Laws for them to be left off God hath appointed his Laws wherein his Pleasure is to be honoured His Pleasure is also That all mens Laws not being contrary unto his Laws shall be obeyed and kept as good and necessary for every Common-wealth but not as things wherein principally his honour resteth and all Civil and Mans Laws either be or should be made to bring Men better to keep God's Laws that consequently or followingly God should be the better honoured by them Part 2. Of the Sermon of the right Vse of the Church And according to this Example of our Saviour in the Primitive Church whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple which was most Holy and Godly and in the which due Discipline with severity was used against the wicked open Offenders were not suffered once to enter into the House of the Lord nor admitted to Common Prayer and the Use of the Holy Sacraments with other true Christians until they had done open Penance before the whole Church and this was practised not only upon mean Persons but also upon the Rich Noble and Mighty Persons Yea upon Theodosius that Puissant and Mighty Emperor whom for committing a grievous and wilful Murder St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain reproved sharply and 't is in the Margin he was only dehorted from receiving the Sacrament until by Repentance he might be better prepared Chrysost did also Excommunicate the said Emperor and brought him to open Penance and they that were so justly exempted and banish'd as it were from the House of the Lord were taken as they be indeed for Men divided and separated from Christ's Church and in most dangerous estate yea as St. Paul saith even given unto Sathan the Devil for a time and their company was shunn'd and avoided of all Godly Men and Women until such time as they by Repentance and publick Penance were reconciled Part 2. Of the Homily of Fasting It is necessary that we make a difference between the Policies of Princes made for the ordering of their Common-weals in provision of things serving to the most sure defence of their Subjects and Countries and between Ecclesiastical Policies in prescribing such Works by which as by secondary means God's Wrath may be pacified and his Mercy purchased An instance of the one is in enjoyning Abstinence from Flesh for the increase of Victuals and the better sustenance of the Poor and the furniture of the Navy the forbearing some piece of licentious Appetite upon the Ordinance of the Prince with the consent of the Wise of the Realm An instance of the other is prescribing a form of Fasting to humble our selves in the sight of Almighty God and which binds the Conscience as to time and occasion and other Circumstances as the Church requires and which has Power to enjoyn or relax as is to be seen in the Homily Each Law of the Kingdom relating to Religion which still suppose whatever is taught and reported enacted and made Law receiv'd and submitted to maintain'd and protested as the Establishments of our Church and State to be bottomed on the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have thence Collected particularly in the four first General Councils or any other General Council 10 Elizabethae Cap. 1. Sect. 36. Nor does our Reformation commence upon any other Grounds than a supposed depravation and defection as to such that first depositum those Rules and Practices depending and with a purpose to restore and reinforce them and did I believe our Church of England not to have followed this Rule did I find her any wayes but swerving from and much rather then if running cross to any one or more of those Primitive Standards designedly erected for the Pillars of Truth the constant Marks and Copies for the practice and adherency of future Ages always obliging for all Church Laws and Practice are not so even of the most Primitive Church even the Laws and Practice Apostolical I would be so far from abetting or closing with such her Autority and Actions that I would immediately go over to and embrace the Rule wherever or if any where to be found in the Isle of Patmos with St. John or in the Cave with Holy Athanasius as not Magistracy and Law so not the Reformed Church of England should be my either fear or obligation to the contrary be the crosser Circumstances whatsoever or wheresoever that attend me could I not joyn with a present visible Church or Body of Believers in the Enjoyment and Profession of it This is only that which as my own Satisfaction so I endeavour to make it others that as Born and Baptized in the Church of England and still in Union with her and my self in particular as a Presbyter there have subscribed to her Articles Canons and Constitutions so 't is to and in that Church which is every ways Primitive and Apostolical and particularly in this instance of Church-Power and that it is so is easily and readily to be demonstrated and which I shall endeavour to do Methodo Synthetica as they speak as it lies in the course of things and actions 1. In the Judgment and by the Determinations of our Church in her conciliary Acts Articles Canons Rubricks in her Book of Ordination c. 2. By the publick Acts and Determinations of the Prince both in Parliament and out of it in his Statutes Injunctions and Proclamations making Law these Antecedent Church Determinations and Autorities preceding 3. From our own particular Doctors in their several Tracts and Writings § III THAT this Power is not any ways supposeable in the People in our Church or Kingdom 't is clear in the form of ordering Deacons and Priests and which is made Law in the Realm where all that the Bishop addresses himself to the People for is this Whether as supposed to be more conversant with them they know any notable Crime they are guilty of and which may render them unfit for the said Holy Function the words of the Bishop are these Brethren if there be any among you that know any Impediment or notable Crime in any of these Persons for which he ought not to be admitted into this Holy Ministry let him come forth in the Name of God and shew what the Crime and Impediment is The People are no more concern'd in Ordinations then as Testimonies of the manners of those who are to be Ordain'd and in which alone they were concern'd of old and in the Articles and Constitutions taking care that fit Men he admitted to Holy Orders what relates to the People and they are to be enquired of is a Testimony of their Conversations and if the Bishop lay hands on suddenly and without due Enquiry and competent Satisfaction and the Person ordained prove unworthy the Orders notwithstanding are valid the Penalty is laid on the Bishop he is to be suspended and to ordain no more for two years Articuli pro clero 1584.
in the Objection the several Acts are these That no one Canon of the Church have the force of a Law but what is appointed by such Inspector of the Canons as he shall name and appoint That no Appeals be made to Rome upon the Penalty and Danger contained and limited in the Act of Provision and Premunire made in the 16th year of King Richard II. That all the Canons not repugnant to the Laws of the Realm or to the Damage of the King's Prerogative Royal are to be used and executed as they were before the making this Act. That no license is to be required from the See of Rome for the Consecrating and Investiture of Bishops That 't is in the King alone to nominate and present them That the Pope has no Power in Spiritual Causes to give Licenses Dispensations Faculties Grants c. all this is to be done at home by our own Bishops and in our own Synods and Councils cap. 21. and this Provision is particularly made Sect. 19. ibid. provided that this Act or any thing or things herein contained shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that your Grace your Nobles and Subjects intend by the same to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any thing concerning the very Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared in Holy Scripture and the Word of God necessary for yours and their Salvation but only to make an Ordinance by Policies necessary and convenient to repress Vice And for good conservation of this Realm in Peace Vnity and Tranquility from Ravine and Spoyl insuing much the old ancient Customes of this Realm in that behalf not minding to seek for any Relief Succor or Remedies for any worldly things and humane Laws in any case of necessity but within this Realm at the hands of your Highness your Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm which have and ought to have an Imperial Power and Autority in the same and not obliged in any worldly Causes to any Superior § VII IN the 26th year of his Reign cap. 1. when declared Supreme Head of the Church of England in Parliament as before recognized by the Clergy the Power he thereby is invested with is also declared viz. To visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all such Errors Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of spiritual Autority or Jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed repressed order'd redressed corrected restrained or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Virtue in Christ's Religion and for the conservation of Vnity Peace and Tranquility of this Realm cap. 14. he appoints the number of suffragan Bishops the Places of their residence and the Arch-Bishop is to consecrate them In the 28th year of his Reign cap. 10. The King may nominate such number of Bishops Sees for Bishops Cathedral Churches and endow them with such Possessions as he will In the 31th year cap. 14. he defends the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrament in but one kind enacts that all Hereticks be burnt and their Goods forfeited that no Priest may marry for Masses Auricular Confession c. in the 34 5. cap. 1. recourse must be had to the Catholick Apostolick Church for the decision of Controversies And therefore all Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of Tindal 's false Translation or comprising any matter of Christian Religion Articles of the Faith or Holy Scripture contrary to the Doctrine set forth sithence Anno Domini 1540. or to be set forth by the King shall be abolished no Printer or Book-seller shall utter any of the said Books no Persons shall play or interlude sing or rhime contrary to the said Doctrine no Person shall retain any English Books or Writings concerning Matter against the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Altar or for the maintenance of the Anabaptists or other Books abolished by the King's Proclamation There shall be no Annotations or Preambles in Bibles or new Testaments in English the Bible shall not be read in English in any Church no Women c. to read the New Testament in English nothing shall be taught contrary to the Kings Injunctions and if any spiritual Person preach teach or maintain any thing contrary to the King's Instructions or Determinations made or to be made and shall thereof be convict he shall for his first Offence recant for his second abjure and bear a fagot for the third he shall be adjudged an Heretick and be burnt and loose all his Goods and Chattels In the 37. year cap. 17. The full Power and Autority he hath by being Supreme Head of the Church of England is To correct punish and repress all manner of Heresies Errors Vices Sins Abuses Idolatries Hypocrises and Superstitions sprung and growing within the same and to exercise all other manner of Jurisdiction called Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Sect. 1. and Sect. 3. 'tis farther added To whom by Holy Scriptures all Authority and Power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of Causes Ecclesiastical and to correct Vice and Sin whatsoever and to all such Persons as his Majesty shall appoint thereunto And so far is all this from deriving to himself and exercising any thing of the Priest-hood that he is totidem verbis declared and reputed only a Lay-Man in the first Section of that Chapter nor do any one of these Instances here produced amount to any more than to the defending and guarding by Laws Truth and punishing and repressing Errors whether in Doctrines or in Manners at least such as are so reputed by the Church and State § VIII 'T IS true and easily observable that just upon the assuming to himself the Title of the supreme Head of the Church there was ground enough for suspition that the Church her self and all her Power was to be laid aside and whereas the reason and end of every particular Parliament before and of each of his till then is still said to be for the honor of God and holy Church and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm 't is abated and said only for the honor of God and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm the benefit of holy Church is in words at least left out and in the room of it is once added to the conservation of the true Doctrine of Christ's Religion As if the design was according to the Models now adayes framed and endeavour'd by private Persons to be set up That the care was to be only of Doctrines in which and in charity and love and abatements to one another the Essence of Church-Unity in general and each Christian with another consists But yet however this so hapned or upon what design either in himself or others 't is certain he abridged not the Church-Men of any one Instance of that Secular worldly Power as that of the supremacie derived unto them is called 25
foresight for that very purpose of all even Contingencies and much more of what was to come to pass in the future Ages of the Church and as the thing it self was so predivulg'd that Kings and Queens should be Nursing Fathers and Mothers to the Church and this seems reasonable and requisite to be done were it only to satisfie mens Minds in the revolution especially since all Revelations ended in their Persons and 't is only for such to believe and assent to after-translations and new appearances in the Affairs of Religion and not upon such notices aforehand as expect and depend upon new Discoveries and Periodical Illuminations whimsical and Enthusiastical Persons WHEN God was to constitute the Jewish § X Body engaged and stipulating according to the Law of Moses the present State and Necessities as well as other Occurrences foreseen hindring the perfection and full accomplishment of his designed Platform for some time the Wisdom and Mercy and Providence of God which is always present with himself and his own People and accompanies his designs foretold and declared what they were to expect in the particular instances the present narrower state of things and future ill humors of Men prohibiting the one and accidentally occasioning the other As when the Model and Shape of their Government was to be changed into that of Kings or a translation of Power from Person to Person as is the pretended case here it was declared long before by Moses Deut. 17.14 as when the Worship was to be transferr'd at first of necessity elsewhere as is again also here pretended that Church-Power was for a time in the Clergy to the place that God should choose to the Temple at that time not built Men are generally in love with old ways and call that old they have time out of mind been accustomed to Innovations are not relish'd without plain and a great Autority nothing but Prophecy or present notorious Miracles or a great assurance from those whom a known outward evidence makes appear and most manifest that 't was delivered down from Persons so assisted by God and as God's Wisdom and Goodness is always the same so neither certainly had his Mercy and Providence been shorter to this his Body of Christians than 't was to that of the Jews in the like case had there been any like it among Christians as indeed there was none the Government of the Church which is here in this Discourse asserted remaining one and the same and in the same succession of Persons when the Powers of the Earth were Christian as before when they were Heathen and the good Providence of God so ordered it that Constantine the Emperor's becoming Christian and his Succession the Church and Church-men received only new Courage and Strength the greatest additional advantages in such their Charges and Offices by the Imperial Countenance and Protection with all manner of supplies and abundance as to Places Utensils Revenues and Immunities Stately Churches being immediately erected with the greatest magnificence and elegancy of Structure the Furniture as rich and Endowments as large with a like Privilege as to Persons and Things Investitures every ways answerable and all assistance conferr'd and Provision for the time to come by setled Laws and most wholesome Constitutions to preserve and continue what was thus done and granted Serviant Reges terrae Christo etiam leges ferendo pro Christo as St. Augustine speaks in his 48 Epistle The Kings of the Earth serve the Church in making Laws to defend her and which Saying was occasioned by St. Augustine and more to that purpose in that Epistle by reason of the severer Imperial Laws and Penalties made against and inflicted upon that spawn of the Donatists those unruly Circumcellians who broke out into all manner of Outrages and Violence and though the Church had not long enjoyed this Peace but what is the woful effect of Ease and Plenty Divisions and Breaches arose and grew wide within her self carried on to great Ruptures and much was innovated and taught amiss in other Points yet as to this particular the Subject of Church-Power it was never questioned fell not under debate much less was it wrested out of the hands of Church-men did any one Emperor if not withal known Heretical either usurp it to himself or alienate it from the Bishops but all along acknowledge and confirm it to them and this will be as clear from the Aera or Date of their turning Christians as it has appear'd to have been from the first entrance of Christianity till then and that if we continue our Method and look into those times as we have done into the foregoing Ages THERE was no Man of the Age more § XI tenderly Conscientious in professing and paying his Obedience to the Emperor than was the holy Athanasius how solicitously and anxiously did he Vindicate himself when accused as an Enemy and Traducer of him when by his cruel and most malicious Adversaries which were many represented as Rebellious and Disobedient This will appear sufficiently from all such as have imployed their Pens in giving to the World an account of those Transactions by the Arians and Meletians managed and improv'd against him and which were numerous and particularly from his own Apology to Constantius of which he that will take a taste let him read the beginning of it only if he thinks much of his labour to go through with it he acknowledges the Power of the Empire in Religious things in assigning the Feasts of Dedication and their times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he acknowledges his Power over his Person and asks his Diploma or Letters of leave for the exercise of his Episcopal Function in his own Church of Alexandria and for the Convention of Synods Ibid. p. 682. 754. 761. Ed. Paris he asks the Emperor's Grant concerning the Publick Service and Churches in Alexandria as we have out of Sozomen Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 20. but yet he puts a difference betwixt the Work of a Synod and that of the Empire and blames those that confound them or rather refer all to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 730. he refuses to receive Arius into Communion upon his Heretical Terms and Principles though the Emperor do Command him though he threaten him if he do not and for refusing he causes him to be deposed by a Synod held at Tyre for that very purpose and of his own Convention and afterwards banish'd him and which he submits to but not to deliver up the Rights of the Church of God as Socrates tells us in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. cap. 27 28.32.35 and he is so bold with Constantius as to six the mark of Antichrist upon him when he undertakes the Protection of a wicked Religion dissolving the received Orders of Christ and his Apostles creates of his own head new Constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Athanasius Ep. ad Solit. Vit. agentes p. 845. 860. and reproves the Emperor
or some Historians their Creatures Men Ambitious and Industrious to keep and confine to themselves that Power which the present Circumstances and Necessities gave occasion even Necessity to Profess and Practice the Powers of the World being not become Christian and which though it bears no Objection as in it self for what ever of ill Church-men might design thencefrom sure it is this sort of Truth and Power relating to Christianity was designedly and professedly committed and intrusted in the hands of Church-men alone and by Christ himself with whom he has promised to be to the end of the world and always without any intermission and never to forsake them And 't is as certain again that this is an evil Machiavel design against all Religion in every instance of it thus professedly endeavouring to wrest it out of their Hands to lodge its Possession Care and Preservation elsewhere in the Laity or at the best in Kings and Secular Governors by the flattery of a new Honor and Prerogative cast upon them the easier to gain their assistance and with more Success to manage their main design Is it not now the common Discourse of the Many Religion and which is still by that sort of Men whose Design is to have no Religion at all complain'd of and lamented as decay'd and lost what can never be retrived or this done continued by Church-men whose purpose is only by their Pride and Ambition to usurp and inclose all into their own hands to have within themselves an Arbitrary Autoritative Absolute Rule and Governance over Mens Faith and Persons and the very title of a Clergy-man gives a suspition of either Unfaithfulness or Insufficiency 't is what is managed by the great Hugo Grotius That Religion is not to be entrusted with nor can it as it ought be promoted and propagated by the Bishops and Councils the Prince is alone capable of it though it is in his raw indigested youthful Book De Imper. Sum. Potest in Sacris and his Posthumous Work after all he then ran with the present Croud he was ingaged in as himself afterwards acknowledges and much certainly is to be attributed to those Untheological barbarous Proceedings in the Synod of Dort which was to be sure fresh in Memory if not actually on the Stage when he was in those his Meditations they allowing neither Humanity nor Argument to such as were Remonstrants whereof Grotius was one that is not of the Calvinistical Presbyterian both Faith and Faction and that in every Point as they required Deprivations Banishments were their Ordinary Punishment and the like Cruelties nay worse and more rigorous Proceedings which was by the French Calvinists at that time upon the same score and that too upon their own Brethren of the Reformation whereof Peter du Moulin was the Head and great Manager of which a bitter taste and such an act of Tyranny as no Story can Parallel is to be had in the Life of Episcopius upon these Reflexions in all likelihood it is that we find not only Grotius but those otherwise Learned and Ingenious Men on the Remonstrants side still to inveigh against Synods and the unfitness of Church-men to Preside and Rule where such controverted Cases are on foot to be debated and determined asserting the Prince as much the fitter Person Oppression makes the Wise man Mad. All which is to be seen of any that are Conversant in those Transactions particularly in the Epistles of those learned Men lately collected in one Volume and Printed at Amsterdam I shall therefore to take off the shew and appearance of this Objection upon what account soever it was made Vindicate the Integrity of true Church-men as well as farther assert this great Truth now in hand by adding to what has been said already the Publick Acknowledgments and Declarations of the Christian Emperors themselves That Church-Power thus removed from them is no injury to their Crowns and Jurisdictions thus seated and limited in the Bishops and Church-Officers only is no Usurpation on their parts 't is what is really existing in them CONSTANTINE the First Christian § XV Emperor continues the same style and owns the same Power in the Church which he found in it at his Conversion and receiving Christianity in his Epistle to Anulinus he says of Cecilianus the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he is Chief and hath a Government as a Church-man in that Province over which Anulinus was placed by himself as a President in Seculars and enjoyns him that they that serve at the Altar be freed from all Publick Services in the State the better to attend it Euseb Eccles Hist lib. 10. cap. 7. he calls the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Vita Constantini lib. 2. cap. 2. and cap. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he writes to the Bishops as Governors having Jurisdictâ—on not in Secular Affairs that belongs to the Presidents of Provinces or the Praefectus Praetorio to whom he there directs them for assistance and this is yet clearer in that his known saying to the Christian Bishops when entertained by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are appointed by God as Bishops of those things which are within the Church I am appointed by God as a Bishop of those things which are without De Vita Constantini lib. 4. cap. 24. and what is meant in the Ecclesiastical sense of it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appears plainly by a like Phrase in the Tenth Canon of the Council of Carthage just now made use of by us where to disobey the Bishop is Deposition and if they be still turbulent in the Church and go on to Sedition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word but a little changed the outward Secular Power is to Chastise them i. e. by outward Penalties laid upon them the business and work of every Prince being to Defend and Protect the Church or if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be interpreted to relate only to the World i. e. those that are not Christians as some would have it and so the meaning is that Constantine's Province is to govern them which are out of the Church and no Christians the Bishops can take Cognizance only of such as are in her Arms and have submitted to her Discipline the two Jurisdictions are fully owned as a part and distinct and the Empire only appears a loser by the nicety because his right as from hence in Church Affairs and over their Persons is denied him Nor has David Blondel any such reason for his clamorous Exceptions against Rufinus in his Tenth Book of Ecclesiastical History Cap. 2. because he brings in Constantine speaking to the Bishops upon the occasion of some particular Quarrels that were amongst them and telling them Deus vos constituit Sacerdotes potestatem dedit de nobis quoque judicandi ideò nos à vobis rectè judicamur vos autem non potestis ab hominibus judicari that God had constituted them Priests and gave them Power of judging