Baxters Narrative of His Life and Times, Part 2 · Section 5
Some other Proposals are added in the End of your Letter.
Prop. 1. I Am satisfied that the Apostles have Successors in all those Works that are of standing Necessity, and that Church Government is one of those Works, and that it is improbable, that Christ should settle one Species of Church Government in the Apostles Hands for an Age, and then Change it for ever after, and they that affirm such a change must prove it.
Answ. 6. Supposing what the Apostles did in ordering of Church Government to be in the Name and by the Authority of Christ, this Assertion I conceive to be very true, and it doth infer a Subordination of all Officers and Members of the Church to the Apostles, and those that were their Successors.
Prop. 2. Whether the Apostles had a Power by Office to govern the LXX. and the Presbyters as inferior Officers, besides the Power that they had by the meer Interest of their Gifts, and Priviledge of being Eye Witnesses of the Works of Christ, and Ear Witnesses of his Words.
Answ. 7. The extraordinary Gifts of the Apostles, and the Priviledge of being Eye and Ear Witnesses to Christ, were Abilities which they had for the infallible Discharge of their Function, but they were not the Ground of their Power and Authority to govern the Church.
That the Seventy, and so other Presbyters were inferior to the Apostles, and under their Government, doth appear to me, though at their first sending by Christ, they were immediately subject to Christ, the Apostles not being then established in the Government of the Church, but when Christ authorised his Apostles with the Power of Government, Potestas Clavium was committed to them only, not to the Seventy; and so we must conceive that the Colledge of Apostles were invested with the Government of the Church, and the Seventy not having the Keys committed to them were under the Authority of the Apostles, and so were Presbyters to the Apostles Successors.
Prop. 3. If the Apostles Example will prove the right of an unfixed, ambulatory Episcopacy, yet I would see how it appears that ever they were fixed to particular Charges, or ever any of them had a distinct and limited Diocess, where the rest had not Charge as well as they.
Answ. 8. I conceive the Apostles as Apostles had an unlimited, and, as you call it, an unfixed, ambulatory Episcopacy, being sent into the whole World, and not by Christ's Institution confined to any one fixed Seat; but yet that hinders not, but that by Consent and Agreement among themselves, they might have a Distribution of their several Circuits, as it is seen in the Agreement between St. Peter and St. Paul, which as it did not exclude their original Power over all Churches, so it did accommodate them to a more opportune Discharge of their Function, and accordingly they setled their Successors in those Places, not committing to them an universal Jurisdiction which was a Personal Priviledge of their Apostleship.
Prop. 4. I am satisfied that very early after the Apostles, the common Government of each Church was by a Bishop and Presbytery; but yet I can see no Evidence that this Church for 150 or 200 Years was any more than one Congregation, like one of our Parishes for Number of People, which was congregated in a City, and from the circumjacent Villages; as our Independant or Anabaptist Churches now are, while the Multitude were Infidels; I would therefore crave any clear Proof, that the first fixed Bishops ruled any more standing Congregations, having ordinarily Assemblies and Communion in the Lord's Supper, than one only, and whether the multiplying of Believers did not make a real Change of the former Species of Government, while the Bishop of the City took on him the Government of many particular Churches, who had but one before, and whether Bishops should not have been multiplied as fast as Churches were, and Presbyters were.
Answ. 9. That the Government of the Churches was not only Vicatim, but Regionatim, appears by those Deputies and Successors which the Apostles constituted; in particular, Titus is authorised to ordain and govern not one Parish, but the many Churches in Crete. That those primitive Bishops did employ their ordinary Function of Preaching and adminstring the Sacrament in their City of Residence, may well be granted, which hinders not, but that they might have Inspection into the circumjacent Villages for ordaining of Presbyters, and other Administrations of Government, and what needed a Colledge of Presbyters residing in the City with the Bishop, if they were not sent out by him to officiate in those Villages adjacent, as the Number of Believers required, not did the multiplying of Believers in the adjacent places require several Bishops in several Congregations, independent on the City Bishop, but the ordinary Discharge of those Places was committed to them in Subordination to the City-Bishop, and Presbyters there assembled as occasion required: In this Case it fared with the Church as in Philosophy they say, it is in the matter of Nutrition and Augmentation, where the form is not multiplied, but only extended ad novam materiam.
These Answers not changing my Judgment, I made the following Notes upon them.
Ad 1. Every Church Primae magnitudinis & speciei should be as great and no greater, than is capable of PERSONAL Communion, as our greater Parishes; and every such Church had of old a Bishop. One Altar and one Bishop was Ignatius's Note of one Church; and such a one may maintain divers Ministers; and the Rich should not burden the Church for maintenance, but help freely.
Ad 2. This is a President of a Synod of Bishops.
Ad 3. I thank you for granting Presbyters to be Church-Rectors.
Ad 4. If he be but a President he is but a Bishop Primi Ordinis (of one Church) as the rest: But if he be the stated Rector of many Churches, he is really an Archbishop.
Ad 5. This was written when our Diocesane Frame was taken down, to reconcile them that were for, and them that were against such Bishops, pro tempore.
If you take liberty to cast off the Example of Cyprian's times, on pretence that the Case is altered by the Kings Laws, then you will never know where to rest while Laws are alterable. Qu. Whether the Practice of the Church till Cyprian's time be not a probable Notice to us what was the Apostolical instituted Government? If not, why use you the Argument of Antiquity for Episcopacy? If yea, Qu. Whether Rulers may alter the Apostolick Institution? and the Office and work of Presbyters may be changed on pretence that now Bishops can do it without them? He that ever tryed true Discipline will find one Parish big enough for one Man's or divers Mens right Performance of it, and Six hundred or a Thousand Parishes too many.
Alas! do you think it Lawful to ordain insufficient unmeet Men, if the Law of the Land so command you; what then are Christ's Laws for?
Ad. 6. Here I granted you the major of your grand Argument for Episcopacy.
Ad 7. The Apostles Superiority of Power I deny not; but that the Power of the Keys was given to the Apostles only, I deny. If Christ immediately gave it to no other, yet by his Spirit he did, and by the Church-Law, which he left to be the Instrument of continued conveyance and Title, by which the Apostles were to invest others with that Power; which the Schoolmen ordinarily acknowledge to belong to Presbyters as such, who may use them to the People.
Ad 8. 1. De facto it is no where proved truly that the Twelve or Thirteen Apostles did by consent limit their Provinces; But contrarily, that they Officiated together at Ierusalem; and Peter (if at Rome, as some think he was) and Paul in the same Diocess at Rome, &c. and Paul and Iohn at Ephesus, and Timothy also (as is said).
2. If they had, this had been no fixing any more Diocesses in the World than Twelve or Thirteen; and whoever since pretended to succeed them in those Twelve or Thirteen Diocesses?
3. And if following Bishops or Princes fixt Diocesses, that is no divine nor unalterable Law.
4. We never read that an Apostle claimed any Diocess as proper to him, or forbad any other to officiate in it, or blamed them for so doing.
5. It is certain that while they went themselves from Country to Country, they fixed Bishops to every Church or City, Act. 14. 23. Yit. 1. 5, 6.
Ad 9. 1. The Apostles fixed not Bishops of the lowest Rank, Vicatim nor Rigionatim, but in every Church, which was then in every City where were Christians; even the same Church that had Deacons and Presbyters fixed.
2. Bishops preached to Infidels to whom they were not Bishops, but Preachers.
3. The Christians of neighbour Villages came to the City-Church; and when they had Oratories or Chappels there, it made them not another Parish; and excluded not such from personal Communion with the Bishops Church, nor extended to such as by Distance or Numbers were uncapable of such personal Communion.
4. Titus was either an ambulatory Evangelist, to go about as the Apostles, gathering and Setling Churches (as I think); or if fixed, he was an Archbishop, who was to settle Bishops under him in every City (as Dr. Hammond judged). It followeth not that a meer Bishop may have a Multitude of Churches, because an Archbishop may, who hath many Bishops under him.
5. As the Magnitude of human Body, so also of a particular Church, hath its Limitation suited to its Ends: Communion by Delegates or Officers only, is the Case of many Churches associated: But Personal Communion in Doctrine, Worship, Conversation and Discipline is the End of each particular Church, and if you extend the Form to more than are capable of that End, even to many such Societies, by so doing the Species is changed.
§ 38. About this time a reverend learned Brother, Mr. Martin Iohnson, being of the Judgment of Dr. Hammond and Dr. Gunning, and yet a Lover of all honest, peaceable Men, and constant at our Meetings, Lectures, and Disputations, was pleased to write to me about the Necessity of Episcopal Ordination: I maintained that it was not necessary ad esse Ecclesiae, and that he might be a true Minister who was ordained by Presbyters, and that in Cases of Necessity it was a Duty to take Ordination from them: He opposed this (with Modesty and Judgment, being a very good Logician) till at last he yielded to the Truth. These Letters with their Answers are added in the Appendix.
§ 39. A little after this an Accident fell out that hindered our Concord with the Episcopal Party, and is pretended at this Day by many to justifie the Silencing of all the Ministers that were afterward put out. Oliver Cromwell, who then usurped the Government, being desired by some to forbid all Ministers of all Parties whatsoever to officiate, who were notoriously insufficient or scandalous, taketh hence Occasion to put in with the rest all those that took part with the King against the Parliament, and so by offending them, hindred our Agreement with them; which provoked me then to protest against it, and publish my Judgment against the hindering of any Man to preach the Gospel upon the Ground of such Civil Controversies as those.
§ 40. And about the same time, Experience in my Pastoral Charge convinced me that publick Preaching is not all the ordinary Work of a faithful Minister,Pardon the tediousness of three or four Sections, which repeat some of that which was mentioned before, because it is here put in as part of my Pacificatory Endeavours only. and that personal Conference with every one about the State of their own Souls, together with Catechising, is a Work of very great Necessity: For the Custom in England is only to catechise the younger sort, and that but by teaching them the Words of the Catechism in the Liturgy, which we thought (besides the Doctrine of the Sacrament) had little more explicatory than the Words themselves of the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Decalogue: Therefore I propounded the Business to the Ministers, and they all (upon Debate) consented that I should …rn our brief Confession into a Catechism, and draw up a Form of Agreement for the Practising of that Duty: I drew up the Catechism in Two leaves in 8v…. comprehending … is necessary to be believed, consented to and practised; in as narrow … room, and just a Method as I thought agreeable to the Peoples Understandings: And I proposed a Form of Agreement for the Practice, which might engage the … to go through with the Work: And when I brought it in, it was conse…ed to and subscribed; and many neighbouring Ministers of other Countries desired to join with us; and we printed the Catechism and Agreement together.
§ 41. Of all the Works that ever I … this yielded me most Comfort in the practice of it. All Men thought that the People especially the ancienter sort, would never have submitted to this Course, and so that it would have come to nothing: But God gave me a … willing People, and gave me also interest in them; and when I had …, and my People had given a good Example to other Parishes and especially the Ministers so … concurring, that none gainsayed us, it prevailed much with the Parishes …: I set two Days & Week apart for this Employment: … (faithful unwearied) Assistant and my self, took fourteen Families every Week; those in the Town came to us to our Houses; those in the Parish my Assistant …, to … Houses (besides what a Curate did at a …): … they … the … to us (a Family only being present as a …, and no Stranger admitted); after that I first help… them to understand it, and next enquired modestly into the State of their Souls, and lastly, endeavoured to set all home to the convincing, awakening, and resolving of their Hearts according to their several Conditions; bestowing about an Hour (and the Labour of a Sermon) with every Family; and I found it so effectual through the Blessing of God, that few went away without some seeming Humiliation, Conviction, and Purpose and Promise for a holy Life, and except half a dozen or thereabouts of the most ignorant and senseless, all the Families in the Town came to me; and though the first time they came with Fear and Backwardness, after that they longed for their turn to come again: So that I hope God did good to many by it: And yet this was not all the Comfort I had in it.
§ 42. For my Brethren appointing me to preach to them about it, on a Day of Humiliation at Worcester when we set upon it, I printed the Sermon prepared for that use, with necessary Additions, containing Reasons and Directions for this Work, (in a Book called The Reformed Pastor) which excited so many others to take the Course that we had taken, that it was a far greater Addition to my Comfort, than the profiting of the Parish or County where we lived: Yea, a Reverend Pastor from Switzerland wrote me word, that it excited them to Thoughts of practising it there, though the dulness of some Pastors and the backwardness of the People were their great Discouragements.
§ 43. But all these Beginnings which so comfortably smil'd upon us from all parts of the Land, were clowded and obstructed by the proud Commotions, Though the Conjunction of the matter caused me to speak together of these things, yet the matter of this Section and the following was for time about two or three Years after that which followeth.and rebellious unquiet Humour of the Fanaticks; especially the Military Anabaptists; who thinking it lawful, because it seem'd to set up their Sect, did oppose the Ministry and trouble the Peace of the Nation, and raise Stirs against all setled Government, even against the Usurper whom they had themselves set up. And when Cromwell was dead they set up his Son, and pull'd him down again, and set up others, and pull'd down them, and never ceased rebelling and overturning all before them, till they had not left themselves a Bow to stand upon. And Harrison's Party in the Conventicle called, The Little Parliament, as they cast out all the Ministers in Wales at once (who though very weak and bad enough for the most part, were better than none, or so few Itinerants which they set up) so they attempted and had almost accomplish'd the same in England: The Independants thought that the Parishes were no true Churches, and the Anabaptists thought that those baptised only in their Infancy, were no Christians; and so that they might have true Churches and Christians, many Independants secretly, and the Anabaptists openly promoted the Ejection of all the Parish ministers in England at one Vote,In Ian. 1659. the Committee of Parliament (the Rump as they were called) Voted Liberty of Religion for all, not excepting Papists. that so they might set up the best of them again in an other way, to make Men Christians, and gather New Churches, which they thought was better than to reform the old.
§ 44. These Endeavours having been on foot all the time of Oliver's Usurpation and before, promoted the Generation of Seekers, Ranters, Quakers, and such others, who sent forth many railing Words and Pamphlets, and the Scope of all was against the Ministry (which yet got ground even in these licentious times, and prevailed against them, and carried on their Work): This was some Diversion to us, while I and others were fain to dispute against Anabaptists, and Quakers, and Seekers, and to answer their railing Invectives, and to build with our Weapons in our Hands: So that (besides my Writings against them) I seldom preached a Lecture but going and coming I was railed at by a Quaker in the Marketplace in the way, and frequently in the Congregation bawled at by the Names of [Hireling, Deceiver, false Prophet, Dog,] and such like Languge: But all this in the Issue furthered our Work.
§ 45. Before this there were two very sober Men in London (Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen) who were Pastors of an Anabaptist separated Church: The Wife of one of them (an extraordinary intelligent Woman) wrote me a Letter that her Husband was in troubled Thoughts (not about Anabaptistry, but) about Separation upon that account, and that if I would write to him now, it might do him good; which I did, and gave him many Arguments to prove that though he should continue in his Opinion against Infant-Baptism, yet he ought not to make it a Reason of denying Communion with his Brethren of another Mind. These Arguments met with Thoughts of his own that tended the same way, and in conclusion he was satisfied: Afterwards the same Woman perswaded me to try with Mr. Allen also; who in conclusion was satisfied: And they dissolved their Church. When this was done, the Men being of extraordinary Sincerity and Understanding, were very zealous for the reduction of their Brethren of the Anabaptists way: And to that end they had a Meeting with divers of the most moderate Pastors of the Rebaptized Churches: And they desired my Proposals or Terms on which we might hold Peace and Communion with them. I sent them these Terms, and they entered into Consultation of them, and were in a very hopeful way of Agreement (I saw no likelyhood of the contrary): And suddenly the Broils of the Army, pulling down Richard Cromwell, and setting up I know not what, and keeping all in Confusion, broke off all our Consultations, till the King came in: And since then Men dare not prosecute the Agreement, left they be taken as Conspirators, that do it in preparation to a Plot; so unhappily are the Affairs of the Church oft crossed, by Secular Interests and Divisions in the World. But these two Brethren at last cast off their Anabaptistry also, and are now more zealous than other Men against Independency and Separation, by how much the more they smarted by it. The Terms of Agreement here ensue, with a short Disputation preparatory thereto. The Letters that pass't on this Occasion betwixt Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen, are inserted in the Appendix.