specially Universal in a College or a Council or a Pope or a Council and College under the Pope as President their Subscription to our Articles and their usage of Oaths would be no invitation to Dissenters to imitate them or Conform Chap. XIX Mr. Henry Dodwell's Leviathan further Anatomized § 1. I Have already elsewhere in two Books detected the Schismatical and Tyrannical Doctrine of Mr. Dodwell in his tedious voluminous Accusation of the Reformed Churches as damnable Schismaticks that Sin against the Holy Ghost and have No right to Salvation by Christ. I recite now a few Passages that shew the Constitution of the Church he Pleads for Pag. 73. The Essential work of the Ministry according to my Principles is to transact between God and Man to Seal Covenants on behalf of God and to accept of those which are made by Men and to oblige them to perform their part of the Covenant by otherwise authoritatively excluding them from God's part Hence results the whole Power of Ecclesiastical Government And for this No great Gifts and Abilities are Essential All the Skill that is requisite essentially is only in general to know the Benefits to be performed on God's part and the Duties to be performed on Mans and the Nature and Obligation of Covenants in general and the particular Solemnities of Ecclesiastical Covenants And of this how any Man can be uncapable who is but capable of understanding the common Dealings of the World Pag. 72. He sheweth that Immoralities of Life are not sufficient to deprive them of this High Power And of the Power it self he saith Pag. 80 81. It is not stated in Scripture but to be measured by the Intention of the Ordainers and that the Hypothesis of God's setling in Scripture is irreconcileable with Government in this Life by permitting Men to appeal to Writings against all the visible Authority of this Life On the contrary saith he Our Hypothesis obliging inferiour Governours to prove their Title to their office and the extent of it from the intention of their Superiour Governours doth oblige all to a strict dependance on the Supreme visible Power so as to leave no place for Appeals concerning the Practice of such Government which as it lasts only for this life so it ought not to admit of Disputes more lasting than its Practice from them and that upon rational and consciencious Principles for how fallible soever they may be conceived to be in expounding Scripture yet none can deny them to be the most certain as well as the most competent Judges of their own Intentions As certainly therefore as God made his Church a visible Society and constituted a visible Government in it so certain their Hypothesis is false P. 83. How can Subjects preserve their due Subordination to their Superiours if they practice differently They may possibly do it notwithstanding Practices of Humane Infirmity and disavowed by themselves But how can they do it while they defend their Practices and pretend Divine Authority for it Yea and pretend to Authority and Offices unaccountable to them which must justifie a whole course of different Practices P. 84. If their Authority be immediately received from God and the Rule of their Practices be taken from the Scriptures as understood by themselves what reason can there be of subjection to any humane Superiours I Must intreat the Reader that he will not call any of these men Papists till they are willing to be so called You are not their Godfathers Do not then make Names for them But I must confess that once I thought the stablished French Religion had been Popery and I see no reason to recant it But if Brierwood's Epistles mis-describe them not Mr. Dodwell is not so much of their Mind for the Supremacy of a General Council as I thought he had been Will you know my Evidence It shall be only in his own words I. Separation of Churches c. Pag. 102. The Church with whom this Covenant is made is a Body Politick as formerly though not a Civil one and God hath designed all Persons to enter into this Society Pag. 98. Faith and Repentance themselves on which they so much insist are not available to Salvation at least not pleadable in a Legal way without our being of the Church And the Church of which we are obliged to be is an external Body Politick So that it 's clear it is the Universal Church and a visible Humane Politie which he meaneth Pag. 107. The design of God in erecting the Church a Body Politick thus to oblige men to enter into it and to submit to its Rules of Discipline however the secular State should stand affected It is more easie for the vulgar Capacity whatsoever to prove their interest in a visible Church than in in an invisible one consisting only of elect Persons In these and many places of both his Books he tells us that the Catholick Church is One Body Politick and hath on Earth a Supreme humane Government which I have noted in his words in my Answer to him II. Pag. 488. Only the Supreme Power is that which can never be presumed to have been confined Of which more in his words which I have confuted III. That the Intention of the Ordainers is the true measure of the Power of the Ordained he copiously urgeth and proveth as much as the Ringing a Bell will prove it by loudness and length Pag. 542. Therefore the Power actually received by them must not be measured by the true sence of the Scripture but that wherein the Ordainers understood them Now the Ordainers of the first Protestants never intended them Power to abrogate the Mass or Latin Service or Image-worship or to renounce the Pope or gave them any Power but what was in Subordination to the Pope but bound them to him and his Canons and to the Mass and the other parts of Popery To prove this he saith Pag. 489. It is very notorious that at least a little before the Reformation Aerius and the Waldenses and Marsilius of Padua and Wickliff were Condemned for Hereticks for asserting the Parity of Bishops and Presbyters And it is as notorious that every Bishop was then obliged to Condemn all Heresies that is all those Doctrines which were then censured for Heretical by that Church by which they were Ordained to be Bishops Our Protestants themselves do not pretend to any Succession in these Western Parts where themselves received their Orders but what was conveyed to them even by such Bishops as these were And Pag. 484 485 486. he sheweth at large That All the Authority which can be pretended in any Communion at the present must be derived from the Episcopal especially of that Age wherein the several Parties began Within less than Two Hundred Years since there was no Church in the World wherein a Visible Succession was maintained from the Apostles which was not Episcopally Governed And the first Inventers of the several
Christ our Redeemer For this end he both died rose and revived that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living Rom. 14.9 10. All power is given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28.19 All things are delivered to him of the Father and given into his hands John 13.3 and 17.2 He is made Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.23 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son John 5.22 VII Princes are therefore now the Ministers of Christ by Duty and are bound to study his Interest and Laws and to obey him VIII Subjects by Obligation are not always Subjects by Consent nor Subjects by Professed Consent always Subjects by Heart-Consent IX All the World is the Kingdom as of God the Creator so of Christ the Redeemer as to Obligation And the Wicked as Rebels X. All the truely Baptized are thereby made the Kingdom of Christ the Redeemer by Profest Consent And this is the Church visible XI All the true Believers and Sanctified are the Kingdom of Christ by Heart-Consent and these are the Church Regenerate and Mystical XII Therefore the Kingdom of Christ is larger than the Church of Christ And the Church is an Elect peculiar people Visible as to Means and Mystical as to Salvation Even as the Israelites had the Covenant of peculiarity while the Law of Grace in the first Edition made to Adam and Noah was still in force to all the World And Abraham thought that even Sodom had had Fifty Righteous Persons in it XIII The Church of Christ is an Eminent Politick Society of which Christ is the Specifying and Vnifying Head and all Christians are Members All the Baptized Visible Members and all the sincere consenters mystical Members XIV Christ is the Maker of his own Body Church or Kingdom He made himself the Head He made the specifying Institution or Law the Terms of Union and Communion He giveth Men the Grace by which they Believe Repent Consent and are made Members If Christ made not his own Church as to the Formal Head the Species the Unifying Terms and Graces it would be as a Wooden Leg to a living Body a Human Creature imposed on him Savouring of the Errours and Naughtiness of those that made it and Mutable at their Mutable Wills Every active Form makes it's own material Domicilium Who is he or who are they that had power to make Christ a Body or Church in specie before he made it himself Christs Body is not made by Man If it were who were they Were they his Body or Church first themselves or not If yea who made them such and who them and who them in infinitum If not how came Infidels and the Members of the Devil to have power to make a Body or Church for Christ XV. Christ hath de specie Instituted who shall be Members of this Church And by his Laws Terms and Description taught us certainly to know the Members as Visible Else we could never know whom to take for Christians nor whom to love as such Nor to whom to give the Seals of his Grace and Communion with his Members XVI Baptism is the Symbol or Badge of Christians and Baptizing is our Christening and whoever believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved Therefore till they Revolt all truly Baptized persons are Visible Christians and make up the Visible Church Which is the Society of all Christians Headed by their Soveraign Christ. XVII All Christians entered in Infancy are not capable of the Duty Blessings and Communion of the Adult Adult Members and Communion must be distinguished from Infant XVIII Therefore all that will have Adult Communion though they must not be Baptized again must as fully own their Baptismal Covenant Devoting themselves by their own Vnderstanding Consent and Vow to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil as if they were now to be Baptized The neglect of this or turning it into a dead image and Ceremony by dead Images of Bishops on pretence of Confirmation confoundeth the Church and would make it a dead Image and really but the World XIX The Universal Church of Christ in his days on Earth was but an Embrio and his few Apostles and Disciples who were suited in number to the Jewish Nation where their Ministry was to begin were but like the Organical parts of the Body the Heart Head Eyes Liver c. when Nature hath first made them that by them it may make the rest But when Christ was Risen and the Holy Ghost sent down in Eminency and the Gentiles called and the Church began to be Catholick this Kingdom of the Holy Ghost is that which is called specially the Kingdom of God and Heaven which the Gospel then proclaimed and John Baptist told Men was at hand XX. The Church of Christ on Earth is partly Visible and partly Invisible and yet but one Church As Man is visible as to his Body and invisible as to his Soul and yet but one Man It is visible 1. In that the Subjects persons are Visible 2. Their profession is Visible 3. Christ was Visible on Earth 4. He is Visible now in his Court of Heaven 5. He will in visible Glory come and Judge them 6. They shall see his Glory for ever 7. His Laws are Visible 8. His Officers are Visible 9. Many of his Judgments and Executions are Visible here 10. The rest shall be so quickly and for ever His Church is Invisible 1. In that Christ as God was never seen 2. His Soul never seen 3. His Office as to Truth Right and Authority Invisible and to be believed 4. The Souls of the Subjects Invisible 5. Their Sincerity Invisible 6. And Christ now not seen on Earth 7. Nor Heaven and Hell seen where is his great Execution and Retribution XXI Christ only is the Specifying and Unifying Form of the Church as United to the Matter And all Christians Pastors and People are but the Matter They have a sort of Unity in themselves They are of one Human kind of one Interest of one Profession and Faith and Love if sincere and joyn in one sort of Worship and Acts of Obedience to Christ But they are One Christian Church or Body of Christ only by their Vnion with Christ and Relation to him their Head and Center As the Kingdom of England hath one sort of Men in our Land of one Language c. But only their Relation to one King makes them one Kingdom XXII The Church or Body of Christ when fully made hath dissimilar parts some are Noble Organical parts first made to be instruments in making and preserving all the rest and the Church cannot be a Formed Church without them some are such Integrals as the Church may live without but not be Whole without Even as Aristotle defineth the Soul to be Entelechia or the Entitative Act and Form of a Physical organized Body capable of being Animated by it And as in
and that by virtue of Christ's Law for Peace and Concord Obedience hath no formal Object but Authoritatem Imperantis But Assemblies for Concord have no Imperium 4. No Clergyman as such hath any but Pastoral and Teaching Power and as a Tutor to order his own School The Power of the Keys is no other 5. Mens holding and renouncing of Communion with other Persons or Churches may be without Governing Power I am not Governor of all that I hold or renounce Communion with No Bishops have power Judicially to determine of Individuals who shall have Communion with every Parish Church on Earth If they have they must hear them all speak for themselves before they judge them in or out They are not Governors of foreign Kings and Kingdoms though in their Government of their particular Churches they must all agree to observe one Rule that is Christ's Laws 6. There never was an Universal Council of all the Churches but only of one Empire a part of that nor ever will be till the Church be so destroyed as to be brought into a narrow space which God forbid As to Dr. Stillingfleet's Defence of all this I take him not to approve of all that he blameth not And if he did I believe on second thoughts he will more retract this than he did his Irenicon Chap. X. Dr. Peter Heylin's own Judgment § 1. BEcause we come newly from repeating Dr. Heylin's words of Archbishop Laud though they fully shew his own Judgment I will â—â—ere annex some more 1. There is a Book written by a Papist called Historical Collections of the Reformation gathered most out of Dr. Heylin's own words and some â—ut of others describing the Reformers and Reformation so odiously as greatly serveth the Priests to turn Protestants to their Church And â—s the Jesuit Maymbourgh maketh Dr. Heylin's Writings to have Converted the late Dutchess of York it 's like it was this Collection out of him 2. In his Book on the Creed speaking of the Catholick Church he saith Pag. 407. Such is the Ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned a Church at all And yet this is of the two the Lovelier Error Better the Church be all Head than no Head at all And such a Church that is all Body and no Head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their late Platforms Answ. Is Christ no Head at all Or is any other Person or Court capable of Governing all Christians on Earth All Protestants hold that the whole Church hath no Head but Christ. Pag. 408. Speaking still of the Catholick Church he saith The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters of the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practice and their Platform it must be Aristocratical Answ. This is a gross Slander of the Presbyterians and Independents Did ever the Presbyterians or Independents say that All Christians on Earth must Govern the whole Church in one Meeting or by Delegates where be the Laws that any of them pretend all Christians made Or the Judgments they past on any Persons after exploration The Presbyterians are for an Aristocratical Government of National Churches and some few Independents are for popular Government in single Congregations but no further 2. Is the Church now Governed by One Aristocracy that is per Optimates that are One Persona Politica by Vote ruling all the Christian World Where is their Meeting What be their Laws Whom do they so try and judge An Universal Governing Aristocracy is more impossible and irrational than an Universal Monarchy Civil or Ecclesiastical Every Bishop and Presbytery Governing his own Church and these keeping Concord by just Correspondency is no liker an Universal Aristocracy than an Assembly of Princes for Concordant Government of their Dominions or than all the Mayors and Justices ruling their several Corporations and Provinces make the Government of England Aristocratical Pag. 409. Saith he Every Bishop where-ever he be fixt and resident hath like St. Paul an universal Care over all the Churches which since they could not exercise by personal Conferences they did it in the Primitive times before they had the benefit of General Councils by Letters Messengers and Agents for the Communicating of their Counsel and imparting their Advice one to another as the emergent Occasions of the Church did require the same These Letters they called Literas formatas Communicatorias Answ. Thus Bishop Gunning and others But 1. St. Paul's Apostolick Power enabled him to do the Work of an Apostle which is to plant Churches in as much of the World as they could and deliver them Christ's Doctrine and Laws infallibly as receiving them by sight and hearing or miraculous revelation And this Power each Apostle could exercise singly and not only by Voting as part of a College the Spirit of Christ teaching them all the same Doctrine But Bishops have no such Office or Power 2. There are several ways of expressing a Care of all the Churches Every Christian must do it by private Endeavours Every Official Preacher by Preaching where he is called Every Pastor by guiding his Flock in Concord with all true Christians in the things which Christ hath made necessary to their Concord And if Archbishops have right to a larger Province they must do it in their proper Province per partes not as one Aristocracy 3. It is granted that as all Christians and Bishops must have a Love to all the Churches and a Care to do them good in their several Places so Concord in things necessary is a great means of that good and the ancient Pastors endeavoured it by Messages Letters and Synods and so must we But what Universal Laws were made by Literae formatae What formal Judgments were past by them Where did the Writers meet first to hear the Accused and examine Witnesses Or must all believe the report of every single Pastor And was it all the Bishops on Earth or a major part that wrote these Legislative and Judicial Letters What strange things can some Men gather from meer Communion and Concord Bishops had then a Necessity of getting the common consent of as many of their Order as they could to make their Government of force to the People that were all Volunteers and not constrained by any Magistrate And it 's useful still to the same end 4. And we grant them that every Bishop and Presbyter that giveth counsel to other Churches doth not do it as a meer private Man but as a Bishop that is One that by Office is authorized to give such Pastoral advice to such as he is called to give it to But not as one that hath the charge of Governing other Mens Flocks or is a Member of an Aristocratical Supream Senate Parliament Court or Voting States Suppose each Hospital
is time enough to prove the death of a Power never since exercised were there a Seminal Virtue of Universal Regiment in the diffused Church a Thousand Years Sleep in reason must pass for a Death 6. Yea the diffusive Church hath since disowned the Universal Obligation of those same Councils and doth disown them to this day For it is not near half the Christian VVorld that own them yea none but Papists that I could ever be certified of do receive any such Councils at all as Legislators and Judges to all the Christian World but only as Reverenced Rules of Concord made by Contract And if Constantine Theodosius Martian c. called their Subjects to Councils 1000 Years ago why is our King and Kingdom now any more subject to the Subjects of those Emperors than to them But if you were content to endure us to unite in Christ and take his Laws for our Rule and bond of Peace and stay till the next General Council be against us we desire no more § 9. P. 347. Mr. B. saith It is a doleful thing to think on what account all these Men expect that all Christians Consciences can be satisfied c. D. S. answereth It is a doleful thing indeed to think how they should be satisfied that set up a Pope in every Congregation and follow him in opposition to the Catholick Church and General Councils Mr. B. knows he does this and deludes the poor People c. Answ. 1. If I know it methinks I should know that I know it Which if I do it 's I that am the Impudent Liar If not Somebody is mistaken Qu. Whether a Council of such Bishops be infallible or can make us a better Rule than the Scripture 2. Readers here you see that it is no wonder that these Reverend Fathers renounce Popery You see what a Pope is in their account It is a Minister of a single Church who taketh not their Lordships or Councils to be Law-givers and Judges over all the Earth We poor Protestants took him for a Pope that claimed such an Universal Rule alone or as the President of Councils But these Men take him for a Pope that denieth Popery and pretendeth to no Government beyond his Parish Yea not only so but in our Parishes we oblige none to take up any of their Religion Faith or Duty to God on our commanding Authority but to learn by the Evidence which caused our own Faith to believe by a Faith Divine 3. I have oft said that the Catholick Church is such by Faith and Subjection to Christ which I own and daily Preach But that there never was a General Council of the Christian World nor is there any such thing as a Catholick Church in the Popish sence that is having one Political humane Soveraignty And how did the Man make himself believe that I knowingly opposed that which my whole Writing labours to prove never had a being Reader Lament the Case of the Church on Earth when the most studious Leaders are so dark and rash and bad as either I or these Reverend Fathers are setting the World into ruinating Divisions by words of such a Dialect as is harsh to name § 10. P. 348. Dr. S. pretendeth to some Scripture Proofs viz 1 Cor. 14.32 33. The Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints Answ. Reader Do you think this proveth that the whole Church on Earth is under one humane Soveraignty that hath a Legislative and Judging Power 1. This Text speaketh only of the avoiding Disorder in particular Assemblies by the means which they had present there among them To keep them from speaking two at once and such like Disorders As the Archi-Synagogoi were used to do in the Jews Synagogue And must a Council from all the Earth be gathered to that Assembly to rebuke such Disorder If it must be but to make a General Law to forbid it that 's done already in Scripture and in Nature And must the World meet to do it again 2. Their Dr. Hamond saith that this Text speaketh of the Spirit in each Prophet being subject to himself that is to his own reason and that the Spirit moveth them not to speak irregularly and confusedly And what 's this to the Power of Councils 3. If it were spoken of the other present Prophets what 's this to Men that are no Prophets and that are dead 1000 Years ago Are not present Pastors fitter Moderators of their Assembly than a General Council of dead Men § 11. Next he that so condemneth me as an Opposite citeth my words as granting his Cause yet this reconcileth him not I am not so idle as to write him a Commentary of my own words for I can devise no plainer Only I may tell him that he too quickly forgot that God is not the Author of Confusion and therefore it is not lovely A Law should not be confounded with a Contract or amicable Agreement nor a Soveraign Government with a Peace-making Assembly of Equals nor a possible Council of those within reach with an impossible Council out of all the World Neither the King of France or of England were Subjects to the Assembly at Nimeguen § 12. P. 351. He saith he could give numberless Quotations of Protestants Melanchthon Bucer Calvin Bishop Andrews K. James Spalatensis Casaubon Bishop White Bishop Mountague Archbishop Dr. Hamond Dailee c. Answ. I cannot answer what you can do but what you do But the Reader may know how far to believe you that will but search these few 1. Read what I have cited out of Melanchthon to Bishop Guning or rather his own Epistle of the Conference at Ratisbone and that to King Henry the 8th 2. Read Bucer de Regno Dei and the rest of his Opera Angl. and judge as you see cause 3. I am ashamed to cite any words of Calvin to confute our Drs. intimation 4. Whether Spalatensis was a Protestant I dispute not but read his own words cited by me in my Treatise of Episcopacy and then read him of Councils and judge 5. Bishop Vsher as I have oft said told me himself That Councils are not for Government of the absent or the particular Bishops but for Concord What Mind Dr. Hamond was of I determine not But of the rest you may judge by these The Matter is All Protestants hold that we must Serve God in as much Concord as we can And that the Meeting of Pastors is a means of Concord And that it was the true Christian Faith which the Councils which he nameth owned and we are of the same Faith and therefore they reverence these Councils And they hold that still Concord being much of the Strength and Beauty of the Churches when there is any special reason for it as several Princes assemble by themselves or Messengers at Munster Ratisbone Francfort Nimeguen so Pastors even of several Kingdoms
unlimited Monarch we will speak according to common use and let them speak as their Interest dictates to them but remember that the Controversie is but about the Name and not the Thing We take the French Church for Papists If they will call them Protestants they are free But if we are agreed what a Pope is the case is plain as followeth I. Mr. Dodwell their most Learned defender if number of words or greatest self-conceit be the chief strength tells you that if the Council be not lawfully called it obligeth you rather to bring them to Punishment as a Rout or Rebels than to obey them And that none but the President hath Power to call them And remember yet that this good Man is no Papist And indeed who else but the Pope should call Universal Councils The King in Scotland may call a Scotch General Assembly and in England a Convocation and Parliaâ—ent And 1. The Emperor of Rome or Constantinople might call such Councils in the Empire as were then called General and did so But who now shall call one out of France Spain Portugal Italy Germany Britain Denmark Sweden Poland Moscovie the Turkish Empire Armenia Georgia Mengrelia Tartary Abassia Mexico Peru China c. We are awake and therefore cannot Dream of Princes doing it by Agreement We are yet out of Bedlam and cannot conclude that all the Bishops in the World will come together by common consent or as the Atomists say the World was made by a fortuitous concourse of Atomes 2. How shall lawful Councils be known from unlawful if none have Authority to call approve and difference them If only ex factis by their good or bad Deeds half the World will Judge as they have done and do one Council to be spurious which another obeyeth 3. What order shall be kept among them if none have Authority to appoint the Place the Time to Preside and Moderate and to dissolve them and who pretends to this but the Pope 4. When Councils Contradict Condemn and Curse each other who shall tell us which of them to receive believe and obey II. And if we must have a visible Supreme Power we must have one that successively existeth that the Church be not dissolved And none pretendeth to this but the Pope III. And if all National Patriarchal Churches be but Parts of a visible Catholick Church with a Humane Supremacy then there must be some Power still existent to give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power Mr. Dodwell saith it overthrows all Government to appeal to Scripture as a Charter or Law of Christ None hath more than the Giver intended him None can give that which he hath not to give The Inferior hath not Power to give to the Superior Who then but a Pope can give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power If for want of Authoritative Collation of Power all the Presbyterian Ordinations Sacraments and Covenant-hopes of Salvation are Nullities and Sins against the Holy Ghost as Mr. Dodwell and his Tribe say what better are all the Bishops and Archbishops for want of a Superior conferring Power which none pretendeth to but the Pope IV. And who else shall judge Patriarchs Metropolitans and National Churches when they prove Hereticks or Schismaticks Their Heresie and Schism is far more heinous and dangerous than single Persons or Congregations And Councils are not extant And we cannot send all over the Earth to gather Bishops Votes against them unheard It must be a Pope or no body on Earth that must by Governing Authority Judge them V. And who else shall be the stated Judge of new started Controversies You say such there must be shall they be undecided till the World have a true general Council VI. And who shall an injured Person appeal to from a Tyrannical Metropolitan or National Church but to the Pope Many more clear Necessities there will be of a Pope on their Principles I blamed the Author of the Divine Hierarchy for naming such without an Antidote lest it should make men Papists But I understand he is a worthy Protestant But verily there is no avoiding a Pope by any that assert an Vniversal humane Church Supremacy VII And indeed I must not suppose them so immodest as to deny it For it is but the Pope's Absolute Power above the Councils and their Laws and not Simple Popery or the Pope's limited Power that they deny 1. They confess that they hold Rome for the Mistriss Church as Grotius calls it 2. And that the Pope is Patriarch of the West and the prime Patriarch 3. And that he is Principium Vnitatis to all the Church on Earth And if so they are out of the Church which is One that deny this 4. That he is authorized to call General Councils 5. And to be their President 6. And to be the chief Governor when there are no General Councils and that is indeed always 7. And that they are all Schismaticks that do not thus far submit to him And how much more Mr. Dodwell giveth the President I have shewed you in his own words VIII As Mr. Thorndike threateneth England with God's Judgments if they do not amend the Oath of Supremacy by making it acceptable to the Papists that renounce not a foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so others labour to prove that the meaning of it is only to renounce the Pope's Jurisdiction here in Temporals which belongs to the King and not a Papal and Foreign Jurisdiction properly Ecclesiastical by the Keys As you may see partly in Mr. Hutchinson's alias Berry's Book who on that Supposition took the Oath as many do and publickly profest himself of the Church of England IX In the Description of the Reconciliation with the Pope endeavoured by Archbishop Laud in Heylin's History of his Life Pag. 414 415 c. All that the Pope was to abate was 1. That the Oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity may be taken I told you in what sense 2. And that the Pope's Jurisdiction here but no where else be declared to be of Humane Right that is say ours by the Fathers in General Councils not without the Apostles by whose Church-Laws we are all bound 3. That all should be really performed to the King so far as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be independent both from King and Pope but not from subjection to either This saith he no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him 4. Marriage permitted to Priests 5. The Communion in both kinds 6. The Liturgy in English I ask any sober man now Qu. 1. Whether the Pope did himself think that by this bargain he ceased to be Pope and all Papists to be Papists 2. Whether if the King had been thus far equalled with other Catholick Princes the Pope would not have supposed him and his Bishops and Church to be of the same Roman Catholick Church as they 3. Whether in all this here be any renunciation of the Popes Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England but only of the Divine Right of it 4. Whether here be any renunciation of his claimed Universal Jurisdiction over all the Church on Earth 5. Whether such an Universal Church Monarch
of the Vnity of the Catholick Church As if it were Vnified by One Humane Political Soveraignty Monarchical or Aristocratical Pope or Universal Council which hath Power of Governing all Christians on Earth by Universal Legislation and Judicature and not only by Christ who indeed is its only Universal Governour II. By extolling Monarchy as the best means of Unity and so inferring the Papal Monarchy so did Carolus Boverius to our late King Charles in Spain As if Princes were so weak as not to distinguish a National and a Vniversal Monarchy Let them try this Argument with any Papist King on Earth Monarchy is the best Government Ergo there should be One Monarch of all the Earth whose Subject you and all other Kings must be and see whether they will be so fooled into Subjection III. By dreaming of such a difference between Civil Government and Church Government that though no man in his wits pleads for one Humane King or Senate to Govern the whole Earth by the Sword yet it is our Religion to be for and under One Soveraign Church Governour Pope or Senate of all the Earth whereas he is unfit to Govern one Church who knoweth not that It is more impossible for the whole Earth to be Governed by One Church Soveraign Pope or Council than by one King or Parliament by the Sword IV. By confounding the Universal Roman Empire and Church and the Vniversal World and dreaming that what is said of the first was said of the last and when the Church is called Catholick or Universal and Councils General only as to the Roman Empire they would perswade men that it 's meant of all the World V. By pleading that Possession which Pope and Patriarchs and Councils had in the Empire as if it obliged the same Countries to them when they are fallen under other Princes And by pleading to the same Ends all the Possession which Popes or Patriarchs or Councils have got by deceiving any Nations of the World VI. By mistaking the Nature and Extent of the Pastoral Office because as every Christian so every Pastor is related to the Universal Church therefore they gather that there is one College or Council consisting of all Bishops in the World the Pope being President who as an Aristocracy must soveraignly Govern all the Christian World by Legislation and Judgment As if because Physicions are Licensed to Practice any where in the Land as they are called therefore they might gather into a General Council and Command all the Land to obey them as Law givers in all Matters of Health and Physick and might invade the Hospitals at their pleasure And so all the Churches and Church Affairs on Earth must be governed by Priests of Foreign Lands VII By first mistaking and then falsly claiming Apostolical Power Because Christ chose a few whom he first personally taught his Will and then endowed with the Gift of Infallibility by his Spirit to Preach first and Record after his Doctrine and Laws to oblige all the World therefore they pretend that ordinary Bishops who had no such Spirit Office or Commission may also make Laws to bind all the World And when every single Apostle had this Office Power and Spirit but they yet a while lived together at Jerusalem till their dispersion they pretend that at Jerusalem they were a General Council and that all Bishops therefore may Govern as a General Council whereas the Apostles Mission was Indefinite and not Universal else they had sinned in not going into all the World And it was easie to Guide the Universal Church while it was almost all at Jerusalem or near them And their Office as to Legislation differeth from common Pastors as Moses the Legislator's did from the Priests who were but to govern by his Laws and not to make more VIII By pretending a necessity of Judging and Ending Controversies and therefore of having one deciding Judge or Judicature for all the World As if any would be so mad as ever to expect that all Controversies about the Mysteries of Supernatural Revelation and the unseen World should be ended in this Life As if Ignorance would be without Errour And is he a Man that knoweth not how little it is that the wisest know and how much Ignorance all Mankind is guilty of Have these Pretenders yet ended Controversies Are there not many Horse-Loads of Volumes of Controversies among themselves Have they yet written any Infallible or Determining Commentary on the Bible Did not St. Paul write Rom. 14. 15 c. for bearing with tolerable Differences Is it not the Great Wisdom and Mercy of God to lay mens Salvation upon a few plain things though a multitude besides remain as Controversies Christ will decide them all at the Great approaching Judgment And is there any on Earth that can decide them all that hath either so great Knowledge or so Universal a decisive Power Why is the Christian World these Thousand or Twelve hundred Years divided into Greeks Armenians Nestorians Jacobites Papists Protestants c. if there be a Humane Judicature to End all Controversies And are such Popes as reigned from a Thousand to Fifteen hundred and such Bishops as made up their Councils Men of Ignorance and Vice fit to end all Controversies on Earth IX In order to these Ends they make a great cry of the Sects and Divisions which are among Protestants to draw men that love Unity to come for it to the Church of Rome And first they impudently falsifie the History of the Matter of Fact and perswade Men that the Differences among Protestants are ten times greater than they are They have thus pleaded it to my face when I had a Pastoral Charge at Kidderminster where we were all of one Religion and lived in love and Peace and had not one separating Assembly in a great Town and Parish And where to this day they live in Piety Love and Peace and I hear not of one person that for any difference breaketh this bond of brotherly love and liveth in any opposition to the rest Yet Strangers are told that we are mad in religious Sects and Strife Indeed zealous people that account all the Matters of the World but trifles in Comparison of things everlasting do make a greater Matter of them than men of no Religion do If among them one or two turn to any dangerous Sect or Course it stirs up much censure and opposition when in undisciplined Churches corrupted like the common World multitudes in a Parish may abstain from Sacraments and in Coffee-Houses or at Visits familiarly talk against the Immortality of the Soul and against the Scripture and all serious Religion and it maketh no great noise An Act of Fornication once in many Years among chast religious persons is a Scandal scarce ever to be expiated when among known Stews it 's little talkt of Weeds are not suffered in a Garden But in the Commons who pulls them up And what wonder if they strive most about
lawful parts Chap. III. What Endeavours have been used by the more Moderate Papists to bring England under a Foreign Jurisdiction in King James's time § 1. I Will not meddle now with their violent Attempts abroad and at home nor so much as name them Commonly Known It is not my design to speak or act offensively but defensively Their ways of Wit and Deceit have been many and among others pretended Motions for a Coalition hath not been the least And their injurious Pretences that our Rulers have been inclined to them as knowing how much that may do with the ignorant sequacious Multitude § 2. I. In Queen Elizabeths days they much perswaded her that to go as far from the Church of Rome as the Anti-Papists desired would cross her Interest and make the reduction of the Kingdom impossible who were all Papists but as it were the other day II. In King James's time they would fain have conquered him by the fear of Murder when he heard of the Murder of two King 's of France H. 3. and H. 4. that had greater defensive Powers than he And the Powder Plot was yet more frightful And continued threatnings more And he shewed his peaceable Disposition in promoting the Spanish and French Matches for his Son and especially if it be true that Rushworth â—nd other Historians say that He and his Son â—nd his Council took their Oaths for a Toleration â—n the words recorded by them § 3. And to make People believe that he was â—t the heart a Papist the Bishop of Ambrun boasteth of his success in a Conference with him published in French in Mr. D'ageant printed at Grenoble 1668. where in Pag. 173 174 175 176 177 178. he tells this Story It 's like the Archbishop told it to ingratiate himself with Cardinal Richlieu to whom he sent it and would not scruple aggravation Afterwards there was a good understanding between the two Crowns The King of England at the request of the K of France did often remit the ordinary severities used against the Catholicks in England He was even well-pleased with the Proposals that were secretly made to him by the King of France in order to the reducing of him into the bosom of the Church Insomuch that after several Conferences held for that Effect by the consent of his Majesty without communicating any thing of that matter to his Council for fear that the business being known should have been obstructed The Archbishop of Ambrun passed into England as if it had been without Design in the Habit and under the Name of a Counsellor of the Parliament of Grenoble whose curiosity had incited him to see England He had no sooner Landed at Dover but the Duke of Buckingham came to meet him and having saluted him thus whispered in his Ear Sir who call your self a Counsellor of Grenoble but are the Archbishop of Ambrun you are welcom into these Kingdoms You need not change your Name nor your Quality for here you shall receive nothing but Honour and especially from the King my Master who hath a most high Esteem of you Indeed the King of England used him most Kindly and granted him many Favours on behalf of the Catholicks and even permitted him in the French Embassador's Lodgings where was a great Assembly to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to the Catholicks the Doors being open There were near Eighteen thousand Persons who received that Sacrament and yet no man said any thing to them as they went in at the Gate nor no where else Although there were many of the English always standing in the Street beholding the Ceremony During his abode he had many Conferences with that King who having come to agreement in all the controverted Points he wrote a long Letter to the Pope by a Catholick Gentleman his Subject whom he sent secretly of purpose by which Letter he acknowledged him to be the Vicar General of Jesus Christ on Earth the Universal Father of Christians and the Head of all the Catholicks assuring him that after he had made sufficient provision with respect to the things agreed on he would openâ—â— declare himself In the mean time he proâ—â—â—ed him not to suffer any more to make search in his Kingdom for the Priests which were sent over by his Holiness and the most Christian King provided they were no Jesuites whom he said he could not trust for many Reasons chiefly because he counted them to have been the Authors of the Powder Plot by which they had designed to have blown him up in his Parliament In his Letter among other things he intreated the Pope to grant that the Church Lands which had become part of the Patrimony of the principal Houses in England might not be taken from them that on the contrary they might be permitted to possess them because if it should be otherwise there might arise trouble on that account He said also that nothing hindred him from declaring himself presently but that he desired to bring the King of Denmark his Brother-in-Law with him whom he had in order to that end but under another pretence prayed to come over into England where he hoped to Convert him with himself That in so doing he should secure the Peace of his Kingdoms which otherwise he could hardly keep in Peace and that they two joyned in the same Design would draw with them almost all the North. The Duke of Buckingham and the Gentleman whom he sent to Rome were the only Persons of his Subjects to whom he had made known this design But the Death of King James which put a stop to this Negotiation put a stop to the Effect of it which was a matter of great Grief to his Holiness and the King of France Thus far Deageant At the End of his Book is a Narrative of the Archbishop of Ambrun of his Voyage into England written to Cardinal Richlieu In which he speaks much to the like purpose as done 1624. adding That the King told him with great freedom the affection he had for the Catholick Faith and was so particular as not to omit any thing insomuch that he told me that from his Childhood his Masters perceiving his inclinations thereto he had run great hazards of being assassinated The rest is That the King resolved to settle Liberty of Conscience by calling an Assembly of Trusty English and Foreign Divines at Dover or Boloigne I have recited this to shew that as they are not wanting in Art and Industry so they abuse the Name of Princes to promote their Cause Who can tell but much of this is Lies And if King James to prevent Butchery gave them a few fair words it 's like they added more of their own And if he used the Papists kindly as being against Cruelty they were the more unexcusable that would have destroyed him and could not be kept in Peace § 4. Yet do the Papists make people beyond Sea believe that they live here under constant Martyrdom Sure if
Gods 3. Mutable Things are not of Universal Need or Use These By-Laws like those of Corporations are only the Work of particular Churches or Countries E. g. One Translation of Scripture one Metre or Tune of Psalms c. will not fit all the World that have several Languages c. Upon the whole I am more confirmed by longer Considerations 1. That to assert a Soveraign Vicarious Church-Power over all the Christian World is to make a Church which Christ never made 2. And Treasonably to set up an Usurpation of his Prerogative 3. And to plead for that which de facto never was in being 4. And to lay the Ground of heinous Schism and Persecution by prosecuting impossible Terms of Concord and Communion 5. And to make this the necessary Medium of our believing in Christ or knowing his Word and Will is to subvert the Christian Faith and Scripture 6. And as one Pope cannot possibly through Natural Incapacity Govern all the Earth in Religion one Collective and Aristocratical Soveraign of all the Bishops on Earth is so incomparably more uncapable that I wonder that any Considerate Man can believe it Pighius well tells us of the Novelty and Vanity of Heading all the Churches by General Councils 7. And if the French and the Councils of Constance and Basil and Cassander and Grotius and such Papists as set Councils over the Pope had not taken in the Pope as the ordinary Governing Executive Head to Rule by the Councils Laws they had been far more gross and incredible than the Italian Papists who prefer the Pope 8. And that Civil Government may so much easier be exercised by Officials than the Spiritual that a Civil Monarch of all the Earth is far more congruous and possible than a Humane Visible Church-Head under Christ Personal or Collective 9. That if this was the Principle from which you disputed at the Savoy and in the Convocation and from which our late Changes and the silencing of Two Thousand Ministers have been made it 's no wonder that the Effects were such But if ever we be healed it must be by other Terms and Hands R. B. Jan. 12. 1679. This Feb. 13. Being with the Bishop again he disclaimeth the Names of Supreme Summa Potestas Vicaria as Invidious and chuseth the Name of a Ruling Collegium Pastorum Ministerialium who are the Church which is the Mother which all must receive their Faith from and obey and so must know their Consent Chap. XVIII The Fourth Letter to Bishop Guning To the Lord Bishop of Ely Dr. Guning My Lord THough I intended to trouble you no more by Writing yet observing how apt you are to mistake me and because time streightened our Discourse Lest I be mistaken and consequently mis-reported I thus send you the sum of what I said to your last as far as it concerned me I. Whereas you are offended at my Applicatory Conclusion I must still say it that ☞ If these were the Principles upon which our Changes were made by your Endeavour 1661 and 1662. it is no wonder that Two thousand Ministers were Silenced and Cast out And is it more offence to you to hear what you did towards it than to them and their Flocks to suffer it Is this impartiality II. My naming Holden as saying what you say was not invidiously to intimate that you differ not from him in any thing else but to tell you that these thoughts are not new to me and that even a Papist pleading rather Historical Natural-Evidence in Vniversal Tradition than judicial Authority in this is further from the common Papists than you III. You are offended at my comparing Bishops to Kings only in this respect that they both govern only their proper Provinces and neither are Rulers of all the World And your reason is because it intimateth that Bishops rule like Kings Who can Dispute on these terms Did I not in the stating of our Question agree that it is not the Power of the Sword but only Ecclesiastical Power of the Word and Keys that we Dispute of Did I not still profess to you to speak only of this And doth comparing Princes Coactive Government with it only in the extent neither of them being over all the World contradict this or wrong you by unjust intimations IV. You take the words Aristocratical-Supream Vicarious under Christ Legislative to be invidious and you disown them 1. Because they intimate a forcing Power like Princes 2. Because Christ only is Supream But 1. It is not de nomine that we dispute but de re and I understand all this while that we had no other question to debate 2. I desired still nothing more than that you would state your assertion in your own words that I might use no other You tell me your own words are Collegium Pastorum I tell you again that nameth only the subject Matter of the Power where our question is de formâ what is their Power which we must obey You next tell me It is a College of Pastors having a Ministerial Ruling Judicial Power over the Vniversal Church I take up with your own words Only remember that before you asserted a Legislative Power of mutable Laws and now it is but judicial If so then we owe no Obedience to their Laws but to their Sentence according to Christ's Law How then is obeying them the only way of Concord But say you It is but mutable Laws that they make Answ. And are mutable Laws no Laws And is he no Legislator that maketh but mutable Laws Neither King nor Parliament will believe this But you say Canons are not Laws I thank you for that Concession So saith Grotius de Imp. sum Potest If so then they are but either Counsels or Agreements Contracts It is not de nomine that we contend A Law saith Grotius is Regula actionum Moralium More fully A Law is the signification of a Ruler's Will making the Subjects Duty If a Canon be none then Literae formatae are none And where there is no Law there is no Transgression Then no Obedience is due to the Laws of the College of Bishops And then obeying them is not the only way of Concord Authoritas imperantis est objectum formale Obedientiae you disown also the word Pars imperans I take your own Pars Regens which to me is of the same Signification as to Ecclesiastical Power Jus regendi is that which I mean by Authority and Debitum Obediendi by Subjection But I think that indeed authorized Pastors may make proper Laws e. g. At what Places and Hours to meet what Translations Version Metre and such Orders to use but only to their proper Subjects and not to all the Christian World V. You Copiously blame us for denying that Obedience to the Universal Church which we give to every single Pastor and thought that I owned no Power but Parochial I tell you still 1. I maintain that there were in the first Age and perhaps
Generation the Heart is first made and then some Rudiments of the Vessels for Distribution and then the Head and Eyes and then the Liver c. So Christs Humane Nature with his Spirit is as Heart and Head to the Church And then Teaching by himself first was as the Arteries for Distribution And the Apostles were first made the most Noble Organical parts to Deliver and Record his Universal Commands and by his Spirit make up the Inferior parts and the ordinary Pastors to be as the Stomach and Liver c. for the Nutrition of the whole None of these parts are the Soul or forma hominis but the Noblest parts are necessary in that Contexture which is forma Corporis to make it materiae disposita receptive of the Soul which is the Form as to its full Operation though the Semen to make an Embrio before received it Much like is it in our present Case XXIII Our Controversie then is not whether it be necessary to the being of the Church in facto esse that it have Apostles and Pastors and Teachers to make it the Organized Body of Christ for this we all acknowledge Nor yet whether these should be all Christians of one Body Spirit Faith Baptism Hope united to one Head and God in him Nor whether the Unity of the Spirit for that 's the Unity should be kept in the Bond of Peace no more than whether the dissimilar parts of the Body should all be of one Matter and live by one nutriment united to the same Head and Heart Contiguous and made for the Good of the whole actuated by the same Spirits and Animated by the same Soul XXIV But our Controversie with the Papists is Whether the Church on Earth have any One lawful Supream Power under Christ Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical authorized to Govern the whole by Legislation and Judgment That is One Ministerial Soveraign or Vice-Christ a Constitutive specifying and Vnifying Supream over all being one Political person whether in one or many natural Persons This Protestants deny XXV It is but our second Question with the Papists Whether the Pope be this Head or Supreme Rector but our first and fundamental Controversie is Whether there be any such at all but Christ. Did we believe there were any such at all we should readily be Papists either of those that give most to the Pope as Absolute or of those that make him the President of Councils and in their Intervals the Prime Church Governor according to the Laws Of which more anon That the Protestants commonly deny all Universal Soveraignty but Christ's I should tire the Reader needlesly to prove by numerous Citations He may soon know that will read 1. All the Churches Confessions in the Corpus Confessionum 2. Our Oaths for renouncing all foreign Jurisdictions 3. Our Disputants Luther de Conciliis Zuinglius Oecolampadius Melanchthon Brentius Calvin Bullinger Zanchy Illiricus Pezelius Musculus Aretius Chamier Molinaeus Blondel Dallaeus Rivet Paraeus Sohnius Piscator Beza Sadeel Danaeus Grynaeus Spanhemius Arminius Episcopius c. Jewel Whitaker Reignolds Crakenthorpe Abbot Challoner Willet Vsher White Chillingworth Davenant Morton Carlton Bernard Barrow c. Their Disputes were not Who is this Summa Potestas Ministerial to Govern all the Christian World but whether there be any such XXVI No Protestants ever yet denied the Councils of Pisa Constance and Basil and the French allowed Clergy to be Papists because they were not of the Italian strain nor for the absolute unlimited Power of the Pope Nor did any call them Protestants XXVII That the Pope hath no right to an Universal Supremacy Headship or Government I have proved at large in the First and Second Part of my Key for Catholicks And Dr. Barrow hath better and more largely proved after many other Briefly 1. No Man is naturally capable of Governing all the World Only God and our Redeemer is capable Man cannot know hear send execute over all the Earth per se per alios it 's a kind of madness to imagine it 2. The Christian Churches are mostly under the Power of various Princes Abassines Turks Persians the Mogol Moscovites Tartarians Swedes Danes English c. that will not receive the Pope How then can he govern the Subjects under them 3. Had such a Head been of Christ's making he would have plainly made us understand it by his word Of so great importance would it be to the Churches Unity and our Salvation 4. When Heresies and Sects and Controversies arose and troubled the Church the Apostles would sure have told them this necessary means of ending all and living in Unity and Concord 5. Paul would never have chidden the Contenders for saying I am of Cephas if centering in him had been the only uniting means 6. Peter never exercised any Power over the rest of the Apostles nor over the Universal Church any more than the rest 7. If he had it had been no more to the Bishop of Rome than to the Bishop of Antioch and others 8. None can shew any Commission of Christ for such a Headship And none other can authorize them 9. The Council of Chalcedon saith expresly that it 's being the Imperial Seat caused Rome to have the Primacy by the Father's Gift 10. The whole Greek Church never believed that Christ made any Universal Soveraign For 1. Else they would never have contended for the Primacy at Constantinople nor for the second place For they knew that was no Apostolical Seat nor did they claim it as by Christs institution and they were not so impudent as to set up a Human Right before a Divine 2. And even they never claimed a Soveraignty over the Extra Imperial Christian World but only over the Churches of the Empire and those that had been the Emperor's Subjects 11. The Fathers and Primitive Church and Tradition are all against the Pope's Universal Government without the Empire as I have elsewhere proved 12. The Catholick Church is now against such a Soveraign even the far greatest part of Christians And it never acknowledged him or united in him in any Age. 13. There is less reason for one Church Monarch over all the World than for one Civil Monarch as shall be further proved which yet no Man hath the face to plead for 14. This Papal Claim hath no just pretence There is no work or use for any such Power of which more anon Let not Magistrates or Pastors be robbed of their right and there will no Governing Work be left for the Pope 15. It is an unsufferable Usurpation of the Power of all Christian Princes who are entrusted with the Exteriors and Accidentals of the Church and a wrong to them and their Kingdoms to subject them to Foreigners The Pope of old was a Subject to one Prince And for one Princes Subject to Rule all other Princes of the Earth is in effect to make that Prince the Ruler of them all 16. A humane Usurping Head maketh an human adulterous