the main design of this long and tedious Chapter wherein he is not content to vent his errours but he must broach his blasphemies For after he had granted the Ecclesiastical power to be in the Apostles and their successors for about 300 years he tels us T. H. That the Trinity is a threefold representation of God 1. By Moses 2. By Christ on earth 3. By the holy Ghost in the Apostles and this agrees with that of the Divine Apostle There are three that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 1 Joh. 5.7 G. L. This deserves no answer but detestation because it s not onely blasphemous but also devoid not onely of divine but humane learning and no ways to be suffered amongst Christians Having thus determined the proper and just subject of this power for so long a time he proceeds to let us know what this power is T. H. The power of the Church is but to teach to baptize to absolve to excommunicate G. L. The foundation and Rule of all Christian doctrine worship and discipline is briefly and by a wonderful wisdom comprised in those words of our Saviour ready to ascend into Heaven Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mat. 28.19 20. For in those words we are taught 1. What Doctrine we must believe and profess 2. What worship we must perform unto the Deity and how and upon what grounds 3. Who may and who may not be admitted into Christian society and who may and who may not be continued in the same and enjoy all the priviledges thereof Those who being taught profess their faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and promise to obey the commands of Christ may be baptized and solemnly admitted into the Church They who continued to profess their faith to perform their promise of obedience unto Christ might be continued in this society and enjoy the priviledges otherwise not From which words its evident there must be a power to teach baptize absolve excommunicate and also to ordain and design fit persons to do these things and give rules out of the Gospel how they may be done aright This Author first makes void as he conceives all Bellarmines discourse concerning the form of Ecclesiastical government whether it be Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical 2. They have power but to teach The reason why Bellarmines discourse is void is given by him to be this because the Church hath no coercive power If he mean coercive civil by the sword its certain there is no such power Ecclesiastical Neither doth Bellarmine affirm or challenge it but indirecte per accidens Yet he was told before that the execution of the Churches censure is from heaven as it is passed in the name of Christ and by his power 1 Cor. 5.4 And he hath promised whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18.18 This is not in the name of the civil Soveraign nor by the power of the sword And it must be done by some power and this power must be exercised either by one or more or all according to some certain order And Government is nothing but ordo imperii subjectionis 2. That the Church hath but power to teach perswade counsel c. he proves first by his false supposition that Christ doth not reign until the universal Resurrection secondly by that time of Regeneration which he bounds within the terms of Christs ascension and his second coming to Judgement The former argument was grounded upon a false interpretation of our Saviours words and so the later is for by Regeneration in Mat. 19.28 is meant the Resurrection and so it s printed and distinguished in divers coples and so the King of Spains Bibles read it as others also and the sense is they which have followed me shall in the Regeneration that is Resurrection sit upon twelve Thrones c. But suppose that regeneration be not the resurrection Yet it cannot be a time of that continuance as to reach Christs coming to Judgement but only the time of their following Christ which cannot extend beyond his ascention Yet let it be granted that by it is signified the whole tract of time from his ascention till his coming to Judgement it will not follow from that text that Christ doth not raign till that time be expired for he may as he doth raign and exercise many acts of his regal power before he pass the final sentence upon all men and Angels His other reasons are frivolous and not ad idem Yet his last argument save one is That because Christ hath left to civil Governors their power therefore he hath left none to the Church And its true that he hath left no civil power of the sword to the Church yet it doth not hence follow that he hath denyed it the spiritual power of the keyes And here he makes a most abominable digression affirming that we may deny or profess against our conscience and comply with civil powers commanding and forbidding contrary to that which Christ hath commanded and forbidden and so hath taken away the ground of all Martyrdom and razed the very foundation of our Christian confession Besides he seems to put a difference between their power to Preach and their power to Teach but he will not let us know what this difference is And his arguments tend to prove that Ministers have no power to command no authority yet the people are commanded to obey them that rule over them and submit themselves because they watch over their souls Heb. 13.17 And he that heareth them heareth Christ and God that sent him and he that despiseth them despiseth Christ and God that sent him To that purpose we read in Luk. 10.17 And how can this possibly be true if this have no authority no law no sin To teach and preach in such a manner as they who will not hear and obey shall be guilty as contemners of the divine Majesty and so as that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgement then for them is to teach with authority and power and the same no doubt greater then any Prince civil in the world is invested withal For they cannot command so as to make the disobedient liable to eternal penalties He granteth further that they have power to Baptize and by Baptism admit into Christs Kingdom which is a spiritual naturalization and also to absolve and excommunicate yet the former is an act of Legislation the latter of Jurisdiction and how can that be performed without power Thus the man is pleased to confute himself Yet in the acts of Jurisdiction we do not affirm the judgement of the Church to be infallible because they can have no infallible knowledge of the inward disposition of the souls of persons penitent or impenitent Yet sometimes the evidence of the cause is such
them in the supreme power Others are of a mind that seeing they cease to be Kings or Soveraigns they may be lawfully tryed and put to death as well as private men and that without any ordinary jurisdiction Others determine this to be lawful in such States as that of Lacedemon in Grece and Arragon in Spain What the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is cannot be unknown For the Pope doth arrogate an universal Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction whereby he may excommunicate any Christian King that shall not obey his Canons and Edicts and upon this sentence once given he may depose him free his subjects from their allegiance and command them as Catholicks to rise in rebellion against him some of them have taught that its a meritorious art to poyson stab or any other way murther Kings for the promotion of the Catholick cause This question after the terms thereof clearly explicated is of very great moment and let men advise well how they do determine either in their own judgement privately or before others T. H. There be Doctors that think there may be more sorts that is more Soveraigns then one in a Common-wealth and set up a Supremacy against the Soveraignty Canons against Laws and a Ghostly Authority against the Civil c. G. L. There cannot be any Soveraign but one in one and the same Common-wealth and to set up Supremacy against Soveraignty Canons against Laws Ghostly authority against Civil must needs be a cause of division confusion dissolution Yet this will not prove any inconsistency of an Ecclesiastical independent power with the Civil Soveraignty in one and the same Community And the distinction of the power of the keyes given by Christ unto the Church and the power of the sword trusted in the hands of the higher powers civil is real and signifies some things truly different one from another though he either cannot or will not understand it With Mr. Hobbs indeed this distinction can signisie nothing because he hath given unto the civil Soveraign an infallible judgement and an absolute power in all causes Ecclesiastical and Spiritual His discourse may be good against those Ecclesiastical persons who have usurped civil power otherwise it s impertinent and irrational And he must know that it is alike difficult to prove That the State hath the power of the keyes as for to evince that the Church hath the power the sword It s as great an offence for the State to encroach upon the Church as for the Church to encroach upon the State The Bishops of Rome have been highly guilty of the one and many protestant Princes and States of the other And though men will not see it yet its clear enough that one and the same Community is capable both of a Civil and Ecclesiastical Government at one and the same time and that the Church and State are two distinct Common-wealths the one spiritual and the other temporal though they consist of the same persons And these persons as Christians considered in a spiritual capacity make up the Community and Common-wealth Christian which is the Church as they are men having temporal estates bodily life and liberty they are members of the civil Community and Common-wealth The Power Form of Government Administration Laws Jurisdiction Officers of the Church are distinct and different from those of the State The sentence of the Church is Let him be an Heathen or a Publican and the execution is expected from heaven according to the promise Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and this sentence doth take away some spiritual but no temporal or civil right of the person judged though the judgement be passed and made valid both in foro interiore exteriore The sentence of the civil State is Let him be fined imprisoned stigmatized banished put to death and it s executed by the sword The several members of a Church National and the whole Church joyntly is subject to the civil power and the civil Soveraign if a Christian is subject to the Church because as a Christian he is subject to Christ and bonnd by his Laws And as a civil Soveraign he is bound to protect the Church and he may by civil Laws ratifie the Ecclesiastical Canons and then they bind not only under a spiritual but a civil penalty too If Church-assemblies give cause of jealousie to the Civil powers they may regulate them and order their proceedings if they offend they may punish them Their persons lives estates are under the sword and if this be taken from them because they will not obey them to disobey Christ they ought to suffer it patiently for Christs sake In this case the Church may pray and weep resist and rebel they may not for Christians as Christians have no power of the sword against any man not their own members much less against the civil Soveraign whom if they resist they must do it under another notion or else they transgress and can have no excuse And here it is to be observed 1. That Christ gathered Disciples instituted Church-discipline made Laws and the Apostles executed them in making Officers Acts cap. 1. 16. made Laws cap. 15. passed sentence and executed the same 1 Cor. 5. and all this without any Commission from any civil Soveraign Therefore it s not true which some learned Divines have affirmed That the State and Church are one body endued with two powers or faculties for they are two distinct bodies Politick It s true that if as some conceive there were no power but coactive of the sword then they must needs be one body But there is another power as you heard before 2. If a King become Christian by this he acquires no power not the least more then he had before and if he be Heathen or Mahometan and all his subjects become Christian he loseth not one jot of his former civil power which they are bound to submit unto by the very Laws of Christianity If he command any thing contrary to the Laws of Christ they may and must disobey but deny his power they may not they must not In this case a Christian may be perplexed between the Devil and a Goaler as some of Scotland were said to be when if they obeyed the Parliament and joyned with Duke Hamilton to invade England the Kirk excommunicate them and deliver them up to Satan if they obeyed the Church prohibiting them they were cast in prison by the State The cause of this perplexity is not from this that the Church and State are two distinct Common-wealths but because the commands of the one or both may be unjust T. H. Some make the power of levying money depend upon a general assembly of conduct and command upon one man of making Laws upon the accidental consent of three Such government is no government but a division of the Common-wealth into three independent factions c. G. L. Here again he hath made the Parliament which is the
is a plain difference between Civil and Ecclesiastical Power between the Sword and the Keyes For what is bound by the civil Power on Earth is bound and made good on earth by an earthly Sword But what is bound on earth by the Spiritual Power is bound in heaven and made good and executed by Jesus Christ and that by a Spiritual force upon a Divine Promise Secondly this Sword must protect the good and punish the bad which implies there must be wise and just Laws 2. There must be just judgement according to these Laws For otherwise there can be no true and certain knowledge of good and bad for to put a difference between them that the one may be punished for violation the other protected for the observation of the Laws And here again we must note 1. That there is a threefold Power civil or rather three degrees of that Power The first is Legislative The second Judicial The third Executive For Legislation Judgement and Execution by the Sword are the three essential acts of supreme Power civil in the administration of a State 2. That there is no Power to punish the good and protect the bad For the Sword must execute according to Judgement and that must pass according to Laws and both Judgement and Laws must be regulated by Divine Wisdom and Justice Thirdly This Sword must be in the hands and possession of higher or supereminent Governors For a Title without the possession of a Sword can neither punish nor protect Therefore in all States of the world they who have possession of the Sword do rule let the Title be what it will neither can it be otherwise And no Prince can rule when God hath taken away his Sword It hath been declared in some measure 1. What Power in General 2. What Power civil in Particular is The third thing concerning this supremacy of Power to be examined is the original of it And the same Text of the Apostle Paul tels us that it is of God therefore in the Definition I said That the Sword was committed by God to higher Powers who become such by this Commission when God gives them possession of the Sword So that the Original of this Power is from God both in respect of the Power and the persons possessed of Power For it is he that gives Understanding Will and Power sufficient for to govern he gives Wisdom and Justice he commands all Societies that have opportunity to set up a wise and just Government for Peace and Godliness In respect of the persons he designs them either in an ordinary or extraordinary way he inclines the hearts of the people to submit and obey he prevents seditions rebellions treasons and such like acts as tend to confusion and the ruin of Common-wealths according to that of the Psalmist Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people Psal 18.43 And it is God that subdueth the people under me Psal 47. In this designation God sometimes useth the consent tacit or express sometimes the force and consent of Man Fourthly The Subject of this Power is either standing or movable The standing Subject by Nature is the community in whom vertually it resides and is exercised by a general representative upon extraordinary occasions or at certain determinate times And this is the best way to preserve liberty if these general Assemblies be well ordered and fit persons rightly qualified be chosen For its dangerous to trust either one man or a number of men with too much power the constant exercise of the same This supreme power reserved to the whole community to be exercised as necessity or occasion shall require might be called Realis Majestas yet every Community is neither so wise nor so happy For in most States we find only a personal Majesty or supreme Power and the same sometimes Despotical and too absolute yet in other Common-wealths the supreme Governours are limited and only trusted with the exercise of the power according to certain Rules and fundamental Laws Of this Majesty or supreme Power civil some Writers have observed that it must be not only supreme but also perpetual and above Laws soluta Logibus That it must be supreme and above all subordinate power within and independent upon all other soveraigns without its necessary It must be also perpetual and fixed that it may be distinguished from the extraordinary and temporary powers trusted in the hands of one or more upon extraordinary occasions How far it is absolute or above the Laws I shall examine hereafter After the supreme Power civil is determined and sixed in a certain Subject Subjection to it follows which is the third thing in the Definition Regimen est ordo Imperii subjectionis For in all Government some must be above and have power to command some must be below and be bound to obey And in a civil State there must be one universal supreme to which all others in the Community must subject themselves This Subjection must be rational free and orderly or else the State cannot continue long nor be well administred And wisdom must determine not only the general order of superiour and inferiour but also in particular the Community must be divided into parts with a co-ordination of equals and subordination of the unequals and of every several part unto the whole that so every one may know his place and rank that he may keep it Therefore the Apostle commands every soul Rom. 13.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not barely to be subject any ways but in a certain order for the Community must be like an Army put in array that so the supreme Power may the better animate and order it upon which followeth a more regular motion of this great body both in the whole and every part tending the more directly to Peace Godliness and Honesty For there is a twofold end of regular civil Government The first is Peace The second is Godliness and Honesty to which Peace is subordinate For the Apostle exhorts us to pray for Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Tim. 2.1 Government is for Peace Peace for Godliness and the performance of our duty towards God and Honesty That we may live soberly and justly towards men When God doth bless a people with a setled Government and an happy peace for these are Gods blessings neither Prince nor people must forget their God or live in Luxury and deal unjustly one with another For these things offend him provoke him to anger and pull down his Judgements upon them He expects Piety and Honesty from every one even from the highest to the lowest And these earthly States are erected and subordinated to an higher end then peace and plenty here on earth they should be so ordered as to prepare men for eternity otherwise Regna are but latrocinia a den of thieves and a combination of devils Thus much I thought
shall have benefit even treasure in heaven if he do so Yet even this is so a counsel as it is a command For man is bound to love God more then the world and to preferr treasure in heaven before treasure on earth and this by command As it directs its counsel as it binds its command For one and the same sentence may be a command a counsel and an exhortation too yet in different respects as it binds a command as it directs a counsel as it incites an exhortation And very many exhortations include or at least presuppose a command and a counsel But I wonder why Mr. Hobbs should make these words of Peter Repent and be baptized Acts 2.38 a counsel only Are not all men especially which hear the Gospel bound to repent For doth not Saint Paul say And the time of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent Acts 17.30 And what will he contradict the Apostle and in express terms It seems he is but a Divine of the lowest rank as he is a States-man far under the highest form His presumption and boldness is very great but his knowledge and judgement very defective For if he had known that repentance had been a principal duty according to a principal command of the Gospel and that it was nothing else but a return to obedience after disobedience he might have corrected himself and avoided this errour 3. In the next place he undertakes to determine the qualifications of a good Counsellor of State which hath been done to his hand and far better then here we read He is a good Counsellor who gives good connsel and that is only good counsel which is a greeable to the wisdom and justice of God and tends to the publick good of the State therefore his first Condition is either imperfect or else directly false For the interest and ends of the Counsellor in his counsel to be consistent with the ends and interest of a Prince counselled is no waies absolutely good but may be very wicked and unjust The rest of the conditions prescribed by him are good yet none of the chiefest mentioned by others omitted by him 4. In the last part of this Chapter he endeavours to prove but yet upon very weak and also very false grounds That its better to hear Counsellors apart then in an Assembly What he means by these words prefixed supposing the number of them equal I know not For he argues against counsel given in Assemblies without any mention of the equality of their number Yet this is evident by this rule of God that the privy Council and Parliaments of England are made useless unprofitable at least not so good as a secret pact Juncto This is very unworthy and base and hath been the ruine of many Princes The Constitution of England required a Parliament as the great Council of the Kingdom in arduis regni negotiis and a standing Privy-Counsel as it was called in other matters of lesser moment That both these may be ill constituted abused and turned into factions there is no doubt we have had too woful experience of this Yet all these inconveniences with others mentioned by the Author may be prevented and the Counsels rectified The way to our good and the welfare of England is not to take them away and destroy them but reduce them if possibly it may be done to their prime institution Otherwise we may fear a military Government or an absolute Monarch or a Tyrannie or an Anarchy A wise council of Lords standing and the great Council of the Parliament have been the best supports under God of the peace and happiness of this Nation In this I am brief because here is little that is material and it more properly belongs to that head of Ministers of State and Officers CAP. X. Of the Second Part. The 26. of the Book Of civii Laws THE principal heads and parts of this Chapter are 1. The definition of a Law civil with certain conclusions thence deduced 2. The interpretation of Laws 3. The distribution of Laws in general In the administration of a Common-wealth once constituted the first thing is Legislation the second is the Execution In the execution 1. Officers are made 2. Jurisdiction exercised according to those Laws Therefore the proper place of treating concerning Laws civil in general is in the first part of administration which requires first that Laws be made For God himself did avouch himself to be Israels Lord and King and they avouch themselves his subjects and people and this was the constitution of that State This being done in the next place he proceedeth to make Laws And this is the order of all such as will imitate God and proceed orderly to govern a State as appears Exodus 19. and the 20. Chapters and so forward This also was Jethroes counsel unto Moses and approved of God Thou shalt teach them Ordinances and Laws and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do Moreover thou shalt provide thee of all the people able men c. and place such over them This was making of Officers after he had given them Laws and let them Judge the people This is jurisdiction Exod. 18.20 21 22. From hence it appears how preposterously this man and others are that treat 1. Of Magistrates 2. Of Laws The difference between Laws Civil in general and the Civil Law of the Roman Empire is more easily known and learned from the Civilians who have clearly delivered it then from him For Politicks speaks of Civil or Political Laws made for the Government of State more generally and if it mention any Laws of particular States they are but examples to the general rules concerning Laws But let us pass by this and proceed to his definition which is as followeth T H. Civil Law is to every subject those rules which the Common-wealth hath commanded him by word writing or other sufficient sign of the will to make use of it for the distinction of right and wrong that is of what is contrary and what is not contrary to the rule G. L. In this definition the Genus is it s a rule the efficient cause is the Common-wealth the party bound is the subject the end is the distinction of wrong which is contrary and right which is not contrary to the rule But 1. The Genus is not a rule which is an act of the understanding whereas Law is not only an act of the understanding but the will which is facultas imperans Many may give rules by their wisdom which can make no Laws by their wills 2. The efficient cause is not the Common-wealth but pars imperans the Soveraign who is but one part of it 3. The end is not only to declare a distinction between right and wrong but to bind the subject to do that which is right and to forbear that which is wrong For lex est regula
obligativa 4. Not content to give the definition he explains what is right and that is that which is not contrary to the Law and wrong and its that which is contrary But what he means by rule is hard to know If he mean by rule Law it self then its absurd if he intends some antecedent rule of divine wisdom manifesting what is just or unjust before a civil power command it he is obscure Though he undervalue the Philosopher so much as far below him though he was far above him he might with Marsulis of Padua in his Defensor Pacis pars 1. cap. 10. have observed out of him a better definition of a Law given Ethn. ad Nicho. lib. 10. cap. 9. Lex est sententia doctrina seu judicium universale justorum conferentium civilium suorum oppositorum cum praecepto coactivo per poenam aut praemium de ejus observatione in hoc saeculo destribuenda More briefly it s a coactive precept of the Soveraign binding the subject to obedience and upon the same to be rewarded or upon disobedience to be punished in this life where many things are to be observed 1. The matter of this Law is something in it self just and conducing to the publik good yet so that it reacheth to the contrary 2. This must be known and judged to be so by the wisdom and understanding of the Soveraign for all Laws arr made by wisdom Political 3. This judgement of the Law-giver must be made known unto the subject therefore the Philosopher saith its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word And he means not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word not only inwardly conceived in the mind of the Law-giver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle saith but it must be uttered and made known as the ten Commandements are called the ten words therefore it s said Exodus 20. God spake all these words 4. It must be praeceptum which includes the will of the Soveraign intending to bind the subject and so declaring himself 5. It must be an universal precept binding the whole community of the subject 6. It must be a coactive precept and backt with the sword for to make the Obligation effectual In this respect the Philosopher saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law must have a coactive force And the Apostle saith he beareth not the sword in vain which words imply the Law-giver must have a sword 7. This sword protects and rewards the obedient who observe this Law according to their obligation and it punisheth the disobedient and for these two ends the Law must be co-active and armed with a sword 8. These rewards and punishments are to be conferrd and inflicted in this life for it cannot reach the soul and the life to come and this doth difference the civil Laws of men from the Laws of God which bind men to obedience upon the promise of spiritual and eternal rewards and for defect of obedience unto eternal and spiritual penalties This hath far more of the definition of a Law then his and more fully declares the nature of a Law civil Yet if either he or any other will improve it I shall like it well for I know mine own imperfections From his definition he infers several conclusions the first whereof is T. H. The Legislator in all Common-wealths is the Soveraign Again the Common-wealth is the Legislator by the Representative G. L. That pars imperans is the Legislator in every State must needs be granted but that the Common-wealth should be the Legislator either by or without pars imperans the Soveraign I do not understand For it consists of two parts the Soveraign and the subject and if the whole Common-wealth make Laws then the subject as well as the Soveraign is Legislator In a Republick or free-State there is a difference between the Soveraign and the subject much more in other models and forms Therefore he must needs speak either improperly or untruly when he saith the State is Legislator T. H. Conclusion 2. The Soveraign is not subject to the civil Laws because he hath power to make and repeal them at pleasure G. L. That the Soveraign in divers respects and especially as a Soveraign is not subject unto but above the Laws is a certain truth For Laws do bind the subject not the Soveraign to obey or be punished but the Soveraign doth command as Superiour not obey as inferiour doth punish is not punished The power to make a Law when there is none and to repeal after that it s made is sufficient evidence of his superiority as also dispensations in judgement and pardons be Yet this supreme will Legislative over men is subject to the superiour will of God and must neither make nor repeal Laws but according to wisdom and justice T. H. Conclusion 3. Custom is not Law by long continuance of time but by consent of the Soveraign G. L. This follows from the first Conclusion For if the Soveraign only be the Legislator then continuance of time and practise of the people though universal cannot make a Law The Soveraign must give either an express or tacit consent and this consent is then most evident when he makes the custom a rule in judgement and observes it And the Civilians well observe that besides continuance of time and the Soveraigns consent A third thing is required and that is that the beginning of it be reasonable as the Author here doth note T. H. Conclusion 4. The Law of Nature and the Civil Law contain each other and are of equal extent For the Laws of Nature which consist in equity justice gratitude and other moral vertues on these depending in the condition of meer nature are not properly laws but qualities that dispose men to peace and obedience when a Common-wealth is once actually settled then are they Laws c. G. L. 1. This is no Conclusion from the definition except he mean that the rule of right and wrong be the Law of Nature 2. The Laws of Nature are the Laws of God and not of man and not only subjects but Soveraigns are bound by them 3. Therefore they bind not as commanded by the civil Soveraign but as written by the hand of heaven in the heart of man Neither is that which afterwards he makes the difference between the Law of Nature and the Law of civil Governors any difference at all that the one is written the other not For both are written one by the hand of man though every Civil Law be not written and the other by the hand of God the one in the heart the other upon some other material substance and that which is written in the heart may be written out of it 4. Equity justice gratitude and other moral vertues are not Laws of nature but either habitual or actual conformities unto the Laws of Nature 5. How the Laws of Nature and Laws Civil should be of equal extent and yet contain one
are made publick officers of the Church and separated to their function of publick preaching praying administration of the Sacraments Neither is there any place in all the New Testament where it can be proved that either Christ or his Apostles who had this power did ever derive it to the State or Civil Soveraign whether Christian or no Christian That every civil Soveraign hath power to preach baptize ordain and perform all Ministerial acts and that as a publick Officer is an impudent assertion and contrary to the Book of God is evident from that reason given by him why they use not to do these things which is because the business of the Common-wealth takes up their whole time Yet he that will be a Minister must watch over his flock be as souldiers who going to war must not entangle themselves with the affairs of this life 2 Timothy 2.4 As he must have sufficient knowledge in those things which belong unto his calling and integrity of life so he must engage himself to Christ and his Church to lay aside all other employments to feed Christs flock and this must take up his whole time To entangle himself with other business and so neglect his charge is to be unfaithful and in effect renounce his calling From this false principle it is that so many who have a little more knowledge in Scripture then ordinary Christians of the lowest form a bold face and voluble tongue take upon them to preach and presume to perform other Ministerial duties although they be souldiers or civil Magistrates or Tradesmen or all together These will be Elders and Ministers although they entangle themselves with the affairs of this life as though the Holy-Ghost had made them Over-seers to feed his Church purchased by his blood But wo unto them when they shall appear before the tribunal of Christ to give their last account But consider a Minister as he hath a temporal right unto some temporal revenue dignity jurisdiction the Church hath nothing to do with him The Church looks after his spiritual qualification and capacity After that Emperours and civil powers endowed the Church with a certain revenue and annexed unto Bishopricks civil jurisdictions and temporal dignities there was some reason why the presentation and investiture should belong unto them but there was no such thing from the beginning The maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel is determined by this Author to be benevolence yet at length convinced by the arguments of the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. He confesseth that it was such a benevolence as was due and that the Flock was bound to maintain their Pastor By which confession he hath answered his own allegation Freely give because you have freely received Mat 10.8 which place is abused by him as it is by the enemies of the Church at this day For as by him so by them it s understood and applyed as though our Saviours meaning had been That because they gave nothing for their gifts and authority so they must neither demand nor receive any thing for the use of them And by this means they make our Saviour to contradict himself for afterwards he saith That the workman and such is every Minister is worthy of his meat ver 10. of his hire Luk. 10.7 From whence Paul informs us That Christ ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 And therefore according unto this Ordinance of Christ he commands That he who is taught in the Word communicate to him who teacheth in all good things Gal. 6.6 From all which its very evident that maintenance is due to Ministers and that by a Law and the same divine and far more obliging then any civilact in the world And if Christian people had a propriety in their goods as of this there can be no doubt this might easily make this maintenance competent comfortable and certain and that without any Law of the civil power and they were bound so to do When Christian Princes endowed the Church with titles they did but their duty and they conceived that no better way of provision could be devised by the wit of man Neither can any Antidecimarian to this day inform us of a better Yet if we be once Ministers we are bound to preach the Gospel though we beg our bread But woe unto them who shall deny it or take it out of our mouths CAP. XII Of the third Part. And the 43. of the Book Of what is necessary for a mans reception into the Kingdom of heaven IT is evident from our Saviours commission unto his Apostles Mat. 28.19 20. That profession of faith and promise of obedience to him gave any person right unto Baptism by which we are solemnly admitted into the Church which is Gods spiritual Kingdom And faith with obedience and obedience from faith makes us capable of eternal life And because we can neither believe nor obey sincerely without regeneration from heaven therefore our Saviour saith That except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 If Mr. Hobbs had said no more but that faith and obedience are necessary for reception into Gods Kingdom he had done well but he returns unto his vomit and resumes some of his former errors formerly confuted I wish him more knowledge and more modesty FINIS