II2 f1PmENDIX. Numb.Vl. Therefore being urged, I cannot in Confciencedeny a plain Anfwer to thisQue- flion.But I defpair of fatisfying thofe Men thatmutt have that whichAugaftinet faid he bated,, viz. A (hart Anfwer to a long and bard Queflion'; and that cannot away with ditiin&ion, whendiftin&mattersmutt be fpoken to. Let filchReaders cati this An Ewer afide, asbeing not fuited to their Witsand,Difpofitions. T. We mutt diffinguith between an Infant or Child in theParents Family, and one that is at Age, or gone out of the Family. ' 2. Between, a thing that is either Duty or Sinor Indiferent, in it felt by the Lawof God, andMens thinking it to be fo, ornot fo. 1. And particularly between a Mintier juftly filenced, and People juflly prohibited tomeet, and thofe that are unjuftl filencedand forbidden. 4. Between the Prohibition or Command of the Civil Magifirate, and of the Bi- o çs . Between the Commandof Laws or Parents, to hear filch and filch Minifters, and their Prohibition nor to hear others,nor joyn in fach Affemblies. 6. Between an A& of Formal Obedience to a Command, and an A& of Prudence movedby the good or hurtthat willfollow. 7. Between guilt of Divine Revenge, and guilt of Humane Ponifhment. I make ufe ofall thefe difin&ions in refolving your Doubt by theft following Propnfitions. I. There is no Power but df God, and none above God, nor againft him, or a- ny of his Laws. All Laws are null to Confçience, as being no A&s of true Au- thority thereto, that are againft the Lawsof God, in Nature or Scripture. H. Though onlyRulers beJudges publickly to decide Controverlies , and punifh Offenders, every rational Man muff judge difcerningly of his Duty , what God's Law and Man's require : elfe we were not governed asMen but as Beads, nor were accountable for our A&ions to God,, any further than whether we obeyed Men: And elfe all under Heathens, Mahometans, Papifts; Hereticks, mutt beof theKings Religion. And then if the King and a Ufurper Brive for the Crown , we mull not be Judges whofe part we mutt take : All which are intolerable Confequentsc III. Every trueMintier of Chrift is in his Ordination devoted and confecrated to that Sacred'OfficeduringAbility and Life : And it is from the Law, of Chrift that their Authority immediately arifeth ; as the Lord Mayor's from the King's Charter ; though Men ele&, and the Ordainers invel them in it by delivery. And as he that crowneth the Kingcannot depofe him, or he that marrieth Perfons can- not .unmarry them, no more can any depofe a Paftor, and diffolve his Obligations to his Office, but in cafeof fachPrimes as God's Law depofeth him for, and ena- bleth them to do it: Of whichBifisop Bilfen ofObedience fpeaketh foundly,too large to behere recited. IV. For a Minifter of Chrift to forfake hisCalling or Work, while bá Vow and the true necefftyof Souls continue hisObligation, and this meerly becaufe he is un'uft. lyforbidden by Man, is to be odioufy perfidious and.facrilegeous, and a Deferrer of his great Lord and Mailer's Work, ánd a Murderer 'ofthe Souls which he negleð, as verily as Parents murder their Childrenwhom they give not food to. And noMur- derer bath Eternal Life, were it but of the Body or Temporal Life ; Inch being as Cain, of him that was a.Murderer from the beginning ; and contrary to Chrift , who came to Peek andfave the loft. V. The unjuf forbidding Chriff's Minifters to preach his Gofpel, is a fin fo ta- ceeding heinous, as that noChìiltian fhould either concur in the Guilt, or be fo fcandalous as to feem todo it. Had I lived in Germany when many hundred Mini - Bers were eje &ed, and thereby the Churches cart into divifion and confufpn , and Proteftant Preachers turned againft each other, about the Form or Book called the Interim, while Melancbtbon and fome good Men partly conformed to fave the Chur- chesfrom ruine, and Illyrian. and more were Nonconformids, I would not for all the Riches of the World appear before God in the Guilt of thofe three Men that did Compile that Book Utilises Pflug, Sidoniue, and Iflebiru Agricola) orof thofe that for it filenced or banilhed Chrif's Minifters. z Tim. 4. I, 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord fefur Chrift, who fhaU judge the Buick and the dead his . appearing and his Kingdom, Preach the word, be instant, infeafon, out offeafon, reprove, rebuke,exhort, with
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=