and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament have had one and the same scope to convert men to the obedience of God 1. in Moses and the Priests 2. in the man Christ and 3. in the Apostles and the successors to Apostolicall power For these three at several times did represent the person of God Moses and his successors the High Priests and Kings of Judah in the Old Testament Christ himself in the time he lived on earth and the Apostles and their successors from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on them to this day It is a question much disputed between the divers sects of Christian Religion From whence the Scriptures derive their Authority which question is also propounded sometimes in other terms as How wee know them to be the Word of God or Why we b◅leeve them to be so And the difficulty of resolving it ariseth chiefly from the impropernesse of the words wherein the question it self is couched For it is beleeved on all hands that the first and originall Author of them is God and consequently the question disputed is not that Again it is manifest that none can know they are Gods Word though all true Christians beleeve it but those to whom God himself hath revealed it supernaturally and therefore the question is not rightly moved of our Know edge of it Lastly when the question is propounded of our Beleefe because some are moved to beleeve for one and others for other reasons there can be rendred no one generall answer for them all The question truly stated is By what Authority they are made Law As far as they differ not from the Laws of Nature there is no doubt but they are the Law of God and carry their Authority with them legible to all men that have the use of naturall reason but this is no other Authority then that of all other Morall Doctrine consonant to Reason the Dictates whereof are Laws not made but Eternall If they be made Law by God himselfe they are of the nature of written Law which are Laws to them only to whom God hath so sufficiently published them as no man can excuse himself by saying he knew not they were his He therefore to whom God hath not supernaturally revealed that they are his nor that those that published them were sent by him is not obliged to obey them by any Authority but his whose Commands have already the force of Laws that is to say by any other Authority then that of the Common-wealth residing in the Soveraign who only has the Legislative power Again if it be not the Legislative Authority of the Common-wealth that giveth them the force of Laws it must bee some other Authority derived from God either private or publique if private it obliges onely him to whom in particular God hath been pleased to reveale it For if every man should be obliged to take for Gods Law what particular men on pretence of private Inspiration or Revelation should obtrude upon him in such a number of men that out of pride and ignorance take their own Dreams and extravagant Fancies and Madnesse for testimonies of Gods Spirit or out of ambition pretend to such Divine testimonies falsely and contrary to their own consciences it were impossible that any Divine Law should be acknowledged If publique it is the Authority of the Common-wealth or of the Church But the Church if it be one person is the same thing with a Common-wealth of Christians called a Common-wealth because it consisteth of men united in one person their Soveraign and a Church because it consisteth in Christian men united in one Christian Soveraign But if the Church be not one person then it hath no authority at all it can neither command nor doe any action at all nor is capable of having any power or right to any thing nor has any Will Reason nor Voice for all these qualities are personall Now if the whole number of Christians be not contained in one Common-wealth they are not one person nor is there an Universall Church that hath any authority over them and therefore the Scriptures are not made Laws by the Universall Church or if it bee one Common-wealth then all Christian Monarchs and States are private persons and subject to bee judged deposed and punished by an Universall Soveraigne of all Christendome So that the question of the Authority of the Scriptures is reduced to this Whether Christian Kings and the Soveraigne Assemblies in Christian Common-wealths be absolute in their own Territories immediately under God or subject to one Vicar of Christ constituted of the Vniversall Church to bee judged condemned deposed and put to death as hee shall think expedient or necessary for the common good Which question cannot bee resolved without a more particular consideration of the Kingdome of God from whence also wee are to judge of the Authority of Interpreting the Scripture For whosoever hath a lawfull power over any Writing to make it Law hath the power also to approve or disapprove the interpretation of the same CHAP. XXXIV Of the Signification of SPIRIT ANGEL and INSPIRATION in the Books of Holy Scripture SEeing the foundation of all true Ratiocination is the constant Signification of words which in the Doctrine following dependeth not as in naturall science on the Will of the Writer nor as in common conversation on vulgar use but on the sense they carry in the Scripture It is necessary before I proceed any further to determine out of the Bible the meaning of such words as by their ambiguity may render what I am to inferre upon them obscure or disputable I will begin with the words BODY and SPIRIT which in the language of the Schools are termed Substances Corporeall and Incorporeall The Word Body in the most generall acceptation signifieth that which filleth or occupyeth some certain room or imagined place and dependeth not on the imagination but is a reall part of that we call the Vniverse For the Vniverse being the Aggregate of all Bodies there is no reall part thereof that is not also Body nor any thing properly a Body that is not also part of that Aggregate of all Bodies the Vniverse The same also because Bodies are subject to change that is to say to variety of apparence to the sense of living creatures is called Substance that is to say Subject to various accidents as sometimes to be Moved sometimes to stand Still and to seem to our senses sometimes Hot sometimes Cold sometimes of one Colour Smel Tast or Sound somtimes of another And this diversity of Seeming produced by the diversity of the operatiō of bodies on the organs of our sense we attribute to alterations of the Bodies that operate call them Accidents of those Bodies And according to this acceptation of the word Substance and Body signifie the same thing and therefore Substance incorporeall are words which when they are joined together destroy one another as if
take with thee one or two more And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican By which it is manifest that the Judgment concerning the truth of Repentance belonged not to any one Man but to the Church that is to the Assembly of the Faithull or to them that have authority to bee their Representant But besides the Judgment there is necessary also the pronouncing of Sentence And this belonged alwaies to the Apostle or some Pastor of the Church as Prolocutor and of this our Saviour speaketh in the 18 verse Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And conformable hereunto was the practise of St. Paul 1 Cor. 5. 3 4 5. where he saith For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have determined already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ To deliver such a one to Satan that is to say to cast him out of the Châ—…rch as a man whose Sins are not Forgiven Paul here pronounceth the Sentence but the Assembly was first to hear the Cause for St. Paul was absent and by consequence to condemn him But in the same chapter ver 11 12. the Judgment in such a case is more expressely attributed to the Assembly But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator c. with such a one no not to eat For what have I to do to judg them that are without Do not ye judg them that are within The Sentence therefore by which a man was put out of Church was pronounced by the Apostle or Pastor but the Judgment concerning the merit of the cause was in the Church that is to say as the times were before the conversion of Kings and men that had Soveraign Authority in the Common-wealth the Assembly of the Christians dwelling in the same City as in Corinth in the Assembly of the Christians of Corinth This part of the Power of the Keyes by which men were thrust out from the Kingdom of God is that which is called Excommunication and to excommunicate is in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast out of the Synagogue that is out of the place of Divine service a word drawn from the custome of the Jews to cast out of their Synagogues such as they thought in manners or doctrine contagious as Lepers were by the Law of Moses separated from the congregation of Israel till such time as they should be by the Priest pronounced clean The Use and Effect of Excommunication whilest it was not yet strengthened with the Civill Power was no more than that they who were not Excommunicate were to avoid the company of them that were It was not enough to repute them as Heathen that never had been Christians for with such they might eate and drink which with Excommunicate persons they might not do as appeareth by the words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 5. ver 9 10 c. where he telleth them he had formerly forbidden them to company with Fornicators but because that could not bee without going out of the world he restraineth it to such Fornicators and otherwise vicious persons as were of the brethren with such a one he saith they ought not to keep company no not to eat And this is no more than our Saviour saith Mat. 18. 17. Let him be to thee as a Heathen and as a Publican For Publicans which signifieth Farmers and Receivers of the revenue of the Common-wealth were so hated and detested by the Jews that were to pay it as that Publican and Sinner were taken amongst them for the same thing Insomuch as when our Saviour accepted the invitation of Zacchaeus a Publican though it were to Convert him yet it was ohjected to him as a Crime And therefore when our Saviour to Heathen added Publican he did forbid them to eat with a man Excommunicate As for keeping them out of their Synagogues or places of Assembly they had no Power to do it but that of the owner of the place whether he were Christian or Heathen And because all places are by right in the Dominion of the Common-wealth as well hee that was Excommunicated as hee that never was Baptized might enter inter into them by Commission from the Civill Magistrate as Paul before his conversion entred into their Synagogues at Damascus to apprehend Christians men and women and to carry them bound to Jerusalem by Commission from the High Priest By which it appears that upon a Christian that should become an Apostate in a place where the Civill Power did persecute or not assist the Church the effect of Excommunication had nothiug in it neither of dammage in this world nor of terrour Not of terrour because of their unbeleef nor of dammage because they are retâ—…rned thereby into the favour of the world and in the world to come were to be in no worse estate then they which never had beleeved The dammage redounded rather to the Church by provocation of them they cast out to a freer execution of their malice Excommunication therefore had its effect onely upon those that beleeved that Jesus Christ was to come again in Glory to reign over and to judge both the quick and the dead and should therefore refuse entrance into his Kingdom to those whose Sins were Retained that is to those that were Excommunicated by the Church And thence it is that St. Paul calleth Excommunication a delivery of the ExcoÌ„municate person to Satan For without the Kingdom of Christ all other Kingdomes after Judgment are comprehended in the Kingdome of Satan This is it that the faithfull stood in fear of as long as they stood Excommunicate that is to say in an estate wherein their sins were not Forgiven Whereby wee may understand that Excommunication in the time that Christian Religion was not authorized by the Civill Power was used onely for a correction of manners not of errours in opinion for it is a punishment whereof none could be sensible but such as beleeved and expected the coming again of our Saviour to judge the world and they who so beleeved needed no other opinion but onely uprightnesse of life to be saved There lyeth Excommunication for Injustice as Mat. 18. If thy Brother offend thee tell it him privately then with Witnesses lastly tell the Church and then if he obey not Let him be to thee as an Heathen man and a Publican And there lieth Excommunication for a Scandalous Life as 1 Cor. 5. 11. If any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater
The same is also confirmed by the continuall practise even to this day in the Election of the Bishops of Rome For if the Bishop of any place had the right of choosing another to the succession of the Pastorall Office in any City at such time as he went from thence to plant the same in another place much more had he had the Right to appoint his successour in that place in which he last resided and dyed And we find not that ever any Bishop of Rome appointed his successor For they were a long time chosen by the People as we may see by the sedition raised about the Election between Damasus and Vrsicinus which Ammianus Marcellinus saith was so great that Iuventius the Praefect unable to keep the peace between them was forced to goe out of the City and that there were above an hundred men found dead upon that occasion in the Church it self And though they afterwards were chosen first by the whole Clergy of Rome and afterwards by the Cardinalls yet never any was appointed to the succession by his predecessor If therefore they pretended no right to appoint their own successors I think I may reasonably conclude they had no right to appoint the successors of other Bishops without receiving some new power which none could take from the Church to bestow on them but such as had a lawfull authority not onely to Teach but to Command the Church which none could doe but the Civill Soveraign The word Minister in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth one that voluntarily doth the businesse of another man and differeth from a Servant onely in this that Servants are obliged by their condition to what is commanded them whereas Ministers are obliged onely by their undertaking and bound therefore to no more than that they have undertaken So that both they that teach the Word of God and they that administer the secular affairs of the Church are both Ministers but they are Ministers of different Persons For the Pastors of the Church called Acts 6. 4. The Ministers of the Word are Ministers of Christ whose Word it is But the Ministery of a Deacon which is called verse 2. of the same Chapter Serving of Tables is a service done to the Church or Congregation So that neither any one man nor the whole Church could ever of their Pastor say he was their Minister but of a Deacon whether the charge he undertook were to serve tables or distribute maintenance to the Christians when they lived in each City on a common stock or upon collections as in the first times or to take a care of the House of Prayer or of the Revenue or other worldly businesse of the Church the whole Congregation might properly call him their Minister For their employment as Deacons was to serve the Congregation though upon occasion they omitted not to Preach the Gospel and maintain the Doctrine of Christ every one according to his gifts as S. Steven did and both to Preach and Baptize as Philip did For that Philip which Act. 8. 5. Preached the Gospell at Samaria and verse 38. Baptized the Eunuch was Philip the Deacon not Philip the Apostle For it is manifest verse 1. that when Philip preached in Samaria the Apostles were at Jerusalem and verse 14. when they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God sent Peter and Iohn to them by imposition of whose hands they that were Baptized verse 15. received which before by the Baptisme of Philip they had not received the Holy Ghost For it was necessary for the conferring of the Holy Ghost that their Baptisme should be administred or confirmed by a Minister of the Word not by a Minister of the Church And therefore to confirm the Baptisme of those that Philip the Deacon had Baptized the Apostles sent out of their own number from Jerusalem to Samaria Peter and John who conferred on them that before were but Baptized those graces that were signs of the Holy Spirit which at that time did accompany all true Beleevers which what they were may be understood by that which S. Marke saith chap. 16. 17. These signes follow them that beleeve in my Name they shall cast out Devills they shall speak with new tongues They shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover This to doe was it that Philip could not give but the Apostles could and as appears by this place effectually did to every man that truly beleeved and was by a Minister of Christ himself Baptized which power either Christs Ministers in this age cannot conferre or else there are very few true Beleevers or Christ hath very few Ministérs That the first Deacons were chosen not by the Apostles but by a Congregation of the Disciples that is of Christian men of all sorts is manifest out of Acts 6. where we read that the Twelve after the number of Disciples was multiplyed called them together and having told them that it was not fit that the Apostles should leave the Word of God and serve tables said unto them verse 3. Brethren looke you out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and of Wisdome whom we may appoint over this businesse Here it is manifest that though the Apostles declared them elected yet the Congregation chose them which also verse the fift is more expressely said where it is written that the saying pleased the multitude and they chose seven c. Under the Old Testament the Tribe of Levi were onely capable of the Priesthood and other inferiour Offices of the Church The land was divided amongst the other Tribes Levi excepted which by the subdivision of the Tribe of Joseph into Ephraim and Manasses were still twelve To the Tribe of Levi were assigned certain Cities for their habitation with the suburbs for their cattell but for their portion they were to have the tenth of the fruits of the land of their Brethren Again the Priests for their maintenance had the tenth of that tenth together with part of the oblations and sacrifices For God had said to Aaron Numb 18. 20. Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land neither shalt thou have any part amongst them I am thy part and thine inheritance amongst the Children of Israel For God being then King and having constituted the Tribe of Levi to be his Publique Ministers he allowed them for their maintenance the Publique revenue that is to say the part that God had reserved to himself which were Tythes and Offerings and that is it which is meant where God saith I am thine inheritance And therefore to the Levites might not unfitly be attributed the name of Clergy from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Lot or Inheritance not that they were heirs of the Kingdome of God more than other but that Gods inheritance was their maintenance Now seeing in this time
God himself was their King and Moses Aaron and the succeeding High Priests were his Lieutenants it is manifest that the Right of Tythes and Offerings was constituted by the Civill Power After their rejection of God in the demanding of a King they enjoyed still the same revenue but the Right thereof was derived from that that the Kings did never take it from them for the Publique Revenue was at the disposing of him that was the Publique Person and that till the Captivity was the King And again after the return from the Captivity they paid their Tythes as before to the Priest Hitherto therefore Church Livings were determined by the Civill Soveraign Of the maintenance of our Saviour and his Apostles we read onely they had a Purse which was carried by Judas Iscariot and that of the Apostles such as were Fisher-men did sometimes use their trade and that when our Saviour sent the Twelve Apostles to Preach he forbad them to carry Gold and Silver and Brasse in their purses for that the workman is worthy of his hire By which it is probable their ordinary maintenance was not unsuitable to their employment for their employment was ver 8. freely to give because they had freely received and their maintenance was the free gift of those that beleeved the good tyding they carryed about of the coming of the Messiah their Saviour To which we may adde that which was contributed out of gratitude by such as our Saviour had healed of diseases of which are mentioned Certain women Luke 8. 2 3. which had been healed of evill spirits and infirmities Mary Magdalen out of whom went seven Devills and Ioanna the wife of Chuza Herods Steward and Susanna and many others which ministred unto him of their substance After our Saviours Ascension the Christians of every City lived in Common upon the mony which was made of the sale of their lands and possessions and laid down at the feet of the Apostles of good will not of duty for whilest the Land remained saith S. Peter to Ananias Acts 5. 4. was it not thine and after it was sold was it not in thy power which sheweth he needed not have saved his land nor his money by lying as not being bound to contribute any thing at all unlesse he had pleased And as in the time of the Apostles so also all the time downward till after Constantine the Great we shall find that the maintenance of the Bishops and Pastors of the Christian Church was nothing but the voluntary contribution of them that had embraced their Doctrine There was yet no mention of Tythes but such was in the time of Constantine and his Sons the affection of Christians to their Pastors as Ammianus Marcellinus saith describing the sedition of Damasus and Vrsicinus about the Bishopricke that it was worth their contention in that the Bishops of those times by the liberality of their flock and especially of Matrons lived splendidly were carryed in Coaches and were sumptuous in their fare and apparell But here may some ask whether the Pastor were then bound to live upon voluntary contribution as upon almes For who saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 9. 7. goeth to war at his own charges or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milke of the flock And again Doe ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar partake with the Altar that is to say have part of that which is offered at the Altar for their maintenance And then he concludeth Even so hath the Lord appointed that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel From which place may be inferred indeed that the Pastors of the Church ought to be maintained by their flocks but not that the Pastors were to determine either the quantity or the kind of their own allowance and be as it were their own Carvers Their allowance must needs therefore be determined either by the gratitude and liberality of every particular man of their flock or by the whole Congregation By the whole Congregation it could not be because their Acts were then no Laws Therefore the maintenance of Pastors before Emperours and Civill Soveraigns had made Laws to settle it was nothing but Benevolence They that served at the Altar lived on what was offered So may the Pastors also take what is offered them by their flock but not exact what is not offered In what Court should they sue for it who had no Tribunalls Or if they had Arbitrators amongst themselves who should execute their Judgments when they had no power to arme their Officers It remaineth therefore that there could be no certaire maintenance assigned to any Pastors of the Church but by the whole Congregation and then onely when their Decrees should have the force not onely of Canons but also of Laws which Laws could not be made but by Emperours Kings or other Civill Soveraignes The Right of Tythes in Moses Law could not be applyed to the then Ministers of the Gospell because Moses and the High Priests were the Civill Soveraigns of the people under God whose Kingdom amongst the Jews was present whereas the Kingdome of God by Christ is yet to come Hitherto hath been shewn what the Pastors of the Church are what are the points of their Commission as that they were to Preach to Teach to Baptize to be Presidents in their severall Congregations what is Ecclesiasticall Censure viz. Excommunication that is to say in those places where Christanity was forbidden by the Civill Laws a putting of themselves out of the company of the Excommunicate and where Christianity was by the Civill Law commanded a putting the Excommunicate out of the Congregations of Christians who elected the Pastors and Ministers of the Church that it was the Congregation who consecrated and blessed them that it was the Pastor what was their due revenue that it was none but their own possessions and their own labour and the voluntary contributions of devout and gratefull Christians We are to consider now what Office in the Church those persons have who being Civill Soveraignes have embraced also the Christian Faith And first we are to remember that the Right of Judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace and to be taught the Subjects is in all Common-wealths inseparably annexed as hath been already proved cha 18. to the Soveraign Power Civill whether it be in one Man or in one Assembly of men For it is evident to the meanest capacity that mens actions are derived from the opinions they have of the Good or Evill which from those actions redound unto themselves and consequently men that are once possessed of an opinion that their obedience to the Soveraign Power will bee more hurtfull to them than their disobedience will disobey the Laws and thereby overthrow the Common-wealth and introduce confusion and Civill war for the avoiding whereof all Civill Government was
should not violate our Faith that is a commandement to obey our Civill Soveraigns which wee constituted over us by mutuall pact one with another And this Law of God that commandeth Obedience to the Law Civill commandeth by consequence Obedience to all the Precepts of the Bible which as I have proved in the precedent Chapter is there onely Law where the Civill Soveraign hath made it so and in other places but Counsell which a man at his own perill may without injustice refuse to obey Knowing now what is the Obedience Necessary to Salvation and to whom it is due we are to consider next concerning Faith whom and why we beleeve and what are the Articles or Points necessarily to be beleeved by them that shall be saved And first for the Person whom we beleeve because it is impossible to beleeve any Person before we know what he saith it is necessary he be one that wee have heard speak The Person therefore whom Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and the Prophets beleeved was God himself that spake unto them supernaturally And the Person whom the Apostles and Disciples that conversed with Christ beleeved was our Saviour himself But of them to whom neither God the Father nor our Saviour ever spake it cannot be said that the Person whom they beleeved was God They beleeved the Apostles and after them the Pastors and Doctors of the Church that recommended to their faith the History of the Old and New Testament so that the Faith of Christians ever since our Saviours time hath had for foundation first the reputation of their Pastors and afterward the authority of those that made the Old and New Testament to be received for the Rule of Faith which none could do but Christian Soveraignes who are therefore the Supreme Pastors and the onely Persons whom Christians now hear speak from God except such as God speaketh to in these days supernaturally But because there be many false Prophets gone out into the world other men are to examine such Spirits as St. Iohn adviseth us 1 Epistle Chap. 4. ver 1. whether they be of God or not And therefore seeing the Examination of Doctrines belongeth to the Supreme Pastor the Person which all they that have no speciall revelation are to beleeve is in every Common-wealth the Supreme Pastor that is to say the Civill Soveraigne The causes why men beleeve any Christian Doctrine are various For Faith is the gift of God and he worketh it in each severall man by such wayes as it seemeth good unto himself The most ordinary immediate cause of our beleef concerning any point of Christian Faith is that wee beleeve the Bible to be the Word of God But why wee beleeve the Bible to be the Word of God is much disputed as all questions must needs bee that are not well stated For they make not the question to be Why we Beleeve it but How wee Know it as if Beleeving and Knowing were all one And thence while one side ground their Knowledge upon the Infallibility of the Church and the other side on the Testimony of the Private Spirit neither side concludeth what it pretends For how shall a man know the Infallibility of the Church but by knowing first the Infallibility of the Scripture Or how shall a man know his own Private spirit to be other than a beleef grounded upon the Authority and Arguments of his Teachers or upon a Presumption of his own Gifts Besides there is nothing in the Scripture from which can be inferred the Infallibility of the Church much lesse of any particular Church and least of all the Infallibility of any particular man It is manifest therefore that Christian men doe not know but onely beleeve the Scripture to be the Word of God and that the means of making them beleeve which God is pleased to afford men ordinarily is according to the way of Nature that is to say from their Teachers It is the Doctrine of St. Paul concerning Christian Faith in generall Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing that is by Hearing our lawfull Pastors He saith also ver 14 15. of the same Chapter How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they Preach except they be sent Whereby it is evident that the ordinary cause of beleeving that the Scriptures are the Word of God is the same with the cause of the beleeving of all other Articles of our Faith namely the Hearing of those that are by the Law allowed and appointed to Teach us as our Parents in their Houses and our Pastors in the Churches Which also is made more manifest by experience For what other cause can there bee assigned why in Christian Common-wealths all men either beleeve or at least professe the Scripture to bee the Word of God and in other Common-wealths scarce any but that in Christian Common-wealths they are taught it from their infancy and in other places they are taught otherwise But if Teaching be the cause of Faith why doe not all beleeve It is certain therefore that Faith is the gift of God and hee giveth it to whom he will Neverthelesse because to them to whom he giveth it he giveth it by the means of Teachers the immediate cause of Faith is Hearing In a School where many are taught and some profit others profit not the cause of learning in them that profit is the Master yet it cannot be thence inferred that learning is not the gift of God All good things proceed from God yet cannot all that have them say they are Inspired for that implies a gift supernaturall and the immediate hand of God which he that pretends to pretends to be a Prophet and is subject to the examination of the Church But whether men Know or Beleeve or Grant the Scriptures to be the Word of God if out of such places of them as are without obscurity I shall shew what Articles of Faith are necessary and onely necessary for Salvation those men must needs Know Beleeve or Grant the same The Vnum Necessarium Onely Article of Faith which the Scripture maketh simply Necessary to Salvation is this that JESUS IS THE CHRIST By the name of Christ is understood the King which God had before promised by the Prophets of the Old Testament to send into the world to reign over the Jews and over such of other nations as should beleeve in him under himself eternally and to give them that eternall life which was lost by the sin of Adam Which when I have proved out of Scripture I will further shew when and in what sense some other Articles may bee also called Necessary For Proof that the Beleef of this Article Iesus is the Christ is all the Faith required to Salvation my first Argument shall bee from the Scope of the Evangelists which was by the description of the life of our Saviour to establish that one
Church supposed to be that Kingdom of his to which we are addressed in the Gospel is the Doctrine that it is necessary for a Christian King to receive his Crown by a Bishop as if it were from that Ceremony that he derives the clause of Dei gratiâ in his title and that then onely he is made King by the favour of God when he is crowned by the authority of Gods universall Vicegerent on earth and that every Bishop whosoever be his Soveraign taketh at his Consecration an oath of absolute Obedience to the Pope Consequent to the same is the Doctrine of the fourth Councell of Lateran held under Pope Innocent the third Chap. 3. de Haereticis That if a King at the Popes admonition doe not purge his Kingdome of Haeresies and being excommunicate for the same doe not give satisfaction within a year his Subjects are absolved of the bond of their obedience Where by Haeresies are understood all opinions which the Church of Rome hath forbidden to be maintained And by this means as often as there is any repugnancy between the Politicall designes of the Pope and other Christian Princes as there is very often there ariseth such a Mist amongst their Subjects that they know not a stranger that thrusteth himself into the throne of their lawfull Prince from him whom they had themselves placed there and in this Darknesse of mind are made to fight one against another without discerning their enemies from their friends under the conduct of another mans ambition From the same opinion that the present Church is the Kingdome of God it proceeds that Pastours Deacons and all other Ministers of the Church take the name to themselves of the Clergy giving to other Christians the name of Laity that is simply People For Clergy signifies those whose maintenance is that Revenue which God having reserved to himselfe during his Reigne over the Israelites assigned to the tribe of Levi who were to be his publique Ministers and had no portion of land set them out to live on as their brethren to be their inheritance The Pope therefore pretending the present Church to be as the Realme of Israel the Kingdome of God challenging to himselfe and his subordinate Ministers the like revenue as the Inheritance of God the name of Clergy was sutable to that claime And thence it is that Tithes and other tributes paid to the Levites as Gods Right amongst the Israelites have a long time been demanded and taken of Christians by Ecclesiastiques Iure divino that is in Gods Right By which meanes the people every where were obliged to a double tribute one to the State another to the Clergy whereof that to the Clergy being the tenth of their revenue is double to that which a King of Athens and esteemed a Tyrant exacted of his subjects for the defraying of all publique charges For he demanded no more but the twentieth part and yet abundantly maintained therewith the Commonwealth And in the Kingdome of the Iewes during the Sacerdotall Reigne of God the Tithes and Offerings were the whole Publique Revenue From the same mistaking of the present Church for the Kingdom of God came in the distinction betweene the Civill and the Canon Laws The Civil Law being the Acts of Soveraigns in their own Dominions and the Canon Law being the Acts of the Pope in the same Dominions Which Canons though they were but Canons that is Rules Propounded and but voluntarily received by Christian Princes till the translation of the Empire to Charlemain yet afterwards as the power of the Pope encreased became Rules Commanded and the Emperours themselves to avoyd greater mischiefes which the people blinded might be led into were forced to let them passe for Laws From hence it is that in all Dominions where the Popes Ecclesiasticall power is entirely received Jewes Turkes and Gentiles are in the Roman Church tolerated in their Religion as farre forth as in the exercise and profession thereof they offend not against the civill power whereas in a Christian though a stranger not to be of the Roman Religion is Capitall because the Pope pretendeth that all Christians are his Subjects For otherwise it were as much against the law of Nations to persecute a Christian stranger for professing the Religion of his owne country as an Infidell or rather more in as much as they that are not against Christ are with him From the same it is that in every Christian State there are certaine men that are exempt by Ecclesiasticall liberty from the tributes and from the tribunals of the Civil State for so are the secular Clergy besides Monks and Friars which in many places bear so great a proportion to the common people as if need were there might be raised out of them alone an Army sufficient for any warre the Church militant should imploy them in against their owne or other Princes A second generall abuse of Scripture is the turning of Consecration into Conjuration or Enchantment To Consecrate is in Scripture to Offer Give or Dedicate in pious and decent language and gesture a man or any other thing to God by separating of it from common use that is to say to Sanctifie or make it Gods and to be used only by those whom God hath appointed to be his Publike Ministers as I have already proved at large in the 35. Chapter and thereby to change not the thing Consecrated but onely the use of it from being Profane and common to be Holy and peculiar to Gods service But when by such words the nature or qualitie of the thing it selfe is pretended to be changed it is not Consecration but either an extraordinary worke of God or a vaine and impious Conjuration But seeing for the frequency of pretending the change of Nature in their Consecrations it cannot be esteemed a work extraordinary it is no other than a Conjuration or Incantation whereby they would have men to beleeve an alteration of Nature that is not contrary to the testimony of mans Sight and of all the rest of his Senses As for example when the Priest in stead of Consecrating Bread and Wine to Gods peculiar service in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is but a separation of it from the common use to signifie that is to put men in mind of their Redemption by the Passion of Christ whose body was broken and blood shed upon the Crosse for our transgressions pretends that by saying of the words of our Saviour This is my Body and This is my Blood the nature of Bread is no more there but his very Body notwithstanding there appeareth not to the Sight or other Sense of the Receiver any thing that appeared not before the Consecration The Egyptian Conjurers that are said to have turned their Rods to Serpents and the Water into Bloud are thought but to have deluded the senses of the Spectators by a false shew of things yet are esteemed Enchanters But what should wee have thought
Prophet has spoken it out of the pride of his own heart fear him not But a man may here again ask When the Prophet hath foretold a thing how shal we know whether it will come to passe or not For he may foretel it as a thing to arrive after a certain long time longer then the time of mans life or indefinitely that it will come to passe one time or other in which case this mark of a Prophet is unusefull and therefore the miracles that oblige us to beleeve a Prophet ought to be confirmed by an immediate or a not long deferr'd event So that it is manifest that the teaching of the Religion which God hath established and the shewing of a pâ—…esent Miracle joined together were the only marks whereby the Scripture would have a true Prophet that is to say immediate Revelation to be acknowledged neither of them being singly sufficient to oblige any other man to regard what he saith Seeing therefore Miracles now cease we have no sign left whereby to acknowledge the pretended Revelations or Inspirations of any private man nor obligation to give ear to any Doctrine farther than it is conformable to the Holy Scriptures which since the time of our Saviour supply the place and sufficiently recompense the want of all other Prophecy and from which by wise and learned interpretation and carefull ratiocination all rules and precepts necessary to the knowledge of our duty both to God and man without Enthusiasme or supernaturall Inspiration may easily be deduced And this Scripture is it out of which I am to take the Principles of my Discourse concerning the Rights of those that are the Supream Governors on earth of Christian Common-wealths and of the duty of Christian Subjects towards their Soveraigns And to that end I shall speak in the next Chapter of the Books Writers Scope and Authority of the Bible CHAP. XXXIII Of the Number Antiquity Scope Authority and Interpreters of the Books of Holy SCRIPTURE BY the Books of Holy SCRIPTURE are understood those which ought to be the Canon that is to say the Rules of Christian life And because all Rules of life which men are in conscience bound to observe are Laws the question of the Scripture is the question of what is Law throughout all Christendome both Naturall and Civill For though it be not determined in Scripture what Laws every Christian King shall constitute in his own Dominions yet it is determined what laws he shall not constitute Seeing therefore I have already proved that Soveraigns in their own Dominions are the sole Legislators those Books only are Canonicall that is Law in every nation which are established for such by the Soveraign Authority It is true that God is the Soveraign of all Soveraigns and therefore when he speaks to any Subject he ought to be obeyed whatsoever any earthly Potentate command to the contrary But the question is not of obedience to God but of when and what God hath said which to Subjects that have no supernaturall revelation cannot be known but by that naturall reason which guided them for the obtaining of Peace and Justice to obey the authority of their severall Common-wealths that is to say of their lawfull Soveraigns According to this obligation I can acknowledge no other Books of the Old Testament to be Holy Scripture but those which have been commanded to be acknowledged for such by the Authority of the Church of England What Books these are is sufficiently known without a Catalogue of them here and they are the same that are acknowledged by St. Ierome who holdeth the rest namely the Wisdome of Solomon Ecclesiasticus Iudith Tobias the first and the second of Maccabees though he had seen the first in Hebrew and the third and fourth of Esdras for Apocrypha Of the Canonicall Iosephus a learned Iew that wrote in the time of the Emperour Domitian reckoneth twenty two making the number agree with the Hebrew Alphabet St. Ierome does the same though they reckon them in different manner For Iosephus numbers five Books of Moses thirteen of Prophets that writ the History of their own times which how it agrees with the Prophets writings contained in the Bible wee shall see hereafter and four of Hymnes and Morall Precepts But St. Ierome reckons five Books of Moses eight of Prophets and nine of other Holy writ which he calls of Hagiographa The Septuagint who were 70. learned men of the Iews sent for by Ptoiemy King of Egypt to translate the Iewish law out of the Hebrew into the Greek have left us no other for holy Scripture in the Greek tongue but the same that are received in the Church of England As for the Books of the New Testament they are equally acknowledged for Canon by all Christian Churches and by all Sects of Christians that admit any Books at all for Canonicall Who were the originall writers of the severall Books of Holy Scripture has not been made evident by any sufficient testimony of other History which is the only proof of matter of fact nor can be by any arguments of naturall Reason for Reason serves only to convince the truth not of fact but of consequence The light therefore that must guide us in this question must be that which is held out unto us from the Bookes themselves And this light though it shew us not the writer of every book yet it is not unusefull to give us knowledge of the time wherein they were written And first for the Pentateuch it is not argument enough that they were written by Moses because they are called the five Books of Moses no more than these titles The Book of Ioshua the Book of Iudges the Book of Ruth and the Books of the Kings are arguments sufficient to prove that they were written by Ioshua by the Iudges by Ruth and by the Kings For in titles of Books the subject is marked as often as the writer The History of Livy denotes the Writer but the History of Scanderbeg is denominated from the subject We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomie ver 6. concerning the sepulcher of Moses that no man knoweth of his sepulcher â—…o this day that is to the day wherein those words were written It is therefore manifest that those words were written after his interrement For it were a strange interpretation to say Moses spake of his own sepulcher though by Prophesie that it was not found to that day wherein he was yet living But it may perhaps be alledged that the last Chapter only not the whole Penâ—… was written by some other man but the rest not Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book of Genesis chap. 12. ver 6. And Abraham passed through the land to the place of Sichem unto the plain of Moreh and the Canaanite was then in the land which must needs bee the words of one that wrote when the Canaanite was not in the land and consequently not of
any Coelum Empyreum or other aetheriall Region saving that it is called the Kingdome of Heaven which name it may have because God that was King of the Jews governed them by his commands sent to Moses by Angels from Heaven and after their revolt sent his Son from Heaven to reduce them to their obedience and shall send him thence again to rule both them and all other faithfull men from the day of Judgment Everlastingly or from that that the Throne of this our Great King is in Heaven whereas the Earth is but his Footstoole But that the Subjects of God should have any place as high as his Throne or higher than his Footstoole it seemeth not sutable to the dignity of a King nor can I find any evident text for it in holy Scripture From this that hath been said of the Kingdom of God and of Salvation it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the WORLD TO COME There are three worlds mentioned in Scripture the Old World the Present VVorld and the VVorld to come Of the first St. Peter speaks If God spared not the Old VVorld but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of righteousnesse bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly c. So the first World was from Adam to the generall Flood Of the present World our Saviour speaks Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this VVorld For he came onely to teach men the way of Salvation and to renew the Kingdome of his Father by his doctrine Of the World to come St. Peter speaks Neverthelesse we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth This is that WORLD wherein Christ coming down from Heaven in the clouds with great power and glory shall send his Angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds and from the uttermost parts of the Earth and thence forth reign over them under his Father Everlastingly Salvation of a sinner suppposeth a precedent REDEMPTION for he that is once guilty of Sin is obnoxious to the Penalty of the same and must pay or some other for him such Ransome as he that is offended and has him in his power shall require And seeing the person offended is Almighty God in whose power are all things such Ransome is to be paid before Salvation can be acquired as God hath been pleased to require By this Ransome is not intended a satisfaction for Sin equivalent to the Offence which no sinner for himselfe nor righteous man can ever be able to make for another The dammage a man does to another he may make amends for by restitution or recompence but sin cannot be taken away by recompence for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible But sins may bee pardoned to the repentant either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to accept That which God usually accepted in the Old Testament was some Sacrifice or Oblation To forgive sin is not an act of Injustice though the punishment have been threatned Even amongst men though the promise of Good bind the promiser yet threats that is to say promises of Evill bind them not much lesse shall they bind God who is infinitely more mercifull then men Our Saviour Christ therefore to Redeem us did not in that sense satisfie for the Sins of men as that his Death of its own vertue could make it unjust in God to punish sinners with Eternall death but did make that Sacrifice and Oblation of himself at his first coming which God was pleased to require for the Salvation at his second coming of such as in the mean time should repent and beleeve in him And though this act of our Redemption be not alwaies in Scripture called a Sacrifice and Oblation but sometimes a Price yet by Price we are not to understand any thing by the value whereof he could claim right to a pardon for us from his offended Father but that Price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand CHAP. XXXIX Of the signification in Scripture of the word CHURCH THe word Church Ecclesia signifieth in the Books of Holy Scripture divers things Sometimes though not often it is taken for Gods House that is to say for a Temple wherein Christians assemble to perform holy duties publiquely as 1 Cor. 14. ver 34. Let your women keep silence in the Churches but this is Metaphorically put for the Congregation there assembled and hath been since used for the Edifice it self to distinguish between the Temples of Christians and Idolaters The Temple of Jerusalem was Gods house and the House of Prayer and so is any Edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ Christs house and therefore the Greek Fathers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords house and thence in our language it came to be called Kyrke and Church Church when not taken for a House signifieth the same that Ecclesia signified in the Grecian Common-wealths that is to say a Congregation or an Assembly of Citizens called forth to hear the Magistrate speak unto them and which in the Common-wealth of Rome was called Concio as he that spake was called Ecclesiastes and Concionator And when they were called forth by lawfull Authority it was Ecclesia legitima a Lawfull Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when they were excited by tumultuous and seditious clamor then it was a confused Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the Congregation though not actually assembled that is to say for the whole multitude of Christian men how far soever they be dispersed as Act. 8. 3. where it is said that Saul made havock of the Church And in this sense is Christ said to be Head of the Church And sometimes for a certain part of Christians as Col. 4. 15. Salute the Church that is in his house Sometimes also for the Elect onely as Ephes. 5. 27. A Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle holy and without blemâ—…sh which is meant of the Church triumphant or Church to come Sometimes for a Congregation assembled of professors of Christianity whether their profession be true or counterfeit as it is understood Mat. 18. 17. where it is said Tell it to the Church and if hee neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Gentile or Publican And in this last sense only it is that the Church can be taken for one Person that is to say that it can be said to have power to will to pronounce to command to be obeyed to make laws or to doe any other action whatsoever For without authority from a lawfull Congregation whatsoever act be done in a concourse of people it is the particular act of every one of those that were present and gave their aid to the performance of it and not the act of them all in grosse as of one body much lesse the act
of them that were absent or that being present were not willing it should be done According to this sense I define a CHURCH to be A company of men professing Christian Religion united in the person of one Soveraign at whose command they ought to assemble and without whose authority they ought not to assemble And because in all Common-wealths that Assembly which is without warrant from the Civil Soveraign is unlawful that Church also which is assembled in any Common-wealth that hath forbidden them to assemble is an unlawfull Assembly It followeth also that there is on Earth no such universall Church as all Christians are bound to obey because there is no power on Earth to which all other Common-wealths are subject There are Christians in the Dominions of severall Princes and States but every one of them is subject to that Common-wealth whereof he is himself a member and consequently cannot be subject to the commands of any other Person And therefore a Church such a one as is capable to Command to Judge Absolve Condemn or do any other act is the same thing with a Civil Common-wealth consisting of Christian men and is called a Civill State for that the subjects of it are Men and a Church for that the subjects thereof are Christians Temporall and Spirituall Government are but two words brought into the world to make men see double and mistake their Lawfull Soveraign It is true that the bodies of the faithfull after the Resurrection shall be not onely Spirituall but Eternall but in this life they are grosse and corruptible There is therefore no other Government in this life neither of State nor Religion but Temporall nor teaching of any doctrine lawfull to any Subject which the Governour both of the State and of the Religion forbiddeth to be taught And that Governor must be one or else there must needs follow Faction and Civil war in the Common-wealth between the Church and State between Spiritualists and Temporalists between the Sword of Iustice and the Shield of Faith and which is more in every Christian mans own brest between the Christian and the Man The Doctors of the Church are called Pastors so also are Civill Soveraignes But if Pastors be not subordinate one to another so as that there may bee one chief Pastor men will be taught contrary Doctrines whereof both may be and one must be false Who that one chief Pastor is according to the law of Nature hath been already shewn namely that it is the Civill Soveraign And to whom the Scripture hath assigned that Office we shall see in the Chapters following CHAP. XL. Of the RIGHTS of the Kingdome of God in Abraham Moses the High Priests and the Kings of Judah THe Father of the Faithfull and first in the Kingdome of God by Covenant was Abraham For with him was the Covenant first made wherein he obliged himself and his seed after him to acknowledge and obey the commands of God not onely such as he could take notice of as Morall Laws by the light of Nature but also such as God should in speciall manner deliver to him by Dreams and Visions For as to the Morall law they were already obliged and needed not have been contracted withall by promise of the Land of Canaan Nor was there any Contract that could adde to or strengthen the Obligation by which both they and all men else were bound naturally to obey God Almighty And therefore the Covenant which Abraham made with God was to take for the Commandement of God that which in the name of God was commanded him in a Dream or Vifion and to deliver it to his family and cause them to observe the same In this Contract of God with Abraham wee may observe three points of important consequence in the government of Gods people First that at the making of this Covenant God spake onely to Abraham and therefore contracted not with any of his family or seed otherwise then as their wills which make the essence of all Covenants were before the Contract involved in the will of Abraham who was therefore supposed to have had a lawfull power to make them perform all that he covenanted for them According whereunto Gen. 18. 18 19. God saith All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. From whence may be concluded this first point that they to whom God hath not spoken immediately are to receive the positive commandements of God from their Soveraign as the family and seed of Abraham did from Abraham their Father and Lord and Civill Soveraign And consequently in every Common-wealth they who have no supernaturall Revelation to the contrary ought to obey the laws of their own Soveraign in the externall acts and profession of Religion As for the inward thought and beleef of men which humane Governours can take no notice of for God onely knoweth the heart they are not voluntary nor the effect of the laws but of the unrevealed will and of the power of God and consequently fall not under obligation From whence proceedeth another point that it was not unlawfull for Abraham when any of his Subjects should pretend Private Vision or Spirit or other Revelation from God for the countenancing of any doctrine which Abraham should forbid or when they followed or adhered to any such pretender to punish them and consequently that it is lawfull now for the Soveraign to punish any man that shall oppose his Private Spirit against the Laws For hee hath the same place in the Common-wealth that Abraham had in his own Family There ariseth also from the same a third point that as none but Abraham in his family so none but the Soveraign in a Christian Common-wealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God For God spake onely to Abraham and it was he onely that was able to know what God said and to interpret the same to his family And therefore also they that have the place of Abraham in a Common-wealth are the onely Interpreters of what God hath spoken The same Covenant was renewed with Isaac and afterwards with Jacob but afterwards no more till the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians and arrived at the Foot of Mount Sinai and then it was renewed by Moses as I have said before chap. 35. in such manner as they became from that time forward the Peculiar Kingdome of God whose Lieutenant was Moses for his owne time and the succession to that office was setled upon Aaron and his heirs after him to bee to God a Sacerdotall Kingdome for ever By this constitution a Kingdome is acquired to God But seeing Moses had no authority to govern the Israelites as a successor to the right of Abraham because he could not claim it by inheritance it appeareth not as yet that the
the Holy Ghost Separate me Barnabas and saulâ—… c. But seeing the work of an Apostle was to be a Witnesse of the Resurrection of Christ a man may here aske how S. Paul that conversed not with our Saviour before his passion could know he was risen To which is easily answered that our Saviour himself appeared to him in the way to Damascus from Heaven after his Ascension and chose him for a vessell to bear his name before the Gentiles and Kings and Children of Israel and consequently having seen the Lord after his passion was a competent Witnesse of his Resurrection And as for Barnabas he was a Disciple before the Passion It is therefore evident that Paul and Barnabas were Apostles and yet chosen and authorized not by the first Apostles alone but by the Church of Antioch as Matthias was chosen and authorized by the Church of Jerusalem Bishop a word formed in oâ—…r language out of the Greek Episcopus signifieth an Overseer or Superintendent of any businesse and particularly a Pastor or Shepherd and thence by metaphor was taken not only amongst the Jews that were originally Shepherds but also amongst the Heathen to signifie the Office of a King or any other Ruler or Guide of People whether he ruled by Laws or Doctrine And so the Apostles were the first Christian Bishops instituted by Christ himselfe in which sense the Apostleship of Judas is called Acts 1. 20. his Bishoprick And afterwards when there were constituted Elders in the Christian Churches with charge to guide Christs flock by their doctrine and advice these Elders were also called Bishops Timothy was an Elder which word Elder in the New Testament is a name of Office as well as of Age yet he was also a Bishop And Bishops were then content with the Title of Elders Nay S. John himselfe the Apostle beloved of our Lord beginneth his Second Epistle with these words The Elder to the Elect Lady By which it is evident that Bishop Pastor Elder Doctor that is to say Teacher were but so many divers names of the same Office in the time of the Apostles For there was then no government by Coercion but only by Doctrine and Perswading The Kingdome of God was yet to come in a new world so that there could be no authority to compell in any Church till the Common-wealth had embraced the Christian Faith and consequently no diversity of Authority though there were diversity of Employments Besides these Magisteriall employments in the Church namely Apostles Bishops Elders Pastors and Doctors whose calling was to proclaim Christ to the Jews and Infidels and to direct and teach those that beleeved we read in the New Testament of no other For by the names of Evangelists and Prophets is not signified any Office but severall Gifts by which severall men were profitable to the Church as Evangelists by writing the life and acts of our Saviour such as were S. Matthew and S. Iohn Apostles and S. Marke and S. Luke Disciples and whosoever else wrote of that subject as S. Thomas and S. Barnabas are said to have done though the Church have not received the Books that have gone under their names and as Prophets by the gift of interpreting the Old Testament and sometimes by declaring their speciall Revelations to the Church For neither these gifts nor the gifts of Languages nor the gift of Casting out Devils or of Curing other diseases nor any thing else did make an Officer in the Church save onely the due calling and election to the charge of Teaching As the Apostles Matthias Paul and Barnabas were not made by our Saviour himself but were elected by the Church that is by the Assembly of Christians namely Matthias by the Church of Jerusalem and Paul and Barnabas by the Church of Antioch so were also the Presbyters and Pastors in other Cities elected by the Churches of those Cities For proof whereof let us consider first how S. Paul proceeded in the Ordination of Presbyters in the Cities where he had converted men to the Christian Faith immediately after he and Barnabas had received their Apostleship We read Acts 4. 23. that they ordained Elders in every Church which at first sight may be taken for an Argument that they themselves chose and gave them their authority But if we confider the Originall text it will be manifest that they were authorized and chosen by the Assembly of the Christians of each City For the words there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is When they had Ordained them Elders by the Holding up of Hands in every Congregation Now it is well enough known that in all those Cities the manner of choosing Magistrates and Officers was by plurality of suffrages and because the ordinary way of distinguishing the Affirmative Votes from the Negatives was by Holding up of Hands to ordain an Officer in any of the Cities was no more but to bring the people together to elect them by plurality of Votes whether it were by plurality of elevated hands or by plurality of voices or plurality of balls or beans or small stones of which every man cast in one into a vessell marked for the Affirmative or Negative for divers Cities had divers customes in that point It was therefore the Assembly that elected their own Elders the Apostles were onely Presidents of the Assembly to call them together for such Election and to pronounce them Elected and to give them the benediction which now is called Consecration And for this cause they that were Presidents of the Assemblies as in the absence of the Apostles the Elders were were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Aâ—…tistites which words signifie the Principall Person of the Assembly whose office was to number the Votes and to declare thereby who was chosen and where the Votes were equall to decide the matter in question by adding his own which is the Office of a President in Councell And because all the Churches had their Presbyters ordained in the same manner where the word is Constitute as Titus 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest constitute Elders in every City we are to understand the same thing namely that hee should call the faithfull together and ordain them Presbyters by plurality of suffrages It had been a strange thing if in a Town where men perhaps had never seen any Magistrate otherwise chosen then by an Assembly those of the Town becomming Christians should so much as have thought on any other way of Election of their Teachers and Guides that is to say of their Presbyters otherwise called Bishops then this of plurality of suffrages intimated by S. Paul Acts 14. 23. in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor was there ever any choosing of Bishops before the Emperors found it necessary to regulate them in order to the keeping of the peace amongst them but by the Assemblies of the Christians in every severall Town
ordained And therefore in all Common-wealths of the Heathen the Soveraigns have had the name of Pastors of the People because there was no Subject that could lawfully Teach the people but by their permission and authority This Right of the Heathen Kings cannot bee thought taken from them by their conversion to the Faith of Christ who never ordained that Kings for beleeving in him should be deposed that is subjected to any but himself or which is all one be deprived of the power necessary for the conservation of Peace amongst their Subjects and for their defence against foraign Enemies And therefore Christian Kings are still the Supreme Pastors of their people and have power to ordain what Pastors they please to teach the Church that is to teach the People committed to their charge Again let the right of choosing them be as before the conversion of Kings in the Church for so it was in the time of the Apostles themselves as hath been shewn already in this chapter even so also the Right will be in the Civill Soveraign Christian. For in that he is a Christian he allowes the Teaching and in that he is the Soveraign which is as much as to say the Church by Representation the Teachers hee elects are elected by the Church And when an Assembly of Christians choose their Pastor in a Christian Common-wealth it is the Soveraign that electeth him because t is done by his Authority In the same manner as when a Town choose their Maior it is the act of him that hath the Soveraign Power For every act done is the act of him without whose consent it is invalid And therefore whatsoever examples may be drawn out of History concerning the Election of Pastors by the People or by the Clergy they are no arguments against the Right of any Civill Soveraign because they that elected them did it by his Authority Seeing then in every Christian Common-wealth the Civill Soveraign is the Supreme Pastor to whose charge the whole flock of his Subjects is committed and consequently that it is by his authority that all other Pastors are made and have power to teach and performe all other Pastorall offices it followeth also that it is from the Civill Soveraign that all other Pastors derive their right of Teaching Preaching and other functions pertaining to that Office and that they are but his Ministers in the same manner as the Magistrates of Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders of Armies are all but Ministers of him that is the Magistrate of the whole Common-wealth Judge of all Causes and Commander of the whole Militia which is alwaies the Civill Soveraign And the reason hereof is not because they that Teach but because they that are to Learn are his Subjects For let it be supposed that a Christian King commit the Authority of Ordaining Pastors in his Dominions to another King as divers Christian Kings allow that power to the Pope he doth not thereby constitute a Pastor over himself nor a Soveraign Pastor over his People for that were to deprive himself of the Civill Power which depending on the opinion men have of their Duty to him and the fear they have of Punishment in another world would depend also on the skill and loyalty of Doctors who are no lesse subject not only to Ambition but also to Ignorance than any other sort of men So that where a stranger hath authority to appoint Teachers it is given him by the Soveraign in whose Dominions he teacheth Christian Doctors are our Schoolmasters to Christianity But Kings are Fathers of Families and may receive Schoolmasters for their Subjects from the recommendation of a stranger but not from the command especially when the ill teaching them shall redound to the great and manifest profit of him that recommends them nor can they be obliged to retain them longer than it is for the Publique good the care of which they stand so long charged withall as they retain any other essentiall Right of the Soveraignty If a man therefore should ask a Pastor in the execution of his Office as the chief Priests and Elders of the people Mat. 21. 23. asked our Saviour By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority he can make no other just Answer but that he doth it by the Authority of the Common-wealth given him by the King or Assembly that representeth it All Pastors except the Supreme execute their charges in the Right that is by the Authority of the Civill Soveraign that is Iure Civili But the King and every other Soveraign executeth his Office of Supreme Pastor by immediate Authority from God that is to say in Gods Right or Iure Divino And therefore none but Kings can put into their Titles a mark of their submission to God onely Dei gratiâ Rex c. Bishops ought to say in the beginning of their Mandates By the favour of the Kings Majesty Bishop of such a Diocesse or as Civill Ministers In his Majesties Name For in saying Divinâ providentiâ which is the same with Dei gratiâ though disguised they deny to have received their authority from the Civill State and sliely slip off the Collar of their Civill Subjection contrary to the unity and defence of the Common-wealth But if every Christian Soveraign be the Supreme Pastor of his own Subjects it seemeth that he hath also the Authority not only to Preach which perhaps no man will deny but also to Baptize and to Administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to Consecrate both Temples and Pastors to Gods service which most men deny partly because they use not to do it and partly because the Administration of Sacraments and Consecration of Persons and Places to holy uses requireth the Imposition of such mens hands as by the like Imposition successively from the time of the Apostles have been ordained to the like Ministery For proof therefore that Christian Kings have power to Baptize and to Consecrate I am to render a reason both why they use not to doe it and how without the ordinary ceremony of Imposition of hands they are made capable of doing it when they will There is no doubt but any King in case he were skilfull in the Sciences might by the same Right of his Office read Lectures of them himself by which he authorizeth others to read them in the Universities Neverthelesse because the care of the summe of the businesse of the Common-wealth taketh up his whole time it were not convenient for him to apply himself in Person to that particular A King may also if he please sit in Judgment to hear and determine all manner of Causes as well as give others authority to doe it in his name but that the charge that lyeth upon him of Command and Government constrain him to bee continually at the Helm and to commit the Ministeriall Offices to others under him In the like manner our Saviour who surely had
power to Baptize Baptized none himselfe but sent his Apostles and Disciples to Baptize So also S. Paul by the necessity of Preaching in divers and far distant places Baptized few Amongst all the Corinthians he Baptized only Crispus Cajus and Stephanus and the reason was because his principall Charge was to Preach Whereby it is manifest that the greater Charge such as is the Government of the Church is a dispensation for the lesse The reason therefore why Christian Kings use not to Baptize is evident and the same for which at this day there are few Baptized by Bishops and by the Pope fewer And as concerning Imposition of Hands whether it be needfull for the authorizing of a King to Baptize and Consecrate we may consider thus Imposition of Hands was a most ancient publique ceremony amongst the Jews by which was designed and made certain the person or other thing intended in a mans prayer blessing sacrifice consecration condemnation or other speech So Jacob in blessing the children of Joseph Gen. 48. 14. Laid his right Hand on Ephraim the younger and his left Hand on Manasseh the first born and this he did wittingly though they were so presented to him by Joseph as he was forced in doing it to stretch out his arms acrosse to design to whom he intended the greater blessing So also in the sacrificing of the Burnt offering Aaron is commanded Exod. 29. 10. to Lay his Hands on the head of the bullock and ver 15. to Lay his Hand on the head of the ramme The same is also said again Levit. 1. 4. 8. 14. Likewise Moses when he ordained Joshua to be Captain of the Israelites that is consecrated him to Gods service Numb 27. 23. Laid his Hands upon him and gave him his Charge designing and rendring certain who it was they were to obey in war And in the consecration of the Levites Numb 8. 10. God commanded that the Children of Israel should Put their Hands upon the Levites And in the condemnation of him that had blasphemed the Lord Levit. 24. 14. God commanded that all that heard him should Lay their Hands on his head and that all the Congregation should stone him And why should they only that heard him Lay their Hands upon him and not rather a Priest Levite or other Minister of Justice but that none else were able to design and demonstrate to the eyes of the Congregation who it was that had blasphemed and ought to die And to design a man or any other thing by the Hand to the Eye is lesse subject to mistake than when it is done to the Eare by a Name And so much was this ceremony observed that in blessing the whole Congregation at once which cannot be done by Laying on of Hands yet Aaron Levit. 9. 22. did lift up his Hand towards the people when he blessed them And we read also of the like ceremony of Consecration of Temples amongst the Heathen as that the Priest laid his Hands on some post of the Temple all the while he was uttering the words of Consecration So naturall it is to design any individuall thing rather by the Hand to assure the Eyes than by Words to inform the Eare in matters of Gods Publique service This ceremony was not therefore new in our Saviours time For Jairus Mark 5. 23. whose daughter was sick besought our Saviour not to heal her but to ay h is Hands upon her that shee might bee healed And Matth. 19. 13. they brought unto him little children that hee should Put his Hands on them and Pray According to this ancient Rite the Apostles and Presbyters and the Presbytery it self Laid Hands on them whom they ordained Pastors and withall prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and that not only once but sometimes oftner when a new occasion was presented but the end was still the same namely a punctuall and religious designation of the person ordained either to the Pastorall Charge in general or to a particular Mission so Act. 6. 6. The Apostles Prayed and Laid their Hands on the seven Deacons which was done not to give them the Holy Ghost for they were full of the Holy Ghost before they were chosen as appeareth imdiately before verse 3. but to design them to that Office And after Philip the Deacon had converted certain persons in Samaria Peter and John went down Act 8. 17. and Laid their Hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost And not only an Apostle but a Presbyter had this power For S. Paul adviseth Timothy 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay Hands suddenly on no man that is designe no man rashly to the Office of a Pastor The whole Presbytery Laid their Hands on Timothy as we read 1 Tim. 4. 14. but this is to be understood as that some did it by the appointment of the Presbytery and most likely their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prolocutor which it may be was St. Paul himself For in his 2 Epist. to Tim. ver 6. he saith to him Stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the Laying on of my Hands where note by the way that by the Holy Ghost is not meant the third Person in the Trinity but the Gifts necessary to the Pastorall Office We read also that St. Paul had Imposition of Hands twice once from Ananias at Damascus Acts 9. 17 18. at the time of his Baptisme and again Acts 13. 3. at Antioch when he was first sent out to Preach The use then of this ceremony considered in the Ordination of Pastors was to design the Person to whom they gave such Power But if there had been then any Christian that had had the Power of Teaching before the Baptizing of him that is the making him a Christian had given him no new Power but had onely caused him to preach true Doctrine that is to use his Power aright and therefore the Imposition of Hands had been unnecessary Baptisme it selfe had been sufficient But every Soveraign before Christianity had the power of Teaching and Ordaining Teachers and therefore Christianity gave them no new Right but only directed them in the way of teaching Truth and consequently they needed no Imposition of Hands besides that which is done in Baptisme to authorize them to exercise any part of the Pastorall Function as namely to Baptize and Consecrate And in the Old Testament though the Priest only had right to Consecrate during the time that the Soveraignty was in the High Priest yet it was not so when the Soveraignty was in the King For we read 1 Kings 8. That Solomon Blessed the People Consecrated the Temple and pronounced that Publique Prayer which is the pattern now for Consecration of all Christian Churches and Chappels whereby it appears he had not only the right of Ecclesiasticall Government but also of exercising Ecclesiasticall Functions From this consolidation of the Right Politique and Ecclesiastique in Christian Soveraigns it is evident they
Apostle Simon was surnamed Stone which is the signification of the Syriacke word Cephas and of the Greek word Petrus Our Saviour therefore after the confession of that Fundamentall Article alluding to his name said as if it were in English thus Thou art Stone and upon this Stone I will build my Church which is as much as to say this Article that I am the Christ is the Foundation of all the Faith I require in those that are to bee members of my Church Neither is this allusion to a name an unusuall thing in common speech But it had been a strange and obscure speech if our Saviour intending to build his Church on the Person of S. Peter had said thou art a Stone and upon this Stone I will build my Church when it was so obvious without ambiguity to have said I will build my Church on thee and yet there had been still the same allusion to his name And for the following words I will give thee the Keyes of Heaven c. it is no more than what our Saviour gave also to all the rest of his Disciples Matth. 18. 18. Whatsoever yee shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven And whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven But howsoever this be interpreted there is no doubt but the Power here granted belongs to all Supreme Pastors such as are all Christian Civill Soveraignes in their own Dominions In so much as if St. Peter or our Saviour himself had converted any of them to beleeve him and to acknowledge his Kingdome yet because his Kingdome is not of this world he had left the supreme care of converting his subjects to none but him or else hee must have deprived him of the Soveraignty to which the Right of Teaching is inseparably annexed And thus much in refutation of his first Book wherein hee would prove St. Peter to have been the Monarch Universall of the Church that is to say of all the Christians in the world The second Book hath two Conclusions One that S. Peter was Bishop of Rome and there dyed The other that the Popes of Rome are his Successors Both which have been disputed by others But supposing them true yet if by Bishop of Rome bee understood either the Monarch of the Church or the Supreme Pastor of it not Silvester but Constantine who was the first Christian Emperour was that Bishop and as Constantine so all other Christian Emperors were of Right supreme Bishops of the Roman Empire I say of the Roman Empire not of all Christendome For other Christian Soveraigns had the same Right in their severall Territories as to an Office essentially adhaerent to their Soveraignty Which shall serve for answer to his second Book In the third Book he handleth the question whether the Pope be Antichrist For my part I see no argument that proves he is so in that sense the Scripture useth the name nor will I take any argument from the quality of Antichrist to contradict the Authority he exerciseth or hath heretofore exercised in the Dominions of any other Prince or State It is evident that the Prophets of the Old Testament foretold and the Jews expected a Messiah that is a Christ that should re-establish amongst them the kingdom of God which had been rejected by them in the time of Samuel when they required a King after the manner of other Nations This expectation of theirs made them obnoxious to the Imposture of all such as had both the ambition to attempt the attaining of the Kingdome and the art to deceive the People by counterfeit miracles by hypocriticall life or by orations and doctrine plausible Our Saviour therefore and his Apostles forewarned men of False Prophets and of False Christs False Christs are such as pretend to be the Christ but are not and are called properly Antichrists in such sense as when there happeneth a Schisme in the Church by the election of two Popes the one calleth the other Antipapa or the false Pope And therefore Antichrist in the proper signification hath two essentiall marks One that he denyeth Jesus to be Christ and another that he professeth himselfe to bee Christ. The first Mark is set down by S. Iohn in his 1 Epist. 4. ch 3. ver Every Spirit that confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God And this is the Spirit of Antichrist The other Mark is expressed in the words of our Saviour Mat. 24. 5. Many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and again If any man shall say unto you Lâ—…e here is Christ there is Christ beleeve it not And therefore Antichrist must be a False Christ that is some one of them that shall pretend themselves to be Christ. And out of these two Marks to deny Iesus to be the Christ and to affirm himselfe to be the Christ it followeth that he must also be an Adversary of Iesus the true Christ which is another usuall signification of the word Antichrist But of these many Antichrists there is one speciall one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Antichrist or Antichrist definitely as one certaine person not indefinitely an Antichrist Now seeing the Pope of Rome neither pretendeth himself nor denyeth Jesus to bee the Christ I perceive not how he can be called Antichrist by which word is not meant one that falsely pretendeth to be His Lieutenant or Vicar generall but to be Hee There is also some Mark of the time of this speciall Antichrist as Mat. 24. 15. when that abominable Destroyer spoken of by Daniel shall stand in the Holy place and such tribulation as was not since the beginning of the world nor ever shall be again insomuch as if it were to last long ver 22. no flesh could be saved but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened made fewer But that tribulation is not yet come for it is to be followed immediately ver 29. by a darkening of the Sun and Moon a falling of the Stars a concussion of the Heavens and the glorious coming again of our Saviour in the cloudes And therefore The Antichrist is not yet come whereas many Popes are both come and gone It is true the Pope in taking upon him to give Laws to all Christian Kings and Nations usurpeth a Kingdome in this world which Christ took not on him but he doth it not as Christ but as for Christ wherein there is nothing of The Antichrist In the fourth Book to prove the Pope to be the supreme Judg in all questions of Faith and Manners which is as much as to be the absolute Monarch of all Christians in the world he bringeth three Propositions The first that his Judgments are Infallible The second that he can make very Laws and punish those that observe them not The third that our Saviour conferred all Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall on the Pope of Rome For the Infallibility of his Judgments he alledgeth the Scriptures and
for the Churches Salvation because he hath commanded her to follow the Popes directions But this Reason is invalid unlesse he shew when and where Christ commanded that or took at all any notice of a Pope Nay granting whatsoever was given to S. Peter was given to the Pope yet seeing there is in the Scripture no command to any man to obey St. Peter no man can bee just that obeyeth him when his commands are contrary to those of his lawfull Soveraign Lastly it hath not been declared by the Church nor by the Pope himselfe that he is the Civill Soveraign of all the Christians in the world and therefore all Christians are not bound to acknowledge his Jurisdiction in point of Manners For the Civill Soveraignty and supreme Judicature in controversies of Manners are the same thing And the Makers of Civill Laws are not onely Declarers but also Makers of the justice and injustice of actions there being nothing in mens Manners that makes them righteous or unrighteous but their conformity with the Law of the Soveraign And therefore when the Pope challengeth Supremacy in controversies of Manners hee teacheth men to disobey the Civill Soveraign which is an erroneous Doctrine contrary to the many precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles delivered to us in the Scripture To prove the Pope has Power to make Laws he alledgeth many places as first Deut. 17. 12. The man that will doe presumptuously and will not he arken unto the Priest that standeth to Minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Iudge even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evill from Israel For answer whereunto we are to remember that the High Priest next and immediately under God was the Civill Soveraign and all Judges were to be constituted by him The words alledged sound therefore thus The man that will presume to disobey the Civill Soveraign for the time being or any of his Officers in the execution of their places that man shall die c. which is cleerly for the Civill Soveraignty against the Universall power of the Pope Secondly he alledgeth that of Matth. 16. Whatsoever yee shall bind c. and interpreteth it for such binding as is attributed Matth. 23. 4. to the Scribes and Pharisees They bind heavy burthens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders by which is meant he sayes Making of Laws and concludes thence that the Pope can make Laws But this also maketh onely for the Legislative power of Civill Soveraigns For the Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses Chaire but Moses next under God was Soveraign of the People of Israel and therefore our Saviour commanded them to doe all that they should say but not all that they should do That is to obey their Laws but not follow their Example The third place is Iohn 21. 16. Feed my sheep which is not a Power to make Laws but a command to Teach Making Laws belongs to the Lord of the Family who by his owne discretion chooseth his Chaplain as also a Schoolmaster to Teach his children The fourth place Iohn 20. 21. is against him The words are As my Father sent me so send I you But our Saviour was sent to Redeeem by his Death such as should Beleeve and by his own and his Apostles preaching to prepare them for their entrance into his Kingdome which he himself saith is not of this world and hath taught us to pray for the coming of it hereafter though hee refused Acts 1. 6 7. to tell his Apostles when it should come and in which when it comes the twelve Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones every one perhaps as high as that of St. Peter to judge the twelve tribes of Israel Seeing then God the Father sent not our Saviour to make Laws in this present world wee may conclude from the Text that neither did our Saviour send S. Peter to make Laws here but to perswade men to expect his second comming with a stedfast faith and in the mean time if Subjects to obey their Princes and if Princes both to beleeve it themselves and to do their best to make their Subjects doe the same which is the Office of a Bishop Therefore this place maketh most strongly for the joining of the Ecclesiasticall Supremacy to the Civill Soveraignty contrary to that which Cardinall Bellarmine alledgeth it for The fift place is Acts 15. 28. It hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that yee abstain from meats offered to Idoles and from bloud and from things strangled and from fornication Here hee notes the word Laying of burdens for the Legislative Power But who is there that reading this Text can say this stile of the Apostles may not as properly be used in giving Counsell as in making Laws The stile of a Law is VVe command But VVe think good is the ordinary stile of them that but give Advice and they lay a Burthen that give Advice though it bee conditionall that is if they to whom they give it will attain their ends And such is the Burthen of abstaining from things strangled and from bloud not absolute but in case they will not erre I have shewn before chap. 25. that Law is distinguished from Counsell in this that the reason of a Law is taken from the designe and benefit of him that prescribeth it but the reason of a Counsell from the designe and benefit of him to whom the Counsell is given But here the Apostles aime onely at the benefit of the converted Gentiles namely their Salvation not at their own benefit for having done their endeavour they shall have their reward whether they be obeyed or not And therefore the Acts of this Councell were not Laws but Counsells The sixt place is that of Rom. 13. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God which is meant he saith not onely of Secular but also of Ecclesiasticall Princes To which I answer first that there are no Ecclesiasticall Princes but those that are also Civill Soveraignes and their Principalities exceed not the compasse of their Civill Soveraignty without those bounds though they may be received for Doctors they cannot be acknowledged for Princes For if the Apostle had meant we should be subject both to our own Princes and also to the Pope he had taught us a doctrine which Christ himself hath told us is impossible namely to serve two Masters And though the Apostle say in another place I write these things being absent lest being present I should use sharpnesse according to the Power which the Lord hath given me it is not that he challenged a Power either to put to death imprison banish whip or fine any of them which are Punishments but onely to Excommunicate which without the Civill Power is no more but a leaving of their company and having no more to doe with them than
Laws if any else can make a Law besides himselfe all Common-wealth and consequently all Peace and Justice must cease which is contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane Nothing therefore can be drawn from these or any other places of Scripture to prove the Decrees of the Pope where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty to be Laws The last point hee would prove is this That our Saviour Christ has committed Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope Wherein he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian Kings but between the Pope and other Bishops And first he sayes it is agreed that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is at least in the generall de Iure Divino that is in the Right of God for which he alledges S. Paul Ephes. 4. 11. where hee sayes that Christ after his Ascension into heaven gave gifts to men some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers And thence inferres they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right but will not grant they have it immediately from God but derived through the Pope But if a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction de Jure Divino and yet not immediately what lawfull Jurisdiction though but Civill is there in a Christian Common-wealth that is not also de Jure Divino For Christian Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately and the Magistrates under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission wherein that which they doe is no lesse de Jure Divino mediato than that which the Bishops doe in vertue of the Popes Ordination All lawfull Power is of God immediately in the Supreme Governour and mediately in those that have Authority under him So that either hee must grant every Constable in the State to hold his Office in the Right of God or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so besides the Pope himselfe But this whole Dispute whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope onely or to other Bishops also if considered out of those places where the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty is a contention de lana Caprina For none of them where they are not Soveraigns has any Jurisdiction at all For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes between man and man and can belong to none but him that hath the Power to prescribe the Rules of Right and Wrong that is to make Laws and with the Sword of Justice to compell men to obey his Decisions pronounced either by himself or by the Judges he ordaineth thereunto which none can lawfully do but the Civill Soveraign Therefore when he alledgeth out of the 6 of Luke that our Saviour called his Disciples together and chose twelve of them which he named Apostles he proveth that he Elected them all except Matthias Paul and Barnabas and gave them Power and Command to Preach but not to Judge of Causes between man and man for that is a Power which he refused to take upon himselfe saying Who made me a Iudge or a Divider amongst you and in another place My Kingdome is not of this world But hee that hath not the Power to hear and determine Causes between man and man cannot be said to have any Jurisdiction at all And yet this hinders not but that our Saviour gave them Power to Preach and Baptize in all parts of the world supposing they were not by their own lawfull Soveraign forbidden For to our own Soveraigns Christ himself and his Apostles have in sundry places expressely commanded us in all things to be obedient The arguments by which he would prove that Bishops receive their Jurisdiction from the Pope seeing the Pope in the Dominions of other Princes hath no Jurisdiction himself are all in vain Yet because they prove on the contrary that all Bishops receive Jurisdiction when they have it from their Civill Soveraigns I will not omit the recitall of them The first is from Numbers 11. where Moses not being able alone to undergoe the whole burthen of administring the affairs of the People of Israel God commanded him to choose Seventy Elders and took part of the spirit of Moses to put it upon those Seventy Elders by which is understood not that God weakned the spirit of Moses for that had not eased him at all but that they had all of them their authority from him wherein he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place But seeing Moses had the entire Soveraignty in the Common-wealth of the Jews it is manifest that it is thereby signified that they had their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and therefore that place proveth that Bishops in every Christian Common-wealth have their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and from the Pope in his own Territories only and not in the Territories of any other State The second argument is from the nature of Monarchy wherein all Authority is in one Man and in others by derivation from him But the Government of the Church he says is Monarchicall This also makes for Christian Monarchs For they are really Monarchs of their own people that is of their own Church for the Church is the same thing with a Christian people whereas the Power of the Pope though hee were S. Peter is neither Monarchy nor hath any thing of Archicall nor Craticall but onely of Didacticall For God accepteth not a forced but a willing obedience The third is from that the Sea of S. Peter is called by S. Cyprian the Head the Source the Roote the Sun from whence the Authority of Bishops is derived But by the Law of Nature which is a better Principle of Right and Wrong than the word of any Doctor that is but a man the Civill Soveraign in every Common-wealth is the Head the Source the Root and the Sun from which all Jurisdiction is derived And therefore the Jurisdiction of Bishops is derived from the Civill Soveraign The fourth is taken from the Inequality of their Jurisdictions For if God saith he had given it them immediately he had given aswell Equality of Jurisdiction as of Order But wee see some are Bishops but of own Town some of a hundred Towns and some of many whole Provinces which differences were not determined by the command of God their Jurisdiction therefore is not of God but of Man and one has a greater another a lesse as it pleaseth the Prince of the Church Which argument if he had proved before that the Pope had had an Universall Jurisdiction over all Christians had been for his purpose But seeing that hath not been proved and that it is notoriously known the large Jurisdiction of the Pope was given him by those that had it that is by the Emperours of Rome for the Patriarch of Constantinople upon the same title namely of being Bishop of the Capitall City of the Empire and Seat of the Emperour claimed to be equall to him it followeth that all other Bishops
dangerously to all purposes by sharing with another Indirect Power as with a Direct one But to come now to his Arguments The first is this The Civill Power is subject to the Spirituall Therefore he that hath the Supreme Power Spirituall hath right to command Temporall Princes and dispose of their Temporalls in order to the Spirituall As for the dictinction of Temporall and Spirituall let us consider in what sense it may be said intelligibly that the Temporall or Civill Power is subject to the Spirituall There be but two ways that those words can be made sense For when wee say one Power is subject to another Power the meaning either is that he which hath the one is subject to him that hath the other or that the one Power is to the other as the means to the end â—…r wee cannot understand that one Power hath Power over another Power or that one Power can have Right or Command over another For Subjection Command Right and Power are accidents not of Powers but of Persons One Power may be subordinate to another as the art of a Sadler to the art of a Rider If then it bee granted that the Civill Government be ordained as a means to bring us to a Spirituall felicity yet it does not follow that if a King have the Civill Power and the Pope the Spirituall that therefore the King is bound to obey the Pope more then every Sadler is bound to obey every Rider Therefore as from Subordination of an Art cannot be inferred the Subjection of the Professor so from the Subordination of a Government cannot be inferred the Subjection of the Governor When therefore he saith the Civill Power is Subject to the Spirituall his meaning is that the Civill Soveraign is Subject to the Spirituall Soveraign And the Argument stands thus The Civil Soveraign is subject to the Spirituall Therefore the Spirituall Prince may command Temporall Princes Where the Conclusion is the same with the Antecedent he should have proved But to prove it he alledgeth first this reason Kings and Popes Clergy and Laity make but one Common-wealth that is to say but one Church And in all Bodies the Members depend one upon another But things Spirituall depend not of things Temporall Therefore Temporall depend on Spirituall And therefore are Subject to them In which Argumentation there be two grosse errours one is that all Christian Kings Popes Clergy and all other Christian men make but one Common-wealth For it is evident that France is one Common-wealth Spain another and Venice a third c. And these consist of Christians and therefore also are severall Bodies of Christians that is to say severall Churches And their severall Soveraigns Represent them whereby they are capable of commanding and obeying of doing and suffering as a naturall man which no Generall or Universall Church is till it have a Representant which it hath not on Earth for if it had there is no doubt but that all Christendome were one Common-wealth whose Soveraign were that Representant both in things Spirituall and Temporall And the Pope to make himself this Representant wanteth three things that our Saviour hath not given him to Command and to Iudge and to Punish otherwise than by Excommunication to run from those that will not Learn of him For though the Pope were Christs onely Vicar yet he cannot exercise his government till our Saviours second coming And then also it is not the Pope but St. Peter himselfe with the other Apostles that are to be Judges of the world The other errour in this his first Argument is that he sayes the Members of every Common-wealth as of a naturall Body depend one of another It is true they cohaere together but they depend onely on the Soveraign which is the Soul of the Common-wealth which failing the Common-wealth is dissolved into a Civill war no one man so much as cohaering to another for want of a common Dependance on a known Soveraign Just as the Members of the naturall Body dissolve into Earth for want of a Soul to hold them together Therefore there is nothing in this similitude from whence to inferre a dependance of the Laity on the Clergy or of the Temporall Officers on the Spirituall but of both on the Civill Soveraign which ought indeed to direct his Civill commands to the Salvation of Souls but is not therefore subject to any but God himselfe And thus you see the laboured fallacy of the first Argument to deceive such men as distinguish not between the Subordination of Actions in the way to the End and the Subjection of Persons one to another in the administration of the Means For to every End the Means are determined by Nature or by God himselfe supernaturally but the Power to make men use the Means is in every nation resigned by the Law of Nature which forbiddeth men to violate their Faith given to the Civill Soveraign His second Argument is this Every Common-wealth because it is supposed to â—…e perfect and sufficient in it self may command any other Common-wealth not subject to it and force it to change the administration of the Government nay depose the Prince and set another in his room if it cannot otherwise defend it selfe against the injuries he goes about to doe them much more may a Spirituâ—…ll Common-wealth command a Temporall one to change the administration of their Government and may depose Princes and institute others when they cannot otherwise defend the Spirituall Good That a Common-wealth to defend it selfe against injuries may lawfully doe all that he hath here said is very true and hath already in that which hath gone before been sufficiently demonstrated And if it were also true that there is now in this world a Spirituall Common-wealth distinct from a Civill Common-wealth then might the Prince thereof upon injury done him or upon want of caution that injury be not done him in time to come repaire and secure himself by Warre which is in summe deposing killing or subduing or doing any act of Hostility But by the same reason it would be no lesse lawfull for a Civill Soveraign upon the like injuries done or feared to make warre upon the Spirituall Soveraign which I beleeve is more than Cardinall Bellarmine would have inferred from his own proposition But Spirituall Common-wealth there is none in this world for it is the same thing with the Kingdome of Christ which he himselfe saith is not of this world but shall be in the next world at the Resurrection when they that have lived justly and beleeved that he was the Christ shall though they died Naturall bodies rise Spirituall bodies and then it is that our Saviour shall judge the world and conquer his Adversaries and make a Spirituall Common-wealth In the mean time seeing there are no men on earth whose bodies are Spirituall there can be no Spirituall Common-wealth amongst men that are yet in the flesh unlesse wee call Preachers that have Commission to Teach and
single Texts without considering the main Designe can derive no thing from them cleerly but rather by casting atomes of Scripture as dust before mens eyes make every thing more obscure than it is an ordinary artifice of those that seek not the truth but their own advantage OF THE KINGDOME OF DARKNESSE CHAP. XLIV Of Spirituall Darknesse from MISINTERPRETATION of Scripture BEsides these Soveraign Powers Divine and Humane of which I have hitherto discoursed there is mention in Scripture of another Power namely that of the Rulers of the Darknesse of this world the Kingdome of Sâ—…tan and the Princpality of 〈◊〉 over Daemons that is to say over Phantasmes that appear in the Air For which cause Satan is also called the Prince of the Power of the Air and because he ruleth in the darknesse of this world The Prince of this world And in consequence hereunto they who are under his Dominion in opposition to the faithfull who are the Children of the Light are called the Children of Darknesse For seeing Beelzebub is Prince of Phantasmes Inhabitants of his Dominion of Air and Darknesse the Children of Darknesse and these Daemons Phantasmes or Spirits of Illusion signifie allegorically the same thing This considered the Kingdome of Darknesse as it is set forth in these and other places of the Scripture is nothing else but a Confederacy of Deceâ—…vers that to obtain doâ—… over men in this present world endeavour by dark and erroneons Doctrines to extinguish in them the Light both of Nature and of the Gospell and so to dis-prepare them for the Kingdome of God to coâ—… As men that are utterly deprived from their Nativity of the light of the bodily Eye have no Idea at all of any such light and no man conceives in his imagination any greater light than he hath at some time or other perceived by his outward Senses so also is it of the light of the Gospel and of the light of the Understanding that no man can conceive there is any greater degree of it than that which he hath already attained unto And from hence it comes to passe that men have no other means to acknowledge their owne Darknesse but onely by reasoning from the un-foreseen mischances that befall them in their ways The Darkest part of the Kingdom of Satan is that which is without the Church of God that is to say amongst them that beleeve not in Jesus Christ. But we cannot say that therefore the Church enjoyeth as the land of Goshen all the light which to the performance of the work enjoined us by God is necessary Whence comes it that in Christendome there has been almost from the time of the Apostles such justling of one another out of their places both by forraign and Civill war such stumbling at every little asperity of their own fortune and every little eminence of that of other men and such diversity of ways in running to the same mark Felicity if it be not Night amongst us or at least a Mist wee are therefore yet in the Dark The Enemy has been here in the Night of our naturall Ignorance and sown the tares of Spirituall Errors and that First by abusing and putting out the light of the Scriptures For we erre not knowing the Scriptures Secondly by introducing the Daemonology of the Heathen Poets that is to say their fabulous Doctrine concerning Daemons which are but Idols or Phantasms of the braine without any reall nature of their own distinct from humane fancy such as are dead mens Ghosts and Fairies and other matter of old Wives tales Thirdly by mixing with the Scripture divers reliques of the Religion and much of the vain and erroneous Philosophy of the Greeks especially of Aristotle Fourthly by mingling with both these false or uncertain Traditions and fained or uncertain History And so we come to erre by giving heed to seducing Spirits and the Daemonology of such as speak lies in Hypocrisie or as it is in the Originall 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. of those that play the part of lyars with a seared conscience that is contrary to their own knowledge Concerning the first of these which is the Seducing of men by abuse of Scripture I intend to speak briefly in this Chapter The greatest and main abuse of Scripture and to which almost all the rest are either consequent or subservient is the wresting of it to prove that the Kingdome of God mentioned so often in the Scripture is the present Church or multitude of Christian men now living or that being dead are to rise again at the last day whereas the Kingdome of God was first instituted by the Ministery of Moses over the Jews onely who were therefore called his Peculiar People and ceased afterward in the election of Saul when they refused to be governed by God any more and demanded a King after the manner of the nations which God himself consented unto as I have more at large proved before in the 35. Chapter After that time there was no other Kingdome of God in the world by any Pact or otherwise than he ever was is and shall be King of all men and of all creatures as governing according to his Will by his infinite Power Neverthelesse he promised by his Prophets to restore this his Government to them again when the time he hath in his secret counsell appointed for it shall bee fully come and when they shall turn unto him by repentance and amendment of life and not onely so but he invited also the Gentiles to come in and enjoy the happinesse of his Reign on the same conditions of conversion and repentance and hee promised also to send his Son into the world to expiate the sins of them all by his death and to prepare them by his Doctrine to receive him at his second coming Which second coming not yet being the Kingdome of God is not yet come and wee are not now under any other Kings by Pact but our Civill Soveraigns saving onely that Christian men are already in the Kingdome of Grace in as much as they have already the Promise of being received at his comming againe Consequent to this Errour that the present Church is Christs Kingdome there ought to be some one Man or Assembly by whose mouth our Saviour now in heaven speaketh giveth law and which representeth his Person to all Christians or divers Men or divers Assemblies that doe the same to divers parts of Christendome This power Regal under Christ being challenged universally by the Pope and in particular Common-wealths by Assemblies of the Pastors of the place when the Scripture gives it to none but to Civill Soveraigns comes to be so passionately disputed that it putteth out the Light of Nature and causeth so great a Darknesse in mens understanding that they see not who it is to whom they have engaged their obedience Consequent to this claim of the Pope to Vicar Generall of Christ in the present