Passion aside whether a Noble Man or Master of a Great Family leaving this general Rule for the Government of his house that all things in it be done Decently and in Order doth he not intend and expect that his Steward should Determine what is so For either the Steward or the rest of the Servants must determine it If the Servants confusion and ataxy instead of Decency and Order must inavoidable flow in upon them For one will say this is decent and another the contrary is decent It is more decent saith one to put off our shoes then our hats in Respect and Reverence to our Lord it is more orderly to sit then to stand in his presence This must necessarily beget Partyes and Sidings that Animosity Strife and Contention and by consequence the ruine of the Family For why will one servant in the Family or one party say should not I or we judge of decency as well as you or your party So that you cannot but see that there is a necessity that the Steward should Determine And is it not thus in the Spiritual house If every Congregation or Pastor be left free to judge of what is Decent and in Order things as unreasonable as the putting off the shoes and sitting in the Masters presence will be practised by the most Because the most are not the wisest And they affect generally like Cattle fallen into a River to Swim against the Stream In things therefore of this nature namely such as are not determined by the great Master God you owe obedience to the Stewards determination especially since whatsoever is not forbidden by God hath in that very respect the force of a permission at least Because Where there is no Law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 Now there is no Law against such or such indifferent things and therefore he who conforms sins not But there is a Law which requires Every Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers Rom. 13.1 He therefore that conforms not sins You ought therefore to be subject to the Higher Power in matters of Religion for Conscience Sake But if any man will not be subject for Conscience Sake he must be subject upon another account for God hath entrusted the Supreme Magistrate with a Coercive Power Which is the 2d thing propounded to be made good In pursuance of this 2. thing 1. There ought to be some Coercive Power in Ecclesiasticall Things or Matters of Religion For without this every man would be left free to speak or do what him lift To introduce any false or blasphemous Opinion to disturb the Peace of the Church by enormous Practices May not one deny the Divine Authority of the Scriptures Another the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ A third reject despise and trample under foot the Priestly Office and all the Ordinances of the Gospell And for practice might not men with the evill Servant in the Gospell eat and drink with the drunken and smite their fellow Servants with the Fist of Violence Oppressing and Persecuting all that are not of their Opinion though their Opinion be not at any agreement or consistency with the truth If there be not a Coercive Power stated somewhere who or what shall hinder these and innumerable other inconveniences and mischiefs Every Fanatick Spirit if there were no coercive power might take licence by reviving old Heresies or broaching worse new invented Opinions to ruffle the Church and reduce it to an Heap or Chaos of Confusion Without a coercive power somewhere stated all Reins of Government must necessarily be let loose and an effectuall dore set open for Atheisme Heresy Sedition and Blasphemy to enter in But this is a thing so contrary not only to the peace but even to the essence of all societies that none but the absolute Sons of Belial i. e. without a Yoke can plead for it I passe therefore from that as a thing assented unto by all that pretend to Reason That there must be a Coercive Power and come unto the 2d thing the subject of this Power or Person in whom it is And that is the King 2. Him hath God entrusted with coercive Power in Matters of Religion Spirituall Power or Power in the Church is divided generally into Ordinis and Jurisdictionis That of Order is referr'd to the preaching or the Word Administration of Sacraments Absolution Confirmation and all such Actions as a person regularly ordained performes by Virtue of his Orders That of Jurisdiction is double Internall and Externall 1. Internall Where the Spirituall guides they who have the conduct of the Soules of men by Instruction Perswasion Ghostly Councell and such like so convince the inward Consciences of Men that they become wholly obedient to their directions As Saint Peter by his Sermon wrought upon the Consciences of those Jews Who were pricked in their Heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 2. Externall Where the Person in whom the Power is in foro exteriori as they speak compells the Christians obedience The King is not intrusted with the first and 2d of these He hath no Power of Order nor Jurisdiction over the Inner Man but in things that are for the outward Politie of the Church as that God may be truly served such as transgresse the received lawfull constitutions of the Church punished with this Power the King is intrusted Again the Actions of Men are either Internall or Externall Internall Actions abstractedly and simply considereed in themselves doe not fall under any humane Authority or Power whatsoever Errat si quis putet servitutem in totum hominem descendere pars enim melior excepta est Corpora obnoxia sunt adscripta Dominis mens sui juris est Sen. de Benef. l. 3. It is an Errour in any man to think that Servitude descends upon the whole man for the better part is alwayes excepted Our bodies indeed are Obnoxnious to Servitude and the pleasure of those who are Lords over us but our minds are free and at their own dispose And it is a known saying in the Law Cogitationis paenam nemo patitur No man suffers any thing for his bare thoughts For All Empire or Power necessarily supposeth such matter as is capable of coming under the knowledge of him that commands but the internall Actions of Men Simply and Abstractedly considered doe not come under the knowledge of any Humane Power and therefore they fall not under their Authority No power can impose upon any person that he shall think thus and not otherwise concerning any Article of Faith because he cannot know whether a man thinks so or otherwise As Lactantius l. 5. c. 13. Quis mihi imponat necessitatem vel credendi quod nolim vel quod velim non credendi Who can compell me to believe what I will not or not to believe what I list For Religio imperari non potest Religion cannot be compell'd as Cassidor l. 3. Ep. 27. and Fides
Angel of the Church to whom he directs those things which he would have the rest to learn from him Again the most antient Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament in the concluson of the second Epistle to Timothy have these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The second Epistle to Timothy erdained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians c. And in the end of the Epistle to Titus we translate from the same Manuscripts It was written to Titus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians And St. Ignatius tells us that Evedius his Predecessour was ordained Bishop of the Ephesians by the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will add onely to this that God himself who gave Laws in mediately to the people of the Jews constituted and appointed an High-Priest upon whom he conferred Prelacy and Preheminence over the rest of the Priests And if any man object that the High-Priest was a Type of Christ I acknowledg it is true But the entire Institution of his Office was not for that end onely his Eminence was conferred upon him for Order sake in the Church As Kingly Government was in a sort Typical of Christ but because it was not onely Typical of Christ but Instituted likewise for the great ends of Government it may and ought to be retained and so Prelacy among Pastours conducing so much as it doth to Order in the Church ought not to be abolished though it were Typical in the High-Priest Thus you have an account of these Governours in the Church the Reverend Bishops sent by the King I mean in respect of the External and Accidental things of Religion they have another Mission even from the Holy Ghost in respect of the Internal Preaching and Administring Sacraments Ordaining Binding and Loosing and such like Since then Prelacy is not contrary to the Scriptures since the Church Catholick hath received and embraced it since it is of very Reverend Antiquity and approved of by Divine Right this one would think should be enough to prepare a room for it in the heart of any pious and sober Christian enough to beget in us a reverent esteem of the calling of Bishops to work in us a chearfull submission to and ready compliance with the Rites and Ceremonies in the Worship of God commended to and required of us by such persons delegated to that end by the Prince whose Authority in matters of Religion hath sufficiently been asserted I will yet add for the better reconciling this Order to the affections of some men two words I. The Conveniency and Expediency that I say not Necessity of Conformity and Agreement between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government There is such an affinity between these two that in Common-Wealths where the Government is by many they always commend the Affairs of the Church to the Clergy or Presbytery and not to a Bishop but where the Government is Monarchical in the State Episcopacy in the Church is onely conformable to it Presbytery no way comporting with Monarthy Hence that Preverbial saying No Bishop No King A saying that may be easily derided but not so easily refuted Our late sad Experiences have engraven it in such Capital Characters upon the understandings of all sober and unprejudiced persons than it will not easily be defaced II. The Utility and Advantages that redound to the Church by Episcopacy I might entertain you upon this Head with the unanimous consent of all Historians but I select his Testimony onely who of all the Antients had the least affection for Bishops St. Jerom ad Tit. c. 1. Toto orbe decretum est ut ad tollenda schismata dissidia unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris It is universally decreed that for the prevention of Schisms and differences one chosen out of the Presbyters be set over the rest And again Ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis id est Episcopi dignitate consistit The safety of the Church consists in the Dignity of the High-Priest that is the Bishop to whom if there be not a Peculiar Power distinct from all others annexed Tot in Ecclesia efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes advers Lucif There will be as many Schisms as Priests in the Church Our own Chronicles tell us that King Edward the Elder by Constituting five new Bishops stopped an Inundation of Paganism ready to break in on the West for want of Pastours If any man question or doubt of the Utility of this Reverend Order let him look back upon the Torrent of Confusion Heresy and Blasphemy that brake in upon us while these Banks were by violent hands thrown down Hoc Ithacus velit c. The Extirpation of Episcopacy in these Kingdoms is the first-born of the Pope's desires That which his Soul longs for as for the first-ripe fruit you know the Apologue how the Wolves would make peace with the Sheep upon the condition they would hang up all their dogs Let but Episcopacy and the Liturgy be abolished and the Papists assure you shall promise you peace upon any terms There is nothing that I know of objected against this Order but that great Bug-bear the Covenant Have we not lifted up our hands to the God of Heaven and sworn the Extirpation of Prelacy How then can we admit of Bishops or submit to them being restored To this I Answer An unlawfull Oath obligeth to nothing but repentance An unjust Oath voluntarily taken or imposed by an unlawfull Authority is not binding to any man's Conscience You have Covenanted and sworn the Extirpation of Prelacy so did Herod binde himself with an oath to Herodias Daughter that he would give her whatsoever she should ask Matthew xiv 7. so did certain Jews binde themselves with an Oath of Execration that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul Acts xxiii 12. Had those men done well in killing Paul because they had bound themselves by a curse or did Herod well in giving John Baprist's Head to the Damsel for his Oath 's sake you will I presume say No. Why No would you not have them keep their Oath I but it was an unjust Oath So was yours and will be found defective in the Properties required in a just Oath Truth Judgment and Righteousness Jer. iv 2. And we may soberly suppose that many men Covenanted against the Bishops for their Land's sake onely As the Earl of Kildare being Arraigned for burning a Church in Ireland said He would never have set fire to the Church if he had not thought the Bishop had been in it Bur if any man can say He took the Covenant in Truth Judgment and Righteousness he might lie under some temptation or keeping it had it not wanted that which is essentially necessary to render an Oath obliging a lawfull Authority to impose it But seeing it wanted this which it were Treason to deny no man's Conscience is obliged by it and he who will persist in it because he hath
inscription is stiled Religionis Fidei Auctor The Increaser of Faith and Religion And Basilius the Emperour speaking of the Church as a Ship Ejus sibi gvbernacula ait a Deo concredita Saith that God hath committed the Sterage or Goverment of it to him And there is an Ancient Epistle of Elutherius Bishop of Rome in which he stiles the King of England vicarium Dei in regno suo agens de negotio Religionis Gods vicar for the management of the business of Religion in his Kingdome and the first Moguntine Councel calls Charles the Great Vere Religionis Rectorem the Rector of the True Religion and as they of old so the Reformed Churches of late were of the same perswasion in this particular As it appears by their respective confessions Magistratum est non modo de civili politia esse sollicitos verum etiam dare operam ut Sacrum Ministerium conservetur Christique Regnum propagetur denique horum est efficere ut Sacrum Evangelii verbum undique praedicetur ut singuli purae Deum colere venerari ex praescripto verbi ipsius libere possint Belgica It is the Magistrates Duty not only to be careful for the Civil Politie but to endeavour likewise that the Sacred Ministry be Preserved and the Kingdom of Christ Propagated It is his duty finally to see that the Holy Gospel be every where Preached and that all persons may purely and freely worship and serve God according to his word And so the latter Helvetian Confession Teneat ipse Magistratus in manibus verbum Dei ne huic contrarium doceatur procuret bonis legibus ad verbum Dei compositis moderetur populum sibi a Deo concreditum Let the Magistrate take into his hands the World of God and take care nothing be taught contrary to it And let him Govern the people committed to him of God by good and wholesome Lawes according to the word of God And the Confession of Basil waving some others Quilibet Christianus Magistratus omnes vires eo diriget ut apud fidei suae commissos nomen Dei sanctificetur regnum ipsius propagetur ipsiusque voluntati cum seria extirpatione scelerum vivatur Hoc officium gentili Magisiratui injunctum fuit quanto magis Christiano Magistratui commendatum esse debeat ut vero Dei vicario It ought to be the Serious Endeavour of every Christian Magistrate that the name of God be Hallowed and his Kingdom Propogated among those who are commited to his Trust and that they live denying all ungodliness according to his Will This was a Duty incumbent on the Heathen Magistrate how much more ought it to be commended to the Christian Magistrate as the True Vicar of Christ Or Church of England deems those worthy of Excommunication who deny unto our Kings the same Power and Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes that the Pious Kings of the Hebrews Exercised in the Church of the Jewes Canon the 2d And here we must necessarily enquire how far the Authority of the King Extends in matters of Religion whether we are to obey him in every thing he commands without exception or but in some things only We do not believe the Authority of the King Extends so far as Bellarmine stretcheth the Popes when he saith Si papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas de Rom. pont l. 4. c. 5. If the Pope should erre in commanding Vice and forbidding Vertue the Church is obliged to believe that Vice is good and Vertue is evil We extend not the power of the King as certain Religious Persons who left it as a Rule to their confidents at Padova 1606. did the Popes authority Si quod occulis nostris album apparet nigrum ille esse definierit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare If that which in our eye is white be defin'd by the Pope to be black we ought also to say that it is black But this we say our obedience is required to all his commands that are not repugnant to the law of nature or contrary to the Express Word of God If he command any thing forbidden by the Law of Nature or by any Positive Law of God that is now obliging to Christians or if he forbid any thing Commanded of God we are not to yield obedience For as in nature inferiour causes depending in point of activity upon Superiour have no power of acting contrary to the efficacy of the Superiour So in morality as St. August Si aliud Imperator aliud jubeat Deus quid judicatur major poteâ—tas Deus da veniam O Imperator de verb. Dom Sec Mat Serm 6 Where the Emperors and Gods Commands are one contrary to the other what Judgement shall I make the power of God is Supream the Emperour therefore must be supplicated to pardon me If the King Command any thing that God forbids or forbid any thing that God Commands in both these cases we must then fortifie our selves with the saying of St Peter and the other Apostles We ought to obey God rather then men Acts 5 29 And God having by nature prohibited the killing of an Innocent person the Hebrew Midwives are commended for not obeying the Kings commandement concerning the killing of the male children But the Midwives feared God saith the Text and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them Exod 1 17. Whatever a commandement of God makes necessary no humane authority can render not necessary or obliging and therefore it is usually said that the Gospel Ministry and Sacraments are not subject to any humane Authority that is in point of changing or altering that in them which is of Divine Institution For what God hath Determined Affirmatively or Negatively man cannot determine the contrary But in things not determined by God as Time Place and manner of performing actions commanded by God the King by his Authority may determine these Though the King cannot Prohibite an Holy Harmless rightly constituted Ministry the Preaching of the Word or Administring the Sacrament according to the form of Divine Institution yet he may require them to preach at such times and in such places only he may prescribe them the habit in which they shall Officiate by Vertue of that Apostolicall Precept Let all things be done Decently and in Order 1 Cor. 14. ult This Rule is so equitable that all men will yield their assent That all things in the Worship of God ought to be done Decently and in Order But what is Decent and Orderly is not so soon agreed For that saith one which you call Decent is in my Opinion the most unseemly thing in the world And that is most disorderly in my Judgement which you account Regularly performed and in Order There must therefore be some proper Judge agreed upon to Determine what is Decent and in Order Do you then Judge in your selves laying only your Prejudice and
grand cases of Blasphemy and Heresy but in those lesser occasions of Errour and Schism he is entrusted with Power to quench the least spark as well as the devouring flame Arius in Alexandria was but a little spark in the beginning but because the Christian Emperour did not timely interpose his Authority for the quenching it Totum orbem ejus flamma depopulata est it became a flame which consumed almost the whole Christian World The Prince's Authority may and ought to be exercised in restraining dangerous Disputations concerning Religion Sozomen l. 7. c. 12. tells us that Constantine enacted a Law against Disputes of the Trinity Nemo Clericorum de summa Trinitate disputet And Marcianus prohibited all Disputes De fide Christiana of the Christian Religion Andronicus the Emperour when his Bishops were disputing curiously and subtilely of those words of Christ Pater major me est My Father is greater then I threatned to cast them into the River Ni tam periculosis sermonibus abstinerent unless they did forbear such dangerous Discourses That of Sisinius to Theodosius being most true Disputando de sacris accendi tantum contentiones that Contentions only are fostered by Disputations Secondly To the second Question How far the Coercive Power of the Prince extends It is acknowledged that his Authority may extend to Imprisonment Confiscation of Goods and Banishment of persons sinning against his Commands but whether it may extend to Life is not so manifest because the Apostle saith onely Haereticum hominem devita Titus 3.10 The Gloss upon Gratian turns the Verb into a Substantive de vita and adds supple Tolle There is not as a learned Gentleman of our Church in His Historical Vindication hath observed any example in History of prosecuting an Heretick further then to avoid him till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding that if the Church were in trouble the State was seldom otherwise provided by Laws to punish Hereticks The Councel of Nice therefore having in the year 325 censured the opinion of Arius for Heretical the Emperour who had formerly granted certain considerable Priviledges to Christians declared in the year following Haereticos atque Schismaticos hâ— privilegiis alienos that no Heretick or Schâ—â—smatick should have any part in those Privileges but they rarely proceeded to blood unless perhaps against some seditious Preacher And the Holy men of those times used earnest perswasions to deterr men inclining to that severity from it as not esteeming it to agree with that entire Charity that should be in Christians St. August professeth he had rather be himself slain by them then by detecting the Donatists be any cause they should undergo the punishment of death Ep. 127 This was the Temper of the Christians at least 800. years after Christ But about the year 1000 the Christian World began to punish Miscreants as branches not bearing fruit in Christ by casting them into the fire But the Devout men of those Times did not approve of this rigour St. Bernard explaining those words of Solomon Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoil the Vines Cant. 2.15 If saith he according to the Allegory by the Vines we understand the Churches and by the Foxes Heresies or rather Hereticks the meaning is plain that Hereticks be rather taken then driven away Capientur dico non armis sed agrumentis taken I say not by Arms but Arguments whereby their Errours may be refuted and they themselves reconciled if possible to the Catholick Church And that the Holy Ghost intends this is evident saith he because he doth not say simply Take the Foxes sed capite nobis take us the Foxes sibi ergo sponsae suae id est Catholicae jubet acquiri has vulpes cum ait capite eas nobis In Cantic Serm. 64. He commands therefore that they be taken for himself and his Spouse that is the Catholick Church when he saith Take us the Foxes Thus the holy men in that Age in which they first stopped mens mouths not with Arguments but Arms judged of it And indeed we have not many Examples of persons suffering meerly for Conscience till after the year 1216. in which Pope Innocent the Third laid the foundation of that new Court called since the Inquisition who appointed such as should be convicted of Heresie ut vivi in conspectu hominum comburentur to be committed alive to the flames of fire And though such proceedings are not at any good agreement with those rules and examples which Christ hath left us in holy Scripture yet the practise hath been long since taken up in this Kingdom and is in force at this day by the Laws Anno 1166. about thirty Dutch came hither who detested Baptism the Eucharist and other parts of Religion and being by Scripture convicted in an Episcopal Councel called by the King at Oxford they were condemned to be Whipped and burnt in the face and a command given that none should either receive or releive them so that they miserably Perished By the Common-Law that is the Custom of the Realm of England Hereticks are to be Punished by Consuming them with Fire and accordingly there is a Writ De Haeretico comburendo An Apostate Deacon in a Councel held at Oxford by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by Lay-hands committed to the Fire Bracto l. 3. de Corona c. 9 In Edward the Third's daies about the Year 1347. two Franciscans were Burnt quod de Religione male sentirent because they thought amiss of Religion Pol. Virg. Hist Ang. l. 19. And in the year 1583. Copin and Thacker were hanged at Saint Edmonds-Bury for publishing Brown's Book Cambd. which saith Stow p. 1174 was written against the Common-Prayer Book A Fair warning And thus you see if men will not be Subject to the Higher Powers in matters of Religion for Conscience sake they must be subject because of wrath for the Prince is entrusted with a Coercive Power and bears not the Sword in vain But because it is a thing Morally impossible for one man as the King to Govern the whole Church in his Kingdom Personally by himself He may substitute or delegate others under him to manage all his Power which is communicable in the Government of the Church I say communicable because there are some things inseparable from the Supreme Power as to Correct Alter Ratifie Repeal or Make Null Canons and Constitutions made by any persons under him to reverse or mitigate a Sentence injustly or unduly passed the right of Appeals of nominating Bishops to their respective Sees of translating or deposing them where he seeth cause These and such like are incommunicable unto any inseparable from his Crown But in all other things that are not of this nature he may give Power to others to Govern the Church to whom all persons ow their obedience by virtue of his Delegation as much as to the King himself because it is the King that requires or
had he said more then you received he had prejudiced himself who desired earnestly to see the faces of his Thessalonians That he might perfect that which was lacking in their faith 1 Thes 3.10 Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other then that which you have received quicquid Evangelio quasi ad salutem necessarium additur Parae whatsoever is added to the Gospel as necessary to salvation I said therefore we are to receive our direction from the Lips of God only in things Essential and Fundamental A fundamental in general is that upon which other things are built Fundamentalls in Religion are those primitive truths without the knowledge of which we can neither believe aright nor yield that obedience which we owe to God In these I say we are to dedepend upon God only for direction to hear no voice but his for as they observe in Architecture the yielding of a stone in the lower part of a Fabrick but an hairs breadth will make a cleft of more then half a foot aloft So important are fundamental errors A small error in the beginning and foundation of all things proves in the procedure and end of them a great mischief And therefore God appointed the Foundation of the Tabernacle to be of massy pieces of silver intimating thereby the solidity and purity of the Truth whereupon the Church is founded And a Rabby of our own observes that every man in Israel from twenty years old and upward was to give half a shekel towards these foundation-pieces whereas to other things they were not bound to a set summe but every man to give as his heart moved him which might teach them that to the Fundamentalls of Religion they were all bound but in other things each one according to the gift given him gold or silver or purple or scarlet or fine linnen or goats hair Lightfoot on Exod. 30. So that thus you see in things fundamental and essential we are to receive directions from the great Master of the house God only But In things circumstantial even in Religion and the Worship of God it is the masters pleasure that we should receive directions in them from his stewards The High Steward in this house under God is the King or Higher Powers intrusted by God with a legislative and coercive or constraining power By the Higher Powers I intend the person not the office And that by no less authority then St. Pauls who calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Higher Powers Rom. 13.1 at the 3d. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers Now this higher or highest Power is a single person or company of men intrusted with Soveraign Power over the people he or they being subject only to the Empire or power of God himself I say a single person or company of men For though that which commands in chief or in whom the highest Power is invested must necessarily be one yet it is not of necessity that it be one in or by nature but it sufficeth if it be one by institution so that the highest Power is not appropriated to Kings or absolute Monarchs onely but in a rightly constituted Aristocracy or Common-wealth the Optimates Senat Estates or by what other Title they are Dignified are the highest Power And they or He the King is only subject to the Empire of God himself For he is not cannot in any propriety of speech be called the highest Power but because there is not among men any higher Power Super Imperatorem saith Optatus contra Parmenianum l. 3. Non est nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem There is none superiour to the Emperour but God only who made the Emperour And so Tertullian ad Scap. Colimus Imperatorem sic quomodo nobis licet ipsi e◠pedit ut hominem a Deo secundum solo Deo minorem We so reverence the Emperour as it is meet for him and lawfull for us as a man second unto God and inferiour to God only You may perceive by this what I mean by the Higher Power but since the good providence of God hath cast us under the best of Governments Monarchy I shall speak in the ensuing discourse concerning the single person the King only And 1. He is intrusted by God with Authority and Power not only in Civill matters and affairs of State but in Ecclesiasticall matters the Affaires of Religion in the Church There are 3. Arguments that evince this 1. St. Paul tells you Rom. 13.4 He is the Minister of God to thee for good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indefinitely universally And explicating himself afterward more distinctly he tells us that Kings and persons in eminent or the highest place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were instituted and appointed of God to this end and purpose that we should lead a quiet and peaceable life under them not only in all honesty but in all piety 1 Tim. 2.2 The happiness of a City Country or Kingdom consists in this ut Dei sit amans amata Deo That it love and be beloved of God Vt illum sibi Regem se illius populum agnoscat August de Civit. Dei l. 5. c. 14. That it be in subjection to God whom it hath over it for its King And the Father-pronounceth Kings happy Si suam potestatem ad Dei cultum maxime dilatandum Majestati ejus famulam faciant If by promoting his worship as far as they can they subject their power to the Majesty of God Thus the Emperours Theodosius and Honorius Epist ad Marcellinum tell him that they design'd not any thing in all their Labour of War and Councells of Peace Nisi ut verum Dei cultum orbis nostri plebs devota custodiat That the people devoted to their service might follow the right worship of God Theodosius likewise in Ep. ad Cyrillum Caesarei est muneris ut non solum pacifice sed pie etiam subditi vivant The Emperour must take care that his Subjects live under him not only peaceably but piously Thus Isidor Pelusiota propounds the same end to the Prince as to the Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Salvation of their Subjects to which that of Ammianus Marcellinus agrees fully Nihil aliud est imperium ut sapientes definiunt nisi cura salutis alienae l. 39. Empire is nothing else in the judgment of wise men but the care of the Welfare and Salvation of others Since then this is the end which Kings are to propound unto themselves that their Subjects may live under them not onely honestly but godly it necessarily follows that they must be intrusted with Authority and Power in Ecclesiasticall matters For the end being admitted we must admit those things without which the end cannot be attain'd And accordingly we find God laying his command upon Kings in Scripture When the King sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before the Priests and the Levites and
it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God Deut. 17.18 19. and Psal 2.10 11. Be wise now therefore Oye Kings serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling If you will admit St. Augustine to comment upon this Text he will tell you how Kings as Kings serve God Si in suo regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae pertinent ad divinam religionem contra Crescon l. 3. c. 51. when they command those things to be done which are good and prohibit evill actions not only in things appertaining to humane society but in things appertaining to Religion And yet more fully and expresly Quomodo ergo Reges Domino serviunt in timore nisi ea quae contra jussa Domini fiunt religiosa severitate prohibendo atque pleciendo Ep. ad Bonifac. How do Kings serve the Lord in fear but by a severe prohibition and punishment of those things which are contrary to the Command of God Aliter enim servit qua homo est aliter qua Rexest c. For he serves the Lord after a different manner as he is a King from that in which he serves him as a Man He serves him as a Man by living faithfully as a King by enacting Good and Wholsome Laws for the promoting of Virtue and Piety and punishment of Vice So King Hezekias served the Lord by destroying the Idol-Temples and Groves So Josias served him likewise So the King of Nineveh served him in proclaming a Fast to be universally observed for appeasing the divine displeasure Kings serve God as Kings when they doe that in order to the service of God which unless they were Kings they could not do And herein is that promise of God to his Church That Kings should be her Nursing Fathers and their Queens her Nursing Mothers made good Isa 49.23 2dly That Kings are intrusted with the affairs of Religion appears further because St. Paul tels us the King is the Minister of God to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13.4 as the good in the former Argument So the evill in this being indefinitely express'd and having the force of an universall it must comprehend all evill even in Ecclesiasticall as well as Civill things Thus the wisest of Kings Solomon tells us A King that sitteth on the Throne of Judgement scattereth away all evill with his eyes Prov. 20.8 Thus the people of Israel engage themselves to Joshua the chiefe Magistrate according as we hearkened unto Moses in all things so will we hearken unto thee Josh 1.17 Thus the Fathers argue from those words of St. Paul Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject unto the Higher Powers If every soul then Ecclesiasticall persons as well as others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophil though he be a Priest or an Apostle and so St. Chrysost though an Evangelist though an Apostle though a Prophet every one ought to be subject And Bernard treading in their steps si omnis vestra quis vos excipit ab universitate Ep. ad Archiepisc if every soul ought to be subject then yours for who hath excepted you from the universall every soul Neither will Reason admit that any person should be exempted For he who would be exempted would either not be subject to any humane power at all or to some other power besides the Supreme He who would not be subject to any doth thereby unavoidably introduce a manifest confusion of which God is not the Author 1 Cor. 14.33 He who would be subject to some other power besides the Supreme doth as necessarily introduce two Superiour powers which is a thing unnaturall and inconsistent Ea enim est summi conditio ut nihil aliud adaequet nedum superet Tertul. Such is the condition of the Supream power that it cannot admit a Superiour or Equal By this Argument the primitive Fathers overthrew the Gentiles Polytheisme Because That which is highest can be but one And as in man there is one will which commands the motions and actions of every member so in the Church there can be but one which must command Which will be made evident by reflecting upon the effects of Empire or Government which are obligation to duty and compulsion to perform If therefore there should be more Superiour powers then one their commands might be contrary one to another and so the subject lest without a possibility of yielding obedience to the one without incurring the displeasure of the other And if any man shall say that the actions being divers namely Civill Military and Ecclesiasticall the chiefe power may be divided also into sundry persons It would follow from hence that the same person at the same time might be commanded by one to go unto the Market by another to the Camp by a third to Church and so put under an impossibility of obeying either Whence all Nations have by the light of nature rejected plurality in Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer omnis potestas impatiens consortis The Throne can no more brook a Rival then the marriage Bed This our Lord Christ hath put beyond dispute when he tells us No man can serve two Masters Mat 6.24 3dly Not to multiply Arguments in proof of that which would stand in need of little had not that factious proud Spirit which possessed Donatus entred into some Men occasioning them to say as he did in Optatus l. 3. Quid Imperatori cum ecclesia What hath the King to doe with the Church The Third and last Argument shall be drawn from the joynt Suffrage and Testimony of all Nations not onely Christian but Heathen bearing witnesse to the Power and Authority of Kings in Ecclesiasticall affaires whereby it appeares to be no other then the dictate of Right Reason which is common to the humane intellectuall Nature Aristotle Polit. 7.8 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The care of Princes ought to be first of all for the Things of Religion The Twelve Tables the Fountain of the Roman Law contain in them many Things concerning Religion Jus triplex tabulae quod ter sanxere quadratae Sacrum privatum populi commune quod usquam est Anson You have in these a taste of the Heathens Judgement concerning this And one need not drink up the Sea to know whether it be Salt or not For the Ancient Primitive Christians that of Socrates the Historian may stand for many Ex quo Imperatores facti sunt Christiani res Ecclesiae ab ipsis dependisse The affaires of Religion depended upon the Emperours ever since they became Christian Which Optatus confirms when he saith Non enim respublica est in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia in republica i. e. in Romano Imperio l. 3. For the Common-Wealth is not in the Church but the Church in the Common-Wealth that is in the Roman Empire Constantine in an ancient