exercise of their Christianity then must it needs follow that by virtue of their Christianity they may lawfully use all Soveraign power by which force and the sword is maintained Contrary to the principle premised at the beginning that no good no right of this world accrues to any man by virtue of his Christianity or decrues from another for want of it As the power of the Sword which is used by Title of Christianity is necessarily taken from him who otherwise is possessed of it by them which defend themselves against the same upon the Title of Christianity And by consequence all goods all rights all estates and qualities of this World that accrue unto any man by the use and successe of such Arms are necessarily held and possessed by no Title but that of Christianity For they that have right to defend themselves cannot be subject to the Crosse whensoever they are able to defend themselves seeing they may as well impose it upon their enemies if they have successe as bear it themselves if they have not Though neither is it Christs Crosse which a man bears for want of successe And if this had not been the profession of the Primitive Christians how could they have defended themselves by reason and maintain that the Gentile Powers ought not to persecute them Seeing that all Powers are bound to maintain themselves because therein consists the maintenance of the world in peace So unreasonable is it which hath been said that Tertullian understood not himself when he affirmeth that the Christians were then able to defend themselves against persecution were it not contrary to their profession so to doe For as no man of common sense would tell the Romanes that the Christians were able to resist them if they were not because they knew well enough how able they were So no man zealous of Christianity would think to advantage it by such commendations as the enemies of it might discover to be false And therefore if we reason not amisse this is the difference between Christianity and Mahumetism For Mahomet also pretended to be persecuted for religion by the Gentiles of Arabia witnesse the computation of their years from the expulsion or Persecution or flight of Mahomet from Mecca But when we see that he took up arms thereupon and begun an order which all his Successors have observed to propagate their Religion by the same means we see by this means the difference between Christianity and Mahumetism And it is to be considered by them that bring Jews again into Christian States how they will secure those States against this danger from Judaism For since they have made it part of their profession to expect a Messias that shall conquer the Nations and restore them to the Land of Promise upon appearance that such a Messias is come they are not like to rest if they can hope to be his followers as they rested not under Adriane and at other times when they have disturbed the peace of the States under which they lived upon the like hope This also if we reason not amisse is the justest title of all the wars that Christians have made upon the Mahumetans for the holy Land because the title upon which the Mahumetans first subdued it makes them enemies to all civile Nations that are Christian seeing that the title of Religion is as good against all as against any and whatsoever person or people usurpeth Soveraign Power upon it proclaimeth thereby defiance to all States which he shall be able to deal with And therefore this is not the case of the people of Israel under Moses The Title whereupon they challenged the Land of Promise from the Nations presently in possession being the deed of Gods Gift and the consideration and condition upon which God granted it their undertaking his Law For though it is true that they claimed the Land of Promise upon Covenant with God to be ruled by his Laws in which their Religion is contained and though this deed of Gods gift could not be evident by naturall reason to other Nations yet seeing they professed themselves constituted onely Gods Commissaries to punish the sins of the seven Nations and to root them out for their Idolatries not to impose their Religion upon any other Nations or to seek any interesse out of the Land of Promise it followeth that by this profession they did not give other Nations just cause to resist them by force neither had they any right to hinder them in their pretended conquest of the Land of Promise And therefore the Kings of the Amorites beyond Jordan Sihon and Og hindring them by force to accomplish and execute this Commission of God we see they received an accessory command to subdue them by force and destroy them and thereupon an accessory grant of their dominions for an addition to their inheritance So my intent hereby is not to say that God may not dispose of the goods of this world to those that enter into Covenant of religion with him as the condition of the same Or that man may not lawfully make use of such a disposition of his made known by that Revelation which is unknown to those against whom it is granted for I avow that he did so to the children of Israel under Moses and that they lawfully did so against the seven Nations But that he did it not by the New Covenant of Christianity because it invites the Soveraign Powers of all Nations upon condition to enjoy the same Rights which they stand possest of when they embrace it And that he did not by any Revelation afterwards make the like grant to Mahomet as a privilege of the Religion which he pretendeth to have received from God because if Christianity be true no other Religion must succeed it Whereupon it follows that those Christians that shall take upon them to bear Armes and make War upon the Title of Christianity doe make themselves thereby enemies to all civile Nations that are Christian as Mahumetans are Because as we know that Mahumetism is not from God so we know that Christianity enables no man to use the Power of the Sword wherein Soveraignty consists And that if any might maintain themselves in their Religion by the Title of Christianity then all that might come to have the same opinion might doe the like and so all States might be troubled by fighting for Christianity within themselves though not subdued as by Mahumetans seeking to impose their Religion upon others Against this place there is onely one objection of moment so far as I can imagine out of the Scriptures and that is from the example of the Maccabees For on the one side it is manifest that the arms which they took up against Antiochus Epiphanes their lawfull Soveraign are approved by God not onely as foretold by Daniel and Ezekiel and other Prophets that by them God would give his people freedome and rule of the Land of Promise but also because the Apostle manifestly
though to an invisible purpose and the Power of giving Laws either to the whole or to severall parts of it of Divine Right But neither the whole nor the parts of it are necessarily convertible with any one State and yet the Church under severall States many times in extreme need of the use of that power which God hath given his Church to determine matters determinable Therefore this power cannot be vested in any of the States under which the Church is concerned but in those that have Power in behalf of the Churches respectively concerned The fourth argument is very copious from the exercise of this power in the Religion instituted by God among his ancient people of which nature there is nothing in the New Testament because in the times whereof it speaks Soveraign Powers were not Christian I have shewed in divers places of this Discourse that the High Consistory of the Jews at Jerusalem had power to determine all questions that became determinable in the matter of Laws given by God And yet there is great appearance that this Consistory it self was not constantly setled there according to Law till Josaphats time at least not the inferiour Consistories appointed by the Law of Deut. XVI 18. as the Chief by the Law of Deut. XVII 8 to be setled in the severall Cities For if so why should the Judges and Samuel ride circuit up and down the Country to minister justice according to the Law as we reade they did then Jud. V. 10. X. 4. XII 14. 1 Sam. VII 16. but not after Josaphats time And for this reason it seems Josaphat himself being to put this Law in force first sent Judges up and down the Cities 2 Chron. XVII 8 9. afterwards setled them according to the Law in the Cities of Juda as well as at Jerusalem 2 Chron. XIX 5 8. Besides Josephus in expresse terms rendring a reason of the disorder upon which the warre against Benjamin followed attributes it to this that the Consistories were not established according to Law Antiq. V. 2. And again Antiq. V. 5. he gives this for the cause why Eglon undertook to subdue the Israelites that they were in disorder and the Laws were not put in use And therefore it is justly to be presumed that the exact practice of this Law on which that of all the rest depended took not place till Josaphat applied the coactive power then in his hands to bring to effect that which God had established in point of Divine right The Consistory then by the Law is commanded to judge the People That is the Soveraign Power of the people is commanded to establish the Consistory Josaphat finds this command to take hold upon him as having the Power of that People in his hands So again God had commanded that Idolaters should be put to death and their Cities destroied the Consistory inquiring and sentencing as appears by the Jews Constitutions in Maimoni of Idolatry cap. IV. Deut. XIII 2 13 14. But suppose the disease grown too strong for the cure as we must needs suppose the Consistory unable to destroy an Idolatrous City when most Cities doe the like or to take away High Places when the Land is over-run with them then must the coactive Power of the Secular arm either restore the Law or be branded to posterity for not doing it as you see the Kings of Gods people are The Precept of building the Temple was given to the Body of the People therefore it takes hold upon David and the Powers under him his Princes his Officers and Commanders 1 Chro. XIII 2. XXVIII 1. In fine the Consistory by the Law was to determine matters undetermined in the Law whether in generall by giving Laws in questionable cases or in particular by sentencing causes But if the people slide back and cast away the yoke of the Law none but the Soveraign Power can reduce them under the Covenant of the Law to which they are born Therefore that Covenant is renued by Asa by Hezekiah by Josias by none but the King as first it was established by Moses King in Jesurun Deut. XXIX 1. XXXIII 5. 2 Chron. XV. 12 14. XXIX 10. XXXIV 31. And it is a very grosse mistake to imagine that the people renued it or any part of it without the consent of the Soveraign under Esdras and Nehemias Esd XI 1 Neh. X. 29 V. 12. For Esdras having obtained that Commission which we see Es VII 11 may well be thought thereby established in the quality of Head of the Consistory by the Soveraign Power as the Jews all report him But howsoever by that Commission we cannot doubt that he was inabled to swear them to the Law by which he was inabled to govern them in it his commission supposing a grant of full leave to live according to their Law But in Nehemias we must acknowledge a further power of Governor under the King of Persia as he cals himself expresly Neh. V. 14 15. which quality seems to me answerable to that of the Heads of the Captive Jews in Babylonia of whom we reade divers times in Josephus as well as in the Jews writings that they were Heads of their Nation in that Country having Heads of their Consistories under them at the same time as Esdras under Nehemias The proceedings then of Esdras and Nehemias as well as of the Kings of Juda prove no more then that which I said in the beginning of this Chapter that Soveraign Powers have Right to establish and restore all matters of Religion which can appear to be commanded by God For it is not in any common reason to imagine that by any Covenant of the Law renued by Esdras and Nehemias they conceived themselves inabled or obliged to maintain themselves by force in the profession and exercise of their Religion against their Soveraign in case he had not allowed it them Therefore of necessity that which they did was by Power derived by Commission from the Kings of Persia and so with reservation of their obedience to them who granting Nehemias and Esdras Power to govern the People in their Religion must needs be understood to grant them both the free profession and exercise of the same But having shewed that the Church hath Power by Divine Right to establish by a generall Act which you may call a Canon Constitution or Law all that Gods Law determineth not mediately and by consequence I conceive it remains proved by these particulars done under the Old Testament that the Church is to determine but the determinations of the Church to be maintained by the coactive Power of the Secular arm seeing they cannot come to effect in any Christian State otherwise Which also is immediately proved by some acts recorded in Scripture whereby that is limited which Gods Law had not determined It is said 1 Chro. XXV 1. That David and the Captains of the Militia divided the sonnes of Asaph Heman and Jeduthun to the service of God Here it were an
Jude ver 12. calls their Feasts of Love And the attendance upon this entertainment was the cause of making the Deacons which is called therefore the daily ministration and attendance at Tables Acts VI. 1 ◠Now will any man say that those Primitive Christians held not themselves tied to pay Tithes that offered all their estates At Corinth I beleeve S. Chrysostome that this course was not frequented every day as at Jerusalem but probably the first day of the week because upon that the Disciples assembled at Troas Acts XX. 7. or perhaps upon other occasions also for to have done always every where as at Jerusalem would have destroied civile Society which the Gospel pretendeth to preserve But those that offer the First-fruits of their goods to this purpose when Secular Laws enable them not to endow the Church with their Tithes doe they not acknowledge that duty and that as taught by the Apostles so to acknowledge it For can any living man imagine that they were weary of their estates if the Apostles from whom they received their Christianity had not informed them that Christianity required it at their hands In the next place let us consider the contributions which the Churches of the Gentiles were wont to send to the Christians at Jerusalem being brought low by parting with their estates It is to be understood that the Jews that lived out of their own Country dispersed in the Romane and Parthian Empires not being under the Law of Tithes which was given to the Land of Promise nor resorting to the Temple were notwithstanding in recompense of the same wont to make a stock out of which they sent their Oblations from time to time to maintain the Service of God as is to be seen up and down in Josephus besides Philo and the Talmud Doctors If then the Churches of the Gentiles in imitation hereof contribute their Oblations to support the Church of Jerusalem and the Service of God there being then the Mother City of Christianity before it was setled in the Capitall Cities of the Romane Empire as by all those passages appears which mention the Oblations of the Churches sent to Jerusalem Acts XI 30. XII 25. Rom. XV. 26. 2 Cor. VIII IX per tot 1 Cor. XVI 1. Gal. II. 10. do they not therby openly professe themselves taught by the Apostles that they were under the same obligation of maintaining the service of God in the Church as the Jews in the Temple Again the Apostle having shewed that Christians have the same right of communicating in the Sacrifice of Christ crucified as the Jews in the Sacrifices that were not wholly consumed by fire in the passage handled afore of Heb. XIII 8-14 pursues it thus in the next words By him then let us offer continually to God the Sacrifice of Praise which is the fruit of the lips giving thanks to his Name But to doe good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Where by the Sacrifice of Praise he means the Eucharist as it is called usually in the ancient Liturgies and writings of the Fathers For to this purpose is the whole dispute of that place that in that Sacrament Christians communicate in the Sacrifice of Christ crucified which Jews can have no right to in stead of all the Sacrifices of the Law And therefore by doing good and communicating he means the Oblations of the faithfull out of which at the beginning the poor and the rich lived in common at the Assemblies of the Church and when that course could no more stand with the succeeding state of the Church both the Eucharist was celebrated and the persons that attended on the service of God were maintained Therefore this obligation ceaseth not though the Ceremoniall Law be taken away The next argument is from the words of S. Paul Ephes IV. 11 in which few or none take notice of any thing to this purpose but to me comparing them with the premises it seemeth so expresse that it were a wrong to the Church so much concerned in them to let them goe any longer without notice He hath made saith S. Paul some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors For the compacting of the Saints for the work of ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ That is as it follows that being sincere in love we may grow in all things in him who is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body compacted and put together by the furnishing of every limb according to the working proportionable in every part causeth the body to waxe unto the edification of it self in love Here you are to mark these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament signifies in a vulgar sense to furnish any man maintenance as Mat. XXV 44. 1 Tim. II. 18. Heb. VI. 10. Luc. VIII 2. 1 Pet. IV. 10. In another sense it is used to signifie the Service of God in publishing the Gospel but almost always with some addition discovering the metaphor by expressing the subject of that service to wit the Word the Gospell the Spirit the New Covenant Acts VI. 6. 2 Cor. V. 18 19. III. 8. In this sense it is commonly taken here but it seems a mistake For when the Apostle saith that God hath given his Church Governours and Teachers for the Compacting of the Saints for the work of ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ his meaning is that the Body of the Church is compacted and held together to frequent publick Assemblies by the Contribution of the rich to the maintenance of those that attend upon the service of God which is here called the work of ministery to the end that by the Doctrine of the Governors and Teachers of the Church at the said Assemblies it may be built up to a full measure of Christianity This sense the words that follow require From whom the whole Body compacted that is that the Body of the Church being inabled frequently to assemble by the operation of those that are able furnishing every member proportionably to his want commeth by Christ to perfection in Christianity This sense the parallel places of Rom. XII 4 7 8. 1 Pet. IV. 4. necessarily argue Where having speech of those things which particular members of the Church are to contribute to the improvement of the whole both Apostles expresse two kinds of them one spirituall of instruction in Christianity the other corporall of means to support the Church in holding their Assemblies For as those that want cannot balk the necessities of this life to attend upon Divine Service unlesse they be furnished by the body of the Church So much more those that minister the Service of the Church cannot attend upon the same unlesse they be secured of their support And for this cause the first Christians at Jerusalem and by their example they that sent their Oblations to the Church