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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81829	The povver of the Christian magistrate in sacred things Delivered in some positions, sent to a friend, upon which, a returne of his opinion was desired. With some considerations, upon the answer; and a digression concerning allegiance, and submission to the supreame magistrate. By Lewis du Moulin, History-reader of the University of Oxford.	Du Moulin, Lewis, 1606-1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing D2551; Thomason E1366_4; ESTC R209267	40,736	161

Pastors or society of Christians get an increase of power of Jurisdiction and Legslation if they be a Law unto themselves and practise the duties of piety and exhort one another so to do Plinius the younger in the 97 Epistle to Trajan and the tenth book where he speaks of Christians saith that one of their crimes was that they joyned themselves in a covenant to live unblameably not to steal not to commit fornication not to defraud his neighbour and the like I believe that none will from that practise of the Christians argue that they took upon them more power for so doing then they durst under a Christian Magistrate except he were of the mind of some of late in Authority in England who disliked and endeavoured to suppresse all godly private meetings under pretence of Factions Sure if I mistake it not it will be found that the Pastors power of the Keyes had no life to compell the disobedient to Gods ordinances till they received it from the Soveraigne Magistrate when he gave his name to Christ who both more honoured and exalted Gods ordinances raising them from the dust and added weight to the heavenly messages by the mouth of the Ministers by being a terrour to the evil and punishing the ungodly To the power of persuasion and declaration he addeth that of coaction in which the Pastors have nothing to do The Bishop saith Saint Paul must not be a striker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hereupon Chrysostome saith well If a man is drawn from the faith the Priest must undertake with patience to exhort him for he cannot redresse him by force onely he must strive to perswade him to bring him to the right Faith Pastors saith the same Father are appointed to preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to rule or command with authority Letter HEre I dare say that the Reformers of the Doctrine of the Pope have not retained the Keys that were under Popery In reforming the Doctrine they have also reformed the abuses cleaving to the Keyes which are abominable for in the Romish Church they extend the power of the Keyes so farre as pardoning sinnes in a judiciall way saying to the sinner I absolve thee from thy sinnes The Priest renders himself Judge in a cause wherein God is the party offended By vertue of these Keyes the Pope drawes souls out of Purgatory he looseth those he never bound and which are none of his flock he doth loose under earth because Jesus Christ hath said what ever you shall bind on earth he doth loose and dispence with oaths and vows and freeth Subjects from the obedience due to their Soveraigne Prince he separates marriages exempting also children from the obedience they owe to their Father and Mother These holy men of God who have reformed the Doctrine have left off those Keyes and kept those which Jesus Christ hath given to his Disciples and their successors I will give thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven it was also impossible to reform the Doctrine without reforming the Keyes since those Keyes are a part of the Doctrine they have retained to themselves the power to bind and loose which Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples Math. 16. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth c which power goeth no further then Ecclesiasticall censures as the Lord Jesus Christ teacheth in the same place giving to understand that by this binding the rebellious sinner is put among the Publicanes and sinners who were excluded from the Communion of the Church Thus we must understand the power of remitting or reteining sinnes given by Jesus Christ to his Disciples The faithfull Pastors do remit sinnes when they release men of Ecclesiacall penalties and receive to the Communion of the Church the repenting sinner who was excluded Consideration THe Reformers have done as Richard the third in usurping a power which yet he exercised with moderation and making of good Lawes so did Augustus Caesar and some more Thus the Reformers have reteyned the Keyes to which they had no more right then the Pastors of the Romish Church but have taken away those adjuncts of abuses and abominations adhering to the power of the Keyes In that sence as Richard the third may be said to have usurped the Crowne as well as he who to usurpation hath added a tyrannicall Government and making of wicked and unjust Lawes so may it be said that the Reformers in reforming the Doctrine have reteined the power of the Keyes the Article thus speaking having no further meaning then to say that the Reformers in reforming the Doctrine have still challenged to themselves an Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction not belonging to the Civil Magistrate even as the Pastours of the Romish Church have donc though not the same for qualifications As for the meaning of the words dic Ecclesiae tell it unto the Church it cannot have much strength what ever interpretation one may give to the words whether by the word Church we understand a Synagogue or judicatory as was that of the Iewes amongst which there was no difference between Church and State or Common-wealth or a society of faithfull men and though by the Church Pastours should be understood I do not see here any Iudiciall sentence binding him that trespasseth against his neighbour but still he may if he will hearken without fear of any coercive power seated in the Ministers and the words Let him be to thee a heathen or a publican have no further meaning then have him for such a one in thy thoughts and estimation a Publicans office was lawfull neither yet could he be excluded from the communion nor from the congregation the very heathen not being excluded from the latter for how else could they have been converted Letter THE Reformers then in reforming the abuses in the Doctrine and Keyes have retained the Keyes and power to bind and unbind committed to them by Jesus Christ The Author of the Articles acknowledgeth that the Pastors of the Church have well done to retain that power under the heathen Emperors that is almost for the space of 350 yeares from Christ to Constantine the first Christian Emperour since which Emperour the said Author thinks that the Bishops and Pastors were to part with that Power and that the Soveraigne Power of the Keyes did no longer belong to them but that they were to desert it in obedience to God which yet they have not done for all the ancient Councels although convened by the will of the Emperours are full of penitentiall canons prescribing the forme time and degrees for publique pennances in the execution of which canons the consent of the Emperours nor of their Lieutenants was never expected Consideration WE have seen before that the power of the Ministers is neither increased nor diminished whether the Magistrate be Orthodox or no and that the power of the keyes given them by God hath more lively actings under the Orthodox Magistrate To that part of the Letter which saith that in

viz. first for conscience sake and for wrath that is the tye of every Christian in all the commands of the Magistrate is to obey God and doe whatsoever just and honest thing lies in ones power then for feare of punishment for any precept though morall and never so just although it bindes the conscience yet 't is no Law binding to obedience in foro humano till it be reduced into a Law by the Legislative Power of the Soveraigne Magistrate for even the supream power though Christian and godly cannot punish a theife for transgressing the commandement Thou shalt not steale except this Law be also a Law of the State But againe it may be demanded what authority and power doe you entitle on the Ministers of the Gospel to whom the Scripture committeth the power of the Keyes and giveth high Titles Names and Eloges I answer that still they have the highest honour in the world even higher then the Magistrates and Kings higher then Judges for all men shall be judged by their Gospel they are Ambassadours from Christ to earthly powers as the Kingdom committed to them is not of this world so their weapons are not earthy but spirituall and sharper then any two edged sword they condemn when they doe denounce the judgments of God to impenitent sinners they pardon declaring the mercies of God to penitent and mourning sinners they rebuke all kinds of men teach exhort admonish and have a kind of power and authoritie binding as much or more to obedience then the commands of the Soveraigne Magistrate for a man once convinced by the preaching of the word the word of of the Minister apprehended to be the truth of God or a command from God will be like the Intellect which being enlightened doth more powerfully work upon the will to act then when it is compelled by an externall agent and even civilly the respect one hath to an Artist binds in a manner to follow his prescriptions 'T is no marvell then if Theodosius being rebuked sharply by Ambros yielded to a censure rather coming from God which he was willing to undergo being conscious of his sinfulnesse and deserts then that it proceeded from a man endowed with a coercive power of excommunication to which not to yield had been a rebellion against God as Christ alone is the true spirituall Legislatour so he alone doth either withold or remit sinnes Solus saith Hilarius the Deacon peccata dimittit qui solus pro peccatis nostris mortuus est and the words of Lombard are very expresse to shew the extent of the power of the Keyes Sacerdotibus tribuit Deus potestatem solvendi ligandi id est ostendendi homines solutos vel ligatos God giveth the Priests power to loose and bind that is to make known they are either tied or loosed li. 4. dis 18. Saint Hierome upon the 26. of Matth. teacheth us what this potestas Clavium is as the Priest makes the Leprous either clean or unclean so doth the Bishop or Priest bind or unbind and saint Cyprian lib. de lapsis and other where saith that by the preaching of Ministers men receive not forgivenes of sins but are brought by it to be converted by getting a Knowledge of their sins And saint Augustine in many places saith that the Minister is some body in the administring of the Sacraments and dispensing the word but no body for the Iustification of a sinner and for working inwardly except he that made man worketh in the man Were the nature of Christs Kingdome well understood I suppose that the power of the Keyes would be easily stated I mean that Kingdome and power by which Christ worketh by his word and spirit upon the spirits of men inclining them to do his will by perswading and not constraining them by any coercive power delegated to the Apostles and their successors in the Ministery Christ himself saith he is not come into the world to Iudge the world but that the world should be saved by his preaching And the comparing of Christs Kingdome to a grain of Mustard seed and to leaven hid in the dough sheweth manifestly that this Kingdome is propagated by secret perswasions and workings and not by a Iudiciall external power seated in the Ministers constraining to obededience upon bodily or pecuniary penalties Were the visible Kingdome of Christ a different Kingdome from that of the Christian Magistrate we should read in the Gospel of some Lawes besides those about the sacraments for the regulating of the said Kingdome The precepts to believe to repent and to be baptised are no such Lawes that for the non-performance of them men should incurre punition or damnation for the not obeying of the Evangelicall precepts is an argument that the wrath of God is upon the transgressors and not an effect following upon the transgression He that doth not believe in Christ is condemned already man refusing to accept of the remedy in the Gospel is left to his former miserable estate and the Law onely takes hold of him Now this Law denouncing both temporall eternal punishment to the transgressors it is evident that the power to judge in the world according to that Law in ordering all causes and punishing all kinds of persons transgressing doth belong only to one Soveraigne power subaltern not to Christ as the Soveraigne Preacher and Mediatour but as God in Trinity and Trinity in unity or as God Creatour and Supream Governour over all causes persons estates and conditions temporall or eternall Letter A Midst all these difficulties it will be a work pleasing to God to find a mean to keep the caling of the Ministery of the Gospell in the posture and condition as it was established by Jesus Christ without any abating and diminishing of the dignity and power of the Soveraigne Magistrate and I believe that just and easie means may be found out Consideration THere is but one means which is that of Queene Elisabeth King James and of Hooker in his book of Ecclesiasticall polity wherein under the words of Royall power Crown and dignity he teacheth us that all power and Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall is derived from the Supream power of England and is upholden and defended by him The words of the Act Elizab. 1. cap. 1. are very expresse omitting nothing which can be of Pastours and Synods cognizance which be not mentioned to be of the Iurisdiction of the Supream Magistrate All Ecclesiasticall and spirituall Jurisdiction is annexed to the Crown to visit reform redresse order correct and amend all such heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power authority or Jurisdiction can or may be lawfully reformed In the same statute it is enacted and ordained that no opinion shall be judged or determined to be heresie but by the high Court of Parliament of the Realm Letter WE have already laid down for a firme and constant ground and ordained by God that all Ecclesiasticall

not change termes the Master becoming a Servant and the Servant a Master 10. Whether the Duke of Normandy did break his Allegeance to Chilperick his heires and successours when he did homage of his Dukedom to Charles Martel who expelled the lawful line 11. Whether in case the Turk should make such a conquest of England as he hath done of Constantinople an English man minded to tarry in England is not tied to engage to be true and faithfull to him and consequently freed from former engagements 12. Or if the Englishman may wave and suspend his engaging so soon after the conquest how long time may be allowed to him afore he do it 13. Suppose an Englishman had 15 yeares ago foreseen and foretold by probable and possible conjectures such a turne of State as ours is whether it had not been a sinne in him to take without some condition implyed the oath of Allegeance 14. Whether in case the King had as it was once very doubtfull clear overcome the Parliament and had as it is likely he would have done abolished all future thoughts of Parliaments and had thereupon made a Proclamation and publick Declaration of his will and pleasure whether I say in that case he commanding a generall subscription to be true and faithfull to him in the maintenance of his Domination every Englishman had not been obliged in conscience and obedience to Gods word to submit unto it and thereby been loosed from his former tyes and obligations to maintain the priviledges of Parliament the liberties of the Kingdome the extirpation of the English Hierarchie and the like These quaeries are of themselves so satisfactory that they need no answer for even in all oaths which are not of Allegiance contracts promises though they be uttered or written in absolute terms there is always some condition implyed and included as is the mutuall promise the first day of marriage and Seneca in his fourth Book de Beneficijs Chap. 35. giveth many pregnant instances Tunc fidem fallam tunc inconstantiae crimen audiam si cum omnia eadem sint quae erant promittente me non praestitero promissum alioqui quicquid mutatur libertatem facit de integro consulendi meam fidem liberat That is I shall then break my faith and incurre the crime of inconstancy if I doe not fulfill my promise all the things being the very same that they were when I made the promise And having made that good by examples headdeth omnia debent esse eadem quae fuerint cum promitentes ut promittentis fidem teneas That you may keep the faith every thing must be the same it was when you promised And in the 39 Chapter he is very full and saith that in all promises subest tacita exceptio si potero si debebo si haec ita erunt effice ut idem status sit cum exigitur qui fuit cum promitterem si aliquid intervenit novi quid miraris cum conditio promittentis mutata sit mutatum esse consilium eadem mihi omnia praesta idem sum There is a tacite exception if I can if I ought to doe it if the things be thus make that good that the same state doe continue when it is demanded that it was when I made promise if some new things come in the interim why doe you marveil that the resolution is changed since the condition of him that promised is also changed see that all be as they were and I am the same This very subject that promises and contracts are conditionally to be interpreted though the interpretation is not expressed is handled by Queene Elizabeth in a controversie betweene her selfe and the Hollanders in the clearing of which She maketh use of this very place of Seneca The whole passage is worth setting down briefly being more largely related by learned cambden in his Annals in the year 1595. The Queen being in a manner weary with the length of the warre that the States of the Low Country had with Spaine and the greatnesse of the expences shewed this unto the States by her Ambassador Sir Thomas Bodley resident in Holland particularly that England being exhausted of wealth and military men She required not onely ease of the charge of the charge of maintaining Auxiliary Forces but also that they would repay some part of her expences They after some complements and a demonstration to the Queene of the great losses they lately sustained and the heavy burden that lay upon them in prosecuting a warre against so potent an Enemy desired forbearance but so that they promised to pay a part of the money when the Queen required a greater proportion they stood stifly upon the Contract in the year 1585. by which the money was not to be repaid before the warre was finished and pressed her upon her Honour not to start back from Her Contract But She by the advice of her Counsellours of State replyed That all Contracts with a Prince are understood to admit an interpretation of sincere fidelity and no publick d●triment caused by the Contract That 't is no breach when it is done by accident of a new case concerning which other provision would have been made if it had been thought upon That every Contract though sworne is understood if matters continue in the same state but not if they be changed That a man is bound more strongly to the Common-wealth then to his own promise and out of the authority of Seneca that a wise man doth not change his determination all things continuing which were when he took it Letter Moses by the same power by which he plagued Aegypt was able to take the people out of Aegypt which yet he never attempted without Pharaohs permission Consideration FOr although God commanded the Sacrifice yet since the place was not defined they could not be exempted from obeying the King Letter ANd because some might say that the Christian people was bidden to obey the Emperours meerly out of necessity and to avoyd persecution the Apostles words alledged commanding obedience to the higher Powers for Gods sake takes away any such thought And St. Paul bids us to yeeld obedience to the higher Powers not only for wrath but also for conscience sake that is not only for feare of punishment but because conscience and Gods Word doth bind us thereunto Jesus Christ himselfe appearing before Pontius Pilate to be judged by him by that acknowledeth that Pilate had received that Power from God Consideration WEre it not too much to disgresse from the subject in hand which is of the power of the Christian Magistrate in sacred things this part of the Letter strongly asserting out of the words of the Apostle Rom. 13. That obedience and submission is due to that Magistrate which by Gods providence hath got the Supremacie would lead me to a further consideration of it but having but now taken liberty to digresse upon the same I shall onely observe upon this part of the

administer justice impartially though any or all of them may faile in the discharge of their duty The King being a persecutor of the christian people instead of being their nursing Father the Father leaving his children to the wide world and the Judge taking bribes and being prepossessed with prejudices If mens sins should exempt exempt them from their duty a wicked mans duty should be never to be converted None will say 't is not the duty of a Governor of a strong hold to defend it although he lets in the enemy without resistance That 't is not the office of a Magistrate to look to the safety of the high wayes because he either neglects that care or conniveth at such as doe commit robbery For the second ground Suppose that the Soveraigne Power doth not impose any Law or rather suppose his Lawes are unjust shall a man under such a power live lawlesse or shall not rather such a man being a Christian be tied to be a Law unto himselfe or rather to make the word of God a Law to his conscience Sure such a man must not expect the commands of the Soveraign Power to abstain from stealing or fornication which may be are authorised by Law but must avoid these not for wrath that is not for fear of punishment but for conscience sake as the Apostle speaketh thus when Christ commandeth the Ministers to preach baptise c. and the people not to forsake their mutuall Assembly no doubt but that both the Christian Pastor and people are bound to all Church duties though they have the Soveraign power opposite and threatning all kind of punishment to those that exercise them If those in authority be wanting to their duty I have no reason or ground to be deficient in mine As for the third ground concerning meetings assemblies c. I say that they may be such as though it should be granted on all sides that the Church and States Jurisdiction were but one that the very Soveraign power needs not to pretend to have an eye over them It being a kind of right of nature for Merchants trading in the same commodity to meet for acquaintance to appoint a Randezvous A man being a feciable creature it is no marvell if men are naturally desirous to converse together without expecting any order for so doing Were not the Heteries and Meetings of the ancient Christians of the same nature And upon that account I see not but the Meetings of congregations of those called Independents are very commendable and not to be enquired after by the Soveraigne Magistrate nor by Synods which cannot be proved to be of Divine institution but have taken their originall from those kinds of naturall and innocent meetings which when they were about things which were neither plots nor conspiracy to disturb the peace of the State needed not to be looked after by the Magistrate except when being converted to the Christian Religion he became himself a principall member of those meettings for then specially when the meetings are not onely in houses but in publick places and are tending to have the holy Ordinances set up and published as the main rule of life and ground-work of humane society his chief duty was to govern the Empire as Christian contributing his whole endevour towards the defence maintenance and encrease of the Christian Religion Thus Leo Bishop of Rome Ep. 75. to Leo the Emperour Debes incunctanter advertere Regiam potestatem tibi non solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse collocatam Thou oughtest soberly to consider that the Royall power is not onely committed to thee for the Government of the world but chiefly for the defence of the Church Letter ALL the difficulty then is concerning the Orthodox Magistrate and one that is endowed with the true knowledge of God such as by the mercies of God the Magistrate of England is upon that the fifth Article saith that the Reformers have indeed purged the Popish Doctrine but have reserved to themselves the Soveraigne cognizance of the actions they call Ecclesiasticall challenging the power of the Keyes which when all is said is reduced to this sentence that God must be rather obeyed then men The Authour of the Articles thinks that the Reforming Pastors in retaining the power of the Keyes have not obeyed God he doth indeed acknowledge that under a Prince of contrary Religion the Christian people have done well to establish a government which they call purely Ecclesiasticall and create Elders who are deputies of the people but he is of that opinion that where the Magistrate is of the same Religion with the body of the people there ought not to be any further distinction of Jurisdiction the Church and State concurring into one Christian common-wealth To be short all his discourse is tending to that viz. that in a State where the Magistrate is Orthodox the Keyes and power which the Pastors had under Magistrates of contrary Religion doth no longer belong to them but doth onely belong to the Soveraigne Magistrate whose power is over all persons and things and that in all Assemblies Synods and Classes the conclusions have no force if they be not ratified by the will of the Supreme Magistrate by whom they usually are assembled Consideration VVHat he saith from the Author of the articles that where the Supream Magistrate becomes Orthodox the power of the Keyes doth no longer belong to the Ministers ought to be understood with some explication for the power of the Keyes is still and ought to be the same whether the Magistrate be orthodox or no there is not in the Ministers any addition of that power under the heathen Magistrate nor any substraction of it under a Christian suppose that the Christian Magistrate and Orthodox should turn Apostate I do not conceive that it follows thereupon that the power which the Christian Magistrate hath over the Church is through his Apostacy devolved unto the Ministers for that Legislation or Iurisdiction practised in Christian Congregations Synods or Assemblies under the heathen Magistrate is no more then a harmony of minds affections and actions to holy ordinances and orders by which Christians may worship God more purely and walk more closely with him which ordinances are either Gods word or such as encrease the power of piety and as they are published by common consent as the best rule to walk by so are they in the practise of them willingly and unanimously consented unto and every member of a Christian society submitteth himself to the rules exhortations and censures of that society or Church not being awed or compelled by any coercive power which they cannot avoid if they listed but led by voluntary submission to which by promise and pact they are in a manner already engaged Besides suppose that the Magistrate doth not impose any Lawes to restrain ungodlinesse or the currant sins in the world yea suppose that vices are authorised by Law doth either

a State bounded as England by certain limits no doubt if it be one State or Comon-wealth it hath one Soveraigne power reaching as well to Cumberland as to Kent and Cornwall over all persons actions and causes for if some persons or causes were exempted as for example the persons and causes they call Ecclesiasticall within the same limits of Land I do not conceive that there can be any such power nor can I Imagine where that power in matters Ecclesiasticall or ordering Church wayes should reside by which the Supreame Civill Magistrate is bounded but there may be as well ten thousand Supream powers and Courts Ecclesiasticall within England as one single generall power for the Civill Magistrates Jurisdiction being distinct from the Ecclesiasticall he may not hinder that multiplication of powers every one of these powers assuming to be sui Juris in sacred things or if he hinders it and prevaileth to have but one Soveraign power in Church matters in all his Dominions this very act of prevailing will be a sufficient demonstration that there is but one Soveraigne power over all causes and persons Ecclesiasticall and Civill indeed the taking away the branch of the Jurisdiction and power of the Christian Soveraign Magistrate in things pertaining to the Kingdome of heaven is as much as to destroy all Ecclesiasticall power and Jurisdiction for besides that this makes the Magistrate but a cipher or zero in sacred things it abolisheth all Ecclesiasticall Discipline Parish meetings publick and uniforme exercises of the ordinances which cannot be performed but by the supreame Magistrates ordering permission or at least connivence and it reduceth all Church wayes to the congregational which way though it cannot be disproved all men naturally having a power to associate themselves upon their ordinary affairs without the Supreame Powers leave or ordering much more when those meetings are pious innocent and without danger to the publick weale yet if there be no other Church-way within all the Dominions of the Soveraigne Magistrate then the Congregationall not onely all Power of the Keyes and Jurisdiction in Church-matters is quite taken away from the Christian Magistrate but also all Presbyteries Classes Synods and with them their Power and Jurisdiction vanisheth and comes to nothing and in truth it will come to nothing if you doe not make that publique ordering of Church-way setting up of Ordinances uniformity of Catechising confession of Faith discipline censures to be a branch of the Legislation and Jurisdiction which the Soveraign Christian Magistrate is to have over all causes persons and actions for in Gods name where can that Power in Church matters be seated but in the Christian Magistrate May be you will seat it in all the Christian people within the Magistrates Dominions But by this the Christian people having the Soveraign Power in Ecclesiasticall shall have the liberty not onely as I said before to make as in England either one two or more yea ten thousand Nationall Churches as far differing one from the other in Rites and Constitutions as the Scottish Church is from the English and the English from the French the word of God not stinting whether associated Christians ought to be many or few in one body or whether many bodies or few in one Nation as England and whether they must be a collection of Churches joyned in one body of a Nationall Church or not And which is more this absurdity and great inconvenience will follow from this dividing of Powers that it will be free for Christians to erect in two contiguous Countryes under two distinct Magistrates as France and the Territory of Geneva one collective body of Churches ruled by the same Synods and Decrees under one Soveraigne Power in Ecclesiasticall and thus shall you have not Imperium in Imperio but Imperium in duobus Imperijs a confusion of Empires for who may have right to keep them from so doing If you say that both the neighbour Soveraigne civill Powers may hinder them to that I say either it is an usurpation in them to doe so or if not then that Power by which the Church is ordered is subordinate to the Soveraigne Christian Magistrate which is all I intended to make good But it may be said againe that all the Christians or all the Congregations who are big enough to make a Church such as the little number of two or three of Christ in the Gospel gathered together in Christs name within the Dominions of the Soveraign civill Power will have that humane wisedome as to erect but one Nationall Church and of the same latitude and extent that the Dominions are To that I say that this very liberty and humane wisedome which they make use of without a certaine prescript from God doth sufficiently evidence that they make use of the same guide which the Supreame Power doth imploy in the governing of the State and that since humane wisedome must be be called to help for the ordering of these two things they will have to be distinct viz. the Church and State none can be better trusted with them then the Supream Power of the State where the Church must be constituted and indeed the Christian Emperours have always modelled the Church after the fashion of the State or if you will the State after the Church because they were to depend of one supreame Power for as they had Bishops in every City whose bounds and extent was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Parish so had they a Defensor Civitatis and in every Province the Arch-bishop or Metropolitan was answerable to the Praeses or Proconsul and in every Diocesse the Primate or Patriarch was like the Lieutenant or Vicarius or Legatus To summe up all as the primum movens in the naturall body extendeth it selfe to all parts and functions of the body so the Soveraigne Power in a State hath an equall Jus Imperij in Ecclesiasticall and civill matters And as the sensitive and vitall parts are equally extended and circumscribed by the same limits so all the causes of what kind soever they be are bounded by the same supreame Power within the same limits of land as if on the North side Barwick is the bound of the civill Power of England so is it of the Ecclesiasticall But it may be demanded how the soveraigne Power may be said to have Jus Imperij in Divine Lawes I answer that properly the office of a Soveraigne Power is only ministeriall and in regard of God it is rather an administration then a power but in regard of men because it bindeth to obedience 't is a Power and Authority Now his Law is either just or unjust if unjust yet the obedience to it being not sinfull it must be obeyed as a Law in force for the strength of a Law doth not consist in that it is just but in this because 't is a Law ordained by him who hath Authority Now if this Law be just it must be obeyed for two reasons