not If they were then what discretion could there be in the people to refer all the Causes within the Bishops Diocess supposing it to be of the same extent and bigness with the Diocesses of Bishops in England to one man their Bishop And what discretion could it be in such a Bishop as among us the Bishop of Norwich the Bishop of London the Bishop of Lincoln c. to take upon him the trouble of hearing and arbitrating all Civil causes controversies and differences of the people inhabiting so vast a compass as his Diocess He must do nothing else but meerly hear civil Causes He must be but a Bishop in name How expensive and very inconvenient would it be for all the Christians in any the least Diocess in England much more in the greatest to travel with their Law-Suits to the Bishop of the Diocess His House then must be a meer Westminster hall and all the days in the year scarce the Lords-day excepted must be term-time with him To think that the Apostle ever meant any such thing when he counsels them to refer their matters to a wise Arbitrator is a gross wresting of his words For he wrote to the Church of Corinth which was but one particular Church Is there not a wise man among you He must be a wise man among them one near at hand easie to be resorted to to whom they might refer their Causes And therefore it could not be that the Christians then referred their Causes to a Diocesan Bishop such as ours And if not then the Cause of our Diocesan Bishops will receive a deep wound and it will make way for an unwelcome truth That the Bishops to whom the people referred their Causes were the Pastors of every Parish the very same with our Parish-Ministers and the Rectors of Parsonages These of the Clergy were the fittest to arbitrate the Causes of all the people within their Parish A Parish-Bishop or Minister may with far more ease arbitrate and compose the dissentions and suits of all in his Parish than the Diocesan Bishop can do of all the Pastors and people in his Diocess 3. It is not the intent and meaning of the foresaid words of the Apostle that Pastors should be imployed in hearing and arbitrating the secular Causes of their own people or of the people of other Parishes I will not say it is absolutely and universally unlawful nor will I say it is expedient in no case at all There may be Cases rarely here and there in Parishes so circumstanced both under Christian and Pagan Magistrates in which it may be both lawful and expedient for the Pastors to arbitrate and compose suits and differences among the people But generally and for the most part it is inexpedient For either he will do right or do wrong If he do right it is well if one side be not displeased and fall out with him and take a grudge against him and either turn from him and not hear him or hear him with prejudice and so by this means the Pastor may be an occasion of much sin and damage and damnation to his Soul which prudence and piety and compassion in a Minister doth forbid and will make him watch against If he do wrong then it is hurtful to his own Soul it is a wronging of the Innocent and a perverting of Justice and a scandal to his Ministry Besides He can scarce do it but with distraction If he do it but a little it will be a hindrance to his other work and distract him much more will it hinder and distract him if he should use it and do it frequently And the words of Christ are considerable and worthy to be thought or Luke 12.14 Man who made me a judge or a divider an Arbitrator between you 4. The words of the Apostle may be well understood in this sense either there is besides your Pastor a wise man among you and one that is able to judge between brethren or there is not If there be refer your contentions and civil causes to him Neither go to Law before the unbelievers nor do you trouble your Pastors and Bishops but single out a wise man among you one that is able to hear and decide your Causes and make him Judge and Arbitrator between you If there be not one such wise and able man among you then it is a shame and reproach to you all What Do you call your selves Saints Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the world even Angels themselves Are they no then fit to judge on earth small matters and to decide a petty controversie about mine and thine between Brethren but Brother goeth to Law with Brother and that before the unbelievers This is to your shame 5. When Constantine came to the Crown and Magistrates became Christians the most expedient way had been to have eased Pastors of all those molestations and avocations and lest the Pastor nothing to do but his own part and the Magistrate his part To make the Clergy worldly Judges and Magistrates is no benefit but a burden it is nothing that a wise man should rejoice in but rather groan under as a pressure and hindrance and pray to God to be eased of it and rejoyce in being free from it and at liberty to imploy all the time which was wont to be spent in such Secular affairs in Religious and Sacred exercises which have a more special tendency to Souls good and are most becoming a Pastor 18. Lastly I will set the worthy Davenant against himself who going about to prove that the Bishop of Rome hath no temporal power over Kings lays down this position Bonum spirituale non postulat ut ulla temporalis potestas a Romano pontifice exerceatur And if not by him then by no other Bishop or Pastor whatsoever Non est enim in ordine ad hunc finem aut necessarium medium aut accommodatum aut licitum aut denique cum spirituali censura excommunicationis ullo jure connexum Spiritual good doth not require that any temporal power be exercised by the Bishop of Rome for it is not in order to this end either a necessary mean or fit or lawful or lastly by any right knit with the spiritual censure of excommunication Determ quest 4. And he gives very substantial proofs I am at a loss how to reconcile him to himself But whether he be consistent to himself or not I lay not my cause upon that the other proofs and evidences do overpower my understanding 19 Now if it be manifestly inexpedient to make Clergy-men Magistrates and grant them civil jurisdiction then it must needs be manifestly inexpedient to make them supream Magistrates and to confer upon them the highest jurisdiction which Subjects be capable of as to be Lords in Parliament and to have equal votes with the Peers and Nobility of the Realm and sit as Princes there to be many days and weeks and months from their Flock and to be
A DISPUTATION PROVING That it is not convenient to grant UNTO MINISTERS SECULAR JURISDICTION And to make them Lords Statesmen IN PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXIX It is not expedient to grant unto Clergy-men secular Jurisdiction 1. I Do not undertake to prove that it is simply unlawful And the worthy and judicious Bishop Davenant doth grant and assert Determ quest 11. That the Law of Prudence and Equity it self doth forbid Kings to burden Clergy-men with it so far as it will let and avocate them from their spriritual office and function 2. It will be demanded who must be Judge what is and what is not expedient To which the forenamed Davenant makes answer That is to be accounted expedient which a Wise Man shall so judge and determine whereunto I assent He afterwards adds That which a wise and religious Prince shall so determine Neither do I dissent in this provided it be soundly understood For that which a wise and religious Prince shall judge to be expedient if it be so indeed all wise men will at least they ought so to think for sound wisdom is the same in all But it is too possible for the most wise and prudent Prince to enjoyn things not good and expedient King David thought it most prudent to number the people who was a most wise Prince but in that his wisdom fail'd him Joab his General that was much inferiour to David in goodness and heavenly wisdom thought it very imprudent and the event proved Joab to be the wiser man in that 3. Some things are more evidently other things are less evidently expedient The Scales may hang so even and equilibrious that a wise comparing judgment can scarce tell whether is the heavier end and whether part hath the stronger reasons and the Scales may be so odd and unequal so much solid reason may be said for the one side and so little for the other that to a wise comparing judgment the case is not doubtful to decide Now I shall manifest that it is evidently inexpedient to grant secular jurisdiction to Ministers and Glergy-men that is That the same person be a Minister Bishop or Pastor of Souls and a Magistrate or â—oâ—â—lve Judge one that heareth the Sword Rom. 13.4 4. Arg. 1. Jesus Christ did not see it meet to exercise any such power while he was upon earth being moved to be a kind of worldly Judg between two Brethren he refused saying Who made me a Judg or a divider over you Determ quaest 4. Luk. 12.14 As if he should say says Davenant upon the words Neither by divine nor by humane Ordination do I exercise Judiciary power over private persons much less over Kings By which argument the same Davenant goes about to prove the nullity of the Popes power in Temporals Now if his argument be of force against the Bishop of Rome I see not but it is of equal force against worldly Jurisdiction in all Bishops and Pastors whatsoever Now if Christ saw it not meet for him to exercise worldly Jurisdiction methinks all Bishops and Pastors of Souls who have their office and calling particularly from him should see it meet to learn of him and imitate him herein and Princes themselves should not think it expedient to burden Ministers with that which Christ himself refused and put from him as either unlawful in it self or inexpedient Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me 5. Arg. 2. The Apostles and the successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches for the space of three hundred years unto the time of Constantine had no Temporal Jurisdiction nor did exercise any And those are counted the best and purest times of the Church If we may not make the Apostles of Christ and their immediate successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches for the first three hundred years our pattern what shall we make our pattern and by what law and rule shall we determine what is and what is not expedient Can we better govern our selves and the Churches than they Have we more wisdom to invent and find out ways of good governing the Church than they had Have we more holiness and goodness and faithfulness to God our selves our calling and the Church than had they If the Church did well and best subsist when it had no Magistrates but what were Pagan Infidel and Jewish many of whom were great Persecutors all of them deâ—â—â—â— of the Christian name will it not well and better subsist if better can be where Magistrates are Christian and desenders of the Faith if Bishops and Pastors contenting themselves with no more but the Episcopal and Pastoral office and refusing all worldly Jurisdiction shall wisely and faithfully behave themselves in their office as those first and most ancient Bishops and Pastors of the Churches did 6. Unto this the worthy Davenant makes answer That those â—â—nes and ours are not alike Those times were exceeding 〈◊〉 and good ours be exceeding bad There needed no secular authority in Pastors then there was so much holiness and piety the Word and Discipline were abundantly enough but now the Christian World is so exceeding corrupt and degenerate that unless Ministers be armed with Secular Jurisdiction their authority will be despised and the Discipline which God hath appointed to be in his Church will be scorned as base and contemptible rather than be reverenced for any good it will do Non tam usui esset quam ludibrio those are his very words Davenant is the man whom I do highly esteem and so do all that be wise and knowing in the things of God but in this Davenant hath fallen much below himself and the feebleness of his reasoning doth much confirm me in my judgment and perswasion that the cause which he oppugneth and which I do here defend is too strong to be overthrown 7. His answer is partly not true not to say it is directly and flatly false For let any impartial man make a due estimate of things and compare the Pastors and Churches under the Apostles I except the persons of the Apostles themselves and during their abode upon earth and their successors the Pastors and Churches immediately following to the time of Constantine I say compare these with the Pastors and Churches of our times and it will be found that there is no such inequality as he suggests Bradford and Philpot and Rogers and Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley and Hooper and Bilney and Sanders and other of the English Martyrs were worthy and famous Martyrs of Christ as well as were those first and most ancient Martyrs And Grindal and Jewel and Vsher and Davenant and Gataker and Vines and Hildesham and Preston and Sibbs and Dod and Joseph Allen and many more of our own and foreign Divines were able to vye with the ancient Bishops and Pastors of the Churches such as died not Martyrs And the private Christians and Families and Congregations of our times
must and will stand with the order and quality and greatness of their work 32. Do you think in good earnest that Church and State will all go to rack and ruine if our two Arch-bishops and the Diocesan Bishops be not present in Parliament and sit as Lords and Princes there must they have the hearing of every Cause and be supream Judges and Magistrates and political Officers under the King were it not more becoming you to be among your people Preaching and Praying and visiting the Souls and Families under your charge in imitation of the Apostles Act. 20. Act. 6.2 3 4 21 28 31. than striving for worldly greatness and secular precedency Is not the way to Heaven strait enough to you but you will make it more strait cannot Traytors and Murderers be tried without you would it be any disparagement to the best of you all to be as Peter and Paâ—l yea as Jesus Christ himself rather than like the Pope do you stand for these worldly honours and preeminencies out of pure zeal for Gods Glory and the Churches good Why then do you heat your fellow-servants and use them more unchristianly than Pagans have used Christians Act. 38.20 21. and give your Votes that all the Pastors in the Land be silenced and put down for not assenting and consenting to many things which you your selves confess to be in their own nature indifferent all moderate and sound conforming Ministers confess to be burdensom and inconvenient and multitudes of conscientious and learned and peaceable dissenting Divines and Protestants do say are flatly unlawful 33. It is an errour to think that Episcopacy and Arch-episcopacy cannot stand unless Bishops and Arch bishops be made Lords and Legislators and Princes in Parliament and have worldly grandeur authority and greatness to support the simple office of Prelacy and Episcopacy in Gods Church These worldly additions and cumulations of secular office and honour are things extrinsical to right and simple Prelacy and Episcopacy Right and simple Prelacy and Episcopacy do not stand by the will and donation of Princes but by a superior Law even by Divine and unchangeable Right by the Word of God and by the Law and light of nature and the intrinsical goodness and expediency of the thing For if there were no Christian Magistracy or Parliament yet would there be Prelacy and Episcopacy in Gods Church It is of the law of Nature that the best be best esteemed and that vulgar Pastors and Divines that have but one or two talents of Ministerial and Episcopal learning holinesâ— wisdom and usefulness give place to those who are more eminent and whose graces and vertues do render them singularly excellent above their Brethren though they have but one and the same commission and authority Authority is one thing spiritual and mental qualifications and endowments are another thing Now we see how that God himself doth difference among the Pastors by conferring on some extraordinary abilities and qualifications and thereby notifying to all the Churches the singular reverence and esteem which he would have such eximious persons to have from all the Churches as Daniel was preferred above the Presidents Dan. 6.3 and Esther and her Maids above the Women Esther 2.9 34. Every man naturally hath a Pope in his belly is the common saying Pride is an inborn sin It is excessive pride in the Pope to think himself more than a man and it is excessive pride in an Infant to think himself a grown man and in Pastors that be but of infant-understandings to think themselves equal with such as be of grown and large and singularly eminent understandings Simple Prelacy among Divines is a Divine thing Every eminent holy and wise Presbyter is a real Arch-bishop in Gods Church This he would be were there no Christian Magistracy to uphold him There is a subjection due from one Pastor to another as from one man to another 1 Pet. 5.5 As it will not stand with true Christian humility self-denyal and subjection to Christ in all things that Pastors do dominate over Pastors and Lord it over their Brethren 1 Pet. 5.3 So it will not stand with the same Christian graces and duties for one Minister of inferior and smaller parts gifts and graces not to acknowledg the greater gifts and graces of others whom God hath made more eminent There is as great variety of Pastors as there is of Men and of Saints some are as eyes some as hands some as feet in Gods Church The weakest sincere Christian Pastor is a Pastor as truly as the highest and most excellent Pastor and is of use in his place In this there is no difference between the most eminent Arch-bishop Vsher and the meanest honest Parish-Minister But then as to wisdom and holiness and usefulness there is great difference and inequality and out of this ariseth natural simple divine and unchangeable Prelacy Episcopacy and Arch-episcopacy which is not a thing pleasing to flesh and blood and it doth neither favour nor make against any of the three forms of Church-government called Prelacy Presbytery and Independency further than they do favour or be against true impartial godliness of which this divine and simple Prelacy among Divines is one essential branch I do not say it is an appendant or appurtenant of Godliness and Religion but is an essential branch It is of the essence of my Religion that I put a difference as between a godly and ungodly Pastor so also between a godly Pastor that is almost ungodly and hath but one talent of godliness and a godly Pastor who is of the highest rank of godly Pastors and is full of the wisdom and grace and joy of the Holy Ghost and is of extraordinary usefulness and eminency in Gods Church We must not for fear of inclining to the Popes lordliness and supremacy run into another dangerous extream and tempt Infants to think they are Men and Scholars to think that they are fit to be Teachers and Learning Disciples Novices and Children that they are equal in wisdom and knowledg to their Parents Masters and Tutors between whom there is no compare 35. I make no doubt but there have been holy and eminent men Lord-bishops and Arch-bishops Peers in Parliament God forbid that I should think or say otherwise But either they were no more but meer and simple Bishops and Arch-bishops chosen and singled forth from among their Brethren to be consulted with in matters and cases ecclesiastical and proper for Divines and Bishops or they were more If the former and they kept in the rank and station of Bishops and Divines for my part I am not he that shall oppose it And if there be any word in all this disputation against such use of Bishops and Divines indictum volo I wish it unsaid But if they were more and took themselves to be more than simple Bishops and Pastors in Gods Church and to be superior to their brethren in power and authority if they took themselves
offenders and offences and execute revenging wrath upon evil doers And by this means there was much quiet and good living and order in the Realm This course is now antiquated and degenerated into another course not so profitable and convenient for good order and publick quiet and that is the Circuit of Judges itinerant twice each year through the Realm keeping their Assizes at one place only and making all the County to come thither and having a Judges Sermon Preached at the entrance of the Assizes Though the Church and Ministry will stand if the Pastors do their duty yet if Christian Magistrates do not their duty in their place and calling they do so far unchristianize themselves and if they protect the evil and punish the good or think that 〈◊〉 pretence of Liberty of Conscience men may be allowed to blaspheme God to teach Atheism Infidelity and Soul-destroying doctrines and acâ— the part of Corah and his complices against the faithful Ministers of Christ God will make them know one day that that was not the end for which he appointed them Magistrates and that they be his Ministers and are therefore called Gods and ought not to bear the Sword in vain and to stand by and see the Church wasted persecuted and torn in pieces by violence heresies schisms profaneness and wickednesses and they be like Gallio unconcerned and care for no such things And the truth is it is no â—â—ttle that the due execution of the Magistrates office doth conduce to the success of the Gospel and the promoting of the Ministry and of the Word and Work of God upon mens Souls And therefore though I dissent from the worthy Davenant in this That he would have Pastors to be Magistrates and I would have Pastors to be but meer Pastors and the Offâ—ce of the Magistrates to be an Office by it self and bestrusted with 〈◊〉 persons who are no Pastors and who may intend it and make 〈◊〉 their work yet thus far I agree that it is most convenient and godly that throughout all the Churches there be in every place an heir of restraint a revenger to execute wrath upon them that do evil and to protect the good that these two standing Ordinances of Jesus Christ and of God the Father by him may stand and consist together and walk hand in hand and mutually support and conserve each other for the Glory of God and the good of Church and Common-wealth And this is no Vtopia or Platonick Idea or form of a Common-wealth which is but a fiction or imagination no where to be found in this World But it is obvious and plain to all and needs not so much any new institution as a restauration of ancient practice and a faithful execution of what all sides agree in consistent with the municiâ—al laws and saâ—ctions of this Kingdom 40. If any shall think I have committed inexpediency in writing against inexpediency and have medled with a point that will not abide to be medled with when I am convinced of it I will acknowledg my error Till then I will stand upon mine own defence and plead not guilty Almost imprudent is prudent If any tâ—x me of pragmaticalness I answer it is pragmaticalness that I write against and I cannot cure the wound unless I search it to the bottom and apply to it suitable Plaisters Pragmatical Divines cannot content themselves to be Divines in common with their Brethren but they will play the Bishops in anothers Diocess and think it well becomes them to immerse themselves in State-affairs If it shall be said that hereby I cast aspersion upon the Government of the Nation and censure the judgment and esteem of many generations of Princes Parliaments Wise-men Divines and Counsellors I answer That if it be lawful for a Davenant to assert in Schools and publish to the world an erroneous position Civilis jurisdictio jure conceditur ecclesiasticis it cannot be thought unlawful by equal judges for another though not to be named with Davenant to assert the contrary and shew the unsoundness of his opinion though with all just reverence to so worthy a man And in doing this I do but expound the true meaning and extent of the fifth Commandment and assert the rights of the Church universal and the consentient judgment of the best and soundest Divines and the due bounds of Magistracy and Ministry and reduce things to primitive order and simplicity according to the pattern of Christ and his Apostles and the first and purest times of the Church FINIS