Renowned applauded Doctors teach that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and that an excommunicated King is no King and he that killeth him killeth not a King When the Roman Council under Greg. 7. decreeth that the Pope may depose Emperours And the same Greg. 7. li. 4. Ep. 7. conspireth in the like Doctrine The Oration of Card. Peron is well known If so great a Kingdom as France that glorieth of its Church-liberties can bear so much what will not those bear that are less able to deliver themselves The words of this Great and pretendedly Moderate Cardinal in a Moderate Kingdom in a publick Writing against a Protestant Learned King King James pag. 453. as cited by A. Bishop Usher of Babylon pag. 163. is fit to be written on the Doors of all Princes and of the Pope himself in Capital Letters viz. By this Article that Kings may not be deposed by the Pope We are cast headlong into a manifest Heresie as binding us to confess that for many Ages past the Catholick Church hath been banished out of the whole world For if the Champions of the Doctrine contrary to this Article do hold an impious and detestable opinion contrary to Gods Word then doubtless the Pope for so many hundred years expired hath not been the Head of the Church but a HERETICK and the ANTICHRIST What would you have more to satisfie Kings than their own profession that Either the Pope may depose Kings or 〈◊〉 he is not the Head of the Church but an Heretick and Antichâ—iâ—t and hath been so for many hundred years Can you shâ—w their Interest plainlier than all this And lest any say that this is but the Doctrine of the Jesuits remember that Perron was another kind of man and the famous Perverter of King Henry the fourth And I will cite here the words of one more of a multitude even one that wrote so long ago as to be numbred with the Fathers in Biblioth Patr. To. 4 p. 913. and a Roman Cardinal Bertrard Card. Epis. Eduens de Orig. usu Jurisd Qu. 4. Respondeo dico quod Potestas Spiritualis debet dominari omni humanae Creaturae per rationes Hostiensis Item quia Jesus Christus silius Dei dum fuit in hoc mundo etiam ab aeternâ— naturalis dominus fuit de jure naturali in Imperatores quoseunque alios depositionis sententias ferre potuisset damnationis quaseunque alias Utpote in personas quas creaverat donis naturalibus gratuito donaverat etiam conservabat Et eadem ratione etiam ejus Vicarius potest Nam non videtur discretus Dominus fuisse ut cum reverentia ejus loquar nisi unicum post se talem Vicarium reliquisset qui haec omnia posset Fuit autem iste Vicarius ejus Petrus apud Mattheum Et idem dicendum est de successoribus Petri cum eadem absurditas sequeretur si post mortem Petri humanam naturam a se creatam sine regimine unius personae reliquisset I will English it lest the unlearned believe not what Fathers what a Biblioth Patrum what Cardinals and what Doctrines the Roman Clergy obtrude upon the Christian world I answer and say that the spiritual Power ought to have domination over every humane creature by Hostiensis reasons Also because Jesus Christ the Son of God while he was in this world and also from Eternity was the Natural Lord and by Natural Right could pass the sentence of Deposition and of Damnation and any other upon Emperours and upon any others as being persons that he had created and endowed with Natural Gifts and freely and also preserved And by the same reason his Vicar can do it For the Lord seemeth not to have been discreet that I may speak with reverence to him unless he had left behind him one such Vicar who could do all these things And in Matthew this his Vicar was Peter And the same must be said of the successors of Peter seeing the same absurdity would follow if after the death of Peter he had left humane nature created by himself without the Regiment of One person Do you think this is not plain dealing enough if men are willing to understand I know that there were Emperours and Princes that strugled hard before they suffered themselves to be thus subjected And these Emperours had Lawyers Statesmen and Divines that took their parts as all the Treatises in Goldastus his three Volumes de Monarch and his Imp. Constit. shew But still those that sided with the Pope spake contrary as the argumentations of those Books besides the Authors whom they oppose do shew And alas Occham and Marsilius Patavinus and Widdrington and Barclay came all too late For all that Secular Power which was cloaked with the name of Ecclesiastical and Spiritual was before so deeply rooted in the Papacy that they durst plead for no more than that Princes are not subject to the Pope in Temporals But as you truly note abundance of Temporals and of the Magistrates proper work about things Ecclesiastical was still vailed under the name of Spiritual And at last even the Temporal Power again claimed more subtilly and indirectly as in ordine ad spiritualia But you 'l say that All men are naturally so regardful of their own Interest and especially Princes that it is not possible they should be so servile tame and self-abasing as to give away so great a part of their Kingdoms to a Forreigner yea to one that claimeth all by himself or by his most famous Writers and by his Councils claimeth a power to depose them They that with their own Nobles and other Subjects are so jealous of their Prerogatives would never so far depose themselves if they did but know what they do And therefore when Popish Princes understand the matter they will shake off the yoke and reâ—ssume their right Answ. It 's true that Protestant Princes and States have done so And the true meaning of our Oath of Supremacy is the same with your main design And though some have stumbled at those words that the King is Supream Governour in all Causes Ecclesiastical the meaning is only as hath been oft publickly declared that he is the Supream Civil or Coactive Governour by the Sword in all Causes Ecclesiastical so far as they fall under that Coactive or Coercive Government And hereby the King doth but reassume the Royal Power over the Clergy and the affairs of Religion which the Pope had usurped under the name of Ecclesiastical For it s well known what was called Ecclesiastical Power in England in the times of Popery so that this much of the Vail is removed long ago among all Protestants And if you peruse but Bishop Bilsons excellent Tract of Christian Subjection and Bishop Andrews his Tortura Torti to pass by all others you will see that this Case is better opened than I for my part am able to open
by any neighbour Pastor that like the Pope usurpeth authority over other Churches Nor should any standing Laws at all be made of such things where there is no need especially where the case is mutable and it belongeth to the Pastors function to determine it as occasion serveth 2 Tim. 2. 15. Mat. 24. 45. 30. Whether these Antecedent Determinations of Concordant Pastors in a Synod shall be called Laws or Canons or Decrees is but lis de nomine And also whether this power be called Legislative or Jurisdiction And who will trouble the Church unnecessarily about words and names But yet I think they may be best called Canons or Agreements And I wish that high Titles be laid aside lest it encourage the usurping Spirit that aspireth after too high things 31. Grotius de Imperiâ— summarum potestatum circa sacra hath said so much and so well of all this Controversie that it is a shame to us all that we need any more and a shame to me to trouble the world after him with Writings on that subject so far less useful and to any one to cloud that which he hath clearly and judiciously stated were it not that renewed occasions require it 32. Pastors have not only the charge of right ordering the Assemblies but also of helping and overseeing all the individuals of their charge And to help them in the personal application of the Scriptures to themselves and to resolve their particular Doubts and Cases of Conscience and to reprove admonish and comfort the individuals as there is need As a Physicion is not only to read a Physick Lecture to his Hospital but to Govern each Patient in order to his Cure 33. Ordination is rei ordinis gratia an act of Office by which the Ministerial Office and Power is Ministerially delivered by way of Investiture and Solemnization as a house is delivered by a Key and a parcel of Land by a Turf and Twig by the hand of a Servant appointed thereunto Or as our Church state is delivered to us by Baptism by the like investiture Though yet it is God directly who giveth the Power and that secondarily by his servant thus investeth us in it though not without the previous Call which is necessary thereunto 34. Ordination is not an idle Ceremony which the Ordainer must perform upon the judgement of others Prince or people without his own cognizance of the person or against his Conscience But he that must ordain must first judge the person fit to be ordained and therefore must also try his fitness 1 Tim. 5. 22. 35. So much of the Antecedent power of the Ministry in which it is to be noted that Ordination and Baptism are efficient acts like Generation in nature under God the first efficient as ex Quo omnia and as they are ordinis gratia are the beginning of Government also And Government is an Ordering act as under God the supream Governour ut per Quem omnia And Sacramental entertainment with Christs body and blood in Church Communion is Actus Amâ—ris a final act of friendship under God as the final Cause ad Quem omnia 36. The subsequent part of the Pastoral Government is by using the members of the Church in the exercise of the Pastoral Office according to their several deserts which is by a General and particular application of the Word of God to their Consciences and guiding them in circumstances and judging of actions and persons according to that Word in order to the good of souls and the preservation of the Church and truth Acts 20. 28. Heb. 13. 17. 37. When the whole Church falleth into notorious sin the Pastors must reprove them and call them to repentance And if they apostatize forsake them as ceasing to be a Church 38. When a single member falleth into notorious scandal the Pastor must admonish him and call him to repentance and if he remain impenitâ—nt and obstinate after due admonition and publick exhortation and patience he must as Christs Steward of his Word and Family pronounce him a person unfit for Church communion and require or command him in the name of Christ to forbear it and the Church to forbear his communion declaring him also unpardoned by Christ till he repâ—nt and binding him over to his judgement So that Excommunication is a Sentence of the person as uncapable of Church communion according to Christs Laws and a fore-judging him as unpardoned and condemnable by Christs judgement unless he repent and a command to the sinner to forbear the communion and priviledges of the Church and to the Church to avoid him 1 Cor. 5. Titus 3. 10 c. 39. If the sinner repent the Pastor is Christs Officer in his name to pronounce him pardoned if his repentance be sincere and the Guide of the Church to require them to receive him again into their communion 2 Cor. 2. 7 10 11. Gal. 6 1 2 3. 40. Because Magistrates and people as aforesaid cannot attend so great a work as this without the neglect of their particular Callings and are not to be supposed so â—it as the Pastor and because God hath made it the work of his Office the people are to rest in his judgement about the fitness and Title of those that have the publick Church communion with them though they are the Judges and Choosers of their Domestick and private familiars And they must not separate from them that are thus regularly admitted 41. Yet when the Pastors by mal-administration give them just cause the flock may seek their due remedy of which more anon 42. This power is essentially in the Ministerial Office and therefore is in every single Pastor and not only in some few or in the abler sort or only in a Synod Mat. 16. 19. 43. When a Church hath but one Pastor he must exercise it alone with due consideration and advice But when a Church hath many Pastors they must exercise it and all Church guidance in a way of Concord and avoid all dissentions among themselves Ephes. 4. 3 4 5. 1 Cor. 1. 10. John 17. 21 22. 44. Therefore in such a case a particular Pastor may be obliged oft to suspend some such acts because the Major Vote of his Syn-Presbyters are against it Not that they are his Governours for the Majority of Vote but because the Laws of Concord require the Minor part to submit to the Major 45. The same is the reason why in Elections Consents and other acts belonging to the flock the Major Vote should carry it in things lawful not because the people have any true Church Government but because they are obliged to Unity and Concord And in that case the Law of Nature calleth the Minor part to submit to the Major lest there never should be any Concord had 46. And the same is the reason why in Synods and Councils the Major Vote of the Bishops must prevail in lawful things not forbidden of God 47. If any Pastor in the world
the Church is the Pastors And these are the shortest plainest and least ambiguous terms and more clear than Internal Ecclesiastical and Civil which have all much obscurity and ambiguity Pag. 238. Princes only be Governours in things and Causes Ecclesiastical that is with the Sword Bishops be no Governours in those things with the Sword Pag. 240. We confess Princes to be Supream Governours Supream bearers of the Sword We give Princes no power to devise or invent new Religions to alter or change Sacraments to decide or debate doubts of faith to disturb or infringe the Canons of the Church But of these two last I must tell you what we Puritans as they call us hold 1. That the King may and must decide doubts of faith in order to execution by the Sword as who shall be banished or imprisoned as a Teacher of Heresie 2. And that Canons circa sacra not takeing the Pastors proper work out of his hand may be made by the Magistrate even if he please without the Prelates And if Pastors make Canons the◠are but in order to their proper way of execution Pag. 252. And if Princes shall not bear the Sword in things and Causes Ecclesiastical you must tell us who shall Since by Gods Law the Priest may not meddle with the Sword the consequent is inevitable that Princes alone are Gods Ministers bearing the Sword to reward and revenge good and evil in all things and causes be they Temporal Spiritual or Ecclesiastical unless you think that disorders and abuses Ecclesiastical should be freely permitted Page 256. This then is the Supream power of Princes which we teach That they be Gods Ministers in their own Dominions bearing the Sword freely to permit and publickly defend that which God commandeth So may they with just force remove whatsoever is erroneous vicious and superstitious within their Lands and with external losses and corporal pains repress the broachers and abetters of Heresies and all impieties From which subjection to Princes no man within their Realms Monk Priest Preacher or Prelate is exempted And without their Realms no mortal man hath any power from Christ judicially to depose them much less to invade them in open field least of all to warrant their Subjects to rebell against them These be the things which we contend for and not whether Princes be Christs Masters or the functions to preach baptize impose hands and forgive sins must be derived from the Princes power and Laws or the Apostles might enter to convert Countreys without Caesars delegations These be jests and shifts of yours Page 261. To Bishops speaking the Word of God Princes as well as others must yield obedience But if Bishops pass their Commission and speak besides the Word of God what they list both Prince and people may despise them Page 258. His Word is Truth and therefore your Bishops cannot be Judges of the Word of Christ but they must be Judges of Christ himself that speaketh by his Word which is no small presumption My Sheep hear my voice They be no Judges of his voice Page 259. If you take judging for discerning the People must be discerners and Judges of that which is taught Page 271. Ph. If General Councils might err the Church might err Th. As though none were of or in the Church but only Bishops Or all the Bishops of Christendome without exception were ever present at any Council Or the greater part of those that are present might not strike the stroke without the rest See pag. 350 351 352. Et seq That only Magistrates may touch body or goods Page 358. The Watchmen and Shepheards that serve Christ in his Church have their kind of Regiments distinct from the temporal Power and State But that Regiment of theirs is by Counsel and perswasion not by terror or Compulsion and reacheth neither to the goods nor to the bodies of any men Page 366. As for your Episcopal Power over Princes if that be it you seek for and not to take their Kingdoms from them I told you If they break the Law of God you may reprove them If they hear you not you may leave them in their sins and shut Heaven against them If they fall to open Heresie or wilful impiety you may refuse to communicate with them in prayers and other divine duties yea you must rather yield your lives with submission into their hands than deliver them the Word and Sacraments otherwise than God hath appointed Say you so I promise you Sir if Kings must be dealt so strictly with though it cost you your lives I will be a Non-conformist a little longer though it cost me my livelihood rather than give Baptism the Lords Supper Absolution and the justifying assertions at Burials as commonly as I must do if I conform P. 525. Pastors have their kind of Correction even over Princes but such as by Gods Law may stand with the Pastors Vocation and tend to the Princes salvation and that exceedeth not the Word and Sacraments Other Correction over any private man Pastors have none much less over Princes Princes may force their Subjects by the Temporal Sword Bishops may not force their flock with any corporal or external violence Pag. 526. Chrysostom saith For of all men Christian Bishops may least correct the faults of men by force Judges that are without the Church may compell But here in the Church we may not offer any violence but only perswade We have not so great authority given us by the Laws as to repress offenders And if it were lawful for us so to do we have no use of any such violent power for that Christ crowneth them which abstain from sin not of a forced but of a willing mind Hilary teacheth the same Lesson If this violence were used for the true faith the doctrine of Bishops would be against it God needeth no forced service He requireth no constrained confession I cannot receive any man but him that is willing ☜ I cannot give ear but to him that intreateth I cannot sign that is baptize any but him that gladly professeth So Origen For all the crimes which God would have revenged he would have them revenged not by the Bishops and Rulers of the Church but by the Judges of the world Bishops by vertue of their Callings cannot command others or authorize violence or arms Pag. 541. Parliaments have been kept by the King and his Barons the Clergy wholly excluded and yet their Acts and Statutes good And when the Bishops were present their Voices from the Conquest to this day were never Negative By Gods Law you have nothing to do with making Laws for Kingdoms and Commonwealths You may teach you may not command Perswasion is your part Compulsion is the Princes Page 245. Far better St. Ambrose saith If the Emperour ask for Tribute we deny it not The Lands of the Church pay Tribute If he affect the Lands themselves he hath power to take them no man among us is any let to
THE DIFFERENCE Between the POWER OF MAGISTRATES AND CHURCH-PASTORS AND THE ROMAN KINGDOM MAGISTRACY Under the Name of a CHURCH CHURCH-GOVERNMENT Usurped by the Pope or liberally given him by Popish Princes Opened by Richard Baxter To the Learned and Sincere Ludovicus Molinaeus Dr of Physick and Author of Jugulum Causae Papa Ultrajectinus and other Books on this subject For the Vindication of the true Pastoral Discipline exercised by the Ancient Churches and claimed but alas too little exercised by the Churches called Protestant and Reformed And to acquaint Posterity what we hold in this that false accusations misinform them not LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Sign of the three Crowns near Holborn Conduit 1671. READER THE first Epistle is now written upon the sight of Jugulum Causae The other with the Propositions was written about a year and half ago upon the sight of Papa ultrajectinus c. and the Paraenesis contra Aedificatores Imperii in Imperio And the design of all is to shew how little or nothing at all the sober moderate Protestants called Episcopal Presbyterian Independent and Political or Erastian are disagreed in all this business whilst I name you near a hundred Propositions in which they commonly consent That Princes and all Magistrates may see that they have no cause to be offended at the Christian and Protestant Doctrine or to judge the true Religion of any of these parties as such to be contrary to their interest when in very truth they are in that all one But that among all Sects and Parties there will be still some injudicious intemperate and unpeaceable men especially those whose Interest in the world is Great and cannot be upheld without encroaching on the rights of others As Great Trees must have much room and suffer nothing to prosper under them but Weeds and Bryars And it is to tell Politicians that the true Pastoral Power being a Power to labour and suffer in patient self-denyal for the Church of Christ and the souls of men is past all doubt of Christs appointment And to diminish that Power is but to diminish our obligation to labour and suffer and to gratifie our sloth and fleshly interest But to diminish that Secular Church-power which Clergie men claim as of Divine Right is but for Princes to be Princes whether the Clergie will or no. And as to the Learned Author Dr. Lud. Molinaeus my meaning is to second him in awakening Magistrates to reassume their proper power and to leave it in no Clergie mens hands of what party soever But as to his reflections on the Protestants Discipline lovingly to chide him for making the difference seem wider than it is and to RECONCILE the four Parties while I distinctly open the common Doctrine of them all excepting the rigid Opinions of some interessed or intemperate individuals My Learned Sincere and Worthy Friend WHEN I had hastily set down my judgement of the Cause which I found handled in your Papa Ultrajectinus and other Writings which you sent me I cast by that Script which I intended at the writing of it for your view that I might surely keep it from the notice of others in this Age wherein the prevalency of Interest Faction Passion and Injudiciousness doth make it so great a difficulty to say any thing for the cure of any mens errors enormities or impieties which shall not be charged with the same crime or greater which it would cure and be taken for a disturber of the Church and Peace which it would save or heal But now seeing that you renew your endeavours in the same Cause and finding your Jugulum Causae directed to so many hands by seventy particular Epistles and that you have honoured me with a place among those great and worthy persons I take my self obliged to render you some account of my judgement of your Writings and especially of the whole Cause by bringing into the open light those hundred Propositions which I had purposed to conceal And withal to tell you 1. That though you have much overvalued me in your recitation of their report who would have joyned me with so Great so Wise and Good a man as A Bishop Usher and that in so great a work and experience may tell you that other men have other thoughts of me as one unmeet to preach the Gospel in the Land of my Nativity much more unmeet to be a decider of the Churches Controversies yet you have truly described my judgement of your self and your undertaking I confess I hope not that ever you should make the Roman Usurpation more palpable than the falshood of their Doctrine of Transubstantiation where they maintain not only the Corporal Presence which is not it that I now mean but that Bread is not Bread and Wine is not Wine when all men see taste smell and feel them And if the Princes Doctors and great men of the world can thus obstinately deny or take on them to deny the judgement which is made of sensible objects by all mens senses you may gather what fruit you may expect of your labours or of any Cause how plain soever where prejudice and seeming interest are against you Can all the Writings or Reasonings in the world bring any thing to a more clear and sure decision than that of all the senses of all men in the world about the proper objects of sense If flesh so far conquer flesh it self and the interest of sensuality can cause such men and such multitudes to renounce the apprehension of all their senses what have we to do more for the cure of mankind You have made it plain enough that it is really a part of the Secular Government of Kings and States which is now commonly called Ecclesiastical among the Papists and as such is challenged and usurped by the Pope and that Princes that subject their Kingdoms to his Usurpation do take in a joint Ruler with them and divide their Kingdoms or Power between themselves and him But so they have done and so they will do till the Time of the Churches fuller Reformation and of the Coalition of the Christian world is come I know you may think that as Interest blindeth them so this great detection of the Invasion of their Interest is the way to bring them to the truth For who will have a Co-partner with him in his Kingdom that may choose Who had not rather Rule alone than divide his Kingdom with the Pope Undoubtedly they give away more of their own Interest hereby than you have opened When they deliver part of their power to one who by an approved General Council of their own which is the Religion of their Party Later sub Innoc. 3. Can. 2. 3. may depose Temporal Lords though no Protestants themselves that will not exterminate those that deny Transubstantiation out of their Dominions and may absolve their subjects from their fidelity and may give their Countryes unto others When their most Learned
were a Leaden unpowerful Sword which Christ hath put into their hands and Excommunication were invalid when the Sword forceth not the impenitent to dissemble Repentance and Submission When great worldly baits have enticed worldly men into the Sacred Office as to a worldly preferment and Trade they will judge accordingly and manage it like themselves which is and hath been the Churches Pest We would beg on our knees of Kings and Magistrates if it would prevail to leave Church Censures to our Lords intended use and valeant quantum valere possunt and to keep their Sword out of Church-mens hands and to punish men in their own Courts for every crime that deserveth it but not quatenus excommunicate or meerly because the Clergy hath judged them unmeet for Church Communion He that taketh Excommunication alone for no punishment is not fit to be in the Communion of the Church and therefore should not be driven for fear of a Prison to that which he hath no right to So that you must not charge the acts of Princes nor of ambitious Cardinals c. neither on Calvin Beza or any such as them And as to Lay-Elders or Lay-Chancellors I am no more for them than you are that is as the Magistrates Officers or as the Churches Sub-Officers circa sacra non in sacris But sure those of them who are introduced on a mistaken conceit of Divine right and do no more than the Pastors do are no Usurpers of Coercive power You see by the late Acts of King and Parliament in Scotland that all External Church power is declared to be in the King And what would you have more No doubt the meaning is not All power about external things For the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and the persons baptized c. are external objects Nor can it be all power that is exercised by the external parts of the body For the Tongue of the Preacher and the Hand of the Baptizer as well as the Ear of the Hearer is an external part But in these two senses it is true and commonly consented to by all that I remember of my acquaintance that are Christians 1. That all the power of the Sword or of forcing by Mulcts or bodily punishments as distinct from the power of the Word that worketh directly upon the soul alone by the senses is in the King and not in any of the Clergy though it be about the matters of Religion 2. And that all power in Church matters and Religion Extrinsecal to the Pastoral Office as instituted by Christ is of right the Kings and his inferiour Magistrates And what would you or any man have more 4. And as to the exercise of our Office we all confess except the Papists that we are responsible to the King and Magistrates for our faults yea for our injurious mal-administration And that though the King be not the Chief Pastor nor hath the power of the Keys which Christ gave to his Ministers yet he is the Ruler of all Churches and Pastors by the Sword as well as of all Physicions And is not all this enough to satisfie you that we claim no part of the Magistrates Office As you say our power is but Perswasive It is 〈◊〉 By the Word It is but on the Conscience It is under the Magistrates coercive Government And so it is like a Physicions or a Tutors in a Colledge But that I pray you leave not out 1. That it is not under the Magistrates as to the derivation of the office or power that is It is no office which the Magistrate made or may unmake 2. That it is as immediately of Divine Institution as the Magistrates And therefore in your similitude you must suppose your Physicion and Tutor to have a Commission from God 3. That God hath described our office and limited the Magistrates office so that he hath no power from God to hinder the Ministry 4. But if he do it injuriously we must not resist but patiently suffer for obeying God So much of the nature of the office II. Now that it is certain that God hath committed to Pastors such a Government of his Church by the Word as to stated commissioned Officers because I have past by the proofs in my following Propositions I will add some here Supposing what Dr. Hammond hath said of the Power of the Keyes and that no man with common sense can take the Power of the Keyes for any thing less than a power of Church Government or Authoritative Guidance and so a Power of receiving in and putting out as there is cause It is plain in that Christ first reciteth his own Commission and Power Matth. 28. 18 19 20. and thence dateth the Commission of his Apostles as it was to endure to the end of the age or world See Isa 22. 22. Rev. 3. 7. 1. 18. compared with Matth. 16. 19. John 20. 23. The word Presbyter and Bishop can signifie no less as Acts 4. 8 c. compared with Acts 14. 23. 15. 2 4 6 22 23. 16. 4. 20. 17 28. Titus 1. 5. James 5. 14. 1 Pet. 5. 1. Rev. 4. 4 c. And nothing less can be meant by 1 Tim. 5. 17. The Elders that Rule well are worthy of double honour c. Heb. 13. 17. 24. Obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch c. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you 1 Tim. 3. 1 4 5. If a man desire the office of a Bishop he desireth a good work One that Ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God So Tit. 1. 7 c. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3 4. Many other I pass by And for the act of excommunication or excluding unmeet persons from Christian Church Communion it would be tedious to stand to vindicate all those plain Texts from any mens exceptions 1 Cor. 5. per totum Titus 3. 10. 2 John 10 11. 2 Thess. 3. 6 14. Rev. 2. 14 15 20. But while I am writing this I remember that I have long ago written a small Book called Universal Concord in which I have described all the Pastoral Office and Work If you can prove it less than I have there named in any one point you will so far ease us and take nothing from us at all that gratifieth our flesh If you can deny none of that we are agreed And in the Preface to the same Book I have given you twelve Reasons of the great use of Church Discipline which shall save me the labour of the third point which I intended next to speak to save only that I will briefly ask you III. Would you have any difference made between the Christian Church and the Pagan and Infidel world If not If you would it must be such a
pragmatically thrust himself into another mans charge and pretend himself to be the Ruler of his neighbour Churches and Pastors and attempt to exercise authority over them he is to be slighted as an Usurper and a disturber of the order and peace of the Churches of Christ 3 John 9 10. 48. Yet every Pastor is an Officer and Minister of Christ as to the unconverted world to call them so to the universal Church to exercise his Office in it where ever he hath an orderly call And if he teach or administer Sacraments or Discipline upon such a particular call in a neighbour Church pro tempore he doth it as an Officer of Christ and their Pastor pro tempore and not as a Lay-man As a licensed Physicion medicateth another Physicion or anothers Hospital when called to it not only as a neighbour that is unlicensed but as a licensed Physicion So Timothy Apâ—llo Silas and others did 49. Therefore neighbour Pastors must have so much care of other Churches as to admonish them against the infection of any Heresie or Scandal which they see them in apparent danger of whether by heretical wicked Pastors or others 50 All neighbour Churches capable of correspondence are bound to hold a special concord among themselves for the advantage of the Gospel by their Unity or for the conversion of the Infidel world and for the preservation of the several Churches from danger by Heresie or discord Acts 15. John 17. 21 22. Eph. 4. 3 6. 51. He that is excommunicated justly in one Church should not be received by the rest till he repent Therefore the neighbour Churches may do well to acquaint each other whom they have excommunicated when there is cause 52. This correspondence is to be kept by Messengers Letters or Synods 53. Whether such Synods be stated or occasional and whether the President shall be still the same or changed with such other circumstances are things not determined in Scripture but left to the determination of humane prudence as the case shall require for the end intended 54. Though the Major part in these Synods be not the proper Governours of the Minor yet the Pastors there assembled are still the Governours of the flocks and they are also bound to Concord in things lawful among themselves Therefore their Decrees about such things are Obligatory to the People ratione authoritatis and they are obligatory to one another I mean the Pastors ratione concordiae And this is the true state of the binding power of Synods 55. Though the usual phrase of binding the Conscience be unapt Conscience being an act of science and it is not to know that by the obligation now in question we are bound to primarily yet as to the sense intended it is certain that the Commands of Parents Magistrates and Pastors in their proper places do all truly bind the soul or will or man or as they say the Conscience But it is only by a secondary obligation from a derived power as God bindeth it by a primary obligation by the primitive power He that hath no power of obliging hath no power of Governing And he that obligeth not the soul and will obligeth not the man at all by any Moral obligation The body alone or immediately is bound by Cords and Chains but not by Commands and Laws He that may not bind the soul by a Command hath no commanding authority Col. 3. 20 22. Eph. 6. 1. Tit. 3. 1. Heb. 13 17 24. 11. 8. 56. Therefore the distinction of Internal and External Government and of the forum interius exterius needeth better explication than is used by most or else it will be worse than useless The true difference of the Government Civil and Ecclesiastical is to be fetcht ab objecto fine proximo modo regendi But as it meaneth that which is Inâ—rinsecal or Extrinsecal to the Pastoral Office it is of great use And as it differenceth Government by the Sword from that which worketh only on the mind 57. The same God who instituted the Office of the Magistrate did also immediately institute the Office of the Ministry And therefore as to the Foundation they are co-ordinate and neither of them derived from the possessors of the other 58 As to the Work and End the Magistrates work and the Ministers have each a preheminency in their own kinds 59. Magistrates Ministers and Parents may all command the same thing and all their Commands be obligatory As to learn a Catâ—chisme to observe the Lords Day c. 60. It is not lawful for Pastors to Excommunicate either Kings or their chief Magistrates or their own Parents unless perhaps in some rare case by any publick formal or dishonouring Excommunication Because the great Command in Nature Honour thy Father and Mother Honour the King lyeth lower than the positive Command of Excommunication and is antecedent to it And as affirmatives bind not semper ad semper so also they give place to Natural Laws and not Naturals ordinarily to them And the Rulers Honour is of more publick use and necessity than excommunication in that particular act is But an Usurping Tyrant who may be deposed and dishonoured may be excommunicated 61. Much less may a strange Pastor to whom the Magistrate never committed the care of his soul presume to excommunicate him who is none of his charge And therefore the Pope and his Prelates excommunicating Kings and Rulers seemeth to me to be nothing but a proclaiming open Hostility against them 62. Pastors have no Power over any but Consenters Nor can they use the Sword or have any Coactive power at all that is any power to touch a mans body or estate but only to work upon his Conscience and his Church-reputation The forcing power belongeth only to Parents and Magistrates and not to Ministers as such at all Luke â—â— 25 26 27. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3 4. 2 Cor. 10. 4. 63. The similitude of a Physicions power if you will but suppose him to have a Hospital of Volunteers and his office to be of Divine institution or of a Philosophers or Tutors on the like supposition over adult Disciples may much explicate the Church power No wise Physicion will take any into his Hospital and Cure upon unsafe destructive terms which the Patient or Magistrate shall impose but will say It is my function to Rule you as to Medicine for your Cure Take what I give you and use your self upon it as I advise you or else take your course you are no Patient for me nor shall be in my Hospital I will not strike you nor fine and imprison you but I will be none of your Physicion or saith the Tutor I will be none of your Teacher nor shall you be any part of my Hospital School or charge Only still remember here the Divine institution of the Ministry and Discipline and the regulation of it by Gods Laws that it be not arbitrarily used 64. The undoing of the Church
of Christ in those Countreys where Popery and Church-tyranny prevail hath long been by the Magistrates annexing their executions to the sentence of the Church as it is called and becoming the meer Executioners of the judgement of other men No Magistrate should be debased so as to be made the Churches Executioner If the Magistrate will punish a man it must not be meerly quatenus excommunicate that is as punished already but for the fault for which he was excommunicate And if so then he must try and judge him for that fault at his own barr and not punish him unheard because the Church hath sentenced him And if Rulers would more leave the Church to the exercise of its proper power and let excommunication do what it can of it self unless the nature of the crime require a distinct Secular judgement and punishment it would do much to heal all the divisions and perturbations in the Christian world For which course I have these Reasons following to urge 1. It is a great contempt and reproach to Christs institution of discipline to tell the world that it is a powerless uneffectual thing of it self unless the Secular Sword do enforce it Such Pastors vilifie their own power also which is so useless 2. It is a corrupting of Christs discipline and destroying the use of it For it cannot be known now what the Keyes do of themselves when the Sword goeth with them No man knoweth when Repentance professed is credibly real and moved by divine Motives and when it is dissembled for avoiding of the Secular punishment 3. It must leave the Pastors conscience unsatisfied in his administrations and bind him to abuse Christ when he must say to men If you had but rather say that you repent than lye in a Gaol I absolve you and give you the Sacraments and pronounce you pardoned by Christ. Who can administer on these terms 4. It is a dangerous deluding of the sinners soul that seemeth intimated by this way 5. It is a wilful corrupting and confounding of the Church when men shall be forced to be its members though they be Infidels Heathens or most impious if they had but rather say they are Christians than lye in Gaol And by this means it is that no man can know who are really of the Church of Rome or of any tyrannical Church but only who had rather say they are of the Church than be undone which any Infidel and Atheist will soon do Therefore let not Rome boast of the number of her members which are unknown 6. It is a changing of Christs terms of Covenant Christianity Communion and Absolution when Christ saith He that from his heart believeth and repenteth and forsaketh the flesh and the world for me shall be my Disciple and be pardoned and he that credibly professeth thus much shall be taken into the Church which are truly Christs terms now cometh the Church-tyrant and saith He that will say that he believeth and repenteth rather than he will forsake the flesh and the world and will choose the Church before a Gaol shall be pardoned and have communion with the Church or at least have the seals of pardon to delude him 7. By this means the Church is mostly constituted in such Countreys of the grossest wicked hypocrites And it is made a scorn to Infidels and Heathens and their conversion hindered thereby when they see that Christians are worse than they 8. And by this means these hypocrites ruine the Church it self as an enemies Souldiers in an Army And nominal Christians and Pastors that are heartily enemies to Christ do him more wrong and cause more divisions and ruines in the Church than they could have done if they had staid without 9. It destroyeth most of the hopes or the success of those Pastors as to the converting and saving of mens souls Because when the Magistrate is made but their executioner the people take all their sufferings as from them And they will bear that from a Magistrate which they will not bear from a Minister whose Office is to Rule them by Reason and by Love And so such Pastors are usually feared and hated by the people whereby they are disabled to do them that saving good which can be done on none against his will 1 Cor. 8. 13. 9. 22. 1 Tim. 4. 16. 10. And hereby a Church-tyranny is set and kept up in the world by which persecutions and divisions have been maintained for many hundred years and the Ministers of Christ have been forbidden to preach his Gospel to the unspeakable injury of souls and the lives of many hundred thousands have been a Sacrifice to the Pride and Avarice and Cruelty of the Clergy to the great dishonour of the Christian Name 11. And hereby Princes have had a power set over them to the diminution of their proper power and part of their dominion subjugated to others under the false name of Ecclesiastical Authority yea and their own standing made troublesome and unsafe and multitudes dethroned and Wars raised against them by the Clergies pretended power or instigation of which all the Wars between the â—erman Emperours and the Papalines are full proof recorded in all the Histories collected by Freherus Ruberus and Pistorius in Sabbellicus Nauclerus and multitudes of other Historians and our English Histories by Ingulphus Matthew Paris Hoveden c. And the Italian by Guicciardine and many others Nay what Countrey is there where the Papal and Tyrannical Clergy have not overtopt or troubled the State 12. And when all this is done they would deceive the Princes themselves into a Consent and so into the guilt of their own disturbance and their peoples misery And cast all the odium upon them and say we do but deliver you into the hands of the Secular Power it is they that do the execution on you when yet a General Council the Rule of their Religion Later sub Innoc. 3. Can. 2 3. deposeth such Temporal Lords that will not do such execution 65. He that desireth the Communion of the Church doth take it for a grievous punishment to be cast out of it And he that doth not desire it is unfit for it Therefore he that cannot feel the penalty of an Excommunication alone but only of a Mulct or Prison may be fit enough for further punishment but is unfit for the Communion of the Church 66. Yet is the Magistrate the Protector of the Church a Keeper of her Peace and Priviledges and of both Tables and must use his power to promote Religion 67. To which end he may prudently by moderate means constrain some that neglect their own salvation to hear Gods Word and confer with such as can instruct them and use those means which God hath made universally necessary to bring the ignorant to knowledge and may restrain them from actual open sin and from scorn and opposition of the means that should convert them and from hindering others from the means of salvation and from