Christian when he refused to give up his Church to the Arians denied the Emperor's power over truth and to determine in Doctrines The Emperor might force him out if he pleased neither might he resist the force his Weapons being only Prayers and Tears but the truth must not yield up to him and he give his consent or seem to do it by his own departure that the Arian Doctrine be there preached this was not then thought an Affront to the Magistrate and Law nor had St. Ambrose a Commission immediate from Heaven and abetted with Miracles or was he judged a hypocrite in so doing because he did not go and preach the Cause against Arius amongst the Goths and Vandals who subscribed to his Creed at their receiving Christianity though Mr. Dean of Canterbury tells us he that pleads Conscience and preaches it in England and does not go and preach it also in Turkey is guilty of gross hypocrisie pag. 203 213. We do not make them Judges and Deciders of Truth but Receivers and Establishers of it we say Princes be only Governors that is higher Powers ordain'd of God and bearing the Sword with lawful and publick Autority to command for truth to prohibit and with the Sword punish Errors and all other Ecclesiastical Disorders as well as Temporal within their Realms that as all their Subjects Bishops and others must obey them commanding what is good in Matters of Religion and endure them with patience when they take part with Error So they their Swords and Scopters be not subject to the Popes Tribunal neither hath he by the Law of God or by the Canons of the Church any Power or Pre-eminence to reverse their Doings nor depose their Persons and for this Cause we confess Princes within their Territories to be supreme that is not under the Popes jurisdiction neither to be commanded nor displaced at his pleasure pag. 215 216. There be two Parts of our Assertion The first avouching that Princes may command for Truth and abolish Error The next that Princes be Supreme i. e. not subject to the Popes judicial Process to be cited suspended deposed at his beck The Word Supreme ever was and is defended by us to make Princes free from the wrongful and usurped Jurisdiction which the Pope claimeth over them pag. 217. 219. Bishops have their Autority to preach and administer the Sacraments not from the Prince but Christ himself only the Prince giveth them publick liberty without let or disturbance to do what Christ hath commanded them he no more conferreth that Power and Function than he conferreth Life and Breath when he permitteth to live and breath when he does not destroy the life of his Subjects That Princes may prescribe what Faith they list what Service of God they please what form of Administring the Sacraments they think best is no part of our thoughts nor point of our Doctrine for external Power and Autority to compel and punish which is the Point we stand upon God hath preferr'd the Prince before the Priest pag. 223. touching the Regiment of their own Persons and Lives Princes owe the very same Reverence and Obedience to the Word and Sacraments that every private Man doth and if any Prince would be baptized or approach the Lord's Table with manifest shew of unbelief or irrepentance the Minister is bound freely to speak or rather to lay down his life at the Princes feet than to let the King of Kings to be provoked the Mysteries to be defiled his own Soul and the Princes endanger'd for lack of oft and earnest Admonition pag. 226. by Governors we do not mean Moderators Prescribers Directors Inventers or Authors of these things but Rulers or Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first appointed and ordained and with lawful force to disturb the Despisers of his lawful Will and Testament Now what inconvenience is this if we say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give freedom protection and assistance to the preaching of the Word ministring of the Sacraments and right using of the Keys and not fetch license from Rome pag. 236. Princes have no right to call and confirm Preachers but to receive such as be sent of God and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their Persons and if Princes refuse so to do God's Labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from Heaven not by disturbing Princes from their Thrones nor invading their Realms but by mildly submitting themselves to the Powers on Earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict A private liberty and exercise of their own Conscience and Religion was not then thought enough if the Religion of a Nation be false and though autority do abet it nor would the Autority in Queen Elizabeth's days have own'd that Person asserting and maintaining of it though not stubbornly irreligious but only wanting information in so notoriously a known case of practice pag. 238. In all spiritual Things and Causes Princes only bear the Sword i. e. have publick Autority to receive establish and defend all Points and Parts of Christian Doctrine and Discipline within their Realms and without their help tho the Faith and Canons of Christ's Church may be privately professed and observed of such as be willing yet they cannot be generally planted or settled in any Kingdom nor urged by publick Laws and external Punishments on such as refuse but by their consents that bear the Sword This is that we say refel it if you can pag. 252. to devise new Rites and Ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scripture and Canons commend and such as the Bishops and Pastors on the Place shall advise not infringing the Scripture or Canons and so for all other Ecclesiastical Things and Causes Princes be neither the Devisers nor Directors of them but the Confirmers and Establishers of that which is good and Displacers and Revengers of that which is Evil which power we say they have in all things be they Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal the Abuse of Excommunication in the Priest and contempt of it in the People Princes may punish excommunicate they may not for so much of the Keys are no part of their Charge pag. 256. The Prince is in Ecclesiastical Discipline to receive and stablish such Rules and Orders as the Scripture and Canons shall decide to be needful and healthful for the Church of God in their Kingdoms It is the Objection indeed and undue consequence the Church of Rome makes against us and the Oath of Supremacy and which is urged by Philander in this Dialogue betwixt him and Theophilus or betwixt the Christian and the Jesuite pag. 124 125. That we will have our Faith and Salvation to hang on the Princes Will and Laws that there can be imagined no nearer way to Religion than to believe what our temporal Lord and Master list in the
Castelvetrus her second Husband as Mr. Selden suggests or by the Archbishop himself what is necessarily hence to be inferr'd I 'le here again give in the words of our always to be reverenced Mr. Herbert Thorndike of the Laws of the Church Cap. Vlt. Pag. 394. Neither is the Publishing Erastus his Book against Excommunication at London to be drawn into the like Consequence that those who allow'd and procur'd it allow'd the substance of what he maintain'd so long as a sufficient Reason is to be rendred for it otherwise for at such time as the Presbyterian Pretences were so hot under Queen Elizabeth it is no marvel if it was thought to shew England how they prevail'd at home first because he hath advanced such Arguments as are really effectual against them which are not yet nor never will be answered by them though void of the Positive Truth which ought to take place instead of their Mistakes and besides because at such times as Popes did what them listed in England it would have been to the purpose to shew the English how Machiavel observes they were hamper'd at home and for the like Reason when the Geneva Platform was cried up with such Zeal here it was not amiss to shew the World how it was esteem'd under their own Noses in the Cantons and the Palatinate § XVII I am now to shew the concurrency of our Doctors in the Church and who still go along with me and say the same thing that Church Power as such is not from the Civil Magistrate and his supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons infers it not an induction would be too numerous the Particulars being so many I 'le only instance in two the one is Thomas Bilson then Warden of Winchester and afterward Bishop there in his Book entituled The true difference between Christian Subjection and un-christian Rebellion perused and allowed by publick Autority and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and for writing of which he had his Bishoprick the other is Robert Sanderson then the King's Professor at Oxford and after Bishop of Lincolne in his Book called Episcopacie as establed by Law in England not prejudicial to the Regal Power written in the time of the long Parliament by the special Command of King Charles the I. but not published by reason of the Iniquity and Confusion of the Times and since printed and dedicated to our present gracious Soveraign King Charles II. two Divines as they flourished in our Church at a great distance of time from one another so are they at as great distance for their Worth and Merit beyond the generality of the Divines of their times and by which as we have the advantage of their greater Autority as to themselves to which add That they acted herein as publick Persons by Autority appointed to write in the Name of the Church of England and in such Cases Men generally are more careful how they vent their own private Niceties and Conceptions so also have we a farther benefit hereby that this was and is the continued constant Doctrine of our Church and Church-Men from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles II. Bishop Bilson thus speaks part 2d pag. § XVIII 124. printed at Oxford It is one thing who may command for truth and another who shall direct unto truth We say Princes may command for Truth and punish the refusers this no Bishop may challenge but only the Prince that beareth the Sword no Prelate has Autority from Christ to compel private Men much less Princes but only to teach and instruct them these two Points we stand on pag. 125. 126. he tells the Jesuite the Prince is Supreme to establish those things Christ has commanded and so he all along shews it the design of the Oath of Supremacy against the pretended outward Jurisdiction of the Pope claiming as Christ's Vicar on Earth a coercive Power in order to spiritual things over the Persons of all Christians whatsoever whose Subjects soever and in whatsoever Causes even our Kings themselves And that it is no more thence to be inferr'd that Princes because supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes are therefore supreme Judges of Faith Deciders of Controversies Interpreters of Scripture Appointers of Sacraments Devisers of Ceremonies and what not then if it should be inferr'd Princes are supreme Governors in all Corporal things and causes ergo they are supreme Guiders of Grammar Moderators of Logique Directors of Rhetorick Appointers of Musick Prescribers of Medicines Resolvers of all Doubts and Judges of all Matters incident any wayes to reason art or action We confess them to be supreme Governors of their Realms and Dominions and that in all Spiritual things and causes not of all Spiritual things and causes we make them not Governors of the Things themselves but of their Subjects we confess that her Highness is the only Governor of this Realm the Word Governor doth sever the Magistrate from the Minister and sheweth a manifest difference between their Office for Bishops be no Governors of Countries Princes be these bear the Sword to reward and punish those do not pag. 127. They have several Commissions which God signed those to dispense the Word and Sacraments these to prescribe by their Laws and punish by the Sword such as resist them within their Dominions pag. 128. That no Clergy-Man by God's Law can challenge an exemption from earthly Powers pag 129. Princes have full Power to forbid prevent and punish in all their Subjects be they Lay-Men Clerks or Bishops not only Murders Thefts Adulteries Perjuries and such like Breaches of the second table but also Schisms Heresies Idolatries and all other Offences against the first Table pertaining only to the Service of God and Matters of Religion pag. 130. as the Kings of Israel did who are the Christian Princes example pag. 132. and it is the duty of Christian Kings to compel from Heresies and Schisms to the confession of the truth consent of Prayer and Communion of the Lord's Table to compel Hereticks and Schismaticks to repress Schism and Heresie with their princely Power which they receive from above chiefly to maintain God's glory by the causing the Bands of Virtue to be preserved in the Church and the Rules of Faith observed pag. 133. this is the Prince's charge to see the Law of God fully executed his Son rightly served his Spouse safely nursed his House timely filled his Enemies duely punished and he tells the Jesuite if he grants this he will ask no more And these the causes and things that be Spiritual as well as Temporal the Princes power and charge doth reach unto or in the words of St. Austin that Princes may command that which is good and prohibit that which is evil within their Kingdoms not in Civil Affairs only but in Matters that concern divine Religion Cont. Crescon l. 3. c. 51. pag. 134. to page 145. and this or power of the like nature was what was claimed and used in causes Ecclesiastical which
some Cases of Heresie in the Ordainer 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 5. Lex 12.14.57 Yet amidst these and such like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illegal Ordinations and defective complain'd of by Eusebius which were during the Persecution of Dioclesian in his twelfth Chapter De Martyribus Palestinae and against which the Church still provided for the future there is no one Caution concerning Ordinations by the People such a thing being never presumed and attempted nor is there any one instance of but voiding any one Ordination that was made without their but Votes and Hands lift up and concurring in order to it and which certainly there would have been had the Church adjudg'd their pre-elections or concurrency so necessary especially upon so many failures as David Blondel acknowledges there were one of which was enough to have awakened the Church-Governors to alike care they used on such Occasions or had she but placed their concurrency with those but Circumstantials of Orders many of which are just now mentioned and the Church there made particular provision relating to them SO that David Blondel's design of a Divine § X and Immutable Right in the defence of which he has took so great pains is only writing in the Dust nor is any one inference due that he has made in order to it 'T is true his Argument is well laid had the Performance been accordingly and the concurrency of ten Centuries immediately upon the Apostles and Scriptures attesting any one Truth or Practice is as authentique and ought to be so received as any Grounds and Motives of Faith can make it to be nor can any thing be required more which can be thought to concur to the making a full perswasion of the Truth under Debate But alas the chief Ingredient for a thorow Tradition is absent Universality it was so neither in all places not at all times nor in any one time or Century of the best and first Ages of the Church in every instance of it but still changed upon accidents often and more upon Industry and Choice and last of all wholly abolished and in good times of the Church without any care or design for a restitution taken even out of the hands of the Magistrate and limited to the Bishops Can. 3. Concil Sept. Gen. Niceae and it may be much questioned whether his Brethren and Friends both in France and Holland and England especially such of them as have took up the Cudgels after him have more reason to be ashamed of his ill Success then to be down-right angry with him for the Way and Method and Grounds he laid for proving the Divine and immutable right of it Surely if this be admitted the disadvantage will be their own in a point of a higher concern if Apostolical Ecclesiastical practice still amount to a Divine immutable Law And indeed it would be of real ill consequence in many considerable cases that would arise in the true Church of Christ for although the matter of Fact be evident it has been receiv'd and practised in the Churches first and best Ages yet it may be a doubt what the Obligation was to them who then receiv'd it and whose practice it was whether as absolute and immutable and consequently how it now reaches us every Truth and Matter of Fact has not the same degree of Necessity in its Nature and Use nor do his Brethren more go against him here than he against himself I might refer to his own Text but the Irenicum has done it before me p. 401. joyning him with Bochart and Amiraldus in the cause of which his Triumvirate as he calls them Blondel is there placed in the head and all to make good that one great Truth by their Autority which is vast and unquestionable and to defend which is the great business of that Treatise of Church-Government nor has that Author as yet declared his Judgment to be otherwise or rather corrected that his first and early Mistake there obtruded on the World to pass a perpetual Sanction upon it That no form of Government or Polity in the Church is immutable though by the Apostles themselves recommended and yet Apostolical practice is here binding and eternal pag. 473. Apol. and the Power of the People is thus transmitted from Heaven as the alone House and Pedegree of its descent and so immutably is it stablish'd that no accident or ill circumstance whatever or with what ill consequences soever foreseen and foreknown no consideration of the Peoples ignorance even duncery it self at eos omnes non modo imperitos sed imperitissimos demus pag. 501. no miscarriages or other seeming inconsistencies are to be considered or can they weigh down against the Eternal antecedent Command either abolish the Power or cease but alter in but one instance the custom and practice of their Votes and Elections to the Office of the Ministry nothing can remain but for common Prudence for all was known at first to our Saviour whence the Apostles received it to the succeeding Church who left no such reserve allow'd not to us nor have we reason to take it ill for they did not to themselves any such Considerations pag. 51 52. and what Exceptions there have been to this first and great Rule as he tells us there was some few arose from the Pride and Usurpations of the Bishops who so soon as they had taken to themselves Titles and Power above the Presbyters they engrossed the Right of Ordaining them and never required the concurrency of the Clergy and the People spurr'd on by Fame and Vain-glory and Secular Interest and that is the reason why there is no Canons express and very few examples of the Peoples choosing Presbyters and Deacons Nor does it in the original right diminish their Power because wrested from them pag. 469 470. and all which is one among the many Fictions and Romances the whole Apology is stuffed withal and every ways like himself who according to his usual good Nature and Malice to the Order it self still lays what dirt he can at the doors of the most eminent Christians the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of Christ not considering or rather not caring what injury the common Christianity thereby receives through the sides of these its known Martyrs and Confessors so be he can but fill up his private Congregation a guilt not easily to be removed from too many of the French Reformation especially from Dailee in his Book of the Use of the Fathers and the abundance of Irreligion in general in these parts of the World ows it self in a great measure to it And to see the unluckiness of it and how his ill Nature returns unavoidably upon himself what he attributes to the Bishops Pride and Arrogancy and Self-interest in assuming and engrossing to themselves a Power which was not theirs that they ordained Presbyters and Deacons without the People and Clergy that the dependency of both might be the surer upon them and certainly
Westminster both Usurpers the one of the Regal the other of the Episcopal Power whom they had Assaulted both with Sword and Pen to their then present Abolition and whom he slatters with the specious Titles of Supporters both of Church and State Vobis viri maximi in quos Ecclesia Respublica inclinatè recumbum Britannorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Choice Men and Supreme in our Land Quibus incoâ—â—um est generoso pectus honesto and for Episcopacy it self besides the whole Design of the Book which is laid against it he places it for time and quality with those first Heresies which infested the Church those Antichrists which were then in the World both in St. Paul's Epistles and in St. John's and in the Revelations with those Hereticks that deny the Monarchy of God and the Incarnation of Christ Jesus and that it was by Diotrephes devolv'd to after-ages by degenerate Men who regarded not the institution from God Per degeneres plurimos divinaeque originis immemores propagatum by such only as consult Ambition to whom the Apostolical Humility enjoyn'd by our Saviour was tedious and nauseous men affecting Tyranny and Usurpation against St. Peter's monition 1 Pet. 5.2 3. Obtaedium Apostolicae humilitatis quam praecepit affectantes Tyrannidem c. He approves the Scotish Covenant and their bringing it into England fortissimum Communis concordiae pacisque vestrae vinculum as the most effectual way for Peace and Concord of which Covenant one part of its second Article is this To endeavour the Extirpation of Prelacy i. e. Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. and Exhorts them by their Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince to quit and vindicate themselves of that Aspersion of Rebels they lye under and through them may be cast upon all Protestants Christianâ modestiâ pacificisque consiliis perpetuisque fidelis vestrae in regiam Majestatem observantiae exemplis asperas voces refellite that the World convinc'd by Experience may confess that it is neither true now nor ever shall be necessary No Bishop no King and that the one may be admitted and supported without the other Fateaturque continuis experimentis evictus orbis nec verum nunc nec necessarium esse vel fuisse unquam qui aegrè Episcopos ferunt aegriùs reges serre qui nullos admittunt nec regiam potestatem ex animo admittere and assures them of the concurrency of the Protestant Churches on their side the Sea who have often wish'd to see their own Simplicity in Government to be restored and setled among them quam Disciplinam à cismarinis Protestantibus praeoptatam c. and all which is to be seen and more by whoso pleases to read over but his Preface to the Apology Claudius Salmasius goes the same way or worse if worse can be he argues indeed for the Episcopacy in England because continued with the Reformation and what prevented many Pestiferous Sects which after the Seclusion of Bishops arose Quod quamdiu fuerat Episcopatus mille pestiferae Sectae Haereses in Anglia pullularunt Praefat. ad Defens Regiam and aggravates it against the Independents whom he supposes to have Murdered the King and removed the Bishops without his Assent Defens pag. 358. it seems it was concluded in France what Party brought the King to Death nor did they then believe the Bishops to be the Authors of all the Heresies in the Christian World Though Mr. Baxter tells us It is not agreed here in London and that all Heresies sprang thence in that his black Book call'd Church History abbreviated then which a Lucian has not been more rude in his language and scurrilous Imputations to our common Christianity and all Parties of but common apprehension that read that his Book or hear of it must agree that he is indeed a Hater as he in the Title-Page terms himself but not of false History but of the truth of Christian Religion to the baffling of which representing it effectually to the Age inclined enough to believe it as a Cheat and Imposture what more could have been done then by exposing in that odious way so many Successions of the Bishops and acknowledged Governors in the Church the most eminent Professors there and the great part of them to the Stake and with their Blood by such Follies and Impertinencies many times but oftner by heavier guilts reported of them the Author's Impudency and his Falsities as to Matter of Fact has already been given to the World by an Ingenious Hand and nothing but a decay of Discipline and Government in the Church can hinder that a farther censure does not follow his Person be not equally pursued and he publickly Excommunicated the Body of Christians Perhaps James Naylor did not more deserve to have his Tongue bored through But to return to our Friend Walo who in Comparison to Mr. Baxter is so indeed but his Spleen was now but low it swells and grows bigger at other times and our Bishops are then its object he speaks out in other places he says so long as Episcopacy remains which is the foundation and root of Papacy little or nothing is done to cut off the Head is not enough Quamdiu remanebat Episcopatus qui tanquam basis est ac radix Papatûs nihil am parum proficeret qui solum caput resecaret Appâ—rat ad lib. de Primatu pag. 169 70. And he goes to the same purpose Pag. 197. that those Common-wealths or Kingdoms which have receiv'd the Reformation Sworn against the Roman both Court and Church and where there is now no Papacy for what reason they can desire to retain Episcopacy he does not see the Reformation seems not whole and full which is in that part defective and that Episcopacy is become a degree above a Presbyter he imputes to the corrupt Manners to Ambition and desire of Honor and to other evil Arts and depraved Minds of Men Walo Messal de Episcop Presbyt cont Petavium Dissert cap. 6. and suitably did he lay his design and he did not think he could write to the purpose against the Primacy of the Pope without that his tedious and nauseous Apparatus or Preface levelled against the Government of the Church by Bishops and indeed against Church-Government in general so unhappy were still those Men in their Plots against Rome as there will be occasion further to consider in this Discourse and which make up that bulky Volume the World is enrich'd withall and to all which Andrew Rivet has subscrib'd applauding Salmasius in this particular and according with him and thinks it Crime enough in Grotius that he differs from him Grotianae Discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 1. 16. John Dailee his rage is nothing less but rather more this way and so is his industry too that eminent Martyr Ignatius is discarded and turn'd out of the Catalogue of Church-Writers for Asserting in so plain and positive words the Divine perpetual Right of Episcopacy and
to be of the Church but the Government it self is laid upon another upon the Shoulders of this Child and Son born and given unto us Isa 9.6 and which they are to nourish to protect and preserve with their Temporal Government and Scepters a Generative Procreative Power is not in them This Power given by the Father to the Son was in part and some instances of it finish'd in his own Person upon Earth in part and other instances he is now managing in Heaven what was to remain here among us after his Ascension was to be given to whomsoever the Son pleased this he deputed and committed to his Apostles some of which Power was to dye with their Persons was extraordinary and temporary only or at the most survived in some few only after them and during a small time what was designed and universally useful for all Mankind and for the lasting perpetual managing us in order to Heaven to continue to the end of the World and in the execution and discharge of which our Saviour has promised to be with us always unto the end of the World this was all transferred and devolved by the Apostles on their Successors in the Evangelical Priesthood the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons of the Church it was not demandated to Kings and Secular Powers which then and for some Hundred years after only Persecuted all that followed after that way and call'd upon that Name before whom they appeared only as Dlinquents if they came before them it was for a Mittimus to the Goal or as men appointed to be slain not for Commissions and Substitutions to Preach the Gospel and this is the state of the World at this day thus stand the Powers in it divided betwixt the King and the Priest each moving in his proper Sphere by virtue of his special particular Grant from Heaven and managing the two great Affairs of Heaven and Earth the Body and Soul both of so high a concern unto us THAT both these Powers have been residing § II at once in one and the same Subject and Person 't is most certain and so it may be again by a conflux of Providences or the immediate pleasure of him whose the Powers originally are and can give to the Sons of men as he pleases nothing but dissonant much more repugnant in it the King has been a Priest too not only with Power and Autority in order to Holy Things and Persons a due Behaviour and Discharge in and of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks Lib. 3. Polit. cap. 10 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them good Citizens and obedient to Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to engage their Souls to Virtue by Rewards and Penalties cap. 13. but the Prince has had that Power which is purely and strictly Hieratical and of the Priestly Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle cap. 10. abovementioned Rex Anuis Rex idem Phoebique Sacerdos and that such as of the Priestly Order have had also the Secular Power conjoyned and annexed to it it is most certain in all manner of History for Evidence of which I 'le only refer such as can enquire to Mr. Selden's First Book De Synedriis cap. 15. Hugo Grotius is of Opinion that the Priesthood was seldom found without some Secular Power added unto it in his Treatise De Sum. Potest Imper. in Sacris Cap. 9. Sect. 4. 30. And the ancient Canons of the Church imply that it was much in Use for the Clergy to be engaged in the Affairs of the World as appears by their several Cautions and Commands against it the Circumstances of the then present Church and particular Reasons moving them to it So Can. Apost 81.84 Can. 11. Concil 1 2. Constantinop Can. 16.18 Concil Carthag The King and the Priest as they are of the same Original so are both designed for the same great End and Purpose for the Care and Promotion Protection and Preservation of the Honor of God his Worship and Service in the ways of Virtue and Holiness and Obedience to his Institutions for the benefit of Mankind both here and hereafter and suitably have their names promiscuously and in common in Ecclesiastical Writers Thus Constantine many times calls himself a Bishop and by other Greek Writers is he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to an Apostle Many of these are to be seen in Potrus de Marca de Concord Sacerd. Imperii l. 2. c. 10. Sect. 6 7. Valentinian and Marcian the Emperors are styled Inclyti Apostoli famous Apostles and Constantine's Animus Sacerdotalis is mention'd and applauded in a Publick Council Vid. Observat Notas in Paenitentiale Theodori Cant. Archiep. pag. 138. with several Compellations of the like Nature And which Considerations or rather undue Consideration of these gives some little gloss upon their Error who fix the full Power of the Priesthood in the Prince renders it somewhat more plausible than that of theirs who place it in the People but the Truth is no more in reality on the one side than on the other These are given partly by way of Complement Magnificent Title or higher Eulogies not unusual to the Eminencies of such Personages as they honored and protected Religion to transfer upon them the Honors that go along with it of what value in themselves it matters not so be the best it hath Or where it has nearer answer'd the thing it self Constantine himself has shew'd in what Nature and Instances in the Fourth Book of his Life wrote by Eusebius cap. 24. Vos speaking to the Bishops in iis quae intra Ecclesiam Episcopi estis Ego vero in iis quae extra geruntur And again Ibid. the Historian also speaks to the same purpose Episcopus quasi Episcoporum erat Constantinus Curam habuit ut sint pii both which amount but to thus much That Constantine's Episcopacy only consisted in his outward care of the Church and promotion of the Duties that belong unto her it reacheth not to the inward Power the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Function or Office it self AND here now is the great Enquiry and § III this the main Case in Debate amongst us in this unhappy Age of ours Whether the Kingly and Priestly Offices and Charges immediately in their Natures and Constitutions imply and include each other Not that they agree in one design or more in some Externals but whether where the one is there the other as a necessary consequence is at the same time and by the same appointment existing and to which I am to answer in the Negative as to be a Priest has never inferr'd a Secular Power so nor to be a Prince the Spiritual For the full cleering of this point it will be necessary first to consider the Nature of Gifts Duties Offices and Power in general how far they include and infer one another how far each one in it self is attainable and from
2. 5. or in what extent soever the Kings of Judah are proposed as Patterns to our Kings for the exercise of Power in the Christian Church in our Nine and thirty Articles and may authorize them in it to be sure they were never design'd Examples in this particular of Unction or whatever Power it was they were to have as from them our Church could not mean it should thus be derived Our Kings of England 't is plain owe no one instance of their Power to the Coronation it self much less to their being then anointed one but particular Ceremony in the Performance of it and all Jurisdictions and Rights they have as Kings they have before and are to enjoy their whole life-time Supposing they were neither anointed nor even Crown'd at all 't is all an high Ceremony Solemn and Magnificent Peculiar as is the Person and Power and Majesty of a Prince as is becoming a Crown Imperial when set on his Head and the anointing may be used as very lively significant and expressing that separation of his Person which was due and made and acknowledged before and really in him as has been the Custom by Oyl so to sever and set apart Persons and Things but that the thing it self is either commanded or expected by God or design'd and used by Man to any other end service or purpose I never could yet understand David Blondel in his Formula regnante Christo Pag. 119. tells us that the Unction or Custom of anointing Princes was not used among Christians till the year of our Lord 750. and the Consecration of their King Pippin and it was often repeated as twice four five times a year as he instances in several Princes and makes evident it is not look't upon as an initiating investing Ceremony whatever else use they appropriated to it though afterwards it was adjudged Sacriledge to iterate it by a growing Superstition and assum'd Opinion of it the famous Arch-Bishop of Paris De Marca in his Second Preface to his Book De Concord c. and in the Second Book Cap. 7. of the Treatise it self tells us of some in the Greek Church that were of the Opinion that the Prince had the Priestly Power by virtue of his Unction And it was defined in a Synod held at Constantinople in the year of our Lord Nine hundred and seventy that the anointing of the Emperor gives him the same Power to forgive Sins as has the Sacrament of Baptism and the Greeks out of the same Principle of flattery managed the same Opinion and gave their Emperor the same Power as hath the Patriarch but this as we are told depended mostly on a Faction then on foot as it was in it self precarious and Arbitrary so wee 'l leave it to its first bottom which is none at all nor needs it any farther Consideration § V NON est Respublica in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia in Republica 't is the saying of Optatus lib. 3. Contr. Parmen Donatist The Common-wealth is not in the Church but the Church in the Common-wealth under the Head and Government of the Powers of the World as to the Temporals and that instance of the Polity of it no Plea of Office and Deputation what Commission or Designation soever from God and Christ can or ever did exempt any one Man on Earth from it collate or invest therewithal a Power for Earth above it at least as binding Rules for continuance and a pattern for future Practice Our Saviour had it not who made me a Judge or a Divider and none can exercise it as from him but by Usurpation but the Common-wealth and the Church are no ways thus in Subordination and dependencies in another regard as the Church is a Body endow'd with Powers Spiritual thus they are different as the Soul and Body are in Man's Person in their distinct Orbs and Stations as are the Sun and the Moon in the Heavens have a quite diverse Orb and Powers Influences and Devolutions that are variant As the Church must be always in the World in that other sense subject to its governance to the accidents too oft the frowns and high displeasures of it till the World it self is no more So must the World be in the Church in this other sense if that World for whose Sins Christ died if coming to Heaven and Salvation be subject to its Head and Jurisdiction the World may not improperly be said to be as the Moon and the Church as the Sun receiving light and assistance splendor and glory and beauty from it thus influenced and increasing with the increase of God though the Metaphor needs not run any farther and as it has been stretcht too much by some and all this is demonstrable and will appear as evident as the Sun in its Zenith or at Noon day 't is wrote as with an Adamant a Pen of iron on a Rock on that Pillar the Church to be seen and read of all Men and to all Ages for evermore in the Original rise and succession of Church Power in all Transactions Records and Histories of it in the Matter of Fact as notorious to the common sense of Mankind as that one and two make three is to his reason and which is the only Rule in this case to be gone by I 'le begin with the Apostles and so come down to those Ages of the Church and Laws Imperial and Concessions whose Truth and Interest is believed by all to be such as not to engage them to be false in which all Parties agree and concenter § VI PVLCHERRIMA illa quae Ecclesia continet coagmentatio non ex Imperio Romano fluxit Christo monstrante sequentibus Apostolis Grot. in Animadvert Rivet ad Articul 7. That comeliness of Order and Degrees in the Church did not slow from the Roman Empire but from Christ Jesus the Apostles following and imitating of him and as he their chief great Master had not so neither had they his immediate Deputies and Successors their Power either from Man or the Will of Man they in no instance consulted with Flesh and Blood with any thing Humane and of the World in the first rise devolution and conveyance of it but still term themselves the Apostles and Ministers of Christ Jesus nor in the execution of this Power did they do otherwise they consulted only with themselves in the arduous difficult cases arising 't is to the Spirit of the Prophets the Prophets alone are to be subject they go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders there Acts 15. and 't is Peter James and John consult together upon the like occasion Gal. 2. 't is they ordain Elders and give Laws in all Churches leave Timothy and Titus in Ephesus and Crete and appoint for decency and order they are brought before Kings but 't is mostly if not always to suffer they there take the advantages to assent and plead this their Right and Power distinct and separate to give Rules and Exhortations but
farther that he pretends to have the judicial Determination of Bishops but really manages and does all himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. and evidently again distinguishes between the work of a Bishop and the work of an Emperor he goes on and is more daring and positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any such thing was heard of from the beginning of the World that the Judgment and Decision of the Church had its Autority and Measures from the Empire or was ever any such Determination known at all many Church Decisions have been made but never did the Presbyters perswade the Emperor to any such thing neither did the Prince intermeddle with the things of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And all this is recorded by Athanasius of the Divine and most Excellent Hosius in that his Epistle Ad Solitarium c. Pag. 840 repeating there Hosius his Epistle to 〈◊〉 on the same occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who drew up the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that was heard and submitted to by all his own words are these to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not interpose thy self nor meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs nor do you Command in these things but rather learn them of Vs to Thee God hath committed the Empire to Vs he hath deputed what is the Churches and as he that undermines the Government opposes the Ordinance of God so do thou take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest forcing to thy self the things which are of the Church you become liable to as great a guilt for it is written give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods It is neither lawful for us to have the Government upon Earth nor hast thou the Power of Holy things O King St. Jerome speaks of the evil Bishops only the Character is upon them De Ecclesiae Principibus qui non dignè regunt oves Domini as of Princes in the Church with Power of Jurisdiction in themselves in his Comments on Jeremiah cap. 23. Sacerdos est Caput the Priest is the Head an Original devolving upon others Comment in 1 Cor. 12. and upon Romans 13. Apostolus in his quae recta sunt judicibus obediendum non in illis quae Religioni contraria sunt the things of Religion are not to be subjected to Kings nor any in Autority under them And to this purpose he says again in Isai 1. Apostolos à Christo constitutos Principes Ecclesiarum the Apostles were constituted by Christ Princes of the Churches And the same is said in his Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians and particularly on Psal 44. Fuere O Ecclesia Apostoli Patres tui quia ipsi te genuere c. The Apostles O Church were thy Fathers that begot thee now because they are gone out of the World you have in their room Bishops Sons which are created of thee and those are thy Fathers by whom thou art governed The Gospel being spread in all Parts of the World in which Princes of the Church i. e. Bishops are constituted This Holy Father assigning all Church-Power to and in it self and if it be suspected whether these Comments on the Psalms be St. Jerome's own I have yet here repeated this passage out of them as most fully appearing his sense to whoso pleases to consult his Works especially his Commentary St. Augustine's Opinion we have already in part spoke of and he that will undertake an Enquiry will find him all along of the same Opinion I 'le only instance in the differences occasion'd by the Donatists and what Power the Empire assum'd to it self in those great and many Controversies and their Decisions related by him which he tells us is only to make outward Laws in defence of what appears to be Truth and says he it falls out sometimes Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore contra veritatem leges ferunt that they make Laws against Truth themselves being in Error and good Men are only prov'd thereby as evil Men by their good Laws are amended Tom. 7. l. 3. Cont. Crescon Gramat cap. 51. they command that which is Good and forbid that which is Evil Non solum quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem verùm etiam ad divinam Religionem in things which belong not only to Humane Society but to Divine Religion he has Power to enquire into debates and to provide for Truth and Peaco by the Bishops to assign the Persons Time and Place Vt superstitionem manifesta ratio confutaret that Reason may gain upon Superstition and Truth be made manifest Collat. 1. diei 3. cum Donatist Nor was Cecilianus purg'd and set free but by Judiciis Ecclesiasticis Imperialibus by the Ecclesiastical as by the Imperial Judgment and Determinations Ibid. nor will it appear that the Powers of the Empire have concern'd themselves any farther in those quarrels than by abetting or discouraging by outward Laws and Punishments what was represented as Truth unto them and which the Church alone hath not Power to do either to award at first or after mitigate but by Prayers and Arguments and therefore the Civil Laws and Indulgences have been sometimes severer and sometimes too indulgent as Accidents or Truth over-ruled as is to be seen in his Third and Fourth Books ad Cresconium and when these Laws went too hard upon these Donatists and pinched their Faction too sorely then they cried out of Persecution denied the Empire this Power in Divine things and that they were to stand at no humane Judicature as is the way of all such Factions when themselves only persecute and invade and whose Insolencies and Rapines are at large told us by St. Austin in his Forty eighth Epistle and by Optatus in his Treatise against Parmenius the Donatist Hence that of Donatus lib. 3. ibid. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church whom Optatus there sharply upbraids as well as reproves for it tells Donatus of his Pride and unheard of insolency in so doing in lifting up himself above him who is second to God alone Cum supra Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus who sits as God in all forensick outward Judicatures and no man can withstand him but Church-Power is still supposed a quite differing thing I mean that which our Saviour left immediately to his Church it falls not under this head of things 't is derived in another stream as the design of his whole Book declares nor is Optatus for this or any other like Expression to be thought to refer all Church-Power into the Empire than those other Fathers did using much the same Expressions and which is above observed and he in particular returns the rise and devolution of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter by whose Successors it was then in Siricius the Bishop in his days in his Second Book against Parmenius and so St.
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flavianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gennadius Evagr. Hist Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 8. lib. 2. cap. 11. lib. 5. cap. 16. So that if things by words are delivered to us which must be since we have not converse with one another as they tell us Angels have or private immediate infusions from God he speaks not to us inarticulately in Sounds and in Dreams as of old we have here the thing contended for in this Discourse viz. a real Autoritative Power in the Church independent equally as in the Empire neither Subordinate to one another The Argument and Evidence is as good as the Story is true and the reception of those Ages or as the truth of Matter of Fact can make it § XIII AND suitably the first and most ancient Councils which are come to our hands of the Christian Church have still owned the Empire and submitted to it in its full Latitude but yet still they reserved and asserted a Power within themselves which was neither derived from nor depended upon it in the execution and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word they still express their Chair by they could make Sanctions and Constitutions oblige and bind the Conscience of themselves and without it the first great Council of Christendome they met indeed in the Name of the Emperor were summon'd by his Writ nor ought they personally and in Bodies collectively to Assemble without it but they acted and decreed in their own Names by their own Power and Autority were all their Synodical Determinations made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the great and first general Council of Nice and was the after-form of the Proceedings of the succeeding Councils which still confirm'd that first solemnly owning and receiving of it It seemed good to the Holy Synod to the Holy Bishops and Fathers there as the immediately following General Council at Constantinople explains it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form but a little abating of that of the Apostles Synod Acts 15. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us and as their Power is distinct so is its Execution in different words and Penalties so as expressed for the most part by none else and in all never executed by any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arceri seu ejici ab Ecclesia à fraternitatis Communione relegari submoneri à limine omni tecto Ecclesiae Sacramento Benedictionis exauctorari Communione interdici abstineri depelli these are the words still expressing the Execution of this Church-Power as they are to be met with up and down in the Greek Councils and Greek and Latine Fathers many of which Mr. Selden has took the pains to Collect to our hands Lib. 1. De Synod Pag. 257. 259. and are to be seen also in an earlier Copy in the first Canon of the Seventh general Council held at Nicea there reckoned up and own'd as bottomed on the Autority of the Apostles Canons and the Six foregoing general Councils And the Bishops have a Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. 5. Concil Anciran 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before in the first Nicene Council Can. 12. of absolving from and removing taking off such their Mulcts laid upon them either in whole or in part or adding farther degrees suitable as their repentance and amendment is perceiv'd and approved or not approved of and this Power asserted in the Church by the great Council of Nice and that of Ancyra is the great instance of the self-existing eminent independent underivable Power that is in the Church of Christ wholly in her self and in none else beside as having Power to punish and relieve to give Sentence and relax in her own breast this is what is not done in the Civil Judicatures where the Judge is in Deputation who cannot correct his Sentence once given make heavier or alleviate it that is only in Soveraign Power as the Lawyers speak but the Bishop can do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Photius Nomocanon Tit. 9. cap. 1. 3. doctas videas nuperas Annotationes in Can. Niceae there was then believed and accounted a first and antecedent Right in the Church to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laws and Rules from which out of Contempt and Opposition there was not allow'd any Appeal to be made to the Empire or Secular Power or Judicatures unless by way of imploring Patronage for a better enquiry as not Canonically executed Can. 6. Concil 2. Gen. Constantinop Can. 107. Concil Carthag and he that proceeds otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not according to the Rules and Laws of the Church is to be cast out of her Communion if a Lay-man if a Presbyter or Deacon he is to be deposed never to be restored again never admitted but to Plead his Cause Conc. Antioch Can. 11 12. and the Clergy-man is not to leave his Bishop in Matters of Strife and go to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Power of the Realm is still call'd the Secular Judges or if he Appeal from his Bishop it may be only when the Case is with the Bishop himself as a Party and he is to appeal to the Provincial Synod or the Metropolitan Exarch or Patriarch Can. 9. Concil Gen. Chalcedon or he may ask and Petition the Emperor that he interpose with his Power over all Persons in all Causes for a farther Enquiry by the Bishop when Justice seems to be not understood or to be denied Can. 107. Conc. Carth. the Sin of Schism is still defined to be when a Presbyter makes a Congregation and makes an Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in despite and contempt of his Bishop Can. 31. Apost and so Can. 6. Concil Gen. Constantinopolit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they unite for Religious Services in opposition to their Bishop and Can. 31. Concil 6th in Trullo and Can. 5. Concil Antioch Can. 10. Concil Carthag 'T is more express If any Presbyter or Deacon contemns his own Bishop separates from the Church and makes a private Congregation and Altar and disobeys farther his Bishops Summons to render him accountable for so doing he is to be deposed and if he perseveres to make farther troubles in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Seditious Person the outward Secular Power is to Chastise him Can. 5. Concil Antioch where we have a thorow distinction of the two Powers with their Offices and the Canon goes before that of the Church is antecedent and therefore when Constantius went to cast some Bishops that were clamorous and contentious out of the Church Eleusius with Sylvanus and others told him That he had Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the outward Punishment what reach'd the Liberties and Advantage of his Person but 't was theirs to judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Piety and Impiety Theodoret. Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 27. § XIV I know it will be here reply'd this was only the Judgment Declaration and Practice of the Churchmen themselves
only Regnante Christo and the Reign of the Empire is left out though it do no ways infer and prove that all Empire is originally in Christ both as to Spirituals and Seculars and that he that is his Succession the Church has the disposal of the Kingdoms of the World too Primarily and Originally in him as some zealous Parasites of the Roman Faith thence it seems have inferr'd and against whom the main Plot of D. Blondel in this his Book is laid and very well yet this it infers and evidently proves That our Saviour and his Succession the Church have been always supposed to have had a Kingdom in the World not to supplant and overturn to usurp and encroach upon but to bless that other of the World to render it Prosperous on Earth and by her holier Laws and Discipline to bring all to the Kingdom of Heaven when the Reign on Earth is at an end But this D. Blondel could not or would not see himself and therefore a thing too usual with him runs into the opposite extreme to his Adversaries is angry when this very Church-Power and its existence of which himself gives so evident a Demonstration is asserted solitary and not in the Empire as no ways flowing and included in its Constitution as the other will have no Empire but from and in the Church so hard a matter is it for some Men to contend for Truth and against the Church of Rome at once and as has above been observed but these Oversights if no worse are usual with him 't is like his ill luck in other cases § XVIII AND he that duly consults and considers the sundry Proceedings and Laws and judiciary Acts of the Empire about Church-Matters either as interspersed in our Church Histories or as Collected and United in the two Codes the Theodosian and Justinian in their several Laws Novels and Constitutions will readily grant all this and more that the Church and State the Worldly or Secular and Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Power were still consider'd reputed and proceeded on as quite distinct Bodies and Powers though both flowing from the same Original and Fountain yet as diverse as the Soul and Body with several Offices and Duties on each incumbent in different Channels convey'd and all aiming at the great and ultimate end the general advantage of Mankind and each individual both with their faces to the same Jerusalem but in several Paths and Determinations judiciary in order to it Hee 'l find that as the Church the Councils and Bishops were ever Conscientious and Industrious that they entrenched not on the Empire withheld not from it what was its due usurped not any thing was not their own paid all manner of Observances to Kings and Secular Governors in all manner of Duties as Prayers Thanksgiving Instructions Directions Admonitions Tribute Loyalty c. So again did the Empire preserve their Functions Persons and Estates give them Liberties Enfranchisements Protestations unless where Apostates as Julian where overmuch favouring Heresies as some time Constantius c. countenanced and provided for Truth and Holiness and sound Discipline according to the Rules Canons Directions Interpretations and Determinations given by the Bishops assembled in Council or occasionally otherways made and recommended unto them the Church still Petitioned and Supplicated the Empire when by the Affronts and Insolencies the greater Impieties and Obstinacies of the World the edge of their Spiritual Sword was dulled and blunted when Coercive outward Punishments alone could hope to prevail for Peace and Amendment of this we have several Instances upon Record as for the deposing Dioscorus in Evagrius his Ecclesiastical History l. 2. c. 4. in placing Proclus in the Episcopal Throne Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 4. which was immediately by Theodosius Maximinianus the defuncts Body being not yet laid in the Ground to prevent the Tumults of the People To this purpose we have the Case of one Cresconius a Bishop who left his own and invaded another's Church and upon a remand from the Council refusing to return the President of the Country is Petitioned and his Secular arm which alone has a Coercive Power over Mens Persons sends him back again according to the Constitutions Imperial Concil Carthag Can. 52. just such another Case as that of Paulus Samosetanus in the days of Aurelian the Emperor above-mentioned and the course of Proceedings we see is the same now as then both in Church and State as that Laws may be made to restrain such as were fled to the Church for refuge Can. 60. that the Riot and Excess be taken away on their Festivals which drew Men to Gentilism again by the obscener Practices and which were without shame and beyond Modesty Can. 65 66. that the Secular Power would come in eò quod Episcoporum autoritas incivitatibus contemnitur because the Power of the Bishops is contemn'd in the Cities Can. 70. ut Ecclesiae opem ferat to assist the Church against these Impieties so strenuous and prevailing Can. 78. as in the Case of the unrulier Donatists Can. 95 96. and the Thanks of the Bishops were given for their Ejection Can. 97. and the Emperor is Petitioned to grant Defensors to the Church Can. 10.109 and as the Church thus supplicated the Empire in these arduous Cases and when its assistance was wanting so on the other side did the Empire still advise with the Church when designing to make Religion the Municipal Law of the Empire to imbody it with the World under the same Sanctions either as to Punishments or Rewards to make it the Religion of the State also they still consulted antecedent Canons or present Bishops in Council or some Ecclesiastical Autority they created nothing anew gave the help of the World for Countenance Assistance and Confirmation to stablish what the Church had put its Sanction upon And those Emperors that designed to discountenance Christianity or set up some particular Heresie and stifle it in part or depose any great Church-men and some such there was they attempted it not but by the Clergy though of their own the Power as in themselves alone was not pretended to they had their own Synods and Bishops in order to it and what they did was done in their Names also and all this will readily appear to any one acquainted with the Canons of the Church and Laws of the Empire or if it seem too hard a task he 'l find it at least attempted to his hand and with Care and Industry reduced to a little room by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Book therefore called the Nomo-Canon to shew the concurrency of the Laws and Canons the Canons still placed first as in course anteceding And in this sense only that of Socrates can be understood in the Proem to his Fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reges viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as Kings began to be Christians the things of the Church were managed and accomplished
but deposed Sect. 32. To Absolve and Re-admit into the Church this the design of Excommunication which is only a shutting out for a time in order to Mercy on whom to be inflicted It s certain force in the Execution Sect. 33. To depute others in the Ministry by Ordination the Necessity of it An instance in St. John out of Eusebius St. Clemens Romanus Calvin and Beza's Opinion and Practice It s ill Consequences Only those of the Priesthood can give this Power to others Sect. 34. The Objection answered and 't is plain the Church is an Incorporation with Laws Rewards and Penalties of its own not of this World nor opposing its Government Sect. 35. The outward stroke is reserved to the Day of Judgment but the Obligation is present If the Church has no Power nor Obligation because not that present Power to Punish or any like it neither has any Law in the Gospel Mr. Hobbs the more honest Man says neither the Ecclesiastical or Evangelical Law obliges His and their Principles infer it Sect. 36. The Power of Christ and his Church cannot clash with the Civil Power because no outward Process till the Day of Judgment and then civil outward Dominion is to cease in its course the present Vnion and Power to be sure cannot this is clear from the several instances of it already reckon'd up Sect. 37. Their Faith is an inward act of the Soul acquitted by Mr. Hobbes and that which is more open Confession obliges if opposed but to dye and be Martyrs Sect. 38. That they Covenant against Sin makes them but the better Subjects Sect. 39. No Man that says his Prayers duly can be a Rebel because first of all to own his Prince and Pray for him The first Christians Innocency defended them when impleaded for Assembling without leave If this did not do they suffer'd Their Christianity did not exempt them from inspection Sect. 40. Charity not obstructive to Government when on due Objects a common Purse without leave dangerous not generally to be allow'd These Christians innocency indemnified them The Divine Right of Titles how asserted Nothing can justifie those Practices but their real Case The Profession of Christianity must otherwise cease Sect. 41 42. Presiding in the Church rises no higher than the Duties exercised 'T is Dr. Tillotson alone ever said To Preach Christ is to Affront Princes If the Jesuit do let him look to it Christianity is not in fault An entring into or renewing the Covenant at the Font or Altar is no Encroachment on the but Justice of Peace in the Neighborhood Sect. 43. Excommunication and other Censures change no Mans Condition as to this World they have no force but in relation to known Duties Prudence is to rule in the Execution particular regard to be had to Princes Whatever is Coercive annexed is from the Prince Lay-Judges Chancellors c. when first granted by the Empire upon the Bishops Petition The same is Absolution neither innovate in Civil Affairs Sect. 44. Conciliary Acts invade no more than does the Gospel it self That Canons have had the precedency of the Law is by the favour of Princes a Council without local meeting Letters Missive Sect. 45. Ordaining others no more prejudicial to the Crown than the former acts This is Mr. Hobbe's Misapprehension Sect. 46. HAVING produced the chief and first § I Arguments and Autorities that are depended upon and urged in this Controversie an Answer to some of which I have already prevented others fall in pieces of themselves to an easie Capacity the rest I shall indeavour to refute in these following Conclusions and which will tend much to the cleering the whole Subject and I 'le begin with the first and great Error of Mr. Selden and his other Friends and which is laid down and insisted on as the Foundation of the whole ensuing Fabrick We are told that all Punishments both before and after the giving the Law in Sinai from Adam to Christ were bodily and outwardly Coercive and inflictive the distinction of Sins Spiritual and Temporal was not then known nor was there any such different Regiments and Governors in regard to them the Sword punish'd Adulteries as well as Burglary And therefore 't is so still under the Gospel by the Institution of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ nor was there a Jurisdiction separate and apart relating alone to Spiritual Church Affairs designed or erected by him An Inference granting the truth of the Premises surely as wide as their keenest Adversaries can wish it to be and the Consequence had been every ways as due and firm in respect to the Law given by Moses that there were never any such Levitical Rites and Ceremonies given from God by him such a Polity erected because nothing like it that we know of was given to Adam in Paradice nor is there one Rule Law or Direction since given to his Succession the Patriarchs in particular but upon the same force and account must still be exemplary nor ought there can there be any institution that is diverse from them received if a distinct Power from all the World before him be admitted and allowed in Moses the Servant much more in Christ a Son over his own House by whom God hath spoken to us in these last days as in times past he did to the Fathers by the Prophets whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he hath made the worlds who is the bright Image of his Person upholding all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.1 2 3 4 5 6. who had greater Autority more full and larger Instructions and Commission and more signally evidenced to the outward sense of Mankind than any Prophets or Messengers of Gods had before who had all Power in Heaven and Earth committed unto him both spake and acted as never Man did And in the same peculiar manner did he gather and stablish and six his Church or Body upon Earth and at his going away into Heaven send down his own Gifts in the face of all Nations at the Feast of Pentecost erected his own Kingdom appointed his own Officers assign'd his own Members influenced them by his own Spirit governed them by his own Laws associated them in his own Method and nothing of it was of this World He made a new Covenant stablish'd on better Grounds incouraged with better Hopes and Promises instituted new Ordinances made new Seals and Conveyances gave new Liveries and Pledges that were diverse a Government to last for ever till the restitution of all things with a respect to nothing future but Heaven and all this absolute in it self and independent abstract and separate from any or all the Powers and Associations in the world beside complying and yielding to no one Circumstance Exigence or Necessity whatever so contrived and ordained that as himself her Head so the Church his Body and every Member in particular hath life in it self derived only from him their own Powers and
good Christian who is also a good Subject is to abate of what Duties and Performances he in some instances immediately owes to Religion and his Saviour in obedience to those Secular injunctions to which if not engaged to submit the Government cannot subsist and be managed as in these particular instances did a pretence to or the actual present exercise in religious Worship exempt and disingage Every one is born a Subject owes a duty to his Prince and the Government as soon as he is indebted for his Being to his Maker and an after-dedication of my Person by holy Orders does not cancel that first dependency my Saviour himself hither all along had his regard and he laid his Religion in relation to it and when in the Pulpit or which is more at the Altar in the midst of my Office am I to give up my Person to that Civil Power by my Christianity supposed and by the same God placed over me The severer Rules and Laws of the Sabbath were to give place to the saving the life of a Man in the design of Moses as our Saviour expounds him to the Pharisees and much more for the support of Kingdoms and Communities and so in all other Instances of this sort of Holiness called Relative and which is good only from the institution and positive appointment and no greater more notorious Cheats than those in Ordine ad Deum that manage and abet Disobedience by a Charter from Religion 't is that very Corban in the Gospel so severely chastised by Christ the saying it is a gift and robbing my Father and Mother That absence from Divine Service or religious Worship which is in it self a sin upon a single instance of Charity for the advantage and relief of the neighbour-hood and then surely of a whole Community is a duty on this score Christians fight their Battels on the Lord's-day the very Ass is to be pulled out of the Pit and how the reasons and ends of Government for its better managâ—ry and conservation did stiil over-rule in the Christian Church in each of these like religious Performances in the best and most flourishing Times of it and the Empire when Christian gave Laws Directions and Limitations as to the Collectae and Publick Assemblies in Ordinations Excommunications Absolutions c. for the more orderly administration of the Civil Affairs is already shew'd in this discourse and yet the things themselves are immediately from Christ that power is not from the Prince which warrants and makes effectual the Institutions and Offices of each of them AND if it be replied that this seems § XV to come too near to what the design of this discourse is laid against or to be sure was the occasion of it If the Magistrate and the Law are to silence and limit in the exercise and profession of these higher Instances of Christianity what is this less than to submit my Religion to their pleasure To which I answer the case is not at all the same this is only adjusting of Duties in order to a due performance a suspension upon a higher reason and duty intervening and both which are equally Christian or at the most a but concealing some truths upon present reasons and motives and which every one allows may be done Should the Prince command me not to say my Prayers at all as he did Daniel to preach or speak no more in Christ's Name as the Sanedrim did the Apostles that Ordinations and Censures be no more Church both Officers and Offices cease for ever or which is the case in Mr. Dean's Sermon should a false Religion be commanded in their rooms and be made the Religion of the Nation this is the case in which I am to speak before Kings and not be ashamed when my life is in my hand as 't is the expression of holy David with a great many more to that purpose in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm then I am not only to exercise what is my duty as a private Christian but to make what open Proselytes I can to that Religion which I am sure is in the right to draw off all I can from that which is false and imposed by the Magistrate and Law This is that confession with the Mouth call'd for all along in the sacred Epistles Confession at Matyrdome that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Clemens Strom. l. 4. p. 503. an eminent way to gain Mercy for our sins and 't is call'd by the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § XI perfection as he there tells us pag. 480. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the highest act of Charity the greatest demonstration of love when expressed to Souls in the profession of a right and rescuing from a false Religion at so great a distance was it set from gross hypocrisie and which Mr. Dean demonstrates to be such in the next Paragraph of the Sermon I 'le go on so far with his Worship and Consent that where neither Miracles to justifie the extraordinary Commission as had the Apostles nor the providence of God makes way by the permission of the Magistrate the Proselytes are very like to be few and since the former is ceased altogether and never to be more expected the countenance and protection of the latter is what usual course and common Prudence directs to wait for upon any attempt for converting and reducing of Nations from a false Worship I find the Proposal and the Complaint recited and made both at once by our learned Doctor Hammond Serm. 10. in Joh. 7.48 Vol. 2. I 'le here use his own Words If we should plant Christianity in Turkey we must first invade and conquer them and then convince them of their Follies which about an hundred years ago Cleonard proposed to most Courts in Christendom and to that end himself studied Arabick that Princes would join their strength and Scholars their brains and all surprize them in their own Land and Language at once besiege the Turk and his Alcoran put him to the Sword and his Religion to the touch-stone first command him to Christianity with an high hand and then to shew him the reasonableness of the Command Thus also we may complain but not wonder that the reformation gets ground so slow in Christendom because the Forces and potent Abetters of Papacy secure them from being led captive to Christ as long as the Pope is invested so fast in his Chair and as long as the Rulers take part with him there shall be no doubt of the truth of their Religion unless it please God to back Arguments with steel and to raise up Kings and Emperors to be our Champions we may question but never confute his Supremacy Let us come with all the power and rhetorick of Paul and Barnabas all the demonstrations and reasons of the Spirit and yet as long as they have such Topicks against us as the autority of the Rulers and Pharisees we may dispute out our hearts and preach out our Lungs
has not made that the immutable term of Man's Salvation but what is in his own Power and of which if he fails 't is his own perverse will and choice that is debauch'd and betrays him to it the Carved works of the Temple may be beaten down the Church-Discipline be weakned and her Laws and Rules for Holiness become of less force her Towers and Bulwarks be taken away and the Secular Protection be withdrawn I may have neither tongue to speak nor hands to lift up in prayer nor feet to walk to the House of God there may be no Houses of God in our Land the Tyrant may pull out or cut off the one or pull down the other the daily Sacrifice my cease and the Priest-hood too as to particular Persons and when we say where Episcopal Power is not there is no Church we do not so mean that where it is not Men cannot go to Heaven these all may be supplyed by an upright heart and due intentions God accepts of a Man according to what he hath and not according to what he hath not The Sacraments are only generally necessary to Salvation and so of other duties in the same Order of Sanction God does not oblige us to the Tyranny of Impossible Commands to climb up to Heaven and go down into the Deep and fetch thence our Eternity ask of us ten thousand Rams or a thousand of Rivers of Oyl or those Cattel upon a thousand Hills for a Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Clement argues to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is our own Lust not others we are to answer for if not Subdued and Conquered he does not bind us to go to Heaven when we have no Legs Move without Faculties Act without Strength Live when Dead Men and with Paralytick Joynts Enfeebled by Irrecoverable Weakness to work out our own Salvation every Brick-bat will then make an Altar and Prayers are to be made every where with Holy Hands lift up or but Devout Hearts without Wrath and without Doubting nor is it by Subduing Kings and Conquering Worldly Powers we are to go to Heaven Faith Love Dependence upon God c. are among those acts of the Soul usually called Elicitae whose Practice depends on no outward Faculty and if some Virtues equally indispensable are otherways seated and among those Acts call'd Imperatae and to be perform'd by the outward Organs of the Body yet are they equally free from outward Force so seated in each ones Self and lodg'd in his Person that no Violence but from a Man 's own self can reach them those the only Enemies that are of his own House and 't is every ones own hand that draws his Sword and makes him a Rebel his alone Adulterous Eyes and Heart Promote and Actuate whatever of uncleanness is from him and 't is neither Person nor Object nor Quality any thing that comes cross or is of force from within or without himself whether Devil or Tyrant or Lust any one accident or contingency that can either dismember him from the Church or disunite him from his God deprive him of sufficient Means here or Eternal Life hereafter even the Tyrannies and Deaths here will but Advance the Crown and these lighter Afflictions work for us that more Eternal Weight of Glory and which Considerations are to be the great Support and Comfort of all Christians Should it so happen in the courses of Providence and Kings and Queens cease to be Nursing Fathers and Mothers unto us Should a Nero or a Domitian a Parliament of forty two a Cromwel or a Committee of Safety or what Association soever be set up against and Tyrannize over us plane volumus pati verùm eo modo quo Bellum miles nemo quippe libens Bellum patitur cum et trepidari periclitari necesse sit tamen praeliatur omnibus viribus et vincens in praelio gaudet qui de praelio querebatur quia Gloriam consequitur praedam they are the words of Tertullian Apol. c. 5. to those Scoffers of the Heathens in his days and whom Julian the Apostate after imitated telling the Christians Afflictions was their Advantage and to be Loved by them because their Martyrdom and Crown We must willingly suffer and engage as the Souldier does in War and 't is the expectation of Victory and that recompence of Reward makes us fight on and Rejoyce under that Banner which otherwise the present Difficulties and Dangers working on our fears would engage us to avoid and run from 't was the constancy and evenness of the Christians for the Truth and in Gods Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with their Gravity Sincerity their Freedom and Modesty of Conversation gain'd upon their Enemies both Greeks and Barbarians and silenced their baser Slanders and Calumnies against them thus together with the learned discourses and endeavours by Writing and which were not few the Church grew and multiplied as Eusebius tells us Hist l. 4. c. 7. These the Weapons of a Christian Warfare and the many Shields of the Mighty these the Spoyls and Trophies they contended for I know not how in fitter words to conclude this Chapter than in those of our Noble Historian Eusebius in his Preface to his fifth Book of his Church History giving an account of those many and Eminent Martyrs in the days of Antoninus Verus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Others making Historical Narrations have delivered in their Writings Victories in War and Trophies over their Enemies the great Actions of Captains and the Valour of Souldiers that had stained their hands in Blood and a thousand Battels for their Children their Country and their Fortunes but the History or the Narrative of the Divine Common-wealth and Enrollment which is of Heaven writes on Eternal Pillars those Peace Designing Battels in order to the Peace of the Soul or that are Spiritual Those that fight in these Battels for Truth rather than their Country for Religion rather than their Children The constancy of the Contenders for Piety and their Fortitude in their manifold Sufferings their Trophies against Devils and Victories obtain'd against the Invisible Powers or Enemies making publick their Crown for an Everlasting Remembrance CHAP. VI. Chap. 6. The Contents The last general of the Discourse Sect. 1. What the Autority of our particular Church and Kingdom is in this Controversie where not Apostolical and Primitive there not obliging Their Doctrine Laws and Practice all along on our side Sect. 2. The People are only Testimonies of the Manners of such as are to be Ordained in our Book of Ordination Sect. 3. No Autority in any but those of the Priesthood to Ordain Excommunicate c. as in our Rubricks Articles c. Sect. 4. Our Kings claim'd it not in their Acts Declarations c. in the days of Henry VIII in the Act of Submission He is declared a Lay-man nothing in Religion made Law but by him He defends Religion His
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.
he proves thoughout the Church Historians Fathers and Imperial Laws thus declaring assenting to and practising pag. 146. If by the Church you mean the Precepts and Promises Gifts and Graces of God preached in the Church and poured on the Church Princes must humbly obey them and reverently receive them as well as other private Men so that Prophets Apostles Evangelists and all other builders of Christ's Church as touching their Persons be subject to the Princes power Mary the word of God in their Mouths and Seals of grace in their hands because they are of God and not of themselves they be far above the Princes Calling and Regiment and in those Cases Kings and Queens if they will be saved must submit themselves to God's everlasting truth and testament as well as the meanest of their People and yet they are for all this Supreme and subject only to God as to outward Process either from the Pope or from any other Power And so pag. 147. he brings in those Passages of Tertullian Optatus and Chrysostom à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem parem super terram non habet c. the word Supreme was added to the Oath for that the Bishop of Rome taketh upon him to command and depose Princes as their lawful supreme Judg to exclude this wicked presumption we teach that Princes be supreme Rulers we mean subject to no superior Judg to give a reason of their doings but only to God pag. 164 165 166. it must be confessed he speaks not home as might be required when explaining how Kings as well as other Christians are comprized under the duty of obeying their Rulers and to be subject unto them c. surely there is a true real obedience due even from Princes to Church-Officers and their Power devolved from Christ and this learned Man seems here and in other places not to be rescued from that common prejudice and possession seized upon too many and all along continued upon casting of the Popes Superiority here in England that there can be no Church-Power at all universally obliging and requiring obedience but what implyes and infers corporal bodily subjection a change in Seculars 't is this puts him upon that great mistake that the Pastors of the Church are not influenced by the Kingly power of Christ and what is regal in him is given to the Civil Magistrate and who only succeed him in that Office perpetual Government of the Church cap. 10. and Arch-bishop Bancroft confounding these two Powers gives Beza and Cartwright as much advantage in that Particular as their Disciples and Followers can now really wish and because they say that Christ as a King prescribed the form of Ecclesiastical Government being a King the head of the Church doth administer his Kingdom per legitime vocatos pastores by Pastors lawfully called he runs them upon this absurdity that their Autority must be without any controul The Pastors must be all of them Emperors the Doctors Kings the Elders Dukes and the Deacons Lords of the Treasury c. survey of the holy pretended discipline c. cap 24. and yet after all 't is mostly Name◠and Titles that occasions this or the accidental pressing an argument as there will be occasion to consider anon and Bishop Bilson goes on and acknowledges all in effect only Bishops and Pastors are left out and tells us That the Church may be Superior and yet the Pope subject to Princes Princes be Supreme and the Church their Superior the Scriptures be superior to Princes and yet Princes supreme the Sacrament be likewise above them and yet that hindreth not their Supremacy Truth Grace Faith Prayer and other Ghostly Virtues be higher than all earthly States and all this notwithstanding Princes may be supreme Governors of their Countries and which though in over abating Terms and with too scrupulous a fear where no fear ought to be declares as fully as can be the thing it self viz. That Princes are to be subject to the Government in the Church settled by Christ in its Bishops and Pastors and which both as a Prophet a Priest and a King he derives unto them Church-Officers have a Power underived and independent to the Crown only 't is ill worded by the Warden Things Powers Gifts Virtues c. as standing and settled on Earth and not invested in Persons can really be of no force and command at all or rather and which at last will amount to the same will be what every one shall please to make them and the Prince will have as many Supremes as are pretenders to these Gifts of the Spirit and which will be enough as experience taught us this only then can be meant by these Circumlocutions and why it might not have been spoken in down-right terms I cannot imagine that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with the Bible put into their hands as it is at their Ordination with full autority given for the Offices ministerial have a real Power and are truly Rulers in the Church have a Supremacy and Superiority peculiarly theirs and all that will come to Heaven must come under this Ministry or Government it 's jurisdiction and discipline be they Princes or Subjects on Earth or what ever worldly Government they are possessed of unless he 'l say every Man hath these Ghostly Virtues which can urge a Text of Scripture and which cannot be conceived of him and to this purpose he goes farther pag. 167 168. Though the Members of the Church be subject and obedient to Princes yet the things contained in the Church and bestowed on the Church by God himself I mean the light of his Word the working of his Sacraments the gifts of his Grace and fruits of his Spirit be far superior to all Princes The plain meaning of which can be but this Certain separate Persons invested by God beyond Christians at large with such Gifts and Graces the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in which respect a good Emperor is within the Church and not above it as St. Ambrose is to this purpose here quoted by him pag. 171. You must distinguish the things proposed in the Church from the Persons that were Members of the Church the Persons both Lay-Men and Clerks by God's Law were the Princes Subjects the things comprized in the Church and by God himself committed to the Church because they were Gods could be subject to the Power and Will of no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince the Prince is above the Persons of the Church not above things in the Church pag. 173. 176. 178. you know we do not make the Prince Judg of Faith we confess Princes to be no Judges of Faith but we do not encourage Princes themselves to be Judges of Faith but only we wish them to discern betwixt truth and error which every private Man must do that is a Christian pag. 174 175 176. he approves of Ambrose's Answer to Valentinian that is was stout but lawful constant but
be in part a great untruth and both Athanasius Synod Nicen. Cont. heres Arian decreta p. 277 278. Ed. paris et Ep. de Synod Arimini et Seleuciae p. 889. Ep. ad ubique Orthodoxos c. p. 943. and Theodorit Eccl. hist l. 1. c. 5. 12. refer them to the Writings of the eminent Bishops and Doctors who lived an hundred and twenty years before the Synod of Nice and then used this Word Consubstantial in explaining the Divinity of the Father and the Son and 't is what Sandius in effect confesses only he thinks it for the dishonor of the Cause that all the Hereticks that were in the Church before Arius were Homousians hist Enucleat l. 1. and which in truth is only this the worst of Hereticks did not arrive to that height of impudence as to deny so received an acknowledgment in the universal Church Yet what Athanasius replyes upon Arius himself Tom. 1. disputat cum Ario pag. 134. making the Objection is a better answer here that what was in the Council asserted and declared was alwaies in the Scriptures by way of consequence and occasion was not given the Church till the rise and spreading of that Heresie for that particular and precise explication Heresies and Novelties must be and 't is the work of Councils to detect and determine against them but there would be mad work in the Church should that go for Innovation which an upstart Heresie forces the Church in new Terms to state and declare against and explain themselves thereby it must be declamed against as defective in Autority and Precedents because former Doctors had not sagacity enough the very Apostles had not Spirit of Prophecy enough to anticipate the Fictions of every Brain so to word it before-hand that the particular Heresie in its Nicety must be antidated and pre-abide upon Record bassled and contradicted He that reads over St. Jerome lib. 1. Cont. Jovinianum will find him there so urging Chastity as if Marriage it self was a sin and which that Father never design'd as his Opinion and Dailee confesses that he only speaks comparatively and is so to be understood as do and are to be many more of the Fathers cap. 5. de usu patrum though he will not allow it him in other Cases and when to serve his own particular Design of him I mean as to his Judgment of Episcopacy and will have his Epistle ad Evagrium and his Comments on Titus to the same purpose to be absolute and with no regard to those great even just Provocatious from the Bishops in preferring the Deacon before the Presbyters who as he well argues are of so much more Power and higher Order in the Church as that a Bishop is oft call'd a Presbyter in Scripture and Antiquity when so injurious were the Bishops to the Presbyters and so partial to the Deacons and indulgent that the Deacons scorn'd the Presbyters Order qui ignorantes humilitatem status sui ultra Sacerdotes hoc est Presbyteros intumescunt 〈◊〉 putent si Presbyter ordinetur Their nearer attendance on the Bishops Person and familiarity with him with other advantages attending occasioned that they found it an Injury to be promoted to the Presbyters Order as he tells us Comment in Ezek. cap. 48. and which together with the great superciliousness and insulting pride of John Bishop of Jerusalem exercized over him and giving some disturbance to his Monastick ease in the holy Land Ep. 60 61. something raised his spleen and in vindicating his own Order he spared not some little flourishes or Arguments abating of the Episcopate if thereby these indecencies might cease What effects all this had at that time we read not and that it was afterwards lookt upon by the Church as his alone Passion and particular Provocation we have all the reason in the World to believe it all ceased with his Person to be sure if not with the Passion nor do we find any one follower he had or is his Autority ever used against the solitary appropriated Power of a Bishop above a Presbyter 'till of late in these parts of Christendom who thence take the rise for their Schism and 't is the ground they stand upon for the battery and abolishing the whole Order and with-drawing their obedience and which to be sure St. Jerome never did nor attempted and herein they are particularly unlucky they beat down Bishops by St. Jerome's Autority to bring in their Schism and 't is the main Argument they still urge against them in the height of these Divisions and Distractions are now on foot in Europe and then too when they contend that St. Jerome knew no other occasion or use of Bishops but ad tollenda Schismata because Schisms and Divisions cannot be kept out of the Church but by them So that St. Jerome's Autority if any thing in their present Case must be against them and if complying with him they must for the present expedience submit unto Bishops whom they 'l allow to have acknowledged this necessity and usefulness of them what ever reasons else he saw for their institution and continuance 'T is that which Doctor Durel pleads for Arch-Bishop Cranmer that admitting him guilty of Erastianism and he did resolve the Power of the Keys into the Prince as Doctor Stillingfleet says he was and did his present Circumstances will plead much for him and the other Doctors of his time if of the same mind then with him he had been educated in many Errors with which the Church the whole Age at that time abounded and though a Reformation was on foot no wonder if in some Instances he was in the wrong 't was then their work to abdicate the Bishop of Rome and case him of that Primacy and usurpation he had exercised over this Church and it might so happen that in giving to the King what was his he abated too much of the Power of the Priesthood and the Church and which was hers and not to be given to any other and yet even this Error did he see at last acknowledged it to Doctor Leighton submitted to and subscribed the truth against it as the Dean of Windsor tell us he read it in Doctor Stillingfleet's Manuscript and in his presence And there is enough to be pleaded of this nature in the behalf of those inconsiderable Offers are made against our three eminent Bishops Whitgift Bilson and Bancroft and which will so thoroughly acquit them of the but suspition of Erastianism that the Bill must in course be flung out that is drawn up against them every one knows that is conversant in those their Writings whence Parker's Objections are taken The Point under debate was mostly very near altogether in King Henry VIII day 's betwixt the King and the Pope whether was supreme in the forensick outward Ecclesiastical Courts and Proceedings on the Persons of Men within this his Majesties Kingdom the Pope had usurped it for some time the King reassumes it Religion
those who abominate the natural and direct consequences are thence to be drawn where the Civil Power is return'd into the Mediator but it throughly answers their Expectations who contend to have their Prince a Priest too and would delight more to see him in his Rochet and at the Altar Blessing and Consecrating than on his Throne and with his Scepter sweying and governing his People and for which latter they believe themselves equally capacitated and enabled as he and their belief on these Grounds is well bottomed for Christ when ascending up on high gave no other Gifts to Men than what either enabled to the work of the Ministry and which alone were for peculiar Persons or what made Christians good and virtuous men only and which were to all promiscuous and common And had our Church in her Article given to Kings that only Prerogative they saw given to Aristotles Prince and which is extended to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also as is above shew'd to the things of Religion it had been the same though less popular and perswading I shall only add the Autority of Doctor Hammond in his Practical Catechism Lib. 2. Sect. 11. that Christ in his Sermon on the Mount medled not with the Fifth Commandment Though he were as God the King of all Kings and might have changed and disposed of their Dominions as he pleased yet he was not pleased to make any Alteration but to continue and settle all in that course wherein it formerly had been placed by God himself What he added to Moses in this Matter was only greater reverence and aw to the Father or Magistrate or Civil Power he left the Woman taken in Adultery and other Offenders to the ordinary legal course and would not upon any importunity usurp or take upon him any thing in that Matter and more considerate Papists as he goes on and tells us discerning this and yet unwilling to devest the Pope of his so long usurped Power have found it necessary to pretend another tenure for him and therefore style the Pope not the Vicar of Christ for that would give him no Power so much as of a Civil Judge but the Vicar of God whom he hath set up to be the Vicegerent of all the World The whole Discourse might not unfitly be here transcribed only 't is as it ought to be in every bodies hands BUT what if these Doctors were in the design § XXVII against us as we do not resolve our Faith into one Doctor or Bishop at Rome So neither do we into three or twice so many at home of what Order and Autority soever and which adds in it self just nothing to the Skill of a Divine nor is the Tradition of Truth broken by it And indeed there are so many Accidents in the World and with so great force upon Mankind so often influencing and over-ruling that Christianity in its particular Articles and sometimes the highest of them would be but in a bad Condition were it responsible for what every particular Doctor has said or wrote and which comes not up unto them whether out of a tenderness of Disposition a mistaken Zeal for Union and to reconcile Moderation and Comprehension a keeping present Peace or a design of working more effectually for the future or whether through a fear and impotency of Nature averse to and unable for Struglings wearied out by daily Provocations or a foresight of some Calamities foreseen and approaching and every one is not an Athanasius always undaunted or real misapprehension in the understanding or which is a thing very frequent upon the rise of an Heresie to set up for a middle way and which is as injurious to gratifie either lust in general or that itch of Ambition in particular and to become the Head of a Party whether out of peevishness or revenge or to magnifie their own Parts and Eloquence lead by the Autority of Names or by self-interest blinded by one or more of which ways errors and differences in Religion are either occasioned or started managed and pursued No sooner was his Master Justin Martyr dead but Tatianus grew Proud and puffed up with an opinion of being uppermost in the School turn'd Heretick Iren. adv Haeres cap. 31. l. 1. Basilides was a Master of luxury and was to do something extraordinary to disguise it as St. Jerone Tom. 3. l. 2. adv Jovinian and so was Marcion as Tertullian Prescript Cap. 51. and Lactantius tells us of several others who affecting the highest Order in the Church studying Honour and Greatness and sailing of it made a Secession from the Church not enduring Subjection Lib. 4. Sect. ult and so did Valentinus because he lost a Bishoprick Tertul. adv Valent. cap. 4. as did Aerius Novatius c. and Theodorit describes Hereticks in general ambitioni vanae gloriae mancipatos Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 2. and Sozomen complains of a worser effect they have yet in God's Church Nonnullos in vias medias adigunt Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. occasion the setting up somewhat like Truth which is not Truth when they write Irenicums and set up for Reconcilers make a hotch-potch of Truth and Falshood together a sure way to elude and baffle Truth and insinuate Error the abatement being still on Truth 's side and the Error is brought to become tolerable and which would not in plain terms have been endured but thus gets ground onward and so much of Truth is destroyed and erased to give place to the Falshood This was the most devilish Plot of Julian the Apostate by which he baffled Christianity he mixed his Paganism with it complied in many instances of its Performances that the less discerning might be the easier carried over to it a very ill consequence of Error mostly ruining Truth and mostly to be abominated the Ape is the more deformed because like a Man and is not one Tertullian turn'd Montanist in disdain of the Pride of the greater Clergy at Rome as inter fragmenta Tertull. and Hieron Catalog Script Ecclesiast no one stands fairer in the Church Story for Piety and Morals than Pelagius and he and his Scholars Julianus Celestius c. seduced many by it designed and perverted it to that alone purpose even Men of great Fame and Learning became thereby inclined to them as Sixtus at Rome John of Jerusalem Cyril in Egypt and Sulpitius Severus in France And particularly the Rich and Potent Women whom he strangely insinuated into by all manner of Flatteries Hypocrisies and Delusions and which generally are the Engines Hereticks have work'd by as in Church Story and for which Austin and Jerome sufficiently shrape him as an account is given at large by Joannes Garnerus the late Publisher of the Works of Marius Mercator Dissert 4. De Subscript c. Cap. 3. who was or who could be more stout and couragious for the Nicene Faith than was Liberius Bishop of Rome and which appeared in his behaviour all along particularly in his