of God notwithstanding any secular force prohibiting the same must needs maintain by consequence that the Church hath Power in it self to hold all such Assemblies as shall be requisite to maintain the common Service of God and the Unity in it and the order of all Assemblies that exercise it Thus Mr. Thorndike § 16 Dr. Taylor in Episcopacy asserted published by the Kings Authority after that p. 236. he hath laid this ground for the security of Secular Princes That since that Christ hath professed that his Kingdome is not of this world that Government which he hath constituted de novo doth no way make any Entrenchment on the Royalty hath these Passages p. 237. he saith That those things which Christianity as it prescinds from the interest of the Republick hath introduced all them and all the causes emergent from them the Bishop is Judge of Such are causes of Faith ministration of Sacraments and Sacramentals Subordination of inferiour Clergy to their Superiours Rites Liturgies c. As for the Rights of the Secular Power he layeth down this Rule p. 236. Whatsoever the Secular Tribunal did take Cognizance of before it was Christian the same it takes notice of after it is Christened And these are all Actions civil all publick Visitations of Justice all breach of municipal Laws These the Church saith he hath nothing to do with unless by the favour of Princes these be indulged to it these by their favour then indulged but not so the former Accordingly p. 239. he saith Both Prince and Bishops have indicted Synods in several ages upon the exigente of several occasions and have several Powers for the engagements of clerical obedience and attendance upon such Solemnities That the Bishops Jurisdiction hath a Compulsory derived from Christ only viz. Inflictions of Censures by Excommunications or other minores plagae which are in order to it And that the King is supreme of the Jurisdiction viz. that part of it which is the external Compulsory i. e. as he saith before to superadd a temporal penalty upon Contumacy or some other way abet the Censures of the Church P. 243. he saith That in those cases in which by the law of Christ Bishops may or in which they must use Excommunication no Power can forbid them For what power Christ hath given them no man can take away And p. 244. That the Church may inflict her Censures upon her Delinquent Children without asking leave that Christ is her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that he is her warrant and security And p 245. That the King 's supreme Regal Power in causes of the Church consists in all things in which the Priestly office is not precisely by God's law employed for regiment and care of Souls I suppose those he named before p. 237. and in these also that all the external Compulsory and Jurisdiction as he expoundeth 〈◊〉 before p. 239. is the King 's And lastly p. 241. he saith That the Catholick Bishops in time of Arian Emperors made humble and fair remonstrance of the distinction of Powers and Jurisdiction that as they might not intrench upon the Royalty so neither betray the right which Christ had concredited to them to the encroachment of an exterior Jurisdiction and Power i. e. the Royal. § 17 Bishop Bramhal frequently stateth the Primacy or Supremacy of Princes in Ecclesiastical matters thus Schisme Guarded p. 61. he saith All that our Kings assume to themselves is the external Regiment of the Church by coactive Power to be exercised by persons capable of the respective branches of it And p. 63. quoting the 37 Article of the Church of England where the King's Supremacy is expressed thus To preserve or contain all Estates and Orders committed to their trust whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in their duties and restrain contumacious offenders with the Civil Sword in which restraining offenders and containing all in their duty with the Civil Sword the Prince is willingly acknowledged by Catholicks the and the only Supreme he comments thus upon it You see the Power is Political the Sword is Political all is Political our Kings leave the Power of the Keys and Jurisdiction Spiritual purely to those to whom Christ hath left them And in answer to another Passage in the 37th Article and also in the Oath of Supremacy wherein the Bishop of Rome is denied to have any Jurisdiction in the Kingdome of England he distinguisheth between a Jurisdiction suppose to excommunicate absolve degrade purely Spiritual governing Christians in the interior Court of Conscience and extending no further and an exterior coactive Jurisdiction exercised in the exterior Ecclesiastical Courts the exterior Coaction of which he saith is originally Political and so belonging only to and held from the Prince His words are Schisme Guarded p. 160. Our Ancestors in denying any Jurisdiction that is Patriarchal to the Pope meant the very same thing that we do our only difference is in the use of the words Spiritual Authority or Jurisdiction which we understand properly of Jurisdiction purely Spiritual which extends no further then the Court of Conscience But by Spiritual Authority or Jurisdiction they did understand Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the exterior Court which in truth is partly Spiritual partly Political The interior habit which enableth an Ecclesiastical Judge to excommunicate or absolve or degrade is meerly Spiritual but the exterior Coaction is originally Political So our Ancestors cast out external Ecclesiastical coactive Jurisdiction the same do we They did not take away from the Pope the power of the Keys or Jurisdiction purely Spiritual no more do we And Ibid. p. 119. We acknowledge that Bishops were always esteemed the proper Judges of the Canons both for composing of them and executing of them but with this caution that to make them Laws he means such laws for observance of which secular coaction might be used the confirmation of the Prince was required and to give the Bishop a coactive Power to execute them the Prince's Grant or Concession was needful So that Bishops may both compose and execute Canons in the Kings Dominions and use the Ecclesiastical Censures by their own Authority without the Prince only they can use no Coaction by pecuniary or corporal punishments c. in the Execution of them without his which is granted to him Again Vindic. of the Church of England p. 269. he saith That in Cases that are indeed Spiritual or meerly Ecclesiastical such as concern the Doctrine of Faith or Administration of the Sacraments or the ordaining or degrading of Ecclesiastical persons Sovereign Princes have and have only an Architectonical Power to see that Clergy-men do their Duties i. e. not what he but what their Superiors in Spiritual matters judge to be so And Schisme Guarded p. 136. We have nothing concerning any Jurisdiction meerly Spiritual in all the Statutes of Henry the Eighth They do all intend coactive Jurisdiction in the exterior Court of the Church We give the supreme Judicature of
or express Tradition Apostolical but only educible de novo by most necessary and certain consequence from those which are so delivered which are necessary to be determined and delivered by the Church of later Ages when contrary Errors happen to appear 4. Accordingly they affirm That upon the appearance of several such dangerous Errors the Church did lawfully in the four first General Councils make and deliver some new Definitions in matters of Faith new taken in the sense expressed above Num. 2. did lawfully enlarge the former Creed and require assent or belief in the sense explained above Num. 3. unto these new Definitions under pain of Anathema 5. They maintain that all such dangerous Errors have not appeared within the times of the four first General Councils nor those Councils defined all divine Truths contrary to such Errors and therefore that the Church in later Ages may use against these her Authority to do the same things in her following Councils as in the four first 6. And consequently that it is not reasonable to require of the Church that her Definitions be shewed I say not in their necessary Principles on which she grounds them but in their formal Terms either in the Scriptures or her four first Councils or in the now extant Writings of the first Ages 7. Nor necessary that every explicite Tradition Apostolical and Principle that hath descended to the Church of later Ages most certainly thro all the former must therefore be shewed to be asserted or mentioned in the Writers of the former especially where these very few HEAD VI. Concerning Subordination of Ecclesiastical Authorities Concerning Subordination of Ecclesiastical Authorities 1. CAtholicks maintain a due Subordination both of Ecclesiastical Persons among themselves viz. Of Presbyters to Bishops Bishops to Metropolitans Metropolitans to Primates Primates to Patriarchs And of Ecclesiastical Synods viz. Diocesan to Provincial Provincial to Patriarchal Patriarchal to General 2. They willingly grant That any particular Church or Provincial or National Synod may lawfully make Definitions in matters of Faith Reformations of Errors and Manners and other Ecclesiastical Constitutions for it self without the concurrence or conjuncture at the same time of any other Church or Synod therewith But 3ly They deny that any particular Church or Provincial or National Synod may make such Determinations or Constitutions contrary to those of any present or former Authority or Synod or maintain them made contrary to such Synod present or future reversing them to which Authority either Divine or Ecclesiastical Constitution hath made them Subordinate For without destroying Government no Ecclesiastical Law can be dissolved but by the same or an equal Power to that which made it nor can a part suppose a Church Arian or Donatist as it thinketh meet from time to time free it self from the Acts of the whole especially in such things wherein it can shew in it self no particular difference or disparity from the rest of the whole And therefore 4ly They affirm that when Ecclesiastical Persons or Synods happen to oppose one another Christian Obedience is still due only to the Superiour HEAD VII Concerning Ecclesiastical Supremacy Concerning Ecclesiastical Supremacy 1. THE Catholick Church here on Earth is but one united State and Body which all seem to confess in that when any separation is made every side endeavours to remove the cause thereof from themselves And it cannot reasonably be denyed that All the Christian Churches in the world are capable of a Monarchical Government under one Bishop as well as several Nations under one Emperor or Secular Prince and that such Government much conduceth to the Church's Peace and to the preventing and suppression of Heresies and Schisms 2. Catholicks perswaded therein both by the Scriptures and Tradition do acknowledge 1. That St. Peter was made by Christ President and Head of the College of the Apostles Matt. 16.19 Jo. 21.15 being compared with Gal. 2.7 And 2dly That the Bishop of Rome is his Successor in such Supremacy as likewise Successor to St. Paul the Great Apostle of the Gentiles in that See wherein the two great Apostles last resided anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sedes Apostolica And 3dly That this Bishop hath by Divine Right or if it were only by Ecclesiastical Constitution and by ancient Tradition and Custome it were sufficient committed to him a Supreme Authority over the Universal Church of Christ here on Earth in the calling of Councils and in the approving and confirming their Definitions before they can be universally obligatory and in taking care in the Intervals of such Councils of the due execution and observance of their Decrees and in receiving Appeals from all parts of the Church in some matters of greater concernment And 4ly That as no temporal Power may lawfully change or annul any Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Decrees made concerning the Government of the Church or other matters meerly Spiritual so neither may such temporal Power in particular abrogate this Ecclesiastical Authority tho it were only conferred on the Bishop of Rome by the Church so far as using a Jurisdiction meerly Spiritual in Matters that are so 3dly They willingly confess That the Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority cannot dispense with any Divine Law now without such Dispensation obliging but only with Ecclesiastical Laws Nor hath any Power over Princes or their Subjects in Temporal matters but only in Spiritual over all those whether Princes or Subjects who are Members of the Church 4ly That there is no Decree of the Church or Council obliging any to maintain this Supreme Magistrate of the Church to be infallible in his Decrees nor on the other side just cause for any therefore to withdraw their obedience to his Decrees because they hold him not infallible HEAD VIII Lastly Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council IN which the Supreme Judgment of this united Body is placed 1. It is not necessary to the composition of a lawful General Council that all the Clergy of the Christian world be assembled therein or all the Bishops of this Clergy or amongst the Bishops some sent thither the Delegates by the rest from all particular Churches professing Christianity For 1 upon these terms the four first Councils cannot be allowed General 2 Again Thus it would be in the power of any particular Church in detaining its Bishops to hinder the Being and the Benefit of a General Council 3 Again Heretical or Schismatical Churches being no part of the Church Catholick the absence of their Bishops hinders not but that the representative of the Church Catholick in such Council may be still compleat 2. The Presence of the Delegated Bishops of all particular Catholick Churches or Provinces is not necessary in such Council to denominate it lawfully General it being provided that all are called to it and none that come excluded because this Absence of some may either be necessitated from
Poverty distance of Place Le ts of temporal Magistrate or voluntary also out of some unlawful respect Which Absence of some few in comparison of the whole if it can hinder the necessary Generality of the Council it is probable that there will never want within the Confines also of the Church Catholick now spread thro the Dominions of several Princes of contrary interests some either Bishops or Secular Governours that are averse from the meeting of such Council in respect of some Circumstances belonging to it at least those of time place c. 3. For these reasons therefore 3 such Council seems to be unquestionably General not to say here that none less their such can justly be so where are present in person or by his Legates the Bishop of the Prime Apostolick See without whom no such Council can be held and by their Lieutenants at least all or most of the other Patriarchs such as are in Being and have some considerable part of the Church Catholick subjected unto them It is said most of them for the presence and concurrence of all of them was not thought necessary neither in the third nor fourth of the allowed General Councils And the Representatives of a considerably major part of the Catholick Provinces and more especially the Representatives of the largest and most dignified of these Provinces 4. In the Absence of some Patriarchs or chief Churches in such Council or in the presence there only of a smaller number of Delegates from the greater and more numerous Provinces and of a greater number from other less as five or six Bishops only delegated from the Western Churches were present in the Council of Nice or in any other deficiency of the representment of the greatest part of the Church Catholick in this Assembly yet when the Decrees and Acts of such smaller part being sent and made known to the Absent are both confirmed by the Bishop of Rome the Primate of the Patriarchs and of the universal Church and accepted also by the much major part of the Catholick Provinces tho these be not accepted by some others of them such Council ought either to be received as General or as equivalent thereto and the Acts thereof are obligatory to the whole Church Catholick For seeing that if all the Provinces had convened in one Place and Body the disagreeing votes of some Provinces in such Councils being fewer and lesser could not have justly hindred but that the contrary votes of the other much major part would have stood in force and obliged all to obedience then neither can their dissent out of the Council be rationally pretended to hinder the same And what engagement the several Provinces of the present Age have to such Council the same also all future seem to have for the same reason till an equal Authority to that which established such Ecclesiastical laws reverse them which in matters of necessary Faith will never happen So the Arian Churches of the fifth Age are as much obliged to the Definitions of the Nicene Council as those of the fourth And in any Age what means can there be of Preservation of Unity for matter of Faith in the Church Catholick if a few in comparison will neither be regulated by any one Person or Head Nor yet concluded by the much major part Here by acceptation of the much major part of Catholick Provinces is understood none other necessary then only a peaceful acquiescence in and conformity to the Decrees of such Councils and a not declaring against them tho such Acceptation proceed not so farr as to the passing of an Act to this effect in Provincial or National Synods For this last hath not been done to those Acts of Councils universally held General 5. To go yet a little further Considering the present Condition both of the Eastern Churches and of such Patriarchs as are yet left besides the Roman such now rather in name than in power the paucity poverty and illiterature necessitated by their great oppressions of their Clergy their incapacity to assemble themselves even in lesser Synods for consultation to say nothing here whether any of these Churches have declined from the former Definitions of the Church Catholick and so are become Heretical and so uncapable of sitting in Ecclesiastical Synods in these times a General Council such as ought to oblige may be well apprehended to receive narrower bounds than formerly And such a Council where those who are Catholick in Eastern Churches are wished for invited and if any come not excluded and to which all the Western Provinces yet flourishing in Religion and not obstructed from meeting are called and in which the Representatives of the greatest part of them joined with the Prime Patriarch are assembled such Council I say ought either to receive the denomination of General especially as to these Doctrines wherein the Eastern Churches consent or of the most General that the present times will afford or at least of a Patriarchal and lawful Superiour Council and so in the same measure accepted obligeth all the Provinces of the West to yield obedience thereto and therefore in such an Age for any Person or Church that is a Member of this Western Body to call for a larger Council than can be had is only an Artifice to decline Judgment and for any to Appeal to a future Council which can be no larger than that past to whose sentence they deny Submission what is this but to renounce the Authority they appeal to To which may be added that any Appeal to a future Council concerning such Controversies wherein one knoweth the unanimous Doctrine of the much major part of the present Christian Churches as well Eastern as Western to be against him seems bootless and affording no relief Because such Council can consist only of the Governours and so of the judgments of such particular Churches put to together and therefore such as the present Doctrine is of the major part of these Christian Churches and of the several Bishops presiding in them especially now after the cause reasons pretended demonstrations of the dissenting Party for so many years divulged pleaded considered such we may presume will be that of the Council For what can effect a Mutation of opinion in these Persons joined which altereth nothing now in them severed HEAD IX Concerning the Vnity of the Church and of its Government and Succession in respect of Seculars § 1 1. CAtholicks affirm That the Church and Civil Societies are two distinct Bodies Concerning the Unity of the Church and of its Government and Succession in respect of Seculars subject to their distinct Superiors and that the Church Catholick is but one in many States Again That the Civil State entring into the Body of the Church cannot thereby justly take from it any of its former Rights which are instated upon it by our Lord and which it did or might justly exercise in such Civil State before this State submitted it self to the
by others but the same Authors as it were unhappily distracted and divided between two powerful Leaders Interest and Truth to bring in Alterations in Religion against the standing Church Authority chiefly by this way namely a Superintendency or Supremacy therein of the secular power either proceeding against all or at most joined with some inferior against the superior Clergy or some lesser against a much major part the judgment of which superior's and major part do canonically conclude the whole I think it necessary in this a matter of so great consequence to gather all those Pleas and Defences of any weight which I have met with in these Writers whereon they build the lawfulness of their Reformation by the secular Arm and to shew the invalidity of them § 34 To this purpose then I find them to alledge on the other side as if they had forgot all they had already conceded See Dr. Fern Answer to Champny p. 300. That the secular Sovereign Power is to be satisfied or as it is there § 21. to have it by Demonstration of Truth evidenced to him that what is propounded as Faith and Worship is according to the Law of Christ before he use or apply his Authority to the publick establishment of it Ibid. p. 294. And this in respect of his duty to God whose Laws and Worship he is bound to establish by his own Laws within his Dominions and is accountable for it if he do it amiss Thus Dr. Fern. Well But may the Clergy at least publish that Faith and Worship which they judge to be according to the Law of Christ in his Dominions without him Or may not the Prince also establish something as the Law of Christ when it is as he conceives evidenced to him to be so by some other without or against the Clergy or only with some minor or inferior part of them when opposed by the superior and major i. e. by the Canonical Ecclesiastical Judge The first of these is denied by him the later affirmed For saith he Ibid. p. 308. General Councils being the greatest and highest means of direction which Kings can have in matters of Religion but still with the limitation quatenus docent legem Christi of which I suppose the Prince must judge it being possible that the major part should be swayed by Factions or worldly Interest Therefore Kings and Emperors saith he may have cause given them upon Evidence of things unduly carried to use their supreme power for forbidding of their Decrees And Ibid. 2. c. p. 73. The Sovereign Prince is not bound in the way of Prudence always to receive his directions from a vote in Synod especially when there is just cause of fear that the most of them that should meet are apparently obnoxious to factious Interests And p. 72. If the Prince by the law of God stands bound to establish within his own Dominions whatsoever is evidenced to him by faithful Bishops and Learned Men of the Church to be the Law of Christ shall he not perform his known duty till the Vote of a major part of a Synod give him leave to do it Where also p. 295. he approves the Concession of the Clergy under King Henry the Eighth In binding themselves by Promise in Convocation in verbo Sacerdotis not to exact or promulge or execute any new Canons or Constitutions without the King's assent Here you see the Clergy's power so tied up that they can publish no Christian Doctrine to the People that is to Christ's Flock which they do not first evidence to the Prince and have for such publication his consent but on the other side whatever is any way evidenced to the Prince he may publish without and against their consent and yet they not he are made by these men the ordinary Judges in Spiritual matters § 35 Now here suppose the Prince receives the Directions of some Clergy men in any thing he doth yet since the Clergy is a subordinate and well regulated Government and these his Spiritual Directors oppose the main Body he is not here directed by that Clergy that ought to be his Judge but those that are against it Yet still some reason were there in this if the Prince could always be certain in his Evidence so as not to mistake i. e. to think something evidenced to him when indeed it is not and again to think other things not sufficiently evidenced when they are so there were less hazard in leaving Church matters thus to his disposal But since things are much otherwise and evidencing Truths to any one by reason of different Understandings Education Passions and Interest is a thing very casual so that what is easily evidenceable to another may happen not to be so to the Sovereign Power when not patient enough to be informed when misled and prepossessed by a Faction when not so capable as some others by defect of nature or learning and facile to be perswaded by the last Speaker c. to what an uncertain and mutable Condition are Church Affairs reduced when the Function of the Clergy depends on such Evidences made to the Prince 2. § 36 Next they urge That in regard that the Clergy may many ways fail and miscarry in delivering Christ's Laws and the Truth of the Gospel If in matters already determined by our Lord and his Apostles or Laws given to the Church by injury of time the Practice become contrary to the Law the Sovereign Power being bound to protect Christianity is bound to employ it self in giving strength first to that which is ordained by our Lord and his Apostles By consequence if those with whom the Power of the Church is trusted i.e. that Body of the Clergy whose Acts conclude the whole else if only some other Clergy miscarry this Body serves the Prince for their correction shall hinder the restoring of such Laws the Sovereign Power may and ought by way of penalty to such persons to suppress their power that so it may be committed to such as are willing to submit to the superior Ordinance of our Lord and his Apostles Thus Mr. Thorndike Rights of the Church p. 273. § 37 Now here to omit that such suppositions and fears that the Clergy taken in the largest capacity and supremest judgments to which the Prince is to repair when lower are suspected shall fail at any time in the delivering to Christians all necessary Truths are groundless of which see what hath been said in the first Discourse concerning the Guide in Controversies § 6. c. And Second Discourse § 12. c. what reasonable man is there hearing this that will not presently ask Who shall judge whether that be indeed a Law ordained by our Lord or his Apostles which the Prince would introduce or restore and which the Succession of the Clergy opposeth Which Clergy surely will never confess such to be a Law of our Lord but always will profess the contrary Nay will say That the Succession of the Clergy
only can bestow such an Authority as before Constantine's time so after 2. Whatever Priviledge that was That John Bishop of Ravenna claimed who Dr. Hammond saith was the first that publickly contested his Right with the Bishop of Rome perhaps a Donation of this Pall at once for that Bishop and all his Successors not to be reiterated from the Pope's upon every new Election it appears clearly from St. Gregory 2. l. Ep. 54. that he claimed such Priviledge not singly from the Emperors Rescript but also from a Grant of the Roman Bishop St. Gregory there denying any such Grant And also the same Gregory in 5. l. Ep. 8. in his sending the Pall after this to Maximinianus Bishop of Ravenna and confirming his Priviledges Quae suae pridem concessa esse constat Ecclesiae mentions the Motive to be Provocatus not only antiquae consuetudinis or dine which Dr. Hammond takes notice of Ibid. p. 151. and applies to the Emperors Rescript but first Apostolicae Sedis benevolentia which Dr. Hammond omits Apostolicae Sedis benevolentia antiquae consuetudinis ordine provocatus are the Popes words But such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretended to be received from the Church Tho St. Gregory saith this Pretence was false no way fits Dr. Hammond's purpose of the Princes bestowing such a Priviledge when the Patriarch opposeth 3. As for the Subjection of the Provinces of Aemilia unto it by the Emperor if this be supposed done by him without the Churches consent it seems contrary to the 12th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon which permits not to Princes the dividing or changing the former Jurisdictions of Prelates Yet were this thing wholly permitted to the Prince so long as the Confirmation of such new-erected Primates is still to be received from their Canonical Superiors no Faction Division or Independency can be hereby introduced into the Church nor the Protestant Cause any whit hereby relieved To γ The three Canons To γ. In the first it appeareth that the Prince attempting to dispose of half the Jurisdictions of a certain Metropolitan to a new Prelate set up by himself the Council prohibits it and reserves still the whole Jurisdiction to the former therefore in this Councils judgment the Prince could do no such thing justly In the two last the Prince changing or erecting a new Metropole or Mother City for the Seat of Judicature the Church not the Prince and so this proves no Right of his to do it orders with very good reason the change of the Seat of the Metropolitan to this Place of greatest Concourse These Canons then which the Dr. urgeth for his Cause are they not to good purpose for the contrary I pray you view them But meanwhile concerning the Point so much driven at the Princes making new Patriarchs I must remind you here again of the Canon of the 8th General Council Can. 21. Definimus neminem prorsus Mundi Potentium quenquam eorum qui Patriarchalibus sedibus praesunt in-honorare aut movere a proprio Throno tentare sed omni reverentia honore dignos judicare praecipue quidem Sanctissimum Papam Senioris Romae c. To δ. The Kings of England transplanting Metropolitanships To δ. dividing Bishopricks erecting new ones exempting Ecclesiastical Persons from Episcopal Jurisdiction c. Such things are denyed to be justly transacted by the Prince's sole Authority without the consent of Church Governors general or particular of which see the 8th General Council Can. 22. about Election Nor doth the Negative Argument of the Church's consent to this not mentioned prove such Facts to have been without it especially as to the confirmation of Persons so promoted by the Prince in their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Which thing being once taken from the Ecclesiastical Canonical Superiors and this power of Erecting Patriarchies and Primacies and by consequence of the bestowing and transferring the several Priviledges thereof solely cast into the hands of a Secular Prince and then this Prince supposed to be not Orthodox a supposition possible and what confusion and mischief must it needs produce in such a body as the Church strictly tyed in Canonical Obedience to such Superiors and subbmitting to their judgment and decisions in Spiritual matters By which means this seduced Prince may sway the Controversies in Religion within his own Dominions what way he pleaseth so long as there be some Ecclesiasticks of his own perswasion whom he may surrogate in the places of those others that gainsay Remember the times of Constantius Meanwhile if the Churches Rights of a Canonical Subordination of all the Clergy be strictly observed I know not what other Indulgment about Clergy Preferments may not with sufficient preservation of the Churches Catholick Unity be conceded to the Prince This from § 59. of their Ninth Plea the Prince's Power to erect new Patriarchs § 68 10. In the last place they say That a National Church hath within it self the whole Subordination of Ecclesiastical Power and Government 10. See Dr. Fern's Case between England and Rome p. 26. in which a Primate is the highest and thus far only ascends Dr. Hammond and so hath a supreme and independent Power in managing all Ecclesiastical Affairs within it self and delegating its Power to others To which I think there needs no further Answer the Subjection of these Primates or lower Patriarchs to higher sufficiently appearing from frequent ancient Church Canons and being conceded by other Learned Protestants For which not often to repeat the same things I must refer you to what is said before in γ. And in Consid on the Council of Trent § 9. c. as also their Subjection to Patriarchal or General Councils in that it hath been ordinary to execute their Censures upon such Primates or also Patriarchs when Heretical or otherwise faulty HEAD X. Concerning the Vnity of the Church Catholick in respect of Heresies and Schisms and other intestine Divisions Concerning the Unity of the Church Catholick in respect of Heresies and Schisms and other intestine Divisions 1. CAtholicks do hold That one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church mentioned in our Creed is not always a Body coextended to the Christian Profession or involving all Christian Churches if I may so call them or Congregations or Sects But that some Christian Churches or Societies there are or may be that are no part of it but do stand contradistinct to it 2. They willingly grant That not all differences or divisions in Spiritual matters between particular Persons or Churches where there is no Subordination between them do render one or both of them guilty of such Schism as to become thereby no Members of the Church Catholick But 3ly they maintain that all such Division wherein a particular person or Church departs from the whole or wherein a Subordinate Person or Church from all their Spiritual Superiors for such matters wherein Obedience is required from them by all these or by the whole is such Schisme as
renders them no longer any part of the Church Catholick nor Members of the Body of Christ 1. From whence they conclude 1. That a particular Person or Church differing or dividing from the whole in any one Point of Faith which is defined by the whole and their assent or belief required thereto cannot plead it self any more to be one Church with or a part of the Church Catholick because that it agreeth with it still in many or in all other Points of Faith As the Arian Churches agreeing in all other Credends save Consubstantiallity of God the Son with the Father became by this no longer a part of the Church Catholick 2. And likewise from hence they conclude that those who in their separation 1. first deny not the Church or Churches they separate from to be true Churches 2. Who profess themselves not to renounce an inward Communion with those departed from 3. Who renounce not external Communion neither if they may be admitted thereto on terms they can approve 4. Who exclude not those from whom they separate from their own external Communion that is if others will conform to them 5. Who do not set up any new external Communion at all 6. Lastly Who do not publickly contradict the tenents or customes of those Churches from which they separate Those I say who can plead all these things or themselves are not thereby cleared from Schisme because their Separation may be tho in none of these things yet otherwise faulty mentioned above and tho some Churches heretofore noted for Schisme have offended in some of these yet it hence follows not that those who offend in none of these are free from Schisme 3. Again they conclude from hence that those who refuse to conform to something which the Church Catholick requires of them that they may be Partakers of her external Communion and for this are by her thrust out of her Communion are guilty of Schism as well as those who before any Ejection voluntarily desert it Else Arians and many other Hereticks would have been no Schismaticks 4. Lastly That those who never were in the external Communion of the Church Catholick yet stand guilty of Schisme so long as upon the same reason upon which the others left it they do not return to it or cannot be admitted by it 4. They maintain That any particular person or multitude joined together dividing from the external Communion of all other particular visible Churches of the present Age and even from those of their own Church as well as from the rest viz. from so many of it as continue what they were and what the Separatists also were formerly must needs in this separate from the external Communion of the Church Catholick of the present Age for either all or some of these Churches which they separate from is so and do separate from their lawful Superiors for such is the Church Catholick in respect of any part and so is guilty of that sort of Schisme which cuts off from the whole 5. They affirm that the exercise of any sacred Function is to all Heretical or Schismatical Clergy tho never so truly or validly ordaioned utterly unlawful and the Sacraments and other Ordinances of the Church to the Receivers in such Church unbeneficial i. e. to so many as are conscious of the Schism or only thro a culpable ignorance nescient HEAD XI Concerning the Judgment and Discovery of Heresy and Schism Concerning the Judgment and Discovery of Heresy and Schism 1. CAtholicks affirm That all maintaining of any Tenent contrary to the known Determination of the supremest judgment of the Church in matters which she declares of necessary Faith is guilty of obstinacy and so is Heresy Likewise that all voluntary departure from the external Communion of the Church Catholick upon what pretences soever of its erring in faith or manners is truly causeless the Catholick Church being our Guide in Spiritual matters as to both what is true and what is lawful to whom we ought to assent and submit and so Schisme But 2ly taking the Protestant Description of them viz. That Heresy is an obstinate Defence of Error contrary to a necessary Article of Faith and Schism a causless Departure or Separation from the external Catholick Communion and so also being causless from the internal Yet Catholicks urge this as necessary that there must be some certain Judge upon Earth authorized to decide whether such Error be against necessary Faith and whether the Defence thereof be to be interpreted obstinacy and whether such Departure be causless So that all the Subjects of the Church are to receive that to be Heresy or Schism which this Judge pronounceth to be so Else what none can know and judge of none can punish or separate from nor the true extent of the Church Catholick and its Distinction from the Heretical and Schismatical ever be discovered 3. It is most reasonable that in any differences of judgment concerning these amongst Ecclesiastical Magistrates or Courts of Judicature the most supreme for the time being must be the Judge to whom all ought to acquiesce Else if a particular Person or Church may undertake to judge these against Superiors Heresy and Schisme will remain equally undiscovered between these two contrary Judges as if there were none And Heretical and Schismatical Churches will still free themselves of it by their own Judgment and that Person or Church which contends for such Priviledge at any time gives great suspition that they are in such manner faulty 4. It seems clear that all separation of a particular Person or Church from the external Communion of all the rest will always by such Judge either be pronounced causless or the cause thereof be rectified and so the Division cease if these Churches that are departed from be the Judges of it For doubtless these if they should condemn themselves will also correct in themselves what they do condemn HEAD XII Concerning Submission of Private Judgments to this Church-Authority indicated in the former Heads Concerning Submission of Private Judgments 1. IT is conceded by Catholicks That no man can believe any thing at all or do any thing lawfully against his own judgment or conscience as Judgment is taken here for the final Determination upon reviewing the former Acts of the Intellect and upon considering all reasons as well those taken from Authority as those taken from the things themselves of what we ought to do 2. But notwithstanding this 2ly It is taken for granted That one following his own judgment in believing or acting is not thereby secure from believing amiss or acting unlawfully and therefore that every one is much obliged to take care of rectifying his Judgment or directing aright his Conscience 3. That the same Judgment may be swayed contrary ways by several Arguments viz. One way from the Argument drawn from Authority and another way from his private Reason and that when this happens he is no less truly said to