King than the King as such is a Priest than a good Man is always knowing or the Despotical and Regal Power go together The mixing these several distinct Gifts and Powers is the inlet to all disorder The King and Priest have been brought to a Morsel of Bread by it Sect. 3. Kings have no Plea to the Priesthood by their Vnction the Jewish Custom and Government no example to us if so the consequent would be ill in our Government Our Kings derive no one Right from their being Anointed Blondel's Account of this Vnction The Error and Flattery of some Greeks herein Sect. 4. The Church how in the Common-wealth and the Common-wealth how in the Church and both independent and self-existent Sect. 5. The Church founded only and subsisting in and by Christ and his Apostles Sect. 6. Proved from Clemens Romanus Ignatius Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Justin Martyr Athenagoras Minutius Foelix Sect. 7. A distinct Power is in the Church all along in Eusebius Eccl. Hist Socrates c. Opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Power of the Prince so called all along in those Writings Sect. 8. This was not from the present Necessity when the Empire was Heathen if so the Christians had understood and declared it The Apostles God himself had forewarn'd and preinformed the World of it It continued the same when Christian only with more advantages by the Princes Countenance and Protection Sect. 9 10. In Athanasius Hosins St. Jerome Austin Optatus Chrysostom Ambrose Sect. 11. In Eusebius History from Constantine and other Historians downward the Emperor and Bishop have alike their distinct Throne and Succession independent as plain as words and story can report it Sect. 12. And the same do the Ancient Councils all along separating themselves from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 13. This is not the Sense of the Bishops only in their own behalf and which is the Atheistical popular Plea and Objection the Cruelty of the French Reformers Sect. 14. The Emperors own and submit unto it as Constantine though misunderstood by Blondel Valentinianus Justinian Theodosius Leo c. Sect. 15 16. Blondel owns all this and yet does not understand it Sect. 17. All this farther appears from the Laws and Proceedings of the Empire and the Church as in the two Codes Novels and Constitutions from our Church Histories Photius Nomocanon Sect. 18. This farther appears from the Power of the Empire in Councils and particularly that so much talked of Instance in Theodosius Sect. 19. From their Power exercised on Hereticks Heresie is defined to be such by the Bishops Sect. 20. In Ordinations Sect. 21. Church-Censures Mr. Selden's Jus Caesareum relates only to the outward Exercise of the Jewish Worship and comes up exactly to our Model The state then of the Jews answers this of Christianity Sect. 22. The Christian Emperors never Excommunicated in their own Persons or by their own Power Mr. Selden says they did His Forgeries detected His ridiculous account of Holy Orders from Gamaliel He was a Rebel of 1642. Design'd a Cheat on the Crown when annexing to it the Priesthood Sect. 23. What the Empire made Law relating to Religion was first Canon or consented to by the Clergy Nothing the Empires alone but the Penalty So Honorius and Theodosius Valentinian and Marcian Zeno and Leo. Sect. 24 25. No need of present Miracles to Justifie this Power to Assert it does not affront Magistrates 'T is always to be own'd before them Dr. Tillotson's Sermon on this bottom Arianism was of old opposed against Constantius That this Power ceased when the Empire became Christian is a tattle It receiv'd many Advantages but no one Diminution thereby Sect. 26. § I THIS Power of the Church or Power Ecclesiastical it is not in the Prince issues and flows not from the Secular Temporal Governor he is not the Subject of it he is in himself neither Bishop nor Pastor can neither officiate in the high Affairs of Salvation nor ordain substitute and depute others to do it 't is no Duty of his this way to Teach and Instruct the People the Holy Sacraments are not Administred nor can the Church Censures be executed by him Great and vast is the Power committed by God to Kings here on Earth peculiar is their Power and none else may have none else can Plead a title to it 't is the nearest to Infinite of any Devolution vouchsafed from the Heavens to Mankind and the most of his Image is Characterized and enstamped on their Persons communicated in the largest measure unto them and God hath own'd them all along as such in Scripture suitably severed and separated them from the rest of Mankind placed them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the higher places of the Earth next himself in the Honors and Dignities here above and beyond any other Order and Dignity of men whatever a Kingdom and Majesty and Glory and Honor by the most high God is given unto thee Dan. 5.18 but yet these are not the only Separates he has upon Earth his alone Anointed and that to Publick Offices and Services thus he had his Priests of old and whose Persons and Power was separate too Non est tuum O Ozia adolere Deo sed Sacerdotum 2 Chron. 26.18 It appertaineth not unto thee O Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense go out of the Sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord thy God There is one Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of by God and by his right hand exalted the Holy Child Jesus whom he hath Anointed whom he raised from the Dead and made both Lord and Christ God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoke unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things too and who is also the Image of his Person who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto him a Power to Teach and Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost a Power for the managery of the things not of the Men of the Earth but of their Souls and Persons for Heaven a Power above that of Angels but not to tread upon Thrones and Scepters of Princes contemn Dignities which Angels durst not do a Kingdom though not of this World yet a true one once given him of God and again to be delivered up by him to the Father who is the head of his Body the Church Colos 1.18 contrary to whom as we are not to set up and be beguiled by Angels so neither Kings nor Princes and not hold fast the head from which all the body by joynts and band having nourishment and knit together increase in the increase of God Col. 2.18 19. Nursing Fathers Kings and Queens are
but deposed Sect. 32. To Absolve and Re-admit into the Church this the design of Excommunication which is only a shutting out for a time in order to Mercy on whom to be inflicted It s certain force in the Execution Sect. 33. To depute others in the Ministry by Ordination the Necessity of it An instance in St. John out of Eusebius St. Clemens Romanus Calvin and Beza's Opinion and Practice It s ill Consequences Only those of the Priesthood can give this Power to others Sect. 34. The Objection answered and 't is plain the Church is an Incorporation with Laws Rewards and Penalties of its own not of this World nor opposing its Government Sect. 35. The outward stroke is reserved to the Day of Judgment but the Obligation is present If the Church has no Power nor Obligation because not that present Power to Punish or any like it neither has any Law in the Gospel Mr. Hobbs the more honest Man says neither the Ecclesiastical or Evangelical Law obliges His and their Principles infer it Sect. 36. The Power of Christ and his Church cannot clash with the Civil Power because no outward Process till the Day of Judgment and then civil outward Dominion is to cease in its course the present Vnion and Power to be sure cannot this is clear from the several instances of it already reckon'd up Sect. 37. Their Faith is an inward act of the Soul acquitted by Mr. Hobbes and that which is more open Confession obliges if opposed but to dye and be Martyrs Sect. 38. That they Covenant against Sin makes them but the better Subjects Sect. 39. No Man that says his Prayers duly can be a Rebel because first of all to own his Prince and Pray for him The first Christians Innocency defended them when impleaded for Assembling without leave If this did not do they suffer'd Their Christianity did not exempt them from inspection Sect. 40. Charity not obstructive to Government when on due Objects a common Purse without leave dangerous not generally to be allow'd These Christians innocency indemnified them The Divine Right of Titles how asserted Nothing can justifie those Practices but their real Case The Profession of Christianity must otherwise cease Sect. 41 42. Presiding in the Church rises no higher than the Duties exercised 'T is Dr. Tillotson alone ever said To Preach Christ is to Affront Princes If the Jesuit do let him look to it Christianity is not in fault An entring into or renewing the Covenant at the Font or Altar is no Encroachment on the but Justice of Peace in the Neighborhood Sect. 43. Excommunication and other Censures change no Mans Condition as to this World they have no force but in relation to known Duties Prudence is to rule in the Execution particular regard to be had to Princes Whatever is Coercive annexed is from the Prince Lay-Judges Chancellors c. when first granted by the Empire upon the Bishops Petition The same is Absolution neither innovate in Civil Affairs Sect. 44. Conciliary Acts invade no more than does the Gospel it self That Canons have had the precedency of the Law is by the favour of Princes a Council without local meeting Letters Missive Sect. 45. Ordaining others no more prejudicial to the Crown than the former acts This is Mr. Hobbe's Misapprehension Sect. 46. HAVING produced the chief and first § I Arguments and Autorities that are depended upon and urged in this Controversie an Answer to some of which I have already prevented others fall in pieces of themselves to an easie Capacity the rest I shall indeavour to refute in these following Conclusions and which will tend much to the cleering the whole Subject and I 'le begin with the first and great Error of Mr. Selden and his other Friends and which is laid down and insisted on as the Foundation of the whole ensuing Fabrick We are told that all Punishments both before and after the giving the Law in Sinai from Adam to Christ were bodily and outwardly Coercive and inflictive the distinction of Sins Spiritual and Temporal was not then known nor was there any such different Regiments and Governors in regard to them the Sword punish'd Adulteries as well as Burglary And therefore 't is so still under the Gospel by the Institution of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ nor was there a Jurisdiction separate and apart relating alone to Spiritual Church Affairs designed or erected by him An Inference granting the truth of the Premises surely as wide as their keenest Adversaries can wish it to be and the Consequence had been every ways as due and firm in respect to the Law given by Moses that there were never any such Levitical Rites and Ceremonies given from God by him such a Polity erected because nothing like it that we know of was given to Adam in Paradice nor is there one Rule Law or Direction since given to his Succession the Patriarchs in particular but upon the same force and account must still be exemplary nor ought there can there be any institution that is diverse from them received if a distinct Power from all the World before him be admitted and allowed in Moses the Servant much more in Christ a Son over his own House by whom God hath spoken to us in these last days as in times past he did to the Fathers by the Prophets whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he hath made the worlds who is the bright Image of his Person upholding all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.1 2 3 4 5 6. who had greater Autority more full and larger Instructions and Commission and more signally evidenced to the outward sense of Mankind than any Prophets or Messengers of Gods had before who had all Power in Heaven and Earth committed unto him both spake and acted as never Man did And in the same peculiar manner did he gather and stablish and six his Church or Body upon Earth and at his going away into Heaven send down his own Gifts in the face of all Nations at the Feast of Pentecost erected his own Kingdom appointed his own Officers assign'd his own Members influenced them by his own Spirit governed them by his own Laws associated them in his own Method and nothing of it was of this World He made a new Covenant stablish'd on better Grounds incouraged with better Hopes and Promises instituted new Ordinances made new Seals and Conveyances gave new Liveries and Pledges that were diverse a Government to last for ever till the restitution of all things with a respect to nothing future but Heaven and all this absolute in it self and independent abstract and separate from any or all the Powers and Associations in the world beside complying and yielding to no one Circumstance Exigence or Necessity whatever so contrived and ordained that as himself her Head so the Church his Body and every Member in particular hath life in it self derived only from him their own Powers and
it self how inconsistent with his own Schemes and Concessions and what seems farther necessary to a thorow Answer and the carrying on withal and clearing this my own particular Discourse follows in the succeeding Sections AND part of my Answer shall be by way § IX of Concession yielding to him in some measure what he contends for That the Kingdom Government and Jurisdiction of the Gospel is not cannot be outwardly forcing and Coercive by the either Instruments or Penalties of this World To assert such a Power erected by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is immediately and with the same breath to publish it a Cheat an Imposture and Usurpation 't is in the very letter to Affront and Contradict the very Plot Frame and Constitution of it since Christ himself has declared that his Kingdom is not of this World neither laid in the contrivance either sustain'd or supported in the ways and courses of it If it had been so he had surely never appeared in the World in that meaner form and lower order he did a different way then by dying upon the Cross had been design'd for the managery and accomplishment of it he could have call'd for Fire from Heaven as Elijah did upon the Head of his Gain-sayers a course of Proceedings agreeable enough to that present Constitution whose Rewards and Penalties were Carnal in the hands of a Temporal Jurisdiction or have had Millions of Angels his Seconds to smite as they did Sennacherib's Army in one Night one Minute all that opposed that sat in Judgment against him or with but one word from his Mouth laid any one gain-sayer flat upon the ground as he did those few that came first to lay hold of him when he was betrayed He was not sent into the World weak and unable with less perfect Credentials and Instructions or lesser Power than other Prophets or Holy Men had which were sent into the World before him all was full and perfect in order to the Message and Embassy the Errand he came into the World for he came with more with all Power in Heaven and Earth given him the Power of the Kingdom wholly and solely delivered up unto him only he came of a different Errand and Design than some others had come of before him he was of another Spirit and to work his work quite in another manner and by other Weapons not such as were Carnal but Spiritual mighty indeed to the beating down strong holds but of Sin and Sathan he came not to destroy but to save that which was lost to lay hold on the Seed of Abram when he passed by the fallen Angels lest they come into their blackness of darkness those Chains they are now reserv'd in for Judgment And let any one but seriously peruse and consider this great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preach'd unto the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up into Glory let him look over the History of his Saviour his first coming from Heaven his whole Life Actings Suffering Dying rising again and ascending into Heaven and he can discern nothing like an outward sensible worldly Regiment and Jurisdiction to be erected or executed by him any outward force upon Mens either Persons or Lives or Fortunes in bringing about that work he was sent for into the World by the Father to do is the intent and purpose of it and as he had not neither can he be conceived to have had a design in his own Person to exercise a worldly Dominion or did he delegate others his Apostles and principal Ministers to any such Office and Undertakings his being Preach'd to the Gentiles and believed on in the World implied or inferr'd nothing of it but the quite contrary nor could any be his Adherents and Followers on any such purposes With an industrious Zeal he still removed it out of the apprehensions and thoughts of his Disciples when on Earth among them he told St. Peter he was an Offence to him when savouring these things of Men fancying him to reign as a Temporal Prince on Earth with outward force and Power to repel the Injuries of his Adversaries St. Mat. 16.21 22 23. As also when his Disciples required him to call down Fire from Heaven upon the Heads of his Enemies in St. Luke's Gospel urging to St. Peter and all of them those quite different Doctrines of his Gospel That if any man will come after him let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him that whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life shall save it and 't is to save the Soul not gain the World is to be their aim in becoming his Disciples And thus did they Preach Christ ever since the Holy Ghost so fully came upon them reproving the World of Sin of Righteousness and Judgment the work of the Comforter Joh. 16.7 8. And that trifling Argument as if want of Power and Prudential forbearance made them not to attempt any thing more is what cannot fall under the thoughts of a considering Person He that by Twelve mean Persons as were the Apostles could convert so great a part of the World by the same Power and Instruments could he have over-ruled the Persons of the rest of the World to Master and bring into Captivity to the Law of Faith an undisciplined unruly Understanding and Will is as great a Work of the Almighty as to subdue the whole Person The Mind is as difficultly conquer'd as the Body and more difficultly too because no immediate outward force can be put upon it He that when meer Idiots and Ignaro's gave them the Understanding and Tongue of the Learned could also have given them the Arm of the Mighty and Valiant St. Peter who with but one word from his Mouth struck dead Ananias and Saphira his Wife for cheating the Church might with one word from his Mouth also have reversed the Edict of Nero appointing him to be crucified at Rome have enfeebled those hands of the Executioner that nailed and fixed him on the Cross St. Paul who struck Elymas the Sorcerer Blind might have smote Ananias on the Bench made that officious reviling Orator Tertullus to be Dumb and baffled Nero with all his Power had outward Coercion and Force been the assigned way to Plant and Propagate Religion a general course set up a standing Rule either for the present or Succession of Ages However God thought fit to give special Instances of such his Power upon particular notorious Sinners by the hands of his Apostles to let the World see it was not against the Nature of the Gospel though not in the intent of it thus to have them dealt with in particular Cases to preserve the horror in remembrance till the appointed time till the Empire became Christian in whose hands not the Apostles and their Succession this outward sorcing punishing part does reside in its constant perpetual Seat or
penè Voce Amen Cantatur Halelujah That Amen which is answer'd and Halelujah which is Sung with one almost Voice throughout so many Nations Lib. 2. adv Literas Petiliani Donatistae super Gestis cum Emerito Episcopo So Athanasius in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How Decent and Holy is it to hear in the House built for Prayer the People say Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one sound and consent there mentioned Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere Semet invicem saying a Hymn to Christ as God in courses with one another As Pliny lib. 10. Ep. 97. and is referr'd to by Tertullian in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Singing back again to one another in St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praying betwixt one another Ep. 63. Ad Clericos Neocesariensis Ecclesiae in amoibeunis and alternate Responses The Priest Parat mentes fratrum dicendo sursum Corda ut dum respondit Plebs habemus ad Dominum As St Cyprian upon the Lord's Prayer preparing the Minds of his Brethren saying Lift up your hearts and the People answering We lift them up to the Lord this the great and common constant Service of the Church of God The usual manner of old in the Performance of it and an earlier Pattern we have yet as to the Substance of it So soon as we meet with a Church gathered the Holy Ghost descended and those Thousands Converted by St. Peter Acts 7. he there opens to them the Scriptures they receive the Word and are Baptized they go on and continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and Prayer attend the Holy Communion Praising God Poetically extolling of him And thus became Peter in the letter of it a Rock a first Stone or principal Pillar in the Church or People of God § XVII BUT then besides their Publick Worship of God did this Union into one Body or Corporation farther express and oblige the Members in their Duties and Services to one another in the Supplies and Assistances of all its Members whose either special Offices and Imployments in the Service and Support of the Church Body or Association rendred uncapable of undergoing the Cares and Offices of the World for the providing themselves sustenance suitable to their Office and Quality in the Trades and Imployments of it for the Body of Christians though a Collection and Incorporation for Heaven yet is to remain its due time and abode upon Earth and to subsist whil'st on Earth by the usual and lawful courses of it it does not therefore immediately receive Food from Heaven or else whose unavoidable Want and Poverty by the unaccountable disposal of things and the many Contingencies of this mutable state here lays before them in their Streets and High-ways in the rode to this Jerusalem also as Objects of Pity and Commiseration Relief and Charity for their Saviour has told them That the Poor you must always have with you and to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven And this is to be done and is the general Duty of the whole Body and each Christian there in particular not only by the tenure of the special Charter from God and it is imply'd and made up and required in the Donation it self but by the common course and Laws of things no Body can subsist without it it must run to Decay Degeneracy and Contempt either through want of Instruction Order and Government on the one hand or by Idleness Destitution and Distress on the other and those weighty Reasons and Motives which engaged freely of their own choice no outward force compelling as in the Associations of the World in order to Governance and Subsistency to unite in God's Service it then necessitates that such ways and means be used here as in the sustaining other Societies and this upon the same Consideration and Motive as they believe it useful to be of such the Association and in Communion with one another especially where the force of the World enjoyns no other Provision as it did not till the Government became Christian and the World came in to the Support of the Church for which our Saviour did and must in reason provide upon failure otherwise Religion can no longer subsist then as the civil Empire pleaseth § XVIII AND first this general Care always extended and was made for such as labour'd among them in the Word and Doctrine such as attended the Altar and ministred in Holy Things and this not only to the maintaining their Persons but to the maintaining them in order to their Function and consequently in supplying them with all Utensils and whatsoever else was then thought necessary for the due and more solemn Performance of the Worship of God and the maintenance of his Service This is that St. Paul so much Pleads for and with so great earnestness and weight of Argument 1 Cor. 9.1 2 3 4 c. and tells them plainly That if he be an Apostle as he most certainly is to them who are the Seal of his Apostleship in the Lord then he hath a right to their Estates Have we not Power to eat and drink Have we not Power to lead about a Sister or Wife and to forbear working Who goeth to warfare at any time at his own Charges Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the Fruit thereof or who feedeth a Flock and eateth not of the Fruit of the Flock Do ye not know that they that minister about Holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are Partakers with the Altar So hath the Lord ordained that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And this the Church-men had not as Stipendiaries and Salary-men but the Believers brought in of their Goods and laid them at the Apostles feet which made a Common Stock or Bank to be at their Prudence in the disposal call'd the Lord's Goods and in relation to this Common Stock or Bank in the hands of the Apostles in which every Christian upon occasion had a right it is said That all things were common among these first Christians in the Book of the Acts for that no one had Property besides cannot be believed and the fault of Ananias and Sapphira was not that they did not bring all they had and lay it at the Apostles feet reserved nothing of their Estate to themselves but this was their guilt they kept part back and said it was the whole their lying to the Holy Ghost otherwise it was their own and they might have reserved to themselves what of it they pleased Now these common Gifts and common Purse as it was first intrusted with the Apostles so upon their failure did the trust descend and remain with the Bishops their Successors who distributed to the Necessities both of Churches and Church-men their Officers and Attendants as occasion required a competent Portion whereof was set apart and reputed their own Persoanl Goods
VI. and when but a Child and which I remember is objected by Parsons the Jesuit in his Three Conversions of England and we are risked sufficiently for it nor without cause if true without rejecting Doctor Stillingfleets M SS and which tells us that both State and Church met at Windsor in his days and determined it otherwise and that the original and full Power of the Priesthood was in him the Prince as now abiding upon Earth next under Christ But how is it that I have really dealt with these two Doctors being engaged in a Treatise the result of the course of my Studies I met among several others them my Adversaries as I did those others so also I detected their Errors refuted their Reasons repelled their Arguments and voided their Autorities in that particular as well as I could and is not this what every Body does under these like Circumstances or did ever any Man engage upon a Subject and not take notice of the known and obvious opposers and thwarters of him surely never and I have this to say for my self that I have never made one reflexion upon either of them but where my subject directly engaged me to it nor is there any thing that is Personal and Foreign that I have meddled withal As for their Eminency in the Church and Controversies that are of high concern among us and which they have discharged with a general applause I have not any ways endeavoured an abatement of their Merit but this was so far from being an Argument or but Motive to me that I was not to encounter them on this Subject that it mostly prevailed with me to do it doth the King of Israel go out as against a Flea nor do those of meaner Order and Quality undertake that Autority which is in it self none falls of it self to the ground nor was ever influential upon any and had I had no sense of the mischief in points of so great concern that must necessarily accrue to the Church of God under such their Autorities in future ages especially I had wholly passed them by untouched and uncanvassed as the Combination expected and require What is farther urged that we are not to create differences among our selves and that we have Enemies enough abroad is most true but that which makes our Enemies abroad is that we do not unanimously assert and vindicate the one Faith and Truth that we countenance those among our selves which violate it where divisions already made and other Doctrines brought in this is the rule of St. Paul Mark such and his Practice is the same upon the Rule and James and Cephas and John who seemed to be somewhat and Pillars were withstood to the face by him and the same Practice is every where in the Christian Church apparent I 'le only add this one thing more Whatever my first Error was in designing this my Collection for the Press without their Approbation and it appears they thought it my Duty to do otherwise they had my Copy a full quarter of a year in their hands and I am informed did Transcribe what seemed for their advantage but never had I any notice any ways of my great mistake that it might be Corrected or not Printed and whether what I have answered be of force that I burn my Papers I durst appeal to an easie Consideration or why did not the two Deans themselves inform me better when I addressed my self to each of them in a distinct Letter and begg'd the favour that I might know what my fault was and which the Injury that I had done I have been credibly told that they said my style was rough and haughty and therefore they would not answer I confess I did not consider them in their stalls and where I always pay that regard the Secular Power requires and which alone places them there but as stating to them a Point of Divinity or which is more a Case of Conscience where Truth only is to be respected and with a thorow Severity and any thing but like a Complement is not to have place But whatever my Letter was and however they scorn to answer it I am not ashamed here to Print it in the very words I sent it to each of them apart only the Site of their Names is changed as was the particular Address Reverend Sir I Am very well assured that you are not Ignorant nor indeed can you be of some Papers of mine that have been in so many Mens hands and more Months in London since the beginning of last Winter and design'd for the Press as also of the Reasons why they are not yet Printed viz. Some Reflexions upon your Self and the Dean of St. Paul's I am mightily satisfied with mine own Integrity in that Design and Action and besides it was never yet objected by any of those worthy Persons who have read the Discourse that the Cause was not useful and seasonable or that I had betray'd it in general or any one ways injur'd you in any one relation and yet it is you two that are Pleaded as the very occasion that they remain still in the M SS I do therefore once more deal with you plainly and sincerely thô with a due regard to your accidental Dignities and in which you are my Superiors as a Christian Brother and fellow Presbyter and whose Conscientious Zeal for the Cause of God's Church Catholick and this its particular live Member here in England may be supposed as much and as duly bottomed as another Mans or Member of it and thus with all Humility address my self unto you Either I have done you Injury or I have not if I have condescend but in Charity to give me the particulars and you will oblige me in abundance I 'le be so hold to say you never obliged any man more and my Acknowledgment and Submission shall be equally real and hearty if I have not and all is said of you be true i. e. your own Words and Sense you to this day own and assent to it or you do not if you do what Injury can I now have done you in Publishing your own Words and Sense if you do not you ought to have satisfied the Church of God by a Recantation as Publick as your Error Scandal and Offence the alone way to prevent such Reflexions from those with whom you converse only in your Writings nor can any man otherwise be blame-worthy that makes them Be pleased to consider you have not erred in the Leniora Evangelii and the Point is Whether God has a Church on Earth with its peculiar appropriated Power or not and the Laws of God his Church and all Christian Kingdoms require of you at once its Acknowledgment You are not Ignorant what Pleas are made for Errors against the Church and of the Dammages accrew to her by haling in particular Doctors if but leaning that way and seeming such as their Abettors and Avouchers and this by how much greater such Doctors
what Principle flowing and 't is a Consideration so absolutely necessary for whoso engages in this or such-like Debates and their Resolutions that he must otherwise be at a loss and miss of the aim proposed To Virtue and Goodness in general there is in every Man an innate Power he has Faculties concreated and of his Constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this improveable by Industry and Care Notices and Experiences and God in course as he incourages and preserves whatever is his own gives more help The Art of a Physitian and Skill of a Divine are also attainable in the like way by a Progress of Study and continued Observations upon an hability or first stock within but this not equally given and ingraffed in each as is a Power to Goodness Wisdom Knowledge is not to all The Power of a Father over his Child is from God by virtue and force of the relation laid in the foundation of it because begetting him and by the general concourse of Providence the Power of a Husband over a Wife and a Master over a Servant is by the appointment of God upon a particular Covenant or Stipulation the Power of Government and Jurisdiction in the greater extent whether of a King in the State or a Priest in the Church enabling each to discharge the Publick Duties belonging to them comes quite different from each before 't is by no improvement of Nature or any thing within a Man concreated and a common concurse of Providence contributes not nor can common Notices or whatever particular Industry and Experience attain unto it no particular act of Man whether Moral or Natural is a foundation sufficient for these greater relations and higher instances of Power whether of his Person apart or by compact with others 't is as always lodged in several Persons or when it was once in one and the same so by discriminating marks distinct symbols in the conveyance and appropriation whereby to discern the one from the other the Secular Power by Descent or Votes or in some instances Conquest the Spiritual by the Deputations of the Bishop and the Acts and Offices are quite apart and different as is the design of this Discourse to make fully appear but in this they agree and are as one because immediate from God by a special concurse and devolution and so deposited into particular hands and Persons no Force no Virtue no Compositions or Overtures in any Action or Performance by any Person or Persons amounting to it they are both highest Powers in their kind and sphere and 't is something apart and solitary and which none else have which makes them so and consequently none else can give it them because supposed not to have it but only he who is transcendently the highest and eminently above all and does and can give to each Son of Man as he pleases And now since each of these Gifts and Offices and Powers are attain'd to convey'd and devolv'd in several courses methods and ways one and the same Symbol Compact or Act does not produce and evidence their existence in and to the World invest with the Power instate in the Possession enable and engage all men alike to the attainment the Duties and Offices of them hence the Consequence is as clear in the course and chain of things as it is in Matter of Fact the Practice and known every day's Experience of the World that they are not any but two much more all of them in any one degree of Necessity as to their coexistence they do not any ways include or infer each other one Virtue 't is true includes and infers another and all Virtues I speak of practical Virtues Bonum ex causa integrâ and Goodness is all of one chain and where true in any one instance is all together but yet this Goodness in the nature of it includes not Wisdom and Knowledge a Virtuous Man has not always the most Knowledge nor where this Knowledge is is it always Universal To be a Divine is not to be a Physitian or were it always Universal this infers no one branch of Power Solomon's poor Wise man had none at all and so it may be with the richest and wisest 't is too often so nor doth any instance of Autority and Power where existing infer all other instances of it To be the Husband of a Wife is not therefore to be the Father of a Child nor do Paternal and Despotick Government either necessarily go together to be a King indeed is usually to be all but to be a Priest is oft to be neither he is many times too poor to have Servants and his Marriage is by some judg'd unlawful at least by Church-Law forbidden and every one says he ought not to be a King to be sure he is not so because a Priest nor is the King a Priest either because a King they no more infer one another than do any of the former two or all of them nor is their co-existence otherways necessary than any of the other they indeed were once united in the Worlds Infancy and some Ages after both seated in the first born though by what special grant we know not the small account we have of those Ages hinders it only I cannot agree with Grotius De Imper. Sum. Potest in Sacris Cap. 2. Sect. 4. that it was assumed by themselves or that every man had a Natural right to it and the Elder in the Family limited it to himself but however it came there it was afterwards severed by God himself who took only the Tribe of Levi for his Service at the Altar and governed in State more by his own Person and therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself sometimes appearing and giving Laws sometimes immediately raising up one and sometimes another to go in and out before his People as from Moses and in the days of the Judges to King Saul And as I intimated before these things not throughly considered and digested these courses and bonds and limits of Offices and Gifts and Powers their Posts and Stages removed or taken down if once these Land-marks be displaced become promiscuous and common making inrodes on one another not only he will be at a loss that engages in the Debates and Resolutions in these cases but Mankind it self the Christian Part of the World to be sure can no more continue in Peace but with Invasions and Usurpations Disorders and Confusions here upon Earth than the earthy Globe it self can subsist or keep its Equilibrium should the Elements of which it is made lose their Native qualities and become blended together or should its two Poles unite and kiss each other and of this our own late Experience in our own particular Church and Kingdom gives Testimony in abundance when a pretence of Holiness or the reality of it was determined sufficient to invest in the Priesthood the same Plea was concluded as
only Regnante Christo and the Reign of the Empire is left out though it do no ways infer and prove that all Empire is originally in Christ both as to Spirituals and Seculars and that he that is his Succession the Church has the disposal of the Kingdoms of the World too Primarily and Originally in him as some zealous Parasites of the Roman Faith thence it seems have inferr'd and against whom the main Plot of D. Blondel in this his Book is laid and very well yet this it infers and evidently proves That our Saviour and his Succession the Church have been always supposed to have had a Kingdom in the World not to supplant and overturn to usurp and encroach upon but to bless that other of the World to render it Prosperous on Earth and by her holier Laws and Discipline to bring all to the Kingdom of Heaven when the Reign on Earth is at an end But this D. Blondel could not or would not see himself and therefore a thing too usual with him runs into the opposite extreme to his Adversaries is angry when this very Church-Power and its existence of which himself gives so evident a Demonstration is asserted solitary and not in the Empire as no ways flowing and included in its Constitution as the other will have no Empire but from and in the Church so hard a matter is it for some Men to contend for Truth and against the Church of Rome at once and as has above been observed but these Oversights if no worse are usual with him 't is like his ill luck in other cases § XVIII AND he that duly consults and considers the sundry Proceedings and Laws and judiciary Acts of the Empire about Church-Matters either as interspersed in our Church Histories or as Collected and United in the two Codes the Theodosian and Justinian in their several Laws Novels and Constitutions will readily grant all this and more that the Church and State the Worldly or Secular and Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Power were still consider'd reputed and proceeded on as quite distinct Bodies and Powers though both flowing from the same Original and Fountain yet as diverse as the Soul and Body with several Offices and Duties on each incumbent in different Channels convey'd and all aiming at the great and ultimate end the general advantage of Mankind and each individual both with their faces to the same Jerusalem but in several Paths and Determinations judiciary in order to it Hee 'l find that as the Church the Councils and Bishops were ever Conscientious and Industrious that they entrenched not on the Empire withheld not from it what was its due usurped not any thing was not their own paid all manner of Observances to Kings and Secular Governors in all manner of Duties as Prayers Thanksgiving Instructions Directions Admonitions Tribute Loyalty c. So again did the Empire preserve their Functions Persons and Estates give them Liberties Enfranchisements Protestations unless where Apostates as Julian where overmuch favouring Heresies as some time Constantius c. countenanced and provided for Truth and Holiness and sound Discipline according to the Rules Canons Directions Interpretations and Determinations given by the Bishops assembled in Council or occasionally otherways made and recommended unto them the Church still Petitioned and Supplicated the Empire when by the Affronts and Insolencies the greater Impieties and Obstinacies of the World the edge of their Spiritual Sword was dulled and blunted when Coercive outward Punishments alone could hope to prevail for Peace and Amendment of this we have several Instances upon Record as for the deposing Dioscorus in Evagrius his Ecclesiastical History l. 2. c. 4. in placing Proclus in the Episcopal Throne Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 4. which was immediately by Theodosius Maximinianus the defuncts Body being not yet laid in the Ground to prevent the Tumults of the People To this purpose we have the Case of one Cresconius a Bishop who left his own and invaded another's Church and upon a remand from the Council refusing to return the President of the Country is Petitioned and his Secular arm which alone has a Coercive Power over Mens Persons sends him back again according to the Constitutions Imperial Concil Carthag Can. 52. just such another Case as that of Paulus Samosetanus in the days of Aurelian the Emperor above-mentioned and the course of Proceedings we see is the same now as then both in Church and State as that Laws may be made to restrain such as were fled to the Church for refuge Can. 60. that the Riot and Excess be taken away on their Festivals which drew Men to Gentilism again by the obscener Practices and which were without shame and beyond Modesty Can. 65 66. that the Secular Power would come in eò quod Episcoporum autoritas incivitatibus contemnitur because the Power of the Bishops is contemn'd in the Cities Can. 70. ut Ecclesiae opem ferat to assist the Church against these Impieties so strenuous and prevailing Can. 78. as in the Case of the unrulier Donatists Can. 95 96. and the Thanks of the Bishops were given for their Ejection Can. 97. and the Emperor is Petitioned to grant Defensors to the Church Can. 10.109 and as the Church thus supplicated the Empire in these arduous Cases and when its assistance was wanting so on the other side did the Empire still advise with the Church when designing to make Religion the Municipal Law of the Empire to imbody it with the World under the same Sanctions either as to Punishments or Rewards to make it the Religion of the State also they still consulted antecedent Canons or present Bishops in Council or some Ecclesiastical Autority they created nothing anew gave the help of the World for Countenance Assistance and Confirmation to stablish what the Church had put its Sanction upon And those Emperors that designed to discountenance Christianity or set up some particular Heresie and stifle it in part or depose any great Church-men and some such there was they attempted it not but by the Clergy though of their own the Power as in themselves alone was not pretended to they had their own Synods and Bishops in order to it and what they did was done in their Names also and all this will readily appear to any one acquainted with the Canons of the Church and Laws of the Empire or if it seem too hard a task he 'l find it at least attempted to his hand and with Care and Industry reduced to a little room by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Book therefore called the Nomo-Canon to shew the concurrency of the Laws and Canons the Canons still placed first as in course anteceding And in this sense only that of Socrates can be understood in the Proem to his Fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reges viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as Kings began to be Christians the things of the Church were managed and accomplished
the Civil Power or that Power of the State to erect an Autority against it because not of and under it that Prince cannot be said to be Supreme if a differing Power within him To be Supreme is to be above all there must be no Power apart from his who is the Supreme if so he is not Supreme This they urge with a great deal more to the same purpose and is the Stone that the great Hugo Grotius stumbles at in the entrance to his Treatise De jure Summarum Potestatum in Sacris and which occasions so many more falls he has all along in that Discourse it being stuffed with inconsistencies to it self throughout and no wonder when bottomed on so false a Principle that the Power of our Saviour is an Usurpation on the State nor does one absurdity go alone A Suspition upon Church-Government that has not the Honor to be new 't is as old as our Saviour in the Flesh and Herod we know started it against him so soon as Born in the World and his Title as King was known unto him for this he sought to kill him when an Infant and the little Children in Bethlehem were barbarously Murdered hoping the Babe Jesus might have died in the croud distrusting if he escaped he would have supplanted him of his Kingdom Nor did his Apostles after him escape the Suspition and Censure and yet our Saviour all along his life-time upon Earth and notoriously at his death still clear'd himself of the Aspersion asserting and maintaining his Power and Kingdom delivered him of the Father that All Power in Heaven and Earth and so did his Apostles too retain and exercise the same Power and with the same Innocency Nor do I doubt but to Vindicate his Body the Succeeding Church still claiming the like Power and that to every rational considering Person to each one that with Herod has not a design and believes it his interest to kill our Saviour to blot out his Power and Name and Memory on Earth § IV AND indeed to pass by the particular Answers to the Objection which will follow in course upon our Procedure the Objection must fall of it self to any one of common sense that exercises not his Enquiries more about Tricks and Phrases to wheedle delude and carry on his own particular Plot and Party then about that which is notorious Matter of Fact certain Truths and realities One thing I know that whereas I was blind I now see a Man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said unto me Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash And I went and washed and I received sight He put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and do see This was the Answer of the Man that was born Blind and cured by our Saviour John 9.11.15.25 and this great notoriety to common sense baffled all the Malice and Purposes superseded all their trifling Enquiries designed to obscure the Power and Miracle of our Saviour's working that mighty Cure upon him as whether it was done on the Sabbath Day the Person was a Sinner c. and the same common sense and notoriety of Matter of Fact will be our Evidence and Avoucher in this our particular Case also and is the alone Answer we need to give in able indeed to baffle whatever the Skill of an Objector can lay or whatever inconsistencies the wit of Man may urge against us Can any even a Pharisaical race of Men ill-natur'd and Perverse give out and believe That that Body of Christians their Bishops and Governors should Assert and Maintain a Kingdom and Jurisdiction upon Earth destructive to that of the Empire or Secular by whose breath they in their Persons professed to subsist for whose Persons and Government and the Prosperity of both they always Pray'd and in the first place as by whose Influences they were to live Godly lives in all Godliness and Honesty whose Battels they fought whom they Honoured with all the titles of Power and Majesty and Magnificence whom but to think Evil of to Curse in their Hearts in their Bed-Chambers much more openly to Defame and speak Evil of was their Sin and Irreligion whom they acknowledged upon Earth as under God alone and to God alone accountable for all their Actions and Designs nor could any Man say what doest thou And all this they still Remonstrated and Publish'd to the World under the deepest sense of Religion and Zeal with the most solemn Protestations as in all their Apologies Defences and Writings does appear who made it a term of their Communion to Serve Support and Assist the Emperor to shew themselves Faithful and Just and Conscientious towards him equally as to serve their God and Saviour as to say their Prayers for themselves and live Righteously and Soberly in the World and the contrary was a just occasion for their Censures an Intermination upon the Offender who too often died under their Tyranny came peaceably to the Stake neither accusing nor reviling as under the stroke of God himself sealing with their Blood such their Obedience Nor in all our first Church-Story do we find the Catholick Christian engaged in any thing like a Plot or Council against his Governor his either Person or Power much less an open Rebel against him when either an Heathen or Heretick and his professed Persecutor for an Heretick has been no less Cruel than an Heathen and when to make up the Charge by their Malice as in the particular case of Athanasius accused as designing against the Empire by the Arians and Meletians to be accused was his great trouble to be under the Suspition of so foul a Crime being otherways able to acquit himself and so he did and indeed so generally received a Truth was it that a Christian could not be a Rebel or attempt any thing upon the Empire So much was it concluded of the Essence of his Profession that when his Enemies thought effectually to blemish and make him appear no Christian they libell'd him as a Rebel the more and the better a Christian the more did his Prince confide in him and 't is very well urg'd by our Adversaries that Constantine did look upon them as his great Support and Preservers nor could the Empire in all Probability have been continued to him without their Aid and Fidelity and for which his Favours and Temporalities were deservedly large unto them but this is their Error when they tell the World that all Church-Power was then and is still continued upon this score and by the alone favour of Princes IF it be said that all this was the effect § V alone of common Prudence and usual Wisdom they thus provided for their interest the Security in general of their both Religion and Persons and which all Wise Men do in the first place take care of they were wanting both of Power and Opportunity to do otherwise and had it not been so the Hypocrisie had ceased they had both appeared and
the Princes side laid by those that set the Controversie on foot and with shews to disenthrall and enlarge him WHAT is the reason of such our misunderstandings § VII that we cannot think and discern with the Ages before us is it that this Power has been abused in later Ages of the Church as by those of the Roman and Geneva Discipline who out of a Plea to one took both Swords invaded Kings and Kingdoms by it Let but the same Rule take place here as in the other Points of the Reformation and all will soon be well again Return to such the beginning those first and purer Ages of the Church to be ruled and governed by where the Platform is plain the Model easie for any Capacity and the Aberrations of some cannot in reason prejudice it But this will not do the ground of the Quarrel has really another bottom and their Reasons are another thing as must be obvious to him that is conversant with the Writings either of the Principal Authors of these new started Opinions or such as were accidentally only their occasion or after Abettors of them They cannot see nor assent to any Government as existing in the World but what is visible and sensible has its Operations and Effects upon outward Sense and its Organs upon the Person or Estate the Life or Bodily Action of Mankind and this to be presently inflicted Men they are that will allow no Corporations or Societies but those of this World for Buying and Selling for Trading and Trafficking for the Belly and the Back for outward Peace and Ease to Preserve themselves from one another at Home and Invasions from Abroad for the present Mess of Pottage good and gain on Earth nor can any other Power but such as this or in order to it be apprehended We have above observed That Herod the King was the first Man that suggested this great Error and that the Kingdom of our Saviour must supplant and abolish the Kingdoms of this World his Power and Caesar's could not stand together And this was managed by the Jews all along after who united with Herod to destroy our Saviour as an Usurper allowing and owning no King but Caesar upon that one Design and Principle And these Men we have now to deal with are every ways as blind as gross and carnal in this particular Point as were the Jews their Predecessors and the Veil of Moses is it so over their Faces that they are stark Blind either beyond or besides it The Jews of old did not with more Zeal and Industry contend for his Temporal Canaan and Promises Ordinances and Administrations or with greater Blindness rest himself in them or with greater Malice scorn and pursue such as said they saw beyond it then do these Men now adays deride those that say there is a Spiritual Kingdom which is our Saviour's a Power originally from Christ derived by Succession to his Body the Church to remain till the Restitution of all things that there is or can be any King but Caesar resolving all Power whatever into that which is Secular and rejecting all other as Opposite to the Dignity and Prerogative of Princes IT is not much to be marvelled at the § VIII Pamphlets that went about of this Nature in 1641. 'T was the Design of that time to unhinge and overthrow every thing well established and the Argument was less odious that began with the Church and its Power particularly I have by me a small Treatise which came forth in that year call'd The true Grounds of Ecclesiastical Regiment c. but the Title within is The Divine Right of Episcopacy refuted the more to ingage the Reader for Episcopacy was first to be taken away and he had the most advantage to do it it being the particular quarrel but the after-game was at all Church-Power in general and which he endeavours to erase upon this score as against the Soveraign Dignity of Kings for which he seems Zealous when to Dethrone Church-men but at last sets a Thousand more upon the Throne with him his Princes in Parliament as he calls them nay he sets them above the King and says though to Princes on their lawful Tribunals something is more due than at other times but to Princes something is more due than at other times but to Princes in Parliament there is most of all due all Power being not derived to the King without them and whose Ecclesiastical Power he there discourses And which I therefore here repeat to shew what was designed for our Kings by these Men when so much Pleading for a Power belonging to them which is the Church's and his chief Argument all along against Church-Power independent to Princes is that it is not like nor does it enter into any Rivality with that solid sensible coercive Power wherewith God has invested his true Lieutenants upon Earth and therefore is it but Imaginary and Improper That Power which is proper must include not only a Power of Commanding but also an effectual Virtue of forcing Obedience to its Commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient that as among the Jews the Church and State was the same had the same Body the same Head the same Sword and that Head was Temporal and that Sword was Material and therefore 't is so with Christians nor have they any Sword or Head that is Spiritual Christians ought not to be so contrary to that excellent Discipline of the Jews which God himself ordered and to introduce I know not what Spiritual Rule in prejudice of Temporal Rule nor does he expect any Satisfaction from his Adversaries why there should be less Division betwixt Church and State among the Jews and less use of two several Swords and because Adultery was Punish'd with Death Christians ought not to be Excommunicated for it If God has given them sole Knowledge to Determine all Controversies and Power to Enact all Ecclesiastical Canons doubtless he has given them some binding Coercive force correspondent thereunto and if so why do they not expel all Dissention by it If their Virtue extend no further than to Exhortation why do they urge Commands upon us If they have a Commanding Power why do they not second it with due Compulsion it is plainly clear'd to us that Adultery by God's Law was Punish'd by the Temporal not Spiritual Sword and that the Abscissio animae amongst the Jews was only Corporal Punishment by Death the infliction whereof was only left to the Temporal Magistrate and that there was no difference observed between Crimes Spiritual and Crimes Temporal And therefore there ought to be none in the Church of Christ the form or essence of Law is that Coercive or Penal Virtue by which it binds all to its Obedience if Priests had any such Spiritual Sword doubtless it would have some sensible Efficacy and work to good Ends and Men would not nor could not choose but bow and submit themselves
Capacities and Institutions and the gates of Hell are not to prevail against them and then surely special Commands and different Offences may be allowed there must be new Animadversions and Corrections Discipline and Punishments and these in such hands as is his Pleasure However to infer there is now no such things or in such a manner and such hands because never in the World before is hugely inconcluding nor do any Men that are in earnest or out of a Plot believe or declare themselves any otherwise obliged by such the forementioned Instances and Presidents whether in Law or Government any farther than the Parity of Reason and Correspondency of things enforce and engage and there would be mad work were it otherwise Only Mr. Selden and his Friends are it seems to be excepted who thus argue Adam and Cain for their Offences against God had a civil Banishment Achan's Body and all his Goods were a devoted thing for his Sacriledge Others were Slain or Stoned or swallowed up by the Earth for their greater Impieties Excommunication was not at all amongst the Jews for some time and since it was received only as a Compact among themselves to keep their People in awe and order when they were in Captivity and without the benefit of the Civil Magistrate and their Penal Laws to correct and restrain them And therefore there are not neither ought to be any other Punishments under the Gospel All the Anathema's Devotings Cuttings off Separation Abstentions Interminations Excommunications are nothing else The Primitive Christians without any Pre-obligation from Christ upon the same score entred into their Discipline and govern'd themselves also as they could while the Empire was Heathen because not capable any otherways to subsist keep their Body together and Protect it and which ceased when Constantine became Christian who took it all into his own hands managed it as occasion and as he pleased in whom by right alone it resided And the Argument is every whit as good as to Baptism and the Lord's Supper which were imitations of the Jewish Customs and that there is no more in either than was in their Baptizing and Washing when they made Proselytes or in their Cup of Blessing Drinking a Health Eating and Banquetting together and which must be in the Power of the Supreme Magistrate to cancel or continue at his Pleasure And much wider yet is a farther Conclusion of his in his Twelfth Chapter That there was no Excommunication at all amongst the Jews nor is therefore to be any among Christians because no mention of it in an old Jewish Manuscript Ritual which he has by him and there produces and the courses of Penance and Repentance are all Innovations because his Priest of Mahomet neither knew nor discovered any thing of it and which must be the alone Inferences from all his great Pains and Reading there shew'd to the World if there can be any at all And indeed had he not intended more to amuse the World with a bulk of Stuff and Reading as is his usual way and by a confusion of things first to confound his Reader the easier to impose upon him the usual way of all Hereticks as Tertullian has observ'd Adversus Praxean Cap. 20. Proprium est omnium Hereticorum pauca adversus plura defendunt posteriora adversus priora Scribis tanquam ad Croesum Pyrrhum Loxias as Marius Mercator of the Pelagian First to involve and entangle he would have omitted all these Impertinencies and gone directly to the Business As whether such a Kingdom was once erected Such Power was left upon Earth or not and this indeed he attempts but 't is in the After-Game the Bustle and Distraction And he does it only too in compliance with his own false Supposition He considers nothing of the Kingdom of Christ the Nature of his Commission it 's Power Reasons Design End and Reward he wrests particular passages of Scripture to his perverted purpose and I 'le bring as many Readings and Expositions with their tricks and turnings quite against him And particularly intermixes and confounds the miraculous especial Actions of the Apostles when inflicting Death and Temporal Punishments for the Testimony of their Commissions and terror to the present Offendor and warning to future Ages and which were to cease with that setled fixed Power of theirs design'd for a Perpetuity And his Mistake is as great in his numerous Instances of the Imperial Acts and their Constitutions of their Titles of Episcopus Episcoporum Summus Pontifex and the Application of them all which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which is already shew'd The Power of the Church purely as such and which is alone the Subject of the Debate is entire and within it self supported and maintained but never invaded by the Titles and Acts Imperial Nor need all be let pass as for granted that he thinks himself so secure of as an unshaken Medium for his undue gathered Conclusion And certainly there was more than a Bodily Temporal Punishment in Adam and Cain a single Punishment was not all they had inflicted on or was intended to them there was a withholding something Spiritual too a Suspension at least of inward Strength and Assistances a turning out from some other outward Advantages and Enjoyments and which is imported by the turning out from the Presence of God and the change of the Earth was not the alone Deprivation And sure I am we have as good Grounds that it was more as Mr. Selden has produced to the contrary though his Enumerations are great and his little Autorities are many as indeed he does nothing but what is abundance in that Sense did the clearing the present Truth any ways depend upon it 2. That then which will be more considerable § II is this and which renders an evident account why all the Offences under the Levitical Dispensation were punishable only by the Civil Power and with Temporal Awards and by one and the same hand of Justice the distinction between Sins Spiritual and Temporal were less obvious or none and the Power of the Priesthood was not so distinct and apart and yet no necessity of the like Constitution in any one instance now under Christianity the principal reason of all I say seems to be this The great disparity betwixt the Jewish and Christian Body as to their particular Form and Constitution the Jewish Church was imbodied in the State in the design and frame of it and the Laws of both were one and the self-same Law of the Nation the Government was blended and so mixed together that is was all one Polity dispersed by the hands of the Priests and Levites and Judges of the Gates each had their original share and the so much magnified Sanedrim is allowed to be of the same Complexion or mixed multitude together and united for present Government And hence is it as Mr. Selden says very well That when a Conquer'd People and in Captivity under the Civil Government
Subject Ita tunc Deus supplebat id quod Magistratus Ecclesiae praestare debent tunc non Praestabant Grotius in 1 Cor. 4.21 Then God did supply what the Magistrates ought to have discharged and did not instancing in these very Punishments of Ananias and Saphira struck Dead of Elymas the Sorcerer struck Blind and of the Bodily Diseases sent out upon others Our Saviour Christ in his Life designed and contrived upon every occasion when any appearance that others should suspect him or when any apt opportunity to express and declare himself that he was neither to exempt himself from any instance of Subjection to his Governors nor exercise in any Case the Jurisdiction that was theirs and for this he Pays Tribute refuses to divide Inheritances nor did he invade any one private Person and we read of but one Colt that he commanded to be brought unto him to which as what was his Title we do not read so are we not told of any injury done by it nor of any Complaint made in the Streets on the occasion And his Death though pre-ordained in the fore determination of God for no one worldly end or design to serve no one Political Purpose but solely and altogether to satisfie for the Sins of Man to make compleat our Redemption yet it was ordered that the earthy Governors should have a Power given them from above for a legal Process and judicial Trial upon him he died in a course of Law and a Posture of Obedience to them And although it must be granted that some of the ancient Fathers and most eminent first Christians did Believe and Publish to the World that Christ should come again and reign upon Earth in his Person as Supreme Governor of all and his Saints with and by him in the independent full freedom use and advantage of the Goods of this World and of Sense that Jerusalem should be Rebuilt its Streets enlarged and inhabited by them So Justin Martyr Dialog cum Tryph. Jud. Irenaeus lib. 5. cont Heres c. 32. Tertul. lib. 3. cont Marcion c. 24. with Lactantius and others yet it amounted not to an Universal received Opinion of that Age. Justin Martyr acknowledges there were many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy and Pious in their Judgments which did not acknowledge it And Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History lib. 3. cap. 39. giving that slender account of its rise and original from Papias tells us that many but not all Ecclesiastical Writers led by a shew of the Antiquity assented unto it but yet this was not by any of them expected during this state of things on Earth and in the Regeneration Sed alio statu utpote post resurrectionem as Tertullian Tom. 4. inter fraâ—menta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justin Martyr supra Ibid. Post Resurrectionem coram judicio terram possidebunt As Irenaeus Ibid. but not till after the Resurrection ante coelum before their Ascension into Heaven as Tertullian again Ibid. when all Rule and Autority and Power has had its just Time and Period upon Earth is put under foot alone by God it seeming just that in what condition they had laboured and been afflicted tried and proved by all manner of ways or Sufferings upon Earth they there receive the Reward and Fruit of such their Sufferings as Irenaeus ill argues in qua enim conditione laboraverunt sive afflicti sunt omnibus modis probati per sufferentiam justum est in eâ recipere fructus sufferentiae they cannot be conceived to have thoughts of either evading or invading the Civil Power which then was supposed to be none at all because after the Resurrection and of which during its time for continuance by God affixed they were the most Zealous Maintainers and Asserters as has been already shew'd So far do they erre from the Spirit of these first and eminent Christians who pretending to the same Millennium or reign upon Earth oppose and fight against their present Governors to hasten and effect it § X BUT then to argue on the other hand that because it was not the design of the Gospel to erect a Temporal Kingdom upon Earth Christ and his Apostles design'd and erected none at all they had really no Power no Autority committed unto them this is as wide from Truth this runs from one extreme to the other which indeed is the usual course of such as are designed for error Clemens Alexandrinus in his Admonition to the Gentiles observed it of old among them and that their Ignorance still led them into one of the two Extremes of either Ignorance or Superstition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either they Worshipped their many ridiculous beastlier Gods or else none at all denied the only true God On this score Evenemus Agrigentinus Nicanor Cyprius Diagoras Hippo Melius and Theodorus with some others were called Atheists Men that considered not the Truth only saw the Error of the then abominable Worships and Acknowledgments And the same is easily acknowledg'd throughout the whole Ecclesiastical Tradition how as Atheists before so Hereticks since have still run the same way and their Heresies by these courses been either started or maintained Thus that Pestilent Sect of the Arians united not only with the Miletian Scismaticks but with the Heathens too the more to oppose and make numerous their Party against the Catholicks as we have it in Sozomen Hist Eccles lib. 1. c. 15. Athanas Orat. 1. Cont. Arium and in his Apology Pag. 731. and his Epistle Ad Solitariam vitam agentes And the same did the Donatists after them who set open the Idol Temples that themselves might have liberty applauded and sided with Julian the Apostate and gave opportunity for the Publick Worship of the Devil that they might with full freedom serve their own particular Designs and their Malice and Revenge be gratified as St. Austin and Optatus at large declare Contra Petil. cap. 8. 92. Ep. 48. c. Contr. Parmen Donatist lib. 2. I might all along trace them down I 'le only make my farther instances in what comes more nearly up to the case in hand because there may be such a thing as Domination over the Clergy Therefore there is no real Power to be exercised over them because Diotrephes affected a Superiority where it belong'd not unto him therefore a Bishop and a Presbyter must be of equal Power The Church of God must not exercise Autority as do the Kings of the Gentiles therefore whatever the Power they execute is must be Tyranny and Usurpation The Church of Rome have notoriously exceeded their Commission Pretended to what they never had either from Christ or St. Peter as to depose Kings to acquit their Subjects of their Allegiance exercising Temporal outward Coercive Power as in their Charter by Religion Therefore the Church of God has no Charter at all is no Body or Corporation Autoritative and Juridical or as Mr. Selden and his Friends argue we read of no other Power in the
〈◊〉 they obey their appointed Laws and by their exacter Lifes and stricter Conversations go beyond the Laws supererogate and are more perfect than their Rules require or Sanctions enjoyn them To which I 'le add that of Octavius to Cecilianus in Minutius Faelix De nostro numero carcer exaestuat Christianus ibi nullus est nisi aut reus suae Religionis aut Profugus your Prisons swarm the Walls will scarce contain them but there is no Christian unless Runawaies and Desertors of their Religion and when we assert the divine Right of Titles and that God himself assigned and separated such a Portion of the goods of the Earth for the maintenance of the Evangelical Priesthood also and which Sanction is to endure together with the Kingdom and to take away this is to rob God we do not then maintain them with any such Clause in the Charter or Conveyance warranting and enabling a forcible violent Entry as in the usual cases of Right and Property upon dispossession that Power St. Paul speaks of as to Eat and to Drink not to work with our hands but to live upon the Gospel and which we believe to descend with the Gospel is together with holy Orders invested in him is quite another thing and neither implies nor supposes Power like it it is bottomed only on the Grounds and Reasons of our Association nor has it any other motives but those which make us Christians and which did not at all depend on outward force Hence it was till the world came into the Church that the Priesthood was maintained by what every one offer'd upon the forementioned inducements and as he that denied this maintenance to him that served at the Altar was supposed still to deny withal his Faith and place in the Body of Christians and suitably is it with the greatest equity and proportion of things still the continued Practice of the Christian Courts to Excommunicate or cut off such an one from the Church Communion so neither could they which saw no reason why themselves should become Christians be supposed to be convinced by other reasons of the necessity of maintaining those who claimed no other right for the maintenance than their Preaching and Publishing such that Religion And therefore when upon with-holding of Tithes or the Churches Revenue we proceed farther than Excommunication to Personal Confinement or whatever outward restraint we have no Warrant or Power for this but from the Prince and the Laws of the Land alone enable us to do it 'T is true to have a Body or Government in it self distinct and apart from that which is Secular and with its own obligations for maintenance which way soever it arises but more especially when from so prevailing a motive and engagement as that which makes men Christians and entitles them to Eternity to have their own bank or stock to what ends or on what Persons soever erogated and expended it matters not whether on their Poor or on their Clergy to which add the Power to assemble for religious Worship upon the same Considerations is what may carry some appearance for Suspitions and Jealousies from the State and advantages are possible to be taken for undermining and overthrowing of it upon each occasion a Government indeed ought to be watchful and jealous in such Cases Premunires Eschetes and Confiscations are but due and equitable Provisions as by Law assigned that surely is a very unsafe Rule I find among other as bad laid down by Mr. Dean in his Sermon in a case not very unlike to this in hand He that acknowledges himself to derive all his Autority from God can pretend to none against him Unless wee 'l suppose there can be no Cheats nor Hypocrites double dealings in the World or that a power or trust duely received cannot be abused and estranged such as designedly Act against God pretend mostly to his Autority and often have it really in them And the truth is nothing but the peculiar constitution of this Christian Body or Incorporation could have then by any one been permitted as it was by some before Constantine or now be pleaded for whose humble innocent peaceable temper and complexion as above described was so undoubted and notorious in every instance experienced whose very essence was obedience whose design of making good Christians was to make them good Subjects the very Plot of the Gospel was in part this that Government be every ways preserved and entire administring new Motives and Arguments for it and that Princes if possible be more Sovereign and Glorious thereby whatever the Gospel Preaches and Commands is all along with a just regard and even subordination to it But then again since thus it is by the Blessings and Providence of God that Kings and Queens themselves are become Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church since our Church Doors are set wide open by their command our Revenues in our hands at the publick disposal of our Bishops to which is superadded their own Royal Bounty and Endowments together with more from the Piety of others their Subjects and eminent Christians among us and all by Law Established and Confirmed unto us as the rest of our Tenures still to plead the example of the Primitive Christians who were under no one of these Advantages to keep a part in distinct Assemblies to make Privy Purses and Fonds brings such as practise it under as great a suspicion of Hypocrisie and private ill-laid designs as those first Christians were notorious for their integrity when so doing and unsuspected not only that Government under which they live but all good Christians have ground enough for jealousie of their underhand indirect purposes to implead and seize on the one hand and to admonish and censure on the other as Delinquents no one consideration of State can countervail the Damage a toleration or connivance of such may bring unto it nothing can justifie the Practice it self but that alone which was pleaded by the Primitive Christians and was their real case that the Association and Assemblies of Christians for the Profession and Service of the Gospel must cease and fall without so doing that Christianity it self cannot otherwise stand and which our supposal overthrows as to any such Pleas now adays nor indeed dare any of our Dissenters openly say it § XLIII THAT the Clergy alone preside in their several Districts is no more prejudicial to Government in State than any of the other and which will appear from their Offices there performed as to be the Mouth in Prayer and thanksgiving and which is already consider'd to Catechize Teach and Instruct the People and admonish them in the ways to Heaven by Virtue and the instances of all sorts of Obedience as indispensably required and nothing but a thorow after-repentance and amendment upon failure will regain the Inheritance forfeited and Iâ—le take it to be only an ill Phrasing or inconsideration in the Expression when Preaching the Gospel in the due sense
rather to be hazarded then to comply with and imbody into us any thing that is sinful even to gain a Protection for other instances of Virtue and Duty yet nothing but that which strikes at Religion it self will ingage or be a Warrant to proceed in this extreme utmost way upon him whose alone is the outward Coercive Power and who can weild his Sword at pleasure deny the Church that support countenance and assistance which our Saviour designed Religion should outwardly flourish under be in some respects propagated and preserved by become more notoriously visibâ—e and conspicuous to all Nations And what is said of Excommunication and other Church censures is to be said of Absolution which though a Power enstated alone in the Priesthood by Christ yet is not to be executed in an Arbitrary way and that not only as to the Laws of Christ but the Laws of Kingdoms also in many cases especially where Christian I 'le end this Section and Head of Discourse in the words of our Learned Dr. Hammond in his Book of the Power of the Keys Cap. 1. Sect. 1. The Power of binding and loosing is only an Engine of Christ's invention to make a Battery or impression upon the obdurate Sinner to win him to himself to bless not triumph over him it invades no part of the Civil Judicature nor looses the bonds thereof by these Spiritual Pretences but leaves the Government of the World just in the posture it was before Christ's coming or as it would be supposed to be if he had never left any Keys in his Church § XLV THAT the Church as a Body and Corporation of it self judiciarily determines in Council and lays obligations to Obedience infringes and inrodes no more than her other acts now mentioned if it be declarative of matter of Faith or Duty indispensably as received originally from Christ by Church conveyance the Determination is no more than the first Teaching and Promulgation of it was if it be constitutive of Laws and Canons for setling and enjoyning of Discipline the matter in it self indifferent but limited for present use and service and of which and to which purpose all Humane Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil are made and tend these Church Canons are as in the make and obligation so in the Practice and execution to retain that just regard to known Duties especially those of Allegiance that such the other Church acts and censures do and as already shewed 'T is true the great transcendent regard and reverence the Empire when Christian has had for the institution as from our Saviour for Religion it self in whose defence the Canons were made and for the high Dignity and Office of the Bishops his Commissioners that it still has made antecedent Canons the Rule of all Laws enacted if relating to or but bordering upon affairs Ecclesiastical as instances are already produced quas leges nostrae sequi non dedignantur Novel 83. and to command contra venerabilem Ecclesiam against the venerable Church Nullius est nisi Tyrannidis cujus actus omnes rescinduntur is reputed as the Act of a Tyrant and such Acts are null'd Cod. Justin l. 1. Tit. 2.16 nay farther Canones ubi agitur de re Ecclesiastica jure civili sunt preferendi and if the Canon and Civil Laws those of the Church and the State have happened to be different and in competition in any Ecclesiastical case the Canons have took place and obliged as in that Code and Title Sect. 6. and their general care and industry was mostly for these as the Determinations more immediately for the good of their Souls Novel 137. but this was from the greater Indulgence and Grace of the Christian Emperors and in particular cases and it cannot be supposed that the Church should designedly set up her Bishops and Laws above or in opposition to that Government which the frame of their Religion includes in Subordination to and by Protection of which it was to be propagated and preserv'd but of this we shall have occasion anon to consider farther And if it be reply'd that a Council cannot be convened or meet at all without the Prince's Grant at least his Letters of leave and how then can they have any Autority independent or should they otherwise assemble they are reputed Seditious Disturbers of the Peace and of Majesty and punishable as is the Law imperial 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 1. l. 3. To this I answer neither can they nor ought they nor did ever any Christian Council otherwise unite in their Persons then by the Grant and Letters Imperial and that censure was just if any did otherwise attempt it But then it is farther to be consider'd that the form essence and force of a Council that which gives a right for Sanctions and invests with Autority Ecclesiastical is not their local personal meeting as in one place there convocated and sitting but a joynt-enquiry and resolution as to the Truth 's debated and concurrency as one man in the Laws enacted upon the true Motives and Reasons of Faith and the Gospel as by Tradition transmitted or in Discipline for Government and Peace useful and which may be done by the Bishops and Clergy dissite and in diverse Countries by their Letters Missive and Communicatory those Literae signatae or systaticae or circular Epistles to one another and which has been done under diverse Circumstances and when the state of the Church was so low and its Capacities not enabling her to do it otherwise as is plain from Church Story and Practice and that this was the course of the Church's 't is more than probable when that debate arose about the keeping of Easter an account of whose Epistles we have appearing to this purpose given us by Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 23. AND lastly that this Church Power is derived § XLVI only from the Church and her Bishops to others in the Succession exclusive to Kings and the Clergy are not in this sense his Ministers he ordains and substitutes them not carries nothing of opposition in the action it self nor any thing in the design than what the Incorporation and Offices themselves imply and which has been hitherto rendred altogether innocent The Leviathan scruples not to say That they all derive their Offices and Power only from the Prince and are but his Ministers in the same manner as Magistrates in Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders in Armies are and his account why they must be so is because the Government could not be secure upon other terms If the Soveraignity in the Pastor over himself and his People be allow'd of it deprives the Magistrate of the Civil Power and his Peoples dependency would be on such their Doctors both in respect of the opinion they have of their Duty to them and the fear they have of Punishment in another World Part 3. Cap. 42. but this mistake of his has been enough discovered all along in this Treatise and will be more
subject and in what case it will be that they are to obey I shall add farther THAT if this Conclusion be good That § II therefore there ought to be no Church Power nor Laws at all distinct from those of the State because at some one time or other both may stand in competition and the same Action at the same time may fall under an Injunction and Prohibition and these Laws of the Church must of necessary consequence overthrow and over-rule those of the State the same is equally deducible from the Laws of God and Christ immediately given by them or their Messengers the Apostles all which will be as much liable to the same consequence and found some times or other many times to be sure as inconsistent in the particular practice as to what the Secular Power may be necessitated to command The Duties to be performed in the Congregation as Prayer attending the Sacraments c. are what are the appointment of Christ and obliging every Christian and yet in the time of War in order to publick Justice by the very accidents and contingencies of man's life do and must come cross in Mr. Hobb's sense and the Governments dissolution must be also hazarded thereby and 't will be the same where the Gospel-Commands reach the Imperate Acts of the Will as they speak or organical Duties and which require set times and place and motions in the Performance and yet these were Soveraign Laws notwithstanding when actually and in their persons given by Christ and the Apostles then Mr. Hobbs acknowledges them to be such only to be superseded on diverse Considerations not so particularly engaging the Performance at some times and yet still continuing to be obliging as in their several designs and purposes and none do any more And Herod indeed suspected a Dissolution of the Government by it these very Laws of God compared with one another as with those of the Civil Magistrate upon these mens inferences must cease were unduly imposed because they are not at all times by reason of one another practicable and 't is equally impossible to Mourn and to Rejoyce to Fast and to be Hospitable to be upon my knees at Prayer and to be doing Justice on the Bench to obey God and my King in the same Person at one and the same time and in the same Duties as to obey Soveraignty and Supremacy Canons and Laws a Ghostly and a Civil Autority and all or none are on the same account to be placed in opposition If the Objection has any force as Mr. Hobbs thinks it has and lays his full stress against Ecclesiastical Laws upon it And again if whatever is from a due institution and from just autority then looses its Sanction and Nature is to be null'd and to cease if upon other Considerations suspended for some time something more weighty more useful or absolutely necessary may intervene and it is not at that time to be practised and complied with or thus because not always practicable it ought not to be enjoyn'd at all then sundry of God's own Laws must cease to oblige and that for ever or were unjust in their Enactions because obliging to practice only in their due times and circumstances The affirmative Precepts of the Ten Commandments themselves will fail one way or both nor does any pretend in his Expositions on the Decalogue to make but sense of such those Precepts without first laying down that distinction of semper and ad semper presupposing and taking it for a truth that that which is always a Law and of it self obliging does not actually engage to performance at every time has only its proper seasons for practice if then a compromising and adjustment is not allow'd to be made in one instance 't is not in the other and if in any one 't is in all we can as easily reconcile the Laws of the Church in their Practice with the Laws of the State as we can the immediate Laws of God and Christ as we can the Laws of God with one another and thorow Obedience in every respect is equally possible the same humane Prudence and Discretion one and the same but course of things their Natures and Obligations considered will determine and adjust in one as in the other and which not presupposed and made use of in all there will be indeed only justling and thwarting as to all our Obligations and at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Universal Dissolution Now in order to this in regard to the Soveraignty and Supremacy Laws and Canons Civil and Ghostly Obedience as 't is phrased and which is at present the particular concern what I have already said in the former Chapter concerning Church Censures Penances Excommunications and the Canons of Councils and their particular Obligations might suffice in general and satisfie any serious inquirer Nothing of this nature is to be of force if shutting out any antecedent immutable known Duty implying Rebellion and Sedition thwarting what is upon any occasional Necessity or appearance of a conveniency commanded by the lawful Civil Power the Church always asserts owns and pleads for Princes and what she enjoyns cannot be believed to be of force or by her intendment if against them But my purpose is to go a little farther in compliance with this present opportunity and to consider the Laws of the Church in the large acceptation as including the Laws of Religion in general whether meerly Humane and Ecclesiastical or more purely and immediately Divine given by Christ and his Apostles in their Persons and Instances whether as to Positive institutions or Moral and in regard to each of which what is the force and autority of a civil Command how far it either suspends or disengageth and I the rather also do it take this latitude because the one when well considered will add light and much contribute to the better understanding of the other especially to the clearing of the point of Ecclesiastical and Civil Power their extent and obligations NOW in order to this Mr. Hobbs himself § III has given us an excellent Key and his Method in general is to be followed by us I 'le here transcribe his words than which nothing can be more apposite But this difficulty of obeying God and the Civil Soveraign on Earth to those that can distinguish betwixt what is necessary and what is not necessary for their reception into the Kingdom of God is of no moment for if the command of the Civil Soveraign be such as that it may be obey'd without the forfeiture of life eternal not to obey is unjust and the Precept of the Apostle takes place Servants obey your Masters in all things and the Precept of our Saviour The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all therefore they shall say observe and do but if the Command be such as cannot be obey'd without being damned to eternal Death then it were madness to obey it and the Council of our Saviour takes
it self was not thought to be concerned 't was what was reputed only secular and the most eminent and very near all the Bishops were zealous Sticklers against the Pope or at least submitted to it then when zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion Doctrines and Worship and to which they adhered in King Edward's days and Queen Elizabeth's when the Reformation went on farther and was settled as now by Law in the Church The Supremacy was not then the Characteristical Mark though since to keep up the Parties it is so and which occasioned that warm Dialogue betwixt the Jesuite and Doctor Bilson of which I have given so large an account already the Doctor 's design being to vindicate our Church from the Opinions of Erastus urged in effect upon us by the Jesuite and that by asserting the Prince Supreme in all Causes over all Persons we give not to him any thing that is Church-Power enstated by Christ on the Apostles and by them derived to the Bishops their alone Successors herein this being thus settled and over-ruled against the Romanist another Enemy Man comes with his Tares and which are scattered in the seed-Plot and grow up together with it the Puritan starts up in the midst of us and the Point is That this Power of the Keys is in the Presbytery their Eldership made up of Lay-Men mostly call'd Lay-Elders and these for the greatest part as must be in abundance of Parishes Mechanicks and the meaner sort who have the Power of laying on of Hands Ordaining and Excommunicating nay more these inconsiderable Persons are not only invested with the Power of Bishops and Church-Men but with that Power and Supremacy is by us given to the Prince to Preside over and Govern all Persons and Causes by Process to Cite Summon and Convene before them to implead acquit or condemn amerce or punish even to confinement in their Consistories and no Cause or Person to be exempted if manageable in order to Religion they emulate and succeed the Pope himself and in the highest instances of his pretended Power and Soveraignty even to Summon and Censure Kings of whom Personal Attendance is required now against this it is these Worthies change and wield their Weapons accordingly as a good Fencer is ready at all against these New Popes as they call them and whoso please may read in Bishop Bancroft's Survey of the pretended holy Discipline cap. 22 23 24 25. and in his Book of Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within the Island of Britain under pretence for Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline In Bishop Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church Cap. 9 10. and Bishop Whitgift's Defence of the Answer to the Admonition Tract 17. pag. 627 628 629 630 c. against these it is their warmth and Argument is spent in Defence of the Rights of the King and Church in scorn and detestation of such those pretending Ignaro's Their words are these with a deal more to this purpose As though Christ's Soveraignty Kingdom and Lordship were no where acknowledged or to be found but where half a dozen Artisans Shoo-makers Tinkers and Taylors with their Preacher and Reader Eight or Nine Cherubins forsooth do rule the whole Parish So Bancroft Dangerous Positions c. l. 2. c. 2. That the King must submit to the Pastor and be content to be joyned in Commission with the basest sort of People if it please the Parish to appoint him and if over-ruled must be contented and the Prince loses all Autority in Ecclesiastical Matters and he must maintain and see executed such Laws Orders and Ceremonies as the Pastor with his Seniors shall make and decree So Bishop Whitgift ibid. p. 656 657. That the Church-warden and Syde-men in every Parish are the meetest Men that you can find to direct Princes in judging of Ecclesiastical Crimes and Causes a wretched state of the Church it must be that shall depend on such silly Governors as Husbandmen and Artisans Ploughmen and Craftsmen and we descend to the Cart for advice in Church-Government So Bishop Bilson Perpetual Government Cap. 10. and if thus in behalf of the Regal and Sacerdotal Power the Magistracy and the Ministry and which are the only Governors of the Church of Christ as they contend against these monstrous sort of People with their High-shoo'd feet and Clowns hands invading both the King and the Church be set as one man to oppose them and their distinct Powers not so nicely and distinctly stated at one time as they are and require an another and appear but as one Weapon that with present advantage it may be wellded against them this is to be imputed to the warmth and zeal of the Disputant whether as Aggressor or Defendant his settled particular judgment is to be fetch'd from his particular designed Decision and Determination in other Cases and when the naked Cause is alone and before him the immediate proper object of his Consideration and it must be confessed neither do I believe the great reason and choicer learning of that excellent Prelate were he now alive again could upon second thoughts extricate himself that Bishop Bilson's Argument against Lay-Elders Cap. 10. Pag. 148. and which Robert Parker so much twits him with is wide of a Conclusion and very ill laid it runs thus I cannot conceive how Lay-Elders should be Governors of Christ's Church and yet be neither Ministers nor Magistrates Christ being the Head and fulness of the Church which is his Body governeth the same as a Prophet a Priest and a King and after his Example all Government in the Church is either Prophetical Sacerdotal or Regal the Doctors have a Prophetical the Pastors a Sacerdotal and the Magistrates a Regal Power What fourth Regiment can we find for Lay-Elders All that can be said is this there appear'd an Argument against a Lay-Elder he was thought thus shut out from having any Place or Power as from Christ not considering the ill distribution of the offices of Christ in general and his bad-placed Successions and more especially the worser consequence that must attend a deriving the Magistrates Power from the Mediatorship and 't is what neither Whitgift nor Bancroft did Consider As a King Priest and Prophet he erected and settled his Church on Earth by virtue of that Commission and All Power given him of the Father Mat. 11. but he did not as such meddle with the Kingdoms on Earth as the Mediator he was himself a Subject and professed and practised Subjection and Obedience demanded only the Subjects right Protection by the Government he found established in the World by his Father But however the present Argument was wrong laid and whencesoever the Magistrates Power is derived 't is all along and by them all supposed and maintained quite different and apart from that of the Ministry or the Priesthood and they are asserted two quite diverse offices and their Powers do not reach to one another I 'le only now instance