that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other Enormities committed which they seconded by oppugning the established Ceremonies and it is not improbable but that if the Liberty here pleaded for were granted but that the same disorders and confusions would also return and therefore for these also amongst many other reasons Antecedent also as for avoiding diversities of Formes and Opinions and for establishing Consent touching true Religion and Worship and for removing of some Offences taken by Calvin and his followers whose design it was to have this as well as other Churches to depend on his direction It was thought fit by our Learned and prudent Governors both of Church and State the better to settle peace and truth and to keep out Error and Superstition to Establish a Liturgy and Rubrick As Reformation was a Work most glorious so it was a work most difficult because it was to Null and cancel such Customs and usages in Divine Worship as tract of time Age after Age for many Generations had made so habitual and had taken such deep root and Impressions in the Hearts and Souls of the People of all sorts from Father to Son that in humane reason it appeared almost impossible And therefore a Work not to be undertaken by blew-Apron or Tradesmen nor yet by giddy Phanatick Multitude nor indeed by any but by the Supream Magistrate and therefore a Work fit only for a King and such a King only as was fit for such a Work fit to match the Empress of Abominations and of the World and such a King proved Henry the 8th Having great courage and great understanding and great resolution without which requisites he could never have done what he did § As our Author in his sixth Chapter hath given us his Account of the Reformation and of the Introduction of our Liturgy not without some unbeseeming reflections on so great so good a Work to make the better way for the design of his Book so I shall take leave to give you also a short account thereof for the better Justification of our Liturgy and leave the Reader to Judge and favour which he please Tho Henry the 8th from his Cradle lived in an Antichristian Age and Church so that he suckt in the very Milk of the Mother of Harlots and Abominations and tho he made great havock of the Blood of Saints and Martyrs scourging them to Death with his Six knotted-Whip of Articles And tho he made great havock of the Popes Power and Patrimony wrongfully so called and not excrescences For indeed Monasteries c. That he destroyed and took away were for the most part exempt from Episcopal Jurisdiction and wholly depended on the Pope who was not so much the rightful Head of the Church then as was this Henry the 8th and therefore were not so essentially belonging to the Church as were the Bishops and their Patrimony yet it cannot be denied but that he left the Officers and Fathers of the Church that were more truly so the Bishops in many respects in a better condition then he found it both in respect of the Polity and the Endowments of it and also in order to a Reformation of Doctrine and Worship the Polity was mended in that he banished the Power of the Pope and setled it on himself to whom it did more rightfully belong and on his Bishops moderated the extream Severity of the Six Articles abolished the superstitious usages observed on St. Nichola's day all which may abundantly be seen in the Church History and by his Proclamation of Sept. 19. 1530. by a Publick instrument of the Convocation dated March 22. after acknowledging him to be Supream Head of the Church of England as also by several Acts of Parliament viz. H. 24.8 c. 12.25 H. 8. c. 1.20 21. and 28. H. 8. c. 10. In Order to a Reformation H. 8. first permitted the Bible to be Translated by Mr. Tyndall Anno 1530. afterwards Martyr But some Bishops having ill Characterized him to the King it was afterwards suppressed But the Popes Authority declining about the year 1536. the King issued out an Order for a New Translation indulging in the Interim the use of a Bible then passing under a feigned Name of Mathews Bible not much differing from Tyndalls which came forth Anno 1540. which was called the great Bible and sometimes Coverdales Bible or Translation the publick uses thereof and of all other Translations was interdicted 1542. and so continued without leave of the King or Ordinary first had until Edward 6. repealed that Statute and introduced the publick use thereof again according to Miles Coverdales Translation which doth not much differ from Tyndalls from this Translation doth our Liturgy derive the Translations of the Psalms and other Portions of Canonical Scripture since which time we have had two other more exact and refined Translations one in Queen Elizabeth her time called the Bishops Bible another in King James's time that the Psalms and other Portions of Scripture in our Liturgy were not altered in Queen Elizabeths days according to the best Translation then extant was because it could not be done without altering the whole Frame of the Liturgy which the Sages of those times thought not prudent to endeavour by reason of the different temper of those Parliaments in which it had always some potent Enemies but why they were not lately altered with our Liturgy and as the Scotch Liturgy before had been I can give no account If the last Translation be the most perfect why were they not made Conformable to that and so compiled if it be not the best why is it commanded to be used at all H. 8. by his Injunctions 1536 and 1538. abolished Church Holy dayes and Holy dayes in Harvest time he banished the Popes Supremacy and asserted his own he forbade Images and Pilgrimages commanded Prayers in the Mother-tongue and every Parish to provide a Bible in English and to place it in the Quire for every Man to Read therein and no Man to be discouraged from it but to be exhorted thereunto the Lords Prayer to be Learned in English Sermons to be made Quarterly at least with Instructions not to trust in Works divised by Mens fantasies besides Scripture as in wandring to Pilgrimages offering of Money Candles or Tapers to feigned Reliques or Images or Kissing or Licking the same saying over a number of Beads not understood or such like Superstition and therefore all such Images to be pulled down that that most detestable offence of Idolatry may be avoided the commemoration of Tho. Becket to be quite omitted Fox 1247 1250. In farther Order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first caused his Convocation Anno 1537. to Compose a Book expounding the Creed the Lords Prayer the ten Commandments the Avy Mary and the seven Sacraments more agreeable to the truth then formerly and it was called the Institution of a Christian Man But this Book lay
an Unity of Discipline or Coactive Laws full power of Jurisdiction or Independant Judicature is not seated in any one Church or Person Pope or other to whom all other Churches and Persons must vail Bonnet and submit but the same power is in each of those Churches and this they maintain against the Romanists the English Priests and Jesuits who do not only hold this Unity of Independent Judicature to be necessary to the Constitution of the Visible Catholick Church but that of necessity it must be radically in one person to wit the Pope on whom as upon the Head and Fountain the unity of the Holy Catholick visible Church doth depend and for this reason they put his Holiness into the definition of the Holy Catholick Church and contrary to this the Protestant Divines do maintain That the Church of England and all other National Churches have a Discipline of Government and Judicature within themselves Independent of any other Person Church or Power And this is the Drift and Scope both of Bishop Bilson Dr. Jackson and others in their several Treatises § That which P. N. contends for in the Congregational termed also the Independant way is this viz. That those who are called out of the World by the Ministry of the Gospel have power given them by Christ being a competent Number to gather themselves together in his Name and judge their Warrant to be from 18. Mat. And a Church so gathered becomes a Body or Spiritual Corporation and being joyned thus by mutual Assent of each Person have power one over another as in all Fraternities and liberty from Christ to choose their Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in circumstantials for regulating their Affairs And they further say as the Church-Catholick in general so each parcel of it each particular Church hath Christ also for its Head and in such a union with him and such existence in him even as a Church 1 Thes 11. as that if Persons making up this Body be considered distinctly and as incorporated one with another only and not in their relation to Christ also as one with them and chief in the midst of them 18. Mat. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them they are not a compleat Body or Spiritual Politie And upon this account it is they profess their dependency to be upon Christ alone for the government and manage of this his Kingdom and thus being dependent upon Christ their only Law-giver 4. Ja. 12. Who is the wisdom of the Father and best knoweth how to govern his own House they profess themselves Independent in respect to the Authority or Sovereignty of any other Person Church Synod or meer Ecclesiastical Power whatsoever yet notwithstanding they own and submit to Magistrates in Matters and Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil as an Ordinance of God and so far as God hath given the Civil Magistrate Authority to command and require But finding in the Books of God that there are some things of so misterious and of so Spiritual a Nature and peculiar to holy Worship that Christ hath reserved the sole Menage thereof to be ordered by himself as expressed in his Word and no otherwise Now although the Magistrate may and ought to require of his Subjects due obedience to such duties yet ought he not by any Laws or Statutes that he shall enact in this kind either add alter or diminish any thing Christ hath established either in the substance or necessary circumstance thereof and if he shall so do the Churches are required of the Lord the one Law giver who is able to save and to destroy 4. James 12. not to be subject 2 Colos 20. And it is a sin for them through fear of Man or the like temptation to observe and keep such Statutes and for this they bring 6. Mich. 16. For the Statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the House of Ahab and ye walk in their Councils c. And in this sense only they profess themselves subject to the Civil Magistrates supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs and go no further and in this also reserve to themselves the sole judgment of what matters are thus meerly spiritual and appertaining to the Worship of God So that if the Christian Magistrate shall out of a good intention appoint Ceremonies or such like helps for the stirring up our dull minds and to make the Worship of God more edifying or shall appoint a day to be observed as sacred in the Remembrance of the Birth or Resurrection of Christ or to the Honour of the blessed Virgin or holy Apostles if the Magistrate for better government of the Church establish Arch-bishops Bishops Chancellors c. or any Officers that are not appointed by Christ himself they will by no means submit but choose rather to suffer which they term Passive Obedience Thus far P. N. from his own Mouth and under his own Hand to me verbatim § But those Reverend Authors Bilson and others considering the Civil Magistrate is highly responsable being appointed by the Lord as Custos utriusque tabulae if any matters of impiety in respect of God as well as unrighteousness in respect to Men be permitted or countenanced by him therefore he is to see to it that his People be not seduced into Errors Heresies or hurtful Opinions tending to prophaness and disloyalty And God having trusted him with Authority in these things it must of necessity also belong to him to judge what Crimes fall within his Province and Cognizance and accordingly to apply himself as the Minister of God for incouragement to those that are good and to execute wrath upon them that do evil And not to be looked upon as only a by-stander Impedimenta removere as P. N. would have him or to execute only what the Ecclesiasticks have decreed by their Censures or in their Synodals as some others though the Name of Independent was not then in common use § Others as Mr. John Robinson in his Apology in Justification of the same Tenets endeavours to prove the same averring That by Intendment of the Scriptures speaking definitely of visible Ministerial Churches no other is to be understood ordinarily at least than one Congregation met together in one place in such competent numbers as that they may all hear and understand one another 18. Mat. 17 20. If he neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church for where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them And when you are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 5.4 All that believed were together and had all things common 2. Acts 44. And they were all with one accord in Solomons Porch 5. Acts 12. Then the Twelve called the Multitude of the Disciples unto them c. and the saying pleased the whole Multitude 6. Acts 2 5. When ye come together therefore into
the Members of the holy Church Triumphant or Militant nor yet consists only of them or of men internally though ineffectually called but of them and of others called only vocatione merè externa by vocation meerly external Thus the several societies of Christian men unto every one of which the name of Church is rightfully attributed as the Church of Rome France Spain England and as of old the seven Churches of Asia which certainly hold a nearer resemblance unto National or Provincial Churches than unto the Gathered Congregations for most certainly each of these had certain particular Congregations under them as London hath must be endued with correspondent general properties and powers belonging of right unto them as they are publick Christian Societies And all the powers given by Christ to the Churches Militant or to visible Ministerial Churches are most properly attributed to such Churches and not to those where two or three or some few only in respect of the whole are gathered and such are our Independent Churches here in respect of the Church of England and such like are our several Parishes which more properly and strictly ought to be accounted of as Members or Homogeneal parts of the Church of England than so many several Churches endued with such powers though in common discourses we may allow them the title or appellation of Churches yet in discourses of this nature being disputative they ought to be distinguished § Unto the Attributes or Prerogatives attributed to the Church in the Apostles or Nicene Creed or unto the Promises annexed unto it in the Scriptures the Visible Ministerial Churches have no claim or title save only in reversion or reflection or in expectancy i. e. the Mystical Body of Christ is only instated in the Blessings Prerogatives and Promises made unto the Church yet from this Body or rather from Christ the Head of this Body both Blessings and Powers do immediately and successively like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aarons beard that went down to the skirts of his Garments descend though in different Measures unto the several Members of it as unto National Churches more and greater Powers and unto the several Congregations thereof Blessings and Powers though not in the same measure and fullness and indeed by Analogie and Participation unto all and every one that hath put on Christ by profession Thus we are to conceive of the Catholick Church as of one entire Body made up by the Collection and aggregation of all the faithful unto the unity thereof from which union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation unto and such a dependance upon the Church Catholick as parts use to have in respect of the whole whereupon it followeth that neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to work as several divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but to teach and to be taught and to do all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned unto the whole and Members of the same Common-wealth or Corporation and therefore the Bishops of the Antient Church though they had the government of particular Congregations only committed unto them yet in regard of this Communion which they had with the universal did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops of the Catholick Church which maketh strongly as well against the new Separatists as the old Donatists who either hold it a thing not much material so they profess the Faith of Christ whether they do it in the Catholick Communion or out of it or else which is worse dote so much upon the perfection of their own Party that they refuse to joyn in fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians as if they themselves were the only people of God and all wisdom must live and die with them and their Generation § To prosecute their own simile of Fraternities or Corporations whereby they claim a power over one another by consent or agreement Be it that every Church exceeds an ordinary Assembly or Multitude in that it is a Society of Men incorporated and every Corporation or Society corporate supposeth an unity more than meerly local between the Members thereof an Union by Laws and Statutes or else they were no more significant than so many men meeting at a Play or Whitsun-Ale quod non est aliquid formatum non est aliquid vere unum that which hath no set form or fashion can have no true real unity for it is the form of every thing which giveth it a distinct entity or unity Hence it is that though all men are mortal yet Corporations consisting of such mortal men are yet accounted immortal because their Laws and Ordinances is the life the soul and spirit of every Corporation or Body Civil every Church in what usual sense soever it be taken is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church And that which differenceth the Church properly so called from a Society or Body meerly Civil is the diversity of Laws and Ordinances and the different manner of union between the Members All this is to fortifie and to make plain their simile and which they will not gainsay Yet withal I shall commit to their consideration that there are no Corporations in England nor in any well governed Commonwealth without a proper Charter from the Crown and Laws of the Kingdom to authorize them to be a Corporation and to make By-laws as they call them or to have power one over another So none of them are independent of the publick Laws of the Kingdom or Nation whereof they are Subjects or have any authority to form or establish themselves by any power of their own but by what is derivative from some other power paramount So also there is no Parish in England nor any Company of Christians that have power of themselves so to confederat or congregat into a Church such a Church as hath all the Powers and Attributes wherewith a National Church is endowed and to meet as an Independent Congregation to make Laws choose Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in circumstantials without authority first obtained from the supreme Powers legislative or without any Supervisors or Superintendents or Laws over them if every particle of the Church hath this power derived unto it from Christ then certainly the same cannot be denied to a whole National Church and whether be more just or equal that a part should govern the whole or the whole the parts judg ye Power to meet to fast and pray to break bread and administer Sacraments which renders them capable of the appellation of a Church cannot reasonably and ordinarily be denied unto them yet this doth no way qualifie them to be Independent The strength and virtue even of the Law of Nations is such that no particular Nation can lawfully prejudice the same by any their several Laws and Ordinances more than a single person by his
private resolutions can abrogate the Laws of a Nation wherein he lives For as Civil Law being the Act of a whol Body Politick doth therefore overrule each several part of the same Body so there is no reason that any one Common-wealth it self should to the prejudice of another annul that whereupon the whole world hath agreed Now as there is great cause of Communion and consequently of Laws for the maintenance of communion amongst Nations so amongst Nations Christian the like in regard even of Christianity hath been always adjudged needful And in this kind of correspondence amongst Nations the force of General Councils doth stand For as one and the same Law divine is unto all Christian Churches a rule for the chiefest things by means whereof they all in that respect make one Church as having all but one Lord and Lawgiver Christ one Faith one Baptism Jam. 4.12 Eph. 4.5 So th◠urgent necessities of mutual communion for propagation of the Gospel and for preservation of unity in these things as also for order in some other things convenient to be every where uniformily kept maketh it requisite that the Church of God here on earth have her Laws also of spiritual commerce between Christian Nations Laws by vertue whereof all Churches may enjoy freely the use of those reverend religious and sacred consultations which are termed Councils General a thing whereof Gods own blessed Spirit was the Author a thing practised by the holy Apostles themselves a thing always afterwards kept and observed throughout the world a thing never otherwise than highly esteemed of till pride ambition and tyranny began by factions and vile endeavours to abuse that divine Invention unto the furtherance of wicked purposes But as the just Authority of Civil Courts and Parliaments is not therefore to be abolished because sometimes there is cunning used to frame them according to the private intents and interests of men over-potent in the Common-wealth so the grievous abuse which hath been of Councils should rather cause men to study how so gracious a thing may again be reduced to the first perfection than in regard of the stains and blemishes sithence growing be held for ever in extreme disgrace What hath been here affirmed of the Laws of Nations in general and of General Councils to make the thing we treat of more evident and reasonable the same reasons are as applicable and adequate to all intents and purposes of every particular Kingdom and Government and runs parallel throughout all Laws both of Church and State made by every particulat Church and Nation and it cannot be otherwise without shaking and hazarding the very foundation of all peaceable and good Governments in the World For should it be in the power of any small or greater numbers less than the whol to confederat and avowedly to act contrary to publick established Sanctions either of Church or State what issue could be expected but abominable disorder and confusion and every man to do what seems best in his own eyes as once in Israel when there was no King for as the Civil Laws of every Nation so of England are made for the whole Kingdom primarily and to the particular Divisions and Fraternities secondarily and obedience is yielded unto them not as Eastern or as Western Northern or Southern men but as Subjects of the same Kingdom So the Laws of Christ are given to the whole Church primarily and yet they oblige every particular Church to the observation of them but not because in such a particular congregated Brotherhood but because Subjects of Christs visible ministerial Church I am verily perswaded that it cannot demonstratively be made appear by any that every congregated Church in the best and purest times after the days of the Apostles was a Plenipotentiary Church unto it self to all intents and purposes I must confess that they would very much have obliged us if they had at any time given us any one instance of such a Church but they having not yet done it I take it for granted that it is not to be done though if such an instance could be made yet the posture of Ecclesiastical persons and affairs being so much different now from what it was then may quite alter the case I must confess it cannot reasonably be imagined that it could then be otherwise because in those days all Kingdoms and Governments were so far from being friends to Christianity or Christian Churches that they were all Persecutors thereof and therefore not possible that there should be any National Churches and happily were none till the lays of Constantine the first Christian Emperor § Their Maxim or Position is this viz. 1. That they who are called out of the world by the ministry of the Gospel as all Christians are have power given them by Christ being a competent number to gather themselves together in his name 2. That a Church so gathered becomes a Body or spiritual Corporation and being joyned thus by mutual assent of each person have power one over another as in all Fraternities and liberty from Christ to choose their Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in Circumstantials for the regulating of their affairs § Unto the first part of their Position I can so far subscribe that it is tru that where but two or three whether with or without a Priest are gathered together in Christs Name the presence of Christs Spirit is by promise annexed unto them Matth. 18.20 and the particular Assemblies of Christians were thereby intended and approved by Christ viz. to have communion in the publick exercise of holy duties mentioned Act. 2.42 46. viz. breaking of bread and prayer But that it doth describe or purport a mutual agreement which doth formally constitute them a Church Independent without any regard had to the National Church wherein they live is not so very clear the Text not warranting the same in the least if it do then every Family by the same Text might claim Independency § As unto the other part of the Position I can by no means submit without very great qualifications But if the second part of their Position be tru of every particular Assembly it must necessarily be much more tru of the whole or National Church for which they were primarily given and ordained and unto other Churches under the same Government but secondarily and subordinat Moreover consider the Original Commission for gathering of Churches Go teach all Nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 which Commission was before the Church was cantonized into divisions and subdivisions by publick Authority or the Independent Congregational Fraternities set up by any particular men The distinction of Churches fell out naturally and necessarily as this or that City or Nation was here or there converted by some one or other of the Apostles and their Successors and so division of Churches came secondarily for convenient administration of Ordinances and communication of
neighbouring Villages and indeed throughout al Palestine The Persecution increasing 19 Tiberii Paul himself being as it were Signiser or Inquisitor Haereticorum great cruelty being used towards the Christians caused the Apostles and some of their Disciples to dispose of themselves into neighbouring Nations whereby the great wisdom and counsel of God was eminent that thereby the propagation of the Gospel became more universally spread yet so that some of the Apostles were always at Jerusalem as the principal Seat of the Church of Christ always ready to confirm and strengthen the Brethren under their Persecutions and though they made often excursions from Jerusalem into other Regions yet they many times returned thither again Paul himself returned thither five times after his conversion from whence he was carried prisoner to Rome where though detained two years a prisoner yet preached the Gospel even then and there All this while no footsteps of any Dependency that any one Church throughout all Palaestine or the Regions round about had of another Communications and Advisoes reciprocal there might be between the gathered Churches far and near but no dependencies obligatory upon one another Soon after Christs ascention the Gospel was preached by the Apostles to al Nations both in Asia Africa and Europe and in the mediteranean Islands as Cyprus Crete Samothracia and in the Aegean Sea Lesbon Chion Samon Trogyllium Pathmos Sicily Melita Though there were thousands of Churches gathered by the Apostles yet there are no footsteps remaining that the Churches gathered by any one Apostle were subject or did depend on any one or more Churches gathered by any other or more Apostles The like I may say after the death of the Apostles that no one Church by what Apostle soever gathered was left subject to any other Church gathered by any other Apostle no nor yet subject to any Church of their own converting and gathering but every Church was to be governed by its own peculiar Body observing Gospel precepts viz. to love one another and to do all things in decency and in order c. How and when the Supremacy of the Clergy came in Histories are ful and plain and would have been yet more ful and plain had but our Holy Fathers Inquisitors been as Innocent as Doves as they were cursedly wise as was that Divelish Serpent that beguiled Eve whilst they have scarce left us a Father or Monument of Antiquity whose very bowels they have not raked out and yet still retain that Hellish and daring Impudence to persevere in that embowelling trade and yet every hedge Priest to boast that All they cannot speak less than all the Fathers are on their side though their very Hearts and Intrals had they not been raked out by such unreasonable and cruel hands would have born witness against them and for us § By all which it appears that the Summ and meaning of the visible Church and of the Government thereof upon Earth lies in a very narrow room and is very plain and obvious to every understanding though Ecclesiastick's of all perswasions have by perverting plain truths and texts rendred them as obscure as they could that they might not appear clear unto poor Laick's And which aggravates the more we find by woful experience that as of old so now they still are very well content and pleased that we should yet be kept on in an amaze and Laberinth and to know no more of Church and Church-Government then what will stand with the grandeur benefit and domination of Ecclesiastick's only and still continuing blinded in extreme ignorance We should have them only in admiration as if Gods and Oracles indeed Bellarmine in his tract against Gerson magnifying the Popes Power above the Skies saith and saith truly that the holy Church is not like the Common-wealth of Venice or of Geneva La christ Santa non è similâ— aâ—la Rep. di Venâ—tia c. p. 318. or of other Cities which confer upon their Dukes that Power which themselves please in regard whereof it must be said that the Common-wealth is above the Prince neither is it like to an earthly Kingdom in which the People transfer their own Authority unto the Monarch and in certain cases may free themselves from Royal Dominion and reduce themselves to the Government of inferior Majestrates as did the Romans when they passed from Dominion Royal to Consular-Government for that the Church of Christ is a most perfect Kingdom and an absolute Monarchy which hath no dependance on the People neither from them had its Original but dependeth only on the Divine Will which Christ sheweth when he saith ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you 15. John 16. Luke 32.33 2. Psal 6. but what strange Blasphemous Conclusions he hath drawn out of these premises and texts which relate only to Christ himself by applying them to his Vicar General I will not in this place concern my self at all The position it self is thus far true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice much less a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood Royal and Kings succeed by Birth nor as some other Kingdomes by Testament which hapily may change the Government because the Church which is Christs Body hath Christ for its perpetual and immortal Head and King who whilst Man in the daies of his flesh first made the Body the Church and not the Body him the Head thereof governed it both visibly and invisibly invisibly by influencing his Body and conferring Gifts and Graces upon men fit for his Body the Church now touching this inward and merely Spiritual Government it is not like unto any Government no Prince Pope or Prelate having any such Government at all but only Christ who knoweth the hearts of all men which are deceitful above all things and can only influence them and can confer Gifts and Graces upon them whereby they are made and may become free Denizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem And because Christ was always to have his Body the Church on earth even unto the end of the world to be composed of visible Men and Members and not of one visible Man the Pope as the same Bellarmine and others would make us believe he hath appointed the Authority which his Body should have after his Ascention with promise that he would be with them unto the end of the world and therefore he set some in the Church as Apostles Prophets Teachers and after that Miracles then Gifts of Healing Helps in Government Diversities of Tongues 1 Cor. 12.28 Some of which as Miracles Diversities of Tongues and Gifts of Healing died and ceased with the Apostles who only were extraordinarily and Infallibly Gifted and inspired as necessary only for the first planting of the Gospel Therefore when Christ Ascended on high he gave Gifts unto Men 68. Psal 18.4 Eph. 8. yet diversly and in divers Measures and according to his Promise John 14.26 Sent the Holy Ghost the Comforter amongst them which should
wheresoever he heard there was a Treaty to hold a Council And after a certain time he took the power to himself which the Roman Emperors used to convocate a Council of the whole Empire and to be President himself if present if absent to send Legates to be Presidents But a little more than one Age being past it was very necessary that every Nation should Assemble by it self and resolve according to the Number of Voices and that the general decision should be established not by the suffrages of particular men but by the plurality of the voices of the Nations so it was observed in the Council of Constance and Basil which use as it is good where the Government is free as it was when the world had no Pope so it ill befits the Pope who desires all Councils to be subject to him § Having thus summarily given a short prospect of the state of the Church in the first and purer times and how in succeeding times it came by degrees to be altered I proceed and say again to the Independents that be it as they would have it that the gathered Churches by one Apostle were not subject to the inspection and subordination of an other or of all the Apostles the cause of such Independency being then and in them reasonable for that each Apostle was guided by an infallible Spirit and so not absolutely necessary and yet even in their times it was thought fit to call a Council for setling of some differences yet it doth not therefore follow nor cannot demonstratively be proved that every individual Pastor after the times of the Apostles had their select Congregations seperate and distinct from others or that those Congregations were Independent free and exempt from all inspection or superintendency of Magistrates or Bishops or other Presbiters The conjectures and probabilities and they have no Arguments of an other nature seem strong for the contrary for Religion did first take place in Cities which had their Ecclesiastical Colledges consisting of Presbiters and Deacons whom first the Apostles and their Deligats the Evangelists did both ordain and govern such were the Colledges of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Rome Corinth aâ—â— the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion Now Religion in those days and places and the cure of Souls was their general charge in common over all that were about them neither had any one Presbyter for ought that appears by any ecclesiastical History his several cure or seperate title distinct and apart until the division of Parishes which was first made by the People when a certain number of Inhabitants having received the true Faith built a Temple for the exercising of their Religion hired a Priest and did constitute a Church which by them was called a Parish and when the number was increased if one Church and Priest were not sufficient they who were most remote did build another and sit themselves better And in process of time for the sake of good Order and concord custom began to have the Bishops consent also and †Hic Titulos in urbe Roma divisit presbiteris Evaristus Bishop in the Sea of Rome about the year 112. began to assign precincts to ever Church or Title which the Christians held and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compass whereof himself should take charge alone him †Hic Presbiteris ecclesias divisit coemiteria parochias dio diaeceses constituit Dionisius papa 24. followed Ao. 268. which was found so commodious that all parts of Christendom followed the example and among the rest our Churches in the reign of Ercombert the 7th King of Kent †Hoc de Honorio maxime memo rabile Godwins Episc p. 59. Honorius also being then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury about the year 636. became divided in like manner and have so continued ever since Other distinction of the Churches there doth not appear any in the Writings of the Apostles save those according to Cities only 15. Acts 36.1 Apocal. 20. wherein they planted the Gospel of Christ and erected ecclesiastical Colledges of Presbyters and Deacons ordained by the Apostles to exercise ecclesiastical functions promiscuously and at large till the said Evaristus did about 100 years after Christ distinguish the Church of Rome into Parishes tying each one to his proper station so that indesinite care of souls and indefinite ordination do approach nearer the Apostles times and example And prescription for the congregational way may be more justly grounded on the example of the People who are the Brethren who are the Church and of Evaristus then of any Apostle of Christ Moreover this the Independents will hardly evade each Church in the Apostles days had many Presbyters that laboured in the Word the Scriptures do plainly witness it In the Church of Jerusalem 15. Acts 6.23 of Antioch 13. Acts 1. of Ephesus 20. Acts 17.28 of whom 16. Rom. of Corinth 1 Corinth 14.29 of Phillippi 1. Phil. 1. of Thessalonica 1. Thes 5.12 of other Churches the like is affirmed 13. Heb. 7. James 5.14 1. Pet. 5.1 Now if each Church had more Presbiters and Pastors than one in the days of the Apostles as it is manifest they had then can it be hardly made out by right reason that every individual Presbyter or Pastor had his particular and circumscribed gathered Church free of all subordination they seem contradictory in themselves On the contrary in the more pure times no man was ever ordained for some hundred of years to whom there was not appointed both his proper and special Office and Charge and Antiquity knew no distinction between Ordination and Benefice and ordaining was the same thing as to give an Office and the right of having ones livelyhood from the common goods of the Church § The Independents do farther aver for their own justification and that most truly that it is a thing natural that all free and Independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws of which sort they take their gathered Churches to be which is the thing questioned and denyed and say they are not Independent for the reasons shewed But be it so yet then it is averred that it is as true and as natural that the Legislative-Christian-Power should and doth belong to the whole England for example and not to any certain Parish City or Country as to London York c. of a Politick Body though happily some one part may have a greater share therein than some others And as this right doth naturally belong to a Commonwealth so it must needs belong to the Church of God which in the truest understanding is the Commonwealth if Christian and the Peopele thereof do publickly embrace the true Religion As this very thing doth make it the Church so the whole England not any certain part as St. Paul in London St. Peter at Westminster or at York hath the power of making Laws and constitutions ecclesiastical A Law is the deed of
the whole body politick whereof if the Presbyter or Independent judge themselves to be any part then is the Law even their own deed also as being made by the representatives of the whole wherein they are included as having their most proper representatives in our Parliaments and Convocations the undoubted Legislative Power of this Kingdom And is it reasonable in things of this nature and consequence to give men audience pleading for the overthrow of that which as it were their own very deed hath ratified Laws that have been approved both in Church and State may be no man doubteth again repealed and to that end also disputed against by the same Authority But this most properly is when the whole doth deliberate what Laws each part shall observe and not when a few run counter the Laws which the whole hath made in a full and free Parliament and lawfull Convocation Be it that some reasons induce some persons to be otherwise minded if those reasons be demonstrative and absolutely necessary such I confess discharge consciences and setteth them at full liberty but if probable only what thing was there ever set down so agreeable to sound reason but some probable shew against it may be made Is it meet that when Acts of Parliaments and Canons have been publickly received and long practised that general obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case some few led by some probable conceits should make open protestation of their dissatisfaction Certainly in such cases they are obliged to suspend their judgments for that in otherwise doing they offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause For until the Civil Christian Magistrate whose power it is that I contend for doth otherwise order and determine obedience is to be given to the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil if not contrary to the word of God Turpis est pars quae universo non congruit suo Out of which premises and of what will follow more particularly I shall take the liberty to assert and conclude that the Church of England in general is undeniably Independent and hath intrinsick power within it self without any forraign aid or dependency or any subordination to any other Person Church or Council to govern it self and that every Parish or Congregation thereof is not so Independent but rather that every particular doth depend upon the whole for that all ought to govern the whole and every particular thereof and every one ought to imploy himself most in that which is most particularly recommended to him and that the true Representatives of this Church of England and of all other National Churches is the Legislative Power thereof and that the King is the chief Governor thereof according to the constituted Laws and Canons thereof § And this Legislative Power hath lawful Authority to constitute all Qualifications unto all publick Ecclesiastical preferments so that they which will not submit to such qualifications shall be uncapable of such publick Benefices and Preferments But neither this nor any other Power throughout the whole Vniverse hath any lawful Authority to forbid the gathering of Churches or stop the mouths of any Bishop or Presbyter to preach the Gospel nor to forbid the solemn assembling together of the Saints or of the Brethren according to their several Commissions viz. go teach all Nations c. 28. Matth. 19.20 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhort one another 10. Hebr. 24.25 if this had not been good Doctrine and practised even by Christ himself his Apostles and their followers maugre all the Interdicts of Jewish and Gentile States and Princes cursed Tyrants the Gospel had never been spread In such Cases where commands of Governments are contrary to commands of God it is undoubtedly better to obey God than Man I have dwelt the longer on this subject of Indepency for that though in truth it the be elder Brother unto Presbyterian Government by 1600 years yet it seems unto most to be but my Lord Musshrome and of yesterdays extract and very little understood by Vulgar Capacities In the Treaty whereof I have taken occasion in some measure to trace both the wayes of the Church and the wiles of the Church-Men from its very Infancy and shall pursue it farther when I come to shew what and who are meant by the term Church so that if possible the Government of the Church may be made easie and intelligible to every understanding Plain dealing is best and truth like beauty is most beautiful when stark naked stript of all paints and School-tricks and Glosses by which truth is more often confounded and defaced than brought unto light in its pure and natural colours § I shall now proceed and say something of the Presbyterian way but shall not meddle with their Model at all it being done and done to my hand it hangs on every Hedg and is decyphered and refelled in an Iliad of Pamphlets and is as perfectly disliked and disgusted as known and therefore I think we may bid them defiance set it up and establish it if they can especially if excommunication the main prop and pillar thereof were taken away without which it must necessarily fall to the ground and which is of no use in any Christian State and which in truth is a nemo scit utterly unknown to Scripture it self as now used especially And yet so fond are they of it and so wedded unto it and such is the selfishness of the Clergy of all perswasions and so great a Biass is their interest and love of domination that the very thought of parting with it doth cut them to the heart and it cannot be got from them without rending and tearing as if it were as perverse as an unclean spirit and though in truth it makes no return considerable unto any of them but what redounds unto their dishonour and reproach I shall only shew some of their tenets and practises by which you may the better judge of them and I shall not go far to fetch them and declare that now to erect and establish that Government here or in any other Christian Common-wealth were to erect Regnum in Regno and then in short process of time upon every difference and dispute as it happened in the State of Venice 1610. where Father Avaraldo a Capuchin being demanded by the Inquisitors at Rome for a certain opinion concerning Anti-Christ and from that Inquisition the process being sent to Bressia where the Father was the Inquisition at Bressia proceeded in the Cause without the Civil Assistants and answered them not without a design to cajole the Civil Magistrate out of his just right by a nice distinction viz. that they ought not to assist but only in causes which were begun at the proper Tribunal but not when the Denuntiation was given at Rome so in a very short time as
not the most antient § With all wise and sober-minded persons Custome and Usage obtaineth that reverence and esteem as to yield a just ground for deliberation before it be altered or abrogated though not of absolute direction and adherency All Constitutions and ordinances concern the Church or State be they never so pure in their first institution may corrupt and degenerate and why the Civil State should be purged and reformed by new Laws devising remedies as fast as times breed and discover inconveniences and mischiefs And the Ecclesiastical State of this or that Kingdom should still continue on its lees or dreggs without refining or purifying by new Canons and Constitutions is beyond the comprehension of all sober minds and reason H. Grotius makes this observation on the 2 Kings 18.14 He removed the High places and brake the Images cut down the Groves and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made Nota quem secerat Moses Egregium Regibus documentum ut quamvis bene instituta sed non necessaria ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 male usurpanturè conspectu tollant ne parant offendiculum caecis This H. Grotius notes as an excellent document for Kings that things never so well never so lawfully instituted as the Brazen Serpent was by Moses himself if not necessary and grow to be abused ought to be taken away as King Hezekiah did the Serpent least they prove a Snare and an offence unto the weaker Brethren Moreover if an absolute necessity be laid upon all men to subscribe and conform to the present established Religion and Worship by the very self same reason the next year he may be obliged to subscribe and conform to the contrary and so unto all Religions in the world successively § As a perverse and a morose retaining of Customes and Usages may be as prejudicial to right Reformation as Innovations so to remove Abuses nay Customs or Rights that may be spared without prejudice unto true Worship and the Doctrine of Faith doth not impeach good Orders nor lawful Authority but ratify and establish them Gods Church is compared to a Vineyard and a good Husband who is ever pruning therein not unseasonably not unskilfully but lightly and prudently he findeth ever somewhat to do If men were peaceably minded methinks it were not hard to agree in this That every Church be it of England France Sweden c. do that which is convenient for the State of it self and of the Common-wealth The antient and true bounds of Unity being one Faith one Baptism and not one Ceremony one Policy suppose another were a better form yet not always that which is best but of good things that which is best and may be had with least prejudice is to be embraced Our Church is not now to plant it is settled and established In Civil States suppose a Republick in the opinion of some to be a better policy than a Kingdom yet God forbid that lawful Kingdoms should be obliged to innovate and make alterations as often as men given to change desire or plead for it Gods Providence is to be consulted as well as his Word There are Schismatical Customs as well as Schismatical Doctrines and Opinions So as the Civil Magistrate take care that the general Rules be observed viz. That Christs Flock be duly fed that there be authentick Ordination a Succession in Bishops and Ministers that there be a due and reverend use of the Keys a due Administration of the Sacraments that those that preach the Gospel do live by the Gospel that all things tend to Edification and that all things be done in order and with decency the rest may be left to the discretion and prudence of inferiour Labourers and we ought to acquiesce The President of that City is very severe which permitteth none to propound new Laws that had not a cord about their Necks ready for vengeance if it were found unprofitable but by their leaves all Innovations are not to be rejected for divine Plato teacheth us in all Common-wealths on just grounds there ought to be some changes and that States-men therein ought to imitate skilful Musicians Qui artem Musices non mutant sed Musices modum And it is not unworthy our observation that even evil forms of Policy have been sometimes well ordered and rectified by good Governours and Commanders and so the State of Boetia flourished once under Epaminondas and Pelopidas and yet it owed this Prosperity not to the Government of the City for that was ill constituted but to the Governours for they were wise and virtuous The contrary also happened to Lacedemon for that fared ill sometimes and suffered much distempers because though its fundamental Laws were good yet its Kings and Ephori were many times tyrannous and unjust § More particularly the Congregational Government though ab initio it were in use and may be again if the National Church thought it convenient And I do not know but that it will suit now with any Government as well as when Christ did institute it but the truth is it hath been quite of date and doors as they would now set it up ever since whole Cities Commonwealths and Kingdoms became Christian and have been mutually incorporated and interwoven one with the other however the Doctrine and Tenet thereof is as sound and as practicable now as ever The Arguments which the Independents bring to prove the consistency of their Congregational way with our Kingly and Civil Government are only prudential and probable which I shall not go about to contradict or examin but exmantissa grant not only their Consistency with our Government but that also the Civil Magistrates may so govern if they please they submitting to Indubitable Ordination as I take Episcopal to be for it is not sit that any Ordinance so very essential to the very making and perpetuating of a Gospel Ministry should be left upon a Moot point as it would be if either Presbyterian or Independent Ordination should take place But then I hope the Congregational men will be as ingenuous and confess that the Ecclesiastical Discipline and Government already established is as consistent with our Civil Laws and Government and that the legislative power may continue the same Government or alter it to any other form so it be of force to suppress Vice and to maintain true Faith and Religion even to that Gallintaufrey Platform establishing Presbytery which is but a minced or cantonized Papacy in point of Rule and Domination by order and ordinance of that demy-parliament 29. August 1648. which hath no good foundation in Scripture no ground in Reason no Authority beyond Jo. Calvin to make it good But Christian Common-wealths and Civil Magistrates may establish what Government so qualified they please the thing I contend for It s true that the Priests of divers perswasions will highly caress Majesty in words But if the Civil Magistrate offer to impose but a Cap a Surplice a cross in
Baptism or the like then they stiffly cry out where is your Rule your Warrant in Scripture for them And may not the Magistrate with as good Logick demand of Presbyter and Independent their express Warrant and Rule of Scripture for their Governments for receiving the Communion sitting or for their altering the time of taking of it or their Preaching in their Caps in a Cloak or Buff Coats as lately they did If men were humble and not wedded to their own fancies they might see the right Independency already established in this Kingdom and with no great difference from that of the Independents who would have only Churches voluntarily gathered and submitted unto whereby those that would might be of Peters or of Pauls or of any Ministers Congregation and those that would not might refuse to be of either or indeed of any so that in effect they having no power to compel the whole Kingdom might be either Atheists or Papists Quakers or Fanaticks nay Jews or Ranters or indeed what not if no better care were taken But the great wisdom of our Princes armed with the Sword and with Power to Command and Compel from on High well knowing it a duty incumbent upon them as it was once upon Paul to take care of all the persons and Churches within their Dominions and that they were to be accomptable to God for their good or evil Government in Church and State have divided this whole Nation into Precincts Parishes or Congregations call them what you will and hath allotted to every Parish a Church to which all are enjoyned to resort and frequent and a Minister endowed with maintenance who is to execute his Pastoral Office over them and his Parishoners are compellable by by the Laws Canons and Edicts of the Prince to receive their spiritual Food and Bread of Life at his hand and mouth and it is not left to them to come or not to come to the Church of God and hear the Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ at their pleasure But care hath been and is still taken that the Ministers and Pastors shall not be without their Flocks nor the Flocks without their Pastors who are licenced and enjoyned to Pray Preach Baptize Now what is the difference The Congregational way is voluntary unlimited and unprescribed the Parochial is quodam modo compulsory bounded and circumscribed and so it ought to be or else how can Princes rationally give any good Accompt to God of their care of his Churches if they should leave every man to do herein what seemeth best in his own eyes as once in Israel when there was no King And if Princes have no Power to Prescribe Compel and Punish why should they be blamed and punished for the Idolatrous and otherwise erronious Worship of others And if they have power why do the Non-conformists quarrel at the use thereof one Parish is as little dependant on another as the Congregational men would have their Congregations to be and yet both Parishes and Congregations are properly and rather homogenial parts of Englands Church than so many distinct Churches though Quodam Modo they may be stiled Churches as Paul did Families in Houses in his time § Both Presbyters and Independents willingly oblige themselves to no form being against all set forms but leaving themselves at large in all their Administrations Our Supream Governours as in duty bound prescribe and enjoyn as in our Liturgy the daily teaching of the Fundamentals of Christianity that all his Subjects may be sure to have them sincerely dispenced unto them If there be no form for dispencing of them how can the Prince be sure that they are rightly dispenced and taught nay how can he be sure that they are taught at all and if not certain thereof how can he give to God a good and sure account that they were sincerely taught or that the Alcoran Talmude or Trent Creed were not taught instead thereof If our Liturgy be daily used the very solemn days which by Antient Institution of the Church are to be celebrated for the Commemoration of the Blessed Trinity Advent of our Saviour his Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection and Assention will so preserve these things among the Common People that is scarcely imaginable that they should be so grosly ignorant as not to have explicite knowledge of those mysteries of Christ so publickly and frequently solemnized in the Church The want of which Liturgy hath in these late times ushered in much ignorance even of the necessary fundamentals and made a wide Gap for ignorance nay Atheism not only to creep but to leap in amongst us How many Congregations or Parishes wanted the Holy Communion for the greater part of twenty years together in the late times now who was to blame or responsible to God for so hainous a sin as the keeping back the Bread of Life the Incumbent or the Civil Magistrate or both and who was in fault when it was afterwards given yet to those only that would sit and take it at a long Table denying it to others that desired to receive it in the most reverend manner by kneeling the Incumbent or the Magistrate that might have ruled it otherwaies thereby excommunicating in their sence at least with exclusion a Sacris all the Parish at one breath save a few What could his Imperial Infallible Holiness at Rome have done more imperiously then to deny the Bread of Life to those that would not submit to their ipse dixit The hainousness of this crime of robbing whole Parishes of the Lords own Supper Table Cup Body and Blood for so many years together in our late times is abundantly set forth attested and proved to be from Popish Principles in a Book entituled A new Discovery of some Romish Emissaries c. The sum then of the Contest will be between Prince and Priest whether Presbyterian Independant or Popish matters not much They being in the point of Domination not much different only the Independant is most moderate and the Pope most exorbitant extending his Supremacy and Jurisdiction over forrain Princes and beyond his own Territories even to the Excommunication nay Deposition of Kings and how much less the Presbyter claims Sa. Rutherford in the forenamed Book and his if I may call it his Book called Lex Rex do speak and as the Arguments are the same so the same Answer will reach them all § The Priests conceive by their mandate viz. Go teach all Nations Baptizing c. received from Christ Independant of any earthly Power that they have by vertue thereof Authority to put in execution that Mandate 1o. In their opinion to preach and pray what when and where they please Administer the Sacraments after what form and manner seems best unto every of them though never so different one from the other use any form of Discipline excommunicate whom and when they please and all this without being accomptable to any earthly power or having any Superior over them §
sent it by Stephanus and others signifying unto them that though he were absent in Body but present in Spirit had already judged as present him that had so done and therefore advised them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that being gathered together and his Spirit with the vertue of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Sathan Now it is observable that when St. Paul wrote this Epistle he was absent at Philippi a City of Macedonia and directed it not to any one single person Pope or other but unto the Church of God which was at Corinth and to them that were 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 He did not according to Romish Custom write by his Breves I excommunicate such a one and in one Scrap of Paper send as much as in him lieth Kings and Queens and Emperors nay whole Kingdoms and States to the Devil but he wrote to the Church a Collective Body that being gathered together with his Spirit they should deliver that Incestuous person to Sathan And again when he wrote his Second Epistle he directed it also unto the Church of God which was at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia declaring it sufficient to such a Man is this Punishment which was inflicted of many admonishing them to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow whereby it is plain and not to be gainsaid that the Delivering of him unto Sathan be the Punishment be the Censure what it will it was inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 Now if Paul an Apostle would not excommunicate or deliver unto Sathan at his own will and pleasure but would consult the Church that the Matter being transacted by common Authority and Approbation the Censure the Punishment might be performed by Common Consent It being most just and equal and of Moral Right that they who to morrow must deliver such a one to Sathan whom to day they account as a Brother dear in Christ should be fully satisfied why and wherefore Now how came Signore Papa alone to be entituled to exercise Powers greater than the Apostle Paul would use What hath he to do with it more than the rest of his Brethren If so interrogated I can make no other Answer but Ignoramus Moreover hath the practice of Christ's Vicars at Rome been correspondent to that of Paul the Apostle of such esteem and prevalency is publick consent with God himself even in the Affairs of the Church that though in his secret Decree Paul and Barnabas were to be set apart for the Work of the Ministry yet by God's own appointment were they separated after Fasting and Prayer to the same by the Church which was at Antioch Acts 13.2 Thereby teaching us not to despise the Office of the Church i.e. of the Multitude of Brethren where it may be had By these very small Hints it is easily discernable what a Nose of Wax the Papalins make both of Scripture and Tradition and Excommunication their great and terrible Thunderbolt even against Kings and Kingdoms not considering the little efficacy it hath What was the State of Venice and her Duke or Queen Elizabeth and her Dominions the worse for Romish Excommunications and Interdicts or what the worse the Kings of Spain for being excommunicated every Maunday Thursday And indeed what the worse his Holiness at Rome for being solemnly excommunicated every year by the Muscovite Fops § Some indeed of later days have intimated a great and just dislike of those who have hitherto endeavoured to hang Excommunication on some doubtful Places of Scripture but yet endeavour to settle it on another Basis viz. on the Nature and Constitution of the Church Christian as a Society Instituted by Jesus Christ whereby they say it is manifest that if Excommunication cannot be established upon some better and other Bottom than what hath hitherto been laid by their Predecessors on some doubtful places of Scripture it must necessarily decay and fall to the ground moreover they most ingenuously confess themselves unsatisfied as to any convincing Argument whereby it can be proved that any were denied Admission unto the Lords Supper who were admitted to all other parts of Church-Society and owned as Members in them § Though I have said enough already sparsim that if rightly applied doth demolish this Fabrick of Fundamental Right yet I will add a little and but a little more viz. that if by the Word Church in these Positions be meant only the Clergy met or not met in Councils Synods Consistories Convocations or Assemblies as the Representatives of the Church Assembled by their own power as by a Fundamental Right grounded on Christs Institution then to say no more is hereby justified Robert Bruce David Blake and those seventeen Scottish Ministers before-mentioned and their Tenets denying the King and his Council to have any Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical For certainly if God hath given them power of themselves to Assemble and Consult and make Laws and hath not withal given them Force and Power to put them in execution they have only a mock and ridiculous Authority which God never instituted nor ordained And if it be not so meant then they either say nothing to the purpose or equivocate But if herein by the Word * By the word Church may be meant either all Believers holding saving Truth in general of what condition or quality soever or else more striftly the collective Body of the Clergy for if we speak right of the Church Universal or this or that Particular Church as of Spain France England c. this Term may be taken in either of those two Sences Church be meant the Civil Power and Laity together with the Clergy then we are Friends and that Fundamental Right arising from the Constitution of the Church derived from Christ himself of Right belongs to the Commonwealth if Christian and to every congregated Number of Believers gathered in any Gentile State or People and united into one Society and not only to the Clergy thereof and the Laity are as capable and have as much Right to be of such Councils and Synods as the Ecclesiasticks Or that the Church be not semper and perpetuo a peculiar Society separate and distinct from the Commonwealth as certainly it is not or that the Officers thereof as limited by these Positions unto Teachers and Pastors injuriously enough if they pretend beyond Teachings Administrations of Sacraments Imposition of hands for Ordination and the publick use of the Keys are not only inflicters or executioners of Church-Censures as certainly they are not then the very Foundation of this Fabrick for the Support and Justification of Excommunication must necessarily fall to the ground It is true that every Church is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church every
vel indignos recusandi quod ipsam videmusde divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur c. whereby it appears that the supream Power of choosing such Priests as are worthy and refusing unworthy doth principally rest in the People And he speaketh of Bishops particularly although in the words alledged he mentioneth Priests and withal it is not only St. Cyprians Epistle but the Epistle of thirty six Bishops and written to the Common People of Leon Asturia and Emerita Vide his 14. Epist of his 3. Lib. such Authorities we may alledge but not mystical and enforced Explications nor yet wrong Conclusions from right Premisses The Faithful Flock of Christ ought to resemble Sheep indeed in humility and innocency yet ought they not to be so sheepish or sottish as to decline the Authority which Christ their great Shepherd hath bestowed on them either of choosing them a Good or of judging a Wicked Shepherd St. Austin proves unanswerably that Doctrines are to be grounded on the Literal Sense of the Scripture and not on any Mystical Interpretation In this equivocating Art of Sophistry Bellarmine hath shewed both in this Subject as in others his great dexterity first to settle with the Reader the Relation which the Holy Church hath towards the Divine Majesty and then to conclude on the Relation towards the Pope such false Sophistry such disingenuity becomes not so great a Prince so great a Scholar as himself but the Parisians no Protestants conclude that God hath called the Church to the Faith and his Worship and that he hath placed Christ over it for an Head for ever who first himself did govern it on Earth in the days of his Flesh but being ascended into Heaven doth rule it with inward influence and assistance invisible unto the end of the World It is true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice or as Geneva which give as much Authority as themselves please to their Dukes and Princes nor a Kingdom which may change the manner of governing it neither invisibly nor visibly because that Christ hath prescribed the manner much less is it such a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood-Royal where the Kings succeed by Birth neither as some other by Testament but as touching the Inward Government and meerly Spiritual it is not like unto any because it hath a perpetual Immortal and Eternal King who only knows the Heart and tries the Reins In the visible Government it hath a Ministry whose Authority was instituted by Christ and independing of the Church but as concerning the Application of this Authority unto this or that Person it is elective or depending of it Wherefore when he alledgeth I am constituted a King by him Our Lord God shall give him a Kingdom Luke 1.32 and 12.32 You chose not me but I have chosen you John 15.16 Thou hast made us to our God a Kingdom All these places and such like others are meant of the Invisible Spiritual and Interior Kingdom where the Pope hath no regiment nor influence at all but Christ is all in all governing by his Spirit and according to the Council of his own Will Thus he having laid down and proposed to use a Proposition or Doctrine quodammodo and in some sense true and having Validity under the Covert of an Universal yet having applied it to wrong Particulars it hath lost its Energy and Effort and its fallacy is discovered A piece of Artifice and Skill that runs through the Veins and Lines of most Popish Writers in the Controversies between us and them and what else is this but to make Lies their refuge and under Falshood to shelter themselves If Popes may now excommunicate as they pretend yet this concludes not that they may excommunicate Princes or Magistrates or whole Common-wealths The Primitives of old did use excommunication very sparingly and moderately and with great prudence and policy and with great respect to the good of the Church And therefore be the Power what or where it will St. Augustine holds an Excommunication against a Multitude though it were for some notorious and manifest sin too sacrilegious pernicious impious and insolent Lib. 3. contra Ep. Permen 23.4.4 c. non potest And Thomas putteth a Question whether any generality may be excommunicated and he answereth himself No and produceth Reasons for the same concluding that the Church appointeth with great Providence that no Community might be excommunicated And all other Divines with one accord determine the same And also Pope Innocent the 4th in the Chap. Rom. saith In Vniversitatem vel Collegium proferri sententiam Excommunicationis penitus prohibere de Sentent excom in 6. We must know that it is of worse consequence and example where â—t is used against Princes than divers other Bodies and Societies in as much as one Prince is of more consequence and power than thousands of other Lay-men We know also that in all Judgments there is a necessity of a Legal Trial to precede Conviction And that great Multitudes may be convented examined sentenced and punished with less disturbance of Peace less violation of Majesty than those that sway the Ball-Imperial Besides if the condemnation of Princes might be upon due Trials without violence yet the execution of the Sentence would produce more monstrous events in them than in private Men for how shall the People honour obey and reverence him in the State as Gods Lieutenant whom they see accursed cut off and abhorred in the Church as the Devils Vassal upon the excommunication of Princes whole Nations have been interdicted witness England Venice and other in the times of several Popes whole States subjected to ruine the Innocent with the Obstinate the Princes with the People all have have been sacrificed to Blood-thirsty-Popish-Priests under pretence of obedience to the Holy Catholick Church In what Code of the Ancient Church can it be found where any such strange kind of punishment was ever instituted as that for the offence of a few many Millions of Souls should be accursed cast out of the Church and in Popish construction damned How can they call that Power Apostolical that punisheth in this manner seeing the Apostolical Power was given for edification and not for destruction And yet so precipitate have some Popes been as to excommunicate whole States and Kingdoms Surely therefore we ought not so tamely to acquiesce on the bare ipse dixit of the Clergy pleading in their own Cause and for themselves only exclusive the Laity Certainly it is too small a security for so great a concern therefore let us a little examine what they urge for this exorbitant Power § If Kings be not this way punishable then they are no other way which is mischievous in the Church Sol. The Jewish Kings were as great and scandalous sinners as Kings-Christian now are yet God assigned no Rulers Spiritual for their Castigation and we must suppose that if it had
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
which come not in our Verge at this time and some things positive some whereof by the coming of Christ were necessary to be abolished and othersome indifferent to be kept or not of the former kind were Circumcision and Sacrifice The Apostle notwithstanding did not so teach the present and utter Abolition no not of those things which were necessarily to cease but that even the Jews becoming Christians might for a time continue in them and therefore in Jerusalem the first Bishops even till the overthrow thereof were Circumcised And as for those positive things which might either cease or continue prout the present posture or State of the Church should require the Apostles thought it necessary to bind even the Gentiles for a time to abstain as the Jews did from things offered unto Idols c. In other matters where the Gentiles were free and the Jews in their own Judgment still oblidged the Apostles Precept unto the Jews Condemn not the Gentiles unto the Gentiles despise not the Jews Rom. 14.10 the one sort they warned to take heed that Nicity and Scrupulosity did not make them rigorous in giving unadvised sentence against their Brethren which were free the other that they did not become scandalous by abusing their Liberty and Freedom to the Offence of their weak Brethren which were scrupulous whereby it is evident that the Apostle did impose upon the Churches of the Gentiles some things only in respect of conveniency and fitness for the present State of the Church as it then stood the words of the Councils decree are It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things viz. That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols c. 28 29. Indeed to have commanded the Gentiles to have been conformable to the Jews in those things which were necessarily to cease at the coming of Christ had been to have continued a Yoak upon the Disciples which neither their Forefathers nor they were able to bear Acts 15.10 And indeed to impose the like things upon us now were to bring us again into such Bondage in respect of the Royal and perfect Law of Liberty James 1.25 and 28. as were insupportable to bring us back to Onions and Garlick and to leave the Land flowing with Milk and Honey But to conclude from hence the unlawfulness of imposing Liturgies as our Author here doth is such a deduction such a peace of Scholastick Divinity as is quite past my understanding Notwithstanding all these Texts of Scripture by the Author alledged I humbly conceive that all the Christian Liberty that can be meant by these Texts is fully allowed to our Dissenters and is not in the least impeached thereby § There is one Subterfuge yet more left which is drawn from the example of this very Council viz. If Imposition be lawful yet the Scandal the Offence or Inconvenience ought to be Antecedent to the Imposition And then with much confidence and very little truth as I humbly conceive avers that there is no thing Antecedent unto its thereby meaning the Liturgy Imposition that should make it necessary to be Imposed either I understand not his meaning or this is a very strange Doctrine contrary to the very attributes of God contrary to the very grounds of all Arts and Sciences and Governments in the World contrary to the very nature of Wisdom for what is it else but to deny even Gods Providence his foresight his preventing Workings and Graces and to deny in men the use of their Prudence their Reason their Foresight and their Forecast Must the Old good Axiomes made Venerable by the Universal Acceptations of all Ages all the World over be now thrust out of doors and be accounted Foolish and Invalid nay unlawful Venienti occurrere morbo turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur hostis to prevent Diseases to keep out an Enemy rather than beat him out are now grown absolete Of Old this Axiome was held good that he that is suddenly surprised is half Conquered and he that is forewarned is half Armed nay its two against one a Wise man in Peace prepares for War a Wise Marriner prepares in his Haven against Leakes and Batteries of Enemies and violent Storms and Tempests It was wont to go for currant that it is too late to provide against an Evil when it is come and that they are Fools and ill advised that say had I wist or who would have thought it But now it seems Evils at least in the Church must be Antecedent and consequently cast out not prevented though foreseen so that that which hath been approved Wisdom all the World over is according to this new light these new Doctrines esteemed Folly as a thing of naught nay unlawful to be used However let no man deceive himself by thinking there may be some difference in these Axiomes or in the persons Executing or Practising them as they may relate to Church or State to Civil or to Ecclesiastical concerns For in this the same wisdom and Foresight is equal indifferently respecting both concerns and the power of Superiours for restraint prevention or Imposition equal in both and the necessity of obedience in Inferiors equal in both And as no Man hitherto hath been so I think no Man ever will be able to shew a real and substantial difference between them to make an inequality But as Civil Magistrates may for just reason of State prohibite and Impose concerning some things and persons So Church Governors may upon as good and just reasons impose Liturgies either for preventing or removing Idolatry Superstition Scandal Inconveniences nay be it only for the sake of order or Conformity Wherefore I do conclude that it is much greater prudence to prevent evils and inconveniencies than to amend and Reform them when they happen But what do I trouble my self about this for that it will not appear to be our case Scandal and offence did precede the Imposition of our Liturgy if our Author be found Tardy in matter of Fact as I presume he will for he saith expresly that there is nothing Antecedent to its imposition to make it necessary to be imposed In which I will joyn Issue with him and let our Church History be Judge between us Whoever knows but little of Church History knows that long before we ever had a Reformed Liturgie established in England the first of that nature and also the second was in the Minority of Edw. 6. there was a Liturgie a Popish Breviary and a Mass Book long used and established in England as full of Idolatrous and superstitious Doctrines Ceremonies and Worship as Leaves which had so poysoned and infected all the Kings Dominions that it had run into the veins of every Parish Against this Poyson our Josiah-like Prince and Minor by the advice of his Spiritual Physitians and Councellors ordains several Antidotes both to expel that which was Corrupt and Venemous and to Ordain and
Corporation consisting of a Superintendent and 4 other Ministers with Power to fill the Vacant places by a new Succession and the Parties by them chosen to be approved by the King and Council all which and much more his Majesty by Patent dated July 24.4 Edw. 6. did indulge unto him and them notwithstanding that they differed from the Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England which Indulgences the King and Council did hope might have been enjoyed to the Comfort and Advancement and not to the detriment of the Religion and Worship here professed and yet it did prove otherwise and did administer great occasion of great disturbance to the Church in the setling of the Reformation then in agitation and in fieri For by permitting these Men tho strangers to live under an other kind of Government and to Worship God with Forms different from what were by Law here established proved in the Issue the setting up of one Altar against another and the erecting of Regnum in Regno This gave encouragement unto that good and Pious person John Hoopper afterwards Bishop of Gloster and a Holy Martyr who leaving the Kingdom in the persecuting dayes of Henry the 8th and setling himself at Zurich a Town in Switzerland where he enjoyed the society of famous Bullinger and other good and Learned Men and returning into England in the dayes of Edward the 6th and bringing with him stronger Inclinations to the nakedness of the Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches tho dissering in opinion from them in some points of Doctrine and more especially in those of Predestination and being preferred by the Kings Letters Patents to the Bishoprick of Gloucester he did very much scruple to be consecrated in the Bishops habit setled by Rules of the Church which bred very great Inconveniencies and Disturbances inclining others to boggle at the same and other like Rites and Habits from which Men and time we may justly Write the date of our Liturgy becoming a Bone of Contention Indeed he was so Pious a Person that he found many and great Friends both at home and abroad to Countenance him as the Earl of Warwick the Protector Calvin nay the King himself did Write unto Arch-Bishop Cranmer afterwards his fellow Martyr to dispence with his Scruples But the Arch-Bishop to whom Ridley then Bishop of London stuck very close humbly besought the King to Pardon him if he did not obey his Commands against his Laws which would preserve him in peace and quietness if he kept them And yet some Indulgence through so great mediation was permitted unto him viz. that tho he were Consecrated in the habit then in use yet he should not ordinarily be obliged to wear it These differences being thus Broached and finding such great Favourers of them gave encouragement to John Alasco to step out of his bounds and so to abuse the Royal Priviledges that were granted to him as that he appeared in favour of the Zuinglian and Calvinian up-start Discipline by Publishing his Book intituled Forma ratio totius Ecclesiastici Ministerij wherein he maintains sitting at the Holy Communion which Custome he brought from Poland where sitting at the Sacrament was used by the Arrians who looking no otherwise on Christ then as their Elder Brother denying his Godhead thought it no robbery to be equal with him nor yeâ— to sit Cheek by Jowl with him at his own Table From such Familiarity shall I say or irreverence towards the Son of God grew great contempt of that Ordinance even in those times as hath been observed out of the Register Book of Petworth And yet these were not all the mischiefs these Indulgences did produce For what with Calvins Interposing and mediations with the Protector on the behalf of Bishop Hooper and tho his exceptions against some Antient usages in the Liturgy and tho the Indulgences and Conveniences granted unto John Alasco and his Congregation of Strangers a successive multiplication of Factions and Disorders in the Church did ensue from the Irreverent receiving of the Sacrament grew a Contempt and Depraving of the Sacrament it self from the Contempt of the grave habit of the Clergy grew a disteem of the Men first and then vilifying and contempt of the Ministry it self So that it was Preached at St. Pauls by one St. Stephen the Curate of St. Katherine Christ Church that it was sit the Names of Churches and of the Week dayes should be altered the Fish dayes should be kept on any other dayes than on Fridayes and Saturdayes and Lent at any other time than between Shrovetide and Easter we are told also by John Stow that he had seen the said St. Stephen to leave the Pulpit and to Preach in a Tree in the Church Yard and then returning into the Church to sing the Communion Service on a Tomb Stone neglecting the place appointed for that purpose And was not the like or greater contempts in fashion in our late dayes of Liberty when Liturgies were not only not imposed but disgraced set at nought and used but by some few and that in Corners only so that such exorbitant effects cannot be justly imputed unto the Imposition of Liturgies Look but a little abroad even in the same Age presently after the death of Edward the 6th during the short Reign of Queen Mary where no Liturgy was Imposed and you shall sind the same sad consequences and effects of Liberty among the several Churches or Congregations gathered mostly of those that withdrew themselves from the cruel persecution that Reigned in the Marian dayes unto Embden Stratzburg Frankford Zurick Geneva and other Transmarine places amongst whom the Ball of Contention was very hotly bandied by Calvin Goodman Knox Wood Sutton Whittingham Williams Cox Grindall Sandys Haddon Chamber Parkhust and divers others and all those in defence of several wayes of Worship wherein Knox acted his part so furiously that he gave disturbance to the quiet State and Condition of the Empire so highly that he being accused of high Treason against the Empire he withdrew himself from Stratsburg to Geneva the usual product of such Controversies This I only hint at to make it appear that Liturgies and Forms of Divine Worship do become Bones of Contention as well where they are not Imposed as where they are so that Imposition or not Imposition matters little the Contentious will be always Contending If there were not imposed a stinted Form of Words for the Administration of the Sacrament what should hinder but that every individual Priest might imitate the Vicar of Ratisdale in King James's time or do worse who was proved before the Arch-Bishop and the Lord Chancellour by his unseemly and unreverent usage of the Eucharist dealing the Bread out of a Basket every Man putting in his Hand and taking out a piece to have made many Loath the Holy Communion and wholly to refuse to come to the Church Confer f. 99. 100. Now on the contrary by such Imposition all such
when differences about Doctrine and Worship have been broached and disorders in Church and State have ensued § About the year 1548. Paul 3. when the Emperor Charles the 5th had by â—is own Authority Published a Reformation of the Clergy which contained about 130 Precepts so just and Equitable that scarce any former Reformation was more exact or less partial without Subtilties or Snares to inâ—rap the unadvised and which might have been acceptable to Rome her self except in a point or two but being made by the Emperor it seemed more insupportable than the Interim which Rome could by no means indure it being a fundamental maxime of that Court that the Seculars of what degree or honesty soever cannot give Laws to the Clergy tho to a good end and because the Pope and his Conclave were not able to endure such an affront or Tyranny as they called it nor yet able to resist it he presently so for humbled himself to Heresie as that he quickly dispatch't Nuncio after Nuncio into Germany first the Bishop of Fano and then the Bishop of Verona and Terentino for his Nuncij with a Bull of large Faculties and Pâ—â—â—â—rs dated the last of August to Pardon and Embrace all to remit some things of the old Discipline giving them faculty fully to absolve in both Courts all secular Persons tho Kings or Princes Regulars Câ—llâ—â—ges and Communities from all Excommunications and Censures even from Temporal Punishments incurred for matter of Heresie tho relapsed 〈◊〉 to diâ—â—ence with Irregularities in what case soever even for Bigamy to restore them to Fame Honour and Dignity to remit every abjuration and Penance due to absolve from Oaths and Homages made and Perjuries committed and to absolve the Regulars from Apostacy giving them Power to wear the Regular Habit under the Habit of a Secular Priest to give leave to every Person tho Ecclesiastick to eat flesh and forbidden Meats in Lent and fasting dayâ—s to moderate the number of Feasts to grant the use of the Chalice indeed any thing rather than to approve of a Reformation made by the Emperor or any Secular Prince tho never so Potent and conducing to the saving of Souls To descant upon the Absurdities and Contradictions of this Bull in taking upon him to restore Kings and Princes to Honours Fame and Dignity to absolve from unlawful Oaths which need none and from just Oaths which no Man can obsolve to absolve the Friars which forsook their Cloysters to wear the Habit covered as if the Kingdom of God did consist in a Colâ—â—r or vestment which not being worn in shew yet it was necessary to have it in secret is not to my purpose but it is observable and remarkable to shew that if Rome her self that proud Imperious Usurper of Powers Omnipotent could so far humble her self even to her Hereticks and Heresies as to dispence with so much of her old Discipline and to grant such Liberties to them rather than to admit of a Reformation made by a Secular Prince may it not suffice England and be Honourable just and becoming her Protestant self to Reform things which are a shame to the Church and a scandal to the People and that having Power over the Goods and Lives of Nonconformists and of Dissenters Hereticks Schismaticks Separatists names not justly applycable either to them or to their Opposites each equally differing one from the other but neither one from the other in Doctrines fundamental but in things indifferent and Ceremonial only which neither Conformists nor yet Non conformists can Infallibly know who Infallibly hath or hath not the truth on their side and therefore ought to bear with each other the stronger with the Infirmities of the weaker not accounting and reviling each other as Enemies but admonishing each other as Brethren those Ignominious separating terms of Schismaticks Separatists c. more properly belonging to Papists who err not in Ceremonials Circumstantials and Superstructures only but in Doctrines Fundamental and therefore may justly separate from such to let them make publick Profession of the same Gospel the same Religion with the Church of England to avoid suspicion by Private Conventicles or Assemblies and to suffer their Consciences to be free and to belong to God and themselves only who desire only to save Souls the most precious thing that ever God Created § About the year 1559. the Duke of Savoy sent one expresly to desire Pope Pius the 4th that by his favour he might make a Colloquy of Religion within his own Dominions to instruct his People of the Vallies who were generally Alienated from the Old Religion of Rome these were a part of those Waldenses who 400 years before forsook the Church of Rome and in regard of their persecutions fled into Polonia Germany Puglia Provence and some of them into the Valleys of Montesenis Lâ—cernia Angrovia Perosa and St. Martin but the Pope answered that he would by no means consent thereunto but offered to send a Legate with Divines to instruct and Authority to absolve his Subjects when Converted yet said withal that he had little hope to Convert them because the Hereticks were obstinate and whatsoever is done to exhort them to acknowledge their fault they expound to be a want of force to Compel them that it cannot be remembred that any good was ever done by moderation and that experience hath taught that the sooner Justice is used and force of Arms when the other is not sufficient so much the better the Success is and if he would proceed to Arms he would send him assistance Your Servant Sir Ghostly Council I wot more becoming a Wolf or an Hireling than a good Shepherd and it is a shrewd sign that he never entred into Christs Sheepfold by the Door which is Christ but climbed up some other way to Steal and to Kill and to Destroy 10 of John 1.10 But the Duke not liking at all the sending of a Legate because it would have provoked his Subjects the more and forced him to have proceeded according to the Interests of others thinking it better to take Arms which the Pope Commended more and promised Assistance wherefore the Duke resolving to make them receive the Catholick Religion rectius Heresy he caused many to be Burned and to be put to death by other means and to be condemned to the Gallies being more especially instigated thereunto by Inquisitor Thomaso Jacamello a Dominican Fryer which strange Persecution forced them * Here note that in the Church of Rome the Popes were the first Preachers of Force and Violence and that St. Dominick was one of the first that Preached the Doctrine of Death and Tortures for Opinions in Religion he was the Founder of the begging Orders of Friers Preachers and therefore in honour of him the Inquisition is intrusted only to the Friers of his Order And if their own Legends speak truth his own Mother the Night before he was born Dreamed that she was brought to Bed of a great
this Nature which concern chiefly if not meerly Polity and Regulations Rites and Ceremonies ought to be so Charitable one towards another as to believe that they all holding fast as they all do the main Principles and Doctrines of the Gospel that they err only by misconstruction and that each others Errors are not concerning Fundamentals but Discipline only and those also purae negationis and not pravae dispositionis and therefore may live peacibly and holily here under either Government and may hereafter meet in the presence of God and see his Face with Comfort whosoever should submit to other § Consider again that those Churches which were Founded and Governed by the Apostles themselves and where they Preached and Resided were not exempt from Imperfections perhaps as great if not greater than those now in the Church of England whereof the Epistle to the Gal. gives a clear Testimony but more clearly 1 Cor. 1.12 and 1 Cor. 3.4 5. As to their Charity they are Taxed that some of them adhered to Paul some to Cephas others to Apollos with a Schism and express Renting of the Seamless Coat of Christ. And as for Opinions and Doctrines there were some that denyed the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.12 As for Peace and Concord they drew their Pleadings and Differences before the Tribunals of Insidels 1 Cor. 11.8.9 1 Cor. 6. As for manners they had Fornication among them and such as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles 1 Cor. 5.12 As for Customs the Supper of the Lord was converted into Banquets where some were Drunk and others Hungry nay there were Heresies and Schisms among them also 1 Cor. 11.20 21. c. And all this while the Apostle acknowledgeth them to be a true Church and a Body of Christ and did not silence himself but continued labouring by his Preachments Fastings and Prayers to amend them and yet he lived under a Government Averse even to Christianity it self How ought we then to stand fast and comply and dispence with some irregularities in the Church where God by his singular Grace hath setled us altho in the Government thereof there have been and still are Imperfections and Abuses which are also by tract of time converted into marvellous grievances For reason of State and of good Government its good to be observant of all established Sanctions and tho many Novelties of Reformations do arise yet to accommodate our selves with readiness unto them howbeit we do not much approve of them because things of Custom have their Remedies but Innovations are never without their mischiefs against which it is very hard to find a Remedy § Edification in the Indisputable truths of Faith and in the Indispensable duties of Life being the main end and Objects of Church Government and Discipline its Honour enough for Episcopal Government to enforce Gods Commandements only there being no necessity of enjoyning more than what the Apostles did in plain and perspicuous terms without making use of obscure Allegorical and Metaphorical Expressions for Exorbitant Powers for Excommunication Censures and God knows what Yet Be it as some Dissenters would have it that all Men professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ have an undoubted Right and Priviledge to Assemble and Associate together to Pray Preach and Perform Gospel Ordinances without Assenting or Consenting nay contrary to the Approbation and Commands of the Civil Magistrate nay and that by a Paramount Power derived even from Christ himself and all this not without the Warrant of this Demonstration that except it had been and were still so the Gospel could never have been Preached to all Nations then mortal Enemies to Christ and his Gospel nor could yet be Preached where the unknown God is only Worshipped Be it so as in truth it is so that the Preachers of the Word of Salvation and the Administrators of the Sacraments being things Commanded them by God ought not to be forbidden by men and are so far exempt from Humane Law that the Prohibition of them is of no Force or Virtue it being in such Cases better to obey God than Men. 5 Act. 22. and for that no Mans right ought to be denyed him either in things Civil or Spiritual for fear they should abuse it for that then no mans right shall be preserved safe unto him Be it so I say even as they would have it yet as surely and as undoubtedly the Caesars have their Patent their Charter and Charge from the same Paramount Power for the Countenancing and Propagating the Gospel and supervising the Professors thereof and they have a Pastorship to give an Account of as well as those of the Clergy and therefore they ought to be as scrupulously careful and as Zealously watchful as themselves Was it not Prophesied of David a King 34 Ezek. 23. I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall Feed them even my Servant David he shall Feed them and he shall be their Shepherd and I the Lord will be their God and my Servant David a Prince among them v. 24. and was he not taken accordingly from the Sheepfold to Feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance and he Fed them according to the Integrity of his Heart and guided them by the Skilfulness of his Hands 78 Psal 70.71 72. Besides were this Objection of greater Force than in truth it is yet it hath no place in this Kingdom for that such Liberty of Assembling is not only not denyed but permitted Countenanced nay Commanded and Churches separated for that very end and purpose only that what Talents what Light soever the Complainants may have they may not hide them under a Bushel or in a Conventicle but may manifest them publickly to all Commers But if under this their great Gospel Priviledge and under the Shelter of indiscreet Niceties they will meet in Private and thereby give a jealous State great Cause only to suspect that they do it that thereby they may the more opportunely Foster and Foment a Party Averse to present Established Constitutions of Church and State then certainly Caesar hath as undoubted a Gospel Power and right to Prevent Inhibit and punish Transgressors If their Doctrine be sound and good why should they not have Churches if not why should they be permitted in Corners Look but a little back and consider if the late times have not given too great cause of fears and jealousies to a Wise and Christian State to use all just endeavours to prevent the like for the Future Consider also what moved our fore-fathers to make severe and Sanguinary Laws against Papists was it not because they were troublers of our Israel working like Moles under Ground endeavouring the Ruin of our Church and State If some may be suffered tho but by Connivence to break thro small Laws both themselves and others will thereby be encouraged to set the greater at nought Herein I desire to be rightly understood not as if I Pleaded for a general Tolleration nothing less
England and letting John see the danger he was in advised him to become the Popes Foedatary John enforced by the present peril accepted the advice and made his Kingdom Tributary to the Pope to pay him yearly 1000 Marks of Gold Pandulphus hereupon returned into France and commanded Philip upon pain of Excommunication that he should molest John no longer as being now become the Foedatary of the Church but Philip refused to obey and the War continued whereupon in the year 1215. in the Council of Lateran Pope Innocent sent out an Excommunication against all those that molested John King of England And for that Cause in the year 1216. Another Legate called Guallo went to Paris who by vertue of that Sentence of Excommunication commanded Philip and Lewis his Son to forbear to pass with an Army into England which they were then prepared to do But notwithstanding all this Lewis desisted not but entred John's Kingdom with a great power altho the same Guallo was gone over into England and there ceased not dayly to thunder out his Excommunications This War continued unto the death of John after which Lewis had gotten many places of that Kingdom into his hands made Truce for five years with Henry the Son of John who succeeded his Father Thus you see how the very Holiness of Rome can Handy Dandy play fast and loose with Kings themselves § Concerning the desperate damnable Doctrines of this Chapter Novit little ought to be said for that they rather deserve a Spunge than an answer to be obliterated out of all Records minds and memories and because Gabriel Biel a man of their own Leaven hath taken great pains on that Can. Lec 75. to give some tollerable interpretation but can find none but this viz. that this Decretal and all other of the same tenor must be understood in foro poenitentiae A lame shift to help a lame Dog over a stile But Bellarmine will not be so consined he will extend it farther Frier Paolo and mark what follows even according to men of Rome that whoever will affirm as Bellarmine doth that they are to be understood in foro exteriori shall have much ado to avoid the absurdities and the utter overthrow of the Secular Power ordained of God and the confusion of the World which will arise out of these Doctrines For his purpose is to conclude that where Princes use their Power to the hurt of their own Souls or their Peoples and to the prejudice of Christian Religion the Pope may take the matter in hand to redress it If this must go for currant Doctrine mark what will follow viz. There is no action of man in Individuo but it is either a good work or it is a sin Now if it belongs to the Pope to exercise Jurisdiction over all Sins and withall to take upon him to determine what is sin and what not I say there is no longer any Prince but the Pope nay farther there is no place left for any private Government In sum the Pope may by this Doctrine examine all Laws all Edicts all Parliaments all Councils all Successions all Translation of Princes he may call in question and examine all Inheritances and Contracts of all private Men all Marriages all Treatises of Peace and War between Prince and Prince because it belongs to the Shepherd to have a care of his Sheep And this inference doth not only necessarily follow of this supposition but it is also allowed by the Canonists that write upon that Chapter Novit And yet nevertheless have the wisest men and of the most understanding noted and taxed it to be full of Absurdities which to avoid some have out of that Chapter Novit framed a distinction where there can be none viz. that it is one thing to judge of the matter or of the Action or of the contract and another to judge of the sin for if it be the Pope's right to judge of all things as they are sins and to forbid them and to enforce all men to obey his determinations therein what is there more left then for the Prince to do Not one of Democritus's Moats for Bellarmine hath taught us a very general Doctrine that to judge whether any Law contain in it sin or not it belongs to the Pope as it belongs to the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine whether a Civil Contract contain in it the sin of Vsury Hence it will necessarily follow Che il giudicare st una lege centient pâ—ccato è pregiudicio alla chiâ—â—a tocca alt ' isteslo sommo Pontifice che è gindice supren o si come il giudlcare se un contratto civile contengo peccato di usura appertiene al medisimo Giudice Ecclesiallico quals appertient la cognitione de i pâ—ccati f. 330 331. that not only the Pope but every Ecclesiastical Judge shall have Power to determine all matters for it can belong no more to him to judge whether a Contract offend in Usury than whether it contain any other wrong or Injury to his neighbor for all that do so are sins as well as the other And by the same reason it will belong to the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine of all manner of sin And in brief because there is no Action or Affair either Publick or Private whereunto sin is not Incident if it shall be in the Power of the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine and judge of it and either to allow it or forbid it and to enforce obedience to his own determinations All transactions about Contracts all Courts of Justice and all private Families may well be transferred into the Bishops Palace good grist to that Mill But the true Christian Doctrine and the common practice all the World over avoids all these absurdities subjecting all Crimes and Offences unto the Temporal Jurisdiction according to the example of Christ and his Apostles who never pretended to have or exercise any Temporal coertion or coactive Authority over mens sins And if the Pope were Christ's true Vicar indeed he would never usurp more than ever Christ exercised himself or gave him Authority to do The main business of Peter and of the rest of the Apostles was to Teach and Preach dayly in the Temple and in every House Jesus Christ Acts 5.42 Thus you see that these very Doctrines contained in the Chapter Novit need little of our Confutation it is done to our hands by several of themselves and according to their own St. Thomas they are too general because there must be excepted all internal motions of the mind whereof the Pope hath no power at all to judge unless it be in foro Poenitentiae in which also every Priest hath equal power with himself no pleasing Doctrine at Rome and of this sort are the greatest number of sins And their own Divines and Canonists do generally agree that in the Excommunications granted against Hereticks those are not comprized which err mentally so that they which attempt to defend as