Publishing them and least of all to say no worse in urging them as the sense and judgment of our Reformers and not to be endured when in opposition to our received and established Church Articles Laws Rubricks and Book of Ordination which and which alone upon the full enquiry and debate each Proposal and Objection and which must be many answered and satisfaction given is to be concluded the sense of every particular Doctor and admit the Conference had been as Doctor Stillingfleet Mistook it appointed by King Edward and his Council and by Law in order to the Reformation and which was began in that King's days the Judgment of the Church of England was to have been reported not from the particular bandyings pro and con amongst them or the draught or draughts of any one or more men and which in their Season was useful nay necessary but from the joynt unanimous result of the whole and which we are sure as to that particular of Church-Power and its Subject ended and united in the Book of Ordination nor upon a general account can those Collections whether in the Cottonian or any Library be in any better repute among us than any other of all the Pamphlets Models of Church and State Government Attempts and Proposals the late unhappy Revolutions in our Kingdom gave occasion to and produced the Condition as to Religion being just such in King Henry VIII days as it was then and the Autorities an Hundred years hence if all shaked in a bag together will be much at one too every man contrived said proposed and wrote as his own either Fancy or Interest or Curiosity or sometimes Reason prompted and directed him and though they may make a Pleasant History with much of diversion yet little of the Sense and Autority of the Nation can be collected and urged from them I am now come to the last of Mr. Selden's § XXIV Friends and our supposed Adversaries those general Tracts De Primatu Regio de potestate Papae regiâ adversus Bellarminos Tortos Becanos Eudemon Joannes Suaresius c. mostly in the days of King James and which were wrote by Lancelot Bishop of Chichester John Collins and the Bishop of Rochester The two last I have not by me nor do I remember I ever saw nor is it of any concern whether I have Bishop Andrews either in order to the answering what is by Mr. Selden brought against him any one that has but heard of that once flourishing Prelate in this Church will easily grant him on our side and much more must he that has read and conversed with his Works find him so and indeed all that Mr. Selden brings out of him and the other two is really ours so far as he reports them to have asserted that the execution of all Ecclesiastical forensick Jurisdiction and by consquence that of Excommunication receives measures and is ruled by the King and his Laws as Head and Moderator and Governor of the Church and Realm and so it ought to be whereas with us the Prince and Realm is Christian and the Church-censures are backed and supported by his Penal Laws in course annexed to and following them the Prince cannot be supposed so void of foresight as to leave himself no Power of inspection in such Proceedings as thus to put his Power into another Man's hands and who is not accountable to him in the Execution Thus the King's Autority is capable of being used against himself and it must in course so happen to his best Subjects 't is that traiterous Position to be abhorr'd and 't is peculiarly provided that it be so and publickly too by the Laws of our Land in the Act for Vniformity of Publick Prayers and it is a great deal more horrible in Church-Affairs as more immediately entitling our Saviour therewith the great abhorrer of all and who we are sure renounced all Pleas in dividing and disposing in Seculars and did all the Power Bishops legally execute in this Kingdom or in others that are Christian belong to them as of Divine Right or was it any other ways so devolved and sixed upon them as thereby enabled in an Arbitrary way of Proceeding without the leave or against the Power of the King with no respect to the Laws and Customs of the Realm to put it in Execution the Bishop and the King thus Independent were also inconsistent any thing or person may and must be inroded and offer'd violence to when the Bishop will and the greatest worldly Punishments next under Capital whenever or upon what Grounds soever he is pleased to Excommunicate be necessarily inflicted this is Imperium cum Jove to erect an Empire within an Empire and no Governments thus divided and distributed can stand and I heartily wish such as upon these Considerations most readily detest it in the Bishop would make their Reflexions in other Persons and Cases also But if Mr. Selden mean as he must do if he continue on the design of his Book that Church-Power and Jurisdiction as such and coming from Christ naked and void of all outward Secular Additions and implies only the forfeiture as a Christian with no one worldly inconvenience no forfeitures of Personal outward Liberty or Estate that the execution and force of this depends on the Prince and Humane Pleasure to temperate restrain and abolish nor is it duly exercised other ways this is overthrown already throughout this Discourse and I 'le only add the Autority of Mr. Selden's mistaken Friend but our real one the great and most learned Bishop Andrews who all along in those very Pages to which Mr. Selden in his Margin refers asserts the quite contrary and the Power of the Prince and the Priest are declared by him two distinct things and not in Subordination he tells us how God instituted in Israel a Kingdom and a Church and which never coaluerunt in unum procul se habuit Imperium ab Ecclesiâ so came together by coalition as to make one but were still diverse and two things had different Works and Offices and thence concludes Conjungi debent Regnum Ecclesia confundi non debent they ought to be united but not confused together and he reckons up the several Offices and Duties of the Prince to take care of Religion in general to see that every Order do their Duties to reprove to correct and coerce in order to it Non licuisse tamen Davidi arcam contingere so Tortus objects upon him and to which he answers Nec regi quidem nostro licet nec ulli aut Sacra administrare aut attrectare quicquam quod potestatis sit mere Sacerdotalis ut sunt Leiturgiae conciones claves Sacramenta arcam figunt suo loco reges attingant post illi quos ea cura tangit ex suscepto munere Ministerii sui But it was not lawful for David to touch the Ark neither is it lawful for our King nor for any either to administer holy things
Mr. Selden so much admires it must blemish our Saviour much to say he purposely call'd together a Church and design'd it none of its own to preserve it Sect. 4. The Jews Excommunication was not bodily Coercive and then there may be such a Punishment an Obligation to Obedience without force and that is not outward and this much more in the Christian Society Sect. 5. And this their Government abstracted from the Civil Magistrate is an Essay of Christ's Government so far of the same Nature to come into the World Sect. 6. The Christian Church might be both from Caesar and Christ as was the Jewish from God and Caesar and there is no thwarting The Jews and Christians distinct Sect. 7. In answer to his main Objection That all Government must be of this World Sect. 8. It is replied To assert Christ to have such a Kingdom is to thwart his design of coming into the World the whole course of his Actions and Government and those Ancients that expected him to come and Rule with them on Earth yet did not believe it to be accomplished till after the Resurrection Sect. 9. To say he therefore has no Power at all is as wide of Truth the way of Men in Error to run from one extreme to another and of Mr. Selden here Sect. 10. The Church is a Body of a differing Nature from others Sect. 11. With differing Organs and Members of its own in Subordination to one another Sect. 12. With different Offices and Duties Gifts and Endowments these either Common to all Believers or limited to particular Persons Sect. 13. As Christians in common they had one Faith into which Baptized and of which Confession was made the Apostles Creed and other Summaries of Faith and sound Doctrine Interrogatories in Baptism How Infants perform it Sect. 14. They had one and the same Laws and Rules for Obedience for which they Covenanted which is their Baptismal Vow the Abrenunciation of the World the Flesh and Devil Sect. 15. One Common Worship and Service and Religious Performance to God in their Assemblies the particular Offices and Duties there the Priest and People officiate interchangeably as in Tertullian Justin Martyr c. Sect. 16. Common Duties and Services as to God so to one another in supplying one anothers Necessities as occasion Sect. 17. In the supply of such as attended at the Altar by a Common Purse deposited in the hands of the Bishop Sect. 18. Of the Poor and Indigent whose Treasurer was the Bishop Sect. 19. The Power Offices and Duties not promiscuous but limited to particular Persons are those of the Ministry distributed into the three standing Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and which make up that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Gospel Priesthood to remain to the Restitution Sect. 20. This Power and Jurisdiction though limited to and residing in these three yet it is not in each of them alike in the same degree force and virtue the Deacon is lowest the Presbyter next the Bishop the full Orders and Vppermost Supreme and including all Sect. 21. Against this Primacy of Bishops that of Metropolitans Exarchy Patriarchy and the Supremacy of Rome is objected Sect. 22. The Metropolitan c. is in some Cases above the Bishop but not in the Power of the Priesthood 't is the same Power enlarged No new Ordination in Order to it Sect. 23. The Vniversal Primacy of the Bishop of Rome is but Pretended not bottom'd on either the Scriptures or Fathers or Councils Sect. 24. 25 26. The Bishops Superiority or full Orders and Power in the Church is reassumed and farther asserted He with his Presbyter or Deacon or some one of them are to be in every Congregation for the Presbyter or Deacon or both to assemble the People and Officiate and not under him is Schism The several instances of this Power of the Priesthood Sect. 27. To Preside in the Assemblies Pray give Thanks for Teach and Govern there No Extempore Prayers in those Assemblies Sect. 28. To Administer the Sacraments the Consecration of the Lords Supper by Prayer and Thanksgiving and Attrectation of the Elements Baptism by Lay-Persons Rebaptizations on what terms in the Ancient Church Confirmation Sect. 29. To Vnite and Determine in Council The use of Councils and Obligation Their Autority Declarative Autoritative Sect. 30. To impose Discipline the several instances and degrees of it in the Ancient Church Indulgencies and Abatements Sect. 31. To Excommunicate or cast out of the Church a Power without which the Church as a Body cannot subsist a natural Consequent to Baptism Priests not excommunicated but deposed Sect. 32. To Absolve and Re-admit into the Church this the design of Excommunication which is only a shutting out for a time in order to Mercy on whom to be inflicted It s certain force in the Execution Sect. 33. To depute others in the Ministry by Ordination the Necessity of it An instance in St. John out of Eusebius St. Clemens Romanus Calvin and Bezae's Opinion and Practice It s ill Consequences Only those of the Priesthood can give this Power to others Sect. 34. The Objection answered and 't is plain the Church is an Incorporation with Laws Rewards and Penalties of its own not of this World nor opposing its Government Sect. 35. The outward stroke is reserved to the Day of Judgment but the Obligation is present If the Church has no Power nor Obligation because not that present Power to Punish or any like it neither has any Law in the Gospel Mr. Hobbs the more honest Man says neither the Ecclesiastical or Evangelical Law obliges His and their Principles infer it Sect. 36. The Power of Christ and his Church cannot clash with the Civil Power because no outward Process till the Day of Judgment and then civil outward Dominion is to cease in its course the present Vnion and Power to be sure cannot this is clear from the several instances of it already reckon'd up Sect. 37. Their Faith is an inward act of the Soul acquitted by Mr. Hobbes and that which is more open Confession obliges if opposed but to dye and be Martyrs Sect. 38. That they Covenant against Sin makes them but the better Subjects Sect. 39. No Man that says his Prayers duly can be a Rebel because first of all to own his Prince and Pray for him The first Christians Innocency defended them when impleaded for Assembling without leave If this did not do they suffer'd Their Christianity did not exempt them from inspection Sect. 40. Charity not obstructive to Government when on due Objects a common Purse without leave dangerous not generally to be allow'd These Christians innocency indemnified them The Divine Right of Titles how asserted Nothing can justifie those Practices but their real Case The Profession of Christianity must otherwise cease Sect. 41 42. Presiding in the Church rises no higher than the Duties exercised 'T is Dr. Tillotson alone ever said To Preach Christ is to Affront Princes
but deposed Sect. 32. To Absolve and Re-admit into the Church this the design of Excommunication which is only a shutting out for a time in order to Mercy on whom to be inflicted It s certain force in the Execution Sect. 33. To depute others in the Ministry by Ordination the Necessity of it An instance in St. John out of Eusebius St. Clemens Romanus Calvin and Beza's Opinion and Practice It s ill Consequences Only those of the Priesthood can give this Power to others Sect. 34. The Objection answered and 't is plain the Church is an Incorporation with Laws Rewards and Penalties of its own not of this World nor opposing its Government Sect. 35. The outward stroke is reserved to the Day of Judgment but the Obligation is present If the Church has no Power nor Obligation because not that present Power to Punish or any like it neither has any Law in the Gospel Mr. Hobbs the more honest Man says neither the Ecclesiastical or Evangelical Law obliges His and their Principles infer it Sect. 36. The Power of Christ and his Church cannot clash with the Civil Power because no outward Process till the Day of Judgment and then civil outward Dominion is to cease in its course the present Vnion and Power to be sure cannot this is clear from the several instances of it already reckon'd up Sect. 37. Their Faith is an inward act of the Soul acquitted by Mr. Hobbes and that which is more open Confession obliges if opposed but to dye and be Martyrs Sect. 38. That they Covenant against Sin makes them but the better Subjects Sect. 39. No Man that says his Prayers duly can be a Rebel because first of all to own his Prince and Pray for him The first Christians Innocency defended them when impleaded for Assembling without leave If this did not do they suffer'd Their Christianity did not exempt them from inspection Sect. 40. Charity not obstructive to Government when on due Objects a common Purse without leave dangerous not generally to be allow'd These Christians innocency indemnified them The Divine Right of Titles how asserted Nothing can justifie those Practices but their real Case The Profession of Christianity must otherwise cease Sect. 41 42. Presiding in the Church rises no higher than the Duties exercised 'T is Dr. Tillotson alone ever said To Preach Christ is to Affront Princes If the Jesuit do let him look to it Christianity is not in fault An entring into or renewing the Covenant at the Font or Altar is no Encroachment on the but Justice of Peace in the Neighborhood Sect. 43. Excommunication and other Censures change no Mans Condition as to this World they have no force but in relation to known Duties Prudence is to rule in the Execution particular regard to be had to Princes Whatever is Coercive annexed is from the Prince Lay-Judges Chancellors c. when first granted by the Empire upon the Bishops Petition The same is Absolution neither innovate in Civil Affairs Sect. 44. Conciliary Acts invade no more than does the Gospel it self That Canons have had the precedency of the Law is by the favour of Princes a Council without local meeting Letters Missive Sect. 45. Ordaining others no more prejudicial to the Crown than the former acts This is Mr. Hobbe's Misapprehension Sect. 46. HAVING produced the chief and first § I Arguments and Autorities that are depended upon and urged in this Controversie an Answer to some of which I have already prevented others fall in pieces of themselves to an easie Capacity the rest I shall indeavour to refute in these following Conclusions and which will tend much to the cleering the whole Subject and I 'le begin with the first and great Error of Mr. Selden and his other Friends and which is laid down and insisted on as the Foundation of the whole ensuing Fabrick We are told that all Punishments both before and after the giving the Law in Sinai from Adam to Christ were bodily and outwardly Coercive and inflictive the distinction of Sins Spiritual and Temporal was not then known nor was there any such different Regiments and Governors in regard to them the Sword punish'd Adulteries as well as Burglary And therefore 't is so still under the Gospel by the Institution of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ nor was there a Jurisdiction separate and apart relating alone to Spiritual Church Affairs designed or erected by him An Inference granting the truth of the Premises surely as wide as their keenest Adversaries can wish it to be and the Consequence had been every ways as due and firm in respect to the Law given by Moses that there were never any such Levitical Rites and Ceremonies given from God by him such a Polity erected because nothing like it that we know of was given to Adam in Paradice nor is there one Rule Law or Direction since given to his Succession the Patriarchs in particular but upon the same force and account must still be exemplary nor ought there can there be any institution that is diverse from them received if a distinct Power from all the World before him be admitted and allowed in Moses the Servant much more in Christ a Son over his own House by whom God hath spoken to us in these last days as in times past he did to the Fathers by the Prophets whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he hath made the worlds who is the bright Image of his Person upholding all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.1 2 3 4 5 6. who had greater Autority more full and larger Instructions and Commission and more signally evidenced to the outward sense of Mankind than any Prophets or Messengers of Gods had before who had all Power in Heaven and Earth committed unto him both spake and acted as never Man did And in the same peculiar manner did he gather and stablish and six his Church or Body upon Earth and at his going away into Heaven send down his own Gifts in the face of all Nations at the Feast of Pentecost erected his own Kingdom appointed his own Officers assign'd his own Members influenced them by his own Spirit governed them by his own Laws associated them in his own Method and nothing of it was of this World He made a new Covenant stablish'd on better Grounds incouraged with better Hopes and Promises instituted new Ordinances made new Seals and Conveyances gave new Liveries and Pledges that were diverse a Government to last for ever till the restitution of all things with a respect to nothing future but Heaven and all this absolute in it self and independent abstract and separate from any or all the Powers and Associations in the world beside complying and yielding to no one Circumstance Exigence or Necessity whatever so contrived and ordained that as himself her Head so the Church his Body and every Member in particular hath life in it self derived only from him their own Powers and
all to his purpose but on the contrary are all against him himself has given so good an account of it that nothing needs here to be added but the recital of his own words whatever Power there is executed in the Church Semper à jure Anglicano civili temperatum est restrictum ut inde planè modos suos limites perpetuò receperit pag. 387. receiv'd modes and rules and limits by the Laws of the Land Prohibitions and Injunctions in order to a search and enquiry whether not destructive to the Prince to the Justice of the Subject and into the merit and demerit of the Cause or Person all follow as naturally as any thing in the World that in a Christian Kingdom where the Church is protected the Power of her Officers asserted and maintained its Acts and Executions assisted and abetted licensed and indulg'd in every thing that may be advantageous to the promoting this Power rendring it considerable and effectual as in the first design institution and purpose of it that the Prince do not wholly denudate and divest himself by his Grants and Concessions that the Church receive Rules back again and not act independently but with a regard to that arm which thus upholds her and 't is to be the care of a Prince that as not himself so nor his Subjects be burdned and oppressed with the vexatious proceedings of the Courts Ecclesiastical by Excommunications or otherways But then as to the force of Mr. Selden's Argument on this Concession I 'le only here use the words of Mr. Thorndike in his Treatise of the Laws of the Church Cap. ult pag. 394. But will all this serve for an Argument that there is no such thing as a Church in the Opinion of Christendom but that which stands by the acts of Christian Powers because they pretend to limit the abuse of it when as the very name of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Title of those Books and those Actions is sufficient Demonstration that they acknowledge and suppose a right to Jurisdiction in the Church which they pretend to limit as the neither Church nor the rest of their Subjects to have cause to complain of wrong by the abuse of it And since Mr. Selden has here Pag. 387. instanced in the first Christian Emperors wee 'l accept of their both rules and limits Laxations and Temperatures as he calls it and who as they never attempted to Excommunicate in their own Power and Persons so neither did they obstruct or declare against in their Laws the Divine immutable Right and Precept of its Institution as is plainly made appear in my Treatise above about it and all that which Mr. Selden has brought to the contrary is only some shew of words and expressions which he has wrested to his purposes as he does here in our Statute-Book and that which he brings of the Rump Parliament Pag. 387. and that Excommunicationi Presbyterali retinacula repagula quae egride ritè ea nequiret diversimodò prudenter assignabant c. they gave Laws and Rules to the Presbyterian Excommunications in their Assembly at Westminster and which though not without some Arguments to the contrary were submitted unto and also of Geneva it self whose Church-Power was thus limited in its Proceedings by State-Rules and for the better Security of the Power all this proves nothing less than what he designs and produces them for for these are the very Men and particular Incorporations as to Faith and Discipline he instances in Pag. 325 326. who assert and defend Excommunication as subjected in themselves and instituted by the preceptive Command and positive Appointment of either Christ and his Apostles or of both and the Inference thence can be only this That a Subordination to the Christian State and submission to the Rules of Policy in the Execution for order and conveniency and the more effectually compassing the end of the Ordinance is not inconsistent as such with the Gospel-Institution it no ways invests the thing it self or Original Power in the State and that which the Assembly-men demurr'd upon when the Parliament laid their Restrictions in all Probability was not that it enterfeired with the Divine Right or encroach'd upon it but as inconsistent with that Omnipotent Power and Self-existent their aim was to erect in their Presbytery or Consistoritorian Seigniority made up of Lay and Church Elders as accountable to none but themselves or the Classis or Synod for the Proceedings of such their Parlour whether King or Parliament demanded it all being there but Subjects that were not by Election of that precise Order and Fraternity and as unlucky an instance he has brought above Pag. 320. out of the Parliament of Scotland III Jacob. VI. Cap. XLV that the Parliament did there Excommunicate also a thing so abhorring to the Kirk and every ways disagreeing to the both humour of those People and it s then present Constitution as reformed by Buchanan and Knox in the height of Calvinism that no one that valued the Reputation of his Book among but easie considering Men would have inserted such a Quotation and yet it serves as well as five hundred more do with which his Margin is all along stuffed § XVI THE next Reason given why there is no such thing as Church-Power distinct and apart but is derived from the Crown is because that Erastus his Works were Licensed by Autority and Printed in the days of Queen Elizabeth by John Wolfe the Queens Bookseller and it stands so Entred in the Booksellers-Hall at London to this day De Syned l. 1. c. 10. Pag. 486. to which I answer that every Book Printed by Richard Royston His Majestie 's now Bookseller and Licensed by Autority is not therefore to be necessarily the sense of the Autority of the Kingdom and the same Latitude was in Licensing Books in the days of Queen Elizabeth as has been since and the same liberty taken Nor is it cleer that the Book was really Licensed by Autority from what Mr. Selden says for the Entrance into the Booksellers-Hall only is that it was reported by Mr. Fortescue to be allow'd by the Archbishop of Canterbury 't is not said that the Archbishop's hand or the hand of any other in Autority was set to the License and Books are not usually Entred for the Press upon a Report that they are Licensed but when a Licence is really not to be had and the Bookseller contrives as good a Plea as he can for his false Entry and surreptitious Impression what is added that the Archbishop had the Book in his Study fairly bound and with a Golden Motto on the outside of it will not do because Heretical it was not fit for many other Studies than his and which is the only thing else urged by Mr. Selden that he Licensed it yet admit it was Licensed duly whether by those viri summi of the Ecclesiastical Order and great Statesmen who got the Copy of Erastus his Widow or of