Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the Seal to be the King 's Arms. And though this Act was Repealed by the First Marie Cap. 2. yet that Act was Repealed again by Primo Jacobi Cap. 25. And some think that the Statute 1 Edw. 6. Cap. 2. is revived thereby and those who are Enemies to the Church are ready to enquire What Penalties our Bishops are liable to by Issuing Process in their own Names and using their own Seals For notwithstanding the Cant of The Church the Church their Courts are the King's Courts and their Law the King 's Ecclesiastical Law and this is acknowledged by the Oath of Supremacy and all the Laws made to this purpose are but in Affirmance of the Common Law notwithstanding the Author of Vox Cleri Vox Cleri P. 1. was so fond of Loyalty to the Church This indeed was an Expression which explain'd the Carriage of the High Church-Party to His Present Majesty for though they talk'd loud in behalf of the Prerogative it was only that the Prerogative might pay them Tribute and they were willing it should rob the Lay-Subject if it allow'd them to possess what they had filch'd from the Crown The King and Queen must first Swear Allegiance to the Church before they should be Crown'd and then they thought they had catched them and refused to Swear Allegiance to them as the Law requir'd but if instead of that horrible abuse to which the Sacrament was exposed in the Late Reigns a Test were Compos'd renouncing Transubstantiation and Common-wealth Principles and obliging to maintain the Government of England by King Lords and Commons as it is now Established the King and Kingdom would be secured beyond all possibility of Danger and the just Rights of the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Clergy would be maintain'd though those Jacobite Church-Men were sent out to the French King whom they were not able to bring in to them And it is observable That as in the Late Reigns all the Champions for the Hierarchy strove to prove that it was the Duty of Dissenters to submit to the Church Establish'd by Law in those things which they acknowledg'd to be in themselves unnecessary Impositions because they were impos'd by Authority but they commonly left the Government to shift for it self and to Answer for those Impositions to God Conscience and the World So now the same Party left His Majesty and all concern'd in the Late Revolution to Answer for it to God their own Consciences and the World for they wash'd their Hands and said They were Innocent of being concern'd therein but they were under the force of Providence and if His Majesty would uphold the Power of the Church and take care to sit fast they would pay Him Allegiance otherwise they were ready for the next that came if he had the good luck to get the better And this is the Substance of the late Writings of that Party How much better Friends are they to His Majesty who believe Him to have an undoubted Right to his Crown and to Govern the Church as well as the State and that they are bound not only not to Resist Him but to Assist Him with their Lives and Fortunes against all Opposers The Church of England rightly understood is Lovely and Desirable but that which hath confounded and divided the Church is the Jumble and Mixture that hath been made between the Bishop's Power which is of the Essence of his Office as a Presbyter the Power which he has as President of the Presbytery and the Power which he has by Delegation from the King A Primitive Bishop as is clear by innumerable Testimonies had no more under his Charge than he could Personally know and when Churches grew larger than one Bishop could Personally inspect they had more Bishops yet so as that one Bishop had the Precedency and in a short Time he only ingrost the Name and the others were called Presbyters from among whom upon the Death of the Bishop another was chosen to succeed him But the Truth is as is most evident and particularly by the Testimony of that Incomparably Learned and Pious Arch-Bishop Vsher That every Presbyter hath a Right of Governing his Church and Administring Discipline Vid. Vsher's Reduction and thence hath the Name of Rector and is in the English Office of Ordination commanded to Administer Disciplinam Christi the Discipline of Christ and he expresly avers That the omission of the Exercise thereof in England is only from the Custom receiv'd in England and that that Impediment may be remov'd by Law So that the Relation a Bishop hath to a Particular Congregation is no more than as a Presbyter the Precedency of a Bishop to the Presbyters in a Diocess is of Pure Primitive Practice grounded on the General Rules of doing all in Order though it be no part of Revealed Institution All Societies are taught by the Light of Reason to keep some Order and for convenience of Regular Converse the Person of a certain Number whom they agree to be First in Honourable Qualities hath a Natural Right to be President though still of the same Order Thus the President of a Colledge of Physicians is no more than a Physician to his Patients but he is a President to the other Physicians and it would be a strange Fancy for such a President to claim a Right of being Physician to all the Bodies in London and alone to administer some sort of Physick to all within the Bills of Mortality I doubt such an Usurpation would increase the Number of the dead and be justly reckon'd horrid Tyranny over the Living But there is a third piece of an English Bishop and in that he is plainly the King 's Ecclesiastical Lord Lieutenant in such a compass of Ground call'd a Diocess and this he has by positive Humane Law and in this respect is not a Church but a State-Officer entrusted with part of the Civil Power His Courts are Civil Courts and he sits in the House of Lords with respect to His Temporal Baronage If the Distinction aforesaid were well understood how easie were it to end the Controversie about the JVS DIVINVM of EPISCOPACY and the JVS DIVINVM of PRESBYTERY and INDEPENDENCY about the Delegation of the Bishop's Power to Lay-Chancellors and the Bishops Lording it over God's Heritage And how easie would it be to Rectifie abundance of Matters complain'd of in the present Practice of the Church For Example If the Bishops were made by the Delivery of the Baculum and Annulum by the King Staff and Ring as they were before the Conquest or by Letters Patents and were he made President of the Presbytery by their Election especially if the King did usually give the Staff and Ring or grant the Letters Patents to the Person first chosen by the Presbytery they might with the greater Assurance Pray for the Assistance of the Holy Spirit at his Election Were his Lay-power understood to be Delegated to his
the High-Church Party in England or the High-Kirk Party or Cameronians in Scotland can make a Man otherwise honest to tear the Government in pieces Indeed Popery is inconsistent with Allegiance to all Protestant Kings and States For as Antonius de Dominis Arch-bishop of Spolato acknowledged above 80 years ago The Church under the Bishop of Rome is no more a Church but a human Government under the Monarchy of the Pope which is wholly Temporal And this Assertion of his may be easily justified out of the Lateran and other Councils and their most celebrated Writers So Thomas Aquinas tells us That the Pope is as much above Bishops as Bishops are above Kings and Princes that the Secular Power is subjected to the Spiritual as the Body to the Soul and that therefore 't is no Usurpation when a Prelate meddles with Temporal Matters So Bonaventure his Contemporary about the Year 1274 affirms That the Pope may depose Princes and this after Edwardus Salburgensis in his Oration to the Diet at Ratisbon about the Year 1248 had thus express'd himself There are now 175 Years elasps'd since Gregory the 7th laid the Foundations of an Empire under the shew of Religion which in the same Oration he calls the Empire of Antichrist But this is a matter so plain that it cannot be denied by any learned Protestant and I wish that none who bear the Protestant Name were of the Mind of Salmero who teaches that as well the Priestly as the Kingly Power is placed in the Pastors of the Church that so Christ may reign for ever For 't is not long since the Judges of England were solemuly told in a Sermon that St. Paul was a mix'd Person Alas these and such as these are the Principles which work Confusion and tear the Government in pieces whether they got into the Heads of Prelatists or Presbyterians or of Men of any other denomination But altho' the Christian Profession with a suitable Conversation ought to be look't upon as an excellent Qualisication for an Imployment where the Person has other Qualifications proper for such an Imployment and such a Man is certainly preferable to another of equal Skill who either makes no Profession of Religion or lives not according to his Profession Yet the antient Roman Honesty with the Roman Courage Loyalty and Love to his Country and largeness of Soul may render a Man more sit for an Imployment than a Selfish Persecuting Cowardly Arbitrary narrow Soul Fellow that oves none but his own Party tho' he believed his Creed never so firmly and roar'd for the Church never so boisterously and much more if all the noise he makes be for humane Inventions and Ceremonies The Priests are now competently ashamed of the pretended Jus Divinum of absolute Monarchy and when they have been scouted out of all their Pretences under all Forms to any Jus Divinum not to be found in the Scriptures Then and not till then will the Princes and States of Christendom be secure and quiet The proof hereof would be too prolix but I can't forbear to present you with a small sample The Pope in the 13th Century sent the Christian Princes a Pilgrimage to recover the Holy Land which was in truth only to take an Opportunity to usurp upon their Rights in their Absence and to set up his pretended Jus Divinum to be Monarch of the World Thus after Gregory the 9th had by Excommunication forc'd the Emperor Frederick the Second to an Expedition into the Holy Land he invaded Naples and other parts of the Emperor's Dominions and stirred up Henry the Emperor's Son to Rebellion and called a Council to depose him Nor would he make Peace with him tho' he sued to the Pope for it and tho' the Tartars carried all before them the Emperor could not obtain Liberty to assist the Christians but was forc'd to fight it out with the Pope till the Anti-christian Monster having the worst on 't broke his Heart Some time after Pope Innocent the 4th blessed the French King Lewis about the Year 1248 and sent him on the same Errand but gathered a Council at Lyons against Frederick and thereby hindred him from assisting Lewis who sought to make Peace between the Emperor and the Pope that he might be assisted but the barbarous Pope and his pretended Jus Divinum left the poor King and his two Brothers Captives to the Saracens and the whole Christian Army to be cut off Some time after Pope Gregory the 10th engaged the Emperor Rodulph to send an Army into Asia and after the Ruin of that Army and the Captivity of the Prince of Meckleburg who commanded it being the 7th Army in this Century that was sent on the Pope's Errand It happen'd that Cassianus Prince of Tartary turned Christian and conquered Syria from the Saracens and left Governors in it with express Orders that they should enter into a Confederacy with the Christian Princes of the West But Pope Bonisuce the Eighth to whom this Offer was made was so busy in maintaining his pretended Jus Divinum against the French King Philip whom he Excommunicated and his Posterity to the Fourth Generation that he wholly slighted this Offer which occasioned oned the loss of Syria made Capeacus who governed in Damascus for Cassianus to revolt to the Soldan of Egypt and gave occasion to the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the next Age. Alass Sir were there no Princes in the Seventeenth Century ruined by Contests about those Jus Divinums I pray God the Eighteenth Century may afford no instances of any Prince undone by believing the Jus Divinum of Priestcraft These things considered it is not strange that the National Synod or Council of Gap Anno 1604 just 100 Years ago for the Reasons in their Acts mentioned and among others for that the Bishop of Rome with relation to Civil Affairs tramples on the lawful Authority of Magistrates giving taking away transferring Kingdoms thus resolve We Believe and Assert that he is the true and proper Antichrist the Son of Perdition foretold in the Word of God the Purple Whore that sits on the Seven Mountains in the Great City that has obtained Dominion over the Kings of the Earth and we wait till God as he hath promis'd and already begun to do shall break and conquer him by the Spirit of his Mouth and destroy him utterly by the brightness of his Coming But we are assured by a more infallible Authority that the Kings of the Earth shall hate the Whore and make her Desolate and Naked Rev. 17.12 16. and eat her Flesh and burn her with Fire The Kings and not the Priests are to work this Reformation and therefore tho' they had given their Power Strength Verse 13. and Kingdom to the Beast which the Kings of the Earth never gave to any but the Pope and his Church yet by re-assuming their respective Rights and asserting their just Supremacy God will some time or other
which were ordained for their Salvation and this Policy of his appears in no Instance more evident than in the Methods he has taken to make the Eucharist a means of Destruction while by unworthily Receiving 1 Cor. 11 29. Men Eat and Drink Damnation to themselves Hence his faithful Servants the Authors of that Mystery of Iniquity Popery have made Transubstantiation a Test of their Catholicism burning and damning Men for being Men that is for using their Sense and Reason With one hand robbing us of the Holy Sacrament and its proper uses and with the other presenting us with a piece of Pageantry and requiring our Adoration of a senseless Idol The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted by our Blessed Saviour in Remembrance of Himself and as a Bond of Union among his Followers 'T is the peculiar Right of such who by sound Faith well digested Knowledge and some Experience of the Comforts and Pleasures that result from a good Conscience and Holy Conversation are made to long for further Degrees of Conformity to the Will of God clearer manifestations of the Divine Love and more evident signs of the Souls recovery from its fallen State The Motives to come to it ought to be from within or else from above and not from beneath and the things to be obtained by it ought to be increase of Spiritual Blessings and not of outward Emoluments Blessed is that Nation where the Government can find Men otherwise fitted for Publick Employments whose use of this Sacrament appears by their Conversations to proceed from such Principles And surely he who loves the Commemoration of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Revel 1.5 in this way of his own Institution has an excellent Qualification to recommend him to those Vice-gerents of that Prince who desire and design to promote his Interest But Sir to give a plain Answer to your Question I am of Opinion That it is at least inconvenient to impose the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper on every Man that executes an Office in Publick Administrations and that among others for these Reasons 1. The Ordinance was instituted to other ends and I know not when the Warrant was signed by our Saviour to use it to such a purpose T is his great Seal and ought not to be put to any Commissions but his own 2. No Man who is fit for it needs a Law to bring him to it Heb. 2.10 All the Soldiers of the Captain of our Salvation are Voluntiers Psal 110.3 and on the contrary it is certain that he that needs a Law to bring him to it is not fit for it 3. If this Test be establish'd it is the Duty of all Men in their respective Places to keep from Oâ—â—â—es all that are guilty of Sweâ—â—ing Whoring Drinking and the other parts of a profane Life which are obvious to common Observation for those things evidently unfit Men to receive the Sacrament And if the Government should permit no Man to be in any Office that drinks to excess or mispends his time in Tipling that uses to swear in common Discourse or whose Life otherwise appears vitious what multitudes of Places would be empty which are now well filled for the Publick Interest And yet what Cruelty would it be to any vicious Man to put him under a Necessity of profaning the Sacrament by putting him into Office for it is most certain that not only every Man that lives in the practice of any known Vice but every Man that lives not in a daily endeavour to perform his Covenant made in Baptism with the most Blessed Trinity ought to keep far off from the Sacred Table I know it is objected that all Men ought to be fit for the Sacrament and that it will tend much to a good Life that they be under a Necessity to receive it But let Experience speak Mens Stomachs have scarce yet digested the Sacraments which they have prophaned for some Years past to keep their Places Men have taken the Sacrament and betrayed their Country and ruined their honest Neighbours Taken the Sacrament and introduced Popery Taken the Sacrament and murdered Men by colour of Law And who is there of a Subject among the Authors of the Grievances of the Nation that took not the Sacrament to enable him so to be Not to mention Persons of a better Rank how many Vintners Ale-house-keepers and others of like Profession have purchased their Licences at the Hazard of their souls And I dare appeal to all Men to whom these Presents shall come whether within their Knowledge any Reformation has been wrought thereby Five hundred have refused it for Conscience sake for one prophane Person that has scrupled it And who and where is he whose Life hath been reformed by being under this Necessity But if the universal Depravity of Mens Manners be compared with the universal Attendance that was paid of late at the Communion Table what dreadful Prospect is presented thereby to any considering Mind If of the Corinthians who received unworthily 1 Cor. 11.30 many were Sick and Weak and some were punished with Death What Desolations would Divine Vengeance make in England should the same Measure be meted out to us But Fifthly The Kingdom of our Lord Christ John 18.36 is not of this World Acts 3.21 at least not before the time of the Restitution of all Things And altho' the good Christian must necessarily be a good Subject yet a Man whose fitness to receive the Sacrament is known to God his own Conscience and to all good Men may be very unfit for an Office in the State and he may be exceedingly fit for a Publick Employment whose unfitness to receive the Sacrament is asâ—…vious It is an Opinion in this sence justly exploded That Dominion is founded in Grace Psal 15.16 for God has given the Earth to those Children of Men whom he designs not for Heaven And those Children of this World who are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 are by reason of that Wisdom fit to be employed therein 6. The Generations to come shall call them Blessed who instead of forcing Men to the Sacrament use all Means divinely Instituted to make them fit for it The Primitive Bishops kept Men Catechumens for a long time and admitted none to the Sacraments till they were approved and practical Christians And if the Inhabitants and especially the Children of England were every where made Catechumens by Publick Authority the next Generation may probably fill all Publick Employments with Men who would approach the Sacrament both to the Publick Advantage and their own For the Appearances of Divine Providence in the World are now conspicuous and at all times but especially in those Days wherein God is pleased more eminently to take to himself his great Power and Reign good Men are Publick Blessings Rev. 1.17 Ten Righteous had saved Sodom at such a Day Gen. 18.32 Laban's
Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY AN ESSAY To Render the Church of ENGLAND A Means and a Pattern of UNION TO THE Christian World LONDON Printed for I. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1699. Advertisement THE Reader is desired to take Notice of Two Things 1. That this Discourse is not Written by the Direction Assistance or Advice of any Person or Party whatsoever nor with the Privity of any in Authority but is the meer and only Result of the Author 's own Thoughts who makes it his Request that the Reader wou'd forget that it has an Author and take it as if it were produc'd by the casual falling together of the Letters of the Alphabet it being too common a thing for Men to slight Truth if they approve not of him that utters it and to indulge Error if recommended by the Author's Name And yet at the same time let the Reader be assur'd that the Author is not afraid that the World should know what he earnestly desires may be conceal'd for the Reason aforesaid 2. That for the same Reason divers Passages are made use of therein without referring to the Books whence they are taken there being in so learned an Age no great danger of Plagearism and in so divided and contentious an Age too much danger of the abovesaid Inconvenience THE PREFACE Christian Reader THE Substance of the following Discourse was Written above eight Years since and Presented in Manuscript to Her Late Majesty of ever Blessed Memory But Wars abroad made it unseasonable to attempt Peace in the Churches while the States of Europe were so hotly engag'd and had the Church of England render'd it self a Pattern of Peace yet the Nations about us were not at leisure to observe that Pattern The Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness assisting the Best of Kings hath Restor'd Peace to the Nations of Christendom among themselves And why may not Peace among the Churches of Christendom be expected by the same Means And because the Design of the following Discourse is to attempt it first at Home yet with an Eye to the Peace of the Christian World I will look back on the Past Age and consider the Cause of our Divisions both in Church and State Two Controversies have miserably divided this Nation for more than one Century I mean the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and the Controversie between a Strict Vniformity in Matters of Religion and a Lawless Liberty of Conscience And our Enemies of the Roman Communion have ever since the Reformation industriously kept alive both these Controversies in order to reduce us to our former Bondage to Rome They took the side of Prerogative and Strict Conformity till they had set these Kingdoms in a flame and broke in pieces the English Government both in Church and State They us'd the Pretence of Loyalty to Murder the Poor Protestants of Ireland and of Vniformity to drive many excellent Men out of the Church And when they had ruin'd Prerogative and the English Church by appearing for them They then fell in for Anarchy in the State and an extravagant Liberty of Conscience in the Church and broke us into Numberless Parties and Sects And while their Emissaries wrought diligently to build a sort of Babel among us they cast the Reproach thereof on the Protestant Religion Again when the Nation grew weary of Anarchy of changing Governments every Moon and springing new Churches almost as often and found a necessity of Restoring the English Constitution they returned to their old Methods of straining the Prerogative and destroying both our Civil and Religious Liberties by Arbitrary Power and on that side of the Controversie they continued till the late Happy Revolution They knew though we were forbid to say that both the late Kings were in their Interest and that the Prerogative would be certainly on their side that the Dispensing Power render'd all Laws already made against them useless and would consequently restore Popery by our Celebrated Magna Charta They knew that Modelling Corporations wou'd destroy Legislation for the time to come by making Parliaments like those in France Tools and Vassals to the Crown as the Council of Trent was to the Pope Thus Humane Wisdom seem'd to Promise them all Imaginable Success for the Church-Party being secur'd by the Doctrines of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance misunderstood the Dissenters Caress'd with an Illegal Toleration and the Papists among us Vnited to destroy us we were like Isaac bound and laid on the Altar had not our good Angel in the very Act of Sacrificing staid the Knife I do but touch these things as being Foreign to the Design of the Following Discourse yet I can't pass them without observing that Solid and Lasting Settlement both of Religion and Civil Liberty which we owe to His Majesty Two things the Nation had learn'd by sad Experience 1. By the Confusions and Distractions of the late Times they learn'd that a Common-Wealth would never do in England for though for a season that Government made a Figure in the World it soon dwindled into a single Person under another Name and at his Death consum'd away in Anarchy 2. By the late Reigns the Nation had learn'd that Arbitrary Power would never do in England though affected and attempted with all possible Application in both those Reigns What then could Humane Wisdom think fit to be done upon the Late Revolution but to settle and establish the English Government on its Ancient and Solid Foundations The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Governments stand longest that are oft renewed and brought back to their first Beginnings And though in the last Age we could not attain it we are now blest with the Old English Constitution The English Government exceeds all others in the World being a just Mixture of the Three Forms of Government Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy Monarchy justly boasts its Vnion Aristocracy its Grandeur and Democracy its Liberty Now the English Government has all the Advantages of these Governments without the Disadvantages of any it has Monarchy without Arbitrary Power Aristocracy without Faction and Democracy without Anarchy and hence we are blest with King Lords and Commons The Just Prerogative is Establish d the Invaded Liberties of the Kingdom are restor'd and the Incroachments of the Late Reigns condemn'd by Act of Parliament So that there is an end of the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and nothing but the most incurable Infidelity can be Proof against that Evidence of His Majesty's Love to the English Liberty which He hath given by permitting an Election for Parliament during his Absence and passing the Bill for Disbanding the Army The Controversie between a strict Settlement and a Boundless Liberty in Matters of Religion is also in some good measure compromised we have now no Spanish Inquisition to force Mens Faith and Consciences into the same Mould which is
Lay-Chancellor according to the good Example of Sylvanus of old who would find fault And the Legislators would soon think of giving their Courts a Civil Process instead of their horridly abused Spiritual Weapon Excommunication Were the Presbyter restor'd to his Just Right we might soon see some good Effect of Discipline which can never be exercised to any purpose till Parish-Communion be made more pure and the Pastor's Power be restor'd One Physician may as well take the Charge of all the Bodies in London as one Bishop of their Souls and the Congregations that are gather'd from the several parts of great Cities cann't have the personal Inspection nor ready Access to the Pastoral Help nor enjoy the Advantage of that Article of the Creed Communion of Saints which ought to be provided for in a well Disciplin'd Church And this is what my Soul longs for and not without hope For he that will impartially consider the late Writings for Episcopacy particularly those of Doctor Maurice and Doctor Scot and the Writings against it particularly of Mr. Baxter and Mr. Clerk son will as I conceive find these things true First That the Roman and English Prelacy as now Exercised are wholly dropt in the Scuffle and no Foundation found for either in Scripture or Primitive Antiquity Secondly That Independency if it be meant only of the Relation between a Pastor and his Flock and his Independent Right of Exercising the Power of the Keys over them it is plainly Jure Divino but if taken in a Sense excluding National Churches taking away all the common ordinary Means of Communion among Christian Congregations and leaving the Power of Ordination and Admission to the Lord's Supper in the People hath as little Foundation in Scripture or Antiquity Thirdly That Councils are for Advice not Legislation for Concord not Domination and have no Power to make Laws for the Universal Church They can no more Alter or add to the Laws of Christ than the Jewish Priests could Add to or Alter the Laws of Moses And as there never was so there never can be a General Council and that a Visible Head of the Universal Church on Earth Monarchical or Aristocratical is a meer Chinera never design'd by GOD nor of Use to Men. Fourthly That the Episcopacy which within a certain compass of Ground provides a Person chosen by the Presbytery to a Superintendency to preside in Conventions of the Clergy within his Precinct or Diocess to be consulted and principally join in the Ordination and Confirmation of Persons who desire to be admitted to the Lord's Supper to be advised with by every Presbyter within his Precinct where any Difficulties arise concerning the Exercise of the Keys but which destroy not the Power of the Presbyter nor the Primitive Church Species has good warrant in Scripture Antiquity Reason and the Nature of the thing I say chosen by the Presbytery For even Mr. Dodwel that unaccountable Bigot to Prelacy acknowledges that Bishops were first made by Election Fifthly Episcopacy thus stated is Jure Divino as all things aagreeable to right Reason are Jure Divino that is to say Reason teaches such Things without Revelation and if Reason had not been sufficient to this End he that spent Fourty Days on Earth after his Resurrection instructing his Apostles in the Things concerning the Kingdom of God would not have Omitted to direct them herein He that was faithful only as a servant gave Rules for every Pin in the Tabernacle Hebr. 3.5 and the very Colour of the Ribbons used by the Priests And our Lord who was Faithful as a Son over his own House would not have Omitted a Matter of such Importance So when Christ had Instituted the Office of Presbyters or Bishops and the Apostle given an Account of and Instructions for their Office there was no need to Institute the Method of their Concord which right Reason taught Men of all sorts of Learning as Philosophers Physicians c. Again Presbytery if it mean only an Equality of Gospel Ministers by the Institution of Christ it is Jure Divino as plain as Words can make it if it be meant the Form of Government so diversify'd as is usually meant by that Word it is not Jure Divino having no Reveal'd Institution And Reason taught all the Christian Church to appoint a President Bishop for Life and nothing but the Rise of Popish Prelacy could make the other Method seem Reasonable and Calvin himself as I take it fell into it out of Necessity and not out of Choice But surely this Part of Church Government is no more determin'd by Revelation than the Form of Civil Government Sixthly While under the Notion of CHVRCH GOVERNMENT the Clergy encroach on the Prerogative of the Civil Power whether it be in an Episcopal or Presbyterian Form neither God nor His Majesty will have the Obedience paid them which is due and the only way to support both Civil and Ecclesiastical Government is to keep them entirely distinct and unconfounded to give to Caesar the Things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods To own the Divine as the Vicegerent of Christ in his Prophetical and Priestly and the Civil Magistrate as his Vicegerent in his Kingly Office Particularly the Civil Power is to appoint the Bounds of Bishopricks and so is the Twelfth Theses of that clear headed and accurately Learn'd Dr. Isaac Barrow By the Laws of God and according to Ancient Practice Princes may Model the Bounds of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Erect Bishopricks Enlarge Diminish or Transfer them as they please Thus he where by Princes he necessarily intends the Legislative Power where-ever 't is placed by the Respective Constitution of Christian Kingdoms Seventhly Were these things well consider'd the Controversie between the Episcopal and Presbyterian would be certainly reconcil'd and even the Independent and Antipoedobaptist would probably be folded if the Terms of Union which the Church prescribes did not keep them out Which will come next to be consider'd after I have premised the few following short Propositions First Proposition When God bringing his First-begotten into the World commanded all his Angels to Worship him Hebr. 1.6 Luke 2.14 their Song was Glory to God on High on Earth Peace and good Will towards Men But while Christians have join'd with the Heavenly Host in the First Clause of that Song they have neglected the two other Parts thereof and for want of Peace on Earth the former and latter Clauses have made us yet but little Harmony Second Proposition The Eternal Father hath called himself The God of Peace Rom. 15.33 the Blessed Jesus is The Prince of Peace Rom. 16.20 the great Legacy which he left behind Him Isai 9.6 was His Peace and The Gospel of Peace John 14.27 is the great Instrument of Erecting that Kingdom of which Peace is one of the greatest Glories Till God give his People the Blessing of Peace we can't expect that Happy Time
deny'd by the Church to their Clergy and is used by many of them before their Sermons And how far the Spirit of GOD may influence the Heart and Tongue of the Ambassadors of our Saviour by immediate Assistances Rom. 8.15 26 27. I refer to the Texts in the Margent for satisfaction Joh. 14.17 For should I use the Language of Scripture otherwise than by referring to the Texts themselves many pretended Protestant Readers would unwarily or from a worse Principle call it Cant and yet after all the Prejudices and Arguments against a Form they who attend constantly in the Congregations of the Dissenters do know that many of the Teachers in those Congregations come very near to a Form in their Prayers though called Extempore and if the Minister should vary every Word in every Prayer yet 't is still a Form to the Congregation Of the Habits of the Clergy II. If the Habits of the Clergy were only used for Distinction and Decency and not made Sacramental viz. To be an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual Grace I do not think any Man wou'd be frighted out of the Church by seeing a Reader in White and the conveniency of a Gown wou'd certainly carry it for a Gown against a Cloak though we have an account of Paul's Cloak 2 Tim. 4.18 but not of his Gown if it were once declared That there is no more Holiness in a Clergy Man's Gown than in an Alderman's And I do not believe that St. Paul us'd to Preach in his Cloak For if he did being so constant a Preacher he would not have left it behind him at Troas Of Presentations III. As for Presentations and Patronages it must be acknowledged That in the Primitive Times the People did choose their own Pastors and it seems most reasonable that they should have a Negative Voice For why should I have a Pastor put on my Soul any more than a Physician upon my Body or a Lawyer upon my Estate But in Truth there being no positive Divine Command in this Matter it is convenient in a depraved Age that Patrons Nominate the Persons that the People chuse and the Bishop Approve for I doubt that in many Parishes the Majority would not of themselves chuse the most pious Divine and the People are not so well qualified for an Election as they were in the Primitive Times The Cross in Baptism IV. No Man can give me any Reason for continuing the Cross at Baptism if the Practice was Ancient yet from the beginning it was not so and if Custom without Reason make any Person fond thereof it may be left Indifferent Kneeling at the Sacrament V. The same may be said of Kneeling at the Lord's Supper that it was not used in the First Ages is most evident for Kneeling on the Lord's Days was forbidden and to this Day remains Condemn'd by the Twentieth Canon of the Council of Nice and consequently Kneeling at the Sacrament Our Saviour Represents the State of Glory by an Allusion to this Sacrament that his Apostles should Eat and Drink at his Table in his Kingdom and sit on Thrones That Posture which is the Eating and Drinking Posture by the respective Customs of Nations is the proper Posture for this Ordinance but were no Posture imposed there would be no Quarrelling about this matter and it is probable that the Posture of Sitting when we Sing came from the Posture used in the Eucharist As to the Matter of the Test perhaps it may be used by the Divine Providence to be a great Means of Reformation for if Discipline were Restored till which Time only the Curses on Ash-Wednesdays are to be used as the Rubrick informs us and were Posture left Indifferent and no Man admitted to the Lord's Supper who could not give a good Account of the Fundamentals of Christian Religion viz. those Articles which shall be the Terms of Union and who shall not also give Satisfactory Evidence to the Pastor of the Congregation establish'd or allow'd with whom he desires to Communicate that he is not tainted with Vice of any kind no serious Man would wish the Test Abolish'd Religion and Vertue would be promoted thereby and the Kingdom would soon enjoy a Pious Magistracy But as it is I have heard it call'd an Outragious Press of the Devils Servants to the most inward Rites of Christianity and many believe that to make the Sacrament a Test for Civil Offices where the Church is without Church-Discipline is unsuitable to the Institution Nature and Ends of the Sacrament dangerous to the Government and to the Souls of Men grounded on no solid Reason insufficient to secure against Popery of Use only to Exclude good Subjects and Destructive to the true Interest of any Protestant Kingdom Of God-Fathers and God-Mothers VI. God-Fathers and God-Mothers were an useful sort of People in Times of Persecution and would be so now if not made necessary to Baptism but used as they were at their first Invention But if instead of the Undertaking for the Religious Education of the Child in case of the Parents Neglect or Death they must Exclude the Parent from his proper Office and never more take care of the Child which is the Case of most of the Church-Children now in England Pudet haec Opprobria nobis sure no Man can desire to continue it as it is Of Holy-Days VII He that can find me out a Christian Holy-Day in the New Testament besides the Lord's-Day or any mention made of them except in such Texts as Condemn them shall have my Thanks and I will not be wanting to acknowledge the Favour to him who shall discover any other Original of them than is before-mentioned in this Discourse And if Men would be contented to give God the first Day of the Week being one in seven I 'm apt to believe the laying aside all other Anniversary Holy-Days for the whole Church would neither displease God nor good Men and we need them not to oblige either Jews or Gentiles Indeed were they declared as they are of Humane Institution and only convenient for Relaxation from Labour the Ease of Servants and such prudent Purposes the great Objections against them would be Answer'd and a Law concerning them like that of 5 Eliz. Cap. 5. concerning Lent would do the Business and no Man would object against beginning such Days of Diversion with Solemn seeking the Divine Blessing in Publick Assemblies And yet if any Men or Church desire to continue them as they are without Imposition the Fourteenth of the Romans perhaps hath made them a Toleration though it must be acknowledged That the Days there intended had originally a Divine Institution As to occasional Days appointed by Authority for Fasting and Praying or Feasting and Thanksgiving whether pro hac vice only or Annual with Respect to some National Deliverance they are not scrupled by any English Protestant and are Authorised by Presidents in the Jewish Church Of Ordination VIII We read of