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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35696	Jus Cæsaris et ecclesiæ vere dictæ or, A treatise wherein independency, presbytery, the power of kings, and of the church, or of the brethren in ecclesiastical concerns, government and discipline of the church : and wherein also the use of liturgies, tolleration, connivence, conventicles or private assemblies, excomminication, election of popes, bishops, priests what and whom are meant by the term church, 18 Matthew are discoursed : and how I Cor. 14. 32. generally misunderstand is rightly expounded : wherein also the popes power over princes, and the liberty of the press, are discoursed / by William Denton ...	Denton, William, 1605-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing D1066; ESTC R9164	326,898	268

his own sanctions and to publish and teach his truths or to contradict impede or alter any of his Laws which are so Righteous and just that they may be exercised and practised under any worldly Government without clashing with it or interrupting it the Subjects of whose Kingdom being true to the Principles of Christian Religion viz. to love one another even their Enemies and their neighbours as themselves to do justly to love mercy to obey Kings and all that are in Authority in all civil and moral affairs and to pray for them and pay tribute c. can never fairly be accounted as seditious Separatists Schismatical or Trayterous or that they worshipping God innocently according as Christ himself hath instituted can be justly liable to Bonds Mulcts Imprisonments or can come under any other Jurisdiction as to their Worship and Service of God It is true the Jews did hate him de facto the chief Priests Sadduces Scribes and Pharisees being the chief Inquisitors and Instigators did by Menaces Prohibitions Prisons Dungeons Beatings Stonings what not Forbid him his Apostles and Disciples to publish his Gospel or teach in his Name Nay they did not use force only but craft also and yet all would not do They took Counsel how they might intangle him in his talk and sent unto him some of their own Disciples to catch him about paying of Tribute to Caesar 22 Mat. 15.12 Mark 13 14. Accused him of Blasphemy 14 Mark 64. and of perverting the Nation and for forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar for stirring up the people teaching throughout all Jury 23 Luke 2.5 And if we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and will take away our place and Nation 11 Joh. 48. And yet for all this and more when some of the Pharisees spake to Christ to rebuke his Disciples for praising God for all the mighty works they had seen answered that if these should hold their peace the Stones would immediately cry out 19 Luk. 37.40 Did his Apostles and Disciples speed better than their Master I trow not They falsly accused Steven of Blasphemy and stoned him 7 Acts. The High Priest with the sect of the Sadduces put the Apostles in Prison for Preaching the Gospel but God sent an Angel by Night who opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and maugre all their rage against them commanded them to go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life and they accordingly without dread of farther Persecution and without asking leave of any Authority entred into the Temple early in the Morning and taught and when the Captain of the Temple had found them so teaching brought them again before the High Priest who strictly charged them that they should not teach in the Name of Jesus Christ for that they had filled Jerusalem with his Doctrine intending to bring his Blood upon them As high and as home a charge I confess as can be laid against any now What answer made they we ought to obey God rather then man Though they were cut to the heart at this convincing and unanswerable repartie and took Council to slay them Yet when Gamaliel had advised them that it was hard sighting against God they followed his advice and did refrain from them and let them alone on this grand reason for if this Council or this work be of Men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found to sight against God And to him they agreed yet beat them and command●d that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the Council but yet ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ daily in the Temple and in every house 5 Acts 17.42 I 'le trouble you with no Applications or Reflections do but turn the Tables awhile and consider that if all the Reproaches Calumnies Lies and Slanders cast on our worthy Prelates and Priests of late should be taken for truth and they thereupon silenced and deprived without being impleaded or convicted would they not think themselves very hardly dealt withal And was not such their case fresh yet in our own memories And was it unjust then in them And is it just now in others because the Scene is altered and the Tables turned Doth God pervert Judgment Or doth the Almighty pervert Justice 8 Job 3. And shall we follow such examples of Men vile Men perverting all Judgment and Justice Absit It is unbeseeming no See episcopal no not that of Rome it self nor indeed any of that most reverend Coat high or low to become Servants unto all that they may gain the more nor to be made all things to all Men that by all means they might save some nor yet to humble themselves to all wayes and means conducing to the gaining of Souls to Jesus Christ no nor to warn every one night and day in Church or Conventicle with tears and from House to House 20 Acts 20. Cura animarum being undoubtedly the main duty and glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1.2 For hereunto most especially if not only they are called as was Aaron and if not called to this duty they are called unto none as I know of by any Patent or Commission from Heaven Salvation and Damnation of Souls is of everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every Individual and is it not reasonable then that every Man should have Liberty and free Access to that Ministry whether Publick or private under which he can profit most Moreover if causeless fears and jealousies that Conventicles may Nurse and nuzzle up a faction averse to present Constitutions and to preserve a party in animosity against the establisht Government of Church and State and that their Pastors will abuse their callings to the subversion of Church and State if such reasonings may prevail happily all the Orders of the Church and all the Ordinances of God nay Scripture it self may be forbidden as in the Church of Rome by the very same Logick For if a thing Lawful in it self may be forbidden out of causeless fears and jealousies only of being abused no Man can be assured of the exercise and enjoyment of his calling whether Priestly or Prelatical though never so Warrantable never so strictly commanded by the word of God It is not unworthy of consideration whether a Divine Precept so Solemnly binding conscience with a VVo attending the non-performance of the duty enjoyned can Lawfully be superseded by any humane Law for fear only that evil may ensue Besides this liberty is indulged to them in some Popish Countries as in France Poland Germany and even by Mahumetans and is it not bitter then to be wounded in the house of

JUS CAESARIS ET Ecclesiae vere dictae OR A TREATISE WHEREIN Independency Presbytery the Power of Kings and of the Church or of the Brethren in Ecclesiastical Concerns Government and Discipline of the Church AND Wherein also the use of Liturgies Tolleration Connivence Conventicles or Private Assemblies Excommunication Election of Popes Bishops Priests what and whom are meant by the Term CHURCH 18 Mathew are discoursed AND How 1 Cor. 14.32 generally misunderstood is rightly expounded Wherein also the Popes Power over Princes and the Liberty of the Press are discoursed By William Denton M. D. M. q. R. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by John Kersey and Henry Faythorn at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1681. TO THE READER IT is impossible but that the pressing home of such truths of such nature as this Treatise is compiled of must necessarily traverse and thwart the Interests grandeur profit and affections of some Men who have or are apart of the body of Government in this and other Nations and therefore no Man can be fit for such an incounter who is not above all hopes and fears it being almost impossible to find a Person so espoused to publick good and publick truths in which there shall not be some that will hate and threaten and persecute him when they apprehend that he shall oppose the design of their private Profit Grandeur Domination or other Interests tho but by demonstration of plain truths how necessary and clear and just soever they be according to Amos 5.10 They hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and abhor him that speaketh uprightly for which reason I must confess my self Impar negotio not in any measure so qualified and yet have attempted it * Dedisti timentibus te vexillum quo utuntur propter veritatem potentissimè Psalm 60. as boldly as if I were and tho I have suffered in this kind before by the foul mouths and bitter pens of R. P. I. S. P. W. and others and by tongues sans Nombre in all places and companies and tho I expect the same fate again for that great inquiries have been made and great diligence used to trace me from my youth to find out the Irregularities and Aberrations thereof which have not been few they have now spit their Venom and done their worst and I am at a point such revenge being at best but savage justice and I have learnt from 51 Esay 7. Not to fear the reproach of Men nor to be afraid of their revilings which can reach the Body only not the Soul Besides I am confident that neither God nor yet common humanity or common justice will permit Truth and innocent plain dealing to have such ill hap nor Vertue such misfortune even in this World that Fame and Infamy should always depend and be at the disposition of the black tongues and pens of Malevolents tho Ecclesiasticks or great Persons It is not my Person but the Truths which always carry their own Shields and Bucklers I have published that hath already galled some I shall here only commit to their considerations that to Calumniate the Defenders of Apostolick Doctrines and of the just rights and powers of Princes and Civil Magistrates is obliquely to Calumniate Christ himself and Kings and Supream Magistrates Defenders of the Faith themselves Darts many times being as equally fatal by a glance as if darted in a direct line my comfort is that Truth is alwayes pleasing unto God and in some sence is the Eternal Word of God and ought so to be acknowledged by every individual and falshood and untruths displeasing unto Him and unto all good and pious Men and no Man can receive injury from the Truth that doth not ground himself upon falshoods Truth being always one and the same thing and falshood infinite Truths ought to be submitted unto not out of constraint only but out of willingness and love to embrace them not only for the Evidence but for the Author and goodness of them and it is our duty willingly to resign our judgments to be captivated unto all kinds of saving Truths even to the extirpating of those presumptions prepossessions and principles of corruption which use to smother and cloud and adulterate Divine Truths And to calumniate punish or discountenance defenders of Divine Truths seasonably spoken doth not become nor is it wont to be done by any pious just or prudent Majestrates but the contrary and it is no Gospel Principle for any Man how great and how Ecclesiastick soever to stir up envy against another but upon sure and true grounds Zorobabel obtained honour and favour of King Darius and all his Nobles above his Competitors for wisdom for that he preferred and declared Truth to bear away the Victory above all things 3 Esdras 3.12 All the Earth calleth upon Truth Heaven blesseth it all Works shake and tremble at it and with it is no unrighteous thing Wine Women Kings are wicked and such are all their wicked works and there is no Truth in them and they shall perish in their unrighteousness Truth endureth and is always strong it liveth and conquereth for ever with her there is no accepting of persons or rewards but she doth the things that are just and refraineth from all unjust and wicked things and all Men do well like of her Works neither in her judgment is there any unrighteousness and she is the Strength Kingdom Power and Majesty of all Ages Blessed be the God of Truth At which Declaration all the People shouted and said great is Truth and mighty above all things It is also alike impossible to please all Men. I never put pen to paper with any such presumption or hopes the best Men and the best Christians is my chiefest design to gratifie but even in that also I fear I shall miss much of my aim and desires divers Men tho good Men having divers judgments and divers interests and according to divers Lights have divers understandings and Ecclesiasticks as well as others are subject to the Inchantments of Passion Ends Interest and Parties Tho I am no Prophet nor yet Son of a Prophet yet I do foresee that there is a Generation of Men worthy and learned who tho of different perswasions among themselves in affairs of their own function that yet will all unite and center in censuring of me as if I leapt out of my own Province into theirs to visit their transactions but I have learnt of St. Austin that it is arrogance in no Man either to seek or assert truth it being an equal Crime of the same nature both to conceal truth and divulge untruths The Protestant Clergy I doubt not but will acknowledge that it is evers Man's duty and concern to be a good Christian and as Christians their undeniable right to try Spirits and to examine by the Scriptures whether the things our Priests do teach us are so in truth or no. The Apostles themselves did subject their Preachments

visited and looked into for the Iic preservation and Peace of the State for that they being of such different minds and tempers cannot assemble together without eminent and notable danger if the Prince be not always made privy with what passeth among them in their Assemblies and Congregations and therefore they ought to be treated according to the danger that necessarily attendeth such Innovations § Cautilousness is the sinews of wisdom Farilior cautio est ubi manifesta formido And nothing is more dangerous than to be secure in matters of State In some Forreign Countries every Hoast is bound to bring his travelling guest before an Officer there to certifie his Name with the occasion of his coming and intended time of aboad in those parts And in case he stay longer he must again renew his Licence so curious and vigilant also are they to keep their City from Infection that without a Certificate witnessing their coming from wholsom places they may not escape the Lazaretto How more watchful ought Magistrates to be to prevent the Contagion of the Souls of their Subjects and therefore in prudence they ought to inspect and supervise all Pastors and Teachers High and Low that no mischief or disturbance to the quiet State of the Realm be contrived hatched or fomented by their Doctrine or Discipline § In Tuscany when Pius the 4th attempted to give the Office of Inquisition to the Friers of St. Dominic Cosmo the great Duke would not consent why Because those of that Order took part with the Enemies of the House of Medices when they were driven out of Florence Anno. 1494. The same reason and example holds with us and do shew that there ought an Account to be made to the King of all such as are recommended to him either for Orders or Preserments that he may be fully satisfied that their Piety and Duty towards their Prince and Religion the Christian life of the People and the Devotion of the Ecclesiasticks themselves towards their natural Prince and Country may not be prejudicial to their quiet State § Besides these grand reasons of State against Conventicles the 32 Canon of those stiled Apostolical doth Ordain Si quis Presbyter c. deponatur quasi principatus amator existens est enim tyrannus c. Canon 32. That if any Presbyter contemning his Bishop shall colligate a part and erect another Altar of which nature Conventicles are Deponatur as a lover of Empire for he is a Tyrant All which reasons do perswade that Common-wealth Christian or not Christian may for good and sound reasons suppress Conventicles of a dangerous consequence that are really and truly so but not out of fears and jealousies that they will prove so For holy Writ seems very much to favour and warrant Meetings or Conventicles of the Brethren Subjects of any Kingdom solemnly meeting in the name and fear of God either with or without a Priest to the end that their mutual edification among themselves and quickening one another to zeal and constancy in true Faith Piety and Religion and the preserving themselves against Apostacy may thereby be advanced and reinforced No doubt but that many excellent advantages may accrew thereby as provoking one another to love and to good works mutual observance and communicating of each others dispositions tempers gifts experiences vertues failings that they may the better sit themselves to do one another good or to receive comfort and consolation one of another in such Christian Conversation Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is by which expression he seems to rebuke those that did forsake such Meetings but exhort one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching 10 Heb. 24 25. which place together with the practice of the Apostles doth not warrant Publick Assemblies only but also the Private Meetings of Christians for mutual conference and exhorting one another which are not to be neglected nor forsaken but to be used for preserving unity in the Church but not to foster Schism Separation Treason Rebellion or to hinder the more publick Assemblies More fully to the same purport is 1 Cor. 14.23.24.25 to 33. whosoever seriously considers first that this Epistle is wrirten to the Church of God in general and not to Priests which is at Corinth and to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours and then that all the Documents Doctrines and Intimations in that Chapter specified relating to spiritual gifts to prophesying and speaking with tongues are directed to the Brethren and Church in general if therefore the whole Church be come together into some place and all speak c. V. 23. may with good consequence and deduction conclude that all solemn Conventicles and Meetings tending to edification whether 5 or 5000 or whether with or without a Priest are thereby warranted and that it is a fundamental right due to all Christians and a duty incumbent on them all so to congregate and so to glorify God and edify one another and the very order deportment and decency of such Assemblies is therein described and pourtraied out These being the Commandments of God V. 37. with what good conscience then can any discountenance or speak against such Congregations when the same duty is certainly as incumbent upon them that discountenance and speak against them as upon those that countenance or frequent them Is it because they are afraid of the breath of fools to be accounted Puritanical Presbyterian or Independent or that because they think every man in Hell that is worse than themselves or those that are better but in a fools Paradise or that by so frequenting they should crush Arts of compliance plausibility ambition and preferments or that they are afraid of being righteous overmuch what is this else but Demas-like to forsake the fellowship of Saints and to embrace this present World making the Souls of men the most precious thing that ever God created subordinate to their lusts and risings and Balaam-like for hope of honour or preferment become more senseless of Gods Command than was his dumb Ass and like Micha's Levite for a little better reward swallow down Theft and Idolatry flatter profaneness betray the truth of the Gospel and smother and dissemble the strictness and purity of Gods most holy ways § Consider that all Instruction and Edification is not from Priests nor out of Pulpits only Apollos Minister of Caesarea and of Iconia was an eloquent man mighty in the Scriptures instructed in the way of the Lord fervent in the spirit who spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord and spake boldly in the Synagogue and yet Aquila and Priscilla his Wife Tent-makers when they heard him took him home and expounded unto him the way of God more

Christians have to study each others good to endeavour the conversion and confirming of one another Tu autem conversus confirma fratres It is a general Command to all and consequently a duty perpetually obliging to desire earnestly spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesie according to 1 Cor. 1.14 in which Chapter by Prophets is not meant the Clergy only as it is generally so misunderstood but all Christians in general and by Prophesying is meant speaking unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort V. 3. the duty of every individual And I do not know but that a solemn private Assembly of Christians met in these our days in the name and fear of God exercising holy duties and Ordinances is as true a Church in Gospel understanding as the like number so congregated in the days of Christ and his Apostles according to Matth. 18. These things rightly considered I cannot but wonder and that not without some astonishment with what face or shew of conscience any especially of our Protestant Clergy for in our Alternate changes they have been all some way or other this way culpable whether Prelate Presbyter or Independent all striving to set up themselves can countenance advise or any way consent to forbid such Assembling is it not enough that submission to the present Established Government of Church and State be the qualification to all Ecclesiastical Livings and Preferments for those that can and will submit and conform thereto but they must silence dissenters as truly worshipping and serving God in truth as themselves tho happily not so modishly nor yet so Ceremoniously I pray God forgive them and that the Character of Whited wall given to the High Priest by St. Paul may never be their doom § In things indifferent and good so they be liberal and free it may so happen that an error may be committed against the Princes command but for those duties that are expresly commanded by God the 5. Acts 29. It s better to obey God than Man must take place Consider the contrary if a Prince command lawful things must we notwithstanding have license from another to obey him and without it is it a Non licet And shall not Gods Commands be lawfully obeyed without license from another Nature in all her sinal drifts giveth also such faculties and powers as are requisite and necessary for attaining the same and shall God prescribe an end and Commandments and shall they not be obeyed and put in practice without the favour and license of men Absit its too absurd and inconvenient I have been the freer herein because I have been so far from frequenting or countenancing such Assemblies by my presence that I have been but once at any one of them above these 20 years nor do I converse with any of them Happily I can conform with better satisfaction to conscience than they can that so congregate It is hard kicking against the Pricks Acts 26.14 and ill offending little ones a heavy doom lyes at the doors of such for their Angels do alwayes behold the face of God in Heaven Mat. 18.10 you know the charge was given to Kings themselves saying touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm 105 Psal 14.15 stopping such mouths is injurious to God and man Doth the Law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth 9 John 51. The sum then is that as all Men and Doctrines condemning sin and wicked lives are to be tollerated nay encouraged So to stop the Mouths and Pens of such is to hinder them from doing their duty and from obeying the Laws and Commands of God Now if such should in truth prove to be the very case of our Conventiclers and that their solemn meetings together be in good earnest for the better and not for the worse to wrestle with God with strong and importunate prayers for the Welfare of King and Kingdom of Church and State and to mourn not only for their own personal Sins but for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the Land and to preach Jesus Christ and him Crucified only and that he would make a high way of Holiness through the Land that way-faring-men tho fools may not err therein 35 Esay 8. To stir up the gifts and spirits that are in them by fruitful and seasonable conferences each borrowing light from his Brothers Candle If such should prove to be the truth of their case as they and their Auditors most solemnly aver it to be and it hath not yet judicially appeared to have been otherwise will not then the Oppugners of such Christian liberty Gospel precepts and Apostolick practices be accounted to have laid Snares in Mispah and spread Nets upon Tabor to have used Laws Menaces and Subtilties to keep Gods people from his Court and Sanctuary and to confine and oblige them to Worship after the modes of men And will not such obligations come within the lash and verge of the Woe denounced by Isaiah against those that make a Man an Offender for a word and lay a Snare for them that reprove in the Gate and turn aside the Just for a thing of naught 29.21 Nay will it not look like that old Machivilian trick Audacter calumniari the better to bring about ends and purposes little conducing to the power and encrease of Godliness It is an undoubted Gospel truth that no Power hath lawful Right and Authority to forbid Christians assembling together to Preach the Gospel and to perform Spiritual duties When God sent his own Son out of his own Bosom to take on him the form of a Servant and to become obedient to the death of the Cross for us Men and for our Salvation he gave him the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession 2 Psal 8. and anoynted him with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows whereby he became King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose Throne was to endure for ever and ever and the Scepter of Righteousness to be the Scepter of his Kingdom 1 Heb. 8.9 who whilst in the dayes of his flesh did gather a Church a Kingdom out of Jews and Gentiles peculiar to himself and established the Government thereof sufficient to all its ends and purposes by his own Laws and Precepts far different and distinct from all other Governments in the World to which all other Kings and Governments in the World were to conform and submit and to become nursing Fathers and Mothers thereof and that under a severe prophetical Menace of being else broken with a rod of Iron and dasht in pieces like a Potters vessel 2. Psal 9. and therefore Christs Worship and Government being Independent and subject to no other Laws or Jurisdictions but his own which no Nation how great soever hath so Righteous 4 Deut. 8. no other Power or Principality can Lawfully forbid any Assemblies or Congregations to meet and worship him according to

such as is common to the Laity in private offences i.e. to every Individual of the Church For what concerns Binding and Loosing the Words are plain and demonstrative viz. Whatsever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven which must have reference to the parties grieving and grieved it cannot be denied and those are every individual of the Church and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Again I say If two of you in general without denoting or pointing at the Clergy shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my ●ather which is in Heaven for where two or three indefinitely and not limited to the Pope or to those of the Presbytery only are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.18 19 20. These are general Precepts and purport a general Duty binding every Christian and not especial or applicable only to Popes or Presbyters Christ then in these places speaketh of private men and offences which he only that is oppressed and wronged hath most right to reprove and forgive and therefore not only the Judgment of Pope and Presbyter making whom they please Banditi of the Church but the reprehension and admonition of our meanest Brother offended and injured by us must be regarded and reverenced for so much as the Lord on high heareth the desires and granteth the Prayers of any two joyning together for his Glory and others Good and in their own debts and trespasses private persons have more right to bind and loose their oppressors before God than either Pope or Presbyter This power here attributed to all Christians is no new Doctrine but hath been acknowledged for good by St. Austin Theophylact and others and it doth not in the least derogate from or impeach the publick use of the Keys in the hands of Bishops and Pastors for they had also their particular Commission John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained yea speaking particularly to one of them Mat. 16.19 I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven so that the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven all Priests received in Peter before Christ's Death and after his Resurrection he gave all his Apostles the like power as Cyprian and Jerome observe and that is a power which no Temporal or Civil Magistrate or Prince can confer it is derived unto them from a higher Power § I am not ignorant that these Doctrines are held as Heretical at Rome and that they that hold them are cursed with Bell Book and Candle which is obvious to every intelligent Reader that consults the first fifth and sixth Canons of the sourteenth Session of the Council of Trent and the Anathemaes following who shall find it to be so and I humbly conceive not without grand reason of State-Papal for should these Doctrines and these that depend upon them be received for Orthodox Adieu to all the Picklocks of all the secretest Councils of all Kingdoms and States where Romish Doctrines prevail and also Adieu to a world of Merry-pence that else would thereby come into their Sanctuary Sanctum Sanctorum their Coffers for commuting and mitigating of Penance c. For by their Institution of their Sacrament of Penance their Church understands it to be instituted by Christ an entire full and Sacramental Confession of all sins to be made by all persons of the years of discretion lapsed after Baptism and that Jure Divino it is absolutely necessary so to do and that because Christ before his Ascension into Heaven lest his Priests to be his Vicars tanquam Praesides Judices unto whom all mortal Sins ought to be brought and confessed whereby by vertue and power of the Keys of remission and retention of Sins Mat. 16.19 John 20.23 they pronounce Sentence and give Judgment which they cannot rightly do if you will believe themselves nor justly proportion or impose Penance upon a general Confession only except the lapsed declare their Sins unto them in specie sigillatim particularly and in kind Can. 5. This to me seems wonderful strange that if Christ would have introduced a Rite to confess our Sins so particularly and punctually to Romish Priests as that no Use was ever the like that y●● he would be so understood by words ambiguous from which it must be drawn by very disjointed and unlinckt consequences very far fetcht consequences as incoherent as are Churton Sands of which the Neighborhood do merrily story that the Devil himself could never make Belropes thereof and not by most plain and perspicuous Terms as when he instituted the Eucharist there being not one plain word in the whole New Testament to command us so to do James indeed c. 5. v. 16. exhorts us to confess our faults one to another but what is that to Romish Priests James writ not to them but to the Twelve Tribes scattored abroad This Text is an Argument to perswade us to confess our faults one to another and to pray one for another that we may receive reciprocally the Councils Benefits and Consolatinos of each others Prayers but this institutes no Sacramental Confession to be performed to Romish Priests nor any power of pardoning to the Pope or his Priests nor any greater obligation on the Laity to confess to the Priest than on the Priests to confess to the Laity Mark the enforcement The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man Priest or not Priest availeth much Though these Canons make the Priests the only Ministrators of Absolution and Remission and that the Act in them is not Nudum Ministerium a naked Ministery of pronouncing and declaring Sins to be forgiven to the confessed but that it is in the Priest Act us Judicialis a Judicial Act by whom velut à Judice as by a Judge Sentence is pronounced Canon 6. They farther make the very Circumstances of Sins to alter the kind of them and therefore they have made two kinds of Sins viz. Mortal and Venial Canon 5. which is more than ever God himself made though he made two kinds of Sinners voz Penitent and Impenitent And in the conclusion they have Anathematized all those that are of contrary Opinions though there be not one plain Text of Scripture to warrant their so doing Now I would very fain know why the Institution being made by the Word Remitto the Form also was not Remitto I remit thy Sins rather than absolvo te I absolve thee and that if by these words a Sacrament of Absolution is instituted with this Form Absolvo te by which one is absolved why it doth not follow by an irresistable necessity that another Sacrament of Binding be not instituted in which this Form should likewise

Year 1484. the King of Spain admitted it into his Dominions yet so cautionate and jealous was he as he reserved himself to be Lord paramount thereof of choosing the Inquisitor General whom the Pope confirms And for the rest the Court of Rome was not admitted to intermeddle any farther so that though the King seemed willing to gratifie the See Apostolick yet did he reserve his Supremacy of Power over all Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to himself and so doth the State of Venice by their Coadjutors and Inspectors of the Tribunals Inquisitory In which Republick the Inquisition doth not depend on the Court of Rome but properly belongs to the Republick Independent set up and constituted by the same and established by contract and agreement with Pope Nicholas the fourth prout in his Bull of 28. Aug. 1289. wherein is inserted the very determination of the greater Council made the fourth of the same Month. And therefore as they ought are to be governed by their own Customs and Ordinances without being obliged to receive Orders from the Pope And indeed before the admittance of the Inquisition there was in effect the same Office though meerly Secular to which Noble-men were raised to enquire after Hereticks and this the Republick made good afterwards against the See-Apostolick in the Years 1289. 1301. 1605. 1606. and 1607. upon Disputes maintaining their Civil Authority in Ecclesiasticis to be their undoubted Right and cannot be taken away by any Bull or Decree made in any manner by any Pope to whom soever Hist. Inquisit § By all which it appears that neither Monarchs nor Free States would be juggled out of their just Right of Commanding over Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical and that those Condescentions of the Civil Magistrates were only to gratifie some Popes out of special favour to them and not for any just Right the Popes had unto them For let Pope or Presbyter pretend what they please to the contrary they do as much as in them lies endeavour to erect Regnum in Regno by giving Temporal Monarchy only an imperfect broken Right in some things but controlable and defeasible by the Spiritual Monarchy in other things And the World hath had a long and sad experience of this whilst Kings had the Popes and Presbiters their Superiors in any thing they remained Supream in nothing whilst their Rule in Popish Countries was by Division diminished in some things they found it insufficient in all things so that they did command joyntly with the Pope but were commanded wholly unless by force they extricated themselves out of their snares So Calvin and his Followers complain and grumble much at the Power that the Civil Magistrate assumes in England France and Germany over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical holding Princes incompetent for Spiritual Regency accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an Abolition or Prophanation of the same § But let us not doubt to submit all things under one Supream on Earth submitting and recommending him by our Prayers unto his Supream in Heaven for it is no small thing in such a Case to be left to the searching Judgment of God nor need we doubt or hold our selves utterly remediless whilst we can truly say Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est And let us not mistake our Supream on Earth for if God had intended to have left us a Spiritual Sword or miraculous Judicatory never before known or useful to the World and that to be of perpetual necessity sans doubt he would have left us some clear command in Scripture and not have involved and mantled his meaning in Metaphors so intricate and ambiguous But to let pass this Theam of Excommunication so unpleasant to Popish and Presbyterian Ears let us examine the Magistrates Power as it relates to Religion in commanding Liturgies and concerning Toleration Compulsion and Government c. § All just Dominion and Empire is founded on true Religion and Piety i. e all Governours and Governments were ordained for the good of the Governed and they are obliged by the Law of God to govern according to Rules of Religion and Piety no Nation under Heaven having Statutes and Judgments so just and righteous as are prescribed by God himself and who act not according to them an Iliad of Curses will attend them and their Plagues shall be wonderful Deut. 28.58 It is Righteousness and Judgment that is the Establishment of Thrones A Kingdom is translated from one People to another for unrighteousness Eccles 10.8 And The King that faithfully judgeth the Poor his Throne shall be established for ever Prov. 29.14 If I am not much mistaken the necessity of a Liturgy and the warrantableness of establishing the use thereof is easily deducible nay doth naturally flow from the Charge and Right of Government which Kings have in the Government of the Church and granted unto them by their great Charter from Heaven their Command from God For Kings and all other just Governments being granted to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae it must necessarily follow that the Government of the Church is their Duty and consequently ought to be their chief Care And that they be so what need we other Proof or Argument than that through the whole Scripture Kings have been charged therewith and according to their countenancing or discountenancing Idolatry and other sins or abetting and supporting Gods true Religion or establishing or but conniving at Idolatry or other Impieties so they received from God by his Messengers the Prophets praise or dispraise reward or punishment accordingly and those of no less concern than the establishment or deprivations of their Kingdoms And it will as naturally follow that if the care of the Church be the Duty of Kings that then they both may and ought to set up and establish a publick Standard and Test within their Dominions to measure and try all Mens Religion by as to the outward profession thereof and outward conformity thereunto and to appoint and allow publick consecrated or to speak more inoffensively to all Parties seperated Places or Churches for publick Divine Worship and Service and administration of Gods Holy Sacraments and Ordinances to the frequenting of which they may make strict Laws or else how is it possible for the Magistrate to have cognisance of them and of their Religions and why else should the Magistrate be blamed for the Idolatry or other sins of his Subjects if he have no power to inspect take cognisance and to restrain from sinful practises nor yet to force unto the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel nor to the frequenting of Gods Holy Ordinances Now this Standard or Test I call a Liturgy without which or something equivalent how is it possible for Kings to give a good account to God of their Care and well-governing of the Church within their respective Dominions which Liturgy in general ought to contain so many Fundamentals of Christian Religion to the Belief of which if Christians joyn