Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	catholic_n	communion_n	schismatic_n	2,982	5	12.0439	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56388	A discourse sent to the late King James, to persuade him to embrace the Protestant religion by Dr. Samuel Parker, Late Lord Bishop of Oxford ; to which are prefixed two letters ; the first, from Sir Leolyn Jenkins, on the same subject, the second, from the said bishop, with the discourse ; printed from the original manuscript papers, without observation or reflection.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.; Jenkins, Leoline, Sir, 1623-1685.	1690 (1690)	Wing P461; ESTC R5913	25,687	36

A DISCOURSE Sent to the Late King Iames To persuade him to Embrace the Protestant Religion BY Dr. SAMVEL PARKER Late Lord Bishop of OXFORD To which are prefixed TWO LETTERS The FIRST From Sir Leolyn Ienkins on the same Subject The SECOND From the said Bishop with the DISCOURSE Printed from the Original Manuscript Papers without Observation or Reflection LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCXC To the READER THese Papers accidentally falling into my hands 't were injustice to conceal them from the World when so much benefit may be reap'd from their Publication and though there are many Reasons to be alledged for Printing so useful a Discourse yet none was so prevalent with me as the thoughts of doing our dead Author Justice at least as to that part of his Accusation wherein he has been adjudg'd if not professedly yet a well-wisher at least to the Roman Catholick Religion that he was so to the Person he sends these following lines is evident from the Design of them which was to bring him over to the Communion of the Church of England a Design considering the Circumstances of those distracted Times so very seasonable and honest that the D Himself was forc'd to acknowledge as much and afterwards thank'd the Dr. for it and had God given it its due Effect we might all have thank'd him too But however the Discourse may have miss'd of its aim where intended I hope it may not want some Proselytes of the same Persuasion for whose sake 't is chiefly publish'd As to what concerns the Author himself I shall be wholly silent the World labouring under too great a Prejudice to hear his Panegyrick with Patience The following Tract with his other Learned Writings are his best Orator but if any Mans Curiosity should lead him to a farther desire of knowing his Character if he pleases he may better take it from himself DEPOSITUM SAMUELIS PARKER Nuper Episcopi Oxoniensis Qui hoc Elogio posteris commendari voluit SImultates privatas inimicitias Non modo non fovi Sed contempsi Solâ integritate fretus Nec vivere Erubesco Nec mori reformido Divinam Providentiam Non minùs credo quam opto Hanc vitam utcunque sustineo Meliorem expecto Fide non infelix Spe felicior Multa legi cogitavi scripsi Omnia ab ipsis rei cujusque Principiis exorsus Nec tamen ulla scire videar meliùs Quam quae per fidem accepi Sir Leolyn Jenkins His Letter to the late King THIS Discourse or what else you please to call it was brought me by the Canterbury Carrier your R. H. will see in the loose Leaf join'd to this how it comes to be addressed to my Hands The Author I have known long since he was Chaplain to my late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Name is Dr. Samuel Parker at present Arch-Deacon of Canterbury as I have not had any Communication with him of any kind these many Years so the coming of this Treatise to my Hands is a perfect Surprise yet seeing the Subject matter of it is that which we pray and contend for I durst not but commit it to this present Conveyance beseeching Almighty God to give a Blessing upon it For Sir Leolyn Jenkins SIR HAving been lately confin'd with a great Indisposition of Health and not knowing how the Divine Providence might be pleased to dispose of me after I had setled my own private Affairs as well as I could an Extravagant Thought thrust it self vehemently upon me to leave a Legacy for His Royal Highness which in those better Intervals I enjoyed I composed and out of that eager Zeal I have for the true Settlement of the Church of England cannot forbear to present it And in order to it make bold 〈◊〉 it to your Honor and if your Curiosity will support your Patience to peruse it I submit it entirely to your Wisdom to dispose of it as you please And though I have no reason to expect any success from so weak on Endeavor yet the very 〈◊〉 of the Design in a Priest of the Church of England will at least 〈◊〉 it self● for I have only addrest my self to His Royal Highnesses Conscience without any regard to his worldly Interest and that is a thing that any Church-man that has any sincere love for his Religion is not only authorised but obliged to do and as for the Event of such unlikely Attempts they are to be entirely left to the over ruling 〈◊〉 god I request the favor of your Perusal and if you 〈…〉 utterly ridiculous to convey it to His Highness If you are tempted to smile at my Folly I beseech you to impute it to my present Weakness and when I am in a better Condition of Health for which I thank God I am now in a very fair way perhaps I shall be as forward as any to laugh at the oddness of the Attempt But whatever it is I am sure it has the warrant of a good meaning from Sir Your most Humble Servant S. PARKER SIR WHat Addresses or whether any at all have been made to Your Royal Highness by the Divines of the Church of England for the Satisfaction of your Conscience I am altogether ignorant Tho I cannot suppose that none have been made because I know great numbers of Learned Men of our Communion both Zealous for their Religion and also for Your Highnesses Service here and Souls welfare hereafter But then this I have too much Reason to fear that some of them may not have taken that Method nor have proceeded upon those Principles that they ought For the Men that have ever since his Majesties Return been or at least appeared most forward in defiance of the Church of Rome have been so unhappy in their Zeal and Opposition against it as together with the Papal Usurpations to dig up the very Foundations of the Christian Church or at the same time that they endeavor to pull down the Pope's present high and uncanonical Pretences destroy all that Divine Authority that was vested by our Blessed Saviour in the Apostles and their Successors for the Guidance and Government of Souls so as to make every private Person the only Judg of his own Faith without any defence to the Direction of his Spiritual Guides and Governors which is in effect no less than really to cancel that Promise that our Blessed Saviour made to be assistant to them in the Execution of their Office to the End of the World for if he make good his Promise that alone is more than enough to challenge the regular Submission of private Christians to their Decrees as they would not Rebel against our Saviour's own Institution This I know has been the great stumbling Block to the Roman Catholicks that the Church of England neither pretends to nor owns any such Power as that of a living Judge but that it either resolves all its Authority into the State or leaves all its

unquestionable from all the clearest Records of Antiquity their Succession especially in the most famous Churches being derived by the most ancient Writers from the Apostles themselves and was as easily and certainly known to those Men that have transmitted it to us as any learned Man may know the Succession of the Archbishops of Canterbury from the Reign of Queen Eliz. to this time But as this Power was at first given to the Apostles so was it equally divided among them so that every one exercis'd supreme Power within the Bounds of his own Jurisdiction and all together in the Catholick Church or as S. Cyprian states it that as there was but one Church founded by Christ throughout all the World but this Church was made up of several distinct Members so was there but one Episcopacy and that consists in the Agreement and unanimous care of all Christian Bishops So that the whole Body of the Church was governed by the whole Body of the Apostles and their Successors but the several parts of it were allotted to the Charge of single Bishops who governed them with particular Care but so as to have regard to the Peace and Unity of the Whole This is the only Notion that this wise and good Man than whom there is not a more eminent Example for both upon Record seems in all his Writings to have had of the Catholick Church And as for the Apostles who were the first Representatives of it I cannot find the least Footsteps in all the holy Gospels of any particular Prerogative granted to one above the rest It is true indeed that our Savior often addresses himself to S. Peter in particular but then it is evident that this is done upon particular Occasions and as evident too that all the great things that are occasionally spoken of him are in the Scripture ascrib'd to all the other Apostles Thus whereas Matth. xvi our Savior gives him the Keys of Heaven upon his confessing him to be the Messias He vests all the Apostles with the same Power and that with particular solemnity Iohn xx 21. And whereas he stiles S. Peter the Rock or Foundation upon which he would build his Church the same Title is given to all the Apostles in other Scriptures as Ephes. ii 20. Built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone And Revel xxi 14. The Wall of the City had twelve Foundations upon which were the Names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. And in all the Gospels unless when he applies himself particularly to S. Peter upon the Occasion of his Zeal and Forwardness in the Faith our Savior invests them all with an equal Power especially when he gave them their grand Commission to convert all Nations Matth. xxviii 19 20. So that the Men of the Church of Rome strein the Scriptures with too forc'd a Violence when out of such slight and accidental Occasions of our Savior's particular Speeches to S. Peter they would settle such great and high Privileges upon his Person so as to make him sovereign Lord of all the other Apostles and sole Monarch of the Universal Church This Foundation is too slight for the Weight of so great a Building and so big a Claim requires somewhat a clearer Evidence of Title and if our Savior had intended any such absolute Sovereignty to S. Peter and made that the Fundamental Principle of his Church certainly he would have declared it a little more expresly and not have left so weighty a Point to be merely surmis'd out of occasional Discourses of which there are such easie and obvious Reasons to be given without his ever intending any such design So that in truth to make so much Noise as the Romanists do about the personal Privileges of S. Peter upon such poor and slender Pretences is at once to impose upon the Wisdom of God as if he had laid the Foundations of his Church so slightly and to affront the Understandings of Men as if they thought them so weak as to be persuaded to any thing by such poor and precarious Arguings But yet however I will grant more than can with any decent modesty be demanded from these Texts and yield that our Savior designed some considerable Precedency to S. Peter above all the other Apostles Yet what is this to that omnipotent Sovereignty that his Holiness challenges over the whole Christian Church who takes upon himself not only the supreme but almost the sole Disposal of it whereas it is too well known that S. Peter after the Privileges granted to him was commanded by an Order of the other Apostles Acts viii 14. which could never have been done if his Power had been Monarchical over them all Neither do we find him any where exercising any such Sovereignty over them for tho by reason of his ready Faculty of Speech he was usually the first Speaker yet we do no where find that he either challeng'd or practis'd any other Precedency So that tho he was the first that delivered his Opinion in the Council of Ierusalem yet it was S. Iames that determined and pronounced the Decree in that he was Bishop of the Place as is undeniably evident from the most undoubted Records of Antiquity Which yet he ought not to have done if S. Peter had been endued with the same Superiority over all the rest of the Apostles that the Bishop of Rome challenges over all the other Bishops of the Christian Church But not to insist upon these remote and obscure Footsteps of S. Peter's Primacy in the Scriptures I will freely grant him out of the Holy Text it self some considerable Precedency tho when I have done that too what is it to the Bishop of Rome more than it is to the Bishop of Antioch or Alexandria or the Bishops of several other Places in which S. Peter first planted the Christian Faith so that the Bishops of all those Places have as fair a Title to be S. Peter's Successors as the Bishop of Rome And yet this great point I shall be so civil as to admit and grant that the peculiar Right of Succession to the Privileges of S. Peter if any such there were was appropriated to the See of Rome but still What is this to that universal Jurisdiction that is challenged by the Bishops of this to this See as the supreme and infallible Governors of the Catholick Church For after all other Disputes 't is this that is the only dividing Point between us 't is this that is the only Fundamental Article of their Church 't is this for which they load us so heavily with their honorable Titles of Hereticks and Schismaticks And so no doubt are we if his Holiness be vested by Divine Right with that universal Supremacy that he challenges over the whole Christian Church In a word if we take this one Controversie away I for my part know no other difference between the Church of England and the Church of

with the Church-Episcopal for it is impossible to be a Member of the Universal Church without being first a Member of some particular Church both because the Universal Church is made up of the Combination of particular Churches and because there is no way of Communicating in the Offices of Religion but under some limited Societies The Bishop then in every Diocess is as Successor in the Apostolical Office Head of the Communion within his own Diocess and for that Reason the ordinary Judge and Guide to all Christians within his Jurisdiction So false is that Calumny of which the Romanists pretend to make so much Advantage against the Constitution of the Church of England that She doth not so much as pretend to any living Judge of Faith For what Judge She owns as to the Catholic Church I may shew in its proper place But as for every particular Christian She commits him to the Care of his Bishop as his ordinary Guide and Governour in the things that concern his Salvation Now if this be the setled Constitution of the Christian Church as it was from the beginning I cannot understand how any Christian can leave the Communion of his own Bishop to communicate with any other without being guilty of Schism against the Church that he lives in For tho he may advise with any other Bishop about the Welfare of his Soul and follow his Advice as a Friend yet by the original Constitution of the Church none but his own Bishop can have any authoritative Commission for his Guidance and Instruction So easie is the Answer to that solemn Question Who is the living Judge and Guide of your Faith For if it be put to a private Christian it is plain that from the Constitution of the Catholic Church as it was setled by the Apostles that it is the Bishop under whom he lives to whom God hath committed the ordinary means of the Salvation of his Flock and promised to be assistant to him and the Successors in his Office to the end of the World This is the first visible Society or Communion of a Christian Church and was evidently laid and design'd by our Blessed Saviour in his Institution of the Episcopal Office The next is founded upon Apostolical Prescription and that is the Association of the Bishops of a Province with their Metropolitan for in the Plantation of Churches as they cut out the Communion of Christians into particular Bishopricks so they again united the several Bishopricks of every Nation into one Communion under one Head who as he is superior to every single Bishop within his Resort so is he is his Synod of Bishops Supreme Judge of all Controversies within the Province These Provincial Assemblies I have shewn were the highest Power of the Primitive Church in all Places neither indeed setting aside the Promise of divine Assistance to them is there need of any further Appeal upon humane accounts for the Controversives in Christianity are not so monstrously difficult but that a competent Number of grave and sober Men may determine well enough without calling together all the wise Men in the World and if Twenty are not sufficient to decide any Controversie I know not what Number is And as this was the standing ordinary Jurisdiction in the first Ages of the Church so the Christians of those Times suppos'd the means of Salvation sufficiently secur'd in such Hands and certainly that which was sufficient to them is so to us And as this was the highest Government in the Church for the first three Hundred Years so those more diffusive Assemblies that were afterward summon'd and that we call general Councils were really of the same nature for as a Provincial Assembly was national so were these Imperial and therefore subject but to one civil Government So that as the Empire was indeed but one great Kingdom so was the Church in it but one great Province they being both under the same extent of Government And this is the true Use of Councils whether greater or less by the Decree of the Representatives of Churches to bind those Churches that they represent And that is but a reasonable thing in all Societies that they should be determin'd by their Governours especially when they are set over them by the appointment of God himself Neither is it so very material how large Councils are as to their Obligation for whether they be greater or less they equally bind all that are involv'd within the compass of their Authority And tho there may be greater Presumption in the Decrees of the greater Councils yet are they for the most part meetings rather of Grandeur than Necessity but especially those that we call General Councils are now so difficult to be summon'd that they are become almost impracticable Whilst indeed the Roman Empire stood entire it was not so hard to convene them yet even then was it a Business of so much Time and Charges as made it too burthensom to be born by any thing less than the Roman Greatness and that too in very rare and extraordinary Cases But if so it could never then be intended for the standing and perpetual Government of the Christian Church But now that Christendom is divided into so many civil Governments the Difficulties are so great and so many through the various Interests of Princes either to promote or hinder it as to render it next to impossible Tho if it could be fairly had the Church of England would not refuse her Concurrence in it both as being assured of the Goodness of her Cause in that she owns no other Rule of her Reformation but the Practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Church and as well knowing that the greatest part of the Church of Rome would as willingly rid themselves of those Abuses that have been put upon them by the Court of Rome as we have done And this the Spanish and French Bishops had carried through even in that pack'd Council of Trent had not the Pope poured in a number of Titular Italian Bishops to over-vote them But it is none of my present Business to rake into the Faults of the Church of Rome 't is enough to my purpose to vindicate the Communion of the Church of England Granting therefore the Church of Rome to be a pure and uncorrupted Church yet because it is a Foreign Church no Man can be under any Obligation to leave the Communion of his own to joyn with that In this one point I fix the State of this whole Address and say nothing at present to persuade any Person that lives within the Communion of the Church of Rome to forsake that my only Concernment is with the Members of the Church of England to keep them to their own Church according to the Rule from the Beginning If it be objected That the Church of England be a narrow Thing in comparison of the Catholick Church I answer That the Church of England doth not pretend to be the Church Catholick but

only a Member of it and in that Station it is as large a Church as any were in the Primitive Times Neither then did the Communion of the Catholick Church consist in an Union of all Churches under one Head but in brotherly Love and Correspondence with one another and for that the Church of England is ready to offer it to the Church of Rome or any other upon the old Condition that they will give her leave to admonish them of their Faults and Miscarriages as Churches did one another of old But this is a Civility that the Church of Rome is too proud to accept of it must be all Churches or it will be none at all It allows no Equals in Communion and condescends to no Treaty but upon Terms of absolute Subjection neither is it content to enslave all its Neighbors to its own imperious Decrees unless they be submitted to as the infallible Dictates of God himself Now this seems too much for Men to swallow that have any sense or care of their Salvation for by this means the whole Faith of Christendom shall be left entirely at the Disposal of one single Person and the Pope alone shall be the whole Catholick Church This I say seems too much to venture upon one single Security especially unless it were confirmed by some clearer Commission than those remote and obscure Texts of Scripture that are alledg'd for the Papal Supremacy But to return from the Pope to the Church As the first Constitution of Churches was conform'd to the civil Government so indeed no other is practicable For upon that Supposition that Christianity makes no Abatement as to the civil Rights of Men especially of Princes provincial Churches cannot be justly extended beyond the Dominion of the State because in that case if Metropolitans or Patriarchs have power to call their Subject-Bishops to Councils the King's Subjects may be summoned out of his Dominions without his leave which is not only to diminish but to destroy his Power over his own Subjects for when they are out of his Dominions they are none of his So that the very State of Christianity naturally implies as it would not be inconsistent with it self the Conformity of the Church to the State in its bounds of Jurisdiction And this is the true meaning of that known Saying of one of the Fathers That the Church is in the Commonwealth and not the Commonwealth in the Church for the Civil Government being first constituted and the Church being afterwards taken into it it must for that Reason keep it self within it otherwise it breaks down its old Bounds of Settlement But beside that the Nature of Government confines every Church within the Prince's Dominions in which it is so it is highly convenient if not absolutely necessary to the due and effectual Exercise of Discipline that the Society of the Church be confined within some moderate Circuit of Government for great Governments are slow and unweildy in their Motions the very distance of Place makes all Proceedings uneasie and Determinations difficult and of this our Nation was sufficiently sensible when all Ecclesiastical Appeals were carried to Rome the Journey was tedious and chargable and by reason of the distance of Witnesses and other Inconveniences Proceedings infinitely dilatory I might say endless Causes depending there from Age to Age this is too notorious from the sad and open Complaints of those Times and I my self enjoy a small Office in this Church wherein my Predecessors had a Suit for a Privilege belonging to it hanging in the Court of Rome for some hundreds of Years till the very time of the Dissolution of the Pope's Power These are intolerable Grievances to Mankind and heavier Burthens than were ever imposed upon them by the most barbarous civil Government If therefore his Holiness will challenge a Supremacy over all Christian Churches let him not exercise his Jurisdiction in ordinary Causes that is contrary to all the Canons of the Church and Quiet of the World We will not contend with him about his Patriarchical Preheminence if that would give him Satisfaction tho we know he hath not the least pretence of any claim to it over us But when under that Pretext he takes to himself the Office of Universal Bishop that is to be all the Bishops of Christendom 't is that exorbitant Usurpation that is not our Complaint alone but the universal Complaint of Christendom it self And therefore if he would keep within his Patriarchical Bounds and Privileges which yet he enjoys not by divine Right but humane Institution we would give him all that Respect and Reverence that is due to the Primacy of his See But if instead of Brotherly Communion with us nothing less will serve his Turn than absolute Dominion over us and if Submission to that must be made our only Title to the Catholick Church as if we had no Right to Christianity but by Subjection to the Bishop of Rome these cannot but seem too hard Terms of Communion or if they are not it is enough that they are unwarrantable or if they are not so it is enough that they are not necessary And that they are not is evident from the Premises where I have demonstrated that the first Duty of every Christian as a Member of the Christian Church is to joyn Communion with his own Bishop as the first Political Society of a Church And that the next is a Combination of all the Bishops within one civil Government under one Metropolitan That this Polity was set on foot by the Apostles themselves and every where put in practice in the Primitive Church that the Ecclesiastical Province cannot extend beyond the Precincts of the Civil without infringing the Authority of Sovereign Princes and therefore that no foreign Prelate can have or exercise any Ecclesiastical Power over his Majesty's Subjects because that would give them Power to command them out of his Dominions So plainly doth the Nature of Civil Government set Bounds to Ecclesiastical Societies which one thing if duely consider'd must cut off all Claims of Papal Supremacy over this Church because by virtue of it he would have such a kind of Power over His Majesty's Subjects as the Christian Religion doth by no means allow any its Officers And as this was the Settlement of National Churches from the beginning of Christianity so is it the present Constitution of the Church of England that is or would be govern'd by its Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops subject to one Civil Government And as this is all the Political Society that a Christian Church is capable of so all the Communion that it can have with other Churches consists in brotherly Love and mutual Correspondence And this way was the Christian Church in the first Ages of it preserv'd in competent Peace and Unity And whatever other Power was afterward erected in the Church was founded upon humane Institution and therefore is alterable in it self at least not necessary to the

Members at their own entire liberty to choose their Religion as they please without being accountable to the Church for it These I must confess are very common Opinions among us but then they are very new too and as great Strangers to the Church of England as to the Church of Rome being at first started about his Majesties Return when some young Men that had been fanatically Educated seeing the Church of England Restored and either having a mind to its Preferments or to bring themselves off from the Principles of their Education pretended that there was no such thing as any particular Form of Church-Government setled by our Saviour or his Apostles and therefore that it was left entirely to the power of the Civil Magistrate to Establish what Form He Himself liked best And for that Reason and for that alone seeing his Majesty was pleased to restore Episcopacy they thought it their Duty to submit to that as to all other Civil Laws and Constitutions But alas these are not Church but State-Divines and not only Traytors to the Liberties of the Church of England but profest Enemies to the very Being of a Christian Church which as such subsists merely upon our Saviour's own Charter and Institution by virtue whereof all Christians are bound to associate in a visible Society and to submit to the Decrees and Ordinances of those Governors that he hath set over it This I say is the first Principle of a Christian Church and is owned by all Men that either own any such thing as a Church or understand what they mean by the word So that the only true State of the Controversie in this Case between Church and Church is to discover how the Government of the Catholick Church was at first setled by our Saviour how it descended to after Ages and who at this time stick closest to the Primitive Institution And for Your Highnesses full Satisfaction herein I will make a faithful Representation of the true State of the Primitive Church and then compare the present Constitution of the Church of England and the Church of Rome and thereby shew how enormously the Church of Rome notwithstanding all its high Pretences hath departed from it and how honestly the Church of England endeavors to keep to the original Platform and when I have done this I shall with all Humility submit it to Your Royal Highnesses Wise and Impartial Judgment For I know that in matters relating to Your Souls welfare You design nothing but Truth and the best way to secure it This I am assured of not only from the fam'd Integrity and Generousness of Your Princely Temper that scorns to admit of the Alloy of Secular Interest into the great Concerns of Conscience but by that great Courage and Resolution You have shewn for the Maintenance of Your present Perswasion whatever that is to Your great Detriment and Disadvantage of Your Affairs in this World But though I think it most apparently Your present Interest to quit that Church yet I think it too a very Ignoble as well as Irreligious Attempt to make that an Argument for it And I am afraid That is one of the highest Prejudices that Your Royal Highness may have conceived against the Church of England that some Men in it have insisted upon Your worldly Interest too much in a point of Conscience And yet if by a true and sincere Account of things I can bring Your Conscience over to the Church of England though I shall not bring Your Conscience to Your Interest yet I shall make them meet for if that were satisfied it is obvious on which side the Advantage lies And though upon the Supposition of Conscience being satisfied Interest might be admitted as an accessional Motive yet I shall entirely wave all worldly Considerations and disdain any Assistance that is Foreign to the cause of Religion and if I did not I am sure Your Highness would And therefore I shall only humbly crave leave to represent the true State of the Christian Church and from thence remonstrate to Your Princely Wisdom that Your Highness can have no Reason either as a Christian Man or a Christian Prince to concern Your Self for the Interest or join with the Communion of the Church of Rome and that on the contrary you have all the Reason in the World upon both Accounts to love and value the Church of England First then Christianity supposes the Temporal Power of Princes Civil Government being setled in the World by the general Providence of God antecedently to our Saviour's particular Institution And as he found it so he left it with an express declaimor of any Pretence to it in the first place declaring that the Kingdom that he came to establish was not of this World that is that he was not invested with any Temporal Jurisdiction And the truth is if he had laid claim to any such Power his Religion had stood upon no better foundation than Mahumetanism it self that was at first propagated and hath been hitherto maintained merely by the Power of the Sword But the Design of our Savior's Institution was pure and unmix'd Religion and therefore abetted it Self and its Laws with no other Sanctions than only the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to come And the same Power that he exercis'd himself he devolv'd upon his Apostles from them to descend upon their Successors to the End of the World so that all their Power whatever it is is of the same Nature with that which himself claim'd whilst on Earth that is purely spiritual and void of all temporal Coertion And for this Reason it is evident that if any Church pretend to any such Power by Virtue of his Grant or Commission that it is not only a Contradiction to the Nature of Christianity but an Atheistical Abuse put upon the whole Design of his Institution Now upon this Supposition there are and must be in all Kingdoms and Commonwealths where Christianity is entertained and protected two distinct Jurisdictions so as that if one entrench upon or invade the other it is an equal Violation of Christianity for if the temporal Prince assume to himself the Exercise of that Power that is peculiarly invested in the Officers of the Church instead of governing the Church he destroys it when every Church as a Church is capable of no other Government but what is purely spiritual and delegated to it by our Saviour's special Commission after the full Settlement of the Power of Princes And the same Violation of Christianity is it if any of the Governors of the Church should challenge any such Power by Virtue of our Savior's Authority for that were to turn a spiritual into a temporal Kingdom Now these two Powers being so plainly distinct both in their Nature and Original they must continue so notwithstanding the Union of Church and State into one Society For if the Prince take upon him the sole Government of the Church as such he acts not only