conditions of the most with whom the better sort stand all in the communion and in one order or disorder rather being mingled together all in one brotherhood and that not by personall fayling but by the very constitution and lawes of your Church civill and ecclesiasticall cleane contrary to the revealed will of God in his Word Even you your self Sir that are a leader and professe your selfe to be a guide to the blinde you breake the law of God and defile his holy things you put no difference betweene the holy and prophane neither discerne between the vnclean and the cleane so the Lord is prophaned among you Eze. 22.26 Consider I pray you and compare together these few places of Scripture Mat. 18.1516.17 Rom. 16.17 1. Cor. 5.11.12.13 2 Thes 36.7 c. and then compare this order heere appointed by Christ and his apostles vnto the order of your Church and Parish-assemblies you shall see even by these 5. places of scripture how far you are from that holy order which Christ in his last will and testament hath given and appointed vnto his visible Church to walke in and to practise You compell all that are of your Parish howsoever vnworthie or vnable to pay their offrings and to receiue the communion especially at your holy time of Easter there is the table prepared bread and wine set come that will and welcom Esay 65.11.12 yea if they be dwelling in your Parish and will not pay their offrings and come to the communion daily they are by you presented into your spirituall Courts thither they are summoned if they appeare not obedienly paying their fees clearing the bookes c. they shall be by that Court excommunicated out of your Parish-assemblies and then before they may be admitted againe either to the fore named banquet or to your devine service as you call it their purses must pay deere enough for a blessing or absolution which they must receiue humbly kneeling on their knees before Mas Commissary or Mas Chancellors worship and if they die excōmunicate before they haue received this bounsing blessing they may not be brought into your holy ground to be buried there in christian buriall as you call it vnlesse their friends will first purchase absolution for them If the mould of this came not from Rome then I pray you Sir shew vs where you learned it for in the whole Bible we cannot finde any such spirituall order given or appointed by God vnto his Church 5 Demand Your 5. demand is Whether that in Constantines the first Christian Emperour tyme and ever since vnto M. Iohn Calvins dayes for the space of 13 hundered yeeres there was no Christian Churches in Asia Africke and Europe because they had the same outward constitution formall state Bishops Archbishops Metropolytans and Church government for substance substance of doctrine that our English Church hath and retaineth c. To tell you the truth I know not well how to answere this your demand yet not because it is so divinely grounded on the word of God but only because I want scoole learning and knowledge of auncient Authors writings as being not able to read and vnderstand them so that now you haue me at a non plus as wise men and fooles vse to say Yet this is one thing much to be lamented that a man of your place and learning should leaue the Scripture the true worde of the living God and thus inquire of the dead but according to the ould proverbe like will to like 5 Answer Thus much I say for answer to this your far-fetched demand I do beleeue and am fully perswaded by the word of God that in whatsoever Emperours or Kings time since the time of Christ in what Nation or Country soever whether in Asia Africk Europe or wheresoever any Church or Churches hath been is or shall be gathered or constituted in any other manner or by and with any other matter vnder or vnto any other worship ministry spirituall Governours or spirituall government then the same for substance in manner and matter which Christ and his Apostles haue appointed in the new testament they are not the true visible Churches of Christ I do not meane hereby an absolute true and perfect gathering or constituting but that all things both for the gathering and continuing of the true visible Church of Christ must be so far as can be discerned by men agreable to the word of God as God shall make men able to discerne and vnderstand the Scriptures And this is all that I can say for answer to this your demand only I will not loose the good advantage that I haue gained by the same which is this I see that you are not able to approue your Church by the word of God and therefore you are driven to make inquiry and to look about you to see if you can espie and find out any other Churches though never so far of whose constitution or gathering ministry and worship ecclesiasticall Governors and Ecclesiasticall government is for substance lyke vnto you hoping by them to iustifie your selues but how like it is that other Churches can afoord you any help or sauegard when as by the verdict of Gods word you stand cōdemned let the godly iudge Hee hath neede of a staffe that leaneth on a reed And yet even for this your poore proof it is affirmed by some who know those histories that it is a very boast without all truth that the Churches either in Constantines time or a long time after were gathered by compulsion of all tag and rag in the empyre as yours are of all in the kindome or that there were any such Arch Bishops or Lord Bishops with sole authority to rule and governe Besides let the Reader note how in your very Demand you do grauut the great difference betweene the Churches since Calvines time that is betweene all reformed Churches and your vnreformed Church of Enland 6 Demand Your sixt Demand is Whether the reformed Churches in the lower and higher Germany in France the Churches in Geneva c. that come neerer to our constitution and discipline you say then yours in England do be true visible Churches or no c. To this your Demand you haue added two branches depending vppon the former the which I will answer as you haue set them downe one afer another 6 Answer I answer yea they are true visible constituted Churches and haue a true and lawfull ministery set over them both which you in your Parish-assemblies want Then you further demand and say If they be such why then do not we adjoyn our selues to some of those but distaste them you say as much as wee do yours I thinke Sir it had been a poynt of wisedom first to haue heard our answer before you had thus hastily affirmed that we distast them as much as we do yours but Solomon hath answered you for your haste Pro. 29.20 And I will answer your Demand I haue in my
not only the name and title as it is vsually called besides your own grant but the cōstitutiō also sheweth for it hath a pastor over the whole nation the Archbishop of Canterbury Metropolitan and Primate over all England your most reverend father in God who maketh consecrateth the Diocesian Bishops whereupon ariseth Diocesian Churches or Sees and they againe make your Parish Priests to the Archbishops and to his successours the inferiour Bishops haue sworne So help them God in Iesus Christ all due reverence and obedience This your book of consecration sheweth and we desire you to shew vs warrant for those things in the Scripture if you can or else shew vs where you haue learned them In your 8 Demand you say thus The name calling and office of these Bishops for either you must meane these Bishops or the like or else you speake nothing to the matter in hand Whether say you wee respect ordination of ministers or power of jurisdiction is the same for substance expressed in the New testament And this you say hath been and will be proved seeing it hath had a continuall succession from the Apostles time vnto this day c. If you were as redy to proove as you are to affirme things then were your valour something worth But you and the rest are so loth to be drawne to prooue yow ministry and ordination by the word of God that if you cannot make vs take your word for the lawfullnes therof then you will try by all means possible how you can get vs into some prison and keep vs there vntill you haue founde your proofe out of some other darke corner for by the light of Gods worde wee thinke you will never be able to proue the lawfullnes thereof These things that you say have indeed been often by others affirmed but never otherwise proved then by you at this present But if you good sir would now take the payns to proue what you haue saide by the word of God your paines would deserue thanks of many And withall let me intreat you sir I pray you because you say it hath had a continuall succession from the Apostles time vnto this daye to shewe me for my learning which of the Apostles was the Arch Apostle or Archbishop If you please so to call him ouer or before all the rest and from whom or by what authority he had that high place and Lordly office And also where and with whom he left that his Arch-Metropolitane authoritie to lord it over the rest as these do at this day as you say I professe vnfainedly that if I could see these things proved by the word of God I would soon through Gods mercy change my minde But in the meane time to let passe the rest of that frothie stuffe which might be raked together in these your 7 and 8 Demands I will come again to your 7 demand though I could from the 16.17.18 and 19. lines in your 8 Demand light you such a candle as I think you would be loath that any should see the light thereof but I will not blow at that cole now yet you against your will I am sure haue made a fayre beginning to kindle it where you say thus The Pope was not Antichrist before he had gotten the title of vniversall Bishop nor compleat vntill he had gotten into his bands both swords that is both Civill and Ecclesiasticall Dominion if I should now add but a little of your owne fuell to that coale these your words would discover a great part of the mistery of iniquity which growes in your ministry at this day But to let that passe nothing doubting but God in his good time by the brightnes of the Gospel wil cause the same to appear more and more dayly I will come to your 7 Demand where you tell vs of the Gospell soundly and substantially taught and professed and the sacraments so rightly administred and received in your Church as for proportion no country in the world you say nor Nationall Church whatsoever can affoord the like c The like vaine boast of all the grounds of Christian religion soundly held and professed c. I met with in your third Demand but neither there nor heare you speake any word of the practise Christian religion and of the kingly power and office of Christ governing your Church of these things you say nothing nothing how Christ ought to reigne as King in his Church by his owne Lawes and ordinances executed and administred in and by his owne offices and officers which he hath given unto and appointed in his Church forthat worke Ephe. 4.11.12.13 Rom. 12.6.7.8.9 Not a word of this I pray you Sir let not this candle be light howsoever you do you may make your people think that Christ will be a Prophet to teach them and a Priest to sacrifice for them though he be not a King to rule and reigne over them in and by his owne Lawes and officers they peradventure know not or dare not tell you that this is a denying of apart of the mediatorship of Christ therefore Sir as long as you can let them not know the kingly office of Christ nor what the Holy Ghost saith in Luk. 19.27 let them know no other government for the Church but your spitituall courts it wil serue their turne well enough untill the Lord shall moue their harts better to consider and discern the truth of his will reveiled in his word which in his good time he will do unto all those that earnestly desire and with upright harts seeke and labour to worship and serue him in spirit and in truth And now I will labour to shew the deceit of your vainglory in boasting of the word and sacraments which you say are so soundly taught and administred c. You would haue us and all men take it for granted that the nation of England is the true visible Church of Christ which you are not able to proue then you go on telling us of the sound and substantiall things in this your Church but we would first intreat you to shew us your Church constituted and builded according to the scripture if your Church be as you would make us beleue then shew it that we may see and discerne whether it be soundly and substantially built of choyse trees and of pretious living stones to the best of mans discerning hewed and squared and fastned together according to the heavenly patterne every stone living elect and pretious I say still in the best of mans discerning every stone hauing his beauty his burden and order all of them laboring to support one another to edifie one another to exhort to admonish and reproue one another that so they may be the habitation of God as these scriptures do shew Exo. 19.5.6 and chap. 25.8.9 40. 1. Chro. 29.2 Zach. 14.21 compared with Heb. 8.1.2.5.6 c. Chap. 9.11.14.1 Pet. 2.4.5.7.8.9 Act. 2.37.41.42 Rev. 1.5.6 Heb. 3.13 Chap. 10.24.15 Lev. 19.17
Gala. 6.1 2. with many other which I omit The materiall Temple which was but a tipe of this we read to be built from the very foundation of choise costly perfect stones the beames and rafters of choise Ceaders Algummim trees 1. King 5.17 Chap. 6.7 2. Chro. 2.8 Ezra 3.7.12 c. But of the incomparable beauty and unutterable excellency of this spirituall Temple under the holy ministry happy government of Christ it must be such as none may grow nor be planted there untill they be first cut off from their corrupt naturall stock where they grew before and then be grafted into the true oliue tree the true vine yea and being planted and ingrafted that plant that branch that bringeth not forth good fruit but bringeth forth evill fruit apparantly seene and known must be cut of and cast out Rom. 11.17.18.19.20.21 1. Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.3 c. Rom. 6.4.5.6 c. Math. 3.10 and 7.19 and 15.13 Luk. 13.6 Ioh. 15.6 Math. 18.15.16.17 Rom. 16.17.18 1. Cor. 5.11.12.13 Now shew us your Church to be thus built and thus ordered according to the testament of Christ I doe not meane thus built in perfect maner but that every member of your Church in the plating thereof do in the best of mans discerning according to Godly iudgment in his or their measure hewen fitted and squared for the building before â—e be fastned there into for as the Apostle saith We which liue must no more liue unto our selues but unto the will of him that dyed for us and rose againe Ephe. 4.22.23.24 2 Cor. 5.15.17 1 Pet. 4.3 We must be new creatures for we are the workmanship of God created anew into Christ Iesus unto good works which God hath ordayned that we should walk in them Ephe. 2.10 When you haue proved and shewed us your Church thus framed fashioned and ordered then we wil take a view of those things which you say but you proue not to be therein so sound and substantially taught and administred But if you still boast of those good things in your Church and yet your Church it selfe be built of rough tree or rotten timber hay and stubble or of the thorns and bryers of the wildernes and with such dead or hard stones as cannot be hewen and squared and fastned into the building together according to the heavenly prtterne then is your Church a false Church and deceitfull notwithstanding all your sound and substantiall things therein which things although they be indeed both sound and substantiall of themselues yet will they not keep up your tottering building but in time it will fall and come to naught And this at this time shall serue for answer to your 7 and 8 Demands only thus much more because I would not haue you any more boast or go about to dasell our eyes with the sight of those things which you say are in your Church untill you haue shewed us the true forme and fashion of the building of your Church I will demand of you this one question When the Prophet Haggai chap. 1. reproved the Iewes for that Gods house was not builded among them would it haue been a sufficient answer for them thinke you Sir to haue said to the Prophet thus Wee haue costly and faire sound and substantiall seelings of the sweetest and purest wood costly carved and curiously wrought with many goodly and rich hangings cushings carpets and curtins with so many other costly and sumptuous ornaments and deckings yea all whatsoever according to the appointment of the law for Gods house as for the proportioÌ„ no Countrey in the world can afford the like Nay Sir admit they should also haue said thus And behold also we haue the foundation layd and we haue many expert and excellent builders all of them sound and learned workmen and for instruments also to hew and square the timber and stone we haue so good as non can be better of which timber and stones also we haue so great plenty and so excellent good with all other things necessary to finish the building as for proportioÌ„ no country in the world can afford the like therefore although the stones be neither layd nor squared nor the timber hewed fitted nor framed yet haue we the house of God well builded What think you Sir would this haue been a sufficient answer to haue satisfied the prophet if no consider then how little your vaine boast will stand you in stead in the day of your appearing search the Scriptures and you shall find there that every true visible Church of Christ must consist of a company of people be they many or few that are called out and separated from the froward generation of the world by the Gospell Iohn 15.19 17.6.9.11.14 c. Act. 2.40 2. Cor. 6.15 16.17.18 and ioyned or built together into a holy communion and fellowship among themselues Act. 2.41.44 Ephe. 2.13.19.20.22 all of them being in their measure beleevers pricked in their harts for their sinnes and now laboring together to continue in the Apostles doctrine Act. 2.27.42 Being thus coupled and knit together they are called in the Scripture the Temple of God 1. Cor. 3.16.17 the habitation of God Ephe. 2.22 the Church of God 1. Cor 1.2.2 Cor. 11. unto the which Church he daly addeth those that he will saue Act. 2.41.47 they are then called Saints Rom. 1.7 1. Cor. 1.2 they are called Holy Bretheren Heb. 3.1 they are called the body of Christ and members for their part of the whole building of God Consider what is said c. 2. Tim. 2.7 c. 9 Demand And now to your Counter-Demand which is Whether any new lawes can or ought to be made or inacted or any further reformation made without the christian Princes or Magistrats consent c. 9 Answer I Answer no. And I further ad that whatsoever subiects of what degree or state soever they be that shall go about either to inact any new lawes in the Kings Dominions or to reforme the order and state of the Kingdome contrary to that order which is already established without the consent and lawfull authority of the Prince Magistrate he is by the word of God iudged and condemned worthy of damnation Rom. 13.12 5.6 Rev. 12.18.19 And if for this his or their offence the Prince and Magistrats do put him or them to death as by their lawfull anthority they may it is no more then they haue iustly and worthily deserved for their evill doings The next word in this your 9 Demand are thus set downe and thus odly pointed or ever in a well ordered Church hath bin inacted or made and whether they haue done well to separate without the Kings Maiesties leaue and licence and consent of the state These your refined words as they be in this fashion set downe I doe not well vnderst and 2 therefore I will giue you no other answere then is already made in the former words desiring that this which is heere answered may be