sin of man and merited for himself eternal power and glory and for us eternal life and all effectual means for the certain attainment thereof All the rest of his acts performed by him as King Priest and Prophet tended unto the application of his sacrifice that we by faith might be partakers of the benefit thereof This is the sum of that Doctrine of Redemption delivered clearly and more fully in several places of the Scripture especially of the New Testament Yet this Innovatour hath obscured the same several ways and determines the Kingdom of Christ to begin when the world doth end because Christ said to Pilate My Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18.36 From whence he concludes T. H. That the Kingdom of Christ is not to begin before the general Resurrection G. L. This is a gross mistake and mis-interpretation of a place which is clear in it self For by his gloss he makes the Scripture to contradict it self Christ was then Candidatus imperii and was King when he gave this answer unto Pilate yet he began to reign and exercise his Royal power more eminently when he was set at the Right hand of the Father yet his Kingdom was not of this world that is not civil but spiritual and as Austin upon the place It was Hic non hinc in the world not of the world in the world yet not worldly but divine and far more excellent then the Kingdoms of the world This is the genuine sense of the words That Christ doth reign now and hath reigned since his ascension and sitting at the right hand of God is evident Before his Ascension he lets his Apostles know that all power in heaven and earth was given him and according unto and by vertue of that power he gave Commission to his Apostles to teach and baptize and perswade men to the obedience of his commands Mat. 28.18 19 20. He that hath an universal power in heaven and earth who makes officers and gives them power who makes Laws Institutes Sacraments and sends down the Holy Ghost must needs reign and his Kingdom is begun already We read that Christ must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall also the Son of man be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.25 26 28. Where first from Psal 110.1 The Apostle tels us That Christs Kingdom did Commence at the time of Christs sitting at the right hand of God 2. That with him to sit at the right hand of God is to reign 3. That he must reign by Word Sacraments Spirit Ministry till all enemies whereof death is the last be destroyed 4. That when death is destroyed he shall deliver up his Commission and kingdom in respect of this administration by Ordinances 5. That at the Resurrection this manner of reign shall end when Mr. Hobbs saith it shall begin 6. That then God shall be all in all that is reign perfectly in his Saints without any enemy without opposition without Ordinances and more immediately Before that time indeed he will not proceed to the final and universal sentence and execution of the same Yet there are many acts of government besides judgement and many acts of judgement be sides those of the general Assizes and last Sessions To make Laws reduce men to subjection appoint Officers pass sentence and execute the same in the very souls of men are acts of one that reigns as likewise to subdue enemies Sin Satan and the world to protect the Church And in this manner Christ hath reigned since his Ascension And many Millions do adore him subject themselves unto him and obey him to this day Yet with this man Christ doth not yet reign Let him read Psalm 2. throughout It began to be fulfilled upon his Resurrection and Ascension as appears out of the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles And if he or any other shall deny the present reign of Christ they must expect with his Iron Scepter to be dasht in pieces like a Potters Vessel CAP XI Of the third Part the 42. of the Book Of Ecclesiastical Power AFter he had enthroned Civil Soveraigns cap. 40. Dethroned Christ in the former Chapter In this he takes away all power from the Church and invests the Christian civil powers with it And herein it may be a question whether his ignorance or presumption is the greater for he is highly guilty of both He that will determine the controversie concerning the power of the Church must distinguist the universal power of God the spiritual power of Christ incarnate and exalted to the Throne of glory and the power deligated from Christ unto the Church universal here on earth as subject unto Christ as Lord and Monarch and also that which every particular Independent association of Christians is trusted withal for to preserve the Society and the Ordinances of God from profanation This he hath not done and therefore little or rather nothing can be expected from him This last power of particular Churches is called the power of the keys in foro exteriori in the particular government of their several combinations for there is no supreme universal Independent judicatory on earth to which all Churches in the world are bound to appeal in this outward visible administration General Counsels can be no such thing Neither was there ever any Oecumenical Synod in proper sense since the Gospel was preached to all Nations This power of outward Discipline is challenged by the Pope by the Clergy by the people Christian and by the States civil and Soveraigns of the world And in this last party is the Author deeply engaged but upon what reason I know not except he intends to side with the strongest for such are they which bear the sword The power of ordaining Ministers preaching the Word administring the Sacraments was in the universal Church since the time of the Apostles And in every particular Church reduced to a form of outward discipline there is a power of making Canons of jurisdiction of making Officers so far as shall conduce unto the better ordination of Ministers the preservation of the purity of Doctrine and the right administration of the Sacraments least they be profaned and Christ offended by the admission of ignorant scandalous and unworthy persons There is a power also of disposing and dispensing of those goods which are given to the Church for the maintenance of Christian Religion Civil Christian States may and ought to make civil Laws to confirm the just Canons and jurisdictions of the Church And those Laws may be a fence unto it against these who shall oppose or persecute Yet when all this is done those Laws are but Civil though the object of them be Ecclesiastical matters This might suffice for to confute and make void the main body and break in pieces
alwaies did and ever will manifest the testimony and doctrine of the Gospel to be divine and that is the Holy-Ghost who by his powerful working upon the hearts of men seriously attending to this truth whereby a great change both inwardly in their hearts and outwardly in their lives is wrought doth mightily confirm it And those who find and feel in themselves the effects of sanctification and heavenly comfort can no waies doubt but are assured that God was in the Prophets and Apostles and did speak by them Besides when we consider 1. That the more we understand them the more excellency of wisdom we find in them 2. That these positives are agreeable and no waies contrary to pure morals 3. That they conduce effectually to holiness and eternal life 4. That they were approved received by the best men in the world and sealed with the blood of many Martyrs we must needs be fully satisfied that they are not false feigned fantastick conceits of deluded men and not only so but all these things may perswade any rational man to try upon practise whether they be divine or no. And this never any did but found the Apostles Doctrine to be of God If we had nothing but the universal and perpetual agreement and tradition of the Church of all places and times affirming the Scripture to be the Word of God it were sufficient to produce in a rational man a greater measure of belief then any Book or History in the world can possibly require or deserve For this universal testimony of the best in several parts of the world at such a distance as that they in their time neither heard of nor knew one another makes it more credible then any humane History can be But to return unto Mr. Hobbs I say its possible and not impossible to know the divinity of the testimony or declaration immediately but not of the revelation or matter revealed Yet that such a revelation and such a thing revealed there was is known in some measure by consequence And the divine Authority of this testimony may be infallibly known and that by natural reason yet by it as elevated and more perfected by outward representation and inward sanctification And the matter of the revelation to another together with the manner may be believed though not known For when we once know that God hath revealed it we believe the thing revealed to be true though by artificial and intrinsecal arguments we cannot prove it to be so For the testimony of God may be evident though the thing testified be hidden and above our reason The Conclusion is That we may have an infallible knowledge of the positive Laws of God so far as to know that they are from him and are his Laws and that without particular revelation that they were revealed to another T. H. If the divine positive Law be not against the Law of nature and he undertake to obey it he is bound by his own act to obey it but not bound to believe it For mans belief and interiour cogitations are not subject to the commands but only to the operations of God ordinary or extraordinary Faith of supernatural Law is not a fulfilling but only an assenting to the same it s not a duty but a gift c. G. L. His second question was how a man can be bound to obey supernatural positive Laws whereof he hath no particular revelation that they were revealed to others declaring them To this he answers 1. It must not be against the Law of nature which is the Law of God And its true that the Law of nature is the Law of God and this is a good rule For the positive Laws of God are not contrary to his pure moral Laws which have an intrinsecal rectitude in them 2. He further adds that if he undertake to obey a supernatural positive Law of God he is bound to obey it but not believe it This is very obscure and very absurd For 1. To undertake to obey it seems to be a promise to obey it and this is a voluntary Obligation whereby a man may bind himself to obey it as a divine Law or as no Law or if as a Law yet not as a Law of God and then he doth not obey as he ought to do 3. It is absurd To obey it as a positive Law of God and not believe it to be a Law of God For if he neither know nor believe it to be a Law of God he cannot obey it as a Law of God His obedience is no obedience unto God 4. Whereas it s said That faith is not subject to Gods command it s not a duty it s a gift this must needs be a gross errour For though the active power whereby a man is enabled to believe a divine positive truth be the gift of God yet the exercise of this power and the acts thereof are subject to the Law of God Other wise positive unbelief of a supernatural divine positive Law sufficiently declared and proposed could be no sin It s true that some affirm that the first and natural acts of the soul are not subject to any Law yet these do grant that all practical operations and such assent unto divine truths is be subject unto Law That faith is a duty is apparent because God commands it approves it rewards it and reproves and punisheth unbelief That we may the better understand the drift of this Author in this discourse he produceth the examples of Abraham and Moses declaring positive Laws of God upon revelation made of them which the posterity of Abraham were to obey upon their declaration and thence concludes T. H. That it is manifest and sufficiently appeareth that in a Common-wealth a subject who hath no certain and assured revelation particularly unto himself concerning the will of God is to obey for such the command of the Common-wealth G. L. But 1. It was formerly made manifest that neither Abraham nor Moses were Soveraigns much less Common-wealths 2. A Soveraign civil may declare something to be a Law of God and yet it may be no such thing and declare against a Law and yet it may be and many times it so falls out to be a Law of God and in neither of these cases is the subject bound to obey his Soveraign 3. If that which is declared for a positive Law divine be sufficiently attested especially by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost by undoubted history and universal tradition the matter be agreeable to the Law of nature tends to practise of piety being practised is conducing to an higher degree of holiness and justice and by experience constantly found to be accompanied with rare and excellent effects tending to mans inward and real happiness it is to be believed and obeyed as a divine Law though all the Soveraigns in the world declare against it If a subject do accept the Religion established by the civil Laws of his Countrey he is free from
them in the supreme power Others are of a mind that seeing they cease to be Kings or Soveraigns they may be lawfully tryed and put to death as well as private men and that without any ordinary jurisdiction Others determine this to be lawful in such States as that of Lacedemon in Grece and Arragon in Spain What the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is cannot be unknown For the Pope doth arrogate an universal Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction whereby he may excommunicate any Christian King that shall not obey his Canons and Edicts and upon this sentence once given he may depose him free his subjects from their allegiance and command them as Catholicks to rise in rebellion against him some of them have taught that its a meritorious art to poyson stab or any other way murther Kings for the promotion of the Catholick cause This question after the terms thereof clearly explicated is of very great moment and let men advise well how they do determine either in their own judgement privately or before others T. H. There be Doctors that think there may be more sorts that is more Soveraigns then one in a Common-wealth and set up a Supremacy against the Soveraignty Canons against Laws and a Ghostly Authority against the Civil c. G. L. There cannot be any Soveraign but one in one and the same Common-wealth and to set up Supremacy against Soveraignty Canons against Laws Ghostly authority against Civil must needs be a cause of division confusion dissolution Yet this will not prove any inconsistency of an Ecclesiastical independent power with the Civil Soveraignty in one and the same Community And the distinction of the power of the keyes given by Christ unto the Church and the power of the sword trusted in the hands of the higher powers civil is real and signifies some things truly different one from another though he either cannot or will not understand it With Mr. Hobbs indeed this distinction can signisie nothing because he hath given unto the civil Soveraign an infallible judgement and an absolute power in all causes Ecclesiastical and Spiritual His discourse may be good against those Ecclesiastical persons who have usurped civil power otherwise it s impertinent and irrational And he must know that it is alike difficult to prove That the State hath the power of the keyes as for to evince that the Church hath the power the sword It s as great an offence for the State to encroach upon the Church as for the Church to encroach upon the State The Bishops of Rome have been highly guilty of the one and many protestant Princes and States of the other And though men will not see it yet its clear enough that one and the same Community is capable both of a Civil and Ecclesiastical Government at one and the same time and that the Church and State are two distinct Common-wealths the one spiritual and the other temporal though they consist of the same persons And these persons as Christians considered in a spiritual capacity make up the Community and Common-wealth Christian which is the Church as they are men having temporal estates bodily life and liberty they are members of the civil Community and Common-wealth The Power Form of Government Administration Laws Jurisdiction Officers of the Church are distinct and different from those of the State The sentence of the Church is Let him be an Heathen or a Publican and the execution is expected from heaven according to the promise Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and this sentence doth take away some spiritual but no temporal or civil right of the person judged though the judgement be passed and made valid both in foro interiore exteriore The sentence of the civil State is Let him be fined imprisoned stigmatized banished put to death and it s executed by the sword The several members of a Church National and the whole Church joyntly is subject to the civil power and the civil Soveraign if a Christian is subject to the Church because as a Christian he is subject to Christ and bonnd by his Laws And as a civil Soveraign he is bound to protect the Church and he may by civil Laws ratifie the Ecclesiastical Canons and then they bind not only under a spiritual but a civil penalty too If Church-assemblies give cause of jealousie to the Civil powers they may regulate them and order their proceedings if they offend they may punish them Their persons lives estates are under the sword and if this be taken from them because they will not obey them to disobey Christ they ought to suffer it patiently for Christs sake In this case the Church may pray and weep resist and rebel they may not for Christians as Christians have no power of the sword against any man not their own members much less against the civil Soveraign whom if they resist they must do it under another notion or else they transgress and can have no excuse And here it is to be observed 1. That Christ gathered Disciples instituted Church-discipline made Laws and the Apostles executed them in making Officers Acts cap. 1. 16. made Laws cap. 15. passed sentence and executed the same 1 Cor. 5. and all this without any Commission from any civil Soveraign Therefore it s not true which some learned Divines have affirmed That the State and Church are one body endued with two powers or faculties for they are two distinct bodies Politick It s true that if as some conceive there were no power but coactive of the sword then they must needs be one body But there is another power as you heard before 2. If a King become Christian by this he acquires no power not the least more then he had before and if he be Heathen or Mahometan and all his subjects become Christian he loseth not one jot of his former civil power which they are bound to submit unto by the very Laws of Christianity If he command any thing contrary to the Laws of Christ they may and must disobey but deny his power they may not they must not In this case a Christian may be perplexed between the Devil and a Goaler as some of Scotland were said to be when if they obeyed the Parliament and joyned with Duke Hamilton to invade England the Kirk excommunicate them and deliver them up to Satan if they obeyed the Church prohibiting them they were cast in prison by the State The cause of this perplexity is not from this that the Church and State are two distinct Common-wealths but because the commands of the one or both may be unjust T. H. Some make the power of levying money depend upon a general assembly of conduct and command upon one man of making Laws upon the accidental consent of three Such government is no government but a division of the Common-wealth into three independent factions c. G. L. Here again he hath made the Parliament which is the
that though no Reason can prove yet no Reason can contradict justly because there is nothing in them contrary to the principles of pure Reason They are proposed unto us with such credit and urged upon us as matters of greatest concernment in the world in so much that he cannot be rational that shall refuse either to give assent unto them or make trial of them with the sincere heart which once done he shall find by reall effects in the heart not only that God did reveal them as he believed before by an acquired faith but have an intuitive knowledge that they are Gods testimony because he who spake by the Scriptures and the Ministers hath spoken to him immediately by his spirit working in his heart and then Reason is satisfied and convinced that God hath spoken and thereupon ceaseth to deny and oppose and yields a firm assent And to conclude this point whereof 〈◊〉 had formerly spoken if we will but consider what kind of men have questioned or opposed the divinity of the Scripture we shall find it in that very thing to be much honoured 〈◊〉 and the reason why men do not believe them is not onely the imperfection but the corruption of Reason and mans will For most men love darkness rather then the light and the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ as it declares a deep design of Gods Eternal Wisdom so it s directly contrary to our false notions and base lusts And this is a plain reason why an acquired faith cannot be sufficient to save any man without the powerful sanctification of the Spirit both to prepare the heart and work a Divine Faith which can never take kindly in an heart that is not prepared These Scriptures he pretends to make the rule of his ensuing discourse yet it s but a bare pretence for he followes his own fancies and false notions not the sense and genuine mind of God in them He doth not re ferre sed ferre sensum as grave Hilary saith He doth not conform his notions to the Scripture but wrests it and makes it to speak that which God never intended CAP 2. Of the third part the 33. of the Book of the Number Antiquity Scope Authority and Interpreters of the holy Scripture SEeing he had made the Scripture to be his Rule he thought good to say something of the Scripture in general And 1. Of the number of the Books and seeing herein he follows the Church of England which followed the Ancient Canon I agree with with him in this as I have no reason to the contrary neither will I debate with him in the second point of Antiquity It s the most Ancient writing in the world and the doctrine more ancient then the writing And its remarkable that though it contain the History of 4000. years yet it was written within the space of 2000. 2. That all the Writers of it if Luke be not excepted were of the seed of Abraham by Jacob and of no other Nation all of them according to the flesh kinsmen to our Saviour Christ 3. That the Prophetical part reacheth the end as the Historical did the beginning of the world and this no other book in the world doth 4. That neither Jews nor Mahumetans have any thing good just and rational but that which is contained in these books and retained by them 5. That these Scriptures are found translated into the languages of the most if not all civil Nations of the world The scope of these writings is to direct sinful man unto eternal life And because this eternal life is virtually in God and issues from him as the Fountain and Author thereof therefore in the same is revealed the Eternal Infinite glorious perfection of God in himself and also his glorious works of Creation and Preservation his supreme and universal Dominion his Laws and Judgements and special government of man And because man as sinful and guilty is no ways capable of eternal life in strict justice therefore the Scripture directs him to God as Redeemer in Jesus Christ that by the observation of the Laws of Redemption he may be for ever blessed Christ our Lord Redeemer is the principal subject of that Book of books For Moses and all the Prophets speak of him as well as the writers of the New Testament though not so clearly and the doctrine of his Laws takes up the greatest part of that Revelation though many other things are therein declared yet in reference unto the principal subject and End In a word the end of the Scripture is to teach us to believe and obey God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Creating Redeeming and Sanctifying us if it speak of civil Kingdoms Laws and judgements it s upon the by with reference to the eternal spiritual Kingdom of God Redeemer and Sanctifier This end and scope is both obscurely and confusedly declared by the Author as will more appear hereafter The Authority of the Scripture is Divine and so perfect that it cannot be improved or impaired by all the Laws of all the civil Soveraigns of the world Neither can the Angels in Heaven add any degree of Authority unto it but if any of them should as they cannot contradict it they are by the divine Apostle declared to be accursed That any person or persons do not apprehend it to be Divine that 's accidental and cannot prejudice it Therefore how vain and false is that of Mr. Hobs when he gives the supreme power of making it to be Law and interpreting the same so made unto the Civil Soveraignss There is a two-fold Law the one is Divine and binds the conscience immediately the other is humane and Civil and cannot bind the conscience but per accidens The Doctrine of the Scripture not onely in Morals but in Positives is Divine and the precepts thereof as being the precepts of God do bind the conscience immediately The Laws of Civil Soveraigns may bind their subjects upon peril of civil and temporal punishment to receive them as authentick But Laws they are and binding to obedience and belief though there were no civil government in the world The State and Church may declare them to be Divine but no wayes make them to be such And as our Saviour said of his Doctrine so its true of all the Scripture that if any man will do the will of God declared therein he shall know it to be of God It s not so much the imperfection of our understanding or the difficulty of the thing to be understood as our disobedience which is the cause why we do not see the divinity of these blessed Books These things being so how absurdly and falsly hath he stated the Question concerning the Authority of the Scripture so as to make it depend either upon the civil Soveraign in his Territory or upon the Pope For thus he writes The Question of the Authority of the Scripture is reduced to this Whether Christian Kings and the Soveraign Assemblies in Christian
the main design of this long and tedious Chapter wherein he is not content to vent his errours but he must broach his blasphemies For after he had granted the Ecclesiastical power to be in the Apostles and their successors for about 300 years he tels us T. H. That the Trinity is a threefold representation of God 1. By Moses 2. By Christ on earth 3. By the holy Ghost in the Apostles and this agrees with that of the Divine Apostle There are three that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 1 Joh. 5.7 G. L. This deserves no answer but detestation because it s not onely blasphemous but also devoid not onely of divine but humane learning and no ways to be suffered amongst Christians Having thus determined the proper and just subject of this power for so long a time he proceeds to let us know what this power is T. H. The power of the Church is but to teach to baptize to absolve to excommunicate G. L. The foundation and Rule of all Christian doctrine worship and discipline is briefly and by a wonderful wisdom comprised in those words of our Saviour ready to ascend into Heaven Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mat. 28.19 20. For in those words we are taught 1. What Doctrine we must believe and profess 2. What worship we must perform unto the Deity and how and upon what grounds 3. Who may and who may not be admitted into Christian society and who may and who may not be continued in the same and enjoy all the priviledges thereof Those who being taught profess their faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and promise to obey the commands of Christ may be baptized and solemnly admitted into the Church They who continued to profess their faith to perform their promise of obedience unto Christ might be continued in this society and enjoy the priviledges otherwise not From which words its evident there must be a power to teach baptize absolve excommunicate and also to ordain and design fit persons to do these things and give rules out of the Gospel how they may be done aright This Author first makes void as he conceives all Bellarmines discourse concerning the form of Ecclesiastical government whether it be Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical 2. They have power but to teach The reason why Bellarmines discourse is void is given by him to be this because the Church hath no coercive power If he mean coercive civil by the sword its certain there is no such power Ecclesiastical Neither doth Bellarmine affirm or challenge it but indirecte per accidens Yet he was told before that the execution of the Churches censure is from heaven as it is passed in the name of Christ and by his power 1 Cor. 5.4 And he hath promised whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18.18 This is not in the name of the civil Soveraign nor by the power of the sword And it must be done by some power and this power must be exercised either by one or more or all according to some certain order And Government is nothing but ordo imperii subjectionis 2. That the Church hath but power to teach perswade counsel c. he proves first by his false supposition that Christ doth not reign until the universal Resurrection secondly by that time of Regeneration which he bounds within the terms of Christs ascension and his second coming to Judgement The former argument was grounded upon a false interpretation of our Saviours words and so the later is for by Regeneration in Mat. 19.28 is meant the Resurrection and so it s printed and distinguished in divers coples and so the King of Spains Bibles read it as others also and the sense is they which have followed me shall in the Regeneration that is Resurrection sit upon twelve Thrones c. But suppose that regeneration be not the resurrection Yet it cannot be a time of that continuance as to reach Christs coming to Judgement but only the time of their following Christ which cannot extend beyond his ascention Yet let it be granted that by it is signified the whole tract of time from his ascention till his coming to Judgement it will not follow from that text that Christ doth not raign till that time be expired for he may as he doth raign and exercise many acts of his regal power before he pass the final sentence upon all men and Angels His other reasons are frivolous and not ad idem Yet his last argument save one is That because Christ hath left to civil Governors their power therefore he hath left none to the Church And its true that he hath left no civil power of the sword to the Church yet it doth not hence follow that he hath denyed it the spiritual power of the keyes And here he makes a most abominable digression affirming that we may deny or profess against our conscience and comply with civil powers commanding and forbidding contrary to that which Christ hath commanded and forbidden and so hath taken away the ground of all Martyrdom and razed the very foundation of our Christian confession Besides he seems to put a difference between their power to Preach and their power to Teach but he will not let us know what this difference is And his arguments tend to prove that Ministers have no power to command no authority yet the people are commanded to obey them that rule over them and submit themselves because they watch over their souls Heb. 13.17 And he that heareth them heareth Christ and God that sent him and he that despiseth them despiseth Christ and God that sent him To that purpose we read in Luk. 10.17 And how can this possibly be true if this have no authority no law no sin To teach and preach in such a manner as they who will not hear and obey shall be guilty as contemners of the divine Majesty and so as that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgement then for them is to teach with authority and power and the same no doubt greater then any Prince civil in the world is invested withal For they cannot command so as to make the disobedient liable to eternal penalties He granteth further that they have power to Baptize and by Baptism admit into Christs Kingdom which is a spiritual naturalization and also to absolve and excommunicate yet the former is an act of Legislation the latter of Jurisdiction and how can that be performed without power Thus the man is pleased to confute himself Yet in the acts of Jurisdiction we do not affirm the judgement of the Church to be infallible because they can have no infallible knowledge of the inward disposition of the souls of persons penitent or impenitent Yet sometimes the evidence of the cause is such
that an absolute sentence on earth is made valid from heaven And this Jurisdiction exercised according to the Laws of Christ hath alwaies a real effect upon the party judged and that without any co-ercive power civil at all And the effect was comfortable or terrible both unto Believers and Apostates too according as they should be truly impenitent or penitent This power is alwaies in the Church and to be exercised by such as are trusted with that power and fit for such a work And this is the plain truth though the world be on a flame and so many Christians in a cumbustion because of their different opinions concerning the subject of this power But concerning this point I have spoken more at large in another Treatise He goes on to teach us the causes of Excomunication and denies heresie to be any cause though scandal by his own confession be yet heresie is the greatest scandal And here he abuseth that place of Titus 3.10 where it s written A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject where he plainly contradicts the Apostles words As though he had said Reject the heresie not the person whereas the Apostle commands the rejection of the person the Heretick and not only the heresie That some make Articles of Faith which God never made such cannot be excused After this he determines the persons who are liable to excommunication yet so as that he might have been instructed better then he hath instructed us by those who deserve to be his Masters He exempts one Church from the jurisdiction of another so that the one cannot excommunicate the other Yet he doth not inform us what the extent of a Church-Independent is and so leaves the question undecided He also exempts all Soveraign Princes and Assemblies from excommunication yet so as that he most grosly mistakes the nature and effect of excommunication Yet here he staies not but a subject obeying his Soveraigns command is not liable to this sentence neither can it be in this cause and case of any effect if we may believe him This in terminis is false except he mean obedience in licitis The rest of his discourse concerning this particular is frivolous The of the Chapter is taken up and spent in the determination of two points The 1. is making of Scripture Canon and Law The 2. the power of the Pope The power of making Scripture-Canon is given by him unto the Soveraign civil being Christian Yet whether he be Christian or no he hath power to bind his subjects to acknowledge it subpoena temporali But the Scripture is Canonical in it self without any such Law at all As for the controversie concerning the Popes power he undertakes Bellarmine who had often been answered in a far better manner and more effectually by many before him And the truth is both he and the Cardinal run in extreams the one on one side and the other on the other side of the way of truth For that power which the one arrogates to the Pope the other gives to Christian civil powers but both unjustly For Ecclesiastical power is due in some measure unto the Pope but not unto the civil Soveraign The Pope is a Presbyter and a Bishop and some power was due unto him by divine Law But by that which humane Constitutions gave him and by his own usurpation he had ingrossed he was advanced very high To be a Patriarch would not serve his turn but he must be Christs universal Vicar and in the end by that means at length he hooked in the temporal power of the sword But to leave them both in their errours wherein they have entangled themselves before I conclude this Chapter I will say something of Church-officers and the Church-revenue The Church-officers may be conâ—dered either according to their Constitution or Imployment According to the first they were extraordinary or ordinary Extraordinary were such as had their power and gifts more immediately from Christ as Apostles Prophets Evangelists And here by the way we may take notice of two errours and mistakes of the Author 1. In that he affirms Matthias to be made an Apostle by the Assembly of an hundred and twenty Brethren assembled together Whereas from the text its apparent that they did only single out by suffrage two persons whom they conceived so qualified that one of them might if God pleased be made an Apostle for to succeed Judas and refer the case to God by prayer and lot that he might determine whether of the two should be an Apostle to make up the number of twelve Upon the reference God did chuse Matthias and so that he made him an Apostle and refused the other To make an extraordinary Officer was above the power of the Apostles and the Church therefore they did not take it upon them 2. The second errour is That Paul and Barnabas were made Apostles by the Church of Antioch Acts 13.2 3. yet Barnabas in strict sense was no Apostle and Paul was an Apostle before he came to Antioch He was a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle separated to the Gospel of God Rom. 1.1 His calling to be an Apostle was not of men nor by man Gal. 1.1 His separation was twofold 1. From God who separated him from his Mothers womb Gal. 1.15 2. From man as by the prayers and fasting of the Church of Antioch Yet Mr. Hobbs is not afraid to contradict the Scriptures Ordinary officers of the Church who succeeded the extraordinary were Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 Both the ordinary and extraordinary in respect of their employment were either such as were designed for feeding of the soul by Prayer Word Sacraments and were to perform the acts of doctrine worship discipline or for feeding of the body and outward relief and such were Deacons After that the number of Christians were increased and devided into Congregations the Pastors and Teachers were set over their several Congregations and Flocks assigned unto them and these were called Elders Now the Question is who in a Christian Common-wealth have power to make constitute ordain these ordinary Officers The Common-wealth saith he the Church say others He confesseth that the Church did exercise this power till civil Soveraigns became Christian and then both the power and exercise thereof ceased to be in the Church if we may believe him but his credit is not much and with me his Authority is none To determine this question we must observe that its one thing to be a Pastor Minister or Presbyter another thing to be the Pastor of a certain congregation and another to have a right to some temporal revenue or dignity annexed A Minister was constituted in all well-ordered Churches to this day by the Church The Church and such as the Church doth trust doth chuse him try him approve him and ordains him And by the nomination approbation ordination of the Church according to the will of Christ all Presbyters