A discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by John Norris ...

A discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by John Norris ...

Table of contents

Title page

PUBLISHER To The READER.

A Seasonable Question fully discussed.

ARGUMENT. I.

ARGUMENT II.

ARGUMENT. III.

ARGUMENT. IV.

ARGUMENT. V.

ARGUMENT. VI.

ARGUMENT. VII.

ARGUMENT. VIII.

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A DISCOURSE Concerning the Pretended Religious Assembling In PRIVATE CONVENTICLES WHEREIN The Unlawfulness and Unreasonableness of it is fully Evinced by several Arguments.

By Iohn Norris M. A. and late Rector of Aldbourn in the County of Wilts.

LONDON, Printed for Iames Norris, at the Sign of [...] King's Arms without Temple Bar. [...].

PUBLISHER To The READER.

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THough there be no great need of a Preface to the following Papers, yet partly to comply with custome, and partly out of a Reverential respect to the dear memory of the Authour, my deceased Father, I thought it convenient to premise something by way of Apology to the Reader.

And that he may not be disappointed in his after Entertainment, 'twill be requisite for him in the entrance to understand, that he is not here to expect a Discourse recommended [...] by stroaks of Oratory, [Page] neat turns of expression, and harmonious Cadencies, this being no way [...] (as Aristotle says in his Rhetorick) agreeable to the nature of the thing, which being a determination of a Question, calls for no other ornaments than plainness, perspicuity and solidity.

And as such a Rhetorical mode of Writing suits not with the nature of the work, so neither with the design of its Composition. For this Treatise was principally intended by the Authour, for the instruction of ordinary and unlearned persons, and particularly those of his own Congregation, and accordingly he made it his business, to bring it to the level of their Capacities,

Of what advantage this work [Page] may be to the learned World, it becomes not me to presage, onely thus much I believe I may say, that the Cause has not suffered under his hands, and that as Peace and Vnity was his aim, so Truth and Victory is his attainment. and this is all the Apology I think needfull to make in behalf to the Authour.

Now, as to what concerns my Publication of this Posthumous Treatise, I am aware but of one objection that may be made against it, which is, that the World is well stockt with excellent discourses on this Subject already. This I acknowledge to be true, but no way available to the purpose for which it is alledged. For first, may not the same be said of almost all the Arguments that are? [Page] And yet this is not thought sufficient to barr all after-undertakings. And besides, there are different ways of managing the same Subject, and how stale soever the latter be, yet the former may be always new. According to that of Seneca, Etsi omnia a veteribus inventa essent; hoc tamen semper novum erit, usus & inventorum ab aliis scientia & dispositio. Besides, there is as much (if not more) in the advantageous proposal of an Argument, as in the Argument it self, and it often happens, that by the mere placing a thing in a new light conviction is wrought, when the very same consideration in another posture proved unsuccesfull.

These Considerations, together with the prospect of being beneficial [Page] to the publick, prevailed with me to concern my self in this Publication, and are (I hope) sufficient to justifie the undertaking to others. For sure that person would betray a very narrow and selfish spirit, who declines an opportunity of doing good with the fruits of another's labour, as his charity to the Poor must needs be very cold, that refuses to be the Steward of another's Bounty. Farewell.

John Norris,

Allsouls College June the 1st. 1684

A Seasonable Question fully discussed.

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Viz. Whether in a constituted Church, where there is a constant preaching Ministry established by Law, if a Silenced Non-conformist Minister, shall come in to reside or inhabit, or otherwise intrude himself into any Town or Parish, and there (without leave and against the will of the Magistrate) set up a course of Preaching or other Ministerial acts in Private Meetings (commonly called Conventicles) it may be accounted the Ordinance of God, or means to beget and encrease Faith, or any other Saving Grace, in the hearts of such as shall go to hear him.

IN the Entrance of my discourse upon this subject, I shall not spend time in explaining the terms of the question; they are so easie and obvious to every understanding, that they need it not. Without therefore any farther Proeme, the negative (with submission to better judgments) I shall defend: And that it is not the Ordinance of God as a means of grace, conducing ought to the Salvation of mens souls, I hope, and will endeavour to make appear to any sober and considerate Christian, upon these Eight following grounds.

ARGUMENT. I.

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THat cannot be the Ordinance of God, or means of grace, that is, ipso facto, a sinfull act. For God, whose words and ways are all of them holy, just and good, hath appointed, ordained, or allowed nothing that hath any thing of sin in it: And it were no less than blasphemy to say the contrary. God doth not warrant any man to doe evil, that good may come by it, no not the least evil, for the procurement of the greatest good, either to our own, or the souls of others. The Apostle rejects the very thought of such a thing, with horror and detestation, as knowing Rom. 3. 8. damnation to be the just reward of it. It is a good saying of Cajetan upon that place; Secundum sanam veramque doctrinam, peccata non sunt eligenda, ut media ad quemcunque bonumfinem; According to sound and true doctrine, sins are not to be chosen as means to procure any good end whatsoever. And mark his reason; Quia suapte naturâ repugnat peccato, quod sit eligibile; It is contrary to, and disagreeable with the [Page] nature of sin, to be at all matter of our choice; Propterea nec propter se, nec propter aliud bonum, est eligibile; And therefore it is not to be chosen, either for it self, or for any good that comes by it. They are neither good intents, nor good events, that make good actions. All [...] Will-worship is abominable to God. His express Precept is,Deut. 6. 17▪ 18. Ye shall diligently keep the Commandments of the Lord your God, his testimonies and statutes, and doe that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord. And his Prohibition,Deut. 12. 8. Ye shall not doe every man what is right in his own eyes. The Commandments of God would soon be made of none effect, if every one in the Church should doe what best likes him. Shall the Master's will depend on the pleasure of the Servant, or the Servant's upon the master's? He cannot be approved by him that employs him, who busies himself in a work most sutable to his own humour, with neglect of what is given him in Command. Had a good intention been enough to have justified an action, Saul had done very well in sparing Agag, and the best of the spoils of [Page] the Amalekites; and the kingdom of Israel might have continued to him and his house. And Saint Peter had never been call'dMat. 16. 23. Satan, by our Saviour, as not savouring the things of God, but of men. for dissuading his Master from going up to Ierusalem. The means, as well as the intention, must be good, if we would have our actions pleasing to God. We grant God may, and doth often, bring good out of evil; but that is no thanks to those that doe it. Evil can naturally produce nothing but evil: It must be no lese than the infinite Wisdom and Almighty power of God, that must over-rule it into good. [...] p. 10 [...]. As good Ends cannot justifie Evil means, so neither will evil beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions, unless God by a miracle of mercy create light out of darkness, order out of confusion, and peace out of our passions. And as he hath not allowed us to doe any evil, for the obtaining or procuring of the greatest good, so he needs it not.Job 13. 7. Wilt thou speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for him? q. d. his cause, his glory, needs not any [...]in of ours to promote it. He will never thank any man for [Page] seeking his honour by sinfull means; he can get himself glory, and save mens souls otherwise. He will say as Achish, 1 Sam. 21. 15. Have I need of mad-men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad-man in my presence? The way God hath taught us to gorifie him by, in seeking or procuring the salvation of our own, or the souls of others, is always to doe that which is good; and though he can bring good out of evil, yet he never Commands, ordains or allows our evil for that end.

But such Preaching and Meetings as are in question, are sinfull acts. Which will appear (as by other reasons which shall be shewed hereafter, so in this place onely) because they are done in disobedience and opposition to the known Laws of the Church and Kingdom wherein we live, and which we stand bound in Conscience towards God, to observe and obey. I begin with the Laws of the Church.

The Eleventh Canon of the Church of England saith,

Whosoever shall affirm or maintain that there are in this Realm other Meetings, [Page] Assemblies or Congregations of the King's born-subjects, than by the Laws of this Realm are held and allowed, which may rightly challenge to themselves the names of true and lawfull Churches, Let him be excommunicated, and not restored, but by the Arch-bishop, after his repentance and revocation of such his wicked errour.

The sense of this Canon is large and comprehensive, and contains in it, virtually, a prohibition of all Meetings, Assemblies or Congregations whatsoever which are not allowed by the Laws of the Land: as the Meetings in question will, and (God willing) shall be made appear to be. Neither can it be restrained onely (if at all) to any other Meetings, than such as are under pretence of joyning in religious worship, not authorized by the Laws of the Land, which (according to the title of the Canon) are called Conventicles; for there can be no other unlawfull Meetings, so called, for any other end, but onely these two, viz.

First for Ministers and Lay-men, or either of them, to joyn together, to [Page] make Rules, Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical, without the King's authority. And that is censured and forbidden as unlawfull in the twelfth Canon. Or else,

Secondly, to consult about a course to be taken, to impeach or deprave the Doctrine of the Church of England, the book of Common Prayer, or any part of the Government or Discipline established in the Church: And this is forbidden under pain of Excommunication in the 73 Canon. Any other end, for any other unlawfull Meeting or Assembly, other than what is aforesaid, cannot easily be imagined. therefore (unless we will make the Reverend, Pious and Learned Authors and Composers of those Canons and Constitutions which are so solemnly established by Supreme authority, guilty of a gross tautology) this Canon flatly prohibits all Meetings, Assemblies or Congregations (except the publick, which are commanded and allowed by the Laws of the Land) of any manner of persons, in private houses, or elsewhere, which under pretence of religious worship, take upon them to be called Churches.

[Page] Besides, it is expressed in such terms, as are commonly competible to none, but such Meetings, as are under pretence of religious worship. What other Meetings are commonly called Congregations, or do challenge to themselves the name of Churches, but such Meetings as are in question?

The place and order of the Canon, do prove the same; for immediately after the impugners of the King's Supremacy, the publick worship of God, Articles of Religion, Rites and Ceremonies, Government established in the Church of England, the Authours of Schism, and maintainers of Schismaticks in the Church, are censured; is subjoyned this Canon censuring Conventicles, as being the Nursery of all the former.

In the 71 Canon; all Ministers whatsoever are forbidden to preach or administer the holy Communion in any private house (except in be in time of necessity, when any is either so impotent, as that he cannot go to the Church, or very dangerously sick) under pain of Excommunication.

In the 72 Canon it is ordained, that no Minister whatsoever shall without licence [Page] from the Bishop of the Diocese, first obtained and had under his hand and seal, presume to appoint any meetings for Sermons or Exercises, in Market-Towns or other places, either publickly or in private houses, under pain of Suspension for tho first fault, Excommunication for the second, and Deposition for the third.

Now if a Minister may not doe this in his own Parish, but onely in a case of necessity, much less may a stranger intrude himself into another man's Parish, where there is a Preaching Ministry established by Law, and there set up a course of private house-preaching, administring of Sacraments, and performance of all Ministerial acts, where there can be no need of his so doing, so much as pretended.

But is will be thought by some that the Laws and Constitutions of the Church, are not so greatly to be regarded, as that the breach of them should be sinfull; and that her Canons lay no such obligation on Conscience, as that the neglect of their observation and contrary practice should be criminal. Nay such is the state and condition of our times, that is is rather [Page] thought a vertue to despise them, than any fault to disobey them: And they are reputed most pure and holy, who with greatest boldness quarrel and cavil against the Authority, Government, and Lawfull Precepts of the Church.

Yet certainly the judgment and practice of Christians in former ages, was otherwise. When vertue and true piety did more abound, they made more conscience of observing the Precepts and Constitutions of the Church, which were made for decency, order, and good government. And if any frowardly, wilfully, or constantly lived in any opposition, or contrariety thereunto, they were adjudged as evil doers.Basil. de Spir. Sanct. c. 27. Nec his quisquam contradicit, quisquis sane vel tenuiter expertus est, quae sunt jura Ecclesiastica. And truly I see not why the same regard and respect ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the Laws of our Church now, as hath been to the like Laws and Canons in former and purer times.

Especially if we enquire into these four things:

[Page] 1. What Power the Church hath to make Laws, Canons and Constitutions?

2. Who were the Authours and Composers of these, of our Church?

3. What is the subject matter of them?

4. What hath been the judgment of Divines, of unquestionable learning, judgment and piety, concerning Laws, Canons and Constitutions of this nature?

Concerning the first. That the Church hath a maternal power to decree, and make Laws to bind all her children, is such a clear truth, as no sober person (I think) will question.

By [Church] I understand not all the number of the faithfull, but those, that have the lawfull rule and government of the Church. Which is the sense, that our Saviour Christ useth it in, when he saith,Mat. 18. 17. Dic Ecclesiae, tell the Church; for, there is Ecclesia collectiva, and Ecclesia representativa. I take it in the latter sense.

[Page] By [Laws] I understand not any new Article of faith,Nihil euiquam largiri potest humana indulgentia, ubi intercedit & legem tribuit divina praescriptio. Cyp. Epist. 4. or any thing contrary to what God hath commanded in the holy Scriptures. For it is a true maxim (whoever was the Authour of it) Potestas descendit, non ascendit. None have power in those things that are above them, but in those things which are beneath them. So the Church hath no power in those things, which are above her, but in those things which are below her. Now all Doctrines of faith, and other things already commanded of God, are above the Church, and out of her reach, so that the cannot meddle with them, by any Law de novo, otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed.

But as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature, serving to external order and decency, in these she hath power, to ordain and make Laws and Constitutions, though not contrary to, yet other than what are already made in God's word, holding still, as near as the can, to the general rules of Scripture. The doctrine of Salvation is always, in all places, the same, and can never be changed: But external [Page] rites and order, are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place, and the variety of the minds and manners of men. The Church of the Jews had power of ordaining other things, than what were expresly set down in God's word, and that for perpetual observation. She ordained the two days ofEsth. 9. 20, 21. Purim as perpetual festivals.1 Mac. 4. 59. Moreover, Iudas and his brethren, with the whole congregation of Israel, ordained, that the days of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season, from year to year, by the space of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu, with mirth and gladness. This feast was instituted by Iudas Machabeus and his brethren, when Antiochus Epiphanes was expelled out of Ierusalem, the worship of God restored, and the Temple (prophaned by the Heathen) again consecrated, which was about 167 years before the Coming of Christ. Which feast was yearly kept ever after, and our Saviour Christ himself Joh. 10. 22. honoured it with his own presence. And if the Jewish Church had that power, why then hath not the Christian [Page] the like? And that the Primitive Church of Christians had, and did exercise the like power, is plain to any that shall reade Act. 15. and 1 Cor. 11.

Secondly, The Authours and Composers of these Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical, were the reverend, learned and godly Bishops, Deans, and Arch-Deacons, and other Clergy-men of every Diocesee, within the Province of Canterbury; met togetherAct. 24. 18. neither with multitude nor with tumult, but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned, by virtue of the King's Majesties Writ, and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them. So then, the composers of those Canons, were such persons as were ordained of God to rule the Church, and to order what in their Wisedom should be thought convenient, to whom in all things (not contrary to God's will revealed in his word) we are commanded obedience, Luk. 12. 42. Heb. 13. 7, 17, 24. 1 Pet. 2. 13, 14.

Thirdly, The subject matter of these Canons and Consitutions is of such things as concern External order, decency [Page] and edification, which God hath not particularly determined in Scripture, but hath left to the rulers and governours of the Church, to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the Apostle,1 Cor. 14 26, 40. Let All things be done unto edifying, and in order. In which place, those things that concern the external polity of the Church, are generally expressed, but the particulars are not mentioned, but left to the wisedom and liberty of the Church.

Fourthly, What have been the judgment of Divines (of whose learning and piety and Church of God never yet since their times, made the least doubt or question) concerning Laws, Canons and Constitutions of this nature? They have always thought them sacred and venerable; and their observation an act of Religion and Obedience to the general commands of God. Instead of many, take a few testimonies of Divines of the highest rank, both foreign and domestick. Two I shall quote out of learned Zanchy, Hier. Zanch. T. 4. de [...] ▪ Thes. 4. p. 202. Quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum Sacris Literis, aut saltem non sunt [Page]dissentaneae; Eatenus & verae sunt Ecclesiasticae, eoque admittendae, & nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam; So far forth as these Constitutions are agreeable with the Scriptures, or at least, not disagreeing with them, so far forth they are truly Ecclesiastical, and to be received, and we owe reverence and obedience to them. And he gives his reason in these words: Si Consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo Dei, qui illas rejicit, verbum Dei rejicit. Si non repugnant, contemnit Ecclesiam Dei qui illas contemnit; Contemptus autem Ecclesiae, quam Deo ingratus sit, apparet, cum aliis ex locis Sacrarum Literarum, ubi illam magnificat; tum maxime ex Evangelio, Mat. 18. 17. If those Laws are agreeable with the word of God, he that rejecteth them, rejecteth the word of God; if they are not contrary to the word of God, he that rejecteth them despiseth the Church of God; and how odious a thing unto the Almighty it is, that any should despise his Church, as it appears in many places of Scripture, where the Church is magnified, so especially in Mat. 18. 17. whrere God hath commanded that that person should be [Page] accounted as an heathen man and a Publican, who hears and obeys not the Church.

Hear the same Learned Authour again. Hier. Zanch. T. 8. obs. in Confess. suam cap. 25. Aph. 10. 11. Credo ea, quae a piis patribus in nomine Domini congregatis, communi omnium Consensu, citra ullam Sacrarum Literarum Contradictionem definita & recepta fuerunt: Ea etiam (quanquam haud ejusdem cum Sacris Literis authoritatis.) A SPIRITV SANCTO ESSE. Those things (saith he) which have been concluded and received by the Holy Fathers, gathered together in the Name of God, agreed on by Common-consent, and without any Contradiction of the Scripture (although they are not of the same Authority with the Scriptures,) Yet, I beleive even those things to be from THE HOLY GHOST. Hinc fit, ut quae sunt hujusmodi, &c. Hence it comes to pass, that those things which are of this nature, I neither will disallow, nor dare I with a good Conscience. Quis enim ego sum, &c. For who am I that I should dissallow that which the whole Church approves of? So far that worthy Authour.

The next, whose judgment in this [Page] case I shall produce, is Mr. Calvin, in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Corinthians. Calv. Com. in 1 Cor. 14. 40. Quinetiam hinc colligere promptum est, has posteriores (scilicet Ecclesiae) Leges, non esse habendas pro humanis traditionibus; quandoquidem fundatae sint in hoc generali mandato, & liquidam approbationem habent, quasi ex ore CHRISTI IPSIVS. Where shewing the difference betwixt the tyrannical Edicts of the Pope, and the Laws of the true Church, in which, discipline and order are contained, he saith; Whence it is easie to be gathered, that the Laws of the Church, are not to be accounted humane traditions, seeing they are founded upon the general precept of the Apostle, and have as clear an approbation, as if they had been delivered from the mouth of Christ Himself. For, saith he elsewhere,Calv. Instit. L. 4. c. 10. sect. 30. Dico sic esse humanam traditionem, ut simul sit divina. It is so an humane tradition, as that it is also divine. Dei est, quatenus est pars deeoris illius, cujus cura & observatio nobis per Apostolum commendatur: hominum autem, quatenus simpliciter designat, quod in genere fuit indicatum magis quam expositum. It is of God fo far forth as it [Page] is a part of that order and decency, the care and observation whereof is commanded, and commended to us by the Apostle: It is of men so far forth, as it simply names or signifies that, which was in general uttered, rather that particularly expounded.

Take a third testimony from that burning and shining Light of the French Church.Molin. de just. tr. 2. disp. 27. Licet quae a regia & aliis Legitimis petestatibus rite praecipiuntur, sunt de jure positivo: quod tamen illis postquam ita constitutae sunt, pareatur, est de jure divino; cum Legitimae potestates omnes a Deo sint, Deique vices in suo ordine teneant; dumque illis obedimus, eorumque praecepta observamus, Deo pariter in illis paremus, Deique praeceptum & voluntatem exequimur. Although those things which are commanded by the King's Authority, or other lawfull Powers under him, are of positive right: Yet it is of divine institution that we should obey them in those things, which they command; seeing all lawfull Powers are of God, and supply the place of God in their several orders: Therefore while we obey them, and keep their Commandments, [Page] we obey God in them, and so fulfill the Will and Command of God.

Learned Beza shall be the next that shall give in his verdict to this truth; Beza Epist. 20. Nam etsi Conscientias proprie solus Deus ligat, &c. For although God alone can properly bind the Conscience; yet so far as the Church with respect to order and decency, and thereby to Edification, doth rightly enjoyn, or make Laws, those Laws are to be observed by all pious persons; and they do so far bind the Conscience, as that no man wittingly and willingly, with a purpose to disobey, can either doe what is so forbidden, or omit what is so commanded, without Sin.

To these above named add we in the last place the verdict of our own learned and judicious Mr. Hooker. Hooker Eccles. polit. L. 5. Sect. 9. To the Laws (saith he) thus made id est according to the general Law of Nature, and without contradiction to the positive Law of Scripture) and received by a whole Church, they which live within the bosome of that Church, must not think it a matter of indifference, either to yield, or not to yield obedience.1 Cor. 11. 22. Is it a small offence to despise the Church [Page]of God? Prov. 6. 20. My son keep thy Father's Commandments (saith Solomon) and forget not thy Mothers instructions, bind them both always about thine heart. It doth not stand with the duty we owe to our heavenly Father, that to the ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew our selves disobedient. Let us not say we keep the Commandments of one, when we break the Laws of the other: For unless we observe both, we obey neither. And what doth let, but that we may observe both, when they are not one to the other in any sort repugnant? Yea, which is more, the Laws of the Church thus made, God himself doth in such sort authorize, that to despise them, is to despise in them, him. Thus far that most judicious Authour.

Yea one of the reformed Churches have put it into their very Confession, Confess. Suev. in Harm Confess. 8. 17. p, 290. That those Laws of the Church deserve to be esteemed divine, rather than humane Constitutions.

From all which it appears, that Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions are not merely man's Laws, but God's also; both because they are composed and framed by those Fathers, by divine Authority, [Page] and have their general foundation in Scripture; and also because they are ordained for the Glory of God, for Edification, order and decency of the Church, and the better fulfilling and keeping the Laws of God. For as we have a Command from Christ, to tell the Church when any one is refractary and perverse: So have they which are complained of to the Church, that Command from Christ also, to hear the Voice of God in the Church, and in disobeying the Church, they disobey God. And if Children and Servants, are bound by the Law of God, to obey their Parents and Masters in all things that are reasonable, honest and just, and in their obedience, they obey and serve God himself (Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 20. 24. Tit. 2. 9. 10.) then it can be no less pleasing to God, that Christians, who live in the bosome of the Church, should be obedient and conformable unto the lawfull Precepts and Constitutions of their spiritual Mother, the Church of Christ, and the Rulers thereof. It is very truly said by Calvin, Semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa. A frowardness and aptness to quarrell with the proceedings [Page] of the Church, is accompanied with ambition and pride. It is not because the Church takes too much power on her, but because they would be under none. It is ambition, to have all Government in their own hands, that is the Cause, why some will not be subject to any.

All which hath been said of this matter is agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church of England; who in her twentieth Article saith, The Church hath power to decree and make Laws. So in her 34th Article: That whosoever through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the word of God, St. Paul calleth Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions of the Church of Corinth [...], traditions. 1 Cor. 11. 2. offendeth against the Common order of the Church, hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the Conscience of the weak Brethren. Where, by (traditions) I suppose is meant the Laws and Canons of the Church, as the words following do intimate, which speak of the Common order of the Church, and Authority of the Magistrate.

Thus much of the Laws of the Church.

[Page] Neither are such meetings onely against the Laws of the Church, but against sundry statute Laws of the Kingdom also, in that behalf made and provided.

In the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1.35 Eliz. 1. It is provided; that if any person or persons above 16 years old, shall refuse to repair to some Church, Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer, to hear divine Service, and receive the Communion; or come to, and be present at, any Assemblies, Conventicles, or Meetings, under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion, contrary to the Laws and Statutes: And if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some Church, Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer; or by any motion, persuasion, inticement, or allurement of any other, willingly joyn in, or be present at, any such Assemblies, Conventicles, or Meetings, under Colour or pretence of any such Exercise of Religion, contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, as is aforesaid (which refers to other Statutes formerly made, and yet of force against Conventicles, as well as this one) shall be committed to prison, and there remain without bail, untill be conform, and untill[Page]he make an open Submission in the words set down in the Statute. viz.

I. A. B. do humbly acknowledge and confess, that I have grievously offended God, in contemning her Majesties Godly and lawfull Government and Authority, by absenting my self from Church, and from hearing divine Service, contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm, and in using and frequenting unlawfull and disorderly Conventicles and Assemblies, under Colour and pretence of Exercise of Religion: And I am heartily sorry for the same, &c. And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation, that from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform her Majesties Laws and Statutes in repairing to Church, and hearing divine Service, and doe my utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same.

Neither can it be pretended (as it is by some) that this Statute was made, or stands in force, against any other sort of People, than those in question, viz. against Popish recusants onely [Page] and not against Protestant dissenters, as they call themselves: The answer is easie out of the words of the said Statute. For in the beginning of the Statute, the Persons that are concerned in obedience to it, are expressed in these general and large words. Any person or persons whatsoever above the Age of 16 which shall refuse to repair to Church, and willingly join in and be present at any Conventicle or Meeting, &c. Which words comprehend and take in Persons of all Religions, Sects and Persuasions whatsoever.

And whereas the penalty of the Statute to all that shall refuse Obedience and Conformity to it, is abjuration of the Realm, or to be proceeded against as Felons. There is a Proviso toward the End of the Statute, that sixeth the penalty altogether upon Protestant recusants, and not on Popish; In these words: Provided that no Popish recusant, or feme Covert shall be compelled or bound to abjure by virtue of this Act. And lest the Popish recusants should be the onely Persons therein meant or intended, the Conventiclers of our Age make themselves more perfect Recusants than [Page] that Statute supposeth: For whereas that makes absence from the Prayers of the Church, for one Month together, a Crime sufficient to render them obnoxious to the penalties of that Act; these men (for the most part) withdraw themselves for many Years together, and, for ought I see, if they are let alone, resolve so to doe all the days of their lives.

In Anno 22. Caroli 2di Regis, there was a Statute made to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles (as the Title of that Statute truly calls them) wherein Every Person of the Age of 16 years and upward, that shall be present at any Assembly. Conventicle or Meeting, under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion, in other manner that according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England, in any place within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, at which Conventicle or meeting there shall be 5 persons or more assembled together, is made liable to suffer the penalties of 5s for his first fault, and for his second 10s (and so onward) the Preacher to suffer the penalty [Page] of 20ll. And the owner of the house or ground, that shall wittingly and willingly suffer such Conventicle, Meeting, or unlawfull Assembly to be held, to suffer the penalty of 20ll.

In the late Act for Uniformity,This treatise was written and composed before the Statute to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles Car. 2. 22 was made. all Non-conformist Ministers and disabled and prohibited from preaching any Sermon or Lecture indefinitely, either publick or private. And for as much as the King's Majesty by the Law of God and the Land, of right is, and ought to be master of all the assemblings together of any of his Subjects; therefore what Meetings soever, are not allowed and authorized by the Laws of the Realm, are adjudged by the Learned in the Laws, to fall within the compass of those Statutes, that forbid and punish Riots and unlawfull Assemblies; and are, or may justly be presumed to be, in terrorem populi, and in the Event it is to be feared, will prove to be contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King. And by the2. H. 5. 8. Law, all the King's Liege-people are commanded to assist in the suppressing of them, upon pain of imprisonment, and to make fine and ransome to the King.

[Page] Notwithstanding all which good Laws, this practice hath continued in the Church these several years, and still doth (notwithstanding His Majesties reinforcement of their execution by his late Proclamation) in open defiance and contempt of all Authority, as if the Laws of the Church and Realm were but fulmen inane, a shadow of a Cloud, that vanisheth as soon as it is made; and as if obedience to Magistracy were no part of Christian duty.

Concerning these Laws of the Realm (to silence clamour) I will touch lightly at five things.

I. That the King being next under God, within his Dominions, supreme in the Church on Earth, hath Power and Authority over the Persons of Ministers, as well as of any other his Subjects. He being Custos utriusque tabulae, having both tables committed to him, as well the first that concerns our religious duties to God, as the other that concerns our civil duties to men, may and ought to make such laws as conduce as well to1 Tim. 2. 2. the peace and order in the Church, as as godliness and honesty. Aug. tract. 11. in Johan. Pertinet hoc ad reges seculi Christianos, [Page]ut temporibus suis pacatam velint matrem suam Ecclesiam, unde spiritualiter nati sint; (Saith St. Augustine.) He may upon just Cause depose, discharge, and put to silence, any Minister whatsoever within his Dominions, as to the Execution of his Ministerial function, either in publick or private. Ministers, as well as others, are under civil jurisdiction. forRom. 13. 1. Every Soul is bound to be subject to the higher powers. AndBern. Epist. 4. 2. ad Archiepis. Senovensem. St omnis anima, cur non est vestra? Quis vos excepit ex universalitate? If every soul, then the Souls of Ministers as well as others: For who excepted them from the universality? Qui dicit omnem, excludit nullam. He that saith every Soul, excludeth no Soul. It was impiously said ofBellarm. de clericis. c. 28. That the Clergy ought not for any cause to be cited before the civil Magistrate, or to be judged by him; it being absurd that the sheep should judge the shepherd. Christ himself taking upon him man's nature, was subject to humance Authority, submitting himself to Caiaphas and Pilate, so far as to be apprehended, arraigned, condemned and executed.

[Page] True (saith Bellarmine) de facto, Christ was subject to Pilate, but de jure, he ought not to have been so: And that power over him which he did acknowledge, was given to Pilate from above, Iohn 19. 11.) was onely a bare permission.

To which we answer;Ans. 1. if we simply respect the Dignity of Christ's person, being the Son of God, then we acknowledge that he neither was, nor could be subject to any man. But if we consider the dispensation of his incarnation, and that form of a Servant which he took on himself, whereby he became Man and under the Law, then de jure, as he was a Jew, he was a Subject to that power, which at that time had the rule. And what Pilate unjustly did against Christ, that, we grant, God did onely permit; But he had a lawfull Jurisdiction over his person, not by God's permission onely, but by his effectual will.

But suppose it were true which Bellarmine saith;Ans. 2. yet the Example of Christ maketh never the less for the Confirmation of the truth, for which I allege it. For if he submitted himself to a power [Page] over him that was usurped onely, and not approved of by God, but barely permitted; then certainly they are very far from the Humility that was in Christ Jesus, that refuse to be obedient and subject to just and lawfull powers, which are ordained of God and set over them. And therefore when Christ said, date quae sunt Caesaris Caesari, give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, he spake as well to the high Priests, Scribes and Pharisees, as to the People.

St. Paul, whose apostolical authority and spiritual Weapons, were able to bring down every opposition, yet acknowledged that he mustAct. 25. 10. 11. be judged by Caesar, as his lawfull Superiour. Bellarmine's distinction of de facto, and de jure, will stand him in no more stead here, than it did before; for to say, the Roman Emperour was St. Paul's Judge de facto, but not de jure, is to doe St. Paul a manifest injury. For if the emperour had no right to judge him, why would he then make use of the benefit of an appeal to Caesar Act. 25. 11. when no body compelled him so to doe? and why did he at another time shelter himself under the PrivilegeAct. 16. 37. of a Citizen of [Page] Rome? By his very professing himself to be a Roman, he doth acknowledge himself to be subject to the same Laws, and to the same Lord, that other Romans were; and that he had no more exemption or immunity from subjection and obedience to the Roman Laws, than that Tribune who saidAct. 22. 28. with a great sam have I obtained this freedom.

The Scriptures do give us an instance of King Solomon's deposing Abiathar from the Priesthood. The text saith 1 King. 2. 27. that King Solomon did thrust out Abiathar from being Priest before the Lord. Neither doth the Holy Ghost mention this historically onely, as thing done; but by way of approbation, as a thing well and rightly done. This the Iesuites themselves (who are the onely men, I know, who question the Sovereign power in this Case) confess. Remarkable to this purpose are the words of one of them.Suarez. defens. fid. Cath. l. 3. c. 26. num. 7. Alii non dubitant dicere Solomonem in eo facto injuste egisse, usurpando potestatem, quam non habebat; ego vero id affirmare non audeo, propter verba Scripturae quae ex Cap. 3. allegavi: Et quia apud antiquos patres & expositores non invenio factum illud inter[Page]peccata Solomonis numeratum, sive in culpam tributum. Some (saith he) doubt not to say that Solomon in that Act did unjustly, in usurping more power than did belong to him: But I dare not say so, both for the words of the Scripture, which I have before alleged out of the third Chapter; and also, because among the ancient Fathers and Expositours, I find not this Act of his, reckoned for any of Solomon's sins, or him blamed for it. The words which he saith he alleged out of the third Chapter, are these. 1 King. 3. 3. And Solomon loved the Lord his God, walking in the ways of David his Father, onely he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. Which exception (saith he) shews that Kings Solomon untill that time, had kept the Commandments of God, and consequently sinned not in that fact in deposing Abiathar. And if the Kings of Israel might execute such power, why not the Kings of England also? Who will say that the Power of Christian Kings and Princes is shorter now, than that of the Kings, of Iudah, and the religious Princes of the Primitive Christian Church was? That the nursing Fathers under the Gospel are abridged [Page] in Authority, of what they were under the Law?

And the reason, and wisedom of this Nation in Parliament, hath adjudged this to be a just Cause of such deposition and silencing of any, when he shall refuse to submit, and be obedient and conformable to such Laws and Constitutions, as they have declared to be Act. of uniform. p. 68. Very comfortable to all good People desirous to live in Christian Conversation; most profitable to the State of the Realm, upon which the Mercy, Favour and Blessing of Almighty God is in no-wise so readily and plentifully powered, as by Common-Prayer, due using of the Sacraments, and often preaching of the Gospel with devotion of the hearers. AndIbid. pag. 71. that nothing conduceth more to the setling the peace of this Nation (which is desired of all good men) nor the honour of our Religion and the Propagation thereof, than an universal Agreement in the publick Worship of Almighty God. Which is a thing so amiable and excellent in it self, that it hath extracted an acknowledgment and commendation of it from the Mouths of the Divines of the Presbyterian persuasion themselves. For in a [Page] Book of theirs entitled, A Vindication of the Presbyterial Government, published by the Ministers and Elders met together in a provincial Assembly, November 2d. 1649. They have these words.Vindicat. of Presbyt. p. 119. 120. It is the Duty of all Christians to study to enjoy the Ordinances of Christ, in unity and uniformity as far as is possible. (Which our Liturgy sets up, by prescribing the manner of it. Whereas otherwise all will be left to the chance of mens wills; which (saith Doctour Hammond)View of the Directory. p. 23. can no more be thought like to concur in one form, than Democritus's Atomes to have met together into a world of beautifull Creatures, without any kind of providence to dispose them.) For the Scriptures call for unity and uniformity, as well as purity and verity. And surely it is not impossible to obtain this so much desired unity and uniformity, because that God hath promised that his Children shall serve him with one heart, and with one way, and with one shoulder. And that in the days of the Gospel, there shall be one Lord, and his Name one. And Christ hath prayed, that we may be all one, as the Father is in him, and he in the Father. And he adds a most prevalent reason,[Page]That the World may believe that thou hast sent me. Nothing hinders the propagation of the Gospel so much as the division and separation of Gospel-professours. If it be God's promise, and Christ's prayer, it is certainly a thing possible to be obtained, and a duty incumbent upon all good Christians to labour after.

Secondly, as it cannot be denyed that the Civil Magistrate hath authority over the persons of Ministers, so 'tis as true, that he hath power to act for the regulation of all their Ecclesiastical meetings and assemblies; though not to act in sacris, Yet circa sacra, non ad docendum, quod est sacerdotale, yet, ad jubendum, quod est regale. AsEuseb. de vit. Constant. l. 4. c. 24. Constantine the Emperour told the Bishops whom he invited to a banquet, [...]. Ye are Bishops within the Church, and I am ordained by God's Grace a Bishop without the Church. That the King of England (saith Sir Henry Spelman) Sir H. Spelman de non tem [...]r. Eccl. p. 21, 22. is persona mixta, endowed as well with Ecclesiastical authority, as with temporal, is not onley a solid position of the Common Law of this [Page] Land, but confirmed unto us by the continual practice of our ancient Kings, ever since and before the Conquest, even in hottest times of Popish fervency: For this cause at their Coronation, they are not onely Crowned with the Diadem of the Kingdom, and girt with the Sword of justice to signisie their temporal authority, but are anointed also withReges sacro oleo uncti sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces. 33 Ed. 3. Tit. Aid de Roy. 103. ex Dom. Cook Rep. part 5. the oil of Priesthood, and cloathed stola Sacerdotali and veste Dalmatica, to demonstrate this their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction; whereby the King is said to be in Law, the Supremus ordinarius, and in regard thereof among other Ecclesiastical rights and prerogatives belonging to him, is to have all the tithes (through the Kingdom) in the places that are not of any Parish, for some such there be, and namely, divers Forests. Magistrates (we grant) can neither preach the word, nor administer the Sacraments, any more than Vzziah could burn incense, or offer Sacrifice to God: Yet they are nursing Fathers of the Church, not to give the milk of the word and Sacraments, but of disclipline and Government. During the old Testament [Page] times, the King's power extendedSanderson de oblig. Consc. Lect. 6. Sect. 31. to the instituting and commanding of such Religious meetings, as do no where appear to be either instituted, or commanded of God, or his Servant Moses. v. g. The solemnity of the Passover, which was to be kept by the Law of Moses but seven days, by a special Command of2 Chron. 30. King Hezekiah, with the consent of the people, was commanded to be kept other seven days. The Feast of Purim, in Commemoration of the deliverance of the Nation of the Iews, under Ahasuerus the Persian King, was instituted byEsther 9. Hester and Mordecai. Moses onely Commanded one day of Fasting to be yearly observed, (viz.) in the seventh month; But the Kings and Magistrates of the people instituted other yearly solemn Fasts: So that in the times of the latter Prophets, there were four yearly Fasts observed, (viz.) besides that yearly in the seventh month, three othersZach. 8. 19. in the fourth, fifth, and tenth month. Now if they may by their authority institute and enlarge, why not then as well abridge and restrain; Provided the publick assembling [Page] together of God's people, according to Divine appointment, be no-way prejudiced or infringed. If the Magistrate may appoint, then he may forbid too: Law, reason and sense teach, that appointing and forbidding belong to one power.

Thirdly, neither can there be any ground of quarrell made against the justness of these Laws forbidding Conventicles. For (as it is well observed byMr. Jo. Mart. in Serm. on Deut. 17. 12. a worthy Divine before me) that Law is undoubtedly just, in which there is a concurrence of the justice of these four causes of Law, wherein the whole of a Law doth consist, (viz.) the justice of the final, efficient, formal and material causes of Laws.

1. The final Cause of End of a just Law, is that it tend to the common and publick good. And of this the Lawgivers are to be Judges, and not the Subjects. And most unreasonable it were that what the Lawgivers shall adjudge to be for the publick good, should be made to yeild to private and particular mens interests.

2. The efficient Cause of a just Law, is the lawfull power of the person, or [Page] persons in authority, that made the Law. Otherwise Laws are onely so in name, and not indeed. And as Aquinas, Aquin. 1, 2. quest. 96. Violentiae magis quam leges, They are rather acts of violence than Laws. And it is a sure rule in Logick, Causa aequivoca non infert effectum; a sentence passed by one that is no Judge, binds not the party.

3. The right form of a Law, is that it be a rule of rectitude for humane actions, according to the guidance of distributive justice, giving to every one according to his demerits.

4. The matter of a Law, must be a thing that is good according to the rule of universal justice, at leait indifferent.

A Law wherein these 4 things concur must needs be good and obligatory to all persons that are concerned in it.

Now in which of these the aforesaid Laws against Conventicles are faulty, I know not. Perhaps some will say, in the latter; the Matter of it is not good, to lay a restraint on Religious Assemblies and Meetings.

[Page] It were so indeed,Answ. 1. if Religious Assemblies and Meetings were forbidden. But I think it will appear in the sequel, that these in question are not such, whatsoever some conceive them to be.

It were so,Answ. 2. if all Religious Meetings or Assemblies were forbidden: But (blessed be God) 'tis otherwise. We have stillAct. 19. 39. [...]. the publick, ancient, lawfull and orderly assemblies allowed, commanded and encouraged by Authority, in all places of the Kingdom; and onely such meetings by the Law forbidden, as are private, new and disorderly, and tend to Faction and Schism, and such other evils as are not without trembling to be mentioned.

Lastly I answer,Answ. 3. with that learned Casuist Dr.Sand. de obligat. Consc. Lect. 6. Sect. 15. Sanderson, that it is not necessarily requisite, that whatsoever is established by Law, should be bonum positive, that it should be an act of vertue; but it is sufficient if it be bonum negative, that is, nothing sinfull or morally evil, as all vices are. Otherwise there should be no room for Laws about middle and indifferent things. And suppose a Law should be [Page] defective in regard of the efficient, final, or formal cause; yet if the matter of it be such, as may be done without sin, [...]t binds the Subject to obedience. And that the forbearance of such illegal meetings as are in question, may be done without sin; and that those dissenting brethren, who have been ejected for their non-compliance in Uniformity to the present legal establishment, being under a legal restraint as to the use of their Ministerial Function, may without sin forbear the irregular use of their gifts and labours in the said private meetings, to the undermining and confronting of the Laws, the increase of Sedition, Schism, and divers other Horrid Evils, I think is out of question. Learned Beza thought so, or else he had never returned such an answer, as he did, to that Case of Conscience which was proposed to him, by certain English Ministers, who in the Reign of Q. Eliz. were silenced for non-conformity. The case proposed being, Whether they might, or ought not to preach, notwithstanding their being prohibited by man's law? His answer verbatim is, Bez. Epist. ad quosdam Eccles. Anglic. fratres. p. 97. Tertium illud,[Page]nempe ut contra Regiam Majestatem, & Episcoporum voluntatem Ministerio suo fungantur magis etiam exhorrescimus propter eas causas, quae tacentibus etiam nobis, satis intelligi possunt. He was so far from thinking it lawfull, that he trembled at the thought of such a thing, that they should exercise their Ministry contrary to the Queen's Laws, and the will of the Governours of the Church. And the same hath been the judgment of Antiquity in the like case. The ancient and orthodox Fathers of the Church, being met together in Council at Antioch, in the first year of the Reign of Aurelianus the Emperour, and in the year of Christ (according to Eusebius) 269. decreedConcil. Antioch. Can. 4. Non licere Episcopo vel Clerico si exauthorizatus fuerit ministrare; ‘That if any Bishop, being condemned by a Council, or any Presbyter or Deacon by his Bishop, should presume to Preach, or meddle with any thing of, or belonging to the Sacred Office of the Ministry, there should never be any hope for him, ever to be restored again by any other Council or Synod: And all [Page] that Communicated with him, should be cast out of the Church.’ As may be seen more at large in that Canon.

Of the like judgment were the Divines of the Presbyterian-way touching those learned, Godly, and orthodox Ministers, who suffered ejection out of their livings, and deprivation of all they had, in the late times of troubles, by a pretended authority of Parliament, for their adherence to his late Majesty of ever Blessed memory. When the Earl of Northumberland discoursing with Mr Calamy about the supplying of above fifty Churches in London, void of Ministers, told him, That they must restore some of the sequestred Clergy of London, and admit them to preach again, for unless they did so, the Parliament could not find men of ability to preach in London: Mr Calamy replied, God Forbid. As it is recorded and published to the world, in a Book called Persecutio undecima, Printed in the year 1648. page 42. And if the thought of the Restauration of those worthies to their Office, how unjustly soever they were suspended from it, was (in the judgment of that person) rejected with [Page] indignation, as a thing offensive and either forbidden, or wished to be forbidden of God; how much more execrable and abominable a thing would he have thought it to be, if they should have taken upon them (as some now do under a lawfull power) to preach again, without any readmission by that power that silenced them, yea in opposition and defiance of it?

And because no testimony is so fit to convince any party as that which proceeds from their own Mouths; Let therefore the Judgment of aMr. William Bradshaw unreasonableness of separation. pag. 90, &c. Non-conformist (otherwise a Person in Learning, Sobriety and Solidity inferiour to few of his generation,) be heard and weighed in this case. He writes in defence of our Church assemblies, against those who being silenced for Non-conformity, (as he was) yet (not as he did) separated themselves from the publick Congregations; and not enduring to have their Mouths stopped, or to sit down in silence, thought themselves bound (according to the Example of the Apostles, Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29.) to exercise their Ministry, though not in publick, yet in private Meetings, notwithstanding [Page] any Legal prohibition to the contrary.

First he distinguisheth betwixt the calling of the Apostles, and that of the Ministers now. The former, as they had their ministry immediately from God, so had they the designation of that ministry to their persons immediately from God also. And therefore the exercise of it was not restrainable, or to be forborn at the Commandment of men. The latter, though their ministry be from God also, yet have their Calling to that ministry or the designation of that office to such and such particular persons, from men in God's ordinary way, and cannot exercise that function, but by virtue of that Calling wch they have from men. ‘And therefore (saith he) in common sense they ought to obey man, forbidding them the exercise of a Calling, which they do exercise by virtue of a Calling from men. Otherwise there should be no power so to depose a man from his Ministry, but that notwithstanding any Command from the Church or State, he is still to continue in the exercise of his ministry, and should be [Page] bound to give that example, which the Apostles did, which is not onely absurd, but a conceit tending plainly to manifest Sedition and Schism.’

Afterwards he hath these words.

‘Neither were some of the Apostles onely forbidden, so as that others should be suffered to preach the same Gospel in their places; but the utter abolition of the Christian Religion was manifestly intended, in silencing them. But over Churches, whereof we are Ministers, are no private and secret Assemblies, such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting Magistrate; but are publick, professing their worship, and doing their Religion in the face of the Magistrate [...] and State; yea and by his Countenance, Authority and Protection: And we Are set over those Churches, not onely by a calling of our People, but also by Authority from the Magistrate, who hath an armed power, to hinder such publick actions; who is also willing to permit and maintain other [Page] true Ministers of the Gospel, in those places where he forbiddeth some.’

And thereupon the said Authour makes this threefold Conclusion.

1. If after our publick Calling to minister in such a known and publick Church, not by the Church onely, but by the Magistrate also; the Magistrate shall have matter against us (just, or unjust, as to our obedience it matters not) and shall in that regard forbid us to minister to our Church, I see not by what warrant in God's word, we should think our selves bound notwithstanding, to exercise our Ministry still; except we should think such a Law of Ministry to lie upon us, that we should be bound to run upon the Swords point of the Magistrate, or oppose Sword to Sword, which I am sure Christianity abominates.

2. Yea, suppose the Magistrate should doe it unjustly and against the Will of the Church, and should therein sin; yet doth not the Church in that regard cease to be a Church, nor [Page] ought she therein resist the Will of the Magistrate; nor doth she stand bound in regard of her affection to her Minister (how great and deserved soever) to deprive her self of the protection of the Magistrate, by leaving her publick standing, to follow her Minister in private, and in the dark; refusing the benefit of other publick Ministers, which with the good leave and liking of the Magistrate, she may enjoy.

3. Neither do I know, what Warrant any ordinary Minister hath by God's word, in such a case, so to draw any such Church or People to his private Ministry, that thereby they should hazard their outward Estate and quiet in the Common-wealth, where they live; when in some competent measure, they may publickly, with the grace and favour of the Magistrate, enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another. And except he hath a Calling to minister in some other Church, he is to be content to live as a private member untill it shall please God, to reconcile the Magistrate unto him, and to call him again to his own Church.

[Page] From which words of this learned Non-conformist, it may easily be gathered, that those persons who are now, by the unquestionable Legitimate power of the Kingdom, for their Non-compliance with the present legal Establishment in the Church, deposed from their Ministry,Firmum est genus probationis quod etiam ex adversario sumitur, & veritas etiam ab inimicis veritatis probetur. if they contain not themselves in quietness and silence, as other private Christians; do, and ought; but will without a Call of Authority, undertake still to preach the word, and draw People after them to their private Ministry;Novatian. de Trin. they are condemned by the most sober, and judicious of their own party;Amici contra amicum; & inimici pro inimico invincibile testimonium est. and the case of them and their followers, is adjudged to be far different from that of the Apostles, and primitive Christians; their practice unwarrantable by the word of God,L. Vives de instrument. probabilit. and manifestly tending to Sedition and Schism.

But what speak I of the single Testimony and Judgment of one man of that way and perswasion (though a learned and judicious one) whenas we have extant to the World the like verdict agreed upon long since by the joint consent of sundry Godly and learned Ministers [Page]of this Kingdom, then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity, and published by Mr. William Rathband for the good of the Church, and the better setling of mens unstable minds in the truth, against the subtile insinuations and plausible pretences of that pernicious evil of the Brownists or Separatists. For in the 4th. page of that Book; First, they justifie themselves against the objection of that faction, in yeilding to the suspensions and deprivations of the Bishops, acknowledging their Power to depose, who did ordain them; and their own duty to acquiesce therein, and in quietness and silence to subject themselves thereunto, in expressions so full to my present purpose that I should have transcribed them for the Reader's satisfaction, were it so that I had not been prevented by the reverend and worthy Authour of thePag. 345. vide. the last page of this Treatise. 156. where the words are to be seen. Continuation of the Friendly Debate. As to that place of Scripture. Act. 4. 19. 20. which they acknowledge to be very unskilfully alledged by the adversary, they make this threefold answer, to shew the difference betwixt the Apostles case and theirs.

[Page] First (they say) they that inhibited the Apostles were known and professed Enemies of the Gospel.

Secondly, the Apostles were charged not to teach in the Name of Christ, nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel; Which Commandment might more hardly be yeilded unto, than this of our Bishops, who are not onely content that the Gospel should be preached, but are also preachers of it themselves.

Thirdly, the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from Gal. 1. 1. men, nor by the hands of men, but immediately from God himself, and therefore also might not be restrained nor deposed by men; whereas we, though we exercise as function, whereof God is the Authour, and we are also called of God to it, yet are we also called and ordained by the hands and ministry of men, and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry.

I cannot think that any of the Learned sort of the Non-conformists now are ignorant of these things, nor, that (if [Page] their hearts were known) their Judgments differ (in this case) from that of their ancient brethren; but I fear the busie upholders and promoters of Conventicles in our Age, notwithstanding their prohibition by Law, to preach at all, sin against their own light and conscience in so doing. But I proceed.

4. Now Laws being thus made against all such unlawfull Meetings, and all such His Majestie's Laws being no way contrary to God's word; all his Subjects stand bound in the obligation of obedience to them, and that for conscience sake (Rom. 13. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Tit. 3. 1.) And under pain of Damnation if they wilfully resist and disobey, Rom. 13. 2. And therefore it is, that in the Schools, they call disobedience to the King's Laws, Sacrilege: for though the trespass seem to be directed but against a man, yet in that man whose Office (and consequently his person) is sacred, God is opposed, and his ordinance violated. The King's Laws though in themselves, in regard of their particular Constitution, they put no special obligation upon us under pein of sin and damnation; yet in a general relation [Page] to that God, who is the original of all Power, and hath commanded us to obey Authority, their neglect or disobedience involves us in guilt, and exposeth us to Sin, and consequently to Damnation. Confess. Suev. cap. 14. Civilibus legibus quae cum pietate non pugnant, eo quisque Christianus paret promptius, quo fide Christi est imbutus plenius; Every Christian, by how much the more he hath of the grace of faith, by so much the more ready he is to conform to the Laws of men, which are not contrary to the Laws of God. All power is of God; That therefore which▪ Authority enjoins us, God enjoins us by it, the Command is mediately his, though passing through the hands of men.Aug. Hoc jubent imperatores, quod jubet & Christus; quia cum bonum jubent, per illos non nisi Christus jubet; When Kings command what is not disagreeable with Christ's Commands, Christ commands by them, and we are called to obey not onely them, but Christ in them.

But is not suffering,Object. obedience? And if men are willing to submit to the Penalty of the Law, is not that sufficient to discharge the Conscience from the guilt of disobedience?

[Page] Casuists,Ans. that are of that Judgment, say, it holds true onely in those Laws (whereof there are but very few in the World) that are purely penal: And the Laws which we now speak of are not such, for these are partly Moral, binding to doe, or to leave undone some moral Act;Sanderson de obligat. Consc. p. 304. &c. and partly Penal, in case of Omission of what the Laws command, or Commission of what the Laws forbid, then to undergoe the Punishment the Laws inflict. Now in these mixt Laws, suffering the Penalty doth not discharge the Conscience from the guilt of sin. For it is a rule of sure truth which Casuists give in such cases, Omnis praeceptio obligat ad culpam; Every just Command of those who have lawfull Authority to command, leaves a guilt of sin upon those mens Consciences who do not obey. The reason is, because where a Law made by lawfull Authority requires active obedience, and imposeth a Penalty in case of disobedience, the Conscience of the subject stands bound primarily and intentionally to the performance of the duty therein enjoined. As for the Penalty threatned, that is a secondary and accidental thing [Page] to the Law, added to keep up the reputation and esteem thereof, in the minds of those who are concerned in it, and to affright them from the neglect and disobedience of it. So that, though the suffering the Penalty of the Law, in case of the transgression of it, be as much as can be required of the Lawgiver, yet God, by whom Kings reign, and who requires subjection to Authority, and that for Conscience sake, will not hold such persons guiltless, that doe not the things commanded in the Law.

The malefactour satisfies the Law at the time of his execution, but who will say, that without repentance of his fact, the guilt of sin remains not still upon his Conscience, or that he shall be acquitted at God's tribunal?

5. Neither are they the Laws of the Church and Kingdom of England onely, that are against such Meetings and Ministry as are in question; But the godly Kings and Princes of the primitive Christian-Church have ever made the like.Euseb. de vit.. Constant. L. 3. c. 63. Eusebius tells us, that Constantine the Great made a Law, that no Separatists or Schismaticks should meet [Page] in Conventicles; and commanded that all such places, where they were wont to keep their Meetings, should be demolished; and that they should not keep their factious Meetings either in publick places, or private houses, or remote places, but that they should repair to their parochial Churches. And in the next Chapter he saith, that by that Law, the memory of most of those Sectaries was forgotten and extinguished.

Sozomen reportsSozom. L. 7. c. 12. that Theodosius the great, decreed that the Sectaries (whose petition for liberty he had first torn in pieces) should not assemble together, but all of them repair to their own publick Congregations, otherwise to be banished their Country, to be branded with some infamy, and not to be partakers of Common privileges and favours with others. And our neighbours and brethren of Scotland of the Presbyterian judgment, did in one of their late general Assemblies, since the enacting of their solemn League and Covenant, make a special Canon against all private Meetings; the direct tendency there of being to the overthrow [Page] of that Uniformity by them covenanted, to be endeavoured in all the Churches of the three Kingdoms.

The very Heathens themselves, by their Laws have made all such Assemblies illegitimate which the highest Authority did not cause to meet, though they were [...], to doe solemn Sacrifice to their Gods (as may appear by Solon's Laws) and in their practice, they have shewed themselves ready to yeild obedience to their Governours, in desisting from such irregular Conventions when they have been required.

Though Demetrius his Assembly came together disorderly, and of their own headsAct. 19. 29. rushed into the Theatre, and there kept a shouting and Crying two hours together, some one thing, some another, not knowing, most of them, wherefore they came together: Yet when the Town-clark (who had Authority) did dismiss them; they added not one fault to another, but broke off their disorderly Meeting presently. And they shew themselves more refractary than Demetrius himself, who doe otherwise.

And, if it be well considered, the [Page] practice in question will be found to interfere with it self; and to carry in the very face of it a convincing Testimony of its evil and unwarrantableness. For if it be lawfull for these men to preach in private Meetings (as they do, and have a long time done) why do they not take upon them to adventure to preach in the publick and Church-assemblies also? What is it that makes them abstain from the latter, and yet take liberty in the former?

Is it in obedience to the Law of the Land, which forbids them to preach in publick? The same Law forbids them to preach in private also. It cannot be denied but that one is forbidden as well as the other. Then this must needs be turned upon them, why do they not obey in the one as well as in the other, since they cannot but acknowledge that both are forbidden in the same Law? surely if it were the Care and Conscience, and desire to obey lawfull Authority, according as Christian duty binds them, that makes them silent in publick; the same Conscience, the same care and desire would make them sit down in silence in private also.

[Page] If it be said, that they therefore abstain from publick preaching, because it more exposeth them to the danger and penalty of the Law, than private doth: Then this must be retorted upon them also, that their obedience is not such as God requireth, for Conscience, but for wrath. Good men obey for Conscience; but those that obey for wrath, have not the fear of God before their Eyes. For, none contemns the power of man, unless he hath first despised the Power of God.

And shall that be accounted by any sober Christian, to be the ordinance of God, or means of his appointment to beget grace in mens souls, that is so repugnant to good Laws, both of Church and State, which we all stand bound in Conscience to observe and obey; is contradictory to it self, and hath in it that, which proclaims to all that will open their Eyes to look into it, its unlawfulness and sin? God forbid.

ARGUMENT II.

[Page]

THAT cannot be the ordinance of God, or means of grace, that is contrary to that order which God himself by his word hath established in his Church. For God is not the Authour of disorder and confusion; But the Devil. In the Church God's Command is for order in all things:1 Cor. 14. 33. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order. And St. Paul did as well rejoice to see Coll. 2. 5. the order as the faith of the Church of Coloss. OnelyJob. 10. 21, 22. Death and Hell have no order. And it is a kind of death to a godly Christian to see disorder in the Church of Christ, and his Service. For what is a Church without order, but a kind of an Hell above ground? Where order is wanting, what is a Kingdom but a Chaos of Confusion? Yea,

But such a Ministry, and such Meetings and Assemblies as are in question, are contrary to the order God hath in his word established in his Church. For the order God hath set in his Church is, that his People should be distinguished into flocks, and that every flock [Page] should have its own shepherd. It is God's ordinance (saith Mr. Hildersham) as it is agreeable to good order, Hild. on Joh. 4. p. 242. that Christians should be sorted into Congregations, according to their dwellings, that they who dwell next together, should be of the same Congregation, and from thence the name [...], a parish, first came. As it is against all reason and scripture, that a people scattered about, some here, and some there, in several parts of the Country, should voluntarily associate and combine themselves in a distinct body, under what Ministry they please, and that best suits with their humour, and call themselves a Church, as the manner of some is: So it is agreeable with the very light of nature, and dictates of right reason, that a people in a vicinity and neighbourhood dwelling together, ought to join together with those of that neighbourhood, according as most conveniently they may, for the worship and service of God. We reade of the Church of God at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, &c. AndBlake defoed. p. 225. of seven Epistles written from Heaven to seven several Churches, all which had their abode at the places whence the Churches bare their [Page]Names, these are scripture Churches; saith a Presbyterian.

It is the ordinance of God that every. Flock or Congregation should have their own pastour,Act. 20. 28. Take heed to the flock over whom the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Timothy appointed Titus Tit. 1. 5. to ordain Elders in every City. i. e. wheresoever there was a body of people for a fit Congregation, there must be a Pastour or Elder placed. Whence it appears that even in the Apostles days there was a distinction of Churches, and Congregations; for the Elders had their flocks over whom the Holy Ghost made them Overseers. The like is said of Paul and Barnabas Act. 14. 23. that they ordained Elders in every Church. Hence (saith Calvin) Calvin in loc. may be gathered the difference betwixt the office of those Elders, and that of the Apostles. These had no certain station in the Church, but still went up and down, hither and thither, to plant new Churches, Rom. 15. 19. 20. 23. 24. 1 Cor. 4. 17. Act. 1. 8. Rom. 1. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 14. 16. But the other were by God's appointment fixed and tyed to their own proper Congregations and Flocks, Act. 14. 23. Act. 20. 28. [Page]Tit. 15. [...]1 Pet. 5. 1. The diminutive [...], used in Luc. 12. 32. Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. 3. Not [...],Jansen. in concord. evang. doth intimate as much; for, parvum gregem significat, it signifies a small part of the great flock distinguished from the rest.

And indeed the state and condition of the Ministers, and Ministry of the Church requires, that every Pastour should not take care of all the Flock or Church, but that rather they should have certain portions or Congregations of God's People, committed to them particularly, amongst whom they should bestow their care and pains. For this cause St. Paul took course to send certain Ministers to certain particular Churches: as2 Tim. 4. 10. 12. Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, and Tychicus to Ephesus. Vnde rectissime colligimus (saith aBaldwin. Learned Casuist) auditores ordinariis pastoribus contentos esse oportere, ne eos in crimen [...] conjiciant.

So 'tis God's ordinance that Flocks & Congregations should be contented with, and depend on their own Pastours. This appears by that charge of the Apostle. 1. Thess. 5. 12, 15. We beseech you brethren to know them (to own and acknowledge them) that [Page]labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake. Heb. 13. 7. Again, remember them that have the rule over you, which have spoken to you the word of God. And again Heb. 13. 17. obey them that have the rule over you, and submit your selves; for they watch for your Souls, as they that must give an account, that they may doe it with joy and not with grief. In both places the Command of God is for Obedience to Pastours; not any, such as people themselves according to their own humours shall chuse; but it is [...], in the seventh verse: and [...], in the 17th verse. In both places, YOVR RVLERS, such as are lawfully set over you by those that are in Authority in the Church. And even as St. Paul commends Epaphroditus to the Philippians as their ordinary Pastour, and commands themPhil. 2. 29. to receive him in the Lord with all gladness, and to hold such in rep [...]tation. So, he doth the like to other Churches, commanding them to honour and obey their own Pastours; which he would never have done, if it had been lawfull for people, [Page] with neglect of their own Ministers, to follow whom they please.

People are much mistaken, if they think, they are so much at their own disposal, as that they may put themselves under the teaching and care of what Minister they have a mind to, though never so excellent and orthodox. For,

1. First, God is not so careless of the precious Souls of his People in his Church, as to leave them at random to shift for themselves, every one according to his own foolish fancy; but doth dispose of them himself by his good providence, by the hand of those, who from and under him have Authority so to doe, to the care and charge of Pastours of his own appointment, the respective Ministers of those Parishes and places where they, with other of his People, do cohabite. And therefore the form of our institutions to our several charges, runs in these words, Curam & regimen omnium animarum parochianorum tibi plenarie in Domino committimus. The definition that our Saviour Christ gives of a Church, is, a John. 10. Shepherd and his Sheep that will hear his voice. A [Page] lawfull Minister, and a Flock or Congregation lawfully committed to his charge make up a true Church. Hereunto accord the Judgment of the Fathers. St. Chrysostome Chrysost. in an homily de recipiendo Severiano, begins thus; Sicuti capiti Corpus cohaerere necessarium est, ita Ecclesiam Sacerdoti, & Principi Populum. As it is necessary that the body cleave to the head, so it is likewise of necessity that the Congregation cleave to the Priest, and the People to their Prince. To which the saying of St. Cyprian agrees.Cyprian Epis. 69. Illi sunt Ecclesia, plebs sacerdoti adunita, & pastori suo grex adhaerens. The Church is a Congregation of believers united to their Minister, and a flock adhering to their Shepherd. For people then to imagine that they are at their own liberty to forsake their own Ministers, and to wander whither they please, is a Principle that tends directly to the destruction of the Church, and is contrary to the very nature and being of it. Should the Flocks of these wanderers doe as their Masters doe, leave and run away from their shepherds, and goe whither they please, and feed where they please, their owners [Page] would expect to see but little good come of them.

2. Secondly, a man [...]fest injury will thereby be done to their own Pastours, be they never so vigilant, to be forsaken of their own People, as if they were deficient in the discharge of their duties and offices amongst them. For, if it be lawfull for one to doe so, then 'tis lawfull for ten, and if for ten, then for an hundred, and so consequently for all; and so a Pastour may be forsaken of all his People; which how contrary it is to the order and rules of the Gospel, I leave to any person of sober and staid Principles to judge.

3. Thirdly, It will be matter of offence to others (who are prone to live Grex totus in agris unius scabie cadit. Juv. by example more than by rule) and an occasion to them to doe the like: and so by this means all that obedience and duty, that by divine Precept, is due to a Minister from his People, would soon perish and come to nothing.

4. Fourthly, An universal liberty of sinning without controll or restraint would by this means be introduced amongst People. For if they may have liberty to wander from one Minister to [Page] another, at their pleasure, they will have none at last, to have the cure and care of their souls: neither will any one dare faithfully and freely to rebuke them for any thing they doe amiss, for fear lest they should forsake him also, and still be seeking out to some other. And this is a most cursed condition by the verdict ofPs. 119. 176. Jer. 5. 6. 7. 17. Zach. 10. 11.—11. 10. 15.—13. 7. Mat. 9. 36. God himself, for People to be without a particular Pastour of their own; as sheep without a shepherd, wandring now here now there, exposed to Dogs and Wolves, Seducers and Deceivers.

5. Fifthly, It is a sinning against and crossing divine Providence, and carries much of impiety and unchristian Ingratitude in it: God's gracious promise to his People isJer. 3. 15. I will give you Pastours according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with Knowledge and Vnderstanding. Now when God shall be graciously pleased, to make good this promise to a People, and they (therewithall not contented) shall out of a vain Curiosity, light and needless affectation of Novelty, (for as the case in question stands, it can proceed from no other Cause) flock after Strangers and Usurpers, [Page] even to a forsaking, either in whole, or in part, their own faithfull Pastour, it is just with God to blast all such Ministry, and to make all their pretended preaching, become butJob. 15. 3. a reasoning with unprofitable talk, with Speeches wherewith they can doe no good: And to withdraw his blessing from such unthankfull Peoples attendance on it, so as thatMat. 13. 14. hearing they shall hear and not understand, and seeing they shall see and not perceive. And as God threatned the Jews in the like caseEzek. 14. 7.—9. so may he justly punish such ungratefull Male-Contents, with a certain and efficacious permission of them to be deceived, led into, and hardned in all kind of damnable Errours, by their pretended teachers, And so, what Gastius observes of the Anabaptists, may be made true of all such humourists,Gastius de Exord. Anabapt. p. 495. Quia à veritate avertunt aures, ideo Deus permittit illis doctores, non qui lingua medica sanarent ulcera ipsorum, sed qui pruritum ac scabiem affectuum ipsorum commode scalperent. Because they turn away their Ears from the truth, therefore God sends them teachers after their own Lusts, not such as should with wholsome tongues heal [Page] their sores, but with their nails scratch the itch of their lusts and affections. They may chance to gain some empty notions, [...] of science falsely 1 Tim. 6. 20. so called, but nothing of sanctified or saving knowledge.

And if a man look with an impartial Eye, on the practices of these persons, that transplant themselves out of the Garden of God's Church, into the waste of these unlawfull Assemblies, he may soon discern the visible tokens of divine displeasure upon them and their ways. Such barrenness of true Holiness and Christian-charity, such wilfull hardning in ways of Schism, pride & prophaneness (I speak within the compass of mine own sad observation and experience, not with any desire to blazon the Crimes of any, but to declare my heart-breaking sorrow for them) as if that curse pronounced by our Blessed Saviour against the fruitless Figtree in the Gospel, were executed on them,Mat. 21. 19. Let no good fruit grow on thee hencesorth for ever. Their faith seems to be mere faction; all their Religion but a professed disobedience to their Superiours, and a studied opposition to the truth of that [Page] which (through the Mercy of God) is established in our Church: their holiness, to be always finding of faults: and, stulto zelo pleni (as saith Melancthon) being filled with foolish zeal, they will like nothing but their own inventions. As soon as ever they fansie themselves to be converted, they can teach their King how to govern, and their Ministers how to preach. They can tell what Laws are fit for the Kingdom, and what Orders for the Church; yea, they are presently so illuminated, that they can see every blemish in both, when in themselves, their companions and families, they cannot see beams and intolerable Evils. Eagle-eyed abroad to spie faults in others, and look into things that concern them not, but as blind as Beetles at home. Like flies, Hist. animal. p. 384. they will fasten no where, but on the gall or sore (if there be any) in Church or State.

And whereas Christ in his Gospel hath commanded us, thatPhil. 2. 3. each should esteem other better than themselves; especially where nothing appears notorious in mens lives to the contrary; these men will be peremptory and Pope-like [Page] in their definitions, on all that are not of their way and practice, counting and calling them, Carnal, the men of the world, the wicked, &c. and engross to themselves the Names of Saints, the Godly, God's children and people, with exclusion of all else that are not of their practice and opinions, from having part or lot in that business or privilege. It is holiness enough for any, to be one of them.

The Character which the ancient Nonconformists give of the Separatists of their times, doth as exactly fit these of ours, as if it had been made of purpose for them.

‘It isGrave and modest Confutat. published by Mr. Rathband p. 61. 62. evident (say they) their zeal hath been like the rash and indiscreet zeal spoken of and reproved in the Sons of Zebedeus. And savoureth altogether of Uncharitableness and not of Love: for as all they that have once declined to that Schism, are found to be exceeding proud and disdainfull towards all that are contrary minded; yea even such as (before they were infected with that Leaven) were patterns of all Love, Modesty and Humility unto others; [Page] so will they not acknowledge nor reverence any of the most excellent graces that God hath given to any of his Servants amongst us, nor so much respect them as Papists will do. No, they profess greater detestation and despite to the most godly and most sincere men amongst us, than they do to such as are most notorious in profaneness and malice to the truth.’ And for shameless lying, spitefull railing, and scurrilous and Ruffian-like profaneness which they observe and describe at large in them, I have not found that these come any whit short, but rather (I fear) overpass the deeds of their Predecessours. So that I find that note of St. Augustine to be most true, which he observes out of the ParableLuc. 10. 30. concerning the man that fell among Thieves. 'Tis said of him that he went down from Ierusalem to Iericho. Ierusalem was the Church of God, thePs. 87. 1, 2, 3, Ps. 128. 5. holy City. There was the Temple, and publick place of the worship of the God of Israel. Iericho, a type of the world, unkind toJosh. 2. God's spies, as the world is to his Ministers; where God had no publick worship at all. Betwixt it and [Page] Ierusalem, there was a Desart, infamous for frequent Robberies and Murthers there committed: in which respect it was called ADOMIM, for the store of Bloud there shed. There was King Zedekiah taken2 King. 25. 5. by the Army of the Chaldeans, when he fled from Ierusalem. And thither the man bended his course. Whereupon St. Augustine notes, si non descendisset, in latrones non incidisset, had he not gone down from God and his Church, he had not faln into the hands of Thieves: so long as he had kept himself in God's way, he would have kept him from all harm and danger: But if he will goe from the Chruch, let him go whither else he please, God will give him over into the hands of Thieves, who shall strip him, wound him, and leave him half dead. Our Church-forsakers in these days have sped no better than that man did then, but since they left out Ierusalem, the place of God's publick worship, they have faln into the hands of Thieves, that great and old Cheater, the Devil and his Instruments, the Seducers of our times, who craftily lye in wait to deceive: And these have stript them of their Raiment, [Page] all that external appearance of Peace, Charity, Modesty and Humility, that formerly they seemed to be clothed withall, and have not left them so much as one ragg remaining to hide their Nakedness: wounded them in their minds and judgments with errours and falshoods; in their Consciences with Superstition and vain devotion; in their affections with utter aversness and crosness to all that is orderly and imposed by Authority; insomuch that they are left half dead; some life remains in them; to any thing that is evil and forbidden, they are quick and active, but to any thing that is truly good and enjoined, as dead as a stock:Jer. 4. 22. wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. Such is God's Justice and Severity on those that leave Ierusalem for Iericho.

In a word; if all of this sort of People throughout the Nation, be as those with whom I have to doe, (and I know there is the same corruption in the Natures of all, though there may not be the same eruption in all) God and Godliness have not greater enemies, nor the Devil greater instruments to advance his Kingdom, in the introduction of [Page] Atheism and Prophaneness; than themselves. God's publick worship and worshippers are matter of their loathing and scorn, and if ever any of them afford their presence to any part of it, it is of purpose either to quarrel at or deride it. And as he whom they serve goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour, so do they make it their business to beget prejudice in the hearts of all with whom they converse, against their own Ministers and Ministry, and to make Proselytes to themselves and their party, of the worst and easiest sort of People. The pretext of Piety and Conscience is both the Veil wherewith they hide their unparallelled Pride, Malice and Hypocrisie; and their Bait wherewith they catch simple Souls in their Net.Ezra 4. 1, 2. As at the building of the Temple under Zerubbabel, the adversaries making shew of helping forward the work by setting their hands to it, pretending they sought the same God the Jews did, proved themselves to be the greatest Enemies to God's People, and hinderers of the building by their coloured Friendship; so I know not any whose courses are [Page] more to the disturbance of the peac [...], and prejudice to the inlargement of the Church, and furtherance of Religion, than these men that would be noted for a Form of Godliness, but indeed deny the Power of it.

I heartily wish, that in their lives they would henceforth stoutly consute this Character I have given of them, which yet comes far short of what by wofull experience I have found in them: And when I see it done, I shall as gladly retract what I have written, as with sorrow of heart I have uttered it. In the mean time I return from what I have digressed.

If a greater excellency of gifts and parts in one Minister above another, be pretended, as a cause of their wandring; they forget what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, when there grew Schisms and Divisions amongst them, upon the account of the diversity of gifts which they observed in their Teachers. 1 Cor. 1. 12. I am of Paul (saith one) his matter is powerfull, his Doctrine sound, his Method plain. I am of Apolla (saith another) he is an Eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures, him I prefer. I am [Page]of Cephas (saith a third) his preaching I most affect. I am of Christ (saith a fourth) I care for none of all the former, they are but men, I will therefore have my dependance wholly on Christ, with neglect of the instrument. But what saith St. Paul to all this?V. 13. Is Christ divided? Can he be the head of such divers and disagreeing bodies, being himself but one? Is he divided from his Ministers, so as not to work by his Spirit, in the hearts of his People, with his word preached by one, as well as by another? Can ye allow of one self same Gospel, as Christ's, being uttered by one Man, and loath it being uttered by another? Will ye acknowledge Christ to be the chief Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls, the great Doctour and Prophet of his Church, and yet think that he will not make his word successfull, for the Salvation of those whom he hath ordained to Eternal life, by what Ministry soever he shall appoint? For who is 1 Cor. 3. 5. Paul, and who is Apollo? But Ministers by whom ye believe, even as the Lord gave to every man. They are but the Ministers of Christ, and such as do [...] nothing of themselves; [Page] but God so worketh by them as it pleaseth him. I Rom. 15. 18. will not dare (saith one of them) to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient by word or deed.

The Ministry is God's ordinance, and depends not upon the worthiness of him that is employed in it; but it hath its virtue, force and efficacy, from the blessing of God and inward operation of his Spirit, which worketh where, and in, and by, whom he will. Christ himself converted very few, in comparison of the many converted by his Apostles. Those Ministers whose parts are most Seraphical, cannot at their pleasure infuse grace into their hearers hearts.1 Cor. 3. 6. A Paul may plant, and an Apollos may water, but it is God that must give the increase. So as that neither the one nor the other, are any thing in themselves, without God's blessing, which the weakness of the instrument shall not hinder, as making most for the Honour of the supreme Agent to work by it.2 Cor. 4. 7. We have this treasure in Earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of Men. [Page] All God's Servants are not alike gifted; some have five talents, some ten, some but one; yet all may be his faithfull Servants, and may have their gifts given them to profit withall. And from any of their gifts, any may learn and profit, if the fault be not their own Who th [...]ives more in grace than they, who conscionably attend and depend on their own godly Pastours; Who go more empty away with the shell of Religion onely, when others have gotten the kernel, but such as love to wander and heap [...]p to themselves Teachers of their own chusing? The first sort find the p [...]eaching of God's word to prove wholsome food to them; which though it seem coiurse, and to be served in with great simplicity (like Daniel's dietDan. 1. 15. which was but Pulse and Water) yet because it is God's allowance, allways hath his blessing with it, and makes his Children so to thrive, that their Countenances do appear fairer, and they are fatter in flesh, than the other, who though they feed upon Varieties, and (perhaps) more curiously cook'd dishes, yet have Souls that are still thin and lean, and depart from their banquets [Page] without any great satisfaction, for want of that blessing, without which all manner of Varieties prove but wind and vanity. ForMat. 4. 4. Man lives not by bread onely, but by the word of blessing that comes forth of God's mouth. Neither say I this of mine own private opinion, but the brethren of the Non-conformity say the same. He that keepeth in God's order, under a meaner honest Minister, is like to be a more humble thriving Christian, than he, that breaks that order under pretence of Edification. SaithChristian Concord. p. 36. Mr. Baxter.

The ancient and godly Fathers of the Church, taking into consideration this order, that God hath established amongst his People, have both in their publick Councils, and private writings, always disallowed and forbidden the liberty that People are apt to take of their own heads to wander from their own Pastours, to hear Strangers. In the third Council of Carthage (where Saint Augustine himself was present) there was this decree made. Placuit Concil. 3. Carthag. l. 10. ut a nullo Episcopo usurpentur plebes alienae, nec aliquis Episcoporum supergrediatur in Dioecesi suum Collegam. Be it ordained [Page] that no Bishop usurp, or have any thing to doe with another's People, or enter into the Diocese of his Compartner in office, to meddle or make there. And this Canon extends its obligation to Ministers of inferiour order, in reference to each others Congregations, as well as to Bishops in relation to their Dioceses. ForAquin supple. 3. par. 9. 8. A. 4. Sicut Episcopus se habet ad Dioecesim suam, sic sacerdos ad suam parochaim, saith Aquinas. As it is with a Bishop, with respect to his Diocese, so 'tis with a Minister in respect of his Parish. Sine spe sunt (saithCyprian. L. 1. Epist. 6. that holy Martyr St. Cyprian) & perditionem maximam de indignatione Dei acquirunt, qui schisma faciunt, & relicto Episcopo, alium sibi foris Pseudoepiscopum constituunt. They are without hope, and procure to themselves the greatest destruction through the just indignation of God, who make Schisms in the Church, and leaving their own Bishop, appoint and set up another, a false Bishop to themselves. AgainIbid. L. 1. Epist. 3. singulis pastoribus portio gregis est ascripta, quam reger quisque ac gubernet, rationem sui actus domino reddat. To every Pastour there is a portion of God's People committed, [Page] which he ought to Rule and Govern, as one that must give an account to God for them. And saith the same holy man farther, Oportet eos quibus praesumus, non circumcursare, nec Episcoporum concordiam cohaerentem sua subdola & fallaci temeritate collidere. It behoves those over whom God hath set us, not to run about hither & thither, nor by their false and crafty temerity, to break the Concord and good Agreement that ought to be amongst Ministers.

In the Canon-law it is ordainedInjure Canon. L. 3. decret. Greg. Tit. 29. de paroeciis. Vt dominicis & festis diebus presbyteri, antequam Sacra celebrent, plebem interrogent, si alterius parochianus sit in ecclesia, qui proprio contempto presbytero, ibi velit Sacris interesse; si inveniatur, statim ab ecclesia abjiciant. That on Festival and Lord's days, the Ministers, before they beg in Divine Service, shall ask the people, if there be any Person of another Parish in the Church, who neglecting his own Pastour, desires to be present at divine Worship there; and if any such be found, they shall forthwith thurst him out of the Church. And in another pleea [Page] it is thus decreed.L. 5. Tit. 38. de paenitentiis & remissis. Omnis & quilibet confiteatur proprio Sacerdoti: siquis autem alieno Sacerdoti voluerit justa de causa coufiteri peccata, licentiam prius postulet & obtineat a proprio Sacerdote cum aliter ipse illum non possit absolvere vel ligare. Let every man confess his faults to his own Minister: but if any upon just cause desire to confess to another Minister, let him first ask and obtain Licence so to doe, from his own Minister, seeing otherwise no other can absolve or bind him.

Of the same judgment in this case, have the reverend Brethren of the Presbyterian perswasion declared themselves to be; not onely in their Sermons to their people (which I have sometimes heard) but I have seen an Act, and can produce it, of the assembly of Scotland, Entitled, An act against such as withdraw themselves from the publick worship in their own Congregation. Wherein the said Assembly in the zeal of God ‘For preserving order, unity and peace in the Kirk, for maintaining that respect which is due to the ordinances and Ministers of Iesus Christ, for preventing Schisms, noysome [Page]errours, and all unlawfull practices, which may follow on the peoples withdrawing themselves from their own Congregations, do ordiain every member in every Congregation to keep their own Paroch Kirk, to communicate there in the Word and Sacraments: and if any Person or Persons shall hereafter absent themselves from their own Congregations, except in urgent Cases, made known to and approved by the Presbytery, the Ministers of these Congregations whereto they resort, shall both in publick by Preaching, and in private by admonition, shew their dislike of their withdrawing from their own Minister, that in so doing they may witness to all that hear them their due care to strengthen the hands of their fellow Labourers in the work of the Lord, and their detestation of any thing that may tend to Separation, or any of the above mentioned Evils: hereby their own flock will be confirmed in their stedfastness, and the unstable Spirits of others will be rectified. Like as the Minister of that Congregation from which they do withdraw shall labour first by private admonition to [Page] reclaim them; and if any after private admonition given by their own Pastour do not amend, in that case the Pastour shall delate the aforesaid Persons to the Session, who shall cite and censure them as Contemners of the comely order of the Kirk. And if the matter be not taken order with there, it is to be brought to the Presbytery. For better observing whereof, the Presbyteries at the several visitations of their Kirks, and provincial Assemblies, in their censure of the several Presbyteries shall enquire hereanent. Which enquiry and report shall be registrate in the provincial Books, that their deligence may be seen in the General Assembly.’

The contrary course here amongst us of this age, hath been taken notice of by godly Christians beyond the Seas, as our great fault, and contrary to the practice and custome of the reformed Churches of God abroad. Honorius Reggius, a learned man, hath taken the pains to gather together out of Mr. Edwards his Gangrene, and other Authours, no less than 180 errours practised in England, since the year of our Lord 1640. [Page] And hath divulged them to the whole World, to the great shame of our nation, and scandal to our Religion; whereof this is the 125th errourHonor. Reg. de statu Eccles. in Anglia. p. 95. Partem Libertatis Christianae esse, non audire proprium Ministrum; sed ubi libeat, & a quo plus Commodi speretur. That it is a part of Christian liberty, for people not to hear their own Ministers, but to attend that Ministry which they like best, and from whom they hope to receive the most profit.

I never heard or read that this disorderly practice was tolerated or allowed in the Church of God in any part of Christendom, but once, and that was by virtue of a Licence and privilege granted by certain Popes to the Mendicant Fryers to intermeddle in matters of Parish Churches,Ex scriptis Godfri. de fontantis. as to hear Confessions, to preach and teach, with power thereunto annexed to gather the benevolence of the people for their labour. Which occasioned such a contention in France between the Prelates and the Fryers there, An. Dom. 1354, that the Prelates of France convening and Assembling together in the City of Paris, caused by the Bedles to be called together all the [Page] Students, Masters, and Bachelours of every Faculty, with the chief Heads of all the Religious houses, and Fryers in the University of Paris; who being all congregated together in the Bishop of Paris his house, where there were present 4 Archbishops, 20 Bishops; and all the rest of the Bishops throughout the whole Kingdom of France, except those who were necessarily absent, with full consent did send in under their hand-writing, a complaint against the insolency & Presumption of the Fryers. The Bishop ofEpiscopus Byturisensis. Byters Preaching in that Assembly on that Text of St. Paul, Eph. 3. 18. ut sciatis quae [...]it longitudo, latitudo, altitudo & profunditas charitatis, took occasion to shew, ‘That by the vigour of true charity every man ought to hold himself content with that which was his own, and not to intermeddle or busie himself farther than to him appertained or belonged to his Office. For there (saith he) all order Ecclesiastical is dissolved, whereas men not containing themselves in their own precincts, presume in other mens charges where they have nothing to doe. But this Charity (saith he) now-adays waxeth [Page] cold, and all Ecclesiastical order is confounded, and utterly out of order. For many there be now-adays which presume to thrust in themselves where they have nothing to doe, so that now the Church may seem a Monster. For as in a natural body appeareth a Monster, when one Member doeth the office of another; so in the spiritual body, which is the Church, it may be thought like-wise.’

Against the same evil and ungodly practice of the Fryers in our Land and Nation, at the same time, did that famous, godly and learned, Richard Armachanus Archbishop and Primate of Ireland, inveigh in 7 or 8 Sermons preach'd on purpose in London: For which being cited by the Fryers before Pope Innocent the Sixth, to appear: So he did; and before the face of the Pope valiantly defended both in word and writing, that it was better for the parishioners to leave the Fryers, and to resort to their own Pastours, for that the ordinary Pastour is properly appointed of God unto that Ministry which he exerciseth amongst them, whereas the Fryers were but onely permitted of man [Page] thereunto: and therein he stood constant unto the Death. For these are the words of Iohn Wickliff (as they are quoted byAct. mon. T. 1. p. 533. Mr. Fox) Ab Anglorum Episcopis conductus Armachanus novem in Avione conclusiones coram Innocentio 6, & suorum Cardinalium coetu, contra fratrum mendicitatem audacter publicavit, veiboque ac scriptis ad mortem usque defendit.

Now if this be the order which God hath established in his Church, That People should be divided into flocks, that every flock should have their own Pastour, and that they should depend upon him; then he can by no means endure to see a breach of that order in his service, that he hath set. How much it hath displeased him, appears in that famous instance in 1 Chron. 15. 13. Because they sought him not according to the right order, therefore God made a breach upon them. And what that breach was both of order on the Peoples part, and of punishment on God's part, may be seen, Cap. 13. 9, 10. Vzzah, out of a very good intention put forth his hand to stay the Ark when it was in danger of falling, and therefore was smitten [Page] with sudden death; according to the just threatning of God, pronounced before. Num. 4. 15. They shall not touch any holy thing lest they dye. God will be worshipped and served, not onely in his own ordinances, but in his own order also. There are many duties,Arnob. Cont. Serapion. quae cum bona sint opera, perniciem pariunt, cum non eo ordine quo sunt constituta peragantur; which though they be good works, yet the doers of them may be damned, because they doe them not in that order they should. Upon this account Mart. Luther sharply reprehended those of Wittenberge, who in his absence had abrogated the private Mass and Idols; had celebrated the Lord's Supper under both kinds; had taken away auricular Confession, superstitious differences of meats, invocation of Saints, and many other Popish fopperies, and intolerable abuses in the Church;Melchior Adam: in vi [...]. Luth. p. 123. non quod impie fecissent, sed quod non ordine. Not but that the work was good in it self, but it was ill done, because not done in a right order; and therefore it was justly culpable and blameable in them. Circumstances of actions often marr the substance. In divine Worship our care [Page] must not onely be to the matter of the service, that it be good, but to the circumstances also wherewith it is attended, that they be warrantable by God's word, or at least, not contrary thereunto. God requires that even the Lev. 1. 7. 8. wood, and every part of the sacri [...]ce offered to him, beGen. 22. 9. in order. And doth God look for order among sticks? And doth he not much more require order to be kept in the use of those means, by which he hath appointed to bring Souls to Heaven?

What gross absurdities would unavoidably follow, from such a manifest breach of order in the Church? If one Minister may intrude into another's Parish and Congregation, and there set up a course of private house-preaching, and other ministerial Acts; why then may not the Bishop of one Diocess thrust himself into the Diocess of another, and there take upon him to ordain Presbyters, and exercise Episcopal jurisdiction, whether the Diocesan will or no? Which as it is contrary to all good Laws and Order, so hath been always forbidden and condemned by the Judgment of the Fathers of the Church assembled in [Page] Council. Not onely in that of Carthage, before mentioned; but also in a Council at Antioch it was decreedConcil. Antioch. Can. 13. & 22. non licere uni Episcopo in Dioecesi alterius Episcopale officium exercere. And in the 36th Canon of those which goe under the Name of the Apostles, it was ordained; Episcopum non audere extra terminos proprios ordinationes facere, in civitatibus & villis quae illi nullo jure subjectae sunt. Si vero convictus fuerit, &c. That no Bishop shall dare to confer orders out of his own Diocess, in any City or Village, which by no Law or Right is in subjection to him; and if he shall be convicted so to doe, without the consent or leave of those to whom those Cities or Towns do belong, he shall be deposed, and those that are ordained by him.

So likewise in Civil affairs, why then may not a Judge who is Commissionated for the Northern Circuit, thrust himself into the place and office of him that is appointed for the Western, sit on the bench, judge causes, and condemn Malefactours in alieno foro? Which were the way to overthrow all Justice; according to that known Axiome in the Law, Sententia a Iudice non SVO lata, [Page]nulla est ipso jure. And, in Military matters, why then may not the Colonel of one Regiment (or a Reformado Officer that hath lost his Company and hath none left to command) intrude himself into another Regiment, and there take upon him to muster the Souldiers, and lead a party? Which is the onely way to open a Flood-gate to all Confusion and disorder that is imaginable, to the Destruction of Magistracy, Ministry, Judges, Armies, and all things.

Now order being a great part of God's Law, he that wilfully breaks good order, makes himself guilty of the breach of the whole Law; and so makes void his Plea for an ordinance of God which may be instrumental to beget faith or grace in the Souls of those that attend unto it.

The Queen of Sheba when she had seen the good order of the Servants that ministred to King Solomon, was so astonished with admiration, that1 King. 10. 4. 5. there was no spirit left in her. If order in a Family doth so draw the Eyes and Minds of the Beholders to it, how much more amiable is order in the Church, which1 Tim. 3. 15. is the house of the Living God, [Page] where a greater than Solomon is always present, and where the Glory of the Lord appears in the way and means of the Salvation of Souls?

ARGUMENT. III.

THAT cannot be the ordinance of God, as a means of grace, that hath no promise of God's blessing made or annexed to it. For though it be a Paul that plants, and an Apollo that waters 1 Cor. 3. 6. Psal. 127. 1, 2. yet it must be God that gives the blessing, or else all their labour will be to no purpose.

I deny not but that there may be a very good use made of the meetings of Christians together, otherwise than in the publick Congregation, when they are Lawfully and orderly regulated, without manifest breach of any Divine or humane precept, without intrenchment upon, or infringment of any Gospel-order or ordinance, and that they may so expect God's blessing on them.

Yet because Satan hath stretched his hellish Subtilty to the highest, in these [Page] last times (with too unhappy Success) to put easie and well-meaning people out of the sure and ordinary way of God's blessing, by disparaging the publick Church Assemblies, and advancing private, irregular, and disorderly meeting (where there is not that ground of expectation of Divine concurrence) into competition with yea prelation above them: therefore (makeing a little more than ordinary stay here) I shall endeavour to let the Reader fee how the Spirit of God in Scripture hath commended the publick Assemblies to us, by affixing more special promises of his presence with, and benediction of them, than on any other, though ordered in all things never so rightly: and how it hath recorded the faith of good men in their belief of these promises, testified in their esteeming, useing, and frequenting the publick ordinances of God accordingly.Ps. 87. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee, oh thou city of God.

To the ancient people of God, the Iews, the special promises of Divine presence were made in their Church Assemblies. Exod. 20. 24. In the places where I record [Page] my name, I will come unto thee and will bless thee.Exod. 25. 22.—29. 42. In the Tabernacle (saith God) I will meet thee and Commune with thee of all things. Which promises were always performed accordingly as may be seen in Lev. 9. 23. 24. N [...]mb. 1. 1. Numb. 7. 89. Thence it was that the Tabernacle of the Jewish Church, had the name of Exod. 30. 6. 40. 34. the Tabernacle of meeting, or the Tabernacle of the Congregation. To those that attended God there, his blessing was assured. Ps. 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou chusest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy Court, he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy Holy Temple.Ps. 84. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they shall ever be praising thee.Ps. 147. 13 He blesseth thy Children within thee, O Sion.Prov. 8. 34. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching dayly at my Gates, waiting at the posts of my doors; saith Christ the Wisedom of the Father. And that was the reason of David's so great love to the Church. Ps. 26. 8. Lord; I have loved the habitation of thine house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. And of his desire Ps. 27. 4. to remain in God's house all [Page] the days of his Life, that he might behold the beauty of the Lord. And Ps. 48. 9. [...] Cum silentio expectare. we have waited (for so the word may be read) for the loving kindness of the Lord in the midst of thy Temple.

There promises of God's special and extraordinary blessings, on the Church Assemblies of his People in former ages, were so generally known and believed of holy men in those times, that when any of them prayed for any spiritual grace or mercy in behalf of any other, they usually expressed it in this fromPsal. 134. 3. The Lord bless thee out of Sion. —133. 3. For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore. So again.—118. 26. We bless you out of the house of the Lord. They seem to be the words of the Priests▪ whose office it was, at the dismissing of the Congregation of God's People▪ toNum. 6. 24. bless them in his house. They being appointed of God there toDeut. 10. 8. bless in his name. Whose benedictions there pronounced, did not prove an empty sound of words in the air, but from the Temple at Ierusalem, where they were spoken, they mounted up to Heaven where they were heard and answered Car. 30. 27. For the Priests and Levits arose and [Page]blessed the People, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.

In which respect the publick worship of God, is calledPsal. 105. 4.—42. 2. his face and presence. Cain, for the Murther of his Brother, being debarred the benefit of God's publick worship, complainsGen. 4. 14. I shall be hid from thy face, i. e. from the face and presence of God in his Church: as appears afterward.ver. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of God, and dwelt in the Land of Nod: i. e. from the place of God's publick worship, which in all likelyhood, was celebrated by Adam the Father,Ainsworth in Loc. who being a Prophet, had taught his Children how to sacrifice, and to serve the Lord.

Thither God's People resorted in multitudes: and David professeth that nothing in all his Life hapned to him more pleasant, than to see such flocking to God's house; and that he could goe thither with them: as nothing aggravated his misery more in his persecution by Saul, or by his Son Absolom's rebellion (for 'tis uncertain whether of the two was the occasion of Psal. 42.) than that he could not have the happiness [Page] that formerly he enjoyed of being one of the first and forwardest in going thither.Psal. 42. 4. When I remember these things (saith he) I pour out my Soul in me. And why? because there he enjoyed God in a more special manner than he could elsewher: thither he came,ver. 2. and appeared before the face of God. What longings he shewed for God's publick worship at another time, when By Saul's persecution he was forced from the Temple at Ierusalem, into the Wilderness of Iudah, and wandered in the desart, may be seen in Psal. 63. Though it was grievous to him to fall from that dignity and favour he formerly had, and wherein he flourished in Saul's court: though it was hard for him to lose all his goods, to be alienated from all his friends, to be forced to converse among strangers and infidels, and to expose his life to all sorts of hardships and hazards, yet all these he counted small and Light matters, in comparison of this one great evil, that he was forced to be absent from Church, and to abide there, where there was no publick Ministry or worship of God. And therefore [Page] making no mention at all of any of those other evils, he makes this his onely request, that he might be restored again, ut sacris publicis, Mollerg. inloc. & Coetui piorum interesse possit, that he might have the liberty of God's house again. Though he might, and doubtless did, converse with God in the Desart, pouring out his Prayers to him, which was the onely support he had in his exile; And though no doubt those godly friends he had left about him (for he had such in whose society he might take great comfort in his banishment, he had both1 Sam. 22. 5. a Prophet, and—23. 9. a Priest) did join with him in the private service of God, yet this contented him not, he longs still for the publick worship, bewails greatly the want of it, hisPs. 84. 1-5. speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of it, and the happiness of such as had free access to it. He know he could no where perform divine worship, with so free and glad an heart, with so much comfort and assurance of so large a blessing, as in that place, where the Ministry was publick, and where the Multitude of God's people did serve and worship him. There he vows his service,Ps. 35. 18. I will give thee [Page]thanks in the gr [...]at Congregation, I will praise thee among much people.Ps. 111. 1.I will praise thee with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright, and in the Congregation. And calls upon others to doe the likePs. 29. 1, 2. Give the Lord the glory due to his Name, worship him in the beauty of holiness. It was no small blessing promised to good King Hezekiah, that his recovery from his sickness should be so soon effected, that he should not be detained from going to Church, but2 King. 20. 5. the third day he should be able to go up to the house of the Lord. The hearing whereof was equal comfort to him, with the news of the enlargement of the lease of his life. It hath even been a sad affliction to the Souls of God's people, to see the Church-assemblies neglected, and the Congregations more empty than they were wont to be, and to be debarred the liberty of frequenting them, as being thereby deprived of the most lively representation of Heaven on Earth, to the obscuring much of God's Glory, which is seen and spoken of in the Sanctuary, and the seducing them from the mutual and comfortable Fellowship one of another in his ordinances, [Page] and from much refreshing and help they had by these means.Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them which are sorrowfull for the solemn Assemblies, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it is a burthen. 'Tis the Character the Holy Ghost makes of a true Child and Member of the Church, to be thus affected. When ever God's people did shew a more then ordinary desire to prevail in prayer, they have shewed more than ordinary care that the Assemblies might be as publick, and as full, as could be, as 'tis noted by Mr Hild. on Jo. 4. p. 118. a worthy Divine of Ours.Joel. 2. 15. Blow the Trumpet in Sion, sanctifie a Fast, call a solemn Assembly, gather the People, assemble the Children, &c. In the Fast which King Iehosaphat proclaimed, it is said.2 Chron. 20. 13. All Judah stood before the Lord, with their Little ones, their Wives and their Children. And it was in the publick place of God's worship,V. 5. the house of the Lord that they met. The People of Israel went up to the House of the Lord to ask counsel concerning their War with Benjamin. And this they did more than once, and till they did so, they prevailed not. The like course took king Hezekiah at his keeping the [Page] Passover to make the Congregation in the house of the Lord (the Temple at Ierusalem) as great as he could.2 Cron. 30. 1. Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Iudah, and wrote Letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Ierusalem, and keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel. And as there they have prevailed with God in Prayer, more than they could any where else; so there God hath taught them more than they could learn any where else.Ps. 73. 16. When I sought to know this (viz. the Doctrine of God's providence and wisedom in the just and righteous management of the affairs of the world) it was too painfull for me (saith David) till I went into the Sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. When all means else did fail, the publick Ministry, (through God's blessing on it) became effectual to bring him to understanding in this Mystery. Therefore he concludes,Ps. 77. 13. thy way, O God, is in the Sanctuary.

And as in Gospel-times we have the like promises of God's special presence in the publick Congregations of his People (Mat. 28. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 1. 13.) [Page] so it was professed long before, that there the Godly should exhort and stir up one another, to seek the true Knowledge of God and his ways, Es. 2. 3. Mic. 4. 2. which was fulfilled accordingly, both in the Disciples of Christ after his Ascension,Luc. 24. 53. who continually were in the Temple; And also in the converted Jews and Gentiles, whoAct. 2. 46.—5-42.—19. 8. continued daily in the Temple with one accord. So did the Christians in the primitive times, in their Churches their Ministers did preachAct. 19. 8.—5. 21. 25. as frequently as the persecution of those times would permit. And there the People assembled themselves together to hear. They did not divide themsleves, some of the Congregation going one way, and some another, but1 Cor. 11. 20. they came together in one place. And that place was the Church. 1 Cor. 11. 18.—14. 30. Jam. 2. 2. If not the publick place of worship, so called, (as most think,) yet the place where (by reason of the hot persecution of those times) the whole Church did, or could meet together. And St. Hierome gives this commendations of the Faith of the primitive Christians at Rome. Hierom. ut citatur a Centur. Magdeburg. cent. 4. c. 6. p. 272. Vbi alibi tanto studio & frequentia ad Ecclesias[Page]concurritur? ubi sic ad similitudinem Coelestis tonitrui Amen reboat; & vacua Idolorum templa quatiuntur? non quod aliam habeant Romani fidem; nisi hanc quam omnes Christi Ecclesiae; sed quod devotio in iis major sit, & simplicitas ad credendum. In what part of the World else is there such studious flocking and resort to Christian Churches, as here? Where else doth the Amen of the Congregation, sound so loud, as that it seems to equalize a Clap of Thunder in the Air, insomuch that the Idol-temples being left empty, are made to tremble therewith? Not that the Romans had any other Faith, than the other Churches of Christ, but they had more devotion and singleness of heart in believing. To this also agrees the Testimony of St. Augustine, Aug. L. 3. de. Doct. Christi. primi credentes in templo veteri Domino servierint; the first and new Christians did serve God in the old Temple.

It will be said by some; to what purpose is all this that hath been alledged out of the old Testament, touching God's promises to, or benediction of the Church-assemblies of the Iews? Their Tabernacle and Temple were holy places [Page] and the sanctification of them was Levitical, and therefore now abolished, and not to be applied to our Churches.

This passeth with some for an objection that hath force enough in the bowels of it to overthrow and demolish the whole fabrick of this my third Argument.

But if we carefully look into the inside of it, and not tamely deliver up our hold, we shall find no such formidable matter in it. For, as for the City of Ierusalem, the Tabernacle and Temple, they were, in themselves, places no more holy or religious than any other places in the Land of Canaan were, or than any other places now in England are: But they were therefore holy, Partly because they had many things in them and their worship, that were typical and ceremonial, which are now abolished. The Temple and Tebernacle were types of the body and humane Nature of Christ. Ioh. 2. 19. 21. Heb. 8. 2. Heb. 9. 11. And this (I grant) might be one reason that moved David in his banishment, so earnestly to desire his return to the Temple. Ps. 42. 3. And in the beginning of the New Testament, [Page] we reade of certain holy and devout persons, that when they prayed,Luc. 2. 37.—18. 10. they went up to the Temple to perform their devotion. And those that could not repair to Ierusalem, they might and did pray elsewhere, but it wasDan. 6. 10. with their faces towards the Temple. And Partly, because God placed a memorialExod. 20. 24. of his Name there: or caused his Name to be remembred there. i. e. did set apart those places for his publick worship and service, as monuments of him. For as Absolom erected a Pillar2 Sam. 18. 18. to keep his Name in remembrance, so did God chuse out those places to put his Name there. And therefore they were called Deut. 12. 5. his habitation. In this respect our Churches now are every whit as holy as Ierusalem, the Tabernacle, or Temple there was, being places lawfully set apart for God's publick worship, to have his Name remembred and placed there. And so the Tabernacle and Temple had this in them and their worship, that was moral, and consequently of equal concernment to us now, as to the Jews then, that publick places ought to be assigned for God's publick worship, every way fitting and convenient for [Page] Ecclesiastical conventions, where all the Congregation ought to meet, as in a place where God will vouchsafe to be more graciously present in his worship, than elsewhere, according to all those his gracious promises.

And touching the holiness of the Tabernacle and Temple, that is excepted against in the objection, as being not to the present purpose: Let the answer of that learned and pious Gent. Sir Henry Spelman in his bookPag. 14. 15. 16. de non temerandis Ecclesiis, be heard and well considered, and the reader will easily find what hath been alledged out of the Old Testament maketh much for my present purpose: his words are these,

The Temple was sanctified unto three functions, which also had three several places assigned to them. The first, belonging to the divine presence, and had the custody of the holiest types thereof; the Oracle, the Ark, the Mercy-Seat, &c. And was therefore called Sanctum Sanctornm, the Holiest of all. The second was for ceremonial Worship and Atonement: viz. by Sacrifices, Oblations, and other Levitical Rites; the place thereof [Page] being the Sanctuary, (wherein were the holy Vessels) and the Court of Priest, wherein the Altar of burnt Sacrifice did stand: The third was for simple Worship, Prayer and Doctrine (without any pomp or ceremony.) And the place of this was the outward (Court called [...] Chron. 4. 9.—6. 12. Atrium populi, andAct. 3. 11. Solomon's Porch) which had therefore in it, no ceremonial implement at all.

The two first of these functions, with the places belonging to them, were indeed particularly appropriated to the Law: for they were Ceremonial, Mystical, Secret, Levitical, Iudaical and Temporal. Ceremonial, as celebrated with much worldly pomp. Mystical, as figuring some spiritual things. Secret, as either performed behind the veil or curtain, or else sequestred and remote from the People. Levitical, as committed onely to the administration of that tribe. Iudaical, as ordained onely for the salvation of that people. And Temporal, as instituted onely for a season, and not to continue. But the sanctification of the third function, and the [Page] place thereunto appointed, was directly contrary to all the points alledged to the former two. First it was for simple Worship, Prayer and Doctrine, which were there to be performed and delivered in all sincerity, without any Ceremony or ceremonial Implement used therein. Secondly, there was no matter of Mystery therein to be seen; but whatsoever was Mystical in the Law or the Prophets, was there expounded. Thirdly, nothing was there hidden or secret from the People, but acted wholly without the veil and publickly for every man. Fourthly it was not appropriated to the Levites, but common alike to all the tribes. Fifthly, not ordained for the Iews particularly, but for all Nations in general. And lastly, not to endure for a time (as those other two of the Law) but to continue for ever, even after the Gentiles were called, as well as the Jews; that is, during the time of the Gospel, as well as of the Law. Therefore, saith God, by Esaias the Prophet Es. 56. 7. my house shall be called an house of prayer to all Nations. He said not, an [Page] house of sacrifice to all Nations; for the sacrifice ended before the Calling of the Gentiles, and so they could have no part thereof. Nor an house of prayer for the Iews onely, for then had the Gentiles (when they were called) been likewise excluded: But an house of prayer to all Nations, i. e. Jews and [...]ntiles indifferently, which theref [...]e must have relation to the times of the Gospel: and consequently the sanctification of that house, and of that function, is also a sanctification of the Churches of the Gospel.

We reade not therefore that Christ reformed any thing in the other two functions of the Temple, for they were now as at an end. But because this third function was for ever to continue in his Church, therefore he purged it of that which prophaned it, restored it to the original sanctity; And that the future world (which was the time of the Gospel) might better observe it, than the precedent, and the time of the Law had done, he reporteth and confirmeth the decree, whereby it was [...]anctified, It is written (saith he) my house shall be [Page]called an house of prayer to all people. He saith, my house, excluding all other from having any property therein; for God will be joint-tenant with no man. And it shall be an house of prayer for all people, i. e. publick, for ever, and not private. The time also when our Saviour pronounced those words, is much to the purpose: for it was after he had turned out the Oxen and Doves, that is, the things for sacrifice. As though he thereby taught us, that when the sacrifical Function of the Temple was ended, yet the sanctification of it to be an house of prayer ever remained.

Thus far this learned Gentleman, whose words (because every one to whom this may come may not have that Book in readiness to peruse) for the readers satisfaction, I have faithfully transcribed. By which judicious and learned discourse it doth plainly appear, that the holiness of the Jews Tabernacle and Temple was not altogether Levitical, nor abolished, but of perpetual duration in Gospel-times, and that our Churches now are holy as theirs were then; the sanctification of theirs [Page] was the sanctification of ours; and therefore those promises of divine presence and blessing made to them in their Church-assemblies, do belong to us, as well as to them.

To such therefore as neglect the Church now, and say, they can serve God as well elsewhere, as there; I say, 'Tis true, as we are private Christians and single persons, so no doubt according as the exigence of our affairs require, we may any where, or at any time, doe God acceptable service. It was foretold that in Gospel-timesMal. 1. 11. In every place incense shall be offered to the Name of the Lord. And as St. Paul bids us, pray continually, so our Saviour, when you pray enter into your Closets. But as we are members of the visible Mystical body, which is the Church of Christ, so we are bound to constant attendance on the publick service of God, in his house. Though not altogether now in respect of the place, yet still in respect of the Congregation that do and ought to meet in that place, and the worship of God that is, and ought there to be publickly performed. And very much in regard of the place too;

[Page] 1. As it is a place freely given and surrendred up into the hands of God, the great Land-lord of the whole world, by the donation of the right owner, under God, of the Land, and Founder of the Edifice.

2. As it is hallowed and dedicated to the publick service of God in such a solemn manner, as hath been the custom and usage of God's people in all ages of the world, both of the Iews in the Old Testament, and of the Christians in the New, from the beginning, in the purest times untill now, at the time when it was delivered up into God's possession, and when the use whereunto it shall ever serve, is established.

3. As it is accepted and owned by God, being thus given and set apart for him; and he is pleased to take Livery and Seisin of it, as his house (which is as really true of our Churches at their Consecration, though not as visibly, as it was of1 King. 4. 10, 11. Solomon's Temple at its dedication.) for the performance of his publick worship and service, and intitles it himselfMat. 21 13. My house of prayer. And the Argument which our Saviour useth to prove his property in that house, is taken [Page] from the use for which it was appointed; which extends its force equally to our Churches now, as to the Temple at Ierusalem, seeing they are both set apart to the same purpose, even for publick prayer to, and worship of God.

4. As 'tis a place to which God hath by promise assured his own gracious and heavenly presence and blessing, and where he may be and is enjoyed, in a more special manner than elsewhere, and consequently where there is more profit and good to be received by the service of God done in the Congregation and assembling together of his people there, than in any other house whatsoever. And therefore though there is not that holiness affixed to places now since our Saviour's coming into the World, as there was before, yet our assembling together in the Church is as holy now as then, and better than elsewhere. And wheresoever the Scripture seems to take away all religious differences of places, as if no place were holier than another, (as in Mal. 1. 11. Ioh. 4. 21. 1 Tim. 2. 8.) It is true of inherent holiness, but not of relative. And this must be always remembred [Page] to prevent mistake) that the Holy Ghost doth no where compare private and profane places, with publick and consecrated, as if the worship we doe to him were as much to his Glory, or as good and profitable to our selves and others which we doe in those places, as that which we doe in the Church. But he compares publick places then, with publick now, and private with private; and his meaning is, that not onely at Ierusalem, and among the Jews God shall have an house for his publick worship, but in all Nations where he shall be pleased to bestow his Gospel. God will not be worshipped in the Temple at Ierusalem onely, nor shall his presence be tyed to that place more than to other such like houses of God elsewhere; but he will have houses, which shall be properly his own, and set apart for his publick worship and service amongst all Nations. It was a part of that heavy Yoke that was intolerable on the Necks of our Fathers, that they must take long and tedious journeys, to come from all Quarters of their Country to one place to worship; and that they did [Page] not dare, no not in case of absolute nenessity, to perform publick service in any other place; yea that their very private Devotions were to be performed eitherLuc. 2. 37. & 18. 10. in, orDan. 6. 10. toward that place: But now, besides our Closets for our private Devotions, we have Churches in our several Towns, Parishes and Villages, where we may be sure to have God present to hear, accept and bless us, if we can find honest and good hearts to resort to them. Every place hath God's presence, and therefore is, in it self, alike sanctified for his service; but every place is not alike separated from common and profane use, and dedicated and consecrated to God, nor owned and accepted by him; and therefore we have no reason to expect God's presence, or to meet with the like blessing in one place as in another. And therefore (saith that holy and ancient Synod at Gangra in Paphlagonia, under Constantine the Emperour)Concil. Gangrens. in subscriptione, habitum circa Ann. Domi [...]i. 314. Omnem locum aedificatum in nomine Dei honor amus, & Congregationem in Ecclesia factam ob utilitatem communem recipimus. We do honour every place built in the Name of God, and do reverence and receive [Page] the Congregation met in the Church for the Common advantage. Churches then are holy, and to be respected and frequented rather than other places, because of their holy Use, and for the holy Assemblies there made. And therefore that same Council decreed,Concil. Gangrens. c. 5. Si quis docet domum Dei contemptibilem esse, & Conventus qui in ea celebantur, Citatur etiam in decret. dist. 30. Can. 10. anathema sit. Cursed be he that shall teach, that the House of God may be slighted, or the Congregations that assemble therein. And in the next Canon, they think fit to ordain,Can. 6. Si quis extra Ecclesiam seorsum Conventus celebrrat, &c. Cursed be he that shall keep any Convention out of the Church. And the same Synod (as HistorySocrat. Hist-Eccles. L. 2. c. 43. tells us) condemned and deposed Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia, for perswading such as refrained the Church and publick Assemblies, to raise Conventicles and Brotherhood in their private Houses. ‘And in the Civil Law it is decreed, In collatione quinta Authenticorum. That the sacred Mystery or Mysteries be not done in private Houses, but be celebrated in publick places, lest thereby things be done contrary to the Catholick and Apostolick Faith; [Page] unless they call to the celebrating of the same such Clerks of whose Faith and Conformity there is no doubt made, or else that are deputed thereunto by the good will of the Bishop. If any thing be done to the contrary, the House wherein these things are done, shall be confiscated, and themselves shall be punished at the discretion of the Prince.’

'Tis true St. Paul commands us 1 Tim. 2. 8. Every where to lift up holy hands without wrath. But those hands cannot be pure that are profane; and they cannot have other than such, who contemn the Church. Hooker Eccles. polit. L. 5. Sect. 16. As therefore we exhort all men every where to worship God, even so for the performance of this service by the People of God assembled, we think not any place so good as the Church, nor any Exhortation so fit, as that of David, O worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness. But now (alas) we live to see those prophetique words, uttered by a Learned and judicious Gentleman above 60 years agoe,Sir Walter Rawleigh in his History of the World. Lib. 2. Cap. 5. Sect. 1. to be verified and fulfilled to the utmost. He discerning then the great increase and growth of Sectaries in this Realm said; That time [Page] would soon bring it to pass (if it were not resisted) that God would be turned out of Churches into Barns, and from thence again into Fields, and Mountains, and under Hedges: and the Office of the Ministry (robbed of all dignity and respect) be as contemptible as those places; all Order, Discipline and Church-government left to the newness of Opinion and Mens fancies; yea and soon after, as many kinds of Religions spring up, as there are Parish Churches within England, every contentious and ignorant Person cloathing his Fancy with the Spirit of God, and his Imagination with the Gift of Revelation.

By all which hath been said (wherein I hope the candid Reader will pardon my Prolixity in this plain Vindication of the langu [...]shing Reputation of Churchassemblies) it appears that the speciality of Divine promises are made to the publick Dispensation of God's ordinances, and that we may expect a greater Blessing upon them, in our Church-assemblies, than elsewhere.

But I know no promise of God at all, made to such Preaching and Meetings, [Page] as are in question. God hath not engaged himself for a Blessing to any People, waiting on him (as they count it) in a way out of his appointment, yea contrary to it. But as he hath forbidden to hear Intruders, Ier. 27. 14, 15. So he hath expresly said, there shall no Blessing at all accompany such a Ministry and such attendance on it. Let that place inJer. 23 32. Ieremiah be noted, I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this People at all, saith the Lord. Sive vera praedicent, sive falsa, SaithVines Sermon on 2 Pet. 2. 1. p. 9. a Presbyterian Divine: Whether they preach that which is true, or that which is false. The question is, not de facto, but de jure, not what they teach, but by what warrant. Thence it was, asTarnov. de. S. minist. c. 8. Tarnovius thinks, that our Saviour Christ rebuked the Devil, and commanded him silence not suffering him to speak, when he confessed and declared the most necessary and Soul-saving truth in the World, viz. Mark 1. 25. that Christ was the holy one of God, because he had no calling so to doe. The words of St. Paul are full to the same purpose.Rom. 10. 15. Quisquis in Ecclesia docet, non vocatus & missus à Christo, invadit alienam possessionem, fur est & latro; venit, in nomine suo, non Dei; Christi minister non est, verbum Christi non habet: imo ne quidem Ecclesiae dici minister debet, quem ipsa non vocavit; turbator est boni ordinis, causa confusionis, quae non à Deo est. Nic. Arnobd 9. in refutat. Cat. Racov. p. 724. How shall they believe on him, of whom they have not [Page]heard? And how shall they hear without a Preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? The Apostle speaks of such preaching and hearing as should beget Faith, and by which, Grace is ordinarily wrought and increased in the Soul, and upon which, People may expect God's Blessing. Now thus none can hear without a Preacher, neither can any thus preach, i. e. profitably to beget Faith, except he be sent. They cannot be succesfull in their Ministry without a Mission. They may talk, as Usurpers; but not preach, as God's Ambassadours. They may satisfie the Itch of the Ear, but they cannot be instrumental to work Grace in the heart. God will not concur with that Ministry he sends not. Our Saviour Christ Faith, Iohn 10. 8. All that ever came before me are Thieves and Robbers. Why, Moses and the Prophets, the Priests and Levites were before Christ. Were they all. Thieves and Robbers, and none of them true Pastours? The Emphasis lies in the word [came] which being rightly understood, makes it as true, that all that ever came, or shall come after Christ are Thieves and Robbers also, as [Page] well as those that came before him.Hierom. ad vers. Pelag. l. 2. St. Hierome's note upon the text makes it clear. Venerunt inquit Christus, non qui missi sunt, de quibus Propheta, veniebant a se & ego non mittebam eos. Our Saviour doth not say that all that were sent before him, were Thieves and Robbers, but all that came before me. Plainly shewing, that whosoever shall come amongst the People of God his Church, to perform the Office of the Ministry, of his own accord, without a lawfull Sending, is a Thief and a Robber, and none of Christ's true Sheep will, or ought to hear him.

But it will be said,Obj. the Preaching and Ministry of such Persons as are in question, is the Preaching and Ministry of Persons sent; for they are Persons in holy Orders, and Ministers ordained.

1. I deny not,Answ. 1. but that some of such Persons as are in question, may be lawfully ordained Ministers (all are not, to my knowledge) yet it followeth not presently from thence, that they are sent to preach, or to perform Acts of the Ministry. For it may so be in a true setled and constituted Church, that for a lawfull Cause, and [Page] by lawfull Authority, a Person ordained may be deposed, and justly suspended from performing any ministerial Acts; as Abiathar in the Church of the Jews was by King Solomon. Otherwise, Ministers in their Office were Lawless, and exempt from all legal and just Restraint and Censure. And although a Person in holy Orders cannot have his Ordination ordinarily made void by any, quoad internam potestatem, in regard of the inward Power of Order that is conferred on him in his Ordination, so as upon his Restauration he need be re-ordained; yet it may be made void quoad externam executionem, in regard of the outward Execution of that Power in the Church, either in publick or private, either for a set-time or season, or else during his Life. It is in the Power of the Church and Governours thereof, to suspend a Minister from the Execution of his Office, though it be not in their Power to rase out that Characterem insculptum, that intrinsical Authority received in his Ordination. And a Person so lawfully suspended by Authority, as is said, may he in such a case execute the Office [Page] of the Ministry, or may he not? If so, then Acts of lawfull Authority in the Church signifie nothing; Governours and Government, and Churchdiscipline is a mere empty Name, and but a Cypher. Then might Abiathar have executed the High-priest's Office, Notwithstanding King Solomon's Exauctoration of him. And so the Ordinance of God in the Church, to which all stand bound in Conscience, to beRom. 13. 5. in subjection, will be made void and of none effect. If not, then such Ministers as notwithstanding their legal Restraint, or suspension from Execution of their Office, do yet constantly execute the same, by preaching and other ministerial Duties, otherwise than by the Law they are allowed, cannot be said to be sent of God, since they are inhibited by God's Vicegerents on Earth; and consequently have not that sending, which the word of God saith is necessary to those, whose preaching is to be instrumental to work Faith, and other saving Graces in the Hearts of God's People.

But what calling or sending can such a Minister as is in question,Ans. 2. pretend to, [Page] for his setting up a Course of Housepreaching, or other ministerial Acts, in the place or Parish, where there is a publick constant preaching Minister established by Law? If he hath any, it must be either extraordinary, or ordinary, for there is not a third way of calling or sending,

Extradordinary calling or sending is that, which is done by God himself immediately, without the Concurrence or Ministry of any humane Help or Authority. Gal. 1. 1. Not of man, nor by man. Either,

1. By divine Vision or Revelation: and thus St. Paul was called and sent to preach the Gospel at Macedonia Act. 16. 9, 10. A Vision appeared to Paul in the Night, saying, come over into Macedonia and help us; And after he had seen the Vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly, gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel unto them.

2. By secret impulse on mens spirits for this work, wrought by the extraordinary Power of God in the Primitive times. Such wasAct. 8. 5. Philip the Deacon's going to the City of Samariah, and [Page] preaching the Gospel unto them, after the dispersing the Church at Ierusalem. Such also was the Calling of those who at the same dispersion, first preached Christ at Phoenicia and Cyprus Act. 11. 19. 20. and the Hand of God was with them, though otherwise they were but private Persons.

Now I think no wise men will pretend to these extraordinary Callings or Sendings in these days. It is sufficient to say they are extraordinary, and such as but in like Cases cannot be expected, Extraordinary onely take place where ordinary are not to be had. The internal and extraordinary sending is secret and invisible, and therefore it is not sufficient for a man to say that he is sent of God, seeing every Heretick may say the same;2 Joh. 7. but he ought to prove his extraordinary and invisible Calling by the working of someExod. 4. 2.—8. 19. Miracle; or by some special testimony of Scripture. Joh. 5. 36. Mat. 10. 8. 2 Cor. 12. 12. 'Tis true Iohn Baptist had [...] immediate and extraordinary Calling▪ Joh. 1. 6. and yet wrought no Miracle, (that was reserved for the Messiah, of whom he was the immediate Forerunner, to manifest himself unto the world by) but then, that Calling of his was foretold, [Page] and witnessed by plain testimonies of Es. 40. 3. Mal. 3. 1. Scripture. And the manner of his Birth, and Condition of his Life (as it was well known to all Israel) were no other than miraculous and extraordinary.

Ordinary calling or sending to any place, to preach the Gospel, and to execute the Office of a Minister there, in a setled and constituted Church is, when a Person in holy Orders hath the cure and care of a Flock or Congregation of God's People committed to him, to preach the Gospel to them, and to perform all other ministerial Acts amongst them, by the Ministry of those Men, who under God, have Authority so to doe, according to good and wholsome Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions in that behalf made and established.Perk. de digminist. pag. 459. and 462. God calleth ordinarily by his Church, her voice is his. Therefore whensoever the Church of God, that is, the learned, wise, godly, and such as the Church hath publickly appointed for that purpose, saith to any thou shalt he sent to such a place, thou shalt goe for us; then doth God call; Saith Mr. Perkins. Sending implies the Act of another that hath Power and Authority to send, He cannot be [Page] said to be sent, that comes to a place, and there takes upon him to preach and doe all ministerial Acts, of his own accord. He comes not in Christ's Name, but his own. And a Christian can in nothing shew himself more impudent, than in embracing such, as Teachers sent from God, that come in their own Names.Joh. 5. 43. If one come in his own Name, him ye will receive: saith Christ to the Jews, blaming them much for it. And because there are so many that are apt to run before they are sent, it is necessary, that wheresoever any Person undertakes to preach the word, his calling to that work be clear and manifest, both in respect of his own Comfort and the Peoples profit. Though St. Paul was immediately called of God, yet he was sent toAct. 9. 17. Ananias for imposition of his hands, that it might be clear to the Church that he was called. And when he was to be sent to the Gentiles, he was again by imposition of handsAct. 13. 3. ordained or appointed to be their Doctour, that so his Calling might be publickly declared to be lawfull, and that none else might intrude into it. And if this were necessary in him, who [Page] was immediately called of God, how much more necessary is it in all those, who have not now that extraordinary Calling, but onely are mediately ordained and appointed to that work by those men, who under God have power to send and appoint Pastours over the several Flocks of his People in the Church?

Now if such a person as is in the question, cannot make out his calling or sending, by one of these two ways, to such a Town or Parish, where he takes upon him thus to execute the Office (or any part of it) of a Minister; certainly then he hath no Calling or sending at all: But is like one that shall enter into another man's house, at the window, or some other way, than by the door: and that (we know) is no fair possession of an house; he that enters in at the windows, ought to be thrown out of doors. Of such our Saviour saithJoh. 10. 1. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a Thief and a Robber. And,Qui autem non fideliter intra [...] vit, neque pe [...] Christum, quidni infideliter agat, & contra Christum. Bernard. ut citatur à Tho. Mortono. Apol. cath. pag. 62. if such, as they can be no other, who baulking the lawfull and ordinary [Page] way of entrance by the Authority of those, who derive their power on earth from Christ, and break in without, yea against the Laws and Leave of their Governours that act in Christ's Name and Stead) then are not they sent of God, and consequently have none of God's promises of blessing annexed to their Ministry.

This is that which renders the best actions that can be performed by the Sons of Men, to be sinfull, when they are done unlawfully, and by such as have no particular Calling or Command for the doing of them. This doth quite alter and diversifie the nature of actions, so as that they are varied from what otherwise they would be, to some other things. It is a rule as true, as old; Bonum extra proprium subjectum, in malum mutatur; Every good thing, out of its proper place and subject, is turned into evil. V. g. In the natural body of man, the hand is a very good and usefull member, for the offices of Common life; yet if the hand be out of its proper place, and grow either out of the Head or Leg, or elsewhere, where it ought not, it is no [Page] longer a good or usefull member, but a deformed and monstrous excrescence of Nature. In the body politick or state, the execution of wrath upon him that doeth evil, is a very just and good work; yet if it be done by one that hath no Authority or Commission, at least in such a place or circuit, it is not justice, but murther. Ammon abusing his Sister Tamar by filthy incest▪ ought by the Law of God to dye, Absolom killed him with the Sword; and in so doing he did the very thing thatLev. 18. 9. 29. God commanded: Yet Absolom sinned greatly in doing it, because he was not the man that ought to have done it, but David the King. In the Ecclesiastick body, the Church, the preaching the word is an excellent ordinance of God, for the saving of them that believe, as1 Cor. 1. 21. foolish as the world do account it: But if it be performed by one that hath no Authority or Commission for so doing, nay, that is under a just and legal prohibition and restraint from the doing it at all, it is not preaching, but quite another thing, even what the Apostle calls it1 Cor. 9. [...]6. Job. 15. 3. beating the air. Whensoever a Commandment is limited to [Page] persons and places, that Command makes it a sin to them, if they leave the thing required undone; and the not commanding, yea, forbidding, makes it a sin to others that shall doe it, because 'tis the Precept that makes the thing to such persons, in such places, to be lawfull or sinfull. Wrath hath been revealed from Heaven on such, as have rashly adventured on a thing that in it self hath been very good, yet had no particular Command for it. This appears plainly in the case of2 Sam. 6. 6, 7. Vzzah. Though his intention was good, yet it belonged not to him to touch the Ark, for the charge and care thereof was committed toNumb. 4. 15. others. It is the Policy of Satan, if he cannot prevail with men to abide and abound in those things which are (materially) evil, but they will needs be doing good, then he will draw them on to doe that good unlawfully, without a calling to it or warrant for it. And it were well that People who are so easily misled by the specious pretext of good, were not ignorant of this Wile of the Devil, whereby he deceives simple souls, not a few. When we set upon the performance [Page] of any thing, it should not be enough to weigh with our selves how good it is, but to look what warrant we have to doe it. The manner of performances is to be regarded, as well as the matter: For God stands upon Circumstances as well as Duties.Deut. 6. 25. It shall be then our righteousness, if we observe to doe all the Commandments before the Lord our God, AS HE HATH COMMANDED VS. Say we doe what is commanded, yet if we doe it not as he commanded us, it is not right in God's sight, who requires that a thing be not onely good, but also regularly performed. It is not the material goodness of the work, that will free us from sin, but the Command we have out of God's word for the doing it. Neither can we depend upon any promise for a blessing, when we have not God's Precept for the action.

The promise of edification in faith, knowledge and holiness, is specially appropriated to the Ministry of that Person, who is regularly and orderly in God's ways, set over a Congregation. Christians own pastours have a more special dispensation of the Grace of God [Page] given them, to them-ward; as St. Paul the Doctour of the Gentiles had, towards that People, of whom he was appointed the proper Minister. And (saith Mr. Baines) Mr. P. Baines on. Eph. 3. 2. If this were well considered it would cure in us that affectation of the confluence of strangers, when our hearts do not so fervently embrace our own Pastours. And it should instr [...] People to depend especially upon those who are set over them; for these are they who are furnished from God in [...] eminent manner, with grace towards them▪ They are foolish sheep that know not the [...] own shepherds voice, and foolish People that know not their own Ministers.

And in reason, whose Ministry may we think God will bless, either his, to whom the Flock is committed by himself; who1 Thes. 5. 12. is over them in the Lord [...] whomAct. 20. 28. God hath made their overseer▪ who haveHeb. 13. 17. the rule over them, watching for their Souls, as those that must give an account? Or his, who runs before he is sent, who hath no lawfull call to the Congregation, ordinary or extraordinary; who hath no relation at all to the Flock,Joh. 10. 12. whose own the sheep are not▪ he having no charge of them, nor any [Page] account to make for them (other than for his irregular intrusion amongst them, taking upon him to doe that he hath no right to doe, and for seducing them away from their own Pastour) be his parts and qulifications otherwise Angelical, and his Doctrine never so Evangelical?

Pastours of Congregations are called 2 Cor. 5. 20. Christ's Ambassadours to their People. It is their Commission that makes their Embassie succesfull. Another, perhaps, may be of equal, or greater fitness for the Employment, but he onely that hath deputation for the service, is received and hath audience. Those that have no lawfull mission to a Congregation, but intrude themselves amongst them, may speak the truth, as well as they that have; yet of him that acts by lawfull appointment, we may say, that he preacheth with Authority, and not like those that come in by stealth and usurpation, and have no other right there to preach, than what themselves have made. They are called Act. 20. 28. overseers. It is not for every man to oversee the estate of another; they onely can do it, who by some Deed or [Page] Commission are impowered to undertake it. Nay (which is a dreadfull Consideration) they must so oversee the FlockHeb. 13. 17. that they may give an account for their Souls. Is there any such charge given to, or undertaken by those unsent teachers, who love to be heard and seen in exercising their parts, but not in taking cure or charge of Souls? They are called1 Cor. 4. 1. Stewards. It is not for any one to be a steward in another man's house, to feed the Family; but for him onely whom the master of that house shall appoint. The ministerial parts performed by a lawfull Pastou [...] to his own Flock, are likeGen. 49. Iacob's blessing his Sons; another man might have done it as rhetorically, and, perhaps, as affectionately, but not so effectually, because none had that Right [...] and Authority to doe it, as he. Of all acts, those that are done ex officio, by virtue of an office, and from a lawfull designation and appointment for the execution of that office, to, or for, such a Person or People, are under a more solemn assurance of a blessing▪ It is no Solecism to say, God will hear [...] their Prayers, and bless their Pains, [Page] when he will neither hear, nor bless the Prayers or Pains of any else. MyJob. 42. 8. Servant Job shall pray for you (saith God) for him will I accept. Eliphaz and his two friends were good men, yet God would not give answer to them, but to Iob onely. See Gen. 20. 7. Es. 37. 4. Iam. 5. 14.

If that place inMat. 18. 20. Matthew be urged, to prove a promise of a blessing to such preaching and meetings as are in question; Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I present in the midst of them.

I answer, that although I conceive the primary and principal Intent and Scope of our Saviour in that place, was not to speak of religious Meetings, for the preaching and hearing of his word; but of the Meetings of Ecclesiastical Judges of the Jewish Sanhedrin in their Consistory (as the Context doth declare) yet because all God's promises are great and pretious, and we ought not to lose ought of them, but improve them to the utmost for his Glory and our Comfort; therefore suppose it be taken and to be understood of religious Meetings also (as 'tis so applied by the Church of England in her [Page] Liturgy, yet to no other, but our Church-assemblies) yet (I say) that text annexeth a Promise onely to such Meetings as are in Christ's Name. Now the meaning of that phrase is commonly expounded to be, at my Command. Nam in nomine Christi, idem est quod e [...]authoritate. So our Saviour himself useth the phrase:Joh. 5. 43. I am come in my Father's Name, id est, at his Command▪ as he expounds it himself.Joh. 10. 18.—12. 49.—14. 31. This Commandment have I received from the Father. So St. Paul useth the phrase, 2 Thes. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 5. 4. Now we command you brethren in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ; id est, by the Authority of our Lord Christ, committed unto us by him, as if Christ should command byAct. 19. 5. Significatur non forma quà in baptisando usi sint Apostoli; sed authoritas Christi, ex cujus praescripto utebantur baptismo. us. So every inferiour officer amongst us, doth use the phrase, I require you in the King's Name, id est, by Authority derived from him. See Act. 4. 7.

And should we extend the promise, without restraint, to other Meetings under pretence of religious Worship, than such as are grounded on Christ's Authority;Chamier. T. 1. L. 2. c. 4. 5. 5. p. 15. vide Jewel's Reply to Harding's Answer. Pag. 116.

1. Then we should make our own wills, fancies and affections, masters [Page] of our actions, and endeavour to bring down the presence of Christ to such irregular Conventions, as are altogether disagreeing with, yea contrary to his Will and Command, which were not onely absurd, but impious to attempt or think.

2. Then also may a Congregation of 1000 People, divide themselves (contrary to good Laws of God, his Church and the Realm) into 500 Couples, in so many several places, and in so many several forms of worship, and yet expect Christ's presence and blessing with them all, in ways so abominable to God, and so apparently destructive to his intire body the Church, which he hath purchased with his most pretious bloud.

3. Where were then the threatnings of his withdrawing from our Assemblies upon just occasion? God hath said Es. 1. 13, 14. Your Sabbaths, your Calling of Assemblies, I cannot away with, it is iniquity even your solemn Meetings; my Soul hates them, they are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them. And, I Amos 5. 21. hate, I despise your Feast-days, I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies, i. e. I will not accept with Favour (as I did Noah's Gen. 8. 21. Sacrifice) their solemn Assemblies. [Page] In another place the Holy Ghost useth the same expression,Lev. 26. 31. I will not smell the Savour of your sweet Odours. It is a Judgment (saith Ainsworth) opposed to that blessing promised in v. 12. I will walk among you. God threatens to deny his presence to their Assemblies, and one reason is given by a Divine of the Presbyterian Judgment;Mr. Hutcheson in Amos 5. 21. Because they were not any way of Divine institution, but of their own invention, and therefore all along they are called your or thine.

Now shew me where Christ in all the Old or New Testament, doth either command, or allow any such Ministry, and attendance on it, as is in question, and then I shall acknowledge it to be the Ordinance of God, and that this promise belongs to it: but not till then.

In the mean time I may well (without any digression) retort upon the objectours, and tell them, that in my Judgment, they are far out of the way, either of obedience to Christ's Command, or of hopes of enjoying his blessing promised, who in resorting to such kind of Meetings, for which they have [Page] neither a command nor promise, separate and withdraw themselves from the publick assemblies, and attendance on his worship and ordinances there, where God hath assured us of his presence and blessing, and whither he hath enjoyned us constantly to repair. For as that Minister, who shall upon any pretence whatsoever of his own forsake a Congregation over whom he was placed by God, and goe to another without any lawfull call, is like Ionah, who being sent by God to Nineve, sinned greatly in going to Tarshish, though he had preached never so duely and diligently there: So those People who in any measure neglect the publick, for those private assemblies, are like Micah, who in the time of the Iudges, when there was a publick Ministry in the place which the Lord had chosen for that purpose, instituted a private worship and ministry in his own house, a certain peculiar Levite being called and set apart for that work. And no wise man that shall reade his story, will think it safe to follow his example. Well may such a Person flatter himself in his course, and say in [Page] his heart, as heJudg. 17. 13. Now I know the Lord will doe me good, seeing I have a Levite to my Priest. But (as Iunius) Junius in loc. hominis imperiti sermo est, & in pietate parùm instituti. That saying of his shews him to have but little wit, less religion, and that he was but in a golden dream or Fool's Paradise all that while, though he thought himself wiser and in a better case than his neighbours. But this was done when there was no King in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes, otherwise so abominable an act could never have passed so clearly as it did.

By such I would be soberly and soundly resolved of this demand. Are the People of England in their present state and condition (assembling themselves together in publick places appointed for God's worship, under the teaching and ministry of their lawfull Pastors, that are set over them by Authority) a true Church, or true Churches, or not?

If they say, no: they doe that which God (blessed be his name) hath not yet done, unchurch us; and lay us under a judgment, which he [Page] hath not yet laid upon us, viz. a divorce from Iesus Christ. Jer. 14. 9. Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not. Si ecclesiam non habet Christus, nisi inter P. tantum, nimium pauper factus est. Hieron. adv. Luciferanos. Through the infinite goodness of the most high, we have wherewithall to consute that unchristian and uncharitable judgment of theirs, since we have both the matter and the form of a true Church.

The matter is a multitude of rational Creatures that profess saving truth contained in the word of God. Simon Magus and the Eunuch upon their profession, were admitted Members of the Church; and Members do constitute the body.

The form of a true Church is a gracious call into the dignity of the Children of God, so as that Christ becomes [...]nited to them. As the form of a man [...]s the Soul united to the body, so the [...]orm of a Church, which is his body, [...] Christ united to it. We have the [...]ord and laws of Christ, and those he [...]akes effectual for the convincing of [...]ll, and conversion of some. And this [...] an irrefragable argument to evince [...] Church to be a true Church, even [Page] in the judgment of the Presbyteria [...] Divines themselves. For to those of the Independent way, that separated from them, these are their words; Vindicat. of Presbyt. p. 122. ‘We beseech you to consider, whether ye did not receive the work of conversion from sin to God, which ye presume to be wrought in you, first of all in those publick assemblies from which ye now separate? And if ye found Christ walking amongst us, how is it, that [...] do now leave us? If the presence [...] Christ, both of his power and grace, be with us, why do ye deny your presence? Are ye holyer and wiser than Christ▪ Is not this an evident token, that we are true Churches and have a true Ministry, because we have the seal of our Ministry, even the conversion of many Sons and Daughters to God? Doth not the ApostleCor. 9. 2. from this very ground argue the truth of his Apostleship? [...] it not apparent that our Ministers are sent by God, because their Embassage is made succesfull by God for the good of Souls? Did ye ever reade of true conversion ordinarily in [Page]false Church? Will the Lord concur with those Ministers he sends not? Doth not the prophet say the quite contrary? Jer. 23. 23. And therefore either renounce your conversion, or be converted from that great sin of separating from us.’

Again, where there are the infallible marks of a true Church, there is a true Church. But we have the infallible marks of a true Church, viz. the word of Christ truly taught, and his Sacraments rightly administred.

First for the word of Christ. The Church is (according to the proper signification of the word [...] a People called forth from the rest of the world;Rom. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 1. 2. called to be Saints. Now the best note to know a People called, is by the voice calling; this was ever an infallible mark of Christ's Church. First among the Apostles, who were called out from amongst others, by the word of Christ, to become followers of him. Then amongst others, as they were added to the Church, they were called by the word; witness that great work of conversion wrought by the Ministry of St. Peter, Acts. 2. At one [Page] Sermon three thousand were severed from the rest of the world, and added to the Church.

Next for the Sacraments, these rightly administred are certain marks of a true Church; for they are the Seals set by God to his word, the signs of his Covenant, whereby he binds himself to be our God, and receives us to be his People. They are sure pledges of his love to us, which we really have, till we come actually to be possessed of perfect holiness and glory with Christ▪ Whilst we have these blessed ordinances of his amongst us, his word truly preached, and his Sacraments rightly administred, it is not the rash censure of a few giddy heads, that can unchurch us.

If they say we are a true Church then God is ever with us, (Es. 45. 14.) in our assemblies at all times, and in all parts of his worship.Matt. 28. 20. Lo, I am with you always to the end of the world. An [...] 2 Cor. 6. 16. I will dwell in the [...], and walk in them and will be their God, and they shall [...] my People. Thence the Holy Ghost i [...] Scripture, calls the Church,Ps. 74. 7. Ps. 76. 2. his house the dwelling place of his Name, th [...][Page]place where his honour dwells, the Presence Chamber of the great King, &c. And as the glory of the Lord did Sensibly appear in the Tabernacle, Exod. 40. 34. and in the Temple, 1 kings 8. 10. So doth it now in our Church-assemblies, as really and truly, though not as visibly, as then.2 Cor. 3. 7,—11. For if the Ministration of Death was glorious, how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be glorious? If the Ministration of Condemnation be glory, much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory. If that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

Now if God be present with, and in our assemblies, how dare any that are, or ought to be Members thereof, absent themselves? Dare ye to withdraw at any time from God's presence, whose face at all times ye arePsal. 27. 8. commanded to seek? I speak not of his omnipresence, in regard of the immensity of his essence, which fills all places. God fills every place, and fills it by containing that place in himself. But I speak of that special presence, which he hath promised to afford to his [Page] Church, manifesting himself in that place and assembly more graciously, than elsewhere.

If then we retain our Conjunction with Christ, why do ye refuse Communion with us? May we not therefore justly charge you as guilty of making a Schism in the Body of Christ? That we may, by your own Doctrine. For (say the Presbyterian Divines) Vindicat. of Presbyt. p. 113, 114. ‘If the Apostle calls those divisions of the Church of Corinth, wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations, of several Communions, in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, Schism, 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us, and profession that ye cannot joyn with us as Members, and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism?’ And presently after they distinguish (out of Camero) of a twofold Schism, negative and positive. The former is when men do peaceably and quietly draw from Communion with a Church, not making a head against that Church from which they are departed: The other is, when persons so [Page] withdrawing, do consociate and draw themselves into a disitinct and opposite Body, setting up a Church against a Church, which Camero calls Schism by way of Eminency. Now if this were true Doctrine in those days, against those who were then concerned in it; I know no reason why the space of a few years should so alter the case, but that it is as true now against themselves, who now doe what they then condemned in others, viz. not onely withdraw from our publick assemblies, but set up Church against Church. And therefore (to use their own words) ‘Ye must not be displeased with us, but with your selves, if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism.’ And that is no small fault in the judgment of any sound Divine, but a far greater than the fault, upon which they pretend separation. The things for which they make a rent, are not so great a fault in the Church, as the want of Charity in them which prompts them so to doe. It is a sin of the first rate, and one of the greatest size that a Christian can commit, in the judgment of the Brethren of the Nonconformists themselves, [Page] though now it goes down gli [...] with too many of them, who not withstanding are obliged to the extirpation thereof, not onely by the common bond of Religion and Christianity, but also by the second Article of their solemn League and Covenant. taken with hands lifted up to the most high God; wherein they rank it with Popery, Superstition, Heresie, Profaneness, and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness. Let the words of Mr. Baxter be noted as an evidence of this truth.Christian Concord. pag. 119. ‘If the Scripture were Conscionably observed, men would take Church-divisions for a greater sin than Adultery or Theft. Mutinies and Divisions do more infallibly destroy an Army than almost any other fault, or weakness: and therefore all Generals do punish Mutineers with death, as well as flat Traytors. Our Union is our strength and beauty: commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice, do but destroy that truth and piety, that was there before. I like not him that will cure the head-ach by cutting [Page] the throat; yea, it is a greater sin than Murther (saith Mr. Paget) A MurthererHaeresiog▪ pag. 78. killeth but one man or two, but a Schismatick goes about, as much as in him lies, to destroy the Church of God. Yea, it is worse to make a Schism in the Church, than to Sacrifice to an Idol, saith Serm. Decemb. 25. 1644. Mr. Calamy out of St. Cyprian.’

And may Christians then play at sast and loose with the bonds of holy Communion at their pleasure? St. Peter could sayJoh. 6. 68. Lord whither shall we goe? thou hast the words of Eternal Life. Where this word is truly Preach [...]d in the way of Christ's appointment, and the rest of his worship celebrated accordingly, wo be to those that are not found there also. Christians in the pure and primitive times, did not take this Liberty in point of Church-fellowship, but (by the acknowledgment of the Divines before mentioned, and Oh that their Practices now did not contradict their words then)Vindicat. of Presbyt. pag. 120. ‘All such who professed Christianity, held Communion together, as one Church, notwithstanding the difference in judgment in lesser things, and much corruption in [Page] Conversation.’ Cain was the first that ever separated from the Church;Gen. 4. 16. he went out from the presence of God. God is every where, the meaning therefore is, from his Church, the place of his publick worship, which was then in his Father's Family. And will it be safe for any to follow such a President?

Jude 11. The Apostle pronounceth a woe to them that walk in the way of Cain. Those that walk in his way, can expect no less than to arrive at the place whither he is gone before. And if ye would know who they are that so walk, the Apostle tells you,Jude 19. these are they that separare themselves. Pareus his gloss on the words are not unworthy observation:Pareus in Loc. Quia sibi ipsi f [...]gunt peculiarem cultum, ideo sese segregant ab eorum Ecclesia ac coetu. They feign to themselves a peculiar way and manner of worship, therefore they will not joyn with us in ours, but withdraw from our assemblies; as if he had purposely described the humour of the men of our times. However such may pretend to the Spirit, as if they were more Sanctified than their Brethren, yet the Apostle by infallible guidance, [Page] pronounceth them Sensual not having the Spirit. And that is the reason they keep the Unity of the Church no better. For (as Fulgentius saith) Tales Fulgent. l. 2. ad Monim. pag. 67. ita (que) faciles sunt ad divisionem, quia spiritum non habent, in quo uno membra Christi charam servant Spiritualiter unitatem. Such persons are prone to all divisions, because they have not that Spirit, in whom alone all the Members of Christ do Spiritually keep Unity among themselves, as a dear and pretious thing. As the Soul in man's Body doth cease to quicken any Member sundred from the Body, and the scattered bones in Ezekiel's Vision, received no life till they were incorporated and knit together in one byEzek. 37. 7. Sinews, Flesh and Skin: so the Spirit of God, which is the Soul of this mystical Body, denies the derivation of Grace and Comfort, to those that separate themselves from it.

If they say, we are a true Church, and that they and their Party separating from us and meeting in private assemblies, are a Church also, and so they do not separate and withdraw themselves from the Church.

[Page] Then I say that their Church, in that case, refusing Communion with ours, is, (at least) a distinct Church from ours; and so there are two Churches of England in this Nation. And so they make Christ to have two bodies distinct under one head; which is contrary to sundry plain Texts of Scripture. Cant. 6. 8, 9. Though there be threescore Queens, and fourscore Concubines, and Virgins without number, yet my Dove, my undefiled is but one.Rom. 12. 5. We being many are one body in Christ. And, 1. Cor. 12.—12. As the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so is Christ. Again, Eph. 4. 45. There is one Body, one Spirit, one Hope, one Lord, one Faith, &c. And, 1 Cor. 1. 13. is Christ divided?

There cannot be two such opposite Churches in one Nation, but one of them must needs be an Harlot, and not the Spouse of Christ. And that their Church (as they call it) and not ours, is so, may easily be made to appear to any man that will vouchsafe to weigh matters in the balance of Reason and Judgment. The whole World is divided betwixt God and the [Page] Devil; there is not a third Party that can challenge any share in the Race of mankind. All Societies and Companies of Men and Women in the world, are either the Church of Christ, or the Synagogue of Satan, Rev. 3. 9.Sit una Eva mater cunctorum viventium, & una ecclesia parens omnium Christianor, Sicut illam maledictus Lamech in duas divisit uxores, sic hanc haeretici in plures ecclesias lacerant; quae juxta Apocalypsin Iohannis Synagogae magis diaboli appellandae sunt, quàm Christi conciliabuta. Hieron. ad Geruntiam. pag. 92. An assembly of Saints, or a congregation of evil doers, Psal. 26. 5. And that theirs is not the Church of Christ, appears thus: Those assemblies or congregations where there is no true and lawfull Pastor, nor true and lawfull Flock, are not the Churches of Christ, but of Satan: for (as it hath been shewed before out of the Scriptures and Fathers)Ecclesia non est quae non habet sacerdotem. Hieron. advers. Luciferanos. p. 491. Ecclesia est grex Episcopo adunitus. Cyprian. ad Rogatianum. Epist. 69. a lawfull Minister, and a Flock or Congregation of People lawfully committed to his charge, make up a Church: that is the definition of a particular Church. But their Churches (as they call them.) have neither true and lawfull Pastors, nor Flocks: therefore they are not the Churches of Christ, but the Synagogues of Satan, and Congregations of evil doers. That they have no true and lawfull Pastors, is [...]lear. 1. Because many of them that head those unlawfull meetings and assemblies, were never ordained by [Page] Prayer and Imposition of hands, as by Gospel-Rules they ought to be, but are mere Lay-men that take upon them to preach and perform Ministerial Duties, that were never called thereunto. This is true not onely in the assemblies of the Quakers, but of others also, by what name soever they may be called, that separate from our Churches. I know it to be so in divers places. 2. Those of them that were ordained, are (as to the execution of their Ministry committed to them in their Ordination during the time of their Nonconformity) under a legal suspension by the highest and fullest Power and Authority of this Nation, to which we are all bound in Conscience to be in Subjection. 3. Suppose that neither of the former were true, yet they are not true and lawfull Pastors of those that flock after them, seeing they have not the Pastoral cure and care of the Souls of any of them committed to their charge by any that, under God, have Authority in the Church, but are commanded to contain themselves in quietness and silence. And that they have no true and lawfull Flocks in [Page] their Congregations appears in this, that their Assemblies & Congregations consist altogether of wandring Sheep that are gone astray from their own lawfull Pastors, and sinfully separated from the Congregations and Flocks, to which, of right, they belong, and gathered together into a Schismatical and separate meeting and Society, and so make up a Congregation of evil doers, and Synagogue of Satan. If this were rightly and seriously considered, I think it would startle the minds and shake the confidence of many of them, who bless themselves in their newfound way of Religion and Worship, boast of their number, and compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes, that at least, they might be equally the Children of Hell with themselves.

If they say our Church is corrupt, we have that amongst us that we should not have, or, not that which we ought to have, I say then,

First, Suppose it be so, (which I think will yet require more pains than have yet been bestowed, to prove) yet let them consider what Peter Martyr judiciously saith.Pet. Mart. loc. com. clas. 4. c. 1. s. 1. Non ob quamcun (que)[Page]maculam Christi Ecclesiam ita Excidere, ut Dei non amplius appelletur. Every little blemish in the face of a Church, cannot cast her off from being God's. The Church in Canticles is said to be Cant. 6. 10. fair as the Moon; which in the Hebrew Tongue is calledEs. 24. 23. [...] Lebanah, for her whiteness and bright shining: And yet the Moon is not so white, but still some spots remain therein, and even uncapable of illumination from the Sun.Tertul. l. 1. cap. 5. Cont. Nation. Coelum ipsum nulla serenitas tam colata purgat, ut non alicujus nubeculae flocculo resignetur. In the clearest Heaven some specled Clouds may be discerned.Aug. retract. l. 1. Cum tota dicat Ecclesia quam diu hic est, dimitte nobis de [...]ita nostra, non uti (que) hic est sine macula & ruga: So long as the whole Church is commanded to say, whilst she is in this World, forgive us our trespasses, she cannot be imagined to be altogether without spot or wrinkle. Rather they discover themselves to be most stained, to whom every small spot in the Church seems to be altogether intolerable.Clav. adver. Anabapt. art. 2. Cum sub specie studii perfectionis, imperfectione [...] nullam tolerare possumus, aut in corpore [Page] aut in membi is Ecclesiae, tum diabolum nos tumefacere superbia & hypocrisi seducere moneamur. When under colour of perfection, ye can endure no imperfection either in the body or members of the Church; you must be admonished that this your separation is caused by the Devil, who puffs you up with pride, and seduceth you by Hypocrisie.

Secondly, We may not upon every slight ground (to please a fond humour) leave the Society of God's People in the Church, for sake the assembling of our selves together, as the manner of some is, or goe off from Communion with that Church whereof we are, or ought to be Members. When an Ulcer breaks out in any part of the body (suppose the hand or the foot) must that member presently be cut off, or not rather be cured and healed by the use of plasters and other wholsome medicines, or the pain and evil be endured with patience [...]ntill nature hath tryed her skill, and (as it will in short time) conquered the malignity of the Distemper? And shall we then presently make use of the [Page] knife, as soon as ever there ariseth some diversity of opinions in the Church, especially in matters that are circumstantial in Religion? This were not Chirurgery, but Butchery. Nay, suppose the very substance and body of Religion were corrupted, and not onely some light errours in circumstances were maintained, but there were Heresie in Doctrine also, in this case we ought to be very tender of making a Schism, and look well to our selves with what mind and affection we doe it. Suppose a Malefactor be really guilty and hath deserved to dye, yet if the Judge condemn him out of cruelty of mind, envy or spleen, and not out of true love to justice and hatred of his sin, though the Sentence were for the matter of it never so just, yet he were most unjust in pronouncing of it; so a separation from a Church though for just causes, yet would be most unjust and sinfull, if it be done out of malice or any evil respect or affection whatsoever. In such a case that is required of a Christian, which is required of a Chirurgeon, who when necessity forceth him to cut off a member, [Page] yet he doeth it unwillingly, with grief, and after trial of all lawfull ways and [...]eans to stop the evil, and to prevent the mutilation of the Patient. The property of true Christian Charity, is,1 Cor. 13. 6. it rejoyceth not in iniquity, but in the truth. That is iniquity which is so diametrically opposite to Charity, which the Greeks call [...], which is a vice that makes men not onely to rejoyce in the Calamity of others, but greedily to such in all evil reports of them, and rejoyce if they are true. Christian Charity, where it is, works the same mind and affection in us towards our neighbours as is in Parents towards their Children, who with joy admit of their commendation, but will not so easily believe any thing that tends to their disparagement, unless they either soe it with their eyes, or have good proof made for it; and then, not without grief of heart. Faults in a Church call for our lamentation, not separation; should God separate from a Christian Soul, because there is still some corruption of sinfull nature remaining in it, the condition of us all would be most [Page] miserable to Eternity. Did Christ separate from the Church of the Iews, and not hold Communio [...] with her, because she was not what she had, or ought to have been? What the state of the Jewish Church in our Saviour Christ's time was, the Scriptures do abundantly shew. In it was a very corrupt Ministry,Mat. 15. 14.—23, 16. blind leaders of the blind. They preach'd well enough; but did not live accordingly, The High-Priests Office, which by God's Ordinance was to last during Life, was now become annual, and basely bought and soldJoh. 11. 49. for money. The People were wicked, impenitent, haters and [...]secutors of the Son of God. Their Doctrine was much corrupted and blended with false and Pharisaical Mat. 5. 20.—48. glosses. Many superstitious Ceremonies were used, and urged more strictlyMar. 7. 9. than any of God's Commandments. Churchdiscipline very much perverted;Joh. 9. 22. The Jews had agreed that if any did profess Christ, he should be excommunicated. An horrible abuse was crept into the place of God's Service: A Market, and Mat. 21. 12. Joh. 2. 14. Money-changing set up in the Temple of God. And yet for all this our Saviour [Page] made no separation from this corrupt Church, but communicated with them [...] all parts of Divine Worship. In his Infancy he was admitted a Member of that ChurchLuk. 2. 21. by Circumcision. At the Purification he was presented before the Lord in that Church, andLuk. 2. 22,—23. a Sacrifice offered for him according to the Law of Moses. When he came to riper years he constantly kept the Church, cameLuk. 2. 46.—3. 21.—4. 16. to the Congregation to Divine Service, publick Prayers, and reading the Scriptures. He received the Sacraments in their Church.Luk. 3. 21. Baptism, andJoh. 2. 13. the Passover. Yea his conformity to the Iewish Church was not onely in Divin [...] Institutions, but in Humane also; as in his observation of the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple (mentioned Ioh. 10) doth appear. He was so far from breaking the order or custome of that Church. as that he conformed to it in those things that were contrary to Divine Institutions. It was the ordinance of God that the Passover should be eaten by the Iews Exod. 12 11. with their loyns girded, their shooes on their feet, and their staves in their hands because they [Page]were to eat it in haste. Standing was a posture of readiness for travell: and they used long Garments in those Countries, which would have been an hindrance to them, if they had not been trussed up. The Apostle seems to allude to this custome, when he saith Eph. 6. 14. stand therefore having your loyns girded about. But because the Church of the Iews, being now safely escaped out of Egypt, had by long custome omitted and altered these Ceremonies, therefore our Saviour Christ would not break or alter the custome of that Church, but did as they did. He did not stand [...] the Passover, but sate or used a leaning posture (for so the word [...] used by St. Matthew doth signifie) as appears by the Evangelist.Mat. 26. 20. When the even was come he sate down with the twelve. And all this to teach us that we ought to be tender of violating the 1 Cor. 11. 16. customes of the Church; not to grow into a prophane contempt or neglect of any part of publick worship, for every imperfection and blemish, nor to separate from a Church, though never so corrupt, so long as the Word, Sacraments, and Doctrine of Salvation may there be enjoyed.

[Page] Corruptions of a Church are commonly by Divines distinguished into two sorts. They are either such as concern the matter of Religion, which the Apostle calls2 Pet. 2. 2. demnable Heresies, in fundamental points of Faith and Holiness, which tend to the destroying of the very being of a Church. Or else such as concern the manner of Religion in circumstantials and ceremonials, which are matters of lower concern, and inferiour alloy: Such as (to use the words of Learned Bp. Davenant) Non continuo ad fidem fundamentalem spectant Dav. exhor [...]. ad pacem. p. 29. sed ad peritiam theologicam, & fortasse ne ad hanc quidem, sed aliquando ad curiositatem theologorum: belong not to the fundamentals of Faith, but skilfulness in Divinity, and not to that neither, but rather to the curiosity of Divines.

Now errours, even in fundamentals, may be in a Church upon a double account,Bp. Hall. either through infirmity and humane frailty, the best of us knowing but in part in this Life: God allows no separation in such a case. The Church of Galatia through infirmity, was quickly turned to another [Page] Gospel, and erred even in matters fundamental, holding justification by works, and was fallen to the observation of Iewish Ceremonies, which St. Paul calls beggarly Elements. Their Apostle was become their Enemy, and that for telling them the truth. He was afraid of them, lest all the labour he had bestowed amongst them, was in vain, and was fain to travel in birth with them again; yet he owns them, and writes to them as a Church notwithstanding. Or else, vitioso affectu immorigeroe voluntatis, out of malice, when men know they doe amiss, and yet persist obstinately in so doing. In such a case separation may be with a good Conscience. When St. Paul had preach'd in the Synagogue of the Iews, and they would not believe, but began to blaspheme and speak evil of the ways of God,Act. 19. 9. 1 Tim. 6. 3, 5. Hos. 4. 15. Rev. 18. 4. vid. Masoni vindi [...]. ministerii. Angl. p. 167. then he withdrew and separated from them. So that it must be no small matter, that must be a sufficient ground to any one that means to keep a good Conscience, to warrant his withdrawing from the publick Congregation in any part of God's worship.

[Page] If a man have not discretion, he may easily run himself into a great evil of sin, whilst he seeks to shun a light inconvenience; and in avoiding that which he thinks to be superstition, he may soon become really Schismatical and prophane, which isAmos. 5. 19. as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a Serpent bit him. Suppose there were some evil mixtures in our administration of Church-worship, yet (in the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves) this is not a sufficient ground of a negative, much less of a positive separation;‘For (say theyVindicat. of Presbyt. p. 116, 117.) the learned Authour before mentioned (that is Camero) tells us that corruption in manners crept into a Church, is not a sufficient cause of separation from it. This he proves from Matt. 23. 2, 3. And he also gives this reason for it: Because in what Church soever there is purity of Doctrine, there God hath his Church, though overwhelmed with scandals. And therefore whosoever separateth from such an Assembly, separateth from that [Page]place where God hath his Church, which is rash and unwarrantable. And in the next Page, they say: He that will never communicate with any Church, till every thing that offendeth [...]e removed out of it, must tarry till the great day of Judgment, when (and not till then) Christ will send forth his Angels and gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offendeth, and them that doe iniquity.’ And though to excuse themselves from the guilt of Schism, they that do separate, may pretend, that they make not a [...] open breach of Christian Love, wherein the nature of that great sin doth consist. Let their own words answer themselves,Vindicat. of Presbyt. p. 118. ‘We grant that to make up the formality of a Schismatick, there must be added uncharitableness, as to make up the formality of an Heretick there must be added obstinacy: But yet, as he that denieth a fundamental Article of Faith, is guilty of Heresie though he add not obstinacy thereunto to make him an Heretick; so he that doth unwarrantably separate from a true Church, is truly guilty of Schism, though he [Page] add not uncharitableness thereunto, to denominate him a complete Schismatick.’ How unjustifiable then is the separation, which some make themselves and cause others to make, in these days from our Churches, which in their Constitution, for Doctrine, Discipline and Worship are the envy of Rome, and the admiration of the rest of the Christian World: where there is nothing Idolatrous in Worship, nothing Heretical in Doctrine, nor Antiscriptural in Discipline; where there is nothing taught, believed, or done, but what is agreeable with the word of God, or not contrary thereunto: And (to speak in the words of the learned and godly Dr. Henry More)Inquiry into the mystery of iniquity. p. 561. a ‘Church so throughly purged from whatsoever can properly be styled Antichristian, and is, I am confident, so Apostolical, that the Apostles themselves, if they were alive again, would not have the least scruple of joyning in publick worship with us in our common Assemblies.’ Separation from it, can be no less than the fruit of Pride or bitter Zeal, which tends to strife,Jam. 3. 16. And where envy and [Page]strife is, there is confasion and every evil work.

I have heard some Church-forsakers, when they have been told of their Apostasie and falling off from the Church whereof they were Members, excuse and please themselves in this, that they are not Apostates from the Faith, they hold the same Doctrine, and believe the same Creed we do. Though in that they doe no more than Papists doe.

But in the mean time they consider not. That,

1. This is an improvement and aggravation of their sin, (so far is it from excusing the fault) to depart from a Church wherein they were born and baptized, and which (by their own confession) continues sound in the Faith. Separation is allowed by no Divines (no not by theDr. Manton on Jude 12. p. 496. Presbyterians themselves) but either in case of cruel Persecution, damnable Heresie, or down right Idolatry. They then that separate from a Church where there is neither of these, have the greater sin.

2. That the hainousness of the sin of Schism doth not consist in renouncing [Page] the Faith, but in the breach of Christian Charity, without which 1 Cor. 13. 2. all Faith is nothing. A man may be very Orthodox in his Judgment, and yet be a damnable Schismatick if he break that Union which ought to be religiously kept amongst Christians, in God's worship especially. And because this breach is manifestly perfected in refusing due Ecclesiastical Communion together, therefore that separation is [...], called Schism.

3. That the breach of the bond of Charity is equally as dangerous and damnable, as Apostasie from the Faith; and as destructive and inconsistent to the nature and being of the Church one as the other.

4. What sufficient convincing proof can our Church-forsakers make, that they are not faln from the true Faith, as well as from Christian Charity, seeing they are subdivided into so many severall Parties and Sects, some whereof (and not the smallest number, viz. the Quakers) are totally apostatized from all Christianity; others are faln in part, as the Anabaptists, Antinomians, &c. And those of them that do now and then [Page] come to Church (perhaps because they cannot tell how to dispose of themselves otherwise) studiously absent themselves from the profession of our Faith contained in the Creeds; and if any of them chance to be there at that time, yet they willfully refuse to observe and obey that godly and laudable command and custome of the Church, grounded on good authority of God's word, to stand up to their Belief.

5. If they are not yet quite faln from the Faith, yet their Schism and departure from the Church,Omne Schisma, ubi progressu temporis inveteratum fuerit, Haeresin aliquam sibi confingit, ut recte ab Ecclesia recessisse videatur. Mason vindic. ministerii Anglic. p. 163. is a fair step towards it; where are they likely to stay (unless God marvellously stop them) who are departed from his house? The Prodigal Son's leaving his Father's Family was the first step to all that lewd course of Life that afterwards he took. The Donatists of old, did not at first dissent in matters of Faith from the Catholick Church, but their Schism did soon produce Heresie; as an Ulcer or Wound being inflamed doth soon beget a Fever. In the mean time whatever they esteem themselves, or are esteemed of others to be, they are [Page] indeed no more true Members of the Church, than Tares or Chaff are part of the Wheat, or than Mutineers are part of an Army.Camero. tract. in quo eccl. Rom. pre. ad. exam. c. 14. Haeretici & Schismatici non sunt ex vera Ecclesia, sed tantummodo Ecclesiae immisti, sicut & excrementa sunt quidem in corpore, sed non de corpore. Alsted. Lexic. Theol. p. 359.

Now whilst I write these things, I weep: mine eye, mine eye, runneth down with water; I cannot refrain my self but must cry out, alas, alas, for my dear mother the poor distressed, distracted, and divided Church of England; I will bewail thee with the weeping of Iazer, Quae gens, quae regio tulit tam multa dictu gravia, perpessu aspera quam hodie nos? Non enim partes solum inter nos sunt, sed partium (ô patria quae salus te servet?) novae partes. Just. Lipsius. de constant. l. 2. c. 20. I will water thee with my tears, my bowels shall sound like a harp for thee, and my inward parts like pipes. That thine own Children, like Iacob and Esau, should so jar and disagree in their Womb, as to endanger the very life of her that bore them, by their strugling. What, Brethren, have we not all one God, one Christ, one Spirit, one Baptism, one Scripture, one hope of Eternal Salvation? And can we not close and communicate together in the Worship and Service, of that one blessed [Page] Creator, mercifull Saviour, and most sweet Comforter? Are our differences about I know not what, grown to such an height, that we cannot goe to Church together, joyn in one confession of Sin, profession of Faith, Prayer, each with,Dij talia Graiis, errorem (que) hostibus illum. and for other, hear the same Scriptures read and preached, and sit together at the same Table, partake of that same heavenly Feast, to which we are altogether most lovingly invited?

So great is the crime of our present Age in this, that Posterity shall never be able to add to it. Oh tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the Streets of Ashcalon, lest the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce, lest the Daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. What will very Pagans say, when they shall see Christians thus divided? As Clemens Alexandrinus brings in the Heathen exprobrating our Religion for untrue, Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. Quia omnis secta Christianismi titulum sibi vendicat, tamen alia aliam execratur & condemnat; because every Sect challengeth to it self the Title of true Christianity, yet one curseth and condemneth another. What can they [Page] otherwise think, but that the God and Christ whom we all pretend to serve, is (what he abhors to be) the authour of confusion? Oh what Musick is this in the Ears of Papists to hear of our discords? Did Herod and Pontius Pilate agree as friends to crucifie Christ, and shall Christians that profess themselves to be his Members, disagree as mortal Enemies, about their Service of him? Oh Religion, Religion! Hast thou not Enemies enough abroad in the World, that seek thy destruction, but thy deadliest wound must be received in the house of thy friend [...] Like Ioseph thou art basely sold by thine own Brethren, when thou art bringing them necessary food: like Sampson, thou art betray'd into the hands of the Philistines by those that pretend zeal for thee; and like thy blessed Master, thou art delivered up to thy mortal Foes by thine own treacherous Disciples: what Ocean can furnish mine eyes with tears enough to pour out, for the scandal and matter of rejoycing, that these things do give to thine adversaries; and for thy much feared ruine that this portends! Alas, Alas, that those who pretend [Page] much tenderness in lesser matters, should make no Conscience at all of endeavouring thy Preservation and Prosperity, by keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace! What shall I say of those Men, but as our Saviour of his Enemies, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they doe. The Lord open their eyes that they may see, and perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem.

Oh all ye my Brethren, that make an unchristian separation from the Society of your Christian Friends and Neighbours in the publick worship of God, especially you, to whom I stand nearest related, I beseech you in the bowels of our common Saviour, do not thus give advantage to the adversaries of our Religion, to endeavour and hope for the speedy overthrow both of us and it; and in the mean time to laugh in their sleeves at our divisions, saying, there, there, so would we have it. 1 Cor. 1. 10. I beseech you, Brethren, in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no Schisms amongst you, that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same [Page]mind, and in the same judgment. Phil. 2. 1, 3. If there be any Consolation in Christ, if any comfort of Love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if there be any bowels of Mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

It is promised as a blessed Fruit of the Gospel,Es. 11. 13,—14. the envy of Ephraim shall cease, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim; but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines, toward the West, they shall spoil them of the East together, they shall lay their hands upon Edom and Moab, and the Children of Ammon shall obey them. Oh that all animosity and prejudice were banished from the borders of our hearts, that so meeting together by Troops (with primitive ConcordCoimus in coetum & congregationem, ut ad Deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus orantes. Tertul. Apol. c. 39.) in the publick places of our Assemblies, being banded together with a kind of holy Violence, we may with one mind and one mouth, lay Seige to the throne [Page] of Grace, and give God no rest (such Forces are to him most acceptable) till he fulfill this gracious promise, that we perish not in our divisions.

Lord grant that all they that confess thy holy name, may agree in the truth of thy holy word, and live in unity and godly love through Iesus Christ. Amen.

ARGUMENT. IV.

THat cannot be the Ordinance of God, conducing to the Salvation of Souls, which is not onely contrary to good and wholsome Laws; destructive to Gospel-Order; and destitute of Divine Promise; but is also contrary to Gospel-commands. For God is not contradictory to himself, instituting or ordaining that in one place of his word, which he forbids in another; but throughout the whole Scripture he reveals one constant, and one uninterrupted Tenor of sacred truth.

[Page] But the practice in question is contrary to sundry Gospel-commands; as will easily be made out by instancing in two or three, instead of others.

The first I shall mention is that in St. Peter 1 Pet. 4. 15. Let none of you suffer as a Murtherer, or as a Thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busie-body in other Mens Matters. The word in the Original is [...], which in the proper and genuine construction of it, signifies Alienorum inspector, sive curator. Composita vox ab alieno & Episcopo. Erasm. in loe. a busie Bishop in another Man's Diocess; or a busie Presbyter in another Man's Parish, that takes upon him to meddle in another Man's Cure, and to be doing in matters that are committed to another Man's Charge; that is so well at leisure, and hath so little to doe of his own, that (according to the Proverb) He thrusts his Sickle into another Man's Harvest.

The Apostle reckons such a one among Murtherers and Thieves, and other evil doers, that so he may easily be known what he is, by such as the Holy Ghost sorts with him. Now Murtherers and Thieves and other Malefactors are made the Companions of such, who without a special concession, [Page] or commission, undertake to meddle in other Mens Parishes, with the Souls not committed to their Care and Charge; and the Apostle gives equal Caveat against them all.

I know not therefore how such busiebodies can acquit themselves of the other two sins also mentioned in this black roll. Of the latter, their guilt seems to be too evident, in taking up wandring Sheep from their Folds, when they ought rather to send them home to their own Shepherds: in setting their mark upon them, owning them for theirs, and calling them by the name of their Church, when as in truth they have no more Property or Interest in them, than the Emperour of Vtopia hath in the Pleiades: or the poor Athenian, in Horace, had in the Ships which he saw on the Sea, and called his own, though he had no other right to them, than what his extravagant and distempered fancy did create. For what warrant have they to meddle with other Mens Flocks?

Of the former, (I fear also) they will scarce be found altogether guiltless. For truly the Souls of their Proselytes, [Page] after they have been their followers a while, seem to be so mortally poisoned with Schism and Separation, profane contempt and neglect of the publick worship and ordinances of God, with despising of all Authority, good Laws, and Government, and many other dangerous evils; and so metamorphosed, that from being Sheep (as before they seemed to be) they turn Wolves, and are ready to worry their own Shepherds: as is found true by too sad experience in all places where these men intrude themselves.

The Apostle doth elsewhere reckon up idleness, as another Companion of this sin.1 Tim. 5. 13. They learn to be idle, wandring about from house to house, and are busie-bodies. Again,2 Thes. 3.—11. Working not at all, but are busie-bodies. And indeed this is the Root from whence this vice springs. 'Tis true (in the former place) the Apostle makes it muliebre vitium, the womens sin; but it is no wonder to see idlers of the other Sex also, to become esseminate, and medlers in other folks matters, when they have none of their own to be doing about. An idler is well at leisure, and [Page] if he will not serve God in his own station, rather than he shall doe nothing, Satan will find him employment, in setting him to thrust his Sickle into his Neighbours Corn.Cant. 1. 6. They made me keeper of the Vineyards, but mine own Vineyard have I not kept. Here are Vineyards opposed to her own Vineyard; false Churches, to true. For Es. 5. 7. The Vineyard of the Lord of Hoast▪ is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant Plant. When men keep not their own Vineyard, the keeping whereof is committed to them of God, the Spirit that works in the Children of disobedience, will set them to plant and keep Vineyards of his,Deut. 32. 32,—33. The Vine whereof is the Vine of Sodom, and of the Fields of Gomorrah; their Grapes are Grapes of Gall, their clusters are bitter. What account these Husbandmen will make hereafter, to him that is the Lord of the Vineyard, for such kind of dealing, I wish they may in time seriously consider, e'er it be too late so to doe.

Neither may we omit to observe how the Apostle in the afore quoted place, doth (as it were) unchristian [Page] such a busie Person, and seems to make him no better than a Pagan or Infidel. For he puts a vast difference betwixt the sufferings of a busie Presbyter, and those of a Christian. 1 Pet. 4. 15,—16. If a Christian suffer, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this behalf. But- if such a busie-body suffer (as 'tis as much pity he should goe scotfree as any of his Mates in the Text) he hath as great cause to be ashamed as a Thief or a Murtherer.

The Second Gospel-command I shall instance in, is that of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. 1 Thes. 4.—11. Study to be quiet, and doe your own business. Quietness is here enjoyned under the notion and quality of an Art or Science; for we are commanded to study it.Proprie est honoris consequendi gratia anniti. Piscat. in loc. [...], seek with an holy ambition, thinking it an honour to live in peace. The quietness there commended to our ambitious endeavour, I conceive, to import, not a quietness from motion, but from commotion or troubling of others; a contented calm conversation, opposite to tumultuous turbulence, and restless intermedling with things wherein [Page] others are concerned. But how shall we attain to be masters of this Art of quietness? The means most available that way, the Apostle prescribes in the next words, [...], to doe our own business, letting other mens matters alone to themselves. For a man then not to content himself with his own affairs, but to mix himself with other mens; and without any lawfull appointment or allowance, to thrust himself into another's Place and Employment, is contrary to that quietness which Christians are to study, a manifest breach of this great Gospel-command, and consequently inconsistent with the ordinance of God.

A Third Evangelical precept, is that of our blessed Saviour.Mat. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe ye even so to them. Sic cum unoquo (que) agas tanquam tu illius indueris personam, ille tuam. Hierocles apud Stobaeum Serm. 84. It is a principle both natural and divine, enjoyned by our heavenly Law-giver, as a ground and rule of all equity amongst men. Lactantius thus comments on it: Radix & omnis fundamentum aequitatis est illud: vide ut ne facias ulli quod pati nolis, sed alterius animum de tuo metieris. This is the root and foundation of all equity [Page] for a man to be carefull no to doe that to another, which he would not suffer himself; but to measure another man's mind by his own.

Now I appeal to the hearts and consciences of those Ministers, that thrust themselves now into other mens Congregations and Parishes, and there in private houses gather together a company of disciples and followers of the more giddy and unstable sort of People, (for such they are for the most part, that not content with the publick labours of their own Pastors, flock to private Conventicles) and set up a course of Preaching and other Ministerial Acts: whether, if they were Pastors of Congregations (as sometimes they were) and had a charge of a flock of God's People committed to them (for whose Souls they and none else, must be accountable) they would take it well, or permit it (if they could otherwise help it) that a stranger should thrust himself into their Parishes, and lead away a number of their People to private Assemblies in corners, to a dependence on them for teaching, and other duties, which they obtrude [Page] upon them as the worship and service of God, even to the forsaking and loathing of that, which is publickly established, for waiting on them in private? And whether, when those men were in their Pastoral charges, and in the late time, Anabaptists, Familists, and other Sectaries, did the like, as they themselves now doe, (set up private Conventicles in several Towns and Parishes) they did not account themselves much injured thereby, and made their Pulpits sound loud against it, nay, oppose it by all means they possibly could? Which is a truth sufficiently known to all that have been hearers of them, or know their practices.

Neither will it suffice them to say, those whom they then opposed were Persons heterodox in their judgments, and corrupt in their opinions. For,

1. So may these House-creeping Preachers be also,Quicun (que) malis vitam maculaverit actis, Ad tenebras pavidus refugit, ne lumineclaro Sordida pollutae pateant contagia mentis. Juven. l. 2. for ought any one knows▪ If it be sound Divinity they Preach, it is avowable, and publication is a fair Argument of truth. Truth seeks no corners: it is onely ashamed to be hidden; as the Sun to be clouded or eclipsed. The desire of Secre [...]ie and [Page] Privacy renders their Doctrines suspicious of falshood and errour. In the dark, gross faults are not perceived; and they are evil-doers onely that are said by our Saviour1. Joh. 3. 20. to hate the light. While men doe nothing but well, they need not conceal and hide their doings. ‘The very Heathen (as a Divine of ours observes) did worship their Gods sub dio, without Roofs or Coverings Dr. Don. in a free openness; and where they could, in Temples made with Specular Stone,Honesta semper publico gaudent, scelera secreta sunt. Cur nunquampalam loqui, nunquam libere congregari sustinent, nisi illud quod colunt, aut puniendum est aut pudendum. that was transparent as Cristal, so as that they that walked without in the Streets, might see all that was done within. And even nature it self taught the natural man, to make that an Argument of a man truly Religious, aperto vivere voto; that he durst pray aloud, and let the world hear what he asked at God's hands, which duty (saith he) is best performed when we joyn with the Congregation in publick Prayers. St. Austin hath made that note upon the Donatists that they were clanculary, clandestine Divines, Divines in corners. And in Photius we have such a note [Page] almost upon all Hereticks; as the Nestorian was called Coluber, a Snake, because though he kept in the Garden, in the Church, he lurked and lay hid to doe mischief.’ And truly so long as the Preaching of the Gospel is not persecuted, and there is no prohibition to the contrary, as (2 Chron. 28.—24. Act. 16. 6. sometimes there was) it seems to me to be contrary to the very nature of it (herein differing from the Law, that it is not confined to any one Nation or Place, nor is subject to (2 Tim. 2. 9. bonds or restraint) to be shut up in private houses, and taught in secret, and not rather to be published in Churches and open Places of free and common resort. The command to the Apostles wasAct. 5. 20. Go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life. And accordingly was their Practice, Act. 9. 20. Act. 13. 14. 44. 'Tis true the godly in times past, had their private Meetings, in Deserts, Mountains, Dens, and Caves of the Earth. But the case is not alike with us, as with them. The times then were of most bloudy Persecution, when neither Preacher nor Professour escaped the Fire; and therefore were enforced [Page] to conceal themselves, and privately to enjoy those Comforts, and discharge those Duties and Exercises of Religion, which they could not publickly be suffered to doe. But those who set up and frequent private Meetings now, may enjoy the preaching and reading of the Word, prayers to God, confession of Sin, profession of Faith, and benefit of the Sacraments, in the publick Assemblies of the Saints: Yea, they are not onely allowed, but commanded by Authority so to doe, but they will not. Those Teachers then that in these Halcion days of the Gospel creep into corners to vent their Doctrines, discover themselves to be, either,

First, Seditious and Schismatical, seeking to make Parties and Divisions in the Church. Or,

Secondly, Proud and Arrogant, preferring their own Opinions and Doctrines, Assemblies and Persons, before all other. Or,

Thirdly, False and Erroneous; for all damnable Heresies, and Doctrines of Perdition, which pervert and destroy Souls, are thus brought in underhand [Page] privily, 2 Pet. 2. 1. by such as creep into the Church of God by stealth. At least, they are destitute of that means of justification and defence of the truth, which our Saviour Christ had, and which all Christ's Ministers in a setled Church ought to have, viz. to appeal to the publick Audience. Joh. 18. 21. That which is publickly Preached, may be proved and tryed, but not so well that which is taught in obscurity.

2. What the Judgments and Opinions of these Men have been, and that in all those things wherein the Peace of the Church, and the Salvation of Souls of Christians are concerned, I mean the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship, as it stands established in the Church of England, the World hath had sufficient knowledge and experience, by the late bloudy Wars and Persecutions raised thereabout.

3. Lastly, The question is not (as hath been said) de facto, what Doctrine these men deliver in their private Conventions, but de jure, what right they have to Preach any, in other Mens Parishes, as they doe.

[Page] Such a Person then, whosoever he be, that doeth that to others, which he would not have done to himself, nay, which he hath opposed and disliked in others, is (as the Apostle calls him) [...] (Tit. 3. 11. condemned of himself, as sinning wittingly, and wilfully spurning against a known truth sparkling and shining in his Conscience. The waiting on such Mens Ministry is so far from being the Ordinance of God, that he commands all men toTit. 3. 10. avoid them.

ARGUMENT. V.

THat cannot be the Ordinance of God for the working of Grace, that hath no Scripture President, or warrantable Example, to ground it on. For all the Ordinances of God, of this kind, besides his Mandate, have also their exemplification in Scripture, God (ordinarily) working Grace in the hearts of Men, then, as he doth now.

But this private and house-preaching, by an intruder, in a constituted Church, where there is a Preaching Minister established, hath none.

[Page] I deny not, but it may be lawfull in some Cases, to have all the parts of God's Worship used in a private House. As,

1. In case of infirmity of Body, when People are not able to come to Church. Ecclesiastical History tells us, that in the primitive times, divers of the new converted Christians were Baptized, some in Prison; as appears in the story of Basilides inL. 6. c. 5. Eusebius. And the sick in their beds; asEpist. ad Magnum. Cyprian declares at large. And if any were hindered by Sickness that they could not partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with the Church, it was sent home to them by a Priest or Deacon, if it might be; if not by some other. As appears by the example of Serapion, in an Epistle of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria, to Fabius. Euseb. l. 6. c. 44.

2. In time of Persecution, when the doors of God's House are shut up against us, so as that we cannot have free access to it, or liberty to joyn together with the Congregation in Prayers, hearing the Word, and receiving the Sacraments; as it was in the days of King2 Chron. 28.—24. Ahaz. Thus Victor reports [Page] that in the Persecution by the Vandals, the Congregations of Christians in Africa, being through the vastations of War deprived of their Churches, did hold their Assemblings together for Divine Worship, whereever they could. And the same Authour tells us, that because of the rage of the Arian Hereticks, the Orthodox Christians had their Meetings in private Houses. Or in such other like Cases of special necessity.

Yet our Saviour Christ in the Iewish Church, as, before he was a Preacher, his custome was to frequent the publick Assembly inLuk. 4. 16. the Synagogue every Sabbath-day; so, after he set upon the execution of that Function, he never used to Preach privately in Houses. Hear what he saith himself, when the High-Priest asked him of his Disciples and Doctrine,Joh. 18. 19,—20. Matt. 26. 55. Iesus answered him, I spake openly to the World: I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple, whither the Iews always resort, and in secret have I said nothing. His words are plain; yet because with some Men, Fancy and Affection do prevail over their Judgments and Reason (according [Page] to that saying of St. Austin, Aug. cont. Julian. l. 1. periit siquidem judicium, postquam res transiit in affectum; & nostram qualemcun (que) quia nostra jam facta est, praevalere volumus sententiam) Therefore I shall endeavour to clear the truth of our Saviour's Speech in that saying of his to the High-Priest; and shew, that he was always a publick orderly Preacher, and never a private irregular Conventicler. And though the contrary could be proved, yet it would make nothing for the irregular Practice of some in this Age whom I am disputing against, seeing the question is of such Persons onely, as have an ordinary calling to the Ministry (whereas our Saviour Christ's was extraordinary) in a setled Gospel-Church (whereas the Iewish-Church was in Christ's time expiring, and the Gospel-Church beginning,) and are intruders into other Mens Charges and Congregations, as our Saviour neither was, nor could be, seeing he was the supreme Lord of his Church, and Heir of all things.

In those words of his, First (saith he) I spake [...], openly. The word properly signifies freedom and [Page] liberty of Speech; which Piscator thus explainsPiscat. in 1 Thes. 2. 2. Cum quis omne id dicit quod ad rem pertinet, nihil veritus offensionem eorum, quibuscum loquitur. When a Man speaks that which properly pertains to the matter in hand, not fearing though it offend those to whom he speaks. Oftentimes in Scripture it signifies, o [...]enly. And in this place Tremelius renders it by apertè, and Beza by palam; both openly. So that our Saviour professeth here, that his Doctrine, as it was heavenly truth, and delivered without fear of danger, or hatred of Men, or persecution of the World; so not in a Corner or Conventicle, but openly and in publick.

Secondly, I spake (saith he) not to a few Select Persons, to a gathered Church, but [...], to the World, i. e. To all sorts of Men in the World, without any difference or distinction, either of Nation, Place of State, even to as many as would come to hear me. Though indeed for the most part he Preach'd in Iudaea and Galilee (whence he was calledRom. 15. 8. a Minister of the Circumcision) and saith,Mat. 15. 24. that he was not sent, save unto the lost Sheep of the house [Page]of Israel: yet doubtless sometimes he Preached to a promiscuous Company both of Iews and Gentiles, without making any difference, Matt. 15. 21.

Thirdly, I taught, saith he, in the Synagogue. There was one onely Temple among the Iews, and that was at Ierusalem: but as in other Cities and Towns of the Iews, so also in the Metropolitan City, besides the Temple, there were Synagogues; which were publick places appointed for Prayers, Sermons, Reading, and exposition of the Law and the Prophets to the People. And in the Synagogues at Ierusalem, and other Towns and Cities, Christ did most frequently and constantly Preach, as the Scriptures do abundantly testifie, Matt. 4. 23. Matt. 13. 53, 54. Matt. 21. 23. Matt. 9. 35. Matt. 12. 9. Mark 1. 21. Mark 6. 2. Luk. 4. 16. 21. and 44. Luk. 6. 6. Ioh. 6. 59, &c.

Fourthly, He saith, I not onely taught in the Synagogues, but in the Temple, the most solemn and publick Place. The Temple at Ierusalem was the place where the Priests did offer daily Sacrifices, and taught the People; to which, thrice in the year, all the Males, from [Page] all the Coasts of Iudaea, were to resort. In this Temple did our Saviour Christ very frequently Preach, Matt. 21. 23. Luk. 19. 47, &c.

Fifthly, I taught, saith he, where the Iews always resort; where there was a full and free Concourse of all the Nation of the Iews, and many Gentiles also, from all Parts and Quarters of Iudaea.

Lastly, And in private, saith he, I have said nothing. As if he had purposely and expressly denied himself to be, what they were apt to charge him with, a private, seditious, and Schismatical Conventicler.

'Tis true, that sometimes, through so great a resort of People to him, that neither the Synagogue nor Temple could hold them, he was fain to takeMatt. 4. ult. with Matt. 5.—1, 2. a Mountain for his Pulpit. Sometimes being not able to stand quiet, for the throng of People that crouded him, he retreated toLuk. 5. 13. a Ship, that he might be the better heard, and taught the People from thence. Yet all this was publickly and openly to the World.

As for Religious discourse with his Disciples, or others, in private Houses, [Page] either by way of explanation, or repetition of his publick Sermons, that we deny not, but he often used it. For we reade that when he wasMark. 4. 10. [...] alone, they that were about him with the twelve, asked him of the Parable. But as for substance of Doctrine, it was allways publick. He never spake privately to his Disciples, or others, but they were the same things which he Preach'd publickly. He spake not other things to them in private, than what he spake publickly, but in another manner. And therefore even to that exposition of his Doctrine, which he made privately to his Disciples, he addsMatt. 4. 21.—22. Is a Candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a Candlestick? For there is nothing hid that shall not be manifested? q. d. these Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are therefore revealed unto you, not that ye should Preach them in Corners, but to the whole World.

As for that place of St. Mark Mark 2. 2. which seems to speak of Christ's Preaching in a private House; though it be craftily urged on ignorant People, yet if rightly understood, it cannot make ought [Page] against what hath been said. For I demand, was it a truth our Saviour Christ said, I always taught in the Synagogues and in the Temple, and in private I have said nothing, or was it not? To say the latter, were no less than blasphemy, and to give him the lye, who is the God of truth, who knew no 1 Pet. 2. 20. sin, neither was guile ever found in his mouth. If it was a truth (as it must needs, without monstrous impiety, be acknowledged to be) then he ever taught in the Synagogues, and in the Temple, and in private he said nothing. The occasion of it was, his being called in question for his Doctrine; his answer to which plainly declares, that as for substantials of Evangelical Doctrines, he ever taught them openly to the World in the Jewish Synagogues and Temple. Otherwise it would have been absurd for our Saviour to have said as he didJoh. 18. 12. to Pilate, why askest thou me of my Doctrine? ask them that heard me: Behold they know what I have said. For Pilate could not ask the Iews that were then present of any thing that he had said in private, seeing they were none of his private Companions or Followers.

[Page] If therefore there be any seeming Antilogy in any other Scripture, it is not so in reality, but appearance; it may seem so to our weakness, but it is not so in it self. For the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of truth in one place, is so throughout all the Scripture, without any real contradiction to it self, any where.

Therefore to that place of St. Mark I have two things to answer. First,Ans. 1. our English translation in that phrase (he preached the word unto them) doth not properly nor genuinely answer the Original Greek: which is, [...], he spake to them; or as Beza renders it, loquebatur eis sermonem, he made a speech to them. And Tremelius, loquebatur cum eis sermonem, he talked or discoursed with them. Doubtless about Gospel-truths and Heavenly matters. When ever our Saviour Christ preach'd, or spake Sermon-wise, the Scripture useth other words to express it by, as [...], to teach. [...] to preach or publish as an Herauld, in open place, in the hearing of a multitude: or [...], to preach the Gospel. But as for the word here used by [Page] the Holy Ghost [...], it is never used in Scripture properly and strictly to signifie to preach; but to speak, talk, or discourse; which differs much from preaching. For though it be true, that whosoever preacheth, speaketh; yet it is not true that whosoever speaketh, preacheth. In all Languages there have ever been held a difference betwixt speaking and preaching. Solius sacerdotis est praedicare, loqui autem communis vulgi. Yea it is observed by the most skillfull in that Language that this word [...] amongst Greek Authours, is still used for the worst kind of speaking or talking. But in the New Testament indeed, it is used in a better sense, but never properly and strictly for, to preach; but to speak as we do in common talk or discourse. When the Devil speaketh a Lye he speaketh it of his own, Joh. 8. 44. When I was a Child, I spake as a Child. 1 Cor. 13. 11. Speak the truth every man to his neighbour. Eph. 4. 25. And in many other places we have the same word used, which were most absurd to render by the word, preach. So that all that can be rationally or certainly gathered [Page] from that saying of St. Mark, is no more but this: That our Saviour Christ seeing such a multitude of people flock about him, took an occasion to fall into a religious discourse with them, and to talk with them of divine and heavenly matters: whether it were by minding them, of what he had publickly thaught, or explaining his Pulpit-doctrines to them, we need not much trouble our selves to inquire.

But suppose he did preach (though it was not privately,Ans. 2. but openly enough to the World, as any one that looks into the history, as it is recorded by the Evangelists, may easily perceive) in that house, or any else (as by his Divine prerogative he might doe what he would, and that which every private Minister is not bound to follow him in) yet how it can be made use of to countenance those, that set up a course of house-preaching, and that in other mens Parishes, where there are Preaching Ministers established by Law, and where they have no manner of allowance or Authority so to doe (as our Saviour Christ had) nay being forbidden by Authority (as he was not) [Page] I do not understand. As for speaking to or with the people, in that house or any other; or making use of that, or any other private meeting, either in separation from, or competition with, much less in opposition to, the publick Ordinances of God then in use (as our Conventicles now-a-days are used) that was far from our Saviour's meaning or practice, who improved that, and all meetings and occasions, in subordination and direct subserviency to the Synagogue-service and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church.

And that Christ should be a publick, and not a private house-preacher, the Scriptures did foretell long before his coming: By the Prophet Esay. Es. 45. 19. I have not spoken in secret, in the dark places of the earth. And by Solomon Prov. 1. 21. 22. wisedom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets, she crieth in the chief place of Concourse, in the opening of the gates, in the City she uttereth her words. All which was spoken of Christ, who is the Wisedom of God,Col. 2. 3. in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedom and knowledge. And it is observable what Iunius notes upon those words: She [Page]cried in the chief place of Concourse; ubicunque est maxima frequentia, sumpta l [...] cutio à concionum ritu. The form of speech is taken from the rite, order, and approved custome of Sermons, which were ever publick.Hooker's Eccles. polit. l. 5. Sect. 18. For things are said to be preach'd, not in that they are taught, but in that they are published in open hearing of all; saith Mr. Hooker.

Thus it appears our Saviour Christ was no private Conventicler, or house [...] creeping Preacher. He disclaims it in himself, and disallows it in his servants [...] whom he forewarns not to seek him in Corners.Mat. 24. 26. If they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert (among those that withdraw themselves from the publick worship) goe not forth: Behold he is in the secret Chambers, believe it not. q. d. When men shall tell you, in such an House, Parlour, or Chamber, there is one that holds forth Christ most sweetly, let us goe hear him; goe not forth, believe it not. For what sweet Doctrine of Christ, his Person, or Offices, can you hear there, which you cannot or may not hear in the publick? Why then will you baulk [Page] the way of God's appointment, and seek Christ in ways of your own invention?

Now it is a wonder, that such as will pretend to Christ's example in circumstantials of the smallest sort, as gestures, vestures, and such like; yet will take boldness wilfully and constantly to swerve from his pattern in matters of such weight, as concern mens Eternal Salvation.

Neither did the Apostles of Christ after him, ever (as the Persons in question) thrust themselves into the places and charges one of another; But as the World was divided amongst them (to whom they were to preach the Gospel) so they did not intrude into one anothers line. They did not [...], meddle with the cure of Souls, committed to the care and charge of others, lest God should say unto them, who required this at your hands?

This is plain from the words of the Apostle2 Cor. [...] we will not boast, [...] of things without our measure, or not measured out to us.C. A. [...] & Bez. in [...] Significat regiones quas Deus nostrae praedicationi non[Page]destinavit, nec admensus est. He means those Countries which God hath not measured out, nor appointed them to preach unto.

'Tis likely the false Apostles were wont to glory that they had been Itinerants, and travelled throughout all parts of the World, preaching the Gospel. But (saith St. Paul) I will glory onely of this, that I have contained my self within those Limits and Bounds which God by his providence hath set me. He hath appointed me such a portion of his People to preach unto, andCalv. in Loc. nihil aliud appetam, vel mihi sumam. I will desire no more, nor take upon me to meddle with any more. [...], but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us. By the word [...] (which properly signifies [...] vocavit assignatam sibi certam veluti arvi Dominici portionem, in quâ excolendâ laboraret. Beza. in Loc. a line to measure out Land, to every owner his proper portion) the Apostle understands (by a Metonymy) a certain quantity and portion of God's Field, the Church, in the tilling and manuring of which, he was to labour. And (saith thev. 14. Apostle) we stretch not our selves beyond this measure of [Page]ours. q. d. I do not meddle or make to preach in any of those places, where I have no right so to doe; nor to till that Field that is appointed for another man to labour in; nor to plant the Gospel in those Countries, which God hath committed to another man's care and pains.

God divided the World amongst the Apostles, distributing to every one of them a certain portion of his people, to preach the Gospel unto, measuring it out unto them, as it were, by line. As the Land of Canaan was divided among the twelve tribes of Israel, the Sons of Iacob. Ps. 78. 55 (He divided them an inheritance by line: the manner whereof may be seen at large in the Book of Ioshuah) in like manner to the twelve Apostles was the World divided; either by a Divine appropriation, or by a voluntary partition, to every one of them was allotted his proper portion, where he was to preach the Gospel and plant a Church. AsC. A Lapide. vid. Platina in vita Petri. to St. Thomas, India: to St. Matthew, Ethiopia: to St. Iohn, Asia: &c. St. Paul was to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and St. Peter to the Jews: Gal. 2. 7. It was a great [Page] sin which God caveats his People against Deut. 19. 14. Prov. 22. 28. to remove their Neighbours Land-mark, whereby every man's inheritance in the Land of Canaan was limited. A great sin it is in all places; And therefore among the Curses pronounced against the Breakers of the Law, this is the thirdDeut. 27. 17. Cursed be he that removeth his Neighbours Land-mark: to which all the People were to say Amen. The Hebrews had a saying Maymon. tract. de furt. c. 7. l. 11. He that removeth his Neighbours Land-mark, and taketh of his Neighbours Limit into his own, though it be but one inch; if he doe it by force it is rapine, if he doe it in secret it is theft. Accordingly, the Apostles thought it a great fault in any of them, to enter into their Neighbours Limits, or to take to themselves but an inch of their possession; and left that to the false Apostles, to boast in another mans line, and to intrude themselves into those places to preach, where any other was appointed for that work.Camero praelect. ad Mat: 16. 18, 19. pag. 11. col. 2. Solicitè cavebant (saith Learned Camero) they were exceeding carefull not to intrench one upon the other, or not to preach the Gospel in those places where others [Page] were appointed to preach, nisi forte vel obiter, vel necessariâ de Causà, unless it were in transitu, onely in a Journey, as St. Paul at Rome, as he travelled intoRom. 15. 24. Spain, or upon some other extraordinary occasion. Therefore the Apostle saith, he did [...] Rom. 15. 20. ambitiously study and endeavour, not to preach the Gospel where Christ was named lest he should build upon another mans Foundation: But to keep within his Line, amongst the People appointed for his pains in the Ministry. Not, but that he might, upon occasion preach elsewhere: for we reade that he preached at Damascus Act. 9. 20. where those Christians were which he would have brought bound to Ierusalem. But this was occasionally, not purposely. As a Minister now may do, when he travels from his own place, and hath occasion to stay abroad, upon request or leave, bestow his pains elsewhere. As Clemens Clem. constit. L. 2. c. 48. tells us it was the custome of the primitive times, that if any Bishop or Presbyter came to another, he was intreated to preach. But concerning St. Paul's preaching abroad out of his own precincts, whether upon intreaty, [Page] or otherwise, we need not inquire, seeing he had an Apostolical power, which was of universal extent in it self, and such as no Minister now can lay claim to. His Commission was (as the rest of the Apostles were) general, and (originally) not confined to any one place, as other Ministers are, but they were to teach all Mat. 28. 19. Nations. Yet because every one of them could not travel and preach in every Countrey, therefore it pleased the Lord afterwards in Wisedom, for good Causes, to order it (as it were) by a second Decree, that Paul should specially have a care of, and preach to theAct. 22. 21. Rom. 1. 5. 1 Tim. 2. 7. Gal. 2. 7. Gentiles. Yet this did no way diminish his Apostolical Authority, nor forbid him from preaching at all to the Iews, or Peter to the Gentiles, if occasion did serve; for of Paul it is expresly saidAct. 9. 15. that he was to carry Christ's Name both to the Gentiles and to the Children of Israel. And it is generally believed that he was the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews. And of St. Peter it is not doubted that he both at Antioch and elsewhere, preached the Gospel both to Iews and Gentiles. The Apostolical [Page] power did extend to all Nations, but the Conveniency of the Church did require that some of them should be fixed to one sort of People in one place, and some to another. 'Tis true, St. Paul saith he was2 Cor. 11. 28. troubled with the care of all the Churches. i. e. as he was an Apostle, so the care of all the Churches lay upon him, quod ad jus attinet, & potestatem, (saith Camero) he had right and power, to take care of all the Churches, as an Apostle, and so differing from all Bishops and Presbyters now. And doubtless (as all good Ministers of Christ do) he did take all the care that lawfully he might, or could, of the whole Church of Christ; especially of all those within his own precincts, and of his own planting; which, by an usual Synecdoche in Scripture, are termed, all. Yet [...], for order and peace sake, it pleased God that their persons and labours should be appointed for several distinct parts of the World, as in his infinite Wisedom he saw was most convenient, for the better propagation of the Gospel of Christ, in all the World. And it is the observation of the Excellent [Page] Divine Martin Chemnitius in his Commentary on that temporary precept of our Saviour Christ to his Disciples. Mat. 10. 5, 6. Goe not into the way of the Gentiles, &c. Chemnit. Harm. Evang. c. 72. pag. 1025. Hoc temporarium praeceptum fideles verbi Dei ministros admonet, ut singuli se intra metas legitimae suae vocationis, ad pascendum illum Dei gregem, qui ipsis commissus est (1 Pet. 5. 2.) contineant, nec latiùs evagentur, aut falcem suam in alterius pastoris messem, nisi speciali concessione vel vocatione, mittant. This temporary percept doth warn all the faithful Ministers of God's word, that all of them should contain themselves within the bounds of their lawfull Calling, to feed that flock of God that is committed unto them, and not to wander abroad or thrust their hook into the harvest of another Pastour, without his special leave or calling.

By all which it appears that a forcible or surreptitious entry of one Minister, into another's charge, is destitute of all Scripture president or allowance; and therefore cannot be the Ordinance of God.

The Example of the Apostles meeting and preaching sometimes in private [Page] Houses, I conceive, cannot (but most impertinently) be urged to defend the practice I here dispute against. For,

1. 'Tis not to the question, which is, of a setled constituted Church, where a preaching Ministry is established by Law. The Christian Church in the Apostles days, was not [...]etled and established, as is ours, but in a way to be so.

2. The Magistrate was then heathen all the World over, ours now Christian. Publick preaching and Christian meetings, were not then suffered; our Church-Assemblies, are not onely allowed and protected, but commanded by Sovereign Authority.

3. They had then, either none at all, or very few Christian-Churches erected, and so were forced to meet where they could; we want not Churches, but hearts to resort to them.

4. The Apostles had a general and extraordinary call to preach any where, through all Coasts and Parts of the World, where they were appointed to plant Churches; so have not the Persons in question. The office of an Apostle or Evangelist is now ceased.

[Page] 5. It can never be proved, that the Apostles did, or would have made use of their private meetings, either in competition with or opposition to the publick Ordinances of God (as our modern Conventicles are) but in subserviency (according as the necessity of those times did require) to what publick and solemn Assemblies, they could then, or might in after-times, enjoy. For as our Saviour made use of all private Conferences and Meetings, not in separation from, competition with, or opposition against, but in professed subserviency to the Synagogue-service, and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church; so I am perswaded, that the Apostles of Christ, together with the primitive Christians, would have done the like, had the case in their time, with respect to the publick exercise of Christian Religion, been the same, or the like to what it was in our Saviour Christ's time, with respect to the publick exercise of the Religion of the Iews. But forasmuch as there were no Conventions for publick exercise of Christian Religion permitted or commanded in those times, untill [Page] the Roman Empire, and other Kingdoms of the World, became Christian; it was therefore a thing impossible, that the private Meetings of the Apostles and those primitive Christians, should be so made use of, in subordination to the publick Assemblies as were the private Meetings of our Saviour and his Disciples in the Jewish Church. So that the case and condition of Christianity in the primitive times, is so different from, and contrary to, what it is in the Church of England, where the publick worship is protected, and commanded by Authority, that their private Meetings cannot possibly hold any proportion or similitude with ours. So that to argue from private Meetings in those times of persecution of Christianity, to private Meetings in England in these days, is to take away the subject of the question, and then to argue the case.

6. Neither did one Apostle then thrust himself into the place where another was to labour, but contained himself within the compass of his Line, and portion of God's People that he was appointed to preach to. But the [Page] matter in question is of a quite contrary nature, viz. of a silenced Minister's intruding himself in amongst a People, over whom there is a preaching Ministry established, and there taking upon him to gather Conventions, teach that People and perform ministerial Acts amongst them contrary to good Laws, without the consent, yea against the allowance of the Pastour of the place. So that neither the example of our Saviour Christ, nor of his Apostles can be brought to justifie or allow any such practice.

ARGUMENT. VI.

THAT which God in his word hath branded with a black mark, forewarning and commanding his People to avoid, cannot be his ordinance or means of grace. For it is not God's manner to stygmatize or disgrace his own ordinances, or to forbid or discourage any in the use of them; but to dignifie, advance the honour, and strictly to enjoin the use of them: as knowing [Page] that the Devil and his instruments will sufficiently vilifie and disgrace them, and that there will be enough in all ages, who will disuse and forsake them. Yea God hath so far dignified his ordinances of the word and sacrament; (which he intends to make use of as means of grace) that when he might have wrought it in mens hearts immediately by his own spirit, yet he hath put them off to his Ministers to doe it, which is no small honour. The case of the Eunuch in the Acts makes this plain, Act. 8. 29. The Spirit bad Philip join himself to the Chariot. Yea when God himself hath begun the work, yet he would not perfect it himself, but hath handed it over to his Ministers, to be completed by them. This he did at the Conversion of St. Paul, Act. 9. 17. He sent Ananias to him, who entered into the House, and put his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord (even Iesus which appeared to thee in the way as thou camest) hath sent me that thou shouldst receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. What greater honour than this, could God have put upon his Ordinance of the Ministry?

[Page]But he hath set a black mark, and brand upon the Persons and Ministry in question, and commanded a withdrawing from them.Rom. 16.—17, 18. [...] scl't attente & diligenter quasi hostes è speculaâ observare. Beza. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them: for they that are such, serve not the Lord Iesus, but their own bellies, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. The Emphasis of the Apostles words is worthy our observation. Mark them, signifying such a diligent, wary, and circumspect care, as Watchmen use that stand on an high Tower to descry the approach of an Enemie. They mark diligently all Comers, and give notice according as they apprehend any danger, for the preservation of the City. And avoid them; as dangerous Persons, hurtfull to Christian Society. And how sweet and fair soever their words seem to be, yet they will2 Tim. 2. 17. eat as doth a Canker. They give not their poison, but wrapt up in Honey. Their smooth Language is their net, wherewith they catch many a simple Soul, that is not exceeding carefull lest any man should [Page] beguile him (as Ioab did2 Sam. 20.—9, 10. Amasa) with enticing words. Their flattering speeches and specious pretenses of Purity and Doctrine, and tenderness of Conscience, tend to no other, but to deceive the simple and unwary, to get themselves a maintenance, and to fill their own bellies, they are like the false Apostles in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 11.—13. 20. who transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ, yet were but deceitfull workers, to bring that People into bondage, to devour them, and to take of them.

How guilty the persons in question are, of causing Divisions amongst People whereever they come, of renting the Unity of the Church, and disturbing the peace thereof; of giving offence to Rulers and Governours by their constant and wilfull violation of all Ecclesiastical and Civil order and discipline, is too notoriously known by sad experience in all places. And whether the other Character in the text, belongs to them, that they are [...], and seek not so much mens Souls (for therein they may spare their pains as needless, where there is a preaching [Page] Ministry established) as their purses. [...] 2 Cor. 2. 17. making merchandize of the word of God; their hearers and followers are best able to tell, and will (I think) in a while, be weary of it. In the mean time, we that are Pastours of Flocks, find by experience, in those places where these persons intrude themselves, that the People are ready to pull their own Ministers bread out of their mouths, to feed those their new Masters, live we never so blamelesly, and take we never so much pains amongst them, for the good of their Souls. Yea, they hate those their Ministers most, who best deserve their love, and lay most obligations on them. According to that of the Philosopher,Sen. Leve aes alienum debitorem facit, grave, inin [...]icum. A bad Debtor when he owes but a small summ, will be contented to look towards you; but when it is great, more than he can well pay, or, as much as he thinks he can get, then he will be glad to be rid of you.

Again: The Apostle foretells, that towards the latter end of the World (and surely those days are come upon [Page] us)2 Tim. 3. 5, 6. Perilous times shall come, and there shall be many that shall creep into houses, and lead Captive silly Women—; from such turn away. And whom do the men (we are speaking of) most prevail upon, and draw after them? but easie and unstable souls, such as have itching Ears, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, well meaning People that are spurred on with zeal, and want judgment to hold the reins,Saepè fit ut qui falsum ex una parte apparens vident, ejus fugiendi studio abrepti longiùs, non in verum deveniant, sed in falsum alia parte positum, atque ita errorem non exuunt sed mutent. Hug. Grotius, in disquisit. Pelagiana. pag. 1. many times an over vehement bending into some way of our own chusing, doth not onely withdraw us from the left hand way, the way of Idolatry and Superstition (from which we should all withdraw) but from the middle way too, in which we should all walk. And then the danger is great. The Devil doth many times make zeal and religion his instrument, to drive men on to incredible extremities of impiety. For, if he cannot take away mens faith, yet he will quench their Charity to others, even to those to whom they owe it most. ‘ForHooker Ec [...]es. polit. [...]. 5. sect. 3. zeal, except it be ordered aright, when it bendeth it self to conflict with things either indeed, or but imagined to [...]e [Page] opposite to Religion, useth the razor many times with such eagerness, that the very life of Religion is thereby hazarded, through hatred of tares, the corn in the field is plucked up. So that zeal needeth both ways a sober guide. Zeal against Poperty (saith another learned Authour, who conceals his name) except it be bridled by discretion, and attended by equal pace of strength, is not the way to protect, but to betray a cause. Those that were lately zealous for the good old cause, lost it; and the King had not better friends, than his most implacable Enemies. Fury is as bad in a Champion, as torpour; it is an even temperature of wisedom and valour that doeth the execution. A sober Protestant though he rageth less, shall prevail more on a Papist, than a mad Fanatique. The greatest part of zeal against Popery that is found amongst the Nonconformists, is like that of one frantick, who wounds himself, whilst he would strike his foe. They cannot confute it without condemning themselves. This unguided zeal will be sure to run far enough [Page] from Popery, and so runs into it; as he that sails round the Globe, the farther he goes, after he is half way, the nearer he approacheth to the place whence he set out. The Quakers, a considerable part of the Nonconformists, railed at Popery, till they began to be taken for Jesuits, or their Disciples.’

The like Stygma the Apostle St. Iude casts upon such Persons, There are Jude 4. certain men crept in unawares, &c. [...]. How disgracefully and disdainfully the Scripture seems to speak of them, who irregularly, and contrary to good order and lawfull appointment, intrude themselves, as Teachers, into the Church, under pretence of Religion! They [...] subrepo, furtim intro. creep in amongst People; they come in by stealth, as if they came in at a Window or Backdoor, insinuating themselves into flocks and societies of God's People, creeping to Conventicles; professing themselves to be the onely Gospel-preachers, and pure Worshippers of God, as if all Religion were lost, except what they bring and profess: Whereas they are indeed (unless we will mince the [Page] Appellation the Holy Scripture fastens on them) but a new sort of Creepers gotten into the body of the Church. From such (saith the Holy Ghost) 2 Tim. 3. 5, 6. turn away.

Again, St. Paul, 2 Thes. 3. 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ, that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not according to the Tradition he hath received from us. With more Apostolical Gravity and Authority, a Duty cannot be urged on Christians, than this, of withdrawing or separating from such, as walk [...], disorderly. The Metaphor (say Expositours) is borrowed from the custome of War; wherein every Souldier hath his proper station and employment appointed him, from which when he swerves, he becomes [...], out of his rank. Now in an Army, every Officer hath his place, Company and Command assigned him by his General, whereunto he must keep, and from which he must not stir. And if he should leave his place, and take upon him, either to make an attempt on the Enemy of his own head, without Commission and [Page] Orders from his General, though with never so good success; or Command in another Company, than that which is assigned and allotted to him by Authority, he is guilty of a breach of that [...], good order and discipline that ought to be in an Army, and brings in a most odious and destructive disorder and confusion: and so deserves to be either quite cashiered, or otherwise by Martial Law severely to be punished. Yea, so absolutely necessary hath it been thought, in the opinion of experienced Souldiers, that the Laws and Orders of Martial-discipline in an Army should be strictly observed, that whosoever have erred from it, though in the least Punctilio, have been adjudged worthy of death without mercy. Famous to this purpose is that story we reade in Valerius Maximus, of Manlius Torquatus Consul of the Romans in the Latin War, who commanded his own Son to be beheaded, for fighting the Enemy without his Father's Privity and Command, though he was provoked thereunto by Geminius Metius General of the Tusculans, and although he had obtained a signal Victory, and very much [Page] and rich spoil:Valer. Max. L. 2. c. 7. Sati [...]s esse judicans patrem forti silio, quam patriam militari disciplina carere: Judging it better that a Father should be deprived of a valiant Son, than that his Country should want Military discipline. The Church is by Christ twice together in one placeCant. 6. 4. 10. said to be an Army with banners: he that is the Commander in chief is God himself, holy, just and wise; not the Authour of Confusion, but the institutour and lover of order, and the hater and punisher of such as wilfully transgress such good rules of wholsome discipline, as he, either immediately by himself or mediately by his Deputies on earth, shall establish amongst his People. And is Discipline so needfull in an Army, and can it be thought needless in the Church? Is our spiritual warfare of less danger of concernment than our bodily? Shall it be thought to be a venial offence, to be committed without danger, when a person shall undertake to intrude himself into the place and company of another, and lead on, and engage a Party in the Church militant, into ways of schism and profaneness, in opposition to the [Page] way of true Religion and Worship of God established, not onely without any lawfull allowance, but contrary to all Law and Discipline, both Civil and Ecclesiastical? The baseness and wickedness of such doings, is excellently displayed by Learned Doctor Henry More in his Apology annexed to the second part ofPag. 549. his enquiry into the Mystery of iniquity. ‘Because some men (saith he) think themselves of more popular gifts for Prayer and Exhortation; for these to spur out, and run on in a Career, without attending the direction of their Superiours, were as if the Toy should take those Troopers that are best horsed, to set madly a gallopping, because they find their horses will goe so freely, and so turn the orderly. March of the Army into a confused Horse-race, and put themselves into a rout, even without the assault or pursuit of any Enemy.’

Can it be pleasing to Christ that any should follow such men in their irregular and hare-brain'd ways, when his Apostle bids all men2 Thes. 3. 6. from such to withdraw? To what end should there be such flocking after them, unless their [Page] followers could be partakers of some spiritual benefit from them? But this cannot be. For their disorderly walking, and busie medling where they have not to doe, renders all they doe unprofitable, and is (in effect) a spending of a great deal of pains, to no purpose; wearying themselves out to weave the Spiders Webb, and to sow to the wind. The Apostle doth most excellently express it in a most elegant allusion of words, [...], Syr. nihil quicquam operantes nisi vana. working not at all, but are busie-bodies. Their work is neither lawfull, nor profitable. For seeing that the Ministers of Christ are disposed of in the Church [...] Col. 1. 25. according to the dispensation of God; it doth follow, that those things which they teach or doe, receive their force and effect not from their own wills and authority, but from the Authority, Approbation and Concurrence of him that sends them. And therefore what a Minister doeth contrary to the will of God, cannot be of any force or effect at all, as to the accomplishment of the end, on mens souls, for which God ordained the Ministry, for he is bound to [Page] preach not onely those things, but in that manner as God hath appointed.

God's Command for a separation and withdrawing from such dividing, house-creeping, and disorderly Persons, must needs argue their Ministry not to be his ordinance, since he so brands it, and gives such Cautions against it.

ARGUMENT. VII.

THAT cannot be the Ordinance of God for the working of grace, that is performed without any manner of Commission or Authority. For the necessity of keeping that good order which God hath commanded in his Church, requires, that no man should attempt any thing of that important nature and high concernment, upon his own head, or, by a power derived no higher than from himself. Whosoever shall take upon him to preach God's word, in order to the Conversion or saving of souls, must be able to give a good answer, to that question which the chief Priest and Elders [Page] of the People, put to our Saviour Christ, when he was teaching in the Temple. Mat. 21. 23. By what Authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee this Authority? He that cannot make a sufficient and satisfactory reply to it, and yet shall adventure upon the work, may justly be accounted rash, indiscreet, and more hasty than needeth, or than wisedom requireth.

But such is the Ministry in question; undertaken without any Authority or Commission. For all the Authority and Commission that a Minister hath, in a constituted setled Church, he receives in his ordination. Before that, he had no Authority or Warrant at all to preach the word, or to perform any ministerial Act. Now all the Authority that a Minister of the Church of England hath delivered to him in his ordination, is expressed in these words: Take thou Authority to preach the word, and to administer the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto.

In which words it is plain that the exercise of his Ministry is restrained to lawfull appointment, as to the place where [Page] it shall be exercised. What that lawfull appointment is, I need not trouble my self or the reader here, to look into, seeing the Ministry in question hath not the least colour of it, or pretence to it, for it is supposed to be in a place where there is another lawfully appointed to perform the same. In the Council of Chalcedon (where there were 630 Fathers met, about the year of our Lord 451) It was thus decreed Concil. Chalced. Can. 6. Neminem absolute ordinari jubemus, Presbyterum, aut Diaconum, nec quemlibet in Ecclesiasticâ ordinatione constitutum: Eos autem qui absolute ordinantur decrevit sancta synodus vacuam habere manûs impositionem. That none should be ordained absolutely, whether Presbyter or Deacon, or any in Ecclesiastical orders: and whosoever should be absolutely ordained, the Holy Synod decreed his ordination void. And the 33th Canon of the Church of England [...]aith, That it hath been long since provided by many Decrees of ancient Fathers, that none should be admitted either Deacon or Priest, who had not first some certain place where he might use his function.

[Page] For though in ordination the person ordained is made a Minister of the Catholick Church; and being ordained to a function, he may (by the appointment of those that have Authority in the Church, or with leave of the Pastour of the Congregation) preach any where: And although (as Mr. Baines observes) It is good P. Balnes in Eph. 3. 2. for a Minister to be like a young Woman, so full breasted, that she can both feed her own Child, and lend a draught, upon intreaty, to her Neighbours: Yet he is not a Catholick Minister of the Church (as the Apostles and Evangelists were, whose office, being extraordinary, is long since ceased in the Church,) and therefore ought not to take upon himself to preach any where.

Neither yet did the Apostles themselves doe so, (as hath been proved) though their Commission was without Limit, as to place. But kept within their Line measured forth by God to them. It was never God's intention that the two Tribes of Levi, and Gad, should be confounded one with another; nor is it any way agreeable with Scripture rules and order, that a Minister should [Page] be, a wandring star, but fixed regularly in some Orb of the Church, as a Pastour of some Flock or Congregation of his People.

Seeing therefore none is lawfully appointed to perform the ministerial function, or any part of it, in such a place as is in question, but the Minister of that Congregation; acts of the Ministry done by any other Person that shall intrude himself among them, without and against his consent, contrary to lawfull appointment, and all good constitution that concern admission of Ministers to pastoral charges, are done without any Authority, Commission, or effect; and consequently cannot be God's Ordinance, who doth not use to send any to preach in order to the working of grace in means hearts, without any Power or Authority, yea against both.

ARGUMENT. VIII.

[Page]

THAT cannot be the ordinance of God, as instrumental to the work of grace, that instead of building up People in Faith and Holiness, demolisheth Christian Duty, and, in the natural tendency of it, produceth sinfull and pernicious effects. 'Tis true, these may accidentally follow, through the Corruption of man's nature, and Satan's suggestions, upon the most right and purest dispensation of God's word and ordinances. St. Peter speaks of some 1 Pet. 2. 8. that stumble at the word. And St. Paul 2 Cor. 2. 16. saith, to some we are the savour of death unto death, as to other some, the savour of life unto life. The word preach'd (like the water of jealousie) Numb. 5.—27, 28. when it is received into an honest and good heart, it doeth it good, and makes it fruitfull; but when into a corrupt, it doeth hurt and causeth it to rot. Yet the most proper intent, and genuine fruit and effect of it, is to doe good, to inlighten, convince, convert, and save means souls.

[Page] But the Ministry in question doth directly produce sinfull and pernicious effects, and such as a tender heart may tremble to think on. I would not have the reader expect that I should here make a particular enumeration of every one of those sinfull fruits and effects, that are produced by the Ministry of intruders, and upholders of Conventicles: for that is a thing no more possible for me to doe, than it is for any man particularly to reckon up every one of the many thousands of absurdities that will unavoidably follow in dispute,Posito uno absurdo mille sequuntur. upon one that is granted or yielded to. I will content my self therefore (and let the reader doe the like) with the mention of so many of them onely, as I here use arguments against the practice which is the proper cause of them, and thousands more.

First, it tends to the breaking of that bond of near relation, that is, and ought to be betwixt a Pastour and his flock. Though it be a truth well known to but a few in this age, and little considered by any, yet it is nevertheless certain and undoubted, that there is a very [Page] intimate relation betwixt a lawfull Pastour and his People. The Scripture seems to assert a kind of Matrimonial union betwixt them. A Minister is, after a sort, married to that Congregation over whom he is lawfully set; and they to him. Our legal incumbency on a Church, is our Marriage to that Church. Hence is that phrase of the Apostle to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11. 2. I am jealous over you with a Godly jealousie. Sumpta est metaphora à procis zelotypis, as Beza notes; a Metaphor taken from the manner of a Person espoused to a Woman, who cannot endure any one to be a Companion or sharer with him in her affections. For as a King cannot endure a rival with him in his Kingdom, nor an Husband in the Marriage-bed.

[...].

So neither can a Minister in his Parish. And though in regard of internal, spiritual, everlasting, and inseparable union, Christ himself is the Husband of the Catholick Church.Rom. 7. 4. Yet in regard of external and ministerial duty,Rom. 19. 7. a particular Minister of Christ,John 3. 29. may be said to be married to that particular [Page] flock or portion of God's People, over whom, in a regular and orderly manner, the Holy Ghost hath set him. This made St. Ambrose expound that place of St. Paul (1 Tim. 3. 2. A bishop must be the Husband of one wife) allegorically Ambros. ut citatur à Coto [...] exc. 4. de dig. Sacerd. unius uxoris. Si ad superficiem tantum literae respiciamus, prohibet digamum Episcopum ordinari: si vero ad altiorem sensum conscendamus, inhibet Episcopum duas usurpare Ecclesias. If we respect the Letter of the text (saith he) St. Paul forbids any that hath had two Wives to be ordained a Bishop:Vid. Hieronymi Epist. Oceano p. 676. Nè virginalis pauperculae societate contempta, ditioris adulterae quaerat amplexus. but if we ascend to an higher sense, he forbids a Bishop to take to himself two Churches. And St. Hierome argues out of those words (Eph. 5.) Husbands love your wives: Audiant Episcopi, audiant Presbyteri, audiant Doctores subjectis suis se esse subjectos. Let Bishops, Priests, and Doctours learn in this, that when they have married themselves to a Flock or Congregation, they are become subject to their Subjects. How? subject to their Subjects? What are they become inferiour to their Flocks? In no wise. Thes. 3. 11. They are over you in the Lord (saith St. Paul) underlings then they are to [Page] none of them. But they are so subject to their flock, as an Husband is subject to his Wife, and no otherwise; Now she is to be subject to him, and he (by God's Law) toGen. 3. 16. 1 Cor. 11. 3. rule over her. So that the subjection he means, is the subjection of Love. As Pliny told Trajan the EmperourPlin. adus in Epist. Trajano. see 1 King. 12. 7. Nihil magis à te subjecti animo factum est, quim quod imperare coepisti. A King doeth nothing so like a subject, as to love his subjects, to devise ways, and to use his power for their good. Such a subjection is that of the Husband to the Wife, and that of a Pastour to his flock, to whom he is married, and to no other. Whence (as Mr. Prinn observes)Legal. vesol p. 6. he is stiled, Parochus, and his People, Parochia, by the Canonists and Lawyers, because he is espoused to that peculiar Parish. And to this agreeth the 15th Canon of the Nicene Council,Council, Nicen. Can. 15. matrimonium inter Episcopum & Ecclesiam esse contractum, &c.

There are several things that prove a very near relation betwixt a lawfull Pastour and his People.

1. The titles the Holy Ghost gives in Scripture to Ministers and their People. [Page] They are called watchmen, and shepherds, Es. 62. 6. These, their flock over whom they watch and whom they keep. Act. 20. 28. They are called Fathers. 2. King. 6. 21. 1 Cor. 4. 15. 1 Thes. 2. 11. These, their Children. 1 Cor. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 6. 13. [...]al. 4. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 2. Philom. 10. 1 Ioh. 5. 21. Ministers are called husbandmen, and builders; and their people, God's tillage, and building, 1 Cor. 3. 9. They, are called steward▪ their people, God's household, to whom they are to give their portion of meat. Lu [...]. 12. 41.

2. The duties imposed by God on either party, prove a very near relation betwixt them. As a Minister is commanded to takeAct. 20. 28. the oversight of them; to 1 Pet. 5. 2. feed them; and to perform the office of a faithfull servant of Christ, that he mayHeb. 13. 17. give an account to him; for his flock. So the People also are charged with many duties towards their Pastours. As,

1. To know and love them dearly? as the Galatians didGal. [...]. 14. 15. St. Paul, and as he enjoins all Christians to doe toward their Ministers.1 Thes. 5.—12, 13. We beseech you Brethren, to know them that labour amongst[Page]you, and over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake. Indeed the vulgar Latin, reade it, ut noveritis. But Beza renders it, ut adnoscatis, that you acknowledge them as your Pastours and Teachers. And (asZanch. in Loc. Learned Zanchi) pro pastoribus vestris ac patribus reverenter amplectamini, that ye reverently receive and embrace them as your Pastours and Fathers. And as David saith in the [...] [...]lmsPs. 101. 4. I will not know a wicked per [...] (where, not to know, is to contemn) so, to know, is to have in reverence and honour. Thus our Saviour professeth to wicked men Matt. 7. 23. I never knew you. Which places are urged both by Beza and Zanchi, to prove their exposition. And that you highly esteem them in love. [...]. Some reade it, abundantly: Some, exceedingly: It properly signifies, more than exceedingly; Love in abundance; in an overflowing measure; an overplus of love. Beza renders the same expression in another placeBez. in Eph.—3. 20. summâ cum exuperantiâ, with the greatest exuberance of love. And here, ut supra modum charos ducatis, that you account [Page] them above measure dear to you.

2. To obey them, and submit to their pastoral office and rule over them. Heb. 13. 17.

3. To afford them an honourable and liberal maintenance. Matt. 10. 10. 1 Cor. 9. 6-15. Rom. 15. 27. Gal. 6. 6-8. 1 Tim. 5. 17, 18. Not out of charity, as a free gift; but of justice, as a due debt. 3 Ioh. 9.

4. To seek their comfort, and to give them all du [...] encouragement, that they may doe the work of the Ministry among them, with joy and not with grief. Heb. 13-17.

All which duties would not have been enjoined on both parties, pastour and people, were there not a very near relation between them. Whereas none at all of these are required either of a stranger, to them; or of them to a stranger. And this is the Language both of the Presbyterian, and Independent Ministers, when they speak of the relation that is betwixt them and their People, they say,Vindicat. of Presbytery. p. 123. they are married to their Flock.

Now where one of these Demagogues, and Patrons of Conventicles shall intrude [Page] himself into a Town or Parish, and take upon him there to set up a course of house-preaching, to administer the Sacraments, to visit the sick, and such like duties to the Ministry (as they doe) it tends directly to the breaking this bond and near relation that is betwixt Pastour and People; and breeds such alienation of affection in them, towards him, as was betwixt the Iews and Samaritans, between whom the Scripture saithJohn 4. 9. there was no [...]onverse. For, they being conscious to themselves of the guilt of that, (which upon a general, presumption, they cannot but believe, he can in no wise take well at their hands) viz. that they should put themselves under the Ministry of another they will grow to such a degree of strangeness to him, as to shun common neighbourhood and acquaintance with him; yea they will easily account him their greatest Enemy (as Ahab did Elijah, or the Galatians did St. Paul) because he doth not flatter them in tha [...] ▪ which, how wicked and unlawfull soever it be, is therefore the sweeter to them, because forbidden, and enjoyed (as it were) by stealth. ForProv. 9. 17,—18. stollen [Page]waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant; though the endMedio de fonte leporum surgit amari aliquid. of such ill gotten delight be in the depth of hell. What esteem can they have of their Minister's Person or Office, which are look'd upon by them, as either needless or indifferent, if not tedious and burthensome? What regard to his Doctrine, which (as experience shews us) is, and will be so lightly set by, that some will wholly forsake attendance on it, others come to hear (as there is too much cause to doubt) more out of curiosity than necessity, and (as some have not been ashamed to confess) rather to [...] (as those that listned to our Saviour's SermonsMatt. 22. 15. to catch him in his discourse) than to learn or to practise? And so the Pulpit which is God's Tribunal, is made their bar, and theyJam. 4. 11. become not doers of the Law, but Iudges. What dependance can a People have on their own pastour, in his discharge of ministerial Duties amongst them, where some are reduced into a perfect revolt from him, other brought to a loose indeterminacy in Divine worship and Church-communion, and all to a Lukewarm indifference [Page] what Ministry they enjoy; and Church-Assemblies are made matter of Complement rather than necessity. Usurpation and intrusion, as it shall never want store of friends and favourers among the ignorant and unstable vulgar, be it never so unjust; so the more abbettours and maintainers it hath in any place, the greater must the defection needs be from him, to whom they own their adherence.

And thus will that golden chain of relation, that is, and ought to be betwixt a Pastour and his People, by this means be wholly dissolved, and those put asunder whom God bath joined together. For, as it is in a marriage, it is not the having of an Husband, that makes the Wife honest, chast and undefiled, but her loving her Husband, and keeping her self wholly to him, otherwise the Wedlock bond is broken: so in this union betwixt Pastour and People, it is not the having a Minister, that maintains and upholds the relation and conjunction, that God would have to continue between them; but the acknowledging of him, keeping to him, and depending on him in the [Page] Lord, for all ministerial Acts to be performed by him, among them; otherwise, the knot of unity that ought to be betwixt them, is untyed.

Now here I could tell the Reader so lamentable a story, of the truth of this sad effect, which upon mine own experience I have found, of this usurpation and intrusion, I am now disputing against, that if he be such a one, as hath any fear of God before this eyes, any zeal for his house, worship and service, or any care of the Unity and Peace of the Church, it would make both his ears at the hearing of it tingle.

My Parish was a Virgin, pure and undefiled, free from all invadours and underminers of her Chastity, till about four years since, when the Act of Parliament for the removal of such of the Nonconformist ministers, as refused to take the oath therein prescribed, out of all Corporations, sent or occasioned one of them (not to preach but) to inhabit amongst us. Before whose coming, there was not a Congregation in the Country (that I know) for so many People (being near 1000 souls) more entire, more unanimous, [Page] more constant at all parts of publick worship, more free from all inclination to schism, separation, or any of the raigning Epidemical faults of this Age. We had then what happiness we could desire, and (it seems) greater than we deserved. When the ground all about us, was wet with the showres of schism and prophaneness, we (like Gideon's fleece) were dry. But because we gave not God thanks sufficient, he suffered Satan to erect Altare contra Altare (for so went the style of the ancient Church for schism, which in our modern Dialect is) a Conventicle against the Church. Now, that Congregation which was before entire, is now miserably divided, and those that lived under the oversight and teaching of one lawfull Pastour (as a chast Wife under the guidance of her own Husband) according to God's Holy Ordinance, are gone aside to others, and admit of the unlawfull embraces of strangers.

I could tell the Reader of some of those people,Claudite quaeso aures qui audituri estis, ne tantae impictatis vocibus polluamini. who were formerly constant attendants on all parts of divine Worship, that are now by this means totally gone off (non fugati, sed fugitivi, [Page] as say the Brethren of the Presbyterian way, of the Independents) and for the space of several years, have not set their foot over the threshold of God's house: yea, so far are they withdrawn, and to so high and impious an abhorrency of God's publick Worship are they brought, as to detain their very Children from publick Baptism. They are modelled (as they call it) into a new Church-way for the enjoyment of Ordinances. And no wonder; for the Scripture tells us, that besides God's Church, Satan will have his too. There is Ecclesia Credentium, and Ecclesia Malignantium; according to that of David Ps. 26. 5. odi Ecclesiam malignantium: I have hated the Congregation of Evil doers. AndTertul. l. 4. contra Marcion. 1. Tertullian tells us, faciunt favos & vespae, faciunt Ecclesias & Marcionitae. Wasps make Combs, but empty ones; Schismaticks and Sectaries make Churches, but false ones;Lactant. lib. 4. divinarum inst. cap. 30. Singuli quique coetus haereticorum se potissimum Christianos, & suam esse Ecclesiam Catholicam putant; saith Lactantius.

Of others I could relate, that upon this sad occasion are in part revolted from the publick Assemblies of the [Page] Saints; and though they live near enough to the Church, yet come thither but now and then, and that, to hear a Sermon onely, and to no other part of divine Service: To satisfie curiosity, I suppose, rather than Conscience; wherein they seem to discover much of Hypocrisie, but nothing of Piety. For, I would demand of them, doe they well, or ill, when they come? If well; why then come they not at all times, when they may? If ill; why then come they at any time? What moves them at any time to approach the place where God's honour dwells? Is it because he hath commanded it, or to doe him any service thereby? I ask him again, whether hath not he commanded the publick Service of the whole day, as well as a part? A Lamb at the EveningExod. 29. 39, 41. as well as a Lamb in the Morning? Of every Lord's day, as well as of one now and then? Why else did the Lord call the Sabbath of oldLevit. 23. 2. an holy Convocation? As if it ought to be nothing else; as if the whole day were to be spent at Church, and in keeping publick Assemblies, so far as conveniency and edification of the people [Page] will permit. Why else did Holy David desirePs. 23. 6. to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever? Why prayed he that he might be so happy.Ps. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Therefore if Conscience to obey God, or desire to doe him service, did draw them to his house at any time, or to any part of his Worship, the same would induce them at all times, and to all parts of it. The liberty then that such persons take in God's service, as if all were Arbitrary, argues much of hypocritical wantonness, nothing of sound or sincere godliness.

They who are fed with Corn from Heaven, Ps. 78. 24, 27,—27. meat to the full, are thus faln to loath the Mannah, that Rained down upon them twice every Sabbath-day. Of a third sort I could inform the Reader, who being weak, yet (I hope) well-meaning Christians, not knowing the depths of Satan, under a specious pretence of Piety, are not content with what they hear at Church, but must afterwards fill their heads with notions which they hear at Conventicles, [Page] wherewith they Jude. 12. feast themselves without fear after they have been fed to the full in God's house, with Angels food. Without fear (I say) of offending God, by breaking the order he hath set in his Church: by countenancing, abetting, or joining themselves with such unlawfull and ungospel-like Assemblies: without fear of offending or provoking the Rules of the Church (which they are bound to obey) by seeing their Laws despised and affronted: without fear of exposing themselves to the temptation and hazard of falling so fearfully as they cannot but see, that some of their Brethren and Neighbours have done: And without fear of losing what they have heard in publick by departing immediately from the Church to a Conventicle; as if all Religion did consist in nothing but hearing, and all the Service of God were but (according to the French scoff) a mere Preach. If this be the way of keeping the Sabbath, where is room then for Meditation, which the Scripture as much enjoins as hearing.Josh. 1. 8. Thou shalt meditate on the Law, that thou mayst observe to [Page]doe according as is written. Mary therefore kept Christ's sayings becauseLuk. 2. 19. she pondered them in her heart. David therefore grew to bePs. 119. 99. wiser than his teachers, because God's Law was his meditation. Conference with Neighbours, and Family-instructions, will by this means also be issued out.Jer. 23. 25. Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, what hath the Lord answered, and what hath he spoken? The best of Hearers, even Christ's own Disciples took another course than these now doe: When they had heard their Master Preach, they spent their time after Sermon in conferring among themselves about what they had heard, and went to their. Teacher to be better informed, andJoh. 16. 17,—19. to have all doubts resolved. For want of so doing,Mark 4. 10.—7. 17.—10. 10, 11. it comes to pass with too many, as sometimes it did with some of them, that though they had seen their Lord's mighty power, in feeding five thousand men with five loaves, and two fishes; yet their Faith was never the stronger: And this was the reason:Mark 6. 52. They considered not the miracle of the Loaves, for their heart was hardned. They had seen the miracle [Page] but they had not considered it, nor meditated on it, and therefore it did them no good at all. In the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves, the way these people take is not the right. For the Assembly of Divines in their Directory for Worship, give this rule for the Sanctification of the Lord's day:Directory page. 57. that ‘what time is vacant between, or after the Solemn meetings of the Congregation in publick, be spent in Reading, Meditation, Repetition of Sermons (especially by calling their Families to an account of what they have heard) and Catechising of them; holy conferences, prayer for a blessing upon the publick Ordinances, singing of Psalms, visiting the Sick, relieving the Poor, and such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy, accounting the Sabbath a delight.’

In a word, I could inform the Reader what impious devices have been used, not onely to make a rent in the Church, but also to keep it open, that it should never close again; by endeavouring that an irreconcileable prejudice might be perpetuated in the minds [Page] of people, against the publick Ministry and Ministers of the Church. And to the end that those poor deluded Souls, which have been drawn off from their due attendance to God's publick Ordinances, to wait on these men in their clanculary and irregular conventions, might never return to the Church any more; I have observed that the absence of one of these Masters of Conventicles, in the places where they are held, have ever been carefully supplied by the presence of some other Domestick Chaplain, to keep up their House-meetings. As if Ieroboam's impious policy should never be forgotten, who not daring to trust his new divided Tribes in a joint resort to the Temple at Ierusalem, set up1 King. 12.—27, 28. his Calves to be Worshipped by them nearer home.

But I will not rake any longer in this puddle, lest it stink in the nostrils of pious and sober Christians, as it cannot but doe in God's already.

Now I appeal to all my judicious and learned Brethren of the Clergy, and to all persons else, of stayed principles and piety, whether for a stranger thus to pluck the work of a Pastour of a [Page] Congregation out of his hands, be tollerable in the Church of Christ, or no? Whether this practice that tends thus to divide betwixt Minister and People, breaking the near bond of relation, that is, and ought to continue between them, robbing him of his flock, and taking them off from dependance on him, for the enjoyment of the work of his ministry, be of God, or no? And whether he hath ordained any such course, as the means of Grace in his Church; or whether this be not rather a strategem of Satan, to introduce all manner of impiety and ungodliness? The Presbyterian Divines themselves have given their judgment on my side, already, in this case. In these words:Vindicat. of Presbyte page 121. ‘To make a Rupture in the body of Christ, and to divide Church from Church, and to set up Church against Church, and to gather Churches out of true Churches: And because we differ in something, therefore to hold Communion in nothing; this we think hath no warrant out of the word of God, and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and Families; and not onely disturb, but in a little time [Page] destroy the power of Godliness, purity of Religion, peace of Christians, and set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism, Popery, Heresie, and all manner of wickedness.’ So also in their Preface to the Ius divinum of Church-government,Ius divinum regim. Eccles. in praefat. in the last page save one, they have these words. ‘Gathering Churches out of Churches have no footsteps in Scripture, is contrary to Apostolical practice, is the scattering of Churches, the Daughter of Schism, the Mother of Confusion, but the Step-mother to Edification.’

If this Doctrine of theirs be (as doubtless it is) true and godly, then surely the practices of many of them that are Antipodes to it, must needs be (by their own confession) very false and impious.

We reade in Scripture thatExod. 22. 6. if fire break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field be consumed therewith, he that kindleth the fire shall surely make restitution. By thorns, are generally understood such thorns as Husbandmen use in hedges, wherewith they [Page] separate and distinguish their Land from other mens. By breaking out of fire, any man's making a fire in the field to burn up weeds, or otherwise, to make their Land fruitfull. And 'tis meant (say interpreters) of such kindling of fire, when any hurt comes of it proeter intentionem accendentis, besides the intention of him that kindles it; it being carried by the wind, and lighting on some dry hedge, and finding combustible matter, goes farther and burns the Corn, either in shocks, or standing by. And in this cafe of Casualty, by the Law of God, restitution was to be made, because firing the hedge was the cause of the Corn's being burnt. Otherwise, if a man did wilfully and purposely set Corn on fire, he was to sustain greater punishment by the Civil Law, vel decapitetur, vel comburatur, vel bestiis subjiciatur, he was to be beheaded, or burnt, or cast to wild beasts. God, whose own the whole Field of the Church is, hath set an hedge of separation and distinction, to bound out every one of his servants the Minister's property. These are your limits; and this the [Page] portion of my people committed to your charge; this piece of Land is your several to manure for me, the fruit whereof I will require at your hands at harvest. He that shall (not casually, but wilfully) break down, or fire that hedge, and so cause a combustion in the Church, the least that can be required of such a person, is, that he make full restitution for the damage he hath caused, that he set himself to quench the fire he hath kindled, and to make up the hedge again, which he hath consumed; undeceive the People he hath seduced, by acknowledgment of his fault, restoring what he hath fraudulently taken, and cease to be any more an incendiary for the time to come.

To the poor deceived People, shall I say, out of zeal to God's Glory, and safety of your souls, as St. Paul to the Galatians Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you? It were better one man or a few did perish, than that the Unity of the Church should be broken. Rather, for loves sake, I heartily wish, that those [...] Jer. 48. 45. filii sonitus, tumultuous ones, that delight to [Page] make a noise in the Church, that they may be heard, had more peaceable and quiet spirits, and would either content themselves to doe their own business (if they have any) or else sit still, and cease troubling you, or themselves, in matters that belong to others. And though you have been drawn away from your Conjugal duty to your own Pastours, and have gone aside to others in stead of them, by means of the amarous Courtship of such, as want not fair speeches and winning Oratory Rom. 16. 18. to deceive the hearts of the simple, but intrude themselves in amongst you, 2 Pet. 2. 3. [...] with feigned words; or, 1 Cor. 1. 17. [...] with wisedom of words; or (as elsewhere the Apostle persueth it) with1 Cor. 2. 1. 4. excellency of speech and of wisedom; or, intising words of man's wisedom, insomuch, that (if it were possible) the very Elect would be deceived by them: Yet I hope, through the assistence of Divine grace, you will soon bethink your selves and repent, and so return from following after your Lovers, (with the house of Israel) and say, I will Hos. 2. 7. goe and return to my first Husband, for then it was better with me than now.

[Page] Secondly, it divides the intire body of Christ also, and makes such factions as were in the Church of Corinth, where one said1 Cor. 1. 11.—12. I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos; and another, I am of Cephas: Than which, there is nothing that more demonstrates People to be 1 Cor. 3. 4. carnal, whatsoever they pretend to the contrary. It makes the Church of Christ (which should always be, as some time the Children of Israel were, from Dan Judg. 20. 1.—11. even to Beershebah, all as one man) to be a Baal-Perazim (the place where David smote the Philistins) 1 Chron. 14.—11. A Valley of Divisions and Breaches. It breeds such animosities and exasperations of mind amongst Christians, that it makes the Members of the Church, militant among themselves, and against their Ministers, doeing us (though unwillingly) the kindness, as to free us from that woe denounced by our SaviourLuc. 6. 26. when all men shall speak well of us; and none at last but Satan and his Servants, Atheists and Papists triumphant. It causeth such rents in the Church, that the end thereof will be (unless a prodigy of Divine mercy prevent it) the common Enemy of our [Page] Religion will laugh,As the Tyrian Woman that opened the gates of the City to the Enemy, and was herself trodden to death at their entry. whilst the promoters of such divisions have cause to weep.

It promotes such a War, whose Victory shall have a sorry triumph. It deals worse with the feamless Coat of Christ (which St. Cyprian saithSacramento vestis & signo, declaravit Ecclesiae unitatem. Cyp. de unit. Eccles. Sect. 6. was a sign intended by our Saviour, to shew how his Church should be woven together in Unity) than the Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite did with the new garment, wherewith Ieroboam had clad himself1 King. 11.—30. who even rent it in twelve pieces. It mangles the body of Christ, into as many parts, as there are parties, as if it were no better than the body of the Levite's Concubine, whichJudg. 19. 29. he divided with her bones, and sent into all the quarters of Israel. It was a worthy saying of the late reverend and learned Bishop of Sarum; Davenant ad pacem exbort. p. 21. 22. Si schismata Ecclesiae tolli possunt (uti proculdubio possunt) suspendi mallem ad collum meum molam asinariam, &c. If the schisms that are in the Church may be taken away (as doubtless they may) I had rather a Milstone were hanged about my neck, and I drowned in the bottom of the Sea, than that I should any way [Page] hinder that work, or not withall my heart and strength promote it, which is so pleasing to God, and so necessary for the avoiding of scandal. A gracious speech; not unlike that of an holy Father of the Church before him (Greg. Nazianzene) who (as Ruffinus Ruffin. Hist. Eccl. l. 2. c. 9. reports it) in the tumultuous division of the People, cryed out, mitte me in mare, & non erit tempestas. He offered himself (Ionah like) to be cast into the Sea, to appease the tempest in the Church, that neither the peace of it might be disturbed, or Unity broken. Some of the brethren of the Nonconformists have been of the same Judgment, whatever this or their practice, now is. Memorable to this purpose is that saying of Mr. Baxter to his People of Kiderminster Baxter Epist. to his Book of Rest. ‘I ever loved (saith he) a Godly peaceable Conformist, better than a turbulent Nonconformist; and should I make a party, or disturb the peace of the Church, I should fear, lest I should prove a Firebrand in Hell, for being a Firebrand in the Church. And by all the interest I have in your judgments and affections, I here charge [Page] you, that if God should give me up to any factious Church-renting course (against which I daily pray) that you forsake me, and follow me not a step.’

It is an unhappy degree of wickedness, to be a ring-leader in any schism. Every accessory is faulty enough, but the first Authour abominable. Those who either by his example, suggestion, advice, connivence, or otherwise, are taught to doe ill, increase his sin as fast as they do their own.Mat. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. An unruly beast breaks the hedge, and feeds in forbidden Pasture; the whole herd follows; but the owner must answer for all the trespass that is committed. Therefore is Ieroboam so often branded in holy Writ with this note of infamy, Ieroboam the Son of Nebat, that made Israel to sin. His fault lived, when he himself was dead; and 'tis often said by Divines, that his torment increased in Hell, according as his sin increased upon earth; and that the wickedness of Israel will not be [Page] taken off from his Soul for ever. It was shame enough to Israel, that they were made to sin by Ieroboam, but O the miserable Estate of Ieroboam, that made Israel to sin! his pretence was fair enough, but that was no excuse to the foulness of his crime, nor is it any mitigation to his present torment. Let the Authours of schism in the Church, pretend what they please, to Religion and Truth, yet how they can have the true love or power of either in thier hearts or lives, that seek not the Church's Peace and Unity withall, I cannot understand. The Holy Ghost in Scripture joins both together Zach. 3. 19. Love truth and peace. AndEph. 4. 15. speak the truth in love. He follows neither, that persues them not both. It was an unquestionable Maxime amongst Christians in the ancient Church (which is no less a truth now, than ever).Aug. cont. Don. de bapt. L. 3. c. 16. non habet Dei charitatem, qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem. The Love of God abides not in them, who do not love, and keep, the Unity of the Church.

Nay, the practice in question, tends not onely to the dividing and distracting the Church, but even to the dissolving [Page] and destroying her being. It puts the members of the body of Christ out of joint, and causeth a Luxation of the parts; and so hinders that spiritual Nutrition, thriving and growth in grace, that ought to be in the body of Christ. For, as in the natural body of man, if a member be separated from it, it can receive no nourishment or growth; nay, if there be but a dislocation of a part, so that it be onely out of joint, it will not thrive or prosper, but wither and consume, till it be set right again: so the mystical body of Christ, can never increase with the increase of God, if either there be not a right Union of the joints to the head, or if that [...],1 Col. 2. 19. the ligament and bond that knits and fastens one member to another, be broken. Now this Union of the members, the Apostle saithEph. 4. 3. 16. is made by the Ligament of Love: which he therefore calls Col. 3. 14. the bond of perfection; because as it unites Church-members among themselves, so it is the cause, that they communicate mutual help, to the profit and preservation of the whole. The [Page] members of the Church, then, being made so loose, and set at such distance; so divided and distracted one from another, some hurried this way, and some that, it must needs argue that this bond is either quite broken, or much loosned. And if it be a truth (which Philosophers affirm) thatQuodlibet corpus non minus appetit unitatem quamsuam entitatem. every natural body desires no less its unity than its entity; I fee no reason why the spiritual and mystical body of Christ, the Church, should not in like manner desire its unity, since, if it be, and continue thus unhappily divided, it cannot long subsist in its entity. As a tottering wall of stones heaped up together, without mortar or binding, is easily shaken and thrown down: so must the Church be soon brought to ruine, if this distracting and dividing course be suffered and practised. By concord and good agreement among ChristiansAct. 2. 43-47-5. 12. 14. the Church grows and is enlarged: So by their discords and divisions it will in short timeMat. 12. 25. perish and come to nothing.Gen. 4 8. Say I this onely?2 Sam 3. 1. Or say not the brethren of the Nonconformists the same? ‘He that is not the Son of peace, is not the Son [Page] of God (saith Mr. Baxter) all other sinsBaxter ubi supra. destroy the Church consequentially, but division and separation demolish it directly. Building the Church is but an orderly joining the materials; and what then is disjoyning, but pulling down?Si in sinu meo natus, si uberum meorum lacte nutritus, adversus me gladium levas redde quod dedi, & esto, si potes, aliter Christianus. Hieronim. advers. Luciferanos. p. 493. Believe not those to be the Church's friends, that would cure and reform her, by cutting her throat.’ Pro Ecclesia clamitant (saith St. Cyprian of such) they cry out for the Church, but contra Ecclesiam dimicant, their practice is a fighting against the Church. And that, not by open and professed hostility, but by secret and unseen Policy. Their pretences are friendly, but their actions mischievous; their voice like Iacob's, but their hands like Esau's.

III Thirdly, it hinders the Communion of Saints, that holy and sweet fellowship which all the Members of Christ's Church ought to have both with Christ their head, and each with other. When, in the natural body of man, the members are joined to the head, and one with another, they have by virtue of that Union, Communion also, [Page] and do impart bloud, spirits, and life from one to the other: So in the mystical Body of Christ, the members being joined to the Lord, and one to another, there will be a sweet Communion among themselves in heart and affections,Rom. 12. 15. joy with them that rejoice, and forrow with them that weep, prayer each for, and each with other; the multitude Act. 4. 32. of them that believe will be of one heart, and one soul. Now one of the closest bonds of Union amongst Christians, is in their communicating together in holy duties. We are then most one, whenRom. 15. 6. with one mind, and with one mouth, we glorifie God together. When holy David would set forth the greatest intireness of facred friendship, he described it byPs. 55. 14. walking to the house of God in company together. The end and effect of our joint partaking in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is to seal up this Unity. As by one of the Sacraments, we are baptized into one body, so by the other1 Cor. 12. 1 [...]. we are made to drink into one spirit. And therefore the Apostle, from our Communion together at the Lord's Table, concludes our Union one with another, & incorporation [Page] into (not the essential, but) the spiritual body of Christ.Cor. 10. 17. We being many, are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread. A Father thus comments on that place. Cyril. l. 10. c. 13. in Johan. Omnes unum corpus sumus in Christo, quia etsi multi sumus, unum támen in eo sumus, omnes enim de uno pane participamus. We are therefore all one body in Christ, because, though we are many in our selves, yet in him we are all one, for we all partake of one bread. Nam si in humanis mensoe & salis communicatio, amoris causa est & signum, quanto magis id erit in communione mensoe & panis Domini? If among men the communicating together at one table, and in one dish, is both a cause and sign of love; how much more then would it be so, in the communicating together at the Table, and of the bread of the Lord? Yea, the very assembling of Christians together in the Church, is, by St. Chrysostome Chrys. Serm. de Eucharist. called, the Communion of Saints.

That then which tends to make rents and parties in the Church, and divides Christians each from other, in external Conjunction of publick duties, [Page] as well as internal concord of hearts and affections (as the practice in question hath been proved, and by experience is found to doe) must needs hinder the Communion of Saints. Union being broken, there can be no Communion: for it flows from Union, and is no other (in the Etymology of the word) than common Union. And as there is nothing that obstructs Christian Communion so much as divisions do, so, when once they are made, there is nothing more hard to be composed again.Prov. 18. 19. A Brother offended, is harder to be won, than a strong City; and their contentions are like the barrs of a Castle.

For as no bond is so strong, as that of Religion; so no Hostility so cruel and outragious, as that which difference in Religion occasioneth.Mat. 10. 34.—36. Think not (saith our Saviour) that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword: for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father, and the Daughter against her Mother, and a man's foes shall be they of his own house. This is commonly through the policy of Satan, and malice of men, [Page] the fruit of divisions in point of Religion amongst Brethren.

And if the bond of Communion betwixt the members be broken, I see not, but that the bond of Union with Christ their head, must be broken also. How can they exist as members of Christ's body, which have left their coupling and conjunction, with the other members of the same? Neither they, nor those that cause it, can, in the judgment of St. Austine. Aug. Tom. 3. de fid. ad Pet. Diac. cap. 43. Ii qui a compage corporis membra alia avellere conantur, seipsos a Christi unitate separant. They that draw the members from Communion one with the other, do cut off themselves from their Union with Christ.Calv. Comment in Rom. 16, 17. Impium enim & sacrilegum divortium est, eos qui in Christi veritate consentiunt distrahere. Saith Calvin, It is an impious and sacrilegious divorce, to divide those, who would otherwise agree in the truth of Christ. The same is acknowledged by the Presbyterian Divines.Vindicat. of Presbyt. pag. 112, 113. If we be the body of Christ, do not they who separate from the body, separate from the head also.? And by the unanimous consent of the ancient, godly, and learned Nonconformists,[Page]in their grave and modest confutation of the Published by Mr. William Rathbane an. Dom. 1644. errours of the Brownists and Separatists: where in the first words of their Book, they say, ‘That the Church of England is a true Church, and such a one as from which, whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself, cutteth himself off from Christ.’ And they prove it at large by unanswerable arguments, in the following pages of their Book.

Aug. Tom. 3. de Baptist. cont. Don. c. 5. A proesumptione igitur illicitâ excusari nequeunt, qui nimis amando sententiam suam, usque ad proecidendoe communionis audaciam perveniunt. They are therefore no way to be excused from sinfull presumption, who out of a fondness to their own opinion, proceed to that boldness and hardiness, as to interrupt Christian Communion. Malunt nullam habere, quam non suam: They had rather there should be no Religion at all, than that their own should not take place.

They that are any way instrumental to break unity, that true-Lovers knot which every Christian should wear in his breast all days of his life, will find at last by miserable experience [Page] that destruction will follow it, if repentance precede not to prevent it. For, if the God whom we serve, be the God of peace, Iesus Christ our head and Saviour be the Prince of peace, the spirit of Holiness, the worker of peace, the Blessed Trinity, in Unity of Deity, the authour of peace and lover of concord (as our Church expresseth it) how then can it join it self with the disturbers of both, and not rather separate from those which separate from their Brethren, and are instrumental to draw as many after them as they can?

4 Fourthly, It gratifies (at least) two main sinfull Corruptions, to which people are naturally prone, both mentioned together by St. Paul, in one place.

The first is, their discontent with their own Pastors, who are regularly and orderly sent of God to them.2 Tim. 4. 3. After their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers.

1. The great fault here prophesied to be in the latter times, was, heaping up many teachers. One will not serve a peoples turn, but they must have a multitude. A woman that forsakes [Page] her Husband's bed, will be ready to pour out her fornications to every one that passeth by, and not content her self with the embraces of one single stranger alone, but be ready to prostitute her body to any one.

2. And there is an Emphasis in the word [...], to themselves. They will be their own chusers. They will not accept, nor submit to those, who by the hands of the Rulers of the Church, God shall place over them, but take to themselves, upon their own judgment and choice, whom they please. This is according to his opinion, who (expounding the word [...] used in this place by St. Paul) saith,Leigh in [...] crit. Sac. quod sine judicio, & temere sunt collecturi doctores suos: They shall rashly gather together teachers of their own.

3. [...] Teachers: as they esteem and use them in contradistinction to Pastours; for they will not admit of any to have a pastoral rule and care over them, but teachers to tickle their Ears, and please their fancies. And which is yet worse.

[...] according to their own Lusts. Such as do best [Page] please their humours; such as are of the same party with themselves, that are in opposition to that which themselves oppose. Beza Interprets it thus, prout hoc vel illud illis arriserit,: as this or that best pleafeth them.

The second is, the itch of the ear. [...], a disease very common, yet never so Epidemical, as in these days. And there are two things, that very much stir and provoke this humour.

1. Novelty. If the thing, either for the matter, or the manner of it, be new and strange, our Athen [...]an dispositions will soon incline usAct. 17. 21. to spend our whole time in it. Let a Physician be never so learned, honest, experienced, and successfull in his place, yet if but an Empirick or Mounte [...]ank come into the Country, and set up his Stage, though he doeth nothing but put off deceitfull and Sophisticate Drugs, and takes mens money, yet he shall not want at all times a full resort to him, because he is a new-corner, and his pretended method and means of cure, are new and unusual. In Religion also, people are naturally [...], apt to be led away with insatiable desire of hearing [Page] new men and new things, and listen rather to fables 2 Tim. 4. 4. than to wholesome words that are according to godliness: rather admire and adore the new conceits of every Novellist, than receive the great mysteries of Salvation in love of the truth, from him, whom God hath set to watch over their Souls. Mitte quod scio, dic quod nescio, is their Motto; we have heard this man long enough, our Ears itch now to attend to some other; what we know is stale, things fresh and unheard do better please us. It is not the word, but the man they desire to hear. And therein they shew themselves to be the most observant disciples of the great Masters of errour and deceipt, the Papists: For this is a Doctrine taught by Stapleton Stap. lib. 1 de Doct. princ. cap. 5. in the tenth of his quodlibets, non quid loquitur, sed quis, à bono Catholico attendendum est. A good Catholick ought not to regard what is spoken, but who it is that speaks. And if the speaker prove a [...], and stuff up his discourse with idle and impertinent stories, how fabulous soever, he shall find more attention and applause, from such humorous [Page] Apud quos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur, ni [...]i homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit, homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit. Tertull. Apol. cap. 5. hearers, than he that with greatest evidence of the spirit and power, makes known the Oracles of God. But certainly that man is under a very great distemper of body, that grows weary of his good ordinary food. The stomach is very sickly, when it cannot take in any solid meat, but the fancy is still working after rarities. And if ever that person recover his former health he will find, that his body will never hold to be in better temper, than when he keeps to his ordinary Diet.

2. Prohibition by Authority. Things denied, are always most desired, and the enjoyment of them is therefore the sweeter, because restrained by Law.

Horat. carm. lib. 1.

Audax omnia perpeti

Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.

Ever since our first parents transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit, all the sinfull posterity of Adam, are ready to run most dangerous adventures for a taste of that, which they should not touch. How just and reasonable soever the prohibition is, yet it will allways be looked on with a jealous Eye, [Page] by those that are concerned in it, as if there were a more than ordinary excellency in the thing denyed; and it were therefore kept from us by our Superiours (though they mean us never so much good in it) because they envy us the enjoyment of it. Whence it comes to pass, that (as beasts) though their own pasture be never so good, yet if they are bounded in, they cannot contain themselves, but will adventure to leap the hedge, that they may goe farther, though they fare worse.

Were it so that the doors of our Churches were shut up by Authority, People forbidden to resort thither, or to attend the Ministry of their own Pastours any more, and commanded to frequent the private meetings of strangers onely; the would these People be soon weary of their restraint, and pretend great zeal to God's house, and the place where his honour dwells, then would their Souls seem to long, and even to faint within them, for the Courts of the Lord, to see his Power and his Glory, so as they have seen it in his Sanctuary: Then would they seem [Page] to account their own Ministers worthy of double honour, to receive them in the Lord with all gladness, and to hold them in reputation. Oh the strange nature of the Sons of men, to whom a Legal prohibition is a forcible invitation, that know not the worth of Mercies but by the loss of them!

Fifthly, it alienates the affections of People from the true worship of God established by Law in our Church; shakes the minds of the weak, and begets even in those who have professed, they have not the least exception against it, but suspect somewhat amiss in it onely upon this ground, because they see others (of whose judgments they have a good confidence) withdraw from it, and chuse rather to frequent private meetings than to serve God in the publick Congregations. Who have not heard the railings and revilings that have proceeded out of the mouths of those, who are the favourers, and followers of these unlawfull Assemblies, against the Book of Common-prayer? And who may not observe, their constant and studyed [Page] withdrawing from the use of it? That book, which

1. For the Authours and Compilers of it, was composed by the most Learned and Holy Doctours, Martyrs and Confessours, that the Church of England ever had; who spent their times, studies, and lives in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church: Set forth at first, in the Reign, and by the Authority of King Edward the Sixth, who for his Piety, Zeal, Learning and Wisedom, was accounted the miracle of nature. Peter Martyr, in an Oration of his at Argentine, saith thus of his death;Peter Martyr, Loc. com. pag. 741. Col. 1. Praeter omnem spem acerbâ & luctuosâ morte sublatus est Edvardus Angliae Rex, Monarcharum Christiani orbis candidum Lumen, pietatis Legitimus alumnus, & Evangelii Christi propugnator acerrimus. Besides all expectation Edward King of England is taken away by lamentable and cruel Death, who was the clear light of all the Monarchs of the Christian World, the true Son of Piety, and the most zealous and earnest Defender and Maintainer of the Gospel of Christ. And in an Oration of his at Tigurum, he [Page] gives this Testimony of him;Pet. Mart. Loc. com. pag. 745. Obiit prohdolor, obiit Edvardus ille sanctissimus Rex, quo adolescente nescio an Sol doctiorem pro [...]aetate, sanctiorem atque prudentiorem usquam viderit. The most Holy King Eward is dead, and I know not whether the Sun ever saw a more Learned for his age, and a more sanctified and wise Prince. And again in an Epistle to Queen Elizabeth, speaking of the zeal and care of several godly and religious Kings in reforming Religion, and establishing the true Worship of God, saith,Ib. p. 788. Hoc frater tuus Edvardus Angliae Rex praeclarissimus, pro viribus, & sane prae quam ejus aetas pateretur, facere studuit, cujus regnum diutius extrahi, peccata nostra & ingratitudo intolerabilis non siver [...]nt; eximias illius adolescentis virtutes, & egregiam pietatem, Deus orbi tantum ostendere voluit, deinde ut nos, quemadmodum mala nostra merita exigebant, aliquantulum castigaret, illum e terra citius ad se revocavit. The same your brother Edward the most renowned King of England did study, to the utmost of his Power, and beyond what his age would permit, to doe: whose reign, our sins and most [Page] intolerable ingratitude would not suffer to continue longer over us. God onely would shew to the World the singular virtues and most excellent Piety of that young man, and then, to correct us as our evil deservings did require, he soon recalled him from this World to himself. Judicious Mr. Hooker calls himHooker. Eccles. polit. l. 4. sect. 14. Edward the Saint, in whom it pleased God, righteous and just, to let England see what a blessing, sin and iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy. This rare and most excellent person God raised up to see this Book composed, to establish it by regal Authority, and then he was taken to his Crown of Glory.

2. ‘For the matter contained in that BookBasil, p. 90. Sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it, against the cavils and exceptions of those, who thought it a part of Piety, to make what prophane objections they could against it; especially for Popery and Superstition. Whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England, and this, by all reformed Churches is confessed to be most found and [Page] orthodox.’ It casts out all false Doctrine and Worship, and is, of it self, sufficient to confute a Papist, and other the Enemies of the Protestant Religion. It is fitted for all occasions and uses of the Church, and comprehends the whole Duty of a Christian, both for the credendis, contained in the Confessions of Faith; the faciendis, in the ten Commandments; and the petendis, in the Lord's Prayer, and others framed thereby.

3. For the Confirmation of it; it stands ratified and enjoined by the Laws, Statutes, and Sovereign Authority of five most prudent and pious Persons immediately (Queen Mary a Papist onely interposing) succeeding one the other on the English Throne: sealed and confirmed by the bloud of so many Martyrs, that suffered in those Marian days, shortly after the composure of it, and so written in the bloud of those that compiled it.

4. For the approbation of it; it is commended and allowed by the best Divines of the reformed Churches, both at home and abroad. Such as Cranmer, Tayler, Ridley, Iewel, Calvin, Bucer, and many others.

[Page] 5. Touching God's acceptance and owning of it, the History of ages past, and the strange providence of God, in relation to the framing, preserving, blessing and restoring it, do so evidently declare this, that he seems to be very much darkned in his mind with prejudice, that can deny or gainsay it. Hook. Eccles. Polit. l. 4. s. 14. ‘Which grace and favour of Divine assistence, having not in one thing or two shewed it self, nor for some few days or years appeared, but in such sort so long continued, our manifold sins and transgressions striving to the contrary; what can we less thereupon conclude, than that God would at leastwise by tract of time teach the World, that the thing which he blesseth, defendeth, keepeth so strongly, cannot chuse but be of him? Wherefore if any refuse to believe us disputing for it, let him believe God himself thus miraculously working for it.’

What I have said in commendation of this book, amounts to no more than what the reverend Divines of the Presbyterian perswasion, have been constrained to say of it, even then, [Page] when they were to make all the exceptions they could against it. They say, ‘Account of proceedings. P. 1, 2. We have an high, an honourable esteem of those Godly and Learned Bishops, and others, who were the Compilers of the publick Liturgy; and do look on it as an excellent and worthy work.’ 'Tis true, they add [for that time—] But these words seem to me, no way to abate or detract from the acknowledged excellency and worth of it. For, if it were an excellent and worthy work then, what hinders, but that it is so now? Wherein doth the excellency and worthiness of any form of God's worship at any time consist, but in its Conformity to the Scriptures, which is the rule and measure of Divine worship at all times? It could never be excellent and worthy, that was at any time unlawfull; and it could have been no otherwise, had it been contrary to God's word. And they that shall impartially reade the History, and seriously consider the profound Learning, clear Light, admirable Piety, incomparable Zeal, Purity, Patience, Loyalty, and all other Christian Graces and Virtues, which did [Page] shine forth in those renowned Fathers and Martyrs, the Compilers of that book, cannot without blushing arrogate to themselves greater [...] and higher attainments, than they had. Are the men of this age the onely Children of the light, and were those Worthies (one of whomMr. Latimer Act. & Mon [...] T. 3. p. 503 prophetically said to his fellow-sufferer at the stake, We shall this day light such a Candle by God's Grace in England, as I trust, shall never be put out) but in the mist of Popish ignorance and superstition, in comparison of us now? Rather, I think, they ought to be acknowledged men extraordinarily filled with the Spirit of God: Light and understanding and sound wisedom was found in them, and in nothing did they come behind the very chiefest Servants of God in this generation. We allow and confess them to have been men, not onely profound in Learning, but sound in the faith, Orthodox in judgment, yea, the great assertours of the Protestant Religion, and glorious instruments in the hands of God, of causing that light of truth to break out of darkness, by which we now walk, and which we all profess. How [Page] is it then, that they who spent all their time, studies, and strength in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church, and loved not their lives unto death, but were slain for the word of God, and testimony which they hold, should be thought to retain any thing of Popish superstition in worship? What is this, butPs. 73. 15. to condemn the generation of God's Children, which cannot be well pleasing to their Father?

But what if it should be proved that the Liturgy of our Church, was (for the substance of it) in use, in the very first and purest times of the Church of Christ, before ever Popish Superstition came into the World? Then, I hope, it will be acknowledged to be free from that, whereof it is secretly and most ignorantly charged. But Godly and Learned Cranmer in Queen Mary's days (who knew well what he said, and was well able to make his words good,) offers to enter the lists with any Papist living (for it had no other Enemy in those days, neither hath it in these, but such as fight with their weapons, and sharpen their instruments against it, at their forge.) [Page] ‘And (if the Queens Highness would grant thereunto)Act. & Mon. T. 3. pag. 94. prove against all that will say the contrary, that all that is contained in the Holy Communion, set out by the most innocent and godly King Edward VI. in his high Court of Parliament, is conformable to that order which our Saviour Christ did both observe, and command to be observed, and which the Apostles and primitive Church used many years. And that if he might be permitted to take to himself Peter Martyr, and four or five others, whom he should chuse, they would, by God's Grace, take upon them to defend, not onely the Common-prayers of the Church, the ministration of the Sacraments, and other the rites and ceremonies, but also all the Doctrine and Religion set out by the said King Edward VI. to be more pure and according to God's word, than any other that have been used in England these thousand years, so that God's word may be judge. And that the Order of the Church set out at that present in the Realm by Act of Parliament, is the same that was [Page] in the Church fifteen hundred years past.’ Neither saith he it alone, but we have the several testimonies of particular Learned and judicious Saints of that and the following generation, touching the excellency and worth of that Book; such as Saunders, Taylor, Ridley, Iewel, &c. We have a Noble Army of Martyrs standing together in vindication of the purity of it. The whole blessed company of persecuted Preachers, in Prison, at the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign, in a petition of theirs to the King, Queen and Parliament, say thus Act. & Mon. T. 3. P. 119. ‘If your said Subjects be not able by the Testimony of Christ, his Prophets, Apostles, and Godly Fathers of his Church, to prove that the Doctrine of the Church, Homilies, and Service-book, taught and set forth in the time of our late most godly Prince King Edward VI. is the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church, and most agreeable with the Articles of the Christian faith; your said subjects offer themselves then, to the most heavy punishment that it shall please your Majesty to appoint.’

[Page] Should but one Nonconformist have said so much, for the antiquity and purity of this Book, it would sooner have been believed by the people of our age, than from the mouths of so many learned and holy Fathers. Take therefore the testimony of one of that way, and a learned one, Mr. Iohn Ball, who having spent great pains in quitting it from the objections of Separatists, lays down this conclusion.Trial of Grounds tending to Separation, c. 9. c. 155, 156. ‘Our Service-book is not a Translation of the Mass, but a restitution of the ancient Liturgy, wherein sundry Prayers are inserted, used by the Fathers, agreeable to the Scriptures.’ And in the same Chapter in a few pages after, he hath these words. Page 176. ‘To the praise of God be it spoken, our Liturgy for purity and soundness, may compare with any Liturgy used in the third and fourth Ages of the Church.’ Which was long before Popery came into the World.

Neither hath any of the several emendations that it hath admitted, since its first composure, been of that nature or moment as to give an occasion to charge it in the least with any thing that [Page] is, or was, sinfull or Superstitious. However thus much, I suppose, may unquestionably be concluded from the abovesaid acknowledgment; that if it were an excellent and worthy work then, it is not sinfull now: but the use of it being enjoyned by Authority, may be conformed to with a good Conscience. Especially considering, that it is farther acknowledged by the Divines first named, ‘That what things soeverAccount of proceedings. page 11. are offensive to them in it, and desired to be removed, are not of the foundation of Religion, nor the essentials of publick Worship; and must therefore be but circumstantials.’ Or as Dr. Owen in his plea for Nonconformists, p. 9. saith, they differ from us onely in significant fringes and laces of Forms and Ceremonies. Which ought to be the more easily born with in complyance with Lawfull Authority, by all such as mind their own duty, or tender the peace of the Church; it being a good and safe rule which St. Augustine gives in such a case.Aug. ad Jan. Epist. 118. Quod neque contra Fidem, neque contra bonos mores injungitur, indifferenter est habendum, & pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est. Whatsoever is enjoined, that is not contrary to Faith or Holiness, ought to be observed for peace-sake with them, among whom we live.

[Page] Yet how is this Book called to the stake, by the upholders and frequenters of Conventicles, and made to fill up, what was behind of the sufferings of those holy Fathers, that compiled it! How often have I heard it call'd by some of them Popery, Idolatry, Superstition, and what not! How are they accounted the onely Virtuoso's in these days, and to have attained to a very high pitch of Piety, when they have onely arrived at such a measure of profaneness, as to rail at it, and carefully to shun their joining with us, in the Worship of God by it; and think that they have then done him a very acceptable service, when they have done him none at all, but onely afforded their presence at the Preaching of a Sermon? And to the end that malice may leave nothing unattempted to render it contemptible, I have observed, that these sinfull Assemblies are studiously continued till the end of Common Prayer in the Church, at least; if not during the Sermon also.

Could it ever have been thought, that men who pretend Religion and Conscience, could have proceeded to [Page] such a monstrous extremity of wickedness, as to prefer their own private humours and fancies, before God's publick Worship? And thus endeavour to undermine and destroy so godly and legal an Establishment? If confession of Sin, profession of Faith, reading of the Scriptures, Prayers and Praise to God (which is the substance of this whole Book) be any part of God's Ordinance or Worship, then surely the practice of these men, is contrary not onely to Gospel order and commands, but even to those Rules of Worship, which the principal men of their own way and perswasion have given. For in the Directory composed by the late Assembly of Divines, the first direction for publick Worship which they give, is this,Directory. page 1. ‘When the Congregation is to meet for publick Worship, the people (having before prepared their hearts thereunto) ought all to come and join therein; not absenting themselves from the publick Ordinances through negligence, or, upon pretence of Private meetings.’

How are the mouths of Papists hereby opened against us, to justifie their own [Page] Recusancy, and to condemn our Church as false and adulterate, seeing that our own members do revile it (as they of the Romish Church also do, calling itAct. & Mon. Tom. 3. p. 19, 138, & 1012. an abominable Book, very pesti [...]erous, &c. theRhemist annotat. in 1 Cor. 6. 14. & 1 Cor. 10. 9. service of Baal, plain Idolatry) separate themselves from it, join hands with them to destroy it, and are contented to hazard their Estates and fortunes, rather than to conform to it? Doth not this harden them in their Superstition and Idolatry, avert them from our Church, and make them sit down in the scorners chair? Doth not this say (in effect) that all those good laws formerly made against Papists, and all penalties and mulcts by virtue thereof inflicted, were most unjust, in punishing them for refusing to join with us in that form of worship, which we our selves cannot approve of? We may say with the Athenians, Auximus Philippum nos ipsi Athenienses, We have strengthned the hands of our Enemies against us, by our own divisions and contentions. It is an odious quality, and that which obscures the lustre of all the commendable vertues which Franzius Hist. Animal. pag. 321, 322. Franzius notes of the Cranes, that oftentimes [Page] they are so vehemently enraged one with an other, and maintain such a combate among themselves, that they neither observe, nor fear the coming of the Fowler; Yea, that they rather desire his approach, and to be taken by him, than to be reconciled to their mates, with whom they are faln out. It is a thing much to be feared, that these men will never be at quiet and peace in the Church, untill they make that true of themselves which I have read objected to the aforesaid people of Athens by way of reproach, that they would never vouchsafe to treat or hear of peace, but in mourning gowns, namely, after the loss of their friends and fortunes in the wars. He hath no mind that considers not this, nor heart that condoles it not.

Put the case, that though the Liturgy of our Church was composed with so much piety and prudence, yet there might remain any thing capable of amendment, as a freckle in a fair Face: what if it be not in all things suitable with every man's judgment or fancy (as there is nothing in the world, the Directory it self not excepted, so well [Page] done, that doth not displease some: the best cook'd dishes please not every Palate) yet as St. Augustine of old answered the Donatists Aug. Epist. 50. Si peccavit Caecilianus non ideo haereditatem suam perdidit Christus. Shall God therefore loose his publick worship and service, shall it be trampled upon, slighted, and prophanely neglected, because we differ about black and white, as Bishop Ridley told Bishop Hooper in a Letter to him?

And though in these latter days, preaching hath gotten ground of the Prayers of the Church, in the opinion of some whom we shall see present now and then at the former, but seldom or never at the latter; yet (withou [...] any detraction to that excellent ordinance of God be it spoken) this most despised part of God's worship must needs be granted to have the preheminence of the other (especially in these days, wherein the Church is so maturely composed and throughly setled in the faith, and the Book of the holy Scriptures so complete and common amongst us in our own Language) by him that considers,

1. First, that it is the most proper [Page] and immediate worship of God, and preaching but mediate, as it is the means which God hath ordained to teach men how to pray, and to fit them for that duty. For,Rom. 10. 14. how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

2. Secondly, it is a duty simply and entirely moral, good in respect of its own nature and quality, before any external constitution passed upon it, and may be resolved into one of the dictates and principles of the Law of Nature, imprinted universally in the hearts of all men at the creation. For before the Law of the ten Commandments Gen. 4. 26. men began to call on the name of the Lord; as being taught by the light of Nature, that in God we all live, move and have our being; and that he is the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. But preaching and hearing are acknowledged by all; to be instituted worship, and moral onely by an external imposition and mandate of the Supreme Lawgiver.

3. Thirdly, it is a duty of longer duration [Page] than preaching: the one being onely for this life; the other, for the life to come also: the one proper and peculiar to men as members of the Church militant, the other common to men and Angels, in the Church triumphant. Hook. Eccles [...] polit. l. 5. Sect. 23. ‘The knowledge is small which we have on Earth, concerning things done in Heaven: notwithstandings thus much we know, even of Saints in Heaven, that they pray.’

4. Fourthly, it is a duty of larger extent and benefit than Preaching is; this onely profiteth those that be present, that do hear it and attend upon it, but Prayer is available even for those that are far distant, yea though they be in the remotest parts of the world. When Lot's preaching did no good at all to his hearers, yet Abraham's prayers might have been so effectual as to have saved five wicked Cities, if there had been but ten righteous persons in them.

What our Blessed Saviour's judgment was in this case, we may easily gather by that place in the Gospel, where he calls the Church [...] an house of Prayer, not of Preaching. Whence in the Primitive times all the Christian [Page] Temples were called and known by the name of [...], Oratories.

And publick Prayers of the Church have as much the preheminence of private, as the duty it self, hath of preaching, in [...]egard there is more force in these Prayers, wherein the whole Church joynVis unita fortior together as one man, than there can be in those, that others, though never so many, make apart any where else.Mat. 18. 19. I say unto you (saith our Saviour) that if two of you shall agree on Earth, touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. Much more then if a Thousand; and more if the whole Church. They are two excellent and remarkable sayings of St. Chrysostome to this purpose, which are quoted byPag. 215. Bishop Iewel in his reply to Harding's answer. Non aeque exoras cum solus dominum obsecras, atq [...]e cum fratribus tuis. Est enim in hoc plus aliquid, videlicet concordia, Chrysost. de incomprehensib. Dei natura. Hom. 3. conspiratio, copula amoris, & charitatis, & sacerdotum clamores. Praesunt enim ob eam rem sacerdotes, ut populi orationes, quae infirmiores per se sunt, validiores eas complexae simul in c [...]elum evehantur. Thou [Page] dost not so soon obtain thy desire when thou prayest alone unto the Lord, as when thou prayest with thy Brethren; for herein is somewhat more, the concord, the consent, the joyning of love and charity, and the cry of the Priest. For to that end the Priests are made overseers, that they being the stronger sort, may take with them the weaker Prayers of the People and carry them up into Heaven. Again he saith.Chrysost. in 2 ad The [...]. 4. Hom. Quod quis apud seipsum precatus accipere non poterit, hoc cum multitudine precatus accipiet. Quare? Quia etiamsi non propria virtus, tamen concordia multum potest. The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone, praying together with the multitude, he shall obtain; and why so? for although not his own worthiness, yet concord and unity prevaileth much. When the whole Church joyned together in their devotions for St. Peter's enlargment, Omnipotence exerted it self in a series of MiraclesAct. 12. 5 [...] &c. that their Prayers should not be unanswered.Leo Serm. 4. de Iejunio Septimi mensis. Tunc est efficacior & sanatior devotio, quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesie unus est animus, & unus est sensus. Prayer is [Page] then more holy and effectual, when in the works of piety there is but one mind and one meaning of the whole Church Besides, God hath promised (as hath been before shewed) to be more comfortably present in our Church-Assemblies, than in any other houses or places whatsoever. If it had been all one to pray in a private house, or in the publick assemblies of the Church, St. Paul, and the Godly Christians with him, would never have put themselves to an hazard of their lives, in times of hottest persecution, by meeting together in multitudes, in a place Act. 16. 13. where there was an House of Prayer; or where they were wont to assemble together to pray. For it is read both ways. The first pleaseth Tremelius best; the latter, Beza. Cornel. A Lapid. [...] enim, & orationem & oratorium significat. The word signifies both Prayer, and an House of Prayer. ‘Hook. Eccles. polit. l. 5. Sect. 25. The House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of celestial powers, there the Almighty doth sit to hear, and his Angels intermingle with us, as our associates, and attend to further our Suits. With reference hereunto the Apostle requires so great care [Page] to be had of decency in the Church, for the Angels sake; saith Mr. Hooker.’

Sixthly, it begets ill thoughts of his 6 Majesty's most gracious Government, as if he were a persecutor and suppressor of true Religion, and an enemy to piety and godliness. These meetings about in Barnes, and private Houses, look not as if we lived under a Christian Protestant Prince, as if King Charles were upon the throne; but as if Nero, Dioclesian, or Queen Mary were alive again, and did rule.Bishop Lake Serm. on 1 Tim. 2. 11. ‘Conventicles (saith Bishop Lake) make shew as if you had not freedom of Religion, and thereby you derogate from the honour of the King's most Christian Government, and wrong your Pastour, casting imputation upon him, that he cannot, or will not instruct you as he ought.’ And indeed it lays the Axe to the Root, and tends to the undermining and destruction of all Government and Governours. Do not the Histories of all Ages give in evidence to the evil tendency of these private, seditious, and unlawfull meetings? [Page] In the late years of war and confusion, those meetings were effectually made use of, by all parties, as the great Engine, to pull down the powers then in being. By these means Presbytery did in a great measure prevail to the forceable and irregular throwing down of the legally established Episcopacy. So by the same means Independency, Anabaptism, Fifth-monarchism hath been prevalent over and against Presbytery. So that it is a wonder the Governours of our Church and State have not a more watchfull and jealous Eye, upon all such illegal, Schismatical, and seditious conventions. It is a sure rule of our SaviourMat. 12 25. A Kingdom divided cannot stand. It was a principle of Machiavel, divide, & impera, divide, and take all. Whatsoever may be divided, may be destroyed. When a society is broken, it may soon be brought to confusion. 'Tis Satan's way to destroy, by dissolving unions:Casp. Si bel in Ps. 133 P. 597. Infirma est securitas ab alienis dissidiis, nec unquam stabile est regnum, vbi inter se discordant ii, qui reguntur. This practice then that tends so much to dividing, tends as much to destroying both Church and State. [Page] Seventhly,VII. Where this liberty is either taken or given, there is, or may be, dissenting from, yea contrariety of Doctrine to what is taught in publick. And that can no way conduce to edification in faith and holiness, but to the greatest confusion that may be.

The whole Church should be, as the whole World was in Noah's time, unius labii, of one Language, the building else will prove to be but a Babel, and the Ministry2 Cor. 13.—10. for destruction, and not for edification; which is so far from being God's Ordinance, that it is quite contrary thereunto. This made St. Paul so earnestly to importune the Church of Corinth, 1 Cor. 1. 10. to speak all the same things. And truly such is the condition of the Upholders and Masters of these unlawfull Assemblies in these days, that there is great danger of their prevarication now and then in Doctrine, and of suiting their discourses to their hearers palates. I say they are under a very great temptation to gratifie mens vices, by indulging their prejudices. For, as a worthy Prelate of our Church hath well observedBishop Hall resolv. of decis. Pag. 131, 132. ‘Where Ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences, [Page] if they do but upon some just reproof Gaul the conscience of a guilty hearer, or preach some truth, which disrelisheth the Palate of a prepossessed auditour, he streightway flies out, and not onely withdraws his own pay, but the contribution of others also. So as the free Tongue teacher, must either live by air, or be forced to change his Pasture. Thereupon it is that those Sportulary Preachers are fain to sooth up their many Masters, and are so gagged with the fear of starving displeasure, that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors, as being charmed to speak either placentia, or nothing.’

This is a truth easie to be apprehended. For if even when the Laws enforce men to pay their dues to their Ministers, they yet continue so backward in the discharge of them (especially if never so little displeased at just reproofs, and lawfull endeavours to reform their vicious lives) how much less hope can there be, that being left to their own free choice, they will [Page] prove liberal or bountifull in their voluntary Contributions, if never so little cross'd upon the like occasion by their new Masters.

Lastly, it opens a door to all Errours 8 and Heresies, and is the ready way to bring all Religion to nothing. For (saith the Apostle) when people2 Tim. 4. 3. 4. heap up to themselves teachers, to satisfie the itch of their Ears, they will turn away their Ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables in a short time. Elsewhere the Holy Ghost joins order and stedfastness together.Col. 2. 5. Though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I present with you in the spirit, joying to behold your order and stedfastness of your faith in Christ. It is impossible for men to be stedfast in Religion, who keep not God's order. How come so many in our days to fall from their stedfastness, some to Anabaptism, some to Quakerism, and some to Atheism, but by breaking first that order in Religion, that God hath set? If Souldiers in an Army keep their order, every one abiding in his proper place, and to his proper employment and command, they are invincible: but [Page] when once they begin to break their Ranks, they are soon after vanquished and destroyed.

If liberty may be taken to given to such private House-preaching in another man's Parish, why may not a Iesuit that preacheth Purgatory, Invocation of Saints, Worshipping of Images, and such like Popish stuff doe the like? Nay, it is a truth too well known, that there are some of them under the notion of Nonconformists that doe so: And in sundry places of this Nation, some such have been discovered, and more may, were they carefully sought after.

I am sure it strengthens the hands of the wicked; it justifieth and encourageth the Anabaptists, Quakers, and all other Sectaries, (who in a Book put forth at the beginning of the long Parliament, called, The Compassionate Samaritan Pag. 75, 76. desire that the Parliament would stop all proceedings against them: and for the future provide, that as well particular and private Congregations, as publick, may have protection from them) in all their unjust and prophane separations from our Churches, and sinfull and unlawfull Conventicles, [Page] which none have been more zealous and forward to condemn and suppress, than those men that now tread in their steps, and doe the same thing which they have disallowed and opposed in others.

All which things considered, every faithfull Pastour of a Congregation where such Intruders thrust themselves, may say to their people, as St. Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 4. 1 [...] ▪. Though yee have ten thousand instructers, yet ye have not many Fathers, for I have begotten you through the Gospel. And,1 Cor. 9. 2. If I be not an Apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord. And all such people as content not themselves with the labours of their pious and painfull Pastours, but run after Strangers and Usurpers, may justly fear that curse:Jer. 14. 10. Thus saith the Lord unto the people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet; therefore the Lord doth not accept them, he will now remember their iniquities, and visit their sins. For,Prov. 27. [...] as a bird that wandreth from his nest, so is a man that wandreth from his place. God took [...]

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A discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by John Norris ...

Norris, John, 1657-1711.

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1685

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2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

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A52421

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Wing N1251

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ESTC R17164

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— A discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by John Norris ..., Norris, John, 1657-1711..

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[8], 312 p.

Printed for James Norris ...,. London :: 1685.. (Includes bibliographical references.) (Reproduction of original in Huntington Library.)

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