Justification of Separation from the Church of England, Treatise · Section 6
6. In respect of Gods good pleasure who lookes not vponupon his Church, as the Mr B.particular members thereof are, but as he accepteth of them: therefore it is sayd, He saw none iniquity in Iaakob, nor transgression in Israel. Num. 23. 21. and yet Israel was then an vnbeleeving and stifnecked people.
Here you say and vnsay with one breath. You graunt IsraelAnsw. to hauehave been an holy people and without iniquity, as Balaam spake, in the Lords acceptance according to his good pleasure, and yet to have been at the same time an unbeleeving and stifnecked people, which affirmation as it conteynes in it an apparant contradiction, so doth it lay vponupon God an vnsufferable imputation, as though he took pleasure in the wicked, or did accept of them.
It cannot be denyed but the people ever and anon rose vp in rebellion against the Lord: and for instance in the Chapter next but one before going, through impatiency of their ordinary food, they murmured against God, and against Moses. Numb. 21. 4. 5.
But did things so continue? No verily, for the Lord sent fyery serpents amongst them, and destroyed many of them, and by his correction brought the rest to repentance … vers. 6. 7. And now as at other times, when they provoked him, smit them with grievous plagues & punishments, and so causing them to passe vnderunder the rod and picking out the cheif rebels, and fifting out the sinners to destruction, and brought them againe Ex. 32. 27. Numb. 11. 1. 2. Ps. 78 17. 18. 19. 21. 31. &c. Ezech. 20. 37. 3…. Amos. 9. 8. 9. 10.into the covenant.
And thus much of your respects of Sainct-ship whereof some are not true in themselves, others impertinent to your estate, and the most flatly condemning it.
And though you Mr B. say it never so oft, and all the divines in the world with you (as here you speak) that the visible Church is a mixt company (as your very owne book of Articles affirms the contrary, describing the Church to be a company of faithfull people) yet do the divine scriptures speak otherwise, which I will clearly manifest, and therein also free the Parable, Math. 13. which you bring in for proofes, from that violence, which you and others offer them: forcing Christ clean against his will to plead for Antichrist. And with the scriptures I do affirme against you, that the Church of Christ is no such mingled meslyne, or monstrous compound, but a body simple, vniform, & one, proportionable in every mēber vntounto the head, informed by one spirit, and called in one hope, Ephe. 4. 4.
And for wicked, and vngodly persons so farr are they from being the true naturall members whereof the body consisteth, as the whol of the parts, as they serve indeed for no other purpose then to infect, and corrupt the rest, and if redresse be not had in time, to eat out the very hart of the whole.
But before I come to the point in controversy, I will lay down two cautions for the preventing of errour in the simple, & of cavelling in such as desire to contend.
First it must be considered, that where the quaestion is aboutI. the visible or externall Church which is by men discernable, and not of that Church which is internall and invisible, which onelyonly the Lord knoweth, we speak here of visible and externall holynes onelyonly, whereof men may judge, and not of that which is within and hid from mans ey. For we doubt not but the purest Ch: vpō earth may consist of good and bad in Gods ey, of such as are truely faythfull, and sanctifyed, & of such as have onelyonly for a tyme put on the outside and vizard of sanctity, which the Lord will in due tyme pluck of, though in the mean while mans dim sight cannot pearce through it.
2. I desire it may be remēbred that the question betwixt Mr B.II. and me is about the true and naturall members whereof the Ch: is orderly gathered and planted, and not about the degenerate & decayed estate of the Church & members; for we know that naturall *Is. 1. 2. 21. 22. Ier. 2. 21.children may become rebellious, the faithful city an harlot, the silver drosse, and the wyne corrupt with water: the noble vine so planted whose plants were all naturall, may degenerate into the plantes of a strange vine. But as it were fond Phylosophy, in the description of wives and children, and their true & naturall properties, to make rebellion a property of a child, because many children prove rebels against their parents, or to make whoredome a property of a wife, because many wives prove vnfaithful that way, so is it as prophane divinity to make vngodly persons the true matter of the Church, & their profanenes a true property of the same, because many seeming saynts at the first do so creep in, and do afterwards discover their owne shame, & are oft times through want of zeal too long tolerated in the Church, to the dishonour of God & prejudice of the gospel.
And so I come to manifest by an induction of particulars, that all the visible Churches gathered and planted by the Lords line & level frō the beginning of the world were in their collection & cō stitution, simple, vniform, and vnmixt, consisting of good alone in the respect in hand.
And first the Lord created a Church of Angels in heaven, which wer all good & holy without mixture, til †2 Pet. 2. 4 Iude, 6.some by sin fell frō their first and originall estate, & so leaving their own habitation were cast down to hel.
After that God created a Church of mankind in Paradise, consisting of two persons both holy & good. And thus the Churches of creation were gathered of angels and men without mixture.
Now if any man object that in these instances I fetch my beginnings too farr of, my answer is that the Lord had, & hath the same ends and respects in the creating & restoring of his Ch: which are his own glory & their happines. And if it were the will of the Lord that persons notoriously wicked should be admitted into the Ch: then should he ditectly crosse himself & his own ends, & should receive into the visible covenāt of grace such as wer out of the visible estate of grace, & should plant such in his Church for the glory of his name, as served for none other vse then to cause his name to be blasphemed▪ Hereupon I frame an Argument thus.
That order for the gathering of Ch: which directly crosses the mayne ende… for which the Lord would have his Church gathered, is not of God.
But the order, for which Mr B. pleads (which is, that apparantly prophane persons may with the godly be gathered into the visible Church) crosses the Lords ends of gathering Churches: and therefore is not of God.
The former proposition is without controversie, the latter is thus manifested.
The mayne ends for which the Lord gathereth and preserveth his Church vponupon earth are that he might have a *Levit. 20 26. Gen. 4. 26. Mat. 5. 1…. 1 Pet. 2. 12. Act. 2. 47. … Pe. …. 7. 9.peculiar people separated vntounto himselfe; from all other peoples to call vponupon his name in faith and to glorify him theyr heavenly father in their holy conversation, whom he also might glorify in the end of their fayth, the salvation of theyr soules. But for wicked & vngodly persons in the Church as they serve no no way for these ends but the cōtrary causing “Rom. 2. 24.Gods name to be blasphemed, and †Ephe. 5. 6.his wrath to come vponupon their disobedience so to gather or admit them into the Church is vtterly to frustrate Gods ends, and to gather for Satan rather then for God.
To proceed. In the restoring of mankind & planting the first Ch: in the covenant of grace established in “Gen. 3. 24 25.the seed of the woman, there were onelyonly saynts, without any such mixture as Mr B. makes. Now as all true churches from the begining to the end of the world are one in nature and essentiall constitution, and the first the rule of the rest, so the first being gathered of good matter not bad, declares both Mr B. Church and opinion to be bad, and not good.
And when in processe of tyme *1 Ioh. 3. 12.Cain which was of the evill one, bewrayed himself he as a degenerate branch was broken of, & driven out of the visible presence of God, Gen: 4. 14. it is further imputed by Moses for sin to †Gen. 6. 2.the sonnes of God that they maryed with the daughters of men. Now if it were (& “1 Cor. …. 39.still be) unlawfull for the godly to contract with the wicked in the civil covenant of mariage, how much more in the religious covenant of the Church & communion of Saints?
To discend lower▪ God gave vntounto Abraham and his family the covenant of circumcision, Gen. 17. 10. which the Apostle, Rom. 4. 11. calls the seal of the righteousnes of faith. Now to affirm that the Lord would seale vp with the visible seale of the righteousnes of faith any visibly unrighteous & faythles person were a bould chalenge of the most High, for the profanation of his owne ordinance. And the same covenant which God at the first made with Abraham, & continued with Isaak & Iakob, he after renued with the whole Church sundry tymes upon their repentance, in regard wherof the scriptures give very honourable testimony of al & every one of them: as that they were *Isa. 5▪ 1. 2. 3, 5. Ier. 2, 21.the Lords pleasant plant, & vineyard hedged in, planted with the best plants, yea a noble vyne, whose plants were all natural, yea natural branches, though they did oft tymes degenerate into the plant of a strange vyne, and were therefore oft tymes forsaken of God, and in the end †Rom. 11. 16. 17.for their infidelitie quite broken off.
Lastly when Iohn Baptist the fore-runner of Christ, Christ himself, and his Apostles were to repayr the desolations of Sion, and to plant the Gentiles “Rō. 11. 17into the root of the Iewes, and to make them *Eph. 3. 6.one inheritance, and one body with them, they did not by the coactive lawes of men shuffle together good and bad as intending a new monster or Chymera, but admitted of such, and none other, as †Mat. 3. 6. Luk. 7. 29. 30.confessed their sinne and iustified God: as *Ioh. 15. 18 19. 17. 16.were not of the world, but chosen out of it, and hated of it: as “Act. 2. 41 42. 46.did receive the word gladly, and communicate … of them in all things, as every one had need and that in gladnes and singlenes of hart: as received testimony by the H. Ghost himself that they were such as should be saved: as were “Act. 20. 28.al of them purchased with the blood of God: as †Rom. 1. 8.for al whom there was cause to thank God: as whom the Apostle *Phil. 1. 3. 4. 6. 7. 8.did remember in his prayers with gladnes, being perswaded that God could perfect his good work begon in the as became him to iudge of them all, being al partakers of the grace of God with him in the confirmation of the Gospel, and after all whom he longed from the verie hart root in Christ: as “1 Thes. 1. 2. 3. & 2. Epist. 1. 3.for all whom he gave thanks, alwayes making mention of them in his prayers without ceasing, remembring their effectual fayth, diligent love, and patient hope in the Lord Iesus, which did grow in every one of them.
Here is no such mingle mangle as M. B. would make of good and bad, but al good, and so avowed by the Holy Ghost, though without doubt many of these were masked, and hollow-harted hypocrites whose goodnes was but †Hos. 6. 4.as the goodnes of Ephraim and Iudah, like the morning cloud, and like the dew which falle… in the morning, & …ades away.
And now I will come to the two parables, Mat. 13. with which as with two mighty Engines Mr B. & others, will needs push over the partition wall of separation of the saynts from the world, of righteousnes from unrighteousnes, of light from darknes, of Christ from Beliall, of the beleevers from the vnbeleevers.
And for ingresse into the exposition of these two parables of the field and draw nett, I do desire it may be considered, that for the atteyning of the right sense of the scriptures we must remember to interpret the more dark and obscure places by places more playne and easy; and so parables being dark speaches, and more hardly vnderstood without expresse exposition, Mat. 13. 10. 11. Mark, 4. 11, 12, are not to expound playne rules, but to be expounded by them. Which proviso alone being observed might stand in stead of all answer to whatsoever out of these perverted parables could be objected.
The point is, Mr B. following (I confesse) the most beaten way, makes the field the visible Church, and the tares scandalous offenders, seen and discovered. Wherevpon it must follow, that as the Lord forbids the servants to meddle with the tares, or with the plucking them vp, but will hauehave them, & the wheat to grow together in the feild till the harvest, so both ministers and people are str…ytly inhibited and forbidden any way to admonish & censure wicked and scandalous persons in the Church, but must let them there remayne without disturbance, till the last judgement.
The venemous weeds, the noysome tares, (Idolaters, hereticks, covetous persons, blasphemers and all) whose nature is to overspread and choak the wheat, must be suffred still to grow with it. And thus at once by this one prophane glosse, all the tex…s of scriptures, and commaundements of Christ, both for admonitions, and excommunications, are vtterly voided and ānihilated. The brethren, nay the ministers themselves may not medle with the tares, the wicked, to admonish or reprove them, they must be let alone; the sword of the Censures so gratiously given to cut of rotten members, must no more now be drawn out, but must rust in the sheath of this expositiō, notwithstanding all the playn scriptures to the contrary, Lev. 19. 17. … Thes. …. 14. 1 Tim. 5. 30. & 2 Ep. 4. 2. Mat. 18. 15. 1 Cor. 5. 4. 5. All the power of our L. Iesus Christ given to his Church for the rooting out of obstinate offenders, & casting down of every thing exalting it self against the knowledge of God is not onelyonly weakened, but even disanulled by this vnreasonable exposition, that tares, that is, notorious offenders must still be suffred to grow in the feild, the Church.
And if the parable be thus meant, hovv can it be defended that any Church should cast out any offenders whomsoever? how dare the Prelates in Engl: with their substitutes take this forbidden weedhook into their hands, & vse it against any tare amongst them? if any tares be to be plucked vp, why not all? & if all be to be let alone, why meddle they with any? Indeed I must needs acknowledge & will not wrōg them, that if they should execute their owne canons, as they have framed them, they should not very oft practise against this expositiō, nor gather the tares frō among the wheat, but the wheat frō amongst the tares. But to proceed. It may be some wil answer, that Christ doth not here absolutely forbid his disciples the vse of the Censures against the wicked, but rather acquaints thē before hād what wilbe the estate of the Ch: & how the wicked wilbe suffred to continue in it vncensured. And if this were so it made nothing against me, nor for Mr B: it were the Churches sin so to suffer them, & I deny not but Churches vsually are to negligent & remisse, through want of zeal & faithfulnes to the Lord in this duty. But it is plain the Lord Iesus layes a flat inhibition against the weeding out of these tares, & expresly cōmaunds to let them alone: & this cōmandemēt also he backes with two substantial reasons, the first least they pluck vp the wheat with the tares. v. 29: the 2. because the Lord hath appointed another time, the tyme of the harvest for the plucking them out, v. 30. Now some being ashamed of the grosnes, & in deed of the iniquity of this exposition, would fayne moderate & qualify the matter, by turning it off to these & these sinns, & sinners. Some say that by the tares are meant the ministers onelyonly, & that they are not to be medled with, though they transgresse, least the wheat be plucked vp with thē: as though the Lord would have the persons of men respected in judgement: yea verily there is more need to look to them in such cases, then to any private mēbers whomsoever, as whose sinns are more displeasing vntounto God, more scandalous to them without, & more pernitious to the Church then of any others. Some again wil have this prohibitiō onelyonly to take place, when the multitude of the offenders is so great, as that they cannot be censured without danger of schisme, and distraction, as though the multitude of offenders should priveledge the offence, and as though the Lord Iesus by his power given to his Church; 1 Cor. 5. 4. should fear to meddle with them for their multitude, and might, as David feared to meddle with the sonnes of Zeruiah, because they were too hard for him. The Apostle sayth, (speaking of the incestious man) that†1 Cor. 5. 6. ▪ little leaven leaveneth the whole lump: how much more a great deal, which makes all more sower.
And for answer to both, it is apparant the Lord here forbidds the rooting out of any tares whither fewer or more in number, whither of high or low growth.
Let men then cease to draw in by the hayr of the head these parables for the tolerating of the wicked in the Church: (an intollerable wickednes) as most prejudicial to the*Isa. 52. 5. Rom. 2. 24. name of God, which is by this meanes blasphemed, to the partyes salvation, who by this connivency is hardned in his sinne, where by“1 Cor. 5. 5 due censuring, he should be humbled: to the health and safety of the body which is hereby corrupted and*Heb. 12. 15. defyled, and to the conversion of them without, who by the‘.Math. 5. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 12. & 2 epist. 3. 1. holy converversation of the Church should be provoked to the love of the truth.
These things being thus cleared, I come in the next place to the true and naturall exposition, which (I doubt not) these scriptures will well bear.
I do then find two interpretations, eyther of both (I am assured) more agreable to the truth, then this forced glosse by me cōfuted, and neyther of them conteyning in it any thing which the words of the Parable will not beare, or which is dissonant to the analogy of faith or any other scripture.
First admit the feyld be the Church which Christ expounds the world, then say I, by tares in the feild are meant not notorious offenders, but hypocrites, not so throughly discovered, which by the envy of Satan are foysted into the Church. It wilbe sayd that tares are easily discerned frō wheat: I answer not alwayes so, though oakes may, as one of your owne hath spoken upon this scripture:Mr Cartw. and it is certainly reported by such as have travayled Iury & those parts, to which the Lord hath reference, that the weeds we call tares are there very hardly discerned from the true wheat. If it be further pressed that the tares are espied, I do further answer, that it is in parables both curiosity and danger to labour to make all partes meet in every particular: and since this particular of spying the tares is omitted by Christ in the exposition wee may well be modest in it. But let it be that the tares are seen (as the words are) the question is who those servants are espying them, and so desiring to have them rooted out. These servants may well be some speciall persons in the Church endued with a singular spirit of watchfulnes, and discerning, by which they do discover in some persons this tarish disposition vnderunder the …ayl of holynes: so Paul spied out that bitter root of envy, and pride, by which some werePhil. 1▪ 15. 16. set a work to preach Christ: such persons notwithstanding must be born till their sinnes be ripe, and*Psa. 125. 5. the Lord lead them forth amongst the workers of iniquity. Or by the servants may be here meant the Angels, who by conversing much with the Ch: both can & without doubt do through the subtilty of their nature, & long experience spy out in the Church much cloked wickednes, & impiety, which as the zealous ministers of Gods justice they are ready to revenge.
But since the Lord Iesus, who best knew his owne meaning, calls‘*vers. 38. the feild the world, and makes†v. 39. the harvest which is the end of the field, the end of the world, and not of the Church, why should we admit of any other interpretation? Neyther is it like that Christ would in the expounding of one parable speak an other, as he should have done, if calling the feyld the world, he had meant the Church. As God then in the beginning made man good, & placed him in the field of the world there to grow, where by the envy of the serpent he was soon corrupted, so ever since hath the seed of the serpent (stirred vp by their father the Divel) snarled at the heel of the womans seed, and like noysome tares vexed and pestered the good and holy seed, which though the children of God both see, and feel to their payne, yet must they not therefore†Luk. 9. 54. 56. forgetting what spirit they are of, presently call for fyre from heaven, nor prevent the Lords hand, but wayt his leasure, eyther for the converting of these tares into wheat, (which in many is dayly seen; and thē how great pitty had it been they should so vntimely have been plucked vp:) or for their finall perdition in the day of the Lord, when the Church shalbe no more offended by them.
And that the Lord Iesus no way speaks of the toleration of prophane persons in the… Church doth appear by these reasons.
First, because (as hath been observed) he doth not contradictI. himself by forbidding the vse of the keyes in one place, which in an other he hath turned vpō impenitent offenders, Mat. 18. 15. 16. 17.
2. In the excommunication of sinners apparantly obstinate,II. with due circumspection, and in the spirit of wisdome, meeknes, & long suffring, with such other generall Christian vertues, as with which all our speciall sacrifices ought to be seasoned, wha… daunger can there be of any such disorder, as the plucking vp of the wheat with the tares, which the husbandman feareth. vers. 29.III.
Lastly the Lord Iesus speaks of the vtter ruinating & destruction of the tares, the gathering and plucking them vp by the rootes, vers. 28. 29. and to this end they are reserved by the husbandman, v. 30. (ever presupposed they so continued) but excommunication rightly administred is not for the ruyne, and destruction of any, but for the salvation of the party thereby humbled. 1 Cor. 5. 5.
But, to conclude, admit of Mr B. exposition, & that the field here is the visible Church, the good seed the good, & godly, the tares wicked and vngodly persons, I am contented that the difference in this place betwixt him and me be tryed at the tribunall of this very scripture, even thus expounded, and I doubt not but it will pronounce a cleare sentence on my side in the thing for which I contend: and that is, that the Church in the right gathering of it out of Antichristianism, or Paganisme, out of Babylon, Egypt, Sodome spiritually, or civily so called, or out of any other society or Synagogue, which is not the true visible body of Christ, must be & is constituted and compact of good onelyonly, & not of good & evill.
The Lords field is sowen onelyonly with good seed. vers. 24. 27. 38. his*Ier. 2. 21. vyne noble, and all the seed true, his Church†Rom. 1. …. 8. saynts and beloved of God all and every one of them, though by the mallice of Satan, and negligence of such as should keep this field, & vineyard, & house of God, adulterate seed, and abominable persons may be foysted in, yea and suffred also, which the scriptures affirm, and we deny not. But our exceptiō in this case is, first that the Church of England was never truely gathered, the Church of England I say, that that is, the National Church, consisting of the Provinciall Churches, and those of the Diocesan Churches, and the Diocesans of the Parochyall Churches, according to their parish precincts, with their governours & government correspondent. That there were true visible Churches in the land gathered out of Paganism at the first, I will not deny, but that ever the whole Land in the body of it was a Church is an affirmatiō of them which consider not what is eyther the matter whereof, or the manner how the Church of the new Testament is to …e gathered. 2. Graunt that the way of the kingdom of Christ, the Church were now so wyde that a whol nation might walk a brest in it, and that England had been some times that Canaan, the holy land, wherein none vncircumcised person dwelt, yet in the apostasy of Antichrist it could not be so accounted, but was in the body of it divorced frō Christ with Rome, whereof it was a member, except you (Mr B.) will affirm (as many do) that Rome remaines still a true visible Church, and that antichristianism is true Christianism, Antichristians true Christians, the body which hath the Pope the head, the true body of Christ: & so except the Church of Engl. had been sowen with good seed without tares since that general apostasie, it cannot be the L. field.
The Iewes were forbidden by God vnderunder the law to*Lev. 19. 19. sow their field with divers seeds, and will he sow his own feyld with divers, yea with cōtrary seeds, wheat, & tares? What husbandman is eyther so foolish, or carles, as to sow his field with tares & wheat together? And yet this fair field of Engl: of whose beauty all the Christian world is enamoured, is so sowen, this pleasant orchyard so plāted, this …lourishing Ch: so gathered. A few kernels of wheat scattered amōgst the tares here & there, a few good plants amōgst the wilde branches, a smal strinkling of good mē amōgst the great & retchles rowt of wicked & graceles persons. And was this field sowen, this orchard planted, this Church gathered, by the Lords hand?
And as was the root, so are the branches, as were the first fruits, so is the whole lump.
To conclude this point, thus I reason. The Lords field is sowen with good seed onelyonly, though tares may in time be conveyed into it by the Divels mallice and mans negligence. But the Engl: nationall Ch: was not so sowen, but with tares & wheat together.
Therefore it is not the Lords field.
And thus I hope the indifferent reader wil easily see what succour Mr B. findes amōgst those tares, under whose shadow he would so fayne shrowd all the Atheists Papists & other flagitious persons in the Church.
Now for the Parable of the draw net, Mat. 13. I confesse the bad fishes may be wicked persons in the Church, but undiscerned, as fishes vnderunder the water, between which & the good no difference is seen. If the fishers and they that drew the netts did know of the bad fishes in them, and had meanes of voyding them, they would never burden themselves, and the nett with them, (except you will have as foolish fishermen here, as you had husbandmen before,) but till they do discern them to be as they are, they must take thē, as they hope they are, though with you all be fish that come to the net, yea good fish too, till the Cōmissaries court judge otherwise.
And lastly to your saying, wel it were that all were saints: but that is to look for a heaven vponupon earth, I answer that the Church is heaven vponupon earth: and if you were not a straunger to the true Church and to such scriptures as speaks of it, you should find as in many other places, so espetially in the Revelation the Church visible oftRev. 4. 1. 2. & 6. 13. 14 & 8. 1. 10. 13. & 11. 6. 19. & 12 1. 3. 7. &c. dignifyed with the name of heaven and with no name oftener. Yea to seek no further then these two parables brought in by you to speak against heaven, that is against the true & natural cōstitutiō, & conservatiō of the visible Church, Christ himself & that with his own mouth gives the Church no worse name then “Math. 13. 24. 47.heaven, and the kingdom of heavē, & the onelyonly ordinary beaten way which Christ hath left to heaven in heaven, is heaven on earth, which way soever you please to guide men.
The sixth insimulation against vsus is that we hold.Mr B.