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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49337	Of the subject of church power in whom it resides, its force, extent, and execution, that it opposes not civil government in any one instance of it / by Simon Lowth ...	Lowth, Simon, 1630?-1720.	1685 (1685)	Wing L3329; ESTC R11427	301,859	567

where there is a doubt and no sure witness to avouch the Baptism pretended once to be administred or the Persons themselves are not able to give an account of the Mysteries then delivered unto them as Can. 57. Conc. Carthag and which Canon was occasioned by their Embassador with the Moors who usually brought such Children from the Barbarians but yet there is no instance in the first Canons of rebaptizing those who were certainly known to be baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost upon any accident by Lay-men and yet such we have reason to believe there was Hence Baptism once appearing to have been administred as to the Matter and Substance of it and in the words of the Institution and by such as were not of the Hieratical Order they adjudged it the safer way to trust the Mercy and Goodness of God for a supply of whatever defect might be in one or two outward Circumstances than to run the hazard of an attempt of what seemed so visibly and notoriously unlawful viz. a second admission by that Sacrament or a violation of that known and sacred rule or instance of our Belief one Baptism for remission of Sins And this as in all defects and where something is wanting it ought to be permitted and pardoned only under the present and unhappy Circumstances as also in the after practice of the Church but never produced and urged as a Rule enacted into a Law Infirmities are never made Presidents unless for Pity and Pardon and to quicken future care and watchfulness against them the common course of things abhors nor is it to be endur'd if otherwise Potestatem regenerationis demandans suis discipulis cum dixit iis Euntes docete omnes gentes baptizantes c. Iren. l. 3. c. 19. Christ Jesus then demandated or devolved the Power for Regeneration unto his Disciples when he bad them go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. and certainly such as attempt it ought first to receive the same Autority in Succession from him without which his Disciples that in Person attended him did it not Tertullian represents it as the height of impudence and irregularity for a Woman to baptize forsitan tingere a more sawcy act then to teach in the Church De praescr c. 41. then which no Book was ever wrote with a more Primitive Spirit and speaks of it as a thing in general forbad a Woman de Virgin Veland c. 9. He limits it to the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon only in necessity it comes to the Lay-man Sufficiat sc ut in necessitatibus utaris sicubi aut loci aut temporis aut personae conditio compellit tunc enim constantia succurrentis excipitur quam urgit circumstantia periclitantis De Baptism c. 17. and surely that which is but one never to be reiterated 't is Sacriledge 't is incest to do it to which so many and great Titles Eulogies and Effects are given by the Ancients it would be endless to repeat them so many to be sure more are not spoken of any one Service in the whole City of God That which first enters us into the Body and Association of Christians with so large Promises upon such solemn ties and obligations the Expectations and Duties of our whole life following and that which is performed and obtained with the same solemnity and invocation as in other Holy Mysteries invocato Deo Sanctificationis Sacramentum consequuntur aequae Tertul de Baptism c. 4. it is not agreeable that the Consecration and Solemnization be left and assigned promiscuously and to every hand and which is not in other Sacraments it must in course be equally peculiar and separate as to the separation of the Persons that are to be entrusted with the administration of it A further appropriated distinct Power to § XXX the Officers of the Church is to unite and determine in Council in the affairs of Religion as to Matters of Faith when less cleer when unhappily wrested and perverted by Hereticks in fixing things indifferent in their Nature for the more usefulness order and uniformity in the Worship of God for the setling of Consciences in the private apprehension of them and governing suitable to such the Laws and Canons in each case so made and constituted by them For this end the Apostles and Elders met together and united in Council at Jerusalem and determined concerning things offer'd to Idols and eating of Blood c. Acts 15. so those many subsequent Councils whilst the Empire kept off from the Church as against that Error of the Arabians that the Souls sleep upon the separation Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 37. in that against Novatus Cap. 43. against Paulus Samosetanus l. 7. c. 29. with several others in History transmitted to this purpose was that Body or Collection of Canons bearing the Title of the Apostles Canons upon several occasions made for the use and direction and government of the Christian Incorporation and Society such were the four first general Councils when the Empire became Christian and receiv'd the Church under its wings and protection The first under Constantine held at Nicaea against Arius and asserted the Eternity of the Son of God that he was not a meer Creature The second held at Constantinople under Theodosius the Great against Macedonius and asserted the Eternal divinity of the Holy Ghost who said the third Person was a meer Creature The third was held at Ephesus under Theodosius the lesser against Nestorius who own'd the both Godhead and Manhood of Christ but divided him into two Persons The fourth at Chalcedon under Marcian the Emperor against Eutiches who consounded the two Natures in one Person as Nestorius divided the Persons with others whether Oecumenical or Topical during or succeeding these and whose either Declarations as to what Faith was at first delivered and since received upon a just and traditional enquiry even to the placing some Books into the Canon of Scripture which were not with the earliest admitted or constituted Canons in Church-Polity were still thought obliging to all good and peaceable Christians determined and ended the present debate and only a Compliance was the issue of them and that either to all Christendom or particular Churches suitable as were the Councils either Universal or under single Metropolitans or particular Bishops accordingly did they oblige And this Legislative Power as originally given only to Church-Officers so is it alone residing in them to rule and to govern receive or reject to punish or reward according to such their own Laws as the reason and nature of such the Societies and their Constitution will direct and bear as unhappy Differences and Debates arose they were thus to be decided by the Convention of Councils who either confirmed what they found was well done before or passed farther Sanctions where the occasion was new or upon notoriety of failure in former Declarations For the Power of Councils was never asserted

any sin in not receiving the Doctrines of Christ All which is to be read with more to the same purpose in his Leviathan Part 3. cap. 42. Of Power Ecclesiastical NOR are they less out of the way when § XXXVII arguing that this Power of the Church must of necessity clash with that of the State and oppose the Soveraignty of Princes for there is no outward Execution in a form of justice can be supposed as from Christ whatever of that Nature is is from the other secular Fountain till Christ Jesus appears himself at the Day of Judgment no Person●l compulsive Summons from him till to that great Bar and all earthy Power and Dominion and Magistracy is to submit and appear to his Jurisdiction because to be at an end to be deposed by God himself ripe as a sheaf of Wheat lay'd up in the Barn with its due just and designed Period and Completion and then this Kingdom of Christ also shall be delivered up to the Father that God may be all in all they are both as to continue upon Earth so to end together but neither destroying one another and the alone Council and Pleasure of the Almighty makes the dissolution and which as the sense of the Primitive and first Christians is cleer by the account that is given of the Kindred of our Saviour in the above-mentioned place of Eusebius of the constant course of their Tribute out of the assiduity of their labour and lower condition in the World they pay'd unto Caesar no one relation to Christ as not of the Flesh so nor of the Spirit either as Men or Christians giving but any shew of Title unto the Government that is Civil or of exemption from any one Tax or Imposition by that Government laid upon them a Truth that has been opened illustrated and deduced down through this Discourse and in some competent measure so as to satisfie upon a rational enquiry and it may be farther cleer'd up and rendred more easie and convincing yet to a due understanding if the several acts and offices of this Body the Church be resum'd again in their distinct Considerations and it will farther appear that these Powers as they never have in Matter of Fact so in their Nature and Constitution they do not any ways impinge upon much less silence and depose any ways justle with and usurp those Powers that are Secular let us run them over as in their order already set down § XXXVIII THE first instance of their Union and Association is in their Articles of Faith joyning and consenting together in this belief that Jesus is the Christ and which makes the Christians a Sect sever'd distinct and apart from all others The sum indeed of all the Gospel as Mr. Hobbs with great industry and pains does collect and prove and 't is what is own'd by him as reconcileable with our obedience to the civil Magistrate be he Christian or Infidel for their Faith is internal and invisible as he goes on and tells us they have the license that Naaman had and need not put themselves into danger for it Leviathan Part 3. cap. 43. or admitting farther and which Christianity surely obliges to that publick Professions of this Faith are to be made and for this the several Creeds as the Apostles c. were drawn up open Confessions of them were made and Subscriptions to them to the incurring of danger from the Civil Power they only hereby engag'd themselves to suffer to dye and become in that signal manner Martyrs and Witnesses for and of them at the stake but never so to oppose as to rebel in the defence and maintenance of them there was nothing there believed and professed or from any other Obligation or Contract that did engage them so to do THEY next covenanted against Sin and § XXXIX Iniquity Murder Fraud Perfidiousness c. and was of old and is still a particular Act of this Christian Body or Association as in the Covenant at Baptism nor is any one any farther a Christian than he performs it and this cannot by Malice it self be termed a covenanting against the Prince or his Power None are indeed and throughly good Subjects but such as are good Christians thus vow and pay Evil manners abate of a just sense and Conscience of Justice and Honesty the Prince cannot have of such men so full a security of their due and true Allegiance and Fidelity to him why should they be more true to him than they are to their God and besides they expose the Government to his Wrath and Vengeance And 't is not upon this account the late Solemn League and Covenant was adjudged by the publick Autority of the Nation to be injurious to the State as ingaging to Repentance and to be burnt by the common Hangman § XL A farther instance of this Association is an assembling and joyning together in the Publick Service of God in those offices of Christianity which belong to all in common as in the Duties of Prayer Praises Lauding with one Mouth and Praising God for all his Mercies to Mankind and to themselves in particular this is a Church Office which must endure so long as the Sun and Moon as there is a Church a Body or Collection of men upon Earth professing Christianity if Publick Prayers and Praises cease the Church the People of God must cease particular Christians may be confined and incapacitated in the Performance and where one is though with Jeremy in the Dungeon or where two or three are met together God will be with them but the daily Sacrifice cannot wholly be abolished till Days and Nights are no more should I say they are to be longer and to remain in Heaven it were not amiss to be sure the Praises will and why not the Prayers so far at least as a signal acknowledgment of our dependency upon God the Perfection of that State and full growth we there arrive unto does not invest us with any of those first and nearest of God's attributes and which are therefore call'd incommunicable as peculiar to his Essence and particularly those of Self-existency and Independency his Autarchy and All-sufficiency and which Duties if discharged as required by God on Earth imply and enjoyn our acknowledgment and obedience as to our God so to our Prince in his distinct relations to us and that by all the ties and obligations the performance of so solemn a Duty as Prayer and Praises are can lay upon us least found perfidious Hypocrites and unfaithful to our God as all that are false to their King in the long run will appear so to God Almighty the very Form and Nature of our Prayers and Praises run so that therein we are first to Pray and give Thanks for Kings and there and in that most solemn manner own them 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. a Rebbel cannot say his Prayers at all but in the very action publish himself a Rogue if saying them as St. Paul has appointed