If the Jesuit do let him look to it Christianity is not in fault An entring into or renewing the Covenant at the Font or Altar is no Encroachment on the but Justice of Peace in the Neighborhood Sect. 43. Excommunication and other Censures change no Mans Condition as to this World they have no force but in relation to known Duties Prudence is to rule in the Execution particular regard to be had to Princes Whatever is Coercive annexed is from the Prince Lay-Judges Chancellors c. when first granted by the Empire upon the Bishops Petition The same is Absolution neither innovate in Civil Affairs Sect. 44. Conciliary Acts invade no more than does the Gospel it self That Canons have had the precedency of the Law is by the savour of Princes a Council without local meeting Letters Missive Sect. 45. Ordaining others no more prejudicial to the Crown than the former acts This is Mr. Hobbe's Misapprehension Sect. 46. CHAP. V. THe grand Objection out of Mr. Hobbes If these two Powers command the same Person at the same time inconsistent Performances it arises from that false Principle that all Power is outward Sect. 1. This infers equally against the Laws of God and which may and do sometimes thus interfere are as difficultly reconcileable with the State Acts. No Church Laws oblige against Natural Duty The Laws of Religion considered at large in order to a clearer Solution Sect. 2. Mr. Hobbe's Rule will Answer all Consider what is and what is not necessary to Eternal Salvation Sect. 3. The same is the Rule of the Ancient Fathers Sect. 4. If Mr. Hobbes his Faith and Obedience be all that is Necessary 't is then easily determined because to obey only the Soveraign Sect. 5. Dr. Tillotson his Sermon of Love and Peace to his Yorkshire Countreymen not to be Vindicated from being herein of Hobbe's Judgment in what he Dissents from him No Church-Power since Miracles ceased according to Mr. Dean Sect. 6. The Gospel calls for Confession and Obedience in Opposition to though not in Contempt of Princes to the hazard of all So the best Christians the worst of Hereticks only Simon Magus Basilides c. did otherwise Sect. 7. For a full Answer the Laws of Religion are to be ranked under Three general Heads They are Arbitrary and Humane Arbitrary and Divine Necessary and Divine Sect. 8. Laws Arbitrary and Humane though never losing their Sanction yet cease in some Cases in the Execution As when the Empire gave Indulgencies beside the Canon Sect. 9. The Civil Injunction does not immediately oblige the Christian in these Cases The Church has her own Power never to be yielded up Ceremonies not the main thing Sect. 10. Not to be changed with our Clothes That Worship which is best not to be foregone only to yield to what is always Necessary The Case of the Asiaticks about Easter Sect. 11. Especially in our Church of England Sect. 12. Least of all are our Mutinies and Factions our even weakness a Ground for Change Sect. 13. Laws Arbitrary and Divine cease in some instances as to Practice the Advantage of Afflictions A good Christian always a good Subject the Empire still gave Rules and Limits in the Exercise of these Positive Duties Sect. 14. To submit and cease as to particular Practice upon the lawful Command of the Magistrate is not the Case in Doctor Tillotson's Sermon to give up the Institution to him If commanding a false Worship I am to withstand him 'T is no Hypocrisie though I go not into immediately and there Preach the same in Spain Mr. Dean's unheard of Notion of Hypocrisie in what Case the Magistrate is serviceable to promote the Faith Sect. 15. The last sort of Laws both Necessary and Divine are never to cease in any one Instance or under what Circumstances soever either as to their Right or Practice I am never to do any one Immorality always to own and profess the Cross of my Saviour Sect. 16. The great Goodness of God in giving such a Subordination of Duties that the end of each may be answer'd in enjoyning nothing absolutely necessary to Heaven but what is in our Power that no Contingencies of this World can take from us our Eternity a Reward we can never miss of without our own Faults Sect. 17. CHAP. VI. The Contents The last general of the Discourse Sect. 1. What the Autority of our particular Church and Kingdom is in this Controversie where not Apostolical and Primitive there not obliging Their Doctrine Laws and Practice all along on our side Sect. 2. The People are only Testimonies of the Manners of such as are to be Ordained in our Book of Ordination Sect. 3. No Autority in any but those of the Priesthood to Ordain Excommunicate c. as in our Rubricks Articles c. Sect. 4. Our Kings claim'd it not in their Acts Declarations c. in the days of Henry VIII in the Act of Submission He is declared a Lay-man nothing in Religion made Law but by him He defends Religion His Power as the Supreme Governor of the Church Is called Worldly and Secular Sect. 5 6 7 8. Of King Edward VI. That the Bishops were to use not their own as formerly but his Name and Seal in their Processes c. implies no such thing Sect. 9. Of Queen Elizabeth King James Sect. 10 11. The King and Church distinct Powers in our Statute Book Our Kings now have but the same Power the Empire of old and their Predecessors before the Reformation had If our Religion be Parliamentary that anciently was Imperial Sect. 12. Mr. Selden says the Parliament of England both can and has actually Excommunicated and the Bishops Power is derived only from them Sect. 13. The Acts of Parliament he produces V. VI. Edw. VI. Cap. IV. III. Jacobi Cap. V. infer it not Sect. 14. Nor do those of II. III. Edw. VI. Cap. 1. Elizabethae Cap. II. that the Prince limits Excommunications in the Execution is not against the Divine Right of them His Instances in the Rump Parliament Geneva The Parliament of Scotland III. Jacob. VI. Cap. XLV are all against him Sect. 15. Archbishop Whitgift is not proved to have Licensed Erastus his Works for the Press that they were found in his Study is no Argument he was an Erastian if Licensed by the Autority of the Nation no Evidence that his Doctrines were then owned Sect. 16. Our own Doctors of the same Opinion with us instances in two of them Sect. 17. Bishop Bilson St. Ambrose one of Doctor Tillotson's Hypocrites A private Liberty of Conscience not enough a false Religion to be declared against though by Autority abetted Mr. Dean gives advantage to the Papists Calumny That our Religion is only that of our Prince Sect. 18. Bishop Sanderson his particular Judgment concerning the Divine Right of Episcopacy Sect. 19. Mr. Selden objects again that our own Doctors and Writers are all on the other side The particular Authors each reckon'd up He
of this Discourse Sect. 1. Not the Power and Offices of the Church but their Subject is what mostly exercises the Age Sect. 2. Whether the Power be originally in Believers in Common or in the Secular Prince in Particular or in a certain Definite Number of Believers the Bishops and Pastors of the Church Sect. 3. The Design of the Whole and its Three General Heads Sect. 4. VVHEN I first consider'd that of Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan § I Part 1. Cap. 12. Of Religion and which is in short to this purpose in several Paragraphs there That every one is free upon the ceasing or discontinuance of the Miracle to Supersede or Change his Religion once attested by that Miracle to be from God and upon which account it was receiv'd and own'd if the change of the Climate and his Governors his former Education and the present Custom of the Place he resides in requires and all that other Authority and Obligation from Heaven obliged only for that present instant in which the Miracle was wrought and evidenced I with less concern passed it by reflecting on the Person a Man affected with and designing Novelty and Singularity filled with a Conceit of his own worth and autority and opposing it to all the World beside And in particular in this Chapter declaring himself to be such an one that believes an extraordinary felicity a sufficient Testimony of a Divine Calling but going on in my Thoughts and finding by a sad Experience that it went further than the Scheme or Systeme that a great part of our Age is thereby brought into this Opinion and 't is contended for so frequently as their Faith that the Church is nothing at all but in the State its Powers and Offices though once in the Apostles and some of their Successors for some time is now gone with those Miracles that at that time abetted and avouched them nor is the Gospel it self to be Preached or divulged upon other terms or a fixed enjoyned false Religion opposed nay farther this very same to be the stated professed Opinions of some and those too our highest dignified Church-men and left upon Record as the judgment of the greatest part and some of them the most remarkable of our first Reformers that the Prince is invested with whatever belongs to a Church-man then was my heart hot within me and while I was thus musing the fire kindled and at the last I spake with my Tongue I then set my self upon a particular immediate enquiry into the Matter and attaining to a more perfect knowledge of that way I here represent it to my Fathers and Brethren of the Clergy to all good Christians whatever in this following Treatise and only state the plain case as I find delivered down from our Saviour by his Apostles the Bishops Fathers and Doctors of the Church Catholique the Church Historians Councils and Laws Imperial from our own particular Church Articles Canons Rubricks our Book of Ordination and Homilies appointed to be read in the Churches in the time of Q. Elizabeth from our own Doctors and Writers in Divinity in their several times and from the Injunctions and Declarations of our Princes and even the Common-Law and Statute Book of our Kingdom the Honor and Duty I owe to my Jesus to his Universal Church to this particular Church of England to my own Profession as a Divine and love to all Christians is what have engaged to it other advantages I have none nor are any proposed these Considerations alone are they which now makes the dumb Child speak looses the string of that Tongue that held its peace and said nothing and brings him into publick otherwise by an universal Concurrency of all things both Persons and Objects design'd for silence and obscurity § II NOW in order to this I have so much prepared and made ready to my hands that the thing in general is immediately denied by none and that there is a Church-Power to be alwayes upon Earth till the restitution of all things and the Heavens be no more that is certain peculiar Persons and Offices to be separated and discharged in and for the affairs of Souls and the guiding and governing the World in order to Heaven and Salvation is affirmed by all that believe a Heaven and Christ Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life in the Attainment That which has so much unhing'd and discompos'd the World of late is concerning the Subject in which it resides the particular Persons design'd and appointed by our Saviour for the conveyance and execution the due force just extent and consequences of it in whom this Power is to be found and to whom limited since none are extraordinarily by miraculous and sensible demonstrations from Heaven commissioned and marked out thereunto as the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel were And though Mr. Selden himself as our great Herbert Thorndike in his Principles of Christian Truth tells us usually said in his common Discourse That all Church Power is an Imposture yet his First Book De Synedriis designed and levelled against this Autority Upon this alone score because presumed in and limited to the Bishops and Pastors of the Church as the Successors of Christ and his Apostles makes it plain his quarrel is because so assumed and limited by them because transferr'd from the Prince or Civil Power in whose hands alone he believes it placed and in those in deputation by him and for which he contends all along in that Book with what Success may be seen hereafter and therein places the Imposture THERE are three distinct Orders of Men § III or at the least to be supposed distinct in which this Power is contended for to be seated each exclusive of one another by the several Assertors and Fautors of the distant Opinions and Parties among us The One places it in the People the multitude of Believers in common as the general first immediate subject of Power Ecclesiastical who by their concurrent Notes Elections and Assignations limit and fix it on particular Persons for the Execution so appointing consecrating and investing for the work of the Ministry to negotiate in the affairs of Souls and in order to their Salvation The Other subjects all in the Prince or Secular Power who is supposed in actu Primo virtually and by a first inherency to be Priest and People equally as Prince and by the Right of Soveraignty as chief Magistrate upon Earth is instructed for all Offices and Duties in relation to Heaven with a Power for Deputation and Devolution as the Harvest may be great or the Labourers few upon each occasion requiring and as he is pleased by his secular Hand to mark out the Person The Third place it not in the Multitude in general or in the Prince in special but in a certain indefinite number of Believers called and impower'd thereunto not by their Gifts and Abilities as Christians in common but by a particular signal Donation superadded given
from the Apostles and Bishops and succeeding Church-men and consequently we are thus to interpret those other places of this Father in his Works when speaking of the Emperor in these Expressions Illum commendo Deo Cui soli Subjicio Apol. adv Gentes cap. 33. quem sciens à Deo constitui lib. ad Scapulam Cap. 2. Colimus Imperatorem sic quomodo nobis licet ipsi expedit ut hominem à Deo secundum quicquid est à Deo consecutum solo Deo minorem sic enim omnibus major est dum solo vero Deo minor est Ibid. That the Emperor is subject to God alone as appointed by God that he is second to God less than God only that he is greater than all c. All these are to be understood in a limited sense suited to the present Subject he is then upon as to the Secular Government he being the fountain of all Temporals and God governs the World by him nor ought nor can any one say what does he as accountable to God alone who is alone above him But Church Power is of another Head or Species and 't is not derivable from him nor is he the less a Prince for want of it and it was it must be if rational and consistent with themselves the least in the thoughts of this or any other Father of the Church that has used these like Expressions to ascribe thereby Church Power unto him And therefore is it that in their Writings and Declarations and Apologies for their Loyalty and Obedience to the Empire as standing obliged in their Conscience and by their Christianity in all manner of Obedience to him yet it is with this reserve that they are withall to retain their Freedom and Rights as Christians and which they own and return to another fountain So Justin Martyr in his second Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all joy and chearfulness we serve and obey you only the Worship of the alone true God we derive not from you So Tatianus in his Oration to the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the King Commands us to pay Tribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Man wee 'l obey him in his Humane Laws Religion is still exempted So Athenagoras in his Embassy to the Emperor in behalf of the Christians declaring hee 'l refuse no Tortures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they fail in these Duties in a greater or lesser instance of them And those excellent words of Minutius Foelix are much to this purpose Quà m Pulchrum spectaculum Deo cum Christianus cum dolore congreditur cum adversus minas supplicia tormenta componitur cum strepitum Mortis horrorem Carnificis arridens insultat cum libertatem suam adversus Reges ac Principes erigit Soli Deo cujus est cedit cum Triumphator Victor ipsi qui adversus se Sententiam dixit insultat How Pleasant a Spectacle is it to God when a Christian encounters with Sorrow when he is compos'd against Threatnings and Punishments and Torments when with Smiles he insults over the noise of Death and the horror of the Hangman when he erects his liberty against Kings and Princes and gives place only to that God whose he is when with Triumph and a Victor he has the better of him who gave Sentence against him EVSEBIVS all along in his Church History § VIII as he sets down the particular Succession of the Emperors and Bishops so he represents and places them upon their two distinct Thrones So 't is said of Simeon in respect of his Diocese and Church-Jurisdiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was worthy of his Throne meaning his Episcopal Chair lib. 3. cap. 11. and of Justus his Successor in Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was placed on the Throne of his Bishoprick cap. 35. when entring upon his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Office of a Bishop is expressed in general cap. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is varied lib. 5. cap. 9. that his Administration or acts of his Episcopal Charge and Office to be performed to his People and accordingly the execution is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that imply full Power Autority in the Bishop if they imply it in the Prince which have no other words to declare it to us by and particularly the Empire of Trajan is expressed by the very same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that very Chapter And this Hugo Grotius has observed Rivet Apol. Discuss pag. 699. and given one reason of it Omne corpus Sociale jus hebet quaedam constituendi quibus obligentur membra hoc jus etiam Ecclesiae competere apparet Actorum 15. 28 Heb. 13.17 ob hoc jus Episcopatûs Imperii nomine appellantun every body by virtue of its Union and Association has a right to constitute such Rules as do oblige its Members that this right does belong to the Church is apparent from Acts 15.28 Heb. 19.17 and for this the Right and Power which is annexed to Episcopacy is call'd by the Name of an Empire and this very Empire Power and Jurisdiction we have executed by the Bishop in part upon Philip who held the Roman Government and was newly come over to the Christian Faith he enrolled him not but by the Rules and Laws of the Church but upon Confession of his Sins and passing through the Order of the Penitents and which was submitted to by him Euseb Eccles Hist lib. 6. cap. 34. and the case is farther clear'd by our Historian lib. 2. cap. 27 28 29 30. in the instance of Paulus Samosetanus as to the distinct Power in Church and State and the extent of each he was Convict of Heresie and his Bishops Orders taken away from him by the Jurisdiction and Power of the Bishops in Council united who alone did give them and who alone could take them from him and placed another in his Bishoprick in the Church of Antioch But when Paulus Samosetanus would not go out of his Church-House their Episcopal Power reached not so far as to dispossess him of his Temporals 't is the Business of Princes alone to inflict Banishment or such outward Punishment upon Hereticks and we have Theodosius a Bishop blamed for his Persecuting in such like manner the Sect of the Macedonians in the Seventh Book of Socrates his Church History cap. 3. Church Empire or Autority reaches not hither in any degree or instance for this they appealed to the proper Head or Fountain to Aurelian the Emperor who was then their Friend though he continued not so long they asked the assistance of the World and that his Secular Arm might relieve them this he granted and adjusted it to the present Bishop consecrated thereunto and thus was this notorious Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Power of the Prince is still called whether exercised in the things of the Church or of the State by the Secular Arm and Autority turn'd out
and in these Church Debates only upon the forementioned ends and purposes to secure the common Reputation both of Men and Governors and to see that former Sanctions be not violated to judge as to Matter of Fact and what was Law and Canon before and that nothing destructive be admitted and imbodied into the Empire and which many times was deputed to the Bishops themselves as we have instance in the Comments of Jacob Gothofred in extravagans de judicio Episcopali ad finem Cod. Theodos l. 1. and to be sure the Empire never determined but by the Clergy in any thing else and the Enquiry was only this an Ordinavit Antiquitas that nothing thwarring was introduced and imposed Nor can Theodosius himself be supposed to have done any more from the Relation made of him by Socrates Hist Eccles l. 5. c. 10. or by Sozomen l. 7. c. 17. where he is engaged in Points of Faith and which is so much insisted on by those that resolve all Power into the Prince in the determining and composing all differences arising in Points of Religion Vid. Grotium bona fides Lubberâ—i 48. alibi Theodosius was an acute Man and pursued his own Satisfaction in those Points or Articles he made Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all he did upon his search was this he concurr'd in the same Opinion with the Bishops receiv'd their Reasons offer'd and allow'd of the Grounds they proceeded on and imbodied in the Empire the Decrees of the Council call'd by him at Constantinople upon the occasion of the Arians and other Business in the Eighth Chapter of that Book of Socrates And so again in Sozomen he gives out his Rescripts for equal Honor to be given to the Persons in the Trinity and declares those Hereticks which do it not and enjoyns Theophilus to follow the Nicene Faith for which the antecedent Church Canon is the rule lib. 7. cap. 4 5. 9. THE Laws of the Empire against Hereticks § XX are many and for the Rule of Faith and its Unity and against their meetings in the exercise of their Fancies they are turned out of the Publick Churches and expell'd the Cities and whatever favour hath been obtained for a Penal-mitigation by bribed Courtiers misrepresenting for such it seems there always was and will be the Grant is to be actually void the Houses they meet in are Confiscated they that have frequented them are Punished an Hundred Pounds and such as continue at them Fifty no Man is to read their Books they are all to be burned none is to Petition in their behalf their last Testaments are voided they are not permitted to Buy or Sell or Trade as do other Men all their Gifts Endowments and Revenues settled on their Sects are transferr'd to the Churches use Such of them as set up Schools and Teach are to be animadverted upon Vltimo Supplicio to be sure by a Punishment greater than others and they that learn of them are to Pay Ten Pounds No Lay-man that is an Heretick is to have or exercise any Government lest they be vexatious to the Bishops and Christians all the Moderators Governors and Under-Officers in Provinces that neglect to execute these Laws or permit them to be violated are to have a Mulct of Ten Pounds laid upon them No Civil or Military Power is to assist them in erecting their quasi Ecclesias falsly called Churches Speluncas fidei suae under the Punishment of Twenty Pounds of Gold He that entertains a Conventicle in his House if vilis of the Plebeians he is to be beaten with Clubs if an Ingenuous Person his Punishment is Ten Pounds and if they go from their Conventicles to Mutinies and Sedition 't is present Death and to such as frequent them t is Proscription of Goods with many more Penalties assigned Some greater and some less as was the temper of the Law-Maker and the apprehended Guilt as greater or less the Heresie of more or less danger in Church or State even to some as the Manichees their Children were not to inherit but then who and what these Hereticks and Heresies were what made a Conventicle or Schismatical Meeting what constituted this Rule of Faith and Unity this was not the work of the Empire nor did it pretend to be Judge and Decide She believed as did the Church determine whose Traditions and Confessions received Strength and Autority thereby the Civil Arm and Power concurring but the Catholique Faith is the Rule and Praedicationem Sacerdotum the Instructions of the Priests the Director Nor is any one condemned by the Law but such as are Strangers to and neglect the Church who are first condemned by her and 't is what Antiquity has ordained appoints and constitutes That Faith which St. Peter the Apostle Preached at Rome and which was then follow'd there by Damasus the present Bishop and Peter Bishop of Alexandria Nectarius of Constantinople Pelagius of Laodicea Diodonis of Tarsis Amphilochius of Iconium Optimus of Antioch c. Men led by the Apostolical Evangelical Discipline and Doctrine farther taught and recommended in the Four first Councils Determinantibus Sacerdotibus the Bishops there determining and the Exposition of Synods by the Imperial Autority and Laws called together Sacram Communionem in Ecclesia Catholica non percipientes à Deo amabilibus Episcopis Haereticos justè vocamus Justinian Novel 109. Praefat. The Heresie in its own Nature consists here when they unite and hold Communion out of the Catholick Church not receiving of it from God's beloved Bishops and so Schism is defined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 31. Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 6. Concil Gen. Constantinop when they despise and make Assemblies contrary to their Bishops So also Can. 31. Concil 6. in Trullo Can. 10. Concil Carthag and more expresly yet Can. 10. Concil Antioch and which we have occasionally made use of before if any Presbyter or Deacon separate from the Church contemning his own Bishop and makes a Private Congregation or Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in that 10th Canon Concil Carthag all which concerning Schism and Heresie and Conventicles with a great deal more may be seen at large and in every particular by whoso is conversant in the Canons and Church Proceedings and Determinations or which may be of more Autority with him at least not so lyable to Scorn and contempt to whoso pleases to read Cod. Justinian Tit. 1 2 3 4 5 c. Theodos 16 Tit. 1. l. 28. and in the several Titles and Laws with the various Novels and Constitutions treating expresly on these Subjects § XXI THERE are as many Laws and Directions Imperial concerning Ordinations the Person to be Separate and Consecrated to the Ministry of what Order soever whether Bishops Presbyters or Deacons perhaps many more as indeed they are very numerous giving Rules for Elections for the better discharge of their Duties providing against Symony for the daily Sacrifices and Ministerial Offices in the Liturgy and
has not made that the immutable term of Man's Salvation but what is in his own Power and of which if he fails 't is his own perverse will and choice that is debauch'd and betrays him to it the Carved works of the Temple may be beaten down the Church-Discipline be weakned and her Laws and Rules for Holiness become of less force her Towers and Bulwarks be taken away and the Secular Protection be withdrawn I may have neither tongue to speak nor hands to lift up in prayer nor feet to walk to the House of God there may be no Houses of God in our Land the Tyrant may pull out or cut off the one or pull down the other the daily Sacrifice my cease and the Priest-hood too as to particular Persons and when we say where Episcopal Power is not there is no Church we do not so mean that where it is not Men cannot go to Heaven these all may be supplyed by an upright heart and due intentions God accepts of a Man according to what he hath and not according to what he hath not The Sacraments are only generally necessary to Salvation and so of other duties in the same Order of Sanction God does not oblige us to the Tyranny of Impossible Commands to climb up to Heaven and go down into the Deep and fetch thence our Eternity ask of us ten thousand Rams or a thousand of Rivers of Oyl or those Cattel upon a thousand Hills for a Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Clement argues to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is our own Lust not others we are to answer for if not Subdued and Conquered he does not bind us to go to Heaven when we have no Legs Move without Faculties Act without Strength Live when Dead Men and with Paralytick Joynts Enfeebled by Irrecoverable Weakness to work out our own Salvation every Brick-bat will then make an Altar and Prayers are to be made every where with Holy Hands lift up or but Devout Hearts without Wrath and without Doubting nor is it by Subduing Kings and Conquering Worldly Powers we are to go to Heaven Faith Love Dependence upon God c. are among those acts of the Soul usually called Elicitae whose Practice depends on no outward Faculty and if some Virtues equally indispensable are otherways seated and among those Acts call'd Imperatae and to be perform'd by the outward Organs of the Body yet are they equally free from outward Force so seated in each ones Self and lodg'd in his Person that no Violence but from a Man 's own self can reach them those the only Enemies that are of his own House and 't is every ones own hand that draws his Sword and makes him a Rebel his alone Adulterous Eyes and Heart Promote and Actuate whatever of uncleanness is from him and 't is neither Person nor Object nor Quality any thing that comes cross or is of force from within or without himself whether Devil or Tyrant or Lust any one accident or contingency that can either dismember him from the Church or disunite him from his God deprive him of sufficient Means here or Eternal Life hereafter even the Tyrannies and Deaths here will but Advance the Crown and these lighter Afflictions work for us that more Eternal Weight of Glory and which Considerations are to be the great Support and Comfort of all Christians Should it so happen in the courses of Providence and Kings and Queens cease to be Nursing Fathers and Mothers unto us Should a Nero or a Domitian a Parliament of forty two a Cromwel or a Committee of Safety or what Association soever be set up against and Tyrannize over us plane volumus pati verùm eo modo quo Bellum miles nemo quippe libens Bellum patitur cum et trepidari periclitari necesse sit tamen praeliatur omnibus viribus et vincens in praelio gaudet qui de praelio querebatur quia Gloriam consequitur praedam they are the words of Tertullian Apol. c. 5. to those Scoffers of the Heathens in his days and whom Julian the Apostate after imitated telling the Christians Afflictions was their Advantage and to be Loved by them because their Martyrdom and Crown We must willingly suffer and engage as the Souldier does in War and 't is the expectation of Victory and that recompence of Reward makes us fight on and Rejoyce under that Banner which otherwise the present Difficulties and Dangers working on our fears would engage us to avoid and run from 't was the constancy and evenness of the Christians for the Truth and in Gods Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with their Gravity Sincerity their Freedom and Modesty of Conversation gain'd upon their Enemies both Greeks and Barbarians and silenced their baser Slanders and Calumnies against them thus together with the learned discourses and endeavours by Writing and which were not few the Church grew and multiplied as Eusebius tells us Hist l. 4. c. 7. These the Weapons of a Christian Warfare and the many Shields of the Mighty these the Spoyls and Trophies they contended for I know not how in fitter words to conclude this Chapter than in those of our Noble Historian Eusebius in his Preface to his fifth Book of his Church History giving an account of those many and Eminent Martyrs in the days of Antoninus Verus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Others making Historical Narrations have delivered in their Writings Victories in War and Trophies over their Enemies the great Actions of Captains and the Valour of Souldiers that had stained their hands in Blood and a thousand Battels for their Children their Country and their Fortunes but the History or the Narrative of the Divine Common-wealth and Enrollment which is of Heaven writes on Eternal Pillars those Peace Designing Battels in order to the Peace of the Soul or that are Spiritual Those that fight in these Battels for Truth rather than their Country for Religion rather than their Children The constancy of the Contenders for Piety and their Fortitude in their manifold Sufferings their Trophies against Devils and Victories obtain'd against the Invisible Powers or Enemies making publick their Crown for an Everlasting Remembrance CHAP. VI. Chap. 6. The Contents The last general of the Discourse Sect. 1. What the Autority of our particular Church and Kingdom is in this Controversie where not Apostolical and Primitive there not obliging Their Doctrine Laws and Practice all along on our side Sect. 2. The People are only Testimonies of the Manners of such as are to be Ordained in our Book of Ordination Sect. 3. No Autority in any but those of the Priesthood to Ordain Excommunicate c. as in our Rubricks Articles c. Sect. 4. Our Kings claim'd it not in their Acts Declarations c. in the days of Henry VIII in the Act of Submission He is declared a Lay-man nothing in Religion made Law but by him He defends Religion His
Christian when he refused to give up his Church to the Arians denied the Emperor's power over truth and to determine in Doctrines The Emperor might force him out if he pleased neither might he resist the force his Weapons being only Prayers and Tears but the truth must not yield up to him and he give his consent or seem to do it by his own departure that the Arian Doctrine be there preached this was not then thought an Affront to the Magistrate and Law nor had St. Ambrose a Commission immediate from Heaven and abetted with Miracles or was he judged a hypocrite in so doing because he did not go and preach the Cause against Arius amongst the Goths and Vandals who subscribed to his Creed at their receiving Christianity though Mr. Dean of Canterbury tells us he that pleads Conscience and preaches it in England and does not go and preach it also in Turkey is guilty of gross hypocrisie pag. 203 213. We do not make them Judges and Deciders of Truth but Receivers and Establishers of it we say Princes be only Governors that is higher Powers ordain'd of God and bearing the Sword with lawful and publick Autority to command for truth to prohibit and with the Sword punish Errors and all other Ecclesiastical Disorders as well as Temporal within their Realms that as all their Subjects Bishops and others must obey them commanding what is good in Matters of Religion and endure them with patience when they take part with Error So they their Swords and Scopters be not subject to the Popes Tribunal neither hath he by the Law of God or by the Canons of the Church any Power or Pre-eminence to reverse their Doings nor depose their Persons and for this Cause we confess Princes within their Territories to be supreme that is not under the Popes jurisdiction neither to be commanded nor displaced at his pleasure pag. 215 216. There be two Parts of our Assertion The first avouching that Princes may command for Truth and abolish Error The next that Princes be Supreme i. e. not subject to the Popes judicial Process to be cited suspended deposed at his beck The Word Supreme ever was and is defended by us to make Princes free from the wrongful and usurped Jurisdiction which the Pope claimeth over them pag. 217. 219. Bishops have their Autority to preach and administer the Sacraments not from the Prince but Christ himself only the Prince giveth them publick liberty without let or disturbance to do what Christ hath commanded them he no more conferreth that Power and Function than he conferreth Life and Breath when he permitteth to live and breath when he does not destroy the life of his Subjects That Princes may prescribe what Faith they list what Service of God they please what form of Administring the Sacraments they think best is no part of our thoughts nor point of our Doctrine for external Power and Autority to compel and punish which is the Point we stand upon God hath preferr'd the Prince before the Priest pag. 223. touching the Regiment of their own Persons and Lives Princes owe the very same Reverence and Obedience to the Word and Sacraments that every private Man doth and if any Prince would be baptized or approach the Lord's Table with manifest shew of unbelief or irrepentance the Minister is bound freely to speak or rather to lay down his life at the Princes feet than to let the King of Kings to be provoked the Mysteries to be defiled his own Soul and the Princes endanger'd for lack of oft and earnest Admonition pag. 226. by Governors we do not mean Moderators Prescribers Directors Inventers or Authors of these things but Rulers or Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first appointed and ordained and with lawful force to disturb the Despisers of his lawful Will and Testament Now what inconvenience is this if we say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give freedom protection and assistance to the preaching of the Word ministring of the Sacraments and right using of the Keys and not fetch license from Rome pag. 236. Princes have no right to call and confirm Preachers but to receive such as be sent of God and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their Persons and if Princes refuse so to do God's Labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from Heaven not by disturbing Princes from their Thrones nor invading their Realms but by mildly submitting themselves to the Powers on Earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict A private liberty and exercise of their own Conscience and Religion was not then thought enough if the Religion of a Nation be false and though autority do abet it nor would the Autority in Queen Elizabeth's days have own'd that Person asserting and maintaining of it though not stubbornly irreligious but only wanting information in so notoriously a known case of practice pag. 238. In all spiritual Things and Causes Princes only bear the Sword i. e. have publick Autority to receive establish and defend all Points and Parts of Christian Doctrine and Discipline within their Realms and without their help tho the Faith and Canons of Christ's Church may be privately professed and observed of such as be willing yet they cannot be generally planted or settled in any Kingdom nor urged by publick Laws and external Punishments on such as refuse but by their consents that bear the Sword This is that we say refel it if you can pag. 252. to devise new Rites and Ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scripture and Canons commend and such as the Bishops and Pastors on the Place shall advise not infringing the Scripture or Canons and so for all other Ecclesiastical Things and Causes Princes be neither the Devisers nor Directors of them but the Confirmers and Establishers of that which is good and Displacers and Revengers of that which is Evil which power we say they have in all things be they Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal the Abuse of Excommunication in the Priest and contempt of it in the People Princes may punish excommunicate they may not for so much of the Keys are no part of their Charge pag. 256. The Prince is in Ecclesiastical Discipline to receive and stablish such Rules and Orders as the Scripture and Canons shall decide to be needful and healthful for the Church of God in their Kingdoms It is the Objection indeed and undue consequence the Church of Rome makes against us and the Oath of Supremacy and which is urged by Philander in this Dialogue betwixt him and Theophilus or betwixt the Christian and the Jesuite pag. 124 125. That we will have our Faith and Salvation to hang on the Princes Will and Laws that there can be imagined no nearer way to Religion than to believe what our temporal Lord and Master list in the
Scripture that if they shall be diligently compar'd together both between themselves and with the following Practice of all the Churches of Christ as well in the Apostles times as in the purest and Primitive time nearest thereunto there will be left a little cause why any man should doubt thereof § XX AND now I have done only Mr. Selden is once more to be encountred with who appears against all this and says that the Doctors of our Church are quite of a different Judgment and have declared the same to the World in their Writings De Syned l. 1. cap. 10. pag. 424 425. As the two Universities at once Published in the Reign of Henry VIII 1534. called Opus eximium de vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae quae sit ipsa veritas virtus utriusque Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in an Oration de vera Obedientia Joannes Bekinsau de Supremo absoluto regis Imperio with abundance more which he tells us was to have been Printed in King Jame's days but the Printer was in the blame The Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library where an account is given of Henry VIII entrance upon the Reformation 1540. and the Question among others is Vtrùm Episcopus aut Presbyter possit Excommunicare ob quaenam delicta utrum ii soli possint jure divino whether the Bishop or the Presbyter can Excommunicate and for what Offences and whether they alone can do it by Divine Right and about which great Divines were distracted in their Opinions but the Bishop of Hereford St. David Westminster Dr. Day Curwin Laighton Cox Symons say that Lay-men may Excommunicate if they be appointed by the high Ruler or the King and all those Writings in every Bodies hands De primatu regio de potestate Papae Regiâ against Bellarmine Tortus Becan Eudemon Joannes Suarez c. in the time of King James and whose Authors were Bishop Andrews Bishop Buckeridge Dr. Collings Bishop Carlton c. and in which three first Mr. Selden instances a great appearance of Adversaries and considerable withal and did not Mr. Selden give in the Catalogue whose unfaithfulness and imposings I have so oft experienced in this kind would be much more terrible in reality than they at first look appear incouraged therefore by former success I 'le encounter him once more and undertake an Examination of so many of them as I have by me and it is very pardonable if I have not all we that live remote in the Countrey and but poor Vicars there have not the advantage of Sir Robert Cotton's Library cannot attend Auctions or but common Booksellers Shops and have not Money to imploy others especially for the obtaining such Authors as these most of which are out of Print and some very rarely to be had by any and I am the more encouraged to the search just now finding in that Book of Bishop Sanderson's I had so lately occasion to make use of some of these Authors made use of on the contrary side as those who by the occasion of the title of Supreme Head our Church being charged with giving to the Prince the Power Autority and Offices of the Priest openly disavow and disclaim it and I think I may as soon rely upon Bishop Sanderson's report as Mr. Selden's his skill as Divine and Integrity as a Christian can be no ways below him even in the Judgment of Mr. Selden's Friends THE Opus eximium de verâ differentiâ c. § XXXI comes first the work he says of the two Universities I do not know why the Universities are entitled to it but upon Mr. Selden's report for this time will grant it readily because the Autority how great soever is really on my side nor does it answer any thing at all of Mr. Selden's design in producing of it The first Part is De potestate Ecclesiasticâ and is wholly levelled at the Power of the Pope and discovers his Usurpations over the Christian both Kingdoms and Bishops that his pretended both Spiritual and Temporal Plea has no ground either on the Scriptures or Fathers for it is altogether begged and sandy I cannot so much commend the clearness of it when discoursing of Church-Power as in it self and purely in the Donation and which he allows and defends he appearing not to have the true Notion of Church-Laws and stumbles at that so usual block that all Laws must be outwardly Coercive or they cannot be call'd Laws and so can be only in the Prince whom he well enough proves to have alone that Power and what he allows the Church is to make Canons i. e. rules to be receiv'd only by those that are willing but not Laws which enforce with more to this purpose something too crudely and which the then present Age will plead something for Confirmant quidem praedicta potestatem Ecclesiasticam sed Dominum regant tribuunt autoritatem non jurisdictionem admonere hortari consolari deprecari docere praedicare Sacramenta ministrare cum charitate arguere increpare obsecrare certissimis Dei promissis spem in Deo augere gravibus Scripturarum comminationibus a vitiis deterrere eorum sit Proprium qui Apostolis succedunt quibus etiam dictum est quorum remiseritis peccata c. Leges autem poenae judicia coerciones sententiae caetera hujusmodi Caesarum Regum aliarum Potestatum but surely all these are Laws too and have real Penalties if our Saviour himself be a Law-giver and have Autority and do oblige the unwilling only they break in sunder the bonds of Duty on whose Truth these their Admonitions Increpations c. are to be founded by whose Virtue the Sacraments have their Influence and the Power of retaining is executed unless the Pains of Hell are only painted or have no force because not inflicted so soon as denounced there is a Dominion sure goes along with Christ's Kingdom too accompanying his Ordinances only 't is not by the Rules and with the Consequents of the other Jurisdictions of the World and on this account Men have been so unwary as not to discern it to speak against it or unwilling to speak plainly out concerning it a mistake has been observed in others and 't is here pretty aged but 't is most sure and certain this 't is most plain and conspicuous the whether Potestas or dominium autoritas or jurisdictio as they distinguish Power or Dominion Autority or Jurisdiction that is allow'd to be Ecclesiastical is no where in the Treatise attributed to Kings to those that have Secular Dominion this is only eorum qui Apostolis succedunt theirs that succeed the Apostles The second Part is De potestate Regiâ where first the Divine Right of Kings is asserted and then their Power in the Church or over-spiritual things where their Right of Investiture is declared from Gen. 47. and the Priests received their Benefices from them as also over the Power and Persons of the
Psalmists Door-keepers all Ecclesiastical Officers but not in the same Catalogue So in St. Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these three of the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon are the whole Progression and several Orders and Ascents in the Church-Ministry These those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the degrees of the Priesthood as Zonaras in Can. 8. Apost Omnes gradus Sacerdotales as 't is in the same words in the last Canon of the first and second Council at Constantinople and which that Canon provides that every one must go through that becomes a Bishop The Bishop Presbyter and Deacon are opposed to the Laity and placed in the number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such as preside in the Church Can. 1. Conc. Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are fellow-workers in the Ministry as in the Council call'd against Paulus Samosetanus Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 3. And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Life of Constantine Lib. 2. Cap. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 58. Conc. 6. in Trullo None in the Order of Lay-men may deliver to themselves of the Divine Mysteries or Administer in Holy things the Bishop Presbyter or Deacon being present where the Publick Offices of the Church are again limited to these three St. Jerome places them in Superioribus ordinibus Ecclesiae in the higher Order of the Church Comment in Ep. ad Tit. Cap. 2. in the same Language runs the Imperial Laws as are plain and obvious in the Theodosian Codes especially with the Notes and Commentaries of the Learned Jacob Gothfred the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon are the Sacerdotalis assumptio one or all of them 16. Cod. Tit. 5. Lex 5. 52. and are called Primi the First in respect of the Readers Door-keepers c. ibid. Tit. 2. l. 24. and as Gothofred explains it And the same is again l. 41. and he calls them Primi Clerici the first of the Clergy ibid. Tit. 8. l. 13. and Justinian after him speaks the same Novel 6. c. 1. and all this is expressed by our Judicious Mr. Hooker and call'd the Power of Orders Degrees of Order Ecclesiastical in which there are three Degrees Bishops Presbyters and Deacons distinguished from Services and Offices in the Church as Exorcists Readers c. in his Preface to his Ecclesiastical Polity at the end of the seventh Section and in his Fifth Book seventh and ninth Section § XXI THIS Power and Jurisdiction though confined to these three Orders yet is it not given to each alike and in the same degree of Autority whatever is in the Nature of the Church Priesthood is in one of them but every one has not all that is in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there were degrees one above another in the Priesthood to the highest of which every one was not suffered to arise in Justinian Novel 6. Cap. 6. our Saviour himself did not confer all Power alike upon all that he chose for his special Service nor did the Apostles or their Successors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic dici videtur qui in Ecclesia sublimiorem caeteris consecutus gradum ut Apostoli erant consecuturi post eos Episcopi as Grotius in Lucae 22.26 the Ruler or greatest there mentioned by our Saviour seems to be such who had gain'd a higher more sublime degree in the Church such as the Apostles were to have and after them the Bishops In the Church are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above-mentioned in Clemens Alexandrinus Progressions and Promotions from one Order to another as from Deacons to Presbyters and from Presbyters to Bishops Sacerdotes secundi in honore Ecclesiastici gradus Hieronimus Comment in Jerem. 13. the Presbyters are second in the Honor of Ecclesiastical degrees And so in Ezek. 48. and Sacerdos primus ordo in Sophoniam c. 3. the Bishop is the first Order Sacerdos being a word applied to the Bishop or Presbyter as occasion as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includes the whole of Church-Power as is above-noted and applied as occasion to each of the degrees Optatus in his first Book against the Donatists mentions besides Lay-men which have no Power in the Church or any one degree of the Priesthood Tertium Secundum Sacerdotium apices Principesque omnium Episcopos the Third and Second Priesthood and the top and chief of both the Bishops As Eusebius still expresses the Ministry in general by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is already at large observ'd So his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those of the second Throne or Order are Presbyters Eccl. Hist lib. 10. Cap. 39. the Presbyter is major Sacerdotio then the Deacon hath more of the Priesthood Hieronimus ad Evagrium Tom. 3. Presbyter Proximus gradu ab Episcopis Presbyter secundi ordinis Sacerdos a Presbyter is next in degree to a Bishop a Priest of the Second Order so all along in the Phrase of the Imperial Laws Cod. Theodos 5. Tit. 3. Cod. 12. Tit. 1. Lex 121. Cod. 16. Tit. 2. l. 7. Tit. 5. l. 9. Constantine the Holy Christian Emperor writes to Chrestus Bishop of Syracuse that he would take with him to a certain Synod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two of the second Throne or Order two Presbyters Euseb Eccl. Hist lib. 10. cap. 5. in a word this is the current voice and distribution of all Antiquity as might be shew'd more largely or were it the design of this Discourse to treat of the Three Orders particularly as the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon are Primi Clerici the first Clergy in respect of the Readers Singers c. for the word Clérus or Clergy is applied to all Ecclesiastical Officers in general as well Reader c. as Presbyter c. among the Ancient Writers so among the Primi Clerici those Three which are first Summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus the Bishop is the First there as in Tertullian de Baptismo Cap. 17. his is Maximum Sacerdotium in Lactantius Lib. 4. Sect. Vlt. Sacerdotii Sublime fastigium So Cyprian Ep. 52. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 10. Conc. Sardicenf his Power is the greatest and topmost most full and comprehensive of all and all Power in Heaven and Earth now abiding in the Church and purely relating to Church Affairs and the bringing Souls to Heaven in the ordinary course and known appointments is it fixed and so far limited in the Person and Office of the Bishop by Christ and his Apostles as that from and only from him is this Power to be transferr'd and transmitted as is the Harvest and common Need in the particular devolution and distribution of it a great part of this is still given by the Bishop to the Presbyter an Order or Station in the Church for the Service of Souls invested with a large share of the Priestly Power at his Ordination or Deputation to it but comes short of the whole is limited to particular Instances and
debet Roma Carthaginem precedere That Rome ought to have the Precedency of Carthage by reason of its greatness Ep. 49. and upon this occasion first contending which should be the greatest City great Controversies once arose betwixt the Bishops of Rome and Ravennas as we are told by Dionysius Gothofred in his Comments on the Eleventh Novel and whose Pleas of Autority and Jurisdiction not only over the Bishop of Ravennas but all the Bishops of the Christian World as the Universal Bishop of Christendom we are now to enquire into § XXIV WHAT is Pretended by those of the Roman Faith in the maintenance of this their universal Primacy seems to come short of that Evidence is required to settle an Article of Faith to fix an Order in the Church a continued Power and Successive Constitution immutable and for ever And all that can with any ground be challenged for the Bishop of Rome as what was in the best Ages of the Church will hardly amount to any more than an occasional particular Presidency or first Chair and which others have sometimes had no singular solitary Special Power connate and inhering but only such as by occasion of Business and particular Emergencies interposing and of meerly Ecclesiastical humane assignation for them to claim and urge it as the Successors of St. Peter seems very begging and places more in the Conclusion than appears in the Premises for it is no where evident either from St. Peter's Commission in general or from any other special Donation apart or at other times made by our Saviour that this particular Power beyond and above the other Apostles was deputed and made over unto him There appears no difference in their Call in general either in Words or Offices when first leaving all and enjoyn'd to follow him Nor was it otherwise in their after-Influences and Instructions they were all alike breathed upon at once receiv'd the same Autority to retain and remit Sins the Holy Ghost fell equally upon them all at once at the Feast of Pentecost there universally and visibly on their Heads in the face of all Nations and each one went out a Theopneust Independent and self-autoritative to Preach and constitute Churches they were only liable to be advised and directed and reprov'd by one another if occasion Vnde Petrus à suo posteriori Apostolo salubri admonitione correctus as St. Austin lib. 3. Cont. Gaudentium and St. Peter had a great share of the latter Nor was there any one of them more notoriously withstood to the face than he was in the Business of the Gentiles Cardinal Bellarmine solves all indeed would a single apposite reply and distinction do it a nicer exact stating the Question serve the turn and in which his accuracy must always be allowed Nor is there any Man in such cases that goes beyond him Caeteros Apostolos parem cum Petro potestatem accepisse sed ut legati extraordinarii Petrus ut Ordinarius Caput Successionis Controvers 3. Gen. de Rom. Pontif. Tom. 1. l. 1. c. 13. The rest of the Apostles received equal Power with Peter but as Embassadors Extraordinary Peter as Ordinary and the Head of the Succession theirs was only for the present Service during their Natural lifes or till recall'd by that same Autority that they received it from his to abide with his Person and descend in the Succession and from whence each influence and supply each instance of Church-Autority is to be derived throughout all Ages for evermore So that St. Peter's Power was more than the rest in regard only to the abode and during use of it But the bottom here is altogether sandy nor does he produce any thing that is Evidence for such the Privilege either to his Person or Succession Thou art Peter upon this Rock will I build my Church And the Confession preceding Thou art Christ the Son of the living God feed my Sheep His first Call if he had it and his being left to Posterity with his Name in the head of them cannot any one or all of them imply any thing like it to a rational considering Person These were occurring Discourses particular Applications and accidental such as in course must be supposed to fall in and to be where a constant Converse and so known a Design as was then on foot amongst them and the Contingencies of the World cannot be otherwise conceived of or adjusted That same is now the Confession of every Christian and to be sure was then of all the Apostles at least e're their Commissions were fully delivered and their Power deputed unto them The second Call might be as full and extensive as the first nor does the Precedency imply in its Nature any thing otherwise One branch or instance of the Church was first founded on St. Peter's personal Preaching and other Administrations and Church-Offices in which he officiated Acts 2. and the other Apostles in the same Way and Duties and Power did found and constitute others St. Paul had his Apostleship equally evidenced nor were its seals less notorious our Saviour might as particularly urge the Care of the Church to others as he did to St. Peter and we ought to believe nothing less then that he did that they all see to their Duty in feeding and governing of it He might have a differing Confidence in one above another as we are sure his love was unequal and that something might happen extraordinary in Discourse by Acknowledgment and Approbation all this may easily be allowed but that a Commission and Power more lasting a special Headship and Charge is hereby granted and seated for ever is hence to be inferr'd and in consequence follows none that understands a Syllogism or enquires into but obvious Inferences can submit unto it And therefore Estius abates a little in his Treatise on the Sentences Lib. 4. Dist 47. Sect. 9. and says Verè est Vniversalis Episcopus c. that the Bishop of Rome is truly an Universal Bishop if he be call'd Universal Bishop who has the care of the whole Church but if you understand a Universal Bishop Qui solus omnium Provinciarum Civitatum Episcopus sit sic ut alii non Episcopi sint sed unius Episcopi seu Pontificis sunt Vicarii who is Bishop alone of all Provinces and Cities so as others are not Bishops but Vicars of this one Bishop or High Priest then it is plainly to be denied that the Bishop of Rome is an Universal Bishop He seems to distinguish betwixt the Power of giving of Holy Orders and the Power of governing the Church the former he will not allow the Bishop of Rome to be singular in and apart from other Bishops Caput Successionis as Bellarmine will have him to be the alone Head and Fountain of Priestly Succession as if illegal and wanting when not derived from his Chair the latter he peremptorily affixes upon him and believes him alone invested with a Power Universal for the governing the
catecumeni quam edocti I will not omit a description of the heretical even conversation how futile how vain how humane it is without Gravity without Autority without Discipline how congruous with their faith first of all who is the catecumen who the faithful 't is uncertain they go together they hear together they pray together even the Ethnicks if they come among them they will cast the holy things to dogs and the Margarites to Swine though not true ones they will have simplicity to be only a prostration of Discipline the care of which that we have they call a cheat or the work of a Pander they give their peace promiscuously with one another nor are they concern'd though different in themselves whilst they conspire to the destruction of one Truth all are puffed up all swell all pretend to science they are first Catecumens ere throughly learn'd Or he that would see this course of Discipline in its fuller draught let him peruse the late learned Annotations in Can. 11. 14. Con. Nic. 1. printed at Oxford now suitable to these stations and orders and degrees in which such as came over to Christianity were placed and according to their proficiency and due behaviour were promoted so were they the rules and measures the ancient Church took for the exercising discipline upon those persons that having passed through them been baptised confirm'd and admitted to the Holy Communion became of the Lapsi fell back again from the grace received Apostatized from their most Holy Order and Profession and that according to the circumstances of such their departure as more or less of guilt appeared And this is plain from the forementioned Canons and others thus in the Can. 11. Conc. Nic. 1. Such as without any necessity no violence to their Goods offered or any sensible danger appearing did recede under Licinius the Tyrant their Penance or Discipline was upon a true repentance to be placed back again and become hearers only for three years and after two years more among the Orantes they were readmitted to the Holy Altar So Can. 14. The proportionate punishments were inflicted on the Catecumeni and others lapsed in Can 4. Conc. Ancyr They on the other hand that sacrificed by force but yet did eat at the Idol Feasts without any remorse expressed either in their habits and countenance though not adhering to them their Punishment was less to be Hearers only but one year to become prostrate three two years to attend the place of Prayer and then to go on to that which is perfect to be admitted again to the advantage of the great mystery and highest instance of Christian Devotion the partaking of the holy Altar and Can. 5. those that eat with apparent present remorse evidenced by their tears being substrate two years in the third year they were fully restored and so according to the proportion of the demerit and as the more or less guilt appear'd such was the Amerciament as is to be seen in the following Canons of that Council and I have produced my instances out of these two Councils both for the greatest autority and very near greatest antiquity they being very ancient of these Ecclesiastical Penances and the way used by the Church in the laying of them And all this that it was appropriated and peculiar to the Office of the Priesthood in whose alone hands it resided and in the obedience alone and subjection to whom it was adjudged acceptable in the performance is equally evident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius Ep. ad Philadelph ed. Voss when repenting they come to the Unity of the Church and the Regiment and Subjection to the Bishop these are of God and the Lord will forgive them Penitentiam autem ille agit qui divinis Praeceptis mitis patiens sacerdotibus Dei obtemperans obsequiis suis operibus justis Deum promeretur He it is that is the true Penitent who meekly and patiently according to the Divine Precepts and submitting to the Priests of God by his Obedience and just Performances regains or obtains favour anew of God Cypr. Ep. 4. ed. Pamel As it is even necessary to examine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rise and kind of the Repentance in order to the due Punishment So this Power is in the Bishop to whom it is lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to consult in order to Mercy or Severity Can. 12 13. Conc. 1. Nic. So Can. 5. Conc. Ancyr the Bishops have Power to examine the manner of the Penitents conversation and to use Clemency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to add to the time of his Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to add to or abate of the Penance and all this as very ancient in Church Story so is it a transcript of that which is from the beginning of St. Paul's own hand and original in that Person under the Church censures 2 Cor. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. Sufficient to such an one is this Punishment inflicted by many so that contrariwise ye ought to forgive him lest perhaps such an one be swallow'd up with overmuch sorrow Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love towards him for to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether ye be obedient in all things to whom ye forgive any thing I forgive for if I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I it in the Person of Christ lest Sathan should get the advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices THERE is a fifth instance of Power peculiar and appropriate to the Gospel Ministry § XXXII invested alone in it which is Excision or Excommunication a Power of cutting off from this Body or Association upon the failure of those terms and conditions of Duty in the Performance of which either the Body in general or the interest and advantage of each particular Christian can be preserved And this is more than an Abstention of which we have an instance out of St. Cyprian Vtar eâ admonitione quâ me uti Dominus jubet ut interim prohibeantur offerre a forbidding the Holy Altar Ep. 10. ad finem but there is a censura Evangelica a Gospel censure which follows upon this Discipline or Ecclesiastical Punishment if contemned and mentioned together with it by St. Cyprian Ep. 52. ad finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be cast out of the Church or excommunicated by which words Excommunication is expressed Can. 2. Conc. Antioch is a farther Act or Punishment upon such as had first passed the other Sentence upon themselves turned themselves out of the Communion of the Church in its Prayers and holy Eucharist and which seems the sense and design of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 9. Apost that farther Separation to be made of such as in a case very like it would come to Church and hear the Scriptures but separate from Prayers and the Holy Communion An act or censure that
rather to be hazarded then to comply with and imbody into us any thing that is sinful even to gain a Protection for other instances of Virtue and Duty yet nothing but that which strikes at Religion it self will ingage or be a Warrant to proceed in this extreme utmost way upon him whose alone is the outward Coercive Power and who can weild his Sword at pleasure deny the Church that support countenance and assistance which our Saviour designed Religion should outwardly flourish under be in some respects propagated and preserved by become more notoriously visibâ—e and conspicuous to all Nations And what is said of Excommunication and other Church censures is to be said of Absolution which though a Power enstated alone in the Priesthood by Christ yet is not to be executed in an Arbitrary way and that not only as to the Laws of Christ but the Laws of Kingdoms also in many cases especially where Christian I 'le end this Section and Head of Discourse in the words of our Learned Dr. Hammond in his Book of the Power of the Keys Cap. 1. Sect. 1. The Power of binding and loosing is only an Engine of Christ's invention to make a Battery or impression upon the obdurate Sinner to win him to himself to bless not triumph over him it invades no part of the Civil Judicature nor looses the bonds thereof by these Spiritual Pretences but leaves the Government of the World just in the posture it was before Christ's coming or as it would be supposed to be if he had never left any Keys in his Church § XLV THAT the Church as a Body and Corporation of it self judiciarily determines in Council and lays obligations to Obedience infringes and inrodes no more than her other acts now mentioned if it be declarative of matter of Faith or Duty indispensably as received originally from Christ by Church conveyance the Determination is no more than the first Teaching and Promulgation of it was if it be constitutive of Laws and Canons for setling and enjoyning of Discipline the matter in it self indifferent but limited for present use and service and of which and to which purpose all Humane Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil are made and tend these Church Canons are as in the make and obligation so in the Practice and execution to retain that just regard to known Duties especially those of Allegiance that such the other Church acts and censures do and as already shewed 'T is true the great transcendent regard and reverence the Empire when Christian has had for the institution as from our Saviour for Religion it self in whose defence the Canons were made and for the high Dignity and Office of the Bishops his Commissioners that it still has made antecedent Canons the Rule of all Laws enacted if relating to or but bordering upon affairs Ecclesiastical as instances are already produced quas leges nostrae sequi non dedignantur Novel 83. and to command contra venerabilem Ecclesiam against the venerable Church Nullius est nisi Tyrannidis cujus actus omnes rescinduntur is reputed as the Act of a Tyrant and such Acts are null'd Cod. Justin l. 1. Tit. 2.16 nay farther Canones ubi agitur de re Ecclesiastica jure civili sunt preferendi and if the Canon and Civil Laws those of the Church and the State have happened to be different and in competition in any Ecclesiastical case the Canons have took place and obliged as in that Code and Title Sect. 6. and their general care and industry was mostly for these as the Determinations more immediately for the good of their Souls Novel 137. but this was from the greater Indulgence and Grace of the Christian Emperors and in particular cases and it cannot be supposed that the Church should designedly set up her Bishops and Laws above or in opposition to that Government which the frame of their Religion includes in Subordination to and by Protection of which it was to be propagated and preserv'd but of this we shall have occasion anon to consider farther And if it be reply'd that a Council cannot be convened or meet at all without the Prince's Grant at least his Letters of leave and how then can they have any Autority independent or should they otherwise assemble they are reputed Seditious Disturbers of the Peace and of Majesty and punishable as is the Law imperial 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 1. l. 3. To this I answer neither can they nor ought they nor did ever any Christian Council otherwise unite in their Persons then by the Grant and Letters Imperial and that censure was just if any did otherwise attempt it But then it is farther to be consider'd that the form essence and force of a Council that which gives a right for Sanctions and invests with Autority Ecclesiastical is not their local personal meeting as in one place there convocated and sitting but a joynt-enquiry and resolution as to the Truth 's debated and concurrency as one man in the Laws enacted upon the true Motives and Reasons of Faith and the Gospel as by Tradition transmitted or in Discipline for Government and Peace useful and which may be done by the Bishops and Clergy dissite and in diverse Countries by their Letters Missive and Communicatory those Literae signatae or systaticae or circular Epistles to one another and which has been done under diverse Circumstances and when the state of the Church was so low and its Capacities not enabling her to do it otherwise as is plain from Church Story and Practice and that this was the course of the Church's 't is more than probable when that debate arose about the keeping of Easter an account of whose Epistles we have appearing to this purpose given us by Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 23. AND lastly that this Church Power is derived § XLVI only from the Church and her Bishops to others in the Succession exclusive to Kings and the Clergy are not in this sense his Ministers he ordains and substitutes them not carries nothing of opposition in the action it self nor any thing in the design than what the Incorporation and Offices themselves imply and which has been hitherto rendred altogether innocent The Leviathan scruples not to say That they all derive their Offices and Power only from the Prince and are but his Ministers in the same manner as Magistrates in Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders in Armies are and his account why they must be so is because the Government could not be secure upon other terms If the Soveraignity in the Pastor over himself and his People be allow'd of it deprives the Magistrate of the Civil Power and his Peoples dependency would be on such their Doctors both in respect of the opinion they have of their Duty to them and the fear they have of Punishment in another World Part 3. Cap. 42. but this mistake of his has been enough discovered all along in this Treatise and will be more
all to his purpose but on the contrary are all against him himself has given so good an account of it that nothing needs here to be added but the recital of his own words whatever Power there is executed in the Church Semper à jure Anglicano civili temperatum est restrictum ut inde planè modos suos limites perpetuò receperit pag. 387. receiv'd modes and rules and limits by the Laws of the Land Prohibitions and Injunctions in order to a search and enquiry whether not destructive to the Prince to the Justice of the Subject and into the merit and demerit of the Cause or Person all follow as naturally as any thing in the World that in a Christian Kingdom where the Church is protected the Power of her Officers asserted and maintained its Acts and Executions assisted and abetted licensed and indulg'd in every thing that may be advantageous to the promoting this Power rendring it considerable and effectual as in the first design institution and purpose of it that the Prince do not wholly denudate and divest himself by his Grants and Concessions that the Church receive Rules back again and not act independently but with a regard to that arm which thus upholds her and 't is to be the care of a Prince that as not himself so nor his Subjects be burdned and oppressed with the vexatious proceedings of the Courts Ecclesiastical by Excommunications or otherways But then as to the force of Mr. Selden's Argument on this Concession I 'le only here use the words of Mr. Thorndike in his Treatise of the Laws of the Church Cap. ult pag. 394. But will all this serve for an Argument that there is no such thing as a Church in the Opinion of Christendom but that which stands by the acts of Christian Powers because they pretend to limit the abuse of it when as the very name of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Title of those Books and those Actions is sufficient Demonstration that they acknowledge and suppose a right to Jurisdiction in the Church which they pretend to limit as the neither Church nor the rest of their Subjects to have cause to complain of wrong by the abuse of it And since Mr. Selden has here Pag. 387. instanced in the first Christian Emperors wee 'l accept of their both rules and limits Laxations and Temperatures as he calls it and who as they never attempted to Excommunicate in their own Power and Persons so neither did they obstruct or declare against in their Laws the Divine immutable Right and Precept of its Institution as is plainly made appear in my Treatise above about it and all that which Mr. Selden has brought to the contrary is only some shew of words and expressions which he has wrested to his purposes as he does here in our Statute-Book and that which he brings of the Rump Parliament Pag. 387. and that Excommunicationi Presbyterali retinacula repagula quae egride ritè ea nequiret diversimodò prudenter assignabant c. they gave Laws and Rules to the Presbyterian Excommunications in their Assembly at Westminster and which though not without some Arguments to the contrary were submitted unto and also of Geneva it self whose Church-Power was thus limited in its Proceedings by State-Rules and for the better Security of the Power all this proves nothing less than what he designs and produces them for for these are the very Men and particular Incorporations as to Faith and Discipline he instances in Pag. 325 326. who assert and defend Excommunication as subjected in themselves and instituted by the preceptive Command and positive Appointment of either Christ and his Apostles or of both and the Inference thence can be only this That a Subordination to the Christian State and submission to the Rules of Policy in the Execution for order and conveniency and the more effectually compassing the end of the Ordinance is not inconsistent as such with the Gospel-Institution it no ways invests the thing it self or Original Power in the State and that which the Assembly-men demurr'd upon when the Parliament laid their Restrictions in all Probability was not that it enterfeired with the Divine Right or encroach'd upon it but as inconsistent with that Omnipotent Power and Self-existent their aim was to erect in their Presbytery or Consistoritorian Seigniority made up of Lay and Church Elders as accountable to none but themselves or the Classis or Synod for the Proceedings of such their Parlour whether King or Parliament demanded it all being there but Subjects that were not by Election of that precise Order and Fraternity and as unlucky an instance he has brought above Pag. 320. out of the Parliament of Scotland III Jacob. VI. Cap. XLV that the Parliament did there Excommunicate also a thing so abhorring to the Kirk and every ways disagreeing to the both humour of those People and it s then present Constitution as reformed by Buchanan and Knox in the height of Calvinism that no one that valued the Reputation of his Book among but easie considering Men would have inserted such a Quotation and yet it serves as well as five hundred more do with which his Margin is all along stuffed § XVI THE next Reason given why there is no such thing as Church-Power distinct and apart but is derived from the Crown is because that Erastus his Works were Licensed by Autority and Printed in the days of Queen Elizabeth by John Wolfe the Queens Bookseller and it stands so Entred in the Booksellers-Hall at London to this day De Syned l. 1. c. 10. Pag. 486. to which I answer that every Book Printed by Richard Royston His Majestie 's now Bookseller and Licensed by Autority is not therefore to be necessarily the sense of the Autority of the Kingdom and the same Latitude was in Licensing Books in the days of Queen Elizabeth as has been since and the same liberty taken Nor is it cleer that the Book was really Licensed by Autority from what Mr. Selden says for the Entrance into the Booksellers-Hall only is that it was reported by Mr. Fortescue to be allow'd by the Archbishop of Canterbury 't is not said that the Archbishop's hand or the hand of any other in Autority was set to the License and Books are not usually Entred for the Press upon a Report that they are Licensed but when a Licence is really not to be had and the Bookseller contrives as good a Plea as he can for his false Entry and surreptitious Impression what is added that the Archbishop had the Book in his Study fairly bound and with a Golden Motto on the outside of it will not do because Heretical it was not fit for many other Studies than his and which is the only thing else urged by Mr. Selden that he Licensed it yet admit it was Licensed duly whether by those viri summi of the Ecclesiastical Order and great Statesmen who got the Copy of Erastus his Widow or of
Castelvetrus her second Husband as Mr. Selden suggests or by the Archbishop himself what is necessarily hence to be inferr'd I 'le here again give in the words of our always to be reverenced Mr. Herbert Thorndike of the Laws of the Church Cap. Vlt. Pag. 394. Neither is the Publishing Erastus his Book against Excommunication at London to be drawn into the like Consequence that those who allow'd and procur'd it allow'd the substance of what he maintain'd so long as a sufficient Reason is to be rendred for it otherwise for at such time as the Presbyterian Pretences were so hot under Queen Elizabeth it is no marvel if it was thought to shew England how they prevail'd at home first because he hath advanced such Arguments as are really effectual against them which are not yet nor never will be answered by them though void of the Positive Truth which ought to take place instead of their Mistakes and besides because at such times as Popes did what them listed in England it would have been to the purpose to shew the English how Machiavel observes they were hamper'd at home and for the like Reason when the Geneva Platform was cried up with such Zeal here it was not amiss to shew the World how it was esteem'd under their own Noses in the Cantons and the Palatinate § XVII I am now to shew the concurrency of our Doctors in the Church and who still go along with me and say the same thing that Church Power as such is not from the Civil Magistrate and his supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons infers it not an induction would be too numerous the Particulars being so many I 'le only instance in two the one is Thomas Bilson then Warden of Winchester and afterward Bishop there in his Book entituled The true difference between Christian Subjection and un-christian Rebellion perused and allowed by publick Autority and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and for writing of which he had his Bishoprick the other is Robert Sanderson then the King's Professor at Oxford and after Bishop of Lincolne in his Book called Episcopacie as establed by Law in England not prejudicial to the Regal Power written in the time of the long Parliament by the special Command of King Charles the I. but not published by reason of the Iniquity and Confusion of the Times and since printed and dedicated to our present gracious Soveraign King Charles II. two Divines as they flourished in our Church at a great distance of time from one another so are they at as great distance for their Worth and Merit beyond the generality of the Divines of their times and by which as we have the advantage of their greater Autority as to themselves to which add That they acted herein as publick Persons by Autority appointed to write in the Name of the Church of England and in such Cases Men generally are more careful how they vent their own private Niceties and Conceptions so also have we a farther benefit hereby that this was and is the continued constant Doctrine of our Church and Church-Men from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles II. Bishop Bilson thus speaks part 2d pag. § XVIII 124. printed at Oxford It is one thing who may command for truth and another who shall direct unto truth We say Princes may command for Truth and punish the refusers this no Bishop may challenge but only the Prince that beareth the Sword no Prelate has Autority from Christ to compel private Men much less Princes but only to teach and instruct them these two Points we stand on pag. 125. 126. he tells the Jesuite the Prince is Supreme to establish those things Christ has commanded and so he all along shews it the design of the Oath of Supremacy against the pretended outward Jurisdiction of the Pope claiming as Christ's Vicar on Earth a coercive Power in order to spiritual things over the Persons of all Christians whatsoever whose Subjects soever and in whatsoever Causes even our Kings themselves And that it is no more thence to be inferr'd that Princes because supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes are therefore supreme Judges of Faith Deciders of Controversies Interpreters of Scripture Appointers of Sacraments Devisers of Ceremonies and what not then if it should be inferr'd Princes are supreme Governors in all Corporal things and causes ergo they are supreme Guiders of Grammar Moderators of Logique Directors of Rhetorick Appointers of Musick Prescribers of Medicines Resolvers of all Doubts and Judges of all Matters incident any wayes to reason art or action We confess them to be supreme Governors of their Realms and Dominions and that in all Spiritual things and causes not of all Spiritual things and causes we make them not Governors of the Things themselves but of their Subjects we confess that her Highness is the only Governor of this Realm the Word Governor doth sever the Magistrate from the Minister and sheweth a manifest difference between their Office for Bishops be no Governors of Countries Princes be these bear the Sword to reward and punish those do not pag. 127. They have several Commissions which God signed those to dispense the Word and Sacraments these to prescribe by their Laws and punish by the Sword such as resist them within their Dominions pag. 128. That no Clergy-Man by God's Law can challenge an exemption from earthly Powers pag 129. Princes have full Power to forbid prevent and punish in all their Subjects be they Lay-Men Clerks or Bishops not only Murders Thefts Adulteries Perjuries and such like Breaches of the second table but also Schisms Heresies Idolatries and all other Offences against the first Table pertaining only to the Service of God and Matters of Religion pag. 130. as the Kings of Israel did who are the Christian Princes example pag. 132. and it is the duty of Christian Kings to compel from Heresies and Schisms to the confession of the truth consent of Prayer and Communion of the Lord's Table to compel Hereticks and Schismaticks to repress Schism and Heresie with their princely Power which they receive from above chiefly to maintain God's glory by the causing the Bands of Virtue to be preserved in the Church and the Rules of Faith observed pag. 133. this is the Prince's charge to see the Law of God fully executed his Son rightly served his Spouse safely nursed his House timely filled his Enemies duely punished and he tells the Jesuite if he grants this he will ask no more And these the causes and things that be Spiritual as well as Temporal the Princes power and charge doth reach unto or in the words of St. Austin that Princes may command that which is good and prohibit that which is evil within their Kingdoms not in Civil Affairs only but in Matters that concern divine Religion Cont. Crescon l. 3. c. 51. pag. 134. to page 145. and this or power of the like nature was what was claimed and used in causes Ecclesiastical which
much as it is defended with his Epistles doth not seem to be any of the most probable cap. 6. Sect. 16. I have heard I confess of Doctor Owen's Preface to his Book of Perseverance and then to be sure he is with abundance of honor his second and to omit the other ill Adventures in that unlucky Book of particular Forms of Church-Government and which savour too much of Robert Parker's musty Vessel the Doctor is beyond measure unfortunate who having by a notorious Mistake urg'd the Autority of our whole Church representative in King Edward VI day 's to avouch his most false Assertion That Episcopacy is not necessary and immutable That the King's Majesty may appoint Bishops or not appoint them or appoint other Officers for the Government of the Church cap. 8. When he goes on further to prove this by the particular Autorities of our Doctors since as Whitgift Cozius Whitgift's Chancellor Lowe Hooker Bridges c. he is if possible more unlucky yet and his Mistake more shameful he not only transcribes every Quotation out of Parker's second Book De politeia Ecclesiastica cap. 39.42 and the very Book Page Chapter Section and Figures stand all in Parker's Margin as they are wrote in his Book and which is no great Matter but and which is the harder Fate he urges and appeals to them as his Autority that Episcopacy is mutable and of but humane assignation and which thing Parker all along there owns and declares was not these Doctors Opinions he upbraids and taunts them for asserting the contrary as contradicting themselves and putting Cheats upon others because they believe Bishops by divine Right and perpetually obliging 't is his Objection upon them that their own Principles will not bear them out in it This is the case these Doctors assert over and over again as they must do if agreeing with our Church and their own Subscriptions that the Scriptures are not a full and perfect Rule for Discipline and Government and there is still a Power in the Church to make Laws as occasion offers even to vary from Examples of Discipline and Government which has there been practised Parker thinks he has the advantage and concludes upon them that then the Government by Bishops is changeable also and which is sounded only on Scripture Example and who reply that though they can make Laws in some Cases and alter them as occasion yet in all they cannot though some Examples in Scripture do not yet others do necessarily oblige and the Examples they produce necessarily obliging are these Imposition of Hands in Ordinations that to impose Hands is appropriated to Bishops as the Apostles Successors The observation of the Lord's-Day The institution of Metropolitans c. and this very account Parker himself gives us as to these Instances and all which will readily appear to any one that reads over Parker l. 2. cap. 39 40 41 42. particularly cap. 42. Sect. 8. 9. and that consults farther than Titles and Margins And that this Power of making Canons and Laws for the Government and Discipline of the Church is one of the main Foundations of the Hierarchy and therefore Parker sets himself with might and main to oppose it This will be yielded to Doctor Stillingfleet 't was this alone by which the Courts Ecclesiastical kept them within some moderate Bounds nor did they break out into Rebellion and Schism till that Power was abated in the execution and which made the Bishops so odious to them but that Episcopacy it self is as Arbitrary in its original and occasionally only as are many Church Laws and in the Power of any order of Persons or any Person now upon Earth to alter or confirm it This Parker by arguing would willingly infer upon these Doctors from their own Principles but acknowledges they did not own contrary to their Principles this Dr. Stillingfleet every ways mistakes and reports out of Parker's ill gathered Conclusion and Objection as their both Principles Practice and so every ways defames them and I shall only propose it to the Doctors consideration whether some satisfaction may not ought not to be required of him for the injury he has done to so many Worthies of our Church hereby I can assure him it has been long expected and if it be not done suddenly he may believe the World ere it be much older will be particularly disinformed at present I shall return to those Doctors mentioned in the beginning of this Section and who are not yet freed from the Contumelies laid on them by Parker as these are from his though I do not question but I shall equally vindicate both § XXVI IT is an easie thing to make any Man 's Writing in a plausible shew to run thwart to and contradict themselves the occasion and Circumstances not considered and if particular Occurrencies be not abated for the worst of Heresies will thus shelter themselves under the best Autorities How largely and frequently do the Ancient Fathers of the Church speak of the Powers and excellence of Nature and Reason when disputing against the Gentiles when Apologizing for and recommending to them the Christian Religion Justin Martyr Apol. 2. goes so far as to say the wiser sort of the Greeks were Christians such as Socrates Heraclitus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because living up to the Rules of Reason but must not those be wide Arguings that say and some have said it the Fathers thought the use of Reason alone able to direct and assist us for Heaven when 't is the coming of Christ in the Flesh his additional super-natural Revelations of Grace and Truth those farther discoveries and assistances to Mankind is the occasion and general subject of their Writings and a belief of which is that they endeavor to bring the Greeks unto to make evident and rational to all Men when 't was only the particular application of an Argument they aim'd at and in the design is most true that every one so far as truly rational he is Christian Christianity is no new thing nor strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever pursues Justice and Honesty and other commendable Actions suited to the universal eternal Rules of Nature is acceptable to God by this both the Jews under the Law and the Patriarchs and holy Men from the first Creation through the knowledg of Christ were saved as Justin Martyr disputes cum Tryphone Judeo and Eusebius has a whole Chapter to this purpose Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 4. Every one that is read in that History knows that the great cry of the Arians against the Council of Nice was they were Innovators and a licentious Pen has of late managed and pursued it afresh Sandius hist Enucleata as using Words and bringing in Doctrines which were not either in Scripture or in the Writings and Determinations of the ancient Doctors of the Church when asserting and explaining the one substance or eternal Generation of the Son of God which though it