CHRISTIAN LIBERTY VINDICATED From gross Mistakes, occasioning so great Divisions in ENGLAND. OR, A Tract, showing what it is, and what it is not, the diversity of Errors, a General Council to be the means of beating them down, and how far forth Conscience is to be born with, and the insolency of the late Remonstrants. Most earnestly recommended to the reading of the Right Honourable Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, and all those that through a mistake stand so stiffly for the priviviledge of conscience at large, that they stop the course of Government establishing, thus keeping a gap open to many great enormities to this day, that taking better notice of the truth, they may make no such stopage any more. And whether some of them do or no, those Higher Powers may make a way by forcing within the Church, which they cannot do by persuasion: Wherein, God grant that all expedition may be used, and good success follow, for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ. Amen. Whereunto is added An Appendix of 17. Questions, necessary to be discussed and be determined by the Assembly of Divines without delay, that every one may know what to hold and rest in, and the unnatural divisions in the same body may cease. By JOHN MAYER, D. D. of Divinity. LONDON: Printed by Eliz. Pu●slow for Matthew Walbancke. 1647. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY VINDICATED From gross mistakes, occasioning so great Divisions in England. GAL. 5.1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free. THere is no comfort to that of our Christian Liberty; yet as out of the sweetest honey the Spider sucks Poison, so man out of this sweet comfort, by turning it to an occasion of sinful dissension to the corrupting of the soul. For as it is now taken by some, we may say of it, as August. said of Drunkenness, Is not strife and contention by thee? and are not wounds without cause by thee? and are there not raylings, blasphemies, redness of the eyes, dropsies, pleurisies, and divers deaths? So, is not the disturbance of the peace of the Church by thee? the dividing of Christ's seamelesse coat by thee? and by thee his beautiful Spouse the Church made full of wounds and blood? So these, as they who look upon her have their affections alienated from her, and their mouths opened to blaspheme and speak evil of her. To reform this abuse then, and to prevent the further increase of it, give me leave to show you what this liberty is: First, affirmatively, and then negatively. First, It is a liberty purchased for all true believers by Christ's most precious blood, What Christian Liberty is. from all the burdensome Rites and Ceremonies of the Law, and from the servitude of our own lusts, and of Satan, and from everlasting death. Here, first I say, it is a liberty purchased for all true believers by Christ's most precious blood, for we are redeemed, not with corruptible things of gold and silver, 1 Pet. 1.18. but with the precious blood of Christ, by this word (we) here, the faithful being understood here, and the word (redeemed) a freeing of us, who before were in servitude and bands. Secondly, From all the burdensome Rites and Ceremonies of the Law, Act. 15.1. From Ceremonies. for so Peter calls them, saying, Why put ye a yoke upon the disciples necks, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? our liberty herefrom is set forth, Gal. 4.3. under the similitude of an heir attaining to full age, before he was under tutors and governor's, but now he is free from this servile condition: So we, when we were children, were in bondage under the rudiments of the world: But, When the fullness of time was come, God sent his Son to redeem them that were under the Law. Now then, we are at liberty from days before commanded to be kept, whether new Moons, or the Pasch, Pentecoast, or feast of Tabernacles, or days set apart yearly for Humiliation and Attonement-making, because they were set up only to shadow out things to come, or as a means of commemorating things past, which were the greatest blessings imparted to God's people under the old Testament. The anniversary atonement was a figure of Christ's blood shed, whereby we attain forgiveness of our sins, and reconciliation with God, when he entered with it into Heaven, as the High Priest with the blood of a Goat into the Sanctum Sanctorum. The Pascall Lamb was both a figure of the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world, and a commemoration of that great benefit of being freed from their Egyptian bondage. The feast of Pentecoast, of God's miraculous putting them in possession of the Land of Canaan, and consequently of the Corn then ready to be reaped which they sowed not, the feast of Tabernacles, of their miraculous preservation forty years in the wilderness, when they dwelled in Tents, that of blowing Trumpets, and those of new Moons, both to figure out the Evangelicall Trumpet, the preaching of the Gospel, which sounded in all Lands, to the beating down of strong holds, to commemorate the miraculous overthrow of Jericho by the sound of Trumpets of Rams-hornes, 2 Cor. 10.4. and for a sign of God remembering them when they were to fight with their enemies. Touching the Sabbath of the seventh day from the Creation, it was also figurative of the rest coming by Christ unto all true Christian souls, and commemorative of Gods resting from all his works of Creation, and therefore is no more to be kept under the N. T. he being now come, even Jesus▪ who is the Author of spiritual rest and peace; as Joshuah gave rest in Canaan, and a greater work and benefit being now to be commemorated, viz. of our redemption and restitution into the state of grace, from which we fell by the sin of Adam. Wherefore we are at liberty from keeping that day also, yet not so at liberty, but that we are tied to another, viz. the Lords Day, according to the example and practice of the Apostles, and of Christians since, because the commandment of keeping the seventh day is moral and perpetual, & not Ceremonial, as of other Sabbaths. And Heb. 4, 4.5. the Apostle proving two rests or Sabbaths at two times, one under the Old Testament, the other under the new and concluding▪ ves. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God, plainly intimateth a Sabbath now to be kept, even the day wherein Jesus entered into his rest by rising again, from thenceforth never to suffer or travel about to teach and to work miracles any more, and hitherto of days. Now for other Ceremonies, and first of meats, from which Gods people were tied by his precept; as namely, All unclean beasts, fowls and fishes (for so much as this was done in figure, it being hereby adnumbrated, that there were two sorts of people in the world clean and unclean, Jews and Gentiles, which should continue thus distinguished, till God should be pleased, through Christ, to break down this partition wall, and to sanctify the Gentiles also through faith) we are now at liberty herefrom; Act. 10. only some, as not having this knowledge think themselves tied are still tied, and therefore should sin, Rom. 14. if they eat of things unclean, and the like is taught, of keeping or not keeping days formerly sanctified: Secondly, of Circumcision and washings, in case of legal uncleanness, sacrifices, the Highpriest and other Priests in their vestments, etc. we are not only at liberty from them all, Gal. 5.1. but if we should still use them, we should have no benefit by Christ. Thirdly, I say, that this liberty is from servitude to our vile lusts and sins, From servitude of sin. Joh. 8.34. which whosoever committeth is the servant thereof, & than whoso are thus freed, are free from the danger of death and the power of the Devil; for he worketh by our lusts, Jam. 1.14. Eph. 2. unto which therefore our servitude being at an end, there is an end of our servitude to Satan also, and of our subjection to him, to be by him carried away into his hellish Kingdom. And all this liberty we ought to stand for, but especially this last, as wherein our happiness doth consist, freedom from sin by justification through faith, and by a virtue derived from Christ's death, to whom we are joined by faith to die to sin and live to righteousness, and freedom from the Devil and his snare, 1 Pet. 5.8. and dominion, and finally from his Lion-like devouring of us. And hitherto affirmatively what Christian liberty is, now to show negatively what it is not: What Christian liberty is not. 2 Pet. 2.19. And here I say briefly first, that it is not a liberty to any evil or sin, because this is no liberty, but servitude to corruption, and is so opposite to Christian liberty, as that the Apostle faith, How should we that are dead unto sin yet live any longer therein: Rom. 6.2. against those, that said, If it be of grace that we are saved let us continue in sin, that grace may abound. As the dead are bound up from doing the actions of the living, so the true Christian is said to be dead unto sin; to intimate, that be is not at liberty to act sin any more; as they that live in sin, and were never mortified unto it, but contrariwise bound, that he cannot now sinne any more; i Joh. 3.9. as St. John expressly teacheth, For what is sin, but a breach of the Law, and he that breaks the least of those Commandments or Laws, saith our Lord, shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; Mat. 5.19. that is, shall be rejected and put from it, as most unworthy, for such are by the Holy Ghost set forth sometimes by this word least, and sometime by the word last, as Matth. 19.30. & ch. 20. And this makes against all them that will be justified by faith in Christ so, as to be at liberty to do evil, and yet not to be said to sin in so doing: These begin in the spirit, but end in the flesh, as those of isaack's posterity, and of Israel's, who degenerated and became no better than Ishmaels': 2 Tim. 2.21. For whosoever is a vessel Elect, and precious, and so appointed to hovour, purgeth himself, and is fit for the master's use, being prepared to every good work. He that saith, to do evil is no sin, what saith he else, but as the cursed Serpent to Evah, touching the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Although ye eat of it ye shall not die: so he, although ye do the evil, which God forbiddeth, it is no sin in you, neither shall death betid you therefore. The Antinomians then from Zealots are turned Libertines, yea Serpents, which I wish that all the people of God would take serious notice of, and take heed of being beguiled by their subtlety to their destruction: For let this be received, and what Whoremonger, Drunkard, Sweater, what man full of envy, wrath, strife, etc. shall be shut out of Heaven, seeing he believeth also; and thus too in the number of justified persons: But how may we confute them, sigh he that believeth is justified, and he that is justified can have nothing laid to his charge past, present, or to come; whereas, if he doth but sin, it cannot but be laid to his charge. Answ. It is not laid to his charge, because God imputes it not to him, and not because it is no sin, if it were otherwise, it would not have been said, Psal. 32. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin, but rather, in whom there is no sin, which whoso saith of himself, is a liar, and hath no truth in him; 1 joh. 1 8. yea, although he be a believer; for it is written, If we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive them. If it were according to the opinion of these proud justiciaries, that note of St. John would fall to the ground, whereby he saith, we may know the children of God and of the Devil, He that doth not righteousness, is of the Devil, and P. being a justified person, 1 joh. 3.10. Gal. 3.20. said, He knew not what, when he confessed, saying, Of all sinners I am the chief, and complained of sin in himself, 1 Tim. 1.1. Rome. 7. Hitherto of the first. Secondly, Christian liberty is not to error, although he who holdeth it thinks it to be truth, and in walking accordingly, walks according to his conscience, neither may he therefore be suffered, but animadverted against as an evil doer, by the higher powers, provided that it be first determined by a General Nationall Assembly that it is an error. Hence I say, first, That Christian liberty is not a liberty to error, 2 Thess. 2.11. for than it should be against Christ, who is the truth, and God's Word which is truth; and a liberty to lying, because errors are lies, and damnable lies, for they that believe them are damned: and it is an epithet of such errors as men hold and will not revoke them, which are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 2 Pet. 2.1. Heresies of damnation, and the Heretics are said to be subverted and condemned of themselves, Tit. 3.10, 11. But, Quest. Whether is any error to damnation or no; because, some erring about meats and days, are pleaded for, and defended, Rom. 14. Act. 16.3. And Paul is said, to have taken Timothy and circumcised him, which yet he plainly teacheth to be so great an error, that it frustrateth the benefit by Christ, Gal. 5.1. And after long travel, Act. 21. coming to Jerusalem, he, by the advice of the Church, purified himself according to the Ceremonial Law, which was then abolished, and therefore the practice was erroneous. Yet, Gal. 4.10, 11. the observing of days is censured as prejudicial to the good coming by the Gospel; for he saith, Yet observe days, etc. I am afraid that I have bestowed labour upon you in vain, whereby it should seem, that any other legal observance, when there date was out, is of like dangerous consequence. To this I answer, Answ. That errors are to be considered, either in the foundation, or in the other building; error in the foundation is about Christ, who is the foundation whereupon his Church is built, 1 Cor. 3, 11. neither can any man lay any other; yet the Church is said, to be built upon the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ being the chief Stone of the corner, where, by the Prophets and Apostles, their preaching of the truth, and Prophesying, and committing the substance of all to writing it meant, but especially the faith touching Christ, as the principal thing in these writings set forth, and the Law of the ten Commandments, which he must keep that will enter into life, and the Sacraments, of which, whoso partakes not cannot be saved. Now in the foundation to err is damnable, because this is to raze the foundation of life to a man's self; and if the foundation be razed, whereupon the hope of life is built, what can this be but a vain hope, as that building is vain which is set upon the sands, and shall certainly come to ruin? Thus the Jews and Turks, because they have no faith in Christ, are in a damnable error: And likewise Heretics, who hold not the holy Scriptures to be the Word of God, or Jesus, not to be very God as well as man, or justification, not to be by faith in Jesus Christ, or deny the resurrection of the dead, or the distinct beings of souls after death, or the blessed Trinity, or confession of sins to be necessary for the faithful, or the like monsters amongst Christians, are all in damnable errors. Lastly, Papists, who hold not Christ to be our only Mediator, but sacrilegiously adjoin to him Saints and Angels in this mediating or interceding office, and are makers and worshippers of Images, and of the host or sacrifice, as they falsely call the bread in the Sacrament, and believe in the Pope as infallible, and justification by works of their own, and that satisfaction must be made to God's justice by each one, in suffering the pangs of Purgatory fire, before he can enter into life, with a rabble of many errors more, do also err damnably. Yea, if any man hold any such error, although not all or more, he erreth damnably. Touching other errors in the building, they again must be distinguished into errors simple or obstinate. Simple errors, are errors that men fall into for want of a right understanding of the Scriptures, being ready when they are showed them to be turned therefrom: Obstinate errors, are errors stifely adhered to after discussion and determination against them in a lawful Council. Now, simple error in such things is not damnable, but obstinate is. For, at jerus. there was a Council of Priests and Levites assisted with a Judge, whereunto in case of difficulty all men are required to come, Deut. 17. ●. and the determination being by them made, in any controversy, all are so bound unto, that he, who will not stand to it, shall die therefore. Before this, Moses, who was a man extraordinarily enlightened lightened by God, advising with God from time to time, was the supreme Umpire. And the like unto this was done, Act. 15. when a difficult question, about which divers were of divers opinions, was resolved, by the Council at Jerusalem, for this was sent to all the Churches to be kept by them. And the Apostles, by taking this course against diversity of opinions, gave example to us in succeeding ages to do likewise. Wherefore, at all times, the custom of the Church hath been by Counsels to make Canons and determinations of controversies, and so it ought to be done at this day, wherein more questions arise then ever in any one age before, and to the Counsels determinations ought all to stand: And if any will not, their errors now are obstinate, and presumptuous, and damnable. By this we may conceive, why they that err about matters not of the foundation are so sharply censured sometimes? and yet at other times defended, or tolerated. But what Council is a lawful Council in the power whereof these determinations are? Quest. or there being a lawful Council, are we so sure, Of Counsels that the Judges in these days, shall determine nothing but the truth, as the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem, Act. 15. or the Priests, Levites, and Judges in elder times; and if not, there is not the like reason of being subject to their determinations? To the first of these queries, Sol. 1. I answer, That a lawful Council in these cases, is not a Council consisting only of secular Judges; for that at Jerusalem of old, consisted of Priests and Levites principally, and a Judge or two adjoined to them, that is, so ne few in comparison of them, and the other more lately in the same City, of Apostles and Elders, that is, Preachers of the Gospel, having certain Brethren also adjoined unto them. But it is a Council consisting of Preachers, who are by Prayer and arguing to sift out the Truth, some Brethren also being joined to them, as there were in the first Council at Jerusalem, that by their joint consent, their Decrees coming out, all sorts may the more willingly submit to them; for never did any offer in former ages to take this power from professed Theologues, I mean the power of judging in matters The ological; and to give it to secular Judges: Neither do I know, whether the presumption of Saul, to offer Sacrifice; or of Uzziah, to offer Incense, were more offensive to God than theirs, to do this Priestly office, the Priest being excluded therefrom. For any common Priest might offer sacrifice, but to the Highpriest, and other chief Priests and Levites, Fathers of their families, as most choice men from amongst the rest, this office of judging in difficult cases was committed, and therefore in some respect an higher Priestly office: Neither did Uzziah so take upon him to offer incense, as to put Azariah and other Priests from so doing. It is a known saying, Tractet fabrilia faber, quisque suum callet artem; neither do men go to any other but Physicians to judge of diseases, to Lapidaries to judge of precious stones, and to Lawyers to judge of Lawcases; and shall it then be thought right, leaving the Theologues, whose profession and study it is, to go to others, who in Theologie be but their Scholars, to judge of matters Theological? But if this moves you not, look at Gods own express Word, The Priest's lips shall preserve knowledge, Mal, 2.7. and they shall inquire the Law at his mouth, that is, not, what is therein written, for that was obvious to any man by looking into the book, but according to the Law to judge in this or that difficult case. Again, ye, saith Christ, are the lights of the world, Matth. 5. and no man takes a light and puts it under a bushel, etc. which words, what do they show, but that the Ministers of the Gospel ought to be used as lights, not only to give light by clearing obscurities in the word, but also by determining the truth in any dark or difficult question which shall arise? But it is feared, if this be granted, the power of the Minister will be too great, over-topping even the highest in some things; and why did not Joshuah then fearing this, desire the Lord, that he might not have recourse to Eleazar the High Priest for council and direction, Numb. 27.11. and likewise other Judges and Kings after him? What King did better than Joash in the days of Jehoindah, whilst he harkened unto, and suffered himself to be informed by him? and that it was a custom in Israel, even till the birth of our Lord, Mat. 2 4. to seek information about divine things in difficult cases of the Priests, appears in that Herod gathered all the chief Priests together, to know in what place Christ should be borne, and the first most famous Christian Emperor Constantine, that things might be rightly determined in the Church, did the like when he called the Council of Nice, that I say nothing of other Emperors, his Successors calling other Counsels at sundry times to the same ends. If a transcendent power in the ministry be feared, if it be committed to them to judge in difficult cases, why is it not likewise feared in their having power to preach permitted unto them to all estates and degrees? For the Preacher in the Pulpit is above all his hearers, how great and excellent soever they be, as being one that personates Christ as his Ambassador, Heb. 13.17. to whom even Kings and Princes must submit as to an accountant for them, unless they will have him do it with heaviness, which will be unprofitable for them. There is no man that knoweth not, that such as are superior in some respects to all others, are yet inferior in some to the Higher Powers, & subject unto them even as others of their Kingdom, and even in that wherein they are superior, they are subject at their command to assemble together and to do their office, and to such mulcts and punishments as they shall inflict upon them, whether justly or unjustly, as Zechariah stoned by Joash, Michaiah imprisoned by Ahab, Abiathar deposed by Solomon, and the Prophet reproving Asa put in the Stocks by him; only let the Higher Powers take heed, that they punish not unjustly, as some of these did, and smarted for it. If then their Sovereignty in worldly things be kept untouched notwithstanding the determinative power in things pertaining to godliness, permitted to chosen men of the Clergy, why should they sinne against their own souls so much, as debarring them herefrom, to whom it is given of God, and properly belongs, to engross it to themselves? Is a King's power any whit the less, if he commits his Law-businesses to the judgement of his Lawyers, and then follows that which they prescribe? No more is it, when Ecclesiastical matters, being committed to Ecclesiastical men, to judge and show the truth therein, their judgements are followed by all men. And hitherto of whom a lawful Council doth not consist: Now let us see, how it should be composed, and by what authority called; and to know this, we need not look further than to the Council assembled at Jerusalem, for of such as that consisted, ought every Council that resolves doubtful questions, to consist, and so they ought to be brought together, that is, of Preachers sent from those places where the questions do arise, to the chief City, to join with the Elders or Preachers there, all the Brethren that will, being present to bear and consent: They are not then to be appointed by particular men, of what power or authority soever, but a certain number to be chosen and sent from each great Town or City, even so many as they shall think fit, who have the power to command this to be done, for it is a business concerning all, and therefore in choosing the men, through whose hands it must go, there is great reason that both Ministers and people should all have a stroke, the Decrees concluded upon, being thus in a manner their own, and therefore such as every good Christian will be regulated by, and ashamed to oppose. If the Counsels called by the Popes of Rome be considered, by this rule, they will be found not to have been any lawful Counsels, because they appointed each one in his time, the men that should assemble: Neither were those Counsels called by the Higher Powers, as all the most ancient Counsels were, ever since there were any Higher Powers to call them. Lastly, the Decrees of those Counsels, especially of Trent, were none other but the Popes, by whom a party was made to carry all things as ●ee would have them. And even for our own Assembly, I would it might be considered, whether there were not an error in the calling of it, which haply is the cause why it succeeds no better, nothing being yet done to the beating down of dissensions in our Church, but they rather increasing more and more. But although the Assembly be most lawfully met, they are not infallible as the Apostles were, who met in the first Council at Jerusalem. I answer, a lawful Council or Assembly is the most infallible means that we have given us of God to determine the truth in every particular, and therefore the Decrees thereof aught to be followed and reverenced by every child of the Church, none of them being against, but according to the evidence of the Word, which is the rule whereby we ought to go in all things. That it is the most infallible means it appears, because here are assembled the greatest Lights, and most Orthodox, from all parts of the Kingdom, and that according to our precedent; and what are a few in corners here or there in comparison of them, that their opinions should not all give way to the Counsels Decrees? Certainly, if these Decrees be fallible, theirs be much more; for the promise runs, Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them, it being said before, What soever two of you shall consent about on earth, shall be ratified in Heaven. Where he speaks without all doubt of Preachers rightly assembled, to determine of difficulties; for he saith, Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: And not of men privately meeting some few of them together, because so the Decrees and points agreed upon by one Assembly, might be contradicted by another, which would be so fare from conducing to unity, where there be differences, that they would be in danger of increasing more and more. And if Counsels consisting of Elders or Preachers be not the most infallible means, why did the Apostles adjoin the Elders to them in that first Council, when as they alone were sufficient to have determined all that controversy: They did doubtless therefore by so doing, intimate unto us, that it was the will of God in future times, when they should be departed hence, that the Elders should from time to time be assembled, as need required, to determine the controversies that should arise in the Church, to trouble the peace thereof. And this being done, if the Decrees should be rejected by any because the Council was not infallibly guided, such assembling were a vain and frustrate act; which to say, sigh it is God's way, is no less than Blasphemy. But some haply will say, there must be Heresies in the Church, that the approved may be known, and therefore no Counsels should be called, but all men permitted to their own opinions; there is a day coming, when every man's works shall be tried, and then no erroneous opinion shall stand, 1 Cor. 3. but vanish as stubble burneth by the fire; before that day it is vain to attempt it thus, sigh Christians of all Congregations in the Kingdom are not bound to follow the Decrees of any one Council whatsoever, which may err as well as they. I answer, because there must be Heresies, it doth not follow that the means most effectual to beat them down should not be used: as it doth not follow there must be diseases in the City, therefore no College of Physicians is necessary there. Though by all the means that can be used, errors will abide till that day, and not all be extirped, yet all will not, but many will vanish before, as they have done by means of General Counsels in former times, and many millions who are fluctuating without Decrees of Counsels, whereby they may know what is to be stood to, shall hereby be established, for the rest it mattereth not so much, seeing they are not of the number of the approved, as may now be known by their still adhering to their own errors, For how else are the approved known in times when there are errors, but because so adjudged, they are ready to revoke them. And lastly, as I said before, in all right reason, that which is most fallible must be regulated by that which is less fallible; and whereof we may say, as the Prophet sometime said, O Lord if I be deceived, thou hast deceived me: And therefore in submitting to such Decrees there is safety; but in following private opinions, danger. For here the Lord is to direct according to his promise, and to approve what is decreed, and his Spirit is by earnest prayer craved, whom he hath promised to give to those that ask him, and they that meet and ask are their successors, who upon praying had visible signs of God's Spirit coming amongst them, all which are strong intimations, that a Council lawfully called and constituted, is not so subject to err, as many conceive, but so guided as that we may and aught to embrace the Decrees thereof, being assured, that in so doing God will never call us in question for ever: whereas if we be led by private opinions, how plausible soever they seem to be in out shallow brains, we must endure his severe examination and sharp censure therefore. And hitherto of this, that Christian liberty is not to error, and of the mean, whereby the truth may be known from error, that it may be embraced, and all error rejected. Now if any, notwithstanding the Decrees aforesaid, will still persist in his error, he is not to be tolerated in a Christian Kingdom: For after the determination of the Priests and Judges, before spoken of, he that did contrary was adjudged to die, as doing presumptuously, that others might hear and fear; and indeed what fear of running with those that err against such determinations, but by corporal punishments. Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore, oderunt peccare mals formidine poena. It is evidently the cause, why errors are so greatly multiplied in these times, every one without control holdeth what is good in his own eyes, no higher power being feared in so doing, as wanting a Sword to punish in such cases: For let any man speak unpartially, and he cannot but say, that men have grown much more audacious to broach their errors since the Government of Bishops, as bad as it was, went down, than they were under it, which verifies the saying, That a tyranny is better than an Anarchy. There must then be a Sword to punish error, as well as evil doing against the Moral Law, which even Heathen Magistrates used the Sword against. In the Bishop's time there were two Swords, one temporal, and the other spiritual, as they were called, but improperly, for the only spiritual Sword is the Word, the Discipline but a Rod, of which S. Paul saith, Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in the spirit of meekness. We are now to desire only one Sword for punishment both of wickedness and error, but it must then be drawn against both: For as the Magistrate draws his Sword against injustice, because if he should not, his Kingdom could not stand: So if a Christian Magistrate draws not his Sword against error, his Christian Kingdom will be indangered, as ours is at this day; but in ascribing to the Magistrate all power to punish, we ascribe not power also to judge in divine things, as hath been already showed, lest any should take asserting of the Civil Magistrates government alone to be sufficient in a Christian Kingdom, as an intimating of this power in them also; the contrary to which, the Author thereof doth in the same Tract declare. But now to clear yet a little more that point of Ecclesiastical Government, if the Higher Powers will have it, as it seems by their Ordinance they will, I have written nothing to oppose them herein, but to show, that it may be spared in this Kingdom; yet if this Government be set up, it would be considered, whether it may according to God's Word consist of ruling Lay Elders in part or not, and by those, that hold it may, whether those Elders should have equal power to censure with preaching Elders; For first, there is no plain place of Scripture for them; that 1 Timothy 5.17. being manifestly wrested to prove them, as tending to nothing else, but to show, that preaching Elders, who both rule well and labour in the Word, are most worthy of all others of double honour, because some might think, that being employed in the office of Government, wherein some other Preachers were not, they needed not to labour so much in preaching; to take them off from this, and to put them upon assiduons preaching notwithstanding, the Apostle gives that commendation to such teachers as both execute the office of ruling well, and diminish not their labours in the Word upon this occasion; for so we know some of them have done, when they were once come into the ruling Office, thinking it to be a supersedeas to any great pains taking in preaching for time to come. Let ruling Lay Elders be here understood, and it will follow by reason of the next words, For it is written, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox, that treadeth out the Corn, that they must have maintenance from the Church as well as Preachers, which were such a burden as was never yet laid upon the people of God in any age. To the next Quaere about their equal power, there is nothing which can be brought for that, but the mentioning of governments, 1 Cor. 12.28. so that unless all governments be equal, this cannot hence be inferred. It may hap●y be inserted, that there are other Governments in the Church besides Teachers; but let the judicious Reader but mark how S. Paul comes to speak of them, and he cannot but acknowledge them to be an inferior sort of Governors, and that Teachers are the chief: For having said, that God hath given first Apostles; secondly, Prophets; thirdly, Teachers, He addeth, after that helps, governments; as man was first made, and after that woman to be an help unto him, and under him to govern in the Family; and he saith not Helps and Governments as divers Officers, but helps, governments, by apposition to set forth one and the same, viz. helping Governors. All that can be proved then from hence, is, that Teachers are not to govern alone, it being too much distraction, and a burden too great for them, but some of the Brethren being joined unto them to help them in this work, by having an eye to the inordinate, and admonishing them, and in case they shall not so amend, to proceed against them, as the Teachers upon information shall judge necessary; neither can any more be inferred from Rom. 12.8. where it is said, He that ruleth with diligence; that is, the Brother preferred to this office of ruling under the Teacher; long after whom, to show his inferiority, he is also there named. And thus it may be granted, 1 Cor. 5. that Lay men in office may keep from the Communion the unworthy; yea, and aught to do it, when they are so judged: as 1 Cor. 5. But what is all this to their suspending of the Teacher, or to any lay brother's power over him in spiritual cases? This certainly belongs not to him, but to some Timothy or Timothy's convened to make a Presbytery to hear and judge thereof. Neither have we any ground to prove, that this Office of judging belongs to every Teacher, but to some most discreet and able. But to return again to the Argument in hand about punishing the Heretical. It is objected, Object. whatsoever the proceed were under the Old Testament; yet under the New no punishment is appointed for such as err, although against the Decrees of a lawful Council; yea, they that hold contrary things, each one according to his conscience, have a supersedeas granted them from being judged: And in the Parable of the Tares, it is commanded, that they should be let alone till the day of General Judgement. I answer, the same Lord who hath forbidden to pluck up the Tares, that is, Heretics, hath also commanded, Sol. Go out to the hedges and highways, and compel them to come in: Now compulsion implieth punishment; Luk. 14.23. for how else do the Higher Powers compel their Subjects to this or that, but by punishing the refractory? it can by no means be understood of exhorting, or persuading, for that is spoken of before, vers. 21. where a company are said to be brought in, and yet there was room, some remained still in corners, in hedges and highways, as thinking it best apart by themselves, to serve God according to their own imagirations, so forsaking the Assemblies, where this Feast is kept by Preaching the truth, to the nourishing and refreshing of the soul, but no error to the corrupting and poisoning of it. Augustine saith, that he was sometime of opinion, that none ought to be compelled to the unity of the faith, but seeing by experience both in Hippo, the City where he taught, and elsewhere, that many who were for fear of punishment compelled, that were Donatists, afterwards proved true Converts (as appeared by their own confessions,) one and another saying, I thank God that I was compelled, for by this means I went from my error, in which I would not now be for the world, he changed his opinion, and counselled the Emperor to proceed against Heretics by punishments. And he saith, although the Lord doth not expressly command this compulsory way, yet in converting Saul from a persecutor, he set us a sample teaching the same, for he first strooke him to the ground, and in his eyes, and then converted him. chrysostom likewise is for compelling by punishments, but not unto death, lest thus some, who might be turned, be directly sent down to hell: And with these speak the rest of the Fathers generally. For the objection of the tares, that parable proveth nothing, but that in case that wicked Heretics cannot be rooted out without endangering the wheat, they must be let alone, but not because it is unlawful to punish them. Sometimes they so abound, that execution cannot be done, but the good must fall as well as the bad, and then we must not go about to pluck them up, but leave them to God to take order about them in his day, grieving for their bindnesse, and praying to him to open their eyes, that they may be turned. At other times they are not to be tolerated, but may and aught to be plucked up, as they that will otherwise overgrow and mar the Wheat, which God so much tendereth. And another reason is by Expositors yielded also, why he would not have the Tares plucked up, because they might in time be converted into Wheat, and of such of them it may be said, that being pluckr up and destroyed, the Wheat is in part plucked up in them. Lastly, although the curting off of Heretics be here forbidden, yet all punishment in their goods, persons, liberty, or by exile is not forbidden, whereby Christian Magistrates proceeding against them, do all that in them lieth for their conversion, and so clear themselves from guiltiness in respect of their errors, which otherwise they cannot do; provided always, that no Idolaters or Blasphemers be counted in the number of those that are not to be persecuted to death, nor such as to promote their errors stir up sedition, or move rebellion in the Kingdom; for all such aught by the Law of God or of Nations to die for it, although not for the errors which they hold: And doth it not stand with good reason, if the Magistrate ought to deter by punishments from lesser evils, that he ought likewise to proceed against greater? but against theft, and adultery, and fornication, and drunkenness, he ought to oppose severe punishments; and errors are greater evils then these: for hereby men are rob of the heavenly treasure; Col. 2. ●8. spiritual adultery is committed, a man's error being loved more than God's truth; and here is drunkenness though not with wine, yet with the spirit of giddiness, by which the Heretic is lead. Whereas they object Christ's not bidding to punish Heretics by death, or other worldly mulcts, or yet by Church censures, this last is apparently false, for somuch as binding is in Church-censure; and hereof it is said, Whatsoever ye bind upon earth, etc. implying, that as they should see cause, they should bind; and upon this ground S. Paul censured Hy●●●●●s and Alexander, 1 Tim. 1. for denying the Resurrection, delivering them to Satan, and for his not bidding to inflict worldly punishments, no more did he upon Malefactors; but contrariwise seemed to be against the punishing of the adulterous woman, Joh. 8. and spoke kindly to the Thief upon the Cross, etc. if then an Argument may be drawn from hence in favour of error, much more in favour of Malefaction. But all men will count him absurd, that shall argue thus, Christ hath not bidden to punish Malefactors under the Gospel, therefore they ought to be permitted, and not punished. But to put it out of doubt, that such as are punishable by the Law, are still punishable under the Gospel, he says, I came not to dissolve the Law, but to fulfil it; but how is it not dissolved, if punishments set about it, as walls to sense it, be taken away, whether they be of the Malefactor, or wedded to their own wills against determinations made according to God? But shall a man be compelled to any thing against his conscience, Object. which it is Christ's will, that every one should be permitted to follow, as S. Paul declares it? I answer, if this be received as a general rule, it will both follow, Sol. that whosoever doth according to his conscience sinneth not, neither ought he therefore to be proceeded against, and then what sinner shall be counted a sinner, or justly be brought under censure? Not the poor, who steal from the rich, for he thinks in his conscience, that being in want, and the other man abounding, he may take a little from him for his succour: Nor the godly, as they are taken to be, who unreasonably oppress such as they count wicked, for they think i● their consciences the wicked are but as the Egyptians whom the Israelnes rob without scruple, and that all things are theirs, and that the wicked are usurpers: Nor the Fornicator, who hath no wife of his own, and therefore thinks it is no sin to lie with a Maid; especially, if he intends to make her his wife afterwards: Nor the Higher Powers exercising tyranny against those that will not submit to give unto them what they require, for he thinks in his conscience, forsomuch as every soul ought to be subject to the Higher Powers; and Samuel tells the people, that this will be the manner of the King, he may be thus tyranny all towards those that deny: And so Ahab might think he did not ill in taking away Naboth's life and Vineyard both, who would not yield unto him his Vineyard. Lastly, that I be not too tedious in this strain, a justified man may steal, lie, commit adultery, drink drunken, and what not, because he thinks in his conscience it is no sin in him; and so a gap shall be opened to all abominations, and he that seeks to stop it shall be a wicked intrencher upon the Christian Liberty, and make that punishable which by divine Authority is commendable. Seeing then to what exorbitancy such a tenet groweth, to stand for the liberty of every conscience, let us see if we can find out what the liberty of conscience indeed is: It is nothing else but a liberty in things indifferent, which are neither commanded in the Word of God, nor forbidden (or if they be, it is not yet manifest to my conscience that they are so) to do, or not to do them, till that by a General Council assembled the questions be determined, and then they are no more indifferent, but a conscience is to be made by every Christian of submitting thereunto. For first, that the conscience spoken of, Rom. 14. and permitted to each one to follow, is conversant about indifferent things only appears, because all his discourse there, is, about meats, eating or not eating, and keeping or not keeping days, which being formerly commanded, but now that command released, yet not in the conscience of some, who were not persuaded of it, they refrained from unclean meats still, and kept still the Sabbaths and new Moons. If therefore in his conclusion he should make conscience a man's guide in all other things also, his conclusion should be larger than the premises, which is against the Law of disputation. It is therefore certainly in indifferent things only, that a man may and aught to follow his conscience, and not in any of the cases before spoken of, or the like, for therein we have a more certain rule, viz. the Word written, according to which every one ought to walk; and if he doth not, he is a transgressor, and aught to be judged therefore, whatsoever he thinks in his conscience touching the same. According to this the Papists conscience will not bear him out in his Idolatry, or exempt him from punishment; nor the troublers of our Church peace by Sosinianisine, Independency, Anabaptism, or Seperatisme, some denying Christ to be God, the Resurrection of the dead, some the distinct Being's of souls after death, the Unity of the Godhead without distinction of persons, and the Holy Scriptures not to be the Word of God: Some again standing for each particular Congregation to be absolute in itself, and not to take Ordinances or Decrees about divine things from any Synod or Assembly whatsoever, and to consist only of holy persons gathered out of divers Congregations. Some against the Baptising of Infants for want of actual faith, and some denying all Congregations to be Churches wherein the wicked are mixed with the righteous. For first, the Papist goeth against the general Rule of all consciences in his Idolatry. Secondly, the Sosinian raseth the foundation of the true Christian Faith. Thirdly, the Independants conscience is not conversant about indifferent things; And the like may be said of Separatists and Antinomians and Anabaptists. For how ill doth it follow, they whose consciences would not permit them to eat of some meats, or told them that the appointed Feasts were still to be kept, were tolerated to follow their own consciences, therefore they ought to be tolerated, whose consciences are for ways of their own, which even themselves are not yet fully resolved upon, or at the least refuse to declare, which were never commanded, or in the ancientest times walked in, and which so fare forth as they are declared, tend to the taking away of the means of unity in the Churches of England, and consequently to endless contentions and confusion, as is the case of the Independents? Again, how ill doth it follow, therefore they are to be left to their own consciences, who judge others against the evidence of Scripture, as no true Churches, and therefore contrary to them, forsake their Assemblies, as the Separatists? or they are to be left to their own consciences, who call in question the constant practice of the Universal Church ever since the Primitive times to this day, as the Antbaptists: O● lastly, they who by their new Doctrine lay a foundation of Libertinism, as the Antinomians? The consequence indeed is good, therefore they ought in times past to have been left to their own consciences, who would not submit to the use of Ceremonies introduced by man into God▪ public Worship: And I am persuaded that the most religious, who lived then, but departed before these troublous times, had no further thing in their desires, than the abolishing of them, and of Lord Bishops their violent abettors, and of Prayers reading in the Congregation, and a Presbyterial Government setting up, and Canons and Constitutions to be made by a General Assembly, for the regulating of all particular Churches in the Kingdom. Having therefore by God's providence attained to all these things, why should we instead of being thankful to God therefore, mutin and make new stirnes and troubles, to the eclipsing of the glory of this our happiness? and to the retarding of a complete blessed Reformation, and Government settling; for want of which, Schisms and disorders do so much abound in all places? And why should ye that are the Higher Powers, if such as descent, will not by any persuasion be moved to reconcile, through a tender regard to consciences in these cases not to be regarded, cherish any hopes in them of being tolerated in their singularities any longer? Consider, I beseech you, what hath been said, and provide that there may speedily be such an Assembly, or yield unto your own that power which belongs unto them, suffering them to declare their judgement themselves touching Government, and of all doubtful cases to determine in things pertaining to their own Profession; and this being done, by your Authority confirm it, not suffering any impunè far, that shall oppose or contemn the determinations thus made, under any pretence whatsoever. Thus peace and unity shall soon be restored to our Church, which is so well pleasing to God, and an end put to hellish dissensions, impossible otherwise to be quelled; and ye by being a means hereof, under God, as he expects in regard of your place, that ye should be, shall be blessed and happy for ever. And hitherto or sin and error, unto which no liberty is given by Christ. Now thirdly, I say, that Christian liberty is not to shake off the yoke of the King and Parliament, a Democracie being advanced above all, according to a late seditious Pamphlet, going under the name of A Remonstrance of many thousands, being full of unparallelled insolences: For Christians must be subject to the Higher Powers, as all men that are but little conversant in the Holy Scriptures know, and hereby purchase credit to their Religion, which would otherwise become odious to Principalities, keeping them far enough off from being nursing Fathers to God's Church under the New Testament, as it is prophesied, that they should be: They are the Ordinance of God, and such an Ordinance as that whosoever resists them shall reap unto himself damnation, as a resister of God. It is not to be inquired into, what miseries the Kingdom hath suffered by Kings; for so they did in the Kingdom of Judah and Israel, yet nothing by any man of God intimated, that they should attempt to shake off that yoke. A King is sometime given by God, by whom he reigneth in wrath, and then he must be endured till he that gave him releaseth the Kingdom of him again; For as David said even touching Saul, who can lay his hand upon the Lords Anointed, and be blameless? And for a Nations being under a Monarch, it was Gods own constitution, when he set up Moses & after that Judges successively to rule in Israel, until the time that he gave them a King, and when for their sins after the Reign of many Kings, they were carried away captive into Babylon, Esa. 1.23. the Lord promising at their return from thence more pure golden times, he saith that he would restore them Judges, as at the first, and not put them into a democratical estate; and by Princes, as Judges, one succeeding another, they were ruled until the time of Antiothus Epiphanes, above two hundred years, which showeth Monarchy to be of God, and best for his people, where it may be had, and that they know not of what spirit they are that cry it down. And as for the Parliament, which is the great Council of the Land, without which the King can do nothing it is therefore to be understood also under the name of the Higher Powers, that is, both Houses, and not one of them, the other being nullified at the will of the people, and therefore as Higher Powers to be submitted to, and wherein they do amiss to be sought to by petition, that it may be reform, and not taunted and checked as underlings by the multitude; yet the multitude is not by them to be contemned through pride, but their grievances duly to be considered, and their just desires satisfied, which is the end of Parliaments, that it prove not according to the saying, Laesa patientia furor, and in a mad fit what expectation, that men should be moderated by reason, and not rather break out to the confusion of all? which God avert for his Mercies sake. Amen. An Appendix of 17. Questions, necessary to be discussed and determined by the Assembly of Divines without delay, that every one may know what to hold and rest in, and the unnatural divisions in the same Body may cease. 1. Whether it be not best to have one set Form of Prayer to be publicly used throughout this Kingdom, instead of the Old Liturgy, as conducing most to Uniformity and to Unity, and is most agreeable to the practice of other Reformed Churches, and the judgement of our most judicious Calvin, and others of great note in the Church of God. The Prayer made by each Preacher in the Pulpit being short at ordinary times, and only ad appositum, but the Lords Prayer not left out, but once at the least used every day, as ●s therein employed, that it ought to be, for fear of cherishing that opinion of some, that it is no Prayer, but only a pattern for direction. 2. Whether it be not necessary for us all to have one Catechism, to avoid confusion, by teaching divers in divers places, and to be so short, yet full, that the meanest capacities may be capable of learning it, and to enjoin the diligent teaching of it in every Congregation, till that all have hereby some good distinct knowledge to salvation form in them. 3. Whether the celebration of the Lords Supper may be deferred at any time without limitation of time, because the Passeover might not, although it were so that some came to it not prepared, according to the preparation of the Sanctuary, as in Hezekiah his time? 4. Whether all the Communicants ought not to sit about the Table, and not be left to this disjunction either at it, or near to it? for then in one Church they may sit still to have it carried to them to other seats about, and in another sit at the Table, which tends to division in Christ's Churches, that aught all to go by one Rule. 5. Whether the Minister ought not to forbear giving the Bread to the Communicants before that be hath said all the words of institution touching the same, because it is in the Directory said after these words, Take, eat, here he shall give them the bread, and whether his giving it ought to be any other then moving the vessel wherein it is towards them, that each one after other may take it himself, and then move it to the next, till it comes to the nether end, because these things are not sufficiently expressed. 6. Why upon a day of Thanksgiving an afternoon's meeting it intimated contrary to Nehem. 8.10, 12. as though all the rejoicing then must be spiritual, and none civil, which also hath been used commonly, Judg. 21.19, 21. Hosea 2.11. Either 9.19, etc. 7. Whether the keeping of the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, aught to be altogether slighted as superstitious, sigh it is of greater Antiquity by far, than any other holidays entitled from the Saints, and although not commanded by the Lord in express word; yet it is by consequence, and commended by the Saints doing the like in former ages; as by Ester and Mordecai appointing the Feast of Purim to be kept that the remembrance of the Jews deliverance by Ester might never be forgotten: And by Judas Maccabeus the Feast of Dedication, graced by Christ's own keeping of it, Joh. 10. And for the Antiquity consult with chrysostom, J●r●my, and Augustine, who lived before Gregory the first, who had this fault, that he was very superstitious; and therefore this day, and the Resurrection, and Pentecost, being kept before all Popish superstition by the testimony of the foresaid worthies, cannot be taxable hoc nomine, but for superfluity and excess of riot only then used, which as chaff let be winnowed away, but let the Wheat remain. 8. Whether the disorder of some of this or that particular Congregation in going commonly from that, whereof they are members, upon the Lord's day, may be tolerated, where there is a faithful and painful Pastor, as conducing to their more edification, because this is pleaded, yet to do so is apparently evil, the discouraging and quenching of the spirit in one Minister of Christ, and puffing up of another, a ground of disorder laying in many, who are glad of such a pretext to go for other ends, etc. Et non faciendum est malum ut inde proveniat bonum. 9 Whether being uncovered for reverence to God and his Ordinance in men inflame of prophesying, ought not to be commended to the people, because S. Paul speaks of it as ashame and dishonour to a man to do so, as in praying, so in prophesying. 10. Whether the children of believing Parents ought not to be baptised, and whether sprinkling sufficeth without dipping, and what solid reasons of both these. 11. Whether Sureties are not rather to be accepted then rejected; for somuch as we say. Abundans cautela non nocet, and many poor children have fared the better for their Godfathers or Godmothers. 12. Whether both in administering this Sacrament and that of the Lords Supper, it were not better to have a prescribed form of prayer, then to commit it to each Ministers present conception, because so this service must needs be unequally performed, and by some very deficiently. 13. Whether private meetings for preaching may be tolerated, where the public place is open, because Christians met not in corners of old, but being enforced through persecution; about this Ordinance and this separating, is a condemning of our Congregations as impure and Antichristian. 14. Whether persons justified by faith in Christ, thenceforth are not liable to sin any more. 15. Whether Christ's descent into hell be to be retained as an Article, of our Faith, because it was out of the Apostles Creed in the Latin Churches for 500 years. 16. Whether there be not a Catholic Church. 17. Whether the Articles of our Faith and Ten Commandments have not need to be recited in the Congregation every Lord's day. Touching all these, great satisfaction may be given to thousands by their determinations and convincing reasons, and so most probably our Church-tempest will turn into a calm; but otherwise it will probably rage's more and more. FINIS.