very words are That where such power is sealed into a family or kindred the Stock it self is thereby chosen but not the twig that springeth of it The next of the Stock unto him that raigneth are not through nearness of blood made Kings but rather set forth to stand for the Kingdom where Regal Dominion is hereditary it is notwithstanding if we look to the persons which have it altogether elective To this purpose are selected heaps of Scriptures concerning the Solemn Coronation or Inauguration of Saul of David of Solomon and others by the Nobles Ancients and people of the Common-weal of Israel as if these solemnities were a kind of deed whereby the right of Dominion is given Which strange untrue and unnatural conceits set abroad by seeds-men of Rebellion onely to animate unquiet spirits and to feed them with possibility of aspiring to Thrones if they can win the hearts of the people what hereditary title soever any other before them may have I say unjust and insolent positions I would not mention were it not thereby to make the countenance of truth more orient for unless we will openly proclaim defiance unto all law equity and reason we must there is no remedy acknowledge that in kingdoms hereditary birth giveth right unto Soveraign Dominion and the death of the predecessor putteth the successor by blood in seisin Those publick solemnities before specified do but serve for an open testification of the Inheritors right or belong unto the form of inducting him into possession of that thing he hath right unto therefore in case it doth happen that without right of blood a man in such wise be possessed all these new elections and investings are utterly void they make him no indefeasable estate the inheritor by blood may disposses him as an usurper The case thus standing albeit we judge it a thing most true that Kings even inheritors do hold their right in the Power of Dominion with dependency upon the whole Body politick over which they have Rule as Kings yet so it may not be understood as if such dependency did grow for that every supream Governor doth personally take from thence his power by way of gift bestowed of their own free accord upon him at the time of his entrance into the said place of his soveraign Government But the cause of dependency is that first Original conveyance when power was derived from the whole into One to pass from him unto them whom out of him nature by lawful births should produce and no natural or legal inability make uncapable Neither cab any man with reason think but that the first institution of Kings a sufficient consideration wherefore their power should always depend on that from which it did always flow by Original influence of power from the body into the King is the cause of Kings dependency in Power upon the body By dependency we mean subordination and subjection A manifest token of which dependency may be this as there is no more certain Argument that Lands are held under any as Lords then if we see that such lands is defect of heirs fall unto them by escheat In like manner it doth follow rightly that seeing Dominion when there is none to inherit it returneth unto the body therefore they which before were inheritors thereof did hold it with dependency upon the body so that by comparing the body with the head as touching power it seemeth always to reside in both fundamentally and radicially in the one in the other derivatively in the one the Habit in the other the Act of Power May a body politick then at all times withdraw in whole or in part the influence of Dominion which passeth from it if inconveniencies do grow thereby It must be presumed that supream Governors will not in such case oppose themselves and be stiff in detaining that the use whereof is with publick detriment but surely without their consent I see not how the body by any just means should be able to help it self saving when Dominion doth escheat such things therefore must be thought upon before hand that Power may be limited ere it be granted which is the next thing we are to consider In what Measure IN power of Dominion all Kings have not an equal latitude Kings by conquest make their own Charter so that how large their power either Civil or Spiritual is we cannot with any certainty define further then onely to set them in the line of the Law of God and Nature for bounds Kings by Gods own special appointment have also that largeness of power which he doth assign or permit with approbation touching Kings which were first instituted by agreement and composition made with them over whom they raign how far their power may extend the Articles of Compact between them is to shew not only the Articles of Compact at the first beginning which for the most part are either clean worm out of knowledg or else known to very few but whatsoever hath been after in free and voluhtary manner condiscended unto whether by express consent whereof positive laws are witnesses or else by silent allowance famously notified through custome reaching beyond the memory of man By which means of after Agreement it cometh many times to pass in Kingdoms that they whose ancient predecessors were by violence and force made subject do by little and little grow into that sweet form of Kingly Government which Philosophers define Regency willingly sustained and indued with Chiefly of power in the greatest things Many of the ancients in their writings do speak of Kings with such high and ample terms as if universality of Power even in regard of things and not of persons did appertain to the very being of a King The reason is because their speech concerning Kings they frame according to the state of those Monarchs to whom unlimited authority was given which some not observing imagine that all Kings even in that they are Kings ought to have whatsoever power they judge any Soveraign Ruler lawfully to have enjoyed But the most judicious Philosopher whose eye scarce any things did escape which was to be found in the bosome of nature he considering how far the power of one Soveraign Ruleâ— may be different from another Regal Authority noteth in Spartan Kings That of all others they were most tied to Law and so the most restrained power A King which hath not supream power in the greatest things is rather intituled a King then invested with reall Soveraignty We cannot properly term him a King of whom it may not be said at the least wise as touching certain the chiefest affairs of the State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his right in them is to have rule not subject to any other predominancy I am not of opinion that simply in Kings the most but the best limited power is best both for them and the people the most limited is that which may deal in fewest things the â—eâ—t that which
Church-Governours to their rooms of Prelacy Fifthly judicial authority higher then others are capable of And sixthly exemption from being punishable with such kind of Censures as the platform of Reformation doth teach that they ought to be subject unto What the Power of Dominion is VVIthout order there is no living in publick Society because the want thereof is the mother of confusion whereupon division of necessity followeth and out of division destruction The Apostle therefore giving instruction to publike Societies requireth that all things be orderly done Order can have no place in things except it be settled amongst the persons that shall by office be conversant about them And if things and persons be ordered this doth imply that they are distinguished by degrees For order is a gradual disposition The whole world consisting of parts so many so different is by this only thing upheld he which framed them hath set them in order The very Deity it self both keepeth and requireth for ever this to be kept as a Law that wheresoever there is a coagmentation of many the lowest be knit unto the highest by that which being interjacent may cause each to cleave to the other and so all to continue one This order of things and persons in publike Societies is the work of Policie and the proper instrument thereof in every degree is power power being that hability which we have of our selves or receive from others for performance of any action If the action which we have to perform be conversant about matters of meer Religion the power of performing it is then spiritual And if that power be such as hath not any other to over-rule it we term it Dominion or Power Supream so far as the bounds thereof extend When therefore Christian Kings are said to have Spiritual Dominion or Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs and causes the meaning is that within their own Precincts and Territories they have an authority and power to command even in matters of Christian Religion and that there is no higher nor greater that can in those cases overcommand them where they are placed to raign as Kings But withal we must likewise note that their power is termed supremacy as being the highest not simply without exception of any thing For what man is so brain-sick as not to except in such speeches God himself the King of all Dominion Who doubteth but that the King who receiveth it must hold it of and order the Law according to that old axiom Altribuat Rex legi quod lex attribuit es potestatem And again Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo lege Thirdly whereas it is altogether without reason That Kings are judged to have by vertue of their Dominion although greater power then any yet not than all the state of those Societies conjoyned wherein such Soveraign rule is given them there is not any thing hereunto to the contrary by us affirmed no not when we grant supream Authority unto Kings because Supremacy is not otherwise intended or meant to exclude partly sorraign powers and partly the power which belongeth in several unto others contained as parts in that politick body over which those Kings have Supremacy Where the King hath power of Dominion or Supream power there no forrain State or Potentate no State or Potentate Domestical whether it consisteth of one or many can possibly have in the same affairs and causes Authority higher than the King Power of Spiritual Dominion therefore is in causes Ecclesiastical that ruling Authority which neither any forraign State not yet any part of that politick body at home wherein the same is established can lawfully over-rule It hath been declared already in general how the best established dominion is where the Law doth most rule the King the true effect whereof particularly is found as well in Ecclesiastical as Civil affairs In these the King through his Supream Power may do sundry great things himself both appertaining to Peace and War both at home and by command and by commerce with States abroad because the Law doth so much permit Sometimes on the other side The King alone hath no right to do without consent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament The King himself cannot change the nature of Pleas nor Courts no not so much as restore blood because the Law is a hath unto him the positive Laws of the Realm have a priviledg therein and restrain the Kings power which positive Laws whether by custom or otherwise established without repugnancy to the Laws of God and nature ought not less to be in force even in supernatural affairs of the Church whether in regard of Ecclesiastical Laws we willingly embrace that of Ambrose Imperator bonus intrae Ecclesiam non supra Ecclesiam est Kings have Dominion to exercise in Ecclesiastical causes but according to the Laws of the Church whether it be therefore the nature of Courts or the form of Pleas or the kind of Governours or the order of proceeding in whatsoever business for the received Laws an Lib 〈…〉 o the Church the King hath Supream Authority and power but against them never What such positive Laws hath appointed to be done by others than the King or by others with the King and in what form they have appointed the doing of it the same of necessity must be kept neither is the Kings sole Authority to alter it yet as it were a thing unreasonable if in civil affairs the King albeit the whole universal body did joyn with him should do any thing by their absolute power for the ordering of their state at home in prejudice of those ancient Laws of Nations which are of force throughout all the World because the necessary commerce of Kingdoms dependeth on them So in principal matters belonging to Christian Religion a thing very scandalous and offensive it must needs be thought if either Kings or Laws should dispose of the Law of God without any respect had unto that which of old hath been reverently thought of throughout the World and wherein there is no Law of God which forceth us to swerve from the ways wherein so many and holy Ages have gone Wherefore not without good consideration the very Law it self hath provided That Iudges Ecclesiastical appointed under the Kings Commission shall not adjudg for heresie anything but that which heretofore hathbeen adjudged by the Authority of the Cononical Scriptures or by the first four general Counbels or lysome other general Council wherein the same hath been declared heresie by the express words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such at hereafter shall be determined to be heresie by the high Court of Parliament of this Realm with the assent of the Clergy in the Convocation An. 1. Reg. Eliz. By which words of the Law Who doth not plainly see how that in one branch of proceeding by vertue of the Kings supream authority the credit which those four first general Councels have throughout
all Churches and evermore had was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case as a requisite part of that rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Soveraign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws Unto which Supream Power in Kings two kinds of adversaries there are which have opposed themselvs one sort defending That Supream power in causes Ecclesiastical throughout the world appertaineth of Divine Right to the Bishop of Rome Another sort That the said power belongeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled We which defend as well against the one as against the other That Kings within their own Precincts may have it must shew by what right it must come unto them First unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt controversie that every independent multitude before any certain form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self even as a man not tyed with the band of subjection as yet unto any other hath over himself the like power God creating mankind did endue it naturally with power to guide it self in what kind of Society soever he should chuse to live A man which is born Lord of himself may be made an others servant And that power which naturally whole societies have may be derived unto many few or one under whom the rest shall then live in subjection Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force as they who being subdued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoak it pleaseth their Conquerors to lay upon them which Conquerors by just and lawful Wars do hold their power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them Divine Providence it self so disposing For it is God who giveth victory in the day of War and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations which Law authorizeth Conquerours to reign as absolute Lords over them whom they vanquish Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to chuse out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given which thing he did often in the Common-wealth of Israel They which in this sort receive power immediately from God have it by meer Divine Right they by humane on whom the same is bestowed according to mens discretion when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governours By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their Estates we must acknowledg both their lawful choice to be approved of God and themselves to be Gods Lievtenants and cofess their Power which they have to be his As for Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it neither that any should not have it for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by humane Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given Again on whom the same is bestowed at mens discretions they likewise do hold it by Divine Right If God in his revealed Word hath appointed such Power to be although himself extraordinarily bestow it not but leave the appointment of persons to men yea albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person nevertheless when men have assigned and established both Who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God and consequently by that very right to be exacted For example sake the power which Romane Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever Institute Neither was Tiberius Caesar by especial Commission from Heaven therewith invested and yet paiment of Tribute unto Caesar being now made Emperor is the plain Law of Jesus Christ unto Kings by humane Right Honor by very Divine Right is due mans Ordinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to acknowledg them for Gods Lieutenants and to confess their Power his So by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any State available to his Honor. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition it giveth him power Authority over his own Wife That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment the Law of God doth not any where command and yet the Law of God doth give them which once are exalted unto that place of Estate right to exact at the hands of their Subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their power may serve to command and God doth ratifie works of that Soveraign Authority which Kings have received by men This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their power but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search where that we be not enforced to make overlarge discourses about the different conditions of Soveraign or Supream Power that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State and according to the nature of this Kingdom where the people are in no subjection but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoo◠and security In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universall Dominion but with dependency upon that whole entire body over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this case The King is Major singulis universis minor The Kings dependency we do not construe as some have done who are of opinion that no mans birth can make him a King but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Raign the same bestowed on him as an estate in condition by the voluntary deed of the people in whom it doth lie to put by any one and to preferr some other before him better liked of or judged fitter for the place and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him no although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by succession and to a person which is capital and hath apparently if blood be respected the nearest right They plainly affirm in all well appointed Kingdoms the custom evermore hath been and is that children succeed not their Parents till the people after a sort have created them anew neither that that they grow to their Fathers as natural and proper Heirs but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the Kings Majesty they have by a Scepter and a Diadem received as it were the investure of Kingly power Their
part and impute their general acknowledgment of the lawfullness of Kingly Power unto the force of truth presenting it self before them sometimes above their particular contrarieties oppositions denyals unto that errour which having so fully possest their minds casteth things inconvenient upon them of which things in their due place Touching that which is now in hand weare on all sides fully agreed First that there is not any restraint or limitation of matter for regal Authority and Power to be conversant in but of Religion onely and of whatsoever cause thereunto appertaineth Kings may lawfully have change they lawfully may therein exercise Dominion and use the temporal Sword Secondly that some kind of actions conversant about such affairs are denyed unto Kings As namely Actions of Power and Order and of Spiritual Jurisdiction which hath with it inseparably joyned Power to Administer the Word and Sacraments power to Ordain to Judge as an Ordinary to bind and loose to Excommunicate and such like Thirdly that even in those very actions which are proper unto Dominion there must be some certain rule whereunto Kings in all their proceedings ought to be strictly tyed which rule for proceeding in Ecclesiasticall affairs and causes by Regal Power hath not hitherto been agreed upon with such uniform consent and certainty as might be wished The different sentences of men herein I will now go about to examine but it shall be enough to propose what Rule doth seem in this case most reasonable The case of deriving Supream Power from a whole intire multitude into some special part thereof as partly the necessity of expedition in publick affairs partly the inconvenience of confusion and trouble where a multitude of Equals dealeth and partly the dissipation which must needs ensue in companies where every man wholly seeketh his own particular as we all would do even with other mens hurts and haply the very overthrow of themselves in the end also if for the procurement of the common good of all men by keeping every several man is order some were not invested with Authority over all and encouraged with Prerogative-Honour to sustain the weighty burthen of that charge The good which is proper unto each man belongeth to the common good of all as part to the whole perfection but these two are things different for men by that which is proper are severed united they are by that which is common Wherefore besides that which moveth each man in particular to seek his own private good there must be of necessity in all publick Societies also a general mover directing unto common good and framing every mans particular unto it The end whereunto all Government was instituted was Bonum publicum the Universal or Common good Our question is of Dominion for that end and purpose derived into one such as all in one publick State have agreed that the Supream charge of all things should be committed unto one They I say considering what inconveniency may grow where States are subject unto sundry Supream Authorities have for fear of these inconveniencies withdrawn from liking to establish many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude of Supream Commanders is troublesome No Nan saith our Saviour can serve two Masters surely two supream Masters would make any ones service somewhat uneasie in such cases as might fall out Suppose that to morrow the Power which hath Dominion in Justice require thee at the Court that which in War at the Field that which in Religion at the Temple all have equal Authority over thee and impossible it is that then in such case thou shouldst be obedient unto all By chusing any one whom thou wilt obey certain thou art for thy disobedience to incur the displeasure of the other two But there is nothing for which some comparable reason or other may not be found are we able to shew any commendable State of Government which by experience and practice hath felt the benefit of being in all causes subject unto the Supream Authority of one Against the policy of the Israelites I hope there will no man except where Moses deriving so great a part of his burthen in Government unto others did notwithstanding retain to himself Universal Supremacy Iehosaphat appointing one to be chosen in the affairs of God and another in the Kings affair's did this as having Dominion over them in both If therefore from approbation of Heaven the Kings of Gods own chosen people had in the affairs of Jewish Religion Supream Power why not Christian Kings the like also in Christian Religion First unless men will answer as some have done That the Jews Religion was of far less perfection and dignity then ours our being that truth whereof theirs was but a shadowish prefigurative resemblance Secondly That all parts of their Religion their Laws their Sacrifices and their Rights and Ceremonies being fully set down to their hands and needing no more but only to be put in execution the Kings might well have highest Authority to see that done whereas with us there are a number of Mysteries even in Belief which were not so generally for them as for us necessary to be with sound express acknowledgement understood A number of things belonging to external Government and our manner of serving God not set down by particular Ordinances and delivered to us in writing for which cause the State of the Church doth now require that the Spiritual Authority of Ecclesiastical persons be large absolute and not subordinate to Regal power Thirdly That whereas God armeth Religion Iewish as Christian with the Temporal sword But of Spiritual punishment the one with power to imprison to scourge to put to death The other with bare authority to Censure and excommunicate There is no reason that the Church which hath no visible sword should in Regiment be subject unto any other power then only unto theirs which have authority to bind and loose Fourthly That albeit whilst the Church was restrained unto one people it seemed not incommodious to grant their King the general Chiefty of Power yet now the Church having spread it self over all Nations great inconveniences must therby grow if every Christian King in his several Territory shall have the like power Of all these differences there is not one which doth prove it a thing repugnant to the Law either of God or of Nature that all Supremacy of external Power be in Christian Kingdoms granted unto Kings thereof for preservation of quietness unity order and peace in such manner as hath been shewed Of the Title of Headship FOr the Title or State it self although the Laws of this Land have annexed it to the Crown yet so far◠we should not strive if so be men were nice and scrupulous in this behalf only because they do wish that for reverence to Christ Jesus the Civil Magistrate did rather use some other form of speech wherewith to express that Soveraign Authority which he lawfully hath overall both
SVNT MELIORA MIHI RICHARDVS HOOKER Exoniensis scholaris sociusque Collegij Corp. Chrisli Oxon̄ deinde Londi Templi interioris in sacris magister Rectorque huius Ecelesiae scripsit octo libros Politiae Ecclesiasticae Angelicanae quorum tres desiderantur Obijt An̄ Dō M.DC. III. AEtat suae L. Posuit hoc pijssimo viro monumentum Ano. Dō M. DC XXX V Guli Comper Armiger in Christo Iesu quem genuit per Evangelium 1 Corinth 4. 15. OF THE LAWES of ECCLESIASTICAL Politie Eight Bookes By RICHARD HOOKER LONDON Printed for Andrew Crooke at the greene Dragon in S Pauls Church-yard 1666. THE WORKS OF Mr. Richard Hooker That Learned and Judicious Divine IN EIGHT BOOKS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Compleated out of his own Manuscrips Never before Published With an account of his LIFE and DEATH Dedicated to the Kings most Excellency Majesty CHARLES IId. By whose ROYAL FATHER near His Martyrdom the former Five Books then onely extant were commended to His Dear Children as an excellent means to satisfie Private Scruples and settle the Publick Peace of this Church and Kingdom JAM 3. 17. The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and hypocrisie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Multitadio investiganda verilalis ad proximos divertunt errores Min. Fel. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1666. To the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY CHARLES II d By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious Soveraign ALthough I know how little leisure Great Kings have to read large Books or indeed any save onely Gods the study belief and obedience of which is precisely commanded even to Kings Deut. 17.18,19 And from which whatever wholly diverts them will hazard to damn them there being no affairs of so great importance as their serving God and saving their own Souls nor any Precepts so wise just holy and safe as those of the Divine Oracles nor any Empire so glorious as that by which Kings being subject to Gods Law have dominion over themselves and so best deserve and exercise it over their Subjects Yet having lived to see the wonderful and happy Restauration of Your Majesty to Your Rightful Kingdoms and of this Reformed Church to its just Rights Primitive Order and Pristine Constitution by Your Majesties prudent care and imparallel'd bounty I know not what to present more worthy of Your Majesties acceptance and my duty then these Elaborate and Seasonable Works of the Famous and Prudent Mr. Richard Hooker now augmented and I hope compleated with the Three last Books so much desired and so long concealed The publishing of which Volume so intire and thus presenting it to Your Majesty seems to be a blessing and honor reserved by Gods Providence to add a further lusture to Your Majesties glorious Name and happy Reign whose transcendent favor justice merit and munificence to the long afflicted Church of England is a subject no less worthy of admirasion then gratitude to all Posterity And of all things next Gods grace not to be abused or turned into wantonness by any of Your Majesties Clergy who are highly obliged beyond all other Subjects to Piety Loyalty and Industry I shall need nothing more to ingratiate this incomparable Piece to Your Majesties acceptance and all the English Worlds then those high commendations it hath ever had as from all prudent peaceable and impartial Readers so especially from Your Majesties Royal Father who a few days before he was Crowned with Martyrdom commended to His dearest Children the diligent Reading of Mr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity even next the Bible as an excellent means to settle them in the Truth of Religion and in the Peace of this Church as much Christian and as well Reformed as any under Heaven As if God had reserved this signal Honor to be done by the best of Kings and greatest Sufferers for this Church to Him who was one of the best Writers and ablest Defenders of it To this Compleated Edition is added such particular accounts as could be got of the Authors Person Education Temper Manners Fortunes Life and Death which is now done with much exactness and proportion That hereby Your Majesty and all the World may see what sort of Men are fittest for Church-work which like the Building of Solomons Temple is best carried on with most evenness of Iudgement and least noise of Passion Also what manner of Man he was to whom we all ow this Noble Work and durable Defence Which is indeed at once as the Tongues of Eloquent Princes are to themselves and their Subjects both a Treasury and an Armory to inrich their friends and defend them against the Enemies of the Church of England Arare composition of unpassionate Reason and unpartial Religion the mature product of a Indicious Scholar a Loyal Subject an Humble Preacher and a most Eloquent Writer The very abstract and quintessence of Laws Humane and Divine a Summary of the Grounds Rules and Proportions of true Polity in Church and State Vpon which clear solid and safe Foundations the good Order Peace and Government of this Church was anciently setled and on which while it stands firm it will be flourishing All other popular and specious pretensions being found by late sad experiences to be as novel and unfit so factious and fallacious yea dangerous and destructive to the Peace and Prosperity of this Church and Kingdom whose inseparable happiness and interests are bound up in Monarchy and Episcopacy The Politick and Visible managing of both which God hath now graciously restored and committed to Your Majesties Soveraign Wisdom and Authority after the many and long Tragedies suffered from those Club Masters and Tub-Ministers who sought not fairly to obtain Reformation of what might seem amiss but violently and wholly to overthrow the ancient and goodly Fabrick of this Church and Kingdom For finding themselves not able in many years to Answer this one Book long ago written in defence of the Truth Order Government Authority and Liberty in things indifferent of this Reformed Church agreeable to Right Reason and True Religion which makes this well tempered Peice a File capable to break the Teeth of any that venture to bite it they conspired at last to betake themselves to Arms to kindle those horrid fires of Civil Wars which this wise Author foresaw and foretold in his admirable Preface would follow those sparks and that smoak which he saw rise in his days So that from impertinent Disputes seconded with scurrilous Pamphlets they fled to Tumults Sedition Rebellion Sacriledge Parricide yea Regicide Counsels Weapons and Practices certainly no way becoming the hearts and hands of Christian Subjects nor ever sanctified by Christ for his Service or his Churches good What now remains but Your Majesties perfecting and preserving that in this Church which you have with
him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose There is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding This man indeed deserves the name of an Author his Books will get Reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last Fire shall consume all Learning Not was this high the only testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of King Iames into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whiâ—gift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorrow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happiness of seeing and discoursing with that Man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf or Paragraph in Mr. Hooker thought it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church Musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments then I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those subjects by others though very Learned Men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected Language but a grave comprehensive cleer manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next Age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the Picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that the King thought what he spake that as the most Learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with Reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Iudicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the first ever mention him but with the same Reverence enjoyning his Son our now gracious King to be studious in M. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the Death the Modesty and other Vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wisht that for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy pen of Doctor Earl now Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker died none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a more pious peaceable primitive Temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself and our venerable Richard Hooker and only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little Island There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and Death at Borne in which place he continued his customary rules of Mortification and Self-Denyal was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers injoying those blessed Returns which only Men of strict lives feel and know and of which Men of loose and Godless lives cannot be made sensible for spiritual things are spiritually discerned At his entrance into this place his Friendship was much sought for by Doctor Hadrian Saravia then one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacriledge and in England had a just occasion to declare his Judgement concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countryes which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many Learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops Superiority above the Presbytery a second against Sacriledge and a third of Christian obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuit And it is observable that when in a time of Church tumults Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a three-fold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Doctor Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became publique and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and his adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but of these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the year in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the world in the Publication of his four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This friendship being sought for by this Learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers Mr. Cartwright and others of their Judgment in a controversie too like Doctor Saravia's So that in this year of 1595. and in this place of Borne these two excellent persons began a Holy Friendship increasing dayly to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same and designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church still assisting and improving each others vertues and the desired comforts of a peaceable Piety which I have willingly mentioned because it gives a foundation to some things that follow This Parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles and near to the common Road that leads from that City to Dover in which Parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been twelve moneths but his Books and the Innocency and Sanctity of his Life became so remarkable that many turn'd out of the road and others Scholars especially went purposely to see the Man whose Life and Learning were so much admired and alas as our Saviour said of St. Iohn Baptist
that the affairs of Christians should be brought into publick judgement Howbeit not without comfort in our Lord are these travels undertaken by us for the hopes sake of eternal life to the end that with patience we may reap fruit So farr is Saint Augustin from thinking it unlawful for Pastors in such sort to judge Civil Causes that he plainly collecteth out of the Apostles words a necessity to undertake that duty yea himself he comforteth with the hope of a blessed reward in lieu of travel that way sustained Again even where whole Christian Kingdoms are how troublesome were it for Universities and other greater Collegiate Societies erected to serve as Nurseries unto the Church of Christ if every thing which civilly doth concern them were to be carried from their own peculiar Governors because for the most part they are as fittest it is they should be Persons Ecclesiastical Calling It was by the wisdom of our famous Predecessors foreseen how unfit this would be and hereupon provided by grant of special Charters that it might be as now it is in the Universities where their Vice-Chancellors being for the most part Professors of Divinity are nevertheless Civil Judges over them in the most of their ordinary Causes And to go yet some degrees further A thing impossible it is not neither altogether unusual for some who are of royal blood to be consecrated unto the Ministry of Jesus Christ and so to be Nurses of God's Church not only as the Prophet did fore-tell but also as the Apostle Saint Paul was Now in case the Crown should by this mean descend unto such Persons perhaps when they are the very last or perhaps the very best of their Race so that a greater benefit they are not able to bestow upon a Kingdom than by accepting their right therein shall the sanctity of their Order deprive them of that honour whereunto they have right by blood or shall it be a barr to shut out the publick good that may grow by their vertuous Regiment If not then must they cast off the Office which they received by Divine Imposition of hands or if they carry a more religious opinion concerning that heavenly Function it followeth that being invested as well with the one as the other they remain God's lawfully anointed both ways With men of skill and mature judgement there is of this so little doubt that concerning such as at this day are under the Archbishops of Ments Colen and Travers being both Archbishops and Princes of the Empire yea such as live within the Popes own Civil Territories there is no cause why any should deny to yield them civil obedience in any thing which they command not repugnant to Christian Piety yea even that civilly for such as are under them not to obey them were the part of seditious Persons Howbeit for Persons Ecclesiastical thus to exercise Civil Dominion of their own is more than when they onely sustain some Publick Office or deal in some business Civil being thereunto even by Supream Authority required As Nature doth not any thing in vain so neither Grace Wherefore if it please God to bless some Principal Attendants on his own Sanctuary and to endue them with extraordinary parts of excellency some in one kinde some in another surely a great derogation it were to the very honour of him who bestowed so precious Graces except they on whom he hath bestowed them should accordingly be imployed that the fruit of those Heavenly Gifts might extend it self unto the Body of the Common-wealth wherein they live which being of purpose instituted for so all Common-wealths are to the end that all might enjoy whatsoever good it pleaseth the Almighty to endue each one with must needs suffer loss when it hath not the gain which eminent civil hability in Ecclesiastical Persons is now and then found apt to afford Shall we then discommend the People of Milan for using Ambrose their Bishop as an Ambassadour about their Publick and Politick Affairs the Jews for electing their Priests sometimes to be Leaders in Warr David for making the High Priest his Chiefest Counsellour of State Finally all Christian Kings and Princes which have appointed unto like services Bishops or other of the Clergy under them No! they have done in this respect that which most sincere and religious wisdom alloweth Neither is it allowable only when either a kinde of necessity doth cast Civil Offices upon them or when they are thereunto preferred in regard of some extraordinary fitness but further also when there are even of right annexed unto some of their places or of course imposed upon certain of their Persons Functions of Dignity and Account in the Common-wealth albeit no other consideration be had therein save this that their credit and countenance may by such means be augmented A thing if ever to be respected surely most of all now when God himself is for his own sake generally no where honoured Religion almost no where no where religiously adored the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments of Christ a very cause of disgrace in the eyes both of high and low where it hath not somewhat besides it self to be countenanced with For unto this very pass things are come that the glory of God is constrained even to stand upon borrowed credit which yet were somewhat the more tolerable if there were not that disswade to lead iâ— him No practise so vile but pretended Holynesse is made sometimes a Cloak to hide it The French King Philip Valois in his time made an Ordinance that all Prelates and Bishops shuâ—â—ld be clean excluded from Parliaments where the Affairs of the Kingdom were handled pretending that a King with good Conscience cannot draw Pastors having Cure of Souls from so weighty a business to trouble their Heads with Consultations of State But irreligious intents are not able to hide themselves no not when Holiness is made their Cloak This is plain and simple truth That the counsels of wicked men hate always the presence of them whose vertue though it should not be able to prevail against their purposes would notwithstanding be unto their minds a secret corrosive and therefore till either by one shift or another they can bring all things to their own hands alone they are not secure Ordinances holler and better there stand as yet in force by the grace of Almighty God and the works of his Providence amongst us Let not Envy so far prevail as to make us account that a Blemish which if there be in us any spark of sound Judgement or of religious Conscience we must of necessity acknowledge to be one of the chiefest Ornaments unto this Land By the antient Laws whereof the Clergy being held for the chief of those Three Estates which together make up the entire Body of this Common-wealth under one Supreme Head and Governour it hath all this time ever born a sway proportionable in the Weighty Affairs of the Land wise and vertuous Kings condescending
judge of If it were a matter of wrong or an evill deed O ye Iews I would according to reason maintain you Causes of the Church are such as Gallio there receiteth if it be a question of your Law look ye to it I will be no judge thereof In respect of this difference therefore the Church and the Common-wealth may in speech be compared or opposed aptly enough the one to the other yet this is no Argument that they are two Independent Societies Some other Reasons there are which seem a little more neerly to make for the purpose as long as they are but heard and not sifted For what though a man being severed by Excommunication from the Church be not thereby deprived of freedom in the City or being there discommoned is not therefore forthwith excommunicated and excluded the Church What though the Church be bound to receive them upon Repentance whom the Common-weal may refuse again to admit If it chance the same man to be shut out of both division of the Church and Common-weal which they contend for will very hardly hereupon follow For we must note that members of a Christian Common-weal have a triple state a natural a civil and a spiritual No mans natural estate is cut off otherwise then by that capital execution After which he that is none of the body of the Common-wealth doth not I think remain fit in the body of that visible Church And concerning mans civil estate the same is subject partly to inferiour abatement of liberty and partly to diminution in the highest degree such as banishment is sith it casteth out quite and clean from the body of the Common-weal it must needs also consequently cast the banished party even out of the very Church he was of before because that Church and the Common-weal he was of were both one and the same Society So that whatsoever doth utterly separate a mans person from the one it separateth from the other also As for such abatements of civil estate as take away only some priviledge dignity or other benefit which a man enjoyeth in the Common-weal they reach only to our dealing with publike affairs from which what may lett but that men may be excluded and thereunto restored again without diminishing or augmenting the number of persons in whom either Church or Common-wealth consisteth He that by way of punishment loseth his voice in a publike election of Magistrates ceaseth not thereby to be a Citizen A man dis-franchised may notwithstanding enjoy as a Subject the common benefit of Protection under Laws and Magistrates so that these inferiour diminutions which touch men civilly but neither do clean extinguish their estates as they belong to the Common-wealth nor impair a whit their condition as they are of the Church of God These I say do clearly prove a difference of the one from the other but such a difference as maketh nothing for their surmise of distracted Societies And concerning Excommunication it curreth off indeed from the Church and yet not from the Commonwealth howbeit so that the party Excommunicate is not thereby severed from one body which subsisteth in it self and retained by another in like sort subsisting but he which before had fellowship with that society whereof he was a member as well touching things spiritual as civil is now by force of Excommunication although not severed from the body in Civil affairs nevertheless for the time cut off from it as touching Communion in those things which belong to the same body as it is the Church A man which having been both Excommunicated by the Church and deprived of Civil dignity in the Common-wealth is upon his repentance necessarily reunited into the one but not of necessity into the other What then That which he is admitted unto is a Communion in things Divine whereof both parts are partakers that from which he is withheld is the benefit of some humane previledge or right which other Citizens happily enjoy But are not these Saints and Citizens one and the same people are they not one and the same Society Doth it hereby appear that the Church which received an Excommunicate can have no dependency on any pers o which hath chief Authority and Power of these things in the Commonwealth whereunto the same party is not admitted Wherefore to end this point I conclude First that under the dominions of Infidels the Church of Christ and their Common-wealth were two Societies independent Secondly that in those Common-wealths where the Bishop of Rome beareth sway one Society is both the Church and the Common-wealth But the Bishop of Rome doth divide the body into two divers bodies and doth not suffer the Church to depend upon the power of any civil Prince and Potenrate Thirdly that within this Realm of England the case is neither as in the one nor as in the other of the former two but from the state of Pagans we differ in that with us one Society is both the Church and Common-wealth which with them it was not as also from the state of those Nations which subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome in that our Church hath dependance from the Chief in our Common-wealth which it hath not when he is suffered to rule In a word our state is according to the pattern of Gods own antient elect people which people was not part of them the Common-wealth and part of them the Church of God but the self-same people whole and entire were both under one Chief Governour on whose Supream Authority they did all depend Now the drift of all that hath been alledged to prove perpetual separation and independency between the Church and the Commonwealth is that this being held necessary it might consequently be thought fit that in a Christian Kingdom he whose power is greatest over the Common-wealth may not lawfully have supremacy of power also over the Church that is to say so far as to order thereby and to dispose of spiritual affairs so far as the highest uncommanded Commander in them Whereupon it is grown a Question whether Government Ecclesiastical and power of Dominion in such degrees as the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Soveraign Governour thereof may by the said supream Governour lawfully be enjoy'd and held For resolution wherein we are First to define what the power of dominion is Secondly then to shew by what right Thirdly after what sort Fourthly in what measure Fiftly in what inconveniency According to whose example Christian Kings may have it And when these generals are opened to examine afterwards how lawful that is which we in regard of Dominion do attribute unto our own namely the title of headship over the Church so far as the bounds of this Kingdom do reach Secondly the Prerogative of calling and dissolving great assemblies about spiritual affairs publick Thirdly the right of assenting unto all those orders concerning Religion which must after be in force as Law Fourthly the advancement of Principal
any longer under him but he together with them under God receiving the joyes of everlasting triumph that so God may be in all all misery in all the Wicked through his Justice in all the Righteous through his love all felicity and blisse In the mean while he reigneth over the World as King and doth those things wherein none is Superiour unto him whether we respect the works of his Providence and Kingdom or of his Regiment over the Church The cause of Errour in this point doth seem to have been a misconceit that Christ as Mediatour being inferiour to his Father doth as Mediatour all Works of Regiment over the Church when in truth Regiment doth belong to his Kingly Office Mediatourship to his Priestly For as the High-Priest both offered Sacrifices for expiation of the Peoples sins and entred into the holy Place there to make intercession for them So Christ having finished upon the Cross that part of his Priestly Office which wrought the propitiation for our Sinnes did afterwards enter into very Heaven and doth there as Mediatour of the New Testament appear in the sight of God for us A like sleight of Judgement it is when they hold that Civil Authority is from God but not immediately through Christ nor with any subordination to God nor doth any thing from God but by the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny it not to be said of Christ in the Old Testament By me Princes rule and the Nobles and all the Iudges of the Earth In the New as much is taught That Christ is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Wherefore to the end it may more plainly appear how all Authority of Man is derived from God through Christ and must by Christian men be acknowledged to be no otherwise held then of and under him we are to note that because whatsoever hath necessary being the Son of God doth cause it to be and those things without which the World cannot well continue have necessary being in the World a thing of so great use as Government cannot choose but be originally from Him Touching that Authority which Civil Magistrates have in Ecclesiastical Affairs it being from God by Christ as all other good things are cannot chuse but be held as a thing received at his hands and because such power is of necessity for the ordering of Religion wherein the essence and very being of the Church consisteth can no otherwise slow from him than according to that special care which he hath to govern and guide his own People it followeth that the said Authority is of and under him after a more special manner in that he is Head of the Church and not in respect of his general Regency over the World All things saith the Apostle speaking unto the Church are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is God's Kings are Christ's as Saints because they are of the Church if not collectively yet divisively understood It is over each particular Person within that Church where they are Kings Surely Authority reacheth both unto all mens persons and to all kindes of causes also It is not denyed but that they may have and lawfully exercise it such Authority it is for which and for no other in the World we term them Heads such Authority they have under Christ because he in all things is Lord overall and even of Christ it is that they have received such Authority in as much as of him all lawful Powers are therefore the Civil Magistrate is in regard of this Power an under and subordinate Head of Christ's People It is but idle where they speak That although for several Companies of Men there may be several Heads or Governours differing in the measure of their Authority from the Chiefest who is Head over all yet it cannot be in the Church for that the reason why Head-Magistrates appoint others for such several places it Because they cannot be present every where to perform the Office of an Head But Christ is never from his Body nor from any Part of it and therefore needeth not to substitute any which may be Heads some over one Church and some over another Indeed the consideration of Man's imbecillity which maketh many Heads necessary where the burthen is too great for one moved Iethro to be a Perswader of Moses that a number of Heads of Rulers might be instituted for discharge of that duty by parts which in whole he saw was troublesome Now although there be not in Christ any such defect or weakness yet other causes there be divers more than we are able to search into wherefore it might seem unto him expedient to divide his Kingdom into many Provinces and place many Heads over it that the Power which each of them hath in particular with restraint might illustrate the greatness of his unlimited Authority Besides howsoever Christ be Spiritually alwayes united unto every part of his Body which is the Church Nevertheless we do all know and they themselves who alledge this will I doubt not confess also that from every Church here visible Christ touching visible and corporal presence is removed as farr as Heaven from the Earth is distant Visible Government is a thing necessary for the Church and it doth not appear how the exercise of visible Government over such Multitudes every where dispersed throughout the World should consist without sundry visible Governours whose Power being the greatest in that kinde so farr as it reacheth they are in consideration thereof termed so farr Heads Wherefore notwithstanding the perpetual conjunction by vertue whereof our Saviour alwayes remaineth spiritually united unto the parts of his Mystical Body Heads indeed with Supream Power extending to a certain compasse are for the exercise of a visible Regiment not unnecessary Some other reasons there are belonging unto this branch which seem to have been objected rather for the exercise of mens wits in dissolving Sophismes than that the Authors of them could think in likelyhood thereby to strengthen their cause For example If the Magistrate be Head of the Church within his own Dominion then is he none of the Church For all that are of the Church make the Body of Christ and every one of the Church fulfilleth the place of one member of the Body By making the Magistrate therefore Head we do exclude him from being a Member subject to the Head and so leave him no place in the Church By which reason the name of a Body Politick is supposed to be alwayes taken of the inferiour sort alone excluding the Principal Guides and Governors contrary to all Mens customes of speech The Errour ariseth by misconceiving of some Scripture-sentences where Christ as the Head and the Church as the Body are compared or opposed the one to the other And because in such comparisons ooppositions the Body is taken for those only parts which are subject unto the Head they imagine that who so is the Head of any
were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records thereof remaining still the Book of God for a testimony that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we answer That the Councel of Ierusalem is no Argument for the power of the Clergy to make Laws For first there hath not been sithence any Councel of like authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The cause why that was of such authority came by a special accident Thirdly The reason why other Councels being not like unto that in nature the Clergy in them should have no power to make Laws by themselves alone is in truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the foresaid example to prevail The Decrees of the Councel of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies Human but very Divine Ordinances for which cause the Churches were farr and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and credit above all others which have been sithence is expressed in those words of principal observation Unto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good which form of speech though other Councels have likewise used yet neither could they themselves mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the power of the Holy Ghost but the latter had the favour of that general assistance and presence which Christ doth promise unto all his according to the quality of their several Estates and Callings the former the grace of special miraculous rare and extraordinary illumination in relation whereunto the Apostle comparing the Old Testament and the New together termeth the one a Testament of the Letter for that God delivered it written in stone the other a Testament of the Spirit because God imprinted it in the hearts and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apostles through the power of the Holy Ghost feigning both their conceits and speeches in most Divine and incomprehensible manner Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened it had authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kinde of Persons are as now the state of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the power to make Ecclesiastical laws we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason that no Ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power For of this thing no man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies and Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree unto Much more than a King should constrain all others no the strict observation of any such Human Ordinance as passeth without his own approbation In this Case therefore especially that vulgar Axiom is of force Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet Whereupon Pope Nicolas although otherwise not admitting Lay-persons no not Emperors themselves to be present as Synods doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are determined whereunto all men must stand bound Ubinam legistis Imperatores Antecessores vestros Synodalibus Conventibus interfuisse nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est quae non solum ad Clericos verum etiam ad Laicos omnes pertinet Christianos A Law be it Civil or Ecclesiastical is a Publick Obligation wherein seeing that the whole standeth charged no reason it should pass without his privity and will whom principally the whole doth depend upon Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum perturbare ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent minuere saith Innocentius Extra de judic novit As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy saith Pope Innocent But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest forasmuch as every Estate doth desire to inlarge the bounds of their own Liberties is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Rights and by keeping all Estates as it were in an even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their common Parent whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in the making Laws which All must be ordered by Wherefore of them which in this point attribute most to the Clergy I would demand What evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in antient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by mere force of their Agreement taken place as a Law making all men constrainable to be obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf But what speak we of antient Kingdoms when at this day even the Papacy it self the very Tridentine Council hath not every where as yet obtained to have in all points the strength of Ecclesiastical Laws did not Philip King of Spain publishing that Council in the Low Countries adde thereunto an express clause of special provision that the same should in no wise prejudice hurt or diminish any kinde of Priviledge which the King or his Vassals a fore-time had enjoyed touching either possessory Judgements of Ecclesiastical Livings or concerning nominations thereunto or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such Affairs If therefore the Kings exception taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council were a sufficient barr to make them of none effect within his Territories it followeth that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy and so consequently that no part therof had obtained the strength of a Law if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole as what reason was there but that the same Authority which limited might quite and clean have refused that Council who so alloweth the said Act of the Catholick Kings for good and
lawful must grant that the Canons even of General Councils have but the face of Wise-mens opinions concerning that whereof they-treat till they be publickly assented unto where they are to take place as Laws and that in giving such publick assent as maketh a Christian Kingdome subject unto those Laws the King's authority is the chiefest That which an University of Men a Company or Corporation doth without consent of their Rector is as nothing Except therefore we make the King's Authority over the Clergy less in the greatest things than the power of the meanest Governour is in all things over the Colledge or Society which is under him how should we think it a matter decent that the Clergy should impose Laws the Supream Governours assent not asked Yea that which is more the Laws thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose and licentious opinion which the Anabaptists have embraced holding that a Christian man's liberty is lost and the Soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servitude under the Yoke of Human power if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Christ in obedience whereunto the Spirit of God and not the constraint of men is to lead us according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and not such as live in thraldom unto men Their Judgement is therefore That the Church of Christ should admit of no Law-makers but the Evangelists no Courts but Presbyteries no Punishments but Ecclesiastical censures As against this sort we are to maintain the use of Human laws and the continual necessity of making them from time to time as long as this present World doth last so likewise the Authority of Laws so made doth need much more by us to be strengthened against another sort who although they do utterly condemn the making of Laws in the Church yet make they a great deal less account of them than they should do There are which think simply of Human laws that they can in no sort touch the Conscience That to break and transgress them cannot make men in the sight of God culpable as Sin doth onely when we violate such Laws we do thereby make our selves obnoxious unto external punishment in this World so that the Magistrate may in regard of such offence committed justly correct the Offender and cause him without injury to endure such pains as Law doth appoint but further it reacheth not For first the Conscience is the proper Court of God the guiltiness thereof is Sin and the punishment Eternal death men are not able to make any Law that shall command the Heart it is not in them to make Inward-conceit a Crime or to appoint for any crime other punishment than corporal their Laws therefore can have no power over the Soul neither can the heart of man be polluted by transgressing them St. Austine rightly desineth Sin to be that which is spoken done or desired not against any Laws but against the Law of the Living God The Law of God is proposed unto Man as a Glass wherein to behold the stains and the spots of their sinful Souls By it they are to judge themselves and when they feel themselves to have transgressed against it then to bewail their offences with David Against thee onely O Lord have I sinned and done wickedly in thy sight that so our present tears may extinguish the flames which otherwise we are to feel and which of God in that day shall condemn the Wicked unto when they shall render account of the Evil which they have done not by violating Statute-Laws and Canons but by disobedience unto his Law and his Word For our better instruction therefore concerning this point first we must note That the Law of God it self doth require at our hands Subjection Be ye subject saith S. Peter and S. Paul Let every Soul be subject subject all unto such Powers as are set over us For if such as are not set over us require our subjection we by denying it are not disobedient to the Law of God or undutiful unto Higher Powers Because though they be such in regard of them over whom they have lawful Dominion yet having not so over us unto us they are not such Subjection therefore we owe and that by the Law of God we are in Conscience bound to yield it even unto every of them that hold the seats of Authority and Power in relation unto us Howbeit not all kindes of subjection unto every such kinde of Power concerning Scribes and Pharisees our Saviour's Precept was Whatsoever they shall tell ye do it Was it his meaning that if they should at any time enjoyn the People to levy an Army or to sell their Lands and Goods for the furtherance of so great an enterprize and in a word that simply whatsoever it were which they did command they ought without any exception forth-with to be obeyed No but whatsoever they shall tell you must be understoud in pertinentibus ad Cathedram it must be construed with limitation and restrained unto things of that kinde which did belong to their place and power For they had not Power general absolutely given them to command all things The reason why we are bound in Conscience to be subject unto all such Power is because all Powers are of God They are of God either instituting or permitting them Power is then of Divine institution when either God himself doth deliver or men by light of nature finde out the kinde thereof So that the power of Parents over Children and of Husbands over their Wives the power of all sorts of Superiors made by consent of Common-wealths within themselves or grown from agreement amongst Nations such power is of God's own Institution in respect of the kinde thereof Again if respect be had unto those particular Persons to whom the same is derived if they either receive it immediately from God as Moses and Aaron did or from nature as Parents do or from men by a natural and orderly course as every Governor appointed in any Common wealth by the order thereof doth then is not the kinde of their Power only of God's instituting but the derivation thereof also into their Persons is from him He hath placed them in their rooms and doth term them his Ministers Subjection therefore is due unto all such Powers inasmuch as they are of God's own institution even then when they are of man's creation Omni Humanae Creaturae Which things the Heathens themselves do acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for them that exercise Power altogether against Order although the kinde of Power which they have may be of God yet is their exercise thereof against God and therefore not of God otherwise than by Permission as all Injustice is Touching such Acts as are done by that power which is according to