the See of Rome was defiled with it Page 358. A Bill that came to nothing was for empowering thirty two Persons to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws But as this last was then let fall so to the great prejudice of this Church it hath slept ever since For before this p. 129 130. l. 2. In King Edward's Reign Bucer's Opinion was asked about the review of the Common Prayer Book He wished there might not be only a denunciation against scandalous Persons that came to the Sacrament but a Discipline to exclude them That the Habits might be laid aside c. At the same time he understood that the King expected a New Years Gift from him of a Book written particularly for his own use So he made a Book for him concerning the Kingdom of Christ He prest much the setting up a strict Discipline the Sanctification of the Lords day the appointing many days of Fasting and that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned that Children might be Catechized that the reverence due to Churches might be preserved that the Pastoral Function might be restored to what it ought to be that Bishops might throw off Secular Affairs and take care of their Diocesses and Govern them by the advice of their Presbyters that there might be Rural Bishops over twenty or thirty Parishes and that Provincial Councils might meet twice a year that Church Lands be restored and a fourth part assigned to the poor that care be taken for Education of Youth and for repressing Luxury that the Law be reformed and no Office sold but given to the most deserving that none be put in Prison upon slight offences The young King was much pleased with these advices And upon that began himself to form a Scheme for amending many things c. It appears by it that he intended to set up a Church Discipline and settle a Method for breeding Youth Page 361 362 li. 4. To return to Queen Elizabeth the Changes are recited and he addeth The liberty given to explain in what sence the Oath of Supremacy was taken gave a great evidence of the Moderation of the Queens Government that she would not lay snares for her people which is always a sign of a Wicked and Tyrannical Prince But the Queen reckoned that if such comprehensive Methods could be found out as would once bring her people under any Vnion though perhaps there might remain a great diversity of Opinion that would wear off with the present Age and in the next Generation all would be of one mind Page 363. The Empowering Lay men to deprive Church-men or Excommunicate could not be easily excused but was as justifiable as the Commissions to Lay-Chancellors for those things were There are 9400 Benefices in England but of all these the Number of those viz. Papists who chose to resign rather than take the Oath was very inconsiderable Fourteen Bishops Six Abbots Twelve Deans Twelve Archdeacons Fifteen Heads of Colledges Fifty Prebendaries and Eighty Rectors was the whole number of those that were turned out But it was believed that the greatest part complied against their Consciences and would have been ready for another turn if the Queen had died while that Race of Incumbents lived and the next Successor had been of another Religion Read what he saith of Mr. Parker's great unwillingness to be A. Bishop and the threatning else to Imprison him p. 363 364 c. I conclude with that honest Note p. 369. There was one thing yet wanting to compleat the Reformation of this Church which was the restoring a Primitive Discipline against scandalous Persons the stablishing the Government of the Church in Ecclesiastical hands and taking it out of Lay hands who have so long profaned it So that the dreadfullest of all Censures is now become most scorned and despised See the rest The Papists in Queen Elizabeth's days sometime strove by Treasons the recovery of their Power and secretly strove by Policy to divide the Protestants and to root out those that were most against them The Ministers unhappily fell into these Parties 1. Some were for the Grandeur of the Bishops and for strict observance of Liturgy and Ceremonies and against Parochial Discipline and these prevailed with the Queen 2. Some were against Diocesan Bishops and Ceremonies and some things in the Liturgy and were for Parish Discipline And these were called Nonconformists and Puritans 3. Melancthon and Bucer had prevailed with some others who were indifferent as to Bishops and most of the Ceremonies and Forms but Zealous for Parish Discipline and a godly Life and for using things indifferent only indifferently to Edification and not to the hinderance of the Ministry of refusers And Bucer's Scripta Anglicana written for K. Edward which urged this Parish Discipline with great Zeal and Judgment prevailed with a great part of the Queens Council and of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry but most of the Clergy were of the two first mentioned Opinions called Extreams by others § 4. All the Parliaments that were called in Queen Elizabeth's time were still suspicious that Popery would keep too much strength by the peoples Ignorance and Impiety for want of good Preaching and godly Living in the Ministry And therefore were usually complaining of the Bishops especially Whitguift for silencing so many Nonconforming Preachers and keeping up so many Pluralists and so many meer Readers And they were oft attempting a Reformation of this and to have restored the Nonconformists and united the godly Protestants But by the Bishops Counsel the Queen still restrained them and charged them not to meddle with Ecclesiastical Matters as belonging to her In Sir Simond Dewes Journals you may see the many attempts and her constant prohibition and restraint And Parliaments were loth to offend her or make any breach remembering how great a deliverance they had by her from Queen Mary's Persecutions Though they grudged at the Imprisonment of Mr. Strickland and others that had spoke earnestly for Reformation of Bishops Affairs and the Ministry yet they bore it patiently because of what they did enjoy One of their strongest attempts you may read in their Petition of Sixteen Articles in Sir Sim. Dewes An. 1584 and 1585. page 357. which is well worth the reading But it was not endured But she long endured the Popish Bishops in their Seats though in Parliament the A Bishop of York the Bishop of London the Bishops of Worcester Landaff Coventree Oxford Chester the Abbot of Westminster were against the Bill for the Supremacy and abolishing Popery See Sir S. Dewes p. 28. and p. 23. also the Bishops of Winchester Carlile Exceter Which patience of hers mentioned put Sir S. D. the Historian on the recital of so large a Catalogue of Records for the Kings Power against the Pope and Usurping Bishops as is worth the reading page 24. § 5. Also for many years the Papists came to our Temples till the Pope forbad them But the Parliament men much differed about this Some would
which the Primitive Universal Church was for But such are the Diocesane Party now mentioned Ergo The Major is proved not only from Ignatius who maketh one Altar and one Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons the noâ—e of Individuation to every Church but a multitude of other proofs which I undertake to give And from the Councils that determined that every City of Christians have a Church till afterward they began to except small Cities The Minor is notorious Matter of Fact every Parish with us hath an Altar and many hundred have but one Bishop Ergo they are no Churches according to the Saying Vbi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia Ecclesia est plebs Episcopo adunata And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then signified every great Town like our Corporations and Market-Towns And Titus was to set Elders in every such City II. They that render Bishops Odious endeavour to Extirpate Episcopacy But so do I need not name them Ergo The Major is granted The Minor is proved 1. They that use Episcopacy to the Silencing of faithful Ministers of Christ near Two thousand at once than whom no Nation under Heaven out of Britain hath so many better and to render them and all that adhere to them odious and ruined do that which will render Bishops odious But Ergo 2. From Experience when we treated with you 1661. the People would have gladly received Episcopacy as we offered it to you and as the King granted it in his Declaration But when they saw near Two thousand Silenced and that Bishops thought all such as I and the many better Ministers of the Countrey where I lived to be intolerable it hath done an hundred times more to alienate the People from Episcopacy than all the Books and Sermons of the Opposers of Episcopacy ever did e. g. The People that I was over would reverently have received Pious Bishops But though I never saw them nor wrote to them one Letter against Episcopacy these 19 years but have largely written to draw them to Communion in the Parish Church and much prevailed yet they will now rather forsake me as a complier with Persecuters as Martin did the Bishops than they would own our Diocesane Prelacy since they saw me and so many better Men of their Countrey Silenced and cast out and many of themselves laid in Jails with Rogues and ruined for repeating a Sermon together as they were always wont to do He that will teach Men to love Prelacy by Prisons Undoing them and Silencing and ruining the Teachers whom they have found to be most edifying and faithful to them will do more to extirpate Prelacy by making it odious than all its Enemies could do The reason of the thing seconded by full experience are undeniable proofs No Men that I know of have done more against Episcopacy than Bishops and Pardon my free inviting you to Repentance none that I know alive either Sectaries or Bishops more than you two who I unfeignedly wish may have the honour before you die of righting the Church and repairing the honour of true Episcopacy It is a dreadful thing to us Nonconformists to think of appearing before God under the Guilt of Silencing Two Thousand of our selves if it prove our doing If not let them think of it that believe they shall be judged Prov. 26.27 Whoso diggeth a Pit shall fall therein and he that rolleth a Stone it shall return upon him Chap. XVI The Second Letter to Bishop Guning after our first Conference My Lord I Much desire some further help for my Satisfaction in the Three things which we last Discoursed of 1. Whether I mis-recited or misapplied the Case of St. Martin's Separation 2. Whether by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ignatius be not meant One material Altar or Place of ordinary Communion of one Church 3. What are the true terms of Universal Christian Concord But the last is to me of so much greater Importance than the rest that I will now forbear them lest by diversion from this my expectation should be frustrate And seeing I profess in this to write to you with an unfeigned desire to learn and also to take the Matter to be such as my very Religion and Church relation lyeth on I beseech you either by your self or some other whom you direct to speak your sense to endeavour my better information The only terms or way of Vniversal Christian Concord you say is Obedience to the Vniversal Church and the Pastors are the Church And he is not a true Member of the Church that doth not obey it And this Church to be obeyed is not only a General Council but also a Collegium Pastorum who rule per literas formatas being Successors to the Apostles who had this Power from Christ. This is the Substance of what I understood from you Here I shall first tell you what I hitherto held and next tell you wherein I desire Satisfaction I. I have hitherto thought 1. That only Christ was a Constitutive Head of the Church Universal and had appointed no Vicarious Head or Soveraign either Personal or Collective Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical 2. Therefore none but Christ had now an Universal Legislative Power nor yet an Universal Judicial and Executive 3. And that this is the first and fundamental difference between us and the Church of Rome 4. But I doubt not but that all the Pastors in the World may be intellectually thought on in an Universal Notion and we may say with Cyprian Episcopatus est unus c. as all the Judges and Justices and other Officers are Universally All the Governing Power of the Kingdom under the King and as all the Individuals are the whole People as Subjects 5. And I doubt not but each Pastor is in his place to be obeyed in all things which he is authorized to Command 6. And these Pastors must endeavour to maintain Concord as extensive as is possible to which end Councils and Communicatory Letters are to be used And that the individual Pastors and People are obliged by the General Law of endeavouring to maintain Love and Concord to observe the Agreements of of such Concordant Councils in all things Lawful belonging to their Determination 7. And I doubt not but while there were but twelve Apostles those twelve had under Christ the Guidance of the whole Christian Church on Earth which for a while might all hear them in one place and were to do their work in Concord and had the Unity of the Spirit thereto by which they infallibly agreed in that which was proper to them and they had no Successors in even though they were never so distant as well as when they were together Act. 15. though in other things Peter and Paul and Paul and Barnabas disagreed And as in the recording of Christ's Works and Doctrine in infallible Scriptures so also they agreed in their Preaching it and in the Practice of all that was necessary either to Salvation or to the forming or
Against the Revolt to A Foreign Jurisdiction Which would be to England its PERJURY CHVRCH-RVINE and SLAVERY In Two Parts I. The History of Mens Endeavors to introduce it II. The Confutation of all Pretences for it Fully stating the Controversie and Proving That there is no Soveraign Power of Legislation Judgment and Execution over the whole Church on Earth Aristocratical or Monarchical but only Christ Especially against the Aristocratists who place it in a Council or College By RICHARD BAXTER an Earnest Desirer of the Churches Concord and therefore an Enemy to all false Terms and Dividing Engines and Self-exalting Sects and a Defender of Christ's own assigned Terms which take in all the true Christians in the World and are Injurious or Cruel to none To be offered to the next Convocation beseeching them to own the Doctrine of Foreign Communion but to note with Renunciation the Doctrine of Foreign Jurisdiction and to Vindicate the Reformed Church of England from the Guilt and Suspition which the French and Innovators injuriously seek to fasten on them Luk. 22.24 25 26. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the Greatest And he said to them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the Younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve 1 Thess. 5.12 We beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you 13. And to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at Peace among your selves London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 〈◊〉 Crowâ—â— at the lower end of Cheapfiâ—â— near Mercers Chapel 1691. To the Reverend and deservedly Honoured Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Dean of St. Paul's Church Reverend Sir THE Message on which this Epistle cometh to you is to intreat you to Present this Treatise to the next Convocation and to endeavour their publick renunciation of Foreign Jurisdiction and their censure of the Books that are written here for it The Reasons of my request are I. The Canons condemn them that deny the Convocation to be the Church of England Representative And they that have written for and promoted this Doctrine and Design have not only been Chief Men in the Church but have laboured to fasten their Doctrine on the Church which yet before the time of Bishop Laud the Church disclaimed and openly condemned and took Foreign Bishops and Councils for Brethren and a laudable means of Communion while they did their proper work but not by Jurisdiction to be the Governours of us and all Christian Kings and Kingdoms as their Subjects And who can be Ignorant that when at the present the Papist Bishops are very Many to One Protestant Bishop they will accordingly carry it by their Votes in Councils And if the Major Vote be the Collegium Pastorum that have the Chief Government in the Interval of Councils we are now Subjects to the Bishops and Church of Rome And if 〈◊〉 Roman Petrus Primus must call the next Council or there must be none till all Christian Kings agree to call it the present College is like to be long the Universal Aristocracy The Representative Church of England is so nearly concerned in this great Matter both for the moment of it and the imputation of this Design unto it that we cannot think they will lightly pass it by without their censure Which will be the more expected because of the Owning of Dr. Beveridge's Sermon to them which I have here examined Dr. Whitby's Reconciler of Protestants escaped not the Oxford censure and we hope the Representative Church of England will not be more favourable to Subjection which is more than Reconciling to the Foreign Papists Lest they cherish the Suspicion that the desire of so much Concord with France in Church Constitution and Government will intimate a preparation to another Relation to them which England cannot bear with ease And we are loth to be disabled to confute the Separatists that will never be reconciled to the Church of England if they can say that it is revolted to a Subjection to the Papists But why should we doubt whether the Convocation will renounce that which both themselves and all the Church and Kingdom are Sworn against even all Ecclesiastical Foreign Jurisdiction II. The Reasons why I presume to desire you to be the Man that shall present this Book and Motion to them Are 1. Because it is said that Custom maketh the Dean of Pauls usually to be chosen the Prolocutor to the Lower House I speak but by hearsay having never been one of them For the Clergy of London choosing Mr. Calamy and Me for their Clerks of that Convocation that made the Materials of the late differencing Impositions Bishop Sheldon by Prerogative excluded us to our great Ease and so the City of London consented not by their Clerks to any of those Acts. 2. And you are the Man that Published that Excellent Book of Dr. Isaac Barrow which unanswerably against Mr. Thorndike and such others confuted the Pretences to a Foreign Jurisdiction 3. And you are known to be so firm a Friend to Love Concord and Peace like your Father in Law Bishop Wilkins who once by appointment treated and agreed with us in a Vniting Form of Concord that I may confidently expect your best Assistance If any should be so adverse to this Necessary Work as to turn it off by diverting to Accusation against me or the Nonconformists I pray tell them how impertinent that is to the present Business And if it be needful shew them my Treatise for National Churches and that of Episcopacy and my English Nonconformity stated and argued And whereas I am said to have refused a Bishoprick because I was against Episâ—opacy be it known that in 1661 â—he Pacificators never offered any â—hing lower than Archbishop Vsher's Model of the Primitive Episcopacy â—nd when the King's Declaration â—anted us less we Published a â—hankful Acceptance And I gave 〈◊〉 Writing the Reasons of my Refusal to the Lord Chancellor Hyde That If that Declaration were Confirmed by a Law I would be no Bishop because I would not disable my self to perswade as many as I could to Conformity by drawing them to say that I did it for my own Ends. Which Answer satisfied the Lord Chancellor I think every Bishoprick in England hath Buried many of its Bishops since my refusal who am now near Dying in the 76th Year of a Painful Life and intreat you though I be Dead to do this Office for the Endangered Church of England and for your truly honouring Brother Ri. Baxter TO THE READER THis Book being Written at several times most of it many Years ago and some lately and answering many Persons who use the same Arguments it hath one blemish which I am ashamed of in
sheweth that Councils have been against Councils and the Arrian Hereticks had more Councils than the Christians and sheweth their uncertainty Pag. 19. As to the Authority of Councils Augustine saith Ipsa plenaria Concilia saepe Priora ◠posterioribus emandantur And of the Succession and Ordination of Bishops he saith Pag. 131. If there were not one of them that turned from Popery or of us left alive yet would not therefore the whole Church of England fly to Lovaine Tertullian saith Nonne Laici sacerdotes sumus Ubi Ecclesiastici Ordinis non est Consessus offert tingit sacerdos qui est solus Sed ubi tres sunt Ecclesia est licet Laici And frequently he saith The Church is found among few as well as among many And he was for Lay Mens Baptizing X. The first Canon commandeth Preachers Four times a Year to declare That All usurped foreign Power forasmuch as the same hath no Establishment nor Ground by the Law of God is for most just Causes taken away and abolished And that therefore No manner of Obedience or Subjection within His Majesties Realms and Dominions is due to any such foreign Power The 12th Canon Excommunicateth ipso facto any that shall affirm That it is lawful for any 〈◊〉 of Ministers to joyn together and make 〈◊〉 Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical without the King's Authority and shall submit themselves to be ruled and governed by them Therefore none may go beyond Sea to Councils without his Authority And the Canons of Foreigners are not to be made a Rule without his Authority And is not other Princes Authority as necessary in their Dominions The Canon which bids Prayer 55th describeth Christ's holy Catholick Church to be the whole Congregation of Christian People dispersed throughout the whole World But such a Church hath no Legislative or Judicial Power XI The Controversie is about an Article of Faith I believe the holy Catholick Church The Humanists say It is an universal Political Society Governed by one humane Supream Monarch Aristocracy or mixt under Christ. Protestants say It hath no universal supream Ruler but Christ. Now the Generality of Protestant English and transmarine who write on the Creed expound this Article accordingly in the Protestant sence as he that will peruse their Books may find which sheweth what is the sence of the Church of England XII Though King Edw. VI. was but a Youth when he wrote his sharp Book against Popery lately printed It sheweth what his Tutors and the Clergy of his time who were called the Church then thought of these Matters XIII If the Parliaments of England all the days of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles I. and II. knew what was the Doctrine of the Church of England about a Forreign Jurisdiction it is easie to gather it in their Votes and Acts. Let him that would know whether they were for a Coalition with the French on such terms read Sir Simon Dewes Journals Rushworths Collections or Prins Introduction ad annum 1621. or any other true Historian and he will see how far they were from owning any Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction But the contrary minded would make the World believe that all these Parliaments were of some Sect differing from the Church of England But what call they the Church of England but that part of the Clergy who conform to the Laws And did not the Law-makers understand the Laws Or if they more regard the sence of the Clergy let them read A. Bishop Abbot's very plain and bold Letter to the King in Prin's Introduct pag. 39 40. and Dr. Hackwell's c. and they may know what was then the sence of the Clergy With whom concurred the Bishops of Ireland Insomuch that Bishop Downame expressing his sense of the Papists there and his contrary desires presumed to add And let all the people say Amen at which the Church rang with the Amen And though he was questioned in England for it he came safe off His Neighbour Bishops also declaring Popery to be Idolatry and the Pope Antichrist XIV The Bishops and chief Writers of England have taken the Pope to be the Antichrist Cranmer Whitguift Parker Grindall Abbot all A. Bishops of Canterbury Vsher Downame Jewel Andrews Bilson Latimer Hooper Farrar Ridley Robert Abbot Hall Allig and abundance more Bishops The Martyrs Sutcliffe Fulke Sharp Whittaker Willet Crakenthorp and most of our Writers against Popery Sure then they were for none of his Jurisdiction here XV. The Prayers have been and are to this day added in the end both to our Bibles and Common Prayer Books which shew how far the Church of England was from desiring a Coalition with the Papists by submitting to any Forreign Jurisdiction They say to God Confound Satan and Antichrist with all Hirelings whom thou hast already cast off into a reprobate sense that they may not by Sects Schisms Heresies and Errors disquiet thy little Flock And because O Lord we be fallen into the latter days and dangerous times wherein Ignorance hath got the upper hand and Satan by his Ministers seeketh by all means to quench the light of thy Gospel we beseech thee to maintain thy Cause against those ravening Wolves and strengthen all thy Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage Let not thy long-suffering be an occasion either to increase their tyranny or to discourage thy Children c. Though A. Bishop Laud put out all these Prayers from the Scots new Liturgy we had never had them still bound with ours to this day if the Church of England had not at first approved them There is also a Confession of Faith found with them describing the Catholick Church as we do XVI The Oath called Et Caetera of 1640. saith that The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England containeth all things necessary to Salvation Therefore Obedience to any Forreign Jurisdiction is not necessary to Salvation And therefore not necessary to the avoiding of Schism or any Damning Sin XVII The Church of England holdeth that no Forreigners Pope or Prelates have Judicial Power to pronounce the King of England a Heretick Or Excommunicate though as Bishop Andrews saith in Tortura Torti even a Deacon may refuse to deliver him the Sacrament if uncapable much more that Pastor whom he chuseth to deliver it him For it 's known by sad experience how dismal the Consequences are exposing the lives of the Excommunicate to danger among them that believe the Pope and his Councils and rendering them dishonoured and contemned by their Subjects We know how many Emperors have been deposed as Excommunicate and what Queen Elizabeth's Excommunication tended to And if our Laws make it Treason to publish such an Excommunication sure the Law-makers believed not that either Pope or Prelates had a Judicial Power to do it In Prin's Introduct p. 121. the Papists that were unwilling to be the Executioners had no better plea than That no Council had yet judged
by my silence I have neglected the Duty of the place it hath pleased God to call me to and your Majesty to place me in But now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience toward God and my Duty to your Majesty And therefore I beseech you freely to give me leave to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you take into consideration what your Act is what the consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up the most and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful it will be to God and grievous to your good Subjects the Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often Disputed and Learnedly Written against those Hereticks should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tells your self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable And hereunto I add what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without the consent of your Council and Privity and Approbation of your People And though you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as Son of your Flesh yet have the people a greater as Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty are their Eyes fixed and their welfare depends And so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it however his return may be safe yet the Drawers of him into this Action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take to your self ability to throw down the Laws of your Land at your pleasure What dreadful consequents these things may draw afterward I beseech your Majesty to consider And above all lest by this Toleration discountenancing the true Profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blessed us and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it your Majesty do not draw upon this Kingdom in General and your self in particular Gods heavy wrath and indignation Thus in discharge of my Duty towards God and your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble leave to deliver my Conscience Now Sir do what you please with me Thus you see what difficulties the King went through to avoid all shew of Cruelty to the Roman Sect when at the same time the Canons Excommunicated Protestants that affirmed any thing to be unlawful in the Liturgy Ceremonies or Church Government and the Laws were in force against them Chap. IV. Of the Papists Endeavours in the time of King Charles the First and the great wrong they did him § 1. THE same method they still continued 1. In vain they subtilly laboured to have perverted the King 2. And then pretended their great sufferings to procure Indulgence 3. And secretly gave out that the King was for them to draw on others that they thought would be still of the Kings Religion § 2. When he was in Spain the Bishop of Couchen a Trained Veterane and Head of the Inquisition was chosen to take the charge of labouring his Conversion and Carolus Boverius wrote to him that Book for Church Monarchy which is now extant And the Pope wrote to him an insinuating Letter to which this answer as returned by the Prince is recorded by Prin as out of Mr. De Chesne the King of France his Geographer and by the Caballa of Letters and by Rushworth who saith the Latine Copy was preserved by some then in Spain at the Treaty and this following in the Caballa is but an ill Translation of it Most Holy Father I received the dispatch from your Holiness with great content and with that respect which the Piety and Care wherewith your Holiness writes doth require It was an unspeakable pleasure to me to read the generous Exploits of the Kings my Predecessors in whose Memory Posterity hath not given those Praises and Elogies of Honour as were due to them I believe that your Holiness hath set their Examples before my Eyes to the end I might imitate them in all my Actions For in truth they have often exposed their Estates and Lives for the Exaltation of the Holy Chair And the Courage wherewith they have assaulted the Enemies of the Cross of Jesus Christ hath not been less than the Care and Thought which I have to the End that the Peace and Intelligence which hath hitherto been wanting in Christendom might be bound with a true and strong Concord For as the common Enemy of Peace still watcheth to put hatred and dissention among Christian Princes so I believe that the Glory of God requires that we should endeavour to unite them And I do not esteem it a greater honour to be descended from so great Princes than to imitate them in the Zeal of their Piety In which it helps me very much to have known the mind and will of our thrice honoured Lord and Father and the Holy Intentions of his Catholick Majesty to give a happy concurrence to so laudable a Design For it grieveth him exceedingly to see the great evils that grow from the Divisions of Christian Princes which the Wisdom of your Holiness foresaw when it judged the Marriage which you pleased to design between the Infanta of Spain and my self to be necessary to procure so great a good For it is very certain I shall never be so extreamly affectionate to any thing in the World as to endeavour alliance with a Prince that hath the same apprehension of the true Religion with my self Therefore I intreat your Holiness to believe that I have been always very far from Novelties or to be a partizan of any Faction against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion But on the contrary I have sought all occasions to take away the suspicion that might rest upon me And that I will employ my self for the time to come to have but one Religion and one Faith seeing we all believe in one Jesus Christ Having resolved in my self to spare nothing that I have in the World and to suffer all manner of discommodities even to the hazarding of my Estate and Life for a thing so well pleasing to God It rests only that I thank your Holiness for the permission you have pleased to afford me And I pray God to give you a Blessed Health and his Glory after so much pains which your Holiness takes in his Church Signed Charles Steward § 3. Read Rushworth's Copy p. 82 83. whether is most current I know not but this much shews that the Papists complaint of cruel usage here is unjust And lest any believe them that say King Charles was at the Heart a Papist let them note 1. How many and strong temptations he frustrated 2. That when he wrote this he was in their power 3. That
that there is no way to Unity and Peace but in Popery uniting under one Humane Head § XVI We must own Christian Communion Indefinite and as Universal as Capacity alloweth while we disown Universal Humane Jurisdiction But we must understand well the difference We are ex Authoritate Imperantis bound to obey Jurisdiction But to hold Agreements nothing binds us but God's general Commands for Peace and Concord and our own Contract and the common good So that if Councils agree on any thing contrary to these Ends no Church is bound by such their Canons nor to consent Just as a Diet of Kings and States are free to consent or dissent to a Major Vote as the reason of the thing requireth and no further for the common advantage of Christianity But have no one King Universal to whom they are all Subjects § XVII Yet if any King and People will be so slavish as to subject themselves to a foreign King or Jurisdiction their own consent may oblige them as far as Self-enslaving may do § XVIII We must not deny what good use God hath made of Rome's Grandure Unity and Concord It 's like else Christianity had not kept up such advantages of strength wealth and concord against the great Power of the Mahometan and Heathen Enemies § XIX We must not by the Scandals of some Persons or Fraternities be drawn to think the rest are like them nor to deny but such men as Bernard Gerson and abundance of Fryars and Nuns though zealous for the Roman Concord were godly excellent Persons Even in the dark Ages of their Church what abundance of most learned School Doctors had they in which much Piety also appeared as in Bonaventure Aquinas Henricus ab Hassia and many such As also in many of their Bishops as Borornaeus Sales c. And in the Oratorians and many most Learned Jesuits All this we must candidly confess and honour § XX. The common Interest of Humanity Christianity and God's foresaid fundamental Precepts oblige Protestant and Papist Princes to Confederate how to live peaceably among themselves and to unite against the Common Enemies while they cannot yet agree in the Points of Difference That so far as they are agreed they may walk by the same rule § XXI I think we should hurt no Papist in Body or Goods any further than is necessary to our own Defence and the Defence of the Truth and Souls of Men and the Kingdoms safety But win them by Love § XXII Because a factious Sollicitation of the ignorant to submit to their foreign Jurisdiction is enmity to Kings and States and Churches as against their Essential Rights the unpeaceable managing of Disputes and Endeavours to such Treason and Slavery may be as much restrained by Law as Men may be restrained from teaching that Wives must forsake their Husbands lie with other Men and Children forsake their Parents and Soldiers their Kings and Captains and all obey the Pope against them § XXIII Yet because they will say that we dare not hear the truth I think it not amiss if they be allowed some time when the Rulers think fit not to challenge weak Ministers at pleasure to Dispute but in a fit Assembly to say what they can so be it they will withal there hear what can be said against them by some able Divine chosen by the King Bishop or Ministers who also should choose the time and place These terms are better than the unreconcileable Hostility kept up by the terms of Antichrist and Heretick § XXIV And though the unlearned have safer and better Books enough to read I think it will do much to rectifie mens Judgments that are inclined to extreams and to mellow and sweeten their hearts into Christian Love if the Learned would read the Devotional Pious Writings of Papists such as Bernaud Gerson Gerhardus Zutphaniensis Sales Kempis Thauleros Benedictus de Benedictis Regula Vitae Barbanson Ferus the Oratorians and in English The Interior Christian Parsons of Resolution Baker the Life of Nerius and of Mr. de Renti and other such They would find there so much of God as would win their affections to a Brotherly Kindness while they find so much of that which is in themselves Holy breathings after God are savory to those that have the like I know those that have read or heard such books as these that have said How have we misunderstood the Papists If an esteemed Minister should Preach part of The Interior Christian. or such another book and not tell his hearers whose it was I doubt not but many godly people would cry it up for a most excellent Sermon When as if they before knew that it was a Papists they would run away I do not by any of this encourage any raw ungrounded Protestants to cast themselves on the Temptation of Popish Company or Books But that you may see that I write not this rashly and without just cause I will instance in one Book called Bunnys Resolution It was written by Parsons one accounted a most traiterous Jesuite and Edmund Bunny Corrected and Published it and Parsons Reprinted it with more Popery reviling Bunny for being so bold with his Book as to spunge out the Popish Errours I have met with several eminent Christians that magnified the good they had received by that Book When I was 21 years of Age the Bishops severity against Private Meeting caused many excellent Christians in Shrewsbury to meet secretly for mutual Edification At one of these where was of Ministers Mr. Cradock Mr. Rich. Simonds and Mr. Fawler cast out at Bridewell Church since Mr. Simonds said that there were some godly women in great doubt of the sincerity of their Conversion because they knew not the Time Means and Manner of it and desired all that were willing to open the case of their own to satisfie such I remember but one that could tell just the Time Means and Manner but with most it began early and was brought on by slow degrees but so as some One Time and Means made a more observable change than any other Among these three spake their own case that after many Convictions and a love to Piety the first lively motion that awakened their Souls to a serious resolved care of their Salvation was the reading of Bunnys Book of Resolution These three were Mr. Fawler Mr. Michael Old for Zeal known through much of England and my self And having since heard of the same success with others when yet now there be many Books that I had rather read I have reason to think that God notified his will that we should instead of rash hatred profit by each other and love his Word whoever writeth it § XXV And we are the more obliged to behave our selves with all due tenderness to Papists and all other exasperated parties in the Consciousness of the aforesaid guilt that we have fallen under to their hardening and hurt Weakning the Protestants is strengthening the Papists Repentance
all Children be taught to read and learn Catechisms and Scripture and use the Lords day in pious Exercises and submit to their Teachers and forbear profane contempt or abuse of Persons or Things I think the whole Matter is decided in these ten Particulars § 4. II. Now de nomine the question is what is to be called the FORM and what but the MATTER of the Church as National For of a Church as Congregational or as Diocesan or a Provincial we have no controversie No more than of a City or School And seeing every Politick Society consisteth of the Pars Imperans and Pars Subdita all grant that the Pars Imperans as related to the Pars Subdita is the Specifying or Unifying Form and Head it is then clear that all the Clergy being but the Pars Subdita under the Government of the summa potestas whether Kings alone or King and Parliament or an Aristocracy they can be but the Matter of the Church as National and not the Formal Head For a Body Politick of one Species can have but one Head of that Species So that to make a Primate or two Metropolitans or a Synod of Diocesans or a Convocation representing all the Clergy to be more than the Matter of a Church as National is to make them the summa potestas or Soveraign and to depose King and Parliament § 5. Obj. But the Regiment being of two Species so is the Policy Society and Supremacy Each is Supreme in sua specie Ans. 1. So then you would have two National Churches and Soveraigns If you 'll extend the Controversie but to the Name it may be the better born But then acknowledge the Equivocation and give us the definition of each Church and use not the Name of the Church of England for your own Form only 2. But a Subject Policy is not the Supreme and denominating Policy It 's private and subordinate as to National The Physicions the Soldiers the Marriners c. though they are in hoc fit to over-rule the King and Parliament are not therefore the Soveraign Power of the National Body Politick § 6. Obj. But their 's are matters of small moment but the Clergy are Rulers in matters of Salvation Ans. Unhappy dividing Rulers they have been here and in most of the Churches But 1. I have proved that Kings are Rulers also in matters of Salvation as great as theirs and over them 2. Was not Moses and David and Solomon and Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah and Josiah c. the Soveraign Rulers of Church and Priests though an Vzziah might not offer Sacrifice or Incense 3. The proper Governing power of Bishops is but over their own Flocks and they may not Rule in other Mens Diocesses much less over King Parliament and Kingdom further than the Soveraign giveth them Political Power § 7. Obj. They may command Kings and Kingdoms in Christs Name to obey God and forbear Sin Ans. True so did every Prophet so may any one Minister Yea a Foreigner a Salvian a Luther c. But this is Gods Government Nunciative and not Political And so if the Metropolitans Diocesans Convocation or a General Council command as in Christs Name and prove their Commission as Messengers from him we will obey Christ in them But if one Man bring better proof from Scripture that he speaketh from Christ he is to be obeyed before a Council that proveth no such thing This sort of Divine Authority lyeth in Evidence which most Bishops on Earth now have not of the truth of their Message and is but Nunciative and worketh only on voluntary Believers and Consenters And if the Controversie de nomine be whether a Christian Kingdom as such may be called A CHURCH what pretence have the deniers Not à notatione nominis The Church in the Wilderness is a Scripture Name And sure the Jews Church was not denominated from the Priests only Moses is ofter named as its Head than Aaron § 8. Obj. But are not Judges and Bishops a part of the Pars Imperans as well as the Soveraign Ans. Only subordinate in their Provinces They are but as the Kings Hands and Tongue They are Subjects themselves and have no Political Power but what he giveth them 2. If you might so far distinguish of them as Imperant under the King and as Subjects as to say that Judges and Bishops are as the Wife in the Family that hath a Governing power over Children and Servants that maketh her not the denominating Head of the Family but a Subject of the highest Rank § 9. Qu. What if a Christian Kingdom had no Pastors Ans. Then they were but an Embrio or half Christian and not materia disposita for a full formation The Matter and Privation that is Dispositio receptiva are Essential to the Body though they be not the Form 10. Qu. But what if under an Infidel King a Christian Nation be confederate under Bishops Ans. They are no Christian Kingdoms but a Christian Nation and are many confederate Churches and may be called One Church equivocally and secundum quid as confederate Kingdoms may be one Kingdom But they are but materia disposita sine forma as to a National Church properly so called and as such § 11. Qu. Are those of the Church of England that are not Conformists Yes if they conform to Christianity and are Subjects of the same King § 12. There is an odd Writer that hath lately published a book to prove that the Act of Toleration freeth not Nonconformists from the guilt of Schism Doleful is the case of such a Church and Land where the Learned men after near thirty years silencing imprisoning and ruining multitudes know not to this day what they are or what they hold and who it is that they do all this against How can such wink so hard as not to know that we took it for no Schism to assemble for Gods Worship before the Act of Toleration while they have done all this against us for so doing Could they think us so mad as to suffer Jails and Ruine and Scorn and Death to many for known Schism And if we took it for a duty before how can we take the Act of Toleration to be it that must justifie us But such men Englanâ— suffers by that cannot distinguish between Foâ—m Divinum and Humanum We believe that Goâ—s Command justifieth us in foro Divino for obeying it But the Law justifieth us in foro humano Gâ—ds Law and Judgment will keep us from Hell aâ—d at last silence our silencers But the Kings Laws bring us and keep us out of Jails and from thâ— Jaws of them that envy our Liberty and Lives § 13. It 's a question considerable whether England be a Protestant Church or not if it have a Papist King To which I say we must distinguish between a profest Papist and a concealed one 2. And between a King that hath the total Soveraignty and Legislative Power and one that hath but
lawful parts Chap. III. What Endeavours have been used by the more Moderate Papists to bring England under a Foreign Jurisdiction in King James's time § 1. I Will not meddle now with their violent Attempts abroad and at home nor so much as name them Commonly Known It is not my design to speak or act offensively but defensively Their ways of Wit and Deceit have been many and among others pretended Motions for a Coalition hath not been the least And their injurious Pretences that our Rulers have been inclined to them as knowing how much that may do with the ignorant sequacious Multitude § 2. I. In Queen Elizabeths days they much perswaded her that to go as far from the Church of Rome as the Anti-Papists desired would cross her Interest and make the reduction of the Kingdom impossible who were all Papists but as it were the other day II. In King James's time they would fain have conquered him by the fear of Murder when he heard of the Murder of two King 's of France H. 3. and H. 4. that had greater defensive Powers than he And the Powder Plot was yet more frightful And continued threatnings more And he shewed his peaceable Disposition in promoting the Spanish and French Matches for his Son and especially if it be true that Rushworth â—nd other Historians say that He and his Son â—nd his Council took their Oaths for a Toleration â—n the words recorded by them § 3. And to make People believe that he was â—t the heart a Papist the Bishop of Ambrun boasteth of his success in a Conference with him published in French in Mr. D'ageant printed at Grenoble 1668. where in Pag. 173 174 175 176 177 178. he tells this Story It 's like the Archbishop told it to ingratiate himself with Cardinal Richlieu to whom he sent it and would not scruple aggravation Afterwards there was a good understanding between the two Crowns The King of England at the request of the K of France did often remit the ordinary severities used against the Catholicks in England He was even well-pleased with the Proposals that were secretly made to him by the King of France in order to the reducing of him into the bosom of the Church Insomuch that after several Conferences held for that Effect by the consent of his Majesty without communicating any thing of that matter to his Council for fear that the business being known should have been obstructed The Archbishop of Ambrun passed into England as if it had been without Design in the Habit and under the Name of a Counsellor of the Parliament of Grenoble whose curiosity had incited him to see England He had no sooner Landed at Dover but the Duke of Buckingham came to meet him and having saluted him thus whispered in his Ear Sir who call your self a Counsellor of Grenoble but are the Archbishop of Ambrun you are welcom into these Kingdoms You need not change your Name nor your Quality for here you shall receive nothing but Honour and especially from the King my Master who hath a most high Esteem of you Indeed the King of England used him most Kindly and granted him many Favours on behalf of the Catholicks and even permitted him in the French Embassador's Lodgings where was a great Assembly to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to the Catholicks the Doors being open There were near Eighteen thousand Persons who received that Sacrament and yet no man said any thing to them as they went in at the Gate nor no where else Although there were many of the English always standing in the Street beholding the Ceremony During his abode he had many Conferences with that King who having come to agreement in all the controverted Points he wrote a long Letter to the Pope by a Catholick Gentleman his Subject whom he sent secretly of purpose by which Letter he acknowledged him to be the Vicar General of Jesus Christ on Earth the Universal Father of Christians and the Head of all the Catholicks assuring him that after he had made sufficient provision with respect to the things agreed on he would openâ—â— declare himself In the mean time he proâ—â—â—ed him not to suffer any more to make search in his Kingdom for the Priests which were sent over by his Holiness and the most Christian King provided they were no Jesuites whom he said he could not trust for many Reasons chiefly because he counted them to have been the Authors of the Powder Plot by which they had designed to have blown him up in his Parliament In his Letter among other things he intreated the Pope to grant that the Church Lands which had become part of the Patrimony of the principal Houses in England might not be taken from them that on the contrary they might be permitted to possess them because if it should be otherwise there might arise trouble on that account He said also that nothing hindred him from declaring himself presently but that he desired to bring the King of Denmark his Brother-in-Law with him whom he had in order to that end but under another pretence prayed to come over into England where he hoped to Convert him with himself That in so doing he should secure the Peace of his Kingdoms which otherwise he could hardly keep in Peace and that they two joyned in the same Design would draw with them almost all the North. The Duke of Buckingham and the Gentleman whom he sent to Rome were the only Persons of his Subjects to whom he had made known this design But the Death of King James which put a stop to this Negotiation put a stop to the Effect of it which was a matter of great Grief to his Holiness and the King of France Thus far Deageant At the End of his Book is a Narrative of the Archbishop of Ambrun of his Voyage into England written to Cardinal Richlieu In which he speaks much to the like purpose as done 1624. adding That the King told him with great freedom the affection he had for the Catholick Faith and was so particular as not to omit any thing insomuch that he told me that from his Childhood his Masters perceiving his inclinations thereto he had run great hazards of being assassinated The rest is That the King resolved to settle Liberty of Conscience by calling an Assembly of Trusty English and Foreign Divines at Dover or Boloigne I have recited this to shew that as they are not wanting in Art and Industry so they abuse the Name of Princes to promote their Cause Who can tell but much of this is Lies And if King James to prevent Butchery gave them a few fair words it 's like they added more of their own And if he used the Papists kindly as being against Cruelty they were the more unexcusable that would have destroyed him and could not be kept in Peace § 4. Yet do the Papists make people beyond Sea believe that they live here under constant Martyrdom Sure if
have its allowed Physitian who in doubtful Cases consulteth with many others Their counsel is the counsel of Physitians that is of Men licensed for that Work and Care But it proveth them not to have any proper Governing Power over his Hospital or Patients 5. If every Bishop be a Governor not only in but of the whole World or Church it is either Singly or Collectively as part of a Governing Company If singly it 's a monstrous Body that hath so many thousand Universal Heads If collectively then no one is a Supream Governor but a part of that Body which is such And no one on Earth can act as such a part of One Aristocracy without presence with the rest hearing what they say and what Actors and Witnesses say and gathering Votes Pag. 411. He confesseth out of Socrates about the Emperors Power in Church Matters that from the time in which Emperors received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex eorum nutu pendere vis◠sunt Socr. l. 5. Proem And if so why is Mr. Morice angry with me for saying That Bishops used in Councils much to follow the Emperors minds 2. And then it will be but an odd Universal Legislative and Judicial Soveraign Power over all the World which dependeth on the consent of so many Princes Protestants Papists Mahometans Heathens Jacobites Nestorians c. as a General Council must be called by or depend on And it will be an endless Controversie what Princes have or have not a Power to consent or dissent that their Subjects shall go to such Councils But also Consultation is not Government Chap. XI The Judgment of Mr. Herbert Thorndike a late Eminent Divine of the Church of England § 1. MR. Thorndike hath written so much on this Subject that I need no more than refer the Reader to his Books for the discovery of his mind The sum of his late Writings these thirty years past is to call us all into one visible Catholick Church which is unified by one Humane Government of all out of which nothing will excuse us from Schism or make our failing tolerable His arguments for an Universal Aristocracy answered by Dr. Izaak Barrow in the end of his Treatise of Supremacy I will not here recite because they are there so fully and learnedly confuted § 2. In his Just Weights and Measures he tells us that the Church of Rome being a true Church Reformation lyeth in Restoration and not in Separation Page 5. he saith Who will take upon him to shew us that the Worship of the Host in the Papists is Idolatry Page 6 7. They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God For in plain terms we make our selves Schismaticks by grounding our Reformation on this pretence Should this Church declare that the Change which we call Reformation is grounded on this supposition I must then acknowledge that we are Schismaticks Ch. 2. Is to disprove them that make the Pope Antichrist and Papists Idolaters and shew that the supposition of one Catholick Visible Church is the ground of all Communion and supposed to Reformation And Ch. 3. Nothing to be changed but on that Ground of such Visible Unity Ch. 5. If our Lord trust his Disciples and their Successors with the Rule of his Church he trusteth them also to make Laws for the Ruling of it These Laws are as Visible as the Laws of any Kingdom or Common-wealth that is or ever was are Visible I maintain the Popes Canon Law and the same is to be said of the Canon Law by which the Patriarch of Constantinople now Governs the Eastern Church to be derived from those Rules whereby the Disciples of our Lord and their Successors governed the Primitive Church in Unity The power of Giving Laws to the Church the power of Dispensing the Exchequer which God hath provided for the Church are in the Governors of the Church and the power of admitting into and excluding out It 's a Visible Society founded by God under the Name of the Catholick Church on the command of holding Communion with it Page 41. The Church in the form which I state it is a standing Synod able by the consent of the Chief Churches containing the consent of their resorts to conclude the whole Page 48. The Church of Rome hath and ought to have when it shall please to hear reason a Regular pre-eminence over the rest of Christendom in these Western parts And he that is able to judge and willing to consider shall find that Pre eminence the Only Reasonable means to preserve so great a Body in Unity And therefore I am not my self tyed to justifie Henry the Eighth in disclaiming all such pre-eminence Page 48. That the difference may be visible between the Infinite and the Regular Power of the Pope Page 91. The perpetual Rule of the Church makes them Hereticks to the Church that Communicate with Hereticks and Schismaticks that Communicate with Schismaticks Page 94. The Flesh and Blood of Christ by Incarnation the Elements by Consecration being united to the Spirit that is the Godhead of Christ become both One Sacramentally by being both One with the Spirit or Godhead to the conveying of Gods Spirit to a Christian. Page 125. The worshipping the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Page 132. He saith that the Oath of Supremacy is but to exclude the Popes Temporal power But because the words seem to exclude the power of General Councils of which the Pope is and ought to be the chief Member of necessity the Law gives great offence And that offence is the sin of the Kingdom and calls for Gods Vengeance on it which though all are involved in the account in the other World will lye on them which may change it and will not Page 134. But the authority of those Divines of this Church who have declared the sence of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alledged by the Papists themselves to infer that the matter of it is lawful as excluding only the Popes Civil Power Page 141. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ and by consequence his Spirit Hypostatically united to the same to inable us to perform Page 149. The Church of Rome cannot be charged with Idolatry The Pope cannot be Antichrist Ch. 22. The Reformation pretended is abominable and Apostasie and the usual Preaching a hinderance to Salvation and new Homilies to be formed to restrain Preaching Page 146. I confess I can hope for no good end of any dispute without supposing the sence of the Articles of One Catholick Church which hath carried us through this discourse for the Principle on which all matter in debate is to be tryed P. 214. And oft he professeth that Presbyters not ordained by Bishops baptize and give the Eucharist void of the Effect of a Sacrament and only by Sacriledge speaketh against killing and and banishing But this will require the like Moderation to be extended to the
Recusants of the Church of Rome p. 234. The Recusants being for the most part of the Good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in their Religion if they understand themselves Whereas the Sectaries being people of mean quality for the most part cannot be presumed to stand on their reputation so much In his Book called The Forbearance of Penalties c. 3. p. 12 13. he makes the foundation of all Union to be the Government and Laws of the Church as visibly Catholick which Laws must be one and the same the violating whereof is the forfeiture of the same Communion And here I crave leave to call All Canons All Customs of the Church whether concerning the Rites of God's Service or other Observations by one and the same name of Laws of the Church P. 23. As for the Canons of the Church it was never necessary to the maintenance of Commumunion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary the several Customs should be held by the same Authority That the same Authority instituted several Customs for so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the acts of it be agreeable to ☞ God 's Law or not how should Unity be maintained It is manifest that they the Fathers could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if God's Law had been infringed by it It followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to God's Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church Page 27. He saith as Mr. Dodwell It is agreed on by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism that is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated yet it is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Pag. 28. The promise of Baptism is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church nor to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the promise deposited with it Page 33. It is out of love to the Reformation that I insist on such a Principle as may serve to reunite us with the Church of Rome being well assured that we can never be well reunited with our selves otherwise Yet not only the Reformation but the common Christianity must needs be lost in the divisions which will never have an end otherwise Pag. 111. If it be said that it is not visible where those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which the Code of the Canons contains which Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great pag. 128. which I would have this Church to own In Mr. Thorndike's large folio Book there is yet much more for his Universal Legislative Aristocracy mixt with Regular Papacy The sum of all is The Pope Governing at least in the West by the Canons in the intervals of General Councils that is alwaies and as the chief Member with Councils making Laws for all the World Thus the French and Italian Papists differ whether the Pope shall Govern the World as the King of Poland doth his Land or say some as the Duke of Venice or rather as the King of France But Protestants know no such thing as an Universal Legislative Church nor owns any Universal Laws but Gods unless you mean Nationally Vniversal as in the Empire Councils and Laws were called I refer you again to Dr. Barrows Confutation of the rest of Mr. Thorndikes Chap. XII The Judgment of Dr. Sparrow Bishop of Norwich and divers others BIshop Sparrow Pref. to Collect. As my Father sent me so send I you Here committing the Government of the Church to his Apostles our Lord Commissions them with the same Power that was committed to him for that purpose when he was on Earth with the same necessary standing Power that he had exercised as Man for the good of the Church Less cannot in reason be thought to be granted than all Power necessary for the well and peaceable Government of the Church And such a power is this of Making Laws This is a Commission in general for making Laws Then in particular for making Articles and Decisions of Doctrines controverted the power is more explicite and express Mat. 28. All power is given me Go therefore and teach all Nations that is with authority and by virtue of the power given me And what is it to teach the Truth with authority but to command and oblige all people to receive the Truth so taught And this power was not given to the Apostles persons only for Christ then promised to be with them in that Office to the end of the World that is to them and their Successors in the Pastoral Office To the Apostles or Bishops that should succeed them to the end of the World To this One holy Church our Lord committed in trust the most holy Faith c. commanding under penalties and censures all her Children to receive that sence and to profess it in such expressive words and forms as may directly determine the doubt Thus she did in the great Nicene Council This authority in determining Doubts and Controversies the Church hath practised in ALL AGES and her constant practice is the best Interpreter of her right I shall not tire the Reader with the needless recitation of many more late Divines that lived since 1630. enough are known Those that have defended Grotius of late I pass no judgment on you may read their own Books and judge as you see cause viz. Dr. Thomas Pierce now Dean of Salisbury and the famous Preface to Archbishop Bromhall's Book against me c. I fear all this History is needless Men now laugh at me for proving by Mens writings their endeavours to subject the King and Kingdom to a Foreign Jurisdiction when they say it is more sensibly and dreadfully proving it self Chap. XIII Dr. Parker's Judgment since Bishop of Oxford THE last mentioned Author Dr. Sam. Parker besides what he hath said against me in his large Preface before Archbishop Bromhall's Book hath since gone so far beyond all his Fellows that finding himself unable to answer this Argument otherwise The World must not have one Universal Humane Civil Governor King or Aristocracy ergo It must not have one Humane Priest or Church Governor desperately denieth the Antecedent and saith that though de facto the Kings of the Earth have not one Soveraign over them all that is meer Man they ought to have Audite Reges I cannot conjecture who he meaneth unless it be the Pope and he be of Cardinal Bertrand's mind that God had not been wise if he had not made one Man
c. to come to us in Consultation and let us know their Sence and many came And I remember not one Man that dissented from what we offered you first which was Archbishop Vsher's Primitive Form which took not down Archbishops Bishops or a farthing of their Estates or any of their Lordships or Parliamentary Power or Honour unless the Advice of their Presbyters and the taking the Church Keys out of the hands of Lay Chancellors cast you down 3. That when the King's Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs 1660. granted yet much less Power to Presbyters and left it almost alone in the Bishops we did not only acquiesce in this but all the London Ministers were invited to meet to give the King our joyful Thanks for it And of all that met I remember but two now both dead who refused to subscribe the Common Thanksgiving which with many Hands is yet to be seen in Print And those two exprest their Thankfulness but only said That because some things agreed not to their Judgments they dursâ— not so subscribe lest it signified Approbation but they should thankfully accept that Frame and peaceably submit to it All this being so I appeal with some sense of the Case of England to your self and common reason whether it be just and beseeming a Pastor or Christian or a Man to make the Nation believe 1. That we are Presbyterians 2. And against Bishops 3. And therefore that we are Schismaticks 4. And therefore that we must be Imprisoned or Banished as those that would destroy the Church and Land Would a Turk own such dealing with his Neighbour Is this the way of Peace Will this bring us to Conformity Was it Anti-Episcopal Presbytery which the King's Declaration 1660 determined of Nothing will Serve God and the Churches Peace but Truth and Honesty or at least that which hath some appearance of it II. I find that almost all the Strength of his Book as against Presbyterians who are his Fanaticks is his bare word saying that they are Schismaticks and that they forsake the Judgment and Practice of the Universal Church by forsaking Episcopacy And will this convince me who am certain that I am for that Episcopacy which Ignatius Tertullian Cyprian c. were for and am past doubt that the Episcopacy which I am against is contrary to the Practice of the whole Church for 200 Years and of all save two Cities Alexandria and Rome for a much longer time If I prove this true which I undertake must I then take his turn and desire the Banishment of the Contrary-minded Bishops as dangerous Schismaticks for forsaking the Practice of the Church III. I understand not in his Platform of the Rule which denominateth Dissenters Schismaticks Pag. 353. what he meaneth by the very highest Power most necessary to be understood in these words The Laws and Orders of the Church Vniversal to which every Provincial Church must submit What the Scots mean by a General Assembly I know and what the old Emperors and Councils meant by an Vniversal Council Viz. Universal as to that one Empire But I know no Vniversal Law-givers to the whole Church on Earth but Jesus Christ neither Pope nor Council If I am mistaken in this I should be glad to be convinced for it is of great moment And is the hinge of our Controversie with Rome IV. He doth to me after all give up the whole Cause and absolve me and all that I plead from the guilt of Schism and lay it on your Lordship and such as you if I can understand him when he saith Pag. 363. It is clear that in the Church of England there is no sinful Condition of Communion required nor nothing imposed but what is according to the Order and Practice of the Catholick Church there can be no pretence for any Toleration c. And Pag. 360. There is no Question to be made but where there is an interruption in the Churches Communion there is caused a Schism and it must be charged on them that make the breach which will lye at their Doors who by making their Communion unlawful do unjustly drive away good Christians from it neither doth such a Person that is driven away at present from the external Communion cease to be a Member of that Church but is a much truer Member thereof than that Pastor that doth unjustly drive him from his Communion This fully satisfieth me and if you will read my late small Book called The Nonconformists Plea for Peace you will see what it is that I think unlawful in the Impositions And if you will read a new small Book of your old troubled Neighbour Mr. Jo. Corbet called The Kingdom of God among Men I have so great an Opinion that by it you will better understand us and become more moderate and charitable towards us that I will take your reading it for a very obliging Kindness to Your Servant Ri. Baxter December 11. 1679. Add. V. His terms of Communion are not right as I have proved VI. He speaketh against Toleration so generally without distinction as if no one that dissented but in a word were tolerable which is intolerable Doctrine in a pretended Peace-maker VII He inferreth Toleration while he denieth it in that he is against putting us to Death How then will he hinder Toleration Mulcts will not do it as you see by the Law that imposeth 40 l. a Sermon For when Men devoted to the Sacred Ministry have no Money they will Preach and Beg Imprisonment must be perpetual or uneffectual for when they come out they will Preach again And it contradicteth himself for it will kill many Students being mostly weak as it kill'd by bringing mortal Sickness on them those Learned Holy Peaceable and Excellent Men Mr. Jos. Allen of Taunton Mr. Hughes of Plimouth and some have died in Prison And he that killeth them by Imprisonment killeth them as well as he that burneth them or hangeth them And the Prisons will be so full as will render the Causers of it odious to many and make such as St. Martin was separate from the Bishops the same I say of Banishment Dr. Saywell's Principles infer as followeth I. Schismaticks are not to be Tolerated They that are for the sort of Diocesane Prelacy which we disown are Schismaticks Ergo not to be Tolerated The Major is Dr. S's The Minor is proved thus They that are against that Episcopacy which the Primitive Universal Church was for and used are Schismaticks The foresaid Diocesane Party are against that Episcopacy which the Primitive Universal Church was for and used Ergo they are Schismaticks The Major is Dr. S's The Minor is thus proved I. They that are for the deposing of the Bishops that were over every single Church that had one Altar and those that were over every City Church and instead of them setting up only one Bishop over a Diocess which hath a Thousand or many Hundred Altars and many Cities are against the Episcopacy
and then I said May it Please Your Majesty This reverend Dr. Guning just now accused us as if we would let in Socinians and Papists We suppose that this is not intended as our deed The King answered There be many Laws against the Papists I replyed We understand this to be for a dispensation with those Laws There was no more said and that was the Conclusion of the day III. In 1662. came out a Declaration for Liberty of Religion naming the Papists to have their part in it but not a Toleration I was desired to get the City Ministers to Subscribe a Thanksgiving for it I told them that it was the King's Work and not to be done by us But I knew it was the Bishops design to cast the Odium of a Toleration of Popery on the Nonconformists while they would gratifie the King by forcing us to Consent But they should never do it They should do it themselves or it should not be done And it presently died IV. The Lord Bridgman called Dr. Wilkins and his Chaplain Dr. Hez Burton and Dr. Manton and me and Dr. Bates after as by the King's Order to attempt an Agreement for a Comprehension to the Presbyterians and a Toleration for the Independents We agreed of the Comprehension in terminis and Judge Hale drew it up into the form of an Act But when we came to the other part the form proposed was for a Toleration of all not excepting the Papists I told the Lord Keeper that we could not meddle in measuring out all other mens Liberty but only to declare what we desired our selves Others must be consulted about their own concerns we were not for severity against any But it was the King's Work and we unmeet to be his Counsellors in it And so all was cast off by the Parliament by that means and the Act forbidden to be offered § 8. At last the King himself broke the Ice and Published a Declaration for Licensing a Toleration The Cruelty of the Prosecution of the Nonconformists being still the seeming Necessity for all But the Parliament broke it and it did the Papists much more harm than good for the Nonconformists continued to Preach though Persecuted § 9. The Clergy now would lay all the Severities on the Parliament and wash their own hands as guiltless of all But 1. It was they even their chief Bishops and Drs. that when the King Commissioned them to Agree on such Alterations as were necessary to tender Consciences after all importunity concluded that no Alteration was so necessary 2. And it was the Bishops and Convocation that altered the Book for the worse and put in new matter harder than before 3. And the Bishops in Parliament were the Chief Agents in all the Laws by which we are undone 4. And it is known that it was the Interest of the Bishops and their Church way that engaged the Long Parliament in all their terrible Acts against us Viz. The Act of Uniformity the Acts for Banishment the Five mile Act the Corporation Act the Militia Act the Vestry Act and others 5. And who knoweth not that it is they and their Disciples that make the great stir against our Healing in jealousie of their Interests which nothing but their own over-doing is like to overthrow 6. And when did they ever once Petition any Parliament to reverse the dividing wicked Laws or to restore the Silenced Ministers or to free them from dying with Rogues in Jails or to prefer the Ministers of Jesus before Barabbas or to request that the Eminent Ministers of Christ might have no greater Punishment for Preaching Christ than debaucht Whoremongers Drunkards Swearers and Blasphemers usually have in England 7. Yea if a Godly Conformist do but write against their Cruelty to the Nonconformists such as are Mr. Pierce Mr. Jones Mr. Bold they have for it Persecuted him as if he were a Nonconformist himself And that you may know that it is not the old Church-men nor yet a few single Persons when Dr. Whitby Prebend of Salisbury who had wrote against Popery did write an excellent Treatise for Peace and Reconciliation the Oxford University Decreed the Publick burning of it together with my Holy Common-wealth The Lord Convert and Pardon them that they prove not the burned fewel when Reconciliation and a Holy Common-wealth are prosperous c. God shall judge at last § 10. All this time from Laud till now it is a hard Controversie which of the two Parties is to be called The Church of England Both Parties pretend to it and some call both of them the same Church But the Infamous Roger L'Estrange set the Name of Trimmers on the old and reconciling Party pretending that the other were the Genuine Members of the Church And was imployed by his Genius and the Court and the Papists and the New Clergy-men to do a work so truly Diabolical as I never read of the like in History even for many Years together to Write and Publish twice a Week a Dialogue called Observations mainly levelled against Love Peace and Piety to perswade all men to hate their Brethren and to provoke men to destroy them whom he Nick-named Whigs and to render odious all save the Wolves whom he called Tories as if he owned the Irish Robbers so that a Trimmer with him was the same as a Peace-maker Blessed by Christ and Cursed by L'Estrange § 11. But whether the New Clergy or the Old be the Church of England and whether both be of one Church remaineth still doubtful But whoever hath the Name that one Name is equivocal when applied to Parties contrary and inconsistent 1. That Church which owneth a Foreign Government and Jurisdiction cannot be one and the same with that Church which renounceth and abhorreth it and owneth only Christ's Universal Government and a Foreign Concord and Communion But this is the difference between the Old Reformed Church of England and the New that call themselves the Church Two Kings make two Kingdoms For the Form denominateth And the Relative Vnion of the pars Imperans and Subdita is the Form That Church which hath a Human Head above National must have a Form and Name above National that is Above a Church of England which makes them all talk so much of The Universal Church in this false humane Form An Universal Church hath an Universal Soveraign Power which is only Christ. If the Pope be Antichrist it is his claim of this that maketh him so because it is Christ's Prerogative which no mortal Man or Council or College is capable of And if so is it not a Papal or Antichristian Church that these Foreign Subjects own and are of whether it be of the French or Italian Form if one be Antichristian both are so when the Claim of Universal Jurisdiction is the Cause I have voluminously detected the mistake of these deceived Men who are deluded by the Name Oecumenical Catholick and Universal which they find in the Councils and Fathers and
Persecuting Snares and against the Coalition of English Protestants on any possible healing Terms as ever and as fiercely seek the Continuance of our Slavery and Silence Chap. XXII How they have been stopt and in â—hat Danger we are yet of those that are for a Forreign Jurisdiction § 1. THe continual Endeavours of Parliaments to Suppress all the Relicts and Advantages of Popery in Queen Elizabeths and King James Days long kept this Papal inclination from appearing And when Laud raised it up and King James and Buckingham Countenanced it to promote first the Spanish and after the French Marriage the Articles of Liberty for Popery Consented to by King James and after Ratified by King Charles greatly Distasted the Nobility and Gentry and the People much more so that the Kings and Parliaments were never after easy to each other till King Charles II. got a Parliament fitted to his turn § 2. The new raised Impositions of King Charles I. and Laud first Exasperated the old conformable Clergy by â—uspending and vexing them for not reading the Book for Sports on the Lords Days and for Preaching twice a Day and by Altars and Bowing and other Innovations And the Severities against Burton Prin and Bastwick made a murmuring noise And the driving many hundred Families of Godly Men out of the Land much more And the newly Altered and Imposed Liturgy Exasperated the Scots who were Encouraged by the English Discontents Yet all this had done the less had not the same Church-Innovaters been against Parliaments and kept them out because Parliaments were against them And had they not Preached for and promoted the Kings power to Raise Taxes without a Parliament But this leavened the Nation with an Averseness to the Frenchified Reconcilers And the Scots knowing all this began Resistance which proceeded to a Mutual diffidence of King and People which brought forth after a Civil-War § 3. While the King and Parliament were Labouring under the Mortal Disease of mutual distrust the Irish by an Insurrection Murdered most Barbarously two hundred thousand Protestants just the day Twelmonth before Edghil Fight Dublin escaped And this Horrid Cruelty hastened the War in England and made Popery more odious than ever it was before and rendered the French Conciliators more distasted § 4. The Conciliators having the chief Ecclesiastical Power under King Charles I. and having too much Modelled the Churches and Universities to their Minds the Parliament began a Reformation before the War and carryed it on after and cast out many Hundred for Insufficiency through gross ignorance and for Drunkenness and Vicious Lives And some for being against the Parliament and prospering till Cromwell cast them out and Cromwell going much further against Prelatical Tyranny and an ignorant Vicious Ministry than they thirteen or fourteen or fifteen years time not only stopt the French design of Coalition but also wore out the chief designers and promoters of it To which the Death of Laud with all the Accusations against him struck deep of which see Prins Introductions and his Canterburies Tryal And many old Conformists which was all the Westminster Assembly of Divines saving eight were the Men that chose rather to put down the English Prelacy than to run the hazard of the change of Civil Government and Introduction of Popery So that both Popery and the favorers of it seemed quite cast out in England But Cromwell and his Armies Usurpation and Treasons so Exasperated the two Kingdoms both Episcopal and Presbyterians that after his Death his Army having cast themselves and the Land into Confusion they brought in King Charles II. who by his Declaration from Breda and his Treaty in 61 with the Nonconformists and his Declaration 1662. called Bristols and by his Treaty with us by the Lord Keeper Bridgman and by his Declaration for Toleration still laboured so Strenuously to give Popery a Toleration that discerning Men were satisfied that he was then of the Religion that he dyed in if he had any or at least had engaged himself to introduce it To which ends 1. The dividing of the Protestants 2. The Ejecting Silencing Ruining Imprisoning or Banishing those of them that were most unreconcileable to Popery 3. The keeping such out by new Impositions of Oaths Subscriptions Professions and Practices were found to be the fittest means 4. To which was added the Exasperating the long Parliament of Men before Exasperated against them 5. And the Declaring and Swearing the People against the Lawfulness of any Military Defence of Parliament or Kingdom against any Commissioned by the King 6. And to bring all those that scrupled such Oaths under the odious Name of Nonconforming Rebels Though they were all against Defensive War by any private Men or Faction or for any Cause less than the saving of the Kingdom from apparent Ruine Subversion or Alienation 7. To which was added the taking away of all Legislative Power from Parliaments and appropriating it only to the King the strenuous Endeavour of Bishop Morley's last Book against me and of many others 8. Which were all thought an unresistible force while the King of whatever Religion had the choice of all the Bishops Deans and Dignitaries and consequently of that called The Church of England 9. And also the choice of Judges and the making of Lords 10. And the changing of Corporation Charters § 5. To these uses that we may not accuse the Innocent it was comparatively but a few men that were the visible prime Instruments besides the non-appearing Jesuits or other Papists That is Chancellor Hide Dr. Sheldon Dr. Morley Dr. Guning whom not only Dr. Hinchman Dr. Cousins Dr. Lany Dr. Sterne and several others followed ex animo but also most of the worldly sequacious part of the Clergy and Laity for Interest and Preferment sake when they saw that the Interest of Sheldon and Morley with the Chancellor was a great and necessary means of obtaining their desires § 6. But the bringing us to French Popery by the Grotian way proved so slow by many stops that it hath by God's Mercy been hitherto much frustrate and prevented For the King must not make professed Papists to be Bishops Deans and Convocation Men lest the notoriety of the Design should raise unconquerable Offence and Opposition The Name of Popery was to be renounced even by those that were for a Foreign Jurisdiction And a Government like that of the French Church must be said to be no Popery but only that which made the Pope Arbitrary or Supereminent above Councils And the very retaining of the Name of Popery in their Renunciation spoil'd their Game And specially being necessitated to avoid Suspicion to make divers firm Protestants Bishops Deans and Judges Yet the slow way of K. Ch. II. was like to have been the surest could their Patience have held out § 7. But God used K. James II. as the great Instrument of frustrating all the Plot till now by his and his Instigaters Impatience of this delay and confidence
to be the authoriser of the Majority for Government For they will think that they have more of the Holy Ghost than you and therefore must Govern you I would all Rulers had the Holy Ghost but it 's somewhat else that must give them Authority XV. Your instance of the Easter Controversie is against you The difference undecided for 300 Years and Apostolical Tradition urged on both sides tells us that it was no Apostolick Law And Socrates and Sozomen tell us that in that and many such like things 〈◊〉 Churches had freely differed in Peace 〈◊〉 you seem to intimate contrary to them and to Irenâ—â—us that the Asians were Schismaticks till they Conformed And why name you Asia alone Were our Brittish Churches and the Scottish no Churches Or do you also Condemn them as Schismaticks for about 300 Years after the Nicene Council What could the Papists say more against them XVI How impossible a thing do you make Church Union to be while the Essentials or great Integrals of Religion are made insufficient to it and so many Ceremonies and Church Laws are feigned necessary which no man ever comes to the true knowledge of that he hath the right ones and all XVII If the Patriarchs must be the Soveraign College I beseech you give us some proof in a Case so weighty 1. How many there must be 2. Where seated 3. Who must choose and make them 4. And quo jure 5. And whether we have now such a College or is there no Church XVIII What Place will you give the Pope in the College I suppose with your Brethren you will call him 1. Principium Vnitatis But that 's a Name of Comparative Order what is his work as such a Principium How is he the Principium if he have no more Power than the rest Must not he call the Councils Though our Articles say General Councils may not be gathered without the Will of Princes Shall he not choose the Place and Time Tell us then who shall Must he not be President Must he not be Patriarch of the West And so Govern England as our Patriarch and Principium unitatis Vniversalis also XIX I pray tell us whether the French be Papists And how their Church-Government as Described from themselves by Mr. Jurieu differeth from that which you are for Tell me not of their Mass and other Corruptions It is Government that is the Form of Popery And they will abate you many other things And must we be Frenchified If the French restore those that we called Papists will disowning the Name and calling them the Church of England chosen by Papist Princes make us sound and safe And when we find Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Dr. Saywell Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Bishop S. Parker and many more were for a Foreign Jurisdiction can we think if the French bring in the late Governours that such Churchmen would not embrace the French Church Government and call it the Church of England when since Lauds days they have endeavoured a Coalition If they be Defeated we may thank King James who could not bear delays and would have all or none when Grotius way would have been a surer Game XX. You tell us of Penalties made by Church Laws Deposing Ministers and Anathematizing the Laity But while the Clergy hath no power of the Sword who will feel such Penalties When Rome Excommunicates the Greeks the Greeks will Excommunicate them again What Penalty is it to Protestants to be Excommunicated by the Pope or his Council How commonly did they that were for and against the Chalcedon Council Excommunicate each other And those that were for and against Images And for Photius and for Ignatius Cheat not Magistrates to be your Lictors and Cursing will go round as Scolding at Billingsgate Who is hurt by a causeless curse but the Curser I confess that Dr. Saywell sayeth well If single persons must be punished shall not Nations also Yes But by whom By God the Universal King and not by an Universal Human Soveraign whether a King or Pope or a Senate of Foreign Subjects XXI We are promised by a trifling Pamphleteer that some of you are answering Mr. Clerksons two Books about the Primitive Episcopacy and Liturgies I pray you procure them also to answer my Treatise of Episcopacy and my English Non-conformity and not with the Impudent Railing Lyars to say it is answered already while we can hear of no such thing And see that they prove that all these things following are Traditions of the Vniversal Church received from the Apostles and used ab omnibus ubique semper 1. That most particular Churches for two Hundred or three Hundred years and so down consisted of many Congregations that had no personal presential Communion 2. That Churches infimi ordinis were Diocesan having many Hundred or Score Parishes under them 3. That these Diocesans undertook the sole Pastoral Care of all these Parishes as to Confirmation Censure Absolution and the rest 4. That all these Parishes were no true Churches as having no Bishops but the Diocesans and were but Chappels or parts of a Church 5. That the Incumbents were no true Pastors or Bishops but one Bishops Curates And that there were not then besides Diocesan Arch-Bishops in each single Church Episcopi Gregis and Episcopi praesides 6. That Bishops Names were used by Lay-men that had the Decretive Power of Excommunication and Absolution 7. That such Secular Judicatories far from the Parishes rather than the particular Pastors Tryed and Judged the unknown people 8. That Parish Ministers Swear Obedience to the Diocesans and they to Metropolitans 9. That all People that would have Licenses to keep Ale-houses or Taverns or that would not lye in Jail were Commanded to receive the Sacrament as a Sealed Pardon of their Sins 10. That from the beginning all Churches were forced to use the same form of Liturgy and not every Church or Bishop to choose as he saw Cause 11. That Kings chose Bishops and Deans without the Consent of the Clergy and People 12. That all Ministers were to be Ejected and forbidden to Preach the Gospel that durst not Subscribe that there is nothing contrary to Gods Word in such as our three imposed Books 13. That all Lords Magistrates Priests and People that affirm the contrary be ipso facto Excommunicate 14. That Lay-Patrons that are but Rich enough to buy an Advowson how Vicious soever did choose all the Incumbent Ministers to whom the People must commit the Ministerial Care of their Souls 15. That they that dare not trust such Pastors as are chosen by Kings though Papists and such Patrons and dare not Conform to every imposition like ours must live like Atheists in forbearance of all publick Worship and Church Communion 16. That all may Swear that an Oath or Vow of Lawful and Necessary things bindeth not our selves or any others if it be but unlawfully imposed and taken and had any unlawful part
unlimited Monarch we will speak according to common use and let them speak as their Interest dictates to them but remember that the Controversie is but about the Name and not the Thing We take the French Church for Papists If they will call them Protestants they are free But if we are agreed what a Pope is the case is plain as followeth I. Mr. Dodwell their most Learned defender if number of words or greatest self-conceit be the chief strength tells you that if the Council be not lawfully called it obligeth you rather to bring them to Punishment as a Rout or Rebels than to obey them And that none but the President hath Power to call them And remember yet that this good Man is no Papist And indeed who else but the Pope should call Universal Councils The King in Scotland may call a Scotch General Assembly and in England a Convocation and Parliaâ—ent And 1. The Emperor of Rome or Constantinople might call such Councils in the Empire as were then called General and did so But who now shall call one out of France Spain Portugal Italy Germany Britain Denmark Sweden Poland Moscovie the Turkish Empire Armenia Georgia Mengrelia Tartary Abassia Mexico Peru China c. We are awake and therefore cannot Dream of Princes doing it by Agreement We are yet out of Bedlam and cannot conclude that all the Bishops in the World will come together by common consent or as the Atomists say the World was made by a fortuitous concourse of Atomes 2. How shall lawful Councils be known from unlawful if none have Authority to call approve and difference them If only ex factis by their good or bad Deeds half the World will Judge as they have done and do one Council to be spurious which another obeyeth 3. What order shall be kept among them if none have Authority to appoint the Place the Time to Preside and Moderate and to dissolve them and who pretends to this but the Pope 4. When Councils Contradict Condemn and Curse each other who shall tell us which of them to receive believe and obey II. And if we must have a visible Supreme Power we must have one that successively existeth that the Church be not dissolved And none pretendeth to this but the Pope III. And if all National Patriarchal Churches be but Parts of a visible Catholick Church with a Humane Supremacy then there must be some Power still existent to give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power Mr. Dodwell saith it overthrows all Government to appeal to Scripture as a Charter or Law of Christ None hath more than the Giver intended him None can give that which he hath not to give The Inferior hath not Power to give to the Superior Who then but a Pope can give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power If for want of Authoritative Collation of Power all the Presbyterian Ordinations Sacraments and Covenant-hopes of Salvation are Nullities and Sins against the Holy Ghost as Mr. Dodwell and his Tribe say what better are all the Bishops and Archbishops for want of a Superior conferring Power which none pretendeth to but the Pope IV. And who else shall judge Patriarchs Metropolitans and National Churches when they prove Hereticks or Schismaticks Their Heresie and Schism is far more heinous and dangerous than single Persons or Congregations And Councils are not extant And we cannot send all over the Earth to gather Bishops Votes against them unheard It must be a Pope or no body on Earth that must by Governing Authority Judge them V. And who else shall be the stated Judge of new started Controversies You say such there must be shall they be undecided till the World have a true general Council VI. And who shall an injured Person appeal to from a Tyrannical Metropolitan or National Church but to the Pope Many more clear Necessities there will be of a Pope on their Principles I blamed the Author of the Divine Hierarchy for naming such without an Antidote lest it should make men Papists But I understand he is a worthy Protestant But verily there is no avoiding a Pope by any that assert an Vniversal humane Church Supremacy VII And indeed I must not suppose them so immodest as to deny it For it is but the Pope's Absolute Power above the Councils and their Laws and not Simple Popery or the Pope's limited Power that they deny 1. They confess that they hold Rome for the Mistriss Church as Grotius calls it 2. And that the Pope is Patriarch of the West and the prime Patriarch 3. And that he is Principium Vnitatis to all the Church on Earth And if so they are out of the Church which is One that deny this 4. That he is authorized to call General Councils 5. And to be their President 6. And to be the chief Governor when there are no General Councils and that is indeed always 7. And that they are all Schismaticks that do not thus far submit to him And how much more Mr. Dodwell giveth the President I have shewed you in his own words VIII As Mr. Thorndike threateneth England with God's Judgments if they do not amend the Oath of Supremacy by making it acceptable to the Papists that renounce not a foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so others labour to prove that the meaning of it is only to renounce the Pope's Jurisdiction here in Temporals which belongs to the King and not a Papal and Foreign Jurisdiction properly Ecclesiastical by the Keys As you may see partly in Mr. Hutchinson's alias Berry's Book who on that Supposition took the Oath as many do and publickly profest himself of the Church of England IX In the Description of the Reconciliation with the Pope endeavoured by Archbishop Laud in Heylin's History of his Life Pag. 414 415 c. All that the Pope was to abate was 1. That the Oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity may be taken I told you in what sense 2. And that the Pope's Jurisdiction here but no where else be declared to be of Humane Right that is say ours by the Fathers in General Councils not without the Apostles by whose Church-Laws we are all bound 3. That all should be really performed to the King so far as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be independent both from King and Pope but not from subjection to either This saith he no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him 4. Marriage permitted to Priests 5. The Communion in both kinds 6. The Liturgy in English I ask any sober man now Qu. 1. Whether the Pope did himself think that by this bargain he ceased to be Pope and all Papists to be Papists 2. Whether if the King had been thus far equalled with other Catholick Princes the Pope would not have supposed him and his Bishops and Church to be of the same Roman Catholick Church as they 3. Whether in all this here be any
Preach meer desperation to all that have not more knowledge than I have who cannot possibly find out a Governing Universal Church nor its Laws though I would willingly find it and obey it Q. 53. Do they not Preach common desperation who say that Schism is a damnable Sin and he is in that guilt who suffers himself to be Excommunicated by Prelates for not obeying them in any unsinful condition of Communion as H. Dodwell speaketh Do not such Carnifices animarum make it necessary to Salvation to know all the unsinful things in the World which a Prelate may impose to be unsinful And is any man on Earth so Skilful How many indifferent things are there which the wisest man may doubt whether they be indifferent Of old it was thought enough to know the few things which God made necessary and now these Tormenting Uniters make it necessary to know the multitude of things indifferent to be such Q. 54. Must we needs know what sense perceiveth by the credit of a General Council or all the Bishops of the World As whether I see the Light or Colours What taste my Meat hath c If not why may I not take Bread to be Bread and Wine to be Wine on the credit of my senses though the Bishops or Council say the contrary Q. 55. Must I have the Authority of a Council or College of Bishops to believe that there is a God and that he is most Great and Wise and Good most Holy Merciful True and Just or to know that there is a Life to come and the Soul Immortal or that men must not hate the Good and love the Evil as such nor live in Murther Theft Adultery Perjury c. Doth not the Law of Nature bind men without a Council of Prelates And can they null that Law by their pretended Soveraignty Q. 56. Must every man have the Sentence of a General Council or College as wide as the Christian World to satisfie him of the truth of Christianity before he is Baptized and made a Christian Q. 57. Must we know what the Council or spacious College saith before we believe the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments or did the ancient Christians receive them only on such Authority Did not every Baptizer expect a Profession of the Creed Q. 58. Was not the Bible received before there was a General Council Q. 59. Have not Councils differed about the Canonical Books of Scripture See Bishop Cousins of the Canon Compared with the Council of Trent Q. 60. Must we have new Councils to deliver us again the same Creed and Bible Q. 61. Is it not a reproaching of Christianity to tell the World that after 1691 Years it is not yet fully known what it is but we must have new Councils to tell it us and to make it up Q. 62. Did Councils only receive the old Apostles Creed when they made so many new ones or added so many Articles Q. 63. Was the Primitive Church of the same Species with the present Romish and Imposing Church when he was then a Christian who profest belief of the Creed as the Christian Symbol and to desire according to the Lord's Prayer and Practise according to Christ's Commands And now so many other things are made necessary hereto Q. 64. Do not those men deal falsely who subscribe the 39 Articles of the sufficiency of the Scripture as to all things necessary to Salvation and yet say that it 's necessary to Salvation to obey the Bishop of the place in all unsinful things and consequently to Believe them all to be unsinful Q. 65. Is it by the Divine Authority of a Council or Mundane College of Prelates that we know which are the true Writings of Ignatius Irenaeus Clemens R. Alex. Tertullian Cyprian Hierom Augustin c Or do their Critical Writers send us to the College or Council to know If not why may not the Canon of Scripture be known yea much better by meer Historical Tradition and inherent Evidence Q. 66. Is it not by History and not Church Power that we know what Popes have been at Rome what Councils have been called and what they decreed And may not the same way secure us of the Matter of Fact about the Scripture Q. 67. Hath any Council or College yet Decreed which are the true and current Copies of the Original of the Scripture and which of the various Lections are true If they had agreed but of the vulgar Latin would Sixtus 5th and Clemens 8th have Published Editions so vastly different If they never did it yet when will they do it Q. 68. Did ever Council or College determine which is the truest Translation Q. 69. Did ever Council or College give the Church a Commentary on the Bible Q. 70. Did they ever write a Decision of the multitudes of Controversies about the meaning of several Texts and the multitudes of Doctrines which are yet controverted among Papists themselves and all the World Q. 71. Is it a Satisfaction or a gross Cheat to tell us of a necessary Church Power to Expound Scripture and Judge of Controversies who yet will not do it but leave all unexpounded and undecided Q. 72. Was Gregory Nazianzen a Fool that spake so much of the hurt that Councils do and resolved never to go to more Q. 73. Can I know that Pope or Council have Authority given them by Christ before I believe that Christ is Christ and had Authority himself Q. 74. Can I know that Christ's Promise to Pope Council or Prelate is true before I know that the Promise of Justification Adoption and Salvation are true that is Before I am a Christian Q. 75. Can I believe the Promise of Pardon and Salvation or the Promise made to General Councils or Prelates without knowing the meaning of those Promises And can I believe the Churches Power from God without believing the Promise of it And if I can understand all these Promises without a Council why may I not understand more And how then do I receive all Scripture from a Council Q. 76. Do those that Preach to convert Infidels in Congo China Japan Mexico among Turks c. Preach first the Authority of General Councils or a Mundane College as the Primum credendum upon whose credit Christianity is to be received Hath this been the way to Convert the World Q. 77. If Paul curse an Angel from Heaven if he bring another Gospel and Paul charge Timothy to see that men Preach no other or new Doctrine must there be Councils or a College to make either a new Gospel or a new Doctrine or Universal Law Q. 78. If men were saved without believing the Canons and Decrees of Councils before they were made even by simple Christianity is it not necessary Mercy to let men be so saved still Q. 79. If it be not a new Gospel but mutable Accidents which the Church Laws do determine of what need there an Universal Power or Soveraignty or an Universal Law
is so hard a work that it seldom goeth well down with any party to hear of their sins especially the most heinous because they are most frightful and odious But yet it is so necessary a work to Repent necessary to the sinners and necessary to this Land that a Dying Minister of Christ who daily lamenteth his own sin should not for fear of the anger or reviling of the impenitent omit so necessary a work while Danger and yet Hope seem to tell us that this is the time Having oft done it to the displeasing of many I will though it yet displease add this brief warning If the remembrance of the years 1643 to 1660. of all that was done in England Wales and Scotland against Order Peace Government Ministry sound Doctrine and Discipline by the Sectarian Army and the Antinomian Anabaptist and Separating Ministers and People that encouraged them and the fatal end they came to without any bloodshed to overcome them and the consequent changes I say if all this convince not the Separating Sectarian sort of professors that they have been heinously injurious to the Protestant interest and have ignorantly kept up the life of Popish hopes I know not what means can convince such men II. And if after all the Miseries of former divisions and uncharitable violence before and in the Wars those that have added the greater burdens and revengefully done what I love not so oft to mention by Laws execution and additional reproach upon Corporations Churches Universities Ministers and brought and yet keep the Land by resolved obstinacy in its divided dangerous sinful state and lock up their Church door against desired Unity and Concord and all this for nothing but to justify the revengeful changers and their own complying acts I say again and again if all this after the last thirty years experience added to all before seem to the guilty no wrong to the Protestant interest nor to the Nations Peace and Hopes nor any advantage to Popery nor any sin against Christ in his Servants the Lord take some extraordinary effectual way to convince heal and save so blind and obdurate a people for I see no hope of ordinary means The God of Peace have mercy upon an Ignorant Vnpeaceable World and prepare us by Faith Hope and Love for the World of Love and Peace Amen Postscript § 1. I Perceive some cannot digest it that a Christian Soveraign should be the Head that is the Forma informans specifica unifica of a National Church and that it is not said to be a National Sacerdotal Head either Monarchical in one primate or Aristocratical in several Metropolitanes or Diocesanes as one College Persona politica Or as Mr. Hooker Dr. Beveridge and the Republicane Politicians and most fanaticks think in the Major part of the Body ruling by their Representatives and chosen Proxies which is called a Democracy or mixt of these by natural right § 2. And if any thing with these men were strange it would seem strange that the same men that subscribe to or approve the Canons of 1640 for the Divine making or institution of Kings and that fill Pulpits and Books with Invectives against Rebels Fanaticks and the Parliaments Wars and many Writers of Politicks for holding that the King is singulis Major universis Minor and that the Power of the Head is from the Majority of the Body and that the Legislative Supremacy is in them radically as in the Majestas Realis derived to the King as the Majestas personalis should come themselves to build their Church Power on so rotten a foundation And that the poor Nonconformists long called Rebellious must now become against such Churchmen the defenders of the Soveraigns Power But such is the case of this blind giddy factious World § 3. According to my usual despised method I will distinguish the Controversie de re from that de nomine And I may say That de re all men are agreed of all these following things 1. That Civil Power in genere is of Gods institution and his Laws made their supreme Law and his Will and Glory their ultimate end 2. That as all are thus bound so Christian Soveraigns are both bound and qualified as from God and for God and therefore are sacred persons 3. That the forcing power of the Sword is only committed to Magistrates to be exercised FOR and UNDER GOD and by Christians for under Jesus Christ And therefore such Christian Princes are not to be called Civil as exclusive of Religious or Spiritual work but as exercising their power pro civibus for the good of their Kingdoms even religious 4. That God is the Author or institutor also of the Sacerdotal Office and hath specify'd it in his Word And that the Magistrate or the sacred Ministry can neither of them put down each other nor alter any part of either Office which God hath instituted 5. That it belongeth to the Sacerdotal Office or Clergy to be the official Preachers of the Gospel and to judge by the Power of the Keys who is fit or unfit for Church entrance by Baptism and for Church Communion and to Baptize and administer the Lords Supper admonish suspend and excommunicate from their communion such as deserve it and to absolve the Penitent 6. That the Priesthood or Pastors have no power to use the Sword by force on Body or Estate by Stripes or Mulcts nor yet to force or require the Magistrate to do Execution by the meer Sentence of the Clergy without trying and judging the Cause himself 7. The Pastors that the Magistrate chuseth for the care of his Soul may declare him unfit for Communion if by impenitency in gross scandal he deserve it but may not disable him from Government by a publick dishonouring Excommunication much less send such a reproach abroad in the Land or World 8. The Bishops and all the National Clergy are Subjects to the Soveraign as Physicions and Philosophers c. are And he is Governour over them in matters of Religion which belong to the determination of National Laws as well as in worldly things The Pastor as the Physicion is judge judicio privato personali how to use his own Art and Work and when and on whom But the King is Judge judicio publico of all that is to be the common Rule As that Physicions use no Poysonous Drugs take not too great Fees what Hospital he shall be over c. And so for the Ministry that they preach not Heresie or Schism and Strife that they neglect not their Work that they use a fit Translation of the Bible that they have due Maintenance Place c. 9. The Soveraign is Judge whether his Christian Kingdom shall be divided into Provinces Diocesses and of what extent they shall be or shall have one Primate or all particular Churches shall be equal or some Tolerated and Priviledged from the Diocesans 10. The King may make publick Laws for Family Religion that
Apostolick power which was to teach whatever Christ commanded them He is with them to the end of the World 1. In blessing the Word delivered and recorded by them 2. In blessing those that teach it But not those that add to it the supplement of their own Universal Laws And which is the Church that in all Ages thâ—se thousand years have had this power Three parts of the Christian World say It is not the Roman The Roman Church say It is not the Greeks Both say It is not they in Abassiâ— Egypt Mesopotamia Armenia Georgia c. The Protestants confess it is not they And is obedience to an unknowable Power necessary to Concord and Salvation (a) Paul saith I was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel of Christ Mat. 28. And Paul to Timothy tell us of other parts as Essential They can include or exclude none but those that include and exclude themselves which shall be effectual whatever the Priest say or do He is but a Minister Invester and Declarer of it (b) Then a Moscovian Priest may serve or such as Optandus Bishop of Geneva was illiterate and one may be taken from any Shop or Cart that understands the Dealings of the World But how much more requireth Paul to Timothy and Chrysostom c. 2. And yet I and all of my Degree yea all the Ministers or the Reformed Churches that disown his Leviathan are uncapable of Ministry or Christian Communion by our ignorance 3. But is the Nature of the Covenant-Benefits Duties c. so easily known as he talks And yet must we Perish for not knowing them (c) Note here that tho' his Priesthood have the Power of saving or damning Men yet he confesseth the very office in Specie is not of God's making For if it be not stated in Scripture it is not in the meer Law of Nature And our Church-Changers are no Prophets And if God made not the office then the arrogated Power is not his Gift (d) Note that he speaketh of God's Church in the singular Number and not of national Churches which are many (e) He hath constituted a Species of visible Governors over the several Parts but no one Personal or Collective over the whole (f) Is it no Obedience unless it be absolute Is none due to God above Man Must not his Law be undorstood * Or Papal say others * And the Papal * Representing his Person is a high word But he never enabled them to change his Laws or Church-Offices but only as Servants to deliver that same Power by way of Investiture which he had instituted and described in his Law and was in their Commission As the Londoners may not change the Lord Mayor's Office but put him in that which the Charter maketh (a) Yes If the Bishops had been Makers of the Office and Donors with absolute Power and not only Servants entrusted to deliver their Masters Gifts and Offices * I am wholly of your Mind specially as to the Pope and his Bishops But I 'll judge of their Power by the Will of God * The Church is the Bishops and Council the Pope being President * That is in Scripture times Dr. Hammond confesseth the same And yet we are all no Ministers and have no Sacraments nor right to Salvation if we have not uninterrupted successive Episcopal Ordination from those times * What an happy advantage hath the Pope that can get forty Italians together at Trent seven years before he can send to and they come from Mexico Abassia Armenia and all the World There is an Art in all things and men live by their wits †Sir God will not learn of you But God hath made no such Government at all Monarchy or Aristocracy * A General Council meeting without the Call of the Pope their Established Governour are Rebels * 1. Hath the King no power but as a Representative If yea why not others 2. Who made Pope or Prelates the Representatives of those that never consented to them * Now we know what Councils have Authority Only those appointed by the President * The Mass Book * The Mass Book