Italian Papists 2. Nor with the moderate Papists that are for the Councils of Constance and Basil For he takes them for Papists with whom he hath no Communion 3. Nor with the Church of France because they have Communion with Papists Though many of them are no Papists in their Principles 4. He hath no Communion with any Protestant Churches that have not Bishops 5. Nor with any Protestants that have Bishops not Ordained by Canonical uninterrupted Succession from the Apostles at lest presumptively 6. With none of the Greek Church that have Communion with the Church of Rome or with any Schismaticks or that want such Succession or refuse the Laws of the Church which is all 7. With none of the remote Nations called Jacobites Nestorians c. Because they are judged Hereticks or Schismaticks or Communicate with such or have a notorious interruption of Succession 8. Not with the Maronites or any Sect that Communicate with Papists 9. Not with the Nonconformists of the Church of England whom he endeavoureth to prove Damnable Schismaticks 10. Not with the true and old Church of England who professed to hold Communion with those Foreign Protestants whom he calleth Schismaticks Nor with any of the present Bishops and Conformists who profess the same Communion For his Rule is that they are Schismaticks who Communicate with Schismaticks Who then hath he Communion with It seems none but those few new Men in England of his own Mind who perhaps may call themselves the Church of England 11. Nay not with those among them who profess Communion with the Church of Rome except with the Jesuited part 12. And with those of them who are for one Supreme Universal Aristocracy or Legislative College Council and Judicature over the Universal Church And now can you tell which is the Church that he is of Or is there a more notorious Separatist or Schismatick than he § 6. And now can any Man tell which is that Church which he speaketh such wonderful things of as the One Body Politick of Christ with one visible human Government Which be the Bishops and Church that have all that Leviathan-like Power of Heaven and Hell which he describeth and asserteth Is it only the uncertain relicts of all these § 7. Mr. D. hopeth justly that none or few of his friendly Readers will read what I write against him and therefore when I detect his Fraud and putid Errors he puts it off with saying I do but put many new Questions and answer nothing accurately But for the sake of them that will read I will ask him 1. Whether his little invisible Church be a Body meet for the Glorious Elogies which he giveth the Church of Christ I profess I know not one Bishop that is of his professed Principles Archbishop Laud was not that took a General Council to be a Court of Pretorian Power to be externally obeyed by all the Church Bishop Guning is not as the foresaid Evidence sheweth 2. And I would ask him whether his Church have all the Power of Heaven and Hell which he describeth over those that are without the Church or only over those within Paul saith What have we to do to judge them that are without And if so how narrow is the Power of his magnified little Church Let their own Subjects escape their Damning Power how they can it seems none of all the people on Earth whom he counteth Schismaticks or Hereticks are within their reach For these with him are all without If it be said They were within when they were Baptized I answer 1. What they were and what they are is not all one 2. But he saith that the Sacraments are but Sacrilegious Acts and Nullities that are done by such And if so they were never Baptized and so never in the Church § 8. But let us come to his new Book and Method And first I will tell him once more what our different Church Principles are that he may not accuse he knows not what 1. Christ is the only Head Prophet Priest and King to the whole Church on Earth both of Influence and Government Constitutive Specifying and Unifying and hath no Deputy or Vicar under him Aristocratical or Monarchical that hath any such Capacity Power or Obligation 2. Therefore the Church though Compaginated in all its parts is only one Politick Body of Christ and not of Man and hath no other Soveraign 3. Therefore neither Pope Council or College of Bishops have any Legislative or Judicial Power over the whole Church Collective but only the several Pastors are such to their several Churches 4. Yet are they obliged to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and Love and to do all in Concordant Observation of Christs Laws And all Churches and Christians to help others to their Power 5. And when they afford such Counsel or help for Concord to other Churches they do it not as Lay-men but as Pastors in the Universal Church though not as Pastors to other Mens Flocks As Physicians of several Hospitals and Judges of several Courts or Mayors of several Corporations or Kings of several Kingdoms may advise for Concord without Usurping each others Government 6. As God only by Moses made the Jewish Law and the Priests were not to make more but only to Rule by it it being a Prophetical and Mediatorial Work So Christ only by himself and his Spirit of Infallibility and Miracles in the Apostles made the Christian Universal Law and no Men are to make more such but to Rule by that so made 7. As Gerson truely told the Pope Christs own Law is sufficient for the Government of the Church Universal else Christ had not been a perfect Law-giver And they that pretend by Supplements or Emendations to add or do better are not his Ministers but Accusers 8. Therefore those Popes and Councils that have presumed to make Laws for the whole Church have Usurped Christs Prerogative and are false Prophets or Traytors against Christ. 9. Therefore none should own them as such nor is it Schism but Duty so far to disown them 10. Nor should any own these Bishops as such who own this their Usurpation As no Soldiers of the Kings Army should follow those Captains who subject themselves to and take Commissions from an Enemy Usurper or Foreign Princes 11. The Power of Bishops under Christ as to Laws is only to keep and teach Christs Laws and Rule by them and determine themselves of undetermined circumstances or accidents which vary as time and emergent occasions vary and are unfit for Universal Obligation and this Power they have only over their single Flocks though by contract they may join in such things with others for Concords sake 12. When the case of many Churches is alike and their common good requireth Concord in any such accidents all are bound to observe such Concordant Agreements by virtue of Christs command for Concord 13. But if on this pretence Pastors will turn Agreements for Concord
hold their other grossest Errours as Transubstantiation Image-Worship Praying in an unknown Tongue forbidding to read the Scripture translated and such like They would be still Hereticks though not Papists 3. But if they only retain some tolerable Errours we should be willing to receive all such to our Communion 2. If the change must be in the Protestants what is it that they must change If it be any Truth or Duty which they forsake or any Sin which they must commit they cannot honestly so change But if it be any Errours or Sins that we must forsake that is a very desirable Change Some men do ignorantly charge some Errours on the Papists which they are not guilty of or lay the Errours of some few upon the most Some make Errours which are but de nomine to seem to be de re and lesser Errours seem great Some take divers Truths to be Errour And some are ready to call some lawful Customs of the Papists by the name of Popery and Antichristian Some would deny Papists the common Civilities and Liberties which are their due All such things as these we would have changed And if altering any indifferent Practice of ours would win them from their Errour to the Truth we should so become all things to all men to save some § 6. IV. But if Papists must come to our Churches whilst Papists without any other Profession of a Change 1. If it be but to hear Sermons which Heathens may do and if they voluntarily do it I know few that will be against it 2. But if it be to our Sacramental Communion I have these Reasons following against it § 7. I. Local Presence will make us really no more of one Church if different Religions make us uncapable than if we met at several places Turks and Hereticks are not of our Church if they should receive the Sacrament with us if they renounce not their Infidelity and Heresie if it be known II. The Bishops say now that the Conformists whose hearts are against Conformity are more hurtful and dangerous to the Church than the Nonconformists as using the publick Encouragements against them How much more will Papists be more dangerous among us than without our Churches III. It will be a Prophanation of God's Ordinance to give that Sacrament to an uncapable person And if they be forced against their will to Communicate the Prophanation will be the greater The Sacrament delivereth to the due Receiver a Sealed Pardon of all Sin and a gift of Christ and right to Salvation And unwilling Persons are utterly uncapable of these willing consent even to the forsaking of all for it being the condition IV. It must be gross hypocrisie and dissembling in the Papists to come to our Communion They take Protestants for Hereticks and Protestants take them for Hereticks And their Doctrine is against admitting Hereticks to Communion They must hear with us their own Doctrines and Practises condemned and they must hear ours asserted which they abhor And what Peace will this hypocrisie keep V. It will tempt the Preachers to give over Preaching against any of their Popish Errours when they know how offensive it will prove to the Auditors And so the Protestants also will be wronged VI. It will overthrow all serious true Church Discipline when our Church Communion is crouded with men that hold the same Principles which Protestants take to be Heretical and Treasonable against Christ and practise what they call Idolatry and are indeed of another Church and under a Foreign Jurisdiction How can our Church Governours censure and cast out any others that be not greater Sinners than these men whom they would draw in And what a Church will that be that taketh in all Sinners not worse than these VII How will it look in the Eyes of God and all just Men that our Church should ipso facto Excommunicate all those Protestants how Learned Pious and Peaceable soever that do but say that any thing in the Church Government Liturgy and Ceremonies is unlawful according to the Can. 5 6 7 8. and silence Protestants for scrupling Subscription or a Ceremony at the same time offer Communion to all the Papists that will accept it and come in VIII It will unavoidably cause a far greater Schism in the Church of England than hath yet been made For it will drive out the best if not the greatest part from its Communion Can they think that such men will Communicate with the Papists meerly because they come into our Churches who have charged them with Antichristianity and such a Mass of Heresies and Errours as have done Bishop Downame Archbishop Vsher Bishop Morton Bishop Hall Bishop Jewell Bishop Carlton Dr. Whitaker Dr. Willet and a multitude of such Will they joyn with them that have charged them with Idolatry as Dr. Reignolds Dr. Stillingfleet c. have done What though they commit not Idolatry in our Churches will that expiate the guilt of all the rest IX Will this do more to Convert the Papists or to Confirm them when they hold us to be no Church they will not take themselves to be Constitutive Parts of the Church they come in To tell them that all their Errours and Sins are no greater than are consistent with our Communion and when we shall tell them that their Roman Church is a true Church and we come so much over or nearer to them sure they will rather look we should come one step further than that they should come to us X. If we think it hard to keep out Popery now how much harder will it be when they are one Body with us and have the most familiar Conversation with us and stand on equal terms When masked and Church-Papists have served them most effectually For my part I fear no mans Censure for my open profession that I hate all Cruelty to Papists or by Papists and that I would have nothing done to their hurt unless our own necessary defence against their hurting us will hurt them And I am so far from desiring that they may be forced to our Communion either by the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo or any other way that I would not give them the Sacrament if they voluntarily came to it without profession of a change of their Understandings Hearts and Lives If the two Parts of the Design Conjunct 1. Subjecting the Church and Kingdom to a Foreign Jurisdiction 2. And opening our own Church Doors wide enough for the Papists to come in and be imbodied in our Communion be the way to Cure or keep out Popery I confess I am mistaken in the way Chap. VIII Why the Papists abating their Innovations of the last Four hundred Years or keeping them to themselves will not make a Coalition lawful as Archbishop Bromhall thought § 1. AS to their keeping them to themselves and not imposing them on us it leaveth them still as guilty of Rebellious Heretical and Schismatical Doctrine as before and as Antichristian in Usurping
such Alterations of the Liturgy as were necessary to tender Consciences and the Bishops and their Drs. yielded not to the least but to the last maintained that none were necessary for them I saw in the Manner and the Issue with whom it was that we had to do and consequently what England must expect I easily perceived that much more would be imposed For I saw what some intended and I could conjecture what must be the Means But others went further than they If I my self had been of the opinion that a Syncretism or Coalition with the Church of France on Grotius's terms had been the way of Church Concord most pleasing to God and that all were intolerable Schismaticks that united not on these terms as Members of one Universal Church under one humane Soveraignty It 's like I should have done my best to accomplish these things following at least if I were also of the temper of those of that Mind which I have known I. I should have laboured to render all those as odious and contemptible as I could that had been against the Coalition II. It 's like I should have done what I could to Silence all those Ministers that were likest to hinder my Design III. It 's like I should have desired if less would not do this that more might be imposed on them that it might be effectually done IV. It 's like I should have done all that I could to Banish them far enough from the Ears and Presence and Acquaintance of Rulers that we might represent them at our pleasure and they might not answer for themselves V. If all this would not do were I sufficiently hardened It 's like I should endeavour to break all those that will not bend and to ruine them utterly and lay them in Jailes with Rogues and make men believe that they are intollerable Persons deserving worse and that all this is Mercy to them VI. It 's like that were I of that mind and temper I should make it my chief design to make a tender Conscience a Scorn and to drive it out of Esteem and Power and then there would be little in the rest to hinder my desires I might expect that they would all take my Pills whom I could first get to swallow as big a thing VII I would make the great noise about Episcopacy Liturgy and Conformity and not say a word till all were ready of a Coalition with the French Papists or Roman Church VIII I would as Dr. Heylin call this a Drawing in the Papists to us when we had opened the Door wide enough for their Universal Soveraignty and I would not call it a going over to them IX It 's like I should learn of Grotius to call none Papists but only those that count all good and lawful that the Popes do or as Dr. Saywell disown none but the Jesuited Party and then I would detest and rant against Papists as hotly as any of them all X. I would not put any Oath or Profession of Popery or of an Universal foreign Jurisdiction on any of the Lay Communicants nor on the Inferior Clergy till they were ripe for it It 's gently said of Dr. Saywell What Bishop puts you to own the Power of General Councils before he will give you the Sacrament If the Bishops will but own and be subject to a foreign Jurisdiction and the Clergy only to the Bishops at first and the Laity to that Clergy and Bishop the Chain is strong enough at present we need no more XI I will Prognosticate no further conditionally of my self but whoever is engaged in such work above all cannot spare the Engine of Historical Vntruths Against those that may not be heard speak for themselves nor be acquainted with them that hear the report this must do the greatest part of the work it cannot be probably done without it Perjury is a thing that I will not meddle with XII They must make the Differences of Protestants as odious as they can and make men believe that they are running mad for want of Catholick Government and Unity and as a late Book called An Address c. tell them that lately there were an Hundred and forty several Sects and if it be denied it is but proving so many Complexions XIII Above all they must say nothing for the Pope himself but only for General Councils advancing their Honour by making odious all that they Condemned and by the Reverence that Protestants have exprest to the best as means of Concord And they must be sure to confound Concord and Government Communion and Subjection XIV And they must be sure to keep the Ministry partly in hope of Preferment and partly in servile Dependance and specially to Corrupt the Vniversities that part may be Ignorant and Vicious and part ambitious Militants And when once all these have got into Church Livings let the Dislikers get them out if they can XV. Some have ever found it of great use to Altering-designs to represent all that are against it as Rebellious and make Rulers believe that they are their Enemies And when our King here hath done so much by the Act of Oblivion and advancing the late Duke of Albemarle and acknowledging the Service of him and his Army and many others who formerly fought against him I cannot but suspect some Altering design in them that would still rub the old Sores and fetch thence Materials for all their Purposes If I may mix ridiculous things with terrible that as the Drunken Man easing his Bladder by a running Conduit stood half the day there in a mingent posture complaining to Passengers that his Water would not stop because he still heard the Conduit run so if they can but make the Nation Drunk or Melancholick the noise of nothing but War and Rebellion and Blood will make them think that their Blood is still running XVI And beyond Sea the Papists have found it the greatest Expedient to their Successes to keep Great Men from Study and Learning yea and from Conscience and Sobriety and train them up with Sport and Wine and Women and Debauchery and ranting Jollity and scorns at Conscience and Preciseness that they may not discern their own interest nor have understanding enough to see the Snare but may tamely put their foot in the Stocks under pretence of Universal Concord and Government make themselves the Subjects of a foreign Usurpation And if the Pope may but govern till the next General Council it will be like a Lease of many Hundred Years as good as a Fee-simple And may he but Rule all as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis by the Canons already made it will be as good as the Guardianship of Infants that will never call the Guardian to Account § XIX I must say after all this that I love the French Church much better than the Italian and if we must all be Papists had rather we were French Papists of the two And yet that I more fear the
sapientiam quae de terra est detruserunt usque in coenum Et quod ex toto non corruerit est ex gratia Dei salvatoris nostri Haec ego loquor eo liberius quia mihi Conscius sum non ex quaestu non ambitu non ad laudem propriam meae professionis sed pro assertione veritatis utilitâ—â—e publica haec dicere O happy England if Protestants had been as much in this against Popery and Error § 5. And here the Roman Deceivers and some peaceable Men of them have joyned to draw us to them on Pretences of Peace and Reconciliation Some honest peaceable Men have been destroyed by the rest for their Moderation The Learnedst Moderator that we have had was M. Ant. de dominis Archbishop of Spalato whose Books de Republ. Eccles. are full of both Learning and Judgment and so moderate that I cannot call him a Papist Though being enticed to Rome again by flattery he perished by their Cruelty What Leander was I am not fully acquainted Fr. de Sancta Clara alià s Davenport was a real Papist and designed on the pretence of Reconciliation to draw us over to them And hath shewed more acquaintance with Scotus and other Schoolmen than with the Protestants in his attempt to reconcile our Articles to their Doctrine Dr. Morley Bishop of Winchester tells us That in his Conference with the Jesuit F. Darcy he would have drawn him to them by perswading him that they are not unreconcileable but can abate us many things P. 5. The Father replied that perhaps we should not find them so stiff in all Points for in things of Positive and Ecclesiastical Constitution only the Church might in order to Christian Peace alter something which she had before Established and he doubted not but she would And his Instances were the Latine Service the Sacrament under one Species and the Caelibate of Priests But as for Matters of Faith they could not alter or abate any thing instancing in the Point of the Churches Infallibility And this is their ordinary Opinion and yet they would not grant the Cup to the Bohemians and to this day the Churches Peace hath not prevailed with them for such Alterations as they say are in their Power What of this Kind they offered in the Treaty with Archbishop Laud we shall see after The Book called The Catholick Moderator goeth this way But no man hath attempted it with so much ability of Judgment and Success of late as Hugo Grotius in his Votum Pro Pace Consultatio and Notes on Cassander his Annotations on the Revelations and De Antichristo and his Writings against Rivet The Dutch dealt hardly with him as an Arminian and Judged him to perpetual Imprisonment when they had not such another Man among them from which his Wife delivered him getting him carried out in a Trunk on pretence of carrying from him his Arminian Books And being escaped into France he was intimate with the Learned Jesuits especially Petavius and made the Queen of Sweden's Embassador who shortly after turned Papist and is yet living at Rome And it is no censoriousness to suspect that his great exasperation might have influence on his judgment And because he is the Man whom our English Defenders of a foreign Jurisdiction own I will next tell you what his late judgment was in his own words I confess I have a far greater honour for those Men that were bred in Popery and are Moderators than for those being bred Protestants revolt from Reformation to a Coalition I doubt not but Gerson was a very holy Man Cassander seemeth to have been an excellent Pious learned Man And I doubt whether most of our nominal Protestants that are for a foreign Jurisdiction be near so moderate as he He oft as de Officio Pii Viri p. 788 789 c maketh the Church of Rome to be but a part of the Universal Church He maintaineth that some called Schismaticks are not indeed departed from the Church for departing from Rome as long as they depart not from Christ the Head of the Church and that only defection of Love and not diversity of Rites and Opinions cuts Men off from Christ And that as long as they are joyned to Christ the Head by sound belief of him and by the Bond of Charity and Peace they are joyned to the Church and are not to be taken for Schismaticks and Aliens from the Church though they be rejected and seem separated from their Society and Communion by another more powerful part of the Church which doth obtain the Government How much more moderate and sound is Cassander than such as Mr. Dodwell And Pag. 791. he saith the same of the Oriental Churches and the Ethiopians that are not under the Pope And he still speaketh so cautelously that it is not easie to understand how far he took the Papacy to be necessary Yet sometime he only excuseth the unwilling departers from Rome and asserteth Consult de Pont. Rom. p 931. That it is not alien from the consent of the ancient Church that Obedience to our Chief or Supream Rector the Successor of St. Peter in Governing and Feeding the Church is required to the Unity of this external Church And it is not only Primacy of Order but Obedience to one Chief Ruler that he Pleads for And in his Epistle to Lindanus and frequently he still professeth only to desire some Reformation in the Roman Church but never to depart from it nor own those that do Chap. VI. Grotius's Judgment in his own Words § 1. TO give you Grotius's Judgment to the full would be to transcribe many Books I shall choose some plain Passages Discussione Apologet. Rivet p. 255. Those that knew Grotius knew that he always wished for the restitution of Christians into one and the same Body But he sometime thought even after he was known to the most excellent Vairius that it might be begun by a Conjunction of the Protestants among themselves Afterwards he saw that this was altogether unfeasible because besides that the Genius of almost all the Calvinists is most alien from all Peace the Protestants are not joyned among themselves by any common Government of the Church which are the Causes that the Parties made cannot be gathered into one Body of Protestants yea and that more and more Parties are ready to rise out of them Wherefore Grotius now absolutely judgeth and many with him that the Protestants cannot be joyned among themselves unless at once they be joyned to them that cohere to the See of Rome without which there can be no common Government hoped for in the Church Therefore he wisheth that the Division which fell out and the Causes of that Division were taken away The Primacy of the Bishop of Rome according to the Canons is none of these c. Ib. P. 185. Grotius professeth that he will so interpret Scripture God favouring him and Pious Men being consulted that he cross not the
animo supplex veneror ut illi spiritum suum mentemque meliorem det And in another Epistle to Salmasius p. 196. he saith being ask'd his Judgment of his last Books Tantum abest ut omnia probem ut vix aliquid in co reperiocui sine conditione calculum apponam meum Verissimè dixit ille qui dixit Grotium papizare Vix tamen in isto scripto aliquid legi quod mirarer quodve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occurreret Nunquid enim omnes istiusmodi authoris lucubrationes erga Papistarum errores perpetuam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erga Jesuitas amorem erga nos plusquam vatinianum odium produnt clamant In voto quod ejus nomen praeferebat an veritus est haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profiteri And how far he was familiar with Grotius he â—ells us p. 248. Ad Vincent Fabrit Cum eo nempe Communicaveram vel solebam mea fere omnia c. And what Salmasius thought of him these words of Saravius ad Salmas intimate Ex quo à vera orbita in religionis negotio deflexit captasti occasionem toto biennio antequam sato fungeretur eum illudendi certe irritandi I have formerly said that worthy Mr. Ereskin yet living since dead told me that Petavius told him that Grotius was resolved to have declared himself for the Church of Rome and joyned with them if he had returned safe from the Journey he died in Henr. Valesius in his Funeral Oration on Petavius saith p. 684. Batesâ—i Collect. Quid non praestitit ut clarissimum Virum Hugonem Grotium ad Catholicaâ— Communionem adduceret Erat ille quidem minimè à nobis alienus poene noster quippe qui doctrinan Tridentim Concilii in omnibus sese amplecti palam profiteretur Id unum supererat ut Ecclesiae Sacrariâ—m ingressus Communionem nostram Sociaretur Quod ille nescio quas ob causas dum ad Catholicae fidei umtatem plurimos secum sperat adducere Consultò differebat But I make no other mens but his own words the Index of his Faith Chap. VII Of the several sorts of Conciliators or Peace-makers about our Controversies with the Papists § 1. IF any shall think that I who have spent so much time and labour for the Churches peace am now against it or would raise dishonourable suspicions on any just endeavours to that end they will utterly mistake me There are divers sorts of Endeavours for peace with the Papists by real Protestants § 2. I. The old Conformists that prevailed against the Dissenters in Queen Elizabeth's days were for going no further from the Papists than they needs must lest they gave them occasion of accusation II. Since then many Men have taken notice that many of our Doctrinal Controversies consist more in ambiguous words and misunderstanding of each other than most on either side imagine And they have endeavoured the lessening of such Controversies by better Explications and stating of the Case In this kind Spalatensis and Bishop W. Forbes have done very Learnedly but in some things yielded a great deal too far Camero Amiraldus Capellus Testardus the Theses Salmurienses and Sedâ—nenses have done much But no Man so much as Lude Le Blank in his Theses which he sent me his desire here to publish To these I adjoin my self as among many other Writings in my Catholick Theology and Methodus Theologiae I have openly and largely shewed the World And no Censures have deterred me from this honest and necessary way of pacification III. But there are others that would on pretence of Peace take in many of their Errors in Doctrine Government and Worship But yet are for no Foreign Jurisdiction IV. But those that I now write against go further and some under the Name of a Prince Patriarch and the Principium Vnitatis Catholicae would come under the Pope some by pretence of the power of General Councils or an Universal Colledge of all Bishops and some by these and Patriarchs conjunct would bring us under a Foreign Jurisdiction and contrive an Union on some French terms And would to this end let in abundance of corruptions in Discipline and Worship on pretence of Obedience to the Canons of Councils Yea some condemn those as Schismaticks yea as in a state of Damnation who are not in these matters of their mind It is these that I am against § 3. While I oppose these I still own my foresaid reconciling Books and no reproach of those that run into a contrary extream shall ever drive me from the true terms of Peace nor to desire any cruelty against them or any of their Sufferings but what necessary defence of Soul and Body require And though my Exposition of the Revelation have offended many upon far closer study of it since I am not less but more perswaded that Pagan Rome was Babylon and that John Fox Martyrol Vol. I. p. III. who took his Oath of a Divine Revelation to him which brought him to take the Pagan Empire for the Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns and to expound the Times and Thousand years accordingly is much to be regarded But if I be uncertain of such points I will rather suspend my Judgment than in uncertainty venture on any thing that is against Christian Love and Peace I hold Communion with the Romans in Christianity though not in Popery I take all true Christians among them for Part of the Catholick Church of Christ though I take their pretended Catholick Church as Headed by the Pope for no Church of Christ at all nor as Headed by any Usurping Humane Head whatsoever Chap. VIII The Doctrine of Archbishop Bromhall in defence of Grotius in his Book called His Vindication of himself and the Episcopal Clergy from the Presbyterian Charge of Popery as managed by Mr. Baxter in his Treatise of the Grotian Religion I fiercely Prefaced by a Dignitary of the Church Parker § 1. I mean to give you his own words and pass by his mistakes against my self Only saying That it was not fairly done to affirm that I numbered him with the Papists or those that designed to bring in Popery when I had no such words yea and praising him excepted him from that number only dissenting from his too near approach But whether he except himself his words will best shew § 2. Page 20 21. he saith I will endeavour to give some light what was the Religion of Grotius He was in affection a Friend and in desire a true Son of the Church of England And on his Death bed recomended that Church as it was Legally Established to his Wife and such other of his Family as were then about him obliging them by his Authority to adhere firmly to it so far as they had opportunity Page 81. I know no Member of the Greek Church that give them the Popes either more or less than I do Page 82. To wave their last four hundred years
determinations is implicitely to renounce all the necessary Causes of this great Schism And to rest satisfied with their old Patriarchal Power and Dignity and Primacy of Order which is another part of my Proposition is to quit the Modern Papacy both Name and Thing Page 84. In the first place if the Bishop of Rome were reduced from his Universality of Sovereign Jurisdiction Jure Divino to his Principium Vnitatis and his Court regulated by the Canons of the Fathers which was the sence of the Councils of Constance and Basil and is desired by many Roman Catholicks as well as we 2. If the Creed or necessary Points of Faith were reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Councils according to the Decree of the third General Council admitting no additional Articles but only necessary Explications and those to be made by the Authority of a General Council or one so General as can be Convocated And lastly Supposing that some things from whence offence hath been either given or taken I say in case these three things were accorded whether Christians might not live in an Holy Communion and come in the same publick Worship of God free from all Schismatical Separation of themselves one from another c. We have no Controversie with the Church of Rome about a Primacy of Order but a Supremacy of Power I shall declare my sence in four Conclusions 1. That St. Peter had a fixed Chair at Antioch and after at Rome is a truth which no Man who giveth any credit to the Ancient Fathers and Councils can either deny or well doubt of 2. That St. Peter had a Primacy of Order among the Apostles is the unanimous voice c. 3. Some Fathers and School-men who were no Sworn Vassals to the Roman Bishops affirm that this Primacy of Order is affixed to the Chair of St. Peters Successors for ever c. Page 107. They who made the Bishop of Rome a Patriarch were the Primitive Fathers not excluding the Apostles and Christian Emperors and Oecumenical Councils What Laws they made in this case we are bound to obey for Conscience sake till they be repealed lawfully by virtue of the Law of Christ. Page 104. To my Objection that all Protestants must then pass for Schismaticks that take not the Pope for Principium Vnitatis and Patriarch c. he answereth still weaker and weaker Must a Man quit his just right because some dislike it Their dislike is scandal taken but the quitting of that which is right for their satisfaction should be the scandal given Whether is the worse 1. How are they forced to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks If they be forced any way it is by their own wilful Humours or erroneous Conscience Others force them not 2. I would have him consider which is worse and the more dangerous condition for Christians to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks or to fall into Schism it self Whosoever shall oppose the just Power of a Lawful Patriarch lawfully proceeding is a material Schismatick Reader I forbear confuting these things by the way being now but on the Historical relation of their Judgments You see how great necessity to avoid Schism they place in our subjection to a Forreign Jurisdiction The Confutation you shall have of all together Chap. IX The Judgment of Archbishop Laud as delivered by Dr. Heylin and by himself § 1. IN the Life of Archbishop Laud Pag. 414 415 416 412. Touching the Design of working a Reconciliation betwixt us and Rome I find it charged on him by another Writer Fuller Ch. Hist. lib. 11. p. 217. who holds it as unlawful to be undertaken as it was impossible to be effected Answ. If it be a Crime it 's Novum Crimen of a New stamp never coined before As to the Impossibility many Men of Eminence for Parts and Piety have thought otherwise Spalatensis and Sancta Clara are named as Reconcilers And if without prejudice to the Truth the Controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have sued by their Agents to be included in the Peace If not the Church of England had lost nothing by it as being hated by the Calvinists and not loved by the Lutherans Admitting then that such a Reconciliation was endeavoured betwixt the Agents of both Churches Let us next see what our great Statesmen have discoursed upon that particular on what terms the Agreement was to have been made and how far they proceeded in it And first the Book entituled The Pope's Nuntio affirmed to have been written by the Venetian Embassador at his being in England doth discourse thus As to a Reconciliation saith he between the Churches of England and Rome there were made some general Propositions and Overtures by the Archbishop's Agents they assuring that his Grace was very much disposed thereto and that if it was not accomplished in his Life-time it would prove a work of more difficulty after his Death that in very truth for the last three Years the Archbishop had introduced some Innovations approaching nearer the Rites and Forms of Rome That the Bishop of Chichester a great Confident of his Grace the Lord Treasurer and Eight other Bishops of his Grace's Party did most passionately desire a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome That they did day by day recede from their ancient Tenets to accommodate with the Church of Rome That therefore the Pope on his part ought to make some Steps to meet them and the Court of Rome remit something of its rigour in Doctrine or otherwise no accord would be The Composition on both Sides in so good a forwardness before Pauzani left the Kingdom that the Archbishop and the Bishop of Chichester had often said that there were but two sorts of People like to hinder the Reconciliation the Puritans among the Protestants and the Jesuits among the Catholicks Let us see the Judgment and Relation of another Author in a Gloss or Comment on the former entituled The English Pope Printed at London the same Year 1643. And he will tell us that after Con had undertook the managing of Affairs the Matter began to grow towards some Agreement The King required saith he such a Dispensation from the Pope as his Catholick Subjects might resort to the Protestant Church and take the Oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity and that the Pope's Jurisdiction should be declared to be but of Human Right And so far had the Pope consented that whatsoever did concern the King should have been really performed so far as other Catholick Princes do usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be Independent both from King and Pope There was no fear of breach on the Pope's part So that upon the Point the Pope was to content himself with us in England with a Priority instead of a Superiority over other Bishops and with a Primacy instead of a
have its allowed Physitian who in doubtful Cases consulteth with many others Their counsel is the counsel of Physitians that is of Men licensed for that Work and Care But it proveth them not to have any proper Governing Power over his Hospital or Patients 5. If every Bishop be a Governor not only in but of the whole World or Church it is either Singly or Collectively as part of a Governing Company If singly it 's a monstrous Body that hath so many thousand Universal Heads If collectively then no one is a Supream Governor but a part of that Body which is such And no one on Earth can act as such a part of One Aristocracy without presence with the rest hearing what they say and what Actors and Witnesses say and gathering Votes Pag. 411. He confesseth out of Socrates about the Emperors Power in Church Matters that from the time in which Emperors received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex eorum nutu pendere vis◠sunt Socr. l. 5. Proem And if so why is Mr. Morice angry with me for saying That Bishops used in Councils much to follow the Emperors minds 2. And then it will be but an odd Universal Legislative and Judicial Soveraign Power over all the World which dependeth on the consent of so many Princes Protestants Papists Mahometans Heathens Jacobites Nestorians c. as a General Council must be called by or depend on And it will be an endless Controversie what Princes have or have not a Power to consent or dissent that their Subjects shall go to such Councils But also Consultation is not Government Chap. XI The Judgment of Mr. Herbert Thorndike a late Eminent Divine of the Church of England § 1. MR. Thorndike hath written so much on this Subject that I need no more than refer the Reader to his Books for the discovery of his mind The sum of his late Writings these thirty years past is to call us all into one visible Catholick Church which is unified by one Humane Government of all out of which nothing will excuse us from Schism or make our failing tolerable His arguments for an Universal Aristocracy answered by Dr. Izaak Barrow in the end of his Treatise of Supremacy I will not here recite because they are there so fully and learnedly confuted § 2. In his Just Weights and Measures he tells us that the Church of Rome being a true Church Reformation lyeth in Restoration and not in Separation Page 5. he saith Who will take upon him to shew us that the Worship of the Host in the Papists is Idolatry Page 6 7. They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God For in plain terms we make our selves Schismaticks by grounding our Reformation on this pretence Should this Church declare that the Change which we call Reformation is grounded on this supposition I must then acknowledge that we are Schismaticks Ch. 2. Is to disprove them that make the Pope Antichrist and Papists Idolaters and shew that the supposition of one Catholick Visible Church is the ground of all Communion and supposed to Reformation And Ch. 3. Nothing to be changed but on that Ground of such Visible Unity Ch. 5. If our Lord trust his Disciples and their Successors with the Rule of his Church he trusteth them also to make Laws for the Ruling of it These Laws are as Visible as the Laws of any Kingdom or Common-wealth that is or ever was are Visible I maintain the Popes Canon Law and the same is to be said of the Canon Law by which the Patriarch of Constantinople now Governs the Eastern Church to be derived from those Rules whereby the Disciples of our Lord and their Successors governed the Primitive Church in Unity The power of Giving Laws to the Church the power of Dispensing the Exchequer which God hath provided for the Church are in the Governors of the Church and the power of admitting into and excluding out It 's a Visible Society founded by God under the Name of the Catholick Church on the command of holding Communion with it Page 41. The Church in the form which I state it is a standing Synod able by the consent of the Chief Churches containing the consent of their resorts to conclude the whole Page 48. The Church of Rome hath and ought to have when it shall please to hear reason a Regular pre-eminence over the rest of Christendom in these Western parts And he that is able to judge and willing to consider shall find that Pre eminence the Only Reasonable means to preserve so great a Body in Unity And therefore I am not my self tyed to justifie Henry the Eighth in disclaiming all such pre-eminence Page 48. That the difference may be visible between the Infinite and the Regular Power of the Pope Page 91. The perpetual Rule of the Church makes them Hereticks to the Church that Communicate with Hereticks and Schismaticks that Communicate with Schismaticks Page 94. The Flesh and Blood of Christ by Incarnation the Elements by Consecration being united to the Spirit that is the Godhead of Christ become both One Sacramentally by being both One with the Spirit or Godhead to the conveying of Gods Spirit to a Christian. Page 125. The worshipping the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Page 132. He saith that the Oath of Supremacy is but to exclude the Popes Temporal power But because the words seem to exclude the power of General Councils of which the Pope is and ought to be the chief Member of necessity the Law gives great offence And that offence is the sin of the Kingdom and calls for Gods Vengeance on it which though all are involved in the account in the other World will lye on them which may change it and will not Page 134. But the authority of those Divines of this Church who have declared the sence of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alledged by the Papists themselves to infer that the matter of it is lawful as excluding only the Popes Civil Power Page 141. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ and by consequence his Spirit Hypostatically united to the same to inable us to perform Page 149. The Church of Rome cannot be charged with Idolatry The Pope cannot be Antichrist Ch. 22. The Reformation pretended is abominable and Apostasie and the usual Preaching a hinderance to Salvation and new Homilies to be formed to restrain Preaching Page 146. I confess I can hope for no good end of any dispute without supposing the sence of the Articles of One Catholick Church which hath carried us through this discourse for the Principle on which all matter in debate is to be tryed P. 214. And oft he professeth that Presbyters not ordained by Bishops baptize and give the Eucharist void of the Effect of a Sacrament and only by Sacriledge speaketh against killing and and banishing But this will require the like Moderation to be extended to the
Recusants of the Church of Rome p. 234. The Recusants being for the most part of the Good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in their Religion if they understand themselves Whereas the Sectaries being people of mean quality for the most part cannot be presumed to stand on their reputation so much In his Book called The Forbearance of Penalties c. 3. p. 12 13. he makes the foundation of all Union to be the Government and Laws of the Church as visibly Catholick which Laws must be one and the same the violating whereof is the forfeiture of the same Communion And here I crave leave to call All Canons All Customs of the Church whether concerning the Rites of God's Service or other Observations by one and the same name of Laws of the Church P. 23. As for the Canons of the Church it was never necessary to the maintenance of Commumunion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary the several Customs should be held by the same Authority That the same Authority instituted several Customs for so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the acts of it be agreeable to ☞ God 's Law or not how should Unity be maintained It is manifest that they the Fathers could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if God's Law had been infringed by it It followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to God's Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church Page 27. He saith as Mr. Dodwell It is agreed on by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism that is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated yet it is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Pag. 28. The promise of Baptism is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church nor to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the promise deposited with it Page 33. It is out of love to the Reformation that I insist on such a Principle as may serve to reunite us with the Church of Rome being well assured that we can never be well reunited with our selves otherwise Yet not only the Reformation but the common Christianity must needs be lost in the divisions which will never have an end otherwise Pag. 111. If it be said that it is not visible where those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which the Code of the Canons contains which Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great pag. 128. which I would have this Church to own In Mr. Thorndike's large folio Book there is yet much more for his Universal Legislative Aristocracy mixt with Regular Papacy The sum of all is The Pope Governing at least in the West by the Canons in the intervals of General Councils that is alwaies and as the chief Member with Councils making Laws for all the World Thus the French and Italian Papists differ whether the Pope shall Govern the World as the King of Poland doth his Land or say some as the Duke of Venice or rather as the King of France But Protestants know no such thing as an Universal Legislative Church nor owns any Universal Laws but Gods unless you mean Nationally Vniversal as in the Empire Councils and Laws were called I refer you again to Dr. Barrows Confutation of the rest of Mr. Thorndikes Chap. XII The Judgment of Dr. Sparrow Bishop of Norwich and divers others BIshop Sparrow Pref. to Collect. As my Father sent me so send I you Here committing the Government of the Church to his Apostles our Lord Commissions them with the same Power that was committed to him for that purpose when he was on Earth with the same necessary standing Power that he had exercised as Man for the good of the Church Less cannot in reason be thought to be granted than all Power necessary for the well and peaceable Government of the Church And such a power is this of Making Laws This is a Commission in general for making Laws Then in particular for making Articles and Decisions of Doctrines controverted the power is more explicite and express Mat. 28. All power is given me Go therefore and teach all Nations that is with authority and by virtue of the power given me And what is it to teach the Truth with authority but to command and oblige all people to receive the Truth so taught And this power was not given to the Apostles persons only for Christ then promised to be with them in that Office to the end of the World that is to them and their Successors in the Pastoral Office To the Apostles or Bishops that should succeed them to the end of the World To this One holy Church our Lord committed in trust the most holy Faith c. commanding under penalties and censures all her Children to receive that sence and to profess it in such expressive words and forms as may directly determine the doubt Thus she did in the great Nicene Council This authority in determining Doubts and Controversies the Church hath practised in ALL AGES and her constant practice is the best Interpreter of her right I shall not tire the Reader with the needless recitation of many more late Divines that lived since 1630. enough are known Those that have defended Grotius of late I pass no judgment on you may read their own Books and judge as you see cause viz. Dr. Thomas Pierce now Dean of Salisbury and the famous Preface to Archbishop Bromhall's Book against me c. I fear all this History is needless Men now laugh at me for proving by Mens writings their endeavours to subject the King and Kingdom to a Foreign Jurisdiction when they say it is more sensibly and dreadfully proving it self Chap. XIII Dr. Parker's Judgment since Bishop of Oxford THE last mentioned Author Dr. Sam. Parker besides what he hath said against me in his large Preface before Archbishop Bromhall's Book hath since gone so far beyond all his Fellows that finding himself unable to answer this Argument otherwise The World must not have one Universal Humane Civil Governor King or Aristocracy ergo It must not have one Humane Priest or Church Governor desperately denieth the Antecedent and saith that though de facto the Kings of the Earth have not one Soveraign over them all that is meer Man they ought to have Audite Reges I cannot conjecture who he meaneth unless it be the Pope and he be of Cardinal Bertrand's mind that God had not been wise if he had not made one Man
a Vice-God or his Deputy to Rule all the World For sure he never dreamed that all Kings and States on Earth would meet or voluntarily agree to chuse one Universal King over them I met newly with an extraordinary Wit who saith that after the Conflagration in the Millennium of the New Heaven and Earth Christ or his Vice-Roy will triumphantly Rule c. But 1. I never read before of a Vice-Roy after the Conflagration which he saith will first consume Antichrist 2. I know not how much of the New World he assigns to this Vice-Roy's Government for if Gog and Magog after cover the Earth and the New Generation be numerous which he thinks the Earth will bring forth like lower Animals it may be the New Jerusalem may be so small that one Vice-Roy may Rule it 3. But sure that holy Generation will make Government and Obedience far easier things than now they are Chap. XIV Dr. Saywell's Arguments for a Foreign Jurisdiction considered § 1. THis Dr. who I may well suppose speaketh his Lord and Masters sence is so open as to let us know 1. That it is the Popes Power above General Councilâ— which they call Popery 2. And that they join with the conciliar Party in point of Church Government and so take not them for Papists who hold not that Soveraignty of the Pope but only his Primacy 3. That it is but the Jesuited Party of the Church of Rome which they renounce 4. That they also renounce all Nonconforming Protestants as a Jesuited Party So that he would tempt us to believe what some affirm that their design hath long been to subdue the Jesuits and Reformed Churches or rather destroy these and to strike up a Union with the French and maintain that they are no Papists as to Government But though the Power of old Protestants in England were never so much subdued to them methinks the Jesuits Interest in France should resist them unless the Jesuits themselves be as some vainly think faln out with the Pope and then it will be the Jesuited Party which these Men will own § 2. But to his Arguments Page 342. Mr. B. saith I have earnestly desired and searched to know tâ—e proof of such a Legislative Vniversal Power and I cannot find it But if Mr. B. would seriously consider these Texts he might find that obedience is due to the Church Mat. 18. If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Now as one private Man may neâ—lect to hear the Episcopal Church to which he belongs so the Episcopal Provincial and National Church may also prove Heretical and neglect to hear the Catholick Church but the Vniversal Church can never faâ—l for the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it And if more Persons or particular Churches give offence by Heresie Schism c. the Church Vniversal or the rest of the Bishops may reprove them for it and then there is no reason why one Man should be censured and many go frâ—e and consequently our Saviour hath established the Authority of his Church over all Christians as well particular Churches as private Men. Ans. 1. Let us try this Argument by the like God hath commanded obedience to Kings and said He that will not hear the King and Judge shall be put to death But Kings and their Kingdoms may be Criminal And if private men must obey Authority or be put to death so must Kings and Kingdoms Why should they escape Therefore all Kings and Kingdoms must obey One Universal Humane King or Kingdom under Christ. Do you think this is true No There is no such Universal Humane Empire Monarchical or Aristocratical No Mortal Men are capable of it any more than of Ruling the World in the Moon or the Fish in the Sea but of a part only So there is no such Universal Church Power but particular there is As to your reason I answer God is the Universal King and he only is the punisher of all Soveraign Powers whether Monarchs Aristocracies or Mixt. which I have ever asserted though the Lying Spirit hath feigned the contrary God hath several ways to Rule and Judge them here and his final Judgment is at hand And the case is like with National Churches save that their own Princes may punish offending Clergy-men 2. One Person or Nation may renounce Communion with another as Heretical without any Ruling Power over them And the other may do the same by them deserving it Am I a Governor or Legislator over every one that I may refuse to eat or pray with as a Brother 3. That there is no Humane Universal Church which hath power to Govern a National Church as the Bishops may their Flocks is proved 1. They cannot have the Authority who have not so much as a Natural Capacity But none have a Natural Capacity to Govern all the Christian World Ergo none have such Authority 2. They have not the Authority who have not the Obligation to use it in such Government For an Office containeth Authority and Obligation But none are obliged to Govern all the Christian World Ergo c. For the Minor 1. None are obliged to Impossibilities But c. 2. None are obliged without some obliging Law But there is no Law obliging any to Govern all the Christian World Ergo. 3. If they are obliged they are condemned if they do it not But none do Rule all the Christian World He confesseth none have done it since the sixth General Council that is these thousand years and more by one And doth he not Damn the Bishops of all the World then for neglecting their great Duty a thousand years together If he say that Others made Canons enough before I answer 1. If they have had no such work to do these thousand years then there was no Office or Obligation or Power to do it 2. It was then only those that made the Laws that had that Soveraignty The Dead are no Rulers and so the Church hath had no Soveraign since 2. If he say They since Ruled by the old Laws I answer 1. That was not by Legislation but Execution 2. They never Ruled the Universal Church as one Soveraign Power by the old Laws but only per partes in their several Provinces as Justices and Mayors Rule the Kingdom without Soveraignty Arg. 3 That which never was claimed till the Papal Usurpation was not instituted by God But a Soveraign Government of the Univeâ—sal Church on Earth was never claimed till the Papal Usurpation Ergo. That Councils were only General as to one Empire and called only in one Empire and pretended to Govern that Empire and not all the World I have fully proved against Johnson Arg. 4. Those that must Rule all the Christian World must teach them For the Pastoral Government is by the Word But no one Person or Aristocracy are the Teachers of all the World Who have pretended to it but the Papacy Arg.
not too distant may for mutual help and Concord meet in Councils And none should needlesly break their just Agreements because of the general Command of Concord But 1. They hold that these Councils be no representers of all the Christian World 2. Nor have any Universal Jurisdiction 3. Nor any true Governing Power at all over the absent or dissenters but an Agreeing Power 4. And if they pretend any such Power they turn Usurpers 5. And if on pretence of Concord they make Snares or Decree things that are against the Churches Edification Peace or Order or against the Word of God none are bound to stand to such Agreements These being the Judgment of Protestants what do these Men but abuse their words of Reverence to Councils and Submission to their Contracts as if they were for their Universal Soveraign Jurisdiction § 13. And next he saith Whereas Mr. B. doth usher in his Discourse with an intimation that this was only a Doctrine of the Gallican Church he cannot but know that this was the sence of the Church of England in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign Answ. 1. I honour the Gallican Papists above the Italian but I am satisfied that both do erre 2. There is a double untruth in Matter of Fact in your words 1. That I cannot but know that which I cannot know or believe 2. That yours was the sence of the Church of England which I have disproved But what is your proof D. S. For the 20th Article saith The Church hath Power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith and the next Article doth suppose this Authority in General Councils Answ. The Church of England supposeth that Kingdoms should be Christian and the Magistrates and Pastors Power so twisted as that their Conjunction may best make Religion national as it was with the Jews But it never owned a foreign Jurisdiction or the Governing Power of the Subjects of one Kingdom over the Princes and People of another It followeth not that because the Church in England may Decree some Rites here that therefore foreign Churches may command us to use their Rites Our own Church Teachers no doubt have Authority in Controversies of Faith that is to teach us what is the truth and to keep Peace among Disputers but not to bind us to believe any thing against God's Word and therefore not meerly because it 's their Decree Therefore the Article cautelously calls the Church only a Witness and Keeper of holy Writ which we deny not And that besides Scripture they ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for Necessity to Salvation But you would have us believe the Soveraign Universal Jurisdiction of Councils yea and the lawfulness of all your Oaths and Impositions as necessary to escape damning Schism and is not that as necessary to Salvation 2. And one would think there needed no more than the next Articles to confute you which you cite as for you They knew that there had been Imperial General Councils which being gathered and authorized by the Emperors had the same Power in the Empire that National Councils have with us or in other Nations But there 's not a syllable of any Jurisdiction that they have out of the Empire Yea contrary it 's said 1. That they may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And therefore cannot Govern them without their Will nor have any Conciliar Power being no Council And one King cannot command the Subjects of another Indeed if Princes will make themselves Subjects to a Council or Pope who can hinder them 2. They are here declared to be Men not all governed by the Spirit and Word of God and such as may erre and have erred in things pertaining to God Therefore their meer Contracts and Advice are no further to be obeyed than they are governed by the Spirit and Word of God which we are discerning Judges of And it is concluded that things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the Holy Scripture So that even their Expositions of the Articles of Faith which you make their chief Work hath no further Authority than it 's declared to be taken out of the Scripture it self nor yet their decision of the sence of controverted Texts And such proof must be received from a single Man § 14. Such another proof he fetcheth from the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 1. Forbidding to judge any thing Heresie but what hath been so judged by Authority of Canonical Scripture or the first four General Councils or any of them or any other General Councils Answ. As if forbidding private Heretication were the same with the Universal Soveraignty of Councils we are of the same Religion with all true Christians in the World and we are for as much Concord with all as we can attain But is Concord and Subjection all one or Contract and Government § 15. The like Inference he raiseth from a Canon 1571. forbidding any new Doctrine not agreeable to the Scripture and such as the Ancient Fathers and Bishops thence gathered Answ. And what 's this to an Universal Church Soveraignty § 16. The Church of England's Sence is better expounded Reform Leg. Eccles. c. 15. Orthodoxorum Patrum etiam authoritatem minime censemus esse contemnendam sunt enim permulta ab illis praeclare utiliter dicta Ut tamen ex eorum sententia de sacris literis judicetur non admittimus Debent enim sacrae literae nobis omnis Christianae doctrinae Regulae esse Judices Quin ipsi Patres tantum sibi deferri recusarunt saepius admonentes Lectorem ut tantisper suas admittat sententias interpretationes quoad cum sacris literis consentire eas animadverterit § 17. D. S. P. 358. Mr. B. saith The doubt is whom you will take for good Christians into your Communion But this can be no doubt when I except only the Jesuited part of the Roman and other Churches Answ. So you take in the Church of Rome which you cannot do without taking in the pretended Soveraignty Essential to it Was not that Church Papal before there were any Jesuites But hold Dr. It 's France that you are first Uniting with and they say that the Jesuites are there the Predominant part And are you against them there § 18. P. 360. He takes it ill that I suppose him to separate from the Church of England I have fully given him here my proof The Church of England took not it self for a part of an Universal humane Political Church But his Church doth and is thereby of another Political Species as a City differeth from a Kingdom I will not tire the Reader with following him any further Vain Contenders necessitate us to be over tedious § 19. I am loth here to answer the rest of his Book against our Nonconformity 1. Because I would not follow them that
have no right to Salvation presently on their Baptism then it is not lawful to say that the contrary is undoubtedly certain by the Word of God But I confess Mr. D's Proposition is false as I have formerly proved to him And perhaps necessity will force himself to deny it as to Baptism though it overthrow his assertion about Ordination Specially if he be for Laymen and Womens Baptizing as the Papists are in case of danger But the Name of the Church will warrant such Lords to prove all such Declarations Subscriptions Oaths not only sinless but necessary to Order Peace Obedience Ministry and I think to Salvation For they make Schism Damning and such Obedience necessary to escape Schism But he hath one cleanly shift Though the Corporation Declaration be that there is no Obligation from the Covenant on me or any other person and a Man think that some are obliged by it against Schism Popery and Prophaneness and to repent of Sin He saith no Man is forced to take these Declarations Vestry Oaths c. For he may chuse and none constraineth him to be in Corporation trust or a Vestry-man and so a Minister so the Act was to appropriate this sweet Morsel of so Swearing declaring c. to themselves And to themselves let it be appropriated for me And yet when all the Corporations Vestries and Ministry are constituted as they are this is the necessary Unity But Obedience to the Church solveth all I once askt a Convocation man what were the Words of God by which this Article was proved and past in the Convocation and he could not name me any Text that perswaded the Convocation to pass it but told me Dr. P. Guning urged it so hard that they yielded to him without much contradiction I was not willing to believe that the Church of England would pass an Article of Faith against their Judgments to avoid striving with one man when in imposing it they must strive against and silence thousands and condemn most of the Reformed Churches but rather that really they contradicted him not because they thought as he And yet I was loth to think them so uncharitable as to put all Ministers to declare such a thing to be in the Word of God and never tell them where to find it Between both what to think I know not But if really Dr. G. was the Church the reverence of his Name Church shall never make me add to the Word of God or corrupt his Ordinance nor subscribe to his Book or to a Foreign Jurisdiction if he Father it on the Church The main strength of all his condemnations of us and justifications of himself is that They are the Church and our lawful Rulers and we must obey and be Sworn never to endeavour any alteration of Church Government not excepting Church depopulation by large Dioceses nor the use of the Keys by Lay Chancellors And if you ask for the proof of all this and that they are not Vsurpers nor Church-destroyers nor Subverters of Episcopacy it self nor grand Schismaticks you must be content with 1. Ipse dixit and 2. Episcopacy is ancient 3. And the people have neither an Electing or necessary Consenting Vote and yet when not only Mr. Clerkson and I but also Dr. Burnet have fully proved that for twelve hundred or thirteen hundred years the peoples Consent was requisite these great dependents on Antiquity and the Church can wash all off with a torrent of words If the Letters in the Caballa and other History be credible how great a hand had G. Duke of Buckingham in making the Church of England in his days Read but what Heylin saith of Bishop Laud's preferment and the Letters of some Bishops to Buckingham in the Caballa and judge what made the Church of England How basely do they sneak and beg of him for Preferment◠e. g. Theophilus Bishop of Landaffe is a most miserable Man if his Grace help him not to a better Bishoprick Mountagues place at Norwich was of little worth since Henry the Eighth stole the Sheep and scarce for God's sake gave the trotters as he saith in his Letter to Laud. And this was the way So the Church of England is Jure Divino made by the Civil Powers But yet a few words can prove just as he proveth all the rest that the Dean and Chapiter chuse the Bishops and not the King As Heathens made Images of the Gods and thought the Gods did actuate them so men make the Images of Bishops and Councils and some Spirits actuate them whatever they be whether those Noble Lords Knights and Gentlemen that at their death lamented that they lived Atheists and Infidels repented that as Patrons they chose Parish Church men I know not But while these Drs know that many Great Councils have decreed the nullity of those Bishops that got in by Secular help and favour and Damned the Seekers and Accepters of it and yet would perswade the Church that all Gods Word is insufficient for Universal Laws without the addition of Soveraign Councils I will regard them as they deserve and not as they expect Why answer they not my late Book of English Nonconformity The True Sum. Popery is I. The turning a National Univerglity or Catholicism of Councils Church Power into a Terrestrial Universality II. Turning Confederacy and Communion into Political Regency III. Deponing Kings and States from their Sacred office of Supream Government and sole forcible Government of the Church or Persons and things Ecclesiastical the Clergy having only the Power of the Keys Word and Sacraments to work on Conscience without corporal face Chap. XV. The first Letter to Bishop Peter Guning upon his sending me Dr. Saywell's Book My Lord I Thankfully received from you by Dr. Crowther Dr. Saywell's Book and a motion for Conference with him which I yet more thankfully accept I read over the Book presently and think it meet to give you this account of the Success I. 1. I perceive that it doth not concern me nor many if any that I converse with For it is Presbyterians Separatists Quakers and Fanaticks that he accuseth and I am conversant with few such 2. And yet the strein of his Book is such as will make Readers undoubtedly think that by Presbyterians and Nonconformists or Conventiclers he meaneth the same Persons and speaketh of the common Case of the present ejected silenced Ministers Of whom I must again and again say 1. That I have had opportunity by Acquaintance and Report of knowing a great part of the silenced Ministers of England and I know but of few of them that are Presbyterians and Judge most of them to be Episcopal Lawyers and Gentlemen indeed incline to place all the Government in the King and Magistrates 2. That in 1661. when we were Commissioned to endeavour Concord with you not only those named in the Commission but all the Ministers of London were invited by Mr. Calamy and Dr. Reinolds and Mr. 〈◊〉 and Dr. Wallis
c. to come to us in Consultation and let us know their Sence and many came And I remember not one Man that dissented from what we offered you first which was Archbishop Vsher's Primitive Form which took not down Archbishops Bishops or a farthing of their Estates or any of their Lordships or Parliamentary Power or Honour unless the Advice of their Presbyters and the taking the Church Keys out of the hands of Lay Chancellors cast you down 3. That when the King's Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs 1660. granted yet much less Power to Presbyters and left it almost alone in the Bishops we did not only acquiesce in this but all the London Ministers were invited to meet to give the King our joyful Thanks for it And of all that met I remember but two now both dead who refused to subscribe the Common Thanksgiving which with many Hands is yet to be seen in Print And those two exprest their Thankfulness but only said That because some things agreed not to their Judgments they dursâ— not so subscribe lest it signified Approbation but they should thankfully accept that Frame and peaceably submit to it All this being so I appeal with some sense of the Case of England to your self and common reason whether it be just and beseeming a Pastor or Christian or a Man to make the Nation believe 1. That we are Presbyterians 2. And against Bishops 3. And therefore that we are Schismaticks 4. And therefore that we must be Imprisoned or Banished as those that would destroy the Church and Land Would a Turk own such dealing with his Neighbour Is this the way of Peace Will this bring us to Conformity Was it Anti-Episcopal Presbytery which the King's Declaration 1660 determined of Nothing will Serve God and the Churches Peace but Truth and Honesty or at least that which hath some appearance of it II. I find that almost all the Strength of his Book as against Presbyterians who are his Fanaticks is his bare word saying that they are Schismaticks and that they forsake the Judgment and Practice of the Universal Church by forsaking Episcopacy And will this convince me who am certain that I am for that Episcopacy which Ignatius Tertullian Cyprian c. were for and am past doubt that the Episcopacy which I am against is contrary to the Practice of the whole Church for 200 Years and of all save two Cities Alexandria and Rome for a much longer time If I prove this true which I undertake must I then take his turn and desire the Banishment of the Contrary-minded Bishops as dangerous Schismaticks for forsaking the Practice of the Church III. I understand not in his Platform of the Rule which denominateth Dissenters Schismaticks Pag. 353. what he meaneth by the very highest Power most necessary to be understood in these words The Laws and Orders of the Church Vniversal to which every Provincial Church must submit What the Scots mean by a General Assembly I know and what the old Emperors and Councils meant by an Vniversal Council Viz. Universal as to that one Empire But I know no Vniversal Law-givers to the whole Church on Earth but Jesus Christ neither Pope nor Council If I am mistaken in this I should be glad to be convinced for it is of great moment And is the hinge of our Controversie with Rome IV. He doth to me after all give up the whole Cause and absolve me and all that I plead from the guilt of Schism and lay it on your Lordship and such as you if I can understand him when he saith Pag. 363. It is clear that in the Church of England there is no sinful Condition of Communion required nor nothing imposed but what is according to the Order and Practice of the Catholick Church there can be no pretence for any Toleration c. And Pag. 360. There is no Question to be made but where there is an interruption in the Churches Communion there is caused a Schism and it must be charged on them that make the breach which will lye at their Doors who by making their Communion unlawful do unjustly drive away good Christians from it neither doth such a Person that is driven away at present from the external Communion cease to be a Member of that Church but is a much truer Member thereof than that Pastor that doth unjustly drive him from his Communion This fully satisfieth me and if you will read my late small Book called The Nonconformists Plea for Peace you will see what it is that I think unlawful in the Impositions And if you will read a new small Book of your old troubled Neighbour Mr. Jo. Corbet called The Kingdom of God among Men I have so great an Opinion that by it you will better understand us and become more moderate and charitable towards us that I will take your reading it for a very obliging Kindness to Your Servant Ri. Baxter December 11. 1679. Add. V. His terms of Communion are not right as I have proved VI. He speaketh against Toleration so generally without distinction as if no one that dissented but in a word were tolerable which is intolerable Doctrine in a pretended Peace-maker VII He inferreth Toleration while he denieth it in that he is against putting us to Death How then will he hinder Toleration Mulcts will not do it as you see by the Law that imposeth 40 l. a Sermon For when Men devoted to the Sacred Ministry have no Money they will Preach and Beg Imprisonment must be perpetual or uneffectual for when they come out they will Preach again And it contradicteth himself for it will kill many Students being mostly weak as it kill'd by bringing mortal Sickness on them those Learned Holy Peaceable and Excellent Men Mr. Jos. Allen of Taunton Mr. Hughes of Plimouth and some have died in Prison And he that killeth them by Imprisonment killeth them as well as he that burneth them or hangeth them And the Prisons will be so full as will render the Causers of it odious to many and make such as St. Martin was separate from the Bishops the same I say of Banishment Dr. Saywell's Principles infer as followeth I. Schismaticks are not to be Tolerated They that are for the sort of Diocesane Prelacy which we disown are Schismaticks Ergo not to be Tolerated The Major is Dr. S's The Minor is proved thus They that are against that Episcopacy which the Primitive Universal Church was for and used are Schismaticks The foresaid Diocesane Party are against that Episcopacy which the Primitive Universal Church was for and used Ergo they are Schismaticks The Major is Dr. S's The Minor is thus proved I. They that are for the deposing of the Bishops that were over every single Church that had one Altar and those that were over every City Church and instead of them setting up only one Bishop over a Diocess which hath a Thousand or many Hundred Altars and many Cities are against the Episcopacy
Communion of the Churches 8. But I supposed that none but those who were called to it immediately by Christ or endued with the gift of Infallibility therein were to be as his Mouth and Hand in so delivering the Gospel and writing the Holy Scriptures as should be his Word or Law to all the Christian World and to all future Generations 9. But as Prophets of old were the bringers of all new Revelations and the Priests were but the Preservers Expounders and Appliers of the Word which the Prophets had brought So the Spirit in the Apostles Evangelists and Prophets infallibly delivered that Word and Law which all succeeding Pastors must Preach Practise and Rule by as the only Universal Law This being hitherto my Judgment if you are not mistaken I am no Member of the Universal Church and so no Christian and therefore am uncapable of Communion and have not Christ's Spirit nor title to Salvation and therefore it concerneth me speedily to try and receive Instructions However we are of two Religions and Churches if you are in the right II That which I have hitherto denied herein is 1. That there is any Vicarious Constitutive or Governing Head of the Church Universal or Soveraign Power Personal or Collective having Supream Universal Legislative Judicial and Executive Power under Christ which all Christians are bound to be Subjects of and to obey 2. That Obedience to such an Universal Church-Soveraign or Power is not the necessary means or terms of Universal Concord or Communion 1. Because there is no such Power 2. If there be it cannot be Universally known by Christians 1. That it is 2. What it is 3. And in whom it is 3. Nor can the Measure of Obedience to such Power necessary to Concord and Communion of all be Universally known 4. And de facto there is no such Concord or Communion Universal in the World nor ever was at least since the Apostles days Of these in order I. If there be any Vicarious Universal Supream Power that all must obey that will be Members of the Church the Institution of it is to be found in Scripture or in some other Divine Record But no such thing is found in either we have no other Divine Record that notifyeth this and Scripture doth not It is the Apostles Power that is the thing hence alledged But 1. While they were near the whole Church in its Infancy or small Number Men could have sent to them for their Judgment But so they could not had they lived to see the Church in its present extent If the twelve Apostles were now at Jerusalem and we doubted of the Nestorian Eutychian Monothelite Controversies and the rest in Epiphanius and Philastrius Catalogue Could all the Christians in America Africa Asia and Europe know that the major Vote of the Apostles met at Jerusalem had thus or thus decided How few would live long enough for that Satisfaction 2. The Apostles singly by an infallible Uniting Spirit were the Mouth of Christ to deliver obligatorily his Laws and Doctrine without meeting to Consult and Vote it Paul professeth Gal. 1. that he received not his Gospel from the Apostles but from Christ And his Epistles need not a proof of their Authority from the Votes or Consent of the rest but were otherwise received And so of other parts of Scripture 3. The Apostles were to be dispersed about the World and not to stay long together to Govern the World as a College And while they stayed at Jerusalem we read not of their doing any thing in a College and Conciliar way save that Act. 15. 11. which was 1. No General Council from all the Churches 2. Nor done by Apostles only but the Elders and Brethren also of the Church at Jerusalem 3. And was not laid on the Authority of a major Vote but on the Apostolical Spirit of Infallibility and their special knowledge of Christ's mind in which they all concurred 2. Therefore their Authority of Teaching the World all Christ's Commands M-28-20 being proper to them by these two advantages being chosen Ear-witnesses and having the Spirit to guide them into all truth in this they have no Successors though they have in the continued parts of their Work They were Christs Instruments in Universal Legislation and the Scripture written by them is his Word and Law and they were accordingly enabled to Seal it by Miracles and giving the Holy Ghost by Imposition of their Hands This Law of Christ all Christians own But if in this they have Successors 1. The Church hath a larger Law than we have thought on and Gods Word is a greater Volume 2. And Miracles are as necessary to Seal the new Word as to Seal the old II. The Scripture denieth a Vicarious summam potestatem or Soveraignty over the Universal Church having a Legislative Power 1. In that it saith that There is One Law-giver Jam. 4.12 that is But One. 2. In calling Christ only the Head Lord and King and calling Apostles but Members 1 Cor. 12.27 and Stewards and Ministers by whom we believe 3. Baptizing us only into the Name of Christ and not of the Apostles and Baptism is Christening and sheweth all that is necessary to make us Members of the Church and Body which Christ is the Saviour of 4. Paul decryeth it as Carnality and Schism to think of Men above what is written as if they had been Baptized into the Names of Men. 5. The Apostles did not Convert Men by preaching up themselves as Soveraign but Christ only professing themselves Witnesses and Messengers of his Words and Deeds The Eunuch Acts 8. was Baptized by Philip upon his bare believing in Christ without hearing the â—ote of a Colledge of Apostles Nor did the Preachers that Converted Men do it by the Argument of the Authority of such a Colledge As Dr. Hammond saith on 1 Tim. 3. And such are all particular Churches of the whole World considered together under the Supream Head Christ Jesus dispensing them all by himself and administring them severally not by any one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as Inferior Heads of Unity to the several Bodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their Plantations each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct Commission from Christ Immediately and Subordinate to none but the Supream Donor or Plenipotentiary Neither to a Personal nor Collective Soveraign Power The Judges of England have a Power which limitedly in their several Courts and Circuits respecteth all the Kingdom But 1. They have no Legislative Power 2. Nor are they Constitutive Essential parts of the Kingdom It would be the same Kingdom were their Power changed 3. Therefore the Constitutive Oaths or Bond is only between King and Subjects and we are not to Swear Allegiance to any other than the King 4. Nor are they Judges out of their several Courts and Circuits 5. Much less in other Kingdoms 6. Nor is any a Judge to all the World so is
Basil out of the West or some few parts of it and few from the East and none from Ethiopia Armenia America and many other Churches are these a true Universal Council And can we all be here resolved The Countrey where the Council meeteth and the Prince who is for them will have more Bishops there than any if not all the rest when remote parts and the Churches under Enemies or dissenting Princes will have few 5. The same Councils that had most for them under one Prince have had most Bishops against them under the next and so off and on for many Successions We know that the Council of Nice was mostly for the truth because we try it by the Word of God Else how should it be known after when under Constantius and Valens most of the Bishops by far in Councils and out were Arrians The World groaned to find it self grown Arrian The Council of Constantinople in the beginning set up Greg. Nazianzen and in the end was against him Which part was the Universal Governor The first Council at Ephesus was against Nestorius till Joh. Antiochenus came and then it divided into two which condemned each other and after by the Emperors threatening was united The Chalcedon Council carried most while Martian Reigned and after most condemned and cursed it and then again most were for it and under other Emperors most cursed it again and under Zeno the most were for Neutrality or Silencing the difference The Eutychians had far most at Ephes. 2. and a while after under Theodos. 2. and Anastasius c. And under others and most Princes most were against them and called Eph. 2. Latrocinium And yet most of the East have been for Dioscorus ever since saving the Greeks The Monothelites had far most innumerable Bishops out of the East saith Binnius ut supra under Philippicus in a Council yea saith Binnius the Council at Trullu in Constant. were Monothelites and yet the same Men that were at the foregoing approved fifth General Council at Const. And over and over most Bishops were for one side and most for the other as Princes changed afterward Under Justinian most seemed for the Phantasiastae against the Corrupticolae VVhich yet are since with Justinian accounted persecuting Hereticks The approved Council at Const. de tribus Capitulis had some time most Bishops for it and sometime most-against it Insomuch that it occasioned much of Italy it self to renounce the Popes-headship and set up the Patriarch of Aquileia as their Chief The Council at Nice 2. and others for Images and so others against them have been so oft and notoriously under one Emperor owned by most and under another condemned by most yea by the same Bishops owned and after disowned that no Man can tell which of them to take for the Universal Legislators or Rulers of the Church by the number of the Bishops but only we must know which of them were sound by the VVord of God And since them what Council ever was there that could be so known by numbers to be of Authority Constance and Basil that had the greatest numbers are condemned by Florence and by the most of the Roman Church No Man can tell us of all that are past what Councils are of obliging Authority and must be obeyed by any outward Note but only by trying them by the VVord of God 6. And what wonder when there is no other certain Note by which an obliging Council can be known from others And he that knoweth what God saith without the Council needs it not The Papists have no Note of difference but the Popes Approbation And Protestants know that this is no proof of their Authority At Eph. 2. Bellarmine and Binnius tell us that the consent was so general that only St. Peter's Ship escaped drowning At Const. 1. they confess that the Pope had not so much as a Legate By what Note shall we know the true and Authorized Councils from the rejected when part of the Christian VVorld is for one and against another and the other part contrary III. And there is no Agreement in what the Power of such Councils materially doth consist and what it is that they may command us and what not IV. Nor is there any Agreement which and how many are their true Obligatory Laws when we have such huge Volumes of Decrees and Canons woe to us if all these must necessarily be obeyed to our Concord or Salvation And if not all how shall we know which V. Nor do we know how we must be sure that all these Canons indeed were Currant and had the Major Vote or many be Counterfeit when the Africans had then such a stir with the Pope about the Nicene or Sardican Canon and when to this day the Canons of the Laterane Council sub Innoc. 3. are justified by most and denied by many VI. If this could be known to a few Learned Men it is certain that to most Christians yea Ministers it cannot To me it is not And it 's certain that all Christians nor all Ministers are not obliged to so great a task as to search all the Councils till they know which they be and which the Laws which they must obey III. And as the Power and Laws cannot be known so it is certain that Obedience to these is not the necessary means of Christianity Concord or Communion because the necessary measure of such Obedience cannot be known to such a use Christ in his Institution of Baptism and other ways hath told what he hath made necessary to be a Member of the Universal Church and how all such must live in Love and Peace in obeying the rest of his Word so far as they can know it But you that make Obedience to a visible Power over the Church Universal necessary to our Membership can never tell us which is the necessary Degree If it be all the Canons and Mandates that must be so obeyed no Man can be saved much less can the Churches all have Concord on such terms yea every Christian If it be not all who can tell us which be the necessary Canons and Acts of Obedience and distinguish Essentials from Integrals unless you will return to the Word of God and say that The Covenant of Grace is Essential which we may know without these Councils Laws The Ministry of Councils teaching us how to know God's Word and Laws is one thing and their own pretended universally obliging Legislation is another Of all this I have said much in the second Part of my Key for Catholicks and in my foresaid Rejoinder to W. Johnson II. But you tell me of another Church Power which all must obey that will have Communion and Concord which you call Collegium Pastorum If none be Church Members or Christians that understand not what this is much less do obey it I doubt the Church is still a little Flock indeed For I understand it not nor know one Man that I think doth 1. Is
is Christ the Bishop or Pastor confers them only as his Instruments So others As all Power is of God and must be obeyed so Usurpation is of Satan and the higher the worse and the word Antichrist is supposed by many to signifie one that is a Vsurping Christ that is a Usurper of Vniversal Soveraignty which none but Christ is capable of Mr. Jos. Glanviles Character of Devils or Evil Spirits in his Sadducâ—ismus Triumphatus is considerable p. 33. and 42. Edit 2. The meanest and basest in the Kingdom of darkness having none to Rule and Tyrannize over within the Circle of their own Nature and Government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated Nature especially among those whose Pride was their Original Transgression Every one of these desireth to get him Vassals to pay him Homage The good Angels have no such ends to prosecute as the gaining any Vassals to serve them they being Ministring Spirits for our good and no self-designers for a proud and insolent Dominion over us But I think no Devil but Beelzebub the Prince aspireth so high as to be Ruler of all the World or Church And when Cardinal Bertrand told Philip King of France that God had not been Wise if he had not set up one as his Vicegerent visibly to Rule all the World I do not find that he set up that Vice-god so far above God himself as to forbid obeying him before his Viceroy or to deny Gods Universal Laws to be above Mans and to deny all Appeals to God and his Word or to say that the President of Counsels must be obeyed without excepting If Gods Laws and his be inconsistent Since the Writing of all foregoing Mr. Dodwell hath Published the Second Part of his Leviathan called A Discourse of one Altar and one Priesthood as against us whom he calleth Schismaticks and me in particular It is much of the Complexion of the First Part His Schismatical Book being a Chain of many linked Propositions of which many are false and many falsly shaped and applied But put off with a confident Affirmation that he hath proved them true And his former Method is defended by as confident an Affirmation that all that is said against them invalidates not his proof The shortest way I confess of defending himself and answering others and saveth the labour of much Writing and Reading And I think if the tedious Discourses of his two Volumes had been just so abbreviated it had been a Kindness to his Readers § 2. Whether he reserve his Answer to my last Book against him to another Treatise or mean to overpass it by saying it is contemptible I know not nor much desire to know I find him here in his Preface doing that which may serve his turn much better than an answer viz. 1. Many angry Charges that I slander him 2. An attempt to prove it agreeable to his Method 3. Confident Affirmation that I write not accurately nor answer his Proofs And to those that read his Books and not mine this is enough § 3. His Proof of my Slander is mostly by way of question Where did I say this or that Where 1. Those things that I spake of others he feigneth me to say of him Joyning divers late Writers together I mention what is said among them some one part and some another and he takes all to himself 2. When I mention the clear Consequences of his Doctrine 3. And when in my Letters I recite his Verbal Discourse with me he asks Where have I said it Did I not find him a designed Hider I would not suspect designed Fraud but should be very glad that he so much as intimateth in his Questions a denial of so many Errors But who can choose but suspect his Sincerity in such seeming Denials who findeth some of them unsincere E. g. He asketh Pref. Where did I once call Thomas Aquinas a Saint This startleth me Many times have my Ears heard him call him Saint Thomas and never once heard him call him otherwise And doth he now seem to deny it I never said that he so wrote but so called him Had I not reason to believe that when he oft calls the Church of Christ in the singular Number One Political Body under One humane Government which all must obey and not question whether it's Laws be agreeable to the Law of God that he meant the Church Catholick and not a Diocess There are Thousands of Diocesses but the Church that he spake of is but One. Had I any reason to believe that when he talkt of the sole right of the President to call Councils or Assemblies to make Church Canons that he meant only Diocesans When as a Diocesane hath no Bishops under him to Convocate And whether it be not Convocate Bishops to whom he appropriateth this Legislation let the Reader judge as he seeth cause § 4. But I abhor making any Man thought to own what he disowneth And I gladly receive his intimated Denyals in these Questions and tender them to the Consideration of all that are for a foreign Jurisdiction 1. Mr. Dodwell denieth by intimation all humane Vniversal Church Supremacy and consequently all humane Power of Legislation or Judgment over the whole Church He denieth the Government of the Catholick Church Collectively ought to be either Monarchical or Aristocratical in Pope or Council 2. He denieth the Pope to have any Primacy or Presidentship in General Councils or that it belongs to him to call them It was but a Diocesans Power to Convocate his Presbyters that he meant 3. He taketh the French Church for Papists while they own the Popish Communion though many are not so in their Principles But it is Mens Principles that I spake of and not their Communion 4. He denieth Communion with any part of the Roman Church Doth Dr. Saywell do so 5. He taketh the Councils of Constance and Basil for Papists and hath no Communion with those that own them as being Papists 6. He proveth the French Church guilty of the Hildebrandine Doctrine of deposing Princes and Aquinas too 7. He disowneth the terms of Cassander and Grotius as not sufficient to a lasting Peace 8. He odly dreamed that when I deny a Governing College of Bishops I thought the Lord Bishop of Ely had meant such as our University Colleges cohabiting this is no Slander in him yet he declareth that by such a College he means but Bishops ejusdem Speciei governing the Church by parts and not any One Numerical Soveraign Company But that they should hold all due Communion which he may see I still grant And he falsly fancies that I am against Cyprian's naming of Colleagues or his sence § 5. But if Mr. Dodwell be sincere he makes himself one of the greatest Separatists in the World Consider how narrow his Communion is and the Church which he owneth 1. He hath no Communion with the rigid
to be the authoriser of the Majority for Government For they will think that they have more of the Holy Ghost than you and therefore must Govern you I would all Rulers had the Holy Ghost but it 's somewhat else that must give them Authority XV. Your instance of the Easter Controversie is against you The difference undecided for 300 Years and Apostolical Tradition urged on both sides tells us that it was no Apostolick Law And Socrates and Sozomen tell us that in that and many such like things 〈◊〉 Churches had freely differed in Peace 〈◊〉 you seem to intimate contrary to them and to Irenâ—â—us that the Asians were Schismaticks till they Conformed And why name you Asia alone Were our Brittish Churches and the Scottish no Churches Or do you also Condemn them as Schismaticks for about 300 Years after the Nicene Council What could the Papists say more against them XVI How impossible a thing do you make Church Union to be while the Essentials or great Integrals of Religion are made insufficient to it and so many Ceremonies and Church Laws are feigned necessary which no man ever comes to the true knowledge of that he hath the right ones and all XVII If the Patriarchs must be the Soveraign College I beseech you give us some proof in a Case so weighty 1. How many there must be 2. Where seated 3. Who must choose and make them 4. And quo jure 5. And whether we have now such a College or is there no Church XVIII What Place will you give the Pope in the College I suppose with your Brethren you will call him 1. Principium Vnitatis But that 's a Name of Comparative Order what is his work as such a Principium How is he the Principium if he have no more Power than the rest Must not he call the Councils Though our Articles say General Councils may not be gathered without the Will of Princes Shall he not choose the Place and Time Tell us then who shall Must he not be President Must he not be Patriarch of the West And so Govern England as our Patriarch and Principium unitatis Vniversalis also XIX I pray tell us whether the French be Papists And how their Church-Government as Described from themselves by Mr. Jurieu differeth from that which you are for Tell me not of their Mass and other Corruptions It is Government that is the Form of Popery And they will abate you many other things And must we be Frenchified If the French restore those that we called Papists will disowning the Name and calling them the Church of England chosen by Papist Princes make us sound and safe And when we find Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Dr. Saywell Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Bishop S. Parker and many more were for a Foreign Jurisdiction can we think if the French bring in the late Governours that such Churchmen would not embrace the French Church Government and call it the Church of England when since Lauds days they have endeavoured a Coalition If they be Defeated we may thank King James who could not bear delays and would have all or none when Grotius way would have been a surer Game XX. You tell us of Penalties made by Church Laws Deposing Ministers and Anathematizing the Laity But while the Clergy hath no power of the Sword who will feel such Penalties When Rome Excommunicates the Greeks the Greeks will Excommunicate them again What Penalty is it to Protestants to be Excommunicated by the Pope or his Council How commonly did they that were for and against the Chalcedon Council Excommunicate each other And those that were for and against Images And for Photius and for Ignatius Cheat not Magistrates to be your Lictors and Cursing will go round as Scolding at Billingsgate Who is hurt by a causeless curse but the Curser I confess that Dr. Saywell sayeth well If single persons must be punished shall not Nations also Yes But by whom By God the Universal King and not by an Universal Human Soveraign whether a King or Pope or a Senate of Foreign Subjects XXI We are promised by a trifling Pamphleteer that some of you are answering Mr. Clerksons two Books about the Primitive Episcopacy and Liturgies I pray you procure them also to answer my Treatise of Episcopacy and my English Non-conformity and not with the Impudent Railing Lyars to say it is answered already while we can hear of no such thing And see that they prove that all these things following are Traditions of the Vniversal Church received from the Apostles and used ab omnibus ubique semper 1. That most particular Churches for two Hundred or three Hundred years and so down consisted of many Congregations that had no personal presential Communion 2. That Churches infimi ordinis were Diocesan having many Hundred or Score Parishes under them 3. That these Diocesans undertook the sole Pastoral Care of all these Parishes as to Confirmation Censure Absolution and the rest 4. That all these Parishes were no true Churches as having no Bishops but the Diocesans and were but Chappels or parts of a Church 5. That the Incumbents were no true Pastors or Bishops but one Bishops Curates And that there were not then besides Diocesan Arch-Bishops in each single Church Episcopi Gregis and Episcopi praesides 6. That Bishops Names were used by Lay-men that had the Decretive Power of Excommunication and Absolution 7. That such Secular Judicatories far from the Parishes rather than the particular Pastors Tryed and Judged the unknown people 8. That Parish Ministers Swear Obedience to the Diocesans and they to Metropolitans 9. That all People that would have Licenses to keep Ale-houses or Taverns or that would not lye in Jail were Commanded to receive the Sacrament as a Sealed Pardon of their Sins 10. That from the beginning all Churches were forced to use the same form of Liturgy and not every Church or Bishop to choose as he saw Cause 11. That Kings chose Bishops and Deans without the Consent of the Clergy and People 12. That all Ministers were to be Ejected and forbidden to Preach the Gospel that durst not Subscribe that there is nothing contrary to Gods Word in such as our three imposed Books 13. That all Lords Magistrates Priests and People that affirm the contrary be ipso facto Excommunicate 14. That Lay-Patrons that are but Rich enough to buy an Advowson how Vicious soever did choose all the Incumbent Ministers to whom the People must commit the Ministerial Care of their Souls 15. That they that dare not trust such Pastors as are chosen by Kings though Papists and such Patrons and dare not Conform to every imposition like ours must live like Atheists in forbearance of all publick Worship and Church Communion 16. That all may Swear that an Oath or Vow of Lawful and Necessary things bindeth not our selves or any others if it be but unlawfully imposed and taken and had any unlawful part
the Universal Church And so it is not only Bishops that have every one a Charge in his Place to promote the Universal welfare but every Presbyter and every Christian in his Place Therefore that Bishops are related to the whole Church no more proveth that they have as a Senate a summa potestas or any Universal Government over it as one College than it will prove it in all other Christians who are all related to the whole Nor no more than the Members of the Body do make one natural Governing Part by Consent XXX This Communion of Christians in the Church as Catholick is essentiated by the Essentials of Christianity and Ministry for Christians as Christians with Christ the Head do constitute the Catholick Church in its first being as in fieri And Christians as Christian Ministers of Christ and private Disciples do constitute the organized Body which with Christ the Head make an organized Catholick Church XXXI The Integrals of Christianity Communion are not necessary to the Essence of the Church but to the Integrity Much less the Accidents XXXII The Christian Churches through the World have Communion in all these things following at this day 1. They are all Baptized with the same Baptism in Essence and so are all Christians Particularly they all profess to believe in God the Father one Jesus Christ our Redeemer and one Holy Ghost one in Essence with the Father and the Son They all profess the same Creed called the Apostles yea and the Nicene and the Lord's Prayer as the Rule of our Desires and the Decalogue as a summary Rule of Practice They all believe the same holy Canonical Scripture as to as many Books at least as are necessary to the being of Christianity and Salvation They all agree in the Essentials of the Sacred Ministry that such must teach the Infidels of the World and make them Disciples of Christ baptizing them and then must teach them Christ's Commands That they are under Christ's Teaching Priestly and Kingly office to be to the Churches the Peoples Teachers their Guides in Publick Worship and the Rulers of their Communion by the Power of the Keys They agree in the Essentials of the Lord's Supper save that the Papists have corrupted it by Transubstantiation and other foul Abuses The Protestants Greeks Armenians Abassines and all or near all the Parties of Christians in the World are agreed in all this and much more excepting the said Corruptions of Popery 2. Their Religion teacheth them all to Love one another as the Members of the same Body of Christ to do good to all especially to the Houshold of Faith and to Pray for one another and and relieve each other in want and to do to all as they would have others do to them In a word to Love God as God and Saints as Saints and Men as Men and all to seek one Heavenly Kingdom and all fight against the same Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil And this is Catholick Communion XXXIII The greater Communion they have in all the Integral parts of Christian Faith Worship and Government the more strong and amiable the several Churches are and so is the whole by such Communion But it is not necessary to the Essence It is not the Papists trick of challenging us to name Fundamentals that will cheat men of understanding to confound Essentials and Integrals That which hath no Essence is nothing that whose Essentials are unknown is not knowable nor can be defined Christianity was once known by Baptism and it was once knowable who were to be Baptized and who to be received as Christians into Communion There are multitudes of Divine Truths revealed in Scripture and therefore to be believed which are not essential to a Christian or a Church And so there are Integral Parts of Worship and Discipline He that needs more proof of this is not one of those that I write for XXXIV The Accidents of Christianity and Churches are of two sorts some such as it is desireable that all Churches should agree in though it be necessary neither to their Essence or Integrity And some such in which an Universal Agreement is neither possible nor desireable As it is desireable to comeliness that all men have Hair and Nails c. but not that they all wear Cloaths of the same Stuff Shape or Price or all dwell in Houses of the same materials form or bigness nor all use the same Trade of Life nor be of one Age or Rank c. It is desireable that all the World spake one Language and were of one Judgment in all things of common concernment But it 's hopeless And he would play the hypocritical Devil that on pretence of seeking Unity would destroy or ruin all that agree not in these things so is it as to Church Communion It is desireable that all Christians understood and spake one Language and that we had but one perfect sort of Copy of the Bible without various readings or where Translations are necessary that they were all perfect and agreeable but it 's hopeless As the case is it is not desireable much less necessary that we all Worship God in one Language when all understand it not or that we all use the same Translations Liturgy or words of Prayer or Preaching or all wear the same sort of Garments and an hundred such like And to silence all that do not or reject them from Catholick Communion is the like hypocritical Diabolism and in that way the Devil and the Pope are the greatest Vniters that is Dividers and Destroyers in the World XXXV The Vniversal Church containeth many particular Churches throughout the World This none denieth As a Kingdom hath many Cities and Corporations XXXVI These particular Churches Parts of the Universal have a distinct constitutive Form That is Christ only is Soveraign of the Universal but his Officers are the particular constitutive ruling part of the particular though under Christ. King and Subjects only are Essential to a Kingdom But a Mayor Bailiff or other chief Officer and the common Citizens are Essential to a City And to call a man Chief or Head of a Family or City that is no King is no Treason but to claim the Royalty is XXXVII Therefore there is more necessary to Communion in a particular Church as a Member of it than to Catholick Communion Viz. He must consent to his Relation and Submission to the particular Pastors of that Church and to meet at the same time and place and joyn in all the necessary Parts of Publick Worship with them Else local Communion will be impossible Therefore it is injurious ignorance which maintaineth of late that he that separateth from or is justly cast out of one Church separateth from or is cast out of all For he that will not own the Pastor of that Church cannot have Communion with it as a Member of that Church who can come to School to a Schoolmaster that he consents not to
Against the Revolt to A Foreign Jurisdiction Which would be to England its PERJURY CHVRCH-RVINE and SLAVERY In Two Parts I. The History of Mens Endeavors to introduce it II. The Confutation of all Pretences for it Fully stating the Controversie and Proving That there is no Soveraign Power of Legislation Judgment and Execution over the whole Church on Earth Aristocratical or Monarchical but only Christ Especially against the Aristocratists who place it in a Council or College By RICHARD BAXTER an Earnest Desirer of the Churches Concord and therefore an Enemy to all false Terms and Dividing Engines and Self-exalting Sects and a Defender of Christ's own assigned Terms which take in all the true Christians in the World and are Injurious or Cruel to none To be offered to the next Convocation beseeching them to own the Doctrine of Foreign Communion but to note with Renunciation the Doctrine of Foreign Jurisdiction and to Vindicate the Reformed Church of England from the Guilt and Suspition which the French and Innovators injuriously seek to fasten on them Luk. 22.24 25 26. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the Greatest And he said to them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the Younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve 1 Thess. 5.12 We beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you 13. And to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at Peace among your selves London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 〈◊〉 Crowâ—â— at the lower end of Cheapfiâ—â— near Mercers Chapel 1691. To the Reverend and deservedly Honoured Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Dean of St. Paul's Church Reverend Sir THE Message on which this Epistle cometh to you is to intreat you to Present this Treatise to the next Convocation and to endeavour their publick renunciation of Foreign Jurisdiction and their censure of the Books that are written here for it The Reasons of my request are I. The Canons condemn them that deny the Convocation to be the Church of England Representative And they that have written for and promoted this Doctrine and Design have not only been Chief Men in the Church but have laboured to fasten their Doctrine on the Church which yet before the time of Bishop Laud the Church disclaimed and openly condemned and took Foreign Bishops and Councils for Brethren and a laudable means of Communion while they did their proper work but not by Jurisdiction to be the Governours of us and all Christian Kings and Kingdoms as their Subjects And who can be Ignorant that when at the present the Papist Bishops are very Many to One Protestant Bishop they will accordingly carry it by their Votes in Councils And if the Major Vote be the Collegium Pastorum that have the Chief Government in the Interval of Councils we are now Subjects to the Bishops and Church of Rome And if 〈◊〉 Roman Petrus Primus must call the next Council or there must be none till all Christian Kings agree to call it the present College is like to be long the Universal Aristocracy The Representative Church of England is so nearly concerned in this great Matter both for the moment of it and the imputation of this Design unto it that we cannot think they will lightly pass it by without their censure Which will be the more expected because of the Owning of Dr. Beveridge's Sermon to them which I have here examined Dr. Whitby's Reconciler of Protestants escaped not the Oxford censure and we hope the Representative Church of England will not be more favourable to Subjection which is more than Reconciling to the Foreign Papists Lest they cherish the Suspicion that the desire of so much Concord with France in Church Constitution and Government will intimate a preparation to another Relation to them which England cannot bear with ease And we are loth to be disabled to confute the Separatists that will never be reconciled to the Church of England if they can say that it is revolted to a Subjection to the Papists But why should we doubt whether the Convocation will renounce that which both themselves and all the Church and Kingdom are Sworn against even all Ecclesiastical Foreign Jurisdiction II. The Reasons why I presume to desire you to be the Man that shall present this Book and Motion to them Are 1. Because it is said that Custom maketh the Dean of Pauls usually to be chosen the Prolocutor to the Lower House I speak but by hearsay having never been one of them For the Clergy of London choosing Mr. Calamy and Me for their Clerks of that Convocation that made the Materials of the late differencing Impositions Bishop Sheldon by Prerogative excluded us to our great Ease and so the City of London consented not by their Clerks to any of those Acts. 2. And you are the Man that Published that Excellent Book of Dr. Isaac Barrow which unanswerably against Mr. Thorndike and such others confuted the Pretences to a Foreign Jurisdiction 3. And you are known to be so firm a Friend to Love Concord and Peace like your Father in Law Bishop Wilkins who once by appointment treated and agreed with us in a Vniting Form of Concord that I may confidently expect your best Assistance If any should be so adverse to this Necessary Work as to turn it off by diverting to Accusation against me or the Nonconformists I pray tell them how impertinent that is to the present Business And if it be needful shew them my Treatise for National Churches and that of Episcopacy and my English Nonconformity stated and argued And whereas I am said to have refused a Bishoprick because I was against Episâ—opacy be it known that in 1661 â—he Pacificators never offered any â—hing lower than Archbishop Vsher's Model of the Primitive Episcopacy â—nd when the King's Declaration â—anted us less we Published a â—hankful Acceptance And I gave 〈◊〉 Writing the Reasons of my Refusal to the Lord Chancellor Hyde That If that Declaration were Confirmed by a Law I would be no Bishop because I would not disable my self to perswade as many as I could to Conformity by drawing them to say that I did it for my own Ends. Which Answer satisfied the Lord Chancellor I think every Bishoprick in England hath Buried many of its Bishops since my refusal who am now near Dying in the 76th Year of a Painful Life and intreat you though I be Dead to do this Office for the Endangered Church of England and for your truly honouring Brother Ri. Baxter TO THE READER THis Book being Written at several times most of it many Years ago and some lately and answering many Persons who use the same Arguments it hath one blemish which I am ashamed of in
French Papists than the Italians For the Italian Party are at so visible a distance that they can design no way for their advantage but a Toleration unless they could get the Government And their Toleration would a while but make the Nation better know them and more dislike them But the French Party cry down Toleration and trust wholly to a Coalition and to force They hope to do their work before it s known what they are doing They will cry down Popery meaning only the Pope's absolute Power above Councils It is but abating the Latine Service Transubstantiation Priests Marriage granting the Cup to the Laity and two or three more such things and crying up nothing but the Name of the Church of England though changed by Subjection to a Forreign Jurisdiction and then crying up Obedience and Conformity to it and crying down Schism as an intolerable thing and the Papists shall seem to turn to us and not we to them and then no Dissenter shall be suffered Mr. Thorndikes Book of forbearance of Penalties tells us of no other hope of sufferance but on supposition that we all agree in subjection to the thing called The Vniversal Political Church And a Learned Tribe by Interest and Opinion engaged in the Cause may be ready by confident triumphant Writings and Disputes to make good all this and scorn and tread down Gainsayers as Schismaticks And the Coalition will take in the parts and labours of those that now are called Papists who are trained up in Militant Arts. XX. But as long as God and the King are against them we need not much fear the Success of their Endeavours Such a Care hath the King had to secure the Land against all suspicion of Popery in himself that a severe penalty is to be inflicted on any that shall so defame him Yea he hath passed Acts for the Clergy Corporations Vestries the Militia Nonconformists in which they are all obliged by Promise or Oath never to Endeavour any Alteration of the Government of Church and State And again I say what sober Man can be so sottish as to think that to subject the King Clergy and whole Kingdom to the Forreign Jurisdiction of a pretended Universal Sovereignty Monarchical Aristocratical or Mixt is no alteration of the Government of the Church yea of the Church-specifying Form XXI This is a great secondary reason why we cannot be for such a change because we cannot Consent that Church Vestries Corporations Militia c. should be all perfidious or perjured Yea all the Land that have taken the Oath of Supremacy against all Forreign Jurisdiction We accuse not others but excuse our selves Yea what Crime is it against King and Kingdom to make them the Subjects of a Forreign Power I leave to other men to enquire XXII God seemeth purposely to have confounded them in their Design by leaving them no Materials for their Fabrick I can imagine no pretences of possibility but in some of these following ways 1. That it is the Colledge of Bishops diffused over the Earth that must exercise Legislation and Judgment by Consent or by Majority of Votes And I shall never fear the prevalency of this Opinion till an Epidemical Madness turneth us into a Bedlam 2. That it must be a true General Council that must Govern us And this is no more to be expected than that all the World fall under one Monarch or that all Christians save one Kingdom Apostatize which God prevent 3. That Patriarchs with such Metropolitans as they will call be taken for the Governing Representers of all the Bishops and Churches on Earth But there is no possibility left us of this way For it must be either by the five old Patriarchs or by new ones 1. If the old ones Gods Judgments have made that way unpracticable 1. The Cities of Antioch and Alexandria are destroyed where two of the Patriarchs should be Bishops 2. The Turk is Lord of four of the old Patriarchal Seats and none can be chosen rule or come to Councils without his Consent And he can get almost whom he will Chosen and so the Turk should be our Chief Church Governour And the Places are bought with Money and the Possessors answerable Ludolphus tells us that the Patriarch of Alexandria is some unlearned ignorant Person that scarce knoweth Letters and that Men are made Clergy-men there against their wills all Men shunning the Office because of the Sufferings from the Turk which they must undergo They have no just Qualification Election or Power There are three nominal Patriarchs of Antioch chosen by three several Parties besides the Popes They are utterly uncertain which of them is right or rather certain that none of them are or can be such All the four Nominal Patriarchs are against the Romans and several against each other And many of the chief Christian Churches own none of them as their Governours and none own them all as such And must our Kings and Kingdoms be Subjects of ignorant Subjects of the Turk because once Men were advanced to high Titles over Towns now destroyed in one Christian Empire now dissolved or turned Mahometans 4. There is therefore but one way left which is for the Pope and his Privy Council of Cardinals to be the standing Governour by Judgment and Execution and to call when Princes force him to it such European Councils as he can and as he doth to make four Nominal Patriarchs of Const. Alex. Antioch and Jerusalem as Men make Kings Queens and Bishops on a Chess-board and to call these General Councils as he did that at Trent and to keep the people ignorant enough to believe it As for the making of a sort of new Patriarchs there must go so much to agree who they shall be among all Christian Princes and Nations and then to prove that they are the true Representers of all others and that the Representers or represented have any Universal Legislative Power that I am in no Expectations of any such Sovereignty I have proved against Mr. Hooker that the Body of the people as such are not the Givers of the Power of their Govern ours nd therefore cannot give power to an Universal Supream XXIII When I had seen all Mr. Thorndikes Books and Dr. Heylins and some other such and A. Bishop Bramhall's Book against me with a long and vehement reproving Preface I purposed to have again detected the design and have answered that Book But my Bookseller Nevill Simons told me that Mr. Roger Lestrange then Overseer of the Press came to him and vehemently protested that he would ruine him if he printed my Answer to it And when it might not be Printed I forbore to Write it Since then among others Mr. Dodwell hath appeared with most Voluminous confidence whom I have answered who I doubt not will want neither Ink Paper Words or Face for a reply My Conference with Bishop Guning I thought it against the Rules of Converse to publish But his Chaplain Dr. Saywell
sheweth that Councils have been against Councils and the Arrian Hereticks had more Councils than the Christians and sheweth their uncertainty Pag. 19. As to the Authority of Councils Augustine saith Ipsa plenaria Concilia saepe Priora ◠posterioribus emandantur And of the Succession and Ordination of Bishops he saith Pag. 131. If there were not one of them that turned from Popery or of us left alive yet would not therefore the whole Church of England fly to Lovaine Tertullian saith Nonne Laici sacerdotes sumus Ubi Ecclesiastici Ordinis non est Consessus offert tingit sacerdos qui est solus Sed ubi tres sunt Ecclesia est licet Laici And frequently he saith The Church is found among few as well as among many And he was for Lay Mens Baptizing X. The first Canon commandeth Preachers Four times a Year to declare That All usurped foreign Power forasmuch as the same hath no Establishment nor Ground by the Law of God is for most just Causes taken away and abolished And that therefore No manner of Obedience or Subjection within His Majesties Realms and Dominions is due to any such foreign Power The 12th Canon Excommunicateth ipso facto any that shall affirm That it is lawful for any 〈◊〉 of Ministers to joyn together and make 〈◊〉 Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical without the King's Authority and shall submit themselves to be ruled and governed by them Therefore none may go beyond Sea to Councils without his Authority And the Canons of Foreigners are not to be made a Rule without his Authority And is not other Princes Authority as necessary in their Dominions The Canon which bids Prayer 55th describeth Christ's holy Catholick Church to be the whole Congregation of Christian People dispersed throughout the whole World But such a Church hath no Legislative or Judicial Power XI The Controversie is about an Article of Faith I believe the holy Catholick Church The Humanists say It is an universal Political Society Governed by one humane Supream Monarch Aristocracy or mixt under Christ. Protestants say It hath no universal supream Ruler but Christ. Now the Generality of Protestant English and transmarine who write on the Creed expound this Article accordingly in the Protestant sence as he that will peruse their Books may find which sheweth what is the sence of the Church of England XII Though King Edw. VI. was but a Youth when he wrote his sharp Book against Popery lately printed It sheweth what his Tutors and the Clergy of his time who were called the Church then thought of these Matters XIII If the Parliaments of England all the days of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles I. and II. knew what was the Doctrine of the Church of England about a Forreign Jurisdiction it is easie to gather it in their Votes and Acts. Let him that would know whether they were for a Coalition with the French on such terms read Sir Simon Dewes Journals Rushworths Collections or Prins Introduction ad annum 1621. or any other true Historian and he will see how far they were from owning any Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction But the contrary minded would make the World believe that all these Parliaments were of some Sect differing from the Church of England But what call they the Church of England but that part of the Clergy who conform to the Laws And did not the Law-makers understand the Laws Or if they more regard the sence of the Clergy let them read A. Bishop Abbot's very plain and bold Letter to the King in Prin's Introduct pag. 39 40. and Dr. Hackwell's c. and they may know what was then the sence of the Clergy With whom concurred the Bishops of Ireland Insomuch that Bishop Downame expressing his sense of the Papists there and his contrary desires presumed to add And let all the people say Amen at which the Church rang with the Amen And though he was questioned in England for it he came safe off His Neighbour Bishops also declaring Popery to be Idolatry and the Pope Antichrist XIV The Bishops and chief Writers of England have taken the Pope to be the Antichrist Cranmer Whitguift Parker Grindall Abbot all A. Bishops of Canterbury Vsher Downame Jewel Andrews Bilson Latimer Hooper Farrar Ridley Robert Abbot Hall Allig and abundance more Bishops The Martyrs Sutcliffe Fulke Sharp Whittaker Willet Crakenthorp and most of our Writers against Popery Sure then they were for none of his Jurisdiction here XV. The Prayers have been and are to this day added in the end both to our Bibles and Common Prayer Books which shew how far the Church of England was from desiring a Coalition with the Papists by submitting to any Forreign Jurisdiction They say to God Confound Satan and Antichrist with all Hirelings whom thou hast already cast off into a reprobate sense that they may not by Sects Schisms Heresies and Errors disquiet thy little Flock And because O Lord we be fallen into the latter days and dangerous times wherein Ignorance hath got the upper hand and Satan by his Ministers seeketh by all means to quench the light of thy Gospel we beseech thee to maintain thy Cause against those ravening Wolves and strengthen all thy Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage Let not thy long-suffering be an occasion either to increase their tyranny or to discourage thy Children c. Though A. Bishop Laud put out all these Prayers from the Scots new Liturgy we had never had them still bound with ours to this day if the Church of England had not at first approved them There is also a Confession of Faith found with them describing the Catholick Church as we do XVI The Oath called Et Caetera of 1640. saith that The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England containeth all things necessary to Salvation Therefore Obedience to any Forreign Jurisdiction is not necessary to Salvation And therefore not necessary to the avoiding of Schism or any Damning Sin XVII The Church of England holdeth that no Forreigners Pope or Prelates have Judicial Power to pronounce the King of England a Heretick Or Excommunicate though as Bishop Andrews saith in Tortura Torti even a Deacon may refuse to deliver him the Sacrament if uncapable much more that Pastor whom he chuseth to deliver it him For it 's known by sad experience how dismal the Consequences are exposing the lives of the Excommunicate to danger among them that believe the Pope and his Councils and rendering them dishonoured and contemned by their Subjects We know how many Emperors have been deposed as Excommunicate and what Queen Elizabeth's Excommunication tended to And if our Laws make it Treason to publish such an Excommunication sure the Law-makers believed not that either Pope or Prelates had a Judicial Power to do it In Prin's Introduct p. 121. the Papists that were unwilling to be the Executioners had no better plea than That no Council had yet judged
Fervour and the Devotion of the Catholicks of those Countries and feeling that I had none of it or very little I have never ceased since that time to ask of God the Grace that if I were not of the true Religion I might be so before I died Nevertheless I had not the least doubt but that the Belief of the Church of England was the true and I never had any scruple or trouble of Conscience on this Occasion until November last that I began to read Dr. Heylin's History of the Reformation which is much esteemed and whereof the reading in the Opinion of all the able Men of the Kingdom is sufficient to free the Conscience from all Scruples and Doubts which might arise about Religion But for my part far from finding in that History what was said of it I found to the contrary that by reading of it it only made me see the most horrible Sacriledges that were ever heard spoken of and that it was not sufficient to satisfie an indifferent understanding nor to perswade it that we had the least foundation or appearance of reason for changing the ancient Face of the Church and renouncing the Catholick Religion I noted in that History first that Henry the Eighth quitted not the Communion of the Church of Rome nor opposed the Authority of the Pope but because he would not let him put away the Queen his Wife to Marry another 2. That King Edward the Sixth being yet a Child his Uncle who governed him abusing the Royal Authority which he had in his hand enriched himself by appropriating to himself and his Family the Lands and Goods of the Church 3. That Queen Elizabeth not being the lawful Heir of the Crown could not keep the unjust Possession which she had taken but by renouncing the true Church because the Purity and Rectitude of her Doctrine was not consistent with the Usurpation of the Kingdom of Great Britain I could not conceive much less believe that the holy Spirit which governs the true Church should be the Author of the Three Points that I now noted which have been the only Foundation of the Subversion of the ancient Religion to favour the Licentiousness of Henry the Eighth the Usurpation of Queen Elizabeth and the Ambition mixed with the extream Avarice of the Uncle of Edward the Sixth Neither could I understand how the Bishops who boast that they had no other design â—n separating themselves from the Communion of the Church of Rome but to endeavour the re-establishing of the Doctrine Discipline of the Primitive Church have not thought of this pretended Reformation but while Henry the Eighth attempted a Separation from the Roman Church that he might satisfie his guilty Pleasures All these Reflections having busied my Mind after the reading of that History I endeavoured to â—nstruct my self in the Points controverted between â—s and the Catholicks I examined them the most â—xactly that I could by the Scripture it self and though I thought not my self sufficient for underâ—tanding it well I found nevertheless some things which appeared to me so clear so easie to be unâ—erstood that I have a thousand times wondred that I have been so long without reflecting on them I was particularly and strongly convinced of the â—eal Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar of the Infallibility of the Church Confession and Prayer for the Dead I was willing to confer of these Matters by way of Discourse with the two most able Bishops that we â—ave in England and both confessed to me ingenuously that there are many things in the Church of Rome which it was to be wished that the Church of England had still observed as Confession which it could not be denied but that God had commanded it and Prayer for the Dead which is one of the most authentick and ancient Practices of the Christian Religion But as to themselves they made use thereof in private without making publick profession thereof As I pressed one of these Bishops upon the other Points of Controversie and principally on the real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar he answered me freely That were he a Catholick he would not change Religion but that having been educated in a Church in which he believed there was all that was necessary to Salvation and there having received his Baptism he thought he could not quit it without great Scandal All this Discourse served but to increase the ardent desire which I had to become a Catholick and I felt inward pains and horrible disquiets after the Conversation I had with these two Bishops Nevertheless that I might not precipitate in an Affair of this Importance and where my Salvation was concerned I endeavoured to satisfie my self entirely I prayed God with all my heart to calm my troubled Mind by making me to know the Truth the search of which had caused my trouble Being in this Condition I went at Christmas to the Kings Chapel to receive the Sacrament which put my Soul into new troubles which continued till I discovered my state of Mind to a Catholick who to procure me the repose and tranquillity which I wished caused a good Priest to come to me and he was the first Ecclesiastick with whom I conferred of my inward condition and the affairs of my Soul The more I spoke with him the more I found my self inwardly perswaded and strengthened by the Grace of the Holy Spirit to change Religion As I could not doubt of the truth of the words of Jesus Christ which assures us that the Holy Sacrament contains his Flesh and his Blood I could not easily believe that he who is truth it self had permitted that the Communion under one kind had been introduced into his Church in which and with which he hath promised to dwell to the end of the World if it sufficeth not for the Salvation of them who communicate under one kind only To conclude I am not able to enter into Dispute with any on these great Truths and though I were I would not engage my self further than in a Discourse of a few words and without contesting to express simply the Motives and Reasons of my Conversion I call God to witness who knows the secret of Mens hearts that I had never thought of changing Religion if I had believed I might obtain Salvation by continuing in the state I was by my Birth and Education and I think it is not necessary that I here declare that it was not Interest nor prospect of Honors or of any fading and perishable Profits which have perswaded me thereunto seeing that on the contrary by changing Religion I exposed my self to the hazard of losing both my Friends and my Credit and freely to confess the truth I considered and examined often whether it was not more expedient for me to keep my Friends my Rank and my Credit in the Court by continuing in the Exercise of the Religion of the Church of England
and that by virtue of Christ's Law for Peace and Concord Obedience hath no formal Object but Authoritatem Imperantis But Assemblies for Concord have no Imperium 4. No Clergyman as such hath any but Pastoral and Teaching Power and as a Tutor to order his own School The Power of the Keys is no other 5. Mens holding and renouncing of Communion with other Persons or Churches may be without Governing Power I am not Governor of all that I hold or renounce Communion with No Bishops have power Judicially to determine of Individuals who shall have Communion with every Parish Church on Earth If they have they must hear them all speak for themselves before they judge them in or out They are not Governors of foreign Kings and Kingdoms though in their Government of their particular Churches they must all agree to observe one Rule that is Christ's Laws 6. There never was an Universal Council of all the Churches but only of one Empire a part of that nor ever will be till the Church be so destroyed as to be brought into a narrow space which God forbid As to Dr. Stillingfleet's Defence of all this I take him not to approve of all that he blameth not And if he did I believe on second thoughts he will more retract this than he did his Irenicon Chap. X. Dr. Peter Heylin's own Judgment § 1. BEcause we come newly from repeating Dr. Heylin's words of Archbishop Laud though they fully shew his own Judgment I will â—â—ere annex some more 1. There is a Book written by a Papist called Historical Collections of the Reformation gathered most out of Dr. Heylin's own words and some â—ut of others describing the Reformers and Reformation so odiously as greatly serveth the Priests to turn Protestants to their Church And â—s the Jesuit Maymbourgh maketh Dr. Heylin's Writings to have Converted the late Dutchess of York it 's like it was this Collection out of him 2. In his Book on the Creed speaking of the Catholick Church he saith Pag. 407. Such is the Ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned a Church at all And yet this is of the two the Lovelier Error Better the Church be all Head than no Head at all And such a Church that is all Body and no Head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their late Platforms Answ. Is Christ no Head at all Or is any other Person or Court capable of Governing all Christians on Earth All Protestants hold that the whole Church hath no Head but Christ. Pag. 408. Speaking still of the Catholick Church he saith The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters of the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practice and their Platform it must be Aristocratical Answ. This is a gross Slander of the Presbyterians and Independents Did ever the Presbyterians or Independents say that All Christians on Earth must Govern the whole Church in one Meeting or by Delegates where be the Laws that any of them pretend all Christians made Or the Judgments they past on any Persons after exploration The Presbyterians are for an Aristocratical Government of National Churches and some few Independents are for popular Government in single Congregations but no further 2. Is the Church now Governed by One Aristocracy that is per Optimates that are One Persona Politica by Vote ruling all the Christian World Where is their Meeting What be their Laws Whom do they so try and judge An Universal Governing Aristocracy is more impossible and irrational than an Universal Monarchy Civil or Ecclesiastical Every Bishop and Presbytery Governing his own Church and these keeping Concord by just Correspondency is no liker an Universal Aristocracy than an Assembly of Princes for Concordant Government of their Dominions or than all the Mayors and Justices ruling their several Corporations and Provinces make the Government of England Aristocratical Pag. 409. Saith he Every Bishop where-ever he be fixt and resident hath like St. Paul an universal Care over all the Churches which since they could not exercise by personal Conferences they did it in the Primitive times before they had the benefit of General Councils by Letters Messengers and Agents for the Communicating of their Counsel and imparting their Advice one to another as the emergent Occasions of the Church did require the same These Letters they called Literas formatas Communicatorias Answ. Thus Bishop Gunning and others But 1. St. Paul's Apostolick Power enabled him to do the Work of an Apostle which is to plant Churches in as much of the World as they could and deliver them Christ's Doctrine and Laws infallibly as receiving them by sight and hearing or miraculous revelation And this Power each Apostle could exercise singly and not only by Voting as part of a College the Spirit of Christ teaching them all the same Doctrine But Bishops have no such Office or Power 2. There are several ways of expressing a Care of all the Churches Every Christian must do it by private Endeavours Every Official Preacher by Preaching where he is called Every Pastor by guiding his Flock in Concord with all true Christians in the things which Christ hath made necessary to their Concord And if Archbishops have right to a larger Province they must do it in their proper Province per partes not as one Aristocracy 3. It is granted that as all Christians and Bishops must have a Love to all the Churches and a Care to do them good in their several Places so Concord in things necessary is a great means of that good and the ancient Pastors endeavoured it by Messages Letters and Synods and so must we But what Universal Laws were made by Literae formatae What formal Judgments were past by them Where did the Writers meet first to hear the Accused and examine Witnesses Or must all believe the report of every single Pastor And was it all the Bishops on Earth or a major part that wrote these Legislative and Judicial Letters What strange things can some Men gather from meer Communion and Concord Bishops had then a Necessity of getting the common consent of as many of their Order as they could to make their Government of force to the People that were all Volunteers and not constrained by any Magistrate And it 's useful still to the same end 4. And we grant them that every Bishop and Presbyter that giveth counsel to other Churches doth not do it as a meer private Man but as a Bishop that is One that by Office is authorized to give such Pastoral advice to such as he is called to give it to But not as one that hath the charge of Governing other Mens Flocks or is a Member of an Aristocratical Supream Senate Parliament Court or Voting States Suppose each Hospital
5. If any Soveraign may Rule England and all other Churches as a Bishop ruleth his Flock then that Soveraign Power may when they judge it deserved Excommunicate the King and all the Kingdom and silence all the Bishops and Ministers and forbid all Church Communion as Popes and their Councils have done But the consequence is false Ergo Arg. 6. If any have such power they must be such as people may have access to to decide their Causes and may hear their Accusations Defences Witnesses But so cannot the Universal Church of Bishops They confess these thousand years they met not in Council and whither else should we carry our Witnesses and where else should we expect their sentence Paul's charge was 1 Thes. 5.12 13. Know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake But we cannot know all the Bishops over the Earth that never were among us An unknown Judge cannot be obeyed That is One whom we cannot know to be indeed our Judge But it 's impossible for us now to know what number of Bishops and who must be called the Universal Judge And an unknown sentence cannot be obeyed but it 's impossible for us to know the sentence of the Majority of the Bishops on Earth about any case to be judged by them these thousand years But enough is said of this already And Dr. Barrow hath utterly confounded your pleas for Foreign Jurisdiction Pastors and Churches may Reprove one another who Govern not one another And do you think we are so sottish as not to see that your Colledge and Council must have some to call them together or to gather Votes and preside and approve And that the question will be only of the Degree of the Popes power and whether the French sort of Popery be best § 2. Dr. S. addeth p. 343. So the Scripture plainly tells us elsewhere that Churches of Kingdoms and Nations have a Soveraignty over them to which they must yield Obedience Isa. 60 12. where the Prophet speaking of the Christian Church saith The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted If Nations and Kingdoms must serve the Church then she hath Authority to Command their Obedience in things that belong to Peace and Holiness Ans. I confess Campanella de Reâ—no Dei doth thus make the Papacy the Fifth Monarchy and confidently brings many such Texts for their Clergies Universal power But 1. Is it the King of the Church or the People that must be obeyed The people have no Ruling Power And if it be the Soveraign the question is Who that is Protestants say It is only Christ And the Text plainly meaneth The Nation that will not serve Christ the Head of the Church for the good of his Body shall perish But the Italians say It is the Pope and Council and the French That it is the Council and Pope as President and Prime Patriarch that is here meant 2. This may be discerned by considering Who it iâ— that is to destroy such Nations It is Christ as the second Psalm sheweth If it were the Pope and Council you threaten all Nations as terribly as Bellarmine doth 3. And what is the perishing and wasting here meant No doubt their Souls that rebel against Christ shall perish and he will also punish Bodies and Kingdoms as such Put doth any of all this belong to the Bishops None of it 1. Excommunicating is their destroying work But the Heathen and Infidel Nations are not to be Excommunicated What have you to do to judge them that are without Will you cast them out that never were in 2. And destruction by the Sword is no Bishop's Work 4. And when is it that all Nations that obey not shall utterly perish We see that 19 parts in 30 saith Brierwood of the World are Heathens and Mahometans and yet prosper Ever since Abraham's days till now the Church is a small part of the World And it is not by any Power of the Church Governours that the Souls of Infidels perish but by themselves And their Kingdoms are unlikely to be destroyed till Christ's second coming And if it be his destroying them at his Judgment that is meant that proveth no Power in the Church against them But I confess you tell us what to fear and whence it is that the French Protestants suffer They must utterly perish that obey not a Governing Universal Soveraignty Nay not only French Subjects by their Lawful King but Protestants States and Kingdoms that thought they had no Soveraign but their own proper one and Christ But this is in Ordine ad Spiritualia Yet O you intend no Cruelty § 3. Pag 344. He tells us of the Churches Power to decide Controversies and of the Council Act. 15. Answ. A multitude of Protestant Writers have long ago answered all this 1. The word Church is ambiguous When Christ and his twelve Apostles were on Earth they were the Church as to Rule And then the Vniversal Church met in a House together celebrated the Sacrament together c. Must they do so now It was no General Council that met Act. 15. unless you will say that there dwelt a General Council at Jerusalem as long as the Apostles dwelt there None of the Bishops of the Churches planted by Paul Barnabas and others about the World are said to be there nor any at all but the Inhabitants of Jerusalem save Paul and Barnabas who were sent as Messengers and were not the Men sent to And you now say that none but Bishops have decisive Votes 2. And there are more ways of deciding Controversies than one We doubt not but every Pastor may decide them by Evidence of Scripture and Reason And many assembled may contribute their Reasons and be helpful to each other and may see more than one if they be meet Men. And Pastors thus by Teaching Evidence do that as Authorized Officers as Tutors and Schoolmasters which Private Men do but as Private Men and not as Officers so that even theiâ— Teaching Decision is an act of Authority as well as of Skill And so far as Humane authority must go the concurrent Judgment of a multitude of Divines as of Physitians Lawyers c. Cateris paribus deserveth more reverence than a singular opinion But for all that 1. An Assembly of Lay Men have no Authority but from their Evidence and Parts 2. An Assembly of Bishops have no deciding Authority but by an office by which they are entrusted as fallible Men to teach others what they know themselves by the same Evidence which convinced them and to guide their particular Congregations in mutable Circumstances 3. But an Assembly of Apostles had Power to say It seemeth good to the Hâ—ly Ghost Obj. 1. There were the Brethren also 2. Single Apostles had the Holy Ghost yet they did it in an Assembly Answ. 1. The Inspiration
It 's like you will say They must take their Teachers or Bishops words Ans. If so those in Italy Spain Portugal Poland Germany and all the Papists are bound to believe that you and all of your mind are Liars for saying There are but six such approved Councils for their Bishops tell them of very many more And then the Eastern Christians are bound to take you for Liars whose Bishops tell them there were not so many And the Protestants are bound to dissent who generally hold that there never was one such General Council as had a Universal Jurisdiction over the Christian World How then shall the people know what Councils as such are so received 4. Yea it is a thing that neither you nor the most Learned Man can know Were you ever in Ethiopia Syria Armenia Georgia Circassia Mengrelia and in all the Greek Churches If it be Travellers that you trust to they give you no credible notice of any such thing And you lay our Salvation on the avoiding of Schism and this upon our obedience to the Universal Jurisdiction and so you lay all our Salvation on the Testimony of Travellers who of all Men are most susspected of a liberty to Lie 5. But the plain truth is that notice which we have by Travellers and Historians of the mind of most of the Christian World assureth us that a very great part of it receiveth neither your six Councils nor your first four and the rest receive many more If you have read Brocardus and Jacobus de Vitriaco who dwelt both at Jerusalem and Haitho and others in the Novus Orbis that describe Tartary and Armenia and Leo Afer and Paulus Venetus and Boterus and Godignus and Ludolphus of Abassia c. you may perceive how great a number of Christians there be who own not so much as your four first Councils some abhorring that at Ephesus and some that at Chalcedon And you know that both Greeks and Papists receive more than six 6. And I crave your answer to the Question which I put to your Bishop and you How could Christians know which were the true Soveraign Councils when the far greatest part of the Bishops disowned them I will not censure you to be so ignorant of History as not to know that the far greatest part of the Church renounced the Council of Chalcedon in the Reign of divers Emperors And the Council of Nice in the Reign of Constantius and Valens How then could they be known by your Rule But you say We may know it by the publick Acts of the Church as we know the Acts of our Parliaments Ans. I desire no better proof how we know them I have oft mentioned But here you leave us utterly in the dark What mean you here by the Church and what by its publick Acts 1. If by the Church you mean 1. All Christians of this Age we are sure they agree not of it 2. If you mean the Greater number we are uncapable of gathering the Votes or knowing it But I have shewed you that we have reason to conjecture that most are against you Vast numbers rejecting some and the rest receiving more and the Protestants nor any but the Papists that I know of receive not any as Universal Soveraign And the Papists also are divided about it as Pighius and many more will shew you 3. If you mean it of the most in former Ages I still say one Age hath had most for the Council of Nice Chalcedon Constantinople second and third and another Age most against them 4. If you go the only way that 's left you and with the Papists call only those the Church who are of your mind unchurching the most of the Church on Earth then I confess you may say that the Church receiveth them and only them But few wise Men will reverence a Church so described II. And what the Acts of the Church are which give us such assurance as you mention I cannot imagine As to our Statutes I have proved a Physical Evidence of the certainty of their being what they pretend even such a consent of Men of cross Interests and Dispositions in the compass of a Land where the fact may be known as cannot be counterfeited or false But about Councils the case is quite otherwise I. The most of the Church do not so much as think that there are any such Councils or at least never did hold it till the Papal Usurpation that they had a Soveraignty over all the Earth II. They are utterly disageerd how many and which are to be received III. They are disagreed which be their Canons Even of the first at Nice how long did three Popes contend about it with the African Bishops And since Pisanus and Turrian bring us forth 80 Canons instead of 20 which the unlearned Africans receive IV. They are not agreed which of their Canons still bind and which not nor which are de fide and which not Many as the 20th at Nice are laid by without any Councils repeal IV. And the World is so much bigger than Britain that it is not so easie to be sure of the sence of all Christians about the Matter And how should it when it was never agreed on from the first If by the Church Acts you should mean the Decrees of later Councils that is to prove ignotum per ignotius How know we which Councils to believe when so many condemned one another And if the Sixth was the last there came none after to notifie the reception of it And whereas you say that those of Eph. 2. and Nice 2d were when they were held and many Years after accounted no General Councils nor received as such by the Church Answ. The Mystery lyeth in some Sectarian Notion of the Church that you have you mean some Party but it 's hard knowing what For 1. Bellarmine himself saith that the second Ephes. Council wanted nothing to make it as true a General Council as the rest but the Approbation of the Pope's Legates It was called by the Emperor the Number greater than many others the Consent so great that he saith that they decreeing Heresie sola navicula Petri evasit 2. It had not only the Consent of the present Bishops as much as other Councils but was as commonly received by the prevailing majority while the Emperor seemed to be for that way 2. And the second Council at Nice was taken for as consenting a General Council during the Reign of Irene and after under the Emperors that were for Images yea and by the Pope himself and all his Party in the West But it 's true that when the Emperors were against Images it was abhorred And so one Council was for Images and another against them as one for Photius and another against him by turns for too long a time as the Emperors were affected But for the time they were all called General as that at Nice is by the Romans yet 2. But if this had been
which the Primitive Universal Church was for But such are the Diocesane Party now mentioned Ergo The Major is proved not only from Ignatius who maketh one Altar and one Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons the noâ—e of Individuation to every Church but a multitude of other proofs which I undertake to give And from the Councils that determined that every City of Christians have a Church till afterward they began to except small Cities The Minor is notorious Matter of Fact every Parish with us hath an Altar and many hundred have but one Bishop Ergo they are no Churches according to the Saying Vbi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia Ecclesia est plebs Episcopo adunata And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then signified every great Town like our Corporations and Market-Towns And Titus was to set Elders in every such City II. They that render Bishops Odious endeavour to Extirpate Episcopacy But so do I need not name them Ergo The Major is granted The Minor is proved 1. They that use Episcopacy to the Silencing of faithful Ministers of Christ near Two thousand at once than whom no Nation under Heaven out of Britain hath so many better and to render them and all that adhere to them odious and ruined do that which will render Bishops odious But Ergo 2. From Experience when we treated with you 1661. the People would have gladly received Episcopacy as we offered it to you and as the King granted it in his Declaration But when they saw near Two thousand Silenced and that Bishops thought all such as I and the many better Ministers of the Countrey where I lived to be intolerable it hath done an hundred times more to alienate the People from Episcopacy than all the Books and Sermons of the Opposers of Episcopacy ever did e. g. The People that I was over would reverently have received Pious Bishops But though I never saw them nor wrote to them one Letter against Episcopacy these 19 years but have largely written to draw them to Communion in the Parish Church and much prevailed yet they will now rather forsake me as a complier with Persecuters as Martin did the Bishops than they would own our Diocesane Prelacy since they saw me and so many better Men of their Countrey Silenced and cast out and many of themselves laid in Jails with Rogues and ruined for repeating a Sermon together as they were always wont to do He that will teach Men to love Prelacy by Prisons Undoing them and Silencing and ruining the Teachers whom they have found to be most edifying and faithful to them will do more to extirpate Prelacy by making it odious than all its Enemies could do The reason of the thing seconded by full experience are undeniable proofs No Men that I know of have done more against Episcopacy than Bishops and Pardon my free inviting you to Repentance none that I know alive either Sectaries or Bishops more than you two who I unfeignedly wish may have the honour before you die of righting the Church and repairing the honour of true Episcopacy It is a dreadful thing to us Nonconformists to think of appearing before God under the Guilt of Silencing Two Thousand of our selves if it prove our doing If not let them think of it that believe they shall be judged Prov. 26.27 Whoso diggeth a Pit shall fall therein and he that rolleth a Stone it shall return upon him Chap. XVI The Second Letter to Bishop Guning after our first Conference My Lord I Much desire some further help for my Satisfaction in the Three things which we last Discoursed of 1. Whether I mis-recited or misapplied the Case of St. Martin's Separation 2. Whether by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ignatius be not meant One material Altar or Place of ordinary Communion of one Church 3. What are the true terms of Universal Christian Concord But the last is to me of so much greater Importance than the rest that I will now forbear them lest by diversion from this my expectation should be frustrate And seeing I profess in this to write to you with an unfeigned desire to learn and also to take the Matter to be such as my very Religion and Church relation lyeth on I beseech you either by your self or some other whom you direct to speak your sense to endeavour my better information The only terms or way of Vniversal Christian Concord you say is Obedience to the Vniversal Church and the Pastors are the Church And he is not a true Member of the Church that doth not obey it And this Church to be obeyed is not only a General Council but also a Collegium Pastorum who rule per literas formatas being Successors to the Apostles who had this Power from Christ. This is the Substance of what I understood from you Here I shall first tell you what I hitherto held and next tell you wherein I desire Satisfaction I. I have hitherto thought 1. That only Christ was a Constitutive Head of the Church Universal and had appointed no Vicarious Head or Soveraign either Personal or Collective Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical 2. Therefore none but Christ had now an Universal Legislative Power nor yet an Universal Judicial and Executive 3. And that this is the first and fundamental difference between us and the Church of Rome 4. But I doubt not but that all the Pastors in the World may be intellectually thought on in an Universal Notion and we may say with Cyprian Episcopatus est unus c. as all the Judges and Justices and other Officers are Universally All the Governing Power of the Kingdom under the King and as all the Individuals are the whole People as Subjects 5. And I doubt not but each Pastor is in his place to be obeyed in all things which he is authorized to Command 6. And these Pastors must endeavour to maintain Concord as extensive as is possible to which end Councils and Communicatory Letters are to be used And that the individual Pastors and People are obliged by the General Law of endeavouring to maintain Love and Concord to observe the Agreements of of such Concordant Councils in all things Lawful belonging to their Determination 7. And I doubt not but while there were but twelve Apostles those twelve had under Christ the Guidance of the whole Christian Church on Earth which for a while might all hear them in one place and were to do their work in Concord and had the Unity of the Spirit thereto by which they infallibly agreed in that which was proper to them and they had no Successors in even though they were never so distant as well as when they were together Act. 15. though in other things Peter and Paul and Paul and Barnabas disagreed And as in the recording of Christ's Works and Doctrine in infallible Scriptures so also they agreed in their Preaching it and in the Practice of all that was necessary either to Salvation or to the forming or
it in the Case in question yet were they Apostles to the Universal Church that which none are since their time III. If there be such a Vicarious Governing Soveraignty over the Universal Church it is either the Pope or a General Council or some Colledge of Pastors But it is none of these 1. As to the Pope you say that he is so far from being Head of the Church that he is not a Member So that I need not say more of this to you 2. That General Councils are no such Soveraign Power which all must obey that will be Christians or in a Church seemeth to me past doubt for these Reasons 1. Because there is no such thing in the Creed though the Catholick Church and Communion of Saints be there But it would be there were it of such necessity to Christianity 2. Because there is no such thing said in all the Scripture which would not omit so necessary a point What is said from Acts 15. is answered before it was no General Council A General Council was not then the necessary means of Concord or Communion 3. There never was one General Council representing the Universal Church in the World I have fully proved in my second Book against Johnson that the Councils called General were so only as to the Roman Empire and few if any so General and that the Emperor called all the Chief Councils who had no Power without his Empire nor called any that were without 4. I have oft proved the unlawfulness of calling General Councils now as the Church is dispersed at such distances over the Earth and under Princes of so contrary Interests and Minds 5. I have oft proved the Impossibility of such a Councils meeting to attain the ends of Government in question being to pass by Sea and Land from all quarters of the World by the Consent of Enemies that rule them and through Enemies Countreys and Men of Age that must have so long time going and sitting and returning and of divers Languages uncapable of understanding one another and a number uncapable of present Converse with other such insuperable difficulties 6. If such Councils be necessary to the Being of Christianity Church or Concord at least the Church hath seldom had a Being or Concord it seldom having had such a Council in your own esteem And you cannot say that it ever will have any 7. If General Councils have Supream Government visible it is 1. Legislative 2. Judicial 3. Executive But I. If Legislative then 1. Their Laws are either Gods Infallible Word or not If not all Men must disobey them when they err If yea Gods Word is not the same one Age as another and is Crescent still and we know not when it will be perfect 2. Their Laws will be so many that no Christians can know them obey them and have Concord on such terms 3. If they could agree who should call them and whither yet the Prince whose Countrey they meet in would be Master of the whole Christian World and so of other Christian Countreys by Mastering them 4. Princes would be Subjects 1. To Foreign Powers 2. Yea to the Subjects of other Princes 3. Yea of their Enemies 4. And to such Preâ—ates as they are uncapable to know whether they are truely called to their Office 5. Or whether they are erroneous or sound in Faith 5. And then the Ecclesiastical Laws of all National Churches and Kings might be destroyed by such Councils as Superior Powers 6. And no Princes or Synods could make valid Laws about Religion till they knew that no Law of any such Council were against them 7. The Laws of Christ recorded in Scripture would by all this be argued of great insufficiency â—f more were Universally necessary he that made the rest would have made them whose Authority is to the Church unquestionable 8. The Christian World is divided so much in Opinion that except in what Christs own word containeth plainly they are in no probability of agreeing So much of Legislation II. As to Judgment 1. To judge the sence of a Law Scripture or Canon for the common Obligation of the Church is part of the Legislative Power and belongs to the Law-makers 2. To judge the Case of Persons e. g. whether John Peter Nestorius Luther Calvin c. be a Heretick an Adulterer a Simonist c. requireth that the Accuser and Accused and Witnesses of both be present and heard speak But he that would have all Hereticks Criminals Accusers Witnesses travel for a Tryal to Jerusalem Nice Constantinople Rome even from America Ethiopia c. will not need any Confutation III. The same I say of Executive Silencing Ejecting Excommunicating c. II. A Soveraign Power that cannot be known is not necessary to Christianity or the Constitution Communion or Concord of the Church But General Councils so impowered cannot be known I. I have shewed that it cannot be known by ordinary Christians that there are any such Authorized by Christ. I know it not nor any that ever I was familiar with The main Body of the Reformed Churches know it not for they ordinarily deny it as the prime point of Popery They cannot prove it who affirm it Therefore they know it not as others may judge Millions are Baptized Christians that never knew it II. It is not to this day known which were true General Councils that are past Some say those were Latrocinia and Conventicles that others say were Lawful Councils Some are for but four some for six some for eight some for all so called there is no agreement which are true and obligatory Grotius is for Trent and all which others abhor 2. It is not known who hath Power to call them and whose call is valid 3. Nor what Individuals or Particular Churches are capable of sending and chusing and obliged to it Almost all the Christian World is judged uncapable by the most of Christians The Papists are so judged by the Greeks Protestants c. The Eastern and Ethiopian Christians are excluded by the Papists Greeks c. as Jacobites Nestorians Schismaticks c. The Greeks are excluded by the Papists and others as Schismaticks and Erroneous The Protestants are judged Hereticks and Schismaticks by the Papists and many Greeks c. How Lutherans and Calvinists Diocesans and Presbyterians c. judge of one another I need not tell And can all or any of them know which of these must make up a Legislative Council of the whole Church on Earth 4. It is not known how many must Constitute such a Council nor in what proportions If there be innumerable Bishops under Philippicus for the Monothelites out of the East as Binnius saith and few out of the West was that a true General Council If at Nice Ephesus Constantinople Chalcedon there be not one out of the West to twenty or forty or a hundred others is it a true representative of the whole Church If there be two hundred at Trent or a thousand at
must believe e. g. In Abassia Egypt Syria c. they will be bound to believe one thing and at Constantinople another c. Those called now Nestorians are by Travellers said to own none of that Heresie but to Condemn the Council of Chalcedon and Eph. 1. for wronging Nestorius as Innocent did them that condemned Chrysostome Those called Jacobites and Eutychians are said to have no more of the Heresie but to condemn the said Chalcedon Council for wronging Dioscorus and to own the second Ephesine Council some will be bound to be for Images in Churches and some against them some for Constantinople and some for Rome's Supremacy and all in their Countries to be Papists for their Pastors tell them that the Catholick Church is on their side yea in the same Country as in England some must be for Arminianism as it is called and some against it some for the imputation of Christ's righteousness and some against it some for free Prayer in the Pulpit and some against it c. For on both sides their differing Pastors plead the Authority of the Church Few Christians can thus agree in any thing but Christ's plain Laws which I shewed are the terms of Concord If we must appeal from particular Pastors to whom is it If to Councils to whom must we appeal from disagreeing Councils If to the whole Church on Earth how shall we hear from them and know their mind I never saw nor knew any Man that saw any literas formatas subscribed by all Bishops scattered through the Earth 5. You that are Zealous against Popery I presume would not have me be a Papist But I cannot avoid it if I receive your Doctrine that there is a Church-Power in a Council or College of Pastors to Govern the Universal Church and that none are in the Church nor have the Spirit that obey not this Universal Church of Pastors and that to obey them is the only means or terms of Concord For 1. I then yield them the fundamental difference That there is one Universal summa Potestas or Visible Head Collective under Christ. 2. And if so I cannot deny it to be the Pope as the Principium Vnitatis and the Chief Executor of the Laws and the first Bishop in Councils For Councils are rare and the Church is a Church when there are no Councils And the Pope is a known Person and Rome a known Place and accessible and no other pretendeth to this Power that I know of And the Executive Power must be Constant And any other Supream accessible College is unknown to me and all that I can speak with and I can no more obey them than a College of Angels unknown to me If the Church have a visible Vicarious Supream the Pope is likest to be he as to the constant Executive Power and the President of Councils I suppose you take the Councils of Constance and Basil and the French for Papists though they set a Council above the Pope 6. The World hath no Universal Civil Government under God neither a Monarch nor a College or Council of Kings All the World is Governed by Men per partes in their several Dominions as all England is under the King by all the Mayors Bailiffs and Justices But there is no Council of Justices that are One Vniversal Governour Collective Nor is the Dyet of Princes or any Council of Kings one Supream Government of the Earth A Logical universality there is as all Rulers considered notionally rule all the World by Parts but no Political Head or Universal Governour over the whole whom all the Parts must obey I. If now I am in the right and you mistaken then you wrongfully deny the Spirit Church-Membership and consequently Salvation as well as Concord to all Protestants that ever I knew or read who deny a visible Universal Church Head Personal or Collective And I think to most in the World And what Schism that is I need not say II. If I am in the wrong I am no Christian nor Church Member nor can be saved For you say This Body so governed only hath the Spirit And I cannot help it not knowing possibly how to know 1. Who this College is 2. What Councils 3. Or which be the Laws which I must obey 4. Nor with what degree of Obedience 5. Nor that they have such Power How great need have I then earnestly to beg your speedy help for my Information Which will oblige Your Servant Ri. Baxter Decemb. 27. 1679. Chap. XVII The Third Letter to Bishop Guning To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Ely My Lord THough in Conference I told you the Sense which I had of your words yet judging it my duty to think of them over and over again I also judge it my duty in Writing to leave with you the sum of such a Judgment as I am able to pass on them on my best Consideration leaving it now to your self whether you will by word or writing return any further Answer my hopes of Satisfaction thereby being very low The sum of your Speech which I am concerned in is as followeth I. That certainly a Supream Vicarious Governing Power there is in the Bishops by Christ's Institution 1. Because it is Prophesied Isai. 60.12 That the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve the Church shall perish And the word Church is never put for Christ. 2. And the Apostles only were admitted by Christ to his last Supper and so the Power of Administring that Sacrament till Christ come is given only to them and such as they shall give that Power to 3. And it was not Paul and Barnabas that had the infallible judgment of that Case decided Act. 15. but the College of the Apostles II. That this Supream Vicarious Governing Power over the whole Church on Earth is 1. In all the Christian Bishops of the World 2. And the Major part goeth for the whole 3. And General Councils are their Representatives and so have this Power 4. And that to such Councils it is enough that all be called though all be not there 5. And it is their reception by the Church Vniversal which must prove their Vniversal Power and the Obligation of their Laws 6. And though the Vniversality of Bishops be not always in such a Council they have always that Power which in Councils is to be used as the Judges out of Term time 7. And that if I or any will publish a Heresie we shall know where that Church is by their Censure 8. But as Promulgation is necessary to the Obligation of Laws so many that never can or do hear of the foresaid Vniversal Church-Governing Power or what their Laws are or what is the sence of them may be saved without them by the reading of the Word as many that have not the Scriptures may be saved without them And this you say answers three parts of my last Papers 9 Of these General Councils it is only six that you own as such
Gods 3. Mutable Things are not of Universal Need or Use These By-Laws like those of Corporations are only the Work of particular Churches or Countries E. g. One Translation of Scripture one Metre or Tune of Psalms c. will not fit all the World that have several Languages c. Upon the whole I am more confirmed by longer Considerations 1. That to assert a Soveraign Vicarious Church-Power over all the Christian World is to make a Church which Christ never made 2. And Treasonably to set up an Usurpation of his Prerogative 3. And to plead for that which de facto never was in being 4. And to lay the Ground of heinous Schism and Persecution by prosecuting impossible Terms of Concord and Communion 5. And to make this the necessary Medium of our believing in Christ or knowing his Word and Will is to subvert the Christian Faith and Scripture 6. And as one Pope cannot possibly through Natural Incapacity Govern all the Earth in Religion one Collective and Aristocratical Soveraign of all the Bishops on Earth is so incomparably more uncapable that I wonder that any Considerate Man can believe it Pighius well tells us of the Novelty and Vanity of Heading all the Churches by General Councils 7. And if the French and the Councils of Constance and Basil and Cassander and Grotius and such Papists as set Councils over the Pope had not taken in the Pope as the ordinary Governing Executive Head to Rule by the Councils Laws they had been far more gross and incredible than the Italian Papists who prefer the Pope 8. And that Civil Government may so much easier be exercised by Officials than the Spiritual that a Civil Monarch of all the Earth is far more congruous and possible than a Humane Visible Church-Head under Christ Personal or Collective 9. That if this was the Principle from which you disputed at the Savoy and in the Convocation and from which our late Changes and the silencing of Two Thousand Ministers have been made it 's no wonder that the Effects were such But if ever we be healed it must be by other Terms and Hands R. B. Jan. 12. 1679. This Feb. 13. Being with the Bishop again he disclaimeth the Names of Supreme Summa Potestas Vicaria as Invidious and chuseth the Name of a Ruling Collegium Pastorum Ministerialium who are the Church which is the Mother which all must receive their Faith from and obey and so must know their Consent Chap. XVIII The Fourth Letter to Bishop Guning To the Lord Bishop of Ely Dr. Guning My Lord THough I intended to trouble you no more by Writing yet observing how apt you are to mistake me and because time streightened our Discourse Lest I be mistaken and consequently mis-reported I thus send you the sum of what I said to your last as far as it concerned me I. Whereas you are offended at my Applicatory Conclusion I must still say it that ☞ If these were the Principles upon which our Changes were made by your Endeavour 1661 and 1662. it is no wonder that Two thousand Ministers were Silenced and Cast out And is it more offence to you to hear what you did towards it than to them and their Flocks to suffer it Is this impartiality II. My naming Holden as saying what you say was not invidiously to intimate that you differ not from him in any thing else but to tell you that these thoughts are not new to me and that even a Papist pleading rather Historical Natural-Evidence in Vniversal Tradition than judicial Authority in this is further from the common Papists than you III. You are offended at my comparing Bishops to Kings only in this respect that they both govern only their proper Provinces and neither are Rulers of all the World And your reason is because it intimateth that Bishops rule like Kings Who can Dispute on these terms Did I not in the stating of our Question agree that it is not the Power of the Sword but only Ecclesiastical Power of the Word and Keys that we Dispute of Did I not still profess to you to speak only of this And doth comparing Princes Coactive Government with it only in the extent neither of them being over all the World contradict this or wrong you by unjust intimations IV. You take the words Aristocratical-Supream Vicarious under Christ Legislative to be invidious and you disown them 1. Because they intimate a forcing Power like Princes 2. Because Christ only is Supream But 1. It is not de nomine that we dispute but de re and I understand all this while that we had no other question to debate 2. I desired still nothing more than that you would state your assertion in your own words that I might use no other You tell me your own words are Collegium Pastorum I tell you again that nameth only the subject Matter of the Power where our question is de formâ what is their Power which we must obey You next tell me It is a College of Pastors having a Ministerial Ruling Judicial Power over the Vniversal Church I take up with your own words Only remember that before you asserted a Legislative Power of mutable Laws and now it is but judicial If so then we owe no Obedience to their Laws but to their Sentence according to Christ's Law How then is obeying them the only way of Concord But say you It is but mutable Laws that they make Answ. And are mutable Laws no Laws And is he no Legislator that maketh but mutable Laws Neither King nor Parliament will believe this But you say Canons are not Laws I thank you for that Concession So saith Grotius de Imp. sum Potest If so then they are but either Counsels or Agreements Contracts It is not de nomine that we contend A Law saith Grotius is Regula actionum Moralium More fully A Law is the signification of a Ruler's Will making the Subjects Duty If a Canon be none then Literae formatae are none And where there is no Law there is no Transgression Then no Obedience is due to the Laws of the College of Bishops And then obeying them is not the only way of Concord Authoritas imperantis est objectum formale Obedientiae you disown also the word Pars imperans I take your own Pars Regens which to me is of the same Signification as to Ecclesiastical Power Jus regendi is that which I mean by Authority and Debitum Obediendi by Subjection But I think that indeed authorized Pastors may make proper Laws e. g. At what Places and Hours to meet what Translations Version Metre and such Orders to use but only to their proper Subjects and not to all the Christian World V. You Copiously blame us for denying that Obedience to the Universal Church which we give to every single Pastor and thought that I owned no Power but Parochial I tell you still 1. I maintain that there were in the first Age and perhaps
said of themselves when they cried Omnes Peccavimus for Voting with Dioscorus and the Eutychians at Council Eph. 2. I would fain know when as the greater Part of the Empire and Church was against this Council in the days of Zeno Basiliscus and Anastasius by what means every Christian should then have known the sence of the Universal Church At Jerusalem the Orthodox rebelliously resisted the Emperor's Lieutenants and put them to â—light in defence of this Council following a Monk that compared the four Councils to the four Evangelists and sent the Emperor word that they would spend their Blood for it And yet even there before the prevailing Part had condemned it At Antioch the Bishop and Monks fought it out to so much Blood that the Monks Carcasses could have no Grave but the River Orontes At Constantinople and Alexandria the Matter oft was little better Are these things indifferent or jesting Matters of small Infirmity 5. And the 5th General Council Const. 2. was thought long by a great Part of the Church to have contradicted the 4th de tribus Capitulis and was so much disowned that even Venice Liguria Istria c. renounced the Pope and Roman Primacy for Owning it and chose a Patriarch at Aquileia to be the Primate instead of Rome which long continued till Sergius reconciled them 6. And that Concil Trullanum called Quino-Sextum which you own as the same with the Fifth is disowned by the Roman Party to this day and accused by them to have been Monothelites Vid. Binnium And yet said to be the same Men who were the Second Const. Council And so they make that Second also to have been Monothelites 6. And the next Const. Third were condemned by the Seventh General at Nice as heinous Sinners for condemning Church Images and even Helvicus with other Lutherans call it Synodum Iconomaâ—hicam quam Oâ—cumenicam dici voluerunt And I think that the Church of Rome disowneth the Doctrine both of it and the Second of Nice which hath agreed that Christ's Body is not flesh in Heaven Now I would know while these Councils thus anathematized each other or lamented their own former Errors as Voting by Fear or Mistake and while most of the Bishops declared against any of them as they oft did and when Heraclius Philippicus or other Emperors were Monothelites and the Major part of the Bishops followed them how common Christians should know whom to Obey XV. I remember that you also pleaded Christ's words Hear the Church But he saith also Tell the Church even the same Church which we must Hear And verily here I am utterly at a loss Christ I know and Paul I know should be heard but who are this one Universally ruling College for me to to hear yea the Pope may be told and heard but how to tell or hear a College that dwell all over the Earth I know not I cannot hope to live long enough to send to or hear from Abassia Armenia Syria Mengrelia Georgia Circassia and all the Greek Churches and to Mexico and perhaps the Antipodes nor do I think our Salvation lyeth so much on our Skill in Geography that we must know that there are any such Countries in the World nor a Rome or a Constantinople c. And I cannot think that most of the World will ever hear that there is such a Man as I in being nor that one of a thousand of the Bishops ever hear the Names or know the Opinions of all the rest or of the one half of them And if I were rich enough to hire a Messenger to go all over the Earth and were so foolish as to hope to live till he returned I must take their Votes on the Credit of the Messengers Word which is a sandy Ground for Church-Communion and Salvation Nay I cannot hope to live to see a General Council much less to see the end of it and to be certain of their Votes and Sentence And if I knew that I had all the Bishops on Earth for one Opinion I am not certain whether most of the Presbyters being an hundred to one be not against them and in England the Presbyters are part of the Convocation which is the Representative Church Had I lived on Earth when the Council of Nice was contradicted at Sirmium Ariminum Tyre Milan and the World groaned to find it self turned Arrian Or when they were Anathematizing each other and fighting at the first Eph. Council Or when the 2d Nicene were condemning the second Const. Or when Vigilius was dragged by a Rope at Const. by Justinian's Command and the Patriarch of Aquileia set up against Rome or when the Trull Canons were made by Men now called Monothelites or when innumerable Monothelite Bishops met under Philippicus c. I could not possibly have told how to know the Governing Judgment of the College of Bishops that live all over the Earth Nay when you own no Council since the Sixth why will no Importunity intreat you to tell me whether for these Thousand Years last the Universal Church was Governed by one College and what Governing Act this Colledge hath so long exercised over all the Christian World And how it was known And whether their Literae formatae are to be found written And where Or are only transmitted to all the World by Memory and by whose Memory and of whom we may all enquire of them with certain Satisfaction Or whether the Church hath been this Thousand Years no Church or Ungoverned You say the Council at Frankford condemned that at Nice How shall I know which the College owned at the time of the sitting of each Council How few Councils were ever so great as that at Basil Can you tell me how to be sure whether the College be more for it or against it at this day Bear with me for telling you that if I had not found that you are a Man of strong Passions full of your self and of undoubting Confidence in your Apprehensions I should wonder how so Studious Learned and Sober a Man could possibly take either Union Communion or Salvation to lie upon Mens Belief of and Obedience to such a College as all the Bishops on Earth And if you take the Creed to mean this as the Holy Catholick Church I shall not wonder if you take me and almost all the Protestants that ever I knew or read for Hereticks and having twice admonished me and not convinced me if you avoid me and should not only Seventeen Years silence me but banish or burn me if you are for such execution upon Hereticks or at least take me and all such as I to be intolerable and use us accordingly XVI I will sum up the Difference between you and me in a Similitude All Power in Heaven and Earth and all Judgment is given to Christ. The Creator's Government by Civil Rulers he changeth not but is now their Soveraign King His Church he Governeth as a Saviour and a Teacher and their Heavenly
that was bound to Govern Then it was they only that were Authorized or had the Office and Power For Obligation to the Work though not ad hic nunc is Essential to the Office as well as Authority Or will the Performance of the Bishops of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries excuse all that succeed them to the end of the World from any Performance Why then not from all Pastoral Guidance And are they not then degraded XVIII We are against Singularity in Matters of Faith We believe that all Christs Church shall never err from any one Essential of Christianity or Communion else it would thereby cease to be a Church But we believe General Councils such as the Empire had have erred so far as to condemn each other of Heresie We perswade all Men to believe as the Church believeth that is to receive that from the Apostles quod ab omnibus ubique semper receptum fuit which the Church received and delivered as from them with known common Consent and to suspect odd Opinions Novelties and Singularities But Protestants against Papists commonly use these Distinctions 1. Authority of a Governor by Legislation and Judgment or either is one thing 2. Doctoral Authority like a Philosopher in a School of Consenters is another 3. The Authority of Witnesses which is their Obliging Credibility is another 4. The Authority of a Steward or Keeper of Records is another 5. The Authority of a Herald or Cryer or Messenger to publish Laws is another 6. And the Authority of Contractors in Mutual Self-Obligation is another Accordingly they hold 1. That there is no one Universal Head Governour or Summa Potestas Ecclesiastica to Rule the whole by Legislation or Judgment Personal or Collective but Christ. 2. That there is no one Person Natural or Political that is bound or authorized to be the Teacher of the whole World or Church but that all Pastors must Teach and Guide in their several Provinces 3. That the larger and more uncontrouled the Testimony is the greater is the Credibility and Authority of the Witnesses And therefore if all the Churches in the World as far as we can learn agree de facto that these are the Books Doctrines and practised Ordinances which they received and especially when Hereticks or Infidels and Enemies that would gainsay it cannot with any probability we thus receive the said Books and Practices as Baptism c. ex Authoritate Testium and not ex Authoritate Judicis Regentis or else Lay-Men such as Origen when he was a more credible Witness of the Text than an Hundred unlearned Bishops and such as Hierom that was no Bishop of whom I say the same yea and Women yea Hereticks and Infidels such as Pliny c. would be Church-Rulers 4. All Pastors being by Office to Preach Christ's Word and Ministerially Officiate accordingly are thereby especially intrusted with the keeping of these Sacred Records as Lawyers while they daily use them are with the Laws and the Universal Testimony of such Officers is the most credible part of the Witnesses Work or if not Universal the more the better 5. Every Pastor is as a Cryer to proclaim Christ's Laws 6. And in Circumstances left to Mutable Humane Determination the more common Consent Caeteris paribus the better And this is the use of Councils this is enough But the Protestants that I have known and read do make it our first Controversie with the Papists Whether Christ ever Instituted any one Head or Ruling Power over all the Church under himself And 2. Whether Pope or Council be such Both which they deny XIX If you have not read it I intreat you read in the Cabal-Supplement King Henry the VIII's Letter to the Archbishop and Clergy of the Province of York where you will find ☞ 1. Your cited seeming Contradictions of Scripture answered by use of Speech and Reason without any Universal Judicature 2. That Dic Ecclesiae cannot be meant of the Church Universal 3. That the Universal Church hath no Head or Governor but Christ but the Clergy subserve him as Ministers by whom he giveth Spiritual Grace and quae Spiritu aguntur libera sunt nulla Lege astringuntur and if the Teachers do their Office with scandal Magistrates must punish them and that it is the Ecclesia quae non Constat ex bonis malis which the King is not the Head of But that in Spirituals as the word signifieth Spiritual Persons and their Goods and Works and the enforcing the Observances of Gods Laws the King is Head And the reason of the word Head notably vindicated with much more XX. I crave your Pardon both for the Prolixity and Boldness while I add this Question not as accusing you of Popery Perjury or Disloyalty How can I be cleared from the guilt of Perjury and Disloyalty if having taken the ☞ Oath of Supremacy and subscribed according to the Canons c. I shall plead for the subjecting of the King and all Subjects to a Foreign Power in Spirituals when the Oath disclaimeth it and the Can. 1. saith That all Vsurped and Foreign Power hath no Establishment or Ground by the Law of God and is for most just Causes taken away and abolished and therefore no manner of Obedience or Subjection within His Majesties Realms and Dominions is due to ANY SVCH Foreign Power And all Ministers subscribe Can. 36. against all Foreign Power as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal And Articl 21. General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when will all Princes Orthodox Heretical Mahometan Heathen Enemies in VVar c. agree to gather them out of all the VVorld And when they be gathered together for as much as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be not Governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometime have erred even in things pertaining to God wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have no Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the Holy Scriptures And doth Church-Unity Concord and Salvation lie on things not necessary to Salvation If you say that none of this speaketh against Foreign Ecclesiastical Power such as the Apostles had I answer 1. Not against a Foreigners Preaching and Baptizing and Celebrating the Lord's Supper if he be where we are and there he is no Foreigner But against all Foreigners proper Government of Men as their Subjects The Apostles Commission in that was extraordinary and yet they Ruled Doctorally none but Voluntary Consenters 2. The Law Oath Canon and Articles disclaim such Power as the Pope claimeth here But the Pope claimeth proper Ecclesiastical Government and most English and French Papists and half the rest I think claim for him only the power of the Word and Keys and not any forcing Power by the Sword XXI As hence I wonder not that Mr. Thorndike threateneth
specially Universal in a College or a Council or a Pope or a Council and College under the Pope as President their Subscription to our Articles and their usage of Oaths would be no invitation to Dissenters to imitate them or Conform Chap. XIX Mr. Henry Dodwell's Leviathan further Anatomized § 1. I Have already elsewhere in two Books detected the Schismatical and Tyrannical Doctrine of Mr. Dodwell in his tedious voluminous Accusation of the Reformed Churches as damnable Schismaticks that Sin against the Holy Ghost and have No right to Salvation by Christ. I recite now a few Passages that shew the Constitution of the Church he Pleads for Pag. 73. The Essential work of the Ministry according to my Principles is to transact between God and Man to Seal Covenants on behalf of God and to accept of those which are made by Men and to oblige them to perform their part of the Covenant by otherwise authoritatively excluding them from God's part Hence results the whole Power of Ecclesiastical Government And for this No great Gifts and Abilities are Essential All the Skill that is requisite essentially is only in general to know the Benefits to be performed on God's part and the Duties to be performed on Mans and the Nature and Obligation of Covenants in general and the particular Solemnities of Ecclesiastical Covenants And of this how any Man can be uncapable who is but capable of understanding the common Dealings of the World Pag. 72. He sheweth that Immoralities of Life are not sufficient to deprive them of this High Power And of the Power it self he saith Pag. 80 81. It is not stated in Scripture but to be measured by the Intention of the Ordainers and that the Hypothesis of God's setling in Scripture is irreconcileable with Government in this Life by permitting Men to appeal to Writings against all the visible Authority of this Life On the contrary saith he Our Hypothesis obliging inferiour Governours to prove their Title to their office and the extent of it from the intention of their Superiour Governours doth oblige all to a strict dependance on the Supreme visible Power so as to leave no place for Appeals concerning the Practice of such Government which as it lasts only for this life so it ought not to admit of Disputes more lasting than its Practice from them and that upon rational and consciencious Principles for how fallible soever they may be conceived to be in expounding Scripture yet none can deny them to be the most certain as well as the most competent Judges of their own Intentions As certainly therefore as God made his Church a visible Society and constituted a visible Government in it so certain their Hypothesis is false P. 83. How can Subjects preserve their due Subordination to their Superiours if they practice differently They may possibly do it notwithstanding Practices of Humane Infirmity and disavowed by themselves But how can they do it while they defend their Practices and pretend Divine Authority for it Yea and pretend to Authority and Offices unaccountable to them which must justifie a whole course of different Practices P. 84. If their Authority be immediately received from God and the Rule of their Practices be taken from the Scriptures as understood by themselves what reason can there be of subjection to any humane Superiours I Must intreat the Reader that he will not call any of these men Papists till they are willing to be so called You are not their Godfathers Do not then make Names for them But I must confess that once I thought the stablished French Religion had been Popery and I see no reason to recant it But if Brierwood's Epistles mis-describe them not Mr. Dodwell is not so much of their Mind for the Supremacy of a General Council as I thought he had been Will you know my Evidence It shall be only in his own words I. Separation of Churches c. Pag. 102. The Church with whom this Covenant is made is a Body Politick as formerly though not a Civil one and God hath designed all Persons to enter into this Society Pag. 98. Faith and Repentance themselves on which they so much insist are not available to Salvation at least not pleadable in a Legal way without our being of the Church And the Church of which we are obliged to be is an external Body Politick So that it 's clear it is the Universal Church and a visible Humane Politie which he meaneth Pag. 107. The design of God in erecting the Church a Body Politick thus to oblige men to enter into it and to submit to its Rules of Discipline however the secular State should stand affected It is more easie for the vulgar Capacity whatsoever to prove their interest in a visible Church than in in an invisible one consisting only of elect Persons In these and many places of both his Books he tells us that the Catholick Church is One Body Politick and hath on Earth a Supreme humane Government which I have noted in his words in my Answer to him II. Pag. 488. Only the Supreme Power is that which can never be presumed to have been confined Of which more in his words which I have confuted III. That the Intention of the Ordainers is the true measure of the Power of the Ordained he copiously urgeth and proveth as much as the Ringing a Bell will prove it by loudness and length Pag. 542. Therefore the Power actually received by them must not be measured by the true sence of the Scripture but that wherein the Ordainers understood them Now the Ordainers of the first Protestants never intended them Power to abrogate the Mass or Latin Service or Image-worship or to renounce the Pope or gave them any Power but what was in Subordination to the Pope but bound them to him and his Canons and to the Mass and the other parts of Popery To prove this he saith Pag. 489. It is very notorious that at least a little before the Reformation Aerius and the Waldenses and Marsilius of Padua and Wickliff were Condemned for Hereticks for asserting the Parity of Bishops and Presbyters And it is as notorious that every Bishop was then obliged to Condemn all Heresies that is all those Doctrines which were then censured for Heretical by that Church by which they were Ordained to be Bishops Our Protestants themselves do not pretend to any Succession in these Western Parts where themselves received their Orders but what was conveyed to them even by such Bishops as these were And Pag. 484 485 486. he sheweth at large That All the Authority which can be pretended in any Communion at the present must be derived from the Episcopal especially of that Age wherein the several Parties began Within less than Two Hundred Years since there was no Church in the World wherein a Visible Succession was maintained from the Apostles which was not Episcopally Governed And the first Inventers of the several
speak for the clean contrary 4. What if we prove that Christ hath himself given the Church in the Scriptures an account of his own Institution of Church-Form and Government as much as is necessary to its Essence Unity and Salvation and that all altering Compacts contrary to this are diabolical Will Christ damn us for not breaking his Laws and serving the Devil Is it the sin against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable not to despise Christ's Laws and not to obey the Devil 5. What if we prove to him that the very Species of his Prelacy and specially of a Supreme Catholick Jurisdiction is condemned by Christ and Treason against him Are we Traytors for not being Traytors 6. What if we prove to him that according to his very Canons the Pope and Bishops that he damns us for not owning are no Bishops having no true Call and Title to that which they pretend to Will you have yet another of his Self-contradictions P. 7. I cannot but look on it as an Argument that God never intended to oblige Particular Churches to as great a dependence on other Churches as that is wherein he has obliged Subjects to depend on their own Churches because by his contrivance of things it does not follow that Separating Churches must be left as destitute of the ordinary means of Salvation on their separation from other Churches as particular Subjects are on their separation from their own Churches Abating what obligations they have brought on themselves by their own Compacts God has made them equal There is no way of judging who is in the right but by the intrinsick merit of the Cause I really believe that the true original design of those Compacts whereby particular Churches have voluntarily submitted to restrictions of their original Power was ONLY that every particular Church might have her Censures confirmed in all other Churches in reference to those who were originally her own Subjects not to gain a Power over any other Subjects but her own nor to submit to any other Power c. Alas And have Compacts by we know not who brought us all into the snare of the unpardonable sin Though Christ died for the World he saveth none but Consenters And can Men in Asia in Towns whose Names we poor Countreymen never heard of make Laws to Damn all to the Worlds end that obey them not and this without our own Consent To conclude this Gentleman hath yet an easie remedy against all this He doth indeed frequently prove if you will believe him that though you have Faith that works by Love and do all other duty that is in Love to God and Man you cannot be saved without external Communion that is subjection to this humanly compacted Catholick Church so said Pope Nicholas long ago yea and Aeneas Sylvius when Pius 2d that all other Graces and Duties will not save a Man that is not subject to the Bishop of Rome But saith this Man p. 13. They may easily avoid the danger only by returning to the Catholick Vnity Mark Catholick Vnity National Unity will not serve We grant it But what Catholick Vnity is and whether Catholick Councils with a Catholick President that hath an Antecedent Power to call and oblige them without which they are null rebellious and punishable and to whom all Power escheateth in the Intervals of Councils whether I say this be necessary to Catholick Unity or to Antichristian Church Tyranny is the doubt I will conclude this with Dr. Iz. Barrow's Theses p. 255. 1. Patriarchs are an Humane Institution 2. As they were erected by the Power and Prudence of Men so they may be dissolved by the same 3. They were erected by the leave and confirmation of Princes and by the same they may be dejected if great reason do appear 4. The Patriarchate of the Pope beyond his own Province or Diocess doth not subsist upon any Canon of a general Synod 5. He can therefore claim no such Power otherwise than upon his Invasion or Assumption 6. The Primates and Metropolitans of the Western Church cannot be supposed otherwise than by force or one of fear to have submitted to such an Authority as he doth Vsurp 7. It is not really a Patriarchal Power like that granted by the Canons and Princes but another sort of Power which the Pope doth Exercise 8. The most rightful Patriarch holding false Doctrine or imposing unjust Laws or Tyrannically abusing his Power may and ought to be rejected from Communion 9. Such a Patriarch is to be judged by a free Synod if it may be had 10. If such a Synod cannot be had by consent of Princes each Church may free it self from the mischiefs induced by his perverse Doctrine and Practice 11. No Ecclesiastical Power can interpose in the management of any Affairs within the Territory of any Prince without his Concession 12. By the Laws of God and according to ancient Practice Princes may model the Bounds of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction erect Bishopricks enlarge diminish or transfer them as they please 13. Wherefore each Prince having Supream Power in his own Dominion and equal to the Emperors in his may exclude any Foreign Prelate from Jurisdiction in his Territories 14. It is expedient for the publick peace and good that he should do thus 15. Such Prelate according to the Rules of Christianity ought to be content with his doing so 16. Any Prelate Exercising Power in the Dominion of any Prince is eatenus his Subject as the Popes and all Bishops were to the Roman Emperor 17. Those Joints of Ecclesiastical Discipline Established in the Roman Empire by the Confirmation of Emperors were as to necessary continuance dissolved by the dissolution of the Roman Empire 18. The Power of the Pope in the Territories of any Prince did subsist by his Authority and Favour 19. By the same Power as Princes have curbed the Exorbitancy of Papal Power in some Cases of entertaining Legates making Appeals disposing of Benefices c. by the same they might exclude it 20. The practice of Christianity doth not depend on the subsistence of such a form instituted by man As to Mr. Dodwell's fundamental Opinion that the Minister can have no Power which the Ordainer intended not to give him He overthroweth by it all the Reformation and all the English reforming Ministry as derived from the Roman Ordination For it 's certain that the Roman Bishops intended not to give them Power to reform or to Worship God as they have done And the Protestants are against him Saith Dr. Challoner in his Credo Eccles. Cath. p. 95. However the Priest at the Baptizing or the Bishop at the Ordination had another meaning yet the words wherewith they Baptized and Ordained being the words of Christ are to be taken in Christs meaning in as much as he which receiveth from another is to receive it according to the intention of the Principal Giver and not the Instrumental Giver He which confers Baptism and Orders as the Principal Donor
into Laws and make that seem needful to Unity which is against it and hurtful to the Churches no Christians should encourage their Usurpation by Obedience it being contrary to Christs general Laws 14. Whatever maketh true Christians maketh Men Members of Christ and his Church And only the Essentials of Christians go to make true Christians and the Integrals to make compleat Christians 15. The Canons of Bishops are not Essential to Christianity nor the understanding the many Controversies about Diocesans Patriarchs Councils Ordinations Successions nor to know which is the true Bishop 16. Baptism is our Christening and he that is truely Baptized is a Christian and a Member of Christ and hath the pardon of Sin and right to Heaven before he be a Member of a particular Church or Pastor as the Eunuch Acts 8. and many converted without Bishops As the Indians by Edesius and Frumentius and the Iberians by a Maid c. 17. Whosoever truely repenteth and believeth and loveth God as God and is of a Heavenly Mind and Life is pardoned before God before Baptism and Baptism doth but Invest him in it and make him a Christian more fully by Covenant and before the Church and the want of it without contempt will not keep him from Salvation 18. No one shall be saved by being joyned to a right Bishop or receiving the Eucharist who hath not true Repentance Faith Love and the Spirit of Holiness No Sacrament saveth the unqualified 19. Thousands live in ignorance and wickedness in Atheism Sadduceism Carnality Adultery Drunkenness c. that conform to Bishops and receive the Eucharist And to tell such they are in a state of Salvation is opposition to Christ and Damnable deceit of Souls 20. The Levites and Inferior Priests received not their Office from the High-priest but by Gods Law had it by Inheritance to which God chose the Tribe of Levi Nor had the High Priests power to add to or alter the Laws and Office of the Inferior Priests or their own 21. Nor was there a necessity of an uninterrupted regular Succession much was of man's making Christ owned them that were in possession though Usurpers not of Aarons Line but such as bought the place of the Romans 22. Seeing the High Priest was a Type of Christ and the Scripture saith so much of the change of the Law and Priesthood and Christ hath made sufficient Laws for Church Offices it is presumption to Judaize and pretend to any other imitation of the High Priests than Christ hath ordained 23. No one of the Apostles was an High Priest over the rest but had equal Apostolical Power 24. Christ rebuked them for seeking who should be greatest and expresly forbad that which they sought 25. Every Pastor or Church-Presbyter hath an Office subordinate to the Teaching Priestly and Ruling Office of Christ. 26. Every ones Pastoral Office is instituted and described by Christ by his Spirit in the Apostles and this specification is Divine which none may alter nor make any other such 27. Therefore as Papists confess of the Pope all that men have to do is not to be makers or donors of the Office but to determine of the persons that shall receive it from Christ's donative Instrument his Law and ministerially to invest them as men Christen Marry Crown Kings c. 28. No Minister or Priest representeth Christ simpliciter but secundum quid as Embassadors or Justices do the King 29. Christ's Laws are above mans and no man's to be obeyed against them To obey man against God is Idolatry 30. The Priests or Bishops are under Christ's Laws as well as others and by them all their true Power is given and limited And therefore if they go against Christ's Laws they represent him not therein nor are to be obeyed as usurping an unjust Power 31. Therefore every Christian hath a Judgment of discerning whether Bishops Laws agree with Christ's and must be governed as reasonable creatures and not as Infants Idiots or Brutes 32. They that deny this and require absolute obedience in all things set man above God and make it the duty of Subjects to be Atheists Infidels Idolaters Mahometans Murderers Adulterers Hereticks where Kings or Popes or Prelates will command it 33. Multitudes of Church-Canons have been contrary to Christ's Laws as I have with grief proved in my History of Councils 34. Bishops that deposed Emperors and Kings were not to be obeyed therein 35. Almost all the Christian World since the use of General Councils are disagreed who are the true Bishops one Party setting up one whom others reject and condemn so that if it were necessary to Salvation to know who is the true Bishop of the several Churches few Christians could be saved 36. Many Canons nullifie the Office and Power of these Bishops who come in by the Magistrate without the choice or consent of the Clergy and People And I think Mr. Dodwell professeth Communion with few but such and so is by Canons condemned 37. There is no Law of Christ or unchangeable Law of man for appropriating a certain space of ground to one Bishops Jurisdiction Grotius and Dr. Hammond thought that at first most great Cities had two Bishops and Churches one of Jews and one of Gentiles And the Apostles never so appropriated any places to themselves but oft divers in one City were their Teachers 38. Occupation of a space of ground for Priestly Power is no just Title and may be altered And if it were the Primitive Occupation was contrary to Mr. Dodwells Model 39. If each City was to have a Bishop each of our Corporations should have one being all Cities in that antient sense 40. It is not necessary to all to be of any fixed particular Church as I have proved elsewhere of Travellers some Embassadors Merchants Vagrants c. while they are of the Universal Church and own Christ and obey his Law 41. The Electors do more to the making of Bishops than the Ordainers Oft-times Bishops have ordained contrary Competitors some one and some another and are oft forc't to ordain whom Princes and Patrons chuse 42. Cyprian and his Carthage Council prove in the Case of Martial and Basilides that it is the Peoples Duty to forsake those Bishops who are not qualified according to Christ's Law though Canonically ordained and approved And Martin separated from such and Gildas saith he is not eximius Christianus that owned the Brittish Bishops 43. Christ hath left sufficient Directions for the continuation or restoration of the Priestly Office without Canonical successive Ordination uninterrupted As well as God hath done for Kings 44. Seeing Mr. D. saith A Presumptive title may serve he thereby confesseth that it is not real Canonical Succession but the Opinion of it that he makes necessary 45. The Question is Who must be the Presenters When they so greatly differ Grotius presumed that the Chief Minister of a City or a Church was really a Bishop though not so called 46. The Reformed can
and then I said May it Please Your Majesty This reverend Dr. Guning just now accused us as if we would let in Socinians and Papists We suppose that this is not intended as our deed The King answered There be many Laws against the Papists I replyed We understand this to be for a dispensation with those Laws There was no more said and that was the Conclusion of the day III. In 1662. came out a Declaration for Liberty of Religion naming the Papists to have their part in it but not a Toleration I was desired to get the City Ministers to Subscribe a Thanksgiving for it I told them that it was the King's Work and not to be done by us But I knew it was the Bishops design to cast the Odium of a Toleration of Popery on the Nonconformists while they would gratifie the King by forcing us to Consent But they should never do it They should do it themselves or it should not be done And it presently died IV. The Lord Bridgman called Dr. Wilkins and his Chaplain Dr. Hez Burton and Dr. Manton and me and Dr. Bates after as by the King's Order to attempt an Agreement for a Comprehension to the Presbyterians and a Toleration for the Independents We agreed of the Comprehension in terminis and Judge Hale drew it up into the form of an Act But when we came to the other part the form proposed was for a Toleration of all not excepting the Papists I told the Lord Keeper that we could not meddle in measuring out all other mens Liberty but only to declare what we desired our selves Others must be consulted about their own concerns we were not for severity against any But it was the King's Work and we unmeet to be his Counsellors in it And so all was cast off by the Parliament by that means and the Act forbidden to be offered § 8. At last the King himself broke the Ice and Published a Declaration for Licensing a Toleration The Cruelty of the Prosecution of the Nonconformists being still the seeming Necessity for all But the Parliament broke it and it did the Papists much more harm than good for the Nonconformists continued to Preach though Persecuted § 9. The Clergy now would lay all the Severities on the Parliament and wash their own hands as guiltless of all But 1. It was they even their chief Bishops and Drs. that when the King Commissioned them to Agree on such Alterations as were necessary to tender Consciences after all importunity concluded that no Alteration was so necessary 2. And it was the Bishops and Convocation that altered the Book for the worse and put in new matter harder than before 3. And the Bishops in Parliament were the Chief Agents in all the Laws by which we are undone 4. And it is known that it was the Interest of the Bishops and their Church way that engaged the Long Parliament in all their terrible Acts against us Viz. The Act of Uniformity the Acts for Banishment the Five mile Act the Corporation Act the Militia Act the Vestry Act and others 5. And who knoweth not that it is they and their Disciples that make the great stir against our Healing in jealousie of their Interests which nothing but their own over-doing is like to overthrow 6. And when did they ever once Petition any Parliament to reverse the dividing wicked Laws or to restore the Silenced Ministers or to free them from dying with Rogues in Jails or to prefer the Ministers of Jesus before Barabbas or to request that the Eminent Ministers of Christ might have no greater Punishment for Preaching Christ than debaucht Whoremongers Drunkards Swearers and Blasphemers usually have in England 7. Yea if a Godly Conformist do but write against their Cruelty to the Nonconformists such as are Mr. Pierce Mr. Jones Mr. Bold they have for it Persecuted him as if he were a Nonconformist himself And that you may know that it is not the old Church-men nor yet a few single Persons when Dr. Whitby Prebend of Salisbury who had wrote against Popery did write an excellent Treatise for Peace and Reconciliation the Oxford University Decreed the Publick burning of it together with my Holy Common-wealth The Lord Convert and Pardon them that they prove not the burned fewel when Reconciliation and a Holy Common-wealth are prosperous c. God shall judge at last § 10. All this time from Laud till now it is a hard Controversie which of the two Parties is to be called The Church of England Both Parties pretend to it and some call both of them the same Church But the Infamous Roger L'Estrange set the Name of Trimmers on the old and reconciling Party pretending that the other were the Genuine Members of the Church And was imployed by his Genius and the Court and the Papists and the New Clergy-men to do a work so truly Diabolical as I never read of the like in History even for many Years together to Write and Publish twice a Week a Dialogue called Observations mainly levelled against Love Peace and Piety to perswade all men to hate their Brethren and to provoke men to destroy them whom he Nick-named Whigs and to render odious all save the Wolves whom he called Tories as if he owned the Irish Robbers so that a Trimmer with him was the same as a Peace-maker Blessed by Christ and Cursed by L'Estrange § 11. But whether the New Clergy or the Old be the Church of England and whether both be of one Church remaineth still doubtful But whoever hath the Name that one Name is equivocal when applied to Parties contrary and inconsistent 1. That Church which owneth a Foreign Government and Jurisdiction cannot be one and the same with that Church which renounceth and abhorreth it and owneth only Christ's Universal Government and a Foreign Concord and Communion But this is the difference between the Old Reformed Church of England and the New that call themselves the Church Two Kings make two Kingdoms For the Form denominateth And the Relative Vnion of the pars Imperans and Subdita is the Form That Church which hath a Human Head above National must have a Form and Name above National that is Above a Church of England which makes them all talk so much of The Universal Church in this false humane Form An Universal Church hath an Universal Soveraign Power which is only Christ. If the Pope be Antichrist it is his claim of this that maketh him so because it is Christ's Prerogative which no mortal Man or Council or College is capable of And if so is it not a Papal or Antichristian Church that these Foreign Subjects own and are of whether it be of the French or Italian Form if one be Antichristian both are so when the Claim of Universal Jurisdiction is the Cause I have voluminously detected the mistake of these deceived Men who are deluded by the Name Oecumenical Catholick and Universal which they find in the Councils and Fathers and
Christ our Redeemer For this end he both died rose and revived that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living Rom. 14.9 10. All power is given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28.19 All things are delivered to him of the Father and given into his hands John 13.3 and 17.2 He is made Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.23 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son John 5.22 VII Princes are therefore now the Ministers of Christ by Duty and are bound to study his Interest and Laws and to obey him VIII Subjects by Obligation are not always Subjects by Consent nor Subjects by Professed Consent always Subjects by Heart-Consent IX All the World is the Kingdom as of God the Creator so of Christ the Redeemer as to Obligation And the Wicked as Rebels X. All the truely Baptized are thereby made the Kingdom of Christ the Redeemer by Profest Consent And this is the Church visible XI All the true Believers and Sanctified are the Kingdom of Christ by Heart-Consent and these are the Church Regenerate and Mystical XII Therefore the Kingdom of Christ is larger than the Church of Christ And the Church is an Elect peculiar people Visible as to Means and Mystical as to Salvation Even as the Israelites had the Covenant of peculiarity while the Law of Grace in the first Edition made to Adam and Noah was still in force to all the World And Abraham thought that even Sodom had had Fifty Righteous Persons in it XIII The Church of Christ is an Eminent Politick Society of which Christ is the Specifying and Vnifying Head and all Christians are Members All the Baptized Visible Members and all the sincere consenters mystical Members XIV Christ is the Maker of his own Body Church or Kingdom He made himself the Head He made the specifying Institution or Law the Terms of Union and Communion He giveth Men the Grace by which they Believe Repent Consent and are made Members If Christ made not his own Church as to the Formal Head the Species the Unifying Terms and Graces it would be as a Wooden Leg to a living Body a Human Creature imposed on him Savouring of the Errours and Naughtiness of those that made it and Mutable at their Mutable Wills Every active Form makes it's own material Domicilium Who is he or who are they that had power to make Christ a Body or Church in specie before he made it himself Christs Body is not made by Man If it were who were they Were they his Body or Church first themselves or not If yea who made them such and who them and who them in infinitum If not how came Infidels and the Members of the Devil to have power to make a Body or Church for Christ XV. Christ hath de specie Instituted who shall be Members of this Church And by his Laws Terms and Description taught us certainly to know the Members as Visible Else we could never know whom to take for Christians nor whom to love as such Nor to whom to give the Seals of his Grace and Communion with his Members XVI Baptism is the Symbol or Badge of Christians and Baptizing is our Christening and whoever believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved Therefore till they Revolt all truly Baptized persons are Visible Christians and make up the Visible Church Which is the Society of all Christians Headed by their Soveraign Christ. XVII All Christians entered in Infancy are not capable of the Duty Blessings and Communion of the Adult Adult Members and Communion must be distinguished from Infant XVIII Therefore all that will have Adult Communion though they must not be Baptized again must as fully own their Baptismal Covenant Devoting themselves by their own Vnderstanding Consent and Vow to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil as if they were now to be Baptized The neglect of this or turning it into a dead image and Ceremony by dead Images of Bishops on pretence of Confirmation confoundeth the Church and would make it a dead Image and really but the World XIX The Universal Church of Christ in his days on Earth was but an Embrio and his few Apostles and Disciples who were suited in number to the Jewish Nation where their Ministry was to begin were but like the Organical parts of the Body the Heart Head Eyes Liver c. when Nature hath first made them that by them it may make the rest But when Christ was Risen and the Holy Ghost sent down in Eminency and the Gentiles called and the Church began to be Catholick this Kingdom of the Holy Ghost is that which is called specially the Kingdom of God and Heaven which the Gospel then proclaimed and John Baptist told Men was at hand XX. The Church of Christ on Earth is partly Visible and partly Invisible and yet but one Church As Man is visible as to his Body and invisible as to his Soul and yet but one Man It is visible 1. In that the Subjects persons are Visible 2. Their profession is Visible 3. Christ was Visible on Earth 4. He is Visible now in his Court of Heaven 5. He will in visible Glory come and Judge them 6. They shall see his Glory for ever 7. His Laws are Visible 8. His Officers are Visible 9. Many of his Judgments and Executions are Visible here 10. The rest shall be so quickly and for ever His Church is Invisible 1. In that Christ as God was never seen 2. His Soul never seen 3. His Office as to Truth Right and Authority Invisible and to be believed 4. The Souls of the Subjects Invisible 5. Their Sincerity Invisible 6. And Christ now not seen on Earth 7. Nor Heaven and Hell seen where is his great Execution and Retribution XXI Christ only is the Specifying and Unifying Form of the Church as United to the Matter And all Christians Pastors and People are but the Matter They have a sort of Unity in themselves They are of one Human kind of one Interest of one Profession and Faith and Love if sincere and joyn in one sort of Worship and Acts of Obedience to Christ But they are One Christian Church or Body of Christ only by their Vnion with Christ and Relation to him their Head and Center As the Kingdom of England hath one sort of Men in our Land of one Language c. But only their Relation to one King makes them one Kingdom XXII The Church or Body of Christ when fully made hath dissimilar parts some are Noble Organical parts first made to be instruments in making and preserving all the rest and the Church cannot be a Formed Church without them some are such Integrals as the Church may live without but not be Whole without Even as Aristotle defineth the Soul to be Entelechia or the Entitative Act and Form of a Physical organized Body capable of being Animated by it And as in
Catholick Church and makes that the Body of the Pope which should be but the Body of Christ. 17. It is a certain means of Schism while thereby they separate that humane Society of the Usurper from all the Church that will own no Head but Christ. 18. This Idol Head or Vice-Christ in plain Pride setting up himself as the Governour of the World and setting the World together by the Ears about his Title by Usurping the Government over them must needs make it a hard question at least to Christians whether this Idol be not the Antichrist that is the Pro-Christ while he makes himself the Vice-Christ And especially when it 's considered what men abundance of the Popes have been and how much they have done against the Doctrine Worship Discipline and faithful Servants of Christ. 19. They have no way to give the World any satisfactory certainty who is Pope and who not How then can the World be ruled by him 1. They cannot tell whether the Electors or Consecrators be they that necessarily give him his Power or make him Pope 2. If it be the Electors they cannot tell us who those must be If any will serve the Turk may make a Pope And then ten sort of Electors may make ten Popes If it be tied to any one sort of Men the Papacy hath long been extinct for in some Ages the People of Rome chose with the City Clergy In some Ages the Neighbour Bishops and People chose In some the Emperors In some Cardinals And sometimes General Councils If God had appointed one Vnifying Head to his Church he would have determined who should choose him and told us how to know him If it be Consecration that maketh him Pope God would have authorized some to Consecrate him If any will serve some may Consecrate one and some another and some a third Every one may have three Bishops If it must be both a just Election and Consecration the uncertainty will be the greater when neither of them is certain And none can give Power but they that have it to give But Electors and Consecraters being Inferiors have none to give If they say that God only giveth the Power and the Electors do but choose the Receiver and the Consecrators invest him I answer It is so indeed in the true Colâ—ation of Church-offices and Power Whether Mr. Dodwell and such others will or not But that 's here all one as to our uncertainty Who is the Man 2. And this is no feigned case when in such a multitude of Schisms there have been two or three Popes at once and once six alive at once that were or had been Popes And these made Bishops and Cardinals and those Bishops made Priests and no man yet knows which of them if either had the right 3. And is it the Name of a Roman Bishop or the Thing that is necessary to the being of an Universal Pastor If the Name a Hundred may be so called And bare Names give not so great Power If the Thing how were those Bishops of Rome that divers Score Years did dwell in France and never did any Bishop's Work at Rome nor had Rome's Consent Might not one in Armenia have been as truly called the Bishop of Rome But if it be Possession that gives validity to the claim then the strongest hath the best title And they that have by turns driven out each other were all true Popes And who was Possessor when one was at Rome and another that carried it at last at Avignion or in Germany 20. Tying an Unifying Head of all the Church on Earth to Rome doth leave it in the Power of any Infidel or Arian that can get Rome to set a Head of the Christian Religion on the Church that is To un-church it destroy it or corrupt it For all that know the World know how ordinarily the Present Powers can prevail with their Subjects to Elect whom they please As Theodoricus and other Arians at Rome have done And if the Turk should conquer Rome how easily could he keep them from having any Bishop at all and so the Church were dead as headless 21. Yea Rome hath long been without any true Bishop And the Church is no Church without it's Constitutive Head In divers times of Wars Desolations and Persecutions yea long by the Disagreement of the Electors and many ages by the nullity of uncapable Popes some set up by Whores and Tyrants and some deposed by General Councils as Hereticks and yet continuing as Eugen. 4. And long much of Italy it self deposed the Roman Bishop and set up a Patriarch at Aquileia and took him for their Head 22. Yea it is certain by their Doctrine of necessary uninterrupted Succession that there is now no Pope nor ever can be For when so many false Elections Incapacities by Simony Heresie Schism Infidelity Councils Depositions have interrupted the Succession it can never by their way be restored 23. By all the Canons every City should choose their own Bishop And so Rome oft a Nest of Wickedness would be made the Mistriss or Head of all the World when as Cosmography is not so necessary to Christianity that all the World should be bound ever to know that there is such a place as Rome in the World And it were a strange thing that God should make it necessary to Salvation for them at the Antipodes and all the Earth to obey one City and him that they elect Was it ignorance or craft in Pope Zachary to Excommunicate one for saying there were Antipodes If he knew of no Men on the other side of the Earth he was unlike to Govern them If he perswaded Men that one half of the Earth was uninhabited that he might not be known to be no Governor of them it was vain Craft But it 's liker it was Ignorance He that would have more Proof may find enough in Dr. Barrow XXVIII The Pope by this Claim of Universal Government claimeth so much Power unjustly from and over all Princes on Earth as obligeth them all to take him for a Publick Enemy as one would do that should claim an Universal Monarchy and tell them on pain of Deposition they must be all his Subjects as the Pope doth on pain of Excommunication Deposition and Damnation None ever had the madness to dream of an Universal Schoolmaster or Physicion Gregory long ago made the claim of Universal Bishop to be a mark of Antichrist XXIX Christ bindeth all Christians to live in Communion as Saints as making up one Body Politick of a transcendent Species of which Christ is the Supreme Governor or Head This therefore is none of the Controversie between us All Christians are agreed that as many Members of different shape use and honour make up one Natural Body so do Christians that differ in Gifts Office and Grace make up one Body of Christ. And as every Member contributeth to the good of the whole Body so must every Christian to the good of
And yet he may own most or all other Pastors of the Catholick Church as such He that thinks the Subscriptions Forms or Ceremonies of the Greek Roman or English Church unlawful doth not therefore think Christianity or Catholick Communion unlawful XXXVIII All Christians are not bound to be fixed Members of particular Churches subordinate to National but those that can enjoy it ought The Negative I have so fully proved against Dr. Stillingfleet that for Dr. Sherlock to go on to harp on the same string and give no answer to it doth but tell us with what Men we have to do I will not repeat the Proofs I gave that some Ambassadors some Merchants some wandering Beggars or Tradesmen some Travellers and some where no Churches yet are gathered some Soldiers and some in times of Confusion are not obliged to be fixed Members of any particular Church but only to be Christians in Communion with the Church Catholick and to hold transient Communion with the Churches where they come He that yet will deny this words will not make him see it XXXIX Many of these Churches in one Kingdom have so great advantage by the Unity of Soveraignty civil Interest and Laws to be strengthening helpers to one another that they should accordingly associate and live in as much concord as their various conditions Auditors and Imperfections will allow And accordingly as Neighbours owe some more Charity to each other than to Strangers so Christians under the same Prince united by Civil Government Laws and Interest should be so far from persecuting and destroying each other for that which in various Kingdoms is allowable in Religion that they should exercise more love compassion and forbearance of one another XL. Christian Princes are true Parts of the Kingdom of Christ and eminent Integral Parts of the Universal Church as well as Pastors And are bound by Christ to do their best to make all their Kingdoms the Kingdoms of Christ that is to bring all their Subjects to consent to be Christians and to live in concordant Obedience to the Laws of Christ. And so all Nations should be discipled as far as they can procure it And such National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms we must all desire XLI Supreme Christian Princes or States are authorized and obliged to drive on by just means all Pastors and People to the Duties of their several Places and correct them for their Crimes XLII Christian Princes and States being Members of the Universal Church are bound to contribute their best endeavours to its welfare And therefore so far to Unite and Agree as is necessary to their mutual strengthening for the Universal good XLIII Therefore so far as Civil Councils or Dyets of many Princes or their Delegates or Ambassadors are necessary to this Concord for the common good they are bound by God to keep such And where Meetings cannot be kept to use all meet correspondency by Ambassadors and Letters for the same End So that this is no duty proper to Bishops but common to Christian Princes And if their sinful omission make it strange it is nevertheless their duty as God will make them know XLIV Thy Synods of Pastors duly ordered are of great use for their mutual advice strength and concord in order to the universal good So far are we from being against them that we think the right use of them of great importance That they may keep a right understanding of the Faith which they agree in and bear down Heresies the better by their joynt opposition and may keep up Christian Love and work out the disaffections which strangers and the calumnies of backbiters are apt to breed And even in Integrals and meet Accidents may do as much in Concord as they can XLV The Obligation which lieth on Particular Pastors to observe the Agreements of such Synods is from the general command of Love and Concord and the means thereto And he that stands not to such Agreements as make for the Strength and Concord of the Churches violateth this Common Law But such Agreements of Synods as make not for this common end but are against it no man is obliged to observe For it is no means that is not for the End but against it Therefore every Canon which enjoyneth sin or is not to the Churches good but hurt must not be kept XLVI It is not true that the Diocesan is by Office the Representer of the whole Church in Synods and Presbyters have no place or decisive Votes Protestants have at large confuted this in their Confutations of Popery and so have many French Papists and some others The Convocation in England hath a lower House of Presbyters Else in Abassia one Bishop were instead of all the Clergy of the Empire And two or three were a National Synod in a Nation that hath no more Diocesses They can shew no Commission for such a Representative Power therefore they have none such XLVII Much less have five Patriarchs and a few Metropolitans or such near them as they will call Authority to pass for the Representatives of all the Christian World and to constitute a General Council XLVIII No Pastors or Churches can give power to any to represent them absolutely but only limitedly to lawful things for common good And to oblige them no further or longer to stand to what they do than the common good requireth it What a man may not do himself he may not authorize another to do for him And no man may himself oppose Truth or Duty or cross the common good or assert any falshood or consent to any sin And that which accidentally maketh for the common good in one Age or Countrey may be against it in the next And then we are obliged against it whatever our Delegates Ancestors or selves did for it before XLIX There was never in the World a General Council of all the Bishops on Earth nor of the Representatives of all the Churches Even the six or eight or more old Councils now most honoured were General but as to One Empire yea far from that and not as to all the Christian World This I have fully proved in my second Book against Johnson 1. From the Subscriptions to the said Councils 2. From the Authority of the Emperors that called them 3. From the rest of the History and Acts 4. And from the Testimony of the Historians of those Times Yet A. Bishop Bromhall with the Papist Priest Johnson maintaineth the contrary pag. 110. saying This Exception was made in the dark c. and saith it abounds with Errours and that the Abuna of Ethiopia submitteth to the Patriarch of Alexandria and they all acknowledge the Pope the first Patriarch c. Ans. 1. If such a cant as this go with any man for a satisfactory answer to the full proof aforesaid which I have given and my Confutation of ten times more of Johnsons I have done with that man Ans. 2. Our Question is Whether any or all the
is King and the Law is his Law he being by the Constitution by Contract obliged to own it and Govern by it 2. And Parliaments have their part in the Legislation as Representatives or Trustees of the People and therefore the Laws are called those quas vulgus elegerit But the People die not at the dissolving of a Parliament 3. At least it 's of apparent necessity that the Supreme Executive Power survive or else the Laws die For whose Laws are they if we had no King or Soveraign Whom do we obey or disobey in obeying or disobeying such Laws But our opposers say that even the Supreme Executive as well as Legislative Power is in General Councils If so their Laws are dead a thousand years and we cannot disobey or obey dead men Therefore why do you press us to obey their Laws Arg. 5. If God would have had such Councils to be the Universal Soveraigns he would have notified this plainly in his Word or in Nature it being supposed the Constitutive Form of the Church or at least necessarily to be known for the common Duty and Concord of Christians Our opposers say There is no Concord nor avoiding damnable Schism but by obeying the Vniversal Governing Church But God hath notified no such thing in Nature or Scripture Arg. 6. If God would have his Church Universal to have had such a Soveraign he would have empowered some one or more to call such a Council and told us who hath the power to call them that we may know which have Authority and are to be obeyed For there have been many false and heretical General Councils so called and they have cursed and condemned one another But God hath given us no notice of any empowered to call such a Council nor any means how to know which of them is true and which false which to obey and which not whatever the Pope pretendeth Arg. 7. All the Inferior Officers derive their Power from the Supreme But all the particular Bishops and Presbyters do not derive their Power from General Councils ergo they are not Supreme The Major is undoubted with all Politick Writers It is one of the Jura Majestatis to be the Fountain of Inferior Power The Minor is notorious de facto in the common History of the Church By the National Orders of the Roman Empire Councils had a chief Power in case of difference to determine of the five Patriarchs but not necessarily to chuse them nor did they consecrate them nor was this without the Empire nor did these Patriarchs make the other Bishops The Papists dare not determine whether Election or Consecration necessarily make a Bishop or whether it must be both For which ever be necessary distinguished from invalid acts their Popes and Bishops are nulled much more if both But neither of them was appropriate to General Councils Arg. 8. The Soveraign Government of the Universal Church is supposed necessary to its Unity and to avoiding of Schism and deciding Controversies and therefore its Laws are necessary to be Preached to all the Flocks But none of this is true as to the Soveraignty of a Council â—or the Church had Unity mostly without it and subsists without it at this day and few Subjects know its Laws and few Preachers preach them or People think they are bound to learn them Arg. 9. Christ hath appropriated the Soveraignty and Universal Legislation and Judgment to himself alone Therefore it is not committed to a Council The Antecedent is proved fully by 1 Cor. 11.3 1 Cor. 12.27 c. Col. 1.18 2.10 17 19. Eph. 1.22 23. Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. to 16. 1 Cor. 6.16 17. Gal. 3.28 1 Cor. 3.3 4 5. 4.6 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Matth. 22.25 26. Luke 22.26 Arg. 10. They that will claim so great a Power as to be the Soveraigns of the Christian World must shew a clear Commission for it But Universal Councils can shew no such Commission Arg. 11. If an Universal Council of Bishops be the Supreme Governours of the Universal Church they that call them not or they that come not together live in most damnable sin For all Office consisteth in Obligation to do the duty as well as Power to do it And to neglect so many hundred years a work of such unspeakable need must be more damnable than to neglect a particular Flock so that this casts either all the Bishops of the World into damnation as most perfidious men or the Pope for not calling them Arg. 12. The necessity of such an Universal Supreme Senate is feigned and false therefore none such is of God 1. The great pretended necessity is of Universal Legislation But that is not necessary For Christ hath already given his Church as many Laws as are universally necessary No man can prove the necessity of one more 2. Nor is their Universal Judging Office necessary For Arg. 13. A General Council is not capable of Universal Supreme Government Therefore they were never by God appointed to it I. They are not capable of Universal Legislation 1. Because Christ hath made perfect Universal Laws and forbidden all addition to them that is at least all of the same kind To say that Christ hath left out any of universal necessity is to say that he hath done his work by the halves and men must mend it especially if it be in necessary things If it be but undetermined Circumstances or Accidents then 1. None can know which of them agree with all Countries on Earth 2. Those that agree this year may not be agreeable the next 3. Nor is an Agreement in more than Christ hath determined necessary at all So that here is no work for them to do 2. And what is the Judiciary Power that they can use No man can tell what 1. They cannot judge of particular Persons to be Baptized whether they are fit All the Bishops of the World must not meet to try a Catechumen 2. Nor yet of Persons that are to be Confirmed and admitted to adult Communion 3. Nor of Persons accused of Heresie or Scandal No one is so mad as to say that an Universal Council must be gathered out of all the Earth to judge whether A. do justly accuse B. of these Crimes and to hear all men speak for themselves and to Examine the Witnesses c. And whole Cities and Kingdoms are not fit for Church Censures because they are mixt of righteous and unrighteous and noxa Caput sequitur Every man must answer for his own Sin and every one must have his own Repentance And if whole Countries are to be Judged whole Countries of Witnesses must be heard And shall the Council come to them or they all go to the Council and whither and when If it be Causes and not Persons that they must judge what are they if they be no Persons Causes If only Cases of Doctrine and Conscience in general as the Expounding hard Texts of Scripture or Points of Divinity This is not properly
unlimited Monarch we will speak according to common use and let them speak as their Interest dictates to them but remember that the Controversie is but about the Name and not the Thing We take the French Church for Papists If they will call them Protestants they are free But if we are agreed what a Pope is the case is plain as followeth I. Mr. Dodwell their most Learned defender if number of words or greatest self-conceit be the chief strength tells you that if the Council be not lawfully called it obligeth you rather to bring them to Punishment as a Rout or Rebels than to obey them And that none but the President hath Power to call them And remember yet that this good Man is no Papist And indeed who else but the Pope should call Universal Councils The King in Scotland may call a Scotch General Assembly and in England a Convocation and Parliaâ—ent And 1. The Emperor of Rome or Constantinople might call such Councils in the Empire as were then called General and did so But who now shall call one out of France Spain Portugal Italy Germany Britain Denmark Sweden Poland Moscovie the Turkish Empire Armenia Georgia Mengrelia Tartary Abassia Mexico Peru China c. We are awake and therefore cannot Dream of Princes doing it by Agreement We are yet out of Bedlam and cannot conclude that all the Bishops in the World will come together by common consent or as the Atomists say the World was made by a fortuitous concourse of Atomes 2. How shall lawful Councils be known from unlawful if none have Authority to call approve and difference them If only ex factis by their good or bad Deeds half the World will Judge as they have done and do one Council to be spurious which another obeyeth 3. What order shall be kept among them if none have Authority to appoint the Place the Time to Preside and Moderate and to dissolve them and who pretends to this but the Pope 4. When Councils Contradict Condemn and Curse each other who shall tell us which of them to receive believe and obey II. And if we must have a visible Supreme Power we must have one that successively existeth that the Church be not dissolved And none pretendeth to this but the Pope III. And if all National Patriarchal Churches be but Parts of a visible Catholick Church with a Humane Supremacy then there must be some Power still existent to give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power Mr. Dodwell saith it overthrows all Government to appeal to Scripture as a Charter or Law of Christ None hath more than the Giver intended him None can give that which he hath not to give The Inferior hath not Power to give to the Superior Who then but a Pope can give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power If for want of Authoritative Collation of Power all the Presbyterian Ordinations Sacraments and Covenant-hopes of Salvation are Nullities and Sins against the Holy Ghost as Mr. Dodwell and his Tribe say what better are all the Bishops and Archbishops for want of a Superior conferring Power which none pretendeth to but the Pope IV. And who else shall judge Patriarchs Metropolitans and National Churches when they prove Hereticks or Schismaticks Their Heresie and Schism is far more heinous and dangerous than single Persons or Congregations And Councils are not extant And we cannot send all over the Earth to gather Bishops Votes against them unheard It must be a Pope or no body on Earth that must by Governing Authority Judge them V. And who else shall be the stated Judge of new started Controversies You say such there must be shall they be undecided till the World have a true general Council VI. And who shall an injured Person appeal to from a Tyrannical Metropolitan or National Church but to the Pope Many more clear Necessities there will be of a Pope on their Principles I blamed the Author of the Divine Hierarchy for naming such without an Antidote lest it should make men Papists But I understand he is a worthy Protestant But verily there is no avoiding a Pope by any that assert an Vniversal humane Church Supremacy VII And indeed I must not suppose them so immodest as to deny it For it is but the Pope's Absolute Power above the Councils and their Laws and not Simple Popery or the Pope's limited Power that they deny 1. They confess that they hold Rome for the Mistriss Church as Grotius calls it 2. And that the Pope is Patriarch of the West and the prime Patriarch 3. And that he is Principium Vnitatis to all the Church on Earth And if so they are out of the Church which is One that deny this 4. That he is authorized to call General Councils 5. And to be their President 6. And to be the chief Governor when there are no General Councils and that is indeed always 7. And that they are all Schismaticks that do not thus far submit to him And how much more Mr. Dodwell giveth the President I have shewed you in his own words VIII As Mr. Thorndike threateneth England with God's Judgments if they do not amend the Oath of Supremacy by making it acceptable to the Papists that renounce not a foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so others labour to prove that the meaning of it is only to renounce the Pope's Jurisdiction here in Temporals which belongs to the King and not a Papal and Foreign Jurisdiction properly Ecclesiastical by the Keys As you may see partly in Mr. Hutchinson's alias Berry's Book who on that Supposition took the Oath as many do and publickly profest himself of the Church of England IX In the Description of the Reconciliation with the Pope endeavoured by Archbishop Laud in Heylin's History of his Life Pag. 414 415 c. All that the Pope was to abate was 1. That the Oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity may be taken I told you in what sense 2. And that the Pope's Jurisdiction here but no where else be declared to be of Humane Right that is say ours by the Fathers in General Councils not without the Apostles by whose Church-Laws we are all bound 3. That all should be really performed to the King so far as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be independent both from King and Pope but not from subjection to either This saith he no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him 4. Marriage permitted to Priests 5. The Communion in both kinds 6. The Liturgy in English I ask any sober man now Qu. 1. Whether the Pope did himself think that by this bargain he ceased to be Pope and all Papists to be Papists 2. Whether if the King had been thus far equalled with other Catholick Princes the Pope would not have supposed him and his Bishops and Church to be of the same Roman Catholick Church as they 3. Whether in all this here be any
Faith one Baptismal-Covenant with Christ one Spirit one Hope of Grace and Glory and must keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And that all Subjects must obey their Rulers and Pastors in all lawful things belonging to their Office to command and teach And that as Particular Churches must be held for the Personal Communion of Saints so all these Churches must by Messengers Letters and Synods hold such correspondency as the common good of the Universal Church and their own strength and edification by the means of mutual COVNSEL and CONCORD do require II. Accordingly we make not Regent Senates or Courts of such Councils to make Laws for the Christian World But they are like the Assemblies of pious Christian Princes who study the Peace of the whole Christian World Princes are bound so to do as well as Pastors That they do not proveth not that they ought not Their Kingdoms are but parts of the Kingdom of Christ. If they should hold an Assembly in Europe for the suppressing of such a Heresie as threatneth the whole or such a Tyrant as the Pope or such an Enemy as the Turk it were well done and had the same reasons and power as a Council of Bishops Bishops may not undertake Jurisdiction in other mens Bishopricks nor Kings in other mens Kingdoms Bishops are bound to prefer the universal good and so are Kings III. And therefore the measure of such Communion by Consultation by Messengers Letters or Councils is 1. The publick good 2. And the capacity of the Communicants We have Communion with all Christians in Abassia Armenia and all the Earth in Faith Hope Love and all the Essentials of Christianity But if John or Joan here commit Adultery and be excommunicated as impenitent we are not bound to send Messengers to the Antipodes or all the World to tell them of it no nor if a Bishop or his Chaplain turn Heretick Nor are they bound to send hither to enquire or examine it And if the Excommunicate come to Armenia and desire Communion they are justifiable for receiving him and being ignorant of our Excommunication But Neighbour Christians and Churches live so near that they are capable of converse And therefore Synods and Communicatory Letters are there of great use And so far as an Excommunicate man is like to intrude into the Communion of other Churches it is meet that his Excommunication be published and that other Churches receive him not without just satisfaction And so Councils are useful as far as propinquity maketh men capable of visible Communion Especially to Pastors and Churches in one Kingdom where the Unity of the Civil Government giveth them more capacity and necessity of such Correspondency than with Foreigners And therefore the Councils in the same Roman Empire had great reason for their Decrees to avoid those Excommunicate by each other And yet many Councils even under the Papacy decreed that he that is unjustly Excommunicate by one Bishop may be received by another But that supposeth his tryal and proof of the Injury Therefore we come not so near the Universal Soveraignty of Councils as Dr. Stillingfleet in the Defence of A. Bishop Laud tells us Laud whom he defended doth Who will have the old Councils confessed truly General notwithstanding the absence of the Extra-Imperial Bishops 2. And will have such Councils to have been received the Four first by all the Christian World when it 's known how many rejected that at Chalcedon 3. And will have such Councils to be externally obeyed by patient submission when they notoriously err by all Christians till another Council as General and Free reverse their Decrees 4. And will have them have such Obedience as all other Courts For meer Councils of Bishops of several Kingdoms are no Courts and have no proper Jurisdiction Chap. II. Why Parliaments and Archbishop Abbot and the Church of England Antecedent to A. Bishop Laud were against the Design of Coalition with Rome § 1. IT was not because they were Enemies to Christian Concord or did not desire it on lawful possible terms with Papists and all others Nor was it because they were maliciously bent to be cruel to the Papists by denying them the common Love which is due to Mankind or any Benefits or Peace which was consistent with the Nations Peace and Safety But it was on such Reasons as these following § 2. I. They took the design to be a real restoring of Popery under the Name of Reconciliation and Peace And they had an excuseable Opinion that if Popery were set up it was not laying by the Name and calling it Reformation or the Church of England that would deliver us from the Sin or Suffering They were not of the new Opinion that none are Papists but those that would have the Pope Absolute above General Councils and Govern Arbitrarily against the Canons They took the foundation of Popery to be the Heresie that the whole Church on Earth must have one Soveraign or Supream Government with Universal Legislative and Judicial and Executive Power under Christ in which it must be Vnited or made One Church This they took to be Antichristian the intolerable Treasonable Usurpation of an Impossible thing tending to the Confusion of Mankind But whether this Traiterous Soveraignty should be Monarchical or Aristocratical in Pope or Councils feigned to be General or in both Conjunct and when Conjunct whether the Pope should be above the Council or the Council above the Pope or each have a Negative Voice or he have but the Calling and Presiding Power They took these to be but several sorts of Popery or differences among the Papists themselves And they took it for a ridiculous absurdity that a Council of men dead an Hundred or a Thousand Years ago and that only of men of one Empire called by their own Prince should be taken for the Vnifying Constitutive Soveraign Power of the Universal Church which now existeth and that the Body can live many Hundred Years after the Head is dead and yet be a Church of the same Species And for them that say the Bishops of all the Earth have a Jus Conveniendi and are a Virtual Council It is but to say could they prove it that they are a Virtual Head and not an Actual and so that we have no Actual Universal Church but a Virtual And as for the new Dream that they are Actually the Supreme Unifying Power and Actually Govern the whole Christian World per literas format as it 's a sad case with Christians when such deliration needs a confutation and sadder if such a Land or Clergy as ours must remedilesly Perish by believing or following such a Dream Shall all the Bishops of Asia Africa Europe and America out of the Dominions of the Turks Persians Tartarians Indians Papists Protestants Abassines c. meet in despite of their involuntary forbidding Princes How and by whose Call and where and when in how long time and who shall bear their
Charges from next to the Antipodes or from Abassia Mexico c. Must they be old Men fit for Council or Boys fit for Travel when the age of a Man will scarce serve for their coming together their business and their return and execution And what 's all this to do Is it to make new Universal Laws Hath not Christ in Nature and Scripture given us enow for the Practice of Christianity without all this ado of Congregating Bishops for Legislation all over the World Oh that these Law-makers would keep Christ's Laws And if it be for mutable Circumstances is not every Church or Countrey sufficient for such variable Determinations Must men come from the Antipodes Ethiopia or Turky to tell me here what Cloaths I must wear or what place or time I shall Preach in or what Tune to Sing in c. But if they must not meet what Messengers must be sent to them all over the World to gather their Votes How shall we be sure that they truly state all the Cases to them And that they truly bring us back their Judgments And that those Judgments were truly past without hearing what could be said against them And is every single Bishop infallible or the Majority only and how shall it be known what the Majority said And whither shall all their collected Votes be carried and to whom Is it to every Christian or to every Bishop And how many Ages will this require And if it be not for Legislation but Judgment if the Question be whether A. B. be a Heretick or C. D. be a Fornicator c. who shall bear the Messengers Charges that must go through the World to all the Bishops to decide it And shall the Cause be tryed without witnesses or hearing the defence of the accused And must the accused and witnesses go through all the World Reader is it not a shame to confute such Dreams Had not I tryed in with the Leading Men I should have taken him for a Slanderer that had said that any English Dr. and Bishop should maintain that the Collegium Pastorum through the World is that summa Potestas under Christ which hath the Chief Government of the Vniversal Church in Vnity per literas formatas and that our Concord lyeth only in obeying this Power and it's Schism not to unite in such Obedience § 3. II. Moreover the former Church of England and Parliaments thought that the Oath of Supremacy which excluded a Foreign Jurisdiction did mean as well the Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope as President of a Council and that Council with him and of the Pope as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis and of the Bishops of Italy Spain France Poland Mexico Turky c. as of a Pope above Councils And they were not willing again to Subject the King and Kingdom to Foreign Priests nor to be cheated into Slavery by the bare Name of the Catholick Church and the Ecclesiastical Government § 4. III. And they indeed took the Pope to be the Antichrist specially for his Usurping an Universal Kingdom or Governing Power proper to Christ And therefore were angry with Archbishop Laud and his Chaplains for leaving out all such words from the Liturgy to avoid the Pope's displeasure of which Dr. Heylin ubi sup giveth you an account See but Bishop Downame's large Latine Book to prove the Pope Antichrist who yet hath written the strongliest for Diocesan Bishops of any man in my Judgment that ever I read § 5. IV. And they thought that the Doctrinal differences were very many and very great and in divers Points I believe they thought them greater than they are see the huge Catalogue gathered by Bishop Downame in the End of the foresaid Book Morton White Whitaker Abbot Field Sutliffe Chaloner Bernard Crakenthorpe and abundance more chief Drs. of the old Church of England have opened them at large But how small the new Drs. made them to be Dr. Heylin fully tells you And Archbishop Bromhall saith ubi sup p. 72 73. when all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly Mustered c. See the rest § 6. V. But none doubted but the Differences about Worship were unreconcileable till one Party much changed their Forms of Worship Their great Mass of superstitious Inventions if not Idolatry as the Church of England thought and Dr. Stillingfleet even of late hath charged on them Protestants could never be reconciled to But of A Bishop Laud's reconciling attempts in Worship See Heylin Vbi supra in his Life And Archbishop Bromhall saith P. 141. Speaking against Chillingworth's true way of Concord That Form which the Protestants would allow the Romanists cry out on as defective in Necessary Duties and particularly wanting five of their Sacraments Nay certainly to call the whole frame of the Liturgy into Dispute offers too large a Field for Contention and is nothing so likely a way for Peace as either for us to accept of their Form abating some such Parts of it as are Confessed to have been added since the Primitive times and are acknowledged not to be simply necessary but such as charitable Christians ought to give up and Sacrifice to an Vniversal Peace and would do it readily enough if it were not for mutual Animosities of both Parties and particular Interests of some Persons § 7. VI. And they thought it as unlawful to obey the Pope as Patriarch of the West or as President with his Council if he imposed on us the Mass or the Worship of Angels Dead Men or Images or any new Sacraments or unlawful things as if he did it as above General Councils § 8. VII And they made no doubt but if the Pope and his Foreign Councils and all his attendant Trumpery were once received as Principium Vnitatis Vniversalis and the President of Councils he would soon come in in the same Capacity that other Popish Countries do receive him § 9. VIII For they knew that it is that same Man that is more absolute in Popish Kingdoms who would submit to some restraint in this And that by Possession Agents and that foreign help he would easilier reduce this to the Case of others than the Case of any others to this § 10. IX They had not lost the Remembrance of the Spanish Invasion the Gunpowder Plot and the many Treasons of late by such committed and it made them fear both the Power and the Company of such a sort of men § 11. X. They remembred the heavy Taxes Oppressions and the Rebellions and Wars that had been in the times of Popery in England And they had felt the ease and sweetness of Deliverance and were loth to return to that Captivity again 12 XI They had not forgotten Queen Maries Days Fox's Book of Martyrs was in the hands of many Nor had they forgot the French Massacre or the greater Murders formerly committed by Wolves in Sheep-skins who were known by
all true Christians have still agreed Quod ab omnibus ubique semper receptum fuit as Vincent Lerinensis speaketh The Baptismal Profession and Covenant expounded in the Creed the Lord's Prayer as the Rule of our Desires and Hope the Decalogue as the sum of Duty with the History of Christ's Incarnation Life Death Resurrection and Doctrine in the Gospel-writers the practice of Baptism and the Lord's Supper with Church-Assemblies for Teaching and Learning Praying and Praising God and this under Elders called thus to Guide their Flocks with the belief of all the rest of the Sacred Scriptures which are brought to our knowledge This hath been ab omnibus ubique semper receptum All Christians agree herein And in the observation of the Lord's day as a separated time for Sacred Assemblies And some Ceremonies and other little things most of them agreed in but not as necessary to their Unity or Communion but such as some differed about without violation of Christian Love and Peace as Socrates and Sozomen shew in divers Instances and of divers Countreys At this day All the Churches agree in these And this much constituteth men true Christians And Christ hath commanded all Christians to Love one another and Live in Peace and the strong to receive the weak and not offend the least Believers nor to please themselves but others to their edification The Kingdom of God which is his Church is not meat and drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ pleaseth God and is or should be approved of men I have proved all this so fully in my Book called The true and only Way of the Concord of all the Churches that I here dismiss it § 3. But when this pretended Universal Humane Jurisdiction was set up it quickly divided the Catholick Church by making new Laws and Constitutions as if Christ's Laws had not been sufficient for Universal Concord and as if he that made Ministers the Teachers and Expounders of his own Laws had given them his Prerogative of Universal Legislation and Judgment And ever since then the Church hath been torn into those fractions which continue our shame and grief to this day Those that were ready to receive any Law from Christ by his Apostles would never all agree in Humane pretended Universal Jurisdiction nor in the Laws which such pretenders make Mutable Local and Temporary determinations of useful Circumstances by their several Guides suited to the time and place for Edification they submit to But Universal Law-makers they will never all acknowledge and own And their Canons are swell'd to so great a bulk and are so confounded with contradictions and uncertainties that they are Racks and Engines to tear the Church but utterly uncapable of being the Rule of Unity and Universal Concord § 4. The thing which Paul feared hath been our Ruine The Serpent which beguiled Eve by pretence of advancement and greater knowledge hath turned us from the simplicity that is in Christ. The primitive Unity is overthrown by departing from the primitive Purity Simplicity and Love of all And they that will ever hope for Universal Concord must endeavour the restoration of the Universal Terms and Temper Nothing next to fleshly and worldly lusts hath done so much to cut the Church into all the Sects which now remain as in a Religious War as this same pretended Universal Jurisdiction which our new Church-men mistake for the only cure Which I have fully proved in my Breviate of the History of Bishops and Councils and in the Vindication of it against the Accusations of Mr. Morrice § 5. Obj. The Scripture giveth but general Rules that all be done to edification decently and in order but there must be Laws of Discipline to determine in Specie what is for edification decency and order Ans. There are three sorts of these determinations 1. Of things necessary or meet for all the Christian World to be obliged to 2. Things meet for some Countreys to be obliged to 3. Things variable which Congregations may use variously and also change as occasion changeth It grieveth us to read how some Learned men that write on this Subject abuse the World by confounding these The first Christ hath determined sufficiently in the Scripture and no mortal men have any power to make Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil to bind all the World The second of these the King may determine by the Counsel of fit men who understand the case e. g. what Translation of the Bible in the English Tongue is fittest to be commonly used in the Publick Churches And if the King determine it not the Pastors in Synods may do it by way of voluntary consent but not as having as a Major Vote the Regiment of the Minor and of the absent or dissenters The third belongeth to every Pastor over his own Flock and may be altered as there is occasion viz. At what hour to meet how long to Pray and Preach in what words and variable methods what person to admit to Baptism as fit and to Church-Communion and what individual to Reprove Exhort Catechize Excommunicate c. A General or Provincial Council need not be called for any such thing as these § 6. Saith Dr. Beveridge Proleg That which Right Reason gathers from Scripture is of God for Right Reason is of God Ans. True But to gather it as Governours of all the World or of other mens charges as if the Right Reason of the King of France would give Laws to the King of England is one thing and to gather it by a discerning Judgement to teach our Flocks as Expositors or to guide our own Practice is another thing § 7. The Instance which he addeth of the Trina Immersio in Baptism sheweth that such things were never made Laws for the Universal Church for the Church never used them universally nor continued them but quickly changed them § 8. Ibid. Saith Dr. Beveridge General Councils are those to which all the Bishops of the whole World were called It 's not necessary that they be all there but that all be called and may come if they will But the five Patriarchs must be there or send their Letters There was no General Council which was not called by the Emperors command Ans. 1. All the Bishops of the World were never called to any Council nor near all 2. What Authority had the Roman Emperors to call Bishops out of other Princes Dominions 3. There is no Historical proof that ever they did any such thing 4. The Subscriptions of the Councils shew that the Bishops were only out of the Roman Provinces except some odd person as Joannes Persidis at Nice which no man can give account of 5. Half the Bishops of the Empire were not at the Councils 6. If calling them make a Council General though they come not then calling a Congregation though they come not maketh it a Congregation What if none come What if few come
Religion who value it most Dogs will fight for Bones and Carrion and Swine for Draff But Men will sooner fight for Gold and Pearls while Dogs and Swine like peaceable Creatures pass them by or tread them in the Dirt. All true Christians are agreed in all that God hath made necessary to Christianity and Salvation And no men on Earth were ever so wise as to be agreed of the meaning of every word besides in the Bible Much less in all that Usurping Universal Legislators will obtrude What a dismal noise and dangerous rupture doth the Controversie make now about Conformity in Brittain And what is our difference We are all agreed 1. That there is only one God the Governour of all the World and of his Attributes 2. That Man's Soul is immortal and that he hath another life after this to live and Heaven or Hell must be his end 3. That Jesus Christ God and Man is the only Saviour and Lord of all 4. That the Law of God is the chief indispensible Rule of our Faith and Life by which we must be judged 5. That we must live soberly righteously and godly loving God above all and our neighbours as our selves and doing as we would be done by superiours Ruling for God and inferiours obeying them under God but none having power above him or against him 6. That God only is the final Infallible Universal Judge of Controversies That Magistrates are Judges who shall be punished or protected by the Sword And Pastors are Judges who is fit for Communion in the Churches under their over-sight And every man a discerning rational Judge of his own duty 7. That without holiness righteousness and temperance or mortifying the lusts of the flesh by the Spirit no man can be saved 8. That no man should sin wilfully for any price or to avoid any danger even of death 9. That the Soul should be more cared for than the Body 10. That no man can love God and Holiness too much nor obey him too faithfully 11. That we should delight in the Law of the Lord and his Gospel and meditate in it day and night 12. That serious servent and faithful prayer is our daily ordinary duty 13. That we should live as we would be judged and daily prepare for death that we may be found ready 14. That we should use all worldly temporal things for spiritual everlasting ends knowing that else they are but vanity vexation and dangerous snares 15. That we should fetch our joy from the hopes of Heaven more than from all the possessions pleasures and hopes on Earth These and abundance more we are commonly as to Profession agreed on And though this in sincerity will serve for our acceptance with God and our Salvation it will not serve for our acceptance or toleration with some men nor to avoid the cry of scandalous intolerable Schism Disobedience Obstinacy and what men mind to charge upon us Yea though we are agreed that Rulers in their several places must be obeyed in all things that are not against the Law of God in Nature or Scripture But what now is the difference I will add that if every Conformist and Nonconformist in England were of so unattainable perfect knowledge as to be agreed of the sence of every Syllable in the Bible it would not serve to end our Differences nor keep us from Prisons Silencing and the present heavy Accusations Wonder not at it It 's an evident Truth Our Difference is 1. About the meaning of some Oaths Declarations and subscribed Professions and Promises imposed by Acts of Parliament 2. About the meaning of several Rubricks and other Words in the Liturgy and Book of Ordination 3. About the meaning and practice of several Canons Gods Law hath agreed us all that Lying deliberately is a sin and so is Perjury especially of thousands and so is the wilful depraving of Baptism and other Ordinances of God and so is the unjust Excommunicating of the Faithful and denying them Baptism and the Lords Supper and so is Sacriledge and Renouncing the Sacred Ministry when we are Vowed to it and so is Schismatical Dividing Christs Church by needless and unlawful Snares and Engines All these we are agreed are heinous sins not to be done for any Price But we are utterly disagreed whether to Conform would make us guilty of these sins But what Are Learned men such miserable Casuists as not to know what Lying Perjury Sacriledge Profaning Baptism Sinful Excommunicating c. are We differ about the sence of the Words Imposed and of the Law and Canons And then how should we know who is the Sinner But Qu. Who is it that wresteth them from their usual signification And who is it that dare not do it But the Sacred part of the Imposers cry up the necessity of a Judge of Controversies yea an Universal Judge some of them to Expound the Scriptures when men differ about the sence and will not they procure you an Exposition of a few controverted sentences in the Laws or endeavour it if that be necessary to understand or end your Differences Ans. No whatever cometh of it to Bodies or Souls to Church or Kingdom these Expositors of Scripture and Enders of Controversies will not so much as Petition the Law-makers to explain their words Yea though the Conformists are much disagreed about it among themselves Judges will decide particular Causes by the Law But to know the sence of the Law antecedently as our Rule which is required in one that Sweareth and Subscribeth to it can be by no ones Exposition but the makers of the Law Else the Judges were the only Law-makers For the sence is the Law And he maketh the Law that maketh the sence and not they that make the words alone which other men must put the sence on And if Popes or Councils Prelates or Priests could on pretence of a Judicial Expository Authority be Judges to all the Earth in what sence every word of Scripture must be understood it is they and not God that make the Law For God made but the words if this be true and the Bishops make the sence by pretence of judging of it To give an Universal Antecedent Obligatory Exposition is an Act of Legislation and none but the Law-maker himself can do it But to judge by this Law who shall be received and who shut out of their several Churches the Pastors must do that X. Another great deceit is by confounding Communion and Concord with Government and Subjection And arguing that because all Christians must have Concord and Communion therefore they must be under one Supreme Humane Government As if Christian Princes were not as much bound to Concord as any men on Earth Or as if that Concord must be kept by one Supreme Universal Senate or Monarch and mutual Consultation and voluntary Agreement would not serve Obj. But if God bind us to do all things in Concord and General Councils and Patriarchs determine the matter of
our Concord it comes all to one in point of Obligation Ans. 1. If it come all to one in the effect why do you contend for so much more in the Cause 2. God bindeth Princes and States as much to Concord and yet their voluntary Treaties and Dyets and a Supreme Government over them do not come all to one 3. God doth not bind all Churches or Christians to agree in more than he himself hath commanded them And therefore hath given power to none on Earth to determine what more all shall agree in 4. The Greater the Councils are caeteris paribus the more all Protestants reverence them because they signifie the Concord of many But 1. We know that there are none of them Universal as to the World nor ever are like to be 2. We know that the Greater part are usually the worst and that at this day the far greater number of Christians on Earth Papists Greeks Armenians Nestorians Jacobites c. are lamentably degenerate ignorant and corrupt 3. And we know that as God hath not made the greater number the Governors of the lesser so neither doth he bind or allow the less to consent to them to their hurt 4. And when Councils for meer Agreement will degenerate and Usurp a Regiment over Dissenters they change their Species and bind us not to obey them but oppose them as Usurpers XI The last deceit that I shall here name is Their pretence of the mischief of letting Sinful or Heretical Kingdoms go unpunished when singular Persons must not escape Therefore there must be a Supreme Power on Earth to correct or punish National Churches or Kingdoms You may find the Argument in Dr. Sawell Bishop Guning's Chaplain and Master of a College in Cambridge and many others This is so plain dealing that one would think all Kings and Kingdoms should easily understand it But I answer it 1. Why will this pretended necessity of correcting Kings and Kingdoms infer One Universal Church Soveraign any more than one King or Senate over all the Earth Perhaps you 'le say The Church is one but Kingdoms are many I answer The whole World on Earth is One Kingdom of God but particular Churches are many 2. Kings and whole Kingdoms shall be punished as well as singular Persons But only by God the Universal King or by permitted Enemies but not by any Humane Superior Governors Kings are under the Laws of God and they shall be judged by those Laws If you lived in the due expectation of Death and Judgment you would not think them insignificant words that the Just Universal Judge is as at the Door who only can Judge Kings 3. The Ministers of Christ who know them and live under them have sufficient Authority to admonish Kings and Kingdoms and exercise Pastoral Care of their Souls by Preaching and Applying the Word of God as their own Physicians are fittest to take care of their Health without sending to Rome or over all the Earth for a Council of Physicians What work these Universal Rulers have made by Excommunicating Kings and Interdicting Kingdoms History acquainteth us It hath not been such as should make any Man long for an Universal Church Governour of Kings and Kingdoms 4. Those Foreigners that think Kings and Kingdoms Heretical and prove it may renounce Communion with them without pretending to be their Governors I have thought meet here briefly to repeat our Controversie with the Reasons and Deceits of the Usurpers our own Judgment is for true Catholicism even one Catholick Head Jesus Christ one Catholick Church having no other Head or Soveraign One Spirit One Faith One Baptism One Hope of Glory and One God and Father of all And that all Christians should live in Love to others as themselves and in their several Churches under the just conduct of their several Pastors keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 That they should all know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and highly esteem them in love for their work sake and be at peace among themselves 1 Thes. 5.12 13. That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men who judge as God would have them judge Rom. 14.17 But if God be forsaking the West as far as he hath done the East and dementation prognosticate perdition the Kingdom above shall never be forsaken And we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting to the Coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Chap. V. What a Foreign Jurisdiction by Councils or the College of Bishops is the Mask being taken off MEthinks Princes and States and Churches should not be cheated into a state of Subjection without ever considering or examining what it is And methinks no honest Bishops should be unwilling that it be truely understood I. Consider what an Universal Legislative Power includeth It plainly implyeth the insufficiency of Gods Words and Laws to those Ends for which this power is pretended Whereas this is the very point of the Protestant Cause as differenced from Popery that God being the only Ruler of the whole World none else can make Laws for the whole but only such By Laws for their particular Provinces as Corporations do under the King for undetermined Circumstances in which Kingdoms and Churches may freely differ II. By this the Peace of the Christian World will be laid on these variable Circumstances As if all the World were bound to wear such Garments as France or England wear c. III. By this the Legislative Power of every Kingdom is taken away in all matters of Religion which are our greatest things For it is the summa potestas only that hath the Legislative Power At least no Inferior hath any but from and under the Supreme nor may contradict them VVhereas even the Decrees of our National Clergy are no Laws with us till the King shall make them Laws IV. By this no Man can tell what degree of Power these Foreigners will assume As the Popes Ecclesiastical Power is now extended to Testaments Matrimony Adulteries Church Lands c. Among Christians to whom all things are sanctified they may challenge almost all And when it becomes a Controversie who shall judge Certainly the Supreme Power is the Supreme Judge of their own Rights V. I think it will oblige Kings Lords and all when Summoned to Travel out of their own Kingdoms as Malefactors to answer what accusations are brought against them For certainly a Supreme Judicature must have its Forum where men must be heard before they are Judged and where all that are Summoned must answer Or else Kings and Kingdoms must become poor Subjects to any
Legislative and Judicial Power be not an Alteration of the Government of Church and State I know not what is Nor what is National Perjury if the National Endeavour or Consent to such Subjection be not such Add to all this the unavoidable effects of this Opinion of the Universal Soveraignty viz. 1. It engageth the Owners of it to condemn all the Protestant Churches because they own no Universal Soveraign nor the Pope as Patriarch or Principium Unitatis yea and to disown almost all the Churches of the World besides the Papists as Schismatical 2. They must Condemn all the Protestant Martyrs who rejected the Pope absolutely as dying for Rebellion 3. They must needs censure their own Princes and States as Rebels who subject not themselves to this Usurped Soveraignty 4. They will pervert all the Scriptures for Unity and Peace and Obedience and interpret it as meaning this Usurpation 5. They will think it their Duty to use their best Endeavour to subject all Men to the Usurpers 6. They will lose their due Charity to all that Consent not to this Subjection taking them for Enemies to the Churches Unity and Peace and Rebels against this Soveraign Power 7. No wonder if such become grievous Persecutors and stir up Princes and Rulers against such Christians as Schismaticks and Enemies of Peace And as Dr. Saywell and Bishop Guning tell the World that the meeting of such in worshipping God are the Conventicles of Schismaticks and the Cause of all our Plots and Divisions And if Obedience to this Vniversal Soveraignty be as they say the only Cure of Schism they must hold all our Parish Assemblies too to be Schismatical Conventicles whose Pastors own not the Usurpation 8. Thus as the Pope hath been the grand Divider of the Christian World by setting up a false Head of Union so will these Men destroy all Unity quantum in se by setting up a Usurped Soveraignty and a false Principium Vnitatis and will be the grand Schismaticks to cure Schism 9. They will by a false uncertain Universal Law-making not only make Christ's Laws insufficient but make Christianity a mutable growing uncertain thing when no man shall be able to know which are the Church Laws and when the Volumes of them will be perfected and no more added 10. When the Churches are thus Divided and Persecuted and sound Preachers Silenced the Persecutors will be hardened in impenitency fathering all their Mischiefs on Christ which they do against him and making Christian Fidelity odious as Rebellion and Schism And they will never be able in their way so much as to satisfie impartial men how true Bishops may be known and who ad esse must be the Choosers of them much less prove their Universal Soveraignty Chap. VI. The Grand Consequential Case Whether it be lawful for the Presbyters to swear Obedience to those Bishops who profess Subjection to the Foreign Jurisdiction of a Vniversal Soveraignty or for the People to live in Obedience and Communion with the Presbyters that do so § 1. I Wish this Case about such Subjection and Communion may never make the second breach between Conformists and Nonconformists much wider than the first is made I. Suppose the French Bishops will abate Idolatry Owning Transubstantiation Adoration of the Host and of Saints and Images Latin Service will allow the Cup in the Sacrament Priests Marriage leave indifferent all other things that are not above Four hundred Years old Qu. Whether is it lawful for the Protestant Ministers and all the rest to Swear Obedience to these Bishops and to the Protestant Laity and all others to joyn in their Communion II. Suppose Archbishop Bromhall profess subjection to General Councils called and moderated by the Pope as President and to the Pope as Principium unitatis Vniversalis and Patriarch of the West Or the Bishop of Eli profess subjection to a Foreign Universal Jurisdiction Is it lawful for the Bishops to Swear Obedience to that Archbishop or the Presbyters to such a Bishop and for the People to be subject to such Presbyters in Communion III. Suppose such Bishops would abate the Presbyters a while till they are strengthened the Oath or Promise of Obedience is it lawful to receive Ordination from such Bishops and live in subjection to them and Communion § 2. The Case is of great moment and very tenderly and warily to be handled I. On one side If no Promise or Oath be required nor any practice in it self unlawful many will think it hard that they must separate from a whole Nation or Diocess for another man's Sin which they consent not to specially if it will cast them out of their Ministry and Maintenance They will think his guilt lyeth only on himself Else one man may over-turn the Liberties of a whole Diocess or Land by his own proper sin II. Yea if the Oath or Promise be put on them for Obedience but in licitis honestis they will think the case doth little differ as long as they consent not to a Forreign Jurisdiction § 3. On the other side If all men must or may obey them that profess Obedience to a Foreign Universal Jurisdiction may not one or two or a few Bishops subject the Kingdom to Foreigners at their pleasure And that the more dangerously because without any noise or notable alteration and so without resistance It is but the Primate or Archbishops or Bishops professing subjection to the Pope or Foreign Soveraign and the thing is done The Bishops being subject to the Pope or other Usurpers and the Priests to the Bishops and the People to the Priests are they not all then subject to the Foreign Usurper If the Kings Army in the days of H. 5. or Ed. 3. in France were to be hired over to the King of France what need he more than that the General or Field Officers Swear fidelity to him And that the Captains be subject to the Colonels and the common Soldiers to them When the Kingdom was in continual War between King Stephen and Maud the Empress and between the Houses of York and Lancaster the people were not usually Sworn on either side But the Bishops and the Barons did Swear and Unswear and Forswear and Change sides as their Interests led them and this was the misery of the Land § 4. And yet the Case would be much easier if only the King e. g. of France should subject himself to Foreigners and forbid all to preach and publickly Worship God that will not Swear Allegiance to him and obey him as their King § 5. In these dreadful cases we must distinguish 1. Between such a Bishop as is a Member of a Protestant Nation and who turneth against the Law of the Land and the Consent of other Churches and such as would draw the whole Land with him or is but one in a common Revolt 2. Between a Minister who was Ordained and subject to the Bishop before he revolted and one that is Ordained and subjected
to him after 3. Between a Bishop whose revolt is professed and one that denieth it or keeps it secret 4. Between living peaceably and owning the Right of the Bishops Authority 5. Between obeying him as a Magistrate and as a Church Pastor 6. Between obeying him as a meer Bishop and as the Subject of a Foreign Power 7. Between obeying such a one when the Church accepteth him or when he is but an intruder against their consent 8. Between subjection in necessary cases where no better can be had and in cases unnecessary where we may have better § 6. And I shall speak my thoughts as in a dreadful case in these Conclusions I. If the Bishops revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction be unknown it maketh not that Obedience to him unlawful which was his due II. If a few Bishops revolt to a Foreign Usurper it 's easie to see that no one should follow them against the contrary judgment of all the rest in the Nation and so forsake the National Concord III. If one or more Bishops be known to revolt to a Foreign Soveraign a Minister is not bound therefore to renounce Communion with all the Christians or Churches in his Diocess who are innocent No nor with all that renounce not Communion with him For we know not whether they know his case and have had means to understand and do their Duty IV. So far as a Bishop exerciseth the Power of the Sword as an Officer of the King we must obey him though he be a Papist in all things which he hath true power to command V. One that was Ordained by him before his revolt may go on with his work and live peaceably and not openly renounce the revolting Bishop till he have a particular Call for the Churches safety or the preservation of his own innocency VI. If a man be necessitated to live where no other Ministry or Christian Communion can be had one that renounceth the Bishops Subjection to an Universal Usurper may yet be subject to him and receive Baptism from him or administer it and other Ordinances of God in his Diocess and acknowledge his Office so far as it is described by Christ and conveyed by just means and hath the consent of the Church A man may have two Commissions to one Office of which one is currant and the other null If one that hath Christs Commission shall also take one from a Forreign Usurper the latter is void and the taking of it is his heinous sin but it doth not nullifie all his Administrations to the Church because his better Commission may so far stand good as that his Baptizing Ordination and other Administration of Gods own Ordinances shall not be null And therefore we use not to Rebaptize such as Papists Baptize nor Re-ordain all that they ordain to the Ministry in general VII But it is rather a Duty to forbear all Church Assemblies where no other can be had than to profess conâ—â—nt to a Foreign Usurpation or pretended Universal Soveraignty For no sin must be done on pretence of necessity nothing being indeed necessary which must be got by sinful means VIII If a Nation as France be subject to the Usurpers of an Universal Soveraignty or if a Nation shew themselves to be designing such a Subjection or if one Bishop or more declare themselves for it It is the Duty of Ministers openly to disown and oppose such attempts and ordinarily to disown the proper Church Government Ordinations and Communion of such Bishops And it is the peoples Duty to disown the Pastoral Conduct of such Ministers as openly follow them For 1. The design of this Universal Usurpation is Treason against Christ by setting up men to possess his Prerogative and pretend to be his Vicars or Chief Substitutes without his Commission And it is a design to divide all the Churches by false means of Union and so to cast them all into that miserable War which the Romanists these Thousand years have done And consequently to introduce an intolerable corruption of Discipline and Worship Doctrine and Life And no man may lawfully join in so wicked a design nor be so much as neutral If with single Fornicators Railers Drunkards c. we may not eat in familiarity much less with such Subverters of the Christian World 2. And no Christian is actually a Church-member under any one as his Pastor without mutual Consent And it is not lawful to consent to take a Traytor against Christ and the Church for our Pastor He that is no Pastor should not be taken for a Pastor But if he either want any Essential Qualification as to be Christs Minister for the Churches good or the Consent of the Flock he is no Pastor to them 3. The resolution of the Case against Martial and Basilides by the Carthage Council with Cyprian fully decideth the Case proving by Scripture and Reason if the people forsake not an uncapable Bishop though other Bishops are for them they greatly sin against God And those that were but Libellatick came far short of the guilt of the Universal Usurpation 4. And it is not the danger of suffering that will justifie Subjection to such Designers For suffering must not seem intolerable to Believers None are true Christians but dispositive Martyrs 5. Many old Canons were made against Presbyters Swearing or Promising Obedience to Bishops as a thing dangerous to the Church much more is it sinful to do it to such Church Enemies 6. And Magistrates commands will not excuse it because it is a thing forbidden of God and which no Man hath right to command IX The restriction of in licitis honestis maketh it not lawful to Swear or Promise Obedience to such 1. Because even to subject our selves to Usurpers is not licitum aut honestum tho' they command nothing else but good 2. A Lawful Ruler must be obeyed only in licitis honestis And a Usurper must not be as much owned as a Lawful Ruler If an Usurper should set up in England and should falsly pretend the Kings Commission and should sollicite the Kings Army to take Commissions from him a Loyal Subject might be deceived by him believing that he had the Kings Commission when he had none And might at once be true to the King in Heart and do the things that Traytors do But if he know that he hath none of the Kings Commission but raiseth Arms against his Will and Law to strengthen himself every Subject ought to renounce him and to renounce the Commanders that follow him and neither to Swear Obedience to them in licitis honestis nor yet to bear Arms under them And this is as true of a Parliament or any Senate as of a single Usurper should they falsly pretend that the King or Law doth make them the Governors of the Kingdom and so Usurp the Kings proper Power And specially if the Total Legislative and Judicial Supreme Power be absolutely in the King alone as it is in God
and Jesus Christ which I add because some think they may lawfully be subject to those Bishops that are subjected only to Universal Councils or Church Parliaments so they do but disclaim the Roman Papacy X. Though some may think that subjection to a pretended Universal Council may stand with Loyalty to Christ because such a Council is a Chimera or Non Ens and never will be in the World and so can do no harm as one may be true to the King who yet Sweareth Obedience to an Assembly of Mortal Angels yet the case is otherwise For 1. These Men that profess Subjection to Councils cannot be supposed to take such Councils for Chimera's or things impossible without being taken for mad Men. Therefore it is not a true General Council but something possible that they mean And they use to say themselves or as General as can be well had So that such a one as that at Trent or as they will call General as they do the old Imperial Councils will serve their turn 2. And let them disclaim Popery never so loudly they mean still that the Pope must be the ordinary Caller and President of these Councils and the Chief Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis Vniversalis And so all will come but to a limited Pope instead of an Absolute One And is he not a Monarch though he must Rule by Law For they intend not that there be no Catholick Church all the time that there are no Councils and therefore they intend some Unifying Constitutive Executive Supreme XI Obj. But if we may not own a Bishop that subjecteth himself to the Pope or other Foreign Vsurper of Vniversal Government then if the King be a Papist it will follow that we must not be subject to him Which all Protestants confess to be false Ergo so is the Antecedent as of Bishops Ans. I deny the Consequence speaking only of such a Kings Religion Nero was a Heathen and it was lawful for Christians to be subject to him for Conscience sake But it was not lawful to subject themselves to Heathen Bishops a contradiction A Heathen may be Gods Minister to preserve the common Peace and Execute the Laws of God in Nature and the Just Subordinate Laws But the Office of a Bishop consisteth in another matter viz. In teaching the true Doctrine and Laws of Christ and guiding the Church by them and keeping out all that is against them And therefore no other man can be a Bishop that doth not this as to the Essentials If the King command us to be Papists we must disobey him But if he command us to do things good and lawful we must obey True Christianity is Essential to a Bishops Office but not to a Kings as King But if any put the Question Whether a Ruler of a Protestant Kingdom who taketh himself bound by the Laterane or other Council on pain of Damnation to destroy all his Kingdom that will not forsake their Religion be Publicus Hostis And whether by the Law of Nature every Nation have a right of self-defence against open Enemies I meddle with no such Cases as these XII To conclude I advise all Christians to live peaceably in their places but to take care whom they trust with the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls and not to be seduced to enter into a Confederacy against Christs Prerogative by any pretences of Humane Authority or Catholick Vnity which really are against Divine Authority and the true Unity of the Church in Christ For a thousand years experience even by our Bishops confession who own but the Six first Councils have told us by the sad confusions of the Christian World that such Pretenders to Unity in a Humane Universal Soveraignty have but caused divisions and offences contrary to the Apostolical Doctrine not serving Christ but their own bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple Our Unity consisteth in One Head Jesus Christ One God one Body or Church of Christ one Faith one Baptism one Hope one Gospel and Universal Law of Christ and that we live in Love and Peace and Order in Learning and in Worshipping God in several Congregations under their respective Guides as consenting Volunteers and that the conjunction of such under Christian Kings makes Christian Kingdoms where by the Counsels of Pastors in their own Dominions they may keep that Church-Peace and external Order which is left to the trust of their determination and that in cases of need the Counsel and Help of Foreign Churches be desired and that Communion in Christianity be professed with all the true Christian World and that we wait for perfect Unity in Heaven But that Princes and Kingdoms be not brought under a Foreign Jurisdiction specially if pretended Universal instead of Foreign Counsel Communion Peace and Aid Chap. VII Of the second Part of the Design to bring the Papists into our Communion as they were in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign § 1. Dr. Heylin saith That this was much of A. Bishop Laud's design and that it was in order to this that he made the Changes which he made And Dr. Burnet saith That even Queen Elizabeth thought that if she could some how bring all her Subjects into one Communion tho' of different Opinions in one Age they would come to be of one mind And therefore she was desirous to have kept up Images and other such things in the Churches till the reasons and importunity of some Divines prevailed with her § 2. If this be done it must be either by the Papists turning Protestants or the Protestants turning Papists or by meeting in some third State of Religion between both or by continuing in the same church-Church-Communion without change of their Religion § 3. I. If the Papists come into our Churches by Conversion it is not then Papists but Protestants that come in There is no true Protestant that is not earnestly desirous of this But bare coming in to our Churches and Communion is not a renunciation of Popery § 4. II. That the Protestants should turn Papists for Union is not openly pleaded for by them that we have to do with The name of Papists they earnestly disown § 5. III. If it must be by meeting in some middle way it must be by a change in the Papists or by a change in the Protestants or both 1. If the Papists change any thing of theirs it must be either the Essentials of Popery or also the grosser errours and sins which are its most corrupt Integral part or only some mutable Accidents or lesser faults and errours 1. If the Papists hold still that there ought to be one Universal Soveraign Power of Legislation and Judgment under Christ on Earth and that either the Pope himself with a General Council or a Council where the Pope is President and Principium Vnitatis is this Soveraign this is the Essence of Popery continued 2. If the Papists should quâ—t this Universal Soveraignty and yet
be by an undeniable Miraclâ— And hath God promised to Govern his Church by constant Miracles yea as many Miracles as there be ignorant and wicked Bishops and that through all Generations Q. 33. Doth it not require great Knowledge of History to be sure what Councils there have been and which were Orthodox and which Heretical which valid and which invalid and what they did and which side had the Major Vote And is all this Historical Knowledge necessary to Salvation in Learned and Unlearned Q. 34. Yea Is there one Priest of many that hath such certainty of such History of Councils when Writers so much disagree Q. 35. Seeing Historians are but like other men and all men are lyars or untrusty and it 's notorious that Ignorance Faction Temerity and Partiality if not Malignity hath filled the World with so much false History that except in Matters of Publick uncontradicted Evidence no man well knoweth what to believe How shall all Christians lay their Salvation on so great knowledge of History as is necessary to certainty herein Q. 36. If the belief of Councils or the College of Bishops as wide as the World be fundamentally necessary to Duty Unity or Salvation Is it not necessary that all know what are their Decrees and Laws And how can they know this when Councils and Decrees are so Voluminous and few Priests know them and when the World is yet disagreed what Canons or Laws are obligatory and what not But they contradict and condemn each others Laws Q. 37. If a Lay-man should know but one part of the Councils Decrees about Faith or Obedience will such a defective half Faith and Obedience save him or must he know all Q. 38. If you say that all this Historical Knowledge is not necessary to the Laity but they must believe herein the Priests or Bishop that is over them 1. How is this then a belief of Councils 2. What shall the poor People do that one of many hundred of them never see their Bishop much less ever spake with him 3. And are their Priests infallible herein or not Q. 39. Doth not this by the deceitful noise of the Catholick Church and Councils and a College of Bishops make every Parish Priest's word the very Foundation into which all mens Faith must be resolved And he that saith I believe the Scripture because the Church and Councils propose it or attest it and I believe that the Church and Council say it because the Priest saith it Doth he not say as much as I believe the Scripture Church and Councils upon the bare word of the Priest Q. 40. Is it not hard for the People that know their Priests to be sottish ignorant prophane drunken malicious men to lay all their Salvation on a supposed certainty that these Priests say true Q. 41. If the Parishioners know also that their Priests never read the Councils and confess that he is ignorant of them and know him also to be a common lyar Can they certainly believe the Scripture and the Councils and the Matters of Faith and duty contained in both upon the word of such a Priest Q. 42. Can they that are unlearned and never see a Bishop tell whether the Parish Priest and the Bishop say the same Or whether their Bishop be of the same Mind with the other Bishops and whether the Bishops e. g. of England be of the same Mind with the Bishops of France Spain Italy Germany Denmark Sweden c. and they of the same Mind with the Greeks c. Q. 43. Is it a Divine Faith that is resolved thus into the meer belief of Man yea of an Ignorant Priest or Prelate or but a Humane Q. 44. If we and all men had no other certainty of the Scripture but the word of such a Priest or the Decree of a Council would it be more or less certain to us than now it is Q. 45. Have none of all those Christians a true Divine Faith who are converted by Protestant Preachers who teach them to believe the Scripture upon other Evidence than a Councils word Q. 46. By what Evidence doth a Council know the Scripture to be God's Word Is it only by the Testimony of a former Council If so How did that former Council know it and so the first Council that had none before to testifie it And what use is there for the assertion of the later Council when it 's done already by a former Q. 47. Why doth not one Council determine of all that is necessary to Salvation but leave it still undone But if it be done must new ones be called to the end of the World to say the same thing over again and do that which others had done before them Q. 48. Is not the Law the Rule of Duty and Judgment and must all Christians be Judged at last by the Bishops Canon Law And seeing Sin is a Transgression of the Law and it 's harder to obey a Thousand Laws than a few Are not they the most Mortal Enemies to Christians who make them so many Laws and make Salvation so hard a work Q. 49. Seeing Christ was above three Years teaching his Apostles before he died and after his Resurrection was seen of them fourty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and being assembled together with them commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father even the Spirit to lead them into all truth and bring all things to their remembrance and their Commission was to teach all Christians to observe whatever Christ commanded Act. 1.3 4. Math. 28.19 20. is it to be believed that yet Christ by himself and his Spirit in these Apostles did not make all the Laws that are Divine and enow for the Universal Church to observe as necessary to Salvation and Universal Concord Q. 50. Is it not enough to Salvation and Church Concord for all the Pastors of the Churches to agree 1. In preserving these Laws and Doctrines of Christ 2. And to teach the People to know and obey them 3. And to defend them against Adversaries and 4. To make them the rule of their Communion by the exercise of the Keys 5. And by their own Authority to determine of variable Circumstances of Worship such as the Place of meeting the time the translation the subject for the day c. Is there besides all this a necessity of Universal Laws for the Salvation and Concord of Believers and of a standing Soveraign Power in Priests Prelates or Patriarchs or Pope to make such Laws Q. 51. Have we not better assurance that the foresaid Apostles taught by Christ and inspired by the Holy Ghost had Authority and Infallibility for this work than we can have that Pope Patriarchs Prelates or Priests have it Q. 52. When some English Prelates and Priests tell us that he is a Schismatick that obeyeth not the Universal Church and that Schism is a damning Sin do they not
Preach meer desperation to all that have not more knowledge than I have who cannot possibly find out a Governing Universal Church nor its Laws though I would willingly find it and obey it Q. 53. Do they not Preach common desperation who say that Schism is a damnable Sin and he is in that guilt who suffers himself to be Excommunicated by Prelates for not obeying them in any unsinful condition of Communion as H. Dodwell speaketh Do not such Carnifices animarum make it necessary to Salvation to know all the unsinful things in the World which a Prelate may impose to be unsinful And is any man on Earth so Skilful How many indifferent things are there which the wisest man may doubt whether they be indifferent Of old it was thought enough to know the few things which God made necessary and now these Tormenting Uniters make it necessary to know the multitude of things indifferent to be such Q. 54. Must we needs know what sense perceiveth by the credit of a General Council or all the Bishops of the World As whether I see the Light or Colours What taste my Meat hath c If not why may I not take Bread to be Bread and Wine to be Wine on the credit of my senses though the Bishops or Council say the contrary Q. 55. Must I have the Authority of a Council or College of Bishops to believe that there is a God and that he is most Great and Wise and Good most Holy Merciful True and Just or to know that there is a Life to come and the Soul Immortal or that men must not hate the Good and love the Evil as such nor live in Murther Theft Adultery Perjury c. Doth not the Law of Nature bind men without a Council of Prelates And can they null that Law by their pretended Soveraignty Q. 56. Must every man have the Sentence of a General Council or College as wide as the Christian World to satisfie him of the truth of Christianity before he is Baptized and made a Christian Q. 57. Must we know what the Council or spacious College saith before we believe the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments or did the ancient Christians receive them only on such Authority Did not every Baptizer expect a Profession of the Creed Q. 58. Was not the Bible received before there was a General Council Q. 59. Have not Councils differed about the Canonical Books of Scripture See Bishop Cousins of the Canon Compared with the Council of Trent Q. 60. Must we have new Councils to deliver us again the same Creed and Bible Q. 61. Is it not a reproaching of Christianity to tell the World that after 1691 Years it is not yet fully known what it is but we must have new Councils to tell it us and to make it up Q. 62. Did Councils only receive the old Apostles Creed when they made so many new ones or added so many Articles Q. 63. Was the Primitive Church of the same Species with the present Romish and Imposing Church when he was then a Christian who profest belief of the Creed as the Christian Symbol and to desire according to the Lord's Prayer and Practise according to Christ's Commands And now so many other things are made necessary hereto Q. 64. Do not those men deal falsely who subscribe the 39 Articles of the sufficiency of the Scripture as to all things necessary to Salvation and yet say that it 's necessary to Salvation to obey the Bishop of the place in all unsinful things and consequently to Believe them all to be unsinful Q. 65. Is it by the Divine Authority of a Council or Mundane College of Prelates that we know which are the true Writings of Ignatius Irenaeus Clemens R. Alex. Tertullian Cyprian Hierom Augustin c Or do their Critical Writers send us to the College or Council to know If not why may not the Canon of Scripture be known yea much better by meer Historical Tradition and inherent Evidence Q. 66. Is it not by History and not Church Power that we know what Popes have been at Rome what Councils have been called and what they decreed And may not the same way secure us of the Matter of Fact about the Scripture Q. 67. Hath any Council or College yet Decreed which are the true and current Copies of the Original of the Scripture and which of the various Lections are true If they had agreed but of the vulgar Latin would Sixtus 5th and Clemens 8th have Published Editions so vastly different If they never did it yet when will they do it Q. 68. Did ever Council or College determine which is the truest Translation Q. 69. Did ever Council or College give the Church a Commentary on the Bible Q. 70. Did they ever write a Decision of the multitudes of Controversies about the meaning of several Texts and the multitudes of Doctrines which are yet controverted among Papists themselves and all the World Q. 71. Is it a Satisfaction or a gross Cheat to tell us of a necessary Church Power to Expound Scripture and Judge of Controversies who yet will not do it but leave all unexpounded and undecided Q. 72. Was Gregory Nazianzen a Fool that spake so much of the hurt that Councils do and resolved never to go to more Q. 73. Can I know that Pope or Council have Authority given them by Christ before I believe that Christ is Christ and had Authority himself Q. 74. Can I know that Christ's Promise to Pope Council or Prelate is true before I know that the Promise of Justification Adoption and Salvation are true that is Before I am a Christian Q. 75. Can I believe the Promise of Pardon and Salvation or the Promise made to General Councils or Prelates without knowing the meaning of those Promises And can I believe the Churches Power from God without believing the Promise of it And if I can understand all these Promises without a Council why may I not understand more And how then do I receive all Scripture from a Council Q. 76. Do those that Preach to convert Infidels in Congo China Japan Mexico among Turks c. Preach first the Authority of General Councils or a Mundane College as the Primum credendum upon whose credit Christianity is to be received Hath this been the way to Convert the World Q. 77. If Paul curse an Angel from Heaven if he bring another Gospel and Paul charge Timothy to see that men Preach no other or new Doctrine must there be Councils or a College to make either a new Gospel or a new Doctrine or Universal Law Q. 78. If men were saved without believing the Canons and Decrees of Councils before they were made even by simple Christianity is it not necessary Mercy to let men be so saved still Q. 79. If it be not a new Gospel but mutable Accidents which the Church Laws do determine of what need there an Universal Power or Soveraignty or an Universal Law
are oft equal in Argumentation Greatly dishonouring Christ as if so near the end of the World the Albigenses and Waldenses and some Papists that found fault with the Papal Miscarriages had been all the known Church for Eleven hundred Years To tell the Mahometans that the Kingdom of Jesus after so long endeavours was scarce bigger than Wales is not the way to honour Protestants or Christ. And then they think to repair the dishonour by their Prophecy of the Millennial Kingdom which tieth the knot harder than before § X. Running from them into Errours on the other extream and spotting the Reformation with many such Errours hath greatly hardened and increased Papists Especially those Antinomian or Libertine Opinions that overthrow both Christianity and Morality and that which inferreth these which too many have promoted such are the wrong Opinions about Reprobation and the Cause of Sin and the extent of Redemption and the false sence of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and of Justifying Faith and of the meaning of Works that justifie not and that to Believe we are justified and elected is to believe God's Word or is Fides Divina and that the Covenant of Grace hath no Condition and is made only with Christ and that both obeyed and suffered in our Person in Law sence so that we did in Law sence suffer in and by him and yet fulfil all righteousness by him and were reputatively sinless from first to last that therefore we are justified by the Law of Innocency or Works that condemneth us having perfectly kept it by Christ that our works being not meritorious are not rewardable Too many such Doctrines are Published here and abroad by such as Maccovius Cluto Cocceius and some before them And when Papists find one gross falshood they think all our Religion is such § XI It greatly confirmeth Papists when they find our Writers falsly to accuse them of any Doctrine which they hold not which is very ordinarily done by those that never read them on the meer credit of some Reverend Ministers that so accused them before For instance of the Point of Merit when men read their Books of Self-abnegation Annihilation Self-abasing and Nothingness renouncing Merit even in distributive Justice c. Some have wondered and said How much further are the Papists from trusting to or boasting of their Merits Works and Holiness than we are § XII But Protestants have no way promoted Popery more than by their manifold Divisions and Sects and their mutual enmity and miscarriages I need not name them God hath made Unity and Concord so necessary and amiable to Man that Nature and Grace abhor the contrary Satan is the Divider of Christ's Kingdom and a Kingdom divided cannot stand Multitudes turn and continue Papists not knowing where among so many Sects to fix their choice especially when they see and hear us Revile Censure Silence Imprison and Persecute one another as intolerable they think they may do so by us all and judge of us as we do by one another And to vilifie us is to value themselves Which Sect say they would you have me turn to if I turn § XIII Specially if we fall into odious Scandals as well as Sects the Crimes of Men seem the fault of our Religion When they have recited the Miscarriages here from 1642 till 1660. they think they have decided all the Controversies And also when they can recite the Munster Madness and others such § XIV Hath the Silencing of Two thousand such Ministers and shutting the Church Doors against desired Unity and Concord and keeping out Candidates and giving advantage to Papist Rulers to give full liberty for Popery done nothing to its increase What hath done more to advantage Popery by disabling Protestants and disgracing their Ministers of each Party and keeping up the hopes of Foreign and Domestick Enemies than casting the Nation into a kind of Intestine Hostility and keeping it so by the Dividing Laws and Canons which though it was principally the effects of secret Popish Projects yet had no Anti-Papists by false Prejudice Malice Revenge and worldly Interest had a hand in the effecting and since in defending it they had been more innocent And I would the Provocation had not driven many Nonconformists into harder thoughts of Bishops and Liturgy than they deserve or than they had before the experience of their usage But it 's hard when for Innocency and Duty men must lye and many die in common Jails and have all they have taken from them and be left to Beggary or Charity to keep up as great an esteem of the Authors or Abettors of such Hostility as if they were men of Love and Peace When they see men Hang'd for taking away a small part by Stealth or Robbery it must be more than ordinary Patience and Love that shall cause men to think and say no harm even by honourable and Right Reverend men that even by Law and Judgment said to be just shall take away all and much more than all We had not procured hatred by our importunity in 1660 and 1661. in Pleading and Petitioning to prevent all this if the certain foresight of it in its Causes had not seemed very dreadful to us And yet we do not see the End The Hostility continueth if not increaseth even while the Blood and Flames of Germany Hungary Transilvania Savoy Flanders and Ireland and partly Scotland loudly cry to us Fire Fire and instead of avoiding the like we are as busie as ever to bring more fewel and increase the flame And O dreadful odious Case All is as for God and Religion and the Church that is thus done against God Religion the Church and the whole Land our Posterity § XV. And by our several ways of Unjust and Causeless Impositions we have hardened the Papists in defending their more numerous Snares They say If an Independent Church may bind its Members to take their Covenants to submit to thei◠popular Examinations and Discipline to avoid Communion with the Parish Churches and not to forsake their Church but by tryed Reason or Consent And if a Convocation may impose what is done in England on terms so sharp why may not the Pastors and Councils that have greater Charge and Power do as much and more § XVI The Sectarian weak-headed part of Protestants have greatly advantaged Popery by their ignorant calling every Ceremony and Form and Opinion that they distaste by the Name of Antichristian and saying O this is Popish or taken out of the Mass-Book when some of them know not what Antichristianity is saving as every Sin against Christ is Antichristian nor know they what the Mass-Book is nor what Popery is And it s well if some knew better what Christianity is When men hear that a Bishop a Surplice a sumptuous Church Edifice a Ceremony the Liturgies a Holy-day and it 's well if not the use of the Creed and Lord's Prayer be Antichristian they are tempted to think
all Children be taught to read and learn Catechisms and Scripture and use the Lords day in pious Exercises and submit to their Teachers and forbear profane contempt or abuse of Persons or Things I think the whole Matter is decided in these ten Particulars § 4. II. Now de nomine the question is what is to be called the FORM and what but the MATTER of the Church as National For of a Church as Congregational or as Diocesan or a Provincial we have no controversie No more than of a City or School And seeing every Politick Society consisteth of the Pars Imperans and Pars Subdita all grant that the Pars Imperans as related to the Pars Subdita is the Specifying or Unifying Form and Head it is then clear that all the Clergy being but the Pars Subdita under the Government of the summa potestas whether Kings alone or King and Parliament or an Aristocracy they can be but the Matter of the Church as National and not the Formal Head For a Body Politick of one Species can have but one Head of that Species So that to make a Primate or two Metropolitans or a Synod of Diocesans or a Convocation representing all the Clergy to be more than the Matter of a Church as National is to make them the summa potestas or Soveraign and to depose King and Parliament § 5. Obj. But the Regiment being of two Species so is the Policy Society and Supremacy Each is Supreme in sua specie Ans. 1. So then you would have two National Churches and Soveraigns If you 'll extend the Controversie but to the Name it may be the better born But then acknowledge the Equivocation and give us the definition of each Church and use not the Name of the Church of England for your own Form only 2. But a Subject Policy is not the Supreme and denominating Policy It 's private and subordinate as to National The Physicions the Soldiers the Marriners c. though they are in hoc fit to over-rule the King and Parliament are not therefore the Soveraign Power of the National Body Politick § 6. Obj. But their 's are matters of small moment but the Clergy are Rulers in matters of Salvation Ans. Unhappy dividing Rulers they have been here and in most of the Churches But 1. I have proved that Kings are Rulers also in matters of Salvation as great as theirs and over them 2. Was not Moses and David and Solomon and Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah and Josiah c. the Soveraign Rulers of Church and Priests though an Vzziah might not offer Sacrifice or Incense 3. The proper Governing power of Bishops is but over their own Flocks and they may not Rule in other Mens Diocesses much less over King Parliament and Kingdom further than the Soveraign giveth them Political Power § 7. Obj. They may command Kings and Kingdoms in Christs Name to obey God and forbear Sin Ans. True so did every Prophet so may any one Minister Yea a Foreigner a Salvian a Luther c. But this is Gods Government Nunciative and not Political And so if the Metropolitans Diocesans Convocation or a General Council command as in Christs Name and prove their Commission as Messengers from him we will obey Christ in them But if one Man bring better proof from Scripture that he speaketh from Christ he is to be obeyed before a Council that proveth no such thing This sort of Divine Authority lyeth in Evidence which most Bishops on Earth now have not of the truth of their Message and is but Nunciative and worketh only on voluntary Believers and Consenters And if the Controversie de nomine be whether a Christian Kingdom as such may be called A CHURCH what pretence have the deniers Not à notatione nominis The Church in the Wilderness is a Scripture Name And sure the Jews Church was not denominated from the Priests only Moses is ofter named as its Head than Aaron § 8. Obj. But are not Judges and Bishops a part of the Pars Imperans as well as the Soveraign Ans. Only subordinate in their Provinces They are but as the Kings Hands and Tongue They are Subjects themselves and have no Political Power but what he giveth them 2. If you might so far distinguish of them as Imperant under the King and as Subjects as to say that Judges and Bishops are as the Wife in the Family that hath a Governing power over Children and Servants that maketh her not the denominating Head of the Family but a Subject of the highest Rank § 9. Qu. What if a Christian Kingdom had no Pastors Ans. Then they were but an Embrio or half Christian and not materia disposita for a full formation The Matter and Privation that is Dispositio receptiva are Essential to the Body though they be not the Form 10. Qu. But what if under an Infidel King a Christian Nation be confederate under Bishops Ans. They are no Christian Kingdoms but a Christian Nation and are many confederate Churches and may be called One Church equivocally and secundum quid as confederate Kingdoms may be one Kingdom But they are but materia disposita sine forma as to a National Church properly so called and as such § 11. Qu. Are those of the Church of England that are not Conformists Yes if they conform to Christianity and are Subjects of the same King § 12. There is an odd Writer that hath lately published a book to prove that the Act of Toleration freeth not Nonconformists from the guilt of Schism Doleful is the case of such a Church and Land where the Learned men after near thirty years silencing imprisoning and ruining multitudes know not to this day what they are or what they hold and who it is that they do all this against How can such wink so hard as not to know that we took it for no Schism to assemble for Gods Worship before the Act of Toleration while they have done all this against us for so doing Could they think us so mad as to suffer Jails and Ruine and Scorn and Death to many for known Schism And if we took it for a duty before how can we take the Act of Toleration to be it that must justifie us But such men Englanâ— suffers by that cannot distinguish between Foâ—m Divinum and Humanum We believe that Goâ—s Command justifieth us in foro Divino for obeying it But the Law justifieth us in foro humano Gâ—ds Law and Judgment will keep us from Hell aâ—d at last silence our silencers But the Kings Laws bring us and keep us out of Jails and from thâ— Jaws of them that envy our Liberty and Lives § 13. It 's a question considerable whether England be a Protestant Church or not if it have a Papist King To which I say we must distinguish between a profest Papist and a concealed one 2. And between a King that hath the total Soveraignty and Legislative Power and one that hath but
Countries in the World 2. I can easily prove what I told you how oft the Major Part hath changed yea the same Bishops upon the change of Princes and cried Omnes Peccavimus And who knoweth by Majority of Votes which Years they were in the right 3. Either the Canons of Councils were obligatory upon the Promulgation before the absent Bishops in all Countries received them or not If yea then it is not Universal Reception that made them so If not then the absent are not bound to receive them 4. How many Years will it be after a Council before we can know whether all or most of the Christian World receive it By all that I can read in History I cannot tell e. g. whether more Bishops were for the Council of Chalcedon or against it for the time of seven or eight Emperors Reign Nor whether more now be for or against the second Nicene Council which the Lutherans so much favour and so of many more And every one cannot know it nor fetch his Faith or Religion from a Catalogue of all the Christian Bishops in the World or a Calculation of their numbred Votes § 9. 6. Frustra est Potentia quae non reducitur nec reducenda est in actum 1. Indeed as the Pope is naturally uncapable of Governing all the Christian World All Bishops on Earth are much more uncapable as one Collective Voting Power but only per partes in their several Limits 2. How can I obey a Power that acteth not § 10. 7. Alas what abundance of Heresies have been Published since the Six Councils which you own yea by Ranters Quakers Familists c. in our times besides Beckman's Catalogue of German Fanaticks And yet what Universal Council or Literae formatae of all the World have given us sufficient notice of their Evil How foolishly have the Papists done about Jansenianisms the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary c. to seek the Pope's Determination if the sense of all the Bishops of the World can be known to decide the Case How many Heresies have been Condemned in Councils since the Sixth Council of which the whole Church hath no otherwise notified their sence as in the Case of Philoponus of Images of Elipandus and Faelix of Abbot Joachims Abeilard of Gilbert Porretane of Wecilo of Berengarius Wickliffe Husse whether it was Heresie or not You say If I broach a Heresie the Vniversal Church will soon tell me where they are by Condemning it When Multitudes have been broached these last Thousand Years of which those in Abassia Syria Egypt Armenia and most of the Christian World have never told us that ever they were Judged or so much as heard Shall no Bishops or Provincial Council condemn new Heresies but leave e. g. Swenkfeldius David George Servâ—tus Pomponatius Vaninus and a hundred such to pass for good Christians till they hear from all the Bishops of the World And what need General Councils be gathered to Condemn such if we can know the sence of all without them § 11. 8. If one that cannot know the sence of all the Bishops on Earth may ordinarily be a good Christian and saved by the Scripture only then why should they be sent to enquire of all the Bishops on Earth when a sure and nearer way is at hand 2. And then such may be of the Church and have Christ's Spirit that obey not such a Vicarious Church Head 3. And if want of Promulgation nullifie the Obligation that is no Governing Vicarious Soveraign to all the Christian World which cannot Promulgate his Laws to all Neither I nor any that ever I knew can tell how to know the Minds of all the Bishops on Earth or gather their Votes so as to rule our Obedience If the Scripture could not be commonly made known it could be no common Rule as it is not to them that have it only in unknown Tongues § 12. 9. What shall satisfie any Man that the Six Councils owned by you are the Acts of a Supream Vicarious Universal Church Power and no other but those 1. If the Pars imperans in Supremacy be as Politicks say a Constitutive Essential part of the Society then since the sixth Council the Church hath been no Church for want of an Essential part if Councils were that part But if it be all the dispersed Bishops the Head hath been in nudâ Potentiâ unactive these Thousand Years as the Socinians say the separated Soul is till the Resurrection or as one in an Apoplexy 2. This favoureth the Seekers who say that the Church this Thousand Years hath been lost in the Wilderness or asleep 3. The same Councils have done and undone That at Const. 1. in the beginning set up Greg. Naz. and in the end forced him to resign going about to depose him which part was obligatory That at Ephes. first was first one and after two and Nestorius Cyril and Memnon were all Condemned and after two of them restored and Joh. Antioch and Cyril by Theodosius threats were brought to confess that they had differed but in Words and did not know it Which part was Obligatory That at Chalcedon consisted of many yea most that had gone contrary in Ephes. 2. and cried Omnes peccavimus and so did many others and most Bishops were oft and long against it after That at Const. de Tribus Capitulis is noted commonly as a meer Cheat and abuse put on Justinian by an Eutychian and condemned three dead Mens Words before at Chalcedon absolved set the World even Italy into a greater Schism If you are sure all these are Universally Obligatory prove it and prove that no other are as much so Divers others were as numerous and called by as good Authority If you say as of Ephes. 2. they were Latrocinia and forced I answer No more than many others At Const. â— Nazianzen tells you they raged like Mad Men At Ephes. 1. they fought it out even before the Emperors Commissioners Theodosius 2d used his over-ruling Power at both Eph. 1. 2. What force was used in that under Philippicus and many others that erred and were more numerous than such as you receive Sola navicula Petri saith Binius scaped Drowning at Eph. 2. so Concordant were they all What have you against even Constance and Basil on your Grounds If you say they erred I grant it and how shall we know that none of the Six did so It was not their Number nor Consent that proved them in the right Tell us how to know the Councils that we must obey from all the rest Is it by other Councils Testimony that is to run in a Vain Circle How know we that the later is right other way than of the former Is it by Scripture or by Reason Tell us how without subverting your own Foundation the Soveraignty of Councils 4. Do you hold all the Six Councils still obligatory as the Rule of our Obedience and Communion E. g. 1. That at Nice 1. and
the Quini Sextum at Trull forbid Adoring by genuflexion on any Lords Day c. And no General Council hath revoked it but above a Thousand Years after it wore out by degrees in most Churches And yet Thousands of Christians are here to be denied Sacramental Communion if they keep these Canons even in the reception of the Eucharist and Hundreds yea Thousands of Christ's Ministers shall be silenced ejected and ruined if they will not Assent and Consent so to use them How many Canons in the Six Councils can I name which do not now bind us § 13. As to the work of Councils and Bishops named by you I. As to our receiving the true Scripture from an Universal Church-Governing Authority 1. Paul's Epistles were received otherwise Yea there is no mention of any part of the New Testament that was not received till such Universal Government required it 2. If I must first know the said Church Authority before I receive the Scripture how shall I know it Not by the Scriptures for that is supposed yet not received If by the Assertors Authority that is to know they have it because they have it which is the Question If by some fore-known Character of Infallibility what is it unless with Knot you come to the Miracles of the present Church I know not what can be said 3. But is not the common Protestant way which you call Chillingworth's much surer 1. VVe first receive the Matter of Fact Historically that such Persons were and wrote such Books and did such Deeds from the Concurrent Testimony of all Credible VVitnesses some Enemies some Hereticks the generality of Lay-Christians Presbyters that in all Churches received and used them and Bishops also as credible entrusted Keepers of these Records As we know the Laws of the Land by Judges Lawyers People and all that make up a full Historical Certainty and not from some fore-known Universal Governing Bishops Judicial Sentence 2. And the Matter of Fact being known by certain Historical Evidence I have so largely shewed how the rest is known in my Reasons of Christian Religion and Life of Faith c. that I will not repeat it Do you think that most or any Christians before they received the Scriptures did first otherwise know that all the Bishops on Earth are by God authorized to be a Supreme Collective Sovereign to the Church and to judge infallibly which are the true Scriptures for all the People and that they are now most of them true Bishops c. Which way are all these things to be known We deny not that Ministers are by Office entrusted to keep expound and preach the S. Scriptures But we use against the Papists herein to distinguish the Authority of a Teacher or Embassador from the Authority of a Judge and the Authority of an Official limited Judge in proprio foro from that of an Universal Judge to all the World Indeed it is commonly granted that it is proper to the Law-makers to judge of the sense of their own Law so as Universally to oblige the Subjects For it is part of Legislation it self the sense of the Law being the very Law Else Judges might make us what Law they please by expounding the Words as they please But the Power of Judicatures is limitedly to expound and apply the Law only to the decision of particular Cases that come before them If the Question be Whether our Statutes were really made by those Kings and Parliaments whose Names they bear And are not altered or corrupted since How shall we be sure By a Natural Certainty from such Concurrent Testimonies as cannot be false viz. 1. The Judges have still judged by them and 2. The Councellors plead them 3. Justices and all Officers execute them 4. All the People hold their Estates and Lives by them and stand to the Determination made according to them 5. The Records attest them And it is not possible were they forged or corrupt but that the Interests of Multitudes would have led them to plead that and appeal from the Corruption And yet none of these named are Supreme Governours of all the Kingdom who thus Historically assure us 4. It may be questioned What is the Law of Nature And it is known much by the Agreement of all Mankind and that is known Historically But neither of them is known by any Humane Soveraign-Authority appointed to Govern all the World And so it is in the present Case The Agreement of all Christians Ministers and People Friends and Adversaries of contrary Opinions and Interests contending against each other about the Rule of their Expositions is a full Historical Evidence of Fact when no considerable Contradiction even of Jews or Heathens is made against it 5. It is notorious 1. That regularly our first Reception both of Creed and Scripture is by Gods appointment to be by Children from their Parents before ever they hear a Preacher Deut. 6. and 11. Thou shalt teach them thy Children lying down and rising up c. And God will bless his appointed Means Timothy learned the Scripture when he was a Child If you say Parents received it first from the Church I answer Our Parents regularly were to receive it as we did even from their Parents and they from theirs and so on to those that had it from the Apostles or first Preachers And all Parents are not a Colledge of Sovereign Rulers of all the World 2. And private Christians by Conference convert many 3. And those that have not their Faith either of these ways usually have it by the teaching of particular Presbyters where they dwell And yet none of these are the Collective-Soveraign to all the Christian World any more than Tutors in Law Physick or Theology are Three and twenty Years ago I read most that you say in a Paris Doctor H. Holden's Analys S. fid who yet though mixt with injurious passages against the S. Scripture acknowledgeth that it is by such an Universal Consent of all Christians Lay and Clergy that we receive the Scriptures that it is a Natural Historical Evidence that the Matter of Fact is resolved into and not of Supernatural Infallibility by Authority 4. And when Vinc-Lirinensis turneth us to quod ab omnibus ubique semper receptum est and the Papists that go with Holden lay most on the Consent of all Christians they never thought that the Laity through all the Christian World are one Universal Collective Soveraign Nor do you think so of all the Consenting Priests while you appropriate this Collective-Soveraignty to the Bishops 6. I would know whether it be only the Scripture or also our Christianity and Creed which must be received as from a Soveraign Church-Power If you say it 's only Scripture why may we not receive the Scripture otherwise if we may otherwise receive our Christianity Creed and Baptism But I doubt not but you will say It is both If so then a Child or Man must know and believe that Christ
of the Matter 17. That the Church ever held it unlawful for a whole Kingdom to defend it self against a Prince that would deliver up half the Government to a Foreiner and force them to a Religion which requireth them to be Damned or to Dye When the Clergy and Church at Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch Rome c. did so oft by force and Blood resist even Christian Emperors such as Theodosius II. Zeno Anastasius and many others 18. That all the Churches held it lawful to Swear and Covenant never to endeavour any Amendment or Alteration of any such as the forementioned Church Government If all these things be contrary to the constant judgment or practice of the Church Quaere whether Dr. Beveridge and his Approvers pronounce not the Church of England Schismatical as so far separated from the Church Universal But again I conclude O! What must the Christian World suffer even by Learned and I hope pious Doctors I. Because they will not distinguish National or Imperial Vniversality of Church and Councils from those of the whole World II. Nor Communion from Regiment nor Contracts from Laws nor a Regent Excommunication from a Renunciation of Communion by Equals III. Nor Divine Obligations to Concord and human demands of obeying Usurpers or the hurtful Agreements of an injurious Majority of equal Votes IV. And by their Deposing Christian Kings and Magistrates from their Sacred Power over Bishops in Church-Government and for Mens Souls as if they were made only for the base things of the World and Flesh and Priests only were trusted with Religion and Souls And Kings were not Heads of National Churches V. And their shameless calling them Adversaries to Episcopacy that would have one Hundred Bishops for one and are for the old three sorts Episcopi Gregis Episcopi praesides and Arch-Bishops and calling those the Episcopal part that put down all the Bishops in a Diocess save one As for your self I profess to be so far from Censuring any thing of you save these Mistakes that as I have long so I do still Love and Honour you as a Man fearing God and of a good and blameless Conversation as far as ever I Credibly heard And I thought the like of Bishop Guning though as it is with many Religious Papists his Opinions more prevailed against his Charity for that Mischievous hurtfulness in which he served the Subtilty of Sheldon and the fierceness of Morley and the Designs of Papal Courtiers But I hear that your Piety and Charity prevaileth against the evil tendency of your mistaken Doctrine Though Mr. Thorndike threaten England unless they Reform the Oath of Supremacy I confess I wish it restored and am Displeased with those Scots that have causelesly quarrelled with it and so helpt to open a Door to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is Sworn against Since the writing of all beforegoing I first read your two great Volumes of Canons and your Answer to Dallaeus In the Prolegomena of the first to my Grief I find you more express for an Universal Legislative Power and Foreign Jurisdiction than in your Sermon And yet not at all telling us where to have access to this Universal Soveraignty for Judicature out of the times of General Councils nor how to know but by believing your bare word what Councils are our Universal obliging Laws when you confess the vast difference of the Eastern and Western numbers nor how to know what our Religion is while we know not what be our Laws Nor how to know whether the Church be extinct when it hath no human Head by the Cessation of such Councils nor who must call them nor whence nor what is their Constitutive Matter only you say they must be called out of all the Christian World But need not all be there And will a Call make a General Council if the Men come not And can they come from all the Dominions of the Abassines Armenians Turks Persians Muscovites c. And who hath right to call them hath the Pope Or our Emperors or Kings what power hath he over all other Princes Subjects You confess they were called out of the Imperial Provinces And how few if any other Names are Subscribed But I am sorry that you still so contrary to all Evidence take National or Imperial Universality for Terrestrial Universality of Church and Councils I beseech you if we must be Papists let us be of the more reasonable sort that know where to find a Papal Monarch or Vice-Christ and not sent to seek a Church-Parliament Universal or Universal Aristocratical College that is no where extant in the World nor can be especially now the five Patriarchs are what and where they are How much more Rational to be Governed by the Pope as Patriarch of the West only till we can find out the Aristocratical Head But since the Empire was turned into many Kingdoms who can prove that those many must have all one Human Head But I am yet more sorry that you joyn with Hildebrand in making Princes to be but for the Body and Civil Peace and Bishops and Priests to be the Church and for the Soul Which God willing as I have oft done I shall fullier Confute in a Treatise for true National Churches proving that Christ hath made no Higher Visible Humane Church Power or Form And that Christian Kings are as Sacred Persons and Ministers of Christ as Bishops and Superior Heads of National Churches though the Power of the Keys belong only to the Clergy And that a true National Church is but a Christian Kingdom as such the King being the Head and Confederate Pastors and Churches the Subject Body The Second Part. The Stating of the Controversie and full Confutation of the Pretences for a Foreign Jurisdiction The CONTENTS CHap. I. The clear stating of the Controversie and Confutation of the Pretenders In 60 Propositions proving it a perjurious alteration of Government c. Ch. II. Why Parliaments and the Church of England before Bishop Laud were so much against such a Coalition with the Papal Church Ch. III. The said Coalition is not the way to Catholick Union Ch. IV. The Deceits that are pleaded for an Universal Humane Soveraignty Ch. V. A Foreign Jurisdiction by College or Counsels unmaskt Ch. VI. The Grand Consequential Case Whether it be lawful for Presbyters to Swear or Profess Obedience to those Bishops who profess Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction or for the people to own them Ch. VII Of the second part of the design to bring the Papists to our Churches as in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's days Ch. VIII Why it will not serve for a Coalition for the Papists to abate their last 400 years corruptions as Archbishop Bromhall maintaineth Ch. IX Whether the instance of the Apostles Church Government prove an Universal Soveraignty in man Ch. X. Many Questions about Councils to be resolved before we can take them for an Universal Aristocracy Ch. XI A Breviate of both the Aristocratical