Part 32 (1/2)
He reflecteth also upon the a.s.sembly in the point of _jus divinum_, p. 6.
But what his part hath been, in reference to the proceedings in the a.s.sembly, is more fully, and in divers particulars, expressed in the _Brief View of Mr Coleman's New Model_, unto which he hath offered no answer.
HIS CALUMNIES.
Page 3, He desireth me, with wisdom and humility, to mind what church-refining and sin-censuring work this church government, with all its activity, hath made in Scotland, in the point of promiscuous communicating. I shall desire him, with wisdom and humility, to mind what charity or conscience there is in such an aspersion. I dare say divers thousands have been kept off from the sacrament in Scotland, as unworthy to be admitted. Where I myself have exercised my ministry there have been some hundreds kept off; partly for ignorance, and partly for scandal. The order of the church of Scotland, and the acts of General a.s.semblies, are for keeping off all scandalous persons; which every G.o.dly and faithful minister doth conscientiously and effectually endeavour. And if, here or there, it be too much neglected by some Archippus, who takes not heed to fulfil the ministry which he hath received of the Lord, let him and his elders.h.i.+p bear the blame, and answer for it.
Page 4, I having professed my unwillingness to fall upon such a controversy in a Fast sermon, he replieth, ”How can you say you were unwilling?” But how can you, in brotherly charity, doubt of it after I had seriously professed it? My doing it at two several Fasts (the only opportunities I then had to give a testimony to that presently controverted truth) is no argument of the contrary. May not a man do a thing twenty times over, and yet do it unwillingly?
Page 5, He slandereth those that did, in their sermons, give a public testimony against his doctrine; the occasion (as he gives out) not being offered, but taken. But had they not a public calling and employment to preach as well as himself? And if a Fast was not an occasion offered to them, how was a Fast an occasion offered to him to fall upon the same controversy first, and when none had dons the like before him.
A fourth calumny is this: He had first blamed two parties that they came bia.s.sed to the a.s.sembly; I answered, How then shall he make himself blameless who came bia.s.sed a third way; which was the Erastian way; and that, for our part, we came no more bia.s.sed to this a.s.sembly than the foreign divines came to the Synod of Dort, Alexander to the Council of Nice, Cyril to that of Ephesus, and Paul to the synod at Jerusalem. But now, p. 6, 7, instead of doing us right he doth us greater injury; for now he makes us bia.s.sed, not only by our own judgments, but by something advent.i.tious from without; which he denieth himself to be (but how truly I take not on me to judge: beholders do often perceive the bia.s.sing better than the bowlers); yea, he saith that I have acknowledged the bias, and justify it. Where, Sir? where? I deny it. It is no bias for a man to be settled, resolved and engaged in his judgment for the truth, especially when willing to receive more light, and to learn what needeth to be further reformed. Hath he forgotten his own definition of the bias which he had but just now given? But he will needs make it more than probable, by the instances which I brought, that the Commissioners from Scotland came not to this a.s.sembly as divines, by dispute and disquisition, to find out truth, but as judges, to censure all different opinions as errors; for so came foreign divines to Dort, Alexander to the Council of Nice, Cyril to Ephesus. Is it not enough that he slander us, though he do not, for our sakes, slander those worthy divines that came to the Synod of Dort, Alexander also, and Cyril, prime witnesses for the truth in their days?
Could no less content him than to approve the objections of the Arminians against the Synod of Dort, which I had mentioned, p. 33? But he gets not away so. The strongest instance which I had given he hath not once touched: it was concerning Paul and Barnabas, who were engaged (not in the behalf of one nation, but of all the churches of the Gentiles) against the imposition of the Mosaical rites, and had so declared themselves at Antioch, before they came to Jerusalem. Finally, Whereas he doubts, though not of our willingness to learn more, yet of our permission to receive more: That very paper, first given in by us (which I had cited, and unto which he makes this reply), did speak not only of our learning, but of the church of Scotland's receiving, and, which is more, there is an actual experiment of it, the last General a.s.sembly having ordered the laying aside of some particular customs in that church, and that for the nearer uniformity with this church of England, as was expressed in their own letter to the reverend a.s.sembly of Divines.
A fifth calumny there is, p. 9, 6. ”The Commissioner is content that _jus divinum_ should be a _noli me tangere_ to the Parliament, yet blames what himself grants.” I was never content it should be a _noli me tangere_ to the Parliament, but at most a _non necesse est tangere_, for so I explained myself, p. 32, 33. If the Parliament establish that thing which is agreeable to the word of G.o.d, though they do not establish it as _jure divino_, I acquiesce; in the meantime, both they and all Christians, but especially ministers, ought to search the Scriptures, that what they do in matters of church government, they may do it in faith and a.s.surance, that it is acceptable to G.o.d. It was not of parliamentary sanction, but of divines doctrinal a.s.serting of the will of G.o.d that I said, Why should _jus divinum_ be such a _noli me tangere_?
6. It seems strange to him that I did at all give instance of the usefulness of church government in the preservation of purity in the ordinances and in church-members. He saith, For an Independent to have given this instance had been something; but it seems strange to him that ”I should have given an instance of the power and efficacy of government, as it is presbyterial, and contradistinct to congregational.” This is a calumny against presbyterial government, which is neither privative nor contradistinct, but c.u.mulative to congregational government; and the congregational is a part of that government which is comprehended under the name of presbyterial. But in cases of common concernment, difficulty, appeals, and the like, the preserving of the ordinances and church-members from pollution, doth belong to presbyteries and synods.
7. He saith of me, p. 9, ”He ascribeth this power of purifying men, and means of advancing the power of G.o.dliness afterward, to government.” A calumny. It was only a _sine quo non_ which I ascribed to government thus far, that without it, ministers ”shall not keep themselves nor the ordinances from pollution,” p. 23. But that church government hath power to purify men, I never thought it, nor said it. That which I said of the power (which he pointeth at) was, that his way can neither preserve the purity, nor advance the power of religion, p. 40, and the reason is, because his way provideth no ecclesiastical effectual remedy for removing and purging away the most gross scandalous sins, which are destructive to the power of G.o.dliness. G.o.d must, by his word and Spirit, purify men, and work in them the power of G.o.dliness. The church government which I plead for against him, is a means subservient and helpful, so far as _removere prohibens_, to remove that which apparently is impeditive and destructive to that purity and power.
8. Having told us of the proud swelling waves of presbyterial government, I asked upon what coast had those waves done any hurt, France, or Scotland, or Holland, or _terra incognita_? He replieth, p. 12, ”I confess I have had no great experience of the presbyterial government.” Why make you bold then to slander it, when you can give no sure ground for that you say? He tells us, His fears arise from Scotland and from London. The reverend and worthy ministers of London can speak for themselves _oetatem habent_, for my part, though I know not the particulars, I am bound in charity not to believe those aspersions put upon them by a discontented brother. But what from Scotland? ”I myself (saith he) did hear the presbytery of Edinburgh censure a woman to be banished out of the gates of the city. Was not this an encroachment?” It had been an encroachment indeed, if it had been so. But he will excuse me if I answer him in his own language (which I use not), p. 3 and 5: ”It is, at the best, a most uncharitable slander,” and ”There was either ignorance or mindlessness in him that sets it down.”
There is no banishment in Scotland but by the civil magistrate, who so far aideth and a.s.sisteth church discipline, that profane and scandalous persons, when they are found unruly and incorrigible, are punished with banishment or otherwise. A stranger coming at a time into one of our presbyteries, and hearing of somewhat which was represented to or reported from the magistrate, ought to have had so much, both circ.u.mspection and charity, as not to make such a rash and untrue report. He might have at least inquired when he was in Scotland, and informed himself better, whether presbyteries or the civil magistrate do banish. If he made no such inquiry, he was rash in judging; if he did, his offence is greater, when, after information, he will not understand.
9. He makes this to be a position of mine, p. 13, That ”a learned ministry puts no black mark upon profaneness more than upon others.” A calumny.
For, first, He makes me to speak nonsense; Secondly, I did not speak it of a learned ministry, but of ”his way,” p. 40. How long ago since a learned ministry was known by the name of Mr Coleman's way! His way is a ministry without power of government or church censures. Of this his way I said, that ”it putteth no black mark upon profaneness and scandal in church members more than in any other;” and the reason is, because the corrective or punitive part of government he will have to be only civil or temporal, which striketh against those that are without, as well as those within.
But the Apostle tells us of such a corrective government as is a judging of those that are within, and of those only, 1 Cor. v. 12; and this way (which is not only ours, but the apostolical way) puts a black mark upon profaneness and scandalous sins in church members more than in any others.
10. He saith of me, p. 17, ”The Commissioner is the only man that we shall meet with, that, forsaking the words, judgeth of the intentions.” A calumny. I judged nothing but _ex ore tuo_; but in this thing he himself hath trespa.s.sed. I will instance but in two particulars: In that very place he saith, ”Admonition is a spiritual censure in the Commissioner's opinion.” Whence knows he that to be my opinion? Consistorial or presbyterial admonition given to the unruly may be called a censure; and if this were his meaning, then, ascribing to elders.h.i.+ps power of admonition, he gives them some power of spiritual censures, and so something of the corrective part of government, which were contrary to his own principles. But he speaketh it of the ministers' admonis.h.i.+ng, who are but a part of the elders.h.i.+ps, as himself there granteth. Now, where did I ever say or write, that admonition, by a minister, is a spiritual censure?
Again, p. 4, he so judgeth me, that he not only forsaketh, but contradicteth my words, ”How can you say you were unwilling?”
11. He saith, p. 16, ”Now the Commissioner speaks out, &c. What! Not the Parliament of England meddle with religion?” A horrid calumny! Where have I said it? _Dic sodes._ I never preached before them but I exhorted them to meddle with religion, and that in the first place, and above all other things. I shall sooner prove that Mr Coleman will not have the Parliament of England to meddle with civil affairs, because he makes them church officers. It is a _non sequitur_. Their power is civil, therefore they are not to meddle with religion. It will be a better consequence: They are church officers: so he makes them, p. 14; and ”Christian magistracy is an ecclesiastical administration,” so he saith, p. 20, therefore they are not to meddle with civil government.
THE REPUGNANCY OF HIS DOCTRINE TO THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.
Mr Coleman, p. 13, acknowledgeth, that to a.s.sert anything contrary to the solemn league and covenant, is a great fault in any, in himself more than in divers others, if made out; he having, for his own part, taken it with the first, and not only so, but having administered it to divers others.
Yes; and take this one circ.u.mstance more: In his sermon upon Jer. x.x.x. 21, at the taking of the covenant, Sept. 29, 1643, he answereth this objection against the extirpation of Prelacy: ”But what if the exorbitances be purged away, may not I, notwithstanding my oath, admit of a regulated Prelacy?” For satisfaction to this objection he answereth thus: ”First, We swear not against a government that is not; Secondly, We swear against the evils of every government, and doubtless many materials of Prelacy must of necessity be retained as absolutely necessary; Thirdly, Taking away the exorbitances, the remaining will be a new government and no Prelacy.” Let the brother now deal ingenuously. What did he understand by those materials of Prelacy absolutely necessary to be retained? Did he understand the dispensing of the word and sacraments, which is common to all pastors? Or did he understand the privileges of Parliament? Were either of those two materials of Prelacy? And if he had meant either of these, was this the way to satisfy that scruple concerning the extirpation of Prelacy? Again, What was that new government which he promised them after the taking away of the exorbitances of the old? Was it the minister's doctrinal part? That is no new thing in England. Was it the Parliament's a.s.suming of the corrective part of church government, as he improperly distinguisheth, wholly and solely into their own hands, excluding the ministry from having any hand therein? This were a new government, I confess. But, sure, he could not, in any reason, intend this as a satisfaction to the scruples of such as desired a regulated Prelacy, whose scruples he then spoke to, for this had been the way to dissuade them from, not to persuade them to, the covenant.
But I go along with his _Re-examination_. P. 14, He explaineth himself and me thus: ”He should have said that I advised the Parliament to lay no burden of government upon them whom he, this Commissioner, thinks church officers, then had he spoken true.” I thank him for his explanation. And, I pray, who were the church officers whom I said he excluded from church government? Were they not pastors and ruling elders? And doth not himself think these to be church officers? Yes; of the ministers he thinks so, but of ruling elders he seems to doubt, except they be magistrates. Well, but excluding those church officers from church government he takes with the charge. Why seeks he a knot in the rush? But now how doth he explain himself? He will have the Parliament to be church officers (of which before), and such church officers as shall take the corrective part of church government wholly into their own hands; yet not to dispense the word and sacraments, but to leave the doctrinal part to the ministry, and their power to be merely doctrinal, as he saith, p. 11. Thus you have his explanation. But doth this solve the violating of the covenant? Nay, it makes it more apparent; for the government of the church, which the first article of the covenant speaks of, is distinguished from the doctrinal part: ”That we shall endeavour the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, wors.h.i.+p, discipline and government.”
So that, excluding pastors and ruling elders from the corrective part of government, and from all power which is not merely doctrinal, he thereby excludeth them from that discipline and government which the covenant speaks of as one special part of the reformation of religion. Come on to the reasons.
I had given four reasons; he takes notice but of three. This is the second time he hath told three for four, yet even these three will do the business.
1. ”The extirpation of church government is not the reformation of it.”