Persons and Causes of the Church But I see that hitherto they which condemn utterly the name so applyed do it because they mislike that such Power should be given to Civil Governours The great exception that Sir Thomas Moor took against that Title who suffered death for denyal of it was for that it maketh a Lay a Secular Person the head of the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical as though God himself did not name Said the Head of all the Tribes of Israel and consequently of that Tribe also among the rest whereunto the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical belonged when the Authors of the Centuries reprove it in Kings and Civil Governours the reason is I st is non competit iste Primatus such kinde of Power is too high for them they fit it not In excuse of Mr. Calvin by whom this Realm is condemned of Blasphemy for intituâ—ing H. 8. Supream Head of this Church under Christ a charitable conjecture is made that he spake by misinformation howbeit as he professeth utter dislike of that name so whether the name be used or no the very Power it self which we give unto Civil Magistrates he much complaineth of and protesteth That their Power over all things was it which had ever wounded him deeply That un-advised Persons had made them too Spiritual that throughout Germany this fault did reign that in these very parts where Calvin himself was it prevailed more than was to be wished that Rulers by imagining themselves so Spiritual have taken away Ecclesiastical Government that they think they cannot reign unless they abolish all the Authority of the Cuurch and be themselves the chief Iudges as well in Doctrine as in the whole Spiritual Regency So that in truth the Question is Whether the Magistrate by being Head in such sense as we term him do use or exercise any part of that Authority not which belongeth unto Christ but which other men ought to have These things being first considered thus it will be easier to judge concerning our own estate whether by force of Ecclesiastical Government Kings have any other kinde of Prerogative that they may lawfully hold and enjoy It is as some do imagine too much that Kings of England should be termed Heads in relation of the Church That which we do understand by Headship is their only Supreme Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs and Causes That which lawful Princes are what should make it unlawful for men in Spiritual Stiles or Titles to signifie If the having of Supream Power be allowed why is the expressing thereof by the Title of Head condemned They seem in words at leastwise some of them now at the length to acknowledge that Kings may have Dominion or Supream Government even over all both Persons and Causes We in terming our Princes Heads of the Church do but testifie that we acknowledge them such Governours Again to this it will peradventure be replyed That howsoever we interpret our selves it is not fit for a mortal man and therefore not fit for a Civil Magistrate to be intituled the Head of the Church which was given to our Saviour Christ to lift him above all Powers Rules Dominions Titles in Heaven or in Earth Where if this Title belong also to Civil Magistrates then it is manifest that there is a Power in Earth whereunto our Saviour Christ is not in this point superiour Again if the Civil Magistrate may have this Title he may be termed also the first-begotten of all Creatures The first begotten of all the Dead yea the Redeemer of his People For these are alike given him as Dignities whereby he is lifted up above all Creatures Besides this the whole Argument of the Apostle in both places doth lead to show that this Title Head of the Church cannot be said of any Creature And further the very domonstrative Articles amongst the Hebrews especially whom St. Paul doth follow serveth to tye that which is verified of one unto himself alone so that when the Apostle doth say that Christ it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Head it is as if he should say Christ and none other is the Head of the Church Thus have we against the entituling of the Highest Magistrate head with relation unto the Church four several Arguments gathered by strong surmise out of words marvellous unlikely to have been written to any such purpose as that whereunto they are now used and urged To the Ephesians the Apostle writeth That Christ God had set on his right hand in the Heavenly places above all Regency and Authority and Power and Dominion and whatsoever name is named not in this World only but in that which shall be also and hath under his feet set all things and hath given him head above all things unto the Church which is his Body even the fulness of him which accomplisheth all in all To the Colossians in like manner That he is the head of the body of the Church who is a first born Regency out of the dead to the end he might be made amongst them all such an one as both the Chiefty He meaneth amongst all them whom he mentioned before saying By him all things that are were made the things in the Heavens and the things in the Earth the things that are visible and the things that are invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Regencies c. Unto the fore-alledged Arguments therefore we answer First that it is not simply the title of Head in such sort understood as the Apostle himself meant it so that the same being imparted in another sense unto others doth not any wayes make those others his Equals in as much as diversity of things is usually to be understood even when of words there is no diversity and it is onely the adding of one and the same thing unto divers Persons which doth argue equality in them If I term Christ and Cesar Lords yet this is no equalizing Cesar with Christ because it is not thereby intended To term the Emperor Lord saith Tertullian I for my part will not refuse so that I be not required to call him Lord in the same sense that God is so termed Neither doth it follow which is objected in the second place that if the Civil Magistrate may be intituled a Head he may as well be termed the first begotten of all Creatures the first begotten of the Dead and the Redeemer of his People For albeit the former dignity doth lift him up to less than these yet these terms are not applyable and apt to signifie any other inferior dignity as the former term of Head was The Argument of matter which the Apostle followeth hath small evidence or proof that his meaning was to appropriate unto Christ that the aforesaid title otherwise than only in such sense as doth make it being so understood too high to be given to any Creature As for the force of the Article where our Lord and Saviour is called the Head it serveth
Now I taste nothing sweet but the Bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World Now mine eys see nothing but Jesus rising from the dead Now my ears refuse all kinde of melody to hear the Song of them that hath gotten victory of the Beast and of his Image and of his Mark and of the number of his Name that stand on the Sea of Glass having the Harps of God and singing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes O King of Saints Surely if the Spirit have been thus effectual in the secret work of our Regeneration unto newness of life if we endeavour thus to frame our selves anew then we may say boldly with the blessed Apostle in the tenth to the Hebrews We are not of them which withdraw our selves to perdition but which follow Faith to the conservation of the Soul For they which fall away from the grace of God and separate themselves unto perdition they are fleshly and carnal they have not God's holy Spirit But unto you because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts to the end ye might know that Christ hath built you upon a Rock unmoveable that he hath registred your names in the Book of life that he hath bound himself in a sure and everlasting Covenant to be your God and the God of your Children after you that he hath suffered as much groaned as oft prayed as heartily for you as for Peter O Father keep them in thy Name O Righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me I have declared thy name unto them and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them The Lord of his infinite mercy give us hearts plentifully fraught with the treasure of this blessed assurance of Faith unto the end 15. Here I must advertise all men that have the testimony of God's holy fear within their Breasts to consider how unkindly and injuriously our own Countrey-men and Brethren have dealt with us by the space of four and twenty years from time to time as if we were the men of whom St. Iude here speaketh never ceasing to charge us some with Scism some with Heresie some with plain and manifest Apostasie as if we had clean separated our selves from Christ utterly forsaken God quite abjured Heaven and trampled all Truth and Religion under our feet Against this third sort God himself shall plead our Cause in that day when they shall answer us for these words nor we them To others by whom we are accused for Schism and Heresie we have often made our reasonable and in the sight of God I trust allowable Answers For in the way which they call Heresie we worship the God of our Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets That which they call Schism we know to be our reasonable service unto God and obedience to his voyce which cryeth shrill in our ears Go out of Babylon my People that you be not Partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her Plagues And therefore when they rise up against us having no quarrel but this we need not seek any farther for our Apology than the words of Abiah to Iereboam and his Army 2 Chron. 13. O Ieroboam and Israel hear you me Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel hath given the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever even to him and to his Sons by a Covenant of Salt that is to say an everlasting Covenant Jesuits and Papists hear ye me ought you not to know that the Father hath given all power unto the Son and hath made him the onely Head over his Church wherein he dwelleth as an Husband-man in the midst of his Vineyard manuring it with the sweat of his own brows not letting it forth to others For as it is in the Canticles Solomon had a Vineyard in Baalhamon he gave the Vineyard unto Keepers every one bringing forth the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of Silver but my Vineyard which is mine is before me saith Christ. It is true this is meant of the Mystical Head set over the Body which is not seen But as he hath reserved the Mystical Administration of the Church invisible unto himself so he hath committed the Mystical Government of Congregations visible to the Sonnes of David by the same Covenant whose Sons they are in the governing of the Flock of Christ whomsoever the Holy Ghost hath set over them to go before them and to lead them in several Pastures one in this Congregation another in that as it is written Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Neither will ever any Pope or Papist under the Cope of Heaven be able to prove the Romish Bishop's usurped Supremacy over all Churches by any one word of the Covenant of Salt which is the Scripture For the Children in our streets do now laugh them to scorn when they force Thou art Peter to this purpose The Pope hath no more reason to draw the Charter of his universal Authority from hence than the Brethren had to gather by the words of Christ in the last of St. Iohn that the Disciple whom Jesus loved should not dye If I will that he â—arry till I come what is that to thee saith Christ. Straitways a report was raised amongst the Brethren that this Disciple should not dye Yet Jesus said not to him He shall not dye but If I will that he â—arry till I come what is that to thee Christ hath said in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Gospel to Simon the Son of Ionas I say to thee Thou art Peter Hence an opinion is held in the World That the Pope is universal Head of all Churches Yet Jesus said not The Pope is universal Head of all Churches but Ta es Petrus Thou art Peter Howbeit as Ieroboam the son of Nebat the servant of Solomon rose up and rebelled against his Lord and there were gathered unto him vain men and wicked which made themselves strong against Roboam the son of Solomon because Roboam was but a Childe and tender-hearted and could not resist them So the Son of Perdition and Man of Sin being not able to brook the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which forbad his Disciples to be like Princes of Nations They bear rule that are called Gracious it shall not be so with you hath risen up and rebelled against his Lord and to strengthen his arm he hath crept into the Houses almost of all the Noblest Families round about him and taken their
to tye that unto him by way of excellency which in meaner degrees is common to others it doth not exclude any other utterly from being termed Head but from being intituled as Christ is the Head by way of the very highest degree of excellency Not in the communication of Names but in the confusion of things there is errour Howbeit if Head were a Name that could not well be nor never had been used to signifie that which a Magistrate may be in relation to some Church but were by continual use of speech appropriated unto the onely thing it signifieth being applyed unto Jesus Christ then although we must carry in our selves a right understanding yet ought we otherwise rather to speak unless we interpret our own meaning by some clause of plain speech because we are else in manifest danger to be understood according to that construction and sense wherein such words are personally spoken But here the rarest construction and most removed from common sense is that which the Word doth import being applyed unto Christ that which we signifie by it in giving it to the Magistrate it is a great deal more familiar in the common conceit of men The word is so fit to signifie all kindes of Superiority Preheminence and Chiefty that nothing is more ordinary than to use it in vulgar speech and in common understanding so to take it If therefore Christian Kings may have any preheminence or chiefty above all others although it be less than that which Theodore Beza giveth who placeth Kings amongst the principal Members whereunto publick Function to the Church belongeth and denyeth not but that of them which have publick Fonction the Civil Magistrates power hath all the rest at command in regard of that part of his Office which is to procure that Peace and good 〈…〉 especially kept in things concerning the first Table if even hereupon they term him the Head of the Church which is his Kingdom it should not seem so unfit a thing Which Title surely we could not communicate to any other no not although it should at our hands be exacted with torments but that our meaning herein is made known to the World so that no man which will understand can easily be ignorant that we do not impart unto Kings when we term them Heads the honor which is properly given to our Lord and Saviour Christ when the blessed Apostle in Scripture doth term him the Head of the Church The power which we signifie in that name differeth in three things plainly from that which Christ doth challenge First it differeth in order because God hath given to his Church for the Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farr above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not in this World only but also in that which is to come Whereas the Power which others have is subordinate unto his Secondly again as he differeth in order so in measure of Power also because God hath given unto him the ends of the Earth for his Possesion unto him Dominion from Sea to Sea unto him all power both in Heaven and Earth unto him such Soveraignty as doth not only reach over all places persons and things but doth rest in his own only Person and is not by any succession continued he reigneth as Head and King nor is there any kinde of law which tyeth him but his own proper will and wisdom his power is absolute the same joyntly over all which it is severally over each not so the Power of any other Headship How Kings are restrained and how their Power is limited we have shewed before so that unto him is given by the title of Headship ever the Church that largeness of Power wherein neither Man nor Angel can be matched not compared with him Thirdly the last and greatest difference between him and them is in the very kinde of their Power The Head being of all other parts of the Body most divine hath dominion over all the rest it is the fountain of sense of motion the throne where the guide of the Soul doth reign the Court from whence direction of all things human proceedeth Why Christ is called the Head of the Church these Causes themselves do yield As the Head is the chiefest part of a man above which there is none alwayes joyned with the Body so Christ the highest in his Church is alwayes knit to it Again as the Head giveth sense and motion unto all the Body so he quickneth us and together with understanding of heavenly things giveth strength to walk therein Seeing therefore that they cannot affirm Christ sensibly present or alwayes visibly joyned unto his Body the Church which is on Earth in as much as his Corporal residence is in Heaven again seeing they do not affirm it were intolerable if they should that Christ doth personally administer the external Regiment of outward Actions in the Church but by the secret inward influence of his Grace giveth Spiritual life and the strength of ghostly motions thereunto Impossible it is that they should so close up their eyes as not to discern what odds there is between that kinde of operation which we imply in the Headship of Princes and that which agreeth to our Saviours dominion over the Church The Headship which we give unto Kings is altogether visibly exercised and ordereth only the external frame of the Church-affairs here amongst us so that it plainly differeth from Christ's even in very nature and kinde To be in such sort united unto the Church as he is to work as he worketh either on the whole Church or upon any particular Assembly or in any one man doth neither agree nor hath any possibility of agreeing unto any one besides him Against the first distinction or difference it is to be objected That to entitle a Magistrate head of the Church although it be under Christ is not absurd For Christ hath a two-fold Superiority ever his and even Kingdoms according to the one he hath a Superior which is his Father according to the other none had immediate Authority with his Father that is to say of the Church he is Head and Governor onely as the Son of Man Head and Governor of Kingdoms onely as the Son of God In the Church as Man he hath Officers under Him which Officers are Ecclesiastical Persons As for the Civil Magistrate his Office belongeth unto Kingdoms and to Common-wealths neither is he there an under or subordinate Head considering that his Authority cometh from God simply and immediately even as our Saviour Christ's doth Whereunto the sum of our Answer is First that as Christ being Lord or Head over all doth by vertue of that Soveraignty rule all so he hath no more a Superiour in governing his Church than in exercising Soveraign Dominion upon the rest of the World besides Secondly That all Authority as well Civil as Ecclesiastical is subordinate unto him And Thirdly the
any longer under him but he together with them under God receiving the joyes of everlasting triumph that so God may be in all all misery in all the Wicked through his Justice in all the Righteous through his love all felicity and blisse In the mean while he reigneth over the World as King and doth those things wherein none is Superiour unto him whether we respect the works of his Providence and Kingdom or of his Regiment over the Church The cause of Errour in this point doth seem to have been a misconceit that Christ as Mediatour being inferiour to his Father doth as Mediatour all Works of Regiment over the Church when in truth Regiment doth belong to his Kingly Office Mediatourship to his Priestly For as the High-Priest both offered Sacrifices for expiation of the Peoples sins and entred into the holy Place there to make intercession for them So Christ having finished upon the Cross that part of his Priestly Office which wrought the propitiation for our Sinnes did afterwards enter into very Heaven and doth there as Mediatour of the New Testament appear in the sight of God for us A like sleight of Judgement it is when they hold that Civil Authority is from God but not immediately through Christ nor with any subordination to God nor doth any thing from God but by the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny it not to be said of Christ in the Old Testament By me Princes rule and the Nobles and all the Iudges of the Earth In the New as much is taught That Christ is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Wherefore to the end it may more plainly appear how all Authority of Man is derived from God through Christ and must by Christian men be acknowledged to be no otherwise held then of and under him we are to note that because whatsoever hath necessary being the Son of God doth cause it to be and those things without which the World cannot well continue have necessary being in the World a thing of so great use as Government cannot choose but be originally from Him Touching that Authority which Civil Magistrates have in Ecclesiastical Affairs it being from God by Christ as all other good things are cannot chuse but be held as a thing received at his hands and because such power is of necessity for the ordering of Religion wherein the essence and very being of the Church consisteth can no otherwise slow from him than according to that special care which he hath to govern and guide his own People it followeth that the said Authority is of and under him after a more special manner in that he is Head of the Church and not in respect of his general Regency over the World All things saith the Apostle speaking unto the Church are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is God's Kings are Christ's as Saints because they are of the Church if not collectively yet divisively understood It is over each particular Person within that Church where they are Kings Surely Authority reacheth both unto all mens persons and to all kindes of causes also It is not denyed but that they may have and lawfully exercise it such Authority it is for which and for no other in the World we term them Heads such Authority they have under Christ because he in all things is Lord overall and even of Christ it is that they have received such Authority in as much as of him all lawful Powers are therefore the Civil Magistrate is in regard of this Power an under and subordinate Head of Christ's People It is but idle where they speak That although for several Companies of Men there may be several Heads or Governours differing in the measure of their Authority from the Chiefest who is Head over all yet it cannot be in the Church for that the reason why Head-Magistrates appoint others for such several places it Because they cannot be present every where to perform the Office of an Head But Christ is never from his Body nor from any Part of it and therefore needeth not to substitute any which may be Heads some over one Church and some over another Indeed the consideration of Man's imbecillity which maketh many Heads necessary where the burthen is too great for one moved Iethro to be a Perswader of Moses that a number of Heads of Rulers might be instituted for discharge of that duty by parts which in whole he saw was troublesome Now although there be not in Christ any such defect or weakness yet other causes there be divers more than we are able to search into wherefore it might seem unto him expedient to divide his Kingdom into many Provinces and place many Heads over it that the Power which each of them hath in particular with restraint might illustrate the greatness of his unlimited Authority Besides howsoever Christ be Spiritually alwayes united unto every part of his Body which is the Church Nevertheless we do all know and they themselves who alledge this will I doubt not confess also that from every Church here visible Christ touching visible and corporal presence is removed as farr as Heaven from the Earth is distant Visible Government is a thing necessary for the Church and it doth not appear how the exercise of visible Government over such Multitudes every where dispersed throughout the World should consist without sundry visible Governours whose Power being the greatest in that kinde so farr as it reacheth they are in consideration thereof termed so farr Heads Wherefore notwithstanding the perpetual conjunction by vertue whereof our Saviour alwayes remaineth spiritually united unto the parts of his Mystical Body Heads indeed with Supream Power extending to a certain compasse are for the exercise of a visible Regiment not unnecessary Some other reasons there are belonging unto this branch which seem to have been objected rather for the exercise of mens wits in dissolving Sophismes than that the Authors of them could think in likelyhood thereby to strengthen their cause For example If the Magistrate be Head of the Church within his own Dominion then is he none of the Church For all that are of the Church make the Body of Christ and every one of the Church fulfilleth the place of one member of the Body By making the Magistrate therefore Head we do exclude him from being a Member subject to the Head and so leave him no place in the Church By which reason the name of a Body Politick is supposed to be alwayes taken of the inferiour sort alone excluding the Principal Guides and Governors contrary to all Mens customes of speech The Errour ariseth by misconceiving of some Scripture-sentences where Christ as the Head and the Church as the Body are compared or opposed the one to the other And because in such comparisons ooppositions the Body is taken for those only parts which are subject unto the Head they imagine that who so is the Head of any
Church he is therefore even excluded from being a part of that Church That the Magistrate can be none of the Church if so we make him the Head of the Church in his own Dominions A chief and principal part of the Church therefore Next this is surely a strange conclusion A Church doth indeed make the Body of Christ being wholly taken together and every one in the same Church fulfilleth the place of a Member in the Body but not the place of an inferiour Member the which hath Supream Authority and Power over all the rest Wherefore by making the Magistrate Head in his own Dominions we exclude him from being a Member subject unto any other Person which may visibly there rule in place of a Superiour or Head over him but so farr are we off from leaving him by this means no place in the Church that we do grant him the hief place Indeed the Heads of those visible Bodies which are many can be but parts inferiour in that Spiritual Body which is but one yea they may from tâ—â—s be excluded clean who notwithstanding ought to be honoured as possessing in order the highest rooms But for the Magistrate to be termed in his Dominions an Head doth not barr him from being any way a Part or Member of the Church of God As little to the purpose are those other Cavils A Church which hath the Magistrate for Head is perfect man without Christ So that the knitting of our Saviour thereunto should be an addition of that which is too much Again If the Church be the Body of Christ and of the Civil Magistrate it shall have two heads which being monstrous is to the great dishonour of Christ and his Church Thirdly If the Church be planted in a popular estate then forasmuch as all govern in common and all have Authority all shall be Heads there and no Body at all which is another Monster It might be seared what this birth of so many Monsters together might portend but that we know how things natural enough in themselves may seem monstrous through misconceit which errour of minde is indeed a Monster and the skilful in Nature's mysteryes have used to term it the Wombe of Monsters if any be it is that troubled Understanding wherein because things lye confusedly mixt together what they are it appeareth not A Church perfect without Christ I know not how a man shall imagin unless there may be either Christianity without Christ or else a Church without Christianity If Magistrates be Heads of the Church they are of necessity Christians then is their Head Christ. The adding of Christ universal Head over all unto Magistrates particular Headship is no more superfluous in any Church than in other Societyes each is to be both severally subject unto some Head and to have a Head also general for them all to be subject unto For so in Armys in Civil Corporations we see it fareth A Body Politick in such respects is not like a Natural Body in this more Heads than one is superfluous in that not It is neither monstrous nor yet uncomely for a Church to have different Heads for if Christian Churches be in number many and every of them a perfect Body by it self Christ being Lord and Head over all Why should we judge it a thing more monstrous for one Body to have two Heads than one Head so many Bodyes Him that God hath made the Supream Head of the whole Church the Head not only of that Mystical Body which the eye of man is not able to discern but even of every Christian Politick Society of every visible Church in the World And whereas Lastly it is thought so strange that in Popular States a Multitude to it self should be both Body and Head all this Wonderment doth grow from a little over-sight in deeming that the Subject wherein Headship ought to reside should be evermore some one Person which thing is not necessary For in the collective Body that hath not derived as yet the Principality of power into some one or few the whole of necessity must be Head over each part otherwise it could not have power possibly to make any one certain Person head inasmuch as the very power of making a Head belongeth unto Headship These supposed Monsters we see therefore are no such Giants as that there should need any Hercules to tame them The last difference which we have between the Title of Head when we give it unto Christ and when we give it to other Governours is that the kinde of Dominion which it importeth is not the same in both Christ is Head as being the Fountain of Life and Ghostly nutriment the Well-spring of Spiritual Blessings powred into the Body of the Church they Heads as being the principal instruments for the Churches outward Government he Head as Founder of the House they as his chiefest Overseers Against this is exception especially taken and our Purveyours are herein said to have their provision from the Popish Shambles for by Fighius and Harding to prove that Christ alone is not Head of the Church this distinction they say is brought that according to the inward influence of Grace Christ only is Head but according to the outward Government the being of Head is a thing common to him with others To raise up Falshoods of old condemned and bring it for confirmation of any thing doubtful which already hath sufficiently been proved an error and is worthily so taken this would justly deserve censuring But shall manifest truth therefore be reproached because men convicted in some things of manifest untruth have at any time thought or alledged it If too much eagerness against their Adversaries had not made them forget themselves they might remember where being charged as Maintainers of those very things for which others before them have been condemned of Heresie yet lest the name of any such Heretick holding the same which they do should make them odious they stick not frankly to confess That they are not afraid to consent in some points with Iews and Turks which defence for all that were a very weak Buckler for such as should consent with Jews and Turks in that which they have been abhorted and hated for in the Church But as for this distinction of Headship Spiritual and Mystical of Jesus Christ ministerial and outward in others besides Christ what cause is there to mislike either Harding or Pighins or any other besides for it That which they have been reproved for is not because they did therein utter an untruth but such a Truth as was not sufficient to bear up the Cause which they did thereby seek to maintain By this distinction they have both truly and sufficiently proved that the name of Head importing Power and Dominion over the Church might be given to others besides Christ without prejudice to any part of his honor That which they should have made manifest was The name of Head importing the power of universal
If there be of the antient Fathers which say That thee is but one Head of the Church Christ and that the Minister that baptizeth cannoâ—â—e the Head of him that is baptized because Christ is the Head of the whole Church and tat Paul could not be Head of the Church which he planted because Christ is the Head of the whole Body They understand the name of Head in such sort as we grant that it is oâ— applicable to any other no not in relation to the least part of the whole Churh he which baptizeth baptizeth into Christ he which converteth converteth into Christ he which ruleth ruleth for Christ. The whole Church can have but one to be Head as Lord and Owner of all wherefore if Christ be Head in that kinde it followeth that no other besides can be so either to the whole or to any part To call and dissolve all solemn Assemblies about the Publick Affairs of the Church AMongst sundry Prerogatives of Simons Dominion over the Jews there is reckoned as not the least That no man might gather any great Assembly in the Land without him For so the manner of Jewish Regiment had alwayes been that whether the cause for which men assembled themselves in peaceable good and orderly sort were Ecclesiastical or Civil Supream Authority should assemble them David gathered all Israel together unto Ierusalem when the Ark was to be removed he assembled the Sons of Aaron and the Levites Solomon did the like at such time as the Temple was to be dedicated when the Church was to be reformed Asa in his time did the same The same upon like occasions was done afterwards by Ioash Hezekiat Iosiah and others The Consuls of Rome Polybius affirmeth to have had a kinde of Regal Authority in that they might call together the Senate and People whensoever it pleased them Seeing therefore the Affairs of the Church and Christian Religion are Publick Affairs for the ordering whereof more Solemn Assemblies sometimes are of as great importance and use as they are for Secular Affairs It seemeth no less an act of Supream Authority to call the one then the other Wherefore the Clergy in such wise gathered together is an Ecclesiastical Senate which with us as in former times the chiefest Prelate at his discretion did use to assemble so that afterwards in such considerations as have been before specified it seemed more meet to annex the said Prerogative to the Crown The plot of reformed Discipline not liking thereof so well taketh order that every former Assembly before it breaketh up should it self appoint both the time and place of their After-meeting again But because I finde not any thing on that side particularly alledged against us herein a longer disputation about so plain a cause shall not need The antient Imperial Law forbiddeth such Assemblies as the Emperor's Authority did not cause to be made Before Emperors became Christians the Church had never any General Synod their greatest Meeting consisting of Bishops and others the gravest in each Province As for the Civil Governor's Authority it suffered them only as things not regarded or not accounted of at such times as it did suffer them So that what right a Christian King hath as touching Assemblies of that kinde we are not able to judge till we come to later times when Religion had won the hearts of the highest Powers Constantine as Pighius doth grant was not only the first that ever did call any General Councel together but even the first that devised the calling of them for consultation about the businesses of God After he had once given the example his Successors a long time followed the same in so much that St. Hierom to disprove the Authority of a Synod which was pretended to be general useth this as a forcible Argument Dic quis Imperator have Synodum jusserit convocari Their Answer hereunto is no Answer which say That the Emperors did not this without conference had with the Bishops for to our purpose it is enough if the Clergy alone did it not otherwise than by the leave and appointment of their Soveraign Lords and Kings Whereas therefore it is on the contrary side alledged that Valentinian the elder being requested by Catholick Bishops to grant that there might be a Synod for the ordering of matters called in question by the Arians answered that he being one of the Laity might not meddle with such matters and thereupon willed that the Priests and Bishops to whom the care of those things belongeth should meet and consult together by themselves where they thought good We must with the Emperor's speech weigh the occasion and drift thereof Valentinian and Valens the one a Catholick the other an Arian were Emperors together Valens the Governour of the East and Valentinian of the West Empire Valentinian therefore taking his Journey from the East unto the West parts and passing for that intent through Thracia there the Bishops which held the soundnesse of Christian Belief because they knew that Valent was their professed Enemy and therefore if the other was once departed out of those quarters the Catholick Cause was like to finde very small favour moved presently Valentinian about a Councel to be assembled under the countenance of his Authority who by likelihood considering what inconvenience might grow thereby inasmuch as it could not be but a means to incense Valens the more against them refused himself to be Author of or present at any such Assembly and of this his denyal gave them a colourable reason to wit that he was although an Emperour yet a secular Person and therefore not able in matters of so great obscurity to fit as a competent Judge But if they which were Bishops and learned men did think good to consule thereof together they might Whereupon when they could not obtain that which they most desired yet that which he granted unto them they took and forthwith had a Councel Valentinian went on towards Rome they remaining in consultation till Valens which accompanied him returned back so that now there was no remedy but either to incurr a manifest contempt or else at the hands of Valens himself to seek approbation of that they had done To him therefore they became Suitors his Answer was short Either Arianism or Exile which they would whereupon their Banishment ensued Let reasonable men now therefore be Judges how much this example of Valentinian doth make against the Authority which we say that Soveraign Rulers may lawfully have as concerning Synods and Meetings Ecclesiastical Of the Authority of making Laws THere are which wonder that we should account any Statute a Law which the High Court of Parliament in England hath established about the matters of Church-Regiment the Prince and Court of Parliament having as they suppose no more lawful means to give order to the Church and Clergy in those things than they have to make Laws for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven
which sanctified our Nature in Christ that which made it a Sacrifice available to take away sin is the same which quickneth it raised it out of the Grave after Death and exalted it unto Glory Seeing therefore that Christ is in us as a quickning Spirit the first degree of Communion with Christ must needs consist in the Participation of his Spirit which Cyprian in that respect well termeth Germanissimam Societatem the highest and truest Society that can be between man and him which is both God and Man in one These things St. Cyril duly considering reproveth their speeches which â—aught that onely the Deity of Christ is the Vine whereupon we by Faith do depend as Branches and that neither his Flesh not our Bodies are comprised in this resemblance For doth any man doubt but that even from the Flesh of Christ our very Bodies do receive that Life which shall make them glorious at the latter day and for which they are already accounted parts of his Blessed Body Our corruptible bodies could never live the life they shall live were it not that here they are joyned with his Body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a cause immortality a cause by removing through the Death and Merit of his own Flesh that which hindered the life of ours Christ is therefore both as God and as Man that true Vine whereof we both spiritually and corporally are Branches The mixture of his Bodily Substance with ours is a thing which the Ancient Fathers disclaim Yet the mixture of his Flesh with ours they speak of to signifie what our very bodies through Mystical Conjunction receive from that vital efficacy which we know to be in his and from bodily mixtures they borrow divers Similitudes rather to declare the Truth then the manner of coherence between his sacred and the sanctified Bodies of Saints Thus much no Christian Man will deny That when Christ sanctified his own Flesh giving as God and taking as Man the Holy Ghost he did not this for himself onely but for our sakes that the Grace of Sanctification and Life which was first received in him might pass from him to his whole Race as Malediction came from Adam unto all mankinde Howbeit because the Work of his Spirit to those effects is in us prevented by Sin and Death possessing us before it is necessity that as well our present Sanctification unto newness of life as the future of Restauration of our Bodies should presuppose a participation of the Grace Efficacy Merit or Vertue of his Body and Blood without which Foundation first laid there is no place for those other operations of the Spirit of Christ to ensue So that Christ imparteth plainly himself by degrees Iâ— pleaseth him in Mercy to account himself incompleat and maimed without us But most assured we are that we all receive of his Fulness because he is in us as a moving and working Cause from which many blessed effects are really found to ensue and that in sundry both kindes and degrees all tending to eternal happiness It must be confest that of Christ working as a Creator and a Governor of the World by providence all are partakers not all partakers of that Grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he saveth Again as he dwelleth not by Grace in all so neither doth he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth Whence is it saith St. Augustine that some be holier then others are but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully then in others And because the Divine Substance of Christ is equally in all his Humane Substance equally distant from all it appeareth that the participation of Christ wherein there are many degrees and differences must needs consist in such effects as being derived from both Natures of Christ really into us are made our own and we by saving them in us are truly said to have him from whom they come Christ also more or less to inhabit and impart himself as the Graces are fewer or more greater or smaller which really flow into us form Christ. Christ is whole with the whole Church and whole with every part of the Church as touching his Person which can no way divide it self or be possest by degrees and portions But the Participation of Christ importeth besides the Presence of Christs Person and besides the Mystical Copulation thereof with the Parts and Members of his whole Church a true actual influence of Grace whereby the life which we live according to godliness is his and from him we receive those perfections wherein our eternal happiness consisteth Thus we participate Christ partly by imputation as when those things which he did and suffered for us are imputed unto us for Righteousness Partly by habitual and real infusion as when Grace is inwardly bestowed while we are on Earth and afterwards more fully both our Souls and Bodies make like unto his in Glory The first thing of his so infused into our hearts in this life is the Spirit of Christ whereupon because the rest of what kinde soever do all both necessarily depend and infallibly also easue therefore the Apostles term it sometime the Seed of God sometime the Pledge of our Heavenly Inheritance sometime the Hansel or Earnest of that which is to come From hence it is that they which belong to the Mystical Body of our Saviour Christ and be in number as the Stars of Heaven divided successively by reason of their mortal condition into many Generations are notwithstanding coupled every one to Christ their Head and all unto every particular person amongst themselves in as much as the same Spirit which anointed the Blessed Soul of our Saviour Christ doth so formalize unite and actuate his whole Race as if both he and they were so many Limbs compacted into one Body by being quickned all with one and the same Soul That wherein we are Partakers of Jesus Christ by Imputation agreeth equally unto all that have it For it consisteth in such Acts and Deeds of his as could not have longer continuance then while they were in doing nor at that very time belong unto any other but to him from whom they come and therefore how men either then or before or fithence should be made Partakers of them there can be no way imagined but onely by Imputation Again a Deed must either not be imputed to any but rest altogether in him whose it is or if at all it be imputed they which have it by Imputation must have it such as it is whole So that degrees being neither in the Personal Presence of Christ nor in the Participation of those effects which are ours by Imputation onely it resteth that we wholly apply them to the Participation of Christs infused Grace although even in this kinde also the first beginning of Life the Seed of God the First-fruits of Christs Spirit be without latitude For we have hereby onely the being of
that the affairs of Christians should be brought into publick judgement Howbeit not without comfort in our Lord are these travels undertaken by us for the hopes sake of eternal life to the end that with patience we may reap fruit So farr is Saint Augustin from thinking it unlawful for Pastors in such sort to judge Civil Causes that he plainly collecteth out of the Apostles words a necessity to undertake that duty yea himself he comforteth with the hope of a blessed reward in lieu of travel that way sustained Again even where whole Christian Kingdoms are how troublesome were it for Universities and other greater Collegiate Societies erected to serve as Nurseries unto the Church of Christ if every thing which civilly doth concern them were to be carried from their own peculiar Governors because for the most part they are as fittest it is they should be Persons Ecclesiastical Calling It was by the wisdom of our famous Predecessors foreseen how unfit this would be and hereupon provided by grant of special Charters that it might be as now it is in the Universities where their Vice-Chancellors being for the most part Professors of Divinity are nevertheless Civil Judges over them in the most of their ordinary Causes And to go yet some degrees further A thing impossible it is not neither altogether unusual for some who are of royal blood to be consecrated unto the Ministry of Jesus Christ and so to be Nurses of God's Church not only as the Prophet did fore-tell but also as the Apostle Saint Paul was Now in case the Crown should by this mean descend unto such Persons perhaps when they are the very last or perhaps the very best of their Race so that a greater benefit they are not able to bestow upon a Kingdom than by accepting their right therein shall the sanctity of their Order deprive them of that honour whereunto they have right by blood or shall it be a barr to shut out the publick good that may grow by their vertuous Regiment If not then must they cast off the Office which they received by Divine Imposition of hands or if they carry a more religious opinion concerning that heavenly Function it followeth that being invested as well with the one as the other they remain God's lawfully anointed both ways With men of skill and mature judgement there is of this so little doubt that concerning such as at this day are under the Archbishops of Ments Colen and Travers being both Archbishops and Princes of the Empire yea such as live within the Popes own Civil Territories there is no cause why any should deny to yield them civil obedience in any thing which they command not repugnant to Christian Piety yea even that civilly for such as are under them not to obey them were the part of seditious Persons Howbeit for Persons Ecclesiastical thus to exercise Civil Dominion of their own is more than when they onely sustain some Publick Office or deal in some business Civil being thereunto even by Supream Authority required As Nature doth not any thing in vain so neither Grace Wherefore if it please God to bless some Principal Attendants on his own Sanctuary and to endue them with extraordinary parts of excellency some in one kinde some in another surely a great derogation it were to the very honour of him who bestowed so precious Graces except they on whom he hath bestowed them should accordingly be imployed that the fruit of those Heavenly Gifts might extend it self unto the Body of the Common-wealth wherein they live which being of purpose instituted for so all Common-wealths are to the end that all might enjoy whatsoever good it pleaseth the Almighty to endue each one with must needs suffer loss when it hath not the gain which eminent civil hability in Ecclesiastical Persons is now and then found apt to afford Shall we then discommend the People of Milan for using Ambrose their Bishop as an Ambassadour about their Publick and Politick Affairs the Jews for electing their Priests sometimes to be Leaders in Warr David for making the High Priest his Chiefest Counsellour of State Finally all Christian Kings and Princes which have appointed unto like services Bishops or other of the Clergy under them No! they have done in this respect that which most sincere and religious wisdom alloweth Neither is it allowable only when either a kinde of necessity doth cast Civil Offices upon them or when they are thereunto preferred in regard of some extraordinary fitness but further also when there are even of right annexed unto some of their places or of course imposed upon certain of their Persons Functions of Dignity and Account in the Common-wealth albeit no other consideration be had therein save this that their credit and countenance may by such means be augmented A thing if ever to be respected surely most of all now when God himself is for his own sake generally no where honoured Religion almost no where no where religiously adored the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments of Christ a very cause of disgrace in the eyes both of high and low where it hath not somewhat besides it self to be countenanced with For unto this very pass things are come that the glory of God is constrained even to stand upon borrowed credit which yet were somewhat the more tolerable if there were not that disswade to lead iâ— him No practise so vile but pretended Holynesse is made sometimes a Cloak to hide it The French King Philip Valois in his time made an Ordinance that all Prelates and Bishops shuâ—â—ld be clean excluded from Parliaments where the Affairs of the Kingdom were handled pretending that a King with good Conscience cannot draw Pastors having Cure of Souls from so weighty a business to trouble their Heads with Consultations of State But irreligious intents are not able to hide themselves no not when Holiness is made their Cloak This is plain and simple truth That the counsels of wicked men hate always the presence of them whose vertue though it should not be able to prevail against their purposes would notwithstanding be unto their minds a secret corrosive and therefore till either by one shift or another they can bring all things to their own hands alone they are not secure Ordinances holler and better there stand as yet in force by the grace of Almighty God and the works of his Providence amongst us Let not Envy so far prevail as to make us account that a Blemish which if there be in us any spark of sound Judgement or of religious Conscience we must of necessity acknowledge to be one of the chiefest Ornaments unto this Land By the antient Laws whereof the Clergy being held for the chief of those Three Estates which together make up the entire Body of this Common-wealth under one Supreme Head and Governour it hath all this time ever born a sway proportionable in the Weighty Affairs of the Land wise and vertuous Kings condescending
we that no publick detriment would follow upon the want of honorable Personages Ecclesiastical to be used in those Cases It will be haply said That the highest might learn to stoop and not to disdain the advice of some circumspect wise and vertuâ—us Minister of God albeit the Ministery were nor by such degrees distinguished What Princes in that case might or should do it is not material Such difference being presupposed therefore as we have proved already to have been the Ordinance of God there is no judicious man will ever make any question or doubt but that fit and direct it is for the highest and chiefest Order in God's Clergy to be imployed before others about so near and necessary Offices as the sacred estate of the greatest on earth doth require For this cause Ioshua had Eliazer David Abiathar Constantine Hosius Bishop of Corâ—nba other Emperors and Kings their Prelates by whom in private for with Princes this is the most effectual way of doing good to be adminished counselled comforted and if need were reproved Whensoever Sovereign Rulers are willing to admit these so necessary private conferences for their Spiritual and ghostly good inasmuch as they do for the time while they take advice grant a kinde of Superiority unto them of whom they receive it albeit haply they can be contented even so farr to bend to the gravest and chiefest Persons in the Order of God's Clergy yet this of the very best being rarely and hardly obtained now that there are whos 's greater and higher Callings do somewhat more proportion them unto that ample conceit and spirit wherewith the minde of so powerable Persons we possessed what should we look for in case God himself not authorizing any by miraculous means as of old he did his Prophets the equal meaness of all did leave in respect of Calling no more place of decency for one then for another to be admitted Let unexperienced wits imagin what pleaseth them in having to deal with so great Personages these Personal differences are so necessary that there must be regard had of them 4. Kingdoms being principally next unto God's Almightiness and the Soveraignty of the highest under God upheld by wisdom and by valour as by the chiefest human means to cause continuance in safety with honor for the labors of them who attend the service of God we reckon as means Divine to procure our protection from Heavens from hence it riseth that men excelling in either of these or descending from such as for excellency either way have been enobled or possesing howsoever the rooms of such as should be in Politick wisdom or in Martial prowess eminent are had in singular recommendation Notwithstanding because they are by the state of Nobility great but not thereby made inclinable to good things such they oftentimes prove even under the best Princes as under David certain of the Jewish Nobility were In Polity and Council the World had not Achitophels equal nor Hell his equal in deadly malice Ioab the General of the Host of Israel valiant industrious fortunate in Warr but withal head-strong cruel treacherous void of Piety towards God in a word so conditioned that easie it is not to define whether it were for David harder to miss the benefit of his War-like hability or to bear the enormity of his other Crimes As well for the cherishing of those vertues therefore wherein if Nobility do chance to flourish they are both an ornament and a stay to the Common-wealth wherein they live as also for the bridling of those disorders which if they loosly run into they are by reason of their greatness dangerous what help could thereever have been invented more Divine than the sorting of the Clergy into such Degrees that the chiefest of the Prelacy being matched in a kinde of equal yoke as it were with the higher the next with the lower degree of Nobility the reverend Authority of the one might be to the other as a courteous bridle a mean to keep them lovingly in aw that are exorbitant and to correct such excesses in them as whereunto their Courage State and Dignity maketh them over-prone O that there were for encouragement of Prelates herein that lactimation of all Christian Kings and Princes towards them which sometime a famous King of this Land either had or pretended to have for the countenancing of a principal Prelate under him in the actions of Spiritual Authority Let my Lord Archbishop know saith he that if a Bishop or Earl or any other great Person yea if my own chosen Son shall presume to withstand or to hinder his will and disposition whereby he may be with-held from performing the work of the Embass age committed unto him such a one shall finde that of his contempt I will shew my self no less a Persecutor and Revenger than if Treason were committed against mine own very Crown and Dignity Sith therefore by the Fathers and first Founders of this Common-weal it hath upon great experience and fore-cast been judged most for the good of all sorts that as the whole Body Politick wherein we live should be for strengths sake a three-fold Cable consisting of the King as a Supreme Head over all of Peers and Nobles under him and of the People under them so likewise that in this conjunction of States the second wreath of that Cable should for important respects consist as well of Lords Spiritual as Temporal Nobility and Prelacy being by this mean twined together how can it possibly be avoided but that the tearing away of the one must needs exceedingly weaken the other and by consequent impair greatly the good of all 5. The force of which detriment there is no doubt but that the common sort of men would feel to their helpless wo how goodly a thing soever they now surmise it to be that themselves and their godly Teachers did all alone without controulment of their Prelate For if the manifold jeopardies whereto a people destitute of Pastors is subject be unavoidable without Government and if the benefit of Government whether it be Ecclesiastical or Civil do grow principally from them who are principal therein as hath been proved out of the Prophet who albeit the people of Israel had sundry inferior Governors ascribeth not unto them the publick benefit of Government but maketh mention of Moses and Aaron only the Chief Prince and Chief Prelate because they were the well-spring of all the good which others under then did may we not boldly conclude that to take from the people their Prelate is to leave them in effect without Guides at leastwise without those Guides which are the strongest hands that God doth direct them by Then didst lead thy People like Sheep saith the Prophet by the hands of Moses and Aaron If now there arise any matter of Grievances between the Pastor and the People that are under him they have their Ordinary a Judge indifferent to determine their Causes and to end their strife
very words are That where such power is sealed into a family or kindred the Stock it self is thereby chosen but not the twig that springeth of it The next of the Stock unto him that raigneth are not through nearness of blood made Kings but rather set forth to stand for the Kingdom where Regal Dominion is hereditary it is notwithstanding if we look to the persons which have it altogether elective To this purpose are selected heaps of Scriptures concerning the Solemn Coronation or Inauguration of Saul of David of Solomon and others by the Nobles Ancients and people of the Common-weal of Israel as if these solemnities were a kind of deed whereby the right of Dominion is given Which strange untrue and unnatural conceits set abroad by seeds-men of Rebellion onely to animate unquiet spirits and to feed them with possibility of aspiring to Thrones if they can win the hearts of the people what hereditary title soever any other before them may have I say unjust and insolent positions I would not mention were it not thereby to make the countenance of truth more orient for unless we will openly proclaim defiance unto all law equity and reason we must there is no remedy acknowledge that in kingdoms hereditary birth giveth right unto Soveraign Dominion and the death of the predecessor putteth the successor by blood in seisin Those publick solemnities before specified do but serve for an open testification of the Inheritors right or belong unto the form of inducting him into possession of that thing he hath right unto therefore in case it doth happen that without right of blood a man in such wise be possessed all these new elections and investings are utterly void they make him no indefeasable estate the inheritor by blood may disposses him as an usurper The case thus standing albeit we judge it a thing most true that Kings even inheritors do hold their right in the Power of Dominion with dependency upon the whole Body politick over which they have Rule as Kings yet so it may not be understood as if such dependency did grow for that every supream Governor doth personally take from thence his power by way of gift bestowed of their own free accord upon him at the time of his entrance into the said place of his soveraign Government But the cause of dependency is that first Original conveyance when power was derived from the whole into One to pass from him unto them whom out of him nature by lawful births should produce and no natural or legal inability make uncapable Neither cab any man with reason think but that the first institution of Kings a sufficient consideration wherefore their power should always depend on that from which it did always flow by Original influence of power from the body into the King is the cause of Kings dependency in Power upon the body By dependency we mean subordination and subjection A manifest token of which dependency may be this as there is no more certain Argument that Lands are held under any as Lords then if we see that such lands is defect of heirs fall unto them by escheat In like manner it doth follow rightly that seeing Dominion when there is none to inherit it returneth unto the body therefore they which before were inheritors thereof did hold it with dependency upon the body so that by comparing the body with the head as touching power it seemeth always to reside in both fundamentally and radicially in the one in the other derivatively in the one the Habit in the other the Act of Power May a body politick then at all times withdraw in whole or in part the influence of Dominion which passeth from it if inconveniencies do grow thereby It must be presumed that supream Governors will not in such case oppose themselves and be stiff in detaining that the use whereof is with publick detriment but surely without their consent I see not how the body by any just means should be able to help it self saving when Dominion doth escheat such things therefore must be thought upon before hand that Power may be limited ere it be granted which is the next thing we are to consider In what Measure IN power of Dominion all Kings have not an equal latitude Kings by conquest make their own Charter so that how large their power either Civil or Spiritual is we cannot with any certainty define further then onely to set them in the line of the Law of God and Nature for bounds Kings by Gods own special appointment have also that largeness of power which he doth assign or permit with approbation touching Kings which were first instituted by agreement and composition made with them over whom they raign how far their power may extend the Articles of Compact between them is to shew not only the Articles of Compact at the first beginning which for the most part are either clean worm out of knowledg or else known to very few but whatsoever hath been after in free and voluhtary manner condiscended unto whether by express consent whereof positive laws are witnesses or else by silent allowance famously notified through custome reaching beyond the memory of man By which means of after Agreement it cometh many times to pass in Kingdoms that they whose ancient predecessors were by violence and force made subject do by little and little grow into that sweet form of Kingly Government which Philosophers define Regency willingly sustained and indued with Chiefly of power in the greatest things Many of the ancients in their writings do speak of Kings with such high and ample terms as if universality of Power even in regard of things and not of persons did appertain to the very being of a King The reason is because their speech concerning Kings they frame according to the state of those Monarchs to whom unlimited authority was given which some not observing imagine that all Kings even in that they are Kings ought to have whatsoever power they judge any Soveraign Ruler lawfully to have enjoyed But the most judicious Philosopher whose eye scarce any things did escape which was to be found in the bosome of nature he considering how far the power of one Soveraign Ruleâ— may be different from another Regal Authority noteth in Spartan Kings That of all others they were most tied to Law and so the most restrained power A King which hath not supream power in the greatest things is rather intituled a King then invested with reall Soveraignty We cannot properly term him a King of whom it may not be said at the least wise as touching certain the chiefest affairs of the State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his right in them is to have rule not subject to any other predominancy I am not of opinion that simply in Kings the most but the best limited power is best both for them and the people the most limited is that which may deal in fewest things the â—eâ—t that which
Civil Magistrate being termed Head by reason of that Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs which hath been already declared that themselves do acknowledge to be lawful It followeth that he is a Head even subordinated of Christ and to Christ. For more plain explication whereof unto God we acknowledge daily that Kingdom Power and Glory are his that he is the immortal and invisible King of Ages as well the future which shall be as the present which now is That which the Father doth work as Lord and King over all he worketh not without but by the Son who through coeternal generation receiveth of the Father that Power which the Father hath of himself And for that cause our Saviours words concerning his own Dominion are To me all Power both in Heaven and in Earth is given The Father by the Son did create and doth guide all wherfore Christ hath Supream dominion over the whole universal World Christ is God Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the consubstantial Word of God Christ is also that consubstantial Word which made man As God he saith of himself I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end he which was and which is and which is to come even the very Omnipotent As the consubstantial Word of God he hath with God before the beginning of the World that glory which as he was Man he requireth to have Father glorifie thy Son with that glory which with thee be enjoyed before the World wa◠Further it is not necessary that all things spoken of Christ should agree to him either as God or else as Man but some things as he is the consubstantial Word of God some things as he is that Word incarnate The Works of Supream Dominion which have been since the first beginning wrought by the power of the Son of God are now most properly and truly the Works of the Son of Man the Word made Flesh doth sit for ever and reign as Soveraign Lord over all Dominion belongeth unto the Kingly Office of Christ as Propitration and Mediation unto his Priestly Instruction unto his Pastoral and Prophetical Office His Works of Dominion are in sundry degrees and kindes according to the different conditions of them that are subject unto it he presently doth govern and hereafter shall judge the World intire and wholly and therefore his Regal power cannot be with truth restrained unto a proportion of the World only Notwithstanding forasmuch as all do not shew and acknowledge with dutiful submission that Obedience which they owe unto him therefore such as do their Lord he is termed by way of excellency no otherwise than the Apostle doth term God the Saviour generally of all but especially of the Faithful these being brought to the obedience of Faith are every where spoken of as men translated into that Kingdom wherein whosoever is comprehended Christ is the Author of eternal Salvation unto them they have a high and ghostly fellowship with God and Christ and Saints as the Apostle in more ample manner speaketh Aggregated they are unto Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Celestial Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the Congregation of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just and perfect men and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament In a word they are of that Mystical body which we term the Church of Christ. As for the rest we account them Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and that live in the Kingdom of Darkness and that are in this present World without God Our Saviours Dominion is therefore over these as over Rebels over them as over dutiful and loving Subjects which things being in holy Scriptures so plain I somewhat muse at that strange position That Christ in the Government of his Church and Superiority over the Officers of it hath himself a Superiour which is the Father but in governing of Kingdoms and Common wealths and in the Superiority which he hath over Kingdoms no Superiour Again That the Civil Magistrates Authority commeth from God immediately as Christs doth and it subordinate unto Christ. In what Evangelist Apostle or Prophet is it found that Christ Supream Governour of the Church should be so unequal to himself as he is Supream Governor of Kingdoms The works of his Providence for the preservation of Mankinde by upholding Kingdoms not only obedient unto but also obstinate and rebellious against him are such as proceed from Divine Power and are not the works of his Providence for safety of God's Elect by gathering inspiring comforting and every way preserving his Church such as proceed from the same Power likewise Surely if Christ as God and Man hath ordained certain means for the gathering and keeping of his Church seeing this doth belong to the Government of that Church it must in reason follow I think that as God and Man he worketh in Church Regiment and consequently hath no more there any Superiours than in the Government of the Common-wealth Again to be in the midst of his wheresoever they are assembled in his Name and to be with them to the World's end are comforts which Christ doth perform to his Church as Lord and Governour yea such as he cannot perform but by that very Power wherein he hath no Superiour Wherefore unless it can be proved that all the works of our Saviours Government in the Church are done by the mere and onely force of his Human nature there is no remedy but to acknowledge it a manifest errour that Christ in the Government of the World is equal to the Father but not in the Government of the Church Indeed to the honour of this Dominion it cannot be said that God did exalt him otherwise than only according to that Human nature wherein he was made low For as the Son of God there could no advancement or exaltation grow unto him And yet the Dominion whereunto he was in his Human nature lifted up is not without Divine Power exercised It is by Divine Power that the Son of man who sitteth in Heaven doth work as King and Lord upon us which are on Earth The exercise of his Dominion over the Church Militant cannot choose but cease when there is no longer any Militant Church in the World And therefore as Generals of Armies when they have finished their Work are wont to yield up such Commissions as were given for that purpose and to remain in the state of Subjects and not as Lords as concerning their former authority even so when the end of all things is come the Son of man who till then reigneth shall do the like as touching Regiment over the Militant Church on the Earth So that between the Son of man and his Brethren over whom he reigneth now in this their War fare there shall be then as touching the exercise of that Regiment no such difference they not warfaring
the Body without the Soul in the Body Christ hath merited to make us just but as a medicine which is made for health doth not head by being made but by being applied so by the merits of Christ there can be no Justification without the application of his Merits Thus farr we joyn hands with the Church of Rome 5. Wherein then do we disagree We disagree about the future and offence of the Medicine whereby Christ cureth our Disease about the 〈…〉 of applying it about the number and the power of means which God requireth in as for the effectual applying thereof to our Souls comfort When they are re 〈…〉 that the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified they answer that it is a Divine Spiritual quality which quality received into the Soul doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God and secondly indue it with power to bring forth such works as they do that are born of him even as the Soul of Man being joyned to his Body doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable Creatures and secondly inable him to perform the natural Functions which are proper to his kinde That it maketh the Soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God in regard whereof it is termed Grace That is purgeth purifieth and washeth out all the stains and pollutions of sins that by it through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from sin so from eternal death and condemnation the reward of sin This Grace they will have to be applied by infusion to the end that as the Body is warm by the heat which is in the Body so the Soul might be righteous by inherent Grace which Grace they make capable of increase as the Body may be more and more warm so the Soul more and more justified according as Grace should be augmented the augmentation whereof is merited by good Works as good Works are made meritorious by it Wherefore the first receit of Grace in their Divinity is the first Justification the increase thereof the second Justification As Grace may be increased by the merit of good Works so it may be diminished by the demerit of sins venial it may be lost by mortal sin In as much therefore as it is needful in the one case to repair in the other to recover the loss which is made the infusion of Grace hath her sundry after-meals for the which cause they make many ways to apply the infusion of Grace It is applyed to Infants through Baptism without either Faith or Works and in them really it taketh away Original sinne and the punishment due unto it It is applied to Infidels and wicked men in the first Justification through Baptism without Works yet not without Faith and it taketh away both Sinnes Actual and Original together with all whatsoever punishment eternal or temporal thereby deserved Unto such as have attained the first Justification that is to say the first receit of Grace it is applied farther by good Works to the increase of former Grace which is the second Justification If they work more and more Grace doth more increase and they are more and more justified To such as diminished it by venial sinnes it is applied by Holy-water Ave Marie's Crossings Papal Salutations and such like which serve for reparations of Grace decayed To such as have lost it through mortal sinne it is applied by the Sacrament as they term it of Penance which Sacrament hath force to conferr Grace anew yet in such sort that being so conferred it hath not altogether so much power as at the first For it onely cleanseth out the stain or guilt of sinne committed and changeth the punishment eternal into a temporal satisfactory punishment here if time doe serve if not hereafter to be endured except it be lightned by Masses Works of Charity Pilgrimages Fasts and such like or else shortned by pardon for term or by plenary pardon quite removed and taken away This is the mystery of the man of sinne This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her Followers to tread when they ask her the way to Justification I cannot stand now to untip this Building and to siâ— it piece by piece onely I will passe by it in few words that that may befall Bâ—… in the presence of that which God hath builded as hapned unto Dagon before the Ark. 6. Doubtless saith the Apostle I have counted all things loss and judge them to be doing that I may win Christ and to be found in him not having my own righteousness but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God through Faith Whether they speak of the first or second Justification they make it the essence of a Divine quality inherent they make it Righteousnesse which is in us If it be in us then is it ours as our Souls are ours though we have them from God and can hold them no longer than pleaseth him for if he withdraw the breath of our nostrils we fall to dust but the Righteousness wherein we must be found if we will be justified is not our own therefore we cannot be justified by any inherent quality Christ hath merited righteousness for as many as are found in him In him God findeth us if we be faithful for by Faith we are incorporated into Christ. Then although in our selves we be altogether sinful and unrighteous yet even the man which is impious in himself full of iniquity full of sin him being found in Christ through Faith and having his sinne remitted through Repentance him God upholdeth with a gracious eye putteth away his sinne by not imputing it taketh quite away the Punishment due thereunto by pardoning it and accepteth him in Jesus Christ as perfectly righteous as if he had fulfilled all that was commanded him in the Law shall I say more perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole Law I must take heed what I say but the Apostle saith God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Such we are in the sight of God the Father as is the very Son of God himself Let it be counted folly or frensie or fury whatsoever it is our comfort and our wisdom we care for no knowledge in the World but this That man hath sinned and God hath suffered That God hath made himself the Son of Man and that men are made the righteousness of God You see therefore that the Church of Rome in teaching Justification by inherent Grace doth pervert the truth of Christ and that by the hands of the Apostles we have received otherwise than she reacheth Now concerning the righteousness of Sanctification we deny it not to be inherent we grant that unless we work we have it not onely we distinguish it as a thing different in nature from the righteousness of Justification we are righteous the one
any direct denial of the foundation as it is affirmed that both are I need not wade so far as to discuss this Controversie the matter which first was brought into question being so clear as I hope it is Howbeit because I desire that the truth even in that also should receive light I will do mine indeavour to set down somewhat more plainly First the foundation of Faith what it is Secondly what is directly to deny the foundation Thirdly whether they whom God hath chosen to be heirs of life may fall so far as directly to deny it Fourthly whether the Galathians did so by admitting the error about Circumcision and the Law Last of all whether the Church of Rome for this one opinion of Works may be thought to do the like and thereupon to be no more a Christian Church than are the Assemblies of Turks and Jews 23. This word Foundation being figuratively used hath always reference to somewhat which resembleth a material building as both that Doctrine of Laws and the community of Christians do By the Masters of Civil Policy nothing is so much inculcated as that Commonweals are founded upon Laws for that a multitude cannot be compacted into one body otherwise then by a common acception of Laws whereby they are to be kept in order The ground of all civil Laws is this No man ought to be hurt or injured by another Take away this perswasion and yet take away all the Laws take away Laws and what shall become of Common-weals So it is in our spiritual Christian Community I do not mean that Body Mystical whereof Christ is onely the head that Building undiscernable by mortal eyes wherein Christ is the chief corner stone but I speak of the visible Church the foundation whereof is the doctrine which the Prophets and the Apostles profest The mark whereunto their Doctrine tendeth is pointed at in these words of Peter unto Christ. Thou hast the words of eternal life In those words of Paul to Timothy The holy Scriptures are able to wake thee wise unto salvation It is the demand of nature it self What shall we do to have eternal life The desire of immortality and the knowledge of that whereby it may be obtained is so natural unto all men that even they who are not perswaded that they shall do notwithstanding wish that they might know a way how to see no end of life And because natural means are not able still to resist the force of Death there is no people in the earth so savage which hath not devised some supernatural help or other to fly for aid and succour in extremities against the enemies of the Laws A longing therefore to be saved without understanding the true way how hath been the cause of all the Superstitions in the World O that the miserable state of others which wander in darkness and wot not whither they go could give us understanding hearts worthily to esteem the riches of the mercy of God towards us before whose eys the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are set wide openâ— should we offer violence unto it it offereth violence unto us and we gather strength to withstand it But I am besides my purpose when I fall to bewail the cold affection which we bear towards that whereby we should be saved my purpose being only to set down what the ground of salvation is The Doctrine of the Gospel proposeth salvation as the end And doth it not teach the way of attaining thereunto Yet the Damosel possest with a spirit of divination spake the truth These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of Salvation A new and living way which Christ hath prepared for us through the vail that is his flesh Salvation purchased by the death of Christ. By this foundation the children of God before the written Law were distinguished from the sons of men the reverend Patriarks both possest it living and spake expresly of it at the hour of their death It comforted Iob in the midst of grief as it was afterwards the anker-hold of all the righteous in Israel from the writing of the Law to the time of grace Every Prophet making mention of it It was famously spoken of about the time when the comming of Christ to accomplish the promises which were made long before it drew near that the sound thereof was heard even amongst the Gentiles When he was come as many as were his acknowledged that he was their Salvation he that long expected hope of Israel he that Seed in whom all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed So that now he is a name of ruine a name of death and condemnation unto such as dream of a new Messias to as many as look for salvation by any other but by him For amongst men there is given no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved Thus much S. Mark doth intimate by that which he doth put in the front of this book making his entrance with these words The beginning of the Gospel of Iesus Christ the Son of God His Doctrine he termeth the Gospel because it teacheth Salvation the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God because it teacheth salvation by him This is then the foundation whereupon the frame of the Gospel is erected that very Jesus whom the Virgin conceived of the holy Ghost whom Simeon imbraced in his arms whom Pilat condemned whom the Iews crucified whom the Apostles preached he is Christ the Lord the onely Saviour of the World Other foundation can no man lay Thus I have briefly opened that principle in Christianity which we call the foundation of our faith It followeth now that I declare unto you what is directly to overthrow it This will be better opened if we understand what it is to hold the foundation of Faith 24. There are which defend that many of the Gentiles who never heard the Name of Christ held the foundation of Christianity and why they acknowledged many of them the Providence of God his infinite wisedom strength power his goodness and his mercy towards the Children of men that God hath judgment in store for the wicked but for the righteous which serve him rewards c. In this which they confessed that lyeth covered which we believe in the Rudiments of their knowledge concerning God the foundation of our Faith concerning Christ lyeth secretly wrapt up and is vertually contained therefore they held the foundation of Faith though they never had it Might we not with as good a colour of Reason defend that every Plowman hath all the Sciences wherein Philosophers have excelled For no man is ignorant of their first Principles which do vertually contain whatsoever by natural means is or can be known Yea might we not with as great reason affirm that a man may put three mighty Oaks wheresoever three Akoms may be put For vertually an Akom is an Oak To avoid such Paradoxes
and to morrow condescend to have him beheaded or with the other Herod say they will worship Christ when they purpose a massacre in their hearts kiss Christ with Iudas and betray Christ with Iudas These are Mockers For Ishmael the Son of Hagar laughed at Isaac which was heir of the Promise so shall these men laugh at you as the maddest People under the Sun if ye be like Moses choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season And why God hath not given them eyes to see nor hearts to conceive that exceeding recompence of your reward The promises of Salvation made to you are matters wherein they can take no pleasure even as Ishmael took no pleasure in that promise wherein God had said unto Abraham In Isaac shall thy seed be called because the Promise concerned not him but Isaac They are termed for their impiety towards God Mockers and for the impurity of their life and conversation Walkers after-their own ungodly lusts Saint Peter in his second Epistle and third Chapter soundeth the very depth of their impiety shewing first how they shall not shame at the length to profess themselves prophane and iâ—â—eligious by flat denying the Gospel of Jesus Christ and deâ—ding the sweet and comfortable promises of his appearing Secondly that they shall not be onely deâ—iders of all Religion but also disputers against God using Truth to subvert the Truth yea Scriptures themselves to disprove Scriptures Being in this sort Mockers they must needs be also Followers of their own ungodly lusts Being Atheists in perswasion can they choose but be Beasts in conversation For why remove they quite from them the feat of God Why take they such pains to abandon and put out from their hearts all sense all taste all feeling of Religion but onely to this end and purpose that they may without inward remorse and grudging of Conscience give over themselves to all uncleanness Surely the state of these men is more lamentable than is the condition of Pagans and Turks For at the bare beholding of Heaven and Earth the Infidel's heart by and by doth give him that there is an eternal infinite immortal and ever-living God whose hands have fashioned and framed the World he knoweth that every House is builded of some man though he see not the man which built the House and he considereth that it must be God which hath built and created all things although because the number of his days be few he could not see when God disposed his Works of old when he caused the light of his Clouds first to shine when he laid the Corner-stone of the Earth and swadled it with bands of Water and Darkness when he caused the Morning-star to know his place and made bars and doors to shut up the Sea within his House saying Hitherto shalt thou come but no further he hath no eye-witnesse of these things Yet the light of Natural reason hath put this wisdom in his reâ—ns and hath given his Heart thus much understanding Bring a Pagan to the Schools of the Prophets of God prophesie to an Infidel rebuke him lay the judgements of God before him make the secret sinnes of his heart manifest and he shall fall down and worship God They that crucified the Lord of Glory were not so farr past recovery but that the preaching of the Apostles was able to move their hearts and to bring them to this Men and Brethren what shall we doe Agrippa that sate in judgement against Paul for Preaching yielded notwithstanding thus farr unto him Almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian. Although the Jews for want of knowledge have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God yet I bear them record saith the Apostle That they have a zeal The Athenians a people having neither zeal nor knowledge yet of them also the same Apostle beareth witnesse Ye men of Athens I perceive ye are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some way religious but Mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts they have smothered every spark of that heavenly light they have stifled even their very natural understanding O Lord thy Mercy is over all thy works thou savest Man and Beast yet a happy case it had been for these men if they had never been born and so I leave them 10. Saint Iude having his minde exercised in the Doctrine of the Apostles of Jesus Christ concerning things to come in the last time became a man of wise and staid judgement Grieved he was to see the departure of many and their falling away from the Faith which before they did professe grieved but not dismayed With the simpler and weaker sort it was otherwise Their countenance began by and by to change they were half in doubt they had deceived themselves in giving credit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Saint Iude to comfort and refresh these silly Babes taketh them up in his armes and sheweth them the men at whom they were offended Look upon them that forsake this blessed Profession wherein you stand they are now before your eyes view them mark them are they not carnal are they not like to noysom carrion cast out upon the Earth is there that Spirit in them which cryeth Abba Father in your bosoms Why should any man be discomforted Have you not heard that there should be Mockers in the last time These verily are they that now do separate themselves 11. For your better understanding what this severing and separating of themselves doth mean we must know that the multitude of them which truly believe howsoever they be dispersed farr and wide each from other is all one Body whereof the Head is Christ one building whereof he is the Corner-stone to whom they as the Members of the Body being knit and as the stones of the Building being coupled grow up to a man of perfect stature and rise to an holy Temple in the Lord. That which linketh Christ to us is his mere mercy and love towards us That which tyeth us to him is our faith in the promised Salvation revealed in the Word of Truth That which uniteth and joyneth us amongst our selves in such sort that we are now as if we had but one Heart and one Soul is our love Who be inwardly in Heart the lively Members of this Body and the polished stones of this Building coupled and joyned to Christ as flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones by the mutual bond of his unspeakable love towards them and their unseigâ—ed faith in him thus linked and fastned each to other by a spiritual sincere and hearty affection of love without any manner of simulation who be Jewes within and what their names be none can tell save he whose eyes do behold the secret disposition of all mens hearts We whose eyes are too dim to behold the inward man must leave the secret judgement of every Servant to his own Lord accounting