in the Objection the several Acts are these That no one Canon of the Church have the force of a Law but what is appointed by such Inspector of the Canons as he shall name and appoint That no Appeals be made to Rome upon the Penalty and Danger contained and limited in the Act of Provision and Premunire made in the 16th year of King Richard II. That all the Canons not repugnant to the Laws of the Realm or to the Damage of the King's Prerogative Royal are to be used and executed as they were before the making this Act. That no license is to be required from the See of Rome for the Consecrating and Investiture of Bishops That 't is in the King alone to nominate and present them That the Pope has no Power in Spiritual Causes to give Licenses Dispensations Faculties Grants c. all this is to be done at home by our own Bishops and in our own Synods and Councils cap. 21. and this Provision is particularly made Sect. 19. ibid. provided that this Act or any thing or things herein contained shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that your Grace your Nobles and Subjects intend by the same to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any thing concerning the very Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared in Holy Scripture and the Word of God necessary for yours and their Salvation but only to make an Ordinance by Policies necessary and convenient to repress Vice And for good conservation of this Realm in Peace Vnity and Tranquility from Ravine and Spoyl insuing much the old ancient Customes of this Realm in that behalf not minding to seek for any Relief Succor or Remedies for any worldly things and humane Laws in any case of necessity but within this Realm at the hands of your Highness your Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm which have and ought to have an Imperial Power and Autority in the same and not obliged in any worldly Causes to any Superior § VII IN the 26th year of his Reign cap. 1. when declared Supreme Head of the Church of England in Parliament as before recognized by the Clergy the Power he thereby is invested with is also declared viz. To visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all such Errors Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of spiritual Autority or Jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed repressed order'd redressed corrected restrained or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Virtue in Christ's Religion and for the conservation of Vnity Peace and Tranquility of this Realm cap. 14. he appoints the number of suffragan Bishops the Places of their residence and the Arch-Bishop is to consecrate them In the 28th year of his Reign cap. 10. The King may nominate such number of Bishops Sees for Bishops Cathedral Churches and endow them with such Possessions as he will In the 31th year cap. 14. he defends the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrament in but one kind enacts that all Hereticks be burnt and their Goods forfeited that no Priest may marry for Masses Auricular Confession c. in the 34 5. cap. 1. recourse must be had to the Catholick Apostolick Church for the decision of Controversies And therefore all Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of Tindal 's false Translation or comprising any matter of Christian Religion Articles of the Faith or Holy Scripture contrary to the Doctrine set forth sithence Anno Domini 1540. or to be set forth by the King shall be abolished no Printer or Book-seller shall utter any of the said Books no Persons shall play or interlude sing or rhime contrary to the said Doctrine no Person shall retain any English Books or Writings concerning Matter against the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Altar or for the maintenance of the Anabaptists or other Books abolished by the King's Proclamation There shall be no Annotations or Preambles in Bibles or new Testaments in English the Bible shall not be read in English in any Church no Women c. to read the New Testament in English nothing shall be taught contrary to the Kings Injunctions and if any spiritual Person preach teach or maintain any thing contrary to the King's Instructions or Determinations made or to be made and shall thereof be convict he shall for his first Offence recant for his second abjure and bear a fagot for the third he shall be adjudged an Heretick and be burnt and loose all his Goods and Chattels In the 37. year cap. 17. The full Power and Autority he hath by being Supreme Head of the Church of England is To correct punish and repress all manner of Heresies Errors Vices Sins Abuses Idolatries Hypocrises and Superstitions sprung and growing within the same and to exercise all other manner of Jurisdiction called Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Sect. 1. and Sect. 3. 'tis farther added To whom by Holy Scriptures all Authority and Power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of Causes Ecclesiastical and to correct Vice and Sin whatsoever and to all such Persons as his Majesty shall appoint thereunto And so far is all this from deriving to himself and exercising any thing of the Priest-hood that he is totidem verbis declared and reputed only a Lay-Man in the first Section of that Chapter nor do any one of these Instances here produced amount to any more than to the defending and guarding by Laws Truth and punishing and repressing Errors whether in Doctrines or in Manners at least such as are so reputed by the Church and State § VIII 'T IS true and easily observable that just upon the assuming to himself the Title of the supreme Head of the Church there was ground enough for suspition that the Church her self and all her Power was to be laid aside and whereas the reason and end of every particular Parliament before and of each of his till then is still said to be for the honor of God and holy Church and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm 't is abated and said only for the honor of God and for the Common-Weale and Profit of this Realm the benefit of holy Church is in words at least left out and in the room of it is once added to the conservation of the true Doctrine of Christ's Religion As if the design was according to the Models now adayes framed and endeavour'd by private Persons to be set up That the care was to be only of Doctrines in which and in charity and love and abatements to one another the Essence of Church-Unity in general and each Christian with another consists But yet however this so hapned or upon what design either in himself or others 't is certain he abridged not the Church-Men of any one Instance of that Secular worldly Power as that of the supremacie derived unto them is called 25
and in these Church Debates only upon the forementioned ends and purposes to secure the common Reputation both of Men and Governors and to see that former Sanctions be not violated to judge as to Matter of Fact and what was Law and Canon before and that nothing destructive be admitted and imbodied into the Empire and which many times was deputed to the Bishops themselves as we have instance in the Comments of Jacob Gothofred in extravagans de judicio Episcopali ad finem Cod. Theodos l. 1. and to be sure the Empire never determined but by the Clergy in any thing else and the Enquiry was only this an Ordinavit Antiquitas that nothing thwarring was introduced and imposed Nor can Theodosius himself be supposed to have done any more from the Relation made of him by Socrates Hist Eccles l. 5. c. 10. or by Sozomen l. 7. c. 17. where he is engaged in Points of Faith and which is so much insisted on by those that resolve all Power into the Prince in the determining and composing all differences arising in Points of Religion Vid. Grotium bona fides Lubberâ—i 48. alibi Theodosius was an acute Man and pursued his own Satisfaction in those Points or Articles he made Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all he did upon his search was this he concurr'd in the same Opinion with the Bishops receiv'd their Reasons offer'd and allow'd of the Grounds they proceeded on and imbodied in the Empire the Decrees of the Council call'd by him at Constantinople upon the occasion of the Arians and other Business in the Eighth Chapter of that Book of Socrates And so again in Sozomen he gives out his Rescripts for equal Honor to be given to the Persons in the Trinity and declares those Hereticks which do it not and enjoyns Theophilus to follow the Nicene Faith for which the antecedent Church Canon is the rule lib. 7. cap. 4 5. 9. THE Laws of the Empire against Hereticks § XX are many and for the Rule of Faith and its Unity and against their meetings in the exercise of their Fancies they are turned out of the Publick Churches and expell'd the Cities and whatever favour hath been obtained for a Penal-mitigation by bribed Courtiers misrepresenting for such it seems there always was and will be the Grant is to be actually void the Houses they meet in are Confiscated they that have frequented them are Punished an Hundred Pounds and such as continue at them Fifty no Man is to read their Books they are all to be burned none is to Petition in their behalf their last Testaments are voided they are not permitted to Buy or Sell or Trade as do other Men all their Gifts Endowments and Revenues settled on their Sects are transferr'd to the Churches use Such of them as set up Schools and Teach are to be animadverted upon Vltimo Supplicio to be sure by a Punishment greater than others and they that learn of them are to Pay Ten Pounds No Lay-man that is an Heretick is to have or exercise any Government lest they be vexatious to the Bishops and Christians all the Moderators Governors and Under-Officers in Provinces that neglect to execute these Laws or permit them to be violated are to have a Mulct of Ten Pounds laid upon them No Civil or Military Power is to assist them in erecting their quasi Ecclesias falsly called Churches Speluncas fidei suae under the Punishment of Twenty Pounds of Gold He that entertains a Conventicle in his House if vilis of the Plebeians he is to be beaten with Clubs if an Ingenuous Person his Punishment is Ten Pounds and if they go from their Conventicles to Mutinies and Sedition 't is present Death and to such as frequent them t is Proscription of Goods with many more Penalties assigned Some greater and some less as was the temper of the Law-Maker and the apprehended Guilt as greater or less the Heresie of more or less danger in Church or State even to some as the Manichees their Children were not to inherit but then who and what these Hereticks and Heresies were what made a Conventicle or Schismatical Meeting what constituted this Rule of Faith and Unity this was not the work of the Empire nor did it pretend to be Judge and Decide She believed as did the Church determine whose Traditions and Confessions received Strength and Autority thereby the Civil Arm and Power concurring but the Catholique Faith is the Rule and Praedicationem Sacerdotum the Instructions of the Priests the Director Nor is any one condemned by the Law but such as are Strangers to and neglect the Church who are first condemned by her and 't is what Antiquity has ordained appoints and constitutes That Faith which St. Peter the Apostle Preached at Rome and which was then follow'd there by Damasus the present Bishop and Peter Bishop of Alexandria Nectarius of Constantinople Pelagius of Laodicea Diodonis of Tarsis Amphilochius of Iconium Optimus of Antioch c. Men led by the Apostolical Evangelical Discipline and Doctrine farther taught and recommended in the Four first Councils Determinantibus Sacerdotibus the Bishops there determining and the Exposition of Synods by the Imperial Autority and Laws called together Sacram Communionem in Ecclesia Catholica non percipientes à Deo amabilibus Episcopis Haereticos justè vocamus Justinian Novel 109. Praefat. The Heresie in its own Nature consists here when they unite and hold Communion out of the Catholick Church not receiving of it from God's beloved Bishops and so Schism is defined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 31. Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 6. Concil Gen. Constantinop when they despise and make Assemblies contrary to their Bishops So also Can. 31. Concil 6. in Trullo Can. 10. Concil Carthag and more expresly yet Can. 10. Concil Antioch and which we have occasionally made use of before if any Presbyter or Deacon separate from the Church contemning his own Bishop and makes a Private Congregation or Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in that 10th Canon Concil Carthag all which concerning Schism and Heresie and Conventicles with a great deal more may be seen at large and in every particular by whoso is conversant in the Canons and Church Proceedings and Determinations or which may be of more Autority with him at least not so lyable to Scorn and contempt to whoso pleases to read Cod. Justinian Tit. 1 2 3 4 5 c. Theodos 16 Tit. 1. l. 28. and in the several Titles and Laws with the various Novels and Constitutions treating expresly on these Subjects § XXI THERE are as many Laws and Directions Imperial concerning Ordinations the Person to be Separate and Consecrated to the Ministry of what Order soever whether Bishops Presbyters or Deacons perhaps many more as indeed they are very numerous giving Rules for Elections for the better discharge of their Duties providing against Symony for the daily Sacrifices and Ministerial Offices in the Liturgy and
advantage the case is plain that there may be Mutatio Statûs as Mr. Selden expresseth it a change of the present Condition Capitis quaedam apud suos diminutio in his Description of Excommunication De Syned l. 1. c. 7. abatement of Priviledges in respect of that Body and which is not Death on any other Bodily infliction as he there explains it falls under no outward forcible Restraint for whatever was of this kind was annexed to their Excommunication by the Empire and is by Mr. Selden acknowledged not of its Nature Ibid. nor indeed in their Captivities could they execute it And this considered will abate what is so much objected against Church-Government that it cannot be at all because not as is the Secular sensible and coercing not outwardly forcing a compliance no such Penal Virtue and Efficacy that Men cannot choose but bow and submit unto it The loss of that Communion to which once imbodied suitable to the Advantages expected in or Peril incurr'd upon a disunion from it is Motive sufficient even coercively obliging to him who on rational and true Grounds closed with and submitted to the Association and this particularly to the Christian who imbodies for Eternity whose loss is Heaven whose Punishment is Hell if fully and justly cut off who believes that out of this Society Church or Collection of Persons there is no Salvation THAT God's particular Wisdom and Providence § VI did go along with the Jewish People in whatever they were to do or suffer and that all had a special Relation and Prospect to Christianity which was to succeed This appears more than probable it was in the Plot and Design to disenclose the Jews by degrees to lead them by steps and gradations without the Temple into the Church-Catholique to work them off from their Carnal Ordinances and Expectations and prepare the way for the coming of Christ and the Worship in Spirit and Truth to accomplish upon them with more case and facility and obviousness what was at first design'd for a full End and Period And that the Gospel might with less prejudice and more readiness be received at its Promulgation And we have several Instances of this kind both before all along throughout and the midst of the Levitical Dispensation Such as were not of the Descent of Abram were still taken in and Gentiles admitted to Salvation and not upon either the Levitical or Abrahamitical Compact or Indentment So Job in the Land of Huz So the Ninevites upon the terms alone of Repentance and Amendment Of the same sort were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Graecian Worshippers amongst the Jews call'd Proselytes of Righteousness known to every Body This was one great end why Christ sent his many Prophets early and late unto them to take them off from the Carnal Services to open and unfold the true and farther meaning of them and in what respect they were enjoyned That it was not the Sacrifice it self and burnt Offerings new Moons Incense and Oblations God then required but Purity Judgment and Humility to obey the Voice of God As is evident in every one of the Prophecies each of their Sermons and Discourses particularly Isa 1. Jer. 7. Micah 6. and the nearer they came to their end the more Zealous and Active were they witness the Prophet Malachy the last of all Unfathomable and undiscernible Providence save only in its Effects so order'd it that their Captivities are the greatest instances in this Nature they more sensibly and forcibly prevailed in order to it disinvested them of their Temple without which they would not have thought they could have lived one day and so led them by the same Necessity to that Worship and Service and Form of Government which in the Design and Appointment of God was to overspread the whole Earth and remain to the Restitution of all things Thus came it about that the Seventy and two Jews themselves Translated the Holy Bible into Greek the most known Language of the then civilized and learned Part of the World and which at some times to have done was Piaculous and what then this could more tend to the Conversion of the Gentiles This occasioned that Design of those Pious Persons Jesus the Son of Syrach and the Author of the Book of Wisdom whoever he was of drawing them off from Judaism and instilling the Gospel-Service and Obedience which was by and by to succeed and to be Eternal whose devout most Holy Pens taking the advantage of their present Captivity and forlorn State without their Pompous carnal Ordinances uncapable of the Temple Duties instructed and urg'd upon them that Religion which the Accidents or Contingencies of the World could not deprive them the Exercise of Neither time nor Place nor Person could obstruct the Performance true Holiness Obedience and Judgment to come and which alone would bring them Peace at the last And we may safely say That in these Moral Writings of theirs there is though not more of the Gospel yet it is more plain here and open and intelligible than in all the Books of the Old Testament beside what is there only in either Shades and Types the Mystical allegorical Sense or else upon the glance and by accident spoken is here with open face in the intent and purpose And I may speak it out That the Resurrection of the Body is so evidently Professed by the Mother of the Seven Sons in the Maccabees Cap. 2. v. 7. that the like was not done before it Sure I am not in the Levitical Law which is at the most but shadow'd there and even the wiser scarce saw and discern'd it and for certain a Sect there was among them those of the Sadduces that were Zealous for the Law and yet believed neither Angel nor Spirit nor the World to come so great Enemies to themselves to the early appearance of Christianity to a great Evidence for it against the Jews are they who refuse and reject this so huge an advantage of these Apocryphal Writings and that will not read them though Saint Paul did and hence made Evidence to his Auditors that the Resurrection in those days was believed Heb. 11.33 34 c. because the Evidence is less clear that they were indited by the immediate impulse of God as were the other parts of the Old Testament being Penn'd since the days of Malachy after whom we have no avouchment for any other Prophets and therefore call'd Apochryphal because thus hidden and obscure in their Original St. Austin Ep. 4. to Volusianus a great Contemner of Christianity among other Arguments of God's Power and Wisdom in the managery of it brings this for one Reproba per Infidelitatem gens ipsa Judaeorum à sedibus extirpata per mundum usque quaque dispergitur ut ubique portet Codices Sanctos ac si Prophetiae Testimonium qua Christus Ecclesia praenuntiata est nè ad tempus à vobis fictum existimaretur ab ipsis Adversariis Proferatur
it self was not thought to be concerned 't was what was reputed only secular and the most eminent and very near all the Bishops were zealous Sticklers against the Pope or at least submitted to it then when zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion Doctrines and Worship and to which they adhered in King Edward's days and Queen Elizabeth's when the Reformation went on farther and was settled as now by Law in the Church The Supremacy was not then the Characteristical Mark though since to keep up the Parties it is so and which occasioned that warm Dialogue betwixt the Jesuite and Doctor Bilson of which I have given so large an account already the Doctor 's design being to vindicate our Church from the Opinions of Erastus urged in effect upon us by the Jesuite and that by asserting the Prince Supreme in all Causes over all Persons we give not to him any thing that is Church-Power enstated by Christ on the Apostles and by them derived to the Bishops their alone Successors herein this being thus settled and over-ruled against the Romanist another Enemy Man comes with his Tares and which are scattered in the seed-Plot and grow up together with it the Puritan starts up in the midst of us and the Point is That this Power of the Keys is in the Presbytery their Eldership made up of Lay-Men mostly call'd Lay-Elders and these for the greatest part as must be in abundance of Parishes Mechanicks and the meaner sort who have the Power of laying on of Hands Ordaining and Excommunicating nay more these inconsiderable Persons are not only invested with the Power of Bishops and Church-Men but with that Power and Supremacy is by us given to the Prince to Preside over and Govern all Persons and Causes by Process to Cite Summon and Convene before them to implead acquit or condemn amerce or punish even to confinement in their Consistories and no Cause or Person to be exempted if manageable in order to Religion they emulate and succeed the Pope himself and in the highest instances of his pretended Power and Soveraignty even to Summon and Censure Kings of whom Personal Attendance is required now against this it is these Worthies change and wield their Weapons accordingly as a good Fencer is ready at all against these New Popes as they call them and whoso please may read in Bishop Bancroft's Survey of the pretended holy Discipline cap. 22 23 24 25. and in his Book of Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within the Island of Britain under pretence for Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline In Bishop Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church Cap. 9 10. and Bishop Whitgift's Defence of the Answer to the Admonition Tract 17. pag. 627 628 629 630 c. against these it is their warmth and Argument is spent in Defence of the Rights of the King and Church in scorn and detestation of such those pretending Ignaro's Their words are these with a deal more to this purpose As though Christ's Soveraignty Kingdom and Lordship were no where acknowledged or to be found but where half a dozen Artisans Shoo-makers Tinkers and Taylors with their Preacher and Reader Eight or Nine Cherubins forsooth do rule the whole Parish So Bancroft Dangerous Positions c. l. 2. c. 2. That the King must submit to the Pastor and be content to be joyned in Commission with the basest sort of People if it please the Parish to appoint him and if over-ruled must be contented and the Prince loses all Autority in Ecclesiastical Matters and he must maintain and see executed such Laws Orders and Ceremonies as the Pastor with his Seniors shall make and decree So Bishop Whitgift ibid. p. 656 657. That the Church-warden and Syde-men in every Parish are the meetest Men that you can find to direct Princes in judging of Ecclesiastical Crimes and Causes a wretched state of the Church it must be that shall depend on such silly Governors as Husbandmen and Artisans Ploughmen and Craftsmen and we descend to the Cart for advice in Church-Government So Bishop Bilson Perpetual Government Cap. 10. and if thus in behalf of the Regal and Sacerdotal Power the Magistracy and the Ministry and which are the only Governors of the Church of Christ as they contend against these monstrous sort of People with their High-shoo'd feet and Clowns hands invading both the King and the Church be set as one man to oppose them and their distinct Powers not so nicely and distinctly stated at one time as they are and require an another and appear but as one Weapon that with present advantage it may be wellded against them this is to be imputed to the warmth and zeal of the Disputant whether as Aggressor or Defendant his settled particular judgment is to be fetch'd from his particular designed Decision and Determination in other Cases and when the naked Cause is alone and before him the immediate proper object of his Consideration and it must be confessed neither do I believe the great reason and choicer learning of that excellent Prelate were he now alive again could upon second thoughts extricate himself that Bishop Bilson's Argument against Lay-Elders Cap. 10. Pag. 148. and which Robert Parker so much twits him with is wide of a Conclusion and very ill laid it runs thus I cannot conceive how Lay-Elders should be Governors of Christ's Church and yet be neither Ministers nor Magistrates Christ being the Head and fulness of the Church which is his Body governeth the same as a Prophet a Priest and a King and after his Example all Government in the Church is either Prophetical Sacerdotal or Regal the Doctors have a Prophetical the Pastors a Sacerdotal and the Magistrates a Regal Power What fourth Regiment can we find for Lay-Elders All that can be said is this there appear'd an Argument against a Lay-Elder he was thought thus shut out from having any Place or Power as from Christ not considering the ill distribution of the offices of Christ in general and his bad-placed Successions and more especially the worser consequence that must attend a deriving the Magistrates Power from the Mediatorship and 't is what neither Whitgift nor Bancroft did Consider As a King Priest and Prophet he erected and settled his Church on Earth by virtue of that Commission and All Power given him of the Father Mat. 11. but he did not as such meddle with the Kingdoms on Earth as the Mediator he was himself a Subject and professed and practised Subjection and Obedience demanded only the Subjects right Protection by the Government he found established in the World by his Father But however the present Argument was wrong laid and whencesoever the Magistrates Power is derived 't is all along and by them all supposed and maintained quite different and apart from that of the Ministry or the Priesthood and they are asserted two quite diverse offices and their Powers do not reach to one another I 'le only now instance