ratifie it in Heaven Yet in making of Canons they have power so far as to declare in Essentials to bind in positive Laws and in Circumstantials In ordaining of Officers the designation of the persons is theirs In Jurisdiction they have power to hear examine take witnesses apply the controversie or cause to the Canon determine and see the sentence executed and all this in a Soveraign and independant manner within the circuit of their own Church And whereas it may be said all this power amounts but to a little and is confined to a narrow compass It 's true it 's but a particle Yet the Church is more happy and the Government more excellent because it depends so little on man so much on Christ. And this power though diminutive yet through God's blessing is effectual and tendeth much unto the preservation of purity piety unity and edification and if well managed is an excellent means to enlarge Christ's Kingdom and further our eternal Salvation The result of all is this that particular Churches are not supreme but subordinate both in respect of the internal Government which is purely divine and also in respect of the external universal which is purely Monarchical under Christ. The Church of Rome doting upon her universal Head and Vicar-general presupposed and took for granted that the community of all Christians in the world were but one visible Church under and subject unto one and the same supreme independant Judicatory This no question is an error For though there be an universal visible Church yet it 's subject only unto one supreme Consistory in Heaven but not on earth either in a Monarchical or Aristocratical or Democratical form as shall be hinted hereafter And suppose the Pope had been an Ecclesiastical Monarch because the Patriarch of the first See in the Imperial City yet he could not be universal but only in respect of the Church within the confines of the Empire which did enclose all the other Patriarchates and was but a little parcel of the world CHAP. VII Of the manner of acquiring Ecclesiastical Power section 1 HAving manifested what Ecclesiastical Power of Discipline is I must search how it 's acquired for this as well as civil is derivative and that from Heaven and in a more special manner It 's not natural but acquired It 's also continued by Succession not Hereditary but Elective not in a Line as the Sacerdotal power confined to the Family of Aaron It 's first in God the Fountain of all power and from him derived to Christ as man and Administrator-general For so after his resurrection he said unto his Disciples All power in heaven and earth is given me some measure of this he by Commission delegates unto the Apostles Yet that power of theirs as extraordinary was not successive or to be derived to those who followed them as ordinary Officers of the Church for it expired with them Yet there was an ordinary power of Discipline derived to them and they never except in ordinary cases did exercise it but with the Church This some say was acquired by those words of Christ to Peter To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Mat. 16.19 This power was given to Peter many of the Ancients say as representing the Church others think it was given him as Head of the Church others as representing the Apostles from whom it was derived to the Bishops or else as others tell us to the Elders of the Church But of this hereafter But whatsoever power the Apostles might have either severally or jointly considered it 's certain that Christ derived it to the Church whereof the Apostles were Members yet extraordinary Officers The Church acquired it therefore by free donation from Christ when he said tell the Church and afterwards whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven Mat. 18.17 18. By this Church is meant no Vtopian aerial or notional body but such a society of Christians brought under a form of Government as may and can exercise this power as the Church of Corinth Ephesus Antioch Jerusalem or any of the Churches of Asia section 2 But though I intend in this to be brief yet I will observe some order and this in particular it is Power Ecclesiastical is acquired by lost immediate designation of Christ Apostles mediate institution and that justly unjustly Seeing none hath this spiritual power except given from God therefore it must needs be acquired as it 's derived It 's derived immediately to Christ as man the Apostles as his delegates Christ as man by his humiliation unto death the death of the Cross acquired an universal power over all persons in all causes spiritual And he received it upon his Resurrection and upon his Ascension being solemnly invested and confirmed began to exercise the same The Apostles being extraordinary Officers under Christ received their extraordinary power which was both intensively and extensively great from Christ. And 1. For the lost sheep of Israel before Christs death 2. For all Nations after the Resurrection 3. More fully and solemnly invested after Christs Ascension they began to act and that both in an ordinary and extraordinary way and that in Discipline as shall appear hereafter As they were extraordinary they could not as ordinary they might have successors section 3 As the power is derived in an ordinary way so it 's acquired by the Church mediately This Church did first consist of the Apostles the seventy Disciples and other believers of the Jews After that we find several Churches consisting of Jews and Gentiles After that a Church as taken from a Christian Community is once made up of persons a multitude of persons associated and endued with a sufficient ability to manage the power of the Keys in that visible body politick presently it acquires this power by virtue of Christ's Institution in these words Tell the Church c. as before For in that very Rule he gives to direct us how to deal from first to last with an offending brother he institutes the external government of the Church and both erects and also establisheth an independant tribunal After a Church is once constituted and this power acquired it 's exercised either by a general Representative or by Officers both these must be invested with power before they can act And these acquire their power by delegation or by being constituted Officers By these means the power may be acquired justly section 4 Yet it may be possessed or exercised unjustly It 's usurped when any arrogate it or take upon them to exercise it without just warrant from the Gospel Therefore 1. When a multitude of Christians who have no ability to manage it shall erect an independant judicatory they are Usurpers 2. When one Church challengeth power over another 3. When Presbyters alone or Bishops alone engross the whole power Ecclesiastical both of making Canons and of Jurisdiction and constituting Officers 4. Magistrates who as such take
Seventy two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not only there but in other places which I forbear to mention And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bind is sometimes to govern or exercise the acts of coercive power So Psal. 105.22 to bind his Princes compared with Psal. 2.3 where bands and cords are the Laws and Edicts of Christ. And the same word in the Chaldee is obligavit ad obedientiam aut poenam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 6.7 8 9. is Translated by the Seventy two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Decree obligatio interdictum It 's also remarkable that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut up signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deliver into the hand of enemies or to destruction Job 16.11 Psal. 78.48 Hence that phrase of delivering up to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate or exclude Lepers out of the holy Camp as Numb 12.14 15. and in other places which was a Typical adumbration of that act of Jurisdiction which we call Excommunication section 4 This Power of the Keys is spiritual because exercised within a Spiritual Community Do not ye judge them that are within saith the Apostle I have nothing to do to judge them without For what have I to do to judge them also that are without God hath reserved them to his own Tribunal But them that are without God judgeth Yet those without the pale of the Church are not exempted from the Civil Jurisdiction of the Christian Magistrate if within his Territories The Power of Hell and Death is not the power of the Sword. The power given to the Church was not given to the State. The power of the Kingdom of Heaven is not the power of the Kingdom of the Earth The power promised unto and conferred upon the Apostles was not estated upon the Civil Magistrate though Christian This power opens and shuts the Gates of Heaven binds and loosens sinners as lyable to eternal punishments which no Civil Sword can do Therefore it 's spiritual section 5 As it is Spiritual so it 's Supreme for a particular Church being a Commonwealth or Spiritual state must needs have a Spiritual Tribunal independent within it self except we will divest it of the very Essence and soul wherewith it 's animated Yet it cannot be such in respect of him whose Throne is Heaven whose Footstool is the Earth Or if by the Divine prospective of Faith we pierce into the Heaven of Heavens and approach that sparkling Throne where Christ sits at the right Hand of God possessed of an universal and eternal Kingdom every particular and all particular Churches must bow and wave the title of independent In a word in all imperial Rights which God and Christ have reserved and not derived by the fundamental Charter of the Scripture all particular Churches with all their Members nay all their Officers even Ministers are but subjects governed in no wise governing Supreme therefore it is both in respect of its own Members within and also of other Churches enjoying equal power within themselves and are not Queens and Mothers but Sisters in a parity of jurisdiction with it but no superiority of Command over it For the parity of them without is not destructive of her Soveraignty over her own within The universal Vicaridge and plenitude of Monarchical power arrogated by the Patriarch of Rome cannot justly depress or take away the Rights of any particular Church This Power was first challenged then usurped after that in a great measure possessed exercised and pleaded for The pretended right and title was invented after they had possession and with a fair colour did for a long time gull the world which at length awaked out of an universal slumber and found it to be a dream section 6 As this Power is 1. Spiritual 2. Supreme so 3. It 's divisible and may be branched into divers particular jura or rights which are four 1. Of making Canons 2. Of Constituting Officers 3. Of Jurisdiction and 4. Of receiving and dispensing of Church-goods Thus they may be methodized Jus Ecclesiasticum duplex 1. leges ferendi exequendi per Rectorum constitutionem jurisdictionis exercitium 2. bona Ecclesiastica dispensandi There may be other petty Jura yet easily reducible unto these And this division though grounded evidently upon Scripture and will by the ingenious be easily granted yet it may seem new to some upon whose understanding the old perhaps hath made too deep an impression For I find the old distinction of this power into two parts The 1. Of Order The 2. Of Jurisdiction to be retained by many unto this day Yet they do not unanimously define what this Clavis or potestas ordinis is Some will have it to be the same with Clavis Scientiae which the Schoolmen understood of that juridical knowledge which was antecedaneous and subordinate unto the Decree or definitive sentence Others say it is the power of Ordination and making of Ministers Others take it to be the power of a Minister ordained to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments In which respect it cannot belong to the external Government of independant Churches For a Minister as such is so a Deputy of Christ as that in the due execution of his Office he is above any particular Church and above the Angels And his power in this regard is rather moral than political As under this notion some give him jurisdiction in foro interiori which the Papists call forum poenitentiale But in foro exteriori he cannot challenge it as a Minister For then it could not be communicated to any other with him as to ruling Elders representing the people This the Bishops formerly assumed to themselves with a power to delegate the same to others section 7 These Keys or Powers in the root are but one and the same power supernatural which is a principle of supernatural acts the first branch whereof is the Legislative This ever was and doth still continue in the Church and is most necessary for to regulate and determine the acts both of Government and subjection For without a certain directive and binding Rule no State could ever long continue And God himself whose Power is absolutely supreme did limit himself by a certain Law before he began to require obedience from his Creatures and exercise his power ad extra For it 's his will and pleasure that neither men nor Angels should be subject unto him but according to a certain Rule This the Apostles Elders and Brethren put in practice Act. 15. And the jus Canonicum Novi Testamenti issued from this Power Unto this Head are reduced the forms of Confession for Doctrine Liturgies for Worship Catechisms for instruction in the Principles of Religion and Canons for Discipline in every well constituted Church In this Legislation Ecclesiastical they either do declare what God before hath determined or determine in things which God hath left indifferent what is profitable
really contradicted by violent storms so it falls out here I hoped to have landed in a Region of perpetual peace but I was found in a Terra del Fuego a land of fire and smoak like unto Palma one of the seven Canary Islands where in September 1646 or thereabouts a fire first raged fearfully in the bowels of the earth and at length brake out and ran in five several fiery sulphurious streams into the main In like manner this power of the Keys runs in five several Channels but very turbulently and impetuously For the Pope the Prince the Prelate the Presbyter the Plebean rank do every one of them severally challenge it and nothing under a Jus divinum will serve the turn Therefore I will 1. Examine their several Titles 2. Deliver mine own judgement 3. Add something of the extent of a particular Church section 2 And this shall be my Method and the several Heads of my ensuing Treatise before I enter upon the second part of the Constitution of a Common-wealth which is Pars subdita The first title is that of the great Roman Pontiffe who perhaps will storm and that with indignation against any who shall presume to examine it This Bishop is the greatest Prelate and Clergy-man in the world And as old Rome from a poor beginning and a few people became the Imperial City of the world so this Prelate from a poor pesecuted Minister of the Gospel attained to this pitch of glory and contrary to the example of Christ and his Apostles lives in so great splendour pomp and State terrene that the Princes of the world cannot parallel him and for the power which he doth exercise and challange he his far above them His Court is very magnificent and cannot be maintained without a vast Revenue Some say that he is that second beast which came out of the earth and had two horns of a Lamb but spake as a Dragon and exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him c. Rev. 13.11 12. His name is Satanos his number 25. He assumed the title of Universal Bishop about the year of our Lord 666. So that his number in the name in the radical sum and in the time of his appearance is 666. And for orders sake I might 1. Observe the power 2. Relate the several reasons whereby the title to this power is confirmed 3. Examine whether they be sufficient or no 1. The power which is challenged is transcendent and very great and that not only extensively but intensively too it 's such as men never had and therefore could never give And therefore though he came out of the earth yet he derives it from Heaven To be the first Patriarch of the Imperial See will not serve the turn neither will he be content to be a man and fallible he must be infallible Neither will this satisfie him he must be the visible Head of the Universal Church universal Bishop and Monarch over all persons all Churches in all Causes Ecclesiastical Nay this Power is so extensive that he must have something to do in Heaven and much to do in Hell. He must be above all General Councils They cannot Assemble Conclude Dissolve without his power He must be President all Canons and Judgments which they pass without him are of no force and only what he approves is valid His very Letters must be Laws and if he please of Universal Obligation His Reservations and Dispensations are very high his judgments irreversible he receives last appeals from all Churches in the World he Judgeth all is Judged of none His power to execute is strange and his policy wonderful He hath plenitude of power Ecclesiastical Yet this will not suffice him he hath acquired temporal Dominions and is a secular Prince And because his Territories are not large he hath found out a way to possess himself of the Sword and all temporal power in ordine ad spiritualia must be his section 3 But what are the reasons whereupon this vast power is grounded Surely they do build upon a rock and not upon the sand Their reasons are taken from Politicks from the ancient Writers and from Scriptures too 1. From Politicks they take this for granted that amongst humane Governments Monarchy is the best 2. That amongst Monarchies Despotical excels this they dare not expresly affirm yet the papal power which is challenged is such 3. That if Monarchy be the best then surely the Government of the Church is Monarchical for that being instituted from Heaven must needs be the most perfect 4. That the first Monarch visible of the Church was Peter 5. That Peter was made such by Christ and received a power to transmit it to others and appoint his Successours 6. That he fixed his See at Rome and made the Bishop of that City his Heir so that he is haeres ex asse 7. That so soon as any person is legally elected Bishop of that See he is ipso facto the Universal Monarch and the proper subject of plenitude of all Ecclesiastical power 2. The Epithetes the Elogies the Encomiums of the Bishop and the See of Rome are collected out of ancient Writers and marshalled in order and they make a goodly show and who dare say any thing against them 3. Yet because these are not of divine Authority therefore they search the holy Scriptures and find it written that Peter was the only person and Apostle to whom Christ gave the Keys of Heaven's Kingdom and he must bind and loose on earth and what he shall so do on earth shall be made good in Heaven If this will not serve the turn Christ saith to Peter and to no other Apostles If thou love me feed my Flock my Lambs my Sheep and to feed is to govern and the Flock Lambs and Sheep are the Church section 4 Yet notwithstanding all these reasons many rational men think and they have reason for it that this power is so great that it 's intolerable presumption for any person to challenge it impossible for any man duly to manage it but only Jesus Christ who knew no sin and was not only man but the Son of the living God. Besides wise men do certainly know that the power was usurped and possessed by degrees first and afterwards the greatest Wits were set on work to invent a title the usual way of all unjust Usurpers 1. As for their Politicks they help them little for in that reason from Government they presuppose all and prove nothing from first to last neither can any wit of man prove any of their supposals yet all must be proved and that demonstratively and every one of them made evident otherwise the vast mighty Fabrick falls to the ground Many of themselves know in their Conscience the invalidity and weakness of every one of them 2. As for these passages of ancient Writers which seem so much to honour and advance that Church above others many of them are Hyperbolical and Rhetorical
New Testament where it s used a hundred and eleven times at least and in all these places signifies an Assembly or Society Religious except in Acts 19.32 39 41. where it signifies both a tumultuous and also an orderly Assembly or Society or Convention as a civil Court of Judgment which signification is here applied by our Saviour to a Spiritual Judicatory for Spiritual Causes Though this be a special signification yet it signifies the number and Society of Believers and Disciples who profess their Faith in Christ exhibited and this is this Church-Christian and the People of God. Yet it signifies this People under several Notions as sometimes the Church of the Jews sometimes of the Gentiles sometimes the Universal Church sometimes particular Churches sometimes the Militant Church either as visible or mystical sometimes the Church Triumphant sometimes a Church before any form of Government be introduced sometimes under a form of Government so it 's taken and supposed by our Saviour here Grotius his Conceit that our Saviour in these words alludes to the manner of several Sects Professions as of Pharisees Sadduces Essenes who had their Rules of Discipline and their Assemblies and Convention for the practice of them may be probable Yet without any such Allusion the place is plain enough from the context and other Scriptures Erastus upon the place is intollerable and most wofully wrests it so doth Bishop Bilson in his Church-Government and is point-blank contrary to D. Andrews who in his Tortura Torti doth most accurately examine interpret and apply the words and most effectually from thence confute Bellarmine One may truly say of that Book as he himself said of Austin's Treatise De Civitate Dei it was opus palmarum For Civil Common Canon-Law Politicks History School Learning the Doctrine of the Casuists Divinity and other Arts whereof he makes use it is one of the most learned and accurate of any put forth in our times By his Exposition of this Text he utterly overthrows the immediate Jus Divinum of Episcopacy in matters of Discipline and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction He plainly and expresly makes the whole Church the primary subject of the Power of the Keys in foro exteriori Therefore suppose the Bishops were Officers by a Divine Right as he endeavours to prove tho' weakly in his Letters to Du Moulin yet at best they can be but the Churches Delegates for the exercise of that Power And it is observable that divers of our Champions when they oppose Bellarmine's Monarchical Government of the Church peremptorily affirm the Power of the Keyes to be in the whole Church as the most effectual way to confute him yet when they wrote against the Presbyterian and the Antiprelatical party they change their Tone and Tune But to return unto the words of Institution 1. The word Church here signifies an Assembly 2. This Assembly is an Assembly for Religion 3. The Religion is Christian. 4. This Assembly is under a form of External Government 5. This Government presupposeth a Community and Laws and Officers Ecclesiastical These presupposed it 's a juridical Assembly or a Court. 6. Because Courts are Inferiour Superiour and Supream it signifies all especially Supream 7. It determines no kind of Government but that of a free State as shall more appear hereafter 8. Christ doth not say Dic Regi tell the Prince or State nor Dic Petro tell Peter or the Pope as though the Government should be Monarchical either Civil or Ecclesiastical nor Dic Presbytero tell the Elders nor Dic Apostolis Episcopis aut Archiopiscopis that the Government should be purely Aristocratical nor Dic Plebi that the Government should be purely Democratical nor Dic Synodo tell the Council general or particular But it saith tell the Church wherein there may be Bishops Presbyters some Eminent Persons neither Bishops nor Presbyters There may be Synods and all these either as Officers or Representatives of the Church and we may tell these and these may judge yet they hear and judge by a power derived and delegated from the Church and the Church by them as by her Instruments doth exercise her Power As the body sees by her eye and hears by the ear so it is in this particular but so that the similitude doth not run on four feet nor must be stretched too far This being the genuine Sense favours no Faction yet admits any kind of Order which observed may reach the main end For this we must know and take special notice of that Christ will never stand upon Formalities but requires the thing which he commands to be done in an orderly way Yet it 's necessary and his Institution doth tend unto it to reserve the chief Power in the whole Body otherwise if any party as Bishops or Presbyters or any other part of the Church be trusted with the power alone to themselves they will so engross it as that there will be no means nor ordinary jurisdiction to reform them Of this we have plain Experience in the Bishops of Rome who being trusted at first with too much Power did at length arrogate as their own and no ways derived from the Church and so refused to be judged For if the Church once make any party the primary subject of this power then they cannot use it to reduce them Therefore as it is a point of Wisdom in any State to reserve the chief power in the whole Community and single out the best and wisest to exercise it so as if the Trustees do abuse their power they may remove them or reform them so it should be done in the Church If any begin to challenge either the whole or the Supream power as Officers many of these nay the greater part of them may be unworthy or corrupted and then the Church is brought to straits and must needs suffer Some tell us that the King of England by the first Constitution was only the Supream and Universal Magistrate of the Kingdom trusted with a sufficient power to govern and administer the State according to the Laws and his chief work was to see the Laws executed Yet in tract of time they did challenge the power to themselves as their own and refused to be judged Yet in this Institution if Peter if Paul tho' Apostles do offend much more if Patriarchs Metropolitans Bishops Presbyters do trespass we must tell not Peter not Paul not an Apostle not a Bishop not any other but the Church No wit of Men or Angels could have imagined a better way nor given a better expression to settle that which is good and just and prevent all parties and factions and yet leave a sufficient latitude for several orderly ways to attain the chief end section 7 The Judge being known the Judicial Acts of this Judge must be enquired into in the fifth place and these are two the first is binding the second loosing For all Judgment passed upon any person is either against him and that is binding
Politica Sacra Civilis Or A Model of Civil and Ecclesiastical GOVERNMENT WHEREIN Besides the positive Doctrine concerning STATE and CHVRCH in general Are debated the principal Controversies of the TIMES concerning the CONSTITUTION OF THE State and Church OF ENGLAND Tending to Righteousness Truth and Peace By GEORGE LAWSON Rector of More in the County of Salop. The Second Edition LONDON Printed for J.S. and are to be Sold by T. Goodwin at the Maidenhead over against St. Dustans Church in Fleet-street 1689. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader IN the time of our divisions and the execution of God's Judgments upon the three Nations I set my self to inquire into the causes of our sad and woful condition and to think of some Remedies to prevent our Ruine Whilst I was busie in this search I easily understood that the Subject of our Differences was not only the State but the Church This gave occasion to peruse such Authors as write of Government and to study the Political part of the Holy Scriptures wherein I found many things concerning the Constitution the Administration the Corruption the Conversion and Subversion of Civil States and Kingdoms with much of Church-Discipline There I observed certain Rules of Government in general and some special and proper to Civil or else to Ecclesiastical Polities All these according to my poor Ability I reduced to Method and applyed them to our own Church and State severally I further took notice of our principal differences both Civil and Ecclesiastical and did freely deliver mine own Judgment concerning the particular parties and their Opinions yet so that I endavoured to be of no Party as a Party And tho' in some things I differ from them yet it was not out of singularity or an humour of opposition but out of an unfeigned desire of Truth which in many things I found so evident that whosoever should not acknowledge it must needs be wilful and blinded with partiality or prejudice Whilst I go on in this work I easily perceived that as our sins and impenitency brought God's Judgments upon us so our ignorance and errours in matters of Government with prejudice partiality pride obstinacy and want of charity were the causes of our divisions which gave great advantage to our Enemies and Foreign Polititians who as formerly so now especially at this time fear our union and agreement more than ever because we are become a Warlike Nation and furnished with Gallant Men both by Sea and Land therefore their great Work is to continue our Differences amongst our selves as subservient to their Interest These causes once discovered the Remedies were obvious if men were in any capacity to make use of them For sincere repentance and a real reformation private and publick with the punishment of crying sins are very effectual to avert God's Judgments And to renounce our Errours to be informed in the Truth to lay aside all pride partiality prejudice obstinacy self-interest to put on humility and charity which is the bond of perfection and to let the peace of God rule in our hearts are the only way to quench the fire of Contention and firmly to cement us together Yet though good men may propose clear truths dispel the mists of Errour perswade to repentance and pray yet there seems to be little hope of peace and settlement For after so many fearful Judgments executed upon us and severe admonitions given us from Heaven pride covetousness injustice oppression malice cruelty and abominable hypocrisie continue and nothing is reformed This is the reason why God's hand is stretched out still many persons have suffered many great Families have been ruined many feel God's heavy hand to this day but who shall suffer most and last no man knows Men of the same English Blood and of the same Protestant Profession continue obstinate in their Errors rigid and high in their Opinions resolved in their different Designs admire their own Models of Government in Church and State will not abate of their Confidence and refuse to recede from their supposed Principles Some are for a boundless Liberty and will not be confined by the rules and dictates of Reason or the common Faith revealed from Heaven these have no Principles but seem to have abandoned not only Christianity but their own reason Some are for Peace yet only upon their own terms though not so reasonable at they should be Some complain they are wrong'd and must be satisfied Others are very high and must be revenged Every party must reign or else they will be Enemies Many men of great Estates and excellent Parts who as yet have suffered little or nothing look on as Strangers and will do nothing whilst Church and State lye a Bleeding ready to breathe out their last And what can be the issue but that either we shall be brought very low made a poor and base people and willing of peace upon very hard terms and yet hardly obtain it or we shall be made a scorn and derision to the Nations round about us a prey unto our Enemies and they who hate us shall rule over us To prevent so sad a condition my humble request to all true hearted English Protestants is seriously to consider 1. What our Condition was before the Scots first entered England with an Army 2. What those things were which then the best and wisest desired to be reformed both in Church and State. 3. What Reformation we are capable of at this present time 4. Where the guilt of so much blood as hath been shed especially in Ireland doth principally lye 5. What our duty is as we are English as we are Christians as we are Protestants which amongst other things is to deliver the Gospel to our Posterity as we received it from our Fathers 6. What may be the most effectual means according to the rules of Reason and Divine Revelation to promote the publick good without respect of Persons or Parties that so no wicked men but onely such as fear God may have cause to rejoyce This is all I thought good by this Epistle to signifie unto thee at the present for the rest referring thee to the Book and remaining Thine to serve in the Lord George Lawson In opus politicum viri clarissimi Georgi Lawsonii popularis mei QVis tandem augustas regnandi digerit artes Et solidam sceptris commodat Author opem Instituit magnas subtilis pagina Gentes Dat populis pacem principibusque fidem Publica privatâ sudantur munia dextrâ Quod multi curant unius ecce labor Tam benè regna locat potuit regnâsse videri Heu major cathedrâ quà m fuit ille suâ Stant secura brevi subnixa Palatia chartâ Nec facilè amoto cardine regna labant Vendicat haec populis leges vim legibus armat Te Themi quae debes plectere sola potes Nil metuas neque jam metuaris Regule demptum est Posse nocere aliis velle nocere tibi Haec succurrisset
Proposition I will 1. Examine two places alledged by Mr. Parker and many others for to manifest the Original of Church-discipline which I conceive are not so pertinent 2. I will most of all insist upon the words of Institution 3. I will enlarge upon those places which speak of the exercise of this power that from the manner of administration we may understand the constitution The two places are Matthew 16.19 and John 20.22 23. The first is concerning the promise the second concerning the donation of the power of the Keyes as they are by many expounded The words of the promise are these I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Many and different are the interpretations of this place as given by Writers both Ancient and Modern Popish and Protestant The difference is in two things especially 1. What this power should be 2. To whom it was to be given The power with many is the power of Discipline in foro exteriori with others the power of a Minister as a Minister 2. The person to whom this power is here promised no doubt is Peter but under what notion Peter must be considered is here the Question Some will have it to be Peter as a Monarch and Prince above the rest of the Apostles including his Successours the Monarchical Bishop of Rome Some will have Peter here considered as the mouth and representative of the Apostles and in them of all Aristocratical Bishops as their Successours Some will have him to represent the Ministers some the Elders some the Church it self And these again divide and cannot agree whether this Church here meant be the Universal Church or a particular if Universal whether Universal mystical or visible if visible whether this be the Church it self or a Representative of the same if Representative whether it must be represented by Bishops only or by Bishops and Presbyters or by Presbyters alone or by Bishops Presbyters and People If a particular Church whether it be Congregational or Diocesan or some other so that from this pronoun THEE we have Chymical extractions of all sorts of Governments Ecclesiastical pure and mixt Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical of all kind of Churches as Universal National Congregational of all kind of Governours as Popes Bishops Presbyters the People Yet I conceive this place is not meant of Discipline but rather of Doctrine The Church is the Universal against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail the Keyes are the Word and Sacraments accompanied with the power of the Spirit As building is conversion and edification so binding and loosing admission into or exclusion out of this Church The Architect and chief Master builder is Christ as he is the principal Agent in binding and loosing His Servants and co-workers are Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel amongst whom Peter was most eminent amongst the Jews Paul amongst the Gentiles For Christ used Peter first to convert the Jews Acts 2. then to convert the Gentiles Act. 10. And Paul laboured more abundantly than them all The binding and loosing in Heaven was the making of their Ministry by the power of the Divine Spirit to be effectual To this purpose D. Reynolds Spalatensis Causabon Cameron Grotius with divers of the Ancient and Mr. Parker himself who notwithstanding applies this to the power of Discipline intending thereby to prove the power of the Keyes to be Democratically in a Congretional Church Yet let it be supposed that Peter as receiving the Keyes doth represent the community of Believers Or if as such he represent them how will it appear that this Church or community is a single Congregation Or if it be such a single Congregation how will it follow from hence that the power is in this Congregation Democratically Mr. Parker should have considered that there is a great difference 1. Between Peter as professing that Christ was the Son of the living God for as such he was only a Disciple admitted by Christ into his Kingdom and Peter receiving the Keyes for as such he was above a Disciple and hath power to admit others into this Kingdom not as a Disciple but as a Minister of the Gospel section 4 The place for actual donation and performance of the former promise is said to be that of John 20.22 23. The words of Christ the Donour are these Receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained These have been alledged as by him so by others to prove 1. The power of the Keyes in foro exteriori 2. That this power is in the Bishops alone 3. That the Priests have power upon auricular confession to absolve and here they ground their Sacrament of Penance and their sacerdotal power in foro poenitentiali From hence some of ours have endeavoured to prove the parity of Apostles and so of Bishops against the Popes Supremacy for here they find the power promised only to Peter by name given to all the Apostles For to understand these words the better we must observe in them Donation and in it the Donour the Donee the Power the Acts of the Power the ratification of these Acts. The Donour or Person giving is Christ the parties receiving this power immediately are Apostles as Extraordinary Servants and Officers the thing given and received was the Holy Ghost that is Ability and Authority Divine and Spiritual necessary and requisite for the place the Acts were remitting and retaining the same with binding and loosing Mat. 16.19 The ratification of these Acts was the making them effectual by the concurrence of the Divine Spirit For these Acts could not be Spiritual and Divine and so powerful upon the Immortal Souls of Men nor the Apostles so much as Ministerial and Instrumental Agents in this work without a Divine Power and Confirmation of the Supream Judge making their Sentence valid and executing the same Hence that sweetest Joy and admirable Comfort of those who are Remitted and the Terrours and Torments of those that are Condemned These Acts are performed by the Word and Sacraments and the Application of the Promises or Communications to particular Persons which Application is made either more at large to a Multitude at one time or to single Persons upon some Evidence of their Qualification and it may be made infallibly so far as God shall direct infallibly or fallibly for want of clear Evidence in which Case the Sentence must be passed conditionally by Man though absolutely by God. All this is nothing to external Discipline or if it should extend so far the party remitting and retaining are not the Church but the Officers of the Church and the Officers of a Church not under a form of outward Government but under another Consideration An Ecclesiastical external Common-wealth doth presuppose an Ecclesiastical Community and the same consisting of Believers and the same united and associated for Worship and Divine performances tending to Eternal Salvation and
man was made 3. When Nations who knew not Christ should come unto him These I say were not fulfilled in the Apostles times 4. Many of the Primitive Christians after their conversion continued for a certain time without any set-form of external Government or perfect Rules of New-Testament-worship except to Word and Prayer were setled Hence those words of the Apostle The rest will I set in order when I come 4. Even within the compass of that time which the Scripture-History reacheth there was a great inequality in the Apostolical Churches for the number of the persons which was far greater in one Church than in another and in the same Church fewer at the plantation and far more numerous afterward For the Kingdom of God was like leaven which did spread and diffuse it self and to a grain of Mustard-seed which did grow mightily 5. After many of these became formal Polities they encreased so much that without divisions and subdivisions they could not be well ordered so as that every part should be subjected to the whole This Ecclesiastical History testifies 6. Seeing 1. That the inequality of the first Churches planted by the Apostles was so great in the former respects 2. That some of them were incompleat not fully formed not grown up to their full stature 3. That most of them did mightily encrease and enlarge afterwards 4. That the Prophesies of the glorious Enlargement of the Church began but to be fulfilled in the times of the Apostles therefore those first Churches as in the Apostles times could be no obligatory examples to us for matter of extent except with admission of some great latitude From all this it follows that the Rules whereby this Controversie must be decided must be the generals of decency and order so far as they may prove most efficaciously conducent unto the preservation and edification of the Body Yet we must have a special care to observe the Institution and the Examples agreeable thereunto And that Church which is ordered according to these Rules and most effectually tends unto these ends is the best and most approved of Christ. He doth not respect and value Churches as they are Congregational Presbyterian or Episcopal nor as of more narrow and larger compass nor as of less or greater number but as so ordered as to discover false Brethren reject Hereticks purge out the old Leaven cast out scandalous persons free from the Doctrine of Nicolaitans and Jezabel and keep themselves in Unity and Purity And surely as our Christian Profession is disgraced so is God highly displeased because we so miserably distract God's people and urge upon them such accidentals with so great importunity though they be neither essential nor necessary to good Government section 10 I might instance 1. In the Church of Israel which no doubt was National from the times of Moses till the Raign of Jeroboam all which time it continued entire in one body adequate to the State and was never divided into independent Congregations This example is not to be slighted as it is by some For this Church was modeled enlarged and confined by God himself neither was it in this particular any Type or Shadow of something to come which upon the coming of Christ and the Revelation of the Gospel was to vanish And this at least will prove that a National Church under one supream Judicatory is not unlawful in it self 2. I might add that it 's no where prohibited in the New Testament 3. That it 's agreeable to the Rules of Decency and Order 4. That it 's not contrary to the Institution 5. If the State be Christian it may have much help and many advantages from the State especially when the divisions of Church and State are the same But 6. If a Congregational Church may be lawful then a National may be so too And the reason of the consequence is because a National may be as easily and as well nay more easily and better governed than a single Congregation much more than thousands of independent Congregations in one and the same State. That the multitude of Christians in one Nation associating and uniting in one body and subjecting it self to one supreme Judicatory may be better ordered than many independent Congregations in the same Nation is evident For 1. they may be far more firmly united and far more free from Schisms and Separations 2. Order which is the life of Government may far more easily be established and observed 3. It will be far stronger to preserve it self from all opposition both within and without 4. It will be furnished with far more excellent persons endued with excellent qualities for to make Officers and Representatives 5. It will be of far more Authority 6. It will be far more able to reform and reduce into order the greater Multitudes and whole Congregations and the greatest persons 7. It will be far more able to receive Appeals to make Canons give Advice hear and determine the most difficult Causes and to execute their highest Judgments One reason of all this is because so many Gifts of the Spirit may be united in one To clear this more fully we may consider a difference 1. Between a single Congregation independent and a national Community under one and the same power of the Keys 2. Between a multitude of these independent Congregations supposing all the Christians of a Nation made up their several Polities and all the Congregations of a Nation united severally for Worship and some acts of Discipline yet all subject to one supreme Judicatory Ecclesiastical For the first difference it 's two-fold 1. In the number of persons 2. In the distance of place in respect of the parts and members of these Bodies both which if they be too great are thought to be impediments of Government As for the number of persons 1. They must not be too many as they ought not to be too few 2. They are far more for number in a National than in a Congregational Church 3. As for this great multitude of a Nation if not too vast reason and the same confirmed by experience will tell us that by distinction and a wise division with a co-ordination of parts equal and a subordination of the less to the greater and all the several parts unto the whole a multitude though of millions may be united into one organical Body and governed as one Man. And by the way we may take notice of a mistake in Mr. Hooker of New England who thinks that a Church or Community of Christians cannot be an organical Body till Officers be made whereas the making of Officers is an act of Administration and presupposeth the Constitution whereby it 's properly and formally organical before any act of Administration But to return that whereby so many are made one is order which unites Heaven and Earth and all things therein in one Body much more a petty multitude of Christians of one Nation This is apparent in all
of a Congregation to govern and order it self in divers cases not so incident to a national Church well ordered Amongst others there be four acknowledged and reckoned up by Mr. Parker himself The first is when one and the same Cause may concern not only one single Congregation but divers several other neighbouring Churches The second is the Inability of the Eldership of an independent Congregation The third is Male administration The fourth is Appeal upon Male-administration presumed Concerning these four Cases I observe 1. That no single Congregation doth continue long but some of these Cases if not all will fall out 2. That in these cases there can hardly be any Redress 3. That a national Church is ordinarily furnished with sufficient Remedies against these Evils Upon all this it follows that in some cases a national Church is of a better constitution than a Congregational Whereas Mr. Parker in the case of Male-administration grants Appeals in that very concession he divests his Congregation of her independent Power and makes it to be no Politie at all For if as he saith a congregational Church be and that by divine Institution the primary Subject of the Power of the Keys how can it be subject to another Church or Churches as if it Appeal it must needs be Par in parem non habet potestatem is a certain Rule For obligatio ex delicto will not here take place To be independent and dependent cannot agree to the same Church at the same time And is it likely that Christ denieth the power of the Keys to that Church which in all the forementioned cases was sufficiently furnished with effectual means of redress and give it to that which is in it self insufficient There be several kinds and degrees of Communion between particular Churches independent and that for mutual help and edification yet all those kinds and degrees of Communion are but extrinsecal and the Communion is but like that of Leagues and Friendship between State and State which can no ways reach Appeals And as it is in several distinct States so it 's in several distinct Churches That of Dr. Jackson is very remarkable and worthy consideration That the best Union that can be expected between visible Churches seated in several Kingdoms or Commonweals independent one upon another is the Unity of League or Friendship and this Union may be as strict as it shall please such Common-weals and Churches to make it and to subject such a Church in such a case unto another is to build a Babel or seat for Antichrist This implies that a Church may be National and he gives a good reason why it should be no more And according to this Rule Mr. Parker by granting in this case Appeals doth no better than build a Babel and so I fear many others do by making every Congregation independent section 15 But to say no more in this place of Appeals the power of receiving whereof is a branch of Majesty and the exercise of this power belongs to Administration and comes under the head of Jurisdiction where they are to be handled at large I further do conceive that the condition of these independent Congregations is no better than that of petty States as those of the Netherlands and the Cantons of Switzerland These cannot subsist without a strift Confederation or a foreign Protection and both are dangerous and sometimes if not often prove prejudicial Though the States-General of the Low-Countries have their Commission from the several Republicks and with this Clause Salva cujusque populi Majestate yet they are ready many times to usurpe and exercise more power than is due unto them But foreign Protection sometimes proves a supreme Power But the danger of our independent Churches as with us is far greater because they are so petty and far less bodies and no ways by any certain Rules firmly united From all this Discourse a rational Reader will conceive that a national Church in my sence is far more agreeable to the Rules of Government which we find in Scripture than so many independent Polities Ecclesiastical in one Nation Some still do conceive and they have reason for it that as this Nation of an independent Congregation was at first invented to oppose the Diocesan Bishop so the dissenting Brethren pitched upon it in opposition to the Scottish Kirk and the English Scotified Presbyterian And as in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth some great ones and Counsellours of State protected the new Conformist and made use of him to poise the Bishop so in our days there were Statists who knew how to make the Congregational party subservient to their civil interest not only to poise but to beat down the Presbyterian and which they far more aimed at their party both in England in the Parliament and Army and also in Scotland which in the end was done to some purpose For at last the Independent became predominant had great Friends was much favoured obtained good maintenance and some of them were put in the best places and enjoyed the best preferments in the City Universities and Country Nay some of them do not scruple plurality of places as though the word Pluralist were only unlawful and Plurality the thing it self legal and just enough Some of them do much mislike the Parochial divisions yet like Parochial Benefices well enough and are unwilling once possessed of them to part with them yet this power and profit is made not only by them but others the great interest few seek a real Reformation with sincerity of heart section 16 To draw near a conclusion not only of this Chapter but of this discourse of the party supreamly Governing in Church and State it s the duty of us all in the best manner and by the best means to endeavour and make it our chief design to reform and unite this divided and distracted Church of ours For this end we should first lay aside our Divisions as they proceed either from ignorance or errour or disaffection and let us see and try how far we may agree in the general and clear truths of Scripture revealed for to direct us in the right ordering of a Christian Society and put on charity which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in our hearts to which we are called in one body Col. 3.14 15. For if we do not hold the Truth in love Eph. 4.15 no good thing will be done These are the only and effectual means whereby the Foundation of our Church-happiness can be laid 2. Let no person or party assume any power but what Christ hath given him or them upon a clear title 3. Let us give every one their due As for the Pope we must leave him to God who will in his due time take order with him Let civil Soveraigns have their right in matters of Religion Let the Bishop be reduced to his Ancient Superintendency and Inspection Let the Pretbyters be contented
on the other hand we must not be too scrupulous and pretend Conscience and yet make our Fancy or some humane Constitutions our Rule and adhere unto them as though they were Divine Institutions For some whilst they refuse either to submit or act under a power in their conceit usurped they become guilty of more hainous Sin and when they presume they are faithful to some personal Majesty they prove unfaithful to Real and their own dear Country preferring the Interest of some Person or Family or persons before the good of the whole body of the people to whom they owe more than to any other And whosoever will not be faithful unto his own Country cannot be faithful to any form of Government or personal Governours Yet whosoever will handle this point accurately must first define what Usurpation in general is 2. How many kinds and differences of Usurpation there be and 3. What the particular Usurpation is against which he argues and 4. State the particular Case with all the Circumstances section 5 The continuance and dissolution of a Legal Power is also to be observed As for real Majesty it always continues whilest the Community remains a Community and subjection to this is due till it be destroyed Subjection to personal Majesty in a Representative cannot in just things be denied till a latter Representative make their power void The personal Majesty of a King with us requires subjection whilst he lives and governeth according to Law but upon his Death or upon Tyranny likewise or acting to the dissolution of the Fundamental Constitution he ceaseth to be a Soveraign and the Obligation as to him ceaseth A Parliament turning into a Faction acting above their Sphere wronging King or People cannot justly require nor rationally expect for Subjection And though private persons cannot yet the people by a latter and well ordered Parliament may both judge them and call the Exorbitant Members to account When a personal Soveraign cannot protect his Subjects because their Lives Persons and Estates are in the power of another he cannot rationally require subjection but for the time at least he should be willing to free them from Allegiance and to let them make the best terms they can for themselves But voluntary Revolt or Rebellion cannot free them from this Obligation to their lawful Soveraign In a word so many ways as Majesty and Soveraignty may be lost so many ways this Obligation may be dissolved Yet in all these Dissolutions Subjects must remember that their Obligation to God and their Country doth continue when not only Personal Soveraigns but also the Forms of Government are altered There are just Causes and Reasons of the Dissolution of this Obligation and there are also unjust pretences and grounds of denying Subjection If any one of an innovating humour or desire of alteration or discontent with their present Governours or conceits of false Titles or an intention to advance some of their own party or a belief that any forraign Prince or Priest can absolve them from their Allegiance or that their Soveraigns are wicked or do not administer justly or are Tyrants when they are not or in any such like case shall seek to cast off the Yoke and think themselves free they must needs be guilty and cannot be excused Those are the greatest Offenders who are Enemies to Government it self under pretence of liberty or impunity in their Crimes vailed under the notion of self-preservation or a reformation of some things amiss section 6 The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy could alter nothing in the Constitution and both did presuppose our Allegiance due to England according to the fundamental Laws and could neither take it away nor add any thing unto it The Parliament by them might declare what was the Duty of every Subject The occasion of them both are well known the end was to exclude all forraign Power in matter of Religion and civil Right in both which the Pope had usurped formerly and might do so for future times especially seeing many Subjects did incline so much unto the Sea of Rome They seemed to bind the Subjects taking them not only to the present Kings or Queens but their Heirs and Successors For the King might have Heirs and Successors and he might have no Heirs and yet have Successors For Queen Elizabeth had no Heir or Heirs but a Successor she had Yet because the Crown is not entailed by common Law and the fundamental Rule as some tell us therefore none is a Successor till he be designed and actually invested and acknowledged and till then the Oaths were not administred to be taken by any particular subject The Oath taken to the former Prince if once removed by Death or some other way though it expressed Heirs and Successors was not thought sufficient it must be taken anew unto the present Successor by Name Yet if the Crown had been entailed or the King 's proper Fee by Inheritance this seems to be needless One reason of these words inserted seems to be this that seeing Succession and Election was usually in a Line it was intended by them to exclude Pretenders and all Power of the Pope or any other to dispose of the Crown when the former Possessor was removed or deceased yet they did not so tye us to be faithful unto the Power of England to be exercised by King Peers and Commons as that it were unlawful to be true and faithful unto the Community of England though under another form The Obligation to our Country was far higher and fidelity to it was due by the Laws of God and Nature so that we must seek the good thereof though the Government was altered Fidelity unto the Community is first due Fidelity to it under some form of Government was the second Fidelity unto it as under that form by King Peers and Commons was the third Fidelity unto the person of the King is the last and presupposeth the former whosoever understands and takes them otherwise perverts the true meaning and makes them unlawful The Protestation and Covenant were made in a time of danger and distraction and did include or presuppose the former Obligations yet the Protestation superadded something concerning the Protestant Doctrine of the Church of England to be maintain'd and the Covenant something of Discipline as to be performed and both extended to the preservation of the peace and union of the three Kingdoms Neither of them did allow any unlawful means to compass these ends Neither of them could take away our Obligation to our Country and destroy our English Primary Interest but it remains entire and since all the alterations made afterwards we are as much as ever bound to seek and promote the same and whosoever will refuse to do so upon pretence of these Oathes the Protestation and the Covenant he is Traytor to the common good of the Nation For as there is a positive so there is a negative Infidelity For though such did not use