they forsake him or refuse to use him and Excommunicateth a man when they avoid his communion and declare him unmeet for communion In all which the Church useth her own right but taketh not away another mans Then for the Canonical Enquiries after faults and impositions of Penence or delays of absolution he sheweth that both the Canons and Judgments by them being but prudential Determinations of Modes and Circumstances bound none but Consenters without the Magistrates Law except as the Law of Nature bound them to avoid offences He should add and as obedience in general is due to Church-guides of Christ's appointment And how the Magistrate may constrain the Pastors to their duty Chap. 10. He sheweth that there are two perpetual Functions in the Church Presbyters and Deacons I call them Presbyters saith he with all the Ancient Church who feed the Church with the Preaching of the Word the Sacraments and the Keys which by Divine Right are individual or inseparable Note that And § 27. He saith It is doubtful whether Pastors where no Bishops are and so are under none though over none are to be numbered with Bishops or meer Presbyters § 31. His counsel for the choice of Pastors is that as in Justinian's time none be forced on the People against their wills and yet a power reserv'd in the chief Rulers to rescind such elections as are made to the destruction of Church or Commonwealth Chap. 11. § 10. He sheweth that Bishops are not by Divine precept And § 1. That therefore the different Government of the Churches that have Bishops or that have none should be no hindrance to Unity And § 10 11. That some Cities had no Bishops and some more than one And that not only in the Apostles â—ays but after one City had several Bishops in iâ—â—tation of the jews who to every Synagogue had an Archisynagogus Page 357. He sheweth that there have been at Rome and elsewhere long vacancies of the Bishops See in which the Presbyters Governed the Church without a Bishop And saith that all the Ancients do confess that there is no act so proper to a Bishop but a Presbyter may do it except the right of Ordination Yet sheweth p. 358. that Presbyters ordained with Bishops and expoundeth the Canon thus that Presbyters should Ordain none contemning the Bishop And p. 359. He sheweth that where there is no Bishop Presbyters may Ordain as Altisiodorensis saith among the Schoolmen And questioneth again whether the Presbyters that have no Bishops over them be not rather Bishops than meer Presbyters citing Ambrose's words He that had no one above him was a Bishop what would he have said of our City and Corporation Pastors that have divers Chapels and Curates under them Or of our Presidents of Synods or such as the Pastor of the first Town that ever I was Preacher in Bridgnorth in Shropshire who had six Parishes in an exempt Jurisdiction four or five of them great ones and kept Court as ordinary like the Bishops being under none but the Archbishop And § 12. He sheweth that there was great cause for many Churches to lay by Episcopacy for a time And p. 360. he saith Certainly Christ gave the Keys to be exercised by the same men to whom he gave the power of Preaching and Baptizing That which God hath joyned let no man separate But then how should Satan have used the Churches as he hath done And he sheweth of meer ruling Elders as he had done of Bishops that they are not necessary but are lawful and that it may be proved from Scripture that they are not displeasing to God and that formerly the Laity joyned in Councils Only he puts these Cautions which I consent to 1. That they be not set up as by God's command 2. That they meddle no otherwise with the Pastoral Office or Excommunication than by way of Counsel 3. That none be chosen that are unfit 4. That they use no coactive power but what is given them by the Soveraign 5. That they know their power to be mutable as being not by Gods command but from man And Chap. 11. § 8. He delivereth his opinion of the Original of Episcopacy that it was not fetcht from the Temple pattern so much as from the Synagogues where as he said before every Synagogue had a chief Ruler 14. As for J. D. and many other lesser Writers Sir Thomas Aston c. who say but half the same with those forementioned it is not worth your time and labour to read any more Animadversions on them 15. But the great Learned M. Ant. de Dominis Spalatensis deserveth a more distinct consideration who in his very learned Books De Repub. Eccles doth copiously handle all the matter of Church-Government But let us consider what it is that he maintaineth In his lib. 5. c. 1. he maintaineth that the whole proper Ecclesiastical Power is meerly Spiritual In cap. 2. that no Power with true Prefecture Jurisdiction Coaction and Domination belongeth to the Church In c. 3. he sheweth that an improper Jurisdiction belongs to it Where he overthroweth the old Schoolmens Description of Power of Jurisdiction and sheweth also the vanity of the common distinction of Power of Order and of Jurisdiction and maintaineth 1. that Power of Jurisdiction followeth ab Ordine as Light from the Sun 2. That all the Power of the Keys which is exercised for Internal effects although about External Matters of Worship or Government belongeth directly to the Potestas Ordinis 3. That the Power of Jurisdiction as distinct from Order and reserved to the Bishops is but the power about the Ordering of External things which is used Principally and Directly for an External Effect that is Church order § 5. p. 35. 4. That it is foolish to separate power of Order from any power of Jurisdiction whatsoever that is properly Ecclesiastical it being wholly Spiritual 5. The Episcopal Jurisdiction not properly Ecclesiastical he maketh to consist in ordering Rites and Ceremonies and Circumstances and Temporals about the Church and about such Modal Determinations about particular persons and actions as are matters of humane prudence which have only a General Rule in Nature or Scripture 6. By which though he hold Episcopacy Jure Divino that it is but such things that he supposeth proper to the Bishop which the Magistrate may determine and make Laws for as Grotius and others prove at last and himself after and as Sir Roger Twisden hath Historically proved to have been used by the Kings of England Histor Def. Cap. 5. 7. That all Ecclesiastical power whatsoever is fully and perfectly conjunct with Order page 36. 8. That this plenitude of power is totally and equally in all Bishops and Presbyters lawfully Ordained and that it is a meer vanity to distinguish in such power of Order Plenitudinem potestatis a parte solicitudinis 9. That this equal power of the Bishop and Presbyter floweth from Ordination and is the Essential Ordinary Ministerial
and according to that word to declare them Impenitency openly Characterizing them to be persons unmeet for Christian Communion and such as till they repent are under the wrath of God and must expect his dreadful judgment and to command the Church in Christs name to withdraw from the Impenitent person and to have no Communion with him And all this is but the application of Gods word to his Conscience and the Churches If his seared Conscience deride it all we can do no more If he will forcibly intrude into the Communion of the Church against their wills it is like ones breaking into my house the Magistrate must restrain him as a violater of the peace as well as of the Churches liberties If the Magistrate will not the Church most remove from him If they cannot they must pronounce him morally absent as a forcible intruder and none of their Communion If the Church will not obey the Pastors sentence he hath no instrument but the same word to bring them to it Now all this being past denial let us come more particularly to enquire in all this what part there is essential to a Bishops office as such 1. Is it the making of Church Lawes or Canons About what 1. Either these Canons are but the Commanding of that which Gods Law made a duty before or of somewhat newly made a duty by themselves 2. Either they are Lawes or Commands to the Laity only or to the Presbyters or to the particular Bishops or all 1. If they do but urge the performing of some duty already made such by God in Scripture or Nature who ever doubted but Presbyters may do that even to teach and charge the people from God to obey his Laws And note that God daily maketh new duties by the Law of nature even providentially altering the Nature of things And so he maketh this or that to become Decent and Orderly and so a duty And maketh it my duty to speak this or that word to this or that person or to do this or that particular good work Even by varying occasions accidents and circumstances of things 2. But if these Canons make new duties which God hath not made 1. If it be to the Laity the Presbyters may do the like for they are Guides also of the Laity unless they are forbidden by a superior power If it be only to the Presbyters that will not reach our present case as shall be further shewed afterward 3. If it be to the Bishops themselves they cannot be Laws but meer agreements because one Bishop is not the proper Governour of another nor many of one nor the present in Council of the absent as such And here by the way it is worthy to be noted how much the Diocesanes contradict themselves in this claim of Government They say that they are of a distinct order and office from meer Presbyters because they have power to Govern them And yet they make 1. A Council of Bishops to have as high a governing power over particular Bishops of the same order 2. And an Arch-Bishop to be the Governour of Bishops 3. And a Primate or Patriarch to be the Governour of Arch-Bishops and yet not to be of a distinct Order or office but only of a distinct degree in the accidentals of the same order If Government prove a distinct Order or Office in one it will do so in the other And why may not the Magistrate make all the same Canons who ruleth them all But let us consider what these Canons may be 1. The Bishops make Canons how often Synods or Councils shall be held and when and where and when they shall be dissolved But 1. May not the King do the same And can that be proper to Bishops which the King may do Yea which all Emperours have formerly used 2. And is not this Cannon made to rule Bishops themselves who is it but Bishops or so much as them that you think should be called unto Councils And are the Bishops in Council of another order than themselves out of Council Need we an office of Bishops to rule Bishops of the same office 2. Canons are made about Temples Buildings Tithes Glebes Bells Pulpits Seats Tables Cups Fonts and other utensils And 1. who doubteth but the Magistrate may do all this yea that it belongeth to him to regulate such things as these 2. And who knoweth not that even Bishops are under these Canons also who are of the same order 3. And that Presbyters even in England are members of these Synods and so make Canons to rule the Bishops Ergo they are of a superior order to Bishops by your reasoning 3. Canons are made for the regulating of Ministers attire in the Church and out and for officiating garments as surplices c. And of these I say the same as of the former The King may do the same as Bishops may do and Bishops themselves are bound by them and Presbyters make them which three things prove that it is not the proper work of Bishops as a distinct order from meer Presbyters 4. Canons are made for worship Geâ—ures in what gesture to pray to receive the Sacrament to use the Creed c. And the same three answers serve to this also as to the case in hand 5. Canons are made for Holidaies publick Fasts and Thanksgivings and Lecture daies And the same three considerations fall in here 6. Canons are made for the ordering officers fees and such like in Bishops Courts And here all the same three things fall in 1. The King may do it 2. It is Bishops that are ruled 3. Presbyters also make the Canons therefore it is not jure divino the proper work of a distinct Order 7. Canons are made for the choice of what Translation of the Bible shall be used in all the Churches and what version or meetre of the singing Psalmes And of this also the three former things hold true 8. Canons are made to impose a Liturgie in what words Ministers shall speak to God and to the people And 1. This also the King may do and doth 2. And it obligeth Bishops 3. And Presbyters make it 9. Canons are made against Schismaticks new Discipline and constitutions non-subscribers unlicensed Preachers for the book of Articles of ordination for Catechizing Preaching Marrying Burying Christing and such like In all which each of the said three answers hold 10. Canons are made to keep Parents from open covenanting to God for their Children in Baptism that they shall not be urged to be present that God-fathers do that office and not they As also that none be baptized without the transient Image of a Cross and such like whether this be well or ill done the three former answers all hold in this 11. All the Canons that are for the restraint of sin as neglect of Church worship prophaning of it and other abuses have the same censure 12. The circumstantiating Canons how oft Bishops shall confirm and whom they shall
Chancellors did only these accidental works or Lay Elder either and meddled not with the sacred power of the Keys we should not be so quarrelsome as to condemn their undertaking unless it were for the abuse 47. We doubt not but in a Church that hath many Pastors those that are young and weak should much submit to the elder and more able and be as far ruled by them as the difference of age experience and abilities without a difference of Office doth require 48. And we doubt not but where Temples and Church-maintenance are at the dispose of Patrons People or Magistrates they may give them to some one Pastor as the present possessor so that no other shall have part but by his concession And this difference there is between the Parson and his Curates in our Parishes and an accidental superiority and inferiority thereby without a difference of Office 49. If Magistrates or Councils or Custome should in each particular Church that hath many Pastors give one a Governing that is a negative voice among the rest in the management of the affairs of that Church so that the rest should not go against him or without him as Archbishops now are over Bishops and Archpresbyters were formerly over Presbyters and Archdeacons over Deacons and Presidents over Colleges and Courts of Justice without claiming a distinct Office though the sad experience of Mens inclination to Church-tyranny make us doubtful whether we should wish for such an inequality yet would we not unpeaceably disturb or quarrel with such an Order when it is settled Our Parish Order aforesaid being indeed but such 50. Whether God himself hath appointed another sort of Bishops who may be better called Archbishops as Successors of the Apostles in the Ruling part of their Office and whether these have not a Power above particular Church Pastors in Ordinations and in the oversight of the Pastors themselves and in the Care of many Churches I have long ago confessed is a Case of too much difficulty for me to determine On the one side though the Apostles have no Successors in the extraordinary and temporary part of their Office yet Church-government being an ordinary and permanent part as doctrine is I can hardly think that when we find one Form of Church-government instituted by Christ himself and continuing till the end of that Age that we should presume to say that this Form then ceased and another must succeed it without good proof What we find enacted and setled must stand till we can prove it abrogate And unless it were a thing which in the nature of it were temporary it seemeth a harsh imputation of mutability to feign Christ to set up a Church-government which should be in force but for an hundred years And on the other side it puzleth me 1. to find it so hard to prove that the Apostles themselves did indeed exercise any Office power over other Pastors which one may not do towards another over and above that which accrewed to them from the meer extraordinary advantage of their gifts and Apostolical proper work 2. And to find it so obscure whether they settled any as their Successors in that superiority of power which they had 51. But being in such doubt and being uncertain whether such Arch-Bishops or Apostolical Successors in the points of Ordination and oversight of many Churches be of Divine right or not I resolve not to contend against any such Order nor to disobey any just commands of such nor to reproach the custome of the Churches 52. And though I know that Pastors should not unnecessarily be diverted by any aliene works yet if it please the Magistrate to commit some of his power of Church-government by the Sword about things extrinsick to the Pastoral Office into the hands of some Ministers as his Officers and if he call them Bishops and command us to obey them and if he make them Barons and endow them with Lordships and great revenues though I see the great peril to the Church from hence by reason of mens pride and worldliness yet will I not reproach this Order nor deny any just obedience to any such Officers of the King 53. If any acknowledging the Pastors of each Church to have the whole Pastoral Office and power of the Keys of that Church which he overseeth shall yet affirm that the aforesaid superiour General Bishops or Arch-Bishops have a superiour power of the Keys and therefore shall have the decision of controversies that arise in particular Churches between the Pastors and the People and that appeals may be made by the people to them and that they may visit the particular Churches at their pleasure and have power to censure the particular Bishops or Pastors when they deserve it or to Ordain Ministers remove them and depose them as there is just cause by bare sentence and the peoples consent and all this jure divino as Successors to the Apostles in their Government or to such Archbishops or General Bishops as Timothy and Titus I shall not contend against any of this for the reasons aforesaid being uncertain of the thing in question But if I must be put to subscribe that I believe all this to be true as if it were an Article of my Faith the same uncertainty would forbid me 54. And here I must take occasion to say that I take unnecessary Subscriptions Declarations Promises and Oaths to be one of the chiefest of the Devil's Engines to divide Christ's Churches and to fish out those Ministers that make conscience of perjury and lying and to turn them out of the work of Christ and to leave in those that do not when Conscience can find but any shifting pretence And how fit such are for the Sacred Ministry and whose servants really they are and how they are like to do Christ's work and what a Case the Churches will be in that have such and what the effects will be with the common people and how the lovers of Godliness will resent all this and what else will follow hereupon I leave to the Reader that hath the brains of a man or ever opened his eyes to mark what is done abroad in the World or that ever read with observation the things that in other Ages have befallen the Churches or that knoweth what relation light hath to darkness good to evil and Christ to Belial I think that the Articles of our Faith and the matters of our practice are so to be distinguished as that there is a necessity of Believing the former and therefore we may be called to profess that we do Believe them And for the other the Agenda we must be called to Do them and if they be plain and necessary duties of our Religion being to be Believed to be Duties before we do them we may sometime be put to profess that Belief But duties of humane imposition or of doubtful nature may be done as things lawful by thousands of peaceable men that cannot say or
with the Conscience either of the Minister to be silent or of the people not to hear him or of the Magistrates to silence him by force Now to do this either he must prove to them from the word of God by argument that each of these are thus far obliged by God or else that God hath made him as Diocesan the Judge and they are bound to do it because he bids them do it For the first as is said it belongeth to every Minister even with office-authority to tell both Magistrates Minister and people their duty in the name of Christ Thus God hath commanded Adulterers Hereticks c. To forsake their sins or forbear the Ministery and commanded me to publish this in his name even to particular persons But thou art an Adulterer Heretick c. go c. Or God commandeth me to tell the people that it is their duty to avoid a Heretick and the Magistrate that it is his duty to silence him by force Therefore I require this of you in his name 2. But if the Diocesan claim a Superiour Nuntiative power as one more to be believed than the Minister this is 1. But to the doing of the same work which a Minister may do 2. And he must prove that Superiour credibility 3. But Ministerial conviction is efficacious according to the evidence that is brought to do the work If the hearer believe not that the Major is Gods word that an Heretick e. g. must give over Preaching Or if he deny the Minor but thou art an Heretick it is not a Bishops word that will convince him but a Minister that is better at proving it may do more Obj. but we will command him to be silent Ans And he will deride you and command you to be silent again Obj. Then we will convince the Magistrate of his duty to silence him by force Ans 1. That was not the way for 300 years after Christ And what was Episcopacy for till then 2. What if the Magistrates believe you not will you convince him by Scripture or by your Authority over the Magistrate It by Scripture a wiser Presbyter can do that better or as well If by authority of that anon Obj. But at least we will convince the people that it is their duty to forsake that Preacher Ans Again I say if you will do it by Scripture a Minister can do it as well And thus many Ministers now do silence the Diocesans and Conformists that is they perswade the people not to hear them or own them But if by authority it must come to this at last that you are made by God the Judges and this must be believed And remember still you silence no further than you perswade the Conscience to believe that God hath given you this authority And 1. I ask whether it be ever likely that you will silence any Hereticks false Teacher or Schismatick this way by making him take you for one authorized by God to forbid him to Preach For it must be in one of these three cases or all that you have this power 1. Either to silence him as a Heretick that is no Heretick or not proved such 2. Or to silence him as a Heretick that notoriously and provedly is a Heretick 3. Or to silence him as a Heretick in a doubtful case to others but judged Heresie c. by you 1. In the first case neither the injured person nor any that know that you injure him will or must obey you Else a malignant Prelate might silence all the holiest and worthiest Ministers of Christ and it would be at such mens mercy whether Christ should have Churches or the people should be Christians or be saved I am one of the 1800 that have been silenced by better authority than the Prelates alone and yet I think I am bound in Conscience to exercise the Ministry which I received whatever I suffer to the utmost of my opportunity And if the Sword streightened my opportunity no more than my Conscience of the Diocesans Prohibition I should be but very little hindered 2. In the 2d case of notorious Heresie all good Christians are bound by God to avoid such a man though you never silenced him yea though you licensed him yea though you commanded them to hear him And so Magistrates are bound to do their duty in restraining him Can you deny this Must the peoples Souls be poysoned and damned till the Bishop please to take away the poyson and to save them must the Magistrate let Hereticks alone till it please the Diocesan to judge them 2. And in this case no sober Christian will deny that a Presbyter ought to call upon people and Magistrates to do their duty as well as the Diocesans Yea and to command men in Christs name to avoid a notorious or proved heretick Obj. But a Presbyter cannot examine the case and so get proof Ans He may examine it as far as Reason with Ministerial authority will perswade the guilty or the witnesses to be examined And his care of the Church and the peoples Souls obligeth him so to do And a Prelate cannot bring men by sorce to examination or witnessing 3. But let his guilt be never so notorious to others is it like that the person himself will be silent through Conscience of obedience to a Prelate Consider 1. that if he will not obey a Minister that sheweth him the word of God it is unlikely that he will obey a Prelate that saith I have authority to silence you 2. A Heretick doth not know that he is a Heretick nor any erroneous person know that it is an errour which he believeth For it is a contradiction to err in judgment and to know it to be any errour And then 1. He knoweth that his office is durante vita and that he is bound not to cease it without cause 2. He knoweth that you have no power to silence Orthodox Preachers as Hereticks but those that are Hereticks indeed 3. He taketh himself for Orthodox and you for the Heretick 4. And all his followers are of his mind How then will you silence a Heretick without the Sword If you convince him of his errour you shall not need to silence him for he will leave his errour rather than his Ministry But if you convince him not of his errour you will hardly convince him that because of that errour he must be silent nor convince his followers that they must not hear him 3. All the question therefore that remaineth is whether in unknown doubtful cases you are the Judges of Heresie Errour Schisin and of mens unworthiness to Preach And here 1. I need not tell you that by this way you can never silence either the Arrians or any that deny your authority Of which sort you know are most that you silence in this age and Nation No nora Donatist a Novatian or any one that is for the office of Bishops but taketh you for no Bishop as being unduely
Communion be Professed seeming Christians and Saints or not And whether they revolt by Heresie or wicked lives from their profession And whether they be impenitent in these revoltings And therefore having opportunity by presence or nearness to know them and the witnesses must judge of the credibility or reports or accusations And must admonish the offenders and seek by all possible conviction and exhortation with patience to draw them to Repentance And if no perswasion will prevail to refuse to admit them to the Communion of the Church and to deliver them the Sacrament of Communion and to tell them openly of their sin and danger and pronounce them lyable to Gods wrath till they do repent and to charge the Church to avoid Communion with them 10. It is the particular Pastors of those Churches to whose office all this belongeth 11. If that Church have more Pastors than one they must do all this work in concord and not divide nor thwart each other So that as many Physicians undertake one Patient as each one singly of the same office and yet must do all by agreement unless some one see that the rest would kill the patient so it is in this case 12. All these particular Churches must in their vicinities and capacities live in Concord and hold such a correspondency and Communion of Churches for mutual strength and edification as tendeth to the common good of all The means of which are Messengers Letters and Synods as there is occasion All these twelve particulars I doubt not but so judicious and worthy a man as Dr. Stillingfleet will easily concede And indeed the summe of them is granted in his book And then whether you will call this a Form of Government or not how little care I for the meer name 13. I may add this much more that All these Congregations are under the extrinsick Government of the Magistrate as Physicians are And he only can rule them by the sword and force But then we will agree with Dr. Stillingfleet or any man that God hath left all these things following without a particular determination to be determined according to his General Laws 1. Whether this Parochial or Congregational Church shall always meet in one and the same place or in case of persecution or want of room or by reason of the Age Weakness and distance of some Members may have several houses or Chappels of ease where some parcels may sometimes meet who yet at least per vices may have personal present Communion with the rest 2. Whether a Church shall be great or small that is of what number it shall consist supposing that it be not so great or so small as to be inconsistent with the end 3. How many Pastors each Church shall have 4. Whether among many One shall be a Chief and upon supposition of his preeminence in Parts Grace Age and Experience shall voluntarily be so far submitted to by the rest as may give him a Negative voice 5. Whether such officers of many Churches shall consociate so as to joyn in Classes or Synods stated for number time and place And whether their meetings shall be constant or occasional pro re nata 6. Whether One in these meetings shall be a stated Moderator or only pro tempore and shall have a Negative voice or not in the circumstantials of their Synodical work 7. Whether certain Agreements called Canons shall be made voluntarily to bind up the several Members of the Synods to one and the same way in undetermined circumstances of their callings or as an agreement and secondary obligation to their certain duties 8. Whether these Associations or Synods shall by their Delegates constitute other provincial or larger associations for the same Ends Who those Delegates shall be Whether one in those larger Synods also shall have such a Negative as aforesaid All these and such like we grant to be undetermined And if they will call only such Humane modes and circumstances by the name of Forms of Government we quarrel not de nomine but de re do grant that such kind of Forms or Formalities are not particularly determined of in Gods word 9. And besides all these whether successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their work as A. Bishops or General Ministers having the care of many inferiour Bishops and Churches be not Lawful yea of Divine right or whether they be unlawful is a question which all Nonconformists are not agreed on among themselves so great is the difficulty of it But for my own part being unsatisfied in it I never presumed to meddle in any Ordinations lest it should belong to Apostolical A. Bishops only and I resolved to submit herein to the order of the Church wherever I should live III. But if you hold that Dr. Stillingfleet Bishop Reynolds and all those Conformists who say that no Church Form is jure divino necessario do extend this as expresly they do to the Diocesane Form Let it be observed 1. That we plead for no more than we have proved and they will confess I think to be jure divino 2. And that we plead against swearing and subscribing to nothing but what they themselves say is not of Gods institution 3. That the proper Prelatists affirm it to be of Divine Institution or else they will renounce it 4. That the preface of the book of Ordination to which we must subscribe or declare Assent and Consent doth make this Episcopacy to be a distinct Order from Presbyters as a thing certain by Gods word This therefore I wonder how they can subscribe to who say no Form is jure divino I am sure they perswade us not to subscribe it while they disprove it And I would have leave to debate the Case of the Church of England a little with these Humanists and to ask them If no Church Form be of Gods making 1. Why may not the King and Parliament put it down as aforesaid 2. But specially who made the Form of the Church of England which we must swear to If another Church then that other was not of the same Form otherwise that Form was made before which is a contradiction If it was of another Form I ask what it was and who made the Form of that other Church which made this Church Form and so to the Original If Bishops or Synods made it still they were parts of a Church or of no Church If of no Church what Bishops were those and by what power did they make new Church Forms that were of none themselves If an Emperor or King first made them either he was himself a member of a Church or of no Church If of a Church what form had that Church And why should not that first form stand And who made that form and so ad originem If he was of no Church how came he by power to make Church forms that was of none himself Nemo dat quod non habet It 's no honour to
that the Presbyters office which was instituted by God and used by the ancient Churches contained an obligation and Authority not only to Teach and Worship but also the rest of the Power of the Keys to Rule the Churches committed to their care not by the sword or force but by a pastoral perswasive power judging who is to be taken in and put out and what persons are fit objects for the respective exercises of their own Ministerial acts which was the thing I was engaged to make good CHAP. XV. Whether this Government belonging to the office of Presbyters be in foro Ecclesiae exteriore or only in foro Conscientiae interiore THe last shift that some Prelatists have is to distinguish between the forum internum Conscientiae poenitentiale and the forum externum Ecclesiasticum and to tell us that indeed Presbyters have the Power of the Keys in private or in the first sense but not in Publick or in the second Answ 1. Note that the question is not whether they have the sole power or the chief power or with what limitations it is fit for them to exercise it nor what appeals there should be from them But whether the power of the Keys be part of their office 2. That the question is not of the power of Governing the Church by the sword which belongeth to the King and is Extrinsick to the Pastoral office and to the being of the Church As protecting the Church punishing Church-offenders corporally c. For this is proper to the Magistrate and belongeth neither to Bishops nor Presbyters as such We claim no part with the Prelates in any such secular Government as their Courts use except when they come to Excommunication and Absolution At least no coercive power at all 3. All the question is of the power of the Keys of Admission Conduct and Exclusion of judging who shall have Sacraments and Church-Communion with our assemblies that is Who shall be pronounced fit or unfit for it by our selves And that this belongeth to Presbyters in foro publico Ecclesiae I prove 1. Because they are Publick officers or Pastors over that Church and therefore their power of the Keys is a publick Church power else they had none of the Keys as Pastors of that Church at all For the Keys are to Let in and put out They are the Church Keys and he that hath power only to speak secretly to a single person doth not thereby take in to the Church or put any out nor Guide them publickly A man that is a Minister at least may convince satisfie comfort any mans conscience in secret of what Church soever he be even as he is a member of the Universal Church But he that is a publick Officer and Governour of the Church may publickly Govern the Church But a Presbyter is a publick officer and Governour Ergo. 2. The rest of his office may be publickly performed Coram Ecclesia and not in secret only He may Preach to the Church Pray with the Church Praise God with them Give them the Sacrament Therefore by parity of Reason he may publickly exercise discipline unless any by-accident pro tempore forbid it 3. Else he must be made a meer Instrument of another and not a rational free Agent and Minister of Christ Yea perhaps more like to an Asse who may carry Bread and Wine to the Church or like a Parrot that may say what he is bid than a man who hath a discerning judgment what he is to do I must publickly baptize and publickly preach and pray and publickly give the Lords Body and Bloud And if I must be no Judge my self to whom I must do this then 1. Either I may and must do it to any one without offending God to whom the Bishop bids me do it And if so I may Excommunicate the faithful and curse Gods children and absolve the most notoriously wicked if the Bishop bid me And how come they to have more power than King Balak had over Balaam or than a Christian Emperour had over Chrysostom He that saith to the wicked Thou art righteous Nations shall curse him people shall abhor him Prov. 24. 24. Wo to them that call evil good and good evil But what if the Bishop bid them If I may not preach lies or heresies if the Bishop bid me then I may not lyingly curse the faithful nor bless the wicked if he bid me If I may not forbear preaching the Gospel meerly for the will of man when God calleth me to it much less may I speak slanders yea and lie in the name of God when men bid me The French Priest did wiselier than so that being bid from the Pope to Curse and Excommunicate the Emperour said I know not who it is that is in the right and who is in the wrong but I do Excommunicate him that is in the wrong whoever he be 2. Or else it will follow that I am bound to sin and damn my soul thereby whenever the Bishop will command me which is a contradiction 3. Or else it will follow that I am a beast that am not to judge or know what I do and therefore my acts are neither sin nor duty 4. If he have not the Keys to use publickly in foro Ecclesiae he hath no power of Excommunication and Restitution at all For to Excommunicater is publickly to notifie to the Church that this person is none of them nor to be communicated with and to charge them to avoid his company 5. The Bishops themselves put the Presbyters to proclaim or read the Excommunication and if this be any Ministerial or Pastoral act certainly it is in foro Ecclesiae 6. Most of the Acts before named as their concessions as to be in the Convocation c. are acts in foro publico 7. The full proofs before brought from Antiquity of Presbyters sitting in Councils Judging Excommunicating c. are of publick not private exercise of the Keys 8. They are the same Keys or Office power which Christ hath committed to the Pastors even the Guidance of his Church to feed his lambs And ubi Lex non distinguit non est distinguendum Where doth Christ or Scripture say You shall use the Keys of Church-power privately but not in the Church or publickly 9. All this striving against Power in the Ministers of Christ is but striving against their duty work and the ends and benefits of it He that hath no Power for publick discipline hath no obligation to use it and so he is to neglect it And this is it that the Devil would have to keep a thousand or many hundred Pastors in a Diocese from doing the publick work of Discipline And as if he could confine Preaching to Diocesans only And I verily believe they are better of the two at Preaching than at Discipline he knoweth that it is but few souls of many thousands that would be taught Even so when he can confine Church discipline to the Diocesanes