Christian when he refused to give up his Church to the Arians denied the Emperor's power over truth and to determine in Doctrines The Emperor might force him out if he pleased neither might he resist the force his Weapons being only Prayers and Tears but the truth must not yield up to him and he give his consent or seem to do it by his own departure that the Arian Doctrine be there preached this was not then thought an Affront to the Magistrate and Law nor had St. Ambrose a Commission immediate from Heaven and abetted with Miracles or was he judged a hypocrite in so doing because he did not go and preach the Cause against Arius amongst the Goths and Vandals who subscribed to his Creed at their receiving Christianity though Mr. Dean of Canterbury tells us he that pleads Conscience and preaches it in England and does not go and preach it also in Turkey is guilty of gross hypocrisie pag. 203 213. We do not make them Judges and Deciders of Truth but Receivers and Establishers of it we say Princes be only Governors that is higher Powers ordain'd of God and bearing the Sword with lawful and publick Autority to command for truth to prohibit and with the Sword punish Errors and all other Ecclesiastical Disorders as well as Temporal within their Realms that as all their Subjects Bishops and others must obey them commanding what is good in Matters of Religion and endure them with patience when they take part with Error So they their Swords and Scopters be not subject to the Popes Tribunal neither hath he by the Law of God or by the Canons of the Church any Power or Pre-eminence to reverse their Doings nor depose their Persons and for this Cause we confess Princes within their Territories to be supreme that is not under the Popes jurisdiction neither to be commanded nor displaced at his pleasure pag. 215 216. There be two Parts of our Assertion The first avouching that Princes may command for Truth and abolish Error The next that Princes be Supreme i. e. not subject to the Popes judicial Process to be cited suspended deposed at his beck The Word Supreme ever was and is defended by us to make Princes free from the wrongful and usurped Jurisdiction which the Pope claimeth over them pag. 217. 219. Bishops have their Autority to preach and administer the Sacraments not from the Prince but Christ himself only the Prince giveth them publick liberty without let or disturbance to do what Christ hath commanded them he no more conferreth that Power and Function than he conferreth Life and Breath when he permitteth to live and breath when he does not destroy the life of his Subjects That Princes may prescribe what Faith they list what Service of God they please what form of Administring the Sacraments they think best is no part of our thoughts nor point of our Doctrine for external Power and Autority to compel and punish which is the Point we stand upon God hath preferr'd the Prince before the Priest pag. 223. touching the Regiment of their own Persons and Lives Princes owe the very same Reverence and Obedience to the Word and Sacraments that every private Man doth and if any Prince would be baptized or approach the Lord's Table with manifest shew of unbelief or irrepentance the Minister is bound freely to speak or rather to lay down his life at the Princes feet than to let the King of Kings to be provoked the Mysteries to be defiled his own Soul and the Princes endanger'd for lack of oft and earnest Admonition pag. 226. by Governors we do not mean Moderators Prescribers Directors Inventers or Authors of these things but Rulers or Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first appointed and ordained and with lawful force to disturb the Despisers of his lawful Will and Testament Now what inconvenience is this if we say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give freedom protection and assistance to the preaching of the Word ministring of the Sacraments and right using of the Keys and not fetch license from Rome pag. 236. Princes have no right to call and confirm Preachers but to receive such as be sent of God and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their Persons and if Princes refuse so to do God's Labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from Heaven not by disturbing Princes from their Thrones nor invading their Realms but by mildly submitting themselves to the Powers on Earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict A private liberty and exercise of their own Conscience and Religion was not then thought enough if the Religion of a Nation be false and though autority do abet it nor would the Autority in Queen Elizabeth's days have own'd that Person asserting and maintaining of it though not stubbornly irreligious but only wanting information in so notoriously a known case of practice pag. 238. In all spiritual Things and Causes Princes only bear the Sword i. e. have publick Autority to receive establish and defend all Points and Parts of Christian Doctrine and Discipline within their Realms and without their help tho the Faith and Canons of Christ's Church may be privately professed and observed of such as be willing yet they cannot be generally planted or settled in any Kingdom nor urged by publick Laws and external Punishments on such as refuse but by their consents that bear the Sword This is that we say refel it if you can pag. 252. to devise new Rites and Ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scripture and Canons commend and such as the Bishops and Pastors on the Place shall advise not infringing the Scripture or Canons and so for all other Ecclesiastical Things and Causes Princes be neither the Devisers nor Directors of them but the Confirmers and Establishers of that which is good and Displacers and Revengers of that which is Evil which power we say they have in all things be they Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal the Abuse of Excommunication in the Priest and contempt of it in the People Princes may punish excommunicate they may not for so much of the Keys are no part of their Charge pag. 256. The Prince is in Ecclesiastical Discipline to receive and stablish such Rules and Orders as the Scripture and Canons shall decide to be needful and healthful for the Church of God in their Kingdoms It is the Objection indeed and undue consequence the Church of Rome makes against us and the Oath of Supremacy and which is urged by Philander in this Dialogue betwixt him and Theophilus or betwixt the Christian and the Jesuite pag. 124 125. That we will have our Faith and Salvation to hang on the Princes Will and Laws that there can be imagined no nearer way to Religion than to believe what our temporal Lord and Master list in the
VI. and when but a Child and which I remember is objected by Parsons the Jesuit in his Three Conversions of England and we are risked sufficiently for it nor without cause if true without rejecting Doctor Stillingfleets M SS and which tells us that both State and Church met at Windsor in his days and determined it otherwise and that the original and full Power of the Priesthood was in him the Prince as now abiding upon Earth next under Christ But how is it that I have really dealt with these two Doctors being engaged in a Treatise the result of the course of my Studies I met among several others them my Adversaries as I did those others so also I detected their Errors refuted their Reasons repelled their Arguments and voided their Autorities in that particular as well as I could and is not this what every Body does under these like Circumstances or did ever any Man engage upon a Subject and not take notice of the known and obvious opposers and thwarters of him surely never and I have this to say for my self that I have never made one reflexion upon either of them but where my subject directly engaged me to it nor is there any thing that is Personal and Foreign that I have meddled withal As for their Eminency in the Church and Controversies that are of high concern among us and which they have discharged with a general applause I have not any ways endeavoured an abatement of their Merit but this was so far from being an Argument or but Motive to me that I was not to encounter them on this Subject that it mostly prevailed with me to do it doth the King of Israel go out as against a Flea nor do those of meaner Order and Quality undertake that Autority which is in it self none falls of it self to the ground nor was ever influential upon any and had I had no sense of the mischief in points of so great concern that must necessarily accrue to the Church of God under such their Autorities in future ages especially I had wholly passed them by untouched and uncanvassed as the Combination expected and require What is farther urged that we are not to create differences among our selves and that we have Enemies enough abroad is most true but that which makes our Enemies abroad is that we do not unanimously assert and vindicate the one Faith and Truth that we countenance those among our selves which violate it where divisions already made and other Doctrines brought in this is the rule of St. Paul Mark such and his Practice is the same upon the Rule and James and Cephas and John who seemed to be somewhat and Pillars were withstood to the face by him and the same Practice is every where in the Christian Church apparent I 'le only add this one thing more Whatever my first Error was in designing this my Collection for the Press without their Approbation and it appears they thought it my Duty to do otherwise they had my Copy a full quarter of a year in their hands and I am informed did Transcribe what seemed for their advantage but never had I any notice any ways of my great mistake that it might be Corrected or not Printed and whether what I have answered be of force that I burn my Papers I durst appeal to an easie Consideration or why did not the two Deans themselves inform me better when I addressed my self to each of them in a distinct Letter and begg'd the favour that I might know what my fault was and which the Injury that I had done I have been credibly told that they said my style was rough and haughty and therefore they would not answer I confess I did not consider them in their stalls and where I always pay that regard the Secular Power requires and which alone places them there but as stating to them a Point of Divinity or which is more a Case of Conscience where Truth only is to be respected and with a thorow Severity and any thing but like a Complement is not to have place But whatever my Letter was and however they scorn to answer it I am not ashamed here to Print it in the very words I sent it to each of them apart only the Site of their Names is changed as was the particular Address Reverend Sir I Am very well assured that you are not Ignorant nor indeed can you be of some Papers of mine that have been in so many Mens hands and more Months in London since the beginning of last Winter and design'd for the Press as also of the Reasons why they are not yet Printed viz. Some Reflexions upon your Self and the Dean of St. Paul's I am mightily satisfied with mine own Integrity in that Design and Action and besides it was never yet objected by any of those worthy Persons who have read the Discourse that the Cause was not useful and seasonable or that I had betray'd it in general or any one ways injur'd you in any one relation and yet it is you two that are Pleaded as the very occasion that they remain still in the M SS I do therefore once more deal with you plainly and sincerely thô with a due regard to your accidental Dignities and in which you are my Superiors as a Christian Brother and fellow Presbyter and whose Conscientious Zeal for the Cause of God's Church Catholick and this its particular live Member here in England may be supposed as much and as duly bottomed as another Mans or Member of it and thus with all Humility address my self unto you Either I have done you Injury or I have not if I have condescend but in Charity to give me the particulars and you will oblige me in abundance I 'le be so hold to say you never obliged any man more and my Acknowledgment and Submission shall be equally real and hearty if I have not and all is said of you be true i. e. your own Words and Sense you to this day own and assent to it or you do not if you do what Injury can I now have done you in Publishing your own Words and Sense if you do not you ought to have satisfied the Church of God by a Recantation as Publick as your Error Scandal and Offence the alone way to prevent such Reflexions from those with whom you converse only in your Writings nor can any man otherwise be blame-worthy that makes them Be pleased to consider you have not erred in the Leniora Evangelii and the Point is Whether God has a Church on Earth with its peculiar appropriated Power or not and the Laws of God his Church and all Christian Kingdoms require of you at once its Acknowledgment You are not Ignorant what Pleas are made for Errors against the Church and of the Dammages accrew to her by haling in particular Doctors if but leaning that way and seeming such as their Abettors and Avouchers and this by how much greater such Doctors
that they had then been Excommunicated In Rom. 6.17 and in 1 Cor. 5.11 by the Keys of David he understands not only he that hath the Power of Death and Hell but he that hath Plenissimum Imperium the entire Power in the House of God as Eliachim had in the House of David Ad Apoc. 3.7 and then which what more can be desired by us and how consistent with himself any one may see I 'le only add the words of our Profound Mr. Thorndike in his Treatise of the Laws of the Church p. 395. He that in his Preface to his Annotations on the Gospel shall read him disclaiming whatever the Consent of the Church shall be found to refuse will never believe that he had admitted no Corporation of the Church without which no Consent thereof could have been observed And 't is I say from these his Annotations on the Gospels we are to find and know what are his Sentiments if any where he desires us to have recourse hither if we will read his other things with Profit in his Preface to the Reader Now that those above cited Treatises in which his Errors as to Church-Government are so visible were all wrote when he was young 't is certain and that he was too much pre-occupated and prejudiced by his Education and particular Converse and Business at Amsterdam in such his Youth follows in course and himself was afterwards sensible of and lamented it throughout his whole Life And thinks it less Candid and Ingenious in Andrew Rivette that he objects those things against him that he had wrote some times since Cum illi multarum rerum conspectum adimeret nimius Patriae amor cùm esset Parvulus loquebatur ut Parvulus when the over-much love to his Country did take from him the sight of many things When he was a Child he wrote as a Child Rivet Apol. Discuss Pag. 732. And it must be also very harsh and severe in us should we object against him that his particular Treatise of the Power of the Supreme Magistrate in Holy Things which that it is a Posthumous work 't is most apparent And farther That he disown'd it when it was wrote and never design'd it for the Press 't is more then probable especially if we give Credit to what account our Herbert Thorndike gives of it in his Laws of the Church the last Chapter That at his being in England he left it with two great Prelates of our Church Lancelot Lord Bishop of Winchester and John Lord Bishop of Norwich to peruse and both of them advising him not to Print it he rested in their Judgments and 't was laid aside till his Death And indeed that that Treatise was not the issue of a fixed Judgment but to serve a Party appears from the unevenness of the Discourse contradicting it self frequently and contending against the very design of it the great Argument of a raw imperfect confused Notion And particularly if we consider he was every ways an adherent to the Holland Remonstrants a sort of Men that in Prejudice to the Church so extremely flatter'd the Civil Magistrate as our Author makes it appear Ibid. suprà though he never drank so deep of the Cup as to take off the Dregs as he himself farther pleads to Rivet concerning some Presbyterian Tenents imbibed in his Youth Ibid. suprà and acknowledges much to the Mercies of God that when compassed round with their so great Power he could never be brought to Approve that which is proper to Calvinists Ibid. And how easily these things slide into Mankind how incredibly they work and how difficultly cast off Experience too much Evidences The Natural Love to a man's Country the Prejudice of his Education the higher Imployments in it its Applause and Acclamations All which Grotius had in a great measure The latter alone is able to spoil a Judgment it must do it where entertained and pursued and though he that reads over Grotius and says he is not the better for him such is his excellent and incomparable Notion must be either a great Fool or very ill natur'd yet 't is to be doubted some of these never quitted him quite his Theological Works lately Printed together give too great a Presumption all Amsterdam somewhere or other being to be found in them and every one may pick out or very near it his own Religion So fatal is it for Men of great Parts to set out without some first Principles as he did and frame their Scheme of Divinity to the present Notion and Conception no regard had to something receiv'd and certain So in course does it follow what in him is to be found and nothing could have done him so much right as in the setting out of his Works to have given account to the World of the particular time when they were each of them Composed and first made Publick All that I shall add more concerning Grotius is this In the pursuance of his assumed Notion of Supreme laid down by him in the Entrance to his Treatise De Imperio summarum Potestatum in Sacris and which is the chief occasion of his following Mistakes As To be Supreme is to be above all indefinitely in the full Latitude of things and where fixed and attributed to any one Person or Subject the very Design and Nature of the Expression will allow none to be excluded or exempted from a Submission and Subjection no other Power can be supposed and not in Subordinacy and Dependency upon to be and subsist without and besides it He is so unhappy as to fall into and pursue the same Mistake the Jesuit had done in Doctor Bilson's Book of Christian Subjection and Obedience in the Second Part who there thus argues against the Oath of Supremacy If Princes be Supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes then in vain did the Holy Ghost appoint Pastors and Bishops to govern the Church then are they Superior to Christ himself in effect being Christ's Masters then may they prescribe which way to Worship God And goes on a little farther and declares his dislike to Supreme in the Oath because that word maketh Princes Superior to God himself for Supreme is Superior to all neither Christ's own Person nor his Church excepted Now I say this one and the same Notion of Grotius and the Jesuit if adhered unto and both will continue to allow it they are upon equal Grounds and with the same advantage sight against one another and the Combat may be Eternal only of Skirmishes and some Blows but no Victory on either side When Grotius goes along with our Church of England and makes his Magistrate Supreme in all Causes and over all Persons the Jesuite tells him That to be Supreme is above all to be Superior to all and he sets up his Prince above God and Christ and the Church when the Jesuit asserts the Supreme Power of the Church of God Grotius upon the same Ground replies the self-same thing upon
Oath we make Princes the only supreme Governors of all Persons in all Causes as well spiritual as temporal utterly renouncing all foreign Jurisdictions Superiorities and Autorities upon which Words mark what an horrible Confusion of all Faith and Religion ensueth if Princes be the only Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters then in vain did the Holy Ghost appoint Pastors and Bishops to govern the Church if they be Supreme then they are superior to Christ himself and in effect Christ's Masters if in all Things and Causes spiritual than they may prescribe to the Priests and Bishops what to preach which way to worship and serve God how in what Form to minister the Sacraments and generally how Men shall be governed in Soul if all foreign Jurisdiction must be renounced then Christ and his Apostles because they were and are Forreigners have no Jurisdiction nor Autority over England But this is what only the ill Nature and Malice of our Adversaries would have us to believe and assert and give out to the World we do 't is what is and all along has been repell'd with scorn and indignation both by our Princes in their single Persons and in their Laws in Parliament and though some of our Divines have wished the Oath had been more cautiously Penn'd and think it lies more open to little obvious Inferences of this nature than it needs and which amuse the unwary less discerning Reader yet all own and defend it as to the substance and design and intent of it and which is throughly and sufficiently done by the learned Warden in this Treatise as appears by this Specimen or shorter account is now given of it and he that peruses the whole Treatise will find more and John Tillotson Doctor in Divinity and Dean of Canterbury is if not the only yet one professed conforming Divine in our Church that publickly from the both Pulpit and Press has given the Romanist so much ground really to believe we are such as they on purpose to abuse us and delude others give it out we are and complyes so far with their Objection and Calumny just now recited as by Philander drawn up against us gives so much of Force and Autority to it § XIX BISHOP Sanderson in his Treatise now mentioned has a different task from Bishop Bilson the one was to vindicate the Prince that he invades not the Church the other the Bishops or Church that from usurping on the Prince Bishop Sanderson among many other things urged by him and as his Subject requires is express in these Particulars pag. 121. That there is a supreme Ecclesiastical Power which by the Law of the Land is established and by the Doctrine of our Church acknowledged to be inherent in the Church pag. 23. That regal and Episcopal Power are two Powers of quite different kinds and such as considered purely in those things which are proper and assential to either have no mutual relation unto or dependance upon each other neither hath either of them to do with the other the one of them being purely spiritual and internal the other external and temporal albeit in regard of the Persons that are to exercise them or some accidental Circumstances appertaining to the exercise thereof it may happen the one to be some wayes helpful or prejudicial to the other pag. 41. that the derivation of any Power from God doth not necessarily infer the non-subjection of the Persons in whom that Power resideth to all other Men for doubtless the power that Fathers have over their Children Husbands over their Wives Masters over their Servants is from Heaven of God and not of Men yet are Parents Husbands Masters in the exercise of their several respective Powers subject to the Power Jurisdiction and Laws of their lawful Soveraigns pag. 44. The King doth not challenge to himself as belonging to him by virtue of his Supremacy Ecclesiastical the Power of ordaining Ministers excommunicating scandalous Offenders the power of Preaching adminstring Sacraments c. and yet doth the King by virtue of that Supremacy challenge a Power as belonging to him in the right of his Crown to make Laws concerning Preaching administring the Sacraments ordination of Ministers and other Acts belonging to the Function of a Priest pag. 69 70 71. it is the peculiar reason he gives in behalf of the Bishops for not using the King's Name in their Process c. in the Ecclesiastical Courts the occasion of the whole discourse and which cannot be given for the Judges of any other Courts from the different nature and kind of their several respective Jurisdictions which is That the Summons and other Proceedings and Acts in the Ecclesiastical Courts are for the most part in order to the Ecclesiastical Censures and Sentences of Excommunications c. the passing of which Sentences and others of the like kind being a part of the Power of the Keys which our Lord Jesus Christ thought sit to leave in the hands of the Apostles and their Successors and not in the hands of Lay-Men The Kings of England never challenged to belong to themselves but left the exercise of that Power entirely to the Bishops as the lawful Successors of the Apostles and Inheritors of their Power the regulating and ordering of that Power in sundry Circumstances concerning the outward exercise thereof in foro exteruo the Godly Kings of England have thought to belong unto them as in the Right of their Crown and have accordingly made Laws concerning the same even as they have done also concerning other Matters appertaining to Religion and the Worship of God but the substance of that Power and the Function thereof as they saw it altogether to be improper to their Office and Calling so they never pretended or laid any claim thereunto but on the contrary renounced all claim to any such Power or Autority And for Episcopacy it self the Bishop sets down his opinion in a Postscript to the Reader the words are these My opinion is That Episcopal Government is not to be derived merely from Apostolical Practice or Institution but that it is originally founded in the Person and Office of the Messiah our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ who being sent by his Heavenly Father to be The great Apostle Heb. 3.1 Bishop and Pastor 1 Pet. 2.25 of his Church and anointed to that Office immediately after his Baptism by John with Power and the Holy Ghost Acts 10.37 38. descending then upon him in a bodily shape Luk. 3.22 did afterwards before his Ascension into Heaven send and impower his holy Apostles giving them the Holy Ghost likewise as his Father had given him in like manner as his Father had before sent him Joh. 20.21 to exercise the same Apostolical Episcopal and Pastoral office for the Ordering and Governing of his Church until his coming again and so the same office to continue in them and their Successors unto the Worlds end Mat. 28.18.20 this I take to be so clear from these and other like Texts of
Service for the People give Rules to the Bishops what Presbyters are to be Ordained inquires into and gives Cautions and Charge for their Manners for their Abilities that they forsake not their Priestly Office claiming the right of Investitures That no Church be built but the Bishop be first consulted for the maintenance of such required there to officiate That no Church be consecrated without the Bishop no Ideot or taken out of the number of those Qui vocantur Laici who are called Lay-men presently upon the entrance into Holy Orders ascend to an Episcopacy he gives to the Clergy Possession of their Churches and they are all in Deputation in their Ecclesiastical Courts from the Emperor and in Religious Matters he gives leave for the Collects or Meeting together confers many Priviledges on their Persons in order to the better performing of such their Offices that no trouble or obstruction be in Litanies and Laws are given for the manner of their Celebration takes care that they meet oft in Councils and Synods enjoyns them residence on their Cures He limits the number of such as are to be Ordained suitable to the Revenues of the Church that there be not an Impoverishment and Contempt thereby that none be Ordain'd but to a Title and in relation to particular Cures or as the present Exigence may require He exempts certain Persons forbidding the Bishops to give them Holy Orders as such as fly to the Church for Ease and Idleness to shake off their Secular Offices and Duty and be acquit of their Burdens that they may enjoy the outward Priviledges and Immunities the Clergy by the Bounty and good Grace of the Empire had granted unto them Such as are actually in Publick Offices to which thereby they become disabled and the State is endamaged As Captains Centurions c. whom he remands to their first station and hence some Laws we find that the tenues fortunâ the Poorer in the Church are only to be Ordained though perhaps with less Prudence and the reason was this because the Church enjoy'd great Priviledges and Immunities and the Rich too frequently ran to it to shelter and advantage themselves in this World a thing too common in our days and the like Laws might not be amiss amongst us in some cases when particular Men leave their Secular and Military Station for the Profit and Grandure of the highest Church-men he forbids that any Holy Offices or Ministerial Functions be usurped sine Sacerdote without a Priest appoints that every one first receive Holy Orders e're he attempts the Execution of the Publick Ministry with more of the like Nature and which are to be seen Cod. Justinian lib. 1. Tit. 2.5.14 Tit. 3.9.10.11.30.31.34.36.46.52 Cod. Theodos 9. Tit. 40.15.16.45.3 Cod. 12.104.115.121 Cod. 16. Tit. 1.3 Tit. 2.1.2.3.6.18.25.32 Tit. 11.1 Novel 3. cap. 1.2 and Novel 6.1.4.7 Novel 16.40.46.68 cap. 1.2.3 Novel 78. Novel 123. Novel 131. cap. 8.9 Novel 137. but then all this amounts to only what is said to be the Office of an Emperor Commonefacere Cod. Justinian l. 1. Tit. 3. to take care warn and see that all these things be done as they ought to be the Rule is antecedent and depends on another Authority I mean where 't is purely Religious and Policy alone ingages not The general Rule laid down and to be observed is this Ne fiant Ordinationes contra interdictiones legum Sacrorum Canonum Novel 12. cap. 12. that all Ordinations be made according to Law and the Holy Canons to the observation of that Rule Quam justi laudandi adorandi inspectores Ministri Dei verbi tradiderunt Apostoli Sancti Patres custodierunt explanaverunt Novel 6. Praefat. which the Ministers of the Word of God the Apostles and Holy Fathers have kept and explained The Emperor in his own Person never Pleads for or attempts the Sacred Action or Office of Ordination it self never yet laid any title to it and the Bishop upon his Ordination receives Secular Priviledges from the Emperor to be emancipated and made free from that Service which otherwise the Laws require of him by his becoming a Spiritual Father But the Ordination it self the Right of a Bishop is no where said to be or so claim'd from the Emperor Novel 8. cap. 3. and although it has been disputed only within this Hundred years at least it never reached any farther than the Whimsical Brains of some one or two now and then and what Point of Faith escaped such whether the Power of Ordaining has been in the Presbyter or in the Bishop only as a distinct Order and Superior to him and how the Votes and Concurrences of the People and in what degree of Necessity they are required unto it yet none ever asserted it to belong to any that was neither Presbyter nor Bishop yet Antiquity is altogether silent as to the Prince in this case the Church always removed nor did the Empire ever claim it this is still represented as the proper Work and Office of the Bishop whatever the Empire did in the case was by commanding the Bishop to Consecrate when such an one is designed for the Function by himself or assenting to the Election made by others but if any more and not of the like Nature the Church of God and all understanding Christians did still look upon it as not to be indured in any one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to act as a Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when never entitled to or partaking of the Priestly Power and it was never first conferr'd on him by any it has been adjudged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of many Deaths as in the case of Ischyras in particular Socrates Hist. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 27. § XXII AND if we look into the Church censures the Animadversions and Punishments laid upon such as are unworthy their Christianity that high Calling wherewith they are called in Christ Jesus The case will appear the same as in Ordination in general great and solicitous was still the care of the Empire for the solemn just and due execution of these Powers a great many Laws and Constitutions were made in order to it several Cautions and Directions given that none be interdicted without a just Cause Cod. Justinian lib. 1. Tit. 3.30 That Excommunication be not for light Causes 39. 1. That no Man be excluded the Sacred Communion before Cause be shew'd and for which the Laws and Canons have commanded it and if any Excommunicates upon other accounts the Person Excommunicated is to be absolved and receiv'd again into Communion Novel 123. cap. 11. and this with the greatest reason in the World for the Prince is Custos Canonum he is the Keeper of the Canons and is to see that their Rules be duly executed Omni innovatione cessante vetustatem Canones Pristinos Ecclesiasticos qui usque nunc tenuere servari Praecipimus Cod. Justinian l. 1. Tit. 26. and 't is as his Province and Work so the
Constitutiones Ecclesiasticae 1597. ut homines idonei ad sacros ordines admittantur IT were needless Pains to insist on and § IV shew the particular judgment of our Church Whether this Power be in her Pastors alone exclusive to as the People so the Prince also the Rubricks in the Common-Prayer Book suppose and farther invest all Offices there in the Hieratical Order what ever relate to the Divine Worship and Service and which are by them alone to be perform'd the Prjest is still distinguished from the People or Laity nor is the Prince there considered but as of the Laity in attendance in Common with the other Worshippers and to be sure in the Book of Ordination 't is the Bishop lays on Hands and Consecrates he the origin and head of all Power derived whether to Bishop Presbyter or Deacon and in what degree soever of Power it is that is given That Person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Vnity of the Church and excommunicate ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judg that hath Autority thereunto as among the Articles of Religion 1562. Article 33. and this Judg is neither Chancellor Official nor Commissary c. but a Bishop or Presbyter the Arch-Deacon cannot do it if not a Presbyter and but in Deacon's Orders in these alone is the Power of both retaining and absolving in the Articuli pro clero 1584. and the libri quorundam Canonum c. and in the constitutiones Ecclesiasticae 1597. and all set out by Queen Elizabeth he that would once for all be satisfied what is the sense of our Church let him but once read over our seven and thirthieth Article of Religion together with the occasion of it and he must be convinced that her Judgment is on our side however 't is received whether as Orthodox or Erroneous by him Among other Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned Godly Men in the Convocation held at London 1552. this was one The King of England is supreme Head in Earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland Many bad Inferences were made and sinister Consequences affixed and particularly that the King was declared a Priest impower'd to administer in Divine Service In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth 1561. and till which time during the Reign of Queen Mary the Objection to be sure had been urged sufficiently and improved a Convocation being called and Articles agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the 37th Article and in answer to the Objection they more fully explain themselves in these Words and declare The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes do appertain and is not nor ought not to be subject to any foreign Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the Minds of some dangerous Folk to be offended We give not our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restraining with the Civil Sword the stubborn and Evil doers AND this is all is laid claim to by our § V Princes themselves and that the Statute-book or any other claim of theirs entitles to and invests them withal in the late collection of Articles Canons c. made by Anthony Sparrow now Lord Bishop of Norwich I meet with nothing done by King Henry VIII save what is mentioned by King Edward VI. in the entrance to his Injunctions 1547. and which are there transcribed with his own additions the design and end of which is only to procure publick and general obedience to the Laws and Duties of true Religion and that every Man truely observe them as they will avoid his Displeasure and Penalties annexed All that Henry VIII got by the submission of the Clergy in the five and twentieth year of his reign cap. 19. was this as there set down in the Statute That the Clergy would not for the time to come assemble in convocation without the King 's Writ That they would not enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinance provincial or other or by whatsoever Name they shall be called in Convocation unless the King 's Royal license be had his Assent and Consent in that behalf That all Canons Constitutions before made prejudicial to the King's Prerogative Royal repugnant to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm or overmuch onerous to the Subject be abrogated and of no value all other standing in their full strength and power the King's Assent first had unto them The meaning of all which appears only to be this That nothing relating to Church-Affairs and Proceedings is to be made Law or to be proceeded for or against in any outward Court whatever in a forensick judicial way but by the leave and autority of the King without his Royal Assent first had and his hand set to it And this is that Title of the supreme Head of the Church of England which he hereupon assum'd to himself and which some little time afterwards confirm'd to him in full Parliament his Heirs and Successors the Power of the Church it self is not at all abated as purely such and from our Saviour only brought to a dependency upon the King which before was upon the Bishop of Rome and who had exercised here that headship and still claims it § VI AND that this was really all the King then aim'd at by the submission of the Clergy viz a Right and Supremacie of Inspection over all Persons in all Causes within his Realms and Dominions and that no Pleas of Religion or the service of Christ is to exempt them from the judicial Cognizance and Jurisdiction of their Prince this will appear more plain and evident by the several Proceedings and Acts concerning Church-Affairs made by this King in that 19 cap. and five and twentieth year of his Reign where the submission of the Clergy is turned into an Act and in the several Acts ensuing in all which it does not appear that he ever assumed to himself and exercised any other than such like external Power and Autority in spiritual Matters he intermedles not with any one Instance of Priestly Power as purely such but on the contrary cautions with Clauses and Preventions lest any such thing should be or be supposeable so
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 because Erastus his Works were Licensed for the Press and Published by the Autority of the Kingdom in the Days of Queen Elizabeth and which would not have been done did not the same Autority receive and own and espouse and submit to his Doctrines and which are wholly levell'd against the Church-Power as independent and not derived from the Magistrate I 'le consider each § XIV THE Acts of Parliament he produces are V and VI Edw. VI. Cap. IV. That if any Person or Persons shall smite or lay any violent hands upon any other either in any Church or Church-yard or draw any Weapon then ipso facto every Person so offending shall be deem'd Excommunicate and be excluded from the Fellowship and Company of Christ's Congregation Sect. 2 3. and III James Cap. V. That every Popish Recusant that is or shall be Convict of Popish Recusancy shall stand and be reputed to all ends and purposes disabled as a Person Excommunicated by Sentence in the Ecclesiastical Court Which two Acts being put together by Mr. Selden De Syned lib. 1. c. 10. p. 320. as one and the same and suitably he backs that of King Edward with this of King James Simili modo ex latâ Lege c. 'T is all the reason in the World they should interpret one another Now King James says expresly That lawful and due Excommunication is when denounced and Excommunicated according to the Laws of this Realm That is by a Sentence in the Ecclesiastical Court and this by a Bishop or Presbyter in Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions by a Judge that hath Autority thereunto Article 33. and which to be sure in the Act it self being not done as by Law and by the acknowledged Laws of the Land in such the Statute the Parliament rendred uncapable of doing of it being not the Judges appointed Mr. Selden must in course be supposed so intolerably absurd in his Inference that the Secular Power Excommunicates that common sense is not able to endure him And the true intent and meaning of the Parliament can only be this That these Offenders though they be not Excommunicated and which the Parliament though the Higher Court of England have not Power to do being not Judges with Autority thereunto yet they shall have the usual Secular Punishments inflicted and which are usually laid upon such as are duly Excommunicated the imposing which is the Act of Parliament alone and which as they may remove so they may impose when they please without any respect to the Excommunication anteceding They shall be deemed as such So King Edward They shall stand and be reputed to all ends and purposes as such So King James The particular Punishment instanced in by King Edward is Exclusion from the Fellowship and Company of Christ's Congregation which indeed comes somewhat nearer to what always and immediately follows Excommunication it self in the first Institution and Primitive Practice Vt à Communione Orationis conventus omnis Sancti commercii relegetur Tertul. Apol. Cap. 39. where so much Power over Mens Persons is obtained as to be able to exclude them their Oratories and the Christians usually absented themselves and 't is agreeable with the Practice and Injunction Apostolical with such an one not to accompany 1 Cor. 5.11 but yet this is not of the first Nature and Essence of it because this may be where the Excommunication is not 't is supposeable to arise from a different Autority and Motive and so the Secular Arm if agreeable to its self it s own Power and Proceedings and in relation to which it is to be interpreted must be concluded to appoint and execute in this Statute and no otherwise As every Science so every Power is to be conceived of as on its own object and proper work and those Apostatizing dissenting Christians of old who laid this Punishment upon themselves and out of peevishness or whatever undue ground turn'd themselves out of Communion with the Church in her Prayers and Eucharist the Church proceeded notwithstanding to Excommunicate them her own censure as a Church-Act did judicially proceed against them See Can. 2. Conc. Antioch fusius suprà Cap. 4. Sect. 31. and since our Parliaments have so frequently declared the Practice and Inferences of the first Doctors and Holy Bishops from the Old and New Testament to be their rule in all their religious Proceedings they have so often hither limited and confined themselves every one of such their Proceedings must in course be interpreted in Subordination to and complyance with them they are not to be concluded where Words and Actions and things will bear any favourable Construction to run cross to and Head against them or if they do and no Friendly office can be done them and a better gloss is not to be put upon it 't is to be reputed as that particular Error from which they plead not an Exemption and the general Design will weigh down if coming in Competition But the Statute of King James instances in and confines to a Punishment that is not pleadable to be otherwise than Secular and Worldly nor can be interpreted of any immediate Spiritual consequence upon whom 't is inflicted The Punishment is to be disabled as to Suits at Law and which every Body knows the alone Laws of the Land and Power of Parliament can impose and which may be and is imposed upon sundry other occasions and not that of Excommunication only and so supposed in the Act. § XV WHAT he brings out of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth in their Acts for authorizing and making Law the Common-Prayer-Book ibid. p. 386. as ranked by themselves so are they of different Complexions nor does the Prince there attempt any thing but what as Supreme Governor in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil he is enabled to do as Mr. Selden there very well refers to such his Title for his Evidence that is to see that every one does his Duty in his Order and Station enabling and protecting him thereunto the Prince is thereby to be interpreted no more enabled by his own Power whether in his own Person or the Person of any other to discharge the Office of a Priest than he is supposed to have the Skill and Capacity of any Artist Mechanick or what other Tradesman whom he Empowers by his Letters Patents or any otherways in Law acquits or indemnifies in the managery and publick Profession of such his Art and Invention his Trade and Employment and no otherwise can the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Officers be said there to be impower'd to proceed by censures against all such as will not come to Church II. III. Edw. VI. Cap. I. Sect. XII I Elizabethae Cap. II. Sect XVI nor do any of those many many instances which his usual intolerable Pains has heaped together in several Pages both before and after in that Chapter about the Prince or â—ecular Powers interposing limiting and restraining in Excommunications prove any thing at
Castelvetrus her second Husband as Mr. Selden suggests or by the Archbishop himself what is necessarily hence to be inferr'd I 'le here again give in the words of our always to be reverenced Mr. Herbert Thorndike of the Laws of the Church Cap. Vlt. Pag. 394. Neither is the Publishing Erastus his Book against Excommunication at London to be drawn into the like Consequence that those who allow'd and procur'd it allow'd the substance of what he maintain'd so long as a sufficient Reason is to be rendred for it otherwise for at such time as the Presbyterian Pretences were so hot under Queen Elizabeth it is no marvel if it was thought to shew England how they prevail'd at home first because he hath advanced such Arguments as are really effectual against them which are not yet nor never will be answered by them though void of the Positive Truth which ought to take place instead of their Mistakes and besides because at such times as Popes did what them listed in England it would have been to the purpose to shew the English how Machiavel observes they were hamper'd at home and for the like Reason when the Geneva Platform was cried up with such Zeal here it was not amiss to shew the World how it was esteem'd under their own Noses in the Cantons and the Palatinate § XVII I am now to shew the concurrency of our Doctors in the Church and who still go along with me and say the same thing that Church Power as such is not from the Civil Magistrate and his supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons infers it not an induction would be too numerous the Particulars being so many I 'le only instance in two the one is Thomas Bilson then Warden of Winchester and afterward Bishop there in his Book entituled The true difference between Christian Subjection and un-christian Rebellion perused and allowed by publick Autority and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and for writing of which he had his Bishoprick the other is Robert Sanderson then the King's Professor at Oxford and after Bishop of Lincolne in his Book called Episcopacie as establed by Law in England not prejudicial to the Regal Power written in the time of the long Parliament by the special Command of King Charles the I. but not published by reason of the Iniquity and Confusion of the Times and since printed and dedicated to our present gracious Soveraign King Charles II. two Divines as they flourished in our Church at a great distance of time from one another so are they at as great distance for their Worth and Merit beyond the generality of the Divines of their times and by which as we have the advantage of their greater Autority as to themselves to which add That they acted herein as publick Persons by Autority appointed to write in the Name of the Church of England and in such Cases Men generally are more careful how they vent their own private Niceties and Conceptions so also have we a farther benefit hereby that this was and is the continued constant Doctrine of our Church and Church-Men from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles II. Bishop Bilson thus speaks part 2d pag. § XVIII 124. printed at Oxford It is one thing who may command for truth and another who shall direct unto truth We say Princes may command for Truth and punish the refusers this no Bishop may challenge but only the Prince that beareth the Sword no Prelate has Autority from Christ to compel private Men much less Princes but only to teach and instruct them these two Points we stand on pag. 125. 126. he tells the Jesuite the Prince is Supreme to establish those things Christ has commanded and so he all along shews it the design of the Oath of Supremacy against the pretended outward Jurisdiction of the Pope claiming as Christ's Vicar on Earth a coercive Power in order to spiritual things over the Persons of all Christians whatsoever whose Subjects soever and in whatsoever Causes even our Kings themselves And that it is no more thence to be inferr'd that Princes because supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes are therefore supreme Judges of Faith Deciders of Controversies Interpreters of Scripture Appointers of Sacraments Devisers of Ceremonies and what not then if it should be inferr'd Princes are supreme Governors in all Corporal things and causes ergo they are supreme Guiders of Grammar Moderators of Logique Directors of Rhetorick Appointers of Musick Prescribers of Medicines Resolvers of all Doubts and Judges of all Matters incident any wayes to reason art or action We confess them to be supreme Governors of their Realms and Dominions and that in all Spiritual things and causes not of all Spiritual things and causes we make them not Governors of the Things themselves but of their Subjects we confess that her Highness is the only Governor of this Realm the Word Governor doth sever the Magistrate from the Minister and sheweth a manifest difference between their Office for Bishops be no Governors of Countries Princes be these bear the Sword to reward and punish those do not pag. 127. They have several Commissions which God signed those to dispense the Word and Sacraments these to prescribe by their Laws and punish by the Sword such as resist them within their Dominions pag. 128. That no Clergy-Man by God's Law can challenge an exemption from earthly Powers pag 129. Princes have full Power to forbid prevent and punish in all their Subjects be they Lay-Men Clerks or Bishops not only Murders Thefts Adulteries Perjuries and such like Breaches of the second table but also Schisms Heresies Idolatries and all other Offences against the first Table pertaining only to the Service of God and Matters of Religion pag. 130. as the Kings of Israel did who are the Christian Princes example pag. 132. and it is the duty of Christian Kings to compel from Heresies and Schisms to the confession of the truth consent of Prayer and Communion of the Lord's Table to compel Hereticks and Schismaticks to repress Schism and Heresie with their princely Power which they receive from above chiefly to maintain God's glory by the causing the Bands of Virtue to be preserved in the Church and the Rules of Faith observed pag. 133. this is the Prince's charge to see the Law of God fully executed his Son rightly served his Spouse safely nursed his House timely filled his Enemies duely punished and he tells the Jesuite if he grants this he will ask no more And these the causes and things that be Spiritual as well as Temporal the Princes power and charge doth reach unto or in the words of St. Austin that Princes may command that which is good and prohibit that which is evil within their Kingdoms not in Civil Affairs only but in Matters that concern divine Religion Cont. Crescon l. 3. c. 51. pag. 134. to page 145. and this or power of the like nature was what was claimed and used in causes Ecclesiastical which
he proves thoughout the Church Historians Fathers and Imperial Laws thus declaring assenting to and practising pag. 146. If by the Church you mean the Precepts and Promises Gifts and Graces of God preached in the Church and poured on the Church Princes must humbly obey them and reverently receive them as well as other private Men so that Prophets Apostles Evangelists and all other builders of Christ's Church as touching their Persons be subject to the Princes power Mary the word of God in their Mouths and Seals of grace in their hands because they are of God and not of themselves they be far above the Princes Calling and Regiment and in those Cases Kings and Queens if they will be saved must submit themselves to God's everlasting truth and testament as well as the meanest of their People and yet they are for all this Supreme and subject only to God as to outward Process either from the Pope or from any other Power And so pag. 147. he brings in those Passages of Tertullian Optatus and Chrysostom à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem parem super terram non habet c. the word Supreme was added to the Oath for that the Bishop of Rome taketh upon him to command and depose Princes as their lawful supreme Judg to exclude this wicked presumption we teach that Princes be supreme Rulers we mean subject to no superior Judg to give a reason of their doings but only to God pag. 164 165 166. it must be confessed he speaks not home as might be required when explaining how Kings as well as other Christians are comprized under the duty of obeying their Rulers and to be subject unto them c. surely there is a true real obedience due even from Princes to Church-Officers and their Power devolved from Christ and this learned Man seems here and in other places not to be rescued from that common prejudice and possession seized upon too many and all along continued upon casting of the Popes Superiority here in England that there can be no Church-Power at all universally obliging and requiring obedience but what implyes and infers corporal bodily subjection a change in Seculars 't is this puts him upon that great mistake that the Pastors of the Church are not influenced by the Kingly power of Christ and what is regal in him is given to the Civil Magistrate and who only succeed him in that Office perpetual Government of the Church cap. 10. and Arch-bishop Bancroft confounding these two Powers gives Beza and Cartwright as much advantage in that Particular as their Disciples and Followers can now really wish and because they say that Christ as a King prescribed the form of Ecclesiastical Government being a King the head of the Church doth administer his Kingdom per legitime vocatos pastores by Pastors lawfully called he runs them upon this absurdity that their Autority must be without any controul The Pastors must be all of them Emperors the Doctors Kings the Elders Dukes and the Deacons Lords of the Treasury c. survey of the holy pretended discipline c. cap 24. and yet after all 't is mostly Name◠and Titles that occasions this or the accidental pressing an argument as there will be occasion to consider anon and Bishop Bilson goes on and acknowledges all in effect only Bishops and Pastors are left out and tells us That the Church may be Superior and yet the Pope subject to Princes Princes be Supreme and the Church their Superior the Scriptures be superior to Princes and yet Princes supreme the Sacrament be likewise above them and yet that hindreth not their Supremacy Truth Grace Faith Prayer and other Ghostly Virtues be higher than all earthly States and all this notwithstanding Princes may be supreme Governors of their Countries and which though in over abating Terms and with too scrupulous a fear where no fear ought to be declares as fully as can be the thing it self viz. That Princes are to be subject to the Government in the Church settled by Christ in its Bishops and Pastors and which both as a Prophet a Priest and a King he derives unto them Church-Officers have a Power underived and independent to the Crown only 't is ill worded by the Warden Things Powers Gifts Virtues c. as standing and settled on Earth and not invested in Persons can really be of no force and command at all or rather and which at last will amount to the same will be what every one shall please to make them and the Prince will have as many Supremes as are pretenders to these Gifts of the Spirit and which will be enough as experience taught us this only then can be meant by these Circumlocutions and why it might not have been spoken in down-right terms I cannot imagine that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with the Bible put into their hands as it is at their Ordination with full autority given for the Offices ministerial have a real Power and are truly Rulers in the Church have a Supremacy and Superiority peculiarly theirs and all that will come to Heaven must come under this Ministry or Government it 's jurisdiction and discipline be they Princes or Subjects on Earth or what ever worldly Government they are possessed of unless he 'l say every Man hath these Ghostly Virtues which can urge a Text of Scripture and which cannot be conceived of him and to this purpose he goes farther pag. 167 168. Though the Members of the Church be subject and obedient to Princes yet the things contained in the Church and bestowed on the Church by God himself I mean the light of his Word the working of his Sacraments the gifts of his Grace and fruits of his Spirit be far superior to all Princes The plain meaning of which can be but this Certain separate Persons invested by God beyond Christians at large with such Gifts and Graces the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in which respect a good Emperor is within the Church and not above it as St. Ambrose is to this purpose here quoted by him pag. 171. You must distinguish the things proposed in the Church from the Persons that were Members of the Church the Persons both Lay-Men and Clerks by God's Law were the Princes Subjects the things comprized in the Church and by God himself committed to the Church because they were Gods could be subject to the Power and Will of no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince the Prince is above the Persons of the Church not above things in the Church pag. 173. 176. 178. you know we do not make the Prince Judg of Faith we confess Princes to be no Judges of Faith but we do not encourage Princes themselves to be Judges of Faith but only we wish them to discern betwixt truth and error which every private Man must do that is a Christian pag. 174 175 176. he approves of Ambrose's Answer to Valentinian that is was stout but lawful constant but
Priests to Correct and Punish them to whom the Priests are to pay Tribute and this all along from the Examples of the Kings of Israel from our Saviour from St. Peter this contrary to the practice of the Pope who claims these Powers and Advantages to himself and in his own Power Person executes them 't is the Princes Province assign'd him in the Scripture to Punish and Coerce to enforce Penance and Restitution and that evil-doers be cut off according to St. Paul to prohibit and smite such as refuse to serve God according to the Priests instruction as did Hezekiah to the Worshippers in the Groves and high places destroying them as did the King of Nineveh compelling the whole City to Repentance forbidding for the future by terrible Laws as did Nebucadnezzar thus Justinian the Emperor gave Laws in Religion concerning Faith and Hereticks Churches Bishops and Church-men Marriages c. and the same and only this Power have the Kings of England assum'd to themselves as he instances all along to the End of the Book particularly in the Church Laws made by several Kings in this Island as Canutus Etheldred Edgar Edmund Adelstan Ive Oswin Egfrid William the Conqueror in his Letters for the Endowment of Battle with its Priviledges and Immunities and which Mr. Selden makes use of to his purpose though no ways serving it for he only exempts the Church from Episcopal Visitation but neither in this or any other of their Letters Rules Laws and Injunctions given to the Church is any thing of Church-Power as such own'd claimed appropriated or but pretended to by virtue of the Crown or Regal Power given them of God but the two Powers are supposed distinct and disparates and so in particular King Edgar in that his severer correptive Monitory-Oration or Letter to the Clergy of England their faults appearing then very notorious he at length thus addresses himself unto them Ego Constantini vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus jungawus dexteras gladium gladio copulemus ut ejiciantur extra castra leprosi ut purgetur Sanctuarium Domini ministrent in Templo silii Levi. I have the Sword of Constantine you have the Sword of Peter in your hands let us joyn right hands together let us couple Sword with Sword that the Leprous may be cast out of the Tents and the Sanctuary of the Lord be Purged and the Sons of Levi minister in the Temple And a little farther applying himself to Dunstan the Archbishop he tells him Contempta sunt verba veniendum est ad verbera urguisti obsecrasti atque increpasti Admonitions will do no more good he must come to blows and thereunto directs him to joyn with himself Edwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald Bishop of Worcester Vt Episcopali Censurâ regia Autoritate turpiter viventes de Ecclesia ejiciantur c. by the Episcopal Censure and Regal Autority the one assisting but neither usurping upon and destroying the other these evil Men be cast out of the Church and better placed in their rooms So unlucky is Mr. Selden in this first Quotation § XXII STEPHEN Bishop of Winchester in his Oration de vera Obedientiâ comes next but brings nothing more of advantage to his side and as it was Printed 1537. and but a year after the Opus eximium c. so does he as to the Substance copy after him and asserts Henry VIII Head of the Church i. e. all Christians within his Dominions as were the Kings of Israel over all the Jews i. e. to take care of their Morals and see that they do their Duty to God their Neighbour and themselves as Justinian gave Laws to the Church and the Causes of Heresies were agitated with the Caesars and Princes that were Christians and Laws made promulgated and enjoyn'd execution both by our Kings here in England and also by others elsewhere and particularly refers to that Oration of Edgar just now mentioned and adds farther out of it how Dunstan that most holy and excellent Archbishop of Canterbury submitted to this his Jurisdiction and most willingly embraced that word of the King Quâ se gladium gladio copulaturum edixit ut dissoluti Ecclesiae mores ad rectam vivendi normam aptarentur in which he engaged to joyn Sword to Sword in order to the reducing the Church to a just and due way of living meaning his Kingly Power to the Power of the Church assisting the Spiritual with the Temporal Arm for so the Bishop goes on and interprets these two Swords and instances in Excommunication as a branch of that which is in the Churches hands Altero gladio ad illud Pauli alludens quem verbi ministri docendo excommunicando exercent altero praeminentiam ostendens jure divino concessam cui omnes parere quotquot Principis ditioni subjecti Ecclesiam constituunt omnino debent By one Sword alluding to that of Paul which the Ministers of the Word exercise in Teaching and Excommunicating by the other shewing that Pre-eminence granted by God and to which all must obey that subjected to the Jurisdiction of a Prince constitute a Church within his Dominions and which two Powers though requiring different Obedience to divers Persons and Governors as to the Bishops and Ministers of the Word of God and to the King are not at all adverse to and against one another nor is any thing more detracted from or diminished thereby of the Obedience to the King than when a Wife obeys her Husband and a Servant his Master by the general Command of God and yet this is another of Mr. Selden's Autorities which with his usual forehead he brings for the sense of the Doctors of our Church in the days of Henry VIII and that the Church-Power is none at all but as derived from the Crown and the Prince can Excommunicate I wonder how he omitted the Oration of Richard Samson to this purpose and at the same time he being Dean of the Chappel to Henry VIII and which would have made a 〈◊〉 shew in his Margin which is the main thing he aims at it certainly came not to his hands and it would have serv'd his turn as well as any of the other there being in him not one word concerning the Power of the Church left by Christ and he only asserts the King Supreme Head of the Church of England the Church as made of so many Persons implying a Body politick too and they Subjects equally as Christians nor could any man think that is but ordinarily considering or designs not by Names and Attempts to deceive the unwary but credulous World and so is a Knave that the two Universities at that time or the eminenter of the Clergy at Court should assert the Supremacy upon other terms who in all Probability were a secretis of his intimate Council when designing for the Supremacy and to be sure could not be ignorant of the King 's Publick Declarations and the Statute in Parliament that