Power and Jurisdiction is their appropriated Acts and Duties and Influences are peculiar to themselves apart and from the rest of Believers the tantummodo Christians in Tertullian take in these following instances § XXVIII TO preside and govern in such their Assemblies in the common constant return of the Worship of God to appoint and assign the decency and order of it to be the Mouth of the People to God in their Prayers and Thanksgivings put up and offer'd to him in their Name and to be the Mouth of God to them to teach and instruct to admonish correct and reprove to Bless them in the Name and Strength of God Almighty for though this be the Duty of every Christian each private Member of such the Body and Incorporation thus to instruct correct and pray for one another yet in Publick Assemblies it is not it is rather their Sin and to be sure their Presumption President probati quique seniores as Tertullian goes on describing the coition or meeting together of Christians in his days Apol. cap. 39. above mentioned their Seniors or Elders there preside and are in the Head and governing such their Holy Convocations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Justin Martyr Apol. 2. the Bishop makes an Instruction and Exhortation in remembrance of God's Mercies and he that reads over those Directions he gives to Zenas and Serenus two Presbyters how to behave themselves in their Duties will readily see who it was in those days that spoke to and exhorted the People and that this is a branch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls it of their Government and Jurisdiction the Directions are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they be not affected and conceited in the discharge of their Ministry over-pragmatick and officious in the services of it but do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an even and regular way in the Seasons and Places affixed otherwise they 'l appear like Dancers on the Ropes be admired only by the idle People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holding out their Necks like so many Geese and gaping at the vainer Glory that they be neither clownish nor unskilful on the one hand nor clamorous in their manner of speaking an instance of worldliness and feracity to be avoided be cautious against the Actions of those who make the Publick Oratories a Stage to divulge what is iller composed by them personating Orestes who appear'd terrible and great to Fools for his wooden Feet his made Belly his odd Habit monstrous Face that vaunt in a freedom of speaking studious of Emulation and Contention and like the Bacchae under the habit of Peace and a shew of Holy Duties carry Swords and Spears He there cautions against those unequal forced Countenances one while pleasant another while sower and tetricous and particularly against that histrionical way of those who are every day speaking and acting their Play divided into so many parts on purpose and the Presbyter deposed for Sedition against his Bishop is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 18. Conc. Ancyran and in several Canons is the same expression on the like occasion he is one not allow'd to Preach any longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Apol. 2. and this President These Elders or Church-men they suitable to their strength and in all due manner send up Prayers likewise and Thanksgivings for the People who still go along and joyn with them in such their Invocations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we rise up all together Sermon being ended and go to our Prayers as 't is there expressed suprà ibid. be their Mouth and they speak after him Thus the ordained or they whose Office is affixed to attend in holy things are Paraphrased in Justinian Novel 137. Cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assign'd to Pray for the People and these are those Prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ignatius his Ep. ad Ephesios of the Bishop and the whole Church and which that Apostolical Martyr there sayes are so prevailing And now having come to that passage of Justin Martyr just now mentioned I cannot but take notice of the chief Argument that is there raised by our Enthusiasts for their gifted Extempore Prayer the President say they there prayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his private gifts and abilities as he could conceive and utter words and not in a form set and prescribed him To which I answer That as the Phrase imparts no such thing so we have reason to believe that the Author meant nothing less by it What did the whole Congregation and every man in it thus Pray after his own conceiving and yet the same Father in the same Apology tells us that all pray'd with their President and in the same Phrase is their Praying expressed too p. 60. Ed. Paris and the meaning can alone be this they prayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is expressed before both Priest and People all at once pour'd out their Prayers together animo intento as 't is translated with Souls intent and fixed upon the Duty De pectore as Tertullian varies it Apol. c. 30. and which place they pervert to their purpose also from their Hearts and Consciences with that Attention Zeal Faith and other Qualifications that make Prayers acceptable and which is the alone praying with the Spirit Like Phrases we have in other Ecclesiastical Writers but not one makes any thing to their purpose So Origen in his lib. 8. cont Celsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say Hymns to God with all their might and power like the Amen with all their might among the Jews and of which the Hebrew Doctors have this observation whoso saith Amen with all his might the Garden of Eden is open unto him vid. Thorndike The Service of Religious Assemblies p. 234. So Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 10. c. 3. the Presidents of the Churches had their Panegyrick Orations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quantum quisque poterat ingenio as Vallesius translates it according to his faculty in Oratory which no man presumes to be otherwise than preconceived to be an ex-tempore effusion and inpremeditated And so 't is said in that Chapter that every age and the promiscuous multitude of each Sex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toto pectore as translated with all the strength of their Mind and Thoughts did officiate in Prayers and giving of Thanks worshipping with cheerfulness of Mind and surely these Men Women and Children did not every one Perform Pray and give Thanks in an extempore way besides if we consider the manner of their Worship which was in set composed Hymns and Songs speaking in courses and interchangeably one to another as is above observed all which must be preconceived and penn'd down it must in each instance be familiar to them before to all which add how repugnant these casual effusions are to that course of Liturgies and set Forms of Prayer which we have as much reason to believe these first Christians used as that they
of it in opposition to a false Religion whether by an extraordinary Commission and justified by Miracles or as ordinary Pastors of the Church for 't is all one as to the Gospel it self which is the same which way soever Preached is said to be an affront and contempt to the Magistracy and Law As again in Dr. Tillotson's Sermon it being quite contrary and to Preach Christ crucified is to honour profess and maintain whatever is in Magistracy and Law nor is it truely Preached but when in a due dependency upon them And if the Jesuites practice be otherwise and he deposes Kings to propagate his Faith Mr. Dean's Observation ought there to have been limited and fixed and not to have drawn so universal a Rule so notoriously making way for the silencing the Gospel for ever if a false Religion be once by Law in that particular Kingdom or Nation or if to be imagined over the whole World established because no way supposed to publish it but by the affront and contempt of the Magistracy and Law but this is too usual a course of too many in the world who if they can but shew their Zeal and produce a present popular Argument against a Jesuit they consider not the common Christianity which is most certainly destroy'd by it as indeed all Church Power on this supposal is gone nor ought it to be pretended to amongst the purest and most Catholick Professors I might say there can be no Professors at all which have no more extraordinary Commissions nor are they any other ways justifiable by Miracles than we believe the Jesuits and sure we are to boot that Men of these Principles will never invade the offices of an Apostle or Evangelist to go forth and convert Nations be first Setlers of the Gospel among them The other instances of this Power is to administer the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper the one admits and enters into this Body upon the terms of the Gospel and farther engages by that Vow and Stipulation there contracted in order to a secure Performance The other accepts of owns confirms and revives it So oft as we approach that Holy Table and no Justice of Peace in the Parish ever yet suspected that his Pastor when officiating in these Administrations entred into and laid the grounds of a Plot or Engagement against his but confined and lesser Jurisdiction in the County These Protestations Covenants and Engagements were never concluded Illegal nor such their practice State Usurpations § XLIV THE Censures of the Church are injunctions laid upon her Members either by way of Discipline only in order to a better progress and more expedite increase of holiness or by way of Penance Mulcts and Amerciaments upon failures but neither of these do externally compel or lay confinements upon the Persons of any any otherwise than by their own intendments and voluntary submission and whatever more their refusal or perverser obstinacy does provoke is only Excommunication or a cutting off from the benefit of that Indenture and which cuts asunder no one relation either of Servant to his Master Husband to his Wife Father to his Son Subject to his Prince and so back again or one Friend to another takes away no one Privilege that is Secular and all ties and compacts whether from Nature or by After-obligations remain as before Christianity dissolves no one that was lawful when entertained but adds more nerves and strength greater force and bonds unto them by new Arguments Motives and Rewards and leaves all in the state they were in before only makes sure provision for Heaven Nor are those Rules and particular Observancies for holy living and satisfaction injoyn'd by the Confessor to take any Place to have any force upon the Penitent or Candidates Conscience if the Performance be inconsistent with and thwarts any one Duty by any one of the forementioned relations arising if common-fidelity Justice or Charity be excluded thereby in any one instance of them or any be contracted against humane Converse and Society And the tenth Canon of the Apostles forbids to Pray with an excommunicate Person but permits to have converse with him the less is still to submit to the greater obligation And the World with its Necessities I and Conveniencies too is always considered there can be no compensations which infers omissions in another kind especially where the Duty neglected is more obliging nor is the Arrearage paid by a differing Debt contracted And by the like Rules also is Excommunication it self to he limited upon the very same terms has it its assigned force and efficacy and which as of it self neither invests with nor deprives of any earthy Goods any one instance of Wealth Power or Dominion so is it to he executed alone in compliance with the Necessities of Mankind with those Laws of that Body and Society to which as Men they stand related this Discipline cannot it be either a Contempt or Affront to the Magistracy or Law and then too when all this is as it ought to be duly observed as to these generals a great deal is left to the prudence and discretion of the Instrument 't is pursued only on rational Grounds and Motives and the effect to be considered with the best foresight which as is already shew'd is not always immediate and irresistible the advantage or disadvantage is to be weigh'd whether as to particular Persons or as to Publick And therefore this instance of the Power of the Keys though deputed to every one that is ordain'd a Presbyter yet by Church Laws and usuage upon Prudence and Prediscernment the execution is limited and the Bishop only has it or some other in special deputation from him to that particular purpose and since the Empire became Christian the Laws of it have prescribed and gave limits to the Bishops themselves as to Persons and the reasons of their Excommunications and which the Church in good Ages of it did own and comply with There were many other notorious offenders in the Church of Corinth and deserved St. Paul's Animadversions too as well as that one incestuous Corinthian who alone was there Excommunicated by him Longè aliter ista longè aliter vitiosa curanda sananda est multitudo but the proceeding against a multitude is to be of another Nature than that against one single notorious Sinner a Schism may be occasioned and the Wheat be pull'd up with so many Tares and instead of curing the Distemper it spread farther as St. Austin Tom. 7. Post Collat. lib. cont Donatist cap. 20. and we read in Socrates his Church History l. 4. cap. 23. of one Arsenius that he never did exercise his Discipline upon and separate from their Society a Monk that was a Novice and not of much continuance in the Fraternity though he might for his offences deserve it and his reason is that the utmost course or excommunication might render such an one but the more obstinate 't was only those that had
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