good Christian who is also a good Subject is to abate of what Duties and Performances he in some instances immediately owes to Religion and his Saviour in obedience to those Secular injunctions to which if not engaged to submit the Government cannot subsist and be managed as in these particular instances did a pretence to or the actual present exercise in religious Worship exempt and disingage Every one is born a Subject owes a duty to his Prince and the Government as soon as he is indebted for his Being to his Maker and an after-dedication of my Person by holy Orders does not cancel that first dependency my Saviour himself hither all along had his regard and he laid his Religion in relation to it and when in the Pulpit or which is more at the Altar in the midst of my Office am I to give up my Person to that Civil Power by my Christianity supposed and by the same God placed over me The severer Rules and Laws of the Sabbath were to give place to the saving the life of a Man in the design of Moses as our Saviour expounds him to the Pharisees and much more for the support of Kingdoms and Communities and so in all other Instances of this sort of Holiness called Relative and which is good only from the institution and positive appointment and no greater more notorious Cheats than those in Ordine ad Deum that manage and abet Disobedience by a Charter from Religion 't is that very Corban in the Gospel so severely chastised by Christ the saying it is a gift and robbing my Father and Mother That absence from Divine Service or religious Worship which is in it self a sin upon a single instance of Charity for the advantage and relief of the neighbour-hood and then surely of a whole Community is a duty on this score Christians fight their Battels on the Lord's-day the very Ass is to be pulled out of the Pit and how the reasons and ends of Government for its better managâ—ry and conservation did stiil over-rule in the Christian Church in each of these like religious Performances in the best and most flourishing Times of it and the Empire when Christian gave Laws Directions and Limitations as to the Collectae and Publick Assemblies in Ordinations Excommunications Absolutions c. for the more orderly administration of the Civil Affairs is already shew'd in this discourse and yet the things themselves are immediately from Christ that power is not from the Prince which warrants and makes effectual the Institutions and Offices of each of them AND if it be replied that this seems § XV to come too near to what the design of this discourse is laid against or to be sure was the occasion of it If the Magistrate and the Law are to silence and limit in the exercise and profession of these higher Instances of Christianity what is this less than to submit my Religion to their pleasure To which I answer the case is not at all the same this is only adjusting of Duties in order to a due performance a suspension upon a higher reason and duty intervening and both which are equally Christian or at the most a but concealing some truths upon present reasons and motives and which every one allows may be done Should the Prince command me not to say my Prayers at all as he did Daniel to preach or speak no more in Christ's Name as the Sanedrim did the Apostles that Ordinations and Censures be no more Church both Officers and Offices cease for ever or which is the case in Mr. Dean's Sermon should a false Religion be commanded in their rooms and be made the Religion of the Nation this is the case in which I am to speak before Kings and not be ashamed when my life is in my hand as 't is the expression of holy David with a great many more to that purpose in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm then I am not only to exercise what is my duty as a private Christian but to make what open Proselytes I can to that Religion which I am sure is in the right to draw off all I can from that which is false and imposed by the Magistrate and Law This is that confession with the Mouth call'd for all along in the sacred Epistles Confession at Matyrdome that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Clemens Strom. l. 4. p. 503. an eminent way to gain Mercy for our sins and 't is call'd by the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § XI perfection as he there tells us pag. 480. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the highest act of Charity the greatest demonstration of love when expressed to Souls in the profession of a right and rescuing from a false Religion at so great a distance was it set from gross hypocrisie and which Mr. Dean demonstrates to be such in the next Paragraph of the Sermon I 'le go on so far with his Worship and Consent that where neither Miracles to justifie the extraordinary Commission as had the Apostles nor the providence of God makes way by the permission of the Magistrate the Proselytes are very like to be few and since the former is ceased altogether and never to be more expected the countenance and protection of the latter is what usual course and common Prudence directs to wait for upon any attempt for converting and reducing of Nations from a false Worship I find the Proposal and the Complaint recited and made both at once by our learned Doctor Hammond Serm. 10. in Joh. 7.48 Vol. 2. I 'le here use his own Words If we should plant Christianity in Turkey we must first invade and conquer them and then convince them of their Follies which about an hundred years ago Cleonard proposed to most Courts in Christendom and to that end himself studied Arabick that Princes would join their strength and Scholars their brains and all surprize them in their own Land and Language at once besiege the Turk and his Alcoran put him to the Sword and his Religion to the touch-stone first command him to Christianity with an high hand and then to shew him the reasonableness of the Command Thus also we may complain but not wonder that the reformation gets ground so slow in Christendom because the Forces and potent Abetters of Papacy secure them from being led captive to Christ as long as the Pope is invested so fast in his Chair and as long as the Rulers take part with him there shall be no doubt of the truth of their Religion unless it please God to back Arguments with steel and to raise up Kings and Emperors to be our Champions we may question but never confute his Supremacy Let us come with all the power and rhetorick of Paul and Barnabas all the demonstrations and reasons of the Spirit and yet as long as they have such Topicks against us as the autority of the Rulers and Pharisees we may dispute out our hearts and preach out our Lungs
rather to be hazarded then to comply with and imbody into us any thing that is sinful even to gain a Protection for other instances of Virtue and Duty yet nothing but that which strikes at Religion it self will ingage or be a Warrant to proceed in this extreme utmost way upon him whose alone is the outward Coercive Power and who can weild his Sword at pleasure deny the Church that support countenance and assistance which our Saviour designed Religion should outwardly flourish under be in some respects propagated and preserved by become more notoriously visibâ—e and conspicuous to all Nations And what is said of Excommunication and other Church censures is to be said of Absolution which though a Power enstated alone in the Priesthood by Christ yet is not to be executed in an Arbitrary way and that not only as to the Laws of Christ but the Laws of Kingdoms also in many cases especially where Christian I 'le end this Section and Head of Discourse in the words of our Learned Dr. Hammond in his Book of the Power of the Keys Cap. 1. Sect. 1. The Power of binding and loosing is only an Engine of Christ's invention to make a Battery or impression upon the obdurate Sinner to win him to himself to bless not triumph over him it invades no part of the Civil Judicature nor looses the bonds thereof by these Spiritual Pretences but leaves the Government of the World just in the posture it was before Christ's coming or as it would be supposed to be if he had never left any Keys in his Church § XLV THAT the Church as a Body and Corporation of it self judiciarily determines in Council and lays obligations to Obedience infringes and inrodes no more than her other acts now mentioned if it be declarative of matter of Faith or Duty indispensably as received originally from Christ by Church conveyance the Determination is no more than the first Teaching and Promulgation of it was if it be constitutive of Laws and Canons for setling and enjoyning of Discipline the matter in it self indifferent but limited for present use and service and of which and to which purpose all Humane Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil are made and tend these Church Canons are as in the make and obligation so in the Practice and execution to retain that just regard to known Duties especially those of Allegiance that such the other Church acts and censures do and as already shewed 'T is true the great transcendent regard and reverence the Empire when Christian has had for the institution as from our Saviour for Religion it self in whose defence the Canons were made and for the high Dignity and Office of the Bishops his Commissioners that it still has made antecedent Canons the Rule of all Laws enacted if relating to or but bordering upon affairs Ecclesiastical as instances are already produced quas leges nostrae sequi non dedignantur Novel 83. and to command contra venerabilem Ecclesiam against the venerable Church Nullius est nisi Tyrannidis cujus actus omnes rescinduntur is reputed as the Act of a Tyrant and such Acts are null'd Cod. Justin l. 1. Tit. 2.16 nay farther Canones ubi agitur de re Ecclesiastica jure civili sunt preferendi and if the Canon and Civil Laws those of the Church and the State have happened to be different and in competition in any Ecclesiastical case the Canons have took place and obliged as in that Code and Title Sect. 6. and their general care and industry was mostly for these as the Determinations more immediately for the good of their Souls Novel 137. but this was from the greater Indulgence and Grace of the Christian Emperors and in particular cases and it cannot be supposed that the Church should designedly set up her Bishops and Laws above or in opposition to that Government which the frame of their Religion includes in Subordination to and by Protection of which it was to be propagated and preserv'd but of this we shall have occasion anon to consider farther And if it be reply'd that a Council cannot be convened or meet at all without the Prince's Grant at least his Letters of leave and how then can they have any Autority independent or should they otherwise assemble they are reputed Seditious Disturbers of the Peace and of Majesty and punishable as is the Law imperial 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 1. l. 3. To this I answer neither can they nor ought they nor did ever any Christian Council otherwise unite in their Persons then by the Grant and Letters Imperial and that censure was just if any did otherwise attempt it But then it is farther to be consider'd that the form essence and force of a Council that which gives a right for Sanctions and invests with Autority Ecclesiastical is not their local personal meeting as in one place there convocated and sitting but a joynt-enquiry and resolution as to the Truth 's debated and concurrency as one man in the Laws enacted upon the true Motives and Reasons of Faith and the Gospel as by Tradition transmitted or in Discipline for Government and Peace useful and which may be done by the Bishops and Clergy dissite and in diverse Countries by their Letters Missive and Communicatory those Literae signatae or systaticae or circular Epistles to one another and which has been done under diverse Circumstances and when the state of the Church was so low and its Capacities not enabling her to do it otherwise as is plain from Church Story and Practice and that this was the course of the Church's 't is more than probable when that debate arose about the keeping of Easter an account of whose Epistles we have appearing to this purpose given us by Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 23. AND lastly that this Church Power is derived § XLVI only from the Church and her Bishops to others in the Succession exclusive to Kings and the Clergy are not in this sense his Ministers he ordains and substitutes them not carries nothing of opposition in the action it self nor any thing in the design than what the Incorporation and Offices themselves imply and which has been hitherto rendred altogether innocent The Leviathan scruples not to say That they all derive their Offices and Power only from the Prince and are but his Ministers in the same manner as Magistrates in Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders in Armies are and his account why they must be so is because the Government could not be secure upon other terms If the Soveraignity in the Pastor over himself and his People be allow'd of it deprives the Magistrate of the Civil Power and his Peoples dependency would be on such their Doctors both in respect of the opinion they have of their Duty to them and the fear they have of Punishment in another World Part 3. Cap. 42. but this mistake of his has been enough discovered all along in this Treatise and will be more
Westminster both Usurpers the one of the Regal the other of the Episcopal Power whom they had Assaulted both with Sword and Pen to their then present Abolition and whom he slatters with the specious Titles of Supporters both of Church and State Vobis viri maximi in quos Ecclesia Respublica inclinatè recumbum Britannorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Choice Men and Supreme in our Land Quibus incoâ—â—um est generoso pectus honesto and for Episcopacy it self besides the whole Design of the Book which is laid against it he places it for time and quality with those first Heresies which infested the Church those Antichrists which were then in the World both in St. Paul's Epistles and in St. John's and in the Revelations with those Hereticks that deny the Monarchy of God and the Incarnation of Christ Jesus and that it was by Diotrephes devolv'd to after-ages by degenerate Men who regarded not the institution from God Per degeneres plurimos divinaeque originis immemores propagatum by such only as consult Ambition to whom the Apostolical Humility enjoyn'd by our Saviour was tedious and nauseous men affecting Tyranny and Usurpation against St. Peter's monition 1 Pet. 5.2 3. Obtaedium Apostolicae humilitatis quam praecepit affectantes Tyrannidem c. He approves the Scotish Covenant and their bringing it into England fortissimum Communis concordiae pacisque vestrae vinculum as the most effectual way for Peace and Concord of which Covenant one part of its second Article is this To endeavour the Extirpation of Prelacy i. e. Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. and Exhorts them by their Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince to quit and vindicate themselves of that Aspersion of Rebels they lye under and through them may be cast upon all Protestants Christianâ modestiâ pacificisque consiliis perpetuisque fidelis vestrae in regiam Majestatem observantiae exemplis asperas voces refellite that the World convinc'd by Experience may confess that it is neither true now nor ever shall be necessary No Bishop no King and that the one may be admitted and supported without the other Fateaturque continuis experimentis evictus orbis nec verum nunc nec necessarium esse vel fuisse unquam qui aegrè Episcopos ferunt aegriùs reges serre qui nullos admittunt nec regiam potestatem ex animo admittere and assures them of the concurrency of the Protestant Churches on their side the Sea who have often wish'd to see their own Simplicity in Government to be restored and setled among them quam Disciplinam à cismarinis Protestantibus praeoptatam c. and all which is to be seen and more by whoso pleases to read over but his Preface to the Apology Claudius Salmasius goes the same way or worse if worse can be he argues indeed for the Episcopacy in England because continued with the Reformation and what prevented many Pestiferous Sects which after the Seclusion of Bishops arose Quod quamdiu fuerat Episcopatus mille pestiferae Sectae Haereses in Anglia pullularunt Praefat. ad Defens Regiam and aggravates it against the Independents whom he supposes to have Murdered the King and removed the Bishops without his Assent Defens pag. 358. it seems it was concluded in France what Party brought the King to Death nor did they then believe the Bishops to be the Authors of all the Heresies in the Christian World Though Mr. Baxter tells us It is not agreed here in London and that all Heresies sprang thence in that his black Book call'd Church History abbreviated then which a Lucian has not been more rude in his language and scurrilous Imputations to our common Christianity and all Parties of but common apprehension that read that his Book or hear of it must agree that he is indeed a Hater as he in the Title-Page terms himself but not of false History but of the truth of Christian Religion to the baffling of which representing it effectually to the Age inclined enough to believe it as a Cheat and Imposture what more could have been done then by exposing in that odious way so many Successions of the Bishops and acknowledged Governors in the Church the most eminent Professors there and the great part of them to the Stake and with their Blood by such Follies and Impertinencies many times but oftner by heavier guilts reported of them the Author's Impudency and his Falsities as to Matter of Fact has already been given to the World by an Ingenious Hand and nothing but a decay of Discipline and Government in the Church can hinder that a farther censure does not follow his Person be not equally pursued and he publickly Excommunicated the Body of Christians Perhaps James Naylor did not more deserve to have his Tongue bored through But to return to our Friend Walo who in Comparison to Mr. Baxter is so indeed but his Spleen was now but low it swells and grows bigger at other times and our Bishops are then its object he speaks out in other places he says so long as Episcopacy remains which is the foundation and root of Papacy little or nothing is done to cut off the Head is not enough Quamdiu remanebat Episcopatus qui tanquam basis est ac radix Papatûs nihil am parum proficeret qui solum caput resecaret Appâ—rat ad lib. de Primatu pag. 169 70. And he goes to the same purpose Pag. 197. that those Common-wealths or Kingdoms which have receiv'd the Reformation Sworn against the Roman both Court and Church and where there is now no Papacy for what reason they can desire to retain Episcopacy he does not see the Reformation seems not whole and full which is in that part defective and that Episcopacy is become a degree above a Presbyter he imputes to the corrupt Manners to Ambition and desire of Honor and to other evil Arts and depraved Minds of Men Walo Messal de Episcop Presbyt cont Petavium Dissert cap. 6. and suitably did he lay his design and he did not think he could write to the purpose against the Primacy of the Pope without that his tedious and nauseous Apparatus or Preface levelled against the Government of the Church by Bishops and indeed against Church-Government in general so unhappy were still those Men in their Plots against Rome as there will be occasion further to consider in this Discourse and which make up that bulky Volume the World is enrich'd withall and to all which Andrew Rivet has subscrib'd applauding Salmasius in this particular and according with him and thinks it Crime enough in Grotius that he differs from him Grotianae Discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 1. 16. John Dailee his rage is nothing less but rather more this way and so is his industry too that eminent Martyr Ignatius is discarded and turn'd out of the Catalogue of Church-Writers for Asserting in so plain and positive words the Divine perpetual Right of Episcopacy and
to be of the Church but the Government it self is laid upon another upon the Shoulders of this Child and Son born and given unto us Isa 9.6 and which they are to nourish to protect and preserve with their Temporal Government and Scepters a Generative Procreative Power is not in them This Power given by the Father to the Son was in part and some instances of it finish'd in his own Person upon Earth in part and other instances he is now managing in Heaven what was to remain here among us after his Ascension was to be given to whomsoever the Son pleased this he deputed and committed to his Apostles some of which Power was to dye with their Persons was extraordinary and temporary only or at the most survived in some few only after them and during a small time what was designed and universally useful for all Mankind and for the lasting perpetual managing us in order to Heaven to continue to the end of the World and in the execution and discharge of which our Saviour has promised to be with us always unto the end of the World this was all transferred and devolved by the Apostles on their Successors in the Evangelical Priesthood the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons of the Church it was not demandated to Kings and Secular Powers which then and for some Hundred years after only Persecuted all that followed after that way and call'd upon that Name before whom they appeared only as Dlinquents if they came before them it was for a Mittimus to the Goal or as men appointed to be slain not for Commissions and Substitutions to Preach the Gospel and this is the state of the World at this day thus stand the Powers in it divided betwixt the King and the Priest each moving in his proper Sphere by virtue of his special particular Grant from Heaven and managing the two great Affairs of Heaven and Earth the Body and Soul both of so high a concern unto us THAT both these Powers have been residing § II at once in one and the same Subject and Person 't is most certain and so it may be again by a conflux of Providences or the immediate pleasure of him whose the Powers originally are and can give to the Sons of men as he pleases nothing but dissonant much more repugnant in it the King has been a Priest too not only with Power and Autority in order to Holy Things and Persons a due Behaviour and Discharge in and of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks Lib. 3. Polit. cap. 10 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them good Citizens and obedient to Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to engage their Souls to Virtue by Rewards and Penalties cap. 13. but the Prince has had that Power which is purely and strictly Hieratical and of the Priestly Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle cap. 10. abovementioned Rex Anuis Rex idem Phoebique Sacerdos and that such as of the Priestly Order have had also the Secular Power conjoyned and annexed to it it is most certain in all manner of History for Evidence of which I 'le only refer such as can enquire to Mr. Selden's First Book De Synedriis cap. 15. Hugo Grotius is of Opinion that the Priesthood was seldom found without some Secular Power added unto it in his Treatise De Sum. Potest Imper. in Sacris Cap. 9. Sect. 4. 30. And the ancient Canons of the Church imply that it was much in Use for the Clergy to be engaged in the Affairs of the World as appears by their several Cautions and Commands against it the Circumstances of the then present Church and particular Reasons moving them to it So Can. Apost 81.84 Can. 11. Concil 1 2. Constantinop Can. 16.18 Concil Carthag The King and the Priest as they are of the same Original so are both designed for the same great End and Purpose for the Care and Promotion Protection and Preservation of the Honor of God his Worship and Service in the ways of Virtue and Holiness and Obedience to his Institutions for the benefit of Mankind both here and hereafter and suitably have their names promiscuously and in common in Ecclesiastical Writers Thus Constantine many times calls himself a Bishop and by other Greek Writers is he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to an Apostle Many of these are to be seen in Potrus de Marca de Concord Sacerd. Imperii l. 2. c. 10. Sect. 6 7. Valentinian and Marcian the Emperors are styled Inclyti Apostoli famous Apostles and Constantine's Animus Sacerdotalis is mention'd and applauded in a Publick Council Vid. Observat Notas in Paenitentiale Theodori Cant. Archiep. pag. 138. with several Compellations of the like Nature And which Considerations or rather undue Consideration of these gives some little gloss upon their Error who fix the full Power of the Priesthood in the Prince renders it somewhat more plausible than that of theirs who place it in the People but the Truth is no more in reality on the one side than on the other These are given partly by way of Complement Magnificent Title or higher Eulogies not unusual to the Eminencies of such Personages as they honored and protected Religion to transfer upon them the Honors that go along with it of what value in themselves it matters not so be the best it hath Or where it has nearer answer'd the thing it self Constantine himself has shew'd in what Nature and Instances in the Fourth Book of his Life wrote by Eusebius cap. 24. Vos speaking to the Bishops in iis quae intra Ecclesiam Episcopi estis Ego vero in iis quae extra geruntur And again Ibid. the Historian also speaks to the same purpose Episcopus quasi Episcoporum erat Constantinus Curam habuit ut sint pii both which amount but to thus much That Constantine's Episcopacy only consisted in his outward care of the Church and promotion of the Duties that belong unto her it reacheth not to the inward Power the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Function or Office it self AND here now is the great Enquiry and § III this the main Case in Debate amongst us in this unhappy Age of ours Whether the Kingly and Priestly Offices and Charges immediately in their Natures and Constitutions imply and include each other Not that they agree in one design or more in some Externals but whether where the one is there the other as a necessary consequence is at the same time and by the same appointment existing and to which I am to answer in the Negative as to be a Priest has never inferr'd a Secular Power so nor to be a Prince the Spiritual For the full cleering of this point it will be necessary first to consider the Nature of Gifts Duties Offices and Power in general how far they include and infer one another how far each one in it self is attainable and from
for it Christianus nulli Inimicus praesertim Imperatori as Tertullian a Christian is an Enemy to no Man especially the Emperor whom he acknowledges as a Man immediately under God that receives his Power only from God nor hath any Man a Power above and beyond him to Obey and Serve him is his Conscience his Religion and he expects his Heaven his eternal Salvation by it and indeed Christianity is the great truly rational permanent Support of Kingdoms and Bodies Politick What favour Constantine shew'd the Christians was his real particular Interest and perhaps he could not have retain'd his Empire had not the Christian Bishops been of his side without their Aid and Assistance and as by them his Crown might be fixed the more firm and secure on his Head who yet gave him not his Original Right unto it for that was his upon other terms than his Christianity he prosessed nor did they add one cubit to his Power in this sense Dominion is not founded in Grace so did they receive from him his outward aid and assistance for the more due and advantageous execution of that Power they had but not from him they had exercised before he was Emperor though perhaps with less success by a Donation antecedent to his by a Right from Christ Jesus thus the Empire became their Nursing-Father to support and encourage but did not could not give their Power as Church-men unto them As God gave to the Empire the Government of the World so he gave to the Bishops the Government of the Church and which they were to use for the Empires advantage but might not use it against him And all this Constantine well knew and was highly sensible of as were his Succession that was Christian still acknowledging Church-Power from another hand nor was it in the arm of Flesh by favour or frowns as to its Power purely from above to extinguish or enlarge it I 'le conclude this Section and Chapter with that of St. Austin Ep. 165. Quia Constantinus 〈◊〉 ausâ—… est de causa Episcopi judicare eam discutiendam finiendam Episcopis delegavit And again Ibid. Imperatores non si in errore essent quod absit pro errore suo contra veritatem leges darent per quas justi probarentur coronarentur non faciendo quod illis juberent quia Deus prohiberet Religion as such falls not under the Determination of the Prince and if he gives Laws against Truth the Just will be both Tried and Crown'd in disobeying him Chap. 3. CHAP. III. The Contents Church-Power is a Specifick constituted by Christ in order to a Succession the erecting a new and lasting Government upon Earth a Community of divers Orders Offices Acts Stations every ways peculiar the Body of Christ Sect. 1. A Government to Rule and defend it self and Independent Sect. 2. The main Objection That it is against the Civil Power Common Sense and Experience confutes it The more a Christian the better Subject The Christians supported Constantine's Crown Sect. 3 4. They did not want Power to do otherwise nor consequently Integrity as is objected Sect. 5. To say they were Fools is more plausible to the Age but then the Empire must be so too who were equally ignorant of these destructive Consequences to their Government Sect. 6. The reason of the present Misunderstandings and that we do not see as the Ancients did because no Government own'd but that which is Temporal and outwardly Coercive Sect. 7. So 't was stated by an Anonymous Author 1641. All Power and Punishment was outward and bodily among the Jews and so it must be among Christians Sect. 8. So Mr. Selden allowing no Punishments but what are outwardly Coercive because none other as not under so nor before the Law Sect. 9. Erastus went the same way before him Sect. 10. And Salmasius and says the Apostles had no Power because without Whips and Axes Concludes against all Church-Power upon these terms and that he may surely take it from Bishops So does a French Reformer usually lose his Senses when running his Forehead against our Prelacy Sect. 11. Grotius is in this Error but oft corrects himself His Inconstancy is to be lamented He imputes it to his Education He fights with the very same Weapon against Church-Power in general the Jesuite does against the Supremacy in the Church of England Sect. 12. IT returns then with more force and strength what was laid down in the § I beginning of the foregoing Chapter That Church-Power is a Specifick a Constitution of its own originally from Heaven deliver'd by Christ to his select Apostles Men chosen from all other fill'd with the Holy Ghost for the Service of Mankind in the propagating Christianity to speak before Kings every where and in all Circumstances to declare and publish it a Power limited to their Persons to be retain'd within themselves and as no Heads but their own receiv'd it so no Hands but their own could devolve and conveigh it to others only as their own Prudence saw fit was it derived and in what measures and degrees they pleased as the World came into the Church Believers were made the Harvest grew great and there needed more Labourers to be sent forth into it a Power I say received for the use of others the advantage of Mankind in the Successions of it not for one single Purpose and Action as were several Commissions and Delegations both before and under the Law and one at the entrance of the Gospel viz. That given to St. John Baptist but to erect a new and standing Government and this to continue till the World is no more and then only is the Kingdom to be delivered up to the Father whose is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen And St. Clemens Romanus in his Epistle to the Romans and which place we had occasion to use before tells us That the Apostles receiving Commands and imbued with a full certitude by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and confirmed by the Word of God with all fulness of the Holy Ghost they went out declaring the coming of the Kingdom of God and Preaching through the Regions and Cities they constituted Bishops and Deacons in order to those that should believe knowing by our Lord Jesus Christ that Contentions would arise by reason of the Episcopacy or Power of the Ministry and therefore having a perfect fore-knowledge as they constituted the fore-mentioned Bishops so they afterwards gave them Rules for Ordinations that others Approved Men might succeed in the Places of such as should die and execute such their Offices the Consult and Design was laid for future Ages also A Power and Autority framing and fashioning Believers into a Body not an accidental casual concurrency of People only but a Community well and duly associated every part proportionably fitted and put together increasing with the increase of God in which all things are to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
under it Thus he Mr. Selden who was Contemporary with § IX this worthy wight and Man of Sense and no question but his Confident engaged and succeeded him in the very same Cause and by the very same Motives and Arguments only he appear'd not in the World till Nine years after and so had the advantage of much time and was imboldned by the horrid Anarchy and dismal Confusion of it and by an incessant Industry of his own improv'd the Argument to a greater height of irreligion and audaciousness and contemptuously treads upon whatever is like a Church Power in any instance of it which his Friend was a little shy of who allows in Church-men a Power for Non-communion or Abstention in some Cases which though he 'l by no means call it Excommunication and acknowledges that Justinian did only command that the Bishop proceed against the Faulty by Excommunication Suspension Deprivation but Mr. Selden says with the greatest assurance and impudence it was his own judicial act with that truth we have already considered but his Argument and course of proceeding is all along the same and upon the supposition founded in the constitution and practice of the Jewish Church and which he proves by a vast reading and intolerable expence of Pains to have used only outward Bodily Penal Coercive Punishments whether before or after giving the Law in Sinai so he tells us it was with Adam and Cain the one upon his fall the other upon his murder both banished their Countries for it the Sword is the punishment for Murder Gen. 9.3 And they were to be stoned that came near the Mount at the giving the Law Exod. 19. And the punishment was only secular upon the violation of the Seven Precepts given to the Sons of Noah the uncircumcised was to be punished though not forinsecally yet by Gods own immediate hand and a particular judgment of the same nature was the Curse upon Meroz the punishment of Kore Dathan and Abiram nor do the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema c. as used by the Prophets according to the Septuagint or other Greek Translations signifie any thing else nor are there used for Excommunication or afterwards by the Apostles as in St. Paul's delivering up the incestuous to Sathan c. and the Jews took up that Excommunication which was of later years exercised among them by special Compact with one another in the time of Captivity and for the present Exigence when the Temporal Power was taken out of their hands and which was no ways appropriated to the Priest or any other Order of Men either now under their Captivity or for the infliction of those other Punishments before or after the Law and what Excommunications were practised in the Apostles times and the first Century where by the way his great Master Erastus will allow of none in his Hundred Theses answered by Theodore Beza in his Tractatus Pius Moderatus de verâ Excommunicatione Christiano Magisterio was first Judaick in imitation of the Jews for there was none of the Christians for many years after our Saviour's Ascension which were not either Jews originally or Greek Proselytes and were accounted as Jews in common repute and members of their Synagogue and so used their Customs and Rights as before and of which this of Excommunication was one and so living among the Jews and call'd by the same Name when Caesar indulged the Jews and they had the liberty of their own Religion the Christians enjoy'd the Priviledges together with them and thus their Excommunication became Caesarean their Church Acts derived a Publick Autority from the Empire having none before but by private Covenant and by this Autority they held Presbyteries had Judicatures relating purely to their Religion and retained a Power to Punish under Death as did the Jews and if not thwarting the Laws Imperial and which grant of Favour though abated by succeeding Emperors they notwithstanding retained a Body and Union among themselves upon their own terms for Confederation till the days of Constantine and the Empire became Christian and then the Church being taken in to the State the Jurisdiction wholly became his as naturally annexed to the Crown and there to reside till all Autority and Power ceaseth This is the chief of Mr. Selden's Plot for the overthrowing the Power of Christ's Kingdom in the Polity Laws and Rights of it Lib. 1. De Syned cap. 3. 4 5 6 7 8. 11. and which has with much more advantage been very lately represented to the Age than I am able to do by a great and Learned Hand Dr. Parker Arch-deacon of Canterbury Nor needs there any thing more to be added for the satisfying the World of the vainer Attempts and undue Consequents there raised only the general Design of this Discourse engages that it be not wholly passed by and which otherwise could not be answer'd THOMAS Erastus Mr. Selden's great and § X admired Master though not licking and shaping his Beastly Abortive brood so throughly Missing in many things what the other has Hit upon yet in his forementioned Hundred Theses he urges much the same way as that because the Sword was the Punishment among the Jews so all Offenders of what Nature soever are by the Coercion alone of the Magistrate to be Corrected and the Christian Church is to go no farther than theirs did and the Civil Magistrate has all the Care of Religion that it is very difficult to conceive how there can be two Heads in one Body both to have right to Punish and Exercise Domination over the same Subjects still supposing no Power to have or that can have existency but that of outward Coercion And which Plea however it might be forced from him and seem necessary and makes a plausible shew of Truth in regard of Beza's Lay-Elders and the Consistorian Government of Geneva and in whose irregular Power he instances laying Penal Mulcts and outward Restraints as do the Civil Magistrates and the Consideration of which ran him upon this his as groundless Extreme Yet as to the Constitution and Practice of the truly Catholick Christian Church it has no Pretence or likelihood at all as will hereafter be made to appear CLAVDIVS Salmasius though he was § XI a Man very much if not altogether of Beza's Complexion yet is he not so ingenuous and true to their common Cause as was Beza in his Writings against Erastus for in his Apparatus to his Book De Primatu Papae a long rambling indigested tedious Discourse purposely made against the Divine Right of Bishops he there to pursue home his Design takes away all Church-Government whatsoever at the same rate of arguing And if he concludes any thing at all and which is not easily seen it is this That a Bishop is so far from having a distinct Power above a Presbyter solitary and apart from him that he has neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general no
Church of Christ all Christian Bishops by whomsoever Consecrated and his Arm is to rule them whosesoever's Hands were laid upon them and this solitary and by himself nor is any one a sharer with or out of subjection to him To which I shall reply that though the distinction in it self will with very much difficulty be admitted of and the ordaining and governing Parts will be very rarely found asunder Nor do I believe there can be an instance given of but one Bishop who at his Consecration had the Power of governing left out of the Office in which that other of Ordination together with this were not design'd at once and transmitted though the Objects have many times been changed either enlarged or limited as they have been both suspended altogether yet allowing the distinction it may possibly do Estius this present Kindness lookt upon as a Disputant and oppressed with an Argument giving him the opportunity of something like an Answer and with some shew he may escape that severity of words and blacker censure he there acknowledges to be passed by St. Gregory in several Occasional Epistles against whomsoever it is shall style himself Universal Bishop or Bishop of all Bishops That the very Name is Prophane Proud Sacrilegious Diabolical a Name of Blasphemy and the forerunner of Antichrist and all this Estius there tells us was occasion'd from this Holy Father by reason of the Patriarch of Constantinople's Ambition in that Nature declaring that as the Emperor did alone hold the Empire and all Inferior Governors were sent by him and held of him the Head and not to do it was Usurpation and Treason so did he alone hold the Episcopacy and all Holy Orders were to descend and flow from him and to receive them and not from him was to climb up the wrong way and by intrusion come in But then what more right he has on his side or better Autority than Bellarmine has on his or how he can prove a solitary peculiar Care and Government demandated to and in its special Constitution settled on St. Peter and by his Succession at Reme or which way soever else it was over the Universal Church or whole Gospel-Priesthood so as to constitute him and them its immutable perpetual Head to Govern though not to Ordain them and which was not in the rest of the Apostles Persons to be sure not in their Succession this does not readily appear the Scriptures are favourers of both alike and indeed give to neither any bottom at all Nor does any such thing appear in the best Antiquity or succeeding Matter of Fact in his behalf no ill Argument of ever a Divine Right were it on their side § XXV THE first instance we have from the Ancients of this Pretended Power is in Victor Bishop of Rome in the year One Hundred ninety four who threatned Excommunication against the Asiaticks because they complied not with him in the Observation of Easter The Succession of the Bishops of Rome is all along delivered down in Church-History from the beginning to this day each Bishop particularized under the Title of Romanae Vrbis Episcopus Antistes c. there 's no one note of Singularity affixed unto him and this is the first time we meet with any thing like a Superiority there practised and at the most he is but ranked with the other Metropolitans Now whether this was attempted by Victor purely out of Zeal for an Apostolical Custom and we have many examples of Eminent Bishops that have intermeddled without their own Districts or whether as supposing himself really invested with a Power for Inspection and Animadversion upon all other Christian Bishops certain it is this his Power was disown'd and rejected by an eminent Branch of the Church Catholick and as eminent Bishops as any She had the Autority and Practice of St. John is set up and Pleaded against that of St. Peter as what every way balances nor doth it any way submit unto it And Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France and none of the Quartodecimane but one who comply'd with Victor in the Observation of Easter yet asserts the Asiaticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Self-Autority nor is any Foreign Power to over-rule and controle them or the Peace of the Church to be broken on such occasions all which is to be seen in Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 23 24. and if we descend some time lower we shall not find any thing really more advantageous to him Constantine the Great Complements indeed Eusebius of Caesarea and tells him he is worthy of the Episcopale or Government of the whole Church De Vita Constant apud Euseb l. 9. c. 6. but that such an extent of Power was then in the Person of any one Bishop is no where said nor is there any probability to suppose it 'T is true that some Privileges have belong'd to the Bishop of Rome and which have been claimed as their due in good times Julius is very angry with the Clergy of Antioch that they did not call him to a Synod and urges it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law of the Church that whatsoever is done without the Bishop of Rome is to be void Sozom. Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 10. and in an Epistle of his to some whom he accuses of Contention and want of Charity not consulting the Peace of the Church in the cause of Athanasius he farther adds Are you ignorant that this is the Custom that we are first to be wrote to that what is just may hence be defined Inter. Athanas Opera Tom. 1. Ed. Paris Pag. 753. But then whatever this Privilege was that it did not arise from any Connatural Right to his See but Ecclesiastical Canon is most plain out of Socrates his Church History l. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and he may not have so much for what Vallesius in his Annotations there can produce for it Which is the alone Autority of Ferrandus that is Christian Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen an Historian that concerns himself as little with Christianity and Church Affairs as any one can be supposed to have done that attempted an History of the Times in which so much of the Church concerns its Power and Autority was Transacted as in the days of Constantius and Julian and whose times make up the best part of his Story The latter he studiously affects to represent to the World with what advantages he can both living and dying And for the Christian Religion he does not I am confident so much as name it Twenty times in all his Books and then accidentally and very slightly and the greatest advantage that he gives us is we have his Testimony that such a Sect call'd Christians was then in the World and for that particular passage quoted by Vallesius it makes if any thing against himself for he tells us That when Constantius the Emperor who is known to be Athanasius his great and mortal Enemy and mov'd every
〈◊〉 they obey their appointed Laws and by their exacter Lifes and stricter Conversations go beyond the Laws supererogate and are more perfect than their Rules require or Sanctions enjoyn them To which I 'le add that of Octavius to Cecilianus in Minutius Faelix De nostro numero carcer exaestuat Christianus ibi nullus est nisi aut reus suae Religionis aut Profugus your Prisons swarm the Walls will scarce contain them but there is no Christian unless Runawaies and Desertors of their Religion and when we assert the divine Right of Titles and that God himself assigned and separated such a Portion of the goods of the Earth for the maintenance of the Evangelical Priesthood also and which Sanction is to endure together with the Kingdom and to take away this is to rob God we do not then maintain them with any such Clause in the Charter or Conveyance warranting and enabling a forcible violent Entry as in the usual cases of Right and Property upon dispossession that Power St. Paul speaks of as to Eat and to Drink not to work with our hands but to live upon the Gospel and which we believe to descend with the Gospel is together with holy Orders invested in him is quite another thing and neither implies nor supposes Power like it it is bottomed only on the Grounds and Reasons of our Association nor has it any other motives but those which make us Christians and which did not at all depend on outward force Hence it was till the world came into the Church that the Priesthood was maintained by what every one offer'd upon the forementioned inducements and as he that denied this maintenance to him that served at the Altar was supposed still to deny withal his Faith and place in the Body of Christians and suitably is it with the greatest equity and proportion of things still the continued Practice of the Christian Courts to Excommunicate or cut off such an one from the Church Communion so neither could they which saw no reason why themselves should become Christians be supposed to be convinced by other reasons of the necessity of maintaining those who claimed no other right for the maintenance than their Preaching and Publishing such that Religion And therefore when upon with-holding of Tithes or the Churches Revenue we proceed farther than Excommunication to Personal Confinement or whatever outward restraint we have no Warrant or Power for this but from the Prince and the Laws of the Land alone enable us to do it 'T is true to have a Body or Government in it self distinct and apart from that which is Secular and with its own obligations for maintenance which way soever it arises but more especially when from so prevailing a motive and engagement as that which makes men Christians and entitles them to Eternity to have their own bank or stock to what ends or on what Persons soever erogated and expended it matters not whether on their Poor or on their Clergy to which add the Power to assemble for religious Worship upon the same Considerations is what may carry some appearance for Suspitions and Jealousies from the State and advantages are possible to be taken for undermining and overthrowing of it upon each occasion a Government indeed ought to be watchful and jealous in such Cases Premunires Eschetes and Confiscations are but due and equitable Provisions as by Law assigned that surely is a very unsafe Rule I find among other as bad laid down by Mr. Dean in his Sermon in a case not very unlike to this in hand He that acknowledges himself to derive all his Autority from God can pretend to none against him Unless wee 'l suppose there can be no Cheats nor Hypocrites double dealings in the World or that a power or trust duely received cannot be abused and estranged such as designedly Act against God pretend mostly to his Autority and often have it really in them And the truth is nothing but the peculiar constitution of this Christian Body or Incorporation could have then by any one been permitted as it was by some before Constantine or now be pleaded for whose humble innocent peaceable temper and complexion as above described was so undoubted and notorious in every instance experienced whose very essence was obedience whose design of making good Christians was to make them good Subjects the very Plot of the Gospel was in part this that Government be every ways preserved and entire administring new Motives and Arguments for it and that Princes if possible be more Sovereign and Glorious thereby whatever the Gospel Preaches and Commands is all along with a just regard and even subordination to it But then again since thus it is by the Blessings and Providence of God that Kings and Queens themselves are become Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church since our Church Doors are set wide open by their command our Revenues in our hands at the publick disposal of our Bishops to which is superadded their own Royal Bounty and Endowments together with more from the Piety of others their Subjects and eminent Christians among us and all by Law Established and Confirmed unto us as the rest of our Tenures still to plead the example of the Primitive Christians who were under no one of these Advantages to keep a part in distinct Assemblies to make Privy Purses and Fonds brings such as practise it under as great a suspicion of Hypocrisie and private ill-laid designs as those first Christians were notorious for their integrity when so doing and unsuspected not only that Government under which they live but all good Christians have ground enough for jealousie of their underhand indirect purposes to implead and seize on the one hand and to admonish and censure on the other as Delinquents no one consideration of State can countervail the Damage a toleration or connivance of such may bring unto it nothing can justifie the Practice it self but that alone which was pleaded by the Primitive Christians and was their real case that the Association and Assemblies of Christians for the Profession and Service of the Gospel must cease and fall without so doing that Christianity it self cannot otherwise stand and which our supposal overthrows as to any such Pleas now adays nor indeed dare any of our Dissenters openly say it § XLIII THAT the Clergy alone preside in their several Districts is no more prejudicial to Government in State than any of the other and which will appear from their Offices there performed as to be the Mouth in Prayer and thanksgiving and which is already consider'd to Catechize Teach and Instruct the People and admonish them in the ways to Heaven by Virtue and the instances of all sorts of Obedience as indispensably required and nothing but a thorow after-repentance and amendment upon failure will regain the Inheritance forfeited and Iâ—le take it to be only an ill Phrasing or inconsideration in the Expression when Preaching the Gospel in the due sense
Hereticks and of Men which in that Age taught and practised otherwise Simon Magus and his Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was receiv'd to be the Ring-leader of all Hereticks nor was there any thing so impure which he and his followers did not out-do them in as Eusebius tells us Hist Eccl. lib. 2. c. 14. and particularly he tells us lib. 4. c. 7. that these were the Tenents of Basilides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is indifferent to eat what is offer'd to Idols and deny the Faith in the time of Persecution and suitably I find this account of them in Irenaeus That whatsoever they outwardly committed against the rules of the Gospel was no Sin that they were not saved by their just actions that there was no such thing as Martyrdom and by the Redemption it was so ordered that the Judge had no advantage over them Ed. Fenard Paris l. 1. c. 20. l. 4. c. 64 c. that they were in their own opinion of themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Kingly Royal Priesthood and People in this sense because above all Laws and Rules of good living as St. Clemens Strom. 3. p. 438 439. Ed. Sylburg and no doubt but Mr. Hobs has been very well acquainted with these Men though he may pass for an Original with many of his Wel-wishers IT then appearing that Obedience is due § VIII from a Christian to both God and Man to his Church and his Prince and Religion and Loyalty are what he must Profess and Practice what is the case that the one may and must yield to the other in abate and be suspended for some time and in some distinct Acts and Offices and neither be violated be affronted or contemn'd in the true intent design and purpose of both I do now undertake to give Satisfaction and in order to which we are to range and limit the Laws of Religion under these three general Heads that the Duties in each Branch may the more particularly appear to whoso considers them 1. They are such as are Arbitrary in their Sanction and Enacting without any antecedent Necessity as to the particular instance and might have been these or other but are Humane only and Ecclesiastical constituted and limited by the Bishops and Governors of the Church in their Canons and Rules to that purpose and which together with the decency and aptness and usefulness of the things themselves renders obliging 2. They are such as are equally Arbitrary and without any foregoing Obligation as are the former the reason and force of which depends upon the choice and Autority of the Law-giver but here is the difference these Laws are Divine their Author and Institutor is Christ or such as were immediately inspir'd miraculously and in an extraordinary manner commissioned by him in order to this very thing Such are the Sacraments c. and which might have been other than they now are had he pleased 3. They are such as are no ways Arbitrary in the instance but follow necessarily and naturally upon the supposal and reception of Religion and this whether the Religion be that of Nature immediately flowing from our Natural Relations and dependency to and upon God and one another such are all the Acts of Natural Religion as Faith and Relyance upon God Prayer and Praises and Thanksgivings to him an Imitation and Copying out of his Purity and Holiness Love and Faith and Justice being tender-hearted and affectionate to one another with more of the like nature and to which all Mankind is oblig'd immutably and for ever not by any positive-superadded Law or Injunction but by the force and necessary results of his Creation connate and congenious with mans being and subsistency and the first Notions of Religion Man must fall from his Orb cease his own proper instincts and operations without them or whether the Religion be founded in the Offices of Christ to which he was since deputed of the Father upon Earth as a King Prophet and Priest in order to Man's Redemption and is in part now executed in Heaven to govern teach satisfie and intercede for him and which implies and includes in the first design and purpose whatever Duty and Service is Natural as above and its farther distinct Acts and Obligations are that this Saviour and Redeemer be believed in inwardly and from the Heart and suitably be obey'd and submitted to as is required of us by him and this to be publickly ownâ—d and confessed in each of his Offices even on the Cross it self when in the greatest hazards when call'd before Kings for his Name sake and this so immediately and indispensably every Christian's Duty that not only his Honour and Advantage is placed in it but he must cease to be a Christian without it and his Saviour will not upon others terms own him before his Father which is in Heaven the Religion cannot be where it is not we cannot suppose a Saviour to come in that Nature into the World so to dye and live for us upon other terms 't is all connate with the being and offices of a Redeemer I 'le consider them each in their order 1. THE Laws of Religion are Church § IX Laws Determinations of what are in themselves indifferent so order'd in the course of things as to be the Subject of Laws Ecclesiastical for the present Power to enact and repeal limit or enlarge suspend or execute as occasion and circumstances direct and urge and tend to the more decent and uniform apt and suitable Performance of what is in an higher order of Duty and farther degree of Necessity and to which there is no antecedent fixed Rule given nor can the most Lesbian rule of what Latitude or how comprehensive soever be so at once contrived and made upon the greatest foresight of the Law-giver as to be so fitted for and answer each Case that offers or Circumstance that may happen to fall in of it self and comply with the present accident and then if no present Power to oblige and over-rule only disorder and confusion in the Church will be the consequent Now these Laws though in themselves obliging and each Christian as a Member of that Society stands immediately engag'd unto them nor can any other Foreign Power repeal or null them as to their Sanction yet there may be there is to be a Cessation as to Practice under some Cases and Circumstances and the particular local Performance may be superseded at present or suspended for the future nor do the terms for Heaven consist in the forbearance or shut out of the Church-Society because of it little Accidents and Contingencies not to be foreseen nor prevented will oft obstruct and become lawful Impediments and much more where the Civil Power comes thwarting upon us and renders Church Laws impracticable a Secular inhibition upon Penalties and Inconveniencies which tend to the greater Damage of our common Christianity if incurr'd and to the silencing and abating from Duties of a higher concern
in the Objection the several Acts are these That no one Canon of the Church have the force of a Law but what is appointed by such Inspector of the Canons as he shall name and appoint That no Appeals be made to Rome upon the Penalty and Danger contained and limited in the Act of Provision and Premunire made in the 16th year of King Richard II. That all the Canons not repugnant to the Laws of the Realm or to the Damage of the King's Prerogative Royal are to be used and executed as they were before the making this Act. That no license is to be required from the See of Rome for the Consecrating and Investiture of Bishops That 't is in the King alone to nominate and present them That the Pope has no Power in Spiritual Causes to give Licenses Dispensations Faculties Grants c. all this is to be done at home by our own Bishops and in our own Synods and Councils cap. 21. and this Provision is particularly made Sect. 19. ibid. provided that this Act or any thing or things herein contained shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that your Grace your Nobles and Subjects intend by the same to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any thing concerning the very Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared in Holy Scripture and the Word of God necessary for yours and their Salvation but only to make an Ordinance by Policies necessary and convenient to repress Vice And for good conservation of this Realm in Peace Vnity and Tranquility from Ravine and Spoyl insuing much the old ancient Customes of this Realm in that behalf not minding to seek for any Relief Succor or Remedies for any worldly things and humane Laws in any case of necessity but within this Realm at the hands of your Highness your Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm which have and ought to have an Imperial Power and Autority in the same and not obliged in any worldly Causes to any Superior § VII IN the 26th year of his Reign cap. 1. when declared Supreme Head of the Church of England in Parliament as before recognized by the Clergy the Power he thereby is invested with is also declared viz. To visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all such Errors Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of spiritual Autority or Jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed repressed order'd redressed corrected restrained or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Virtue in Christ's Religion and for the conservation of Vnity Peace and Tranquility of this Realm cap. 14. he appoints the number of suffragan Bishops the Places of their residence and the Arch-Bishop is to consecrate them In the 28th year of his Reign cap. 10. The King may nominate such number of Bishops Sees for Bishops Cathedral Churches and endow them with such Possessions as he will In the 31th year cap. 14. he defends the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrament in but one kind enacts that all Hereticks be burnt and their Goods forfeited that no Priest may marry for Masses Auricular Confession c. in the 34 5. cap. 1. recourse must be had to the Catholick Apostolick Church for the decision of Controversies And therefore all Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of Tindal 's false Translation or comprising any matter of Christian Religion Articles of the Faith or Holy Scripture contrary to the Doctrine set forth sithence Anno Domini 1540. or to be set forth by the King shall be abolished no Printer or Book-seller shall utter any of the said Books no Persons shall play or interlude sing or rhime contrary to the said Doctrine no Person shall retain any English Books or Writings concerning Matter against the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Altar or for the maintenance of the Anabaptists or other Books abolished by the King's Proclamation There shall be no Annotations or Preambles in Bibles or new Testaments in English the Bible shall not be read in English in any Church no Women c. to read the New Testament in English nothing shall be taught contrary to the Kings Injunctions and if any spiritual Person preach teach or maintain any thing contrary to the King's Instructions or Determinations made or to be made and shall thereof be convict he shall for his first Offence recant for his second abjure and bear a fagot for the third he shall be adjudged an Heretick and be burnt and loose all his Goods and Chattels In the 37. year cap. 17. The full Power and Autority he hath by being Supreme Head of the Church of England is To correct punish and repress all manner of Heresies Errors Vices Sins Abuses Idolatries Hypocrises and Superstitions sprung and growing within the same and to exercise all other manner of Jurisdiction called Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Sect. 1. and Sect. 3. 'tis farther added To whom by Holy Scriptures all Authority and Power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of Causes Ecclesiastical and to correct Vice and Sin whatsoever and to all such Persons as his Majesty shall appoint thereunto And so far is all this from deriving to himself and exercising any thing of the Priest-hood that he is totidem verbis declared and reputed only a Lay-Man in the first Section of that Chapter nor do any one of these Instances here produced amount to any more than to the defending and guarding by Laws Truth and punishing and repressing Errors whether in Doctrines or in Manners at least such as are so reputed by the Church and State § VIII 'T IS true and easily observable that just upon the assuming to himself the Title of the supreme Head of the Church there was ground enough for suspition that the Church her self and all her Power was to be laid aside and whereas the reason and end of every particular Parliament before and of each of his till then is still said to be for the honor of God and holy Church and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm 't is abated and said only for the honor of God and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm the benefit of holy Church is in words at least left out and in the room of it is once added to the conservation of the true Doctrine of Christ's Religion As if the design was according to the Models now adayes framed and endeavour'd by private Persons to be set up That the care was to be only of Doctrines in which and in charity and love and abatements to one another the Essence of Church-Unity in general and each Christian with another consists But yet however this so hapned or upon what design either in himself or others 't is certain he abridged not the Church-Men of any one Instance of that Secular worldly Power as that of the supremacie derived unto them is called 25
more private her Majesty declares in Parliament this very same thing in her first year Cap. 1. Sect. 14. Provided also that the Oath expressed in the said Act made in the first year shall be taken and expounded in such Form as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queens Majesties Injunctions Published in the first year of her Majesties Reign that is to say To confess and acknowledge in her Majesty her Heirs and Successors none other Autority than that was challenged and lately used by the noble King Henry VIII and King Edward the VI. as in the said Admonition more plainly may appear § XI KING James who is next comes up to the same Point and in his Proclamation before the Articles of Religion thus declares That We are the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and if any difference arise about the external Polity concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever thereunto belonging the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal so to do We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions provided that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs of this Land That out of Our Princely Duty and Care the Churchmen may do the Work that is proper for them the Bishops and Clergy from time to time in Convocation have leave to do what is necessary to the settling the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church SO that I think no more need be said to § XII satisfie any reasonable Person that the King and the Church are two distinct Powers in the sense of the Statute Book or in Parliament Language nor do our Kings interpose in Religious Matters any otherways than to make Religion Law what the Church in Convocation determines and recommends as the Tradition of Faith as agreeing to the Holy Scriptures and the Collections of the Ancient Fathers and Holy Bishops therefrom and to the guarding it with Penalties to be inflicted on such as oppose and violate it just as the first Christian Emperors did Nor can our Religion since the Reformation be any otherwaies called a Parliament Religion then it might have been called so before where the same Secular Power is equally extended and executed as in case of the Lollards certain supposed Hereticks Subverting the Christian Faith the Law of God and the Church and Realm to the extirpating of them and taking care that they be punished by the Ordinaries II. Henry V. Cap. VIII and so before IV. Henry IV. Cap. XV. where the Laws are these None shall Preach without the License of the Diocesane of the same place None shall Preach or Write any Book contrary to the Catholick Faith or the Determination of the Holy Church None shall make any Conventicles of such Sects and wicked Doctrines nor shall favour such Preachers Every Ordinary may Convent before him and Imprison any Person suspected of Heresie An obstinate Heretick shall be burnt before the People And VI. Richard II. Cap. V. Commissions are directed to Sheriffs and others to apprehend such as be certified by the Prelates to be Preachers of Heresies their Fautors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in strong Prison until they justifie themselves according to the Laws of Holy Church And which is more remarkable in the II. and III. of this King Cap. VI. the choice or Pope Vrban is made Law and confirmed in Parliament and 't is by them Commanded that he be accepted and obey'd But does the Pope of Rome therefore return and owe his Autority to the Parliament of England how would they of Rome scorn such a thing if but insinuated and yet the Act of Parliament was in its design acceptable and advantageous to them they had the Civil Autority thereby to back and assist them as occasion and which might work that Submission to the present Election his Holinesse's Bulls could not do at least so readily and effectually That this Nation did always understand the outward Policy of the Church or Government of it in foro exteriori to depend upon the Prince a learned Gentleman late of the County of Kent Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet has given a very satisfactory account to them that will receive any in his Historical Vindication of the Church of England in Point of Schism c. Cap. 5. practised by the best of Kings before the Conquest Ina Canutus Edward the Confessor whose Praises are upon Record in the Romanists account of them and the last a Canonized Saint and to which they were often supplicated by the most Holy Bishops Upon the same Grounds are we to laugh at their Folly or Madness or rather Malice when they taunt us with a parliament-Parliament-Religion which has only the benefit of the Government for its Protection and our Kings do but that Duty is laid upon them by St. Paul take care that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty Christianity it self ever since Constantine's time may be as well reproach'd that it was Imperial or which is in effect the same Parliamental Since the Empire was Christian and defended it nay while it was Heathen for some particular Emperors upon some occasions have adhered to and protected it and that it had no other bottom than Reasons of State and a worldly Complyance and the lewd Pen of Baxter in his Prophaner History of Bishops c. Cap. 1. Sect. 37. gives the same account of the Church's increase under Constantine on the score of Temporal Immunities That a Murderer that was to be hang'd if a Christian was but to be kept from the Sacrament and do some confessing Penance c. for those Governors then assum'd the same Power in Religious Matters as have done our Kings since the Reformation as must appear to him that compares the two Codes Novels and Constitutions at large or if hee 'l not take that pains the Abridgment is made above with our Statute Book both which only take care that the Religion receiv'd and own'd in the Church and by Churchmen be protected and every Man in his station do his Duty in order to it if the common words in the Statutes carry the usual common sense and are to be apprehended by him that is not a common Lawyer and which the Author of these Papers does not pretend to be § XIII ONLY Mr. Selden inrodes us here again and comes quite cross too against us he tells the World other things That Excommunication in particular and then they may as well do all the rest is what belongs to the Parliament and which has actually Excommunicated and the Bishops are impower'd only by Parliament to proceed in the like censures and but by a Derivation from both Houses he says in plain terms that all Power and Jurisdiction usually call'd Church Power and Jurisdiction is originally and immediately from the Secular and this he thinks he has demonstrated from several Acts of Parliament to this purpose
Christian when he refused to give up his Church to the Arians denied the Emperor's power over truth and to determine in Doctrines The Emperor might force him out if he pleased neither might he resist the force his Weapons being only Prayers and Tears but the truth must not yield up to him and he give his consent or seem to do it by his own departure that the Arian Doctrine be there preached this was not then thought an Affront to the Magistrate and Law nor had St. Ambrose a Commission immediate from Heaven and abetted with Miracles or was he judged a hypocrite in so doing because he did not go and preach the Cause against Arius amongst the Goths and Vandals who subscribed to his Creed at their receiving Christianity though Mr. Dean of Canterbury tells us he that pleads Conscience and preaches it in England and does not go and preach it also in Turkey is guilty of gross hypocrisie pag. 203 213. We do not make them Judges and Deciders of Truth but Receivers and Establishers of it we say Princes be only Governors that is higher Powers ordain'd of God and bearing the Sword with lawful and publick Autority to command for truth to prohibit and with the Sword punish Errors and all other Ecclesiastical Disorders as well as Temporal within their Realms that as all their Subjects Bishops and others must obey them commanding what is good in Matters of Religion and endure them with patience when they take part with Error So they their Swords and Scopters be not subject to the Popes Tribunal neither hath he by the Law of God or by the Canons of the Church any Power or Pre-eminence to reverse their Doings nor depose their Persons and for this Cause we confess Princes within their Territories to be supreme that is not under the Popes jurisdiction neither to be commanded nor displaced at his pleasure pag. 215 216. There be two Parts of our Assertion The first avouching that Princes may command for Truth and abolish Error The next that Princes be Supreme i. e. not subject to the Popes judicial Process to be cited suspended deposed at his beck The Word Supreme ever was and is defended by us to make Princes free from the wrongful and usurped Jurisdiction which the Pope claimeth over them pag. 217. 219. Bishops have their Autority to preach and administer the Sacraments not from the Prince but Christ himself only the Prince giveth them publick liberty without let or disturbance to do what Christ hath commanded them he no more conferreth that Power and Function than he conferreth Life and Breath when he permitteth to live and breath when he does not destroy the life of his Subjects That Princes may prescribe what Faith they list what Service of God they please what form of Administring the Sacraments they think best is no part of our thoughts nor point of our Doctrine for external Power and Autority to compel and punish which is the Point we stand upon God hath preferr'd the Prince before the Priest pag. 223. touching the Regiment of their own Persons and Lives Princes owe the very same Reverence and Obedience to the Word and Sacraments that every private Man doth and if any Prince would be baptized or approach the Lord's Table with manifest shew of unbelief or irrepentance the Minister is bound freely to speak or rather to lay down his life at the Princes feet than to let the King of Kings to be provoked the Mysteries to be defiled his own Soul and the Princes endanger'd for lack of oft and earnest Admonition pag. 226. by Governors we do not mean Moderators Prescribers Directors Inventers or Authors of these things but Rulers or Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first appointed and ordained and with lawful force to disturb the Despisers of his lawful Will and Testament Now what inconvenience is this if we say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give freedom protection and assistance to the preaching of the Word ministring of the Sacraments and right using of the Keys and not fetch license from Rome pag. 236. Princes have no right to call and confirm Preachers but to receive such as be sent of God and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their Persons and if Princes refuse so to do God's Labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from Heaven not by disturbing Princes from their Thrones nor invading their Realms but by mildly submitting themselves to the Powers on Earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict A private liberty and exercise of their own Conscience and Religion was not then thought enough if the Religion of a Nation be false and though autority do abet it nor would the Autority in Queen Elizabeth's days have own'd that Person asserting and maintaining of it though not stubbornly irreligious but only wanting information in so notoriously a known case of practice pag. 238. In all spiritual Things and Causes Princes only bear the Sword i. e. have publick Autority to receive establish and defend all Points and Parts of Christian Doctrine and Discipline within their Realms and without their help tho the Faith and Canons of Christ's Church may be privately professed and observed of such as be willing yet they cannot be generally planted or settled in any Kingdom nor urged by publick Laws and external Punishments on such as refuse but by their consents that bear the Sword This is that we say refel it if you can pag. 252. to devise new Rites and Ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scripture and Canons commend and such as the Bishops and Pastors on the Place shall advise not infringing the Scripture or Canons and so for all other Ecclesiastical Things and Causes Princes be neither the Devisers nor Directors of them but the Confirmers and Establishers of that which is good and Displacers and Revengers of that which is Evil which power we say they have in all things be they Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal the Abuse of Excommunication in the Priest and contempt of it in the People Princes may punish excommunicate they may not for so much of the Keys are no part of their Charge pag. 256. The Prince is in Ecclesiastical Discipline to receive and stablish such Rules and Orders as the Scripture and Canons shall decide to be needful and healthful for the Church of God in their Kingdoms It is the Objection indeed and undue consequence the Church of Rome makes against us and the Oath of Supremacy and which is urged by Philander in this Dialogue betwixt him and Theophilus or betwixt the Christian and the Jesuite pag. 124 125. That we will have our Faith and Salvation to hang on the Princes Will and Laws that there can be imagined no nearer way to Religion than to believe what our temporal Lord and Master list in the
much as it is defended with his Epistles doth not seem to be any of the most probable cap. 6. Sect. 16. I have heard I confess of Doctor Owen's Preface to his Book of Perseverance and then to be sure he is with abundance of honor his second and to omit the other ill Adventures in that unlucky Book of particular Forms of Church-Government and which savour too much of Robert Parker's musty Vessel the Doctor is beyond measure unfortunate who having by a notorious Mistake urg'd the Autority of our whole Church representative in King Edward VI day 's to avouch his most false Assertion That Episcopacy is not necessary and immutable That the King's Majesty may appoint Bishops or not appoint them or appoint other Officers for the Government of the Church cap. 8. When he goes on further to prove this by the particular Autorities of our Doctors since as Whitgift Cozius Whitgift's Chancellor Lowe Hooker Bridges c. he is if possible more unlucky yet and his Mistake more shameful he not only transcribes every Quotation out of Parker's second Book De politeia Ecclesiastica cap. 39.42 and the very Book Page Chapter Section and Figures stand all in Parker's Margin as they are wrote in his Book and which is no great Matter but and which is the harder Fate he urges and appeals to them as his Autority that Episcopacy is mutable and of but humane assignation and which thing Parker all along there owns and declares was not these Doctors Opinions he upbraids and taunts them for asserting the contrary as contradicting themselves and putting Cheats upon others because they believe Bishops by divine Right and perpetually obliging 't is his Objection upon them that their own Principles will not bear them out in it This is the case these Doctors assert over and over again as they must do if agreeing with our Church and their own Subscriptions that the Scriptures are not a full and perfect Rule for Discipline and Government and there is still a Power in the Church to make Laws as occasion offers even to vary from Examples of Discipline and Government which has there been practised Parker thinks he has the advantage and concludes upon them that then the Government by Bishops is changeable also and which is sounded only on Scripture Example and who reply that though they can make Laws in some Cases and alter them as occasion yet in all they cannot though some Examples in Scripture do not yet others do necessarily oblige and the Examples they produce necessarily obliging are these Imposition of Hands in Ordinations that to impose Hands is appropriated to Bishops as the Apostles Successors The observation of the Lord's-Day The institution of Metropolitans c. and this very account Parker himself gives us as to these Instances and all which will readily appear to any one that reads over Parker l. 2. cap. 39 40 41 42. particularly cap. 42. Sect. 8. 9. and that consults farther than Titles and Margins And that this Power of making Canons and Laws for the Government and Discipline of the Church is one of the main Foundations of the Hierarchy and therefore Parker sets himself with might and main to oppose it This will be yielded to Doctor Stillingfleet 't was this alone by which the Courts Ecclesiastical kept them within some moderate Bounds nor did they break out into Rebellion and Schism till that Power was abated in the execution and which made the Bishops so odious to them but that Episcopacy it self is as Arbitrary in its original and occasionally only as are many Church Laws and in the Power of any order of Persons or any Person now upon Earth to alter or confirm it This Parker by arguing would willingly infer upon these Doctors from their own Principles but acknowledges they did not own contrary to their Principles this Dr. Stillingfleet every ways mistakes and reports out of Parker's ill gathered Conclusion and Objection as their both Principles Practice and so every ways defames them and I shall only propose it to the Doctors consideration whether some satisfaction may not ought not to be required of him for the injury he has done to so many Worthies of our Church hereby I can assure him it has been long expected and if it be not done suddenly he may believe the World ere it be much older will be particularly disinformed at present I shall return to those Doctors mentioned in the beginning of this Section and who are not yet freed from the Contumelies laid on them by Parker as these are from his though I do not question but I shall equally vindicate both § XXVI IT is an easie thing to make any Man 's Writing in a plausible shew to run thwart to and contradict themselves the occasion and Circumstances not considered and if particular Occurrencies be not abated for the worst of Heresies will thus shelter themselves under the best Autorities How largely and frequently do the Ancient Fathers of the Church speak of the Powers and excellence of Nature and Reason when disputing against the Gentiles when Apologizing for and recommending to them the Christian Religion Justin Martyr Apol. 2. goes so far as to say the wiser sort of the Greeks were Christians such as Socrates Heraclitus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because living up to the Rules of Reason but must not those be wide Arguings that say and some have said it the Fathers thought the use of Reason alone able to direct and assist us for Heaven when 't is the coming of Christ in the Flesh his additional super-natural Revelations of Grace and Truth those farther discoveries and assistances to Mankind is the occasion and general subject of their Writings and a belief of which is that they endeavor to bring the Greeks unto to make evident and rational to all Men when 't was only the particular application of an Argument they aim'd at and in the design is most true that every one so far as truly rational he is Christian Christianity is no new thing nor strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever pursues Justice and Honesty and other commendable Actions suited to the universal eternal Rules of Nature is acceptable to God by this both the Jews under the Law and the Patriarchs and holy Men from the first Creation through the knowledg of Christ were saved as Justin Martyr disputes cum Tryphone Judeo and Eusebius has a whole Chapter to this purpose Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 4. Every one that is read in that History knows that the great cry of the Arians against the Council of Nice was they were Innovators and a licentious Pen has of late managed and pursued it afresh Sandius hist Enucleata as using Words and bringing in Doctrines which were not either in Scripture or in the Writings and Determinations of the ancient Doctors of the Church when asserting and explaining the one substance or eternal Generation of the Son of God which though it