gives discharge from them Accordingly this the Clergy of Rome put the granting or denying communion upon in their Answer to Marcion Telling him they could not receive him to communion in their Church without his Fathers consent and allowance because his Father the Bishop of Sinope who had cast him out of communion was of the same Faith with themselves And this discharge such defection gives upon the evidence of the Fact it self before synodical Cognizance or judicial sentence and declaration thereof As for other Crimes which concern only the Persons or conversation of Bishops not their Doctrine or Ministrations they give no discharge to the Clergy or People who are subject to them before the offending Bishops are regularly deprived for the same by judicial sentence And if before synodical sentence any Clergy or People break off from their Bishops or Bishops from their Metropolitanes or Metropolitanes from their Patriarks on pretence of them they make a Schism and are censured by the Church for so doing If any Presbyter or Deacon says the Council of Constantinople on pretence of Crimes meaning such personal Crimes shall dare to withdraw themselves from 〈◊〉 Communion of their Bishop or Bishops from their Metropolitane or Presbyters Bishops or Metropolitanes from their Patriack before Synodical cognizance and perfect condemnation past upon him He makes a Schism and shall incuâ— the penalty of deposition But as for Heresie or any damnable corruptions of Doctrine or Ministrations they give this discharge as soon as the Bishop c. is notoriously guilty of them before any Synod has sate or Sentence has pass'd upon him Thus St. Jerome expounds that Passage an Heretick is condemned of himself Tit. 3. 10. 11. Which says he is therefore said of Hereticks because when other Offenders as Fornicators Adulterers Murderers are not cast out but by the Sentence of the Bishop or Church censures Hereticks on the other hand pass sentence upon themselves on their own accord receding from the Church which recession seems to be a condemnation of their own conscience As many as attempt any tâ—inâ— against those Constitutions of the Fathers which concern the Faith thereby without more ado incur and bring on themselves the Censures coâ—tained in the Canons says Thalassius Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in the Great Council of Chalcedon When an Offence is only against the Canons of the Church the Desence of the Divine Canons we know is proper only to the Bishops but the Desence of the right Faith belongs not only to them but to every Orthodox Christian say the Holy Monks against the Patriark Anthimus faln to the Heresie of the Eutychians in their Libâ—l in the Council of Constantinople under Agapetus and Mennas Though no Synod has before condemned him yet he that has prevaricated and deserted the Orthodox Faith as Acacius he says had done by communicating with the Eutychians has enough for which he ought to be deny'd communion As also any one who before being a Catholick shall fall to communicate with any Heresie is justly thought to be thereby removed from our Society says Pope Gelasius Though in case of other Crimes they may not do it before Synodical Sentence yet in case of any Heresie condemn'd by the Holy Synods or Fathers they may depart and separate from the Communion of their Prelate say the foresaid Canons of Constantinople when once he comes to preach it publickly and to teach it bare-fac'd in the Church And then to withdraw from him before Synodical cognizance is not to incur the foresaid Canonical pains but to shew themselves worthy of that Honour which belongs to the Orthodox 'T is not to condemn Bishops say they but Pseudo-Bishops their Teachers not to rend the Unity of 〈◊〉 Church by a Schism but to study to free it from Schisms and Divisions So that in these Cases when the Defection of Doctrine and Worship is apparent and plain to their eyes and ears the People and Clergy may judge for themselves and withdraw from the Communion of such Heretical or Erroneous Pastors And accordingly the Apostolical Rules to the People are without staying for the declaration of a Synod if any turn a bringer of false Doctrine contrary to what they had delivered without more ado to hold him as Anathema or as one Excommunicate Gal. 1. 8. 9. and not to bid him God speed 2 Jo. 10. 11. By such defections then from Christian Doctrine or Worship the Ligaments of Union are broken towards the Governours of any Church or between one Church and another and there accrues a Liberty without any Breach of the Unity of the Church 1. For People to break off from their own Local Guides or for People and Clergy to break off from their own Bishops Tho' they were Apostles or Angels from Heaven they are to be held then as Anathema as St. Paul says that is not as Heads of Unity and Church-communion but as Excommunicate Men. If they cause Divisions from the Doctrines we have learned he bids the Church mark and avoid them Ro. 16. 17. The Peoples duty of adhering to and following them is no longer than they continue to be followers of Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. c. 4. 18. But if they break off from his Truth and turn False Prophets however they come dress'd up in soft Pretences or in Sheeps-cloathing he tells us to beware of them and to fly them as Wolves Mat. 7. 15 16. to look to them and avoid them as St. Paul cautions against the Judaizers Phil. 3. 2. If they become bringers of False Doctrine bid them not God speed nor receive them into your Houses saith St. John 2 Jo. 10. 11. Thus when John of Jerusalem fell to erre in Point of Faith Epiphanius writ to the Monks as St. Jerom says that till he gave satisfaction in Point of Faith none of them should communicate with him And Ierom himself asks him where it is required that they should come under his Communion before such satisfaction were given And tells him 't is because of their difference in point of Faith that they may not communicate with him A People says St. Cyprian that would fear God and obey his Precepts ought to separate it self from an erring Prelate Such Persons if Metropolitanes are no longer to have neither any Authority over the Bishops of their Provinces nor the Communion of the Church as is decreed in the General Council of Ephesus They are to leave their Guides when they fall to misguâ—â— them and to stand off from their Persons lest they be corrupted with their Tenets And this is no more than is needful for them even in point of Caution being their keeping out of the way of Temptations which our Lord directs us to for a general Guard of all Vertues And standing off thus from Heretical Leaders they will approve themselves in the midst of Heresies by being stedfast in the Truth 1.
the Church For when they fill'd all places they would be met with in all places and intermix in all dealings And then not to have any Company or Dealings with such they must needs go out of the World which St. Paul gives as one Reason of Relaxation and Allowance in this Case 1 Cor. 5. 10. So that continuing still to shun Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Communion with such Makers of Schisms especially for the setting up of a sinful Worship and Unchristian Doctrines and Practices is so far from being a defection from the Apostolical and Primitive Charity that it is a keeping up to it and is only a retaining of their first Love which ought in all times faithfully to be kept on in all true Churches Now as to the Persons whom this will affect and whose Communion by this Rule is to be shuned in such Cases it barrs this Communion with those who set up and make the Anti-Bishops or who side and take part with them 1. It affects the Electors who chose the Men and their Ordainers and Consecrators who laid hands on them For these give Heads to the New Bodies and create the Schism Others may seditiously call for it or come in to it when once 't is form'd but their part is to give it a Head which formally constitutes and sets it up so that they are Principals therein 2. And those who own subjection and dependance on these Anti-Bishops in opposition to their Old Ones and as Members unite and incorporate under them Thus it is among the Pastors by whom their Authority is received and who thereby all break off from the rightful Bishop to whom in all their Ministrations they ought to keep subject and dependant The Rule of Communion for Priests and Deacons towards their Bishop is to do all Publick Ministrations according to his Allowance and Consent Let the Presbyters or Deacons do nothing without the Consent of the Bishop say the Apostolical Canons and the Council of Laodicea afterwards for 't is the Bishop to whose Trust the Lords People is committed and from whom an Account of their Souls will be required And If any will be for having the Offices of the Church without the Concurrence of a fitting Presbyter who officiates according to the Bishops approbation and allowance let him be Anathema says the Council of Gangra And If any Clergy celebrate Divine Offices in private Oratories or baptize not according to the Mind and Allowance of the Bishop but besides or contrariant to it let them incur Deposition say the Council in Trullo and the Council of Constantinople The Church is settled upon the Bishops and every Act of the Church â—ught to be governed by them saith St. Cyprian Let none do any of those things which concern the Church or publick Service without the Bishop says St. Ignatins that Holy Martyr and Contemporary of the Apostles But let that he reputed a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by those who keep under him or which is administer'd with his Leave And that a due Baptism which is with his consent or approbation 'T is necessary says he that ye should do nothing without the Bishop like as also ye do The Spirit adds he in another place hath preached this saying Do nothing without the Bishop Love Unity fly Divisions And they who continue to call him Bishop but yet do all things without him I think are not men of good Conscience because they do not celebrate their solemn Assemblies according to Christs Precept And to like purpose Tertullian St. Jerome and others And this way of administring all Offices with his approbation and allowance St. Ignatius declares is the way for them to keep Unity with their Bishops For says he as our Lord doth nothing without his Father being united to him not acting without him either by himself or by his Apostles So neither do you any thing without your Bishop and his Presbyters But when the Priests and Deacons of a Diocess turn over from their rightful Bishop to the Anti-Bishop they live in a slagrant Breach of these Rules of Communion They do all their Ministrations then without their Bishop putting in some things into Divine offices and putting out others and observing Days and other things belonging to their Ministrations not only without but quite against his consent and approbation and altogether by the Authority and jurisdiction of another who is set up against him Which is to separate as far as they can from him who ought to be their Principle of Union and to minister in a state of full and Flaming Schism And thus it is also in the Assemblies over which those Rightful Bishops ought to Preside or in the Churches of their own Dâ—oceses If they would keep in the state of Unity they should keep united to their Rightful Bishops who are the Heads of Union to their several Flocks and should stick to them and the Clergy of their Communion for Divine Offices Where their Bishop appears there let the multitude be with them Like as where Jesus Christ goes there the Catholick Church goes too says St. Ignatius But if they break away from all Dependance on them and from all recourse to their ministrations to Depend on the Anti-Bishops and to resort to theirs that makes them all Schismaticks For all these Assemblies of People and Pastors make the Schismatical Bodys whereof the Anti-Bishops are the Heads As the Bishops set up for the Schismatical Heads So the Pastors and People who turn over to them and assemble under them come in to be their Schismatical Members They Form themselves into one Church by erecting an Ecclesiastical Union and Communion among themselves And this is a Schismatical Church as Consisting all of a Party of Members broke off from their True Heads or lawful Bishops 3. Further it may also affect other Bishops and Churches who will take their Part and Communicate with them For Catholick Unity is to be preserved in the Church i. e. Unity and Communion is to be kept up among all Churches And this is by Rules of Accord and Correspondence which give the same Church Acts or matters the same effects in all places Of which Rules I have before discoursed more at large And these Rules will keep up Catholick Unity and the Communion of Saints between all Bishops and Churches since this way they all Communicate or all in Common refuse to do it with the same Persons And therefore if any Bishop of one Church would side and have Communion with Anti-Bishops or with the Schismaticks or Hereticks of other Churches He thereby broke the Rules of Union as well as they and became involved in Schism like one of them For he was as much obliged as others in care of maintaining Unity to keep off from the Communion of such Schismaticks Yea in care of Catholick Unity and Communion to keep off from the Communion of those who make
not expect from it the Benefits and Assistances of any secular mixtures which were derived to them by Incorporation As to this point of Schism several good Minds may think that though by setting up opposite or Anti-Bishops against them in their respective Sees others have already made it yet may it be in the Power of the seinjured Sufferers by their Receding and Submission thereto to remedy and put an end to it And 't is like many Serious and hearty Lovers of Peace and of those Churches may at such times be apt to wish that for the sake of Unity they would do so Indeed where they may be free to do as they please that is when no part of Faith or good Practice is like to suffer by it nor the safety and welfare of those Souls committed to them is haâ—â—rded thereby much may be said to good Pastors not to insist too much on their Personal Rights and Privileges but to forego and give them up for the Peace and Tranquility of the Church Their Spiritual Powers are committed to them not as to Lords of Gods Heretage therewith to seek and serve themselves but as to Stewards that look after it for another or as Sheepheards thereby to serve and Benefit their Flocks Their Powers are all a Ministry to promote Religion and serve the Church by parting with any thing of their own for its good as their Great Master did not to please or aggrandize their own Persons being given them for Edification or wherewith to build up the Church not for Destruction or the pulling of it down Accordingly the Pastoral Spirit is a generous Publick Spirit Nothing is more opposite thereto than narrow private Aims and seeking of themselves nor more required thereby than neglect or denial of themselves for the Safety and Profit of their Flocks and Care or Sollicitude for others It lies as the Blessed Apostle saith in Naturally caring for the Churches In Seeking not their own things but the things which are Iesus Christs In not seeking their own Profit but the Profit of many that they may be saved In making themselves Servants to all when thereby they could Profit the State of Religion and their Flocks though it were by Incumbring and Prejudicing themselves becoming all things to all Men that by all means they may save some And therefore when it has only been a cause of their own Persons or Personal Claims but not of Religion or of the Interest of the Church Good and Holy Bishops have thought it became the Pastoral Spirit rather to receed and sit down under the Injuries than that for their Sakes a Fatal Schism should be kept on in the Church If this Schism be for my Sake send me away or I will depart whither you please and do what the People would have me that the Flock of Christ with the Presbyters over it may be kept in Peace Was what St. Clemens Romanus St. Paul's Fellow Labourer recommended to the Heads of Parties in the Church of Corinth and press'd by the Example of Moses who was* content to be blotted out of the Book of Life to save the Israelites and of those Kings who even among Heathens devoted themselves to Death for the Preservation of their own Countries We ought to endure any thing rather than hat the Church of Christ should be divided Yea 't is not only as Glorious but more Glorious in my Judgment to suffer Mantyrdom for keeping out Schism in the Church than for not Sacrificing to Idols saith Dionysius of Alexandria to Novatus on the division made at Rome If I am any way the cause of your Division I am not better than the Prophet Jonah Throw me into the Sea so that thereby the Tempest of those Troubles may cease from you Whatever you see needful to that end I chuse to suffer Tho' I am blameless and have been no cause of these Troubles yet for your Unanimity and Peace-sake I am content to be thrust out of the Throne and to be expell'd the City says Gregory Nazianzen in his Speech to the Synod on the contest of Maximus Cynicus for his See of Constantinople And we are ready to leave this Prelacy to whom you will provided that way the Church may continue one said St. Chrysostom when at Constantinople others as he complains had unlawfully ascended the Episcopal Throne and thereupon a Seperation was made from him But in Cases where the injured Sufferers are still bound to insist on their Powers and to stand up for Religions Sake and the Churches this way of curing a Schism by their receeding has no place And therefore this Obligation to exercise their Ministries I have fixed the Debate upon in the case of such deprived Bishops and Ministers For if they stand bound in Duty at such times to exercise their Ministrations though never so desirous of Peace and Unity they cannot oure that Schism which others have made by letting their Ministrations fall And besides it 's directly meeting that Pretence and fully answering it I think it plainest to be apprehended and more powerful to operate on the Minds of those who are to be directed and resolved in this Dispute CHAP. II. Of the Immoral ways introduced by a wrong payment of Allegiance THE Bishops and Clergy who are deprived by the State when they cannot comply with the foresaid Changes and Impositions on such Revolutions notwithstanding the deprivation of State still retain their Episcopal and Sacâ—rdâ—tal Powers That is they are as true Bishops and Priests as they were before They are still endowed with the Powers of Orders and their use thereof would be as valid tho' not as to secular Claims and Privileges which are the Gift of Princes yet as to the real Effects of the Covenant of Grace or to purely Spiritual purposes as they would have been had they not been so deprived For these Powers are not derived from the State nor from any secular Authority They are called the Powers and Keys not of any Kingdom of this World but of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 16. 19. Iesus Christ was a Spiritual King disclaiming all secular Authority or Power of the Sword and declaring his Kingdom was not of this World nor to be upheld by his Servants Fighting with the Sword And he instituted all Church Powers yea these he instituted before the Church came to be Incorporated with the State and made no new Institution or alteration therein afterwards And when secular Powers turn'd Christians they became the Members of an empower'd Church and were let in by Ministers and privileged to claim Ministrations from Powers antecedently received from Christ and not at all needing to be received from them nor capable of being conferr'd by them as having never been confer'd on them Nor are these Powers to be held only during the Will and Pleasure of the State For then they could not be retained against its Mind And
so not in a state of Persecution when the secular Power sets it self to root out the Church and all Church-Powers and Ministrations Whereas these Powers were given to the Church bearing Christ's Cross and labouring under Persecutions and to continue in it always even to the end of the World under whatever circumstances as well when secularly Oppressed as when Protected Accordingly these spiritual Powers were held on by the Apostles when the secular Rulers declared against their Apostolical Authority and forbid them to Preach any more iâ— the Name of Jesus And by the Bishops and Clergy in all the succeeding Persecutions For all Persecutions of the Church were Persecutions of all Church Administrations and of Bishops and Priests in a more especial manner who were chief Actors and at the Head thereof Yea especiall Edicts and Prosecutions were made against them for being vested with these Authorities as the Title of St. Cyprian 's Proscription was for being Episcopus Christianorum or a Christian Bishop which Authorities therefore would no longer have belonged to them could a Persecuting Power have deprived or bereaved them thereof And this retaining their spiritual Powers will be allowed by their Adversaries who acknowledge that the deprivation of State is no Degradation to divest them of their Character or spiritual Powers conferr'd in Orders but only a debaring them of exercise thereof in their Dominions and in way of an incorporate Church under State Encouragements So that if they do exercise their Ministry there will be no want of Spiritual Powers to render their Acts Nullities or of no effect and validity before Christ. But only want of secular Benefices and enforcements to them and of submission as they alledge to the secular Power or of secular Obedience And having still their Episcopal and Ministerial Powers 't is next to be considered whether they stand bound to exercise and make use thereof 'T is not to be brought into this Question what is to be done herein on Worldly Arguments as they stand deprived of their Livelihoods and way of Maintenance how hard soever this may fall either upon themselves or their Families Which however it may abate or excuse especially to compassionate Natures yet is no justification of things that are otherwise unjustifiable on principles of Religion and Conscience But what is to be done on conscionable Arguments that are to rule their Determinations as Christians especially as Divines or that they may faithfully discharge their duty What is to be done by spiritually minded and mortified Men who are raised above this World and prefer God and Religion before themselves Nor is the Dispute Whether the Ministerial Powers be such a burthen that Men must be always pressing and obtruding the exercise thereof without any regard to the wants of the Place or the needs of the Church Necessity is laid upon me and woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel was spoke in the want of true Preachers when the Harvest was Great but the Labourers were Few It spoke a necessity introduced not merely by the Power of Orders but also by the circumstances of Times and Persons when the exercise thereof was necessary in want of Preachers for the use of the Church But in plenty of true Preachers there would not have been the same necessity nor would they have been bound to this exercise in place where there was no need of their Gifts but the same were exercised by others In this surplusage of Supplies for Church-uses and necessities the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets and their Powers must either be exercised or forborn and suspended as makes most for Order and Edification and the Peace of the Church But this exercise the deprived Bishops and Clergy are bound to in Duty and Conscience at such times If there is a need of their Ministrations then to provide for Religion and the Souls of Men or to prevent Men from being nursed up in destructive Ways as Immoral Practices and Immoral Worship and Devotions must be confessed to be To clear this it may not be amiss to consider First What Immoralities come in by a wrong payment of Allegiance to corrupt Religion and to endanger Souls Secondly What Provision good and faithful Pastors ought to make against such Dangers and Corruptions by the exercise of their Ministry First I shall briefly consider what Immoralities come in by a wrong Payment of Allegiance to corrupt Religion and to endanger Souls Whether this is actually the case of any Kingdom and the Allegiance required of them by their New Governors be directed and paid wrong I do not here discuss That makes another dispute viz. about the Right to the Crown contested betwixt the two Competitors in those Countries and the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of the New Oaths of Allegiance consequent thereupon which is exacted on such changes And this it is no part of the design of these Papers to argue or meddle with But when this really is the case in any Revolution as in this World God knows it is too often or among those Subjects who believe this is their case and that their Allegiance is call'd for to the Wrong against the Right Person Such as these are the Immoralities that will every-where corrupt Religion and endanger Souls whilst such wrong Payment lasts and which should be thought to do so among them viz. Then all that time whilst they are violently transferring their Allegiance from him to whom it still Remains rightfully due would Men in the general Practice of those Nations be wickedly disobeying and forceably resisting Gods Authority or the Father of the Fifth Commandment which extends to civil as well as natural Parents Then would they all that while be most openly and horribly breaking through all former Oaths of Allegiance Then would all who have promised and pay their Allegiance to drive out their ejected Prince out of any part of his Right or to keep him out thereof be actors of bare faced Iniquity and heinously unrighteous coveting and invading their Neighbours Goods And all force used against him or any other Persons for their adhering to his Cause would in Gods Account be oppression and unjust Violence all Spoils and Seisures of their Goods would be Thefts and Robberies and all shedding of their Blood all Cries and Clamours for it or rejoycing in it would be horrible Murders which not only they who acted but they who Wish'd or Prayed for or gave Thanks for when accomplished would be Guilty of All which are most dangerous and destructive ways and amount to a general Breach of Gods Commandments and to an open wast of Moral Honesty and Justice And all these would be the Dangers to Mens Souls in any Kingdom were the Translation of Allegiance such an unrighteous Perversion really and in it self Or they would be met with like Pastoral Provisions as if they were so Dangerous should the deprived Pastors believe and apprehend it to be such
state if supposed to pass on Bishops and Ministers would be no conscionable discharge from keepeng on their spiritual Ministrations against such immoralities as are set down in the aforesaid cases For Jesus Christ who gave them their Ministerial Powers requires them as his Ministers and as Pastors of his Church to exercise them for him and for the Souls of Men as I have shewn when those Cases happen And if the State forbids what he commands they are to hear or obey no state or Power on earth against him But must answer as the Apostles did to the Jewish Rulers in this Case whether it be lawful in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye Act. 4. 18. 19. 20. And thus it must needs be in men who are call'd to be his Ministers under persecuting States and to be Ministers of a Religion which is a Doctrine of the Cross and bids them expect and prepare to bear Crosses under oppressive powers as is plainly the Case of Gospel-Ministers For if they must be his Ministers and administer this Religion in persecutions they must hold on Ministring when the state where they live breaks with them and both most strictly forbids and most cruelly persecutes them for so doing And thus the First Ministers did who were to plant Christianity against all the Edicts and Oppositions of the Heathen or Jewish Magistrates And so did all the Faithful Bishops and pastors thereof who in all the succeeding persecutions of the Church stuck firm to their Ministrations against all the inhibitions and oppressive force of secular Rulers or else our holy Religion had perish'd long since and had never descended pure and perfect as it is to our days And so must all others do in any present or succeeding Tryals which as they always have done so always will seek to suppress Christs worship and Truth by suppressing the pastoral administrations thereof that by their Ministry it may not fail in the Church but be held on the same and continued down to the worlds end But this I say as to their pure spirtual Powers and Ministrations which they neither did nor could receive from the Civil State on which he never conferr'd it but which they hold independantly of Christ Jesus That is what spiritual powers they have received from Christ by imposition of Hands continued down from the Apostles for the feeding and governing of his Church by Administration of the Word of Prayers and Sacraments by leting into the Church and excluding out of it and for providing a constant succession of the same Ministrations by Empowering or Ordaining others These mere spiritual powers they must exercise as his Ministers without regard to any deprivation or inhibition of Worldly Princes For Earthly Kings cannot deprive them of these mere spiritual powers because they have them not from them but Minister therein not by theirs but by Christs Commission If Secular Princes gave them their Commissions to exercise their spiritual Authorities they might recall them If they were the fountain of these powers and could make or ordain Bishops they might have more plea to unmake and deprive them But not originally proceeding from them but from Christ himself by a way of his own prescribing in a succession of Apostolical imposition of Hands through all Ages of the Church They cannot be reversed by their deprivation Nor are the Bishops and Pastors to be debarr'd the exercise thereof in any Case where Christ requires it at their inhibition because they are Christs Servants more than theirs and must obey God rather than man But 3. Thirdly as for any Temporal accessions and enforcements of these mere spiritual Ministrations which the Church receives when once it is shone upon by earthly powers and made incorporate or free of the State These Accessions are borrowed Powers and the Gift of Princes and under the deposition of a Lawful state the Bishops and Ministers of Christ must not challenge or pretend to them As to these I observe 1. That the civil state hath Power over these Temporal Accessions secular endowments because it confer'd them When Kings and Queens turn Christians they come not in only as members to partake in these mere spiritual Ministrations but as Patrons by their secular power to back and Promote them They must shew themselves Nursing-Fathers and Nursing-Mothers as was foretold by the Prophet and serve the Lord as Kings that is by employing their Kingly Power to encourage and advance his service doing him those services which none can do but themselves as St. Austin tells them Thus to give encouragement and leisure for the Ministers to attend on these Ministrations without distraction the civil State endows them with benefices or worldly freeholds Honors and priviledges It also allots them publick and Authorized places for these Ministrations and makes Civil Laws requiring people duly to resort to them and punishing all disturbers of them and such as carry themselves indecently thereat It likewise adds a secular jurisdiction to the spiritual extending the spiritual jurisdiction to the Cognizance of Wills Marriages Benefices c. which are Civil matters and backing it by Temporal Accessions in the spiritual parts thereof making a mixture and Concurrence of Religious and civil powers in the spiritual Courts For thus the Ruâ—ricks it passes into Laws and the Canons also which are the Rules of exercising that jurisdiction it binds on the Subjects with the Kings Approbation and Ratification or with a Civil strengthing And the Spiritual censures or judgements according to these Rules it backs with civil penalties as imprisonment or with putting men under civil incapacities as to plead in an Action at Law or the like Now all these Temporal Helps and Accessions come not to the Bishops and Ministers immediately from Christ or as they are Ministers of Religion For His Kingdom is not of this world Nor was he whilst on earth any judge in civil matters Nor doth he confer any such worldly powers or grant any such commissions But all these secular benefices and fortifications in all the parts of the spiritual Ministry are the gifts of Princes They flow from their favour to the Church or from their taking upon them to be its Temporal Patrons or it's Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers And as the Bishops and Ministers of Christ hold them only by their commission So may they lose them by their recalling it So that although the state has no power either to give or to deprive the Ministers of Christ of their mere spiritual powers Yet has it a direct Authority to grant or deprive them of these Temporal Additionals And therefore the Bishops and Ministers of Christ in an incorporate Church when they are deprived by their Rightful Prince or by a Legal State must exercise their mere spiritual powers in the foresaid Cases without any of these civil effects or mixtures That is they can only Administer the Word and prayers and Sacraments
offices and dutys as to their Rooms Spiritual doth appertain And Queen Elizabeths injunctions disclaim all challenging of any Authority and Power of Ministry of Divine Service in the Church by Vertue of the Supremacy And the 37th Article of Religion declares That thereby we give not our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments And the Statute of Queen Elizabeth says The Oath of Supremacy shall be taken and expounded in such form as is set forth in the Queens Admonition annexed to her Injunctions They are the Ministers of God in their Dominions as St. Paul says But that is as Kings not as Priests So that the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters doth not imply the Power of the Keys which the King has not says Mr. Mason And by the Supremacy we do not attribute to the King the power of the Keys or Ecclesiastical Censures as Bishop Andrews observes We never gave our Kings the power of the Keys or any part of either the Key of Order or the Key of Jurisdiction purely spiritual says Bishop Bramhall And this bounding of their Claims and Pretences of Power is suitable to what we find among those Godly Jewish Kings and Christian Emperors to whom our Churches Articles and Canons about Supremacy refer As to the Jews it appertaineth not unto thee O Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests that are consecrated thereto say the Priests to King Uzziah when he would assume to himself the Priests Office for which God miraculously smote him with a Leprosie upon the place 2 Chron. 26. 16 18 19 20. And the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him to serve and minister unto him and to burn incense says King Hezekiah to the Levites 2 Chron. 29. 11. And the like appears of the godly Christian Emperors who were told by their Holy Bishops and profess'd of themselves That they were no Priests and that their power of Empire did not swallow up the Sacerdotal powers God hath intrusted the Affairs of the Kingdom in your hands but those of the Church in ours And as we may not lawfully take upon us to act as Kings so neither have you Authority O Emperor to burn incense or usurp the Priests Office said the Great Hosius in his Epistle to the Emperor Constantius To you it appertains externally to punish but to us to judge and determine what is Heretical and impious say Elusius and Sylvanus and the other Bishops to the same Constantius The Royal Purple makes men Emperors but it doth not make them Priests says St. Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius As Christians and Godly Emperors they used their Imperial Power and Soveraignty about Church-Matters But that was not privative to deny the Pastors of the Church or to bereave them of their Power but Cumulative to add the Imperial Power which was of another kind to the Spiritual thereby to back their Acts and to make them bind the faster Thus when they sent Count Candidianus to the Great Council of Ephesus the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian declare in their Letter to the Council That it was to keep good Order and to see fair Debates but with Orders not to intermeddle in determining Questions of Faith and Ecclesiastical Matters which say they is lawful only for the Bishops And when the Emperor Marcian came in person at the passing the Definitions of the Great Council of Chalcedon it was not as he tells them in his Speech to the Council to make Demonstration of his own Power therein but to give greater firmness to what they had done in the Exercise of theirs Which he doth by Ratifying the same by secular Penalties as by Banishment of Citizens Disbanding of Souldiers and Deposition of Clery and by other Punishments after the Determinations of the Council had been read and the Bishops had owned and subscribed the same before him When the Imperial Purple came to confirm a Pastoral Act it gave a new Authority to that which had Authority in it self before or as Justinian speaks in his Confirmation of the Episcopal Sentence or Anathemaon Zoaras which says he having a validity from it self or Authenticalness of its own the Crown makes yet more valid or of more Authority by adding to it a secular Penalty The Episcopal or Spiritual Authority is by too many unjustly slighted and therefore the Secular Authority is both humbly call'd in and piously comes in to its help since those irreligious Contemners of the Spiritual Power will stand more in awe of the Secular Coming in by their Secular Authority to help and back the Church in those things wherein men would otherwise contemn the Authority of the Bishops as the Fathers express it in the Council of Carthage So that the Imperial Power even whilst employ'd about Church-Ministrations all the time supposes but doth not swallow up the Pastoral Powers nor doth its Ecclesiastical Supremacy lye nor was ever thought so to do either by our Church or by those Times whereto it refers in their being vested with or having a soveraign Disposal of the Powers of Orders But 2. Secondly it lyes 1. First In retaining their civil Power over all Persons whether Lay-men or Ecclesiasticks The Civil State was first in Being and men were Subjects of the State when Christianity came to be proposed to them and planted among them The Church is in the Common-wealth not the Common-wealth in the Church as Optatus says And when men became Members or Ministers of the Church they did not thereby cease to be Subjects of the State or owe ever the less Duty unto it Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Power is meant of Ecclesiasticks as well as others It takes in all tho' an Apostle tho' an Evangelist tho' a Prophet or whosoever else as St. Chrysostom notes And therefore Princes may lay their civil Commands and inflict their civil Punishments upon Ecclesiasticks as well as upon their other Subjects They may put them under Fines or Imprisonments or banish them out of their Dominions or any parts thereof as Claudius did the Jews from Rome or as Domitian did St. John into Patmos where he wrote his Revelations and as Constantius and Valence did the Orthodox Bishops in the Arian Persecutions And true Pastors are bound to submit to this like as other Subjects are either from Heathen or Heretical Emperors and even in hard and unjust Cases as in the foresaid Instances And if any under sentence of Banishment inflicted on certain Persons not on the whole Cause return into his own Country without Leave of the civil Power if being caught he suffer for it he dies not as a Christian but as a Malefactor says St. Cyprian So that Bishops and Ministers are no exempt Persons but are to own their Kings as their civil Soveraigns and are as much bound to pay Obedience to their civil Laws and are
under the Cognizance of their civil Courts as others are And this civil Subjection of Ecclesiastical Persons against the Papal Exemptions thereof is the main thing in the Ecclesiastical Supremacy claimed by our Kings In the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and in the Canons of King James this Supremacy is called the highest Power under God whereto all Men within the same Realms by God's Law owe most Loyalty and Obedience afore and above all other Powers and Potentates in Earth Her Majesty say the Injunctions again thereby neither doth nor ever will challenge any other Authority than was lately used and was of antient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the soveraignty and rule over all manner of Persons born within her Dominions of what Estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any superiority over them By Supremacy or chief Government says the 37th Article of Religion we give only that prerogative which we see to have been always given to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all States and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the civil Sword the Stubborn and Evil-doers And the Oath of Supremacy as King James the First declared only extended to the Kings Power of Judicature over all Persons as well Civil as Ecclesiastical excluding all foreign Powers and Potentates to be Iudges within his Dominions All which plainly make the Ecclesiastical Supremacy to lye mainly in having Bishops and Ministers or the Ecclesiastical State who were broke off from it by the Papal Exemption under the same common Obligation to the civil Soveraign with other Subjects or under the Tye of civil Subjection In vertue of this civil power over their Persons as his Subjects he can command them faithfully to discharge their Duties and Functions And that not only as Subjects in civil Matters but as Ministers in divine Offices For as he is the civil Soveraign the Temporal Magistrate is the Keeper of both Tables being to keep his Subjects in Godliness as well as in Honesty as St. Paul says And is to use the civil Sword for sins against Religion as well as for sins against the State and in his way to punish Ministers for Neglect or Abuse of their spiritual Functions as well as for Breach of the civil Peace Thus good Kings as Hezekiah and Josiah employed their temporal power to cut off corrupt administrations and to reform Abuses of Worship and Religious Offices in the Jewish Church As Constantine and other good Christian Kings and Emperors did afterwards in other Nations And the 37th Article of our Church declares That by his Supremacy the King with the civil Sword may restrain the stubborn and evil-doers whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks And on this Account Constantine calls himself the Minister of God for the Coercion and Punishment of wicked Bishops And at his Entertainment of the Bishops tells them That God has appointed them the Bishops of things within the Church and him the Bishop of things without it and that it belongs to him as Bishop of Bishops to see they discharge their duties and be pious Thus the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian say That God by setting them to reign had made them the Bond both of the piety and of the external welfare and security of those who are subject to them the connexion betwixt which two their study was to preserve inviolable And in this Kings saith St. Austin according as God commands them do serve the Lord as they are Kings when they enjoyn good things and prohibit evil things in their Kingdoms And that not only in Matters pertaining to humane society but also in Matters pertaining to our Holy Religion And thus by means of his civil Power over Spiritual Persons has the King the like Power over Spiritual Acts Functions viz. as he can require and by the civil Sword compel them whom Christ has empowered thereto in his Dominions to exercise the same I mean to exercise them according to the Rules of God's Word and of their own Spiritual Function his Power lying in calling them to do their duties not to any Neglect or Breach thereof As we see was observed not only by the Godly Jewish Kings but also by the Primitive Emperors whose civil Laws and Edicts in these Matters still followed the spiritual Rules and Duties and were a secular Enforcement to drive all Ecclesiasticks to keep them not to Transgress them Our Laws do not disdain to follow the Sacred and Divine Canons the civil power in these Matters enforcing that which the Church had first prescribed says the Emperor Justinian And accordingly in the Civil Law for Restraint of Excommunications we forbid our Bishops saith he to Excommunicate any without a just Cause be shewn for it We forbid all Bishops and Presbyters saith another Law to exclude any from the Communion before Proof of such a Cause for which this is commanded to be done by the Ecclesiastical Canons So by his Imperial Power over their Persons commanding their Ministrations and limitting them therein to their own Rules And thus the King like as the Jewish Kings and Primitive Emperors were is supreme in these spiritual Acts and Administrations as in his Dominions they are all to be sped and administer'd not by independant Forreigners but by his own Subjects or as having the supream earthly Command of Bishops and Priests who are bound in civil Obedience to him as their Temporal Soveraign to exercise them when he requires it And this way he can give Final Justice to all his Subjects in all spiritual as well as temporal Matters having Authority to command his Bishops and Clergy to do it in the one as well as his Judges and temporal Ministers to do it in the other And by this power of doing it by their Means or Ministrations is his Supremacy set off Thus in the Statute for the Restraint of Appeals the King is declared to be the one supream Head endowed with plenary Power and Authority to render Final Justice in all Causes because the spirituality or his Bishops and Clergy can administer and determine all that belongs to their spiritual Offices and the Judges and other his temporal Ministers can do the like for Tryal of Property and Conservation of civil Peace The Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters doth not imply the power of the Keys which he has not but he may command those who have them to use them rightly says Mr. Mason This Supremacy is preserved if he take care that those who have the power of Ecclesiastical Censures do exercise them says Dr. Burhil He has plenary power to render final Justice that is to receive the last Appeal of his own Subjects without any fear of any
Appeals particularly aimed at is that which was claimed here by the Popes of Rome They had wrested from the Crown the foresaid Soveraignty both over Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes For as to Ecclesiastical Persons they claimed an exemption for them as not answerable in Civil Courts but Cognizable only by themselves And as to Ecclesiastical Ministrations as back'd by secular benefices and Ecclesiastical Causes as mixt in the Ecclesiastical Courts with Civil Priviledges and Jurisdiction they disclaimed subordination to the Crown and asserted a supremacy to themselves therein For they made themselves supream here in investitures into benefices and preferments and to have the chief power by their Legates of calling our convecations of passing and ratifying all our Decrees Canons and Constitutions of granting dispensations from them of having their decrees take place of the Prerogatives of the Crown or of the Customs of the Realm of holding courts and of receiving Appeals from any of our spiritual courts and judicatures and the like All which civil powers over Ecclesiastical Persons and subordination of Ecclesiastical causes proceeding by the foresaid mixture of secular fortifications benefices and jurisdictions the statutes Articles injunctions and Canons of this Church and Realm about Supremacy abolish in the Popes and assert to the Crown to which they Anciently did and of right should belong So that this Soveraign Civil Power over all Ecclesiastical Persons as their subjects and this Subordination of all Ecclesiastical Causes to it because of the Concurrence and intermixture of the foresaid civil priviledges and juridictions therewith and that in opposition to the papal pretences in these points is the Ecclesiastical supremacy vested in the King by our Church and Laws The Popes spiritual Usurpation upon this Church was shaken off by asserting to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Brittish Churches Ancient and independant Primacy Which did Right to the King too it being against his Prerogative that any Foreigner who doth not own himself to be one of his Subjects should have any Power in his Dominions And his Civil Usurpation on the Crown in respect to Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes among its Subjects was thrown out by asserting of the Kings Supremacy But when the Supremacy speaks such a civil power over the persons of Ecclesiasticks as they are its subjects and such subordination of Ecclesiastical causes thereto as they are united to secular benefices and jurisdictions Yet at the same time as I have shewn doth it disclaim all pretence to meer spiritual powers or to the Soveraign Disposal of the Powers of Orders Of it self it can neither give nor recall them Nor stop the Ministrations thereof in any of those Cases where Christ requires them All it can do there is to withdraw its Civil incorporation from those who have these mere spiritual powers and are bound for the sake of Religion and of the Souls of Men to proceed in the exercise thereof But still that exercise and administration which hangs on anothers Commission will go on upon its own bottom and must be discharged as it can under the opposition instead of the former incorporation of state or under a civil Persecution And this continuance of such Ministrations in such Cases notwithstanding the deposition of state I think may fairly be concluded from the Concessions of those who have undertaken to plead for the Authority of state deprivations and to press them on the suffering Clergy at such times We are told by one from Mr. Mason that a state deposition of a Bishop is not by way of Degradation from his orders as if he had them not but of exclusion from the exercise thereof And that not absolutely as if he could exercise his office no where but after a sort that he should not do it as to their subjects nor in their dominions And by another that a state deprivation doth not concern the Character or Ecclesiastical Communion as an Ecclesiastical Deprivation doth but only concerns the exercise of his Episcopal Authority in any Diocess within the Dominions of that State or enjoying any Ecclesiastical Benefice in it Now since such state deprivation neither concerns the Character nor the Communion of the Church 't is plain he is a Bishop still notwithstanding their deprivation and such a Bishop as without any fault in Church Communion all good Christians may Communicate with And since his exercise of Episcopal Powers is thereby excluded only from the Dioceses and subjects of their dominions it is still the same it was as to all other places And what is the hinderance of exercising the same still in those dioceses and among that Kings Subjects One reason already cited is because he cannot exercise them in the incorporate way or in injoyment of any Ecclesiastical Benefice But besides another I conceive is suggested viz. Regard to state Authority or civil obedience Though neither the Faith nor the Communion of the Church is here concerned yet says the Learned Author last mention'd the Authority of the State is which obliges both the Clergy and Laity in these Cases So that although neither his powers are thereby vacated nor their dependance and communion with him is broken off on other accounts yet in Civil Obedience it seems by his account both Bishops and People on such state deprivation are bound to acquiesce But now if they are left in full Possession of their spiritual powers and of the communion of the Church 't is plain they cannot be debarr'd of their Ministrations in the foresaid Cases nor the people of their attendance on them in any regard to secular inhibitions or to shew Civil Obedience For we must never hear Kings against Christ or obey them when they bar us of doing what he bids us do And these Ministrations he requires and calls for in the aforesaid Cases as I have shewn and also for the peoples communion with and attendance on them And it matters not that they cannot Minister any longer in the incorporate way or under shelter of Civil Laws and enjoyment of benefices For true Ministers of Christ and of Souls must depise benefices and secular incorporations when they come in competition with his service and Minister his word and worship at their hazard and under persecutions Besides if as he owns such deprivation doth not affect the Communion of the Church it leaves the subjects of those dioceses still under the same Religious and Church Principles of dependance and communion with their Bishops as they were before it For though the state should not meddle therein the Church has Principles of this dependance and communion of its own Christ requires his Church should be one and that is by ahhereing to their Bishops whom he has made the Heads of Union And these it seems the deprivation of state doth not at all Cancel only the Authority of state as is said but not Church Communion being concerned therein So that such Bishops deprived by the state continue still to be Christs
suffering with patience under them when they punish and persecute them not for breaking but for faithfully performing of the same And this is to leave the civil power to be chief in all civil matters and to have several Prerogatives of Soveraignty in spiritual so long as they proceed with civil mixtures That is to be supream in all which it can call its own Though at the same time it is not to be held superior to Christ nor must be thought intrusted with the Supreme Disposal of the matters of Religion wherein men are empower'd of Christ by another sort of Commission And from all these 't is plain that it is no Revival of the abolished Papal Usurpations For these lay not in the Bishops asserting as is aforesaid of their own pure spiritual powers or of their own indefeasible obligations notwithstanding any state inhibitions and deprivations to exercise them for the service of Religion and the Church as Christ requires they should in the foremention'd and other like Cases For this is no more than has been done by the Holy Apostles and by all faithful Bishops and Ministers in all Ages But in their claiming an independancy on the state in the exercise of spiritual powers and Ministrations mixed and endowed with the borrowed adjuncts of secular benefices and jurisdictions And in their professing a dependance therein upon the Pope seeking to him for investitures and confirmations and making him the last judge by Appeals As also depending on him for conveneing Synods for passing and confirming Canons and granting dispensations from them and for other Matters which for their civil endowments of Churches were granted to Christian Princes and by incorporation accrued to the Crown And Lastly in their Challenging an Exemption of their persons from Civil Cognizance so as not to be answerable in Civil Courts and Coercible there by civil penalties even for state-matters and offences And the Retrenching of these Usurpations was the business of our Reformers But as for the independance of the Ecclesiasticks mere spiritual powers and their obligations to exercise them in any Case as may answer the Command of Jesus Christ and not the contrary inclination or inhibition of the Civil Magistrate they were as far from intending as from needing to Reform it Yea soon after they were most glorious Asserters thereof in all their Ministrations for the service of Souls and for the support of Truth which they discharged against the deprivations and inhibitions of the state as Confessors and Martyrs during all the persecutions of Queen Marys Reign 3. Thirdly Nor is this to mistake or to over-look the condition of an incorporate Church But only not to over-value the Civil Benefits of Incorporation and at the same time to under-value their Obligations to Christ to the Ministeries of Religion and to the Souls of Men. It is necessary that Pastors and People should keep obedient and true to Christ But it is not necessary that they should keep in the favour of Princes and continue a Church incorporate Nay it is necessary they should cheerfully take up the Cross and be content to be a Church persecuted when they can no longer enjoy the secular benefits of Incorporation without yielding to an irreligious and ill Ministration nor hold on Ministring to the necessary service of Souls and of pure Religion without incurring Persecution For then all Church-men of any Fidelity or Conscience must shew themselves Ministers of Christ not of Princes and Guides that watch for Souls not for Benefices and secular accessions And like their Great Master and all good and holy Bishops who were call'd by him as we all are to spiritual Ministeries under whatever Persecutions of Princes despise all state-favors and preferments in this world in comparison of fulfilling that Spiritual Ministry and most sacred Trust which they have received from the Lord and whereof one day they must give a most strict account And therefore it is a very ill-grounded reasoning which the aforesaid Author of the Vindication of their majesties-Majesties-Authority c. uses to Authorize the deprivation of suffering Bishops at such times for state-matters by a mere Act of State thinking it well proved if it is as certain aâ—d evident as that the Church is and must be incorporated into the State For in the aforesaid Cases for the service of Christ and the sake of Religion and of Souls the Church is bound to break with the State and to lay aside all thoughts of continuing incorporated and submit to be persecuted It is then call'd to bear Christs Cross for its stedfastness in his Service and Ministrations not to seek or court state-favors by ceasing to Minister what is good or consenting to Minister what is ill in complyance with Princes And if instead of being certain and evident it must 't is certain and evident the Church must not be any longer incorporate when it cannot purchase it but on these Terms Then in all the foresaid Cases there is an end of all Arguments to perswade acquiescence for the preservation of the incorporation of Churches in Christian Kingdoms But though this Principle of Faithfully exercising their pure spiritual Minstrations in the foresaid Cases without accepting any discharge thereof from mere state-deprivations excludes all over-rateing of civil incorporation or placing the Favor of Princes above the Favor of God and benefices and preferments above the interest of Religion and of Souls Yet doth it at the same time allow to an incorporate state all that really doth belong to it And therefore in these Ministrations after deprivation by a rightful state it claims nothing that came to Church-men by incorporation But it s Spiritual Ministrations Christs Church then discharges without the encouragement of state-benefices and preferments without claiming the convenience of the establish'd places for a free holding of its Religious Assemblies or the guard and assistance of any of the foremention'd Civil Laws jurisdictions or other secular mixtures and state accessions for the strengthning and furtherance of its exercise of any spiritual Functions And what more should they look at in this state of incorporation than to see that as they do not let fall any spiritual service which was not given up nor can be stopped thereby So when devested thereof that they do not challenge any worldly benefices powers or other endowments which are dependant thereupon And this is not to make the claims and exercise of Ecclesiastical Powers by Bishops and Pastors the same in all points at this day in an incorporate Church as they were by the Ancient Canons whilst the Church was separate from the state under the Gentile Persecutions It asserts them the same as to Ministring all that is necessary in Religion and in Care of Souls which the Pastors are as much empowerd and as much obliged to look to under incorporation as before it And to be the same also in other points given up and accruing to the State at the incorporation of the Church as
not for Anti-christian Corruptions And had they really been what they thought as they were not but quite contrary it had been their duty to go on in their Pastoral Cures and Ministrations with Persecutions for all their deprivations And so we our selves should have thought at least we all seem as if we should if by Gods Providence the civil State had gone on to deprive our reformed Bishops for sticking to the worship and doctrines of the Reformation and had set up Popish Bishops in their Places Notwithstanding which I suppose both our faithful Prelates and People instead of silently acquiescing would have gone on ministring and communicating in the reformed worship and doctrine of this Church But whatever they thought of these things or how consonant or disagreeing soever their Actings were to their own Apprehensions in this case it suffices for justification of our Reformed Bishops advancement to their Sees without their being deprived by competent and lawful Synods which is objected as a thing most exceptionable therein and as seeming most to deviate from Ecclesiastical Rule that in reality they were not Orthodox And that for this want of Orthodoxy without any need of recourse to the Authority of mere State Deprivations to take off people from a spiritual Adherence and Communion with their Bishops the People before they could have a Synodical Deprivation were loose from them and at liberty to unite themselves to the Orthodox Reformers in their Room CHAP. IV. Of Deprivations by Synods in the foresaid Cases ANd thus I think it may sufficiently appear how the manifold obligations which are shewn above to lye on Faithful Bishops and Ministers not to suppress but to exercise their spiritual ministrations in the foresaid Cases are not set aside or barr'd by any inhibition or deprivation though of the most Lawful Civil State They will do it with more ease and worldly encouragement when the State tolerates and much more when it fortifies and furthers them therein But they are not at liberty to give it off but must go on exercising the same when it is more troublesome and when the State gain-says and puts them under persecution for so doing And thus it is where the State will Act apart and proceed without a Synod in depriving Bishops and in discharging the Ecclesiastical Communion and dependance of the people Spiritually related and united to them But Deprivation of Bishops who are Spiritual Powers is more ordinarily by a Synod of Bishops who are a Spiritual Judicature Great Reason there is for the Deprivation of Bishops to proceed in this course The Civil-State indeed comes in by Reason of Civil Accessions and Endowments which strengthen and encourage the spiritual ministrations But these Civil Accessions are but Accessaries and Appendages and their spiritual powers are the Principal in their Ministrations and in Church Communion and dependance on them And therefore the removing of their ministrations and of the Communion and dependance of the Church thereupon is never so fitly and fully attempted as by spiritual judicatures who being spiritual persons have more directly to do with Church Communion and spiritual powers And accordingly this has still been the course of the most Pious Princes who have reserved the deliberations about Religion and Church matters and the Depositions of Bishops which so closely affects Church Communion to Convocations and Synods of Bishops and â—lergy And when these proceed to sentence it more directly affects the concerned parties Church Communion and Church Governors being more directly under the Church-mens Cognizance and not only indirectly and by the by as it may ingage the deprived persons when not bound to it otherwise to yield and acquiesce in voluntary complyance for civil interests But suppose a Concurrence of both these powers and that the deprivation of the Rightful State is confirmed by Synodical Concurrence Yet I observe in the last place that this Deprivation by Synods is not sufficient to bar or discharge Bishops or Ministers from the foresaid Exercise of their Spiritual Ministrations in the above mention'd Cases Bishops and Metropolitanes are not more subject and dependant on Synods than Presbyters and people are on their Bishops Our Lord himself and his Holy Apostles having appointed Bishops in his Church and call'd for our subjection and obedience to them But this submission of Priests and people to their Bishops is with a Salvo to their Holy Religion and its Articles and Interests And if any Bishops go against the Truths or Laws of Christ or against the interests of Souls and of True Religion we are not to follow them or to depend on them therein To stick to any necessary Christian Doctrines Worship or Practices Christs Faithful people and Ministers must break even with their own Bishops holding even them Anathema as St. Paul directs when they would lead them contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles as I noted before and shall shew more fully afterwards And so must they with any other Bishops or Number and Synods of Bishops in like Case All Exercise and Administration of Church Authority and Jurisdiction is tyed to Rules Not only to Rules of the Churches own making or Ecclesiastical Canons but above all and in the first place to the Rules laid down by Christ himself And all the validity of Church Acts in way of external judicature in Synods or otherwise is so far as they go by them or do nothing against them Thus it is in Decreeing Rites and Ceremonies or Determining Controversies of Faith wherein though the Church has Authority yet is it thus limited and has no Authority as our Church Declares to ordain any thing contrary to Gods word Even general Councils are bounded by this Limitation and things ordained by them say the Thirty Nine Articles again as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that are taken out of Holy Scriptures And thus it is also in Matter of Censures or Ecclesiastical Sentences judicially past therein upon persons whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks We in the Exercise of our Apostolical Power can do nothing against the Truth or in punishing and Censuring any for Faithful observance thereof but all our Power is for the Truth and to be exercised in its behalf by punishing and not sparing not those who stand to but those who defect from it 2 Cor. 13. 8. When the Church speaks to us in External Judicatures we must hear it as our Lord orders But we must hear it speaking under Christ never against him So that if it Excommunicates any for sticking firm to any part of his Holy Religion with whom for that very adherence sake he requires his Faithful Followers to hold Communion Or if it deprives or discharge any Ministers from Administring the same in any case where he has charged them to keep on that ministration Its power here is set up against him and its Acts have no Power to bind those who are concerned in them
are one Eph. 5. 31. because the Husband is the Head of the Wife v. 23. And so likewise of Christ and his Church that they are one Eph. 5. 31 32. because he is the Head of his Church v. 23. And one way whereby as St. Cyprian observes our Lord sets off the Uniting of his Sheep as one Flock is by uniting them under himself as the one Shepherd Joh. 10. 16. 'T is the joint-union and dependance on one Master of the Family which makes one House and on one General which makes one Army and on one KING which makes one Kingdom And so on one and the same Church-heads and Governours which makes one particular Church For the Apostle compares the Union of many Persons into one Church or Politick Society to the Union of many Members into one Natural Body 1 Cor. 12. Which Union is made by the adherence and dependance of the Members on the Natural Head For the several Members are no longer one Body nor one with each other after once they are cut off and parted from it As to the Unity we take a Body when the Apostle says there is one Body for that which is under one Head So that if there be but one Head there is but one Body saith St. Chrysostom The Union of the Church therefore as one particular Sâ—ciety which Schism breaks consists chiefly in keeping united to Church-Heads and Governours Church-Rulers are the Heads which make the several Parts one with another or as the Scripture sometimes speaks the Joynts and Ligaments which tye the respective Members and compact the whole Body together The whole Body of the Church saith St. Paul is fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every Joynt i. e. each Pastor or Church-Governour supplies Eph. 4. 16. And we are all the Body of Christ and Members in particular as he says again as we are under the same Governours which he has set over that Body having in the Church set as first Apostles so after them Governments viz. Bishops and Presbyters for the standing Governance and Administration thereof 1 Cor. 12. 27 28. More particularly the Heads of Union in any Church-societies are the BISHOPS in their respective Churches They are the Head of the Body of the Church as Presbyters and Deacons are as the Hands thereof as Zonaras observes on the 55 and 56 Canons of the Apostles For since the death of the Holy Apostles the Bishops are the chief spiritual Heads and the ordinary and standing Governours of Christ's Church They above all others are those Guides or Rulers whom the Members of the Church are call'd to remember and obey Heb. 13. 7. 17. The Angels of the Churches unto whom as the Heads thereof our Lord directs himself when he sends the several Letters to the Churches Rev. 2. 1 7 8 11 c. They stand to head the Members of Christ and to unite and compact them together under him the chief Bishop appearing at the Head of their respective Churches as his Deputies who represent his Person and supply his place acting in the Person of Christ as St. Paul or vice Christi in his place or stead as St. Cyprian whom we ought to respect as the Lord himself as St. Ignatius says So that for Church-members to keep the Union of any Church is to keep subject and dependant on him who is the lawful Bishop thereof Thus St. Ignatius makes mens return from Schism to the Unity of God to lye in their return to the subjection and consistory of their lawful Bishop They make the Church or one Body who hold on Communion and keep one with him and with those Presbyters and Deacons who adhere to him and officiate under him The Church saith St. Cyprian is a People united to their Bishop or a Flock adhering to their Shepherd Whence you may know the Bishop always to be in the Church and the Church to go along with the Bishop And they break off from the Unity of the Church who break off from him and they go to set up another Church if they go to set up another Bishop against him If any are no longer with the Bishop says the same St. Cyprian they are no longer of the Church And to consent to the setting up of another Bishop is the same as to consent to the setting up of another Church says he to those Confessors at Rome who had agreed to the setting up of Novatian against Cornelius Thus is the one Bishop at the head of his Clergy and People to unite and keep together a Christian Church all the Oblations whereof are to be in his Communion and with his Allowance as the one Altar among the Iews was to keep together the Jewish Church For they were to have but one Altar of Burnt-offering at Jerusalem whither all were to come for Sacrifice and were sorbid to set up an Altar any where else And because of his being set for the same purpose of Unity as that was therefore is the Bishop and his Communion call'd unum Altare the one Altar and making an Anti-Bishop is call'd setting up aliud Altare another Altar in the Ancient Language And therefore in pressing the great duty of Unity on the Ancient Christians the Fathers enjoyn them most strictly to stick to their Bishops This is done by St. Cyprian and before him by Ignatius that blessed Martyr and Contemporary of the Apostles Take care all of you says he to follow the Bishop wheresoever the Bishop appears to be there let the Multitude be with him Like as wheresoever Christ goes the Catholick Church goes too Let my part be with those says he again who keep subject to the Bishop yea let my Soul be pawn'd for theirs As many as are God's and Jesus Christ's keep with the Bishop says he in another place pressing them to Union and warning them against Schism And because the Church is to be but one therefore there is to be but one Bishop in a Church for the Members all to adhere to or for the Body to associate and unite with This was and ought to be the Ecclesiastical Rule as was affirmed by Cornelius saying there ought to be but one Bishop in a Catholick Church And as is also declared by the Great Council of Nice Now as the Union of any Churches lyes mainly in keeping united to the Bishops So Schism which is a breach of Union in those Churches will lye chiefly in breaking off unduly and dividing from them Especially in setting up of opposite Bishops or in making a second Bishop in a Church against a former Orthod x and Rightful Bishop yet living and claâ—ming which makes a most plain and consummate Schisin For in the same Church two opposite Bishops are two opposite Heads And two Heads will make two Bodies those who set up the New One against the Old as likewise all they who afterwards come over to
him making a New Body under him which apparently destroys Union and makes two out of one And thus we fee it doth in all Societies If an Opposite General is set up by a mutinous Party it divides the Army or if an opposite King is set up in a Realm it makes a Sedition and divides the Kingdom Or if the same is done in a College a Family or other Societies as well as in a Church opposite Heads do unavoidably make opposite Bodies and visibly destroy the Unity of any Society by breaking into two Societies or into as many as there shall be opposite Heads thereof Accordingly the Ancients place the Schism of Church-Members in breaking off from Rightful Bishops or setting up others in the same Church against them Thus in the Apostolical Canous the Schism of Presbyters of other Clergy or Laicks is express'd by their setting up another Altar and assembling separately in contempt of the Bishop So also the Council of Carthage declares concerning any Presbyters who should do the same after they had been sentenced and segregrated by their Bishops that therein they are Makers of Schisms And the second General Council rejects men as Schismaticks tho' they give out that they confess the Right Faith if they assemble and hold Congregations in opposition to their Canonical Bishops Hence says St. Cyprian come Schisms and Heresies because Men envy and contemn their Bishops They have risen and do rise from this viz. from some proud Persons presumptuous contempt of the Bishop who is one and presides over the Church Especially if they set up an Anti-Bishop and oppose a second Bishop to the first or to one Canonically Ordained already and rightfully possess'd of the same Church This was the Case of Novatianus whom the three Italian Bishops which he call'd to Rome for that purpose ordained Bishop of Rome against Cornelius who was already the Rightful and Canonical Bishop of that place This setting up of Anti Bishops St. Cyprian tells them is erecting an Adulterous Head a second Bishop being no more to be admitted to the same Church than a second Husband to the same Wife whilst the former lives and a spurious or adulterate Chair And bids them know that after once a Bishop is lawfully made and Ordained in any Church they can no ways set up another Bishop against him in the same place He calls it erecting unlawful Priesthoods and opposing against the True Altar and Holy Sacrifice a False and Profane Altar Sacrilegious Sacrifices And he aggravates the Novatian Schism by saying they had not only broke off from the Bishop and Church but had proceeded against the Ordinance of God and Catholick Unity to set up against him another Bishop an adulterous and contrary Head And on like setting up of Anti-Bishops after others were first in place Optatus Charges the Donatists with Schism afterwards These setters up of opposite or Anti-Bishops first break off themselves from their own Bishop before they can set another up against him And being broke off from their Bishop they are broke off from the Church which is in Episcopo as I shewed before or goes along with the Bishop those Members only making the true Body which adhere and keep to the Head and those ceasing to be any longer of the Body who are separated from the Head And therefore these opposite or Anti-Bishops and opposite Altars that blessed Martyr still says are foris and extra Ecclesiam and have receded ab Ecclesia that is are not within but without the Church Now from this Account of Church-Union in any particular Churches and of Schism which lyes in the unjust Breach thereof I shall observe these three Things 1. First That when a second or opposite Bishop is set up in any Church against a former Orthodox one who is still Bishop thereof the Anti-Bishop and they who set him up and adhere to him make the Schism For the other with his Adherents as the same Head and Members abide still where they were and are still the same Church But the Anti-Bishop and his Followers are gone out from them which Optatus gives as a plain Proof against the Donatist Bishops that the Schism lay at their doors They have broke themselves off and by erecting themselves into an opposite Head and Body make a new and opposite Church Consenting to set up another Bishop they consented therein to set up another Church as I observed before from St. Cyprian So that they rend that Body which by keeping wholly to one Bishop before was but one into several pieces and break one Church into two Churches This I say they do if the former Bishop is Orthodox For if he is Heretical Heresie as I shall shew dissolves the Union and cancels the Obligation of Adherence between such Head and Members They are bound to own him as their Head and to be one with him as his true and genuine Members whilst he is at the Head of Christian Doctrines and necessary Truths but not when he falls off from them into damnable Heresies and Unchristian Errors And if he is still the rightful Bishop of that Church If he voluntarily quits his Right and Relation to them and gives it up by his own Resignation they are no longer bound to adhere to him For these Unions and Dependances are contracted by the consent of Mens own Wills and are kept up betwixt these Heads and Members not by natural but voluntary Communications So that if a Bishop throws up his own Relation and will no longer preside over them as Head of a Church they are no longer bound to keep in Dependance and Subjection or to stick to him as Members thereof Or if he loses it against his Will by a just sentence and deprivation that also discharges the Members from their Union and Dependance and sets them free to receive and to unite themselves to another in his place But if neither Death has put an end to his Relation nor he has thrown it up by his own Resignation nor is deprived thereof by the finishing of a Regular Process and Synodical Sentence against him he is still the Bishop of his CHURCH and will bar and keep out any other Person from being Ordained a Bishop over them A Bishop can by no means be constituted in that Church whose own Bishop is yet alive and stands vested with his proper Honour unless of his own accord he renounce his Bishoprick And as to making a vacancy by deprivation it behoves first that the cause of him who is to be cast out of his Bishoprick be canonically examined and the Process against him be fully brought to an end And then after he is canonically deposed another may be promoted to his Bishoprick say the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople But if even a Synod of Bishops shall deprive an Orthodox Bishop of any Church for adhering to the
Truths or Commands of Christ he is Christs true Bishop still in that Church and his faithful Peoples spiritual Head for all that unjust sentence For Christ stands by him who stands by his Doctrines and Precepts and unjust Depositions on these Accounts have no more validity in his sight than unjust Excommunications for the same Accounts have as has been already shew'd But if there is no Interposition of Synods but a mere Deprivation of State that will much less do it For there is a spiritual Subjection and Dependance of People to their Bishops especially to such as suffer for adhering to Christian Truths or Precepts which the civil State cannot break or dissolve Christ himself by his Institution has made a spiritual Relation between them and antecedently obliged his People to this Union and Adherence to them as they are vice Christi his Ministers and Vice-gerents as St. Cyprian says Kings and Civil States may come afterwards and tye this spiritual Union and Adherence faster on by temporal Dependances and Enforcements And what they lay on they may take off again But the spiritual Relation and Obligations do not depend on them but on Christ himself Religion lays them on and leaves it not in the Power of any Prince to cancel or discharge them They stood fixed whilst the Church was separate from the State before any secular Powers came in to protect it and will still continue if they turn all their Power to persecute and oppress it Nor has our Lord left it to their courtesy whether there shall be any spiritual Relation betwixt his People and their Pastors whether they shall keep up their spiritual Relation and Dependance and he shall have a Church on Earth or no as is before discoursed more at large The Learned Author of the Vindication of Their Majesties Authority in filling the vacant Sees owns the Advancement of George the Cappadocean into the place of Athanasius to have been Schismatical and an Usurpation and Breach of Catholick Communion The setting up of this Anti Bishop was by a Deprivation of State For Constantius took away the Churches from Athanasius and his Adherents which is the State-way of depriving Bishops and gave them to George the Anti-Bishop and his Adherents Nay he sends an Edict to the Senate and People of Alexandria requiring them on their Allegiance instead of sticking to him as their spiritual Head with the Affection and Dependance of Members with their united Force to persecute Athanasius And made it criminal in any Persons as Sozomen relates to harbour or conceal him And accordingly the Imperial Ministers and Praefects violently drove him and the Orthodox out of the Churches and by extream Force put George and the Arians in possession thereof And having placed this Anti-Bishop upon his Throne with all secular Cruelties and barbarous Usage compell'd the Clergy and People to acknowledge and submit to him It was also brought about by Deprivation of Synods For after the Sardican Synod which restored him Athanasius had been again deposed both by the Synod of Arles and afterwards by the Synod of Milan wherein besides a few from the East above three hundred Bishops of the West met as Sozomen says and condemned him And the setting up of George against him after this was in a Synod viz. the Synod of Antioch which declared the Uncanonicalness of his Restitution and Ordained George as a former Synod at that place had Ordained Gregory before to be Bishop of Alexandria in his Room These indeed as the Author of the Vindication suggests were Heretical Synods And Dionysius of Alba Eusebius of Vercelles Paulinus of Tryers and Rhodanus and Lucifer who at Milan protested against their Proceedings declared that thro' Athanasius the Emperor and the Arians his Enemies were striking at the Catholick Faith which the event of things and the Proceedings afterwards in the Synods of Ariminum and Seleucia verified as Sozomen observes But in way of external Judicature the Deprivation tho' of Heretical Synods must at least carry with it as much Plea as Deposition by no Synods can pretend to there being more shew of Ecclesiastical Authority in Acts of Heretical Synods than in none at all But for all this Deposition both by the Imperial Edicts and Synodical Sentences since the true Cause thereof was his firmness and constancy to the Catholick Faith Athanasius as the foresaid Author owns still kept on his spiritual Relation and the People their spiritual and Religious Obligations to and Dependance on him So that George as he says was an usurping Invader a breaker of Catholick Communion and a Ring-leader of a Schism in the Catholick Church when he set up against him And the same it would be in the case of any other Bishop deprived by the like Authority for his Fidelity and fixt Adherence to any other Truths or Laws of Christ. For his faithful Bishops must stick to him in all other Points of Christian Truth and Practice as well as in the Orthodoxy of the Nicene Faith And that against the Deprivations of all other States and Synods as well as of the Arians And their sticking to Christ in these Points can give no liberty to their Clergy and People to break off from them Their stedfastness therein must tye all faithful Members faster to them but can never be expounded as a conscionable discharge of their spiritual Obligations and Dependance on them If a Schism is made in a Church then by a defection from the rightful Orthodox Bishop thereof laid aside either by a Civil State or Ecclesiastical Synod only for his faithful Adherence to the Doctrines or Laws of Christ or by turning over to an Anti-Bishop set up against him 'T is plain the Anti-Bishops with their Makers and Adherents make the Schism They were all Members of the one Body whilst they kept subject and united to the Rightful Bishop who is the Head of it But when they broke off from him they divided themselves from the Body and formed themselves under an opposite Head into a new and opposite Body But he and his Adherents still preserve the Unity of the true Body The breakers off make the Division but they preserve their Union As those Branches do which still grow to the Tree when others are broke off from it and those Streams which still communicate with the Fountain when others are stopt and those Rays which keep connected to the Sun when others are interrupted Which Similitudes St. Cyprian makes choice of to set off the Unity of the Church and to shew that they preserve this Union who keep to the same Head and Origine What they do therefore in these Cases by sticking to each other as they did before when others break off is not to make the Schism but only not to follow and run into it And they are no more chargeable with the division for this than the General and his faithful Souldiers would be in an Army for
not going over to the Mutineers or than a King and his Loyal Subjects would be in a Kingdom for not turning over and submitting to the Rebels But as the Anti-Bishops and their Party make the Schism by departing from the lawful Head and true Body they must amend it by returning to it And they stand answerable to God so far as I see for all the Guilt and sad Consequences and Effects thereof if they refuse so to do 2. Secondly The Unity of any Church doth not go with the greatest Numbers but when a Schism is made by a defection of Members from their spiritual Head and setting up of Anti-Bishops the Schism is still the same how numerous soever the Members are that break off For breaking off from their rightful Head and Governour as I have shewn makes the Schism And then the greatness of the Number of those who do so can only make it a greater Schism Number in Schism or in any other ill thing may add Confidence and leave less Hope of reclaiming those who are engag'd therein For Multitude as the Antient Author of the Comment on St. Matthew printed among the Works of St. Chrysostom observes is the Mother of sedition and of contumacy and incureableness therein whereas Paucity or Smalness of their Number is the Mistress of Discipline But it doth not lessen the Guilt nor alter the Nature of it but Schismaticks are answerable for their Schism be they never so many of them That which makes any meeting of Orthodox Christians offering up a regular and establish'd Service to be in the Unity of the Church is their meeting under one who officiates therein according to their own Bishops approbation and allowance For the Unity of the Body lyes in keeping one with him And the Catholick and Canonical Rule as I shall afterwards shew of keeping one with them is by celebrating all Publick Offices and Divine Service with their allowance and approbation So that where any Presbyters or Deacons perform the establish'd Offices according to the mind of their own Orthodox and Rightful Bishops they officiate in the Unity of the Church though it be but to a few and to those met in Corners And where any others celebrate their Offices without the Licence and against the Approbation of their own Orthodox and Rightful Bishops they officiate in a Schism though it be among the fullest Congregations and with secular encouragements and in the publick Authorized Churches The having their Orthodox and true Bishops Approbation and Concurrence makes them no Schismaticks and their Meetings no Conventicles when Conventicle notes not a small or secret but a schismatical Assembly as it always doth when it is a Word of Infamy and Reproach The Canon counts it a Conventicle when any Minister in a private Oratory against the allowance and approbation of him who is chief Priest in the Country says Balsamon on the Canon forbidding Ministrations contrary to the Bishops mind and approbation And it has not been so strange a sight in the World as every good mind would wish it had to see Schismaticks from the Body make a more Numerous Party than those who keep united to it In the Division of Israel from Judah under Jeroboam the Israelites who fell off from the One Altar at Jerusalem to other Altars of their own erecting were guilty of the Schism Tho' they who stuck to that one Altar were but two Tribes and those defectors who broke off from it were Ten. The Arians as they were Hereticks for subverting the true Faith so likewise were they all Schismaticks by breaking off from the Communion of their Rightful Bishops as of Athanasius at Alexandria of Paulus at Constantinople of Lucius at Adrianople of Asclepas at Gaza of Marcellus at Ancyra c. and by enjoyning all every where to break Communion with them and to receive and communicate with those Anti-Bishops whom they had set up against them And in the Patriarchate of Alexandria more particularly the Meletians who before had made a Schism in that Church fell into their Party as Schism to maintain it self too often yea always says St. Jerom takes up with and ends in Heresie But these Arians who made the Schism were abundantly more Numerous than those faithful Christians who kept to the Unity of the Catholick Church the whole World at one time groâ—ning as St. Jerome says and admiring to see it self turn'd Arian Again the Donatists were notoriously guilty of the Schism made in the African Churches But yet when they over-run Africk they could glory and vaunt themselves in their diffuseness and in the greatness of their Number So that Schism is compatible with the greatest Numerousness of Adherents if that Number is of Men combined together against their Orthodox Righful Bishops and the Unity of the Church with the smallest Numbers if that Number is of Members that constantly adhere to them And this may likewise appear from those Similitudes of the Unity betwixt the Head and Members the Tree and Branches c. whereby the Ancients set out the Unity of the Church For be the Branches more or fewer which keep united to the Body they make the Tree And be the Members few or many which stick on to the Head or living Trunk they make the Body And so be their Numbers greater or less do the Adherers to the Orthodox Rightful Bishop make the one Church Indeed as the Root has the Branches so the Bishop has the Clergy and People virtually in himself That is as he gets Proselytes he can make them Christians and out of these he can Ordain Presbyters and Deacons So to Head a Body of Clergy and People professing Christianity which according to the sense of the Primitive Fathers is a Christian Church And thus a Bishop though appearing only with a few Members about him will make a Church and is qualified duly to spread it and to make it more Numerous As the blessed Apostles did when they set up at first to gather Churches and as the first Bishops did also who were taken out of the first Converts and Ordained at the Head of them to be Bishops of those who should afterwards believe So that the reduceing of an Orthodox Rightful Bishop to a comparatively little Number of Adherents will not hinder him and his Followers from making up the one Body and being the one Church And as such our Lord-will give ear to them as St. Cyprian observes though they be but two or three gathered together in his Name rather than to a greater Number of Schismatical Dividers To this Promise of his Presence with two or three or such small Numbers our Lord premises says he that these two or three be in the Unity of the Church and preserve the Concord of Peace And shews himself thereby to be more with two or three such Petitioners than with a great Number of Schismatical Dividers And if Number of Adherents will not much less
Teachers which he gave as Gifts for the edifying or compacting and building up all Christians into this Body of Christ v. 8. 11 12. To these Pastors the Spirit has given different Offices Rom. 12. 4. One having the Office of ministring another of teaching another of ruling v. 6 7 8. Or different Administrations 1 Cor. 12 5. setting some in the Church in the station of Apostles some of Teachers some of Governments v. 28. placing some in higher some in lower stations according to the measure of that Grace or Office the Word Grace being often used to express Ministerial Powers which he saw fit to commit to them Eph. 4. 7. 11. But all those different Offices are set for keeping all Christians in one Body Rom. 12. 4. 5. and all the Diversity of Ministries is to continue them the Body of Christ and to cement the Members who are many into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 27 28. v. 12. 20. and all the variety of Gifts i. e. of Offices v. 11. or distributions of higher or lower stations are for edifying or laying together the Members into this Body and for preserving the Unity thereof Eph. 4. 4 8 12. The Head of this Body is Jesus Christ himself And from Christ the Head all the Body is knit together says St. Paul by those joynts and bands which minister neurishment i. e. by the Pastors who are set to feed it Col. 2. 19. From Christ the Head says he again the whole Body is fitly joyn'd and compacted together by those joynts which make supplies according to their measure or according to their several stations in the work of the Ministry Eph. 4. 15 16. And on account of this use of their uniting all Christians under Christ the Head into this one Body or all the several Societies of Christians into one Church when this one Church is compared to a Natural Body they are represented as the Joynts and as the Bands or Ligaments which unite and compact the Members as they are by St. Paul in these places And thus it was in the Opinion of the Ancient Church who placed the Unity of all Churches in the Unity and Accord of all the Bishops thereof The Catholick Church which is one saith St. Cyprian is cemented or coupled together by the glue or joynt accord of its Bishops adhering mutually to one another All faithful People are joyn'd together into the solid Unity of one Body by the glue of this Concord And to fall from this Concord and separate from the College of Bishops is to separate from the Bond of the Church as he elsewhere says To keep up this Unity in the whole Church they believed all BISHOPS strictly obliged to keep Unity among themselves We Bishops who preside in the Church ought above all Men to keep firmly united that we may maintain the Episcopate it self one and undivided They looked upon the Bishops of all the several independant Churches to be as so many Members of one great Fraternity or College Optatus calls them the College of Bishops And before him St. Cyprian styles them the College and Corporation of Priests and calls all other Bishops his Collegues Particular Bishopricks are all Members one of another and all together as he says are to make but one Great Episcopate And among this Multitude of Bishops as there is but one Church so there is but one Chair And as three Persons in the sacred Trinity make up but one God wherein the power of all three is one and undivided So doth all the great Diversity of Prelates make up but one Priesthood says Symmachus Now this Unity the Bishops and Pastors keep up among several Churches not by the Subjection of all other Bishops to some one or more set up above all the rest Particularly not by the paramount Authority and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome which is neither to be found in Scripture nor is agreeable to the Accounts thereof nor to the Belief and Practice of the Primitive Church nor to the Universal Diffusedness designed for Christs Church under all the Divisions of Kingdoms and Interruptions of secular Accord and Correspondence here on Earth But by maintaining Fraternal Concord and Communion among themselves They cement into one Episcopate concordi mâ—merositate by their Concord under this Numerosity as we are told by St. Cyprian They are bound or coupled into one body by the glue of mutual Concord as he says again Which Ecclesiastical Concord and Fraternal Communion lyes in owning each other and all the Christians of their several Churches as Brethren and Members and in ratifying the great Acts of Society pass'd among them as if they had been pass'd among themselves And in having this Communion not Arbitrary and Discretionary which may be fixt at will upon their own terms and either kept up or rejected as they please But a Communion kept on out of bounden Duty and by Rules being to give account to Christ the chief Bishop for the breach thereof To this it is requisite that they profess the same true Faith and Christian Worship This is the Foundation of all other Communion among them The one Body being made up of those who hold to the one Faith Eph. 4. 4. and the Communion in this Body being required between those who communicate in this one Faith and Worship as shall be shewn more fully afterwards And among all Orthodox Bishops and Churches who profess the true Christian Faith and Worship the Rules of Communion and Correspondence required by Christ for keeping up this Unity of his Body are such as these 1. That all Orthodox Bishops and Churches receive each others Members as if they were their own Members All the Members of Christ's Church are Fellow-Citizens or enfranchised Denizens wheresoever they come and upon any new Change of Place or Christian Country have no need of a new Naturalization They ought to find a home in all Churches and may claim their Baptismal Priviledges or the benefits of the Christian Coporation or Society and can not justly be repulsed or denyed the same as being free of the whole Body For Baptism which makes them Members by the institution of Christ incorporates them all not only into those several Churches or Congregations where they receive it but into the whole Body or Fraternity We are all baptized whether we be Jews or Gentiles into one Body says St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. 13. And accordingly no Church must exclude them as Strangers or Forreigners but own and receive them as Fellow-citizens as Members as Domesticks as Brethren and of the same Family with themselves And this is necessary to maintain that Brotherhood which Christ has constituted among all his Members every Christian being Brother to another so that Brother is usually put to signifie a Christian in the Holy Scripture They must also own and receive their Orders when they have been lawfully call'd
Cyprian in this case Though holding it in Partnership we are several Bishops yet as there is but one Church so there is but one Episcopate says he again whereof every particular Bishop holds a part but holds it so as to stand obliged and answerable on occasion not only for his own particular proportion but as Partners in a Bond each of them pro Solido as the legal Phrase is or for the whole Sum. Thus Eleutherius told the Gallicane Bishops That for this very Cause Christ had committed to them the Universal Church that they should labour for all and not neglect to afford Help to any as their Needs should require And Simplicius of Rome told Acacius of Constantinople That to approve himself faithful in his Episcopate he must strive for Catholick Unity and the Decrees of the Fathers not only in that Church where he presided but wheresoever he could And Chrysostom says St. Eustathius Bishop of Antioch had well learned by the Grace of the Holy Ghost that a Bishop of the Church ought to take care not of that Church alone over which he is specially appointed but of the Universal Church through the World This general Care has appeared conspicuous in the Lives and Labors of Holy and Faithful Bishops as of Cyprian Alexander and Cyril of Alexandria Eustathius of Antioch and Chrysostom And of the Great Athanasius who took as much care of all other Churches as he did of his own as St. Basil says Nor ought they to be hinder'd from such Ministration and Reception of the Members of other Churches by any Canonical Rules for Unity in the Church For that Heresie or Defection from Christian Doctrine whether in Faith or Practice and from Christian Worship which sets aside the Obligations of Unity towards those defecting Bishops and Pastors must also of course therewith set aside those Canonical Rules which are for maintenance thereof So that the Ecclesiastical Rules of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of Clergy and People doing nothing in Church-communion without the Allowance of their Bishop and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of ones not officiating or ordaining anothers Subjects or intermâ—dling in anothers Diocess are no Rules nor of Force towards such Persons And accordingly at Arles when Marcianus their Bishop was faln to the Novatians Cyprian thought it behoved him and other Bishops to see the Needs of the Faithful there supplyed That they might no longer be left a Prey for Wolves without all hopes after the Novatian Rigour of the Churches Peace and Communion after once they had faln And under the Arian Hereticks the Great Athanasius when out of his own District held Ordinations in other Churches as he passed through them as Socrates reports Even the Great Council of Constantinople in that very Canon which forbids Bishops to intermeddle either in Ordinations or in other Ecclesiastical Administrations without their own Precincts yet makes an Exception of those Churches that are in Barbarous Nations for whose Relief they might do this As Eminent Preachers when they went among them might still confirm those they had gained to the Faith in other Provinces according to their Custom Which though against the Canons the Council still allow'd say Balsâ—mon and Zonoras upon the Canon for the necessity of the thing And thus also Presbyters and People may hold Assemblies independant on their own Defecting Bishops or on any others The Apostolical Canons allowing Priests to have Meetings separate from their Bishops when they do it as condemning them of Impiety in Doctrine or of Injustice in Administration as deposing them for the sake of Truth or of a good thing c. And the Council of Constantinople though it forbids Inferiours before Synodical Sentence to cast off the Communion of their Superiour on pretence of Criminal Causes as Fornication Symony or Transgression of the Canons as Balsamon comments yet allows it in case of Heresie condemn'd by former Synods or by the Holy Fathers so soon as he begins bare-faced to teach it in the Church And the Council of Carthage when it Condemns Presbyters for setting up separate Altars from their Bishops makes this Exception unless they have against him a just Expostulation And an Allegation of False Doctrine or leading the Church wrong is such a just Expostulation as Balsamon observes upon the Canon These Rules for preserving Order and Concord among Bishops and Churches are binding towards any Bishops who are in the Unity of the Church and are Orthodox But if either they are faln to set up Unchristian Worship or Doctrine or as I observed before are turned Schismaticks or set up as Anti-Bishops in Christ's Church They bind none towards such Bishops They are no longer Heads of Union and so cannot claim the Benefit of these Rules for Unity which by their Schism or Defection is at an end towards them Thus doth Heresie or a defection from necessary Doctrine or Worship discharge Church Members from their Spiritual and Canonical dependance and union with their defecting Bishops and Pastors Priests are no longer tyed to such erring Bishops nor the People to either in such Cases So that a defection to sinful Worship and damnable Doctrine bereaves Men of all ArguÌ„ments from Scripture or Canons for their Subjects to depend on them or to unite with them If therefore in any division of a Church it can truly be Objected to one side that they are saln from holy and true Worship and Doctrine it is not for them to plead the duty of Union or to tell People of their Obligations to unite with them If before they were the true Heads and the Regular and Canonical Bishops of those places yet would their falling into those Unchristian Errors strip them of those Claims The Union taught by Christ and the Holy Scriptures and directed by the Rules and Canons of the Church supposes Men Orthodox but is not to unite with such defectors Nor is any Charity which they can pretend to in seeking to keep all others united to themselves the Charity which he requires For that Charity which is the end of the Commandment must be out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned as St. Paul says 1 Tim. 1. 5. It must be out of a pure heart and a good conscience and so is only a seeking to have them one with us whilst we go together in keeping the Commandments or in the practice of good things not like the Charity or Love of Thieves and Murderers that associates and binds them together in the practice of ill things as St. Chrysostom notes And it must also be out of faith unfeigned and so is a seeking to unite them to our selves not in dangerous Errors but only in Orthodox and Christian Doctrines Whereas the pains that is taken to bring all over to them in the Breach of Gods Laws and embracing of Unchristian
those who had been Ordained by them Besides all this instead of Anti-bishops being absolutely null and in reality no Bishops to heal and compose the differences of a miserably harassed and divided Church on such Competitions it has been sometimes agreed that whichsoever of them were the Right on the death of either the Survivor should be owned and the Church should have no other Bishop and so all the Ordinations and Episcopal Acts therein should pass through his hands and stand on his Authority whilst he lived Thus it was at Antioch where the Church was divided into Two Parts 〈◊〉 for the cause of the Faith which was common to them both but of the Bishops as Socrates says some owning and adhering to Meleâ—ius and others to Paulinus For to heal and close this lamentable Schism it was agreed which Sozomen calls an admirable Counsel and expedient that on the death of either the survivor should hold the See alone for his Life without being confronted and opposed by the Ordination of any other Person To prevent which an Oath was exacted of all in that Church who seemed to stand fairest for the Episcopate and of Flavianus among the rest that on the death of either of the Bishops they would not be Ordain'd Bishop of Antioch whilst the other survived Which Agreement and Oath being afterwards broke by Flavianus when on the death of Meletius he was Ordained Bishop against Paulinus cost him so much trouble and difficulty as he found to get himself received for the Bishop thereof both in Egypt Arabia and Cyprus and at Rome and among the Western Bishops afterwards Thus though Men in a Schism did ill in Ordaining others yet were not those Ordinations null in themselves but really conferred the powers of Orders which the Persons might exercise if the Church pleased And when once the Persons were reconciled and had satisfied the Church for their Schism they have often been allow'd to officiate in Virtue of that Ordination without being Ordained over again by the greatest Councils and through the early and later Ages of the Church And this shews that their Ordinations were not null in themselves For if such Persons had never received any Spiritual powers in their Ordinations they had none to exercise And had the Church been of this perswasion it would never have admitted them to exercise those POWERS which it believed were never Conferred on them But though these Men even after they had faln into a Schism or others who were Ordained therein had Orders yet was it in the power of the Church to deny them the Ministerial Exercise of their Orders Men must have the Communion of the Church as well as Orders before they can exercise their Orders and minister to the Faithful in any Religious Assemblies And though their Schism doth not utterly devest or exclude them from the Powers of Orders yet it doth from the Communion of the Church without which the Faithful who are not to seek but to shun the Ministrations of Schismaticks and Excommunicate persons must not partake with them in any Exercise of Orders And to this Communion after once they have justly lost and faln from it they are to be restored again in Degree more or less and to be received to the Communion either only of Lay-members or else of Clergy and to officiate according to their former Honors as the Church pleaseth And as to this Admission and Allowance to exercise their Orders in its Communion the Church has acted variously according as it saw cause When Ordinations have been made against the Rules of Unity though the Offenders thereby received Orders yet in care of these Rules and to assert and keep up Discipline it has at some times denyed as well as at other times granted its Communion to them for their Exercise of the same Where it judged that Rigor expedient on their submission it would receive them to communicate as Lay-men But they should not be allow'd the Priviledges nor permitted to act and officiate as Bishops and Priests in her Communion nor should other Churches receive them and joyn with them as such till moreover satisfaction had been first given to those Rules of Unity in Ordinations which had been broken in theirs And this it has done not only in case of this great Rule of not Ordaining a Bishop into a full Church but also in case of other Rules which are of less Account than it is Thus of Ordination into a Church already vacant if it is made without the Metropolitanes consent the Council of Nice and afterwards the Council of Antioch Deâ—rce That the Church shall not receive such an one for a Bishop And of Ordinations at large without declaring the appropriate Church or Place wherein the Person Ordained is to officiate the Council of Chalcedon decrees that they shall be invalid Not to mention or insist also on the Council of Nice's rejecting of the Anti-bishops Ordained by the Schismatick Meletius till they were confirmed by a more holy imposition of hands as their Synodical Epistle says because there was an incapacity more than ordinary for giving Orders not only to Anti-bishops but to any others in his Case which because it may be of use in this Argument I shall give an Account of Meletius was Bishop of Lycus in Egypt under the See of Alexandria and as Epiphanius relates was next in dignity and power to Peter the Bishop of Alexandria himself And he with his Adherents broke off from the Unity of the Church and set up a Schism separating from Peter the Bishop of Alexandria and assembling for Prayers and other Divine Offices by themselves and Ordaining opposite Bishops Priests and Deacons for the erection of opposite Churches in several places as Eleutheropolis Gaza and Aelia as Epiphanius says And these separate erections of Churches and opposite Ordinations he made after he had been justly deposed by Peter in a Synod as we are assured by Athanasius who had the best Opportunities to understand the Truth of these Matters and the most cause to inquire into them and also by Socrates afterwards And that too among other Crimes for his having faln in the Persecution to deny the Faith and to sacrifice to Idols Which Crimes when any Bishop or Clergy were once convicted of by the great Rule of Church-Discipline they were never afterwards to exercise any Clerical Powers or to officiate as Bishops and Clergy but upon their Reconciliation were to be received only to Lay-Communion After such Falls says St. Cyprian 't is in vain for any to seek to usurp the Episcopacy since 't is manifest such Men can neither preside in the Church of Christ nor ought to offer Sacrifice to God Chiefly since it has been Decreed by Cornelius and by Us and by all the Bishops of the whole World concerning them that after such Offence they may be admitted to Penance and the Peace of the Church but must stand
things have proceeded to set up Anti-Bishops which divide Church Societies till by pouring in Oil they can be Cured and Closed again one chief Business left then for the Love of Peace and Union is to see that Peace and Unity be kept with the Right Side And this I have here endeavour'd to assist the Children of Peace in the best I can For it would be a fatal Mistake indeed to have the very Love and Desire of Peace abused to the Maintenance of Dividers and to see well-meaning Men whilst at such Times they are designedly Labouring to avoid Schisms to run Headlong into them As they must do if they mistake their Side wherewith this Peace and Unity is to be kept and instead of the true Body take part with the Seditious and joyn themselves to those Members who are broken off on such Divisions Besides the Peace and Union which we are to seek in this World must be such as may give us Peace at the last It is not being at Peace in such Ways as will fill our Souls in the End with Eternal Horrors And therefore it is not to be sought by our Violation of any Parts of Righteousness nor by our consenting or giving way to the Suppression thereof or letting fall our Zeal for the same So that we must not seek to compass it by Neutrality and Luke-warmness for Gods Holy Commandments And much less by Treachery in giving up them and the Souls of Men whose Eternal Weal depends upon the Observance thereof as the Purchase of external Unity with any Society When Worldly Peace can no longer be kept together with Righteousness it is no Peace for Christians or for Men who would prefer the Peace of God and of their own Conscience before any false forced Shows of Peace Unity with any other Persons And these Endeavours to direct Men whose Care is to keep Peace and Unity with any Societies how they may keep them with the Right Side when they are broken into Parties and in such things and by such Compliances as will not intercept their Future Comforts Methinks should be acceptable to all sincere Lovers thereof who would be directed how they may wisely pursue what they love and â—ot miss of their own Desires and would fix at last on such a Peace and Union as will not Deceive them or End in Ruine In treating of these Matters I endevour to clear and confirm what I offer thereupon by the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures and from the Reason and Nature of the things Discoursed of And moreover from the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church Shewing what the Holy Apostles and their Successors of the first and best Ages would have said to Men in the Cases and Breaches here proposed and how as I conceive they would have determined their own Practice had they been tryed therewith and placed in such Circumstances This I shew from their own Rules which they gave out to others and acted by themselves in their own Circumstances And it would be a strange and very Criminal Innovation for any now in our Days to sleight their Ways For we all know that our Holy Religion doth not begin with us and that we are not the First Christians but only their Successors and that too at a great Distance We all profess to be their Followers and should think we have best provided for our own Safety when we have taken the Way to be found in their Company In confirming any Points from their Doctrine or Practice I have given their own Words in the Margin that the Learned Reader having the very Words and Passages I Build upon before him may be the better Enabled and with more Ease to himself to judge of the use which I make of them and of the Inferences which I draw from them But in the Body of the Book I have only given the Translation or put the Sence or Purport of the same that the unlearned Reader may not be discouraged or hindred by the Intermixtures of an unknown Tongue but peruse the whole without Interruption Thro' the whole I am sincerely Careful so far as I am able to satisfie Conscientious and truly Religious Minds what Way they are to take for Sacred Offices and Church Communion on such unhappy Divisions And seeking their Satisfaction in these Matters I have offer'd the best I can to Resolve those Points which I thought they were most like to be unsatisfied in and to clear up those things which seemed to me most liable to mislead them and either to Answer or Obviate those Objections which are already made or so far as I can at present Foresee may probably hereafter start up in their Way to unsettle them about the same All which as I have labour'd in with an Humble Dependance on God's Grace and Assistance so I now humbly recommend to his Blessing Desiring nothing more than that he may Graciously Accept the same and Pardon all the oversights and well-meant Failures and Mistakes which shall happen to be found therein and direct and turn this Work Poor and Defective as it is to the Uses and Interest of Truth and Godliness and to the Edification and Service of his Holy Church THE CONTENTS PART I. Of the Duty of Pastors to exercise their Spiritual Powers and afford the People Orthodox and holy Ministrations CHAP. I. Of the Differences here Treated of and of the Schism consequent thereon SOme Grand Allegations of both Parties under the Differences here Treated of Of a State of Schism thereby When the Sufferers may and when they may not Remedy this by Receeding and Letting fall their Pastoral Claims and Ministrations CHAP. II. Of the Immoral Ways introduced by a wrong Payment of Allegiance UNder State Deprivations Bishops and Clergy still retain their Spiritual Powers To be inquired then whether they are still bound to exercise and make use thereof A Representation of the immoral ways which are brought in by a wrong Payment of Allegiance The same are incurr'd by Paying it to any as a mere King in Fact Of these Immoralities as appearing not only in Practice but in Worship and Devotions Of the Care to Nurse People up therein at such times CHAP. III. Of the Cases wherein Faithful Bishops and Ministers are bound to stick to their Pastoral Powers and Ministrations THis they are bound to when there is need thereof in the Cause of Religion and for the Safety of Souls It lies on them to see the Faithful supplied and the Churches provided 1. With a Sinless and Unpolluted Worship This in Respect of Immoralities as well as of Idolatry and Superstition in Worship Though they cannot afford it free from the Company of immoral Practicers yet they ought to afford it free of immoral Prayers 2. With the Ministration of all necessary Truth not only in Faith but also in Practice More particularly 1. When dangerous and immoral Practices are setting up especially if like to become general 2. When they
advanced for Practices against any of his Commandments The Pharisees had invented many doctrinal Salvo's to justifie Men in the Breach of moral Duties and to vacate several of Gods Holy Commandments Thus they dealt by the Breach of Oaths which they cleared by several arbitrary Limitations and nice Distinctions of their own about the Obligation of them or Mens becoming Debtors i. e. bound by them Mat. 23. 16 18. And by the Denial of Relief or Help to Parents which they said was discharged of the Obligation laid by the Fifth Commandment and free from Sin if it was salved by the Vow Corban i. e. if they had made a Vow before that they would never Relieve them Mat. 15. 4. 5. 6. Thus Frustrating the Commandments of God as he tells them and making them of none effect through their undermining Salvo's and Traditions Mat. 15. 6. and Mark 7. 9 13. Not to mention their Limiting the Obligation of all Righteousness to external Acts or other ways of their exempting many Offences forbid by their own Law as well as by that of the Blessed Iesus But when the Ministers of Christ met with these Salvo's it was their Part not to suffer them but to rescue moral Precepts from being corrupted and Mens Consciences and Practices from being insnared by them They were to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees in these and other Points not only as private Christians to beware of imbibing it themselves but. as Pastors of suffering others to be tainted or corrupted therewith When by these and such like Glosses the Lawyers had taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men as our Lord saith they as Ministers of that Kingdom were to unlock and open it to them and to make these Duties which were the Paths thereof plane for all who were sincerely desirous to walk in them They that are made Pastors and put in Station to be Great in the Kingdom of Heaven must both do the some themselves and teach others to observe even the least of Christs Commandments when others not only transgress them in their own Practice but teach Men to transgress them Mat. 15. 19. St. Paul afterwards speaks of False Apostles who corrupted the VVord of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that adulterated it as Vintners do their VVines by corrupt Mixtures blending their own Arbitrary Salvo's and Conceits therewith or Mixing their own Doctrines with Gods as St. Chrysostom comments 2 Cor. 2. 17. Who handled the VVord of God deceitfully 2. Cor. 4. 2. And spoke Lies in Hypocrisie pretending them consistent with or sometimes promotive of Duty and Piety 1 Tim. 4. 2. And perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1. 17. But when the true Ministers met with any of these corrupt Infusions and Adulterations of Christian Doctrines instead of Treacherously conniving at these Adulterations they were by a purer and more sincere Ministration to cure and teach Men better They were to make full Proof of their Ministry in Preaching the VVord and to reprove and rebuke all that was contrary to it among those that would heap to themselves Teachers of Errors and Adulterations of the Truth according to their own Lusts 2 Tim. 4. 2 3 5. When others fell to speak Lies in Hypocrisie they were not to neglect the Gift that was in them that is their Pastoral Power and Function but to stir it up and put the Brethren in Remembrance of the pure and saving Christian Truths and Duties that they may discharge the part of Good Ministers of Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 4. 2. 6. 14. When Vain Tâ—lkers and Deceivers started up Teaching Things they ought not for Filt by Lucres sake they were call'd upon not only to hold fast the Faithful VVord as they had been taught and to keep to it themselves but also by Sound Doctrine to exhort and teach others and to convince and stop the Mouths of Gain-Sayers Tit. 1. 9 10. 11. Thus are the Faithful Ministers of Christ obliged to Feed the Church with the pure Administration of Moral or other Gospel Duties when the False Guides by doctrinal Salvo's and undermining Propositions are shewing Men how they may securely Vacate and Transgress them They are not to connive at such Corruptions and Adulterations of moral Precepts but to cry out and warn against them Nor to smother and keep up the real and injured Duties but to Preach and Minister them out to those Souls who are like to perish through their Ignorance and Breach thereof And this as they will answer Gods repeated Calls and Injunctions or approve themselves True and Faithful to their Ministerial Trusts To neglect it or fail therein would be Treachery and Falseness to that Sacred Doctrine which had been deposited with them and to those Souls which had been committed to them And this Ministration they are bound to tho' these corrupt Salvo's are only the Doctrines of the Pastors and Teachers as those foremention'd Salvo's of the False Prophets and of the Pharisees too I suppose were among the Jews and are not yet made the Determinations of the Church 'T is not enough on such Justification of Immoral Practices or advancement of Immoral Salvo's by the Guides of Souls to say the Church hath not altered its Articles nor justified nor salved the ill things so by any Synodical Confession For 't is a call to them for their Ministration if these things are done by the Churchmen Their Ministration is to provide against the dangers of Souls And they are allways endangered by damnable Practices whosoever teach them whether their particular Guides or whole Synods But particular Guides are the Directors which the generality of Men have for their Consciences and Practices So that the Consciences and Practices of the generality are endangered when they fall generally to teach them the Breach of Moral Duties by corrupt Salvo's And then true Guides are to warn them of these Dangers VVhen Speakers of perverse things shall arise from among themselves the Pastors are bid to take heed to their Flocks and to feed them with the VVord of Truth and Righteousness Act. 20. 28 30. And instead of abating this Obligation it will add to it if amidst all this Prevarication of the Church Men by such corrupt Salvo's the Church it self continues right in these Points and says the same it did in its publick Acts and Articles For then in these Ministrations those Faithful Pastors have as the Authority of Truth so also the Authority of their own Church on their Side Therein they only minister out among the Members what their own Church teaches and show themselves as Faithful Ministers of Christ in standing up for his Truths So Faithful Ministers of their own Church in standing up for its Doctrines As to the Point of separation from the Church I Grant that true Ministers must not separate from a Church for any Doctrines if the Church it self holds and maintains them tho' the
Which made them more sensible of the advantage of having these powers quietly and uncontestedly lodged in their own Hands These it might safely part withall during the incorporation as retaining still what it could not part with viz a Power of standing by all Necessary Points of worship and Doctrine and of doing what is necessary for the Souls of Men and as being also fitted all the time in the main with what is needful in Point of Discipline And its parting with them was in way of Compromise and Bargain as a grateful Return for the benefits and priviledges of its Enfranchisement and Incorporation or on consideration of its enjoying a Freedom not only of exercising spiritual ministrations but of exercising them in the way of an incorporate Church viz. in holding Benefices and in being back'd therein by secular Jurisdiction Laws and Priviledges And whilst these benefits of Incorporation are held on in favour of the Truth the cession of the Church in these Points is to be held on too and not to be resumed back again Protected and incorporate Bishops and Pastors must be content to claim Episcopal and Pastoral powers under the recessions and limitations of an incorporate Church Thus our Articles and Canons receive and assert the Ecclesiastical Supremacy of our Kings which contains the foresaid Church-Recessions And denounce Excommunication ipso Facto to those that Deny any part of our King 's Legal Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes or his having the same Authority therein as the Godly Kings had among the Jews or Christian Emperors had in the Primitive Church And accordingly in our Form of Ordaining Bishops they profess to think themselves call'd to this Ministration according to the Will of Jesus Christ and the Order of this Realm and promise to censure and punish the unquiet and disobedient within their Diocesses according to such Authority as they have by God's Word and as to them shall be committed by the Ordinance of this Realm But now all this giving up these or the like powers to the State for the sake of this Incorporation and in way of bargain and compromise or other abridgement of its own ministrations is 1. With a Salvo to the Interests of Religion and of the Souls of Men. They cannot give away any thing to make themselves wanting in any necessary service unto them nor part with their powers of ministring to Souls to build and nurse them up in pure Worship Doctrin and Practice These Powers are a Sacred Depositum which if they imbezzle or yield up in complyance they are false to God and to mens Souls and thereby betray both them and their own Holy Fâ—â—ction And their Acts also are nullities wherein they offer or promise to do the same For they are Acts against an antecedent Obligation which are wicked in the making as Herods Oath was to gratifie Herodias in the Baptists Death and the Jews Conspiracy and Oath to kill St. Paul But they are null as to the Obligation of performance as is agreed in the case of all contracts and promises to do unlawful things or things evil or forbidden in themselves They can neither discharge themselves I say nor receive any discharge from Princes of exercising these Powers where Christ requires they should exercise them for the Service of Religion of Souls as I have shewn he doth in the fore mentioned cases In Stewards it is required that they be found faithful in dispensing out these Ministrations as he orders not in suppressing them contrary to Order 1 Cor. 4 2. Necessity is laid upon me and woe be to me is here the Scripture denunciation if they preach not the Gospel or fail trustily to discharge that Ministry they have undertaken 1 Cor. 9. 16. No earthly Powers by confering on them the benefits of Incorporation get any Authority over Christs Ministers to discharge them of Ministring to their Master in these matters For this would be to give the civil power which ought to keep under Christ a power over him It would turn them from Nursing Fathers who by giving it a civil enfranchisement undertake to protect the true Religion into devouring Wolves who seek to make a prey of it It is expresly declared against by the Apostles who appeal to the common sense of mankind Whether they are not bound to obey God rather than men Act. 4. 19. 20. And would leave no ministrations of true Gospel Worship and Doctrin under any Christian state which should fall from any necessary parts thereof and begin to persecute them as the Arian Emperors did in the Persecutions they rais'd against the Orthodox and as Popish Princes did in like violences used by them at any time against our Protestant Brethren or Ancestors Than which nothing can be worse calculated for any Church of God but especially for the Christian Church which is to continue a Church in persecution and to bear up Christian Worship and Doctrin by due ministrations of both when any powers of this World fall from protecting most violently to bear them down And this in all times has been the Opinion and Practice of God's faithful Ministers when the State which by Incorporation should have back'd and strengthned them therein fell to discharge and bar them of their ministrations in these cases Thus God's Faithful Prophets and Ministers did in the Jewish Church who approved themselves glorious Confessors and Martyrs in administring God's Word and true Worship when the State fell to break in upon them and instead of backing and protecting them in those ministrations according to the purport of incorporation fell violently to discharge and drive them from officiating any longer therein Thus likewise Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Paulus of Constantinople and other Bishops did in the Arian Persecution The civil State had then received the Church into it self endowed it with civil Edicts and enfranchisements And the deprivation and ejection of these Bishops out of their Churches particularly of the Great Athanasius was with State-Concurrence and for State-Causes or Pretences Among other Articles Athanasius was charged with Contumacy against the Emperour in refusing to appear upon his Edict at the Synod of Caesarea And with a Treasonable Design to stop the yearly Transport of Corn from Alexandria to Constantinople on which suggestion he was banish'd to Tryers by Constantine Not to mention the Accusation of his having impos'd on the Aegyptians a Tribute of Linnen Cloath and having conspired with one Philumenus against the Emperour and having Treasonably corresponded with the Traytor Magnentius and usurped the Imperial Prerogative by holding the Festival Dedication of the great Church of Alexandria without the Emperours Warrant and the like And his Deposition and Gregories and Georges Advancement to his See by Synods were seconded by Acts of State having the Approbation and Justification of the Emperors and the Assistance of Prefects as well as the ‖ Imperial Letters violently forcing one out of the
Bishops and Heads of Union in those dioceses according to his Rules and Principles of Union And then how shall a mere command of state dissolve the tye made by him or break communion betwixt their Bishop and them Whilst Christ by conscionable obligations of Church Unity bids them adhere to their Bishop and keep one with him must they give ear to the state that bids them divide from him I think on second thoughts he will not make Church Union or the dependance of people on their Bishops so unsettled or precarious a thing as either to have no fixt and conscionable principles ingaging and holding all good Members thereto of its own or to have it in the power of a secular state when it pleases to set them aside and over-rule them CHAP. III. Remarques on the Preceding Account of the Force of State-Deprivations and instances of Deprivations alledg'd to the contrary consider'd and clear'd up FRom what I have said in the foregoing Chapters about the power of the Civil State and the effect of its Deprivations I think it may appear that the Bishops and Ministers of Christ continue still invested with their Ministerial Powers and can receive no discharge from the exercise thereof in the formention'd Cases by any State Deprivations And of this I observe from what has been hitherto discoursed 1. First That this is not to deny the Civil Power the Cognizance of Bishops and Ministers in Civil matters Allegiance 't is true is a civil matter and most nearly concerns the civil peace Indeed it is not only Civil but also Religious For when men are requir'd to Swear it and in all Churches to pray conformably to it Solemn Oaths and Prayers are most sacred and Religious Acts. And Allegiance in it self is a moral duty for due payment whereof all stand answerable to God in the last judgment as well as a civil or state-duty for which they are answerable to the state in judicatures of this world But it is such a matter of Religion I say as is also a civil matter subject to civil Cognizance or a point of State too And if this is refused to a Rightful state it is not only an offence against Morality and Religion which spiritual Judicatures and Synods may punish with Canonical Depositions But also an offence against the state which such Rightful state may punish by state punishments as it may all other state offences and in Ecclesiasticks when they are guilty thereof as in all other persons And among these punishments by Deprivation though not of mere spiritual powers the state having no Authority to take away those mere spiritual powers which it never gave yet of all that is Temporal in Church-Ministrations so as that such refusers shall no longer hold benefices and preferments or state endowments Yea and even as to those mere spiritual powers it may make them of themselves to forbear any further exercise thereof to keep state-favors and endowments to the Church when their deprivation is in a case that concerns only their own personal rights and priviledges but not the Truths or cause of Christ as was before observed But if at any time or in any Kingdom this should be refused to an Usurping State which has no Legal Right but which calls for this Allegiance Oaths and solemn Prayers and Religious services conformable thereto against him who has the Right Then such refusal is neither a Religious nor a Civil offence neither against God nor Gods Vicegerent Divine or Humane Laws but a due obedience to both And this brings on the Case of all the foresaid immoralities Damnifying Religion and endangering Souls wherein faithful Bishops and Clergy whatever they incur by standing to their Spiritual Ministrations must not let them fall â—n regard to any Deprivation of Usurping Powers Nay nor in regard to the most rightful States should they issue out against them state-deprivations to stop their Ministrations against any such like immoralities or other irreligious and endangering ways And this Limitation of the regard they ought to have to his deprivation is not to deny the Rightful Civil Soveraign any part of his just power over Ecclesiasticks But only to deny him such a power as would leave our Saviour Christ himself who is his Master as well as theirs â—o have no power over them Or such a power as should enable him to discharge them of what Christ has given in charge to them to take away what powers he confers or to loose what he has tyed on But under all this discharge of their foresaid Ministrations notwithstanding his inhibitions and deprivations it allows the Civil Magistrate as much Power over their persons to mulct banish or put them to death on just cause as they are his Subjects as over any others And to have power also over the mixt way of administrations so as to be able to deprive them though not of all exercise of their spiritual powers yet from holding or exercising them with Temporal jurisdictions effects and priviledges after the way of an incorporate Church And to have those other foremention'd Prerogatives of conveneing Synods passing Canons sending prohibitions to stop any process in prejudice of the Prerogative or of the Laws c. Which for the favor and continuance of those secular mixtures have accrued by incorporation and belong to Christian Kings And these things which are allow'd are as much as any of them can claim of Ecclesiasticks as they are Kings And on the other side those things which are denyed are such as they would abhor to challenge or desire who would own any subjection to Christ or bound their pretensions as Christian Kings 2. Secondly nor is it to set the Church above the State as the Papal Usurpation pretended to do But only to set Almighty God and his blessed Son Jesus Christ above it Not leaving subjects whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks in complyance with any the most rightful state to disobey God Nor Ministers to let fall any Services and Ministrations of Religion or cure of Souls which Christ calls them to exercise yea not only when the state is consenting but when it gain-says it and doth all it can either to disable or discourage them from it he not having thought fit to stand to the courtesy of any civil state whether or no the Ministry of saving Souls should be prosecuted and whether he should be served and have a Church on Earth But at the same time it sets God and Religion above their Power it subjects all both Laicks and Ecclesiasticks to the same in other things Allowing every rightful civil state the chief civil power over all Ecclesiastical Persons And the chief civil power over all Ecclesiastical Causes so far forth and so long as they are mixed and compounded with civil benefices and jurisdictions And a civil power to compel Church Men by civil penalties to do the duty of their Spiritual Ministrations and to hold them under a necessity of not resisting by Arms but of
necessary warnings nor Faithful Ministers let fall their Ministrations in the foresaid Cases on pretence of preserving unity or preventing Schism in the Church 2. Secondly it is another just ground to break off from them if they make unrighteous usurpations and incroachments the Terms and condition of their Communion Both Bishops and Churches may turn Tyrannical and Arrogant Usurpers upon their Brethrens Liberties not admitting their own Members to their Communion without acknowledging and submitting to their unjustly and illegally assumed powers nor other Churches unless they will give up their own rights and freedoms and become their Subjects And when they will allow Communion to none unless they are content to purchase it at such rates good Christians may pass them by and unite themselves to other Churches where they will be more justly and fairly dealt with The Communion of Christians is a Commuuion of Brethren upon Brotherly terms not of Captives who must submit to any terms or bear what hardships and incroachments are put upon them by their Conquerors They are not bound to purchase unity by enslaving of themselves or any brethrens communion by receiving their yoke and giving up their own rights and liberties as the Church of Rome demands all other Churches both of the East and West should do to purchase hers And thus St. Paul declares he would not give up their liberties when false brethren turn'd invaders thereof viz. the Judaizers in their pressing the Circumcision of Titus to whom he gave place by subjection no not for an hour when they sought to bring them into bondage Gal. 2. 4 5. CHAP. IV. Heresy a just Ground to break off Communion THe last ground which I shall mention of breaking off or of being set loose from the Communion either of Bishops or Churches is though none of the foresaid obstacles can be pleaded against the Terms of their Communion if yet 3. Thirdly Heresy can be justly objected to their persons and Doctrines Church Members are not bound to keep dependant on the persons of their Bishops nor one Church to keep Communion with other Churches if once they defect from the true worship and Doctrine of Christ. This worship and Doctrine are the Ground and Foundation of Christian Society and unity The Church is a Body of Men Associated for them And must be one Society by keeping united under their Bishops or Associated with other Churches in them They must keep one in standing together upon this bottom not in going off or departing from it For clearing these matters it is to be observed that our Saviours first end in coming into the world was to publish a Religion I am come a light into the world saith he of himself Jo. 12. 46. I must Preach the Gospel for therefore am I sent Luk. 4. 43. On this account he calls himself the Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14. 6. And tells Pilate that for this end was he born and for this cause came he into the world that he should bear witness unto the Truth Joh. 18. 37. And this Truth or Religion lyes in his Doctrine of worship faith and Practice Or in his Teaching all his Disciples what way they are to worship God what they are to believe concerning him or other things which concern their Eternal Salvation and what they are to do for him Now this Doctrine was like to be most advantageously profess'd and this Worship to be best paid if it were not left to single persons or to scatter'd Families to do it separately by themselves But had its several professors incorporated into one Regular society and united body for the joynt profession and performance thereof Such Regular society would hold it out by more orderly and effectual Ministration and keep men to it by the Authority of Discipline and be a common help and spur to excite and aid each other mutually and carry them on and a cover and shelter to back embolden them therein A Regular Society or Church incorporated for the Profession thereof St. Paul says is a Pillar and Ground or Stay to publish and support it Accordingly when Religion was left to be born out by smaller societies and sometime even by single families as in the Patriarchical Age we see it was sometimes almost lost and always made a very small progress But when a whole Nation was incorporated into one Church for the profession and payment of it as it was among the Jews it spread further in power and influence and gain'd more proselytes And lastly when all Nations as fast as they turn'd Christians were embodyed in one society for the same intent as a Light set upon a candlâ—stick or as a City placed on a hill it desplayed its force far and near and strengthen'd incomparably more hearts in it and drew more eyes after it And therefore our Lord intended and ordered in the next place that all who embraced this Religion should incorporate or unite together in one Church or Society for the Profession of it Accordingly he has made baptism wherein every professor takes upon him this Religion to incorporate him or enter him a member of this Church Baptism as St. Paul notes uniteing us all in one body and as many as are baptized into Christ are all one in Christ Jesus And requires of every professor of this Religion that he Keep on professing it in the unity of this Church And that all of his Religion pay this worship and profess this Doctrine not separately by themselves but socially in joynt Communion with others So that all who come to embrace the Christian Religion must perform the worship and profession thereof in Christian Society or in the Unity and Communion of Christs Holy Catholick Church But we are first to be all of this Religion and then to profess and perform it in the Unity and Communion of this Church The Doctrine and Worship I say which makes us Christians are the Foundation of that Society and Unity which is to be upheld in the Christian Church Thus on Peters Confession our Lord declares he would build his Church Mat. 16. 16 18. And the Uniteing of Christians into one Temple St. Paul says is by their being built on the Apostles and prophets i. e. On their Doctrines about worship faith and practice Eph. 2. 20. 21. And when our Saviour prays so earnestly ly for the Unity of his Church at what time he was about to leave it he limits it to this that they may be kept one in Gods Name Joh. 17. 11 and calls the Gathering or Uniteing together of Christians in Congregations wherein he will be in the midst of them their gathering together in his Name Mat. 18. 20. In his Name that is in his Doctrine or Profession of Faith and Worship Name with relation to Masters and Teachers being usually put for Doctrine As to bear my Name before the Gentiles is to bear my Doctrine Act. 9. 16. and teaching in
Souls endangered by such Salvo's it was the Duty of true Prophets and Priests among them and would be so in all other places on like occasions by their preaching and Ministrations to keep up sound knowledge among the People in these Points yea tho' such preaching and ministrations made a Breach between them and those defecting Teachers And it was the Peoples duty to follow any among them who would teach them better when they could have such Teachers as they had in our Blessed Lord and his Apostles Whatever Allowance under the favour of Necessity men may have to keep on with such of which Plea of necessity I shall say more hereafter yet where there is choice of others more Orthodox they are no longer tyed to such Pastors as openly and obstinately preach up damnable practices to disgrace Religion and endanger Souls Bear they may for a time in hopes of Reformation and because it is easier to prevent than to patch up Breaches wise Lovers both of Peace and Truth would not be hasty in coming to extreamities But if still they will persist and go on in such pernicious Ways and Doctrines good People and Pastors may withdraw themselves from their Communion as St. Paul says in the places already cited And the Reasons of breaking off on such defections from necessary points either of faith or practice are still more urgent if there is no Liberty left in any Churches for other Pastors to stand up ministerially or exercise their Ministry in defence of those necessary points whilst they continue with and adhere to them For then the Concealment and Suppression of necessary Truths is made a condition of Communion and other Pastors if they will hold on with them must suffer that good thing which has been committed to their Trust to be extinguish'd without standing up according to their duty and solemn undertaking to minister the same Which will make it necessary for all who will choose to stand by Christ and his Truths rather than by such his Apostatizing Servants and Corrupters thereof to depart from them When therefore the Bishops and Pastors of any Church fall off from ministring necessary Christian Doctrine or Worship and especially when they come to allow their Communion to none who will go on administring the same they thereby loosen the bands of Union and break that spiritual dependance and relation which the People and other inferiour Pastors ought to have upon them They are no longer the true Joynts to compact the Members nor the Head of Unity to keep together the Body of the Church And thus it was at the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth with the Popish Bishops whose corrupt Worship and Doctrine yea and rigorous exaction of complyance with both from all who expected to hold Communion with them had set their Churches at liberty to go off from them as I formerly observed and to seek more Orthodox Bishops in their room And so it would be in the case of other Bishops especially of those who espouse a Schism and communicate with Anti-Bishops in opposition to the true Bishops if they fall from ministring necessary Christian Truths whether of Faith or of Moral Doctrine and Worship as in the fore-mentioned Cases And when the Church is thus loosed of its dependance on their Persons by the defection of such erring Bishops It may be free to unite it self to other Orthodox Bishops Either to receive such an one for its own local Bishop as was done at the Reformation by substituting Orthodox and Reformed Bishops into the Sees of Popish Bishops Or till it can have that by receiving the Benefit of Episcopal and Priestly Acts from any other Orthodox Bishops and Clery as they can be met with It may fetch all Orthodox Ministrations and spiritual Functions from other places when it cannot have them from an Orthodox Pastor or in the Unity of the Church at home This it may do says St. Cyprian in this Case As well as the Mariners when their own Port is sanded or otherwise insecure may pass it by and put in at another Or as well as the Travellers when their own Inn is beset with Thieves may take up their Lodging at another which is more safe And as the People of such defecting Bishops and Pastors may seek out and unite themselves to others for all necessary Ministrations so may those other Orthodox Bishops and Clergy who are sought to be free to receive and supply them This is plain of both because the Church whereof the one are Members and the other are Bishops or Priests is a Catholick Church For being Catholick its Baptisms and Ordinations are Catholick and make as the one Christians so the other Bishops and Priests that must be owned for such over all the Christian Church and not only in some limited Parts or Districts thereof And betwixt the Members of this Catholick Church there is to be a Communion of Saints so that the one may receive as Members and the other administer all spiritual Acts and Functions as Pastors as there is opportunity and as need requires When the Orthodox Members of such defecting Pastors come to them considering the Catholicism of the Church tho' never so far remote in place they must own them as their Brethren and professing the Communion of Saints they must receive them to their Communion When shuning the Rocks in their own defecting Church they seek a more safe harbour in theirs 't is their part to receive them with a prompt humanity and to give them such reception as was given to him who had faln among Thieves in the Gospel not only to let them in but to take all due and needful care of them saith St. Cyprian Yea and as Christian Bishops they are to look upon this Reception and these Ministrations as one part of their Episcopal Charge For they are Bishops of the Catholick Church as well as of their own Sees and have relation to the whole Church as well as to their own Diocess The Administration he has received is not only for his own Flock but for the Church in common says St. Ignatius of the Bishop of Philadelphia And Christ has committed to you not only your own but the Universal Church says Eleutherius to the Gallicane Bishops And though as being more especially Bishops of that place they have more particular Obligation to look after their own Flocks Yet as Catholick Bishops they must be concerned for the whole Church and look on it or any destitute parts thereof as their own as occasion requires It behoves us all to extend our Care and watch over the Body of the whole Church whose Members are disposed through each of the varicus Provinces say the Presbyters and Deacons of Rome to Cyprian on his informing them of the Deposition of Privatus Lambesitanus the Heretick And unum Gregem pascimus though we be many Pastors yet we are to look upon all as one Flock says St.