Christ our Redeemer For this end he both died rose and revived that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living Rom. 14.9 10. All power is given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28.19 All things are delivered to him of the Father and given into his hands John 13.3 and 17.2 He is made Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.23 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son John 5.22 VII Princes are therefore now the Ministers of Christ by Duty and are bound to study his Interest and Laws and to obey him VIII Subjects by Obligation are not always Subjects by Consent nor Subjects by Professed Consent always Subjects by Heart-Consent IX All the World is the Kingdom as of God the Creator so of Christ the Redeemer as to Obligation And the Wicked as Rebels X. All the truely Baptized are thereby made the Kingdom of Christ the Redeemer by Profest Consent And this is the Church visible XI All the true Believers and Sanctified are the Kingdom of Christ by Heart-Consent and these are the Church Regenerate and Mystical XII Therefore the Kingdom of Christ is larger than the Church of Christ And the Church is an Elect peculiar people Visible as to Means and Mystical as to Salvation Even as the Israelites had the Covenant of peculiarity while the Law of Grace in the first Edition made to Adam and Noah was still in force to all the World And Abraham thought that even Sodom had had Fifty Righteous Persons in it XIII The Church of Christ is an Eminent Politick Society of which Christ is the Specifying and Vnifying Head and all Christians are Members All the Baptized Visible Members and all the sincere consenters mystical Members XIV Christ is the Maker of his own Body Church or Kingdom He made himself the Head He made the specifying Institution or Law the Terms of Union and Communion He giveth Men the Grace by which they Believe Repent Consent and are made Members If Christ made not his own Church as to the Formal Head the Species the Unifying Terms and Graces it would be as a Wooden Leg to a living Body a Human Creature imposed on him Savouring of the Errours and Naughtiness of those that made it and Mutable at their Mutable Wills Every active Form makes it's own material Domicilium Who is he or who are they that had power to make Christ a Body or Church in specie before he made it himself Christs Body is not made by Man If it were who were they Were they his Body or Church first themselves or not If yea who made them such and who them and who them in infinitum If not how came Infidels and the Members of the Devil to have power to make a Body or Church for Christ XV. Christ hath de specie Instituted who shall be Members of this Church And by his Laws Terms and Description taught us certainly to know the Members as Visible Else we could never know whom to take for Christians nor whom to love as such Nor to whom to give the Seals of his Grace and Communion with his Members XVI Baptism is the Symbol or Badge of Christians and Baptizing is our Christening and whoever believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved Therefore till they Revolt all truly Baptized persons are Visible Christians and make up the Visible Church Which is the Society of all Christians Headed by their Soveraign Christ. XVII All Christians entered in Infancy are not capable of the Duty Blessings and Communion of the Adult Adult Members and Communion must be distinguished from Infant XVIII Therefore all that will have Adult Communion though they must not be Baptized again must as fully own their Baptismal Covenant Devoting themselves by their own Vnderstanding Consent and Vow to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil as if they were now to be Baptized The neglect of this or turning it into a dead image and Ceremony by dead Images of Bishops on pretence of Confirmation confoundeth the Church and would make it a dead Image and really but the World XIX The Universal Church of Christ in his days on Earth was but an Embrio and his few Apostles and Disciples who were suited in number to the Jewish Nation where their Ministry was to begin were but like the Organical parts of the Body the Heart Head Eyes Liver c. when Nature hath first made them that by them it may make the rest But when Christ was Risen and the Holy Ghost sent down in Eminency and the Gentiles called and the Church began to be Catholick this Kingdom of the Holy Ghost is that which is called specially the Kingdom of God and Heaven which the Gospel then proclaimed and John Baptist told Men was at hand XX. The Church of Christ on Earth is partly Visible and partly Invisible and yet but one Church As Man is visible as to his Body and invisible as to his Soul and yet but one Man It is visible 1. In that the Subjects persons are Visible 2. Their profession is Visible 3. Christ was Visible on Earth 4. He is Visible now in his Court of Heaven 5. He will in visible Glory come and Judge them 6. They shall see his Glory for ever 7. His Laws are Visible 8. His Officers are Visible 9. Many of his Judgments and Executions are Visible here 10. The rest shall be so quickly and for ever His Church is Invisible 1. In that Christ as God was never seen 2. His Soul never seen 3. His Office as to Truth Right and Authority Invisible and to be believed 4. The Souls of the Subjects Invisible 5. Their Sincerity Invisible 6. And Christ now not seen on Earth 7. Nor Heaven and Hell seen where is his great Execution and Retribution XXI Christ only is the Specifying and Unifying Form of the Church as United to the Matter And all Christians Pastors and People are but the Matter They have a sort of Unity in themselves They are of one Human kind of one Interest of one Profession and Faith and Love if sincere and joyn in one sort of Worship and Acts of Obedience to Christ But they are One Christian Church or Body of Christ only by their Vnion with Christ and Relation to him their Head and Center As the Kingdom of England hath one sort of Men in our Land of one Language c. But only their Relation to one King makes them one Kingdom XXII The Church or Body of Christ when fully made hath dissimilar parts some are Noble Organical parts first made to be instruments in making and preserving all the rest and the Church cannot be a Formed Church without them some are such Integrals as the Church may live without but not be Whole without Even as Aristotle defineth the Soul to be Entelechia or the Entitative Act and Form of a Physical organized Body capable of being Animated by it And as in
And yet he may own most or all other Pastors of the Catholick Church as such He that thinks the Subscriptions Forms or Ceremonies of the Greek Roman or English Church unlawful doth not therefore think Christianity or Catholick Communion unlawful XXXVIII All Christians are not bound to be fixed Members of particular Churches subordinate to National but those that can enjoy it ought The Negative I have so fully proved against Dr. Stillingfleet that for Dr. Sherlock to go on to harp on the same string and give no answer to it doth but tell us with what Men we have to do I will not repeat the Proofs I gave that some Ambassadors some Merchants some wandering Beggars or Tradesmen some Travellers and some where no Churches yet are gathered some Soldiers and some in times of Confusion are not obliged to be fixed Members of any particular Church but only to be Christians in Communion with the Church Catholick and to hold transient Communion with the Churches where they come He that yet will deny this words will not make him see it XXXIX Many of these Churches in one Kingdom have so great advantage by the Unity of Soveraignty civil Interest and Laws to be strengthening helpers to one another that they should accordingly associate and live in as much concord as their various conditions Auditors and Imperfections will allow And accordingly as Neighbours owe some more Charity to each other than to Strangers so Christians under the same Prince united by Civil Government Laws and Interest should be so far from persecuting and destroying each other for that which in various Kingdoms is allowable in Religion that they should exercise more love compassion and forbearance of one another XL. Christian Princes are true Parts of the Kingdom of Christ and eminent Integral Parts of the Universal Church as well as Pastors And are bound by Christ to do their best to make all their Kingdoms the Kingdoms of Christ that is to bring all their Subjects to consent to be Christians and to live in concordant Obedience to the Laws of Christ. And so all Nations should be discipled as far as they can procure it And such National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms we must all desire XLI Supreme Christian Princes or States are authorized and obliged to drive on by just means all Pastors and People to the Duties of their several Places and correct them for their Crimes XLII Christian Princes and States being Members of the Universal Church are bound to contribute their best endeavours to its welfare And therefore so far to Unite and Agree as is necessary to their mutual strengthening for the Universal good XLIII Therefore so far as Civil Councils or Dyets of many Princes or their Delegates or Ambassadors are necessary to this Concord for the common good they are bound by God to keep such And where Meetings cannot be kept to use all meet correspondency by Ambassadors and Letters for the same End So that this is no duty proper to Bishops but common to Christian Princes And if their sinful omission make it strange it is nevertheless their duty as God will make them know XLIV Thy Synods of Pastors duly ordered are of great use for their mutual advice strength and concord in order to the universal good So far are we from being against them that we think the right use of them of great importance That they may keep a right understanding of the Faith which they agree in and bear down Heresies the better by their joynt opposition and may keep up Christian Love and work out the disaffections which strangers and the calumnies of backbiters are apt to breed And even in Integrals and meet Accidents may do as much in Concord as they can XLV The Obligation which lieth on Particular Pastors to observe the Agreements of such Synods is from the general command of Love and Concord and the means thereto And he that stands not to such Agreements as make for the Strength and Concord of the Churches violateth this Common Law But such Agreements of Synods as make not for this common end but are against it no man is obliged to observe For it is no means that is not for the End but against it Therefore every Canon which enjoyneth sin or is not to the Churches good but hurt must not be kept XLVI It is not true that the Diocesan is by Office the Representer of the whole Church in Synods and Presbyters have no place or decisive Votes Protestants have at large confuted this in their Confutations of Popery and so have many French Papists and some others The Convocation in England hath a lower House of Presbyters Else in Abassia one Bishop were instead of all the Clergy of the Empire And two or three were a National Synod in a Nation that hath no more Diocesses They can shew no Commission for such a Representative Power therefore they have none such XLVII Much less have five Patriarchs and a few Metropolitans or such near them as they will call Authority to pass for the Representatives of all the Christian World and to constitute a General Council XLVIII No Pastors or Churches can give power to any to represent them absolutely but only limitedly to lawful things for common good And to oblige them no further or longer to stand to what they do than the common good requireth it What a man may not do himself he may not authorize another to do for him And no man may himself oppose Truth or Duty or cross the common good or assert any falshood or consent to any sin And that which accidentally maketh for the common good in one Age or Countrey may be against it in the next And then we are obliged against it whatever our Delegates Ancestors or selves did for it before XLIX There was never in the World a General Council of all the Bishops on Earth nor of the Representatives of all the Churches Even the six or eight or more old Councils now most honoured were General but as to One Empire yea far from that and not as to all the Christian World This I have fully proved in my second Book against Johnson 1. From the Subscriptions to the said Councils 2. From the Authority of the Emperors that called them 3. From the rest of the History and Acts 4. And from the Testimony of the Historians of those Times Yet A. Bishop Bromhall with the Papist Priest Johnson maintaineth the contrary pag. 110. saying This Exception was made in the dark c. and saith it abounds with Errours and that the Abuna of Ethiopia submitteth to the Patriarch of Alexandria and they all acknowledge the Pope the first Patriarch c. Ans. 1. If such a cant as this go with any man for a satisfactory answer to the full proof aforesaid which I have given and my Confutation of ten times more of Johnsons I have done with that man Ans. 2. Our Question is Whether any or all the
their bloody Fangs and Jaws § 13. XII They saw that the same Clergymen who were for this Union with Rome were the chief Defenders of the King 's absolute Power of raising Money without Parliaments as the known History of Abbot's Dejection and Laud's Sibthorp's and Mainwaring's Cases shew And this made them the lother to draw nearer Popery § 14. XIII They found the Power of the Clergy in the High Commission and their Courts and Councils so uneasie to them that they greatly feared so great an increase of it as the Coalition with Rome would cause § 15. XIV They found that the Papists and reconciling Prelates were the greatest Enemies to them whom they accounted the most Godly serious Christians Ministers and Lay-men not only Nonconformists but such as they devised to call conformable Puritans And they were not for Uniting their strength against serious practical Piety § 16. XV. They found that the prophane Drunkards and ignorant Rabble greatly rejoyced in the Bishops prosecuting such Puritans And were loth to see them much more so animated by the Coalition with Rome § 17. XVI They found so great a number of the Clergy that were for the Coalition and Enemies to the Puritans to gape so greedily after Preferment and live such indifferent lives and Preach so unprofitably and do so little to cure the ignorance of the People as made them fear much worse if we came nearer the Roman Clergy who are so much for blind obedience and cherishing ignorance that they may Rule § 18. XVII They did not perceive that the Case of any Popish Country Italy Spain Portugal Austria Bavaria Poland no nor France was so much better than ours as might tempt us to be liker to them than we are Yea that the best of them both in Civil and Religious Respects are so much worse as may well deter us from such desires § 19. XVIII And it 's not to be doubted but they made some Conscience of their Obligations to the King and were loth he should be tempted to give away half the Government of his Kingdom yea of himself to Foreigners under the Name of Ecclesiastical Government by such Courts as theirs § 20. XIX And no doubt they remembred what Doctrine against Kings and States are subject to the Church and Pope their Councils and Drs. do assert and what they have done to their disturbance and destruction And therefore were loth to give any more strength and advantage to men of such Principles and Pretensions If the Pope will give a Protestant King fair quarter and promise him freedom from his Tyranny while the same man according to his Canons layeth claim to more and exerciseth Tyranny in other Lands he may soon break his Promise here § 21. XX. And no doubt but they saw how loth other Princes and States were to return nearer Rome that had once escaped and to subject themselves to such a Usurper And they thought it unwise and unsafe for England to stand alone in a singular odd condition neither Papists nor such Reformers as any of the rest and so to be strengthened by a Concord and hearty Friendship with neither § 22. XXI And it is not to be doubted but the Lords and Gentlemen of England were unwilling to give up all their Abby Lands as long as they thought a sufficient Ministry competently provided for And unwilling to take the Pope or Clergies promises for security for the continuance of their Possessions yea and to save them from being burnt as Hereticks § 23. XXII And no doubt but common reason told them how great a part of England not the unwisest nor the worst would refuse consent to the Coalition with Rome and the nearer approaches when imposed and therefore what a doleful encrease it would make of our Divisions If we are so sadly divided already by a few Oaths and Promises and New Covenants and Formalities and Church Judicatures how many hundred thousand more would dissent if all were imposed which the new Church-men judge necessary to the Union with Rome § 24. And these would unavoidably draw on a grievous Persecution For when all this stir loss cost and hazard had been made to bring on such a general Concord Dissenters would not have been endured by the Clergy when yet they would be multiplied § 25. And how much such a Division and Persecution would weaken the Kingdom they that did not believe Christ that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand might easily know by reason and the Worlds experience § 26. On such accounts as these the two sorts of Episcopal Conformists differed and the old Tribe called then the Church of England resisted the endeavours made by Bishop Laud and such as A. Bishop Bromhall and the rest that were for a Coalition with Rome Till the latter got into the chiefest Chairs and then they called their side The Church And thus Church and Church here began our strife And the difference twisted with the Civil differences between King and Parliament widened and utterly exasperated by War the A. Bishop of Canterbury beheaded and the A. Bishop of York being in Arms for the Parliament each Party claimeth the name of the Church of England And the Party that is uppermost doth it with advantage while sober men know that denominating à Formâ as existent in Materiâ capaci seu dispositâ the Church of England is nothing but a Protestant Soveraign and a Protestant Kingdom of Subjects guided by Protestant Ministers of the Word Sacraments and Keys So that in the Reign of King James and of any Papist King there was and can be no Protestant Kingdom or National Church deficiente formâ denominante in the Judgment of those Royalists that think Parliaments have no part in the Legislation and Soveraignty And according to them that think otherwise it is but a National Church secundum quid in respect to the Power of Parliaments and Laws But Particular Churches Parochial and Confederate and Diocesan may yet continue their Constitutive causes continuing But not an informed National Church Chap. III. They are deceived who are for the foresaid Papal or Council-Jurisdiction as if it were the way of Vnity or Catholicism § 1. I Doubt not but the desireableness of Universal Concord is it which draweth many honest well-meaning men into the esteem of the Papal or Conciliar-Jurisdiction All things have a tendency to Aggregation or Unity as Perfection and nothing more than Christian Love This held such good men of old as Bernard Gerson c. from favouring the Reformers thinking that the Papacy was necessary to Unity This kept such as Erasmus and Cassander from forsaking them And this turned Wicelius Grotius and others to them And no doubt but this inclineth many in England to the French kind of Church-Government and to approve and follow Grotius But they quite cross their own desires § 2. Catholicism or Vniversal Concord consisteth in that which all the Christian Church is constituted by and in which
our Concord it comes all to one in point of Obligation Ans. 1. If it come all to one in the effect why do you contend for so much more in the Cause 2. God bindeth Princes and States as much to Concord and yet their voluntary Treaties and Dyets and a Supreme Government over them do not come all to one 3. God doth not bind all Churches or Christians to agree in more than he himself hath commanded them And therefore hath given power to none on Earth to determine what more all shall agree in 4. The Greater the Councils are caeteris paribus the more all Protestants reverence them because they signifie the Concord of many But 1. We know that there are none of them Universal as to the World nor ever are like to be 2. We know that the Greater part are usually the worst and that at this day the far greater number of Christians on Earth Papists Greeks Armenians Nestorians Jacobites c. are lamentably degenerate ignorant and corrupt 3. And we know that as God hath not made the greater number the Governors of the lesser so neither doth he bind or allow the less to consent to them to their hurt 4. And when Councils for meer Agreement will degenerate and Usurp a Regiment over Dissenters they change their Species and bind us not to obey them but oppose them as Usurpers XI The last deceit that I shall here name is Their pretence of the mischief of letting Sinful or Heretical Kingdoms go unpunished when singular Persons must not escape Therefore there must be a Supreme Power on Earth to correct or punish National Churches or Kingdoms You may find the Argument in Dr. Sawell Bishop Guning's Chaplain and Master of a College in Cambridge and many others This is so plain dealing that one would think all Kings and Kingdoms should easily understand it But I answer it 1. Why will this pretended necessity of correcting Kings and Kingdoms infer One Universal Church Soveraign any more than one King or Senate over all the Earth Perhaps you 'le say The Church is one but Kingdoms are many I answer The whole World on Earth is One Kingdom of God but particular Churches are many 2. Kings and whole Kingdoms shall be punished as well as singular Persons But only by God the Universal King or by permitted Enemies but not by any Humane Superior Governors Kings are under the Laws of God and they shall be judged by those Laws If you lived in the due expectation of Death and Judgment you would not think them insignificant words that the Just Universal Judge is as at the Door who only can Judge Kings 3. The Ministers of Christ who know them and live under them have sufficient Authority to admonish Kings and Kingdoms and exercise Pastoral Care of their Souls by Preaching and Applying the Word of God as their own Physicians are fittest to take care of their Health without sending to Rome or over all the Earth for a Council of Physicians What work these Universal Rulers have made by Excommunicating Kings and Interdicting Kingdoms History acquainteth us It hath not been such as should make any Man long for an Universal Church Governour of Kings and Kingdoms 4. Those Foreigners that think Kings and Kingdoms Heretical and prove it may renounce Communion with them without pretending to be their Governors I have thought meet here briefly to repeat our Controversie with the Reasons and Deceits of the Usurpers our own Judgment is for true Catholicism even one Catholick Head Jesus Christ one Catholick Church having no other Head or Soveraign One Spirit One Faith One Baptism One Hope of Glory and One God and Father of all And that all Christians should live in Love to others as themselves and in their several Churches under the just conduct of their several Pastors keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 That they should all know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and highly esteem them in love for their work sake and be at peace among themselves 1 Thes. 5.12 13. That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men who judge as God would have them judge Rom. 14.17 But if God be forsaking the West as far as he hath done the East and dementation prognosticate perdition the Kingdom above shall never be forsaken And we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting to the Coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Chap. V. What a Foreign Jurisdiction by Councils or the College of Bishops is the Mask being taken off MEthinks Princes and States and Churches should not be cheated into a state of Subjection without ever considering or examining what it is And methinks no honest Bishops should be unwilling that it be truely understood I. Consider what an Universal Legislative Power includeth It plainly implyeth the insufficiency of Gods Words and Laws to those Ends for which this power is pretended Whereas this is the very point of the Protestant Cause as differenced from Popery that God being the only Ruler of the whole World none else can make Laws for the whole but only such By Laws for their particular Provinces as Corporations do under the King for undetermined Circumstances in which Kingdoms and Churches may freely differ II. By this the Peace of the Christian World will be laid on these variable Circumstances As if all the World were bound to wear such Garments as France or England wear c. III. By this the Legislative Power of every Kingdom is taken away in all matters of Religion which are our greatest things For it is the summa potestas only that hath the Legislative Power At least no Inferior hath any but from and under the Supreme nor may contradict them VVhereas even the Decrees of our National Clergy are no Laws with us till the King shall make them Laws IV. By this no Man can tell what degree of Power these Foreigners will assume As the Popes Ecclesiastical Power is now extended to Testaments Matrimony Adulteries Church Lands c. Among Christians to whom all things are sanctified they may challenge almost all And when it becomes a Controversie who shall judge Certainly the Supreme Power is the Supreme Judge of their own Rights V. I think it will oblige Kings Lords and all when Summoned to Travel out of their own Kingdoms as Malefactors to answer what accusations are brought against them For certainly a Supreme Judicature must have its Forum where men must be heard before they are Judged and where all that are Summoned must answer Or else Kings and Kingdoms must become poor Subjects to any
Fellow that the Foreign Soveraign will make his Chancellor or Legate VI. VVho knoweth not how much the Government and Peace of the State will depend on the Government of such an Universal Church Governor VVhen they have Excommunicated the King will not the Subjects the more dishonour him if they take the Excommunicators Power to be Supreme What work hath the Pope made by Excommunications Kingdoms have been engaged in War by it against each other Yea Subiects against their Kings Yea Sons have deposed their Fathers as the Emperor Henry's Case acquaints us Yea when the Pope hath not medled Bishops Councils have basely deposed the best of Kings as Ludov. Pius Case tells us and the Empress Maud's in England c. In ad ordine Spiritualia all will fall into the Foreign Soveraigns hands They must be the Soul and Kings but the Body VII It will unavoidably follow that Kings and Kingdoms must be subjected to Foreign Princes by this pretence of a Foreign Church Jurisdiction For he knoweth little of the World that knoweth not that to be true which Dr. Peter Heylin on the Creed of the Cath. Church citeth out of Socrates that since Emperors were Christians all things depended on their beck or will Will not they chuse Bishops or Rule in the choice Will not they over-rule the choice of such as are to be sent to General Councils as King James chose the Six that went hence to Dort Is it not known that it is the Excellency and Merit of our Clergy to be obedient to the Kings Will And is it not so in the rest of the VVorld Therefore those Princes that can command the greatest number of Bishops will be Governors of all the rest of the VVorld both over their Souls and Bodies VIII I desire it may be well considered whether the Government of all Kings for Soul and Body will not fall into the hands of Mahometans and Infidels or at least the contest prove hard between them and the Papists For it is no small number of Bishops that are in the Mahometans Dominions Turks Moors Persians Indians c. And if they know once the advantage of numbers they can make more when they will Even one to every Christian Congregation And as Ludolphus tells us of the Patriarch of Alexandria that any ignorant sorry Fellow gets the place that can purchase it by Favour and Money of the Turks so it is at Constantinople as to the over-ruling of the Choice But that 's not the worst But by our Subjecters Principles the five Patriarchs have such a Power in Councils that it 's no Council without them or the greater part of them And four of the five Patriarchs are Subjects of the Turk and the Pope is the fifth or first And will not the Turk then choose them and so be Master of our Religion and of all the Christian World Or if the Pope get the greater Number of Bishops the Matter will not be well amended as the Trent Council hath assured us And when the Empire was over the West the Emperor had a chief hand in choosing Popes And who knows how soon it may be so again and the new way of Cardinals be cast by And so we shall be the Emperor's Subjects IX We know already that the far greatest part of the Bishops of the World are lamentably Ignorant and Erroneous Men and keep up Error and Divisions in their several Countries viz. in Greece Moscovie Armenia Syria Abassia c. and in Italy Spain Poland Hungary Germany c. And are we bound to obey them because they are the greater number In Council or out of Council they are the same men What Nation under Heaven hath Bishops just of the Mind of these with us in England or so sound and judicious as ours have been and some yet are And must our English Bishops give up their Judgments to an erroneous Majority abroad Is that our thankfulness to God X. How little difference is it to us whether e. g. Image-worship Transubstantiation or any Sin be commanded us by a Council or by the Pope or by him as Absolute or as Patriarch of the West and Principium Vnitatis XI What can a Principium Unitatis signifie in the Universal Church but some Governing Power and Unifying Prerogative Who but the King can be Principium Vnitatis in the Kingdom The Question will not be whether the Pope shall be the Universal Monarch but only whether this Monarch's Power be Absolute and Total or Limited and Partial with his Council And Church-Monarchs that have these Thousand Years conquered Church-Parliaments already may do so still XII If the Pope have not the Universal Supreme Government in the Intervals of Councils there will be none And if there have been none these Thousand Years which must follow their Opinion that end it as the Sixth Council why should it be new made now XIII We know already that Grotius and his Party are for the Popes Government in chief in the Intervals of Councils but not Arbitrarily but by the Canons And I have after named you a multitude of Canons already which we cannot lawfully obey XIV It will make an endless Controversie in the World what Councils shall be approved and obeyed and which not XV. If the Pope must preside he will have it near him He will not Travel to Syria or Armenia c. but they must come to him And where-ever the Council is called the nearest Bishops will carry it by numbers against the remote who will be few XVI None can expect that the Pope as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis will do his part for nothing And the riches of this Kingdom is little enough for the King Clergy and People We cannot spare that which Foreigners will expect and have done in this Land XVII While the same Man that is here owned as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis is owned as of greater Power in Italy Spain Germany and other Lands he will be strengthened to bring us to Conformity with the rest and in time to obtain all his claim XVIII Are Strangers like to be fitter Judges of the Matters of England Armenia Habassia c. than the Rulers Clergy of the several Kingdoms who know the Persons they must Judge and can hear both sides speak and examine Witnesses c. XIX The old and famous General Councils were not called to Govern Foreigners and all the World but only the Empire that called them And why should the Church Government now be any other than Collateral with the Civil XX. I again and again say that we are Sworn by the Oath of Supremacy against all Foreign Jurisdiction And by the Corporation Act the Vestry Act the Act of Uniformity the Militia Act and the Oxford Oath the Church and Kingdom is most solemnly bound never to endeavour any Alteration of Government in Church or State And if subjecting King Kingdom and Church to a Foreign Jurisdiction of such as pretend to an Universal Supreme
dissolved (h) And Men taught to be Perjured by taking in Foreign Ecclesiastical Power (i) And yet Obey his Councils Canons (k) Christ hath given us a sufficient Law for the Government of the Church else saith Gerson he were not a perfect Lawgiver Must we be beholden to the Pope for leaving us a little of that which Christ gave us Who gave him Power to take any of it from us Would our Conciliators have magnified the Men that for the Peace of England would have agreed with Cromwell to allow the King the Isle of Wight or Wâ—les Or to have made a Law that every Highway Robber shall reâ—urn â—ne half to the Owner And with what Conscience could the Subjects of Christ have obeyed all the rest of the Usurpers sinful Canons (a) Confusion 1. The form denominateth The Church of Rome which we separate from is a pretended Soveraignty over all Christians This is no true Church of Christ. 2. But we separate not from them in point of Christianity But 1. From their Usurpation 2. And other Sins (b) And having before made the Church of England Schismaticks he makes all Schismaticks that Communicate with it (c) Here is 1. An Universal Legislative Power over all the Church on Earth 2. This Power is in Councils of which the Pope is the chief Member and the only reasonable means of the Union of so great a Body is his Regular Power as distinct from Infinite Power 3. All the Canons Rites and Customs are these Laws of the Church 4. All Kings and Kingdoms are bound to obey them 5. No man must question whether these Laws or Customs or any of them are contrary to God's Law 6. The men that must have this Absolute Power over all the Kings and Kingdoms on Earth that will be Christian are themselves the Subjects of the Turks the Moore the Emperor of Abassia the Persian the Emperor of Indastan called the Mogal the Kings of Poland Hungary Spain France England Denmark Sweden the Emperor of Germany and abundance more when it 's known that few Bishops are chosen in any of these Countreys Mahometans or Papists but such as the Princes like and that they dare not go against their wills in any great matter 7. Their minds are known already and consequently what they would do in Councils if all these Princes would agree to call an Universal Council The Major Vote if it were called in Mesopotamia or that way would be such as Rome calleth Hereticks If called in Greece it would be Greeks If in Italy or Germany or France they would be Papists no where Protestants Few would travel above a thousand miles to the Council 8. Tho' one would think that this platform of Governing the whole Earth could be believed by no man in his wits yet you see Learned men are so far deceived And it is by judging of the World by the Old Roman Empire There indeed Councils were Nationally General They were Courts They had Legislative Power and Pretorian Command None might appeal from them for Relief in Foro Humano Emperors gave them this Power It was but rational over their own Subjects What Power had they over others The Convocation in England or the General Assembly in Scotland may be made and called a Court by the King But France or Spain were never Governed by them nor took them to be over them unquestionable Legislators Yea I believe King and Parliament at home are not so subject to their Laws (d) And are not these unmerciful men that will let men take up with a damning Baptism and will not rebaptize them that they may have a saving Baptism which yet they hold necessary to Salvation They fear Anabaptism it seems more than mens Damnation (e) The true Church that is an Usurped Power of Universal Legislation is here made by him and Mr. Dodwell as necessary to Salvation as Christ and more than the holy Scriptures But what will now become of all the Papists that by dispensation come in to Protestant Churches They also are all damned as Schismaticks for communicating with them unless he forgot to except them that the Pope dispenseth with (f) How much wiser are these men than Christ and St. Paul who made it the duty of all that were baptized Christians to live as one Body of Christ in Love Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14.1 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men (g) This yet is some mercy to us But is it as your grant 1. How will this stand with all that you have written for the continued Universal Legislative Church Did it cease at Charles the Great 's time and yet are all damned that are not subject to it 2. How shall we be sure that the Canons bind us till Adrian's time and not since 3. But Sir we take him for a Papist that is for all the Canons and Customs till Charles the Great And there are many things before that which we cannot Conform to without renouncing the Laws and sufficient Government of Christ which we cannot do upon such pitiful reasonings as yours (a) The standing Power of the Head or Soveraign and that of Official Ministers much differ (b) All necessary power since Christ by his Apostles published his Universal Laws is but that all Ministers in their several Churches guide the Flocks by these Laws of Christ and teach them the people and determine of incidental Circumstances pro loco tempore and not to make new Universal Laws (c) Christ expresly limiteth the Apostles to teach the Churches what he had commanded them and promiseth to give them the Spirit to bring all to their remembrance and lead them to all Truth (d) When the King sendâ— out Judges and Justices he doth not make them Kings or Legislators The Apostles had the Spirit for promulgating and recording Christs Laws Others have it only to preserve and teach them and rule by them and not to make more such as if they were insufficient and Christian Religion were still to be changed by new additions and were half Divine and half Humane Gods Word and the Bishops in medley (e) The three first Ages had no General Councils The three next had National or Imperial General Councils The thousand years last past which you include in All Ages had such Councils and practices as prove not her right Else why do not you now practise accordingly Bishop Guning owneth but six General Councils which were all but in three Ages And others but four and none that I know of but eight who do not openly profess Popery Hath Christ given any new commands since those which he sent the Apostles to deliver Have you any more of his commands to give us than the Apostles delivered in their times If you may make new ones you have more than
Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal And that No Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have ANY JURISDICTION Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Forreign Jurisdiction Priviledges Preheminence and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Here all the Kingdom swears That none have or ought to have any Jurisdiction here who is Forreign Yet some Papists have been encouraged to take this Oath by this Evasion Obj. No Jurisdiction is here disclaimed of Forreigners but what belongs to the King But Spiritual Jurisdiction called the Power of the Keys belongs not to the King Ergo. Ans. For securing the King's Jurisdiction All Forreign Jurisdiction is renounced signifying that there is no such thing as a Jurisdiction over this Realm but the King 's and his Officers The Power of the Keys or Spiritual Power is not properly a Jurisdiction as that word includeth Legislation but only a Preaching of Christ's Laws and administring his Sacraments and judging of mens capacity for Communion according to those Laws of Christ And this under the Coercive Government of the King Much like that of a Tutor in a Colledge or a Physician in his Hospital What can be more expresly said than this here that No Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate have or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm Is that of Pope or Councils neither Ecclesiastical nor Spiritual Is not the word Prelate purposely put in to exclude that Power hence which Prelates claim Though the King claim not the Power of the Keys he knew that by the claim of that Power the Pope and Councils of Forreigners had been the disturbers of his Government And therefore all theirs here is excluded as a necessary means to secure his own 1. Popes and Councils have claimed a Legislative Power over us and all the Church But the Laws of this Land know no such but in Christ over all and in King and Parliament under him over this Land And therefore the Oath excludeth the Power claimed by Popes and Councils 2. As to Judicial Power these Forreigners claim a Power of Judging who in England shall be taken for a true Bishop and Minister who shall have Tythes Church-Lands and Temples whether the Kings Lords and all Subjects shall be judged capable of Church-Communion or be Excommunicate And our Laws declaring that all this Forreign Claim is Usurpation fully proveth that it was the sense of the Oath to exclude them They claim also a Power of Judging who shall pass here for Orthodox and who for Hereticks And in their Laws the consequence is who shall be burned for a Heretick or be exterminated or after Excommunication deposed from their Dominions and their Subjects absolved from their Allegiance But certainly the Oath excludeth them from all this The most of the Papists claim no Power directly due to their Pope but that which they call Ecclesiastical or Spiritual the rest is but by consequence and in ordine ad Spiritualia But if this be not excluded in the Oath then they intended not to exclude the Papacy And then what was the Oath made for or what sense hath it or what use And who can believe this If the meaning of the Oath be not to exclude the Pope's Ecclesiastical Power then they that take it may yet hold that the Pope is Head of all the Churches on Earth and hath the Authority to call and dissolve and approve or reprobate General Councils and may Ordain Bishops for England and his Ordinations and his Missionaries be here received and Appeals made to him and Obedience sworn to him his Excommunications Indulgences imposed Penances Silencings Absolutions Prohibitions here received All which our Statutes Articles Canons c. shew notoriously to be false It is evident therefore that this Oath renounceth all Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction II. The second proof is from many Acts of Parliament Those which prohibit all that receive Orders beyond Sea from the Pope or any Papists to come into England on pain of death Those that forbid the Doctrine Worship and Discipline both of Popes and Councils The words of 25 H. 8. c. 21. are these Whereas this Realm recognizing no Superiour under God but the King hath been and is free from Subjection to any man's Laws but only such as have been devised made and ordained within this Realm for the wealth thereof or to such other as the People of this Realm have taken at their free liberty by their own consent to be used among them and have bound themselves by long use and custom to the observance of the same not to the observance of the Laws of any Forreign Prince Potentate or Prelate but as to the accustomed and antient Laws of this Realm originally Established as Laws of the same by the said sufferance consent and custom and none otherwise It standeth therefore with natural equity and good reason c. that they may abrogate them c. Moreover the Laws of England determine that no Canons are here obligatory or are Laws unless made such by King and Parliament And if it be true which Heylin and some others say that the Pope's Canon-Laws are all here in force still except those that are contrary to some Laws of the Realm that is but as the Roman Civil Law is in force not as a Law of the Pope or old Romans but as made Laws to us by King and Parliament The Roman Senate and Emperor give us the Matter of the Civil Law and the Pope and Councils of the Canon-Law but the Soveraign Power here giveth them the Form of a Law as the King coineth Forreign Silver III. The Articles of Religion prove the same 1. The twenty first Article saith General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometime have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Here note 1. That General Councils so called in the Empire had no power to meet much less to Rule without the Commandment of Princes And so those called by the Emperor had no power over the Subjects of other Princes 2. And true Universal Councils will never be Lawfully called till either all the Earth have One Humane Monarch or all the Heathen Infidel Mahometan Papist Heretical and Protestant Princes agree to call them For one hath not Power over the Dominions of all the rest And so the Aristocratical Party put the
State and also expresly against all Forreign Jurisdiction § 2. That it is not only an Alteration but even an Alteration of the very Species or Constitution of Church and State Government to bring the Land under the Forreign Jurisdiction either of Pope Prince or Prelates I have proved by it self and to any man of understanding it needs no proof § 3. That Church and State and the whole Land ought not be wilfully perjured is clear 1. It is so heinous a sin against God as is like to bring down destructive vengeance He that threatneth it even in the Tables of Stone The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And Perjury is the chief taking his Name in vain to confirm a Lie And if this threatning reach to every individual what will become of perjured Church and Kingdom The Lord is the avenger of all such crimes And it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of this God who is a consuming fire II. Perjury is a direct dissolution of Societies Mutual Trust is their concernment Utter Distrust is a Virtual death or war King and People are tied to each other by Oaths Majors and chief Officers and Judges are tied to fidelity by Oaths The Bishops swear their Clergy to them though old Canons condemned it Loose this Bond and what are Societies Who can trust him that maketh no conscience of the Obligation of Oaths any more than an Enemy III. It depriveth the King of a necessary means of security for his life If all conscience of the Oaths of Allegiance were gone it is supposed that the conscience of Loyalty would be gone And many a Traytor would study how to kill Kings secretly without danger to themselves or to make it good by strength and numbers IV. It depriveth all the Subjects of necessary Security for Estate Name or Life If Church and State should openly be perjured who can expect that all Individuals should stick at it But rather that every Man that hath an Enemy or hath either Wealth or Place which another desireth should presently be Sworn to the Gallows or the Block It were far better dwell among Toads Snakes and Adders or Wolves and Bears against whom a Man hath some defence Homo homini Lupus would be turned into Homo homini Diabolus V. It would make us uncapable of Trust Traffick and Friendship with any Forreign Land Open National Perjury is so odious against the Light and Law of Nature that Englishmen would be to other Lands as Man-eating Canibals are to us None could treat with us or trust us VI. This would be a most heinous wrong to the King to have the History of his Reign so odiously blotted to all Posterity as that under him the Land should be turned to Diabolism and made the hatred and scorn of all the Earth when God had honoured it with so many Blessings above most others VII It would render Popery it self more odious than it is as if it lived by the most horrid crimes and must revive by National Perjury And would confirm those self-conceited Whimsical Expositors of Rev. 13. that think the mark in the Forehead imposed upon all that must buy and sell and be Freemen is PERjury with PERsecution and that dream that the Letters of the Name of the Beast are not to be understood meerly Numerally but Materially and Nominally and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 xi sigma-tau are our Ch. and St. conjoyned by a Serpentine X or and to signifie that our Swearing and Forswearing was for Church and State Yea and the more odious fancy of another Name in them will become their Sport VIII It would make the Nonconformists say that never Men on Earth were dealt with so inhumanely and Challenge the World to give any such instance in any History Christian Mahometan or Pagan if the same men that have reviled them as Rebellious and endeavoured their Imprisonment and utter Ruine for not Swearing never to endeavour any alteration of Government should all this while be designing the alteration of it and first to make all men abjure it and after to bring them to it The Dissenters scruple not Swearing never to Endeavour the Altering of the State Government nor of the Church as in the Hands of such Pastors as Christ or his Apostles instituted nor any Reformation by Sedition or unlawful Means But they durst not absolutely abjure all Lawful Endeavour to take the Church Keys out of Lay-mens Hands and to have more Bishops than one to many score or hundred Churches c. And if we must lye in Jails as Rogues for refusing this for fear of Perjury and yet the Reverend or other Prosecuters should so far alter all the Government of Church and State as to bring all the Land under a Forreign Jurisdiction Legislative Judicial and Executive and to make King Parliament Clergy and People the Subjects of the Pope or which is more base of a Court or Colledge of Prelates who are almost all Subjects to Forreign Papists Mahometans and Heathens of whom few dare disobey their Lords and Princes this would be such a thing as Humane Language hath no words significant enough to describe § 4. Obj. Sinful Oaths bind none and must be broken Ans. 1. Sinful Oaths involve Men in the dreadful guilt of Perjury 2. Oaths sinfully imposed and taken yet bind to Lawful Matter 3. If these Oaths be sinful why were they imposed Shall the same Men urge all to take them and then say You may break them as being sinful 4. It is not sinful to Swear Loyalty and Self-defence against foreign Enemies or Usurpers Obj. 2. Luther and your other Reformers broke their Vow of Chastity and Obedience to the Pope and defended it Answ. 1. You think they did ill and will that justifie you 2. To obey a Pope that is by Usurpation a Vice-Christ or King of all the World is a great Sin and they that Swear it are no more bound to it than they that Swear Murder or Treason And the Vow of Chastity becomes unlawful to those that have not the Power of Continence But for those that had let them justifie them from Perjury that can I cannot 3. The Perjury of a few Individuals and of a Kingdom vastly differ 4. They took that Oath in ignorance thinking they had done well But those that I now speak to at once reviled them that took it not and did their best to lay it on all the Land and yet were then for a Foreign Jurisdiction and designed or desired that all that took it might after break it But these Objectors shew us that there is no Sin so odious and inhumane which Learned and Reverend Men may not plead for under a Name and Mask of Virtue Loyalty Piety and the Churches Good and Service Obj. The Laws may repeal these Oaths Answ. That will but free new Men from taking them but not those that have already Sworn from keeping them in all the
High Priest It is his School and we are his Disciples I suppose that God the Father and Christ is the only Rightful Universal Civil and Church-Monarch and none else can give Laws or exercise Judgment over the whole Earth but that Magistrates and Pastors are Commissioned by God to their several Provinces Governing the whole only per partes between them and God as the Monarch maketh them such Universal Laws as they must Rule and be Ruled by And that there is no more proof of one Ecclesiastick Humane Judicature to Rule all the World than of one Civil one and less probability But that Princes and Pastors must do all by the best Advantages of Unity Love and Concord and keep such Synods and Correspondencies as are necessary to that end I suppose that every Kingdom hath its own King and Inferiour Magistrates Ruling by their several Courts and Circuits and by the Kings Laws but not Ruling all the Kingdom as one College of a Voting Synod of Judges Justices and Majors If Senates have any where a Supremacy it is from the peculiar Constitution of that Commonwealth and there is no Institution of a College of Kings or one Monarch to Rule all the Earth But their Unity is centred in God that is one I suppose that the King hath ordained that all Free-Schools in England Scotland and Ireland shall have each their proper Schoolmasters one to a small School and to a great one a Chief Master with under Schoolmasters and he hath made an Order that they shall teach E. g. Lilly's Grammar and faithfully perform their Trust or be put out by them that have the Power And if any School-Difficulty occur they may do well to consult for their Mutual Help But you seem to add g. d. as if 1. All the World is one Humane School though under several Kings 2. None is a Member of this School that is not under the College of Schoolmasters that dwell all over the World and never know one another and that doth not live in Obedience to that College 3. All these Schoolmasters of the whole World must meet by themselves or Delegates in General Councils 4. All Schools must receive Canons from these Councils and be judged by them and bring their Accusation at least Appeals to them from all Nations of the Earth 5. All the Schoolmasters of the several Kingdoms must hold National Assemblies in those Kingdoms or Provinces as a College of Governors to the whole Land 6. A Thousand or many Hundred or Scores Local particular Schools must be Schools but equivocally so called and have all but one proper Schoolmaster who alone must have the Keys of them and judge of each Scholar that is 1. admitted 2. corrected 3. or put out 7. All these Schools under this Diocesan Schoolmaster shall have his Ushers and no proper Schoolmasters who shall have Power to teach those that will learn and to tell the proper Schoolmaster perhaps One Hundred Eighty or Twenty Miles off of every Boy that deserveth to be corrected or put out But none of these Ushers shall have Power 1. To judge whom to take or refuse or what Boys to correct nor to correct them till commanded by the Diocesan Master 3. Nor to put out any till he bids him 4. Nor to forbear correcting or casting out any when commanded though he know them to be the best I think this 1. Deposeth all the Inferiour Schools and robs them of proper Schoolmasters which are their due 2. And deposeth the Ushers that should be mostly Schoolmasters 3. And maketh School-Government an impossible thing while one only in a Diocess is to use that which he cannot do 4. And thereby overthroweth Learning and introduceth Barbarousness 5. And bringeth in a new sort of Diocesan Schoolmasters who will undo the Scholars and themselves by undertaking Impossibilities But I disallow not 1. A Chief Schoolmaster in each School 2. Nor needful Overseers or Visitors to see that all Schoolmasters do their Duty 3. Nor that the King and Justices keep them all to their Duty and make Laws that they truly teach the Sacred Scriptures and correct those Schoolmasters who by their Insufficiency or Unfaithfulness deserve it Again I tell you 1. Make us no Universal Governor but Christ. 2. And restore the Power of necessary Discipline to the Parish-Churches or at least make Christs Church-Discipline a possible practicable thing and you will reconcile many Nonconformists to you But to say only one Schoolmaster with meer Teaching-Ushers shall Govern many Hundred Schools or one Bishop many Hundred Churches or rather Oratories and Chappels that are made but parts of one true Church infimae specici this is in English to say that there shall be no considerable Government of such Schools or Churches at all and to put it down on pretence of having the Power to do it And yet by the Charity and Justice of many that now Write and Preach against us we are all unruly intolerable rebellious Schismaticks and against Bishops for desiring more Bishops at least one to every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corporation that Discipline might be a possible thing I have in many Years of Liberty tryed without Rigour so much as all Church-Canons agree to be necessary in a Congregation that had not Three Thousand Souls and was unable for it with the assistance of Three Presbyters when one Parish about London hath Thirty Thousand and Forty Thousand if not Sixty Thousand Souls and most or many far less Governable XVII The Essentials of the Sacred Office are 1. Power or Right 2. Obligation to 3. The Work 1. The Work you say is to Rule the Church Universal on all the Earth not only separately per partes but as Vnum Collegium which is Vna Persona Politica 2. The Power is Jus Regendi 3. The Obligation maketh it their Duty The Apostles were sent first to Preach the Gospel to every Creature or all Mankind and make them Christians and after to Teach them all Christs Doctrine and Law and to Rule them by Pastoral Guidance thereby 2. If the College of Bishops be their Successors are they bound to that Work in uno Collegio which the Apostles did each one apart That is deliver Christs Commands and guide the Churches If yea are they not bound in uno Collegio to Preach to all the Heathen World And then are they not guilty of the Damnation of most of the World for not so Preaching to them 3. If you say that it is only a Regiment that they must do in uno Collegio or per Literas formatas do you not make the whole Pastoral Church guilty of perfidious Negligence as a Pastor would be that never guided his Flock for not at all performing any such Government What one Act of Government hath the College performed in our Age or in the Age foregoing or in any Age according to your self since Constant. Pogonatus his sixth or seventh Council And was it only the Church of those Ages
repetition is not unnecessary If you will read Mr. Th. Beverley's whole Duty of Nations you may see more of my Judgment Supposing your Book to be in the hands of the Reader I shall forbear transcribing and only tell you what I dissent from and the pages where it is contained I. I dissent from your Opinion of a Humane Soveraignty as over the Universal Church on Earth whether you feign it to be Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or Mixt I matter not II. Consequently I deny your Doctrine of such an Universal Legislative power in Man and of any Humane Universal Laws III. And I deny all Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that is That the Clergy of any one or many Foreign Kingdoms have a Legislative Regent power over any other King and Nation which give them not that power by a voluntary Subjection All these denied Doctrines you own pag. 28. l. 7 8 c. p. 24 25 26 21 23 19 13 14 15. My Reasons against the first are so many before repeated that I must not again do that which is so oft done Prove you a Universal Humane Polity by Kings or Clergy and I will easily prove that Aristocratical is worse than Monarchical and less practicable And if you think Popery an unfit Name for it I will prove it Antichristian as the Treasonable claim of Christs Prerogative may be so called The Second Error falls with the first For Legislation is the most Essential part of Soveraign power Your Third denied Opinion I hope all Protestant Kings and Kingdoms will continue to renounce And seeing you know that this whole Kingdom is Sworn against it even all Foreign Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions as well as Civil in the Oath of Supremacy besides the many Oaths against alteration of Church and State Government I hope you would not have the Nation stigmatized with the brand of PERJURY If the Law for taking the Oath of Supremacy be repealed the Law of God against Perjury is not repealed And whether it be Treason in it self against King and Kingdom to set up the claim of a Foreign power over them without their consent the Judges know better than I. But I know that there be some wise men that cannot yet prove K. James his Self-deposing if this will not prove it that he openly endeavoured to settle the Kingdom under a Foreign Jurisdiction against the Laws and against their Wills and so to alienate the prime part of Soveraignty And should a Foreign Jurisdiction be asserted we should all be confounded by the Impossibility of knowing where to find it or how to use it if it be Aristocratical Where the Pope is may be known But where to find a General Council of all the Christian World or an Ecclesiastical Parliament or College or the Major Vote of all the Churches we know not And seeing Bishops are all save one the Subjects of other Princes blame not Kings to be unwilling to be their Subjects when thereby they will be subjected to those Princes that Rule them or can sway them by Preferments IV. And I believe not your Doctrine that the Major part must go for this Governing Church For 1. It will never be agreed who be the Nations or Persons that are to be accounted Parts all will claim a Right that are called Christians And can all Christians or Ministers judge of their pretensions 2. It is certain that the Greater part have often erred in Counsels and out of them The Case of the Arrians proveth it And the Greater part of the Bishops have been sometime on one side and sometimes of another and have turned and returned in the same Age as is notorious in the Cases of the Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites the Council of Chalcedon owned and disowned the Tria Capitula the Case of Images and others 3. It is known that most of the Christian World at this day have no small number of Errors the Greeks Moscovites Armenians Abassins Coptis Syrians Jacobites Nestorians Maronites Georgians c. 4. It is to be expected that the Countries nearest the Councils and that have most numerous Bishopricks will have the Major Vote when those far off and that have large and few Bishopricks will have few Votes 5. It is known that three of the five old Patriarchates have many Errors yea four of them differ from all the Western Churches Papists and Protestants 5. And it 's certain that as we cannot be sure of the Major Vote all over-the World so God never gave the Major part the Soveraignty V. And your Foundation for all this in Politicks is intolerably false viz. pag. 13. In omnibus hujusmodi Societatibus pars omnis toti suo congrua pars minor majori consentanea esse debet Hoc ratio suadet Hoc jus naturale edicit Hoc Communis hominum Consensus necessarium esse statuit Adeo ut si quid à majori multo magis quod à maxim◠cujusvis Societatis parte constituitur eodem pars reliqua constringatur illudque observare necesse habeat si membrum manere privilegiis illius Societatis gaudere velit Quod cum in omnibus cujuscunque generis Societatibus valet multo magis in Ecclesia valere debet quam omnium ornatissimam esse decet I am loth to English it 1. I confess I find the like in Archbishop Laud and R. Hooker So Nonconformable to each other is the Conforming Clergy But it 's downright Popularity or Democracy of the worst sort And can such men cry down Republicans yea and raise a suspicion of Nonconformists as Republicans O what a vafricious sort of men do sometime appropriate the Name of the Church 2. It is true of no sort of Political Society in the World but only of ungoverned Communities or Confederacies except those by Contract turned a meer Community into the worst sort of Popular Politie And in Aristocracies it is not the Major Vote of the whole Society that Ruleth but of those few who make up One Political Person or Power And yet could you appeal to Reason Nature and common Consent 3. It is against the Essence of the Government of this Kingdom Shall Kings Parliament and Magistrates be bound to obey the Major part of the Kingdom No nor King and Lords to obey the Major part of the House of Commons Nor Mayors and Bailiffs be bound to obey the Major part of the Cities and Corporations 4. It is contrary to God's Law of Nature and Scripture God hath anticipated humane popular pretences of being either naturally Rulers or the Fountain of Governing Power For God hath instituted in Nature the Genus of this Power and so much of the Species as is to execute God's Laws He hath made the Fifth Commandment and as he alloweth not the Major part of the Children to govern Father and Mother or of Scholars to rule their Masters so neither of Subjects to rule the Soveraign or the Minor part 5. It is contrary to Oaths that are taken by the Subjects of
to be the authoriser of the Majority for Government For they will think that they have more of the Holy Ghost than you and therefore must Govern you I would all Rulers had the Holy Ghost but it 's somewhat else that must give them Authority XV. Your instance of the Easter Controversie is against you The difference undecided for 300 Years and Apostolical Tradition urged on both sides tells us that it was no Apostolick Law And Socrates and Sozomen tell us that in that and many such like things 〈◊〉 Churches had freely differed in Peace 〈◊〉 you seem to intimate contrary to them and to Irenâ—â—us that the Asians were Schismaticks till they Conformed And why name you Asia alone Were our Brittish Churches and the Scottish no Churches Or do you also Condemn them as Schismaticks for about 300 Years after the Nicene Council What could the Papists say more against them XVI How impossible a thing do you make Church Union to be while the Essentials or great Integrals of Religion are made insufficient to it and so many Ceremonies and Church Laws are feigned necessary which no man ever comes to the true knowledge of that he hath the right ones and all XVII If the Patriarchs must be the Soveraign College I beseech you give us some proof in a Case so weighty 1. How many there must be 2. Where seated 3. Who must choose and make them 4. And quo jure 5. And whether we have now such a College or is there no Church XVIII What Place will you give the Pope in the College I suppose with your Brethren you will call him 1. Principium Vnitatis But that 's a Name of Comparative Order what is his work as such a Principium How is he the Principium if he have no more Power than the rest Must not he call the Councils Though our Articles say General Councils may not be gathered without the Will of Princes Shall he not choose the Place and Time Tell us then who shall Must he not be President Must he not be Patriarch of the West And so Govern England as our Patriarch and Principium unitatis Vniversalis also XIX I pray tell us whether the French be Papists And how their Church-Government as Described from themselves by Mr. Jurieu differeth from that which you are for Tell me not of their Mass and other Corruptions It is Government that is the Form of Popery And they will abate you many other things And must we be Frenchified If the French restore those that we called Papists will disowning the Name and calling them the Church of England chosen by Papist Princes make us sound and safe And when we find Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Dr. Saywell Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Bishop S. Parker and many more were for a Foreign Jurisdiction can we think if the French bring in the late Governours that such Churchmen would not embrace the French Church Government and call it the Church of England when since Lauds days they have endeavoured a Coalition If they be Defeated we may thank King James who could not bear delays and would have all or none when Grotius way would have been a surer Game XX. You tell us of Penalties made by Church Laws Deposing Ministers and Anathematizing the Laity But while the Clergy hath no power of the Sword who will feel such Penalties When Rome Excommunicates the Greeks the Greeks will Excommunicate them again What Penalty is it to Protestants to be Excommunicated by the Pope or his Council How commonly did they that were for and against the Chalcedon Council Excommunicate each other And those that were for and against Images And for Photius and for Ignatius Cheat not Magistrates to be your Lictors and Cursing will go round as Scolding at Billingsgate Who is hurt by a causeless curse but the Curser I confess that Dr. Saywell sayeth well If single persons must be punished shall not Nations also Yes But by whom By God the Universal King and not by an Universal Human Soveraign whether a King or Pope or a Senate of Foreign Subjects XXI We are promised by a trifling Pamphleteer that some of you are answering Mr. Clerksons two Books about the Primitive Episcopacy and Liturgies I pray you procure them also to answer my Treatise of Episcopacy and my English Non-conformity and not with the Impudent Railing Lyars to say it is answered already while we can hear of no such thing And see that they prove that all these things following are Traditions of the Vniversal Church received from the Apostles and used ab omnibus ubique semper 1. That most particular Churches for two Hundred or three Hundred years and so down consisted of many Congregations that had no personal presential Communion 2. That Churches infimi ordinis were Diocesan having many Hundred or Score Parishes under them 3. That these Diocesans undertook the sole Pastoral Care of all these Parishes as to Confirmation Censure Absolution and the rest 4. That all these Parishes were no true Churches as having no Bishops but the Diocesans and were but Chappels or parts of a Church 5. That the Incumbents were no true Pastors or Bishops but one Bishops Curates And that there were not then besides Diocesan Arch-Bishops in each single Church Episcopi Gregis and Episcopi praesides 6. That Bishops Names were used by Lay-men that had the Decretive Power of Excommunication and Absolution 7. That such Secular Judicatories far from the Parishes rather than the particular Pastors Tryed and Judged the unknown people 8. That Parish Ministers Swear Obedience to the Diocesans and they to Metropolitans 9. That all People that would have Licenses to keep Ale-houses or Taverns or that would not lye in Jail were Commanded to receive the Sacrament as a Sealed Pardon of their Sins 10. That from the beginning all Churches were forced to use the same form of Liturgy and not every Church or Bishop to choose as he saw Cause 11. That Kings chose Bishops and Deans without the Consent of the Clergy and People 12. That all Ministers were to be Ejected and forbidden to Preach the Gospel that durst not Subscribe that there is nothing contrary to Gods Word in such as our three imposed Books 13. That all Lords Magistrates Priests and People that affirm the contrary be ipso facto Excommunicate 14. That Lay-Patrons that are but Rich enough to buy an Advowson how Vicious soever did choose all the Incumbent Ministers to whom the People must commit the Ministerial Care of their Souls 15. That they that dare not trust such Pastors as are chosen by Kings though Papists and such Patrons and dare not Conform to every imposition like ours must live like Atheists in forbearance of all publick Worship and Church Communion 16. That all may Swear that an Oath or Vow of Lawful and Necessary things bindeth not our selves or any others if it be but unlawfully imposed and taken and had any unlawful part
of the Matter 17. That the Church ever held it unlawful for a whole Kingdom to defend it self against a Prince that would deliver up half the Government to a Foreiner and force them to a Religion which requireth them to be Damned or to Dye When the Clergy and Church at Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch Rome c. did so oft by force and Blood resist even Christian Emperors such as Theodosius II. Zeno Anastasius and many others 18. That all the Churches held it lawful to Swear and Covenant never to endeavour any Amendment or Alteration of any such as the forementioned Church Government If all these things be contrary to the constant judgment or practice of the Church Quaere whether Dr. Beveridge and his Approvers pronounce not the Church of England Schismatical as so far separated from the Church Universal But again I conclude O! What must the Christian World suffer even by Learned and I hope pious Doctors I. Because they will not distinguish National or Imperial Vniversality of Church and Councils from those of the whole World II. Nor Communion from Regiment nor Contracts from Laws nor a Regent Excommunication from a Renunciation of Communion by Equals III. Nor Divine Obligations to Concord and human demands of obeying Usurpers or the hurtful Agreements of an injurious Majority of equal Votes IV. And by their Deposing Christian Kings and Magistrates from their Sacred Power over Bishops in Church-Government and for Mens Souls as if they were made only for the base things of the World and Flesh and Priests only were trusted with Religion and Souls And Kings were not Heads of National Churches V. And their shameless calling them Adversaries to Episcopacy that would have one Hundred Bishops for one and are for the old three sorts Episcopi Gregis Episcopi praesides and Arch-Bishops and calling those the Episcopal part that put down all the Bishops in a Diocess save one As for your self I profess to be so far from Censuring any thing of you save these Mistakes that as I have long so I do still Love and Honour you as a Man fearing God and of a good and blameless Conversation as far as ever I Credibly heard And I thought the like of Bishop Guning though as it is with many Religious Papists his Opinions more prevailed against his Charity for that Mischievous hurtfulness in which he served the Subtilty of Sheldon and the fierceness of Morley and the Designs of Papal Courtiers But I hear that your Piety and Charity prevaileth against the evil tendency of your mistaken Doctrine Though Mr. Thorndike threaten England unless they Reform the Oath of Supremacy I confess I wish it restored and am Displeased with those Scots that have causelesly quarrelled with it and so helpt to open a Door to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is Sworn against Since the writing of all beforegoing I first read your two great Volumes of Canons and your Answer to Dallaeus In the Prolegomena of the first to my Grief I find you more express for an Universal Legislative Power and Foreign Jurisdiction than in your Sermon And yet not at all telling us where to have access to this Universal Soveraignty for Judicature out of the times of General Councils nor how to know but by believing your bare word what Councils are our Universal obliging Laws when you confess the vast difference of the Eastern and Western numbers nor how to know what our Religion is while we know not what be our Laws Nor how to know whether the Church be extinct when it hath no human Head by the Cessation of such Councils nor who must call them nor whence nor what is their Constitutive Matter only you say they must be called out of all the Christian World But need not all be there And will a Call make a General Council if the Men come not And can they come from all the Dominions of the Abassines Armenians Turks Persians Muscovites c. And who hath right to call them hath the Pope Or our Emperors or Kings what power hath he over all other Princes Subjects You confess they were called out of the Imperial Provinces And how few if any other Names are Subscribed But I am sorry that you still so contrary to all Evidence take National or Imperial Universality for Terrestrial Universality of Church and Councils I beseech you if we must be Papists let us be of the more reasonable sort that know where to find a Papal Monarch or Vice-Christ and not sent to seek a Church-Parliament Universal or Universal Aristocratical College that is no where extant in the World nor can be especially now the five Patriarchs are what and where they are How much more Rational to be Governed by the Pope as Patriarch of the West only till we can find out the Aristocratical Head But since the Empire was turned into many Kingdoms who can prove that those many must have all one Human Head But I am yet more sorry that you joyn with Hildebrand in making Princes to be but for the Body and Civil Peace and Bishops and Priests to be the Church and for the Soul Which God willing as I have oft done I shall fullier Confute in a Treatise for true National Churches proving that Christ hath made no Higher Visible Humane Church Power or Form And that Christian Kings are as Sacred Persons and Ministers of Christ as Bishops and Superior Heads of National Churches though the Power of the Keys belong only to the Clergy And that a true National Church is but a Christian Kingdom as such the King being the Head and Confederate Pastors and Churches the Subject Body The Second Part. The Stating of the Controversie and full Confutation of the Pretences for a Foreign Jurisdiction The CONTENTS CHap. I. The clear stating of the Controversie and Confutation of the Pretenders In 60 Propositions proving it a perjurious alteration of Government c. Ch. II. Why Parliaments and the Church of England before Bishop Laud were so much against such a Coalition with the Papal Church Ch. III. The said Coalition is not the way to Catholick Union Ch. IV. The Deceits that are pleaded for an Universal Humane Soveraignty Ch. V. A Foreign Jurisdiction by College or Counsels unmaskt Ch. VI. The Grand Consequential Case Whether it be lawful for Presbyters to Swear or Profess Obedience to those Bishops who profess Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction or for the people to own them Ch. VII Of the second part of the design to bring the Papists to our Churches as in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's days Ch. VIII Why it will not serve for a Coalition for the Papists to abate their last 400 years corruptions as Archbishop Bromhall maintaineth Ch. IX Whether the instance of the Apostles Church Government prove an Universal Soveraignty in man Ch. X. Many Questions about Councils to be resolved before we can take them for an Universal Aristocracy Ch. XI A Breviate of both the Aristocratical
Faith one Baptismal-Covenant with Christ one Spirit one Hope of Grace and Glory and must keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And that all Subjects must obey their Rulers and Pastors in all lawful things belonging to their Office to command and teach And that as Particular Churches must be held for the Personal Communion of Saints so all these Churches must by Messengers Letters and Synods hold such correspondency as the common good of the Universal Church and their own strength and edification by the means of mutual COVNSEL and CONCORD do require II. Accordingly we make not Regent Senates or Courts of such Councils to make Laws for the Christian World But they are like the Assemblies of pious Christian Princes who study the Peace of the whole Christian World Princes are bound so to do as well as Pastors That they do not proveth not that they ought not Their Kingdoms are but parts of the Kingdom of Christ. If they should hold an Assembly in Europe for the suppressing of such a Heresie as threatneth the whole or such a Tyrant as the Pope or such an Enemy as the Turk it were well done and had the same reasons and power as a Council of Bishops Bishops may not undertake Jurisdiction in other mens Bishopricks nor Kings in other mens Kingdoms Bishops are bound to prefer the universal good and so are Kings III. And therefore the measure of such Communion by Consultation by Messengers Letters or Councils is 1. The publick good 2. And the capacity of the Communicants We have Communion with all Christians in Abassia Armenia and all the Earth in Faith Hope Love and all the Essentials of Christianity But if John or Joan here commit Adultery and be excommunicated as impenitent we are not bound to send Messengers to the Antipodes or all the World to tell them of it no nor if a Bishop or his Chaplain turn Heretick Nor are they bound to send hither to enquire or examine it And if the Excommunicate come to Armenia and desire Communion they are justifiable for receiving him and being ignorant of our Excommunication But Neighbour Christians and Churches live so near that they are capable of converse And therefore Synods and Communicatory Letters are there of great use And so far as an Excommunicate man is like to intrude into the Communion of other Churches it is meet that his Excommunication be published and that other Churches receive him not without just satisfaction And so Councils are useful as far as propinquity maketh men capable of visible Communion Especially to Pastors and Churches in one Kingdom where the Unity of the Civil Government giveth them more capacity and necessity of such Correspondency than with Foreigners And therefore the Councils in the same Roman Empire had great reason for their Decrees to avoid those Excommunicate by each other And yet many Councils even under the Papacy decreed that he that is unjustly Excommunicate by one Bishop may be received by another But that supposeth his tryal and proof of the Injury Therefore we come not so near the Universal Soveraignty of Councils as Dr. Stillingfleet in the Defence of A. Bishop Laud tells us Laud whom he defended doth Who will have the old Councils confessed truly General notwithstanding the absence of the Extra-Imperial Bishops 2. And will have such Councils to have been received the Four first by all the Christian World when it 's known how many rejected that at Chalcedon 3. And will have such Councils to be externally obeyed by patient submission when they notoriously err by all Christians till another Council as General and Free reverse their Decrees 4. And will have them have such Obedience as all other Courts For meer Councils of Bishops of several Kingdoms are no Courts and have no proper Jurisdiction Chap. II. Why Parliaments and Archbishop Abbot and the Church of England Antecedent to A. Bishop Laud were against the Design of Coalition with Rome § 1. IT was not because they were Enemies to Christian Concord or did not desire it on lawful possible terms with Papists and all others Nor was it because they were maliciously bent to be cruel to the Papists by denying them the common Love which is due to Mankind or any Benefits or Peace which was consistent with the Nations Peace and Safety But it was on such Reasons as these following § 2. I. They took the design to be a real restoring of Popery under the Name of Reconciliation and Peace And they had an excuseable Opinion that if Popery were set up it was not laying by the Name and calling it Reformation or the Church of England that would deliver us from the Sin or Suffering They were not of the new Opinion that none are Papists but those that would have the Pope Absolute above General Councils and Govern Arbitrarily against the Canons They took the foundation of Popery to be the Heresie that the whole Church on Earth must have one Soveraign or Supream Government with Universal Legislative and Judicial and Executive Power under Christ in which it must be Vnited or made One Church This they took to be Antichristian the intolerable Treasonable Usurpation of an Impossible thing tending to the Confusion of Mankind But whether this Traiterous Soveraignty should be Monarchical or Aristocratical in Pope or Councils feigned to be General or in both Conjunct and when Conjunct whether the Pope should be above the Council or the Council above the Pope or each have a Negative Voice or he have but the Calling and Presiding Power They took these to be but several sorts of Popery or differences among the Papists themselves And they took it for a ridiculous absurdity that a Council of men dead an Hundred or a Thousand Years ago and that only of men of one Empire called by their own Prince should be taken for the Vnifying Constitutive Soveraign Power of the Universal Church which now existeth and that the Body can live many Hundred Years after the Head is dead and yet be a Church of the same Species And for them that say the Bishops of all the Earth have a Jus Conveniendi and are a Virtual Council It is but to say could they prove it that they are a Virtual Head and not an Actual and so that we have no Actual Universal Church but a Virtual And as for the new Dream that they are Actually the Supreme Unifying Power and Actually Govern the whole Christian World per literas format as it 's a sad case with Christians when such deliration needs a confutation and sadder if such a Land or Clergy as ours must remedilesly Perish by believing or following such a Dream Shall all the Bishops of Asia Africa Europe and America out of the Dominions of the Turks Persians Tartarians Indians Papists Protestants Abassines c. meet in despite of their involuntary forbidding Princes How and by whose Call and where and when in how long time and who shall bear their
and Jesus Christ which I add because some think they may lawfully be subject to those Bishops that are subjected only to Universal Councils or Church Parliaments so they do but disclaim the Roman Papacy X. Though some may think that subjection to a pretended Universal Council may stand with Loyalty to Christ because such a Council is a Chimera or Non Ens and never will be in the World and so can do no harm as one may be true to the King who yet Sweareth Obedience to an Assembly of Mortal Angels yet the case is otherwise For 1. These Men that profess Subjection to Councils cannot be supposed to take such Councils for Chimera's or things impossible without being taken for mad Men. Therefore it is not a true General Council but something possible that they mean And they use to say themselves or as General as can be well had So that such a one as that at Trent or as they will call General as they do the old Imperial Councils will serve their turn 2. And let them disclaim Popery never so loudly they mean still that the Pope must be the ordinary Caller and President of these Councils and the Chief Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis Vniversalis And so all will come but to a limited Pope instead of an Absolute One And is he not a Monarch though he must Rule by Law For they intend not that there be no Catholick Church all the time that there are no Councils and therefore they intend some Unifying Constitutive Executive Supreme XI Obj. But if we may not own a Bishop that subjecteth himself to the Pope or other Foreign Vsurper of Vniversal Government then if the King be a Papist it will follow that we must not be subject to him Which all Protestants confess to be false Ergo so is the Antecedent as of Bishops Ans. I deny the Consequence speaking only of such a Kings Religion Nero was a Heathen and it was lawful for Christians to be subject to him for Conscience sake But it was not lawful to subject themselves to Heathen Bishops a contradiction A Heathen may be Gods Minister to preserve the common Peace and Execute the Laws of God in Nature and the Just Subordinate Laws But the Office of a Bishop consisteth in another matter viz. In teaching the true Doctrine and Laws of Christ and guiding the Church by them and keeping out all that is against them And therefore no other man can be a Bishop that doth not this as to the Essentials If the King command us to be Papists we must disobey him But if he command us to do things good and lawful we must obey True Christianity is Essential to a Bishops Office but not to a Kings as King But if any put the Question Whether a Ruler of a Protestant Kingdom who taketh himself bound by the Laterane or other Council on pain of Damnation to destroy all his Kingdom that will not forsake their Religion be Publicus Hostis And whether by the Law of Nature every Nation have a right of self-defence against open Enemies I meddle with no such Cases as these XII To conclude I advise all Christians to live peaceably in their places but to take care whom they trust with the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls and not to be seduced to enter into a Confederacy against Christs Prerogative by any pretences of Humane Authority or Catholick Vnity which really are against Divine Authority and the true Unity of the Church in Christ For a thousand years experience even by our Bishops confession who own but the Six first Councils have told us by the sad confusions of the Christian World that such Pretenders to Unity in a Humane Universal Soveraignty have but caused divisions and offences contrary to the Apostolical Doctrine not serving Christ but their own bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple Our Unity consisteth in One Head Jesus Christ One God one Body or Church of Christ one Faith one Baptism one Hope one Gospel and Universal Law of Christ and that we live in Love and Peace and Order in Learning and in Worshipping God in several Congregations under their respective Guides as consenting Volunteers and that the conjunction of such under Christian Kings makes Christian Kingdoms where by the Counsels of Pastors in their own Dominions they may keep that Church-Peace and external Order which is left to the trust of their determination and that in cases of need the Counsel and Help of Foreign Churches be desired and that Communion in Christianity be professed with all the true Christian World and that we wait for perfect Unity in Heaven But that Princes and Kingdoms be not brought under a Foreign Jurisdiction specially if pretended Universal instead of Foreign Counsel Communion Peace and Aid Chap. VII Of the second Part of the Design to bring the Papists into our Communion as they were in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign § 1. Dr. Heylin saith That this was much of A. Bishop Laud's design and that it was in order to this that he made the Changes which he made And Dr. Burnet saith That even Queen Elizabeth thought that if she could some how bring all her Subjects into one Communion tho' of different Opinions in one Age they would come to be of one mind And therefore she was desirous to have kept up Images and other such things in the Churches till the reasons and importunity of some Divines prevailed with her § 2. If this be done it must be either by the Papists turning Protestants or the Protestants turning Papists or by meeting in some third State of Religion between both or by continuing in the same Church-Communion without change of their Religion § 3. I. If the Papists come into our Churches by Conversion it is not then Papists but Protestants that come in There is no true Protestant that is not earnestly desirous of this But bare coming in to our Churches and Communion is not a renunciation of Popery § 4. II. That the Protestants should turn Papists for Union is not openly pleaded for by them that we have to do with The name of Papists they earnestly disown § 5. III. If it must be by meeting in some middle way it must be by a change in the Papists or by a change in the Protestants or both 1. If the Papists change any thing of theirs it must be either the Essentials of Popery or also the grosser errours and sins which are its most corrupt Integral part or only some mutable Accidents or lesser faults and errours 1. If the Papists hold still that there ought to be one Universal Soveraign Power of Legislation and Judgment under Christ on Earth and that either the Pope himself with a General Council or a Council where the Pope is President and Principium Vnitatis is this Soveraign this is the Essence of Popery continued 2. If the Papists should quâ—t this Universal Soveraignty and yet
bounds of Civil jurisdiction The many Councils which have been for Arians Eutychians Nestorians Monothelites Adoration of Images Papal tyranny c. and the many that have contradicted and condemned them tell us that the Right of Councils must have a better proof than their own affirmation And the far greater number of Christians that have approved or received the Erroneous tell us that they need a better proof than the reception of the greater part How great a part received Greg. 7th dictates and the Councils that Hereticated Royalists as Henricians But that proved not that these things were just Pope Vrbans Letter to King Lewis 13th of France 1629. in the 2d part of the Cab. p. 213. saith Your Ancestors have ever born as much respect to the exhortations of Popes as to the Commandment of God But do these words prove that this is true No more doth it that Leo the first was Caput Ecclesiae Vniversalis because he so called himself The Grand Signiour in his Defiance of Maximilian the Emperor ibid. p. 12. calls himself God in Earth Great and High Emperor of all the World the Great Helper of God King of Kings the only Victorious and Triumphant Lord of the World and of all Circuits and Provinces thereof And more Persons are Mahometans than Christians and more Heathens than either or both and yet none of this proveth Truth and Right § 10. I have marvelled that Carol. Boverius should think it a fit Argument to move our late King Charles 2d in Spain to turn Papist that Monarchy is the best Government in the State Ergo the Papal Monarchy in the Church Did he think the King so dull that he could not distinguish Particular Kingdoms and Monarchs from Vniversal How would the King have taken it if he had said Sir an Vniversal Monarchy is the best humane Government therefore you must subject your self and Kingdom to one Vniversal Monarch But the pretence of an Universal Democracy Aristocracy or Church-Parliament is more absurd and worse as I have proved § 11. Do our Changers of Government think that it is a small matter of which King and People will take no notice but be decoyed into by degrees in the dark to make King Lords Bishops and all the Kingdom the Subjects of a Foreigner and of a Parliament of Prelates who are themselves the Subjects of a Multitude of Foreign Princes Mahometans Heathens Greeks Papists c. As the Child said My Mother ruleth my Father and I rule my Mother and my Father ruleth the City Therefore I rule the City So we may then say the King ruleth England and a Council of Foreign Prelates rule the King and Heathen Mahometan Moscovian Armenian Papist c. Princes rule most of the Bishops in Council Ergo these Princes rule the King Do they know what it is for Pope or Prelates abroad to be made Judges Ecclesiastical of all persons and causes here and to have Power to Excommunicate King and Lords and depose Bishops and silence Ministers and Hereticate Dissenters and Interdict the Kingdom c. Again and again I say that I wonder if those men that have promoted so many Oaths and Promises in the Acts of Corporations Uniformity Vestries Confinement Conventicles Militia never to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State can possibly blind the Nation to think it no alteration to Subject King Church and Kingdom to a Foreign pretended Universal Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction Whether it be Perjury or Treason is no debate for me but I am sure that in ordine ad Spiritualia great temporal power will follow and Excommunicating and Anathematizing Kings and People hath not hitherto been a Toothless thing But quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat § 12. And what if they had found Ancient Councils Excommunicate some men without the Empire What pitty is it that any where Lords yea Bishops and Clergy men should be bred up in such Ignorance as to think that all Excommunicating is an act of Government I said before any Neighbour Prince Nation or People any number of Bishops when they hear another Nation turned notorious Hereticks may renounce Communion with them and declare the reason of it because they have made themselves uncapable Governing Excommunication per judicium publicum id est per personam publicam seu Rectorem is one thing and a declared renunciation and refusal of Communion per judicium privatum that is by an equal or private person is another thing I am not bound to stay till Turk or Pope is Excommunicated by their Governours before I renounce Christian Communion with them Paul's charge 1 Cor. 5. With such a one no not to eat and Tit. 3.10 A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid and St. John's Bid him not good speed c. may bind equals that have but judicium privatum discretionis when no Superior Ruler Excommunicateth the Sinner Chap. X. Some Questions about General Councils to be resolved before all the World can subject Kings Kingdoms Souls and Scripture to their Government or Decrees and take them for the Vnifying Ruling-Power over the Vniversal Church NOthing can be more necessary to all Christians Learned and Unlearned than to be sure of the truth of that which must be the foundation of all our obedience and our hopes And therefore if it be the General Councils Actual or Virtual in the chief Patriarchs and Metropolitans or supposed College of Bishops which is the Unifying or Constitutive Regent part of the Universal Church and on whose credit we must take the Scripture to be God's Word and from whose Judgment we must not appeal to Scripture or to God it 's the primum necessarium that we be sure of the Authority and Infallibility or Credit of such Councils And first we are to consider the matter of their Determining Power 1. There are Things 2. Words 3. The signification of words to be judged of 2. There are Truths of Natural and of Supernatural Revelation to be judged of 3. There are the Essentials of Christianity the Integrals and the Accidents to be judged of 4. And the Judgment is 1. Witnessing 2. Teaching 3. Or judicially Deciding We must first know who are the Judges 2. What is their work 3. How certain they are Qu. 1. Did not Apostles and other Preachers singly convert men even thousands before there was any General Council and that by such evidence as the single Preacher brought Or was it by the Argument of Universal Consent that every one then was converted e. g. the Eunuch Act. 8. The Jailor and Lydia Act. 16. Cornelius and his house Act. 10. The three thousand Act. 2.37 c. Q. 2. Did none that St. Paul wrote his Epistles to believe them till they were told that all the Teachers and Bishops of the Churches gave them their Authority Were the Gospels written by Matthew Mark Luke and John received only by the Argument of the Councils or Colleges Authority Q.