To wade a little further , and that in a methodicall briefnesse , the Causes are considerable .

The Efficient , God out of his love , through the Spirit , by his Word , perswading Mens hearts to believe in the Sonne : that so they may be revested , with the former ( or rather better ) image of himselfe .

The Materiall , are the Saints & Members of his Mysticall Body .

The Formall , the union with him , and one with another .

The Finall , his owne honour , the edifying one another , and their mutuall eternall happinesse .

Now the way of Governing , Ex quibus constamus , iisdem nutrimur . is the same with Gathering ; namely , the preaching of the Word of God .

But because the manner of divulging the Gospel , by some of our time is controverted , and they would have nothing to be the Word of God , but the very Text of the Old and New Testament ; Because , say they , A concionatory way , is not wholly , intrinsecally , undoubtedly and meerly true .

Of these , I desire to aske but one Quest : Whether the Word in its originall , not being understood , be able to convert soules ? or , whether all to be converted , must understand Hebrew and Greek ? which both seem absurdities ; or , which necessarily must follow , they must be converted by the Word translated ; which ( besides the various reading of the Originall ) is not wholly , intrinsecally , undoubtedly , and meerely true .

Finally , the examples of our Fore-fathers converting , with the evidence of so many now converted , may evince the contrary .

The general Objection against the premises is , that the externall forme of words in preaching , praying , the dayes , or places , instituted for Fasting , or Thanksgiving , with other circumstances , are not distinctly set downe in the holy Scripture , but may in a prudentiall way , be changed , according to the exigency of occasions or persons .

In the worship of God , two things are to be considered ; the substance , and the necessary intervening , naturall adjuncts .

That the Word of God must be preached , the Sacraments administred , in time of danger , God must be called upon ; after deliverances , praises must be returned , is an institution of God ; and so a Law unalterable . The Intervening adjuncts , are naturall , and no part of Gods worship . The manner of expression , the time , is no more holy , then the place is , nor the publick either time or place , more then a private , whilst I am in my family worshipping of God : they being but naturall circumstances , without which nothing can be done . If there be any holinesse in them , it is for the Works sake , and so but relative : The Sabbath onely excepted , which being at first instituted in relation to Christ , should be holy , for it self sake , though no body in the World did keep it .

But to speak more home , besides the Universall Church , dispersed here on earth , God hath appointed , for the mutuall edification one of another , some particular Congregations , to joyne into bodies , which have right unto all the Ordinances left by Christ & his Apostles , as is the receiving in , building up , the casting out , which are actions not competent to the Universall , and therefore may be called Ministeriall .

I cannot so readily assent to those who say , that two or three gathered together into a society , make a Ministeriall Church : For that , Mat . 18. speaking of a Ministeriall Church , presupposeth more persons ; for , If thy Brother offend thee , there are two persons , and after reproof will not heare thee , take one or two with thee , there are foure Persons besides the Church : yet , how small a number , the Embryo of a particular Church , may be is hard to depose definitively .

As in all sensitive bodies , these three faculties are required , to Attract , to Nourish , and to Expell ; the same may be said of every Congregation : It must have power within it selfe to admit , and receive in ; to nourish and mutually edifie those within ; and to expell or decline that which is noxious .

But the grand Quaere will be , whence it deriveth this power ? For they of the See of Rome , lay claime to derive it successively , from Christ and his Apostles , and so exclude ( as Hereticks ) all those that usurp the title of a true Church or true Ministery , without Succession or Ordination from them .

Others even of our Brethren , in the Reformed Churches , doe deny this to belong to a Church , without some succession or dependency on other Churches , of whom I desire of these two Questions a resolution :

Whether a company of Godly People , being by shipwrack , cast into a barbarous or empty Island , where they are like to live out their daies , may not joyne into a spirituall body , and so raise up unto themselves , the exercise of all the Ordinances of Christ revealed in his Word ?

Lest any should deny it , these things are tenderd to their consideration : whatsoever is spiritually a living body , is spiritually {αβγδ} , a perfecting it self . This is an axiome grounded upon reason , Arist : applies to the soul of Man . But all Believers are spiritually living bodies , and have an inward principle , to build up themselves , & others in their holy faith . So 1 Thes . 5. they are commanded to edifie one another : and 1 Peter , 2. the faithfull are called living stones . Now who can doubt , but if a company of living stones meet and joyne together , Lord gather them all ! as they by inclination will , but they may , and ought , to reare up from themselves , a perfect edifice ?

Again , I aske , in time of Reformation from Idolatry , or prophanenesse , to a regular holinesse , Whether there be not the same necessity , which there was in the case stated before ?

If yea ; then they may joyne together into a Church , without any succession , or dependency , on other Churches ; if not , either they must require some superstitious or prophane Minister , to receive in Members , Ordaine Officers , in a true Church , which is absurd : or else they must stay , till they meet with another true Church and Ministery , which , besides the difficulty , savoreth of a Prelaticall Jurisdiction of one Church over another ; of which , something anon .

Some that meekly and earnestly contend against this way , ground upon two maine Arguments : The first is , It is unlawfull , to withdraw from a true Church . The second is , concerning read Prayer . A word to each . First , I deny that there is , or hath been , since the casting off of the Jewes , any Nationall Ministeriall Church ; in which none might dwell , but of the same Religion with them : and so it is the begging of the question . To the second , I answer , that there is a great difference , of reading of a prayer , and committing heads of it , to memory ; ( the case is the same in preaching ) the latter being a meanes sanctified , and a gift required in every Minister : The former , there being no example for it , nor any Past or all gift eminent in it .

To conclude this point , it seemeth more then probable , that a company of Faithfull , ( the Heart no Man knoweth ) uniting themselves into a body , become a true Ministeriall Church ; and having Christ for their sole head , may claime priviledge , to all the Ordinances , instituted in the Gospell , as by a Charter belonging to them ; without any necessary dependency , upon any power , either Secular or Ecclesiasticall .

Other things might be added , and objections answered , but , because I study brevity , and am loath to plume my selfe with other Birds feathers , or to surfet the Reader with twice warm'd cabbage ; I proceed to another controvertable Question .

WHether a Minister , may administer the Sacrament out of his owne Church ?

There may be considered , in a Ministers Office , two things ; his power over his owne , and his duty of benefit towards others : Now , no act of power , can he exercise unto any out of his Church , but any act of benefit he may : The Sacraments therefore , being no act of power , seem to may be administred without his owne Church : These considerations being ballanced ,

The Levites , this way , were tied , though to a Nation , yet not to any particular Tribe , Jud . 17.9 .

If he may not administer the Sacraments out of his owne Church , then none , upon any occasion , ( being absent from their own ) might either themselves , or their Children , be Partakers of the Sister Churches Sacraments ; which is against the practise of the Churches Apostolicall , and now best Reformed . The reason of the consequence is this , If he admit a Stranger , either he becomes by that act , one of them , or not : If not , then he administers to some , out of his owne Church ; ( and why not then unto most , or unto all ? ) If he become one of them , then he may be a Member of two , or severall Churches , at once , which is absurd .

Deacons might , and ought sometimes , to administer out of their owne Church , 2 Cor . 8.

It would redound to the more comfort unto the Churches , and for their further building up , and mutuall society , without any Ataxy .

The administration of the Sacraments is an act of Power and Authority .

I confesse it is an act of Place or Office , so was the carrying out of Ashes , from the Altar ; but if the Giving the Sacraments be an act of Authority , then is the Receiving of them an act of Subjection , by the rule of Relatives : But none will say , that , by receiving the Sacraments , they are subject to that Church or power .

The Mayor is not to exercise any power of his office , neither set the City seale , to any thing out of his Jurisdiction .

WHether Baptisme received unworthily may be reiterated ?

It being a seale of a soederall Covenant on Gods part , its truth like , that once administred , I afterward , by faith , applying the signe to my self , may have the fruit and benefit thereof : And so after any sinne , by ruminating thereon , may draw fresh solace , without reiteration of the Element ; God alwaies owning his Vessels , though in Usurpers hands .

So also in the Supper of the Lord , the fruit , and signatum thereof , may be upon necessity , oftner extracted , by meditation and application , then it is clementally exhibited .

This , ( for feare of mistake ) I write , somewhat to satisfie the dissenting Christians for Re-baptizing themselves ; as also those , who cannot die quietly , without the Lords Supper administred to them , on their death-beds .

WHether matter of propagation were concreated with Adam ?

Upon this Question affirmed , seems to depend , Caine's exemption from Originall sinne .

For every thing in innocency , without let , executing the great Fiat of his Maker , and nothing being unfruitfull ; It should seem , that either Caine was excepted from that sinne ; or else that it is contracted by imitation ; which some defend . Besides , why should not Man , the perfectest of these mundane multiplying Creatures , have the materiall principle of generation , at his Creation ? seeing this perfection did adorne inferior Creatures : every thing being created in its perfect estate . For the forbidden fruit with the rest , ( and therefore the kernell ) was certainly ripe ; else would it neither have been so lovely , or desirable to eat , by those , who could , before the Fall , see further then paring deep .

COncerning this subject , I will enquire into two Questions :

By whom the Parties are to be joyned ?

Marriage being the first foundation of a Family , out of a principle of love , not of mutuall feare , ( as some derive all Societies from ) and the conjunction of Families making a Politicall body , being common to the whole World ; may rather be ranked , under a Civill , than any Religious or Ecclesiasticall Institution . So in the holy Scriptures , we never read , that it was done by any in a Priestly Office ; but by Judges , and that in a place of Civill Judicature .

Neither is there any precept , directly or Analogically , either in the Old or New Testament , tying it unto the Office of a Priest or Minister .

Further , as farre as my inquisition can reach , among the Heathen , out of a principle of Nature , the King joyneth them together , and not the Priest .

THat a Man helpeth a Woman to breed , that is , is sick in the time of her Gestation , is a received opinion among many .

That sicknesse unto both , at the same time may often concurre casually , not causally , I confesse : For that an excretion , or part of a Man , being separated , should affect at distance its former remainder , cannot to me be made out , either by evident experience or convincing reason : Though many of late , have written both learnedly and largely , concerning such subjects .

But touching this instance , that the retention of the Lunary evacuations , may , ( as it doth the Woman ) by a diaphoreticall way , affect and staine the spirits of an accompanying Man , which soone will procure a dyscrasie in naturall actions , I can conceive : As also that a strict continence , ( where use hath met with a fit temperature to the contrary ) may oft sensibly affect the Male , our dayly experience doth teach .

Some indeed , are like the Hebrew Women , who can deliver with a groane , or two , which the Husband tender and pusillanimous , hearing of , falls into paines of feare and grief : But , that this should be an abatement to the Wife , were to invert the curse laid upon the Woman : as my learned Brother before me sheweth in the case of a Viper .

There are Writers , that speak concerning Sympathy , of a Woman newly ingravidated , and a Beare , and remit us for experiment into England : Which yet I could never see , nor fully be satisfied in .

But , upon supposition , it is worth the enquiry , whether it be out of love to the Woman through lasciviousnesse ? which would produce a strange paradox ; or , Whether by a cruell and immature Midwiving the fruit , to satisfie the immensity of its hunger ? Howsoever , if it were certainly true , one might , without danger , use it in the discovery of impregnation , and so often save the lives of two at once .

THat the White is nourished by the Yolke , as having its Menstruum within it selfe , is , though wonderfull , yet by dayly Autopsy , uncontroulable .

But here lieth the knot which is not so easily dissolved ; by what vessels this nourishment is attracted , and where they are inserted .

I know , after 2 or 3 daies incubation , there is a sanguine-like string , from the treading , or Cock sperme , but that that should be the umbilicality of the Chicken , is not demonstrable . Neither is there any cicatrice , or least vestigium thereof remaining in any new-hatcht deplumed Chicken . Neither is it like it should be inserted at the bill ; for then the bill , as the deferring organ , should be made first : nor doth any perfect feature attract nourishment mouth-wise , before its eruption into the world : And if by the vent aliment should be conveighed , besides the preposterousnesse in nature , the entralls must suffer a great perturbation , before the turning of the wonted peristaltick motion . Or if by a diaphoresis or transpiration , it would encourage us to administer topically such aliment , as might afford solid nourishment , and so become the easiest and safest remedy in many deplorable diseases .

HEre give me leave to recite an ocular experiment of mine own ; Being with some Friends , in the Canicular daies , about noone time , in a Chamber , at Catwick of Zee , neer to the Arx Britannica that Julius Caesar founded , we saw a young Man go to bathe him in the Sea , and falling into a hole , which a Ship new launched , by the incomming flood , had made , being un-expert in swimming , was drowned : two or three howers after we went into the Sea , and spied the drowned Man floating ( the nucha and the haire of his neck was all we could see ) we brought him to shoare , but without either hope , or triall of recovery .

Now the reason hereof is somewhat abstruse : In Man there be divers parts to be examined , in relation to the gravity of water ; there are bones , flesh , brains , liver , and other entrailes , heavier ; there are the lungs , and fat , lighter ; beside severall concavities , where , upon Anatomy , we can see nothing but the empty cells of the removed spirits . Now , the body of Man , as it differeth in gravity in its severall parts , so doth also one body from another ; that in some , there needeth but a small moment to make them aequilibrous with the water .

Some ridiculously ascribe it to the breaking of the Gall ; which as in reality , so in reason is false . Others introduce with more judgment the fermentation of the body ; which , making an extension , doth acquire levity .

The supine resting on water , without motion , onely by retention of aire , keeping the lungs full , doth digitate a reason .

A culinary experiment hath , in part , given me some satisfaction : the boyling of Lights in a pot , to see , what a weight it will beare up : Now if there can be conceived ( as I see nothing to the contrary ) an after heat , which the lungs may acquire severall waies , and so rarifie the contained aire , the reason may without difficulty be conjectured .

IN the disquisition of Therapeuticks , I would first look into the Pharmacopeia Universalis of Nature : the sedulous culture whereof , would abridge the number of exotick simples .

In Prophylacticks we see , where the pinching'st cold is , there the wise Creator hath recompenced it with aboundance of fewell and skins . Where there is any Endemicall disease , there you shall find the adequate Alexiferium : As the Guajacum , where the venereous disease had its commencement ; the Irish Slat , for their particular Flux : so we see Scorbutiall herbes to luxuriate where the Skurvie predominates ; as the Sedum minus in Sweden ; the Chamernbus in Norway ; the Cochlearia in Germany and England ; and will not grow either by seed , or plant , in France ; which is exempted from this disease , as the Physick Professours told me there .

Furthermore , Nature seemeth to observe time ; for when Feavers and Plurisies are most frequent , which is about the Summer solstice , then are Papaver Rheas , Lettice , with other proper herbs , in their fullest vigour .

The like might be elaborated by industry in domestick purgative and sudorifick Medicines ; the use of the former , with phlebotomy some of late have with great applause , though with weake engines , gone about to batter downe ; a thing of eminent consequence , these reasons considered :

Art is the servant or ape of Nature , and where it seeth Nature to cure by such meanes , therein Art must imitate it .

Thus on little ones , where Nature doth cure by vomiting , there a Physitian may upon due consideration supply the place of Nature . Neither doe the purging Medicines corrupt the good humors , as they pretend , most of the purges being bitter , and so preservatives against putrefaction .

Besides , daily experience doth teach , that warme water ( which in so short a time , cannot be conceived to corrupt ) doth , as a vehicle , often educe putrid and superfluous humours , with a great alteration of the Patient . As well they may imagine , that a Glyster of Milke , doth in so short a time breed those worms which are allured to it , and excreted with it . Moreover , we see in most acute diseases , that by spontaneous bleeding , and that severall waies , either in Man or Woman , sometime also in Children , there is by the sole help of Nature a criticall solution .

Finally , the long experiment of the concording Practitioners , with the confirmation of myriades of Patients , confessing the sudden refreshment by bleeding , when the blood is peccant , either in quantity , quality , or motion , may confirme the usefulnesse , yea necessity of Phlebotomy .

WHether averruncation of Epidemicall diseases , by Telesmes , be feisable and lawfull ?

That this hath been effected , and that lawfully upon the warrant of Gods edict is evident , in the curing of the bitings of Serpents , by erecting a brazen Serpent in the Wildernesse , the aspect whereof I confesse did cure at a distance .

Yeelding some latitude to the word , I shall commit no solaecisme , if I say , that the Rainbow hath a Telesmaticall signification for the preservation of the Universe , from inundation .

That the Ekronites did make their eight golden Mice and five Emrods , and put them in a coffer by the Arke , for averting Apotelesmatically their Epidemicall discases , is evident by the sacred Word ; and humane Writers doe often concenter in this truth : in which art Apollonius Thyaneus , by the testimony of severall Authors of all the rest , did obtaine the Lawrell . But , how lawfully this was done , or might be done , is not obvious to my capacity .

I am not affraid to exhibite many simples , the effect whereof I cannot so readily reduce to manifest causes : else I were to abandon all , Magneticall , Electricall , or Antimoniall Medicines ; yea , light and fire , the effects whereof every vulgar eye doth sensibly perceive , their proper formes are abstruse from most judicious men .

But , that the formes of these sublunary things are answered with the like Celestiall Figurations , and the Idea's of all Terrestriall things , are in the fixed Heavens by Man to be distinguished , I can hardly be induced to believe ; and that upon these grounds :

1. The Signes within the Zodiack , or beyond the Tropicks , were made in an arbitrary or fortuitous way ; because such a Sidus , whether artificiall or animal , would best containe the most eminent Starres of that constellation .

2. There be many glorious Sidera , which can have no respouse with things here on earth : neither are they to be ranked among naturall things , as Lyra , Crater , &c.

3. Some are duplicated , as Coron● , Triangulum , Canis , and that within the same Hemisphere , as Ursa .

4. There seemeth a defect , at least it is unknown to us , of Stars , answering the vegetables , in the surface of this our habitable earth .

5. The slow proreption of every Sidus out of his proper signe , almost unto the subsequent ; ( whether in the eighth or ninth Sphere , it mattereth not ) doth overthrow the grand pillar of Stoicheiomaticall Art : So that if I were to cure the bitings of Scorpions , this way ; I should rather take the time when the Moone is in Sagittarius , and make the figure of a Centaure than a Scorpion , which hath crept 28. degrees out of his own Signe .

So that if any effect of removing Epidemicall diseases by Telesmes be produced , I should rather ascribe it unto the Prince of the Aire , ( it being the fittest Medium to propagate all Epidemicall nuisances ) who will servilely obey such demands , that he might perpetually captivate the Soule in a false perswasion of his Omnipotency .