the main design of this long and tedious Chapter wherein he is not content to vent his errours but he must broach his blasphemies For after he had granted the Ecclesiastical power to be in the Apostles and their successors for about 300 years he tels us T. H. That the Trinity is a threefold representation of God 1. By Moses 2. By Christ on earth 3. By the holy Ghost in the Apostles and this agrees with that of the Divine Apostle There are three that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 1 Joh. 5.7 G. L. This deserves no answer but detestation because it s not onely blasphemous but also devoid not onely of divine but humane learning and no ways to be suffered amongst Christians Having thus determined the proper and just subject of this power for so long a time he proceeds to let us know what this power is T. H. The power of the Church is but to teach to baptize to absolve to excommunicate G. L. The foundation and Rule of all Christian doctrine worship and discipline is briefly and by a wonderful wisdom comprised in those words of our Saviour ready to ascend into Heaven Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mat. 28.19 20. For in those words we are taught 1. What Doctrine we must believe and profess 2. What worship we must perform unto the Deity and how and upon what grounds 3. Who may and who may not be admitted into Christian society and who may and who may not be continued in the same and enjoy all the priviledges thereof Those who being taught profess their faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and promise to obey the commands of Christ may be baptized and solemnly admitted into the Church They who continued to profess their faith to perform their promise of obedience unto Christ might be continued in this society and enjoy the priviledges otherwise not From which words its evident there must be a power to teach baptize absolve excommunicate and also to ordain and design fit persons to do these things and give rules out of the Gospel how they may be done aright This Author first makes void as he conceives all Bellarmines discourse concerning the form of Ecclesiastical government whether it be Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical 2. They have power but to teach The reason why Bellarmines discourse is void is given by him to be this because the Church hath no coercive power If he mean coercive civil by the sword its certain there is no such power Ecclesiastical Neither doth Bellarmine affirm or challenge it but indirecte per accidens Yet he was told before that the execution of the Churches censure is from heaven as it is passed in the name of Christ and by his power 1 Cor. 5.4 And he hath promised whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18.18 This is not in the name of the civil Soveraign nor by the power of the sword And it must be done by some power and this power must be exercised either by one or more or all according to some certain order And Government is nothing but ordo imperii subjectionis 2. That the Church hath but power to teach perswade counsel c. he proves first by his false supposition that Christ doth not reign until the universal Resurrection secondly by that time of Regeneration which he bounds within the terms of Christs ascension and his second coming to Judgement The former argument was grounded upon a false interpretation of our Saviours words and so the later is for by Regeneration in Mat. 19.28 is meant the Resurrection and so it s printed and distinguished in divers coples and so the King of Spains Bibles read it as others also and the sense is they which have followed me shall in the Regeneration that is Resurrection sit upon twelve Thrones c. But suppose that regeneration be not the resurrection Yet it cannot be a time of that continuance as to reach Christs coming to Judgement but only the time of their following Christ which cannot extend beyond his ascention Yet let it be granted that by it is signified the whole tract of time from his ascention till his coming to Judgement it will not follow from that text that Christ doth not raign till that time be expired for he may as he doth raign and exercise many acts of his regal power before he pass the final sentence upon all men and Angels His other reasons are frivolous and not ad idem Yet his last argument save one is That because Christ hath left to civil Governors their power therefore he hath left none to the Church And its true that he hath left no civil power of the sword to the Church yet it doth not hence follow that he hath denyed it the spiritual power of the keyes And here he makes a most abominable digression affirming that we may deny or profess against our conscience and comply with civil powers commanding and forbidding contrary to that which Christ hath commanded and forbidden and so hath taken away the ground of all Martyrdom and razed the very foundation of our Christian confession Besides he seems to put a difference between their power to Preach and their power to Teach but he will not let us know what this difference is And his arguments tend to prove that Ministers have no power to command no authority yet the people are commanded to obey them that rule over them and submit themselves because they watch over their souls Heb. 13.17 And he that heareth them heareth Christ and God that sent him and he that despiseth them despiseth Christ and God that sent him To that purpose we read in Luk. 10.17 And how can this possibly be true if this have no authority no law no sin To teach and preach in such a manner as they who will not hear and obey shall be guilty as contemners of the divine Majesty and so as that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgement then for them is to teach with authority and power and the same no doubt greater then any Prince civil in the world is invested withal For they cannot command so as to make the disobedient liable to eternal penalties He granteth further that they have power to Baptize and by Baptism admit into Christs Kingdom which is a spiritual naturalization and also to absolve and excommunicate yet the former is an act of Legislation the latter of Jurisdiction and how can that be performed without power Thus the man is pleased to confute himself Yet in the acts of Jurisdiction we do not affirm the judgement of the Church to be infallible because they can have no infallible knowledge of the inward disposition of the souls of persons penitent or impenitent Yet sometimes the evidence of the cause is such
alwaies did and ever will manifest the testimony and doctrine of the Gospel to be divine and that is the Holy-Ghost who by his powerful working upon the hearts of men seriously attending to this truth whereby a great change both inwardly in their hearts and outwardly in their lives is wrought doth mightily confirm it And those who find and feel in themselves the effects of sanctification and heavenly comfort can no waies doubt but are assured that God was in the Prophets and Apostles and did speak by them Besides when we consider 1. That the more we understand them the more excellency of wisdom we find in them 2. That these positives are agreeable and no waies contrary to pure morals 3. That they conduce effectually to holiness and eternal life 4. That they were approved received by the best men in the world and sealed with the blood of many Martyrs we must needs be fully satisfied that they are not false feigned fantastick conceits of deluded men and not only so but all these things may perswade any rational man to try upon practise whether they be divine or no. And this never any did but found the Apostles Doctrine to be of God If we had nothing but the universal and perpetual agreement and tradition of the Church of all places and times affirming the Scripture to be the Word of God it were sufficient to produce in a rational man a greater measure of belief then any Book or History in the world can possibly require or deserve For this universal testimony of the best in several parts of the world at such a distance as that they in their time neither heard of nor knew one another makes it more credible then any humane History can be But to return unto Mr. Hobbs I say its possible and not impossible to know the divinity of the testimony or declaration immediately but not of the revelation or matter revealed Yet that such a revelation and such a thing revealed there was is known in some measure by consequence And the divine Authority of this testimony may be infallibly known and that by natural reason yet by it as elevated and more perfected by outward representation and inward sanctification And the matter of the revelation to another together with the manner may be believed though not known For when we once know that God hath revealed it we believe the thing revealed to be true though by artificial and intrinsecal arguments we cannot prove it to be so For the testimony of God may be evident though the thing testified be hidden and above our reason The Conclusion is That we may have an infallible knowledge of the positive Laws of God so far as to know that they are from him and are his Laws and that without particular revelation that they were revealed to another T. H. If the divine positive Law be not against the Law of nature and he undertake to obey it he is bound by his own act to obey it but not bound to believe it For mans belief and interiour cogitations are not subject to the commands but only to the operations of God ordinary or extraordinary Faith of supernatural Law is not a fulfilling but only an assenting to the same it s not a duty but a gift c. G. L. His second question was how a man can be bound to obey supernatural positive Laws whereof he hath no particular revelation that they were revealed to others declaring them To this he answers 1. It must not be against the Law of nature which is the Law of God And its true that the Law of nature is the Law of God and this is a good rule For the positive Laws of God are not contrary to his pure moral Laws which have an intrinsecal rectitude in them 2. He further adds that if he undertake to obey a supernatural positive Law of God he is bound to obey it but not believe it This is very obscure and very absurd For 1. To undertake to obey it seems to be a promise to obey it and this is a voluntary Obligation whereby a man may bind himself to obey it as a divine Law or as no Law or if as a Law yet not as a Law of God and then he doth not obey as he ought to do 3. It is absurd To obey it as a positive Law of God and not believe it to be a Law of God For if he neither know nor believe it to be a Law of God he cannot obey it as a Law of God His obedience is no obedience unto God 4. Whereas it s said That faith is not subject to Gods command it s not a duty it s a gift this must needs be a gross errour For though the active power whereby a man is enabled to believe a divine positive truth be the gift of God yet the exercise of this power and the acts thereof are subject to the Law of God Other wise positive unbelief of a supernatural divine positive Law sufficiently declared and proposed could be no sin It s true that some affirm that the first and natural acts of the soul are not subject to any Law yet these do grant that all practical operations and such assent unto divine truths is be subject unto Law That faith is a duty is apparent because God commands it approves it rewards it and reproves and punisheth unbelief That we may the better understand the drift of this Author in this discourse he produceth the examples of Abraham and Moses declaring positive Laws of God upon revelation made of them which the posterity of Abraham were to obey upon their declaration and thence concludes T. H. That it is manifest and sufficiently appeareth that in a Common-wealth a subject who hath no certain and assured revelation particularly unto himself concerning the will of God is to obey for such the command of the Common-wealth G. L. But 1. It was formerly made manifest that neither Abraham nor Moses were Soveraigns much less Common-wealths 2. A Soveraign civil may declare something to be a Law of God and yet it may be no such thing and declare against a Law and yet it may be and many times it so falls out to be a Law of God and in neither of these cases is the subject bound to obey his Soveraign 3. If that which is declared for a positive Law divine be sufficiently attested especially by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost by undoubted history and universal tradition the matter be agreeable to the Law of nature tends to practise of piety being practised is conducing to an higher degree of holiness and justice and by experience constantly found to be accompanied with rare and excellent effects tending to mans inward and real happiness it is to be believed and obeyed as a divine Law though all the Soveraigns in the world declare against it If a subject do accept the Religion established by the civil Laws of his Countrey he is free from
that an absolute sentence on earth is made valid from heaven And this Jurisdiction exercised according to the Laws of Christ hath alwaies a real effect upon the party judged and that without any co-ercive power civil at all And the effect was comfortable or terrible both unto Believers and Apostates too according as they should be truly impenitent or penitent This power is alwaies in the Church and to be exercised by such as are trusted with that power and fit for such a work And this is the plain truth though the world be on a flame and so many Christians in a cumbustion because of their different opinions concerning the subject of this power But concerning this point I have spoken more at large in another Treatise He goes on to teach us the causes of Excomunication and denies heresie to be any cause though scandal by his own confession be yet heresie is the greatest scandal And here he abuseth that place of Titus 3.10 where it s written A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject where he plainly contradicts the Apostles words As though he had said Reject the heresie not the person whereas the Apostle commands the rejection of the person the Heretick and not only the heresie That some make Articles of Faith which God never made such cannot be excused After this he determines the persons who are liable to excommunication yet so as that he might have been instructed better then he hath instructed us by those who deserve to be his Masters He exempts one Church from the jurisdiction of another so that the one cannot excommunicate the other Yet he doth not inform us what the extent of a Church-Independent is and so leaves the question undecided He also exempts all Soveraign Princes and Assemblies from excommunication yet so as that he most grosly mistakes the nature and effect of excommunication Yet here he staies not but a subject obeying his Soveraigns command is not liable to this sentence neither can it be in this cause and case of any effect if we may believe him This in terminis is false except he mean obedience in licitis The rest of his discourse concerning this particular is frivolous The of the Chapter is taken up and spent in the determination of two points The 1. is making of Scripture Canon and Law The 2. the power of the Pope The power of making Scripture-Canon is given by him unto the Soveraign civil being Christian Yet whether he be Christian or no he hath power to bind his subjects to acknowledge it subpoena temporali But the Scripture is Canonical in it self without any such Law at all As for the controversie concerning the Popes power he undertakes Bellarmine who had often been answered in a far better manner and more effectually by many before him And the truth is both he and the Cardinal run in extreams the one on one side and the other on the other side of the way of truth For that power which the one arrogates to the Pope the other gives to Christian civil powers but both unjustly For Ecclesiastical power is due in some measure unto the Pope but not unto the civil Soveraign The Pope is a Presbyter and a Bishop and some power was due unto him by divine Law But by that which humane Constitutions gave him and by his own usurpation he had ingrossed he was advanced very high To be a Patriarch would not serve his turn but he must be Christs universal Vicar and in the end by that means at length he hooked in the temporal power of the sword But to leave them both in their errours wherein they have entangled themselves before I conclude this Chapter I will say something of Church-officers and the Church-revenue The Church-officers may be conâ—dered either according to their Constitution or Imployment According to the first they were extraordinary or ordinary Extraordinary were such as had their power and gifts more immediately from Christ as Apostles Prophets Evangelists And here by the way we may take notice of two errours and mistakes of the Author 1. In that he affirms Matthias to be made an Apostle by the Assembly of an hundred and twenty Brethren assembled together Whereas from the text its apparent that they did only single out by suffrage two persons whom they conceived so qualified that one of them might if God pleased be made an Apostle for to succeed Judas and refer the case to God by prayer and lot that he might determine whether of the two should be an Apostle to make up the number of twelve Upon the reference God did chuse Matthias and so that he made him an Apostle and refused the other To make an extraordinary Officer was above the power of the Apostles and the Church therefore they did not take it upon them 2. The second errour is That Paul and Barnabas were made Apostles by the Church of Antioch Acts 13.2 3. yet Barnabas in strict sense was no Apostle and Paul was an Apostle before he came to Antioch He was a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle separated to the Gospel of God Rom. 1.1 His calling to be an Apostle was not of men nor by man Gal. 1.1 His separation was twofold 1. From God who separated him from his Mothers womb Gal. 1.15 2. From man as by the prayers and fasting of the Church of Antioch Yet Mr. Hobbs is not afraid to contradict the Scriptures Ordinary officers of the Church who succeeded the extraordinary were Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 Both the ordinary and extraordinary in respect of their employment were either such as were designed for feeding of the soul by Prayer Word Sacraments and were to perform the acts of doctrine worship discipline or for feeding of the body and outward relief and such were Deacons After that the number of Christians were increased and devided into Congregations the Pastors and Teachers were set over their several Congregations and Flocks assigned unto them and these were called Elders Now the Question is who in a Christian Common-wealth have power to make constitute ordain these ordinary Officers The Common-wealth saith he the Church say others He confesseth that the Church did exercise this power till civil Soveraigns became Christian and then both the power and exercise thereof ceased to be in the Church if we may believe him but his credit is not much and with me his Authority is none To determine this question we must observe that its one thing to be a Pastor Minister or Presbyter another thing to be the Pastor of a certain congregation and another to have a right to some temporal revenue or dignity annexed A Minister was constituted in all well-ordered Churches to this day by the Church The Church and such as the Church doth trust doth chuse him try him approve him and ordains him And by the nomination approbation ordination of the Church according to the will of Christ all Presbyters
this kind of learning far excelled him yet he thinks it clear and the best and most rational though it neither agree with reason or Religion And though his hope is not much yet some hope he hath some Soveraign may put it in practice If they have no better directions they may make use of his principles as some have done to their ruine Princes and Ministers of State have no need to be taught them for they know them too well and follow them too much Of a Christian Common-wealth CAP. I. Of the third part the 32. of the Book Of the Principles of Christian Politicks MR. Hobbs in the former part seemed to have some use of his Reason but in this he is like unto such as are lunatick though now and then he hath his Lucida Intervalla And whether he hath done thus out of ignorance or design I know not but this I know that he is deeply guilty of Errour and presumption He hath taught us little that is good and solid much which is dangerous and damnable The judicious Reader if any such will vouchsafe to read him will reject and that with scorn and indignation many things in the Book but some simple giddy fools especially in these Lunatick times may be taken with his fooleries and blasphemies His design is to take all power from the Church Dethrone Christ and confer all spiritual power in matters of Religion upon the civil Soveraign and this directly contrary to express Scripture He hath turned the Pope out of his infallible Chair and transformed soveraign civil Princes and Rulers into Popes and to them in highest points which concern out eternal salvation we must captivate our judgement It seems to be a fault to spend any time in answering him and for the same I may be censured either as a fool or as one ill-imployed yet because his doctrine though it can do no good yet may do hurt and that to many I will yet but briefly say something to him The very Title of this part is ambiguous and as he here understands it uncouth For he determines the subject to be a Christian-Common-wealth and in that sense as not any other hath taken it For a Christian-Common-wealth is either a Government of Christians as Christians and that is called the Church either as universally considered subject unto Christ her Lord and King or as it is divided into several particular associations under some form of Discipline and Christian its called most usually as believing and professing the faith of Christ exhibited or else it s a Common-wealth civil which hath publikely received and acknowledged the Christian Faith Neither of these wayes doth he understand it For with him a Christian Common-wealth is such a State wherein the people depend upon and must absolutely submit unto the soveraign civil professing himself a Christian as infallible in all matters of Doctrine Worship Discipline and he derives the Authority of the Canon of the Scripture from him yet neither Reason nor Scripture ever taught him any such Doctrine But let us hear what he professeth for thus we read in him T. H. And this Scripture it is out of which I am to take the principles of my Discourse concerning the rights concerning those who are the supreme Governours on earth of Christian-Common-wealths and of the duty of Christian subjects towards their Soveraigns This is the substance as it is the Conclusion of his first Chapter The Rule of all discourse that is true must be the Word of God either natural or prophetick as he expresseth himself The prophetick word we Christians do affirm to be contained in the Scriptures which once granted to be the word of God written must of necessity be believed as infallibly true by a natural principle That God is true and truth it self not accidentally but Essentially That the Prophets and Apostles knew them immediately to be the word of God he seems to confess But how we know them to be so is a question The signs or Rules to know a true Prophet from a false he hath assigned to be two 1. The matter of the Revelation 2. The miracles done for confirmation But of this in the former part that which is sufficient hath been said By Scripture we understand the word of God written to be written is but an adjunct to the word of God which is the word of God and may be so though never written yet it pleased God to cause it to be written that it might be preserved more pure and entire and be continued as a lasting Monument and record in the Church and as he directed the Prophets and Apostles in the speaking of it to be infallible so he likewise made them infallible in the writing Words and writings are but signs of that which God revealed they understood declared and that by us being truly understood and rightly applyed according to the intention of the Revelation ought to be our Rule But if this be misunderstood and misapplyed as by this Author they are they cannot direct us mislead us they may And here we must distinguish between the entire Canon of the Scripture and the principal and intended matter therein contained as necessary to salvation The Canon is so many ways and so strongly confirmed that no other Book in the world can be in this respect parrallel with it and it were irrational to reject it The books of this Canon are usually distinguished into three kinds Historical Prophetical Doctrinal In the Historical part that which may seem to be most incredible is far more credible then many things commonly and generally believed in all Religions and upon far less probable grounds This the Ancient Fathers and Divines have made evident against the greatest Schollars of the world who did except against these Books And in particular Cyril against Julian The Prophetical hath been proved in a great part by God himself to the least particulars fulfilling what he hath foretold The Doctrinal part is either Moral or Positive Morals few rational men do question because they have some affinity with the internal Principles of natural Reason The Positives are such as Reason cannot reach and therefore required at the first publication at least some extraordinary confirmation that Reason might be certain they were revealed by God These Positives are that the Son of God was incarnate that he by the sacrifice of his body and death upon the Cross did expiate the sin of man That he rose from the dead ascended into Heaven sits at the right hand of God and Reigns in Heaven and Earth shall come to judge both quick and dead c. The Signs and Wonders done by the Apostles the Gifts of the Holy Ghost and Gods powerful working of the Spirit upon the souls of men upon the preaching hearing and receiving of these Positives did sufficiently testifie they were from Heaven For in confirmation of the Positives not the Morals these things were done by God The matter of them is such as
because God hath said it That the place is not this earth we have some reason to think because our Saviour ascended into heaven and whilest he was on earth made intercession for us saying Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am John 17.14 And to comfort the hearts of his Disciples sad and troubled because he said he must leave them he useth these words In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also John 14.23 If eternal life shall be enjoyed on earth why need Christ ascend to heaven there to prepare a place for us and when he shall return from thence why will he not stay here and leave us on the earth and never trouble himself with any translation of us into any other place where he shall ever abide and we be ever with him Hell in Scripture and as we understand God in that Book to teach us is an estate directly contrary to eternal life And we believe that it is a most miserable condition of such as shall suffer eternal punishments and that in some certain place and our chiefest imployment in this life is to use all means whereby we may be freed from that condition and enjoy the contrary Concerning the particular ubi and distinct place we do not as we need not much trouble our selves To prove that both eternal rewards are to be enjoyed and eternal torments to be suffered perpetually on earth he doth most wofully wrest and abuse several places of Gods Book and with so little solidity of judgement that children may answer him And because this eternal life is prepared by God for such as are by reason of their sin in danger of hell and eternal death therefore in Scripture it s sometime called salvation and also redemption which is a freedom and deliverance from all the evil consequents and effects of sin one and the principal whereof is to be deprived of eternal bliss which consists in full communion with our God Yet the consummation of both these conditions is reserved by God for the world to come which will follow the universal resurrection The times of the Gospel in respect of the Law may be called the world to come and so some understand the words of the Apostle to the Hebrews 2.5 where we read that God hath not unto Angels subjected the world to come c. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sometimes it s taken for the time following the resurrection and final judgement as Mark 10.39 Luke 18.30 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redemption is taken in another sense for the expiation of sin upon satisfaction made by Christ unto his heavenly Father as supreme Judge who accepted his death as a sufficient penalty to avert his wrath and procure his mercy for all such as should believe on him In this Chapter he hath imposed upon many places of Scripture a sense never intended and this may be evident to any that can and will examine the places according to the originals and the context And he drives at this to deprive Christ of his regal power which at the right hand of God he now doth exercise and to invest civil powers with it till such time as he hath brought Christ from heaven that he may here on earth begin his personal raign Sr. Thomas Mores Vtopia is somewhat rational this discourse is void of reason and so much the more unsufferable as the matter is so sublime and this sacred Book of God so much profaned by him CAP. VIII Of the third Part And the 39. of the Book Of the significations of the word Church in Scripture IN the former Chapter he turned heaven and hell into the earth and in this he hath transformed the Church which is a spiritual politie into a civil State and that will easily appear from his definition of this excellent and divine Society T. H. A Church is a company of men professing Christian Religion united in the person of one Soveraign at whose command they ought to assemble and without whose authority they ought not to assemble G. L. Many are the significations of the word Ecclesia in the Scriptures of the New Testament as it is applyed to Christians which he hath in part yet not fully observed Yet amongst them all from the beginning to the end of the New Testament its never found to be taken in this sense for as he hath not so he cannot alledge one place where it so signifies This definition is such as never any gave before you can read it in no Author neither can you prove it out of Scripture Only the first words seem to have something of a description but it s no perfect explication of the quiddity and nature of the Church Christian For that is a society or community of persons who believe in Jesus Christ and subject themselves unto him as their Lord and King A bare profession will not make a man a subject of this spiritual Kingdom A sincere profession of that faith which is seated and rooted in the heart comes up higher and is more fit to express the being of a Member of this Church This Church as Catholick or Universal subject unto Christ is like a similar body and therefore the parts may bear the name of the whole as the Church of Corinth the Church of Ephesus and the Church in such an house Some part of this Church is under a form of discipline to be exercised in foro exteriori as the School-men and Casuists use to speak some parts are not so happy For this is not of the Essence of a Church It s not of the being though it tends to the well-being of the same Some of these are subject unto a civil Soveraign who is a Christian some are not For as a Christian State may have Heathen or Mahumetan subjects so Christians may be under the civil power of an Heathen or Mahumetan Prince Both these therefore to be under a form of discipline and subject to a Christian civil power are but accidental and these accidents are separable and often actually separated and therefore I know no reason why they should be part of a perfect desiâ—â—tion or so much as mentioned in it This may be sufficient for to discover the vanity of the man and the absurdity of the definition Yet notwithstanding his definition be faulty I for my part do grant that Jus religionis ordinandae doth belong to all Civil Governors and powers But with limitation 1. That no Soveraign hath power to order maintain and promote any Religion but that which is instituted from heaven 2. That they must not intermeddle with it for to order it further then its ordinable by the sword which cannot reach Religion and
are made publick officers of the Church and separated to their function of publick preaching praying administration of the Sacraments Neither is there any place in all the New Testament where it can be proved that either Christ or his Apostles who had this power did ever derive it to the State or Civil Soveraign whether Christian or no Christian That every civil Soveraign hath power to preach baptize ordain and perform all Ministerial acts and that as a publick Officer is an impudent assertion and contrary to the Book of God is evident from that reason given by him why they use not to do these things which is because the business of the Common-wealth takes up their whole time Yet he that will be a Minister must watch over his flock be as souldiers who going to war must not entangle themselves with the affairs of this life 2 Timothy 2.4 As he must have sufficient knowledge in those things which belong unto his calling and integrity of life so he must engage himself to Christ and his Church to lay aside all other employments to feed Christs flock and this must take up his whole time To entangle himself with other business and so neglect his charge is to be unfaithful and in effect renounce his calling From this false principle it is that so many who have a little more knowledge in Scripture then ordinary Christians of the lowest form a bold face and voluble tongue take upon them to preach and presume to perform other Ministerial duties although they be souldiers or civil Magistrates or Tradesmen or all together These will be Elders and Ministers although they entangle themselves with the affairs of this life as though the Holy-Ghost had made them Over-seers to feed his Church purchased by his blood But wo unto them when they shall appear before the tribunal of Christ to give their last account But consider a Minister as he hath a temporal right unto some temporal revenue dignity jurisdiction the Church hath nothing to do with him The Church looks after his spiritual qualification and capacity After that Emperours and civil powers endowed the Church with a certain revenue and annexed unto Bishopricks civil jurisdictions and temporal dignities there was some reason why the presentation and investiture should belong unto them but there was no such thing from the beginning The maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel is determined by this Author to be benevolence yet at length convinced by the arguments of the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. He confesseth that it was such a benevolence as was due and that the Flock was bound to maintain their Pastor By which confession he hath answered his own allegation Freely give because you have freely received Mat 10.8 which place is abused by him as it is by the enemies of the Church at this day For as by him so by them it s understood and applyed as though our Saviours meaning had been That because they gave nothing for their gifts and authority so they must neither demand nor receive any thing for the use of them And by this means they make our Saviour to contradict himself for afterwards he saith That the workman and such is every Minister is worthy of his meat ver 10. of his hire Luk. 10.7 From whence Paul informs us That Christ ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 And therefore according unto this Ordinance of Christ he commands That he who is taught in the Word communicate to him who teacheth in all good things Gal. 6.6 From all which its very evident that maintenance is due to Ministers and that by a Law and the same divine and far more obliging then any civilact in the world And if Christian people had a propriety in their goods as of this there can be no doubt this might easily make this maintenance competent comfortable and certain and that without any Law of the civil power and they were bound so to do When Christian Princes endowed the Church with titles they did but their duty and they conceived that no better way of provision could be devised by the wit of man Neither can any Antidecimarian to this day inform us of a better Yet if we be once Ministers we are bound to preach the Gospel though we beg our bread But woe unto them who shall deny it or take it out of our mouths CAP. XII Of the third Part. And the 43. of the Book Of what is necessary for a mans reception into the Kingdom of heaven IT is evident from our Saviours commission unto his Apostles Mat. 28.19 20. That profession of faith and promise of obedience to him gave any person right unto Baptism by which we are solemnly admitted into the Church which is Gods spiritual Kingdom And faith with obedience and obedience from faith makes us capable of eternal life And because we can neither believe nor obey sincerely without regeneration from heaven therefore our Saviour saith That except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 If Mr. Hobbs had said no more but that faith and obedience are necessary for reception into Gods Kingdom he had done well but he returns unto his vomit and resumes some of his former errors formerly confuted I wish him more knowledge and more modesty FINIS