in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus on purpose wrote by St. Paul to instruct them in these like Affairs of the Church as to the Polity of it that they might know how to behave themselves in the Church of God as he tells Timothy in particular 1.3.15 where 't is notoriously evident that the Peoples Votes are no more required to the constituting a Bishop or Deacon then that their Hands are there actually laid upon them That the Hands of the Presbytery did consecrate we read expresly and we read of none else and such the Presbytery Timothy and Titus have the alone Charge and Power delegated to Inspect and Animadvert upon their Lifes and Manners to receive or reject as their Prudence directs the Clergy are sole Judges 't is not required that the People so much as present every particular Man's inward desire and private Motions supposing other due qualifications concurring made known to such whose is the Power for ordaining seems sufficient if any man desire the Office of a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.1 and that these Epistles are to be follow'd as the pattern in the Mount the Platform and Model of Church-Government these Men strenuously plead at other times and those other instances of Ordinations in Scripture brought by Blondel conclude nothing more In that of Matthias there is no such thing express at all the Believers being few were all together in one place and they were necessitated so to be but that they otherwise concurr'd then by their presence or that St. Peter's Speech was directed to them and not to the Apostles only is not thence to be inferr'd that in Acts 6. was chiefly he says only to provide Deacons to look after their Poor and good reason was there the People should approve of such in whose hands their Moneys was to be deposited nor can any inference be hence made on his side unless the consequence be good that such as are fit and able to choose and depute in whose hands their Money shall be entrusted are for the same reason instructed to Skill and choose their Teachers or that we set a lower price on mens Souls than we do on their Money because we can allow the Laity to provide for the latter but we think there ought to be better provision made and more care taken for the former What is argued farther from the parity of the Call and Consecration of Aaron Heb. 5. is full levell'd against himself where to be sure all concurrency of the People was excluded in every respect whatever WE 'll go on from Scripture-instances to § IX those immediately after the Apostles and see if here his Success be more we 'll accept what he says of his Twelve Centuries in immediate Succession because they are not worth the particular canvass in this Determination The point does not lye here Whether the Laity did sometimes or oftentimes concur in Ordinations but did they always concur He dares not say this but he believes not above Ten Ordinations to be made otherways Pag. 541. which he supposes to be failures and to be occasioned by the inseparable accidents of the Church Militant but no rules for Succession Though by the way 't is the chief design of the Apology it self by fewer Examples indeed not one but what is by him industriously forced and perverted to cut off the Chain and overthrow the concurrent Testimony of all Ages in the point of Episcopacy such is his slavery to his present Cause But such as consult Antiquity and the Ordinals of Churches impartially and which we have reason to believe he never did will find more and no one of them censur'd as failures that Elections and Nominations were made otherwise and that oftner than in his form At least many times sometimes by the Emperors without the People sometimes by the Emperors and People sometimes by the Emperor Clergy and People sometimes by the Clergy without either and this in very good times of the Church as instances are every where in Church-Story and particularly that it is not inseparable from the People and but by Permission and upon occasion otherwise their Votes are to be over-ruled appears from the many Laws made by the Emperors limiting what Persons are to be Ordained and what not 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 2. Lex 3. l. 19.32 c. Sozomen Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 13. And if it be admitted what Melitius and his followers objected against Paulinus That his Ordination was not as it ought to be because without the consent of all the People as in Sozomen Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 13. yet the Ordination was not hereby voided and we have a certain Autority on the other side and much about the same time too 't is the 13th Canon of the Council of Laodicca which expresly forbids that the Election of such as are to be Ordained be at all in the People a certain Argument that the Church placed it at the most under the head of indifferences what occasion and circumstances might enjoyn or null receive or reject otherwise it could not thus become limitable by Custom or the Subject of different Laws Ecclesiastical and at last the numerous and turbulent Meetings on the occasion of Ordinations and Factions in giving their Votes even to Riots and Tumults to Blood-shedding and Murder forced that the People were excluded quite and general Laws to that purpose were made prohibiting their appearance at such times Quamdiu in Ecclesia Plebs partem habuit in Episcopis Presbyteris legendis nunquam discordiis factionibus civitates caruere donec res ipsa pax Ecclesiarum docuit Plebi hoc jus ademptum Magistratibus Clericis relinqui primò debere quod posteà soli sibi Clerici vindicabant So Blondel's own Friend Salmasius gives account and an end of the Elections by the People Defensio Regia cap. 7. And it may be farther observ'd that amongst the many Cautions and Restrictions concerning Ordinations the several Rules and Instances given by and for which they are rendred void and null'd if against or wanting in either abundance of which are to be found as That every Bishop is to be Consecrated by three other Bishops Can. 1. Apostol That the Metropolitan be always one or with his leave Can. 4. Conc. 1. Nic. Can. 19. Conc. Antioch Can. 12. Can. 6. une quarte Gen. Conc. Chalcedon That no foreign Ordinations are valid Can. 2. Conc. Constantinop unless in those Churches in Heathen Countries and no Bishop is setled or in case of Persecution Sozom. Eccl. Hist cap. 9. If a Bishop deserts his Diocess Can. 3. Concil Ephes Gen. All Ordinations procured by Money Can. 29. Apost Can. 2. Concil 4. Gen. Chalcedon That it be not by Secular Powers Can. 30. Apost If made only by Presbyters as in the Case of Colluthus Athanas Apol. pag. 784. 792. In case of some known and notorious Scandal which the Bishop that ordain'd then lay under Athanas Ep. ad Solitar vitam agentes In
Disorders to prevent a greater Mischief or by too much Condescension of the Bishops or by particular Grants and Priviledges to such places which the same Power did and might take away again an antecedent perpetual Right is no way to be inferr'd from either and particularly by David Blondel who over-rules in other Cases when against him upon the same Considerations Apolog. Pag. 541. § XIII AND that all this depends upon Divina Praecepta Divina Praescriptio Dominicis Praeceptis Divina Magisteria Traditione Divina Apostolica Observatione Deisicam Disciplinam and that the contrary is Secundum humanam Praesumptionem as St. Cyprian all along Phrases it in that 68 Epistle is what every one will grant nor is there any such thing gain'd by it on Blondel's side as he thinks there is he many times repeating and insisting on these like Expressions for no man sure will question this to be the Command and Appointment of God that no one be receiv'd into the Publick Imployments of the Church but such as are approved and attested to be Men sit for so great a Charge and high Office and it amounts to no more than that Caution of St. Paul to Timothy Lay hands suddenly on no man nor is there any Nomination of a Bishop to his See which is not made Publick to the whole Kingdom and his Election as much made known in his Diocess by notices affixed on his Cathedral that if any man have an Accusation against him he come and object and then the Clergy in the presence of the People go on to Election and the same is observed at the Ordinations of Presbyters and Deacons who are not and ought not to be received but upon Publick Testimony and which are Ordained at the four Ember-Weeks if Canonically or publick times of the year where every Body has the liberty of access and to speak at pleasure and which is represented as the very course prescribed by the Apostles in this 68 Epistle and recommended as the Practice of many Churches Propter quod diligenter de Traditione Divinâ Apostolicâ observatione observandum est tenendum quod apud nos quoque ferè per Provincias universas tenetur ut ad Ordinationes ritè Celebranda ad eam Plebem cui praepositus Ordinatur Episcopi ejusdem Provinciae proximi quique conveniant Episcopus delegatur Plebe praesente quae Singulorum vitam plenissimè novit unusquisque actum de ejus Conversatione prospexit That the Neighbouring Clergy Convene and the Bishop be assigned in the presence of the People and to which agrees St. Jerome's peculiar Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which to be sure is Argument sufficient of the Church's Practice in the Case in his days That the Hands of the Ordainer were extended stretcht out lay open and abroad at Ordinations Ne scilicet vocis imprecatio Clandestina Clericos ordinet nescientes non lene enim peccatum Ordinationem Clericatus nequaquam Sanctis in lege Dei doctissimis sed asseclis suis tribuere vilium Officiorum Ministris quamquam his dedecorosius est muliercularum praecibus Comment in Isai 58. to make them publick and divulge them lest being secret ignorant Clerks may be Ordained it being a great Sin to lay hands on such as are not Holy and very Learned on their Pages and viler Officers but most of all it is dishonorable and disgraceful when Ordinations are procured by the requests and assignations of Women And it were otherwise unpracticable if all the Clergy of whole Provinces were as by the indispensable Appointment of God and under peril of voiding the whole Action to meet in Person at each Consecration and as unserviceable too much more for the numerous or rather innumerable Multitudes The Nature of things requires some particular appearances nor can the whole be supposed to be a competent witness of their Lifes and Conversations it is sufficient that every one has time and opportunity to implead as occasion or at least may have it if he 'll seek after it and which he ought to do if he knows a just exception and indeed business cannot be done otherwise Universals are nothing they subsist only in Conceit and a digestion of the Brain 't is the Individuation makes Action and the People in general if not reduced to some Orders and Station will be only a confused heap each Body be Cyclopian each Assembly become a Riot fill'd only with disorder and astonishment and the popular Elections of Bishops came so near to it at last that they could be no longer permitted NOR does D. Blondel acquit himself with § XIV more Candor and Ingenuity when contending for the Right of the People or believers as such and in common in electing and assigning each Presbyter and Deacon to his particular Title and Parish of which such the Electors are Members the division of Parishes being but of late as he does acknowledge and when it was otherwise the Bishop had still the Power of sending out the Presbyters in the execution of their Ministerial Office as was the Harvest as Occasion and his Prudence saw fit nor has he any Practice either Apostolical or of 12 Centuries after that the People still placed and fixed their own Minister to infer his Divine and Immutable Right from it Sure I am when Paul and Barnabas were to be separated to a peculiar Ministry and Service in the Church 'T was the Clergy the Prophets and Teachers that we know of sent them away to a People unknown as to their faces Acts 13. and which he thinks so great a Crime nor is there any thing after produced against it And himself does acknowledge that the Presbyters and Deacons were not substituted by the People but the Bishops whose indeed Curates they are for this Thousand years downwards and it will very hardly be found a sufficient proof for its Illegality to say there was no Controversie moved about it before and therefore it was otherwise but not mentioned or in his nauseous impious precarious usual manner of speaking when any thing of this nature pinches him that it was from the Pride and Usurpation fastus indomabilis Pag. 64. of the Bishops and yet he exclaims as if all Religion lay at stake a thorow Degeneracy and Dissolution both in People and Clergy they all become negligent and contemned of one another all the disorder ill manners and failures in Duty is imputed to this one thing whatever inconveniencies in Church are observable and always some there will be all hence arise that the People have not the choosing or refusal of him that is to officiate among them have only the opportunity of bewailing with their Tears a vacancy upon Death but not of repairing it that Odor priscae Disciplinae the Primitive Proceedings being gone become even a stink to the Nostrils of a looser Age the immutable fixed Rule of Christ laid aside and broken or in plain terms according to the Genius
extraordinary Commissions have ceased which the Apostles and firsh Publishers of the Gospel had though by present Miracles not to be justified And this equally enabling and warranting the Church of God such as can evidence the Succession of Power in its own and appointed way as when Miracles were annexed to affront is an improper Speech but to Teach Declare and Protest against the Establish'd Religion of a Nation if a false one openly to draw Men off from the Profession of it in Contempt is again an ill Expression but in different ways and rules of Duty then those false ones of the Law and Magistrate though the Men of the World do Publish their dislike and threaten and punish and go on into a Law against them as they did when Christianity was first Taught and Church-Power first came down was setled and professed in the World though the Kings of the Earth stand up together and the Rulers take Council they rise up as one Man as did Herod and Pontius Pilate and all the Gentiles against the Child Jesus as it was then the Apostles so is it no less our Duty thus to speak before Kings and not be ashamed Church-Power came first into the World as not from the School of Gamaliel so nor from the Thrones of Kings and 't is independant and distant as in its rise so in its execution though embellish'd assisted and strengthened advantaged much by the outward favours of Princes their many Adjuncts and royal Appendages and which where conferr'd will equally embellish and add to their own Crowns to be sure in Heaven And upon these terms to suffer will be our Duty if what we profess be not received it will amount to Martyrdom If the King's wrath be the return and our Doctrine with our selves be cast out and if we do not this it will come too near the Traditores in the days of the Donatists or to those that offer'd at Heathen Shrines in the Persecutions before what will it be but to give up our Bibles and Profession upon the Summons of any prevailing Party to give up to be sure our Church-Power and which amounts to in effect the same nor can Christianity continue without it when upon Perswasion of the Arians first upon point as he thought of interest receiving his Father's Will from an Arian Priest and then by the Miletians joyning with them Constantius the Emperor engaged against the Faith of one Substance and great and rigorous Persecutions were its consequent Athanasius and his followers that adhered to the Nicene Faith in that Doctrine did not therefore in point of Conscience submit and say nothing with but silence give over and desert the Truth but the rather were more vigorous and active for it even to the greatest Calumnies and Distresses which through the malicious instigations of the Arians and Meletians as evil Men always unite against Truth the Emperor laid upon them And though Liberius of Rome and Hosius of Corduba this latter the ancientest Bishop then in the Christian World and who was one of the Council of Nice and Penned that Creed and Gregory Nazianzen and others even the whole World becoming Arians as St. Jerome complain'd by the height of Threats and succession of Miseries after sharp trials and resistancies did at length submit and subscribe to their Doctrines yet it cost them both repentance and tears as Gregory Nazianzen declares in particular in the Life of Athanasius And all this they did and thought themselves bound in Conscience to do not as extraordinarily Commissioned as the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel were as warranted and justified by Miracles but as commissionated in course by their Holy Orders instated with the same Autority though not in so open a shew and equally bound to render an account to God of such their trust and charge committed then and therewith unto them as the same Stewards of his Mysteries and this not upon the receipt of any new Revelation from Heaven but upon the score of their ordinary Ministry contending for the Faith once delivered to the Saints guided and directed by the Tradition of Faith delivered by the Apostles and conserv'd in the Church by a continued devolution and to which St. Athanasius and all the Catholick Bishops which strove against Arianism always referr'd themselves and is evident on all Occasions from Church History as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 46. l. 3. c. 7. Athanasius ad Serapion ad Epictet Ep. that Faith into which when recommended to him and explain'd the Emperor Theodosius was Baptized Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 6. upon which rule all the Councils proceeded in their Conciliary Acts and Determinations as Can. 13. Conc. Nic. 1. Can. 19. Conc. Hab. in Trullo Can. 2. Conc. 2. Nic. Athanas Orat. 1. Cont. Arios and they proceeding upon this bottom what they Decreed is to be receiv'd for Truth by all Christians is to be subscribed and assented to is to be taught before Kings when denying of it 't was this Theodosius himself acknowledged at his Death 't is reputed as the Law the Voice of God himself as St. Basil ad Diodorum among his Canons apud Pandect Can. Beverig and so by Constantine the Emperor in Socrates Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 9. Sozom. l. 1. cap. 20. 25. and in particular it will be expected that that common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that usual shift be omitted so usual among us when this known Power of the Church is urged That 't is accidental only in its Original introduced by the present necessity and upon a common consent and compact the Christians being then under Heathen Governors to whose Judicatures it was neither for their Safety nor Honor to Appeal and stand their Trial and Verdict and therefore they resolv'd it all into the chief Church-men and which Power Constantine becoming Christian and so the succeeding Emperors confirmed by his Royal Autority and continued of his own choice and motion unto them This is the common tattle of the wiser Men as they think and are generally so reputed reporting it to the World with much Confidence and yet upon no other ground than old Womens Stories are told and bottom'd at the farthest they 'l tell you that Mr. Selden and Mr. Hobs said so and every one is as secure of its Autority and Credit as if they had read it in the Gospel of our Saviour or in one of St. Paul's Epistles when 't is all as false as the Gospel it self is true Great and many were the Priviledges Royal Favours and Immunities that Constantine bestow'd upon the Church and Church-men he receiv'd them with both hands and with him in the Comedy could he have found a third he would have gave it them He annex'd to them Adjuncts and Appendages which their Lord and Master Christ Jesus did not could not would not do his Kingdom being not of this World nor was it his business to divide Inheritances and he had all the reason in the world
and who is instructed for the Kingdom of Glory cannot be supposed with Knowledge and Judgment enough so to digest them as to be ready to answer to every Man that asketh a Reason of his Faith that is in him or so as his own need shall require in his daily Confessions and Acknowledgments to God I 'le add so as the Duties in common to be performed by all as Christians even the most learned Scribe among them shall exact for the rehearsing their Faith and open Confession of it before Men was a branch of their constant Devotions And it must be as impertinent and unhandsom when they come together if every one have a diverse Interpretation Digestion and Expression of his Faith as if every one should have a differing Prayer Hymn or Thanksgiving the World must believe them all Mad nothing can be done to Edification nothing of Order and Peace only Confusion be in the Churches of God Hence that Summary of what is to be believed and confessed the Apostles Creed was composed 't is generally concluded by the Twelve Apostles themselves and to which if St. Paul's form of Doctrine delivered Rom. 6.17 his form of sound words that good thing committed to Timothy's trust to be kept by him and to be conveigh'd to others 1 Tim. 2.20 2 Tim. 1.13 14.2.2 related not yet thus much may certainly be collected thence That they had Summaries of Christianity antecedent to St. Paul's Epistles and which suppose these Doctrines receiv'd and pursuant to which St. Paul wrote his Epistles as general needs and in course requir'd or upon particular occasion of false Teachers coming in those vain Bablings and Oppositions of Science falsely so called which some Professing have erred from the Truth and by which Summaries they were to censure and exclude them And the same may be St. Peter's Holy Commandment delivered 2 Pet. 2.21 And St. John's Unction received or that which they heard from the beginning and which he Exhorts them to abide in and it will teach them all things 1 John 2.20.24.27 but of whatever use they were to the conserving of Truth and ejection of Heresies and which falls not under this Head now to pursue Certain it is Creeds they had and Collections of Faith to be assented to and Professed by all that were Baptized or any ways admitted into the Body and Society of Christians Baptism is a Stipulation Agreement and Assent Aliquid respondentes as Tertullian speaks de Corona Militis Cap. 3. There is something answer'd professed and engaged in And Dionysius in Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. 9. there mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Questions and Answers in use of Baptism and which were made in part relating to what they believed and receiv'd as Christians Thus Irenaeus Cent. Haereses lib. 1. c. 1. speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Canon or Rule of Truth which is receiv'd when Baptized So Tertullian Lib. de Spectaculis c. 4. Cum aquam ingressi Christianam fidem in Legis suae verba profitemur Going into the Water we make Profession of Christianity St. Cyprian tells the same Sed ipsa interrogatio quae fit in Baptismo testis est veritatis Nam cum dicimus Credis in vitam Eternam remissionem peccatorum per Sanctam Ecclesiam intelligimus remissionem peccatorum non nisi in Ecclesia dari The Question at Baptism is a witness of the Truth And when we say we believe Forgiveness of Sins and Life Everlasting and the Holy Church we understand that Remission of Sins is given only in the Church Ep. 70. St. Jerome adv Luciferianos says also Solenne sit in lavacro post Trinitatis Confessionem interrogare Credis in Sanctâ Ecclesia Credis remissionem Peccatorum 'T is usual at Baptism after the Confession of the Trinity to ask Dost thou believe in the Holy Church and Remission of Sins and l. 2. adv Pelag. in Confessione Baptismatis lavat nos à Peccatis sanguis Christi in our Confession at Baptism the Blood of Christ washes us from our Sins Interrogamus an Credat Deo So Optatus l. 5. cont Parmen Donatist We ask if he believes in God Credo inquis in Deum Thou sayest I Believe in God having renounced the World and Devil at Baptism Salvian l. 6. De gubernat Dei And accordingly are they found together in Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith and Confession i. e. Baptism and Confession for so is the frequent Ecclesiastical Phrase of Faith Nec secundas post fidem nuptias permittitur nosse they must not Marry again after Baptism or after Confession of Faith by which Baptism is expressed Tertul Exhort ad Castitat c. 1. with many of the like Nature Lib. de Pudicit Cap. 16. Scorpiac c. 8 c. where Fides and Baptisma are but diverse Expressions of the same thing Baptism being a Publick Confession of Faith in and Adhesion to the Gospel of Christ Jesus an open undertaking of it upon its Terms and Conditions And so in the Imperial Laws Cod. 16. Tit. 7. l. 4. to violate Baptism is to violate Faith given up to Christ And the ancient Church distinguishing of Christians into Fideles and Catecumenos those were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Faithful who were Baptized in opposition to the Catechumens which were not and in that sense not Believers And all this is acknowledged by Theodore Beza in his Eighth Epistle written to Grindal Archbishop of Canterbury when they were baptized Adults and at the years of Understanding But upon what account Infantulus de fide compelletur a little Infant should be interrogated or have such Questions put unto him what Covenant can here be entred he knows not What was the Arch-Bishops return to him I have not yet met with I shall at present only reply in the words of St. Austin de Baptismo contra Donatistas c. 23. Ideò cum alii pro iis respondent ut impleatur erga eos celebratio Sacramenti valeat utique ad eorum Consecrationem quia ipsi respondere non possunt Their Susceptors or Undertakers answer for them because they cannot answer for themselves and upon such their undertaking the Sacrament becomes effectual unto them § XV AS Christians and with one Faith so had they the same Laws and Rules for Obedience and Holy Living in this did they Associate and Confederate together Of this we read an eminent instance Tertul. Apol. c. 2. in the words of Pliny to Trajan the Emperor Nihil aliud se conserisse quam Coetus antelucanos ad confederandam Disciplinam Homicidium Adulterium Fraudem Perfidiam Caetera scelera Prohibentes They entred Compacts and a State of Discipline against Murder Adultery Fraud Perfidiousness and other Wickednesses And which Indentment or Compact upon what particular occasion it was then undertook the main design and purpose of it was then by all that were Baptized and has been all along since answer'd in such their Baptism
used at their Enstalment There is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none of those solemn Services of Prayer and Invocation of the Spirit of God as Ordination was performed with and is so related by Zonaras in Can. 1. Apost no imposition of hands devolving and collating a new real Power and which is done at the Consecration of a Bishop Primacies have been many times translated not only as to Places and which Bishopricks have been but as to Persons from one Person to another and that not by Deposition as when Criminal and which indeed cannot be call'd Translation a thing usual in the Church by way of Discipline but when the same Bishop abides in his Chair and his Episcopal Power with him only the Primacy removed and which could not be by any Power whatsoever it would be equally Sacriledge to depose a Primate or Metropolitan as it is for a Bishop to degrade himself into the Order of a Presbyter Can. 29. Conc. Chalced. the Metropolitan has no more Power from his Orders than has the Bishop only the Metropolitan's Jurisdiction is larger and under other Circumstances And therefore as we read of a twofold Ecclesiastical Audience in the Affairs of Religion the one before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop of the City who himself is Judge The other upon Appeals before a Synod of Bishops united under their Metropolitan this latter is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a greater Conflux of Bishops The original Power is one and the same in both only Circumstances alter the course of Proceeding it may be the Bishops own concern and so he not so fit to be the alone Judge And which Proceedings of the Church whoso please may read more at large and therein what sense she had between the Bishop and his Primate in the Comments of Jacob Gothofred upon the Sixteenth Theodosian Code Tit. 2. l. 23. And 't is easily observable by such as are Conversant in the Acts and Determinations of the Councils and Bishops of the Church about the Subordination of its Hierarchy that 't is no where contended for but in the sense now mentioned as the same Original Power enlarged a Precedency of Power retained by the Apostles over all the Churches of their own first Conversion and Planting and particularly deputed by St. Paul to Timothy and Titus in Ephesus and Crete and which is a Platform still obliging in general and immutable admitting the Church to continue in that sense Catholick i. e. not to be limited again to one House or Congregation or even City and which may easily be granted where the Church under the like Circumstances is to be governed and that it did actually continue so all along downward 'T is as certain there was a Prerogative in those Churches in the Sixth Council of Nice whether Patriarchical or Metropolitical only the design of this Discourse does not now exact an enquiry and so Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 5. cap. 23. there giving an account of the Convention of several Synods of Bishops in their respective Districts about the keeping of Easter and which was earlier than the Council of Nice as of Palestine Rome c. Tells us also how every Epistle ran in the Name of their particular Governor or Head as Theophilus of Caesarea Narcissus of Hierusalem Victor of Rome Irenaeus of France and Palmas of Pontus who as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did preside as the most ancient Bishop of the Diocess but as to the particular Seats of this Power and in which these Metropolitans did reside is not the thing any farther worth the considering then as the certainty of the Power as always actually in the Church is thereby made evidently known unto us and Palmas might have the Prerogative in that particular Synod whether for his Age or whatever else accidental Motive though not Amastris his Episcopal See but Heraclea was the constant Metropolis of Pontus as Vallesius there notes unto us the assignment of Places and of Persons Judicatures and Primates depends purely upon occasion and the present Circumstance and have been still appropriated and fixed either at the Discretion of the Clergy themselves and by the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical and suitably the first and famous Council at Nicea in her sixth and seventh Canons confirms and settles those four first and known Primacies of Alexandria Rome Antioch and Aelia or Jerusalem as what before was received and submitted to in the ancient Practice and Usages of the Church and for which as not having any antecedent right but as bottom'd alone on the Church Sanction and Reception Peter de Marca contends De Concord lib. 1. cap. 3. and the Confirmation were by Canon were impertinent was the Right fixed antecedently inseparable and immutable So also the general Council at Constantinople Can. 2. appoints that no Bishop goes beyond the Bounds of his Diocese in his Ordinations or other Administrations c. or else this was done at the Discretion and Pleasure of the Empire when become Christian and that either by establishing in Law what the Church had pre-assigned as to those four great Churches just now mentioned Novel 135. or else by translating the See as Reasons and Motives appeared and were pressing Thus Justinianea Prima a City in Pannonia Secunda and after call'd Bulgaria was made a Metropolitan by Justinian the Emperor invested with all the Priviledges Pre-eminences and Jurisdictions in such the Provinces subjected to it as had old Rome because it was the Place and City of the Emperor's Birth and is therefore reckoned among those Churches which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 govern themselves and are Independent by Balsamon in Can. 2. Constantinop all which Privileges did once belong to Firmium a City in Illiricum till the Civil Government remov'd to Thessalonica upon the inrode made by Attila King of the Huns and the Bishop there upon pretence of the chief seat of Government had it settled on him and so remained till this occasional removal by Justinian as is to be seen in the Preface to his 11. Novel and Nov. 131. cap. 4. And Theodosius Translated the Primacy from Antioch to Laodicaea because the People of Antioch in a Sedition overthrew and offer'd farther violence and contumely to the Statue of Flaccilla his Empress As Theodorit Eccl. Hist lib. 5 c. 20. so that 't is plain what first fixed and again removed these Primacies though for the most part they still went along with the Civil Government and the chief Seats of Judicatures and the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government was in the same place the both Canons of the Church and Laws of the State having respect thereunto Hence the greatness and transcendency of Rome in particular Cui propter Potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem Ecclesiam convenire there was a Necessity that every Church went thither as the more Potent Principality as Irenaeus l. 3. Cont. Heres cap. 3. and to the same purpose St. Cyprian after him Pro Magnitudine sua
indispensable Subjection and Obedience of all Christians to their Power and Jurisdiction that all his profuser Criticisms and conjectural Triflings cannot make a Pretence against any ways bafflle or evade him and therefore his Epistles are rejected as spurious and counterfeit are Condemned to the Fire as the Holy Martyr himself was to the Beasts and which he endeavours more than to Martyr to annihilate passes his Sentence of perpetual oblivion and forgetfulness against them So Hereticks of old dealt with the Scriptures themselves Marcion blotted out with his Pen and wholly crased what he could not evade or deny what he could not by his Style and Expositions overthrow Macherâ non stylo usus est as Tertullian tells us in his Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks cap. 19. whereas Valentinus another Heretick there spoke of Non ad materiam Scripturas sed materiam ad Scripturas excogitavit blotted not out but brought the Scriptures to himself Proprietates verborum auferens wresting and perverting of them and which of the two took from and really did more violence to the Scriptures there is no occasion at present to enquire though Tertullian gives it to the latter for the Person we at present have to deal with is guilty of both Those two notorious Hereticks seem to survive in him at once nor has he with less tricks of words evaded the sence of him and others then with a resolved Contumacy at last quite blotted out the Writing of that most Holy and Apostolical Person nor will it abate much of his guilt or can I be much accused in making the Parallel betwixt him and two such notorious Hereticks and whose Objects were the Scriptures themselves for the Method is as natural and the same Hand and Pen is equally ready for the one as the other and the Canonical Epistles themselves have had the same usage as had by him these of Ignatius when standing in the way and this by some of his own design and complexion And how he hath dealt with our own Church in particular and much after the same Nature in many things not distinguishing her Practices from the depraved usages of Rome and particularly in Point of Government by Arch-Bishops Metropolitans and Bishops is to be seen in his Book De Cultu Romanorum and has been lately observed and reported to the World by a most Faithful and Learned Hand in another Language I cannot say but sometimes even these very Men appear more civil towards us and pass upon us high and mighty Complements and their Practice is not so rude as their Determinations are rigorus upon us nor do they approve our unruly Dissenters and Peace-breakers in point of Government though their Documents and Principles such our home-Schismaticks receive and Copy out from them and whose Autority we are still urged withal though what they would do were they as secure as Blondel thought himself in 1646. when he dedicated his Apology to the then Rebellious Parliament and Assembly-men is another question what manner of Spirit his was then has been already declared and what personal Aspersions and loads of Calumnies he laid as upon the Cause it self so upon the present Bishops will appear from that often-forced Apology of our learned Doctor Hammond for their Innocency and Integrity in his Answer to him Dissert 1ª contra Blondel cap. 12. sect 22. In haec unica Hierarchicorum doctrina adeò totum Antichristum ebibisse censeatur ut in hoc unum erroris Pelagus alia omnia Acherontis ostia se effudisse aut quidquid in illius Seculi Ecclesia peccatum ab Haereticis fuit illud statim in Episcopis hujus aevi puniendum videatur or whether it may return again God knows All the Progress we have made yet seems to be but this we have and still do pity and bemoan that state of theirs as sad and to be lamented which they have and do still account their Gospel-Simplicity and Perfection Plead that Necessity for them which they deny and wilfully persist in which provokes back again only their Pity for us not to say their Scorn and Contempt for so it has by some of them been return'd upon us and by the most favourable we are beheld as well-meaning but ignorant men so Gersom Bucer plainly tells Bishop Dounham in his Answer to the Sermon Pag. 594. our own Pleas and Arguments by Complyance and Condescensions to and for them is managed and retorted upon our selves and not by them only but and which is the greater disadvantage has come to us by it by our own Members and within the Pale of our Communion and the great popular prevailing Argument that Episcopacy is not Essential to Church-Government is this because our Charity hopes and concludes the best of them that God's Mercy through their sincerity and upright meaning may supply the defect they are under and endeavouring all we can to justifie them we have been disabled to justifie our selves This hath been the plain case all along with us the words of our Learned Bishop Taylor are apt to this in his Treatise called Episcopacy Asserted Sect. 32. and may not unduly be here inserted For we were glad at first of Abettors against the Errors of the Roman Church we found these Men Zealous in it we thanked God for it as we had cause and we were willing to make them recompence by endeavouring to justifie their Ordinations not thinking what would follow upon our selves but now it is come to that issue that our Episcopacy is thought not necessary because we did not condemn the Ordinations of their Presbytery And even at this day after so thorow a debate by Monsieur Dailâ—e and Bishop Pearson they may have abated somewhat of that rigorous Practice in France that just now named learned Bishop in that his Treatise tells us was once in use amongst them That if any one returns to them they will re-ordain him by their Presbytery though he had before Episcopal Ordination and for which he refers us to Danaeus Part 2. Isagog lib. 2. cap. 22. Perron Repl. fol. 92. Impress 1605. but the result on their side is only this and 't is no further than Beza and Gersom Bucer had gone before insalubrior est as Bucer speaks in his Answer to Bishop Downham's Sermon Pag. 18. 255. 6. and tells us That the same is the opinion of Beza it is less advantageous that our Government though but a meer Humane Invention is what may be born with its yoke may be endured by those that are under it Et quamvis Episcoporum eminentiam supra Presbyteros Institutionis esse merè humanae firmissiâ—â— redam praestat tamen meo judicio regimen illud Episcopale patienter ferre c. So the late Replyer to Bishop Pearson and Doctor Beveridge Dailee the Son as 't is thought Observat in Ignatianas Pearsonis Vindicias in 〈◊〉 and after all their gilded Phrases Pompous words and higher Eulogies I never could find that any one of them ever has given us
any more the late two Printed Epistles from Paris I am sure do not But I cease here and return to my first Subject § XII ALL they can with any shew of Truth or Reason pretend for the People at Ordinations to have to do is only this to be Discoverers of the Evil and Witnesses of the Good Lifes and Conversations of such as are to be received into the Ministry this we find the use of them in Justinian the Emperor's days Novel 6. cap. 1. Vt dicat si noverit an Ordinandus conscius sit illicitorum de quibus inquisitio Publicê est facienda to declare what he knew of the Person to be Ordained and as enquiry shall be made of him Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be Partaker of other mens sins 1 Tim. 5.22 The meaning is that Timothy proceed not in the Execution of Church-Power or of his Episcopal Office but with deliberation upon a just search and enquiry a due information in all Circumstances that every thing be as it ought otherwise he partakes of the Sins are occasioned thereby and they are his own and their guilt adheres unto him Now though St. Paul's or St. Timothie's own knowledge of the Person to be Ordained by their nearer Relation stricter Converse and Personal Inspection might be satisfaction sufficient to themselves and no man can be so mad as to think such an Ordination to be invalid self-inspection and notoriety of the Fact has still been accounted Ground and Motive sufficient for Publick Proceedings but then this by how much it is more private so much it is less satisfactory to others and for the Evidence to come from abroad a Testimony from without is more agreeable and more clearing and of whom so properly as from the People the Neighbourhood as eye-witnesses of his Conversation And it was upon the common course of Proceedings what Saint Peter proposed before the Consecration of Matthias Petrus ad Plebem loquitur Cypr. Ep. 68. and which was to the People to the Believers all in common that out of those Men that accompanied them and was well known unto them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them of which they were eye-witnesses whose Application of themselves to Holy Things and constant Industry made them sit for so high an Office an Apostle should be chosen Acts 1. That the Seven Deacons be Men of good Report and this attested by them that knew them e're the Apostles lay their hands upon them Acts 6. that Timothy be well reported by the Brethren Acts 16.2 And so again of the Bishop that he have a good report of them that are without i. e. Heathens 1 Tim. 3.7 and all which must be done suitable to the Converse he uses and as the Subject renders capable of it but that therefore the chief Interest should be in the People I now use the words of Mr. Thorndicke in his Book of the Laws of the Church pag. 154. is an Imagination too brutish Cannot the Apostles finding themselves to Ordain Persons so and so qualified for such and such Offices in the Church appeal to the People whom they acknowledge so and so qualified Cannot St. Paul afterwards provide that no man shall blame them in the dispensing the Power that they are entrusted with 2 Cor. 8.20 but a consequence must thereupon be inferr'd against themselves that they are commanded by God to refer the things concerning the Salvation of God's People in general as the Power of an Apostle the Order of a Deacon c. to the temerity and giddiness of the People Nor does all those bulky Collections made by Blondel for the Clergy and People being consulted in reality amount to any more In ordinationibus mos erat Plebem Clerum consulere mores merita Singulorum Communi Consilio ponderare Cypr. Ep. 33. Episcopum Collegarum Plebis testimonio Probatum Ep. 41. only to give Testimony to their Manners and Merit of which the Persons receiving it and to Consecrate and assign to such a People were always Judges Ad eam Plebem cui Praepositus Ordinatur Nothing was left to the People in appointing their Pastor he was only sent out in their Presence and what he brings out of the 68 Epistle of St. Cyprian is only more plain if possible and a fuller Evidence against his conceit the design of that whole Epistle being this That vitious Men be not received into the Church and admitted to attend at the Altar and to that purpose that no Ordination be made but in Publick Ne indignus obreperet that a full account may be taken of their Lifes and Conversations and that it be not Secundum humanam Praesumptionem upon Presumptions only but a full Evidence and this is most likely to be had from the People or those with whom they had lived and their Power there asserted Vel eligendi dignos Sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi cannot be allowed to amount to any more if consistent with the design of the Epistle nor can there be any thing in the People like the Power of a Judge to refuse or reject but as Informers and Petitioners by way rather of Prayer and Postulation upon the Plea of what Testimonies they could Produce or what Accusations they had against them and according to the Determinations of the Bishops that nominated and proposed him and who lay hands upon him is the Person fixed in his Station De Episcoporum qui in praesentia convenerant quique de eo apud vos literas fecerant judicio Episcopatus ei deferretur manus e◠in loco Basilidis imponeretur ibid. Ep. 68. Much more to this purpose is to be seen in Cyprian and all which is apply'd by Grotius to this purpose De Imper. Sum. Potest in Sacris cap. 10. sect 9. or rather and which Autority is much greater this Church Rule and proceeding in Elections and Ordinations of Bishops is to be seen in the Fourth Canon of the First Council of Nicea and which is there appointed to be done by all the Bishops of the Province or because all may not be capable of Convening by Three at the least the others sending their Suffrages and then to be Confirmed by the Metropolitan Where to be sure whatever of the Peoples concurrency or rather anteceding Testimonies was required the ultimate and alone Power is in the Clergy and 't is Balsamon's Opinion upon that Canon That the Canon was made purely in relation to the People to exclude them quite upon the account of the inconveniences they found by their Presence and which adds to what I have already observed That the Peoples concurrency in Ordinations is so far from being of their Essence and altogether requisite that it depended all along upon the Canons and Laws of the Church to approve or null them or if the Votes of the People did at any time prevail and over-rule it was upon special Accidents to avoid Tumults and
2. 5. or in what extent soever the Kings of Judah are proposed as Patterns to our Kings for the exercise of Power in the Christian Church in our Nine and thirty Articles and may authorize them in it to be sure they were never design'd Examples in this particular of Unction or whatever Power it was they were to have as from them our Church could not mean it should thus be derived Our Kings of England 't is plain owe no one instance of their Power to the Coronation it self much less to their being then anointed one but particular Ceremony in the Performance of it and all Jurisdictions and Rights they have as Kings they have before and are to enjoy their whole life-time Supposing they were neither anointed nor even Crown'd at all 't is all an high Ceremony Solemn and Magnificent Peculiar as is the Person and Power and Majesty of a Prince as is becoming a Crown Imperial when set on his Head and the anointing may be used as very lively significant and expressing that separation of his Person which was due and made and acknowledged before and really in him as has been the Custom by Oyl so to sever and set apart Persons and Things but that the thing it self is either commanded or expected by God or design'd and used by Man to any other end service or purpose I never could yet understand David Blondel in his Formula regnante Christo Pag. 119. tells us that the Unction or Custom of anointing Princes was not used among Christians till the year of our Lord 750. and the Consecration of their King Pippin and it was often repeated as twice four five times a year as he instances in several Princes and makes evident it is not look't upon as an initiating investing Ceremony whatever else use they appropriated to it though afterwards it was adjudged Sacriledge to iterate it by a growing Superstition and assum'd Opinion of it the famous Arch-Bishop of Paris De Marca in his Second Preface to his Book De Concord c. and in the Second Book Cap. 7. of the Treatise it self tells us of some in the Greek Church that were of the Opinion that the Prince had the Priestly Power by virtue of his Unction And it was defined in a Synod held at Constantinople in the year of our Lord Nine hundred and seventy that the anointing of the Emperor gives him the same Power to forgive Sins as has the Sacrament of Baptism and the Greeks out of the same Principle of flattery managed the same Opinion and gave their Emperor the same Power as hath the Patriarch but this as we are told depended mostly on a Faction then on foot as it was in it self precarious and Arbitrary so wee 'l leave it to its first bottom which is none at all nor needs it any farther Consideration § V NON est Respublica in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia in Republica 't is the saying of Optatus lib. 3. Contr. Parmen Donatist The Common-wealth is not in the Church but the Church in the Common-wealth under the Head and Government of the Powers of the World as to the Temporals and that instance of the Polity of it no Plea of Office and Deputation what Commission or Designation soever from God and Christ can or ever did exempt any one Man on Earth from it collate or invest therewithal a Power for Earth above it at least as binding Rules for continuance and a pattern for future Practice Our Saviour had it not who made me a Judge or a Divider and none can exercise it as from him but by Usurpation but the Common-wealth and the Church are no ways thus in Subordination and dependencies in another regard as the Church is a Body endow'd with Powers Spiritual thus they are different as the Soul and Body are in Man's Person in their distinct Orbs and Stations as are the Sun and the Moon in the Heavens have a quite diverse Orb and Powers Influences and Devolutions that are variant As the Church must be always in the World in that other sense subject to its governance to the accidents too oft the frowns and high displeasures of it till the World it self is no more So must the World be in the Church in this other sense if that World for whose Sins Christ died if coming to Heaven and Salvation be subject to its Head and Jurisdiction the World may not improperly be said to be as the Moon and the Church as the Sun receiving light and assistance splendor and glory and beauty from it thus influenced and increasing with the increase of God though the Metaphor needs not run any farther and as it has been stretcht too much by some and all this is demonstrable and will appear as evident as the Sun in its Zenith or at Noon day 't is wrote as with an Adamant a Pen of iron on a Rock on that Pillar the Church to be seen and read of all Men and to all Ages for evermore in the Original rise and succession of Church Power in all Transactions Records and Histories of it in the Matter of Fact as notorious to the common sense of Mankind as that one and two make three is to his reason and which is the only Rule in this case to be gone by I 'le begin with the Apostles and so come down to those Ages of the Church and Laws Imperial and Concessions whose Truth and Interest is believed by all to be such as not to engage them to be false in which all Parties agree and concenter § VI PVLCHERRIMA illa quae Ecclesia continet coagmentatio non ex Imperio Romano fluxit Christo monstrante sequentibus Apostolis Grot. in Animadvert Rivet ad Articul 7. That comeliness of Order and Degrees in the Church did not slow from the Roman Empire but from Christ Jesus the Apostles following and imitating of him and as he their chief great Master had not so neither had they his immediate Deputies and Successors their Power either from Man or the Will of Man they in no instance consulted with Flesh and Blood with any thing Humane and of the World in the first rise devolution and conveyance of it but still term themselves the Apostles and Ministers of Christ Jesus nor in the execution of this Power did they do otherwise they consulted only with themselves in the arduous difficult cases arising 't is to the Spirit of the Prophets the Prophets alone are to be subject they go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders there Acts 15. and 't is Peter James and John consult together upon the like occasion Gal. 2. 't is they ordain Elders and give Laws in all Churches leave Timothy and Titus in Ephesus and Crete and appoint for decency and order they are brought before Kings but 't is mostly if not always to suffer they there take the advantages to assent and plead this their Right and Power distinct and separate to give Rules and Exhortations but
ask no Directions receive nothing of Autority from them Nor did this Autority thus limited to themselves cease with their Persons or was it translated and deferr'd to any other than of their own assignation by their own Hands and on their own Deputies and Successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in whose hands and whose alone it was by them left and there remained with a Power so to depute others and with command to be executed accordingly The very same Church Power I say though not in the same particular Circumstances avouch'd and attended in the same outward manner nor in every single act and effusion does it thus remain and is it to be executed upon all for Salvation and as Christ promised to be with them always to the end of the World and this will fully appear from the Church Records commencing where the Scriptures end from the Concessions of Emperors their Laws and Constitutions made in Church Matters SAINT Clemens Romanus an Apostolical § VII Person and one that wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians not long after the Schism in Corinth mentioned by St. Paul tells us That the Apostles being sent from Christ as from God and Preaching the Word of God through the several Regions and Cities made Bishops and Deacons of the elder Christians such as were the first fruit of their labours and whom they first converted being found sufficient in order to the Service of them that should believe to the bringing more into the Fold and reducing them to Christianity St. Ignatius his Contemporary in part in his Epistle to those of Smyrna commands them to follow the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his Epistle to St. Polycarp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they take heed to him as God And again in his Epistle to Smyrna That nothing be done without him in Matters that belong to the Church and Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the meaning is not ill express'd by the additional Pseudo-Ignatius whoever he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Character whatever of their Image and Power God and Christ design'd to devolve and impress upon his Church whether as to the Government or Ministery of it are found in the Bishop He is the Person to whose Faith and Trust the People of God are committed and of whom an account is required of their Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he governs as Head and all Church Power and Business is to be translated within themselves as in the Apostles Canons wdich bear date about this time Can. 34.39 Irenaeus who trode pretty near their heels says that he can reckon up them that were Bishops instituted by the Apostles and their continued Succession to his days Lib. 3. Adv. Haeres cap. 3. Ed. Paris Habemus eos annumerare qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores eorum usque ad nos to whom and only whom the Gospel was committed Sine quibus nullo certitudo veritatis Ibid. And again Episcopis Apostoli tradidere Ecclesias that the Churches of God were committed to and intrusted with them Lib. 5. cap. 20. Origen if possible is plainer and distincter yet and in his Third Book against Celsus in so many express words distinguishes betwixt the Senate in the Church and that in every City Ed. Cantab. p. 129. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so again betwixt the Rulers and Governors of the Church and the Rulers and Governors of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And in his Eighth Book towards the end he declares a different Model 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that of the Empire in every City for which and whose safety and success in his Wars he contends and prays for and which he owns and acknowledges with it a Government framed constituted and erected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word which is God and which Government is the Church whose great King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word and Son of God who has his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Governors still appointed resident and continued there ruling as he hath prescribed according to his own Laws and Dictates the Laws of the Empire being preserved inviolated by them Tertullian as plainly distinguishes betwixt the two Bodies in the Nine and thirtieth Chapter of his Apology against the Gentiles Corpus sumus de Conscientia Religionis Disciplinae unitate Spei foedere we Christians are a Body united in a sense of Religion under a different Discipline as well as hope altogether apart à Ministris corum Potestatibus à statu seculi from their Ministers and Powers and from the state of the World and tells us that Polycarp was made a Bishop in the Church of Smyrna by Saint John in the 23 Chapter of his Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks as also Clement over the Romans he returns to the Chairs of the Apostles which remained till his time in their Succession as the Authors of his Religion and 't is not from the Seat of the Empire but from Corinth and Phillippi from Ephesus and Rome he dates their Power and fetches their derivation Vnde vobis autoritas praestò est whence its rise and devolution And in his Fourth Book against Marcion cap. 5. Ordo tamen Episcoporum ad Originem recensus in Joannem stabit auctorem says that St. John is the Author of the Order of Bishops a Polity and Dispensation all along another thing from that of the Empire flowing from another fountain quite differing from and no ways depending upon it And 't is Tertullian's Argument in his Book De coronâ Militis that a Christian Souldier who fights in the Emperor's Camp and gives him his just Allegiance ought rather to lay down his Arms than wear a Laurel Crown on his Head though a mark of Favour from his Prince because relating too much to a religious Custom among the Ethnicks and he is no where commanded it in Scripture nor is it traditionally delivered to him by the Apostles or Bishops or Governors of the Church either in Precept or in Practice Quomodo enim usurpari quid possit si traditum prius non est quis denique Patriarches quis Prophetes aut Sacerdos aut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis vel denique Apostolus aut Evangelizator aut Episcopus invenitur Coronatus Cap. 9. where though it was his mistake in accounting such a thing Matter of Religion as the wearing a Crown of Laurels upon the Commands of his Prince This is a different thing from that command of Licinius the Tyrant enjoyning all that would remain in his Camp to Sacrifice to Idols as in Eusebius his Church History Lib. 10. cap. 8. and which rather than do Christians ought not only to leave the Camp but lay down their Lives yet upon the mistake and supposure it is plain that he remov'd from the Secular Power all Matters of Religion such was to be received from Christ alone
foresight for that very purpose of all even Contingencies and much more of what was to come to pass in the future Ages of the Church and as the thing it self was so predivulg'd that Kings and Queens should be Nursing Fathers and Mothers to the Church and this seems reasonable and requisite to be done were it only to satisfie mens Minds in the revolution especially since all Revelations ended in their Persons and 't is only for such to believe and assent to after-translations and new appearances in the Affairs of Religion and not upon such notices aforehand as expect and depend upon new Discoveries and Periodical Illuminations whimsical and Enthusiastical Persons WHEN God was to constitute the Jewish § X Body engaged and stipulating according to the Law of Moses the present State and Necessities as well as other Occurrences foreseen hindring the perfection and full accomplishment of his designed Platform for some time the Wisdom and Mercy and Providence of God which is always present with himself and his own People and accompanies his designs foretold and declared what they were to expect in the particular instances the present narrower state of things and future ill humors of Men prohibiting the one and accidentally occasioning the other As when the Model and Shape of their Government was to be changed into that of Kings or a translation of Power from Person to Person as is the pretended case here it was declared long before by Moses Deut. 17.14 as when the Worship was to be transferr'd at first of necessity elsewhere as is again also here pretended that Church-Power was for a time in the Clergy to the place that God should choose to the Temple at that time not built Men are generally in love with old ways and call that old they have time out of mind been accustomed to Innovations are not relish'd without plain and a great Autority nothing but Prophecy or present notorious Miracles or a great assurance from those whom a known outward evidence makes appear and most manifest that 't was delivered down from Persons so assisted by God and as God's Wisdom and Goodness is always the same so neither certainly had his Mercy and Providence been shorter to this his Body of Christians than 't was to that of the Jews in the like case had there been any like it among Christians as indeed there was none the Government of the Church which is here in this Discourse asserted remaining one and the same and in the same succession of Persons when the Powers of the Earth were Christian as before when they were Heathen and the good Providence of God so ordered it that Constantine the Emperor's becoming Christian and his Succession the Church and Church-men received only new Courage and Strength the greatest additional advantages in such their Charges and Offices by the Imperial Countenance and Protection with all manner of supplies and abundance as to Places Utensils Revenues and Immunities Stately Churches being immediately erected with the greatest magnificence and elegancy of Structure the Furniture as rich and Endowments as large with a like Privilege as to Persons and Things Investitures every ways answerable and all assistance conferr'd and Provision for the time to come by setled Laws and most wholesome Constitutions to preserve and continue what was thus done and granted Serviant Reges terrae Christo etiam leges ferendo pro Christo as St. Augustine speaks in his 48 Epistle The Kings of the Earth serve the Church in making Laws to defend her and which Saying was occasioned by St. Augustine and more to that purpose in that Epistle by reason of the severer Imperial Laws and Penalties made against and inflicted upon that spawn of the Donatists those unruly Circumcellians who broke out into all manner of Outrages and Violence and though the Church had not long enjoyed this Peace but what is the woful effect of Ease and Plenty Divisions and Breaches arose and grew wide within her self carried on to great Ruptures and much was innovated and taught amiss in other Points yet as to this particular the Subject of Church-Power it was never questioned fell not under debate much less was it wrested out of the hands of Church-men did any one Emperor if not withal known Heretical either usurp it to himself or alienate it from the Bishops but all along acknowledge and confirm it to them and this will be as clear from the Aera or Date of their turning Christians as it has appear'd to have been from the first entrance of Christianity till then and that if we continue our Method and look into those times as we have done into the foregoing Ages THERE was no Man of the Age more § XI tenderly Conscientious in professing and paying his Obedience to the Emperor than was the holy Athanasius how solicitously and anxiously did he Vindicate himself when accused as an Enemy and Traducer of him when by his cruel and most malicious Adversaries which were many represented as Rebellious and Disobedient This will appear sufficiently from all such as have imployed their Pens in giving to the World an account of those Transactions by the Arians and Meletians managed and improv'd against him and which were numerous and particularly from his own Apology to Constantius of which he that will take a taste let him read the beginning of it only if he thinks much of his labour to go through with it he acknowledges the Power of the Empire in Religious things in assigning the Feasts of Dedication and their times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he acknowledges his Power over his Person and asks his Diploma or Letters of leave for the exercise of his Episcopal Function in his own Church of Alexandria and for the Convention of Synods Ibid. p. 682. 754. 761. Ed. Paris he asks the Emperor's Grant concerning the Publick Service and Churches in Alexandria as we have out of Sozomen Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 20. but yet he puts a difference betwixt the Work of a Synod and that of the Empire and blames those that confound them or rather refer all to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 730. he refuses to receive Arius into Communion upon his Heretical Terms and Principles though the Emperor do Command him though he threaten him if he do not and for refusing he causes him to be deposed by a Synod held at Tyre for that very purpose and of his own Convention and afterwards banish'd him and which he submits to but not to deliver up the Rights of the Church of God as Socrates tells us in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. cap. 27 28.32.35 and he is so bold with Constantius as to six the mark of Antichrist upon him when he undertakes the Protection of a wicked Religion dissolving the received Orders of Christ and his Apostles creates of his own head new Constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Athanasius Ep. ad Solit. Vit. agentes p. 845. 860. and reproves the Emperor
farther that he pretends to have the judicial Determination of Bishops but really manages and does all himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. and evidently again distinguishes between the work of a Bishop and the work of an Emperor he goes on and is more daring and positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any such thing was heard of from the beginning of the World that the Judgment and Decision of the Church had its Autority and Measures from the Empire or was ever any such Determination known at all many Church Decisions have been made but never did the Presbyters perswade the Emperor to any such thing neither did the Prince intermeddle with the things of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And all this is recorded by Athanasius of the Divine and most Excellent Hosius in that his Epistle Ad Solitarium c. Pag. 840 repeating there Hosius his Epistle to 〈◊〉 on the same occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who drew up the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that was heard and submitted to by all his own words are these to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not interpose thy self nor meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs nor do you Command in these things but rather learn them of Vs to Thee God hath committed the Empire to Vs he hath deputed what is the Churches and as he that undermines the Government opposes the Ordinance of God so do thou take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest forcing to thy self the things which are of the Church you become liable to as great a guilt for it is written give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods It is neither lawful for us to have the Government upon Earth nor hast thou the Power of Holy things O King St. Jerome speaks of the evil Bishops only the Character is upon them De Ecclesiae Principibus qui non dignè regunt oves Domini as of Princes in the Church with Power of Jurisdiction in themselves in his Comments on Jeremiah cap. 23. Sacerdos est Caput the Priest is the Head an Original devolving upon others Comment in 1 Cor. 12. and upon Romans 13. Apostolus in his quae recta sunt judicibus obediendum non in illis quae Religioni contraria sunt the things of Religion are not to be subjected to Kings nor any in Autority under them And to this purpose he says again in Isai 1. Apostolos à Christo constitutos Principes Ecclesiarum the Apostles were constituted by Christ Princes of the Churches And the same is said in his Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians and particularly on Psal 44. Fuere O Ecclesia Apostoli Patres tui quia ipsi te genuere c. The Apostles O Church were thy Fathers that begot thee now because they are gone out of the World you have in their room Bishops Sons which are created of thee and those are thy Fathers by whom thou art governed The Gospel being spread in all Parts of the World in which Princes of the Church i. e. Bishops are constituted This Holy Father assigning all Church-Power to and in it self and if it be suspected whether these Comments on the Psalms be St. Jerome's own I have yet here repeated this passage out of them as most fully appearing his sense to whoso pleases to consult his Works especially his Commentary St. Augustine's Opinion we have already in part spoke of and he that will undertake an Enquiry will find him all along of the same Opinion I 'le only instance in the differences occasion'd by the Donatists and what Power the Empire assum'd to it self in those great and many Controversies and their Decisions related by him which he tells us is only to make outward Laws in defence of what appears to be Truth and says he it falls out sometimes Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore contra veritatem leges ferunt that they make Laws against Truth themselves being in Error and good Men are only prov'd thereby as evil Men by their good Laws are amended Tom. 7. l. 3. Cont. Crescon Gramat cap. 51. they command that which is Good and forbid that which is Evil Non solum quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem verùm etiam ad divinam Religionem in things which belong not only to Humane Society but to Divine Religion he has Power to enquire into debates and to provide for Truth and Peaco by the Bishops to assign the Persons Time and Place Vt superstitionem manifesta ratio confutaret that Reason may gain upon Superstition and Truth be made manifest Collat. 1. diei 3. cum Donatist Nor was Cecilianus purg'd and set free but by Judiciis Ecclesiasticis Imperialibus by the Ecclesiastical as by the Imperial Judgment and Determinations Ibid. nor will it appear that the Powers of the Empire have concern'd themselves any farther in those quarrels than by abetting or discouraging by outward Laws and Punishments what was represented as Truth unto them and which the Church alone hath not Power to do either to award at first or after mitigate but by Prayers and Arguments and therefore the Civil Laws and Indulgences have been sometimes severer and sometimes too indulgent as Accidents or Truth over-ruled as is to be seen in his Third and Fourth Books ad Cresconium and when these Laws went too hard upon these Donatists and pinched their Faction too sorely then they cried out of Persecution denied the Empire this Power in Divine things and that they were to stand at no humane Judicature as is the way of all such Factions when themselves only persecute and invade and whose Insolencies and Rapines are at large told us by St. Austin in his Forty eighth Epistle and by Optatus in his Treatise against Parmenius the Donatist Hence that of Donatus lib. 3. ibid. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church whom Optatus there sharply upbraids as well as reproves for it tells Donatus of his Pride and unheard of insolency in so doing in lifting up himself above him who is second to God alone Cum supra Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus who sits as God in all forensick outward Judicatures and no man can withstand him but Church-Power is still supposed a quite differing thing I mean that which our Saviour left immediately to his Church it falls not under this head of things 't is derived in another stream as the design of his whole Book declares nor is Optatus for this or any other like Expression to be thought to refer all Church-Power into the Empire than those other Fathers did using much the same Expressions and which is above observed and he in particular returns the rise and devolution of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter by whose Successors it was then in Siricius the Bishop in his days in his Second Book against Parmenius and so St.
Austin has done on the same occasion in his Hundred and sixty fifth Epistle and the breach of this Succession is the Charge and Crime of Schism they both object against the Donatists as guilty of a Church as well as a State-transgression and both on several accounts as two distinct Impieties are they proceeded against I 'le give but one instance out of St. Chrysostom and 't is so full there needs no more of those many others are producible 't is in his 86th Homily on St. John where he says Christ did invest his Apostles with Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a King sends forth his Praefects and Governors with a Power immediately from himself to imprison and release to bind and to loose to execute of themselves all Power and Jurisdiction so receiv'd and belonging to the Deputation And what was the Judgment of St. Ambrose the particular case alone betwixt him and the Emperor Theodosius makes abundantly appear occasioned by that cruel Massacre committed in Thessalonica by his at least connivance the Holy Bishop remov'd him from the Prayers and Altar durst not Communicate with him in those Holy Duties whose hands were so full of Blood not that St. Ambrose could impose these things by force and that his Person be so absented by any thing like a Coercive Power or did design or pretend to it and that Penance which he laid upon him and the Emperor accepted of upon his Re-entrance was it suited to his Imperial Power no ways abating of or detracting from his Majesty and Soveraignty it was to enact a Law that no Penal Decree or Edict that comes forth be executed till Thirty days after its first Sanction to avoid the fury of such Proceedings for the future No St. Ambrose upon the either Plea or Execution of this Power does not attempt his either Purple or Scepter to Depose him from his Crown or Absolve his Subjects of their Allegiance he only executes upon him his Pastoral Charge and which is in order to the World to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as he reverenced his Kingly Power so did he take care also not to transgress the Law of his God had the Emperor been less a Christian and return'd upon him with violence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could receive the stroke with Pleasure he did discharge his Duty as a Bishop and he was secure within he only lets the Emperor know that his Purple makes him a Prince not a Priest that it doth not exempt him from the Laws and Discipline of God's Church and for this he appeals to his own Education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nourish'd up in the Divine Oracles and in which it was clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was the Priests and what the Princes peculiar Office and which were there notoriously distinguish'd all this was no Pragmatick newly started particular extravagant attempt in St. Ambrose but a commonly receiv'd and owned Right and Truth what the whole Age had been taught and bred up in And Theodosius in particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knew it by his Education and which caused his displeasure to some who were willing to abate of their Church Right whether out of Court-flattery or for what other Reason for which on the contrary he so highly valued and honoured St. Ambrose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who alone was worthy of the Name of a Bishop all which with more is to be read in our Church Histories particularly those of Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 25. and Theodoret lib. 5. cap. 18. and that which gave St. Ambrose a particular advantage in the asserting and execution of such his Power was that he had the Autority of Valentinian on his side for that good Emperor had own'd all this before and he Sang this Hymn at his Consecration St. Ambrose being then a lay Governor of that Province deputed to it by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave thanks to God and Christ that as he had committed the Power of Mens Bodies to him in that Province so from them he had now the Power of Souls by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there mentioned his Episcopal Character then conferr'd upon him Theodorit Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 7. § XII And he that begins again where we left off in Eusebius and goes along our first Church History to Constantine downward will find all along the same Church-Power continued and asserted and expressed in the same words too as is that of the Empire Nor can any man any more doubt that there was Ecclesiastical Power seated in some measure in every Order of the Church but primarily and chiefly in the Bishop then that there was a Civil Power placed by God first of all in the Empire and from him derived to his Praefects and inferiour Magistrates and Damasus Bishop of Rome had as real a Power in his Diocese and which can no more be questioned upon the score of those publick Records than that Valentinianus his Contemporary had a real Autority in the Empire of the World the Bishop is still represented in his Chair as the Emperor is upon his Throne or can be by words declared they are still called and acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 10. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Vita Constantini lib. 2. c. 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Presbyteris suis l. 3. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Eustathio dicitur quòd Concilium Niceae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nimirum Antiochiae cum eodem tempore Capite dicit quod Constantinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen l. 1. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacerdotes Vocat lib. 2. cap. 12. and he gives this account why the Bishops are Buried at Constantinople with the Emperors in the Church which is call'd The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Episcopis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Imperatore lib. 6. c. 4. Philip who held a Praefecture or some kind of Government under the Empire is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Constantinople and which implies his Mission and Deputation from and under the Emperor But this word is never applied to the Bishops or any one of them who are no Deputies of his receive nothing like a Commission nor have any derived Power from him they are not the King's Ministers or Vicegerents as are those in Temporals and they owe their Autority alone to Christ Jesus Cap. 9. And so again lib. 4. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when mentioning the Officers of the Crown under Deputation and all along in the History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romae Sylvester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiochiae Vitalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post illum Phlagonius Theodorit lib. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constantinopoleos
ubi etiam ipsos praedictum est non fuisse credituros The Jew carries with him the Bible into what Nation he is dispersed and Christ and his own belief so plainly there foretold never want a Testimony thereby of his own asserting the one and upbraiding the other And on these Grounds it is we may probably Collect that this Association of the Jews in a voluntary Discipline occasioned by reason of such their Captivity and which a rigider Necessity brought them to being depriv'd of their proper Government and depending on themselves alone was an early instance of the like imbodying and Jurisdiction in the succeeding Church of Christ a Prelibation of that his Kingdom not long after to come down from Heaven and such its abstracted independent Polity is therein anticipated WHEN Mr. Selden goes on and tells us § VII That the Government of the Church was Caesarean only because it was imbodied in the State at least indulg'd by the Empire this has as little of Argument as any one could wish unless he had prov'd the Church had had no other bottom to stand upon that to Institute and Protect were all one and that it could not be from Christ and from Caesar in different respects the contrary to which has been made to appear all along in this Discourse and the Churches in Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch Caesarea Rome might all be and were of an Antecedent Institution though the Owning and Protection from the Empire was much to their advantage or why should this be concluded against the Christians and not against the Jews who are supposed to have instituted their own Discipline under the Captivity before Judea was reduced to a Province and they professed Subjection to the Empire and all along retain'd it and all other Rites or at least so many of them as their conquer'd Condition did render them capable of Practising as immediately from God and independent to the State nor will any one venture to assert otherwise The Law was given by the Mediation of Angels indeed but Princes were not so much as instrumental in it and after its first giving even to the days of St. Paul both the Law and the Temple and Caesar were distinct Powers created different Obligations and he Pleads for himself as injurious to neither of them in the Acts of the Apostles and the Deputy Gallio there had failed much of his Duty when caring for none of these things had the Matters of their Religion resolv'd it self immediately into Caesar especially since Mr. Selden contends that all the Priviledges the Christians enjoy'd as to their Religion they had as Jews going under their Names and as such reputed Nor could the Empire upon this his Supposition assume any Power as to their Religion he did not over the Jewish And to make good this his Precarious and impertinent Presumption That for some years after our Saviour's Ascension the Jews and Christians went under the Name of Jews and were reputed as one he is more precarious yet and goes on in his Arbitrary way and tells us That no Gentiles during that time were admitted Disciples to Christ but such as were before Proselytes either of the Gates or of Justice or first Circumcised all which if true is nothing to his designed end for the Christians might shelter themselves under that Name to partake of by that means the Priviledges and Immunities the Empire bestow'd upon the Jews and retain their distinct Rites and Character their own particular Sentiments as other Sects did Multis in locis Judeos Christum sequentes in Synagogas admissos fuisse credam dummodo ritus servarem Judaicos Grotius Appendix ad Comment de Antichristo That in many places the Jews which followed Christ were admitted into the Synagogue it may be believed especially if we consider that the Jewish Rites were observed for some time together with the Christian at least not publickly absented from and declar'd against So St. Paul had his Vow and Paid it in the Temple upon a Private Consideration and future design so he caused Timothy to be Circumcised But though the Empire might consider them no farther then as Men of another Profession as to Religion in general from it self and so grant one Toleration for them all and the Christians upon particular occasions might intermix with the Jews yet that they were visible and distinguishable as distinct Bodies and different Associations the Case of St. Paul makes manifest when Purifying himself in the Temple how the Jews which were of Asia soon discovered him and ran tumultuously upon him and drew him out of it And that those Greeks then with St. Paul were no Proselytes at all either of the Gates or of Justice though Christians as Mr. Selden supposes all Christians were is more than likely Acts 21. and the whole Book of these Acts of the Apostles renders notorious whence otherwise all those other Persecutions from the Hebrews and that their Women so raved and blasphemed when the Gentiles were received as equal sharers in the Mercies of God with themselves if all were Proselytes before and no more was now pretended to The Christians did not suffer more afterwards by the Heathen Powers than they did thus early by the unbelieving Jews so far as they were able which certainly is no mark of being of the same Body and using the same Synagogue and Service the Jews in general and the Christians were so far from thus associating in one Body and appearing every ways the same however upon particular occasions some of them might that the Believing Jews and the Gentile Christians still made a Separation for a good pretty while after our Saviour's Ascension how wide the rent and great the distance was we read in the Epistle to the Galatians even to a with-drawing and Separation And the Church Story is evident they had their distinct Bishops and Congregations in the same City as St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome and so continued till after the Siege at Jerusalem when the Christians departed to Aelia as Grotius tells us in his Annotations on the Eleventh Chapter and Third Verse of the Revelations BUT these at the most are but trifling § VIII Discourses and altogether Foreign to the point in hand nor could Mr. Selden design them any otherwise than as a Gild and Varnish to his main Body and ill managed Discourse preceding That which is his fundamental Error the bottom of his whole design and which all his Complices begin with and manage together with himself is this That there can be no Government which is not of this World but what is by the Powers Managery Methods and Instruments Courses outward Compulsions and Penalties of it each of whose Forces and Ligaments must operate by the outward Organs sensibly and in a visible manner In this Supposal is his whole Discourse laid as we have already from himself stated it in the latter end of the Third Chapter in some instances shew'd the weakness of the Plea
Church of Christ all Christian Bishops by whomsoever Consecrated and his Arm is to rule them whosesoever's Hands were laid upon them and this solitary and by himself nor is any one a sharer with or out of subjection to him To which I shall reply that though the distinction in it self will with very much difficulty be admitted of and the ordaining and governing Parts will be very rarely found asunder Nor do I believe there can be an instance given of but one Bishop who at his Consecration had the Power of governing left out of the Office in which that other of Ordination together with this were not design'd at once and transmitted though the Objects have many times been changed either enlarged or limited as they have been both suspended altogether yet allowing the distinction it may possibly do Estius this present Kindness lookt upon as a Disputant and oppressed with an Argument giving him the opportunity of something like an Answer and with some shew he may escape that severity of words and blacker censure he there acknowledges to be passed by St. Gregory in several Occasional Epistles against whomsoever it is shall style himself Universal Bishop or Bishop of all Bishops That the very Name is Prophane Proud Sacrilegious Diabolical a Name of Blasphemy and the forerunner of Antichrist and all this Estius there tells us was occasion'd from this Holy Father by reason of the Patriarch of Constantinople's Ambition in that Nature declaring that as the Emperor did alone hold the Empire and all Inferior Governors were sent by him and held of him the Head and not to do it was Usurpation and Treason so did he alone hold the Episcopacy and all Holy Orders were to descend and flow from him and to receive them and not from him was to climb up the wrong way and by intrusion come in But then what more right he has on his side or better Autority than Bellarmine has on his or how he can prove a solitary peculiar Care and Government demandated to and in its special Constitution settled on St. Peter and by his Succession at Reme or which way soever else it was over the Universal Church or whole Gospel-Priesthood so as to constitute him and them its immutable perpetual Head to Govern though not to Ordain them and which was not in the rest of the Apostles Persons to be sure not in their Succession this does not readily appear the Scriptures are favourers of both alike and indeed give to neither any bottom at all Nor does any such thing appear in the best Antiquity or succeeding Matter of Fact in his behalf no ill Argument of ever a Divine Right were it on their side § XXV THE first instance we have from the Ancients of this Pretended Power is in Victor Bishop of Rome in the year One Hundred ninety four who threatned Excommunication against the Asiaticks because they complied not with him in the Observation of Easter The Succession of the Bishops of Rome is all along delivered down in Church-History from the beginning to this day each Bishop particularized under the Title of Romanae Vrbis Episcopus Antistes c. there 's no one note of Singularity affixed unto him and this is the first time we meet with any thing like a Superiority there practised and at the most he is but ranked with the other Metropolitans Now whether this was attempted by Victor purely out of Zeal for an Apostolical Custom and we have many examples of Eminent Bishops that have intermeddled without their own Districts or whether as supposing himself really invested with a Power for Inspection and Animadversion upon all other Christian Bishops certain it is this his Power was disown'd and rejected by an eminent Branch of the Church Catholick and as eminent Bishops as any She had the Autority and Practice of St. John is set up and Pleaded against that of St. Peter as what every way balances nor doth it any way submit unto it And Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France and none of the Quartodecimane but one who comply'd with Victor in the Observation of Easter yet asserts the Asiaticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Self-Autority nor is any Foreign Power to over-rule and controle them or the Peace of the Church to be broken on such occasions all which is to be seen in Eusebius Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 23 24. and if we descend some time lower we shall not find any thing really more advantageous to him Constantine the Great Complements indeed Eusebius of Caesarea and tells him he is worthy of the Episcopale or Government of the whole Church De Vita Constant apud Euseb l. 9. c. 6. but that such an extent of Power was then in the Person of any one Bishop is no where said nor is there any probability to suppose it 'T is true that some Privileges have belong'd to the Bishop of Rome and which have been claimed as their due in good times Julius is very angry with the Clergy of Antioch that they did not call him to a Synod and urges it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law of the Church that whatsoever is done without the Bishop of Rome is to be void Sozom. Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 10. and in an Epistle of his to some whom he accuses of Contention and want of Charity not consulting the Peace of the Church in the cause of Athanasius he farther adds Are you ignorant that this is the Custom that we are first to be wrote to that what is just may hence be defined Inter. Athanas Opera Tom. 1. Ed. Paris Pag. 753. But then whatever this Privilege was that it did not arise from any Connatural Right to his See but Ecclesiastical Canon is most plain out of Socrates his Church History l. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and he may not have so much for what Vallesius in his Annotations there can produce for it Which is the alone Autority of Ferrandus that is Christian Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen an Historian that concerns himself as little with Christianity and Church Affairs as any one can be supposed to have done that attempted an History of the Times in which so much of the Church concerns its Power and Autority was Transacted as in the days of Constantius and Julian and whose times make up the best part of his Story The latter he studiously affects to represent to the World with what advantages he can both living and dying And for the Christian Religion he does not I am confident so much as name it Twenty times in all his Books and then accidentally and very slightly and the greatest advantage that he gives us is we have his Testimony that such a Sect call'd Christians was then in the World and for that particular passage quoted by Vallesius it makes if any thing against himself for he tells us That when Constantius the Emperor who is known to be Athanasius his great and mortal Enemy and mov'd every
as absolutely Autorative in it self and infallible in its Determinations as to make Truth but declarative only of what was Truth from the beginning as the best expedient on Earth to find it out and the alone Autority on Earth to pass Sanctions upon present appearance for present Settlement Peace and Unity every man had his liberty still entire and reserved for farther enquiries where he saw or suspected occasions but this to be proposed in the next Council 't was to be brought to the Apostles and Elders there whose Autority alone was to reject or admit it As to Publick Confessions what room and autority the Empire had and is always to have in these Councils is already declared Cap. 2. and though the Faithful or Believers at large many times had conflux thither and were permitted either for their diversion or private satisfaction or information yet no one ever passed his Vote judicially or concurred in the Power Legislative as has been above also shew'd ibid. This still goes in the Name and Power of the Bishops and Clergy alone as must appear to every one from the both first derivation of that Power and after-practice both in that Apostolical first Synod at Jerusalem and all other succeeding excepting such who on purpose set their Face against what with their Eyes they never did and will not see § XXXI A fourth instance of this especial appropriated Power is the exercise of Discipline Ecclesiastical and this either in fixing set Stations particular rules and orders of Duty and Performances upon such as were newly brought off from Heathenism become Penitents and Converts in order to the Kingdom of Heaven and Christianity or else in laying Punishments Penal Duties upon those who after their admission and undertaking Christianity when they had throughly known the ways of Righteousness been enlightned and tasted the good gift of God revolt and turn back again will not abide the terms of it by way of Penance and Satisfaction and this sometimes by corporal Punishments with a Power reserved for Indulgencies and Abatements a relaxation upon proficiency or non-proficiency under them placed in the power and discretion of the Bishop or Pastor for the best Antiquity is not at all shye in these terms and expressions she spake as she acted Thus in the Catholique Epistle of St. Barnabas set out by Isaac Vossius Sect. 1. ad finem Epistolae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he work with his hands to the purging away his Sins So Lactantius l. 6. Sect. ult Si quid mali fecerit satisfaciat that satisfaction be given for his evil St. Cyprian Ep. 50. gives an account of the Epistle he had received from Fidus his Brother who tells him how Therapius his Colleague did reconcile to the Church over-hastily Victor a certain Presbyter Antequam penitentiam plenam egisset domino Deo in quem deliquerat satisfecisset before he had completed his Repentance and satisfied God against whom he had sinned and for which St. Cyprian admonisheth his Friend that he do so no more ibid. And again Ep. 64. Satisfaction is what is required upon a sense of having sinned ut se peccasse potius intelligant satisfaciant to give all the instances were to spend too much Paper what is here brought may suffice or he that desires more may have it from the learned Hugo Grotius Rivetian Apol. Discuss Pag. 700. ed. Lond and all this placed in such as have the Keys of the Church whence they are to receive satisfactionis suae modum the measures of their Penance and Satisfaction as he there cites St. Austin no man was admitted into the Church of Christ but by degrees but as through so many Posts and Stations through which they were to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is Can. 4. 6. 9. Conc. Ancyr and then to go on to that which is more perfect to be admitted to the Holy Communion the top instance of Devotion and Communion or be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an oblation as 't is expressed Can. 7 8. ibid. for by the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that holy Sacrament was by the Ancients still expressed Thus we read in the Church Story and Practice as remembred and referr'd unto but as not then instituted being antecedent and of more antiquity of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hearers only in the Church a set order of Penitents permitted only to hear the Word of God with the Hymns and Songs and Praises placed without the Temple and these were the lowermost form in order to something else to farther Duties as thus instructed and fitted for them and such as staid here and would only hear engage and incorporate no farther neither come to the Prayers nor the Holy Sacrament in the set Order and assigned Times for it were reputed as if they had not been initiated at all the Council of Antioch turns them quite out of the Church Can. 2. and by which rule what will become of the greatest part of our now adays professing Christians let them look to it or perhaps let such as preside over them have the government and power of Discipline in their hands Then we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as advanced to the publick Prayers next the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that came to the Sacraments See Can. 11. Conc. Nic. 1. together with the Scholia's of Zonaras and Balsamon and Can. 14. we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who it seems were those that were Auditors and more were Baptized as by the Scholia there appears and the same we find before this Council of Nicea Conc. Ancyr Can. 4 5 6. and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Demoniacks who had their distinct station Can. 17. Cum scholiis And these courses of Discipline we have alluded to in several places of Tertullian and therefore were extant in the Church very early Tertullian being sometime before any of these now mentioned Councils but most fully and at once of any that I have observed in them in his Book of Prescriptions Cap. 41. and which I shall therefore here repeat where he reproves and prestringes such those Hereticks he writes against for the perverting violating such this received customary Discipline Non omittaÌ„ ipsius etiam conversationis hereticae descriptioneÌ„ quam futilis quam terrena quam humana sit sine gravitate sine autoritate sine disciplina ut fidei suae congruenâ— imprimâ—s quis catecumenus quis fidelis incertum sit pariter adeunt pariter audiunt pariter orant etiam ethnici si supervenerint sanctum canibus porcis Margaritas licet non veras jaclabunt simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem disciplinae cujus penes nos curam lenocinium vocant pacem quoque passim cum omnibus miscent nihil enim interest illis licet diversa tractantibus dum ad unius veritatis expugnationem conspirent omnes tument omnes seditionem pollicentur ante sunt perfecti
rather to be hazarded then to comply with and imbody into us any thing that is sinful even to gain a Protection for other instances of Virtue and Duty yet nothing but that which strikes at Religion it self will ingage or be a Warrant to proceed in this extreme utmost way upon him whose alone is the outward Coercive Power and who can weild his Sword at pleasure deny the Church that support countenance and assistance which our Saviour designed Religion should outwardly flourish under be in some respects propagated and preserved by become more notoriously visibâ—e and conspicuous to all Nations And what is said of Excommunication and other Church censures is to be said of Absolution which though a Power enstated alone in the Priesthood by Christ yet is not to be executed in an Arbitrary way and that not only as to the Laws of Christ but the Laws of Kingdoms also in many cases especially where Christian I 'le end this Section and Head of Discourse in the words of our Learned Dr. Hammond in his Book of the Power of the Keys Cap. 1. Sect. 1. The Power of binding and loosing is only an Engine of Christ's invention to make a Battery or impression upon the obdurate Sinner to win him to himself to bless not triumph over him it invades no part of the Civil Judicature nor looses the bonds thereof by these Spiritual Pretences but leaves the Government of the World just in the posture it was before Christ's coming or as it would be supposed to be if he had never left any Keys in his Church § XLV THAT the Church as a Body and Corporation of it self judiciarily determines in Council and lays obligations to Obedience infringes and inrodes no more than her other acts now mentioned if it be declarative of matter of Faith or Duty indispensably as received originally from Christ by Church conveyance the Determination is no more than the first Teaching and Promulgation of it was if it be constitutive of Laws and Canons for setling and enjoyning of Discipline the matter in it self indifferent but limited for present use and service and of which and to which purpose all Humane Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil are made and tend these Church Canons are as in the make and obligation so in the Practice and execution to retain that just regard to known Duties especially those of Allegiance that such the other Church acts and censures do and as already shewed 'T is true the great transcendent regard and reverence the Empire when Christian has had for the institution as from our Saviour for Religion it self in whose defence the Canons were made and for the high Dignity and Office of the Bishops his Commissioners that it still has made antecedent Canons the Rule of all Laws enacted if relating to or but bordering upon affairs Ecclesiastical as instances are already produced quas leges nostrae sequi non dedignantur Novel 83. and to command contra venerabilem Ecclesiam against the venerable Church Nullius est nisi Tyrannidis cujus actus omnes rescinduntur is reputed as the Act of a Tyrant and such Acts are null'd Cod. Justin l. 1. Tit. 2.16 nay farther Canones ubi agitur de re Ecclesiastica jure civili sunt preferendi and if the Canon and Civil Laws those of the Church and the State have happened to be different and in competition in any Ecclesiastical case the Canons have took place and obliged as in that Code and Title Sect. 6. and their general care and industry was mostly for these as the Determinations more immediately for the good of their Souls Novel 137. but this was from the greater Indulgence and Grace of the Christian Emperors and in particular cases and it cannot be supposed that the Church should designedly set up her Bishops and Laws above or in opposition to that Government which the frame of their Religion includes in Subordination to and by Protection of which it was to be propagated and preserv'd but of this we shall have occasion anon to consider farther And if it be reply'd that a Council cannot be convened or meet at all without the Prince's Grant at least his Letters of leave and how then can they have any Autority independent or should they otherwise assemble they are reputed Seditious Disturbers of the Peace and of Majesty and punishable as is the Law imperial 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 1. l. 3. To this I answer neither can they nor ought they nor did ever any Christian Council otherwise unite in their Persons then by the Grant and Letters Imperial and that censure was just if any did otherwise attempt it But then it is farther to be consider'd that the form essence and force of a Council that which gives a right for Sanctions and invests with Autority Ecclesiastical is not their local personal meeting as in one place there convocated and sitting but a joynt-enquiry and resolution as to the Truth 's debated and concurrency as one man in the Laws enacted upon the true Motives and Reasons of Faith and the Gospel as by Tradition transmitted or in Discipline for Government and Peace useful and which may be done by the Bishops and Clergy dissite and in diverse Countries by their Letters Missive and Communicatory those Literae signatae or systaticae or circular Epistles to one another and which has been done under diverse Circumstances and when the state of the Church was so low and its Capacities not enabling her to do it otherwise as is plain from Church Story and Practice and that this was the course of the Church's 't is more than probable when that debate arose about the keeping of Easter an account of whose Epistles we have appearing to this purpose given us by Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 23. AND lastly that this Church Power is derived § XLVI only from the Church and her Bishops to others in the Succession exclusive to Kings and the Clergy are not in this sense his Ministers he ordains and substitutes them not carries nothing of opposition in the action it self nor any thing in the design than what the Incorporation and Offices themselves imply and which has been hitherto rendred altogether innocent The Leviathan scruples not to say That they all derive their Offices and Power only from the Prince and are but his Ministers in the same manner as Magistrates in Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders in Armies are and his account why they must be so is because the Government could not be secure upon other terms If the Soveraignity in the Pastor over himself and his People be allow'd of it deprives the Magistrate of the Civil Power and his Peoples dependency would be on such their Doctors both in respect of the opinion they have of their Duty to them and the fear they have of Punishment in another World Part 3. Cap. 42. but this mistake of his has been enough discovered all along in this Treatise and will be more
witted against the rules of all Policy that was ever heard of till now that the womanish part and such as are less able direct nay over-rule the more able and knowing and to pay our Obedience and Obligations hither to set up this sort of weakness as the rule their suggestions and demands for the Voice from Heaven is not with more seeming semblance to be compared to any thing in the World than to those most absurd Homages and Acknowledgments of the Heathens of old so ridicul'd and laugh'd at by the Primitive Apologists and first most holy Christian Writers which were made to Fevers and Agues to their slavish Fears and weaker Passions paying Sacrifices and Devotions to them who made Gods of Calamities and worshipped the vicissitudes and courses of evil Accidents adored the bad Genius Eumenides and the Furies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. the very Entrails and Ordure of the Beasts over-ruled in their Councils over-aw'd and over-bore them if defects be the rule then let the Monsters and Exorbitancies of Nature which have present Necessity enough to plead be the Patterns of the whole Creation let us take our Ideal knowledge of the Universe from its Wens and Excrescencies the contingencies and accidents of it and by the same rule we shall exclude God from its Government supersede his Providence as we do the Laws of the Church we may as well every one of us cut off our Legs and become Cripples in the Streets lay our selves in the High-ways and become Beggars as if the Sun in the Firmament was only then to be Copied as most beauteous and obliging when labouring and in an eclipse or the whole Earth in its due Posture when in a Paroxysm a Rupture and Consternation Surely these were not the infirmities St. Paul glorified in nor this that depressed dethroned condition of the Church of which the Ancient Fathers make so large Eulogies reckon up unto us so many advantages and though something has always been allow'd and abated upon such the like Exigent and unavoidable Necessity yet it was never on this manner carried on and improved to appear against and affront fixed and established Rules and Laws the particular Connivance or Exception did never cancel the rule but rather confirm and give new Obligations as the exception is said to strengthen in all cases and instances besides 't is the great end and design of Government to observe and animadvert where deficient to make stronger assist and enable where declining So was Job in the Land of Huz Eyes to the Blind Feet to the Lame enabling the Faculty and helping on in Duty and Obedience and this though to be the work of Prudence and Deliberation in applying the general Rule yet 't is the most deplorable condition when the rule comes quite over to the obliquity gives it self up to the defect its Guidance and Directions its Tyranny indeed and Depredations and which to prevent or redress to relieve and rescue from is its office On these terms no means are left for recovery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Disorder goes on to infinite all bounds and limits taken away 't is a running always down hill and the bottomless Pit is to be its last Post or Period perpetual horror desolation and confusion for ever more § XVII 2. THE Laws of Religion are those Laws of Christ and his Apostles instituted and ordained by them such are the two Sacraments generally necessary to Salvation Baptism and the Supper of the Lord such are the other Ordinances of the Gospel and the means of Grace as the Ministry in general with its appropriate distinct Powers and Offices all like those of the two Sacraments the general common ways and means to Salvation but all as Arbitrary in their Sanction and no ways reaching to an antecedent Right or Obligation and our Saviour might have appointed others or none had he so pleased He once made Eye-salve of his spittle and the clay in the Streets and other times cured with a word from his mouth so are they not absolutely and immutably necessary in the practice nor are the Rules and Laws of their positive after Institution such as indispensably to be practised under all Circumstances and Accidents and no other acceptance with God and access to Heaven the Christians of old banished to the Islands and the Mines as under the heathen Persecutions cannot be supposed always perhaps at any time in such their durance and slavery capable of it in any one instance much less in all and yet Afflictions are so far from being an hindrance in Religion that they are its greatest advantage or if these be not 't is because they are not duly made use of and improved And the Fathers of the Church still made use of this as their chief Topick or Common-place for Patience and Consolation to those poor Souls from the good and benefit came thereby unto them the greater devolution of help and assistance from the Heavens the greater reward and glory annexed Ambulatis in metallo captivo quidem corpore sed corde regnante praecessit disciplina sequetur venia Cyphr Ep. 8.77 haec pala illa quae nunc dominicam aream purgat à quo certamen edicitur nisi à quo corona et praemia proponuntur Ecclesia in attonito est tunc fides expeditior Tertul. lib. de fuga in persecut cap. 1. tota paradisi clavis tuus sanguis est speaking of the Martyrs lib. de anima cap. 55. and whom he places immediately in Heaven nearer to God himself excelsoque throno coruscans martyribus septus poem de ult judicio cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Smyrn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Rom. per dentes bestiarum molor ut mundus panis Dei inveniar as in that Epistle ad Rom. and which is cited by Ireneus lib. 5. c. 28. nor is the Church always secured against the like Obstructions in the best of her conditions and under the protection of those Governors that are Christian the usual contingencies of the World and which in course succeed so long as day and night succeed one another must make the intermission nor is the casualty to be avoided But then these do not intercept betwixt the Christian and his God no more than did the Mettals and the Thunder-claps the stake and the wild Beasts to those first Christians just now mentioned or should the case really be and which is so often feigned and not always to due purposes that Christians are alone in a Ship or cast on a desert Shoar where neither Bishop nor under Church-man and the Ordinances cannot as in the design of their institution be celebrated among them And surely then the commands of a Soveraign are to have some room in the like cases when in the due execution of that Power intrusted with him by God and a
good Christian who is also a good Subject is to abate of what Duties and Performances he in some instances immediately owes to Religion and his Saviour in obedience to those Secular injunctions to which if not engaged to submit the Government cannot subsist and be managed as in these particular instances did a pretence to or the actual present exercise in religious Worship exempt and disingage Every one is born a Subject owes a duty to his Prince and the Government as soon as he is indebted for his Being to his Maker and an after-dedication of my Person by holy Orders does not cancel that first dependency my Saviour himself hither all along had his regard and he laid his Religion in relation to it and when in the Pulpit or which is more at the Altar in the midst of my Office am I to give up my Person to that Civil Power by my Christianity supposed and by the same God placed over me The severer Rules and Laws of the Sabbath were to give place to the saving the life of a Man in the design of Moses as our Saviour expounds him to the Pharisees and much more for the support of Kingdoms and Communities and so in all other Instances of this sort of Holiness called Relative and which is good only from the institution and positive appointment and no greater more notorious Cheats than those in Ordine ad Deum that manage and abet Disobedience by a Charter from Religion 't is that very Corban in the Gospel so severely chastised by Christ the saying it is a gift and robbing my Father and Mother That absence from Divine Service or religious Worship which is in it self a sin upon a single instance of Charity for the advantage and relief of the neighbour-hood and then surely of a whole Community is a duty on this score Christians fight their Battels on the Lord's-day the very Ass is to be pulled out of the Pit and how the reasons and ends of Government for its better managâ—ry and conservation did stiil over-rule in the Christian Church in each of these like religious Performances in the best and most flourishing Times of it and the Empire when Christian gave Laws Directions and Limitations as to the Collectae and Publick Assemblies in Ordinations Excommunications Absolutions c. for the more orderly administration of the Civil Affairs is already shew'd in this discourse and yet the things themselves are immediately from Christ that power is not from the Prince which warrants and makes effectual the Institutions and Offices of each of them AND if it be replied that this seems § XV to come too near to what the design of this discourse is laid against or to be sure was the occasion of it If the Magistrate and the Law are to silence and limit in the exercise and profession of these higher Instances of Christianity what is this less than to submit my Religion to their pleasure To which I answer the case is not at all the same this is only adjusting of Duties in order to a due performance a suspension upon a higher reason and duty intervening and both which are equally Christian or at the most a but concealing some truths upon present reasons and motives and which every one allows may be done Should the Prince command me not to say my Prayers at all as he did Daniel to preach or speak no more in Christ's Name as the Sanedrim did the Apostles that Ordinations and Censures be no more Church both Officers and Offices cease for ever or which is the case in Mr. Dean's Sermon should a false Religion be commanded in their rooms and be made the Religion of the Nation this is the case in which I am to speak before Kings and not be ashamed when my life is in my hand as 't is the expression of holy David with a great many more to that purpose in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm then I am not only to exercise what is my duty as a private Christian but to make what open Proselytes I can to that Religion which I am sure is in the right to draw off all I can from that which is false and imposed by the Magistrate and Law This is that confession with the Mouth call'd for all along in the sacred Epistles Confession at Matyrdome that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Clemens Strom. l. 4. p. 503. an eminent way to gain Mercy for our sins and 't is call'd by the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § XI perfection as he there tells us pag. 480. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the highest act of Charity the greatest demonstration of love when expressed to Souls in the profession of a right and rescuing from a false Religion at so great a distance was it set from gross hypocrisie and which Mr. Dean demonstrates to be such in the next Paragraph of the Sermon I 'le go on so far with his Worship and Consent that where neither Miracles to justifie the extraordinary Commission as had the Apostles nor the providence of God makes way by the permission of the Magistrate the Proselytes are very like to be few and since the former is ceased altogether and never to be more expected the countenance and protection of the latter is what usual course and common Prudence directs to wait for upon any attempt for converting and reducing of Nations from a false Worship I find the Proposal and the Complaint recited and made both at once by our learned Doctor Hammond Serm. 10. in Joh. 7.48 Vol. 2. I 'le here use his own Words If we should plant Christianity in Turkey we must first invade and conquer them and then convince them of their Follies which about an hundred years ago Cleonard proposed to most Courts in Christendom and to that end himself studied Arabick that Princes would join their strength and Scholars their brains and all surprize them in their own Land and Language at once besiege the Turk and his Alcoran put him to the Sword and his Religion to the touch-stone first command him to Christianity with an high hand and then to shew him the reasonableness of the Command Thus also we may complain but not wonder that the reformation gets ground so slow in Christendom because the Forces and potent Abetters of Papacy secure them from being led captive to Christ as long as the Pope is invested so fast in his Chair and as long as the Rulers take part with him there shall be no doubt of the truth of their Religion unless it please God to back Arguments with steel and to raise up Kings and Emperors to be our Champions we may question but never confute his Supremacy Let us come with all the power and rhetorick of Paul and Barnabas all the demonstrations and reasons of the Spirit and yet as long as they have such Topicks against us as the autority of the Rulers and Pharisees we may dispute out our hearts and preach out our Lungs