by him and their Religion was allow'd after their own manner again The meaning of which can be only this that the Laws of the Empire gave License and Indempnity to their Persons in the ancient and accustomed exercise of it and which they accepted and were thankful for But does it hence follow that they acknowledged and return'd their Original Right either for their Worship in general or Excommunication in particular in and to Caesar and that they ceased to have any because denied by the Empire surely not they only were more streightned in its exercise when under his interdict Nor had they less right or stood they less bound to its Obligations in every respect when this liberty was not conceded under their Vassalage and though the Empire own'd them not even at this very time i. e. during their Captivity Mr. Selden says they assumed this Discipline of Excommunication or a naked Exclusion from outward Communion by consent among themselves the better to keep up and preserve this their Religion when so suppress'd by the Civil Power Ibid. suprà Cap. 7. pag. 141. 143. alibi as they would not this day in England or in what other Countries they are dispersed therefore forego such their Right should the present Government distress and frown upon them Nor do I know any one case or instance coming up nearer to the state of the Power and Right of the Prince in Ecclesiasticks and the Right of the Church Absolute too and Independent than this of the Jews under the Empire their Religion is from another Fountain and the Empire does not derive it unto them and Gallio the Secular Deputy could discharge his Duty without caring for any of these things when the Matters were purely of their Laws and Customs but yet their Persons and the Publick exercise of it are subject to this Government and Jurisdiction to limit or enlarge indulge or recall as may be the Reasons and Motives and is his Will and Pleasure Thus it stood with the Jewish Church in the days of our Saviour in the Flesh and of his Apostles and so it is to this day where the Association or imbodying is continued nor did the Empire conceive its Power any ways intrenched upon or abated thereby did he cease upon the account of their Worship to continue to them his Protection or had they any ingagement to withdraw their Obedience only those uncircumcised in Hearts and Ears which always resisted the Holy Ghost and Crucified the Lord of Life sometimes attempted Insurrections and Rebellions against him BUT however it was with the Heathen § XXIII Emperors in respect of the Jews Mr. Selden positively says it that the Christian Emperors did actually exercise the censures of the Church judicially Anathematize and Excommunicate in their own Persons and Rights he having first swollen up himself with an Opinion and a true one too true it is that himself is the great Searcher of Records and Authors and Laws of the Books and Practice of all Ages and if the mighty the laborious Selden has said it it must be so there can be no doubt of there needs no other search after it otherwise he could never have ventur'd to obtrude it on the world as out of the Imperial Code that Princes have so Excommunicated whose Laws Declarations Practice Positive Assertions and Dogmatical Resolutions are quite another ways as I have already made it appear in these foregoing Pages which Collection and Citations if any one distrust let but himself peruse the particulars with much more that might be added out of the Nomocanon Church-story and Primitive Fathers concurring with and giving strength to such the Relations and the Grounds he delivers it from is such that a Man may swear 't was his bloated conceit of his Name at the Fount like gild to the Pills possessed with as aery a Phancy that any thing would down of his wrapping up in the following Pages could engage him to it I confess could any one have found such things out none likelier than he his Zeal and Industry being singular I wish his Integrity had been so too he seldom missing of any thing within the compass of his designed subject that may be any ways useful to his present Plot and Enquiry had he as little fail'd in his use and applying of them The places he produces for Evidence in his Treatise De Synedriis lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 318. is out of the Sixteenth Code Theodosian Tit. 5. Lex 6. where Gratianus Valentinianus and Theodosius thus give the charge to Eutropius not Hesperius as he That all Hereticks especially such as oppose the Nicene Faith Ab omnium summoti Ecclesiarum limine penitus arceantur communione Sanctorum inhibentur c. with others to the same purpose in the following Laws both here and in the Justinian Code That Justinian oft in his own Name thus speaks Anathematizamus Anathematizentur sub Excommunicatione fiet c. and which are to be found Code lib. 1. That such be not suffer'd to come into the Church be inhibited the Communion of Saints we do anathematize them Let him be Anathematized let him be under Excommunication c. by which all that can be meant is only this and which is the Province of every good Christian Governor to see that the Laws of the Church be duly put in Execution that the royal Will and Pleasure is it should be so the Laws and Canons of the Church the Rule of Faith to be believed and adhered to requiring it and to which his Imperial concurrence is annexed which he confirms and strengthens by his Autority and will stand by in the Execution as 't is explain'd Novel 42. and that is to be his sense if the Codes may interpret themselves which is much more proper than for Selden to do it it being there most certain that the judicial Act was from the Church and Phrases must be interpreted according to the present Subject and designed Matter and no more is meant then that Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Sword the stubborn and evil doers as 't is expressed in our Seven and thirtieth Article and he himself confesses unawares in the next lines having a Quotation to bring in and cannot either omit it or tell where else to do it That they only simply judged them cursed of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Georgick Laws and that their design was they should be notabiles and marked out for it by whose act and judicial Sentence 't is not express'd And what he brings out of the Hundred and three and twentieth Novel cap. 11. and Photius his Nomocanon 9.9 to prove it the Act of the Empire is quite another thing and none but he arrived to that strange Presumption as to
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
more private her Majesty declares in Parliament this very same thing in her first year Cap. 1. Sect. 14. Provided also that the Oath expressed in the said Act made in the first year shall be taken and expounded in such Form as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queens Majesties Injunctions Published in the first year of her Majesties Reign that is to say To confess and acknowledge in her Majesty her Heirs and Successors none other Autority than that was challenged and lately used by the noble King Henry VIII and King Edward the VI. as in the said Admonition more plainly may appear § XI KING James who is next comes up to the same Point and in his Proclamation before the Articles of Religion thus declares That We are the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and if any difference arise about the external Polity concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever thereunto belonging the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal so to do We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions provided that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs of this Land That out of Our Princely Duty and Care the Churchmen may do the Work that is proper for them the Bishops and Clergy from time to time in Convocation have leave to do what is necessary to the settling the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church SO that I think no more need be said to § XII satisfie any reasonable Person that the King and the Church are two distinct Powers in the sense of the Statute Book or in Parliament Language nor do our Kings interpose in Religious Matters any otherways than to make Religion Law what the Church in Convocation determines and recommends as the Tradition of Faith as agreeing to the Holy Scriptures and the Collections of the Ancient Fathers and Holy Bishops therefrom and to the guarding it with Penalties to be inflicted on such as oppose and violate it just as the first Christian Emperors did Nor can our Religion since the Reformation be any otherwaies called a Parliament Religion then it might have been called so before where the same Secular Power is equally extended and executed as in case of the Lollards certain supposed Hereticks Subverting the Christian Faith the Law of God and the Church and Realm to the extirpating of them and taking care that they be punished by the Ordinaries II. Henry V. Cap. VIII and so before IV. Henry IV. Cap. XV. where the Laws are these None shall Preach without the License of the Diocesane of the same place None shall Preach or Write any Book contrary to the Catholick Faith or the Determination of the Holy Church None shall make any Conventicles of such Sects and wicked Doctrines nor shall favour such Preachers Every Ordinary may Convent before him and Imprison any Person suspected of Heresie An obstinate Heretick shall be burnt before the People And VI. Richard II. Cap. V. Commissions are directed to Sheriffs and others to apprehend such as be certified by the Prelates to be Preachers of Heresies their Fautors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in strong Prison until they justifie themselves according to the Laws of Holy Church And which is more remarkable in the II. and III. of this King Cap. VI. the choice or Pope Vrban is made Law and confirmed in Parliament and 't is by them Commanded that he be accepted and obey'd But does the Pope of Rome therefore return and owe his Autority to the Parliament of England how would they of Rome scorn such a thing if but insinuated and yet the Act of Parliament was in its design acceptable and advantageous to them they had the Civil Autority thereby to back and assist them as occasion and which might work that Submission to the present Election his Holinesse's Bulls could not do at least so readily and effectually That this Nation did always understand the outward Policy of the Church or Government of it in foro exteriori to depend upon the Prince a learned Gentleman late of the County of Kent Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet has given a very satisfactory account to them that will receive any in his Historical Vindication of the Church of England in Point of Schism c. Cap. 5. practised by the best of Kings before the Conquest Ina Canutus Edward the Confessor whose Praises are upon Record in the Romanists account of them and the last a Canonized Saint and to which they were often supplicated by the most Holy Bishops Upon the same Grounds are we to laugh at their Folly or Madness or rather Malice when they taunt us with a Parliament-Religion which has only the benefit of the Government for its Protection and our Kings do but that Duty is laid upon them by St. Paul take care that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty Christianity it self ever since Constantine's time may be as well reproach'd that it was Imperial or which is in effect the same Parliamental Since the Empire was Christian and defended it nay while it was Heathen for some particular Emperors upon some occasions have adhered to and protected it and that it had no other bottom than Reasons of State and a worldly Complyance and the lewd Pen of Baxter in his Prophaner History of Bishops c. Cap. 1. Sect. 37. gives the same account of the Church's increase under Constantine on the score of Temporal Immunities That a Murderer that was to be hang'd if a Christian was but to be kept from the Sacrament and do some confessing Penance c. for those Governors then assum'd the same Power in Religious Matters as have done our Kings since the Reformation as must appear to him that compares the two Codes Novels and Constitutions at large or if hee 'l not take that pains the Abridgment is made above with our Statute Book both which only take care that the Religion receiv'd and own'd in the Church and by Churchmen be protected and every Man in his station do his Duty in order to it if the common words in the Statutes carry the usual common sense and are to be apprehended by him that is not a common Lawyer and which the Author of these Papers does not pretend to be § XIII ONLY Mr. Selden inrodes us here again and comes quite cross too against us he tells the World other things That Excommunication in particular and then they may as well do all the rest is what belongs to the Parliament and which has actually Excommunicated and the Bishops are impower'd only by Parliament to proceed in the like censures and but by a Derivation from both Houses he says in plain terms that all Power and Jurisdiction usually call'd Church Power and Jurisdiction is originally and immediately from the Secular and this he thinks he has demonstrated from several Acts of Parliament to this purpose
penè Voce Amen Cantatur Halelujah That Amen which is answer'd and Halelujah which is Sung with one almost Voice throughout so many Nations Lib. 2. adv Literas Petiliani Donatistae super Gestis cum Emerito Episcopo So Athanasius in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How Decent and Holy is it to hear in the House built for Prayer the People say Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one sound and consent there mentioned Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere Semet invicem saying a Hymn to Christ as God in courses with one another As Pliny lib. 10. Ep. 97. and is referr'd to by Tertullian in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Singing back again to one another in St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praying betwixt one another Ep. 63. Ad Clericos Neocesariensis Ecclesiae in amoibeunis and alternate Responses The Priest Parat mentes fratrum dicendo sursum Corda ut dum respondit Plebs habemus ad Dominum As St Cyprian upon the Lord's Prayer preparing the Minds of his Brethren saying Lift up your hearts and the People answering We lift them up to the Lord this the great and common constant Service of the Church of God The usual manner of old in the Performance of it and an earlier Pattern we have yet as to the Substance of it So soon as we meet with a Church gathered the Holy Ghost descended and those Thousands Converted by St. Peter Acts 7. he there opens to them the Scriptures they receive the Word and are Baptized they go on and continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and Prayer attend the Holy Communion Praising God Poetically extolling of him And thus became Peter in the letter of it a Rock a first Stone or principal Pillar in the Church or People of God § XVII BUT then besides their Publick Worship of God did this Union into one Body or Corporation farther express and oblige the Members in their Duties and Services to one another in the Supplies and Assistances of all its Members whose either special Offices and Imployments in the Service and Support of the Church Body or Association rendred uncapable of undergoing the Cares and Offices of the World for the providing themselves sustenance suitable to their Office and Quality in the Trades and Imployments of it for the Body of Christians though a Collection and Incorporation for Heaven yet is to remain its due time and abode upon Earth and to subsist whil'st on Earth by the usual and lawful courses of it it does not therefore immediately receive Food from Heaven or else whose unavoidable Want and Poverty by the unaccountable disposal of things and the many Contingencies of this mutable state here lays before them in their Streets and High-ways in the rode to this Jerusalem also as Objects of Pity and Commiseration Relief and Charity for their Saviour has told them That the Poor you must always have with you and to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven And this is to be done and is the general Duty of the whole Body and each Christian there in particular not only by the tenure of the special Charter from God and it is imply'd and made up and required in the Donation it self but by the common course and Laws of things no Body can subsist without it it must run to Decay Degeneracy and Contempt either through want of Instruction Order and Government on the one hand or by Idleness Destitution and Distress on the other and those weighty Reasons and Motives which engaged freely of their own choice no outward force compelling as in the Associations of the World in order to Governance and Subsistency to unite in God's Service it then necessitates that such ways and means be used here as in the sustaining other Societies and this upon the same Consideration and Motive as they believe it useful to be of such the Association and in Communion with one another especially where the force of the World enjoyns no other Provision as it did not till the Government became Christian and the World came in to the Support of the Church for which our Saviour did and must in reason provide upon failure otherwise Religion can no longer subsist then as the civil Empire pleaseth § XVIII AND first this general Care always extended and was made for such as labour'd among them in the Word and Doctrine such as attended the Altar and ministred in Holy Things and this not only to the maintaining their Persons but to the maintaining them in order to their Function and consequently in supplying them with all Utensils and whatsoever else was then thought necessary for the due and more solemn Performance of the Worship of God and the maintenance of his Service This is that St. Paul so much Pleads for and with so great earnestness and weight of Argument 1 Cor. 9.1 2 3 4 c. and tells them plainly That if he be an Apostle as he most certainly is to them who are the Seal of his Apostleship in the Lord then he hath a right to their Estates Have we not Power to eat and drink Have we not Power to lead about a Sister or Wife and to forbear working Who goeth to warfare at any time at his own Charges Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the Fruit thereof or who feedeth a Flock and eateth not of the Fruit of the Flock Do ye not know that they that minister about Holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are Partakers with the Altar So hath the Lord ordained that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And this the Church-men had not as Stipendiaries and Salary-men but the Believers brought in of their Goods and laid them at the Apostles feet which made a Common Stock or Bank to be at their Prudence in the disposal call'd the Lord's Goods and in relation to this Common Stock or Bank in the hands of the Apostles in which every Christian upon occasion had a right it is said That all things were common among these first Christians in the Book of the Acts for that no one had Property besides cannot be believed and the fault of Ananias and Sapphira was not that they did not bring all they had and lay it at the Apostles feet reserved nothing of their Estate to themselves but this was their guilt they kept part back and said it was the whole their lying to the Holy Ghost otherwise it was their own and they might have reserved to themselves what of it they pleased Now these common Gifts and common Purse as it was first intrusted with the Apostles so upon their failure did the trust descend and remain with the Bishops their Successors who distributed to the Necessities both of Churches and Church-men their Officers and Attendants as occasion required a competent Portion whereof was set apart and reputed their own Persoanl Goods
Laws for them to be left off God hath appointed his Laws wherein his Pleasure is to be honoured His Pleasure is also That all mens Laws not being contrary unto his Laws shall be obeyed and kept as good and necessary for every Common-wealth but not as things wherein principally his honour resteth and all Civil and Mans Laws either be or should be made to bring Men better to keep God's Laws that consequently or followingly God should be the better honoured by them Part 2. Of the Sermon of the right Vse of the Church And according to this Example of our Saviour in the Primitive Church whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple which was most Holy and Godly and in the which due Discipline with severity was used against the wicked open Offenders were not suffered once to enter into the House of the Lord nor admitted to Common Prayer and the Use of the Holy Sacraments with other true Christians until they had done open Penance before the whole Church and this was practised not only upon mean Persons but also upon the Rich Noble and Mighty Persons Yea upon Theodosius that Puissant and Mighty Emperor whom for committing a grievous and wilful Murder St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain reproved sharply and 't is in the Margin he was only dehorted from receiving the Sacrament until by Repentance he might be better prepared Chrysost did also Excommunicate the said Emperor and brought him to open Penance and they that were so justly exempted and banish'd as it were from the House of the Lord were taken as they be indeed for Men divided and separated from Christ's Church and in most dangerous estate yea as St. Paul saith even given unto Sathan the Devil for a time and their company was shunn'd and avoided of all Godly Men and Women until such time as they by Repentance and publick Penance were reconciled Part 2. Of the Homily of Fasting It is necessary that we make a difference between the Policies of Princes made for the ordering of their Common-weals in provision of things serving to the most sure defence of their Subjects and Countries and between Ecclesiastical Policies in prescribing such Works by which as by secondary means God's Wrath may be pacified and his Mercy purchased An instance of the one is in enjoyning Abstinence from Flesh for the increase of Victuals and the better sustenance of the Poor and the furniture of the Navy the forbearing some piece of licentious Appetite upon the Ordinance of the Prince with the consent of the Wise of the Realm An instance of the other is prescribing a form of Fasting to humble our selves in the sight of Almighty God and which binds the Conscience as to time and occasion and other Circumstances as the Church requires and which has Power to enjoyn or relax as is to be seen in the Homily Each Law of the Kingdom relating to Religion which still suppose whatever is taught and reported enacted and made Law receiv'd and submitted to maintain'd and protested as the Establishments of our Church and State to be bottomed on the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have thence Collected particularly in the four first General Councils or any other General Council 10 Elizabethae Cap. 1. Sect. 36. Nor does our Reformation commence upon any other Grounds than a supposed depravation and defection as to such that first depositum those Rules and Practices depending and with a purpose to restore and reinforce them and did I believe our Church of England not to have followed this Rule did I find her any wayes but swerving from and much rather then if running cross to any one or more of those Primitive Standards designedly erected for the Pillars of Truth the constant Marks and Copies for the practice and adherency of future Ages always obliging for all Church Laws and Practice are not so even of the most Primitive Church even the Laws and Practice Apostolical I would be so far from abetting or closing with such her Autority and Actions that I would immediately go over to and embrace the Rule wherever or if any where to be found in the Isle of Patmos with St. John or in the Cave with Holy Athanasius as not Magistracy and Law so not the Reformed Church of England should be my either fear or obligation to the contrary be the crosser Circumstances whatsoever or wheresoever that attend me could I not joyn with a present visible Church or Body of Believers in the Enjoyment and Profession of it This is only that which as my own Satisfaction so I endeavour to make it others that as Born and Baptized in the Church of England and still in Union with her and my self in particular as a Presbyter there have subscribed to her Articles Canons and Constitutions so 't is to and in that Church which is every ways Primitive and Apostolical and particularly in this instance of Church-Power and that it is so is easily and readily to be demonstrated and which I shall endeavour to do Methodo Synthetica as they speak as it lies in the course of things and actions 1. In the Judgment and by the Determinations of our Church in her conciliary Acts Articles Canons Rubricks in her Book of Ordination c. 2. By the publick Acts and Determinations of the Prince both in Parliament and out of it in his Statutes Injunctions and Proclamations making Law these Antecedent Church Determinations and Autorities preceding 3. From our own particular Doctors in their several Tracts and Writings § III THAT this Power is not any ways supposeable in the People in our Church or Kingdom 't is clear in the form of ordering Deacons and Priests and which is made Law in the Realm where all that the Bishop addresses himself to the People for is this Whether as supposed to be more conversant with them they know any notable Crime they are guilty of and which may render them unfit for the said Holy Function the words of the Bishop are these Brethren if there be any among you that know any Impediment or notable Crime in any of these Persons for which he ought not to be admitted into this Holy Ministry let him come forth in the Name of God and shew what the Crime and Impediment is The People are no more concern'd in Ordinations then as Testimonies of the manners of those who are to be Ordain'd and in which alone they were concern'd of old and in the Articles and Constitutions taking care that fit Men he admitted to Holy Orders what relates to the People and they are to be enquired of is a Testimony of their Conversations and if the Bishop lay hands on suddenly and without due Enquiry and competent Satisfaction and the Person ordained prove unworthy the Orders notwithstanding are valid the Penalty is laid on the Bishop he is to be suspended and to ordain no more for two years Articuli pro clero 1584.
in the Objection the several Acts are these That no one Canon of the Church have the force of a Law but what is appointed by such Inspector of the Canons as he shall name and appoint That no Appeals be made to Rome upon the Penalty and Danger contained and limited in the Act of Provision and Premunire made in the 16th year of King Richard II. That all the Canons not repugnant to the Laws of the Realm or to the Damage of the King's Prerogative Royal are to be used and executed as they were before the making this Act. That no license is to be required from the See of Rome for the Consecrating and Investiture of Bishops That 't is in the King alone to nominate and present them That the Pope has no Power in Spiritual Causes to give Licenses Dispensations Faculties Grants c. all this is to be done at home by our own Bishops and in our own Synods and Councils cap. 21. and this Provision is particularly made Sect. 19. ibid. provided that this Act or any thing or things herein contained shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that your Grace your Nobles and Subjects intend by the same to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any thing concerning the very Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared in Holy Scripture and the Word of God necessary for yours and their Salvation but only to make an Ordinance by Policies necessary and convenient to repress Vice And for good conservation of this Realm in Peace Vnity and Tranquility from Ravine and Spoyl insuing much the old ancient Customes of this Realm in that behalf not minding to seek for any Relief Succor or Remedies for any worldly things and humane Laws in any case of necessity but within this Realm at the hands of your Highness your Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm which have and ought to have an Imperial Power and Autority in the same and not obliged in any worldly Causes to any Superior § VII IN the 26th year of his Reign cap. 1. when declared Supreme Head of the Church of England in Parliament as before recognized by the Clergy the Power he thereby is invested with is also declared viz. To visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all such Errors Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of spiritual Autority or Jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed repressed order'd redressed corrected restrained or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Virtue in Christ's Religion and for the conservation of Vnity Peace and Tranquility of this Realm cap. 14. he appoints the number of suffragan Bishops the Places of their residence and the Arch-Bishop is to consecrate them In the 28th year of his Reign cap. 10. The King may nominate such number of Bishops Sees for Bishops Cathedral Churches and endow them with such Possessions as he will In the 31th year cap. 14. he defends the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrament in but one kind enacts that all Hereticks be burnt and their Goods forfeited that no Priest may marry for Masses Auricular Confession c. in the 34 5. cap. 1. recourse must be had to the Catholick Apostolick Church for the decision of Controversies And therefore all Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of Tindal 's false Translation or comprising any matter of Christian Religion Articles of the Faith or Holy Scripture contrary to the Doctrine set forth sithence Anno Domini 1540. or to be set forth by the King shall be abolished no Printer or Book-seller shall utter any of the said Books no Persons shall play or interlude sing or rhime contrary to the said Doctrine no Person shall retain any English Books or Writings concerning Matter against the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Altar or for the maintenance of the Anabaptists or other Books abolished by the King's Proclamation There shall be no Annotations or Preambles in Bibles or new Testaments in English the Bible shall not be read in English in any Church no Women c. to read the New Testament in English nothing shall be taught contrary to the Kings Injunctions and if any spiritual Person preach teach or maintain any thing contrary to the King's Instructions or Determinations made or to be made and shall thereof be convict he shall for his first Offence recant for his second abjure and bear a fagot for the third he shall be adjudged an Heretick and be burnt and loose all his Goods and Chattels In the 37. year cap. 17. The full Power and Autority he hath by being Supreme Head of the Church of England is To correct punish and repress all manner of Heresies Errors Vices Sins Abuses Idolatries Hypocrises and Superstitions sprung and growing within the same and to exercise all other manner of Jurisdiction called Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Sect. 1. and Sect. 3. 'tis farther added To whom by Holy Scriptures all Authority and Power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of Causes Ecclesiastical and to correct Vice and Sin whatsoever and to all such Persons as his Majesty shall appoint thereunto And so far is all this from deriving to himself and exercising any thing of the Priest-hood that he is totidem verbis declared and reputed only a Lay-Man in the first Section of that Chapter nor do any one of these Instances here produced amount to any more than to the defending and guarding by Laws Truth and punishing and repressing Errors whether in Doctrines or in Manners at least such as are so reputed by the Church and State § VIII 'T IS true and easily observable that just upon the assuming to himself the Title of the supreme Head of the Church there was ground enough for suspition that the Church her self and all her Power was to be laid aside and whereas the reason and end of every particular Parliament before and of each of his till then is still said to be for the honor of God and holy Church and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm 't is abated and said only for the honor of God and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm the benefit of holy Church is in words at least left out and in the room of it is once added to the conservation of the true Doctrine of Christ's Religion As if the design was according to the Models now adayes framed and endeavour'd by private Persons to be set up That the care was to be only of Doctrines in which and in charity and love and abatements to one another the Essence of Church-Unity in general and each Christian with another consists But yet however this so hapned or upon what design either in himself or others 't is certain he abridged not the Church-Men of any one Instance of that Secular worldly Power as that of the supremacie derived unto them is called 25
some Cases of Heresie in the Ordainer 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 5. Lex 12.14.57 Yet amidst these and such like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illegal Ordinations and defective complain'd of by Eusebius which were during the Persecution of Dioclesian in his twelfth Chapter De Martyribus Palestinae and against which the Church still provided for the future there is no one Caution concerning Ordinations by the People such a thing being never presumed and attempted nor is there any one instance of but voiding any one Ordination that was made without their but Votes and Hands lift up and concurring in order to it and which certainly there would have been had the Church adjudg'd their pre-elections or concurrency so necessary especially upon so many failures as David Blondel acknowledges there were one of which was enough to have awakened the Church-Governors to alike care they used on such Occasions or had she but placed their concurrency with those but Circumstantials of Orders many of which are just now mentioned and the Church there made particular provision relating to them SO that David Blondel's design of a Divine § X and Immutable Right in the defence of which he has took so great pains is only writing in the Dust nor is any one inference due that he has made in order to it 'T is true his Argument is well laid had the Performance been accordingly and the concurrency of ten Centuries immediately upon the Apostles and Scriptures attesting any one Truth or Practice is as authentique and ought to be so received as any Grounds and Motives of Faith can make it to be nor can any thing be required more which can be thought to concur to the making a full perswasion of the Truth under Debate But alas the chief Ingredient for a thorow Tradition is absent Universality it was so neither in all places not at all times nor in any one time or Century of the best and first Ages of the Church in every instance of it but still changed upon accidents often and more upon Industry and Choice and last of all wholly abolished and in good times of the Church without any care or design for a restitution taken even out of the hands of the Magistrate and limited to the Bishops Can. 3. Concil Sept. Gen. Niceae and it may be much questioned whether his Brethren and Friends both in France and Holland and England especially such of them as have took up the Cudgels after him have more reason to be ashamed of his ill Success then to be down-right angry with him for the Way and Method and Grounds he laid for proving the Divine and immutable right of it Surely if this be admitted the disadvantage will be their own in a point of a higher concern if Apostolical Ecclesiastical practice still amount to a Divine immutable Law And indeed it would be of real ill consequence in many considerable cases that would arise in the true Church of Christ for although the matter of Fact be evident it has been receiv'd and practised in the Churches first and best Ages yet it may be a doubt what the Obligation was to them who then receiv'd it and whose practice it was whether as absolute and immutable and consequently how it now reaches us every Truth and Matter of Fact has not the same degree of Necessity in its Nature and Use nor do his Brethren more go against him here than he against himself I might refer to his own Text but the Irenicum has done it before me p. 401. joyning him with Bochart and Amiraldus in the cause of which his Triumvirate as he calls them Blondel is there placed in the head and all to make good that one great Truth by their Autority which is vast and unquestionable and to defend which is the great business of that Treatise of Church-Government nor has that Author as yet declared his Judgment to be otherwise or rather corrected that his first and early Mistake there obtruded on the World to pass a perpetual Sanction upon it That no form of Government or Polity in the Church is immutable though by the Apostles themselves recommended and yet Apostolical practice is here binding and eternal pag. 473. Apol. and the Power of the People is thus transmitted from Heaven as the alone House and Pedegree of its descent and so immutably is it stablish'd that no accident or ill circumstance whatever or with what ill consequences soever foreseen and foreknown no consideration of the Peoples ignorance even duncery it self at eos omnes non modo imperitos sed imperitissimos demus pag. 501. no miscarriages or other seeming inconsistencies are to be considered or can they weigh down against the Eternal antecedent Command either abolish the Power or cease but alter in but one instance the custom and practice of their Votes and Elections to the Office of the Ministry nothing can remain but for common Prudence for all was known at first to our Saviour whence the Apostles received it to the succeeding Church who left no such reserve allow'd not to us nor have we reason to take it ill for they did not to themselves any such Considerations pag. 51 52. and what Exceptions there have been to this first and great Rule as he tells us there was some few arose from the Pride and Usurpations of the Bishops who so soon as they had taken to themselves Titles and Power above the Presbyters they engrossed the Right of Ordaining them and never required the concurrency of the Clergy and the People spurr'd on by Fame and Vain-glory and Secular Interest and that is the reason why there is no Canons express and very few examples of the Peoples choosing Presbyters and Deacons Nor does it in the original right diminish their Power because wrested from them pag. 469 470. and all which is one among the many Fictions and Romances the whole Apology is stuffed withal and every ways like himself who according to his usual good Nature and Malice to the Order it self still lays what dirt he can at the doors of the most eminent Christians the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of Christ not considering or rather not caring what injury the common Christianity thereby receives through the sides of these its known Martyrs and Confessors so be he can but fill up his private Congregation a guilt not easily to be removed from too many of the French Reformation especially from Dailee in his Book of the Use of the Fathers and the abundance of Irreligion in general in these parts of the World ows it self in a great measure to it And to see the unluckiness of it and how his ill Nature returns unavoidably upon himself what he attributes to the Bishops Pride and Arrogancy and Self-interest in assuming and engrossing to themselves a Power which was not theirs that they ordained Presbyters and Deacons without the People and Clergy that the dependency of both might be the surer upon them and certainly
and Complexion of these Men observed already because all the well-setled duly constituted Churches in Christendom do not dissolve and fall in pieces are not framed anew into the accidental necessitous Model of a private French Congregation And surely the contrary to all this is most true there can be nothing more fatal to Christianity than to have a Power of Substitution of the Clergy to their several Charges put into the hands of the People that the Power of Mission and Approbation of such as are to serve at the Altar be taken from the Clergy nothing can reflect more upon the Wisdom of our Saviour as the Law-giver and who has therefore gone quite another way and the Bishops and Pastors are made Guides Inspectors Rulers Teachers of not in Substitution and Deputation from the People nothing can go more cross and contradictory to the Nature of things as that the Sheep should approve of and appoint their Shepheard such as have wholly design'd themselves to the particular Study should be the worst Judges in the Science least know and be able to judge what Persons are sit to propagate and promote their own Profession and all this put into the hands of Novices and Ignaro's who are not who cannot be supposed to have any Skill for inspection into it no more and greater sign of his fastus indomabilis the worst sort of Pride and irrecoverable pertinacy than that such a sort should any ways desire or pretend such a Power or presume themselves sit for it no greater disrepute to Religion than that those which are really least to be esteemed in the Church should thus have Judgment and alone Judgment in the things of the highest concern a Power to canvass against and determine upon the eminentest Professors of it nothing but a degeneracy in Knowledge and Manners the profoundest Ignorance and deepest Immorality can attempt it the whole World must be stupid and sottish lay aside all Sense of relations and dependency be sunk down together below its Orb Suaeque in integrum restitutionis penitùs oblivisci the words of Blondel are proper here lose all Capacities of but remembring what is fit and decent be past all hopes of a restitution and amendment § XV AND surely then that Plea which is thus unreasonable groundless and every ways impertinent for the Power of the People in Eleâ—â—â—â—… and Substituting the Bishop or Presbytâ—â— in their several Stations for the discharâ—e of their Functions will render more contemptible yet another Plea many assume and urge for the Power in the People in the Decisions of Matters of Faith and Determinations and fixing Indifferencies in order to present Peace and Practice And where we know the Laity have Convened with the Clergy as in the first Council of Jerusalem and others since they were still bound up and limited Nor can they but with much less reason challenge any more here than in being present at Elections and Ordinations that upon the personal Hearing and View such as desire it may be satisfied of the justness of all Proceedings that no man should blame them in dispensing that Power they are intrusted with and others to submit unto 2 Cor. 2.20 and most precarious is that of admitting Lay-Elders and their Personal necessary concurrency in the Acts and Execution of Government in the Church certain particular Lay-Persons as sharers with the Pastors in the Jurisdiction the gifts of Knowledge Understanding c. are common to all i. e. none are denied them but such as deny them themselves by their own Negligence and Non-improvement or by a first defect in Nature have them not and a promiscuous admission into Debates and rational Decisions is allowable but Church-Power in the governing judiciary part of it is from without and whoever Claims it must evidence the Devolution and Deputation how they were first brought into the Church and in what Exigence Our Judicious Mr. Hooker relates at large that they have since been set up by Divine Immutable Right shews only what the Projects and Interests and Ambition of Men can wrest and pervert Scripture unto and where something of Mens own is lay'd and design'd for so Schismaticks and Hereticks are defin'd De tuo infers So Tertullian to Apelles Lib. de Carne Christi cap. 7. Marcion suum lib. 4. Advers Marcion cap. 7. Something like truth will be alledged in defence of it and surely there is as little for this as ever was urged in behalf of any Sect whatever the once Zealous Abettors of it in this Church and Kingdom could not themselves believe what they pleaded for with so much shew of Zeal and known Violence and their design was only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is said the Gentiles did against the Christians in Eusebius with clamorous Noises to make a shew of the want of something to make greater the Rupture they contended for Omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate as Optatus has observ'd of their elder Brethren the Donatists Lib. 1. Cont. Parme. to serve not Truth but the present disorder by it and it has the Fate of other inordinate Teachings time makes them cease and wear out Nor is this Platform of Lay-Elders the Palladium they now contend for or in the Catalogue of those Grievances and Imperfections are complain'd of Surely there might be Governments and Helps in the Church and Elders which were no Lay-men and 't is no where said in Scripture they were and as certain it is again there 's no after-practice either Apostolical or of Ten succeeding Centuries in which the perpetual immutable Divine Right of it is to be bottomed as D. Blondel has pleaded for their right of Election and Substitution of such as serve at the Altar but with what Success has already appear'd Besides the ill effect of the Schism in general to the first raising of which and after Promotion it concurr'd This particular ill it occasioned and left among us that the Divines of those Ages in which the Aimers at this Platform of ruling Elders so much strove for it as in the days of Queen Elizabeth especially shew'd their greater just Zeal in exposing those their unreasonable Claims of their Consistories to Summon Kings and Arraign them at pleasure In Ordine ad Deum and in defending the Rights of the Civil Power and were less careful in stating the true Rights of the Christian Church as distinct from the Magistrates Power and which is now to be examined and discoursed in this following Chapter CHAP. II. Chap. 2. The Contents This Power is not in the Prince The Child Jesus is Anointed Lord and Christ with all Power given him in order to Heaven to continue in the Gospel-Priesthood to the end of the World Sect. 1. These two Powers have and may reside again in the same Person are both for the general good of Man Emperors how call'd Apli Epi. Sect. 2. Their particular Power necessarily infer not one another The Priest as such is no more a
ask no Directions receive nothing of Autority from them Nor did this Autority thus limited to themselves cease with their Persons or was it translated and deferr'd to any other than of their own assignation by their own Hands and on their own Deputies and Successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in whose hands and whose alone it was by them left and there remained with a Power so to depute others and with command to be executed accordingly The very same Church Power I say though not in the same particular Circumstances avouch'd and attended in the same outward manner nor in every single act and effusion does it thus remain and is it to be executed upon all for Salvation and as Christ promised to be with them always to the end of the World and this will fully appear from the Church Records commencing where the Scriptures end from the Concessions of Emperors their Laws and Constitutions made in Church Matters SAINT Clemens Romanus an Apostolical § VII Person and one that wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians not long after the Schism in Corinth mentioned by St. Paul tells us That the Apostles being sent from Christ as from God and Preaching the Word of God through the several Regions and Cities made Bishops and Deacons of the elder Christians such as were the first fruit of their labours and whom they first converted being found sufficient in order to the Service of them that should believe to the bringing more into the Fold and reducing them to Christianity St. Ignatius his Contemporary in part in his Epistle to those of Smyrna commands them to follow the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his Epistle to St. Polycarp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they take heed to him as God And again in his Epistle to Smyrna That nothing be done without him in Matters that belong to the Church and Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the meaning is not ill express'd by the additional Pseudo-Ignatius whoever he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Character whatever of their Image and Power God and Christ design'd to devolve and impress upon his Church whether as to the Government or Ministery of it are found in the Bishop He is the Person to whose Faith and Trust the People of God are committed and of whom an account is required of their Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he governs as Head and all Church Power and Business is to be translated within themselves as in the Apostles Canons wdich bear date about this time Can. 34.39 Irenaeus who trode pretty near their heels says that he can reckon up them that were Bishops instituted by the Apostles and their continued Succession to his days Lib. 3. Adv. Haeres cap. 3. Ed. Paris Habemus eos annumerare qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores eorum usque ad nos to whom and only whom the Gospel was committed Sine quibus nullo certitudo veritatis Ibid. And again Episcopis Apostoli tradidere Ecclesias that the Churches of God were committed to and intrusted with them Lib. 5. cap. 20. Origen if possible is plainer and distincter yet and in his Third Book against Celsus in so many express words distinguishes betwixt the Senate in the Church and that in every City Ed. Cantab. p. 129. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so again betwixt the Rulers and Governors of the Church and the Rulers and Governors of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And in his Eighth Book towards the end he declares a different Model 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that of the Empire in every City for which and whose safety and success in his Wars he contends and prays for and which he owns and acknowledges with it a Government framed constituted and erected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word which is God and which Government is the Church whose great King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word and Son of God who has his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Governors still appointed resident and continued there ruling as he hath prescribed according to his own Laws and Dictates the Laws of the Empire being preserved inviolated by them Tertullian as plainly distinguishes betwixt the two Bodies in the Nine and thirtieth Chapter of his Apology against the Gentiles Corpus sumus de Conscientia Religionis Disciplinae unitate Spei foedere we Christians are a Body united in a sense of Religion under a different Discipline as well as hope altogether apart à Ministris corum Potestatibus à statu seculi from their Ministers and Powers and from the state of the World and tells us that Polycarp was made a Bishop in the Church of Smyrna by Saint John in the 23 Chapter of his Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks as also Clement over the Romans he returns to the Chairs of the Apostles which remained till his time in their Succession as the Authors of his Religion and 't is not from the Seat of the Empire but from Corinth and Phillippi from Ephesus and Rome he dates their Power and fetches their derivation Vnde vobis autoritas praestò est whence its rise and devolution And in his Fourth Book against Marcion cap. 5. Ordo tamen Episcoporum ad Originem recensus in Joannem stabit auctorem says that St. John is the Author of the Order of Bishops a Polity and Dispensation all along another thing from that of the Empire flowing from another fountain quite differing from and no ways depending upon it And 't is Tertullian's Argument in his Book De coronâ Militis that a Christian Souldier who fights in the Emperor's Camp and gives him his just Allegiance ought rather to lay down his Arms than wear a Laurel Crown on his Head though a mark of Favour from his Prince because relating too much to a religious Custom among the Ethnicks and he is no where commanded it in Scripture nor is it traditionally delivered to him by the Apostles or Bishops or Governors of the Church either in Precept or in Practice Quomodo enim usurpari quid possit si traditum prius non est quis denique Patriarches quis Prophetes aut Sacerdos aut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis vel denique Apostolus aut Evangelizator aut Episcopus invenitur Coronatus Cap. 9. where though it was his mistake in accounting such a thing Matter of Religion as the wearing a Crown of Laurels upon the Commands of his Prince This is a different thing from that command of Licinius the Tyrant enjoyning all that would remain in his Camp to Sacrifice to Idols as in Eusebius his Church History Lib. 10. cap. 8. and which rather than do Christians ought not only to leave the Camp but lay down their Lives yet upon the mistake and supposure it is plain that he remov'd from the Secular Power all Matters of Religion such was to be received from Christ alone
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flavianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gennadius Evagr. Hist Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 8. lib. 2. cap. 11. lib. 5. cap. 16. So that if things by words are delivered to us which must be since we have not converse with one another as they tell us Angels have or private immediate infusions from God he speaks not to us inarticulately in Sounds and in Dreams as of old we have here the thing contended for in this Discourse viz. a real Autoritative Power in the Church independent equally as in the Empire neither Subordinate to one another The Argument and Evidence is as good as the Story is true and the reception of those Ages or as the truth of Matter of Fact can make it § XIII AND suitably the first and most ancient Councils which are come to our hands of the Christian Church have still owned the Empire and submitted to it in its full Latitude but yet still they reserved and asserted a Power within themselves which was neither derived from nor depended upon it in the execution and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word they still express their Chair by they could make Sanctions and Constitutions oblige and bind the Conscience of themselves and without it the first great Council of Christendome they met indeed in the Name of the Emperor were summon'd by his Writ nor ought they personally and in Bodies collectively to Assemble without it but they acted and decreed in their own Names by their own Power and Autority were all their Synodical Determinations made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the great and first general Council of Nice and was the after-form of the Proceedings of the succeeding Councils which still confirm'd that first solemnly owning and receiving of it It seemed good to the Holy Synod to the Holy Bishops and Fathers there as the immediately following General Council at Constantinople explains it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form but a little abating of that of the Apostles Synod Acts 15. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us and as their Power is distinct so is its Execution in different words and Penalties so as expressed for the most part by none else and in all never executed by any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arceri seu ejici ab Ecclesia à fraternitatis Communione relegari submoneri à limine omni tecto Ecclesiae Sacramento Benedictionis exauctorari Communione interdici abstineri depelli these are the words still expressing the Execution of this Church-Power as they are to be met with up and down in the Greek Councils and Greek and Latine Fathers many of which Mr. Selden has took the pains to Collect to our hands Lib. 1. De Synod Pag. 257. 259. and are to be seen also in an earlier Copy in the first Canon of the Seventh general Council held at Nicea there reckoned up and own'd as bottomed on the Autority of the Apostles Canons and the Six foregoing general Councils And the Bishops have a Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. 5. Concil Anciran 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before in the first Nicene Council Can. 12. of absolving from and removing taking off such their Mulcts laid upon them either in whole or in part or adding farther degrees suitable as their repentance and amendment is perceiv'd and approved or not approved of and this Power asserted in the Church by the great Council of Nice and that of Ancyra is the great instance of the self-existing eminent independent underivable Power that is in the Church of Christ wholly in her self and in none else beside as having Power to punish and relieve to give Sentence and relax in her own breast this is what is not done in the Civil Judicatures where the Judge is in Deputation who cannot correct his Sentence once given make heavier or alleviate it that is only in Soveraign Power as the Lawyers speak but the Bishop can do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Photius Nomocanon Tit. 9. cap. 1. 3. doctas videas nuperas Annotationes in Can. Niceae there was then believed and accounted a first and antecedent Right in the Church to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laws and Rules from which out of Contempt and Opposition there was not allow'd any Appeal to be made to the Empire or Secular Power or Judicatures unless by way of imploring Patronage for a better enquiry as not Canonically executed Can. 6. Concil 2. Gen. Constantinop Can. 107. Concil Carthag and he that proceeds otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not according to the Rules and Laws of the Church is to be cast out of her Communion if a Lay-man if a Presbyter or Deacon he is to be deposed never to be restored again never admitted but to Plead his Cause Conc. Antioch Can. 11 12. and the Clergy-man is not to leave his Bishop in Matters of Strife and go to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Power of the Realm is still call'd the Secular Judges or if he Appeal from his Bishop it may be only when the Case is with the Bishop himself as a Party and he is to appeal to the Provincial Synod or the Metropolitan Exarch or Patriarch Can. 9. Concil Gen. Chalcedon or he may ask and Petition the Emperor that he interpose with his Power over all Persons in all Causes for a farther Enquiry by the Bishop when Justice seems to be not understood or to be denied Can. 107. Conc. Carth. the Sin of Schism is still defined to be when a Presbyter makes a Congregation and makes an Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in despite and contempt of his Bishop Can. 31. Apost and so Can. 6. Concil Gen. Constantinopolit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they unite for Religious Services in opposition to their Bishop and Can. 31. Concil 6th in Trullo and Can. 5. Concil Antioch Can. 10. Concil Carthag 'T is more express If any Presbyter or Deacon contemns his own Bishop separates from the Church and makes a private Congregation and Altar and disobeys farther his Bishops Summons to render him accountable for so doing he is to be deposed and if he perseveres to make farther troubles in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Seditious Person the outward Secular Power is to Chastise him Can. 5. Concil Antioch where we have a thorow distinction of the two Powers with their Offices and the Canon goes before that of the Church is antecedent and therefore when Constantius went to cast some Bishops that were clamorous and contentious out of the Church Eleusius with Sylvanus and others told him That he had Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the outward Punishment what reach'd the Liberties and Advantage of his Person but 't was theirs to judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Piety and Impiety Theodoret. Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 27. § XIV I know it will be here reply'd this was only the Judgment Declaration and Practice of the Churchmen themselves
only Regnante Christo and the Reign of the Empire is left out though it do no ways infer and prove that all Empire is originally in Christ both as to Spirituals and Seculars and that he that is his Succession the Church has the disposal of the Kingdoms of the World too Primarily and Originally in him as some zealous Parasites of the Roman Faith thence it seems have inferr'd and against whom the main Plot of D. Blondel in this his Book is laid and very well yet this it infers and evidently proves That our Saviour and his Succession the Church have been always supposed to have had a Kingdom in the World not to supplant and overturn to usurp and encroach upon but to bless that other of the World to render it Prosperous on Earth and by her holier Laws and Discipline to bring all to the Kingdom of Heaven when the Reign on Earth is at an end But this D. Blondel could not or would not see himself and therefore a thing too usual with him runs into the opposite extreme to his Adversaries is angry when this very Church-Power and its existence of which himself gives so evident a Demonstration is asserted solitary and not in the Empire as no ways flowing and included in its Constitution as the other will have no Empire but from and in the Church so hard a matter is it for some Men to contend for Truth and against the Church of Rome at once and as has above been observed but these Oversights if no worse are usual with him 't is like his ill luck in other cases § XVIII AND he that duly consults and considers the sundry Proceedings and Laws and judiciary Acts of the Empire about Church-Matters either as interspersed in our Church Histories or as Collected and United in the two Codes the Theodosian and Justinian in their several Laws Novels and Constitutions will readily grant all this and more that the Church and State the Worldly or Secular and Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Power were still consider'd reputed and proceeded on as quite distinct Bodies and Powers though both flowing from the same Original and Fountain yet as diverse as the Soul and Body with several Offices and Duties on each incumbent in different Channels convey'd and all aiming at the great and ultimate end the general advantage of Mankind and each individual both with their faces to the same Jerusalem but in several Paths and Determinations judiciary in order to it Hee 'l find that as the Church the Councils and Bishops were ever Conscientious and Industrious that they entrenched not on the Empire withheld not from it what was its due usurped not any thing was not their own paid all manner of Observances to Kings and Secular Governors in all manner of Duties as Prayers Thanksgiving Instructions Directions Admonitions Tribute Loyalty c. So again did the Empire preserve their Functions Persons and Estates give them Liberties Enfranchisements Protestations unless where Apostates as Julian where overmuch favouring Heresies as some time Constantius c. countenanced and provided for Truth and Holiness and sound Discipline according to the Rules Canons Directions Interpretations and Determinations given by the Bishops assembled in Council or occasionally otherways made and recommended unto them the Church still Petitioned and Supplicated the Empire when by the Affronts and Insolencies the greater Impieties and Obstinacies of the World the edge of their Spiritual Sword was dulled and blunted when Coercive outward Punishments alone could hope to prevail for Peace and Amendment of this we have several Instances upon Record as for the deposing Dioscorus in Evagrius his Ecclesiastical History l. 2. c. 4. in placing Proclus in the Episcopal Throne Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 4. which was immediately by Theodosius Maximinianus the defuncts Body being not yet laid in the Ground to prevent the Tumults of the People To this purpose we have the Case of one Cresconius a Bishop who left his own and invaded another's Church and upon a remand from the Council refusing to return the President of the Country is Petitioned and his Secular arm which alone has a Coercive Power over Mens Persons sends him back again according to the Constitutions Imperial Concil Carthag Can. 52. just such another Case as that of Paulus Samosetanus in the days of Aurelian the Emperor above-mentioned and the course of Proceedings we see is the same now as then both in Church and State as that Laws may be made to restrain such as were fled to the Church for refuge Can. 60. that the Riot and Excess be taken away on their Festivals which drew Men to Gentilism again by the obscener Practices and which were without shame and beyond Modesty Can. 65 66. that the Secular Power would come in eò quod Episcoporum autoritas incivitatibus contemnitur because the Power of the Bishops is contemn'd in the Cities Can. 70. ut Ecclesiae opem ferat to assist the Church against these Impieties so strenuous and prevailing Can. 78. as in the Case of the unrulier Donatists Can. 95 96. and the Thanks of the Bishops were given for their Ejection Can. 97. and the Emperor is Petitioned to grant Defensors to the Church Can. 10.109 and as the Church thus supplicated the Empire in these arduous Cases and when its assistance was wanting so on the other side did the Empire still advise with the Church when designing to make Religion the Municipal Law of the Empire to imbody it with the World under the same Sanctions either as to Punishments or Rewards to make it the Religion of the State also they still consulted antecedent Canons or present Bishops in Council or some Ecclesiastical Autority they created nothing anew gave the help of the World for Countenance Assistance and Confirmation to stablish what the Church had put its Sanction upon And those Emperors that designed to discountenance Christianity or set up some particular Heresie and stifle it in part or depose any great Church-men and some such there was they attempted it not but by the Clergy though of their own the Power as in themselves alone was not pretended to they had their own Synods and Bishops in order to it and what they did was done in their Names also and all this will readily appear to any one acquainted with the Canons of the Church and Laws of the Empire or if it seem too hard a task he 'l find it at least attempted to his hand and with Care and Industry reduced to a little room by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Book therefore called the Nomo-Canon to shew the concurrency of the Laws and Canons the Canons still placed first as in course anteceding And in this sense only that of Socrates can be understood in the Proem to his Fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reges viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as Kings began to be Christians the things of the Church were managed and accomplished
great Mercy and Justice of the Empire thus to conserve Mens Liberties not to have them expos'd to the Temporal Punishments which always follow'd and severely too upon Excommunication Nor is it sit that an Action of so great a weight and consequence every ways of so great a concern both as to Body and Soul be altogether Arbitrary at the Pleasure many times Pique of one Man the Prince at this rate has not the Command of his own Subjects and his own Laws may be executed against the interest of his Government Excommunications are only then supposed to have effect Clave non Errante when duly executed according to Church Rules of which the Prince is or ought to be the Conserver no one is supposed to grant Priviledges against himself and as he enstates certain Persons with special Immunities so is he to enquire and to be concern'd as upon the admittance into as in the case of Ordinations just now considered so upon an exclusion from them otherwise his neither Favours nor Punishments are his own and his Power and Government may be weak'ned by it Ne Immunitatis Ecclesiasticae obtentu munia Publica vel nervi Reipublicae conciderent ad clericatum confugientibus iis à quibus munia Publica per Provincias sustinebantur 12. Cod. Theodos Tit. 1.69.104.115 c. which way soever his Subjects may be disabled for the Service of the Empire whether when Priviledges are too lavishly and inconsiderately conferr'd or Exemptions made the reason is one and so is the effect in either and the Prudence and Power of the Empire is to be imply'd alike for Prevention of each and securing the Subject for his own and the Subjects best advantage and consequently both the Censures and Orders of the Church when inflicted and conferr'd are to be under his Inspection If the Empire come in with his Power to assist and strengthen the Church and Religion gains its outward aid and Protection it must be in dependance on such the Power Secular whose Temporal Security is to be consulted and included in the Execution The Plot and Contrivance both of our common Christianity and our common Reason at once do require it and the same I have said above as to the Power of the Empire in all Christian Councils call'd and protected by him But the Emperor all this while is not found to Excommunicate or Absolve in his own Person by his own individual formal Act that is a Power that depends upon another Head is derived by a differing Stream and to a diverse Subject it is not in the force of the Secular Arm nor does the Prince lay a Claim or Pretence unto it Divina primum Vindicta the Divine Vengeance i. e. Excommunication passed first upon the Hereticks inflicted by the Church and then motus animi nostri the Punishments from the Empire those Penalties reckoned up before and in part following Cod. Justinian l. 1. Tit. 1. And the same Emperor some Bishops falling under his Displeasure and adjudged worthy his Animadversion for leaving their Cures and coming up to Constantinople under Pretence of Business about Religion without leave and to the expence of the Church He says he will not lay Pecuniary Mulcts upon them and which was all he could do except Banishments on their Persons but thinks Abstentions to be more proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this is to be done either by the Patriarch of Constantinople himself if he be a Metropolitan that offended or if a Bishop only of a City by such his Metropolitan that he is under and which is no otherwise the work of the Empire then that he urges a due execution Ibid. Cod. Justin l. 1. Tit. 3.43 So again the deposition of a Bishop which is the same as Excommunication to a Lay-man is it made residentibus Sacerdotibus by the Priesthood it self a Synod of Bishops the Emperor only adds his Temporal Penalties as if he accept not such his Deposition but is Seditious and disturbs the Publick Peace he be banish'd an Hundred Miles from that City where he had officiated and which he had infested 't is the particular Punishment of the State 16. Cod. Theodos Lex 35. Tit. 2. the very same we have again Novel 42. Sententia Sacerdotum 't is the Judgment and Sentence of the Priest makes the Deposition the Empires Secular Arm seconds it proceeds to a Banishment of his Person and that his Books be burnt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and original Right being in the Clergy Praefat. Ibid. Cap. 1. and more expresly there Cap. 3. 't is the Appointment of the Emperor that one Zoaras amongst others be anathematized but it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priests Determination must pass upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Churches own inward Autority and derived from none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only the Empire makes it of more Force and Autority that is by a Penal Mulct annexing Banishment unto it as it there follows and so 't is promised for the future whatever are the Church censures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Laws Imperial shall corroborate and strengthen them ibid. and so all along the Church censuring the Empire punishing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epilog ibid. Novel 42. and 't is a Law of Theodosius the younger that the Clergy-man that is unfaithful in his Duty and retain'd Servants at the Altar and gave them refuge to the disadvantage of their Masters be deposed by the Bishop or his Animadversion be made sub Episcopalis jurisdictionis Arbitrio according to his Discretion and when degraded into the Order of a Lay-man Motum judiciarii rigori◠accipiat he be given up to the Civil Magistrate for farther Punishment Cod. 9. Theodos Tit. 45. l. 5. and of which more is to be seen in the Comments of Gothofred there And indeed all the Cautions Rules and Directions given to the Bishops in these instances imply only that they might erre in the execution the Power is all along supposed in the Church nor is it by the Prince attempted as he does not Excommunicate though seeing just reason for it so neither does he absolve upon the unjustest censures denounced wherein one Priest has been defective it has been enjoyn'd another remitted Majori Sacerdoti to a higher Order and Jurisdiction to the Metropolitan or Patriarch as was the Church Custom to appeal to the Superior Novel 123.11 So that we can readily yield to all that jus Caesareum Mr. Selden speaks of De Synedriis l. 1. cap. 8. pag. 223. that Caesarian Power both as to Excommunications and Absolutions And as Mr. Selden explains himself too and allow his own instances in the Jews Pag. 234 235. Caligula Caesar laid an Inhibition upon them and Banished their Persons out of Rome and denied them the exercise of their Religion which latter is the same in effect as Excommunication As he there argues this Inhibition was continued by Claudius Caesar for some time and afterwards quite taken off
believe that every one that reads his Book is sworn to his Name and Words could possibly have produced them The Emperor only there takes care that Excommunication be according to the Church Canons suitably as Ecclesiastici hoc Canones fieri jubent in the Nomocanon the formal Power and Act is always supposed to be in and to be done by the Bishop or Priest if the Bishop or Presbyter Excommunicate otherwise than as the Canons enjoyn the Person so Excommunicated is to be absolved by another Bishop or Presbyter who has the inspection of them à Majore Sacerdote in the Novel and that Bishop or Presbyter that did the wrong is to be censured by the Bishop under whose Inspection or in whose district he is and lye under the Mulct at his Pleasure nor is there one word sounds that way that the Emperor did Excommunicate Nor can the Emperor with any more shew of reason be said to pass the formal Sentence of Excommunication by taking care and making Provision that it be done according to the Laws and Canons of the Church than he can be said to make Articles of Faith and determine in the high Points of the Trinity for which he appoints that the first Council at Nicea shall be the Rule and often enacts and resolves it shall be so explain'd and believed and professed accordingly as in that Council He may as well be said to make Creeds which he enjoyns to be done but by the Patriarchs and Bishops and the particular Faith to be professed by them or to Baptize for which Directions are given especially about Re-baptization and he judges him unfit for the Priesthood that does it Cod. Justinian l. 1. Tit. 6. Ne Baptismus iteretur he may no otherwise be said to Excommunicate than to obstruct Conversion or hinder Repentance and yet 't is the Imperial Edict against and Punishment upon Apostates Nè unquam in Pristinum statum revertentur nè flagitium morum obliterabitur Poenitentiâ Cod. 16. Theodos Tit. 6. l. 1. that they are never to return to their ancient state that the vileness of their Manners be never blotted out by Repentance intimating only the greatness of the Sin and the height of his indignation against them or that he did publickly officiate in his own Person in the daily Sacrifices because he takes care for a just Performance of the publick Liturgies and Services and when he declares against Oaths and Blasphemies that the guilt is not antecedent and from another Sanction Novel 78. and to put an end to these like instances that he Ordains in Person and makes Priests by whom so many Laws and Rules and Limitations and Qualifications are set and appointed as is above to be seen But as for this last instance Mr. Selden has found out so handsom an expedient for the Original of Holy Orders otherways and thereby renders them so accidentally trifling inconsiderable a thing that he answers his aim evacuates and baffles so effectually all Church-Power and indeed upon his Hypothesis so inconsiderable a thing it is that a Church-man would not desire it upon such terms much less is it a Prerogative fit for a King a Jewel for the embellishing the Crown Imperial so that he needs not contend to have this in the Magistrate as he doth the Church Censures He tells us De Synedriis lib. 1. cap. 14. pag. 569 570 571. and lib. 2. cap. 7. pag. 313 314 c. That Holy Orders has no more in it than an imitation of that particular School wherein St. Paul was educated under Gamaliel where it was usual for one that had arrived to a degree of Eminence above others as that of a Doctor to appoint and send out others under and after him And so St. Paul did in the managery of his Apostleship But did our Saviour also take this great Example of Gamaliel's School in his Eye when he sent forth his Twelve and Seventy or was it from his particular Education in some such place he took his Autority and Platform or did the Holy Ghost do the lâ—ke when placing Overseers in that Church which Christ had Purchased with his own Blood was not as the Purchase that of his own Blood so the Power by which he gathered and established it that All Power in Heaven and Earth first given unto him peculiar and extraordinary or did St. Paul himself say it was from Gamaliel's School or from the Will of any Man or from the Will of God he received his Apostleship himself and thereby had a Power to depute others as Timothy and Titus And surely unless his bare fiction of Story and Eutopian Plot must go for Truth and without any search and enquiry there can be nought in it to engage any assent or adherency unto it it is so precarious a begg'd thing that only those that deserve to be begg'd themselves can believe it and Mr. Selden doubtless pleased himself mightily to think how many fools it would meet with and he was sure of others of as ill a mind and design with himself to tread under foot the Ministry when it was down that it rise no more especially at that time when he wrote at least laid the contrivance of those his Tracts De Synedriis when the Sword of the Libertine alone bore rule and he took the advantage of it Nor has any one reason to believe that he bore better Will to the King than to the Church for he was a Member of that Rebellious Parliament of Forty Two and continued actually amidst them and bore a special sway in their Traiterous Actings and however his Pretence was That all Church-Power as from Christ was an Imposture and invading the Prerogative of the Crown it was in reality only to serve his Parliamentary Designs to take away the chief Support of the Crown that Church which mostly upheld it and 't was a sadder Sight yet to see it not only the usual fate of common Subjects but the Case of the greatest Prince then in Europe to be first stript of his Crown and Kingly Power to be made and publish'd a Bankrupt in the State lost as to his worldly Imployments and then made a Priest to have only the Power and Benefit of his Clergy remaining in and confirm'd unto him § XXIV THE sum of all is this The Empire it self never made any thing Law that related to the Church but what was first made Canon by the Church it self and those Powers always took their Direction from Church-men either in full Council or from the Practice of particular Churches or eminent Bishops of the Christian World and superadded their own Sanctions put under it their Secular Arm adjoyn'd their Autority to support and stablish them all those Directions to the several Patriarchs Exarchs Primates and Metropolitans were only to see their own Results at Councils practiced all the Edicts Laws Novels and Constitutions were first Church-Law and then the Law of the Empire receiv'd into the World and imbodied
help it Sure it is they both acknowledged and abetted this very Church-Power and saw not these killing Consequents were aware of no such destroying aim upon themselves thought the Power of the Empire not one whit the less or their Persons to receive any abatement by it and yet Men of reputed Fame and Renown for all manner of Wisdom and Prowess in their Generations nor would they actually forego or but endure a lessening discourse of their Prerogative and particularly their Care and Provision in respect of Church-men was great and Eminent that no Damage return to the Crown upon any Pleas of Exemptions or Priviledges derived from them How severe they were in limiting them in their Ordinations we have already observed that by any Excessive Practice of that special Power acknowledged in the Bishops alone and still remov'd from themselves the State might not be weakned it being it seems too usual for Men of great Fortunes and sufficient Abilities otherways to Serve their Prince in his Wars or other Secular Imployments to come into the Church and receive Holy Orders only to exempt themselves for the advantage of those Freedoms and Immunities invested in the Clergy to crowd under the Church's Protection for Ease and Idleness And therefore the Bishops were forbad to Consecrate any such Persons and many other such like Restrictions are to be seen in the Imperial Laws and Constitutions I 'le instance in one or two of them As that the Jews when Criminal and under bad Circumstances turn'd Christians only for Favour and an easier discharge in the Courts of Justice were not to be received into the Church nor imbodied among the Christians Nor Servants and Debtors which fled to the Altar to avoid their Masters and Creditors and the Clergy that received them were first to be deposed and then to be delivered over to the Civil Power for farther Punishment Cod. 9. Theodos l. l. 1 2 3 4 5. And surely the Empire that was so Industrious and Vigilant to preserve from Church-incroachments such the Accessories of their Power and Government that the meanest of their Subjects be not oppressed by any such Plea or Charter much greater must be their severity upon that Body or Community if suspected in the Make and Constitution to strike at the Original Power it self to lay Limits and farther inconveniencies upon their own Persons and Actions to wrest the Government it self out of their hands to Countermand and Supersede with their Canons the most Sacred and Solemn of their Sanctions and Determinations And though Clergy-men as to every particular Person or some lesser Collection of them may not be altogether Innocent as to some attempts and incroachments upon the State through Zeal ill guided or incogitancy or some particular designed interest for who Pleads that they are all exempted from all faults and suitably strict Provision was made by the Imperial Laws to prevent or restrain or punish yet no one Law or but Provision was made that we read of against the Body of Christians themselves unless by the Heathen Power designing an Extirpation or their Power and Government as from Christ because not under such a Suspition its frame and make was such as designed for the Support but no ways for the Injury of the Empire The best and wisest of Emperors at the same time that they write to the Patriarchs and Bishops of the Church as its Supreme and Universal Governors and own'd and remonstrated their Power as from Christ Jesus alone yet reserved among their own Titles that of Pontifex Maximus the chief Priest as Mr. Selden according to his usual Industry has Collected several Inscriptions of theirs to this purpose lib. 1. De Syned c. 10. and by which Title if they meant the same he would have them to have done as it matters not now to inquire since the Church and Empire still gave and allow'd one another these Compellations interchangeably the Inference is strong on our side that they were not conceived to carry and imply any thwarting or opposition to one another and upon what account soever Julian the Emperor was so obliged by and tenacious of the Title we have reason to believe he did it not on this account to affront in others and ingross to himself Church-Power Antistes legis Christinae being the Title also in his days of the Bishop and so Bishops are still occasionally call'd by Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen Historian of his time whose History is mostly made up of his Actions and Praises and may not amiss be called his Parasite as well as Historian nor can he be thought to give that to Church-men which in its execution carries so great an Opposition to the Prerogative of his admired Master But that which comes nearer is this when the Emperors submitted to the Laws of the Church as from God himself made them their Rule for their civil Sanctions disdained not to follow them gave them every Eulogy or Character that might declare them of an Heavenly stamp a Divine race and infusion as I have already shew'd yet did they not believe their own Laws and Sanctions the less from God by reason of it or of a lower Institution and suitably still expressed themselves in the Heads of their Laws the Forms and Preambles of their Constitutions in these following manners Quem ex coelesti Arbitrio sumpserimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justinian Code l. 1. Tit. 1.1.3 The Laws themselves are called Oracula Sacra absolute And then again Leges Sacrae Sanctio sacra Sacratissima Sacratissimae leges Judicium Sacrum Praeceptio Sacra Praeceptum Sacrum Sacrae literae Sanctionibus Consecratae Oraculum Coeleste Divales Sanctiones Divina Precepta Divino arbitrio Decreta Divalia Beneficia Divale Praeceptum Lex Divalis Divalia Scita Divalia Statuta all which and more he that will not Peruse in the several Laws may read at once Collected to his hand by the Excellent Jacob Gothofred 1. Cod. Theodos Tit. 1. Paratitlon Tit. 2. Paratitlon Hereby declaring the Laws both of the Church and Empire to come alike from God and to be equally Heavenly although by differing conveyances upon Persons of different Orders for particular diverse ends but both uniting in and serving the great End the Universal Good and Directions and Government of Mankind and yet each one to act in and keep its Sphere and Order and so independent and the Objection was not raised in those days just now recited nor was any thing like a thwarting suspected and which is now contended for nor indeed can their hitting and justling be otherwise supposed than can that be of the Orbs or that Dissonancy of the Spheres talked of the one or both must become Eccentrick be Perverse and Irregular the whole Universe be untuned in disorder and suffer by it as our own Experience has been a great Evidence of late and whether has lost more by it the King or the Priest is not easily determined though the Pretence was on
World before but what was sensible outward and coercive and all Gospel-Power must be such or none a Plea to what is otherwise is a Cheat and Imposture And in answer to which I must here repeat in part what I have said in the beginning of the Third Chapter of this Treatise upon another occasion § XI THAT the Church is a Body but of a quite differing Nature a various Design and Constitution for another purpose according to that eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3.11 a Body but the Body of Christ framed and fitted alone according to the fulness of the measure of his Stature his Body which is the Church Eph. 5.23 an Association of People incorporated and united under him their Head in one Spirit one Lord one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4.4 5. growing up into him in all things who is the head even Christ Ephes 4.15 a Body that is to be visible subject to outward sense but 't is by an Holy Life and Religious Conversation that which Men are to see is their good works and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven and all grants to its Officers Power Means Ordinances are only in order hereunto the only change here design'd is the change of our vile Bodies that they may be like unto Christ's glorious Body according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself A Lordship there is but not over Kings and Scepters 't is Death and Sin Christ Jesus treads under his Feet only He is the Lord of the Sabbath invested with all Power in Heaven and Earth relating to God's Worship and Service his Adoration and Homage to appoint stablish and fix as he pleases for ever A BODY or Corporation with its different § XII Organs Parts and Members the Eye to see the Ear to hear and the Foot to walk with Parts more and less Honorable with diverse Gifts and Graces according to the measure of the Gift of Christ some to Govern others to Obey some to Preside others to Submit and be ruled by them Some of which Governors were to remain only for a time others to continue for ever as the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons Orders of Men instituted and invested by Christ not with an improper as some speak with abatement but with a true real Praefecture Power and Jurisdiction in the Church that sitting upon Twelve Thrones and Judging that Spiritual Grace and Investiture to be collated and so Promised in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new Age or State beginning just after the Resurrection of Christ it is an Autoritative Paternal Power of Chastisements Discipline and Government to be exercised on all its Subjects each one that has given up his Name unto Christ that expects any benefit of the incorporation for the keeping them in some compass within the terms of a Peaceable Holy truly Christian Congregation As are the words of our Learned Doctor Hammond in his Treatise of The Power of the Keys Cap. 1. Sect. 1. § XIII AN Incorporation with differing Offices and Duties Powers and Capacities from any other in the World to be call'd out from others from the World or any Society in it and to unite in a diverse Association which has peculiar Laws and Rules even of Morality is not enough to specifie constitute and express the Church of Christ to signalize that Collection or Association which is Christian All believe and assent so far that there is such a Sect and Coalition of Persons as are called Christians in the World and is usually call'd a Church 't is Matter of Fact self-evident and not to be denied But this Body or Church is not known and acknowledged to have such means of Salvation such Power and Efficacy such Properties and Priviledges as the true Church of Christ implies and contains The name Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to Prophane as well as Ecclesiastical Congregations whether in Athens Corinth Alexandria or Jerusalem as Origen argues against Celsus lib. 3. but all have not the Powers Operations alike The Church of God is a Society as with differing Members and Offices Services and Obligations So to differing Ends with differing Gifts and Endowments For the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying the Body of Christ Ephes 4.12 the building and raising them to Heaven in the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God Sciendum est illam esse veram Ecclesiam in qua est Confessio Penitentia quae peccata vulnera quibus subjecta est imbecillitas carnis salubriter curat as Lactantius Lib. 4. Sect. Vlt. Vbi Ecclesia ibi Spiritus Dei ubi Spiritus Dei ibi Ecclesia omnis gratia So Irenaeus l. 3. c. 40. that is the true Church where Confession is and Repentance with wholsome means to cure those Wounds and Sins to which the weakness of the Flesh is subject where there is the Spirit of God and all Grace as in the Armory of David those many Shields of the Mighty Divine Assistances and Remedies for Eternity Catholicum nomen non ex Vniversitate gentium Sed ex Plenitudine Sacramentorum as St. Austin relates of the Donatists well replying Collat. cum Donatist Tertii Diei the fulness of the Sacraments not the bare Coalition of all the Nations in the World makes the true Catholick Church And St. Austin himself says the same Ep. 48. Vincentio fratri where there is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first and second cleansing and Purgation the one the Effect of Baptism the other of Repentance In Sozomen's Church History l. 1. c. 3. Now these different Powers and Duties as distant from all others in the World besides so being diverse also as to themselves and in respect of one another according to the several Gifts and Relations these are either common to the whole each Member of the Association every Believer or else they are limited and appropriate to particular distinct Orders and Offices in the Body What Duties and Offices are common and what appropriate I am now to declare and explain § XIV AS Christians in common all of one Body and under one Head so had they one common Faith which every one Professed to which each assented and gave up his understanding whole and entire and which was a first instance of their Union as an Incorporation a signal Badg or Mark by which as a watch-word they were known to one another and distinguished from the whole World besides Now this object of belief and to which they declared their Adhesion was indeed Jesus the Son of God or Christ and him Crucified as delivered by Christ and the Apostles down unto them but because these Rules must be many and Instructions numerous as they are to this day as given in the Scriptures and every good Christian
which they had Power to give by Will to their Executors or Relations as they had need and they saw cause This is plain out of the Fortieth Canon of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Goods of the Bishop are to be proper to himself and manifestly distinct from those of the Church and which are more peculiarly call'd the Lord's Goods That the Bishop may have Power at his Death to leave that part which is his own to whom he please and not under pretence of a title of Church Goods to have them entangled and lost especially if he have either a Wife or Children or Kindred or Houshold Servants These were not to be cut off and left in want by reason of the Church and occasion Curses upon the Bishop when he is dead And indeed how else had the Churches their Endowments and Provisions Temporal as Houses Gardens c. before the days of Constantine and which were by the Rules and Obligations of Christianity as their Freehold 't was Sacriledge the blackest Guilt to invade them and which Constantine only restored when preyed upon and spoiled by the Heathen Persecutors as Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 10. c. 5. and we have the famous Case of this Nature in Paulus Samosetanus who when deposed for Heresie kept Possession of his Church-House till Aurelian the Emperor no Christian assisted the Catholicks and by force dispossessed him The heathen Power sometimes conniving at these Donations of the Christians and took not advantage of the Forfeitures their Laws gave them now and then countenancing them against Invaders but never by the Imperial Laws giving a full Settlement and Confirmation of them BUT then besides this another Portion § XIX was to be reserved by the Apostles and Bishops for the Necessities of the Poor and destitute People for the Bishops were not the Alms-Men themselves as they are now adays termed but the Treasurers and Trustees to receive and keep the like Provisions and dispose them at their Prudence thus the Goods were brought in and laid at the Apostles feet Acts 4.37 and the Complaint was made to the Apostles when the Grecian Widows were thought to be neglected and who determined that a new Order of Deacons should be constituted and appointed for this business the better and more impartial looking after the Poor Acts 6. and this continued course of Charity and Goodness is apparent in the succeeding Church-Practice Tertullian tells us they had Quoddam arcae genus a kind of Chest in which every Month or when they will or if they will and if they can every one puts in something and this to be expended not in Banquets and Gluttony but to sustain or bury such as died in Want Children destitute of Parents and the Maintenance of old Men such as suffer'd Shipwrack work'd in Metals were banished into Islands and such as were in Prison in the Thirty ninth Chapter of his Apology So also Justin Martyr who was earlier a little than he after the Holy Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Such as were rich and willing offered every Man what he pleased and it was deposited in the hand of the Bishop for the Relief of Orphans and Widows such as by Sickness or any other Accident were brought to want if in Bonds or Strangers and the care of all that were indigent in general was upon him St. Cyprian in his Book De Opere Elecmosynis will not allow him that is rich and abounding to keep the Lord's-Day at all if he passes by the Corban or Poor Man's Box Qui in Dominicum sine Sacrificio â—enâ—â— and comes into the Lord's House without a Sacrifice tying them up more strictly to that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Now concerning the Collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galâ—tia even so do ye Vpon the first day of the Week let every one of you lay up in store as God hath prospered him And 't is the Injunction of the One and fortieth Canon of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We Command that the Bishop have Power of the Goods of the Church to assist by the Presbyters and Deacons such as are in want and to care for his own Necessities if he have any and for the Brethren that are sustain'd by Hospitality that there be nothing wanting among any of them And suitably in the Eighth Canon Conc. 4. Gen. held at Chalcedon Care is there taken That if the Bishop be translated out of one See into another that he carry nothing with him of the Goods of his former Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether of those belonged to the Martyrs or the Hospitals or the Entertainment of Strangers AND thus hath this Body or Association § XX its Duties and Offices in general and which every particular Member is concern'd in no one to be excepted as Occasion offers and Circumstances permit Now besides these there are Powers and Offices distinct and appropriated by Christ the Head and Fountain of what Power is devolved to particular Members such as never was design'd to be communicated in common and promiscuously neither can they without a ceasing of the Corporation its ruine and dissolution for if all the Body were the Head or the Eye where were the Foot it could not continue No Association can stand and preserve it self without special Officers and Governors invested with a solitary Power and Jurisdiction to keep and restrain every Member in those Bounds and Duties in the Confinement to and Performance of which the Association subsists all have their Stations and Services here some after this manner and some after that according to the measure of the Gift which is given and every one in their own order God is not the God of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints a Power limited to Church-Officers only such as were at first thereunto called appointed and invested by Christ in his own Person or by his Succession Nor may any Member in common or barely as a Believer take unto himself this Honor and Function and the select Persons herein deputed were either the Apostles and Seventy appointed by our Saviour in Person or afterwards those Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers Eph. 4.11 with others then as occasion deputed according to the present reason of the Churches first Planting and Propagation by those more immediate Descents of the Holy Ghost And all which with the reason and design of them ceasing what Power was adjudged fit and useful to remain was afterwards devolved fixed and limited to the three Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and so to continue till the Power and the Kingdom is delivered up to the Father These three Orders I say still remain upon the Rolls of Antiquity in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hieratical Priestly Order and Catalogue as 't is in 15 and 18 Canons of the Apostles And in others of those Canons in opposition to the Readers
much below that of a Bishop Presbyterorum ordinem Patres Ecclesiae generare non valentem per regenerationis lavacrum Ecclesiae filios non Patres aut Doctores genuisse as D. Blondel himself in his Apology pro Hieronimo Pag. 311. quotes Epiphanius Haeres 75.4 the Presbyter though not able to beget or constitute Fathers or Bishops or Doctors in the Church can he yet by Baptism beget Sons create to the Adoption of Children he can Baptize but he cannot give Power and enable others to do it and which the Bishop can And a share of this Power is also given to the Deacon but a much less than that to the Presbyter and yet is he more than a Lay-man there is something 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Priestly Function enstated on him Can. 1.2 Conc. Ancyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 10. Conc. Naeocesar he hath an Order there Concionatur in Populos Diaconus gradus in Ecclesia cui Obediendum assurgamus Diacono he Preaches to the People 't is a Church degree to whom Service and Respect is to be paid As St. Jerome Comment in Ezek. c. 48. in Micah c. 7. a Person above all Men not to be suspected to give the Deacon more than his due as will appear to whoso has read over that his smart Epistle to Evagrius reproving the insolency of some Deacons that set themselves above Presbyters And indeed had they been design'd only to serve Tables little reason can be given why they had so Solemn an Ordination and Separation at their first Institution Acts 6. and so distinct are these Orders and their Powers so peremptorily limited and consined in the Intent Prayer and whole Performance at their Ordination That 't is equally an Usurpation for a Deacon to undertake the Office of a Presbyter or a Presbyter the Office of a Bishop without a distinct Ordination or a farther Commission granted as for a Lay-man as such to intrude into any one and more of them without Ordination at all 't is in either or all of them the Sin of Vzzah and the Bethshemites a Robbery and Invasion 'T is not my sense alone they are the words and determination of our great and profound Dr. Thomas Jackson in the second Volume of his Works Cap. 6. p. 377. according to the last Edition I find two great Cases upon Church Story concerning the Ordinations made by Ischyras and Colluthus the former had no Orders at all the other was only a Presbyter and they were both null'd and declared void alike and those ordained by the Presbyter equally as by the Lay-man were reduced to and reputed in the Laick Order So Athanas Apol. pag. 732. Ed. Paris Ibid. p. 784. Socrates Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. § XXII THERE are some Objections which readily arise and present themselves against this Primacy of Bishops in the Christian Church as thus asserted the first and immediate Subject of Church-Power the chief Fountain and Head next under Christ from whence all instances of Church-Autority are devolved and derived to particular Offices and Members of it I shall omit that Plea of those who contend that the Presbyter is really equal with the Bishop that the Bishop is not invested with a true and distinct Power above him and the whole Priesthood or Power of the Ministry is in every Presbyter by his Orders in Actu Primo and habitually radically and intrinsecally in which very words their sense is very stoutly stated in the late Irenicum p. 197. 276. only limited in the Execution for present convenience because what is the sense of Antiquity and our particular Church in part I have but just now declared and who give it in the Negative and the distinct Power of the Bishop above the Presbyter is notorious and I may have occasion hereafter in this Discourse to instance farther in the sense of Antiquity about it it falling again in the way I shall only insist upon what either the whole Church of God has allow'd and assented to and practised giving and fixing a Precedency to certain Church-Officers beyond these of Bishops as Patriarchs Exarchs for some time to be sure but to Metropolitans Primates Arch-Bishops or whatever the Titles were into which an Enquiry is not now to be made all frequent in Church-Story and their Prerogative and Jurisdiction above and apart is there as frequent also or else what a great part of the visible Church so numerous as next to an Universal have still for some Hundreds of years together with great ostentation and clamor both of Argument and Autority contended to be in the Pope or Bishop of Rome in particular as Superior to not only all other Bishops in Christendom but even these Patriarchs and all other Metropolitanes too be sure and to this immediately enstated and invested by Christ in the Person of St. Peter with a first and absolute Power as Universal Governor and Bishop of the believing World whence even all and every even Bishop himself must derive what Autority he has or can duly receive and legally execute to whom each Metropolitan and Patriarch is an Homager and Subject in Dependency and Subordination unto and all this inseparably annexed to St. Peter's Chair and to descend through all Ages in the Succession till time be no more and to the restitution of all things What was the sense of the Church as to the Nature Reason and Designment of the former and what the no Ground and Foundation of the latter I shall endeavour to declare and evince not in that extent the Subjects require for that is the work of Volumes But with that brevity seems requisite to the clearing and better managery of this particular Discourse § XXIII AND first as to the single Solitary Power residing in one Person above and beyond that of a Bishop whether Patriarch Exarch Metropolitan Primate Arch-Bishop or whatever Title it went under as it needs not so would it be too long and excursive now to enquire as when the Name Patriarch came first into the Church how it differs from that of a Metropolitan when the change of Names as to these two or any other and which Ecclesiastical Men discourse Certain it is that the Power was there very early and the Bishops themselves were under Canonical Obedience to their Primate they were in some instances inferior to governed and ruled by them and as certain it is again this their Prerogative and Presidency flowed not from any thing conferr'd in their Orders the Power given to a Bishop is the utmost is or ever shall be in that Holy Rite or Sacrament collated nor is there any thing in Holy Orders beyond it And when the Patriarch Metropolitan or Primate was constituted or whoever that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Primae sedis Episcopus was mentioned so often in the Council of Carthage we do not read in the ancient Church Rituals or any Practice apart from them of any farther new or solemn Ordination that was
Church of Christ all Christian Bishops by whomsoever Consecrated and his Arm is to rule them whosesoever's Hands were laid upon them and this solitary and by himself nor is any one a sharer with or out of subjection to him To which I shall reply that though the distinction in it self will with very much difficulty be admitted of and the ordaining and governing Parts will be very rarely found asunder Nor do I believe there can be an instance given of but one Bishop who at his Consecration had the Power of governing left out of the Office in which that other of Ordination together with this were not design'd at once and transmitted though the Objects have many times been changed either enlarged or limited as they have been both suspended altogether yet allowing the distinction it may possibly do Estius this present Kindness lookt upon as a Disputant and oppressed with an Argument giving him the opportunity of something like an Answer and with some shew he may escape that severity of words and blacker censure he there acknowledges to be passed by St. Gregory in several Occasional Epistles against whomsoever it is shall style himself Universal Bishop or Bishop of all Bishops That the very Name is Prophane Proud Sacrilegious Diabolical a Name of Blasphemy and the forerunner of Antichrist and all this Estius there tells us was occasion'd from this Holy Father by reason of the Patriarch of Constantinople's Ambition in that Nature declaring that as the Emperor did alone hold the Empire and all Inferior Governors were sent by him and held of him the Head and not to do it was Usurpation and Treason so did he alone hold the Episcopacy and all Holy Orders were to descend and flow from him and to receive them and not from him was to climb up the wrong way and by intrusion come in But then what more right he has on his side or better Autority than Bellarmine has on his or how he can prove a solitary peculiar Care and Government demandated to and in its special Constitution settled on St. Peter and by his Succession at Reme or which way soever else it was over the Universal Church or whole Gospel-Priesthood so as to constitute him and them its immutable perpetual Head to Govern though not to Ordain them and which was not in the rest of the Apostles Persons to be sure not in their Succession this does not readily appear the Scriptures are favourers of both alike and indeed give to neither any bottom at all Nor does any such thing appear in the best Antiquity or succeeding Matter of Fact in his behalf no ill Argument of ever a Divine Right were it on their side § XXV THE first instance we have from the Ancients of this Pretended Power is in Victor Bishop of Rome in the year One Hundred ninety four who threatned Excommunication against the Asiaticks because they complied not with him in the Observation of Easter The Succession of the Bishops of Rome is all along delivered down in Church-History from the beginning to this day each Bishop particularized under the Title of Romanae Vrbis Episcopus Antistes c. there 's no one note of Singularity affixed unto him and this is the first time we meet with any thing like a Superiority there practised and at the most he is but ranked with the other Metropolitans Now whether this was attempted by Victor purely out of Zeal for an Apostolical Custom and we have many examples of Eminent Bishops that have intermeddled without their own Districts or whether as supposing himself really invested with a Power for Inspection and Animadversion upon all other Christian Bishops certain it is this his Power was disown'd and rejected by an eminent Branch of the Church Catholick and as eminent Bishops as any She had the Autority and Practice of St. John is set up and Pleaded against that of St. Peter as what every way balances nor doth it any way submit unto it And Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France and none of the Quartodecimane but one who comply'd with Victor in the Observation of Easter yet asserts the Asiaticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Self-Autority nor is any Foreign Power to over-rule and controle them or the Peace of the Church to be broken on such occasions all which is to be seen in Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 23 24. and if we descend some time lower we shall not find any thing really more advantageous to him Constantine the Great Complements indeed Eusebius of Caesarea and tells him he is worthy of the Episcopale or Government of the whole Church De Vita Constant apud Euseb l. 9. c. 6. but that such an extent of Power was then in the Person of any one Bishop is no where said nor is there any probability to suppose it 'T is true that some Privileges have belong'd to the Bishop of Rome and which have been claimed as their due in good times Julius is very angry with the Clergy of Antioch that they did not call him to a Synod and urges it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law of the Church that whatsoever is done without the Bishop of Rome is to be void Sozom. Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 10. and in an Epistle of his to some whom he accuses of Contention and want of Charity not consulting the Peace of the Church in the cause of Athanasius he farther adds Are you ignorant that this is the Custom that we are first to be wrote to that what is just may hence be defined Inter. Athanas Opera Tom. 1. Ed. Paris Pag. 753. But then whatever this Privilege was that it did not arise from any Connatural Right to his See but Ecclesiastical Canon is most plain out of Socrates his Church History l. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and he may not have so much for what Vallesius in his Annotations there can produce for it Which is the alone Autority of Ferrandus that is Christian Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen an Historian that concerns himself as little with Christianity and Church Affairs as any one can be supposed to have done that attempted an History of the Times in which so much of the Church concerns its Power and Autority was Transacted as in the days of Constantius and Julian and whose times make up the best part of his Story The latter he studiously affects to represent to the World with what advantages he can both living and dying And for the Christian Religion he does not I am confident so much as name it Twenty times in all his Books and then accidentally and very slightly and the greatest advantage that he gives us is we have his Testimony that such a Sect call'd Christians was then in the World and for that particular passage quoted by Vallesius it makes if any thing against himself for he tells us That when Constantius the Emperor who is known to be Athanasius his great and mortal Enemy and mov'd every
stone to ruine him had procur'd the Sentence of a Synod against him licet Sciret impletam and which he knew was sufficient and cogent of it self yet he endeavour'd all he could thereby to render him lower and more contemptible to have it corroborated and confirm'd by that Autority Quâ potiuntur Aeternae Vrbis Episcopi which the Bishops of the Eternal City or of Rome did enjoy which Autority what it was is still in the dark for him there 's no mention of it in any one Degree and 't is mostly agreeable that he endeavour'd it as the more great and popular Bishops of the World by reason of that Vrbs aeterna as the City of Rome for its Pompous Magnificence is all along through that History call'd that eminent City the seat of their Residence Lib. 15. Pag. 75 76. Ed. Lugdun in Duodecimo nor does it from this whole History appear that there was then as not any distinct Power so nor any but Title affixed to the Bishops of Rome which other Christian Bishops had not The Bishops in general are called Christianae legis Antistites and Liberius of Rome has but the same Title or that of Episcopus Romanus and Vrbis aeternae Episcopi is what the whole Succession is call'd by Ibid. suprà Et lib. 20. Pag. 261. lib. 22. p. 329. AND now the whole of the Matter is driven § XXVI into this one Point or narrower room what the Power and Extent of this Church-Law or Canon Ecclesiastical was in what sense it was imposed own'd and receiv'd in the Church If universally and what was design'd for all Christendom and obliging let them produce the Rule it is not to be found in any thing yet we have consider'd and then reconcile it with the general Practice of the Church which appears another thing and to enlarge this Power whatever that above mentioned is as claim'd by the Bishop of Rome beyond a limited Exarchy or Primacy or that it any ways reaches to Antioch is to go beyond the whole Story Ecclesiastical in any tolerable Age of it 'T is to go beside the Acts of every General Council upon every occasion and all the Imperial Courses and Proceedings in point of Jurisdiction when the state came into the Church engaged for its Governance and Jurisdiction and turnâ—d their Canons into Laws There is nothing in any one Council whether General or Topical that either refers to determines actually or but implies any such thing unless what was foysted into the Canons of the first Council of Nice and recommended to the Council of Carthage for an Approbation with the rest of those Canons by Faustinus an Italian Bishop and Legate of Rome be since made Canonical Sure we are it was then detected and exploded for a Cheat by the Holy Bishops of that Council and who there and then disown'd the Superior Universal Power in the Bishop of Rome all which with the several Circumstances is to be seen in the opening of the Synod The See of Rome is still represented as but equal and in the same rank with the other Four great Churches of Christendom and its Bishop neither Presides in the Councils nor Over-rules in the Definitions of Christendom nor is the Autority any ways defective upon his absence or if convented without his License than upon the absence of or when not licensed by any other Bishop There is not an Instance of any one Reference or Appeal in Church-Affairs but still the either Patriarch Exarch Metropolitan Primate or Private Bishop is to accommodate and rectifie all as the alone Judges and Determiners under a Synod of Bishops or a Council and if new Canons be wanting 't is the Imperial Direction that the Bishop of Constantinople and the Convention of Priests be convened to consider of and to make them Cod. Justin l. 1. Tit. 2.6 Et Cod. Theodos 16. l. 45. Tit. 2. As for that of the Council of Sardica Can. 3. 4. and which seems to favour the Bishop of Rome in the right of hearing and adjusting Foreign Causes not to make any Reflexions on the Synod it self whatsoever it is 't is bottomed neither on Scriptures nor ancient Tradition or Custom but seems in particular Cases to be allow'd him for the honour of St. Peter nor can we believe it could run against the different Determinations of general Councils if so 't is to be of no Autority particularly the first of Nicea considering also that Hosius was President both at Nice and here I shall add it cannot be conceiv'd to run against it self whose Tenth Canon places the top and uppermost of all Church-Power in the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which is not consistent with a Superior Order in the Church fixed and immutable whether as to Jurisdiction and Ordination or Government only As Bellarmine and Estius are not agreed and those several Exempts we have an account of in Church Story 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and govern'd within themselves as Cyprus Bulgaria Iberia Anglia whatever they relate to and so called in respect of whether Patriarchacies Exarchies or this pretended Monarchy Universal or howsoever they came so to be they are Evidence sufficient against this claim of Rome and that every Church is not therefore Schismatical because disowning a dependency upon her especially if we reflect how strongly these Privileges are contended for in the Eighth Canon of the Council of Ephesus occasion'd by some Usurpations attempted upon Cyprus in particular and 't is there made Law that no inrode be made upon them And that which is farther considerable is that among all the Orders and Directions issued out to Church-men by the Empire for the executing the Canons and preserving the Discipline of the Church the Persons in Charge are the Bishops Metropolitan or Patriarch the Bishop under the Metropolitan the Metropolitan under the Patriarch and the Patriarch is always last and uppermost and 't is very strange to reflect that if there was an Order above these a Power Universal residing in any one Person with a care over all the Churches in Christendom so setled by Laws Ecclesiastical and Superior to all the afore-mentioned Orders in Jurisdiction and Government and this Person and Power should still be overlook't and disregarded no one Direction and Application made unto him in the Affairs so immediately his of his Charge and Inspection and this too in the days of Justinian especially since whatever was done by the Empire was in Prosecution of what was Church-Law and Canon before according to the Appointments and Decisions of it And that this is all so 't is most manifest in our Church Story Acts of Councils and particularly the Proceedings Imperial in the two Codes and the Novels Vid. Cod. Justinian lib. 1. Tit. 3.43.2 Novel 5. Epilog Novel 6. Cap. 3. Epilog alibi saepius Not that the Empire was shye in giving the See of Rome any Power or Title was its due as it must be acknowledg'd very great things were
Calvin and Beza themselves did not believe to he in any other on Earth besides that trick that all Power was radically and virtually in the Presbyters Orders was not then invented and their pretended Power must be either of Man or from Heaven there can be but one of these two ways proposed the one failing the other must be introduced otherwise there must be an universal failure of the Power it self and therefore they are sent as was Christ Jesus as were his Apostles and the Disciples in the Acts and so necessary is it that Calvin still go for an Apostle by all such as now claim a Succession from him 'T is soundly as well as wittily argued by the Author of those Questions and Answers going under the name of Justin Martyr Respons ad Quest 78. ad Orthodox the Child which was illegitimate by Bathsheba died God would not have Christ descend in the Flesh but by such as were born to David by lawful Marriage his descent as the Son of David was to be in the legally received way and such are to be his descents according to the Spirit it is by a due and regular course and succession he devolves and continues his Power amongst us is his Kingdom supported And though there has been several cases in Church Story and Plea's and Bandyings about the validity of Ordinations and some Irregularities as to Canon have been passed by and the Ordination notwithstanding admitted but yet where it plainly appear'd that the Person ordaining was no Bishop himself nor receiv'd that Power by a devolved Succession which he pretended to give to others all debates presently ended the Ordination was I cannot say nulled and voided because declared to be none at all as in the case of Maximus Cynicus Can. 4. Conc. 2. Gen. Constantinop for this it is Socrates Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. tells us that Ischyras was reputed worthy of many Deaths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that having attained to no one degree of the Priesthood he durst attempt to officiate in holy Things no one Plea of Necessity or Circumstance whatever could gain a liberty for this or but a connivance In some cases the Canons were dispensed with and in time of Persecutions Bishops might attend and officiate in foreign Ordinations and so they did as we read in Sozomen Hist Eccl. l. 7. cap. the common safety and succession of the Church was their great aym and particular Rules and Canons had no force in such cases Thus we read Can. 2. Conc. 2. Gen. Constantinop of some distant barbarous Countries which had no Bishops planted among them and there it was lawful for any Bishop to Ordain that they could either procure or of himself would take the pains And so it appears also from Can. 102. Conc. Carthag that several discerptions and regions there were which had not their proper Bishops and the same in all probability was the case of the Church of Carthage an account of which we have from Victor in his History De Persecutione Vandalorum l. 2. pag. 627. as bound up with the tripartite History who tells us there was no Bishop there for twenty four years together till Zeno the Emperor interposed with Hunnericus the King of the Vandals who had invaded Africa and Eugenius was consecrated their Bishop and this the London Ministers have observ'd to our hands in their Divine right of the Evangelical Ministry cap. 5. pag. 80. with what Zeal and how many Miles some have travelled for Episcopal Ordination and that our Neighbours in Scotland did not do the same admitting what is pretended that once they had only Presbyters among them I could never yet meet with any thing to convince us Sure I am their having none of their own does not imply they used none the instances above given refute a necessity of that or if they did not but consecrated one another such as urge it a Pattern to all Christian Churches ought first to have given the world Satisfaction that it was not their imperfection their guilt and indeed Insolency and Usurpation in so doing But when Musaeus and Eutichianus who were no Bishops had ordained and Gaudentius the Bishop of the place did contend to have their Ordinations valid and confirm'd by that Synod and gave the very same reason why it should be confirmed because at that time Troubles and Seditions were many and there seemed a necessity for what they had done his Reasons were not accepted of Necessity and other accidents do plead for and excuse what is only uncanonical but where want of Power in general it does not And Hosius that most Holy and Reverend Bishop stood up and publickly declared in the Council that we ought indeed all to be quiet and meek and to contend for it but neither Eutichianus nor Musaeus were Bishops had any Power at all for what they pretended and therefore their Consecration was invalid and themselves were only to be admitted into Lay Communion of all which who so pleases may have an account Can. 18 19. Conc. Sardic with the Scholia's of Balsamon and Zonaras and the Annotations of William Beveridge these are certain Rules Habere namque aut tenere Eccelsiam nullo modo potest qui Ordinatus in Ecclesia non est he cannot any ways have or hold a Place in the Church who is not ordained in the Church Cypr. Ep. 76. Sine successione Sacerdotum totus ordo cadit without a succession of Priests the whole Order falls St. Jerome lib. 2. adv Lucifer Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Succession is cut off a Communication of the Holy Ghost ceaseth Can. 1. St. Basilii ad Amphilochium apud Pandect Can. Beveridg § XXXV AND now I hope this Objection is fully answered that the Church can be no Body separate and apart from the State because no Powers and Officers of its own nothing outward sensible and coercive and consequently with neither Rewards nor Penalties annexed all must return into the Prince or set up against the soveraignty of him if at all and in being for the Church's rise and original is sufficiently declared to be from another Fountain its imbodying and incorporation to be apart with its own Powers and Acts Offices and Officers Laws and Rules Rewards and Penalties Censures and Punishments Hopes and Expectations And all different from that of the Soveraign in the State no ways against the either Power or Soveraignity of him the influences distinct but no ways so opposite to one another as thwarting or destructive Fratres dicuntur habentur qui unum Deum patrem agnoverunt unum spiritum biberunt sanctitatis qui de uno utero ignorantiae ejusdem ad unam lucem expaverunt veritatis as Tertullian describes the incorporation Apol. cap. 30. Christians are called and accounted Brethren who have acknowledged one God and Father who have drank of one Spirit of holiness who have broke through with astonishment one Womb of Ignorance into one Light and Truth I do
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 perverts and abuses them all Sect. 20. The two Vniversities in their Opus Eximium c. in the Reign of Henry VIII 1534. altogether against him Sect. 21. Stephen Bishop of Winchester Orat. de vera Obedientia is of the same Mind and so is Richard Sampson Dean of the Chappel to Henry VIII in an Oration to this purpose Sect. 22. The Papers in the Cottonian Library seems the same with Dr. Stillingfleet's M. SS in his Irenicum Both he and Dr. Burnet unfaithful in the Printing of it Dr. Durell's account of it Archbishop Cranmer with the Bishops and Doctors engaged in our first Reformation were not Erastians from the account given of them in his Church History by Dr. Burnet Less Discretion in Printing such Papers nor is their Autority really to be any thing Sect. 23. Mr. Selden is shameless in quoting Bishop Andrews who determines all along against him Those Laws that Protect the Church must in course inspect their Actions The Bishop disswaded Grotius from Printing his Book De Imperio summarum Potestatum in Sacris Ha' y' any Work for a Cooper is indeed of Mr. Selden's side and the Lord Falkland His very ill Speech in the House of Commons 1641. His Pulpit Law and Decision of the Divine Right of Kings as well as of the Church He and such like Speech-makers Promoters of the late Rebellion affronts both to King and Priest design'd at once when the Crown is entitled to the Priesthood Sect. 24. Archbishop Bancroft Archbishop Whitgift and Bishop Bilson under the Suspition of Erastianism Accused as such by Robert Parker de Politeia Ecclesiastica a Malicious Schismatick made use of still against our Church by Dailee against Ignatius his Epistles by Doctor Stillingfleet in his Irenicum Our Bishops and Doctors are not against the Divine immutable Right of Bishops as Doctor Stillingfleet mistook out of Parker and reports them to be Satisfaction may justly be required of him for it Sect. 25. The Writings of the best Men how they may be mistaken as of Justin Martyr The first Council of Nice St. Jerome concerning Chastity and Episcopacy Bishop Cranmer and our first Reformers Bishop Whitgift Bancroft and Bilson The Point was at first only the Bishop of Rome's Supremacy A secular title only no Characteristical mark then betwixt the Protestant and Papist The Lay-Elders in their Consistory set up after this as Popes in his room These our Bishops warmth was exercised against whatever indiscretion in laying the Argument The Power of the Prince and the Priest are still contra-distinguished Kings are not Governors next and immediately under Christ as the Mediator The mistake of many in their Pulpit Prayer Our Kings and Church do not thence derive their Power nor so claim it in their Acts Statutes Declarations Articles c. in the forms of bidding Prayer by Queen Elizabeth and King James c. of ill consequence if they do Doctor Hammond's Autority Sect. 26. Particular Doctors not the Rule in Religion The several ways by which Error comes into the World Julian's Plot to destroy Christianity How Pelagius managed his Heresie by Rich and Potent Women by feigned Autorities of great Men. Liberius of Rome and Hosius comply with Arianism wearied with Persecutions Theodosius his Doctores Probabiles Cod. 16. Theodos Tit. 1. l. l. 2 3. THE last general of this Discourse now § I follows and I am to shew that what hath hitherto been said concerning Church Power as a Specifick and distinct from any thing in either the People or the Crown is agreeable with the particular Establishments by the Laws of our Kingdom made for the owning and defence of Christianity and by consequence with the Religion it self so own'd and professed in our Church since the Reformation AN undertaking I do not therefore engage § II in as if these Doctrines of our common Christianity receiv'd from the beginning and devolv'd all along downward in the first Ages as is already shew'd could obtain further Autority or expected an after Sanction and Establishment from us and e're fully assented to and received wanted force and obligation was to be abated of or abolished where not according to our particular ordering model and constitution framed and drawn up autorized and made publick Fifteen hundred years after this is absurd in the Proposal and must be worse in the Practice it runs as it ought to do contrary to our selves to the Plot and Design of this our Church in each of her Collections Articles Injunctions Canons Constitutions and Homilies appointed to be read in the Churches in the time of Q. Elizabeth And altogether to our purpose are the Homilies composed by the Bishops limiting Church-Power to the Priesthood and apparently distinguishing betwixt the Autority and Laws of the Church and State assigning different Ends and Effects unto each Part 2. Of the Sermon of Good Works This arrogancy God detested that Man should so advance his Laws to make them equal with God's Laws wherein the true honouring and worshipping of God standeth and to make his
he proves thoughout the Church Historians Fathers and Imperial Laws thus declaring assenting to and practising pag. 146. If by the Church you mean the Precepts and Promises Gifts and Graces of God preached in the Church and poured on the Church Princes must humbly obey them and reverently receive them as well as other private Men so that Prophets Apostles Evangelists and all other builders of Christ's Church as touching their Persons be subject to the Princes power Mary the word of God in their Mouths and Seals of grace in their hands because they are of God and not of themselves they be far above the Princes Calling and Regiment and in those Cases Kings and Queens if they will be saved must submit themselves to God's everlasting truth and testament as well as the meanest of their People and yet they are for all this Supreme and subject only to God as to outward Process either from the Pope or from any other Power And so pag. 147. he brings in those Passages of Tertullian Optatus and Chrysostom à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem parem super terram non habet c. the word Supreme was added to the Oath for that the Bishop of Rome taketh upon him to command and depose Princes as their lawful supreme Judg to exclude this wicked presumption we teach that Princes be supreme Rulers we mean subject to no superior Judg to give a reason of their doings but only to God pag. 164 165 166. it must be confessed he speaks not home as might be required when explaining how Kings as well as other Christians are comprized under the duty of obeying their Rulers and to be subject unto them c. surely there is a true real obedience due even from Princes to Church-Officers and their Power devolved from Christ and this learned Man seems here and in other places not to be rescued from that common prejudice and possession seized upon too many and all along continued upon casting of the Popes Superiority here in England that there can be no Church-Power at all universally obliging and requiring obedience but what implyes and infers corporal bodily subjection a change in Seculars 't is this puts him upon that great mistake that the Pastors of the Church are not influenced by the Kingly power of Christ and what is regal in him is given to the Civil Magistrate and who only succeed him in that Office perpetual Government of the Church cap. 10. and Arch-bishop Bancroft confounding these two Powers gives Beza and Cartwright as much advantage in that Particular as their Disciples and Followers can now really wish and because they say that Christ as a King prescribed the form of Ecclesiastical Government being a King the head of the Church doth administer his Kingdom per legitime vocatos pastores by Pastors lawfully called he runs them upon this absurdity that their Autority must be without any controul The Pastors must be all of them Emperors the Doctors Kings the Elders Dukes and the Deacons Lords of the Treasury c. survey of the holy pretended discipline c. cap 24. and yet after all 't is mostly Name◠and Titles that occasions this or the accidental pressing an argument as there will be occasion to consider anon and Bishop Bilson goes on and acknowledges all in effect only Bishops and Pastors are left out and tells us That the Church may be Superior and yet the Pope subject to Princes Princes be Supreme and the Church their Superior the Scriptures be superior to Princes and yet Princes supreme the Sacrament be likewise above them and yet that hindreth not their Supremacy Truth Grace Faith Prayer and other Ghostly Virtues be higher than all earthly States and all this notwithstanding Princes may be supreme Governors of their Countries and which though in over abating Terms and with too scrupulous a fear where no fear ought to be declares as fully as can be the thing it self viz. That Princes are to be subject to the Government in the Church settled by Christ in its Bishops and Pastors and which both as a Prophet a Priest and a King he derives unto them Church-Officers have a Power underived and independent to the Crown only 't is ill worded by the Warden Things Powers Gifts Virtues c. as standing and settled on Earth and not invested in Persons can really be of no force and command at all or rather and which at last will amount to the same will be what every one shall please to make them and the Prince will have as many Supremes as are pretenders to these Gifts of the Spirit and which will be enough as experience taught us this only then can be meant by these Circumlocutions and why it might not have been spoken in down-right terms I cannot imagine that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with the Bible put into their hands as it is at their Ordination with full autority given for the Offices ministerial have a real Power and are truly Rulers in the Church have a Supremacy and Superiority peculiarly theirs and all that will come to Heaven must come under this Ministry or Government it 's jurisdiction and discipline be they Princes or Subjects on Earth or what ever worldly Government they are possessed of unless he 'l say every Man hath these Ghostly Virtues which can urge a Text of Scripture and which cannot be conceived of him and to this purpose he goes farther pag. 167 168. Though the Members of the Church be subject and obedient to Princes yet the things contained in the Church and bestowed on the Church by God himself I mean the light of his Word the working of his Sacraments the gifts of his Grace and fruits of his Spirit be far superior to all Princes The plain meaning of which can be but this Certain separate Persons invested by God beyond Christians at large with such Gifts and Graces the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in which respect a good Emperor is within the Church and not above it as St. Ambrose is to this purpose here quoted by him pag. 171. You must distinguish the things proposed in the Church from the Persons that were Members of the Church the Persons both Lay-Men and Clerks by God's Law were the Princes Subjects the things comprized in the Church and by God himself committed to the Church because they were Gods could be subject to the Power and Will of no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince the Prince is above the Persons of the Church not above things in the Church pag. 173. 176. 178. you know we do not make the Prince Judg of Faith we confess Princes to be no Judges of Faith but we do not encourage Princes themselves to be Judges of Faith but only we wish them to discern betwixt truth and error which every private Man must do that is a Christian pag. 174 175 176. he approves of Ambrose's Answer to Valentinian that is was stout but lawful constant but
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
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
be in part a great untruth and both Athanasius Synod Nicen. Cont. heres Arian decreta p. 277 278. Ed. paris et Ep. de Synod Arimini et Seleuciae p. 889. Ep. ad ubique Orthodoxos c. p. 943. and Theodorit Eccl. hist l. 1. c. 5. 12. refer them to the Writings of the eminent Bishops and Doctors who lived an hundred and twenty years before the Synod of Nice and then used this Word Consubstantial in explaining the Divinity of the Father and the Son and 't is what Sandius in effect confesses only he thinks it for the dishonor of the Cause that all the Hereticks that were in the Church before Arius were Homousians hist Enucleat l. 1. and which in truth is only this the worst of Hereticks did not arrive to that height of impudence as to deny so received an acknowledgment in the universal Church Yet what Athanasius replyes upon Arius himself Tom. 1. disputat cum Ario pag. 134. making the Objection is a better answer here that what was in the Council asserted and declared was alwaies in the Scriptures by way of consequence and occasion was not given the Church till the rise and spreading of that Heresie for that particular and precise explication Heresies and Novelties must be and 't is the work of Councils to detect and determine against them but there would be mad work in the Church should that go for Innovation which an upstart Heresie forces the Church in new Terms to state and declare against and explain themselves thereby it must be declamed against as defective in Autority and Precedents because former Doctors had not sagacity enough the very Apostles had not Spirit of Prophecy enough to anticipate the Fictions of every Brain so to word it before-hand that the particular Heresie in its Nicety must be antidated and pre-abide upon Record bassled and contradicted He that reads over St. Jerome lib. 1. Cont. Jovinianum will find him there so urging Chastity as if Marriage it self was a sin and which that Father never design'd as his Opinion and Dailee confesses that he only speaks comparatively and is so to be understood as do and are to be many more of the Fathers cap. 5. de usu patrum though he will not allow it him in other Cases and when to serve his own particular Design of him I mean as to his Judgment of Episcopacy and will have his Epistle ad Evagrium and his Comments on Titus to the same purpose to be absolute and with no regard to those great even just Provocatious from the Bishops in preferring the Deacon before the Presbyters who as he well argues are of so much more Power and higher Order in the Church as that a Bishop is oft call'd a Presbyter in Scripture and Antiquity when so injurious were the Bishops to the Presbyters and so partial to the Deacons and indulgent that the Deacons scorn'd the Presbyters Order qui ignorantes humilitatem status sui ultra Sacerdotes hoc est Presbyteros intumescunt 〈◊〉 putent si Presbyter ordinetur Their nearer attendance on the Bishops Person and familiarity with him with other advantages attending occasioned that they found it an Injury to be promoted to the Presbyters Order as he tells us Comment in Ezek. cap. 48. and which together with the great superciliousness and insulting pride of John Bishop of Jerusalem exercized over him and giving some disturbance to his Monastick ease in the holy Land Ep. 60 61. something raised his spleen and in vindicating his own Order he spared not some little flourishes or Arguments abating of the Episcopate if thereby these indecencies might cease What effects all this had at that time we read not and that it was afterwards lookt upon by the Church as his alone Passion and particular Provocation we have all the reason in the World to believe it all ceased with his Person to be sure if not with the Passion nor do we find any one follower he had or is his Autority ever used against the solitary appropriated Power of a Bishop above a Presbyter 'till of late in these parts of Christendom who thence take the rise for their Schism and 't is the ground they stand upon for the battery and abolishing the whole Order and with-drawing their obedience and which to be sure St. Jerome never did nor attempted and herein they are particularly unlucky they beat down Bishops by St. Jerome's Autority to bring in their Schism and 't is the main Argument they still urge against them in the height of these Divisions and Distractions are now on foot in Europe and then too when they contend that St. Jerome knew no other occasion or use of Bishops but ad tollenda Schismata because Schisms and Divisions cannot be kept out of the Church but by them So that St. Jerome's Autority if any thing in their present Case must be against them and if complying with him they must for the present expedience submit unto Bishops whom they 'l allow to have acknowledged this necessity and usefulness of them what ever reasons else he saw for their institution and continuance 'T is that which Doctor Durel pleads for Arch-Bishop Cranmer that admitting him guilty of Erastianism and he did resolve the Power of the Keys into the Prince as Doctor Stillingfleet says he was and did his present Circumstances will plead much for him and the other Doctors of his time if of the same mind then with him he had been educated in many Errors with which the Church the whole Age at that time abounded and though a Reformation was on foot no wonder if in some Instances he was in the wrong 't was then their work to abdicate the Bishop of Rome and case him of that Primacy and usurpation he had exercised over this Church and it might so happen that in giving to the King what was his he abated too much of the Power of the Priesthood and the Church and which was hers and not to be given to any other and yet even this Error did he see at last acknowledged it to Doctor Leighton submitted to and subscribed the truth against it as the Dean of Windsor tell us he read it in Doctor Stillingfleet's Manuscript and in his presence And there is enough to be pleaded of this nature in the behalf of those inconsiderable Offers are made against our three eminent Bishops Whitgift Bilson and Bancroft and which will so thoroughly acquit them of the but suspition of Erastianism that the Bill must in course be flung out that is drawn up against them every one knows that is conversant in those their Writings whence Parker's Objections are taken The Point under debate was mostly very near altogether in King Henry VIII day 's betwixt the King and the Pope whether was supreme in the forensick outward Ecclesiastical Courts and Proceedings on the Persons of Men within this his Majesties Kingdom the Pope had usurped it for some time the King reassumes it Religion
in Bishop Bilson Cap. 9. pag. 113. As for Excommunication if you take it for removing the unruly from the Civil Society of the Faithful until they conform themselves to a more Christian sort of life this he takes to be the Power of a Christian Magistrate and he goes on and says I am not averse that the whole Church where he is wanting did and should concur in that action for thereby the sooner when all the Multitude joyn with the Pastor in one Mind to renounce all manner of conversing with such will the Parties be reduced to a better mind to see themselves rejected and exiled from all company but 't is the Pastors charge only to deliver or deny the Sacraments Pag. 114.147 but otherwise Lay-men that are no Magistrates may not challenge to intermeddle with the Pastors Function or over-rule them in their own Charge without manifest and violent intrusion on other mens Callings without the Word and Will of Christ who gave his Apostle the Holy Ghost to remit and retain Sins And so expresly again p. 149. If you joyn not Lay-Elders in those Sacred and Sacerdotal Actions with Pastors but make them Overseers and Moderators of those things which Pastors do this Power belongeth exactly to Christian Magistrates to see that Pastors do their Duty exactly according to the Will of Christ and not to abuse their Power to annoy his Church or the Members thereof neither is the case alike betwixt Pastors and Lay-Elders Pastors have their Power and Function distinguished from Princes by God himself insomuch that it were more than Presumption for Princes to execute those actions by themselves or by their Substitutes To Preach Baptize retain Sins impose Hands Princes have no Power the Prince of Princes even the Son of God hath severed it from their Callings and committed it to his Apostles and they by imposition of hands derived it to their Successors but to cause these actions to be orderly done according to Christ's Commandment and to prevent and redress abuses in the doers this is all that is left for Lay-Elders and this is all that we reserve for the Christian Magistrate and that no other Church-Power was then thought by any to belong to the Prince he was not at all considered as its Subject there was no such thing as a pretence then on foot 't is most plain Cap. 9. pag. 108. and among the many Conceits about the Power of the Keys and Subject this never entred into the heart oâ— any his words are these The Power of the Keys and right to impose Hands I mean to ordain Ministers and to Excommunicate Sinners are more controverted than the other two the Word and Sacraments and which were never questioned by reason that diverse Men have diverse Conceits of them some fasten them on the liking of the Multitude which they call the Church others commit them to the judgment of certain chosen Persons as well of the Laiety as of the Clergy whom they call the Presbytery Some attribute only but equally to all Pastors and Preachers and some especially reserve them to Men of the greatest gifts ripest years and highest calling among the Clergy But there 's none mentioned that they are in the Prince 'T is I know the usual Expression in the Pulpit Prayer and the King is placed next under Christ in these His Majestie 's Realms and Dominions and which as that Prayer it self has no good bottom that ever I could meet with for such the use of it a meer Arbitrary customary thing where did God ever make Christ his Deputy and the King Christ's as to the worldly Powers and Secular things of this life his Commission to our Saviour ran quite contrary and nothing less can be gathered from it this is to found right of Dominion in Grace with a Witness our Kings did not receive or rather reassume it upon these terms nor do they since acknowledge it as so derived King Henry VIII did not and there 's no such thing in any one Act or Statute in his days Doctor Burnet indeed in his Collection of Records gives us two instances wherein the Title of Supreme Head under Christ of the Church of England Supremum Ecclesiae Anglicanae sub Christo Caput The one in the Injunctions to the Clergy made by Cromwel Pag. 178. Num. 12. the other in the Commission by which Bonner held his Bishoprick of the King Pag. 184. Num. 14. but in his Addenda Pag. 305. Num. 1. in the Preamble to Articles about Religion set out by the Convocation and Published by the King's Autority 't is only and in Earth Supreme Head of the Church of England and which is of more Autority than the other because in Convocation It is once or twice used by King Edward before his Injunctions Articles c. and sometimes lest out but no mention of it but never used by Queen Elizabeth in any of hers or in her Proclamations nor is it commanded in her Form of bidding of Prayer nor in the Canons or Form of bidding Prayer in the days of King James 't is neither in the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance and which is to be seen in the account we have of them by Anthony Sparrow now Lord Bishop of Norwich in his Collection of Canons Articles Injunctions c. and our Seven and thirtieth Article of Religion gives the Queens Majesty that only Prerogative was given all Godly Princes by God himself in Holy Scriptures that which had the Kings of Israel and Judah that which had the Kings of the Gentiles the King of Nineveh in the Prophecy of Jonah and which is an instance I find given by our Divines of the preceding Power in other Princes we contend for and have determined to be in ours and with which if the Prince be not invested he has no Government over his People a great part always will and all may when they will exempt their Persons and Actions from his cognizance and inspection upon pretence of their Faith and Religion but there is not a word of any one Derivation as from Christ nor as the Mediator doth he can he bestow any such Power upon them or are Kings thus under him or any ways then as Members of his Body and as Christians they are to submit to and receive his Laws in order to Heaven and these Laws are to be their Rule in their Government upon Earth which they are to obey and protect which indeed supports and exalts them as Righteousness does a Nation but 't is in and by that Autority they were invested in before Christ and they were indeed in a feeble piteous Case if no other Power to rule with than what the crucifyed Jesus can give them whose Kingdom was not of this World nor did he manage any thing by the Powers of it I know it is the least of the Designs of such that still use this Expression in their Prayers and Discourses and they have great Examples for it and of
Disorders to prevent a greater Mischief or by too much Condescension of the Bishops or by particular Grants and Priviledges to such places which the same Power did and might take away again an antecedent perpetual Right is no way to be inferr'd from either and particularly by David Blondel who over-rules in other Cases when against him upon the same Considerations Apolog. Pag. 541. § XIII AND that all this depends upon Divina Praecepta Divina Praescriptio Dominicis Praeceptis Divina Magisteria Traditione Divina Apostolica Observatione Deisicam Disciplinam and that the contrary is Secundum humanam Praesumptionem as St. Cyprian all along Phrases it in that 68 Epistle is what every one will grant nor is there any such thing gain'd by it on Blondel's side as he thinks there is he many times repeating and insisting on these like Expressions for no man sure will question this to be the Command and Appointment of God that no one be receiv'd into the Publick Imployments of the Church but such as are approved and attested to be Men sit for so great a Charge and high Office and it amounts to no more than that Caution of St. Paul to Timothy Lay hands suddenly on no man nor is there any Nomination of a Bishop to his See which is not made Publick to the whole Kingdom and his Election as much made known in his Diocess by notices affixed on his Cathedral that if any man have an Accusation against him he come and object and then the Clergy in the presence of the People go on to Election and the same is observed at the Ordinations of Presbyters and Deacons who are not and ought not to be received but upon Publick Testimony and which are Ordained at the four Ember-Weeks if Canonically or publick times of the year where every Body has the liberty of access and to speak at pleasure and which is represented as the very course prescribed by the Apostles in this 68 Epistle and recommended as the Practice of many Churches Propter quod diligenter de Traditione Divinâ Apostolicâ observatione observandum est tenendum quod apud nos quoque ferè per Provincias universas tenetur ut ad Ordinationes ritè Celebranda ad eam Plebem cui praepositus Ordinatur Episcopi ejusdem Provinciae proximi quique conveniant Episcopus delegatur Plebe praesente quae Singulorum vitam plenissimè novit unusquisque actum de ejus Conversatione prospexit That the Neighbouring Clergy Convene and the Bishop be assigned in the presence of the People and to which agrees St. Jerome's peculiar Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which to be sure is Argument sufficient of the Church's Practice in the Case in his days That the Hands of the Ordainer were extended stretcht out lay open and abroad at Ordinations Ne scilicet vocis imprecatio Clandestina Clericos ordinet nescientes non lene enim peccatum Ordinationem Clericatus nequaquam Sanctis in lege Dei doctissimis sed asseclis suis tribuere vilium Officiorum Ministris quamquam his dedecorosius est muliercularum praecibus Comment in Isai 58. to make them publick and divulge them lest being secret ignorant Clerks may be Ordained it being a great Sin to lay hands on such as are not Holy and very Learned on their Pages and viler Officers but most of all it is dishonorable and disgraceful when Ordinations are procured by the requests and assignations of Women And it were otherwise unpracticable if all the Clergy of whole Provinces were as by the indispensable Appointment of God and under peril of voiding the whole Action to meet in Person at each Consecration and as unserviceable too much more for the numerous or rather innumerable Multitudes The Nature of things requires some particular appearances nor can the whole be supposed to be a competent witness of their Lifes and Conversations it is sufficient that every one has time and opportunity to implead as occasion or at least may have it if he 'll seek after it and which he ought to do if he knows a just exception and indeed business cannot be done otherwise Universals are nothing they subsist only in Conceit and a digestion of the Brain 't is the Individuation makes Action and the People in general if not reduced to some Orders and Station will be only a confused heap each Body be Cyclopian each Assembly become a Riot fill'd only with disorder and astonishment and the popular Elections of Bishops came so near to it at last that they could be no longer permitted NOR does D. Blondel acquit himself with § XIV more Candor and Ingenuity when contending for the Right of the People or believers as such and in common in electing and assigning each Presbyter and Deacon to his particular Title and Parish of which such the Electors are Members the division of Parishes being but of late as he does acknowledge and when it was otherwise the Bishop had still the Power of sending out the Presbyters in the execution of their Ministerial Office as was the Harvest as Occasion and his Prudence saw fit nor has he any Practice either Apostolical or of 12 Centuries after that the People still placed and fixed their own Minister to infer his Divine and Immutable Right from it Sure I am when Paul and Barnabas were to be separated to a peculiar Ministry and Service in the Church 'T was the Clergy the Prophets and Teachers that we know of sent them away to a People unknown as to their faces Acts 13. and which he thinks so great a Crime nor is there any thing after produced against it And himself does acknowledge that the Presbyters and Deacons were not substituted by the People but the Bishops whose indeed Curates they are for this Thousand years downwards and it will very hardly be found a sufficient proof for its Illegality to say there was no Controversie moved about it before and therefore it was otherwise but not mentioned or in his nauseous impious precarious usual manner of speaking when any thing of this nature pinches him that it was from the Pride and Usurpation fastus indomabilis Pag. 64. of the Bishops and yet he exclaims as if all Religion lay at stake a thorow Degeneracy and Dissolution both in People and Clergy they all become negligent and contemned of one another all the disorder ill manners and failures in Duty is imputed to this one thing whatever inconveniencies in Church are observable and always some there will be all hence arise that the People have not the choosing or refusal of him that is to officiate among them have only the opportunity of bewailing with their Tears a vacancy upon Death but not of repairing it that Odor priscae Disciplinae the Primitive Proceedings being gone become even a stink to the Nostrils of a looser Age the immutable fixed Rule of Christ laid aside and broken or in plain terms according to the Genius
Oath we make Princes the only supreme Governors of all Persons in all Causes as well spiritual as temporal utterly renouncing all foreign Jurisdictions Superiorities and Autorities upon which Words mark what an horrible Confusion of all Faith and Religion ensueth if Princes be the only Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters then in vain did the Holy Ghost appoint Pastors and Bishops to govern the Church if they be Supreme then they are superior to Christ himself and in effect Christ's Masters if in all Things and Causes spiritual than they may prescribe to the Priests and Bishops what to preach which way to worship and serve God how in what Form to minister the Sacraments and generally how Men shall be governed in Soul if all foreign Jurisdiction must be renounced then Christ and his Apostles because they were and are Forreigners have no Jurisdiction nor Autority over England But this is what only the ill Nature and Malice of our Adversaries would have us to believe and assert and give out to the World we do 't is what is and all along has been repell'd with scorn and indignation both by our Princes in their single Persons and in their Laws in Parliament and though some of our Divines have wished the Oath had been more cautiously Penn'd and think it lies more open to little obvious Inferences of this nature than it needs and which amuse the unwary less discerning Reader yet all own and defend it as to the substance and design and intent of it and which is throughly and sufficiently done by the learned Warden in this Treatise as appears by this Specimen or shorter account is now given of it and he that peruses the whole Treatise will find more and John Tillotson Doctor in Divinity and Dean of Canterbury is if not the only yet one professed conforming Divine in our Church that publickly from the both Pulpit and Press has given the Romanist so much ground really to believe we are such as they on purpose to abuse us and delude others give it out we are and complyes so far with their Objection and Calumny just now recited as by Philander drawn up against us gives so much of Force and Autority to it § XIX BISHOP Sanderson in his Treatise now mentioned has a different task from Bishop Bilson the one was to vindicate the Prince that he invades not the Church the other the Bishops or Church that from usurping on the Prince Bishop Sanderson among many other things urged by him and as his Subject requires is express in these Particulars pag. 121. That there is a supreme Ecclesiastical Power which by the Law of the Land is established and by the Doctrine of our Church acknowledged to be inherent in the Church pag. 23. That regal and Episcopal Power are two Powers of quite different kinds and such as considered purely in those things which are proper and assential to either have no mutual relation unto or dependance upon each other neither hath either of them to do with the other the one of them being purely spiritual and internal the other external and temporal albeit in regard of the Persons that are to exercise them or some accidental Circumstances appertaining to the exercise thereof it may happen the one to be some wayes helpful or prejudicial to the other pag. 41. that the derivation of any Power from God doth not necessarily infer the non-subjection of the Persons in whom that Power resideth to all other Men for doubtless the power that Fathers have over their Children Husbands over their Wives Masters over their Servants is from Heaven of God and not of Men yet are Parents Husbands Masters in the exercise of their several respective Powers subject to the Power Jurisdiction and Laws of their lawful Soveraigns pag. 44. The King doth not challenge to himself as belonging to him by virtue of his Supremacy Ecclesiastical the Power of ordaining Ministers excommunicating scandalous Offenders the power of Preaching adminstring Sacraments c. and yet doth the King by virtue of that Supremacy challenge a Power as belonging to him in the right of his Crown to make Laws concerning Preaching administring the Sacraments ordination of Ministers and other Acts belonging to the Function of a Priest pag. 69 70 71. it is the peculiar reason he gives in behalf of the Bishops for not using the King's Name in their Process c. in the Ecclesiastical Courts the occasion of the whole discourse and which cannot be given for the Judges of any other Courts from the different nature and kind of their several respective Jurisdictions which is That the Summons and other Proceedings and Acts in the Ecclesiastical Courts are for the most part in order to the Ecclesiastical Censures and Sentences of Excommunications c. the passing of which Sentences and others of the like kind being a part of the Power of the Keys which our Lord Jesus Christ thought sit to leave in the hands of the Apostles and their Successors and not in the hands of Lay-Men The Kings of England never challenged to belong to themselves but left the exercise of that Power entirely to the Bishops as the lawful Successors of the Apostles and Inheritors of their Power the regulating and ordering of that Power in sundry Circumstances concerning the outward exercise thereof in foro exteruo the Godly Kings of England have thought to belong unto them as in the Right of their Crown and have accordingly made Laws concerning the same even as they have done also concerning other Matters appertaining to Religion and the Worship of God but the substance of that Power and the Function thereof as they saw it altogether to be improper to their Office and Calling so they never pretended or laid any claim thereunto but on the contrary renounced all claim to any such Power or Autority And for Episcopacy it self the Bishop sets down his opinion in a Postscript to the Reader the words are these My opinion is That Episcopal Government is not to be derived merely from Apostolical Practice or Institution but that it is originally founded in the Person and Office of the Messiah our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ who being sent by his Heavenly Father to be The great Apostle Heb. 3.1 Bishop and Pastor 1 Pet. 2.25 of his Church and anointed to that Office immediately after his Baptism by John with Power and the Holy Ghost Acts 10.37 38. descending then upon him in a bodily shape Luk. 3.22 did afterwards before his Ascension into Heaven send and impower his holy Apostles giving them the Holy Ghost likewise as his Father had given him in like manner as his Father had before sent him Joh. 20.21 to exercise the same Apostolical Episcopal and Pastoral office for the Ordering and Governing of his Church until his coming again and so the same office to continue in them and their Successors unto the Worlds end Mat. 28.18.20 this I take to be so clear from these and other like Texts of
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