the outward garb and fashion which some mens rusticity severity or slovenliness cannot bear Because they doe not understand that in things of this kinde not Scripture but Nature gives rules to the Religion of them which is their usefulnesse and their comelinesse 1 Cor. 11.3 14. And this not by any morall innate principles but by those more gentium customes of Countries and dictates of sociall nature which not by written Lawes but by tacit consent and use doe for the most part prescribe what is agreeable to humanity modesty and civility which customary measures and civill rules of ornament and outward fashions in any countrey are not scrupulously to be quarrelled at nor cynically neglected nor morosely retained but may with freedome and ingenuity be used and altered according to the genius of all things of extern mode and fashion as cloathing dressing building planting fortifying speaking c. which depend much upon the fancies of men and so are mutable without any sin or immorality as all things are within the compasse of mortality How many mens Religion lies in their admiration of some mens persons gifts piety and supposed zeal in their being of his sect way body fraternity and confederacy when yet many times they have but an Idol for their God though they glory to have a Levite to be their Priest Able men may have great infirmities and learned men grosse errors foul diseases oft attend fair faces Doting sectaries will worship the pudenda of their Priests and magnifie what is most dishonest and uncomely in their ringleaders Yea many silly souls we see are every where much taken with other mens ignorance set off meerly with impudence where the want of all true worth for ability and authority is attended with the want of all shame and modesty Factious spirits in poor people makes them content to have their Religion hatcht under the wing and feathers of any foolish and unclean bird In how many Christians is their Religion blown up as the paper kites of boyes meerly with their own breath or other mens applauses setting off all that is done in their way with the Epithites of rare pretious holy gracious spirituall sweet divine Saint-like c. when yet wise men that weigh their boastings evidently finde much of those mens Religion to be deformed with Mimicall affectations of words and phrases with studied tones scurrilous expressions antick gestures and ridiculous behaviours Much in them is fulsome by the length lowdnesse tumultuarinesse unpreparednesse and confusednesse even of those duties which they count religious holy and spirituall which are so far scandalous and suspected to sober Christians as they finde them not onely full of faction but also destitute of that common sense order comelinesse gravity discretâ—on reason and judgement which are to be found in others from whom they separate not out of scruple so much as scorn not out of conscience but pride and arrogancy when yet they bring forth after all their swelling and tympanies nothing comparable to what others in an orderly way have done either for the soul and essence of Religion which is truth and charity or for the body and ornament of it so far as it appears to others in order and decency Many have little that they can fancy or call Religion in them but onely a fiercenesse for that side to which they take a morosenesse censoriousnesse and supercilious indifferency towards all but those whom they count theirs Vehemently opposing what ever Adversary they undertake abhorring all they doe or hold in piety or prudence branding all they like not with the mark of Antichrist and crying downe what ever by any Christians is diversly observed in the fashion of their Religion Hence many of the lowest form of Christians place much of their Religion in innovating Church government contending for discipline disputing against all Liturgies in scuffling with ceremonies in beating the air and fighting with the shadows of Religion the measure of all which as to piety prudence and conscience stands in their relation to the main end Gods glory the Churches peace and the salvation of soules which where-ever they are with truth holinesse order and charity carried on in any Church Christians need no more scruple the extern form and manner wherein they are decently set forth than they need quarrell at the roome table or dish where wholesome meat is handsomely presented to them whether in a plainer or more costly way Others of more airy and elevated fancies are altogether in Millenary dreams religious fantasms Apocalyptick raptures Prophetick accomplishments not caring much how they break any moral precept of Law or Gospel if they thinke thereby they may help to fulfill a Prophecy which every opiniaster is prone to imagine strongly portendeth the advancement of his opinion party and way in Religion untill they come to such a soveraignty as may be able to govern and oppresse others their Mopsicall humors being never satisfied but in fancying themselves as Kings and reigning with Christ Not in the inward power of his grace and spirit which is a Christians commendable ambition joined with an holy and humble subjection to God and man which makes them conquerours over the lusts in themseves and their love of the world whence flows the greatest peace both to Churches and States but in that extern worldly power and policy which enables them to rule others after the same bloudy arts and cruel methods of government which Zimri or Herod or Alexander or Caesar exercised and not the Lord Jesus Christ who was meek and lowly as one that served and obeyed And herein not onely the weak illiterate and fanatick vulgar are oft observed to act mad and ridiculous prankes in Religion but even men of some learning and seeming piety oft lose themselves in their wild and melancholy rovings which make all Prophecies sound to their tune and to be for their party and opinion though never so novell small and inconsiderable Nothing is more easily abused even by easie wits than Prophetick emblemes and allusions which like soft waxe are capable of severall shapes and figurations by which no doubt the Spirit of God aimed at the generall aspect and grand proportions of the Catholick Church in its visible profession and outward estate for whose use all Scripture is wrâ—tten and to whose elevation or depression either in the Orthodoxie or corruption of doctrine in its integrity or schismes in its peace or persecution prophecies are generally calculated and in no sort to those lesser occasions obscurer events or alterations incident to particular
is wonted to present The teares of some mingled with their owne or others bloud the cryes and sighes of some with the laughter of others smiles with sorrowes hopes with despaires joyes with terrors Lamentations of some with the triumphs of others The insolency of any prevailing faction hardly enduring the underling or suppressed party to plead their cause either by law or prepossession to deplore their losses defeats poverties and oppressions which they either feel or fear nor yet to enjoy the liberty of their private consciences And all this strugling fury and confusion both in Church and State meerly to bring forth or to nourish up some Pharez or Esau some opinion or faction which must come in by a breach and prevaile by violence After this horrid scene and fashion and on such Theaters of mutuall massa crings fightings and wars are divided Churches broken factions and uncharitable Christians always ready to act their sad and sanguinary parts of Religion if there be not wise and powerfull Magistrates to curb and restrain them Some mens spirits are ever dancing in the circles of Reformations trampling on the ruines of Churches and States of charity and peace lost in endlesse disputes and wearied with restlesse agitations starting many things and long pursuing nothing Ever hunting for novelties and following with eagernesse and lowdnesse the game they last sprang or put up till they light on another Still casting away all that is old though never so good and proper for any thing that is new though never so bad and impertinent being better pleased with a fooles coat of yesterdayes making though never so fantastick and ridiculous than with the ancient robes of a wise and grave Counsellour never so rich and comely preferring a rent or piece of Christ coat before the whole and entire garment Thus ever learning fancying cavilling contending disputing and if they can destroying one another for matters of religion poore mortals and consumptionary Christians tear others and tire out themselves untill having thus wasted the fervor of their spirits and more youthfull activity of their lives at length the dulnesse of age or the burthen of infirmities or the defeat of their designes or the decline of their faction or the wasting of their estates or the conscience of their follies or the summons of death so dispirit and appale these sometimes so great Zealots and sticklers for what they call Religion that they appeare like very Ghosts and Carkuses of Christians poor blinde naked withered deformed and tattered in their Religion both as to Conscience comfort and credit Far enough God knowes from that soundnesse of judgement that setlednesse in the faith that sobernesse of Zeal that warmth of charity that constancy of comfort that sincerity of joy that saint-like patience that blessed peace and that lively hope which becomes and usually appeares in those that have been and are sincerely religious and truly gracious that is knowing serious and conscientious Christians who have a long time been entertained not with splendid fancies and specious novelties wrested prophecies and rare inventions touching government of Churches modelling of Religion and Saints reigning but with the treasures of divine wisdome with the rivers of spirituall pleasures with the fulnesse of heavenly joyes with the sweetnesse of Christs love and Christians communion with the feasts of faith unfeigned with the banquets of well grounded hope with the marrow and fatnesse of good works of an usefull holy life which are to be had not in fantastique novelties and curious impertinencies in unwarrantable and self-condemning practises but in the serious study of the Scriptures in the diligent attending on the Ministry of the Word and all other holy duties in fervent and frequent prayers in Catholick communion with charity towards all that professe to be Christians in a patient meek orderly just and honest conversation toward all men whatsoever From which whoever swerves though with never so specious and successefull aberrations which vulgar mindes may think gay and glorious novelties of Religion like the flying of Simon Magus or Mahomets extasies yet they are to be pitied not followed by any children of true wisdome which is from above both pure and peaceable Jam. 3.17 Whose lawful progenie the professors of pure Religion and undefiled have in all times been as in worth far superiour so in number and power oft inferiour to the spurious issues and by-blowes of faction and superstition which as easily fall into fractures among themselves as they naturally confederate against that onely true and legitimate off-spring of Heaven True Religion which is as the Poets feigned of Pallas the daughter of the Divine minde the descent and darling of the true God For as it hath been wonderfully brought forth so it hath alwayes been tenderly brought up by that power wisdome and love which are in those eternall relations infinite perfections and essentiall endearements wherewith the Divine Nature everlastingly happy recreates and enjoyes it self which are set forth to us under the familiar names yet mysterious and adorable Persons of Father Son and Holy Ghost in whom is an holy variety with an happy Unity a reall diversity yet an essentiall identity Who have taught the Church true Religion in a few words Know and doe the will of God Beleive and repent Live in light and love in verity and charity in righteousnesse and true holinesse without which all Religion is vain either fanstaticall or hypocriticall unprofitable or damnable From which plain paths and grand principles of true Christian Religion the Author of this defence having observed the great and confused variations of many Christians as in all ages so never more than in this his intent in this work must be and is as he said Not to gratifie any side or faction never so swoln with plausible pretensions with pleasant fancies with gainfull successes or overgrown with splenitick severities and melancholy discontents but onely to make good by the impartiality of clear Scripture sound Reason and purest Antiquity that station and office wherein the providence of God hath placed him and many others far his betters in the publique Ministry of that Religion which as Christian and reformed was established and professed here in the Church of England Which of any Reformed Church hath ever since the Reformation had the honor of being both much admired and mightily opposed So that its miraculous peace and prosperity for so many years past as they were the effects of Gods indulgence and of the great wisdome of governours in Church and State so they were alwayes set off and improved by those many and smart oppositions both forain and domestick which were made against it both as to its truth and peace its doctrine and discipline All which men of excellent learning and lives in this Church have valiantly sustained and happily repelled to the great advancement of Gods glory the prosperity of this Nation the honour of this reformed Church and the comfort of all judicious Christians And
Ordination God forbid they should not with all candor and impartiality be heard with all chearfulnesse accepted and with all uprightnesse be entertained No good man or worthy Minister is so vain as to fancy he may not be mended and happily improved But first let those alterations and novelties which beare this title of reformation and amendment be publiquely set forth duly seriously and impartially be weighed in the balance of sober demonstrations and sound reasonings so as becomes the honour wisdome and piety of this Nation before they be injuriously concluded and forcibly obtruded upon conscientious Ministers or people The English world as other Protestant Churches hath had enough of the Apes and Peacocks which crafty Merchants have ever sought to vend to the vulgar if they have any gold and spices any commodities that are of reall use and worth it is pity the worlds wants have not been sooner supplyed and their expectations satisfied which being so long deluded and oft frustrated hath made sober Christians to suspect the whole fraight of some mens religious novelties to be nothing else but far fetcht and dear bought toyes variating so much from the uniform judgement and universall practise of all ancient and modern Churches of the best note and account no lesse than from the worthy constitution and wise frame of this reformed Church of England whose honor and renown was justly great in the Christian world for its piety and peace its order and its proficiency in all good learning sound doctrine and holy manners which owed as much as any Church under heaven to the wisdome piety and impartiality of its Ministers and reformers under God as also to its establishers and defenders Nor have the effects of later offers and endeavours to mend or change their work been yet so excellent or blest as to give any cause to preferre these before them who no doubt could easily have reached those later seeming heights and raptures of Religion and Reformation which some men so much boast of in their hotter yet looser tempers but those learned grave and godly men considered in the extern polity and frame of Religion what was then most necessary and convenient for men and times what latitudes of prudence and graines of charity are to be allowed by Christian piety Not prescribing their plat-formes then fitted to the publique good as the Non ultras of Reformation but giving posterity a pattern that if we would indeed attain to further perfection we should imitate their wise and charitable moderation and tread in their humble easie and even steps which were not slippery with bloud nor rough with insolencies nor unequall with factions nor dark with policies nor extravagant with varieties but fairly laid out and freely carried on by due authority with publique and impartiall counsels in a peaceable way to a general uniformity and satisfaction of both the most and the best Whereas among the many specious offers and earnest importunities either formerly or lately made by some men in reference to Rel gion and the Ministry of it in this Church little hath hitherto appeared to have any uniform or well-formed face of further edification or future bettering of Religion in doctrine government discipline or manners Some few it may be of honest hearts have taken to themselves a liberty to serve God in that way they best fancy and most affect But thousands have run to errour ignorance atheism and licentiousnesse under that colour of freedome which besides the laxation and confusion brought among the bad hath occasioned great heart-burning and distance and uncharitablenesse among those that seemed to be good In some things indeed sober and wise men have offered good counsell and propounded some things fit to be considered of and embraced but the noise and violence of other mens passions and interests suffer not those mens calmer voices to be heard Their rougher work seemes to be all with axes and hammers not for building or repairing the Temple of God without noise but for beating all down with the greatest stir and clamour they can make All is for demolishing Schools and Universities for despising all learning and sciences for taking away all order society larger communion subordination and government in the Church for casting away all ancient Ordination and authoritative Ministry that we may be left in the next age like the Tohu and Bohu of the Chaos void of light and full of confusion without good learning or true Religion without any form or power of godlinesse So far are those lines which the Antiministeriall fury and folly drawes from running parallel to piety or Christianity to right Reason or true Religion that they are most diametrically opposite to all civility prudence policy sense of honour and principles of humanity Of which deformities and defects none are lesse patient to hear than they that are most guilty whose preposterous activity rather than sit still must needs imploy it self in pulling all down which is indeed the work of plebeian hands and pragmaticall spirits but to build or repair either Church or State is the businesse onely of wise and well advised persons such as having publique and generall consent to deliberate of such things may also have an universall influence in the reason and authority of their determinations But such able men are hardly found in Countrey crowds and illiterate heaps nor are they very forward to obtrude themselves upon publique works without a very fair call from God and man which they doe not think to be the either countrey-mans whistle or the armed mans trumpet From neither of which as this Author hath any invitation to this work so he hath no temptation in it to captate favour with the giddy and uncertain vulgar by seeming to adore their Diana's or admire their many new masters and their rarer gifts which make them worthy indeed of such soft and sequacious disciples Nor yet hath he any design to ingratiate with supercilious and self-suspecting greatnesse or to comply with the more solemn errors and graver extravagancies of those who study safety more than piety who think to flatter Magistrates by crying down Ministers being more afraid of that sword which can but kill the body than of that which proceeds out of the mouth of Christ and is able to slay both soul and body He bespeaks no men further than the truth justice and merit of this cause of the Evangelicall Ministry made good by Scripture Antiquity and good experience among us here in England may perswade them to look favourably and friendly on the Authour and his endeavour wherein albeit every one that ownes himself to be a Christian in this Church is highly concerned yet the undertaking seemes to have very little tempting in it or inviting to it as now the face of the Ministry of the Church of England seemes to appear besmeared and disguised with infinite odious aspersions loaden with unmerited injuries and indignities a wonder to its enemies and friends a sad spectacle
dashing against their Bibles and some Almanack-makers casting a generall and publique scorn upon their Ministers and Ministry imputing both unjustly and indignly the folly and ridiculous impotency of some Ministers passions and actions which may be but too true to the whole function venerable order and learned fraternity without limitation or distinction of the wise from the foolish But the badnesse of the times or madn sse rather of any men in them makes this cause never the worse Indeed it is so great and so good having in it so much of Gods glory and mans welfare that it merits what it can hardly finde in secular greatnesse a proportionate patron who had need to be one of the best men and the boldest of Christians And therefore is the addresse so generall that besides our great Master the Lord Jesus Christ the founder and protector of our order and function this work might finde some pious and excellent Patrons in every corner whither so great a Truth hath of late been driven to hide it selfe by the boldnesse and cruelty of some the cowardise and inconstancy of others This book requires not the cold and customary formality of patron-like accepting it and laying it aside but the reality of serious reading generous asserting and conscientious vindicating Who ever dares to countenance this Apology in its main Subject The true and ancient Ministery of the Church of England must expect to adopt many enemies and it may be some great ones Whom he must consider at once as enemies to his Baptism his Faith his Graces and Sacramentall seals to his spirituall comforts his hopes of heaven to his very being being a Christian or true member of this or any other sound part of the Catholick Church Enemies also to his friends and posterities eternall happinesse The means of which will never be truly found in any Church or enjoyed by any Christians under any Ministry if it were not in that which hath been enjoyed and prospered in England not onely ever since the reformation but even from the first Apostolicall plantation of Christian Religion in this Island Of which blessed priviledge ancient honour and true happinesse no good Christian or honest English man can with patience or indifferency suffer himself his Countrey and posterity to be either cunningly cheated or violently plundered Certainly there is no one point of Religion merits more the constancy of Martyrs and will more bear the honour of Martyrdome than this of the divine Institution authority and succession of the true Ministry of the Church which is the onely ordinary means appointed by Jesus Christ to hold forth the Scriptures and their true meaning to the world and with them all saving necessary truths duties means and Ministrations wherein not onely the foundation but the whole fabrick of Christian Religion is contained which in all ages hath been as a pillar of heavenly fire and as a shield of invincible strength to plant and preserve to shine and to protect to propagate and defend the faith name and worship of the true God and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ This makes the Authour not despaire to meet with some Patrons and Protectors of this Defence in Senates Councels Armies and on the house top no lesse than in closets and private houses To whom it cannot be unacceptable to see those many plausible pretensions and potent oppositions made by some men against the Divine authority and sacred Office and peculiar calling of the Ministry so discovered as they shall appeare to be not more specious and subtill than dangerous and destructive to the temporall and eternall welfare of all true Protestants sober Christians and honest hearted English men who certainly next the pleasing of God and the saving of their souls have nothing of so great concernment to themselves and their posterity as this The preserving and encouraging of a true and authoritative Ministry which is the great hinge on which all learning and civility all piety and charity all gracious hopes and comforts all true Religion and Christianity it self depends as much as the light beauty regular motion and safety of the body doth upon its having eyes to see But if this freer and plainer Defence should neither merit nor obtaine such ample measure of favour and publique acceptance in the sight of judicious Readers as it is ambitious of and at least may stand in need of yet hath the Author the comfort of endeavouring with all uprightnesse of heart to doe his duty though he be but as an unprofitable servant And possibly this great and noble Subject the necessity dignity and divine authority of the Ministry of the Church of England so far carried on by this Essay which sets forth 1. The Scripture grounds established by the authority of Christ and his Apostles 2. The Catholick consent and practise of the Church in all ages and places 3. The consonancy to reason and order observed by all Nations in their Religion and specially to the Institutes of God among the Jewish Church 4. The Churches constant want of it in its plantation propagation and perfection 5. The benefit of it to all mankinde who without an authoritative Minâ—stry would never know whom to hear with credit and respect or what to beleive with comfort 6. The great blessings flowing from this holy function to this Church and Nation in all kindes These and the like grand considerations and fair aspects which this subject affords to learned judicious and godly men may yet provoke some nobler pen and abler person to undertake it with more gratefull and successefull endeavours whose charitable eyes finding the sometime famous and flourishing Ministry of this Church thus exposed in a weeping floating and forlorn condition to the mercy of Nilus and its Monsters the threatning if not overflowing streames of modern violent errors may take pity on it and from this Ark of Bulrushes which is here suddenly framed may bring it up to far greater strength and publique honour than the parent of this Moses could expect from his obscurer gifts and fortunes To which although he is very conscious as being of himself altogether unsufficient for so great a work and so good a word yet the confidence of the greatnesse and goodnesse of the cause the experience of Gods and generally all good Christians attestation to it in all former ages of the Church The hopes also of Gods gracious assistance in a work designed with all humility and gratitude wholly to his glory and his Churches service These made him not wholly refractary or obstinate against the intreaties of some persons whose eminent merit in all learning piety and virtue might incourage by their command so great insufficiencies to so great an unâ—ertaking Which is not to fire a Beacon of faction or contention but to establish a pillar of Truth and certainty Also to hold forth a Shield of defence and safety such as may direct and protect stay and secure the mindes of good Christians in the midst
dubious in their rise and prone to be exorbitant in their progress and most injurious in their success have most of Love Patience and Christian Charity which are indisputably commendable in the Christian Psal 15.4 though they be to the mans own hinderance It will not be asked of Ministers of the Gospel at the last account who fought and slew and spoiled c. but who fasted and prayed and mourned for the sins and judgements on the Nation and Church nor will they easily be found in Gods Book of Martyrs who died upon disputable quarrels in Civil Wars while they neglected the indisputable duty of their Office and Ministery Levit. 10.19 Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed Incongruam non probat mixturam Deus bonitate simplicissimus simplicitate optimus August Ministers never reap less crops of love or respect from men than when they sow that forbidden mislane the Tares and Cockle of passionate novelties unproved opinions and civil dissentions among the seeds of Religion and essays of Reformation From which mixtures those Ministers whose gravity wisdom and humility have most withheld or soonest withdrawn their hearts and hands are the likeliest men by their piety moderation patience and constancy in holy and justifiable ways to recover and restore the dignity of their Calling Who in the midst of those great and wide inrodes which have much broken down the fence and occasioned the letting in all sorts of wilde beasts upon the Lords Vineyard of this Church while others like dead stakes formerly making a great shew in the hedg are found rotten weak and unsound These are evidenced to all true Christians to be as living standards well rooted in their pious principles and not easily removed from that stedfastness and meekness of their practises in ways of judicious constancy which they have hitherto with patience maintained in the midst of those tempests which have not so utterly overwhelmed them but that in many places they appear fixed and unmoved in their pious integrity and patient charity which makes them looked upon with some eye of pity love and honor by all ingenuous spectators while yet they generally reflect with scorn and laughter on many others who in the publick storm thought themselves gallant sailers and skilful steersmen yet having made great waste of their patience obedience and discretion they seem also much crackt in their conscience credit and reputation For seeking inconsiderately to pull down or to possess themselves of others Cabins who as Pilots had a long time safely steered the Ship they have almost split and sunk the whole Vessel wherein they and others were embarqued Nor will they any way be able to buoy it up again or stop the daily increasing and threatning leaks till forsaking those soft and shameful compliances with factious novelties and immoderate ways of vulgar reformings they return to that primitive firmness and indisputable simplicity of the Antient which were the putest and best formed Churches both as to Doctrine Discipline and Government which no learned and unpassionate man needs go far to finde out either in Scripture paterns or in the Churches after-imitation by which the dignity of the Ministry and Holy Mysteries of the Gospel always preserved themselves amidst the hottest persecutions both in the love and obedience of all sound and sober Christians So that in my judgement who know how hard it is to play an after-game in point of Reputation and who have no design but a Publick and Common good writing thus freely as under the favor so without the offence I hope of any good man The Ministers of this Church will never be able to stand before those men of Ai their many adversaries who are daily scattering them into many feeble factions and pursuing them every where so divided with scorn and afflicting them with many affronts and injuries until having taken a serious review of their late extravagancies and making a serious scrutiny into their consciences and finding as they needs must if they be not wilfully blinde or obstinate some accursed thing some Babylonish garment and wedg of Gold something wherein proud or ambitious or covetous or revengeful or injurious emulations or other more venial errors have tempted tâ—◠〈◊〉 to offend they cast them quite away and so humbly re'ally themselves to that Primitive Harmony that Excellent Discipline Order and Government wherein was the honor beauty and consistency of the Church and Christian Religion even when least protected and most opposed by secular powers Of whom Christian Bishops Ministers and People never asked leave either to believe in Jesus Christ or to live after that holy form and publick order wherein Jesus Christ and the blessed Apostles after him established and left them which obtained universal imitation and use in all Churches for many hundred of years from true Christians both Pastors and People in the midst of persecutions 14. Jere. 6.16 Thus saith the Lord Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therin and ye shall finde rest for your souls Out of which old and good way of Primitive Vnity Order Government Discipline and holy Ministrations if those immoralities be kept as they may most easily to which we see the lusts and passions of men are prone to run even in all * Non datur reditus ad unitatem nisi per veritatem nec ad veritatem nisi per vetustatem Quum illud est antiquissimum quod verissimum Cypr. novel forms and inventions pretend they never so much at first to glorious Reformations Nothing can be a more present and soverein restorative for this Church and the true Reformed Religion to settle with truth and peace among us both to the comfort of all able Ministers and the satisfaction of all sober Christians who study the truth and unity of the Faith not the power and prevalency of any faction We need not go far to seek the root and source of our miseries present or impendent which have brought forth so bitter fruits whereby God at once would shew and satisfie vain men with their own delusions * Isai 66.4 In which heady and high-minded men trusting more to their own wits or tongues and to the * Jere. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. arm of flesh in politick machinations than to the living God in holy and humble ways of truth and peace have soon found them to be both vain and cursed things As it is evident at this day in the sad fate which some Ministers folly presumption and precipitancy together with other sinful frailtiles and excesses have brought upon themselves and their whole Function in this Church Who first despising then destroying the Antient and Catholike conduits of their Order and Ministry which derived from Christ by his Apostles went on in an after constant succession of true
which sanctifies reason to serve God and the Church in all comely ways may not use those principles and rules for order unity peace and mutual safety of Christians in their multiplied numbers and societies which we are taught and allowed to use in all civil associations Yea and not onely allowed but enjoyned to observe in Ecclesiastical polity and Government by that great and fundamental Canon of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order which must hold not onely in private and lesser parcels but in the more large and integral parts of the Church of Christ But Reason then and Religion sufficiently discover the vanity and impertinency of those novel fancies which are obtruded as necessary for all private Congregations when indeed they are and ever have been and will be destructive to the more publick and general good of the Church whose tranquillity honor and safety consists in such dependencies and subordinations which may be furthest remote from those fractions and disunions which arise from that Church-dividing and Charity-destroying principle of Independent Congregations Rom. 16.5 Greet the Church which is in their house 1 Cor. 16.19 The Churches of Asia salute yâ—u which was never used in any times of the Church further than the minority and infancy of the first planting while either Christians were not encreased much in number or not enlarged in place But when the first small company of believers multiplied from a Church in one Family to a Church in many Congregations which could not now with conveniency all meet together in one place they yet as branches still continued both united to the root Christ Jesus 14. The Church of England not blamable for its National communion and also to the main body and bulk of the visible Church by union to that part whence they descended and to which they related and they were not as Colonies or Slips so transplanted and separated as to grow Independently of themselves apart from all others Of which there is no example in Scripture or Antiquity It follows then That what was setled in this or other like Christian Churches was no whit blamable as any thing of meer humane invention or any superfluous and corrupt addition to any precept patern or constitution either of Christs or the Apostles who never prohibited the ordering of Churches in larger associations or Governments extending to Cities and their Territories to great Diocesses Provinces and Nations Since there is no precept or practise limiting Churches power and society to private and single Congregations Yea there are such general directions and examples in the Scripture as command or at least commend rather than condemn those analogous or proportionable applyings of all orderly and prudential means for union and communion according as the various state and times of the Church may require which still aym at the same end the peace and welfare of the Church both in the lesser and the larger extents which are justly so carried on by the wise Governors and Protectors of the Church according to the general principles and rules or paterns of pious and charitable prudence set down in the Scriptures beyond which in this case of the Churches outward order and polity there neither is nor needs other directions no more than on what Text and Subject or in what method and place or how long time and how often a Minister must pray or preach and people must hear Sermons or attend holy duties That antient and excellent frame then of this Church in England which in a National union by civil religious and sacred bonds was so wisely built and for many ages compacted together and which hath been lately so undermined so hackt and hewn with passionate writings and disputings and actings that it is become not onely a tottering but almost a quite demolished and overthrown frame This Church I say hath suffered this hard fate rather through the iniquities of times malice of men and just judgements of God on the Governors and governed who we may fear improved not so great advantages of union order power peace and protection to the real good of the Church and furtherance of the Gospel rather I say by these personal failings than for any either mischief deformity defects or Antichristian excess in the way and frame it self as to its grounds and constitutions Which were setled and long approved by very wise holy and learned men carrying with them as much as any Christian or Reformed Church did the lineaments feature beauty and vigor of those famous Primitive Churches which in the midst of heresies and persecutions kept themselves safe as to truth and charity not by the shreds of Independent Bodies but by the sutures of Christian Associations in Provincial National and Oecumenical enlargements Such ample and noble platforms of religious reason and sanctified wisdom as not ambitious policy but Christian charity and prudent humility embraced which as our new models and projections will never mend so they much commend those antient happy models and paterns by those multiplied mischiefs ensuing inevitably upon the presumptions of posterity which have rashly adventured thus to remove and change the antient limits marks and orders of the Church which Primitive Fathers and Apostles had recommended and setled 15. Seekers thence The Eutychian Hereticks refusing to subscribe the Catholike Faith confirmed by the Council of Chalcedon called themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambigentes Dubitantes and after run out to all corrupt opinions Aug. de Haere Nobis qui sam credimus aliud non quaerendum Si enim semper quaerimus nunquam inveniemus nunquam credemus Tert. de Praes ad Hae. c. 10. Quemadmodum Atheorum pars maxima non tam credunt quam cupiunt non esse Deum M n. Fael Non facile invenient veram ecclesiam qui illibenter quaerunt Melancth Which temerity of thus mincing and crumbling or tearing any Church National being the issue of no Synod or Council in the Church but onely of private fancies and most-what mechanick adventures hath we see made some poor souls turn Scepticks and Seekers after true Religion and a true Church being wholly unsatisfied either with the abolition of the old way or the various inventions of new ways These profess whether out of weakness pure ignorance passion or policy God knows That they are Christians no further than to see that all Christian Churches are now and have been ever since the Apostles times adulterous impure deformed and Antichristian That they are wholly to seek for any true ground or way of Christian Religion Church and Ministry even among so many Christians Ministers and Churches That is they cannot see wood for trees nor light for the Sun at noon-day And this may easily be either by reason of wilful blindness or for want of that charity and humility which keeps the hearts and eyes of Christians open and clear or from that darkness and blear-eyedness which prejudice and
or at least his will and zeal thinks it a shame to seem ignorant or if he be conscious to his ignorance seeks to cover it over and set it off with forwardness Therefore the wisdom of the Lord Christ upon whose shoulders the Government of his Church is laid Isai 9.7 hath set bounds to mans activity and unquietness by another way of Church power which is setled in and derived by fewer indeed but yet wiser and abler persons than the community of Christians can be presumed to be who in all affairs of Church or State have ever given such experiments of their follies madnesses and confusions where-ever they arrogate power or have much to do beyond ciphers in a sum that all wise men conclude That people are then happiest when they have least to do in any thing that is called Government Nor is it to be believed that Jesus Christ hath ordered any thing in his Churches polity that is contrary to the principles of true wisdom which in man is but a beam of that Sun which is in God But the Bodying men say 28. People not fit to judge of doctrine or scandals in Religion They must and ought to have a Church not onely visible in the profession of Faith but palpable and maniable so as they may at once grasp it and upon every occasion convene it or the major part of it into one place that so they may complain of what they think amiss and remedy by the power of that small fraternity what ever faults any of them list to finde in one another as Fellow Members and Brethren yea and in those too whom they have made to be their Pastors Rulers and Fathers Answ That the best Men and best Ministers may erre and offend in religious respects by error and scandal we make no doubt Nor is it denied but they may and ought both by private charity be admonished and by publick authority be reproved and censured Where this Authority is as it ought to be in the hands of those whom the Lord Christ hath appointed as wise able and authorised by the Church to judge of Doctrine Maners and Differences incident among Christians as such But I appeal to all sober and judicious Christians whether they can finde or fancy almost that venerable Consistory that judicious Senate that grave and dreadful Tribunal which the antients speak of among Christians of those first and best times which is necessary for the honor and good order of Religion and peace of Christians Whether I say there be any face or form of it among those dwarf Bodies those petty Church lets those narrow Conventicles whose Head and Members Pastors and Flock are for the most part not above the Plebeian size of a meer mechanick mould either ignorant or heady or wilful or fierce under words and semblances of zeal gravity and an affected severity I make no quaere Whether these sorts of men be fit persons to whom all appeals in matters of Religion must be made and by whom they must be finally determined to whose judgements prudence and conscience all matters of doctrine and scandal must be referred By whom Religious concernments must be ordered and reformed by whom Ministers must be examined tryed and ordained In eo quisque judex recti constituitur in quo peritus judicatur Reg. Juris first afterward judged and deposed Whether it be fit that those who are guilty of so little learning or experience in divine matters should solely agitate these great things of God which so much concern his truth his glory and Christians good every way which matters both as to Doctrine and Discipline are able to exercise and fully imploy the most learned able and holy men Who dreads not to think that all saving truths stand at such mens mercy the honor of Christ and the good of mens souls too while all degrees of excommunication and censures are irrepealably transacted by them Among whom its hard to finde two wise men and scarce any ten of them if they be twenty of one minde while they boast they are of one Body Again who will not sadly laugh to see that when they differ as they oft do and break in pieces yet like quantitative substances they are always divisible like water and other homogeneous bodies they still drop and divide into as many new Churches and Bodies as they are dissenting or separating parties The miracle is that when like Hypolitus his Limbs they are rent and scattered by Schisms into Factions yet still every leg or arm or hand forms presently into a new distinct compleat Body and subdivided Church Each of which conceives such an integrality of parts and plenitude of power that it puts forth head and eyes and hands all Church Officers Pastors Elders Deacons by an innate principle of Church power which they fancy to be in any two or three godly people At this rate and on this ridiculous presumption they run on as water on a dry ground till it hath wasted it self till they are in small chips and slivers making up Bodies at six and sevens and Churches of two or three Believers These ere long losing one another in the midst of some new opinion some sharp subtilty or some angry curiosity which they cannot reach then and not before this meteor or blasing Star of a popular Independent absolute self-sufficient Church power in the people which threatned Heaven and Earth and strived to out-shine the Sun and Moon and Stars of all antient combined Churches Order and Government for want of matter quite vanisheth and disappears by its Members separating from and excommunicating or unchurching of each other Then the solitary relicts turn Seekers whose unhappy fortune is never to finde the folly of their new errors nor the antient true Church way which they proudly or passionately or ignorantly lost when they so easily forsook communion with the Catholike Church and with that part of it to which they were peaceably orderly and comlily united as was here in England Whose way of serving the true God was privately with knowledge faith love and sincerity publickly with peace order humility and charity Which might still with honor and happiness to this Nation be continued if the proud hearts and wanton heads and rude hands of some novel pretenders had not sought to make the very name of Christian Religion the Reformed Church and Ministry of England a meer sport and may-game to the Popish profane and looser world by first stripping us of all those Primitive Ornaments of gravity order decency charity good government unanimity and then dressing us up and impluming us with the feathers of popular and passionate fancies which delight more in things gay and new than good and old But how shall we do say these Bodying-men 29. Of Church Discipline in whom the Power Matth. 18.17 Tell it to the Church to fulfil that command Dic Ecclesiae for such a Church as may receive complaints hear causes of
pro corum inter quos vivitur societate observandum est Aust Ep. 118. ad Jan. Salvà fidei regula de D sciplina contendentibus suprema lex est Ecclesiae paâ— Blondel sent Jeron praef Furthermore The great Motor of some mens passion zeal and activity against this Reformed Church was that one Error against the judgement liberty and practice of all antiquity which is fundamentall as to the Churches polity and extern Peace namely That nothing may be used in the Church as to externals which is not expresly and precisely commanded in the word Which yet themselves observe not when they come to have power either to form and act some things they take in upon prudentiall account as their Church-Covenant of the form and words of which they are not yet agreed which they urge so their requiring each Member to give an account not of the historicall belief of the truth but of the work of grace and conversion which no Scripture requires or Church ever practis'd That of St. Austin hath been often inculcated by many learned quiet and godly men in this Church of England and elsewhere as a most certain truth That however the Faith Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry of the Church are precisely of divine Institution rising from a divine Spring and conveyed in a like sacred Current which ows nothing to the wisdom policy power or authority of man yet the extern dispensation of this Faith Sacraments and divine Ministrations together with the fence and hedge of them the necessary Government Order and Discipline of the Church in its parts and in the whole these doe fall much under the managing of right reason rules of good order and common prudence all which attends true Religion So that they neither have nor needed nor indeed were easily capable of such positive precise and particular precepts or commands as these men fancy and by this pertinacious fancy they have cast great snares on the consciences of many great scandals on the Churches both antient and modern and great restraints on that l berty which Jesus Christ left to his Churches in these things according as various occasions and times might require Sumus homines ciâ—es cum fimus Châ—istiani Salv. None but foolish and fanatick men can think that when men turned Christians they ceased to be men or being Christian men they needed not still to be governed both as Christians and as men by reason joyned to Religion which will very well agree carrying on Re igious ends by such prudent and proportionate means and in such good order as is agreeable to right reason and the generall directions of Religion which never abandoned or taught any Christian to start at and abhor Naturae lâ—â—en rationis radios non extinguit sed excitat Religio quae non vera tantum sed decora postulat Aust Phil. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whatsoever things are true honest or comly just pure lovely of good report if any vertue any praise think on these things or meditate with reason and judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is taught by the very light of nature and those common principles of reason and order or polity which teach the way of all Government and subjection either of yonger to the elder whence is the very ground of all Presbytery or of weaker to the stronger or of the foolisher to the wiser or of the ignorant to the learned or of many to some few for the good of all None of which methods can cross Religion nor being observed in some due measure can be blamed nor ought factiously to be altered by the members of any setled Church in which there is neither Apostacy from the Faith nor recession from the Scriptures nor alteration of the substance of Christs holy Institution which this Church of England not-being guilty of but apparently professing and fully adhering to the Scriptures as the ground rule and limit of Faith and holy Mysteries We doubt not but however it used the wisdom of learned wise and holy men and followed the warrant of the Primitive Churches in the extern maner and methods of holy Administrations Government and Discipline yet it may and ought still as it doth lay claim to the right and honor of an eminent part of the true Catholike Church of Christ having a true Ministry and true Ministrations In which I believe all the Apostles and Primitive Martyrs and Confessors in all Ages would most willingly have owned and approved yea the Great God from Heaven hath attested it and still doth to the consciences of thousands of excellent Christians which have had their birth and growths to Religion in this Church of England So that the out-cryes abhorrencies and extirpations carried on so eagerly against the main constitution frame and Ministry of this Church by many who now appear to be men of little charity and strong passions and very weak reason as if we were all-over Popish Superstitious Antichristian altogether polluted intollerable c. Those calumnies and clamors wanted both that truth that caution and that charity which should be used in any thing tending to disturb or discourage any true Christian or Church of Christ whose differences in some small external things from us in judgment or practice we ought to bear upon the account of those many great things in which we agree with them as Christians Nor ought poor men of private parts and place in Church and State so to swell at any time with the thought of any Liberty and Power in common given them from Christ to reign with him or to reform c. as to drive like tipsy Mariners those rightful Pilots from the Helm or to break their card and compass of antient design draught and form by which they steered as they ought or as they could in the distress of times And this onely That these new undertakers may try how they can delineate new carts or maps and how soon they can over-whelm or over-set so fair rich and goodly a Vessel as this Church of England once was in the eye of all the World but our own This Iland was not more nobly eminent than the Church was great in Britany The leaks chinks and decayes which befal all things in time might easily have been stopped calked and trimmed by skilful and well-advised hands when once it was fairly and orderly brought upon the Publick stocks and into a Parliament Dock which good men hoped of all places would not prove either a quick-sand or a rock to the Reformed Church or the Learned Ministry of England But the Lord is just though we should be confounded in our confidences of men though neither mountains nor hills nor valleys can help yet will we trust in God who is our God in Christ who we doubt not but in mercy will own us with all our frailties and defects as his true Church and true Ministers And if in
semper valuit ut quae cunque ab hoc consensu confirmata videam mihi sacrosancta immutabilia videantur Bishop Carleton de Consen eccles cap. 11. cap. 277. and humble Christians do and ever did the constant clear and concurrent which is the truly Catholick testimony of the Church in which so much of the truth Spirit and grace of God hath alwaies appeared amidst the many cloudings of humane infirmities to be far beyond any meer humane record or authority in point of establishing a Christians judgement or conscience in any thing that is not contrary to the evident command of the written word of God However some mens ignorance and self conceited confidence like bogs and quagmires are so loose and false that no piles never so long well driven and strongly compacted by the consent and harmonious testimonies of the most learned writers in the Church can reach any bottom or firm ground in them whereon to lay a foundation of humane belief or erect a firm bank and defense against the invasion of daily novelties which blow up all and break in upon the antient and most venerable orders practises and constitutions of the Church where ever they are yet continued which being evidently set forth to me by witnesses of so great credit for their piety diligence fidelity harmony integrity constancy and charity I know not how with any face of humanity or Christianity to question disbelieve or contradict Under which cloud of unsuspected witnesses I confess I cannot but much acquiesce and rest satisfied in those things which others endlessly dispute because they have not so literal and preceptive a ground in Scripture Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec consiliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi autoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur August cont Donat. l. 4. In Concil Loodic Melito Episc Sard. missus ut autographa ubique decernat c. Constabit id ab Apostolis traditum quod apud ecclesias fuerit sacrosanctum Tert. ad Mar. l. 4. however they have a very rational exexemplary analogical and consequential authority from thence which is made most clear as to the minde of God by that sense which the Primitive Doctors and Christians who lived with or next to the Apostles had of them and by their practise accordingly in the ways of Religion Thus the Canonical Books of the Scripture especially those of the New Testament which no where are enumerated in any one Book nor as from divine oracle any where commanded to be believed or received as the writings of such holy authors guided by the dictates or directions of Gods Spirit we own and receive as they were after some time with judgment and discretion rejecting many other pretended Gospels and Epistles antiently received by the Catholike Church and to this day are continued So also in point of the Church Government How in right Reason Order and Religion the Churches of Christ either in single Congregations and Parishes or in larger Associations and Fraternities ought to be governed in which thing we see that sudden variations from the Churches constant patern in all ages and places hath lately cost the expence not onely of much Ink but of much blood and have both cast and left us in great scandals deformities and confusions unbeseeming Christian Religion The like confirmation I have for Christians observing the Lords day as their holy Rest or Sabbath to the Lord and their variating herein upon the occasion of Christs Resurrection from the Seventh day or Jewish Sabbath which is not so much commanded by Precept as confirmed by Practise in the Church so in the baptising of the Infants of Christian Parents who profeâ—s to believe in Jesus Christ onely for the means of salvation to them and their children which after Saint Cyprian Saint Jerom and Augustine affirm to have been the custom of the Catholike Church in and before their days so as no Bishop or Council or Synod began it Cypr. ep ad Fidum Aust ep 28. And no less in this of the peculiar distinct calling order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afric in Con. Carth. 1. anno 419. Some things in the Church are setled by Canon others by custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nicoen office and succession of the Ministry Evangelical In all which if the Letter and Analogy of Scripture were less clear than â—t is so that the doctrines of those particulars which are among Christians counted divine were â—ike Vines and Honey-suckles less able to bear up themselves in full authority by that strength and vertue which they receive from the Scripture Precept where undoubtedly their root is and from whence they have grown shooted out so far and flourished in all Churches yet the constant judgment and practise of the Church of Christ which is called the pilâ—ar and ground of truth are stayes and firm supports to such sweet and usefull plants which have so long flourished in the Church of Christ whose custom may silence perverse disputes of corrupt and contentious minds And indeed doth fully satisfy and confirm both my believe and my religious observation of those particulars as sacred and unalâ—erable Nor hath any of those things Eucharistia sacramentum non de aliorum manu quaÌ„ prasidentium sumimus Tertul de Coro Mil. Impositionem manuuÌ„ qua Ecclesiae mininistri in suum manus initiantur ut non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum ita inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 14. sect 2. Amb. l. 5. ep 32. ad Valentin Commends that sentence which the Emperours Father had wrote touching judicatories and Judges in Church matters In causa fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris eum judicare debere qui nec munere impar nec jure dissimilis constanter assero more clear evidence from Scripture or Catholick practice than this of the calling and succession of the Ministry of the Gospell hath wherein some men after due tryall and examination of their gifts and lives made by those who are of the same function and are in the Church indued with a derivable Commission and Authority to ordein an holy succession of men in the Ministry for the Churches use are by fasting prayer and solemn imposition of hands in the presence of the faithfull people publikely and peculiarly ordained consecrated set apart sent and authorised in the power and name of Christ to preach the Gospell to all men to administer the holy Sacraments and respectively to dispense all those holy duties and mysteries belonging to Christian Religion among Christian people that is such as profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of Sinners Which holy and most necessary custom of ordaining some fit men by others of the same function to be Ministers in the Church hath not only the unanimous consent and practise of the Orthodox Christians and purest Churches in all ages from the Apostles times But no Hereticks or Schismaticks who owned any
be now so great when indeed we have now not onely down-right ignorance and blunter rusticity or heathenish simplicity or barbarous unbelief to contend with but also schismatical curiosities fanatical novelties heretical subtilties superstitious vanities cruel hypocrisies political profanenesses spiritual wickednesses to encounter We are to deal as Ministers even here in England not with raw Novices and callow Christians or meer strangers to Religious Mysteries but with such as by much handling matters of Religion are grown callous men of brawny hands gross humors Periculosissimus animo morbus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualis inappetentia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illa â—auseâ—bunda quae satietatâ— in sacâ—is laborat Cameron Numb 11.5 of tough hearts such as think themselves fat and so full fed with Religious Notions that they are grown pursey almost surfeted and past their appetite longing like glutted and pampered Jews for any novelties though it be for Garlick and Leeks and Onyons amidst their superfluities of Quails and Manna Nothing pleaseth their clogged stomacks that is old though never so true nothing comes amiss if it be but dressed up with novelty old Christianity set on the new block of faction O how welcome to many is a new Church way a new fashioned Ministry new ordered Sacraments new interpreted Scriptures With these wanton proud idle lazy coy and scornful tempers have we Ministers now to contest with such Sophisters as are ignorant yet proud of their knowledge need teaching yet affect to be teachers such as cast off all true Ministry and Church Orders and Government when they most want them as Feaverish men do clothes to make them sweat when they kick them off It is harder to deal with such mens arrogant Difficulties in the Work of the Ministry extravagant humors with their various subtil and sublime fancies in Religion which are like the running Gout every where painful no where permanent very offensive though very unfixed than with those plainer simplicities and that down-right profaneness which are in Heathens and meer ignorant ones who never took any tincture of Christian Religion whose ruder and open persecutions were not more pestilent to the true Christian Ministry and Religion than these craftier underminings are Nor do the Ministers of England so flatter themselves that secular powers are so propitious to them as not to finde more than ordinary cause to keep up the dignity and authority of their Calling by all internal sufficiencies and external industry rather than trust to the favors and benignities of men either great or small few or many Basil Mag. lib. de Spir. S. c. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Niss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregory Thaumaturgus when he was a Bishop of Neocesarea in Pontus blesseth God That when he came first to his charge he found not above seventeen Christians and when he departed from them he left not in all his Diocess so many unbaptized or unbelievers But the sad task of many excellent Ministers now is after many years labors to work upon the most rugged and ingrateful Christians in many places that ever were Many grave men after many years pains having merited and expecting from their people that Christian usage for love and respect which becomes both sides the more they preach and the better they live and the more they love their people the more peevish and froward they finde them Like hot irons they flie in the face of those that have heated them and are daily forging them both to solidity and beauty in Religion these like cross-grained pieces run with splinters into the hands and eyes of those that seek to polish them they affect a petulant piety and are taught by some That much of their Religion consists in despising and separating from those Ministers who have baptized and instructed them and to whom the care of their souls is orderly committed Nor is it onely hence that the dignity of the Ministry is wounded and the difficulties of the work encreased but even from our selves also who profess to be Ministers here in England The Lord of the harvest pardon our over hasty intrusions our importune forwardness our unfitness for the work our idleness in it our vaporings of it our sinister aims our crooked motions our improving both our selves and others more to private Factions than to the Catholike Faith or Publick Peace to popularity rather than to piety to pleasing rather than profiting of people by which ways it must be confessed many of us Ministers have miserably prostrated the honor of this sacred Fuâ—ction increased the difficulties of our work laid blocks and bars in our ways helped to level the dignity of the Function to vulgar insolencies either contemning or invading it As in aâ—l times so especially in these Ministers of the Gospel had need to be more than men above the pitch of mortals little lower than the Angels who are to counter work deep and deceitful workers to undermine and uncase false Ministers to bear up and recover Christian and Reformed Religion with it main pillar and support the true Ministry against those that seek to overthrow it In the most serene and favorable times to the Church and the Ministry a wise and gracious man should fear and tremble though never so able and by others recommended to undertake this work so sacred so divine so justly to be avoided If men looked not at high holy and eternal designs yea I should even think the best men might well refuse the charge and calling till God called thrice as he did to Samuel till he even chid or threatned them to the work 1 Sam. 3.8 Exod. 4.14 as he did Moses For if in any undertaking in the world a Christian might be disobedient or would be deliberating and demurring and ask oft of God and man Shall I shall I run it ought to be in this Let him that findes not care and work enough to look to his own soul cover rashly to take charge of other mens how sad is it to see loose and indifferent livers forward and earnest to be Preachers and undertake a Pastoral Charge The Lord forgive what hath been thus hastily hudled and inconsiderately entred upon by any of us Ministers and grant us that after grace which may recompence and as much as may be expiate the rashness of the admission and adventure by the seriousness diligence and conscienciousness of the performance Men if they were well advised and in good earnest should rather need spurs and goads to be driven by others than bridles or pikes to keep them off from rushing into the Ministry Nothing hath more debased this holy calling 15. Discouragements from the tenuity of maintenance and discouraged able men from it than the necessity here in England in many places to admit some mens tenuity and meanness into the Ministry and Livings who had no other motive but to obtain a morsel of bread and scarce found that for their pains
by us and all parts of it made Nehustan in stead of cleansing repayring and reforming which is not a novelty of nvention but a sober restitution of all things in Religion to the primitive mode and pattern which is authorised and ordained by Christ Who did no more himself as to the outward restoring of Religion and worship of God Chalenging Gods right to his own House of prayer when covetousness had made it a den of theeves The priesthood of old failed not by reason of the immoralities of the Priests among the Jews nor did the Didacticall or Teaching authority cease from Moses his Chair and succession because the Scribes and Pharisees who were men of corrupt doctrine and hypocriticall manners sate therein and taught the Traditions and inventions of men mixt with the commands of God No more did or doth the Evangelicall Ministry and Sacraments cease by reason of any Papall arrogatings or other human additions Inordinatio aliqua non invalidam reddit ordinationem vitio â—elicto rem ad legitimum modum revocarunt Alsted sâ—ppl Gerar. de Reform Luther owned no other call or Ordination as a Minister but that which he had as he was made a Presbyter in the Romish communion Gerard. de Ministerio pag. 70. Ab Episcopo suo ordinatus Lutherus anno 1507. Nec aliam quaesivit ordinationem Gerard 147. Multum d ssert inter causam culpam inter statum excessum Tert. l. 2. adv Marc. Non negandum est bonum quod remansit propter malum quod praecessit Aust Ep. 48. Therefore the wisdome and piety of the learned and godly Reformers of these Western Churches especially here in England contented themselves with casting out what ever corrupt doctrines impure mixtures vain customes and superstitious fancies the Papall vanitie and novelty had built upon those divine and antient foundations of Christian religion which were layd by the Apostles and Primitive master-builders all over the world Whose Canon the Scriptures together with sound Doctrine holy Ministry comly Government Sacramentall seals and other Christian duties of prayer fasting c. they restored with all gravity moderation and exactness with due regard both to the clear sense of Scriptures and the Catholick practise of Churches Conforming of all things either to the express Precepts and Institutions of the word of God or to those generall directions which allow liberty of Prudence and difference in matters Circumstantiall in all which the Primitive Church had gone before them Herein they were not so weak and heady as to be scandalized with and insolently to reject all things that the Papall or Romish party had both received and retained in religious uses from former and better times either as Christians or Bishops or prudent men for so they had very sillily deprived themselves and all the Reformed Churches of all those Scriptures Sacraments holy duties Order rites and good customs which the Pope and Romish party had so long used not as Popes by any Antichristian policy power and pride but as they were Christians having received them in a due succession at first though after much depraved from those holy Predecessors which had been Martyrs and Confessors in that famous antient Roman Church No judicious Protestant or truly reformed Christian 2 How far necessary and safe to be separated from the Romanists Ad quamcunque Ecclesiam veneritis ejus morem servate si pati scandalum aut facere nolitis Aug. Ep. 86. responsum B. Ambrosii whose conscience is guided by Science and his reforming zeal tempered with true charity either doth or ought to recede farther from Communion with the Roman Church than he sees that hath receded from the rule of Christ and the Apostolicall Precepts or binding examples expressed in the Scriptures so far as concerns the true faith in its Doctrines Seals and fruits of good works In matters of extern and prudentiall order every Church hath the same liberty which the Roman had to use or refuse such ceremonials as they thought fit and to these every good Christian may conform In many things we necessarily have communion with the Pope and Papists as in the nature and reason of men In some things we safely may as in rules and practises politick civill just and charitable as Governours either Secular or Ecclesiastical In many things we ought in conscience and religion to have communion with them so far as they profess the truths of Christian religion and hold any fundamentals of faith And however they do by mis-interpretation of Scriptures or any Antichristian additionals of false doctrines of impious or superstitious practises seem to us rather to overthrow or bury the good foundations than rightly and orderly to build upon them for which superstructures and fallacious consequences we recede from them and dispute with them yet we do not renounce all they hold or do in common with us as Christians In the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat this Bread 28. So let him eat of that bread Sâ—let res quae significat ejus res nomine quam significat nuncupari hinc dictum est Petra erat Christus Aust Q. 57. in Levit For instance it being not now a place to dispute them We cannot own as the Catholick sense of Christ of the Scriptures or the Primitive fathers that sense which they in later times have given of the words in the Sacramental Consecration of the Lords Supper by which they raise that strange doctrine of Transubstantiation unknown to the first Fathers And which seems to us 1. contrary to the way of Gods providence both in naturall and in religious things which changeth not the substances and natures of things but the relation and use of them from naturall and common to mysticall and holy 2. Contrary also to the usuall sense of all Scripture phrases and expressions of the like nature where things are mystically related by religious institution and so mutually denominâ—ted without essentiall changes 3. Contrary to the common principles of right reason 4. And contrary to the testimony of four senses sight taste smelling and hearing which are the proper organes by whose experience and verdict of things sensible we judge in reason what their nature is 5. Contrary also to the way and end that Christ proposed to strengthem a Christian receivers faith which is not done by what is more obscure and harder to be believed than the whole mysterie of the Gospell as recorded to us in the Scripture There being nothing less imaginable than that Christ gave his Disciples his own very body each man to eat him whole and entire and so ever after when he was then at table with them and is now by an Article of faith believed to be as man in heaven These and the like strange fancies of men which draw after them many great absurdities and contradictions both in sense and reason and the nature of things being no way advantageous to the religious use end and comfort of the
Christ Which Timothy in his infirm person could not do but in his care to transmit the holy patern to posterity and to his successors he might as he was enjoyned be said to do For what is once well done in a regular publike way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Perenâ—â—s est aeterna praeclari exemplaris virtus Jeron Quadratus Atheniensis Eccl. Episcopus Apostolorum Discipulus Jeron Ep. ad Mag. St. Jerom tels us that St. John wrote his Gospell at the intreaty of the Bishopâ— of Asia Catal. Script Eccl. c. 9. Rev. 2. Angels i. e. Apostoli nuntii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Bibl. è Diod. Sic. l. 40. Austin Sub Angeli nomine Laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae So Beza Annot. The chief teacher in the Synagogue was called the Angell of the Congregation Anisw in Deut. 31.11 So Malachi 2.7 The Priests lips shall preserve knowledge for he is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord of Hosts is ever after done as to the permanency of that vertue which is in a good and great example What other Churches did observe after the Apostles times Ordo Episcoporum ad originem recensus in Johannem stabit autorém Tertul. l. 4. c. 5. ad Marcio So Clem. Alex. testifies that S. John made Bishops in Asia Ignatius Epist ad Ephâ—s but twelve years after the Revelation written Dionysius Polycarpus Placed by St. John for the Bishop of â— Smyrna Iren. l. 3. c. 3. Before the Revelation So the Epistle of the Smyrnenses justify of him calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 4. Hist 116. Anno 1450. Fratres Bohemi lib. de fide moribus eorum as to the manner of their Government when they grew numerous and spread to many Congregations and Presbyteries we may easily be resolved both by the testimony and practise of all Antiquity Fathers Councils Historians who have registred the uninterrupted succession of Bishops from the Apostles both in the seven Asiatick Churches mentioned in the Revelation whose * Angels were generally taken for their Presidents or Bishops and some of Apostles then living when as Archippus Evodius and Onesimus and Polycrates were Bishops c. What after times observed is evident to this day among all Christians even those of the Eastern and Abyssine Church have still their Bishops so the Greek and Muscovitish Churches so the furthest Asians which are thought to have been first converted by St. Thomas who furthest from believing did the penance of travelling furthest to Preach the Gospell in India And I observe the Fratres Bohemi in their persecuted state and poverty for a long time still retained a very happy and comly order of Episcopall Government Truly I never found so much light of Scripture patern and precept enjoyning any one or more Presbyters to do all those works of power and jurisdiction Nor ever did they without the presence of an Apostle or some Apostolicall successor and Bishop regularly ordein excommunicate silence c. so far as I can yet learn There are but two texts that mention the Presbytery and but one which can be pretended for ruling Lay-Elders which yet these are not preceptive or institutive but meerly narrative and touching without expressing any joynt power Office or Authority of Presbyters with any President or Bishop much less without them and against them Yea I read in St. Judes Epistles v. 8. foul marks put upon those in the Church that despise dominions and speak evill of dignities Against whose proud and seditious practises a woe is denounced Vers 11. as against men cruell like Cain covetous like Balaam ambitious as Korah factious disturbers of that order which God hath set in his Church as well as in civill societies after the mutinous example of Korah and his company Numb 16.3 who rose against both Moses and Aaron parallel to whose evill manners and disorderly practises 2 Pet. 2.10 these men had not been against whom St. Jude here and St. Peter in his second Epistle so sharply inveighs as presumptuous self-willed despisers of dignities c. unless there had been some eminencies in the Church Christian as well as was among the Jews which these men were most bold to oppose and contemn As for the civill powers Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 that then were in the world humble Christians made conscience as God commanded them to submit to them in all honest things And those hypocrites were no doubt too wary to adventure any thing against them whose power was terrible by the sword But the Orders Governments Dignities and Dominions in the Church were exposed by their weakness to the scorn and affronts of any such proud and tumultuating Spirits which covered themselves under the veil of Christian Religion yea and pretensions of the Spirit too Jâ—d 19. the better to set off their Schisms and separatings from that authority power and order which God had by the Apostles setled in the Church even in those times 5 If there were not thus much of Scripture patern and precept pleading fairly for a right Episcopacy yet since there is nothing against it in Scripture or Reason in Religion or morals yea and so much for it in common reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg Nihil sit in rep sine ordinis regiminis custodia So Lycurgus o dered ut nullus in repub ordo sine proprio esset Magisterio true polity and almost necessitie in Church societies no less than in either families Cities armies or any fraternities and Corporations of men No doubt the Lord of his Church hath not deprived or denyed that liberty and benefit of good order and rationall Government to his Church which in all civill societies may lawfully be used according to wisdom and discretion Truly we may as well think it unlawfull for one Minister to excell another or many others in age parts learning prudence gravity and gubernative faculties which if they may lawfully he had and are found in some by the especiall gift of God to so great differences from and excellencies above others what Reason or Religion can forbid them to be accordingly used and publikely employed in answerable differences of place and power for the Churches good only Christ â—equires humility in priority Ministry in their majority and service in their superiority proportioned to their gifts and endowments which God never gave in vain Nor doth there ever want indeed a plebs and vulgarity among many Presbyters thought honest and able men some of whom are still young and prone to be passionate imprudent factious and schismaticall whose folly is not yet decocted nor youthfull heats abated c. For the good ordering of whom beyond a contemptible and heady parity a right Episcopall presidency may be as usefull lawfull and necessary as a little Wine was for Timothy in regard of his frequent infirmities 1 Tim. 5.23 which St. Jerom every where owns as the ground of the
honour and peace these must be to every good Christian the constant Law and severest discipline Teaching him to governe himself most strictly when others affect most a misgovernment or none at all in Religion to act nothing immorally rudely and exorbitantly to discharge all his relations and duties with the more exactnesse to bear with patience yet with sorrow the want of that publique good which he desires No way to hinder the restoring of due order and authority to the Church and honour to Religion to pray for counsell and assist the recovery of it according to the Scripture rules right reason and the custome of the best times And however the vain and mad world goes on wildly and giddily as an unâ—amed heifer enduring no yoke of Religion as to any publique order Government Discipline or Ministry yet must not a serious and well advised Christian delay to guide his feet in the ways of truth and holinesse nor neglect to work out his salvation in Gods way till publique distractions are composed or delay to be good till all turbulent and fanatick spirits returne to their wits or till ancient publique order and Government in the Church be so setled and Religion so fortified by civill sanctions as it ought to be for no man knowes how long the Apostle Paul may be in a storm or the Church tossed with schisms and factions and secular interests before it recover the haven of a happy setlednesse True Ministers and true piety most to be regarded in licentious times Therefore a Christian that makes it his work not to prate and dispute and to play a part or to gain by the name of Reformation and Religion but to beleive stedfastly and obey constantly that holy rule hath never more cause to prize and adhere to the true Ministry and Ministers of Christ than when he sees the greatest persecutions lying on the Church either by violence or toleration by open force or fraudulent liberty which are both the Tivels Engines to batter or undermine the Church of Christ Never should holy dispensations be more earnestly desired and diligently attended from the hands of those Ministers in whom only is the right power authority and succession than when nothing is lesse tolerated among various and violent men than a true Bishop and Minister or a right ordained Ministry which of all things is to the divell and evill men the most intolerable Satan well knowes Matth. 24 15. that if he destroy the Shepheards the sheep will be scattered When good Christians see the abomination of desolation set up profanely tolerating any thing for Religion allowing of any Mimicks for true Ministers vulgar adoring of a rotten Idol of licentiousnesse gilded over with the name of Liberty when silencing true Ministers and suppressâ—ng good learning and crying up illiterate impudence shall be thought a means to propagate the Gospell Then let then that are seriously and soberly godly fly to the Mounteines to the true Ministers of the Church from whom God hath appointed salvation to descend to the beleeving souls Nor are they to regard what every bold and ignorant upstart boasteth and feigneth of Inspirations liberties and blessed toleration obtruding himselfe out of the promptnesse and pride of his own heart upon the credulous and silly vulgar who love to be flattered to their ruine and deceived to their destruction but hate to be truly guided and faithfully governed to their safety For all these pretenses of Liberty Toleration Inspirations c. are manifest to be but as the divels silken halters by which he hopes to strangle the Christian and reformed Religion here and elsewhere it may be seemingly and with more gentlenesse but not with lesse malice and cruelty to mens soules than with those rougher hempen cords of open persecution Propè abest à crudelitate nimia indulgentia à persecutione enormis tolerantia in tantum periculosa quantum dissoluta Melan From which such sad toleration and rude Liberties are not very far being but new expressions of Anarchy and colours of portending confusion or utter dissolutions of all Church order peace and Government into a cruell licentiousnesse which is always tyrannous to true Religion Nothing is more burdensome than some mens levities nor more fulsome and deformed than their Reformations nothing more uncharitable and untractable than their liberties nor more a plague and death to Religion than what they call health and recovery when vulgar or fanatick violence binds so much the staffe of discipline till it breaks heady men surfeit the flock by over-driving it and Wolves in sheeps cloathing scatter and tear the sheep of Christ under pretence of letting them goe whither they list in stead of being true shepheards fetching them home and feeding them in due bounds with good pasture in which wholsome and safe bounds both Christian Magistrates Sic vigilet tolerantia ut non dormiat disciplina Aust l. 17. de verb. Ap. and true Ministers should seek to feed the flock of Christ not as bare spectators of their wanderings and errours but as enabled and intrusted by God with a coercive power from Christ for the Churches good and where the Magistrate is negligent there the Minister should be the more diligent in the place where Christ hath set him who is the great Shepheard of our souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd Libera me a malo hoc est a me ipso Ber. beyond whose holy bounds for any Christians to affect any Liberty is to wear the divels livery while they are in Christs service Few men complain of want of freedome but they whose freedome would be their own and other mens greatest bondage Nothing is lesse desirable to a good Christian than to be left to himselfe for men are then neerest to be undone when they may doe what they list and least in safety when they are their own keepers MY next Calumniating Adversary The 6 Cavill Against the maintenance of the Ministry as setled by Law against the Ministry of England which I have to deal with and detect is possessed with a thirsty and covetous Spirit which would fain have Liberty if not to speak and act what he list in Religion without any restraint of Magistrate or Minister yet at least to pay what he list to any Minister since he is free to hear whom and when he list or none at all he would not be tyed by any law to pay any thing to their support although it be due to them and a right which none else might challenge He likes not that setled maintenance which they challenge as due This subtill and frugall churl of a Christian is a Jesuitick terrien hath many wary fetches and windings against the Ministers of the Gospell in the reformed Churches but none beyond this plot that he hopes ere long to be too hard or too cunning for them here in England while under some specious and politick pretention he shall deprive them of all setled
pretend amendment before God Studiis in umbra educatis Sen. Want of experience in worldly affairs which is hardly gained within mens Study wals oftentimes prompts warm spirited men first easily to approve then passionately to desire afterwards weakly and unproportionably to agitate Consilia callida inhonesta prima fronte laeta tractatu dura eventu tristia Tacit. those precipitant counsels and specious designes which oft prove to the shame and ruine of themselves and their seduced party Indeed few Ministers of more pragmatick heads and popular parts but think themselves fit to be and take it ill if they be not Counsellours of State Members of Synods or moderators and determiners of all affaires both Ecclesiasticall and Civill hardly acquiescing in any thing as well setled either in Church or State wherein regard is not had to their judgement party and perswasion of which they are alwayes so very well perswaded that when they cry most down others as Churchmen from having any foot or hand in any civill businesses themselves can presently step in over head and ears so far implunged in State troubles and secular commotions that they hardly ever get out of them with honour and safety or with inward peace and comfort Nor can they easily lick off that bloud which may lye upon them when they have no weapon left them but their tongues The truth is no men are more violently and superstitiously devoted to their own fancies and opinions than some Ministers are none more unfeigned Idolaters of those little Idols which their owne or others imaginations have figured and which they would fain set up as Gods both in Church and State To these they preach it necessary that all Christians should bow down that without this mark of conformity to their way none should either buy or sell Rev. 13.17 And when they have once so far flattered themselves in their own well meaning projects that they proclaim God and Christ to be engaged on their side then they conclude that Hee can by no means be so wanting to his own glory as not to give all speedy and effectuall assistances to all their purposes and designes which are verbally as much to his honour as they would be really to their own advantages if they should prevail and succeed If they be defeated both God and all good Christians of a different minde from them are prone to fall under their hard censures and if they doe not charge him foolishly yet they doe blame their brethren and betters for want of zeal to Christ and to what they list to call his cause Such great counsails are oft agitated in the small conclaves of Clergy men And what they blame in Cardinals abroad or Bishops at home themselves are eager to practise even beyond Richelieu himself For they lay designes not for one Church or Nation but for the whole world Isa 55.8 Iob. 16.2 Forgetting that Gods thoughts are not as mans who may be never more mistaken than when they think they doe God very good service even by killing of others Nor are indeed the thoughts of the wisest and most learned Ministers or the humblest Christians such as those mens pragmatick projects are who by easie perswasions and popular presumptions do so much slight all ancient wayes and Catholick customes of the Churches of Christ which are the great seales of Religion both evidencing and confirming those holy orders and institutions which were appointed by Christ and his Apostles Pretending to follow some new Scripture rules and patterns in things of extern order and discipline which can never by any sound interpretation of the places alledged be supposed or proved to be either diverse from or contrary to the universall way and use of the primitive Churches who without doubt were as carefull to act in their outward order and government of the Church according to Apostolicall patterns and traditionall institutions which were first the rule of the Churches practise as they were faithfull to preserve the Canon of the Scriptures which were after written and to deliver them without variation or corruption to posterity But specious novelties in Religion or Church forms once formed in some mens heads are prone to move their hearts with very quick excitations and zealous resolutions Soon after like salt-rhewms they descend and fall upon their lungs provoking them to continuall coughs so that they cannot be silent or suppresse their desires of new things in Church and State Then they are violently carried on to the spreading of their opinion and way to others who are easily made drunk with any new wine At length they run giddily and rashly to some rude precipice where if they go on they are destroyed if they retreat it is not without shame from others and regret in themselves Together with after jealousies of State brought upon their whole function or that faction at least it being a case sufficiently known that most men are so much self-flatterers and self-lovers that they are impatient of any defeats ready to study and watch oportunities of revenge when they see the children of their brains which soon become the darlings of their devotion to prove meer abortions or to be violently dashed in pieces when indeed they never had the due formations of Scripture nor conceptions of Reason nor productions of Prudence Hence in Politicks many times sharp examples have chastened severely the preposterous machinations and motions even of Churchmen and Ministers when they forsake the ancient refuges of Christians and Ministers especially which were preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. prayers and tears and betake themselves to swords and helmets to plots and conspiracies If those Ministers of hotter spirits doe not yet others do finde themselves sufficiently taught that wiser temper and modest behaviour which becomes Ecclesiasticks in all civill relations and affaires especially if they carry any face of change and novelty or have the least lineament of factious non-conformities to the established laws and customes in Church or State wise men have sufficiently seen those miseries obscurities and disgraces which as black shadowes have attended even Churchmen in that shame and those defeats by which God hath quenched the rash heats and over boylings of their fancies hopes and activities 3. 3. Some Ministers errors not imputable to all Therefore my answer to the main of this Calumny is by way of humble request to all excellent Christians that the jealousies which some Ministers weaknesse rashnesse or folly may have occasioned may not reflect upon the whole function of the Ministry nor the sins and errours of any mens persons be imputed to their profession as if it were among the principles of all Ministers never to rest quiet from civill combustions till they have their wils That Ministers may have many failings is not denyed if you would have them wholly without fault you must have none of humane race and kinde Not onely Gods exactnesse but sober
peace and extern order in which the publique wisdom and consent of the Nation confined it self them and all men in it by laws are to be called superstition tyranny and oppression in Ministers more then all other men who being under government thought it their duty to submit to every ordinance of man 1 Pet. 2.13 which did not crosse any divine ordinance but kept within the bounds of that liberty order and decency which are left to the wisdome of any Christian Church and State whereby to preserve the honor of Religion and the order and peace of the publique Those jejune and threadbare objections oft used against Ministers in these things wherein there were but obedientiall and passive the activity lying in those who had the power to enjoyne and command them which was done by all Estates in Parliament have been so oft and fully answered that all sober and wise Christians see the weaknesse of reason and the strength of passion in them as they are charged for faults on Ministers in their respective obedience and conformity For which they were like to know better grounds than any their enemies had against them And being in all other main matters very knowing and consciencious men they are not in charity to be suspected in those lesser and extern matters to have sprung any leak of sinfull weaknesse or to have made any shipwrack of a good conscience Later events have much recommended former duties and laws * Vires inordinatae mole ruunt sua Quo vehementiores eo infirmiores inque propriam ruinam valentissimae Salust shewing how weak even Truth and Religion are as to extern profession where like loose and scattered souldiers Beleevers or Professors are destitute of all order and just discipline But if the Ministers of the Church of England had discovered many failings as men compassed about with infirmities 6. Ministers in their weaknesses yet superiour to their adversaries who cannot supply their roome which easily beset them for which they oft mourned against which they were alwayes praying and striving yet what is it wherein the pretended perfections of their presumptuous and implacable adversaries doe excell the very weaknesses and defects of Ministers yea wherein will the vapouring of any new projectors be able to repair the dammage or recompense the want which thousands must have yea this whole Nation suffer if by these mens cruell designes they be deprived of the blessing of these whom they please to count so weak unworthy and contemptible Ministers Will those old pieces or those new Proteusses who pretend and fancy to be new stamped with the mark of popular ordination which is none of Christs whose wisdome never committed any power of Ministry and holy offices or divine Ordination to the common people as I have proved who are betrayers haters and desertors of that true power and authority which they formerly received in that just and lawfull ordination which was from all antiquity derived to this Church from which no mean and vulgar complyance should have drawn any man of piety learning and honesty to so great a schism defection and Apostasie from the Catholick rule and ancient practise will I say these new masters or those heaps of Teachers which country people are prone to raise up to themselves in their fervent folly and zealous simplicity will they furnish Church or State with better and abler Ministers in any kinde with better learning better doctrine better preaching better praying better living then those former Ministers did in the midst of their many infirmities Yea will not these new obtruders with most impudent foreheads while they looke you in the face cheat and deceive you Will they not while they smile upon you with shews of Gifts and Spirit O miserandam sponsam talibus creditam Paranymphis Ber. de Cons Praedatores non praedicatores peculatores non speculatores Raptores non Pastores Id. and Prophets and speciall calls and extraordinary ordinations exchange counterfeit for true Jewels brasse for gold stones for bread pebbles for pearls dirt for diamonds gloeworms for stars candles full of theives and soil for the Sun In stead of the excellent and usefull worth the divine and due authority of your learned and godly Ministers you shall have either confident ignorance or fraudulent learning or Jesuitick sophistry or fanatick nonsense or flattering errors or factious semblances of truth to usher in most damnable doctrines and most unchristian practises Doe men gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles Can these bitter fountaines send forth sweet waters or these burning Etnas breath forth other than such sparkes and flames as their sulphureous spirits and their hearts full of envy Jam. 3.12 and malice and pride afford which seek to darken the Sun of Truth at noon day or to scorch up the fruits of holinesse to infect the common air of Christian charity order and peace in which true Christians delight to breath When these plagiaries have destroyed or driven away the fathers of Christs family and Church will they not either seduce and steal away the children to their own erratick factions or even sell these Orphanes for a pair of shoes to Cantors and Tom-a-bedlams committing or rather casting away the soules of men to the carelesse care of those sturdy vagrants whose minds are more unsetled than their eyes or feet or tongues which are so far bent against true Ministers as they are intent to their booty and prey from every quarter Will these who seek to be the maules and hammers of the Ministers of this Church either by their skill or power wit or learning prudence or policy ever forge on the hard anvils of their heads or bring forth out of the rude moulds of their inventions any thing that shall be like a true Minister of the Gospell Are there ordinarily any such blocks to be found among them of which there is any hope that they may be shapen to such Mercuries as are the true Gods Messengers Are there any such tempting materials as any art and industry may promise to fit them up to such a degree and pitch of competent Ministers as may direct the countrey plainnesse and guide that peevish and disputative madnesse which is among even the meanest people in every village Will these skippers or skullers ever furnish out such Pilots as may safely steere the ship of this Church in which the Truth of God the honour of Christ the reformed Religion the happinesse of thousands of soules are embarqued amidst the rocks of errours Syrens of secular temptations and piracies of strong enemies on every side They say that better ships are now built in England than ever were and shall we be content with worse Pilots lesse able Ministers in the Church who are as the Argonautae bringers of the golden fleece the riches and righteousnesse of Christ the Lamb of God the treasures of heaven the true gold of Ophir which hath been seven times tryed in stead of which
of England which I have proved to be the onely true succession of divine authority or else wholly to remove it and to set Religion upon some other basis For neither the reformed Religion nor its Ministry can either long or safely or comfortably stand in so tottering and mouldering a posture like the wals of some great old fabrick or ruinous Cathedrall swelling out and threatning to fall It were better to take it down than to hazard its dangerous breakings and precipitious tumblings Scratches in Religion doe soon fester and easily turn to Gangrenes which must either be speedily healed or discreetly cut off It were high proesumption for one to advise who professeth his ignorance in State Policies yet common prudence shewes this to be the high way and most compendious passe to publique peace Namely 1. The setling of the reformed Religion in this Church of England and its publique Ministry in comely government competent maintenance and holy succession 2. The confirming and if need be explaining or enlarging the Articles of the Church of England in the main fundamentals of Religion as Christian and reformed both in things to be believed and practised 3. The restoring of that holy power and ancient exercise of Discipline to the Church both in privater Congregations and in publique associations which may both carry on true knowledge piety and charity in Ministers and people Also recover the sacred Ordinances of Christ and publique duties of Religion to their primitive purity and dignity which have been infinitely abased by Laymens policies Ministers negligences and vulgar insolencies These would keep a fair course and form of Christian peace and holinesse in the publique a midst lesser differences and no lesse satisfie than oblige every sober minded Christian whose good examples have great influence on the generality of people But if the vulgar rudenesse deformity and inconsistency be once taught by being tolerated to slight and scorn their Ministers and in them all holy things and true Religion Either beleiving as they are prone to doe that their Ministers are not invested by any due and divine authority in that Office and Ministry any more than themselves are nor are assisted by any speciall grace and blessing from God if they suspect that civill Powers doe set Divines at nought and regard them no more than as so many pretenders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Celeusio judici None can make conscience of humane laws who disregards divine falsaries and intruders How willingly will the mindes of common people whom nothing but Conscience or the Sword keepes in aw and order embrace any thing that makes towards laxation of duty to God and observance to men No water is more easily diffused or more naturally strives by its fluid nature to overbear what ever bounds pen it up or restrain it from wasting it self Nor are such tempers slack where occasion tempts them to revenge by their riots all former restraints cast upon them by any men that sought to set limits either of power or piety to their lusts and passions To avoid which rude and irreligious extravagancies of common people 14. Christian Ministers of all merit most publique protection and favour all * wise Governours have still countenanced the publique exercises of that Religion which they owned and established as best * Rex sacrificiis Templis omni cultus Deorum moribus legibus praeerat Pomp. Laet. de mag Rom. Apud Aegyptios 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stâ—b in Reg. So Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adding all civill reputation favour and authority to the use of it and chiefly to those who were its prime professors and Ministers who were ever * Caesar â—el Gal. l. 6. Magno apud eos sunt honore Druides Nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt Plaut Rudent Quis homo est tanta confidentia Qui sacerdotem audeat violare At magno cum malo suo fecit herclè Liv. dec 1. l. 2. Sacrificus Rex sacrorum dicebatur Constantine the Great alwayes received the Orthodox and godly Bishops and Presbyters with all respect and veneration Euseb in vita Const Ministry of the Gospell was called Dei ficus ordo Amb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 1. Reverenda ipsis Angeliâ—â—s spiritibus Ministeriâ— Ber. Columna Ecclesiae Id. Honor sacerdotii firmamentum imperii Tacit. de Judaeis hist 4. unviolable in their publique officiatings generally esteemed as sacred both for the protection they had from men and the institution from divine power and wisdome Which policy was not more wisely carryed in all false and feigned religions than justly and most conscientiously to be observed as it ever hath been by all worthy and noble minded Christians either Princes or States in that which we hold to be and professe as the onely true Christian and reformed Religion whose Oracles Doctrines institutes offices authority and ministery have their originall not from man but from the onely wise and true God who first sent his Prophets and servants after that his Son the Lord Jesus Christ to be not onely a fulfiller and establesher but also a Preacher of righteousnesse to mankinde whose preaching Prophetick or Ministeriall office as to extern and visible administrations the holy order and due succession of Ministers doe supply and in the same power succeed by his speciall mission and appointment in the Church Whose most sacred Mysteries for infinite wisdome for inestimable mercy for unparalleld love for holy precepts for divine examples for precious promises for ancient and undoubted Prophesies for exact fulfillings for apt institutions for sutable Ministry for beautifull order for blessed comfort for sweet peace and mutuall charity which are or ought to be among the true professors of it infinitely exceeds all the wisdome designes desires and thoughts of all those that ever pretended to any Philosophy Religion vertue sanctity or felicity All which come far short as of the inward comfort of mens consciences so of that outward beauty peace and order which doe most blesse humane societies which bonds of publick tranquillity all true and unpragmatick Ministers of the Gospell of peace doe most effectually lay in Christs Name upon men In which regard of all ranks of men and orders they deserve best of mankinde where ever they live while they keep within those Evangelicall bounds that holy and humble temper which becones them and which is proper to the Spirit of the Gospell Constantine the Great writes Euseb Eccl. hist l. 10. c. 5. The greatest safety or danger to any State comes by Religion if the reverence of it be weakned and honour abated dangers attend if by Lawes and authority it be setled and preserved great blessings follow c. So that no men seem more to fight against their own peace than those that suffer the ancient Ministry and true Ministers of Christ to be destroyed or disregarded
Which things the Angels desire to looke into 1. Pet. 1. The gates of Hell shall not prevaile Armed prudence â—agistratus Polits. 〈◊〉 can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth The Sun of righteousnes with healing in his wing Mal. 4. 2. The Lord God is a Sun Sheild HIERASPISTES A DEFENCE of the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England by JOHN GAVDEN DD I am set for the defence of the Gospel Phil. 1. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MAGNVM PIETATJS MYSTERIVM MINISTERJO EVANGELICO SACRVM VERIS ECCL ANGL Mâ—N SS APOST ORDâ— SVCCESSORIBVS QVJ CHRJST RELJG CATHOL REF DJVJNA AVTOR MVNIâ—â— VERBJ LUMJNE FJDEJ CLYPEO VERJâ— JS COLUMNA PROPAGARVNT PROPVGâ—â—NT STATVMJNARVNT REV SS PAT HARJSS. QVE FRAT HOC PJETAS. ERVOâ— ON STAN MONVM IN DEJ GLO L.M.P. JOHS. GAVDENTJê° ã€ˆâ—Šã€‰ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 F.F.F. S. APOSTOLI LEX et PROPHETAE α IESVS CHRISTVS ω I will bee with you to the end of the world Learned Pietie Minister Eccls. Woe bee to mi if I preach not the Gospell HIERASPISTES A DEFENCE by way of APOLOGY FOR THE Ministry and Ministers OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND HUMBLY PRESENTED To the Consciences of all those that excell in VIRTVE By JOHN GAVDEN D. D. and MINISTER of that Church at BOCKING in ESSEX Mat. 28.19 Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them c. 20. And loe I am with you alway even to the end of the world Tit. 1.5 That thou shouldst ordain Presbyters in every City as I had appointed thee Heb. 13.17 They watch for your souls as they that must give an account c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Pauli dis Ep. ad Corinth Presbyteris qui sunt in Ecclesia obaudire oportet qui successionem habent ab Apostolis cum successione Charisma veritatis certum acceperunt secundum Patris beneplacitum Qui vero a principali absistunt successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere oportet vel baereticos malae sententiae vel scindentes elatos sibi placentes Omnes bi decidunta veritate Sophistae verborum magis esse volentes quam discipuli veritatis Irenae l. 3. c. 40. l. 4. c. 43. Printed for Andrew Crooke and are to be sold at the Green Dragon in St. Pauls-Church-yard 1653. To the Reader THE ensuing Apologetick defence of the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England can hardly expect more Readers than severe Censurers of whom some will be wearied with the length others offended with the freedome some despisers of the manner others contradicters of the matter In sum it lookes for not many or any friends but such as are humble judicious and impartiall And not a few enemies of those that are proud ignorant and biassed by secular interests So prevalent are our enemies grown even in matters of Religion that few can bear either their diseases or their remedies Albeit the age extreamly wants yet it can hardly endure a plain and faithfull stile though it keeps the medium between severity and flattery bitternesse and dulnesse morose antiquity and petulant novelty It is some mens Religion to have none setled by education or profession Others cavill at all that hath been taught or established Many esteem their Levity in opinions and inconstancy in profession to be a kinde of Empire and Soveraignty in Religion Never thinking themselves to be what they should be till they are what they list judging that Liberty which is Lawlesnesse and that freedome which is without fear of God or reverence of man calling that piety with peace which is the dissolving and desolating of all publique society order unity and polity in Churches crying up their later fragments and broken meats being all those loaves and fishes with which Christ hath for so many hundred of years fed his Church and people in all the world Others of deeper reaches taking the advantage of such popular easinesse and credulity which is lesse separable from the vulgar than shadowes are from grosse bodies study to variate and shift the extern forms and models of Religion untill the sacred and eternall interests of Gods glory and mans salvation are drawn to stoop to or forced to comply with temporary designes and secular policies where Christ must be made to serve Belial God to how down to Mammon the Ark must become captive to Dagon piety turn page to avarice and Religion be onely entertained as a lackey for Ambition Where there are such abasings distortings and deformings of the beauty and rectitude of Christian Religion sowring the wine of Primitive verity simplicity and charity with the vinegar of worldly jealousie craft and cruelty what can be expected as to any thing written in behalf of Religion and its holy Institutions with a plain free and upright genius but onely such fate and doome as the severall humors parties prejudices and worldly interests of men will afford which being so divided and thwarting each other it will be hard to please any one without displeasing many The Author therefore who writes as addicted to no faction nor personally injured or obliged by any novel parties but studying only to discharge a good conscience as to men so chiefly toward God the assistance of whose Heroick Spirit and free grace he humbly begs through all this work neither seeks nor hopes to please any men whose passionate adherence to any sidings either in civill or religious concernments lesse inclines them to that calm judicious and charitable temper which is Scripturall Catholick and truly Christian This he onely studies this he preacheth for this he prayes this he commends this he admires Not doting upon any rust or drosse which ancient and venerable Episcopacy might in many hundred of years easily contract and from which it may as easily be cleared if men impartially sought the things of Jesus Christ and his Churches prosperity without gratifying any passion in themselves or others Nor yet doth the Author any whit admire those rigid Reformations which some rash envious or ambitious Presbyters drive on who know not how to shave their Fathers beards without cutting their throats nor to pair their nailes without cropping off their hands They are unskilfull Chymists who cannot refine from drosse without consuming what is pretious And they are pitifull Empiricks who cannot purge without casting into Bloudy Fluxes Nor in the last place doth this Apologist so far temporise as in the least kinde to magnifie the violent breakings and hotter meltings of any bolder Independents who make Religion and Reformation run to any new moulds which they fancy to Separating to Seeking to Shaking to nothing that ownes any Ordinance order publique establâ—shment Christian communion or holy profession being wâ—olly resolved into these two principles the pleasing of themselves and the confounding of others Amidst these sad distractions and various confidences of men in their opinions and undertakings there is no wise man but discerns the pulse of mans Ambition equally beating in spirits
Monarchicall Aristocraticall and Democraticall as in civill policies so also in religious administrations some are for primacy and pâ—iority others for pâ—ucity and parity a third sort for popularity and vulgarity where as indeed the best constitution in any government is rather from the harmonious temperament and proportionate mixture of all three than from the predominance of any one so as to oppresse the other two Men of eminent parts are prone to affect to govern alone without any flatnesse or allay from inferiours Men of moderate abilities are content to goe in a joint stock mutually supplying those defects to which singly they are conscious Men of low and mean endowments are for huddles one and all where no one man is so much confident of himself as indeed he is envious at all others and impatient to see any thing done without him Whereas in true wisdome the eminency of the first the mediocrity of the second and the meannesse yet multitudinousnesse of the third should be fairly modelled and composed as the head hands and other members of the body are to the common welfare And certainly they did of old in the best times and tempers of Christians all meet in a most happy harmony Church-order and constitution no lesse than the humours bloud and spirits doe in healthy and vigorous bodies All experiâ—ience tels us that the disorder of any one of them causeth sicknesse weaknesse or dissolution of Christian charity society and sweet communion as to their extern polity and profession of Religion Which sad effects or symptomes at least of them in this Church this Author with grief and shame beholding hath endeavoured with the greatest serenity and expeditenesse of soul before he leaves this Bacha and Aceldama this valley of tears contention and confusion to ascend himself and lead others as much in him lies to the height and top of that Primitive verity unity and charity which made Christians so much admired and venerated even when they were most cruelly persecuted From which free and un-ingaged prospect both he and they may with a clear and full view behold the later and worser changes in extern matters of Religion wherein various opinions and different designes of Christians have either strayed from or quite crossed the great road of pious and plain hearted Antiquity which no doubt best knew beyond all the censorious Criticks and factious Novelists of after times what was the minde of the blessed Apostles of the Primitive Martyrs and Confessors who most exactly followed those methods which the Apostolical wisdome and piety had prescribed to those Churches they planted watered and preserved chiefly aiming at the Catholick good and common benefit of all Churches From which private fancies aims and interests afterward varying both in opinion and practise occasioned those many uncomfortable schisms and uncharitable factions which in all times and now as much as ever so divide the unity destroy the charity and deform the beauty of Christian Religion That many if not most Christians doe not onely read and hear write and dispute pray and preach but they believe and repent love or hate damn or save communicate with or excommunicate one another most-what out of their naturall constitutions as they are of more calm and cholerick tempers or out of those prejudices and prepossessions which custom and education have formed in them or from adherence to parties and mutuall agitations whereby they hope to drive on some worldly and secular concernments rather than from true and impartiall principles of right reason Scripturall precept and Ecclesiasticall practise which threefold cord twisted into one is not easily broken And which beyond all disputes affords both in doctrine and discipline in opinion and practise as to inward piety and outward polity the surest measures of Religion and bounds of conscience which are then most pure and unblameable when they look directly to those great designes and ends of every wise man and good Christian the glory of God the honour of Christ the peace of the Church and Soules eternall welfare without any sinister squintings to secular ends or warpings to worldly designes which are the moths of Religion the pests of society the overlayings of charity and the Incubusses of Conscience easily seising upon Christians of weak judgements and strong passions for which we need not goe far to see many and unhappy instances For what serious and well advised Christian sees not how vehement drawings and impulses in matters of Religion are made upon men by weak and at first scarse perceptible byasses of opinions and hopes of advantages How want of solidity or sincerity is the greatest motion of violent affections in most men How the lesse they weigh those things they call Religion and Reformation the more eagerly they pursue and extoll them The most wise and gracious men being alwayes the most grave and calm the most serious and constant Vulgar devotion and heats like weak fires and dubious flames are usually kindled by light fewell and fomented with fear materials Blazing like Comets the more prodigiously by how much they have more of grosse and earthly vapours Hence not onely the glory of outward successes and worldly prosperities attending the number policy or prevalency of any faction makes many Christians ere they are aware of it turn Turkes and secretly subscribe to Mahumetanism which for many centuries hath outvived Christianity in point of victorious progresses military advantages and latitude of Empire The current of worldly events like quick-tides easily and undiscernibly carrying many Christians from that course of pious strictnesse and conscientious exactnesse in truth justice and charity which they ought alwayes to steere without any variation according to the clear and fixed Word of God in Scripture and not according to his dark permissions or unsearchable workings in providence which are alwayes just and to be admired as from the divine wisdome and justice but not alwayes to be approved or imitated as from mans wickednesse and folly which like poysonous drugs are in themselves deadly and to be abhorred however the skill of the great and good Physitian God knows how to attemper and apply them as Physick and Theriacals to purge or punish to cure or correct the distempers of his Church and people Nor is it this temptation onely of events in which is a strong delusion able if possible to deceive the very elect which none but steddy judgements and exact consciences can resist But even the smallest differences the most easie and triviall considerations which are but as the dust of the balance in Reason or Religion in piety or prudence these like motes falling into some mens eyes presently appeare as mountaines and so possesse their sight that they will owne nothing for Religion in any men or any Church which appears not just after that colour figure and notion which they are taken wiâ—hall How many peoples Religion consists much in the very extern modes or dressing themselves or others in the fashion of
persons countries or Churches It is hard to discerne the Star of Prophecy so over any one man or place or time as that was over the house where Christ was in Bethlehem Hence many meteors falling Stars and fatuous fires are frequently discovered in the writings of fancifull and factious men as if all they did or desired or approved were evidently foretold and commended in the Revelation In whose Visions one sees this Princess another sees that learned man a third that State or Kingdome a fourth that Commander and Conqueror c. according as men list to fancy themselves or flatter others whose sparks are far extinct and their glory presently vanisheth as no way proportionable to that fixed light and ample glory which the spirit of prophecy holds forth chiefly to the Christian world in opposition to Heathens Jews or Antichrists After the way of these Prophetick fancies and passionate methods of some mens misinterpreting and misapplying Prophecies great Religion we see hath been placed by small mindes in pulling down and extirpating the ancient order and government of Episcopacy which was in all Churches as here in England from the first plantation of Christianity Also in setting up the supremacy of an headlesse Eldership and Presbytery or in dashing both of them into sheards and small pieces by the little stone of Independency How doe some glory in their dividing and destroying the ancient goodly frames of Churches that they may new modell them to their popular way of calling chusing and ordaining of Ministers Many boast much in their forsaking the calling and communion of all former Ministers and religious assemblies in their despising and demolishing the very places of publique meeting to serve God which not conscience of any divine particular precept but common reason and civility have presented Christian Religion withall for its honour and its professors conveniency Some here with us in England a place whose Genius much disposeth people to prophecies novelties and varieties are as Pygmalion with his Image so inamoured with their Corpusculo's the little new bodies of their gathered Churches that they deny any Nationall Church in any larger associatings of Christians by harmonies of confession and peaceable subordinations yea and many will allow no Catholick Church nor any religious sense to that article of our Creed denying any true Church at all to be now in the world Some place all Church power in paucities in parities in popular levellings and Independencies others contemn all those broken bodies as schismaticall slips having nothing in them of that goodly beauty stature strength and integrity to which the Church of Christ was wont to grow and wherein it flourished and continued conspicuous so many hundred of years before these novelties were broached or brewed either in England or any other countrey The height of some mens Religion and Reformation is to have neither Bishops nor Ministers of the ancient authority succession and ordination Others refuse these also of the new Presbyterian stamp which is not much older here in England than the figure and superscription of the last coin A third will have no Minister but such as the common people shall try chuse consecrate and judge Some will have no Minister at all by office or divine mission others will have any man a Minister or Prophet that lists to make or call himself one In like manner some will allow Baptism to no Infants others to none but such whose parents they judge to be Saints a third baptize the children of all that professe they beleive the truth of the Gospell a fourth sort deny the use of any water Baptism at all By a Catabaptisticall boldnesse or blindenesse magisterially contradicting and sophistically disputing against the expresse letter of the Scripture against the command of Jesus Christ against the practise of all the Apostles and against the custom of all Christian Churches Pretending as a rare and warm invention that the Baptisme of fire and of the Spirit which they now at last hold forth will both supply and explode that colder ceremony of sprinkling or dipping in water It is strange these Rabbies and Masters in Israel should be so silly as not to know that long before their brain brought forth any such blasphemous brood against baptizing by water all judicious Christians ever esteemed baptism by water to be an extern sign and meanes by which the wisedome of Christ thought fit to administer to his Church on earth not onely that distinctive mark of being his Disciples but also the representation of his bloud shed for their redemption and the obsignation of that Baptismall grace which his Spirit confers on those that are his by the cleansing of the conscience and renewing of the inward man 1 Pet. 3.21 Christians must not after the short and more compendious methods of their fancies therefore neglect the sign or ceremony because they presume of the thing signified but rather with humble obedience doe the duty and use the meanes divinely instituted that they may obtain the grace offered On the same grounds all outward Ministrations among Christians may be despised and abolished by those that pretend to the Spirits inward efficacy which is never in any man that doth not obey the Gospell in its outward mandates as well as the Spirit in its inward motions Proud idle and ignorant fancies are dayly finding shorter wayes to heaven than the wisdome of Christ hath laid out to his Church in following of which no good Christian can judge that there is either piety peace or safety Some boast much of their popular and plausible gifts for knowledge utterance prayer c. others slight all but inward grace and the Spirits dwelling in them Some dote much upon their select fraternities and covenanting congregations others are onely for private illuminations solitary seekings sublime raptures and higher assurances Some admire themselves in their tedious strictnesses and severer rigors by which they gird up the loins of their Religion so strait that it can hardly take civill breath or the air of common courtesie others joy as much in the Liberty they fancy themselves to have attained both of opinions and actions Some make every thing a sin and errour which they like not others count nothing a sin to which they have an impulse and are free as they call it Some tolerate all wayes of Religion in all men till it comes to be private Atheisme and publique confusion others crack all strings which will not be wound up to their pitch damning and destroying all that are not of their particular mode and heresie though never so novel and differing not onely from the Catholick practise of the primitive Churches but also from the expresse rule of the Scriptures Whom would not these monsters of novelties varieties and contradictions among Christians in their Religion as it is Christian and reformed too even amaze and greatly astonish ready to scare all men from any thing that wee in England call Religion Reformation Church or Conscience
if judicious choise and well grounded Christians did not as they doe seriously consider these things which may establish them in that holy profession of this Church wherein they have been baptized and educated First the naturall levity and instability of mens mindes which can have no fixation like the magnetick needle but onely in one point or line where it is in conjuncture with its Loadstone the Truth of God from which while the minde is wandering and shaking it is prone to love noveltie with lies and detriment rather than wonted things of religion with truth and benefit The itching humors of mens lascivient fancies and lusts chuse to scratch themselves to bloud and sorenesse rather than enjoy a constant soundnesse which distempers among those of the reformed Churches never want vigilant and subtill fomenters whose design is to spread any infection among Protestants to the most pestilent contagions that so they being sick and ashamed of themselves under the scandals and madnesses of that profession they may at last seek to Rome for cure and entertain forain Physitians who will easily perswade such diseased Protestants that those old sores and lingring maladies with which the Romish party hath a long time laboured and with which it is justly charged however it refuse to be healed are much safer for soules than these new quick feavers pestilent Agues and desperate Apoplexies among us which threaten utterly to kill all piety to destroy all Christianity to extirpate all charity and dissolve all society both as men and as Christians while neither morals nor rituals of Christianity are observed neither the superstructure of Catholick customes nor the foundation of Scripture commands neither truth nor peace things of p ety or Christian polity are inviolable but all old things must be dissolved and passe away that some men may shew their skill to create new heavens and new earths in which not order and righteousnesse but all injuriousnesse and confusion must dwell Secondly besides this innate fondnesse of men which is alwayes finding out new evill or vain inventions as unwholesome bodies are ever breaking out there are also crafty colourings and politick affectations of piety which grow as scurfe or scabs over those prurient novelties of opinion by which unwonted formes as with severall viZards and plaisters hypocrisie seekes as to amuse the vulgar so to cover and hide its cunning and cruelty its avarice ambition revenge and sacriledge still avoiding the discoveries of its deep plots and wicked designes by specious pretensions of serving God in some more acceptable way and better manner than others have done when indeed every true factionist who is Master of his Art at last winds up the thread of that Religion he spins upon his own bottom so as may best serve his own turn nor is he ever so modest so mortified or so self-denying with his pious novelties but that he will possesse himself and his party of any places for worldly profit power or honour to which he can attain though it be by the violent and unjust ruining and outing of others which is no very great symptom of an amended or heightned Christian Lastly sober Christians doe and ought to consider those just judgements of God either as diseases or medicines usually falling upon Christians as here in England when they are surfeited with peace and plenty cloyed with preaching and praying wantonly weary of wonted duties and wholesome formes of sound religion though never so holy and comely Burthened with the weekly and daily importunities of Ministers doctrine and examples where the sin and misery was not that people had no true light or no true Church and no true Ministers but that having all these they rejoiced not in them they neglected them and sinned the more provokingly against them Hence it is that squeamish nauseating and glutted Christians easily turn as foul stomachs and wanton appetites all they take though never so wholesome into peccant and morbifique humors to pride and passion to self conceit and scorn of others to ambitious lusts of disputing contending and conquering in matters of Religion endeavouring to destroy all that they and their way may alone prevail and govern which is the last result of all unwarrantable and unjustifiable commotions in Church or State Nor doe men ever intend that such victories which begin with the tongue or pen and end in the hand and sword commencing with piety and religion but concluding with soveraignty and dominion shall be either inglorious or fruitlesse Seditious and schismaticall Champions for Religion will be sure as soone as they have power to carve out their own crowns and rewards the determination of scruples in conscience and differences in opinion must end not onely in imperious denying others the liberties of conscience at first craved or contended for but in the outing others of different mindes from their places callings profits and enjoyments which is very far from that taking up the crosse of Christ and following him from being crucified to the world in its lusts pride and vanity as becomes those that will be Christs Disciples in verity justice and charity To such mountains of changes and mighty oppressions doe little mole-hils in Religiâ—â—â—ually swell when the justice of God suffers piety to 〈◊〉 both poysoned with policies and Religion perverted with humane passions Little differences in Religion like Crocodiles egs bring forth prodigies which are ever growing greater till they dye adding fury to faction passion to opinion cruelty to novelty Self-interests to Conscience Divine vengeance oft punishing sin with sin extravagancies of judgements with exorbitancies of deeds suffering the greater lust or stronger faction like pikes in a pond to devoure the lesser and one error to be both executioner and heir to another Because men obeyed not the Truth in love nor practised what they knew with a pure heart in an humble meek and charitable conversation which alwayes chuseth rather to suffer with peacefull and holy antiquity than to triumph with turbulent and injurious novelty From which have risen those many Church-Tragedies as of ancient so of later times which make the bloud of Christians yea of Jesus Christ too so cheap and vile in one anothers eyes Hence those unstanched effusions those unclosed wounds those irreconcilable fewds those intractable sores those wide gaping gulphs of faction and division malice and emulation war and contention which are enlarged and deep like hell threatning to swallow up and exhaust whole kingdomes flourishing Nations and famous Churches sometimes professing Christian and reformed Religion with order peace and truth Where now countreymen and neighbors kindred and brethren Ministers and people teachers and disciples are so far from that charity sympathy and compassion becoming beleivers in Jesus Christ so as to weep with those that weep and to rejoice with those that rejoice that contrarily there is nothing almost to be heard or seen but such a face of cruelty and confusion as a shipwrack a troubled Sea or Scarefire
this was chiefly done by the able and accurate pens of the godly and learned Ministers who needed in those times no other defence on their part either for order government maintenance Ministry or doctrine All which were then preserved from vulgar injuries and insolencies by the same power and sword which defended those civill sanctions and lawes which established and preserved all things of sacred and Ecclesiastick as well as of civill and secular concernment Untill these last fatall times which pregnant with civill wars and dissensions have brought forth such great revelations and changes in Church and State wherein Scholars and Churchmen in stead of pens and bookes have to contend with swords and pistols Which weapons of carnall warfare were unwonted to be applyed either to the planting propagating or reforming of Christian Religion onely proper to be used for the preservation of what is by law established from seditious and schismaticall perturbations For it was not the vinegar but the oil of Christian Religion not its fierinesse but its meeknesse not its force but its patience that ever made its way through the hardest rocks and hearts And by these strange Engines these new armes of flesh we have hitherto onely seen acted and fulfilled with much horror misery and confusion those things in this Church and Nation which were foreseen and foretold by two eminent and learned persons yet of different opinions as to the extern matters of Ecclesiasticall polity Mr. Richard Hooker and Mr. Thomas Brightman the one in the preface to his Ecclesiasticall polity the other in his comment on the third chapter of the Revelations Who many years agoe in times of peace and setlednesse in this Church of England foretold not by any infallible spirit of prophecy for then the later of them would not have been so much mistaken in the fate of his dear Philadelphia of Scotland but meerly out of prudence conjecturing what was probable to come to passe according to the fears of the one and the hopes of the other in case the then spreading though suppressed differences and parties in Religion which they then saw made many Zealously boldly discontented came to obtain such power as every side aims at when they pretend to carry on matters of Religion and Reformation wherein immoderation being usually stiled Zeal and moderation lukewarmnesse it was easie for sagacious men to foresee and foretell what excesses the transports of inferiours would in all probability urge upon superiours if ever these managed power so weakly and unadvisedly that any aspiring and discontented party might come to gain power in a way not usuall which at the very first rupture and advantage would think it self easily absolved from all former ties of obedience and subjection to governours in Church or State without which liberty and absolution it is not possible to carry on by force any Novelties and pretended amendments of Religion contrary to what is established in any Church or Nation Indeed we see to our smart and sorrow that the deluge foretold would break in hath so overflowed this and the neighbour Churches that not only Mr. Brightmans blear-ey'd Leah his odious Peninnah his so abhorred Hierarchy the Episcopall order and eminency but even his beloved Rachel his admired Hannah his divine Presbytery it self yea the whole function of the Ministry feels and fears the terror of that inundation which far beyond his divination hath prevailed not only over his so despised Laodicea which he made to be type of the Church of England truly not without passion and partiality as I think with far wiser men He not calmly distinguishing between the constitution and execution of things between the faults of persons and the order of places between what was prudentiall and what is necessary what is tolerable and what is abominable in any Church as to its extern form and polity but also over his darling and so adored Philadelphia which he makes to answer to the Scottish Palatinate or Geneva form of Presbyterian government and discipline as if that Church of Philadelphia in its primitive constitution under the presidency and government of its Angell had any thing different from or better than the other neighbour Churches which is no way probable nor appears either in Scripture or Ecclesiasticall histories However it might be commendable in its Angell or President for its greater zeal and exacter care to preserve that doctrine discipline and order which it had lately received from the Apostles and which no doubt was the same in each Church who had their severall Angels or Overseers alike which all Antiquity owned for those Pastors Presidents or Bishops to whose charge they were respectively committed As for that evomition or Gods spewing this Church of England out of his mouth which Mr. Brightman so dreadfully threatens It must be confessed that the sins of all sorts of Christians in this Church and of Ministers as much as any have made them nauseous and burthensome to the Divine patience both in their lukewarm formalities and fulsome affectations of Religion in their empty pompes and emptier popularities So that Gods patience once turned into just fury hath indeed terribly powred out his vengeance on all degrees and estates in this Nation by suffering flouds of miseries and billows of contempt to overwhelm for a time the face of this Church as of old wars heresies and schisms wasted the Asiatick African and Latin Churches not more it may be upon the account of Ministers weaknesse and unworthinesse than upon that of peoples levity pride and ingratefull inconstancy which hath been a great means to bring on and continue these overflowing streams Which nothing but the mighty power of God by the help of good and wise men can rebuke and asswage so that the face of this Church and its Ministry may yet appear in greater beauty and true Reformation after it s so great squallor and deformity which is not to be despaired of through Gods mercy yet in a farre other way than ever Mr. Brightman foresaw But when and by what means this shall be done the Authour of this Apology doth not as a Prophet undertake to foretell onely he observes the usuall methods of Gods Providence in the midst of judgement to remember mercy and after he hath sorely afflicted to repent of the evill and return to an humble penitent people with tender mercies so that we may hope his wrath will not endure for ever nor that he hath quite forgotten to be gracious or shut up his loving kindenesse in displeasure Also hee considers the wonted vicissitudes of humane affairs arising from the changes incident to mens mindes who weary of those disorders and pressures necessarily attending all forcible changes in Church or State and long frustrated with vain expectations of enjoying those better conditions in things civill and religious which are alwayes at first liberally promised and expected at last they are prone with the same impetuosity to retire as the ebbing Sea from those
fallacious or pernicious novelties to which the breath of some politick or passionate spirits had raised them so much above the ordinary mark of true Christian religion as to drown or threaten to carry away all those many happy enjoyments of truth peace order government and Ministry which formerly they enjoyed Not wholly it may be without but yet with fewer and more tolerable grievances which humble Christians ought to look upon in any setled Church and State rather as exercises of their patience duty and charity than as oppressions of their spirits Knowing that impatience usually punisheth it self by applying remedies sharper than the sufferings easily and hastily running down the hill as from health to sicknesse from peace to war from good to bad from bad to worse but very slowly returning from evill to good or recovering up the hill from worse to better It is true the Ministers of the Church of England of all degrees seem now to have an harder part to act for their honor and wisdome than ever they had under any Rulers professing to be Christian and reformed But they may not therefore weakly disclaim or meanly desert their Ordination and holy function nor may they despair of Gods if they have not mans protection who can soon make their very enemies to be at peace with them and stir up many friends unexpectedly for them It may be through the Lords mercy this winters floud shall be for their mendment or fertility and not for their utter vastation and ruine This fire shall not consume them but refine them this winnowing will be their purging and this shaking their setling As oppositions of old gave the greatest confirmations and polishings to those Truths which were most exercised with the hammer or file of heriticall pravity or schismaticall fury If it be the mending and not the ending the reformation and not the extirpation of Ministers which their severe censurers and opposers seek for why should not time of triall be given and all honest industry used to improve these well grown and flourishing fig trees before they be hewed down and stubbed up which heretofore have not been either barren or unfruitfull to God and man If either Papall or Anabaptisticall and Levelling enemies must at length after severall windings and turnings be gratified with their utter ruine and destruction which God forbid yet while Ministers have leave and liberty to pray to preach to print to doe well and worthily God forbid they should so farre injure God good men and so good a cause as not Christianly to endeavour its defence which at worst is to be done by comely suffering And who knows but that when these witnesses both against superstition and confusion in the Church shall seem to be slain cast out and buryed they may live again to the astonishment both of friends and enemies But if the sins of this Nation and the decrees of divine Justice doe indeed hasten an utter overthrow here of the reformed Ministry and the reformed Religion If Ministers of the ancient Ordination lawfull heirs of the true Apostolick succession are therefore accounted as sheep for the slaughter because they are better fed and better bred than others of leaner soules and meaner spirits If they are therefore to the men of this world as a savour of death unto death because they hold forth the Word of Truth and Life to the just reproach of a lying dying and self-destroying generation If we must at last perish and fall with our whole function and fraternity after all our studies charges labours and sufferings Yet it is fit some of us and the more the better lest our silence may argue guilt give the world both at present and in after ages some account why and how in so learned valiant wise and religious a Nation as this of England hath been wee as Ministers have stood so long what pious frauds and holy arts we had whereby to impose so many hundreds of years upon so many wise Princes so many venerable Parliaments so many pious professors of Christian and reformed Religion And lastly upon so quick and high spirited a people as these of England generally are neither so grosse as to be easily deluded nor so base as patiently to suffer themselves in so high a nature to be abused That so at least if the world can lesse discern for what cause the Ministry and Ministers are now to be destroyed they may see upon what grounds of piety or policy they were so long preserved in peace plenty and honour And for what reasons they now seek as their pious predecessors did to maintain not their persons so much as their office and function in its due order and authority that so they might have transmitted it in an holy and unblameable succession to posterity as that which in their consciences they verily think to be a most divine and Christian Institution Beneficiall for the good of the Church and of all mankinde which in former ages was ever esteemed the glory and blessing of this or any other Nation The setter forth of the light wisdome power and love of the eternall God in his Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners and which thousands of Christians in all ages and places have experienced and approved to be to their soules the Savour of life unto life the mighty power of God to salvation The Author easily observes the present face of our heavens which are much darkned by those black and lowring clouds which chiefly hang over constant true and faithfull Ministers heads menacing them above any rank or calling of men Nor is he ignorant of the touchinesse and roughnesse the jealousies and timorousnesse of many mens spirits in these times whose highest pretentions to piety are set forth either by fierce oppositions against the Ministry or by such a weak pleading for and wary owning of their succession and ordination their calling and persons as ra-rather invites opposition contempt and insolency than any way gives credit or countenance to them and their function whose remaining branches of Presbytery will hardly thrive by the watering of those hands which have been and are destroyers of its root the Primitive Apostolicall Episcopacy they are pitifull defenders of that who are passionate opposers of this who of all men have given the greatest advantages to those that seek to abrogate the whole function and calling or to arrogate it to vulgar ignorance and impudence The grim and sad aspect on all hands upon Ministers makes the Authour out of charity to himself and others as willing to give a fair account of his profession so loath to offend any sober and judicious Reader or to contract the enmity of any others of ruder tempers by any rash stroke or inconsiderate dash of his pen to which he may be subject and for which he begs pardon both of God and man if any have escaped which yet may be so far venial as its innocent sharpnesse aims at no mens person but onely
at their supposed errors which are grown in some so rough and insolent both in words and deeds against poore Ministers that they had need to meet with something that hath good metall and usefull sharpnesse and not with that phlegmatick and sanguine softnesse which impudent men easily baffle and put both to the blush and silence yet hee meddles not save with great respect and tendernesse with any thing of Civill Power which no man may wisely dispute that is not able to resist it is foolish to shake the pen against the sword or oppose armed Legions with flocks of Geese No man may discreetly offend while as he must necessarily so he may honestly and safely be subject Prudence commands private men to leave the accounts of Ruling power to mens own consciences and to the Supream Over-ruler who best knowes as by what means they obtain it so to what ends and in what manner they use it It is enough for private persons at convenient distances to warm themselves by the light and heat of prevailing power neither scorching themselves by too neer approaches nor consuming themselves by indiscreet contestations with it Modesty also forbids such as are in subjection to dispute the actions or disparage the counsels of any that are above them who being many and so stronger are commonly by esteem supposed wiser than any one man and being successefull are usually esteemed blest and happy Although it is most certain That the many beginning from one and combined strength or counsell being but the twisting of single feeblenesse as so many hairs together the united many may be mistaken as wel as the divided unites Yea one sick man may infect many whole especially if his disease hath something catching and pleasing in it But if there happen by the Divine displeasure pestilent airs and noxious breaths in any countrey the strong the wise the great and the many are as liable to contagion and destruction as the weak the few and the foolish yea to Epidemicall and contagious diseases pestered cities and crowds of men are more subject than cels and solitudes No men are so wise but they may have errors And the sooner they see them to amendment the wiser they will be Nor is it the least part of wisdome in inferiours to shew to superiors their misapprehensions and failings rather by obliquely intimating than directly thwarting by great reflexions than rude affronts Especially in those things wherein a private man may be competently versed both by study and education yet no way trenching upon that tender point of civill power and dominion which is not a fit subject for a pen and inkhorn Therefore this Author presumes that the fair and free vindication of so publique an interest as this of the Ministry which is his proper sphear and calling can displease no men that have candor wit honesty honour good conscience or true Religion in them Nor will it anger sober men to be shewed what is amiss and how it may be mended which possibly they may be as unable as willing to doe Diseases may sometimes exceed the Art of Physitians violent Paroxysms are sometimes better left to spend themselves than provoked and encountred with medicines As for others of vain violent and foolish tempers it is better to offend than to flatter them and to suffer from them if God will have it so is more honorable than to be rewarded by them The greatest danger indeed is from those that are stolidè feroces full of those boisterous rude and brutish passions which grow as bristles upon hogs backs from ignorance pride rusticity and prejudice which make men either unable to read or impatient to bear or unwilling to understand the words of truth and sobernesse trusting more to bestiall than rationall or religious strength which most unmanly and unchristian disorders in mens soules how prevalent and epidemicall soever they may be yet they must not be here either flattered or fomented By calling their darknesse light or their evill good their presumptions inspirations their duller dreams high devotion their dissolute licentiousnesse Christian liberty their sillinesse sanctity their fiercenesse zeal their self-confidence and intrusion a divine call their disorderly activity speciall abilities their jejune novelties pretious rarities or their old errors and rotten opinions extraordinary and unheard of perfections When indeed their root is for the most part nothing but an illiterate and illiberall disposition neither learned to morality nor polished to civility neither softned nor setled by good education or true Religion being full of levity vulgarity unsatiate thirst and desire of novelties their fruit also is little else but malice cruelty avarice ambition worldly policy hypocrisie superstition loosenesse and profanenesse all conspiring as upon untrue and unjust pretentions so to evill ends namely to abase and destroy the true and ancient Ministry of the Gospell in this Nation and to bring into contempt all holy duties and dâ—vine Ministrations in this Church of Christ to cry down all good learning to corrupt the mindes of men with error and ignorance to debauch their manners by licentiousnesse or superstition to bring shame upon the reformed Religion here professed to wilder the judgements to wast the comforts to shipwrack the conscience and to damn the soules of poore people Where the Apologist meets with this black guard these factors for error and sin these agitators for the Prince of darknesse these enemies to God to Christ Jesus to all good Christians and to mankind God forbid he should give place to them or not charge them home and resist them to their face His duty and design is to detect their frauds and wickednesse to countermine their deep projects to frustrate their desperate counsels to fortifie the mindes of all good Christians against their strong delusions and oppositions to pull down their high imaginations to demolish their self-conceited strong holds to maintaine the honour of this Nation the glory of this reformed Church and the worth of its godly learned and industrious Ministry against their envious cavils and ungratefull calumnies If any men apart from fanatick presumptions secular interests popular applauses rusticall clamors and ignorant confidences shall upon rationall prudent and religious grounds propound any thing in a more excellent way either for kinde or degree whereby to advance the glory of God the honour of Jesus Christ the reall propagating of the Gospell the exercise of usefull gifts and graces of Gods Spirit in this Church r the encrease of charity or comforts among Christians for the encouragement of learning vertue and godlinesse for the welfare of this Nation or the serious reforming of Religion and the Ministry of it beyond what hath been still is and ever may be had from the gifts and graces the order and office the labours and lives of those that are the chief professors preachers and pillars of learning and religion in this Nation which are the able and faithfull Ministers of a due succession and right
of straying backsliding and Apostatizing times wherein many seek to weary God his Ministers and all men but themselves with their variating wickednesse The weight and worth of this great Subject the Ministry of this and so of all true Churches in which as in Noahs Ark all that we call Religion all that is sacred Christian and reformed is deposited and embarqued would have indeed required a more proportionate assertor who might out of the good treasure of his heart have given more strength and ornament to so divine and necessary an Institution But who sees not the methods and choices of Gods wisedome and power who oft-times makes his light and glory to shine clearest through the darkest Lanternes He appears in a bush when he purposed the great redemption of his Church out of Egypt The skilfull hand of God can write as well with a Goose quill as with a Swans or Eagles The self-demonstrating beams of sacred Truths need no borrowed reflexions By soft and easie breathings the Lord hath oft dispelled the grossest fogs and blindest mists which rose in his Church His fair and most orient pearles are frequently found in rough and unpolished shels The excellency of his heavenly Treasure and power doth best appeare in earthen vessels The plain and main Truths of Christian Religion among which this of an holy ordained Ministry is one like soverain and victorious Beauties lose nothing by the meannesse of their dresse or unaccuratenesse of their habit it is enough if they can but freely appeare like themselves This fashion of writing by way of Apology which requires a diffused and pathetick stile was indeed judged the best and fittest as for the Subject and the times so also for this Author considering the little leisure the short time the great variety of other businesse and distractions upon him besides the terror and precipitancy of the ruine daily threatning the Ministry and Ministers if God by the justice wisdome and piety of some men did not defend them and divert that mischief For the preventing of which some others have wrote in vindication of the Ministry after a more succinct and Syllogistick way of argumentation But the Antiministeriall disease having seised not so much the heads as the hearts of men and depraved affections having swerved many from the judgements it was thought necessary to apply some remedy at once to both setting Christians in the Truth and exciting them to such a love of it and zeal to it as may best encounter the heady boldnesse of those which oppose it If the Authour have in this larger way done any thing worthy so excellent a Subject it must be first imputed to Gods gracious assistance and the blessing of prayers more than of studies wherein it may be the charitable flames of many worthy Christians have greatly helped his infirmities Next it must be ascribed to the sacrednesse dignity and amplenesse of the matter or Subject handled which as Orators of old observed like rich soile and good ground raiseth to generous productions the weaker spirits of any thing sown or planted in them It is true the Authors ambition is in nothing more than to excell in the discharge of his duty as a Minister of this Church that he might finish his course with joy and also to have equalled with height of abilities and industry the excellency of this Cause which is of so high concernment to the glory of God to the honour of his Saviour to the salvation of so many soules to the happinesse of this Church to the blessing of this Nation to the preservation of so many worthy men his Fathers and Brethren of the Ministry who make conscience not onely to discharge their duty but also to preserve the divine authority and holy succession of their heavenly calling as Christian Ministers whom the blessing of God hath as much honored and confirrmed in this Church of England as in any other under heaven having made them in every place where they were planted as the trees of knowledge and of life bringing the desolate and barren wildernesses to become as the garden of God by their good husbandry their learned and godly industry which meriteth all incouragement and protection of all good men to whose vindication and assistance if this Author hath come in either too late or too weak it will be his great grief And if he have not been able to adde any strength or honor to this cause which some others before him have either fairly touched or somewhat fully handled yet he may adde to the number of the witnesses who have or shall give testimony to this great Truth holy Order and happy Institution of Jesus Christ who must not cease to prophecy though they be clothed in sack cloth Revel 11.3 To conclude Nothing seemed in honor and conscience to him more vile and uncomely than to see this Reformed Church of England which hath brought up so many learned and valiant sons which lately was so much praised and extolled by them in her prosperity to be now so much deserted by many of her children both Ministers and others in this day of her great agony and calamity wherein ignorant mechanick and meritlesse spirits think it not enough to endeavour to strip her of her ornaments to rob her of her garments to deprive her of her dowry to divorce her from her best friends and faithfullest servants but they must also cast dirt in her face spitefully scratching her wanonly rending her cruelly wounding her and most scornfully destroying her as if she were an impure prostitute a most abhorred Adulteresse when indeed shee was and is a fair Daughter of heaven and the fruitfull Mother of us all Iustly esteemed by all learned sober and godly men both at home and abroad as wise grave chast and venerable a Matron as any in all the Christian or reformed world Nor doth shee cease to be comely though she be now black and scorched There appeares beauty amidst her ashes and lovelinesse amidst her scratches the Spirit of glory shines through her Sackcloth still meriting and therefore not despairing of the love favour pity and protection of all worthy persons who are considerable either for counsel or in power and commendable either for honesty or Religion Suffering indignities and dayly fearing more from none but those that are enemies as to all learning order and religion so to all honesty modesty and humanity Her sad deplorable fate and by such men threatned if this Author cannot hinder or help to recover yet he shall with Jeremie heartily pity deeply lament and most passionately pray for her and her children so long as he lives as thou wilt O Christian and compassionate Reader if thou beest of his minde who bids thee Farewell HIERASPISTES OR A DEFENCE BY WAY OF APOLOGY FOR THE Ministry and Ministers OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND Humbly Presented To the Consciences of all those that excel in Virtue I Am neither afraid 1. The Address Dan. 6.3 nor
ashamed to present to your view and patrociny in whom is a more Excellent Spirit this Apology For which as I have no encouragement so I expect no acceptance or thanks from any men who carry on other designs than those of Glory to God Peace to their own Consciences welfare to this Nation and Love to this and other Reformed Churches of Christ I know That Secular Projects and Ambitious Policies have for the most part such jealousies partialities and unevennesses in their Counsels and Motions as can hardly allow or bear that * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Generous Integrity and Freedom which is most necessary as well as most comely for the Cause of Christ which I in my Conscience take to be this of his Faithful and true Ministers of this Church and of the Reformed Religion Of which in no case and at no time any true Christian least of all a Minister of that sacred Name and Mystery may without sin be * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H. Steph. Mark 8.38 ashamed or afraid to own before men in the place where God hath set him and after that maner which becomes Heavenly Wisdom when she is justified by any of her Children It is your Honor and happiness to Excel not onely in that Wisdom which can discern but also in that Candor which cheerfully accepts in that courage which dares publikely own what shall appear to be the Cause of God the Institution of Christ and his Churches Concernments amidst the Contempts Calumnies and Depressions which they meet with from the Ignorance Errors Passions Prejudices Lusts Interests and Jealousies of the World 1 Cor. 4.5 The excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ which you have attained by the blessing of God upon his and for Christs sake your servants the able faithful and true Ministers of the Gospel in this Church of England hath taught you to esteem all things in comparison Phil. 3.8 Tutiora sunt Christi pericula quà m mundisecuritates Jer. but as loss and dung to chuse to be with Christ in his storms if the will of God be so rather than enjoy the worlds calms There was never I think any time or cause since the Name of Christ had place upon Earth wherein your real and commendable excellencies had more opportunities to shew or greater occasions to exercise themselves than now This being the first adventure of some mens impudent Impiety attempting at once to annul and abrogate the whole Function and Office the Institution and uninterrupted Succession of the Evangelical Ministry Which prodigious attempt no antient Hereticks no Schismaticks none that ever owned the name of Christians were so guilty of as some now seem to be So that now if ever you are expected both by God and good men to appear worthy of your selves and your holy Profession either in Piety to God and Zeal to the Name of your Saviour Jesus Christ or in justice and gratitude to those your true Ministers who have Preached to you the true way of eternal life or in Pity and Charity not so much to them as to your selves indeed and your posterity the means of whose Salvation is disputed and endangered or in any other Christian Affections 2. True Saints Characters and heroick Motions such as are comely for those that are filled with holy Humanity being therefore the best of men because they have in them the most of Saints Saints I say Not because great but good men not as applauded by men but approved of God not as Arbitrators of outward but enjoyers of inward Peace not because Conquerors of others by the arm of flesh but more than * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. de â—ig Dial. 1. Rom. 8. Conquerors of themselves by the Graces of Gods Spirit not as violent Rulers of others but voluntary subduers of themselves not because prospered and encreased in Houses Lands Honors and Vain Glories by the ruine of others but by being mortified in Desires crucified in Enjoyments cautions in Liberties modest in Successes impatient of Flatteries Acts 12.23 which turn proud Herods into noysom Worms full of Self-denyings where they most excel coveting nothing so much as to be nothing in their own eyes to enjoy Christ in and above all things to abound in every good word and work to be humble in heights poor in plenty just in prevalencies moderate in felicities compassionate to others in calamity Ever most jealous of themselves lest prosperity be their snare lest they grow blackest under the hottest Sun-shine lest they should have their portion and reward in this world lest they should not turn secular advantages to Spiritual Improvements to holy Examples Secundae res acrioribus stimulis animum explicant Tacit. hist 1. to the ornament of Religion to the good of others to the peace and welfare of the Church of Christ Such living and true Saints I may humbly and earnestly supplicate without any Superstition who affect least but merit most that title upon Earth who are Gods visible Jewels Mal. 3.17 the Darlings of Jesus Christ the Lights and Beauties of the World the regenerate Honor of degenerate Humane Nature the rivals and competitors with Angels yet their care and charge the candidates of Eternal Glory Heb. 1.14 and Heirs of an Heavenly Kingdom Phil. 4.1 the crown and rejoycing of every true Minister the Blessed Fruit of their Labors and happy Harvest of their Souls The high Esteemers the hearty Lovers the liberal Relievers the unfeigned Pitiers the faithful Advocates and the earnest Intercessors for the distressed Ministers the so much despighted and by many despised Ministry of this Church You Rom. 8.11 in whom is the Spirit of the most Holy God shining on your mindes with the setled wisdom of sound Knowledge and saving Truths captivating all wandring fancies and pulling down all high imaginations 2 Cor. 10.5 which exalt themselves beyond the written Rule of Christ and the Analogy of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Rom. 12.6 in the holy Oracles of the Scriptures and continued to this day Jude 3. by the Ministry and Fidelity of the Church which is the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.16 both propounding and establishing it against all unbelief and opposition You whose wills are redeemed from the servitude of sinful lusts slavish fears secular factions whose Consciences and Conversations are bound by the silver Cord of the Love of God and Christ to all Sacred Verity real Piety unfeigned Charity sincere Purity exact Equity comely Order holy Policy and Christian Unity 2 Tim. 2.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all prophane novelties seditious Extravagancies licentious Liberties fanatick Enthusiasms pragmatick Factions and hellish Confusions You that are strengthned with all holy and humble Resolutions which become the sober courage and calm magnanimity of true Christians either to speak and do what honestly you may for
whose soundness of minde and uncorruptedness of maners yet remaining hath hitherto preserved this backsliding and unsavory age from utter rottenness and putrefaction Possibly your mediation may so far prevail among all estates of men as to allay those asperities abate those animosities remove those prejudices satisfie those jealousies under which the Ministers and Ministry of this Church do now lie in many mens mindes and it may be in some of theirs who are become men of power and renown Humble Monition to those in Power In sublimitate positis tam descensus quà m ascensus perpendendus Nec minus est quod terreat quam quod placeat Ambr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Whose eminency I hope will not be offended if I humbly put them in minde That their glory and greatness is not more evident to others who are prone to measure their hopes and fears by the beams or shadows which they cast upon them than most of all to be seriously considered by themselves since from those ruines on which they are raised and from that height to which they are exalted they may easily look down and learn in how slippery a station and how tottering a posture all humane glory and excellency doth consist That the triumphs of such poor mortals carry their own deaths after them as well as other mens before them that as bubbles they have the same principles of frailty in them by which others have suddenly disappeared who lately swelled as big and swam as high above the waters as these now do All religious experience tells the most subtile and elated spirits the profoundest projectors and the most potent actors That they can have but a short time here may have a sudden change or period and must give a severe account of all actions they do and all advantages they enjoy in this present world Of all which they shall carry no more comfort with them than they have made conscience to do the work of God according to his will revealed to mankinde in the sure and sacred Oracles of his written Word Zach. 11. It is manifest That some men have been a staff of Bonds in Gods left hand to punish the sins or exercise the Graces of many in these three Nations whether they shall be a staff of Beauty in his right hand for the support of Piety Peace Order and true Religion the event will best shew They have acted many things as Men with great policy and power it is now expected they should act as truly Reformed and wisely Reforming Christians with Piety and Charity if at least that may be hoped in the time of the Gospel which was denied to Davids zeal under the Law That such as have * 1 Chro. 22.8 Thou shalt not build an House to my Name because thou hast shed much blood upon the Earth in my sight shed much blood in Civil Wars should be instrumental to build the House of God Peradventure they maybe means if not to repair its great decayes yet to hinder it from that total ruine and utter vastation which by many and bad men are threatned but we hope by more and better men with Gods help will be prevented And truly if I knew how I might most acceptably make my Address and fairly plead my excuse with men in place and power if I understood what might most merit to Apologize before all great good and ingenuous men for the boldness of now publishing this Apology I would in the most soft words and comely terms bespeak their favor and deprecate their offence for so it becomes Candidates and Petitioners But my integrity is beyond all oratory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes de Reg. The design of this Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vocat Synes and my plainness beyond all artifice or study I having no design but onely this which I take to be as pious and just so not altogether misbeseeming the station wherein God hath set me That from the Country obscurity wherein I am not wholly buried I may crave leave to use honest Christian Liberty in this one thing which relates not so much to my Person as to my Profession and Function And in this to appear in publick not as a Counseller or Dictator or Threatner but as an humble Client and Suter among those many which always attend those who have power to save or to destroy to do good or evil Nor in this am I pragmatically suggesting what I might foolishly imagine fittest to be done in State affairs from which as from Pitch and Birdlime I am most willingly a stranger but onely propounding in all humble and due respect what is by many men much wiser and worthier than my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes ad Arcad. Imper conceived as most necessary for this particular Church of God in England And wherein the fears of very many Excellent Christians are so urgent upon them that it were better to offend by speaking in love than by silence to act the part both of an Enemy and a Coward Yet in this freedom I would not willingly offend any that really are or esteem themselves my Betters and Superiors so as to exasperate them by any rash or rude expressions I earnestly deprecate all such failings in my self and such suspitions in others This restraint and caution I have not so much out of fear of men yet do I fear men as far as fear is due but rather out of that fear of God which is the beginning of Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. and that reverence I ow to my self and my Profession as a Christian and a Minister whom nothing less becomes than the badge and livery of Passion or the jaundice of Cholerick Diffusions evident in the face of their writings I love not if they were safe affectations of Language which power may interpret Seditious Turbulent or Treasonable I have learned to be patient under hard things thankful for moderate hopeful for better Nor do I disdain to beseech mans favor whose fury God can restrain and turn the remainder of wrath to his praise and his Churches good Let others complain of their Civil Burthens which I feel as well as they Let them agitate secular Interests which never want their vicissitudes crosses and defeats My sense and address in this Apology is chiefly for those things which concern the true Ministry and the Reformed Religion established in England In which not custom and education but judgement and conscience I hope hath confirmed me by Gods grace And for those men especially whose office and duty I think it is by Preaching doing and suffering as Christian Ministers according to the Will of God to vindicate and preserve true Christian Religion and to transmit it as Reformed in an unblemished and unquestionable succession to Posterity 4. Why in way of Apology Your Virtuous Excellencies upon whose favor chiefly I have adventured this Address to the view of the supercilious and more
Hemlock very hurtful or death in the pot being judged by the wisdom of the Church and State here and by the most learned Divines abroad to be within the liberty and compass of those things of Order and Decency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut ordinata acies As an Army with Banners in Rank and File where nothing may be deformed by being disorderly which by that one grand charter 1 Cor. 14.40 are allowed by God to be ordered by the prudence of any particular National Church And in which all Churches in all ages and places have esteemed their several Customs as Laws to them without any breach of Charity or prejudice of Christian Liberty or blemish of the Faith yet never perhaps without the offence of some particular Members in the Churches whose fancies easily finde fault with any things whereof themselves are not Fathers or at least Gossips Humble Christians will thank God for moderate enjoyments nor are they bound to contend for what they think best to the perturbance of the publick Peace Patience is a remedy always near easie and safe nor is it likely that the state of any Church on Earth will ever be so happily compleated as to have nothing in it which may displease any good man Cato optimè sentit sed nocet interdum reipublicae Tacit. or which may not exercise his tollerancy and charity which are generally more commendable and unsuspected virtues than those of zealous activity and publick opposition which commonly draw somewhat upon the dregs of self either as to Passion or Interest Et multis utile bellum Luc. Party or Concernment For who is so mortified that doth not hope to get something of credit profit or honor by adhering to any side or new faction against the former setlings How many learned and godly men are and ever will be till better grounds be produced from Scripture Reason and practise of the Primitive Church unsatisfied with the parity and novelty yet pretended Divine Right of the sole-headless-Presbytery which chalenges to it self as from Christ such a supreme power as is exclusive and destructive of all Episcopacy that is of the constant Presidency of one among other Presbyters so placed by their own choice and consent And no less unsatisfied are thousands of learned and good Christians with that power of Lay Elders for so they are best called for distinction sake and not Ruling Elders lest by that title of Ruling they should fancy and usurp the sole power of rule to themselves which undoubtedly is equally if not eminently due to the Preaching Elders who labor in the Word and Doctrine Touching which point of Lay Elders in the Church I have read two Books written above thirty years since by a very learned godly and impartial Divine Master Chibald of London In the first of which he proved these Lay Elders to have no place office use Mr. Chibalds two Books of Lay Elders power or maintenance assigned them by Scripture nor ever in any Church of Christ which he demonstrates in the second Book which is full of excellent reading as to the Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church In none of which he findes them to have any footing as to office and power upon any Divine Right ever owned in the Church nor can they now have in every little Parish or private Congregation where the Country plainness may afford careful Over-seers for the Poor and Church-wardens but not fit men to match with the Minister and to fit as Rulers to govern their other Neighbors who will hardly believe they have authority from Heaven to rule them unless they see more abilities in them than usually can be found What use may be made of such Elders in the way of Prudence among greater Representations of the Church as in Synods and Councils he leaves to the wisdom of those that have power in such Conventions to call and regulate them But he denies any thing as of Divine Right belonging to them so as to binde every Parish or Congregation to have them which would be ridiculous and most inconvenient Both these Books being seven years since committed to the hands of Master Coleman as then a Licencer were unhappily either smothered and embezzled or carelesly lost to the great detriment of truth in that particular For truly in my best judgement and in other mens of far better to whom I imparted them never any thing was written of that subject more learnedly more uprightly more copiously or more candidly especially considering the Author was one that scrupuled some things of Conformity In like maner how few Christians in any Reformed Church are satisfied with those new and strange Limbs rather than Bodies of Independent Churches which word of bodying into small Corporations is as a novel so a very gross expression and hath something of a Solecism not onely in Religion which owns properly but one Body of Christ Rom. 12.5 We being many are one body in Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body which is Christs which is his Catholike Church whose communion with Christ the onely Head and one another as Members in several Offices and Operations is by the same Faith the same Scriptures the same Ministry the same Ministrations and as to the main and substance the same Christian Profession But it is also incongruous and absurd in ordinary significancy of Language while by such a singular Bodying they mean a Spiritual Union of those that pretend to be most Spiritual Christians Which names and novel inventions about constituting and compleating Churches in so many fractions parcels and places a part from all others by the means of an explicit Church Covenant as they call it how unscriptural how unconform to the examples of all ancient Churches how impertinent as to Piety how dangerous and destructive to the Truth Union Harmony and Dependance which ought to be among all Christians 1 Cor. 12.25 That there be no schism in the body i. e. In that one Body of Christ the Catholike Church and all Churches to avoid Schism in that one Catholike Body of Christ do they seem to many judicious and gracious Christians who think themselves and all others that profess to be Christians sufficiently added and united to the Church as the Primitive Believers being once baptized were without any more a do yea and declaredly bound by their * Acts 2.42 They that gladly received the word were baptized and the same day there were added to the Church about 3000. souls Baptism and Profession to all Christian conversation charitable communion and holy walking by these Publick Bonds and Sacraments of Religion which they owned and of which they were publickly partakers and professors So that not onely in these but in many other things we see the remedies which some men apply to former seeming distempers do to many men seem worse than the diseases ever were The little finger of grievances scruples
disorders and scandals being far heavier than the loyns of the Law were in former-times where if there was less liberty by the restraints which men had by Laws laid on themselves yet there was also far less ignorance in names fewer errors in judgements 5. Other weak conjectures of the causes of Ministers abating in their honor blasphemies in opinions brokenness in affections dissolutions in discipline undecencies in sacred administrations and licentiousness in the ordinary maners of men So that if those times were not the golden age of the Church sure these cannot brag to be beyond the iron or brazen No less superficial and unsearching are those Conjectures or Censures which a late Writer makes of Ministers ostentations of reading and humane learning in their Sermons of which many men cannot be guilty unless it be of making shews of more then indeed they have Also he allegeth as an occasion of Ministers lapse in their love and respect among the people their small regard and strangeness to godly people When it is evident many mens and womens godliness brings forth now no better fruit than first quarreling with then neglecting afterward despising next separating from after that bitter railing against and lastly stirring up faction not onely against that one Minister but his whole calling Certainly some are become such godly brambles and holy thistles as are not to be conversed with more than needs must and are never to be treated with bare hands But in case some Ministers by many indignities provoked grow more teachy and morose to these mens thrifty inconstant and importune godliness If they fortifie what they assâ—â—â— by the testimonies of learned men which is no more than is sometimes needful among captious curious and contemptuous auditors yea if they seem to some severer censor something to exceed in their particulars those bounds of gravity and discretion which were to be desired yet what wise man can think that such fleebites or scratches in comparison can send forth so great corruption or occasion so ill a savor in the nostrils of God and man that for these things chiefly Ministers should be so much under clouds of obloquy and disrespect that although they have every seventh day at least wherein to do men good and to gain upon their good wills yet many of them are so lost that there are but few can give them so much as a good word But 1 Sam. 19.12 some men are willing to mistake the Image and Goats-hair for David and pretend with Rachel infirmities Gen. 31.34 when they sit upon their Idols Alas these cannot be the symptomes of so great conflicts and paroxisms as many Ministers now labor under who were sometimes esteemed very pretious men and highly lifted up on the wings of popular love and fame In which respects no men suffer now a greater ebb than those that were sometime most active forward and applauded The sticks and strains of lesser scandals and common failings among Ministers might kindle some flashes to singe and scorch some of them but these could not make so lasting flames so fierce and consuming a fire as this is In which many or most Ministers that thought themselves much refined and undertook to be refiners of others are now either tried or tormented Who sees not that the fire and wood of this Toâ—het which God hath prepared Isai 30.33 is not as some conceive onely for Princes and Prelates for Archbishops and Bishops c. In some of whom what ever there was of want of zeal for Gods glory of sincere love to the truth of charity to mens souls I cannot excuse or justifie since they could not but be as highly displeasing to God and man as from both they enjoyed very great and noble advantages above other men of glorifying God advancing Christian Religion and incouraging all true holiness Nor was the having of Dignities and Revenues their sin but the not faithful using of them no wonder if of them to whom much was given Luke 12.48 much be required either in duty or in penalty But this Tophet is also we see enlarged for the generality of Presbyters and such as disdained to be counted the inferior Ministers nor is this fire thus kindled in the valley of Hinnom nourished onely by the bones and carkases of ignorant profane and immoral Ministers who are as dry sticks Jude 12. and trash twice dead to conscience and to modesty fit indeed to be pulled up by the roots but even those greater Cedars of Lebanon have added much to this pile and fewel who sometimes seemed to be Trees of the Lord tall and full of sap very able and useful in the Church and while within their due ranks and station they were faithful flourishing and fruitful whose very Children and Converts their former disciples followers favorers and beloved ones Gen. 19.22 now in many places turn Chams pointing and laughing at their Fathers real or seeming nakedness Who drinking perhaps too much of the new wine of state policies opinions and strange fashions of reformations possibly may have been so far overtaken with the strength of that thick and heady liquor as to expose something of shame and uncomliness to the view of the wanton world where not strangers open enemies proud and profaner aliens but even Protestants Professors Domesticks and near Allies sit in the highest seat of scorners inviting all the enemies of our Church our Ministry and our Reformed Religion to the theatre of these times Where among other bloody and tragical spectacles this is by some prepared for the farce and interlude to expose by Jesuitical engines and machinations the learned and godly Ministers together with the whole Ministry of this Church of England to be baited mocked and destroyed with all maner of irony injuries and insolency And alas there are not many that dare appear to hinder the project or redeem either the persons or the function yea many are afraid to pity them or to plead for them The merciful hearted and tender handed God who smites us whose hand we should all see Micah 6.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and return to him who hath appointed this rod and punishment doth not use to make so deep wounds and incisions for little corruptions which are but superficial and skin-deep nor to shoot so sharp and deadly arrows in the faces of those that stand before him as his Ministers unless they first provoke him to his face 1 Sam. 2.22 by their grosser follies in Israel as Eli's sons did Wherefore I conceive a further penitent search and discovery ought to be made of Ministers sins and failings for which the Lord hath brought this great evil upon them which although it be a just punishment yet it may prove a fatherly chastisement to us all and at once both purge us as fire from our dross and by exciting those gifts and graces truly Christian and Ministerial in us it may prepare us both for greater service
Ministerial Power and Authority have digged to themselves Jere. 2.13 empty broken cisterns of novel and divided ways which can hardly hold any water Jude 12. but like wandring clouds without water affecting Supremacy or Parity or Popularity in Church power they have almost brought it to a nullity through the incroaching and over-bearing of Blebeian Insolence who finding Ministers thus divided among themselves and scrambling for Church power in common without any order or distinction either of Age or gifts and parts the common people being the most begin to conceit and challenge to themselves first a share next the supremacy and original of all Church power as if in the illiterate heads illiberal hearts and mechanick hands of the common sort of Christians and without reproach the most part of them and the forwardest of them against the Function of the Ministry have been and ever will be of no higher rank breeding or capacity Jesus Christ had placed the Keyes of Heaven the power eminent and paramount of all Church authority and holy administrations which Christ eminently and his Apostles ministerially had and exercised afterward committing them to able and faithful men such as doubtless were many degrees raised above the vulgar and distinguished in gifts and power Ministerial both ordinary and extraordinary Thus from the head and shoulders and arms Jesus Christ the Apostles the succeeding Bishops and Presbyters which were of Gold and Silver Church power is by some forced to descend to the belly thighs and feet of the people which are part of Iron Dan. 2.32 and part of miry-clay Most of whom so much stickling to be controlers of Christs houshold the Church are not in any discreet and sober mans judgement fit to be stewards or scarce in any degree of ingenuous service in a well ordered family They may make good Gibeonites for the house of God but very ill Levites or Priests Thus I have shewed how the sparks of many Ministers passionate opinions and violent practises flying up and down in their many disorderly breathings and extravagant Motions both in Church and State they at last lighting upon the thatched houses the combustible stuff of common peoples mindes and maners have set their own houses on fire to the deformity discontent and danger of all that dare own themselves and their holy Function as delivered to them from a better and diviner hand And indeed it is of the Lords mercies that we have not been ere this utterly consumed both root and branch for our follies and strange fires by the malice cruelty and despight of those to whose rage as to the Seas the Lord hath hitherto set bounds who are our enemies not for our sins and failings but for the reformed truths and Gospels sake which we preach and profess Amidst the sequestrings plunderings silencings wastings affronts calumnies indignities and discouragements cast upon or threatned by some against those of the Ministry above any other calling as if the Crosses taken down from Steeples and Churches were to be laid on the necks and shoulders of Ministers It is a wonder that any remnant of godly able and true Ministers hath hitherto escaped through the indulgence of God and the favor or moderation of some in power who know not it seems how to reprobate all those as Antichristian by whose Ministry they may hope themselves and others either are or may be brought to the saving faith of Jesus Christ and to the hope of Gods elect Exod. 2.8 Nor can they yet be perswaded to act as Pharaohs that knew not Joseph So that we cannot but wonder with thankfulness to God and to those who now exercise civil power among us that the Reformed Ministers and Ministry in this Church have not been made like Sodom and Gomorrah when we consider how many showres of fiery darts from violent and cruel men like thick clouds pregnant with thunders and lightnings hang over our heads Jâ—lian took away from the Clergy all immunities honors and provisions of corn formerly by Emperors given to them he abrogated all Laws in favor of them Sozonen l. 5. c. 5. Who like Julian the Apostate are impatient of nothing so much as this That their should be any true Ministers or Ministry in due order holy Authority Evangelical succession and setled maintenance continued in this or any other Reformed Church Who seeking to joyn the Lyons skin to the Fox's would fain leven Military spirits against the Ministry that so the Soldiery might use or rather abuse their Helmets as Bushels * Matth. 5.15 under which they may put the Candles of the Ministry thereby to overwhelm and extinguish those lamps of true Religion pretending that some Troopers flaming swords as the guard of Cherubims will be more useful to keep the way of the tree of life than all those burning and shining lights of the true Ministers who are rightly called and ordained in the Church whose learned labors and patient sufferings in all ages from the Apostles times have undoubtedly planted watered propagated and under God preserved the true Christian Religion either from Heathenish ignorance Idolatry Atheism Prophaneness and Persecution on the one side or from Antichristian Errors Superstitions Corruptions and Confusions on the other 16. Politick and Atheistical Engines used by some against the Ministry Yet are there now not onely secret underminings but open engines used by which some men endeavor utterly to overthrow these great boundaries firm supports and divine constitutions of Christian Religion the Authority Office Power and Succession of the true Ministers and Ministry of the Gospel Which plots and practises can be nothing else but the devils high-way either to utter Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness or to the old grosser Popery Error and Superstition or at best to those detestable and damnable formalities in matters of Religion which our late Seraphick Sadduces or Matchiavellian Christians have learned and confidently profess Some of whom like Jezebel Rev. 2.20 that made her self a Prophetess or like the old * Irenaeus l. 1. c. 35. Carpecratis Gnosticorum dectrina per fidem operationem salvari homines reliqua indifferentia secundum opinionem hominum bona aut mala vocari cum nihil natura malum fit Gnosticks Montanists Moniehes Carpocratians Circumsellians Valentinians and the like rabble of wretches have their wilde speculations beyond what is written in the holy Scriptures or ever believed and practised in the Churches of Christ who teach men to think say and write That God Christ Jesus the holy Spirit good Angels and Devils the Scriptures Law and Gospel Ministry and Sacraments the Souls immortality and eternity the Resurrection and Judgement to come all Virtue and Vice Good and Evil Heaven and Hell all are but meer fanciful forms of words fabulous imaginations feigned dreams empty names being nothing without us or above us That all this which men call Religion is nothing else but the issues of humane inventions which by the
cunning of some the credulity of others and the custom of most men serves where seconded with power to scare and amuse the world so as to keep the vulgar in some aw and subjection And in their best and foberest temper they hold That no Religion is or ought to be other than a lackey and dependant on secular power that piety must be subordinate to policy that there the people serve God well enough where they are kept in subjection to those that rule them From whose politick dispensations and allowances they are humbly and contentedly to receive what Scriptures Law and Gospel holy Institutions Ministry and Religion those who govern them think fittest whereby to preserve themselves in power and others in peace under them That where the principles of Christian or Reformed Religion which hath so far obtained credit in these Western parts of the World do cross or condemn the designs and interests of those in Sovereinty how unjustifiable soever they are for righteousness or true holiness yet are they by Reasons of State and the supposed Laws of Necessity first to be dispensed withall and actually violated Next by secret warpings variations connivencies and tollerations they are to be ravelled weakned discountenanced and decryed Thus gradually and fuly introducing new parties and factions in Religion which cryed up by men of looser principles profaner wits and flattering tongues also set off and sweetned with novelty profit and power will soon bear down and cast out with specious shews of easier cheaper freer and safer modellings all true Religion and the true Ministry of it and all the antient if they seem contrariant ways though never so well setled and approved not onely by the best and holiest of men but as to their constant preservation even by God himself Indeed all experience teacheth us 17. Ambition the Mâ—ch of true Religion That no passion in the soul of man is less patient of sober just and truly religious bounds than * Luctanter agrè fert humana ambitiâ— Christi jugâ—â— am Dei Imperitur nec libeâ—ter crutem giâ—â—â—â—â—ui sceptra captant diademata aucupantur Parisiens Ambition which will rather adventure as it were to countermand and over-rule God himself than fail to rule over man Nor hath any thing caused more changes tossings and persecutions in the Church than this forcing religious rectitudes and the immutable rules of divine Truth Order and holy Institutions to bend to and comply with the * Cupido dominandi cunctis affectibus dominantior Tacit An. l. 15. crookedness of ambitious worldly * Regnandi causa violandum est jus caeteris aequitatem cole Jul. Caes Suet. interests Insomuch that very Reformations pretended and by well meaning men intended have oftentimes degenerated to great deformities through the immoderations and transports of those who cannot in reason of State as they pretend subject themselves to or continue to use those severer rules of righteousness or follow those primitive examples of holy Discipline and Religious orders which Christ and his Church hath set before them but they must so far wrest and innovate Religion formerly established and remove the antient Land-marks which their forefathers observed as they finde or fancy necessary to the interest of that party or power which they have undertaken Hence inevitably follows by those unreasonable * Pope Pius the fifth could not with patience hear of Ragioni di Stato counting those pretensions to be against all true Religion and Moral Virtues L. Verul Reasons of State which not the Word of God nor his providence nor any true prudence but onely some mens fancies passions lusts and follies make necessary That the antient established Ministry and true Ministers be they never so able worthy useful and necessary must either be quite removed and changed or else by degrees drawn to new Modellings and Conformities which can never be done without great snares to many injuries to others and discouragements to all that have any thing in them of Religious setledness whose pious and judicious constancy in their holy way and profession chusing rather to serve the Lord than the variating humors of any men and times shall be judged pertinacy faction and the next step to Rebellion how useful peaceable and commendable soever their gifts and mindes and maners be in the Church of Christ To this Tarpeian rock and precipice by Gods permission and the English worlds variation in Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs doth seem to be brought as to some mens designs and purposes the whole frame and being of the Reformed Religion in this Church of England as to its formerly established Doctrine Discipline Government and true Ministry Not but that I know the Lord Jesus Christ can withdraw this his Church and Ministers as he did himself from their malice Luke 4.30 who sought to cast him down headlong from the browe of that Hill on which their City stood I know he is as willing able and careful to save his faithful servants as himself And who knows 2 Kings 5. how far God may be pleased to use as he did the relation of the * Sermentâ—â—â—â—cilla sequitur heri sanitas per servulam captivam liberatur leprosus Dominus De parvo momento pendent res magni momenti uâ— vel â—â—xima Dei esperâ—â—ur August captive maid in order to his mercy both for healing and converting Naaman this humble Intercession and Apology of the meanest of his servants who ows all he is hath or can do to his bounty and mercy God oft hangs great weights on small wires and sets great wheels on work by little springs We know that words spoken in due season before the * Monet Deus de proposito ut praeviniamus decretum quasi à nobis poenitentibus poenitentiam discat dominus Fulgent decree be gone forth Zach. 2.7 may be acceptable and powerful even with God himself how much more should they be as * Prov. 25.11 Verba tam splendida quà m pretiosa pietate bona tempestiditate grata Bern. Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver to sober and religious men and in the behalf of those who at least have deserved to be heard before they be condemned and destroyed I have read of Sabbacus a King of Ethiopia * Herodoti Clio. who being by dreams admonished that he could not possess himself of the Kingdom of Egypt otherways than by Sacrilege * Servil de Mirandis l. 1. and the slaying of the Priests he chose rather to lay aside his claim and advantages of War which he had gotten and to refer the Government of that Kingdom to twelve Wisemen who erected to the memory of that Princes piety one of the stateliest Pyramids of Egypt which yet remains How much more will it become Christians in any way of Power and Magistracy not to make their way upon the spoils nor lay the foundations or to carry on the fabrick of their greatness and
had forsaken Jordan They may a little wash over and for a while seem to hide mens leprosies of Ignorance Error Pride Levity Schism Licentiousness and Apostacy but they cannot heal them yea rather they provoke the itch of novelty and increase the leprous scurff of obstinacy by which men refuse to be healed and glory in their despising and conquering all remedies * Levit. 10.1 They offered strange fire before the Lord. V. 2. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them Strange fires we know of old would burn as well as holy in a natural force but it was neither acceptable nor safe to be used in the solemn service of God nor did it consume the sacrifice so much as * Illorum temeritas irâ divinâ meritò castigatur quorum autoritas sacro ordiâ—e non consecratur August kindle the wrath of God to blast and destroy the presumptuous offerers However good men might use it lawfully in their private hearths and houses yet not at the Publick * Tutus est in privatis aedibus pietatis charitatis ignis quô nec rite nec tutò in publicis Dei officiis uti possumus quia non sine peccato ideo non sine peccato quia sine Dei mandato Zanch. Altars or in the Temple So that indeed we cannot hope that those whom the Lord hath not sent by his authority which hath been commited to and derived always by the hands of the Governors and Pastors of his Church either can or will take care to guide or keep us and our children in that true Rom. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and good way of reasonable and acceptable serving God since themselves are for the most part such unreasonable persons of so silly blinde weak wandring vain and various spirits abounding in nothing so much as in their ignorance pride confidence of themselves and contempt of others And what they pretend to do as to any holy Ministrations is not as of any duty conscience 1 Cor. 9.16 Va negligenti officium quod debuit arroganti quod non debuit Bern. necessity as St. Paul who applies that Wo to me if I preach not the Gospel c. but meerly as of courtesie as arbitrary and spontaneous as of novelty and curiosity when where what how and as far as their own sudden fits humors and interests or others flatteries and vulgar applauses move them while the novelty curiosity and admiration of these mens boldness more than of their rare gifts 2 Tim. 4.3 They will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they keap up to themselves Teachers having itching ears works upon the itching ears not the humble hearts of their gaping or giddy hearers Such Ivy and Country Garlands as these men hang out in their private Cells and Conventicles or in their more Publick Fairs and Taverns are no temptations to us to think their unseasoned new bottles or their flatuous and unrefined Wines which have fumed so much into their own and their auditors weak heads that many of them every where reel and stagger and vomit out their own shame and wallow in their filthiness like drunken men are any way comparable to our old bottels * Matth. 9.17 Vetus vinum mulso longè defaecatius gustu suavius spiâ—itu lenius aetate mollâ—us sanitate salubrius cerebrum minus movet coâ— magis reficit Greg. and veterane Wines which are found sweet well-refined and full of spirits Nor will these new patches of gifted but unordained Preachers ever be suitable with or comparable to our good old Garments * Matth. 9.16 Ecclesiae vestem ordinem scilicet decoram politiam deforminovitate lacerant â—urpiter lacerando magis deformant novatores Prideaux the learned ordained and true Ministers either for durableness comliness or comfort being heavier in the Summer of prosperity and colder in the Winter of adversity So that they are rather a shame an oppression and deformity to us to our reformed Christian Religion and to our Church and Nation as if we had chose rather to be clothed with a ridiculous pybald fools-coat or a beggars cloak checquered with infinite rents and patches than with that holy and comly Garment of order and unity which Christ left to his Church and Ministers like his own without any rent or seam That is An uniform compleat constant way John 19.23 Qualis Christi vestis inconsuâ—ilis inconsissa talis esse debet ecclesiae constant ordâ— politia uniformis August and order of holy Ministerial power derived in a right and successive Ordination These new short jumps of unordained Teachers are to the Churches and Religion's proportions like the coats of Davids Messengers 2 Sam. 10.4 when they had been shamefully and spightfully treated by ungrateful Hanun exposing indeed our Nation and our Religion to all * Quantum deest autoritati tantum adest pudori aut inverecundiâ— Nihil enim impudentius quà m injussum muneri aut officio cuicunque sese immittere Gerard. reproach and scorn when all round about us shall see such feeble and uncomly parts as indeed these gifted men for the most part are in the body of our Church thus discovered which were far better concealed and hidden Yea 24. Boldness of unordeined Teachers Num. 22.28 although they may with truth in somethings justly tax and reprove some failings or faults in some yea all our Ministers yet we do not think presently they are to intrude into their places and Ministry no more than Balaam's Ass might presume to become presently a Prophet because it sometimes spake and reproved its masters madness 2 Pet. 2.16 Nor do we see any reason that men should wait upon the lips of such animals for Instruction who cannot justifie their speaking without a miracle no more indeed than these new Teachers can their chalenging the publick place and constant office of Christs Ministers to which they have no ordinary Call or Mission Indeed we have rather cause greatly to suspect these intruders as for many other things so for their boldness and forwardness Since such as have been ablest for that great service So Moses Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel have always been * St. Jerome tells of Neposianus Eò dignior quo se clamabat indignum fugiebat dum populus quarebat Humilitate saperabat invidiam Ep. ad Heliod So Socrates of Ammenius when he was sought to be made a Pastor of the Church Lib. 6. c. 30. modestly slow and humbly reserved That these mens undesired promptitude is like that malicious readiness of Satan who uncall'd presents himself among the sons of God * Job 1.6 2.1 2 Cor. 11.13 so are the ministers of Satan most prone to transform themselves by their hypocrisies into angels of light in order to advance hellish darkness and damnable doctrines And the times are much injured by reports if it be not in some
degree true That many of these Mushroom Ministers the most forward Teachers of this new race and mechanick extraction are such persons in disguises of vulgar plainness Nunquam periculosi es fallit tâ—nebâ—arum mendaciorum pater quà m cùm sub lucis veritatis specit delitescit Jeron and simplicity who have had both their learning and their errand from the vigilant Seminaries beyond Sea Out of which Galliles can come little good to our Reformed Church and Nation Satan is not less a Devil when he will seem a Doctor nor more a dangerous tempter than when he would appear a zealous teacher Whence soever they are sure we are That many of these who are so suddenly started up into Pulpits are not ashamed to vent by word and writings such transcendent blasphemies That they teach whatever they think or say of the Majesty of God of Christ of the holy Spirit of the Divine Nature though never so irreverent profane and ridiculous yet it is no blasphemy but sublimity So Irenaeus l. 1. Tertul. de prae ad Hae. Austin de haer de unitate Eccles c. 16. Tells us of the Partantilâ—quia Haeraticorum Vid. p. 204. no profaneness but getting above and out of all fornis Whatever they contradict of the clear literal sense and rational scope of the Scriptures though it seem and be never so gross a lie and error in the common significancy of the words yet it is a truth in the spirit Whatever they act never so disorderly brutish horrid obscene and abominable yet it is no sin but a liberty which God and Christ and the Spirit exercise in them who cannot sin Nor is this the least cause we have to suspect beware of and abhor these new Modellers and Levellers of the Ministry That how different soever their faces and factions are one from another though they go one East and the other West whether they separate or rank or seek or shake yet still they meet in this one point No Ordination no Function or peculiar Calling of the Ministry The Serpents tail meets with his head that he may surround truth with a circle of malice In hoc uniformes esse solent errantium deformitates quod rectè sentientes odiâ— habent August As Herod and Pilate they agree to crucifie Christ as Samsons Foxes though their wily-heads look several ways yet their filthy tails carry common fire-brands not onely to set on fire the sometime well-fill'd and fruitful Field of this Church but also to consume the very laborers and husbandmen Their eyes and hands are generally bent against the best and ablest Ministers and their spirits most bitterly inconsistent with that holy Ministry which Christ once delivered by the Apostles to the Church and which by the fidelity of his Church hath been derived to us of which we and all the true Churches of Christ have in all ages had so great and good experience which no malice of devils or personal infirmities of men have been hitherto able so to hinder as wholly to interrupt much less so to corrupt it that it should be either just or any way necessary to abolish it according to those tragical clamors and tyrannick purposes of some unworthy men whose malice and cruelty Esther 5.9 as our modern Hamans doth hope and daily with eagerness expect when the whole Function and Calling which is from God though by man of the ordained and authoritative Ministry which hath succeeded the Apostles to our days shall be trussed up that fifty footed Gallows which malicious and ungrateful envy or sacrilegious covetousness or vulgar ambition or Jesuitick policies hath erected for the whole Nation of the antient and true Ministers And all this because like Mordecai they will not nor in any Reason Law and Religion can bow down or pay any respect such as the pride and vanity of some men expect to those high and self-exalting gifts whereto their Antiministerial adversaries pretend and which they seek to cry up in their meetings and scriblings with which they say and onely say They are divinely called and more immediately inspired not onely above their fellows and brethren who are still modestly exercised in their first mechanick occupations but even above those that are much their betters every way and who merit to have been and possibly have been to many of them as Fathers in Religion by whose pains and care with Gods blessing the true Christian Religion in all ages hath been planted propagated and preserved or where need was reformed and restored to its essential lustre and primitive dignity So that the cruel contrivances and desperate agitations 25. Sober mans greatest sense Revel 12.4 carried on by some men against the true Ministers and Ministry in this Church like the looks of the great red Dragon upon the Woman of the Revelation have a most dire and dreadful aspect not onely upon all good learning and civility but also upon all true Religion both as Christian and as Reformed Threatning at once to devour the very life soul beauty honor â—oy and blessing of this Nation on which we may well write Ickabob 1 Sam. 4.21 the glory is departed from our Israel so soon as the fury of these men hath broke the hearts and necks of our Elies the Evangelical Priests of the Lord the true Ministers of Christ who are as the chariots and horsmen of our Israel Civil changes and secular oppressions have their limits confined within the bounds of things mortal and momentary with which awise and well setled Christian is neither much pleased nor displeased Quadratus cùm sit vir bonus ad omnem fortuna jactum aquabilis est sibi constans Sen. Tanto satius est esse Christianum quà m hominem quanto praestat non omnino esse hominem quà m non esse Christianum Bern. because not much concerned nor long For no wind from the four corners of the Earth can blow so cross to a good mans sails but he knows how to steer a steddy course to Heaven according to the compass of a good Conscience But what relates to our souls eternal welfare to the inestimable blessing of present times and posterity What more concerns us in point of being true Christians that is rightly instructed duly baptized and confirmed in an holy way than any thing of riches peace honor liberty or the very being men can do for without being true Christians it had been good for us we had never been men what evidently portends and loudly proclaims Darkness Error Atheism Barbarity Profaneness or all kinde of Antichristian tyrannies and superstitions to come upon us and our children instead of that saving truth sweet order and blessed peace instead of those unspeakable comforts and holy privileges which we formerly enjoyed from the excellency of the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ declared to us by the labors of our true and faithful Ministers We hope it can offend no good Christians to
see us more piously passionate Sancta laudabilis est in religionis negoâ—io impatientia Jeron Judges 18.24 and more commendably impatient against those who seek to deprive us of all those divine blessings than Micah was against those who stole away his gods and his Priests in as much as our true God and true Saviour and true Ministers infinitely exceed his Teraphins his Ephod his Vagrant and idolatrous Levite who yet was as a father to him Who can wonder if we or any other who have any bowels of true Christians or tenderness of Conscience for our Reformed Religion 1 Kings 3.26 Viscera genuinam matiem indicant Ex vero dolore verus amor dignoscitur Fictitius â—â—er etricius animus facilè patitur infantem dividi Greg. Jude 1. 2 Cor. 4.7 do as the true Mother did passionately yern within themselves and earnestly cry to others lest by the seeming liberty of every ones exercising his gifts in Preaching and Prophecying their eyes should behold the true and living childe of Religion reformed cruelly murthered and destroyed under pretence of equable dividing it to gratifie thereby the cunning designs of an impudent and cruel Harlot It is the least that we as true Protestants in this Church of England can do earnestly by prayers to contend with God and man for the faith once delivered to the Saints that we may neither craftily be cheated nor violently robbed of that onely heavenly treasure of our souls nor of those earthen vessels which the Lord hath chosen and appointed both to preserve it and dispence it to us namely the truly ordained and authoritative Ministers the original of whose office and power as of all Evangelical Institutions is from our Lord Jesus Christ and not from the will of man in any wanton arbitrary and irreligious way 26. Who are the Antiministerial adversaries most and why Thus then may your Virtuous Excellencies easily perceive That it is not as mine or my Brethren the Ministers private sense alone but it is as the publick eccho of that united voice which with sad complaint and doleful sound is ready to come from all the holy hills of Zion from every corner of the City of God in our Land through the prayers and tears sighs and groans of those many thousands judicious and gracious Christians who are as the remnant that yet hath escaped the blaspemies extravagancies seductions pollutions and confusions of the present world occasioned by those who neither fearing God nor reverencing man seem to have set up the design and trade of mocking both â—uci nimiâ—um adversantur mâ—ritò qui tenebâ—arum opera operantur Aug. None bear the true Ministry with less patience than they whose deeds will least endure the touch-stone of Gods Word Whose violent projects against this Church and State being wholly inconsistent with any rules of righteousness and godliness makes them most impatient to be any way censured crossed or restrained by those precepts and paterns of justice and holiness which the true Ministers still hold forth out of Gods Word to their great reproach and regret no more able to bear that freedom of truth than the old world could bear Noahs or Sodom Lots preaching of righteousness To these mens assistance comes in by way of clamoring or petitioning or writing scandalously against the Ministers and Ministry of this Church all those sorts of men whose licentious indifferency profane ignorance and Atheistical malice hath yet never tasted and so never valued the blessings of the learned labors and holy lives of good Ministers both these sorts are further seconded by that sordid and self-deceiving covetousness which is in the earthy and illiberal hearts of many seeming Protestants who either ingratefully grudg to impart any of their temporal good things to those of whose spirituals they partake Rom. 15.27 1 Cor. 9.11 or else they are always sacrilegiously gaping to devour those remains of Bread and water which are yet left as a constant maintenance to sustain the Prophets of the Lord in the Land And lastly not the least evil influence falls upon the Ministers and Ministry of this Reformed Church by the cunning activity of those pragmatick Papists and Jesuitical Politicians for all of the Roman Profession are not such who make all possible advantages of our civil troubles and study to fit us for their sumation and a recovery to their party by helping thus to cast us into a Chaos and ruinous heaps as to any setled Order and Religion The most effectual way to which they know is To raise up rivals against to bring vulgar scorn and factious contempt upon to foment any scandalous petitions against Ministers and the whole support of the Ministry that so they may deprive that function of all the constant maintenance and those immunities which it hath so long and peaceably enjoyned by the Laws which are or ought to be as the results of free and publick consent so the great preservers of all estales in this Land Thus by starving they doubt not speedily to destroy the holy function divine authority and due succession of all true reformed Ministry in England Solicitously inducing all such deformities as are most destitute of all sober and true grounds either of Law Reason Scripture or Catholike practise in the Church of Christ Thus shortly hoping that from our Quails and Manna of the Learned and Reformed Ministry and true Christian Religion we may be brought back again to the Garlick and Onyons of Egypt to praying to Saints to worshipping of God in or by or through Images to such implicite Faith and Devotion to trust in Indulgences to the use of burthened or maimed Sacraments to those Papal Errors Superstitions and Vsurpations which neither we nor our Forefathers of later ages have tasted of which however somewhat better dressed and cooked now than they were in grosser times yet still they are thought and most justly both unsavory and unwholsome to those serious and sounder Christians who have more accurate palates and more reformed stomachs Si canonicarum Scripturarum autoritate quidquam firmatur sine ulla dubitatione credendum est Aliis verò testibus tibi credere vel non credere liceat August ep c. 12. Hoc prius credimus non esse ultra Scripturas quod credere debeamus Tertul. de prae ad Hae. l. 3. Sacris Scripturis non loquentibus quid loquetur Ambr. voc Gen. l. 2. With whose judgements and consciences nothing will relish or down as to doctrine and rule of Faith or Sacramental Administrations and duties in Religion which hath not Scripture for its ground to which no doubt the primitive and purest Antiquity did consent To whose holy rule and patern this Church of England in its restitution or reformation of Religion did most exactly and with greatest deliberation seek to conform both its Ministry and holy Ministrations using liberties or latitudes of prudence order and decency no further than it thought might best tend to the
edification and well-governing of the Church 1 Cor. 14.40 Wherein it had as all particular National Churches have an allowance from God both in Scripture and in Reason 27. Things of Religion ought first and most to be considered by Christian Rulers But as if nothing had been reformed and setled with any wisdom judgement piety or conscience in this Church nor hitherto so carried on by any of the true and ordained Ministers of it infinite calumnies injuries and indignities are daily cast upon the whole Church and the best Ministers of it The cry whereof no doubt as it hath filled the Land so it hath reached up to Heaven and is come up to the ears of the most high God And therefore I hope it will not seem rude unseasonable or importune to any excellent persons of what piety or power soever if it now presseth into their presence who ought to remember that they are but as Bees in the same Hive as Ants on the same Mole-hill and as Worms in the same clods of Earth with other poor inferior Christians whom they have far surmounted in civil and secular respects The swarms and crowds of worldly counsels and designs we hope have not as they ought not overlaid or smothered all thoughts care and conscience of preserving restoring and establishing truth good order and peace in matters of Religion Which are never by those publick persons who pretend to any thing of true Christianity to be so far despised and neglected that those above all other matters of publick concernment should be left like scattered sheaves to the wastings and tramplings upon by the feet of the Beasts of the people Meritò à Deo negliguntur quires Dei secularibus post ponunt negotiis Cypr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primum quod sanctum Plat. Matth. 6.31 Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lie waste V. 5. Now therefore saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arat. Phainom ungathered and unbound by any civil sanction and power agreeable to holy order divine method Christian charity and prudence Possibly it had fared better with all estates in this Church and State if they had learned and followed that divine direction and grand principle in Christian politicks First seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you The neglect of Gods house the Church and its beauty holy order and ministry hath been a great cause of overthrowing so many seiled houses which were covered with Cedar and decked with Vermilion and Gold Certainly no men employed in publick power or counsel have any business of so great concernment or of so urging and crying necessity as this The preservation of the true Evangelical Ministry in its due power and authority Upon which without any dispute among sober and truly-wise men the very life being weight honor and succession of our Religion doth depend both as Christian and as reformed For it is not to be expected that the ignorant prating and confident boasting of any other voluntiers will ever soberly adorn or solidly maintain our Religion which hath so many very eloquent learned and subtile enemies besides the rude and profaner rabble besieging it both learned and unlearned oppose true Religion as the right and left-hand of the Devil the one out of ignorance the other out of crookedness the one as dark the other as depraved the one cannot endure its light nor the other its straitness Against neither of them can these afford help Anserum clangere crepituque alarum excitus Manlius capitolium propugnat Gallos deturbat c. Livi. Dec. 1. l. 5. any more than the confused cackling of a company of Geese could have defended the Roman Capitol Which noise is indeed but an alarm to sober and good Protestants intimating the approach or assault of enemies and should excite the vigilancy and valor of all worthy Magistrates conscientious Soldiers and wise Christians of this Reformed Church to resist the invading danger as by other fit means so chiefly by establishing and incouraging a succession of learned godly and faithful Ministers Nor in any reason of State or of Conscience should those who exercise Magistratick power in this Church and State so far neglect him who is Higher then the highest * Eccles 5.8 He that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they John 19.11 Thou couldst have no power except it were given thee from above Christ to Pilat 1 Cor. 12.1 1 Pet. 4.10 Stewards of the manifold grace of God Luke 1.16 by whom all power is dispenced or so far gratifie the irreligious rudeness the boisterous ignorance and violent profaneness of any who are but Gods executioners the instruments of his wrath and ministers of his vengeance as for their sakes and at their importunity to despise and oppress those who are by Christ and his Church appointed to be Ministers of Gods grace and conveyers of his mercy to men The meanest of whom that do indeed come in his name the proudest mortal may not safely injure or despise because not without sin and reproach to Christ and God himself For he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me is signally and distinctly spoken in favor to true Ministers and for terror to those that are prone to offer insolency to their worldly weakness and meanness Such as despise and oppose the Ministers of Christ are more rebellious than the devils were for of these the seventy returning testifie Luke 10.17 Lord even the devils are subject to us in thy Name If then we have immortal souls which some mockers now question sure they are infinitely to be preferred before our carkases and the instruments which God hath appointed 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe as means to save them are proportionably to be esteemed beyond any that are oft the destroyers at best but the preservers of mens bodies and outward estates Who can dissemble or deny That the banks of equity piety modesty and charity yea of common humanity are already by some men much demolished through the pride presumption insolence scurrility and profaneness of some spirits who are set against the Reformed Religion the Ministers and Ministry of this Church Who sees with honest and impartial eyes and deplores not to behold how the deluge of Ignorance Atheism Profaneness and Sottishness also of damnable Errors devilish Doctrines and Popish Superstitions together with Schismatical fury and turbulent Factions are much prevailed of later years both in Cities and Countreys here in England And this Gaudet in malis nostris diabolus latatur in miseriis dilatatur augustiis delectatur angoribus triumphat ruinis Bern. since men of Antiministerial tempers have studied to act the Devils Comedy and this Churches Tragedy endeavoring to render not onely
the able godly and painful Ministers but the whole Ministry it self and all holy Ministrations rightly performed by its Authority despised invalid decryed and discountenanced In many places affronting some vexing and oppressing others menacing all every where with total extirpations For they who pretend to have any man a Minister that lists intend to have none such as should be As they that would have every man a Master or Magistrate mean to have none in a Family or State but onely by specious shadows of New Teachers and Prophets they hope to deprive us of those substances both of true reformed Religion and the true Ministry which we and our Forefathers have so long happily enjoyed and which we ow to our posterity 28. The great and urgent causes of complaint Nor is this a feigned calumny or fictitious grief and out-cry Your piety O excellent Christians knows That the spirits of too many men are so desperately bent upon this design against the Function of the Ministry that they not onely breathe out threatnings against all of this way the duly ordained Ministers but daily do as much as in them lies make havock of them and in them of all good maners and reformed Religion while so many people and whole Parishes are void and desolate of any true Minister residing among them I leave it to the judgements and consciences of all good Christians to consider how acceptable such projects and practises will be to any sober and moralized professor to any gracious and true Christian to any reformed Church or to Christ the Institutor of an authoritative and successional Ministry or last of all to God whose mercy hath eminently blessed this Church and Nation in this particular of able and excellent Ministers so that they have not been behinde any Church under Heaven That so exploded Speech then Stupor mundi clerus Anglicanus The Ministers of England were the admiration of the Reformed World had noâ— more in it of crack and boasting than of sober Truth if rightly considered onely it had better become perhaps any mans mouth than a Ministers of this Church to have said it and any others than believers of this Church to have contradicted and sleighted it Since to the English Ministers eminency in all kinde so many forein Churches and Learned Men have willingly subscribed as to Preaching Praying Writing Disputing and Living On the other side How welcome the disgrace of the Ministry will be to all the enemies of Gods truth of the Reformed Religion and of all good order in this Church and State it is easie to judge by the great contentment the ample flatterings the unfeigned gloryings the large and serious triumphings which all those that were heretofore professed enemies to this Church and our Reformed Religion either such as are factious and politick Factors for another Supremacy and Power or such as carry deep brands of Schism and Heresie on their foreheads or such as are professedly Atheists profane idle and dissolute mindes discover in this That they hope they shall not be any more tormented by the prophecying of these witnesses Revel 11.10 They that dwell on the earth shall rejoyce over the dead and unburied bodies of the witnesses and make merry because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth the true and faithful Ministers of the Church of England Than whom none of that order in any of the late Reformed Churches and scarce any of the Antients have given more ample clear and constant testimony to the glory of God and the truth and purity of the Gospel by their Writing Preaching Praying Sufferings and holy Examples Living and Dying which I again repeat and justifie against those who swell with disdain and are ready to burst with envy against the real worth and undeniable excellency of the Ministers of the Church of England All which makes me presume That you O excellent Christians can neither be ignorant nor unsatisfied in this point of the Evangelical Ministry both as to this and all other Churches use benefit and necessity as also to the divine right of it by Christs institution the Apostles derivation and the Catholike Churches observation in all times and places as to the main substance of the duties the power and authority of the Function however there may be in the succession of so many ages some Variation in some Circumstantials The peculiar office and special power were seldom as I have said if ever questioned among any Christians until of late much less so shaken vilified and traduced as now it is by the ungrateful wantonness and profane unworthiness of some who not by force of reason or arguments of truth but by forcible sophistries armed cavilings violent calumnies and arrogant intrusions have like so many wilde Bores sought to lay waste the Lords Vineyard Pretending That their brutish confidence is beyond the best dressers skill Psal 80.30 The Boar out of the wood doth waste it and the wilde Beast of the field doth devour it Et atroces insidiatores aperti grassatores Ecclesiam divastare contendunt tam marte quà m arte Aug. Matth. 9.38 Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest Matth. 8.32 The whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the Sea and perished in the waters Immundi illi Ministâ—i inordinati Doctores per ignorantiae temeritatis superbiae praecipitia feruntur in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profunditates Satanae Apoc. 2.24 in errotum blasphemiarum confusionum omnium abyssum Chemnit that their irregular rootings are better than the carefullest diggings that their rude croppings and tearings are beyond any orderly prunings or wary weedings that their sordid wallowings and filthy confusions are before any seasonable manurings that there needs no skilful Husbandmen or faithful Laborers of the Lords sending the Churches ordaining or the faithful peoples approving where so many devout swine and holy hogs will take care to plant water dress and propagate the Vine of the true Christian Reformed Religion to which the hearts of men are naturally no propitious soyl Nor is the event as to the happiness of this Church and its Reformed Religion to be expected other without a miracle if once those unordeined unclean and untried spirits be suffered to possess the Pulpits and places of true and able Minishers than such as befel those forenamed cattel when once Christ permitted the devils to enter into them All truth order piety peace and purity of Religion together with the Function of the Ministry will be violently carried into and choaked in the midst of the Sea of most tempestuous errors and bottomless confusions 29. Absurdities The impious absurdities enormious bablings and endless janglings whereby some men endeavor to dishonor and destroy the whole Function of the reformed and established Ministry in this Church and to surrogate in their places either Romish Agitators or a ragged Regiment of new and necessitous
flourishing Churches Whether I say these should continue in their place and power wherein God hath set them and out pious Predecessors have maintained them in this Church and Nation or these yesterday-novelties the politick whimseys and Jesuitick inventions of some heady but heartless-men should usurp and prevail in this Church after sixteen hundred years prescription against them and which are already found to have in them besides their novelty such emptiness flatness vanity disorder deformity and unproportionableness to the great end of right ordering Christian societies of saving of souls by edifying them in truth and love Eph. 4.10 11 12 13. that they have been already productive of such dreadful effects both in opinions and practises Mirabutur ingemuit â—â—hâ— se tam citò fieri Arianum Jeròn cont Lucif John 14.16 The Comforter even the Spirit of Truth he shall abâ—de with you for ever that they make the Protestant and Reformed Churches stand amased to see any of their kinde bring forth such Monsters of Religion as seem rather the fruit of some Incubus some soul and filthy spirits deluding and oppressing this Reformed Church than of that blessed and promised Spirit whose power whose rule whose servants have always been the most exactly and constantly holy â—ust and pure For any true Christians then to allow and foster such prodigies of Protestant Religion as some are bringing forth seems no less preposterous than if men should resolve to put out their eyes and to walk both blindfold and backwards or to renverse the body by setting the feet above the head Indeed it is putting the Reformed Religion to the Strapado and crucifying Christ again as they did Saint Peter after a new posture with his head downwards As if in kindness to any men they should take away their souls and make them move like Puppets by some little springs wyars and gimmers or by the Sorcery of some Demoniack possession For want of the favor of such a publick tryal and vindication of the Ministry 31. Therefore this Apology endeavors the Ministers defence Gen. 41.14 Zach. 3.4 I have adventured to present to the view of all Excellent Christians in this Church this Apology By which I have endeavored to take off from the Josephs and Josedecks of this Church those prisons and filthy garments wherewith some men have sought to deform them and to wash off from their grave countenances and angelike aspects the chiefest of those scandals and aspersions under which for want of solid reasons or just imputations against their persons and calling by some mens unwashen hands and foul mouths whose restless spirits cast out nothing but dirt and mire against them they are now so much disfigured to the world Isai 57. The wicked is as a troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Tertul. Apolog. 2 Cor. 10.10 His bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible so the false apostles the ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11.13 The deceitful workers reproached St. Paul behinde his back That so odious disguises as of old to the Christians may render them less regarded and more abhorred by vulgar people This art of evil tongues and pens serving to colour excuse or justifie the injustice cruelty barbarity unthankfulness and irreligion of those who seek first to bait them in the Theatre by all publick disgracings and then to dispatch them Veri criminis defectus falsis supplet calumniis factis innocentes verbis deturpat matitia Sulpit. Docratistarum antesignanti B. Augustinum seductorem ani marum deceptorem clamitabant ut lupum occidendum tale facinus perpetraâ—i remistionem peccatorum obventurum Possid vit August For against these Beasts as Saint Paul sometime at Ephesus whom no reason learning gravity merit parts graces or age doth tame or mitigate the true Ministers of the Gospel even in this Reformed Church of England have now to contend for their Calling Liberties and Livelihood yea for their lives too if the Lord by the favor and justice of those that have wisdom courage and piety answerable to their places and power do not rescue and protect them 32. What Ministers I plead for 2 Cor. 2.17 Not as many which corrupt the Word of God 2 Cor. 11.13 Tit. 3.10 Nihil deformius est sacerdote claudicante qui non aequis rectis pedibus incedit in viis Domini Greg. Plus destruit sâ—nistra pravae viâ—ae quà m astruit dextra sanae doctrinae Bern. Non confundant opera tua sermonem tuum Proditores suâ— non praedicatores Christi quibus factis deficientibus viâ—a crubescit Jeron ad Nepot Nisi praeâ—â—es quod praedicas mendacium non Evangelium videbitur Lact. Inst lib. 3. cap. 16. Exemplum operis est sermo vivus efficatissimus Bern. Uâ— sumenti cibum non digerenti perniciosum est ita docenti non facienti peccatum est Id. Animata virtus est quae factis honestatur Cadaverosa qua verbis tantum macrescit Leo. Mysterium Theologiae non ut olim Philosophiae barba tuntum pallio celebratur Sed doctrinae sanitate vitae sanctitate Lact. If in any thing as weak and sinful men any of the true Ministers of this Church are indeed liable to just reproaches either of ignorance or idleness factiousness sedition any immorality or scandalous living and what Church of Christ can hope to be absolutely clear when even in Christs family and the Apostles times there was dross and chaff in the floor by Judas and Demas Simon Magus false Apostles deceitful workers Ministers of Satan c I am so far from excusing or pleading for them as to their personal errors and disorders that I should be a most severe advocate against them if after two or three admonitions they should be found incorrigible And this upon the same ground on which now I write this Apology namely in behalf of the honor of the Gospel the dignity of the true Ministry and the glory of the most sacred name of the Christians God and Saviour which idle evil unable and unfaithful Bishops and Ministers beyond all men cause to be blasphemed when they pull down more with the left hand of profaneness than they build with the right hand of their preaching betraying Christ with their kisses and smiting the Christian Reformed Religion under the fift rib when they seem with great respect to salute and embrace it Confuting what they say by what they do and hardning mens hearts to an unbelief of that doctrine which they contradict by the Solecism of their lives and maners either rowling great stones upon the mouth of the Fountain or poysoning the emanations of living waters or perforating the mindes and consciences of their hearers to such liberties and hypocrisies that they retain no more of true Religion and serious holiness than sieves can do of water As Salvian lib. 4. Facta verba sivi occinant Ambr. de Bo. m. Verba
futility a pueril vanity scarce a venial madness so much the worse in them by how much the contagion of their folly is prone to infect all that look upon them Non solum ipse cùm malè agit dignè perit sed alios secum indignè perdit Ambr. de Sa. dig Praepositorum vitia imitari obsequii genus videtur ne scelera ductoribus ex probrare viderentur si pie viverant Lact. Inst l. 5. for the plague and leprosie of a Ministers life cannot be kept within his private walls There is nothing more delicate and abhorring all sinful sords than the Ermine of Christian Religion and its true Ministry which sets forth the Lamb of God without spot or blemish who came to take away the sinful stains of mens souls by the effusion of his pretious blood The care of all good Ministers is so to live as shall not need the impotent severities of those Reformers who joy as much to finde faults in others as to mend none in themselves and are always eloquent against their own sins in other men Allow us onely to be as Ministers of the Gospel for the Churches good we desire no indulgences farther than the duty and dignity of our Calling doth allow and the strictest Conscience may bear No men shall more welcome mens favors than we shall do their just severities nor do we desire greater testimonies of mens loves to us than such as we use for the greatest witness of ours to them by never suffering them to sin through our silence or flatteries Let the righteous smite us and it shall be a kindness let them reprove us and reform us and it shall be a balm which shall not break our heads Psal 141.5 but our prayer shall ever be That we may not taste of the new dainties of those supercilious censurers and envious reformers of Ministers who are their enemies because they tell them the old truths and make them offenders for a word Isai 29.21 because they will not forbear to reprove their wickedness who heretofore seemed to hear them gladly till they touched their Herodiasses Mark 6.20 The less scandalous Ministers are the more that Hypocritical generation who have set themselves against them are bent to destroy them I intercede onely for such whose greatest offence is Eò acriores sunt odii causa quò magis iniquae Tacit. An. 1. That they give lest offence to any good Christians and do most good to this Church preserving still the purity and honor of their Calling and the Reformed Religion against the many policies of those who lie in wait to destroy it who are honored with and are an honor to the Function of the Ministry whose competent and in some excellent learning and holy lives Eò gratiori lumine quò spissiores tenebrae Tert. makes them still appear like bright stars in a dark and stormy night amidst the thick and broken clouds of envy and calumny which rove far beneath them however they are sometime darkned by their interposing If as to these mens holy Function Ordination and Authority I may be happy to give you O excellent Christians or any others any satisfaction as a Calling useful and necessary to the Church as of Divine Institution and Catholike practise in all setled Churches I shall then leave it to any men of good conscience to infer how barbarous and Antichristian a design it is how bad and bitter consequences it must needs produce by any arts and ways of humanâ— power and policy to destroy and exautorate these men and their Ministry in whose lives and labors the glory of God the honor of Jesus Christ and the good of mens souls are so bound up that theâ— cannot without daily miracles be separated or severally preserved And for the persons of the Ministers which I plead for I hoâ—â— to make it appear That for their casting thus into the fiery furnace 〈◊〉 mechanick scorn and fanatick fury or into the Lyons den of publick odium and disfavor there will be found by impartial Readerâ— of this Apology Acts 4.18 Gal. 4.16 Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth no more cause than was against Daniel or the threâ— children no more than for beheading John Baptist or stoning St. Stephen for beating and imprisoning the Apostles and charging them to speak no more in that Name of Jesus or for the Galatians hating St. Paul or the Beasts slaying the witnesses or the Jews seeking to stone and after crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ 33. Ministers infirmities do not abrogate their Authority or Office Not but that the very best Ministers of this Church own themselves still to be but poor sinful men and so not strangers to the common passions and infirmities of humane nature Men must not be angry that Ministers are not Angels or such Seraphins and flaming fires as admit no dross or defects incident to sinful mortality Though they oft fail as men yet have they not forfeited the Authority of their Calling as Ministers though they have dispenced the Gospel in weakness as earthen vessels yet hath the Treasure of Heaven and Power of God been manifested by them and in them Take them with all their personal failings yet they will hardly be matched or exceeded by any order of men or any Clergy in any Church under Heaven for they have not been behinde the very chiefest of true Ministers and far beyond any of these new pretenders Insomuch That I have oft been ashamed to see the necessity of this Apology Pro desensione samae licita est laus proptia Reg. Jac. 2 Cor. 12.11 and such like Vindications of the Ministry which ungrateful and impudent men extort from the Ministers of England when indeed as St. Paul pleads for himself instead of thus being compelled to an unwelcome yet just glorying they ought rather to have been commended and encouraged by others Truly it is to me a great trouble to finde out by any of their confused Pamphlets and obscure Papers what these Modellers of a new Ministry would be at in any reason of piety or prudence more to the advantage of this Church or the Reformed Christian Religion than hath been heretofore and may still be effected and enjoyed by the true and antient Ministry Would they have better Scholars in all kindes of good learning Acuter Disputants in controversies Clearer Interpreters in Commentaries upon the Sacred Texts Better Linguists More solid Preachers More pathetick Orators more fervent Prayers higher Speculatists in all true Devotionals Exacter Writers in all kindes of Divinity Would they have more grave comely prudent and consciencious dispencers of all holy Mysteries Or nobler examples of all piety and virtue than those which have every where abounded in the Ministers of the Church of England according to the several measures of their gifts and graces No I finde their enemies envy is more than their pity Non laudabisi pietatis aemulatione
sed improba virtutis invidia feruntur qui virtutem aspiciunt intabescuntque relicta Casaub For one century of scandalous Ministers which I fear was not so made up by exact sifting the pretioâ—â— from the vile but that it hudled up and kneaded some finer flowre with some bran How many hundreds were there then and are still of unblamable of commendable of excellent and most imitable Ministers in this Church As weighty as fair and as fit every way yea far beyond what any new stamp is likely to be for all holy admistrations But I finde it is not any new Truth or Gospel or Sacraments or Gifts or Graces or Virtues or Morals or Rationals or Reals which these new Ministers require or can with any forehead pretend All is but an affectation for the most part to have the same things in a new and worse way which because it is of their own invention they so eagerly quarrel at the former order maner of our Church and Ministry Many would have the same meat else they must starve Multi novitatis amore in veritatis odium praejudicium feruntur Quum illud pulcherrimum quòd verissimum id verissimum quòd antiquissimum Tert. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Hel. or feed upon the wind onely it must be new dressed and dished up to the mode of Familistick hashes and Socinians Quelques choses Keckshoes by more plain and popular hands than those of the learned Ministers They would have a generation of Teachers rise up unsown out of the dust whose father should be corruption and whose sister confusion More vulgar submiss precarious facile dependent Preachers who should more consider an act or ordinance of man than a command of Scripture or dictate and stroke of Conscience be more steered by the events and various successes of Providence than by the constant precepts and oracles of Gods written Word Whose common places of divinity must fit any Eutopian Common-wealth what ever any power and policy shall form to their new fancies and interests whose Preaching and Praying shall make Christ and the Scriptures and the Sacraments all holy things and the Ministry it self of the Church meanly servile and compliant to any State design and secular projects Just as the sorry Almanack-makers do who command the Sun and Moon and Stars and the whole host of Heaven to assist any party whom they list to flatter or hope to feed upon Such planetary Preachers all true Ministers abhor to be and such their enemies deserve to have or to be who observing the winds of worldly and State variations Eccles 11.4 shall never sow the good seed of true Religion nor ever serve the Lord while they slavishly and sinfully serve the times Not but that all good Ministers know as wise and humble men how to be content in what Staâ—â— soever they are and to be subject to civil powers in all honest things Phil. 4.11 Rom. 13.5 with gratitude and due respect yet not so as to prostrate God to level Christ to subject Conscience to debase the glorious Gospel its due Reformation and its true Ministry and divinâ— Authority to the boundless lusts and endless designs of violent and rest less mindes Against all which and chiefly against those plots and practises which aim to overthrow the Reformed Christian Religion of this Church and its Ministry I desire this Apology may be as a Pillar and Monument to posterity of my perfect abhorrency That when I am dead â—f it hath any spark in it of an immortal spirit or living genius it may testifie for me and my Brethren the Ministers of my minde Luke 23.50 in after ages that as Joseph of Arimathea we neither gave counsel nor consent to those wilde or wicked projects which the ages will afterward see attended with most sad and deplorable effects either of Atheism Profaneness Ignorance and Barbarity or of Popish superstitions Heretical oppressions and Schismatical confusions which will follow the alteration and rejection of the antient true and Catholike Ministry of this Reformed Church which cannot but be attended with the subversion of many souls as to all stability or soundness in true Religion with the unsatisfaction of many and with the unspeakable grief and scandal of all those good Christians who love and wish the prosperity of this Church which I shall now endeavor to prove to be of a most Christian and Evangelical constitution chiefly by answering what is alleged by those who look upon both Church and Ministry as reprobate and would fain have power to damn them both without redemption And this they endeavor with as much justice and truth as Satan accused Job Job 1. and would have provoked God to destroy him without a cause OBJECTION I. That we have no true Ministry because no true Church-way in England I Finde there are many and great things objected by the Antiministerial party through ignorance weakness mistake or malice not onely against the Ministers and the peculiar office of the Ministry but also against the whole frame of our Religion especially as to the extern social maner of our holy Administrations Some of them deny us to be any true Ministers because not in any way of a true Church not having any true Religion owned or established and exercised among us in any right Church-way as they call it So that it is not onely the main pillars of Christianity the learned and godly Ministry which they would change But the whole model of our Church and frame of our Religion is that which these men would remove either pulling it down by force or undermining by fraud Therefore I have thought it necessary in the first place to countermine against these Moles and to establish against these Shakers and Subverters of the very foundations of our Church and Religion Here I must crave leave of you Answ 1. to whose favor I have dedicated this work whose highest excellency is your Christian Reformed Religion who esteem it your greatest glory with the Emperor Theodosius That you are Members of this Reformed Church and in this of the true Catholike Church to give these fanatick and cavilling disputers against our Ministry some account of that Religion which we profess and of that so much disputed and by some despised Church-way wherein we take our selves to be as upon surer grounds of divine truth so with much more order and decency as to antient patern and prudence than themselves That so as good Christians may be comforted and confirmed in their holy Profession so the world may see That we are neither ignorant our selves nor willingly deceivers of others in so great a matter as Religion is Of true Religion Vera est religio quae uni vero Deo animas nostras religat Aug. de Relig. Micah 6.8 James 1.27 which we publickly have professed and preached in this Church both with science and conscience with judgement and integrity First then We esteem True Religion to be the right
performance of those duties which we ow to the One onely true God or to any Creature for his sake That is upon such grounds to such ends and after such maner as God requires them of us in the several relations wherein we stand obliged to him or them Internal Lux est religionis in conscientia lumen in conversatione Bern. 1 Cor. 2.11 1 John 1.3 3.19 Nec deest Christus ubi est fides nec ecclesia ubi Christus nec societas ubi charitas nec templum ubi cor sanctum Cypr. This Religion is discharged by us first Internally in the Receptions and Motions of an enlightned and sanctified Soul to which none can immediately be conscious but onely God and a mans own spirit Herein we conceive the very soul life and quintessence of true Religion doth consist so far as it is to be considered apart from all outward expressions visible Form Society or Church Communion onely as having spiritual inward converse and fellowship with God and Christ by the graces of the holy Spirit although Christians should be in desarts dungeons prisons solitudes and sick beds amidst all forced sordidness disorders and dissolutions of any shew and profession of Religion as to the outward man This sincerity wants nothing of extern fashion or ornament to compleat its piety but is satisfactory both to God and a mans own conscience by that integrity of a judicious holy and devout heart which hath devoted all its powers and faculties to the knowledge meditation adoration imitation love and admiration of God according as he was pleased in various times and maners to reveal himself to it Heb. 1.1 As partly yet but darkly by the light of reason in rational and moral principles seconded with fears and strokes of Conscience which is a beam and candle of the Lord in the soul of man Prov. 20.27 Lucerna Domini Scintillans in intellectu radians in voluntate ardens in affectu fumans in desiderio flammans in amore scrutans iâ— conscientia exhilarans in virtute torquens in facinore Bern. 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.19 Matth. 10.26 Gal. 6.1 Et solidè fundanda ad amussim Scripturâ aedificanda veritate stabilienda charitate consummanda religio August Eò pulchrior est anima quo ad summam Dei pulchritudinem propius accedit Bradward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. N. s but more clearly by supernatural manifestations in dreams and visions in audible voices prophetical revelations or angelical missions By all which religious light was onely occasional and traditional but now most evidently compleatly and constantly in that declaration of his will to mankinde which is contained in the lively oracles of his now written and perfect Word the onely infallible rule of a good Conscience and foundation of true Religion According to which onely we measure it both as to its internals which are summarily comprehended in the love of God and its externals which are compleated in that charity which for Gods sake we bear and really exercise toward all men but chiefly to the houshold of faith that is the Church or Society of those who profess to believe in Jesus Christ as the onely Saviour of sinners This well-grounded and well-guided Religion as it is then an Internal Judicious and Sincere devoting of the whole soul to God as the supreme good offered us in Jesus Christ We esteem the highest honor and beauty of the reasonable soul the divinest stamp or character on mans nature the noblest property and capacity of the immortal spirit in us demonstrating not onely its common relation to the Creator which all things have but the Creators peculiar favor and indulgence to man whom he teacheth to fear enableth to serve and encourageth to love him above all As also mans capacity to attain that knowledge of the divine wisdom and that fruition of the divine love which onely can make it truly and eternally happy For true Religion thus seated in the soul of man 2. True Religion not barely speculative but also practical is not barely a speculative knowledge of God according to what his wisdom hath revealed of himself in his works and word As that he is what he is not as to any defects what he is in all positive excellencies in himself which yet is a great and divine light shining upon mans understanding from experience and from the historick parts of the Scripture But further it also shew us what God is to us in Nature Grace Law Gospel Works Word Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niss de prof Chrâ—stians and Christs Incarnation what we are to God in Christ for duty and dependance what all things are to us as they are in God that is in his wisdom will power providence c. either making or preserving or disposing them for our good and his glory According to which light we come to desire to love to enjoy God in all things Eph. 1.23 and all things in him that is within those bounds of honor order and those lesser ends which he hath set in reference to the great ends of our good and his glory which are as a lesser circle in a greater having both the same centres At length God becomes the joy life beauty exaltation and happiness of the believing soul by it s often contemplations of him and sincere devotions to him whence we come to have an humble sight ingenuous shame penitential sorrow and just abhorrence of our sinfulness vanity deformity vileness and nothingness compared to God and apart from him After this our wills come to be enclined to him as the most excellent good and perfecting Beauty drawn after him and duly affected with him to fear him for his power and justice to venerate him for his excellent majesty and glory to admire him for incomprehensible perfection to love him for his goodness in himself in all things and in Christ above all in whom his love grace and bounty is most clearly discovered and freely conveyed to us We come to believe him for his veracity or infallible truth in his Law and Gospel to be guided by his unerring wisdom and directions which are discerned in the mandates of his Word to us and agreeable motions of his Spirit in us which are always conform to each other Virtus Spiritus sancti in mâ—tibus veritas verbi in mandatis suavissiâ—â— inseparabili nexu conjuncta sunt nec magis ab invicem distrahi possunt quà m calor solis à nativo lumine Quum à Spiritu sit veritas ut inveritate sit Spiritus necesse est August We come also to obey him in all things for his soverein Empire and Authority to trust in him at all times for his faithfulness and immutability to hope in him and to wait patiently for the consummation of his rich and pretious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 both in grace and glory All which we believe upon the divine testimony of the written
banishment prison captivity sickness c. Yet that Christian belief love and charity which such an one bears to Christ and to the Catholike Church of Christ scattered in many places and different in many ceremonial rites and observations These I say do infallibly invest this solitary Christian in communion and holy fellowship with the whole Church of Christ in all the World as brethren and sisters are related as near kinred when they are never so far a sunder in place which owns the same God believes the same common salvation by the same Lord Jesus useth the same seals of the blessed Sacraments Ephes 4.5 Jude 2. professeth the same ground of faith and rule of holiness the written Word of God and bears the like gracious and charitable temper to others as sanctified by same Spirit of Christ which really unites every charitable and true believer to Christ and so to every Mâ—mber of true Church however it may want opportunities to express this communion in actual and visible conversation either civil or sacred by enjoying that society as men or that ordinary ministry as Christians which is by Christ appointed in the Church as well for its outward profession distinction and mutual assistance as for its inward comfort and communion with himself The willing neglect of all such extern communion and the causeless separation from all Church-fellowship in Word Sacraments Prayer Order and charitable Offices must needs be inconsistent with any comfort because against charity and so far against true Religion and the hopes of salvation For those inward graces wherein the life and soul of Religion do consist are not ordinarily attained or maintained but by those outward means and ministrations which the wisdom of God in Christ hath appointed for the Churches social good and edification together In the right enjoyment of which consists that extern and joynt celebration or profession of Christian Religion which gives Being name and distinction to that society which we call The Church of Christ on Earth And this indeed is that Church properly which is called out of the World which as men we may discern and of which both in elder and later times so many disputes have been raised which we may describe to be An holy company or fraternity of Christians who being called by the Ministry of the Gospel to the knowledge of God in Christ do publickly profess in all holy ways and orderly institutions that inward sense of duty and devotion which they ow to God by believing and obeying his Word Also that charity which they ow to all men especially to those that profess to be Christs Disciples and hold communion with his Body the Catholike Church Herein I conceive That the social outward profession of Religion 7. Of the Church as a visible society of Professors believing in Christ. Ea est Catholica ecclesia quae unicam candem semper ubique fidem in Christo veram Scripturis sundatam profitetur Vâ—n Lyrin Eph. 2.9 As Fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Ye are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone c. as it is held forth in the Word of God in its Truths Seals Duties and Ministry makes a true Church among men And the true Church as Catholike yea any part or branch of this true Catholike Church whose Head Foundation Rites Seals Duties and Ministry are for the main of the same kinde in all times and places cannot but make a right profession of true Religion as to the main essence and fundamentals which consists in truth holiness and charity However there may be many variations differences and deformities in superstructures both of opinion and practise For however particular Churches which have their limits of time and place and persons circumstances which necessarily circumscribe all things in this world are still as distinct arms and branches of a great Tree issuing from one and the same root Jesus Christ and have the same sap of truth and life conveyed in some measure to them 1 Cor. 3.12 If any man build upon this foundation gold c. stâ—bble c. V. 15. If his work be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved Eph. 4.4 There is one Body and one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism c. V. 16. The whole body is fitly joyned together according to the effectual working in the measure of every part c. Uâ—us Deus unam sidem tradidit unam ecclesiam toto orbe diffudit hanc aspicit hanc diligit hanc dâ—fendit Quolibet se quisque nomine tegat si huic non societur alienus est si hanc impugnet inimicus est Oros 7. c. 35. Joh. 15.2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit my Father taketh away 2 Pet. 2.1 2 Tim. 2.18 1 Cor. 12.25 That there should be no schism in the body 2 Joh. 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath the Father and the Son by the same way of the right Ministry of the Word Sacraments and Spirit so that in these respects they are all of one and the same Catholike Body communion descent and derivation yet as these have their external distinctions and severings in time place persons and maners or any outward rites of profession and worship so they usually have distinct denominations and are subject to different accidents as well as proportions Some branches of the same Tree may be withering mossy cancred peeled broken and barren yea almost dead yet old and great and true Others may be more flourishing fruitful clean and entire though of a latter shooting for time and of a lesser extension for number and place yet still of the same Tree so far as they have really or onely seemingly and in the judgement of charity communion with relation to and dependance on the Root and bulk being neither quite broken off and dead by Heretical Apostacies denying the Lord that bought them or damnable errors which overthrow the Faith nor yet slivered and rent by Schismatical uncharitableness proud or peevish rents and divisions Which last although they do not wholly kill and câ—op off from all communion with the Church of Christ yet they so far weaken and wither Religion in the fruits and comforts of it as each Schism pares off from its sect and faction that Rinde and Bark as it were of Christian love and mutual charity through which chiefly the sap and juyce of true Religion with the graces and comforts of it are happily and most thrivingly conveyed to every living branch of the Catholike Church so as to make it live at least and bring forth some good fruit however it be not so strong fair and ample as others may be As the Church of Sardis which had a * Rev. 3.1 name to live and was dead in some part and proportion
yet is bid to watch and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die c. 8. Of the Church as called Catholike See learned Dr. Field of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this point then Touching the true Church of Christ in regard of outward profession and visible communion to the touch of which part my design thus leads me I purpose not so far to gratifie the endless and needless janglings of any adversaries of this Church of England as to plunge my self or the Reader into the wide and troubled Sea of controversie concerning the Church Considering that many good Christians have been and still are in the true Catholike Church by profession of that true faith and holy obedience which unite to the Head Jesus Christ and by charity which combines the members of his Body together although they never heard the dispute or determination of this so driven a controversie As many are in health and sound who never were under Physicians hands or heard any Lecture of Anatomy Yea although they may be cut off and cast out of the particular communion of any Church by the Anathemaes and excommunicating sentences of some injurious and passionate Members of that Church yet may they continue still in communion with Christ and consequently with his Catholike Church that is with all those who either truly have or profess to have communion with Christ My purpose is onely to give an account as I have done of true Religion in the internal power of it so also of the true Church as to the external profession of Religion That thereby I may establish the faith and comforts of all sober and good Christians in this Church of England That they may not be shaken corrupted or rent off by their own instability and weakness or by the fraud and malice of those who glory more in the proselytes they gain to fanatick factions by uncharitable rendings from this Church than in any communion they might have in humble and charitable ways with the Catholike Church or any of the greater and nobler parts of it which they most impertinently deny to be any Churches or capable of any order power joynt authority larger government or ampler communion For the Catholike Church of Christ that is Ignat. ep ad Phil. Cypr. de unitate Eccl. Solis multi radii unum lumen August lib. de unitate ecclesiae Et omnes patres Eph. 1.22 Christ the Head over all things to the Church 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth Heb. 12.23 The Church of the first-born Tot ac tanta ecclesia una est illa ab Apostolis prima ex qua omnes Tertul. de prae ad Hae. c. 30. Eph. 3.10 21. 5.23 Christ the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the Body V. 32. Christ and the Church Col. 1.18 Christ the Head of the Body the Church 1 Cor. 12. The Body is not one Member but many c. vidâ— the universality of those who profess to believe in the name of Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures That this is primarily and properly called a Church often in Scripture there is no doubt As the whole is called a Body in its integrality or compleatness of parts and organs whose every limb and part is corporeal too and of the Body as to its nature kinde or essence This Church which is called The Spouse and Body of Christ is as its Head but one in its integrality or comprehensive latitude as the Ark containing all such as profess the true faith of Christ And to this are given as all powers and faculties of nature to the whole man primarily and eminently those powers privileges gifts and titles which are proper to the Church of Christ however they are orderly exercised by some particular parts or members for the good of the whole The essence integrality and unity of this Catholike Church consists not in any local convention or visible communion or publick representation of every part of it but in a mysterious and religious communion with the same God Ecclesia in universum mundi disseminata unam domum habitans unam animam cor os abet Iraen l. 1. c. 3. Eph. 4.4 5. Jude 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just M. Dial. cum Tryphone by the same Mediator Jesus Christ and to this Mediator Jesus Christ by the same Word and Spirit as to the internal part of Religion also by profession of the same Truth and common Salvation joyned with obedience to the same Gospel and holy Ministry with charity and comly order as to the external In this so clear an Article of our Faith I need not bestow my pains since it is lately handled very fully learnedly and calmly by a godly Minister of this Church of England * Mr. Hudson of the Catholike Church Tot tantae ecclesiae una est illa ab Apostolis prima dum unam omnes praebent veritatem Tert. de prae to whose Book I refer the Christian Reader 9. Of a National Church or distinct and larger part of the Catholick This name of Church being evidently given to the universality of those who by the Ministry of the Gospel are called out of the way of the World and by professing of it and submitting externally to its holy Ministry Order Rules Duties and Institutes are distinguished from the rest of the World It cannot be hard for any sober understanding to conceive in what aptitude of sense any part of this Catholike Church is also called a Church with some additional distinctions and particular limitations visible and notable among men and Christians by which some are severed from others in time place persons or any other civil discriminations of policy and society Which give nearer and greater conveniences as to the enjoyment and exercise of humane and civil so of Christian communion and the offices or benefits of religious relations 1 Cor 1.2 To the Church of God which is at Corinth Acts 13.1 The Chu ch of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 14.23 Tit. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 2. 3. Ecclesiam apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt Apostolâ— Ã quibus traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae ecclesiae mutuatae sunt Tertul. de Prae. c. 20. Consuetudo est certissima loquendi norma Quinâ—il The Spirit of God in the Scripture gives sufficient warrant to this stile and language calling that a Church as of Rome Ephesus Corinth Jerusalem Antioch c. which consisted of many Congregations and Presbyters in a City and its Territory or Province So the Apostle Paul in his Epistles to several Churches distinguisheth them by the civil and humane distinctions of place and Magistracy and the Spirit of Christ to the Asiatick Churches calleth each a Church distinctly which were in great associations of many faithful under many Presbyters And these under some chief Presidents Apostles Angels or Bishops residing
in the prime or Mother Cities where Christianity was first planted end from whence it spred to the Territories or Provinces about One would think besides common speech among all Christians which is sufficient to justifie what word is used to express our meanings to others That this were enough to confute the simplicity or peevishness of those who to carry on new projects dare aver That they know no such thing as a National Church 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are an holy Nation a peculiar people may be said of any Christians and with much coyness disdain to own or understand any relation of order duty subordination or charity they have to any such Church Of which they say they know no virtue no use no necessity no conveniencies as to any Christian and Religious ends Which so wilful and affected ignorance was never known till these latter and perilous times had found out the pleasure of Paradoxes by which men would seem wiser and more exact both in their words and fancies than either pious antiquity or the Scriptures Hoping by such gross and unexpected absurdities which would fain appear very shie and scrupulous in language to colour over Shismatical and Anarchical designs and under such fig-leaves to hide the shame and folly of their factious agitations and humors which makes them unwilling to be governed by any in Church or State without themselves have an oar in the Boat and a share in the Government This poor concernment of some mens small ambitions makes them disown any Church but such a conventicle or parcel as some men fancy to collect and call which they infect with the same fancies of sole and full Churchship and separate Power Whereas the Lord Jesus Christ always first called men by his Ministers to his Church and by Baptism admitted them and by meet Governors whom he sent and ordained ruled them as his flock in greater as well as lesser parties Gen. 32. as Jacob did his distinct flocks in the hands of his sons By the same Cynical severity these men may deny they have relation to any other men being themselves compleat men or at most that they are to regard none but their families where they live and so cast off all observance to any greater Societies in Towns or Cities or Commonweals yea and all sense of humanity to the generality of mankinde whom they shall never see together or be acquainted with Who doubts notwithstanding this morose folly but that as in all right reason equity and humanity every man is related by the common nature to all mankinde so also to particular polities and societies of men greater or smaller according to the distinct combinations into which providence hath cast him with them either in Cities or Countreys With whom to refuse communion and disown relation is to sin against the common principles of society order and government which are in mans nature which God hath implanted Reason suggests and all wise men have observed for the obtaining of an higher and more common good by the publick and united influence of the counsel strength and authority of many than can be obtained in scattered parcels or small and weaker fraternities In like maner to be in and of the Church is not onely to be a true believer which gives internal and real union to Christ and to all true Christians in the Church Catholike Ecclesia una est quae in multitudinem latius incremento facunditatis extenditur Cyp. de Eccl. unit 1 Cor. 2.11 What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him of which no man can judge because he cannot discern it save onely in the judgement of charity But it implies also to have and to hold that profession of Christian Religion in such external polities and visible communion with others as the providence of God both offers and requires of us according to the time place and opportunities wherein he sets us so as we may most promote the common good Which study and duty we own in humanity as men and more in charity as Christians to any Church or society of Christians To whom our counsel and power or our consent and subjection may adde a further authority a more harmonious and efficacious influence than can be from small or ununited parcels So that a National Church that is such a Society of Christians as are distinct by civil limits and relation from other Nations may not onely own and accordingly act as they are men related in things civil but also as Christians they may own and wisely establish such a Church power relation and association in matters of Religion as may best preserve themselves in true Doctrine holy Order Christian peace and good maners by joynt counsel and more vigorous power The neerness which they have affording greater opportunities to impart and enjoy the benefit of mutual counsel and charity and all other communicable abilities to a nobler measure and higher proportion than can be had in lesser bodies or combinations This joynt publick and united authortiy of any Church in any Nation or Kingdom is so far from being slighted as some capricious mindes do that it is the more to be venerated and regarded by all good Christians who know that duty enlarges with relations and a greater charity is due from us to greater communities both of men and of Christians Odia quo iniquiora eo magis a cerba Tacit. The greatest vexation of these new Modellers is That they have so little with truth modesty or charity to say against this famous National Church of England and its Ministry For they daily see notwithstanding all their specious pretensions and undefatigable agitations the more as winds they seek to shake and subvert well-rooted Christians the more they are confirmed and setled in that Christian communion 9. Charity necessary in any true Church and Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Camer de Melan which they have upon good grounds both of Reason and Religion Polity and Charity with this Church of England as their Mother Which blessing all wise Christians and well ordered Churches ever owned and enjoyed among themselves as parts of the Catholik in their several distinctions and society In these points of the true Church and true Religion however I covet to be short yet I shall be most serious and as clear as may be writing nothing to other mens Consciences which I do not first read in mine own and of which I know account must be given by me at Christs tribunal And truly I am as loth to deceive others as to erre my self in matters of so great concernment Nulla erroris secta sam contra Christi verit atem nist nomine cooperta Christiano ad pugnandum prosilire audet August ep 56. as true Religion and the true Church are Both which every Sect and Party of Christians chalenge to themselves and those no doubt with most right and truest comfort who do it
Primatum suum non objecit Petrus nec inerrabilitatem sed Paulo veritatis assertori cesset Documentum patientiae concordiae Cyp. ep 71. for deciding controversies of Religion and ending all Disputes of Faith in the Church Catholike countervail the injury of this his usurpation and oppression Considering that nothing is more by Scripture Reason and Experience not so much disputable as fully to be denied by any sober Christians than that of the Popes Infallibility which as the Church never ye enjoyed so nor doth any Church or any Christian indeed want any such thing as this infallible judge is imagined to be in order to either Christian course or comfort If indeed the Bishop of Rome and those learned men about him would without faction flattery partiality and self-interest joyn their learning counsels and endeavors in common to reform the abuses to compose the rents and differences in the Christian World by the rule of Scripture and right Reason with Christian humility prudence and charity which look sincerely to a publick and common good they would do more good for the Churches of Christ than any imaginary Infallibility will ever do yea and they would do themselves no great hurt in civil respects if they could meet and joyn not with envious and covetous but liberal and ingenuous Reformers who will not think as many the greatest deformities of any Church to be the riches and revenues of Church-men Certainly in points of true Religion to be believed or duties to be practised as from divine command every Christian is to be judge of that which is propounded to him and embraced by him according to what he is rationally and morally able to know and attain by those means which God hath given him of Reason Scripture Ministry and good examples Of all which the gifts or graces of God in him have inabled him seriously and discreetly to consider Nor is he to rest in either implicite or explicite dictates presumptions and Magisterial determinations of any frail and sinful men who may be as fallible Magnum ingenium magna tentatio De Orig. Tert. Vin. Lirin 1 Cor. 8.7 Knowledge puffeth up 2 Pet. 2.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you Eph. 4.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2.10 Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved as himself For whereas they may exceed him in gifts of knowledge they may also exceed him in passions self-interests pride and policy so that he may not safely trust them on their bare word and assertion but he must seek to build his faith on the more sure Word of God which is acknowledged by all sides to be the surest director what to believe to do and to hope in the way of Religion Nor may any private Christians unletteredness that cannot read or his weaker intellect that cannot reason and dispute or his many incumberances of life that deny him leisure to read study compare meditate c. These may not discourage him as if he were a dry tree and could neither bear nor reap any fruit of Christian Religion because he hath no infallible guide or judge Since the mercy of God accepts earnest endeavors and an holy life according to the power capacy and means a man hath also he pardons unwilling errors when there is an obedience from the heart to the truths we know and a love to all truth joyned with humility and charity In order therefore to relieve the common defects of men as to the generality of them both in Cities and in Countrey Villages where there is little learning by the Book or Letter and great dulness with heavy labor the Lord of his wisdom and mercy hath appoint d that constant holy order of the Ministry to be always continued in the Church that so learned studious and able men being duly tryed approved and ordained to be Teachers and Pastors may by their light knowledge and plenty supply the darkness simplicity and penury of common people who must every man be fully perswaded in his own minde Rom. 14.5 in matters of conscience and be able to give a reason of that faith and hope which is in him beyond the credit of any meer man or the opinion of his infallibility 1 Pet. 3.15 However they may with comfort and confidence attend upon their lips whom in an holy succession of Ministry God hath given to them as the ordinary and sufficient means of Faith And however a plain-hearted and simple Christian may religiously wait upon and rest satisfied with those holy means and mysteries which are so dispenced to him by true Ministers who ought above all to be both able and faithful to know and to make known the truth as it is in Jesus Yet may he not savingly or conscientiously relie in matters of Faith nor make his last result upon the bare credit or personal veracity of the Minister but he must consider and believe every truth not because the Minister saith it but because it is grounded on the Word of God and from thence brought him by his Minister which doctrine he judgeth to be true not upon the infallibility of any Teachers but upon that certainty which he believes to be in the Scripture to which all sorts of Christians do consent And to which the Grace and Spirit of God so draweth and enclineth the heart as to close with those divine truths to believe and obey them not for the authority of the Minister but of God the Revealer whose excellent wisdom truth and love it discerns in those things which are taught it by the Ministry of man So that still the simplest Christian doth savingly believe and conscientiously live according to what himself judgeth and is perswaded in his heart to be the Will of God in his Word and not after the dictates of any man Which either written or spoken have no more authority to command or perswade belief as to Religion than they appear to the believer and not to the speaker onely grounded on the sure Word of God and to be his minde and will to mankinde And as it is not absolutely necessary to every Christian in order to Faith and Salvation to be able with his own eyes to read and so to judge of the Letter of the Scripture so it is the more necessary that the reading and preaching of the Word should be committed to able and faithful men not who are infallible 2 Tim. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but who may be apt to teach and worthy to be believed Of whom the people may have great perswasion both as to their abilities and due authority to teach and guide them in the ways of God We read in Irenaeus Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. that in One hundred and fifty years after Christ many Churches of Christians toward the Caspian Sea and Eastward were very sound in the Faith and setled against
all Heretical or Schismatical insinuations when yet they never had any Bibles or Scriptures among them but onely retained that Faith which they at first had learned and were still taught by their Orthodox Bishops and Ministers which they never wanted in a due succession Of whose piety honesty and charity they were so assured as diligently to attend their doctrine and holy ministrations with which the blessing of God opening their harts as Lydia's still went along so as to keep them in true faith love and holy obedience Since then no man or men can give to others any such sure proofs and good grounds of their personal infallibility as the Scriptures have in themselves both by that more than humane lustre of divine truths in it which set forth most excellent precepts paterns and promises excellent morals and mysteries excellent rules examples and rewards beyond any Book whatsoever Also from that general credit regard and reception which they have and ever had with all and most with the best Christians in all ages as the Oracles of God delivered by holy and honest men for a rule of faith and holy life also for a ground of eternal hope Since that from hence onely even the Pope or any others that pretend to any infallibility or inspirations do first seek to ground those their pretensions of which every one that will be perswaded must first be judge of the reasons or grounds alleged to perswade him It is necessary that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallibility of the Scriptures must be first received and believed by every Christian in order to his being assured of any truth which thence is urged upon him to believe or do Which great principle setling a believer on the certainty or infallibility of the Scriptures as a divine rule of Faith and Life is never to be gained upon any mens judgements and perswasion be they either idiotick or learned unless there be such an authoritative Ministry and such Ministers to preach interpret open and apply the Scriptures by strong and convincing demonstrations which may carry credit and power with them The succession then of rightly ordained Ministers is more necessary to the Church than any such Papal infallibility in as much as it is more necessary to believe the Scriptures authority than any mans testimony which hath no credit but from the Scripture Which while the Pope or others do seek to wrest to their own secular advantages and ends they bring men at length to regard nothing they say nor at all to consider what they endlesly wrangle and groundlesly dispute about true Religion or the true Church 12. An able and right Ministry is beyond any pretended Infallibility So absolutely necessary and sufficient in the way of ordinary means is a right and duly ordained Ministry which Christ hath appointed to continue and propagate true Christian Religion which ever builds true Faith and the true Church upon the Scriptures That as there is no infallibility of the Pope or other man evident by any Reason Scripture or Experience so there needs none to carry on that great work of mens salvation which will then fail in any Church and Nation when the right Ministry fails by force or fraud If we can keep our true Christian Ministry and holy Ministrations we need not ask the Romanists or any other arrogant Monopolizers of the Church leave to own our selves true Christians and a part of the true Catholike Church of Christ which cannot be but there where there is a profession of the Christian Religion as to the main of it in its Truths Sacraments holy Ministrations and Ministry rightly ordained both for the ability of the ordained and the authority of the ordainers although all should be accompanied with some humane failings Where the now Roman Church then doth as we conceive either in their doctrine or practise vary from that Catholikely received rule the Scriptures which are the onely infallible certain and clear guide in things fundamental as to faith or maners we are forced so far justly and necessarily to leave them and their infallible fallibility in both yet charitably still so as to pity their errors to pray for their enlightning their repentance and pardon which we hope for Where no malice or corrupt lusts makes the additional errors pernicious and where the love of truth makes them pardonable by their consciencious obeying what they know and desire to know what they are yet ignorant of Yea and wherein they are conform to any Scriptures doctrine and practise or right reason good order and prudent polity there we willingly run parallel with and agreeable to them both in opinion and practise For we think we ought not in a heady and passionate way wholly to separate from any Church or cast away any branch of it that yet visibly professeth Christian Religion further than it rends and breaks it self off from the Word Institution and patern of Christ in the Scriptures and so either separates it self from us or casts us out from it uncharitably violating that Catholike communion of Christs Church which ought to be preserved with all possible charity The constancy and fidelity of the Church of Christ is more remarkable in its true Ministry holding forth in an holy succession the most Catholike and credible truth of the Scriptures which at once shews both the innate divine light in them and the true Church also which is built by them and upon them The truth of which Scriptures while we with charity believe and profess both in word and deed we take it to be the surest and sufficientest evidence to prove That we are a part of the true Church against the cavils and calumnies of those learneder Romanists upon whose Anvils others of far weaker arms have learned to forge the like fiery darts against this Church of England For on the other side the new Models of Independent 13. The contrary extreme reducing all Churches to small and single Congregations or Congregational Churches which seem like small Chapels of Ease set up to confront and rob the Mother Churches of Auditors Communicants Maintenance and Ministry winde up the cords and fold up the curtains of the true Church too short and too narrow Shrinking that Christian communion and visible polity or society of the Church to such small figures such short and broken ends of obscure conventicles and paucities that by their rigid separatings some men scarce allow the whole company of true Christians in all the world to be so great as would fill one Jewish Synagogue Fancying that no Church or Christian is sufficiently reformed till they are most diametrically contrary in every use and custom to the Roman fashion abhorring many things as Popish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. In vitium ducit culpae fugasi caret arte Hor. and Superstitious because used by the Papists When indeed they are either pious or very prudential yea many count it a special mark of their true
perversness carry with them hindring Christians from discerning even those objects that are round about them yea it is to be feared That some men from Atheistical profane ranting and licentious principles seek for a true Church as Hypocrites do for their sins and cowards for their enemies loth to finde them and studying most to be hidden from them They complain of this and other Churches as defective as impure as none when indeed it may be feared they are sorry there are any such and wish there were none of these Christian societies Ministers or godly people in the world whose doctrine and examples are their restraints reproaches and torments being most cross to their evil designs and immoderate lusts They complain they cannot finde a true Church when they are unwilling so to do and satisfie themselves as the Cynick in his Tub morosely to censure and Magisterially to finde fault with all Christians that they may conform to none in an holy humble and peaceably way but rather enjoy that fantastick and lazy liberty of mocking God and man till they finde such a way of Church and Religion as shall please them Which they would not be long in finding as to extern polity and profession if they did but entertain that inward life and power of Religion which I formerly set down which by a principle of charity as well as of truth strongly flowing from belief of Gods love in Christ to mankinde and specially to the Church doth powerfully binde and cheerfully encline every humble believer 1 Cor. 14.33 God is not the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of unsetledness commotion or confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness c. Rom. 12.18 If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men to have peace and communion as much as may be with all Christians as internal in judgment and good will so external and social both private and publick amicitial and political in regard of example comfort and encouragement as also of Order Subordination and Government so far as we see they have any fellowship with Christ Jesus in those holy mysteries and duties which he hath appointed whereby to gather and preserve his Church in all Ages and places and Nations Thus we see some mens Pens serve onely to blot the face even of the Catholike Church and all parts of it in their visible order and communion affecting to write such blinde and small Characters in describing new Church ways and forms of Religion that no ordinary eyes can read their meaning either in their shrinking and separating into small ruptures of Bodies when they were related to and combined with Churches large and setled or in their Seraphick raptures strange Enthusiasms secret drawings and extraordinary impulsions which they pretend to have in their ways above and without yea in the neglect and contempt of all ordinary means and setled Ministry in any Church Their many high imaginations and fanatick fancies are no doubt above their Authors own understandings no less than above all wiser and soberer mens capacities twinckling much more like gloworms under the hedges of private Conventicles and Factions than shining with true and antient light of the judgement or practise of any Churches Therefore they need no further confutation from my Pen having so little yea no confirmation from any grounds of Scripture or arguments of common Reason or custom of Christians nothing indeed worthy of any rational godly and serious mans thoughts who list not to dance after the Jews-trump or Oaten-pipe of every Country fancy rather than listen to the best touched Lute or Theorbo These Syrens wise Christians may leave to sing to themselves and their own melancholy or musing thoughts no sober-man can understand them further than they signifie that ignorance illiterateness idleness pride presumption licentiousness and vanity which some like spiritual Canters affect The rarities which they boast to enjoy are without any discreet mans envy that I know However they carry it with a kinde of scornful indignation against others every where pitying as they say the simple diligence and needless industry of those poor Christians who are still attending on those thred-bare forms as they call them of old readings and catechisings and preachings and prayings and Sacraments c. in the publick Liturgies and orderly assemblies of Christians Despising as much the antient and true way of Ministry and Duty as they would the moldy bread and torn bottles of the Gibeonites abhorring to own any relation to other Christians or Church or Ministry or Governors in any Catholike bond of communion and subjection nor can they endure any Christian subordination or prudent and necessary restraint of just Government Jeron Ep. ad Eustoch Quibus os barbarum procax in convicia semper armatum Isid Hâ—spal lib. de offic eccles c. 15. Ubicunque vagantur venalem circumferentes hypocri sinusquam fixi nusquam stantes nusquam sedentes quae non viderunt confingunt Opiniones suaâ— habent pro Deo Honores quos non acceperunt se habuisse protestantur c. Which makes them look very like the old Circumcelliones a company of vagrant Hypocrites of whom Saint Jerom and Isidore Hispalensis make large and satyrical descriptions The first sayes they were impudent straglers whose mouths were always full of barbarous and importune reproaches The other tells us that they every where wandered in their mercenary hypocrisie fixed no where feigning visions of what they never saw Counting their opinions and dreams for divine and protesting to have received those eminencies which they have not Impatient to be confined to any place order or way but had rather like vagabonds continue in their beggarly liberty than fix to a sober industry and enjoy a setled competency 2 Pet. 2.14 Beguiling unstable souls These unstable spirits who turn round till they are giddy and fall from all truth and charity into all error and faction who shut their eyes that they may say they grop in the dark and complain of all mens blindness but their own These I say have of all others least cause to blame the Religion and Ministry of the Church of England since they own themselves to be in no Church-way Which of all sides is most blamed and condemned and so need not to be confuted any more 16. Several quarrels against the Church of Englands frame Some others there are who flatter themselves to be less mad than these seeking fellows who glory most in this That they have broken all the former cords and shaken off all bonds of any National Government Order and Discipline whereby they were formerly restrained in this Church Which first they deny to be any Church purely and properly so called or in any way and frame of Christs institution but onely such an establishment as ariseth from meer civil polity and humane constitution Secondly These charge us that we
fail in the matter of a Church the faithful and holy Thirdly In the essential Form an explicite Covenant or Church agreement to serve the Lord in such a way Fourthly and lastly In our chusing ordaining and appointing Ministers and other Church Officers In whom they say Church power is onely executively as to the exercise or dispensation but it is primarily and eminently in that Body of the people never so small which is so combined together Yea they complain that we in England have neglected and deprived the people of that glorious power and liberty by which every Christian is to shew himself both King and Priest and Prophet Thus the Tabernacles of Edom and the Ismalites Psal 83.6 7 8. Nunquam deorunt hostes ubi adest ecclesia nec inimici ubi veritas agâ—â—scitur Tert. of Moab and the Hagarenes Gebal and Ammon and Ammaleok the Philistims and they of Tyre Assur also Men of our own Tribes all conspire against the true Religion the antient orders and holy Ministry of the Church of England And finding this Church forely torn bruised and wounded they either leave it and its Ministry to die desolate by separating wholly from them or else they seek by their several instruments of death wholly to dispatch it as the Amalekites did King Saul But blessed be God though this Church and its true Ministers be thus afflicted and persecuted yet are they not quite forsaken of God or of all good Christians 2 Cor. 4.8 9. Though we be cast down yet we are not quite destroyed There want not many sons of Sion to mourn with their Mother and to comfort her if they cannot contend for her Although the Lord is righteous Lam. 1.2 Isai 30.19 who hath smitten us and to whom we will return and wait till he be gracious to this Church Yet these sons of Edom our unnatural Brethren Micah 7.8 9 19. are very injurious and uncharitable who seek to enflame the wrath of God more against her rejoycing in her calamities and crying now she is faln let her rise up no more But the Lord will remember his compassions of old which have not failed and will return to build her up nor shall this furnace of affliction be to consume this Reformed Church but onely to purge her from that dross which she had any way contracted As to these mens first quarrel 17. Of Religion as established and protected by Laws in England against the frame of our Church and Ministry as setled and defended by Civil Laws and Politick Constitutions They seem in this rather offended at the clothes and dress or the defence and guard than at the body and substance of the Church Possibly they are angry that they had not power or permission sooner to deform and destroy that flourishing polity of this Church which by the princely piety of nursing fathers and mothers hath been so long preserved to the envy of enemies and admiration of friends We never thought that any civil sanctions which were in favor of our Reformed Church Religion and Ministry ever constituted the Being of our Church which is from Christ by the Ministry but they onely established and preserved it in its Ministry and polity from those abuses and insolencies to which we see them miserably exposed if they should want Magistrates to be protecting fathers and indulgent mothers to them Every rude and unclean beast delights to break in and waste the field of the Church when they see the fence of civil protection is low But this defence and provision made for this Church and its Ministry by Humane Laws doth no more lessen the strength and beauty of it than the Laws for property and safety do diminish any mans wisdom valor or care to defend his own Christians as men ought to be subject to Magistrates as men although they were Heathens Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 Tit. 3.1 Hereticks or Persecutors that so in honest things they might merit their civil protection How much more as Christians ought they to be subject to Christian Magistrates that are Patrons and Professors of true Religion Isai 49.23 Whose civil protection and government is so far from being a blemish to it that is the greatest temporal blessing that God hath promised or the Church can enjoy in this World as it was in Constantine the Great 's time and some others after him And however we see that oft-times this sweet wine of civil favor is prone to sowre to the vinegar of factions even among Christians And the honey of peace plenty and prosperity easily turns to pride envy anger ambition and contention through the pravity of mans nature who contrary to the temper of the most savage beasts grows most fierce and offensive to God when he is best treated by him * Omnia comprebantur sactionibus seditionibus querelis odiu invidiis Suspi Sever. de sâ—â— tempor Epâ—s Presbyteris Hist Pace ecclesiis undique concessâ caepit invidia totius orbis communis inimica in media episcoporum frequentia tripudiate Eus in vit Const lib. 2. c. 60. as Eusebius and Sulpitius Severus tell in their times Yet we must not refuse or cast away all good things because evil mindes abuse them much less may we mistake the Being of a Church for its well-being That cannot turn in any reason to this Churches reproach which was the favor of good men and Gods indulgence to this Church Nor do we think these querulous Obâ—ecters are therefore like to be by so much the sooner weary of their new ways by how much they more enjoy connivance protection or countenance from any men The obtaining of which is the thing they so much court and solicite Sure the shining of the warm Sun on men need not make them therefore ashamed or weary of Gods blessing 18. The matter of a Church Saints 2. As for the matter of a Church which those Obâ—ecters say must be onely Saints in Truth as well as shew denying ours to be such I answer We wish all our people were such Saints as are formerly described in truth and power we endeavor to make them such as far as the pains prayers and examples of Ministers may work with the grace of God 2 Cor. 6.1 But we do not think that these severe censurers of this Church of England do believe That all the Churches mentioned in Scripture which were the best that ever were consisted onely of true Saints That in Christs family did not not that to which Ananias John 6.70 Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Acts 5.3 Peter to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Acts 9.13 Simon Magus believed and was baptised and continued with the Apostles c. V. 23. I perceive thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Saphyra and Simon Magus were joyned in profession nor all those in Corinth Galatia Laodicea and the rest
which Daniel put into the Dragon break them in pieces one part rending from the other as impatient to submit to their censure and so they come to Non-Communion and to make new Colonies of lesser Churches and Bodies till they break and shiver themselves to such useless shreds such thin and small shavings as have neither the staff of beauty nor of bonds among them Every one by the light of nature concluding Par in parem non habet imperium Authority supposeth an eminency That there can be no power over others where there is parity among them nor can those have authority over each other which are in an equality Nothing would be more welcome to good Ministers and faithful people than to see that just power setled in the Church as might by the wisdom gravity and integrity of such as are truly fit to govern best repress all abuses and disorders in the Church as to matters purely religious Mean time we think it better to beaâ— with patience those defects which we cannot hinder or amend and to supply them what we can with private care industry and discretion than either wholly to deny our selves the comfort of this Sacrament which the Lord hath afforded us or else to usurp to our selves an absolute power and jurisdiction over others which neither the Lord hath given us nor the Church and which we see men do easily despise as a matter of arbitrary usurpation not of authoritative constitution And which is subject as to many tyrannies and abuses so to infinite private janglings and divisions which no Minister hath leisure to hear if he had abilities to compose and judge them being oft very spightful tedious and intricate yea and himself possibly a party or witness and sometimes the accused who being for the most part the ablest in a Country Congregation to judge of matters must yet himself be judged according to some mens weak Models of Church-Government and Discipline both as to his doctrine and maners by his High-shoe Neighbors which he counts his body nor may he have any appeal from them in an Independent way 21. Of the peoples judging in the Church 1 Cor. 5.12 1 Cor. 6.1 2 3 4. Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World and Angels How much more the things that pertain to this life To that grand Charter and Commission which some plead by which every Saint is made a Judge in all things of this life within the pale of the Church and is after to be judge of Angels I answer The wise and holy Apostle doth not give to every one in the Church any such power nor to the majority of Christians in any Congregation but rather reproves their folly that laid any judicative works on those that were least esteemed in the Church Vers 4. Whence arose that unsatisfaction as made their differences greater and drove them for remedy to go to Law before the Civil Tribunals of unbelievers V. 6. to the great scandal of Religion and shame of the Church of Corinth where being many Christians and no doubt in many distinct Congregations for conveniency of meeting the Apostle wonders they could not be so wise for their own credit and quiet as to finde out some wise and able men who might be fit to judge and end their controversies as having both real abilities internal and outward reputation in the Church also a publick consent and orderly appointment to the work aâ—l which makes a compleat and valid Authority to judge others which can never be promiscuous in whole bodies or rabbles of simple and mean men without both contempt and confusion which imprudent way among the Corinthians the Apostle counts both a fault and a shame Of Communicants to be admitted 1 Cor. 5.7 2 Cor. 6.15 16. What places are further urged for purging out the old leaven for not eating with such an one for the non-communion between Christ and Belial light and darkness c. They are all fulfilled by every private Christian when both in conscience and conversation he keeps himself from concurring or complying with any wicked and scandalous persons in their sins reproving and repressing them as much as morally lies in his place and power But the bare view or knowledge of anothers sin Vnumquemque alienis peccatis maculari omnes impiae seditionis autores solam causam separationis sibi assumunt Contra disputat Cypr. de unit eccl August ep 48. must not hinder him from doing his duty or enjoying his privilege and comfort by the Sacrament which depends not on what is in anothers life or heart of sin but on what he findes of grace and preparedness in his own As to the publick honor and purity or unleavenedness of the Church the special duty and care executive lies on those not who are private Christians in common but who have publick authority in special to do it by censuring restraining or casting out scandalous offenders whereto every Christian is not called because not enabled either by God or man by gift or power to discern or judge and determine cases which is a matter of polity power and order in the Church and not of private piety or charity Nor is it indeed of absolute necessity so as to deprive good Christians of any holy ordinance in case such power is obstructed or hindered or not established in the Church Neither Minister nor People then ought to refrain from doing their duty in the holy celebration of this Sacrament upon any such defects of external polity and power for well-ordering of the Church but rather with the more exactness and diligence exhort one another and prepare by inward graces for those holy Mysteries whose institution hath no such restriction either by Christ or the blessed Apostle Paul who enjoyns Ministers and Believers to do this 1 Cor. 11. holily and worthily in point of personal preparation but no word of either usurping a power to reâ—ect others as they list which belongs not to them or else to abstain wholly from the duty for want of having their will as too many do both People and Ministers to the great grief of many good Christians and to the exceeding slighting and disuse of that holy Ordinance in this Church 1 Cor. 11.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As oft as ye drink it which was wont to be much frequented which the words of Christ import or enjoyn to be done oftentimes in the Church For that new coyned form image and superscription of a Church 22. Of Church-Covenant that Congregational Church-Covenant which no Synod or Council but onely some private men have lately invented and in formal words magisterially dictated when yet they cry down all other prescribed forms of administrations prayer or devotion in the Church By which some men fancy they onely can be rightly made up into one lump or Church-fellowship This they accuse us in England for the want and
soul and body make a true man Essentials of a true Church in England 1 Tim. 6.3 It is well some of their charity is such that they allow us for they cannot shift it thus much First That we have the onely true ground and sure rule of Religion the written Word of God that beyond this we hold nothing as a matter of faith or Christian duty Secondly That we celebrate the holy Sacraments according to the sum and substance of the divine Institution Thirdly That our conversation aims to be such Phil. 1.27 as becomes the Gospel in all maner of holiness to the saving of our own and others souls What can these Aristarchusses carp at in the ground of our faith the Scriptures the Seals of our Faith the Sacraments the life of our Faith 1 Pet. 1.9 holy conversation and the end of our faith the salvation of our souls Is it not strange That all these sweet and fair flowers of Christs planting and watering should grow so well in that which some call Babylon in Antichrists Garden or on the Devils dunghil That it should be no true Church of Christ which owns nothing for Religious but what is according to the truth of Jesus either commanding or permitting instituting or indulging of pious necessity or of prudent liberty We should put these rigid Catoes too much to the blush for â—heir unnatural ingratitude to the Ministers and Church of England if we should ask them Whence they had this privilege by which they own themselves to be Christians whence this power to cast or call themselves into Bodies or Churches as Believers which is by them presupposed whence they had till of late years their instruction for the most part in the knowledge of Jesus Christ Sure these holy leaves or fruits grow not but in the Pale and Garden of the Church of Christ not in our own rude mirdes and untill'd natures not among desolate Indians obstinate Jews oâ— barbarous Turks and not often in private closets and corners which nourish a neglect and contempt of Publick Ordinances But if these men were self-taught and converted yet sure not self-baptized too nor their Teachers self-ordained too If they had nothing of their Christianity from the Ministry of the Church of Englandâ— It is no wonder they prove such Scholars such Christians and such Preachers as some of them seem to be having been their own Masters Ministers and Baptizers They are indeed onely worthy of themselves and of wiser mens pity For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the retreat 24. Of pretensions to be above any Ministry as taught of God immediately or reserve of some men by which as Eaglets they would seem to soar out of sight and to build their Nest on a Rock that is higher than our ordinary Reason Religion and Experience can reach as if they were immediately inspired specially called and taught of God baptized by his Spirit without any Minister or outward Ministry they must give us leave not to believe them upon their bare word which hath not always been so sure till they demonstrate and prove it better by Gods Word and their better maners For which we will give them time enough Mean while we are sure the best Christians among them were made such by the ordinary Ministers of this Church and these made Ministers by no other means but that Ordination derived from and ascending up to the blessed Apostles whom Christ first chose to be Disciples and after ordained and sent them as Publick Ministers not onely as to personal discharge but as to successional descent These were Eagles indeed who flew high in their knowledge and piety yet stooped low in their humility and charity Those others of a new brood are more like yong Cuckoes which devour the Bird in whose nest and by whose fostering they were hatched Some of them have knowledge I would they had more humility and charity they would not disdain to own the parents that begat and educated them even this now so poor desolated beaten torn and wasted Church of England and its Antichristian Ministers as they please to call them Be it so some mens tongue is no slander If we neither adde to nor detract from the Scriptures as Jews Papists and Euthusiasts do If we erre in no fundamentals of faith or maners if we refuse no duty divinely required if we allow no error in our selves or others if we drive on no worldly designs injuriously or hypocritically but study to approve our selves in all godliness and honesty with meekness of wisdom to all men we need no more fear the drops of peevish tongues or dashes of malicious pens as to the honor and comfort of being a part of the true Church of Christ than a cloth dyed in grain need to fear stains by the aspersions of dirt cast on it by unclean and envious hands 25. Of the power of the People in Church affairs 4. But it is objected against us in England That neither Church nor Minister of England did or do own that high and mighty principle of all Church power which some call The People Answ True indeed Although we highly love and esteem as Brethren the faithful and humble people for whom Christ hath died yet we are not of so spungy and popular a softness as to own any part or Congregation or Body of People to be the original or conduits of any Spiritual or Church power which no learned and wise men ever esteemed to be Popular or Democratical but rather an excellent Aristocracy where many able men were in Counsel and some one eminent in order and authority among them We do not dig or descend to these low valleys for these holy waters nor do we seek for the flowings of it through such crazy and crooked pipes nor do we hope to draw it forth out of such broken Cisterns which can hold no such waters We have them from higher fountains and derive them in straiter channels Matth. 28.19 and conserve them in fitter vessels than the vulgarity of even honest Christians can be presumed to be That is from the ordinary Power and constant Commission which from Christ was derived to the Apostles Matth. 16.19 Matth. 18.18 John 20.23 and from them to their Successors in their ordinary Ministry and Church power in after ages who had this peculiar power of the keys of Heaven to binde or remit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascere cum imperio pastor inde ut princeps To feed and rule Revel 12.5 19.15 Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Vulgus ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa aestimat Tul. pro. Ros Com. to gather to guide to feed and to govern the several parts of the Church in Christs stead and name orderly committed to them People may rudely wrest these keys out of true Bishops and Ministers hands but it is evident they were never committed to them by the great Master of the House Jesus Christ nor do they
scandal speedily reform abuses restore defects execute all power of the Keys in the right way of Discipline without which there is no true at least no compleat and perfect Church for these men think Christians can hardly get to Heaven unless they have power among them to cast one another into Hell to give men over to Satan to excommunicate as they see cause to open and shut Heaven and Hell gates as they think fit Must all things that concern our Church say they lie at six and sevens till we get such Bishops and Presbyters such Synods and Councils such Representatives of Learned men as are hardly obtained and as hard to be rightly ordered or well used when they are met together They had rather make quicker dispatches in Church work as if they thought it better for every family to hang and draw within it self and presently punish every offence than for a whole Country to attend either general Assizes or quarter Sessions Answ Truly good Christians in this Church at present are in a sad and bad case too as well as their Ministers if they could make no work of Religion till they were happy to see all things of extern order and government duly setled Yet sure we may go to Church and to Heaven too in our worst clothes if we can get no better nor may we therefore wholly stay at home and neglect religious duties because we cannot be so fine as we would be Both Ministers and people must do the best they can in their private sphears and particular Congregations to which they are related whereby to preserve themselves and one another as Brethren in Christ from such deformities and abuses as are destructive to the power of godliness the peace of conscience and the honor of the Reformed Religion until the Lord be pleased to restore to this Church that holy Order antient Government and Discipline which is necessary not to the being of a Christian or a true Church as its form or matter which true Believers constitute by their internal union to Christ by Faith and to all Christians by Charity but onely as to the external form and polity for the peace order and well being of a Church as it is a visible society or holy nation and fraternity of men 1 Pet. 2.9 professing the truth of Jesus Christ Yea and Christians may better want that is with less detriment or deformity to Religion that Discipline which some men so exceedingly magnifie as the very Throne Scepter and Kingdom of Christ under Christian Magistracy as they may the office of Deacons where the law by Overseers takes care for the poor where good laws by civil power punish publick offences and repress all disorders in Religion as well as trespasses in secular affairs Better I say than they could have been without it in primitive times when Christians had no other means to repress any disorders that might arise in their societies either scandalous to their profession or contrary to their principles of which no Heathen Magistrate or Humane Laws took then any cognisance or applied any remedy to them Not but that I do highly approve and earnestly pray for such good Order comely Government and exact Discipline in every Church both as to the lesser Congregations and the greater Associations to which all reasons of safety and grounds of peace invite Christian Societies in their Church relations as well as in those of Civil which were antiently used in all setled and flourishing Churches Much after that patern which was used among the Jews both in their Synagogues which they had frequent both in their own Land and among strangers in their dispersions and also in their great Sanhedrim which was as a constant supreme Council for ordering affairs chiefly of Religion to one or both which no doubt our Saviour then referred the believing Jew in that of Tell it to the Church that is after private monition tell it to the lesser Convention or Consistory in the Synagogues which might decide matters of a lesser nature or to the higher Sanedrim in things of more publick concernment both which were properly enough called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetus congregatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Jud. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil hic à Christo novum praecipitur sed mos rectè introductus probatur H. Grot. in loc Ecclesiae i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Every polity hath in it power enough to preserve it happiness Coimus in coâ—tum congregationem Ibidem orationes exhortationes castigationes censura divina Praesident probati quique seniores Tert. Apol. Solebant Judaei res majoris momenti ultimo loco ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multitudinem referre i. e. ad eos qui eadem instituta sestabantur quorum judicia conventus seniores moderabantur tanquam praesidet Grot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Bas in Chrys Beyond this sense none could be made of Christs words by his then Auditors to whom he speaks not by way of new direction and institution of a Soverein Court or Consistory in every Congregation of Christians to come but by way of referring to a well known use and daily practise then among the Jews which was the onely and best means wherein a Brother might have such satisfaction in point of any offence which charity would best bear without flying to the Civil Magistrate which was now a forein power When Jews turned Christians it s very certain they altered not their Discipline and order as Christians in Church society from what they used before in their Synagogues Proportionably no doubt in Christian Churches of narrower or larger extensions and communion among the Gentiles the wisdom of Christ directs and allows such judicatories and iurisdictions to prevent or remove all scandals and offences among Christians to preserve peace and order as may have least of private or pedantick imperiousness and vulgar trifflings of men unable and unfit to be in or to exercise any such holy and divine authority over others who are easily trampled upon and fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil by reason of divers lusts passions weaknesses and temptations but rather Christ commends such grave Consistories solemn Synods and venerable Councils as consisting of wise and able and worthy men may have most as of the Apostolical wisdom eminency gravity so of Christs Spirit Power and Authority among them Such as no Christian with any modesty reason conscience or ingenuity can despise or refuse to submit to the integrity of their censure when it is carried on not with those heats peevishnesses and emulations which are usually among men of less improved parts or ripened years especially if Neighbors Such a way wisely setled in the Church might indeed binde up all things that concern Religion in private or more publick respects to all good behavior in the bonds of truth peace and
good order by a due and decent Authority which for every two or three or seven Christians in their small Bodyings and Independent Churches exlusively of all others to usurp and essay to do is as if of every chip of Noah's Ark or of every rafter of a great Ship they would endeavor to make up a very fit vessel to sail in any Sea and any weather 30. The best method of Church Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But take the true and wholesome Discipline of the Church in those true proportions which pious antiquity setled and used and which with an easie hand by a little condescending and moderation on all sides might have been long ago and still may be happily setled in England Nothing is more desireable commendable and beneficial to the Church of Christ As a strong case to preserve a Lute or Instrument in that so the Church may not be broken disordered or put out of tune by every rash and rude-hand either in its truth or purity or harmony either in Doctrine or Maners or Order But this is a blessing as not to be deserved by us so hardly to be hoped or expected amidst the pride and passions and fractions of our times Nor will it be done till Civil powers make as much conscience to be good as great and to advance Christian Religion no less than to enlarge or establish Temporal Dominion When such Magistrates have a minde first to know and then to set up a right Church polity power and holy order in every part and proportion of it They need not advise with such as creep into corners or seek new models out of little and obscure conventicles nor yet ought they to confine themselves to those feeble proportions which are seen in the little Bodyings of these times which begin like Mushrooms to grow up every where and to boast of their beauties and rare figures when nothing is more indigested and ill compacted as to the general order and publick peace of this or any other noble and ample branch of the Catholick Church Pious and learned Men who reverence antiquity and know not yet how to mock either their Mother the Church or their Fathers the true Bishops Elders and Ministers of it can soon demonstrate how to draw forth that little chain of gold that charity communion and orderly subordination among Christians which at first possibly might onely adorn one single congregation of a few Christians in the primitive paucity and newer plantations to such a largeness amplitude and extension as by the wisdom of Christian charity and humility shall extend to and comprehend in its compass by way of peaceable union and harmony or comly subâ—ection even the largest combinations and furthest spreadings of any branch of the Cathol ke Church Both as to its greater and lesser conventions in several places and times as the matters of Religion and occasion of the Churches shall require according to its several dispersions and distinctions by place or civil polity Matth. 18.19 Which greater yet orderly conventions must needs be as properly a Church and may meet as much in Christs Name and hope for his presence and assistance in the midst of them as any of those Churches could among the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.6 Punâ—shment inflicted by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebuke before all 1 Tim. 5.20 Synodas Antiochena Paulum Samosetanum ab ecclesia quae sub coelo est universo seperabat Eus hist eccl l. 7. c. 28. Autoritas est eminentia quaedam vitae cujus gratia dictis factisve eujuspiam multum deferimus Tul. to which Christ properly refers in that place Yea they must needs be far beyond any thing imaginable in the narrow confinements of Independent Bodies Such Churches then of most select wise and able Christians who have the consent and Representation of many lesser Congregations must needs do all things with more wisdom advice impartiality authority reputation majesty and general satisfaction than any of those stinted Bodies of Congregational Churches can possibly do yea in all right reason they are as much beyond and above them as the power of a full Parliament is beyond any Country Committee Those may with comly order and due authority which ariseth from the consent of many men much esteeming the known worth of others give audience receive complaints consider of examine reprove reform excommunicate and restore where there is cause and as the matters of the Church more private or publick require in the several divisions extending its wings as an Eagle more or less as there is cause with infinite more benefit to the community of Christians than those Pullets the short winged and little bodied Birds of the Independent feather can do Where without any warrant that I know from God or Man Religion or right Reason Law or Gospel Prudence or Charity a few Christians by clucking themselves into a conventicle shall presently seem a compleat body to themselves and presume to separate and exempt themselves from all the world of Christians as to any duty subjection order or obedience and pitching their Tents where they think best within the verge of any other never so well and wisely setled Church presently they shall raise themselves up some small brest works of absolute Authority which they fancy both parts from and defends them against all Churches in the World planting their Wooden or Leathern Guns of imaginary Independent power and casting forth their Granadoes or Squibs rather of passionate censures angry abdications and severe divorces against all Christians Ibidem i. e. praesidentibus probatis Senioribus exhortationes castigationes censura divina Nunc judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu Sumumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis ita deliquerit ut communicatione orationis conventus omnis sancti commercil relegetur Tertul. Apol. c. 39. Qui ab ecclesiae corpore respuuntur quae Christi corpus est tanquam peregrini alieni à Deo Dominatui diaboli traduntur Hil. in Ps 118. Inobediens spirituals mucrone truncatur ejectus de ecclesia rabido Daemonum ore discrepitur Jeron Ep. 1. but those of their own way and party Afterward they turn them it may be against their own body and bowels when once they begin to be at leisure to wrangle and divide As if alas these were the dreadful thunder-bolts of excommunication antiently used with great solemnity caution deliberation and publick consent The great forerunner of Gods terrible hast judgment exercised with unfeigned pity fervent prayers and many tears by those who had due eminency and authority as presidents in chief or seconds and assistants to judge and act in so weighty cases and matters In which transactions and censures Churches Synodical Provincial and National were interessed and accordingly being duly convened they solemnly acted in Christs Name as the offence error or matter required remedy either for
any thing we have failed as men yet we are assured the merciful eye of Heaven will look more favorably on our failings to pardon them than some Basilicks do on our labors to accept them * Jere. 1 8. Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord. V. 18. I have made thee a defenced City a brazen Wall and an iron Pillar c. Ezek. 2.6 Be not afraid of their words though thou dost dwell among scorpions be not dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house who seek to destroy this Church and discourage all its true Christians and Ministers if they could with their dreadful aspects and spightful looks if they had not the defensative of Gods protection joyned to their own innocency and the favor of many excellent Christians whom I have endeavored to settle and satisfie as briefly and clearly as in so short a time I could in these many and to me very tedious and almost superfluous objections against this true Reformed Church of England these first and lesser calumnies which lay in the way of my main design I thought it my duty to remove 32. Want of Charity our greatest defect In the Council of Carthâ—ge An. 401. The Orthodox Christians send Messengers to the Donatists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after they send An. 404. Orators for unity and peace without which say they Christian Religion cannot consist Where I see in all our disputes and differences so cruelly carried on the greatest ingredient is Uncharitableness which knows not how to excuse small faults to supply lesser defects to interpret well what is good to allow others their true Christian Liberty and to enjoy its own modestly to keep communion amidst some easie differences and union with harmless varieties We have had on all sides truth enough to have saved any men and uncharitableness enough to have damned any angels Nor is it meerly a privation or want of charity but an abounding of envy malice strife wrath bitterness faction fury cruelty and whatever is most contrary to the excellency of Christians which was the excellency of Christ love and charity The want of which Basil Mag. de Sp. S. deplores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Naz. Or. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. sayes Religion as a Tripos hath three feet Faith Hope and Charity and cannot stand if any one be wanting I cannot but here deplore in a pathetick digression craving the Readers pardon since I cannot go further in answer of uncharitable objections till I have first sought for our lost charity The recovery of which one grace would end all the differences and heal all the distempers not of England onely but of all the Christian World You O excellent Christians will I know joyn with me in searching after charity as they did after Christ sorrowing Luke 2.48 In mourning for as some of the devout antients did the sad distances and wasts of Christian charity among all sorts of Christian Churches and Professors Alas we glory and swell and are puffed up one against another in the forms of being called Churches and Reformed when we lose the very power of godliness the soul of religion and the peculiar glory of Christianity which is charity Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples c. O sweet divine and heavenly beauty of Christ and all true Christians Charity Whither art thou fled from Christians brests 33. Pathetick for Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Niss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 3. c. 1. Salvian complains Quis plenam vicuâ—â— exhibet charitatem Omnes à si etsi loco non absunt affectu absunt etsi habitatione juâ—guntur mente disjuncti sunt Lib. 5. de Gâ—berna Non Albiniani non Nigriani sumus sed Christiani Hoc unum fluâ—â—â—â— nullarum partium fludiis â—bripi Tertul. Acts 1.26 lives hearts and Churches In which was wont to be thy Nest thy Palace and thy Temple Where thou wert received welcomed and entertained by wise and humble Christians either as the Spouse of Christ in thy purity or as the Queen of graces in thy beauty or as the Goddess of Heaven in thy majesty O whither art thou gone where art thou retired Art thou to be found in the cells of Hermites in the Cloysters of Monks in the solitudes of Anchorites Probably there may be most of thee where is least of the world which like full diet begets most of cholerick and foul humors Dost thou reside among the pompous Papists The graver Lutherans the preciser Calvinists the severer Separatists or the moderater English Christians May we finde thee at Rome or Wittemberg or Geneva or Amsterdam or London Dost thou dwell in the old Palaces and Councils of venerable Bishops or in the newer Classes of bolder Presbyters or in the narrower corners of subtile Independents Alas I fear these very colours and names which are as ensigns and alarms to factions sound ill in the ears of Charity and are unpleasing to its sight which onely loves the first common title and honor of Disciples to be called Christians These faces and forms seem as if they were divided and set one against another and when they want a common adversary each party is ready to subdivide and seeks to destroy it self the hand of every faction in Religion is as Ismaels against his Brother or it self Smiting oft with the fist of violence as Factious where they should give the right hand of fellowship as Christians and strangling each other instead of embracing Or are all these divisions but the disguises of Charity and under visords of factions a meer pageantry is acted of zealous ignorance or proud and preposterous knowledge both carried on with holy partialities fraternal Schisms zealous cruelties sacred conspiracies so far onely as to destroy all other Christians That each sect alone may remain as the onely Church which then fancy themselves sufficiently built polished and reformed when they are but as heaps of rubbish in their several ruptures as unpolished lumps in their uncharitable sidings so far weak and deformed limbs as they are passionatly and violently broken from the intireness and goodly fabrick of the well compacted Catholike Church of which they were sometime a comly and commendable part Onely then in beauty safety and symmetry while in order to and in unity with the whole which is as the Body and Temple of the Lord in its various parts making but one goodly structure which was antiently the â—oy and glory of the whole Earth Now nothing seems best but deformed ruines and desolate parcels of battered broken and almost demolished Churches like Hospitals in which are most-what wounded and maimed and halting Christians when of old the Foundation of one Rom. 13.10 Love is the fulfilling of
3.16 Hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 16. Isai 32.2 Beatitudinum omnium beatissima beatitudo charitas Nienburg to lay down their malice factions and arms against each other for whom Charity and Christ bids them lay down their lives O let it move all excellent Christians and me who am less than the least that truly love thee and long for thee to mourn to see the generality of Christians so little moved by thee or to thee Let our heads and eyes be as Fountains and Rivers of Waters running with tears night and day for those thousands whom justice and those ten thousands whom uncharitableness schism and superstition have slain among Christians even in these Nations and Churches O let our humble hearts be thy retirement our sighs and prayers and tears thy refreshment in the heat and fury of these times and be thou to us as the shadow of that great Rock in a weary Land O blessed Blessing of all other blessings Charity what words what tears what prayers what sighs what Sermons what Writings can recover thee or recal thee or perswade thee to look back and return to these and others pitifully broken wasted forlorn and divided Churches But alas our words are sharp swords daily wheting and clashing against each other our tears are as the drops of revengeful and impatient spirits which cannot have their wills our prayers are the bitter effusions of hearts troubled and disquieted not with sin but with choler and unkindness so far from praying for our enemies that we pray nothing but enmity and are impatient that any should pray for their friends if we esteem them our enemies our sighs are but bellows to excite the languishing flames of declining factions against their opposers our Sermons oftimes are as firebrands tossed up and down by incendiaries and the breath of our Pulpits are like the Eructations of Aetna Vesuvius or Hecla scattering coals of fire and blasting all things neer them with sulphureous exhalations So that many Preachers are indeed as voices crying in the wilderness sounding alarms to Religious War and preparing a way for zealous desolations both in Church and State And for our Writings they are in great part but Pamphlets which serve as Paper to wrap up squibs or to kindle to quicker flames those smoaking jealousies and secret discontents which are smothered in our brests That even we Christians and reformed too speak and act and pray and Preach and Print in great part so as if we had not one God and one Lord Jesus one Spirit one Faith and one Baptism c. Ephes 4.4 5. But as if we had no God no Faith no Word no Sacrament no common relation to one Saviour no common salvation in One and by One as if we were Christians onely to be crosses and to crucifie one another As if we were all turned Canaanites scourges in the sides and thorns in the eyes of one another Charitas deus est substantivs dat nobis deitatem accidentâ—lem Bern. de dil Deo O thou flower and fragrancy of all graces and virtues which hast little of a Man nothing of a Devil and most of God of Christ and of the Holy Spirit in thee which carriest all sweetness serenity and tranquillity with thee If thou abhorrest the crowds of Christians and such as glory so much in their being gathered into Churches after new and uncouth ways If thou darest not trust their smiles and kisses their fervors and reformings who have so oft under the specious pretences of Religion sheathed their swords in thy bowels If thou art afraid not onely of religious rabbles and zealous multitudes but even of sacred Synods and Armies listed for holy Wars whose faith hath often failed thee and them too who while they thought to contend earnestly for the truth have crushed thee O Charity almost to nothing by their violences and divisions each novel faction seeming to strive for thee pull and tear thee in pieces ready by violent halings of thee to their sides Sects utterly to destroy thee O yet prepare a place for thy self among some humble and honest hearts some meek and quiet spirits here in England that so thou maist retire and hide thy self from thy friendly enemies from their cruel courtesies their dangerous importunities their deep agitations and designs O disdain not the broken hearts and contrite spirits of â—hat remnant of truly Reformed Catholike and charitable Christians which yet have escaped in this Church These value thee these long foâ— thee these are sick of love to thee and weary of life without thee To thy honor and restauration to their comfort and establishment these lines are chiefly consecrated O do thou cover them James 3.6 Psal 120.7 I am for peace but when I speak they are for war and this thy suppliant Orator under the shadow of thy wings till this calamity be overpast hide us from the strife of tongues which are set on fire with the fire of hell which burn most wheâ— cool drops and calm pleas for charity are sprinkled on them In the great and sad ruines of Churches and dissentions of Christians O be thou our refuge and protection teach us to live by divine love and so to love thee that we may live a divine 〈◊〉 with thee Learn us that highest lesson of a Christian to love our enemies and persecutors while others learn to hate their friends and their Fathers 1 Cor. 13.8 Charity never be faileth O Sempiternal Grace which are fitted for immortal souls let us be as Ruth to Naomi unseparable from thee while we are on Earth as thou art the onely remaining grace in Heaven being the crown and consummation of all other gifts and graces which like stars then disappear and are willingly swallowed up when thy lustre like the Suns is risen to its full strength and shines in an eternal Noon making the soul at once infinitely happy while it sees an object infinitely lovely and loves it with an infinite love Rather than we should fail of thee in this life O thou beloved of our souls carry us with thee from Cities to solitudes from company to deserts from the unsociable societies and uncharitable Churches to creeping cottages to weeping solitudes and howling wildernesses where we may enjoy thee in our own oft sighing and smitten brests rather than dwell in Palaces and Cities and Temples and where we see thee daily despised profaned and mangled tormented torn and trampled under the feet of Christians in Villages in Towns in Cities in Senates in Armies in Seats of Justice and in Pulpits Give us the wings of a Dove even thy wings O holy Charity by which thou ascendest at once to God in love and descendest for Gods sake in love to man that we may make haste and flie away and be at rest for ever that we may
ascend from this valley of our confusions to the mountain of thy felicities Which is the glorious vision of thy self in the great mirror or glass of Gods perfections who is in himself and to us perfect light that we may see him to be perfect love and is perfect love that we may enjoy his perfect light 1 John 1.5 God is light Chap. 4 8. God is love O Father of Lights and Fountain of Love whose immensity and eternity are filled with truth and peace verity and charity whose love hath sprinkled our souls with the blood of thy beloved Son the promised Messias our blessed Jesus O let our moment here be sincere loâ—e to thy self perfect charity to thy Church and holy humanity to all men that our eternity may be blessed with thine and our Saviours and our Fellow Saints love for ever You O excellent Christians whose excellency is chiefly in this Col. 3.14 Supplementum munimentum ornamentum omnium gratiarum una charitis Amb. Jer. 5.1 that above all things you have put on charity which is the bond of perfection yoâ— will not onely excuse but it may be kindly accept this little digression wherein my Pen like Jeremies hath shed some few drops of lamentation mingling tears with the blood of Christians which hath been so profusely shed in these self-desolating Churches mourning for the loss of charity the extirpations of unity and the ruines of harmonious order which are forced to yield to contention cruelty and confusions Nature reacheth you to lament the loss or forced absence of what you love and Christian Religion teacheth you to love all graces in charity and this one above all You have learned to suffer with patience and in some cases with joy the spoiling of your goods the sequestring of your revenues the imprisonment of your persons the scattering of your neerest relations the withdrawings of your wary friends and the great alterations of civil powers and secular affairs These are but scenes and parts of the same Tragedy which hath always been acting on the Worlds Theatre in which it is safer to be Spectators and Sufferers than Actors nor may your sufferings in secular matters disorder your charity onely the plundrings of your true Christian Religion which some men aim at the sequestring of this Church of England from its glory and reformation the dividing and so destroying of it the restraining you from enjoying the great seal of charity the Sacrament of Christian Communion the scattering of your able faithful Ministers into corners the changing and contemning of your antient and excellent Ministry the underminings of your comforts and the hazards of your consciences the many confusions and miseries threatning your posterity in matters of salvation if the malice of some men may be suffered to abuse your charity and impose upon this credulity These your zeal mixed with charity teacheth you to endure with an impatient patience Therefore patient in some degree because you yet hope better things from God and all good men therefore piously impatient because you earnestly wish better for Gods glory and the good of your Countrey Your humble zeal hath taught you to be discreetly charitable as to your own souls so to all others but specially to this Church of England and the true Ministers of it to whom you cannot but willingly bear that tender respect and love which pious children are wont to do to their distressed yet well-deserving parents from the care and support of whom no Corbans no imaginary Dedications and Devotions of your selves to any new Church ways and forms of Religion may justly alienate your affections nor dispence with that respect justice gratitude and charity which you in conscience ow to those to whom in some sense you ow your own selves and the best of your selves your souls Whose divine Authority and holy Calling I shall now further endeavor to prove having thus first establisâ—ed the truth of our Religion and of our Church whose greatest waste and want is that of charity whose dying embers and almost extinguished sparks I have by the way endeavored to revive in the hearts of true Christians that so they may without passion or prejudice embrace that truth which I chiefly design to vindicate in this Apology Namely The holy Calling divine Institution and Function of the Ministry of this Church of England which will best be done by answering the chief Objections Calumnies and Cavils brought against both the Ministers and their Ministry by their many-minded Adversaries OBJECTION II. Against the peculiar Office and Calling of Evangelical Ministers SUppose we grant say they true Religion and a true Church in England with some defects yet these may be without any distinct office or peculiar calling of Ministers which you challenge as of divine appointment Where as we conceive every Christian may and ought to dispence in an orderly way 1 Pet. 4.10 all such gifts of knowledge as he hath received in the Mysteries of Religion to the Churches good So that the restraining of holy Administrations to some persons as a peculiar Office and Function seems but the fruit of arrogance and usurpation in some of credulity and easiness in others and is not rightly grounded upon the Scriptures Answ Not that I believe 1. Of Catholike testimony and practise or custom in the Church 1 Cor. 9.2 Your are the Seals of mine Apostleship your well-grounded and well-guided piety O excellent Christians who know in whom and by whom you have beâ—ieved needs other satisfaction in this or the other following Objections touching the peculiar divinely-instituted Function of the Ministry than what your own solid judgments and exacter consciences and clearer experiences sealing your comforts and our Ministry afford you who are no novices in matters of Religion either as to the outward form and order or the inward power But onely to let you see that neither I nor my Brethren the Ministers do plead for that in a precarious way of meer favor and indulgence for which we have not good grounds clear proofs and mighty demonstrations both divine and humane from Scripture pious Antiquity and right Reason I shall more largely and fully answer thiâ— first grand Obâ—ection which strikes at the very Root and Foundation both of the Ministry and all holy Ministrations 1. I may first blunt the edge of this weapon which strikes against the peculiarity of the Ministerial Function by the clear and constant acknowledgment both as to judgment and practise of all excellent Christians and all famous Churches in all Ages Illud est Dominicum verum quod prius traditum id extraneum falsum quod posterius immâ—ssum Tertul. from the very first birth and infancy of Christianity and any Churches to our times Of which no sober or learned Christian can with any plausible shew make any doubt so far as God in his providence hath continued to us any Monuments or Witnesses of the Churches estate succession and transactions in
and all possible means of Historical belief or faith among men For which the wisdom and providence of the Creator hath afforded to mankinde no other ordinary ground or inducement but onely that of a charitable and rational perswasion which we have That neither the most nor to be sure the best ablest and worthiest men in all Ages and these in several places would conspire in a lie or give testimony to a falshood contrary to their own consciences and the evidence of things as to matter of fact whereof themselves and their forefathers were eye-witnesses beyond any possibility of ignorance or mistake Nor can any thing be alleged or supposed as matter of self-interest or partiality there being in the first Three hundred years no temptation of secular profit or honor to blinde or corrupt their judgment and testimony whereby they should not either fully and clearly see what was judged and acted in the Church or that any thing should so bribe their tongues and pens as not to give a true record and faithful report to posterity Since many of them sealed their love to the truth and charity to mankinde by their blood in Martyrdom At the same rate of obstinate disbelieving and supercilious denying whatever is delivered by writing or tradition to after Ages men may foolishly and madly question the works of every Author the facts and records of all former times Ubi charismata domini posita sunt ibi discere oportet veritatem apud quos est ea quae ab Apostolis successio id quod est sanum irreprobabile sermonie â—â—nstat Iren. l. 4. c. 45. Edant origines Ecclesiaâ—um suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentium ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis viris habuerit autoreÌ„ antecessoâ—em Tert. de prae ad Hae. c. 32. left us in History Christians may doubt of their Baptism in their Infancy yea and question their own Natural Fathers and Mothers refusing to own or pay any duty and obedience to them since of these they can have no other assurance than what is told them by others as also of all their forefathers and predecessors from whom these Sceptical Infidels are certainly descended although they never saw them and possibly they enjoy the benefit of their forefathers labors and estates to this day which from those is derived in an orderly succession to these their ungrateful successors Nor is indeed the Series and Genealogy of Natural Parents more necessary and certain in reason that they have been and are gone before us however their several names and successions may be unknown from Noah or from Adam than is the constant and uninterrupted succession of Spiritual Fathers and Predecessors in the Ministry of the Church derived by the holy Apostles from Jesus Christ the second Adam the Everlasting Father of a better Generation Of which there are besides the apparent present succession in this Church of England and all other Churches-Christian now in all the World which lately had or still have a peculiar order of Bishops and Presbyters as holy Ministers in the Church so clear and constant and undeniable Histories from those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all men or writers the most worthy to be believed for their love to God their zeal for the truth their charity to all men but especially for their care of the houshold of Faith the Church of Christ Non fides ex peâ—sonis sed personae ex fide sunt probandae Ter. lib. de prae ad Haer. c. 3. Cum Episcopatus successione Charisma veritatis certum accipiunt Iren. l. 4. c. 43. Catholici â—â—verint se cum Eeclesia doctores recipere non cum Doctoribus Ecclesiae fidem deserere debere Vinc. Lirin c. 23. Haeretici sunt posteriores Episcopis quibus Apostoli tradiderunt Ecclesias Irenae l. 5. Audivi à quodam Presbytero qui audierat ab his qui Apostolos videraâ—t Irenae l. 4. c. 45. Eph. 4.11 1 Cor. 12.28 Wherein however it be most true that a bare descent or succession of persons following each other in time and place be not sufficient to carry on the being and honor of a true Church Christian which title is not entailed to any place or any race of people unless withal there be a succession in Christian Doctrine and Institutions according to the Scripture yet it is as true that the custody and tradition of the Scriptures the succession of true doctrine believed in the Church and divine Institutions celebrated never have been nor ever can possibly be in Christs ordinary way to his Church carried on to after generations but only by such a personall succession of Bishops Pastors and Ministers in the Church such as were in the beginning of the Goâ—pell appointed by Christ and ever since hath been orderly and constantly derived from one to another agreeable to the divine constitution Nor are Câ—ristians to expect or presume of daily miracles speciall revelations or Angelick missions to carry on Christian Religion but humbly to content themselves with that once setled Ministry and holy order which God by Jesus Christ hath given to the Church after which example some are still duly tryed ordained set apart and sanctified to this office the dispensation of the Gospell and those mysteries which goe with it Indeed I cannot but esteem as all good wise 2. The esteem to be had of the Catholick custom in the Church Vincent Lyr. Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus tenetur Ecclesiis id demum Catholicum cap. 3. Pro magno teste vetustas Creditur acceptam parce movere fidem Claudian Ratio veritas consuetudini praeponenda sunt sed si consuetudini veritas suffragatur nihil oportet firmius retineri Aust l. 4. cont Donat. de Bapt. c. 4. In his de quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura divina mos populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt si nec fidei nec bonis moribus sint contratia Aust ad Casulan Traditiones Ecclesiasticae quae fidei non officiunt ita observandae ut à majoribus tradita â— nec aliorum consuetudo aliorum contrario more subvertenda Jeron ad Lucian Si nulla Scriptura determinavit certe consuetudo roboravit quae sine dubio de Apost traditione manavit Tertul. de cor M. Sanctae Ecclesiae sacerdotes Catholicae veritatis haeredes Apostolica decreta definita sectante maluerunt se ipsos quà m vetustae universitatis fidem prodere Vinc. Lyrin c. 8. Si quid hodie per totum orbem frequentat ecclesia hoc quin ita faciendum sit disputare insolentissimae st insanâ—ae August ep 118. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas M. Cont. Aâ—ium Sabel c. Otherways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. de Apollâ—nario Post sacrarum Scripturarum canonicam autoritatem Ecclesiae Catholicae consensus tantum apud mâ—
relation to the Gospell of Jesus Christ did ever so much as dispute or question the power and succession ministeriall as to its calling peculiar and divinely appropriated to some men in the Church Till of later dayes in Germany and some otherwheres the pride of some mens parts and conceit of their gifts or the opinion of their raptures and Enthusiasms mixed with other lusts and secular designs tempted some weak and fanatick men of the Anabaptistical leaven to adventure the invasion and vulgar prostration of the office before ever they broached their reasons against it Confessores gloriae Christi An. 1543. When they after proved to be Pastoricidae Vilains which conspired to destroy all the Ministers of the Gospel in Germany hanging and drowning many of them casting them into wells An. 1562. Cl. Sanctesius de temp decept Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. Qui absistunt à principali successionâ— Episcoporum Presbyterorum ab Apostolis quocunque locâ— relliguntur suspectos habere oportet vel haereticos vel scindentes vel elatos sibi placentes Oâ—â—eâ—â—i decidunt à veritate Sophistae verborum magis esse volentes quà m discipuli veritatis Iren. lib 3. c. 40. which presumption and disorder the Swenckfeldians who called themselves Confessors of the glory of Christ afterwards the Socinians and others intending to introduce new and heretical doctrines with their new Teachers studied to set forth with some weak shews of reason and Scripture Whereas in all former ages of the Church such as should have abrogated the antient Catholick way or have broached any new way of Evangelical power and Ministry would have been as scandalous as if he had broached a new Messias or a new Gospel and made the old one of none effect as many of those strive to do who seek to cry down the former way of Ministers right Ordination Succession and Authority Who if they had not met with a giddy and credulous and licentious age would have needed new miracles to have confirmed their new and plebeian ways of Ministry or to cashier the old one which was first began and after confirmed as the Gospel was for some years with many infallible signs and wonders wrought by the Apostles and their Successors in that Order and Function 3. What can be the design of any to go contrary or innovate What can it be then but an exceeding want of common understanding or a superfluity of malice or a transport of passion or some secular lust either to deny credit to the Testimony of the best Christians and purest Churches in all times or to go quite contrary to their judgment and practise by seeking to discredit and destroy the Authority and peculiar Function of the antient Catholike Christian Ministry in these or other Churches And since in primitive times it could be no matter of either profit or honor in the world In ea regula incedimus quà m Ecclesia ab Apostolis Apostoli à Christo Christus à Deo accepit Tertul. de Praes c. 37. Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostoloâ—um successioneâ—â—piscoporum certa per o rbem propagatione diffunditur August ep 42. to be a Bishop or Presbyter in the Church who were the first men to be persecuted or sacrificed What motive could there be then but onely Religion Duty and Conscience to undertake and persevere in that holy and dangerous Calling that so the Gospel might be continued And since now in England it can be no great temptation of covetousness or ambition unless it be in very poor and necessitous man to be a Preacher of the Gospel upon the new account of the peoples or self-ordaining which is as none what can it be that provokes so many in a new and pitiful way either of egregious ignorance and popular simplicity to undertake to be Preachers Or in a more refined way of devilish malice and deep design to seek to level cast down and trample under foot all Ministerial power whatsoever which is none if it be common and not peculiar to some men by divine Sanction Certainly this can arise from no other aim but either that of destroying us as a Reformed Church or desolating us quite from being a Church or Christians Which our posterity will easily cease to be as to the very form as many at present are 1 Cor. 15.14 as to any power and conscience of Religion if once they cease to have or begin to think they have not had any true Ministers in this or any Church So that all Preaching of the Gospel all Saâ—â—aments all the Faith of so many Christians Professors Confessors and Martyrs in all Ages together with the fruits of their Faith in Patience Charity and good Works must be in vain Alas these poor revenues and encouragements which are yet left to the Ministers here considered with their burdens of business duties taxes and envy are scarce worth the having or coveting even by vulgar and mechanick spirits who may make a better shift to live in any way almost than now in the Ministry The design then of levelling the Ministry must needs be from greater motives such as seek to have the whole honor and authority of the Reformed Religion here in England utterly abolished or else taken up upon some such odde novel and fanatick grounds which will hold no water bear no weight or stress being built upon the sands of humerous novelty not on the rock of holy antiquity and divine verity That so this whole Church may by the adversaries of it be brought to be a meer shadow of deformed and confused Religion or else be onely able to plead its Christianity upon meer Familistick or Anabaptistick or Enthusiastick or Socinian or Fanatick Principles Upon which must depend all our Christian Privileges Truths Sacraments Ministrations Duties and Comforts Living and Dying all which will easily be proved and appear to a considerate soul as profane and null when he shall see they are performed or administred by those Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus ecclesiastatus in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Episcoporum quibus illi â—am quae est in unoquoque lâ—ci Ecclesiam tradiderunt Ire l. 4. c. 6â— who can produce no Precept Scripture or Practise from Antiquity for their ways either of Christianity or of Ministry but onely their own or other mens wilde fancies and extravagant furies nor can they have better excuses for their errors in forsaking the right and Catholike way but onely a popular levity credulity and madness after novelties So that as to this first part of my answer touching The peculiar Function of the Ministry I do aver upon my Conscience so far as I have read or can learn That there is no Council of the Church or Synod no Father or Historian no other Writer that mentions the affairs of the Church no one of them gives the least cause to doubt but wholly confirms this
16.18 Eph. 2.20 Heb 6.2 in the order of Christs Church which are diligently to attend humbly to obey Heb. 13.17 thankfully to own respect love esteem and honor 1 Cor. 9.11 1 Thes 5.12 13. liberally to requite the doctrine and labors of the true and faithful Ministers 1 Tim. 5.17 who are thus over them in the Lord in a right way and succession of Ministeriall Office divinely instituted and constantly derived authority In the perpetuating of which to so many centuries of years since Christs Ascension by lawfull and uninterrupted succession in his Church the power and providence of God is not less remarkably seen than in the preservation of the Scriptures amidst all persecution confusions and variations of humane affairs Also the love and care of Christ to his Church the fidelity of his promise is evident being no less made true to the Ministry than to the whole Church to be with them to the end of the world and by the Ministry that is made good to the whole Church that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the foundations of the Church which are laid upon the writings and by the labours of the Prophets and Apostles and after them still layed and preserved by able faithfull and ordeined Ministers The consecrating or ordeyning of whom by the Imposition or laying on of hands in a continued succession for the good of the Church is reckoned by the holy Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews among the principles and foundations of Christian Religion joyned with doctrines of Faith Repentance Baptism Resurrection and eternal judgement for other meaning of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imposition of hands I find not by Scripture practise or the Church afterward so clear and constant as this in Ordination to an holy Ministry Nor can Confirmation be rightly done to the Baptised and Catechised but by those who are ordeined That to deny the Ordination and due succession of Ministers by which to carry on the work of Christ in his Church or to seek to overthrow it in any Church is all one as if men should deny those grand and fundamentall points of Faith Repentance Resurrection and judgement to have been taught by Christ or Baptism to have been instituted that to overthrow and abolish the constant Ministry and Office in the Church can be the design of none but those who care not to turn Infidels and to live in all Atheistical profaness If then there be any force or authority from Scriptures as the Oracles of God to prove by precept institution or example the religious necessity of any peculiar duties or holy Offices and divine Ministrations by which men are made Christians and distinguished as the Church of Christ from the world if the Preaching the word of life the teaching of the histories the opening of the mysteries the urging the precepts the denouncing of the terrors the offering the promises the celebrating the Sacraments the binding to wrath and shutting up to condemnation all unbelievers and impenitents the loosing of penitents and opening Heaven to them by the knowledge of Law or Gospell if these or any other holy ministrations be necessary not to the well-being only but the very being of a Church Christian Sure there there is as I have shewed no less strength pregnancy and concurrent Scripture clearness to convince and confirm the peculiar office divine power and function of the Evangelicall Ministry Without which all those ministrations must needs have ceased long agoe as to any notion or conscience among men of holy divine and Christian that is the appointments institutions messages or orders of Jesus Christ which could never carry any such marks of divine credit and authority meerly from vulgar credulity and forwardness of reception or from generall common talk and tradition among men if there had been no peculiar men appointed by God in his name and by his Commission to hold forth to the world this great salvation to convince or convert or leave men without excuse As there can be no valid message autoritative Embassie credible assignment or conveyance of truth promise command duty comfort bounty or love to others where there is only a generall fame and unauthorised report without any speciall Messenger Embassador Assigner and Conveyer to the authority of whose speech and actions or conveyances not any mans own forwardness nor others easiâ—ess and credulity doth suffice but some peculiar characters Seals and evidences by letters of credence or other sure and known tokens of a truly assigned and really derived authority do give ground to believe or power to validate what any man so performeth not in his own name or for his own interests but to an others who principally employs him and who only can make good what he so far promiseth or declareth or sealeth as he hath commission and authority from another so to do No man that speaks or negotiates in anothers name especially in matters of great consequence of as high a nature as life and death can expect to be believed by wise and serious men and that they should accordingly order both their affections and all their affairs unless they saw the marks of infallible authority far beyond the confidence of a trivial talker and a bad orator In this point then of a peculiar office and function of the Ministry Evangelical which is divinely instituted in which some men are solemnly invested by which all Religion is confirmed and preserved to the Church We have not onely full measure from Christ himself and heaped up by Apostolical precept and example evidently set forth in the Scriptures and pressed down by after Histories of the Church in a constant succession but it is also running over by those necessary accumulations which all right reason order and prudence do liberally suggest both in the Theory and the Practick 8. The peculiar Office of the Ministry confirmed by Reason For first no man by any natural capacity or acquired ability as a reasonable Creature is bound in conscience to be a Minister of the Gospel and holy Mysteries to others for then all men and women too ought to be such or else they sin Secondly Nor yet by any civil and politick capacity as living in any Society or City can any man be obliged to direct and guide others in the things of God since that relation invests no man in any civil power office or authority until the supreme fountain of civil power calls him to the place and endues him with such power much less can it put any into an authority which is divine spiritual and supernatural to act as in Gods and Christs name and to higher ends than humane 3. Nor thirdly doth any rel gious common capacity as a believer or a Christian or as endued with gifts and graces furnish any one with Ministerial power and lay that duty on him for then every Christian great and small yong and old man and woman 1 Cor. 12.25 29. Are all Apostles are
and how they list It is justly to be feared they are theeves and come but to steal and d strâ—â— who like not to come in at Christs door but are thus clambrâ—â—â— â—very where over the wall and confident of their numbers dare to do it â—â—t in the darkness of their Night Conventicles but as Aâ—salâ—ms incestuous rapes at the noon-day and in the eyes of this whole Church to its great grief and shame and to it s no little danger These intruders appearing more like plunderers of the reformed Religion than any way like to be humble able and faithfull Preachers Nothing can portend good to the Church of Christ that carrys besides gross defects such a face of disorder violence insolency and confusion which if these wayes of some men do not many wise and godly Christians have lost their eyes 12. The weight of the work of the Ministry requires peculiar and appropriated workmen to it 7. Furthermore One great mistake of our Antiministeriall Levellers is from that mean and ordinary esteem they have of the work duty and undertaking of a Minister this makes them have so slight and indifferent thoughts of it both as to the ability and authority requiring very small measure of true abilities and none at all of due authority further than any presumer of his gifts will challenge to himself When as indeed all reason Religion and holy examples do teach us See Sâ— Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 largely and eloquently setting forth what excellencies are required in a Minister above other men says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a Shepheard above the Sheep c. 2 Tim. 2.15 That the work of a Minister of the Gospell is not meerly a matter of lip labour of voluble speech of confident countenance making a shew and flourish to others of that knowledge reading memory and elocution which any man may have upon an ordinary account There goes more to make a work-man than to have good materials and tooles amassed together To heap up these or lay them forth to others view is not to build To be arbitrarily or occasionaâ—ly or impertinently or charitably busie in exercising mens private gifts as to Christian knowledge is not presently to do that great and good work which the Apostle commends which Christ enjoyns his Ministers and which the Church needs Every one that can handle the Hod or the Mattock or the Trowell is not instantly an Architect or may vye with Vitruvius Nor can every knowing Christian discharge that part of a throughly furnished workman who needs not to be ashamod as having materials and Tools and skill and command There is a great difference between that plausible cunning Hâ—c habent haeritici artificiuÌ„ plus per suadent quam docent cùm veritâ—s docendo persuadet non persuadendo docet Tertul. adv Vul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 20.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.17 Who use the word of God as Hucksters do good ware mixing it with bad to mend it the better Nâ—gotium illiâ— in verbi administratione non Ethnicos convertens sed nostros evertendi nostra suffodjunâ— ut sua aedificent Tertul. adv Haer. c. 42. which draws Desciples after mens selves and that Ministeriall conscience which makes Disciples to Christ between the setting up among the many popular Masters who love to hear themselves speak and the being sent as Embassadors to speak in the name of Christ which is not to get a petty Magistery and name among men but to make known as they ought the holy name and mysteries of Jesus Christ Nor is this only to walk in the cool of the day in the midst of an Independent Paradise which other Ministers labours have planted where some elderly better instructed and wealthier Christians fancy they want nothing to compleat them but the contentment of an imaginary Reign and Empire and are content to allow liberally to any Minister that will assume them into a participation of Church power that they may but think themselves to rule But it requires such an humble diligence as is willing to bear the heat and burthen of the day to contend with younger ignorance and elder obstinacy and aged tetricalness not disdaining nor nauseating the cramb of Catechising to which principles few of the new modelling Preachers will deâ—cend as loath to abate of those high-soring notions and seraphick speculations in which they please themselves more than any of their hearers Vulgus quae non intelligunt impensius mirantur Jerom. who seek to profit our souls rather than vainly to applaud their vainer teacher who thus new dressed and set up greatly despiseth his poor neighbour Ministers pains serving only to breed up as in a nursery such plants as he is to transplant to his congregationall Garden and so to gather in due time the fruits of them to himself No the work of a worthy Minister is such as must fit him as well to stoop to lay the lowest foundations in the youngest Cathechists as to set up the Crown and Corner stone of the highest Pinnacle in the most advanced Christians He must know how to treat both the weak and the strong the ideot and the learned the babes and simple as well as the men grown and well-instructed that scorns not the meanest nor fears to do his duty to the greatest in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. â— 7.8 To which work there ought to be such an a dequation as to do every thing becomming so high and heavenly a Master so holy and great a work wherein the Apostle requires as to the doctrine and manners too uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned c. so that the Office and work of a Minister requires De Sacerdote Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 1.14 That good thing which was committed to thy trust keep c. Heb 13.17 As those that must give an account for their sâ—uls Horribile effatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministris non sine conâ—â—erâ—atione animi deliquâ—o audiendum not only communicative abilities for knowledge and utterance but imports also duty conscience care solicitousness skill fidelity diligence intentiveness zeal exactness prudence and highest discretion as in a most weighty matter of infinite concernment wherein the glory of God the honour of our Saviour and the good of mens souls is highly engaged So that it is not a spontaneous curtesie or a pleasant variety or a plausible novelty or a profitable art and trade or mâ—stery of living but a serious custody committed a precious charge deposited and a strict account to be returned of the Ministeriall negotiation and function What is requisite in a Minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezek. 1. Is Pel. l. 1. Ep. 151. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Nis de Cast So that a Minister had need to have the eye and illumination of an Angel the heart and compassion of a Father the
For which necessity a relief was long ago hoped for and expected if not promised from the piety and nobleness of the Parliaments of England who could not but see that in many if not most parts either the Ministers abilities and pains exceeded the Benefice or the starving tenuity of the Benefice like an hungry and barren soyl Innovercante solo satae arbores quamvis generosiores feraces cito sterilescunt Varro Tenuitatem beneficiorum necessariâ— sequitur ignorantia sacerdotum Bishop Jewel eat up and consumed the Ministers gifts and parts which at first were florid and very hopeful and so would have thrived had they not been planted in a soyl that was rather a dry nurse than a kinde mother Nor was there then or is there now any way to avoid the mischief of admitting such minute offerers of their selves to the Ministry in places of so minute maintenance unless the entertainment were enlarged as is requisite in many Livings where the whole salary is not so much as the interest of the money bestowed in breeding of a Scholar would amount to which an able Minister cannot live upon so as to do his duty yet this fault of ordaining and instituting weak Ministers which arose from the hardness of Laymens hearts was better committed than omitted by the Ordainers for it was better that such small timber if as strait and sound as can be had be put in the wall than the house in that place lie quite open and decayed Better the poor people be taught in some measure the Mysteries and Truth of Religion than left wholly wilde and ignorant I know that as in a building it is not necessary that all pieces should be great and massie timber less will serve in their place and proportion yet the principal parts ought to be so substantial that they might relieve the weaker studs and rafters of the burden so that no danger might be to the whole Fabrick from their feebleness so assisted The state of the Church ought indeed to be so ordered that there should be a competency for all and a competency in all Ministers but in some there ought to be an eminency as in employment so in entertainment upon whom the greatest recumbency of Churches may be laid whose learning courage gravity tongue and pen may be able to sustain the weight of Religion in all controversies and oppositions which assertings and vindications require not onely good will and courage but great strength and dexterity The ablest Minister if he well ponders what he hath to do hath no cause to be very forward nor should the meanest that is honest and congruous have cause to despond or be discouraged in his good endeavors Great care ought to be had for Ordination of able Ministers and for augmentation of their Means to competency To restore the Reformed Christian Ministry in this Church to its true honor there should be greatest care had in the matter of ordination before which antiently the Church had solemn Fasting Prayer and Humiliation But in vain as to many places which all need able Ministers will this care be unless there be also some necessary augmentation of Ministers maintenance As the ablest men should be invited to the work so none unable should be admitted and none once admitted should have cause by the incompetency of their condition to be ashamed and by their poverty contract inabilities as Trees grow mossie and unfruitful in barren soyls Nor would this pious munificence be thought much by any Christian Nation to which God hath been so liberal in his earthly bounty if they did indeed value his heavenly dispensations and the necessity work or worth either of true Ministers or of poor mens souls whom itinerant Preachers cannot feed sufficiently with a bit and a way but they require constant and resident Ministers to make them thrifty and well-liking I conclude this Paragraph touching the great work of the Ministry with that Character of an able Minister which St. Bernard hath admirably set forth to Eugenius the then Bishop of Rome by which we may see what sense was in those days Four hundred and fifty years ago of the duty of Ministers and what kinde of ones holy men then required in the Church from whom our succession without any disparagement from mens personal faults is derived Such saith Saint Bernard are to be chosen Tales eligendi sunt Ministri qui sunt compositi ad mores probati ad sanctimoniam para â— ad obedientiam subjecti ad diciplinam rigid ad censuram Catholici ad fidem fideles ad dispensationem concordes ad pacem conformes ad unitatem Qui regibus Johannem exhibeant Egyptsis Mosen fornicatibus Phineam Heliam idolatris Helisaum avâ—â—is Petrum mentientibus Pauluâ— blasphemantibus Christum negoâ—tantibus Qui vulgus non spernant sed doceâ—nt non gravent sed foveant Minas principum non paveant sed contemnant qui marsupia non exhauriant sed corda reficiant De omni re orationi plus fidant quà m industriae sua O si videam in vita mea Ecclesiam tatibus niâ—aâ—â— columnis O si Domini sponsam cernerem tantae commissaâ—â— fidei tanta creditam puritati quid nec â—â—aâ—iâ—s quidve securius Bern. l. 1. ad Eugenium and ordained for Ministers of the Church who are composed for their maners approved for their sanctimony ready to obey their Superiors subject to Discipline strict in their Censures Catholike for their Faith faithful in their Preaching conform to the peace and unity of the Church Who to Kings may be as John Baptist to Egyptians as Moses to Fornicators as Phineas to Idolaters as Elias to Covetous as Elisha to Lyars as Peter to Blasphemers as Paul to Symonaical and Sacrilegious Trafickers in the Church as Christ to the Buyers and Sellers in the Temple Such as may not burthen or despise the poor but nourish and instruct them not flatter and fawn on the rich but rather rouze and affright their proud security not terrified by threats of Princes but living and acting above them not exhausting mens purses but comforting their consciences and filling their hungry souls with good things who in every duty may trust more to their Prayers than their Studies to Gods grace than their own gifts and industry O saith he that I might in my days see the Church of Christ set and built on such Pillars O that I might see the pure Spouse of Christ committed to the eare of such pure and faithful Guardians Nothing would make me so securely happy Thus this devout and holy man in his times to whose pious and earnest desire I could heartily say Amen if I did but hope that ever the request might be heard and granted in my time but though all men be liers yet we have a true God to trust in As for that Liberty which some Christians plead 16. Private Liberty of gifts and publick Ministry not inconsistent not upon a Socinian or fanatick
account as against any peculiar office and power Ministerial but onely in a fair and orderly way of Christian charity and useful conversation wherein private believers soberly and wisely communicate of those gifts of knowledge they have attained not to the subversion of faith and peace in the Church or Consciences but to the further confirmation of them This as it is no way envied or denied by any good Ministers so far as God hath granted it or the charity and zeal of any modest and humble Christian desires it So there is no ground either in Reason or Religion to be urged against the peculiar Calling and Function of the Ministry from this Christian Liberty of Charity any more than there is cause to pull down any mans dwelling house because there are some sheds and pent-houses leaning to it which have their uses and conveniences in their kinde and proportion but not comparably to the main mansion which hath far more strength order beauty and usefulness I shall afterward give a fuller account of that Christian Liberty in Preaching and Prophecying which is by some arrogantly urged against the Authoritative Ministry as any peculiar office and appointment of Christ Onely at present I would endeavor to satisfie the sober and humble Christian That the Calling of the Ministry which is and ought in all Religious Reason to be peculiar to some men both in abilities and ordination as well as in exercise of a divine authority and special power this I say doth no whit quench or repress but rather regulate and preserve that true Liberty which consists in private Christians conferring admonishing informing and strengthning one another in every good word and work without any neglect or undervaluing of the Publick Ministry where it may be had To which as commonly all well-taught Christians ow under God the light 1 Thes 5.14 Warn them that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unruly disorderly out of their ranks and places where God hath set them in his church 2 Thes 3.6 We command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother who walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received from us Tit. 1.10 11. There are many unruly and vain-talkers c. whose mouths must be stopped and soundness they have in Religion so they know That all gifts are bounded by the Word of God which is the measure and touchstone of grace that nothing is further from grace than unruly living and disorderly walking that the gravity of Religion abhors all uncomly motions and rude extravagancies which are as far from true piety or zeal as mad-pranks and ravings are from being heights or excesses of reason Private presumptions be mens abilities never so great may not proudly and uncharitably usurp against publick order peace and authority in the Civil State much less against that divine polity which Christ hath established in his holy Family the Church Ministers not less necessary for the Church than Commanders are for an Army 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. ep ad Cor. p 46. What wise Magistrate will allow it in a Subject what discreet Commander as Clement writing to the Factious Corinthians observes will countenance that private and heady confidence in any Soldier under pretence of valor or hatred of the enemy or zeal for the Generals honor and Armies good without any Order Commission or Command to engage himself upon fighting the enemy or commanding any part of the Army to the violating of those just and necessary Rules of Discipline in the exact observation whereof the safety strength and honor of an Army infinitely more consists than in the Thrasonick forwardness and fool-hardiness of any person in it be he never so able or willing which Manlius Torquatus expressed Livius Dec. 1. lib. 8. Disciplinam militarem qua stetit ad hanc diem Romana res solvisti c. Triste exemplum sed in posterum salubre c. 2 Tim. 2.5 If a man strive for mastery yet he is not crowned except he strive lawfully Secundum leges Athleticas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refractarii Disorderly Agitators A Sect wh ch Clem. Alex. tells of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 320. by that severity of putting his own son to death for fighting without order from him his General although he fought successfully For wise men consider it is not so necessary to fight or to preach as to do both decently and in order nor shall any man be commended or crowned for either unless he do them lawfully Rashness is no part of any mans fortitude much less of his Religion nor is confidence any sign of true valor nor boasting of courage neither is confusion any ingredient in Christian charity nor Faction any support of the Faith nor disorderly walking any fewel of those holy flames which dwell in the humble brests of true Christians and fill them with commendable zeal The Church of Christ is compared to a City that is at unity in it self and to an Army with Banners Liberty must not expel Order out of the Church Psal 122 3. Cont. 6.3 Rev. 21.19 These holy allusions are so far argumentative by way of right reason and religious proportions as to assure us That neither the strength nor beauty of this holy City can be preserved unless the comliness order and exactness of those gemmeous foundations and walls which Christ and his holy Apostles have laid and set up in doctrine holy institutions and peculiar Ministry be observed and kept which are not onely guides and fences for the Churches safety and direction but also limits and boundaries to all mens extravagancy in Religion Nor yet can the majesty of this Heavenly Host the Sacred Militia of Christs Church on Earth continue either as to its safety in it self or its terror to its enemies round about unless the Standard-bearers the Ministers Chrysost in 1 Tim. hom 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 10.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. whose office is to hold up the Banner of Christs Cross against the wisdom power and malice of men and devils be supported and maintained for these are appointed by Christ the Captain-General of our Salvation to be the directers of the Churches motions and as the centers of its peace and order in its several bands and companies which are the several Congregations Who without Ministers duly placed with authority among them will soon be as sheep without a shepherd or as soldiers are when the standard-bearer faileth easily scattered and destroyed And indeed nothing seems more to reprove and confute the perverse disputings of some men against the setled order and calling of the Ministry who pretend to Military Discipline and Orders than this consideration For they cannot but in reason be self-condemned since if they have any grains of Salt in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inter
to the glory of God whose infinite and inestimable mercy is hereby set forth to mankinde or more conducing to the honor of Christ in his wisdom love and care for his Church than it is every way most necessary for the common good of those whom the Lord is pleased to call to be his people at any time in any Nation 1 Cor. 1.21 whatsoever whose interest and benefit the Lord Jesus Christ far more considered and so should all good Ministers do in their work than any particular ends or advantages of their own Alas the divinest advancement of true Ministers in this World is their faithful labor their honor must be their cares and studies and fears 2 Cor. 1.23 c. Princeps in praedicando princeps in perpetiendo Bern. their crowns their sufferings and sorrows persecutions and perils contempts crosses and deaths for Christs sake and the Churches welfare But the peculiar benefit and advantage of the Christian flock the faithful people of all sorts is that which is most to be regarded over whom the Lord hath made Ministers overseers not onely at the first plantation of the Gospel as the Socinians say but also in a constant and clear succession of Publick Ministerial Authority for this very purpose That poor people may never be left as sheep without a shepherd Mark 6.24 that they may not either wander up and down in the wildernesses or mountains of their own fancies or be led away by others seductions or be beguiled by the devils wiles and temptations That they may hear and believe and persevere stedfast in the Faith that they may neither be ignorant nor erroneous nor scattered and divided that they may be preserved from rustical simplicity hypocritical formality heretical pravity and schismatical novelty in matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 29.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Perire denudare feriari dissipare rebellari retrocedere Buxtorf Isai 30.20 Thy Teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers that they may not perish or be left naked separated scattered idle and rebellious for want of vision thereby sinning against God and their own souls The pregnant significancy of that one word which Solomons wisdom useth hath these swarms or spawnings of several senses All which variety shews That the state of common people is never more desperate than when their Seers fail when their Teachers are removed into corners when God sends them no Preachers or Prophets after his own heart when people are not onely without light but put it out quenching the Lamps of the Sanctuary and loving darkness more than light when they are given up to their own delusions and others seductions who blindly follow the visions of their own hearts and the Prophets of their own sending or the Ministers of their own ordaining whom they shall have no cause to credit esteem love or obey as finding no competent gifts Ministerial in them no Characters of divine Authority or holy Succession upon them Ezek. 3.17 Heb. 13.17 They watch for their souls c. People will easily be surprised when they have no watchmen to foresee give warning prevent and encounter any dangers of sins errors and temptations which easily surprise the generality even of Christians who are for the most part so busied and incumbred or so pleased and ensnared or so burthened and oppressed with the secular and sensible things of this world that they can hardly watch one hour with Christ no not in his agony if they had not some Ministers divinely appointed to put them in remembrance to stir up their affections to provoke them to piety to prepare them for eternity both instructing them in the Faith and praying for them that their Faith may not fail Nothing indeed is more deplorable and desperate than the condition of mankinde yea and of any part of the Church of Christ would be if the Lord had not commanded and by a special providence continued an holy constant succession of the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments who may be always either planting or watering or pruning and so according to the several proportions of Christians still preserving the truth life and power of Religion so as it may descend to after ages For there is no doubt 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe but without this holy and happy Succession of Ministers either people would ever persist in their original ignorance and heathenish sottery or although once planted with piety yet they will soon relapse to barbarity Atheism and unbelief or at best content themselves with idle formalities spiritless superstitions empty notions mouldy traditions lying legends plausible fancies novel inventions vain imaginations or most desperate errors and damnable doctrines which is evident by the experience as of former so of these times where few of those that have cast off and despised the lawful and true Ministry of this Church but either give over all Religion or else think themselves capable every night to dream a new and better way of serving God and saving mens souls than ever yet was used This natural tendency to Apostatize from truth 18. As all Christians subject to Errors and Apostacies so none more than here in England Anglorum ingenia sunt aut varia mobilia superstitionibus vaticiniis dedita aut feroci quadam pertinacia aspera contumaciter superba Bodin Lansius Phil. Com. to relapse to profaneness to rest in hypocrisie to run out to extravagancies or to persist in errors no people under Heaven are more subject to than those of this Nation England whom as God hath blest with a land flowing with milk and honey so they have much of the iron sinew and stiffneckedness of the Jews for being full fed they are also full of high and quick spirits various and vehement fancies finding out and running after many fashions and inventions Don Gundamor who had much studied the English temper and knew how their pulse beat both in Church and State was wont to say He despaired not of those violent changes here in England which in no other Nation could be expected who are generally content with their customs and constant to their principles whereas the English are always given to change to admire novelties and with most inconsiderate violence to pursue them So that no Nation or Church under Heaven have more need then of constant learned able and honest Ministers who may shew them guide and keep them in the good right and safe way of true Religion From which none are more easily seduced than those that have either a sequacious softness and credulity toward other men as divers of us have or an high conceit and confidence of themselves which people much at ease rich and high fed as many in England are most subject to Insomuch that we see the greatest disâ—ase as to Religion now
is among us not so much a famine as a surfet of the Word and knowledge which hath here been as the waters of the Sea Hab. 2.14 disdains those shores of order office and duty which the Lord hath set for its bars and bounds in his Church Christians in many places having had great fulness are come to great wantonness and the enemies of the Ministry The greatest enemies of Ministers make them most necessary and Reformed Religion in this Church are not such as have been kept meager and tame with emptiness and ignorance but such as have been pricked with provender high fed by an able and constant Ministry These are grown to such ferocious spirits like pampered horses whom no ground will hold daily neighing after novelties rushing upon any adventures and impatient to bear those Ministers any longer by whose bounty they have been so liberally nourished with all means of knowledge preaching conferring and writing These now affect high racks and empty mangers subtilties rather than solidities and novelties more than nourishment yea they are become the rivals of their Ministers and und rtake like Balaams Beast to teach their Masters not onely speaking with them but against them yea seeking to cast them quite off lifting up their heel against them and trampling their feeders under their feet Thus having either got the bridâ—e between their teeth or having cast quite off their neck the reigns of Order Government and Discipline in Religion Psal 32.9 they are become like Horse and Mule without understanding without gratitude civility and common humanity so far they are from sober piety Running furiously without their guides wantonly snuffing up the wind and proudly lifting up themselves in their high crested opinions and presumptuous fancies of notions gifts prophecyings and inspirations Glorying in this riotous liberty and mad frolicks of Religion which all wise humble and holy Christians know are not more unworthy of and uncomfortable to all good Ministers who taught them better than they will be most dangerous destructive and damnable to those men themselves who proudly affect those ruder and dangerous follies in the Church of Christ who cannot either they or their posterity be ever so safe as in Christs way at his finding and under his custody where with holy and just restraints becoming Reason Order and Religion there are also the most ingenuous liberties and the most liberal fruitions Wandering prodigals in Religion who forsake the order and regularity of their Fathers house which is full of bread will soon be reduced to a morsel of bread And we see already such as have in their pride and disdain most forsaken the true Ministry are come by their riotous courses to feed on husks and from the harlotry of their wanton and fine opinions to consort with swine having hired out Luke 15. and enslaved themselves to all rude unjust and profane designs or else wallowing in filthy and sensual lusts which makes them sin against Heaven and Earth and be no more worthy to be called the sons of God or the children of this Christian Reformed Church So that we evidently see That those men fight against God against Christ Jesus against the Reformed and Christian Religion against the Word of God which is the standard of Religion against the Unity Order and Cathol ke conformity of the Church of the Christ in all ages against the future Succession of Religion against their own souls against their posterity against the common good of all mankinde and all such as may want and enjoy the inestimable blessing of the Gospel who ever fight against the holy office divine authority necessary duty sacred dignity and constant succession of the Evangelical Ministers and Ministry without which the Church of Christ like a Field or Garden without diâ—igent and daily Husbandmen and Gardiners would long ago have run to waste and been over-run with all maner of evil wâ—â—d which grow apace even in the best Plantations if God in his wisdom and mercy to mankinde and to his Church had not appointed some men as his Ministers to take care from time to time that the field of the Church be tilled in every place that the Garden be weeded and the vineyard fenced and this especially for their sakes who are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most of men whose cares and burdens of life or whose dulness and incapacity or whose wants and weakness or whose lusts and passions would never either move them to or continue them in any way worthy the name of true Religion if God had not sent and ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cryers 1 Tim. 2.7 Praecones vel Caduceatores Heralds and Ambassadors to summon invite and by pious importunity even compel men to come into the ways of true piety and happiness which being not onely far above sinful flesh and blood but quite contrary to them had need have a Ministry whose authority for its rise assistance and succession should be beyond what is of humane original and derivation which who so seek to oppose destroy or alter will certainly bring upon themselves not onely the guilt of so high an insolence against Christ and injury against this Church but also will stand accountable to Gods justice for those many souls damnation whom their vanity and novelty have perverted and destroyed both in the present age and after generations for want of true Ministers These first weapons then which the Adversaries of the peculiar Calling of the Ministry hoped to finde in the Armony of Scripture or Right Reason whereby to defend their own intrusion and to offend that holy Function and divinely instituted Succession are found I think to have as little force in them to hurt the Ministry or to help the enemy 1 Sam. 17. as Goliahs Shield Helmet Sword and Spear had either to injure David or secure himself yea we see those smooth stones those pregnant and piercing Authorities of many clear and concurrent Texts of Scripture both for precept and example which I have produced according to right reasoning from Jesus Christ and the blessed Apostles To which the Catholâ—ke practice and custom of all Churches in after times is as a sling directing them more forcibly and firmly against the brazen foreheads of those Anakims that oppose the Ministry All these together are sufficient to prostrate to the ground their proud height and to put to flight that uncircumcised party who have defied and seek to destroy the hoâ—y Ordination of Evangelical Ministers whose poor and oppressed estate although it may now seem but as little David with his Scrip and Staff in the eyes of self-exalting adversaries who despise and curse them in their hearts yet these may finde them to come in the Name and Power of the Lord sent by Gods mission furnished with Christs commission and appointed by the Churches due Ordination to be Leaders Rulers and chief Officers in the Church Militant under His Excellency the Lord Jesus Christ
Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the Generalissimo chief Captain and Prince of our Salvation who having in former times delivered his Servants the true and faithful Ministers from the paws of the Lions and the Bears Heathenish force and Heretical furies will also deliver them out of the hands of these uncircumcised Philistims who having received from their Ministry what ever honor and privilege they can pretend to as Christians yet now carry themselves as if they were aliens from the Israel of God and had never had relation to or blessing from this or any other true Church where hath been a constant Ministry not more famous for Learning and Industry than blessed with all Evangelical excellencies and happy successes To which now the Lord is pleased to adde this crown of patience under great tribulations and of perseverance in suffering much evil discâ—uragement wheâ—e it hath deserved so well CAVIL III. Or Objection about Christian gifts and exercising in common as Preachers or Prophets ALl impartiall spectators may hitherto behold the salvation of God how the insolent opposers of the Ministeriall function the men of Gath are in their first encounter so deeply smitten and woun ed that they ly groveling on the ground The remayning motions which they may seem to have Inconditi morientium motus invalidi expirantium conatus Sym. are but the inordinate strokes of hands and heels the last batteries and weak struglings which attend impotent revenge and exspiring malice It will be no hard matter to set my foot upon their prostâ—ate power and to sever their Heads from their Shoulders that they rise up no more by the means of that two edged and unparalleld Sword of the Scriptures rightly applyed which hath both sharpness weight and brightness the clearest reason potentest conviction and divinest Authority with which they thought to arm themselves against the peculiar Office of the Ministry Yet there are some seconds and recruits who seem to have less fury and malice against the Ministry who seeing the chief Champion of the Antiministeriall faction thus Levelled come in either as to the spoyl or rescue as Ajax to Ulysses holding before them the shield of manifold Scriptures Alleging That notwithstanding there may be granted some peculiar Office and Institution of the publike Ministry yet as to the power of preaching or liberty of prophecying the promise is common to all believers Joâ—l 2.28 cited Acts 2.17 for the powring out of the spirit upon all flesh in the later dayes for the Annointing from above which shall lead every believer into all Truth so that they shall not need any man should teach them 1 Joh. 2.27 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 14.1 1 Thes 5.19.20 1 Cor. 12.7.39 Acts 18.26 being all taught of God That the manifestation and gifts of the spirit are given to every one for the good of the Church in teaching exhorting prophecying c. Which every one is to covet and may communicate to others for their conversion or confirmation as Aquila and Priscilla did to Apollos and other Christians in Primitive dispersions exercising and employing their talents received if not as Ministers in Office and ordeined yet as Prophets and gifted Brethren if not as Pastors yet as Teachers 1 Per. 4.11 In like sort Christians now find their gifts of knowledge and utterance to great and good that they cannot smother them nor suffer them to be restrained and oppressed by the Ministers encroachment and Monopoly Thus they who would seem to be somewhat more civill and equanimous to the calling and Office of the Ministry Answ 1. Gifts in others no prejudice to the Office of the Ministry nor warrant to any man publike arrogancy My Answer first in generall is That all these and the like small shot which Infaustus * Socinno lib. de Eccl. Socinus * Osterâ—d Inst c. 42. Osterodius * Smaltzius de Ord. Ecc. Smaltzius * Radeccius de Eccl. Radeccius * Theoph. Nicolaides defens Socin c. 1. Acts 14 23. When they had ordained them elders in every Church Acts 13.2 Separate to me Paul and Barnabas 1 Tim. 4.14 5.22 Acts 18.28 Heb. 14.17 2 Tim. 2 4. 1 Thes 5.12 13. 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 12.18 c. 1 Cor. 14.32 V. 33. 40. Rom 16 17. 2 Thes 3.6 2 Tim. 4.3 Primitive prophecying what 1 Pet. 1.19 Prophetae Scâ—pturacum interpretes erant maximè propheticarum obscurarum Ambr. Theoph. Chrysost Prophetarum munus erat mysticum Scripturarum sensum ad salutem auditorum explanare Erasm in 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 4.30 1 Cor. 14.29 c. Nicolaides and others of the revived Arians have afforded these Semiant iministeriall adversaries have been oft discharged and received without any hurt as to the divinely established Office of the Ministry Having been either satisfied with all ingenuous concessions as far as order modesty and charity will carry them or refuted with just replyes against all vanity arrogancy and confusion by those learned men who formerly or lately have given very sober solid and liberall satisfaction to any pleas urged or scruples alleged out of Scripture which will in no sort maintain idleness vanity pride and confusion in the Church under the specious names of liberty gifts and prophecying There are indeed many places exciting Christians to labour to abound in every good gift and work but yet as many to keep them within due order and holy bounds becomming the honour of Religion All those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts were never more eminent and common in the Church of Christ than in those times when the Ministeriall power was by peculiar marks ceremonies and duties distinctly and undoubtedly conferred on some peculiar persons as the Apostles and 70. Disciples on Timothy Titus and others who were separated and ordeined by fasting praying examination and imposition of hands to be Bishops or Presbyters in the respective Churches as they came to be capable of setled order and Ministry And notwithstanding the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were then conferred upon many not yet ordeined Ministers we see the Office and honour of the Ministry was never more clearly asserted as divine being set over the flocks by the Lord so to be owned and esteemed as distinct from secular intanglements as an retire and compleat imployment even for the best and ablest men to which they should once ordeined wholy give themselves and attend on it Never was order and peace and proportion in the Church more enjoyned and duly observed never were disorderly and unruly walkers false Apostles self-obtruders house-creepers heaps of teachers who caused divisions more severely repressed than in those Primitive times when believers enjoyed most eminent gifts and graces for some ends either in miracles or toungs or prophecying which was not that eminentest sense of prophecying that is foretelling things to come but the opening and applying the places of the Prophets in the old Testament which was then
the only Scriptures the Church had which St. Peter calls the more sure word of Prophecy by which it might appear to the Church more clearly that the crucified Jesus was the Christ the promised prefigured and prophecyed Messias so establishing the tradition and history of the new Testament which concerned the Nativity life miracles sufferings death resurrection ascension c. of Christ by the places of the old wherein oft times an Auditor among them might have that further light revealed to him as to the fuller sense of any place which another was handling and this but occasionally not as a constant habit only at present it was beyond his naturall abilities or endowments acquired by studies c. Nor was this then an extraordinary gift for the confirming and establishing of the new planted Church or Christians in the faith ever used as it ought but with great order all gravity charity humility and peace among those that were truly so enabled And when any vain pretenders came up to abuse it the Apostle requires that there be a due tryall and subjection of these spirits of the Prophets to the Prophets who might wisely discern between true and false between holy wise and excellent inspirations which were pertinent interpretations or apt clearings of Scriptures and those weak impudent and impertinent ostentations which were either very false and foolish or vulgar and ordinary Which Secondly is the most 2. Of right interpreting and applying Scriptures 2 Cor. 2.17 that our Antiministeriall adversaries who affect the name of Prophets commonly amount too while they handle the Scriptures most what with very unwashen hands so brokenly corruptly rudely rashly and perversely as makes them not any way extraordinary Prophets but ordinary proclamers of their own ignorance shame and impudence who think they may take liberty in nothing more than in abusing and wresting the holy Scriptures which are sufficient to make any man of God perfect both in gifts and graces in abilities and in humility And which should not be handled either privatly or publikely but with great humility care diligence exactness and conscience Since 2 Pet. 1.20 2 Pet. 3.16 as they were not of private and humane invention so nor are they of private interpretation after every mans sudden unstable and unlearned fancy Who rashly singles out texts of Scripture here and there as they do a Deer out of a Herd and runs them down till they fall at the foot of his fancy or opinion torturing and racking the places till they speak to his mind and sense Thus often times the Church of Christ hath seen men of proud and corrupt minds as they say Toads of good Eggs hatch Cockatrices from some places of Scripture ravished from their fellows Omnia adversus veritatem de ipsa veritate constructa sunt operantibus aemulationem istam spiritibus erroris Tertul. Apol. c. 47. Dominici eloquii fures violatores Aust De Donatistis Retract l. 21. Falsa interpretatio Scripturae est nervus Satanici regni Hilar. and wrested from the main scope and context bring forth most hereticall and monstrous productions contrary to those truths which are most clearly set forth in the whole tenour or Analogy of the Scriptures as their great design and main intent Such those of old were against the divinity and humanity of Christ Against the holy Trinity Against the grace of God and of late against the Law the Souls Immortality good works both the Sacraments all holy duties as forms Against any resurrection and judgment to come against the very being of any Catholick Church against the Scriptures themselves And so now against any Succession or peculiar order of ordeined authoritative Ministers to hold forth the Gospell of Christ and true Religion to the world So the Maniches from Eph. 2.2 By nature you are the Children of wrath argued Nature of man to be Evill And from a principle of darkness and sin coeternall with the good God Aust Retract l. 15. Apollinaris and Eutiches argued from the word was made flesh That Christ had not two distinct natures but only one the flesh turned into God So Arrius against the Divinity Nestorius against the Unity of the person of Christ The Anthropomorphites urged Scripture for those humane shapes which they grosly imagined to be in God as in Man because God speaking to man speaks as man not as he is in himself but as he is most conceivable by us In none of all which errors those Patrons of them any more than these for liberty of opining and of prophecying as they list will seem to want either reason or Scripture which sometime they will call a dead letter yea and killing too Affirming that both it and the Ministry too are needless that all are taught of God by a quickning Spirit and a Speciall unction c. The same men can prophesy too if you let them alone against all civill property and common equity and honesty 1 Cor. 3.22.23 2 Cor. 4.15 Rom. 13.8 Joh. 6.27 out of that place All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods Against borrowing or at least paying any pecuniary debts by Ow no man any thing but love Against all honest labour and diligence by Labour not for the meat that perisheth Take no thought for to morrow Mat. 6.25 1 Pet. 3.3 Tit. 1.15 Mat. 23.9 Against all modesty and decency in cloaths by that not of putting on of apparell Against all restraints of Laws and bounds of holiness in any thing by that to the pure all things are pure All things are lawfull for me 1 Cor. 6.12 Against all duty to Parents subjection to Masters and Magistrates 1 Pet. 2.9 by call no man Father or Lord 〈◊〉 be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 by being Gods freemen for you are a royall Priest-hood ergo no peculiar Ministry whereas that was said to the Jews first who had a peculiar Priest-hood by which the whole Nation was blessed and honoured of God Exod. 19.5 Thus the devill and his seducing instruments never want their lectures quotations and common placeâ— out of the Scriptures When pride poverty and liberty once meet together to prophecy as they list what mad work do they make with Scriptures Religion conscience and all order and Laws of Church or civill societies As those false Prophets in Germany not long ago did and others after in England designed to have done Munter and Phifer Hacket and Arthington making the holy Scripture which is the pure fountain of life the very sink and receptacle of all heady opinions and sordid practises When as the Holy Scriptures Purissimum veritatis sontem in puridissimam errorum sentinam vertunt haeretici Jeron S. Scripturae locis multi abutuntur ut si quis medicinalibus ferramentis se graviter vexet quae non ad vulner anduÌ„ sed ad sananduÌ„ sunt instituta Aust Ep. 141. Sensus Scripturae expetit â—ertae imerpretationis gubernaculum
Instituted or to encourage any Christians to entertain those proud and spitefull Peninnahs of pretenders to be gifted men thereby to grieve and vex the Souls of the true and faithfull Ministers as she did Hannahs devout meekness 1 Sam. 1. with her malipert insolency It is no argument to perswade the Church therefore to cast out of Christs family the Stewards and dispensers of holy mysteries which he hath appointed because Christians have sometime in their enforced wandrings Multum differunt lex necessitatis ordinis quod ita fieri debet quod aliter fieri non potest Reg. Iu. been relieved by some strangers or private and mutuall Charity which may in such cases be great though their gifts and provision be but moderate However it were madness for Christians now where no necessity or disorder presseth and when neither gifts are so good nor Charity so great in any of these new men to venture themselves upon their powers for supplyes who like the foolish Virgins have too little for themselves however they boast of their full Lamps and Oyl to spare Such small and feeble oppositions then Lib. de praesc adv Haere Proprium hoc est haereticorum ex pancioribus Scriptura locis plura intelligi velle Tert. ad Praxeam which as Tertullian tels us either Hereticks or Schismaticks are wont to bring from broken and abused Scriptures for their novell opinions their proud and pragmatick confusions against the antient and Catholick sense which the Church hath alwaies held forth by its practise agreeable to the many clear and unquestionable places do no more weaken the divine authority of those things which the Catholick Church upon lively grounds observeth as it alwaies hath this of a constant ordeined Ministry no more I say than if Dalilah should have plucked two or three of Sampsons hairs Judges 16. instead of cutting off his goodly locks and prodigious tresses Nor may these false and flattering Dalilahs of our times who by cauponating Religion and handling the Scriptures deceitfully 2 Cor. 2.17 seek to betray the strength honour and order of this reformed Church in England under pretences of great kindness think that by twitching thus one or two hairs the Ministers strength will fail them or that the Anti-ministeriall Philistins shall presently be upon them so as easily to prevail against the whole function of the setled Ministry which being divinely instituted and derived will ever be divinely assisted No Mat. 28.20 we find yet through the might of Gods grace and the testimony of good consciences so great a strength and holy courage in all true and faithfull Ministers as is abundantly able to assert themselves their function and the reformed Religion of this Church of England against all these Apollyons and Abaddons We are not so dispirited nor distressed but that we can still rowse up our selfs in the strength of God and in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and in the authority of our holy function so as easily to break in-sunder all such wit hs and cords by which the enemies not so much of our persons as of our calling and Religion hope to afflict us so that these uncircumcised in hearts and lips shall not safely touch us or mock us Judges 15.17 Only as Sampson did of the men of Judah we humbly crave of the secular powers which are now over us that their hands may not be against us to fall upon us themselves however they expose us thus to contend with those men of Ashdâ—d alone Ps 118.12 Et multitudine inimicorum magnitudine pressus viribus numero valentium Ps 22.12 Ps 68.30 Who came about us first like Bees with their importune stings their vexatious disputings But now they threaten to come upon us like fat Buls of Basan on every side with their horns lifted up on high to destroy us But the Lord will be on our side so that we shall not need greatly to fear what these beasts of the people these unreasonable men can do unto us Who will soon be extinguished as fire among the thorns when once the Lord shall arise to plead his own cause not only by the zeal and patience and constancy of his servants the true Ministers but also by stirring up the spirit of wisdom in the hearts of all true Christians who will soon be asham'd of that levity contempt and confusion which these mens vanity or impiety and hypocrisy would fain bring upon them and their posterity in this great concernment of the setâ—ed Ministry and the true reformed Religion The evill designs of such captious disputers against the Ministry 1 Sam. 5. There are no doubt who of a long time have endeavoured and sought opportunity when they might bring with Carts and high shoos by the illiterate rudeness of the seduced vulgar the Ark of our Reformed Church and Re igion into the house of their mishâ—pen Dagon which hath upper parts like a mans but the lower as a Fish the head adorned with Christian Religion but the tayl deformed with superstition They softly and fairly pretend liberty and improvement with mens faces and womens hair as the Locusts which rose out of the bottomless pit but they will end in the Scorpious tayl of licentiousness Rev. 9.7 superstition and profaness Such Reformation will soon prove deformity They speak of bread but it will proove stones Mat. 7.10 and Serpents instead of Fishes Such manifestations of private gifts in wanton and presumptuous Spirits will soon turn to the quenching and resisting of the true light and heat of Gods Spirit whose purer flames are only fed with that holy Oyl which flows from the golden vessel of the Scriptures Zach. 4 12. divinely infused into them and diffused into the humble hearts of all good Christians by those pipes of the Ministry which Christ hath appointed for that service This Anti-ministeriall Liberty which some seek thus to dress up by an adulterous and wanton bravery against the calling of the Ministry is like the woman which sits in the midst of the Ephah of wickedness Zach. 5.7 upon the mouth of which God will ere long cast such a talent of lead as shall cover and stop it up by the just indignation and abhorrence of all good Christians to see themselves this Church the Ministers of it and the Reformed Religion so much wasted and abused by such prodigies of profaness as some of them are who speak nothing but proud and perverse things full of bold blasphemies and Anti christian confusions under the colour of gifts and Liberties of prophecying whereto as the wisdom and holy order set forth in Scripture give me countenance so in the next place neither do these mens gifts which they so boast and vapour of give any incouragement For first no wise man doubts of those mens emptiness which their great noyse and sounding sets forth every where 4. The vanity and emptiness of these Anti-Ministerials as to
power and office of that Ministry which Christ and the Apostles had setled in the Church and to which they pretended to have a zeal Fourthly at the worst what ever they were or did regularly or irregularly as to the point of Preaching Christ crucified the Apostle so far rejoyced not as they were passionate or peevish envious disorderly c. but so far as God restrained them in any moderate bounds of truth-speaking It was some joy to see a less degree of mischief and scandal arise from their perversness and spite That they did not blaspheme that Name and preach another Gospell or corrupt this in points of doctrine with Jewish or Hereticall leaven no less than they did with those tinctutes of passions envy and defects of Charity A good Christian may rejoyce at any preparation of men to receive the Gospell In omni malo est aliqua boni mixtura Simpliciter enim absolute malum esse non potest Neque enim est malum pura negatio sed debiti boni privatio neque est cognoscibile nisi per bonum Tho. Aq. 1. q. 14. Non humane est imbecilitatis plena indagine conoscere quâ ratione Deuâ— mala fieri patiatur quae non incuriâ sed consilio permittuntur Salv. l. 1. Gub. Mirandum non est quod mala exurgant sed vigilandum est ne noceant nec permitteret Deus ex surgere nisi sanctos per hujusmodi tentationes erudiri expediret Aust Ep. 141. as in the Indies tho they be first taught it in much weakness and superstition It is so far happy in the worst of times and things that there is no simple or sincere evill which hath not some mixture of good in it which it abuseth else it could not be at all and some extraction of good may be from it by the omnipotent wisdome of God causing all things to work together for the good of his Church Gods permissions not to be urged against his Precepts and Institutions But what sober Christian will urge Gods permissions against his Precepts and Institutions The rule in the Word is still right constant and divine though in the water of events providence may seem crooked and irregular Gods toleration of evill of disorders or heresies in the Church doth not justifie them in the least kind against his Word which forbids them The Apostle was glad and so may we be in evill times that things were no worse but he allows them not to be so bad Quae permittit Deus non approbat in permisso praviter agente quamvis apprâ—bet permissionem suam profundissimè potentissimè sapientia quae bona ex malo ducenda novit Vid. Aust Ep. 120. Ep. 159. In abdito est consâ—lium Dei quo malis bene utitur mirificans bonitatis suae omnipotentiam Rom. 3.8 Multa sunt in intentione operantis â—ala quae in eventu operis bona sunt Aquin. Praescientia praepotentia sua non rescindit Deus libertatem creaturae quam instituerat Tertul. lib. 2. cont Marcâ—on vid. Synes ep 57. nor would he approve the doing of evill or the envy and spightfulness in preaching that good might come thereby He only considered it in the event as to Gods disposing not in the agent or fact as to mans perverting A sober and wise man may make a good use of others madness and folly as God doth of mans and devills malice One may rejoyce that there are some poysonous creatures by which to make Theriacas and Antidotes Many venomous beasts have the cure in them against their own stings and poâ—sons The same Apostle might rejoyce in the supposed not decreed and absolute Necessity of Heresies There must be heresies 1 Cor. 11.19 that as in these times the constancy of judicious and sincere Christians may be made manifest It is some ease that Impostumes break Plus est jucunditatis in sapientia Dei quae bona è maâ—is extrahit quà m in malis molestiae Lact. l. de Ira. Respondet Epicuri quaest cur Deus permisit mala cum potens sit bonus Permisit malum ut eâ—icaret bonum Id. Acts 27. whereby corrupt humors are let out and spent possibly the Apostle might in some sense or notion have rejoyced in the storm he suffred and the shipwrack so far as it discovered Gods extraordinary protection to him and for his sake to those with him And so may all his faithfull Servants the Ministers have cause at last to rejoyce when the Lord hath brought them and this Church to the fair haven after this foul weather which seeks to overwhelm them But Christ is in the ship and they have a good Pilot God whose Spirit with their own bids them be of good chear The Lord can and will save his that be godly from so great a death But such joyes are the serious and sincere raptures of very godly and wise men far enough sequestred from the flashes of the world which hardly ever discern in Events what is of God from what is of man Good events in which Gods over-powring is seen are oft consequentiall not intentionall Severa res est gaudium Sen. Cl. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the second agents and flow not from their will or vertue but follow their work through Gods soveraign over-ruling who as St. Austin sayes would not permit any evill of sin to have been in and from the creatures pravity of free will and infirmity of power if his infinite both power and goodness had not known how to extract the good of his glory out of the greatest evill And truly this good we hope through the mercy of God The good which may come from this evill to true Ministers Phil. 1.16 both all true Ministers and all true Christians in this Church of England will reap by this envy contention spitefull unsincere and uncivill dealing of these Anti-ministeriall Adversaries who cry up their new preaching and prophesying wayes thereby thinking to adde affliction to those bonds and distresses which are upon Ministers in these dangerous and difficult times That this will make all true Ministers more study to be able for to walk worthy of and alwayes to adorn that holy profession and divine Ministration which they have upon them that so they may stop the mouths of gainsayers Tit. 1.9 Saluberrimus est malorum inimicorum usus quo illorum quadam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meliores vigilantiores reddamur Erasm 1 Cor. 3.1 who lye in wait for their halting and reâ—oyce at their fallings Also it will breed in all others that are serious sound and good Christians a greater abhorrency of these insolent and disorderly wayes in the Church the root and fruits of which are carnall not spirituall pride faction strife bitterness confusion scom of religion corruption of all true doctrine and holy manners neglect and disuse of holy duties prophaness and disposition to all
superstitions licentiousness flatteries and lukewarmness as to the power of the true reformed Religion As is most evident in those places where these New-pretenders have most intrudâ—d themselves and extruded the true and able Ministers Sad experience will shortly teach all such as love this Church and Reformed religion Contempt of tho Ministers of the Gospel paves and strowes the Devils high-way to all impiety how much it concerned them to have endevoured great vindications and by civill Sanctions of the honour of the publike Ministry That there may be exact care in the right authority for ordination and true antient succession which conferrs the Divine power and office as also good incouragements and assistance in the due execution of it that it may not be exposed to so many affronts reproaches and disgraces of vile men and insolent manners who fear not openly to contemn such a reformed Church and it s so famous Ministry together with the whole Nation and the Lawes of it even in so high a nature and measure as this is to vilifie their publike Religion and to seek to extirpate the true Ministry of it Nulla magis illustrantur coâ—fiâ—mantur religionis Christianae dogmatâ— quam quae versutissima haereticorum pravitas deturpare eradicare conabatur Chamâ—er Doctis medicis dant pretium medicastri ut veris Theologis insuisi impudentes Theologastri Iâ—si morbi minus noxii sunt quà m medici imperiti Fernel As good Lawes oft rise by the occasion of evill manners like Antidotes from Poysons so advantages may at last accrew to the Reformed religion and to the true Ministry of it by these oppositions Nothing makes the lustre of truth to shine more clear and welcome than those clowdings and blasphemies under which it may for a time be hidden and Ecclipsâ—d Nothing will make able Physicians more necessary and valued than the swarms of such ignorant Quacks as are of no valew who are more dangerous than any Plague or Epidemical disease Nor is the estate of any Church as to Religion more safe by the multitudes of preaching Mouâ—tâ—banks in stead of True and able Ministers In stead of Propating the Gospell they will every whereso corrupt it with errors so abase it with prejudices and scandals so harden men against the power of it by the rottenness and hypocrisie of their wayes that there will be more need of able and true Ministers to recover and settle the honour of the true Christian religion in this Nation than if it were now first to be converted from Paganism For the Devils strongest holds are those which are fashioned after the platforms of religion and pretend to more than ordinary piety 9. The Character of Antiministerial preteâ—dâ—rs to gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 1. So that when I consider the temper and form of this Antiministeriall faction in England I find that their heads by a ricketly kind of religion are grown too heavy for their weak and overburthened limbs Their self-conceit of their extraordinary gifts and abilities presuming themselves to be able to do what ever they fancy makes them more than ordinarily disabled as to any good word or work Like Narcissus they are so deluded with the flattering Ecchos of their â—llâ— admirers and so taken with their own fashion in such false glasses that they are like to dâ—at till they die and starve themselves as to all reall sufficiencies by the fond imagination of how great gifts they have and their ignorance of how much indeed they want Nothing more hinders reall abilities than too hasty presumptions of them If any of these gloriosâ—es have any competent gifts of knowledge as to some things of Religion yet like the Chickens hatcht by the force of Ovens in the heat of Camels-Dung as at Aleppo Damascus and other places in the East they have commonly something in them monstrous odd extravagant either defective or superfluous in opinions or practise In intellectuals or morals or prudentials Either vain or morose Humanis oculis locata Religio Crys l. 9. light or tetricall rude or proud popular or affectated Impatient of nothing so much as the bounds of that honest calling in which God and the Laws have placed them Ardeliones isti tepidos se suspicantur nisi inquieti sint nec zelantes satis se credunt nisi omnia incendiis commiscentes pulcherrima quaeque Religionis in cinâ—res redigentes Gerard. Phraeneticus immundus ignorantiae Spiritus Ire l. 1. c. 13. Qui custodiet ipsos custodes Tutela intutissima Unsatisfied and ever quarrelling with that sober peaceable setled way of judicious and humble piety which becomes good Christians adorns the Gospell and keeps up the honour of the Reformed Religion and of this Church of England which these mens late violent extravagancies and disorderly walkings beyond and contrary to all holy rules of Religion all modest bounds of reason Law and common order among men and Christians seek to make weary sick and ashamed of it self when it shall see it self robbed and spoyled of all its able Ministers Reverend Bishops learned Presbyters and orderly Professors and only guarded by a riotous and incomposed rabble of such whose ignorance weakness and confusions will only serve to betray and destroy the Reformed Religion but never to defend it against those many malicious crafty and well armed adversaries who do but ly in wait for opportunities to weaken dishonour disorder and quite overthrow both this and all other Reformed Churches Alas these gifted men who spread so large sayls hang out such fair streamers and seek to make so goodly a shew to the vulgar simplicity as if they were strong built well rigid and richly loaden vessels fit to endure those rough Seas and storms to which both the Truth and Ministry of the Gospell are frequently exposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist de Virt. vit Audacia est stupor quidam rationis cuÌ„ malitia voluntatis conjuncta Aquin. Eph. 4.14 Heb. 13.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Ep. 14. Confidentia stultorum imperatrix prudentium scurra Sido 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 26. Temeritas inscitiae filia are easily judged by all wise and truly learned Christians to be but light keels and flat bottomed Boats by their floting so loftily by their running so boldly over any shelves and rocks of opinion by their putting into every small creek of controversy which shews they draw very little water that they have not the due ballast of weighty knowledge and sound judgement the want of which makes them so fool hardy so apt to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine so prone to grow Leaky and foul either letting in under water cunningly and secretly corrupt and brackish opinions or shipping in above-deck openly and boldly whole Seas of any sinister ends and worldly interests that are abroad in the storms and waves and confusions of civill affairs
from which the best Christians study alwaies to keep themselves most free and unspotted Mat. 23.5 Confirmatur hypocrisis Pharisaei quando ampliantur Philacteria Chrys The large Philacteriâ—s of pretended preaching gifts which some men so Pharisaically set forth to the vulgar view who as St. Jerom saith easily admire what they hardlyest understand do not presently make them such Rabbies and teachers in Israel as they fancy and affect to be counted where there is or may be had far better supplies of such able and right ordeined Ministers as the Church of England hath brought up These are graces and gifts of the Spirit to be shewed in mens silence as well as in their speaking as he that knew how to hold his peace put in his name among the famous Orators Yea if the case of this Church were so desolate as some pretend and destitute of able and faithfull Ministers which blessed be God it yet is not yet few of these forward intruders of themselves have such sober gifts and well-grounded knowledge in the mysteries of Christian and in the ordinary controversies of the Reformed Religion as might supply the Church in its cases of necessity wherein any Christians or Churches may possibly crave and have some relief as to the teaching coâ—firming or comforting part of the Ministry from the larger and golden rule of Charity Where Christian communion makes believers usefull to each other not out of Office and speciall duty but out of love and that generall relation they have to each other Which necessity thanks be to God is not yet the Case of this Church nor shaâ—l ever need to be by Gods blessing if Magistrates and true Ministers would do the duties which become them in their places Though the Harvest be great yet the Labourers are not few which are of the Lords sending Mat. 9.37 if they may be suffered to do the Lords work And if those sturdy gleaners and pilferers who thrust themselves into others mens fields and labours did not every where disturb and hinder them by their sharking and scrambling 10. The Churches supplies in cases of necessity When true Ministers cannot be enjoyed John 2. Lando factam de necessitate virtutem sed plus illam quaÌ„ elegit libertas non indicit necessitas Ber. Ep. 113. 1 Kings 17.6 1 Kings 17. Who doubts or denyes but in cases of reall not feigned affected or imaginary necessity when Christians are forcibly deprived of their true Pastors and Ministers the Lord Jesus Christ who hath speciall care of his Church by the assistance of his Spirit can turn the water of some Lay-mens weaker gifts into wine for the Instruction confirmation and consolation of scattered and desolated Christians Although those teachers are not every way exactly prepared nor fitted for every work of the Sanctuary Rather than poor Christians that hunger for the food of Heaven should wholy want refreshing Ravens shall feed them as they did wildred and banished Eliah A lay mans barrell of meal and cruse of Oyl that is his good skill and sound understanding in the main fundamentals of faith and holy practise Also in those gracious promises which God hath made to upright hearts these may have miraculous augmentations and effussions to sustain a widowed Church and Orphan Christians in time of dearth But we must not therefore suffer these Acephalists these circulators and beggars to perswade us De Acephalis Hos neque inter laicas nâ—que inter clericos Religio detentat divina mixtum genus est prolesque biformis Isid Hispa de off Ec. lib. 2. c. 3. that we are famished in our fathers house where we see servants are wanton with fulness of Bread meerly that they may boast how they have made us to eat of their mouldy scraps and drink of their musty bottels In the confusions of a family where violence overbears setled order removing both chief and inferior Officers those supplies are commendable which the charity and discretion of any servants can afford one the other yet without usurping any place and authority which they have not over others But in a setled and orderly family where there are Stewards and Officers appointed it is a preposterous charity for every Servant to undertake to give to the Children or Servants of the family their portions Precedents of extraodinary sustentation with Bread Wine and Oyl either by miracle or Charity are no warrant for any mens presumptions rashness and disorder in ordinary cases any more than those fore-named examples should justify any man from madness who presuming of extraordinary supplies would cut up all Vines or plant no Olives or use no tillage and Husbandry which are the wayes of Gods ordinary providence both to exercise and reward mens honest and orderly industry In like manner where the Churches or societies of Christians greater or smaller are blessed with the enjoyment of those institutions and gifts which Christ hath appointed and bestowed for the joynt and publike good of his Church in planting preserving and propagating true Religion with good order which ever was and is to be carried on by the right Ministration of the word and Sacraments and other holy Offices properly belonging to duly ordeined and authorised Ministers there no pretended liberty or affected and self-made necessity Prima est necessitas quam praecipientis Dei autoritas imponit Secunda quam permittentu providentia dispensat Tertia quam deficientis in officio negligentia cogit quam peccatum esse sui paenam credas Bern. Necessitas quod cogit defendit modo absit malum morale Eccl. 10.8 no right of common-age or levelling zeal may violate the bounds which Christ hath set and the Churches ever observed He that breaks the hedges of Religious order in the Church the Serpent of an evill conscience shall bite him All true Christian Liberties that is such as are * Libertas ut matrona decora non est honesta si non sit Gibeuf 1 Kings 8. Augustior Salomon in genua procumbens quaÌ„ in solio sedenâ— ornatior orans quam imperans Jeron comely 11. Of Christians Liberty to use their gifts orderly and usefull are by all godly and learned Ministers allowed and encouraged in all faithfull people of whatsoever calling quality and condition Masters in their families Magistrates on their Benches Commanders amidst their Souldiers Princes among their subjects cannot appear more to their honour and advantage within their places and callings than when like Salomon they shine with that wisdom piety and devotion which becomes all true Christians on all occasions and may make them merit the honour of Princes and Preachers too in Jerusalem which liberties and abilities the humble piety of wise and modest Christians knows how soberly and discreetly to use as to any occasion of private charity or publike edification in their places yet not insolently and unseasonably to abuse it so as to disparage neglect and usurp upon the publike ordeined Ministry Every
superfluous and so far hurtfull as it is inconsistent with the ministers and peoples duty on the Lords day Tot erunt venena quot intenia tot pernicies quot sâ—ecies to dolores quot colores as Tertul begins his Scorpiacum against the vanities and varietiys of the Gnosticks who pretended to know more and be more perfect than the Apostles Arelius flagitio corrupit artem Deas dilectâ—uÌ„ imagine pingens Plin. l. 35. 10. That Gentleman cannot but consider how many childish triflings in discourses how many triviall skirmishes in disputes how many captious bickerings in words how many uncomly thwartings are prone to arise as in Country cudgell-playing among the vulgar be they never so godly if you put them one pin above their pitch they either crack or sound like strings over-strained harshly and out of tune although they may have good gifts yet as Arelius a Painter in Julius Caesars time who had good skill in this corrupted his art that when he was to paint any Goddess he alwayes made them like some of his Mistrisses so these are prone to adorn by their gifts some error or odd opinion and set it forth as a divine truth and rare doctrine Nor can you avoid besides erroneous and fond opinions envyings evill surmisings jealousies unsatisfiedness and factious bandings among the people whose minds will soon be divided some liking others disliking some admiring others despising some attending others absenting from this unwonted uncouth exercise of Prophesying which thus confused and abased will soon appear to judicious and sober Christians a tedious and useless business like Fidlers alwayes tuning and never playing any good lesson and no way fit for a Sabbath-dayes sanctification when once the Country gaping or the gloss and novelty of it is faded So then if the Guardian of the peoples Liberty and privilege in Prophesying can find any other time on the week-dayes Of peoples prophecying on the week dayes wherein to set up this exercise of Lay-mens prophesying that so people may not at all times come short of that which he calls their duty He must be sure to provide Prophets of some competent gifts besides their discretion else he will have much adoe to perswade people that it is their duty to neglect their weekly occasions and to lose both their time and labour in attending rusticall impertinencies and ignorant triflings in religion which of all things should by wise men be avoyded among the vulgar whose affections like the poor womans wort is oft very hot in the point of Zeal when it is very small in point of judgement And is prone to run out from familiarity to contempt from contempt to down-right prophaness and Atheism in matters of Religion when made cheap and vulgar If he can indeed furnish out men or women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes ep 142. ex Lyside Pythagoreo Contempt of Religion riseth from making holy things too triviall and common for they prophecied too 1 Cor. 11.15 of such prophetick gifts as are worthy to be esteemed and encouraged by sober and judicious Christians I shall promise him that I more willingly and more constantly will be their auditor at convenient times and places when I hear they do what becomes wise humble serious and modest Christians than most of these pretenders to be such gifted men and to have such prophetick spirits are hearers of the true Ministers of this Church be they never so able either on the Lords day or on any week-day Lecture For the first way that many make to bring in their Lay-prophets and gifts is with their feet trampling as it were upon the best Ministers and their faithfullest pains while they scorn to step out of dores to hear them either Praying or Preaching which pride and negligence are not the least of those vertues which recommend those Prophets To be plain the truth is so much bran filth and dross of pride popularity schism malipertness and contempt of all men that differ in any way form or opinion from them and of all Ministers above all do hitherto generally appear in the face and manners of many of those who more affect the name of gifted men and Prophets than ever the Pharisees did the title name of Rabbi Mat. 23.7 that most sober and wise Christians suspect they will hardly ever make such Loaves as may be fit for Shew-bread to be set up in any publike place of Gods house and Sanctuary If that Gentlemans piety which seems tempered with much ingenuity can sift or boult out any good meal or finer flowr that so they may be decent for Gods service and the Churches use in any publique way I know no man will hinder him from baking making and distributing his bread But let them take heed lest the Corn being ground in such a new beaten mill it prove not full of grit and gravell which hath more offence than either profit or pleasure in eating of it 13. Of the private exercise of Christians gifts that are truly good For the private Exercise of his Prophets gifts which will now serve the turn no man ever spake against it further than it frequently carried it self unseemly by neglect separation boasting against contempt and opposition of far abler gifts in the publique Ministry oft undermining and shaking those truths that ordâ—r and holy way of life wherein the peace of the Church and the honour of true Religion consisted And even in this I conceive I have shewed to humble Christians a more excellent way Namely in using the learned helps of other mens labours which are in every kind well composed rather than to please themselves meerly in the barrenness and rawness of their own inventions which yet they may add too if need be that so they may not seem to say nothing of themselves or be forced to break for want of vent If these so cryed up gifted men be found meet to be made publique teachers in the Church under the name of Prophets why may they not be ordained Ministers in a just and due way There is like to be want enough of men of any competent parts in the great decay and discouragement of such as are very learned and most able If they are not fit for all offices of the Ministry I wonder how they can have confidence enough to be publike Teachers in any kind which work requires greater abilities and equall authoritie to any other holy Office if they have any thing in them of modest and humble Christians sure they would be more swift to hear James 1.19 Tutior est in audiendâ— quà m loquendo celeritas Non tam facile aures ac labra impingunt Male audiendo solus ipse laberis male loquendo alios tecum in ruinam pertrahis Pelarg. Tenuitatis sua maximè conscii maxima mendacissima solent polliceri Immodica enim ostentatione levâ—men aliquod remedium quasi patrocinium aliorum credulitatem propâ—iae mendicitati quaerunt Erasmus
Ministers or others who are of different judgements Is it not their trespass that true Ministers know too much that they see too clearly that they examine things too strictly that they admit no latitudes of Civill interests or State policies Multis in culpa est ut Socrati Athenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pictatis literatura omnigenumque virtutuÌ„ eminentia cujus individua comes est invidia Melan. and sinfull necessities as dispensations of Gods Morall Law and the rules of both common honesty and true piety That they stand valiantly many of them and as becomes them in the gap against the insinuations and invasions of those infamous heresies those received errors those vile and putred novelties those perfect madnesses those apparent blasphemies confusions and dissolute Liberties which threaten this reformed Church with a more sure inundation than the Sea doth the Low-Countriss if the banks and dams be not preserved Is not this with some men the unpardonable sin of the best Ministers that they do not crouch and flatter and fawn on every plausible error on every powerfull novelty every proud fancy and high imagination Veritas nemini blanditur nemâ—nem palpat nullum seducit a pertè omnibus denunciat c. Bern. that they lick not the sores of any mens consciences or the pollutions of any mens hands with servile and adulterate tongues That they do not cry up or in any kind own for the gifts of the Spirit those passionate or melancholy or cunning and affected motions and extravagancies which some men strongly fancy to themselves and weakly demonstrate to others as to any thing like to sound reason or Scripture religion Suidas in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodes primus ex alienigenis ex Judaorum ex ima plebe artus Ignobilitatis suae conscius Genealogias Judaicas exussit quantas poiuit ut sic facilius nobilitatem suam ementiatur Euseb hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 7. That they oppose these Bells and Dragons of fanatick Divinity which the Authors of them will never be able to advance to any publike veneration or reception as spirituall heavenly and divine among sober Christians in England while such wise Daniels live who have neither leisure nor boldness so to mock God and to play with religion nor untill as Ptolomy did to magnifie the Image of Diana to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faln from heaven so they deal with able Ministers when the best Statuaries had formed an Image of Diana to rare perfection the King at one supper destroyed them all by the ruine of the house where they were and after produced the Statue as faln from heaven Or as Herod the Idumaean or mungrill Jew did with the antient Records and Genealogies of the stems of the Kings and succession of the Priests among the Jews that so he might by abolishing them the better bring on his own tide So must these Antiministeriall adversaries first destroy and cancell both common reason in mens souls and the whole Canon of the Scriptures which are the durable oracles of God Artiâ—ciâ—sa sibi parant Lumina Histriones quâ melius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ous suas obtegere simulari possint Lenocinantibus lucernis meridianum solem quasi de nimio splendore exprobrantes Sydo Veritas loquendigrande praesagium mali Lact. Psal 18.24 for the Churches directions and all learned interpreters of them Torches of private Spirits are ridiculous too be lighted up while the Sun shines unless it be for those who having some mask or play to act reproach the Noon-day Sun of to much splendor and make to themselves and others an artificiall Night which will better serve their turns When all light of true reason and Scriptures are extinguished in this Church and Nation or much Eclipsed then and not before will honest-hearted Christians believe that they have no need of true Ministers or that those they have hitherto had have not been worthy the name of reformed or have pertinaciously reteined any such Popish opinions or superstitions as are inconsistent with true piety And in this thing let the Lord deal with us according to the clearness of our hands and the uprightness of our hearts in his sight either to deliver us into or redeem us out of the hands of violent and unreasonable men whose very mercies have proved cruell to poor Ministers whose pious constancy is the greatest thorn in some mens sides But if our wayes please God he can make our very enemies at peace with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. Prov. 16.7 Wholy to remove the antient Ministry as some men aym under pretence of bringing up a new nursery of gifted brethren and Prophets which like under-woods are not so likely to thrive while Ministers like goodly Timber trees grow so high above them and over drop them will be a work fully compleating those sad effects which disorderly unordeined unsent and unabled Teachers and false Prophets have already begun to bring forth in this Church And how can it ever be thought or hoped that they will bring forth better fruits either for the truth honour or power of the Reformed Religion either for the Peace of Church or State unless there be a speciall committee appointed for the regulating of Prophets and tryall of their gifts in which none may be fitter for learning piety and moderation to be Chayr-man than that Author and zealous assertâ—r of the peoples Liberty and Privilege Pag. 3. who says he is not so much a friend to these new Prophets as to be an utter enemy to the function of the old Ministers though he would have Prophets planted yet not Ministers pulled up root and branch but only pruned from that which he calls superstition wherein his Charity to Ministers may perhaps make his censorious severity veniall He that so much studies the Reformation of Ministers we hope will not bring in such Esopick and deformed Prophets as most of those who have yet appeared rather to scare men from than to instruct good Christians in true holyness and Religion It is evident enough 15. The vanity and mischief of false and foolish Prophets and too much to all true reformed Christians what wide gaps that generation of pretended Prophets and gifted Brethren have already made for the easy inrodes of what is truly Popery superstition or meer formality All sorts also of corrupt opinions and Heresies together with Idleness barrenness barbarity Illiteratness Ignorance Atheism and contempt of all true Reformed Religion both in the power and extern form order and profession of it Many men being prone have learned easily to make little conscience of hearing reverencing or obeying the word of God Even from any true Ministers never so able and worthy since they have learned to scorn make sport of and laugh at these novell and pittifull pretenders to Preaching and prophecying of whose insufficiency and non-authority to Preach and administer any holy mysteries in Christs name common people being
Over whose Walls the crafty malice of Jesuitick Foxes and any other enemies will easily go and break them down Neh. 4.3 when ever they pass which makes many men suspect that these Lay Preachers are but the left hand of Babels builders fit instruments to divide Muros dum erigunt mores negligunt Bern. confound and destroy the Reformed Religion in these British Churches and all those who study to preserve it Which they only can with any shew of reason effectually do by Gods blessing who are workmen that for their Authority and approved skill as well as their good will and readiness to build need not to be ashamed 2 Tim. 2.15 Of whose reall sufficiencies these new bunglers are most impatient hearers and perfect haters because from those Ministers exactness these mens bungling receives the severest reproaches and justest oppositions A man may as well hope that hogs by their rootings and moles by their castings will Plow and till his ground as that such Arbitrary Casuall and contingent forwardness or such inordinate activities of poor but proudly gifted men will any way help on the great work of Christian Religion the propagating of the Gospell or the Reformation of hearts or Churches which require indeed the greatest competency and compleatness both for gifts learning and due Authority that can be had both for the Majesty of Religion and for the defence of the truth as also for the binding to diligence and exactness the conscience of the Ministers no less than for the satisfaction of other mens consciences in point of the validity of Sacraments and other holy Ministrations which have not any Physicall or naturall vertue but a mysticall and Religious only which depends upon the relation they have to the word and Spirit of the holy Institutor and Commander Jesus Christ So that it is indeed a very strange bewitchedness and depravedness in many mens appetites that they should so cry up those mush-room Prophets and Teachers who need more sauce to make them safe or savory than their bodies are worth who are self-planted soon started up in one night as if they were beyond all those former Goodly plants for beauty sweetness and wholesomness which much study care learning pains and prayers have planted in the Church Or that Christians should so far flatter themselves that the soyl here in England since it was watered with civill bloud is so well natured and fruitfull that there needs no such care and culture as was antiently used in the Garden of God either in setting watering preparing or transplanting those trees of the Ministry which should be full of life Rev. 22.2 Supersâ—minationes satanae whose leaves should be for the healing as well as their fruits for the nourishing of mens souls So confident the devill seems to be of the giddiness folly negligence and simplicity of these times that he stirs up the very thistles the most useless and most offensive burthens of the earth which the foot of every vile beast is ready to crush and trample upon to chalenge and contemn the Cedars of Lebanon 2 Kings 14.9 And he would fain perswade reformed Christians to cut down and stub up those goodly trees of the Lord which are tall strait and full of sap as cumbring the ground that those sharp and sorry shrubs those dry and sapless kexes may have the more room and thrive the better pretending that they will at easier rates and with less pains supply all the Churches occasions when the Lord knows and all excellent Christians see by sad experience that they are so far from that length strength and straitness required in the beams and pillars of the Temple that their crooked and knotty shortness will scarce afford a pin on which to hang the least vessell of the Sanctuary Excellent Christians I protest before the Lord that I write not thus out of any desire to grieve quench or exasperate any mans Spirit 17. No design in the Author to grieve any good mans Spirit or discourage his gifts 1 Joh. 4.1 in whom the wise and sanctifying graces or usefull gifts of Gods Spirit do dwell in the least measure with truth and humility but only in the way of trying the gifts and Spirits whether they be of God or no if they be found by the word of God to be proud foolish evill unclean unruly refusing to be bound with any bonds of good order and government such as seems to have possessed some in this Church who seek to bewitch others and to trouble all God forbid we should not all of us strive by fasting prayer preaching writing and all just rebukes of them to cast them out Luke 9.42 notwithstanding their cryings tearings and foamings It is far I hope from my Soul by any envy or undervaluing of any good Christians to damp the Spirit of Christ in them I would have every one study to improove the talents he hath and to be employed according to his reall improovement of which no man being naturally proud and self flatterers is fit to be judge himself but ought to be subject to the tryall and judgement of others both as to that light and heat knowledge and zeal gifts and graces which any may pretend to and wherein they may be really usefull to the publike or any community of Christians whose edifying in faith and love we have all cause both in conscience and prudence dayly to nourish and increase in Gods way which is an orderly peaceable and blessed way wherein only either private Christians or Church societies can hope to thrive and flourish Num. 11.29 I wish with Moses all the Lords people were Prophets Both able to give an account of their knowledge in the mysteries of Christ and also to help on in an orderly way as every wheel or pin doth in the motions of a watch the great and weighty work of saving souls which is the main end of the Ministers calling and pains Better we Ministers be despised than the Spirit of Christ in any gracious heart be justly grieved or any good work of God in the Church hindred But we are well assured by good experience that none would be less despisers or more encouragers lovers and zealous preservers of the true Evangelicall Ministry and its divine Authority than such men who have graces with their gifts and are both able and humble none are more slow to speak to others in the name of Christ James 1.19 than they who cannot hear others Preaching with due abilities and authority without fear and trembling as reverencing God and the Lord Jesus Christ in their Ministers There is no danger of able parts where there are humble and honest hearts no more than we need fear the strength of any part in the body will hurt or offend the whole body or disorder and violate any other Member which is above it in place in honour and in operation or function Reason teacheth us that the ability or
either listed himself or received his Commission Order is that wholsomest ayr in which Religion lives best There is no less necessity both in Piety and Policy to preserve the Laws of holy order and discipline in the Church of Christ on Earth which have the warrant and seal of his authority upon them and are for the preservation of truth peace and honour in the Church Since we find by all experience of times and most in our own That the pride and presumption of mens gifts and private spirits are no less want only active in matters of Religion than in Civill and Military affairs Now why any men of piety or in power professing the reformed Religion should incline either to connive at or to countenance any courses which evidently tend to the shame contempt confusion and extirpation of all true Religion as it stood in the profession of the Church of England opposite to the gross errors superstitions and prophaness of any that are known and declared enemies to it I can see no cause unless it be a supine negligence in some who as they grow greater Acts 18.17 so they are like Gallioes more careless in matters of Religion wholly intent to State interests as if States-men had no souls to save or no God to judge them and were to give no account of that power and advantage they have as well as that charge and care which lyes upon them to do all good they can to mens souls under their power or else there is some other interest secretly contrived and cunningly carried on here as by open hostility in other parts amidst the dusk of our civill Commotions and troubles by those sons of Edom Psa 137.7 and daughters of Babylon who have evill will at our Sion and say of our Jerusalem Down with it down with it raze it even to the foundations Jude 9. As it was for no good will that the Devil contended with Michael the Archangell about the body of Moses minding rather to have it Idolized than Embalmed No more is it from any honest zeal or pious principle that some men now so earnestly stickle about and indeed against the setled office and peculiar function of the Ministry either to have it in common or none at all with any divine authority and commission whose first Anti-ministeriall batteries which seemed to carry some shew of Scripture-strength I have hitherto resisted and repelled not dashing or opposing Scripture against Scripture but clearing its obscurer meaning in some few places by that most evident and concurrent Sense which is manifestly held forth in many plain passages and hath been constantly followed in the Churches of Christ from the first setling of Christianity in the world to this day Sensus Scripturae expetit ceâ—â—a interpretationis gubernaculum Tertul de Pres Non verba tantum defendantur sed ratio verbarum constituatur Id. As the Spirit of God in the Word cannot contradict it self in the main scope and design so where any variation or difference in the letter may seem to be It must be wisely reconciled by discerning the different occasion reason or ground of things sure we are the pretended gifts or dictates of privat spirits may in no sort be set up any way to contradict those testimonies and demonstrations of the Spirit which are so evidently shining from the Scripture as they are in none more than this of a peculiar function and holy ordination of the Evangelicall Ministry And here I might forbear to add trouble to you O Excellent Christians or any readers by any further enlarging of this Apology 18. Conclusion and Transition whereby to vindicate the honour of the divinely Instituted and Ecclesiastically derived Ministry of this Church Since the holy Scripture is as I have shewed so wholly fully and punctually for its peculiar Institution and its constant succession to the end of the world whereto it is not denyed but private gifts may come in with such assistance as is humble orderly and edifying but not as proud invasive and abolishing as Hagar they may do service in Christs family but they must not grow insolent and malipert against Sarah What ever can be produced in a matter of so high and religious a nature as the Ministeriall office and authority is beyond what the Scriptures the only infallible rule and the Churches constant practise the most credible witness do assure us is for the most part but as childish skirmishings with Reeds and Bulrushes after combating with Pikes and Guns And I find indeed that all after Cavills of the Anti-ministeriall faction arise not much beyond womanish janglings presumptuous boastings and uncomly bickerings for the most part where not religious reasonings but peevish Cavils and pertinacious Calumnies like black and ragged regiments impatient to see themselves so routed by the Scriptures potent convictions and the Churches constant custome do but rally themselves as in a case Perdue to see what can be done by volleys of rayling Rhetorick and virulent Calumniatings against the Ministers of the Gospell in this Church whole greatest fault is that which the devil finds with the best of men that they are as Job upright Job 1. Culpâ—â—â— in 〈◊〉 to Jobâ— non invenicus Satanae malicia ipsam inâ—â—centiam in crimen integritatem in calumnium insidiosè vertit Greg. Lingua maledicasanctos carpere sâ—let in solatium delinquentium Ieron ad Eust not that there is any just fault to be found with their holy Calling which hath nothing in it irreligious or unreasonable nothing immorall or imprudent nothing but what is fully agreeing to all order policy decency as following the best and holyest Examples uses and customs of the Church together with the rules of Divine Institution and the ends of all true Religion the glory of God and the good of Mankind both for souls and bodies for temporall and eternall welfare for internall peace of conscience and externall tranquillity in Civill and Church Societies both as men and Christians All which the Ministeriall calling regards and carries on as its holy design and work which no other Calling doth Not Magistrates or Lawyers or Physicians or Tradesmen or Souldiers who do not think themselves to stand charged in Christs Name with the care of mens souls so as to make it their business to instruct direct and watch over them in the wayes of salvation And for Ministers persons such as are truly worthy to be counted such their failings will not be found beyond what is incident to common infirmities and daily incursions of frailties inseparable from the best of men in this mortall pilgrimage All which the charity of humble Christians easily conceals and willingly excuses or pardons when they consider how free and full a pardon of all sins is from God by the Ministry offered to every penitent and believing sinner The grief and impotent despite which the prophane politick and pragmatick enemies of the Ministry of this and all reformed Churches
are transported with ariseth from the like ground as was in the hearts of Tobias and Sanballat Nehem. 4. Solatiam est malorum bonos Ca pere Ieron ut improbi suo malo delectantur ita invidi alienâ— bonâ— terquentur Amb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amb. and that scornfull crue against the Jews that by their means this Church of God as the Temple is built repayred clensed reformed That by their valiant courage learned skill and vigilant Industry the truth faith holy Ordinances and good manners of this Reformed Church are asserted vindicated preserved and restored from those ruines rubbige sords and demolishings by which erroneous ambitious covetous and licentious minds seek to waste infest and quite abolish the Reformed Religion both in England and every where else In order to which grand design the Anti-ministeriall Adversaries are not wanting to bring all manner of rayling accusationâ— and indign Calumnies against both the Ministers and Ministry of this Church Some of which I think it a shame for me by reciting of them to pollute either my Pen or the purer eyes of those readers who excell in Civility as much as those evill Speakers do in insolency and scurrility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 27.34 both for carriage and language against the best Ministers in England But it is no wonder if they give us the gall and vinegar of bitter reproaches to drink when they intend shortly to crucifie us All is less than was sayd and done to Christ himself It is part of our honour and blessing to have men speak all manner of evill of us Mat. 5.11 if we can but make it appear to be most falsly and and injuriously as well as most indignly and ungratefully Such manner of speaking becomes no mens mouths but those whose hearts abound with so much malice against the best Ministers who ought to be the best of men and generally are the best of speakers In honour to whose many reall and excellent gifts becomming the dignity of their holy place and function as also in charity to all others chiefly those who most despise and hate the Ministers of this Church I shall endevour to let all men see in the following part of this Apology the malice futility and falsity of those evill speakings wherewith some men please themselves the more because they think they please some others whom they fancy to have a very evill eye and an heavy hand toward such Ministers as most study to please God and to preserve the Reformed religion in this Church of Christ CAVIL or CALUMNY IV. Against the Ministry of England as Papal and Anti-Christian THe fourth Cavil or Calumny then wherewith the office and function of the Ministers of England is battered and defamed among the credulous weak and vulgar minds is this That if there be such a peculiar order and office of the Ministry established in Scripture by a Divine Institution and so continued in the Church by a right Ordination for some times of Primitive purity to a holy succession yet the present Station Calling and Authority of the Ministers of England is apparently Antichristian as derived from Episcopall Ordination and that descended from the Papall or Roman authority which was but of late years abolished as that of Episcopie they think now is neither of them seeming to them to be of Christs appointment or according to Scripture-rule and patern So that if it be necessary to have peculiar Ministers by office it is also necessary to cast off the former order and standing which is degenerated and to begin upon some new account which shall appear to be neerest to the pattern of Divine Institution and primitive practise how ever it may fail of a constant succession for above these 1600. years from Christ during all which time it is evident indeed that Bishops have had a chief place and influence in the Ordination of Ministers and for 1000. the Pope hath chalenged something of Supremacy and Jurisdiction in these Western Churches over all the Clergy both Bishops and Presbyters None of which are fit to serve in Gods house as Ministers while they are not clensed from that leprosie which they have contracted from the Pope and Prelates Answ I will first endevour to take off from the face of our Ministry this scandalous visard of the Papall authority 1 The Papal Usurpation no prejudice to the true Ministry of England more than to all other Christian Institutions which scares some people so very much that they are afraid to medle with any thing that ever passed the Popes fingers except only the lands and revenews of the Clergy Having removed this veil or covering which was sometime over these Western Churches we shall easily see the face of the holy Ministry no less than of other Christian Institutions restored without any Disfiguration or Essentiall change by any such mask as might sometimes be upon it through the policy and folly of many It were a very weak and injurious Conâ—ession no less prejudiciall to the Reformed Churches than pleasing to all the Romish party if the Pope could perswade us Protestants and other Christians to cast quite away and utterly abhor what ever the Papall usurpation hath abused or the Romish devotion hath used in matter of Christian religion Sure then we must seek for other Apostles and Saints other Scriptures and Sacraments another Gospel and Messias than Jesus Christ no less than other Bishops and Ministers For over all these the Popes of Rome have spread the skirts of their usurped authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. 67. Plato All things handled by men are subject to be sâ—yied 2 Thes 2.4 Antichristus ChristuÌ„ mentitur turpitudinem vitae falso nominis honore convestit Jerom. ad Geront Amara erat Ecclesia in nece martyrum amarior in conflictu haereticorum amarissima in moribus domesticorum Ber. â— 33. in Cant. Petri CathedraÌ„ occupat tanquam Leo paratus ad praedam bestia Apocalyptica cui datum est os loqueus blasphemias bellum gerere cum sanctis Ber. ep 125. Maâ— 21.13 Christus Templum Dei cauponibus latronibus deturpatum non diruit aut penitus detestatur sed purgamenta ista faeces ejiciendo Dei domum in diviniorem usum asserit hoc modo in pristinum honoram restituit Chem. Mat. 23.2 Mat. 15.6 their impure mixtures their corrupt doctrines and superstitious manners Who as far as they are Antichristian that is go in any wayes contrary to the holy rule and humble patern of Jesus Christ yet might yea and ought to sit in the Temple of God as all Antichristian spirits indeed do who cannot properly be but where there is a Profession of Christianity yet it doth not follow that the Catholique Church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail so as to extinguish the name of Christ was either wholly ruined by Antichristian superstructures or that the whole fabrick of it must be pulled down
Sacrament we reject together with the consequentiall Idolatry of worshiping the bread Also the sacrilege of detaining the Cup of the Lord from the people we cannot allow as being contrary both to the primitive practise of the Church and to the express command of Christ in the Institution which was after also revealed to St. Paul by Christ himself Yet still we use and observe the Sacramentall Elements with the same high estimation and veneration which pious and purest antiquity ever did bear to that Sacred mysterie how ever we forbear to use some of their expressions whose Oratory occasioned in part the after error which mistook that as spoken of the Bread in its nature which magnified it only in the Sacramentall use and mysterie which is indeed very high retaining both the Elements words and holy form which Christ instituted and Christians alwayes used not so much disputing and determining the manner of Sacramentall union as endevouring after those graces which may make us worthy Communicants and reall partakers of the Body and Bâ—ood of Jesus Christ when we do receive that dreadfull yet most desirable seal of our Faith which consigns fuller to us and confirms in us those comforts which as sinners we want and may have most really and only from Christ not by eating his flesh in a bodily and gross way with our mouths but by receiving him by a true and lively faith into our souls as he is set forth to us in the Scriptures to be God incarnate the only Saviour of the world of whose merit death passion body and blood we are by the same faith though in less degrees of strength really partakers and nourished to eternall life before we receive him in that Sacrament of the Lords Supper yea though we never should have opportunity so to receive him which is but the same object received by the same faith to the same end though in a different manner and with different degrees So for Baptism Baptism we retain the substance of that holy Sacrament as we find it in the Scriptures rejecting only those superfluous dresses of Salt Spittle Oyl Insufflation and the like which cumber and deform that duty and Ordinance but they do not destroy it nor do ever any Protestants that are of any name or honour for Religion re-baptise those who were baptised in the Roman Church Concil Laodicenum omits only the Apocal. Apocrypha Books Hieron in Prolog Galaten Josephus l. 1. cont Appio we i. e. the Jews have not infinite and diffâ—rent Books but only 22. which are justly called Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mosis 5. Prophet 13. Psal 4. The rest from Artaxereâ— to these times have not the like credit because not a certain succession of Prophets The Apocryphall additions of the Romish Church to the Canon of the Scriptures we reject from being rules of faith however we approve their excellent morals And this we do upon the same grounds that the Jewish Church of old and the Primitive Christian for the most part ever did yet we retain those books as oracles of God which we have received with and from the Romish Church as of divine inspiration according to that testimony which both the Jewish and Christian Churches fidelity have given us of them The eâ—une dull and spiritless and formall devotions Prayers in a language not vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis de Placilla orat Funcb Delinquens soli Deo cognitus de reatis nudare apud homines verecunda conscientia non cogitur Ser. 34. Chrysol So Ber. s 42. Non expedit omnibus omnia inâ—â—tescere quae scimus de nobis in Cant. Liturgies and prayers used by the Romanists in any tongue unknown to the most and with so many vain repetitions we refuse yet still we retain the holy custom of Christians assembling in publike and worshipping God by publike Liturgies prayers and praises In somethings we hold nothing common with them either in opinion or practise as in the profitable fancy of purgatory the popular fashion of worshipping Images or adoring God in and by Images of oblations and prayers for the dead of praying to Saints and Angels of Auricular confession of dispensing by Indulgences the merits or supperogating righteousness of some Christians to others Since in these and the like matters which I only touch it being not my work now to handle those controversies which have been so fully discussed by many learned men of this Church of Engand whose works praise them We find no Scripture ground either for precept or permission So likewise in the ambitious claim of the Popes Infallible judgement His universall jurisdiction and Supreme Authority over all Churches and Councils We deny it as un usurpation gotten by indulgences of some times and Princes also by the flatteries frauds cruelties power and policies of severall Popes in their successions but not grounded on any Law or right either humane or divine neither by the Institution of God nor by the consent of all Churches Yet we deny not to the Pope such a primacy of place or priority of order and precedency as is reasonable and just either in the Roman Diocess as a Bishop or in a Councill as Bishop of that famous City In like manner for the sacred order and function of the Ministry we reject what ever imaginary power or will-worship is annexed to the office by humane superstition but we approve the antient form of Commission and Divine Authority derived by them to Presbyters and Bishops for Preaching the word celebrating the Sacraments reconciling penitents use of the Keys in doctrine or jurisdiction and Government In the Roman Pontificall The Bishop to be consecraâ—ed is charged after many Ceremonâ—es and pompous modes with this as his office and duty To judge to interpret to consecrate to confer holy orders to offer to Baptize aâ—d to confirm after that the Consecratorâ— laying the Bible on his shoulder and their hands on his head say these words Receive the holy Spirit i. e. the gifts and power to be a Bishop or chief Pastor to teach and rule in the Church So the Presbyter is by the Bishop ordeyning and otheâ—s with him imposing their hands on the head enjoyned To offer to bless to govern to Preach and to Baptise as becomes his place and Office Mar. 13.25 Also of the continued power of Ordination for a succession of Ministers in the Church In all these and the like what ever we find to be spurious issues of meer humane invention of Scripture-less opinions of groundless traditions obtruded as matters of Religion upon the consciences of Christians we use that just severity which we think the Apostles and Primitive fathers would have done to dash these Babylonish brats against the stones yet still we redeem and preserve alive the legitimate succession the Sons of Sion the Israel of God and justify the Children of true wisdom and of the Heavenly Jerusalem that is the divine and truly religious
Institutions upon Scripture grounds although we find them to have been led Captive and a long time deteined Prisoners by any unrighteousness policy superstition tyranny covetousness or ambition in the Walls and Suburbs of Babylon Though tares were sown among the good Seed in the Field of the Church while men slept yet we must not be such wasters as to destroy the Corn with the weeds or to refuse both because we like not one Though our Fathers ate sour grapes and our teeth were an edge we must not therefore pull all our teeth out of our heads Divine institutions are incorruptible nor can any corruption of mens minds or matters cease on them any more than * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt Aurum â—t geâ—â—a itâ— res Diviâ—â— non corrumpâ—ntâ—â— quamvis opprimuntur non vitiantur natura quum polluntur consuetudine Non rei ipsae ut nec veritas erroribus sed nos malè utendo pucrescimus Eras putrefaction on the Sun beams when it shines on a Carkass or Dunghil We may be corrupted but holy Ordinances are like God alwaies the same when restored to their Primitive Institution which is their State of Integrity Riches and honour are not unwelcom though they descend to men from unworthy Ancestors Nor should Religion so far as its title is good by the word of God either in strickt precept and institution or in prudence joyned with piety and decency Good pictures will recover the beauty when the soyl is washed off In a word we retain the truth faith holy mysteries Catholick orders constant Ministry and commendable manners which the later Romanists have derived and continued from the first famous Church in that place nor do we think it either conscience or prudence to deprive our selves of any thing Divine though delivered to us by the less pure hands of men or to cast away the provision which God sends us though it be by Ravens or to Anathematise all the Romish Church hoâ—ds of saving Truths because it hath in the Councill of Trent Anathematised some Truths The Bishops of Rome were alwaies more cunning than to abrogate or cast away those essentials the main foundations and pillars of true Christian Religion as the word the Sacraments the Ministry and Government of the Church on which they knew the vast moles and over grown superstructure of the Pontifician pomp profit pride reputation policy and power through the credulity Vt in reficiendis domibus sic iâ— moribus non destruenda omnia sed repuâ—ganda non diruenda sed resâ—cienda Ber. Ep. ad Abb. of peopâ—e and blind devotion of most men in these Western Churches was built and sustained Nor can any thing more contribute to the Popes depraved content or repair his particular interest in this Western world than to see any so heady rash and mad Reformers as shall resolve to quarrell with and to cast quite away all those things of Christian Religion which ever passed through the hands of the Romish Church or any other never so erronious and superstitious He well knows how meager a Sceleton how miserable a shadow Christian Religion must needs remain to those furious and fanatick Reformers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Ep. Eudoxâ— Being as much reduced to poverty and meer nothing in the very essentials of Christianity both for Doctrine Duties Sacraments Scriptures order and manners as it would be in the matter of maintenance and Church Revenews where some mens covetous and cruell Reformation is resolved if they may have their will to leave nothing to maintain Religion or its Ministry but the meer scraps of arbitrary and grudging contributions Such will our Religion be if we reject all that was used by those who abused many things and we must afâ—er only adhere to the beggery of Seekers attending new Instructions from Heaven instead of following antient Christian and Catholick Institutions Certainly Church Reformations 3. Of Church Reformations with moderation and charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg 3. Nothing is just but what was wisely moderated in things Religious should be carried on with all acurate strictness and rigor in clear points of saving truths and in things of divine Institution so confessed by all yet also with much charity candor moderation and discretion toward any Christians in other things wherein we must differ from them Yet no further than they seem to us to derogate from the truth and word of God and so become detrimentall to mens souls It is a commendable Schism which separates the Corn from the chaff and the Gold from the Dross neither retaining both in a confusion nor casting away both in a passion In thus doing all things with meekness of wisdom Christians may not only be able upon sober and judicious grounds from Scripture and the Catholick consent of the Fathers to maintain what they do as wise Reformers of abuses but also the better invite others to embrace and to approve our â—ust and well-tempered Reformation in the unpassionate purity whereof others will the easier see as in a smooth and true Glass their yet remaining spots and deformities Reformation of Churches is best done not by cutting off the head of Religion but by taking off those masks and visards which hide its face and beauty Men will best see their errors not by force pulling their eyes out of their heads but by fairly taking away the motes or beams of prejudice error and pertinacy which are in their eyes which hinder them not from seeing at all but from seeing so we l as we in truth think they may and in charity wish they would 1 Thes 5.21 Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moderation is the medium between the excess and defect Neither taking nor refusing all but trying all and holdâ—ng the good True Reformation free from Schism By this shield of moderation and charity proving all things and retaining what is good in all with our pitty and prayers for any Christians wherein we think they erre as differing therefore from us because from the rule which God hath set for his Church in things pertaining to Divine worship we justly defend our selves in this and other reformed Churches that are of the same temper and charity in their Reformations from the sin and scandall of Schism when we fairly and freely declare that we separate no further from the Church of Rome or any other particular Church or Christian man than we are by the word of God perswaded that they separate from Christs holy rule and from the custom and Doctrine of the Catholick Church whose bounds and marks are the samenes of divine truths and the unity of the Spirit in Charity which we retain to all Christians as far as such with whom while we desire such communion of true faith holy order and obedience together with love as they do with Christ and all true Christians we cannot in our own consciences nor other mens censures be esteemed Schismaticks as the Novatians and
Donatists of old were who so challenged the title of the Church to their factions as to exclude all others and refuse the offers and means of accord As Cyprian Ep. 95. and Aust Ep. 164. tell us To which brands of Schism we are then lyable only when we recede or separate from visible communion with any Church without just and weighty cause shewn out of the word or when we go further from them than there is just cause and that too without charity refusing the good which they have while we withdraw from the evill we suspect Which would be the case of the Church of England in this point of immoderate Reformation if we should as some would have us therefore separate from all Scriptures Sacraments Ministry Primitive Government and order because all these were retained used and after abused much by the Roman Church and Papall party we are bid to come out of Babylon Rev. 18.4 but not to run out of our wits to act as Gods people with meekness moderation and Charity not with that fierceness passion and cruelty which makes us as Sons of Belial inordinatly run from one Antichrist to another Many Christians in the Roman Church may have in them much of Antichrist in some kinds and so God knows may many others in other kinds either in Doctrine or manners in endless innovations and unsetled confusions or in rigor and uncharitableness All which may betray us to what we seem most to abhor in Antichrist for if nothing have more of Christ than Charity nothing can have more of Antichrist than that uncharitableness Uncharitableness is as Antichristâ—an as error A ChristianoruÌ„ dissidiis venturus Antichristus occasionem accipiet Naz. Orat. 14. which many men nourish for zeal mistaking a Cockatrice for a Dove and a firy Serpent for a Phenix Which may be as Anti-Christian in popular furies as in papall tyrannies in confusions as in oppressions It is strange how some men cry out against the cruelty of some Papists which indeed hath been very great when yet Qui Christi non est Antichristi est Jeron Ep. 57. ad Damas they have the same Spirit of destruction in their own breast both against the Papists and others longing for such a Kingdom of Christ as they call it and such a downfall of Antichrist which shall consist in War and Blood and Massacres against and among all Christians which are not of their mind and side We think that in charity we ought not to impute the faults and errors of every Pope or Doctor of the Roman side to all those of that profession Nor ought we take those learned men among them alwaies at their worst finding there is great difference between what they may hold in the heat of publike disputes and what they opine and practise in a private way noâ— are their death-bed tenets alwaies the same with those of their Chayrs and Pulpits Besides many of the more devout and learned men among them are now both in opinions and lives much more modest holy and Reformed than some were heretofore whose Reformation in judgement or manners in verity purity and charity we do really congratulate and joy in And for the Body of the common people among the Romanists many are ignorant of those disputes wherein the mistaking is most dangerous which if they do hold yet it is under the perswasion and love of truth Qui à seductis parentibuus erâ—oâ—em acceperunt quaerunt autem cauta solicitudine veritatem corrigi paâ—ati cum invenerint hi nequaquam sunt inter haereticos deputandi Aust Ep. 162. 1 Cor. 3.12 retaining still the foundation of Christ Crucified and hoping for salvation only by his merits as many now profess to do and living in no known sin but striving to lead an holy and charitable life in all things Charity commands us to think that in such the mercy of God accepting their sincere love to the truth and their unfeigned obedience to what they know pardons particular errors which they know not to be such wherein no lust of pride or covetousness c. either obstructs or diverts them from the way of Truth Though the superstructures may be many of straw and stubble which shall perish yet holding the foundation Christ crurcified in a pure conscience they shall be saved in the day of the Lord Though the vessell be leaky in many places yet by great care in steering and frequent pumping that is true faith and repentance it may keep the soul from Shipwrack and drowning in perdition which is embarked in the bottom of Christian Religion and which steers alwaies by the compass of conscience setting all the points of conscience by the Chart or rules of Scripture as neer as he can attain by his teachers or his own industry We are sorry for our necessary differences from the Romanists or others which yet our consciences so far command us as we think our selves enlightned by the word of God contrary to which we cannot and ought not to be forced actually to conform or to comply with any men in things Religious Yet have we no lust of faction no delight in separation no bloody principles or tenets against any Christians of any particular Church desiring the same charity from them to us which may in lesser differences from each other yet unite us to Christ and to the Catholick Church as true parts of it though infirm or diseased This temper we should not despair of in the devouter and humbler Romanists if they were not daily enflamed by politick Spirits and violent Bigots among them who will endure no Religion as Christian which doth not kiss the Popes Pantofle or hold his stirrop or submit to that pride flattery and tyranny which some of them have affected when indeed it ill becomes those that chalenge a chief place in Christs Church to be so vastly different from the example of the crucified Saviour of Christians Such talents then as have been once divinely delivered to the Roman as to all other Christian Churches we have all aright to as believers in private and as Christians or Churches in publike communion and profession nor can these Jewels be so embezeled by being buried or abused but that we may safely take them up clear and use them together with those other which we have obteined through the grace and bounty of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ In whose name and right we as a part of his Catholick Church received them first and enjoy them now only Reformed according to what we first received of them without any prejudice or diminution to their true and intrinsecall worth which is divine by reason of our fellow servants former or present idle imperious impure or injurious use of them We accept and use the holy vessels which belong to the temple and the Lord of the Church Ezra 7. without scruple when they are graciously restored out of the profane hands of revelling Balshazzers The remaining silver censers
are holy Numb 16. though the hand and fire were unholy which were applyed to them Our Ministery then may be and certainly is very good holy 4. Our Ministry not from nor of the Pope and divine as well as the Scriptures and Sacraments or other holy Ministrations and duties are when duly restored to their primitive purity order and authority which go along with their right succession notwithstanding they are derived to us through or by the Romish Church or the Popes dispensation yet do they not therefore descend from them but only from Christ the first institutor of his Church and of this Ministry with a perpetuall power of succession Possunt esse pastores Lupi alio respectu Pastores in veritate quam profitentur in potestate quaÌ„ ritè obtinuerunt Lupi in erroribus quos admiscent in corruptelis morum c. ut Scribae Pharisaei in Cathedra Mosis panem veritatis proponebant sed non sine fâ—â—mento errorum officium distinguendum à persona potestas à moâ—ibus Gerrard de Minist Rev. 2.4 Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with thy lovers yet return to me saith the Lord. Rev. 3.2 Our Lord Jesus Christ the gracious Spouse of the Church as of every Soul that truly believes and obeys though with much unbelief and frailty disdains not to own his relation to any Church or Christians though they are not so faithfull to him though they lose their first love yet they may be still his by what still remains of soundness and outward profession Yea and Christ will vouchsafe to admit us again to the communion and covenant of his love even after long wandrings and unkind absences when ever we wash our selves and return to him from our disloyall adulteries and pollutions He doth not utterly divorce any Church when the substance and essentials of Religion which are but in a few things do remain notwithstanding the many meretricious paints and disguisings which the wantoness of humane inventions may have put upon it thereby disfiguring its Primitive beauty and simplicity Mans vanity and arrogancy against God or men doth no whit abrogate either the right which Christ or any Church and Christian posterity hath to the purity and power of his gifts and institutions in the right way of his Mâ—nistry All which may remain with a blessing in the root and Seed though they be much pestered over-dropped choked and almost starved by humane additions which keep them for some time from their full glory vigor and extension Therefore the learned and godly Reformers of this Christian Church in England did not dig any new fountain of Ordination or ministeriall power as some Romanists calumniated at first and were afterward convinced of the contrary by Master Masons learned defence of the Ministry of England as to its right succession but they only cleared that which they saw was divine in the first broaching or Institution by Christ and as in the purest derivation by the Apostles however in time it became foul by humane feculencies and dregs as it passed rightly though not purely through the hands of some Bishops and Presbyters even to their dayes Nor was ever any thing required by the best Reformed Churches further to confirm and validate the Authority or power Ministeriall which any had received when he was first ordeined Presbyter in the Romish Church Contaminarunt non sustulerunt Ministerium Ecclesiae Alsted but only this to renounce not his Baptism but his errâ—rs and former superstitions to profess the Reformed Truths of the Gospell and accordingly to exercise that Ministeriall power which he had received truly as to the substance and duly as to the succession both as to the Office conferred and the persons conferring it Howsoever the sword of the Ministry had through the neglect of those to whom it was committed been suffered to contract the rust of superstitions and to lose much of its beauty and sharpness yet it was still that true and same two-edged sword which came out of the mouth of Jesus Christ Rev. 2.12 the first ordeiner of a peculiar setled Ministry in his Church Nor may it be broken or cast away when it hath been rightly delivered but only cleared whetted and furbished from its rust bluntness and dulness That Pen which now writes blottingly might be well made at first and will write fairâ—y again if once the hairs or blurs which its neb hath contracted be but cleared from it It is still Gods Field and Husbandry with good Wheat in it though the enemy hath while men slept sowen many tares Bishops and Ministers reformed may be Gods true labourers and appointed Husbandmen though they have some time loytered as the Disciples were Christs when their eyes were so heavy to sleep that they could not watch with him that one hour of his most horrid agony Mat. 26.40 It were then but a passionate scuffling with mad men a most impertinent disputing with unreasonable minds further to argue about the Popes usurped or abused Authority in any kind over Churches or Bishops or holy Ordinances and Ministry For which he had as little grounds of Scripture or reason as these Anti-Ministeriall Obâ—ectors have now against this Church of England and the function of the Ministry in it against which these cunning cavillers have not so much pretence to argue from the Popes usurpation that our Ministry and Religion are all Antichristian as they have both Scripture Reason and Experience besides the consent of all Reformed Churches to conclude them to be truly Christian if anger or envie or covetousness had not blinded their blood-shotten eyes they might easily see some of those mighty works Mat. 11.20 which have been wrought on mens Souâ—s by the Ministry of England since the Reformation and without this efficacious Ministry I believe neither these Calumniators had been so much Christian as they pretend nor so able spightfully to contend with shewes of Piety and popular falacies against the true Ministry of this Church and the best Ministers with whose Heifer they have plowed We know well that not only the reformed Churches 5. Of the Popes pretended Supremacy in England but even the Gallican and Venetian which keep communion with the Romish Church and Papall party besides the Greek Asian and African Churches do generally oppose and vehemently deny the Popes abusive usurpations both in things Ecclesiasticall and Secular And this upon most pregnant grounds not only from Scripture whence nothing was ever fairly and pertinently urged as some places are fouly wrested and yet but little to the Popes advantage but also from * Caeteri Apostoli par consortium honoris potestatis acceperunt qui in toto orbe dispersi Evangelium praedicaverunt quibusque decedentibus successerunt Episcopi Is Hisp l. 2. off Eccl. c. 5. Qui sunt constituti in toto mundo in sedibus Apostolorum non ex genere carnis ut filii Aron sed pro unius cujusque
unnecessary rigors and severities may not make the Mass or lump of religion more sowr and heavy than God in his Word hath required who cannot be an enemy to the right and sanctified use of melody or Musick Psal 33.2 2 Cor. 9.7 since he commands singing to his praises and loves a cheerfull temper in his service Certainly Musick is of all sensible humane beauty the most harmless and divine Nor did I ever see any reason why it should be thought to deform us Christians or be wholly excluded from making a part in the beauty of holiness No time or abuse doth prejudice Gods or the Churches rights Quamvis ritus ordinationis in Eccles pontificia multis superstitionibus inutilibus ceremoniis fit vitiatus ex eo tamen ipsius ordinationis essentiae nihil decedit Distinguenda ordinantis infirmitas ab ordinatione quae sit totius Ecclesiae nomine distinguendum divinum ab humano essentiale ab accidentali pium Christianum ab Antichristiano sermentum a doctrina Pharisaeorum Gerard. de Minist pag. 147. Moderatia non tam virtus quam doctrix imperatrix omnium virtutum Auriga ordinâ—trix affectuum Ber. Cant. Tolle hanc virtus vitium erit Nec abligurienda sunt mala cum bonis nec eructanda bona cum malis Vetul Pravi effectus falsi sunt rerum â—stimatores All wise and excellent Christians know this for certain That mans usurpation is no prejudice to Gods dominion nor do humane traditions vacate divine Commands nor Antichrists superstitions cancell Christs Institutions Vain superstructures of mans addition neither demolish nor rase Gods foundations men do not quit their rights to estates for anothers unjust in trusion The heady invasions of one or few or many upon the Churches rights and liberties are no cause to make Christians remove the antient Land-marks and boundaries of true Ministry due order and prudent government which we find fixed by Christ continued by the Apostles and observed by the Churches obedience in all ages although not without tinctures and blemishes of humane Infirmities They are sad Physicians and of no valew who know not how to let their Patients blood unless they stab them to the heart Such are those unhappy leeches who in stead of eating off with fit Corosives the dead flesh of any part do lop off whole arms and legs Some men are too heavy for themselves and while they aim to go down the Hill of reformation they suddenly conceive such an impetuous motion as cannot stop it self till it hath carried all before it and at length dasheth it self in pieces Much more folly it is quite to abolish the use of holy things than to tollerate some abuses with it True reforming is not a starting quite out of the way as shy and skittish horses are wont to do when they boggle at what scares them more than it can hurt them with danger to themselves and their riders too not a flying to new modes and exotick fashions of religion and Churches and Ministers but it is a sober and stayd restauration of those antient and venerable forms which pious Antiquity in the Church of Christ and the antient of dayes in his more sure Word hath expressed to us 'T is easie to pare off what one great Antichrist or the many less have added and to supply what they have by force or fraud detracted from that only complete figure of Extern professional religion which Christ and his Apostles by him so have fashioned and delivered which is never well handled no not by Reformers unless Christians have honest hearts good heads clear eyes and pure hands when all these meet in any undertakers to reform the Church I shall then hope they will seriously sincerely and successfully do Christs and the Churches work as generally men are prone and intent to do their own This then I may conclude against all precipitant and blind zeal which by popular arts seeks to bring an odium on all Ministers and the Ministry of this Church meerly by using the Name of the Pope without giving any account to reason or religion of their Calumny That there is no cause in reason or religion for any Christians to cast off the Ministry of England as it stands Reformed and so restored to its primitive Power and Authority because of any Succession from relation to or communion with the Order and Clergy of the Roman Church and Bishop no more cause I say than for these Anti-ministeriall Cavillers to pull out their eyes because Papists do see with theirs or to destroy themselves because naturally descended from such parents as were in subjection to the Bishop of Rome and in communion with that Church we may as well refuse all leagues and treaties of humanity in common with Papists as all Christianity and all Christianity as all antient lawfull Ministry an holy Succession may descend and Gods elect be derived from such as were true men how ever vitious CAVIL Or CALUMNY V. Against Ministers as Ordeined by Bishops in England I Have done with the first part of this Cavill or Calumny which seeks to bandy the Ministry of the Church of England against the Papall and Romish wall that they may make it either rebound to a popular and Independent side or else fall into the hazard of having no true Christian Ministry at all from both which I shall in like fort endevour to rescue this our holy Function and Succession A second stroak therefore which I am to take is made with great Artifice and popular cunning against the Ministry of this Church as it was derived and continued by the hands of Bishops who were as Presidents or chief Fathers in the work of Ordination among their Brethren and Sons the Presbyters or Ministers within their severall Diocesses These Prelates or Bishops the Objectors protest highly against as being not Plants of Christs planting whose Authority being lately pulled up by power so that they seem to have no more place or influence in this Church or Nation the Presbyterie also and whole order of the former Ministry they say must necessarily also fail and wither which were but branches and slips derived from the stem or root of Episcopall Ordination Thus we see in a few years the Anti-ministeriall fury is cudgelling even Presbyters themselves with that staff which some of them put into vulgar hands purposely to beat their Fathers the grave and antient Bishops and utterly to banish that Venerable and Catholick Order or Eminent Authority of Episcopacy out of the Church what the Dove-like innocency of those fierce and rigid Ministers hearts might be as to their godly intentions I know not but I am sure they wanted that wisdome of the Serpent which seeks above all to preserve its head whence life health motion and orderly direction descending to other parts do easily repair and heal what ever lesser hurt or bruise may befall them It must needs be confessed that as the Events have been very
antient Patern at least which God setled the Government of his Church among the Jews who had the heads of their Fathers as Bishops and rulers over their brethren the Priests and Levites Numb 3.24 Now 't is manifest that our Lord Christ and the Apostles had great regard to the Judaick customs in Christian Institutions As in the Baptising with water In the use of the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper In the Sabbatising on the Lords Day and in the giving the power of the Keys to the Pastors and Teachers of the Church to open and shut to bind and loose expressing thereby Ministeriall Authority In all which there was some like or parallell precedents among the Jews in making their Rabbins and in celebrating holy mysteries and governing those of that Church and Religion 2. For the new Testament nothing either of precept or example seems against a right Episcopacy commanding a parity or forbidding order and subjection among Presbyters as well as other men what Christ forbids his Apostles of exercising dominion after the manner of Princes of the world excludes indeed First from the twelve who were pares in Apostolatu equally Apostles and were not long to live in one society but to lay the foundations of Religion in all the world by a parity of power coordinate but not subordinate to any but Christ who chose them and proportionably forbids all Bishops and Church-men the secular methods of gaining or using any Ecclesiasticall power and eminency in the Church as by ambition force usurpation tyranny by the sword and severities penally inflicted on the Bodies Estates Liberties and lives of men which was the way of the world but not of Christ or his Ministers yet these tyrannies which attend mens lusts and passions as men are as incident besides factions and emulations to the Presbyterian way where some are alwaies heady and leaders as to that of a right and regular Episcopacy whereto Presbyters are joyned The plain meaning of our Lord Jesus who owned himself as chief among his Apostles Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 2. Saith Episcopall eminency is the best way to prevent Schisms and to keep peace in the Church Luke 22.26 But ye shall not be so But he that is greatest among you let him be as the youngest and he that is chief as he that doth serve Mat. 24. There may be a wise servant whom the Lord may set over his house Timothy is taught how to behave himself in the Church as a Governour no less than a Minister or Teacher 1 Tim. 3.15 Remis non sceper is guberuent Episcopi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost de Episc Tom. 4. p. 627. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is pel l. 2. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Liban to Basil says Bishops were c. Basil Ep. 154. yet condescended to serve them is That what ever excellency any Christian Minister or other had above others in age estate parts place power gifts graces or civill honors for what hinders a Prince or Nobleman to be a Minister of the Gospell and yet retain both his honour and estate temporall all these should be used and enjoyed without the leaven of pride insolency or oppression and only be turned to greater advantages of serving Christ and the Church with all humble Industry As Christ himself did And after him the Apostles who had undoubtedly as some order and precedency among themselves in the equality of their Apostolicall power so also priority both of place superiority of Church jurisdiction and authority and power over all other Disciples and beleivers And this not from any personall gifts temporary and privileges so much as from that wisdom and peaceable order which Christ would have observed alwaies in his Church after the Apostolicall example By some of whom as the antients tell us Some Ministers were clearly constituted as Bishops with an eminency of personall power over others to ordein censure rebuke silence even Presbyters and Deacons D. Blondell confesseth p. 183. None can be dispensed witâ— as tâ— the violating or neglect of that Chu ch ordâ—r and Government wh ch is pâ—esc ibed to Timothy and Titus which rule is of Divine right and perpetuall This is undeniably evident by Scripture in Timothy and Titus The validity and authority of which examples were esteemed by Antiquity and followed as warrantable divine precedents and obligatory examples to after ages in the like cases at least for imitation By preserving such an ordinary succession of power in Bishops among and above Presbyters both in ordination and jurisdiction Nor is this clear instance to be any way in reason avoyded by saying that Timothy and Titus w re Evangelists what ever that Office were in the Church either temporary and personall or common to other chief Ministers and perpetually to succeed for it makes nothing against a personall superiority of power and authority in them over their respective Churches which was to succeed to others in all reason as well as their Ministry did both these being alwaies necessary for the Church and indeed their ordinary power as to Government had no dependance on their being Evangelists 2 Tim. 2.15 1 Tim. 4.13 2 Tim. 4.2 no more than their Preaching and other Ministeriall acts had which we may not argue from these two persons to be incompatible to any Ministers now Unless they be Evangelists For then no Presbyters that are not Evangelists in their sense might study or Preach in season and out of season rebuke exhort c. or shew themselves Workmen that need not to be ashamed c. Now if these acts and Offices of Ministry are derivable to other single persons in a Ministeriall way why not also that Gubernative power too which was from the Apostle signally committed to Timothy and Titus and no where so expresly to any fraternity of Ministers or Presbytery in common 2 Cor. 11.5.12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 21.15 After that rate of arguing we may conclude that none but the very chief Apostles might feed the Lambs and Sheep of Christ because that command was thrice given to Peter who was reckoned among the chiefest of the Apostles which Conclusions were as absurd and ridiculous being by all the practise and sense of the Primitive Churches confuted as this that the power of proving and ordeyning Presbyters 1 Tim. 5.19.22 Tit. 1.5 by laying on of hands of receiving accusations against them of rebuking censuring excommunicating silencing and restoring all Acts gubernative may not be eminently in any single person unless they be Apostles or Evangelists when as not only the use of such order and power is in all reason necessary for Church societies no less than for civill but the succession of it in such sort as it began in them to all times after seems clearly intimated by that vehement charge layd on Timothy 1 Tim. 5.21 2 Tim. 4.5 to keep those things unpartially and unblameably untill the comming of our Lord Jesus
are managed by men This government then by a fatherly president or chief Bishop among Presbyters seeming to have not equall 4. The advantages of Episcopacy against any other but far superiour grounds from Scripture both as to the Divine wisdome so ordering the form of his antient Church among the Jews also by the example precept and direction evident from Christ Jesus and the holy Apostles in the New Testament No wonder that many yea far the most of godly and learned upright men do rather approve a Primitive and right Episcopacy than any other new fashion which is rather conform to secular interest than to any thing of the Churches or true religions advantages especially when 't is evident that Episcopacie hath the great and preponderating addition of the Antient sole and Vniversall government approved and used by all the Churches of Christ in the purest and most impartiall times To which neither of the other can with any face pretend for themselves nor with any truth contradict it being averred by all Antiquity in the behalf of right and regular Episcopacy which never failed to succeed the Apostles authority and eminency either by their own immediate appointment in many places even while they yet lived or by the election and Votes of the Colleges and Fraternities of Presbyters after the Apostles decease who still chose one man eminent for his faith piety zeal and holy gravity to be duly consecrated in power and place above them as a Father among sons Aust Ep. 148. ad Valeriâ—â— Jerom. ad Nepotianum Ad Evagriuâ—â— Crysost hom 3 in Act. Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crysost Hom. 3. in Acta or an elder Brother among brethren or as a Master or Provost in a College or as a Generall in an Army as St. Jerom himself tells us If any man ask me then what kind of Bishop I would have Vid. Synes l. 3. Ep. 21◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Epist c. Vid. Bern. ad Eug. l. 4. Opâ—rtet te esse formam justiâ—ia sanctimoâ—a speculum pietatis exemplat veriâ—atiâ— assertoâ—em fidei defensorem Christianorum ducem amicum sponsae c. I answer Such an one for Age as may be a Father for wisdome a Senator for gravity a Stoick for light an Angel for innocency a Saint for industry a Labourer for constancy a Confessor for zeal a Martyr for charity a Brother for humility a Servant to all the faithfull Ministers and other Christians under his charge I would have him venerable for those severall excellencies which are most remarkable in the antient and most imitable Bishops The devotion of St. Gregory the indefatigableness of St. Austin the courage of St. Ambrose the learning of Nazianzen the generosity of Basil the Eloquence of Chrysostom the gentleness of Cyprian the holy flames of Ignatius the invincible constancy of Polycarp That so be may come neerest to the Apostolicall pattern and resemble the most of any Christian or Minister the grace and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ Quod in aliis sacerdotibus deest per Antistitem surpleri debet Elotus ad Aug. cp August ad extremam senectutem impraetermissè praedicavit Possid vita Aug. Et successores incitatores Apostolorum Et zelum ac locum sortiti tam igitur ad curam quam alacres ad cathedram Bern. ser 77. Cant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pet. l. 2. Jerom ad Heliadorum Naz. orat lat tom a. Grandis dignitaes sed grandis ruina si peccent Ieron Vt nihil Episcopo excellentius sic nihil miserabilius si in crimine teneatur Amb. de dig Sa. I would have him yet not I but the vote of all pious Antiquity requires a Bishop to be among men the most morall among Christians the most faithful among Preachers the most painful among Orators the most perswasive among Governours the most moderate among Devotionaries the most fervent among Professors the most forward among Practisers the most exact among sufferers the most patient among perseverants the most constant He should be as the Holy of holyes was both to the inward court of those that are truly sanctified and converted and to the outward court of those that are called Christians only in visible profession I would have nothing in Him that is justly to be blamed or sinisterly suspected And all things that are most deservedly commended by wise and sober Christians I would have a Bishop of all men the most compleat as having on him the greatest care namely that of the Church and of souls And this in a more publike and eminent inspection as one daily remembring the strictness of Gods account and expecting either a most glorious Crown or a most grievous Curse to all Eternity I would have him most deserve and most able to use well but yet least esteeming Vid. Bern. Ep. 42. Vid. Amb. tom 3. ep 82. Qualis eligendus sit Epis Quis ferat Eligi divitem ad sedem honoris Ecclesiastici contempto paupere instructiore sanctiore Aust ep 29Vt Episcopus non sit quod Libanius dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Res unde â—grè aliquid emolumenti eâ—â—ngatur Basil in ep 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Carm. 4. de Epis coveting or ambitionating the riches pomp glory and honour of the world One that knows how to own himself in Persecution as well as in Prosperity and dares to do his duty as a Bishop in both estates I do not much consider the secular Parade and Equipage further than as publike incouragements of Merit as excitations to excell as noble rewards of Learning and as catern decencies or solemnities which do much set off and Embroider Authority in the sight of the vulgar I wish him duly chosen with judgement accepting with modesty esteemed with honour reverenced with love Overseeing with vigilance ruling with joynt-Counsel not levelled with younger Preachers and novices nor too much exalted above the graver and elder Presbyters neither despised of the one nor despising of the other I wish him an honourable competency if it may be had with his eminency that he may have wherewith to exercise a large heart and a liberall hand which every where carry respect and conciliate love If this cannot be had yet I wish him that in true worth which is denyed him in wealth That his vertue and piety may still preserve the authority of his place and this in the Order Peace and Dignity of the Church That he may be the Touchstone of Truth the Loadstone of Love the Standard of Faith the Patern of holiness the Pillar of stability and the Center of Unity in the Church Nor are these to be esteemed as Characters of an Eutopian Prelate only to be had in the abstract of fancy and speculation Many such Bishops have been antiently in the Church and not a few here in England some still are such in their merits a midst their ruines and obscurings and more might constantly and easily be
supplied to the Churches good order peace and honour If Reason and not Passion Religion and not Superstition Judgement and not Prejudice Calmness and not fierceness Learning and not Idiotism Gravity and not Giddiness Wisdome and not Vulgarity Prudence and not Precipitancy impartiall Antiquity and not interessed novelty may be the judge of true Episcopacy I think nothing further from a true Bishop Vid. Bern. ep 28. 152. 42. ad Ep. Senonum Aug. ep 203. in Ecclesiasticâ—â— honoribus tempora ventosa transigere c. Amb. de dig Sacerd. Cum honoris praerogativa etiam congrui merita requirimus c. than Idleness set off with pomp than Ignorance decked with solemnity than Pride blazoned with power than Covetousness guilded with Empire than Sordidness smothered with state than Vanity dressed up with great formalities Bishops should not be like blazing Comets in their Diocesse having more of distance terror and pernicious influence than of light or Celestiall vertue But rather as fixed Stars of the prime magnitude shining most usefully and remarkably in the Church during this night of Christs absence who is the only Sun for his light and Spouse for his love to the Church yet hath he appointed some proxies to woo for him and Messengers to convey love tokens from him among whom the holy Bishops of the Church were ever accounted as the chiefest Fathers next the Apostles when they were indeed such as evill men most feared good men most loved Schismaticks most envied and Hereticks most hated Right Episcopacy is so great an advantage to the Churches happiness and so unblamable in its due constitution and exercise that it is no small blemish to any godly mans judgement not to approve it and nothing as to imprudence is I think more blame-worthy than not to desire esteem love and honour it Since such Prelature is as lawfull as it is usefull and it is as usefull as either Reason or Religion polity or piety can propound in any thing of that nature which if not absolutely necessary yet certainly most convenient for the Church and commendable in the Church so far as it stands in a visible Pâ—lâ—â—y and society being no way either sinfull in it self or contrary to any positive Law of God any more than it is for Christians in civill governmenâ— to have Maiors in their Cities Colonels in their Armies Masters in their Colleges Wardens in their Fraternities Captains or Pilots in their Ships or Fathers in their Families Nor is indeed the venerable face of true Episcopacy so deformed by some mens late ridiculous dresses and disguises but that wise and learned men still see the many reverend and excellent lineaments of it not only of pious and prime antiquity but of beauty order symmetry In plebe nec veritas nec judicium inter saedam potentium adulationem praceps prostratorum odium inanibus studiis inconditis motibus omnia miscent Tacit. and benefit such as flow from both humane and divine wisdome if popular contempt and prejudices in some of the vulgar be any measure of things or any argument against any thing in Religion or in the Church of Christ it will serve as well to vilifie and nullifie all Presbytery and all Ministry as all Episcopacy Indeed neither of them can preserve their honor use and comliness if they exceed their proportions and either dash against or incroach upon each other contrary to those bounds and methods which primitive wisdom observed between power and counsell Order and Authority Community and Unity It is very probable that a few years experience of the want of good Bishops will so reconcile the minds of sober and impartiall Christians to them that few will be against them save only such who think the best security for some of their estates to be the utter exploding and perpetuall extirpation of Episcopacy A thing which one of the wisest of mortalls so much abhorred and for which he was able to give so good an account in Reason Piety and true Polity that it appears to have been not pertinacy and interest but judgement and conscience that so long sustained that unhappy Controversie which I have no mind to revive but only if possible to reconcile which is no hard matter where clear truths meet with moderate affections and peaceable inclinations For I find by the proportion of all Polity and Order that if Episcopall eminency be not the main weight and carriage of Ecclesiasticall government yet it is as the Axis or wheel which puts the whole frame of Church society and communion into a fit order and aptitude for motion especially in greater associations of Christians which make the most firm and best constituted Churches This being then the true figure of a learned grave godly and industrious Bishop there need not more be sayd to redeem Episcopacy from prejudices or to assert it against those triviall objections which are not with truth and judgement so much as with spight and partiality made against it Those light touches which are by some men produced from the antient Writers in the Church for the countenancing of the power of Presbyteries without any Bishop and President or for the Independency of power in Congregations are indeed but as the dust of the balance or drops of a full bucket compared to those full and weighty testimonies which they every where give for the use of Episcopacy unless men be allowed the confidence and liberty to bastardise the works of the Fathers as they list and by a new purgatorian Index tâ— antiquate all Records after 1500. years legitimation by the consent of all Churches as one lately hath endevoured to do D. Blondell a person indeed of great reading and learning but in this not of equall candor and impartiality who endevouring to find some foundation whereon to build his Presbyterie seeks to cast away as rubbidg and trash all the Epistolary writings of holy Ignatius Ignatius called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if he had wrote nothing yet the fame of his piety and sufferings made him sufficiently renowned in those Primitive times and after ages both for a Bishop and a Martyr his seat Episcopall being at Antioch and his grave at Rome But his writings being never so far questioned by Antiquity By Euseb Clem. Alex. Jerom. Phâ—tit bibl See the Lord Prim. of Arm. edition of Ignatius as to reject those Epistles which we urge in this point of Episcopacy for genuine and which are oft mentioned with honour and in part the very words which we now read so that it seems a passion and boldness too servile to the cause which that learned man undertook so to endevour at once to expunge those testimonies and remains of Ignatius which indeed are very weighty and many for the distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons even in the first century after Christ which our learned and industrious Country-man Dr. Hammond hath lately as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a valiant
also of that holy Spirit of truth and Ministeriall power which Christ gave to the Apostles and they to their chief successors the Bishops by whose learned piety and industry such mighty works have been done in all ages and in all parts of the Church and in none more I think than in this Church of England chiefly since the Reformation of Religion whereto godly and learned Bishops contributed the greatest humane assistance by their preaching writing living and dying as became holy Martyrs Can. 6. Concil Nicaeni I am vehemently for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 antient and holy customs of the Catholick Church 8. Primitive Customs how far alterable in the Churches Polity Consuetudo major non est veritate aut tatione Cyp. Ep. 73. Valeat consuetudo ubi non praevalet Scriptura aut ratio Reg. Jur. Praesracti est ingenii contra omnem consuetudinem disputare morosi nimis pertinaciter adhaerere so far as they may be fitted to the state and stature of any Christian societies Not that I think all things of external Polity discipline and government by which Christians stand tyed in relations publique to one another were at first so at once prescribed or perfected by Christ or the B. Apostles as might not admit after addition variations or completions in any Church or Congregation Christian according to those dictates of reason and generall rules of Prudence which are left to the liberty of Churches by which so to preserve particular Churches as not to offend the generall rules of order and charity which bind them by conformity in the main to take care of the Catholick Communion We are not I think tyed so strictly to all the precise paterns of primitive and Apostolicall practise which might well vary in the severall states conditions and dimensions of the Church I read no command for Presbyters to choose a Bishop or President among them and in so not doing they are defective not as to the Precepts of Scripture 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man lâ—st to be contentious we have no such Custom nor the Churches of Christ In his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura mos populi dei vel instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt Aug. Ep. 89. ad Cal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 37. but to the rules of right reason and the imitation of usefull example in primitive times Nor do I find any Precept to one or more Presbyters to ordein others after them who yet ought to take care both of their own being rightly Ordeined and of after succession according to that patern Analogy and proportion of holy order and government which was at first wisely observed by the Apostles and the after Ministers of the Church either as Bishops or Presbyters The same Coat would not serve Christ a man grown which did fit him a Child or Youth Only it is neither safe comely nor comfortable for any Christians wantonly and without great and urging reasons next dore to necessity to recede from or to cast off the antient and most imitable Catholick customs of the Church which truly is seldom done upon conscientious and reall necessities pressing but most what upon factious humours and for secular designs carried on under the colour of Church alterations For how ever the alteration may at present please some mens activity and humour whose turn it serves yet it cannot but infinitely scandalise grieve and oppress far more and better Christians who are of the old yet good way Hence many wee see are at a loss now in England how to justifie their past religion shaken by changes as if they had had no true Ministry nor holy Ministrations and Sacraments hitherto while some mens zeal without knowledge cries down Bishops and that whole government with the Ministry for Antichristian others are extremely unsatisfied and solicitous for the future succession Not seeing any ground for any Presbyters in this Church so to challenge to themselves a sole divine power of Ordination and Jurisdiction without any President Bishops which was the antient way in England ever since we were Christians as in all other Churches And it is most sure that neither power of Ordination nor Jurisdiction was ever conferred by Bishops on any Presbyters here either verbally or intentionally as without and against Bishops Nor did the Laws or Canons ever so mean or speak Nor was it I believe in any of the Presbyters own thoughts that they received any such power to Ordein other Presbyters without a Bishop when they were Ordeined Ministers And sure though acts of state and civil Magistracy may regulate the exercise yet they cannot confer the holy power and order of a Presbyter or Bishop on any man which flows from a spiritual head even Jesus Christ as I have proved and not from any temporall Authority Ordinances of Parliament can hardly with justice or honour batter or dismount the Canons of generall Councils the Catholick laws or constant Customes of the Church If it be supposed that the two Houses of Parliament lately did but restore and the Presbyters resume that power of Ordination which was only due to them as such and deteined by Bishops usurpation from them Boâ—a consuetudo velut vinum generosum vetustate valescit Tert. It is very strange they should never here nor elsewhere have made claim to it for 1600. years in no ages past till these last broken factious tumultuary and military times If it were their right only in common with and subordinate to Bishops they needed not then to complain for they did or might have enjoyed as much joynt power as was for their conveniency and the Churches peace The eminent power at least for Order sake was even by their consents lawfully placed in and exercised by the Bishops The levity and ambition of ingrossing all to themselves without and against Bishops hath almost lost all power both of Bishops and Presbyters too since Presbytery alone is but as Pipe-staves full of cracks warpings and unevenness which will not easily hold the strong liquor of power and government unless they be well hooped about and handsomly kept in order by venerable and fatherly Episcopacy which carried a greater face of majesty and had those ampler and more august proportions which ought to be in government beyond what can be hoped for or in reason expected from the parity and puerility of Presbyters in common many of whom have more need to be governed than they are any way fit to bear any great weight of government on their shoulders however they may discharge some works of the Ministry very well 9. Calm mediations between Episcopacy and Presbytery As it hath never yet been shewen any where so it is least to be hoped for now in England that any better fruits should arise from Presbyterie thus beheaded cropped and curtayled of its crown Episcopacy which it might not stil have as formerly it
hath brought forth If the honour and order of the highest branch the Episcopall eminency had been preserved with it Not so as to over-drop and oppress all other boughs and branches which are of the same root but so as to adorn them all and to be most eminent in Christian graces and Ministeriall gifts no less than in priority of place superiority of power and amplitude of honour and estate As many Excellent Bishops both antient and modern were against whose incomparable worth while some young and petty Presbyters do scornfully declame and disgracefully insult they appear like so many Jackdaws perking on the top of Pauls steeple or like living Dogs snarling at and trampling upon dead Lions Petulantissima est insaniae paucorum malorum odio in bonos omnes dehacâ—hari Nor do indeed such impotent tongues and miserable partialities of some men tuned to the most vulgar ears and humours against all even good Bishops and against a right or regulated Episcopacy such as was for the main and substance here in England they do not in any sort become men that pretend to any true piety learning gravity or civility I neither approve nor excuse the personall faults of any particular Bishops as to the exercise of their power and authority which ought not in weighty matters to be managed without the presence counsell and suffrages of Presbyters such as are fit for that assistance The neglect of this St. Ambrose and St. Jerom and all sober men justly reprove as unsafe for the Bishops the Presbyters and the whole Church For in multitude of counsell is safety and honour too Rom. 11.14 I am sure much good they might all have done as many of them did whom these touchy times were not worthy of No wonder if the very best of them displeased some mens humours who were impatient to be kept any longer in order but like waters Hieron Communi concilio Praesbyterorum Ecclesiae regebantur Concilio Carthag 4. c. 3. Nil faciat Episcopus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not other Concil Ancyran assisted the Bishop in government long pent up they sweld to such discontents as disdaining to pass the allowed bounds and floudgates of publick Lawes they resolved to blow up and bear away the whole head and sluce of Government Bishops had three Enemies to contend with some Presbyters ambition some Laymens covetousness and their own Infirmities And it may be Bishops faults had been less in some mens eyes if their estates and honours had not been so great I write not thus to reproach any of my Fathers or Brethren the Ministers who begin many of them no doubt to be of my mind for moderate Episcopacy if they have not alwayes been so finding that the fruit of the Summer doth not alwayes answer the blossoms of the Spring cruell frosts may nip and blast those pregnant hopes of bettering which men are prone secretly to nourish whereby to excuse or justifie their desires of change and novely In which truly I never saw any thing of right reason or religion produced for the extirpation of primitive Episcopacy The main things that pressed upon it were Forein power domestick pride the failings of some Bishops the envious angers of some Presbyters and the wonted inconstancy of the vulgar If any men Ministers or others are as loth to see and recant their excesses and errors as they were forward to run into them but still resolve to keep that partiall bias on their judgement which shall sway all their learning and other excellent Ministeriall gifts against their own true interests and this Church with all reformed Religion which consisted in due moderation and peace I shall yet with my pity of their wilfulness or weakness alwayes love and reverence what I see in them of Christ and only wish that temper and moderation from them which may most contribute in common to the vindication of the Order and Function of learned grave and peaceable ministers This they may at last easily see That every soft gratification of vulgar ignorance envy and inconstancy set forth with the forms of zeal and reformation is usually returned with vilifyings and diminutions of their betters who did vouchsafe to flatter them as if they indeed feared them I heartily wish a greater harmony a sweet moderation and Fraternal accord among all true and godly Ministers who dare to own and do still adorn their office and calling I should be glad to see the counsell and assistance of well setled Presbyters crowned with the order and lustre of Episcopall presidency which was antiently as the Jewel wel set in a ring of Gold or as a fair guard and handle to a good Sword adding to its compleatness comliness and usefulness Alas the ordinary Ministers seem now like younger brethren who sometimes lived handsomly under their Fathers or elder Brothers care and inspection so scattered and divided that they are extremely weakned and exposed to all injuries Pro. 16.18 Pride goes before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall yea many of them like Prodigall sons having riotously wasted their own and their Fathers portion begin to consider what husks of popular favour they may feed on So is Insolency the high way to indigence and arrogancy soon knocks at the dore of contempt Ministers must not wonder or repine at the measure they measured to others when offered to themselves Secundas habeat poenitentiae tabulas qui non habuit primas impeccantiae Amb. I am far from reproaching any mens defeats or Calamities wherein the Justice of divine vengeance is seen retaliating I am glad if the occasioners of our common shipwrack may have any fair planks or rafters to save themselves and the honour of their Ministry either by recanting the errors of their judgements or repenting the transports of their manners If they retein their Antiepiscopall opinion with modesty and charity yet I am not disposed to fly in any godly mans face because he is not exactly like me or to pull out his eyes Multa tolleramus quae non probamus Aust because they are not just of the colour of mine I pray to be of that Christian temper for moderation and charity which can allow many latitudes of Prudence in extern things of religion where no evident sins for their immoralities nor evident errors against the fundamentals of Christianity nor evident confusions against charity and order which is necessary for the Churches peace do appear I wish that while Ministers or other Christians differ in things of extern mode and order they may all find and walk in that holy way by which we may with one shoulder of truth and charity carry on that great work of saving Souls both our own and those that hear us that while we dispense saving truths to others we may not for want of humility and charity be cast-aways our selves More of those calming and moderating graces on all sides had no doubt preserved both Bishops and
policy and worldly interests are really separated from those of Christ his Church and mens souls Nothing were more happy than to see this sincerely done so that Christians would rather deny themselves in profit and worldly advantages than any way benefit or gain by Church Reformations than which nothing is more sordid and more to be abhorred contrary to the holy liberality of all good Christians in all times If Ananias and Saphira were smitten for dissembling how much more accursed are they who act all with a sacrilegious Spirit and hand stripping and robbing the Church instead of Reforming I shall ever pray for just and liberall Reformations while I live mean time I rest satisfied in my conscience That the ordination of Ministers as it was in England by a Bishop and Presbyters as it hath the greatest regularity so it hath the greatest validity and admits the least dispute as to the right order and succession of Ministeriall power As for the Presbytery and Presbyters I think their Ministry very valid and their authority very venerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. ad Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ad Smyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. ad Ep. to all true Christians especially in conjunction with their Bishop Like Tortesses they were safest while they keep under that shell which some Presbyters having scornfully cast off as a burthen striped themselves of their shield and defence so that they are become very naked feeble and contemned creatures whom the foot of pride and rusticity is prone to crush and trample upon on every side That they have now no refuge or protection left but God and a good conscience which are enough if they do indeed enjoy them though with poverty and contempt from men Thus I have as well as I had leasure vindicated the Ordination of Ministers and that power which they have to administer holy things in Christs name to this Church to be no way blameable but right and commendable as derived by and with the hands of Bishops and Presbyters which is the holy and Catholick way wherein only it is ordinarily to be obteined 1 Cor. 11.16 Aust cont Don. l. 4. if any men list to be contentious for other ways my answer with St. Paul is again and again neither we nor the Churches of Christ ever had any other custom and with St. Austin so Catholick a custom 11. Of the peoples power in Ordination of Ministers so agreeable to reason and Scripture could have no beginning but Christ and his holy Apostles There is yet one Calumny more against the Ordination of our Ministers in the Church of England which pretends the neglect among us of what is by some thought most essentiall in making a Minister that is of the peoples right both in choosing and ordeining men to that office the want of which they say makes our Ministry invalid Answ For this pretended right of the people no argument is alleged so strong as that of liberty which some have taken in these times to separate themselves from the ordinary Ministry of this Church and by a mutuall call of one an other to jugg themselves like Partridges into small coveys which they call bodies or Churches even before they have any Minister which they resolve not to have but of their own choosing and ordeining that they may be sure being a creature of their own to have him after their own humour flattering themselves that they have a plenary Church power to all Offices and ends whatsoever Although I have formerly given some generall account of the folly of this imagination in the vulgar yet because it is a Gangrene not easily cured without oft lancing and opening and hath far prevailed upon some peoples minds who feed this opinion with the venemous and vulgar humours of pride self-loving self-seeking self-pleasing self-flattering and self-admiring It is not a miss to give another stroak at this high imagination which exalts itself against Christ and the holy order of his Church that the obstinacy of its arrogance and folly being pulld down it may be levelled to that obedience which becomes all Christian people People have no power Ministerial First then I must profess that I never saw or heard any thing by any man with any shew of Scripture or reason urged to proove this power of conferring the holy order and authority of a Minister of Christ to be in the people Either eminently as an executioners power is in the supreme Judge or virtually as life is in the Suns beams or formally and causally as heat is in the fire or ordinatively preceptively and derivatively as the supreme Magistrates power is to some ends Numb 16. The Preface to Korahs rebellion and confusion is the peoples sanctity v. 3. and actions in the meanest Constable or publike Officer So that it can be in them no other way than as power may be in rebels hands or as Korah and his complices if they had not been by God repressed would have had liberty and authory from their own usurpation to make Priests and Rulers instead of Moses and Aaron whom the Lord had appointed Not by Scripture For Scripture First it is evident in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine patern of polity and extern order of Religion in the Church of the Jews we find that the wisdom of God leaves nothing of holy concernments for Priests or Ministry no nor the least sacrifice offering or ceremony to the peoples either ordering or choosing Nor is it likely or any where appears that the unchangeable wisdom of God in Christ altering only the manner externall and not the order beauty holyness Phil. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. A multitudine abhorret maximè vera Philosophia Lact. Inst l. 3. c. 25. è Ciceron Vulgar heads like many circles have so many circumferences that its impossible to draw them to meet in one center Charron Vbi major hominum turba major plerumque est divinitatis injuria Salv. or the main end of the service and Ministry Christian which his glory and his Churches good should so much vary from the former exactness and wariness as to venture the order beauty and honour of Religion upon the rock of vulgar rudeness ignorance rashness headyness stiff-neckednes which formerly he so much avoyded and which not only the tenderness of Christian Religion which having many enemies admits least blemishes and studies most what things are comely as well as holy but even common reason and experience teacheth all wise men to avoyd as much as possible Namely those inconveniences and mischiefs attending the weak heads and strong hands of the vulgar as in all things so chiefly in those which concern Religion Who that is wise can be ignorant that the common people even among believers and professors are seldom or never qualified with those gifts of knowledge wisdom temper and discretion which are necessary for all publike
that Ministre which is most dâ—e and necessary for their souls in times of dâ—nger and persecution unless the office be suppliced by some fit Ministers while others by consent or lot fly to preserve a stock of Bishops and Ministers and of absolute necessity or destitution where Christians already baptised and believing cannot have a Minister in a regular way I leave to Gods direction and his speciall dispensation who in Cases extraordinary may extraordinarily manifest his pleasure I am sure in the hottest Persecution which worried and scattered the flock of Christ when it was most innocent the sheep neither chose nor followed any other Shepheards than those which St. Austin calls most necessary for the Church without which it cannot subsist of whose Ordination and due authority they had assurance by constant Succession and according to the true pattern in the Mount but they chose rather to supply the necessitated absences of their true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters by prayer fasting meditation reading Christian conference and mutuall exhortation than to set up among themselves any Minister by their own power of popular Ordination Yea as the Jews would have done in the defect of holy and Consecrated fire Christians rather contented themselves with the Vote and desire or purpose of Sacraments without the actuall perception of them or any other fruits proper to the Ministeriall function and power rather than offer with strange and unholy fire where they could not have those Ministers whose lips had been touched with a ceal from Gods altar that is ordeined by a right Consecration which holy fire hath never yet been quite put out in the Church of Christ nor ever will be however some mens petulancy and presumption seeks to spit or piss it out by their irreligious ingratefull and contemptuous carriages against the office and due Succession of the Ministry Humble and wise Christians willingly look back to the Rock whence they were hewen and the pit whence they were digged There they discern Mat. 28.19 Go therefore and teach all Nations c. Joh. 20.21 As my Father sent me even so send I you Is 65.1 Sub assistentis plebis conscientia Cyp. That it was not the people who made to themselves Ministers but Ministers sent by Christ and the Apostles every where made people Christians They that sate in darkness had light brought to them and were found of God by his messengers as Shepheards sent to the lost sheep who sought not after God That the holy succession of Ministeriall and Church power is indeed for the peoples good and ought in some cases be carried with the peoples approbation but it is not at all from the peoples pleasure will or vertue That Jesus Christ the Apostles and all after Churches ever carried this Ministeriall and Church power in another way distinct and apart from the people yet most convenient for them and most agreeable both to right reason and to the order and honour of true Christian religion which requires that holy things be done with all beautys of holiness by able and wise and worthy men to choose and appoint or ordein whom supposes as able at least if not abler than they are to judge of them yet meer abilities as I have shewed will not serve neither to give to others any commission as Ministers of holy things unless the givers have first a grand Commission or power of so doing committed by others to them which carries the strength of an originall divine Authority ascending to christ Which power especially as to Ordeining of fit Ministers being thus severed from the people for 1600. years without any complaint made by the faithfull or claim of right by reason or religion there is no cause Christians should now listen to that fury folly and faction which would lay all in common since nothing is brought by these Commoners to repeal the first divine enclosure of it by the Institution of Christ or to take away the prejudice of so many Centuries peaceable possession as a peculiar to the Church Officers those of the Ministeriall Function In which there hath never been any cessation or interruption as to legitimate succession and constant Ordination Not that we deny for any thing shall be granted to faithfull Christians People least able or fit to make or Ordein a Minister which is for their good but that Christians of a particular parish or Congregation may if they have not otherwayes tyed themselves and restrained things by Laws with are the publiques and so the Peoples consent as here for the most part in England it was they may orderly choose and desire such a man to be made a Minister or Bishop and to be over them in the Lord as the people of Millan did St. Ambrose yet a Lay-man and Magistrate Yet this is only so far as first to recommend him to those who have power to ordein him a Minister of the Catholick Church of Christ next to acknowledge that power and office Ministeriall to be rightly in him as conferred to him by just hands They may choose him thus Ordeined to exercise his Ministry and Office by particular care mutuall relation and joynt consent among them But still this is as far from any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some interpret it as amounts to peoples giving Ministeriall power or Orders as it is from Souldiers giving a Commission when they only present by way of Commendation and Petition a worthy person to the Generall or Commission officers to be made their Captain which neither his worth nor their willingness makes him to be without express Commission from the Generall under his hand and Seal Nor is this any thing to the diminution of peoples rationall or religious liberties as Christians or men which regulations and restraints they may not grudge to suffer if Christ will have it so as in this his will and command is most clear but it is a fruit of Christs wisdome and care for the faithfull peoples good to avoyd infinite inconveniences and confusions which constantly and unavoidably attend all things that are transacted or touched almost by the common peoples hands and heads who though they mean and begin well as the Sea by modest lickings and slidings over the banks which afterward its fury overbears with horrible inundations yet are they never to be trusted with any thing which a wise and good man would have well done As then we see no Church power especially as to Ordination and Ministry is naturally in Christian people In causis fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris cum judicare debere qui nec munere impar est nec jure dissimilis constantur assero Dictum Imperat Valentini patris quod Ambros vehementer laudat l. 5. Ep. 32. who must be considered after their Ministers in time and that order of nature which is between Effects and Causes Children and Fathers being first made Christians by Ministers whom they never Ordeined nor so much as dreamt
Governours in every Church as hath been proved than if some one or more cunning fellows should perswade credulous and silly people whom they find or lead into the dark or else blind them that they were indeed stark blind and had no power of themselves to see or open their eyes but must wholly be led by their guidance without having any sight or benefit of the Sun These poor seduced men have no more to do in point of relieving themselves and confuting so gross Impostors but only to open their eyes freely and to use the light of that Sun which they easily and clearly see shining over all the world which is not more evident to sense than this Truth is to judicious Christians That the power of Ordeining Ministers hath alwayes and only been in the Pastors Bishops and Guides of the Church who both ruled well and also laboured diligently in the Word and doctrine And since true Christians in this Reformed Church of England both Ministers and people have been so happy in this Church as to be delivered from the Romish superstitions and Papall usurpations they have now no cause to be less cautious or more patient to be gulled and deluded by popular seductions lest the second error be worse than the first Inasmuch as the furies and confusions of the vulgar are more dangerous than any errors of Popes or Bishops or Presbyters are like to be as Earthquakes are more dreadfull and pernicious than Eclipses or the Cloudings of the lights of Heaven The lights of the Church may recover their lustre and vigour in due time nor do they ever shine so dark but they afford a competent light to shew the way to Heaven But popular precipitancies and licentious extravagancies of the vulgar are likest to overthrow all religion and bury all Christianity by Gothick and Mahumetan methods in Atheism Illiterateness Confusion and Barbarity For as they have least skill in them and no authority given them to order and rule Church affairs so they have most passion and unbridled violence in them least able to distinguish between the abuse and use of things between gold and dross between what is of God or of Man when once they have got power and say that they know not what is become of their Mosesses Exod. â—6â— their divinely appointed guides their duly ordeined Bishops and Ministers the first thing they do is to make themselves molten Images and contribute both their Earings and their Ears their hearts and hands to those Calves which they set us for Tamuzzes Ezek. 8.3 or Images of jealousie and abominations whereby to provoke the God of heaven to wrath to reproach the honour of Christ to affront the true Ministers and to make the Reformed religion and this Church to become an hissing and astonishment to all round about A wise man of Spain saâ—d It is better in Church as well as in places of Civill power and Judicature to prefer corrupt men than weak and foolish The one is as a thief in a Vineyard who will only take ripe grapes till he is satisfied the other as an Asse which eats ripe and green crops the Vines treads down much with his heels and when his belly is full tumbles among them But our Antiministeriall Adversaries are still ready with scorn and laughter to demand What can Ministers 13. The vertue of holy Ordination Object either as Bishops or Presbyters confer more than other Christians in the point of Ordination What vertue or charm is there in the imposing of their hands or in their prayers by which to add to any mans ministeriall gifts and graces or to invest any man in a way of Church power more than is in any other Christians whose gifts and graces may be equall or exceeding their Infirmities far less than many Ministers are What power can they have to give the holy Ghost as they express in the form of Ordination yea whence do they challenge as of right the Name of Clergy-men as peculiar to their tribe and Calling where as all the Lords people are his lot and his inheritance and God is theirs Nor ought they contemptuously as by way of diminution to be called Lay-men or the Laity Since they are all spiritually anointed and chosen of God to be Kings Priests and Prophets I Answer Answ Of the Laity and Clergy Clem. Rom. ep ad Cor. p. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lay-man is bound up by Lay commands 〈◊〉 keâ— hâ— rank Igâ—â— epist frâ—quently Tertul. Hoâ—â—â— Presbyter qui cras Laicus Laicâ— Sacerdotaliâ— munera injungunt De prae ad haer c. 42. saepe alibi St. Cyprian often So Clemens of Alexand. Differentiam inter ordinem plebem constituit Ecclesiae autoritas honor per ordinis câ—nsessum sanctificatus à Deo Tertul. de exh ad Cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Const Apost l. 3. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Vid. Dr. Prideaux Praelect Consuetudo certissiâ—a loquendi magistra utendumque planè sermone ut nummo cui publica est forma Quintil. Jnst l. 1. c. 6. Sermo constâ—t ratione vetustate authoritate consuctudine Id. Vetera verba majestas religio quaedam commendat Id. to this last scruple first as least being not so much a beam as a mote in some mens tender eyes which like Leahs are easily offended As for the names then of Clergy and Laity in which the Nasuter Criticks of this age sent something of pride in the Ecclesiasticks or Ministers and of despiciency toward the faithfull people who are to be animated and flattered any way against the Ministry of the Church They may know that this distinction between the Clergy and Laity hath been used in the Church from the very first Primitive times as the antient Fathers Councils and the Histories of the Churches both Greek and Latin do testifie nor was the one ever intended or upbraided for a badge of vanity to the Ministry nor the other imputed for a brand of scorn to the people The piety and charity of those times were not at leisure thus to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stumble at straws I am sure as they antiently were so they still are usuall notes of difference in point of office and duty between Ministers and people not only in our ordinary Language yea in the exacter stile of our Laws which give both reall and nominall distinctions with the greatest authority Nor are they at all against the Scripture sense and meaning if they be not just to its words since the word of Christ hath evidently placed as limits of office so Marks and names of distinction between the one and the other as Pastor and Flock Doctor and Disciple Ruler and ruled c. Yea and we may easiâ—y gather from the Scripture dialect that as the faithfull people are in generall Clerus Ecclesia the lot or portion and heritage of the Lord So the Ministers are Clerus Ecclesiae A lot heritage and portion given by
the Lord to the Church and set apart or Consecrated by the Church to the Lords speciall service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. to serve the Lord and the Church in holy publick ministrations as the Apostles first did into whose order Mathias was by Lot chosen to supply the place of Judas Iscariot Acts 1. To which end Ministers in an holy Succession have ever been placed over the people in the name of Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit yet Good Ministers disdain not to be reckoned among Gods People as children of the same Spirituall Father and brethren in the same Family or houshold of Faith nor will any humble Christians being not in holy orders affect to be called Clergy men by a confusion of language or disdain to be called Gods commons or Lay-men which hath a sober Christian and charitable sense in the dialect of those Christians who know how to call and account their true Bishops and Ministers as Fathers Instructers Overseers and Guides of the Church c. These names then or distinctive titles do but fairly follow according to the use and nature of words and decently express those things which the mind of Christ in the Scripture and all Custom or use of the Church have distinguished for order sake De verbis contendere non est curare quomodo error veritate vincatur sed quomodo tua dictio alterius dictioni praeferatur Aust de doct Christ l. 4. c. 28. Quid est conteâ—tiosius quam ubi constâ—t dâ—re certare de nomine â—ust cp 1. 74. De verbis syllabis intemperantius litigare solent qui res ipsas Ecclesia pâ—cem negligunt Sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umbra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suam occultâ—re dissimulare student quod et Arrianorum pertinaâ— astutiâ— olim fecit Amb. lib. de fide Jeron de Arrian Hyp. Insignis est indolis in verbis verum amare non verba Aust Sic vigeat humilitas ut non minuatur Autoritas Aust 1 Cor. 12.23 Error est bonestuâ— magnos in loquendo duces sequi Quintil. Orat. Inst l. 1. c. 6. The same supercriticall men will boggle at the words Trinity Three Persons and Sacraments which are not in the letter but in the sense and truth of the Scripture And certainly no religion forbids us to adopt convenient and compendious words to the Churches use since we do safely translate the whole originall Scriptures to any ordinary languages in which most Christians may best use them not in the literall words but in the Intellectuall sense or mind of God A strife about words and syllabicall scruples fits only women or children or peevish passionate men As the Arrians of old who caviled much at the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose syllables were new but their sense old orthodox and sound expressing the same divine Nature in Christ the Son with the Father and that our Emanuel who was born of the virgin Mary was both God and Man But this quarrel about names and words is a very tedious impertinency to those Christians whose serious piety studies only this by apt and usuall words to comprehend and express the truths and orders of Religion who are ready alwayes so to give to each other the right hand of Charity and Unity as members of the same body whose head is Christ as yet to preserve that order and authority in the Church which is divinely Instituted and is as necessary for the Church as it is for the body to have head eyes and mouth distinct from other parts of less honour yet not less usefull in their place As for this pretended grievance then of these words Clergy and Laity We desire not to quarrell farther with our Adversaries and we shall not need to dispute with others that are wise and humble only we pitty the simplicity of people who are thus easily cheated and scared by some sophistry when they are told by their great scrupulosity and censorian gravity that words are as bad as Spels that what ever tearms or Names are not in the Scriptures as they have them translated are not the speech of Canaan but the language of the beast Thus these severe Momusses Thus the Antiministeriall factors for error ignorance and confusion These are among the other small artifices used by those miserable Rabbyes who to ingratiate with the vulgar and lead dâ—sciples after them are content to take away the antient marks of bounds and known distinction of names between Minister and People that so people may take the greater confidence to cast quite away both the name and thing the holy Ordination with all distinction of Office and Function Ministeriall in the Church which if I can solidly maintain against these underminers of Religion despisers of Ordination and vastators of all true ministry I doubt not but I and others may still use these Names of Clergy and Laity without sin or scandall to any sober and good Christians To the main therefore of the Objection which is made against the vertue and efficacy of Ordination 16 Prophane minds prone to cavil at all holy mysteries aswel as the Ordination of Ministers 2 Pet. 3.4 by the Catholick and Antient way of Bishops and Presbyters which they so slight I answer That at the same rate of prophane and Atheisticall reasonings they may as well dispute as Julian would have done and those Scoffers daily do which are foretold should be in the later dayes What vertue is there in the water of Baptism more than any other by which to regenerate a sinner to wash away sins to seal comforts to confer grace to represent the blood of Christ of which a man may meditate every time he sees any water or washeth his hands Hence the mean esteem and contempt indeed with proud and presumptuous Catabaptists have against that holy Mysterie of Baptism which all Churches in all ages have used with reverence and comfort according to Christs Institution and the Apostolicall custome So also the spirituall pride of those prophane Cavillers will argue what efficacy can there be in the Bread and Wine at the Lords Supper more than in other of the same Elements at our ordinary Tables and in every Tavern What doth the form of Consecration by the words of Christ and prayers add to them or alter them Nay since the blasphemous boldness of proud and wicked men will count nothing of outward form sacred no wonder if by the same contradictive spirit they quarrel at not only the Humanity or flesh but also the Majesty and divinity of our Saviour Jesus Christ and seeing the outward meanness poverty and ingloriousness of his life and death many of them scarce own him for a Saviour or for the true Messias And no further than is agreeable to their Seraphick fancies Against whom Irenaus d sputes by which they labour after the like fondness of some in antient times to
and enabled to effect those things which none other can presume to perform without vanity sin and presumption who hath not that gift power or authority consigned to him The right Ordination then of Ministers in the way of an holy succession in the Church of Christ hath in Religion and among true Christians these holy uses and clear advantages peculiar to it 1. 1. It confirms the truth of the Gospel 2 Cor. 8.23 First as to the main end the Glory of God and the saving of mens souls by their believing and obeying this testimony of all true Ministers that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world Nothing gives a more clear and credible testimony to the glory and honour of Jesus Christ and to truth of the Gospel than this uniform and constant succession of Ministers Multi barbarâ—rum in ChristuÌ„ credunt sine charactere vel attramento scriptam babenter in cordibus sum per spiritum salutem et veterum traditionem diligentes custodientes quam Apostoli tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias cui ordinationi assentiunt multa gentes c. Iren. l. 3. c. 4. by a peculiar Ordination and authority even from Christ himself in person who at first began this Ministry and sent some speciall men as his messengers to bear witness of him in all the world that so men might believe not only what is written in the word before it was or as it is now written but also as that glorious truth hath been thus testified every where and in every age by chosen and peculiar men as a cloud of most credible witnesses whom thousands at first did and to this day do hear preaching and see them Celebrating the holy mysteries of Christs Gospell who never had or used any written word nor ever read it and for the most part believed before ever they saw any part of the Bible which the constant Ministry of the Church hath under God hitherto preserved chiefly upon the testimony and tradition or record of those that were ever thought and alwayes ought to be most able and faithfull men specially appointed by Christ in his Church as a perpetuall order and succession of Witnesses to testifie of him and to minister in his Name to the end of the world This walking Gospel and visible Ministry consisting as it ought of wise and worthy men Minister est verbum visibile ambulans Evangelium who have good reputation for their piety learning and fidelity running on to all generations is as a continued stream from the blessed Apostles who were the first witnesses immediatly appointed by Christ to hold forth his name and Gospell to the world Acts 1.8 which though never so far off in the decurrence of time from the fountain yet still testifies and assures all wise men that there is certainly a divine fountain of this ministeriall power and so of Evangelicall mysteries and truth which rose first from Christ and which hath constantly run as may appear by the enumeration or induction of particular descents in all ages in this Channel of the Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Presbyters of the Church for the better planting confirming and propagating of the Gospell to all Nations and times As a duty charge or office injoyned by divine command to some men and lying ever as a calling on their consciences Hereby evidently declaring the divine wisdom and Fatherly care of Christ for the good instruction and order of his Church in his personall absence In that he hath not left the Ministry of the Gospell and his holy Institutions which he would have alwaies continued for the gathering edifying of his Church to a loose and arbitrary way among the rabblâ— and promiscuous heards of men which would soon have made Evangelicall truths seem but as vagrant fables and generall uncertain rumors which run without any known and sure authority in the common chat and arbitrary report of the vulgar by which in a short time both the order beauty honour purity and credit of Truth is easily lost among men This holy and successionall ordination of the Evangelicall Ministry gives great proof and demonstration as of Christs personall presence as chief Bishop and Minister of his Church so of the fulfilling of Christs word and the veracity of his promise Mat. 28. after his departure to be with them that were sent and went in his name to the end of the world That the gates of hell neither yet have nor ever shall prevail against the Church While it carefully preserves a right succession holy order and authority of true Ministers the devill despairs of ever overthrowing Christian Religion in its reformed profession in any Country Down with the order Mat. 16.28 and sacred power and succession of the Ministry and all will in a short time be his own 2. 2. Evidenceth the Churches care Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus Ecclesia status in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Apostolorum quibus illi eam quae est in unoquoque loco Ecclesiam tradiderunt Scripturarum sine fictione custodita tractatio plenissima lâ—ctio sine salsatione secundum scripturas expositio legitima diligens sine periculo sine blasphemia Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. In Ecclesia Catholica bacte nus inviolabili observatione tenetar qua potissimum Catholici ab Haereticis discriminantur nimirum ut cujusvis meriti atque praestantiae â—ir fuerit non sua sponte praedicationis munus suscipiat sed expectet donec ab Ecclesia mittatur ab eaque sacris functionibus initietur siâ—que initiatus praedicationi Evangelii mancipetur Baronius An. Anno Christi 44. It is also a notable evidence of the Churches care and fidelity in all ages not only in the preservation of the oracles of the word which it hath done but also of a constant holy Ministry to teach and explain them Also to celebrate those holy mysteries which are divinely annexed to the word as seals to confirm the faith of Christians And lastly to exercise that wholsome discipline for terror or comfort the power of which is chiefly in the Pastors and Rulers of the Church As it is then for the honour of the wisdom of Christ in the originall to have instituted such holy mysteries and such a Ministry so it is for the honour of the Church in the succession of all ages to have thus preserved them and it self in that order which becomes the family of Christ which had come far short of any well ordered family if the Father and Master of it Jesus Christ had left every servant to guess at his duty and all of them to scramble what part they list of employment aliment and enjoyment but the Lord Christ as every wise Master doth hath appointed and his Church hath preserved to this day constant Stewards and dispensers of holy things in his house-hold whose duty t is to
dignitatem Amb. de dign Sacerd. c. 5. prayer and imposition of hands wherein the Spirit of the ordeiners and the Christians present with the ordeined joyn together in his behalf to God is a very great and effectuall means to indue the ordeined in some sense with an other Spirit not only as to power but as to the increase of ministeriall gifts which fit him to receive and use that authority yea and for the strengthning exciting and enlarging those sanctifying graces by which he is more fitted for and prospered in the work of the Ministry than he was before or any other can ordinarily be without this due Ordination whereby his wisdom humility charity zeal devotion industry purity exactness and constancy are increased so as are most requisite for the great work and office of a Minister 4. It binds the conscience of the ordeined more strictly to the duty and office as to discharge it so to endeavour by all holy means of study prayer conference meditation c. to preserve use and augment those gifts faculties or graces naturall acquired or infused for the right discharge and fulfilling of his Ministry to the glory of God and the Churches welfare D. Origine dicunt eum sine vocatione se ingessisse in efficium docendi inde factum est quod in tot errores prolapsus sit Chem. de Ecclesia Res Dei ab bomine dari non possunt Synod Rom. both in true peace and holiness Hence the great learning of Origen and admired gifts were thought by some less prospered and blessed of God because he presumed to do the work of a Minister before he was blessed ordeined and authorised by the Church 5. Due Ordination gives comfort countenance Quomodo valebit secularis homo sacerdotis ministerium adimplere cujus nec officium tenuit nec disciplinam agnovit Is Hisp off l. 2. c. 3. Qui infideliter introivit quid ni infideliter agat Bern. Tit. 2.15 Acts 4.20 John 10.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Niss de Scop. Christia Aug. Ep. ad Honorarum 2 Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 19 Origen Preached before he was ordeined Presbyter before Alexa Bishop of Jerusalem and Theod. Bishop of Cesaria for which Demet. Bishop of Alexand reproves them But they excuse it as a custom there for probation of such as they found Idoneous for their learning and gifts As common placing is in Colleges and divine courage to true Ministers as the anointing did to the Prophets of old and the solemn mission of Christ did to the holy Apostles to Preach not as popular Scribes and precarious Pharisies but as St. John the Divine having authority from Christ whose Ministry like John Baptists is not from men on earth however transmitted by men but from God in Heaven In this confidence they can rebuke with all authority With this conscience they cannot but speak in the name of the Lord They do not fear the face of men or devils in Christs way They forsake not as hirelings the flock when the Wolf comes as having no relation or tye to the flock which is not committed to those self intruders but usurped by force or invaded by stealth True Pastors in time of generall not personall persecution dare not leave their flock destitute but choose to be examples to them of suffering cheerfully for Christ expecting Christs promise and assistance in his way The righteous Minister is as bold as a Lion for he that walks uprightly in the Spirit and power and way of Christ walks seemly But all usurpers are cowards and are ready to insinuate and crouch to all wayes of mean and vulgar complyances giving the Belfry leave to swallow up the Church and Chancel too Falsely and vilely flattering the people as if ministeriall power were in them and from them And this some do purely for filthy lucre where there is a miserable dependance for maintenance upon peoples good will and chiefly to prevent any question or scrutiny which may be made by some nimbler sophisters touching their precatious usurped and beggarly authority as Ministers which is truly none This keeps them justly so in aw that those popular Preachers dare not use that just rigor and severity in cases of most apparent crying sins in people which a true Minister having good conscience and good authority knows how seasonably and discreetly yet freely and effectually to use not to his own pomp Empire or advantage but to Christs glory the Churches good and the honour of Religion though it be to his own detriment and danger as St. Chrys stom St. Basil Naz. and other holy Bishops and Presbyters oft did 6. Right Ordination preserves Order and Decorum in the Church and holy administrations also it fortifies the function of a Minister with due respect and decent regard even before men so that neither the persons nor function and office of Ministers are easily to be despised when publike Ordination is duly performed with that solemnity and holy manner as was of old in this and all true Churches and which ought to be so still It likewise conciliates in Christs name and for his sake much love reverence esteem patience and obedience toward Ministers in their places and duty from all true Christians yea and it raiseth a just veneration to duties Mat. 10.40 thus rightly celebrated among the faithfull by those of whom Christ says He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me Constantine the Great alwaies treated the Bishops and true Ministers of the Church with all observance and pious respect Euseb â—iâ—a Câ—â—sl l. 1. c. 35. Mat. 10.14 2 Tim. 4.3 This makes them received in the name of Prophets as Apostles or Angels sent from God valued by true Christians as their right eyes This makes Christ sensible of their inâ—uries as his and the very dust of their feet becomes a dreadfull witness against wicked and proud rejecters of them who thinking them to be Ministers but of courtesy or civility cannot regard them with conscience and duty But imagine that they may at the pleasure of any passion lust or secuâ—ar design be mocked despised degraded cast off and quite abolished That so their liberty may prefer a heap of teachers of their own raking and making before any of Christs sending and the Churches ordeining Such being most fit for their sinister ends who come in the peoples name and have no higher or nobler Spirit acting all things in their Levelled Ministry by the same irreverent irregular inconstant rude insolent and uncomly Spirit of popularity which is most prevalent in those that are most enemies to and afraid of the true ministeriall power and due ordination Cujus ordinatio despicitur ejus praedicatio contemnitur Ber. Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creations of the people when men list are easily rejected cast off with scorn yet without any sin and shame yea they cannot be regarded or
many sinfull evils and snares while they forsake or cast out and despise their rightly Ordeined and duly placed Ministers and either follow and incourage such seducers as are very destructive both to the Churches peace and to mens souls both in the present and after ages or else fall to a neglect indifferency yea and abhorrency of all Religion The Order Power 20. Summary Conclusion of the power and efficacy of right Ordination and Authority then by which right Ordination is conferred on the true Ministers of the Gospel as was here in England although they seem to proud scorners to unstable minds to ignorant and unbelievers as frivolous as the Gospel seems foolishness yet to the humble eye of Faith it appears as the wisdome holy order and commission of God for the continuall teaching well guiding and edifying of the Church of God by truth and peace to Salvation The blessed and great effects of which depend as I have shewed not upon any naturall power or vertue tranfused from the Ordeiners to the Ordeined but upon the Word Promise and appointment of Christ sending them in this method of the Churches triall approbation and ordination In which by the judgement and conscience of those who are of the same function and so best able to examine and judge of gifts and abilities the examined and approved is publickly authorised and declared to be such a Minister as the Lord hath chosen to be sent such as the Spirit of Christ hath anointed and consecrated by meet gifts and graces for the service of Christ and the Church in that great work of the Ministry One who is thus ordeined the Church may in any part of it comfortably receive and own in Christs name One who is partaker duly of the comfort of that promise from Christ Mat. 28. to be with his true Ministers to the end of the world which could not be verified as interpreters observe of the persons of those then living and first sent by Christ who were long since at rest in the Lord but of their lawfull Successors rightly following them in the same office and power Non sunt successores in officio qui ad officium accedunt alio modo quam institutum est Reg. Jur. without which they are not truly their Successors in the Ministry and authority from Christ No more than they can be Embassadors Deputies and Messengers from or to any one from or to whom they have no assignment of any power by letters or other way of commission which when most legally and formally done by deeds and instruments of writing yet these receive no naturall change of their qualities nor is any inherent vertue conveyed to them when they are made instruments to testifie the Will and convey the power of any to another but they have such a change in relation to their appointed use and end as alters them from what they were before in common and unlimited nature The like is as to religious ends and uses where some men are specially ordeined to be Ministers having all their efficacy and authority as to that work from the will of Jesus Christ from whom alone such power is derivable and that not in every way which the vanity of men list but in such as the Church hath constantly used according to the Scripture Canons and directions which are clear to Timothy and Titus which are the great paterns and evident commissions for right Ordination and Succession to the Ministry besides other places Against the undoubted Authority and pregnant testimony of which Epistles and Scriptures joyned to the Churches Catholick custome it will not be easie for any Novelist to vacate and abolish that holy Succession and due Ordination which the true Ministers of England have generally had in this Church which in my own experience I cannot but with all truth and thankfulness testifie to the glory of God to the honour of this Church and those reverend Bishops as Fathers of it who not only with great decency and gravity but with much conscience and religious care ordeined Ministers as very many so very worthy Nor on the other side will these Novellers easily perswade judicious Christians That any upstarts and pretenders in any other way which as it is poor and popular so it comes very short and unproportionate to what is required in and of a Minister can have the power and Authority of true Ministers Habentes cum iis consortium praedicationis habeant necesse est consortium damnationis Tertul. de Haeret. auditoribus Jo. 2.8 having no right Ordination to which no mans pragmatick pride and self-confidence nor the ostentation of his gifts to others by a voluble tongue nor the admiration and desire of his si ly and flattering auditors can contribute any thing either as to the comfort of the one or the other but much to the sin and shame of them both as perverters of Christs order and the Churches peace forsaking their own mercies while they follow lying vanities which cannot profit them 17. Yet meer form of Ordination makes not an able Minister Not that every man that is Ordeined a Minister as to the meer outward form in a right and orderly way is presently of the essence and truth of a Minister in Christs esteem or in the comfort of his own conscience The ordeined may be such hypocrites as Simon Magus was when baptised as have neither reall abilities nor honest purposes aiming at Gods glory or the Churches good but meerly at their own worldly ends and base advantages The Ordeiners also may be either deceived in the judgement of Charity or corrupted by humane lusts and frailties so as greatly to pervert and prophane this holy Institution No man hath further comfort of his being Ordeined a Minister than he hath reall gifts and competent abilities together with an holy and honest purpose of heart to glorifie God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baz M. ep 187. The antient custom of the Church receives none to be Ministers but upon strickt examination before they are ordeined Concil Nic. 1. and â—he Concil Caâ—ib 1. c 9. takes care that none be Ordeined Presbyters without due examination in the discharge of that holy office and power to which he is by the Church appointed Nor can on the other side the Ordeiners more highly offend in piety against God and charity against the Church than in a superficiall and negligent way of ordeining Ministers which antiently was not done but with solemn publick fasting prayer and great devotion Indeed nothing should be done in the Church of Christ with greater exactness both for inward sincerity and outward holy solemnity than this weighty and fundamentall work of carrying on the Ministeriall power and authority in a fit and holy Succession Abuses here are prone to creep in the Devill coveting nothing more than to undermine weaken and overthrow this main Pillar on which the Church and house of God doth stand Ministers either
unworthily or unduly Ordeined are like sleight and ill built ships which endanger the loss of themselves and all those that are embarqued in them and put to Sea with them Miscarriages in the matter of ordination of Ministers are to the unspeakable detriment and dishonour of Religion as unskilfull cowardly or perfidious Officers are to Armies I shall never hope to see the Church flourish or truly reformed untill this Point of right Ordination of Ministers be seriously considered of and duly restored to its Pristine honour and excellency when to Ordein Ministers for the service of the Church Oâ—ortet Ecclesiae Epis ministrum Christi esse formam justitiae sanctimoniae speculum pietalis exemplar veritatis doctorem fidei defensorem Christianorum ducem sponsi amicum cui ille irascitur Deum sibi iratum non hominem sentiat Bern. ad Eng. l. 4. was not to prefer men to a Benefice so much as to recruit Christs regiments to strengthen his forces to fortifie the Church and true Religion with most vigilant Watchmen and valiant Champions whose care was on every side to defend the Flocks of Christ against all enemies which were to be as the Cloud or Pillar of fire both lights and guards to Christians upon all occasions who made conscience to live with to suffer with yea and to dy for the sheep as good Shepheards Such men only are fit to be Ordeined Ministers such Ministers ought to be prayed for highly prised and perserved in the Church by all that desire to transmit any thing of true Religion to Posterity nor was the Church of England or yet is destitute of such Ministers both duly and worthily ordeined to the service of Christ and this Church To abolish this order or to usurp to undue hands or to contemn this Sacred and right Ordination which sends forth able Ministers in Christs way can be no other but a most cruell and detestable sacrilege far worse than that of robbing the Church of its maintenance for such Ministers Cyprian reproves Novatus a factious Presbyter Quod Felicissimum satellitem suum diaconum suum constituit neâ— sciente nec permittente me sola sua factione ambitione Acts 8.18 All undue Ordination is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. profanum detestandumque ludibrium Bâ—s both as preaching and ruling well wich yet is a sin of so deep a dy that no Niter can cleanse it being seldome ever pardoned because seldome repented of so as to make a â—ust restitution without which repentance is never true Yea for any Laymen in a brutish violence and meerly by Ppular insolency to arrogate this power where it is not or to abrogate it where truly it is is a sin of a more heynous nature than that of Simon Magus was who had so much of civility justice and good manners as to offer money for a part of the miraculous and Ministeriall power It is indeed no other than a Cyclopick fury and unwonted barbarity ill becomming any sober or civilized Christians thus to wrest the keys of Gods house out of the hands of those Stewards with whom the great Master Christ hath specially intrusted them for the right Oeconomy and dispensing of all holy Mysteries and Institutions And when such rude and unruly fellows have thus insolenced these Officers of the Church and bound their hands how comly will it be to see the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Ischyras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-ordeined or only by Rolâ—thus a Persbyter Hence Athanasius Apol 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pro. 20.23 managed or committed as it were to Boyes to Pages and Laquies to weak mean mechanick ignorant dissolute and riotous wretches who not conscious to any true Ministeriall power or just authority in the Church can never make conscience of doing any holy Ministerial duty to which they are most unfit never caring how prodigall they are of the truth and honour of Religion of their own or other mens souls It being a sport to such proud and spitefull fools to do wickedly to speak prophanely and to live disorderly in the Church And not content to commit a rape upon true Religion and the holy orders of Christs Church as Absalom did on the house-top before the Sun and all Israel they will further in time justifie the flagitiousness of their villanies as if the zeal they had for true Religion provoked to such outrages these pestilent pandars for errors and all licentiousness with their followers who must presently all turn preachers though never duly Ordeined nor fit ever so to be yea their arrogancy makes them ordeiners too of whom they please to set up to minister to their extravagant lusts and follies which makes them many times much fitter for the flocks or cages than for the pulpits These will surely come at last as much short of the happy effects of true Ministers as they are far from that holy power of right Ordination which I have proved to be from Christ and the Blessed Apostles rightly derived to us by the constant Custome of this and all Churches and this not as a cypher or meer formality but as of sacred Institution so of reall and excellent efficacy and divine vertue in the Church where duly used and applyed Which was that I had to prove against the scurrillous objections of those that seek to despise and destroy the whole Function Ordination and divine authority of the Ministry of this Church Reader the Reason why the Folios of this Book do not follow is because the Copy for Expedition was divided to two Printers Of speciall Gifts of the Spirit pretended beyond Ordinary Ministers ANother great Calumny 3. Calumny or cavill That the Ministers of England have not the Spirit to which their Adversaries pretend highly urged by their Adversaries against the true Ministers of the Church of England whose due and right Ordination I have vindicated to be as Divine so both Necessary and Efficacious is as a forked arrow sharpned with Presumption and Prejudice On the one side an high esteem and confidence which they have of themselves and a very low despicienty of all Ordained Ministers on the other side even in that which is the highest honour of Man or Minister while these Anti-ministeriall Adversaries pretend That the Ordained Ministers have not the Spirit of Christ nor can or ever doe Pray Preach and administer holy things by the Spirit which these new Modellers challenge in such a plenary measure and power to themselves that they justifie their want of ordinary abilities and endowments by their needing none Excusing their not studying or preparing for what they utter by their being specially Inspired Colouring over their well known idlenesse ignorance illiteratenesse and emptinesse by the shews of speciall Illumination sudden Inspirations and spirituall Enablements Which they say they have far beyond any Ordained Ministers And this by the Spirit of Christ which is extraordinarily given to them which suddenly leads them into
some Scripturall expressions which they have attained beyond their former selves or their equals were rare immediate and speciall gifts of the Spirit Then because they should seem no body if they carry their small wares in an old pack * Quos diabolus a veritatis via in veleri charitate detinere non pâ—tuit novi itineneris erroâ—e circumscribit decipit Cyp. they invent some new fashion of Religion or some modell of a Church-way which they strongly fancy after they have once brought forth their fancy to any form and shape they are strangely inamored with it all old figures never so uniform Catholick and comely seem deformed ugly Antichristian Then follows those quick emotions and stirrings upon their spirits which have the quicknings only of Self in them these are presently cryed up for motions and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Marcionites had private lectures which they called Manifestations or Illuminations from a Prophetesse Philumena Tertul. prae ad Hae. c. 44. manifestations and excitations and impulses of Gods Spirit on them then they are easily moved to extraordinary heats and irregular vehemencies as counterfeit possessed are by the looking on and applauses of others whose sillinesse makes them gentle spectators and obsequious admirers of any thing that seems new to them or is above them Nothing troubles these pretenders so much as if you look too neer and too narrowly on their practises * Impostoribus nihil est lumine inimicitius Nothing angers them so much as what they fear may discover them you must not ask them where are their miracles where their Empire over Devils where their languages where their prophecies either as predictions of things to come or as interpretations of obscure Prophecies in the Scripture referring to Jesus Christ These questions though they are but just to be put where extraordinary Inspirations are pretended are too hard for them these pose them and afflict them when they are thus urged by Ministers or any sober Christians who expect no satisfactory answer in any of those particulars which are the proper effects and demonstrations of the Spirit in its extraordinary motions when indeed they observe in these pretenders so little of ordinary sound and saving knowledge so nothing of that meeknesse of wisdome which every true Christian in whom the Spirit of Christ dwels injoyes in some measure so utter desolation of any thing that may argue any thing extraordinary and excellent which may justly own the Spirit of Christ for its speciall Author and infuser But quite contrary grosse ignorance in many things yet puffed up with intolerable pride poysoned with errors kindled with passions sharpned with violence delighting in furies boasting in discords schisms and confusions either begun or increased or continued by the restlesse agitations of their fierce and unquiet spirits whose impetuous temper is impatient of nothing so much as true Christian patience of Peace Order and charitable harmony in any part of the Church of Christ There is nothing they can lesse endure Magi Augures nihil suis actibus successurum Iuliano affirmabant nisi Athanasium primo velut omnium obstaculum sustulisset Ruff. l. 1. c. 32. Hist Ecc. Gal. 1.7 than able learned godly and resolute Ministers in whom dwels indeed a far more excellent Spirit of God full of wisdome of power of courage full of Christ who can and dare detect the deceits and juglings of these vain mindes manifesting their folly discovering their nakednesse emptinesse and nothingnesse in respect of any extraordinary Illuminations or Inspirations of Gods holy Spirit in any way of Religion After all the cry and noise and glorying of these mens inspirings at the best all amounts to no more than the same Gospell the same Duties the same Sacraments the same Jesus the same God who was with far more knowledge purity peace love zeal and constancy owned served and honoured in this and other Churches in that ancient way and holy Ministry which the Church ever used which Christ instituted and with which God was so well pleased that he blessed it as the means to preach the Gospell to plant Religion to settle and govern the Church in first and after times amidst all the persecutions and heresies that opposed it This is the best of their Inspirings the setting of some new glosse and fashion on Christian Religion whose purity and simplicity like gold cares not be thus painted over But take these Inspired men in their degenerations depravings and worstings of Religion and you will easily see how such equivocall generations and imperfect mixtures and meer monsters of Religion presently putrifie and pervert to error faction licentiousnesse violence rapine civill oppressions tyrannies against all that applaud not or approve not the rarity of their conceits and inventions which first kindle with modest sparks Modestiora sunt errorum initia blandientia venena Lactant as if they would enlighten warm and refine the Church Religion and Ministry but after they have got to them vulgar fewell they arise to such dreadfull flames and conflagrations as threaten to consume all that was ever built before them that so the goodly Palaces of ancient and true Religion being demolished they may have a clearer ground where on to set up the feeble cottages of their new framing and erecting Poor men thus once * Omnes tument omnes scientiam pollicentur ante sunt perfecti quam eslocti Tertul. de Hae c. 41. puffed up with their tympanies of self conceptions and getting into some warmer Sun having once over-looked their first errors they never after have leisure patience or humility to discern the grosse yet secret distempers which are in their spirits * Not raptures and gifts but humility and charity give the greatest evidences and surest instances of Gods Spirit and of salvation the many distinctions and disguises and windings by which worldly lusts passions and interests slily creep in and concealedly worke in their hearts even then most securely and so most dangerously when under this blind of Gods Spirit when the Lord shall be intitled to the whole plot and project of their follies and furies both in its softer beginnings and its rougher proceedings Of these fallacies in point of speciall Inspirings and motions of Gods Spirit there are no surer detections than these 1. 9. Evidences of their folly That these so moved and active spirits do always finde lesse content and pleasure in have lesse zeal and contention for the great things of God which are Faith Righteousnesse Peace and Holinesse than they doe for their little novelties and fancies 2. They finde lesse comfort and joy in themselves to be kept within and humbly to walk in those holy bounds of religious Truth and Order which the Word of God hath clearly set before them and all holy Christians and the purest Churches alwayes observed than to be alwayes busily disputing for and acting over those petty parts of their scruples
which they have of the fruits which they bring forth What truths of God have these Antiministeriall adversaries ever brought forth or further cleared and illustrated than was before What weighty controversie or other question in Divinity polemicall or practicall have they learnedly and solidly stated What part of obscurer Scripture have they well interpreted What body of Divinity have they blest this Age withall beyond what it formerly enjoyed in great variety and plenty What cases of Conscience have they more cleared or better decided Is either Law or Gospell beholding to them yea rather how have some men studied to make void the Law by immorall licentiousnesse and the Gospell too by such not free but rather profuse and prodigall grace as excludes those holy conditions of repentance Jam. 2.17 and good workes which the Gospell requires as necessary concommitants and fruits of true and lively Faith What Scripture have they handled which they have not tortured mangled and broken the very bones of it What controversie have they not more studied to pester and entangle What truth have they not darkened with their cloudy words and senselesse notions which they call glorious heights What heresie have they not revived What poysonous Error have they not tampered with What sin and enormity have they not palliated or excused or applauded as the effect either of Christian liberty or necessity How many simplier Christians Faith have they subverted perswading them they never had Christ rightly preached to them nor were in any saving Church-way till these Inspired Teachers came to direct them how to cast off and despise their Ministers and the whole Office of the Ministry 10. How short they come of that Spirit which shews it self in true Ministers Neither then the Word of God nor right Reason not sober Sense will give testimony of any speciall gifts of the Spirit in these men either in knowledge or in wisdome or in utterance or in any grace or vertue In all which they are nothing in regard of many Ministers and others who as far excell them as gold doth brasse and silver lead Nor are their fruits to the publique and to others any way proportionable to their boasting against the Ministers which is as far from truth as it is from humility if these may be measured and esteemed not by proud swelling words of themselves or by high scorns and rude contempts of others but by the exactnesse of holy walkings and the fruitfulnesse of publique labours on the hearts or lives of others Hanc habet invidia in seipsa poenam aut non videre aut nolle videre aut maligne videre virtutem alienam quam nescit imitati Gerson Herein no ignorance or envy or calumny can be so wilfully or resolvedly blind but onely in these men as not to see and acknowledge That God hath given witnesse from heaven against the crooked and perverse generation of these detractors from and destroyers of the honor of the Ministry of England by the eminent Learning Piety Zeal Industry Fidelity Charity Patience Constancy and vigilancy of many centuries yea many thousands of able and godly Ministers both in the restauration and preservation of Truth Purity and Power of the Christian Reformed Religion in this Church others have sought the goods of this Church but these the good of it I could here fill many Volumes as many Ministers both godly Bishops and Presbyters in this Church have done by their acute solid devout and most profitably pleasant writings with the histories of many of their lives some of which are registred to posterity by commendable pens others by tolerable ones whose gratefull design is good but their historique faculty far short of those merits which they seek to eternize How eminent have they been as Moses in all good learning how indefatigable in their labours how dear usefull and desireable to all good and excellent Christians in their lives and deaths What Trophies they have not gained over the adversaries of our Christian and reformed Religion by their Prayers Sermons and most incomparable Writings No lesse have been their many and renowned Victories which they have obtained over the very Devils whom a long time they kept as it were in awe and in a chain How many sinners have been redeemed from his snares and converted from the evill and errours of their wayes by their powerfull Ministry How many fiery darts of Satan have they quenched How many weak hands and feeble knees have they strengthened How many remorselesse soules have they wounded piercing between the scales of Leviathan by the two-edged sword of God in their mouths How many wounded Consciences have they like good Samaritans healed with the balm of Gilead How many doubting and despairing spirits have they revived and established How many mouthes of aliens have they stopped by the unanswerable pregnancy of the truths which they have cleared and mightily maintained In fine before ever the croaking Frogs of Egypt spread over the land and filled every place with their importune and insignificant noises against the Ministers and Ministry of this Church seeking by their muttering clamours to contend with the Nightingales and to silence the sweet fingers of Israel how were the excellent Ministers of this Church and the famous Ministry hereof esteemed at home and abroad among the chiefest blessings for use and noblest beauties for ornament which this or any Nation and Church ever enjoyed Being as the two goodly pillars of Solomons Temple sustaining the burthen and adding to the beauty of Religion being sacred Oracles for holy direction and great examples for vertuous imitation In what part of good learning have not some of the Ministers of England excelled and some of them in all What divine or humane truth have they not handled cleared and asserted What controversie in Religion have they not rightly stated fully disputed and solidly determined What part of practicall piety and Devotion have they not illustrated and adorned in their Writings with most sweet suasive and pathetick flowers of holy Oratory mixed with truths gathered out of the gardens of God the Scriptures and their own pure Consciences What Scripture have they not commented upon learnedly methodically clearly and succinctly Yea what Text almost in the whole Bible Old or New Law or Gospell History or Prophesie Psalmodicall or Epistolicall have not the Ministers of England preached and printed upon with accuratenesse and judgement So that the quintessence of the Sermons set forth by them in this Church would in the judgement of the learned Lord Verulam make one of the most exact and absolute Commentaries on the Bible that ever was It were endlesse to enumerate the names the excellencies the learned works the holy fruits and blessed successes which have attended the Ministers of this Church whom one would have thought to have been set so above any such envy and malice and sacriledge never any Reformed Christians would ever have so maligned and despised as to have sought to
destroy them and their function Nor can I indeed in charity think any doe so that are truly such The excellencies of the Antiministerials As for their bitter enemies and rivalls these Inspirators on the other side I am ashamed to shame them so much as I must needs doe if I should shew the world their emptinesse shallownesse penury meannesse nothingnesse as to Reason Religion Learning common Sense pack-staffe Oratory How grosse confused raw flat insipid affected they are in speaking or writing how dark in doctrine how disorderly in disputes how impotent in perswasion how impertinent in reproof how unauthorative in all they say and doe as Teachers What perfect Battologists they are what circles they make and rounds they dance in their Prayings and Sermonings strong only in cavilling and rayling and calumniating against true and able Ministers And for their writings with which they have lately so crammed and abused the world how little have they set out to any other purpose save onely to wast a great deal of good paper and to make the world beleive they were richly laden because they spread so large sayles How doe their pamphlets cheat the well meaning buyers and readers with the decoy of some very specious and spirituall title as if all were Manna and Aarons rod which were in their Arks when there is nothing but such emblemes for the most part 1 Sam. 6.4 of Mice and Emrods as the Philistines put into the Ark of God as memorials of their sin their shame and punishment What Reader may not tear their books with turning the leaves to and fro before ever he findes acutenesse or solidity learning or piety Truth or Charity Divinity or Humanity Spirituals or Rationals but onely antick fancies and affected words strangely deforming antient and true Theology in its morals mysteries and holy speculations How much better had they wrote nothing than so much to so little good purpose to so evill an intent onely to amuse the simple reader with shews of rare notions and by spiritlesse Prefacings to lead on their ruder steleticks and declaimings against the Order Government Religion Ministers and Ministry of the Church of England in which their scriblings they mixe so much copperass and gall with their ink that they eat out all characters of Truth Candor or Charity in their Papers never affording them any word that may either savour of civility as to ingenuous men or of Justice as to men of good learning and some merit but all is written to deform them their calling and Ministry to expose them to vulgar scorns to fit them for publique victims to the cruell malice of the enemies of the reformed Religion Indeed against the Ministry and Ministers of England they chuse to write with Aqua fortis rather than any ink and covet red ink rather than black trusting more to their swords than their pens nor doe they confide so much in their Brains as their hands their insolency being far beyond their inventions which tempts them rather to pistoll Ministers by desperate Assasination than to dispute with them in the Schooles or by the Presse Nor is this any envious or injurious diminution of these men 11. It is no detraction or injury to prefer the Ministers of England before these pretenders to Inspiration 2 Cor. 12 11. who owe most of the good feathers they have to the preaching and writings of the Ministers of England and not to any Inspirations but it 's a just representation of their ungratefull vanity and the Ministers reall worth who have excelled wherein soever these pretenders are most defective And defective they are in all things wherein able and true Ministers have most excelled If this stroak of my pen seems any thing of uncomely boasting they have compelled us to it and so may the better excuse and bear with this our folly which is not yet such by their provoking examples of vapouring and vanity but that we know by Gods grace how to own what ever is of God in any of them and to ascribe what ever is good in Ministers Pro defensione famae licita honesta est laâ—â— propria Reg. Jur. Deseâ—sio est non arrogantia Amb. s 118. to the grace and bounty of God who hath magnified his power in their weaknesse And however wee now living be Nothing yet our excellent Predecessors by whom the honour of this holy function hath been rightly derived to us have merited from us and all good men this acknowledgement to the praise of Gods grace The blessings which have come to this Church and Nation by the true Ministers That the godly able and faithfull Ministers in this Church of England have by Gods blessing been the great restorers and conservators of good learning in this Nation the liberall diffusers of ingenuous education the valiant vindicators of the reformed Religion the commendable examples of piety and vertue in all kinds restraining and reforming all sin error excesse profanenesse and superstition by their good lives and doctrine Teaching and encouraging all manner of holynesse civility candour meeknesse gravity and charity throughout the whole Nation What noble worshipfull or ingenuous family hath not or might not have been bettered by them if they did not entertain them at illiberall rates and ignoble distances as too many used to doe below the honour of their calling and merit of their worth What City or Country Village hath not been beautified and blessed by them Where ever such Ministers lived as became the dignity of their place and profession there hath alwayes followed a good sense of piety and a comely face both of Civility and Religion And more might have been improved in every corner of the land long ere this if what hath been oft vapoured and flourished had been really performed that is the setling of a competent maintenance every where for a competent Minister Cogit ad turpia necessitas Non habet virtus inimicam praeter paupertatem invidiam Eras Et ornamentum munimentum urbis Ecclesiae Ambrosius Scandalous livings have been no small cause of too many scandalous Ministers whom necessity oft compelled to things uncomely both for their society and support Upon whose sores these flesh-flyesâ— the enemies of the Ministry are alwayes lighting and biting loth to see or hear of those many incomparable Ministers who have been in many places of this Church as Saint Ambrose was said to be in Millain both the ornament of the City and defence of Religion In stead of whom some new Jesuitick Modellers would fain bring a company of Locusts and Caterpillers upon the face of the land a sort of illiterate and unordained Teachers who like ambulatory Arabs or wandring Scythians must every week or month change their quarters as fast as they have devoured silly widows houses These in a short time will not be much beyond Cantors and Vagrants As the old Circuâ—celliones like rowling stones neither getting mosse themselves
have a name to * Revel 3.1 live by the Spirit and covet to be called spirituall who are dead in their lusts and walk after the flesh * Prov. 30 12. They seem pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthinesse Yea there is a generation O how lofty are their eyes yet are their teeth swords and their jaw teeth as knives Nothing is more cruell than supercilious hypocrisie * Ioh. 18.28 They were forward to crucifie Christ who were shy of being defiled by entring into the Judgement Hall They are most zealous to destroy the true Ministers yea the very function and succession who seem most devoted to be Teachers Prophets and Preachers of a new Spirit and form Many seem rich in gifts and increased in spirituall endowments thinking they need nothing of Christs true Ministry Revel 3.17 when they know not that they are poore and naked and blind and miserable Ephes 6.12 There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall wickednesses usurpant in the high places of mens soules as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more sordid and swinish spirits that dwell in the lower region of mens lusts It is expresly stigmatized on the foreheads of some pretenders to the Spirit Iude 19. which was the glory of those first and purest times that they are sensuall not having the Spirit Irenaeus l. 3. c. 1. of the Gnasticks andValentinians Gloriantur se â—mendatores esse Apostolorum perfectam cognitionmen non habuisse Apostolos cap. 2. Dicunt se non tantum Presbyteris sed Apostolis sapientiores sinceram invenisse veritatem So the Circumcelliones Quae non viderunt confingunt opiniones suâ—s habentes pro Deo honores quos non habuerunt se habuisse protestantur Isid Hisp de off Eccl. l. 3. c. 15. Vain and proud ignorance as we see in primitive times is not onely content to be without the true wise humble and orderly Spirit of God but they must also study to cover their follies disorders and hypocrisies with the shews of it as if it were not enough to sin against its manifest rules and examples in the Word which have alwayes been observed in the Church unlesse they impute also to it their simplicities fondnesses impudencies filthy dreams extravagancies and confusions Counting it no shame to ascribe those unreasonable and absurd motions speeches and actions to Gods most wise and holy Spirit which any man of right reason and sober sense or common ingenuity and modesty would be ashamed to owne Our humble prayer is that these new modellers and pretenders to the Spirit may learn not to blaspheme not to grieve resist and doe despite to the Spirit of God which hath been and still is evidently manifest in the true Ministers of this Church and our earnest study shall be that we may be truly endued with such gifts graces and fruits of the Spirit of Christ that we may both speak and doe and suffer as becomes good Christians and true Ministers after the example of holy men and of our great Master Bishop and Ordainer Jesus Christ That so the judicious Charity of those that excell in vertue wisdome faith and humility may have cause to say the Lord hath sent us in the power as well as in the order and office of the Ministry to which we were rightly ordained On the other side we fear that the great earthquakes in the Church and darknesse over the Reformed Religion which may follow the true Ministers being set at naught and crucified by the malice and wantonnesse of men may in after times give too much cause to those Mat. 27.54 that now neglect us or afflict us to say as the Centurion did of Christ Doubtlesse these were the messengers of the most high God the true Ministers of Jesus Christ and of his Gospell to this Church While we have any liberty and leave to live as Ministers it will become us not to be so discouraged by the impotent malice of any enemies as to desert this holy calling whereto the Lord by a right ordination in this Church hath duly called us Not to look back to the world having once put our hands to this plough to consider our persecutors no further than to pity them and pray for them notwithstanding all the injuries and blasphemies not against us so much as against God while they fear not to ascribe the great and good effects which the Lord hath vouchsafed to work by his Ministers upon the hearts of thousands in England to Beelzebub Mat. 12.24 to the spirit of Antichrist or to any thing rather than to own the Spirit of Christ among us which hee hath promised should ever be with his true and faithfull Ministers in an holy succession of authority and power to the end of the world Scandalous inconstancy of Professors Indeed the greatest grief to the Soules of all godly Ministers and which hath brought the greatest scandall and dehonestation on their Ministry next to some of their own grosse failings is this when the world sees so many of those who seemed to be baptized with water and with the Spirit to have been illuminated and sanctified by their teaching to have tasted of the heavenly gift Heb. 6.5 and the powers of the world to come that is of the authority and efficacy of the Evangelicall Ministry which was to come after the Leviticall and Aaronicall order Many who seemed to have rejoiced for many years in those burning and shining lights of this Churches Ministers to have by their Ministry been well instructed reformed washed and escaped from the pollutions of this world That I say some of these like Jesuruâ— should thus lift up the heel and thus kick against the Ministers and Ministry like Demasses thus to forsake them like Judasses thus to betray them whom lately they kissed and followed as Disciples like Swine that they should thus turn and revile those that cast pearl before them returning to the wallowing in the mire and dirt of unjust covetous ambitious erroneous seditious licentious perjurious malicious and sacrilegious courses No more now ashamed of their lusts then those unclean beasts are of their filthinesse in the midst of the fairest Sun-shine day and when they are neerest to the most pure and Crystall streams But the light which they will not see in this their day shining on them and discovering the frauds and evill of their wayes they may after see in that darknesse to which they are hastning and to which they seem even of God to bee condemned But to conclude my answer in this particular 15. Conclusion and resignation of our Ministry if c. wherein the Antiministeriall adversaries pretend to such spirituall gifts and speciall calling beyond the ordained and setled Ministry if any excellent Christians or any of those that have either wisdome to discern or power to dispose of things to the advantage of this Church and State if they doe in
their judgements conceive or in their upright consciences laying aside all partialities and obliquings to worldly interest but meerly regarding the glory of God the good of soules and the honour of the reformed Religion if they shall conclude that there is indeed more evidence and power of Gods Spirit both in gifts Ministeriall and in holy successes in those men that stile themselves inspired men speciall Prophets and new modelled Preachers if they be found to have more of godly learning of sound wisdome in the mysteries of Christ of sincere piety zeal and charity to the glory of God and mens soules good if they are filled with divine endowments for praying preaching duly exhibiting the holy Mysteries for edifying the Church for maintaining the truth of the reformed Religion and the peace of this Church and Nation if they have greater courage constancy industry and conscience to carry on the great worke of saving soules if they have more authority from the word of Christ from the Apostles practise from the Catholick precedents of the Church of Christ in all ages and places by which to clear their call to the work of the Ministry beyond what is produced for the ancient and ordained Ministry of this Church Truly we do not desire to be further injurious or hinderances to any mens soules God forbid the Ministers of the Church of England should be so much lovers or valuers of themselves or envious to other mens excellencies or enemies to your and the Churches welfare as not to be willing to be laid aside that these new mens more immediate and greater sufficiencies higher inspirations and diviner authority may doe that work to which we are found so unsufficient defective and unworthy But if these pretenders to more spirituall prophecying preaching and living be by wise and godly men who love not to mock God or dally with matters of salvation and eternity which is the end of Religion weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary of the divine institution of Christs mission of the Apostles succession of the primitive custome and of the Catholick order in all ages and Churches if the grounds of right reason of good order policy and government be duely considered which require distinction in all societies sacred and civill and avoid confusion most in the things of God if the judgement of the most learned usefull and holy men in all ages be pondered if these new mens Spirits and gifts be throughly tryed by the touchstone of Gods Word if their secular aims and warpings to the world be narrowly looked into if the deformitie of their words and works be considered if their simple or scandalous writings be duly examined if the successes of their endeavours and essays hitherto in many places be seriously thought of which are evidently proved to be very sad and bad little promoting either truth or peace holinesse or comfort to any peoples souls nor any prosperity and advancement to this Church or any Christian reformed Religion if they be found in ignorance and weaknesse or in factiousnesse and insolencies or in pride and avarice or in erroneousnesse and licentiousnesse so farre too light that they are not so much as the dust of the ballance compared to the reall excellencies of those true Ministers of this Church which have been and still are and may be in this Church if men be not all given over to lusts and strong delusions God forbid any excellent Christians should be tempted by fear or flattery or any fallacy of novelty gain or liberty to desire or endeavour or approve a change which will be so shamefully and desperately pernicious both to themselves and to their posterity BUt these Antiministeriall adversaries 4. Calumny or Cavill Against humane and secular learning in Ministers who would fain impose upon the credulous world with the pretentions of some speciall gifts and Inspirations of Gods Spirit which are as yet no way discovered by them in word or deed as I have shewed being conscious to themselves that indeed they come short of those common endowments by which the mindes of men are oft much improved through study and good learning they seek to oppose and decry that in all Christians and especially in Ministers which they despair of themselves So that not a dumb spirit but a silly prating and illiterate one possesses them which cryes out against all humane learning and usefull Studies as the divels did against Christ What have we to doe with thee Matth. 8.29 Great calumnies and contempts are raised by these men and their Disciples against all liberall Arts and Sciences all skill in the tongues and histories against all Books but the Bible and some of them can hardly dispense with that too since they take all books to be of the same nature with those conjuring Books which were burnt Act. 19.19 against the Schooles of the Prophets and all Vniversities as heathenish Antichristian marks of the Beast as deformities darknings and impertinencies where we have Scripture light Also prejudiciall to that more immediate divine teaching or Institution to which they pretend and by which they say they learn and teach all true Religion which they tell us is so sufficiently furnished and fortified as the new Jerusalem with its own walls Revel 21. made of pretious stones the impregnable strength of truth and the splendour of the Spirits gifts that it needs none of these mudwalls and bulwarks of earth which men have cast up Beautified enough with its own native innocency and glory it desires not any of these raggs and additionall tatters of humane learning which they say hath so tossed and torn Religion with infinite and intricate disputes that the solidnesse and simplicity of true Divinity is almost quite lost and confounded Christ is almost oppressed by the crouds and throngs of such as are called Rabbies and learned men who may well spare their pains in the Church of Christ Isai 54.13 Ioh. 14.26 Ioh. 16.13 where the Lord hath promised that all shall be taught of God that his Spirit shall teach them all things and lead them into all truth Answ I see the Devill is never more knave Answ 1. The craft and folly of this cavill against humane learning than when hee would seem to turn fool How willing is he to have all men as ignorant weak and unlearned as these Objecters are that so none might discern his snares and gin◠of which these Ignato's are to be his setters fain would he have all Christians yea and Preachers too such * Hos 7.11 silly birds without heart that they might easily be circumvented by his strategems and catched with his devices The better to act those Tragedies which he intends against the Reformed Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. he would have the windows shut up and the light shut out These are the Fauxes with dark lanthorns to blow up all and the Judasses who are guides to them that
are to take Christ with swords and staves O how fain would some men that the Sun were set that their glowormes might shine that the light of the house were extinguished In subversione fidei nullum ab ignorantia remedium est Saresb. that so their sparkes might appear which they have kindled to themselves in their shining corners and upon their private hearths Truly this calumny against good learning hath as much surprized me and my brethren the Ministers of this Church as the accusation of Fimbria did question Scaevola Quaerentibus quidâ—in Scaevola sam vulnerato essâ—t accusaturus respondit quâ—d totum corpore ferrum non receperat Tul. orat pro Sex Ros Vero deficiente crimine laudem ipsam in vituperium vertit invidia Tul. Act. 18 24. 28. Act. 26.24 who was impleaded by the other for not receiving that poynard deeper into his brest wherewith hee stabbed him and intended to have dispatched him The learned and godly Ministers in England never thought this would be laid to their charge as a fault the want of which had been a foul shame and a just reproach to them As the enjoyment of it was a great honour and advantage both to them and to the Reformed Religion They little suspected that among Christians Apollos should be forced to excuse his eloquent and potent demonstrations or S. Paul his sober and sanctified learning in which hee excelled worthy of that famous City and University Tarsus of which he had the honour to be free and pleaded it as a priviledge Act. 21.39 Which learning made him not so mad as those were who suspected and accused him that much learning had made him mad And if humane learning be such old clouts and rotten rags as these men of most beggerly elements pretend and wee confesse it is so compared to and destitute of those soul-saving Truths which are divinely revealed yet there may be good use of them Ier. 38.11 if it be but to help the Jeremies the Prophets and Ministers of the Lord out of those dungeons and mire where otherwayes their enemies would have them ever to be lodged both sordidly and shamefully and obscurely Nothing O you excellent Christians is lesse necessary than to paint this Sun or polish this pearl to set forth to you the use and necessity of good learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just in dâ—cuâ— Tryph. of the benefit and blessing whereof in this Church your selves are so much partakers and whereof you are so great esteemers and encouragers And nothing shews good learning more necessary to the Church and true Religion both as Christian and reformed than this That the Divel by vain and fallacious instruments often hath and still seeks to deprive them of that weapon and defense which he hath used with great strength and cunning for his chiefest arms both offensive against the truths of religion and defensive for his own most damnable doctrines and delusions What havock would he soon make of sound doctrine Cresâ—onius the heretick oft complained that Saint Austin was too full of his Logick and Syllogisms when he could not answer his reasons In the Emperour Charls 5. time 1524. as in former ages he endevoured by those learned and subtill Sophisters his instruments and emissaries on every side if there were none on the Truths side able to encounter him and his agitators in that post of learning No wonder if the Woolf would have the Flock without Mastives or these without teeth it were much for his little for the flocks ease and advantage Although the Divel an old accuser must needs be a cunning Orator too and be furnished with all the swasive arts of insinuation which he fits to the severall geniusses of men and times yet he never till of late in Germany and now in England had confidence to make use of this place of Oratory to perswade Christians to burn all other Bookes that they might better study and understand the Bible yea and the Bible too that they might better understand the minde of God Which is all one as if the Israelites should have beene perswaded to have rid themselves of the cumber of their swords spears and shields that so they might better defend themselves or that they should have neither file nor grindstone to sharpen the naturall bluntnesse 1 Sam. 13. or clear the rustinesse of their weapons while yet the Philistims were all well armed and dayly preparing to battell Against whom there was no such warrant of a speciall divine protection as to make the people of God presume to neglect the use of those armes which art had prepared and use had taught how to imply We see that Jonathans heroick motion carries him not upon that successefull and great adventure without his sword and armour-bearer 1 Sam. 14.13 Nor did Davids confidence in Gods protection of which he had former experiences when he was without any arms against the Lion and Bears nor yet the assurance he had 1 Sam. 17. of the goodnesse of his cause or of the pride and profanenesse of his enemy none of these made him neglect to take and use such armes 2 Sam. 5.6 2 Pet. 3. as he thought most convenient The blinde and the lame men of feeble and confused spirits unlearned and unstable minds which are hated of Davids soule are ill assistants in Davids wars against the Jebusites who study to defend against him or to surprise from him the City of David or rather the City of God which is the Metropolis where grace and truth doe dwell It is certain that next to the primitive gifts of miracles 2. Humane learning succeeded miraculous and extraordinary gifts the gifts of humane learning have stood the Church of Christ in most stead For ever since the Apostles and Ministers of Christ assisted with extraordinary endowments of the Spirit had by the foolishnesse of preaching as by Davids improbable weapons against Goliahs compleat armature vanquished that old Idolatrous power * Nec miraculaâ— illa in nostra tempora durare permissa sunt ne animus semper visibilia quareret eorum consuetudine frigesceret quorum novitate flagravit Aust de ver Rel. c. 15. of heathenisme which prevailed in the world and was long upheld by shews of learning eloquence and in that way vaine philosophy The Church of Christ hath ever since the cessation of those Miraculous gifts which attended onely the first conquests made use of that very sword of that prostrated Gyant good learning both to dispatch him and to defend it self finding that both in humane and divine encounters there is none like to that if managed by a proportionate arm and strength Quantum ratio dat homini tantum lit eratura rationi religio literaturae religioni gratia Casaub Quantum a bestas dâ—stamus eo magis ad Deum appropinquaâ—â— Sen. For hereby the mind and all intellectuall faculties of mens souls which are the noblest and divinest
are more easily and fully instructed more speedily improved in all the riches of wisdome and knowledge which are part of the glory and Image of God on mans nature By this which we call good learning all Truths both humane and divine naturall politick morall and Theologicall usefull either for speculation or practise are more clearly extricated and unfolded out of the depths darknesse and ambiguity of words which are but the shadows of things by the * Languages unlock and open Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phal Ep. skill in Languages which are the scabbards and shels wherein wisdome is shut up The inscription on Christs crosse is in three languages Hebrew Greek Latin Luk. 23.38 Intimating as the divulging of the Gospel to many tongues and Nations so that the mysterie of Christ crucified is not to be fully and exquisitely understood without the keys of these three learned and principall languages with which the Church hath flourished Certainly it is not easie for unlearned men to consider how great use there is even of Grammar which is the first and roughest file that good learning applyes to polish the minde with all for much of the true sense even of the holy Scriptures as well as of other Records depends upon the true writing or Orthography the exact derivation or etymology and the regular Syntaxis or conjoining of words yea that Criticall part of literature which is the finest file or searse of Truth wherein some mens wit and curiosity onely vapour and soar high like birds of large feathers and small bodies yet it is of excellent use when by men of sober learning it is applyed to the service of religion Many times much Divinity depends on small particles rightly understood upon one letter upon such a mood or tense or case and the like many errors are engendred and nourished by false translations and mistakes of words or letters many truths are restored and established by the true meaning of them asserted upon good grounds and just observations which hath been done with great accuratenesse by * Erasmus Drusius Hensius Grotius Salmasius Fullerus Lud. de Dieu and others men of incomparable excellency in this kinde these last hundred years equall to if not for the most part beyond the exactnesse of the ancient Fathers or writers Herein infinite observations of humane writers are happily made and usefully applyed as to the propriety of words and phrases used in the sacred originalls of the Word of God so as thereby to attain their genuine and emphatick sense also for the clearing of many passages and allusions which are in the Scriptures referring to things naturall and historicall in the manners and customes of the nations This once done Logick disposeth Qui logica carent materias lacerant ut catuli panes Melan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. all Truths are by the methods and reasoning of Logick easily disintangled and fairly vindicated from the snarlings sophisms and fallacies with which error ignorance or calumniating malice seek to obscure or disguise them or therein to wrap up and cover themselves darkening wisdome by words without understanding After this they are by the same art handsomely distributed and methodically wound up in severall clews and bottomes according to those various Truths which that excellent art hath spun out That thus digested they may again be brought forth unfolded and presented to others in that order and beauty of eloquence which * Rhetorick communicates to others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 23. Rhetorick teacheth By which truths have both an edge and lustre set on them doe most adorn them and enforce to the quickest prevalencies on mens mindes and the firmest impressions on their passions and affections that so their rationall vigour may hold out to mens actions and extend to the ethicks or morality of civill conversation which is the politure of mens hearts and hands The softner and sweetner of violent passions and rougher manners to the candor and equity of polity and society This civility was and is the preface and forerunner of Religion the great preparative to piety the confines of Christianity which never thrives untill barbarity be rooted up and some learning with morality be sown and planted among men Nor did Christian Religion ever extend its pavilion much further than the tents of Learning and Civility had been pitched by the conquests and colonies of the Greeks and Romans Thus by this golden circle and crystall medium of true learning the short dim and weaker sight of our reason Matth. 6.23 whose very light is become dark by sin bleared with its own fancies and almost put out by its grosser lusts and passions may as by the help of perspective or optick glasses be mightily strengthened and extended while it sees History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. as with the united vigor of the many thousand visuall rayes and eyes of those who saw before us That so those few conjectures those dark and ambiguous experiences which any mans short sight and single life can afford him may be ampliated cleared and confirmed by those many testimonies and historicall monuments which others have left in their learned writings which draw as it were the lesser rivulets of various observations from severall times pens and places to meet in one great and noble current of true Religion which is the wisest observer and devoutest admirer of what true learning most sets forth the providence justice power goodnesse patience and mercy of the wise great and holy God the Creator ruler and preserver of all things Psal 8. but chiefly the regarder of the sons of men God hath therefore blest his Church with good learning that those small stocks and portions of wisdome which any mans private patrimony affords him either by innate parts or acquired experiments which for the most part would amount to no more than the furnishing of a portable pedlers pack with small wares toyes and trinckets fit to please children ideots and countrey people may be improved by a joint stock Humanus s nsus cum sarcitur alieno invento câ—to attenuatur de propâ—io Cassiod and united commerce of prudent observations that so men might drive a great and publique trade of wisdome to the infinite inriching and adorning both of Church and State both of Polity and Religion These two being the great luminaries and excellencies of humane Nature the one to rule the day wherein wee stand related to God in piety the other to rule the night wherein we are related to each other by humanity equity charity and bonds of civill society Which innate vertues and properties of mans nature Reason and Religion once neglected and until'd for want of that culture which good learning and that sof ening Barbarity succeeds the want of learning as darknesse the Suns absence which ingenuous education brings to
the mind and manners of men who sees not by miserable experience how mankinde runs out to weeds who le nations degenerate to brutish barbarity as among the Tartars Negroes and Indians Yea even among people where some are civilized by literature and the profession of Christian religion we finde by daily experience that the unlearned sort are either grosse dull and very indocible Stâ—lide feroces Tac. or else they are rough impolished and insolent prone to a rustick impudence and clownish untractablenesse especially when they imagine they have or dare arrogate to themselves a power and liberty of speaking and doing what they list Nothing is sacred nothing is civill among those that carry all by ignorant confidence and brutish strength Scientia non habet â—â—micum pâ—aeter ignorantem we see in those of the Antiministeriall faction that by want of learning whereof they are generally guilty men onely learn this Indian or Turkish quality to hate contemne and seek to destroy all good learning which is nothing else but the good husbandry and great improvement of the reasonable soule in it self to God and to others Therefore the ambition of these Ignoramusses 2 Tim. 3.8 is like the magick cunning of Jannes and Jambres chiefly vented and exercised by a most impotent pride and malice in despising and resisting those Mosesses the true Ministers of the Church the planters preservers reformers and vindicators and deliverers under God of true Religion who have been and are many of them eminently learned most of them competently so as at least to make a fair and ingenuous use of other mens more accurate and solid labours who are their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brethren of the same holy function and Ministry who have generally been in all ages and places the magazines or storehouses of all good learning which I may affirm without any envy or diminution to those many excellent Gentlemen of this or other Nations who have added to the honour of their birth and other accomplishments of breeding this most eminent crown and beauty of all Good learning It is a work then fit for Lucifer 3. To cry downe good learning is only fit for Luciferians so to contradict his name by his deeds to pretend light and intend darknesse to cry up the spirit which is easily done that he may cry down learning which is hardlyer attained than the other is said Who can wonder if the Philistines would fain put out the eyes of our Samsons having once bound and hampered them with poor and straightned conditions that so they may lesse fear their strength Iudg. 16.21 and safely mock them and their reformed Religion which never so thrived after miraculous gifts were ceased as when the forces and glory of the Gentiles came in to Christ Isa 60.11 Rev. 21.26 Vid. Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Vult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Christianity was graffed on the old stock of heathen learning and philosophy which now brings forth fruit not after the old crabbed sowrnesse but after the sweetnesse of the new Olive-cion with which it is headed yea we see when Christian Religion ran out to much barbarity illiterate ignorance and superstition for many centuries till the last for want of the culture and manuring of learning it brought forth little fair fruits but much of Legendary fables lying wonders religious Romances stories of Chivalry in holy warres and Eâ—raâ—tries in Religion The best effects were the Schoolemenâ— cloistered curiosities and intricate disputes who rather hewed and cut the pillars of Christian Religion into small chips and shavings than added much to the polishing and establishing of them so intangling Philosophy with Divinity as confounded both much advanced neither all excellent things worthy to be known being wrapped up in obscurity or set forth in such barbarous and fulsome Latin that they were like fair Irish bodies in course and ragged mantles And this for want of that method and texture of learning which might so card and fever each matter from other as might give both beauty and distinctnesse to them Which we see hath been done this last hundred years and more The advantages to religion by learning in which so many men of admirable learning and industry have by the help of printing with which the world is now rather surfeited than nourished brought forth to their beauty by an happy regeneration so many of the ancient writers both Christian and heathen which were formerly buried in obscure cloisters and uselesse retirements as in their graves eaten with worms and covered with dust So that no Sanhedrin of the Jews no Senate at Athens or Rome no Synod or Councell of Christians were ever so at once compleated and furnished with excellent men in all kinds as our Christian Libraries now every where are In which there are attending on Christian Religion which is as the Kings daughter Psal 45.23 all glorious within those virgins which bee not her fellows so much as her handmaids who clothe her with garments wrought with needle-work in divers colours embroydered with the sublimity and gravity of Plato with the method and acutenesse of Aristotle Of Plutarch it is said if all Authors were lost he alone might supply with the morals and suavity of Seneca and Plutarch who alone is a Library with the eloquence and oratory of Demosthenes Tully and Quintilian with the florid language and sober sense of Xenophon Caesar Livy Tacitus and other excellent historians with the various observations of the most learned Varro whose life was spared in civill dissensions for his incomparable learning Vivat Varro doctissiâ—us Romanorum so of Pliny Ptolemy and other searchers into all curiosities of Nature and Art Besides these the very goats hair Exod. 37.7 and badger skins too are made to serve the Tabernacle of the Lord the elegancies of Homer Virgil and other Poets who are magazines of fancy Of Virgil it is said if all Sciences were lost they might be found in him and masters of wit are usefull which way of expressing truth and religion in pathetick and poetick wayes of devotion the Spirit of God abhorreth not as we see in some holy Poets who were writers of some part of the Scripture as in Job Psalmes Canticles Lamentations and other places where piety and poetry truth and elegancy Divinity and sacred curiosity in meeteâ—s and Acrostichs meet together Teaching us That God who is full of infinite varieties and yet but one perfect simplicity is to be seen served and praised in his severall gifts to any of which Christian Religion which is of all religions the most absolute perfect and comprehensive can have no abhorrency Grata de Deo fama in artibus sparsa since they all flow from God and return to him through any wise and gracious heart which as a limbeck or hot still extracts somewhat spirituall out of every thing of nature art experience or history From these
well stored quivers of humane learning in all kindes Christian Religion hath so furnished her self with excellent and sharp arrowes of all sorts that she easily makes ready her bow and shoots against the face of any adversaries that dare provoke her either in Languages Arts or Sciences In Logick Rhetorick History Antiquity in Philosophy naturall morall or politicall In all which by much converting with and contemplation of those ancient goodly pieces the Church of Christ hath Gen 30.39 as Jacobs sheep did by looking upon the variegated rods brought forth answerable parallels of incomparable learning in all kinds So that Pharaohs daughter matcht thus to Solomon Psal 45.10 the learning of the heathens joined to Christian Religion may very well forget her fathers house in stead of which since the King of the Church hath delighted in her beauty she hath brought forth children which shee may make Princes in all the Provinces of good learning which are become tributary to Christ Psal 45.6 and subject to his Kingdome of righteousnesse and Scepter of truth But O how different 4. Devils devises against Religion and Learning many faced and crosse grained are the Devils engines methods and temptations His first was to perswade by the speciousnesse of increased and diviner wisdome * Gen. 3.5 to eat of that forbidden fruit which the tree of knowledge of good and evill did bear This was a pleasant bait but pernicious a golden but poisonous and deadly arrow Now the duller devill out of his almost exhausted quiver produceth this iron headed blunt and rusty shaft tempting Christians to abandon all good literature and humane means of attaining knowledge both Divine and humane And since he sped so well by this first temptation of proud curiosity to be like to Gods in eating what was forbidden he despaires not to make us now like beasts by perswading us to abstain from that tree of knowledge which the Lord allowes us and which his providence hath caused to flourish in the garden of his Church and which doth not onely bear fair and excellent fruits which are desirable to make one wise to salvation Revel 22.2 but the very leaves of good learning are for the healing of the Nations Many defects are thereby supplyed in humane societies many immoralities restrained many diseases cured as to the outward contagion and covered as to the deformity to all which the nature of man is other wayes subject and so exposed Quod vomeres rastra â—ratra gleba hoc disciplinae sunt anima Varro that wee see in all ages the barbarity of any people either at first or in the relapse is chiefly imputable to the want of good literature and that civility which is as the flowre and cream alwayes rising from learning which onely supples the roughnesse and brawny callousnesse which grows by long serity and rudenesse on mens mindes and manners Learning like the warmer beames of the approaching Sun onely hath force to â—haw and melt that frozen rigour of mens natures to adorn them with a sweet and florid beauty Animi cultus est quidam humanitatis cibus Tul. de fin l. â— to enrich them to a summers fertility which without this are ever squallid and oppressed with a winters form and horrid barrennesse ever accompanying mankinde in the absence and destitution of learning which mightily prepares mens hearts and minds for the seed of the Gospell and for the harvest of true religion which affords the best fruites of wisdom and tranquillity to the souls of men There is no doubt but Satan hath found himselfe for these last hundred and fifty yeares since the happy restauration of learning first and then of Religion much chained hampered and galled by those excellent gifts of all sorts of good learning which are as the string to the bow and as feathers to the arrowes of Truth wherewith God hath mightily fenced and adorned his Church as he did in the 3 4 5 and 6 Centuries after that miraculous gifts were quite ceased or much abated in which times the Lord stirred up mighty men of incomparable learning to fight the battailes of the Lord of his Truth of his Church against heathenish and hereticall adversaries Drive away good learning out of any Church and Nation by famine starving it or by military insolency banishing it the devill no doubt would be much more at his ease and liberty as among Indians in barbarous idolatry or Turks in ridiculous Mahometry or among the sillier sort of Papists in saplesse superstitions or among the wilder generation of Enthusiasts in their various fancies and most incongruous dreams all which grossely erre and covet to infect others through ignorance even in the matters of right Reason as well as Religion and are destroyed for want of sound and sober knowledge Hos 4.6 which is scarce attainable even in Religion without a miracle where either people despise or Teachers are void of that assistance which good learning affords Which however thousands of good Christians both men and women have not had in the masse and bulk yet they have enjoyed the spirits vertue and benefit of it as it were more abstract and refined by the studies labours instructions and perswasions which their learned Ministers have so prepared for them and fitly derived to them as they did in England both by preaching and by writing The Devill would have lesse trouble to watch Christians in the Church lest they should fly from his camp to Gods tents if he could perswade them to put out their own eyes and the eyes of their guides and Pastors too or else to shut up themselves into some blind corners and confine the Christian reformed Religion to obscure â—els and â—â—lly conventicles where in stead of the Suns fair light of * Suaâ—eo ne vescentium dentibus edentulus invideat nec oculos caprearum talpae conteâ—mat Hieron ad Magnum de indictis Christanis true Reason good Learning and sound Religion men should like Owls and Bats and Mouls onely howle and chatter and scratch one another in the dark We know there are such kind of animals which are ready to curse the day and cannot abide the light because their eyes are weak their workes are dark and both mindes and manners are deformed The despisers of good learning are not onely spitefull enemies to the Christian reformed Religion whose perfection disdaineth not to use those good gifts which come from the * Iam 1.17 Father of lights 5. Despisers of learning are enemies to reason any more than a gracious soul doth its eyes and other senses of the body but they are also silly abusers and degraders even of humane nature * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Mei c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. whose divine excellencie Reason no man above the degree of brutish stupidity Bedlam madnesse or divellish envy ever sought to deprave or depresse No doubt
such apes knowing their own uncomely want of tailes would be glad if they could bring it in fashion for all beasts to have none and perswade them to cut off as burthens and deformities those postern ornaments and helms of the body wherewith nature hath furnished the nobler comelyer and stronger creatures But this mutilating of reason and deforming of Religion by putting out the eyes and cropping off the ears of Christians and setting humanity it self into the stocks or pillory is a greater undertaking I think and hope than ever such feeble though nimble animals with all their apish tricks and mimicall grimasses will be able to perswade either all or any beasts of the Forests unlesse it be the silly asses to gratifie them withall The Lord of all the world the munificent donor of all blessings who gives liberally without envy or reproach Iam. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. hath withheld no good thing from his Church and people and not only allows but requires us Christians devoutly to consecrate all to his glory so as thankfully to adorn even his Tabernacle and Temple with those spoiles and tributes which we have taken from the Egyptians and nations round about us as Moses David and Solomon did all three eminent for learning and piety Nostra sunt quae in Philosophorum scriptis praestant Deo vindicanda est omnis veritas Amb. de â—on M. Decalva eam illecebras crâ—â—ium ornamenta verberum cum emortuis â—nguibus seca Hieron ad Tam. Spoliis Aegyptiis â—â—usti divites quamvis sumus tamen pascha nobis celebranda Aust Doct. Christi c. 39. The learning of the heathen is now become a circumcised Proselyte to the Christian Religion from a captive alien it is with shaved hair and pared nailes the pomp and peevishnesse of it being laid aside admitted with Hagar into the holy family of the Church as a pregnant handmaid to wait on Religion though not as a rivall to be courted and esteemed equall with Sarah The severall parts of good learning the Arts and Sciences are as those * Cant. 3.7 So Naz. orat 19. Basil hom 24. Vt rosas colligimus spinas evitamus c. Vt sullones praparant pannum tinctores c. Quisquis bonus verusque est Christianus Domini sui esse intelligat ubicunque invenerit veritatem Aust do Christ l. 2. c. 18. cap. 39. Quae vera quae fidei nostrae accommoda dixerius philosophi non solum non sormidanda sed ab iis tanquam injâ—stis possessoribus vindicanda Id. valiant ones about Solomons bed vigilant guards and potent defenders of true Christian Religion Dionysius dubitans an legat haereticorum libros divâ—nitus monebatur ut omnes qui ad manum venerint legat ut omnia melius expendere refutare magis abominari possit Euseb â—i Ecc. l. 7. c 6. However it be true That the wisdome of the world is folly and all learning is barbarity losse and dung compared to and separated from the excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ yet nothing hinders but that Christian Ministers may now as Christ sometime did ride upon this Asses colt to Jerusalem Nothing is more comely than to see the wisest men offer their gold and frankincense and myrrh to Christ in his infancy Mat. 3. We know that as an humble unbeleeever cannot justly be counted either ignorant or unlearned if he be taught in all saving necessary truths and * Sine Christo sophia ipsa ratio insanci est Saentia omnis literata stultitia Grammatica nugae soriae Rhetorica inanis loquacitas Logica prosundum jurgium Historia omnis facetiores fabula tota deniquae philosophia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speciosa negotiosa ignorantia so no man never so much improved in secular knowledge merits the name of learned if he be ignorant of the minde of God in the mysteries of Jesus Christ yet judicious beleevers can never be unthankfull despisers of those gifts of * Sic adhibeantur scientiae seculares tanquam machinae quaedam per quas structura charitatis assurgat quae mancat in aeternum Aust Ep. 119 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. good learning in their Teachers and Ministers by whom they have received that benefit of instruction in true Religion which by their owne private industry and simplicity they could hardly if ever have attained Although the Mine of Scripture be rich yet unlearned men as the most part of Christians are in point of humane literature cannot search it nor work it nor try and refine it unlesse they have the help of those who have tooles and instruments and vessels and skill fit for so rich and holy yet hard and serious a work wherein it is much easier for weake and * 2 Pet. 3. unstable mindes to fall into dark pits and damnable errors than of themselves to attain and bring forth those saving truths which onely can inrich the soul Although the gifts of humane learning be not personally given to every Christian yet they are so far necessary for all as they are given to serve for the benefit of all as every one in the flock enjoyes the blessings of those pastorall gifts and abilities which are in the Shepheard and every member of the body that light which is in the eye for the use of all 6. Learned defenders of Christian Religion necessary There needs not much learning to make a man in love with it and covetous of more It is a certain sign of very little or none at all where any man despiseth or decryeth it in others It never indeed received opposition but either by the Gothick barbarity of soldiers and oppressions of warre or by the finer spun malice of such as Sozomen l 5. â—ap 5. Julian in his Persick expedition wrote 7 books against Christ and Christian Religion Jeron Epi. ad Magnum Julian the Apostate was who being both very learned and very wicked knew well how great advantages learning afforded to the Christian religion which he sometime professed and afterward with most cunning cruelty persecuted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Juliano yesterday a professor this day a blasphemer finding by experience how potent and irresistible the weapons of Christian warfare were when skilfully managed by men of parts and learning Such as those Atlasses of Christian Religion were before and in as also after his time who equalled the most renowned heathens in all learning as well as they exceeded them in true Religion and in unspotted lifes Such among others were Justin a Philosopher and Martyr Tertullian Irenaeus Cyprian Origen learned to a Miracle So Clemens of Alexardria Eusebius Epiphanius the three learned Gregories Naz. Niss Thaumaturgus both the Basils Athanasius Cyrill Minutius Felix Arnobius Chrysostome Jerome Ambrose Lactantius St. Austin Prosper Hilarius Prudentius Josephus also a Iew learned to
a miracle as Jerom saith in the Greek monuments defends against Appion the Jewish Church which was the old stock out of which the Christians are swarmed Hieron Ep. ad Mag. So Philo the Jew very learned and an eloquent assertor of the Jewish religion G. Nissen in vita Thaum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vit Th. Miltiades Hyppolitus Apollonius senator Rom. doctiss opuscula Chr stian relig contra Philosophos propugnabant Titus Bostrensis Amphilochius Philosophorum sententiis fuos libros refarciâ—bant Id. Hieron Ep. ad Magnum So Dionysius Bishop of Corinth and Tacianus who refuted the errors of Origen Shewing ex quibus fontibus philosophorum emanabant Hieron So Pantaenus Stoicus doctiss Christianus in Indian missus ut Brachmanis praedicaret Id. and others famous Bishops and Presbyters of most eminent learning piety and courage who undertook the defence of Christian Religion against the proud heathen the pestilent hereticks and the importune schismaticks of those dayes Which made Julian the Apostate elder brother to this illiterate fraternity the despisers and destroyers of good learning to become the Ravilliak the Faux of his times Theodoret l. 3. cap. 8. Propriis pennis configimur a Galilaeis inquit Julianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Bibliotheca Georgii Episcopi Alexand. quam Julianus sibi exacte conquiri jubet Epist ad Porphyrium 36. the prime Assasinator and grand conspirator who sought to stab and blow up all Christian Religion by overthrowing all the nurseries of learning and suppressing the Schooles of the Church forbidding any Christians children to be educated in humane and ingenuous studies which he saw were become as the outworks to the citadell of Christian Religion which sometime indeed needed not these humane guards and defences while the terrible and miraculous gifts of the Spirit were like a pillar of fire and cloud round about Christian Religion during its wandring in the wildernesse of persecution no more than the * Exod. 13.21 Israelites needed trenches for their camp when the more immediate presence of Gods salvation was among them beyond all wals and bulworks or then * 2 King 1. Elias wanted a troop of souldiers when he was armed with fire from heaven against the ruder Captaines and their fifties Those extraordinary dispensations ceasing when the Lord brought his Church to the land of Canaan to a condition of worldly peace and tranquillity through the Imperiall favour and secular protection under which Halcyon dayes Christians had liberty to attend those improvements which are to be attained by study and learning in all manner of ingenuous as well as religious education But when the Dragon saw he could not by open persecuting power destroy the * Revel 1â— woman and her child he then turned to other shifts seeking by the flouds of corrupt doctrin to poison those streams which he could not stop And so to furnish out his new modelled Militia with the better train and ammunition he stirred up learned adversaries against the Churches true and ancient faith not only without as * Origen answered Celsus and Methodius Eusebius and Apollinaris wrote with great strength and dexâ—erity of learning against Po phyrieâ— who was one of the most eloquent in his time and wrote against Christian religion 15. books Suidaâ— St. Jeâ—om St. Ambrose and Prudentius answered Symmachus his Oratory against Christian Religion Celsus Porphyrie Proclus Symmachus and others but even from within as Arius Nestorius Apollinaris Macedonius Eutyches Pelagius Donatus and others very many This master-piece he carryed on with most powerfull suggestions and successes sometimes knowing well what force Error hath as well as Truth when it is charged and discharged with skill and learning In so much that he not onely overthrew the Faith of many ordinary Christians but robbed the true Church in part and turned at last upon the Orthodox party those whole Canons great and incomparable pieces of all learning both divine humane Tertullian and * Vincent Lyrin lib. 1. Immortale Origenis ingentum Jeron in Ep. ad Tit. In Origene adeo praeclara adeo fingularia adeo mira extiterunt ut omnes pene multum longéque superavit Vin. Lyr. c. 23. So of Tertullian c. 24. Quid illo doctius quid in divinis atque humanis exercitatius Apud Latinos nostrorum omnium facile princeps ut Origenes apud Gracos Origen the converter of St. Ambrose who formerly had by their accurate and learned labours both in preaching and writing bravely asserted Christianity both by demolishing the old remaining forts of heathenish Idolatry and prejudice as also battering the new rising works of heresies and schisms So that our moderate illiterate factors for an old crafty Daemon doe not or will not consider that there ever hath been still are and ever may be learned adversaries opposing or Apostatizing from the true Christian Religion both in its fundamentalls and its reformations There are very learned Jesuites and other Papists of all orders there are learned Socinians renewed Palagians revived Arians and others who want not learning against whom the learned Ministers of this and other reformed Churches are often put upon necessary though uncomfortable and unhappy contests Not for any malice envy or displeasure against any of their persons for learned men cannot but love and esteem whatever is good and excellent in others but onely from that Conscience of Truth which the Ministers of this and other reformed Churches doe conceive upon Scripture grounds and by the consent of the primitive and purest Churches of Christ they ought in all duty to God to their own and other soules yet with charity to their Adversaries to maintain And although the warne in Christian Religion ought to be managed by learned men on all sides with all possible fairnesse candor and civility such as the honour of the Christian name and profession requires for the more illiterate men are the more rudely they bray and rail against one another if it were a great sin to be supine and negligent in so great an engagement which we think to be for Gods cause the truth of Christ and the good of soules for which we ought to be prudently vigilant and honorably valiant It would ill become us while we see the adverse partie daily arming themselves with all possible compleatnâ—sse in languages arts and sciences in Fathers councels and histories for us to fit still in our lazy and unlearned ignorance expecting either miraculous illuminations and assistances as idle vain and proud mindes do or else most inevitable ruine and certain overthrow of that truth and reformed Religion which we professe to maintain which in honour and conscience besides the bonds of nature humanity and charity we are bound to transmit to posterity if not much improved by our diligence and studies yet at least not sottishly impaired to a just impeachment of waste against us in this age from those that in after times may succeed us who will have no great honour or happinesse by
being heirs to our estates lands and dignities if they be disinherited of all good learning and that true reformed Religion which we have received from our learned and pious predecessors And this infallibly will be the sad event 7. The sad effects which must follow these illiterate projects and unhappy fate of the succeeding generations in England if such witlesse lack latin Zelots can prevail in their absurd desires and most fanatick endeavours who while they tell their silly disciples who are rather spectators than hearers of these mens affected gesticulations and ill acted Oratory That Latin and Greek are the languages of the Beast that all books but the Bible and as much of that as they take not to be for their turnes are Antichristian and to be destroyed Sleidan com l. 10. An. 1524. Mean time the common people are not so much men and reasonable as to consider the sad metamorphosis or change which already growes upon these Ignorant Masters and their scholars who like to Lycaon Io or Actaeon begin to thrust forth their hornes and hoofs and to shew their teeth in their grosse errors their rude and savage manners which are tokens evident and dreadfull enough of their brutised soules That if the wiser learneder and powerfuller world among us in England should through basenesse cowardlie and negligence suffer this illiterate and ferine faction to increase and multiply they will soon finde by their violence craft and cruelty that these Islands will be more pestered and infamous for wolves than ever they were in ancient times And what is it that these mens brutish simplicity would have Namely this That the purer Religion among the Protestant and Reformed Churches should have no learned Champions or able defenders but onely such silly Asinellos or Massinellos who think it enough to trust to their rude and irrationall confidences to their hard heels and harsher brayings for the defence of true Religion when as the large and luculent eares of these animals doe give so great advantage to any crafty error or grosser heresie to get hold of them that they will as easily be led to any damnable opinion and desperate faction as an Oxe is to the slaughter and a foole to the stocks For no men are more easily led into any temptation than those who presume to tempt God by neglecting to use such due and proportionate means as his wisdome in ordinary providence hath appointed to attain those great and holy ends of true Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. In studiis tantum quisque probat quantum se assequi posse sperat de quibus desperant ea de piciunt Casaub praef in Ari. In quantum ab ignorantia segregantur in tantum contumaciae agglutinantur Tertul. de Poen Yet we may see how all folly is ready to fall upon it self to confute its own principles By a rude unskilfunesse it sometime bandies the ball of contention against its own face For these great sticklers against all good learning in Ministers doe sufficiently shew they have fraud mixt with their follie like Foxes they love not the grapes while they cannot reach them Their despaire of learning makes them despise it in others Because it 's hardly possible to have any degree of true learning and not to oppose them But O how doe they seriously triumph and superciliously rejoice when any man that is but a smatterer in learning or smels a little of the pen and inkhorn for other than such â—â—vices and dunces never will so far shame themselves appears for them or seemes to leane and adhere to them how much more if he begins to stickle for their party and faction being deceived with their shewes of zeal and inspirations O how doe they prick up their ears and march then with greater courage and confidence as the Hares did when they had got a Fox to lead them in whom they thought was more strength and cunning than their own fearfull feeblenesse could be guilty of Even so these burglars in reason wresters of Scriptures and hucksters of religion doe find fault with those Tooles which they have no skil to use and like cowards they quarrell with those weapons as unlawfull which they most fear and can least resist Which yet could they once get into their hands and abuse to their advantages none would be more imperiously cruell and insolent * St. Austin de Doct. Christiae tels of a servant among the Barbarians who by three dayes prayers triduâ—nis precibus obtained full knowledge in all humane learning Ut librum quemlibet percurreret omnibus stupentibus For what would not these Illiterate Furies give to have indeed such an Inspiration as might in one night make them every way as learned and able in all points as those Ministers and other men have been and still are who dayly pare the ruder nails and muzzle the bolder jaws of these degenerate and desperate men who like horse and mule being without understanding are ready to fall upon those Psal 32.9 that are fit to be their Masters and rulers both in Church and State who in stead of found and healthfull learning have only the three distempers which Sir * Sir Francis Bacon L. Ver. in his advancement of learning Francis Bacon observed to be in most men Fantasticknesse Contention and Curiosity by imagination altercation and affectation But the enemies of good learning tell us 8. Objection against learning as injurious to true Religion the parent or nurse of errors That they discern so many spots and black patches in the face of this fair Lady 〈◊〉 they cannot esteem her a modest Virgin or a grave and sober Matron or any way fit company for true Christian Religion but rather some prostitute of Impudicity which is easily courted by every wanton spirit and oft impregnated with grosse errors which it either conceives and brings forth or nourisheth and beings up yea they have heard for these men read but little and understand lesse that great hereticks and enemies to true Religion have beene great Scholars And even in the bosome of the Church these vermine of heresies and schisms have crawled most since she put on and adorned herself as some thought with this patcht and beggerly garment of humane learning which she took up in the high way of the Gentiles Arius and his crew wanted not learning nor * Aust de Haeres Pelagii viri ut audio sancti non parvo profectu Christiani Aust c. 3. de pec mer. Bonum praedicandum virum Id. Pelagii discipulorum libri propter acrimoniam facundiam leguntur a plurimis Id. Ep. 144. Pelagius Sophistry nor Donatus eloquence as St. Austin tels us Nor those others of former or later dayes who made the Van or bring up the Rear of those forces which the divel hath mustered and trained up against the purity and simplicity of the Gospel Which impediment rather than ornaments as these men tell us
who presume to be better acquainted with the mind of religion than any Ministers or other able Christians it doth now utterly abhor and to ashamed of yea and would faiâ—â— quite cast away all those glasses and wimples and crisping pins and powders and paâ—ills and dressings and curlings and strange apparell which she had borrowed of humane learning even as the Jewish women were weary of their toyes and trinckets which they had from the heathen by which they provoked God against their vanity pride Isai 3. and folly Thus are these men ready with their rude hands to witnesse Divinity who being very bâ—nd and boisterous Answ Yet the benefit of learning is more than the danger are not able to distinguish between pulling off the patches or wiping away those spots and paints which a fair face needs not and the shaving off that hair which is given to Religion for an ornament and covering Or the plucking out of those eyes indeed which it needs not onely for beauty but for direction The learning of hereticke and schismaticks doth not so much defoâ—â— the Church and true Religion as the learning of Orthodox professors adorns and reformes it which as fullers earth is the best means to take out those kennel spots which noisome spirits and foul mouths cast upon true Religion There is the more need of wise and able Physitians to make wholesome Antidotes and confections by how much there are so many whose malice is cunning as the divels Empericks and empoisoners to mixe pestilent drugs and infusions with Religion 1 Cor. 11 19. There must be heresies and hereticks too not as necessary effects anâ— consequents of learning and religion but rather from the defects of them in mens hearts and mindes When men are not either able rightly to understand or not accurately to divide or not exactly to distinguish or not rationally to conclude from Scripture grounds and principles of truth Or else when they are prone grossely to mistake and easily to yeeld to any semblances of truth and fallacies of error which are incident to credulous incautions unstable and unlearned soules or to proud passionate and heady men though never so learned Hence follows their not onely forsaking the right way and resolute persisting in their dangerous and damnable mistakes as sheep gone astray seldome ever returning of themselves to the fold and unity of the Church but they would also draw others after them that they may not seeme to erre alone and by numbers at least and force at last carry on the evill opinions which always tend to evill practises unlesse the Lord had always furnished his Church with some learned and godly men as able for reduction as others were for seduction as potent to cure as others are to infect whose learning defensive was more mighty than any offensive ever was The flock of Christ was alwayes happily furnished with Mastives whose teeth were as sharp and strong as the Wolves With Davids whose valour was always as great as the ravening strength of Bear or Lyon whom nothing else would have curbed and overawed nor have without miracle been able to have preserved the flock of Christ from dayly scatterings and tearings So then in all right reason either wholly remove these offensive enemies and such weapons out of their heads and hands or else give true Christian Religion leave to keep her defensive Arms and those worthy men who are able to use them namely the learned and godly professors both Ministers and others of this and other Churches both Christian and reformed Whose learning courage and honesty together makes them impregnable Whom otherwayes even these pitiful pygmies who now thus oppose them would hope to be too hard for if once matters of religion were reduced onely to tongues and hands for Ignorance makes men violent and for want of reason to flye to force * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. Possibly these professors of ignorance and rusticity may be lowder speakers and bolder fighters though they be weaker disputants and flatter writers yea we commonly see that hereticall pride and schismaticall passion in men that neither love the Truth nor the peace of the Church when worsted by arguments fly to Arms as the Arians and Donatists and Novavatians did when refusing fair disputations which the Orthodox Bishops and Presbyters desired Vide Ca â— Afric Concil Carth. An. 410 offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orderly and peaceable disquisitions for the determining of differences so that Christian union might follow They presently ran furiously to meere brutish and tumultuary violences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad immaes violentias Invading Churches by force driving away the Orthodox and holy Bishops and Presbyters who had not varied nor would yeeld to change that Faith and holy order of Religion and Ministry which still remained in all the Christian Churches as descended from the Apostles and primitive Christians and which had lately been confirmed and declared by the first famous Councell of Nice which consisted of 318 Bishops besides other many learned assistants holy Presbyters and Deacons together with some chief men of the laity who were so all of a minde that there were but 17 dissenters in the vote against Arius After the same riotous fashion also was that ignorant and abominable rable as it 's called of the Circumcelliones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afâ—i Genus hominum agreste famosissimae audaciae Aust cont Cresco l. 3. c. 42. Leniora tarrenum praedonum facta quam Circumcellionum a subsection of the Donatists who were wont to ramble idly up and down like squibs with fire and force among the plain and pagane Christians in the country till after great ostentations of piety devotion and zeale for Martyrdome calling themselves * St. Aust de Haeret. Optatus Duces Sanctorum Captaines of the Saints and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contenders for the faith they fell at length to pilfering then to plundering and wasting whole countreys opposing in an hostile manner the Vicegerents Pacelus and Mocatius till at length they were by the Emperour himself * An. 348. Honorius repressed and destroyed That many men abuse learning to abet errors and religion to colour hypocrisie and the name of the Spirit to indulge the flesh and heaven to carry on earthly designes I make no question nor will these objecters I beleive yet I doe not think their morosenesse is such as presently to conclude they must part with what they can well use because they see others daily abuse good things as health beauty strength riches preferment meat drink cloathing c. all which oft nourish vanity lusts excesse The aking of these mens heads or teeth makes them not willingly to lose them no more may the abuse of learning take away the use of it Wise men know how to keep a mean between starving and surfeiting between drunkennesse and cutting up all vines condemning all men to drink nothing but
these cheats in the pillory of publique infamy that they may loose their Ears that is their * Vt tandem male audiant qui male diâ—â—â—nt agunt hearing well that credit and fame of gifts which they cover and captate among the Vulgar and which they would enjoy by reason of their many wiles and artifices by which they ly in wait to deceive with good words and fair speeches as the Divels setting Dogs the well affected and plain hearted Christians Rom. 16.18 if they were not every where routed and confounded by the Ministers of the Church who are both far abler and honester men and to whose charge the flock of Christ in its severall divisions and places is committed that they may take care it suffer no detriment either in truth or in peace in faith or manners in Doctrine or in holy order Thus then although the soules and faith of the meanest true Christians be alike pretious and dear to God 2 Pet. 1.1 as the most learned men's yet they are not pieces of the same weight for gifts of the same extension for endowments of the same polishings for studies nor of the same stamp and authority for their calling and office All which as they are not to the essence of true grace and religion so they are much to the lustre power beauty order usefulnesse and communicativenesse of those gifts which goe with true Religion and are by the Lords munificence bestowed on the Church and faithfull for their well being safety and comfort even in this world besides their happinesse in another which ought to be the grand design of all true Christians both Laymen and Churchmen both learned and unlearned both Governours and governed But these Illiterato's further object with open mouth 11. Object Christ and his Apostles had no humane Learning That they are sure neither Christ nor his Apostles had themselves or commended to the Churches use humane learning Answ My answer is They needed none as humane that is acquired by ordinary education or industry being far above it by those glorious and miraculous endowmenâ—s of the Spirit of wisedome which can easily shine in a moment through the darkest lanterns men of the meanest parts and grossest capacities So that those might as well dispense with the absence of all acquired humane learning as he that hath the Suns light needs not the Moon or Stars or Candles or he that had Angels wings and swiftnesse would not want the legge of man or beast to carry him or he that is neer a living and inexhaustible spring needs not labour to dig wels as Isaac did and so must we too Gen. 26 1â— in the barren and dry land where we live which none but inhumane Philistims would stop up This therefore of Christ and his Apostles is not more peevishly than impertinently alledged by these men in these times against the use of good learning in the Churches Ministers unlesse the reall experiences of these men pretended Apostolicall gifts extraordinary endowments and immediate sufficiencies from the Spirit of God could justifie these allegations either as fitted to them as to the present dispensations of Christ to his Church Although the Lord sometime gave his Church water out of a rock and refreshed wearied Samson by a miraculous fountain which suddenly sprung up in Lehi not in the Jaw-bone but in the place so called from Lehi i.e. the Jaw-bone Iudg. 15.19 by which instrument he had obtained so great a victory there where it continnued afterward yet I beleeve these men will think it no argument to expect every day such wonderfull emanations and neglecting all ordinary means to expect from the Jaw-bones of Asses water or drink to quench their thirst I am sure this Church hath not yet found any such flowings forth or refreshing from the mouths of these Objecters whose lips never yet dropped like Hermon so much as a Dew of sweet and wholesome knowledge upon any place and how should they whose tongues are for the most part set on fire and breathe out with much terrour nothing but ashes and cinders like Vesuvius or Etna whose eruptions are vastatious to all neere them Col. 2.3 Matth. 12.42 Unus verus magnus est magister Christus qui selus non didicit quod omnes doceret Amb. off l. 1. Matth. 5 45. As for our blessed Lord Christ we know he was filled with all the treasures of wisedome both divine and humane for being greater than Solomon he could not come short of Solomons wisdome in any thing who was in all his glory but a Type and shadow of Christ and no way comparable to him Our Saviours design indeed was not as Platos or Aristotles to advance naturall Philosophy meer morality humane learning and eloquence the beams of which Sun by common providence God had already made to shine by other wayes on the bad as well as the good on the heathens as well as the Jews and Christians but Christs intent was Mal. 4. 1 Cor. 1.26 by word and deed to set forth the beams of the Sunne of righteousnesse the wisdome of the Father the saving mysteries of his Crosse and sufferings in order to mans improvement not by humane learning but by divine grace And however our Blessed Saviour hath crucified as it were the flesh and pride of humane learning as well as of riches honour and all worldly excellencies which are infinitely short of the knowledge and love of God in Christ yet he quickned and raised them all by the Spirit which teacheth a sanctified and gracious use of them all to his Church Luk. 2.48 and true beleevers Our Lord Jesus did not disdain to converse with the learned Doctors and Rabbies of his time among whom he was found after his parents had sought him sorrowing because in vain otherwhere yet our wanderers and seekers are loth to seek afraid to find and disdain to own Jesus Christ when they have found him among the learned men and Ministers of this Church lest in so doing they should seem to confesse they had lost Christ and true Religion 12. The objecters may not argue from the Apostles gifts against learning now since they have neither of them in their illiterate Conventicles and ignorant presumptions As for the blessed Apostles who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately taught of God by conversing with the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ the Christian world well knowes their miraculous and extraordinary fulnesse of all gifts and powers of the Spirit both habituall and occasionall so that they wanted neither any language nor learning which was then necessary to carry on the great work of preaching and planting the Gospell And no lesse doth the wiser world know the emptinesse and ridiculous penury of these disputers against good learning even as to the common gifts of sober reason and judicious understanding wherewith the blessing of heaven is now wont to crown onely the prayers
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. Pro. 1. and studies of those that attend on Wisedoms gates with all humble industry whose great proficiencies these poor men envying as they have great cause would fain perswade them to be as much sluggards as themselves are who have neither hunted Contra bonaâ— literas blaâ—erant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 27. nor caught any thing by * Pro. 12 27. not roasting what they have taken in hunting that is not to use those gifts of learning in all kindes which Ministers have attained unto by Gods blessing on their studies As for that Primitive gift of Tongues by which the Apostles at once suddenly thawed and brake that Ice which now locks and seals up to us the face of the great deep of Learning and Wisdome so that they were instantly Masters not onely to understand but also to utter the mysteries of Christ whereof they had partly an acquired by Christs teaching but for the most part an inspired knowledge These pitifull praters who would be counted Apostolicall are so far from any such gifts of wisdome or utterance that they are scarse masters of their own mother tongue neither knowing for the most part what they say 1 Tim. 1.17 nor whereof they affirm nor able with modesty gravity humility or charity either to use or bridle their tongues which is an Apostolicall brand on them shewing that their Religion is but vain Iames 1.26 And how can it be otherwayes where sober speech sound reason common sense and ordinary ingenuity are as much wanting as pride contempt of others intractable fiercenesse and indocible ignorance doe abound When their great art is to set off to some popular shew and acceptance their gifts and persons 2 Pet. 2.18 by proud swelling words sometimes soring in the height of raptures and rare speculations beyond sobriety as if they were from sudden inspirations when indeed they are nothing else but some odde ends of metaphysicall questions and devotionary contemplations which are every where found among the Schoolmen and Monasticks or in the Platonists Plotinus Pimander and the like to which Authours these men being strangers yet drunk with their own fancies sometimes they reel and stumble upon such notions which vainly puffe them up in their fleshly mindes Col. 2.18 while they are still but clouds without water carryed with the tempests of passions Iud. 12. and high presumptions above the plain practicall and usefull truths of Religion and indeed above the proportion and sphear of their own gifts and parts Other whiles they seem as Well without water deep but dark and dry in their profound follies and profane niceties as the Manichees Valentinians and others of old by which they seek to confound God with the creatures good with evill Nature with Grace Vice with Vertue Law with the Gospell Christ with Divels By all which rarities amazing their silly auditors they are no other but cunning Agitators for ignorance atheism profanenesse hypocrisie and superstition that the life and power of the Christian reformed Religion may be wholly baffled and despised together with the Ministry of this Church What can these wretched men expect but the blacknesse of darknesse for ever to be reserved for them without repentance who study to cry downe all good studies 2 Pet. 2.17 and learning that they may the better eclipse all true and reformed Religion Such Pharisees for few of them are good Scribes are like indeed to make excellent Teachers of the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 12.35 who are not able to bring forth any things either old or new having no Treasure of well digested knowledge either divine or humane but onely some of the rubbidge of that learning which they seeke to destroy pitifull rapsodies of such confused stuffe as they have scraped together which becomes none but bablâ—rs and pamphleters Which whoever considers seriously how much they have been a shame and bane to true Religion to the honour of this reformed Church and to those holy manners which become sober wise and modest Christians he would ever after love learning and learned Ministers the better by how much he sees infinite cause to abhor the sordid and shamefull effects of impudent ignorance which loves to batten in its own soyl and refuseth to be cleansed Such mouths full of errors and foul with evill speakings however the Timothies and Titusses of this Church cannot now stop Tit. 1.11.2.15 as they ought to doe if the exercise of that just power in the Church were not obstructed yet they ought to rebuke them sharply and with all authority And untill these Seraphick despisers of true usefull and sanctified learning can not boast and clamour among their Disciples who are now grown giddy with too high notions and airy speculations but till they can evidently demonstrate to the wiser and soberer world that they can indeed perform what they pretend that is by immediate gifts and unstudied enablings they can solidly comprehend soberly preach methodically explain clearly demonstrate the sacred mysteries of our Religion also resolve the difficulties reconcile the differences and determine the doubts or controversies arising out of the Word of God or the points of Religion so as in some measure may tend to satisfie mens judgements together with the scruples and cases of their consciences Till I say these men can doe these in some competent measure equall at least if not beyond what the learned Ministers of this Church have done and dayly doe by the blessing of God on their labors they must give us leave still to follow our studies with humble prayers and diligent pains That so in stead of the husks and chaffe of these mens specious words and popular insinuations sadly deploring and proudly despising those excellent abilities which are in true Ministers far above them we may help to feed poor hungry soules not with frothy vanity wherewith these proud Masters send their scholars away as puffed up and as empty as themselves but with good corn and that wholesome provision of sound knowledge and saving doctrine wherewith the Lord is pleased to furnish us in the honest and ordinary way of his providence and blessing upon our industry for we have now no Manna or Quails about our tents which while these men dream of mean time exceeding leannesse is entred into their souls Psal 106.15 And how can it otherwise be than that sowing vanity Hos 8.7 and visions of their own hearts they should reap other than windâ— and be satisfied as they are extremely but most unhappily with their owne delusions 13. Inspired holy men yet used their learned gifts We doe not read that either Moses or Solomon or Daniel or St. Paul first educated at * Tarsis celebris Cilicia Vrbs Academia ipsis Athenis Alexandâ—iae comparanda Strabo St. Jeromes Epist ad Mag. answers that qâ—estion Cur candorem Ecclesiae Ethnicis sordibus polluamus
no cause to doubt for I see some of them have undertaken the publique honour and protection of these Kiriath-sephers the sometime famous and flourishing Vniv rsities of this English Nation Iosh 15.16 Kiriath-sepher Civitas librerum literarum The two fair eyes of this Church and State and the two greatest eye sores of these Antiministerial Levellers which above all things as Ravens they aim to pluck out or so to blind that they shall not be of any use either to Learning or to the reformed Religion But I presume that persons of any true worth Learning Honour Valour or Religion will never suffer these goodly Garrisons citadels and magazines of all good literature to be plundered slighted or disbanded either by military or mechanick rudenesse For besides the shame and infinite dishonour which it would be before all civilized Nations under heaven to doe or suffer so great insolence and injury to be done against them and in them against the publique good and honour both of Church and State It cannot but also be a most crying sin before God if either we consider that sacrilegious barbarity which must in this be committed against not the living onely in their rights but even against the Dead the Monuments of whose devout piety and charity are there deposited and by many learned men enjoyed as in unviolable Sanctuaries Or if we duly weigh in order to Gods glory the many great and publique blessings Specimen est florentis reipub ut disciplinae professoribus praemia opulenta pendantur Sym. 1.73 Literatura instrumentum est ad omnem bumanam vitam necessarium Tertul. de Idol which by the bounty and providence of God have from the benign light and influence of those two great Constellations constantly and liberally flowed upon this Nation to its unspeakable honour and advantages both in Church and State Which are so eminent and so necessary both to the well being of souls and bodies of men in all degrees and estates that no tongue or pen can with gratitude enough to God acknowledge them For take it from the highest who fit upon Thrones judging the Tribes to the lowest who grind at the mill Neither Counsellours nor Judges nor Justices nor Commanders nor Lawyers nor Physitians nor Embassadors nor publique Agents nor any ingenuous imployment nor the meanest honest mechanicks Scipio liberalium studiorum autor admirator Belli pack artibus serviiâ— Semper â—â—er arâ—â—a â—ut studia vâ—rsanâ—s corpus periculis asimum disciplinis exercuit Vel. Pater l. 1. Non potest aliquae in mundo esse fortuna quam non angeat literarum gloriosae notitia Cassiod 10.3 can dispense with the want of chose blessings of truth order peace health good laws and Religion which from those Seminaries of good learning are derived to and enjoyed by all sorts of men in this Nation It concerns no men to have good learning decryed Veritas luce mora falsa festinatione tenebris valescunt Tacit. An. 2. and the Vniversities demolished but only juglers cheaters and impostors whose gaines are like to be greatest when their deceits are least discernible for want of true light * Greenewood and Barrow petitioned Q. Elizabeth of B. M. to dissolve the Universities that their factious ignorance might bee gratified with so great a dishonour to this Nation Camden So prodigious tongues and pens were those heretofore and now which by an unnaturall envy brutish ignorance barbarous malice or sordid covetousnesse seek to deprive the children of this Nation of such full and fair breasts as these Nurses afford as if we were all defigned to turn Amazons and that fitting our selves for Arms onely and not Arts we must cut off not onely one but both our breasts Or as if the after generations were to suck not milk but onely bloud like the child which Aristides painted so lively which searching for the breast applyed it self to the wound of its dying mother which shee now dying seems to remove from the wound to the breast * Plin. Nat. hist l. 35. 10. But O you nobler and better educated Souls Plato in Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall alwayes exhort the sons of worthy men to be both very learned and very good who therefore love good learning because you either have it or enjoy the blessings of it your own and the publique honour are so interessed in this point that no sober man can suspect that any of you are of your selves so inclined or can be brought by others Turkish importunities and Barcarities to the least thought of neglecting the preservation of these two incomparable Seminaries of all good Learning which have in former ages furnished both Church and State with so many excellent both Magistrates and Ministers which places for liberall allmony for sweet and quiet accommodations for copious and rare Libraries for stately buildings and which is the soule of Universities for men of eminent learning and piety were not to be exceeded scarce paralleld in all the world To whose compleat felicity nothing can be wanting that either friends would most desire or enemies most maâ—â—ign if such order government * Bâ—â—arum artium profession 〈◊〉 malis moribus corruperunt â—raci Curt. l. 8. and good discipline in point of moralls and practiques be added as best becomes learned and ingenuous men whose greatest honour is to have learning like gold enamel'd with all the beauties of virtue and embellished with all the ornaments of true Religion That the sacred solitudes Sancta foecunda otio Ber. ad Eug. Nemo pictorum tam a ratione alienus fuit ut armatas Musas unquam exhibere ausus fuerit Certissimo argumento vitam quae Musis tribuitur placidam facilem tranquillámque esse oportere Aelian hist var. the sweet vacancies the happy leisures the pleasant retirements the plenteous enjoyments which by the indulgence of God and the munificence of worthy men and women they enjoy as Students beyond the most of mortals whom either hard labour exhausts or solicitous care distracts or penurious servitude oppresseth may not be abused to the softer dalliances and idle entertainments of vicious intemperancies and disorders when those places were intended by the pious founders as hives for Bees not as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. de Bas m. se ipso Athenis commorantibus omnium semitarum praeter quae ad templa et scholas ducebant nescii Orat. 20. nests for wasps and drones receptacles and incouragements for virtuous industry religious modesty prudent integrity and not for Cretian Lazy-bellies cunning sophisters and pragmatick wits which serve only to set a fairer glosse and sharper edge on the basest errours and the most debauched manners which ought as ever in conscience to be avoided so then also in policy when there are as many enemies against the Vniversities as there are evill eyes upon the revenews Any plea will serve the design of covetous and
unlearned malice which seeks by pretending the dissolution of manners laxation of government and the shipracks of many ingenuous young men sent to the Vniversities to justifie those dayly and desperate calumnies used against them That they are not onely superfluous but also noxious as uselesse so hartfull to the Church and State Both which some men will never thinke sufficiently blest till they have made them as blinde as Beetles both in good learning and true reformed Religion that so the English Nobility Gentry and ingenuous youth may either run out to utter barbarity in a short time or else fall under the culture of those who affect to be the grand Masters and Catholick Teachers of all good learning the Jesuites The gravity of whose manners and exactnesse both of their Literature and Discipline wherewith they adorn that side and party which they are listed to maintain is not to be so much imitated as exceeded by our Vniversities which are of the reformed party the most Illustrious That so they may redeem themselves from those jealousies and reproaches which either just severity or injurious calumnie is prone to fasten upon them and so merit both love honour and protection from all that have any true excellency in this Nation 19. All worthy mindes subscribe to this plea and petition for the Vniversities To this humble request not onely Divines and Ministers of religious Mysteries which tend highly to the temporall and eternall welfare of mens soules but all other liberall faculties which exercise the man more than the beast the head and minde more than the hands and body will I presume most readily subscribe Since neither the learned Students and honest practisers of the Common Law by which the boundaries of our estates liberties honours and lives are set and preserved under God Nor those of the Civill Law in which are the suffrages of all Nations the common sense the generall Rules and rationall Maximes of mankinde whereby all forain treaties correspondencies trafiques and negotiations in war and peace with enemies and friends are regulated and transacted Nor yet the conscientious Physitians who study to preserve the health strength beauty and life of our bodies None of these any more than the Ministers of the Gospell can move or practise rationally wisely and conscientiously in their severall callings without those principles and foundations of humane learning which are either generally preparatory or peculiarly necessary to their respective faculties upon whose stock first planted and watered in the Vniversities those scions are commonly graffed which either come to any flourishing or good fruit in Church or State And certainly if we generally dislike and despise pettifoggers in the Common Law meer pragmatiques in the Civil and quack-salvers in Physick there is no reason any sober Christians should desire or like Theologasters Ventosa loquacitâ—â— ut malignus imber sterilitatem magis quam fertilitatem terris inf rt Bern. meer praters and dunces in the great science of Divinity Ministers of the Gospell should of all men be least deprived of or defective in good learning in as much as their work is of the highest concernment nor is it without those difficulties which may whet and exercise the most improved abilities the most cautious studies and the most conscientious diligence All which are necessary ingredients to make up an able and worthy Minister What wise and sober Christian can think it fit to commit the care of his soules welfare the publique service of his God the honour of his Saviour the celebration of holy mysteries the means of grace the comfort of his conscience and the conservation of true Religion together with the peace order and honour of the Church of Christ while he lives and when he dies to commit I say all these to the custody care inspection and managing of such men whom he could not with reason or without great shame in himself and some from others entrust with any publique commerce trade and negotiation or with his private welfare in health honour estate liberty or life Since all divine and humane perfections are in our Lord Jesus Christs and from him every good and perfect gift is derived to the Church nothing is more just and gratefull than for Christians to use improve and return all those gifts and indowments which our humane nature is capable of in this world to the glory of God and the good of mankinde which when they are sanctified both in the habit and use are but preventive of and preparatory to those eternall accomplishments which our soules expect in heaven which is that highest degree of happinesse which holy and â—â—â—ble learning studies to attain Nor can any wise man conceitâ— how either the hâ—â—hest sâ—â—â—me which we call Divinity or those other excellent ones in Humanity can ever be levelled to vulgar practises and a parity of use among men Exod. 9.10 which will prove an Epidemicall disease like the scâ—â—â— and botches of Egypt when the ashes were scattered over the land unlesse withall there could be a levelling of mens reasons wâ—â— capacities and industries as well as of their callings or some law of Ostracisme made by which it shall be forbidden for any man to be richer and healthfuller wiser and learneder more holy or more religious than another But these are Cacotopian fancies which not the profoundnesse of Plato but the shallownesse of Thersites or Dametaâ— hath laid out to so vile wicked monstrous and ridiculous formes that no good Christian who resolves not to banish all reason and true Religion from himself and his posterity can ever approve or follow so as to wish to be of or ever to see such a Commonwealth of Coxcombes and Ideots who by the want of all good learning both in Magistrates and Ministers will soon learn like wild Araâ—â— and Scythians to rob plunder poyson kill deceive and damâ— one another growing as Mastive dogs fiercer by dark keeping Being justly punished by being given up to their own hearts lusts to commit all wickednesse with greedinesse Rom. 1 2â— for not glorifying God in the high esteem and holy use of those excellent gifts which by good learning he confers upon humane Nature and societies of all which in reference to the good both of Church and State a gracious heart is never to seek how to make a gracious and thankful use either in himself or others The 5. Cavil Against Ministers incroachment upon the liberty of mens judgments and consciences BUt there are some who ashamed to be reckoned among the illiterate crue who despise and decry all good learning and desirous to seeme more moderate and well tempered men plead That however Learning well used may be very beneficiall both to Church and State both in civill and religious regards yet with God there is no * Col. 3.11 Mat. 11.25 acceptation of persons and in Christ Jesus Greek and Barbarian the learned and the Ideots are all one That God may dispense
the beams of his Spirit in the light of Truth as well as in the heat of Love how and where and to whom he will yea and oft doth reveale his secret and hidden things not to the wise and learned but to the babes and foolish Therefore a publique liberty at least and fair toleration ought to be granted to any men to opine to teach and accordingly to act as they are inwardly perswaded and moved And this without any such tyrannous restraints as commonly learned men and Scholars Ministers especially have sought themselves and taught Magistrates to lay upon both the judgement conscience and practise of people both in their first education and after profession studying to make all things in Religion or manners as bastards and illegitimate which have not their Certificate for their ligitimation whereas the Spirit of God ought not to be so strict laced stinted and restrained least of all curbed and constrained by any prohibitions or impositions on mens judgements and consciences which in matters of Religion are onely to be drawn with the cords of a man such as mens reasons or Scriptures or the Spirits perswasion may afford to every ones capacity and not to tye them up by any Creeds Articles Catechismes or Injunctions of Religion much lesse by penall and coercive Statutas which like Persian sheep carry tailes of injurious mulcts and penalties after them that are heavier then their bodies Answ Answ Of Christian Liberty Nil tam voluntarium quam religio cogi non potest longâ— diversa sunt carnificina est charitas nec potest veritas cum vi aut justitia cum crudelitate conjungi Defendenda est religio non occidenda sed monendo non savitia sed sapientia non scelere sed fide Si animus a versus sit jam sublata est jam nulla religio Lactant. li. Just 5. c. 20. Religionis non est cogere religionem quae spâ—nte suscipi debet non vi Tertul. l. ad Scap. So Constâ—â—tine the Great would have no man compeld but perswaded to Religion Aliâ—d est certamen pro religione sponte suscipere aliud supplicii metu cogi Euseb Eccl. l. 10. cap. 5. There is no Jewell which Swine delight more to weare in their Snouts than this of Liberty which how well it becomes such sordid and indocible cattel those excellent Christians can best judge who are worthy to enjoy so pretious a token of Christs love to his Church as knowing best how to value it and use it I know well that true Christian Religion ought not to be made a snare or an harrow or a rack or an heavy yoak or an Egyptian bondage to mens mindes and Consciences this were to turn the sweetest vine into a sharp bramble and the figtree into a thorn Nor is there any thing which Christians should be more tender of as the * 1. Concil Eph. cap. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephesme Fathers most piously admonish than their own and others true liberties which Christ hath purchased with his pretious bloud of which both Christian Magistrates and chiefly Ministers should be most exact keepers and conscientious defenders lest piety prove an oppression and the bracelets or ornaments of Religion become the chains of hypocrisie and manacles of superstition binding such heavy burthens on mens consciences which God hath not imposed wherein the severer heights and tyrannies of men are prone to usurp upon the ingenuous kingdome and gracious dominion of Christ where none is a subject but he that enjoyes that free Spirit which David prayes to be established with Psal 51.12 and none is free but he that willingly takes up Christs yoak and burthen Matth. 11.30 which are light and easie but yet not loose or slack For Jesus Christ having redeemed us from the greatest slavery and spirituall bondage hath indeed invested his Church with the noblest immunities and governs it by the divinest liberties which drawing is by the cords of Gods love to us set forth in his Word and binding us with love to God and for his sake to one another by so much includes all true liberty Libera est apud Deum servitus cum non necessitas sed charitas servit Aust Quo sanctior quisque eo solutior Gibe Beata servitus quae dominatienem generat sempiternam Chrys l. 114. as it wholly consists of love whose very life and essence is liberty It being impossible to command consent or to compell love which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most absolute Soveraigne of it selfe and under no Empire but that of God who is love and perfect liberty And our Liberty is then truly Christian and divine which onely is desirable because onely true when it is such as Christ hath purchased for and God hath revealed to his Church in his Word with which men must seriously advise and not with their own wanton and extravagant fancies if they would bee informed what that liberty is which onely becomes true Christians who of all men have the least sinfull licentiousnesse indulged to them I finde there are no people more vehement boasters of and sticklers for this which they call Christian liberty than those who least understand it Tertuâ—lian tels of the Gnosticks promiscuous lusts in their Agapae Extincta lucerna in promiscuos amplexus taunt Hinc in Christianos ista infamia Scorpia fo Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. So S. Austin of the Gnosticks Manichees and others who held nisi iniquissima quaque operenâ—ur Diaboli vimse non posse effagere Hanc esse redemptionem hanc vitam sine tremore So Irenaeus of the Carpâ—eratians and others that held nothing morally good or evill all actions lawfull onely they must beleive in Christ Sela humana opinione negotia mala bona esse dicunt Lib. 1. c. 24. most abuse it themselves and are most impatient to allow it to others if once they get such power as makes them able to oppresse none are more insolent or lesse tolerating those things even in Religion to others for which they plead more of conscience both as to Gods and mans Laws than these objectors themselves can doe Nor can any the most modest plea for Christian liberty be heard by those who were formerly so lowdly clamorous for the name when indeed they did not either intend or rightly understand what the thing is It will be then a work of Charity and an effect of that love which I owe to these men for Christs sake in whom alone our liberties are sounded and conserved to free them from that captivity of errors and bondage of extravagant passions wherewith they are oppressed and abused even in this great point of Christian Liberty Then which as there is nothing which sinfull men could lesse deserve so nor is there any thing they can naturally lesse rightly use or more grossely mistake and abuse There is no Jewell with which Christ hath endowed his Spouse the Church and every true beleever for
to cover with the painâ— and palliatings of Christian liberty Which being a pure and spotlesse Virgin the highest beauty which a Christian can here be inamour'd of and which he courts with all modesty purity and respect on earth hoping to have the full fruition of it in heaven disdains above all things to be abused by those bold and filthy ravishers who like the inordinate monsters of Gibeah Judg. 19. will never think their licentious lusts satisfied untill they have killed the Levites concubine Destroying indeed all true Christian liberty which is preserved onely by good order and government both in the Church and State while they prostitute truths duties institutions Ministry and Magistracy to all manner of insolencies and confusion Assistentem in omni munditia Angelum dicebant invâ—câ—bant Hanc esse aiebam perfectam operatiorem sine tremore ri tales abire operationes quas ne nominare quidem fas est Irenae l. 1. cap. 35. de Cainitis Jâ—daitis Ophitis as if Christians were never free enough till they were without all sense of sin and shame till they neither feared God nor reverenced man till they had broken all the bands of civill justice and cast away the cords of all religious discipline from them as the Cainites Judaites Ophites Adamites and others of old Which most inordinate liberty is no more to be enjoyed or desired by any good Christian than that of the Demoniack who being oft bound with chaines and fetters Luk. 8.29 yet brake them all and was driven of the Devill into deserts among the graves often dashing him against the stones and casting him into fire and water Such will be the sad fate of every Christian Church and State which either affects or tolerates any such impious fanatick unlawfull and unholy liberties contrary to that purity equity order and decency which is necessary to that religion which they professe as Christian Therefore no wonder if the Lord by his word and his true Ministers daily rebukes this unclean spirit and seeks to cast out of this Church such an untamable Divell which hath already got too much possession in many mens mindes Act. 19.27 who are prone to deifie every Diana as an image come downe from heaven if it be but set up in the silvershrine of this popular goddesse Liberty which of all puppetly Idols lately consecrated to vulgar adoration I can least of all Idolize as that which I see to have least of divinity or humanity in it either as to piety equity purity or charity Yet is no man a more unfained servant and votary of that true and divine Liberty which becomes Christians which preserves truth peace order and holinesse among men both in private and publique regards both in Church and State and in this I wish all men my rivalls in the ambition and sharers with me in the fruition which will then be most when we get our hearts most freed from that heavy bondage wherewith errour pride passion self-seeking and the like cruell task-masters under the great oppressing Pharaoh Aegyptiaca est illa servitus sub jugo Pharaonis Diaboli fiunt lutea opera terrena sordida dissoluta ab ipso dantur paleae i. e. leves malae cogitationes quae delectatione accenduntur inde actione coquuntur lateres consuerudine indurantur Ber. p. Ser. 34. Extremà est dementiae in infima servitâ—â—e vilissima captivitate de libertate gloriari quasi cloacarum fordibus immersus totus foedus inquinatus de pigmentisâ—â—uis fragrantia juctitâ—res Erasm the Divell doe seek to enslave the soules and consciences of men by so much the baser slavery by how much they fancy their slavery to be liberty their freedom to sin to be that freedome from sin which Christ hath purchased which dangerous mistake makes them love their bondage to bore their eares and to be most offended with those who seek to shew them their desperate errors and divellish thraldom which is the greatest severity of divine vengeance in this world upon men by giving them over to Satan or up to their own hearts lusts Yet this false and damnable liberty is by some men earnestly contended for and imperiously claimed in the way of publique toleration 7 Some mens impudent demand of an intolerable toleration that they or any men may professe as to Religion what they list being prone through pride and ignorance to think that no opinion they hold or practise they doe is irreligious profane blasphemous or intolerable nor ought by any just severity or penalty bee restrained or punished Carpocraâ—iani Valentiniani et Gnostici c. portentosas quasque libidines non licitas tanâ—am statuebant sed tanquam gradus aliquos quibus in coelum ascendatur Iren. l. 1. Gratâ— revigilantibus â—â—iâ— ea molestia quae non patiâ—◠〈◊〉 tanquam mortifeâ—d sâ—â—no veternoso morbo in terire Aust Whereas Christians truly blessed with tender Consciences and meeknesse of wisdome are most willing to be kept within Christs bounds and loathest to take any liberty either in opinion or manners beyond what in the truth of the Word or in charity to the publique peace and order is permitted Humble knowledge makes Christians most tractable yea and thankfull to those either Ministers or Magistrates whose love and fidelity to them will least tolerate any error or sin in them without reproof and just restraint Others whom ignorance makes proud and pride erroneous and both unruly are ready to esteem all they hold or vent or dare to act especially under colour of religion for in civill affaires they are afraid of the sword to be so commendable at least tolerable that they merit Tunc ei plâ—renetico utilissimus misericordissimus cum et adverâ—issimâ—s molestissimus videtur Aust Ep 48. de coere Haeret. if not concurrence and approbation from all men yet at least coâ—nivence and toleration nor may they be touched or curbed by any authority in Church or State be their extravagancies never so pernicious and blasphemous but presently they make huge outcryes of persecution as if all were persecutors who helped to â—â—inde a mad man or to put a roaring drunkard into the cage which measure of healing them is best both for them and for others too and is not to be used to any but those that are truly such disorderly and distempered spirits I conceive it most clear and certain both in right Reason and true Religion that the prudence piety and charity of Governors in Church and State ought to move in that middleway between tolerating all differences and none in matters of Religion wherein men are variously to be considered according to that profession which they own and make of Religion Sure none are to be tolerated in blaspheming or insolencing that religion which is established by publique consent or laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.1 Tit. 3.11 and which they professe in common with others being in
of fixation as to the publique profession else there will hardly be any civill peace preserved among men who least endure and soonest quarrell upon differences in Religion each being prone to value his own and contemn anothers Nulla res efficâ—cius homines regit quam religio Curt. l. 4. These things of publique piety thus once setled by Scripture upon good advice ought by all swasive rationall and religious means to be made known by the publique Ministry to the people for so Christ hath ordained and the Church alwayes observed to which Ministry which I have proved to be of Gods institution Separatim nemo habessit Deos neve novos Tul. de leg Rom. and so most worthy of mans best favour and encouragement publique and orderly attendance for time place and manner ought to bee enjoyned upon all under that power for their necessary catechi and instruction And this with some penalties inflicted upon idle wilful and presumptuous neglects Nihil ita facit ad dissidium ac de Deo dissensio Naz. orat 8. Solos credit habendos Quisque Deos quos ipse colit Iuv. Sat. 15. Aegypti cum diversi cultus Deâ—â— habeâ—ant mutuis bellis se impâ—tebant Dio. l. 42. when no ground of conscience or other perswasion or reason is produced by those that are not yet of years of discretion if any of riper years and sober understanding plead a dissent they ought in all charity and humanity be dealt with by religious reasonings and meeknesse of wisdome if so be they may so be brought to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 1.25 But if either weaknesse of capacity or wilfulnesse and obstinacy suffer them not to be convinced What toleration becomes Christians and so to conform to the publique profession of Religion I doe not think that by force and severities of punishment they ought to be compelled to professe or to do that in Religion of which they declare an unsatisfaction in judgment yet may they both in justice and charity be so tyed to their good behaviour that they shall not under great penalties either rudely speak write or act against or openly blaspheme profane and disturb or contradict and contemn the Religion publiquely professed and established And however the welfare of this publique is not so concerned in what men privately hold as to their judgement and opinion thoughts being as the Embryos of another freer world yet when they come to be brought forth to publique notice in word or deed they justly fall under the care Facientis culpant obtiner qui quod poterit corrigere negligeremendare Reg. Iur. and censure both of the Magistrate to restrain them as relating to the good of community and of the Minister to reprove them as his duty and authority is in the Church If in lesser things which are but the lace and fringe of the holy vestment the verge and Suburbs of Religion established Christians doe so dispute and differ Ordo Evangelici Ministerii est cardo Christianae religionis Gerard. Tolle Ministerium tolle Christum is one of the divels politick maximes as not to trench upon fundamentall truths neither blaspheming the Majesty of God or of the Lord Jesus Christ or of the blessed Spirit or the authority of the holy Scriptures nor breaking the bounds of clear morals nor violating the order of the holy Ministry of Christs Church which is the very hinge of all Christian Religion nor yet wantonly dissolving that bond of Christian communion in point of extern order peace and comely administrations of holy things other private differences and dissentings no doubt may be fairly tolerated as exercises of charity and disquisitions of truth wherein yet even the lesser as well as greater differences which arise in Religion are far better to be publiquely and solemnly considered of prudently and peaceably composed if possible than negligently and carelesly tolerated as wounds and issues are better healed with speed than tented to continued Ulcers and Fistulas I am confident wise humble and charitable Christians 8. The mean between Tyranny and Toleration in publique eminency of power and piety would not finde it so hard a matter as it hath been made through roughnesse of mens passions and intractablenesse of their spirits raised chiefly by other interests carryed on than that of Christ true Religion and poor people soules if they would set to it in Gods name to reconcile the many and greatest religious differences which are among both Christian and reformed Churches if they would fairly separate what things are morall clear and necessary in Religion from what are but prudentiall decent or convenient and remove from both these what ever is passionate popular and superfluous in any way which weak men call and count Religion if the many headed Hydra of mens lusts passions and secular ends were once cut off so that no sacriledge or covetousnesse or ambition or popularity or revenge should sowre and leaven reformation or obstruct any harmony and reconciliation sure the work would not be so Herculean but that sober Christians might be easily satisfied and fairly lay down their uncharitable censures and damning distances Instances in Church Government It is easie to instance in that one point of Church government as to the extern form what unpassionate stander by sees not but it might easily have been composed in a way full of order counsell and fraternall consent so that neither Bishops as fathers nor Presbyters as brethren nor people as sons of the Church should have had any cause to have complained * ubi metus in deum ibi gravitas honesta diligentia attonita cura solicita adlectio explorata communicatio deliberata promotio emerita subjectio religiosa apparitio devota profâ—ssio modesta Ecclesia unita Dei omnia Tertul. ad Haer. c. 43. or envyed or differed So in the election triall and ordination of Ministers also in the use and power of the keyes and exercise of Church discipline who in reason sees not that as these things concern the good of all degrees of the faithfull in the Church so they might as in St. Cyprian's and all primitive times have beeen carried on in so sweet an order and accord as should have pleased and profited all both the Ordainers and the ordained with those for whose sakes Ministers are ordained So in the great and sacred administration of the mysterious and venerable Sacraments especially that of the Lords Supper which concerns most Christians of years how happily and easily might competent knowledge an holy profession of it and an unblameable conversation be carried on by both pastors and people with Christian order care and charity so as to have satisfied all those who make not Religion a matter of gain revenge State policy or faction but of conscience and duty both to God and their neighbour Secular interests the pests of the Church and their own soules
which was the harmonious way of primitive Christians in persecution when no State factions troubled the purer streams of that doctrine government and discipline which the Churches had received from the divine fountaines and had preserved sweet amidst the bitter streams and great stormes of persecution when no interest was on foot among Christians but that of Christ's to save soules which did easily keep together in humble and honest hearts piety and humanity zeale and meeknesse mens understandings and affections constancy in fundamentall truths and tolerancy in lesser differences That Truth and Peace Order and Unity might kisse each other and as twins live together the foundations remain unviolable while the superstructures might be varied as much as hay and stubble are from gold and silver 1 Cor. 3.12 That the faith of Christians might not serve to begin or nourish feuds nor Christians who are as lines drawn from severall points of saiths circumference yet to the same center Christ Jesus might ever crosse and thwart one another to the breach of charity but still keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace The same Faith invariable Ephes 4.3 as once delivered to the Saints yet with those latitudes of private charity which Gods indulgence had allowed to true wisdome and which an inoffensive liberty grants in many things to sober Christians I doe not despair but that such bloud may one day yet run in the veins of this Church of England which is now almost faint and swooning by the losse of much bloud which civil wars and secular interests have let out which may recover it to strength and beauty both in doctrine and discipline Yet will it never be the honour of those men to effect it who trust onely to military force or intend either to set up any one violent saction or a loose toleration in religion It will be little lesse indeed than a miracle of divine mercy and Christian moderation which must recover the spirit and life the purity and peace of this Church In the best setled Church or State Christian 9. An excellent way for unity and peace in the Church I conceive it were a happy and most convenient way for calming and composing all differences rising in Religion to have as the Jews had their Sanhedrin or great Assembly if we in England had some setled Synod or solemn Convocation of pious grave and learned men before whom all opinions arising to any difference Twise a year Synods were in primitive times appointed where the Bishops and other chief Fathers of the Church met to consider of Doctrines and disputes in religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Apoc. 36. Which undoubtedly shew the practise and minde of the primitive times soon after the Apostles from what is once setled should be debated publiquely deliberated of seriously and charitably composed if not definitively determined that so the main truths may be preserved unshaken which concern faith and holinesse on which grounds peace and charity in every Church ought to be continued So that none under great penalty should vent any doctrine in publique by preaching or printing different from the received and established way before he had acquainted that Consistory or Councell with it and had from them received approbation so that no man should be punishable for his error what ever he produced before them but might either * Vtili terrori doctrina salutaris adjungatur Aust Et deâ—â— ipse nos sâ—â—oite dâ—ceâ— salâ—bâ—i tâ—r â—â—rrâ—â— receive satisfaction from them or only this charge and restraint that he keep his opinion to himselfe till God shew him the truth and that he presume not to divulge it save onely in private conference to others and that in a modest and peaceable manner In matters of judgement and opinion where no man is accountable for more than he can understand and upon grounds of right reasoning either beleive or know much prudence tendernesse and charity is to be used which will easily distinguish between honest simplicity privately dissenting upon plausible grounds or harmlesly erring without design and that turbulent pertinacy by which pride is resolved as a dry nurse to bring up by hand at the charge and trouble of others every novell and spurious opinion which an adulterous or wanton fancy lists to bring forth though there be no milk for it in the breasts of Reason or Scripture rightly understood The first is as Joseph out of his way wandring and desiring to be directed whom it is charity to reduce to the right way The second is like sturdy Vagabonds who are never out of their way but seek to seduce others that they may rob or murther them these ought to be justly punished and restrained The first is as cold water which may dabble and disorder one that fals into it yea and may drown him too but the other is as falling into scalding hot water which pride soone boyles up to malice and both to publique trouble unlesse it be thus wisely prevented before it have like fire a publique vent for commonly pertinacy of men ariseth more from the love of credit and applause which they think they have got or may lose or from some other advantage they aim at than barely from any esteem they have of the opinions wherein they innovate which brats of mens brains not their beauty but their propriety and relation commends to an eager maintaining Mallent semper errare quam semel errasse videri which in a publique debate by wise and impartiall men of high credit and reputation for their learning gravity and integrity will be so blasted that they will hardly ever after thrive or spread De Nerva dictum Res insociabiles miscuit Imperium liberitatem Tacit. This or the like care of Christian Magistrates by way of rationall restraints charitable convictions and just repressings of all factious and â—â—rbulent innovations in Religion being full of wisedome 〈◊〉 charity and just policy for the publique and private good of men may not be taxed with the least suspicion of tyranny nor may wise and good men startle at the name and outcry of persecution which some proud or passionate opiniasters may charge upon them any more than good Pati non est Christianae justitiae certum documentum ut Donatistae meritò repressi â—ociferabent Aust Ep. 163. Physitians or Chirurgeons should be moved from the Rules of their art and experiences by the clamors and imputations of cruelty from those that are full of foolish pity when they are forced to use rougher Physick Matth. 5.10 Blessed are they that are persecuted but it must be for righteousnesse sake and such severer medicines which the disease and health of the Patient doth necessarily require of them unlesse they would flatter the disease to destroy the man or spare one part to ruine the whole body It is indeed an * Lev. 19.17 hating of our brother and partaking of his sin
and so a persecuting of his soul to let him hunt the divels suit without check and to follow the trains of errour Steriles fugiendae sunt passines Aust by which he leades men to perdition when it is in our way of charity much more in out place and authority to endeavour to convert or at least stop him so as others may not be perverted by him Good husbands will not forbear for their lowd crying to ring and yoke those Swine Non omnis qui parcit amicus est nec omnis qui verberat inimicus melius est cum severitate diligere quam cum lenitate decipere Aust de coercendis Haereticis Ep. 48. vid. Perpende non quid pateâ—is sed quare quo modo Lact. Inst l. which they see doe root up the pastures break through the fences and wast the corn yet still they leave even these beasts freedom enough to feed themselves and live orderly but not mischievously Although the man in every one is to be treated humanely and the Christian Christianly with all reason and charity because the Creator is to be reverenced in every creature and Christ in every Christian yet the Beast or Divell which may be even in regenerâ—ted men must be used accordingly that the man may be preserved though the other be restrained as we do without injury to those that are mad or daemoniack to whom if sober men should allow what liberty they affect cry out and strive for it were to proclaim themselves to all the world the madder of the two Salute reparata tanto uberius gratias agunt quanto minus fiti quemque pepe cisse sentiuut Aust Ep. 48. of the Donatists and Circumcelliones reduced by just punishments ab inquâ—eta suae teâ—eritate from their seditious rashnesse And none would have more cause to repent when they came to themselves of those indulgences fondly granted them which they poore men know not how to use but to their own and others harm Indeed those men * Sui juris esse non debet qui nisi in aliorum injuriâ—s vivere nescit Reg. Iur. forfeit their private liberty to the publique discretion and power who will not or cannot use it but to the publique detriment and the injury of others which to prevent or hinder is the highest work of charity None but sons of Belial that is of such as will not indure the yoke in Religion either in piety purity or charity nor suffer others to enjoy the benefit of it in peace and order can desire such a * Adâ—ò libere esse volunt ut nec Deunt habere velâ—â—t Dominum Aust freedom as will not indure the Lord for their God nor man for their Governour who seek to break the staves of beauty and of bonds on their Shepheards heads or to wrest the keys out of their hands who like wild asses would be left to feed in the wilderness to their own barren fancies and to snuffe up the winde of their own or others vain opinions till they are starved and destroyed rather than be kept in good pasture with due limits There is a damnable and damning Liberty a Toleration which the Divels would enjoy who would soone destroy all things on which is any Image of the Creators glory if the sharp curb and weighty chains of Gods omnipotency were not upon them both immediately and mediately through that wisdome care courage and authority which he gives to Christian Magistrates and Ministers to resist and to bind up Satan If they then that are thus furnished by God with just power in Church and State should leave the things of God in matters of Religion as outwardly professed to such liberties that all men may run which ways they please of ignorance errour atheism prophanenesse blasphemy being seduced and seducing others if they take no care that younger people bee catechised and others duly attend the publique duties of that religion which is established and which they still professe Vbi non est veritas merito talis est disciplina Ter. if they should neither stop nor restrain any man in any course of opinion or practise which he cals Conscience without giving any account of Reason or Scripture for it to those in Authority Certainly such an intolerable Toleration letting every one doe what seemes right in their own eyes Iudg 21.21 in the things of God and onely to look exactly to civill interests and safety is to make Magistratick power Rom. 13. which is Gods Ordinance for the good of mankinde to concurre with the malice of the Divels and that innate folly vanity and madnesse which is in mens hearts to the ruine of simple multitudes who cannot sin or miscarry eternally in such sinfull liberties irreligious and tolerations but at the cost and charge of the Magistrates souls if they be Christian and are perswaded of the truth of that Religion as we read the master became a trespasser or murtherer and was put to death who knowingly suffered his petulant Ox to enjoy such a liberty Exod. 21.29 as ended in the damage or destruction of his neighbours goods or life 10. Such Toleration is but a subtill persecution A toleration of any thing as to publique profession among Christians under the notion of Christian liberty is but the divels finest and subtillest way of persecution for he is as sure to gain by such indulgences as weeds doe by the husbandmans or Gardners negligence or lothnesse to pluck them up for fear of hurting the corn or good plants which when they are fully discerned to be but weeds as they are not possibly to be puld up by mans hand as to the private errours and hypocrisies of mens hearts which are to be left to the great Judge and Searcher of hearts so nor may they rashly be pulled up by every one that sees them lest injury be done to the good seed but yet they are not carelesly and sluggishly to bee suffered to * The Manichees forbad to pull up any weeds out of a field or garden Aust de Mani Agrum spinis purgari nefas putant quod plantae sentiunt overgrow and choak the good plants As if nothing were true fixed and certaine in religion nothing hereticall corrupt and damnable in opinion and doctrine nothing immorall unlawfull and abominable in practise nothing perverse uncharitable and uncomely in seditions schisms and separations We read frequently the zeal care and courage of Magistrates Princes and Priests among the Jews Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29. Josiah 2 Chron. 34. much commended for reforming Religion restoring true wayes of piety suppressing all abuses in Religion Certainly it is not lesse a duty nor lesse pleasing to God now among Christians to take all care that the name of Christ be not blasphemed nor the way of truth perverted or evill spoken of We read also the Spirit of Christ reproving as a great sin and omission of duty Rev. 2.14 20. that
maintenance and by so spoiling and distressing the Ministry he shall be sure to pillage and lay waste in a short time Answ 1. The vilenesse and sordidnesse of such spirits all the reformed Religion and face of any Church in England This thirsty and covetous Divell is the eldest son of Pluto Beelzebubs Steward a perfect hater of the true God a servant of Mammon the very ghost of Nabal a child of darknesse an enemy to all saving light so deformedly black that he is ashamed to shew his face but under the veil of religious and reforming pretences his envious eyes Matth. 26.8 like Judasses cannot endure to see any costly effusions which the devout and liberall piety of former times have powred upon the heads of Christ and his Ministers which some men would now make to be but an Omen vers 12. or presage that their death and buriall is not far off The envy and anger of these Antiministeriall adversaries is dayly and lowdly clamorous in speech and pamphlets To what purpose is this waste might not the Glebes and Tythes be sold and better imployed when there are so many frugall undertakers who are able and willing to preach the Gospell gratis who would be no burthen to the people Joh. 12.6 Non nulli pari dolere commoda aliena ac suas injurias metiuntur Tacit. hist 1. 2 Cor. 2.16 Maâ— 3.8 Not that Judas cared for the poore nor these for the people but because he was a thief c. What these envious objecters will be time will best shew at present their eyes are evill because other mens have been good and as by an ignorant confidence they contradict the Apostles question Who is sufficient for these things so by a sacrilegious ingratitude they hasten to answer the Prophets question or rather the Lords Will a man rob God Yes these projectors for Atheism Barbarity and profanenesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l 3. Ep. 24. would fain perswade this whole Nation to join with their cruell and covetous design to rob so many honest men and able Ministers of that maintenance which their learning and labours merit which they have a right to as by law so by the possession of many hundred years that so they may at once rob this Church of the blessing of the true Christian reformed Religion and rob God also of that honor and holy service which both privately and publiquely is done to him by thousands of his servants the Ministers of this Church It is no wonder if those that grudge at the cost bestowed on Christ meditate to betray him and had rather make a benefit or save something by his death than see any thing bestowed on him while he lives though it be by others bounty For alas what these men grudge at as given to Ministers is little or nothing out of their own purses or estates Nor is it given by them to Ministers any more than the rent they justly pay to their Landlords Isai 52.5.6 But what can vile men meditate save onely vile things Sacriledge against the light of Nature Jer. 2.11 Plato calls Sacriledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De leg c. 9. And indeed what can be more sordidly vile or should bee more strange and lesse named among those that are called Christians and reformed too than such degenerations from the very dictates of nature and the common sense of all Nations Hath any nation changed its gods And if they retained them as Gods did ever any Nation rob and spoil their gods which yet were not gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polyb. l. 6. Ask among the heathen and let them teach these unchristian spirits was it not always esteemed among men as an act of piety and honor and vertue to devote any thing to the service Facultates numini sacratas nulla lex nullas casus facit caducas Sym. m. V. and worship of their Gods as a thankfull acknowledgement of that homage they owed and that dependence they had on the divine bounty Was it not likewise counted in all times a most * Act. 19.37 impudent and flagitious villany to take take away any thing rightly dedicated to divine and holy uses So far the very light of nature taught men to abhor such execrable theeveries and rapines that it was by the * Sacrum sacrove commendarum qui dempserit rapseritve paricida esto Leg. 12. Tab. Soli cum Diis sacrilegi pugnant Curt. l. 7. Romanes esteemed as paricide or murther of parents worse then Treason a fighting against God It was esteemed an high ingratitude not to devote and and dedicate something how much more to alien or take away from Gods service who is the giver of all Now Puniuns sacrilegos Ethâ—ici cum ipsi de deorum potestate diffidunt Lact. Just l. 3. c. 4. why any Christians should take any such liberty against their God which the very heathens abominated and which the primitive Christians never practised but contrarily dedicated many great and rich things to the service of God in his Church which were called Patrimonium crucifixi Donaria fidei Anathemata Dominica Deposita pietatis the pledges of piety the bounty of beleevers Sacrilegio proâ—cimum est crimen laesa majestatis Justini Leg. Jul. Tert. Apol. the donatives of love deposited with Christ a faithful repayer no lesse than an ampler deserver of all things I can see no cause but onely that the divell and evill men have more spite at our Religion in England both as Christian and as reformed than at any other and therefore they envy any thing Irenauâ— l. 4. cap. 34. Origen in Nume cap. 18. hom 11. that may be any means to continue or incourage it And since he could not keep us in Idolatry he tempts us to Sacriledge which the * Rom. 2.22 Apostles question clearly implyes to be a sin equally or more abominable to God The one robbing him of his service by a false worship the other of the meanes dedicated to maintain his true service and worship Theodâ—ret l. 3. cap. 6. Which was one of the desperate projects of Julian against Christian Religion who tooke away the gifts and holy vessels which Constantine the Great had given to the Churches use and Ministers maintenance with this scoffe See in what goodly vessels the Nazaren is served But the great grievance which these men cry out of 2. Against maintenance of Ministers by Tithes and hope will be very taking with tender conscienced covetousnesse is this That the Ministers of the Gospell should have Tithes At these they are scandalized as much as a Jew would be at eating of Swines flesh They are so afraid of turning Jews by paying Tithes to Ministers that they had rather turn Turkes by taking quite away both Tithes and Ministers Matth. 23 2â— How well doth our blessed Saviours severity fit these mens hypocrisies while they strain at the gnat of Tithes and swallow
down the Camels of rapine and Sacriledge they stumble at the straws of Tithes and leap over the beames of cruelty and unjustice Tithes due by a civill right of Donation anâ— Law cannot justly be taken away See Sir Edward Coke on Lit. Ten. l. 1. c. 9. Sect. 73. An. 850. King Ethel wulp with the Prelates and Princes in severall Provinces of all England gratuito consensu of their free will endowed the Church with the tithes of lands goods and chattels cum decimis terrarum benorum aliorum sive catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph Qui augere voluerit nostram donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos Si quis verò mutare vel deminuere praesumpserit noscaise ad Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emnedaverit In lib. Abingd Quod divini juris est id nullius in bonis est Iust In stit l. 2 tit 1. Prov. 20.25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make enquiry For if God had no right to require or there were no word commanding the Tenths to be devoted to his service who is Lord and donor of all or if he had never assigned this right since himself needs nothing to his servants the Ministers under the Gospell as he did most clearly under the Law yet sure the Proprietors which were Princes or Peers or people of this land our pious progenitors had a civill right to the land and the fruits thereof which no Law of God ever forbad them to dedicate as they had a mind to the service of God or any portion of it as they pleased to the maintenance of the Ministery of the Gospell Nay they as all men were incouraged yea and commanded to honour God with their substance Prov. 3.9 This they have often done by the full and frequently renewed consent of all Estates in this Nation for many hundred of years past establishing by curses or Anathemas and by civill laws the dedication of those Tithes which are Feudum Dei Gods fee and his Ministers chiefest maintenance So that if these Antidecimists cannot think them sufficiently proved to be Gods immediate gift to his Ministers yet they may easily see it is mans gift to God that is for the maintaining of his publique service and Ministry of the Church whereof the donation cannot but be both in Reason and Religion very lawfull and so the enjoyment of them at least in that tenure very just since it was done by the right owners to a very right and good end Nor doe I see how the alienation of them from that holy use can be lawfull now by the will of any men since the title and propriety is now in God though the use of the fruit be in in the Ministers of God as his Feodataries and tenants or homagers 2. Not honorably or piously And if there could be a lawfull resumption by posterity or an abrogation of the will of this Nation in what it hath thus dedicated and given to God if this could be done without a crying sin of sacriledge yet doubtlesse the piety and honor of this Nation is still such in all worthy mention that it would never be done by a free Parliamentary and publique vote * Nemo potest mutare consiliâ—n suum in alterius praejudicjum Reg. Iuis since if all humanity and honour forbids any man to resume the gifts of charity which hee hath once given to poore men whereto they have both mans and Gods right as freely given to them for Gods sake by the lawfull owners much more doth all piety and religion forbid any men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take away Eusebius tels that before the ruine of Ierusalem so impudent and violent were wicked men that they took away the Tithes and benefit of the Altar from the Priests so as many died for want Hist Eccles l 2. c. 20. or subduce by force or fraud as Ananias and Saphira did any thing that is once by themselves or others dedicated to God especially in such a way of service which he requires in his Word That is for the maintenance of that order government and Ministry of holy things which the Lord hath appointed in his Church Which cannot be done without necessary subsidies of life for Ministers as men And since a power of demanding and receiving maintenance is in the true Ministers of the Gospell in Christs name as the Apostle Paul proves no doubt there is no lesse power in Christian people of giving them or rather paying them as * Act. 53. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to ly to the Holy Ghost and to keep back or defraud and purloin part of the price of the land * 1 Cor. 9 6 7 8 c. Gal. 6 6. a due debt both in divine and humane equity either in occasionall and moveable maintenance or fixed and perpetuall The first was the way of Ministers and Bishops alimony in the primitive unsetled and persecuting times Ne invidia Clericis obveniat de possâ—ssionibus Ecclesia obtulit plebi B. Augustinus malle se ex collationibus vivere ut antiqui Sed id Laici suscipere noluerunt Poss vit Aust when Christians could not expect to be long masters of their own estates in lands nor could they endow any Minister or Church with any part of them to perpetuity yet then in those hard and perilous times we read in Ecclesiasticall stories that the liberall gifts and free will offerings of all manner of good things from the devout Laity to the the then most deserving Clergy amounted to more than the after setled means by way of Tithes Which way of maintenance was as anciently so generally setled in all Christians Churches after Constantines time 3. Nor wisely as well as in England The benefit of which as in all other things Am. Marcel lib. 27. De Damaso Ursicino pro sede Episcopali ad caedem sanguinem civium contendentibus Hanc enim inquit adepti suturi sunt ita secuâ—i ut direntur oblatienibus matronarum procedantque vehiculi circumspecte vestiti epulin â—â—rantes profusâ—s edeo ut eorum convivia regales superent mensai Primitias tem â—re regis Canuti contribuâ—bant Ecclesiae quam contributionem Semen Ecclesiae Church seed appellabant Fleta l. 1. c 37. St. Austin complains in his time Majores nostri ideo copiis omnibus abundabant quis deo Decimas dâ—bant Caesari censam reddebant Modo autem quia discesserit devotio dei accessit indictio fisci Nolumus partiri cum Deo decemas modo autem ictum tollitur Aust hom 48. thus given by beleevers to God as a grateful acknowledgment of his dominion over us and all we have of his bounty conferring all upon us of his mercy vouchsafing to accept from us any portion of that which is his own returnes indeed to the bosome of
superstitio in divinis Verul Religionis siâ—ia quo similior eo deformior Mimick and Ape or the wen and excrescency of Religion an Hydropick holinesse a nimiety of piety an overboyling devotion which at length quencheth it self that this should put true Reformation to the blush * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. Prov. 19.4 Poverty is alwayes attended with shame or impudence among the vulgar and though it have no cloak yet it needs one to cover its own confusion and to keep it from vulgar contempt O how large hearted and liberall handed in former times and at present in other Churches and Countries is that Religion which is commendable as it is Christian and liberall however reformable as it is blameable for the taints of errour and superstition which have in many things infected it What hath more splendor what more plenty what more superfluity than those that are of the Roman Clergy who have more vacancy to their studies Qui mirantur opâ—s qui nulla exempla beati Pauperis essè putant Iuven. Sat. 14. devotion and publique duties than their Ecclesiasticks or Church men of all degrees who have learned to use now those things far better than it may be former luxury and dissolution did which occasioned many worthy mens complaint of the abuses and faults but not their envy at the enjoyments The moderation of the English Church in this part of Reformation was at first very nobly commendable and most worthy of the generous piety of this Nation which did not deny or grudge Church men to have good and great maintenance or honour but only required that such means should still have good Ministers They never applauded as these new Projecters do for a most heavenly Oracle that voice which is faigned to have been offended with Constantines munificence to the Church Hodie venemum cecidit in Ecclesiam as if it had been poysoned when inriched Nor did they thinke Religion throughly reformed till it was starved nor Ministers mended enough till they were stark naked or flead Nor had heretofore the common and plain hearted people those pestilent principles which now the dregs of men have here in England taught them That an hundred pound a year is more than any Minister can well spend or deserve It were good that these men would first try themselves that measure which they mete to Ministers Certainly nothing is too little for Church men if they lead men to falâ—e gods or to a false worship but nothing too much for them if they teach men to serve the true God in a true way Nor may these poor spirited men object against Ministers 10. Answer to the poverty of the Primitive Clergy the poverty of the primitive Apostles Bishops and Presbyters when the times and the estates of Christians are now much changed from those difficulties and necessities which then pressed upon all sorts of Christians To be sure if Christian people gave not then much of their own estates to their Ministers yet they never thought of taking away what their Ministers had as being too much for them But there is no doubt that one beam of Christian love bounty and respect in after setled and plentifull times which were very pure and primit ve too was more warm and comfortable to their Bishops and Presbyters than all the large streaming tayles of these modern comets and meteors of Reformation whose malign and dâ—refull aspect against Ministers and all Church men is no way recompensed by those prodigious shews and pretensions of propagating the Gospell or furnishing the world with purer and brighter shinings than ever were in the Church who shall be lamps without oil and shine without sustenance Ministers are stars in Christs right hand Revel 2. but not in that sense that they need no fewell to nourish them in a naturall and civill life Such interpretations of Scripture and such entertainment of Ministers in the Church will soon eclipse or extinguish truth and charity honour and gratitude in the reformed Churches and in all Christian professors not onely to man but even toward God who as he hath ordained Ministers to impart to the people of their spirituall things so also he hath commanded people to * Rom. 15.27 communicate to them that are their * 1 Cor. 9.11 Gal. 6.6 Let him that is taught in the Word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things V. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked c. true Pastors and Ministers of all their temporall good things But it is in vain to urge Scriptures to covetous hearers and Sacrilegiâ—us mockers of God and man Nothing is more Apocrypha to those misers than such texts as command honourable maintenance for the Ministers of the Gospell first recover the primitive bounty and charity of peoples hearts and hands to the Clergy before you reduce the Clergy to primitive uncertainty But why doe not these muck-worms and no men who would gnaw the very bones and carkases of Ministers with the same teeth bite at other mens estates as well as Ministers which are far greater every way who yet doe lesse service to the publique either to God or man to Church or State than the able and faithfull Ministers doe since these whining objectors have such a pain and wringing colick in their bowels against Ministers having any setled competent and decent way of maintenance why doe they not as well complain that the Captains Commanders and Military officers who draw more immediately from the peoples purses have too much for their pay why doe not these men propound that there should be nothing but parity and poverty among the souldiery That they should depend on peoples benevolence for their salary and pay Yet they see that even to these military mens entertainment the poore Ministers must pay not a tenth but of a fifth part of their small hardly earned and hardly gotten meanes arising from their ill paid tithes which are but the wages of their work yet they are rated in taxes as if their livings were their inheritance when all is but for life and to many of them not so good as an ordinary troopers pay few so ample as an ordinary Foot Captains And as for higher Commanders and Colonels all men know they have Military Denaries and armed Bishopricks enjoying much more than is by some men thought fit for any Bishop and Clergy man who with their leaves and without disparagement to any of those sons of thunder had and have as much learning true worth and industry to merit their large entertainments of the publique and they had no lesse grace and true wisdom to use them to the glory of God and the benefit of others than any of these who are so much the favorites of Bellona as to get what they merit and to keep what they have gotten But these Antidecimists who seek to eat through the Bowels of their Mother the Church dare be bold and shew their teeth
the maintenance of Ministers by Tithes that they must needs come up to London to lay their great Bellies at the Parliament-house dore I doe not beleive because I never saw any ground or had experience to think so hardly and uncharitably of any Country-men Farmers or others that are either good Christians or honest men that ever they did or doe complain simply and absolutely against Tithes Possibly they could wish that some things about them were better ordered for the Ministers and their owne greater ease which may be soon done if the values of them were once brought to a just rate and certainty and Collectors appointed as in other Town-rates to gather them in according to the compositions made in money or goods by way of distresse which may as conveniently be done in the Ministers behalf as in any other way of collecting publique rates And if Tithes have sinned in any thing yet what have the glâ—belands of Ministers offended yet there is as much ill will against them as the other though there be evill indeed in neither to any men but such as call good evill and evill good Furthermore to gratifie the plain country man and Farmer with plain dealing who hath the honour above all men in this Nation to be the great supporters by their honest labour and love of the Ministry and Religion in this Church and Nation they may easily consider with themselves how they have no reason in the world to be against paying and maintaining their Ministers by Tithes For first let them but take care and pray to God for a good able and true Minister and study to profit by his holy labours they will never grudge him his dues in Tithes or any thing else for they will finde they have a good penny worth for their Tithes in the blessing of God both on their soules and on their estates if paying their Tithes were wholly their own bounty and gift Which secondly they may consider is not so but they are as a rent charged upon their lands beyond what they pay to their Landlords only the Minister hath some benefit by their labours as they have of his 3. They ought seriously to consider that if Tithes were not by Law assigned to the Ministers maintenance and paid to them either they will return to the Landlords in advance of their rents or else be confiscated into some publique Exchequer for the like or the same or other uses But to be sure no benefit will flow to the Farmers or countrey mans purse by the ebbing of Tithes from the Church and Ministers As for the Landlords Gentlemen or others of estates and revenews in land I know many of them scruple their having any Tithes by the way of Impropriations they never think they thrived the better for them many of them if their fortunes other ways would bear it would willingly give them or at easie rates sell them again to the Churches uses Some to their great honour have freely restored them whom it grieved to see so many small Vicarages and Livings even ready to starve the painfull Ministers in them So that I cannot think any true English Gentleman that is a good Christian would accept or doth covet any such augmentation which may be added with a cuâ—se to his revenews by having the Ministers portion and lot cast into the lap of his inheritance the benefit of which cannot be great but the mischief of it may be very great to his estate his conscience and posterity And besides the sin the shame dishonour and uncomlinesse of such acquisitions cannot be little when once Christians return to their right wits from that popular madnesse giddinesse and greedinesse which may reign for a time who will not in sober senses think it most unworthy of persons of honour learning and ingenuity being Christians and pretending to be more exactly reformed that these having other wayes fair flourishing and blest estates should sell their owne their families their countries and their Churches honour and happinesse which consists in true Religiâ—n and this depends on true and able Ministers and these on competent and constant maintenance as Esau did his birthright and blessing for a messe of pottage for some small sacrilegious additions which carry with them a stain to their names a moth to their Estates and a sting to their conscience Such will be the accepting of Tithes though freely given them by those who have no right to aliâ—nate or dispose them otherwayes than the will of the Donours and piety of the Nation have setled them for maintenance of the Ministry And alas how little emolument will hence arise to splendid and conspicuous estates Tithes like Mole hils in an Evening Sun cast long shadows from little heights the noise may be great the benefit will be little and the comfort none from such morsels taken from the Altar to which there hangs a coal of fire which may destroy even Eagles nests and this with the greatest justice of divine vengeance when Christians consider those robberies and sacriledgâ—s tend as to Gods dishonour to the reproach of Christian reformed Religion so to the unspeakable temporall detriment of any Church and Nation besides the inestimable losse of many poore soules for ever who will soon want Ministers that are able and worthy if there be no other means for them beyond what can be expected in a shamefull and precarious way from arbitrary benevolences which never yet failed to fail in a short time as an Egyptian reed all those that leaned upon them Indeed it is a foul shame for persons of honour professing Christianity to deal worse with their holy men the Ministers of the true God and their onely Saviour Gen. 47.22 than Pharaoh and the Egyptians did with their Priests whose lands they would not buy into the Exchequer rents no not in extream famine but supplyed them freely with bread and preserved to them and their successors the lands dedicated as they thought to the service of their Gods which piety that great and good favorite Joseph approved nor doth any zeal for the true God tempt him to unseasonable exactions sacriledges against the imaginary and reputed gods of the Egyptians And here An address to the Gentry of England in order to the honour of the Ministry while I seriously consider the many and great blessings both of mindes and fortunes which the bounty of God hath liberally bestowed on the English Gentry I am so far from suspecting any such sacrilegious basenesse in them as if they gaped to make a prey of the Priests portion to devoure holy things or to rob the Ministry of their maintenance That I cannot but here take occasion rather to perswade those true Gentlemen whose parts and piety equall their honour and estates that they would out of zeal to the glory of God and love to their Saviour and pity to this Church and Nation come in as the Triarii last assistance and surest reliefe of the reformed
Religion and of the true Ministry of this Church which is almost overborn and oppressed by the cunning and clownish clamours and not by any true valour worth or virtue of their enemies As the Bohemian Nobility and Gentry did with great earnestnesse intercede for Jerom of Prague to the Councell of Constance by their petion subscribed with their names An. 1415. Nothing would be more worthy of that ancient honour which the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation hath gained and enjoyed in all the world than to see now the Christian zeal and gallantry of their spirits therefore the more forward to bear up the dignity of Christs holy Ministry by how much they see so many set to oppose it seeking by contempt to debase it and by poverty to oppresse it presuming that the present Ministers though never so learned godly and faithfull once over burthened with secular necessities will not long be able to assert the honour of their calling nor will any after generation succeed to inherit their poverty and paines but onely such as shall further debase the dignity of the function How glorious were it for honourable and worthy gentlemen Math. 27.57 Joh. 19 38. Mark 15.43 Luk. 23.50 Joseph of Arimathea A rich man an honorable counsellourâ— a good man a just also a Disciple of Christ c. owned Christ dead and begged his body of Pilate c. like Joseph of Arimathea whom good education and experience of true Religion have matured to pious wisdome and sober zeal now to own Jesus Christ when the world is stripping scourging mocking and crucifying of him when he is so much forsaken of those men whose feares dare not own him or whose lusts aim to make a prey of him Now to give the more honour and respect to the true Ministery of this Church by which they have beene baptized and educated in Christian Religion when they see so many vile and illiterate spirits studying to debase the persons striving to destroy the very function This were worthy of a true gentleman whom vertue and grace more then birth and relations make such to stand by the forsaken to countenance the dejected to pity the oppressed and at least to Petition and intercede for the preservation of the true Ministry and worthy Ministers of whom they and the whole Nation have had so great and good experience I doe not think it seasonable now to invite Gentlemen where their estates and expenses may bear it to follow those patterns of extraordinary munificence which some of their rank have heretofore given them by restoring the Impropriate Tithes and alienated glebes to the Church either freely or at an easie price This were now to give sacrilegious rapine a greater temptation which dayly gapes to devour all the remains of the Churches Patrimony and Dowry To adde any bloud now to the Churches veins were but more to provoke the thirst of greedy and unsatisfied horseleeches of this age Prov. 30.15 who cry Give give till they have quite exhausted the very life and spirits of all true Religion This motion and bounty will be more seasonable in better times Rom. 2.22 when Sacriledge shall be accounted as it is a most damnable sin and not a trade or a fruit of zeal or a flower of reformation which by the Apostles arguing is a more heynous sin than that of Idolatry in as much as this owns a god though false this robs God though true 1 Cor. 12 31. But behold I shew your noblenesse a more excellent way my ambition is to propound an higher degree of Christian glory to you the learned and religious Gentry which is to follow the steps of that noble Prince Phil. Melanct. Camerarius highly commend him for his piety and zeal he died 1553. George Duke of Anhalt who disdained not having Ministeriall gifts to serve Christ and the Church at Marburg in the work of the Ministry taking upon him holy orders in times of the greatest contradiction against the reformed Religion and esteeming it greater honour to tread in Christs more immediate and narrowest steps than to enjoy the more spacious pathes of secular pleasures and State imployments If you know the excellency of Christ the vanity of this worlds glory Mat 19 28 29. the worth of mens soules the weight of that Crown which is prepared for those that forsake all and follow Christ you cannot think your selves disparaged by this my humble motion to you Your estates will set a greater lustre now on you in the eyes of good people than ever the great state pomp plenty and dignities of former times set upon your predecessours who of many of your families were Church men and many of them very worthy ones Where God hath given you gifts fit for so sacred a service of him and his Church no man can propound to you a more goodly province wherein gratefully to use them or a more eminent way of preferment wherewith to entertain your pious and commendable ambition which is most worth the pregnancy of your parts and g nerousnesse of your spirits No Cedar is too tall or goodly for the building of Gods Temple Nor may it disdaine to descend from Lebanon to the holy hill of Zion and no Jewell is too rich and glorious for Aarons breastplate nor for the foundations and wals of the New Jerusalem The more splendor God hath set upon you the more shall you reflect to his glory and the honor of that Religion you professe by devoting your selves to serve him and his distressed Church in times when labourers are few and those much overburthened If any religious way of life might be meritorious this would be beyond the strictest votaries in as much as it carries more paines and more benefit with it I have seen by the experience of Gods bounty The advantages of an estate with the Minâ—stry how great advantages an estate gives to any Minister if God gives him grace and wisedome with it How it addes to his just confidence and courage in serving God and guiding his people how it redeemes him not onely from vulgar depreciatings mean thoughts and worldly solicitousnesse but also from the temptation of flattery popularity and that most sordid shamefull dependance on othâ—rs frownes and favours their givings and withdrawings I know how much it addes boldnesse credit and authority to a Ministers words to his reproofs comforts monitions and examples As the expressions of those men whom not necessity of subsisting but the conscience of doing good the unfeigned love they have to Christ the firm beleif they have of the Gospell and the value they have of mens soules put upon the work of preaching Then will the country people think such Ministers of the Gospell to be in good earnest when they see hospitable relief of the poor Saepius emolliunt cleemosynarum dona quos non commovent concionum verba Adeo facta dictis sunt sonantiora 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to be the aim of all those that levell against Tithes and Ministers That so they may by a Jesuitick back blow unperceived strike through the loins of the reformed Religion which hath been for many years happily among us and this with more encrease of true saving knowledge and practise of piety in one century of years than was for many before which blessing next to God we owe chiefly to our able and faithfull Ministers who are not so our servants in the Lord that they should be used as our hinde or staves but rather as they are called and deserve to be reverenced as our Spirituall Fathers our guides and instructers in the Lord. Besides this That I may wholly drown this Wasps nest which makes such a stir in the countrey by their stinging Petitions and buzzing projects against Tithes and Ministers Let them know That it becomes no men of honesty and ingenuity thus to delude with specious pretences the credulity of the countrey Farmers who for the most part love their Ministers so well and prise the reformed Religion so highly and value so much their Saviour Jesus Christ his holy Institutions and their own soules that they would utterly abhorre the bottome of these repining thoughts and projects of these murmurers against their Ministers if they did but discern them Yea like Zacheus many of them had rather part with half their goods than starve or lose their Ministers and their own soules too with their childrens and families No the jolly plainnesse and honest integrity of the English Yeoman is neither so lazy and idle nor so sordid and illiberall nor so cunning and hypocriticall as these nimbler and sprucer fellows are whose quick-silver wits roving fancies and fallacious tongues aim at new modelling all things to their advantages and hope with their Jesuitick pretensions and fanatick leaven to infect all sorts of men both in City and Countrey For their designe is that all the worthy Ministers in England should be rather starved or beg their bread than that they should come short of any such rare and little beneficiall projects as they have in their crownes Hoping either to buy some glebelands and Tithes or to farm some part of them or to have some Office in a new erected Tithe Exchequer which for a while affording some Ministers some small pensions afterwards will serve for any secular occasions that so Ministers being unprovided of means the people may be left without any Ministers As for that sting which is in the tail of these projectors that by paying of Tithes to the Minister the husbandman and farmer is disabled to pay Taxes to the State whom it concernes more to keep up and pay a Souldiery than a Ministry My answer is As the other objections savour of hypocrisie and self-interest so this of flattery These Polypusses are so cunning as to apply to the surest rock and turn themselves to any colour which may be for their safety But are they such wretches as to think that nothing will suffice to buy souldiers swords and pistols but onely Christs own food and rayment which must be sold It seems they had rather Christ should goe starved naked in his Ministers than themselves be ungarded But we hope that this is not the sense of any valiant honest or religious souldier who knows how to be content with his wages Luk. 3.14 to doe injury to no man least of all to the Ministers of Christ whom they have not yet so learned of these men as to hate and despise because they would destroy them his Ministers And sure no souldier can have any motive against the welfare of the able and faithfull Ministers of this Church unlesse they fight against the Protestant Religion and in stead of Reformadoes turne Renegadoes to that Profession in which they were brought up The bottom and dregs of some mens agitations against the setled maintenance of Ministers in this Church is The aim of Antidecimists not so much to ease the people from paying Tithes which they shall be sure to doe either by way of publique Exchequer or to the private purse of Landlords when these have bought them into their revenue the project is to have no setled Ministry in this reformed Church For these Antidecimists know by their countrey Logick which is not very good but there are Jesuites who are excellent at it That in a short time it will follow No setled competent maintenance no able or worthy Minister any where But roome enough will be quickly made either for Seminary agitators from forain nurseries or for those sorry pieces of motly predicants and mungrill Ministers Centaures in the Church that are half Laicks and half Clericks who are indeed but the by blowes of the Clergy uncalled unordained and commonly unblest because false Prophets either as to the errours of their Doctrine or the arrogancy of their authority whose calling commission and tenure as Ministers must chiefly depend upon popularity flattery and beggery Such despicable Mendicants as will in a short time make all ingenuous people weary of their iliterate importunities and such thread-bare preachers even ashamed of themselves This will certainly follow in a Spanish projection by as necessary a consequence as No Sun no day no fewell no fire no oil in the lamps no light in the house no pay no souldier no provender in the crib Prov. 14 4. no labour of the Oxen yea and the utter vastation of the reformed Religion as to the order honor and beauty of its publique profession Judg. 15.3 will as inevitably succeed as the burning of the corn fields did the running of the fiery tailed Foxes among them But the Antidecimists would have the Ministers of the Gospell follow other honest trades 13. Of Ministers support by some mechanick trade taking upon them some mechanick or mercenary occupations that so they might earn their livings other ways and preach gratis that is for nothing and at length as good as nothing both for want of ability and authority How would these men rejoyce to see men of learned parts of noble mindes and of ingenuous breeding brought down to the levell of their low form to shine no better than their twinkling and unsavory snuffes to be eminent in nothing beyond the plebeian pitch and vulgar proportions that so they might spin out their sermons at their wheeles or weave them up at their loomes or dig them out with their Spades weigh and measure them in their Shops or stitch and cobble them up with their thimbles and lasts or thrash them out with their stayles and after preach them in some barn to their dusty disciples who the better to set off their odnesse and unwontednesse to their silly Teachers must be taught like crazy or frantick men to fancy themselves into some imaginary persecution as if in times of even too great liberty they were thus driven with their new found Pastors into dens and caves and woods rather than vouchsafe to
are made on the weaker mindes of the common people by these popular orators against the setled maintenance of Ministers as if the Vulgar shall save much by the shift I have before touched and here again I inculcate it to them because the sharpest goades are pointed with profit That when the old Ministers are spent or laid aside and the former way of setled maintenance turned to another course there is no doubt but the new projected Preachers what ever they be either like mushroomes growing up of themselves or miscalled and misplaced by the people will finde their stomachs full as good as their gifts and their digestion full as strong as their elocution that when once they come to looke upon themselves as any way setled and elected or in any fashion ordained for Preachers and Pastors or what ever title they please to put upon themselves they will come quickly to plead and urge Evangelicall precepts divine right and naturall equity for their maintenance which first they will mutter then exact and grudge if they be not satisfied from their ill fed flocks and scabious Congregations And they will be prone to think all is well in their Churches and bodies if themselves be but well fed and blithe though their poor peoples soules be starved their mindes scattered their consciences crazy their diseases many and neither skill nor will in their ill gifted teachers to heal or help them who are not likely to be very good at that worke or cure when from among the lowest of the people they mount to be Ministers for a morsell of bread and from countrey Farriers will needs turn Physitians These men are rather of that sort Tit. 1.11 whose mouths ought to be stopped when they speak perverse things for filthy lucre◠sake as the Apostle Paul tels us who was no enemy to the preaching of the Gospell yet he approves not any false intruders or disorderly walkers Every simple and slight Asse is not fit to tread out the corn but the ponderous and solemn Oxe whose mouth ought not to be muzzled There are no doubt many Jesuitick Geniusses in England who like the Ravens would perswade the Sheep to starve their Shepheards and to beat out their eyes and brains pretending that so the flock may feed the freer and the fatter but hoping indeed soon after to pluck out the eyes of those weak and silly animals and with more safety to make a prey of them O how farre are some men in these days who seek thus to pull out Ministers eyes from that gratefull and affectionate zeal of the Galatians to St. Paul Gal. 4.15 who were ready to pull out their own right eyes to doe him good before they were foolishly bewitched by such enchanters who pretended new Gospels so as to think him an enemy for telling them the Truth vers 16. O how lothe are vain and proud men to think the egges of any opinions which they have laid or hatched to be addle or their ways erroneous if they doe but please themselves it matters not how they displease God and those worthy men who have indeed deserved best of them Truly O you excellent Christians it would and ought to be 15. Hard measure offered to Ministers by some a great grief and shame to the whole Order of the Ministers of England if they had deserved no better of those Christians in this Church whom they have for many years baptized taught and nourished up in true religion by all the labours of their love then thus to have a cup of cold water not given to them Matth. 10.42 but taken from them in the name of Christs Ministers Here in they are forced to appeal to your humility prudence and equanimity whose gratefull piety hath oft expressed your love and value of their persons profession and paines far different from though now not sufficient to represse the petulancy of these kicking Jesuruns who in many places being better fed than taught despise through much wantonnesse of the flesh the bread of heaven This Manna Studying nothing so much as to make many starveling Christians and lean Congregations through their sacrilegious cruelty seeking to deprive the true Ministers of their due maintenance that so they may deprive the poore people of their true Ministers That the sins of this afflicted Nation and self-desolating Church being filled up they may bring by a famine of bread upon the Ministers a famine of the Word and a scarcity of Ministers upon the people which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Palladium the thing so much desired by the enemies of this and all other reformed Churches We know well and have alwayes found it by sad experience that no Adder is deafer and harder to be charmed than sacrilegious covetousnesse which laying one ear to the earth listning to its gain and stopping the other with its tail that it may hear no noise or voice from heaven easily eludes and mocks all sacred spels of the best enchanters Psal 58.5 charm they never so wisely Indeed it is seldome seen that any men either private or publique for it 's possible a Nation may be guilty of this sin who gilded over their holy thefts with the names of Religion and Reformation ever forbare the sin or repented of it or made due restitution after it No Harp or hand of David can play so sweetly as to make this evill spirit of sacriledge forsake those Sauls whom it may possesse though they be higher by the head than the rest of the people as well as the lowest and meanest of the people whose may necessities may have greater temptation and their consciences lesse information of the evill Indeed no man is so base and feeble but he dares to adventure at this the robbing of God of the Church and the Ministers which is a fellony against the publique and to every good Christians injury in the Church or Nation The reason of this boldnesse in some men is because they finde that although men of estates have quick resentments in their particular concernments of private profit or honour yet they have for the most part a great coldnesse and indifferency Patrimonium Crucifixi as to those things which concern the Churches support or Religions patrimony in scrambling for which every man secretly hopes unlesse he be of the more honest and severe piety for some advantage To be sure these great sticklers against the Ministers maintenance by Tithes make no doubt but they shall lick their own fingers well if once they can but pull them from the Ministers either they flatter themselves and I think very fondly that as Tenants they shall save their Tithes from both Minister and Landlord or else as Landlords augment their rents or buy some part of them or at worst have some place in a new office of gathering and distributing of them The great sense I have of that little or no sense which many men have of so publique a
sincerity and godly simplicity We beleive he will not fail us nor forsake us though men though Christians though reformers doe There is not a better sign of Gods love than to be persecuted for righteousnesse sake It is our honour Matth. 5. as St. Jerom wrote to St. Austin Heb. 12. that the divell and his fanatick factions do unanimously hate us and malign us for if they were for Christ they could not be against us And we finde by experience that these Antiministeriall agitators have no such displeasure against any men be they never so flagitious or their estates never so luxuriant as against the most orderly and deserving Ministers So that it is their piety and pains which afflicts their enemies more than their plenty And if they cannot strangle Christ in the Cradle yet they hope to starve him in the Desart Blessed be God we see the end and bounds of these mens power and malice They are finite flesh and not infinite Gods yea they are proud flesh lately risen up which God will eat off with fitting corrosives if ever he heals this Church and Nation These murmurers never set us on work nor doe we depend on such unjust masters for our wages Though they be not converted or gathered from their follies Isai 49.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. Dei particeps nulliâ—â— indigus factions and separations yet our reward shall be from the Lord who hath sent us and whom we have served with faithfull hearts as to our temporary subsistence we hope wee shall never depend on these mens injurious justice or câ—uel mercies much lesse on their envious alms and supercilious charity who are our enemies for the Gospels sake which we preach And although we should not be protected in point of our civill rights from their despight and rage yet as to the honour and vindication of our Ministry and holy function Gal. 2.5 we must not give place no not for an houre to their cavils and calumnies Yea we doe not despair but that we may find so much equity and pity in some mens hearts in whose hands is power that they will rather harken and incline to the just plea of those labourers in Christs harvest who have borne the heat and burthen of the day and who crave but liberty first to doe the work to which Christ and the Church hath ordained them and next which is but a just and righteous thing to enjoy that reward which the Law hath assigned them than to listen to the envious suggestions or injurious proposals of those novell intruders upon the Ministry who have yet given not the least assurance to the wiser world or any reformed Christians that they in any thing exceed or equall the true ancient Ministers of England nor have they yet by any demonstrations of modesty ingenuity sense of honour or of shame nor by any part of good learning which they decry and hate nor by any other usefull and commendable quality redeemed themselves from the most sordid passions and saddest distempers of humane nature nor yet reconciled themselves to any love and value of vertue worth and excellency in others We know well that their ignorances and errours are grosse in many things both divine and humane for how can they but erre excessively who are very active and for the most part both bold and blind Any piece of rustical ignorance clownish confidence serves some mens turn to oppose any Minister withall setting up their puppetly Teraphims their deformed Dagons their Images of jealousie in the place and temple of the living God Among their other errours this we hope is none of their least that they fancy and every where proclaim that they have so charmed with their philters and enchantments which are Confections made up of ignorance and malice pride and cruelty covetousnesse and uncharitablenesse together with a perfect disdain of all that is rationall learned or excellent that with these charms they have so possessed many or most of those in power That they are resolved to root out abase and destroy all those Ministers who are any way eminent in learning courage and constancy both for the honour of their function and of the reformed Religion and of this Church and Nation We cannot think those in power to be so easily perswaded to be enemies to themselves and the publique by being made enemies to true Ministers without a cause One of whose serious and solid abilities is able to doe more good to Church and State in one year than can be hoped from the whole fraternity and faction of those supercilious adversaries of the Ministry in as many ages as a year hath dayes For if wise men may guesse at the future by what they already finde of them they must conclude that like Fistulas and gangrened Vlcers the longer they prevail the more desperate and incurable they will be both to the Church and the State every day bringing us neerer either to old Rome or the elder Babylon to superstition or confusion For there is nothing almost in this Church of England as to the extern order and profession of Religion which some of these Antiministerials and Antidecimists doe not contest against and study to overthrow Which makes me here a little digresse 20. Answer to other lesse scruples yet not from my maine design which is to satisfie all excellent Christians and others as to any thing by these men objectable against the Ministers and Ministry of the Church of England by looking at some lesser calumnies and cavils which they every where scatter among the common people to alienate them from or prejudice them against their Ministers quarrelling against the places where publiquely we meet to serve God and many things used by us in our holy Ministrations 1. Of publique places called Churches As to the publique places where Christians meet and Ministers officiate these supercriticall masters of words and censors of all mens language and manners but their owne cannot indure the impropriety and profanenesse as they say of calling those places Churches This they scorn with very severe smiles and supercilious frownes so profound is their judgement It was the work of Diocletian to burn all the books and destroy all the Churches of the Christians Euseb hist l. 10. and so scrupulous their conscience that they had rather pull down such publique and convenient places than venture to be defiled by coming into them or once so much as to call them Churches they say they have far higher senses and definitions of a Church than will agree with piles of wood and stones Answ We doubt not of their deep Divinity touching a Church which it may be they will not dare yet to define as not being well agreed what a Church is or what is the right matter and forme or way of a Church Much broken and wrangling stuffe they have heaped up touching a Church but scarse one stone is yet
laid of the edifice I have otherwhere endevoured to lead them out of the labyrinth of their rubbidge who have disputed more about constituting Church than ever they studied to be lively and orderly members either of the highest sense of a Church the mysticall body of Christ which is made up by faith and charity or of that lower sense of a sociall Church which yet is most proper to us and fals neerest under mans consideration which consists of a visible polity of men on earth professing to beleive in the name of Jesus Christ and partaking of those holy Institutions which he hath appointed both to gather and distinguish to plant and propagate to build and preserve to guide and govern such an holy fraternity of religious professors in such truth order and unity as to have a professionall relation to Christ the head and a communion of Charity with each other as members of one body which is that Catholick Church all over the world in its severall parts and branches In these and some other the like ambiguities about a Church as greater or lesse they please themselves spending much time to instruct their silly auditors how much difference there is between these Churches of Christ which are spirituall or rationall and those Steeple-houses which we other weaker ones call most absurdly as they pretend Churches O how devout a thing is ignorance How Saraphick men and women grow by having no skill in any language but their own mother tongue which yet in this is of our side and being the rule of speech every where justifies our calling those places Churches by the authority of the best writers in humanity law history or divinity But that they say was an errour of speech which men sucked in with their milk which to spend and evaporate these men are every day making issues in their auditours eares that they may unlearn that dangerous errour and scandalous word of calling the meeting places Churches I know these Rabbies scorne to be brought to their Grammars or to any Etymologicall authours or makers of Dictionaries Church Kâ—rch or Kerck Sax. quasi Kuriack i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords house for these they reckon among the cursed spawn of learned men and look on them as if they were Negroes of Chams posterity yet I cannot but make a little stay here that I may shew them the way to that locall Church where some of them have not been these many years unlesse it be to make a wrangling rate For however these be not the main Ulcers which I desire to cure yet they are a strange kinde of itch and scurfe of Religion which makes many Christians oft scratch very unquietly and unhandsomely It is very easie and very true to tell them that it is no more unproper to call these places where Christians as the Lords people publiquely meet to worship the Lord Psal 74.8 Churches than it was to call the Synagogues among the Jews Psal 83.12 the Houses of God for the building of which we read no precise command from God which was but for one house namely the Temple at Jerusalem The Saxon Scottish British and Dutch names These places called by the ancients Ecclesia Dei Domus Tertul. de velan Virg Orig. in Psal 36. Dominicum Aust which are all from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Latin Dominicum as the Lords Table and the Lords day signifies no more than this That such a place time or table is set apart for the Lords service or for the Lords people Doth not Joshua say I and my house will serve the Lord meaning the rationall family not the materiall pile Senate and City are used for both the persons and the place so is the Parliament house for both These Metonymies are no soloecismes but elegancies and aptitudes of speech and if they were lesse proper yet sure Collecta locus Cyp. it is no sin for Christians to speak after the vulgar use and common language True Religion hath set no such pedantique bounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euse de laud. Const as these captious Criticks would pretend which scrupulosity of speaking is among the other pedling superstitions and popular trifles which they pin on the sleeve of piety Affecting to be knowne by such small differences of speech as their Shiboleths from other Christians Indeed their great penury both of knowledge and discretion makes them no more fit Masters to teach men how to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. hist l. 9. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 2. Ep. 246. or what to doe then how to give their learning and their liberality are much alike 2. 21. Of Churches as consecrated As it is easie to help these Infant-wits over the straw of the name Church applyed to the place which they will needs make a stumbling block so with as much ease we may relieve them from that rock of offence on which they dash against the places we call Churches in regard of their dedication or consecration to sacred or religious uses This they have onely heard This subject is learnedly and gravely handled as all things he undertook by the incomparable Mr. Hocker l. 5. Pol. Sec. 14 15 16. it may be they never either saw or read it yet they abominate the places for the report counting them desecrated and execrable Here they may please to know Vide Hospin de Templorum Origine Quid lapides isti petuerunt sanctitatis habere Ber. vid. Ser. 6. That wise men look upon that ancient custome among Christians of setting solemnly apart some place for the service of God not as any affixing inherent holinesse to them or deriving any communicative or virtuall holynesse from them but meerly a publique and solemn owning appointing and declaring those houses or places to be erected and dedicated by common consent for those holy ends uses and duties which Christians ought to intend when they meet in those places Non locus hominem sed homines locum sanctificant Nemo se blandiatur de loco qui sanctus dicitur Bern. 182. not for common civill profane or uncomely affaires which appropriating or dedicating is an act of right Reason flowing from the light of Nature and that common notion of reverence to be externally expressed to God which is in all men that owne any God which right Reason is most agreeable to true Religion and alwayes as servient to it as Deacons and Church-wardens ought to be to the Ministers in holy things as both these Reason and Religion distinguish ends duties and commands which are divine as coming from God or relating to him so likewise they distinguish times places persons actions and other things which are separated from meere humane naturall and civill uses to such as are both preceptively and intentionally divine that is from God and for God Nor can the God of order who hath
made the beauty of his works to consist and to be evident in those distinctions which he hath set upon every thing both in the species and individuall God I say cannot be displeased to see mankinde on whom is the beauty of Reason or Christians on whom is the beauty of Religion to use such order distinction and decency in all things which becomes them both as men and Christians after the examples of the Apostles and Christ himself Matth. 9 35. who went about all the Cities and Villages teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospell of the Kingdome which also befits and adorns Christians as to extern profession which is all that appears of any mens devotion or Religion to the eye of man setting forth in comely sort that duty relation and service which we publiquely professe to owe and pay to God who abhors sordidnesse and confusion as much as profane vastators love it Necessity indeed admits no curiosity of place nor affects any elegancy Aegrotantium amicorum sordes toleramus non item valentium Sidon but excuseth that which in plenty and freedome is esteemed sordidnesse and sluttishnesse Religion requires externally no more than God hath given of extern power and opportunity where these are wanting and by providence denyed a sick bed a Barn a Lyons den a Dungeon a Whales belly is as a Temple or Church consecrated by the holy duties which any devout soul there performs to God But as the Church of Christ considered in its extern communion or profession is visible and Christians are exemplary to each other and to the world it is warrant enough for Christians to build and to set apart to those publique holy duties some peculiar places upon Gods and the Churches account which grant we have in that great Charter and principle of Church policy which like a common rule 1 Cor. 14.40 measures all things of extern sociall Religion Let all things be done decently and in order Both which fall not properly under the judgement of Religion but of Reason not of Scripture but of Nature not of piety but policy or society nor need we other command to doe them than the judgement and consent or custome of wise and holy men which we have for this use of locall Churches thus peculiarly applyed to holy services ever since Christians had either ability to build them or liberty to use them which is at least 1400 years agoe If humane or Romish superstition used or affected or opined any thing in consecrating Churches which is beyond true reason and sound Religion yet we do not think that to be a Leprosie sticking so to the wals of the buildings that they must be scraped all over or pulled down else they can't be cleansed No But as places are not any more than times capable of any essentiall gratious or inherent holynesse which is onely in God Angels or Men so neither are they capable of inherent unholinesse The superstition is weak on either side weighs little but the worst is on this side to which these men so incline which tends more to profanenesse supinenesse and slovenlinesse in the outward garb of Religion which is not either so Cynical Sacerdoti maxime convenit ornare Dei templum decore congruo Amb. off l. 1. c. 21. or so tetricall as these men would make it What ever there is reall or imaginary of Superstition in the places or rather in mens fancies of them who possibly ascribe too much to them it will as easily recede and quit them when they come to be consecrated by the Churches reall performing of holy services or publique religious duties in them as dreams doe vanish when one awakes or as the dark shadowes of the night depart from bodies when the Sun comes to shine on them or into them if these poore objectors mindes and spirits could as soone be freed from those profane superstitious and uncharitable tinctures with which they are as with a jaundise deeply infected against those places and against those that use them with the decency becoming duties done to the Majesty of God and in the presence of the Church of Christ as those places justly called Churches may be freed from all misapprehensions of their name of their dedication If the former were as easie as the latter both locall and rationall materiall and mentall Churches both places and persons might long stand and flourish Psal 74.6 Both which some furies of our times seek utterly to break down and demolish that there may be neither Christian Congregations nor decent Communion in any publique place beyond the beauty of a Barn or Stable But these men have so much tinder and Gunpowder in them against Ministers 22. Answer to other quarrels against Ministers publique duties that whatever they enjoy say use or doe in their function be it never so innocent and decent yet they kindle to some offensive sparkes or coales and flames against them As if all the Ministers of this Church knew not what to doe as they should till these new masters undertook to School and Catechise them If any Minister prayes publiquely with that gravity understanding and constancy either for matter words or method which best becomes a poore sinfull mortall on earth when he speaks to the God of heaven It is they say but a form and a stinting of the Spirit If they preach with judgement weight exactnesse and demonstration of truth it is not by the Spirit but of study and learning If they read the Scripture 't is but a dead letter and meer lip-labour If they celebrate the Sacraments with that wisdome reverence and decency which becomes those holy mysteries they quarrell at the place or time or gesture or company or ceremonies used Not considering that Ceremonies in Religion are like hair ornaments though not essentials and ought to be neither too long lest they hide and obscure it nor too short lest they leave it naked and deformed Since the end and use of them is no more but to set forth piety with the greater comelinesse and auguster majesty to men If they name any Apostle Evangelist or other Christian of undoubted sanctity with the Epithet of Saint they are so scared with the thought of the Popes canonizing Saints that they start at the very name so used as if it were an unsanctified title and not to be applyed to the memory of the just which is blessed but onely arrogated to some persons living who frequently and ambitiously call themselves and their party 2 Tim. 1.13 The Saints If they use the ancient Doxology giving glory to the Father Son and holy Ghost which all Churches Greek and Latin did the Socinian and Arian Ears of some men are highly offended at it as if Christians must ask them leave to own the holy Trinity and to give solemne publique glory to the Creator Saviour and sanctifying Comforter of the Church If Ministers use those wholesome forms of sound words which are
cast away that just and fair protection which they enjoy under any civill power which Christ tels us no man can have but from above Joh. 19.11 Joh. 19.11 But rather with all humble gratitude both to give God the glory and man that respect which is due for any favour and indulgence they have in worldly regards which will ever seem least heavy to a good Christian while there is no torture rack or tyranny exercised upon the conscience by forcing to declare or act there wherein their judgments are not so fully satisfied as to the point of approbation or actual concurrence It is happy if at any time truly consciencious Christians can enjoy any fair quarter among men of this world whose high and haughty spirits if puffed up with successe are hardly patient of Christs self-crucifying methods It is wisdome in Ministers to merit by humble and peaceable carriage according to a good conscience all moderation from secular powers who are more easily provoked against them than other men Statesmen are often flatterers seldom such reall friends to Jesus Christ and his Church as to deny themselves much for their sakes Nor doe they usually much regard those holy interests further than they are brought to a compliance with their designes The yoke of Christ is commonly too heavy for the iron sinews of Conquerours necks and his gate too strait for triumphing Armies to march through with out much stooping and self-denyall Victoria natura insolens est superba Cic. pro. Mar. which is a hard lesson for those to learn whose advantages are in their hands unlesse grace be also in their hearts It 's alwayes seen that men of power set up themselves speedily and effectually in places of honour and profit but to set up Christ and his Kingdome in any reall way of godlinesse and holy order further than some verball cheap and popular gratification is a work of many ages and worthy of that pious and magnanimous spirit which was in Constantine the Great whose Eagles wings served no lesse to protect the Church in peace and prosperity than the Empire and his own person Great men are generally shy of those consciencious strictnesses and self-diminutions which true Religion requires so that Ministers had need study to walk inoffensively that they may catch men by honest guile Laying aside all uncomely rigour rude severities 2 Cor. 12.16 and what ever may savour of either scorn or stubbornnesse using in civill affairs all fair submissions which may consist with the peace of their consciences before God and the honour of their profession before men which is the purpose and will be the practise of all truly wise and godly Ministers who think it more honest and honorable to be open enemies than false and feigned friends to withdraw from rather than abuse protection But yet in matters properly religious so far as Ministers are in Christs stead and have the care and charge of true Religion 5. The courage of Ministers in things properly religious and in their calling of the Church and of the welfare of mens soules Herein O you excellent Christians I know you not only allow but expect that all true Ministers should be faithful to Gods glory the souls of them * Non est dicentis praesumptio ubi est jubentis domini autoritas Chrysost l. 70. although they should offend them That they ought to speak the truth seasonably and wisely though they contract enemies that they must not by their * Honestius est offendere quam odisse Tac. vit Agr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syn. de Regno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pusillanimity and flattery prostrate the honour of true Religion nor of their Ministry which ceases not to be Christs Jewell when it is for its splendor which men cannot bear trodden under feet * Act. 7.55 They must still looke stedfastly to heaven though men cast dust and ashes stones and firebrands in their faces upon the earth In this holy station and resolution which is proper to them as Ministers of the truth of God I hope there are still many so * Jer. 9.3 Non quid illi cupiant audire sed quid nos deceat dicere considerandum qui fâ—lsarum lâ—udum irrisionibus decipi quam saluberrimis monitionibus salvari malint â—l l. 8. Gr. valiant for the Truth so zealous for the glory of God the name of Christ and the honour of the reformed Religion so faithfull also to mens souls and their own integrity that as they will not disdain to serve even wicked Magistrates in Gods way no more than * Mark 6.20 John Baptist did to preach to Herod yet they would infinitely disdain to flatter them in any way Nudè cum nuda loquimur non verenda retegimus sed in verecunda refutamus Ber. Ep. 43. as Gods or agreeable to true Religion which is not so or to fear them so as to betray the cause of God which is alwayes pleading against the ignorance or errour or violence or hypocrisie or pride of the evill world and to sow pillowes under any mens Elbowes who may perhaps lean uneasily on the skuls and bones of those they have unjustly slain 1 King 20.2 Isai 30.10 or like Ahabs 400 false Prophets to speak onely soft and smooth things to those men whose hearts and hands are prone to harden by the use of armes both against piety equity and charity so that at length they may grow rough as Esaus and red as Edoms military passions and actions especially in great and violent changes Frustra de superatis hominibus gloriatur infaelix victoria quae irae superbiae fuccumbit Ber. ad mil. Temp. seldome keeping within the bounds of that justice and mercy which Christian Religion constantly prescribes without respect of persons to the strong as well as the weak to the Conquerours as well as the conquered Successe being for the most part an irresistible temptation to men by power to gratifie their lusts and to think any thing necessary and so lawfull which is but safe and beneficiall not regarding the exact rules of justice in the Laws of God and man which are divine and immutable by no advantages of gain or honour to be warped or varied The common places Sermons and prayers of true Ministers must not be like some mens Almanacks calculated just to the elevation of mens counsels designes and successes wherein flattery would seem to be Prophetick and foretelling but without respect of persons the same at all times to all men as to the main rules and duties of holinesse Although it be very impertinent to dispute with power irresistible to tax Caesar when he is able to tax all the world or to quarrell at his coin when he is master of ours yet a wise Minister and Christian may distinguish between the publique power in men and the private personall sins of men A grave and
not beaten away the graces of Gods Spirit and fighting against Christians have not taught them to fight against God and the checks of conscience If the shedding of mans bloud have not taken away the sense and virtue of Christs bloud If the noise of warre and the cry of the slain have not deafned mens ears against the voice of God and the cals of his Spirit If the dreadfull and lamentable aspect of poore Christians supplicating in vain for life and dying with horrour and anguish at the feet and before the eyes of their brethren have not taken away the fight of charity and deprived men of the light of Gods countenance in love and mercy If there be any tendernesse of conscience any sense of sin any fear of God any terrours from above from beneath or from within if any belief of the judgment to come and accounts to be given if any thoughts of and ambitions for a better Kingdome than the earth can afford Nemo potest veracitere esse amicus hominis nisi qui fuerit primitus veritatis Aust Ep. 52. Charitas pie saevire humiliter indignari patienter irasci novit Ber. Ep. 2. No men will be more acceptable even to the greatest than those Ministers who know at once how to speak the truth and yet to keep within the bounds both of Charity and civility Nor doth it follow as the sophistry of some Sycophants would urge against true Ministers that those will be most active to destroy or disturb the powers of this world who are most faithfull to keep potentates soules from damning in the world to come In these Christian bounds then of peaceable subjection humility and holinesse if the Ministers of England which are able discreet and faithfull might but obtain so much declared favour and publique countenance which all other fraternities and professions have as to be sure to enjoy their callings liberties and properties which seem to be many times in great uncertainties under the obedience and protection of the laws as it would much incourage them in their holy labours which alwayes finde carnall opposition enough in mens hearts and discouragement from their manners so it would redeem them from those menaces insolencies and oppressions of unreasonable men who look upon them as publique enemies and perdue because they thinke they have little of publique favour and incouragement Ministers are so much men that kind and Christian usage will no doubt much win upon them The Sun-shine of favour is likelyer to make the morosest of them lay off that coat of rigour and austerity which some perhaps affects to wear than that rough storm and winde wherewith they are dayly threatned and by which many of them have been and are still distressed which makes them wrap themselves up as Elias in his hairy mantle when they think their lives and liberties and livelihoods are sought after and no such protection like to continue over them as they thought in a Christian State and Church they might have both obtained and deserved by their quiet and usefull conversation As just protection invites inferiors to due subjection so no men pay it more willingly than they who besides the iron chains of fear have the softer cords of lovâ— and favour upon them By how much after many violent stormes and hard impressions they are more tenderly used the more is respect gained and peaceable inclinations raised in men toward such as will needs govern them The very best of whom are seldome so mortified or heightned by Religion as to forget they are men or to be without their passions discontents and murmurings joined with desires and endeavours to ease and relieve themselves At least to change their condition if they finde it Tyrannique and Egyptian that is unreasonable arbitrary injurious and oppressive quite contrary to what is pretended of honest and just liberties both Christian and humane civill and conscientious which are for every one to enjoy as his private judgement of things so what ever is his priviledge and property by Law while he keeps within the practique obedience and compasse of the Law whereto Governours as well as governed are bound not onely in piety but also in policy Both tyranny and rebellion are their owne greatest Traitors Magistrates seldome losing or hazarding their power nor subjects their peace but when they wander out of the plain highway of Laws Non diu stare potest potentia quae multorum malo exercetuâ— Sen. de Ira. which are the conservatories both of Governours and governed It is the least degree of justice and short enough of any high favour to permit and protect worthy Ministers with all other honest and peaceable men as in doing their duties so in receiving their dues Yet this is as great a measure as in these times they dare either ask or hope for Immunities from any burthens that lye heavy on them Additions of honour or augmentations of estate I think all wise Ministers despair of Peace with a little as to this world would be a great meanes both to compose their studies and to strengthen their hands in the work of God Also to quench that fire with which many mens tongues are inflamed against Ministers their calling persons and their maintenance thinking they may both safely and acceptably despise those whom power delights not to honour For whose ruine the malice of some Antiministerian spirits wisheth as many gallowses and gibbets set up as there are Pulpits Dan. 3.18 But the Lord is able to deliver us if not yet be it known to these violent and unreasonable men Hoc posteris dicite Hominem Christo deditum posse mori non posse superaâ—i Ieron Psal 68.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dictum juvenis inter tormenta cum totum vulnus erat fornam hominis at non fidei amiserat Euseb hist l. 5. c. 1. that no learned judicious and consciencious Ministers will bow down to worship that papall or popular Image of Anarchy and confusion which they seek to set up as to the shame and ruine of this and all Reformed Churches so infinitely to the detriment and dishonour of this Nation as to its common welfare in peace plenty or power in good learning or true Religion And however we are forced for some time to lye among the pots yet shall we be as the wings of a dove nor shall we want an Ark whither to fly at last where a gracious hand will receive us to eternall rest when we shall retire to heaven wearied with the troubles on earth and finding no rest for our souls amidst those overflowing scourges which the just and offended God will certainly bring upon all such evill and unthankfull men who love their power or profit more than their soules and glory in despising those who professe to be Noahs the Preachers onely of righteousnesse and of repentance but no way the pragmatick plotters of troubles or seditious movers of civill perturbations I Have now O you
reformed Church and that true Religion which the Ministers of this Church have professed and preached in many years And this not upon light and unexamined presumptions not upon customary traditions and the meer ducture of education not upon politick principles and civill compliances with Princes or people but upon serious grounds as solid and clear demonstrations as can by right and impartiall reasonings be gathered from the Word of God and in cases of its obscuritie or our own weaknesse from that light which the consent and practise of the primitive and purest Churches of Christ hath held forth to us in points of Faith doctrine and in all good orders or manners becomming Christians either in their private moralities or their publique decencies In this integrity innocency and simplicity which neither men nor divels can take from us we are sure to be destroyed if it must be so and to be delivered from an ungratefull generation of vipers Matth. 3.7 who think it enough to destroy those who have been a means of their being and life as Christians if our injuries and bloud could be silenced with us yet the very dust of our feet Matth. 1◠14 will be a testimony against such men at the last day of judgement when it shall be more tolerable for any Christian people under heaven than for these in England since among none clearer truths have been taught or greater workes done or better examples given than have been here by the Ministers of this Church Where hath there been under heaven more frequent Ministers merit of this Nation and more excellent preaching where more frequent and yet unaffected praying where more judicious pious and practicall writing where more learned and industrious searching out of all divine truths where more free and ingenuous declaring of them so as nothing hath been withheld or smothered where more devout holy and gracious living where more orderly harmonious and charitable agreeing than among those that were the best Bishops the best Ministers and the best Christians here in England Adorned with these ribands fillets and garlands of good words good works and good bookes must the Ministers of England like solemn victimes and piatory sacrifices be destroyed onely to gratifie some mens petulancy insolency covetousnesse and cruelty who list to be actors or spectators in so religious massacres 2. Considerations touching the Ministers of England humbly propounded But O you excellent Christians of all ranks and proportions If there be yet any ear of patience left free to hear the Ministers plea and apology if calumny hath not obstructed all wayes of justice or charity if slavish feares have not so imbased your piety and zeal for the Christian reformed Religion that you dare not seem no not to pity the Ministers of it if the separations and brokennesse of Religion in our unhappy times have not wholly blinded your eyes and baffled your judgements so that you have lost all sight both of true Church and true Ministry here in England I humbly desire that before the true and ancient Ministers be cashiered and quite destroyed these things may be considered 1. Whether it be a just proceeding to impute the personall failings of some men to the whole function and profession whether at that rate all Judges Magistrates and Commanders may not be cryed down as well as all Ministers Since where there are many there are alwayes some that are not very good 2. Whether it be fitting to condemne and destroy any men in any of their rights to which they pretend either of office or reward and that by Laws both divine and humane without a fair and full hearing what can be said for them or whether any man would have such measure meted to themselves 3. Whether Pride in some Lay-men of their gifts Envy in others against the welfare of the Ministers of Christ Covetousnesse in others as to their maintenance Profanenesse in others against all holinesse Ambition in others to begin or carry on some worldly ends and secular projects Licentiousnesse in others against all religious restraints Impatience in others to see any govern without or besides themselves Malice and spite in others against this as all other reformed Churches Hopes in others by our confusions to introduce their superstitious usurpations Whether I say these and the like inordinate lusts and motions in mens hearts as their severall interests lead and tempt them may not be great causes and influentiall occasions of these violent distempers which break out thus against the generality of the Ministers and the whole calling of the Ministry in this Church Yea what if all odious clamours and calumnies against them and their calling have no more of truth in them than a Jewell hath of dirt in it when filth is cast upon it whose innate firmness preserves its inward and essentiall purity What if nothing be wanting to the innocency and honour of the Ministry of this Church but onely patient and impartiall Judges pious patrons and generous protectours which was all St. Paul wanted when he was accused of many and grievous crimes by the cruell and hard-hearted Jewes which were his Countrey men and for whom he had that heroick charity as to wish himself Anathema from Christ that they might be saved Whether ever any Ministers of learning honesty and piety that had done so much for the religious welfare of any Christian Nation as the able Ministers of England generally have done for many ages were ever so rewarded by Christians or whether ever it entred into the hearts of religious men so to deal with their Ministers as some now meditate and design It were good for men how metald and resolute so ever they seem to be in carrying on their designs to make some pause and halt before they strike such a stroak as may seem to challenge Christ Severissimè punit Deus cum paenalis nutritur impunitas Aust and fight against God whose stroakes against men are heaviest when they are least visible and his wounds sorest when men have the least sense of their contending against him The perswasions and confidences of men may be great in their proceedings * Act. 26.9 Act. 9.4 as was in Saul persecuting when yet their zeale is but dashing against the goades or thornes and a meer persecuting of Christ himselfe which will in the end pierce their own souls through with many errors What if notwithstanding many personal failings in Ministers as men their function calling and Ministry be the holy institution and appointment of Jesus Christ transmitted to these times and this Church by a right order and uninterrupted succession as to the substance of the power and essence of the authority The talents or gifts were Christs and from Christ delivered to his Servants the Ministers of the Church though some of them might be idle and unfaithfull whose burying them in the earth or wrapping them up in a napking at any time was no wasting or imbezling of
the substance of them nor any lessening of Christs right to them And for this I have produced not weak opinions not light conjectures not partiall customes not bare prepossession 3. A summary of what makes for the function of the Ministry not uncertain tradition not blind antiquity not meer crowds or numbers of men much lesse do I solemnly alledge my own specious fancies devout dreams uncertain guessings Seraphick dictates and magisteriall Enthusiasms But 1. evident grounds out of the Word of God for a divine Ordination and institution at first 2. Scripture history for succession to four generations actually 3. Promises and precepts for perpetuity of power Ministeriall and assistance which was derived by the solemn ceremony of the imposition of hands by such only as had been ordained and so enabled with successionall power till the coming of Christ 4. This primitive root and divine plantation of the Ministeriall office and power we finde oft confirmed by miraculous gifts besides the innocency humility simplicity piety and charity of those Apostles primitive Bishops and Presbyters set forth in the holinesse of their lives and the glorious successes of their Ministeriall labours converting thousands by preaching the Gospell and by their Ministeriall power and authority planting Churches in all the then known and reputed world oft crowning their doctrines and Ministry with Martyrdome 5. After this I produce what is undenyably alleadged from authours of the best credit learned and godly men famous in the Church through all the first ages shewing the Catholick and uncontradicted consent the constant and uninterrupted succession by Bishops and Presbyters in every City and Countrey which all Christians in every true Church owned received and reverenced as men indued with such order and power Ministeriall as was divine supernaturall and sacred as from Christ and in his Name though by man as the means and conduit of it This is made good to our dayes in the persons and office of those Ministers who were and are duely ordained in this Church 6. Next I plead with the like evident and undenyable demonstrations the great abilities in all sorts of ministeriall gifts the use and advancement of all good learning the vindicating of true Christian and reformed religion the manifold discoveries of sound judgement discreet zeal holy industry blamelesse constancy and all other graces wherein the Ministers of England have not been inferiour to the best and most famous in any reformed Christian Church and incomparably beyond any of their defamatory adversaries 7. I add to these as credentiall Letters the testimonies and seales which God hath given of his grace and holy Spirit accompanying the Ministry in England upon the hearts of many thousands both before and eminently since the Reformation by which men have been converted to and confirmed in Faith Repentance Charity and holy life the tryall of which is most evident in that patience and constancy which many Ministers as other Christians in this Church have oft shewen in the sufferings which they have chosen rather then they would sin agaist their Conscience and that duty which they owed to God and man 8. Last of all if any humane consideration may hope for place in the neglect of so many divine the civill rights and priviledges which the piety of this Nation and the Laws of this Land have alwayes given to Ministers of the Gospell by the fullest and freest consent of all Estates in Parliament that they might never want able Ministers nor these all fitting support and incouragements These I say ought so far to be regarded by men of justice honour and conscience as not suddenly to break all those sacred sanctions and laws asunder by which their forefathers have bound them to God to his Church and Ministers for the perpetuall preservation of the true Christian Religion among them and their posterity Furthermore 4. The fruits of Ministers labours in England if the godly Ministers of this Church of England whom some men destine to as certain destruction and extirpation as ever the Agagite did the Jews if they be the messengers of the most high God the Prophets of the Lord the Evangelicall Priests those by whom Salvation hath been brought and continued to this part of the world If they have like the good Vine and Figtree been serviceable to God and man to Church and State If they have laboured more aboundantly and been blessed more remarkably than any other under heaven If they have preached sound doctrine in season and out of season if they have given full proof of their Ministry not handling the Word of God deceitfully nor defrauding the Church of any Truth of God or divine Ordinance If many of them have fought a good fight and finished their course with joy and great successe against sin errour superstition and profanenesse If they have snatched many firebrands out of hell pulled many souls out of the snares of the divell If they have fasted and mourned and watched and prayed and studyed and taught and lived to the honour of the Gospell and the good of many soules If they have like Davids Worthies stood in the gap against those Anakims and Zanzummins who by lying wonders learned sophistries and accurate policies have to this day from the first reformation and coming out of Egypt sought to bring us thither again or else to destroy the very name of Protestants and reformed Religion from under heaven If almost all good Christians and not a few of these renegadoes their ungratefull enemies doe owe in respect of knowledge or grace to the Ministers of England as Philemon to St. Paul even their very selves If they have oft in secret wept over this sinfull Nation and wantonly wicked people as Christ did over Jerusalem and as Noah Daniel and Job oft stood in the gap to turne away the wrath of God from this self-destroying Nation If now they have no other thoughts or practises but such as become the truth and peace of that Gospell which they preach and that blessed example which Christ hath set them whom in all things they desire to imitate in serving God edifying the Church doing good to all men praying for their enemies and paying all civill respects which they owe to any men If all true and faithfull Ministers have done and designe onely to doe many great and good works in this Church and Nation for which of these is it that some men seek and others with silence suffer them to be stoned as the Jews threatned Christ and the inconstant Lystrians acted on St. Paul who after miracles wrought by him among them and high applauses of him from them was after dragged as a dead dog out of their City by them Act. 14.19 supposing him to be dead If all true and worthy Ministers being conscious to their own Integrity a midst their common infirmities after their escaping the late stormes in which many perished are easily able without any disorder to them to shake off those
Vipers Act. 28.5 which out of the fire of some mens spirits now seise upon them with poysonous calumnies of factious covetous seditious c. If there be still upon the true and able Ministers of England those Characters of divine Authority those gifts of the holy Ghost in all good understanding knowledge utterance zeal courage industry and constancy which fits them with power for that holy function and carries them through it with all fidelity and patience not only to serve but to suffer for the Lord Jesus and his Church If they have been just Stewards and faithfull dispensers of the Mysteries of Christ to his houshold this Church how can they without infinite rudenesse and unchristian insolence be shamefully used and driven out of their places and Offices If they have been spirituall fathers to many soules and as tender mothers to them not disdaining to bear with the manners of childish Christians in many places who turned their respect into peevishnesse and their love into scorn how unnaturall will it be for Christians to become patricides murtherers of their spirituall fathers to whom in some sense they owe more Legatis vim aut â—ontumâ—liam inferre nefas Reg. Iur. Jus Legatorum cum hominum praesidio munitum tum etiam divino juâ—e est vallatum Cic. de Arus resp than to their naturall If Ministers be Embassadors they ought not to be violated by the Law of Nations behaving themselves as becomes the honour of their Embassy and sender how much more if from God sent by Christ in his and his Fathers Name and that with a message of Peace and reconciliation from heaven to poore sinners The greatest and proudest of them being but wormes meat may not safely despise injure or turn away the least of the servants and Messengers of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ which speak in his Name that is both his Truth and by his Authority which can be no where else in any ordinary Ministry but in those who are dayly ordained in this holy descent and succession If they have been watchfull Shepheards over their severall flocks for good and not for evill how barbarous must it be for Sheep to turn Wolves and devoure those Pastors who have fed them as Jacob did Labans flocks Gen. 31.40 with all care and diligence day and night leading them by the purest waters and in the safest pastures Nor is there now any more cause to change the wages of these Shepheards of soules which is alwayes like to be to their losse than covetous Laban had against honest Jacob. If none other can authoritatively and as of Office and duty in the name and by the mission of Christ bring the message of peace and reconciliation to sinners which hath besides the Word sacred and mysterious seales and other holy actions of power and authority to be performed by peculiar fit and appointed Ministers how beautifull ought their feet to be and their steps welcome Rom. 10.15 which flow with truth and peace grace and mercy How farre should they be from being trodden under the feet of proud covetous and envious men who first casting dirt in their faces after with much dust and clamour seek to stir up not onely the people Act. 21.36 but the powers against them as if they were burthens of the earth not fit to live But wisdome is justified of her children Matth. 11.19 I cannot be so injurious to my countrey and countreymen 5. Ministers expect better things from good Christians as to think that to persons of such worth standing in such relations between God and man invested with so holy authority managing it with such divine power and efficacy crowned with so great successes recommended to all worthy Christians with so many publique merits both to Church and State as the true and duely ordained Ministers of the Church of England are either men of purity or of power can be so wanting to or so shrink from their duty to God their love to Christ their zeal for the reformed Religion their care of their countrey of their posterity and of their owne soules as not to dare to speak or appear for them or not to endeavour in all fair wayes to improve the interest they have in the publique by which to preserve so many good and righteous persons as to mans tribunall from poverty contempt and ruine yea to preserve themselves and their dearest relations from most irreligious infamy of ingratefull deserting and oppressing so deserving men Men cannot but be unholy that can be so unthankefull 2 Tim. 3.2 And if Ingratitude be in all other relations and merits among men justly esteemed as the most detestable disease and inhumane deformity in the soul shall it onely seem beauty health and a commendable quality when it is offered by Christians to their Ministers Such as may with equall modesty and truth plead their own innocency and protest against the immanity of their enemies malice For setting aside the idlenesse and pragmatick vanity of some Ministers in later and more licentious times whose either insufficiency or lazynesse or inordinate activity or abject popularity hath made them the staine and shame of their holy function and whose burthen is too heavy for my pen to discharge them of if we looke upon those learned laborious sober and venerable Ministers who have been and still are the glory and crown of their function of this Church and Nation in their severall degrees and stations * Godly Ministers not injurious but meritorious to the publique I may lowdly proclaim with Samuel this protestation in their behalf Behold the * 1 Sam. 12.3 Ministers of the Lord and of this Church O you unthankefull Christians and causlesse enemies witnesse against them before the Lord and before his people whose Oxe or Asse have they taken whom have they defrauded or oppressed whose hurt or damage have they procured whose good have not they studyed and endeavoured whose evill of sin or misery have they not pitied and sought to relieve what is the injury for which so desolating a vengeance must passe upon them and their whole function What is the blasphemy against God or man for which these Naboths must lose their lives 1 King 21. and livelyhoods wherein have they deserved so ill of former or later ages that they should be so used as Ahab commanded of Micaiah and the Jews did to Jeremiah to be cast into prisons into sordid and obscure restraints or to be exposed to Mendicant liberty for to be fed onely with the bread and water of affliction if they can obtain so much What necessary truth of God have they detained in unrighteousnesse what error have they broached revived or maintained what superstition have they nourished what licentiousnesse in sin have they incouraged what true Christian liberty which alwayes containes it selfe in bounds of Gods and mans laws have they denyed to or defrauded the people of unlesse all things of publique
these new trafiquers intend to trade for nothing but the Apes and Peacocks toyes of new opinions Shall Noahs Ark the Churches purity which is the Conservatory of Christs little flock of the holy seed of a Christian succession both for fathers and children be broken up or dashed in pieces against the rocks of sacrilegious envy and policy for these Antiministerial projects will never be the mountaines of Ararat on which the Church or true Religion may rest * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 4. Ep. 210. Shall this Island whose safety consists so much in the guard of the Seas be lesse carefull to guard the coasts of the Church and the reformed Christian Religion whose narrow frete or strait runs between the rocks of Atheisme and Superstition of Parity and Profanenesse of Heresie and Schism of Tyranny and Toleration Will ever these new dwindling Divines the Propheticall pygmies of this age which oppose the able Ministers and true Ministry of the Church of England will they ever bring forth for the service of God 7. Eminent Bishâ—ps and Presbyters of former days in the Church of England or for the maintenance of the true Christian reformed Religion such a race and succession of mighty men of excellent Ministers of incomparable Heroes worthily renowned in their own and after generations whose workes yet praise them in the gates of whom none but evill tongues can speak evill such as this later age or century hath brought forth to looke no further back to those excellent men of former and obscurer times Can you expect Crammers Latimers Bradfords Ridleys Hoopers Grindals Whitgifts Fletchers Sands Elmers Jewels Kings Abbots Lakes Bilsons Babbingtons Andrews Feltons Fields Cowpers Whites Davenants Potters Prideauxes and Westfields with many others now at rest in the Lord all venerable in their Episcopall order and eminency as fathers of the Church and as elder brothers among their brethen the other Ministers whose humility disdained not to be subject to those reverend Bishops although some of them might be equall to them in eminent gifts Animi nil magnae laudis egentes Virg. Aen. Such as were Gilpin Fox Knewtubbs Perkins Whitaker Reinolds Willet White Richard Hooker Vmphry Overall Greenham Rogers Dent Dod Heron Bifield Smith Bolton Taylor Hildersham Crakanthorp Donne Stoughton Ward Holsworth Shutes Featly and Doctor Sibs which last fragrant name I may not mention without speciall gratitude and honour due to the memory of that venerable Divine not onely for the piety learning devotion and politenesse of his two genuine writings The bruised Reed and Soules conflict but also for that paternall love care and counsell by which hee much oblieged mee to him in my younger yeares Indeed that holy man I found altogether made up of sweetnesse and smoothnesse oil and honey As his actions so his gifts and graces were set in a kinde of Mosaick work admirable for that meeknesse and humility which while they sought to conceal and shadow over his vertues they gave the greatest lustre to them Besides these there were an innumerable company of other immortall Angels but yet Ministring spirits to this Church of England who are now made perfect and whom nothing would so probably afflict in heaven as to see the degenerate succession both of Ministers and Christians now likely to follow in this age Many of these and other Worthies of this function in former times as now living and dying in countrey obscurities were buried in those sepulchers which they had made in the Gardens that is those Dioceses or Parishes which they had planted or diligently watered and disposed by pious industry to a pleasant peaceable and happy fertility Men however different in some externall lineaments as may be among Brethren yet all of excellent features and some of the first three both in beauty and strength for piety learning judgement acutenesse eloquence depth devotion charity gravity industry and a kinde of Angelick majesty at once both amiable and venerable both in their preaching writing and practice These great men and greater Ministers have indeed left us behinde them Ministers of the present age Nos ingentium exemplâ—rum parvi imitatetes Sal. ad Agr. a generation far inferiour to them for the most part more feeble and unable to work or warr having more enemies enjoying lesse incouragements scarce any now considerable as to this world bearing greater crosses and heavier burthens every way for charge duty and reproach who are oft forced to lay out in publique taxes a great part of that little they have to buy themselves bookes or bread Who have onely this advantage of our troublesome envious and evill times that we may learn to be more humble in our selves more diligent in our duties more charitable to others and more valiant for the Truth hoping that while we have after the primitive pattern nothing left to glory in but the Crosse of Jesus Christ both our afflictions and infirmities may prove opportunities to exercise discover and increase the graces of God and true Ministeriall gifts in us whose power can perfect it selfe and us too in the midst of our infirmities and support us under the many unjust oppressions which threaten us There are indeed yet left through Gods mercy in the field or forest of this Church and Nation some goodly old Trees both venerable Bishops and worthy Presbyters here and there Some shrewdly battered and strangely neglected which yet retain something that is very goodly and gracefull amidst their battered tops and shattered arms being yet stately monuments or reliques of that former benignity which was in this English soil toward Churchmen and Ministers many of whom grew to so tall a procerity as of learning and worth so of wealth and honour in some degree answerable to their worth and becoming that reall dignity which was in them far more usefull and considerable by wise men than any bare descent of titular honor These I must be so civill to as not to name any of them that I may avoid suspicion either of envy or flattery two most detestable distempers in mens spirits and full of malignity Indeed I need not name some of them for although they are left as cottages in a wildernesse and as beacons on a hill yet they are still such burning and shining lights as cannot be quite hid Some of whose fame is in all the reformed Churches and their eminency renowned in all the learned world being indeed the beauty and glory of these British Nations the pillar and honor of the Protestant party the grand examples of pious Prelacy learned humility holy industry the great lights of this Northern climate Which alone might serve to fulfill Which wonder in heaven occasioned the learned studies of Ticho Brahe and did as he sayes foretell extraordinary light of learning and Religion Tich Brahe Astro Restius what the Cassiopeian flames did portend by that new star in the year 1572. Shall this age be not onely guilty spectators
Scripture precept or any Churches practise for however the best reformed Churches have restored many things to their pristine lustre yet they innovate nothing as to Scripture grounds of doctrine or Catholick order succession and Institution As then those men are most the souldiers friends 19. Addresse to men of the Military order Clem. Ep. ad Cor. who advise them to keep to their able and experienced commanders and not to venture their safety upon the activity and feates of every forward and nimble fencer So are they most friends to all good Christians Magistrates souldiers or others in this Nation and Church who perswade them as Clemens did the Corinthians to keep to their ancient able and true Ministers of whom they have had so long and so good experience and although their persons be changeable by death or other wayes of deprivation yet ought the way and succession to be preserved as to that ordination triall and mission which is Apostolicall and universally practised in the Church of Christ And since herein the Allusion reason and proportion lies so fit and equall between worthy Ministers and able Commanders who have a right Commission I cannot think that any of the military order who are persons of any worth true honour conscience or considerable for piety prudence and Christian valour which dares any thing but sin that any such souldiers I say should be prone to kindle any discontents and mutinies against the able and true Ministers of this Church Docti Ministri fâ—â—tes milites dirigant justi milites pros Ministros protâ—gant Illi veritate hi virtute To whom no doubt they cannot but thankfully confesse that under God they ow for the most part what ever good learning good breeding or good conscience they have I am the further from suspecting so unchristian and unreasonable a tempter in that sort of souldiers because I know by experience that in all the troubles and shakings which have been in these times those of them who are sober and ingenuous men have been both in publique and in private very loving civill and respective to the true Ministers of this Church so that those who glory in their affronts contempts and oppositions against the Ministers doe but thereby proclaim that they are the very drosse and ruder dregs of that profession for so it is like to be in England Nor can I think that the irreligious motions unruly mutinies and inconsiderable menacings of a few such unbred men should either over-sway or over-aw the sober counsels and better purposes of those many better gentlemen who sway either in counsell or in power Whose protection in all peaceable and good wayes why the Ministers of England should not as well deserve hope for and enjoy as any other order or rank of men I see no reason unlesse injuries obloquies and indignities offered by some of very mean quality and condition for the most part and hitherto borne with that Christian courage and patience which becomes grave and godly Ministers should be argument enough to perswade all Christians to forsake them and destroy them of whose safety and welfare no doubt God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ are very sensible as much concerned in their sufferings Nor can I think but that those men who are so hardned in their malice and persecution against the Ministers and their holy function doe oft hear a voice secretly calling within them O you Sauls why doe you persecute mee in my servants the Ministers who preach my Word in my Name by my authority and accompanied with my grace and spirit 11. In all Christian and true policy the true and ancient Ministery is to be preserved The Declaration of the two Houses An. 41. Yea not onely in all true Religion and fear of God which becomes true beleivers but in all reason and policy of State it is as necessary for those in places of power to protect the true Ministers their divine calling and succession as for these Ministers to be protected by them and this not onely in order to Gods glory and the good of mens souls their own and others but for their own and the publique peace safety and honor before men Nor is that promise and obligation once given to the publique to be forgotten by which it was assured that the Levying of souldiers and raising of forces should be only as scaffolds to build up learning piety and the reformed Religion to higher heights than formerly and not as scaling ladders to help to storm plunder and impoverish the Church to destroy the Arsenals and nurserâ—â—s of good learning or to pull down the main pillars both of learning and the Christian reformed Religion which are the ancient Ministry and succession of rightly ordained Ministers If those in power and counsell care not to help either in preserving or restoring the true Ministers and their calling to their due honour rights or incouragements it will be thought rather a want of will than of power of which the British world hath had great experience If they would help but cannot they must not think long to enjoy that power which shall discover it self so weak or so pusillanimous as dares not own to be master of so pious safe and just purposes as these are to protect honest and godly men in so holy so usefull and so necessary an imployment as I have proved the Ministry to be If they can and dare yet doe not Esther 4.31 either help will come another way by the gracious hand of God whose terrours ought to be upon the highest mindes and loftiest looks Or else we may fear the Lord hath in his fierce anger decreed to powre upon highest and lowest root and branch in this Nation the vials of his sorest judgments and severest wrath turning our Sun into bloud and our Moon into darknesse removing the presence of his glory the Gospell and the Ministry of it from us and our unhappy posterity However God shall please to deal with his servants the true and faithfull Ministers in this Church yet it becomes them so far to be of good courage as they have him for their trust Ioh. 14.27.16.33 who hath overcome the world who foretold we should have trouble in the world but hath promised we should have that peace in him which the world cannot give nor take away This comfort they have that their labours shall not be in vain in the Lord yea and for after times they may be assured That this bush of the true Ministry of the Gospell in its due authority divine ordination and holy succession wherein God hath so evidently appeared to his Church and to none more clearly than to us in this age and in this Church of England shall never be consumed however it may seem to be set on fire 2 Tim. 3.12 Great tribulation threatens those that will live godly in this present world especially those that contract more of the divels malice on them by perswading
profane licentious and Atheisticall spirits who jointly combate against the truth of Christian and reformed Religion that they should fight neither against small nor great but chiefly against the reformed Ministers and the very Ministry it selfe of this Church Take heed that these smite you not 1 King 22 34 as those did the King of Israel between the joints of your harnesse between your conscience of duty to God and your civill complyance for safety with men between your love of Christ and the love of your relations between your fear to offend God and your lothnesse to displease men between your holding your livings and keeping good consciences between your looking to eternall necessities and your squinting on temporall conveniencies Navigare necesse est non item vivere Appian As Pompey said when he set to Sea in a storm against the advise of the timerous Pilot and Mariners so I to you It is not necessary to live but it is necessary to preach that Gospell which hath been committed to your care 1 Cor. 9.16 It is not necessary to be rich and at ease and in liberty and in favour with men but it is necessary to witnesse to the Truth of God and to that office authority and divine power of the Ministry of Christ in this Church against a crooked and perverse generation against the errours pride falsity ignorance and hypocrisies which are in the world What if Christ cals us in this age to forsake all Matth. 19.22 Age vero qui relinquere omnia pro Christo disponis te quoque inter relinquenda arnumerare memento Ber. de dil and follow him Shall we goe away sorrowfull Truly the world will not treat you much better when you have forsaken Christ to follow it For having once drawne you from your consciencious constancy and judicious integrity and pious reserves it will the more despise you and with the greater glory destroy you as Ministers Our * Ioh. 4.34 meat and drink must be to do the will of our heavenly Father as it was the Lord Christs our great sender and first ordainer Better we live upon almes and beggery than thousands of soules be starved or poysoned by those hard fathers and terrible step-mothers who intend to nurse Religion with bloud in stead of milk and feed the Church of Christ after a new Italian fashion commanding stones to be for bread and giving it Scorpions in stead of fishes mixtures of hemlock and Soulesbane with some shews of hearbs of grace of wholesome truths and of spirituall gifts Let the envyous penurious sacrilegious and ungratefull world see that you followed not Christ for the loaves Nor as Judas therefore liked to be his Disciples because you might bear the bag Let no Scribes or Pharisees Priests or Rulers outbid your value of Christ or tempt you to betray him and his holy Ministry on you by any offers unworthy of him and you Piorum afflictio non est tam poena criminis quam examen virtutis Aust de S. Iobo Act. 27.14 Shew your skill and courage in the storm wherein you are like for a time to be engaged Serener times made you carry slacker sayles and a looser hand now your eye must be more fixed and your hand more strong and steddy in steering according to cart and compasse the Euroclydons or violent windes of these tempestuous times will bring you sooner to your Haven Hitherto you have for the most part appeared but as other men busie as other ants on your molehils conversing with the beasts of the people in the valley of secular aimes and affaires now God cals you with Moses up to the Mount 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysâ—st in Act. ap hom 3. Matth. 17.3 and with Christ to a transfiguration where you shall see the meeknesse and charity of Moses with the zeal and constancy of Elias appearing with Christ in which great Emblemes your duty your honour and your comfort will be evident when you come to be stoned with St. Stephen the form of your countenance will be changed and you will then most fully see Christ and most clearly be seen of men as the Angels of God Act. 6 17. C. 7. 56. Nothing hath lost and undone many of us Ministers so much as our too great fear of losses and of being undone our too great desires to save our selves by complying with all variations even in Religion nothing will save us so certainly as our willingnesse to lose our lives and livelihoods for Christs sake and this not now for one great truth which is worth 1000 lives but for the pillar and ground of all truths the office and very Institution of the true Ministry whose work is to hold forth and publish the Truth of the Gospell to the world in all ages by a right and perpetuall succession Despair not of Gods love to you For Comfort Viro fideli magis inter ipsa flagella sidendum Ber. Ep. 356. Euseb hist l. 2. cap. 5. as Philo said to his countrymen the Jews at Alexandria when he returned from the Emperour highly incensed against them Be of good courage it is a good Omen that God will doe us good since the Emperour is so much against us Possibly you may as St. Paul be stoned cast out and left for dead yet revive again as is foretold of the witnesses It may be your latter end shall be better as Jobs than your beginning The experience of the sad effects * Act. 14. 19. which attend sacrilegious cruelties against the true Ministers and the want of such in every place * Rev. 11.11 may in time provoke this Nation by a sense of its own and of Gods honour to more noble and constant munificence which is not so much a liberality as an equity to able and faithfull Ministers It may be this Church Gal. 4.15 which hath so much forgot the blessednesse shee spake of in having learned able and rightly ordained and well governed Ministers Revel 2.4 which seems to have forsaken her first love and honour to the Clergy when Religion was as in all times preserved so in these last reformed and vindicated by the labours writings lives and sufferings of those excellent Bishops and Presbyters who were heretofore justly dear and honoured to this Nation so as no worthy minde envyed or repined at the honors and estates they enjoyed Possibly it may remember from whence it is faln and repent and doe its first works which were with piety order charity true zeal and liberality without grudging or murmuring against the honour or maintenance much lesse the office and function of the Evangelicall Ministers whose pious wisdome casting off onely the additaments and superstitious rags of mans invention yet retained with all reverence and authority the essentiall institutions of Jesus Christ The disguised dress and attire had no way destroyed the being and right succession of holy things but only deformed it to a fashion
Idolaters commonly adored I well know that there needs not greater incitations to constancy in vertue or patience in afflictions especially if for no evill doing than those which innocency suggests to good consciences by which the grace of God hath no doubt enabled many of you to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great agonies and victories of faith which you have as Job sustained in and obtained over the world by your meeknesse and to such as observe it admired patience Enduring at once even from those of whom you had deserved either as Brethren or Fathers better things so great contradictions and so many diminutions as not onely to have been despised yea and by some contumeliously used in your persons venerable for age learning piety and gravity but also to be quite dejected from that height and utterly ejected from the enjoyment of those ancient places to which both high honours and ample revenews were anciently annexed wherewith your selves were justly invested and which your predecessors peaceably injoyed many hundreds of years past in this Church and Nation Herein you have excelled most of the ancient Bishops who although great and commendable sufferers as Martyrs or Confessors yet seldome from those who were of the same faith and orrhodox profession Gregory Naz. indeed was stoned and reviled when he came to Constantinople and rejoyced to be so entertained because they were of the Arian faction enemies of Christs glory and godhead which is the Churches greatest glory and comfort Naz. orat Lat. In like sort divers godly and Orthodox Bishops were molested banished imprisoned and destroyed by prevalent Hereticks and Schismaticks who yet ever set up Bishops of their own leaven and faction For however men dared much against severall truths and fundamentall doctrines of Christianity yet never till of later times did they rise to the boldnesse of denying and destroying the evident Catholick custome of the Churches government by Bishops as chief among the Presbyters how ever single Tenets might be dark and disputable yet this was so clear by universall practise and consent that none ever gainsayed it that were of any repute for learning or piety among the ancients Your sufferings are the more strange and remarkable in this that they are from those who solemnly protested to maintain the Protestant reformed Religion as it was established in the Church of England in the extern order and policy of which you then were and had at all times been chief pillars and ornaments In this so strange and sudden alteration men soberly learned and peaceably pious and uncovetously Christian doe still with all respect and reverence to you and your Order consider not onely that great and undenyable justification which you have from the Lawes wisdome and piety of this Church and State ever since they were Christians as also from the Catholick and undoubted practise of all ancient Churches blest every where with the excellent lives learned labours and glorious sufferings of many your famous predecessors to whose care and fidelity the Church owes for the most part under God as the lawfull succession of Ministers so the preservation of the Scriptures of good learning and of all holy administrations But also they lay to heart that great humility moderation meeknesse candor and charity most worthy of you and most observable in you By which you have been as sheep before the Shearers not opening your mouths yea you were in order to publique peace content so far to gratifie your enemies and displease your friends as in many things to have been lessened in those rights and preheminences you had according to the Laws and ancient customes of this Church and State hereby hoping to have drawn others from their exorbitancies to such a peaceable temperament as might have been happy for us all Nor is it unobserved by wise men how great a justification the providence of God hath soon given even to your order and office which some Ministers were so impatient not to root out not onely by the preservation of it and by it a constant Ministry and holy order in his Church every where for 1600 years but also by that notable confutation and speedy defeat given to the vast hopes and violent projects of those for other mens counsels and results upon a secular account I neither examine nor censure Ministers who being of your own tribe were your sharpest rivals in a Presbyterian excesse who have now as little cause to rejoice in the so much endeavoured extirpation not of any Tyrannique and Papall but of all Presidentiall or Paternall Episcopacy that they have great cause to repent and be ashamed of those immoderate counsels and precipitant actions which knew not how to distinguish between the failings of persons and the benefit of order between the rectitude of a Canon or rule and the crookednesse of depraved manners which are incident to all sorts and degrees of men whatsoever and to Presbyters no lesse than to Bishops So that in such severities which ruined at a dear and dangerous rate what they might have repaired safely and easily they shewed themselves neither good Church-men nor wise States-men neither very pious nor greatly politick For by snuffing Episcopacy too close they have almost extinguished Presbytery and occasioned this ruine threatning the order honour maintenance and succession of the whole function and calling of the Evangelicall Ministry Their zeal not to leave an hoof in Egypt as some violent spirits pretended is probable to bring us back again to Egypt or so lose us in the wildernesse of Sin as few heads in after ages shall enter into Canaan No wonder if the branches wither when the root is wasted It is comely in your piety and gravity that you have not rejoiced in these so sudden defeats and speedy frustrations of their so bitter and implacable adversaries whose tongues it seems dividing their building ceased and soon decayed But rather you pitie these confusions incident to poor mortals who so oft bruise themselves very sorely by the fall and ruines which they maliciously or unadvisedly bring upon others as those violenter Presbyters have done even upon Presbytery it self who in its due place and decent subordination is also an ancient honorable and Catholick order of the Church of Christ by their hasty demolishing of all moderate Episcopacy where one Minister is preferred before another agreeable to the eminency of his gifts and graces the priority of his age the rules of all right reason and order which ownes any government in any society of men The gobdly height and orderly strength of which Prelacy was not onely as the root for right derivation and succession but also as the shelter stay and protection besides a great beauty and ornament to the whole Ministry of this and all Churches yea and to the reformed Religion here as established as not with lesse piety so without boasting with as much if not not more prudence and moderation as to the externe policy of it as in any
enemies as a matter of pomp and scandall that he rode in the City upon an Asse to ease his age It will be lesse offence when the world shall see holy Bishops and deserving Presbyters go on foot Psal 45.16 Eccles 10.7 and asses riding upon them Princes which Saint Jerome interprets Bishops on foot and servants on horseback Though we be never so low let us doe nothing below the dignity of our Ministry which depends not on externall pomp but inward power the same faith which shewes to a true beleiver the honour and excellency of Christ sets forth also the love and reverence due to his true Ministers of the Gospell who are in Christs stead when they are in Christs work and way and need not doubt of Christs and all good Christians love to them An high point of wisdome For Verity and piety would be in all true Ministers of what degree soever * As Constantine the Great burned all the bils of complaints exhibited by the Bishops and Churchmen one against another Euseb vit Const Privatae simultates publicis utilitatibus condonandae Tac. would be to take the advantage of this Antiperistasis by the snow and salt as it were of papall and popular ambition they should be the more congealed and compacted together into one body and fraternity Having so many unjust enemies on every side against every true Minister of this Church whether Bishop or Presbyter all prudence invites us to compose those unkinde jealousies breaches and disputes which have been among us because we own our selves as brethren among whom some may be elder in nature or superior in authority without the injury of any This subordination if Scripture doe not precisely command yet it exemplarily proposeth Reason adviseth and Religion alloweth and certainly Christ cannot but approve the more because the pride of Papall Antichrists on one side and the unrulinesse of popular Antichrists on the other side studies to overthrow it and are the most impatient of it I know some mens folly will not depart from them though they be brayed in a morter But sober men will think it time to bury as * Salvae fidei Regula de disciplina contendentibus suprema lex est Ecclesiae paex Blondel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 14. Vincamur ut vincamus de dissid Christianorum Constantine the Great burned all unkinde disputes breaches and jealousies which have almost destroyed not onely the Government but the very Ministry it self of this Church No doubt passions have darkened many of our judgements earthly distempers have eclipsed our glory secular and carnall divisions have battered our defenses discovered our weaknesses and invited these violent assaults from enemies round about that none is so weak as to despaire of his malices sufficiency to doe us Clergy men some mischief the most tatling Gossips the sillyest shee s who are ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth undertake * Clemens in his Apostolike Epistle advised any one to depart if he findes for his sake the dissension is in the Church Ruffin Eccles hist l. 1. c. 2. Discordiae in unitatem trahant plagae in remedia vertantur unde metuit Ecclesia periculum inde sumat augmentum Amb. voc gen l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Ipsae mulieres eorum quam procaces quae endeant docere contendere for fitan tinguere Tertul. praef ad Haer. cap. 41. not only to be teachers but to teach their teachers as Tertullian observed yea and to Ordain their Ministers such no doubt as they do deserve having such Preachers for their greatest punishments The kinde closing and Christian composing of passionate and needlesse differences among learned and pious Ministers by mutuall condescending about matters of sociall prudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 13. order and government to be used in the Church which have chiefly if not onely brought so great misgovernment upon us in Enggland would be a great and effectuall means to recover the happinesse of this Church and the honour of the Ministry which consists in an holy fraternity and godly harmony of love no lesse than in truth of doctrine and holynesse of manners By our own leaks and rents we first let in these waters which have sunk us so low that every wave rakes over us No man that is truly humble wise and holy will be ashamed to retract any errour and transport whereof he hath been guilty and of which he hath cause to be most ashamed Greg. Nazianzem offered himself to be the Jonas to the Church then troubled with sedition in vita Naz. Ingenuous offers of fraternall agreement and mutuall condescendings to each other had beene exceedingly worthy of the best Ministers both of the Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent way whose wisdome and humility might easily have reconciled and united the severall interests which they pretend to support of Bishops Presbyters and Christian people But who sees not that secular designes and civill interests have too much leavened the dissensions of many Ministers though in the conclusion they have not on any side much made up their cake by the match while Church men Bishops and Presbyters had no such worldly concernments to engage them they had no such disputes and mutinies as to the order and government of the Church which no Councell no particular Bishops nor Presbyters no one Church or Congregation of Christians began of themselves but all by Catholick and undisputed consent conformed themselves to that order Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. c. 45. which the Apostles and Apostolicall men left in common to the Churches in every place most sutable to their either beginning or increasing to their setling or their setlednesse It is easie to see what Christ would have in the Church as to extern order and policy if Christians would look with a single eye at Christs ends You may easily see how the worlds various interests which are as hardly commixt with Christ's and true religion's as oil with water serve themselves with Ministers tongues pens and active spirits who should rather serve the Lord Jesus and his Church in truth simplicity peace and unity without any adherences to secular policies parties and studies of sides by which sudden and inconsiderate rowlings to and fro as foolish and fearefull passengers in a tottering boat some Ministers of England have welnigh overturned the Vessell of this reformed Christian Church which might easily as the most famous and flourishing Churches anciently were have been uprightly ballanced and safely steered by a just fitnesse and proportion of every one in their place either for Ministry or Government and Discipline where of old the paternall presidency of Bishops stood at the helm the grave and industrious Presbyters rowed as it were at the Oares and the faithfull people as the passengers kept all even by keeping themselves in quietnesse order and due subjection Nor was
it wont in primitive times to be asked of Princes or people how they would have the Church governed or by whom who should ordaine Preachers or who should preach the Gospell administer the Sacraments confirm the baptized censure the scandalous and receive the penitent These were mysteries proper to Christian Religion and intrusted to the Pastors of the Church at first also conserved by them in the midst of hot persecutions from secular Magistrates without any variations save onely such as necessity of affaires and Christian prudence yet in an orderly way required and practised as to some circumstantials which was no more than for a childe from his coats to come to breeches or for the bark of a tree to increase as the bulk and branches grow What humane passion then and inconsideration hath any way wounded wisdome and Christian compassion in Ministers of all sorts should seek to cure The wounds of the Church will commonly fester and gangrene if Ministers stay till Lay men take them to heart nor is the hand of any of them so proper as them who have occasioned most hurt we Ministers ought to be the good Samaritans and by first healing the deformed scars of our own scandals the boyling Ulcers of our own passions the gaping orifices of our owne religious dissenfions our influence will be much more soverain and benign to draw together and heal up the publique sores of the Church and reformed Religion when we appear fit for so holy and good a work it may be God will put it into the heart of those in power to call us forth and incourage us to this happy understanding O consider with your selves how much the men of this world are wiser than you in their generations you are commonly but the beaters of the bush for the mighty Nimrods of the world what have Ministers got yea what almost have you not lost which wise men would have preserved of credit honour comfort or incouragement while they helped to pull down the Sion of this Church whose dust hath fallen into their own eyes and besmeared their garments to a most uncomely deformity Will you all leave this Sion thus in her dust without any pity of her is it better she should be ever desolated than your animosities laid aside Mortales câ—m sumus immortalis non esse debent odia Tantaene animis Coelestibus irae and your poore feuds reconciled Such everlasting burnings become not mortall breasts least of all heavenly hearts such as Ministers should have Plead no longer such a zeal for Christ as over-layes charity and humility or such a desire for Reformation which produceth so great deformities It is not so much a charity as a justice for us Ministers to advise to weep to pray for the peace of our Jerusalem Jer. 23.15 for from the Prophets in great part evill is gone out into all the land our cold or our hot fits our luke-warmnesse or our negligence or our timerousnesse have cast this Church and many poore souls into this lingring distemper this almost incurable Quartane which will never be cured till we smell the Rose of Sharon the sweet and celestiall temperament of Christs fragrancies in all love and charity in humility meeknesse kindnesse forbearance pity and tendernesse to each other Not onely all policy and honest prudence then as to the recovery of Ministers credit and reputation but all conscience and piety as to the requisi es of Gods glory and charity as to the dangers and necessities of peoples soules require now such double diligence of us all as may compensate any former failings and shew the world how necessary a good worthy Ministers are who every way fit those places and fill those orbs in which God and the Church have set them It is high time for us to get beyond all cold formalities superficiall solemnities popular complyings covetous projects secular ambitions Penurious pains slacker care and indiligent tendance will not be sufficient to cure those diseases we have now to contend withall which are ingenious to avoid all cure subtill to elude all skill cunning to increase their maladies cruell to spend their infection and fierce to destroy their Physitians Moderate and indifferent industry will hardly at any time convert sinners and save soules They are now like harder metals which melt not but in such a degree of heat Least of all now when errour is adored for truth sin and damnation it self are dressed up and esteemed as a way to salvation when hel it self is by some courted for heaven and chains of darknesse counted liberty like those Succubas and Empusas Philostratus in vita Apollon Tâ—yanaei which some men are reported to have espoused and embraced for beautifull wives There needs now besides preaching gifts and oratorious breath that vigor of grace that spirit of zeal that fervency of charity that humble constancy that magnanimous meeknesse which may make us Ministers unwearied in our studies frequent and fervent in praying oft in fasting attentively watching tenderly weeping charitably visiting solidly instructing and diligently examining c. In all wife and meeke condescendings even to bear with mens infirmities to frustrate their passions to receive their bullets and shot as upon Wool-sacks to overcome their oppositions by something of a softer yeelding still beseeching them and intreating them to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ when they are to us irreconcilable All obstructions of private peevishnesse passion hard speeches haughty carriage rough demeanor all fashion of disdains revenge and secular contestations must be removed as uncomely uncomfortable noxious That people may see the bloud of Christ softning us and the bowels of Christ enlarging us as brethren as fathers or mothers as tender and carefull Nurses in Christs family It is ever and now most of all unseasonable in so short and uncertain a moment which is allowed us to preach or people to hear to learn and to live in order to eternity to exercise Christians in continuall disputes to lead them in perplexed pathes full of bryars and thornes to wast their and our time in modern impertinencies which will not profit a poore sinner either living or dying All times and paines is lost which is not laid out in Cathechising Preaching and applying sound wholesome healing saving necessary truths which really mend both minde and manners either laying the foundations in principles or maintaining them in doctrines or building proportionably upon them in practicks and comforts where the truths of faith bear up the practise of an holy life and an holy life adornes the Articles of true faith where the Creed and the Decalogue goe together That besides the shewes of leaves in doctrines and opinions there may appear goodly fruits of purity justice mercy charity patience peaceablenesse civill obedience self-denyall which are grown so much out of fashion Alas while poore people are a mused with novelties as Larks with dasing glasses or picking up curiosities or gazing at sublimities
in any Christian Nation which will be interpreted a fighting against God and an opposing Christ Jesus who as he is the onely true rock on which the Church is to be built as to internall comfort and eternall happinesse so he hath regulated it as to externall order beauty and harmony and this not by every unskilfull hand that hath a minde to be mudling but by such as he hath appointed to be tryed approved and rightly ordained to the work of edifying the Church in truth and love Vicisti Galilae vicisti Julian dying cries 1 Pet. 2.6.8 This Galilean must overcome Christ will no doubt prove as a stumbling stone so a rock of ruine and offence to all those that dash against him in this Ordinance of his holy Ministry which though it seem small and contemptible to those that think themselves Grandees in power and policy yet as it was not cut out by humane hands so it will be a very burdensome stone to all that think to lift it out of the way and lay it aside from being an holy function and divine institution 15. The Ministers of Christ not safely to be injured I think therefore under favor that it will be not the least point of wisdome and policy in those who by exercising magistratick power stand most accountable to God and man for the support of the Ministry to harken to and follow that grave counsell * Act. 5.35 Greg. Naz. tels us that Saint Basil the Great was in so great reverence in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They could not be friends with God who were at enmity with Basil orat 16. Take heed what you doe to these men who are the rrue Ministers of Jesus Christ the messengers of the most high God who preach to you the way of salvation For if their function mission and Ministry be from Christ which I have proved and those can hardly doubt who are so much inlightned by Scripture as some are who may yet be blinded by secular interests it shall prevail though it be in the way of being persecuted Humane malice may a while oppose but it shall not quite blow out quench or smother those burning and shining lights of the Church Which it would doe with no lesse detriment to the Church and State than if it should extinguish the flame light and lustre of the Sun in the Firmament * Vide Jer. 33.20 which Prophesie is clear for a constant and immutable Ministry in the Church of Christ Nor are those ordinances of heaven and that Covenant God hath made in Nature more necessary or lesse durable than are these of holy Ministrations and Evangelicall Ministry which God hath appointed for Christ in the Church It is but little and with far lesse comfort that we see of God in the creature than what we see of him in Christ nor are the beams of the Sun so glorious or necessary Mal. 4. Rom. 10.18 as these of the Sun of righteousnesse which are diffused by his Ministers which are as his wings by which he hath moved into all parts of the earth and his voice hath been heard to the ends of the world And truly the most judicious Christians who are able to discern the day of Gods visitation Gildas de excid Brit. de plores the sacrilegious injuries and neglect of holy men and holy duties before those miseries doe looke upon this shaking and battery made by some men against the publique office and authority of the Ministry of this reformed Church of England to be nothing else but the effects of those counsels and plots which are always contriving by the powers of darknesse and the gates of hell against God and Christ against the Orthodox Faith and purest Churches And however they shall never prevail to destroy the true Christian reformed Religion in all places yet they may occasion its ebbing and receding from a negligent wanton and ungratefull people who love Apostasies Isai 1.5 and increase back-slidings as many in England seeme to doe It may provoke the Lord to transplant the Gospell to some other Nation which shall bring forth better fruits and leave our houses desolate who brought forth such sowre grapes as these are wherewith after so many hundred years Decr. 32.6 some men now seek to requite the Lord and his faithfull Ministers in this Church what can indeed be expected but some fatall Apostasie either to grosse superstition or Atheistical liberty or heathenish barbarity which is nigh at hand and even at the dore when once the divine honour and succession of the Evangelicall Ministry is outed and overthrowne for what else can follow when people shall either have no true Ministers or be taught to beleive that they need not any and have no more cause to regard them that are such by profession than so many Mountebanks whom no man is bound in reason honour conscience or civility to hear obey maintain or reverence as having no higher mandate mission or authority than from their own mindes or peoples humors To prevent which direfull sin shame and mischief to give some stay to the feares and life to the hopes of thousands besides and better then my selfe I have taken this boldnesse upon me by Gods direction and assistance as I trust though unknowne and not much considerable to the many excellent Christians 16. The preservation of the honour of the Ministry most worthy of all excellent Christians which are yet in this Church and least of all to those in power whom the matter most concerns with all due respects all Christian charity and humility to present to the publique view of all those whom this subject of the Ministry and reformed Religion doth concern these most sad and serious thoughts of my heart which are not bufied about Prophetick obscurities or Apocalyptick uncertainties which may please melancholy fancies and abuse curious readers but about a matter most clear from Scripture most necessary to the being of any true Church in this world to the comfort of every true Christian to the succession of Religion in after ages None of which can be kept in any way of Gods revealed will and ordinary providence but onely by a right and authoritative Ministry which carries a relation and bond of conscience with it between Minister and people which cannot be had unlesse we still keep to the pattern which Christ hath set us and the Church of Christ in all ages followed without any falsity though not wholly without some infirmity Nor is there any thing wherein men of the highest power and excellency can shew themselves more worthy of the name of Christians than in their endeavouring effectually to restore and establish the due authority and succession of the Ministry by being patrons incouragers and protectors of all able and peaceable Ministers and their calling Whose honour is Gods and will redound to theirs whom God shall so far blesse as to make them instruments of so
obeying of this holy Gospell though applyed to them in the best and winningest matter that humane abilities can attaine Nature and Reason teach there is a God and no miracle was ever wrought to convert Atheists but the mystery of Salvation by Jesus Christ crucified is by no light of nature or reason attainable and needed both miracles at the first planting and a constant Ministry for the continuing of it in the world If then men be naturally so much aliens from the life of God and so much enemies to the crosse of Christ it is not like they will ever be so good natured as seriously to undertake the constant taske care and toile of preaching to others especially when they have no call to it but their owne or others pleasure no conscience of it as a divine Office and duty no promise or hope of divine assistance or blessing in it no thankes for it or benefit by it either from God or man Alas these warm fits and gleames of novelty curiosity popularity pride wantonnesse self-opinion and self-seeking which seem to be in some men who count themselves gifted prophetick specially cald The valour of cowards and the vertues of hypocrites are in the eyes of their Spectators and inspired these will soon damp to coldnesse and deadnesse when once either their design which is bad or their weaknesse which is great or their folly which is grosse shall be * 2. Tim. 3.9 manifest to themselves and to others as it is already to very many good Christians who finde that all the frolick and activity of those men is but helping forward the pragmatick policies of those who study to ruine this and all reformed Churches For if once true and able Ministers be cryed down cast out and cut off as to right succession the true Religion as Christian and reformed too cannot without a miracle continue but must needs be overrunne with brutish ignorance damnable errours and barbarous manners which are already prevailed much in many places partly for want of able Ministers and partly by the peoples supine neglect of publique duties and despising their true Ministers under pretence of engraffing to new bodies and adhering to new gifted Teachers and Conventicles which we find breed up few or none in knowledge or piety but onely transplant proficients out of other mens labours and nurseries the mean time the younger sort generally runne out to ignorance and the elder to what liberties they most affect for want of that setled Ministry order and government which ought in Religion and reason of State to be both established and incouraged For my owne particular 19. The Authors integrity I have obtained all I designed by this defense if I may but put all excellent Christians and those chiefly whom it most concerns in minde of that which I thinke they cannot forget or neglect without great imprudence as well as sin nor will any man be excuseable who doth not with his best endeavours promote it No private ends or sinister passion of envy covetousnesse or ambition no fear or contempt of any mâ—n hath any ingrediency in this piece Animi directa simplicitas satis se ipsa commendat Amb. however in other things no man is more prone to discover how weak and sinfull a creature he is without Gods grace I have nothing of private interest for profit or honor to crave or expect from great or good men Indeed they have little or nothing left to tempt men with I have more then I can merit or well account for yea I have enough through the bounty of God Satis habeo si res meae nec mihi pudori nec cuiquaum onâ—ri fâ—rent Hortalus apud Tacit. An. 4. and the blessing of one to me Inestimable Jewell whose virtuous lustre both beautifies and enricheth my life to an honorable competency and a most happy tranquillity whose every way most over-meriting merits have deserved as much as can be to be consecrated by my pen to an eternity of gratitude and honour I have seen so more than enough of the worlds vanity madnesse and misery that I doe not desire any thing more than to spend the remainder of my life in a contented privacy to the glory of God the honour of this Church and the welfare of posterity If I were offered the choice of all wishes and the fulfilling of them in this world I would desire nothing next that justice which is the conservatrix of all civill peace and society but this That such as are able would so far consider the honour of God and the welfare of the Church of England as to become Patrons and incouragers of good learning and the reformed Religion and to this purpose that they would establish that holy Discipline right order ancient government and divine succession of able Ministers which ought to be in the Church of Christ In reference to the generall function and fraternity of whom I cannot but intreat and offer thus much at least as I have done which cannot be to any good mans detriment or the Publiques injury For it is not a pleading for a restitution of those honours lands jurisdictions and dignities which were by pious donation and devout lawes appropriated to that profession I know how vain and unseasonable a motion it were to crave the restoring of honors goods and estates of those who are now almost reduced to petition for their liberties and lives It is nobler since God will have it so for Clergy men to want those blessings with content than to enjoy them with so much envy and anger as in this age seems inseparable from Bishops and Ministers in any worldly prosperity Nor is it a challenging of those immunities Primum Ecclesia Dei jura atque immunitares sum habeto inter Leges Edgari and priviledges which the lawes Imperiall and Nationall every where among Christians indulged to the Clergy we must learn to think it freedom enough if we may have leave but to preach and practise the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is our duty and dignity we must esteeme it a great priviledge now to be but exempted from vulgar rivalry and mechanick insolency which dares not onely to intrude into Ministers Pulpits but to pull them out by unheard of outrages not suffering the Church to be their Sanctuary We claim not exemption from civill Magistrates Court-censures and jurisdictions as was of old in many cases our aim is so to doe all things as shall feare no men to be spectators nor our enemies to be our judges Nor can we have so full and desirable a revenge on our enemies as to doe well who are never more sory than to see any true Minister live unblameably and commendably We dare not crave to be eased of publique taxes either in whole or in part Notwithstanding for the most part our charges are great our livings small and but for life yea and but the wages for our war and worke while we
men I must needs offend as to their distemper I did designe it I ever shall offend them if I will defend this Truth It is my duty and charity by displeasing them to doe them good Apoplectick diseases are incurable till sense be restored some men are benummed and past feeling I cannot live or dye in peace if I should hold my peace when I ought to rebuke and with all authority Ephes 4.19 because with Truth and good conscience in the name of Christ and of all my brethren the intolerable vanity ignorance pride arrogancy and cruelty of those who have set up themselves above and against all those that are the ordained reformed and faithfull Ministers of this or any other Christian Church In whom they list to finde nothing but faults and insufficiencies while they boast of their own rare accomplishments which are no where to be found but in their proud swelling words by which they lie in wait to deceive the simple and unstable soules I could no longer bear their insolent Pamphlets 2 Pet. 2.18 their intolerable practises their uncharitable projects against the glory of Christ and the happinesse of this reformed Church and Nation It grieved me to see so may Shipwrackt soules so many tossed to and fro who are floating to the Romish coast so many overthrown faiths so many willing and affected Atheists so many cavilling Sophisters so many wasted comforts so many scurrilous and ridiculous Saints so many withered graces so many seared consciences so many sacrilegious Christians so many causelesse triumphings of mean persons over learned grave and godly Ministers I was troubled to behold so many fears yet so much silence so many sighes and sorrows yet so much dejection and oppression of spirits such over-awings in those men whom it becomes in a spirituall warfare to encounter with beasts and unreasonable men as being sure to overcome at last Therefore among others I desire this apology may be a monument of my perfect abhorrency and publique protestation against all evil counsels and violent designes used against this reformed Church its Religion and Ministry when posterity shall see the sad effects of some mens agitations I expect no acceptance from any men further than I may doe them good Such as refuse to be healed by this application probably their smart will provoke them to petulant replyes which as I cannot expect from any sober and serious Christian so to the wantonnesse of others who are wofull wasters of paper and inke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Crito I shall never have leisure to attend I have better imployment whereto I humbly devote the short remnant of my pretious moment even to the service of Christ of this Church and of all those excellent Christians in it to whose favour this sudden Apologetick defence is humbly dedicated in the behalf of the Ministry of this Church of England by their humblest servant in the Lord I. G. FINIS A Table of the chief heads handled in this Defense of the Ministery of the Church of ENGLAND THE Addresse pag. 1. The Cause undertaken p. 2 and recommended to excellent Christians p. 3 The honor of suffering in a good cause p. 4 Humble monition to those in power p. 6 Of ingenuous Parrhesie p. 7 Of Apologetick writings p. 8 The Authors integroty and sympathy p. 9 Of Ministers Lapse p. 10 Of their former Conformity p. 11 An account of Mr. Chibalds two books touching Lay Elders p. 13 Weak conjectures at the causes of Ministers Lapse p. 14 Of true Honor. p. 17 The main cause of Ministers lapse or diminution p. 20 Of Ministers as Politicians Pragmaticks Polemicks p. 24 What carriage best becomes Ministers in civill dissensions p. 25 Of Ministers indiscretions and inconstancies p. 28 The way of Ministers recovery p. 29 Vulgar insolencie against Ministers p. 30 Antiministeriall malice and practises p. 34 Ambitious and Atheisticall policies against them p. 35 The joy and triumph of the enemies of the reformed Religion p. 39 The Ministers of the Church of England neither Vsurpers nor Impostors p. 40 The sympathy of good Christians with their afflicted Ministers p. 42 Their plea for them against Novel and unordained Intruders p. 44 The right succession and authority of Ministers a matter of high concernment to true Christians p. 48 Who are the greatest enemies against the Ministry of this Church p. 49 Matters of Religion most considerable to Statesm n. p. 50 The just cause godly Ministers have to fear aâ—d complain p. 52 Ministers case unheard not to be condemned p. 55 The character of a good Minister such as is here pleaded for p. 58 Ministers excellencies are some mens greatest offence p. 61 Ministers infirmities viciate but not vacate their Authority p. 62 I. The first Objection or Quarrell of the Antiministeriall faction against the Ministers of England as being in no true or right Church way p. 65 Answ Vindicating the Church of England p. 66 1. As to Religion internall Ibid. It s power on the heart p. 67 Iâ—s ground and rule as to holinesse p. 68 Of fanatick fancies in Religion p. 69 The Souls true search after God and discoveries of him p. 71 Of the Souls Immortality p 73 Mans improvement to the divine image p. 74 True Religion as internall estates in Christ and in the true Church p. 76 II. Of true Religion as externall or professionall in Church society p. 77 Of the Church as visible and Catholick p. 78 Of a Nationall Church p. 80 The order and charity which befits Christians in all sociall relations p. 82 Papall and popular extreams touching the Church p. 84 The Romane arrogating too much p. 85 Of Infallibility in the Churches Ministry p. 88 Of Churches reduced only to single Congregations or Independent bodies 91 The primitive way of Churches and Christian communion p. 92 The National communion or polity of the Church of Eng. justified p. 95 The mincing or crumbling of the Churches pernicious p. 96 Of Religion as established and protected by Civill power p. 99 Of the subject matter or members of a Church p. 101 Of Parochiall congregations p. 102 Of Communicants p. 103 Of Ministers duty to Communicants p. 104 Ministers in each Parish not absolute Judges but Monitors and Directors Ibid. Good Discipline in the Church most desirable Ibid. Of Jurisdiction and Judicatories Ecclesiasticall p. 105 Of the common peoples power in admitting Communicants p. 106 Of a Church Covenant its Novelty Infirmity Superfluity p. 110 The essentials and prudentials of a true Church in England p. 112 Of being above all Ordinances Ministry and Church society p. 113 Peoples incapacity of gubernative power Civill or Ecclesiasticall p. 115 Of Magistrates and Ministers p. 117 Of the Plebs or peoples judgment in matters of doctrine or scandall p. 119 Tell it to the Church in whom is power of Church discipline and censures p. 121 Of Synods and Councels p. 126 Of prudentiall Liberty and latitudes in Church polity p. 127
The rash and injurious defaming of the Church of England riseth from want of judgement humility or charity p. 129 A pathetick deploring the losse and want of charity among Christians p. 131 II. Grand Objâ—ction against the Ministry as no peculiar Office or distinct Calling p. 143 Answ The peculiar Calling of the Ministry asserted 1. By Catholick testimony both as to the judgement and practise of all Churches p. 144 The validity of that testimony p. 146 2. The peculiar Calling or Office of the Ministry confirmed by Scripture p. 152 1. Christs Ministry in his Person p. 153 2. Christs instituting an holy succession to that power and Office p. 154 3. The Apostles care for an holy succession by due ordination p. 155 4. Peculiar fitnesse duties and characters of Ministers p. 157 5. Peculiar solemnity or manner of ordaining or authorising Ministers p. 158 6. Ministers and Peoples bounds set down in Scripture p. 160 3. The peculiar Office of the Ministry confirmed by principles of right reason and order p. 162 4. By the proportions of divine wisdome in the Church of the Jewes p. 164 5. By the light of Nature and Religion of all Nations p. 165 6. The Office of the Ministry necessary for the Church in all ages as much as at the first p. 166 7. The greatnesse of the work requires choyce and peculiar workmen p. 169 What opinion the Ancients had of the Office of a Bishop or Minister p. 172 8. The work now as hard as ever requires the best abilities of the whole man p. 175 9. Vse of private gifts will not suffice to the work of the Ministry p. 179 10 Ministers as necessary in the Church as Magistrates in Cities or Commanders in Armies p. 180 Christian liberty expels not order p. 181 11. Peculiar Office of Ministry necessary for the common good of mankinde p. 183 12. Necessary to prevent Errors and Apostasies in the best Churches and Christians p. 185 To which none more subject than the English temper p. 186 Conclusion of this Vindication of the Evangelicall Ministry as a peculiar Office p. 187 III. The third Objection against the Ministry and Ministers of this Church from the ordinary gifts of Christians which ought to be exercised in common as Preachers or Prophets p. 189 Answ The gifts of Christians no prejudice to the peculiar Office of the Ministry p. 190 Reply to the many Scriptures alledged p. 191 Of right interpreting or wresting the Scriptures p. 194 The vanity and presumption of many pretenders to gifts p. 197 Their arrogancy and insolency against Ministers p. 199 Gifted men compared to Ministers p. 201 The ordinary insufficiency of Antiministeriall pretenders to gifts p. 202 Gifts alone make not a Minister p. 204 Of St. Paul's rejoycing that any way Christ was preached p. 205 Providentiall permissions not to be urged against divine precepts or Institutions p. 206 Antiministeriall Character p. 209 Churches necessities how to be supplyed in cases extraordinary p. 210 Of Christians use of their gifts p. 211 * Answer to a Book called The peoples priviledge and duty of Prophecying maintained against the Pulpits and Preachers encroachment p. 214 Of peoples prophecying on the Lords day p. 215 Or on the Weekday p. 218 Of primitive Prophecying p. 220 Ministers of England neither Popish nor superstitiously pertinacious as they are charged in that book p. 221 The folly of false and faigned Prophets p. 227 The sin and folly of those that applaud them p. 228 The Author of this Defense no way disparaging or damping the gifts of God in any private Christians p. 230 Ablest Christians most friends to true Ministers p. 231 Ordinary delusions in this kinde p. 232 The plot of setting up Pretenders to gifts against true Ministers p. 233 IV. Objection The first Cavill or Calumny Against the Ministers of England as Papall and Antichristian p. 237 Answ Papall Vsurpations no prejudice to Divine Institutions p. 238 The moderation and wisdome of our Reformers p. 239 What separation is no sinfull Schisme p. 244 Of Antichristianisme in Errors and uncharitablenesse p. 245 Our Ministry not from Papall authority p. 247 True reforming is but a returning to Gods way p. 248 Of the Popes pretended Supremacy in England p. 249 Of our Reforming p. 251 Of extreames and vulgarity in Reformation p. 253 The holy use of Musick p. 254 Divine Institutions incorruptible p. 256 V. Objection The second Cavill or Calumny Against Ministers as ordained by Bishops in the Church of Eng. p. 259 Answ Of ordination by Bishops p. 260 Of Bishops as under affliction p. 261 Of right Episcopall order and government in the Church of Christ p. 262 Reasons preferring Episcopall government before any other way p. 263 Vulgar prejudices against Episcopacy p. 271 The other new modes unsatisfactory to many learned and godly men p. 272 The advantages of Episcopacy against any other way p. 273 The Character of an excellent Bishop p. 273 Of Regulated Episcopacy p. 278 Bishops personal Errors no argument against the Office p. 279 What is urged from the Covenant against Episcopacy Answered p. 280 Prelacy no Popery p. 281 Bishops in England ordaining Presbyters did but their duty p. 283 Alterations in the Church how and when tolerable p. 284 Episcopacy and Presbytery reconciled p. 286 Personal faults of Bishops or Presbyters may viciate but not vacate divine duties p. 289 Ordination by Bishops and Presbyters p. 289 Of the Peoples power in Ordination p. 291 People have no power Ministeriall p. 292 Peoples presence and assistance in Ordination p. 296 The virtue of holy Ordination p. 303 Of Clergy and Laity p. 303 Right judgement of Christian Mysteries p. 305 Efficacy of right Ordination p. 308 The Holy Ghost given in right Ordination how p. 311 Of Ordination misapplyed p. 318 Insolency of unordained Teachers p. 319 VI. Object The third Calumny or Cavill Pretending speciall Inspirations and extraordinary gifts beyond any Ordained Ministers p. 361 Answ Of the holy Spirit of God in men by way of speciall Inspirations p. 363 The triall of it 1. By the Word written p. 365 2. By the fruits of it p. 369 The Influence of Gods Spirit how discerned p. 371 The vanity and folly of specious pretences p. 372 Of true holinesse and reall Saints p. 375 Vulgar mistakes of Inspirations p. 377 These Inspirators compared to Ministers p. 382 The blessings enjoyed by ordinary gifts in good Ministers p. 386 The danger and mischief of pretenders to speciall gifts p. 388 Blasphemies against the Spirit under the pretence of special Inspirations p. 391 The scandalous inconstancy of sâ—me professors p. 392 Conclusion resigning our Ministry to these inspired ones if they be found really such p. 393 VII Objection The fourth Cavill or Calumny Against humane learning acquired and used by Ministers p. 395 Answ The craft yet folly of this Objection p. 396 Humane learning succeeded Miracles and extraordinary gifts in the Church p. 397 The excellent and holy use of it in
its severall parts as to Chr. Religion p. 398 Ferity and Barbarity without Literature p. 400 The Devils despight against good learning in the true Church p. 401 The glory of the Gentiles tribulary to Christ p. 402. Enemies to learning are enemies to Religion both as Christian and as Reformed p. 405 Learned defenders of true Religion of ancient and later times p. 407 Illiteratenesse betrayes a Nation to brutishnesse p. 413 Of gracious Christians that are not Book learned p. 415 431 Learning in Ministers necessary p. 416 1. for the work 2. for the benefit of the unlearned Answer to the Objection that Christ and the Apostles were unlearned p. 419 The Objectors have no Apostolicall gifts p. 420 Holy men inspired yet used acquired gifts of learning p. 423 Of Books or monuments of learning their excellent use in the Church p. 425 A plea for the nurseries of good learning specially the two famous Vniversities of England p. 432 VIII Objection The fifth Cavill or Calumny Against Ministers as Incroachers upon Liberty and Conscience as Monopolisers of Religion and denyers of that toleration which is desired p. 436 Answ Of true Christian Liberty p. 437 The true Liberty of the creature how limited by God p. 439 Of false Liberty p. 441 Liberty of Superiors and Inferiors p. 442 The Devils affected Liberty p. 444 True Christian Liberty consists with and is conserved by good government in Church and State p. 445 False liberty destruct to the true p. 447. Of licentiousnesse and intolerable toleration p. 448 Coercive wayes in Civil and religious societies appointed by God p. 450 How Christian moderation differs from loose and profane toleration p. 451 Christians must not be Scepticks and unsetled p. 452 True temper between Tyranny and Toleration p. 453 A means to preserve Truth and Peace amidst different opinions p. 455 Some toleration is but a subtiler persecution p. 458 Best Christians strictest in loose times p. 460. IX Objection The sixth Cavill or Calumny Against the maintenance of Ministers setled by way of Tithes p. 463 Answ The Antidecimal spirit p. 464 Of Sacriledge p. 465 Of Tithes as given to God and his Ministers by the devotion and law of this Nation p. 466 Of Tithes as Judaical Ceremonial Typical p. 469 Of Tithes before the Mosaick Law p. 472 Of Tithes as due to Christ and his Evangelical Ministry p. 473 Tithes not Popish nor Antichristian p. 474 Of Tithes put into Lay tenure and pensions p. 476 Of Tithes as too much for Ministers p. 478 Plea for the married Clergy p. 478 Antidecimists factors for Romish Celibacy or single life of Ministers p. 479 The Romish policy to overthrow the setled maintenance of Ref. Ministers p. 483 Covetousnesse a gâ—eat hinderance of Reformation p. 484 True piety large hearted and open handed p. 487 Of the poverty and unsetled maintenance of primitive Bishops and Presbyters p. 489 The honest Farmer satisfied in pâ—int of Tithes p. 491 Sacriledge a wound to Conscience and pest to Estates p. 494 The work and honâ—r of the Ministry recommended to the Gentry p. 496 The burden and mischief likely to follow the taking away of setled maintenance from Ministers p. 499 The plot to starve the Reformed Religion p. 501 Of Ministers support by Mechanick trades p. 502 Sordid spirits are most against Ministers p. 503 Generosity of good Christians to the Clergy p. 504 The Jesuitick genius is Antidâ—cimall p. 505 The insolency of avarice it chiefly against Ministers p. 506 Worthy Ministers merit their maintenance p. 507 Ministers comfort in poverty p. 509 Their plea for their rights by law and merit is no Tithe-coveting nor uncomely p. 510 Their trust in Gods all-sufficiency p. 512 Digression Answer to scruples touching Churches locall or places set apart to holy uses p. 513 Of Ministers using some solemn forms in holy duties p. 518 X. Objection The seventh Calumny or Cavill Against Ministers as seditions turbulent factionâ— p. 520 Answ Of Ministers civil conformity p. 521 Pragmatick Ministers injurious to themselves and their calling p 524 The errors of some not imputable to all p. 525 The peaceable temper of the best Ministers p. 526 A touch of the Engagement p. 528 Just protection requires due subjection in piety prudence and gratitude p. 530 The courage and freedom of Ministers in their proper sphear and calling p. 531 Ministers the lest they flatter men the more they love them and deserve to be loved and protected by them p. 535. XI Objection The eight Cavill or Calumny It is dangerous now to plead for or protect the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England p. 537 Answ Mans cowardise in Religious concernments p. 537 Ministers submit their persons and calling to the vote and sentence of this Nation p. 538 The merits which the Ministry hath upon this Church and Nation p. 539 Eight particulars summarily alledged for Ministers p. 540 Ministers hope and expect better measure from this Nation than extirpation or oppression p. 545 Ministers infirmities beyond their adversaries strength p. 547 Eminent Bishops and Presbyters formerly in this Church p. 549 The hopefull succession yet remaining p. 550 Antiministeriall boasting and insufficiency p. 547. 552 Addresse to those of the Military order wise and valiant souldiers cannot bee enemies to the Ministry p. 553 Ministry to be preserved in reason of State p. 554 Pathetick to true and worthy Ministers in their sufferings or fears p. 556 Sympathetick with godly Bishops and Ministers p. 561 Excitation to primitive constancy and patience p. 568 Ministers ought to recant publiquely if conscientious to fraud or falsity p. 570 Exhortations of Ministers to unity p. 575 To speciall diligence and exactnesse p. 578 Peroration recommending the Ministry to publique love and protection p. 580 1. From true policy p. 582 2. From the light of Nature p. 583 3. From its excellency and necessity p. 586 Conclusion Excusing the Authors prolixity freedome and fervour p. 587 Deprecating offence and craving acceptance of all execellent Christians p. 590 FINIS Christian Reader these and some other Errata's have escaped the care used in Printing and are against the Authors and Printers will left as exercises of thy judgment and candor in reading and amending Errata in the Epistle pag. line read for p. l. r. f. 1. 12. r. distempers for enemies  28. beyond for being 5. 30. motive for motion 6. 7. outvied for outvived 10. 12. Prince f. Princesse  25. soon for far 21. 1. revolutions for Revelations 24. 23. support f. wisdom 28. 4. dele by esteem  22. gentle for great 42. 7. their for the  8. setling for setting 43. 15. wantonly Errata in the Book pag. line read for margent p. l. r. f. m. 3. m. explorant for explicant 5  Non dii f. mordii 9. 36. r. conscientiously 19. m. putredo 21. 19. Add so much as the law c. 25. 26. pathetick for politick 49. 23. formation for sumation 59. 25. piercing for pitifull   〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 62. m. Reg. Jur. f. Reg. Jacob. 107. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 114. 23 peculiar f. popular 117. 43. body for badge 120. 41. del men 123. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 223. 14. looseness f. baseness 225. 28. adultery for adulterate 233. 8. than their gifts can doe good 237. The first Cavill 236. m. m. Stob. f. Amb. 241. m. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 243. 10. their beauty 251. 6. add not strongly 260. m. turba Remi 260. 41. Add no more just arguments 274. m Imitarores f. incitatores vigiles for igitur 275. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congrua 278. 3. add of them 279. 3. temperament for temperance 287. Prov. 11.14 f. Rom. 273 7. wrestling f. wresting  20. power Ministeriall 378. m. Artibus 384. 22. Inspiratoes 388. 9. tine weed for true weed  r. shewing for shining 400. m. cum non c. 406. 8. beleever for unbeleever 493. 3. yet it were for if it were 430 1. ashes for ages 431. 36. del not and read can be good 440. 41. sinfull bondage 463. 2. bends for binds  35 terrier  43. thifty 466. men for mention 469. 25. del with a good will and 470. 25. in piety f. impiety 477. 37. collections for customes 481. 12. impurity for imparity 492. 18. ad give him 520. 93. add most promising c. 538. 7. r. vain babling for vain blessings 539. 37. fervent prayers 541. 21. terrors for errors 547. 11. r. odde pieces 549. 35. r. mortal Angels 575. m. unity for verity  2. dele would be 577. 24. undertaking for understanding 578. 18 spread for spend 584. 16. medling f. mudling 590. 5. mee for men 593. 25. Censure f. answer 594 27. so many f. so may
dominion upon the carkasses and ruines of such as are able true and faithful Ministers of the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ However my own private comforts of life might other ways be either secure or satisfactory yet how can I with silence or as Nehemiah without sadness Nehe. 2.2 behold the miseries of many my Brethren and Companions For whose sakes I cannot but have great compassion even in worldly regards well knowing that many if not far the most of them have born the heat and burthen of the late days or years rather of great tribulation beyond any sorts of men to whom have been allowed some ways either for reparation or composition or restitution or oblivion But not so to any Ministers from some of whom hath been exacted the whole tale of Bricks as to the necessary labors of their Ministry and charges when the straw of maintenance hath in great part been either denied to them or some way exacted from them nor was ever any publick ease or relief granted to them in that regard But it becomes neither them nor me in this particular to plead or complain as to any private interests pressures or indignities already sustained The Lord is righteous and holy though we be wasted impoverished and exhausted yea though we be accounted as the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4.13 and as unsavory salt fit to be cast on the dunghil Matth. 5.13 While there are so many * Vel in hoc uno maximè inidonei quòd sibi idonei videntur tam tremendo Ministerio Jeron hasty intruders and confident undertakers of the work of the Ministry yet the best and ablest of us all desire before the majesty of God in all humility to confess That we are less than the least of his mercies that none of us are as to Gods exactness or the weight of the work 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Cor. 4.7 Non thesaurus debonestatur vasculo sed vas decoratur thesaurâ— Prosp sufficient for that sacred Office and Ministry Yet since this heavenly treasure hath been duly committed to such earthen vessels who have wholly devoted even from their youth their studies lives and labors to the service of Christ and his Church in this work of the Ministry since the publick wages and rewards for that holy service have by the order of humane Laws by the piety bounty and justice of this Christian Nation been hitherto conferred upon them and they rightly possessed of them I cannot but present to the considerations of all men that have piety equity or humanity in them That there are no objects of pity and compassion more pitifully calamitous and distressed than those many learned and modest men the godly and faithful Ministers of this Church of England either are already or are shortly like to be if the malice of their adversaries be permitted to run in its full scope and stream against them which will be like that flood which the old Serpent Rev. 12.15 and great red Dragon cast out of his mouth after the woman the Church which would carry away both mother and childe old and yong the sons with the fathers true piety with the whole profession the present Ministers with all future Succession as to any right Authority and lawful Ordination or Mission 19. The cunning and cruelty of some against the Ministry What I pray you O excellent Christians all whose other excellencies are most excelled in your Christian pity and compassion can be more deplorable than to see so many persons of ingenuous education good learning honest lives diligent labors after so much time devoted chiefly to serve God their Country and the Church of Christ and the souls of their Brethren with their Studies Learning and Labors to be turned or wearied out of their honest and holy employment to be so cast out of their houses and homes together with all their nearest relations to be forced to begin some new methods of life in some mean imployment or dependance and this in the declining and infirmer age of many wherein they must either want their bread or beg it or at best with much contention against the armed man Pr v. 24.34 Poverty in labor and sorrow night and day they must mingle their bread with ashes and their drink with weeping when they shall be deprived of all those publick rewards and setled incouragements which God knows were neither very liberal in most places nor much to be envied if * Matth. 24.12 Destiâ—â—e charitate â—â—cessâ— est abundare nequitiam quum non auferantur iniquitatis stercora nisi per charitatia fluenta 〈◊〉 gentem rempublicam ecclesiam validissiâ—â— purgâ—â—tia August Tepâ—â—to â—â—â—riâ—â—â—â— fervore frigesâ—â—â— rigoscunt conscientiae Bern. charity did not grow cold and iniquity abound wherewith the whole labor of their lives their learning and chargable studies besides their industry humility and other vertues were but meanly yet to them contentedly recompensed by those Laws of publick piety and munificence which invested Ministers in their places and livings after the same * Ministers have the same Right to their Ecclesiastick estates by Magna Charta as others have to their Temporalities Concessimus quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit in perpetuum habeat omnia jura sua integra omnes libertates suaâ— illaesas Magna Charta c. 1. See the Statute of 2. Edw. 6. and 19. for treble damages in case of not paying Tithes where due tenure for life and good behavior that any man enjoys his free-hold in house or land keeping himself within the compass of the Law And that the barbarity impiety and monstrosity of the injury may seem the less with the common people all these sufferings of poverty and necessity which either have faln upon some or threaten other true Ministers in this Church must be attended with the black * Pereuntibus Christianis sub Tiberio addita ludibria ut serarum tergis contecti laniaâ—â— canâ—â—â— interirent ubi dofecisset dies in usum nocturni luminis flammali urebantur Tac. An. l. 19. Luke 23.34 Joh. 11.48 18.38 shadows of all evil speaking and reviling such as was used to their great master and institutor Jesus Christ when he was to be thus crucified with contempt lest the Romans come and destroy the City though there was nothing found in him by his Judge worthy of death That so the proud mockers of the Ministry may say with scorn Behold these men of God these that pretended to preach salvation to others let them now come down and save themselves from that Jesuitick Socinian and mechanick Cross to which they are with all cruel petulancy either now or shortly as their malicious enemies hope and boast to be fixed O what would the enemies of this Reformed Church and State 20. Hoc Ithacus velit magnâ— mercentur Atride Virg. whatever they are have wished more to crown their envious desires and consummate their
malicious designs than to see that woful day wherein this abomination which threatens to make the Reformed Religion desolate in this Church of England being set up the whole Function and Succession of the true and lawful Ministry here should be questioned cashiered triumphed over and trampled upon by the foot of Ignorance Error Popery Jesuitism Atheism Profaneness and all sorts of disorderly mindes and maners All which heretofore felt the powerful restraints the mighty chains the just terrors and torments cast upon them by the convincing Sermons learned Writings frequent Prayers and holy examples of many excellent Ministers in England before whom the devils of ignorance error profaneness schism and superstition Luke 10.18 Vera fulgente luce flaccessit fulguris coruscatio terrore magìs quà m lumine conspicua Chrysost were wont to fall as lightning to the ground from their fanatick Heavens Have all these Sons of Thunder and of Consolation too who were esteemed heretofore by all Reformed Christians in this Church to be as Angels of God Embassadors from Heaven Friends of Christ the Bridegroom of their Souls more pretious than fine Gold dearer to humble and holy men than their right eyes the beauty of this Church and blessing of this Nation Have they all been hitherto but as Mahumetan Juglers or Messengers of Satan or Priests of Baal or as the cheating Pontifs of the Heathen gods and oracles Have they all been found lyers for God and born false witness against the Truth and Church of Christ Have they arrogantly and falsly * Numb 16.3 Ye take too much upon you since all the Congregation is holy every one of them c. Wherefore lift ye up your selves above the Church of the Lord Thus Korah and his company against Moses and Aaron taken too much upon them in exalting themselves above their line and measure Or magnifying their Office and Ministry above the common degree or sort of Christians And why all this art fraud and improbity of labor in Ministers Sure with the g eater sin and shame learned and knowing men should weary themselves in their iniquity Quò minor tentatio tò majus peccatum Aquin when they had so little temptation to be either false or wicked in so high a nature Alas For what hath been and is all this pompous pains and hypocritical sweat of Ministers Is it not for some poor living for the most part for a sorry subsistence a dry morsel a thred-bare coat a cottagely condition In comparison of that plenty gallantry superfluity splendor and honor wherewith other callings which require far less ability or pains have invited and entertained their professors in this plentiful Land Judges 8.6 Are not the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer Are not the superfluities * Merito à secularibus negotiatoribus lucro praemio superamur quum caelestia aeterna à Christo expectamus munera Jeron of any ingenuous calling beyond the necessaries of most Ministers And all this that after infinite studies pale watchings fervent prayers frequent tears daily cares and endless pains exhausting their Time Spirits Estates and Health they might through many vulgar slightings reproaches and contempts with much patience condemn themselves and their relations first to * Grave est paupertatis onus ubi deest bonae conscientiae levamen quâ sublevante gravescit nihil quâ dulcante nihil amarescit Petrach poverty which is no light burden where a good conscience is wanting or an evil one attending as in this case malice doth suppose And now at last after more than One thousand five hundred years and one Century and half since the Reformation in all which time this Nation hath more or less enjoyed the inestimable blessing for so our pious Ancestors esteemed the lights of this World the true Ministers of the Church in their Prayers Preaching Writings holy Offices and Examples they should by some men be thought unworthy of any further publick favors or imployment and to have merited to be counted as sheep for the slaughter * Rom 8.16 For thy sake are we counted as sheep for the slaughter and killed all the day long Laniâ—na diaboli Christi victima Leo. They are Christs Lambs whom the Devil delights most to â—utcher in their persons And as to their Function or Calling which was ever esteemed sacred among true Christians to be wholly laid aside and outed with all disgraceful obloquies as if they had been but pious Impostors devout Vsurpers and religious Monopolizers of that holy Ordination divine Mission Power and Authority which Christ gave personally to the Apostles and both by declared intent and clear command to their due and rightful Successors in that ordinary Ministry which is necessary for the Churches good Or at best they must be reputed but as superfluous burthensom and impertinent both in Church and State chargeable to the publick purse dangerous to the publick peace useless as to any peculiar power of holy Administrations which some think may be more cheaply easily and safely supplied by other forward pretenders who think themselves endued with greater plenitude of the Spirit with rarer gifts with diviner illuminations more immediate teachings and special anointings by which without any pains or studies they are suddenly invested into the full office and power Ministerial And as they are themselves led so they can infallibly lead all others into all truth with such wonderful advantages of ease and thrift both for mens pains and purses that there will be no need to entertain that antient form and succession of ordained Ministers as any peculiar calling or function amidst so gifted and inspired a Nation So much more sweet and fruitful do these self-planted Country Crabs and Wildings now seem to many than those Trees of Paradise which with great care and art have been grafted pruned and preserved by most skilful hands which these new sprouts look upon and cry down as onely full of Moss and Missletow In this case then O you excellent Christians such freedom as I now use I hope may seem not onely pardonable but approvable and imitable to all good Christians who fear God and love the Lord Jesus Christ who have any care of their own souls any charity to the Reformed Churches any pity to their Countrey any tenderness to the religious welfare of posterity And in a matter of so great and publick importance it is hoped and expected by all good men That none of you either in your private places or publick power and influences will by any inconsiderate and mean compliance gratifie the evil mindes of unreasonable men in order to compass the Devils most Antichristian designs who seeks by such devices first to deceive you next to destroy and damn both you and your posterity Your * Blasphemiae proximum est Christiani silentium ubi Christi causa agitur negligitur quam filendâ— aquè prodimus ac Judas salutando aut
suburbicaniarum ecclesiarum solicitudinem gerâ—â— Ruffin hist l. 1. c. 6. Concil Nicen. both Papal and Popular First The Romanists extend the cords of their Churches power and its head or chief Bishop so far as if it were properly Catholike and Oecumenical that is by divine appointment invested with sovereign Authority to extend and exercise Ecclesiastical polity and dominion over all other particular Churches in all ages and in all parts of the World So that it is say they necessary to salvation to be under this Roman jurisdiction c. Whereas it is certain That the Roman Church antiently was and still is properly speaking distinct from others in place as well as name and had antiently its limited power and jurisdiction extending to the suburbicanian Provinces which were Ten seven in Italy and three in Sicily Corsica and Sardinia Accoâ—ding to those like bounds which occasionally from civil titles both named and distinguished all other Churches from one another in both the Asiaes in Africa and in Europe as the Gallican German British c. Nor hath ever any thing either of Reason or Scripture been produced by any more than of true Antiquity whereby to prove That we are bound to any communion that is in the true meaning of proud and politick Romanists to that subjection to the Pope and his party which may be most for his and their honor and profit with the Church of Rome further than the rule of Christian charity obligeth every Christian and every part of the Catholike Church to communicate in truth and love with all those that in any judgement of charity are to be counted true Christians so far as they appear to us to be such Nor is it less evident That many Churches and Christians have scarce ever known much less owned any claim of subjection upon them by the Roman Church Which however they had antiently a priority of order and precedency yielded to it and its chief Bishop for the eminency of the City the honor of the Empire and the excellency of the reputed Founders and Planters Saint Peter and Saint Paul also for the renown of the faith patience and charity of that Church which was famous in all the World Yet Rom. 1. â— all this Primacy or Priority of Order which was civilly by others granted and might modestly be accepted by the chief Bishop in the Roman Province as to matter of place and precedency or Votes in publick Counscis and Synods This I say is very far from that * Greg. Mag. ep 30. ad Mauri Aug. Fidenter dico quia quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vel Episcopum vocat vel vocari desiderat in elatione suâ Antichristum praecurrit quia superbiendo se caeteris praeponit De Cyriaco Constantinop Episcope hunc frivoli nominis superbia typhum affectante Greg. M. l 4. ep 32 36. Antichristian Supremacy of usurped power tyrannick dominion and arbitrary jurisdiction the very suspition and temptation to which the holy and humble Bishops of Rome were ever jealous of and avoided especially Gregory the Great who was in nothing more worthy of that title than in this That he so greatly detested protested against and refused the title of Vniversal Bishop when it was offered to him by the Councel of Chalcedon Which both name and thing was in after times gained and chalenged by the pride policy covetousness and ambition of those Bishops of Rome who by some of their own sides confession as * Baronius an 912. tom 10. Foedissima nunc Romanae ecclesia facies cùm Romae dominarentur potentissima ac sordidissima merâ—â—rices Baronius * See Genebrard ad Sec. 10. Pontifices per an 150. à virtute majorum prorsus desecerunt Genebrard and others were sufficiently degenerated from that Primitive humility and sanctity which were eminent in the first Bishops of Rome in those purer and primitive times who never thought of any one of those Three Crowns which flatterers in after ages have fully hammered and set on the heads of the Bishops of Rome in a Supremacy not of Order but of Power and plenary Jurisdiction above all Christians or Churches or Councils in the Christian World which hath justly occasioned so many parts of the Catholike Church in that regard to make a necessary separation not from any thing that is Christian among them but from the usurpation tyranny and superstition of those bishops of the Roman Church and their Faction who unjustly claim and rigorously exercise dominion over the Consciences and Liberties of all other Churches and Christians With whom the Roman pride now refuseth to hold such peaceable communion as ought universally to be among Christians in respect of order and charity unless they will all submit to that tyranny and usurpation which hath nothing in it but secular pride vain pomp and worldly dominion Yet still those of the Roman Church know That all the Reformed Churches as well as we of England ever did and do hold a Christian communion in charity with them so far as by the Word of God we conceive they hold with the head or root of the Church Christ Jesus with the ground and rule of Faith the Scriptures and with all those holy Professors in the purest and primitive Churches Of whose faith lives and deaths having some Monuments left us by the writings of eminent Bishops and others we judge what was the tenor both of the Faith Maners and Charity of those purer times which we highly venerate and strive to imitate Possibly we might now subscribe to that Letter which the Abbot and Monks of Bangor sent to Austin whom some report to be a proud and bloody Monk when he came to this Nation and required obedience of them and all Christians here to the Pope which Letter is thus translated out of Saxonick by that grave and learned Gentleman Sir Henry Spelman Sir Henry Spelman Concil Brit. Anno Christi 590. out of the Saxon Manuscript a lover and adorner of this Church of England by his life and learned Labors Be it known to you without doubt that every one of us are obedient and subject to the Church of God and to the Pope of Rome and to every true godly Christian to love every one in his degree in perfect charity and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience than this we know not due to him whom you call Pope nor do we own him to be Father of Fathers Isca one of the three Metropolis in Britain Caerusk in Monmouthshire Antiq. Brit. This obedience we are ever ready to give and pay to him and every Christian continually Beside we are under our own Bishop of Caerleon upon Usk who is to oversee us under God and to cause us to keep the way spiritual Nor will this benefit of the Popes pretended Infallibility 11. The pretended Infallibility in the Pope or Church of Rome
strength of any part in its place and proportion doth not make it usurp the place or execute the Office of any other nobler part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist The measure of every part is the beauty and safety of the whole which cannot in naturall and ought not in Religious Bodies which are Churches be fitly disposed but only in such a way as God hath appointed for the daily forming building and well-ordering of his Church by such wisdom and Authority as Christ established in it Of which the Apostles and the Churches after them give us most evident testimony But to avoid destructive delusions But we must not be deluded either with the devils fulgurations and flashes or his transfigurations and disguises We must not forsake or stop up Gods fountains of living waters by digging the devils ditches Luke 10.18 I saw Satan fall like lâ—ghtning from Heaven 2 Cor. 11.14 Satan himself is transformed into an Angel oâ— l ght I a. 1.13 Eccl. 5.1 and wells which hold no water nay we may not wash our hands at the Devils Cistern to fit them for Gods service Nor may we take water from his troubled muddy and poysonous streams to water the plants of Christs Church We may not take strange fire from Satans Altar to kindle the sacrifices of God What need we cut off Dogs necks and offer swins bloud when we have so many clean beasts which are appointed for acceptable services that we shall not need any such vain oblations which are but the sacrifices of fools who consider not that they do evill nor look to their feet when they go to the house of God being as ready to stumble and fall and discover their nakedness and shame as they are forward to ascend to the altar of the Lord upon the steps of pride and presumption Exod. 20.26 which were forbidden to be made The humble heart being alwaies most welcom to God while others in vain arrogate to themselves power to perform those things which are not required at their hands Lev. 10.3 God hath said he will be sanctified of all these who come nigh to him in his publike service which is done not only by that inward sanctification of the heart by faith fear and reverence toward God but also by that exact observation of such rules of order power and Authority which he hath set who alone could do it in the publike way of his worship and service before the Sons of men We must not be such Children in understanding as to allow all to be gold which glisters when it will not endure the Touch-stone of Gods word Caiâ—itae Judae â—râ—diâ—orâ— Evangelium oâ—â—entabant Ophitae angelum in omni imunditie assistentem dicebant invocabant Hanc esse perfectioneÌ„ aiebant sine tremore in tales abire operationes quas ne nominare fas est Iren. l. 1. c. 35. Nulla enoris secta jam contra Christi veritateÌ„ nisi nomine cooperta Christiaâ—â— ad pugnandum pâ—â—silire audet Aust Ep. 56. or the probation of the Churches judgment We may not easily think that Gods Spirit in any private men runs counter to that holy order and clear Institution which the undoubted Spirit of God hath clearly set forth in the Scriptures and which the Church in all ages hath observed in the way of an ordeined authoritative Ministry All other or later inventions may well be suspected to be but Satans stratagems and devices There may be so many vermine crawling in a dead body as may make it seem to live and move when yet there is no true Spirit of life or Soul in it So it is no wonder if the various impulses wherewith mens secret and corrupt lusts stir them make some shew as if diviner gifts and endowments agitated them When indeed they have no other ayms or interests than such as Judas Iscariot or Symon Magus might have or those after Hereticks the Gnosticks Maniches and Montanists c. Who almost that had any shew of gifts or parts ever did mischief in the Church without great prefacings of holy and good intentions and pretensious of gifts and the Spirit of God There may be gifted Hypocrites devout devils angelized Satans Be mens gifts never so commendable if they want humility in themselves Miserrimis instabilibus fabulis tantam elationem assumpseruat ut meliores scipsos reliquis prasumpserunt Irenae l. 1. c. 35. de Caynitis Ophitis Judaeitis and charity to others which are the beauties of all endowments if they are puffed up seek themselves walk disorderly run unexamined unappointed unordained in scandalous and undue wayes they are nothing either as to private comfort in themselves or publick benefit to the Church The presumption and disorder of their example doth more hurt as the influence of some malignant stars in a Constellation than the light of their gifts can do they corrupt more than they either direct or correct If any of these Prophets or gifted men be indeed so able for the work of the Ministry that religion may suffer no detriment by them and people may have just cause to esteem them highly for their work sake God forbid they should not have the right hand of fellowship all incouragement from my self and all that desire to walk as becomes the Gospell when they are found upon just tryall fit to be solemnly ordeined set apart and sent forth with due authority to that holy service in Gods name let them be sent forth with good speed If they disdain this method of Ministeriall office and power which hath been setled by Christ and continued to this day in his Church which no wise humble and truly able Christian can with reason modesty or with conscience justly do but they will needs obtrude themselves upon the Church and crowd in against the true Ministers they may indeed be as sounding Brass and tinckling Cimballs fit rattles for Children or for the labouring Moon or for a Country Morice-dance and May-pole Nec veritate seneri nec charitate frugiâ—eri Greg. but they will never be as Aarons Pomegranates and golden Bells usefull Ornaments to Gods Sanctuary in words or works or any way becomming the Church of Jesus Christ which is as the woman clothed with the Sun the light of Truth and the lustre of holy Order And hath the Moon under her feet Rev. 12. not only all wordly vanities and unjust interests but also all humane inventions and novelties which have their continuall variations wainings disorders darknesses and deformities whereas Divine Institutions are alwayes glorious by the clear beams of Scripture-precept and the constant course of the Churches example Both which have held their Truth and Authority in the blackest nights of persecution wherein no untried and unordeined intruder was ever owned for a true Minister of holy things in any setled and incorrupted Church of Christ No more than any man shall be accounted an Officer or Souldier in an Army who hath not
sad so the advantages have been great which the Anti-ministeriall party have gained by the preposterous zeal of some Anti-Episcopall spirits which transported them not only beyond and against all bounds or rules of Reason Order Scripture Ecclesiasticall Custome and Laws here in England but even contrary to their own former and some of their present judgements touching Episcopall Presidency which they never did nor do yet hold to be unlawfull in the Church how ever it might be attended with some inconveniencies and mischiefs too not arising from the nature of that Order and power which is good but from the corruption of those men that might manage it amiss This makes many of these Ministers have now so much work to take off that leprosie from their own heads which they told the people had so much infected the Bishops hands by the Imposition of which they yet own their Ministeriall power and holy Orders to have been rightly derived to them in that Ordination by Bishops which was used here in the Church of England as in all antient Churches It is never too late to rectifie and repent of any mistakes and miscarriages incident to us as poor sinfull mortals Although Primitive Episcopacy which ever was as a grand pillar of the Churches Ministry Order and Government hath been much shaken and thrust aside by mans power or passion to the great weakning and indangering of the whole Fabrick and Function of the Ministry together with the peace and polity of this Church yet wise men may possible see after these thick clouds and dust of dispute what is of God in true Episcopacy yea and they may be perswaded to preserve and restore what is necessary and comly in it however they pare off what is deformed superfluous and Combersome in the behalf of which I am neither a pleader nor an approver It is now no time in England either to flatter or fear the face of Episcopacy or sinisterly to accept the persons of Bishops There is nothing now can be suspected to move me to touch with respect those goodly ruines from which the glory of riches and honour are now so far removed but only matter of conscience and the integrity of my judgement And therefore I here crave leave without offence to any that are truly godly either Ministers or others who may differ from me in this point freely yet as briefly as I can to discover my judgement touching this so controverted point of Episcopacy in which from words men have faln to blows and from wasting of ink to the shedding of blood I see that other men of different sense daily take their freedom to vent themselves against all Bishops and all Episcopacy some of them so rudely and unsavorily as if they hoped by their evill breath to render that venerable name and order ever abhorred and execrable to Christian minds which to learned and sober Christians ever was and still is as a sweet Oyntment poured forth nor doth it lose of its divine and antient fragrancy by the fractures of these times which have broken it may be not with devotion and love so much as with hatred and passion that Alabaster-box of civill protection and Sanction in which it was here for many hundreds of years happily preserved from vulgar insolency and Schismaticall contempt Why may not I presume to enjoy my freedome too yet bounded with all modesty and sobriety without any prejudice or reproach reflecting upon the Counsels or actions of any men my Superiours whose power and practise as to secular mutations neither can nor ought to have any influence on mens opinions and consciences further than way is made for them by the Haâ—bingâ—rs of Reason and Religion which are best set forth and disce ned in innate principles of Order and Polity also in Scripture precepts and precedents and lastly by the Catholick Custome and practise of the Church of Christ. Ans In my answer therefore to this Cavill or Calumny touching Bishops which many Ministers are as afraid to name or own with honour as they are to call any holy man either Apostle Evangelist Father or Martyr by the title of Saints my intent is not largely to handle that late severe and unkind Dispute in England about Episcopacy or Prelacie for this having been learnedly and fully done by others would be as superfluous so extremely tedious both to the Reader and my self Nor is it my purpose to justifie all that might be done or omitted by some Bishops in their government But my design chiefly is 1. to remove that popular odium to allay that Plebeian passion to rectifie those unlearned prejudices and to take away those unjust â—ealousies which are by some weak and possibly well-meaning Christians taken up and daily urged against all Bishops in a Presidentiall eminencie among Presbyters or above other Ministers 2. My next is to justifie that holy Ordination and Ministeriall authority which by the imposition of their hands chiefly was with probation prayer and meet Consecration duly conferred upon the Ministers of this Church according to Scripture rule and Ecclesiasticall custome in all setled Churches But before I handle the first thing proposed I must seek to remove that prejudice which sticks deep in some ordinary minds against Bishops and their Authority meerly arising from the darkness and sufferings of late so plentifully cast upon them if arguments and words could not yet Arms and Swords have they say convinced Bishops and subdued them notwithstanding all their learning Sed quid berba Remi sequitur fortunam ut semper edit â—â—mnatos Juv. their gravity their piety their protection which they pleaded from the Churches Catholick custome and the Lawes of this Church The vulgar are prone to think those wicked who are unprosperous and accursed who are punished Yet in true judgement of things those great and many impressions of worldly diminution and supposed Miseries made upon Bishops are more just arguments against the innocency of their persons place Job 1. and lawfull power than Jobs afflictions were which the Devil never urged against his integrity but sought thereby to overthrow it as God did prove and exercise it I believe there are too many that would be content there should be neither Bishops nor Presbyters but such as are great sufferers Nor yet any Word or Sacrament or holy Ministrations nor any marks of Christianity in this or any other Reformed Church But the measures of religious matters are never to be taken from the passions or prevalencies of men nor from any secular decrees or human acts and civill sanctions Godly and famous Bishops in eminency among and above the e Presbyters were many ages before any civill power protected them and so they may continue if God will in his true Church even then when as of old most persecuted and sought to be destroyed Worldly Counsells and forces which commonly are levelled to mens secular ends and civill interests signifie little or nothing indeed to a true
Christians judgement or conscience in the things of Christ and true Religion which must never be either refused or accepted according as they may be ushered in or crowded out by Civil Authority Christ doth not steer his Church by that Compass Things the more divine and excellent the more probable to be rejected by men of this world At the same rate of worldly frowns and disfavours Christians long ere this time should have had nothing left them of Scriptures Sacraments sound doctrine or holy Ministrations All had been turned into Heathenish barbarity Hereticall errors or Schismatical confusions if conscience to God and love to Christ and his Church had not preserved by the constancy and patience of Christian Bishops and Ministers those holy things which the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iâ—qâ—it Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. wanton and vain world was never well pleased withall and often persecuted seeking to destroy both root and branch of Christianity Weare to regard not what is done by the few or the many the great or the small but what in right reason and due order after the precepts and patterns of true Religion ought to be done in the Church As for the Government of Bishops Episcopal power not Antichristian so far as it referred to the chief power and office of Ordeining Ministers in a right succession for due supplies to this Church of England Truly I am so far from condemning that Episcopall authority and practise as unlawfull and Antichristian after the rate of popular clamor ignorance passion and prejudice That contrarily very learned wise and godly men have taught me to think and declare That as the faults and presumptions of any Bishops through any pride ambition and tyranny or other personall immoralities are very Antichristian because most Diametrally contrary to the Precept and patern of our holy and humble Saviour Jesus Christ whose place Bishops have alwayes as chief Pastors and Fathers among the Presbyters since the Apostles times eminently supplyed in the extern order and Polity of the Church So that above all men they ought to be most exactly conform to the holy rule and example of Jesus Christ Episcipale â—ffiâ—â— a maximè oâ—nanâ— nobilitant gravitas moâ—um inâ—turitas Consiliorum actuum honest as Bern. Ep. 28. Câ—in honoâ—is p aeâ—ogativa etiam congrue â—â—â—iâ—a requirimus Amb. de dig Sa. Ne sit honor sublimis vita deformis Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 19. Cogito me jam Episcopum principi pastoâ—um de commissi ovibus rationem redditurum Non Ecclesiasticis honoribus tempora ventosa transigeâ—e debere Aust Ep. 203. both in doctrine and manners So withall they have taught me to esteem the Antient and Catholick government of godly Bishops as moderators and Presidents among the Presbyters in any Diocess or Precincts in its just measure and constitution for power Paternall duty exercised such as was in the persecuting purest and Primitive times to be as much if not more Christian than any other form and fashion of government can be yea far beyond any that hath not the charity to endure Catholick primitive and right Episcopacy which truly I think to be most agreeable to right reason and those principles of due order and polity among men also no less suitable to the Scripture wisdome both in its rules and paterns to which was conform the Catholick and Primitive way of all Christian Churches throughout all ages and in all places of the world Blondel Apol. pag. 177. 179. Et in praefatio ne Absit à me ut siniâ—trum de piâ—ssiâ—ae illius antiquiâ—atis consilio consensu quae Episcopalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primum in Ecclesiam invexit mentâ— quippiam suspicer So Ego Episcopos quodam modo Apostolorum locum in Ecclesia tenere largior non munere divinitus instituto sed lâ—beâ—è ab Ecclesia collata illa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blondel test Jeron pag. 306. Which things very learned men and friends to Presbytery joyned with Episcopacy have confessed both lately as Salmatius Bochartus and Blondellus and also formerly as Calvin Beza Moulin with many others so far was ever any learned and unpassionate man from thinking Episcopacy unlawfull in the Church Indeed after all the hot Canvasings and bloody contentions which have wearied and almost quite wasted the Estates spirits and lives of many learned men in this Church of England as to the point of true Epiâ—copacy I freely profess that I cannot yet see but that that antient and universall form of government in due conjunction with Presbytery and with due regard to the faithfull people is as much beyond all other new invented fashions as the Suns light glory and influence is beyond that of the mutable and many-faced Moon or any other Junctos of Stars and Planets however cast into strange figurations or new Schemes and Conjunctions by the various fancies of some Diviners and Astrologers D. Bâ—chartus Eâ—ist ad D. Moâ—leium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat â—â—â—n in Epist Which free owning of my judgement in this point may serve to blot out that Character etiam ipse Presbyterianus added to my name by the learned Pen of Bochartus For although I own with all honour and love orderly Presbytery and humble Presbyters in the sense of the Scriptures and in the use of all pious Antiquity for sacred and divine in their office and function as the lesser Episcopacy or inspectors over lesser flocks in the Church yet not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Ep. 62. Eccles Neocaes The holy consistory of Presbyters desires their chief or President to be among them as abhorring and extirpating all order and presidency of Bishops among them as if it were Antichristian wicked and intollerable Nor do I think that an headless or many headed Presbytery ought to be set up in the Church as of necessity and divine right in this sense that learned writer himself is no Presbyterian nor ever had cause to judge me to be of that mind I confess after the example of the best times 2. Reasons for Episcopacy rather than other Government and judgement of the most learned in all Churches I alwayes wished such moderation on all sides that a Primitive Episcopacy which imported the Authority of one grave and worthy person chosen by the consent and assisted by the presence counsell and suffrages of many Presbyters might have been restored or preserved in this Church and this not out of any factious design but for these weighty reasons Ignat. ad Antiochenos Bids the Presbyterâ— feed the flock till God shews who shall be their Bishop or Ruler He salutes Onesimus the Bishop of Ephesus Ep. ad Ephes cited by Euseb l. 3. c. 35. Hist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Chil. which prevail with me 1. For the Reverence due from posterity Ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constituti Apostolici seminis
novelties and extravagancies Which have nothing in them but a verminly nimblenesse and subtlety being bred out of the putrefactions of mens Brains and the corruptions of the times in matters of Religion and are rather pernicious than any way profitable in comparison of the more sober strength and usefulnesse of nobler creatures Nor is it by gracious persons disputed but that one serious Christian of the old stamp one able and faithfull Minister of the Church of England whom these so contemne and hate hath heretofore done and still doth more good and gives greater demonstrations of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him with wisdom gravity learning humility diligence peaceablenesse and charity by which many have been restrained or converted from sin or established and confirmed in the ways of God than whole heaps of these novel Teachers and swarms of Inspired pretenders who like drones do but seek to rob the hives and starve the Bees who serve in some fits to scratch itching ears to some tune of pleasure liberty profit novelty or preferment but not to teach the ignorant to settle the shaken to compose the tossed to heal the wounded or to wound the ulcerated Consciences of any men to any soundnesse of mind or true holinesse of manners Aedificantur in ruinam illuminantur in caciores tenebâ—as Their Proselytes are rather perverted than converted made theirs by a schismaticall and factious adherence rather than Christs by a fiduciary obedience or the Churches by a charitable and humble communion Faction and confusion and every evill work are the fruits of pertinacious and pragmatick ignorance as Vnion Peace and Charity are the genuine effects of sound knowledge and humble wisdome In which wayes onely true Christians have ever judged the highest gifts and graces of Christs Spirit to be both derived and decerned I am sure there is a vast difference between a wanton Fancy and a holy Spirit between a glib Tongue and a gracious Heart We may add to these discoveries of fallacious pretentions to the Spirits speciall motions Abominanda religionis ludibria colentia temporum rationes non leges Dei Naz or Lat. Hypocritarum pietas est temporum aucupium Cyp. That both in the first broaching and after drawings forth of their new projects and inventions the authors of them more look to men than to God how it may suit with secular aimes and politique interest private or publique than how it sorts with Gods Word or the rule of Christ or the Churches practise in purest times or its present distresses whose frame as to the main both for Doctrine Ministry and Government hath alwayes been the same both in times of persecution and of peace when favoured and disfavoured hy men And such it ever was in England and possibly it will be if it out-live this storm I am sure these Novelties so much opposing this Church and true Ministers in it would never have so quickned by any inward heat of Spirit if they did not presume that the Sun did shine warm on them which yet is no infallible sign of Gods blessing If these Antiministeriall adversaries these now so Inspired men who join in their plots and power and activity by which they either secretly undermine by evill speaking and separating from the publique Ministry or openly invade and arrogate the Office or wholly deride and oppose the Function if they expected nothing but Winter and persecution and such measure as they mete I believe it would damp their spirits very much They would then think it a part of prudence in a Christian Spirit to sleep in a whole skin by keeping themselves in that station wherein God and the Lawes both of Church and State have set them As they did very warily in those times when there was just power restraining them in those due bounds which then they thought became them best and they would no doubt have thought so still for all the fullnesse of their spirits and ebullition of their rarer gifts if strange indulgences in matters of Religion and Church Order had not tempted them to safe extravagancies and unpunished insolencies chiefly against the Church and Church men In other things of civill affairs where it is very likely their spirit prompts them as much to be medling because more is got by those activities they know how to keep their spirits in very good order being over-awed with evident danger attending any factious seditious or tumultuary motions None of these small spirited m n who are seldome little in their own eyes are powerfully moved to usurp any place in the Councell of State to arrogate the office and authority of an Embassadour or publique Agent to set himself in the Seat of Justice un commissioned or to intrude into any place Military or Civill without a Warrant from other than their own forward spirits though their pride and ambition * 2 Sam. 15.3 Nunquam defuit ambitioso praeclara sui ipsius opinio summa de seipso expectatio Sym. like Absaloms may fancy they could better dispatch businesse doe exacter Justice and speedier than any in Authority yet here the danger and penalty of intrusion cowes their zeal curbs their heady spirits and cuts their combes Nor are they often either so valiant or so fool hardy as to act by their pretended impulses in any way but where they think there may be safety which they now find as from many men in what ever they say or doe against the honour order and Ministry of this reformed Church of England which they see hath not many souldiers to defend it nor advocates to plead for it nor Patrons to protect it Wanton and petulant servants which were formerly but as the * Iob 30.1 Insolentioris animi propriâ— est calamitosam viriutem indigne tractare dicteriis appetere injuriis afficere de iis quae immerita patitur maxime exprobrare Plin. dogs of the flock will easily insult over the children of the family when they see them Orphanes and exposed to injuries either wanting true * Isa 49.23 Nursing Fathers and Mothers or these wanting that tendernesse toward them which is hardly to be expected in step-mothers and onely titular parents It is no adventure for timorous beasts to goe over where they find the fence trodden down and the gap made wide So much more prevalent with vain and proud men are the impressions of fear from men than those from God whose commands and threatnings are attended with Omnipotent Justice which is slow paced but sure Nor doe I doubt but those subtle and insolent enemies against this Reformed Church and the Ministry of it doe already * Prima est baec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Iuv. Occultum quatienti animo tortore flagellum Id. find the first strokes of Divine Vengeance in their own ingratefull breasts The further triall of these pretenders to the Spirit I must leave to the impartiality of judicious Christians in that experience
indifferency in the Angels of the Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira tolerating any thing and condemning nothing the one suffering those that held the doctrine of Balaam and the impure Nicolaitans who taught all libidinous impudicities to be free for Christians the other for tolerating Jezebel under the colour of a Prophetesse to seduce the servants of God The Apostle Paul commands some mens mouths should be stopped Tit. 1.11 Gal. 5.12 1 Tim. 2.20 who speak perverse things in the Church wisheth those cut off that troubled them He gives over to Satan Hymenaeus and Philetus that they might learn not to blaspheme Gal. 1.8 Denounceth a grievous curse or Anathema to any that should presume to teach any other Doctrine than the Gospell that form of sound words once delivered to the Church which is according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 1 Cor. 4.2 He tels us that there is not onely a word but a rod or power of coercion left to the Church and its lawfull Pastors or Ministers for the edification not for the destruction of the Church And however this power Ecclesiasticall which is from God Magistratick and Ministeriall power when united as that other Magistratick be wholly severed and divided in their courses while the Civill Magistrate is unchristian yet when he embraceth the profession of Christianity these two branches of power which flowed severall ways yet from the same fountaine God doe so farre meet again and unite their amicable streams 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Magistratick and Ministeriall Civill and Church power as not to * As those of old that thought Herod to be the Mâ—ssias Terâ—de pras ad Haâ—c 5. confound each other nor yet to crosse and stop one the other but rather to increase strengthen and preserve mutually each other while the Minister of Christ directs the Magistrate and the Christian * As Eusebius tels in Constantine the Greats time who joined with the Bishops and Ministers of the Church in good government Magistrate protects the Minister both of them with a single eye regarding that great end for which God in his love to mankinde and to his Church hath established both these powers in Christian Churches and Societies That neither the bodies nor the soules of Christians should want that good which God hath offered them in Christ nor suffer those injuries in society for the prevention or remedy of which both Magistracy and Ministry are the Ordinances of God for enjoying the benefit of both which blessings as every Christian hath a sociall capacity so every lawfull Magistrate and Minister hath according to their places and proportions a publique duty and authority upon them to see justice and holinesse truth and peace civill sanctions and divine institutions purely and rightly dispensed to inferiours for whose good they aâ—e of God ordained 11. In what case onely toleration of any thing in Religion were lawfull If there were indeed no rule of the written Word of God which Christians owned as the setled foundation of Faith the sure measure of doctrine and guide of good manners in religion both publiquely and privately or if there were no credible Tradition delivered by word of mouth and parents examples which men might imitate for the way of Religion revealed to them by God which was the way before the flood but every one were to expect dayly either new inspirations or to follow the dictates of his own private fancy and reason Nothing then would be more irreligious then to deny all freedom publique as well as private nothing more just than to tolerate any thing of opinion and speculation which any one counted his religion yet even in that liberty of walking and wandering in the dark when no Sun of certain Revelation divine had shined on mankinde Rom. 1.32.2 14. the very light of Nature taught men as among Heathens that some things in point of practise are never tolerable in any humane society But since the wisdome and mercy of God hath given to mankinde which the Church alwayes injoyes the light of his holy Word and a constant order of Ministry to teach from it the wayes of God in truth peace and holinesse not onely every Christian is bound to use all religious means which God hath granted to settle his own judgement and live accordingly in his private sphear without any Scepticall itch or lust of disputing alwayes in Religion But both Magistrate and Minister whose severall duties are set forth and different powers ordained over others in Scripture for a sociall and publique good must take care to attain that good of a setled Religion and preserve it in always of verity equity and charity which may all well consist with the exercise of due authority Nor is it any stinting or restraining of the Spirit of God in any private Christian to keep his Spirit within the bounds of the Word of God Deut. 29.29 wherein the things revealed belong to us and our children Nor is it any restraint to the Spirit of God in the Scripture to keep our opinions and judgements and practises within the bounds of that holy faith and good order which is most clearly set forth in the câ—ncurrent sense of the Scriptures and explained by the Confessions of Faith and practise of holy Discipline which the Creeds and Councels and customes of the Catholick Church hold forth to them Nor is it any limiting or binding up of the Spirit of God in private men for the Christian Magistrate and Minister to use all publique means both for the information conviction and conversion of those under their charge as to the inward man and also of due restraint and coercion as to the outward expressions in which they stand related to a publique and common good But if the negligence of Governours in Church and State 12. What a Christian must doe in dissolute times should at any time so connive and tolerate out of policy or fear or other base passion if through the brokennesse and difficulties of times the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for Magistrates and good Ministers so as the vulgar fury corrupted by factious and unruly spirits are impatient of just restraits but carry on all things against Laws and wiser mens desires to a licentious Anarchy and all confusions in the outward face and publique Ministrations of Religion yet must no good Christian think this any dispensation for any private errours in his judgment or practise In maxima rerum licentia minima esse debet veri Christiani libertas Gib Lex sibi severissima est pura conscientia dei amor Ber. he must be the more circumspect and exact in his station and duty as a Christian when the publique course runs most to confusion tolerating least in his own conscience when most is tolerated by others The love of God and Christ and of the truth of Religion and the respect and reverence borne the order of the Ministry and to the Churches
or dubious in uncertainties or intangled with subtilties as Deer in acorn time they forget their food grow lean and fall into divers snares and temptations into many lusts and passions yea into the grave and pit of destruction whence there is no redemption Many as leaves from trees in Autumn every day drop away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. and dye in their mazes and labyrinths of Religion by wearying themselves in which they advance no more than birds in a cage and blinde horses in a mill whereas a true Christian should every day grieve to see himself nothing advanced in true holynesse or solid knowledge with grand steps he should be dayly going onward and upward with ample progresses and mighty increases of sound knowledge indisputable verities unquestionable practises of ly duties and heavenly conversation these are the steps by which holy men and women have ascended to heaven and conquered the difficulties of salvation That thus al the world might blesse themselves to see the happy improvements of true Christians beyond other men and the inestimable blessing of true and excellent Ministers paines among the filliest and worst of men in the dissolutest and worst of times O let not us then of the Ministry stand still and look on our own and the Churches miseries as the Lepers or mothers did in sieges till their children and themselves grew black with famine You that pretend to stand before the Lord of the whole world and the King of his Church you that bear the name of the most compassionate Redeemer who shed his bloud for his Church and laid down his life for his sheep Doe you never hear in the sounding of your own bowels the tears sighes and fears of infinite good Christians nor the voice of this English Sion lamenting and expecting pity at least from Ministers Is it worth thus much misery to root up Episcopacy to set up Presbytery and to undermine both with Independency All which might be fairly composed into a threefold cord of holy agreement such as was in primitive times between Bishops Presbyters and people whose passions have now ravelled out peace by sad divisions and weakned Religion by uncharitable contentions Though Parliaments and Assemblies and Armies and people should be miserable comforters passing by without regard and remorse yea though some be stripping the wounded and robbing this desolated Church yet doe not you forsake her now she is smitten of God Lamen 1.12 and despised of men Is it nothing to you O you that are more politicians than Preachers that passe by Stand and see if there be any sorrowes like the sorrowes of this reformed Church of England wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger It concernes no men more than Ministers to succour her which hath received these wounds most-what in the house and by the hands of her friends O give the Lord no rest untill he hath returned to this Church in mercy if you can by counsels and prayers reform nothing in the publique yet let nothing be unreformed in your private if you must be laid aside as to the peculiar office of Ministers yet you may mourn and pray the more in secret That the Lord would breath upon us with a Spirit of Truth and Peace of love and holy union of order and humility whereby none having any pride or ambition to govern every one may be humbly disposed to be governed For the great crisis of all Ministers distempers is in this not what Truths we shall beleive what doctrine we shall preach what holynesse we shall act but who shall govern whether Bishops or Presbyters or people yea the Keyes of some mens pretended power hangs so at the peoples girdle that it is too neer the apron-strings even of mechanicks and silly women When a right temper of Christian humility and love shall be restored to every part then will the spirits of Religion be recovered and aptly diffused into every member of this Church which blessed temperament as Christian Churches enjoyed in their primitive and florid strength nor is it lesse necessary now in their more aged and so decayed constitution O let not after ages say the Ministers of England were more butchers then Surgeons That they were Physitians of no value neither curing themselves nor others If any of us have not by malice so much as mistake given stronger physick and more graines of violent drugs than the constitution of this or any well reformed Church can well bear let us not be lesse forward to apply such cordials lenitives antidotes and restoratives of love moderation concession and equanimous wisedome as may recollect the dissipated and re-inforce the wasted spirits which yet remain in this reformed Church and the Ministry of it On which the enemies round about doe already look with the greedy eyes of ravens and vultures expecting when its languishing spirits shall be quite exhausted and its fainting eyes quite closed that so they may draw away the pillow and remaining supports of civill protection from under its head and violently force it to give up the ghost that the reformed Religion and Ministry of this Church may be at length quite cast out and buried with the buriall of an Asse that neither the place of reformed Bishops nor reformed Presbyters nor reformed people may know them any more in these British Islands In the last place therefore 13. Humble addresse to those in power in the behalf of Ministers I humbly crave leave to remind those that act in highest places and power who are thought no slight or shallow Statesmen That if neither piety to God nor conscience of their duty while they undertake to govern nor charity to mens soules both in present and after ages nor zeal for the reformed Religion move them as Christians nor yet justice and common equity to the encouragement and preservation of so many learned and godly men the lawfull Ministers of this Church in their legall rights and liberties nor yet common pity and charity to relieve so many pious men and their families If I say none of these should sway them as men or Christians the least of which should and I hope greatly will Yet worldy policy and right reason of State seems to advise the preservation and establishment of the so much shaken reformed Religion here in England which hath still deep root and impressions in the mindes and affections of the most and best people in this Nation Nor can this be done by more idoneous means than by giving publique favour incouragement and establishment to the true and ancient Ministry as to its main support and to godly Ministers as its head-most Professors If it be not absolutely necessary yet sure it is very convenient in order to the quiet and satisfaction of mens mindes who generally think themselves most concerned in matters of Religion either to confirm and restore to its pristine honour order and stability the ancient Ministry of the Church