Priests as also of the reall effectuall dominion of Princes I shall now prove further that the sword of Kings if it be not so spirituall as the Pope pretends to cut off souls yet it is more then temporall and extends to things most spirituall The Founders and Patriarchs of the World before the Law of Moses did not only governe the Church but also execute all pastorall spirituall Offices as they were Princes and Supream Potentates within their own limits they did not governe men as they were the Priests of God but they did sacrifice and officiate before God as they were the Heads and Governours of men In those times it was not held usurpation or intrusion upon priests for Princes to sacrifice with their own hands or to teach the will of God with their own mouthes it would have been held presumption if any else had attempted the like and a dishonour to Gods service Nature then taught that the most excellent person was most fit for Gods service in the Church and that no person could be more excellent then hee which served God in the Throne The word priest now may have divers acceptions In some sense whole Nations have been called priests viz. comparatively and in some sense all Fathers of Children and Masters of Servants are in the nature of priests and in more usuall sense all Princes so farre as they have charge and cure of souls and are intrusted with Divine Service within their severall commands are more supereminently taken for priests but the most usuall sense is this A Priest is hee which hath cure of Souls and a trust of Gods worship by a more peculiar kinde of publike and politike consecration and dedication thereunto of such consecration or ordination before Aaron we read nothing and for ought I see we are bound to believe nothing Melchisideck was a pious man a devout Father a religious Master nay a zealous Prince and Commander but in all these respects hee had no priviledge nor right to the denomination of priest more then Adam Sem Noah c. had You will say then how is that denomination given him so peculiarly This denomination might be given not by reason of any externall formall ceremoniall Unction or imposition of hands or any other solemne Dedication or separation before men but in this respect that he did perhaps publikely officiate in the presence of all his Subjects and perhaps in behalfe of all his subjects and this is a higher and blesseder Sacerdotall Office then any we read of in his predecessors or successors till Aarons dayes It is probable that God was served in Families before Aaron and perhaps there were solemne days and Feasts which all Families by joynt consent did in severall places dedicate to Gods service by strict observance of the same but that any publike places were appointed for whole Congregations to joyne and meet publikely in under the charge and function of any one publike Priest till Aaron is not specified This only we may guesse by the speciall name of priest applied to Melchisedeck that perhaps being a priest of Salem he was the first that made the worship of God so publike and did not only by the generall influence of his power take order for the service and knowledge of God in severall Families but also gather severall assemblies of united Families and there publikely sacrifise and officiate in behalf of great and solemne Congregations wherein he might far exceed Abraham Howsoever its sufficient for my purpose that this he might doe by vertue of his Regall power and dignity without any further consecration or Sacerdotal instalment whatsoever And in this respect he was without predecessor and perhaps successor so that I think hee was the most lively and Honourable type of our Saviour for Aarons Order was Substitute and his consecration was performed by the hand of his Prince and Superiour and being so consecrated He did sacrifise not as a Prince but meerly as a Priest Whereas Melchisedeck received his Order from none but himselfe and so remayned not only independent but his service also being both Regall and Sacerdotall as our Saviours also was it was yet more Honorable in that it was Regall then in that it was Sacerdotall And this certainly sutes best with our Saviours Order for no Secular authority but his own did concurre in his inauguration hee was his owne Ancestor in this in that his owne Royall dignitie gave vertue to his Sacerdotall and though hee would not assume to himselfe the externall Function of Royalty in meer Secular things yet in this he would follow holy Melchisedeck But to passe from Melchisedeck within some few ages after wee finde the Scepter and Censor severed Wee finde no prints of great Empires before Moses for in small Countries we finde divers petty independant principalities and it may be imagin'd that neither true policie nor wicked tyranny was then knowne in such perfection as now it is The Israelites at their departure from Egypt were a great and formidable Nation as appeares by the combinations of many other Potentates against them yet at that time the weightie charges both of prince and priest were supported by Moses alone This was exceeding grievous till Jethro in civill affaires and till God himselfe in matters of Religion for his further ease took much of his laborious part from off his shoulders Subordinate Magistrates were now appointed in the State and priests and Levits in the Church the Nation being growne numerous and Ceremonies in Religion very various but wee must not think that Moses was hereby emptied or lesned of any of his Civill or Ecclesiasticall authoritie as he retained still Supremacie of power to himselfe in all things so that Supremacy became now the more awfull and Majesticall The poet says of waters Maxima per multos tenuantur flumina rivos And indeed did waters run backwards they would spend and diminish themselves by often divisions in their courses but we see that in their ordinary naturall Tracts many litle petty streams officiously hasten to discharge themselves into greater so that the more continued the course is the greater the streams ever grow It is so with power both in Church and State Sovereigntie is as the mayne Ocean of its vast abundance it feeds all and is fed by all as it is the fountain to enrich others so it is the Cisterne to receive and require back againe all the riches of others That which Moses parted with all and derived to others was for the better expedition both of pietie and justice that GOD might be more duly served that the people might be more quickly relieved and that his own shoulders might be the freelier disburdened for as a man hee could not intend universall businesse yet a Prince he might well superintend it in others And it is manifest that after the separation of the Priesthood he did still as superiour to Aaron in the most sacred things approach God in the Mountain to receive the
that the King is supreme and he but the secondary agent therein But Bishop Bilson will yet say that the Priest in the worke of conversion winnes the soule to a willing obedience and that the Princes worke only by externall politicall terror which begets not virtutis amorem but only formidinem panae and therefore it seemes that the worke of the Minister and the Prince differ not only in order but also in kinde the one being far more spirituall and divine than the other I answer hereunto that if power doth only induce a servile feare of punishment and so cause of forcible forbearance of sin and if preaching only make a voluntary conquest upon the soule then by the same reason the power of Bishops as well as the power of Civill Magistrates is of lesse value than preaching but this none of our adversaries will agree to My next answer therefore is that Preachers in the wonderfull worke of regeneration are not in the nature of Physicall causes they are rather in the nature of the meanest instrumentall causes under GOD they are but as Vessels in the hand of Husband men from whence the seed Corne is throwne into the ground If the Corne fall into the furrow and there fructifie God opens and enlives the wombe of the Earth God sends showres and influence from Heaven God blesses the seeds with a generative multiplying vertue nay God casts it into the furrow from the mouth of the Preacher and as He uses the mouâ—h of the Preacher for the effusion of his grain so He uses the Princes power as his Plough to breake and prepare the ground and in this case the use and service of the plough is as Noble as that of the Bushell Neither is the office of Kings the lesse Glorious because they can use force nor Ministers the more Glorious because they may use none but ethicall Motives and allurements for power it selfe being a Glorious Divine thing it cannot bee ignoble to use it in Gods cause And therefore wee see Iosiah and other good Kings are commended for using compulsion and diverse other Kings which used it not for the removing of Idolatry and suppressing of the high places did grievously offend God and draw curses upon themselves and their subjects And whereas it is objected that force and compulsion restraineth only from the act of sin but restraineth not the will from the liking thereof We see common experience teaches us the contrary For Scotland Holland Denmarke Sweden Bohemia England c. Suffered great changes of Religion within a short space and these changes were wrought by the force of civill Magistrates and could never else without strange miracles from Heaven have been so soone compassed but these changes are not the lesse Cordiall and sincere because civill authority wrought them Authority it selfe hath not so rigorous a sway over the soules of men as to obtrude disliked Religions universally it must perswade as well as compell and convince as well as commandâ— or else gâ—eat alterations cannot easily and suddainly bee perfected And in this respect the Proclamations of Princes become ofâ—entimes the most true and powerfull preaching that can be and t is beyond all doubt that if preaching were as a Physicall cause in the act of regeneration of sinners or reformation of Nations yet the edicts and commands of Princes are sometimes more efficacious Sermons than any which wee heare from out our Pulpits For let us suppose that a considerable number of our Ministers were sent into Mexico or Perue to preach the Gospell of Christ amongst the poore blinde Savages could wee hope for so great successe thereby without the concurrence of some Princes there as we might if some of them would assist and joyne to advance the same word and doctrine by their wisdome and power which our Ministers should publish with their art and eloquence If we cast our eyes back upon former times also we shall see that before Constantine favoured Religion the Gospell spread but slowly and that not without a wonderfull confluence of heavenly signes and miracles wrought by our Saviour and his Disciples all which we may suppose had never bin in such plentifull measure shewed to the world had it not bin to countervaile the enemity and opposition of secular authority And it may be conceived that had the Caesars joyned in the propagation of CHRISTS Doctrine more might have beene effected for the advantage of Religion by their co operation than all Christs Apostles Bishops Prophets Evangelists and other Elders did effect by their extraordinary gifts and supernaturall endowments We see also that Constantines conversion was of more moment and did more conduce to the prosperity and dilatation of Christianity than all the labours and endeavours of thousands of Preachers and Confessors and Martyrs which before had attempted the same And to descend to our late reformations wee see Edward the sixth though very young in a short time dispelled the mists of Popish error and superstition and when no men were more adverse to the Truth than the Clergy yet He set up the banner thereof in all his Dominions and redeemed millions of soules from the thraldome of Hell and Rome In the like manner Queene Elizabeth also though a woman yet was as admirable an instrument of God in the same designe and what she did in England diverse other Princes about the same time did the like in many other large dominions whatsoever was effected by miracles in the hand of Ministers after our Saviour the same if not greater matters were sooner expedited by the ordinary power and wisdome of Princes when Ministers were generally opposite thereunto And as we see the spirituall power of Princes how strangly prevalent it is for the truth so sometimes we see most wofull effects of the same against the truth Religion was not sooner reformed by Edward the sixth than it was deformed againe by Queene Mary And though many godly Ministers were here then setled as appeares by their martyrdoms yet all those Ministers could not uphold Religion with all their hands so strongly as Queene Mary could subvert it with one finger of her hand onely One fierce King of Spaine bound himselfe in a cursed oath to maintaine the Romish Religion and to extirpate all contrary Doctrines out of his confines if many pious Ministers could have defeated this oath doubtlesse it had not so farre prevailed as it doth but now wee may with teares bewaile in behalfe of that wofull Monarchy that one Kings enmity in Religion is more pernicious than a thousand Ministers zeale is advantagious And by the way let all Princes here take notice what a dreadfull account of soules God is likely to call them to Fort is not the Clergy that are so immediately and generally responsible when Religion is oppressed or not cherished and when soules are misled and suffered to goe astray the abuses of the very Clergy it selfe will be only set upon the Princes account for according to
And whereas hee sayes further of the power of Priests that God Himselfe would not impart it to Angels or Arch-Angels wee may adde also nor to Princes yet this concludes nothing to the derogation of Angels or Arch-Angels or Princes For the Angels c. though they have not the same Ministery in the same kinde and order yet they have a more glorious and heavenly and consequently so may Princes That which Saint Augustine sayes also that Princes beare the Image of God Bishops of Christ We willingly consent to and yet by Bishops here we do not intend only such Church-Governours as our Bishops now in England are but all other such as doe the same offices over Gods people whatsoever their stiles or externall additions be otherwise And these things we conceive ought to receive such constructions because our Saviour Himselfe did alwayes decline all State and pompe and recommend the same lowly president to his followers with strict command not to exercise any Lordly Dominion nor to assume the Name of Rabbi upon them ever pressing this That he came to serve and not to be served And yet in the meere Name of Lord or Rabbi there could be no offence if the power and grandour belonging to those names had not bin displeasing to him and if it was displeasing in those his immediate followers whom he had made governours as wel as Preachers and for their better governing had indued with many miraculous gifts to discerne spirits and to open and shut Heaven and inriched with many other weighty graces we cannot imagine it should now be pleasing in our Ministers where lesse power is necessary and lesse vertue granted However it is farre from our meaning to detract or derogate any thing from that internall reverence which is due to Christs Embassadors and Stewards c. in the Church we know that he that despises them despises Christ Himselfe according to Christs own words our meaning is only to place them next and in the second seate of Honour after Princes and Rulers and Iudges which have Scepters committed to them by God either mediately or immediately Cyp. sayes well that our Saviour being King and God did Honour the Priests and Bishops of the Iewes though they were wicked for our instruction we grant that our Saviour ought in this to be imitated and that all Priests whether they have such command or no as the Iewish had or whether they bee Religious or no yet for Christs sake which is our High-Priest and their Head we ought to pay all reverence and awe to them THe last Argument urged is this That Order which is of the greatest necessitie in Religion without which no Church can at all subsist is most Holy and excellent but such is the sacerdotall order for Religion had subsistence under the Apostles without Princes and that it never had nor could have under Princes without Priests Ergo This is no way true for Religion can have no being without men and men can have no being without government and therefore as to this first and most necessary being wee may justly say that the Gospell it selfe was as well protected by Caesar which hated it as by Peter which preached it For Peter did owe his civill being to Caesar and without this civill being his Ecclesiasticall being had perished Besides Peter c. was not only a Preacher but also a Governor and those offices which he did as a Governour might be as much conducing to the welfare of Religion as those which hee did as a Preacher and yet for want of the civill Magistrates further assistance both offices were some way defective and perhaps had bin wholly unprofitable had not miraculous gifts and graces superabounded to supply that defect Howsoever it is more true that after the Creation Religion did subsist under Princes onely without Priests for untill the Priest-hood was severed in Aron Adam Melchisedeck c. were not so properly Priests as Princes for though they performed the offices of Priests yet they had no other Consecration to inable them therefore than their Regall Sanctity and sublimity If the meere officiating did make a Priest then the Priest-Hood were open to all and if some right and warrant be necessary it must orginally flow from Princes and they which may derive it to others have it till they derive it in themselves The essence of Priest-Hood doth no more consist in the rites and Ceremonies of Consecration than Royalty doth in Coronation and the due warrant of lawfull authority being that essence before that warrant granted we must looke upon authority as including that warrant within its vertue and after that warrant granted as not exhausted of its vertue When the Priest-hood was separated from the greater and confered upon the inferior some formall Ceremonious resignation therof was thought necessary but before that resignation till Moses wee may well conceive that Princes did officiate in their owne rights without borrowing any thing therein from Ceremonies or from any higher power than their own I have now done with Arguments of the first kinde which are urged against the sanctity and competence of Princes in Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall things I come now to answer such things as are further objected against other defects of qualification in them especially in learning knowledge and theologicall understanding THe maine argument here is thus Whosoever is fitest to direct to Truth is also fittest to command for Truth but Ministers being most skilld in Divinity are most fit to direct Ergo In answer hereunto I must make appeare 1. That Ministers are not alwayes most learned 2. That the most learned are not alwayes the most judicious 3. That learned and judicious men are not alwayes Orthodox and sound in faith 4. That there is no necessitie in policy that the most learned judicious and sincere men should be promoted to highest power in the Church And first we deny not that the blessing of God doth usually accompany the due act of Ordination to adde gifts and abilities to the party ordained we only say that Gods grace like the winde hath its free arbitrary approaches and recesses and is not alwayes limited or necessitated by the act done of consecration And we say also that as God usually sanctifies Ministers for their function so he doth also Kings and when he did lay his command upon Kings to have a Copy of his Law alwayes by them to reade and study it for their direction we conceive it is intimated to us what kinde of knowledge is most fit for Kings and what kinde of grace God doth most usually supply them withall King Edward the sixth Queene Elizabeth and King Iames of late and happie memory were so strangly learned and judicious in Divinity that we may well thinke there was something in them above the ordinary perfection of nature and had they perhaps relyed lesse upon the greatest of their Clergie in matters concerning the interest and honour of the Clergie the Church might
and Titus committed to them by vertue of their Episcopall Order What more sacred what more spirituall offices could they performe in the Church What could Gods children suck from their brests other then milke then sincere spirituall milke Saint Augustine agrees to this when hee says that Kings as Kings serve God so as none but Kings can doe and when he confesses that Christ came not to the detriment of sovereigntie And the Church in Tertullians words ascribing worship to their Heathen Emperours as being second immediatly to God and inferiour to none but God says as much as words can expresse In regard of internall sanctitie Peter may be more excellent then Caesar and so may Lazarus perhaps then Peter but in regard of that civill sanctitie which is visible to mans eye Caesar is to be worshipped more then Peter Caesar is to be looked upon as next in place here to God betwixt whom and God no other can have any superiour place Wisdome and goodnesse are blessed graces in the sight of GOD but these are more private and Power is an excellence more perfect and publike and visible to man then either if Ministers do sometimes in wisdome and goodnesse excell Princes yet in Power they doe not and therefore though wisdome and goodnesse may make them more amiable somtimes to God yet Power shall make Princes more Honourable amongst men There is in heaven no need of Power in the glorified creatures and yet the glorified creatures are there differenced by Power it is hard to say that one Angell or Saint differs from another in wisdome or in holinesse yet that they differ in power and glory we all know The twelve Patriarchs and the twelve Apostles sit in heaven upon higher Thrones then many Saints which perhaps here in this life might be endued with a greater portion of wisdome and holinesse then they were and by this it may seeme that there is a species of externall sanctitie of power dispensed according to the free power of God even in Heaven also and that that sanctity is superiour to the other more private sanctity of other graces and excellences And if power in heavenly creatures where it is of no necessity has such a supereminent glory appertaining to it with what veneration ought wee to entertain it on earth where our common felicitie and safetie does so much depend upon it Goodnesse here wee see is a narrow excellence without wisdome and power and wisdome in men that have neither power nor goodnesse scarce profits at all but power in infants in women in Ideots hands is of publike use in as much as the wisdome and goodnesse of other men are ready to be commanded by it and its more naturall that they should be obsequious and officious in serving power then that the transcendent incommunicable indivisible Royalty of power should condiscend to bee at their devotion And for this reason when Princes are said to be solo Deo minores and Deo secundi this is spoken in regard of power and this being spoken in regard of power we must conceive it spoken of the most perfect excellence and dignity and sanctitie that can be imagined amongst men on earth And for the same reason when Princes are said to serve God as Princes and so to serve him as none other can we must conceive this spoken also with respect to their power in as much as wisdome and goodnesse in other men cannot promote the glory of God and the common good of man so much as power may in them But Stapleton takes foure exceptions to those times whereby if it bee granted that the Jewish Kings had supreame Ecclesiasticall authority yet hee sayes it does not follow that our Kings now ought to have the same Hee sayes first That the Iewish Religion was of farre lesse dignitie and perfection then ours is ours being that truth of which theirs was but a shadowish prefigurative resemblance Our answere here is that the Religion of the Jews as to the essence of it was not different from ours either in dignitie or perfection The same God was then worshipped as a Creatour Redeemer Sanctifier and that worship did consist in the same kinde of love feare hope and beliefe and the same charitie and justice amongst men The Law of Ceremonies and externall Rites in the bodily worship of God did differ from our discipline that being more pompous and laborious but the two great Commandements which were the effects and contents of all heavenly spirituall indispensible worship and service whereby a love towards God above that of our selves and a love towards man equall with that of our selves was enjoyned these two great Commandements were then as forcible and honourable as they are now Sacrifice was but as the garment of Religion obedience was the life the perfection the dignity of Religion and the life perfection and dignitie of that obedience consisted then in those weighty matters of the Law Piety and mercie as it now does but if the Jewish Religion was lesse excellent and more clogged with shadows and ceremonies in its outward habit what argument is this for the Supremacie of Regall rather then Sacerdotall power The more abstruse and dark the forme of that worship was and the more rigorous sanctity God had stamped upon the places and instruments and formalities of his worship and the more frequent and intricate questions might arise thereabout me thinks the more use there was of Sacerdotall honour and prerogative and the lesse of Regall in matters of the Lord I see not why this should make Princes more spirituall then their Order would beare but Priests rather His second reason is That all parts of the Jewish Religion Laws Sacrifices Rites Ceremonies being fully set down in writing needing nothing but execution their Kings might well have highest authoritie to see that done Whereas with us there are numbers of mysteries even in beliefe which were not so generally for them as for us necessary to be with some expresse acknowledgment understood many things belonging to externall government and our service not being set down by particular ordinances or written for which cause the State of the Church doth now require that the spirituall authoritie of Ecclesiasticall persons be large absolute and independent This reason is every way faulty for as to matters of Discipline and externall worship our Church is lesse incumbred with multiplicity of Rites such as Saint Paul cals carnall and beggerly rudiments and in this respect there is the lesse use of Ecclesiasticall authoritie amongst us and if popish Bishops doe purposely increase Ceremonies that they may inlarge their own power they ought not to take advantage of their own fraud And as for matters of faith and doctrinall mysteries we say according to Gods ancient promise knowledg doth now abound by an extraordinary effusion of Gods Spirit upon these latter dayes wee are so farre from being more perplexed with shadows and mysticall formalities or with weighty disputes that we are and
ought to be a great deal lesse and we doe the rather suspect all popish traditions and additions in Religion because wee see they make use of them for the augmenting of the power and regiment of Prelates And yet if knowledge did not abound if our Religion were more cloudie and if the Scriptures Councils Fathers and all learning were now more imperfect to us then they are I cānot imagin how an uncōfined absolute dominion of Churchmen shold be more necessary thē of Princes For if absolutenes of power be of necessary use in intricate perplexed mysteries cōtroversies yet why must that absolute power be more effectuall in Priests then Princes is not the counsel of Prelats the same and of the same vigor to solve doubts and determine controversies whether their power be subordinate or not doth meer power ad to the knowledg of Priests or is the power of Priests more virtuous for the promoting of truth then the power of Magistrates how comes this vast irreconcilable difference betwixt the government of the Church and State In matters of Law in matters of policy in matters of war unlimited power in such as are most knowing and expert does not conduce to the safety of the Common-wealth subordinate Counsells are held as available for the discerning of truth and far more available for the conserving of peace and order And who can then assigne any particular sufficient reason why matters of religion should not as well be determined in the consistory by dependent Prelates as matters of Law are by the Judges and Justices in their tribunals where they sit as meere servants to the King His third exception is That God having armed the Jewish Religion with a temporall sword and the Christian with that of spirituall punishment only the one with power to imprison scourge put to death the other with bare authoritie to censure and excommunicate there is no reason why our Church which hath no visible sword should in regiment be subject unto any other power then only to that which bindeth and looseth This reason taketh it for granted that amongst the Jewes the Church and State was the same had the same body the same head the same sword and that head was temporall and that sword was materiall This we freely accept of but in the next place without any reason at all given it as freely assumes that Christians now have only a spirituall sword in the Church as that Jews had only a temporall one A diametricall opposition is here put betwizt Jews and Christians in Church Regiment and yet no cause shewed or account given of that opposition We have very good colour to argue that without some strong reason shewed of opposition Christians ought not to bee so contrary to that excellent discipline of the Jewes which God himself ordered and to introduce I know not what spirituall rule in prejudice of temporall rule but how will Stapleton prove that amongst Christians the Church and State are two divided bodies so as they may admit of two severall heads and severall swords the one temporall the other spirituall the one yielding precedence as temporall the other predominating as spirituall This wee desire to see fortified with better proofs Hooker in his eighth booke not yet publisht has a learned cleere discourse to shew the fallacie and injustice of this blind presumption Hee allows that a Church is one way and a Commonwealth another way defined and that they are both in nature distinguisht but not in substance perpetually severed Since there is no man sayes hee of the Church of England but the same is a member of the Common-wealth nor any of the Common-wealth but the same is of the Church therefore as in a figure triangle the base differs from the sides and yet one and the self-same line is both a base and a side a side simply a base if it chance to be the bottome and to underlie the rest So though properties and actions of one doe cause the name of a Common-wealth qualities and functions of another sort give the name of a Church to a multitude yet one and the same multiude may be both Thus in England there 's none of one Corporation but hee is of the other also and so it was amongst the Jews Two things cause this errour First because professours of the true Religion somtimes live in subjection under the false so the Jews did in Babylon so the Christians in Rome under Nero in such cases true professors doe civilly only communicate with the State but in matters of their Religion they have a communion amongst themselves This now is not our case and therefore these instances are not proper amongst us Secondly In all States there is a distinction between spirituall and temporall affaires and persons but this proveth no perpetuall necessity of personall separation for the Heathens always had their spiritual Laws and persons and causes severed from their temporall yet this did not make two independent States among them much lesse doth God by revealing true Religion to any Nation distract it thereby into severall independent communities his end is only to institute severall functions of one and the same community Thus farre Hooker most judiciously and profoundly Wee must not here expect any satisfaction from our Adversaries why there should be lesse division betweene Church and State amongst the Jews and lesse use of two severall swords then is amongst us 't is sufficient that they have said it There 's no crime so scandalous amongst our Church-men or wherein they claime so much spirituall interest of jurisdiction as adultery yet amongst the Iews that crime was carnall not spirituall and its punishment was death inflicted by the Civill Judge not damnation denounced by the Priest Now if adultery in these days were better purged away and lesse countenanced in our Christian Courts then it was amongst the Jews there might something be alleaged to preferre our moderne inventions before Gods owne Statutes but when Ecclesiastiall persons shall therefore incroach upon Civill that by I know not what pecuniary corruptions and commutations vice and scandall may abound we doe strangly dote to suffer it For his last reason he says That albeit whilst the Church was restrained into one people it seemed not incommodious to grant their Kings generall chiefty of power yet now the Church having spread it self over all Nations great inconvenience must thereby grow if every Christian King in his severall Territorie should have the like power By this reason it s presumed that all the Universe ought to have but one head on earth and that Rome must be its Court and that it must be indued with Oraculous infallibilitie and so to remayne till the Worlds end and this must bee admitted out of some obscure generall Metaphors in Scripture or else God has not sufficiently provided for the wise government of his Catholike Church Man can scarce imagine any thing more mischievous or impossible then that which these goodly
painted out before their eyes even by the very solemnities and rights of their inauguration to what affaires by the same Law their supreme power and authority reaches Crowned we see they are and Inthronized and Annoynted the Crowne a signe of Military dominion the Throne of sedentary or Iudiciall The Oyle of Religious and sacred power Hee here Attributes as supreme a rule and as independent in Religious and sacred affaires as Hee does either in Military or Iudiciall and hee accounts that venerable Ceremony of Vnction as proper to the Kings of England as that of Crowning or Inthroning Neverthelesse it is now a great objection against this chiefly of Dominion that it may descend to Infants under age as it did to King Edward the sixth Or to Women as to Queene Mary and Elizabeth and whatsoever wee may allow to men such as Henry the eighth yet it seemes unreasonable to allow it Women and Children The Papists thinke this objection of great moment and therefore Bellarmine in great disdaine casts it out that in England they had a certaine Woman for their Bishop meaning by that woman Q. Elizabeth And Q. Elizabeth her selfe knowing what an odium that word would draw upon her both amongst Papists and many Protestants also consults her Bishops about it and by their advice sets forth a declaration certifying the world thereby that shee claymed no other Head-ship in the Church but such as might exclude all dependency upon forreigne Head-ships and secure her from all danger of being deposed How this paper could satisfie all I cannot see My thinkes the Bishops in this did as warily provide for their owne clayme as the Queenes for whatsoever power Shee had in the Church it was either absolute Coordinate or Subordinate If it was subordinate Shee was in danger of deposition and was to bee ordered and limited and commanded by her Superior If her power was Co-ordinate She had no more power over her equall than her equall had over her and it being as lawfull for her equall to countermand as it was for her to command her power would be as easily disabled and made frustrate by her equalls as her equalls by hers In the last place therefore if her power or headship were absolute why did not her Bishops uphold and declare the same Such dallying with indefinite expressions and dazelling both our selves others with meere ambiguities does often very great harme for uncertainty in Law is the Mother of confusion and injustice and this is the mother of uncertainty According to this obscure declaration of supremacy in the Queenes paper many Papists at this day take the Oath penned in the Statute for that purpose they will abjure the Popes supremacy as to deposition of Princes but not in any thing else and they will hold the King supreme as to all deposers but not as to all men else Those which are not bloudy and dangerous but by the light of nature abhorre regicides rest themselves upon these shallow distinctions but such as are Iesuitically furious and murdrous break through them as meere Cobwebs and the more secure Princes are from the other the lesse safe they are from these These men will still insist upon absolute supremacy somewhere to rest and that it cannot rest in Women or Minors they will still insist upon this argument If the Queene be not competent for that lower Order to whom the Word and Sacraments are committed then shee is not competent for that higher Order which has power over the lower but the Queene is not competent for the lower therefore not for the higher They say that to prescribe Lawes to Preachers is more than to preach and to have power over Ordination is something greater than to enter into Orders and therefore the Law cannot justly give that which is more and greater when God denyes that which is inferior and lesse Our Divines make a very short unsatisfying reply to this Their reply is that though our Bishops owe some kind of subjection to Kings yet the authority of preaching c. is not from Kings but from Christ Himselfe Christ they say giveth the Commission Kings give but a permission only All the power at last of our Kings which is acknowledged equall with that of the Iewish and has been so farre all this while magnified and defended against Papists inables them now no further than to a naked permission in religious affaires their most energeticall influence is permission T is true the Commission of the Apostle was from Christ His Ite docete was their authority And so it remaines still to all their successors but is it therefore a reason that there is now no other Commission necessary Where Christs Commission was particular it was good without any other humane commmission nay permission it selfe was not requisite the Contents of that Commission was not only Ito Doceto but Tu Petre Tu Paule c. Ito doceto but now there remaines nothing of that Commission but the generality Ito doceto the particularity requires now particular Commissions and meere permissions will not serve the turne And as for succession we may suppose that our Saviours first Commission was vigorous as to that purpose but we must know That the Apostles being both Governours and Preachers all that commission which was given them as Governours was not given them as Preachers There must still be successors to the Apostles in Governing and Preaching but it s not necessary that the same men now should succeed in both offices and that whatsoever was commanded or granted to the one office the same should bee granted and commanded to the other The Civill Iudges and Councellors of State under the King are not without Generall Commissions from Heaven to doe justice and preserve order in their severall subordinate stations and yet they depend upon particular commissions too from Gods immediate Vice-Gerent And it seemes to me a weake presumption that Officers in Religion should have more particular Commissions from GOD than Officers of State or that Princes should bee more permissive and lesse influent by way of power in the Church than in the Common-Wealth He that observes not a difference betwixt these times under Christian Princes and those under unbeleeving Caesars is very blind and He is no lesse that thinks particular Commissions now as necessary when Princes joyne to propagate the Gospell as they were when supreme power was abused for its subversion And so makes no difference betwixt a Nero and a Constantine Did Constantine gaine the style of Head-Bishop or Bishop of Bishops meerely by permitting the true worship of God And let us lay aside the strangenes of the Name and apply the thing I meane the same Episcopall power to Queene Elizabeth as was to Constantine and what absurdity will follow What is intended by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which may not bee as properly applyed to Queene Elizabeth as to Constantine If the Patriarchs and Kings of Iudah
that vast spirituall power which He hath put into their hands yea according to that vast spirituall power so will God certainly require at their hands Let Princes know that preaching is not the onely meanes of salvation nor are Ministers the only Preachers nor that the Sacraments are therefore efficacious because the Clergy only may administer them Let them know that though Ministers call themselves only spirituall Persons and the Lot of God and the Church of Christ and put them into the number of Temporall and Lay-men and limit them to secular things yet God will not be so abused they must make an answer to him for things most spirituall and for the improvement of those graces and prerogatives which belong to Gods most beloved inheritance and honoured servants and neere Officers in his Church And let Ministers also on the other side learne to acknowledge that Character of Divinity which is so much more fairely stamped upon Princes than it is upon them and let them not rob Princes of that influence in sacred things which they of themselves can never injoy For as Princes shall answer for them if they imploy their power to the depression of Ministers so shall Ministers also answer for Princes if they cosen Princes out of their supreme power out of pretense that Gods message is so delivered to them Let Ministers assist Princes in their religious and spirituall offices as Aaron and Hur did Moses Let them not contend for supremacy in the highest offices of devotion but like humble servants let them account it their most supreme service to attend upon that supremacy Let them in the most glorious services of Religion looke upon Princes as Ioab did upon his Master in martiall exployts Let them be jealous of themselves that no part of honour due to the independent power of Princes may rest upon the secondary instruments but returne to the first and highest movers And thus shal more honour and sanctity passe from Ministers to Kings and more efficacy and vertue from Kings to Ministers and more grace and happinesse from both to the people Another occasion of mistake and error in Nazianzen and Bilson seemes to be that in comparing the great fruits of Princes and Priests in their severall functions they both speake of the whole order of Priest hood as if every Prince were therefore lesse spirituall or excellent than every Priest because all Priests in some things excell some Princes If we speak of a Prince and all the Clergy within his dominion perhaps we may say he is universis minor and yet he may be singulis major perhaps he may not doe so much good in the Church as all his Clergy yet he may doe more than a great number of them And yet for my part I am of opinion that all the Clergie are so dependent and borrow such vertue from the Kings supreme spirituality as I may so say that whatsoever good they doe they ought not to let the honour thereof terminate in them but returne to him upon whom they depend And now I thinke these things being made cleere that Princes are sacred in respect of their supreme rule and spirituall in respect of their spirituall rule and that Priests have no proper rule at al over mens spirits or in any Ecclesiasticall cases but derivative and subordinate to Princes I may conclude that there can be no office nor action so sacred upon Earth for which Princes are incompetent in respect of personall sanctity And therefore as it is most erroneous to argue that Princes are not capable of spirituall rule because their persons are not holy enough So it is most undenyably true and we may safely argue on the contrary that no mens persons can bee more holy than such as God hath honoured and intrusted with such supremacy of spirituall rule as He hath done Princes THe next argument which raises the Miter above the Diadem is drawne from the power of the Church in Excommunication and it is framed thus That supremacy which makes Princes to be above the Church and free from Ecclesiasticall censures is absurd but such is here maintained Ergo by the word Church may be meant the Catholike Church or some Nationall Church The Church Triumphant or the Church Militant th Church which was from the beginning and shall be to the end or the Church which now is We apply the Title of Head ship to Princes over no Churches but such as are under their present Dominions and that Head-ship we account subordinate to Christs and we allow with Saint Ambrose in some sense that the King is Intra and not supra Ecclesiam For he is not such an universall supreme Head as Christ is but is a member under Christ the Head Yet this impugnes not but that the King may in an other sense be both intra and supra as to his owne dominions for take the Church for Ecclesiasticall persons and so the King may governe all under Christ but take it for Ecclesiasticall graces and so the King may be subject He may be superior to Priests yet acknowledge inferiority to Scripture Sacraments c. And therefore with that of Ambrose that of Nazianzen may well stand Thou raignest King together with Christ Thou rulest together with him Thy sword is from him Thou art the Image of God And surely this is something more glorious than can be applyed in so proper and direct a sense to any Clergie-man whatsoever But let us briefly see what this spirituall sword of Excommunication is which the Church that is Church-men only clayme and wherewith they thinke they may as freely strike Princes as Princes may doe them with the temporall The grounds in Scripture for Excommunication are severall not all intending the same thing yet all are blended and confounded by Clergie-men to the same purpose wheras we ought to put a great difference betweene Excommunication and Non-communication and in Excommunication betweene that spirituall stroke and punishment which was ordinary in case of contempt and that which was extraordinary in cases of most hainous nature Non-communication may be supposed to have beene from the beginning and by common equity for Gemmes were never to be cast to Swines nor the priviledges and Treasures of the Church to bee imparted to such as were enemies and strangers to the Church Heathens and Publicans hated the Religion of the Iewes and therefore it was hatefull to the Iewes to communicate with them either in matters of Religion or in offices of friendship The Iewes did not forbeare all civill conversing with them but all familiarity they did forbeare and yet the forbearance of familiarity was no proper punishment to them Nor was it a thing spiritually inflicted by authority but by generall and naturall consent practised So men of the same nature as Publicans and Heathens now viz. such as hold our Religion contemptible or whose profession is scandalous to Religion they ought to be to us as they were to the Iewes to mingle
more vertuous than his Crosiers and when the Councell was by Constantine called and ordered the Bishop of Rome was not the onely Oracle in that Councell neither had that great trouble of assembling been if one Bishop had then bin more oraculous than all The same offices also which Constantine did in his dayes many other godly Emperors did in their raignes and had not they done them no one Bishop could for the Catholike Bishops were many times inferior in number and power to the Heretikes and if the Pope had then had the power to utter Oracles yet not having power to inforce and authorise the same upon all opposites hee could not have advantaged Religion amongst Heretikes more than hee doth now amongst Protestants Iewes Turkes or Pagans If God gave infallibility to one Bishop for the availe of all the world why doth not that Bishop availe the whole world Why is so great a light put under a Bushell Why are not all men illuminated by it And if God had no regard therein but to that remnant which worships the Pope if his only ayme therein was at the salvation of Papists why is this made a ground of universall authority to the Pope or of generall priviledge to all Bishops But I am to speake now to Protestants which hold no one Bishop infallible but the whole order of Bishops freer from fallibility than any other condition of men therfore to such I shall instance in Rome it selfe what multitudes of Divines of learned profound Divines of politike Sagacious Divines for many ages together have beene drunke and bewitched with the superstitions Idolatries blasphemies and heresies of that inchanting City Can it bee thought safe for Princes and Lay-men wholly to abjure their owne understandings and yeeld themselves Captives to the dictates of Divines only when so many Millions of them for so many ages notwithstanding all their exquisite learning and rare abilities devote themselves to such sottish impostures and grosse impieties nay to some such infernall diabolicall tenets Can men still persist to give up their judgements wholly to other men for their callings sake or for their learning and wisdome supposed when we see this is the very same rock whereupon Rome suffers Ship-wrack and this blind opinion the very snare wherein so great a part of the world still lies intangled But I will avoydeprolixity And now in the fourth place I come to shew that if we will take all these things for granted and ascribe all learning knowledge and freedome from variance to all Clergie-men and to Clergie-men only yet it doth not follow that they are necessarily to rule and command in chiefe Nay I shall make it appeare that it is not only not necessary but that it is many wayes mischievous that the ablest Divine should alwayes be supreme in all causes and over all persons Ecclesiasticall Power and wisdome are things of a different nature for power cannot stand with inferiority but wisdome may be as efficacious in a man of meane condition as in a man of high quality and power if its supremacy be divided it is diminished but wisdome the more it is dispersed the more the vertue of it is increased Wisedome often is contented to serve and to accept of a low dwelling but power ceases to be power if it dwell not in sublimity and have honour to attend it To be wise and to be contemned dejected suppressed are things compatible they are things frequent but to be potent is the same thing as to be great to be sacred to bee a commander of other mens wisdome Nay to be potent hath no terme convertible but to be potent Power in the State is preserved as the Arke was in the Iewish Church it is priviledged from common sight and touch in all well constituted Common wealths it is united in some one person only and to him so lineally intayled that it may never dye never cease never suffer any violent motion or alteration Power is as the soule of Policy of so exquisite and delicate sense that nothing but the wings of Cherubims is fit to guard and inclose it from all rude approaches vacuity in nature is not a thing more abhorred or shunned with greater disturbance and with greater confusion of properties than the least temeration and eclipse of power in the State How absurd then is this axiome which makes power servile to wisdome not wisdome to power wch subjects power to so many translations competitions and ceslations as often as time shall discover such and such excellencies in such and such men If power shall always be at the devotion of such men as for the present appear most wise if she shal be made so cheap and vulgar and prostituted daily to so many uncertainties what quiet can she procure to the world Nay what bloud wil she not procure I need say no more this axiome is neither consistent with Monarchicall nor hereditary rule For first if the most knowing Divine shall alwayes be supreme Commander in all Church affaires for more than this the Pope never claymed then by the same reason the most knowing States-man shall be supreme in the Palace the most knowing Souldier in the Campe the most knowing Lawyer in the Tribunall c. and so Monarchy shall be changed not into the aristocracy or democracy which are formes not utterly corrupt but into poly-coirany than which nothing can be more unpoliticke All Nations have ever rejected this broken confused rule of many severall independent Commanders which cannot chuse but injoyne impossible things sometimes for all these commanders may at the same time use the same mans service in severall places and in this they never can be satisfied wherefore we may well account this rule as bad as anarchy it selfe Nay even Religion it selfe by this meanes may be distracted into severall supremacies for He that is the ablest Divine in polemicall points and in deciding controversies may not be ablest in positive points or matters of Discipline and yet here the one hath as good title to absolute power in his sphere as the other hath in his And as Monarchy cannot so secondly neither can hereditary right stand with this alwayes uncertaine variable title of ability and excellence in knowledge Nay possession of supremacy is here no good plea For he that was the greatest and most knowing man last yeare is not so this yeare neither perhaps will he be next yeare that is so this yeare A thousand incongruities and inconveniences attend upon this paradox for the abilities of men are very hardly tryable and discernable and if they were not yet the subjecting of power to the perpetual giddy changes of new elections would soone confound us into our old Chaos againe as the Poets word is The three principall acts of power are First to make Lawes Secondly to give judgement according to Lawes made Thirdly to execute according to the right intent of judgments In the making of Lawes also according to Tully there is
perverted by private interest and that they are superior to all Christians under their charge yea grant them a right to make what Canons they please and grant them no power to compell obedience to the same and to punish disobedience to the same and this would take away peace and cause much mischiefe and disturbance every where and this we cannot thinke God would be the Author of How ridiculous are the Popes anathemaes to those which renounce his allegiance they seem to us but meere Epigrams sent abroad to provoke laughter And yet why doe they not appeare as ridiculous in Italy as in England were it not for common consent they were not in more force amongst Italians then Englishmen and there is no more true naturall vigor in the Popes Bulls to procure common consent in Italy then in England we may gather then from hence that there is no Ecclesiasticall Supremacie but founded upon the same basis of common consent as temporall supremacie is and being so founded it cannot be Divine or unalterable or above common consent so as to have any efficacie without much lesse against it That some Nations are gull'd and cozen'd out of their consents is no presedent for us for as many Nations are addicted to Mahomits commandes as are to the Popes and in this the dominion of Mahomet is as spirituall as the Popes and is as strong a case to over-rule us as the Popes for if consent were to be forced the Pope might as well force Mahometans as Christians and if it be free his Empire depends as much upon it as Mahomets They then that have erected a Spirituall supremacie not depending upon common consent have been in a great error and they that slight common consent as not capable of a spirituall supremacie seem to have been as much mistaken Many of our Divines say that Parliaments are temporall Courts and so not of spirituall jurisdiction and others say that they may as well frame acts to order the Hierarchie in heaven as to dispose of Ecclesiasticall things on earth both these seeme to me verry erroneous The Argument methinks is equally strong as God would not give a right to binde up other men by Statutes and Commandements but he would give some power withall to drive men by constraint to observe and yeeld obedience to the same so He would not indue any Prince or Court with such power but He would give a right of binding equall and congeniall to that power Princes of themselves are sacred as I have proved and spiritually sacred how much more then are they accounted sitting in Parliament and if Princes in Parliament how much more Princes and Parliaments for to Princes on their awfull Tribunalls is something more due then at other times but to Princes in Parliament there is most of all due in regard that there they are invested with more then their owne naturall power common consent having not derived all power into the King at any other time or in any other place but reserved much thereof till a full union be in Parliament besides setting aside the sanctity of power in Parliaments yet in regard that they are assisted with the best counsell of Divines so they ought not to be accounted meere Temporall Courts for what better advise can those Divines give out of Parliament then in Parliaments Some Parliaments in England have made some Ecclesiasticall acts excluso clerò nay that which was the the most holy act which ever was established in England viz. The Reformation of Religion was passed invito clero and when these things are not only legall but honorable shall we limit Parliaments in any thing wherein the votes of the Clergie are concomitant and concurrent with the Laytie Hooker sayes that the most naturall and religious course for the making of Lawes is that the matter of them be taken from the judgement of the wisest in those things whom they concerne and in matters of God he saies it were unnaturall not to thinke the Pastors of our soules a great deale more wise than men of secular callings but when all is done for devising of Lawes it is the generall consent of all that gives them the forme and vigor of Lawes This we allow of for the most part but wee conceive this to be understood of such Divines as in the judgement of Parliaments are omni exceptione majores for it was not unnaturall in the beginning of the Reignes of Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth to thinke that the Lords and Commons were better Judges of Religion than the Bishops and the Convocation house as matters then stood in England For the whole body can have no sinister end or interest to blinde them but the whole Clergie which is but a part of the whole body may and therefore the whole body is to judge of this and when they see a deviation in the Clergie and observe the occasion of it they must not blindly follow blinde guides but doe according to that light which God hath given them And certainly it were contrary to that interest which every man hath in the Truth that any should be obliged to receive it from other mens mouths without any further inquiry or judgement made upon the same The meanest man is as much interessed and concerned in the truth of Religion as the greatest Priest and though his knowledge thereof be not in all respects equally easie yet in some respects it may be easier for want of learning doth not so much hinder the light of the Laymen as worldly advantage and faction sometimes doth the Priests Examples of these are infinite corruption in the Church before our Saviour and in our Saviours daies and ever since hath oftner begun amongst the greatest Priests Rabbers and Bishops than amongst the meaner Laitie And for this cause God requires at every mans hands an account what doctrine he admits what Lawes he obeys holding no man excused for putting blinde confidence in his ghostly Father and not taking upon him to weigh and try how sure his grounds were And if every private man stand so responsible for his particular interest in the Truth being equally great in the Truth shall not whole States and Nations whose interest is farre greater than their Priests or Bishops is give a sadder account to God if they leave themselves to be seduced by such men which are as liable to error as themselves If wee consider the meere matter of Lawes they are either profitable for the Church or not if they are profitable why should wee thinke that Princes and Parliaments want power to impose Lawes upon themselves for the availe of their owne soules they standing to God accountable for the same according to the greatnesse of their owne interest and if they are not profitable there is no obedience due to them whether Priests or Princes make them and that they be not profitable is equally doubtfull whether Priests or Princes make them Take then Lawes to be questionable as all