Renowned applauded Doctors teach that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and that an excommunicated King is no King and he that killeth him killeth not a King When the Roman Council under Greg. 7. decreeth that the Pope may depose Emperours And the same Greg. 7. li. 4. Ep. 7. conspireth in the like Doctrine The Oration of Card. Peron is well known If so great a Kingdom as France that glorieth of its Church-liberties can bear so much what will not those bear that are less able to deliver themselves The words of this Great and pretendedly Moderate Cardinal in a Moderate Kingdom in a publick Writing against a Protestant Learned King King James pag. 453. as cited by A. Bishop Usher of Babylon pag. 163. is fit to be written on the Doors of all Princes and of the Pope himself in Capital Letters viz. By this Article that Kings may not be deposed by the Pope We are cast headlong into a manifest Heresie as binding us to confess that for many Ages past the Catholick Church hath been banished out of the whole world For if the Champions of the Doctrine contrary to this Article do hold an impious and detestable opinion contrary to Gods Word then doubtless the Pope for so many hundred years expired hath not been the Head of the Church but a HERETICK and the ANTICHRIST What would you have more to satisfie Kings than their own profession that Either the Pope may depose Kings or 〈◊〉 he is not the Head of the Church but an Heretick and Antichâ—iâ—t and hath been so for many hundred years Can you shâ—w their Interest plainlier than all this And lest any say that this is but the Doctrine of the Jesuits remember that Perron was another kind of man and the famous Perverter of King Henry the fourth And I will cite here the words of one more of a multitude even one that wrote so long ago as to be numbred with the Fathers in Biblioth Patr. To. 4 p. 913. and a Roman Cardinal Bertrard Card. Epis. Eduens de Orig. usu Jurisd Qu. 4. Respondeo dico quod Potestas Spiritualis debet dominari omni humanae Creaturae per rationes Hostiensis Item quia Jesus Christus silius Dei dum fuit in hoc mundo etiam ab aeternâ— naturalis dominus fuit de jure naturali in Imperatores quoseunque alios depositionis sententias ferre potuisset damnationis quaseunque alias Utpote in personas quas creaverat donis naturalibus gratuito donaverat etiam conservabat Et eadem ratione etiam ejus Vicarius potest Nam non videtur discretus Dominus fuisse ut cum reverentia ejus loquar nisi unicum post se talem Vicarium reliquisset qui haec omnia posset Fuit autem iste Vicarius ejus Petrus apud Mattheum Et idem dicendum est de successoribus Petri cum eadem absurditas sequeretur si post mortem Petri humanam naturam a se creatam sine regimine unius personae reliquisset I will English it lest the unlearned believe not what Fathers what a Biblioth Patrum what Cardinals and what Doctrines the Roman Clergy obtrude upon the Christian world I answer and say that the spiritual Power ought to have domination over every humane creature by Hostiensis reasons Also because Jesus Christ the Son of God while he was in this world and also from Eternity was the Natural Lord and by Natural Right could pass the sentence of Deposition and of Damnation and any other upon Emperours and upon any others as being persons that he had created and endowed with Natural Gifts and freely and also preserved And by the same reason his Vicar can do it For the Lord seemeth not to have been discreet that I may speak with reverence to him unless he had left behind him one such Vicar who could do all these things And in Matthew this his Vicar was Peter And the same must be said of the successors of Peter seeing the same absurdity would follow if after the death of Peter he had left humane nature created by himself without the Regiment of One person Do you think this is not plain dealing enough if men are willing to understand I know that there were Emperours and Princes that strugled hard before they suffered themselves to be thus subjected And these Emperours had Lawyers Statesmen and Divines that took their parts as all the Treatises in Goldastus his three Volumes de Monarch and his Imp. Constit. shew But still those that sided with the Pope spake contrary as the argumentations of those Books besides the Authors whom they oppose do shew And alas Occham and Marsilius Patavinus and Widdrington and Barclay came all too late For all that Secular Power which was cloaked with the name of Ecclesiastical and Spiritual was before so deeply rooted in the Papacy that they durst plead for no more than that Princes are not subject to the Pope in Temporals But as you truly note abundance of Temporals and of the Magistrates proper work about things Ecclesiastical was still vailed under the name of Spiritual And at last even the Temporal Power again claimed more subtilly and indirectly as in ordine ad spiritualia But you 'l say that All men are naturally so regardful of their own Interest and especially Princes that it is not possible they should be so servile tame and self-abasing as to give away so great a part of their Kingdoms to a Forreigner yea to one that claimeth all by himself or by his most famous Writers and by his Councils claimeth a power to depose them They that with their own Nobles and other Subjects are so jealous of their Prerogatives would never so far depose themselves if they did but know what they do And therefore when Popish Princes understand the matter they will shake off the yoke and reâ—ssume their right Answ. It 's true that Protestant Princes and States have done so And the true meaning of our Oath of Supremacy is the same with your main design And though some have stumbled at those words that the King is Supream Governour in all Causes Ecclesiastical the meaning is only as hath been oft publickly declared that he is the Supream Civil or Coactive Governour by the Sword in all Causes Ecclesiastical so far as they fall under that Coactive or Coercive Government And hereby the King doth but reassume the Royal Power over the Clergy and the affairs of Religion which the Pope had usurped under the name of Ecclesiastical For it s well known what was called Ecclesiastical Power in England in the times of Popery so that this much of the Vail is removed long ago among all Protestants And if you peruse but Bishop Bilsons excellent Tract of Christian Subjection and Bishop Andrews his Tortura Torti to pass by all others you will see that this Case is better opened than I for my part am able to open
him The alms of the people is enough for the poor Let them never procure us envy for our Lands let them take them if they please I do not give them to the Emperour but I do not deny them So far Bilson All this we allow And if all this be the concurrent judgement of all sorts of sober Protestants called Episcopal or Presbyterians what reason hath any Erastian upon the account of the Magistrates interest to quarrel with them If any practise not according to these principles let them hear of it Indeed in point of convenience we greatly differ from some men That is 1. Whether it be convenient for the King to make Church-men Magistrates or not 2. And whether it be convenient immediately to back their Excommunications with the Sword And for the Magistrate to be the Clergies Executioner or to imprison men eo nomine because excommunicate and not repenting 3. And whether it be convenient to make the same Court called Ecclesiastical so mixt of Pastoral and Secular Power united in one Chancellor who is no Pastor but a Lay man or in a Bishop as that in and by it the Magistrates and the Spiritual Government shall be either confounded or so twisted as to be undiscernable or become one tertium But for this as we love not to be too forward in teaching Magistrates what is convenient though many of the ancient Fathers have done it plainly and spoken against the Magistracy of Priests and Cyâ—il of Alexandria is branded by Socrates and others with some infamy as the first Bishop that used Coercive power so you have more cause to say what you have to say in this to the Magistrate himself than to the Bishops or Presbyteries For if the Magistrate will needs-make Priests his Officers and put his Sword into such hands as have enough to do in their proper work Or if he will punish men with the Sword because they are punished already by excommunication or because they repent not lest excommunication alone should prove uneffectual quarrel not for his actions with other men It is his own doing and it is himself that you blame when you blame these things Say not that Prelates or Presbyteries take the Magistrates power from him but say the truth that the Magistrate giveth it them and will have it so to be Though I excuse none that urge him to it or voluntarily assume his Power Bishop Andrews also saith Tortur Torti p. 383. Cohibeat Regem Diaconus si cum indignus sit idque palam constet accedat tamen ad Sacramentum Cohibeat medicus si ad noxium quid vel insalubre manum admoveat Cohibeat Equiso si inter equitandum adigat Equum per lâ—cum praeruptum vel salebrosum cui subsit periculum Etiamre medico Etiamne Equisoni suo subjectus Rex Sed de Majori potestate loquitur sed ea ad rem noxiam procul arcendam qua in re Charitatis semper Potestas est maxima Here you see what Church Government is in Bishop Andrews sense and how far the Bishops hold the King himself to be restrainable even by a Deacon And yet but I think according to your own sense I pray you judge then whether the Bishops and you differ as far as you imagine and whether the Courts and Church power which offendeth you be not set up by Kings themselves who make the Bishops their Officers therein To which add what Bilson proveth that Patriarchs Metropolitans and Archbishops Dignities are the gift of Princes and not the institution of Christ and then you will see more that it is the Princes own doing I add to the like purpose more out of Bilson pag. 313. We grant they must rather hazard their lives than baptize Princes which believe not or distribute the Lords mysteries to them that repent not but give wilful and open signification of iniquity c. This is Church Government which none can contradict This is it that Chrysostom so often professeth also as that he would rather let his own blood be shed than give the blood of Christ to the unworthy And Beda Hist. Eccles. l. 2. cap. 5. telleth us that Melitus Bishop of London with Justus was banished by the heirs of King Sabareth because he would not give them the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which they would needs have before they were baptized And by the way if Bishops say that Kings must be used thus the Non-conformists are not such intolerable Schismaticks as some now represent them for desiring that every Presbyter may not be compelled against his Conscience to give the Sacrament to the basest of the people that are ignorant what Christ or Christianity is and to them that are not willing to receive it but are forced to take it against their wills for fear of a Prison nor to baptize the Children of such Parents as know not what baptism is or as are professed Infidels having not so much as Christian Adopters but only Ceremonious persons called God-fathers and God-mothers Papirius Massonus in vita Leonis 1. reciteth his words of the Magistrates banishing the Manichees and addeth Ex hac rei gestae narratione perspicuum est Romanos Episcopas relegare tunc non potuisse nec in exilium reos mittere utì hodie faciunt sed eos tantum censura coercere poenâ— ecclesiastica mulctarâ— I add no more supposing that almost all sober Episcopal Presbyterians Independents and Erastians are agreed in all the first ninety four Propositions if not all that are here asserted and that all those may suffice to signifie their Concord and promote their Reconciliation if Interest mistaken and Passion mis-guided did not much more than difference of judgement in these matters to cause their alienation And as I have written this to vindicate both the Power of Kings and the Office of Pastors from any mens unjust suspicions or accusations who look only on one side and to shew that these Offices are no more contrary than Head and Heart than Light and Heat so I do require the Reader to put no sense upon any thing here written which is injurious to the Government of Magistrates or Pastors or contrary to the Laws For all such senses I do hereby disclaim FINIS Read the Declaration against the Oath of Allegiance by H. I. for the Popes deposing Kings pa. 16 17 27 43. Read Hottomans Franco-Gal cap. 7. and his Brutum â—â—lmen pag. 87 97 98. Read Withriagton and Barclay against Bellarmia in Goldastus Tom. 3. de Mon. And Bellarmia against Barclay c. 9. Vid. Sua ez â— advers sect Aâ—glic li 6. cap. 4. sect 14. cap. 6. sect 22. 24. Azor. â—rs Mor. par 1. l. 8 c. 13. Dom. Bannes in Thom. 22. q. 12. art 2. August Triump de potest Eccl. q 46. art 2. There is no doubt saith he but the Pope may depose all Kings when there is reasonable cause for it See the Jesuiâ—s Morals and Mystery of Jesuitism and Myster Patrum Jesuitarum ☜ ☜ ☜ ☞ ☞ ☞ ☜ ☜ ☜ See Bellarm. de Pontif. Ro. li. 5. c. 1. 6. 7. 8. he saith It is the common judgement of all Catholick Divines that the Pope ratione spiritualis hath at least indirectly a certain Power and that the highest in Temporals Which c. 6. he saith is just such over Princes as the soul hath over the body or sensitive appetite and that thus he may change Kingdoms and take them from one and give to another as the chief Spiritual Prince if it be but necessary to the safety of souls Yea he saith that It is not lawful for Christians to tolerate an Infidel or Heretical King if he endeavour to draw his Subjects to his Heresie or unbelief But to judge whether a King do draw to Heresie or not belongeth to the Pope to whom the care of Religion is committed Therefore it belongâ—th to the Pope to judge a King to be deposed c. * You are mistaken when you twiâ—â— call Maximus Imperator Ethnicus who but for his â—â—â—patioâ— haâ— been a Christiaâ— Saint
it And it is seldom heard of for all the industry and subtilty of Rome that any Prince or State doth Voluntarily turn Papist that is once delivered from the Yoke and that ever again parteth with his power when he hath recovered it But yet that even this Argument from Notorious Interest doth not recover the Liberty of Countreys subject to the Pope you will the less wonder if you consider these three things 1. That the Papal Interest hath got such rooting in their Subjects minds that it is not in their power to reassume their right The Clergy are so numerous subtile ubiquitary and potent and the people so commonly deceived and so tenacious of ancient Customs that to make this Change might cast all into a flame And they think it better to lose part than all And no doubt but the examples of Henry the third and Henry the fourth of France maked some think that if they displease the Pope and his Consederates they have not sufficient security for their lives 2. And Princes stand usually on such terms of danger or jealousie from one another that they are fain to keep such a Peace at home lest they expose themselves to a greater mischief from abroad And they are broken by the Papal subtilty especially in Germany and Italy into such Fractions and petty Principalities that few of them are strong enough to defend themselves against the Confederates of the Pope when potent Emperours heretofore could not do it And many of them especially the House of Austria do take this Copartnership of the Pope to be a great part of their strength And as anciently many Emperours were forced to choose their Caesars and Copartners when the defence of the Empire was too hard for themselves alone so divers Princes are glad to make use of the Papal interest and power for their own security though upon terms that else would never be submitted to And in some Countreys the Rebellious disposition of the Subjects driveth them to accept of this dear remedy and they choose rather to strengthen themselves by a Copartner than to stoop to the wills of their inferiours For here you must take notice that the pretence of a Jus divinum and of Spirituality and the Interest of Christ and of the safety of their souls doth make this kind of servitude much less dishonourable than it is to be overtopt by a neighbour Prince or to be curbed by their subjects For what dishonour is it for a man to be subject to his Maker and Redeemer Nay what greater honour can there be And the Roman Clergy have used themselves to Canonize those Princes that have been most zealous for their Grandure and to raise the fame and praises of such as have raised that which they call the Church that the very ambition of the Clergies Praises doth do much to tempt some to a tame acceptance of a Copartner who pretendeth to be the Vicar of Christ When this servitude goeth for sanctity and carrieth not with it the reproach of other sorts of servitude 3. And it greatly furthereth their success that the Popes Agents are commonly bred up in Learning and so are made able to over-wit the Laity And that it is their great design to gratifie the Lusts of Princes by indulging their voluptuous sensual lives that so they may spend their dayes in such things as will never advance their understandings to an ability to discern the cheats of their Copartners And they detestably cherish the Ignorance of the Common Laity that they may be the fitter to be led and mastered by them even as men keep women from Learning and great attainments lest they should be the more uncapable of subjection And thus as Satan leadeth men to Hell so the Papal Usurper bringeth the Laity into their power by their own consent by such pleasing baits as make their servitude easie to them And it is not your telling them of their interest that will prevail against all these temptations They that will lose Heaven and their salvation by such cheats may lose half of their earthly Dominions by them as long as the other half sufficeth to satisfie their concupiscence and to maintain their honour and pleasure in the world The Roman Usurpation consisteth of two parts 1. The Usurpation of such a Pastoral Power as they have no right to 2. The Usurpation of a great part of the Magistrates power sometime directly and sometimes indirectly in ordine ad spiritualia and constantly by the cheat of the false name of Church power put upon the Magistrates part of Church Government as if it were the Clergies part I. The Usurpation of a Pastoral power which belongeth not to them is the chief part of their Iniquity And it consisteth in these among other particulars 1. In the impious and arrogant claim of an Universal Pastorship over all the world The Roman Prelate must be the Teacher of all the world the High Priest of all the world and the Spiritual Ruler of all the world which because he cannot do by himself he must do by others as far as he can to uphold his usurpation He must be the Law-giver and the Judge of all the world even at the Antipodes and where he hath no acquaintance nor access 2. By this he undertaketh to be a Bishop in other mens Diocesses and to rule in all matters where he hath no more power than any Pastor hath in another Pastoral Charge 3. And by this he undertaketh to be the Spiritual Father and Governour of all the Kings and Rulers of the Christian world and so to have the power of excommunicating them when he thinketh there is cause and to brand them as uncapable of Christian communion with their own Subjects or with any other Christians 4. By this he usurpeth authority of imposing what Pastors he please even such as will carry on his interest upon all the Churches in the world and depriving both Princes and people of their just liberty of choice 5. By this also he usurpeth the power of deposing what Bishops or Pastors he please and depriving the people of their necessary helps and faithfullest Teachers Yea of putting whole Nations under Interdicts of serving and honouring God in Church-assemblies commanding all Pastors to shut up the Church doors and forbidding them to perfom their office and to preach Christs Gospel or administer his holy Sacraments 6. By this he sendeth forth his Missionaries and setteth up Societies of Jesuits and Fryers to do his work and commandeth all Princes and people to receive and countenance them 7. By this he layeth claim to a right of maintenance for Himself and his Missionaries in all parts of the world in the name of Christ who hath said that the labourer is worthy of his hire 8. By this he granteth Dispensations Pardons Indulgences commandeth praying to Saints and Angels and praying for the Dead as being in Purgatory and by this he setteth up his whole new frame of self-devised Worship
and Religion Now I call not all this an Usurpation of Magistracy so far as he useth no Corporal force and threatneth no penalty but excommunication and damnation For every true Pastor with his own flock hath the Power of Guiding them by delivering Christs Doctrine and Precepts and commanding obedience as his Servant or Embassadour in his Name and of denouncing his judgements and of judging obligingly who are fit to be taken in to the Church by Baptism and who to be cast out as Impenitent by excommunication in his own particular Charge or Society And if the Pope usurp a power of doing all this and more as an Universal Pastor only this is an Usurpation of a Church Power and not of a Magistracy And indeed if you will acquit him from the guilt of the Mysterie of Iniquity any further than he invadeth Magistracy it self you will do him a great deal of wrong For he is the Vicarius Christi and the Vice-Christ more notably by his Spiritual Usurpation of a power proper to Christ himself or at least of a power that Christ never gave him II. His setting up a KINGDOM and invading the MAGISTRACY is done I. Directly II. Indirectly and Consequentially I. Directly 1. By holding a Secular Jurisdiction as the King of Rome where he exerciseth the Supream Civil Power acknowledging no Superiour Civil Governour either as to the Legislation or Execution in all the parts of his own Dominions 2. By his laying claim to many Kingdoms as his own among which England is one as pretended to be delivered to him by King John and supposing that the Kings do hold them as under him and by his Grant 3. By laying claim to the Temporal or Corporal Government of all the world say some or of all the Christian world say others Of which you may see a multitude of Volumes written in the defence of his pretensions In particular all those aforesaid were of this subject which all Goldastus his Collected Treatises for the Right of Princes do confute I gave you Cardinal Bertrands words before And though some of their Clergy who live under Princes that are not willing to resign their Crowns do disclaim the Popes direct Title to the Universal Civil Soveraignty yet he himself disclaimeth it not nor condemneth the Books as such that have been written to defend it In the Jesuits Morals the last Chapter hath this Title That the Jesuits teach that the Church cannot command spiritual and internal actions That its Laws and guidance are humane and that it is it self only a Political Body Where the Jansenist chargeth them with destroying the Church from its foundation and making it altogether external humane and Politick and that which needeth only Politick Vertues for its Government and the exercise of its principal offices and that they make its Laws but humane and politick which oblige only to things external and chargeth them as Cyprian did the Novatians Quod Ecclesiam humanam faciunt So that if he accuse them justly here is no room for any subterfuge It is not the Spiritual and Temporal power that he makes them claim but the Temporal or External only But what doth the Jansenist himself therefore disclaim all Temporal Power in the Church or is he just to Kings Judge but by pag. 388. where he boasteth of Laymans Confession of the Truth that Ecclesiastick power is instituted immediately from God and the Civil power comes immediately from men And that Civil power regards properly and directly wealth and peace temporal only And he adds For the Civil power regards the outward order and Civil tranquility alone and prescribes none but outward and humane means to attain this end Which is all false and most injurious to Kings whom this moderate Jansenist would hereby set as far below every Priest in real dignity and amiableness to the Subjects as a Humane Creature is below a Divine and the interest of the body is below that of the soul. Whereas indeed God is the immediate Original of Civil and Church power though in both the Persons are designed by the means of men And both have God himself for their ultimate end and the Common Good of the Society for their Common End which ever consisteth most in spiritual felicity referring to Eternal Though the Magistrates weapon be the Sword and the Pastors only the Word by which all this is brought to pass Indeed it is not possible that the Papacy in its present State can be defended by any man how moderate soever without Injury to Princes and States whose Power the Pope hath so notoriously invaded and usurped For how can they defend him that usurpeth the Power of Kings or usurpeth a false Power over Kings and not be injurious to them that the Usurper injureth But it is most wonderful to me that when W. Barclay defendeth the right of Monarchs in such a Kingdom as France that hath power and will to hold fast its own he should complain as if he undertook a Cause which most were against him in and in which he expected to be wondered at for his singularity 4. By their Inquisition and by their Decreeing Corporal Penalties in their Councils and Decreeing the deposition of Princes and the giving away their Dominions to others as in the two fore-cited Councils Roman suâ— Greg. 7. Lateran sub Innoc. 3. In a word by all that they do in their Usurped Legislation Judgement and Execution by the Sword or a forcing Power as in themselves II. But the more successful Usurpation of the Power and Rights of Princes is Indirectly and as Bellarmin defendeth it in ordine ad spiritualia By using their Ecclesiastical Usurped power upon mens Consciences in such a way as shall overtop the Magistrates power of the Sword when they decree that all are Hereticks that believe their senses and deny Transubstantiation and that all such Hereticks shall be banished or burnt the Clergy is not to do this themselves but to deliver them over to the Secular Power The Pope and Clergy do but charge it on their Consciences in the name of Christ. And if Princes obey them not or Temporal Lords will not burn or banish all such Hereticks for believing sense the Pope is not to touch their bodies but to excommunicate them And if they will not yet obey the Pope when they are excommunicate the Pope Good man will not draw a Sword against them but only use the Spiritual Sword by giving their Dominions to others which is but by word of mouth he doth but declare such a Temporal Lord to be dispossest of his Title and require another to take his Lands and let his great Divines publish that an Excommunicate King is no King and that to kill him is not to kill a King And if Princes will defend themselves by Arms the Pope will not send his Clergy in Arms against them but only by the Spiritual Sword or Word command other Princes States and people to arm themselves against their
Emperours Kings and Governours and to defend those to whom he hath given their Dominions How oft these Games have been seriously acted the German Histories lamentably tell us and Guicciardineâ— Italian and the English French and others are not wholly silent So if the Clergy be exempt from paying Taxes from Secular Judgements if their Lands and Estates be not under the Power of Kings if they set up Courts of Judicature with Offices like a Civil Court if they assume to themselves the sole judgement of Hereticks and Schismaticks and Apostates and also of Testaments of the dead and of Causes of Adultery and Fornication of lawful or unlawful degrees of Marriage and of Divorce if the Pope lay Taxes on the Clergy that are Subjects in all Princes Dominions if he dispose of Buildings Tythes Glebes Monasteries Lands Almshouses Colledges and abundance such like all this is not by the Sword but by perswading Kings and States that they are bound in Conscience to promote all this and obey the Pope as their Ghostly Father herein And that if they be stricken with the Thunderbolt of Excommunication they are in a state of damnation and if they so dye are undone for ever And by perswading other Princes and people that the Arms taken up against such Princes at the Popes Command according to the foresaid Councils are meritorious and shall procure their salvation And if Princes and people will believe all this and will be deceived and will voluntarily subject themselves to such an Usurper who can help it Though it excuse not the Pope yet they have little reason to complain that they lose that power which they voluntarily give away and that the Pope shall exercise that power which they give him And so much to your Cause against the Papacy II. But in your Epistle to Mr. Areskin and several others you lay much of the like charge upon the Reformed Churches and you take our great Reforming Divines to have kept up the Mysterie of Iniquity in their Discipline Concerning which give me leave to deal freely with you and to tell you that I am perswaded that your meaning is sincere and good and that it is an usurpation or devised imitation of Secular Government by the Clergy which you condemn and that too great a part of the Protestant Clergy have given you some occasion for these complaints But that really you deal not accurately in the Controversie and Accurateness is the thing you want You do not here exactly describe the true difference between the several powers where you seem to describe them you leave out much that should be said It is a more distinct way of handling this point that must decide the Controversie To which end I have laid you down an hundred Propositions on occasion of your former Writings sent me And as you say in Epist. ad D. Russellum p. 248. that in this you would believe one Physicion one Coxe Goddard Lower Ridgley c. Though I have reason to think that the first and last of these are more of my mind about Church Government than of yours before a thousand Augustines Hieroms Gregories yea Jewells Davenant Ushers Dallees so my opinion is that usually all men are wisest in their own Profession And though I am naturally somewhat unapt to take more than needs I must upon trust from any since I have had great experience of humane ignorance and vanity yet I had rather take a Physicions judgement in Physick and a Lawyers in points of Law and a Souldiers in Military matters and a Divines in Theology than any of their judgements about the matters of an aliene Profession Not but that now and then a man may arise that shall know more on the by than others that make it the study of their lives But that is not usual And that one man would have been yet wiser in those things if he had been of that Profession For surely caeteris paribus he that bestoweth twenty years or thirty or forty or threescore in the Study of Divinity alone with its subservient helps is liker to understand it than he that alloweth it but now and then a spare hour in the midst of other diverting Studies For my part if I follow not one thing only when I am upon it but divide my thoughts among things heterogeneal I cannot pierce deep into any great difficulties nor make any thing of distracted Studies neque quicquam recte fit quod fit praeoccupato animo God doth not use to give wisdom now by the way of Miracles but they that seek most are likest to find And therefore pardon me for telling you that though I am deservedly a great honourer of the Physicions you name yet I set more by the Judgement of one Usher one Davenant one Jewell one Dallaeus one Blondel one Camero one Le Blank one Petrus Molinaeus in matters of Theology than of abundance of Lawyers and Physicions And of one Lawyer and Physicion in matters of their Profession than of many Divines Being still of Pembles mind that one clear eye can see further than a Council of purblind ones And as to the matter of Partiality of which you suspect Divines it is not without cause as to all that party who seek for Riches Ease and Honours or Domination and Preferments and Preheminency in the world But such as that St. Martin whom you mention out of Severus who so vehemently opposed the Ithacian Violence and Maximus his using the Sword against the Priscillianists are as impartial as you Certainly if Christianity be what we all profess to take it for it will make that man best who is most a Christian And he that is best will be most impartially and self denyingly faithful to Christ and will prefer Christs honour incomparably before his own And he is like to be most a Christian who doth sincerely give up himself to the closest study of it all his dayes Deny this and your suspicions will fall upon Christianity it self But yet I will allow you to be moderately suspicious where you see that there is any great bait of carnal interest to tempt men A Popedome a Cardinalship I must name no more may make the Roman Heathen say I will turn Christian if you will make me Bishop of Rome c. But will you suspect that a good man yea and all such good men should be Partial where they put themselves on the greatest self-denyal Where they have no profit no preterment no man-pleasing no worldly honour to invite them Yea where it is like to diminish their gain to hinder them from preferment to make them hated by most on whom their discipline is exercised If a few out of a pang of Factious or Phanatick zeal may cast themselves on such a self-denying life it is not like that this will be the ordinary Case of Learned sober godly men If it be with whom shall the ignorant trust the conduct of their souls that will not make merchandize of them Would
were a Leaden unpowerful Sword which Christ hath put into their hands and Excommunication were invalid when the Sword forceth not the impenitent to dissemble Repentance and Submission When great worldly baits have enticed worldly men into the Sacred Office as to a worldly preferment and Trade they will judge accordingly and manage it like themselves which is and hath been the Churches Pest We would beg on our knees of Kings and Magistrates if it would prevail to leave Church Censures to our Lords intended use and valeant quantum valere possunt and to keep their Sword out of Church-mens hands and to punish men in their own Courts for every crime that deserveth it but not quatenus excommunicate or meerly because the Clergy hath judged them unmeet for Church Communion He that taketh Excommunication alone for no punishment is not fit to be in the Communion of the Church and therefore should not be driven for fear of a Prison to that which he hath no right to So that you must not charge the acts of Princes nor of ambitious Cardinals c. neither on Calvin Beza or any such as them And as to Lay-Elders or Lay-Chancellors I am no more for them than you are that is as the Magistrates Officers or as the Churches Sub-Officers circa sacra non in sacris But sure those of them who are introduced on a mistaken conceit of Divine right and do no more than the Pastors do are no Usurpers of Coercive power You see by the late Acts of King and Parliament in Scotland that all External Church power is declared to be in the King And what would you have more No doubt the meaning is not All power about external things For the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and the persons baptized c. are external objects Nor can it be all power that is exercised by the external parts of the body For the Tongue of the Preacher and the Hand of the Baptizer as well as the Ear of the Hearer is an external part But in these two senses it is true and commonly consented to by all that I remember of my acquaintance that are Christians 1. That all the power of the Sword or of forcing by Mulcts or bodily punishments as distinct from the power of the Word that worketh directly upon the soul alone by the senses is in the King and not in any of the Clergy though it be about the matters of Religion 2. And that all power in Church matters and Religion Extrinsecal to the Pastoral Office as instituted by Christ is of right the Kings and his inferiour Magistrates And what would you or any man have more 4. And as to the exercise of our Office we all confess except the Papists that we are responsible to the King and Magistrates for our faults yea for our injurious mal-administration And that though the King be not the Chief Pastor nor hath the power of the Keys which Christ gave to his Ministers yet he is the Ruler of all Churches and Pastors by the Sword as well as of all Physicions And is not all this enough to satisfie you that we claim no part of the Magistrates Office As you say our power is but Perswasive It is 〈◊〉 By the Word It is but on the Conscience It is under the Magistrates coercive Government And so it is like a Physicions or a Tutors in a Colledge But that I pray you leave not out 1. That it is not under the Magistrates as to the derivation of the office or power that is It is no office which the Magistrate made or may unmake 2. That it is as immediately of Divine Institution as the Magistrates And therefore in your similitude you must suppose your Physicion and Tutor to have a Commission from God 3. That God hath described our office and limited the Magistrates office so that he hath no power from God to hinder the Ministry 4. But if he do it injuriously we must not resist but patiently suffer for obeying God So much of the nature of the office II. Now that it is certain that God hath committed to Pastors such a Government of his Church by the Word as to stated commissioned Officers because I have past by the proofs in my following Propositions I will add some here Supposing what Dr. Hammond hath said of the Power of the Keyes and that no man with common sense can take the Power of the Keyes for any thing less than a power of Church Government or Authoritative Guidance and so a Power of receiving in and putting out as there is cause It is plain in that Christ first reciteth his own Commission and Power Matth. 28. 18 19 20. and thence dateth the Commission of his Apostles as it was to endure to the end of the age or world See Isa 22. 22. Rev. 3. 7. 1. 18. compared with Matth. 16. 19. John 20. 23. The word Presbyter and Bishop can signifie no less as Acts 4. 8 c. compared with Acts 14. 23. 15. 2 4 6 22 23. 16. 4. 20. 17 28. Titus 1. 5. James 5. 14. 1 Pet. 5. 1. Rev. 4. 4 c. And nothing less can be meant by 1 Tim. 5. 17. The Elders that Rule well are worthy of double honour c. Heb. 13. 17. 24. Obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch c. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you 1 Tim. 3. 1 4 5. If a man desire the office of a Bishop he desireth a good work One that Ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God So Tit. 1. 7 c. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3 4. Many other I pass by And for the act of excommunication or excluding unmeet persons from Christian Church Communion it would be tedious to stand to vindicate all those plain Texts from any mens exceptions 1 Cor. 5. per totum Titus 3. 10. 2 John 10 11. 2 Thess. 3. 6 14. Rev. 2. 14 15 20. But while I am writing this I remember that I have long ago written a small Book called Universal Concord in which I have described all the Pastoral Office and Work If you can prove it less than I have there named in any one point you will so far ease us and take nothing from us at all that gratifieth our flesh If you can deny none of that we are agreed And in the Preface to the same Book I have given you twelve Reasons of the great use of Church Discipline which shall save me the labour of the third point which I intended next to speak to save only that I will briefly ask you III. Would you have any difference made between the Christian Church and the Pagan and Infidel world If not If you would it must be such a
by any neighbour Pastor that like the Pope usurpeth authority over other Churches Nor should any standing Laws at all be made of such things where there is no need especially where the case is mutable and it belongeth to the Pastors function to determine it as occasion serveth 2 Tim. 2. 15. Mat. 24. 45. 30. Whether these Antecedent Determinations of Concordant Pastors in a Synod shall be called Laws or Canons or Decrees is but lis de nomine And also whether this power be called Legislative or Jurisdiction And who will trouble the Church unnecessarily about words and names But yet I think they may be best called Canons or Agreements And I wish that high Titles be laid aside lest it encourage the usurping Spirit that aspireth after too high things 31. Grotius de Imperiâ— summarum potestatum circa sacra hath said so much and so well of all this Controversie that it is a shame to us all that we need any more and a shame to me to trouble the world after him with Writings on that subject so far less useful and to any one to cloud that which he hath clearly and judiciously stated were it not that renewed occasions require it 32. Pastors have not only the charge of right ordering the Assemblies but also of helping and overseeing all the individuals of their charge And to help them in the personal application of the Scriptures to themselves and to resolve their particular Doubts and Cases of Conscience and to reprove admonish and comfort the individuals as there is need As a Physicion is not only to read a Physick Lecture to his Hospital but to Govern each Patient in order to his Cure 33. Ordination is rei ordinis gratia an act of Office by which the Ministerial Office and Power is Ministerially delivered by way of Investiture and Solemnization as a house is delivered by a Key and a parcel of Land by a Turf and Twig by the hand of a Servant appointed thereunto Or as our Church state is delivered to us by Baptism by the like investiture Though yet it is God directly who giveth the Power and that secondarily by his servant thus investeth us in it though not without the previous Call which is necessary thereunto 34. Ordination is not an idle Ceremony which the Ordainer must perform upon the judgement of others Prince or people without his own cognizance of the person or against his Conscience But he that must ordain must first judge the person fit to be ordained and therefore must also try his fitness 1 Tim. 5. 22. 35. So much of the Antecedent power of the Ministry in which it is to be noted that Ordination and Baptism are efficient acts like Generation in nature under God the first efficient as ex Quo omnia and as they are ordinis gratia are the beginning of Government also And Government is an Ordering act as under God the supream Governour ut per Quem omnia And Sacramental entertainment with Christs body and blood in Church Communion is Actus Amâ—ris a final act of friendship under God as the final Cause ad Quem omnia 36. The subsequent part of the Pastoral Government is by using the members of the Church in the exercise of the Pastoral Office according to their several deserts which is by a General and particular application of the Word of God to their Consciences and guiding them in circumstances and judging of actions and persons according to that Word in order to the good of souls and the preservation of the Church and truth Acts 20. 28. Heb. 13. 17. 37. When the whole Church falleth into notorious sin the Pastors must reprove them and call them to repentance And if they apostatize forsake them as ceasing to be a Church 38. When a single member falleth into notorious scandal the Pastor must admonish him and call him to repentance and if he remain impenitâ—nt and obstinate after due admonition and publick exhortation and patience he must as Christs Steward of his Word and Family pronounce him a person unfit for Church communion and require or command him in the name of Christ to forbear it and the Church to forbear his communion declaring him also unpardoned by Christ till he repâ—nt and binding him over to his judgement So that Excommunication is a Sentence of the person as uncapable of Church communion according to Christs Laws and a fore-judging him as unpardoned and condemnable by Christs judgement unless he repent and a command to the sinner to forbear the communion and priviledges of the Church and to the Church to avoid him 1 Cor. 5. Titus 3. 10 c. 39. If the sinner repent the Pastor is Christs Officer in his name to pronounce him pardoned if his repentance be sincere and the Guide of the Church to require them to receive him again into their communion 2 Cor. 2. 7 10 11. Gal. 6 1 2 3. 40. Because Magistrates and people as aforesaid cannot attend so great a work as this without the neglect of their particular Callings and are not to be supposed so â—it as the Pastor and because God hath made it the work of his Office the people are to rest in his judgement about the fitness and Title of those that have the publick Church communion with them though they are the Judges and Choosers of their Domestick and private familiars And they must not separate from them that are thus regularly admitted 41. Yet when the Pastors by mal-administration give them just cause the flock may seek their due remedy of which more anon 42. This power is essentially in the Ministerial Office and therefore is in every single Pastor and not only in some few or in the abler sort or only in a Synod Mat. 16. 19. 43. When a Church hath but one Pastor he must exercise it alone with due consideration and advice But when a Church hath many Pastors they must exercise it and all Church guidance in a way of Concord and avoid all dissentions among themselves Ephes. 4. 3 4 5. 1 Cor. 1. 10. John 17. 21 22. 44. Therefore in such a case a particular Pastor may be obliged oft to suspend some such acts because the Major Vote of his Syn-Presbyters are against it Not that they are his Governours for the Majority of Vote but because the Laws of Concord require the Minor part to submit to the Major 45. The same is the reason why in Elections Consents and other acts belonging to the flock the Major Vote should carry it in things lawful not because the people have any true Church Government but because they are obliged to Unity and Concord And in that case the Law of Nature calleth the Minor part to submit to the Major lest there never should be any Concord had 46. And the same is the reason why in Synods and Councils the Major Vote of the Bishops must prevail in lawful things not forbidden of God 47. If any Pastor in the world
the Church is the Pastors And these are the shortest plainest and least ambiguous terms and more clear than Internal Ecclesiastical and Civil which have all much obscurity and ambiguity Pag. 238. Princes only be Governours in things and Causes Ecclesiastical that is with the Sword Bishops be no Governours in those things with the Sword Pag. 240. We confess Princes to be Supream Governours Supream bearers of the Sword We give Princes no power to devise or invent new Religions to alter or change Sacraments to decide or debate doubts of faith to disturb or infringe the Canons of the Church But of these two last I must tell you what we Puritans as they call us hold 1. That the King may and must decide doubts of faith in order to execution by the Sword as who shall be banished or imprisoned as a Teacher of Heresie 2. And that Canons circa sacra not takeing the Pastors proper work out of his hand may be made by the Magistrate even if he please without the Prelates And if Pastors make Canons the◠are but in order to their proper way of execution Pag. 252. And if Princes shall not bear the Sword in things and Causes Ecclesiastical you must tell us who shall Since by Gods Law the Priest may not meddle with the Sword the consequent is inevitable that Princes alone are Gods Ministers bearing the Sword to reward and revenge good and evil in all things and causes be they Temporal Spiritual or Ecclesiastical unless you think that disorders and abuses Ecclesiastical should be freely permitted Page 256. This then is the Supream power of Princes which we teach That they be Gods Ministers in their own Dominions bearing the Sword freely to permit and publickly defend that which God commandeth So may they with just force remove whatsoever is erroneous vicious and superstitious within their Lands and with external losses and corporal pains repress the broachers and abetters of Heresies and all impieties From which subjection to Princes no man within their Realms Monk Priest Preacher or Prelate is exempted And without their Realms no mortal man hath any power from Christ judicially to depose them much less to invade them in open field least of all to warrant their Subjects to rebell against them These be the things which we contend for and not whether Princes be Christs Masters or the functions to preach baptize impose hands and forgive sins must be derived from the Princes power and Laws or the Apostles might enter to convert Countreys without Caesars delegations These be jests and shifts of yours Page 261. To Bishops speaking the Word of God Princes as well as others must yield obedience But if Bishops pass their Commission and speak besides the Word of God what they list both Prince and people may despise them Page 258. His Word is Truth and therefore your Bishops cannot be Judges of the Word of Christ but they must be Judges of Christ himself that speaketh by his Word which is no small presumption My Sheep hear my voice They be no Judges of his voice Page 259. If you take judging for discerning the People must be discerners and Judges of that which is taught Page 271. Ph. If General Councils might err the Church might err Th. As though none were of or in the Church but only Bishops Or all the Bishops of Christendome without exception were ever present at any Council Or the greater part of those that are present might not strike the stroke without the rest See pag. 350 351 352. Et seq That only Magistrates may touch body or goods Page 358. The Watchmen and Shepheards that serve Christ in his Church have their kind of Regiments distinct from the temporal Power and State But that Regiment of theirs is by Counsel and perswasion not by terror or Compulsion and reacheth neither to the goods nor to the bodies of any men Page 366. As for your Episcopal Power over Princes if that be it you seek for and not to take their Kingdoms from them I told you If they break the Law of God you may reprove them If they hear you not you may leave them in their sins and shut Heaven against them If they fall to open Heresie or wilful impiety you may refuse to communicate with them in prayers and other divine duties yea you must rather yield your lives with submission into their hands than deliver them the Word and Sacraments otherwise than God hath appointed Say you so I promise you Sir if Kings must be dealt so strictly with though it cost you your lives I will be a Non-conformist a little longer though it cost me my livelihood rather than give Baptism the Lords Supper Absolution and the justifying assertions at Burials as commonly as I must do if I conform P. 525. Pastors have their kind of Correction even over Princes but such as by Gods Law may stand with the Pastors Vocation and tend to the Princes salvation and that exceedeth not the Word and Sacraments Other Correction over any private man Pastors have none much less over Princes Princes may force their Subjects by the Temporal Sword Bishops may not force their flock with any corporal or external violence Pag. 526. Chrysostom saith For of all men Christian Bishops may least correct the faults of men by force Judges that are without the Church may compell But here in the Church we may not offer any violence but only perswade We have not so great authority given us by the Laws as to repress offenders And if it were lawful for us so to do we have no use of any such violent power for that Christ crowneth them which abstain from sin not of a forced but of a willing mind Hilary teacheth the same Lesson If this violence were used for the true faith the doctrine of Bishops would be against it God needeth no forced service He requireth no constrained confession I cannot receive any man but him that is willing ☜ I cannot give ear but to him that intreateth I cannot sign that is baptize any but him that gladly professeth So Origen For all the crimes which God would have revenged he would have them revenged not by the Bishops and Rulers of the Church but by the Judges of the world Bishops by vertue of their Callings cannot command others or authorize violence or arms Pag. 541. Parliaments have been kept by the King and his Barons the Clergy wholly excluded and yet their Acts and Statutes good And when the Bishops were present their Voices from the Conquest to this day were never Negative By Gods Law you have nothing to do with making Laws for Kingdoms and Commonwealths You may teach you may not command Perswasion is your part Compulsion is the Princes Page 245. Far better St. Ambrose saith If the Emperour ask for Tribute we deny it not The Lands of the Church pay Tribute If he affect the Lands themselves he hath power to take them no man among us is any let to