are the Separate for the Ministry who are set apart by themselves and in Substitution and can produce their Seals and Credentials must first shew and give proof of their own Power derivative and that such was first given them of God deposited in their hands as the common Magazine or Store-house to be dispensed at their wills and discretion as the Harvest requires and the Labourers are sent forth into it and that for whom soever they shall lift up their hands or stretch them out to choose and make Election of shall receive the Holy Ghost the Powers of Sacred Orders or of the Keys in the same act be conferr'd upon them and which can never be prov'd that it was given to the People or Believers in common the gratia gratis data and the gratia gratum faciens the gifts of Sanctification and Edification as they speak as in their own Nature and Extent do not reach to and imply one another always place themselves together in one and the same Subject by any one Necessity whatsoever every man is not wise in the same degree that he is good nor Holy according to his Knowledge Power and Godliness do not still go together no more then do all those other Gifts and Charity mentioned and dislodged by Saint Paul 1 Cor. 12.13 the honest report of those seven Men full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom did not create them thereby and in the immediate Power and Virtue of it Church-Officers or Deacons till set before the Apostles and they pray'd and laid their hands on them Acts 6. and so in the Consecration of all other Orders So neither do we find under any one Dispensation since the World was that by any one positive superinduced Order and Constitution these Land-marks were removed that the separate Power of the Priesthood was ever laid common promiscuously and indefinitely placed in all Subjects in every one in particular all those that either owned its Use and Power that either pleaded or reaped any benefit by it Before the Law God placed it in and limited it to the Primogeniture the first-born and chief of the Family At the first giving and under the Law he brought it into lesser compass and subjected it in Aaron and his Family in Succession And our Saviour Jesus Christ ascending upon high and giving his Gifts unto Men when to plant and propagate his Church throughout the whole World he had rent indeed the Veyl of the Temple in sunder at his Death taken down the Partition-Wall betwixt Jew and Gentile the inclosure was laid open and the Aaronical Priesthood had an end but there was still to be Separates for the guiding and conducting Men to Heaven and officiating to that end before God a Priesthood was still to be continued though settled by a new Commission and of another Nature a Power devolved and limited to select special Persons also and not Universal as was to be the Believers And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the Faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Ephes 4.8 11 12 13 14 15 16. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers are all workers of miracles have all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret 1 Cor. 12.29 30. or could we admit of that absurder precarious state of Nature contended for by some supposing once an equality in all men and that to all things every one as coming into the world had a right and title to every thing a share and interest in each Benefit Office and Duty and suitably as their Maker was to be publickly served and worshipped so could each one officiate in and discharge the Performance or devolve and transfer his right on whom he please or as occasion a Mistake of the Learned Hugo Grotius himself in his Posthumous work De Imperio summarum potestatum in Sacris cap. 2. sect 4. though the fruit of his earlier and indigested Brain nor is Spalatensis to be acquitted in the point De Repub. Christ lib. 1. cap. 12. yet all this is superseded by an after-positive Institution and which is acknowledged by Grotius in the fore-quoted place and 't is the appointments of our Saviour that is to be our guide and rule especially since himself has put a perpetual Sanction in this our very case and to endure all along with his Kingdom as above Ephes 4. or if the obstinacy of some and such there are will still persist and tell it out That this inclosure was notwithstanding this yet made common and the Power resolved again into the Multitude they are to give Evidence both of the first Translation and after Matter of Fact how it so descended Church-Power nor indeed any other is not a private Presumption secretly infused whether on a Multitude or particular Persons 't is what was once deposited in certain hands the effect whereof is visible in the Succession of Persons deriving the Autority which they claim from the visible act of those Persons that are intrusted with it There must be some known Aera or publick visible date of its issuing out some distinctive mark of its coming some outward badge of its cognizance that the Conscientious Enquirer may receive Satisfaction when demanding in Sincerity what Zedekiah the Son of Chenaanah did of Micaiah in contempt and with reproach Which way went the spirit of the Lord to speak unto thee 1 Kings 22.24 thus to ask a sign had been no more to tempt the Lord then it had been in King Ahaz had he done it Isai 7. but on the contrary a Duty and St. Jerome gives the reason in his Commentaries on that place Tamen jussus ut peteret obedientia debet explere praeceptum therefore because God had commanded and expects it And St. Jerome there goes on and therefore compares Ahab to the Idol-Worshippers who are led by their own fancies that places his Altar in the corners of the Streets in each Mountain and Grove Et pro Levitis habebat Fanaticos non vult signum petere quod praeceptum est for Levites take Fanatiques to officiate in God's Worship such as were not sent nor called as was Aaron a word
Westminster both Usurpers the one of the Regal the other of the Episcopal Power whom they had Assaulted both with Sword and Pen to their then present Abolition and whom he slatters with the specious Titles of Supporters both of Church and State Vobis viri maximi in quos Ecclesia Respublica inclinatè recumbum Britannorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Choice Men and Supreme in our Land Quibus incoâ—â—um est generoso pectus honesto and for Episcopacy it self besides the whole Design of the Book which is laid against it he places it for time and quality with those first Heresies which infested the Church those Antichrists which were then in the World both in St. Paul's Epistles and in St. John's and in the Revelations with those Hereticks that deny the Monarchy of God and the Incarnation of Christ Jesus and that it was by Diotrephes devolv'd to after-ages by degenerate Men who regarded not the institution from God Per degeneres plurimos divinaeque originis immemores propagatum by such only as consult Ambition to whom the Apostolical Humility enjoyn'd by our Saviour was tedious and nauseous men affecting Tyranny and Usurpation against St. Peter's monition 1 Pet. 5.2 3. Obtaedium Apostolicae humilitatis quam praecepit affectantes Tyrannidem c. He approves the Scotish Covenant and their bringing it into England fortissimum Communis concordiae pacisque vestrae vinculum as the most effectual way for Peace and Concord of which Covenant one part of its second Article is this To endeavour the Extirpation of Prelacy i. e. Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. and Exhorts them by their Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince to quit and vindicate themselves of that Aspersion of Rebels they lye under and through them may be cast upon all Protestants Christianâ modestiâ pacificisque consiliis perpetuisque fidelis vestrae in regiam Majestatem observantiae exemplis asperas voces refellite that the World convinc'd by Experience may confess that it is neither true now nor ever shall be necessary No Bishop no King and that the one may be admitted and supported without the other Fateaturque continuis experimentis evictus orbis nec verum nunc nec necessarium esse vel fuisse unquam qui aegrè Episcopos ferunt aegriùs reges serre qui nullos admittunt nec regiam potestatem ex animo admittere and assures them of the concurrency of the Protestant Churches on their side the Sea who have often wish'd to see their own Simplicity in Government to be restored and setled among them quam Disciplinam à cismarinis Protestantibus praeoptatam c. and all which is to be seen and more by whoso pleases to read over but his Preface to the Apology Claudius Salmasius goes the same way or worse if worse can be he argues indeed for the Episcopacy in England because continued with the Reformation and what prevented many Pestiferous Sects which after the Seclusion of Bishops arose Quod quamdiu fuerat Episcopatus mille pestiferae Sectae Haereses in Anglia pullularunt Praefat. ad Defens Regiam and aggravates it against the Independents whom he supposes to have Murdered the King and removed the Bishops without his Assent Defens pag. 358. it seems it was concluded in France what Party brought the King to Death nor did they then believe the Bishops to be the Authors of all the Heresies in the Christian World Though Mr. Baxter tells us It is not agreed here in London and that all Heresies sprang thence in that his black Book call'd Church History abbreviated then which a Lucian has not been more rude in his language and scurrilous Imputations to our common Christianity and all Parties of but common apprehension that read that his Book or hear of it must agree that he is indeed a Hater as he in the Title-Page terms himself but not of false History but of the truth of Christian Religion to the baffling of which representing it effectually to the Age inclined enough to believe it as a Cheat and Imposture what more could have been done then by exposing in that odious way so many Successions of the Bishops and acknowledged Governors in the Church the most eminent Professors there and the great part of them to the Stake and with their Blood by such Follies and Impertinencies many times but oftner by heavier guilts reported of them the Author's Impudency and his Falsities as to Matter of Fact has already been given to the World by an Ingenious Hand and nothing but a decay of Discipline and Government in the Church can hinder that a farther censure does not follow his Person be not equally pursued and he publickly Excommunicated the Body of Christians Perhaps James Naylor did not more deserve to have his Tongue bored through But to return to our Friend Walo who in Comparison to Mr. Baxter is so indeed but his Spleen was now but low it swells and grows bigger at other times and our Bishops are then its object he speaks out in other places he says so long as Episcopacy remains which is the foundation and root of Papacy little or nothing is done to cut off the Head is not enough Quamdiu remanebat Episcopatus qui tanquam basis est ac radix Papatûs nihil am parum proficeret qui solum caput resecaret Appâ—rat ad lib. de Primatu pag. 169 70. And he goes to the same purpose Pag. 197. that those Common-wealths or Kingdoms which have receiv'd the Reformation Sworn against the Roman both Court and Church and where there is now no Papacy for what reason they can desire to retain Episcopacy he does not see the Reformation seems not whole and full which is in that part defective and that Episcopacy is become a degree above a Presbyter he imputes to the corrupt Manners to Ambition and desire of Honor and to other evil Arts and depraved Minds of Men Walo Messal de Episcop Presbyt cont Petavium Dissert cap. 6. and suitably did he lay his design and he did not think he could write to the purpose against the Primacy of the Pope without that his tedious and nauseous Apparatus or Preface levelled against the Government of the Church by Bishops and indeed against Church-Government in general so unhappy were still those Men in their Plots against Rome as there will be occasion further to consider in this Discourse and which make up that bulky Volume the World is enrich'd withall and to all which Andrew Rivet has subscrib'd applauding Salmasius in this particular and according with him and thinks it Crime enough in Grotius that he differs from him Grotianae Discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 1. 16. John Dailee his rage is nothing less but rather more this way and so is his industry too that eminent Martyr Ignatius is discarded and turn'd out of the Catalogue of Church-Writers for Asserting in so plain and positive words the Divine perpetual Right of Episcopacy and
were made Law and establish'd by the Civil â—…veraign and they were to thank God it was no worse and did the King command to adore the Linnen or Font or Tables themselves they are not to gain-say and affront because affronting Laws and Magistracy to pretend to a farther obligation from Conscience and to oppose even a false Religion or to make Proselytes to their own though they be never so sure they are in the right is to be guilty of gross hypocrisie without an extraordinary Commission from God to that purpose they are no more obliged to do it here at home than to go into Spain or Italy or Turkey and there make Converts and which no Protestant holds himself obliged to do Sure I am the Bishops had had more Justice done them than they found in the Sermon and it seems very unequal that they should be supposed to redress and be left wide open to a popular Odium because not doing what never was in their Commission what would have been their gross hypocrisie in attempting because having neither an extraordinary Commission for it nor hath the Providence of God made way by the Permission of the Magistrate and all that can be reply'd is this that Mr. Dean chang'd his Judgment upon the writing his next Sermon which he hath declared to be by Nature mutable and thereby has this advantage is always ready for better information or rather to act the Aecebolius as occasion and to do him all the right I can this is to be said for him that he dissents from Mr. Hobbs something in this very passage of his Sermon for the inference on his side is strong that where extraordinary Commission by Miracles is evidenced a false Religion is to be opposed and the true one to be Preach'd though the Magistracy and Law be otherwise which Mr. Hobs will by no means allow he will not permit it to the Apostles Leviathan Part 3. Cap. 42. but then how Mr. Dean will avoid this Consequence that there is no Church Power on Earth nor is it lawful for any one to Preach the Gospel when it is not Law by the Civil Soveraign since those Miracles which alone were in the Apostles time and which is though less of it every whit as rank Hobbism I have not sagacity enough to see that he desires to do it is not very certain all that can be said for him is that he seems to have been but raw in the Controversie and is ready as all such ought to be to submit upon better Information and to which if these Papers contribute they so far answer the design of the Author BUT whatever either Mr. Hobs or his Adherents § VII have wrote or preached sure we are our Saviour calls for Confession before Men for the owning asserting and publishing his Truths and most of all then and most publickly when mostly opposed with the greatest hazard and jeopardy even before Kings and not to be ashamed when the Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Council together against us and Christ risen from the Dead is not only to be believed in the Brain and Heart but to be confessed too with the Mouth if Salvation the effect of it as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 10. whatever anteceding Law against us or what Power soever enacting 't is our very case now as was St. Peter's in the Acts and we are to obey God and not Man And as sure I am also that this was the Practice of the succeeding Holy Fathers and Professors of the Church in the best Ages of it who still opposed whatever Religion was false by what Law soever established and abetted and still possessed and preached the true in opposition to it with the hazard of whatsoever was merciless from this World could attend them for it Nor was it then thought a Contempt or Affront to the Persons or Laws or Offices of the Civil Magistrate nor was it believed so to be by the Empire it self where satisfaction desired or enquiry made as appears particularly in the days of Trajan who ceased his Persecutions and Jealousies too being well assured that they met before day to Pray and give Thanks to and Praise God and Christ covenanting against Adultery Murder and such like Iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they acted nothing at all against the Laws and the Government was not affronted nor endanger'd by it an account of which is to be seen Tertul. Apol. c. 1. and in Eusebius his Church History Lib. 3. c. 33. and not to Profess Christianity was to deny it and nothing but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that second Baptism as 't is call'd in Sozomen's Church History that initiation or entrance by a new Engagement a thorow Change and severe Repentance could give again a Name or Interest in Christ replace such among the Candidates for Heaven And those that offered at the Heathen shrines at the Command of the Emperor that fell away and disown'd the Faith in the time of Persecution were not received nor had their Libellum Pacis admitted to a Reconciliation and Unity with the Church but upon severest Penance and a larger trial of after-adherency and such were never admitted into Holy Orders to any Charge or Publick Power in the Church or if in Holy Orders before he was deposed for ever of so much blacker a guilt was it not to Preach Christ than not barely only to confess him however Mr. Dean places no Duty at all in it but the quite contrary as appears all along in the Story of those times and the Rules and Canons of the Church made occasionally on such accounts And we have instances in some that when dragg'd to the Idol with Cenfers in their Hands and there forced to offer as it was one of the Devices of the Devil thus outwardly to gain Countenance to his Worship Men of greater Eminency in Christianity being reserv'd for this purpose and whose Examples were more prevailing and apter to perswade being represented as such that had freely offer'd these Christians did not satisfie themselves in their own innocency and that the Church did so repute and receive them but when released openly declared the force in the face of the Magistracy and their greatest Conventions and were again laid hold of for it went immediately to the stake or the Beasts suffer'd Martyrdom for it though the Laws of the Land Prohibited it and the doing of it was Death though indulged by the Church and the present Circumstances indemnified if not done yet all did not perswade when but in shew to the World their Christianity was not own'd and to the appearance of many denied by them they could on no other terms believe themselves Christians nor consequently design to live upon Earth than as on Earth they confessed their Saviour before Men on this account only did they expect that Christ should own them before his Father which is in Heaven And they were only the worst of
of the Church every ways dishonour'd and displaced § IX I know it will be here reply'd and 't is so generally All this was when the Emperors were Heathens nay more Opposers and Persecutors of Christianity how could the Offices Managery and Concerns of Religion be intrusted with them who did who would not understand it who scorned and affronted it who to their power endeavour'd to suppress it by all manner of Cruelties executed on its Professors the Church then did as well as she could and exercised her own Prudence and Strength that Power and Jurisdiction which they agreed upon and assum'd by particular compact among themselves and which became an Escheat to the Crown when the Empire became Christian and Kings then executed it in their own Right as inherent to their Secular Power designed and appointed and expected from them by God Almighty And in Answer to which groundless Plea and Objection I shall add farther either the Bishops and Doctors and Confessors of the Christian Church understood this Case as thus stated That this Power was not really in themselves and their execution of it was but accidental forced under the present Circumstances and to return to such Governors in State as should become Christians as its proper Seat or Subject or they did not understand it To say they did not understand it is to implead and represent them to all Ages succeeding guilty of Ignorance gross and inexcusable to give that for certain Truth which some of our Reformers have made their Libel and Objection against these first and Holy Christians That they were more Zealous than Wise Pious but imprudent less discerning men and from whom Truth is not to be had nor expected and which is in effect to put a baffle upon our whole Christianity in general and to lay a ground for mistrust upon each of its particulars it must receive a great blow upon such Supposals when reflected upon and considered that those who alone propagated our Faith for Three hundred years together did not understand the Power and Autority they were invested with in order to it or the true tenor or state of it To say they did understand it then surely it had been stated by them a Model of it drew up and left at least for Posterity a thing so in course and most usual in other cases thus to give Specimens Schemes and Draughts of the Design and Purpose especially when to propose attempt and carry on something that is but new not before received much more when thwarting to the common Sentiments and Apprehensions of Mankind That no Men but such as the Christians were given out to be by their Opposers and Persecutors Mad-men and Fools the followers of a Carpenter and a few Fishermen can be supposed guilty of Certainly the occasion and meaning of that particular Power they then exercised in the Church different from the Secular nay when enjoyned and commanded the contrary by those Powers that they act and speak no more in that Name when Persecuted to Bonds and Imprisonment moreover unto Death for it had been declared and published to such those Governors a Manifesto or Remonstrance made of it to all Princes of the World certainly among the many Apologies that were made to the Empire in their own behalf this had had a share a room at least in some one of them That what Jurisdiction was then exercised by them the Pastors of the Church was only under the present Necessity a present contrivance of their own to keep their Followers and Adherents in some tolerable Peace and Order to awe and restrain as they could better an assumed Usurped Government than none at all that the real and whole Government was laid upon theirs the Magistrates shoulders alone would they but be pleased to come in to the Faith and sustain and execute it What a plausible even cogent Argument is here all along omitted to let the Powers of the World know what a considerable Portion of their Birth-right as Princes they neglect and disown abdicate and relinquish what a real damage and disadvantage they receive in not coming in to the Church what a principal Jewel would be added to their Crown in so doing So great and considerable a number as they which are Christians and which grow upon the World and increase daily Vestra omnia implevimus Vrbes Insulas Castella Municipia Conciliabula Castra ipsa Tribus Decurias Palatium Senatum Forum cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus etiam impares Copiis as Tertullian in his Apology cap. 37. Vast Multitudes every where of all sorts in all Places and Offices who as they professed all manner of Allegiance and Duty to them in Seculars so would they acquit resign into their hands their Power Spiritual nay it is really theirs already and the execution falls in course upon them an accession that must be advantageous cannot be accounted mean and inconsiderable to a Government Thus to be the Fountain and Head of all Rule and every Jurisdiction to invest or abdicate to oblige or punish so great so considerable a Sect as are the Christians to constitute and influence to depose and remove every way to govern at Pleasure their Bishops and Pastors who thus grow upon the World and influence all Men the Motive could never have been neglected the Argument must have had a great deal of room in their several Apologies and Embassies to the Empire in behalf of themselves and their Religion who spared nothing like an Argument that might but ingratiate and insinuate into their good favour and liking as 't is evident from such their Writings and yet there is not one word there of any such Pleadings or any thing like it but the quite contrary as it hath been already made to appear I 'le go on farther and assert that 't is very improbable if not our Saviour himself yet that the Apostles should not have done all this and thus stated the case down to the World and yet no man sets these two Powers of the Church and State more apart than does St. Paul and so leaves them To instance in no more at present he often exhorts That they obey Magistrates and that they also remember those that have rule over them who have spoken to them the Word of God and his Bishop has his distinct care over the Church of God 1 Tim. 3.5 has his things to set in order Tit. 1.5 a Power to Summon by Process to receive Accusations as in Court as upon a Seat of Judicature before witnesses 1 Tim. 5.19 20. though no Power to lay either Confinement or any other corporal outward Punishment on their Persons The Powers of the World becoming Christian it must needs make a great alteration as to its Worship and great was the advantage the Gospel received thereby but so great a translation of Power from one Body to another must in all likelihood have been forewarn'd of and declared by such as had a
subject and in what case it will be that they are to obey I shall add farther THAT if this Conclusion be good That § II therefore there ought to be no Church Power nor Laws at all distinct from those of the State because at some one time or other both may stand in competition and the same Action at the same time may fall under an Injunction and Prohibition and these Laws of the Church must of necessary consequence overthrow and over-rule those of the State the same is equally deducible from the Laws of God and Christ immediately given by them or their Messengers the Apostles all which will be as much liable to the same consequence and found some times or other many times to be sure as inconsistent in the particular practice as to what the Secular Power may be necessitated to command The Duties to be performed in the Congregation as Prayer attending the Sacraments c. are what are the appointment of Christ and obliging every Christian and yet in the time of War in order to publick Justice by the very accidents and contingencies of man's life do and must come cross in Mr. Hobb's sense and the Governments dissolution must be also hazarded thereby and 't will be the same where the Gospel-Commands reach the Imperate Acts of the Will as they speak or organical Duties and which require set times and place and motions in the Performance and yet these were Soveraign Laws notwithstanding when actually and in their persons given by Christ and the Apostles then Mr. Hobbs acknowledges them to be such only to be superseded on diverse Considerations not so particularly engaging the Performance at some times and yet still continuing to be obliging as in their several designs and purposes and none do any more And Herod indeed suspected a Dissolution of the Government by it these very Laws of God compared with one another as with those of the Civil Magistrate upon these mens inferences must cease were unduly imposed because they are not at all times by reason of one another practicable and 't is equally impossible to Mourn and to Rejoyce to Fast and to be Hospitable to be upon my knees at Prayer and to be doing Justice on the Bench to obey God and my King in the same Person at one and the same time and in the same Duties as to obey Soveraignty and Supremacy Canons and Laws a Ghostly and a Civil Autority and all or none are on the same account to be placed in opposition If the Objection has any force as Mr. Hobbs thinks it has and lays his full stress against Ecclesiastical Laws upon it And again if whatever is from a due institution and from just autority then looses its Sanction and Nature is to be null'd and to cease if upon other Considerations suspended for some time something more weighty more useful or absolutely necessary may intervene and it is not at that time to be practised and complied with or thus because not always practicable it ought not to be enjoyn'd at all then sundry of God's own Laws must cease to oblige and that for ever or were unjust in their Enactions because obliging to practice only in their due times and circumstances The affirmative Precepts of the Ten Commandments themselves will fail one way or both nor does any pretend in his Expositions on the Decalogue to make but sense of such those Precepts without first laying down that distinction of semper and ad semper presupposing and taking it for a truth that that which is always a Law and of it self obliging does not actually engage to performance at every time has only its proper seasons for practice if then a compromising and adjustment is not allow'd to be made in one instance 't is not in the other and if in any one 't is in all we can as easily reconcile the Laws of the Church in their Practice with the Laws of the State as we can the immediate Laws of God and Christ as we can the Laws of God with one another and thorow Obedience in every respect is equally possible the same humane Prudence and Discretion one and the same but course of things their Natures and Obligations considered will determine and adjust in one as in the other and which not presupposed and made use of in all there will be indeed only justling and thwarting as to all our Obligations and at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Universal Dissolution Now in order to this in regard to the Soveraignty and Supremacy Laws and Canons Civil and Ghostly Obedience as 't is phrased and which is at present the particular concern what I have already said in the former Chapter concerning Church Censures Penances Excommunications and the Canons of Councils and their particular Obligations might suffice in general and satisfie any serious inquirer Nothing of this nature is to be of force if shutting out any antecedent immutable known Duty implying Rebellion and Sedition thwarting what is upon any occasional Necessity or appearance of a conveniency commanded by the lawful Civil Power the Church always asserts owns and pleads for Princes and what she enjoyns cannot be believed to be of force or by her intendment if against them But my purpose is to go a little farther in compliance with this present opportunity and to consider the Laws of the Church in the large acceptation as including the Laws of Religion in general whether meerly Humane and Ecclesiastical or more purely and immediately Divine given by Christ and his Apostles in their Persons and Instances whether as to Positive institutions or Moral and in regard to each of which what is the force and autority of a civil Command how far it either suspends or disengageth and I the rather also do it take this latitude because the one when well considered will add light and much contribute to the better understanding of the other especially to the clearing of the point of Ecclesiastical and Civil Power their extent and obligations NOW in order to this Mr. Hobbs himself § III has given us an excellent Key and his Method in general is to be followed by us I 'le here transcribe his words than which nothing can be more apposite But this difficulty of obeying God and the Civil Soveraign on Earth to those that can distinguish betwixt what is necessary and what is not necessary for their reception into the Kingdom of God is of no moment for if the command of the Civil Soveraign be such as that it may be obey'd without the forfeiture of life eternal not to obey is unjust and the Precept of the Apostle takes place Servants obey your Masters in all things and the Precept of our Saviour The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all therefore they shall say observe and do but if the Command be such as cannot be obey'd without being damned to eternal Death then it were madness to obey it and the Council of our Saviour takes
place Mat. 10.28 Fear not those that can kill the Body but can kill the Soul All men therefore that would avoid both the Punishments that are in this World to be inflicted for Disobedience to their earthly Soveraign and those which shall be inflicted in the World to come for Disobedience to God have need to be taught to distinguish well between what is and what is not necessary to eternal Salvation Leviathan Part 3. cap. 43. § IV NOR is it Mr. Hobbs his Rule only but the Rule of those who were as much better as they are ancienter than he I mean the Ancient and Holy Fathers of the Christian Church whom we find thus laying down these distinctions of necessary and not necessary or rather more and less necessary for the adjusting and determining concerning the degrees and measures of Duty whether to God or Man In Clemens Alexandrinus we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenents that are Principal and of a first Order and others that are higher and go beyond them Strom. l. 6. pag. 675. and Lib. 4. p. 538. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatever is impossible is not necessary and what is necessary is easie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no want or inability to such things we are indispensably to do Idem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 1.148 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. lib. 7. pag. 737. in the Life of Constantine by Eusebius l. 2. c. 70 71. there is mention'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Head and Uppermost of the Commandments in the Law which will admit of no debate and demur in the assent unto them and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the same purpose in Evagrius Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 11. which are Principles and not to be innovated in or dissented from which to do is certain Punishment in some points a liberty to change is granted but not in all as it is in that Chapter St. Austin discourses of some things ad ipsa fidei pertinent fundamenta as the foundation and support of Religion and which if taken away Totum quod in Christo auferre molitur Christianity it self is gone with it and in others he leaves a latitude and good and Learned Men may dissent about them Lib. 1. cont Julian Pelag. cap. 6. Ep. 157. ad Optatum and not thus to consider things is occasion of distraction among Christians nor can Conscience receive a just satisfaction in discharge of her Obedience I do not know how to express my self better than in the words of our Learned Dr. Hammond Serm. on Acts 3.26 Vol. 2. There is not a more noxious mistake a more fatal piece of Stoicism among Christians than not to observe the different degrees and elevations of Sin one of the first another of the second magnitude it is the ground to say no more of a deal of desperate prophaneness And it is this in particular is lamented in John Calvin by Arnoldus Poelengburgh one friend enough to him that he did not apprehend and separate inter fundamentalia non fundamentalia between what was fundamental and what not Vberiori cum fructu arduum opus reformationis promovisset and which had he done his Reformation had been with much success carried on by him inter Ep. Eccl. pag. 328. Amstelodam BUT then what is necessary and what not § V and such the degrees of it is that which will be harder yet to determine unless we go on with Mr. Hobs in that Chapter and then indeed 't is easie enough done For he tells us All that is necessary to Salvation is contained in two Virtues Faith in Christ and Obedience to Laws and the Laws we are to obey are only what the Civil Soveraign has made so and the Precepts of the Bible oblige no otherwise then as he so commands and puts his Sanction upon them and this all the Obedience is necessary to salvation and by Faith he only means that Jesus is the Christ thus indeed it is not hard to reconcile our obedience to God with our obedience to the Civil Magistrate as himself there very well infers because on his terms we owe and are to pay no obedience to God at all all the faith we are not to violate and all the Laws we are to obey are only this that Commandment to obey our Civil Sovereign and whatever rules he assigns for our obedience nothing upon these accounts can make demur or but lay a scruple upon conscience for the point is plain and easie and decided to our hands that 't is Man and not God we are to obey unless man please to receive and imbody into his Codes or Laws what God in Scripture has proposed and recommended unto us not unlike that Law of the Senate decided and exposed by Tertullian Apol. cap. 5. Ne quis Deus ab Imperatore consecretur nisi à Senatu probatus apud nos de humano arbitrio divinitas pensitetur nisi homini Deus placuerit non erit Deus that none must be consecrated a God unless approved of by the Senate the Apotheosis is from man by his favour and grant and unless God pleases man he shall not be God § VI AND all this is not much to be admired in Hobbs and Spinosa his Scholar whose known design is to depretiate and make nothing at all of the Gospel of Christ to render both God and his Church insignificant but the admiration and astonishment is this to see it publickly Preach'd and then Printed in our Church of England and by him that is of a higher Order and Dignity there as by the Dean of Canterbury as in his Sermon above mentioned and he that takes but a little pains to run over that train of absurdities collected out of Mr. Hobbs by the great Archdeacon of Canterbury in his late Treatise of the Obligation of Christianity by Divine Right and compares them with that passage of the Sermon and the following part of the Section the occasion of this Discourse will find very little difference in the expression and delivery So many of those most fulsome Positions to come so very near what is said by the Dean as his own present Judgment that no less than an Ambition of being suspected for a Hobbist if not embraced as really such could have drawn it from his Tongue and Pen and the next wonder must be that two such opposite Judgments and at this time o' th' day in the Church of England should be found fellow members together and with the two Head Titles in her famous Metropolitical Church of Canterbury And had I been of the same Judgment with Mr. Deane or but inclinable to a perswasion in order to it and had Yorkshire been my Country and I to Preach a Sermon to my fellow Natives of it of Love and Peace as he once did I would never have laid the Surplice and Cross and Kneeling at the Altar upon the Bishops but plainly told them that they