Rebellion or the like could be commenced for Conscience-sake but that Conscience indeed under the Conduct of the Divine Law would oblige men to fidelity and subjection to their Rulers not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward and hence it is that tho' there be a power inherent in the Fathers of this Church of ours and that deriv'd from Christ himself by which they may Anathematize Sinners and suspend unworthy persons from Church Communion or admit Converts to it yet their Government is made the more easie and successful by having the favour of our National Statutes the Common Laws of the Realm by which while they meddle only with such things as are under their Cognisance they are protected from the malice and Revenge of Atheistical and unreasonable men Had the Apostles been blest with the same Assistance it is no doubt but the Gospel might have made at least more seeming Converts to it the power of working Miracles the striking of guilty persons dead with a word as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira did indeed in some measure supply that want and yet even then much more in the time of the next Successors whosoever thought himself not honour'd according to his merit could make a defection from the Church and contrive and propagate Heresies to ruine that Church if possible which had rejected them of which Simon Magus was a remarkable instance or if any were excommunicated for the foulest Crimes they could but turn Heathens again and in revenge use their interest to raise a persecution against or to blaspheme Christianity and all this without any fear of being punish'd by the Civil Magistrate But tho' men had then those ways of evading punishment for the present that subtilty was no alleviation but an aggravation of their Sin and though upon a Church-Censure denounc'd against them they flew in the face of their Censurers in confidence of their impunity those first and Master-builders of the Church were not so frighted from their duties well knowing that tho' they escaped here they would find the dreadful weight of a justly inflicted Anathema hereafter But from a transgression of these Rules of Church Polity innumerable Sins take their original the precepts of Christianity are severe and mortifying and corrupt men are loath to be compell'd to take such pains for Heaven which makes them oppose and vilify such Sanctions with the utmost vigour and resolve frequently never to submit to them unless upon their own terms which gives ground for separation So the bruitish Gnosticks of old cavill'd at the imperfection and impunity of Church Discipline even in the Apostles time and under pretence of greater Holiness and knowledge receded from the faithful Believers and what seminaries of filth and impiety their Conventicles prov'd upon it Church History sufficiently informs us Upon the same reasons have all those Schisms in the several Ages of the Church been made when the severity of Discipline pinch'd them they have cried out for want of it and under that pretext have made a shift to live without any at all Nor can we in this present Age upon the strickest Enquiry find more loosness falshood selfishness or uncharitableness among any people whatsoever than among those who upon pretence of Conscience make fractures in the Church of God nor can that pretence extenuate the Sin of Separation unless one Sin be the best Argument to excuse another by or an Error in Opinion the best plea for an Error in Practice and the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church being both built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone it can appear strange to none if they respect one another and concur to the building up and confirming men in their most holy Faith nor can any wonder at our Churches censuring those persons who can no way prove any Divine Command evacuated by her Laws nor shew any thing derogatory in its Constitution from the Honour of God and that reverence due to his Sacred Word nor find any impediment in its tendries to that Spirit and Truth requir'd in the worship of God and yet with an empty cry against it of Popery and Superstition to which It of all other Churches is the most irreconcileable Enemy divide themselves from its Communion labour night and day to enlarge that division encourage obstinacy in that practice from the Pulpit and from the Press by the blackest Calumnies the Devil can suggest against its Members Pastors and Governours as if it were of the essence of true Protestant Religion as well as that of the Jesuits to lye stoutly that somewhat may stick to their purpose St. Paul's practice was not such the Jewish worship and Doctrine was Corrupted indeed and he endeavoured to reform them according to the appointment of the Saviour but he represents them not worse than they were by fictitious Stories he sow'd no divisions among them nay we find not that among them he endeavour'd to perswade any to reject the Ceremonial Law of Moses though he would not admit of it among the Converted Gentiles nor against their Temple did he commit any offence whatsoever and if it be alledged that he preach'd against their Commands and in private the Objection answers it self they would not give way to Christs Doctrine therefore Paul and the rest of the Apostles must preach or the World must still have continued in Darkness but we preach Christ and him Crucified as well as the Objectors we hope to be sav'd by his Merits and Mediation as well as they we forbid them not to speak in the name of Christ when they are lawfully called to it but we forbid them to Preach up their own fancies and ill-grounded opinions to fill mens heads with useless idle and confounding scruples to instil a Pharisaical pride and uncharitableness in the minds of weak but well meaning Christians and here the Civil Power strikes in with the Prohibition and they incur the Penalties of the National Laws who employ themselves so those are to us as the Rabbins say the Masorah is to the Mosaic Law the Hedge and sence of our Church power which keep the wild Boars the Wolves and Foxes from breaking in upon us and happy sure are we to whom God has given such Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers who have that care to protect from growing and encroaching Enemies But Hinc illae Lacrymae hence all those tears those sad complaints of persecution were but the Cherubins and flaming Sword the Government and Laws remov'd from the gates of our Paradise How soon would our Enthusiastick and Tender-Conscienced Saints rush into all places of Power and Profit seize the Tree of Life it self and once more glut themselves with the Blood of the Slain But now alas the edge of that fatal Sword is turned upon them every way the Garden of God is not to be rooted up by them other Arts therefore must be tryed embroil the State
he that can dispense with his respect for one may as warrantably absolve himself from the obedience due to the other nor can it be imprudence in any Prince to believe with Constantius the Father of Constantine the Great that those who are undutiful to their God can never be faithful Subjects to their Sovereign The Author of the Life of Julian the Apostate has had the Impudence to tell the World That the Christians summitted to the Heathen Emperours of old merely because they were unable by reason of their small numbers to resist which contradicts the opinion of Tertullian who even in persecuting times assures us that the Christians were so numerous that a bare quitting the Roman territories had been revenge enough against their persecutors In Apologet. 't is strange he did not give them the same reason of Christ's yielding himself to that infamous Death of the Cross but it happens unfortunately that our blessed Saviour the Captain of our Salvation tells Peter that he could pray to his Father and he should presently give him more than twelve Legions of Angels Matt. 26.53 Assistants enough to baffle the utmost force of the Jews and it seems as Cross to his Assertion that St. Peter himself tells us that if we do well if for Conscience-sake toward God we suffer though wrongfully and suffer patiently not because we cannot help it this is acceptable with God For even hereunto were we called because Christ also who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not he suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. ii 19 23. And St. Paul commands Every Soul to be subject to the higher Powers not because they were too weak to rebell but because those that resisted resisted the Ordinance of God which no strength or multitude could justifie and they that resisted should receive to themselves damnation Rom. xiii 1. Now he who could think a Rebellion against a Lawful but persecuting Prince consistent enough with Christian Patience and Meekness if there were but Force enough to carry it on would never scruple if his tender conscience were disturbed by Canonical Impositions to revenge himself on that Government as soon as possible which should dare to Countenance the Imposers of which Truth this day has given us a dreadful instance But since the Power of the Civil Magistrate is the defence of Church Government and that the same Civil Magistrate is obliged by long setled Laws and Statutes to the protection of it the best means as yet found out to help this Grievance has been to get those Laws Repealed by which Sectaries and Schismaticks suffer Now when we consider that even the most Arbitrary Monarchs have their Counsellors of whose Advice they make use in all difficulties and by whose Advice the standing Laws are fram'd and that the same Power which Enacts Laws is required for their Repeal the design of discontented persons is to procure the advancement of men like-minded with themselves to the Cabinet Counsels of Princes that so by their Assistance they may procure the disanulling or at least the suspension of Pinching Statutes Or if as in this Nation the Prince calls together the Representatives of his People chosen by their own Suffrages to consult de arduis regni negotiis about the most weighty Affairs of the Kingdom by whose Authority enlivened by the accession of the Royal Consent Acts are composed and made publick whereby such or such a party of men are restrain'd from that Liberty they imagine themselves born to it is the employment of the same Malecontents by fair and plausible pretences and sometimes unjustifiable subtilties to make the Votes of the populace concur with their own desires in the Election of such persons for the great Council of the Nation who have nothing less than the Good of the Nation in their thoughts who only serve the Interest of that Party who chose them by restless endeavours to enervate establisht Laws or wholly to lay them aside of this the Late Times give us too plain Examples The Puritans as they were then stiled that busie and indefatigable Party while they were but few in number and so not likely to prevail in a publick Choice endeavour'd by their Admonitions and Advices to the Members of Parliament as already chosen to allure or to affright them into an Agreement with that Holy Discipline they then labour'd Night and Day to set up but when they found those worthy Patriots more Prudent and Resolute than to take any notice of their Flatteries or of their Threats that their Paper pellets could make no impression on them they strait pursued another Method they tryed all ways possible to curry favour with Men capable of serving in that Great Senate they courted the good opinion of the Multitude by exclaiming against the Vices of the Age especially against those of the Court and of the best affected to the Establish'd Government by declaiming loudly against the Excesses committed under the Protection of Episcopal Government by professing the greatest aversation possible to the Vsurpations the Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrins and Practices of the Church of Rome the Commonalty apprehending nothing more Terrible than that Bloody Inquisition necessarily as they supposed admitted with the Romish Religion they ript up all the Immoralities of the Conformable Clergy and added their own Fables to the Tale shewing themselves in the mean time very precise and demure in publick By these and other Artifices their Strength encreased several openly owning them and great numbers encouraging and favouring them privately Nay many very sober and conformable persons were so far deceived by a gay outside as to conclude it impossible for men of so much seeming Innocence and Holiness to carry on any Ill Designs on which account not giving them so vigorous an opposition at first as was needful they easily gain'd and made so considerable a Party in the Great Council of the Land as first was able to give Check to their Prince afterwards to embroyl him in several Wars and at last to deny him all Supplies for the carrying those Wars on unless at the Price of breaking his Coronation Oath quitting the Protection of the True Church of God reversing those Laws which under God secured the Crown on his own Head Dethroning himself and putting the Reins of Government into the hands of a few Arbitrary and Domineering Demagogues And this is the short and true Scheme of those Hellish Politicks by which Three Kingdoms were almost brought to Desolation And who can wonder at that dismal event of things from those who enter into courses of Separation out of Spleen or Revenge every one knows what is to be expected and as for those who follow them from motives which they imagine to proceed from Conscience their Zeal is commonly so hot and furious that being Confident of the Divine Obligation and nature
The Originals of Rebellion Or the Ends of Separation A SERMON PREACHED On the Thirtieth of January 1682. IN THE PARISH-CHURCH OF GREAT-YARMOVTH By Luke Milbourne Curate there LONDON Printed by J. Wallis for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-yard 1683. For the Right Honourable ROBERT Earl of Yarmouth Lord Lieutenant of His Majesties County of Norfolk Right Honourable T IS not the Excellence of the Discourse but its Honest Design that emboldens the Author to Prefix Your Name to it The Death of Charles the First of ever blessed memory was too Cruel a Blow to these Nations not to be seriously Lamented The Doctrines in those days Preach'd and now Reviv'd to encourage Schism Faction and Rebellion too Hellish not to be oppos'd by all who have any sense of Christianity to Condole the one and to stay the Progress of the other this Sermon was Preacht what its success may be I know not but if it serve to undeceive any who have been seduced from their Duties to their Prince or their Church-Governours my good Intentions will be highly recompensed Your Honour who is so Eminent an Assertor of Majesty and the Religion of the Church of England as by Law Established has obliged your self in some measure to Protect the meanest Person who sincerely intends the same thing Among whom I hope Your Honours Charity will place me and on that Account favourably Patronize the mean endeavour of My Lord Your Honours most obliged most Humble and most Faithful Servant L. M. ACTS xxix Vers 8. While he Answered for himself neither against the Law of the Jews neither against the Temple nor yet against Caesar have I offended any thing at all ST Paul after some years absence returning again into his Native Countrey found the malice of the Jews who neither would embrace the Gospel themselves nor suffer the Gentiles to be partakers of it strong and active as possible to his Ruin his turning his Back upon them in so publick a manner Acts xiii 46. And his care to deliver to all Churches of the Gentiles the Decrees of the Council of Jerusalem Acts xvi 4. had fill'd 'em with so inveterate prejudices against him that altho' in Compliance with them he himself submitted at his return to the Ceremonies in the most solemn way yet they surprize him in that very Action and in the Temple it self with such Clamour and Violence that had not the chief Captain of the Roman Garrison then in Jerusalem interpos'd and with his Soldiers over-aw'd 'em they had soon dispatch'd their formidable Enemy He the faithful servant of Almighty God found more favour and justice from the hands of Claudius Lysias an inferior Commander from Covetous Felix and too Popular Festus tho' strangers to true Religion than he could from his own Countrey-men Gods peculiar People who boasted themselves of their Zeal for the Name and Commands of the same Divinity he Preach'd the Jews prosecuted him with their virulent and improbable slanders and their desperate and bloody Associations while Heathens persons of a very Moderate Vertue gave him Protection and Security Nor could all St. Paul's sacred Eloquence the dictates of the everlasting Spirit quell their Fanatick Rage nor his baffling their absurd Accusations in spite of their Mercenary Orator's Assistance allay their Malice tho' he could prevail upon King Agrippa so far as to perswade him almost to be a Christian and upon Festus the Roman Goverour to pronounce him Innocent and not to have merited any restraint but for his Appeal to Caesar Acts xxvi 28.31 32. Festus indeed gave the Jews all the advantage imaginable against St. Paul had they had any proof of what they Accuse him for he invited the ablest of 'em to go down with him from Jerusalem to Caesarea where the Apostle was Prisoner and there to Accuse him if there were any Wickedness in him vers 5. of this Chapter he makes no long delays but after a short time sits in the judgment Seat and commands Paul to be brought to the face of his Accusers who standing round about him strove to render him as black as they could they laid many and grievous Complaints against him but alass they were clog'd with an unhappy circumstance for of all the Crimes they impeach'd him they could not prove one v. 6 7. And Paul Answer'd their Charge with a more probable Plea for himself That neither against the Law of the Jews nor against the Temple nor yet against Caesar had he offended any thing at all that is That he had neither transgressed those setled Laws whereby the Government of their Nation was regulated in temporal Affairs nor had he slighted vilified or made any Schism in their Religion nor had he despised or profaned that magnificent Temple built and dedicated among them to the Worship and Honour of the true God neither yet had he enter'd into any Plots Confederacies or Associations against the Person or Government of the Roman Emperour their then Lawful and Vndoubted Sovereign nor refused Obedience to his Laws nor Rebelled against him This Apology which S. Paul makes for himself seems little agreeable to the Practice of those blood-thirsty Saints whose Barbarous Piety broke the Church of England to pieces profaned all the Houses of God in the Land overturned all Laws of God and Man and dip'd their cruel hands in the Sacred Blood of their Lawful Prince the Lords Anointed A Crime of so horrid a Complexion as tho too true some few years since was beyond all the Ideas of Impiety in the former and will be almost too great to obtain Credit in all future Ages If I be an Offender if I have really contracted that Guilt which the Jews pretend only to prosecute in me with so much zeal and eagerness if I have committed any thing worthy of Death and Sins against just Laws pure Religion and Lawfully acquired Sovereignty are truly such if I have done any such thing says our great Apostle I refuse not to dye Death is justly due to such Criminals and tho' perhaps Humane Justice may oversee some of the foulest actions Divine Vengeance is guided by an All-seeing Eye and sooner or later will give them their just Reward So far was he from excusing and much farther from glorying in such cursed Actions Nay he was willing in his case to Appeal to the Justice of Cesar where the Murderer of his Father would scarce have expected Pardon from whose Presence our great Patriots labour'd to fly as far as they could From the Accusation of the Jews which of what nature it was we may conjecture from the Speech of Tertullus ch 24. and from St. Paul's Defence we may learn what are the Beginnings what the Encrease and what the End of Troubles and Disorders in a Church or State The Jews had a great Veneration for the Temple of God and those Laws by which the Worship of God in that Temple were Regulated those Rites and Ceremonies which attended their
Religious Constitutions they justly condemn St. Paul had he been guilty of profaning their Temple preaching down their Ceremonies and breaking those Rules delivered to them by God himself He answers for himself that against their Temple against their Religion he had committed no offence They accuse him as a Pestilent fellow a mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the world so a breaker of their Countrey Statutes and their Politicks having had the Sanction of Almighty God himself for what Nation was there so great who had God so nigh unto them and what so great that had Statutes and Judgments so Righteous as that Law which Moses in the Name of God set before them Deut. 4.7 8. if it were true they had reason for their Impeaching him Impunity giving the greatest encouragement to Factious Spirits He replyes that he had not offended against the Law of the Jews His enemies taking the two former Articles for granted make their Third a necessary and rational Inference from them that he was an Enemy to Cesar and so whosoever was a mover of Sedition or Division among his Subjects must unavoidably be But the Apostle by taking his Innocence in the former respects to be evident and granted there being no tolerable Proof offered to the Contrary from thence yet more justly concludes that neither against Cesar had he offended any thing at all The Jewish Accusation then amounts to this Where Ecclesiastical Injunctions are broken there the breach of Laws Temporal is a present Protection and Rebellion against the Law-maker the Sovereign supposed a more lasting security and this Politick Axiome they apply to the Prisoner St. Paul acknowledges the truth of that Proposition but denies the Application tho' they had asserted what was true in it self yet their Assertion could not reach him tho' he insinuates at the same time that nothing but an Vniversal Innocence could be a sufficient Defence against such an Accusation having such a President as this I shall endeavour from hence to evidence that indissoluble Connexion there is between these Crimes which St. Paul so industriously in the Text and elsewhere Vindicates himself from or that a Contempt and breach of Laws Ecclesiastical introduces consequentially the Contempt and breach of Laws Temporal and that Rebellion against the Lawful Supreme Powers which what success it may sometimes have this days sad Solemnity sufficiently informs us and 1. Let us duly consider the Trespasses committed against the orders of a true Church those Canons and Rules appointed for its better Government which Trespasses soon break out into endless Schisms and Separations That there is indeed some such thing necessary as Ecclesiastical Polity for the Government of the whole Body of Religious Professors within such or such a district is acknowledg'd by the express Consent or open Practice of all Churches whatsoever and the end prescrib'd to all Religion whether true or false being the Honour of the Supreme Being and the securing a perfect and substantial Happiness to Man all Ecclesiastical Constitutions according to the various Capacities of Mens understandings are adapted to that end all concurring as much as possible with that Apostolical Canon that all things should be done to Edifying 1 Cor. 14.26 that is that all Particulars or Circumstances whatsoever may be so contriv'd all Laws so framed as to confirm and strengthen as well as instruct the Professors of such a Religion in those principles which the first Advancers of that Religion endeavour to inculcate into their Followers as most directly tending according to their best apprehensions to those great ends before named Thus whatsoever God prescrib'd in the Government of the Judaic Church all those Ceremonial Appendages of it aim'd at this to make the Natural Jews or those Proselyted to them to have a due respect and Honour to that Religion he had setled among them to acknowledge the infinite wisdom goodness and absolute Dominion of God to and over them that so they sensible of the difference between God's wisdom and their own and of his favour to them in condescending to be their Law-maker and Counsellor might acquiesce in his Commands and study to act and live accordingly In the same manner that infamous Impostor Mahomet contriving a motley Religion such a Hotchpotch of Fooleries as best might suit to the variable tempers of Men for the more sure irradicating it into their minds gave such Laws to his deluded Disciples that a due Obedience to them must of necessity make their Errors the more inveterate and possess them with an invincible Bigottry for that Religion by which alone they hoped to attain to their truly ridiculous Paradise If we take a view of the Church of Rome and that adulterated Religion it holds forth we find its Canons and Constitutions very numerous and always encreasing considerably with those new Superstitions invented and entertain'd by it And as that Church lays a great deal of weight upon that straw and stubble which they have raised upon the more excellent and solid foundation of the Gospel as it recommends all its Superstitious and Idolatrous Innovations to its Members as the best and most ready means for the gaining everlasting Salvation so that prodigious heap of Ceremonies with which its Divine Worship is encumbred far more than ever the Jewish Church was before are employ'd to make their Novelties the more valuable and that large Body of the Canon Law there receiv'd as the standard of Ecclesiastical government obliges all Persons in that Communion to such a method of Practice as cannot but agree with and gradually instill such Principles into their minds as may make them exactly conformable to even the grossest Errors which may be imposed upon them under the notion of assistances to Heaven Let us but consider the Case of those great disturbers of the Peace of the Church of England in the Days of Queen Elizabeth when they had pickt what faults they could with the publick and Authentick Constitution of its Government when they call'd aloud for greater Purity in Religious Ordinances and a more thorough Reformation to that end they were very active to contrive a form of Discipline which they call'd the Discipline of Jesus Christ which all who were true Professors were to submit themselves to which Discipline was of such a Nature as that the deeper impression it made upon the minds of Men the more violent prejudices would it fill them with against the Orders of our Church as by Law establisht the more inflexible would it make them to all motions to quietness and submission the more closely would it knit and unite them in one society and all under the plausible pretence of pleasing God and securing their own Happiness the better And the wretched Successors of that unhappy ancestry in the times of our late Troubles when they had by their treacherous practices Confounded all things Sacred and Civil and had setled themselves in the Supreme Power among us for the support and desence
of themselves were necessitated to make a Directory for the worship of God and to endeavour the settlement of a Classical Presbytery for the due Execution of such Laws as should be necessary for the establishment of their Confused Church and the Independents or Congregational Men where they bear the Sway as in New England are forced to settle certain rules of government in their Churches nay the Quakers themselves are not without some Methods of Policy in their Conventicles All these agreeing as far as possible with those fond and Sceptical principles the several Factions have studied to advance and to do thus in the sense of all those I have instanc'd in is to do what tends in their several ways to Edification and indeed this course seems agreeable to Natural Prudence tho' we had no Divine Command for it This then being a Method so universally agreed to it seems very obvious that a breach made upon it must necessarily tend to the dissolution of that Society wheresoever it is admitted and yet a nicety or tenderness of Conscience as it is abusively called is as good a Plea for allowance of such a breach in one Church or Religious Society as in another He who has scruples against the Jewish Church-Laws may have scruples too against Mahometism against Popery against Presbytery Independency nay against all the Religion in the World if a pretence to such a tenderness and scrupulosity be enough to loose every Bond and to break every Yoak and it must needs procure Contempt to the best and purest Religion if it be not thought worth the while to oblige men by all just ways to those Laws whereby it is guided and established When Sects and Heresies were permitted among the Jews notwithstanding the Fundamental Constitutions of their Church the solid Doctrines of Truth delivered to them by the Divinely inspired Prophets dwindled away into nice and useless Speculations obscure glosses and uncertain and Heretical Traditions Sincere Piety gave place to the transitory flashes of Hypocrisie and Intestine Broils and Divisions in the Heat of which God's Honour was forgotten contributed largely to the utter ruine and subversion of their Nation which was indeed no wonder Vengeance commonly taking place where Faith is banish'd and so low was that grown among them that a poor Proselyted Centurion exprest more of Faith to our Saviour than he could find in Israel Matth. 8.10 And since the time that the Followers of Mahomet gave way to new Prophets and Expositors of the Originals of their Profession their zeal is extremely abated and much of that debauchery and irreligion which the very Alcoran forbad has gotten ground and favour among them and the Papacy has lost as much almost of its power and Interest in these parts of the World by the relaxation of its Discipline and Indulgence to Contradictory Doctrines and Practices as it has gain'd by all its Legendary Miracles and new-fangled Arts and Stratagems assisted with the extraordinary activity of its most zealous Agents and Emissaries Thus Puritanism in our Fore-fathers days through its ineffectual attempts to settle the Holy Discipline prepared the way to Brownism and separation a little loosening the Golden Reins of Government in the Church of England gave entrance and encrease to super-Puritanical Presbytery and that not being sufficiently guarded by Directories and Ordinances introduced Independency Quakerism Familism Libertinism and all the Sects and Heresies and more than ever the Christian World had been acquainted with before When Humane Politiques first took place and men united themselves into regular Bodies it was presently found that the wisest and most rational Laws could not restrain the extravagancies of the multitude unless some penalties were annexed and a Power setled in some particular persons to execute those penalties upon offenders the same was prov'd true in Religious affairs also for though the ground and reason of all commanded or forbidden was never so plain and notorious yet Corrupt Man was ungovernable by pure Reason and wisdom so that some punishments were as necessary among Ecclesiastical as among Civil Criminals and this necessity has always made a necessary Connexion between the Temporal and Spiritual Laws that one might be Assistant to the other that Religion might oblige men obedience to the Civil Powers and Corporal punishments compel them to submission to the Church Thus God himself in the Jewish Government joyns the Judge and the Priest together Deut. 17.8 13. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea being matters of Controversy within the gates then thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment and the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge even that man shall dye and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and when the Law was compleated by Moses we are told that he wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levi which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and to all the Elders i. e. the Princes and Civil governors of Israel Deut. 31.9 so making the Priests and the Princes joynt Commissioners in the encouraging moral vertue and devotion and in repressing irregularity and disobedience and though the sentence of Excommunication denounced only by the Pastors and Governours of the Church be really the most dreadful of all others yet so much quicker generally is Man's sense of bodily than of spiritual pain or danger that the Temporal Magistrate is frequently forced for the keeping Men in the better aw to make the Execution of National Laws the best evidence of the inconveniences attending of the Anathema's of the Church those who are willing enough to quit for ever God's service being very loath to lose the smallest temporal Revenue or Privelege This mutual Assistance which Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws give to one another has at all times been found of so good effect for the keeping Men in due bounds of sobriety and obedience that so soon as there were any Christian Princes they presently set the Seal of their Authority to the Canons and Rules made by Church Governors for the use of Christians So the Imperial constitutions gave security to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that men might know there was a Coersive Authority invested in their spiritual Superiors and that such a one as from which there could lye no advantageous appeal and on the other Hand Church Censures gave a strong confirmation to Imperial Sanctions evidencing the Consistency of Supreme Dominion and the power of Sword with the fundamentals of Christianity from which to the great satisfaction of temporal Princes it must notoriously appear that no Insurrection Conspiracy