lawful parts Chap. III. What Endeavours have been used by the more Moderate Papists to bring England under a Foreign Jurisdiction in King James's time § 1. I Will not meddle now with their violent Attempts abroad and at home nor so much as name them Commonly Known It is not my design to speak or act offensively but defensively Their ways of Wit and Deceit have been many and among others pretended Motions for a Coalition hath not been the least And their injurious Pretences that our Rulers have been inclined to them as knowing how much that may do with the ignorant sequacious Multitude § 2. I. In Queen Elizabeths days they much perswaded her that to go as far from the Church of Rome as the Anti-Papists desired would cross her Interest and make the reduction of the Kingdom impossible who were all Papists but as it were the other day II. In King James's time they would fain have conquered him by the fear of Murder when he heard of the Murder of two King 's of France H. 3. and H. 4. that had greater defensive Powers than he And the Powder Plot was yet more frightful And continued threatnings more And he shewed his peaceable Disposition in promoting the Spanish and French Matches for his Son and especially if it be true that Rushworth â—nd other Historians say that He and his Son â—nd his Council took their Oaths for a Toleration â—n the words recorded by them § 3. And to make People believe that he was â—t the heart a Papist the Bishop of Ambrun boasteth of his success in a Conference with him published in French in Mr. D'ageant printed at Grenoble 1668. where in Pag. 173 174 175 176 177 178. he tells this Story It 's like the Archbishop told it to ingratiate himself with Cardinal Richlieu to whom he sent it and would not scruple aggravation Afterwards there was a good understanding between the two Crowns The King of England at the request of the K of France did often remit the ordinary severities used against the Catholicks in England He was even well-pleased with the Proposals that were secretly made to him by the King of France in order to the reducing of him into the bosom of the Church Insomuch that after several Conferences held for that Effect by the consent of his Majesty without communicating any thing of that matter to his Council for fear that the business being known should have been obstructed The Archbishop of Ambrun passed into England as if it had been without Design in the Habit and under the Name of a Counsellor of the Parliament of Grenoble whose curiosity had incited him to see England He had no sooner Landed at Dover but the Duke of Buckingham came to meet him and having saluted him thus whispered in his Ear Sir who call your self a Counsellor of Grenoble but are the Archbishop of Ambrun you are welcom into these Kingdoms You need not change your Name nor your Quality for here you shall receive nothing but Honour and especially from the King my Master who hath a most high Esteem of you Indeed the King of England used him most Kindly and granted him many Favours on behalf of the Catholicks and even permitted him in the French Embassador's Lodgings where was a great Assembly to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to the Catholicks the Doors being open There were near Eighteen thousand Persons who received that Sacrament and yet no man said any thing to them as they went in at the Gate nor no where else Although there were many of the English always standing in the Street beholding the Ceremony During his abode he had many Conferences with that King who having come to agreement in all the controverted Points he wrote a long Letter to the Pope by a Catholick Gentleman his Subject whom he sent secretly of purpose by which Letter he acknowledged him to be the Vicar General of Jesus Christ on Earth the Universal Father of Christians and the Head of all the Catholicks assuring him that after he had made sufficient provision with respect to the things agreed on he would openâ—â— declare himself In the mean time he proâ—â—â—ed him not to suffer any more to make search in his Kingdom for the Priests which were sent over by his Holiness and the most Christian King provided they were no Jesuites whom he said he could not trust for many Reasons chiefly because he counted them to have been the Authors of the Powder Plot by which they had designed to have blown him up in his Parliament In his Letter among other things he intreated the Pope to grant that the Church Lands which had become part of the Patrimony of the principal Houses in England might not be taken from them that on the contrary they might be permitted to possess them because if it should be otherwise there might arise trouble on that account He said also that nothing hindred him from declaring himself presently but that he desired to bring the King of Denmark his brother-in-Brother-in-Law with him whom he had in order to that end but under another pretence prayed to come over into England where he hoped to Convert him with himself That in so doing he should secure the Peace of his Kingdoms which otherwise he could hardly keep in Peace and that they two joyned in the same Design would draw with them almost all the North. The Duke of Buckingham and the Gentleman whom he sent to Rome were the only Persons of his Subjects to whom he had made known this design But the Death of King James which put a stop to this Negotiation put a stop to the Effect of it which was a matter of great Grief to his Holiness and the King of France Thus far Deageant At the End of his Book is a Narrative of the Archbishop of Ambrun of his Voyage into England written to Cardinal Richlieu In which he speaks much to the like purpose as done 1624. adding That the King told him with great freedom the affection he had for the Catholick Faith and was so particular as not to omit any thing insomuch that he told me that from his Childhood his Masters perceiving his inclinations thereto he had run great hazards of being assassinated The rest is That the King resolved to settle Liberty of Conscience by calling an Assembly of Trusty English and Foreign Divines at Dover or Boloigne I have recited this to shew that as they are not wanting in Art and Industry so they abuse the Name of Princes to promote their Cause Who can tell but much of this is Lies And if King James to prevent Butchery gave them a few fair words it 's like they added more of their own And if he used the Papists kindly as being against Cruelty they were the more unexcusable that would have destroyed him and could not be kept in Peace § 4. Yet do the Papists make people beyond Sea believe that they live here under constant Martyrdom Sure if
History be to be believed the Articles of King James and his Son our late King about the Spanish and French Matches do acquit both Kings from any just Accusation of Cruelty against the Papists Rushworth aftermentioned thus reciteth the private Articles of the first Match Pag. 86 87 88. 1. Particular Laws made against Roman Catholicks under which other Vassals of our Realm are not comprehended and general Laws under which all are equally comprized if repugnant to the Romish Religion shall not any time hereafter by any means or chance whatever directly or indirectly be commanded to be put in Execution against the said Roman Catholicks And we will cause that our Council shall take the same Oath as far as it pertains to them and belongs to the Execution which by them and their Ministers is to be exercised 2. That no other Laws shall hereafter be made anew against the said Roman Catholicks but that there shall be a perpetual Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion within Private Houses throughout all Our Realms and Dominions which We will have to be understood as well of Our Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland as in England which shall be Granted to them in manner and form as is Capitulated Decreed and Granted in the Articles of the Treaty concerning the Marriage 3. That neither by Us nor by any other interposed Person whatsoever directly or indirectly privately or publickly will We Treat or Attempt any thing with the most renowned Lady Infanta Donna Maria which shall be repugnant to the Roman Catholick Religion Neither will We by any means perswade her that she should ever renounce or relinquish the same in Substance or Form or that she should do any thing repugnant or contrary to those things which are contained in the Treaty of Marriage 4. That We and the Prince of Wales will interpose Our Authority and will do as much as in Us shall lye that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage And that the said Parliament shall Revoke and Abrogate particular Laws made against the said Roman Catholicks to whose observance also the rest of Our Subjects and Vassals are not obliged as likewise the general Laws under which all are equally comprehended to wit as to the Roman Catholicks if they be such as is aforesaid which are repugnant to the Roman Catholick Religion And that hereafter we will not consent that the said Parliament shall ever at any time enact or write any other or new Laws against Roman Catholicks Moreover I Charles Prince of Wales engage my self and promise that the most Illustrious King of Great Britain my most honoured Lord and Father shall do the same both by word and writing that all those things which are contained in the foregoing Articles and concern as well the Suspension as the Abrogation of the Laws made against the Roman Catholicks shall within three years infallibly take effect and sooner if it be possible which we will have to lye upon our Conscience and Royal Honour that I will interceed with the most Illustrious King of Great Britain my Father that the ten years of the Education of the Children which shall be Born of this Marriage with the most Illustrious Lady Infanta their Mother accorded in the Twenty third Article which term the Pope of Rome desires to have prorogued to twelve years may be lengthened to the said term And I Promise freely of my own accord and Swear that if it so happen that the entire power of disposing of this matter be devolved to me I will also grant and approve the said term Further I Prince of Wales oblige my self upon my Faith to the Catholick King that as often as the Illustrious Lady Infanta shall require that I should give ear to Divines or others whom her Highness shall be pleased to imploy in matter of the Roman Religion I will hearken to them willingly without all difficulty and laying aside all excuse And for further caution in point of free exercise of the Catholick Religion and Suspension of the Laws above-named I Charles Prince of Wales Promise and take upon me in the word of a King that the things above-promised and treated concerning those matters shall take effect and be put in execution as well in the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland as of England The Privy Councillors Oath saith the same Author was this I A. B. do Swear that I will truely and fully observe as much as belongeth to me all and every the Articles which are contained in the treaty of Marriage between the most Gracious Charles Prince of Wales and the most Gracious Lady Donna Maria Infanta of Spain Likewise I Swear that I will neither commit to Execution nor Cause to be Executed by my self or any inferior Officer serving me any Laws against any Roman Catholicks whatsoever nor will execute any punishment inflicted by those Laws but in all things which belong to me will faithfully observe his Majesties word given on that behalf I have recited this to shew that the Papists deceive Forreigners when they tell them that they lived here under cruel Persecution And yet let none think that the King turned Papist For all this was on condition of the Spanish Match which was broken And the King well knew that the Parliament would never consent to it But his own words may satisfie us in this For saith Rushworth The King called a Parliament 1623. when the Match was broken and saith to them It hath been talked of my remisness in maintenance of Religion and suspicion of a Toleration But as God shall judge me I never thought nor meant nor ever in word expressed any thing that savoured of it But the stinging Petition against the Papists as the King called it which this Parliament offered him shewed still what they were against If the Papists say these Articles frustrate prove no forbearance of Severities against us Rushworth answers them saying pag. 156. of the French Match In Novemb. the Articles were Sworn to by King James Prince Charles and the French King The Articles concerning Religion were not much short of those for the Spanish Match And pag. 173. That the English Catholicks should be no more searched after nor molested for their Religion § 5. And they have the less reason to accuse the King of Cruelty or yet to report that he was in Heart a Papist when he rather endured their displeasure than he would turn to them and yet endured the disgust both of the Church-men and Parliament than he would lay by his Clemency toward them The Commons saith Rushworth pag. 213. An. 1625. censured Mr. Ri. Montague for endeavouring to reconcile England and Rome and to alienate the Kings Affections from his well-affected Subjects And the A. Bishop Abbot wrote this Letter to the King May it please your Majesty I have been too long silent and am afraid
know such Matter of Fact better by Universal Consent of all Christians and true History than by such a Judicature of all the Bishops of the VVorld 2. But Protestants do so strongly prove that the S. Scripture is the entire Regulating VVord of God without defect or supplement by Unwritten Tradition as that nothing is left out of it which is of Divine Obligation to all the Christian VVorld in all Ages And therefore that all that the Spirit instituted as Universally Necessary in Church-Government is there 3. If it were not so this Gap of Unwritten Necessary Supplemental Tradition will let in no Man knoweth what besides Church-Power on the like Pretences 4. Tradition hath been oft pretended by General Councils against each other as I undertake to prove 5. All that is not in Scripture of Church-Offices and Government have been so far new or changed up and down as proveth that the Church never took them as Universal Necessary Institutions of Christ delivered by the Apostles I need not instance in Patriarcks and such like nor such difference of Seats as Nazianzen and Isidore Pelusiota wish levelled when if General Councils themselves had been this Necessary Church-Government the Church had not been Three Hundred Years without them yea and to this Day indeed 6. As the King by his Laws and by his Officers Judges and Justices Lawyers c. without another Vicarious Soveraign or vice-Vice-King doth tell the Subjects what is the Constituted Government of the Kingdom and all Official Powers which they must obey so doth Christ by his Written Law and by his Ministers teaching us in their several places tell us what is his Church-Government without an Universal Vicarious Soveraign 7. When Leo the First called himself Caput Ecclesiae Vniversalis and Boniface was called Vniversal Bishop much more long after for many Hundred Years so great a part of the Empire judged the Roman Bishop to be the prime in the Empire and in Councils and Principium Vnitatis as Archbishop Bromhal speaketh as that it seemeth then to have been the Major part of the Bishops of the whole World the Empire being then the far greatest part of the Universal Church And even Salmasius liberally granteth that the Pope was not a meer Patriarch but the Heads of the Patriarchs and Church Universal in the Empire de Eccles. Suburbicar prope fin And I understand not how he is Principium Vnitatis in a Governed Society as such who is not Principium Regens But it followeth not that it was so from the Apostles nor that it must continue so when the Empire is overthrown or the Emperor will change it If most of the Church be in one Empire and the Prince think he should form the Government to that of the State as the Chalcedon Council that magnified Leo yet witnesseth doth this make one of his Subjects Ruler of all other Christian Kings or subject the World to Foreigners Yea and that when the Empire and its Laws are overthrown and most of the Church is without the Empire enlarged more over other Lands Must we turn Papists if they can but prove that once a General Council or the Major part of Bishops was for them by Corruption or Secular Advantage What Changes have the Majority oft made § IV. Your fourth VVork of Universal Supremacy is To declare what Ordinances were received from the Apostles as Imposition of Hands to give the Holy Ghost and such others 1. I acknowledge that Baptism and the Eucharist were known by practice before the New Testament was written and the continued practice hath been as sure a Tradition of the substance of them as the Scripture it self hath had But it is all Christians Lay and Clergy that assure us of this yea Hereticks and Enemies with them by Universal Historical Concord and not the Authority of a Supreme Universal Judicature And yet it was all recorded in the Scripture that without those sure sufficient Records the Tradition might not as Oral or practical only be continued So that all that is Universally Necessary is now in Gods written Law And if it had not been so the Papists changes of the Eucharist which yet Holden with others pleadeth Current Tradition for tell us how little security we should have had of them If there be more Sacraments than two in the Scripture we will receive them Or if more could be proved instituted by Christ and delivered from the Apostles than the Scripture mentioneth we should not refuse them But we are perswaded there is no such proof The Papists plead Scripture for all their seven Sacraments and we quarrel not at the Name but expect better proof of all that is Obligatory to the whole Church on Earth than an unproved Universal Judicature VVhat Confirmation is I now pass by § V. Your fifth VVork for the Soveraign Power is Judicial Sentencing not Individuals ordinarily but by Description such as are to be cast out by Excommunication 1. This is not part of Judicial Government but Legislative To say He that is impenitent in Drunkenness or Heresie shall be cast out is the Penal part of the Law And Gods Law hath already told us who shall be cast out There are Sins enough enumerated to this use 2. If all the Necessary Doctrine and Practice be expressed in Scripture then so is the Necessary Cause of Excommunication For that Cause is bringing other Doctrine or Impenitence in breaking Gods Law But the Antecedent is true Ergo. 3. How happy had it been for the Church if there had been no Hereticating or Anathematizing but for violating Scripture Doctrine and Law impenitently Alas what Work have Hereticators and Anathematizers made in the Church 4. How know we what Curses are valid when General Councils have cursed per Vices almost all the Christian World And the same Bishops in one Council cursed one party and in the next the contrary and cursed their own Councils 5. As there needeth no Vicarious Monarch of the whole World no nor of one Kingdom under the King to tell who shall be Fined or Hanged but the Kings Law as the Rule and the Judges and Justices in their several Limits to pass Sentence in particular Cases so there needs no Church-Vicarious-Judicature of all the Earth to judge who shall be cursed and cast out Christs Laws and the Pastors respectively in the several Churches are enough And in doubtful Cases and for Concord Neighbor-Bishops in Synods must Consult § VI. Your sixth Use of an Universal Supremacy is to make mutable Church-Laws 1. God is the only Lawgiver to all the World Christ to all the Church We deny any such Church on Earth as hath an Universal Soveraign under Christ and can make Laws for all the Christian World 2. How is Gods Law sufficient in sâ—o Genere if it leave out that which is to be commanded to all the World of Christians How is Mans Universal Legislative Power proved any more than an Universal Civil Soveraignty Or how differeth it from
High Priest It is his School and we are his Disciples I suppose that God the Father and Christ is the only Rightful Universal Civil and Church-Monarch and none else can give Laws or exercise Judgment over the whole Earth but that Magistrates and Pastors are Commissioned by God to their several Provinces Governing the whole only per partes between them and God as the Monarch maketh them such Universal Laws as they must Rule and be Ruled by And that there is no more proof of one Ecclesiastick Humane Judicature to Rule all the World than of one Civil one and less probability But that Princes and Pastors must do all by the best Advantages of Unity Love and Concord and keep such Synods and Correspondencies as are necessary to that end I suppose that every Kingdom hath its own King and Inferiour Magistrates Ruling by their several Courts and Circuits and by the Kings Laws but not Ruling all the Kingdom as one College of a Voting Synod of Judges Justices and Majors If Senates have any where a Supremacy it is from the peculiar Constitution of that Commonwealth and there is no Institution of a College of Kings or one Monarch to Rule all the Earth But their Unity is centred in God that is one I suppose that the King hath ordained that all Free-Schools in England Scotland and Ireland shall have each their proper Schoolmasters one to a small School and to a great one a Chief Master with under Schoolmasters and he hath made an Order that they shall teach E. g. Lilly's Grammar and faithfully perform their Trust or be put out by them that have the Power And if any School-Difficulty occur they may do well to consult for their Mutual Help But you seem to add g. d. as if 1. All the World is one Humane School though under several Kings 2. None is a Member of this School that is not under the College of Schoolmasters that dwell all over the World and never know one another and that doth not live in Obedience to that College 3. All these Schoolmasters of the whole World must meet by themselves or Delegates in General Councils 4. All Schools must receive Canons from these Councils and be judged by them and bring their Accusation at least Appeals to them from all Nations of the Earth 5. All the Schoolmasters of the several Kingdoms must hold National Assemblies in those Kingdoms or Provinces as a College of Governors to the whole Land 6. A Thousand or many Hundred or Scores Local particular Schools must be Schools but equivocally so called and have all but one proper Schoolmaster who alone must have the Keys of them and judge of each Scholar that is 1. admitted 2. corrected 3. or put out 7. All these Schools under this Diocesan Schoolmaster shall have his Ushers and no proper Schoolmasters who shall have Power to teach those that will learn and to tell the proper Schoolmaster perhaps One Hundred Eighty or Twenty Miles off of every Boy that deserveth to be corrected or put out But none of these Ushers shall have Power 1. To judge whom to take or refuse or what Boys to correct nor to correct them till commanded by the Diocesan Master 3. Nor to put out any till he bids him 4. Nor to forbear correcting or casting out any when commanded though he know them to be the best I think this 1. Deposeth all the Inferiour Schools and robs them of proper Schoolmasters which are their due 2. And deposeth the Ushers that should be mostly Schoolmasters 3. And maketh School-Government an impossible thing while one only in a Diocess is to use that which he cannot do 4. And thereby overthroweth Learning and introduceth Barbarousness 5. And bringeth in a new sort of Diocesan Schoolmasters who will undo the Scholars and themselves by undertaking Impossibilities But I disallow not 1. A Chief Schoolmaster in each School 2. Nor needful Overseers or Visitors to see that all Schoolmasters do their Duty 3. Nor that the King and Justices keep them all to their Duty and make Laws that they truly teach the Sacred Scriptures and correct those Schoolmasters who by their Insufficiency or Unfaithfulness deserve it Again I tell you 1. Make us no Universal Governor but Christ. 2. And restore the Power of necessary Discipline to the Parish-Churches or at least make Christs Church-Discipline a possible practicable thing and you will reconcile many Nonconformists to you But to say only one Schoolmaster with meer Teaching-Ushers shall Govern many Hundred Schools or one Bishop many Hundred Churches or rather Oratories and Chappels that are made but parts of one true Church infimae specici this is in English to say that there shall be no considerable Government of such Schools or Churches at all and to put it down on pretence of having the Power to do it And yet by the Charity and Justice of many that now Write and Preach against us we are all unruly intolerable rebellious Schismaticks and against Bishops for desiring more Bishops at least one to every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corporation that Discipline might be a possible thing I have in many Years of Liberty tryed without Rigour so much as all Church-Canons agree to be necessary in a Congregation that had not Three Thousand Souls and was unable for it with the assistance of Three Presbyters when one Parish about London hath Thirty Thousand and Forty Thousand if not Sixty Thousand Souls and most or many far less Governable XVII The Essentials of the Sacred Office are 1. Power or Right 2. Obligation to 3. The Work 1. The Work you say is to Rule the Church Universal on all the Earth not only separately per partes but as Vnum Collegium which is Vna Persona Politica 2. The Power is Jus Regendi 3. The Obligation maketh it their Duty The Apostles were sent first to Preach the Gospel to every Creature or all Mankind and make them Christians and after to Teach them all Christs Doctrine and Law and to Rule them by Pastoral Guidance thereby 2. If the College of Bishops be their Successors are they bound to that Work in uno Collegio which the Apostles did each one apart That is deliver Christs Commands and guide the Churches If yea are they not bound in uno Collegio to Preach to all the Heathen World And then are they not guilty of the Damnation of most of the World for not so Preaching to them 3. If you say that it is only a Regiment that they must do in uno Collegio or per Literas formatas do you not make the whole Pastoral Church guilty of perfidious Negligence as a Pastor would be that never guided his Flock for not at all performing any such Government What one Act of Government hath the College performed in our Age or in the Age foregoing or in any Age according to your self since Constant. Pogonatus his sixth or seventh Council And was it only the Church of those Ages
of a more speedy way of Success So that he resolved to put it to a speedy upshot and would have all or none which brought the Changes which we have since seen § 8. But is the Church of England yet delivered from all the Inclination to a Foreign Jurisdiction and the French Government The Oath of Supremacy made it seem hard to perjure the whole Land that had renounced all foreign Jurisdiction But many devised an Expository Evasion that only a Civil Jurisdiction was meant though the Ecclesiastick also was named Should there be but a new attempt by such as the former Rulers probably made is it not like that Men of the French or Grotian Principles will promote it yea and be glad of French assistance I doubt they that would Perjure the Kingdom by a foreign Jurisdiction will debate this odd Question Qu. Whether all that Profess or Swear that it is Vnlawful on any Pretence whatever to resist the King or any Commissioned by him in the Execution of that Commission may resist a French Army if they Invade the Land by K. J 's Commission Or will they turn Nonconformists Chap. XXIII Postscript to the Reverend Dr. Beveridge SIR § 1. THough you were Bishop Guning's Witness with Dr. Saywell his Chaplain when he conferred with me I was not willing to believe that you were of his mind for a Foreign Jurisdiction either Aristocratical or Democratical or Monarchical but to my grief am now convinced of it by your published Convocation Sermon Having too copiously here and elsewhere confuted it specially in my two Books against William Johnson alias Terret the Papist I shall go on the supposition that you will there take notice of it Especially of these two Reasons against it 1. That the Kingdom and Church is sworn against it 2. That a pretended Universal Humane Soveraignty or Legislative and Judicial Power over the whole Church on Earth is the Grand Usurpation of Christs Prerogative which no Mortal Men are capable of And if this be not Popery there is no such thing as Popery And if the Pope be justly called Antichrist or at least a Trayterous Usurper against the Right of Christ and Kings it is by this And if such a Power be really given to any the Pope cannot be excluded at least from the Universal Primacy § 2. I doubt not but the Love of Unity and the sense of the woful case of the Church by Sects and sad Dissentions engaged Bishop Guning and you in the Opinions you took up And no doubt but the Consciencious part of the Learned and Religious Papists are fixed by the same Motives in their way I may say fixed and very confident or else they durst not carry it on as they have done in France and all other Popish Countreys And I can say that I have not fixed on the denial of a Humane Universal Jurisdiction without thinking seriously Forty years of what I could find said for it as well as against it nor out of an inclination to any contrary extreme Could I have found but any Humane capacity in One or Many for such a Soveraignty Legislative and Judicial and but a possibility of such a thing and any probability that it was of Christs Institution the Love of Unity and Hatred of Unruliness and Divisions and their Effects had long ago made me a hot defender of it But the contrary Truth had contrary Effects § 3. That you may not think that I differ from you more than I do I here premise I. That I doubt not but that the Universal Church visible is One Body or Society of professed Christians As the Universal Church as Regenerate and Spiritual is One Body of sincere Christians II. That the Unity and Concord of it as Professors and as sincere must be maintained to the utmost of our power by all due lawful means III. That a wise Correspondency between all those Churches which by nearness are capable of Acquaintance and Communication is a due means to preserve their Love and Concord IV. That seasonable and duly chosen Synods of many conjunct that live within the reach of such Acquaintance and Communication may in case of true need be a fit means of such Concord V. That where such Synods cannot be had with due equality Letters and Messengers from the several Nations or Provinces or Churches may be used to that end VI. That the General Law of Christ commanding Love Concord and Edification maketh it a sin for any to affect causless singularity and to chuse any way which tendeth to Division And that where there is an Equality and no Regent power yet just Contracts for Concord ought to be observed VII That if in National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms or Commonwealths the Soveraign Power give one Seat or Bishop a Primacy or peculiar Priviledge in the Circa Sacra the Circumstantials of Sacred Offices which are within the Magistrates Power it ought to be obeyed VIII If I had lived in the Christian Empire when it sometime gave the Bishop of Rome and sometime the Bishop of Constantinople this preheminence of degree and the other Patriarchs of Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem their several Priviledges and Powers not contrary to the Word of God I would have obeyed that which the Emperor by his Law preferred IX The Roman Empire was so great a part of the known Civilized World and so Potent that I quarrel not with the Titles of Orbis Romanus and Ecclesia Vniversalis given to that Dominion and Church which was meerly National or Imperial so be it we understand the true meaning X. Had the Empire continued one Polity and had made the Bishop of Rome the Primate as to his Seat in Councils and the said Bishop had been a capable Person and had not Challenged the Government or Primacy in order of Regiment over the whole Christian World but in the Empire only as the Archbishop of Canterbury doth in England I would have been none of his opposers All this I grant you § 4. But premising for the Explication of Terms that we take the words Regiment Laws Authority c. in the proper political sense and not equivocally for meer advice or consent I add as followeth 1. That as the Universal Church on Earth hath but one Soveraign Jesus Christ so it is one Body Politick in relation to no one Vnifying Head but Christ and hath no one Substitute Vicarious Christ or Substitute Soveraign Government Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or Mixt. II. The Soveraignty of one Christian King Emperor or Senate in Aristocracy over an United or Confederate Christian Clergy and Laity as Subjects each keeping to their own Place and Work is the Unifying Headship of a National Church which is nothing but such a Christian Kingdom or Republick And that Christ hath owned such National Church Power and hath instituted and owned no Power of Humane Government over it on Earth And therefore as pretending to Universal Jurisdiction is Treason against Christ so the claim
repetition is not unnecessary If you will read Mr. Th. Beverley's whole Duty of Nations you may see more of my Judgment Supposing your Book to be in the hands of the Reader I shall forbear transcribing and only tell you what I dissent from and the pages where it is contained I. I dissent from your Opinion of a Humane Soveraignty as over the Universal Church on Earth whether you feign it to be Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or Mixt I matter not II. Consequently I deny your Doctrine of such an Universal Legislative power in Man and of any Humane Universal Laws III. And I deny all Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that is That the Clergy of any one or many Foreign Kingdoms have a Legislative Regent power over any other King and Nation which give them not that power by a voluntary Subjection All these denied Doctrines you own pag. 28. l. 7 8 c. p. 24 25 26 21 23 19 13 14 15. My Reasons against the first are so many before repeated that I must not again do that which is so oft done Prove you a Universal Humane Polity by Kings or Clergy and I will easily prove that Aristocratical is worse than Monarchical and less practicable And if you think Popery an unfit Name for it I will prove it Antichristian as the Treasonable claim of Christs Prerogative may be so called The Second Error falls with the first For Legislation is the most Essential part of Soveraign power Your Third denied Opinion I hope all Protestant Kings and Kingdoms will continue to renounce And seeing you know that this whole Kingdom is Sworn against it even all Foreign Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions as well as Civil in the Oath of Supremacy besides the many Oaths against alteration of Church and State Government I hope you would not have the Nation stigmatized with the brand of PERJURY If the Law for taking the Oath of Supremacy be repealed the Law of God against Perjury is not repealed And whether it be Treason in it self against King and Kingdom to set up the claim of a Foreign power over them without their consent the Judges know better than I. But I know that there be some wise men that cannot yet prove K. James his Self-deposing if this will not prove it that he openly endeavoured to settle the Kingdom under a Foreign Jurisdiction against the Laws and against their Wills and so to alienate the prime part of Soveraignty And should a Foreign Jurisdiction be asserted we should all be confounded by the Impossibility of knowing where to find it or how to use it if it be Aristocratical Where the Pope is may be known But where to find a General Council of all the Christian World or an Ecclesiastical Parliament or College or the Major Vote of all the Churches we know not And seeing Bishops are all save one the Subjects of other Princes blame not Kings to be unwilling to be their Subjects when thereby they will be subjected to those Princes that Rule them or can sway them by Preferments IV. And I believe not your Doctrine that the Major part must go for this Governing Church For 1. It will never be agreed who be the Nations or Persons that are to be accounted Parts all will claim a Right that are called Christians And can all Christians or Ministers judge of their pretensions 2. It is certain that the Greater part have often erred in Counsels and out of them The Case of the Arrians proveth it And the Greater part of the Bishops have been sometime on one side and sometimes of another and have turned and returned in the same Age as is notorious in the Cases of the Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites the Council of Chalcedon owned and disowned the Tria Capitula the Case of Images and others 3. It is known that most of the Christian World at this day have no small number of Errors the Greeks Moscovites Armenians Abassins Coptis Syrians Jacobites Nestorians Maronites Georgians c. 4. It is to be expected that the Countries nearest the Councils and that have most numerous Bishopricks will have the Major Vote when those far off and that have large and few Bishopricks will have few Votes 5. It is known that three of the five old Patriarchates have many Errors yea four of them differ from all the Western Churches Papists and Protestants 5. And it 's certain that as we cannot be sure of the Major Vote all over-the World so God never gave the Major part the Soveraignty V. And your Foundation for all this in Politicks is intolerably false viz. pag. 13. In omnibus hujusmodi Societatibus pars omnis toti suo congrua pars minor majori consentanea esse debet Hoc ratio suadet Hoc jus naturale edicit Hoc Communis hominum Consensus necessarium esse statuit Adeo ut si quid à majori multo magis quod à maxim◠cujusvis Societatis parte constituitur eodem pars reliqua constringatur illudque observare necesse habeat si membrum manere privilegiis illius Societatis gaudere velit Quod cum in omnibus cujuscunque generis Societatibus valet multo magis in Ecclesia valere debet quam omnium ornatissimam esse decet I am loth to English it 1. I confess I find the like in Archbishop Laud and R. Hooker So Nonconformable to each other is the Conforming Clergy But it 's downright Popularity or Democracy of the worst sort And can such men cry down Republicans yea and raise a suspicion of Nonconformists as Republicans O what a vafricious sort of men do sometime appropriate the Name of the Church 2. It is true of no sort of Political Society in the World but only of ungoverned Communities or Confederacies except those by Contract turned a meer Community into the worst sort of Popular Politie And in Aristocracies it is not the Major Vote of the whole Society that Ruleth but of those few who make up One Political Person or Power And yet could you appeal to Reason Nature and common Consent 3. It is against the Essence of the Government of this Kingdom Shall Kings Parliament and Magistrates be bound to obey the Major part of the Kingdom No nor King and Lords to obey the Major part of the House of Commons Nor Mayors and Bailiffs be bound to obey the Major part of the Cities and Corporations 4. It is contrary to God's Law of Nature and Scripture God hath anticipated humane popular pretences of being either naturally Rulers or the Fountain of Governing Power For God hath instituted in Nature the Genus of this Power and so much of the Species as is to execute God's Laws He hath made the Fifth Commandment and as he alloweth not the Major part of the Children to govern Father and Mother or of Scholars to rule their Masters so neither of Subjects to rule the Soveraign or the Minor part 5. It is contrary to Oaths that are taken by the Subjects of
renunciation of the Popes Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England but only of the Divine Right of it 4. Whether here be any renunciation of his claimed Universal Jurisdiction over all the Church on Earth 5. Whether such an Universal Church Monarch by Humane Right with some and Divine with others be consistent with the Protestant Doctrine and that of the Former Church of England 6. Whether such a Bargain be the way to save us from Popery 7. What to call or think of those Archbishops Bishops and Drs that are for such a Bargain and for Silencing two Thousand such Ministers as were Silenced and Ruining those that forsake them not and yet cry down Popery and accuse those whom they Silence and Ruine as befriending it Readers Did you think till Experience told you that England had had such Clergy men And do you not yet understand them LVIII The whole Christian World or all the Earth is less capable of one Ecclesiastical Monarch or Supreme Aristocracy than of one Civil Monarch This is easily proved to any that will understand what Church Government is 1. Church Government consisteth in judging of the state of Mens Souls whether they are capable of Baptism and the Communion of Saints and the Remission of Sin and whether their Professions be so sound in matter and understood by them and their practices such as shew them capable or not And an outward matter of fact with its circumstances which Magistrates judge is far easier judged of than all this in the understanding will and practice 2. It is about matters of supernatural Revelation and heavenly Mystery which is not so easily known as Natural and Civil things 3. It is a work of personal ability and perforformance like a School-masters or Physicions and can less be done by delegation 4. There is no rule or warrant in Scripture for such delegation which Magistrates may use Nor for Church-Rulers making new sorts of Officers under them to do their Journey-work which Princes may undoubtedly make 5. All that are under such a Supreme must have far greater sufficiency for their Ecclesiastical work than every Civil or Military Officer needs for his as the different works require 6 Such an Universal Monarch or Senate would be supposed still in being and so the Mundane Empire not dissolved which here cannot be supposed 7. Such a Monarch or Senate would be in some known place of the World where men might hear of them and find them But it 's not so here specially as to the Soveraign College of Bishops or Council 8. Such a Monarch or Civil Senate would be supposed to be Lords of all the World and therefore to have Wealth enough to pay Shipping Travelling Messengers Officers and discharge all Publick Expences But so hath not the Imaginary College or Council no nor the Pope and Conclave 9. Such a Monarch or Senate commanding all the World would not have most of the Kingdoms of the Earth the Enemies of them and hinderers of their work whereas the Bishops have not the leave of one Prince of many to assemble and govern 10. Such a Monarch or Senate would have no Superior on earth but God to forbid and hinder them Whereas our imaginary diffused College and Council are themselves the Subjects of abundance of Princes Orthodox Heterodox Infidels Heathens who are their Commanders and may hinder them So that our Universalists plead that on necessity to the Concord and Being of Christ's Church all the Christian World must be under the Supreme Government of thousands of the Subjects of various Princes most of them Enemies When all Church-History and Experience have told the World how much Princes can do on their subject Clergy LIX To make the Church of England a subject ☞ part of the Church Universal as Governed by a Foreign Supreme Power Pope Council or College is to make it totâ specie quite another thing from what the Protestant Church of England and the other Protestant Churches are Proved where the Supreme Government is altered or divers the Species of the Society is altered or divers No man that knows what Government is will deny this But here the Supreme Government would be altered or divers For the Protestant Churches own no Supreme Universal Governour but Christ. And that the Church of England owneth no such I will prove anon 2. A Kingdom and a part of a Kingdom a compleat Political Body and the meer Part of such a Body as a Corporation are not of the same Species But the Protestant Church of England is a compleat Society in it self and the Church of England as a meer part of a greater Society is not so As Christ's Kingdom and the Kings differ so we maintain that the Kingdom of England as such and as a meer part of Christ's Kingdom are of different Species And it would be so as to a Humane Universal Kingdom were there any such 3. A Kingdom or Church under no Laws but Gods and their own are not of the same Species with a Kingdom or Church under Foreign Laws above their own And so it 's here supposed 4. A Kingdom and Church whose Justices Judges Captains and all Officers receive their Power and Commission from a Foreign Soveraign Power is specifically divers from that which doth not And so it is here 5. A Kingdom and Church which may be punished by a Supreme Foreign Power and must be judged by them is not of the same Species with that which may not But c. 6. A Kingdom and Church whose Subjects may appeal from their own King or Church-Governours to a Foreign Power are not of the same Species with that which may not But the two Churches in question so differ Therefore they are not of the same Species And therefore Mr. Thorndike and such truly acknowledge this as their foundation that without owning One Vniversal Governing Church there is no Union nor true Consistence in the particulars The Consequence is evident That the Church which according to Dr. Heylin A. Bishop Laud would have had and which A. Bishop Bromhall and his Defender Dr. Parker and Grotius and his Defender Dr. Pierce and Bishop Guning and his Chaplain Dr. Saywell and Mr. Thorndike Mr. Dodwell Bishop Sparrow and all of that mind are for is not the Protestant Church of England nor at all a true Protestant Church But as far as I can understand their words it is the same Visible Church-Form and Government which the Councils of Constance and Basil were for and which the Papists French Church is for unless there be any worse in the French Church-form than yet I know of LX. We are further from denying or violating the Churches Unity than they are that feign an Universal Humane Soveraignty Nor doth our opposition to Popery exclude our resolution as much as in us lieth to live peaceably with Papists and with all men I. We hold as aforesaid that all Christians are united in One God one Christ the Soveraign one Body of Christ one
our Concord it comes all to one in point of Obligation Ans. 1. If it come all to one in the effect why do you contend for so much more in the Cause 2. God bindeth Princes and States as much to Concord and yet their voluntary Treaties and Dyets and a Supreme Government over them do not come all to one 3. God doth not bind all Churches or Christians to agree in more than he himself hath commanded them And therefore hath given power to none on Earth to determine what more all shall agree in 4. The Greater the Councils are caeteris paribus the more all Protestants reverence them because they signifie the Concord of many But 1. We know that there are none of them Universal as to the World nor ever are like to be 2. We know that the Greater part are usually the worst and that at this day the far greater number of Christians on Earth Papists Greeks Armenians Nestorians Jacobites c. are lamentably degenerate ignorant and corrupt 3. And we know that as God hath not made the greater number the Governors of the lesser so neither doth he bind or allow the less to consent to them to their hurt 4. And when Councils for meer Agreement will degenerate and Usurp a Regiment over Dissenters they change their Species and bind us not to obey them but oppose them as Usurpers XI The last deceit that I shall here name is Their pretence of the mischief of letting Sinful or Heretical Kingdoms go unpunished when singular Persons must not escape Therefore there must be a Supreme Power on Earth to correct or punish National Churches or Kingdoms You may find the Argument in Dr. Sawell Bishop Guning's Chaplain and Master of a College in Cambridge and many others This is so plain dealing that one would think all Kings and Kingdoms should easily understand it But I answer it 1. Why will this pretended necessity of correcting Kings and Kingdoms infer One Universal Church Soveraign any more than one King or Senate over all the Earth Perhaps you 'le say The Church is one but Kingdoms are many I answer The whole World on Earth is One Kingdom of God but particular Churches are many 2. Kings and whole Kingdoms shall be punished as well as singular Persons But only by God the Universal King or by permitted Enemies but not by any Humane Superior Governors Kings are under the Laws of God and they shall be judged by those Laws If you lived in the due expectation of Death and Judgment you would not think them insignificant words that the Just Universal Judge is as at the Door who only can Judge Kings 3. The Ministers of Christ who know them and live under them have sufficient Authority to admonish Kings and Kingdoms and exercise Pastoral Care of their Souls by Preaching and Applying the Word of God as their own Physicians are fittest to take care of their Health without sending to Rome or over all the Earth for a Council of Physicians What work these Universal Rulers have made by Excommunicating Kings and Interdicting Kingdoms History acquainteth us It hath not been such as should make any Man long for an Universal Church Governour of Kings and Kingdoms 4. Those Foreigners that think Kings and Kingdoms Heretical and prove it may renounce Communion with them without pretending to be their Governors I have thought meet here briefly to repeat our Controversie with the Reasons and Deceits of the Usurpers our own Judgment is for true Catholicism even one Catholick Head Jesus Christ one Catholick Church having no other Head or Soveraign One Spirit One Faith One Baptism One Hope of Glory and One God and Father of all And that all Christians should live in Love to others as themselves and in their several Churches under the just conduct of their several Pastors keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 That they should all know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and highly esteem them in love for their work sake and be at peace among themselves 1 Thes. 5.12 13. That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men who judge as God would have them judge Rom. 14.17 But if God be forsaking the West as far as he hath done the East and dementation prognosticate perdition the Kingdom above shall never be forsaken And we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting to the Coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Chap. V. What a Foreign Jurisdiction by Councils or the College of Bishops is the Mask being taken off MEthinks Princes and States and Churches should not be cheated into a state of Subjection without ever considering or examining what it is And methinks no honest Bishops should be unwilling that it be truely understood I. Consider what an Universal Legislative Power includeth It plainly implyeth the insufficiency of Gods Words and Laws to those Ends for which this power is pretended Whereas this is the very point of the Protestant Cause as differenced from Popery that God being the only Ruler of the whole World none else can make Laws for the whole but only such By Laws for their particular Provinces as Corporations do under the King for undetermined Circumstances in which Kingdoms and Churches may freely differ II. By this the Peace of the Christian World will be laid on these variable Circumstances As if all the World were bound to wear such Garments as France or England wear c. III. By this the Legislative Power of every Kingdom is taken away in all matters of Religion which are our greatest things For it is the summa potestas only that hath the Legislative Power At least no Inferior hath any but from and under the Supreme nor may contradict them VVhereas even the Decrees of our National Clergy are no Laws with us till the King shall make them Laws IV. By this no Man can tell what degree of Power these Foreigners will assume As the Popes Ecclesiastical Power is now extended to Testaments Matrimony Adulteries Church Lands c. Among Christians to whom all things are sanctified they may challenge almost all And when it becomes a Controversie who shall judge Certainly the Supreme Power is the Supreme Judge of their own Rights V. I think it will oblige Kings Lords and all when Summoned to Travel out of their own Kingdoms as Malefactors to answer what accusations are brought against them For certainly a Supreme Judicature must have its Forum where men must be heard before they are Judged and where all that are Summoned must answer Or else Kings and Kingdoms must become poor Subjects to any
to him after 3. Between a Bishop whose revolt is professed and one that denieth it or keeps it secret 4. Between living peaceably and owning the Right of the Bishops Authority 5. Between obeying him as a Magistrate and as a Church Pastor 6. Between obeying him as a meer Bishop and as the Subject of a Foreign Power 7. Between obeying such a one when the Church accepteth him or when he is but an intruder against their consent 8. Between subjection in necessary cases where no better can be had and in cases unnecessary where we may have better § 6. And I shall speak my thoughts as in a dreadful case in these Conclusions I. If the Bishops revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction be unknown it maketh not that Obedience to him unlawful which was his due II. If a few Bishops revolt to a Foreign Usurper it 's easie to see that no one should follow them against the contrary judgment of all the rest in the Nation and so forsake the National Concord III. If one or more Bishops be known to revolt to a Foreign Soveraign a Minister is not bound therefore to renounce Communion with all the Christians or Churches in his Diocess who are innocent No nor with all that renounce not Communion with him For we know not whether they know his case and have had means to understand and do their Duty IV. So far as a Bishop exerciseth the Power of the Sword as an Officer of the King we must obey him though he be a Papist in all things which he hath true power to command V. One that was Ordained by him before his revolt may go on with his work and live peaceably and not openly renounce the revolting Bishop till he have a particular Call for the Churches safety or the preservation of his own innocency VI. If a man be necessitated to live where no other Ministry or Christian Communion can be had one that renounceth the Bishops Subjection to an Universal Usurper may yet be subject to him and receive Baptism from him or administer it and other Ordinances of God in his Diocess and acknowledge his Office so far as it is described by Christ and conveyed by just means and hath the consent of the Church A man may have two Commissions to one Office of which one is currant and the other null If one that hath Christs Commission shall also take one from a Forreign Usurper the latter is void and the taking of it is his heinous sin but it doth not nullifie all his Administrations to the Church because his better Commission may so far stand good as that his Baptizing Ordination and other Administration of Gods own Ordinances shall not be null And therefore we use not to Rebaptize such as Papists Baptize nor Re-ordain all that they ordain to the Ministry in general VII But it is rather a Duty to forbear all Church Assemblies where no other can be had than to profess conâ—â—nt to a Foreign Usurpation or pretended Universal Soveraignty For no sin must be done on pretence of necessity nothing being indeed necessary which must be got by sinful means VIII If a Nation as France be subject to the Usurpers of an Universal Soveraignty or if a Nation shew themselves to be designing such a Subjection or if one Bishop or more declare themselves for it It is the Duty of Ministers openly to disown and oppose such attempts and ordinarily to disown the proper Church Government Ordinations and Communion of such Bishops And it is the peoples Duty to disown the Pastoral Conduct of such Ministers as openly follow them For 1. The design of this Universal Usurpation is Treason against Christ by setting up men to possess his Prerogative and pretend to be his Vicars or Chief Substitutes without his Commission And it is a design to divide all the Churches by false means of Union and so to cast them all into that miserable War which the Romanists these Thousand years have done And consequently to introduce an intolerable corruption of Discipline and Worship Doctrine and Life And no man may lawfully join in so wicked a design nor be so much as neutral If with single Fornicators Railers Drunkards c. we may not eat in familiarity much less with such Subverters of the Christian World 2. And no Christian is actually a Church-member under any one as his Pastor without mutual Consent And it is not lawful to consent to take a Traytor against Christ and the Church for our Pastor He that is no Pastor should not be taken for a Pastor But if he either want any Essential Qualification as to be Christs Minister for the Churches good or the Consent of the Flock he is no Pastor to them 3. The resolution of the Case against Martial and Basilides by the Carthage Council with Cyprian fully decideth the Case proving by Scripture and Reason if the people forsake not an uncapable Bishop though other Bishops are for them they greatly sin against God And those that were but Libellatick came far short of the guilt of the Universal Usurpation 4. And it is not the danger of suffering that will justifie Subjection to such Designers For suffering must not seem intolerable to Believers None are true Christians but dispositive Martyrs 5. Many old Canons were made against Presbyters Swearing or Promising Obedience to Bishops as a thing dangerous to the Church much more is it sinful to do it to such Church Enemies 6. And Magistrates commands will not excuse it because it is a thing forbidden of God and which no Man hath right to command IX The restriction of in licitis honestis maketh it not lawful to Swear or Promise Obedience to such 1. Because even to subject our selves to Usurpers is not licitum aut honestum tho' they command nothing else but good 2. A Lawful Ruler must be obeyed only in licitis honestis And a Usurper must not be as much owned as a Lawful Ruler If an Usurper should set up in England and should falsly pretend the Kings Commission and should sollicite the Kings Army to take Commissions from him a Loyal Subject might be deceived by him believing that he had the Kings Commission when he had none And might at once be true to the King in Heart and do the things that Traytors do But if he know that he hath none of the Kings Commission but raiseth Arms against his Will and Law to strengthen himself every Subject ought to renounce him and to renounce the Commanders that follow him and neither to Swear Obedience to them in licitis honestis nor yet to bear Arms under them And this is as true of a Parliament or any Senate as of a single Usurper should they falsly pretend that the King or Law doth make them the Governors of the Kingdom and so Usurp the Kings proper Power And specially if the Total Legislative and Judicial Supreme Power be absolutely in the King alone as it is in God
and Jesus Christ which I add because some think they may lawfully be subject to those Bishops that are subjected only to Universal Councils or Church Parliaments so they do but disclaim the Roman Papacy X. Though some may think that subjection to a pretended Universal Council may stand with Loyalty to Christ because such a Council is a Chimera or Non Ens and never will be in the World and so can do no harm as one may be true to the King who yet Sweareth Obedience to an Assembly of Mortal Angels yet the case is otherwise For 1. These Men that profess Subjection to Councils cannot be supposed to take such Councils for Chimera's or things impossible without being taken for mad Men. Therefore it is not a true General Council but something possible that they mean And they use to say themselves or as General as can be well had So that such a one as that at Trent or as they will call General as they do the old Imperial Councils will serve their turn 2. And let them disclaim Popery never so loudly they mean still that the Pope must be the ordinary Caller and President of these Councils and the Chief Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis Vniversalis And so all will come but to a limited Pope instead of an Absolute One And is he not a Monarch though he must Rule by Law For they intend not that there be no Catholick Church all the time that there are no Councils and therefore they intend some Unifying Constitutive Executive Supreme XI Obj. But if we may not own a Bishop that subjecteth himself to the Pope or other Foreign Vsurper of Vniversal Government then if the King be a Papist it will follow that we must not be subject to him Which all Protestants confess to be false Ergo so is the Antecedent as of Bishops Ans. I deny the Consequence speaking only of such a Kings Religion Nero was a Heathen and it was lawful for Christians to be subject to him for Conscience sake But it was not lawful to subject themselves to Heathen Bishops a contradiction A Heathen may be Gods Minister to preserve the common Peace and Execute the Laws of God in Nature and the Just Subordinate Laws But the Office of a Bishop consisteth in another matter viz. In teaching the true Doctrine and Laws of Christ and guiding the Church by them and keeping out all that is against them And therefore no other man can be a Bishop that doth not this as to the Essentials If the King command us to be Papists we must disobey him But if he command us to do things good and lawful we must obey True Christianity is Essential to a Bishops Office but not to a Kings as King But if any put the Question Whether a Ruler of a Protestant Kingdom who taketh himself bound by the Laterane or other Council on pain of Damnation to destroy all his Kingdom that will not forsake their Religion be Publicus Hostis And whether by the Law of Nature every Nation have a right of self-defence against open Enemies I meddle with no such Cases as these XII To conclude I advise all Christians to live peaceably in their places but to take care whom they trust with the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls and not to be seduced to enter into a Confederacy against Christs Prerogative by any pretences of Humane Authority or Catholick Vnity which really are against Divine Authority and the true Unity of the Church in Christ For a thousand years experience even by our Bishops confession who own but the Six first Councils have told us by the sad confusions of the Christian World that such Pretenders to Unity in a Humane Universal Soveraignty have but caused divisions and offences contrary to the Apostolical Doctrine not serving Christ but their own bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple Our Unity consisteth in One Head Jesus Christ One God one Body or Church of Christ one Faith one Baptism one Hope one Gospel and Universal Law of Christ and that we live in Love and Peace and Order in Learning and in Worshipping God in several Congregations under their respective Guides as consenting Volunteers and that the conjunction of such under Christian Kings makes Christian Kingdoms where by the Counsels of Pastors in their own Dominions they may keep that Church-Peace and external Order which is left to the trust of their determination and that in cases of need the Counsel and Help of Foreign Churches be desired and that Communion in Christianity be professed with all the true Christian World and that we wait for perfect Unity in Heaven But that Princes and Kingdoms be not brought under a Foreign Jurisdiction specially if pretended Universal instead of Foreign Counsel Communion Peace and Aid Chap. VII Of the second Part of the Design to bring the Papists into our Communion as they were in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign § 1. Dr. Heylin saith That this was much of A. Bishop Laud's design and that it was in order to this that he made the Changes which he made And Dr. Burnet saith That even Queen Elizabeth thought that if she could some how bring all her Subjects into one Communion tho' of different Opinions in one Age they would come to be of one mind And therefore she was desirous to have kept up Images and other such things in the Churches till the reasons and importunity of some Divines prevailed with her § 2. If this be done it must be either by the Papists turning Protestants or the Protestants turning Papists or by meeting in some third State of Religion between both or by continuing in the same Church-Communion without change of their Religion § 3. I. If the Papists come into our Churches by Conversion it is not then Papists but Protestants that come in There is no true Protestant that is not earnestly desirous of this But bare coming in to our Churches and Communion is not a renunciation of Popery § 4. II. That the Protestants should turn Papists for Union is not openly pleaded for by them that we have to do with The name of Papists they earnestly disown § 5. III. If it must be by meeting in some middle way it must be by a change in the Papists or by a change in the Protestants or both 1. If the Papists change any thing of theirs it must be either the Essentials of Popery or also the grosser errours and sins which are its most corrupt Integral part or only some mutable Accidents or lesser faults and errours 1. If the Papists hold still that there ought to be one Universal Soveraign Power of Legislation and Judgment under Christ on Earth and that either the Pope himself with a General Council or a Council where the Pope is President and Principium Vnitatis is this Soveraign this is the Essence of Popery continued 2. If the Papists should quâ—t this Universal Soveraignty and yet
part of it and the Parliament another part 3. And one whose Laws are for Popery or his power above Laws used by Commission and one who ruleth by Protestant Laws And so 1. A Kingdom under a total Popish Soveraignty ruling by Popish Laws or Mandates above Law is no Political Protestant National Church tho all the Clergy were Protestants The form that denominateth is Papal And yet it is not a Papal Church or Kingdom Because the matter is essential and its disposition without which non recipitur forma It is a Christian Church neither Protestant save equivocally nor Papist but mixt But if Bishop Morley and those Conformists that give the total Legislation and Soveraignty to the King alone be not in the right nor they that make it traiterous to suppose that the Kings Authority speaking by Law may be set against his Personal Will Word and Commission then the Parliament and Laws remaining Protestant the Kingdom and Church may ye be so called though not in the fullest sence Foâ— then the Laws being the Kings publick voice aâ—d the effect of a Power above his own alone 〈◊〉 them tho' he be a Papist he Ruleth as a Protesâ—ant But it is otherwise if his Commissions e. â— to the French or Irish to Invade the Land be â—bove Law and may not be resisted on any pretence whatsoever So great a stress lieth on this poiâ—t of Conformity § 14. But I will leave another case to the consideration of others â—f Metropolitans or Primates if Diocesans or Convocations be the summa Potestas Ecclesiastica and a Church be truly Societas Politica or governed Qu. Then what Religion was the Diocesan Church of Gloucester while Godfrey Goodman was Bishop Or the Diocesan Churches of Eli of Norwich of Oxford c. while Dr. Guning Dr. Sparrow Dr. Parker c. were Bishops Or the Church of England and Ireland while Dr. Laud Dr. Neale were here the Metropolitans and Dr. Bromhall Primate of Ireland § 15. As to the Learned Dr. now Bishop Stillingfleet that maketh the Church of England to have no visible Informing Constitutive Head or Soveraign but to be Governed by meer Consent of men Agreeing in a Convocation representing the whole body I am sorry I have said heretofore so much against it as if the Consent of all Writers of Politicks regardable had not been answer enough who agree that all Politick bodies are essentiated by the Pars Imperans or summa Potestas and the Pars subdita as the Materia disposita And I so much honour the National Church of England as that I shall not yet grant till it is further deformed That It is no Political Body but a meer Confederating Community likâ— a Confederacy of Kingdoms But if ever it come to that you may say that when the same Land hath many sorts of Confederate Clergies it hath as many Churches and which is the best I think is not known in France or Spain or Italy or here by the Major Vote nor hath Nature put a Ruling Authority in Major Votes of Lay or Clergy as born with them before Contract give it them by Political Constitution All 's well in Heaven The Lord fit us for it March 30. 1691. Since the writing of all this I have read Bishop Stillingfleet's excellent Charge to his Clergy which would give me hope not only of the continuance of the Protestant Reformation here but also of such a further Reformation as may procure our Concord or at last move the Law-makers so far to amend the Act of Uniformity as may procure it were it not that the deluge of the wickedness in City and Countrey and the paucity of Men qualified for his described Work and the Power and Number of the Enemies of it maketh me fear that it will die as unpracticable singularity But I humbly recommend to the Clergy the regard especially of these passages in it I. Pag. 12. Those that have the smallest Cures are called PASTORS and Linwood notes that Parochialis Sacerdoâ— dicitur Pastor and that not only by way of Allusion but in respect to the Cure of Souls but we need not go so far back What are they admitted to Is it not ad Curam Animarum Ask Dr. Fuller Dean of Lincoln then Whether it be Ministerial Truth to publish that Parochus was never called Pastor till the deliraâ—ion of this and the former Age. II. Pag. 25. I hope thâ—y are now convinced that the Persecution wâ—ich they complained lately so much of was carried on by other Men and for other designâ— than they would then seem to believe I am glad that you are convinced of it You are mistaken in us we believed it ever since 1660. But we know that it was Sheldon Morley Guning Hinchman Sparrow and many more such that were the great Agents of it in Court Convocation and Parliament I thank you for disowning it III. I rejoice to find it proved Pag. 37. that The Bishop is judge of the fitness of any Clerk presented to a Benefice which as it puts us in some faint hopes for the future so for the time past it tells the Bishops whose the guilt is of the Institution of all the uncapable Clergy IV. Pag. 40. He proveth that Visitations should be Parochial V. He comfortably purposeth to reduce Confirmation to its true use And tells Ministers their Duty of Certifying the Receivers fitness VI. In a word I intreat the Reader to compare this Charge with the Visitation Articles of Bishop Wren Pierce and such others and the Charge against them in Parliament and observe the difference and be thankful for so much April 3. 1691. FINIS (a) So they are even of that one Body of which Christ is Head (b) They are united in all the 7 terms of Unity required Eph. 4.4 5 6. They desire not to be of any Universal Body but Christs no more than under one Monarch of the World (c) Nor in Kingdoms neither under one Man or Senate But they have a better Union (a) They that Record his death say that he died in Rostok in his too hasty passage from Sweden towards is Wife then absent Quistorpius Pastor of Rostok being with him Yet this Bishop knew Grotius Who saith true I know not (b) How much that is see in their Patriarch Jeremias and in the Council at Florence (c) The very worst of Popery was brought in by Hildebrand long before four hundred years last And he that can receive all that their Councils brought in till 1256. need not stick at any of the rest save Transubstantiation We cannot obey the Pope as Patriarch and Universal Primate though he would quit the last four hundred years additions Nor think this a quitting Popery (d) Did the third tye us to the fourth (e) That was well put in But by whom Convocated (f) Over Councils (g) Did Christ make the Subjects of the Roman Emperors perpetual Law-makers to other Princes and all the World Or to that Empire when it 's
dissolved (h) And Men taught to be Perjured by taking in Foreign Ecclesiastical Power (i) And yet Obey his Councils Canons (k) Christ hath given us a sufficient Law for the Government of the Church else saith Gerson he were not a perfect Lawgiver Must we be beholden to the Pope for leaving us a little of that which Christ gave us Who gave him Power to take any of it from us Would our Conciliators have magnified the Men that for the Peace of England would have agreed with Cromwell to allow the King the Isle of Wight or Wâ—les Or to have made a Law that every Highway Robber shall reâ—urn â—ne half to the Owner And with what Conscience could the Subjects of Christ have obeyed all the rest of the Usurpers sinful Canons (a) Confusion 1. The form denominateth The Church of Rome which we separate from is a pretended Soveraignty over all Christians This is no true Church of Christ. 2. But we separate not from them in point of Christianity But 1. From their Usurpation 2. And other Sins (b) And having before made the Church of England Schismaticks he makes all Schismaticks that Communicate with it (c) Here is 1. An Universal Legislative Power over all the Church on Earth 2. This Power is in Councils of which the Pope is the chief Member and the only reasonable means of the Union of so great a Body is his Regular Power as distinct from Infinite Power 3. All the Canons Rites and Customs are these Laws of the Church 4. All Kings and Kingdoms are bound to obey them 5. No man must question whether these Laws or Customs or any of them are contrary to God's Law 6. The men that must have this Absolute Power over all the Kings and Kingdoms on Earth that will be Christian are themselves the Subjects of the Turks the Moore the Emperor of Abassia the Persian the Emperor of Indastan called the Mogal the Kings of Poland Hungary Spain France England Denmark Sweden the Emperor of Germany and abundance more when it 's known that few Bishops are chosen in any of these Countreys Mahometans or Papists but such as the Princes like and that they dare not go against their wills in any great matter 7. Their minds are known already and consequently what they would do in Councils if all these Princes would agree to call an Universal Council The Major Vote if it were called in Mesopotamia or that way would be such as Rome calleth Hereticks If called in Greece it would be Greeks If in Italy or Germany or France they would be Papists no where Protestants Few would travel above a thousand miles to the Council 8. Tho' one would think that this platform of Governing the whole Earth could be believed by no man in his wits yet you see Learned men are so far deceived And it is by judging of the World by the Old Roman Empire There indeed Councils were Nationally General They were Courts They had Legislative Power and Pretorian Command None might appeal from them for Relief in Foro Humano Emperors gave them this Power It was but rational over their own Subjects What Power had they over others The Convocation in England or the General Assembly in Scotland may be made and called a Court by the King But France or Spain were never Governed by them nor took them to be over them unquestionable Legislators Yea I believe King and Parliament at home are not so subject to their Laws (d) And are not these unmerciful men that will let men take up with a damning Baptism and will not rebaptize them that they may have a saving Baptism which yet they hold necessary to Salvation They fear Anabaptism it seems more than mens Damnation (e) The true Church that is an Usurped Power of Universal Legislation is here made by him and Mr. Dodwell as necessary to Salvation as Christ and more than the holy Scriptures But what will now become of all the Papists that by dispensation come in to Protestant Churches They also are all damned as Schismaticks for communicating with them unless he forgot to except them that the Pope dispenseth with (f) How much wiser are these men than Christ and St. Paul who made it the duty of all that were baptized Christians to live as one Body of Christ in Love Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14.1 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men (g) This yet is some mercy to us But is it as your grant 1. How will this stand with all that you have written for the continued Universal Legislative Church Did it cease at Charles the Great 's time and yet are all damned that are not subject to it 2. How shall we be sure that the Canons bind us till Adrian's time and not since 3. But Sir we take him for a Papist that is for all the Canons and Customs till Charles the Great And there are many things before that which we cannot Conform to without renouncing the Laws and sufficient Government of Christ which we cannot do upon such pitiful reasonings as yours (a) The standing Power of the Head or Soveraign and that of Official Ministers much differ (b) All necessary power since Christ by his Apostles published his Universal Laws is but that all Ministers in their several Churches guide the Flocks by these Laws of Christ and teach them the people and determine of incidental Circumstances pro loco tempore and not to make new Universal Laws (c) Christ expresly limiteth the Apostles to teach the Churches what he had commanded them and promiseth to give them the Spirit to bring all to their remembrance and lead them to all Truth (d) When the King sendâ— out Judges and Justices he doth not make them Kings or Legislators The Apostles had the Spirit for promulgating and recording Christs Laws Others have it only to preserve and teach them and rule by them and not to make more such as if they were insufficient and Christian Religion were still to be changed by new additions and were half Divine and half Humane Gods Word and the Bishops in medley (e) The three first Ages had no General Councils The three next had National or Imperial General Councils The thousand years last past which you include in All Ages had such Councils and practices as prove not her right Else why do not you now practise accordingly Bishop Guning owneth but six General Councils which were all but in three Ages And others but four and none that I know of but eight who do not openly profess Popery Hath Christ given any new commands since those which he sent the Apostles to deliver Have you any more of his commands to give us than the Apostles delivered in their times If you may make new ones you have more than
Against the Revolt to A Foreign Jurisdiction Which would be to England its PERJURY CHVRCH-RVINE and SLAVERY In Two Parts I. The History of Mens Endeavors to introduce it II. The Confutation of all Pretences for it Fully stating the Controversie and Proving That there is no Soveraign Power of Legislation Judgment and Execution over the whole Church on Earth Aristocratical or Monarchical but only Christ Especially against the Aristocratists who place it in a Council or College By RICHARD BAXTER an Earnest Desirer of the Churches Concord and therefore an Enemy to all false Terms and Dividing Engines and Self-exalting Sects and a Defender of Christ's own assigned Terms which take in all the true Christians in the World and are Injurious or Cruel to none To be offered to the next Convocation beseeching them to own the Doctrine of Foreign Communion but to note with Renunciation the Doctrine of Foreign Jurisdiction and to Vindicate the Reformed Church of England from the Guilt and Suspition which the French and Innovators injuriously seek to fasten on them Luk. 22.24 25 26. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the Greatest And he said to them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the Younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve 1 Thess. 5.12 We beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you 13. And to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at Peace among your selves London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 〈◊〉 Crowâ—â— at the lower end of Cheapfiâ—â— near Mercers Chapel 1691. To the Reverend and deservedly Honoured Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Dean of St. Paul's Church Reverend Sir THE Message on which this Epistle cometh to you is to intreat you to Present this Treatise to the next Convocation and to endeavour their publick renunciation of Foreign Jurisdiction and their censure of the Books that are written here for it The Reasons of my request are I. The Canons condemn them that deny the Convocation to be the Church of England Representative And they that have written for and promoted this Doctrine and Design have not only been Chief Men in the Church but have laboured to fasten their Doctrine on the Church which yet before the time of Bishop Laud the Church disclaimed and openly condemned and took Foreign Bishops and Councils for Brethren and a laudable means of Communion while they did their proper work but not by Jurisdiction to be the Governours of us and all Christian Kings and Kingdoms as their Subjects And who can be Ignorant that when at the present the Papist Bishops are very Many to One Protestant Bishop they will accordingly carry it by their Votes in Councils And if the Major Vote be the Collegium Pastorum that have the Chief Government in the Interval of Councils we are now Subjects to the Bishops and Church of Rome And if 〈◊〉 Roman Petrus Primus must call the next Council or there must be none till all Christian Kings agree to call it the present College is like to be long the Universal Aristocracy The Representative Church of England is so nearly concerned in this great Matter both for the moment of it and the imputation of this Design unto it that we cannot think they will lightly pass it by without their censure Which will be the more expected because of the Owning of Dr. Beveridge's Sermon to them which I have here examined Dr. Whitby's Reconciler of Protestants escaped not the Oxford censure and we hope the Representative Church of England will not be more favourable to Subjection which is more than Reconciling to the Foreign Papists Lest they cherish the Suspicion that the desire of so much Concord with France in Church Constitution and Government will intimate a preparation to another Relation to them which England cannot bear with ease And we are loth to be disabled to confute the Separatists that will never be reconciled to the Church of England if they can say that it is revolted to a Subjection to the Papists But why should we doubt whether the Convocation will renounce that which both themselves and all the Church and Kingdom are Sworn against even all Ecclesiastical Foreign Jurisdiction II. The Reasons why I presume to desire you to be the Man that shall present this Book and Motion to them Are 1. Because it is said that Custom maketh the Dean of Pauls usually to be chosen the Prolocutor to the Lower House I speak but by hearsay having never been one of them For the Clergy of London choosing Mr. Calamy and Me for their Clerks of that Convocation that made the Materials of the late differencing Impositions Bishop Sheldon by Prerogative excluded us to our great Ease and so the City of London consented not by their Clerks to any of those Acts. 2. And you are the Man that Published that Excellent Book of Dr. Isaac Barrow which unanswerably against Mr. Thorndike and such others confuted the Pretences to a Foreign Jurisdiction 3. And you are known to be so firm a Friend to Love Concord and Peace like your Father in Law Bishop Wilkins who once by appointment treated and agreed with us in a Vniting Form of Concord that I may confidently expect your best Assistance If any should be so adverse to this Necessary Work as to turn it off by diverting to Accusation against me or the Nonconformists I pray tell them how impertinent that is to the present Business And if it be needful shew them my Treatise for National Churches and that of Episcopacy and my English Nonconformity stated and argued And whereas I am said to have refused a Bishoprick because I was against Episâ—opacy be it known that in 1661 â—he Pacificators never offered any â—hing lower than Archbishop Vsher's Model of the Primitive Episcopacy â—nd when the King's Declaration â—anted us less we Published a â—hankful Acceptance And I gave 〈◊〉 Writing the Reasons of my Refusal to the Lord Chancellor Hyde That If that Declaration were Confirmed by a Law I would be no Bishop because I would not disable my self to perswade as many as I could to Conformity by drawing them to say that I did it for my own Ends. Which Answer satisfied the Lord Chancellor I think every Bishoprick in England hath Buried many of its Bishops since my refusal who am now near Dying in the 76th Year of a Painful Life and intreat you though I be Dead to do this Office for the Endangered Church of England and for your truly honouring Brother Ri. Baxter TO THE READER THis Book being Written at several times most of it many Years ago and some lately and answering many Persons who use the same Arguments it hath one blemish which I am ashamed of in
the See of Rome was defiled with it Page 358. A Bill that came to nothing was for empowering thirty two Persons to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws But as this last was then let fall so to the great prejudice of this Church it hath slept ever since For before this p. 129 130. l. 2. In King Edward's Reign Bucer's Opinion was asked about the review of the Common Prayer Book He wished there might not be only a denunciation against scandalous Persons that came to the Sacrament but a Discipline to exclude them That the Habits might be laid aside c. At the same time he understood that the King expected a New Years Gift from him of a Book written particularly for his own use So he made a Book for him concerning the Kingdom of Christ He prest much the setting up a strict Discipline the Sanctification of the Lords day the appointing many days of Fasting and that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned that Children might be Catechized that the reverence due to Churches might be preserved that the Pastoral Function might be restored to what it ought to be that Bishops might throw off Secular Affairs and take care of their Diocesses and Govern them by the advice of their Presbyters that there might be Rural Bishops over twenty or thirty Parishes and that Provincial Councils might meet twice a year that Church Lands be restored and a fourth part assigned to the poor that care be taken for Education of Youth and for repressing Luxury that the Law be reformed and no Office sold but given to the most deserving that none be put in Prison upon slight offences The young King was much pleased with these advices And upon that began himself to form a Scheme for amending many things c. It appears by it that he intended to set up a Church Discipline and settle a Method for breeding Youth Page 361 362 li. 4. To return to Queen Elizabeth the Changes are recited and he addeth The liberty given to explain in what sence the Oath of Supremacy was taken gave a great evidence of the Moderation of the Queens Government that she would not lay snares for her people which is always a sign of a Wicked and Tyrannical Prince But the Queen reckoned that if such comprehensive Methods could be found out as would once bring her people under any Vnion though perhaps there might remain a great diversity of Opinion that would wear off with the present Age and in the next Generation all would be of one mind Page 363. The Empowering Lay men to deprive Church-men or Excommunicate could not be easily excused but was as justifiable as the Commissions to Lay-Chancellors for those things were There are 9400 Benefices in England but of all these the Number of those viz. Papists who chose to resign rather than take the Oath was very inconsiderable Fourteen Bishops Six Abbots Twelve Deans Twelve Archdeacons Fifteen Heads of Colledges Fifty Prebendaries and Eighty Rectors was the whole number of those that were turned out But it was believed that the greatest part complied against their Consciences and would have been ready for another turn if the Queen had died while that Race of Incumbents lived and the next Successor had been of another Religion Read what he saith of Mr. Parker's great unwillingness to be A. Bishop and the threatning else to Imprison him p. 363 364 c. I conclude with that honest Note p. 369. There was one thing yet wanting to compleat the Reformation of this Church which was the restoring a Primitive Discipline against scandalous Persons the stablishing the Government of the Church in Ecclesiastical hands and taking it out of Lay hands who have so long profaned it So that the dreadfullest of all Censures is now become most scorned and despised See the rest The Papists in Queen Elizabeth's days sometime strove by Treasons the recovery of their Power and secretly strove by Policy to divide the Protestants and to root out those that were most against them The Ministers unhappily fell into these Parties 1. Some were for the Grandeur of the Bishops and for strict observance of Liturgy and Ceremonies and against Parochial Discipline and these prevailed with the Queen 2. Some were against Diocesan Bishops and Ceremonies and some things in the Liturgy and were for Parish Discipline And these were called Nonconformists and Puritans 3. Melancthon and Bucer had prevailed with some others who were indifferent as to Bishops and most of the Ceremonies and Forms but Zealous for Parish Discipline and a godly Life and for using things indifferent only indifferently to Edification and not to the hinderance of the Ministry of refusers And Bucer's Scripta Anglicana written for K. Edward which urged this Parish Discipline with great Zeal and Judgment prevailed with a great part of the Queens Council and of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry but most of the Clergy were of the two first mentioned Opinions called Extreams by others § 4. All the Parliaments that were called in Queen Elizabeth's time were still suspicious that Popery would keep too much strength by the peoples Ignorance and Impiety for want of good Preaching and godly Living in the Ministry And therefore were usually complaining of the Bishops especially Whitguift for silencing so many Nonconforming Preachers and keeping up so many Pluralists and so many meer Readers And they were oft attempting a Reformation of this and to have restored the Nonconformists and united the godly Protestants But by the Bishops Counsel the Queen still restrained them and charged them not to meddle with Ecclesiastical Matters as belonging to her In Sir Simond Dewes Journals you may see the many attempts and her constant prohibition and restraint And Parliaments were loth to offend her or make any breach remembering how great a deliverance they had by her from Queen Mary's Persecutions Though they grudged at the Imprisonment of Mr. Strickland and others that had spoke earnestly for Reformation of Bishops Affairs and the Ministry yet they bore it patiently because of what they did enjoy One of their strongest attempts you may read in their Petition of Sixteen Articles in Sir Sim. Dewes An. 1584 and 1585. page 357. which is well worth the reading But it was not endured But she long endured the Popish Bishops in their Seats though in Parliament the A Bishop of York the Bishop of London the Bishops of Worcester Landaff Coventree Oxford Chester the Abbot of Westminster were against the Bill for the Supremacy and abolishing Popery See Sir S. Dewes p. 28. and p. 23. also the Bishops of Winchester Carlile Exceter Which patience of hers mentioned put Sir S. D. the Historian on the recital of so large a Catalogue of Records for the Kings Power against the Pope and Usurping Bishops as is worth the reading page 24. § 5. Also for many years the Papists came to our Temples till the Pope forbad them But the Parliament men much differed about this Some would
have all men forced to the Sacrament Others would have them forced to hear some allowed Teachers but not to be compelled to the Sacrament because it is the investing of men in the Pardon of sin and right to Salvation which no unwilling Person is capable of Of this see in the foresaid Author p. 177. the Excellent Speech of Mr. Aglionke and of others I mention this because the late Reconcilers have made the mixture of Papists and Protestants in Communion the first ten years of the Queen to be the desireable state to which they would have had us reduced Of which more anon But the Queen here also restrained them and would have all left to her and the Bishops Mr. Yelverton told them how perillous a President it might prove for worser times for the Parliament to be so restrained Where saith he there was such fulness of Power as even the right of the Crown was to be determined and by warrant whereof we had so resolved that to say the Parliament had no Power to determine of the Crown was High Treason Ibid. page 176. § 6. The Invasion 1588 and many Treasons and the Popes Excommunications increased the Parliaments Zeal against Popery and the Clergies also And when the Case of the Queen of Scots was referred to the Council of the Parliament they earnestly urged the Queen by many Reasons to execute the Sentence of Death which was past upon her seeing while the Papists hoped for her Reign neither the Life of the Queen nor the Kingdom could be safe See Sir S. D' Ewes page 400 c. These were their apprehensions then of Popery § 7. In K. James's time the horrid Powder Plot to have blown up King and Parliament and the Murder of Two Kings in France successively H. 3. and H. 4. and other Inhumanities increased this Kingdoms Zeal against Popery As the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were made for their discovery so multitudes of Learned Men were employed in confuting their pretended Sovereignty and manifold Errors And the common Preachers had ordinarily in their Sermons One Vse as they called it for the Confutation of the Papists Besides that the Homilies and Jewels writings against them were to be in every Church And as many of the Bishops in Queen Elizabeth's first time were such as had been Exiles and Suffered by the Papists so many both in her days and K. James's were Learned and Godly Men who remembred former times and were greatly desirous of the Extirpation of Popery and of the increase of able Preachers and of the Concord of Protestants to that End And the Books of Martyrs written by John Fox being common in all parts of the Land increased the peoples hatred of Religious cruelty But some few Bishops specially A. Bishop Whitguift and Bancroft exceeded the rest in their prosecution of the Nonconformists And though before by connivance they had enjoyed more quietness yet when once the Canon was made and Executed for Subscribing that there is nothing contrary to the Word of God in the Liturgy c. and the Excommunicating Canons five six seven c. the reconciliation of the Protestants seemed hopeless Yet even the hottest prosecuting Bishops were firm Adversaries to Popery yea Whitguift thought Arminianism came so near it as made him consent to the ill-framed Lambeth Articles And that unhappy Controversie called Arminian which I have largely proved to be over-aggravated on both sides for want of a distinct way of Examination in my Cath. Theol. increased the Division much The Jesuits being most hated by the Protestants the Arminians were taken to incline to Popery though the Dominicans who had been on the contrary side had been the Bloody Masters of the Inquisition And when our English Arminians were accused of approaching Popery it inclined some of them to think more favourably of a Reconciliation with those whom they were likened to And the Papists never ceased their diligence secret or open for the restoration of their Forreign Jurisdiction and their Errours § XII The Councils at the Laterane Lyons and others having so set up the Pope above Kings as that those whom he Excommunicates may be deposed and are then no Kings And their Most Learned Doctors writing this the Pope came to lay much of his strength upon King-killing and it hath proved too successful Had it been only against Rebellion Kings had their defence But what can one do against a Desperado who is promised Preferment if he escape and taught if he so die for the service of the Church to look for as much greater a Reward than Martyrs as his service is more voluntary and of more publick benefit than theirs When Henry the Third was so murdered in France Henry the Fourth turned Papist it 's like much for fear And when the first Knife had but struck out his Teeth the next dispatcht him King James here was not a fearless man He had known of the many Treasons which Queen Elizabeth escaped The Powder-Plot thundred to him though it took not fire King Henry's Stabs did yet speak louder He was told This shall be your End think not to escape Instruments will be found who prefer the Church before their Lives if you repent not What a strait now is a King in whose Life is thus at the mercy of a thousand deluded desperate Slaves of the Pope That which kindleth revenging anger in a Kingdom or Senate may rationally cause fear in a single man For it is easier to kill a King than a Kingdom or a multitude § XIII The unhappy Differences about the five Articles in Belgio in which I am past doubt both Parties there were much to be blamed involved the Learned Hugo Grotius in sufferings The Contra-Remonstrants were too violent and trusted to the Sword of the Prince of Orange and Grotius being condemned to Imprisonment and by his Wife got out in a Trunk on pretence of carrying away his Books becoming the Queen of Swedens Resident Embassador in France no doubt exasperated and falling into intimate acquaintance with the French Jesuits especially Petavius grew to that approbation of the Moderate French Popery which I have here after proved and to that desire of reducing the Protestants to them which not only Valesius Orat. in Obit Petavii but his own Writings fully testifie And his design was to bring Rome as the Mistress Church to Rule not arbitrarily but by the Canons of Councils securing the Right of Kings and Bishops and casting aside the Schoolmens subtil vain Disputes and reforming the bad lives of the Clergy and some small mutable things and in this to draw in the Church of France and England to agree and the Queen of Sweden and if possible the Lutherans and to crush the Calvinists as unreconcileable And he tells us how many in England favoured what he did though those whom he miscalleth Brownists were against it § IV. The Church of England and the Parliament being before discontented at the Marriage-Articles as to
French Papists than the Italians For the Italian Party are at so visible a distance that they can design no way for their advantage but a Toleration unless they could get the Government And their Toleration would a while but make the Nation better know them and more dislike them But the French Party cry down Toleration and trust wholly to a Coalition and to force They hope to do their work before it s known what they are doing They will cry down Popery meaning only the Pope's absolute Power above Councils It is but abating the Latine Service Transubstantiation Priests Marriage granting the Cup to the Laity and two or three more such things and crying up nothing but the Name of the Church of England though changed by Subjection to a Forreign Jurisdiction and then crying up Obedience and Conformity to it and crying down Schism as an intolerable thing and the Papists shall seem to turn to us and not we to them and then no Dissenter shall be suffered Mr. Thorndikes Book of forbearance of Penalties tells us of no other hope of sufferance but on supposition that we all agree in subjection to the thing called The Vniversal Political Church And a Learned Tribe by Interest and Opinion engaged in the Cause may be ready by confident triumphant Writings and Disputes to make good all this and scorn and tread down Gainsayers as Schismaticks And the Coalition will take in the parts and labours of those that now are called Papists who are trained up in Militant Arts. XX. But as long as God and the King are against them we need not much fear the Success of their Endeavours Such a Care hath the King had to secure the Land against all suspicion of Popery in himself that a severe penalty is to be inflicted on any that shall so defame him Yea he hath passed Acts for the Clergy Corporations Vestries the Militia Nonconformists in which they are all obliged by Promise or Oath never to Endeavour any Alteration of the Government of Church and State And again I say what sober Man can be so sottish as to think that to subject the King Clergy and whole Kingdom to the Forreign Jurisdiction of a pretended Universal Sovereignty Monarchical Aristocratical or Mixt is no alteration of the Government of the Church yea of the Church-specifying Form XXI This is a great secondary reason why we cannot be for such a change because we cannot Consent that Church Vestries Corporations Militia c. should be all perfidious or perjured Yea all the Land that have taken the Oath of Supremacy against all Forreign Jurisdiction We accuse not others but excuse our selves Yea what Crime is it against King and Kingdom to make them the Subjects of a Forreign Power I leave to other men to enquire XXII God seemeth purposely to have confounded them in their Design by leaving them no Materials for their Fabrick I can imagine no pretences of possibility but in some of these following ways 1. That it is the Colledge of Bishops diffused over the Earth that must exercise Legislation and Judgment by Consent or by Majority of Votes And I shall never fear the prevalency of this Opinion till an Epidemical Madness turneth us into a Bedlam 2. That it must be a true General Council that must Govern us And this is no more to be expected than that all the World fall under one Monarch or that all Christians save one Kingdom Apostatize which God prevent 3. That Patriarchs with such Metropolitans as they will call be taken for the Governing Representers of all the Bishops and Churches on Earth But there is no possibility left us of this way For it must be either by the five old Patriarchs or by new ones 1. If the old ones Gods Judgments have made that way unpracticable 1. The Cities of Antioch and Alexandria are destroyed where two of the Patriarchs should be Bishops 2. The Turk is Lord of four of the old Patriarchal Seats and none can be chosen rule or come to Councils without his Consent And he can get almost whom he will Chosen and so the Turk should be our Chief Church Governour And the Places are bought with Money and the Possessors answerable Ludolphus tells us that the Patriarch of Alexandria is some unlearned ignorant Person that scarce knoweth Letters and that Men are made Clergy-men there against their wills all Men shunning the Office because of the Sufferings from the Turk which they must undergo They have no just Qualification Election or Power There are three nominal Patriarchs of Antioch chosen by three several Parties besides the Popes They are utterly uncertain which of them is right or rather certain that none of them are or can be such All the four Nominal Patriarchs are against the Romans and several against each other And many of the chief Christian Churches own none of them as their Governours and none own them all as such And must our Kings and Kingdoms be Subjects of ignorant Subjects of the Turk because once Men were advanced to high Titles over Towns now destroyed in one Christian Empire now dissolved or turned Mahometans 4. There is therefore but one way left which is for the Pope and his Privy Council of Cardinals to be the standing Governour by Judgment and Execution and to call when Princes force him to it such European Councils as he can and as he doth to make four Nominal Patriarchs of Const. Alex. Antioch and Jerusalem as Men make Kings Queens and Bishops on a Chess-board and to call these General Councils as he did that at Trent and to keep the people ignorant enough to believe it As for the making of a sort of new Patriarchs there must go so much to agree who they shall be among all Christian Princes and Nations and then to prove that they are the true Representers of all others and that the Representers or represented have any Universal Legislative Power that I am in no Expectations of any such Sovereignty I have proved against Mr. Hooker that the Body of the people as such are not the Givers of the Power of their Govern ours nd therefore cannot give power to an Universal Supream XXIII When I had seen all Mr. Thorndikes Books and Dr. Heylins and some other such and A. Bishop Bramhall's Book against me with a long and vehement reproving Preface I purposed to have again detected the design and have answered that Book But my Bookseller Nevill Simons told me that Mr. Roger Lestrange then Overseer of the Press came to him and vehemently protested that he would ruine him if he printed my Answer to it And when it might not be Printed I forbore to Write it Since then among others Mr. Dodwell hath appeared with most Voluminous confidence whom I have answered who I doubt not will want neither Ink Paper Words or Face for a reply My Conference with Bishop Guning I thought it against the Rules of Converse to publish But his Chaplain Dr. Saywell
Master of a Colledge in Cambridge whom I take for his Mouth being himself present hath published what he would have the World to believe of our Discourse in a Book against me for Universal Jurisdiction And therefore he hath put some necessity on me to publish the Truth which I am confident will not be to the Readers loss of time who will peruse it When I had sent him my Book of Concord he sent me Dr. Saywell's first by Dr. Crowther of which I wrote to him my sence On this he desired me to come speak with him which having done three several days I thought it meet at Night to Recollect our Discourse and send him the Sum of all in Letters that neither he might forget it or any Man misrepresent it These four Letters I have therefore here annexed and with them an answer to Dr. Saywell's Reasons for a Forreign Jurisdiction XXIV I am so far from charging the Church of England with the guilt of this Doctrine or Design that I prove that the Church of England is utterly against it But then by that Church I do not mean any Men that can get heighth and confidence enough to call themselves the Church of England but those that adhere to the Articles of Religion the Doctrine Worship and Government by Law Established XXV And I am so far from uncharitable Censures of the Men whom I thus confute that I profess that I believe Mr. Thorndike Bishop Guning Mr. Dodwell c. to be Men that do what they do in an Erroneous Zeal for Unity and Government and are Men of great Labour Learning and Temperance and Religious in their way And I have the same Charity and Honour for many French Papists yea for such Papal Flatterers as Baronius who joyned with Philip Nerius in his first Oratorian Exercises and Conventicles Yea I cannot think that they that burn and torment Men for Religion could live in quietness if they did not confidently think that it is an acceptable Service to God And I fear not still to profess that were it in my power I would have no hurt done to any Papist which is not necessary to our own defence But I must say that I much more honour such as Gerson Ferus Espencaeus Monlucius Erasmus Vives Cassander Hospitalius Thuanus c. who among Papists drew nearer the Reformers than such among us as having better Company and Helps draw fromward them and nearer to the Deformers XVI And as to you Reverend Brethren Conformists who are true to the True Church of England I humbly crave of you but three things I. That you will by hard study and Ministerial diligence and holiness of life keep up to your power the common Interest of Christianity of Faith and serious Piety and Charity II. That you will heartily promote the Concord of all godly Protestants and therein follow such measures as Christ himself hath given us and as you would have others use towards you III. That you will openly and faithfully disown the dangerous Errour of Universal Legislative and Judicial Soveraignty and bringing the King and Church and Kingdom under any Forreign Jurisdiction Monarchical Aristocratical or Mixt and never stigmatize the Church of England and your sacred Order with the odious brand of Persidiousness after so many Imposed and Received Subscriptions Professions and Oaths against all Endeavours to alter the Government of Church or State XVII And as to the Nations fears of future Popish Soveraignty for my part I meddle no further than 1. To do the work of my own Office and Day 2. And to pray hard for the Nations Preservation 3. And to trust God and hope that he will perfect his wonders in such a deliverance as shall confirm our belief of his special care and providence for his Church But I must tell you that such Reasons as Bishop Gunings Chaplains should not be thought strong enough to make you so secure as to abate the fervour of your prayers His words are these more congruous far to him than to you and me page 282 283. The only means that is left to preserve our Nation from destruction and to secure us from the danger of Popery is to suppress all Conventicles c. Being by this method provided against having our People seduced by the Papists which as yet they are in great danger of the next thing is to consider how to prevent violence that those be not murdered and undone that cannot be perswaded to submit Now to secure this His Majestes gracious promises to conform any Bills that were thought necessary to preserve the Established Religion that did not intrench on the Succession of the Crown do make the way very easie if our People were united among themselves and in the Religion of the Church of England For matters may be so ordered that all Officers Ecclesiastical Civil and Military and all that are employed in Power and Authority of any kind be persons both of known Loyalty to the Crown and yet faithful Sons of the Church and firm to the Established Religion And the Laws that they act by may be so explained in favour of those that Conform to the Publick Worship and the discouragement of all Dissenters that we must reasonably be secure from any violence that the Papists can offer to force our submission For when All our Bishops and Clergy are under strict Obligations and Oaths and the People are guided by them and all Officers Civil and Military are firm to the same Interest and under severe penalties if they act any thing to the contrary Then what probable danger can there be of any violence or disturbance to force us out of our Religion when all things are thus secured and the Power of External Execution is generally in the hands of men of our own Perswasion Nay moreover the Prince himself will by his Coronation Oath be obliged to maintain the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom so Established I am not of a Calling fit to debate the Reasons of these Reverend Fathers some will read them with a Plaudite some with a Ridete some with a Cavete and I with an Orate And he that will abate the fervour of his prayers by such securing words is one whose Prayers England is not much beholden to The words with all their designs are edifying as Diagnostick and Prognostick I only say Seeing we receive a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 29. March 28. 1682. Chap. I. The Protestant Church of England is against all Humane Vniversal Soveraignty Monarchical or Aristocratical and so against all Forreign Church Jurisdiction I Prove this I. From the Oath of Supremacy which saith thus I do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience That the King's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other His Highness Dominions and Countreys as well in all
Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal And that No Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have ANY JURISDICTION Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Forreign Jurisdiction Priviledges Preheminence and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Here all the Kingdom swears That none have or ought to have any Jurisdiction here who is Forreign Yet some Papists have been encouraged to take this Oath by this Evasion Obj. No Jurisdiction is here disclaimed of Forreigners but what belongs to the King But Spiritual Jurisdiction called the Power of the Keys belongs not to the King Ergo. Ans. For securing the King's Jurisdiction All Forreign Jurisdiction is renounced signifying that there is no such thing as a Jurisdiction over this Realm but the King 's and his Officers The Power of the Keys or Spiritual Power is not properly a Jurisdiction as that word includeth Legislation but only a Preaching of Christ's Laws and administring his Sacraments and judging of mens capacity for Communion according to those Laws of Christ And this under the Coercive Government of the King Much like that of a Tutor in a Colledge or a Physician in his Hospital What can be more expresly said than this here that No Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate have or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm Is that of Pope or Councils neither Ecclesiastical nor Spiritual Is not the word Prelate purposely put in to exclude that Power hence which Prelates claim Though the King claim not the Power of the Keys he knew that by the claim of that Power the Pope and Councils of Forreigners had been the disturbers of his Government And therefore all theirs here is excluded as a necessary means to secure his own 1. Popes and Councils have claimed a Legislative Power over us and all the Church But the Laws of this Land know no such but in Christ over all and in King and Parliament under him over this Land And therefore the Oath excludeth the Power claimed by Popes and Councils 2. As to Judicial Power these Forreigners claim a Power of Judging who in England shall be taken for a true Bishop and Minister who shall have Tythes Church-Lands and Temples whether the Kings Lords and all Subjects shall be judged capable of Church-Communion or be Excommunicate And our Laws declaring that all this Forreign Claim is Usurpation fully proveth that it was the sense of the Oath to exclude them They claim also a Power of Judging who shall pass here for Orthodox and who for Hereticks And in their Laws the consequence is who shall be burned for a Heretick or be exterminated or after Excommunication deposed from their Dominions and their Subjects absolved from their Allegiance But certainly the Oath excludeth them from all this The most of the Papists claim no Power directly due to their Pope but that which they call Ecclesiastical or Spiritual the rest is but by consequence and in ordine ad Spiritualia But if this be not excluded in the Oath then they intended not to exclude the Papacy And then what was the Oath made for or what sense hath it or what use And who can believe this If the meaning of the Oath be not to exclude the Pope's Ecclesiastical Power then they that take it may yet hold that the Pope is Head of all the Churches on Earth and hath the Authority to call and dissolve and approve or reprobate General Councils and may Ordain Bishops for England and his Ordinations and his Missionaries be here received and Appeals made to him and Obedience sworn to him his Excommunications Indulgences imposed Penances Silencings Absolutions Prohibitions here received All which our Statutes Articles Canons c. shew notoriously to be false It is evident therefore that this Oath renounceth all Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction II. The second proof is from many Acts of Parliament Those which prohibit all that receive Orders beyond Sea from the Pope or any Papists to come into England on pain of death Those that forbid the Doctrine Worship and Discipline both of Popes and Councils The words of 25 H. 8. c. 21. are these Whereas this Realm recognizing no Superiour under God but the King hath been and is free from Subjection to any man's Laws but only such as have been devised made and ordained within this Realm for the wealth thereof or to such other as the People of this Realm have taken at their free liberty by their own consent to be used among them and have bound themselves by long use and custom to the observance of the same not to the observance of the Laws of any Forreign Prince Potentate or Prelate but as to the accustomed and antient Laws of this Realm originally Established as Laws of the same by the said sufferance consent and custom and none otherwise It standeth therefore with natural equity and good reason c. that they may abrogate them c. Moreover the Laws of England determine that no Canons are here obligatory or are Laws unless made such by King and Parliament And if it be true which Heylin and some others say that the Pope's Canon-Laws are all here in force still except those that are contrary to some Laws of the Realm that is but as the Roman Civil Law is in force not as a Law of the Pope or old Romans but as made Laws to us by King and Parliament The Roman Senate and Emperor give us the Matter of the Civil Law and the Pope and Councils of the Canon-Law but the Soveraign Power here giveth them the Form of a Law as the King coineth Forreign Silver III. The Articles of Religion prove the same 1. The twenty first Article saith General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometime have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Here note 1. That General Councils so called in the Empire had no power to meet much less to Rule without the Commandment of Princes And so those called by the Emperor had no power over the Subjects of other Princes 2. And true Universal Councils will never be Lawfully called till either all the Earth have One Humane Monarch or all the Heathen Infidel Mahometan Papist Heretical and Protestant Princes agree to call them For one hath not Power over the Dominions of all the rest And so the Aristocratical Party put the
here is no promise to subject himself to a Foreign Jurisdiction but to endeavour Peace and Concord which may better be by drawing the Papists to us than by coming to them The truest Adversaries to Popery are the greatest Lovers of true Concord and Peace § 4. All the lenity that was shewed them after here and the agency of Panzani Con. c. I pass by lest my recital be misunderstood The Reader may see enough if not too much in Rushworth and in Prin's Introduction c. I only add that this King who was so Zealous for Concord and that overcame so many Temptations to Popery distant and in his Bosom and was so firm as not to fear to grant them the audience promised yet was so much against all cruelty to them that he suffered very much for his Lenity and Clemency to them both from themselves and from the Protestants But the most odious injury that ever they did him was by pretending his Commission for that most inhumane War and Massacre in Ireland when in time of peace they suddenly Murdered two hundred thousand and told Men that they had the Kings Commission to rise as for him that was wronged by his Parliament the very fame of this horrid Murder and the words of the many Fugitives that escaped in Beggery into England assisted by the Charity of the Dutchess of Ormond and others and the English Papists going in to the King was the main cause that filled the Parliaments Armies I well remember it cast people into such a fear that England should be used like Ireland that all over the Countreys the people oft sate up and durst not go to Bed for fear lest the Papists should rise and Murder them And this is all that the Papists have yet got by their Bloody Cruelty to necessitate people in fear to take them for their Mortal Foes Bishop Morley saith in his Letter to the Dutchess of York p. 6 7. That by raising and spreading malicious and scandalous reports against the King that he was a Papist and intended to bring in Popery on that account only they raised many thousands against him without whose assistance they could never have overpowered him and oppressed him as they did And the success they had thereby against the Father encouraged them to make use of the same Engine against his Son by giving it out that the King by living so long abroad in Popish Countreys was so corrupted in his Religion that if he were suffered to return he would bring in Popery along with him So that with this groundless fear I found many considerable and very much interested Persons possest when I was sent into England about two Months before the Kings return most of which time I spent in undeceiving all I met with especially the Heads and Leaders of the Presbyterian and Independant Parties who seemed to be most afraid of such a Change by assuring them that those misreports they had heard of the King and his Brothers were nothing else but the malicious Inventions of those that were in fact or consent the Murderers of his Father For to my certain knowledge said I who was almost always an Eye-witness of their actions the King and both his Brothers c. And he was confident that this was the case of the Dutchess of York and that the Papists falsly gave it out that she was theirs to draw people to them And what then could have been more injurious to King Charles the First than this boast and report of the Irish Murderers By which they would make him to have so dreadfully begun for the rebellion was Octob. 23. 1641. and Edge-hill Fight the same day 1642. And hereby they have given the Scots occasion to publish to posterity these Scandalous words in their Books against the Cromwellians called Truth its Manifest printed 1645. pag. 17 19. The King seeing he was stopped by the Scots first in their own Countrey next in England to carry on his great design takes the Irish Papishs by the hand rather than be alway disappointed and they willingly undertake to levy Arms for his Service that is for the Romish Cause the Kings design being subservient to the Roman Cause though he abused thinks otherwise and believes that Rome serveth to his purpose But to begin the work they must make sure of all the Protestants if they cannot otherwise by Murdering and Massacring them p. 19. The next recourse was to the Irish Papists his good Friends to whom from Scotland a Commission is dispatched under the Great Seal which Seal was at that instant time in the Kings own Custody of that Kingdom to hasten according to former agreement the raising of the Irish in Arms who no sooner receive this new Order but they break out c. And I am not willing to believe this A report so dishonourable to the King his Life his Arms his Death and to all that fought for him that the Fifth Commandment forbids us to believe it though the Scots should say They saw the Sealed Commissions Yea though I had seen them my self seeing it is possible for the Irish to Counterfeit the Scots Broad Seal But by this it appeareth what wrong the King had by the Irish boasting of his Commission and the Papists pretending to more countenance than he gave them § 4. And as the said R. Bishop of Winchester was confident they slandered the Dutchess of York in her Life so he conjectureth that the Jesuit Maimbrough hath done since her death and that some of them devised the Confession which he printeth as hers which he professeth to be false as to the accusation of himself The words of Maimbrough translated are these A Declaration of the Dutchess of York translated out of Maimbourg's Histoire du Calvinisme A Person Educated in the Church of England and as much instructed in her Doctrine according to the Opinion of the most able Divines of her Party as her Condition and Capacity could admit ought to expect to be the Object of publick censure when she quits her Religion to imbrace that of the Church of Rome And as I freely confess that I have been one of her greatest Enemies if not in effect at least in will I have thought it reasonable that for the satisfaction of my Friends I should declare the Motives and Reasons of my Conversion and of the so suddain and unexpected change of my Religion yet without engaging my self in the Questions and Objections which might be made on this Occasion I Protest in the presence of Almighty God that since my return into England no Person whatsoever hath directly or indirectly perswaded me to imbrace the Catholick Religion It is a favour which I owe to the alone Mercy of God I dare not even think that the Prayers which I have made him every day since my return from France and Flanders to beg of him to discover to me the Truth have obtained for me It is very true that having seen the
than quit all these things in a view and hope of the good things of the life to come but thorough the Mercy of God which inlâ—ghtens those that seek it I felt no pain or difficulty in making the choice I have I shall only say that all my fear hath been lest the poor Catholicks of this Countrey should suffer much on the occasion of my Conversion and that God should nor give me the Grace to suffee patiently with them the Disgraces and Afflictions of this Life to merit the Eternal At St. James the 8 th of August 1670. Postscript BUt since the first writing of this the Publick Matter of Fact hath taught the World how little Cause those that he calleth the Heads of the Presbyterians and Independants or any others had to believe Bishop Morley's confident Testimony of one or other Or honest Mr. Gache's Letter to me or the rest of the French Letters published with it by Lauderdale I cannot forget Dr. Morley's words to my self in Jan. 1659. before King Charles II. came in that most on this side the Alpes would joyn with the Church of England were it not for the blocks that Calvin had laid in the way And this he knew by his converse with them But this Coalition was not to be our becoming Papists quoad nomen but France forsooth if not Flanders too would turn Protestants as they have done I knew not when I writ this Book 1. Of King James's Paper published as found in King Charles the Second's Pocket and the Testimonies that he died a Papist nor what was witnessed of his Engagement for them 2. I knew not of what King James the Second would after be and do 3. I knew not of Archbishop Bramhall's Letter Printed by Dr. Parre in Archbishop Vsher's Life confidently assuring Archbishop Vsher that on his certain Information the Papists in 1647. got into Cromwell's Army and confederated with the Papists at Oxford in the King's Army to have the King put to Death And whether they sent beyond Sea for Approbation and obtained it Chap. V. The foreign Leaders of the English Conciliaters who are for introducing a foreign Jurisdiction § 1. THe horrid Confusions in the Roman Church by two and three Popes at once some Kingdoms cleaving to one and some to another constrained the Emperor and divers Princes to call a Council called General for remedy The Popes being by this Council condemned and deposed it could not be expected that they should approve them and consent so that the Council was necessitated though cross to late Custom to declare their Power to be above the Popes so far as to judge and depose him if he deserve it This way went the Councils of Pisa Constance and Basil. But the Pope's Upholders still stuck to him and said Parliaments may as well depose Kings The Body cannot cut off the Head And Eugenius 4th though condemned by the Council and deposed as a Heretick Simonist Blasphemer c. kept Possession and their Church succeedeth him to this day § 2. This opinion for the Church Diffusive represented in a Council being above the Pope was kept alive in Bohemia France and other Countries and in Luther's time did much further his Reformation by encouraging Princes and People to disobey the Pope And Luther at the first seemed to go but little further But afterward quite cast off the Pope and denied all his Claim of universal or foreign Jurisdiction § 3. Some that joyned with Luther in reforming many Abuses thought that the whole World or Church must have one Humane Head or Governor in Religion and that we must not separate from subjection to the Pope but only keep him to govern by Church Canons and not Arbitrarily as being singulis major but universis minor And so the Controversie came to be the same as between Monarchs that will be above Law and those that are limited by the Laws The Italians and some others are for the first but the French and some others are only for his limited Power Of these in Luther's time were Erasmus Julius Pflug Sidonius Agricola the Authors of the Interim and Wicelius Cassander Haffmeister and after Fr. Baldwin and divers others And in France some excellent Lawyers yet more moderate as the Chancellor Mich. Hospitalius Thuâ—nus and a great Party with them § 4. Joh. Gerson Chancellor and a Member of the Council of Constance before these was so moderate though he was for burning Hus and Jerome of Prague that in the great Point of the sufficiency of God's own Laws he condemneth even most of these Moderators I will insert his words in Sermone in die Circumcisionis Domini habito Trasconae coram Papae in the Pope's own hearing Schismatis praesentis sedationem invenire non sufficient leges humanae jam conditae nisi superior Lex Divina vivae architectonica consulatur Quod fortè non satis actum est usque in praesens Obliget quod ait Dominus in Isaia Timuerunt me mandato hominum doctrinis ideo ecce ego addam ut admirationem faciam populo huic miraculo grandi stupendo Peribit enim sapientia à sapientibus ejus intellectus prudentium ejus abscondetur Ex quo loco sumpsit Jesus illud improperium contra Pharisaeos quod irritum faciebant mandatum Dei propter suas traditiones Audirent utinam ista auribus suis hi qui legem Evangelicam legem Divinam cum professoribus suis deserentes humanis traditionibus incumbant toti adeo ut ad superiorem legem illam oculos attollere vel non valeant ex ruditate vel nolint ex iniquitate vel negligant ex inerti segnitie cum tamen rebus leges humanae non sufficiunt prout in schismate praesente compertum videtur ad Legis divinae radicem interpretationem Consultatio referatur secundum eam conscientia formetur necesse est Quid autem mali quid periculi quid Confusionis attulerit contemptus sacrae Scripturae utique SVFFICIENTIS PRO REGIMINE ecclesiae Alioquin Christus fuisset Legislator imperfectus Interrogetur experientia consideretur clerus cui desponsari debuerat Sapientia quae de sursum est purifica pudica an ipse fornicatus est cum adultera illa meretricula sapientia terrena animali diabolica Status insuper ecclesiae nonne factus est totus brutalis monstrosus ubi coelum deorsum hoc est id quod spirituale est terra sursum spiritus serviens caro dominans Principale accessorium accessorium principale usque ad hoc ut quidam delirare non dubitent quod per inventiones humanas etiam melius quà m per legem divinam Evangelicam regeretur Quasi minus sit anima quà m Corpus spiritualis quà m carnalis fructus Haec assertio per meam fidem blasphema est nedum falsa Evangelica quippe doctrina per suos professores dilatavit Ecclesiam usque in Coelum quam filii Agur exquirentes
Rule delivered by himself and by the Council of Trent c. P. 239. The Augustane Confession commodiously explained hath scarce any thing which may not be reconciled with those Opinions which are received with the Catholicks by Authority of Antiquity and of Synods as may be known out of Cassander and Hoffmeister And there are among the Jesuits also that think not otherwise P. 71. The Churches that join with Rome have not only the Scriptures but the Opinions explained in the Councils and the Popes decree against Pelagius c. They have also received the egregious Constitutions of Councils and Fathers in which there is abundantly enough for the Correction of Vices But all use them not as they ought And this is it that all the Lovers of Piety and Peace would have corrected as Borromaeus did Page 18. Speaking of false Doctrine These are the things which thanks be to God the Catholicks do not thus believe though many that call themselves Catholicks so live as if they did believe them But Protestants so live by force of their Opinions and Catholicks by the decay of Discipline Page 95. What was long ago the judgment of the Church of Rome the Mistress of others we may best know by the Epistles of the Roman Bishops to the Africans and French to which Grotius will subscribe with a willing mind Page 7. They accuse the Bull of Pius Quintus that it hath Articles besides those of the Creed but the Synod of Dort hath more But these in the Bull are New as Dr. Rivet will have it But very many Learned Men think otherwise that they are not new if they be rightly understood and that this appeareth by the places both of Holy Scripture and of such as have ever been of great Authority in the Church which are cited in the Margin of the Canons of Trent Page 35. And this is it which the Synod of Trent saith That in that Sacrament Jesus Christ true God and truely Man is really and substantially contained under the form of those sensible things Yet not according to the Natural manner of existing but Sacramentally and by that way of existing which though we cannot express in words yet may we by Cogitation illustrated by Faith be certain that to God it is possible The Councils expressions are that There is made a change of the whole substance of the Bread into the Body and of the whole substance of Wine into the Blood Which Conversion the Catholick calleth Transubstantiation Page 79. When the Synod of Trent saith That the Sacrament is to be adored with Divine Worship it intends no more but that the Son of God himself is to be adored Page 14. Grotius distinguisheth between the Opinions of School men which oblige no Man for saith Melchior Canus our Church alloweth us great liberty and therefore could give no just cause of departing as the Protestants did and between those things that are defined by Councils Even by that of Trent The Acts of which if any Man read with a mind propense to peace he will find that they may be explained fitly and agreeably to the places of Holy Scripture and of the ancient Doctors that are put in the Margin And if besides this by the care of Bishops and Kings those things be taken away which contradict that holy Doctrine and were brought in by evil Manners and not by Authority of Councils or old Tradition then Grotius and many more with him will have that with which they may be content Val. pro pace That which he blameth is 1. The School-mens liberty of disputing and Opinions not agreeable to Councils 2. And the Pride Covetousness and ill Lives of the Prelates and others which all sober Jesuits and Papists blame Page 16. That the labours of Grotius for the peace of the Church were not displeasing to many equal Men many know at Paris and many in all France many in Poland and Germany and not a few in England that are placid and Lovers of peace For as for the now-raging Brownists and others like them with whom Dr. Rivet better agreeth than with the Bishops of England who can desire to please them that is not touched with their Venom And whereas you may find Grotius and his Adherents yet disclaiming Popery and saying They are no Papists he tells you his meaning Ib. p. 15. In that Epistle Grotius by Papists meant those that without any difference do approve of all the sayings and doings of the Pope for Honour and Lucres sake as is usual By this description I suppose that many Popes even of late were no Papists such as condemned the Acts and Persons of their Predecessors and such as censured Liberius and Honorius nor Adrian the sixth that saith a Pope may be a Heretick nor Baronius Binnius Genebrard that exclaim against many of them Nor Bellarmine nor Queen Mary nor More or Fisher nor Bonner nor Gardiner nor any that ever I met with But others more moderately call only those Papists that are for the Popes Power above Councils And so the French are none nor the Councils of Constance and Basil were none Grotius addeth p. 45. that By Papists he doth not mean them that saving the Rights of Kings and Bishops do give to the Pope or Bishop of Rome that Primacy which ancient Customs and Canons and the Edicts of ancient Emperors and Kings assign them which Primacy is not so much the Bishops as the Roman Churches preferred before all other by common consent So Liberius the Bishop being so lapsed that he was dead to the Church the Church of Rome retained its right and defended the Cause of the Universal Church Ans. If it be a Primacy of Name and Honour only without any Governing Power it 's nothing to our case But seeing it 's a Governing Primacy that he means 1. It 's against the right of Kings and Kingdoms that Foreigners claim Jurisdiction over them 2. Emperors never gave Popes or Councils power over other Princes Dominions nor could give any such 3. Nor did ancient Councils nor could do Who gave it them And who knows to what Councils he will limit this power Councils these thousand years have been for much of Popery 4. If Common Consent give this power it binds not the Dissenters The Judgment of others concerning Grotius 1. Vincentius wrote a Book called Grotius Papizans 2. Claud. Saravius an Eminent Parliament-man in Paris in his Epistles p. 52 53. ad Gron. saith Heri invisi Legatum De ejus libro libello postremis interrogatus respondet plane Mileterio consona Romanam fidem esse veram sinceram solosque clericorum mores degeneres schismati dedisse locum Adferebatque plura in hanc sententiam Quid dicam Merito quod falso olim Paulo Festus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sed haec tibi soli Infensissimus est Riveto Est sanè in praecipiti in quo diu stare non licet Deploro veris lacrymis tantam jacturam Deumque ex
and that by virtue of Christ's Law for Peace and Concord Obedience hath no formal Object but Authoritatem Imperantis But Assemblies for Concord have no Imperium 4. No Clergyman as such hath any but Pastoral and Teaching Power and as a Tutor to order his own School The Power of the Keys is no other 5. Mens holding and renouncing of Communion with other Persons or Churches may be without Governing Power I am not Governor of all that I hold or renounce Communion with No Bishops have power Judicially to determine of Individuals who shall have Communion with every Parish Church on Earth If they have they must hear them all speak for themselves before they judge them in or out They are not Governors of foreign Kings and Kingdoms though in their Government of their particular Churches they must all agree to observe one Rule that is Christ's Laws 6. There never was an Universal Council of all the Churches but only of one Empire a part of that nor ever will be till the Church be so destroyed as to be brought into a narrow space which God forbid As to Dr. Stillingfleet's Defence of all this I take him not to approve of all that he blameth not And if he did I believe on second thoughts he will more retract this than he did his Irenicon Chap. X. Dr. Peter Heylin's own Judgment § 1. BEcause we come newly from repeating Dr. Heylin's words of Archbishop Laud though they fully shew his own Judgment I will â—â—ere annex some more 1. There is a Book written by a Papist called Historical Collections of the Reformation gathered most out of Dr. Heylin's own words and some â—ut of others describing the Reformers and Reformation so odiously as greatly serveth the Priests to turn Protestants to their Church And â—s the Jesuit Maymbourgh maketh Dr. Heylin's Writings to have Converted the late Dutchess of York it 's like it was this Collection out of him 2. In his Book on the Creed speaking of the Catholick Church he saith Pag. 407. Such is the Ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned a Church at all And yet this is of the two the Lovelier Error Better the Church be all Head than no Head at all And such a Church that is all Body and no Head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their late Platforms Answ. Is Christ no Head at all Or is any other Person or Court capable of Governing all Christians on Earth All Protestants hold that the whole Church hath no Head but Christ. Pag. 408. Speaking still of the Catholick Church he saith The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters of the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practice and their Platform it must be Aristocratical Answ. This is a gross Slander of the Presbyterians and Independents Did ever the Presbyterians or Independents say that All Christians on Earth must Govern the whole Church in one Meeting or by Delegates where be the Laws that any of them pretend all Christians made Or the Judgments they past on any Persons after exploration The Presbyterians are for an Aristocratical Government of National Churches and some few Independents are for popular Government in single Congregations but no further 2. Is the Church now Governed by One Aristocracy that is per Optimates that are One Persona Politica by Vote ruling all the Christian World Where is their Meeting What be their Laws Whom do they so try and judge An Universal Governing Aristocracy is more impossible and irrational than an Universal Monarchy Civil or Ecclesiastical Every Bishop and Presbytery Governing his own Church and these keeping Concord by just Correspondency is no liker an Universal Aristocracy than an Assembly of Princes for Concordant Government of their Dominions or than all the Mayors and Justices ruling their several Corporations and Provinces make the Government of England Aristocratical Pag. 409. Saith he Every Bishop where-ever he be fixt and resident hath like St. Paul an universal Care over all the Churches which since they could not exercise by personal Conferences they did it in the Primitive times before they had the benefit of General Councils by Letters Messengers and Agents for the Communicating of their Counsel and imparting their Advice one to another as the emergent Occasions of the Church did require the same These Letters they called Literas formatas Communicatorias Answ. Thus Bishop Gunning and others But 1. St. Paul's Apostolick Power enabled him to do the Work of an Apostle which is to plant Churches in as much of the World as they could and deliver them Christ's Doctrine and Laws infallibly as receiving them by sight and hearing or miraculous revelation And this Power each Apostle could exercise singly and not only by Voting as part of a College the Spirit of Christ teaching them all the same Doctrine But Bishops have no such Office or Power 2. There are several ways of expressing a Care of all the Churches Every Christian must do it by private Endeavours Every Official Preacher by Preaching where he is called Every Pastor by guiding his Flock in Concord with all true Christians in the things which Christ hath made necessary to their Concord And if Archbishops have right to a larger Province they must do it in their proper Province per partes not as one Aristocracy 3. It is granted that as all Christians and Bishops must have a Love to all the Churches and a Care to do them good in their several Places so Concord in things necessary is a great means of that good and the ancient Pastors endeavoured it by Messages Letters and Synods and so must we But what Universal Laws were made by Literae formatae What formal Judgments were past by them Where did the Writers meet first to hear the Accused and examine Witnesses Or must all believe the report of every single Pastor And was it all the Bishops on Earth or a major part that wrote these Legislative and Judicial Letters What strange things can some Men gather from meer Communion and Concord Bishops had then a Necessity of getting the common consent of as many of their Order as they could to make their Government of force to the People that were all Volunteers and not constrained by any Magistrate And it 's useful still to the same end 4. And we grant them that every Bishop and Presbyter that giveth counsel to other Churches doth not do it as a meer private Man but as a Bishop that is One that by Office is authorized to give such Pastoral advice to such as he is called to give it to But not as one that hath the charge of Governing other Mens Flocks or is a Member of an Aristocratical Supream Senate Parliament Court or Voting States Suppose each Hospital
Recusants of the Church of Rome p. 234. The Recusants being for the most part of the Good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in their Religion if they understand themselves Whereas the Sectaries being people of mean quality for the most part cannot be presumed to stand on their reputation so much In his Book called The Forbearance of Penalties c. 3. p. 12 13. he makes the foundation of all Union to be the Government and Laws of the Church as visibly Catholick which Laws must be one and the same the violating whereof is the forfeiture of the same Communion And here I crave leave to call All Canons All Customs of the Church whether concerning the Rites of God's Service or other Observations by one and the same name of Laws of the Church P. 23. As for the Canons of the Church it was never necessary to the maintenance of Commumunion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary the several Customs should be held by the same Authority That the same Authority instituted several Customs for so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the acts of it be agreeable to ☞ God 's Law or not how should Unity be maintained It is manifest that they the Fathers could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if God's Law had been infringed by it It followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to God's Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church Page 27. He saith as Mr. Dodwell It is agreed on by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism that is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated yet it is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Pag. 28. The promise of Baptism is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church nor to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the promise deposited with it Page 33. It is out of love to the Reformation that I insist on such a Principle as may serve to reunite us with the Church of Rome being well assured that we can never be well reunited with our selves otherwise Yet not only the Reformation but the common Christianity must needs be lost in the divisions which will never have an end otherwise Pag. 111. If it be said that it is not visible where those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which the Code of the Canons contains which Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great pag. 128. which I would have this Church to own In Mr. Thorndike's large folio Book there is yet much more for his Universal Legislative Aristocracy mixt with Regular Papacy The sum of all is The Pope Governing at least in the West by the Canons in the intervals of General Councils that is alwaies and as the chief Member with Councils making Laws for all the World Thus the French and Italian Papists differ whether the Pope shall Govern the World as the King of Poland doth his Land or say some as the Duke of Venice or rather as the King of France But Protestants know no such thing as an Universal Legislative Church nor owns any Universal Laws but Gods unless you mean Nationally Vniversal as in the Empire Councils and Laws were called I refer you again to Dr. Barrows Confutation of the rest of Mr. Thorndikes Chap. XII The Judgment of Dr. Sparrow Bishop of Norwich and divers others BIshop Sparrow Pref. to Collect. As my Father sent me so send I you Here committing the Government of the Church to his Apostles our Lord Commissions them with the same Power that was committed to him for that purpose when he was on Earth with the same necessary standing Power that he had exercised as Man for the good of the Church Less cannot in reason be thought to be granted than all Power necessary for the well and peaceable Government of the Church And such a power is this of Making Laws This is a Commission in general for making Laws Then in particular for making Articles and Decisions of Doctrines controverted the power is more explicite and express Mat. 28. All power is given me Go therefore and teach all Nations that is with authority and by virtue of the power given me And what is it to teach the Truth with authority but to command and oblige all people to receive the Truth so taught And this power was not given to the Apostles persons only for Christ then promised to be with them in that Office to the end of the World that is to them and their Successors in the Pastoral Office To the Apostles or Bishops that should succeed them to the end of the World To this One holy Church our Lord committed in trust the most holy Faith c. commanding under penalties and censures all her Children to receive that sence and to profess it in such expressive words and forms as may directly determine the doubt Thus she did in the great Nicene Council This authority in determining Doubts and Controversies the Church hath practised in ALL AGES and her constant practice is the best Interpreter of her right I shall not tire the Reader with the needless recitation of many more late Divines that lived since 1630. enough are known Those that have defended Grotius of late I pass no judgment on you may read their own Books and judge as you see cause viz. Dr. Thomas Pierce now Dean of Salisbury and the famous Preface to Archbishop Bromhall's Book against me c. I fear all this History is needless Men now laugh at me for proving by Mens writings their endeavours to subject the King and Kingdom to a Foreign Jurisdiction when they say it is more sensibly and dreadfully proving it self Chap. XIII Dr. Parker's Judgment since Bishop of Oxford THE last mentioned Author Dr. Sam. Parker besides what he hath said against me in his large Preface before Archbishop Bromhall's Book hath since gone so far beyond all his Fellows that finding himself unable to answer this Argument otherwise The World must not have one Universal Humane Civil Governor King or Aristocracy ergo It must not have one Humane Priest or Church Governor desperately denieth the Antecedent and saith that though de facto the Kings of the Earth have not one Soveraign over them all that is meer Man they ought to have Audite Reges I cannot conjecture who he meaneth unless it be the Pope and he be of Cardinal Bertrand's mind that God had not been wise if he had not made one Man
a Vice-God or his Deputy to Rule all the World For sure he never dreamed that all Kings and States on Earth would meet or voluntarily agree to chuse one Universal King over them I met newly with an extraordinary Wit who saith that after the Conflagration in the Millennium of the New Heaven and Earth Christ or his Vice-Roy will triumphantly Rule c. But 1. I never read before of a Vice-Roy after the Conflagration which he saith will first consume Antichrist 2. I know not how much of the New World he assigns to this Vice-Roy's Government for if Gog and Magog after cover the Earth and the New Generation be numerous which he thinks the Earth will bring forth like lower Animals it may be the New Jerusalem may be so small that one Vice-Roy may Rule it 3. But sure that holy Generation will make Government and Obedience far easier things than now they are Chap. XIV Dr. Saywell's Arguments for a Foreign Jurisdiction considered § 1. THis Dr. who I may well suppose speaketh his Lord and Masters sence is so open as to let us know 1. That it is the Popes Power above General Councilâ— which they call Popery 2. And that they join with the conciliar Party in point of Church Government and so take not them for Papists who hold not that Soveraignty of the Pope but only his Primacy 3. That it is but the Jesuited Party of the Church of Rome which they renounce 4. That they also renounce all Nonconforming Protestants as a Jesuited Party So that he would tempt us to believe what some affirm that their design hath long been to subdue the Jesuits and Reformed Churches or rather destroy these and to strike up a Union with the French and maintain that they are no Papists as to Government But though the Power of old Protestants in England were never so much subdued to them methinks the Jesuits Interest in France should resist them unless the Jesuits themselves be as some vainly think faln out with the Pope and then it will be the Jesuited Party which these Men will own § 2. But to his Arguments Page 342. Mr. B. saith I have earnestly desired and searched to know tâ—e proof of such a Legislative Vniversal Power and I cannot find it But if Mr. B. would seriously consider these Texts he might find that obedience is due to the Church Mat. 18. If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Now as one private Man may neâ—lect to hear the Episcopal Church to which he belongs so the Episcopal Provincial and National Church may also prove Heretical and neglect to hear the Catholick Church but the Vniversal Church can never faâ—l for the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it And if more Persons or particular Churches give offence by Heresie Schism c. the Church Vniversal or the rest of the Bishops may reprove them for it and then there is no reason why one Man should be censured and many go frâ—e and consequently our Saviour hath established the Authority of his Church over all Christians as well particular Churches as private Men. Ans. 1. Let us try this Argument by the like God hath commanded obedience to Kings and said He that will not hear the King and Judge shall be put to death But Kings and their Kingdoms may be Criminal And if private men must obey Authority or be put to death so must Kings and Kingdoms Why should they escape Therefore all Kings and Kingdoms must obey One Universal Humane King or Kingdom under Christ. Do you think this is true No There is no such Universal Humane Empire Monarchical or Aristocratical No Mortal Men are capable of it any more than of Ruling the World in the Moon or the Fish in the Sea but of a part only So there is no such Universal Church Power but particular there is As to your reason I answer God is the Universal King and he only is the punisher of all Soveraign Powers whether Monarchs Aristocracies or Mixt. which I have ever asserted though the Lying Spirit hath feigned the contrary God hath several ways to Rule and Judge them here and his final Judgment is at hand And the case is like with National Churches save that their own Princes may punish offending Clergy-men 2. One Person or Nation may renounce Communion with another as Heretical without any Ruling Power over them And the other may do the same by them deserving it Am I a Governor or Legislator over every one that I may refuse to eat or pray with as a Brother 3. That there is no Humane Universal Church which hath power to Govern a National Church as the Bishops may their Flocks is proved 1. They cannot have the Authority who have not so much as a Natural Capacity But none have a Natural Capacity to Govern all the Christian World Ergo none have such Authority 2. They have not the Authority who have not the Obligation to use it in such Government For an Office containeth Authority and Obligation But none are obliged to Govern all the Christian World Ergo c. For the Minor 1. None are obliged to Impossibilities But c. 2. None are obliged without some obliging Law But there is no Law obliging any to Govern all the Christian World Ergo. 3. If they are obliged they are condemned if they do it not But none do Rule all the Christian World He confesseth none have done it since the sixth General Council that is these thousand years and more by one And doth he not Damn the Bishops of all the World then for neglecting their great Duty a thousand years together If he say that Others made Canons enough before I answer 1. If they have had no such work to do these thousand years then there was no Office or Obligation or Power to do it 2. It was then only those that made the Laws that had that Soveraignty The Dead are no Rulers and so the Church hath had no Soveraign since 2. If he say They since Ruled by the old Laws I answer 1. That was not by Legislation but Execution 2. They never Ruled the Universal Church as one Soveraign Power by the old Laws but only per partes in their several Provinces as Justices and Mayors Rule the Kingdom without Soveraignty Arg. 3 That which never was claimed till the Papal Usurpation was not instituted by God But a Soveraign Government of the Univeâ—sal Church on Earth was never claimed till the Papal Usurpation Ergo. That Councils were only General as to one Empire and called only in one Empire and pretended to Govern that Empire and not all the World I have fully proved against Johnson Arg. 4. Those that must Rule all the Christian World must teach them For the Pastoral Government is by the Word But no one Person or Aristocracy are the Teachers of all the World Who have pretended to it but the Papacy Arg.
5. If any Soveraign may Rule England and all other Churches as a Bishop ruleth his Flock then that Soveraign Power may when they judge it deserved Excommunicate the King and all the Kingdom and silence all the Bishops and Ministers and forbid all Church Communion as Popes and their Councils have done But the consequence is false Ergo Arg. 6. If any have such power they must be such as people may have access to to decide their Causes and may hear their Accusations Defences Witnesses But so cannot the Universal Church of Bishops They confess these thousand years they met not in Council and whither else should we carry our Witnesses and where else should we expect their sentence Paul's charge was 1 Thes. 5.12 13. Know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake But we cannot know all the Bishops over the Earth that never were among us An unknown Judge cannot be obeyed That is One whom we cannot know to be indeed our Judge But it 's impossible for us now to know what number of Bishops and who must be called the Universal Judge And an unknown sentence cannot be obeyed but it 's impossible for us to know the sentence of the Majority of the Bishops on Earth about any case to be judged by them these thousand years But enough is said of this already And Dr. Barrow hath utterly confounded your pleas for Foreign Jurisdiction Pastors and Churches may Reprove one another who Govern not one another And do you think we are so sottish as not to see that your Colledge and Council must have some to call them together or to gather Votes and preside and approve And that the question will be only of the Degree of the Popes power and whether the French sort of Popery be best § 2. Dr. S. addeth p. 343. So the Scripture plainly tells us elsewhere that Churches of Kingdoms and Nations have a Soveraignty over them to which they must yield Obedience Isa. 60 12. where the Prophet speaking of the Christian Church saith The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted If Nations and Kingdoms must serve the Church then she hath Authority to Command their Obedience in things that belong to Peace and Holiness Ans. I confess Campanella de Reâ—no Dei doth thus make the Papacy the Fifth Monarchy and confidently brings many such Texts for their Clergies Universal power But 1. Is it the King of the Church or the People that must be obeyed The people have no Ruling Power And if it be the Soveraign the question is Who that is Protestants say It is only Christ And the Text plainly meaneth The Nation that will not serve Christ the Head of the Church for the good of his Body shall perish But the Italians say It is the Pope and Council and the French That it is the Council and Pope as President and Prime Patriarch that is here meant 2. This may be discerned by considering Who it iâ— that is to destroy such Nations It is Christ as the second Psalm sheweth If it were the Pope and Council you threaten all Nations as terribly as Bellarmine doth 3. And what is the perishing and wasting here meant No doubt their Souls that rebel against Christ shall perish and he will also punish Bodies and Kingdoms as such Put doth any of all this belong to the Bishops None of it 1. Excommunicating is their destroying work But the Heathen and Infidel Nations are not to be Excommunicated What have you to do to judge them that are without Will you cast them out that never were in 2. And destruction by the Sword is no Bishop's Work 4. And when is it that all Nations that obey not shall utterly perish We see that 19 parts in 30 saith Brierwood of the World are Heathens and Mahometans and yet prosper Ever since Abraham's days till now the Church is a small part of the World And it is not by any Power of the Church Governours that the Souls of Infidels perish but by themselves And their Kingdoms are unlikely to be destroyed till Christ's second coming And if it be his destroying them at his Judgment that is meant that proveth no Power in the Church against them But I confess you tell us what to fear and whence it is that the French Protestants suffer They must utterly perish that obey not a Governing Universal Soveraignty Nay not only French Subjects by their Lawful King but Protestants States and Kingdoms that thought they had no Soveraign but their own proper one and Christ But this is in Ordine ad Spiritualia Yet O you intend no Cruelty § 3. Pag 344. He tells us of the Churches Power to decide Controversies and of the Council Act. 15. Answ. A multitude of Protestant Writers have long ago answered all this 1. The word Church is ambiguous When Christ and his twelve Apostles were on Earth they were the Church as to Rule And then the Vniversal Church met in a House together celebrated the Sacrament together c. Must they do so now It was no General Council that met Act. 15. unless you will say that there dwelt a General Council at Jerusalem as long as the Apostles dwelt there None of the Bishops of the Churches planted by Paul Barnabas and others about the World are said to be there nor any at all but the Inhabitants of Jerusalem save Paul and Barnabas who were sent as Messengers and were not the Men sent to And you now say that none but Bishops have decisive Votes 2. And there are more ways of deciding Controversies than one We doubt not but every Pastor may decide them by Evidence of Scripture and Reason And many assembled may contribute their Reasons and be helpful to each other and may see more than one if they be meet Men. And Pastors thus by Teaching Evidence do that as Authorized Officers as Tutors and Schoolmasters which Private Men do but as Private Men and not as Officers so that even theiâ— Teaching Decision is an act of Authority as well as of Skill And so far as Humane authority must go the concurrent Judgment of a multitude of Divines as of Physitians Lawyers c. Cateris paribus deserveth more reverence than a singular opinion But for all that 1. An Assembly of Lay Men have no Authority but from their Evidence and Parts 2. An Assembly of Bishops have no deciding Authority but by an office by which they are entrusted as fallible Men to teach others what they know themselves by the same Evidence which convinced them and to guide their particular Congregations in mutable Circumstances 3. But an Assembly of Apostles had Power to say It seemeth good to the Hâ—ly Ghost Obj. 1. There were the Brethren also 2. Single Apostles had the Holy Ghost yet they did it in an Assembly Answ. 1. The Inspiration
is time enough to prove the death of a Power never since exercised were there a Seminal Virtue of Universal Regiment in the diffused Church a Thousand Years Sleep in reason must pass for a Death 6. Yea the diffusive Church hath since disowned the Universal Obligation of those same Councils and doth disown them to this day For it is not near half the Christian VVorld that own them yea none but Papists that I could ever be certified of do receive any such Councils at all as Legislators and Judges to all the Christian World but only as Reverenced Rules of Concord made by Contract And if Constantine Theodosius Martian c. called their Subjects to Councils 1000 Years ago why is our King and Kingdom now any more subject to the Subjects of those Emperors than to them But if you were content to endure us to unite in Christ and take his Laws for our Rule and bond of Peace and stay till the next General Council be against us we desire no more § 9. P. 347. Mr. B. saith It is a doleful thing to think on what account all these Men expect that all Christians Consciences can be satisfied c. D. S. answereth It is a doleful thing indeed to think how they should be satisfied that set up a Pope in every Congregation and follow him in opposition to the Catholick Church and General Councils Mr. B. knows he does this and deludes the poor People c. Answ. 1. If I know it methinks I should know that I know it Which if I do it 's I that am the Impudent Liar If not Somebody is mistaken Qu. Whether a Council of such Bishops be infallible or can make us a better Rule than the Scripture 2. Readers here you see that it is no wonder that these Reverend Fathers renounce Popery You see what a Pope is in their account It is a Minister of a single Church who taketh not their Lordships or Councils to be Law-givers and Judges over all the Earth We poor Protestants took him for a Pope that claimed such an Universal Rule alone or as the President of Councils But these Men take him for a Pope that denieth Popery and pretendeth to no Government beyond his Parish Yea not only so but in our Parishes we oblige none to take up any of their Religion Faith or Duty to God on our commanding Authority but to learn by the Evidence which caused our own Faith to believe by a Faith Divine 3. I have oft said that the Catholick Church is such by Faith and Subjection to Christ which I own and daily Preach But that there never was a General Council of the Christian World nor is there any such thing as a Catholick Church in the Popish sence that is having one Political humane Soveraignty And how did the Man make himself believe that I knowingly opposed that which my whole Writing labours to prove never had a being Reader Lament the Case of the Church on Earth when the most studious Leaders are so dark and rash and bad as either I or these Reverend Fathers are setting the World into ruinating Divisions by words of such a Dialect as is harsh to name § 10. P. 348. Dr. S. pretendeth to some Scripture Proofs viz 1 Cor. 14.32 33. The Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints Answ. Reader Do you think this proveth that the whole Church on Earth is under one humane Soveraignty that hath a Legislative and Judging Power 1. This Text speaketh only of the avoiding Disorder in particular Assemblies by the means which they had present there among them To keep them from speaking two at once and such like Disorders As the Archi-Synagogoi were used to do in the Jews Synagogue And must a Council from all the Earth be gathered to that Assembly to rebuke such Disorder If it must be but to make a General Law to forbid it that 's done already in Scripture and in Nature And must the World meet to do it again 2. Their Dr. Hamond saith that this Text speaketh of the Spirit in each Prophet being subject to himself that is to his own reason and that the Spirit moveth them not to speak irregularly and confusedly And what 's this to the Power of Councils 3. If it were spoken of the other present Prophets what 's this to Men that are no Prophets and that are dead 1000 Years ago Are not present Pastors fitter Moderators of their Assembly than a General Council of dead Men § 11. Next he that so condemneth me as an Opposite citeth my words as granting his Cause yet this reconcileth him not I am not so idle as to write him a Commentary of my own words for I can devise no plainer Only I may tell him that he too quickly forgot that God is not the Author of Confusion and therefore it is not lovely A Law should not be confounded with a Contract or amicable Agreement nor a Soveraign Government with a Peace-making Assembly of Equals nor a possible Council of those within reach with an impossible Council out of all the World Neither the King of France or of England were Subjects to the Assembly at Nimeguen § 12. P. 351. He saith he could give numberless Quotations of Protestants Melanchthon Bucer Calvin Bishop Andrews K. James Spalatensis Casaubon Bishop White Bishop Mountague Archbishop Dr. Hamond Dailee c. Answ. I cannot answer what you can do but what you do But the Reader may know how far to believe you that will but search these few 1. Read what I have cited out of Melanchthon to Bishop Guning or rather his own Epistle of the Conference at Ratisbone and that to King Henry the 8th 2. Read Bucer de Regno Dei and the rest of his Opera Angl. and judge as you see cause 3. I am ashamed to cite any words of Calvin to confute our Drs. intimation 4. Whether Spalatensis was a Protestant I dispute not but read his own words cited by me in my Treatise of Episcopacy and then read him of Councils and judge 5. Bishop Vsher as I have oft said told me himself That Councils are not for Government of the absent or the particular Bishops but for Concord What Mind Dr. Hamond was of I determine not But of the rest you may judge by these The Matter is All Protestants hold that we must Serve God in as much Concord as we can And that the Meeting of Pastors is a means of Concord And that it was the true Christian Faith which the Councils which he nameth owned and we are of the same Faith and therefore they reverence these Councils And they hold that still Concord being much of the Strength and Beauty of the Churches when there is any special reason for it as several Princes assemble by themselves or Messengers at Munster Ratisbone Francfort Nimeguen so Pastors even of several Kingdoms
Communion of the Churches 8. But I supposed that none but those who were called to it immediately by Christ or endued with the gift of Infallibility therein were to be as his Mouth and Hand in so delivering the Gospel and writing the Holy Scriptures as should be his Word or Law to all the Christian World and to all future Generations 9. But as Prophets of old were the bringers of all new Revelations and the Priests were but the Preservers Expounders and Appliers of the Word which the Prophets had brought So the Spirit in the Apostles Evangelists and Prophets infallibly delivered that Word and Law which all succeeding Pastors must Preach Practise and Rule by as the only Universal Law This being hitherto my Judgment if you are not mistaken I am no Member of the Universal Church and so no Christian and therefore am uncapable of Communion and have not Christ's Spirit nor title to Salvation and therefore it concerneth me speedily to try and receive Instructions However we are of two Religions and Churches if you are in the right II That which I have hitherto denied herein is 1. That there is any Vicarious Constitutive or Governing Head of the Church Universal or Soveraign Power Personal or Collective having Supream Universal Legislative Judicial and Executive Power under Christ which all Christians are bound to be Subjects of and to obey 2. That Obedience to such an Universal Church-Soveraign or Power is not the necessary means or terms of Universal Concord or Communion 1. Because there is no such Power 2. If there be it cannot be Universally known by Christians 1. That it is 2. What it is 3. And in whom it is 3. Nor can the Measure of Obedience to such Power necessary to Concord and Communion of all be Universally known 4. And de facto there is no such Concord or Communion Universal in the World nor ever was at least since the Apostles days Of these in order I. If there be any Vicarious Universal Supream Power that all must obey that will be Members of the Church the Institution of it is to be found in Scripture or in some other Divine Record But no such thing is found in either we have no other Divine Record that notifyeth this and Scripture doth not It is the Apostles Power that is the thing hence alledged But 1. While they were near the whole Church in its Infancy or small Number Men could have sent to them for their Judgment But so they could not had they lived to see the Church in its present extent If the twelve Apostles were now at Jerusalem and we doubted of the Nestorian Eutychian Monothelite Controversies and the rest in Epiphanius and Philastrius Catalogue Could all the Christians in America Africa Asia and Europe know that the major Vote of the Apostles met at Jerusalem had thus or thus decided How few would live long enough for that Satisfaction 2. The Apostles singly by an infallible Uniting Spirit were the Mouth of Christ to deliver obligatorily his Laws and Doctrine without meeting to Consult and Vote it Paul professeth Gal. 1. that he received not his Gospel from the Apostles but from Christ And his Epistles need not a proof of their Authority from the Votes or Consent of the rest but were otherwise received And so of other parts of Scripture 3. The Apostles were to be dispersed about the World and not to stay long together to Govern the World as a College And while they stayed at Jerusalem we read not of their doing any thing in a College and Conciliar way save that Act. 15. 11. which was 1. No General Council from all the Churches 2. Nor done by Apostles only but the Elders and Brethren also of the Church at Jerusalem 3. And was not laid on the Authority of a major Vote but on the Apostolical Spirit of Infallibility and their special knowledge of Christ's mind in which they all concurred 2. Therefore their Authority of Teaching the World all Christ's Commands M-28-20 being proper to them by these two advantages being chosen Ear-witnesses and having the Spirit to guide them into all truth in this they have no Successors though they have in the continued parts of their Work They were Christs Instruments in Universal Legislation and the Scripture written by them is his Word and Law and they were accordingly enabled to Seal it by Miracles and giving the Holy Ghost by Imposition of their Hands This Law of Christ all Christians own But if in this they have Successors 1. The Church hath a larger Law than we have thought on and Gods Word is a greater Volume 2. And Miracles are as necessary to Seal the new Word as to Seal the old II. The Scripture denieth a Vicarious summam potestatem or Soveraignty over the Universal Church having a Legislative Power 1. In that it saith that There is One Law-giver Jam. 4.12 that is But One. 2. In calling Christ only the Head Lord and King and calling Apostles but Members 1 Cor. 12.27 and Stewards and Ministers by whom we believe 3. Baptizing us only into the Name of Christ and not of the Apostles and Baptism is Christening and sheweth all that is necessary to make us Members of the Church and Body which Christ is the Saviour of 4. Paul decryeth it as Carnality and Schism to think of Men above what is written as if they had been Baptized into the Names of Men. 5. The Apostles did not Convert Men by preaching up themselves as Soveraign but Christ only professing themselves Witnesses and Messengers of his Words and Deeds The Eunuch Acts 8. was Baptized by Philip upon his bare believing in Christ without hearing the â—ote of a Colledge of Apostles Nor did the Preachers that Converted Men do it by the Argument of the Authority of such a Colledge As Dr. Hammond saith on 1 Tim. 3. And such are all particular Churches of the whole World considered together under the Supream Head Christ Jesus dispensing them all by himself and administring them severally not by any one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as Inferior Heads of Unity to the several Bodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their Plantations each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct Commission from Christ Immediately and Subordinate to none but the Supream Donor or Plenipotentiary Neither to a Personal nor Collective Soveraign Power The Judges of England have a Power which limitedly in their several Courts and Circuits respecteth all the Kingdom But 1. They have no Legislative Power 2. Nor are they Constitutive Essential parts of the Kingdom It would be the same Kingdom were their Power changed 3. Therefore the Constitutive Oaths or Bond is only between King and Subjects and we are not to Swear Allegiance to any other than the King 4. Nor are they Judges out of their several Courts and Circuits 5. Much less in other Kingdoms 6. Nor is any a Judge to all the World so is
Nice 1. Const. 1. Eph. 1. Chalced. Const. 2. de tribus Capitulis Const. 3. against the Monothelites III. You say that These six things are the Governing Acts of this Chief Power 1. To judge which are the true Books of Scripture and the true Copies and Readings 2. To judge what is the sence of the Fundamentals Baptism Creed whose words misunderstood will not save any 3. To judge and declare what is the true Church Government instituted by Christ and his Apostles or delivered by them 4. To judge and declare what are the instituted Ordinances e. g. Confirmation as it is a giving of the Holy Ghost by Imposition of Hands and not only an owning of our Baptismal Covenant which we do in every Sacrament and so of other Ordinances 5. A Judicial Power not of all individual Cases but that those e. g. that hold or do this or that be Excommunicate 6. A Legislative Power to make alterable Canons or Orders of the Church Vniversal This is the sum of all your Explicatory Discourses To which I answer § I. To your proofs that such a Universal Governing Church there is instituted 1. To Isai. 60.12 I say 1. It is not safe stretching dark Prophetical Texts farther than we can prove they are intended The New Testament plainlier tells us the Church State and Power than the Old 2. The Universal Church hath not expounded the Text whether it speak of the state of the Jews after the Captivity or of the State of the Catholick Church now or of the more Blessed State of it at the last when it is more perfected Therefore how are you sure that you have the true sence of it without the Churches Exposition 3. The words indeed are nothing for a Vicarious Soveraign Power Every Political Body is essentiated by the Pars imperans and the Pars subdita Christ is the only essentiating Pars imperans in Supream Power Christ then is the Prime part of the Church The word Church then is not put for Christ alone but for the Society consisting of King and Subjects and sometimes for the Subjects alone It 's oft said that many Nations served the Israelites we say many Countreys were subject to the Romans the Medes Persians Greeks Turks and we do not mean that either the Turkish Roman Persian c. Common Subjects did govern all these Nations nor that their Bashaws Judges Magistrates c. as one Persona Politica in summa potestate ruled them by a Major Vote If the King will say that all the Corporations in Middlesex shall be under London or obey or serve it Who would feign such a sense of it as to say that there must be therefore some Power to rule them by a Vicarious Supremacy beside the ordinary Government or that all the City must Govern by a Major Vote The sense is plain As we all 1. Obey the King as the Universal Constitutive Head 2. And the Judges Justices Mayors as ruling under him per partes in their several Places 3. And we serve all the Kingdom as we serve its common good which is the finis regiminis So other Countries served the Romans Greeks Turks c. And so all Kingdoms should serve the Church or Kingdom of Christ that is 1. Christ as the only Head and Universal Governour 2. All his Officers as particular Governours in their several Limits and Places but none as Rulers of the whole 3. And the bonum Commune or all the Church as the End of Government And how can we feign another sence § 2. To your second Proof I answer 1. The 70 Disciples were Christ's constant Attendants as his Family with whom he was to Eat the Passover 2. We all grant that none have Power to Celebrate the Eucharist or Govern the Church but the Apostles and those to whom the Spirit of Christ in them did Communicate it But we say that they Communicated it to the Order of Presbyters as I thought all had Confessed as some Councils do 3. The Apostles were not appointed as one Supream ruling College to give the Sacrament by their Votes to all the World but each one had Power to do it in his place Nor did they Ordain only as a College by such Vote as Vna persona Politica but each one had Power to do it alone Nor did they write the Scriptures as one Collective Person by Vote but each one had the Spirit and Power to do it as Paul did c. nor did they sit on one Throne or had the promise so to do to Judge the Tribes of Israel as one College by Vote but to sit on twelve Thrones Judging the twelve Tribes as under Christ the only Universal Head and Governour § 3. To your third I answer 1. I answered to that Act. 15. in my last to you 2. Paul and Barnabas had the same Infallible Spirit and had before said the same against the keeping of Moses Law But 1. Recipitur ad modum recipientis No wonder if among those that quarrelled with Paul the Consent of those that had received Christ's Mind from his own Mouth and Spirit did better satisfie the doubtful than one Man's word alone 2. And Christ's Work was to be done in Unity § 4. II. As to the Seat of this Power I answer 1. All the true Bishops of the World Govern the particular Churches as Kings Govern all the Kingdoms of the World under God one Universal Monarch But there is neither one Universal Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical Soveraign Civil or Ecclesiastical under Christ But each hath his own part § 5. 2. I have shewed the impossibility of our judging of the Major Votes at our distances in most controverted Cases § 6. 3. And I have where I told you proved that there never were must or will be true Universal Councils much less are such the standing Governours of the Church But in Cases of need such as can well do it should come to help each other by Council and Concord without pretending to Universal Governing Power § 7. 4. 1. Who called them to Nice Ephesus Chalcedon Constantinople c. out of the Extra-Imperial Countries 2. Who shall call them now out of the Empire of the Turk Abassia the Mogul Tartary and the rest 3. If calling Men make the Council Universal though they come not is it a Council if none come or how many must it be to ascertain us that it is Universal Hath the Pope the Calling Power or who is it and how proved that they that obey it not may be unexcuseable § 8. 5. I have told you how unable I am to know what the Major part of all Christians or Bishops in the World receive save only by uncertain fame saving that while I know otherwise what is necessary truth I know that they are not the Church that receive it not whoever they be I am a Stranger to Abassia Armenia Georgia India Russia Mexico c. And what if I never knew that there are such
England unless we right the Papists by altering the Oath of Supremacy so I conclude with another Request That seeing Dr. Heylin and many others of you honour Melanchthon you will read his Epistle to King Henry the VIII Epistolarum Vol. 1. per Pencer Edit Anno 1570. pag. 59.60 c. But especially Ep. de Ratisb act p. 188. c. de Wormat. Colloq p. 201. c. where he speaketh against Eccius and other Papists over-valuing Councils and making them Legislators and Judges to us and tying the Church to the ordinary succession of Bishops and Obedience to their Laws and imagining the Church to be like Civil Polities Pag. 191. 1. Humano more Constituit in Ecclesia Potestatem interpretationis propemodum ut de praetoria potestate interpretandarum Legum Jurisconsulti Loquuntur 2. Addit amplius non licere privatis non paucioribus reprehendere judicia Majoris partis seu dissentire à suffragiis plurimorum 3. Majorum Synodorum sententiis decretis parendum esse c. In Ecclesia longe alia res est In hoc coetu non potest as alligata est certis personis aut certae multitudini sed donum est aliquorum piorum Id est lumen divinum quo intelligunt sapientiam in Evangelio traditam quae est supra rationis humanae judicium Posita Pag. 195. addit Vinculum dilectionis à Paulo Vocari Obedientiam Praestandam Episcopis Ordinaria successione regnantibus eorum legibus Yet Synods and Discipline he was for by present faithful Pastors And Luther Lib. de Conciliis speaketh as was his way more sharply of Councils telling us what their Work is and is not and that one Augustine hath taught the Church more than all the Councils that ever were yea one Catechism And that before the Council of Nice Arianism was but a Jest in Comparison of what it grew to afterward though doubtless the Council did well in condemning it and he justifieth Nazianzen's Words of Councils And except the undeniable Evidence of David Derodon he saith more than I have seen in any to vindicate Nestorius as certainly holding one Person and sound Doctrine in sense but for want of Learning taking it for an improper Speech to say that God was begotten of Mary killed risen c. And that the Controversie of the Ephes. Council and him was but about Words And I think he that readeth but Derodon's Citations of the Words of Cyril will think me rather charitable than injurious for saying that though his Words were Eutychian he meant also better than he spake Ri. Baxter REader The Bishop's repetition in Conference before and with Dr. Beveridge and Dr. Saywell occasioned my over-tedious Repetitions But you may perceive they have not been wholly in vain while at the last the Bishop was forced I. To deny Canons to be Laws And then what is their Churches Legislative Power and how can we obey a Law that is no Law And why are we called to Swear Canonical Obedience or why are we called Schismaticks for not obeying them And if they might be called Laws to their proper Subjects can Usurping Foreigners therefore make us Laws II. He is put to disown the Names of Vniversal Soveraignty and Summa Potestas but only as Invidious that is as opening that which they would hide by other Names fitted to deceive And yet maintaineth the thing and calls them Rectors and Vniversal Governors As if Jus regendi in Supream Rectors were not the same thing and that which he knew we were to dispute III. When he hath oft pleaded for Obedience to the Vniversal Church and its Laws and made Law-making its work he is fain at last to reduce it almost to Sentence and Execution And in his many instances of such Judging Powers to name not one that requireth an Universal Human Judge IV. He was angry at the Argument fetcht from the incapacity of an Universal King or Civil Senate But why Only as invidious that is As detecting their Error And saith that it intimateth that they claim a Kingly forcing Power whereas he knew that I profest the contrary of them and only brought a comparing Argument But if they had claimed no forcing Power or made Princes believe that they were bound to be their Hangmen or Executioners the World had suffered less and they know that their Curses would have been despised as bruta fulmina and Protestants would have said Procul à Jove Procul à fulmine V. He could never be got to give up the least shew of a Satisfactory account where his Collegium Pastorum out of Councils was to be found or whom it consisted of They dare not go to Patriarchs whatever they think as knowing how farr and where they long have been and most against them VI. Nor could he be got to answer my instances of the incapacity of Councils nor my proof that they were not of terrestrial but only of National Imperial Universality VII Nor would he answer my proof of the utter incapacity either of one Man or one College for Universal Government of all the World VIII Nor to answer my proof that his Universal Soveraignty is the most essential Point of that which Protestants call Popery IX Nor my Reasons that a Pope's Headship is not so impossible as this same tho' both are impossible X. Nor the plain Evidence that this way must needs bring us under the Government of the Pope himself and every King and Kingdom under the Government of foreign Subjects and of those Princes whose Subject-Bishops make the greatest Number in Councils XI And we cannot be informed how their Form of Government differeth from the French and that the French are no Papists And that they that since Laud's time have studied a Coalition would not receive them to our cost XII Nor yet how the Nation and Clergy shall be saved from Perjury that are all Sworn against all Foreign Jurisdiction For it is a vain Argument that saith The Oath of Supremacy renounceth no Jurisdiction but what the King owneth But the King disowneth Ecclesiastical Spiritual Jurisdiction For 1. Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Jurisdiction are expresly named 2. The Oath renounceth it as Foreign because it is against the King to be under the Power of Foreigners The King chooseth his own Pastors and Ruleth them by the Sword as he doth his Physitians though he profess not to be a Pastor himself nor to Administer the Word Sacraments or Keys And the new Oath called the Test expresly abjureth the Foreign Jurisdiction of any Prince Prelate c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical It 's ludicrous jesting with Oaths for any to say by Prelate is not excluded Many Prelates in a College or Council but some one If One much more many as Prince and Potentate excludeth many And all our present Clergy that are in the Parliament and Convocation have taken this Oath or Test and they call themselves the Church-representative And if after this they should be for a Foreign Jurisdiction and
Italian Papists 2. Nor with the moderate Papists that are for the Councils of Constance and Basil For he takes them for Papists with whom he hath no Communion 3. Nor with the Church of France because they have Communion with Papists Though many of them are no Papists in their Principles 4. He hath no Communion with any Protestant Churches that have not Bishops 5. Nor with any Protestants that have Bishops not Ordained by Canonical uninterrupted Succession from the Apostles at lest presumptively 6. With none of the Greek Church that have Communion with the Church of Rome or with any Schismaticks or that want such Succession or refuse the Laws of the Church which is all 7. With none of the remote Nations called Jacobites Nestorians c. Because they are judged Hereticks or Schismaticks or Communicate with such or have a notorious interruption of Succession 8. Not with the Maronites or any Sect that Communicate with Papists 9. Not with the Nonconformists of the Church of England whom he endeavoureth to prove Damnable Schismaticks 10. Not with the true and old Church of England who professed to hold Communion with those Foreign Protestants whom he calleth Schismaticks Nor with any of the present Bishops and Conformists who profess the same Communion For his Rule is that they are Schismaticks who Communicate with Schismaticks Who then hath he Communion with It seems none but those few new Men in England of his own Mind who perhaps may call themselves the Church of England 11. Nay not with those among them who profess Communion with the Church of Rome except with the Jesuited part 12. And with those of them who are for one Supreme Universal Aristocracy or Legislative College Council and Judicature over the Universal Church And now can you tell which is the Church that he is of Or is there a more notorious Separatist or Schismatick than he § 6. And now can any Man tell which is that Church which he speaketh such wonderful things of as the One Body Politick of Christ with one visible human Government Which be the Bishops and Church that have all that Leviathan-like Power of Heaven and Hell which he describeth and asserteth Is it only the uncertain relicts of all these § 7. Mr. D. hopeth justly that none or few of his friendly Readers will read what I write against him and therefore when I detect his Fraud and putid Errors he puts it off with saying I do but put many new Questions and answer nothing accurately But for the sake of them that will read I will ask him 1. Whether his little invisible Church be a Body meet for the Glorious Elogies which he giveth the Church of Christ I profess I know not one Bishop that is of his professed Principles Archbishop Laud was not that took a General Council to be a Court of Pretorian Power to be externally obeyed by all the Church Bishop Guning is not as the foresaid Evidence sheweth 2. And I would ask him whether his Church have all the Power of Heaven and Hell which he describeth over those that are without the Church or only over those within Paul saith What have we to do to judge them that are without And if so how narrow is the Power of his magnified little Church Let their own Subjects escape their Damning Power how they can it seems none of all the people on Earth whom he counteth Schismaticks or Hereticks are within their reach For these with him are all without If it be said They were within when they were Baptized I answer 1. What they were and what they are is not all one 2. But he saith that the Sacraments are but Sacrilegious Acts and Nullities that are done by such And if so they were never Baptized and so never in the Church § 8. But let us come to his new Book and Method And first I will tell him once more what our different Church Principles are that he may not accuse he knows not what 1. Christ is the only Head Prophet Priest and King to the whole Church on Earth both of Influence and Government Constitutive Specifying and Unifying and hath no Deputy or Vicar under him Aristocratical or Monarchical that hath any such Capacity Power or Obligation 2. Therefore the Church though Compaginated in all its parts is only one Politick Body of Christ and not of Man and hath no other Soveraign 3. Therefore neither Pope Council or College of Bishops have any Legislative or Judicial Power over the whole Church Collective but only the several Pastors are such to their several Churches 4. Yet are they obliged to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and Love and to do all in Concordant Observation of Christs Laws And all Churches and Christians to help others to their Power 5. And when they afford such Counsel or help for Concord to other Churches they do it not as Lay-men but as Pastors in the Universal Church though not as Pastors to other Mens Flocks As Physicians of several Hospitals and Judges of several Courts or Mayors of several Corporations or Kings of several Kingdoms may advise for Concord without Usurping each others Government 6. As God only by Moses made the Jewish Law and the Priests were not to make more but only to Rule by it it being a Prophetical and Mediatorial Work So Christ only by himself and his Spirit of Infallibility and Miracles in the Apostles made the Christian Universal Law and no Men are to make more such but to Rule by that so made 7. As Gerson truely told the Pope Christs own Law is sufficient for the Government of the Church Universal else Christ had not been a perfect Law-giver And they that pretend by Supplements or Emendations to add or do better are not his Ministers but Accusers 8. Therefore those Popes and Councils that have presumed to make Laws for the whole Church have Usurped Christs Prerogative and are false Prophets or Traytors against Christ. 9. Therefore none should own them as such nor is it Schism but Duty so far to disown them 10. Nor should any own these Bishops as such who own this their Usurpation As no Soldiers of the Kings Army should follow those Captains who subject themselves to and take Commissions from an Enemy Usurper or Foreign Princes 11. The Power of Bishops under Christ as to Laws is only to keep and teach Christs Laws and Rule by them and determine themselves of undetermined circumstances or accidents which vary as time and emergent occasions vary and are unfit for Universal Obligation and this Power they have only over their single Flocks though by contract they may join in such things with others for Concords sake 12. When the case of many Churches is alike and their common good requireth Concord in any such accidents all are bound to observe such Concordant Agreements by virtue of Christs command for Concord 13. But if on this pretence Pastors will turn Agreements for Concord
prove a more probable Succession than the Roman whose frequent interruptions hath been oft proved 47. If we must imitate the Jewish High Priesthood not every City must have one but every Nation and so England hath none or else all the World 48. Judea being a small Country all the People at their great Anniversaries might go up to Jerusalem which in great Kingdoms and Empires is impossible 49. It is false that we are united to Christ only by the Sacrifice of the Eucharist Baptism which is no Sacrifice first uniteth us to him publickly as Faith and the Spirit do before secretly 50. It is a frivolous thing of Mr. D. to write a Book for one chief Altar and Bishop when the Question is of what Church that one must be I have proved that Ignatius appropriated them to Churches no bigger than our Parishes and Mr. Clerkson hath proved more and the Man confuteth none of this proof 51. Seeing he disowneth one Universal High Priest and would have one in every City or Nation at most who knoweth not that the City Bishops of the World are now and have been 1200 Years in so great dissention disowning each others Communion that it 's hard to know Catholicism by his way of Communion 52. And who shall Govern these several Bishops if each one be a Supreme Have they not as much need of Government as Presbyters 53. The Eucharist is no otherwise a Sacrifice than as it is an instituted Symbolical Commemoration of Christ's Sacrifice 54. The validity of the Sacrament depends not on the uninterrupted Succession of the Priest nor his Subjection to the Bishop 55. There are many Cases in which it is a Duty to be ordained and officiate without the Bishops consent As in all the Popish Countries where they will admit none without consent to Sin 56. To make Bishops and all their Curates the absolute disposers of Heaven and Hell is to set up the highest Papal Tyranny over Kings and Kingdoms by vile Presumption 57. His words that the People can better judge of their visible Union with the High Priest and Christ than of any invisible one is a pernicious intimation that this visible Church Union will save them that have not the invisible Grace of sound Faith Repentance and the Spirit of Love and Holiness I intended to have proceeded to a distinct Answer to Mr. Dodwell's whole Book because I take him to be the most injurious and gross Adversary to the true Unity of the Church on pretence of Pleading for Unity of any that calls himself a Protestant and find him not only extreamly self-conceited loquacious and magisterial in a lowly Garb but grosly unsincere intimating his denial of that in Print which he often owned to me in Private Conference viz. for the Nullity of the Protestant Churches that have not his false Character for the verity of the French Church and for the uninterrupted Succession of the Papal Seat when I undertook to prove it he told me It was not for the interest of Christianity to say so And yet it is for the interest of Christianity for him to Unchurch more Churches I think than the Papists ordinarily do But when I had gone thus far I was stopt by the Persecutions of his Church-Rulers and then by Sickness and after by near two Years Imprisonment for my Paraphrase on the New Testament by a Judicature as admirably agreeing to his Principles as if he had been his Disciple Chancellor Jeffreys lately Dead and such others Therefore not to tire the Reader with more words to so wordy a Man I again and again though I suppose in vain provoke him and his dividing Brethren to answer my Treatise of Episcopacy my first Plea for Peace my Sacrilegious desertion of the Ministry rebuked my Apology for the Nonconformists Preaching my English Nonconformity and Mr. David Clerkson's Posthumous Book for the Primitive Episcopacy against his Fiction of the present Diocesane Episcopacy as having no Bishops under them But fraudulent Disputers will dissemble and silently pass by that which they cannot answer But will that be Peace to Conscience in the End Having said as much as I think needful to satisfie intelligent impartial Readers against his Schismatical Writings in my Book of Church-Concord and here before I take my self discharged from any Obligation further to detect or confute his Fallacies The rather because he can say and unsay as he finds his Interest lead him And his Leviathan Church Vicegod which he feigns to be God's Proxy to us from whom there is no appeal to Scripture or to God will to Men that believe in Christ I think by his own Description appear as frightful as Hob's his Leviathan Some of this I wrote long after the most of the Book Chap. XX. Dr. Thomas Pierce now Dean of Salisbury's Judgment and Dr. Hamonds § 1. I Think Dean Pierce is the only Man surviving who was Commissioned by King Ch. 2. to Treat with us for Concord as being of the Bishops part in 1661 And who hath lived to see by near 30 years Experience whether his Zeal against the terms of Concord which we as humble Supplicants offered hath done more Good and prevented more Evil than a Concord on those offered terms would have done What it hath done on him I know not but with others Experience hath had as little Success as Reason and Petitioning had § 2. He hath written against me more Book 's than one which no Man hath excelled in insulting and in command of words His work is to prove Grotius to have been no Papist Few Men living think highlier of Grotius than I as to what he wrote before his change Especially his Book De Satisfactione Christi and that De Imperio Sum. Pot. de Jure Belli and his Annot. on the Evangelists Valesius and Petavius took him to be of their Religion and Church as did Vincentius and Saravius But 1. It is not the Name Papist that I regard but the Thing 2. Therefore the doubt between Dr. Pierce and me is What is Popery He thinks that it is not a proof that he is a Papist to be for an Universal Church Jurisdiction the Church of Rome being taken for the Mistris of all Churches and the Pope as Primate and Patriarch of the West governing according to the Canons of Councils and not Arbitrarily And taking the Articles of Pope Pius his Creed and Oath added at Trent which contain the Body of that which Protestants call Popery to be such as may be Sworn and bear a fair sense Though Dr. P. himself cannot subscribe them This with all the rest cited by me out of Grotius he taketh to be no proof of a Papist Let him call it how he please The French Church Government or the Protestant or the Catholick it is the Thing a Foreign Jurisdiction and specially an Universal that I deny § 3. And this he himself owneth for the proof of which I refer the Reader to his Books particularly his
New Discoverer Append. P. 206 207 208 where he is for one Government of the whole Church Not in specie only for so we are as well as he each Governing per partes in his own Province as Kings in their several Kingdoms but numerically by one Aristocracy the Pope being Principium Vnitatis And Aristocracy is a Government formed and unified in unâ Personâ Politicâ consisting ex pluribus Personis naturalibus Else it would not make one Soveraignty nor one Political Church or Society Therefore his saying P. 206. that the Pope's Primacy as Universal and his Western Patriarchate is no Monarchy but exactly reconcileable with an Aristocratick Government of the Church reconcileth not me at all to his Model who am past doubt that 1. One Aristocratical College is far more uncapable of Universal Government of the Christian World than a Pope If inter impossibilia daretur Magis Minus 2. And that a College of the Subjects of Foreign Kings e. g. France Spain Portugal Armenians Abassines Turks Moscovites c. are unfitter for Foreign Jurisdiction and particularly to Govern Britain than a Pope is The Confutation of Dr. Pierce is sufficiently done before and after I now only recite his Opinion And am sorry that he is sure that Dr. Hammond was of the same Religion with Grotius and for such a Jurisdiction But if any be for the French Church form of Government call them Papists or Protestants as they shall themselves desire It is the Thing and not the Name that I oppose The French know by feeling what that is God grant we feel it not Chap. XXI That this New sort of Prelatists who were for a Coalition with the French or Roman Church have been the great Agents of all the Dividing Silencing Persecuting Laws which have brought and kept us these Twenty seven Years in our dangerous lacerated State § 1. THat the Church of England before the days of Buckingham and Laud were quite of another Mind I have before fully proved And no reasonable Man can doubt of it who hath read the Apology of the Church of England and Jewel's Defence of it and the Writings of Whitaker Fulk Humphrey Field Willet Airy Bernard Crakenthorpe Sutliffe G. Abbot Rob. Abbot I. Reignolds Morton Vsher Downame John White Birkbeck Cook Perkins Bilson Andrews Hall Davenant and many such Bishops Dignitaries and other Conformists besides Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooker Farrar Bradford Philpot and the rest of the Martyrs Besides the Nonconformists § 2. And that the true Church of England even in Laud's time and since have never consented to this Coalition is evident 1. In that Heylin confesseth that Laud prevailed but with four or five more Bishops to be so much as Arminians viz. Neale Howson Corbet Buckeridge and Mountague And he that readeth Buckeridge his Book for Kings and Mountague's Works will think that even they were against this Coalition 2. And he confesseth that Laud durst not put his Cause to a Convocation because so small a Number there were for him 3. And to this day the Church or Parliament have not revoked the Homilies Articles Liturgy Apology or any of the Writings of the Bishops and Doctors aforesaid who have written against Popery 4. And excellent Writings have all along to this day been Published by the Church Doctors against all such Confederacies with Papists such as Dr. Stillingfleet who though to please his Superiors he defended Laud yet defended not all that he said or did Dr. More Dr. Tillotson Dr. Tennison Bishop Th. Barlow Mr. Wake yea even Henry Fowlis and many more But above all Dr. Isaac Barrow of the Supremacy unanswerably though S. Parker had Confidence enough to pretend a Confutation § 3. The Endeavours for a Coalition that were publickly attempted in Scotland Ireland and England by Laud and his Agents have been so voluminously written of Accused and Condemned in Parliaments and his own Death and the long Wars and all the Fractures that have followed were so much of the Consequents that to say more of this is Vain Dr. Pet. Heylin's Life of Laud doth acknowledge and justifie all And Prin's History of Laud's Tryal largely openeth it § 4. When the Parliaments and Scots Opposition and the ensuing Civil War had broken this Design and the Bloody Massacre in Ireland had rendred Popery more odious and dreadful than all Arguments could do before our War here the Parliament that had before the War begun to Purge the Church Ministry of Drunkards Scandalous and ignorant incompetent Men proceeded too far on Civil Accounts and ejected some for adhering to the King and being against them in the War though some of us disswaded them from all such severity Cromwell first rebelled against the Parliament and usurped the Government and shortly died and his distracted incoherent Army striving against the Democratical Relicts of the Parliament dissolved their usurped Government which Dissolution brought in King Charles II. by Monk and the Presbyterians as the Dissolution of the Parliament had brought in Cromwell And with the King return many of the ejected exasperated Clergy full of the Desires of Revenge and of preventing all Danger to their Dignities and Promotions for the time to come But at first they were diffident of their present Strength and thought they must execute their Revenge and Mutation by degrees The Lords Knights and Gentlemen that had suffered for Fighting against the Parliament for the King Published many Protestations to draw in the Presbyterians to restore the King that they would be for Love and Concord and seek no revenge Dr. Morley was sent before the King to Cajole the Ministers to believe that the King was a Protestant and inclined to Moderation And thereupon a moderate Party of Episcopal Men met with some called Presbyterians and declared their desires of Concord on sober terms viz. Dr. Bernard Dr. Gulston Dr. Allen and others such But Dr. Morley used them to his Ends and shifted off all discovery of his Designs still quieting them by general pretences of Moderation and Treaties He had the Chief Power over Chancellor Hyde who ruled the Land And Sheldon was next him and Hinchman the third But under them truckled many of the same Mind The King published a Declaration of Liberty for tender Consciences at Breda expounded since by 27 Years barbarous Persecution laying all on the Protestant Prelatists that would not make a Law for it I was past doubt in 1660. that the King was as he Died or had engaged himself to promote it here first by giving them Liberty of their Religion and afterwards the Power of the Land in Magistracy Militia and the Church Knowing Men said that Morley Sheldon Guning and the other Chief Agitators knew this and thought they had no other way to oblige him to keep up the English Prelacy but to engage that they would be firmer to his Absolute Power and sole Legislation and for Passive Obedience and for the Extirpation of Puritans and Parliament Power than the Jesuites
and then I said May it Please Your Majesty This reverend Dr. Guning just now accused us as if we would let in Socinians and Papists We suppose that this is not intended as our deed The King answered There be many Laws against the Papists I replyed We understand this to be for a dispensation with those Laws There was no more said and that was the Conclusion of the day III. In 1662. came out a Declaration for Liberty of Religion naming the Papists to have their part in it but not a Toleration I was desired to get the City Ministers to Subscribe a Thanksgiving for it I told them that it was the King's Work and not to be done by us But I knew it was the Bishops design to cast the Odium of a Toleration of Popery on the Nonconformists while they would gratifie the King by forcing us to Consent But they should never do it They should do it themselves or it should not be done And it presently died IV. The Lord Bridgman called Dr. Wilkins and his Chaplain Dr. Hez Burton and Dr. Manton and me and Dr. Bates after as by the King's Order to attempt an Agreement for a Comprehension to the Presbyterians and a Toleration for the Independents We agreed of the Comprehension in terminis and Judge Hale drew it up into the form of an Act But when we came to the other part the form proposed was for a Toleration of all not excepting the Papists I told the Lord Keeper that we could not meddle in measuring out all other mens Liberty but only to declare what we desired our selves Others must be consulted about their own concerns we were not for severity against any But it was the King's Work and we unmeet to be his Counsellors in it And so all was cast off by the Parliament by that means and the Act forbidden to be offered § 8. At last the King himself broke the Ice and Published a Declaration for Licensing a Toleration The Cruelty of the Prosecution of the Nonconformists being still the seeming Necessity for all But the Parliament broke it and it did the Papists much more harm than good for the Nonconformists continued to Preach though Persecuted § 9. The Clergy now would lay all the Severities on the Parliament and wash their own hands as guiltless of all But 1. It was they even their chief Bishops and Drs. that when the King Commissioned them to Agree on such Alterations as were necessary to tender Consciences after all importunity concluded that no Alteration was so necessary 2. And it was the Bishops and Convocation that altered the Book for the worse and put in new matter harder than before 3. And the Bishops in Parliament were the Chief Agents in all the Laws by which we are undone 4. And it is known that it was the Interest of the Bishops and their Church way that engaged the Long Parliament in all their terrible Acts against us Viz. The Act of Uniformity the Acts for Banishment the Five mile Act the Corporation Act the Militia Act the Vestry Act and others 5. And who knoweth not that it is they and their Disciples that make the great stir against our Healing in jealousie of their Interests which nothing but their own over-doing is like to overthrow 6. And when did they ever once Petition any Parliament to reverse the dividing wicked Laws or to restore the Silenced Ministers or to free them from dying with Rogues in Jails or to prefer the Ministers of Jesus before Barabbas or to request that the Eminent Ministers of Christ might have no greater Punishment for Preaching Christ than debaucht Whoremongers Drunkards Swearers and Blasphemers usually have in England 7. Yea if a Godly Conformist do but write against their Cruelty to the Nonconformists such as are Mr. Pierce Mr. Jones Mr. Bold they have for it Persecuted him as if he were a Nonconformist himself And that you may know that it is not the old Church-men nor yet a few single Persons when Dr. Whitby Prebend of Salisbury who had wrote against Popery did write an excellent Treatise for Peace and Reconciliation the Oxford University Decreed the Publick burning of it together with my Holy Common-wealth The Lord Convert and Pardon them that they prove not the burned fewel when Reconciliation and a Holy Common-wealth are prosperous c. God shall judge at last § 10. All this time from Laud till now it is a hard Controversie which of the two Parties is to be called The Church of England Both Parties pretend to it and some call both of them the same Church But the Infamous Roger L'Estrange set the Name of Trimmers on the old and reconciling Party pretending that the other were the Genuine Members of the Church And was imployed by his Genius and the Court and the Papists and the New Clergy-men to do a work so truly Diabolical as I never read of the like in History even for many Years together to Write and Publish twice a Week a Dialogue called Observations mainly levelled against Love Peace and Piety to perswade all men to hate their Brethren and to provoke men to destroy them whom he Nick-named Whigs and to render odious all save the Wolves whom he called Tories as if he owned the Irish Robbers so that a Trimmer with him was the same as a Peace-maker Blessed by Christ and Cursed by L'Estrange § 11. But whether the New Clergy or the Old be the Church of England and whether both be of one Church remaineth still doubtful But whoever hath the Name that one Name is equivocal when applied to Parties contrary and inconsistent 1. That Church which owneth a Foreign Government and Jurisdiction cannot be one and the same with that Church which renounceth and abhorreth it and owneth only Christ's Universal Government and a Foreign Concord and Communion But this is the difference between the Old Reformed Church of England and the New that call themselves the Church Two Kings make two Kingdoms For the Form denominateth And the Relative Vnion of the pars Imperans and Subdita is the Form That Church which hath a Human Head above National must have a Form and Name above National that is Above a Church of England which makes them all talk so much of The Universal Church in this false humane Form An Universal Church hath an Universal Soveraign Power which is only Christ. If the Pope be Antichrist it is his claim of this that maketh him so because it is Christ's Prerogative which no mortal Man or Council or College is capable of And if so is it not a Papal or Antichristian Church that these Foreign Subjects own and are of whether it be of the French or Italian Form if one be Antichristian both are so when the Claim of Universal Jurisdiction is the Cause I have voluminously detected the mistake of these deceived Men who are deluded by the Name Oecumenical Catholick and Universal which they find in the Councils and Fathers and
Persecuting Snares and against the Coalition of English Protestants on any possible healing Terms as ever and as fiercely seek the Continuance of our Slavery and Silence Chap. XXII How they have been stopt and in â—hat Danger we are yet of those that are for a Forreign Jurisdiction § 1. THe continual Endeavours of Parliaments to Suppress all the Relicts and Advantages of Popery in Queen Elizabeths and King James Days long kept this Papal inclination from appearing And when Laud raised it up and King James and Buckingham Countenanced it to promote first the Spanish and after the French Marriage the Articles of Liberty for Popery Consented to by King James and after Ratified by King Charles greatly Distasted the Nobility and Gentry and the People much more so that the Kings and Parliaments were never after easy to each other till King Charles II. got a Parliament fitted to his turn § 2. The new raised Impositions of King Charles I. and Laud first Exasperated the old conformable Clergy by â—uspending and vexing them for not reading the Book for Sports on the Lords Days and for Preaching twice a Day and by Altars and Bowing and other Innovations And the Severities against Burton Prin and Bastwick made a murmuring noise And the driving many hundred Families of Godly Men out of the Land much more And the newly Altered and Imposed Liturgy Exasperated the Scots who were Encouraged by the English Discontents Yet all this had done the less had not the same Church-Innovaters been against Parliaments and kept them out because Parliaments were against them And had they not Preached for and promoted the Kings power to Raise Taxes without a Parliament But this leavened the Nation with an Averseness to the Frenchified Reconcilers And the Scots knowing all this began Resistance which proceeded to a Mutual diffidence of King and People which brought forth after a Civil-War § 3. While the King and Parliament were Labouring under the Mortal Disease of mutual distrust the Irish by an Insurrection Murdered most Barbarously two hundred thousand Protestants just the day Twelmonth before Edghil Fight Dublin escaped And this Horrid Cruelty hastened the War in England and made Popery more odious than ever it was before and rendered the French Conciliators more distasted § 4. The Conciliators having the chief Ecclesiastical Power under King Charles I. and having too much Modelled the Churches and Universities to their Minds the Parliament began a Reformation before the War and carryed it on after and cast out many Hundred for Insufficiency through gross ignorance and for Drunkenness and Vicious Lives And some for being against the Parliament and prospering till Cromwell cast them out and Cromwell going much further against Prelatical Tyranny and an ignorant Vicious Ministry than they thirteen or fourteen or fifteen years time not only stopt the French design of Coalition but also wore out the chief designers and promoters of it To which the Death of Laud with all the Accusations against him struck deep of which see Prins Introductions and his Canterburies Tryal And many old Conformists which was all the Westminster Assembly of Divines saving eight were the Men that chose rather to put down the English Prelacy than to run the hazard of the change of Civil Government and Introduction of Popery So that both Popery and the favorers of it seemed quite cast out in England But Cromwell and his Armies Usurpation and Treasons so Exasperated the two Kingdoms both Episcopal and Presbyterians that after his Death his Army having cast themselves and the Land into Confusion they brought in King Charles II. who by his Declaration from Breda and his Treaty in 61 with the Nonconformists and his Declaration 1662. called Bristols and by his Treaty with us by the Lord Keeper Bridgman and by his Declaration for Toleration still laboured so Strenuously to give Popery a Toleration that discerning Men were satisfied that he was then of the Religion that he dyed in if he had any or at least had engaged himself to introduce it To which ends 1. The dividing of the Protestants 2. The Ejecting Silencing Ruining Imprisoning or Banishing those of them that were most unreconcileable to Popery 3. The keeping such out by new Impositions of Oaths Subscriptions Professions and Practices were found to be the fittest means 4. To which was added the Exasperating the long Parliament of Men before Exasperated against them 5. And the Declaring and Swearing the People against the Lawfulness of any Military Defence of Parliament or Kingdom against any Commissioned by the King 6. And to bring all those that scrupled such Oaths under the odious Name of Nonconforming Rebels Though they were all against Defensive War by any private Men or Faction or for any Cause less than the saving of the Kingdom from apparent Ruine Subversion or Alienation 7. To which was added the taking away of all Legislative Power from Parliaments and appropriating it only to the King the strenuous Endeavour of Bishop Morley's last Book against me and of many others 8. Which were all thought an unresistible force while the King of whatever Religion had the choice of all the Bishops Deans and Dignitaries and consequently of that called The Church of England 9. And also the choice of Judges and the making of Lords 10. And the changing of Corporation Charters § 5. To these uses that we may not accuse the Innocent it was comparatively but a few men that were the visible prime Instruments besides the non-appearing Jesuits or other Papists That is Chancellor Hide Dr. Sheldon Dr. Morley Dr. Guning whom not only Dr. Hinchman Dr. Cousins Dr. Lany Dr. Sterne and several others followed ex animo but also most of the worldly sequacious part of the Clergy and Laity for Interest and Preferment sake when they saw that the Interest of Sheldon and Morley with the Chancellor was a great and necessary means of obtaining their desires § 6. But the bringing us to French Popery by the Grotian way proved so slow by many stops that it hath by God's Mercy been hitherto much frustrate and prevented For the King must not make professed Papists to be Bishops Deans and Convocation Men lest the notoriety of the Design should raise unconquerable Offence and Opposition The Name of Popery was to be renounced even by those that were for a Foreign Jurisdiction And a Government like that of the French Church must be said to be no Popery but only that which made the Pope Arbitrary or Supereminent above Councils And the very retaining of the Name of Popery in their Renunciation spoil'd their Game And specially being necessitated to avoid Suspicion to make divers firm Protestants Bishops Deans and Judges Yet the slow way of K. Ch. II. was like to have been the surest could their Patience have held out § 7. But God used K. James II. as the great Instrument of frustrating all the Plot till now by his and his Instigaters Impatience of this delay and confidence
of Foreign Jurisdiction is Hostility against Kings and States III. That Foreign Councils of Bishops and Dyets of Soveraign Princes are Authorized for Communion for mutual Counsel and Concord by Contract and Agreement and have no just Jurisdiction or Political Regiment over particular Soveraigns or their subject Congregations Though in Councils they retain their proper Power at home IV. The Foreign Councils agreeing on things profitable to the common benefit of all Gods own Law of Love Unity Concord Edification and publick Regard and Peace forbiddeth the particular Bishops and Churches causlesly to dissent and affect singularity But if they agree on things hurtful and dangerous to any of the particulars they are not to be obeyed nor yet if they claim Jurisdiction instead of Communion and Contract But every Prince and Pastor must Rule their own As Kings will not own a Foreign King or Council of Kings who shall Usurp a Soveraignty over them much more if over all V. That all Forcing Power that the Clergy can claim by Canons or Mandates in Christian Kingdoms is only from the Prince or State as they are authorized by him as his Officers who only hath the power of the Sword and not at all any part of their Pastoral Office And therefore as Grotius in that excellent Book de Imperio sum Potest circa Sacra hath shewed Clergy-Canons are no Laws but directing Agreements VI. The Canons of the Greatest Councils called General were Laws to none without the Empire unless Foreign Princes or Pastors made them so Nor to any within the Empire but by the Soveraigns Act as they are forcing and the particular Pastors as Directing VII Before the Division and Ruine of the Empire the Name of a General Council signified but an Imperial or National Council They being called by the Emperors who had no further power and only out of the Imperial Provinces unless any odd Person came voluntarily in for help and advantage which was rare This I have at large proved in my two Books against W. Johnson alias Terret And Ecclesia Vniversalis usually signified no more than Vniversal National or Imperial Leo meant no more when he called himself Caput Ecclesiae Universalis nor Phocas when he gave Boniface the Title of Universal Bishop And when the Empire was divided it was the Treasonable Erection of Popery to feign that Orbis Romanus was Orbis Universalis and that Concilia Generalia and Ecclesia Vniversalis meant extra Imperial and Vniversal Over-foreigners and all the World And this is still as the Foundation of Popery so the common Cheat that pleadeth for Foreign Jurisdiction VIII Though Rome was a meet Seat for Imperial Church Primacy while Emperors would have it so as it hath no just pretence to the Government of Foreigners so it is of all others most unfit for a Primacy or Presidentship in the Councils of Foreign Confederate Princes and Churches because it claimeth so much more even Foreign and Universal Regiment Nor are Councils of such Bishops or Princes to be trusted with General Contracts who claim such Jurisdiction A Primacy in Lawful Councils of Confederates would strengthen their claim of an Universal Jurisdiction till they openly renounce it And so would the use of a Senate or Council that pretendeth to the like power IX Patriarchs and Metropolitans and Provincials or Diocesans in one Empire or Kingdom can for Number Seat or Precedency justly claim no power of Governing Foreigners nor subject Bishops of that Nation but from the Soveraign X. Legislation is the first Essential power of Regiment Therefore none can be an Universal Legislator that is not an Universal Rector XI As an Universal Monarch Ecclesiastical or Civil is the absurd claim of an Impossible thing and open Hostility to all Christian Kings and Churches so an Universal Aristocracy in Councils or Patriarchs and Bishops is yet more absurd as claiming a more notorious Impossibility than the Pope doth XII An Universal power of Expounding or Judging of Christs Laws by Regent Authority or of being such Keepers of unwritten Laws seemeth the most Eminent part of Legislation it being more to be Judge what is Law and to make or determine of the sence than to make the bare words And so the Bishops should have a higher Regency than Christ Official Judges Expound the Laws only in their limited Provinces and for the deciding of particular Cases but not to be the Universal Determiners of the sence to all others None but the Law-makers can make an Universally obliging Exposition XIII The instance of the Apostles power will not prove an Institution of a stated Universal Legislative Aristocracy or Monarchy For 1. It is evident that Christ first chose and instituted them as his National Ministers by the number of Twelve related to the Twelve Tribes and by the keeping up just that number after the coming down of the Holy Ghost And by his special Mission of Paul Barnabas and others to the Gentiles distinguishing their Apostleship from Peter's and the rest to the Jews 2. When Persecution and the fall of the Jewish state made the Apostles Office more Extensive it was rather Indefinite than Universal They were to go as far as they were sent and were able 3. The Church was then in so narrow Bounds as made that Extent easie when now an Universal Humane Regiment is of Natural Impossibility and so past rational Controversie 4. Their power was not any further Legislative than as they were Promulgators of Christs Laws and Determiners of mutable undetermined Circumstances or Accidents 5. They have no Successors in those extraordinary parts of their Office which looketh like any part of Legislative power Which parts are 1. Being Eye and Ear-witnesses of what Christ did and said committed to their Testifying and Predicating Trust. 2. Having a special Commission to teach all Nations his Laws or what he commanded as the prime Promulgators 3. As having the promise of the Spirit to Teach them all things and bring all to their remembrance 4. And having the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost to attest their Witness As Moses had Successors in Executive Regency but not as a Mediatorial Deliverer of Gods Law which Aaron Samuel David and Solomon must obey and rule by but had no power to alter words or sence nor add any thing but undetermined Circumstances Yet as the Laws of Christ promulgate by the Apostles bind all Nations to whom they are revealed so we grant that the same Laws of Christ declared by Councils or Preached by any single Minister bind all to whom they come And that every Minister and Christian being a Member of the Church Universal his Doctrine tendeth to Universal Benefit which yet giveth him no Universal Regent Jurisdiction As I remember I have said all this before in my Letters to Bishop Guning when you were his Second or Witness of our Conference But the Invitation of your Discourse which I shall now give you my thoughts of maketh me think that this
of the Matter 17. That the Church ever held it unlawful for a whole Kingdom to defend it self against a Prince that would deliver up half the Government to a Foreiner and force them to a Religion which requireth them to be Damned or to Dye When the Clergy and Church at Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch Rome c. did so oft by force and Blood resist even Christian Emperors such as Theodosius II. Zeno Anastasius and many others 18. That all the Churches held it lawful to Swear and Covenant never to endeavour any Amendment or Alteration of any such as the forementioned Church Government If all these things be contrary to the constant judgment or practice of the Church Quaere whether Dr. Beveridge and his Approvers pronounce not the Church of England Schismatical as so far separated from the Church Universal But again I conclude O! What must the Christian World suffer even by Learned and I hope pious Doctors I. Because they will not distinguish National or Imperial Vniversality of Church and Councils from those of the whole World II. Nor Communion from Regiment nor Contracts from Laws nor a Regent Excommunication from a Renunciation of Communion by Equals III. Nor Divine Obligations to Concord and human demands of obeying Usurpers or the hurtful Agreements of an injurious Majority of equal Votes IV. And by their Deposing Christian Kings and Magistrates from their Sacred Power over Bishops in Church-Government and for Mens Souls as if they were made only for the base things of the World and Flesh and Priests only were trusted with Religion and Souls And Kings were not Heads of National Churches V. And their shameless calling them Adversaries to Episcopacy that would have one Hundred Bishops for one and are for the old three sorts Episcopi Gregis Episcopi praesides and Arch-Bishops and calling those the Episcopal part that put down all the Bishops in a Diocess save one As for your self I profess to be so far from Censuring any thing of you save these Mistakes that as I have long so I do still Love and Honour you as a Man fearing God and of a good and blameless Conversation as far as ever I Credibly heard And I thought the like of Bishop Guning though as it is with many Religious Papists his Opinions more prevailed against his Charity for that Mischievous hurtfulness in which he served the Subtilty of Sheldon and the fierceness of Morley and the Designs of Papal Courtiers But I hear that your Piety and Charity prevaileth against the evil tendency of your mistaken Doctrine Though Mr. Thorndike threaten England unless they Reform the Oath of Supremacy I confess I wish it restored and am Displeased with those Scots that have causelesly quarrelled with it and so helpt to open a Door to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is Sworn against Since the writing of all beforegoing I first read your two great Volumes of Canons and your Answer to Dallaeus In the Prolegomena of the first to my Grief I find you more express for an Universal Legislative Power and Foreign Jurisdiction than in your Sermon And yet not at all telling us where to have access to this Universal Soveraignty for Judicature out of the times of General Councils nor how to know but by believing your bare word what Councils are our Universal obliging Laws when you confess the vast difference of the Eastern and Western numbers nor how to know what our Religion is while we know not what be our Laws Nor how to know whether the Church be extinct when it hath no human Head by the Cessation of such Councils nor who must call them nor whence nor what is their Constitutive Matter only you say they must be called out of all the Christian World But need not all be there And will a Call make a General Council if the Men come not And can they come from all the Dominions of the Abassines Armenians Turks Persians Muscovites c. And who hath right to call them hath the Pope Or our Emperors or Kings what power hath he over all other Princes Subjects You confess they were called out of the Imperial Provinces And how few if any other Names are Subscribed But I am sorry that you still so contrary to all Evidence take National or Imperial Universality for Terrestrial Universality of Church and Councils I beseech you if we must be Papists let us be of the more reasonable sort that know where to find a Papal Monarch or Vice-Christ and not sent to seek a Church-Parliament Universal or Universal Aristocratical College that is no where extant in the World nor can be especially now the five Patriarchs are what and where they are How much more Rational to be Governed by the Pope as Patriarch of the West only till we can find out the Aristocratical Head But since the Empire was turned into many Kingdoms who can prove that those many must have all one Human Head But I am yet more sorry that you joyn with Hildebrand in making Princes to be but for the Body and Civil Peace and Bishops and Priests to be the Church and for the Soul Which God willing as I have oft done I shall fullier Confute in a Treatise for true National Churches proving that Christ hath made no Higher Visible Humane Church Power or Form And that Christian Kings are as Sacred Persons and Ministers of Christ as Bishops and Superior Heads of National Churches though the Power of the Keys belong only to the Clergy And that a true National Church is but a Christian Kingdom as such the King being the Head and Confederate Pastors and Churches the Subject Body The Second Part. The Stating of the Controversie and full Confutation of the Pretences for a Foreign Jurisdiction The CONTENTS CHap. I. The clear stating of the Controversie and Confutation of the Pretenders In 60 Propositions proving it a perjurious alteration of Government c. Ch. II. Why Parliaments and the Church of England before Bishop Laud were so much against such a Coalition with the Papal Church Ch. III. The said Coalition is not the way to Catholick Union Ch. IV. The Deceits that are pleaded for an Universal Humane Soveraignty Ch. V. A Foreign Jurisdiction by College or Counsels unmaskt Ch. VI. The Grand Consequential Case Whether it be lawful for Presbyters to Swear or Profess Obedience to those Bishops who profess Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction or for the people to own them Ch. VII Of the second part of the design to bring the Papists to our Churches as in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's days Ch. VIII Why it will not serve for a Coalition for the Papists to abate their last 400 years corruptions as Archbishop Bromhall maintaineth Ch. IX Whether the instance of the Apostles Church Government prove an Universal Soveraignty in man Ch. X. Many Questions about Councils to be resolved before we can take them for an Universal Aristocracy Ch. XI A Breviate of both the Aristocratical
Christ our Redeemer For this end he both died rose and revived that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living Rom. 14.9 10. All power is given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28.19 All things are delivered to him of the Father and given into his hands John 13.3 and 17.2 He is made Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.23 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son John 5.22 VII Princes are therefore now the Ministers of Christ by Duty and are bound to study his Interest and Laws and to obey him VIII Subjects by Obligation are not always Subjects by Consent nor Subjects by Professed Consent always Subjects by Heart-Consent IX All the World is the Kingdom as of God the Creator so of Christ the Redeemer as to Obligation And the Wicked as Rebels X. All the truely Baptized are thereby made the Kingdom of Christ the Redeemer by Profest Consent And this is the Church visible XI All the true Believers and Sanctified are the Kingdom of Christ by Heart-Consent and these are the Church Regenerate and Mystical XII Therefore the Kingdom of Christ is larger than the Church of Christ And the Church is an Elect peculiar people Visible as to Means and Mystical as to Salvation Even as the Israelites had the Covenant of peculiarity while the Law of Grace in the first Edition made to Adam and Noah was still in force to all the World And Abraham thought that even Sodom had had Fifty Righteous Persons in it XIII The Church of Christ is an Eminent Politick Society of which Christ is the Specifying and Vnifying Head and all Christians are Members All the Baptized Visible Members and all the sincere consenters mystical Members XIV Christ is the Maker of his own Body Church or Kingdom He made himself the Head He made the specifying Institution or Law the Terms of Union and Communion He giveth Men the Grace by which they Believe Repent Consent and are made Members If Christ made not his own Church as to the Formal Head the Species the Unifying Terms and Graces it would be as a Wooden Leg to a living Body a Human Creature imposed on him Savouring of the Errours and Naughtiness of those that made it and Mutable at their Mutable Wills Every active Form makes it's own material Domicilium Who is he or who are they that had power to make Christ a Body or Church in specie before he made it himself Christs Body is not made by Man If it were who were they Were they his Body or Church first themselves or not If yea who made them such and who them and who them in infinitum If not how came Infidels and the Members of the Devil to have power to make a Body or Church for Christ XV. Christ hath de specie Instituted who shall be Members of this Church And by his Laws Terms and Description taught us certainly to know the Members as Visible Else we could never know whom to take for Christians nor whom to love as such Nor to whom to give the Seals of his Grace and Communion with his Members XVI Baptism is the Symbol or Badge of Christians and Baptizing is our Christening and whoever believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved Therefore till they Revolt all truly Baptized persons are Visible Christians and make up the Visible Church Which is the Society of all Christians Headed by their Soveraign Christ. XVII All Christians entered in Infancy are not capable of the Duty Blessings and Communion of the Adult Adult Members and Communion must be distinguished from Infant XVIII Therefore all that will have Adult Communion though they must not be Baptized again must as fully own their Baptismal Covenant Devoting themselves by their own Vnderstanding Consent and Vow to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil as if they were now to be Baptized The neglect of this or turning it into a dead image and Ceremony by dead Images of Bishops on pretence of Confirmation confoundeth the Church and would make it a dead Image and really but the World XIX The Universal Church of Christ in his days on Earth was but an Embrio and his few Apostles and Disciples who were suited in number to the Jewish Nation where their Ministry was to begin were but like the Organical parts of the Body the Heart Head Eyes Liver c. when Nature hath first made them that by them it may make the rest But when Christ was Risen and the Holy Ghost sent down in Eminency and the Gentiles called and the Church began to be Catholick this Kingdom of the Holy Ghost is that which is called specially the Kingdom of God and Heaven which the Gospel then proclaimed and John Baptist told Men was at hand XX. The Church of Christ on Earth is partly Visible and partly Invisible and yet but one Church As Man is visible as to his Body and invisible as to his Soul and yet but one Man It is visible 1. In that the Subjects persons are Visible 2. Their profession is Visible 3. Christ was Visible on Earth 4. He is Visible now in his Court of Heaven 5. He will in visible Glory come and Judge them 6. They shall see his Glory for ever 7. His Laws are Visible 8. His Officers are Visible 9. Many of his Judgments and Executions are Visible here 10. The rest shall be so quickly and for ever His Church is Invisible 1. In that Christ as God was never seen 2. His Soul never seen 3. His Office as to Truth Right and Authority Invisible and to be believed 4. The Souls of the Subjects Invisible 5. Their Sincerity Invisible 6. And Christ now not seen on Earth 7. Nor Heaven and Hell seen where is his great Execution and Retribution XXI Christ only is the Specifying and Unifying Form of the Church as United to the Matter And all Christians Pastors and People are but the Matter They have a sort of Unity in themselves They are of one Human kind of one Interest of one Profession and Faith and Love if sincere and joyn in one sort of Worship and Acts of Obedience to Christ But they are One Christian Church or Body of Christ only by their Vnion with Christ and Relation to him their Head and Center As the Kingdom of England hath one sort of Men in our Land of one Language c. But only their Relation to one King makes them one Kingdom XXII The Church or Body of Christ when fully made hath dissimilar parts some are Noble Organical parts first made to be instruments in making and preserving all the rest and the Church cannot be a Formed Church without them some are such Integrals as the Church may live without but not be Whole without Even as Aristotle defineth the Soul to be Entelechia or the Entitative Act and Form of a Physical organized Body capable of being Animated by it And as in
the Universal Church And so it is not only Bishops that have every one a Charge in his Place to promote the Universal welfare but every Presbyter and every Christian in his Place Therefore that Bishops are related to the whole Church no more proveth that they have as a Senate a summa potestas or any Universal Government over it as one College than it will prove it in all other Christians who are all related to the whole Nor no more than the Members of the Body do make one natural Governing Part by Consent XXX This Communion of Christians in the Church as Catholick is essentiated by the Essentials of Christianity and Ministry for Christians as Christians with Christ the Head do constitute the Catholick Church in its first being as in fieri And Christians as Christian Ministers of Christ and private Disciples do constitute the organized Body which with Christ the Head make an organized Catholick Church XXXI The Integrals of Christianity Communion are not necessary to the Essence of the Church but to the Integrity Much less the Accidents XXXII The Christian Churches through the World have Communion in all these things following at this day 1. They are all Baptized with the same Baptism in Essence and so are all Christians Particularly they all profess to believe in God the Father one Jesus Christ our Redeemer and one Holy Ghost one in Essence with the Father and the Son They all profess the same Creed called the Apostles yea and the Nicene and the Lord's Prayer as the Rule of our Desires and the Decalogue as a summary Rule of Practice They all believe the same holy Canonical Scripture as to as many Books at least as are necessary to the being of Christianity and Salvation They all agree in the Essentials of the Sacred Ministry that such must teach the Infidels of the World and make them Disciples of Christ baptizing them and then must teach them Christ's Commands That they are under Christ's Teaching Priestly and Kingly office to be to the Churches the Peoples Teachers their Guides in Publick Worship and the Rulers of their Communion by the Power of the Keys They agree in the Essentials of the Lord's Supper save that the Papists have corrupted it by Transubstantiation and other foul Abuses The Protestants Greeks Armenians Abassines and all or near all the Parties of Christians in the World are agreed in all this and much more excepting the said Corruptions of Popery 2. Their Religion teacheth them all to Love one another as the Members of the same Body of Christ to do good to all especially to the Houshold of Faith and to Pray for one another and and relieve each other in want and to do to all as they would have others do to them In a word to Love God as God and Saints as Saints and Men as Men and all to seek one Heavenly Kingdom and all fight against the same Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil And this is Catholick Communion XXXIII The greater Communion they have in all the Integral parts of Christian Faith Worship and Government the more strong and amiable the several Churches are and so is the whole by such Communion But it is not necessary to the Essence It is not the Papists trick of challenging us to name Fundamentals that will cheat men of understanding to confound Essentials and Integrals That which hath no Essence is nothing that whose Essentials are unknown is not knowable nor can be defined Christianity was once known by Baptism and it was once knowable who were to be Baptized and who to be received as Christians into Communion There are multitudes of Divine Truths revealed in Scripture and therefore to be believed which are not essential to a Christian or a Church And so there are Integral Parts of Worship and Discipline He that needs more proof of this is not one of those that I write for XXXIV The Accidents of Christianity and Churches are of two sorts some such as it is desireable that all Churches should agree in though it be necessary neither to their Essence or Integrity And some such in which an Universal Agreement is neither possible nor desireable As it is desireable to comeliness that all men have Hair and Nails c. but not that they all wear Cloaths of the same Stuff Shape or Price or all dwell in Houses of the same materials form or bigness nor all use the same Trade of Life nor be of one Age or Rank c. It is desireable that all the World spake one Language and were of one Judgment in all things of common concernment But it 's hopeless And he would play the hypocritical Devil that on pretence of seeking Unity would destroy or ruin all that agree not in these things so is it as to Church Communion It is desireable that all Christians understood and spake one Language and that we had but one perfect sort of Copy of the Bible without various readings or where Translations are necessary that they were all perfect and agreeable but it 's hopeless As the case is it is not desireable much less necessary that we all Worship God in one Language when all understand it not or that we all use the same Translations Liturgy or words of Prayer or Preaching or all wear the same sort of Garments and an hundred such like And to silence all that do not or reject them from Catholick Communion is the like hypocritical Diabolism and in that way the Devil and the Pope are the greatest Vniters that is Dividers and Destroyers in the World XXXV The Vniversal Church containeth many particular Churches throughout the World This none denieth As a Kingdom hath many Cities and Corporations XXXVI These particular Churches Parts of the Universal have a distinct constitutive Form That is Christ only is Soveraign of the Universal but his Officers are the particular constitutive ruling part of the particular though under Christ. King and Subjects only are Essential to a Kingdom But a Mayor Bailiff or other chief Officer and the common Citizens are Essential to a City And to call a man Chief or Head of a Family or City that is no King is no Treason but to claim the Royalty is XXXVII Therefore there is more necessary to Communion in a particular Church as a Member of it than to Catholick Communion Viz. He must consent to his Relation and Submission to the particular Pastors of that Church and to meet at the same time and place and joyn in all the necessary Parts of Publick Worship with them Else local Communion will be impossible Therefore it is injurious ignorance which maintaineth of late that he that separateth from or is justly cast out of one Church separateth from or is cast out of all For he that will not own the Pastor of that Church cannot have Communion with it as a Member of that Church who can come to School to a Schoolmaster that he consents not to
Faith one Baptismal-Covenant with Christ one Spirit one Hope of Grace and Glory and must keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And that all Subjects must obey their Rulers and Pastors in all lawful things belonging to their Office to command and teach And that as Particular Churches must be held for the Personal Communion of Saints so all these Churches must by Messengers Letters and Synods hold such correspondency as the common good of the Universal Church and their own strength and edification by the means of mutual COVNSEL and CONCORD do require II. Accordingly we make not Regent Senates or Courts of such Councils to make Laws for the Christian World But they are like the Assemblies of pious Christian Princes who study the Peace of the whole Christian World Princes are bound so to do as well as Pastors That they do not proveth not that they ought not Their Kingdoms are but parts of the Kingdom of Christ. If they should hold an Assembly in Europe for the suppressing of such a Heresie as threatneth the whole or such a Tyrant as the Pope or such an Enemy as the Turk it were well done and had the same reasons and power as a Council of Bishops Bishops may not undertake Jurisdiction in other mens Bishopricks nor Kings in other mens Kingdoms Bishops are bound to prefer the universal good and so are Kings III. And therefore the measure of such Communion by Consultation by Messengers Letters or Councils is 1. The publick good 2. And the capacity of the Communicants We have Communion with all Christians in Abassia Armenia and all the Earth in Faith Hope Love and all the Essentials of Christianity But if John or Joan here commit Adultery and be excommunicated as impenitent we are not bound to send Messengers to the Antipodes or all the World to tell them of it no nor if a Bishop or his Chaplain turn Heretick Nor are they bound to send hither to enquire or examine it And if the Excommunicate come to Armenia and desire Communion they are justifiable for receiving him and being ignorant of our Excommunication But Neighbour Christians and Churches live so near that they are capable of converse And therefore Synods and Communicatory Letters are there of great use And so far as an Excommunicate man is like to intrude into the Communion of other Churches it is meet that his Excommunication be published and that other Churches receive him not without just satisfaction And so Councils are useful as far as propinquity maketh men capable of visible Communion Especially to Pastors and Churches in one Kingdom where the Unity of the Civil Government giveth them more capacity and necessity of such Correspondency than with Foreigners And therefore the Councils in the same Roman Empire had great reason for their Decrees to avoid those Excommunicate by each other And yet many Councils even under the Papacy decreed that he that is unjustly Excommunicate by one Bishop may be received by another But that supposeth his tryal and proof of the Injury Therefore we come not so near the Universal Soveraignty of Councils as Dr. Stillingfleet in the Defence of A. Bishop Laud tells us Laud whom he defended doth Who will have the old Councils confessed truly General notwithstanding the absence of the Extra-Imperial Bishops 2. And will have such Councils to have been received the Four first by all the Christian World when it 's known how many rejected that at Chalcedon 3. And will have such Councils to be externally obeyed by patient submission when they notoriously err by all Christians till another Council as General and Free reverse their Decrees 4. And will have them have such Obedience as all other Courts For meer Councils of Bishops of several Kingdoms are no Courts and have no proper Jurisdiction Chap. II. Why Parliaments and Archbishop Abbot and the Church of England Antecedent to A. Bishop Laud were against the Design of Coalition with Rome § 1. IT was not because they were Enemies to Christian Concord or did not desire it on lawful possible terms with Papists and all others Nor was it because they were maliciously bent to be cruel to the Papists by denying them the common Love which is due to Mankind or any Benefits or Peace which was consistent with the Nations Peace and Safety But it was on such Reasons as these following § 2. I. They took the design to be a real restoring of Popery under the Name of Reconciliation and Peace And they had an excuseable Opinion that if Popery were set up it was not laying by the Name and calling it Reformation or the Church of England that would deliver us from the Sin or Suffering They were not of the new Opinion that none are Papists but those that would have the Pope Absolute above General Councils and Govern Arbitrarily against the Canons They took the foundation of Popery to be the Heresie that the whole Church on Earth must have one Soveraign or Supream Government with Universal Legislative and Judicial and Executive Power under Christ in which it must be Vnited or made One Church This they took to be Antichristian the intolerable Treasonable Usurpation of an Impossible thing tending to the Confusion of Mankind But whether this Traiterous Soveraignty should be Monarchical or Aristocratical in Pope or Councils feigned to be General or in both Conjunct and when Conjunct whether the Pope should be above the Council or the Council above the Pope or each have a Negative Voice or he have but the Calling and Presiding Power They took these to be but several sorts of Popery or differences among the Papists themselves And they took it for a ridiculous absurdity that a Council of men dead an Hundred or a Thousand Years ago and that only of men of one Empire called by their own Prince should be taken for the Vnifying Constitutive Soveraign Power of the Universal Church which now existeth and that the Body can live many Hundred Years after the Head is dead and yet be a Church of the same Species And for them that say the Bishops of all the Earth have a Jus Conveniendi and are a Virtual Council It is but to say could they prove it that they are a Virtual Head and not an Actual and so that we have no Actual Universal Church but a Virtual And as for the new Dream that they are Actually the Supreme Unifying Power and Actually Govern the whole Christian World per literas format as it 's a sad case with Christians when such deliration needs a confutation and sadder if such a Land or Clergy as ours must remedilesly Perish by believing or following such a Dream Shall all the Bishops of Asia Africa Europe and America out of the Dominions of the Turks Persians Tartarians Indians Papists Protestants Abassines c. meet in despite of their involuntary forbidding Princes How and by whose Call and where and when in how long time and who shall bear their
Charges from next to the Antipodes or from Abassia Mexico c. Must they be old Men fit for Council or Boys fit for Travel when the age of a Man will scarce serve for their coming together their business and their return and execution And what 's all this to do Is it to make new Universal Laws Hath not Christ in Nature and Scripture given us enow for the Practice of Christianity without all this ado of Congregating Bishops for Legislation all over the World Oh that these Law-makers would keep Christ's Laws And if it be for mutable Circumstances is not every Church or Countrey sufficient for such variable Determinations Must men come from the Antipodes Ethiopia or Turky to tell me here what Cloaths I must wear or what place or time I shall Preach in or what Tune to Sing in c. But if they must not meet what Messengers must be sent to them all over the World to gather their Votes How shall we be sure that they truly state all the Cases to them And that they truly bring us back their Judgments And that those Judgments were truly past without hearing what could be said against them And is every single Bishop infallible or the Majority only and how shall it be known what the Majority said And whither shall all their collected Votes be carried and to whom Is it to every Christian or to every Bishop And how many Ages will this require And if it be not for Legislation but Judgment if the Question be whether A. B. be a Heretick or C. D. be a Fornicator c. who shall bear the Messengers Charges that must go through the World to all the Bishops to decide it And shall the Cause be tryed without witnesses or hearing the defence of the accused And must the accused and witnesses go through all the World Reader is it not a shame to confute such Dreams Had not I tryed in with the Leading Men I should have taken him for a Slanderer that had said that any English Dr. and Bishop should maintain that the Collegium Pastorum through the World is that summa Potestas under Christ which hath the Chief Government of the Vniversal Church in Vnity per literas formatas and that our Concord lyeth only in obeying this Power and it's Schism not to unite in such Obedience § 3. II. Moreover the former Church of England and Parliaments thought that the Oath of Supremacy which excluded a Foreign Jurisdiction did mean as well the Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope as President of a Council and that Council with him and of the Pope as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis and of the Bishops of Italy Spain France Poland Mexico Turky c. as of a Pope above Councils And they were not willing again to Subject the King and Kingdom to Foreign Priests nor to be cheated into Slavery by the bare Name of the Catholick Church and the Ecclesiastical Government § 4. III. And they indeed took the Pope to be the Antichrist specially for his Usurping an Universal Kingdom or Governing Power proper to Christ And therefore were angry with Archbishop Laud and his Chaplains for leaving out all such words from the Liturgy to avoid the Pope's displeasure of which Dr. Heylin ubi sup giveth you an account See but Bishop Downame's large Latine Book to prove the Pope Antichrist who yet hath written the strongliest for Diocesan Bishops of any man in my Judgment that ever I read § 5. IV. And they thought that the Doctrinal differences were very many and very great and in divers Points I believe they thought them greater than they are see the huge Catalogue gathered by Bishop Downame in the End of the foresaid Book Morton White Whitaker Abbot Field Sutliffe Chaloner Bernard Crakenthorpe and abundance more chief Drs. of the old Church of England have opened them at large But how small the new Drs. made them to be Dr. Heylin fully tells you And Archbishop Bromhall saith ubi sup p. 72 73. when all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly Mustered c. See the rest § 6. V. But none doubted but the Differences about Worship were unreconcileable till one Party much changed their Forms of Worship Their great Mass of superstitious Inventions if not Idolatry as the Church of England thought and Dr. Stillingfleet even of late hath charged on them Protestants could never be reconciled to But of A Bishop Laud's reconciling attempts in Worship See Heylin Vbi supra in his Life And Archbishop Bromhall saith P. 141. Speaking against Chillingworth's true way of Concord That Form which the Protestants would allow the Romanists cry out on as defective in Necessary Duties and particularly wanting five of their Sacraments Nay certainly to call the whole frame of the Liturgy into Dispute offers too large a Field for Contention and is nothing so likely a way for Peace as either for us to accept of their Form abating some such Parts of it as are Confessed to have been added since the Primitive times and are acknowledged not to be simply necessary but such as charitable Christians ought to give up and Sacrifice to an Vniversal Peace and would do it readily enough if it were not for mutual Animosities of both Parties and particular Interests of some Persons § 7. VI. And they thought it as unlawful to obey the Pope as Patriarch of the West or as President with his Council if he imposed on us the Mass or the Worship of Angels Dead Men or Images or any new Sacraments or unlawful things as if he did it as above General Councils § 8. VII And they made no doubt but if the Pope and his Foreign Councils and all his attendant Trumpery were once received as Principium Vnitatis Vniversalis and the President of Councils he would soon come in in the same Capacity that other Popish Countries do receive him § 9. VIII For they knew that it is that same Man that is more absolute in Popish Kingdoms who would submit to some restraint in this And that by Possession Agents and that foreign help he would easilier reduce this to the Case of others than the Case of any others to this § 10. IX They had not lost the Remembrance of the Spanish Invasion the Gunpowder Plot and the many Treasons of late by such committed and it made them fear both the Power and the Company of such a sort of men § 11. X. They remembred the heavy Taxes Oppressions and the Rebellions and Wars that had been in the times of Popery in England And they had felt the ease and sweetness of Deliverance and were loth to return to that Captivity again 12 XI They had not forgotten Queen Maries Days Fox's Book of Martyrs was in the hands of many Nor had they forgot the French Massacre or the greater Murders formerly committed by Wolves in Sheep-skins who were known by
their bloody Fangs and Jaws § 13. XII They saw that the same Clergymen who were for this Union with Rome were the chief Defenders of the King 's absolute Power of raising Money without Parliaments as the known History of Abbot's Dejection and Laud's Sibthorp's and Mainwaring's Cases shew And this made them the lother to draw nearer Popery § 14. XIII They found the Power of the Clergy in the High Commission and their Courts and Councils so uneasie to them that they greatly feared so great an increase of it as the Coalition with Rome would cause § 15. XIV They found that the Papists and reconciling Prelates were the greatest Enemies to them whom they accounted the most Godly serious Christians Ministers and Lay-men not only Nonconformists but such as they devised to call conformable Puritans And they were not for Uniting their strength against serious practical Piety § 16. XV. They found that the prophane Drunkards and ignorant Rabble greatly rejoyced in the Bishops prosecuting such Puritans And were loth to see them much more so animated by the Coalition with Rome § 17. XVI They found so great a number of the Clergy that were for the Coalition and Enemies to the Puritans to gape so greedily after Preferment and live such indifferent lives and Preach so unprofitably and do so little to cure the ignorance of the People as made them fear much worse if we came nearer the Roman Clergy who are so much for blind obedience and cherishing ignorance that they may Rule § 18. XVII They did not perceive that the Case of any Popish Country Italy Spain Portugal Austria Bavaria Poland no nor France was so much better than ours as might tempt us to be liker to them than we are Yea that the best of them both in Civil and Religious Respects are so much worse as may well deter us from such desires § 19. XVIII And it 's not to be doubted but they made some Conscience of their Obligations to the King and were loth he should be tempted to give away half the Government of his Kingdom yea of himself to Foreigners under the Name of Ecclesiastical Government by such Courts as theirs § 20. XIX And no doubt they remembred what Doctrine against Kings and States are subject to the Church and Pope their Councils and Drs. do assert and what they have done to their disturbance and destruction And therefore were loth to give any more strength and advantage to men of such Principles and Pretensions If the Pope will give a Protestant King fair quarter and promise him freedom from his Tyranny while the same man according to his Canons layeth claim to more and exerciseth Tyranny in other Lands he may soon break his Promise here § 21. XX. And no doubt but they saw how loth other Princes and States were to return nearer Rome that had once escaped and to subject themselves to such a Usurper And they thought it unwise and unsafe for England to stand alone in a singular odd condition neither Papists nor such Reformers as any of the rest and so to be strengthened by a Concord and hearty Friendship with neither § 22. XXI And it is not to be doubted but the Lords and Gentlemen of England were unwilling to give up all their Abby Lands as long as they thought a sufficient Ministry competently provided for And unwilling to take the Pope or Clergies promises for security for the continuance of their Possessions yea and to save them from being burnt as Hereticks § 23. XXII And no doubt but common reason told them how great a part of England not the unwisest nor the worst would refuse consent to the Coalition with Rome and the nearer approaches when imposed and therefore what a doleful encrease it would make of our Divisions If we are so sadly divided already by a few Oaths and Promises and New Covenants and Formalities and Church Judicatures how many hundred thousand more would dissent if all were imposed which the new Church-men judge necessary to the Union with Rome § 24. And these would unavoidably draw on a grievous Persecution For when all this stir loss cost and hazard had been made to bring on such a general Concord Dissenters would not have been endured by the Clergy when yet they would be multiplied § 25. And how much such a Division and Persecution would weaken the Kingdom they that did not believe Christ that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand might easily know by reason and the Worlds experience § 26. On such accounts as these the two sorts of Episcopal Conformists differed and the old Tribe called then the Church of England resisted the endeavours made by Bishop Laud and such as A. Bishop Bromhall and the rest that were for a Coalition with Rome Till the latter got into the chiefest Chairs and then they called their side The Church And thus Church and Church here began our strife And the difference twisted with the Civil differences between King and Parliament widened and utterly exasperated by War the A. Bishop of Canterbury beheaded and the A. Bishop of York being in Arms for the Parliament each Party claimeth the name of the Church of England And the Party that is uppermost doth it with advantage while sober men know that denominating à Formâ as existent in Materiâ capaci seu dispositâ the Church of England is nothing but a Protestant Soveraign and a Protestant Kingdom of Subjects guided by Protestant Ministers of the Word Sacraments and Keys So that in the Reign of King James and of any Papist King there was and can be no Protestant Kingdom or National Church deficiente formâ denominante in the Judgment of those Royalists that think Parliaments have no part in the Legislation and Soveraignty And according to them that think otherwise it is but a National Church secundum quid in respect to the Power of Parliaments and Laws But Particular Churches Parochial and Confederate and Diocesan may yet continue their Constitutive causes continuing But not an informed National Church Chap. III. They are deceived who are for the foresaid Papal or Council-Jurisdiction as if it were the way of Vnity or Catholicism § 1. I Doubt not but the desireableness of Universal Concord is it which draweth many honest well-meaning men into the esteem of the Papal or Conciliar-Jurisdiction All things have a tendency to Aggregation or Unity as Perfection and nothing more than Christian Love This held such good men of old as Bernard Gerson c. from favouring the Reformers thinking that the Papacy was necessary to Unity This kept such as Erasmus and Cassander from forsaking them And this turned Wicelius Grotius and others to them And no doubt but this inclineth many in England to the French kind of Church-Government and to approve and follow Grotius But they quite cross their own desires § 2. Catholicism or Vniversal Concord consisteth in that which all the Christian Church is constituted by and in which
Fellow that the Foreign Soveraign will make his Chancellor or Legate VI. VVho knoweth not how much the Government and Peace of the State will depend on the Government of such an Universal Church Governor VVhen they have Excommunicated the King will not the Subjects the more dishonour him if they take the Excommunicators Power to be Supreme What work hath the Pope made by Excommunications Kingdoms have been engaged in War by it against each other Yea Subiects against their Kings Yea Sons have deposed their Fathers as the Emperor Henry's Case acquaints us Yea when the Pope hath not medled Bishops Councils have basely deposed the best of Kings as Ludov. Pius Case tells us and the Empress Maud's in England c. In ad ordine Spiritualia all will fall into the Foreign Soveraigns hands They must be the Soul and Kings but the Body VII It will unavoidably follow that Kings and Kingdoms must be subjected to Foreign Princes by this pretence of a Foreign Church Jurisdiction For he knoweth little of the World that knoweth not that to be true which Dr. Peter Heylin on the Creed of the Cath. Church citeth out of Socrates that since Emperors were Christians all things depended on their beck or will Will not they chuse Bishops or Rule in the choice Will not they over-rule the choice of such as are to be sent to General Councils as King James chose the Six that went hence to Dort Is it not known that it is the Excellency and Merit of our Clergy to be obedient to the Kings Will And is it not so in the rest of the VVorld Therefore those Princes that can command the greatest number of Bishops will be Governors of all the rest of the VVorld both over their Souls and Bodies VIII I desire it may be well considered whether the Government of all Kings for Soul and Body will not fall into the hands of Mahometans and Infidels or at least the contest prove hard between them and the Papists For it is no small number of Bishops that are in the Mahometans Dominions Turks Moors Persians Indians c. And if they know once the advantage of numbers they can make more when they will Even one to every Christian Congregation And as Ludolphus tells us of the Patriarch of Alexandria that any ignorant sorry Fellow gets the place that can purchase it by Favour and Money of the Turks so it is at Constantinople as to the over-ruling of the Choice But that 's not the worst But by our Subjecters Principles the five Patriarchs have such a Power in Councils that it 's no Council without them or the greater part of them And four of the five Patriarchs are Subjects of the Turk and the Pope is the fifth or first And will not the Turk then choose them and so be Master of our Religion and of all the Christian World Or if the Pope get the greater Number of Bishops the Matter will not be well amended as the Trent Council hath assured us And when the Empire was over the West the Emperor had a chief hand in choosing Popes And who knows how soon it may be so again and the new way of Cardinals be cast by And so we shall be the Emperor's Subjects IX We know already that the far greatest part of the Bishops of the World are lamentably Ignorant and Erroneous Men and keep up Error and Divisions in their several Countries viz. in Greece Moscovie Armenia Syria Abassia c. and in Italy Spain Poland Hungary Germany c. And are we bound to obey them because they are the greater number In Council or out of Council they are the same men What Nation under Heaven hath Bishops just of the Mind of these with us in England or so sound and judicious as ours have been and some yet are And must our English Bishops give up their Judgments to an erroneous Majority abroad Is that our thankfulness to God X. How little difference is it to us whether e. g. Image-worship Transubstantiation or any Sin be commanded us by a Council or by the Pope or by him as Absolute or as Patriarch of the West and Principium Vnitatis XI What can a Principium Unitatis signifie in the Universal Church but some Governing Power and Unifying Prerogative Who but the King can be Principium Vnitatis in the Kingdom The Question will not be whether the Pope shall be the Universal Monarch but only whether this Monarch's Power be Absolute and Total or Limited and Partial with his Council And Church-Monarchs that have these Thousand Years conquered Church-Parliaments already may do so still XII If the Pope have not the Universal Supreme Government in the Intervals of Councils there will be none And if there have been none these Thousand Years which must follow their Opinion that end it as the Sixth Council why should it be new made now XIII We know already that Grotius and his Party are for the Popes Government in chief in the Intervals of Councils but not Arbitrarily but by the Canons And I have after named you a multitude of Canons already which we cannot lawfully obey XIV It will make an endless Controversie in the World what Councils shall be approved and obeyed and which not XV. If the Pope must preside he will have it near him He will not Travel to Syria or Armenia c. but they must come to him And where-ever the Council is called the nearest Bishops will carry it by numbers against the remote who will be few XVI None can expect that the Pope as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis will do his part for nothing And the riches of this Kingdom is little enough for the King Clergy and People We cannot spare that which Foreigners will expect and have done in this Land XVII While the same Man that is here owned as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis is owned as of greater Power in Italy Spain Germany and other Lands he will be strengthened to bring us to Conformity with the rest and in time to obtain all his claim XVIII Are Strangers like to be fitter Judges of the Matters of England Armenia Habassia c. than the Rulers Clergy of the several Kingdoms who know the Persons they must Judge and can hear both sides speak and examine Witnesses c. XIX The old and famous General Councils were not called to Govern Foreigners and all the World but only the Empire that called them And why should the Church Government now be any other than Collateral with the Civil XX. I again and again say that we are Sworn by the Oath of Supremacy against all Foreign Jurisdiction And by the Corporation Act the Vestry Act the Act of Uniformity the Militia Act and the Oxford Oath the Church and Kingdom is most solemnly bound never to endeavour any Alteration of Government in Church or State And if subjecting King Kingdom and Church to a Foreign Jurisdiction of such as pretend to an Universal Supreme
Legislative and Judicial Power be not an Alteration of the Government of Church and State I know not what is Nor what is National Perjury if the National Endeavour or Consent to such Subjection be not such Add to all this the unavoidable effects of this Opinion of the Universal Soveraignty viz. 1. It engageth the Owners of it to condemn all the Protestant Churches because they own no Universal Soveraign nor the Pope as Patriarch or Principium Unitatis yea and to disown almost all the Churches of the World besides the Papists as Schismatical 2. They must Condemn all the Protestant Martyrs who rejected the Pope absolutely as dying for Rebellion 3. They must needs censure their own Princes and States as Rebels who subject not themselves to this Usurped Soveraignty 4. They will pervert all the Scriptures for Unity and Peace and Obedience and interpret it as meaning this Usurpation 5. They will think it their Duty to use their best Endeavour to subject all Men to the Usurpers 6. They will lose their due Charity to all that Consent not to this Subjection taking them for Enemies to the Churches Unity and Peace and Rebels against this Soveraign Power 7. No wonder if such become grievous Persecutors and stir up Princes and Rulers against such Christians as Schismaticks and Enemies of Peace And as Dr. Saywell and Bishop Guning tell the World that the meeting of such in worshipping God are the Conventicles of Schismaticks and the Cause of all our Plots and Divisions And if Obedience to this Vniversal Soveraignty be as they say the only Cure of Schism they must hold all our Parish Assemblies too to be Schismatical Conventicles whose Pastors own not the Usurpation 8. Thus as the Pope hath been the grand Divider of the Christian World by setting up a false Head of Union so will these Men destroy all Unity quantum in se by setting up a Usurped Soveraignty and a false Principium Vnitatis and will be the grand Schismaticks to cure Schism 9. They will by a false uncertain Universal Law-making not only make Christ's Laws insufficient but make Christianity a mutable growing uncertain thing when no man shall be able to know which are the Church Laws and when the Volumes of them will be perfected and no more added 10. When the Churches are thus Divided and Persecuted and sound Preachers Silenced the Persecutors will be hardened in impenitency fathering all their Mischiefs on Christ which they do against him and making Christian Fidelity odious as Rebellion and Schism And they will never be able in their way so much as to satisfie impartial men how true Bishops may be known and who ad esse must be the Choosers of them much less prove their Universal Soveraignty Chap. VI. The Grand Consequential Case Whether it be lawful for the Presbyters to swear Obedience to those Bishops who profess Subjection to the Foreign Jurisdiction of a Vniversal Soveraignty or for the People to live in Obedience and Communion with the Presbyters that do so § 1. I Wish this Case about such Subjection and Communion may never make the second breach between Conformists and Nonconformists much wider than the first is made I. Suppose the French Bishops will abate Idolatry Owning Transubstantiation Adoration of the Host and of Saints and Images Latin Service will allow the Cup in the Sacrament Priests Marriage leave indifferent all other things that are not above Four hundred Years old Qu. Whether is it lawful for the Protestant Ministers and all the rest to Swear Obedience to these Bishops and to the Protestant Laity and all others to joyn in their Communion II. Suppose Archbishop Bromhall profess subjection to General Councils called and moderated by the Pope as President and to the Pope as Principium unitatis Vniversalis and Patriarch of the West Or the Bishop of Eli profess subjection to a Foreign Universal Jurisdiction Is it lawful for the Bishops to Swear Obedience to that Archbishop or the Presbyters to such a Bishop and for the People to be subject to such Presbyters in Communion III. Suppose such Bishops would abate the Presbyters a while till they are strengthened the Oath or Promise of Obedience is it lawful to receive Ordination from such Bishops and live in subjection to them and Communion § 2. The Case is of great moment and very tenderly and warily to be handled I. On one side If no Promise or Oath be required nor any practice in it self unlawful many will think it hard that they must separate from a whole Nation or Diocess for another man's Sin which they consent not to specially if it will cast them out of their Ministry and Maintenance They will think his guilt lyeth only on himself Else one man may over-turn the Liberties of a whole Diocess or Land by his own proper sin II. Yea if the Oath or Promise be put on them for Obedience but in licitis honestis they will think the case doth little differ as long as they consent not to a Forreign Jurisdiction § 3. On the other side If all men must or may obey them that profess Obedience to a Foreign Universal Jurisdiction may not one or two or a few Bishops subject the Kingdom to Foreigners at their pleasure And that the more dangerously because without any noise or notable alteration and so without resistance It is but the Primate or Archbishops or Bishops professing subjection to the Pope or Foreign Soveraign and the thing is done The Bishops being subject to the Pope or other Usurpers and the Priests to the Bishops and the People to the Priests are they not all then subject to the Foreign Usurper If the Kings Army in the days of H. 5. or Ed. 3. in France were to be hired over to the King of France what need he more than that the General or Field Officers Swear fidelity to him And that the Captains be subject to the Colonels and the common Soldiers to them When the Kingdom was in continual War between King Stephen and Maud the Empress and between the Houses of York and Lancaster the people were not usually Sworn on either side But the Bishops and the Barons did Swear and Unswear and Forswear and Change sides as their Interests led them and this was the misery of the Land § 4. And yet the Case would be much easier if only the King e. g. of France should subject himself to Foreigners and forbid all to preach and publickly Worship God that will not Swear Allegiance to him and obey him as their King § 5. In these dreadful cases we must distinguish 1. Between such a Bishop as is a Member of a Protestant Nation and who turneth against the Law of the Land and the Consent of other Churches and such as would draw the whole Land with him or is but one in a common Revolt 2. Between a Minister who was Ordained and subject to the Bishop before he revolted and one that is Ordained and subjected
confirm their Doctrine have none of the extraordinary Apostolical work to do The Commands which Christ gave his Apostles to teach the World are already told us and recorded by the Apostles They left not part of that work undone for others after them to do If they had how could the Bishops have known but from the Apostles themselves what Christ Commanded And what means have they to know it but what all other men have The Scripture now added to the Law of Nature containeth all that can pretend to be an Universal Law For no Law but of a Universal Lawgiver can be Universal And if all Bishops pretend to Apostolick Inspiration they must prove it by Miracles or pass for Fanaticks And methinks those among us who deride even the pretence of Praying by the Spirit when it meaneth no Enthusiasm but the illuminating quickning and sanctifying influx of the Spirit should hardly believe that all or most of the ignorant and erroneous Bishops of the World have Apostolick Inspiration If they have are not their Decrees and Writings God 's Word and equal to the Scriptures God's Law is not so imperfect a thing nor Christ so imperfect a Law-giver as that more and more must be added to it and no man can tell by whom nor when it will be perfect Nothing unnecessary is fit for an Universal Law And all that is Universally necessary Christ hath done already An Universal Law-giver is a Christ If a false pretender he is a false Christ. But all Pastors are Successors to the Apostles as ordinary Ministers in that ordinary part of their work viz. To Preach Christ and make and baptize Disciples and teach them to observe all that Christ commanded the Apostles as Official Guides of their several Flocks And to do this in order decently and to edification And being the Church-Guides it is their Office to judge of their own acts that is when where in what words to Preach and Pray and whom to Baptize and to whom to deliver the Sacraments of Communion c. § 6. III. But the next doubt is of the extent of the Apostles Office and next of the Bishops and ordinary Pastors And 1. It is evident that what the Apostles did in delivering Christ's Commands in writing in the Scriptures though at first and most immediately it was for the use of particular Persons and Churches yet was intended for all the Christian World as being the Word of the Universal Bishop and King 2. But their Personal Vocal Preaching was confined by natural necessity Their Mandate or Commission was but indefinite or limitedly universal Christ never bound them to go to every Nation or Person in the World else how greatly had they sinned They went not into the fourth part of the Earth And in those parts not to one person of many hundred or thousands Yet their Commission had no positive prohibition restraining them from any one place or person But Natural Incapacity restrained them They were to go as far as they could and speak to as many in the World as they could And this Mandate was given to each one nor do we read that ever they went abroad all twelve together nor ever met when dispersed to consult nor ever judged any cause or persons as a College after It was easie for them to meet when they dwelt together and easie to govern all Christians when they were all before them or at hand And easie to record Christ's Laws and Doctrine by which all must be governed to the end being thereunto inspired by his Spirit But as the Church grew greater they increased the number of Pastors but gave them no Universal Soveraignty § 7. And now what pretence can ordinary Ministers or Bishops have for Universality of Soveraignty Legislation and Judgment in an Aristocratical Senate or Council If they were Apostles they must but teach men to observe all Christ's Commands They may do their proper work as far as they have capacity and ability If they can Preach at the Antipodes we shall pray for their success But sure they will not do it as a Senate or Church Parliament To leave them no excuse Christ hath left no Universal Legislation or Judgment to do The continuance of the Question so oft answered How shall Controversies be ended And who shall Judge When they never attempt to confute our answer sheweth that they are so full of themselves that they have not room for the plainest Truth that comes from others Judgment of Controversies is Private or Publick that is either Private Mens Discerning Judgment or Governors Deciding Judgment The Private is either that of each single person for himself and this is every mans as he is a Rational Moral Agent who cannot do his Duty undiscerned or it is for the guidance of Charity to others And that is either the Judgment of an Arbitrator or of a private Instructer or Reprover Hitherto there is no difficulty who shall Judge Publick Judgment supposeth a forum Tribunal and a Ruling Judge And every one is Judge in proprio foro in his own Court The Magistrates in their several Degrees are Judges in their several Courts who shall suffer or be Protected by them And the Pastors in their several Churches who shall be Baptized and used as of their Communion and who not But there is no Vniversal forum or Court to judge all the World but Christs None out of this Kingdom are publick Judges of King or Subjects Other Princes and Prelates all over the World have a judicium privatum whether they will take our King and Kingdom for Christians and Communicate with them or not and such a judgment have we towards any other Nation But a Ruling Publick Judgment none hath out of the Kingdom Civil or Ecclesiastick All Controversies shall be ended by Christ at last It 's Madness to think of ending all till then so that there is no Judgment but Christ's that is Vniversal and Final for the ending of Controversies or deciding any Cause by Government And were there nothing but a double incapacity 1. NATURAL and 2. POLITICAL or Accidental by the restraint of the Princes of the Earth I have oft shewed here that a Dream of an Universal Soveraign Council or Senate yea or Pope is utterly irrational § 8. But if the Apostolick Succession prove not such a Soveraignty will not the Antient General Councils do it No I have oft enough proved that General Councils were but General in the Empire While they kept sober and humble they never claimed more Nor was there any on Earth that had power to call them out of all the World And when they claimed more they broke the Church and by Usurpation brought on Desolation There is neither Scripture nor reason nor obliging example for extending the Ecclesiastick jurisdiction beyond the Civil but much of all these against it § 9. And what man can think that a claim is the proof of a title in those Councils which began to transgress the
bounds of Civil jurisdiction The many Councils which have been for Arians Eutychians Nestorians Monothelites Adoration of Images Papal tyranny c. and the many that have contradicted and condemned them tell us that the Right of Councils must have a better proof than their own affirmation And the far greater number of Christians that have approved or received the Erroneous tell us that they need a better proof than the reception of the greater part How great a part received Greg. 7th dictates and the Councils that Hereticated Royalists as Henricians But that proved not that these things were just Pope Vrbans Letter to King Lewis 13th of France 1629. in the 2d part of the Cab. p. 213. saith Your Ancestors have ever born as much respect to the exhortations of Popes as to the Commandment of God But do these words prove that this is true No more doth it that Leo the first was Caput Ecclesiae Vniversalis because he so called himself The Grand Signiour in his Defiance of Maximilian the Emperor ibid. p. 12. calls himself God in Earth Great and High Emperor of all the World the Great Helper of God King of Kings the only Victorious and Triumphant Lord of the World and of all Circuits and Provinces thereof And more Persons are Mahometans than Christians and more Heathens than either or both and yet none of this proveth Truth and Right § 10. I have marvelled that Carol. Boverius should think it a fit Argument to move our late King Charles 2d in Spain to turn Papist that Monarchy is the best Government in the State Ergo the Papal Monarchy in the Church Did he think the King so dull that he could not distinguish Particular Kingdoms and Monarchs from Vniversal How would the King have taken it if he had said Sir an Vniversal Monarchy is the best humane Government therefore you must subject your self and Kingdom to one Vniversal Monarch But the pretence of an Universal Democracy Aristocracy or Church-Parliament is more absurd and worse as I have proved § 11. Do our Changers of Government think that it is a small matter of which King and People will take no notice but be decoyed into by degrees in the dark to make King Lords Bishops and all the Kingdom the Subjects of a Foreigner and of a Parliament of Prelates who are themselves the Subjects of a Multitude of Foreign Princes Mahometans Heathens Greeks Papists c. As the Child said My Mother ruleth my Father and I rule my Mother and my Father ruleth the City Therefore I rule the City So we may then say the King ruleth England and a Council of Foreign Prelates rule the King and Heathen Mahometan Moscovian Armenian Papist c. Princes rule most of the Bishops in Council Ergo these Princes rule the King Do they know what it is for Pope or Prelates abroad to be made Judges Ecclesiastical of all persons and causes here and to have Power to Excommunicate King and Lords and depose Bishops and silence Ministers and Hereticate Dissenters and Interdict the Kingdom c. Again and again I say that I wonder if those men that have promoted so many Oaths and Promises in the Acts of Corporations Uniformity Vestries Confinement Conventicles Militia never to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State can possibly blind the Nation to think it no alteration to Subject King Church and Kingdom to a Foreign pretended Universal Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction Whether it be Perjury or Treason is no debate for me but I am sure that in ordine ad Spiritualia great temporal power will follow and Excommunicating and Anathematizing Kings and People hath not hitherto been a Toothless thing But quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat § 12. And what if they had found Ancient Councils Excommunicate some men without the Empire What pitty is it that any where Lords yea Bishops and Clergy men should be bred up in such Ignorance as to think that all Excommunicating is an act of Government I said before any Neighbour Prince Nation or People any number of Bishops when they hear another Nation turned notorious Hereticks may renounce Communion with them and declare the reason of it because they have made themselves uncapable Governing Excommunication per judicium publicum id est per personam publicam seu Rectorem is one thing and a declared renunciation and refusal of Communion per judicium privatum that is by an equal or private person is another thing I am not bound to stay till Turk or Pope is Excommunicated by their Governours before I renounce Christian Communion with them Paul's charge 1 Cor. 5. With such a one no not to eat and Tit. 3.10 A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid and St. John's Bid him not good speed c. may bind equals that have but judicium privatum discretionis when no Superior Ruler Excommunicateth the Sinner Chap. X. Some Questions about General Councils to be resolved before all the World can subject Kings Kingdoms Souls and Scripture to their Government or Decrees and take them for the Vnifying Ruling-Power over the Vniversal Church NOthing can be more necessary to all Christians Learned and Unlearned than to be sure of the truth of that which must be the foundation of all our obedience and our hopes And therefore if it be the General Councils Actual or Virtual in the chief Patriarchs and Metropolitans or supposed College of Bishops which is the Unifying or Constitutive Regent part of the Universal Church and on whose credit we must take the Scripture to be God's Word and from whose Judgment we must not appeal to Scripture or to God it 's the primum necessarium that we be sure of the Authority and Infallibility or Credit of such Councils And first we are to consider the matter of their Determining Power 1. There are Things 2. Words 3. The signification of words to be judged of 2. There are Truths of Natural and of Supernatural Revelation to be judged of 3. There are the Essentials of Christianity the Integrals and the Accidents to be judged of 4. And the Judgment is 1. Witnessing 2. Teaching 3. Or judicially Deciding We must first know who are the Judges 2. What is their work 3. How certain they are Qu. 1. Did not Apostles and other Preachers singly convert men even thousands before there was any General Council and that by such evidence as the single Preacher brought Or was it by the Argument of Universal Consent that every one then was converted e. g. the Eunuch Act. 8. The Jailor and Lydia Act. 16. Cornelius and his house Act. 10. The three thousand Act. 2.37 c. Q. 2. Did none that St. Paul wrote his Epistles to believe them till they were told that all the Teachers and Bishops of the Churches gave them their Authority Were the Gospels written by Matthew Mark Luke and John received only by the Argument of the Councils or Colleges Authority Q.
all Children be taught to read and learn Catechisms and Scripture and use the Lords day in pious Exercises and submit to their Teachers and forbear profane contempt or abuse of Persons or Things I think the whole Matter is decided in these ten Particulars § 4. II. Now de nomine the question is what is to be called the FORM and what but the MATTER of the Church as National For of a Church as Congregational or as Diocesan or a Provincial we have no controversie No more than of a City or School And seeing every Politick Society consisteth of the Pars Imperans and Pars Subdita all grant that the Pars Imperans as related to the Pars Subdita is the Specifying or Unifying Form and Head it is then clear that all the Clergy being but the Pars Subdita under the Government of the summa potestas whether Kings alone or King and Parliament or an Aristocracy they can be but the Matter of the Church as National and not the Formal Head For a Body Politick of one Species can have but one Head of that Species So that to make a Primate or two Metropolitans or a Synod of Diocesans or a Convocation representing all the Clergy to be more than the Matter of a Church as National is to make them the summa potestas or Soveraign and to depose King and Parliament § 5. Obj. But the Regiment being of two Species so is the Policy Society and Supremacy Each is Supreme in sua specie Ans. 1. So then you would have two National Churches and Soveraigns If you 'll extend the Controversie but to the Name it may be the better born But then acknowledge the Equivocation and give us the definition of each Church and use not the Name of the Church of England for your own Form only 2. But a Subject Policy is not the Supreme and denominating Policy It 's private and subordinate as to National The Physicions the Soldiers the Marriners c. though they are in hoc fit to over-rule the King and Parliament are not therefore the Soveraign Power of the National Body Politick § 6. Obj. But their 's are matters of small moment but the Clergy are Rulers in matters of Salvation Ans. Unhappy dividing Rulers they have been here and in most of the Churches But 1. I have proved that Kings are Rulers also in matters of Salvation as great as theirs and over them 2. Was not Moses and David and Solomon and Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah and Josiah c. the Soveraign Rulers of Church and Priests though an Vzziah might not offer Sacrifice or Incense 3. The proper Governing power of Bishops is but over their own Flocks and they may not Rule in other Mens Diocesses much less over King Parliament and Kingdom further than the Soveraign giveth them Political Power § 7. Obj. They may command Kings and Kingdoms in Christs Name to obey God and forbear Sin Ans. True so did every Prophet so may any one Minister Yea a Foreigner a Salvian a Luther c. But this is Gods Government Nunciative and not Political And so if the Metropolitans Diocesans Convocation or a General Council command as in Christs Name and prove their Commission as Messengers from him we will obey Christ in them But if one Man bring better proof from Scripture that he speaketh from Christ he is to be obeyed before a Council that proveth no such thing This sort of Divine Authority lyeth in Evidence which most Bishops on Earth now have not of the truth of their Message and is but Nunciative and worketh only on voluntary Believers and Consenters And if the Controversie de nomine be whether a Christian Kingdom as such may be called A CHURCH what pretence have the deniers Not à notatione nominis The Church in the Wilderness is a Scripture Name And sure the Jews Church was not denominated from the Priests only Moses is ofter named as its Head than Aaron § 8. Obj. But are not Judges and Bishops a part of the Pars Imperans as well as the Soveraign Ans. Only subordinate in their Provinces They are but as the Kings Hands and Tongue They are Subjects themselves and have no Political Power but what he giveth them 2. If you might so far distinguish of them as Imperant under the King and as Subjects as to say that Judges and Bishops are as the Wife in the Family that hath a Governing power over Children and Servants that maketh her not the denominating Head of the Family but a Subject of the highest Rank § 9. Qu. What if a Christian Kingdom had no Pastors Ans. Then they were but an Embrio or half Christian and not materia disposita for a full formation The Matter and Privation that is Dispositio receptiva are Essential to the Body though they be not the Form 10. Qu. But what if under an Infidel King a Christian Nation be confederate under Bishops Ans. They are no Christian Kingdoms but a Christian Nation and are many confederate Churches and may be called One Church equivocally and secundum quid as confederate Kingdoms may be one Kingdom But they are but materia disposita sine forma as to a National Church properly so called and as such § 11. Qu. Are those of the Church of England that are not Conformists Yes if they conform to Christianity and are Subjects of the same King § 12. There is an odd Writer that hath lately published a book to prove that the Act of Toleration freeth not Nonconformists from the guilt of Schism Doleful is the case of such a Church and Land where the Learned men after near thirty years silencing imprisoning and ruining multitudes know not to this day what they are or what they hold and who it is that they do all this against How can such wink so hard as not to know that we took it for no Schism to assemble for Gods Worship before the Act of Toleration while they have done all this against us for so doing Could they think us so mad as to suffer Jails and Ruine and Scorn and Death to many for known Schism And if we took it for a duty before how can we take the Act of Toleration to be it that must justifie us But such men Englanâ— suffers by that cannot distinguish between Foâ—m Divinum and Humanum We believe that Goâ—s Command justifieth us in foro Divino for obeying it But the Law justifieth us in foro humano Gâ—ds Law and Judgment will keep us from Hell aâ—d at last silence our silencers But the Kings Laws bring us and keep us out of Jails and from thâ— Jaws of them that envy our Liberty and Lives § 13. It 's a question considerable whether England be a Protestant Church or not if it have a Papist King To which I say we must distinguish between a profest Papist and a concealed one 2. And between a King that hath the total Soveraignty and Legislative Power and one that hath but