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
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
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
it self was not thought to be concerned 't was what was reputed only secular and the most eminent and very near all the Bishops were zealous Sticklers against the Pope or at least submitted to it then when zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion Doctrines and Worship and to which they adhered in King Edward's days and Queen Elizabeth's when the Reformation went on farther and was settled as now by Law in the Church The Supremacy was not then the Characteristical Mark though since to keep up the Parties it is so and which occasioned that warm Dialogue betwixt the Jesuite and Doctor Bilson of which I have given so large an account already the Doctor 's design being to vindicate our Church from the Opinions of Erastus urged in effect upon us by the Jesuite and that by asserting the Prince Supreme in all Causes over all Persons we give not to him any thing that is Church-Power enstated by Christ on the Apostles and by them derived to the Bishops their alone Successors herein this being thus settled and over-ruled against the Romanist another Enemy Man comes with his Tares and which are scattered in the seed-Plot and grow up together with it the Puritan starts up in the midst of us and the Point is That this Power of the Keys is in the Presbytery their Eldership made up of Lay-Men mostly call'd Lay-Elders and these for the greatest part as must be in abundance of Parishes Mechanicks and the meaner sort who have the Power of laying on of Hands Ordaining and Excommunicating nay more these inconsiderable Persons are not only invested with the Power of Bishops and Church-Men but with that Power and Supremacy is by us given to the Prince to Preside over and Govern all Persons and Causes by Process to Cite Summon and Convene before them to implead acquit or condemn amerce or punish even to confinement in their Consistories and no Cause or Person to be exempted if manageable in order to Religion they emulate and succeed the Pope himself and in the highest instances of his pretended Power and Soveraignty even to Summon and Censure Kings of whom Personal Attendance is required now against this it is these Worthies change and wield their Weapons accordingly as a good Fencer is ready at all against these New Popes as they call them and whoso please may read in Bishop Bancroft's Survey of the pretended holy Discipline cap. 22 23 24 25. and in his Book of Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within the Island of Britain under pretence for Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline In Bishop Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church Cap. 9 10. and Bishop Whitgift's Defence of the Answer to the Admonition Tract 17. pag. 627 628 629 630 c. against these it is their warmth and Argument is spent in Defence of the Rights of the King and Church in scorn and detestation of such those pretending Ignaro's Their words are these with a deal more to this purpose As though Christ's Soveraignty Kingdom and Lordship were no where acknowledged or to be found but where half a dozen Artisans Shoo-makers Tinkers and Taylors with their Preacher and Reader Eight or Nine Cherubins forsooth do rule the whole Parish So Bancroft Dangerous Positions c. l. 2. c. 2. That the King must submit to the Pastor and be content to be joyned in Commission with the basest sort of People if it please the Parish to appoint him and if over-ruled must be contented and the Prince loses all Autority in Ecclesiastical Matters and he must maintain and see executed such Laws Orders and Ceremonies as the Pastor with his Seniors shall make and decree So Bishop Whitgift ibid. p. 656 657. That the Church-warden and Syde-men in every Parish are the meetest Men that you can find to direct Princes in judging of Ecclesiastical Crimes and Causes a wretched state of the Church it must be that shall depend on such silly Governors as Husbandmen and Artisans Ploughmen and Craftsmen and we descend to the Cart for advice in Church-Government So Bishop Bilson Perpetual Government Cap. 10. and if thus in behalf of the Regal and Sacerdotal Power the Magistracy and the Ministry and which are the only Governors of the Church of Christ as they contend against these monstrous sort of People with their High-shoo'd feet and Clowns hands invading both the King and the Church be set as one man to oppose them and their distinct Powers not so nicely and distinctly stated at one time as they are and require an another and appear but as one Weapon that with present advantage it may be wellded against them this is to be imputed to the warmth and zeal of the Disputant whether as Aggressor or Defendant his settled particular judgment is to be fetch'd from his particular designed Decision and Determination in other Cases and when the naked Cause is alone and before him the immediate proper object of his Consideration and it must be confessed neither do I believe the great reason and choicer learning of that excellent Prelate were he now alive again could upon second thoughts extricate himself that Bishop Bilson's Argument against Lay-Elders Cap. 10. Pag. 148. and which Robert Parker so much twits him with is wide of a Conclusion and very ill laid it runs thus I cannot conceive how Lay-Elders should be Governors of Christ's Church and yet be neither Ministers nor Magistrates Christ being the Head and fulness of the Church which is his Body governeth the same as a Prophet a Priest and a King and after his Example all Government in the Church is either Prophetical Sacerdotal or Regal the Doctors have a Prophetical the Pastors a Sacerdotal and the Magistrates a Regal Power What fourth Regiment can we find for Lay-Elders All that can be said is this there appear'd an Argument against a Lay-Elder he was thought thus shut out from having any Place or Power as from Christ not considering the ill distribution of the offices of Christ in general and his bad-placed Successions and more especially the worser consequence that must attend a deriving the Magistrates Power from the Mediatorship and 't is what neither Whitgift nor Bancroft did Consider As a King Priest and Prophet he erected and settled his Church on Earth by virtue of that Commission and All Power given him of the Father Mat. 11. but he did not as such meddle with the Kingdoms on Earth as the Mediator he was himself a Subject and professed and practised Subjection and Obedience demanded only the Subjects right Protection by the Government he found established in the World by his Father But however the present Argument was wrong laid and whencesoever the Magistrates Power is derived 't is all along and by them all supposed and maintained quite different and apart from that of the Ministry or the Priesthood and they are asserted two quite diverse offices and their Powers do not reach to one another I 'le only now instance
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
be their Slaves and Vassals and which is the invidious design of his whole Book how easily is it all return'd on his own pate and to what else can any one impute this his clawing with and condescending to the People to be but his own and the other of his Brethrens dependance upon them as it is at this day in France and 't is wholly in the Power of the Congregation both to Vote in and Eject their Minister at pleasure to bestow what Maintenance upon them their Wisdom directs nor is it at all in the Power of the Clergy as things are now with them streightned by the Civil Sword to avoid or amend it to them indeed in their circumstances the good-liking and choice of the People are necessary otherwise they must change the Climate their Churches and Ministry must cease and fall together And this I say not to insult over and upbraid them for their case in general is really to be pitied but thus do outward accidents imbody themselves and become as of the real Substance and too many Models and Systems and Professions have some regard too much yielding and complyance with them this one thing does it generally need a Pardon and to them in particular it cannot easily be granted it may with great justice be called their Pride and Usurpation that what is their own unavoidable Necessity what the frowns and injuries of their Native Countrey they live in the want of Countenance and Protection from the Prince and of a due Provision by Laws and which in reason ought to be otherways lays upon them this they 'l obtrude upon us upon all Churches as the Pattern upon the Mount the Platform not to be deviated from every ways to be copied out upon no less a peril than the breach of an antecedent immutable Law an Institution from Heaven What ought to be their care to represent as fairly as they can they magisterially command other Churches are condemned for not obeying a fault the Churches of the French Reformation are no ways to be acquitted of That there is a Subordination among Clergy-men and a dependence as on one Head and Superior in the several degrees of the Priesthood this is most certain 't is bottomed on as good and known Autority as our Religion it self and which will be made to appear by and by in this Treatise though not as the business of it The Deacon is a Minister or Servant to the Bishop and both Presbyter and Deacon receive their Power and Deputation from him but in any other sense we own no Head or Master Servants Ministers we are but of God and Christ of the Gospel which we minister unto them of which we are Stewards for their advantage and relief dispensing to every man his Portion ministring in our courses as the Angels in theirs for the good of all a faithful Minister of Christ for you so the Apostle Colos 1.23 and in this alone consists our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of our Ministry and attendance at the Altar Thus we are to the People as Governors Rulers Instructers Teachers and which last Office allowed us by all so immediately implies Superiority and Prelation that it alone will not let us be their Servants as Autorized and Commissioned impower'd by and in Deputation from them NOR is this David Blondel's disingenuity § XI or undue dealings alone or in this case only of the Peoples Power over their Pastors there is one case more at least and which has more than one Abettor and 't is that of Episcopacy as the People are above the Clergy so must not one Clergy-man be above another the Order Solitary Power Superiority and Prelation of the Bishop must cease was never any then as by Usurpation there must be a level between a Presbyter and him because there are no Bishops in the French Churches an equality is now fixed and setled among them and in order to the surer certain compassing it in our Church of England they took the opportunity of a present Schism and Defection from our present Bishops abetted and heightned by a prosperous Rebellion they even insult over us as men that were down and to rise up no more they pursue us as a vanquish'd Enemy look upon the iron as red hot and to be stricken and their Presbyterian Model to be erected in our Kingdom as that Image once fallen from Heaven To this purpose comes upon the Stage their Triumviri Blondel Salmasius and Dailce Men throughly instructed by a vast and unwearied Industry and Reading and which they perverted to render Episcopacy less acceptable not to say odious in the World as the effect of Innovation and Ambition contrary to the designs of Christ and the Practice of the Church in the best Ages of it and herein their proficiency and advancement was not inconsiderable considering the badness and difficulty of their cause what St. Jerome has observed of Hereticks in and before his time in his Comments on the First Chapter of Amos Omnes enim Haeretici labore nimio ac dolore quaerendi ordinem aliquem consequentiam heraeseos suae reperire conati sunt is evident in them through abundance of toil and sore labour making pretence of Order shews of Antiquity and Consequences to advance and effect it And Blondel goes in the Front or at least has merited to be placed there with his renowned and much gloried in Apology Pro Hieronymo which he says he kept by him Three years ready for the Press but did not Print it by reason of the Wars in England or rather till the King and Church were both ruined easily then presuming of a fairer reception and which Book 't is more than probable he then Digested and Composed when his offer'd Service to write quite the other way and in the Defence of our Episcopacy establish'd in this Church was tender'd to that great Prelate and Martyr of Blessed Memory Arch-Bishop Land but rejected what were the Reasons moving the Wisdom of that excellent Prelate to refuse him I cannot tell he might suspect his Integrity or judge it less for the Honor of our Church on purpose to imply a Foreigner in the managery and defence of what is so neer and of so great a concern to us and he might not think the concurrency of one or two Doctors of the French Reformation so considerable or perhaps of any weight to turn the Scale for or against the famous Church of England as it now appears they are reputed he could not suspect his thorow Instructions and Ability for it and that the former mostly sweigh'd the wonted Sagacity of that excellent Person giving him no small Grounds for it will appear if we go on and find him dedicating That his Book Vniversis Dei optimi Maximi servis occidente toto maxime vero per Britannias ad Christiani populi Ecclesiasticum Politicum regimen vocatis To the Houses of Parliament and Assembly at
indispensable Subjection and Obedience of all Christians to their Power and Jurisdiction that all his profuser Criticisms and conjectural Triflings cannot make a Pretence against any ways bafflle or evade him and therefore his Epistles are rejected as spurious and counterfeit are Condemned to the Fire as the Holy Martyr himself was to the Beasts and which he endeavours more than to Martyr to annihilate passes his Sentence of perpetual oblivion and forgetfulness against them So Hereticks of old dealt with the Scriptures themselves Marcion blotted out with his Pen and wholly crased what he could not evade or deny what he could not by his Style and Expositions overthrow Macherâ non stylo usus est as Tertullian tells us in his Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks cap. 19. whereas Valentinus another Heretick there spoke of Non ad materiam Scripturas sed materiam ad Scripturas excogitavit blotted not out but brought the Scriptures to himself Proprietates verborum auferens wresting and perverting of them and which of the two took from and really did more violence to the Scriptures there is no occasion at present to enquire though Tertullian gives it to the latter for the Person we at present have to deal with is guilty of both Those two notorious Hereticks seem to survive in him at once nor has he with less tricks of words evaded the sence of him and others then with a resolved Contumacy at last quite blotted out the Writing of that most Holy and Apostolical Person nor will it abate much of his guilt or can I be much accused in making the Parallel betwixt him and two such notorious Hereticks and whose Objects were the Scriptures themselves for the Method is as natural and the same Hand and Pen is equally ready for the one as the other and the Canonical Epistles themselves have had the same usage as had by him these of Ignatius when standing in the way and this by some of his own design and complexion And how he hath dealt with our own Church in particular and much after the same Nature in many things not distinguishing her Practices from the depraved usages of Rome and particularly in Point of Government by Arch-Bishops Metropolitans and Bishops is to be seen in his Book De Cultu Romanorum and has been lately observed and reported to the World by a most Faithful and Learned Hand in another Language I cannot say but sometimes even these very Men appear more civil towards us and pass upon us high and mighty Complements and their Practice is not so rude as their Determinations are rigorus upon us nor do they approve our unruly Dissenters and Peace-breakers in point of Government though their Documents and Principles such our home-Schismaticks receive and Copy out from them and whose Autority we are still urged withal though what they would do were they as secure as Blondel thought himself in 1646. when he dedicated his Apology to the then Rebellious Parliament and Assembly-men is another question what manner of Spirit his was then has been already declared and what personal Aspersions and loads of Calumnies he laid as upon the Cause it self so upon the present Bishops will appear from that often-forced Apology of our learned Doctor Hammond for their Innocency and Integrity in his Answer to him Dissert 1ª contra Blondel cap. 12. sect 22. In haec unica Hierarchicorum doctrina adeò totum Antichristum ebibisse censeatur ut in hoc unum erroris Pelagus alia omnia Acherontis ostia se effudisse aut quidquid in illius Seculi Ecclesia peccatum ab Haereticis fuit illud statim in Episcopis hujus aevi puniendum videatur or whether it may return again God knows All the Progress we have made yet seems to be but this we have and still do pity and bemoan that state of theirs as sad and to be lamented which they have and do still account their Gospel-Simplicity and Perfection Plead that Necessity for them which they deny and wilfully persist in which provokes back again only their Pity for us not to say their Scorn and Contempt for so it has by some of them been return'd upon us and by the most favourable we are beheld as well-meaning but ignorant men so Gersom Bucer plainly tells Bishop Dounham in his Answer to the Sermon Pag. 594. our own Pleas and Arguments by Complyance and Condescensions to and for them is managed and retorted upon our selves and not by them only but and which is the greater disadvantage has come to us by it by our own Members and within the Pale of our Communion and the great popular prevailing Argument that Episcopacy is not Essential to Church-Government is this because our Charity hopes and concludes the best of them that God's Mercy through their sincerity and upright meaning may supply the defect they are under and endeavouring all we can to justifie them we have been disabled to justifie our selves This hath been the plain case all along with us the words of our Learned Bishop Taylor are apt to this in his Treatise called Episcopacy Asserted Sect. 32. and may not unduly be here inserted For we were glad at first of Abettors against the Errors of the Roman Church we found these Men Zealous in it we thanked God for it as we had cause and we were willing to make them recompence by endeavouring to justifie their Ordinations not thinking what would follow upon our selves but now it is come to that issue that our Episcopacy is thought not necessary because we did not condemn the Ordinations of their Presbytery And even at this day after so thorow a debate by Monsieur Dailâ—e and Bishop Pearson they may have abated somewhat of that rigorous Practice in France that just now named learned Bishop in that his Treatise tells us was once in use amongst them That if any one returns to them they will re-ordain him by their Presbytery though he had before Episcopal Ordination and for which he refers us to Danaeus Part 2. Isagog lib. 2. cap. 22. Perron Repl. fol. 92. Impress 1605. but the result on their side is only this and 't is no further than Beza and Gersom Bucer had gone before insalubrior est as Bucer speaks in his Answer to Bishop Downham's Sermon Pag. 18. 255. 6. and tells us That the same is the opinion of Beza it is less advantageous that our Government though but a meer Humane Invention is what may be born with its yoke may be endured by those that are under it Et quamvis Episcoporum eminentiam supra Presbyteros Institutionis esse merè humanae firmissiâ—â— redam praestat tamen meo judicio regimen illud Episcopale patienter ferre c. So the late Replyer to Bishop Pearson and Doctor Beveridge Dailee the Son as 't is thought Observat in Ignatianas Pearsonis Vindicias in 〈◊〉 and after all their gilded Phrases Pompous words and higher Eulogies I never could find that any one of them ever has given us
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flavianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gennadius Evagr. Hist Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 8. lib. 2. cap. 11. lib. 5. cap. 16. So that if things by words are delivered to us which must be since we have not converse with one another as they tell us Angels have or private immediate infusions from God he speaks not to us inarticulately in Sounds and in Dreams as of old we have here the thing contended for in this Discourse viz. a real Autoritative Power in the Church independent equally as in the Empire neither Subordinate to one another The Argument and Evidence is as good as the Story is true and the reception of those Ages or as the truth of Matter of Fact can make it § XIII AND suitably the first and most ancient Councils which are come to our hands of the Christian Church have still owned the Empire and submitted to it in its full Latitude but yet still they reserved and asserted a Power within themselves which was neither derived from nor depended upon it in the execution and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word they still express their Chair by they could make Sanctions and Constitutions oblige and bind the Conscience of themselves and without it the first great Council of Christendome they met indeed in the Name of the Emperor were summon'd by his Writ nor ought they personally and in Bodies collectively to Assemble without it but they acted and decreed in their own Names by their own Power and Autority were all their Synodical Determinations made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the great and first general Council of Nice and was the after-form of the Proceedings of the succeeding Councils which still confirm'd that first solemnly owning and receiving of it It seemed good to the Holy Synod to the Holy Bishops and Fathers there as the immediately following General Council at Constantinople explains it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form but a little abating of that of the Apostles Synod Acts 15. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us and as their Power is distinct so is its Execution in different words and Penalties so as expressed for the most part by none else and in all never executed by any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arceri seu ejici ab Ecclesia à fraternitatis Communione relegari submoneri à limine omni tecto Ecclesiae Sacramento Benedictionis exauctorari Communione interdici abstineri depelli these are the words still expressing the Execution of this Church-Power as they are to be met with up and down in the Greek Councils and Greek and Latine Fathers many of which Mr. Selden has took the pains to Collect to our hands Lib. 1. De Synod Pag. 257. 259. and are to be seen also in an earlier Copy in the first Canon of the Seventh general Council held at Nicea there reckoned up and own'd as bottomed on the Autority of the Apostles Canons and the Six foregoing general Councils And the Bishops have a Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. 5. Concil Anciran 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before in the first Nicene Council Can. 12. of absolving from and removing taking off such their Mulcts laid upon them either in whole or in part or adding farther degrees suitable as their repentance and amendment is perceiv'd and approved or not approved of and this Power asserted in the Church by the great Council of Nice and that of Ancyra is the great instance of the self-existing eminent independent underivable Power that is in the Church of Christ wholly in her self and in none else beside as having Power to punish and relieve to give Sentence and relax in her own breast this is what is not done in the Civil Judicatures where the Judge is in Deputation who cannot correct his Sentence once given make heavier or alleviate it that is only in Soveraign Power as the Lawyers speak but the Bishop can do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Photius Nomocanon Tit. 9. cap. 1. 3. doctas videas nuperas Annotationes in Can. Niceae there was then believed and accounted a first and antecedent Right in the Church to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laws and Rules from which out of Contempt and Opposition there was not allow'd any Appeal to be made to the Empire or Secular Power or Judicatures unless by way of imploring Patronage for a better enquiry as not Canonically executed Can. 6. Concil 2. Gen. Constantinop Can. 107. Concil Carthag and he that proceeds otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not according to the Rules and Laws of the Church is to be cast out of her Communion if a Lay-man if a Presbyter or Deacon he is to be deposed never to be restored again never admitted but to Plead his Cause Conc. Antioch Can. 11 12. and the Clergy-man is not to leave his Bishop in Matters of Strife and go to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Power of the Realm is still call'd the Secular Judges or if he Appeal from his Bishop it may be only when the Case is with the Bishop himself as a Party and he is to appeal to the Provincial Synod or the Metropolitan Exarch or Patriarch Can. 9. Concil Gen. Chalcedon or he may ask and Petition the Emperor that he interpose with his Power over all Persons in all Causes for a farther Enquiry by the Bishop when Justice seems to be not understood or to be denied Can. 107. Conc. Carth. the Sin of Schism is still defined to be when a Presbyter makes a Congregation and makes an Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in despite and contempt of his Bishop Can. 31. Apost and so Can. 6. Concil Gen. Constantinopolit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they unite for Religious Services in opposition to their Bishop and Can. 31. Concil 6th in Trullo and Can. 5. Concil Antioch Can. 10. Concil Carthag 'T is more express If any Presbyter or Deacon contemns his own Bishop separates from the Church and makes a private Congregation and Altar and disobeys farther his Bishops Summons to render him accountable for so doing he is to be deposed and if he perseveres to make farther troubles in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Seditious Person the outward Secular Power is to Chastise him Can. 5. Concil Antioch where we have a thorow distinction of the two Powers with their Offices and the Canon goes before that of the Church is antecedent and therefore when Constantius went to cast some Bishops that were clamorous and contentious out of the Church Eleusius with Sylvanus and others told him That he had Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the outward Punishment what reach'd the Liberties and Advantage of his Person but 't was theirs to judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Piety and Impiety Theodoret. Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 27. § XIV I know it will be here reply'd this was only the Judgment Declaration and Practice of the Churchmen themselves
Kings and they are with just Autority judged by them but the Bishops are not judged of Men for it is all true in a duly confined and limited sense and in which we are to understand the Emperor there meaning it the last Appeals being to the Church in some instances and even Kings must come to Heaven by her Laws and Discipline under their Spiritual Guidance and Jurisdiction nor was this an undue or less Cogent Argument for Constantine to use to the Bishops for the laying aside their Dissentions in lesser Matters the occasion of such his Speech it looking and sounding very ill that they who were his Judges in other Cases and in those too of the highest concern should become liable to his just Censures and Reproof by reason of their want of Love and Unity with one another he argues with them for Peace from the excellency of their own high Calling and Profession D. Blondel it seems had not discerned of the difference betwixt a Power to determine for Truth and that which by Coercive outward means engages to and maintains it or at least he would not own it and 't is over usual and well known a thing with him to blunder and be clamorous against Ecclesiastical Writers to run cross to the received course of Church-Story and thinks he does nothing unless he brings in abundance of Inferences and Corollaries has not Examples heap upon heap as he has here in how many Church Cases and of how many Clergy-men Constantine was Judge as Athanasius Caecilianus Eustathius Antiochenus c. and not one hits the Nail all to no purpose because in other Judicatures and quite diverse causes than Constantine or Rufinus designed only he amuses and confounds the Reader If less considering he advantages and adds to the great Transmarine design of bringing a disrepute and baffle upon Church-Antiquity all which is to be seen in his Formula Regnante Christo Cap. 15. Pag. 175. 6. when the Bishops Petitioned Valentinianus the Emperor those who asserted the One Substance that they might be permitted to rectifie some Errors introduced in the Explanation of it the Emperor thus reply'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen Hist Eccles lib. 6. cap. 7. That he was in the Order of the People or Laity and it would be over Pragmatical and unlawful for him to meddle with such things the Priests to whom the care of such things do belong are to go and consult together where they please about it and where we have the Power and Prerogative of the Empire giving leave as to place of meeting permitting it to their own choice and discretions but the Church-Power it self is wholly and by himself removed from him as not his Due and Right And a Prince he was did not use to remit of his Rights if really his and knew well enough to Command and Retain them as appears That when first ascending his Throne and the Souldiery was impetuous requiring him to choose a Partner in the Government made this smart return You chose me fellow Souldiers for your Emperor and now what you demand is at my choice within my self and at my alone disposal you are to Obey I am to see to the Government Nor would he suffer them to proceed in their Demands or farther to advise him cap. 6. 21. Ejusdem libri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Justinian the § XVI Emperor calls the See of Constantinople the Throne of Epiphanius then Patriarch there Cod. lib. 1. Tit. 4. Ed. Gothofred and he evidently distinguishes betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt the Priesthood and the Empire he assigns them two distinct Offices and apart Duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one serving in Divine the other governing and taking care in Humane things Novel 6. Praefat. he calls the Ecclesiastical Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Determinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Throne of Episcopacy the Self-existing Power of the Priest to which the Empire gives it concurrent Vote and thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop and the King Divine and Humane going together a full and due Sentence is given Novel 42. Praesat And so again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. cap. 1. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as over and over again upon each occasion he distinguishes betwixt Ecclesiastical and Civil Crimes the Bishop is Judge of the Ecclesiastical and the Judges of the Provinces are not to intermeddle with them it is to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Sacred and Divine Laws and which his own Laws those of the Empire do not disdain to follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Novel 83. and Novel 131. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is decreed That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy and Ecclesiastical Canons have the force of a Law those composed by the four Councils of Nicca Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon whose Determinations we receive as Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Canons are Laws unto us That there is something in the Priest that is not in the Emperor though again more in the Emperor which is not in the Priest Theodosius the younger declares That he approaches the Holy Altar only to Offer nor does he stay within the Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pretend any thing to the nigher Divinity there residing Cod. Theodos 9. Tit. 45. Edict Imperat. pag. 367. Ed. Gothofred he calls the Ecclesiastical Ministry Principatum a Principality or Power within it self Cod. 16. Tit. 5. Lex 19. Leo the Emperor thus speaks of the Canons of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were spoken by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Imperat. Constitut 2. pag. 693. ad finem Novel and that his assent goes along with and he follows in his Determinations the Ecclesiastical Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constitut 9. pag. 701. § XVII AND thus there is a plain Prospect that the case as to the Church though not as to the Empire was the same before and after Constantine nor did he or the succeeding Christian Emperors alter any thing of the Church-Power as not in it self so nor by a change of its but Subject asserted and practised under those that were Heathen the Empire only cast in its assistance added Nerves and Sinews Strength and Corroboration to it and for this we need have gone no farther than that laborious Collection David Blondel has presented the World withal in his Book De formula regnante Christo pag. 373. where it is plain there were still acknowledged two distinct Empires in the World two different Principalities Governments Kingdoms and Jurisdictions and this as before so after the Empire was Christian and the Publick Monuments there produced run thus Sub Diocletiano Regnante Domino Christo Sub Justiniano Regnante Domino Christo c. and so down to the Thousandth year of our Saviour's Incarnation and this because it is found sometimes to run
under it Thus he Mr. Selden who was Contemporary with § IX this worthy wight and Man of Sense and no question but his Confident engaged and succeeded him in the very same Cause and by the very same Motives and Arguments only he appear'd not in the World till Nine years after and so had the advantage of much time and was imboldned by the horrid Anarchy and dismal Confusion of it and by an incessant Industry of his own improv'd the Argument to a greater height of irreligion and audaciousness and contemptuously treads upon whatever is like a Church Power in any instance of it which his Friend was a little shy of who allows in Church-men a Power for Non-communion or Abstention in some Cases which though he 'l by no means call it Excommunication and acknowledges that Justinian did only command that the Bishop proceed against the Faulty by Excommunication Suspension Deprivation but Mr. Selden says with the greatest assurance and impudence it was his own judicial act with that truth we have already considered but his Argument and course of proceeding is all along the same and upon the supposition founded in the constitution and practice of the Jewish Church and which he proves by a vast reading and intolerable expence of Pains to have used only outward Bodily Penal Coercive Punishments whether before or after giving the Law in Sinai so he tells us it was with Adam and Cain the one upon his fall the other upon his murder both banished their Countries for it the Sword is the punishment for Murder Gen. 9.3 And they were to be stoned that came near the Mount at the giving the Law Exod. 19. And the punishment was only secular upon the violation of the Seven Precepts given to the Sons of Noah the uncircumcised was to be punished though not forinsecally yet by Gods own immediate hand and a particular judgment of the same nature was the Curse upon Meroz the punishment of Kore Dathan and Abiram nor do the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema c. as used by the Prophets according to the Septuagint or other Greek Translations signifie any thing else nor are there used for Excommunication or afterwards by the Apostles as in St. Paul's delivering up the incestuous to Sathan c. and the Jews took up that Excommunication which was of later years exercised among them by special Compact with one another in the time of Captivity and for the present Exigence when the Temporal Power was taken out of their hands and which was no ways appropriated to the Priest or any other Order of Men either now under their Captivity or for the infliction of those other Punishments before or after the Law and what Excommunications were practised in the Apostles times and the first Century where by the way his great Master Erastus will allow of none in his Hundred Theses answered by Theodore Beza in his Tractatus Pius Moderatus de verâ Excommunicatione Christiano Magisterio was first Judaick in imitation of the Jews for there was none of the Christians for many years after our Saviour's Ascension which were not either Jews originally or Greek Proselytes and were accounted as Jews in common repute and members of their Synagogue and so used their Customs and Rights as before and of which this of Excommunication was one and so living among the Jews and call'd by the same Name when Caesar indulged the Jews and they had the liberty of their own Religion the Christians enjoy'd the Priviledges together with them and thus their Excommunication became Caesarean their Church Acts derived a Publick Autority from the Empire having none before but by private Covenant and by this Autority they held Presbyteries had Judicatures relating purely to their Religion and retained a Power to Punish under Death as did the Jews and if not thwarting the Laws Imperial and which grant of Favour though abated by succeeding Emperors they notwithstanding retained a Body and Union among themselves upon their own terms for Confederation till the days of Constantine and the Empire became Christian and then the Church being taken in to the State the Jurisdiction wholly became his as naturally annexed to the Crown and there to reside till all Autority and Power ceaseth This is the chief of Mr. Selden's Plot for the overthrowing the Power of Christ's Kingdom in the Polity Laws and Rights of it Lib. 1. De Syned cap. 3. 4 5 6 7 8. 11. and which has with much more advantage been very lately represented to the Age than I am able to do by a great and Learned Hand Dr. Parker Arch-deacon of Canterbury Nor needs there any thing more to be added for the satisfying the World of the vainer Attempts and undue Consequents there raised only the general Design of this Discourse engages that it be not wholly passed by and which otherwise could not be answer'd THOMAS Erastus Mr. Selden's great and § X admired Master though not licking and shaping his Beastly Abortive brood so throughly Missing in many things what the other has Hit upon yet in his forementioned Hundred Theses he urges much the same way as that because the Sword was the Punishment among the Jews so all Offenders of what Nature soever are by the Coercion alone of the Magistrate to be Corrected and the Christian Church is to go no farther than theirs did and the Civil Magistrate has all the Care of Religion that it is very difficult to conceive how there can be two Heads in one Body both to have right to Punish and Exercise Domination over the same Subjects still supposing no Power to have or that can have existency but that of outward Coercion And which Plea however it might be forced from him and seem necessary and makes a plausible shew of Truth in regard of Beza's Lay-Elders and the Consistorian Government of Geneva and in whose irregular Power he instances laying Penal Mulcts and outward Restraints as do the Civil Magistrates and the Consideration of which ran him upon this his as groundless Extreme Yet as to the Constitution and Practice of the truly Catholick Christian Church it has no Pretence or likelihood at all as will hereafter be made to appear CLAVDIVS Salmasius though he was § XI a Man very much if not altogether of Beza's Complexion yet is he not so ingenuous and true to their common Cause as was Beza in his Writings against Erastus for in his Apparatus to his Book De Primatu Papae a long rambling indigested tedious Discourse purposely made against the Divine Right of Bishops he there to pursue home his Design takes away all Church-Government whatsoever at the same rate of arguing And if he concludes any thing at all and which is not easily seen it is this That a Bishop is so far from having a distinct Power above a Presbyter solitary and apart from him that he has neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general no
him That he exalts the Church-Power above God and Christ and the Magistrate as all their Masters And indeed according to these Mens Notions to apply the Superlative to any Person or Thing is the height of Blasphemy For why God is not excepted And the most common Phrases of a most Mighty Prince a most Holy Place a most Wise Counsellor are all instances of it nor can any one Attribute of Gods be otherwise applyed to the Creature Whereas if the Word be understood and used as in common use it is to be and in complyance with things it must be suitable to the present Subject it is assign'd and limited to and the particular things it is conversant with as under such and such Heads and Orders all is easie and plain Thus God is the alone Supreme all Rule Governance and Autority being originally in him and eminently Christ is Supreme as Head of the Church to whom all Power is given of the Father for bringing Mankind to Heaven the Apostles and their Successors the Pastors of the Church were and are now Supreme on Earth in the same Power derived from Christ by the Apostles unto them The Prince is Supreme and hath all Power from God committed unto him as to Government relating to this World over all Things Persons and Causes to appropriate or alienate to Endow Limit Restrain Coerce or Compel as the alone Supreme Law-giver upon Earth and none may oppose and the great and gyant Objection that is only wrangling about and mistaking of words falls to the ground as it is in it self nothing CHAP. IV. Chap. 4. The Contents The Objections answer'd Selden's Error that there are to be no other Punishments by Christ than was before and under the Law the Query is to be what Christ did actually constitute He mixes the Temporal Actions of the Apostles and those design'd for Perpetuity Adam and Cain might have more than a Temporal Punishment Sect. 1. The great Disparity betwixt the Jewish and Christian State considered no Inferences to be drawn from the one to the other but what is on our side Sect. 2. Theirs is the Letter ours the Spirit They Punish'd by Bodily Death we by Spiritual Sect. 3. If Government was judged so absolutely necessary by the dispersed Jews that they then framed one of their own for the present Necessity and whose Wisdom in so doing Mr. Selden so much admires it must blemish our Saviour much to say he purposely call'd together a Church and design'd it none of its own to preserve it Sect. 4. The Jews Excommunication was not bodily Coercive and then there may be such a Punishment an Obligation to Obedience without force and that is not outward and this much more in the Christian Society Sect. 5. And this their Government abstracted from the Civil Magistrate is an Essay of Christ's Government so far of the same Nature to come into the World Sect. 6. The Christian Church might be both from Caesar and Christ as was the Jewish from God and Caesar and there is no thwarting The Jews and Christians distinct Sect. 7. In answer to his main Objection That all Government must be of this World Sect. 8. It is replied To assert Christ to have such a Kingdom is to thwart his design of coming into the World the whole course of his Actions and Government and those Ancients that expected him to come and Rule with them on Earth yet did not believe it to be accomplished till after the Resurrection Sect. 9. To say he therefore has no Power at all is as wide of Truth the way of Men in Error to run from one extreme to another and of Mr. Selden here Sect. 10. The Church is a Body of a differing Nature from others Sect. 11. With differing Organs and Members of its own in Subordination to one another Sect. 12. With different Offices and Duties Gifts and Endowments these either Common to all Believers or limited to particular Persons Sect. 13. As Christians in common they had one Faith into which Baptized and of which Confession was made the Apostles Creed and other Summaries of Faith and sound Doctrine Interrogatories in Baptism How Infants perform it Sect. 14. They had one and the same Laws and Rules for Obedience for which they Covenanted which is their Baptismal Vow the Abrenunciation of the World the Flesh and the Devil Sect. 15. One Common Worship and Service and Religious Performance to God in their Assemblies the particular Offices and Duties there the Priest and People officiate interchangeably as in Tertullian Justin Martyr c. Sect. 16. Common Duties and Services as to God so to one another in supplying one anothers Necessities as occasion Sect. 17. In the supply of such as attended at the Altar by a Common Purse deposited in the hands of the Bishop Sect. 18. Of the Poor and Indigent whose Treasurer was the Bishop Sect. 19. The Power Offices and Duties not promiscuous but limited to particular Persons are those of the Ministry distributed into the three standing Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and which make up that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Gospel Priesthood to remain to the Restitution Sect. 20. This Power and Jurisdiction though limited to and residing in these three yet it is not in each of them alike in the same degree force and virtue the Deacon is lowest the Presbyter next the Bishop the full Orders and Vppermost Supreme and including all Sect. 21. Against this Primacy of Bishops that of Metropolitans Exarchy Patriarchy and the Supremacy of Rome is objected Sect. 22. The Metropolitan c. is in some Cases above the Bishop but not in the Power of the Priesthood 't is the same Power enlarged No new Ordination in Order to it Sect. 23. The Vniversal Primacy of the Bishop of Rome is but Pretended not bottom'd on either the Scriptures or Fathers or Councils Sect. 24. 25 26. The Bishops Superiority or full Orders and Power in the Church is reassumed and farther asserted He with his Presbyter or Deacon or some one of them are to be in every Congregation for the Presbyter or Deacon or both to assemble the People and Officiate and not under him is Schism The several instances of this Power of the Priesthood Sect. 27. To Preside in the Assemblies Pray give Thanks for Teach and Govern there No Extempore Prayers in those Assemblies Sect. 28. To Administer the Sacraments the Consecration of the Lords Supper by Prayer and Thanksgiving and Attrectation of the Elements Baptism by Lay-Persons Rebaptizations on what terms in the Ancient Church Confirmation Sect. 29. To Vnite and Determine in Council The use of Councils and Obligation Their Autority Declarative Autoritative Sect. 30. To impose Discipline the several instances and degrees of it in the Ancient Church Indulgencies and Abatements Sect. 31. To Excommunicate or cast out of the Church a Power without which the Church as a Body cannot subsist a natural Consequent to Baptism Priests not excommunicated
Church of Christ all Christian Bishops by whomsoever Consecrated and his Arm is to rule them whosesoever's Hands were laid upon them and this solitary and by himself nor is any one a sharer with or out of subjection to him To which I shall reply that though the distinction in it self will with very much difficulty be admitted of and the ordaining and governing Parts will be very rarely found asunder Nor do I believe there can be an instance given of but one Bishop who at his Consecration had the Power of governing left out of the Office in which that other of Ordination together with this were not design'd at once and transmitted though the Objects have many times been changed either enlarged or limited as they have been both suspended altogether yet allowing the distinction it may possibly do Estius this present Kindness lookt upon as a Disputant and oppressed with an Argument giving him the opportunity of something like an Answer and with some shew he may escape that severity of words and blacker censure he there acknowledges to be passed by St. Gregory in several Occasional Epistles against whomsoever it is shall style himself Universal Bishop or Bishop of all Bishops That the very Name is Prophane Proud Sacrilegious Diabolical a Name of Blasphemy and the forerunner of Antichrist and all this Estius there tells us was occasion'd from this Holy Father by reason of the Patriarch of Constantinople's Ambition in that Nature declaring that as the Emperor did alone hold the Empire and all Inferior Governors were sent by him and held of him the Head and not to do it was Usurpation and Treason so did he alone hold the Episcopacy and all Holy Orders were to descend and flow from him and to receive them and not from him was to climb up the wrong way and by intrusion come in But then what more right he has on his side or better Autority than Bellarmine has on his or how he can prove a solitary peculiar Care and Government demandated to and in its special Constitution settled on St. Peter and by his Succession at Reme or which way soever else it was over the Universal Church or whole Gospel-Priesthood so as to constitute him and them its immutable perpetual Head to Govern though not to Ordain them and which was not in the rest of the Apostles Persons to be sure not in their Succession this does not readily appear the Scriptures are favourers of both alike and indeed give to neither any bottom at all Nor does any such thing appear in the best Antiquity or succeeding Matter of Fact in his behalf no ill Argument of ever a Divine Right were it on their side § XXV THE first instance we have from the Ancients of this Pretended Power is in Victor Bishop of Rome in the year One Hundred ninety four who threatned Excommunication against the Asiaticks because they complied not with him in the Observation of Easter The Succession of the Bishops of Rome is all along delivered down in Church-History from the beginning to this day each Bishop particularized under the Title of Romanae Vrbis Episcopus Antistes c. there 's no one note of Singularity affixed unto him and this is the first time we meet with any thing like a Superiority there practised and at the most he is but ranked with the other Metropolitans Now whether this was attempted by Victor purely out of Zeal for an Apostolical Custom and we have many examples of Eminent Bishops that have intermeddled without their own Districts or whether as supposing himself really invested with a Power for Inspection and Animadversion upon all other Christian Bishops certain it is this his Power was disown'd and rejected by an eminent Branch of the Church Catholick and as eminent Bishops as any She had the Autority and Practice of St. John is set up and Pleaded against that of St. Peter as what every way balances nor doth it any way submit unto it And Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France and none of the Quartodecimane but one who comply'd with Victor in the Observation of Easter yet asserts the Asiaticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Self-Autority nor is any Foreign Power to over-rule and controle them or the Peace of the Church to be broken on such occasions all which is to be seen in Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 23 24. and if we descend some time lower we shall not find any thing really more advantageous to him Constantine the Great Complements indeed Eusebius of Caesarea and tells him he is worthy of the Episcopale or Government of the whole Church De Vita Constant apud Euseb l. 9. c. 6. but that such an extent of Power was then in the Person of any one Bishop is no where said nor is there any probability to suppose it 'T is true that some Privileges have belong'd to the Bishop of Rome and which have been claimed as their due in good times Julius is very angry with the Clergy of Antioch that they did not call him to a Synod and urges it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law of the Church that whatsoever is done without the Bishop of Rome is to be void Sozom. Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 10. and in an Epistle of his to some whom he accuses of Contention and want of Charity not consulting the Peace of the Church in the cause of Athanasius he farther adds Are you ignorant that this is the Custom that we are first to be wrote to that what is just may hence be defined Inter. Athanas Opera Tom. 1. Ed. Paris Pag. 753. But then whatever this Privilege was that it did not arise from any Connatural Right to his See but Ecclesiastical Canon is most plain out of Socrates his Church History l. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and he may not have so much for what Vallesius in his Annotations there can produce for it Which is the alone Autority of Ferrandus that is Christian Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen an Historian that concerns himself as little with Christianity and Church Affairs as any one can be supposed to have done that attempted an History of the Times in which so much of the Church concerns its Power and Autority was Transacted as in the days of Constantius and Julian and whose times make up the best part of his Story The latter he studiously affects to represent to the World with what advantages he can both living and dying And for the Christian Religion he does not I am confident so much as name it Twenty times in all his Books and then accidentally and very slightly and the greatest advantage that he gives us is we have his Testimony that such a Sect call'd Christians was then in the World and for that particular passage quoted by Vallesius it makes if any thing against himself for he tells us That when Constantius the Emperor who is known to be Athanasius his great and mortal Enemy and mov'd every
Priesthood is one and the same in all and this shall not be called the chief Priest and that a Priest less Perfect but all are equally Priests all equally Bishops as who all have equally receiv'd the Gift of the Holy Spirit the Metropolitan Bishop as having the first Chair with addition shall be called Bishop Metropolitan or which seems mostly apposite for a present Conclusion if any thing can be more than that which is already brought in the sense of those three Bishops Can 8. Conc. Gen. Ephes Whatsoever is nominated contrary to the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Canons of the Holy Fathers and which toucheth the common liberty of Christians is to be renounced and rejected § XXVII I shall now therefore resume what I have already laid down and prov'd at large that those of the Bishop are the full Orders every one instance of Power design'd for the standing lasting use of the Church is in his and consequently is he uppermost in the Church can there be no one branch or design of Power above and beyond him this his Power in some instances of it hath been by consent and for weighty Reasons moving intermitted and suspended in the execution as to the Persons of particular Bishops where the Church increased and multiplied into various Bishopricks and occasions grew and causes arose betwixt one and the other or sometimes arose in one alone and within it self which could not be heard and determined but by different Persons thus Metropolitans were constituted but with no new Power which was not in Episcopacy nor was there any new Consecration only so much devolved upon one for the occasional business An occasion of which we have in part set down by Hosius in the entrance of the Council of Carthage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. if by chance an angry Bishop though such an one ought not to be is over-sharp against a Presbyter or Deacon or over-sudden care is to be taken for better satisfaction and he may appeal to a neighbour-Bishop who is not to deny him audience And that Bishop who first gave Sentence whether right or wrong is to bear the Examination and his Animadversions to be either confirmed or corrected as occasion or else the Bishop derives so much of this Power to the two Orders below him as the Presbyter and Deacon whose Power is more solemnly conveigh'd by laying on of Hands and Prayer and then conferr'd so fixing a Character indelible save only by that Power which devolved it and upon a succeeding Guilt and which for themselves to lay down and desert is Sacriledge and these sent out by the Bishop as is the Harvest great or small so more or less in number in subjection to and dependency upon him So that the standing Church Officers are these the Metropolitan which is only a Bishop with larger Jurisdiction and with the execution of a Power the Bishop has not and the naked Bishop with his Presbyter and Deacon in the ordinary course of officiating in order to Salvation and which three or some one or more of them as is the occasional Service are still to be present and in their spheres and courses according to their several proper Provinces and Offices as already described and particularized to attend and officiate in each Holy Assembly in every Congregation that is Publick and Christian where the Worship and Service of God is so performed as by the rules of the Gospel is order'd and appointed Thus Tertullian among the many absurdities of his time reckons up this Laicis munia sacerdotalia injunâ—unt the Lay-men undertake the Priestly office De Praescript cap. 41. the 〈…〉 the People united Sacerdoti suo to their Priest and a Flock with their Pastor Cypr. lib. 4. Ep. 9. that is no Church quae non habet Sacerdotem which has no Priest as St. Jerom. adv Luciferianos And he that reads over St. Austin's Sermon super gestis cum Emerito Donatist Episcopo Col. 631. will there find a great many Divine Services and all without acceptance and advantage because thus extra Ecclesiam without the Church no one belonging to the Priesthood there officiating for them The Church of God is either Episcopatus unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate dâ—ffusus as St. Cyprian again speaks Ep. 52. that one Episcopacy diffused and overspreading the World in the Union and Concord of its numerous Bishops and these either make a general Council or are under their several Metropolitans and are the Church representative or else it is in Episcopo clero omnibus stantibus constituta as Cyprian again Ep. 27. Cum Episcopis Presbyteris Diaconis stantibus Ep. 31. in the Bishop and Clergy the Presbyter Deacon and Laity the latter expressed by the stantes the People standing without in the time of officiating according to the ancient Ecclesiastical Custom And so also Optatus lib. 1. adv Parmen Donatist speaks of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and turbam fidelium the Believers in general Si tantummodo Christianus es hoc est non Apostolus Tertul. adv Marc. cap. 2. such as were Christians at large and not Publick Officers nor of the Priesthood and this as Members of a particular Church Parish or Congregation or however as relating to the publick Service of God to be discharged by all Christians and which cannot duly be perform'd without the Bishop in Person or in his Proxies by his Power lodged in the Presbyter or Deacon Thus he is called a Schismatick that erects an Altar without the consent of the Bishop Can. 3. Apost even though the Confession of Faith is otherwise sound If thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if thus dividing from and meeting against his Autority Can. 6. Conc. gen Constantinop the very Clergy themselves are not to administer in their Oratories without license had of the Bishop Can. 31. Conc. 6. in Trullo And to the same purpose is Schism again desined a recession from the Bishop erecting an Altar against an Altar Can. 13 14 15. Conc. 1 2. Constantin Can. 57. Conc. Carthag and Can. 6. Conc. Gangrens as the Church is there defined a Congregation of the Faithful with their Bishop so is it there peremptorily determined that the Anathema or Curse is due to those that privately and apart from these do convene and congregate themselves Nor is it Schism only but Heresie also so reputed by the imperial Constitution Sacram Communionem in Ecclesia Catholica non percipientes à Deo amabilibus Episcopis Hereticos justè vocamus We justly call them Hereticks that do not receive Communion in the Catholick Church from the Bishops which are beloved of God for as such they were then look'd upon and that more eminently than others in the then Christian account and it was the Bishop's common Epithete Deo amabiles Episcopi however the opinion and style of them is now alter'd Justinian Novel 109. Praefat. And now these Church-Officers being thus set out and enumerated what their peculiar
experienced the advantage of their Communion for a good while would be sensible of the loss be apprehensive of the sorrow and burden of it and that all Excommunications were not to take effect in the first times of the Church we have Origen for an example who when excommunicated by Demetrius with the assistance of other Bishops continued still a Presbyter and publickly associated as such And Vallesius annot in Euseb hist l. 6. c. 23. gives these two Reasons for it because his Sentence was denounced when absent and he had not legal Citations and it was not confirmed by the Bishop of Rome though to me a more probable reason may be given than either for the illegality of the proceeding and the no effect it had the ancient Canons of the Church still forbidding any one of the hieratical Order whether Bishop Presbyter or Deacon to be excommunicated Excommunication was the Punishment for the Laity the Clergies was Deposition nor were the Clergy subject to the other till removed from the Priesthood And certainly then much less can it be conceived in reason and as agreeable with the common courses of foresight and discretion that other things are managed in the Gospel with that this Ordinance should on such terms be instituted and put in execution as to reach Kings themselves and with less regard and consideration than to Persons in Holy Orders and be concluded more peremptorily and immediately to take effect upon them as if inconveniences and that over-ballance whatever the proposed advantage may be may not here be a consequent also Princes 't is true are equally subject to the Laws of Christ and his Church and they must come to Heaven in the same Path that the meanest of their Subjects do come in they are to be urg'd and taught publickly as are others and particularly in private and where due opportunity to be severely warned of but then upon a supposed failure to proceed to an open publick Exclusion this if in any one instance else ought first to be weigh'd and consider'd whether it be likely to have due effect to be for the good of the Church in general which his outward arm alone can protect and whether instead of reducing him as to his Person it may not much more harden him and especially since his Person falls under no farther Coercion than his engagements to Christianity lay upon him Examples of Kings are strangely influential and prevailing and whether a greater deluge of Prophaneness may not be let in by so doing or again whether the exposing him to shame and contumely would not withal expose his reputation to the contempt of his People and thus not only Religion and Morality but the outward Peace and Quiet of the Realm might be exposed to danger and the both Church and State be liable to inrodes and violence thereby we believe it to be what was appointed by God and supposed by our Saviour in the lay and frame of our Christianity that the Secular Power receive no abatement but on the contrary every of its Prerogatives be strengthen'd by its spreading over and reception in the World Since every other relation is to continue and be obliging so also must this of Kings which came into the World with the first is connate and coaevous with Paternity the Foundation was laid for both at once and Kings and Subjects are to remain so long as Fathers and Children the race of Mankind is on Earth continued and suitably to this first contrivance no sooner did the Empire come in to the Church and engage in Christianity but Emperors declared themselves and the Church joyfully receiv'd them for its Nursing Father and the Prince is the Supreme Governor there the Laws and Judicatures are the Kings and our Bishops give Citations in their own Names but by an antecedent Power derived from and by the Prince devolved unto them And the Bishops of old were so far from assuming to themselves any such outward Coercive Power as to make Citations of mens Persons to proceed by Court Process and Penal Mulcts that when they laid the Plot for Lay-Deputies Chancellors Commissaries Officials or whatever title they went under to sit in their Courts and give occasional Judgments for what private reasons I cannot tell but the pretended is this that it was less decent that they being Spiritual Persons should mingle themselves in Secular Affairs they could not constitute such their Deputies nor erect such an Order but by a special Grant and Seal from the Emperor a firm Argument that the Power was not originally theirs and they suitably supplicate him in order to it and he yields to their demand but gives a Caution that the Church be not dammaged thereby a thing in course to be suspected and perhaps the advantage the Church has since had that the Courts for her Justice are the Bishops and her Causes fall not immediately under a Secular Cognitor are so little and inconsiderable that though the first Piety and royal Indulgence is apparent yet the present benefit is hardly discernible at this day among us Vid. Cod. 16. Theodos Tit. 2. l. 38. and the Story is to be seen at large in the Commentaries of Jacob Gothosâ—red upon that Law And can we now with any shew of Reason suppose that in the design of our Saviour and the execution of Church Power no regard is to be had to the Prince and that Proceedings are to be alike as upon other Persons and promiscuously though all so far under the same Circumstances as equally Members of the same Association for Heaven Those rules of Policy which were contrived complyed with and submitted to in the first planting the Gospel seem not consistent with such an after-practice a Presbyter was not to be Excommunicated till first deposed and yet then shall each single Presbyter Excommunicate his Prince I do not say till deposed as was by the ancient Canons the Presbyter to be and then Excommunicated for that is what no Power on Earth can do and the Church of God never pretended to it 't was what she always abhorred but that the Considerations must needs weigh more and be much rather cogent that the censure go not out against a Prince and greater inconveniences must hence follow whatever they were the ancient Church did apprehend to be a consequent to the other and the common foresight of things could not also allow it The single Corinthian was Excommunicated by St. Paul when the whole Body of them each one full of iniquity had not the like Animadversions from him and what may not be connived at in him who is more than ten thousand and by which there is less Security that the edge of the censure will not be more abated and dulled thereby in whom is all Strength and Power in whose hand it is to expose all to the malice and violence of the Enemy to reduce the Church so near to the first state under the Heathens and which condition though it is
where the Prince has made Edicts inconsistent with their Practice and in whom the Church does acknowledge the Advantages of the World to be seated and which declares him to be Supreme over all Persons in all Causes Actions and Performances whatsoever Abatements then as to Practice there may there must be where that Common-wealth overbears out of which the Church cannot be or subsist where Necessity and Accidents prevent and obstruct even many times in order to Union and Uniformity that first Zeal of the Asiaticks afterwards abated about the time of keeping Easter and which they accounted not a thing necessary as succeeding Practice has declar'd and mostly when Religion may be in hazard otherwise these as they are of an after-Institution so must they yield in place to that which is antecedently God's Worship and in order to which alone they are acceptable Julian the Apostate among other Diabolical Stratagems and Infernal Devices he had for overthrowing and erasing Christianity Hist Tripart l. 6. c. 29. had this for one he instructed and adorned the Heathen Worship in all the Forms and Rites and Customs with every Order and Habit that was in use among Christians in their Worship hereby believing to gain from them a value upon his Idol Services to flatter and cheat the Christians into a compliance with and entertainment of them but this work'd not all upon the most holy Bishops and Confessors of the Age the outward form was reputed nothing if not leading to that within the Veil nor did one way of Worship at all prevail if so be without if engaging to deny that one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all the Ceremonial part never had any other estimate than in order to the more Substantial and 't was in course that the Veil was rent at our Saviour's Passion when the Oracle was gone and that Worship to be no more and should it so fall out that what is in it self so advantageous to the true Worship be allow'd but upon severer terms and inconsistent with our Christian Profession as it was by Julian or the Carved or Polished works of the Temple only be beaten down and which is now so much contended for by those among us that own one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all and which Julian did not do in the former case we are altogether to refuse in the latter we are to submit to the force and God must be served by us as he was by the Children of Israel for some time in the Brick Kilns and in the Wilderness and all along till the Temple was built by Solomon with allays and abatements as to what was better what their Lord God had chose and was otherways laid and design'd by him Persons and things in the ordinary course retarding and obstructing and which the Wisdom of God thought not convenient by an extraordinary Power to over-rule and prevent for the more speedy accomplishment BUT then on the other side to be so unequal § XI and uneven so rash and precipitant so heady and unfixed in the solemner Duties of Worship and higher Performances to God Almighty as to hold to no Rules and Orders in the discharge to innovate and change in the Forms and Ways and Expressions as we do in our Cloths as is usual in the shapes and modes of our Apparel another manner of Spirit sure becomes a Christian these are not befitting those goings of the Sanctuary nor are they like unto them as they were of old it argues every thing in the worshipper that can render the Worship it self little and mean and low in his conceit and apprehensions nothing can more abate of it and make it cheap in the Eyes of others or appear less revering and becoming that God that is worshipped this still brings Neglect and Contempt in any case and upon what Persons or Performances soever and much more in those that are religious and terminate in God where none can be supposed as discharged but upon the deepest Considerations the best weighed Reasons the highest Prudence and a thorow apprehension of the decency significancy exact proportion and every ways usefulness and advantage of it and what evil Consequences have hereby reach'd Religion it self too sensible Experience makes evident and since our innovating and quarrelling about the Modes and Circumstances of the higher Performance in Religion how has Religion it self been scorned and the most solemn Performances neglected disused and even ceased as at this day in our Land And as to our particular Church of England her Rites and Ceremonies when I hear and read them reported in Publick to be the best Model and Constitution the Christian World affords that she has even slit the Hair in each instance Order and Canon Rubrick and Injunction and is answering to every end of Piety and Devotion in the Worshipper of reverence and regard to God that is worshipped and full of Helps and Advantages all along in order to a suitable discharge of each When I hear her Wisdom and Prudence thorow and weightiest Considerations in the composing of each so exalted and extoll'd as is very usual both in Discourse and from the Press and yet again in the very next Breath or Page Proposals made for comprehension and compromisements as is frequent also for Repeals or Abatements of what is thus Prudent and Discreet Honorable and Beneficial every ways apt and significant and then to supersede this most holy Worship in so useful a way perform'd or which is worse to alienate it give it up for a Sacrifice to be burnt offer'd up and devoted to strange Gods the private Designs and perverser Enmities the Lusts and Passions and peevish interests of a never-satisfied Faction and Party among us such as have still turn'd the World upside down wherever having Rule and now attempt it in the ways of God's Worship among us and whose Spleen seems to swell and be fixed among us as did theirs of the City of Rome heathen against God himself Civitas Romana omnes omnium gentium Deos colebant praeterquam Judeorum Deum Arnob. Adv. Gent. l. 1. which worshipp'd all the Gods of the Gentiles only they receiv'd not the God of the Jews every thing is complied with but that which is thus by Law establish'd among us This I say is what I dare scarce trust to my Ears in when giving the conveyance I am rather apt to suspect an Indisposition in the Organ that the words are distorted and come cross to the design of the Speaker and seeing I can hardly believe I see it I still suspect either the Medium is undue the Optick is weak or 't is by a false Gloss by some one or more Errors in the conveyance whatever it is represented unto me And however I might be over-born by that Power which as a Christian I am not commissioned to resist and so may not escape the force and the worship must cease in Publick yet
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
all to his purpose but on the contrary are all against him himself has given so good an account of it that nothing needs here to be added but the recital of his own words whatever Power there is executed in the Church Semper à jure Anglicano civili temperatum est restrictum ut inde planè modos suos limites perpetuò receperit pag. 387. receiv'd modes and rules and limits by the Laws of the Land Prohibitions and Injunctions in order to a search and enquiry whether not destructive to the Prince to the Justice of the Subject and into the merit and demerit of the Cause or Person all follow as naturally as any thing in the World that in a Christian Kingdom where the Church is protected the Power of her Officers asserted and maintained its Acts and Executions assisted and abetted licensed and indulg'd in every thing that may be advantageous to the promoting this Power rendring it considerable and effectual as in the first design institution and purpose of it that the Prince do not wholly denudate and divest himself by his Grants and Concessions that the Church receive Rules back again and not act independently but with a regard to that arm which thus upholds her and 't is to be the care of a Prince that as not himself so nor his Subjects be burdned and oppressed with the vexatious proceedings of the Courts Ecclesiastical by Excommunications or otherways But then as to the force of Mr. Selden's Argument on this Concession I 'le only here use the words of Mr. Thorndike in his Treatise of the Laws of the Church Cap. ult pag. 394. But will all this serve for an Argument that there is no such thing as a Church in the Opinion of Christendom but that which stands by the acts of Christian Powers because they pretend to limit the abuse of it when as the very name of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Title of those Books and those Actions is sufficient Demonstration that they acknowledge and suppose a right to Jurisdiction in the Church which they pretend to limit as the neither Church nor the rest of their Subjects to have cause to complain of wrong by the abuse of it And since Mr. Selden has here Pag. 387. instanced in the first Christian Emperors wee 'l accept of their both rules and limits Laxations and Temperatures as he calls it and who as they never attempted to Excommunicate in their own Power and Persons so neither did they obstruct or declare against in their Laws the Divine immutable Right and Precept of its Institution as is plainly made appear in my Treatise above about it and all that which Mr. Selden has brought to the contrary is only some shew of words and expressions which he has wrested to his purposes as he does here in our Statute-Book and that which he brings of the Rump Parliament Pag. 387. and that Excommunicationi Presbyterali retinacula repagula quae egride ritè ea nequiret diversimodò prudenter assignabant c. they gave Laws and Rules to the Presbyterian Excommunications in their Assembly at Westminster and which though not without some Arguments to the contrary were submitted unto and also of Geneva it self whose Church-Power was thus limited in its Proceedings by State-Rules and for the better Security of the Power all this proves nothing less than what he designs and produces them for for these are the very Men and particular Incorporations as to Faith and Discipline he instances in Pag. 325 326. who assert and defend Excommunication as subjected in themselves and instituted by the preceptive Command and positive Appointment of either Christ and his Apostles or of both and the Inference thence can be only this That a Subordination to the Christian State and submission to the Rules of Policy in the Execution for order and conveniency and the more effectually compassing the end of the Ordinance is not inconsistent as such with the Gospel-Institution it no ways invests the thing it self or Original Power in the State and that which the Assembly-men demurr'd upon when the Parliament laid their Restrictions in all Probability was not that it enterfeired with the Divine Right or encroach'd upon it but as inconsistent with that Omnipotent Power and Self-existent their aim was to erect in their Presbytery or Consistoritorian Seigniority made up of Lay and Church Elders as accountable to none but themselves or the Classis or Synod for the Proceedings of such their Parlour whether King or Parliament demanded it all being there but Subjects that were not by Election of that precise Order and Fraternity and as unlucky an instance he has brought above Pag. 320. out of the Parliament of Scotland III Jacob. VI. Cap. XLV that the Parliament did there Excommunicate also a thing so abhorring to the Kirk and every ways disagreeing to the both humour of those People and it s then present Constitution as reformed by Buchanan and Knox in the height of Calvinism that no one that valued the Reputation of his Book among but easie considering Men would have inserted such a Quotation and yet it serves as well as five hundred more do with which his Margin is all along stuffed § XVI THE next Reason given why there is no such thing as Church-Power distinct and apart but is derived from the Crown is because that Erastus his Works were Licensed by Autority and Printed in the days of Queen Elizabeth by John Wolfe the Queens Bookseller and it stands so Entred in the Booksellers-Hall at London to this day De Syned l. 1. c. 10. Pag. 486. to which I answer that every Book Printed by Richard Royston His Majestie 's now Bookseller and Licensed by Autority is not therefore to be necessarily the sense of the Autority of the Kingdom and the same Latitude was in Licensing Books in the days of Queen Elizabeth as has been since and the same liberty taken Nor is it cleer that the Book was really Licensed by Autority from what Mr. Selden says for the Entrance into the Booksellers-Hall only is that it was reported by Mr. Fortescue to be allow'd by the Archbishop of Canterbury 't is not said that the Archbishop's hand or the hand of any other in Autority was set to the License and Books are not usually Entred for the Press upon a Report that they are Licensed but when a Licence is really not to be had and the Bookseller contrives as good a Plea as he can for his false Entry and surreptitious Impression what is added that the Archbishop had the Book in his Study fairly bound and with a Golden Motto on the outside of it will not do because Heretical it was not fit for many other Studies than his and which is the only thing else urged by Mr. Selden that he Licensed it yet admit it was Licensed duly whether by those viri summi of the Ecclesiastical Order and great Statesmen who got the Copy of Erastus his Widow or of
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
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
Scripture that if they shall be diligently compar'd together both between themselves and with the following Practice of all the Churches of Christ as well in the Apostles times as in the purest and Primitive time nearest thereunto there will be left a little cause why any man should doubt thereof § XX AND now I have done only Mr. Selden is once more to be encountred with who appears against all this and says that the Doctors of our Church are quite of a different Judgment and have declared the same to the World in their Writings De Syned l. 1. cap. 10. pag. 424 425. As the two Universities at once Published in the Reign of Henry VIII 1534. called Opus eximium de vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae quae sit ipsa veritas virtus utriusque Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in an Oration de vera Obedientia Joannes Bekinsau de Supremo absoluto regis Imperio with abundance more which he tells us was to have been Printed in King Jame's days but the Printer was in the blame The Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library where an account is given of Henry VIII entrance upon the Reformation 1540. and the Question among others is Vtrùm Episcopus aut Presbyter possit Excommunicare ob quaenam delicta utrum ii soli possint jure divino whether the Bishop or the Presbyter can Excommunicate and for what Offences and whether they alone can do it by Divine Right and about which great Divines were distracted in their Opinions but the Bishop of Hereford St. David Westminster Dr. Day Curwin Laighton Cox Symons say that Lay-men may Excommunicate if they be appointed by the high Ruler or the King and all those Writings in every Bodies hands De primatu regio de potestate Papae Regiâ against Bellarmine Tortus Becan Eudemon Joannes Suarez c. in the time of King James and whose Authors were Bishop Andrews Bishop Buckeridge Dr. Collings Bishop Carlton c. and in which three first Mr. Selden instances a great appearance of Adversaries and considerable withal and did not Mr. Selden give in the Catalogue whose unfaithfulness and imposings I have so oft experienced in this kind would be much more terrible in reality than they at first look appear incouraged therefore by former success I 'le encounter him once more and undertake an Examination of so many of them as I have by me and it is very pardonable if I have not all we that live remote in the Countrey and but poor Vicars there have not the advantage of Sir Robert Cotton's Library cannot attend Auctions or but common Booksellers Shops and have not Money to imploy others especially for the obtaining such Authors as these most of which are out of Print and some very rarely to be had by any and I am the more encouraged to the search just now finding in that Book of Bishop Sanderson's I had so lately occasion to make use of some of these Authors made use of on the contrary side as those who by the occasion of the title of Supreme Head our Church being charged with giving to the Prince the Power Autority and Offices of the Priest openly disavow and disclaim it and I think I may as soon rely upon Bishop Sanderson's report as Mr. Selden's his skill as Divine and Integrity as a Christian can be no ways below him even in the Judgment of Mr. Selden's Friends THE Opus eximium de verâ differentiâ c. § XXXI comes first the work he says of the two Universities I do not know why the Universities are entitled to it but upon Mr. Selden's report for this time will grant it readily because the Autority how great soever is really on my side nor does it answer any thing at all of Mr. Selden's design in producing of it The first Part is De potestate Ecclesiasticâ and is wholly levelled at the Power of the Pope and discovers his Usurpations over the Christian both Kingdoms and Bishops that his pretended both Spiritual and Temporal Plea has no ground either on the Scriptures or Fathers for it is altogether begged and sandy I cannot so much commend the clearness of it when discoursing of Church-Power as in it self and purely in the Donation and which he allows and defends he appearing not to have the true Notion of Church-Laws and stumbles at that so usual block that all Laws must be outwardly Coercive or they cannot be call'd Laws and so can be only in the Prince whom he well enough proves to have alone that Power and what he allows the Church is to make Canons i. e. rules to be receiv'd only by those that are willing but not Laws which enforce with more to this purpose something too crudely and which the then present Age will plead something for Confirmant quidem praedicta potestatem Ecclesiasticam sed Dominum regant tribuunt autoritatem non jurisdictionem admonere hortari consolari deprecari docere praedicare Sacramenta ministrare cum charitate arguere increpare obsecrare certissimis Dei promissis spem in Deo augere gravibus Scripturarum comminationibus a vitiis deterrere eorum sit Proprium qui Apostolis succedunt quibus etiam dictum est quorum remiseritis peccata c. Leges autem poenae judicia coerciones sententiae caetera hujusmodi Caesarum Regum aliarum Potestatum but surely all these are Laws too and have real Penalties if our Saviour himself be a Law-giver and have Autority and do oblige the unwilling only they break in sunder the bonds of Duty on whose Truth these their Admonitions Increpations c. are to be founded by whose Virtue the Sacraments have their Influence and the Power of retaining is executed unless the Pains of Hell are only painted or have no force because not inflicted so soon as denounced there is a Dominion sure goes along with Christ's Kingdom too accompanying his Ordinances only 't is not by the Rules and with the Consequents of the other Jurisdictions of the World and on this account Men have been so unwary as not to discern it to speak against it or unwilling to speak plainly out concerning it a mistake has been observed in others and 't is here pretty aged but 't is most sure and certain this 't is most plain and conspicuous the whether Potestas or dominium autoritas or jurisdictio as they distinguish Power or Dominion Autority or Jurisdiction that is allow'd to be Ecclesiastical is no where in the Treatise attributed to Kings to those that have Secular Dominion this is only eorum qui Apostolis succedunt theirs that succeed the Apostles The second Part is De potestate Regiâ where first the Divine Right of Kings is asserted and then their Power in the Church or over-spiritual things where their Right of Investiture is declared from Gen. 47. and the Priests received their Benefices from them as also over the Power and Persons of the
OF THE SUBJECT OF Church-Power In whom it Resides It s Force Extent and Execution that it Opposes not Civil Government in any one Instance of it Nec sic tamen quamvis novissimis temporibus in Ecclesia Dei aut Evangelicus nigor cecidit aut Christianae virtutis aut fidei robur elanguit ut non supersit portio Sacerdotum quae minimè ad has rerum ruinas aut fidei Naufragia succumbat sed fortis habilis honorem divinae Majestatis Sacerdotalem dignitatem plenâ timoris observatione tucatur Cypr. Ep. 68. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodos Imperator apud Theodoritum Eccles Hist lib. 5. cap. 18. By SIMON LOWTH Vicar of Cosmus Blene in the Diocess of CANTERBVRY London Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. TO THE READER 'T IS now full two years and upward since that huge din and noise Pannick almost and universal has been in London and elsewhere occasioned by this Treatise and it has with a forcible hand by threats and awes from thence to this day been either with-held from or in the Press insomuch that thô actually conceived and come to the Birth there wanted strength to bring forth my purpose is not to make much Apology in its behalf it comes abroad of Age natus cum barbâ as the Jews say of Esau after a course of Studies upon full Thoughts and a thorow Consideration though hastened as thus digested by a Sermon I met with Preached by John Tillotson Doctor of Divinity and Dean of Canterbury and is to speak for it self and if upon a due perusal the usefulness and seasonableness of the Subject matter together with the integrity of the Collector and which is here professed will not avouch it what can or why should I say any more I am content to fall and shall submit I do not pretend to be the best Composer in the World or above the reach of an Aristarchus and so let the Hypercritical and over-nice pick a Quarrel with it if they please I hope the best and that as in those fears called Pannick and where the Jealousie and Passion is vehement and subitaneous so here the Grounds on which some have already excepted against it will appear rather assumed than real an effect only of the Imaginative faculty and which is many times dismal till by reason corrected 'T is that which St. Jerome urges and aggravates against John Bishop of Jerusalem in his Epistle ad Pammachium adversus errores Johannis Hierosolymitani that when accused of the Errors of Origen and Arius and was expected to have Purged himself he Preach'd only against the Anthropomorphites a certain sort of obscure ignorant Monks who out of a Rustick Simplicity believed God to have the Parts and Members of a Man accordingly as spoken sometimes in Scripture who influenced none and perished within themselves I may here safely conclude my self secure against such an impertinency and indiscretion the Adversary I now engage against is neither ignorant nor obscure his repute for Knowledge is the same as his Conspicuity and that is with Absolom and his Fathers Concubines on the House top in the sight of all Israel and the Sun has passed both Press and the Pulpit and is now in each almost Gentleman's Parlour and Tradesmens Shop and in the Mouths of all Men and he were to be wished to be less in our Divines Studies And after those hotter Controversies in these Western Parts of the Christian World As whether Church-Power be originally lodged in the Person of the Bishop of Rome or in all and each of the Bishops of Christendom or in each single Presbyter or as the less considerable in every Believer 't is now concluded to be purely Secular men roundly and making no Bones run away with it and no more than the Prince's Pleasure is to be enquired after nor are any Persons or Functions to be accounted Sacred in order to the things of Heaven but by his Separation or is there any visible Power on this side Heaven but by his collating Nor is the Subject trivial or inconsiderable and without influence upon Mankind 't is that Christ Jesus had a Power all Power in Heaven and Earth once given him of the Father for the bringing Souls to Heaven this very Power first in him after descended to his Apostles and from them to their Succession the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and is to remain in and with them and their Persons apart and separate from all other Power Government and Jurisdiction till the end cometh and this Kingdom is delivered up to the Father so long is it to be visible and in force under what frowns and oppositions soever thô the Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Council against it And this is all I here represent to the World and which not by any Publick Autority God be thanked the case is not so with us but by a set of Men has been thus opposed and who seem to be somewhat whatsoever they be it matters not to me I have always learn'd Obedience but 't is to them that are my Governors but who are these neither shall I give place by Subjection to them no not an hour so peculiar is my case in an Age of Liberty when the Statute for Printing is expired and the Government has not thought fit to re-enforce it when every Sect and Party Scribbles and Publishes and a Treatise purely and solely stating and defending our Religion established by Law is brow-beaten and a total Suppression is to the utmost endeavoured I know they say 't is not the subject in general but my Animadversions upon the two Deans Doctor Stillingfleet and Doctor Tillotson they set themselves and contend against and pray how does this mend the matter or is not these Mens Zeal for the Church of England bulky and active to the purpose when its issue is this that the Names and Writings of two particular Men and which must be in so much less esteem and as false as they discountenance and are against our Church and whose Tenents so far as here impleaded they dare not openly Plead for must be untoucht and uncanvassed or else the state of the Church not medled with its Power and Autority be diminish'd and exposed by others by who so pleases and no Man defend it it is not to be duly and fairly represented to the World for their Information or Instruction unless there be an exempt and indemnity to such those two to thwart and oppose it as they shall think fit or give themselves advantages thereby from their Party and such their Autorities stand unquestioned as in Capital Letters to affront and confute all so soon as Published the Proposal must be both ridiculous and unreasonable at once or how can any man undertake to make but this one instance at present to vindicate our Church from Erastianism and that her Reformation did not enstate all Church-Power even in Edward
penè Voce Amen Cantatur Halelujah That Amen which is answer'd and Halelujah which is Sung with one almost Voice throughout so many Nations Lib. 2. adv Literas Petiliani Donatistae super Gestis cum Emerito Episcopo So Athanasius in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How Decent and Holy is it to hear in the House built for Prayer the People say Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one sound and consent there mentioned Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere Semet invicem saying a Hymn to Christ as God in courses with one another As Pliny lib. 10. Ep. 97. and is referr'd to by Tertullian in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Singing back again to one another in St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praying betwixt one another Ep. 63. Ad Clericos Neocesariensis Ecclesiae in amoibeunis and alternate Responses The Priest Parat mentes fratrum dicendo sursum Corda ut dum respondit Plebs habemus ad Dominum As St Cyprian upon the Lord's Prayer preparing the Minds of his Brethren saying Lift up your hearts and the People answering We lift them up to the Lord this the great and common constant Service of the Church of God The usual manner of old in the Performance of it and an earlier Pattern we have yet as to the Substance of it So soon as we meet with a Church gathered the Holy Ghost descended and those Thousands Converted by St. Peter Acts 7. he there opens to them the Scriptures they receive the Word and are Baptized they go on and continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and Prayer attend the Holy Communion Praising God Poetically extolling of him And thus became Peter in the letter of it a Rock a first Stone or principal Pillar in the Church or People of God § XVII BUT then besides their Publick Worship of God did this Union into one Body or Corporation farther express and oblige the Members in their Duties and Services to one another in the Supplies and Assistances of all its Members whose either special Offices and Imployments in the Service and Support of the Church Body or Association rendred uncapable of undergoing the Cares and Offices of the World for the providing themselves sustenance suitable to their Office and Quality in the Trades and Imployments of it for the Body of Christians though a Collection and Incorporation for Heaven yet is to remain its due time and abode upon Earth and to subsist whil'st on Earth by the usual and lawful courses of it it does not therefore immediately receive Food from Heaven or else whose unavoidable Want and Poverty by the unaccountable disposal of things and the many Contingencies of this mutable state here lays before them in their Streets and High-ways in the rode to this Jerusalem also as Objects of Pity and Commiseration Relief and Charity for their Saviour has told them That the Poor you must always have with you and to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven And this is to be done and is the general Duty of the whole Body and each Christian there in particular not only by the tenure of the special Charter from God and it is imply'd and made up and required in the Donation it self but by the common course and Laws of things no Body can subsist without it it must run to Decay Degeneracy and Contempt either through want of Instruction Order and Government on the one hand or by Idleness Destitution and Distress on the other and those weighty Reasons and Motives which engaged freely of their own choice no outward force compelling as in the Associations of the World in order to Governance and Subsistency to unite in God's Service it then necessitates that such ways and means be used here as in the sustaining other Societies and this upon the same Consideration and Motive as they believe it useful to be of such the Association and in Communion with one another especially where the force of the World enjoyns no other Provision as it did not till the Government became Christian and the World came in to the Support of the Church for which our Saviour did and must in reason provide upon failure otherwise Religion can no longer subsist then as the civil Empire pleaseth § XVIII AND first this general Care always extended and was made for such as labour'd among them in the Word and Doctrine such as attended the Altar and ministred in Holy Things and this not only to the maintaining their Persons but to the maintaining them in order to their Function and consequently in supplying them with all Utensils and whatsoever else was then thought necessary for the due and more solemn Performance of the Worship of God and the maintenance of his Service This is that St. Paul so much Pleads for and with so great earnestness and weight of Argument 1 Cor. 9.1 2 3 4 c. and tells them plainly That if he be an Apostle as he most certainly is to them who are the Seal of his Apostleship in the Lord then he hath a right to their Estates Have we not Power to eat and drink Have we not Power to lead about a Sister or Wife and to forbear working Who goeth to warfare at any time at his own Charges Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the Fruit thereof or who feedeth a Flock and eateth not of the Fruit of the Flock Do ye not know that they that minister about Holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are Partakers with the Altar So hath the Lord ordained that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And this the Church-men had not as Stipendiaries and Salary-men but the Believers brought in of their Goods and laid them at the Apostles feet which made a Common Stock or Bank to be at their Prudence in the disposal call'd the Lord's Goods and in relation to this Common Stock or Bank in the hands of the Apostles in which every Christian upon occasion had a right it is said That all things were common among these first Christians in the Book of the Acts for that no one had Property besides cannot be believed and the fault of Ananias and Sapphira was not that they did not bring all they had and lay it at the Apostles feet reserved nothing of their Estate to themselves but this was their guilt they kept part back and said it was the whole their lying to the Holy Ghost otherwise it was their own and they might have reserved to themselves what of it they pleased Now these common Gifts and common Purse as it was first intrusted with the Apostles so upon their failure did the trust descend and remain with the Bishops their Successors who distributed to the Necessities both of Churches and Church-men their Officers and Attendants as occasion required a competent Portion whereof was set apart and reputed their own Persoanl Goods
which they had Power to give by Will to their Executors or Relations as they had need and they saw cause This is plain out of the Fortieth Canon of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Goods of the Bishop are to be proper to himself and manifestly distinct from those of the Church and which are more peculiarly call'd the Lord's Goods That the Bishop may have Power at his Death to leave that part which is his own to whom he please and not under pretence of a title of Church Goods to have them entangled and lost especially if he have either a Wife or Children or Kindred or Houshold Servants These were not to be cut off and left in want by reason of the Church and occasion Curses upon the Bishop when he is dead And indeed how else had the Churches their Endowments and Provisions Temporal as Houses Gardens c. before the days of Constantine and which were by the Rules and Obligations of Christianity as their Freehold 't was Sacriledge the blackest Guilt to invade them and which Constantine only restored when preyed upon and spoiled by the Heathen Persecutors as Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 10. c. 5. and we have the famous Case of this Nature in Paulus Samosetanus who when deposed for Heresie kept Possession of his Church-House till Aurelian the Emperor no Christian assisted the Catholicks and by force dispossessed him The heathen Power sometimes conniving at these Donations of the Christians and took not advantage of the Forfeitures their Laws gave them now and then countenancing them against Invaders but never by the Imperial Laws giving a full Settlement and Confirmation of them BUT then besides this another Portion § XIX was to be reserved by the Apostles and Bishops for the Necessities of the Poor and destitute People for the Bishops were not the Alms-Men themselves as they are now adays termed but the Treasurers and Trustees to receive and keep the like Provisions and dispose them at their Prudence thus the Goods were brought in and laid at the Apostles feet Acts 4.37 and the Complaint was made to the Apostles when the Grecian Widows were thought to be neglected and who determined that a new Order of Deacons should be constituted and appointed for this business the better and more impartial looking after the Poor Acts 6. and this continued course of Charity and Goodness is apparent in the succeeding Church-Practice Tertullian tells us they had Quoddam arcae genus a kind of Chest in which every Month or when they will or if they will and if they can every one puts in something and this to be expended not in Banquets and Gluttony but to sustain or bury such as died in Want Children destitute of Parents and the Maintenance of old Men such as suffer'd Shipwrack work'd in Metals were banished into Islands and such as were in Prison in the Thirty ninth Chapter of his Apology So also Justin Martyr who was earlier a little than he after the Holy Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Such as were rich and willing offered every Man what he pleased and it was deposited in the hand of the Bishop for the Relief of Orphans and Widows such as by Sickness or any other Accident were brought to want if in Bonds or Strangers and the care of all that were indigent in general was upon him St. Cyprian in his Book De Opere Elecmosynis will not allow him that is rich and abounding to keep the Lord's-Day at all if he passes by the Corban or Poor Man's Box Qui in Dominicum sine Sacrificio â—enâ—â— and comes into the Lord's House without a Sacrifice tying them up more strictly to that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Now concerning the Collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galâ—tia even so do ye Vpon the first day of the Week let every one of you lay up in store as God hath prospered him And 't is the Injunction of the One and fortieth Canon of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We Command that the Bishop have Power of the Goods of the Church to assist by the Presbyters and Deacons such as are in want and to care for his own Necessities if he have any and for the Brethren that are sustain'd by Hospitality that there be nothing wanting among any of them And suitably in the Eighth Canon Conc. 4. Gen. held at Chalcedon Care is there taken That if the Bishop be translated out of one See into another that he carry nothing with him of the Goods of his former Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether of those belonged to the Martyrs or the Hospitals or the Entertainment of Strangers AND thus hath this Body or Association § XX its Duties and Offices in general and which every particular Member is concern'd in no one to be excepted as Occasion offers and Circumstances permit Now besides these there are Powers and Offices distinct and appropriated by Christ the Head and Fountain of what Power is devolved to particular Members such as never was design'd to be communicated in common and promiscuously neither can they without a ceasing of the Corporation its ruine and dissolution for if all the Body were the Head or the Eye where were the Foot it could not continue No Association can stand and preserve it self without special Officers and Governors invested with a solitary Power and Jurisdiction to keep and restrain every Member in those Bounds and Duties in the Confinement to and Performance of which the Association subsists all have their Stations and Services here some after this manner and some after that according to the measure of the Gift which is given and every one in their own order God is not the God of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints a Power limited to Church-Officers only such as were at first thereunto called appointed and invested by Christ in his own Person or by his Succession Nor may any Member in common or barely as a Believer take unto himself this Honor and Function and the select Persons herein deputed were either the Apostles and Seventy appointed by our Saviour in Person or afterwards those Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers Eph. 4.11 with others then as occasion deputed according to the present reason of the Churches first Planting and Propagation by those more immediate Descents of the Holy Ghost And all which with the reason and design of them ceasing what Power was adjudged fit and useful to remain was afterwards devolved fixed and limited to the three Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and so to continue till the Power and the Kingdom is delivered up to the Father These three Orders I say still remain upon the Rolls of Antiquity in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hieratical Priestly Order and Catalogue as 't is in 15 and 18 Canons of the Apostles And in others of those Canons in opposition to the Readers