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
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
forbidden to have any thing to do in matters of blood though but in a way of Civil Judicature Among the Romans Pontifici non licuit quenquam â—ccidere Suet. in Vespas which was pure and peaceable and gentle and easie to be intreated by walking in the good old ways of meekness patience gentleness and Christian Charity Ministers were heretofore so highly esteemed in this Church That nothing was thought too much or too dear for them But when by worldly passions and secular engagements they are found too light for the balance of the Sanctuary where onely learned humility gives weight and an holy gravity to them when these sons of God court the daughters of men and disguise themselves into the forms of Politicians when they carry on vain and violent projects and opinions by pride choler fierceness tumultuariness faction and sedition or by rusticity grossness levity and credulity or in ways of scurrility popularity and cruelty when to advance themselves to some shew of power they cry up the Scepter and * John 18.36 My Kingdom is not of this world i. e. After the way and forms of the Kingdoms of the World Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you Rom. 14.17 For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink muchless thâ— flesh and blood of Christians but righteousness and peace c. Dan. 11.38 Kingdom of Jesus Christ to be carried on after the fashions of this world with Arms and Engines of War to be erected upon the Bones and Skulls of their Brethren and Fathers when Reformation of Religion must be squallid and besmeared with the blood of Christians when they make the Throne of Christ to be supported as Solomons on both sides with Lyons or Tigers Bears and Wolves instead of Lambs and Doves As if Ministers had changed or lost their meek humble patient silent crucified Messias and had got some Manzzim a Mahumetan God of forces who is to be served in * Laudant Deum in tympano non in Choro Classicum tenunt non pacem praedicant Jonum aperiunt quo clauso Christus natus Bellâ—nae sacerdotes non eccl siae Martis faces â—itiones non Evangelii lumina Cometae infausti pestes dira omina non stella salutares Christâ—m pranuncianter Greg. Buff-Coats and Armor with the Opima spolia the goodly spoils and victims of slain Christians their Neighbors Brethren and Fathers Alas who is so blinde as not to see who so dull as not to consider how destructive such distempers are even in the justest secular conflicts to the dignity how contrary to the duty of true Ministers of the Gospel Whose honor consists in meekness patience humility constancy diligence charity tenderness and gravity in their Preaching Praying and Living joyned to good learning and sound knowledge The want of these holy deportments conjured up those evil spirits of sacrilege sedition perjury cruelty contempt and confusion against them and among them which are not easily laid again No man ordinarily being ashamed to offer that measure of scorn evil speaking ruine and oppression which they see even some Ministers themselves have offered liberally to their Brethren and Betters Who can make conscience to destroy those that make so little to consume and devour one another And this at length with the greater odium because with the greater defeat Honest meaning Christians expecting nothing less than such conclusions from the specious premises of zeal for Religion and a through Reformation when it is too evident how much not onely the mindes and maners of men but the general form and face of the Christian and Reformed Religion was never tending to more deformity either in Doctrine Government or true Discipline than now it is as other where so in England through the miscarriages of many Ministers as well as people No wonder if ordinary men who naturally love not a Minister of Gods truth do easily disesteem those who so little reverence themselves and their holy Function No marvel if men make so little conscience to hear or believe them whose actions so contradict and palpably confute their former doctrine and maners Yea many now make conscience to neglect despise forsake and separate from them yea some seek utterly to depose and destroy them not onely as useless but as dangerous and pernicious creatures who seem to have more of the Wolf and Fox than of the Sheep and Lamb. Thus from Ministers of Gods truth peace and salvation they are too much faln to be esteemed as State-firebrands and by some as vessels of wrath onely fitted for destruction What was sometime cryed up as a commendable zeal and who but Phinehas with his Javelin was then thought fit to be a Priest to the Lord is now looked upon as either miserable folly or detestable fury And certainly 10. Ministers duty in civil dissentions in the calmest representation of things if some warmth of natural zeal and sparks of humane affections were allowable to Ministers who are still but men in civil and secular affairs relating as they thought to the good and safety of their Country their Laws Religion Liberties Estates and Governors yet should these warmer gleams in Ministers hearts rather have vented themselves in soft dews and sweet showres than in lightnings and hot thunderbolts or coals of fire Their politick Preaching their earnest Prayers their unfeigned Tears should have attempered both their own and other mens passionate heats and propensities to civil flames Vide Joel 2. v. 3 10 11 13 c. They should as * V. 17. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep Let them say Spare thy people O Lord c. the Priests of the Lord have stood and wept between the Porch and the Altar crying mightily to Heaven that God would spare his Church and people And with men on Earth they should have interceded that they would pity themselves and one another Ministers of all men should have studied preached prayed wept and fasted all sorts and degrees of men in this Nation who were so many ways neerly related to one another into calmness moderation Christian temper forbearings mutual condiscendings and proneness to reconciliation If this would not do they should have * Ezek. 22.30 I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedg and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it but I found none Caecina cùm milites nec antoritate nec precibus nec manis retinere possit projectus in limine miseratione demum quia per legati corpus eundum erat clausit viam Tacit. An. l. 1. stood in the gap or lain prostrate as Caecina did in the unhappy breach and rather chose to be trodden under the feet of Armies Men and Horses than to see the woful day in which their King and Country-men and Fellow Christians and Brethren should rush into an unnatural war to cut one anothers throats This I say godly and tender-hearted Ministers
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
had rather read that most blasphemous and no lesse irrationall than irreligious book De Tribus Impostoribus than the four Evangelists valuing a cheap Alcoran before a costly Bible 5. Tithes not Popish or Antichristian So then I think I have with a very soft and sober fire quite decocted the Jew out of Tithes and with as much or more ease will Antichrist as they call it or any dregs of Popery evaporate out of them Some mens teeth are so set on edge by too much chewing of the Pope that they cannot bite or taste any thing but it relisheth of Antichrist to them if the Romish Church and Bishops did ever use it If any thing as I have said be suspicable for Popish or Antichristian in Tithes sure it goes with the Impropriations for if it were blameable to alien Tithes from the Ministry and cure of souls by annexing them to Regular and Monastick uses and if it were not commendable to alien them from both to meer secular uses where they are usually expended with more luxury and vanity as with lesse piety and charity sure the best way was to have kept them in their originall design which was for the maintenance of the Ministers Nor is the Popes traffiquing or disposing of them during his usurpation here any prejudice to them no more than a blear eye eclipseth the Sun by looking on it or a foul hand abuseth a Jewell by touching it That the Popes of Rome invented Tithes is as true as a learned Rubbi of these new wayes and a great Preacher too once told me with most unhistoricall confidence St. Aust Ep 28. B. Cyprianus non aliquod novum decretum condens sed Ecclesiae fidem firmissimamservans corrigit eos qui ante 8. diem purvulum non esse baptizandum putabant That Pope Gregory the great first invented Infant baptism which 't is sure enough St. Jerome and St. Austin Cyprian and others mention as a Catholick custome in their dayes which was some hundred of yeares before Gregory and they oft declare it to have been an antient primitive and Apostolical practise which no Father no Bishop no Councell ever began but was generally used as we finde in St. Cyprian from the first plantation of Christianity and the making Disciples to Christ Initiating them by water as the Jews formerly had done Proselytes in their Church But this is onely in passant to shew how great confidence attends grosse ignorance in these men As to this of tithes so farre as the Pope had to doe with them at any time Cypr. Ep. 59. ad Fidum an 250. A baptismo post Christum prohiberi non debet infant recens natus c. I have taken away the foolish scandall and vulgar prejudice giving in another place sufficient account to all that are capable of sober truth That nothing in Christian Religion either in Scriptures Sacraments and doctrines or in the order power succession government and maintenance of Ministers in the Church are therefore burnt with Antichristianism or with any thing which the Vulgar cals Popery because the Pope set his foot sometime in them For truely then our Parliaments which are accounted sacred in their essence and honour should be Antichristian too for time was when they did own the authority yea and reconcile and submit themselves to the power of the Pope and See of Rome If any men reply Parliaments have long agoe purged themselves of the Pope and Popery Truely so have all things else in this Church and Tithes among others which these mens mouths so much water after and sure such squeamish stomachs as theirs would never desire and digest them as they doe if there were the least grain of Antichrist or Pope either in Lay or Clergy mens Tithes for they vehemently pretend to have vomited up all that savours of the Pope or Popery But it 's lost labour to seek further to pull this prating worm out of some mens tongues when the root of it is in their brains if they had but the tithe of common reason and sober sense they would easily see how little the Ministers of England or any Christian Church of the like way is beholden to the Popes of Rome in the matter of tithes It had been better for us that the Pope had never medled with them which occasioned so many Impropriations and these so many beggerly livings which can hardly expect or make a rich and able Minister if these men would really reform they should promote the restoring by some convenient way those Impropriate Tithes to the Church But their reformation is alwayes on the taking not on the giving hand like the footsteps to the Lions den all are towards none frowards It 's very probable the Popes made little of their owne lands any where Tithable if when they saw the charity of Christians grow cold and their luxury in peacefull times great the Bishops of Rome perswaded others to settle the maintenance of the Ministery and to provide for the double honour of the Clergy by this way of Tithes which might not be arbitrary but legall and certain Truly it was one of the most prudent and pious works that ever any of the best Popes did for the Church And truly many of them were so wise and holy men that they might in great part cover and expiate the lesser errours of others if too much of secular pride and humane passions had not afterward transported them beyond all bounds becoming Christian Prelates It were a madnesse onely worthy of these Antidecimists to abhorre to doe any thing never so sober which others now become frantick and disordered sometime did in their better moodes 6. Of turning tithes into a Lay Channell for the ease of some tender consciences But there is a late writer who hath projected how to percolate Tithes so through Lay hands in a publique Exchequer or Tith-office which will effectually purge away all that is Jewish Antichristian or uncircumcised in them as sure as a Monks cowle will recommend a dead man to heaven I am as solicitous for those officers danger as that writer is for the Ministers lest they prove tithe-coveters when they shall have pregnant hopes to make their fees better for dispensing those Tithe-pensions to their poore pensioners and humble suppliants than any one Ministers maintenance will be out of them unlesse he be a strange favorite of that Court I suppose those Officers for gathering receiving and distributing of Tithes in such pensions to the remnant of those poore dependent and most patient Ministers will be more sincere and conscientious for a time than to take any bribes or rewards for expedition But it is very probable they will not be men of such metall as will never be corrupted And O how sad a project will this be in a short time if these Lay exactors should be more heavy and grievous not onely to the poore Ministers but also to the common people in their rigorous
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
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
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