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A26975 Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied to England / written by Richard Baxter for promoting peace ... and for the fuller explication of the Treaty for Concord in 1660 and 1661, and of the Kings gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs ... and for further explication of his treatise of episcopacy ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1691 (1691) Wing B1329; ESTC R13726 59,031 82

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such a National Church as Christ did institute must be known by knowing what the Jews Church was as National and how far Christ would have continued that form of Government and what change it was that he was for § 8. 1. Christ would not have the Jewish Nation to retain their peculiarity as distinct from the Catholick Church for he came to call the Gentile World 2. He intended not to make Jerusalem the Seat of a Regent Church over the rest of the World as it then was over the Jews for he knew that it was to be destroyed 3. He intended not to settle one High Priest over the whole Catholick Church nor over the National Church For defacto he did it not and he knew that the High Priest did typifie himself only 4. He intended not to continue the Law of Moses as such nor its Ceremonious Worship but only so much of it as was of the Law of Nature common to others and so much of the Policy as by parity of cases and reason is suited to others as well as to the Jews § 9. But 1. He offered to be King over them as a holy National Kingdom-Church 2. He accordingly appointed the number of Twelve and Seventy under him as related to the Twelve Tribes and to their great Council 3. He sent these first to work upon them by Doctrine and Perswasion his Kingdom being a Government of Love Mercy and Free Grace that would have none but Volunteers 4. He gave them Laws by which he would govern them with promises of Reward and threats of Penalty 5. He extended this offered State and Priviledge to them and their Children 6. He intended to set up his Government in Power by Christian Princes as soon as his Word and Providence had ripened the Church for it § 10. I shall prove all this in the next Chapter when I have told you first that as the Papal Party hath been set up in their Usurpation Universal and National for want of understanding Christ's Institution of Kingdom-Churches so the separating and dividing part of the Nonconformists have by this oversight run into many hurtful Errours and unpeaceable and unjustifiable ways 1. How much the very name of a National Church is distasted by very many zealous persons through meer ignorance is too commonly known 2. And in Independents and too many Presbyterians the custom prevaileth of calling the exercise of Pastoral Discipline by the name of the Kingly Government of Christ as distinct not only from his Prophetical and Priestly Office but also from his Government by Magistrates As if Christ governed not as King as much and more eminently by Princes as by Priests or Pastors 3. And if a man speaketh but what Scripture speaketh for Christ's Government of the Churches by Magistrates they call him an Erastian Whereas the Errour of Erastus an excellent Protestant Physicion was not his being for the Government of Princes but his taking down the Power of the Keys too much which was the Office of Pastors and making Church-Communion over-common and too much denying Excommunication Of which I have written a peculiar Treatise to Dr. Ludov. Molinaeus shewing the true difference between the Power of Magistrates and Pastors 4. And hence great disorder hath arisen from the undervaluing of the Confederacy of all particular Churches in the same Kingdom and from a disobedience to the lawful determinations of Princes in Church Affairs and even from the causless singularity of every humorous Sect as slighting the Concord of the Confederate Churches what abundance of Schisms had it prevented with their dismal Effects if men had but retained a due Reverence to Church Confederacies and Concord and to the Christian Magistrates Power which caused the Presbyterians in Scotland and Ireland so marvelously to keep up Concord and keep out Sects though they were against Diocesans because they maintained National Church Confederacy § 11. It may perhaps be useful to others that I here confess my own Ignorance and Errour that I once thought that the Scots way of a National Church Confederacy and General Assemblies was but a sadling the Horse for Papal Usurpation to ride upon For I considered not that National Churches truly stated were Christ's Institution and the principal way to keep out Popery § 12. And whereas in my Defences against Dr. Stillingsleet and Dr. Sherlock I called the Christian Magistrate an Accidental Head and urged them hard to name the Essential National Church-Head I spake on supposition of their Opinion which I opposed that Bishops only were such Essential Heads from whom A National Church must be unified and specified But I still professed to own a National Church as a Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Pastoral Churches And of this the Soveraign Power is the Essentiating Head § 13. The names of distinction of Civil and Ecclesiastical as differencing the Office of the Christian Magistrates and Pastors may be used as well understood but is too Popish and used by Papists and some others to obscure and debase Christ's Government by Magistrates as if they were only for secular uses Whereas indeed in a Church as National the Prince is the chief Ecclesiastical Officer of Christ And the true differencing terms are fetcht not from the subject matter so much as from the Mode of Government one being forcible by the Sword and the other only on Conscience by the Word doctrinally opened and personally applied by the Keys And Ruling is called Civil because it is the Regiment over Cives quâ tales so it is Ecclesiastical as it is over Cives quâ Christianos and over particular Churches and Pastors and for Souls more than for Bodies and worldly Estates § 14. A National Church containeth not all that dwell in the Land but all that are Burgesses or Free-men in Church respects All be not Citizens that dwell in the City but they that are Denisons and have City-Rights and Priviledges As Christ is Head over all things To his Church Eph. 1. 23. so a Christian King is Head over his inhabiting Enemies and Aliens and Head to all Civil Denisons as he is a King and Head to all Christian Church Denisons as he is a Christian King § 15. In what cases Subjects may be Civil Denisons that are not Christian Denisons or Church Members requireth so many words and cautions to open that I omit the decision of it But were a Christian Kingdom such as it ought to be none should be a Civil Burgess with any Trust belonging to Government but such as are Baptized or professed Christians and are communicating Members in some Churches or Assemblies allowed or tolerated or that ought to be tolerated For a Kingdom and Church as formally Christian should be Ruled by none but Visible Christians This is true both of Magistrates Pastors and the chusers of of them But none should for this be forced or drawn to profess Christianity or communicate against their wills it being a priviledge that none have right to but those that
earnestly desired it Nor did the Antient Churches grant it to any other Nor would so much as receive Oblations for maintenance of Ministers from others Chap. II. That Christ instituted such a Church-Form § 1. THat Christ instituted such a Kingdom or National Church I prove as followeth 1. He was by the Prophets still described as such before his coming as was to be the King of Israel and Israel under him a National Church Moses was King in Jesurun Deut 33. 5. and said A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you like to me viz. that was a Prophet and King Melchizedeck was the Type of Christ that was King of Salem and Priest Psal 110. Heb. 8. David was herein a Type of Christ and Christ was promised to sit on his Throne Psal 2. 6. Yet have I set my King on my holy Hill of Sion Ezek. 37. 24. David my Servant shall be King over them and they shall all have one Shepherd c. My Servant David shall be their Prince for ever So v. 27 28. so Hos 3. 5. Exod. 19. 6. Ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests Dan. 2. 44. Mark 11. 10. Psal 33. 12. Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. 2. Christ is proclaimed the King of the Jews and claimed that title and their subjection to him Matth. 2. 2. 27. 11. Mark 15. 2. He was of the Line of David and had right to his Kingdom He was scorned and crucified for that claim Mat. 27. 29 37. Mark 15. 9 12 18 26. Luke 23. 37. John 19. 21. The People acknowledged him King by their Hosanna He destroyeth them as Enemies that would not he should Reign over them Luke 19. 14 27. 3. He laid the Foundation of his offered National Kingdom among them He owned the Title and chose twelve Apostles in relation to the twelve Tribes and the seventy Disciples related to their great Council He would Preach to none but Israel till they rejected him He would have gathered all Jerusalem and her Children as the Hen gathereth her Chickens but they would not Mat. 23. 37. He destroyed them for refusing him 4. He commissioned his Apostles to stay at Jerusalem till they rejected them They made up the broken number of twelve as related to the twelve Tribes by Matthias though Joses and others had also followed Christ 5. He appointed them to Preach the Gospel to Nations and to disciple Nations Mat. 28. Mark 16. 6. He planted the Gentiles into the same Olive-tree that the Jews were broken off from Rom. 11. 7. The Jews had not been broken off from their National Church-state but for unbelief Rom. 11. 8. He translated the Kingdom from them to a Nation that would bring forth the fruits of it 9. In due time the Kingdoms of the World were made the Ringdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11. 19. 10. Kings are to be the Churches Nursing Fathers 11. All Power in Heaven and Earth is given to Christ Mat. 28. and by him Kings Reign He is King of Kings and not of single persons only 12. But what need there any other proof while all Christians confess that All Kings are bound to be Christian Kings and to promote Christianity to their Power and all Magistrates and Subjects to be Christians And are not they then bound to be Christian Kingdoms and that is National Churches § 2. When he had prepared them to be voluntary Subjects by the Preaching of the Gospel and the Church came to maturity Christ actually set up National Kingdom-Churches and Ruled by Constantine successive Christian Princes And Heaven and Earth rejoyced that he had taken to him his great Power and Reigned and that the Kingdoms of the World were become his Kingdoms Rev. 17. 18. 19. Infancy is fitter for Instruction than to Govern Man is made to use Reason but he useth little in Infancy or till maturity That which was first in intention is last in execution Mature Reason in Man and Princely Government in Kingdom-Churches was first in intention tho' not in execution Who would wish that Pagans had still Reigned What Christian wisheth not that the Persians Indians Turks Tartars c. were all Christian Kingdoms Why else do the Millennies hope for such a state of holy Government § 3. Obj. But tho' there be no doubt of the command institution and duty what hope have we of the constitution and event that Kingdoms should become Christian Ans Our Question is of the Institution and Duty confess that and let us do our endeavour 2. Is not this a Christian Kingdom while King and Subjects are baptized professed Christians Are we a Protestant Kingdom and not a Christian Kingdom And are not others such Obj. But these be mostly but nominal Hypocrite Christians Ans They are visible professed Christians The Corn is not without Straw and Chaff Do you look for Kingdoms that consist only of the sincere Obj. But Churches must consist only of those that seem sincere Ans All seem sincere that profess sincerity till it be by tryal and witness publickly disproved There are several degrees of seeming some by fuller evidences than others but all that Vow it and stand to that Vow do seem and profess it till disproved Obj. But how prove you that a Christian Kingdom is a Church Ans Doth your Question mean de Re or de Nomine I told you what I mean by a Church no other than a Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian Soveraign and Christian Subjects worshiping God in confederate particular Churches ordinarily will you deny the Being or the Duty of such If it be the Name 1. The word Ecclesia is used for even common Assemblies and therefore much more for Christian Societies 2. The Israelites were called The Church in the Wilderness much more when more fully stablished 3. If you have any reason against the Name disprove it 4. If the Name be all the difference call it as you please But make it not your pretence that only Priests are persons Holy enough to be Heads of Churches and not Kings and therefore that it is no National Church that hath not a Clergy Head Monarchical or Aristocratical for that 's the Popish Doctrine which I have confuted Chap. III. In the Execution Judea was such a Church § 1. IN the Execution of his Institution Christ in the time of Constantine and after made Judea it self a National Church as far as a Province of the Empire may be called a Nation The Empire as Christian headed by one Christian Soveraign and materiated by Christian Subjects obeying Christ both singly and in sacred Assemblies under their Bishops or Elders was all one National Church that is One Christian Kingdom long before promised by Christ and prepared for But as the Emperors allowed some Provinces to have subject tributary Kings and others to enjoy most of their Antient Laws and Liberties so they might secundum quid be called Kingdoms and National Churches
of Knowledge and Gifts rather than a setled Superiority of Office and whether any Pastors might not do all their Ordinary continued work But besides the singularity of that doubt I was soon convinced of an Official Superiority and Disparity not only because a Judas had been one but because the number of Twelve in Superiority was to be kept up by the choice of his Successor even one from among those that had been Witnesses of Christs Words and Works as well as he And by Pauls being made a thirteenth Apostle when the Gospel was to be carried further than to the Jews And his claim of Apostolical Power and Priviledges § 17. Especially because I find Christ Mat. 28. 19 20. describing the General Office as well as the Particular even going into all the World to Disciple whole Nations as well as to teach them to observe Christs Commands promising to be with them to the end of the World § 18. And also because it is apparent that Preaching the Gospel to Heathen and Infidel Nations is a Work still to be done and for want of men purposely appointed to do it the progress of the Gospel hath been wofully stopt Few doing any thing in it but Mr. Eliots and a few honest men in New England and they say some of the Dutch and the Jesuits and Fryers that do it corruptly Particular Church Work is below this § 19. And I am fully confirmed when I find that the Apostles themselves setled a General sort of Ministers in Superiority and General Work to succeed them As Christ himself by his Spirit made Barnabas an Apostle so he gave to his Church also Evangelists who were General helpers of the Apostles and were put in a state of Disparity and Superiority Sil as and Mark and Luke and Apollos and many more are named The texts that mention the General Office and Superior power of Timothy and Titus are so well known and oft cited that it 's needless to repeat them The charge of setling and overseeing many Churches as in Crete and of caution in Imposition of Hands receiving accusations rebuking sharply ruling them well ordaining Bishops and Deacons and much more the like I never thought Saravia and the Kings Arguments in the Isle of Wight well answered Mr. Prins and the common answer is that these were not Bishops but Evangelists I grant it but that confirmeth me For the name Bishop was then ordinarily appropriated to fixed particular Church Elders But our question is not de nomine but de re an Apostle Evangelist were above such Bishops Call them Apostles as Dr. Hammond proveth that the Fathers oft call them or call them Evangelists or Arch Bishops or General Bishops or Diocesans or Provincial Bishops it is not the name that is our Controversie It proveth that the Apostles did settle a sort of General Overseers to gather and take care of many inferior Bishops and Churches to succeed them in the ordinary part of their Office § 20. But another argument fixeth me in this opinion and that is that when it is fully proved that Christ instituted such a Disparity and Superiority he that will affirm that this doth not now continue and bind us must prove the repeal or revocation or prove that he did make this establishment but for a time and how long that was But Scripture plainly asserteth that he then appointed the foresaid Disparity and hath any as plainly proved that he repealed it or confined it to that Age It is not proved that I have seen And to assert this without proof is 1. To make Christs Institutions to signifie but what mans fancy thinks meet and make us the Masters of his Laws before we will be ruled by them 2. It is a charging Christ with temerity or dishonourable mutability as Instituting one form of Church Ministry and Government for one Age and changing it presently for another 3. It seemeth a dangerous taking Gods Name in vain by affirming such a mutability of him and change of his Laws without any proof 4. It defameth the state of his Church when it was under Persecution and when Heaven and Earth after rejoiced in its deliverance as if all that time it had been corrupt by owning the foresaid Disparity And it 's dangerous Presumption to Father on God that which he never did and never owned § 21. But no doubt but the Circumstances of this Superior Office or degree of Ministry are undetermined by God save as by General Rules and may be altered As 1. Whether there shall be One only or Two such General Ministers in one and the same Diocess or Province Christ sent out his Preachers by two and two Paul and Barnabas and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark went out by Couples Peter and Paul were together at Rome And Grotius and Dr. Hammond think that for the first times till the Christian Jews and Gentiles became one Communion the great Cities Rome Alexandria Antioch c. had each two Congregate Churches and two Bishops were it but for language sake And as I think the Jewish and Gentile Christian Ministers during the time of Miraculous Gifts while no Christian Magistrates Ruled were the two Witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse so I conjecture that Peter and Paul were the radical instances of them And when two join together it may take off envy from each Yet this is undetermined in Scripture and left to humane Prudence If two cannot agree how will such agree others § 22. The Scots had at first a General visiter that was really a General Bishop But the Visitors aspiring and abuse changed that way But I am told that in Ulster in Ireland each Classical Synod chuse two Grave Divines and send them out to Preach in any Congregation in that Classis where they see cause As where there are young raw men or men suspected of Heresy or men of scandalous fame and to admonish and counsel such and to tell the People that if they had any thing against their Ministers they should tell them and they would try them in the Classical Synod I think this is real and laudable Episcopacy whatever name it have § 23. It is also undetermined how large the Diocess be of the said General Minister while he excludeth not Inferiors As Prudence would teach the Apostles to Preach in several Countreys and not all in one when they left Jerusalem So Natural Reason teacheth Men still to divide and know their several Provinces § 24. It is undetermined how long each one shall stay in one City or place As Paul did long at Ephesus § 25. And it is left to Prudence how many subordinate Pastors and Churches there shall each oversee so they overthrow not the said subordinate Officers and Churches § 26. And it is left to Prudence what secular Lands or Riches they shall have called Glebe And what secular honour they shall have As to be Barons and Lords or to sit in Parliaments though Reason saith that
for such Communion But National Provincial or Diocesane Communion is but by distant agreement in the same Profession among persons perhaps many hundred Miles distant that never see each other And the Ministerial Work doth accordingly differ Dr. Hammond maintaineth that in Scripture times there were no Bishops that had any more than a Congregation to whom he Preached and Personally Officiated Chap. VI. Who must be the Lay-Members of National Churches § 1. INfidels and Heathens may be free Members of a Kingdom as a Kingdom and in a Kingdom as Christians may be tolerated when they cannot be cured And may be used as Inferior Officers in such secular affairs as they are capable of But a Christian Kingdom and Church as such consisteth of no Denisons Burgesses or men free and empowered in matters of Religion but only such as are Baptized or openly professed Christians and their Children and are not proved to have nullified that profession by Heresie or such sin as rendreth their profession incredible and invalid And all these Baptized Visible Christians must be taken for such Members § 2. Where the Essentials of Christianity are Visibly Professed there may be a great difference of Members in Gifts and Soundness Some may be Eminently Laudable and Useful and some may be so Faulty as are fit for Rebuke and Punishment and yet all Members § 3. The Priviledges of some that are not Disfranchised or Excommunicate may yet be suspended while they are under trial For as nothing but Capital Crimes or Excommunication for Impenitence after due Admonition doth cut them off so while they have rendered this justly questionable just Legal Tryal must needs suspend their questioned right till Judgment decide it whether they be impenitent or not or their Crime be Capital § 4. In the Jewish State many hainous Sins were to be punished with Death As Murder Blasphemy Worshiping False Gods drawing men from the true God Cursing Parents Willful and Obstinate Gluttony and Drunkenness and Debauchery after Parents Patient endeavours to reform them Adultery Incest Sodomy some Perjuries And dead men can be no Church Members on Earth Therefore this Death for Sin was an Excommunication and more Therefore they that Plead that any such should be tolerated because the Jews were often such and not Excommunicated is to plead the example of Criminals against the express Letter of the Law and argue à facto prohibito contra legem prohibentem And whether Mr. Galaspi and others have proved any more than Church-Suspension against any but those that were to be put to Death I leave the Reader to consider § 5. It is a Controversie whether the Church be in the Common Wealth or Kingdom or the Common Wealth in the Church And the former is by most asserted Ans 1. Under Infidel or Heathen Kings that are out of the Church themselves the Church is in the Common Wealth 2. And under Christian Kings or other Soveraigns the Particular Churches are in the Common Wealth as parts in the whole 3. And as the Common Wealth is taken so largely as to comprehend Pagans in Inferior Magistracy as in the days of the first Christian Emperors there the Church is in the Common Wealth But take the Common Wealth as meerly and truly Christian and it is the same thing with the National Church and one is not in the other being but two Names for one thing § 6. The appropriating the Name of the Church to the Clergy as distinct from the Laity is the Plot or Part of Popish Tyranny and Fallacy Implying falsly that the National Church must be specified and unified by a Priestly Head Monarchical or Aristocratical and that a King is not a person sacred enough to be the Supream Head in his own National Church Nor the people Holy enough to be its Materials As if Lords Commons Citizens and other Lay Christians were no parts of the Church when Great Magistrates are Nobler parts than a multitude of Ignorant Vicious Curates and Priests § 7. From this Cheat they have claimed the sole Power as of Divine Right of making Canons that shall be obliging Laws and of being the sole determiners of Religious Cases Too many Presbyterians and Independants are for this Clergy claim calling only the Ministers work the exercise of Christs Kingly Office But the Frenchified Prelatists much more § 8. Hence is the common sence and abuse of the distinction of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government intimating that Kings are not to Govern the Church not meddle beyond Civil and Secular concerns But of this before § 9. The power of the Sword or force belongeth only to the Magistrate to be used by him as Judge and not as the Clergies Lictor or Executioner the Bishops and Clergy have no forcing Sword power unless the King give it them for which mostly they are unmeet having proper work enough of their own Tho some cases may be excepted Chap. VII What is the Confederacy or Concord needful to a National Church § 1. AFfirmatively 1. A Baptismal Confederacy to be all the true Subjects of one God one Christ and Holy Ghost against the Devil World and Flesh § 2. 2. A Consent to live as Christians in Love to one another and to addict our selves to the good of one another specially to the welfare of the whole Body and to do as we would justly be done by § 3. 3. To be all the Loyal subjects of one Christian Soveraigns Power § 4. 4. To be all for the publick Worshiping of God and our Redeemer in Christian Assemblies guided and ruled by Christian Pastors or Bishops qualified and described by Christ in his Word the instituter of the Pastoral Office and not of any new sort of humane Ministry or uncapable persons that are wanting in any thing essential to the Office § 5. 5. To take the Sacred Scripture for the Word of God and the sufficent Rule of Divine Faith and Holy living And to profess an explicite Belief of the Creed as it was transmitted to us from the Apostolick Churches and to take the Lords Prayer for the summary rule of our desires and hopes and the Decalogue as owned and expounded by Christ for the summary rule of our Obedience with the Sacraments instituted by him § 6. 6. To profess Obedience to true Authority in Parents Magistrates and Pastors and all true Governours so far as they are empowered by God and to obey God above all and no men against him and his Laws And Rulers to profess to obey God and Rule as his Ministers for the Common welfare and to promote the obedience of Gods Laws § 7. 7. For Magistrates Pastors and Parents to profess their endeavour to promote the true Preaching of the Gospel and the transmitting of it in Purity to Posterity and to encourage and not unjustly forbid or hinder the publication and practice of it § 8. Negatively 1. It is not meet that this confederacy so appropriate the Body of the National Church to any one
Non-Conformity do the same in the Judgment of these Accusers The Lord be Judge Chap. IX That Christ hath Instituted no true Ecclesiastical Government in Man of any larger extent than National much less Universal nor of Foreign Jurisdiction And that the French pretended Aristocracy with the Popes Primacy and Patriarchate is as bad or worse than Papal Monarchy § 1. POpery and Clergy Usurpation which have corrupted and broken and confounded the Christian Churches on pretence of Government Unity and Order have risen out of the Ruines of Christian Magistracy The true Unifying Heads of Christian Kingdoms and National Churches being deposed by the Pope and Clergy their Power hath faln into the hands of the deposers § 2. The means by which this was accomplished were these 1. When there was no Christian Magistracy the Christians by voluntary consent to avoid Pagan Tribunals made their Bishops their chosen Arbitrators to decide their differences And Constantine finding them in possession of it and having no Lay-men so wise and good and meet continued them in it yet without the Power of the Sword 2. The pious Christians were desirous that their own freely chosen Pastors should rule them having no others so fit 3. The Princes were so taken up with Wars and secular things that they had no leisure to mind it 4. Princes and Rulers grew so ignorant wicked and debaucht that themselves and all others almost thought them unmeet for such holy work They neglected the study of the Word of God which should have made them wise 5. The Clergy not only took the advantage of the ignorance and viciousness of Princes but cherished them herein and told them Scripture and holy work were for the Priests and not for Princes 6. They debased and prophaned the Order of Magistrates falsly pretending that their Office was but for the Body c. for worldly Peace and the Office of Priests only was for the Soul 7. They by degrees turned the Communion and Concord of several Foreign Churches and Nations into one Government over all 8. When the Roman Empire was broken into many Kingdoms the National pretence of the Pope or Councils could reach but to some one of them and so the Pope slightly pretended to all and turned the Imperial Universality into a Terrestrial Universality and the Roman World into the whole World or else they had fallen 9. In all this they took the advantage of the Ignorance of Princes and Lords 10. And of the Wars and Enmity against each other striking in with the side that was likest to advance them § 2. To this day Popery is upheld by the same means by which it was set up especially by the Ignorance Ungodliness and Slothfulness of Kings and Lords Did they exceed the Clergy as much as Moses Joshua David Solomon Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah Nehemiah Zorobbabel did the Priests and as much as the Heathen Emperors Titus Trajan Adrian Antoninus Pius Antoninus Philosophus Alexander Severus c. did their Priests they would be honoured above the Priests as they were The Emperors then were thought fit to be Pontifices Maximi and as in the times of the Ancient Family-power an Abraham an Isaac and a Jacob and a Job and a Melchizedeck were thought fit to have the highest Government in matters of Religion so would it be still And a Samuel would be Prophet and King But as God will honour those that honour him so those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed § 3. The true way therefore to put down Popery is for the Prince and Magistrates to claim their proper Power yet not to usurp the Priesthood and to study love and practise the Law of God and take their Power and Laws to be only and meerly subservient to the Power and Laws of God And to strive to understand these so clearly as to be able to judge sound Preachers from unsound and to know whom to countenance whom to tolerate and whom to suppress It is Kings that have set up Popes by putting down themselves and Popes have set in to pull them down to set up themselves And it is Kings that must pull down Popes by reassuming their own Power and Work and that must be by becoming fit for it § 4. That Prince who granteth that his Office is but for the Body and for Secular Ends and the Priests only for the Soul inviteth all his Subjects to honour every Priest before him and to account him base as worldly things are to be accounted as dung in comparison of the things of the Spirit and Eternity Yea every good Christian who is commanded to exhort each other daily and to comfort one another with the remembrance that we shall be for ever with the Lord would be far more honourable than a King as the Soul is above the Body and Heaven better than Earth § 5. He is not worthy of Parental Honour from his Children that careth only for their Bodies and seeketh not to make them the Children of God and the Heirs of Heaven and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And if Princes be below the work of Parents they are below their Honour And if they will not be included in the work of the Fifth Commandment how can men give them the honour of that Commandment § 6. They that will have a Universal Prelate or Council to Govern the matters of Religion through all the World because of the unskilfulness of Kings and Magistrates should in reason also be willing on the same Grounds to have an Universal King or Parliament to Govern all Kings because some are Ignorant or Slothful or an Universal Physicion Philosopher or Schoolmaster § 7. God hath given the World often such Counsellors and such Judges as have been fit to judge in matters of Religion and to Judge Bishops and Preachers Why else do our Laws subject them to Kings and Judges Had all Lands but such Judges as through Gods Mercy England hath now or such as were Sir Matthew Hale and divers others in our Age and such Counsellors as Queen Elizabeth had for the most part or such Lawyers as France it self hath had and the Palatinate and Holland it would convince the World that Laymen may be fit to judge the Clergy even in matters of Religion And why may not Princes attain as much wisdom and honesty as their Counsellors and Judges The Christian Nations have been more beholden to a Constantine Jovian Valentinian Theodosius Senior Theodosius Junior Marcian Leo Anastasius and many other such and Spain to Recaredus and divers of his Successors and France to Carolus Mag. Ludov. Pius save their compliance with the Pope than to any Bishops or Councils even for Reformation against Heresies and Clergies Sins Chap. X. Whether an Universal Church-Government be of Apostolick Succession in the continued parts of their Office § 1. THough those that take it for mutability and backsliding to change their Judgments after that the School or their Leaders or
deny not but the Providence of God hath made use of the Roman Power Numbers Concord and Riches to uphold the common Cause But all is not Good that God over-ruleth and useth to good permitting Man to cause the Evil. As a Man may use the Cruelty without causing it of a Hound a Ferret or a Hawk against the Prey to fulfil his just will Had National Kingdom Churches been kept up under true Christian Kings and Pastors and these Kings and Pastors in Dyets and Councils kept due Confederacies by Consultation and Contract without mutual Jurisdiction the common Cause had been better promoted than it hath been by Popery that hath shamed it and weakened it by Persecutions Divisions Treasons and Wars Quest IV. Whether the Divisions of other Christians render the Roman Government desireable for Concord Ans 1. There are more that Unite in Mahometanism and far more in Paganism than all the Christians in the World And Satan knoweth how to advantage his Kingdom by Concord as well as to weaken Christs Kingdom by Division 2. The Bishops have made the greatest Schisms and Division in the Church that ever was made by sinful Usurpation and Corruption and Impositions and Persecutions Unchurching the far greatest part of Christians and appropriating the Church Title to his own Sect alone All the Bloody Murders of the Waldenses Bohemians and other Protestants the Inquisition the present Wars that France hath involved Europe in are on pretence of Unity We like not the Unity that Satan maintaineth and that at such a rate of Blood 3. But I have before and elsewhere proved that the Protestants for all their Divisions have a far better Unity than the Papal Church hath so that this Question is elsewhere and here sufficiently answered Quest V. Whether the Errors of the Protestants do not so disparage them as to make the Roman Church more Honourable Ans 1. That is should not Men chuse a Leprosie to cure an Itch We deny not but where Controversies shew our Differences among our selves one Party must needs be in an Error either de re or de nomine But we agree in all that 's necessary to Salvation and Brotherly Love And Pride and Envy and Malignity are more the Causes of our Disagreement than our Religion Especially unskilfulness in Words and stating Cases I have endeavoured to shew in many Books especially my End of Doctrinal Controversies my Catholick Theology and Methodus Theologiae that our Differences are most in Words whose sence is not mutually understood How many Loads of Controversal Volumes are written by Papists against each other And what heavy Charges of Simony Filthiness Heresie c. have even General Councils and Historians laid on the Popes and many Councils And note that the Pope or Council is the Essentiating Form of the Papal Church as such and therefore an Unholy or Debauch'd or Heretick Head proveth that the Church is Unholy or Heretical Because the Form denominateth and is Essential But it is not so with the Protestants that own no Universal Head but Christ who is Infallible and perfect This much I thought needful to add against them that pretend an Institution of Christ for a Political Universal Head and a Foreign Jurisdiction above a National Church or Christian Kingdom He that would compare Papists Errors with Protestants let him read Chamier Blondel de Ecclesia Molinaeus of the Novelty of Popery Rivet Downame de Antichristo Jewel Whitaker and other such § 7. How few Bishops or Church Doctors are for Learning equal to Boetius Joh. Picus Francis Picus Erasmus Hutten Goldastus Freherus Pistorius Faber Stephanus Father and Son Mornay Lord Du Plessis Mich. Hospitalius Thuanus the two Scaliger's Salmasius Grotius Sarravius Justellus and many other Lay-men And are Kings and Magistrates uncapable of Wisdom § 8. How vast is the difference between Governing one Kingdom and Governing all the World Do I need to aggravate it And is not one King with Wise Judges and Justices as capable of Governing one Kingdom as an Utopian College of Bishops that some dream of or a Pope and Cardinals of Governing all the World Can such ignorant vicious Monsters as Councils have condemned for the most odious Wickedness and Heresie better Rule at Abassia Armenia or the Antipodes than a Good King can Rule in England § 9. Councils consist of the Subjects of many Foreign Princes and usually their Princes chuse who shall go And they that are near the place of meeting will be the most And none can come against their Princes wills And few Bishops will disobey their Lords that send them or that they live under And must such Subjects of Papists Turks Infidels Heathens be Masters of England of King and People and of all the Religion in the World § 10. Cannot Bishops at hand here better try the Cause of one accused for Heresie Fornication Treason Murder c. and that by virtue of a Commission from God than a meeting of Bishops out of all the World a Thousand Mile off can try it § 11. But I shall here pass by my chief proof of this that God hath ordained no Humane Government distinct from meer consultation or Concord and Communion above National Headed by Christian Soveraignty Because I have ready for the Press a full Treatise of it in Two Books The first proving Historically by their own words that Archbishop Land Archbishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Bishop Sam. Parker Dr. Pet. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell and divers others have written for a Foreign and Universal Jurisdiction The second Book fully disproving it and proving that the Kingdom and Church is Sworn against it and that the Parliaments and the Church of England till Laud's days were against it And that this very Parliament and Convention having taken a new Oath against it besides the old Oaths of Supremacy to stigmatize the Church and Nation with the foresaid Perjury would dangerously presage the Rune of the Perjured if not of the Land Chap. XIII What are the dangerous Diseases of a National Church § 1. DEath cometh on Bodies Politick as on Natural Bodies by degrees as Diseases weaken and break them And while they are Diseased they are in an unlovely troublesome condition Gods Word and History and Experience hath told us what Diseases they be that are the usual presages of Confusion or Dissolution § 2. In general All sin is to the Soul what Sickness is to the Body and hath some tendency to destruction And the increase and abounding of Sin is a dangerous Prognostick sins of Sensuality Gluttony Drunkenness and Fornication when they grow common and impudent seldom go unpunished O how dangerous then is the case of England in which the Sin of Adultery and Fornication is commonly said to be so increased that multitudes are guilty now for One that was ever suspected of it before the Reign of K. Charles the Second And brutish Wretches scarce take it for a shame Sins of Injustice and
though they were but Provinces and parts of the Imperial Church And thus Judea became a National Church § 2. It is past question that many Kings who had given up their Kingdom to the Pagan Beast followed the success of Constantine and afterward did give up their Power to Christ yet no Kingdom was wholly converted at once nor of many years But yet while the Soveraign Power and Confederate Christian Pastors and Subjects had the chief Power it was truly a Christian Kingdom For the Form in capable matter doth denominate And tho' many Heathens were long permitted in Government that doth but prove that the Kingdom had two sorts of free Subjects one sort that were Christians and so were the chief Members who in all matters of Religion were exempted from Pagan Judicatures and the other Heathens who had a freedom in things secular § 3. Judea then was more eminently Christian than any other Nation of no greater extent There were Arch Bishops and Bishops and Presbyters and after a Patriarch And there were more Monasteries and Religious Societies and more Temples built there than in any Countrey that was no greater And more Christians flockt thither from other Nations out of a veneration for the place And indeed it was the Mother-Church out of which all other Churches sprang Therefore if any Province might be called a National Church it was Judea § 4. This was when the Fulness of the Gentiles came in that is when the Gentile Empire turned Christian And so the Gentile Powers turned Christian provoked the Jews to emulation and requited them by becoming Nursing Fathers to them and bringing their Glory to Jerusalem And so all Israel was saved that is the body of Abraham's natural Seed and also the faithful Gentiles that were the spiritual Seed were unitedly gathered to Christ § 5. Obj. But they were mostly Gentiles that then dwelt there And that proveth no Conversion of the Jews Ans The scattered Jews were in many Countreys of the Roman Empire And most of them had neither mind nor means to return to a small and barren Land But as many as were willing and were zealous for their Countrey did live there and none were forbidden And it is far most probable that the most that were there left were such as kept their old Habitations And the most that were kill'd were the military part In the days of Constantine and after their Churches flourished And what greater encouragement could they have now to return were they converted than they had None would make them go against their wills If Gentile Christians and Jews were there mixt they did the more fitly suit a Catholick Church-state when Moses Policy and their Peculiarity ceased Should they in the feigned Fifth Monarchy-state be confined to that Countrey which is like our Wales how contemptible a Nation would they be in comparison of what Constantine allowed them both in Judea and throughout all the Empire No Nation was wholly converted at the first and if the Christian Jews that lost their name being Catholicks had no great mind to go to Judea it is no wonder Chap. IV. Particular Churches and Pastors how far essential to a National Church and what are its materials § 1. THere is more essential to a National Church than the meer Formal Cause or Soveraign Matter is essential as well as Form Yet not all parts of the Matter neither though all be parts Integral As in the Body a man cannot be a man without a stomach liver and lungs and heart but he may without a finger or a hand or leg § 2. I doubt not but I have proved that the Soveraign Magistrate is the Formal Humane Head of his Kingdom and as Christian of the Kingdom as Christian And nothing remaineth disputable but de Nomine whether a Christian Kingdom must be named a Church which Custom Etymology and Scripture put past question Our Civilians such as Dr. Zouch Dr. Rich. Cousins c. and our Lawyers say trulier than most have believed that the King is persona mixta Custos utriusque Tabulae and Head of the Church as a Christian Kingdom And for want of knowing this and the true nature and bounds of his Office how foully many have miscarried I have shewed 1. Those called Erastians carry it too far and give the Magistrate part of the Office of the Pastors even the Keys of Admission into the Church as a Church and of Excommunication which God hath put into the hand of the Pastors by as immediate a Commission as he hath put the Sword into the hand of the Magistrate And by this over-doing they undo They would ruine the Prince on pretence of defending his Power For all Authority hath also Obligation to duty And must Princes and Magistrates be put on the task of trying the Faith and Repentance of all that are to be Baptized Confirmed Absolved or Excommunicated Then they must leave their own Calling for they will here find work enough This is like the Separatists making the People Judges by which they would undo them calling them from their Callings to take on them a work of which they are uncapable and about which they will never long agree and making them responsible to God for all their Male-administration As if the King must not only be Governour of Physicions but must be a Physicion himself and give Medicines and be answerable for the Patients lives Or must be a Schoolmaster because he governeth Schoolmasters And this puts them on a necessity of casting out true Discipline and holding the Opinion that Sacramental Communication should be common to the Godly and the openly Wicked as being a Converting Ordinance and that Excommunication is but Tyranny Just as those Diocesans that will have no Bishops but one over a thousand or many score or hundred Parishes by pleading for their sole Episcopal Power take on them the sole Obligation to Episcopal duty and so make themselves responsible for that work which requireth many hundred men and under themselves while they undo the Churches and leave all true Discipline undone and mock not God but men and themselves with names and ceremonious shadows 2. And the Papal and French Prelatists have by this Ignorance got a fixed false Opinion that as Pastors are the Constitutive Heads of Particular Churches so they must be of National Churches and that every National Church must be unified and specified by one Clergy Soveraignty in one person or in a Colledge or Aristocracy Or else that a Christian Kingdom is not properly a Church because it hath not a Priestly Head It 's true that it is not univocally a Church of the same species or rank as a Pastoral Church is but is more eminently and as fitly called a Church as Israel was 3. And the Independent Separatists and Anabaptists for want of understanding this as I said before cry down National Churches with scorn and run away from National Concord into endless Divisions and Sects while at the