inscription is stiled Religionis Fidei Auctor The Increaser of Faith and Religion And Basilius the Emperour speaking of the Church as a Ship Ejus sibi gvbernacula ait a Deo concredita Saith that God hath committed the Sterage or Goverment of it to him And there is an Ancient Epistle of Elutherius Bishop of Rome in which he stiles the King of England vicarium Dei in regno suo agens de negotio Religionis Gods vicar for the management of the business of Religion in his Kingdome and the first Moguntine Councel calls Charles the Great Vere Religionis Rectorem the Rector of the True Religion and as they of old so the Reformed Churches of late were of the same perswasion in this particular As it appears by their respective confessions Magistratum est non modo de civili politia esse sollicitos verum etiam dare operam ut Sacrum Ministerium conservetur Christique Regnum propagetur denique horum est efficere ut Sacrum Evangelii verbum undique praedicetur ut singuli purae Deum colere venerari ex praescripto verbi ipsius libere possint Belgica It is the Magistrates Duty not only to be careful for the Civil Politie but to endeavour likewise that the Sacred Ministry be Preserved and the Kingdom of Christ Propagated It is his duty finally to see that the Holy Gospel be every where Preached and that all persons may purely and freely worship and serve God according to his word And so the latter Helvetian Confession Teneat ipse Magistratus in manibus verbum Dei ne huic contrarium doceatur procuret bonis legibus ad verbum Dei compositis moderetur populum sibi a Deo concreditum Let the Magistrate take into his hands the World of God and take care nothing be taught contrary to it And let him Govern the people committed to him of God by good and wholesome Lawes according to the word of God And the Confession of Basil waving some others Quilibet Christianus Magistratus omnes vires eo diriget ut apud fidei suae commissos nomen Dei sanctificetur regnum ipsius propagetur ipsiusque voluntati cum seria extirpatione scelerum vivatur Hoc officium gentili Magisiratui injunctum fuit quanto magis Christiano Magistratui commendatum esse debeat ut vero Dei vicario It ought to be the Serious Endeavour of every Christian Magistrate that the name of God be Hallowed and his Kingdom Propogated among those who are commited to his Trust and that they live denying all ungodliness according to his Will This was a Duty incumbent on the Heathen Magistrate how much more ought it to be commended to the Christian Magistrate as the True Vicar of Christ Or Church of England deems those worthy of Excommunication who deny unto our Kings the same Power and Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes that the Pious Kings of the Hebrews Exercised in the Church of the Jewes Canon the 2d And here we must necessarily enquire how far the Authority of the King Extends in matters of Religion whether we are to obey him in every thing he commands without exception or but in some things only We do not believe the Authority of the King Extends so far as Bellarmine stretcheth the Popes when he saith Si papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas de Rom. pont l. 4. c. 5. If the Pope should erre in commanding Vice and forbidding Vertue the Church is obliged to believe that Vice is good and Vertue is evil We extend not the power of the King as certain Religious Persons who left it as a Rule to their confidents at Padova 1606. did the Popes authority Si quod occulis nostris album apparet nigrum ille esse definierit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare If that which in our eye is white be defin'd by the Pope to be black we ought also to say that it is black But this we say our obedience is required to all his commands that are not repugnant to the law of nature or contrary to the Express Word of God If he command any thing forbidden by the Law of Nature or by any Positive Law of God that is now obliging to Christians or if he forbid any thing Commanded of God we are not to yield obedience For as in nature inferiour causes depending in point of activity upon Superiour have no power of acting contrary to the efficacy of the Superiour So in morality as St. August Si aliud Imperator aliud jubeat Deus quid judicatur major poteâ—tas Deus da veniam O Imperator de verb. Dom Sec Mat Serm 6 Where the Emperors and Gods Commands are one contrary to the other what Judgement shall I make the power of God is Supream the Emperour therefore must be supplicated to pardon me If the King Command any thing that God forbids or forbid any thing that God Commands in both these cases we must then fortifie our selves with the saying of St Peter and the other Apostles We ought to obey God rather then men Acts 5 29 And God having by nature prohibited the killing of an Innocent person the Hebrew Midwives are commended for not obeying the Kings commandement concerning the killing of the male children But the Midwives feared God saith the Text and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them Exod 1 17. Whatever a commandement of God makes necessary no humane authority can render not necessary or obliging and therefore it is usually said that the Gospel Ministry and Sacraments are not subject to any humane Authority that is in point of changing or altering that in them which is of Divine Institution For what God hath Determined Affirmatively or Negatively man cannot determine the contrary But in things not determined by God as Time Place and manner of performing actions commanded by God the King by his Authority may determine these Though the King cannot Prohibite an Holy Harmless rightly constituted Ministry the Preaching of the Word or Administring the Sacrament according to the form of Divine Institution yet he may require them to preach at such times and in such places only he may prescribe them the habit in which they shall Officiate by Vertue of that Apostolicall Precept Let all things be done Decently and in Order 1 Cor. 14. ult This Rule is so equitable that all men will yield their assent That all things in the Worship of God ought to be done Decently and in Order But what is Decent and Orderly is not so soon agreed For that saith one which you call Decent is in my Opinion the most unseemly thing in the world And that is most disorderly in my Judgement which you account Regularly performed and in Order There must therefore be some proper Judge agreed upon to Determine what is Decent and in Order Do you then Judge in your selves laying only your Prejudice and
grand cases of Blasphemy and Heresy but in those lesser occasions of Errour and Schism he is entrusted with Power to quench the least spark as well as the devouring flame Arius in Alexandria was but a little spark in the beginning but because the Christian Emperour did not timely interpose his Authority for the quenching it Totum orbem ejus flamma depopulata est it became a flame which consumed almost the whole Christian World The Prince's Authority may and ought to be exercised in restraining dangerous Disputations concerning Religion Sozomen l. 7. c. 12. tells us that Constantine enacted a Law against Disputes of the Trinity Nemo Clericorum de summa Trinitate disputet And Marcianus prohibited all Disputes De fide Christiana of the Christian Religion Andronicus the Emperour when his Bishops were disputing curiously and subtilely of those words of Christ Pater major me est My Father is greater then I threatned to cast them into the River Ni tam periculosis sermonibus abstinerent unless they did forbear such dangerous Discourses That of Sisinius to Theodosius being most true Disputando de sacris accendi tantum contentiones that Contentions only are fostered by Disputations Secondly To the second Question How far the Coercive Power of the Prince extends It is acknowledged that his Authority may extend to Imprisonment Confiscation of Goods and Banishment of persons sinning against his Commands but whether it may extend to Life is not so manifest because the Apostle saith onely Haereticum hominem devita Titus 3.10 The Gloss upon Gratian turns the Verb into a Substantive de vita and adds supple Tolle There is not as a learned Gentleman of our Church in His Historical Vindication hath observed any example in History of prosecuting an Heretick further then to avoid him till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding that if the Church were in trouble the State was seldom otherwise provided by Laws to punish Hereticks The Councel of Nice therefore having in the year 325 censured the opinion of Arius for Heretical the Emperour who had formerly granted certain considerable Priviledges to Christians declared in the year following Haereticos atque Schismaticos hâ— privilegiis alienos that no Heretick or Schâ—â—smatick should have any part in those Privileges but they rarely proceeded to blood unless perhaps against some seditious Preacher And the Holy men of those times used earnest perswasions to deterr men inclining to that severity from it as not esteeming it to agree with that entire Charity that should be in Christians St. August professeth he had rather be himself slain by them then by detecting the Donatists be any cause they should undergo the punishment of death Ep. 127 This was the Temper of the Christians at least 800. years after Christ But about the year 1000 the Christian World began to punish Miscreants as branches not bearing fruit in Christ by casting them into the fire But the Devout men of those Times did not approve of this rigour St. Bernard explaining those words of Solomon Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoil the Vines Cant. 2.15 If saith he according to the Allegory by the Vines we understand the Churches and by the Foxes Heresies or rather Hereticks the meaning is plain that Hereticks be rather taken then driven away Capientur dico non armis sed agrumentis taken I say not by Arms but Arguments whereby their Errours may be refuted and they themselves reconciled if possible to the Catholick Church And that the Holy Ghost intends this is evident saith he because he doth not say simply Take the Foxes sed capite nobis take us the Foxes sibi ergo sponsae suae id est Catholicae jubet acquiri has vulpes cum ait capite eas nobis In Cantic Serm. 64. He commands therefore that they be taken for himself and his Spouse that is the Catholick Church when he saith Take us the Foxes Thus the holy men in that Age in which they first stopped mens mouths not with Arguments but Arms judged of it And indeed we have not many Examples of persons suffering meerly for Conscience till after the year 1216. in which Pope Innocent the Third laid the foundation of that new Court called since the Inquisition who appointed such as should be convicted of Heresie ut vivi in conspectu hominum comburentur to be committed alive to the flames of fire And though such proceedings are not at any good agreement with those rules and examples which Christ hath left us in holy Scripture yet the practise hath been long since taken up in this Kingdom and is in force at this day by the Laws Anno 1166. about thirty Dutch came hither who detested Baptism the Eucharist and other parts of Religion and being by Scripture convicted in an Episcopal Councel called by the King at Oxford they were condemned to be Whipped and burnt in the face and a command given that none should either receive or releive them so that they miserably Perished By the Common-Law that is the Custom of the Realm of England Hereticks are to be Punished by Consuming them with Fire and accordingly there is a Writ De Haeretico comburendo An Apostate Deacon in a Councel held at Oxford by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by Lay-hands committed to the Fire Bracto l. 3. de Corona c. 9 In Edward the Third's daies about the Year 1347. two Franciscans were Burnt quod de Religione male sentirent because they thought amiss of Religion Pol. Virg. Hist Ang. l. 19. And in the year 1583. Copin and Thacker were hanged at Saint Edmonds-Bury for publishing Brown's Book Cambd. which saith Stow p. 1174 was written against the Common-Prayer Book A Fair warning And thus you see if men will not be Subject to the Higher Powers in matters of Religion for Conscience sake they must be subject because of wrath for the Prince is entrusted with a Coercive Power and bears not the Sword in vain But because it is a thing Morally impossible for one man as the King to Govern the whole Church in his Kingdom Personally by himself He may substitute or delegate others under him to manage all his Power which is communicable in the Government of the Church I say communicable because there are some things inseparable from the Supreme Power as to Correct Alter Ratifie Repeal or Make Null Canons and Constitutions made by any persons under him to reverse or mitigate a Sentence injustly or unduly passed the right of Appeals of nominating Bishops to their respective Sees of translating or deposing them where he seeth cause These and such like are incommunicable unto any inseparable from his Crown But in all other things that are not of this nature he may give Power to others to Govern the Church to whom all persons ow their obedience by virtue of his Delegation as much as to the King himself because it is the King that requires or
suadenda non imperanda el. Bern. Serm. 66. in Cant. you may allure you can't compell any man to believe But besides these Internal there are External actions the words and works of men and these fall under Humane Authority and Power thus the Emperours Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius speak concerning a man that is an Heretick Sibi tantummodo nocitura sentiat aeliis obfutura non pandat If he will think evil things he shall surmise them to himself onely he shall not publish them to the hurt of others And it was with respect to this that Constantine stiled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop in those things that are without Though therefore the Prince cannot compel men to believe this or that yet he may compel them not to make Profession of any other Faith then that which he allows or approves Thus the King of Nineveh enjoyned his Subjects Sackcloth Fasting Prayer and turning from the Violence in their hands Jonah 3.8 and indeed there 's nothing in which the Supreme power consists more then in determining the Publick Exercise of Religion All that discourse of Politicks make this Praecipuum inter Majestatis jura a Principal Jewel of the Crown to this every man's Reason subscribes For if it be demanded why in the land of our Nativity this Kingdom the Roman Religion flourished in the days of Queen Mary and the Evangelical or Reformed in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth The Proximate cause of it must be acknowledged the will and pleasure of the respective Queens Or if it be asked why one way of Worship is used by the French and Spaniard and another by the Dane and Swed you cannot answer any thing but the will of those that Rule over them If it be objected against this that such a Power in the Prince would render the State of Religion unstable and mutable Religion being subject to be changed as oft as the Prince should change his mind It must be acknowleged true but First The Danger is as great in other things and respects the Work always answering the Artificer and qualis Rex talis lex such as the King is such are his Laws But no person may have his right denyed him for fear least he should abuse it for no man whatsoever should upon this account have his right in any thing because it is possible for him to abuse it Secondly Supposing the right possible to be transferred from the Supreme Magistrate to some other the danger and inconvenience would be no less For upon whomsoever it be transferred they who must Manage this Power are men and so fallible and subject to mutability Our onely hope comfort in this case is in the Divine Providence the minds of all men being in the power of God to confirm them in the truth or to suffer them to turn from the truth to a ly but the hearts of Kings more especially according to that of Solomon The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of water Prov. 21.1 God can and doth carry on his own work both by good and evil Kings well knowing that a Tempest is sometimes more necessary and profitable for his Church then a Calm If he that rules be a Pious Prince conversant in the Scripture frequent in Prayer alover of the Church one that enclines his ear to the Counsels of those who are truly Pious and Learned the Truth prospers and prevails mightily under Him but if He be a Person of a perverse spirit and corrupt judgment He proves an heavy scourge to those that are in subjection under Him Et legibus malis probantur boni legibus bonis emendantur mali August advers Crescentium l. 3. c. 51. Evil Laws are for the probation of Good men as good Laws for the emendation of Evil men The Jewish Church saw frequent mutations in their Worship Hezekiah abolished the Idol-Worship of hs Father Ahaz his Grand-childe Manasseh restored it again and Josiah his Grand-childs abolished in a second time and yet the Right of their Kings was never disputed For It was never lawfull for the People to assume unto themselves the Publick Exercise of Religion by force but if they cannot conscionably conform to it they may Pray and Weep and Fly other weapons Christianity allows them not Thus the Prophet Elijah fled from Ahab and thus our Lord Christ indulgeth if he doth not Counsel his Apostles saying When they persecute you in this City flee ye into another Matt. 10.23 Thus St. Cyprian and Athanasius delivered themselves by flight in the time of Persecution and the Christians who lived under the rage and fury of Julian knew nothing but the water that distilled from their own eyes to quench the fire of that Persecution Aliud contra Persecutorem non erat remedium ultra nefas procedere Nazian Orat. in Julianum They knew no other remedy against their persecutors to proceed any further was villany Coactus repugnare non novi dâ—lere potero flere potero gemere potero aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere Ambr. I know not how to resist being constrained I can weep and grieve and mourn otherwise I neither can nor ought to resist And this they did not as some have vainly dreamed because they were destitute of Power to make resistance For as Tertullian in his Apology saith of them Vrbes Insulas c. Palatium Senatum Forum impleverant the Cities Islands Castles Garrisons Judgment-Seats Palace and Senat were full of them and yet as he Nulli Albiniani nulli Nigriani nulli Cassiani there were no Traitors or Rebels much less King-killers among them Eusebius Pius the Bishop of Samosatia being banished by the command of Valens the Emperour the people would have held him in his Episcopal See by force but he having learned the Apostle's lesson Rom. 13.1 taught them also what Reverence and Respect was due to the Emperour's commands and telling them that he would not if he could secure himself by a multitude compassing him about Nec ego me vallabo inquit circumfusione populorum he thereby suppressed an imminent sedition These and many more Examples at hand do abundantly evidence what deep impression the words of Christ to Peter made upon the spirits of Christians heretofore The words of Christ are Put up again thy sword into its place for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Matt. 26.52 Arripit autem qui non a Deo accipit dedit autem Deus soli summae potestati aliis non nisi per illam Grot. He takes the sword namely with an hand of violence who doth not receive it from God for God hath given it onely to the Supream Power and to others by him Thus then you see the determining of the Publick exercise of Religion is invested in the Supreme Power And it is no less the Prince's Duty to abolish or punish all false Worship or Religion Thus Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon being convinced of the
Divinity of the God of Israel made a capital Law against the blasphemers of his Name Therefore I make a Decree that every People Nation and Language which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach c. shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill Dan. 3.29 Darius of the Medes and Persians Enacted a Royal Law to the same import I make a Decree that in every Dominion of my Kimgdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God Dan. 6.26 In Athens they had a Law against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irreligion upon which three famous Philosophers Socrates Theodorus and Protagoras suffered Socrates as Laertius reports in his Life was accused 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Irreligion and the Action Commenced against him in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates is a transgressor in not esteeming those for Gods whom the City esteems such but brings in other new Gods of his own And all this was done onely by virtue of the Supreme Power residing in them For though every Master of a Family be obliged to remove Idols and every thing of false Worship out of his own Private Family yet the King or persons delegated by him may onely do it in the Publick There is a Text indeed in Deuteronomy that seems to countenance private persons in destroying of Idols and false Worship Ye shall destroy their Altars and break down their Images cut down their Groves and burn their Graven Images with fire Deut. 7.5 But if St. August may be admitted to Comment upon the Text he tells you that they might not do it without Authority from the Higher Powers Cumacceperitis potestatem hoc facite ubi non est data nobis potestas non facimus Serm. 6. de verb. Dom. sec Mat. You may do this when you have received Authority but without Authority we do it not Hence Nicephorus reprehends and condemns Abdas the Bishop for demolishing the Persians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple in which they Worshipped the Fire which proved a matter of much inconvenience and trouble to the Christians The Pagan Temples in the City of Rome were not shut up by the Christians till Constantine made a Law against them And the Elibertine Councel An. 305. provides by a Canon Si quis Idolum fregerit ibidem occisus fuerit ne in Martyrum numerum recipiatur that if any person be killed for breaking an Idol in pieces he shall not be enrolled among the Martyrs of the Church because saith the Councel Neque in Evangelio scriptum sit neque ab Apostolis factum reperiatur we have neither precept in Scripture nor example of the Apostles to countenance the Fact And thus you see The Supreme Magistrate is entrusted with a Coercive Power in matters of Religion The Reason why he is entrusted with this Power is Because without this he would bear the Sword in vain The Apostle St. Paul tells us that he beareth not the Sword in vain Rom. 13.4 The Sword saith Theophylact is the Coercive Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he bears it not in vain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that he may punish Evil-doers It is a thing to be wished to be beg'd of Heaven with our most Fervent Prayers that all Christians might be like those in the Acts of one Minde and of one Soul that all who confess God's Holy Name should agree in the Truth of his Holy Word as our Church teacheth us to Pray but the peevishness of some the interest and malice of others renders this a thing scarcely to be hoped for Yet must not the Prince for all this abandon the care of Truth Unity and Peace neither of which could possibly be provided for by him without a Coercive Power For nothing hath a greater influence upon the External Happiness and Peace of a Kingdom then Religion And that in a double respect First In respect of the Divine Providence which hath promised to reward Piety or Religion not onely with the great things of Eternity but with the good things of this present life Godliness saith the Apostle 1 Tim. ◠8 is profitable to all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come And thus Livy Omnia prospera eveniunt colentibus Deos adversa spernentibus that is All things succeed prosperously to those that Worship the Gods but nothing well to those that despise them And Horace ascribes all the miseries and calamities that befel Italy to their neglect of the Gods Dii multa neglecti dederunt Hesperiae mala luctuosae And it is no wonder saith Vat. Max. that the Gods watch over the Roman Empire with a most indulgent care seeing the Romans are so scrupulous in examining and observing the smallest matters in Religion Quod tam scrupulosa cura parvula quaeque momenta religionis examinare videretur Secondly In respect of the Nature the Genuine and proper Tendency of Religion which is to render men Peaceable Obsequious Lovers of their Country and Studious of the Common welfare Now where men are generally thus spirited that State or Kingdom must needs be flourishing and happy Thus Plato makes Religion Legum honestae vitae vinculum the bond of Laws and all good life and Cicero Humanae societatis fundamentum the foundation of all Humane Society I shall add onely to this that such a Coercive Power is necessary to restrain that curiosity and itch of Novelty that is in men All mutation in Religion though but in the Rites and Ceremonies of it if it be without the Authorīty or consent of the Prince breeds an Earth-quake in the Bowels of the Common-Wealth and brings it many times into utmost danger Hence the great Councel of Nice cryed out so Passionately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the old Customes take place But without a coercive Power in the Prince this cannot be for there is in every man a Natural affection of novelty As they in Ezekiel who did set their posts by God's posts and their thresholds by his thresholds Ezek. 43.8 so men will be bringing a Bason instead of the Font a new Directory instead of the old Liturgy unless their curiosity by the Prince's Edicts be constrained And thus the Common-Wealth or Kingdom will be cast into a quotīdian Feaver or Palsy-fit I conclude this with that rational saying of Parisiensis Licitum est principi abusum gladii Spiritualis repellere eo modo quo potest etiam per gladium materialem aliter enim gladium sine causa portat De pot Regis Papae c. 21. It is lawfull for the Prince to repel the abuse of the Spiritual Sword in such a way as he best can yea by taking into his hand the material Sword for otherwise he should bear the Sword in vain But in what cases hath the Prince a Coercive Power and how far doth it extend First He hath a coercive power not onely in the