MR COLEMAN'S WRONGING OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
Mr Coleman ends his Male Dicis with a resentment of accusations charged upon him by a stranger, a commissioner from another church. The lot of strangers were very [pg 4-039] hard, if, when they are falsely accused to authority, they may not answer for themselves. He may remember the first accusation was made by himself, when in his sermon to the Parliament, he did flatly impute to the commissioners from the church of Scotland a great part of the fault of hindering union in the Assembly of Divines, as having come biassed with a national determination; his doctrine also at that time being such, as did not only reflect upon the government of the church of Scotland, but tend to the subversion of the covenant in one principal point, without which there can be small or no hopes of attaining the other ends of the covenant. Since that time he did in his Re-examination, and now again in his Male Dicis, fall foully upon the church of Scotland, not only by gross mistakes and misrepresentations of our way, but by most groundless aspersions and most uncharitable and unjust calumnies. I am sure I am not so much a stranger to this doctrine as he is to the church of Scotland, of which notwithstanding he boldly speaks his pleasure in divers particulars, which he will never be able to make good.
First, He hath aspersed that church in the point of promiscuous communicating. This I confuted in my Nihil Respondes: and told him both of the order of the church and practice of conscientious ministers to the contrary. Now what replieth he?
“First, This refining work, I think, is not one year old in Scotland, or much more. I was lately informed that in Edinburgh it is begun: whether anywhere else I know not,” Male Dicis, p. 20. Are not these now good grounds of censuring and aspersing a reformed church (whose name hath been as precious ointment among other churches abroad), “I think; I was informed; whether it be otherwise I know not?” He will sit in Cornhill, and tell the world what he imagines or hears of the church of Scotland, and that, forsooth, must be taken for a truth. Yet there was both rules and practice in the church of Scotland for debarring ignorant and scandalous persons from the sacrament before he was born, though all was put out of course under the prelates.
“Secondly (saith the reverend brother), It is not a very effectual sin-censuring and church-refining government, under which, after fourscore years' constant practice, divers [pg 4-040] thousands in the kingdom, and some hundreds in one particular parish, because of ignorance and scandal, are yet unfit to communicate,” Male Dicis, p. 20. Ans. 1. It is notoriously false that there hath been fourscore years' constant practice of presbyterial government in Scotland; for the prelates there were above thirty years' standing. 2. “Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once?” saith the prophet, Isa. lxvi. 8. It is no easy matter to get a whole nation purged of ignorant and scandalous persons. 3. He may take notice that the apostle Paul, almost in all his epistles, maketh mention of scandalous persons among those to whom he wrote, warning them not to have fellowship with such, to note them, to avoid them. If the apostolic churches were not free of such, what great marvel if we be not? 4. Before he objected promiscuous communicating. This being cleared to be a calumny, now he objecteth that there are such as are unfit to communicate. But while he thus seeketh a quarrel against church government, he doth upon the matter quarrel the preaching of the gospel itself; for he that imputeth it as a fault to the church government that there are still divers thousands who, by reason of ignorance or scandal, are unfit to communicate, doth, by consequence, yea, much more, impute it as a fault to the preaching of the gospel in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, the Low Countries, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland,—that in all these, and other reformed churches, after fourscore years' constant preaching of the gospel (which is appointed of God to turn unconverted and unregenerate persons from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God), there are not only divers thousands, but divers millions, who, by reason of ignorance or scandal, are yet unfit to communicate. If the word do not open the eyes of the ignorant, and convert the scandalous, what marvel that church government cannot do it? Church government is not an illuminating and regenerating ordinance as the word is. But this church government can and will do, yea, hath done, where it is duly executed: It is a most blessed means for keeping the ordinances from visible and known pollution, which doth very much honour God, shame sin, and commend piety; it putteth a visible difference between the precious and the vile, the clean and the unclean, the silver [pg 4-041] and the dross; and may well be, therefore, called a church-refining ordinance.
Secondly, The second calumny was this, “I myself (said he) did hear the presbytery of Edinburgh censure a woman to be banished out of the gates of the city.” I answered him in his own language, “It is at the best a most uncharitable slander:” and told him there is no banishment in Scotland but by the civil magistrate; and that he ought to have inquired and informed himself better.
Now he doth neither adhere to his calumny, or offer to make it good, nor yet quit it, or confess he was mistaken, but propoundeth three new queries (Male Dicis, p. 21), still forgetting his own rule of keeping to the laws of disputation and matter in hand. For the particular in hand he only saith thus much, “I did make inquiry, and from the presbytery itself I received information, but not satisfaction.” He tells not what information he received. If he will say that he received information that the banishment was by the magistrate, how could he then report that it was by the presbytery. If he say that the information he had from the presbytery gave him any ground for the report which he hath made, let him speak it out, and the world shall know the untruth of it. He may remember, withal, that by his principles an accusation may not be received against an elder (much less against an eldership), in reference either to the judgment of charity, or to ministerial conviction, except under two or three witnesses. If, therefore, he would have his accusation believed, let him find two or three witnesses.
Thirdly, Whereas I had rectified a great mistake of the reverend brother when I told him, “It is accidental to the ruling elder to be of the nobility, or to nobles to be ruling elders; there are but some so, and many otherwise,” he is not pleased to be rectified in this, but replieth, “I say, first, It is continually so; secondly, The king's commissioner in the General Assembly, is his presence accidental?” Male Dicis, p. 10. See now here whether he understandeth what he saith, or whereof he affirmeth. That which he saith is continually so, is almost continually otherwise; that is, there are continually some ruling elders who are not nobles, and there are continually some nobles who are not ruling elders. So that, if anything be accidental, [pg 4-042] this is accidental, that an elder be of the nobility, or nobles be elders; they are neither nobles qua elders, nor elders qua nobles. It is no less accidental that the king's commissioner be present in the General Assembly; for there have been General Assemblies in Scotland, both before the erection and since the last casting out of Prelacy, in which there was no commissioner from the king. And when the king sends a commissioner, it is accidental that he be of the nobility; for the king hath sent commissioners to General Assemblies who were not of the nobility.
Fourthly, A fourth injury, not to be passed in silence, is this: Mr Coleman hath endeavoured to make the world believe that the commissioners from the church of Scotland came to the Assembly biassed with something adventitious from without, which he calls a national determination, and that we are not permitted by those that sent us to receive any further light from the word of God. I shall say no more of the bias, because, as I told him before, the standers by see well enough which way the bias runs. But most strange it is, that after I had confuted his calumny, not only from our paper first presented to the grand committee, but from the General Assembly's own letter to the Assembly of Divines, showing that they had ordered the laying aside of some particular customs in the church of Scotland, for the nearer uniformity with the church of England, so much endeared unto them, yet he still adhereth to his former calumny (Male Dicis, p. 20), without taking notice of the evidence which I had given to the contrary. And not content with this, he still quarrelleth with my allegation of certain parallel examples, which are by him so far disesteemed, that he hath not stuck to pass the very same censure upon the foreign divines who came to the Synod of Dort which the Arminians did. The same he saith of Alexander's coming to the Council of Nice, and of Cyril's coming to the Council of Ephesus; all these, I say, he still involveth under the same censure with us; for whereas he had alleged that I justified the bias, this I denied, and called for his proof. His reply now is thus: “Is not the allegation of the examples of the like doing a justification of the act done?” Male Dicis, p. 20. This reply can have no other sense but this, That I justified the thing which he thinks our bias, because I [pg 4-043] justified those other divines who (as he holds) came also biassed in like manner. I am persuaded this one particular, his joining with the Arminians in their exceptions against the Synod of Dort, would make all the reformed churches, if they could all speak to him uno ore, to cry Male audis. And I am as firmly persuaded that the confession which I have extorted from him in this place, that he knoweth no adventitious engagements those divines had, makes him irreconcileably to contradict himself; for he made them but just now biassed in the same manner as he thinks us, and made my allegation of their examples to be a justification of the bias charged by him upon us: as, therefore, he doth must uncharitably and untruly judge us to be biassed with adventitious engagements, so doth he judge of them. Neither can he assoil them while he condemneth us; for the articles concerning predestination, the death of Christ, grace, free will, and perseverance, were determined before the Synod of Dort by most (if not by all) of those reformed churches who sent commissioners thither, as much as presbyterial government was determined in the church of Scotland before the reverend Assembly of Divines was called. And this pre-engagement and predetermination of those reformed churches was the main objection of the Arminians against the foreign divines who came to the Synod of Dort. To conclude this point, Mr Coleman himself, in his Re-examination, p. 7, avoucheth roundly, that the foreign divines came to Dort, not as divines, by dispute and disquisition to find out truth, but as judges, to censure all different opinions as erroneous.