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A27494 Clavi trabales, or, Nailes fastned by some great masters of assemblyes confirming the Kings supremacy, the subjects duty, church government by bishops ... : unto which is added a sermon of regal power, and the novelty of the doctrine of resistance : also a preface by the right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Lincolne / published by Nicholas Bernard ... Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661. 1661 (1661) Wing B2007; ESTC R4475 99,985 198

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authority in the outward government which disposeth the affairs of Religion so farre forth as the same are disposable by humane authority and to think them uncapable thereof only for that the said religion is everlastingly beneficiall to them that faithfully continue in it And even as little cause there is that being admitted thereunto amongst the Jews they should amongst the Christians of necessity be delivered from ever exercising any such power for the dignity and perfection which is in our Religion more then theirs It may be a question Whether the affairs of Christianity require more wit more study more knowledge of Divine things in him which shall order them then the Jewish Religion did For although we deny not the forme of external government together with all other Rites and Ceremonies to have been in more particular manner set down yet withall it must be considered also that even this very thing did in some respects make the burthen of their spiritual regiment the harder to be born by reason of infinite doubts and difficulties which the very obscurity and darkness of their Law did breed and which being not first decided the Law could not possibly have due execution Besides in as much as their Law did also dispose even of all kind of civill affairs their Clergy being the Interpretors of the whole Law sustained not only the same labour which Divines doe amongst us but even the burthen of our Lawyers too Nevertheless be it granted that more things do now require to be publickly deliberated and resolved upon with exacter judgment in matters divine then Kings for the most part have their personal inhability to judge in such sort as professors do letteth not but that their Regal authority may have the self same degree or sway which the Kings of Israel had in the affairs of their Religion to rule and command according to the manner of supreme Governors As for the sword wherewith God armed his Church of old if that were a reasonable cause why Kings might then have Dominion I see not but that it ministreth still as forcible an argument for the lawfulness and expedience of their continuance therein now As we digrade and excommunicate even so did the Church of the Jews both separate offendors from the Temple and depose the Clergie also from their rooms when cause required The other sword of corporall punishment is not by Christs own appointment in the hand of the Church of Christ as God did place it himself in the hands of the Jewish Church For why he knew that they whom he sent abroad to gather a people unto him only by perswasive means were to build up his Church even within the bosome of Kingdomes the chiefest Governors whereof would be open enemies unto it every where for the space of many years Wherefore such Commission for discipline he gave them as they might any where exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being touched in goods or person by virtue of that spirituall regiment whereunto Christian Religion embraced did make them subject Now when afterwards it came to pass that whole Kingdomes were made Christian I demand whither that authority served before for the furtherance of Religion may not as effectually serve to the maintenance of Christian Religion Christian Religion hath the sword of spiritual Discipline But doth that suffice The Jewish which had it also did nevertheless stand in need to be ayded with the power of the Civil sword The help whereof although when Christian Religion cannot have it must without it sustain it self as far as the other which it hath will serve notwithstanding where both may be had what forbiddeth the Church to enjoy the benefit of both Will any man deny that the Church doth need the rod of corporall punishment to keep her children in obedience withall Such a Law as Macabeus made amongst the Scots that he which continued an excommunicate two years together and reconciled not himself to the Church should forfeit all his goods and possessions Again the custom which many Christian Churches have to fly to the Civil Magistrate for coertion of those that will not otherwise be reformed these things are proof sufficient that even in Christian Religion the power wherewith Eeclesiastical persons were indued at the first unable to do of it self so much as when secular power doth strengthen it and that not by way of Ministry or Service but of predominancie such as the Kings of Israel in their time exercised over the Church of God Yea but the Church of God was then restrained more narrowly to one people and one king which now being spread throughout all Kingdoms it would be a cause of great dissimilitude in the exercise of Christian Religion if every King should be over the Affairs of the Church where he reigneth Supream Ruler Dissimilitude in great things is such a thing which draweth great inconvenience after it a thing which Christian Religion must always carefully prevent And the way to prevent it is not as some do imagine the yielding up of Supream Power over all Churches into one only Pastors hands but the framing of their government especially for matter of substance every wher according to one only Law to stand in no less force then the Law of Nations doth to be received in all Kingdoms all Soveraigne Rulers to be sworn no otherwise unto it then some are to maintain the Liberties Laws and received Customs of the Country where they reign This shall cause uniformity even under several Dominions without those woful inconveniencies whereunto the State of Christendom was subject heretofore through the Tyranny and Oppression of that one universal Nimrod who alone did all And till the christian world be driven to enter into the peaceable and true consultation about some such kind of general Law concerning those things of weight and moment wherein now we differ If one church hath not the same order which another hath let every Church keep as near as may be the order it should have and commend the just defence thereof unto God even as Judah did when it differed in the exercise of Religion from that form which Israel followed Concerning therefore the matter whereof we have hitherto spoken let it stand for our final conclusion that in a free christian State or Kingdom where one and the self same people are the church and the common-wealth God through christ directing that people to see it for good and weighty considerations expedient that their Soveraign Lord and Governor in causes Civil have also in Ecclesiastical Affairs a Supream Power Forasmuch as the Light of reason doth lead them unto it and against it Gods own revealed law hath nothing surely they do not in submitting themselves thereunto any other then that which a wise and religious people ought to do it was but a little over-flowing of wit in Thomas Aquinas so to play upon the words of Moses in the old and of
alledged how Constantine termeth Church Officers Overseers of things within the Church himself of all without the Church how Augustine witnesseth that the Emperor not daring to judge of the Bishops cause committed it unto the Bishops and was to crave pardon of the Bishops for that by the Donatists importunity which made no end of appealing unto him he was being weary of them drawn to give sentence in a matter of theirs how Hilarie beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governors of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the Judgment of Ecclesiastical causes to whom Commonwealth matters only belonged how Ambrose affirmeth that Palaces belong unto the Emperor Churches to the Minister that the Emperor hath Authority over the Commonwealth of the City and not in holy things for which cause he never would yield to have the Causes of the Church debated in the Princes Consistory but excused himself to the Emperor Valentinian for that being convented to Answer concerning Church Matters in a civil court he came not Besides these Testimonies of Antiquity which Mr. Cart. bringeth forth Doctor Stapleton who likewise citeth them one by one to the same purpose hath augmented the number of them by adding other of the like nature namely how Hosius the Bishop of Corduba answered the Emperor saying God hath committed to thee the Empire with those things that belong to the Church he hath put us in trust How Leontius Bishop of Tripolis also told theself same Emperor as much I wonder how thou which art called unto one thing takest upon thee to deal in another for being placed in Military and Politique Affairs in things that belong unto Bishops alone thou wilt bear rule We may by these Testimonies drawn from Antiquity if we list to consider them discern how requisite it is that Authority should always follow received laws in the manner of proceeding For in as much as there was at the first no certain law determining what force the principal Civil Magistrates Authority should be of how far it should reach and what order it should observe but Christian Emperors from time to time did what themselves thought most reasonable in those Affairs by this mean it cometh to pass that they in their practice varie and are not uniforme Vertuous Emperors such as Constantine the great was made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the customes which had been used in the Church even when it lived under Infidels Constantine of reverence to Bishops and their spiritual authority rather abstained from that which himself might lawfully do then was willing to claim a power not fit or decent for him to exercise The order which had been before he ratifieth exhorting Bishops to look to the Church and promising that he would do the office of a Bishop over the Common-wealth Which very Constantine notwithstanding did not thereby so renounce all authority in judging of spirituall causes but that sometimes he took as St. Augustine witnesseth even personall cognition of them Howbeit whether as purposing to give therein judicially any sentence I stand in doubt for if the other of whom St. Augustine elsewhere speaketh did in such sort judge surely there was cause why he should excuse it as a thing not ususally done Otherwise there is no let but that any such great person may hear those causes to and fro debated and deliver in the end his own opinion of them declaring on which side himself doth judge that the truth is But this kind of sentence bindeth no side to stand thereunto it is a sentence of private perswasion and not of solemn jurisdiction albeit a King or an Emperour pronounce it Again on the contrary part when Governors infected with Heresie were possessed of the highest power they thought they might use it as pleased themselves to further by all means therewith that opinion which they desired should prevail They not respecting at all what was meet presumed to command and judge all men in all causes without either care of orderly proceeding or regard to such laws customs as the Church had been wont to observe So that the one sort feared to doe even that which they might and that which the other ought not they boldly presumed upon the one sort modestly excused themselves when they scace needed the other though doing that which was inexsable bare it out with main power not enduring to be told by any man how far they roved beyond their bounds So great odds between them whom before we mentioned and such as the younger Valentinian by whom St. Ambrose being commanded to yeild up one of the Churches under him unto the Arrians whereas they which were sent on his message alledged that the Emperour did but use his own right for as much as all things were in his own power the answer which the holy Bishop gave them was that the Church is the House of God and that those things which be Gods are not to be yielded up and disposed of at the Emperors will and pleasure his pallaces he might grant unto whomsoever A cause why many times Emperours did more by their absolute authority then could very well stand with reason was the over-great importunity of wicked Hereticks who being enemies to peace and quietness cannot otherwise then by violent means be supported In this respect therefore we must needs think the state of our own Church much better settled then theirs was because our Laws have with farr more certainty prescribed bounds unto each kind of power All decisions of things doubtfull and corrections of things amiss are proceeded in by order of Law what person soever he be unto whom the administration of judgement belongeth It is neither permitted unto Prelate nor Prince to judge and determin at their own discretion but Law hath prescribed what both shall do What power the King hath he hath it by Law the bounds and limits of it are known The entire community giveth general order by Law how all things publickly are to be done and the King as the head thereof the highest in authority over all causeth according to the same Law every particular to be framed and ordered thereby The whole body politick maketh Lawes which Lawes give power unto the King and the King having bound himself to use according unto Law that power it so falleth out that the execution of the one is accomplished by the other in most religious and peaceable sort There is no cause given unto any to make supplication as Hilary did that Civil Covernors to whom Common-wealth matters only belong may not presume to take upon them the judgment of Ecclesiastical causes If the cause be spiritual secular Courts doe not meddle with it we need not excuse our selves with Ambrose but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any Civill Judge in a matter which is not Civill so that we doe not mistake the nature either of the cause or of the
Peter in the new Testament as though because the one did term the Jews a Priestly Kingdom the other us a Kingly Priesthood Those two Substantives Kingdom and Priesthood should import that Judaisme did stand through the Kings Superiority over Priests christianity through the Priests Supream Authority over Kings Is it probable that Moses and Peter had herein so nice and curious conceits or else more likely that both meant one and the same thing namely that God doth glorifie and sanctifie his even with full perfection in both which thing St. John doth in plainer sort express saying that Christ hath made us both Kings and Priests Wherein it is from̄ the purpose altogether alledged that Constantine termeth church-Officers Overseers of things within the church himself of those without the church that Hilarie beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governor of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the judgment of Ecclesiastical Causes unto whom commonwealth matters only belonged That Ambrose affirmeth Palaces to belong unto the Emperor but churches to the minister The Emperor to have Authority of the common walls of the city and not over holy things for which cause he would never yield to have the causes of the Church debated in the Princes consistory but excused himself to the Emperor Valentinian for that being convented to answer concerning Church matters in a Civil Court he came not That Augustine witnesseth how the Emporor not daring to judge of the Bishops cause committed it unto the Bishops and was to crave pardon of the Bishops for that by the Donatists importunity which made no end of appealing unto him he was being weary of them drawn to give sentence in a matter of theirs all which hereupon may be inferred reacheth no further then only unto the administration of Church Affairs or the determination of Strifes and Controversie rising about the matter of Religion It proveth that in former ages of the world it hath been judged most convenient for Church-Officers to have the hearing of causes meerly Ecclesiasticall and not the Emperour himself in person to give sentence of them No one man can be sufficient for all things And therefore publick affairs are divided each kind in all well ordered States allotted unto such kind of persons as reason presumeth fittest to handle them Reason cannot presume Kings ordinarily so skilfull as to be personal Judges meet for the common hearing and determining of Church controversies But they which are hereunto appointed and have all their proceedings authorized by such power as may cause them to take effect The principality of which power in making Laws whereupon all these things depend is not by any of these allegations proved incommunicable unto Kings although not both in such sort but that still it is granted by the one that albeit Ecclesiastical Councels consisting of Church Officers did frame the Lawes whereby the Church affairs were ordered in ancient times yet no Canon no not of any Councel had the force of Law in the Church unless it were ratified and confirmed by the Emperour being Christian. Seeing therefore it is acknowledged that it was then the manner of the Emperor to confirm the Ordinances which were made by the Ministers which is as much in effect to say that the Emperour had in Church Ordinances a voice negative and that without his confirmation they had not the strength of publick Ordinances Why are we condemned as giving more unto Kings then the Church did in those times we giving them no more but the supreme power which the Emperor did then exercise with much larger scope then at this day any Christian King either doth ar possibly can use it over the Church The case is not like when such Assemblies are gathered together by supreme authority concerning other affairs of the Church and when they meet about the making Ecclesiasticall Lawes or Statutes For in the one they only are to advise in the other they are to decree The persons which are of the one the King doth voluntarily assemble as being in respect of gravity fit to consult withall them which are of the other he calleth by prescript of Law as having right to be thereunto called Finally the one are but themselves and their sentence hath but the weight of their own judgement the other represent the whole Clergie and their voices are as much as if all did give personal verdict Now the question is whether the Clergie alone so assembled ought to have the whole power of making Ecclesiasticall Laws or else consent of the Laity may thereunto be made necessarie and the Kings assent so necessary that his sole deniall may be of force to stay them from being Laws If they with whom we dispute were uniform strong and constant in that which they say we should not need to trouble our selves about their persons to whom the power of making Laws for the Church belongeth For they are sometimes very vehement in contention that from the greatest thing unto the least about the Church all must needs be immediatly from God to this they apply the patern of the ancient Tabernacle which God delivered unto Moses and was therein so exact that there was not left as much as the least pin for the wit of man to devise in the framing of it To this they also apply that strict and severe charge which God so often gave concerning his own Law Whatsoever I command you take heed you doe it thou shalt put nothing thereto thou shalt take nothing from it nothing whether it be great or smal Yet sometime bethinking themselves better they speak as acknowledging that it doth suffice to have received in such sort the principall things from God and that for other matters the Church hath sufficient authority to make Laws wherupon they now have made it a question what persons they are whose right it is to take order for the Churches affairs when the institution of any new thing therein is requisite Laws may be requisite to be made either concerning things that are only to be known and believed in or else touching that which is to be done by the Church of God The Law of nature and the Law of God are sufficient for declaration in both what belongeth unto each man separately as his soule is the spouse of Christ yea so sufficient that they plainly and fully shew whatsoever God doth require by way of necessary introduction unto the state of everlasting bliss But as a man liveth joyned with others in common society and belongeth unto the outward politique body of the Church albeit the said Law of Nature and of Scripture have in this respect also made manifest the things that are of greatest necessity nevertheless by reason of new occasions still arising which the Church having care of souls must take order for as need requireth hereby it cometh to pass that there is
controll See pag. 60. They that betake themselves to these un worthy arts though they may please themselves for a while with an imagination that by this means the people will fall to them apace and thereout they shall suck no smal advantage to their Cause and Party yet as it mostly cometh to pass such their rejoycing is but short For the imposture once discovered nor is it often long before that be done for a lying tongue is but for a moment the Imposters are forced to lye down in sorrow and that if they could be found out with shame enough For such discovery once made wisemen fall off faster from them then ever fools came on concluding the Cause to be desperately crazy that must be beholding to such weak props as these to shore it up and support it How they that are guilty of such foul play will be able to make answer for their insincerity before the tribunal of the great Judge at that his day if yet they that do such things can really believe there is any such thing as a day of Judgment to come I leave to their own Judgments in this their day to consider As for us qui leges colimus severiores as we profess our utter abhorrency of all forgery and other like un worthy unchristian attempts in any person of whatsoever perswasion he be or for what soever end it be done so we hold our selves religiously obliged to use all faithfulness and sincerity in the publishing of other mens works by suffering every Author to speak his own sense in his own words nor taking the boldness to change a phrase or syllable therein at least not without giving the Reader both notice where and some good account also why we have so done Such faithfulness and ingenuity the learned publisher of these Treatises professeth himself to have used in setting them forth neither better nor worse but just as he found them in the Reverend Primate's Paper some perfect and some imperfect according as they were and still are in the Copies which are in his custody and which he is ready upon all occasions to shew if need shall require The Primates two Speeches and Dr. Saravia's Letter are set forth perfect according as they are in the Original Copies to be seen The Treatise of the Form of Church-Government heretofore published and very probably supposed to have been some Collections of the most Learned and Reverend Bishop Andrews but whereunto the Author had not put to his last hand is a piece though little in bulk yet of huge industry and such as neither could the materials thereof have been gathered without very frequent reading and attent observing of the sacred Text nor being gathered could they have been easily contrived or digested into any handsome Form so compendiously without the help of a methodical and mature judgment which doubtless had the Author polished and finished according to his own mind abilities and exactness in other things would have given very much satisfaction to the impartial Reader and done good service to the Church of God Yet rather then a Tract of so much usefulness should not be publickly known to the World the Publisher in order to the publick good thought fit notwithstanding whatsoever defects it may have for want of the Authors last hand thereunto to joyn it with the rest in this Edition especially the Learned Primate having had it under his File as by the Notes and other Additions written with the Primates own hand which I have seen and can testifie doth plainly appear The same also is to be said of the three pieces of the renowned Hooker and of what is written with the same hand in the Margent of the Manuscript Copie whereof some account is given pag. 47. Great pity it is if it could be holpen that any thing which fell from the Pen of any of these Four Worthies should be lost But where the entire Work cannot be retrived it is pity but as in a Shipwrack at Sea or Scath-fire by land so much of it should be saved as can be saved be it more or lesse Those men have been always thought to have deserved well of the Commonwealth of Learning that have bestowed their pains in collecting out of the Scholiasts Grammarians Lexicons and other antient Authors the Fragments of Ennius Lucilius Cicero the Dramatike Poets and of other learned though but Heathen Writers whether Greek or Latine How much more then ought the very imperfest Fragments and Relikes so they be genuine of such excellent persons that tend so much to the advancement not of the knowledge only but of the Power also of Christianity and of Godliness as well as Truth be acceptable to all those that are true Lovers of either Of Gold quaevis bracteola the very smalest filings are precious and our Blessed Saviour when there was no want of provision yet gave it in charge to his Disciples the off-fall should not be lost The more commendable therefore is and the more acceptable to the men of this Generation should be the care of the Reverend Preserver and Publisher of these small but precious Relikes of so many eminent persons men of exquisite learning sober understandings and of exemplary piety and gravity all concurring in the same judgment as concerning those points Factious Spirits in these latter times so much opposed of Regal Soveraignty Episcopal Government and Obedience in Ceremonialls What the Reverend Doctor hath added of his own as touching the Learned Primates Judgment in the Premises and confirmed the same by instancing in sundry particulars under those three Generall Heads and that from his own personal knowledge and long experience having for divers years lived under or near him is in the general very well known to my self and many others who have sundry times heard him as occasion was given deliver his opinion clearly in every of the aforesaid points which were then grown to be the whole Subject in a manner of the common discourse of the times But one particular I shall mention which above the rest I perfectly remember as taking more special notice of it when it was spoken then of the rest because I had never heard it observed by any before and having my self oftentimes since spoken of it to others upon several occasions which for that it hath given satisfaction to some I think it my duty to make it known to as many others as I can by acquainting the Reader with it and it concerneth the Ceremony of the Cross after Baptisme as it is enjoyned by Law and practised in the Church of England The use of this Ceremony had been so fully declared and as to the point of Superstition where with some had charged it so abundantly vindicated both in the Canons of the Church and other writings of Learned men that before the beginning of the Long Parliament and the unhappy Divisions that followed thereupon there were very few in the whole Nation scarce here and there
much awrie and that in allowing of their Bishops every man favoured his own quality every ones desire was not so much to be under the regiment of good and virtuous men as of them which were like himself What man is there whom it doth not exceedingly grieve to read the tumults tragidies and schismes which were raised by occasion of the Clergy at such times as divers of them standing for some one place there was not any kind of practise though never so unhonest ot vile left unassaied whereby men might supplant their Competitors and the one side foil the other Sidonius speaking of a Bishoprick void in his time The decease of the former Bishop saith he was an alarm to such as would labour for the room Whereupon the people forthwith betaking them selves unto parts storm on each side few there are that make suit for the advancement of any other man many who not only offer but enforce themselves All things light variable counterfeit What should I say I see not any thing plain and open but impudence only In the Church of Constantinople about the election of S. Chrysostome by reason that some strove mightily for him and some for Nectarius the troubles growing had not been small but that Aroadius the Emperor interposed himself even as at Rome the Emperor Valentinian whose forces were hardly able to establish Damasus Bishop and to compose the strife between him and his Competitor Urficinus about whose election the blood of 137 was already shed Where things did not break out into so manifest and open flames yet between them which obtained the place and such as before withstood their promotion that secret hart burning often grew which could not afterwards be easily slaked insomuch that Pontius doth note it as a rare point of vertue in Cyprian that whereas some were against his election he notwithstanding dealt ever after in most friendly manner with them all men wondering that so good a memory was so easily able to forget These and other the like hurts accustomed to grow from ancient elections we doe not feel Howbeit least the Church in more hidden sort should sustain even as grievous detriment by that order which is now of force we are most humbly to crave at the hands of Soveraign Kings and Governors the highest Patrons which this Church of Christ hath on earth that it would please them to be advertised thus much Albeit these things which have been sometimes done by any sort may afterwards appertain unto others and so the kind of Agents vary as occasions dayly growing shall require yet sundry unremovable and unchangeable burthens of duty there are annexed unto every kind of publique action which burthens in this case Princes must know themselves to stand now charged with in Gods sight no lesse than the People and the Clergy when the power of electing their Prelates did rest fully and wholly in them A fault it had been if they should in choice have preferred any whom desert of most holy life and the gift of divine wisedome did not commend a fault if they had permitted long the rooms of the principal Pastors of God to continue void not to preserve the Church patrimony as good to each Successor as any Predecessor enjoy the same had been in them a most odious grievous fault Simply good and evil doe not loose their nature That which was is the one or the other whatsoever the subject of either be The faults mentioned are in Kings by so much greater for that in what Churches they exercise those Regalities whereof we do now intreat the same Churches they have received into their speciall care and custody with no lesse effectual obligation of conscience then the Tutor standeth bound in for the person and state of that pupill whom he hath solemnly taken upon him to protect and keep All power is given unto edification none to the overthrow and destruction of the Church Concerning therefore the first branch of spiritual dominion thus much may suffice seeing that they with whom we contend doe not directly oppose themselves against regalities but only so far forth as generally they hold that no Church dignity should be granted without consent of the common People and that there ought not to be in the Church of Christ any Episcopall Rooms for Princes to use their Regalitie in Of both which questions we have sufficiently spoken before As therefore the person of the King may for just consideration even where the cause is civil be notwithstanding withdrawn from occupying the seat of Judgment and others under his authority be fit he unfit himself to judge so the considerations for which it were happily not convenient for Kings to sit and give sentence in spiritual Courts where causes Ecclesiastical are usually debated can be no bar to that force and efficacie which their Sovereign power hath over those very Consistories and for which we hold without any exception that all Courts are the Kings All men are not for all things sufficient and therefore publick affairs being divided such persons must be authorised Judges in each kinde as common reason may presume to be most fit Which cannot of King 's and Princes ordinarily be presumed in causes meerly Ecclesiastical so that even common sense doth rather adjudge this burthen unto other men We see it hereby a thing necessary to put a difference as well between that ordinary jurisdiction which belongeth to the Clergy alone and that Commissionary wherein others are for just considerations appointed to joyn with them as also between both these Jurisdictions and a third whereby the King hath a transcendent Authority and that in all causes over both Why this may not lawfully be granted unto him there is no reason A time there was when Kings were not capable of any such power as namely when they professed themselves open Adversaries unto Christ and christianity A time there followed when they being capable took sometimes more sometimes less to themselves as seem'd best in their own eyes because no certainty touching their right was as yet determined The Bishops who alone were before accustomed to have the ordering of such Affairs saw very just cause of grief when the highest favoring Heresie withstood by the strength of Soveraign Authority religious proceedings whereupon they oftentimes against this unresistable Power pleaded that use and custom which had been to the contrary namely that the Affairs of the church should be dealt in by the clergy and by no other unto which purpose the sentences that then were uttered in defence of unabolishing Orders and Laws against such as did of their own heads contrary thereunto are now altogether impertinently brought in opposition against them who use but that power which Laws have given them unless men can show that there is in those Laws some manifest Iniquity or Injustice Whereas therefore against the force Judicial Imperial which Supream Authority hath it is
Court as we easily may doe both without some better direction then can be had by the rules of this new-found Disciplines But of this most ceertain we are that our Lawes doe neither suffer a Spirituall Court to entertain those causes which by Law are Civil nor yet if the matter beindeed spirituall a meer Civil Court to give judgement of it Touching supreme power therefore to command all men and in all manner of causes of judgement to be highest Let thus much suffice as well for declaration of our own meaning as for defence of the truth therein This is added by the Lord Primat Usher The Kings exemption from Censure and other Judiciall Power THe last thing of all which concerns the Kings Supremacie is whither thereby he may be exempted from being subject to that judiciall Power which Ecclesiasticall consistories have over men It seemeth first in most mens Judgements to be requisite that on earth there should not be any alive altogether without standing in aw of some by whom they may be controled and bridled The good estate of a Commonwealth within it self is thought on nothing to depend more then upon these two speciall affections Feare and Love Feare in the highest Governour himself and Love in the Subjects that live under Him The Subjects love for the most part continueth as long as the righteousness of Kings doth last in whom vertue decaieth not as long as they feare to do that which may alienate the loving hearts of their Subjects from them Feare to do evill groweth from the harm which evill doers are to suffer If therefore private men which know the danger they are subject unto being malefactors do notwithstanding so boldly adventure upon heinous crimes Only because they know it is possible for some Transgressor sometimes to escape the danger of law In the Mighty upon earth which are not alwaies so Virtuous and Holy that their own good minds will bridle them what may we look for considering the frailty of mens nature if the world do once hold it for a Maxime that Kings ought to live in no subjection that how grievous disorder soever they fall into none may have coercive power over them Yet so it is that this we must necessarily admit as a number of rightwell Learned men are perswaded Let us therefore set down first what there is which may induce men so to think and then consider their severall inventions or ways who judge it a thing necessary even for Kings themselves to be punishable and that by men The question it self we will not determine The reasons of each opinion being opened it shall be best for the wise to judge which of them is likeliest to be true Our purpose being not to oppugne any save onely that which Reformers hold and of the rest rather to enquire then to give sentance Inducements leading men to think the highest Majestrate should not be judged of any saving God alone are specially these First as there could be in naturall bodies no motion of any thing unlesse there were some which moved all things and continueth unmoveable even so in politick Societies there must be some unpunishable or else no man shall suffer punishment For sith punishments proceed alwaies from Superiors to whom the administration of justice belongeth which administration must have necessarily a fountain that deriveth it to all others and receiveth not from any because otherwise the Course of Justice should go infinitely in a Circle every Superiour having his Superior without end which cannot be therefore a well-spring it followeth there is and a supreme head of Justice whereunto all are subject but it self in subjection to none Which kind of Preheminence if some ought to have in a Kingdome who but the King shall have it Kings therefore no man can have lawfull power and Authority to judge If private men offend there is the Majestrate over them which judgeth if Majestrates they have their Prince If Princes there is Heaven a Tribunall before which they shall appeare on earth they are not accomptable to any Here it breaks off abruptly The FORM OF Church Government Before and after Christ. As it is expressed in the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT Of the Form of Government in the Old Testament THerewere Priests before the Law Melchisedech Genes 14. 18. In Egypt 46. 20. 41. 50. Patiphera In the East Job 12. 19. Exod. 2. 16. Madian Among the Jews Exod. 19. 22 24. These were Young men of the Sons of Israel Exod. 24. 5. The Eldest Sons or First-Born Numb 3. 12. 8. 16. Under MOSES The Commonwealth of Israel was either personal containing all the whole people not a man left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or Representative in which the Estate Tribes Cities whose Daughters the towns adjacent are called I. The Estate had ever one Governor 1. Moses 2. Joshua 3. Judges 4. Tirshathaes or Vice-Roys Ezra 2. 63. with whom were joyned the LXX Elders called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 II. The Tribes had every one their Prince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phylarcha Num. 2. with whom were joyned the Chief of the Families Patriarchae Num. 1. 4. III. The Cities had each likewise their Ruler Judg. 9. 30. 1 Kings 22. 26. 2 Kings 23. 8. with whom were joyned the Elders or Ancients Ruth 4. 2. Ezra 10. 14. These last not before they came into Canaan and were setled in their Citys It appeareth that Moses sometime consulted only with the heads of the Tribes and then one Trumpet only sounded Num. 10. 4. In some other causes with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Assembly of the LXX and then both Trumpets called Num. 10. 3. when all did meet it represented the whole body of Israel So then sometimes all the people the whole body of Israel met sometimes the whole people were represented by the chief men of the several Tribes The highest BENCH or Judgment for causes of greatest difficulty was that of the LXX who at the first were the Fathers of each Family that came down to Egypt Gen. 46. which number did after that remain Exod. 24. 1. 9. and was at last by God himself so appointed Num. 11. 16. See 2 Chron. 19. 8. The inferiour BENCHES for matters of less importance were erected by Jethroes advice Of Rulers of Thousands Hundreds Fiftiss Tithings Exod. 18. 21 26 And after established by Gods approbation Deut. 16. in every City wherein as Josephus saith were seven Judges and for each Judge two Levites which made together the Bench of each City The Forme of Ecclesiasticall Government amongst the Priests THe Priesthood was settled in the Tribe of Levy by God Levy had three Sons Cohath Gershom and 〈◊〉 Of these Line of Cohath was preferred before the rest From him descended four Families Amram Izhar Hebron and Uzziel Of these the Stock of Amram was made chief He had two Sons Aaron and Moses Aaron was by God appointed High-priest So that there came to be four
that which is well and orderly Acts 15. 41. Rev 3. 2. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manatseach the redressing which is otherwise Tit. 1. 5. To him was committed principally I. Authority of Ordaining Tit. 1. 5. and so of begetting Fathers Epipha Haeres 75. See Ambros. Theodoret and Oecumentus in 1 Tim. 3. Damasus Epist. 3. Jerem Epist. 85. ad Evagr. Leo Epist. 88. Concil Ancyran Can. 12. al. 13. For though St. Paul should mention a Company * together with him at the Ordaining of Timothy 1 Tim. 4. 14. yet it followeth not but that he only was * the Ordainer No more then that Christ is the only Judge although the XII shall sit with him on Thrones Luke 20. 30. II. Authority of enjoyning or forbidding 1 Tim. 1. 3. Ignatius ad Magnesia Cyprian Epist. 39. III. Authority of holding Courts and receiving accusations 1 Tim. 5. 19. 1 Cor. 5. 12. Revel 2. 2. Augustin de opere Monachor cap. 24. IV. Authority of Correcting 1 Tim. 1. 3. M●cro Episcopalis Tit. 1. 5. Hieron contra Lucifer cap. 4. Epist 53. ad Riparium Cyprian Epist. 38. ad Rogatianum V. Authority of Appointing Fasts Tertullian adversus Psychicos The Choice of persons to their calling 1. The Apostles were immediately called by Christ. 2. For the calling of Matthias the Apostle Peter gave direction two persons were propounded by the 120. the chief and constant disciples of Christ but he was designed to his place by a sacred Lot 3. Some were chos●n and appointed to their callings by the Holy Ghost Acts 11. 12. Acts 13. 2. Acts 8. 29. Acts 20. 28. 4. In choice of the Seven Deacons who were credited with the provision for such as wanted the multitude of the Chief and constant Disciples of Christ and the Apostles who were contributers of the same present 7. persons the Apostles ordain them Deacons 5. The Apostles chose to themselves Helpers fellow Servants of Christ fellow-Souldiers and the like Acts 15. 5. Rom. 16. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 23. Coll. 4. 7. Tit. 1. 5. So Timothy well reported of is taken by Paul Act. 16. 2. 3. 6. The Apostles chose such as were their Attendants or Ministers and sent them to severall Churches and People Acts 19. 22. 2 Tim. 4. 10. 12. 2 Cor. 12. 17. 1 Thess. 3. 2. and left some to abide in Churches where was need of their help Tit. 1. 5. Col. 20. Acts 18. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 3. A LETTER of Dr. Hadrianus Saravia to the Ministers of the Isle of Garnsay written in French and translated into English Grace and Peace from Jesus Christ our Lord. GEntlemen and wel-beloved Brethren in the Lord my calling doth oblige me to procure the good and the true edification of the Churches of Christ Jesus and chiefly of those which I have formerly had to doe with as their Minister such are those of the Islands where I was one of the first and know which were the beginnings and by which means and occasions the preaching of Gods word was planted there But you hold now to my thinking a course quite contrary to that which we have held All the favour we then obtained was through the Bishops means and without them I dare confidently assure you that you will obtain nothing of what you look for In the beginning there was no other Reformation in the Islands then that common throughout the whole Kingdome of England The Priests which a little before had sung Mass became suddenly Protestants but yet not one of them was appointed to preach the word of God They were but ignorant blockheads continuing still in ●eart and effection Papists and enemies to the Gospel Now such as were sincerely affected to the Gospel prevailed so far as that they obtained Ministers with whom the Priests could not agree they retained their Service and the Ministers preached and had the exercise of Religion asunder following the order of the Churches of France In those beginings at the pursuit of Mr. John After Dean I was sent by my Lords of the Councell to the Islands as well in regard of the School that was newly erected as to be a Minister there At that time the Bishop of Constance was sent Ambasadour from the French King to Queen Elizabeth from whom and from her Councell he obtained Letters to the Governors of the Islands whereby they were enjoyned to yeild unto him all authority and right which he pretended did belong unto him as being the true Bishop of the Islands But how this blow as was warded let your Fathers tell you Upon this occasion the Bishop of Winchester as their true Bishop took upon him the protection of the Churches of both Islands representing to the Queen and unto her Councel that of old the Islands did belong to his Bishoprick and that he had ancient Records for it yea an Excommunication from the Pope against the Bishop of Constance whenever he would challenge any Episcopall Jurisdiction over the Islands So through the means of the said Bishop and Mr. John After Dean two places only were priviledged of my Lords of the Councell St. Peeter-haven for Garnzay and St. Helier for Jarnsay with prohibition to innovate in ought in the other Parishes Then were the Court and Chapter of the Bishop held which afterwards were supprest how by whom and by what authority I know not I fear the Authors have run themselves into Premunires if premunires have power within the Islands The Consistories Classes and Synods of Ministers have succeeded them yet without any Episcopall Jurisdiction Now so it is that your Islands want Episcopall Courts for proving of Wills for Divorces and Marriages and for the Tythes which are causes and Actions Ecclesiasticall and have so been these 600. years and upwards as well under the Dukes of Normandy as the Kings of England The Reformation and change of Religion hath altered nothing neither is there any one that hath power or authority to transferre the said causes to any other Judges then to the Bishop but the Kings Majesty so that your Civil Magistrates have nothing to doe with such causes if they meddle with them 't is usurpation The French Ministers are so rash as to say that the Bishops of England have usurpt this Jurisdiction and that it belongeth not unto them because it is Civil making no difference between what some Bishops have heretofore usurpt what the King and Soveragn Magistrates have freely given for certain reasons moving them thereunto and conferred upon Bishops therefore though the matter be civill yet can they not be held for usurpers Truly the present state and condition of the Kingdom of England doth bely such slanderers of our Bishops I fear that your Magistrates being seasoned with this Doctrine have carried themselves in this point more licentiously then the Laws of this Kingdome and of their Islands will warrant them I pass over the debates that might be made upon this matter as a thing impertinent in the place and
chosen that I may truly say Caesar is rather ours then yours as being constituted by our God acknowledging him next to God and less then God only according to that known speech of Optatus * Super Imperatorem non est nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem There is none above the Emperor but God only who made him Emperor And surely in the Text St. Paul can mean no other by the Powers but the Roman Empire and Heathens for none that were Christians had then any dominion And so much for the first that Kings and their Royal Power are of Gods ordination This supposed the second point necessarily follows which we shall a little longer insist upon viz. that it is not lawfull for Subjects to take up Arms. against their lawfull Prince without being fighters against God and running the hazard of damnation according to the Text They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation The Pharisees as Josephus tells us a subtle kind of men proud scrupulous about the Law wherein they placed their Religion having a seeming shew of piety took themselves to be of exempt jurisdiction and being about 6000. besides their party among the people which they had influence upon stiffly refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to Caesar and indeed were the first we read of that did so for the whole Nation of the Jews had done it and were great opposites to Regal power There are too many who of late years have trod in their steps one writes a seditious book as an Anonymus another puts a feigned name to it by which dissimulation they shew what is to be thought of the thing it self Nam ●ui luce indigna tract at lucem fugit some of whom being of the vulgar and each are most apt to advance their own Order have so promoted the pretended right of the people that not being satisfied in quitting of Subjects from their obedience to their King they have also subverting the very course of Nature given the people power over their King And I wish the Jesuites only had given their votes to these paradoxes but which is the more to be lamented there are some of our own at least bearing the name who either out of an overmuch desire to be heads of parties or drawn to it like Baalam for the wages of unrighteousness have to the Scandall of our profession delivered the same opinion with the Jesuits and have taken their arguments out of them Bellarmine in his first book de pontifice Romano cap. 8. affirms That the Prince was made for the People That Principality is from humane Law and Authority That the People can never so farre transferre their Power over to a King but they retain the habit of it still within themselves and in some cases may actually reassume it which he confirms in his 5. book cap. 8. by the Examples of Ozia and Athalia who were deposed by the people These have been the Assertions of some of our own urged in the same sense and manner Who hath not heard of these Maximes So long as a King keeps his obligation the people are obliged to theirs he that governs as he ought may expect to be accordingly obeyed They that constitute may depose c. But are not these transcribed out of the aforenamed Writers It was the speech of the Bishop af Ments when the Emperor Henry the fourth's deposing was agitated Quem meritum investivimus quare non immeritum devestiamus i. e. Him while wel meriting we invested with the Empire why may not we for his unworthiness disinvest again Gregory the seventh vulgarly Hildebrand the Patron of Rebellious subjects endeavoured to draw them away from the Emperor Quemadmodum militem ignavem imperator c. i. e. as the Emperor may Cashier a sluggish Souldier that neglects his duty in the Camp So may the souldiery put off or desert an unfit King or Emperor The Obligations of Subjects are quitted if Princes recede from theirs Thus much to shew how neer of kin such are to the Sea of Rome which is a professed Adversary to Regall power according to St. Pauls description of that man of sin 2 Thes. 2. 10. Who opposeth himself against all that is called God i. e. Kings so called in Psalms But now leaving these Parallels let us come to the matter it self and prove what we have asserted both out of holy Writ the ancient Fathers and Practice of the Primitive Church who we shall finde have not limited their loyalty within that narrow compass viz. the Kings defence of the true Relogion but continued it under their opposition to it First That those who have or shall presume thus to resist doe tread under feet the holy Scriptures appears by the whole current of them Suppose an unjust cruel bloody act in a King Was not David in that sense vir sanguinis in the perfidious murther of Uriah after his Adultery with his wife Bathsheba And for my part I see not wherein that of Ahab in the Murther of Naboth doth exceed it both unjustly caused a Subject to be slain Ahab only out of a desire to his Vinyard but David to his wife Did not Solomon Apostatize when to please his wives and concubines whom he married out of the Nations whereof God had given him a charge to the contrary he tollerated the worshipping of Idols in building houses for each of them and went after them also himself Asa oppressed the people cast the Prophet into prison that came with a message of God unto him Yet we never read that God gave any Commission to the People either for these or any other farre more degenerating any liberty to disturb them in their Regall government For David God punished him in his son Absolon Solomon was disturbed by Hadad the Edomite and Rezon a Servant of Hadadazer King of Zobah Against Asa God sent some forreign Kings Against Ahaz came the Kings of Ass●ria Hezekiah's pride was punished by Sennacherib Manass●s Idolatry bloodshed by the Babylonians Ahab slain at Ramoth Gilcad by the King of Syriah but for the People either some or the whole ye find not an instance where power was given them to the offering any violence to them Who was ever worse and more obstinate then Ahab to all Rapine Murther and Idolotry who gave himself to work wickedness but were ever the People exhorted by any Prophet to withdraw their obedience from him or gather head against him For his posterity God indeed extraordinarily gives a special Commission by Elisha to John to destroy it but ye doe not find the people of themselves here or elsewhere so much as attempting it or encouraged by the Prophets persecuted by them so to do which if it had been in their power we should have found some president or other for it What was the cause David was so carefull that his hand might not be upon Saul though doubtless he had the
hearts of the better if not the greatest part of the people and sometimes Saul was as from God himself given up into his hands And he was not altogether a private Subject but was heir of the Crown after him being already annointed to it and none could have a better pretence Saul was now seeking his life and injuriously persecuting him by force and fraud yet he would not lay his hands upon him what can be imagined to be the Cause but that it was against the doctrine then received Who knows not that Saul was become an absolute Tyrant which some think to be the sense of 1 Sam. 13. Saul reigned two yeers c. i. e. Quasi biennium tantum ut Rex reliquum temporis ut Tyrannus rejected by Samuel The Kingdome rent from him given to David yet ye never read of Samuel moving David to get possession by force of Armes he mourned for Saul but never stirred up any disturbance in the Kingdome against him but patiently expected Gods determination Optatus elegantly enlargeth himself thus upon it David had Saul his enemy in his hands might have securely slaine him without the blood of any others his servants and the opportunity moved him to it but the full remembrance of Gods commands to the contrary with-held him he drew back his hand and sword and whilest he reverenced the oyntment he spared his enemy and when he had compleated his loyalty revenged his death i. e. in the Amalekite We doe not say men are bound to doe whatever the Prince shall command against the Law of God and Nature but yet neither doe we say we may by force take up Armes against him he said well Scutum dandum est subditis non gladius The three children refused to obey the command of Nebuchadnezzar in worshipping his golden Image and Daniel Darius his Edict in praying for thirty dayes to none but to him as a new erected Numen but yet they resisted not when they were questioned and call●d to suffer for it Elias withdrew himself from Jezebell and Ahabs bloody fury yet ye doe not read him tampering with those many thousands hid in Samaria by any secret Machinations against him but were all patiently passive and committed themselves to God that judgeth righteously When Peter drew his Sword against the present power though under the best defensive pretence yet was bid to put it up with a check as if it had been upon a private quarrell qui accipit gladium gladio peribit Rossaeus a Romanist hath indeed published a Book De justa Reipublicae in Principem haereticum potestate not blushing to a averre the contrary to what we have asserted viz. That the Israelites did often make insurrections against their Kings even of the stock of David and with Gods approbation but instanceth in none to any purpose 'T is true as he saith Atheliah was deposed but 't was from her usurpation Hezekiah shook off the yoak of the King of Assyria to the service of whom he had no just obligation The Judges before Samuels time did the like in delivering themselves and the Israelites from their several servitudes Absolon was suppressed by the same way of Force he had most perfidiously and wickedly attempted his Fathers Crown but what are these instances to a lawful Prince or to such as are Subjects Some I find thus endeavoring to evade the Text by distinguishing between the Power and the Person as if this and the like were to be understood only de potestatein abstracto But certainly St. Peter applys it cleerly in co●creto to the Person of the King Regi quasi praecellenti Magistratibus ab eo missis as in the next Fear God honor the King Neither can that Speech of Davids be otherwise meant then of the Person of Saul God forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords annointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the annointed of the Lord 'T is not the Power that is annointed but the Person who by it is resigned to the Power Again 't is very probable that St. Paul writing to the Romans in this expression here of Powers conformed himself to their Stile Who as Berclaius observes out of Pliny Suetonius and Tertullian do very frequently take the Abstract for the Concrete i. e. the Power for the Person armed with it There is another argumentation still in the mouths of many viz. That Princes receive their power from the people and so may be abridged accordingly by them But first let such know from whence they had this even from the Jesuites or the like for many other Authors of the Church of Rome are against it Alphonsus de Castro de potestate Leg. Paen. lib. 1. and Vasques lib. 1. controvers cap. 47. averre it and call all power Tyrannical that comes not by the people It was that which Pope Zachariah suggested to the French for deposing of Childerick their King That the people who constituted him may as well depose him the Prince is obnoxious to the people by whom he possesseth that Honor. Unto which agrees that of Augustinus Triumphus de Anchona who by the Sea of Rome hath the Title of Beatus given him That th Pope may depose the Emperor who can deny it for he that constitutes can depose whose practice in story hath been accordingly Henry the Fourth the Emperor and Childerick the Third the French King were by Pope Gregory the Seventh the latter of which was deposed as the Historian saith non pro suis iniquitatibus sed quod inutilis esset tantae potestati as Carolus Crassus the Germans and Italians withdrew their obedience from him by the Papal approbation only ob segnitiem corporis ingeniique traditatem though otherwise a most pious devout and vertuous Prince according to which is the Argument and Application of Brllarmine Constituens est prius constituto subditi vero constituunt Reges● Principes sunt propter populum ergo populus est nobilior But secondly t is of no force in it self The Pastor is for the good of the Flock The master of the family is for the welfare of it forma est propter actionem is therefore actio nobilior formâ Again a servant voluntarily binds himself to a Master and after a manner constitutes him over him What can he at pleasure withdraw himself again Again these men consider not of the Oath of God taken of Subjects to their King which Solomon mentions Eccles. 8 2. I councel thee to keep the Kings commandements and that because of tht Oath of God They have likewise but little esteem of St. Pauls Judgement in the Text viz. that the powers are of God and ordained of God That they bear the sword of the Lord and are his ministers And indeed few Kings have originally come to their Crowns by the people but most frequently as one observes invitis subdi●is Belli jure si hoc