VIII Of the Interpretation of the Canon and Liturgy to be made by private persons and how it ought to proceed I. THe liberty of Interpreting the Canon and Liturgy belongs to private persons as their Right II. The Interpretation of private persons distinguished III. The Rules by which they are to proceed in it assigned in the general IV. The more particular assignation of them And first of those concerning the Interpretation of Words and Phrases V. The first of those Rules VI. The Second VII The Rules to be observed in the Interpretation of the sense of the Canon and Liturgy VIII The first of them IX The Second X. The Third XI The Fourth XII The Fifth and Last XIII The conclusive caution subjoyned to these things I. THe use of mens judgment of discerning The liberty of interpreting the Canon Liturgy belongs to private persons as their right both by the Natural and Divine Law being conceded to them above generally though not universally in respect to the object and it following from thence that their liberty of making use of it for the fixing upon their immediate notions in respect to the matters of the Canon and Liturgy belongs to them as their Right by the same Laws and in its manner also There ariseth from hence a necessity that they should have it conceded to them for the making their several interpretation of these publick writings And this concession is also one of those derivative liberties belonging to private persons in relation to their performance of obedience to the Laws of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity II. This interpretation then of private persons The interpretation of private persons distinguished severally and variously being in it self distinguished from the authentick interpretation of the Canon and Liturgy contained in the more derivative publick writings of the Church which hath been already mention Hic supra Lib. 3. Cap. 7. §. 2 alibi Infra Cap. ult and will be further hereafter and the more remote and general Rule for the interpreting the Canon and Liturgy by the Original Divine Rule of Scripture having been laid down and also explicated already Hic supra Lib. 3. Cap. 6. §. 4. I come here to distinguish of the interpretation of private persons in relation to the Canon and Liturgy And that is either of the Words and Phrases contained in them and of which they consist or else of the sense of those Words and Phrases and which is meant and intended to be expressed by them The Rules by which they are to proceed in it assigned in the general III. The Rules then by which men are to proceed for the making this interpretation in this matter are in the general Partly those common to the interpretation of all other writings and partly those proper to the interpretation of this sort of writings in an Vniformity of Churches Those which are common to this sort of writings with all others are chiefly concerning the interpretation of the terms and phrases and those proper are also chiefly of the other sort The more particular assignation of them And first of those concerning the interpretation of the words and phrases IV. More particularly then first I come to the Rules for interpretation of the words and phrases in the Canon and Liturgy And those are principally these two together with their explications The first concerning vulgar termes and the second concerning terms of Art and so in like manner also concerning each sort of phrases V. The first Rule then concerning the terms and phrases which are trite and vulgar The first of those Rules is this That they are ordinarily to be taken according to the vulgar and popular use and acceptation of them And in relation to this sort of words and phrases principally and most properly is that Rule true concerning use and custome as to all sorts of writings That it is it Quem penes arbitrium est vis norma loquendi In whose power is the Government and Force and Law of Speech And this popular and customary use of such words and phrases as are made use of in the Canon and Liturgy is to be observ'd by every one either what it is or hath been in every National Church and Society of men And it is ordinarily to be presum'd that the composers of the Canon and Liturgy making use of such kinds of words and phrases in the composing of them do ordinarily intend them to signifie in their own common and ordinary way The Second VI. The Second Rule is concerning words of Art and that kind of phrases also And such Grammatical and Artificial words are either literal or figurative And the phrases compounded of them are accordingly And the Rule to be held concerning them is more generally and in either capacity of them That Artis vocabul◠ex Arte Authoritate prudentum sunt interpretanda Words of Art are to be interpreted from Art and the Authority of wise men And more particularly That we should never depart from the literal signification of them Nisi ad absurdum vitandum ubi cogimur ex consequentia Vnless it be to avoid an absurdity and where we are constrained to do it by some consequence of things And as to the several sorts of tropes and figures usual in writings the Rhetoricians and Artists in that kind are to be consulted And although it be true that the Canon of Doctrines in any National Church being a systematical explication of the original Divine Canon as hath been said is presumed ordinarily to be as plain as such may be yet because the Scripture it self delivers the Doctrines of God somtimes in general and somtimes in particular somtimes in literal somtimes in figurative terms Hic supra Lib. 3. Cap. 7. §. 7. as hath been said also therefore it is not to be wondered at if the Canon in its delivery of them according to the exemplar of Scripture somtimes at least and according to the occasions of it consist of such kind of terms also VII These Rules then concerning the interpretation of the words and phrases of the Canon and Liturgy being thus briefly laid down The Rules to be observed in the interpretation of the sense of the Canon Liturgy The first of them we come next to those to be observ'd concerning the Doctrinal and Hypothetical sense of those words and phrases of which the Canon and Liturgy consist and which is next to be interpreted VIII And for the finding out of the sense of the Canon and Liturgy to be referred to Scripture in the first place the ordinary Rules common to the interpretation of all writings are to be made use of Such are the comparing the Text with the Context and one place with another and the like And these proportionably and according to the capacities of the several Canons and Liturgies in several Churches IX In the second place The Second The more derivative writings of the
absolve presently and in a very few words And the like distinctions of Doctrines which are in the more derivative writings of the Church will be sufficiently imply'd in this our description of those two sorts only here The Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy assign'd in the general III. More generally then The whole Canon is the declared Doctrine of the Church That being the designed Office of it in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity as is said Systematically to comprehend such the professed Doctrines of any Church And so The whole substance of Doctrines also in the Liturgy are the declared Doctrines of any such Church in their way also The more particular distinction of them IV. More particularly the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy may be distinguished into divers sorts either such as concern Religion or Government either in the Church or in the state and that as they are in relation to all these either fundamental or not fundamental And the fundamental either as they are primarily or secondarily so But it is not these Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy as they concern either Religion or Government or both in the consistency of each with other that we are to consider of here But we are to consider of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy as such only and so formally as being set forth by the Church in them And so also in relation to the profession of assent that is to be given to them as such also by the members of any National Church And those Doctrines then are to be distinguished from the phrase and terms and the like in which they are set down and expressed in the Canon and Liturgy For Verba sunt nihil aliud quam notae rerum declarantes animi voluntatisque passiones says Cicero That words are nothing else but notes of things declaring the passions of the mind and will And Plato in his Definitions Dictio vox hominis quae scribi potest Post Med. signum quoddam commune rem declarans That a word is the voice of a man which may be written and a certain common signe Lipsius in Prefat ad Politic. declaring the thing And Vt Phrygiones e varii coloris filo unum aliquod aulaeum formant sic scriptores e mille aliquot particulis cohaerens opus As Broiderers do form some one piece of Tapestry out of a thread of divers colours so Writers do form also one cohering work out of some thousand particles and small portions of things And the distinctions then of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy as set forth by Authority Are The first sort of them V. In the first place The Doctrines expressed in plain and particular terms are the Doctrines of the Church in the particular and literal sense of those terms VI. And so in like manner The Second The Doctrines expressed in dubious and general terms are the Doctrines of the Church also in the dubious and general sense of those terms Neither is it to be wondered at that it is asserted here that they are so since it is supposed that both the Canon and Liturgy are regulated by the original Divine Canon of Scripture as was above mentioned that they ought to be and that God hath then revealed those Doctrines no further Lib. 3. Cap. 5. §. 4. Vid. nor in no other terms in Scripture VII And last of all Vnder whatsoever distinctions or sorts of phrases or terms or the like The conclusive Rule to be ob erv'd concerning the distinguishing of those Doctrines the doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy are set down under the very same still are they the Doctrines of the Church and they are so to be taken to be declared to be Just as the Scripture it self delivers the declared will of God sometimes in general sometimes in particular sometimes in literal sometimes in figurative terms and expressions and yet still all is the declared will of God in Scripture according to those several capacities of it Sic loquitur Scriptura sayes St. Augustine ut altitudine superbos irrideat profunditate attentos terreat virtute magnos pascat Lib. 2. in Gen. C. 19. affabilitate parvulos nutriat That the Scripture so speaks that it may contemn the proud by its sublimity affright the attentive by its profundity feed the strong by its vertue nourish the weak by its affability And again Ad dignitatem Scripturae pertinet De vera Relig. ut sub una litera multos sensus contineat ut sic diversis intellectibus hominum conveniens unusquisque miretur se in Divina Scriptura posse in venire veritatem quam mente conceperit ac facilius per hoc contra infideles defenditur dum si aliquid quod quisque ex Sacra Scriptura velit intelligere falsum apparuerit ad alium sensum recursum possit habere That It belongs to the dignity of Scripture that under one and the same form of words it should contain many senses that so it being agreeable to the divers understandings of men every one may wonder that he can find that truth in the Divine Scripture which he shall conceive in his mind And by this also it is defended the more easily against infidels whiles that if any thing appear false which every one would understand out of the Holy Scripture there may be recourse had to another sense VIII We come then to put a period to this matter by subjoyning two conclusive propositions to the two main sorts of things beforementioned in this Chapter Two conclusive propositions subjoyned to the main matters of this Chapter The first of them And those are the more general distinctions of the Doctrines of the Church and the more particular distinctions of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy IX The first of these in relation to the first of these sorts of things then is That those distinctions of the doctrines of the Church here above delivered are accordingly to be made for the salving the several sorts and degrees of Powers and Authorities which are ordinarily found in all Churches in this matter and the determination of it The Second X. The second is in like manner in relation to the more particular distinctions of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy And that is also That according to the several sorts and distinctions of them so is the profession of assent to be made by the members of any National Church pro cujuslibet captu ratione intellectus According to every ones capacity and manner of understanding to be adapted to them also And this is that which is intended by the Church in their so setting down of those Doctrines as hath been mentioned and this is all that is intended or required by them just as mens devotions in the case of the Liturgy as such and in their publick use of it is to be adapted to the several sorts of the parts of the Offices of it CHAP.
Natural Generation as well as such a respect from the Parents in preferring the Children there is no sound Reason can be render'd The like also is the Case in the assignation of the degrees of c) Vid. D. de Grad affinit C. L. Si quis de Epicopis oler Et L. eum Et L. Deo nobis auxilium c. Comparat cum secoto declarat Arboris affinitatis c. affinity in both Lawes And the next of the Kinne are first in order recited Consonantly to these things also have the wise Heathens delivered in their writings So Aristotle e) Polit. Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Nam qui procreavit amicitiae aetatis jure imperium obtinet That He which hath begotten both by the â—ight of his natural affection to his Children and also of his Age d) Hic Supra §. 4. above that of theirs obtains the dominion over them And Plato gives strict command for the honouring of Parents both in words and deeds And g) Ibid. sayes The first and greatest f) De legibus Dialog 4. and most ancient Honour is due to them And says he Quod de cultu Deorum ignorare non oportet id recte dictum ad honorandos parentes proaemiorum erit h) Ibid. Dial. 11. That there is one thing concerning the worship of the Gods which we ought not be ignorant of That that which is rightly said for the honouring of Parents ought to be one of the first things to be heeded Moses himself could have said no more And the great Apostle of the Gentiles delivers the very same thing Eph. 6.2 That Moses his fifth Commandment is the first Commandment with promise The Laws of all Princes in their particular Countries have ever established the same thing Let the Laws of Charlemain and others be consulted 'T is true if men will proceed upon the principle of the Heathens mention'd Hic supra â— Sect. 4. of Homines ê terrâ geniti c. Of mens having been born from the earth then an original equity and their having at first subjected themselves by pure consent may be derived from it but not so by any means from the opposite principle of Adam's Creation So that thus we see then the Law of Nature and the consent of men by stating such a subjection of children to parents removes totally this principle of primitive Natural freedom The Law and dictate of Nature is two-fold both of them delivered by Vlpian F. De Just jur L. Hujus studuii Jus naturale Summae Aur. in Proaem N. 6. but not enough distinguished 1. That of the sensitive common to Men with Beasts 2. That of the rational proper only to Men. And so Hostiensis Tempore ante Legem Mosai cam fuere tres Leges scil naturalis communis item naturalis rationalis quae nihil aliud videtur quam naturalis ratio item jus gentium That in the time before the giving of the Mosaical Law there were three Laws viz. the common natural also the rational natural which is nothing else but natural reason and also the law of nations And as both the sensitive and rational natures do dictate to parents the love of their off-spring the sensitive because of their similitude of humours which is the common foundation of all natural affection and because they sprang from them and the like and the rational because of their hopes of them and that they will be a defence to them hereafter in the world and the like so who will deny since the parents are those the children sprang from and since they are a part of their Families and most properly under their Tutorage in their minority and since they owe their life and all to them but that both these Laws upon these and the like accounts oblige the children also to subjection and the return of obedience to their parents So then if there were no primitive natural liberty and equality of men as I have evidenced from these things then neither is there any such liberty and equality as is asserâ—â—d by our opponents in this particular of this Question belonging naturally to their succeeding Generations and in their several Ages in which they chance to live under any Government 2. The Great Authorities of the Civil Law and Doctors being thus confronted The next from whence this principle is derived is the writings of the Heathens the Greek and Roman Poets Orators Historians Politicians and the like And as to their writings the notion of natural liberty is very illy and unskilfully by our adversaries deriv'd from them For first the notion is only proper to the Civil Law and Civilians and so owned to be by themselves Let the Cardinal Brisson and other Civil Law Dictionaries be looked into and they call it their sort of liberty and distinguish it from the sorts of liberty defined generally by all other sorts of Writers Sed nunc videamus ad nostram libertatem But now let us return to our kind of liberty says Brissonius after his recital of Cicero's and others definitions of it and so other Dictionaries De verborum signific Lib. 10. Verbo libertatem And if we will look also into the writings of these others we shall find the terme Liberty made use of in the several senses of those distinctions and sub-distinctions which we have above mentioned Hic supra in hâc Sect. in Princip and in which we have apply'd it to men But these definitions touch not any thing upon this of Natural Liberty given by the Civilians in the mean time Let Aristotle be first consulted Polit. Lib. 6. Cap. 2. Lib. 5. Cap. 9. Et de Repub. Lib. 6. Cap. 1. Ibid. And it is defined by him in the general and as it belongs to every private and particular man to be Potestatem vivendi ut velis A power of living at our own pleasure and he says that that was commonly held to be the property of Liberty Hoc enim Libertatis aiunt esse proprium sic vivere ut velis So to live at our Pleasure Amongst the Romans the very same definition also is given of it by Cicero Libertas Paradon 5. Offic. 1. says he est potestas vivendi ut velis That Liberty is a power of living as we will And cujus proprium est sic vivere ut velis The property of which is so to live as thou wilt But here is not a word of the derivation of it from any right of Nature in the mean time Let us proceed to the consideration of the term used by these men as it imports a Civil Liberty and relates to men as members of a Society and with respect to the publick and so sometimes they call it the peoples Liberty when they had the supream Soveraignty as it was in some ages both of the Greeks and Roman States So Aristotle in the place but now cited and others Sometime again it is termed the
Civil Liberty of the people under another subdistinction of it when one of their own Country and who was their Natural Prince Rul'd over them So Herodotus before Aristotle In Cli◠in princip says That all the Greeks were free before Craesus his Conquest of them But he means only that they were free from the Rule of of Strangers Other notions of Liberty found in the writings of these Learned men might be mentioned And because they have termed it Liberty in an eminent sense in countenance of the Greek and Roman Democracies and where the people have had the Supremacy therefore some men have supposed them by that assertion and other sayings of theirs to have countenanced their darling notion of Natural Liberty Finally the summe of all is this That wheresoever any thing may be found or supposed to be found in them which may any wayes countenance this notion Pessum dandum est it is not to be suffer'd to stand in Competition with the Authority of Moses and of right Reason assenting to it The other Propositions concerning the Power of Magistracy fundamentally in the People c. in the State of the Question considered XI This Principle then of Natural freedom being thus refuted The other Propositions concerning the peoples conferring Power on Governours and the like derived from it in the State of this Question follow to be considered and that as to their being deriv'd from the two Spring-heads of things mentioned also and concerning any such Power Fundamental in the people to be conferred Authoritatively on Governours and the other following conclusions which are above recited we find no such thing as any of these are derived from the Principle of Natural freedome mention'd neither in the Civil Law nor the Greek and Roman Writers extant either before any part of it or at any time contemporary with it For the Civil Law I shall have occasion to make farther mention of it anon for the Heathen Authors they constantly derived the power of Princes from God Hic infra Sect. 19. and place them as inferiour only to him and make no such mention of the People as is cryed up by our opponents in this business So Homer the most Ancient Greek Poet what more usual with him in his writings then the Epithets of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odys 4. p. 95. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like Ibid. p. 85. Iliad 2. p. 63. So in his Iliads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Anger of a King the off-spring of Jupiter is great And his honour is from Jupiter Ibid. lib. 1. So again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And those who defend The Lawes from Jupiter Ibid. And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Scepter-bearing king and to whom Jove hath given his honour In Trag. Arg. Supplicibus So also Aeschylus brings in the people speaking to their King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thou art the whole City and the whole People Being a Governour not responsible to any Tribunal And the like Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a King according to Law is no kind of Government at all And he is very unskilful in the Ancient Heathen writings who knows not that the constant notion of a King in them is as of one that is the supream in his Dominions and subject to none on Earth Let us proceed to the Latines and amongst them Horace Regum timendorum in proprios greges Carmin lib. 3. Ode 1. Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis The Dominion of Kings is over their own people But that of Jupiter is over Kings themselves And the like Juvenal Nihil est quod credere de se Satyr 4. Non possit cum laudatur Diis aequae potestas There is nothing which the Power equal to the Gods Cannot believe concerning it self when it is commended And Seneca Vbicunque tantum honesta dominanti licent Thyeste Actu 200. Precario Regantur Wheresoever honest things only are lawful to him that Rules There the rule is Precarious So that thus they ordinarily of these things And where they speak otherwise either it is in the Person of another or else it is concerning the Peoples Offices only where the people had the Supremacy and the like or else there is a very great distraction and confusion in their Writings concerning these things Neither will any man be able to justifie the Principles and Conclusions mentioned upon any other grounds from them and however they are but Humane Authorities XII Having examined then these Propositions from the Causes of them let us do the like also from their effects The state of the Question on the Peoples part consider'd also from it's effects Of which the first is this 1. That our Antagonists render it utterly impossible for a Governour to have right and power conferr'd upon him for if but one in a whole Society either dissent or else do not give his consent all throughout the several Generations of the World continuing naturally alike free from their Birth and till consent given to any Government as is asserted he is a Governour injuriously even to that one and not by right But Infants are not capable of exercising any Acts of Reason and so not of giving their consent in this Case and it is a Rule in the Canon-Law Scienti Consentienti non fit injuria neque dolus That to one conscious and consenting to a thing there is no injury done nor deceit And then the contrary also is a Rule And Quod omnes tangit Sexti Lib. 5. Reg. jur 27. Ibid Reg 20. debet ab omnibus approbari That which concerns all ought to be approv'd of by all and the like If it be said here that the Acts of Parents bind their Children which is true in this matter as was said above in the distinctions of Consent This ruines the whole cause and stumbles upon the true Original of Government Hic Supra Sect. 6 See the Anarthy of limited and mixed Monarchy pag. 8 9 10 11 c. said to be Sr. Robert Filmers Hic supra Sect. 10 in princip Pro populo Anglicano cap. 2. sayes the reputed Sr Robert Filmer So that there is no evading the dilemma in this business 2. In the putting the power of Government into the peoples hands they proceed without any warrant from Scripture Little or no mention at all is made of it as I noted but now Mr. Milton in his intemperate discourse against Salmatius produceth one Text for it and but that one and that is Deut. 17.14 When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations about me And one would think he might have answer'd himself from the very next verse that is vers the 15. Thou shalt in any wise set
universal interpretour and that is that which needs not the commendation neither of Plato nor Socrates which is not directed to only either by the Law of Moses or that of Christ but by the very humane nature it self and that is Right Reason This is the sum of all Professions Arts and Sciences and Learning amongst men This is above the greatest of all Humane Authorities This is the intent and complement of all Councels and Deliberations in this world Tnis is beyond what can be thought of or comprehended by man The rule of the Actions of Angels nay of the divinity it self The Law of Humane Nature Nay the very Humane Nature it self And then since the Supream Creatour hath appointed all things to proceed in their actions and motions by the Laws of their several natures what is there left for man to proceed by in all things but the Law of his Nature also What can he or may he be governed regularly by but Reason Nam neque decipitur ratio neque decipit unquam For neither is reason deceived nor doth it ever deceive Ei Deus hanc alta Capitis fundavit in Arce Mandatricem operum prospectur anique labori And God hath founded this in the High Tower of the Head The commandress of Actions and the guide of Labour In D. L. Scire oportet §. Sufficit Col. 4. And therefore Baldus and the other Doctors in the unfolding their Law do rightly assert That it is the weakness of Humane Intellect in any cause whatsoever to seek for a written Law where it finds natural Reason and that the force of Reason is it which all mankind is bound to obey Idem Aâ— L. Nemo C. desentet interinâ—ut Oâ—â— judic 〈◊〉 Lâ—â—â—b 1. And Cicero Societatus humanae vinculum est ratio Oratio quae dicendo communicando disceptando judicando conciliat inter homines conjungitque naturali quadam Societate neque ulla re alia absumus a natura serarum That Reason and Speech is the band of Humane Society Epist 77. which by delivering things by communicating of them by discoursing and judging doth conciliate men and joyn them by a certain Natural Society neither do we differ from the nature of beasts by any other thing And Seneca Nam cum sola ratio perficiat hominem sola ratio perfecta beatum facit haec autem unum bonum est quo uno beatus efficitur scilicet virtus For since only Reason doth perfect the man perfect Reason only doth make him happy And this also is the only good by which alone he is made happy viz. Vertue And Divine Plato De Repub. vel de Just Dial. 9. ad fin At forte in Caelo illius Civitatis extat exemplar c. But perhaps the pattern of that City is extant in Heaven viz. which is founded and ordered by Reason And last of all the Proclaimer of Proverbs Cap. 20. v. 27. and King of Israel Solomon The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the Belly And Chap. 3. v. 19. the Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding hath he established the Heavens Vers 20. By his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down dew 21. My Son let them not depart from thine eyes keep sound wisdome and discretion 22. So shall they be Life to thy Soul and Grace to thy Neck 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble 24. When thou lyest down thou shalt not be affraid yea thou shalt lye down and thy sleep shall be sweet The conclusive caution subjoyned to these things XIII These then being the Rules that are to be proceeded by in this matter and because we have heretofore distinguished the Canon of Doctrines into written and traditional and have made frequent mention of customary Ceremonies and their being in National Churches as well as those recorded in the written Canon or Liturgy therefore we are here last of all to give caution and it ought to be remembred That wheresoever such a Traditional Canon or customary Ceremonies are found in any Church there the same Rules which have been here all along given for the interpretation of the written Canon and Liturgy and the sence of them are to be applyed by private persons in like manner also for the interpretation either of the Truth or Lawfulness either of the traditional Canon where such is found or customary Ceremonies and of each in their several capacities and so far forth as either of them are propounded by Authority either as directly Doctrinal or else as including Assertion and Doctrine and immediately implying practise Non possunt omnes Articuli says Julianus in the Digests sigillatim aut legibus aut Senatus consultis comprehendi De Legib. Senatus Consult L. non possunt sed cum in aliquo casu sententia eorum manifesta est is qui jurisdictioni praeest ad similia procedere atque jus dicere debet That all particular points severally cannot be comprehended either in any Laws or Decrees of the Senate But when in any case the meaning of them is manifest he that hath the power of jurisdiction ought to proceed to the like things and so to pronounce Sentence Which Rule is evidently currant in the like cases concerning all other things CHAP. IX Of the Rewards and Punishments belonging to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity And the Authorities and Rights concern'd in the dispensing of them I. THe peculiar necessity of rewards and punishments to the Regiment of Humane Societies II. The special application of them to the matters of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity And first of the Doctrine of Rewards III. And first those rewards distinguished and the state of the present case concerning them IV. A conclusive Corollary laid down concerning them also V. The Original and most natural intents of all sorts of matters of special reward VI. The ingress of Friendship Kindred Money private service and the like in respect to these things in humane societies VII The rewards ordinary in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity must needs be Ecclesiastical VIII The first Rule to be held concerning the dispensing of them IX The Second X. The Third XI The Fourth XII The Fifth and last XIII The neglect of the observance of these Rules in this matter hath brought great damages to Societies XIV The first conclusion laid down from hence XV. The Second XVI The Doctrine of Penalties laid down XVII The several sorts of Penalties in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity distinguished XVIII The degrees of Church censures XIX Those censures to be dispensed with the least Humane mixtures XX. The right of dispensing them belongs to Church-men XXI The Church censures to be backed by the Magistrate XXII He hath also the power of controuling the execution of them XXIII And upon the same account is exempted from them XXIV The appendant questions resolved XXV The First of them XXVI The Second XXVII The