Justification of Separation from the Church of England, Treatise · Section 54
Now for the places, severally, and first for Math. 18. 17. whereMr Bern. sayth Mr B. tell the Church, is tell the cheif officers of the Church: and so must be expounded.
Well, the words are cleare as the sun, tell the Church, that is,Answ. the congregation or assembly whereof the offender is a member. But where you make the Church, not the officers simply, but the cheif officers, therein you deale both wisely and dutifully. Wisely (to let passe other respects) in preventing a quaestion, which otherwise you could not possibly answer: for if you had sayd the officers simply, it would have demaunded of you where your & your fellow Ministers power of excommunication had been: duetify, & as an obedient child in giving the rod of discipline into the hands of your reverend fathers alone, and their substitutes. Well Mr B. whomsoever the Lord Iesus meant by the Church, Mat. 18. he never meant, that the Archbishop of York, the Archdeacon of Nottingham, the Officiall of Southwel, were the Church of Worksop: and for this I vvill spare all Arguments, and send you to your owne guilty conscience for conviction, which as it condemns you in yourself, (which is also the case of many thowsands in the Land) so do I earnestly wish both you, and them to remember with fear and trembling the condemnation of him that is greater then your cō science. Ioh. 3. 20. So far are they from being the Church of Worksop as they are not so much as members of it, nor of any other particular Church in the kingdome: they are neyther the Pastours (so called) nor vnderunder the Pastors of any particular Church, but with their tanscendent jurisdiction in their Provinciall, and Diocesan Churches, take their scope without orb, or order: and as clouds without rayn, carryed about with the wind of ambition, and covetousnes for the the greatest part.
To leave them, and come to your reasons Mr B. by which you would prove, that tell the Church, is tell the governours. But here behold the fruites of an vnstable mind. This man in his former book laboured by many scriptures, and reasons to lay downe the nature of the Churches government, and in speciall to prove, that the Church, Math. 18. 17. to vvhichwhich complaint of sinns was to be made, was the cheif officers onelyonly, and this he affirmes also to be *Pag. 98.the iudgement, and the practise of all reformed Churches. But lo now in his second book, he devoures the hallowed thing, and labours vvithall his power to persvvade †pag. 211. 212.young divines, & seely country people, (as he speakes) (and as in truth they had need be both young, and seely, that are perswaded by him) that the points of discipline and Church-government are not so apparant by the scriptures, as that they can rightly iudge of them. And to this end he brings in the variety of iudgements, and contradictions of learned men, some holding no government at all, others that an externall government is to be had, but of these, some holding it alterable, others constant, and perpetuall, and of these some to be in the Pope, & Cardinalls, others in the body of the congregatiō, some in the Presbytery, with the peoples consent, and others, (which he puts last, as best and for which he brings sundry reasons, referring the reader to the treatises written to that end) in the Bishops his Lords. And againe touching the punishment of offenders, some he brings in holding excommunication, but not suspension, some holding both, and some neyther. And particularly for Math. 18. he musters in thick, and threefold reasons and persons so reasoning, and proving, that the place (and so of Lev. 19. 17.) doth nothing at all concern discipline, or ecclesiasticall censures, but that Christs meaning there was onelyonly to direct the Iewes how to carry things before the Synedrion, in cases of bodily injury. And thus he brings mens contrary opinions to darken the scriptures, which are most playne, like so many foul feet to trouble the pure fountaynes of living water, that the thirsty may not drink of them. And as a learned man in our age, & nation, to discover the vanity of prognosticatours, gathered together their contrary guesses of the wether, and so presented them: so this man to make the government of Christs Church as vncertayne as an Almanack, sets together, and so offers to the vvievv of the world the contrarieties of opinions concerning it. Now if other men should take this course Mr B. doth, in other points of religion, and one lay down the differences that are about predestination & the points depending vponupon it, some vtterly denying it, others affirming it, and of these some grounding it vponupon Gods mere grace, others vpō mans faith, or workes foreseen: an other about baptisme, some denying it to all infants, others ministring it to all, others to such onelyonly as are of Christian parents in a sort, and others onelyonly to them that are of beleeving parents, at the least on the one side: a third about the Lords supper, in which point some hold transubstantiation, others consubstantiation, others onelyonly a sacramentall vnion, which some also will have merely rationall, others reall also: there could not be a playner way beaten for all Atheism to come into the world by, nor a course devised by the Divell more pregnant to perswade the multitude, that there were no certaynty, nor soundnes in the scriptures. But let God have the glorie of his truth, and of the clearnes in it, and let men bear the just blame, and shame of their naturall blyndnes: and in speciall let Christ have the honour of being as *Heb. 3. 5. 6.faythfull in his owne house, as Moses was in his Maisters, in setting orders and officers in it and let not vile flesh dare to flatter Princes and Prelates, to mislead silly soules, and to preach liberty and licentiousnes to the world, make Christ Iesus an Idol King, having a kingdome vponupon earth without lawes, or officers, for the administring of it: nor to make his redeemed, Idoll subjects, as whom it concerns little or nothing, whether they be vnderunder Chrits lawes, and officers, or vnderunder Antichrists his professed adversary. Now though I will not trouble my self, and the reader about every stone, that Mr. B. idely casts in the way, yet such as may stumble the weakest passenger, I will remove, and so returne to my former task.
And in the first place I will answer certaine reasons in number six, brought by Mr B. for the superiority of his Lord Bishops: but those not backed with the scriptures, as in other points (when he thinks he speaks the truth) his manner is.