a Universal Soveraignty or Legislative and Judicial Power And therefore uncapable of our Coalition more than an Impenitent Murderer is of Church Communion § 2. And there are not a few nor small Matters that are above Four hundred Years old that found Protestants will never Unite with And though Mr. Thorndike give us so much quarter as to say that It is the Authority that must necessarily be owned and not the Canons if that Authority will change them 1. It is the usurped Authority that we most disown 2. And we have no assurance what Canons that Authority will change And Mr. Thorndike's Mr. Dodwell's and such Mens great rule of Unity is that none of us must question whether any of the Canons of that Authority are contrary to God's Word nor appeal to God and Scripture against them Multitudes of Papists themselves renounce such Doctrine § 3. I. And first All this is built on the Sand I have largely proved long ago in several Books that it is impossible for them to certifie us who have this Authority Who it is that we must hear as the Catholick Church and take Universal Laws from when there is no General Council Or what Councils we may be sure are General or what not Besides none were General but of One Empire When they condemn each other and when each call the other Heretical or Schismatical and when as Great a Number were at one as at the other and the same Authority chose and called both sorts How shall we know which we must obey Is it by Scripture Reason or Authority of Councils themselves that we must Judge They cannot tell us § 4. II. The Cause which I am pleading against is exprest by their Champion the Lord Primate of Ireland Archbishop Bromhall in the words forecited viz. To wave their last Four hundred years Determinations is implicitely to renounce all the necessary Causes of this great Schism And to rest satisfied with their Old Patriarchal Power and Dignity and Primacy of Order which is another part of my Proposition is to quit the Modern Papacy both Name and Thing By this we see what the Protestant Church of England must be or else be Schismaticks in the Judgment of these Learned Men. I will here tell you why this will never Unite us and why the old Church of English Protestants could not close with Rome on these mens terms § 5. I. Salmasius de Ecclesiis Suburbicariis circa finem granteth them that by their Imperial Constitutions the Bishop of Rome was not a meer Patriarch but more than a Patriarch a Caput Ecclesiae This was not Christ's Institution but the Emperours and their Clergies in one Empire But call it Patriarchal or what you will it contained such Power as Christ having not given and Dead men of another Kingdom being none of our Rulers we are not obliged to obey nor indeed lawfully can do 1. A Patriarch and Primate hath some degree of Governing Power or else wherein doth his Primacy consist He calleth Councils Precedeth c. And if he cannot command Archbishops how can they command Bishops And if they are not Commanders of Bishops why do our English Bishops in their Consecration Profess Promise and Swear all due Obedience to the Archbishops And 1. We cannot yield to bring England under the guilt and brand of Perjury by submitting to the Foreign Jurisdiction of a Roman Primate or Patriarch contrary to the Oath of Supremacy 2. We know already how many false Doctrines and Practices the Roman Church and Patriarch have espoused And we can no more receive all these Errours from a Patriarch than from a Pope § 6. II. But we will freely confess to you that we neither are nor can be such a sort of Protestants as the Regnant Church of France is which persecuteth the Protestants nor as these Men called the Church of England in such Proposals would have us be I will give you a Catalogue of some Determinations of above Four hundred Years old which the Church of England before Bishop Laud could not receive § 7. I. Mr. Thorndike also consenteth to rest in the Canons sent by Pope Adrian to Carol. M. about An. 773. And C. 23. ex Clem. is That Arch-Bishop Presbyter or Deacon taken in Fornication Perjury or Theft be deposed but not Excommunicate II. Can. 28. is That a Bishop who obtaineth a Church by Secular Power be deposed And yet we are called Schismaticks for not obeying alas I dare not name the things the Bishops that have many Score or Hundred Churches by Secular Power And must we Unite in this III. Can. 11. is Condemned Clerks shall never be restored if they go to the Emperour And must we Confederate against such Bishops in England IV. C. Laodic there recited 33. is that None Pray with Hereticks or Schismaticks When we knowing how the Roman Party are counted at the best Schismaticks by Greeks Syrians and Protestants and all these counted Schismaticks by them it will be but Schism to separate from almost all Christ's Church on Earth as Schismaticks V. Ex Can. Sard. 2. That a Bishop that by Ambition changeth his Seat shall not have so much as Lay Communion no not at the end VI. Ex C. Afric c. 15. That there be no Re-ordaining or Translation of Bishops VII No man must receive the witness of a Lay-man against a Clergy-man VIII The Second General Council at Nice setteth up the Adoration of Images cursing all from Christ with Anathema that are against it or doubt of it IX Even the contrary Council at Constantinople of 338 Bishops anathematizeth all that do not with a sincere Faith crave the Intercession of the Virgin Mary as the Parent of God and Superior to every Creature visible and invisible And all that confess not that all who from the beginning to this day before the Law and under the Law and in the Grace given of God being Saints are venerable in the Presence of God in Soul and BODY and seek not their Intercessions Yet they conclude with the Conc. Nice 2. That Christ's Body Glorified is not proper Flesh Def. 7. X. The said Second Council at Nice saith Every Election of a Bishop Priest or Deacon which is made by Magistrates shall remain void by the Canon which saith If any Bishop use the Secular Magistrate to obtain by them a Church let him be deposed and separated and all that Communicate with him Thus our English Bishops and Parish Ministers are deposed and all their Communicants to be Excommunicated XI Ibid. Can. 4. Those that for Gain or Affection of their own shut out any Ministers or shut the Temples forbidding the Divine Ministry are sharply condemned which would fall on Silencing Bishops XII Can. 15. Forbiddeth one man to have two Churches which would break our Clergy specially the Bishops that have Hundreds XIII Can. 7. Forbiddeth any Temple to be Consecrated without Relicts and ordereth Temples that have no Relicts to be put down XIV A Council
c. to come to us in Consultation and let us know their Sence and many came And I remember not one Man that dissented from what we offered you first which was Archbishop Vsher's Primitive Form which took not down Archbishops Bishops or a farthing of their Estates or any of their Lordships or Parliamentary Power or Honour unless the Advice of their Presbyters and the taking the Church Keys out of the hands of Lay Chancellors cast you down 3. That when the King's Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs 1660. granted yet much less Power to Presbyters and left it almost alone in the Bishops we did not only acquiesce in this but all the London Ministers were invited to meet to give the King our joyful Thanks for it And of all that met I remember but two now both dead who refused to subscribe the Common Thanksgiving which with many Hands is yet to be seen in Print And those two exprest their Thankfulness but only said That because some things agreed not to their Judgments they dursâ— not so subscribe lest it signified Approbation but they should thankfully accept that Frame and peaceably submit to it All this being so I appeal with some sense of the Case of England to your self and common reason whether it be just and beseeming a Pastor or Christian or a Man to make the Nation believe 1. That we are Presbyterians 2. And against Bishops 3. And therefore that we are Schismaticks 4. And therefore that we must be Imprisoned or Banished as those that would destroy the Church and Land Would a Turk own such dealing with his Neighbour Is this the way of Peace Will this bring us to Conformity Was it Anti-Episcopal Presbytery which the King's Declaration 1660 determined of Nothing will Serve God and the Churches Peace but Truth and Honesty or at least that which hath some appearance of it II. I find that almost all the Strength of his Book as against Presbyterians who are his Fanaticks is his bare word saying that they are Schismaticks and that they forsake the Judgment and Practice of the Universal Church by forsaking Episcopacy And will this convince me who am certain that I am for that Episcopacy which Ignatius Tertullian Cyprian c. were for and am past doubt that the Episcopacy which I am against is contrary to the Practice of the whole Church for 200 Years and of all save two Cities Alexandria and Rome for a much longer time If I prove this true which I undertake must I then take his turn and desire the Banishment of the Contrary-minded Bishops as dangerous Schismaticks for forsaking the Practice of the Church III. I understand not in his Platform of the Rule which denominateth Dissenters Schismaticks Pag. 353. what he meaneth by the very highest Power most necessary to be understood in these words The Laws and Orders of the Church Vniversal to which every Provincial Church must submit What the Scots mean by a General Assembly I know and what the old Emperors and Councils meant by an Vniversal Council Viz. Universal as to that one Empire But I know no Vniversal Law-givers to the whole Church on Earth but Jesus Christ neither Pope nor Council If I am mistaken in this I should be glad to be convinced for it is of great moment And is the hinge of our Controversie with Rome IV. He doth to me after all give up the whole Cause and absolve me and all that I plead from the guilt of Schism and lay it on your Lordship and such as you if I can understand him when he saith Pag. 363. It is clear that in the Church of England there is no sinful Condition of Communion required nor nothing imposed but what is according to the Order and Practice of the Catholick Church there can be no pretence for any Toleration c. And Pag. 360. There is no Question to be made but where there is an interruption in the Churches Communion there is caused a Schism and it must be charged on them that make the breach which will lye at their Doors who by making their Communion unlawful do unjustly drive away good Christians from it neither doth such a Person that is driven away at present from the external Communion cease to be a Member of that Church but is a much truer Member thereof than that Pastor that doth unjustly drive him from his Communion This fully satisfieth me and if you will read my late small Book called The Nonconformists Plea for Peace you will see what it is that I think unlawful in the Impositions And if you will read a new small Book of your old troubled Neighbour Mr. Jo. Corbet called The Kingdom of God among Men I have so great an Opinion that by it you will better understand us and become more moderate and charitable towards us that I will take your reading it for a very obliging Kindness to Your Servant Ri. Baxter December 11. 1679. Add. V. His terms of Communion are not right as I have proved VI. He speaketh against Toleration so generally without distinction as if no one that dissented but in a word were tolerable which is intolerable Doctrine in a pretended Peace-maker VII He inferreth Toleration while he denieth it in that he is against putting us to Death How then will he hinder Toleration Mulcts will not do it as you see by the Law that imposeth 40 l. a Sermon For when Men devoted to the Sacred Ministry have no Money they will Preach and Beg Imprisonment must be perpetual or uneffectual for when they come out they will Preach again And it contradicteth himself for it will kill many Students being mostly weak as it kill'd by bringing mortal Sickness on them those Learned Holy Peaceable and Excellent Men Mr. Jos. Allen of Taunton Mr. Hughes of Plimouth and some have died in Prison And he that killeth them by Imprisonment killeth them as well as he that burneth them or hangeth them And the Prisons will be so full as will render the Causers of it odious to many and make such as St. Martin was separate from the Bishops the same I say of Banishment Dr. Saywell's Principles infer as followeth I. Schismaticks are not to be Tolerated They that are for the sort of Diocesane Prelacy which we disown are Schismaticks Ergo not to be Tolerated The Major is Dr. S's The Minor is proved thus They that are against that Episcopacy which the Primitive Universal Church was for and used are Schismaticks The foresaid Diocesane Party are against that Episcopacy which the Primitive Universal Church was for and used Ergo they are Schismaticks The Major is Dr. S's The Minor is thus proved I. They that are for the deposing of the Bishops that were over every single Church that had one Altar and those that were over every City Church and instead of them setting up only one Bishop over a Diocess which hath a Thousand or many Hundred Altars and many Cities are against the Episcopacy
Sects were at first Members of these Episcopal Churches and received both their Baptism in them and all the Orders they received There was then no other Communion that could give this Authority Our Adversaries will not deny but that their Orders were received by them were actually received by their Forefathers in the Episcopal Communion They have actually received no more Power from God than they have received from their Ordainers For their Ordainers are they and they alone who have represented Gods Person in dealing with them 2. They have actually received from their Superiors nothing but what their Superiors did actually intend to give them One would think this should be very clear To the Objection that They ought to have given more Power he answers That only proveth that we have no more if they wronged us Where now is all the Reformers Power Did the Pope or his Bishops intend them any against himself IV. But yet he perceived that some might say Particular Ordainers might have singular Intentions And I cannot tell him that as Richardus Armachanus and abundance more thought Bishops and Presbyters to be ejusdem Ordinis so did Jacobus Armachanus of late and Bishop Downame and many other Bishops and declared that Presbyters had Power of Ordination but for Order sake it should not be without the Bishop save in cases of necessity To this he saith That the Ordainers must be presumed to do according to the common sense of the Church and Canons But what if they declare the contrary As Bishop Edw. Reinolds openly declared that he Ordained Presbyters into the same Order with Bishops who were but the prime Presbyters and that he was of Dr. Stillingfleet's Judgment that no Form of Government was Jure Divino necessario Saith he Pag. 487. The Law is alway charitable to presume that every Man intends as becomes him to intend Very good But it 's prudent to presume his actual Intention not from what others do think will become him no nor from what will really become him in the Judgment of God Therefore they must not judge of the Intention of the Bishop by the real Will of God Supposing us to be Proud of the Suffrages of the Schoolmen pag. 492.493 He suspecteth It was rather Picque than Conscience that brought them to it Alas Were not the Schoolmen Prelatical enough Many of them were Bishops and one was a Pope at least And the Council at Basil that allowed Presbyters deciding Votes and St. Jerome and the Reformers all fall under his Censure for the like viz. That Necessity put them on it as a Shift or else the Pope by the Vote of Bishops would have carried it and he justifieth not the Necessities choice but concludeth Pag. 496 497. If it be suspicious whether the Men who then followed these Principles did embrace them out of a sincere sense of their Truth then they cannot be presumed to have been Principles of Conscience Which if they were not this is sufficient to shew that they are not fit Measures of the Power that was actually given by the Bishops of that Age. I confess I had thought that the Papist Bishops Intention had not been the Measure of the Power of Bishops or Presbyters And that Mr. Dodwell had not been so much against the Council of Basil as unjust Conspirators by ill means to overtop the Pope He saith truly Pag. 505. Most certainly they who were of this Opinion the Papists could not intend to follow the Doctrine of the Wicklefists and Waldenses who had been lately censured for maintaining the Equality of Bishops and Presbyters No nor the Doctrine of Luther Cranmer or such as the Church of England hath held V. Yet being forced to confute himself he saith p. 52. It is sufficient for my purpose that Ecclesiastical â—ower be no otherwise from God than that is of every Supreme Civil Mugistrate It is not usual for Kings to be invested in their Offices by other Kings but by their Subjects Yet when they are invested that doth not in the least prejudice the Absoluteness of their Monarchy where the fundamental Constitutions of the respective places allow to them And hath not God's fundamental Law as much Power much less doth it give any Power over them to the persons by whom they are invested If the Power of Episcopacy be Divine and all that men can do in the case be only to determine the Person not to confine his Power c. what kept the man from seeing how great a part of his Book he here confuteth Doth he not confess now that God's Law may give the Power which men may not alter but only determine of the Person to receive it In the case of the Presbyters Office he will have it otherwise because the Bishops are forsooth not only the Investers but the Donors who give just what they please and he proveth it fully by saying it confidently and copiously Because God giveth it not immediately Yes he immediately by his Spirit in the Apostles instituted the species though he do not immediately chuse the Receiver But who giveth the Bishops their Power The Council is above them Do they give them their Power Who giveth them theirs And who giveth the Pope his Power If his may be given by Divine Charter without a Humane Donor but a meer Invester why may not a Presbyters VI. But it is the Vicedeity that is his great foundation Pag. 543. saith he Nor is there any reason for them to oppose God and the Church as they do on this and other occasions If the Churches Authority be received from God then what is done by Her is to be presumed to come from him the same way as what is done by any man's Proxy is presumed to be his own act And as what is done by an Inferior Magistrate by virtue of his Office is presumed to come from the Supreme This is in Answer to an Objection That the Powers united by God are inseparable by any Humane Authority But the Power of Ordination is by God united to the other Rights of Scripture Presbyters c. He answers If our Adversaries mean that those Presbyters who had both those Powers united in them by God could not be deprived of the one without the other nor of any by any Humane Authority this if it should prove true is a case wherein our present Ordinations are not concerned which were not received in those times wherein our Adversaries pretend to prove that these two Powers were inseparably united They may be separated de facto tho' they who separate them be to blame for so doing If they were then united by God because they were united by the men who represented God why are they not disunited by God now when men alike impowered by him have disunited them Why should they not oblige God in one case as well as the other Readers you see here the Core of the Churches disease and chief of our
differences 1. By the Church they mean not the People but the Prelates and Councils headed by their great President 2. They suppose these to be God's Proxies and that God doth what they do and they so oblige God to stand to it and men to take it as God's act 3. They suppose these Prelates and their President alike impowered by God as the Apostles were and therefore God by his Proxies now may undo what he did by his Proxies then Do you now wonder if Pope and Council by Canons have power from God to make new Canonical Scriptures and new Universal Laws for the Church yea and for the World And if these may undo the Scripture Laws and Institutions and make other Sacraments and Worship in their stead But Protestants have long ago proved 1. That there is no Vice-God and that God hath no Proxies or proper Representatives with whom he hath entrusted his Power so as that their word must lead and he will follow But only Embassadors whose Message is prescribed them by God and they are to speak and do only what he bids them and he will own it and not that which they add of their own or which they do against his Word 2. That the present Pastors have not the same power as the Apostles had who were commissioned to deliver Christ's Commands to the World and enabled for it by the Spirit of Infallibility and Miracles Even as the Jewish Priests had not the Power of Moses nor could change a tittle of the Law but only keep it teach it and apply it VII That he and his followers are for a Supreme Governing Visible Humane Power over the Universal Church is a thing that I need not cite their words further to prove Mr. Thorndike Bishop Bromhall Bishop Gunning Bishop Sparrow Dr. Saywell and the rest of that mind are not ashamed of it And it is a General Council that by some of them is supposed to be this Supreme Power And when I have proved against Johnson that there never was a General Council of the Christian World but of the Empire I can get none of them to answer me save that when the Empire was broken some of the pieces came together for a Job at Florence c. But it is the Pope's right saith Bishop Bromhall to be President and Patriarch of the West which Thorndike and others largelier insist on as the necessary Principium Vnitatis which turned poor Grotius to them for Unity But I confess I thought Mr. Dodwell had been more for a Councils Power than I find he is The Protestants believe no Supreme Governor of the whole Church but Christ. Dr. Iz. Barrow of the Unity of the Church hath fully overthrown the fiction of a human Supreme Aristocracy as well as of a Monarchy But an Union of all the parts in one Head Christ we all believe and consequently a Communion among themselves VIII But what Mr. Dodwell's Judgment is of the Power of the Council and whether the Supremacy be in it or in the President I will tell you only in his own words supposing the Reader to know that the Papists so far differ among themselves that 1. Some are for the Pope's Supremacy alone the Council being but his Counsellors as some are for the Kings the Parliament being but his Counsellors 2. Some are for the Councils Superiority over the Pope as some say Parliaments are greater than the King and urge his old Oath to pass such Laws quas Vulgus elegerit so say they the Pope must own those that the Council passeth yea that they may depose him if he deserve it 3. Some say that Universal Legislation belongs only to the Pope and Council agreeing the Pope being to Call and Approve them And this is the prevailing Opinion among them so that the Controversie is much like that which men have raised about Kings and Parliaments Now saith Mr. Dodwell Ch. 24. Pag. 509 c. Even by the Principles of Aristocratical Government no Power can be given validly but to persons who are are at least in conjunction with those from whom they receive their Power Subordinate Authority must be derived from the Supreme No act can be presumed to be the act of the whole Body but what has passed them in their Publick Assemblies in which Body is the Right of Government so it have the prevailing Vote Nay though that prevailing Vote be not the greater part of the Society so it be the greater part present at such Assemblies God himself cannot be supposed to have made a Government even of his own Institution practicable till he have setled these Rules of Administring it As nothing but the Society it self can in justice make a valid Conveyance of its Right so it is not conceivable how the Society it self can do it by any thing but its own act If this be so 1. Mark that this man disclaimeth any other Divine Institution than by the Society 2. The People that have no Power being the greater part of the Society or Church give the Bishop and Pope and Council their Power 3. If the Clergy were all the Church the Presbyters give that Power to the Bishops and Pope which they had not themselves 4. All runs on the false Antimonarchical and Anarchical Principle which I have confuted in Hooker that the Body makes Power by giving up their own Right 5. Then the General Councils and Pope have no Power For the Body of the Universal Church never gave it them but the Emperors save as to Teaching and Arbitrations 6. Then in those Countries where the Body of Clergy and People put down Bishops there Bishops are put down by such as had Power to do it For 1. If man may set up Diocesans Popes and Councils man may take them down Yet the Proteus changeth his face and presently supposeth that the whole Right of these Assemblies could not have proceeded from the bare consent of the Society but from the actual Establishment of God No Assemblies can dispose of the Rights of such Societies but such as are lawful ones according to the Constitutions of that Society As out of Assemblies they have no power to act who might act in them how many soever of the Suffrages and how freely soever they had been gotten so all those Meetings how numerous soever for acts of Government if they be not Legal they add nothing of advantage to the power of particulars singly considered They are not in the Eye of the Law Assemblies but Routs and their concurrence not Consent but Confederacy And as it were Rebellion in particular persons to attempt any thing of that nature concerning the Government without the consent of their present Established Governours so is there nothing in such a Meeting that can give them any Power as united more than they had as singly considered that may excuse them from Rebellion Nay rather by the Principles of all Societies that which had not been Rebellion if done
Regent Power in such Councils but what the Magistrate giveth them Monstra mihi inquit Hieron quisnam Imperatorum celebrari id Concilium jusserit saith Grotius ib. P. 168. Non ideo convocari Synodum quod in ea pars sit Imperii satis jam demonstratum arbitror Finis ergo ut Episcopus Wintoniensis recte notat hic est ut ad veritatis Pietatis amplificationem Consilium Principi praebeant hoc est Praeeant ipsi judicio directivo ut per Synodum stabiliâ—i testataque fieri possit Consensio Ecclesiae Omnium autem horum finium nullus est necessarius simpliciter Neque Synodus simpliciter ad illos fines necessaria This he goeth on to prove and more than so that Synods are oft hurtful as well as unnecessary Cum potius saith August rarissimae inveniantur haereses propter quas damnandas necessitas talis exstiterit I will not repeat saith Grotius the Complaint of almost all Ages that the chief Diseases were brought into the Church à Sacerdotibus citing Nazianzen he addeth Neque agit de Arianis duntaxat Synodis sed de omnibus suorum temporum praecipue quibus ipse interfuit Mr. Morrice might easily know this Nec pauca referri possunt si opus sit infoeliciorum conciliorum exempla quale fuit sub Constantino Antiochenum Caesariense Tyrium cujus conventus Episcopis scribens Constantinus nihil ait ab illis fieri nisi quod ad odia dissensiones serendas ad perniciem denique humani generis faciat Zanchy's way cited by him is oft better than Councils that the Magistrate command Ministers in Controversies 1. Vti non suis sed Scripturae vocibus 2. Et à publicâ damnatione abstinere And Pag. 209. saith Grotius The Church hath no Legislative Power by Divine Right What was written in Synods before Christian Emperors for Order and Ornament are not called Laws but Canons and have either only the force of advice as in things which rather belong to singular persons than to all or they oblige by way of Agreement c. But some Legislative Power may be given by humane Laws But perhaps some will say that Mr. Dodwell speaketh only of National or Provincial or Diocesane Councils and not of General ones and therefore by the fixed President meaneth not the Pope Answ. 1. I would he were willing and able to tell what he meaneth But he felt what a fine advantage he had under the Name of Bishops Presidency to please a Party and say more than every one of them shall at first perceive But he expresly maintaineth that the Universal Church is one Political Society and hath a visible Supreme humane Government that is Absolute and from which there is no appeal And that this Society hath Legislative Power and is bound but by the Laws made in its own Assemblies And that these Assemblies are Rebels and punishable if not called by the President And though Mr. D. had the Prudence to use the word President rather than Pope if ever he speak intelligibly it 's here And Mr. Thorndike whom he valueth as a sound Protestant Archbishop Bromhall and the rest of the Tribe do openly assert the due Presidence of the Pope as Principium Vnitatis and first Patriarch Saith Mr. Dodwell further Pag. 522 523. Supposing those Presbyters that chose the President had invested him in his Office by Prayer and Imposition of hands and no Bishops had any more to do in his Consecration than Kings have in the Inauguration of our ordinary Kings it will not follow that those Presbyters who chose and consecrated him must have any more Power over him Nor is it only true that this way may be so but indeed it must be so whenever the Person so invested is supposed to be invested in the Supreme Power and whenever the Society over which he is placed is also Independent on other Societies As the Universal Church is Such a Person can never be placed in his Power if not by them who must after be his Subjects unless by his Predecessor which no Society can safely depend on for a constant rule of Succession And doth any but the Pope pretend to this Soveraign place In his own Society he can have none of his own Order that can perform the Ceremony to him because we suppose Him to be Supreme and there cannot be two such in one Society True And you make it your fundamental that the Catholick Church is one such Society and so must have such a Supreme And it 's worth the noting which he adds And therefore I for my part am so little solicitous for any consequence that may be hence inferred to the prejudice of my Cause as that I am apt to think that this must have been the way at first in the making of Bishops how Absolute soever I conceive them to have been when they were once made Ans. Are we not beholden to the Universal Presidentship for this concession I forced Johnson alias Terret to the same And yet both these men cry down a Power resulting from God's Law or Charter to the person duly receptive when yet the Instance of the Papacy constraineth them to make it their foundation Why then must Presbyterian Ordination be Nullity if Inferiors only chuse and Consecrate the Pope and Presbyters only at first chose and Consecrated Bishops Obj. The difference is that such Inferiors are but Electors and Investing Ministers and not Donors of the Power but Popes and Prelates are Donors Ans. 1. Then no Prelate could be such but by the Popes or Councils donation 2. Doth not Mr. D. oft say that the Body is the seat of Power and so giveth it 3. But why should he think that we must take his word for this difference and the Prelatical Donation instead of Ministry Do not the Papists themselves more commonly hold that the Presbyters or Priests Office is of fixed Divine Institution and more unalterable than that the Bishops is The latter is disputed the former undisputable It may be Mr. D. will thus prove that he is no Papist But I had rather he be one than worse Nay what will you say if after all he be half an Independent P. 523. saith he This seems best to agree with the Absoluteness of Particular Churches before they had by compact united themselves under Metropolitanes and Exarchs into Provincial and Diocesan Churches And this seems to have been fitted for the frequent Persecutions of those earlier Ages when every Church was able to secure its own Suecession by its own power withoue depending on the certain opportunities of the meeting of the Bishops of the whole Province And the alteration of this practice the giving the Bishops of the Province an interest in the Choice of every particular Colleague seems not to have been so much for want of power in the particular Churches to do it as for the security of Compacts that they might be certain of such a Colleague as would observe
is Christ the Bishop or Pastor confers them only as his Instruments So others As all Power is of God and must be obeyed so Usurpation is of Satan and the higher the worse and the word Antichrist is supposed by many to signifie one that is a Vsurping Christ that is a Usurper of Vniversal Soveraignty which none but Christ is capable of Mr. Jos. Glanviles Character of Devils or Evil Spirits in his Sadducâ—ismus Triumphatus is considerable p. 33. and 42. Edit 2. The meanest and basest in the Kingdom of darkness having none to Rule and Tyrannize over within the Circle of their own Nature and Government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated Nature especially among those whose Pride was their Original Transgression Every one of these desireth to get him Vassals to pay him Homage The good Angels have no such ends to prosecute as the gaining any Vassals to serve them they being Ministring Spirits for our good and no self-designers for a proud and insolent Dominion over us But I think no Devil but Beelzebub the Prince aspireth so high as to be Ruler of all the World or Church And when Cardinal Bertrand told Philip King of France that God had not been Wise if he had not set up one as his Vicegerent visibly to Rule all the World I do not find that he set up that Vice-god so far above God himself as to forbid obeying him before his Viceroy or to deny Gods Universal Laws to be above Mans and to deny all Appeals to God and his Word or to say that the President of Counsels must be obeyed without excepting If Gods Laws and his be inconsistent Since the Writing of all foregoing Mr. Dodwell hath Published the Second Part of his Leviathan called A Discourse of one Altar and one Priesthood as against us whom he calleth Schismaticks and me in particular It is much of the Complexion of the First Part His Schismatical Book being a Chain of many linked Propositions of which many are false and many falsly shaped and applied But put off with a confident Affirmation that he hath proved them true And his former Method is defended by as confident an Affirmation that all that is said against them invalidates not his proof The shortest way I confess of defending himself and answering others and saveth the labour of much Writing and Reading And I think if the tedious Discourses of his two Volumes had been just so abbreviated it had been a Kindness to his Readers § 2. Whether he reserve his Answer to my last Book against him to another Treatise or mean to overpass it by saying it is contemptible I know not nor much desire to know I find him here in his Preface doing that which may serve his turn much better than an answer viz. 1. Many angry Charges that I slander him 2. An attempt to prove it agreeable to his Method 3. Confident Affirmation that I write not accurately nor answer his Proofs And to those that read his Books and not mine this is enough § 3. His Proof of my Slander is mostly by way of question Where did I say this or that Where 1. Those things that I spake of others he feigneth me to say of him Joyning divers late Writers together I mention what is said among them some one part and some another and he takes all to himself 2. When I mention the clear Consequences of his Doctrine 3. And when in my Letters I recite his Verbal Discourse with me he asks Where have I said it Did I not find him a designed Hider I would not suspect designed Fraud but should be very glad that he so much as intimateth in his Questions a denial of so many Errors But who can choose but suspect his Sincerity in such seeming Denials who findeth some of them unsincere E. g. He asketh Pref. Where did I once call Thomas Aquinas a Saint This startleth me Many times have my Ears heard him call him Saint Thomas and never once heard him call him otherwise And doth he now seem to deny it I never said that he so wrote but so called him Had I not reason to believe that when he oft calls the Church of Christ in the singular Number One Political Body under One humane Government which all must obey and not question whether it's Laws be agreeable to the Law of God that he meant the Church Catholick and not a Diocess There are Thousands of Diocesses but the Church that he spake of is but One. Had I any reason to believe that when he talkt of the sole right of the President to call Councils or Assemblies to make Church Canons that he meant only Diocesans When as a Diocesane hath no Bishops under him to Convocate And whether it be not Convocate Bishops to whom he appropriateth this Legislation let the Reader judge as he seeth cause § 4. But I abhor making any Man thought to own what he disowneth And I gladly receive his intimated Denyals in these Questions and tender them to the Consideration of all that are for a foreign Jurisdiction 1. Mr. Dodwell denieth by intimation all humane Vniversal Church Supremacy and consequently all humane Power of Legislation or Judgment over the whole Church He denieth the Government of the Catholick Church Collectively ought to be either Monarchical or Aristocratical in Pope or Council 2. He denieth the Pope to have any Primacy or Presidentship in General Councils or that it belongs to him to call them It was but a Diocesans Power to Convocate his Presbyters that he meant 3. He taketh the French Church for Papists while they own the Popish Communion though many are not so in their Principles But it is Mens Principles that I spake of and not their Communion 4. He denieth Communion with any part of the Roman Church Doth Dr. Saywell do so 5. He taketh the Councils of Constance and Basil for Papists and hath no Communion with those that own them as being Papists 6. He proveth the French Church guilty of the Hildebrandine Doctrine of deposing Princes and Aquinas too 7. He disowneth the terms of Cassander and Grotius as not sufficient to a lasting Peace 8. He odly dreamed that when I deny a Governing College of Bishops I thought the Lord Bishop of Ely had meant such as our University Colleges cohabiting this is no Slander in him yet he declareth that by such a College he means but Bishops ejusdem Speciei governing the Church by parts and not any One Numerical Soveraign Company But that they should hold all due Communion which he may see I still grant And he falsly fancies that I am against Cyprian's naming of Colleagues or his sence § 5. But if Mr. Dodwell be sincere he makes himself one of the greatest Separatists in the World Consider how narrow his Communion is and the Church which he owneth 1. He hath no Communion with the rigid
into Laws and make that seem needful to Unity which is against it and hurtful to the Churches no Christians should encourage their Usurpation by Obedience it being contrary to Christs general Laws 14. Whatever maketh true Christians maketh Men Members of Christ and his Church And only the Essentials of Christians go to make true Christians and the Integrals to make compleat Christians 15. The Canons of Bishops are not Essential to Christianity nor the understanding the many Controversies about Diocesans Patriarchs Councils Ordinations Successions nor to know which is the true Bishop 16. Baptism is our Christening and he that is truely Baptized is a Christian and a Member of Christ and hath the pardon of Sin and right to Heaven before he be a Member of a particular Church or Pastor as the Eunuch Acts 8. and many converted without Bishops As the Indians by Edesius and Frumentius and the Iberians by a Maid c. 17. Whosoever truely repenteth and believeth and loveth God as God and is of a Heavenly Mind and Life is pardoned before God before Baptism and Baptism doth but Invest him in it and make him a Christian more fully by Covenant and before the Church and the want of it without contempt will not keep him from Salvation 18. No one shall be saved by being joyned to a right Bishop or receiving the Eucharist who hath not true Repentance Faith Love and the Spirit of Holiness No Sacrament saveth the unqualified 19. Thousands live in ignorance and wickedness in Atheism Sadduceism Carnality Adultery Drunkenness c. that conform to Bishops and receive the Eucharist And to tell such they are in a state of Salvation is opposition to Christ and Damnable deceit of Souls 20. The Levites and Inferior Priests received not their Office from the High-priest but by Gods Law had it by Inheritance to which God chose the Tribe of Levi Nor had the High Priests power to add to or alter the Laws and Office of the Inferior Priests or their own 21. Nor was there a necessity of an uninterrupted regular Succession much was of man's making Christ owned them that were in possession though Usurpers not of Aarons Line but such as bought the place of the Romans 22. Seeing the High Priest was a Type of Christ and the Scripture saith so much of the change of the Law and Priesthood and Christ hath made sufficient Laws for Church Offices it is presumption to Judaize and pretend to any other imitation of the High Priests than Christ hath ordained 23. No one of the Apostles was an High Priest over the rest but had equal Apostolical Power 24. Christ rebuked them for seeking who should be greatest and expresly forbad that which they sought 25. Every Pastor or church-Church-Presbyter hath an Office subordinate to the Teaching Priestly and Ruling Office of Christ. 26. Every ones Pastoral Office is instituted and described by Christ by his Spirit in the Apostles and this specification is Divine which none may alter nor make any other such 27. Therefore as Papists confess of the Pope all that men have to do is not to be makers or donors of the Office but to determine of the persons that shall receive it from Christ's donative Instrument his Law and ministerially to invest them as men Christen Marry Crown Kings c. 28. No Minister or Priest representeth Christ simpliciter but secundum quid as Embassadors or Justices do the King 29. Christ's Laws are above mans and no man's to be obeyed against them To obey man against God is Idolatry 30. The Priests or Bishops are under Christ's Laws as well as others and by them all their true Power is given and limited And therefore if they go against Christ's Laws they represent him not therein nor are to be obeyed as usurping an unjust Power 31. Therefore every Christian hath a Judgment of discerning whether Bishops Laws agree with Christ's and must be governed as reasonable creatures and not as Infants Idiots or Brutes 32. They that deny this and require absolute obedience in all things set man above God and make it the duty of Subjects to be Atheists Infidels Idolaters Mahometans Murderers Adulterers Hereticks where Kings or Popes or Prelates will command it 33. Multitudes of Church-Canons have been contrary to Christ's Laws as I have with grief proved in my History of Councils 34. Bishops that deposed Emperors and Kings were not to be obeyed therein 35. Almost all the Christian World since the use of General Councils are disagreed who are the true Bishops one Party setting up one whom others reject and condemn so that if it were necessary to Salvation to know who is the true Bishop of the several Churches few Christians could be saved 36. Many Canons nullifie the Office and Power of these Bishops who come in by the Magistrate without the choice or consent of the Clergy and People And I think Mr. Dodwell professeth Communion with few but such and so is by Canons condemned 37. There is no Law of Christ or unchangeable Law of man for appropriating a certain space of ground to one Bishops Jurisdiction Grotius and Dr. Hammond thought that at first most great Cities had two Bishops and Churches one of Jews and one of Gentiles And the Apostles never so appropriated any places to themselves but oft divers in one City were their Teachers 38. Occupation of a space of ground for Priestly Power is no just Title and may be altered And if it were the Primitive Occupation was contrary to Mr. Dodwells Model 39. If each City was to have a Bishop each of our Corporations should have one being all Cities in that antient sense 40. It is not necessary to all to be of any fixed particular Church as I have proved elsewhere of Travellers some Embassadors Merchants Vagrants c. while they are of the Universal Church and own Christ and obey his Law 41. The Electors do more to the making of Bishops than the Ordainers Oft-times Bishops have ordained contrary Competitors some one and some another and are oft forc't to ordain whom Princes and Patrons chuse 42. Cyprian and his Carthage Council prove in the Case of Martial and Basilides that it is the Peoples Duty to forsake those Bishops who are not qualified according to Christ's Law though Canonically ordained and approved And Martin separated from such and Gildas saith he is not eximius Christianus that owned the Brittish Bishops 43. Christ hath left sufficient Directions for the continuation or restoration of the Priestly Office without Canonical successive Ordination uninterrupted As well as God hath done for Kings 44. Seeing Mr. D. saith A Presumptive title may serve he thereby confesseth that it is not real Canonical Succession but the Opinion of it that he makes necessary 45. The Question is Who must be the Presenters When they so greatly differ Grotius presumed that the Chief Minister of a City or a Church was really a Bishop though not so called 46. The Reformed can
is King and the Law is his Law he being by the Constitution by Contract obliged to own it and Govern by it 2. And Parliaments have their part in the Legislation as Representatives or Trustees of the People and therefore the Laws are called those quas vulgus elegerit But the People die not at the dissolving of a Parliament 3. At least it 's of apparent necessity that the Supreme Executive Power survive or else the Laws die For whose Laws are they if we had no King or Soveraign Whom do we obey or disobey in obeying or disobeying such Laws But our opposers say that even the Supreme Executive as well as Legislative Power is in General Councils If so their Laws are dead a thousand years and we cannot disobey or obey dead men Therefore why do you press us to obey their Laws Arg. 5. If God would have had such Councils to be the Universal Soveraigns he would have notified this plainly in his Word or in Nature it being supposed the Constitutive Form of the Church or at least necessarily to be known for the common Duty and Concord of Christians Our opposers say There is no Concord nor avoiding damnable Schism but by obeying the Vniversal Governing Church But God hath notified no such thing in Nature or Scripture Arg. 6. If God would have his Church Universal to have had such a Soveraign he would have empowered some one or more to call such a Council and told us who hath the power to call them that we may know which have Authority and are to be obeyed For there have been many false and heretical General Councils so called and they have cursed and condemned one another But God hath given us no notice of any empowered to call such a Council nor any means how to know which of them is true and which false which to obey and which not whatever the Pope pretendeth Arg. 7. All the Inferior Officers derive their Power from the Supreme But all the particular Bishops and Presbyters do not derive their Power from General Councils ergo they are not Supreme The Major is undoubted with all Politick Writers It is one of the Jura Majestatis to be the Fountain of Inferior Power The Minor is notorious de facto in the common History of the Church By the National Orders of the Roman Empire Councils had a chief Power in case of difference to determine of the five Patriarchs but not necessarily to chuse them nor did they consecrate them nor was this without the Empire nor did these Patriarchs make the other Bishops The Papists dare not determine whether Election or Consecration necessarily make a Bishop or whether it must be both For which ever be necessary distinguished from invalid acts their Popes and Bishops are nulled much more if both But neither of them was appropriate to General Councils Arg. 8. The Soveraign Government of the Universal Church is supposed necessary to its Unity and to avoiding of Schism and deciding Controversies and therefore its Laws are necessary to be Preached to all the Flocks But none of this is true as to the Soveraignty of a Council â—or the Church had Unity mostly without it and subsists without it at this day and few Subjects know its Laws and few Preachers preach them or People think they are bound to learn them Arg. 9. Christ hath appropriated the Soveraignty and Universal Legislation and Judgment to himself alone Therefore it is not committed to a Council The Antecedent is proved fully by 1 Cor. 11.3 1 Cor. 12.27 c. Col. 1.18 2.10 17 19. Eph. 1.22 23. Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. to 16. 1 Cor. 6.16 17. Gal. 3.28 1 Cor. 3.3 4 5. 4.6 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Matth. 22.25 26. Luke 22.26 Arg. 10. They that will claim so great a Power as to be the Soveraigns of the Christian World must shew a clear Commission for it But Universal Councils can shew no such Commission Arg. 11. If an Universal Council of Bishops be the Supreme Governours of the Universal Church they that call them not or they that come not together live in most damnable sin For all Office consisteth in Obligation to do the duty as well as Power to do it And to neglect so many hundred years a work of such unspeakable need must be more damnable than to neglect a particular Flock so that this casts either all the Bishops of the World into damnation as most perfidious men or the Pope for not calling them Arg. 12. The necessity of such an Universal Supreme Senate is feigned and false therefore none such is of God 1. The great pretended necessity is of Universal Legislation But that is not necessary For Christ hath already given his Church as many Laws as are universally necessary No man can prove the necessity of one more 2. Nor is their Universal Judging Office necessary For Arg. 13. A General Council is not capable of Universal Supreme Government Therefore they were never by God appointed to it I. They are not capable of Universal Legislation 1. Because Christ hath made perfect Universal Laws and forbidden all addition to them that is at least all of the same kind To say that Christ hath left out any of universal necessity is to say that he hath done his work by the halves and men must mend it especially if it be in necessary things If it be but undetermined Circumstances or Accidents then 1. None can know which of them agree with all Countries on Earth 2. Those that agree this year may not be agreeable the next 3. Nor is an Agreement in more than Christ hath determined necessary at all So that here is no work for them to do 2. And what is the Judiciary Power that they can use No man can tell what 1. They cannot judge of particular Persons to be Baptized whether they are fit All the Bishops of the World must not meet to try a Catechumen 2. Nor yet of Persons that are to be Confirmed and admitted to adult Communion 3. Nor of Persons accused of Heresie or Scandal No one is so mad as to say that an Universal Council must be gathered out of all the Earth to judge whether A. do justly accuse B. of these Crimes and to hear all men speak for themselves and to Examine the Witnesses c. And whole Cities and Kingdoms are not fit for Church Censures because they are mixt of righteous and unrighteous and noxa Caput sequitur Every man must answer for his own Sin and every one must have his own Repentance And if whole Countries are to be Judged whole Countries of Witnesses must be heard And shall the Council come to them or they all go to the Council and whither and when If it be Causes and not Persons that they must judge what are they if they be no Persons Causes If only Cases of Doctrine and Conscience in general as the Expounding hard Texts of Scripture or Points of Divinity This is not properly
c. But what are the particular Quarrels § IV. Departing from the only Center and Test of Universal Concord and devising an Vniversal Humane Soveraignty hath set the World into mortal Discord on pretence of being the only way to Concord Christ only is the Head the King and Law-giver and Judge of the whole World The Law of Nature and sacred inspired Apostolical Scriptures are his only Universal Law Pastors by the Word and Princes by the Sword conjoyned where it may be rule under him only in their several Provinces God made the largeness of the Roman Empire a Receptive Means of the happy propagation of Christianity Mans nature is prone to selfishness and ambition By degrees those humours and the Wisdom of the World conformed the Episcopal Government to the Civil and made those Bishops highest who dwelt in the Cities where the Secular Rulers were highest The Churches had before used to serve God in Concord and to Assemble for Consultation when Concord required it The Emperors therefore exalted the great Bishops not to Govern alone but to preside in these Assemblies The first General Council had been called as a rational means to cure the shameful threatning Discords of the Churches without the formality of any President save the Emperor and a temporary Moderator But three Patriarchs were soon set up and after made five and other Bishops in different degrees of grandeur The great and shaking dangers bred by Religious Factions were ordered to be decided by Assemblies of Bishops when changes were made in the Cities of the Empire the Rule of conforming the Church to the Civil Government bred a competition between Rome and Constantinople because of the translating of the Imperial Seat They grew higher and higher and whenever any Emperor of Constantinople fell out with his own Patriarch he either put him out or favoured the preheminence of the Bishop of Rome to curb him But usually his own Bishop being at his command he favoured his Interest against the Roman And it being the Law of their Councils called General that the five Patriarchs must be there by themselves or their Delegates and the Emperors calling the Councils upon great occasions they called them in some Eastern City for the most part and the main Body of the Councils were the Greek Bishops very few of the Western being there nor the Pope himself nor at C. P. Conc. 1. so much as any Legate When the Patriarch of Alexandria who was the third fell out with him of Constantinople he would extol the Roman Preheminence to strengthen himself And when the East had Arian persecuting Emperors and Bishops the Orthodox would fly for countenance to the Orthodox Emperor and Bishop in the West But usually the other four Patriarchs in Councils concurred and the Roman Clergy were a small part of their Councils But these Councils dolefully disagreeing became a Church Militant and on pretence of agreeing the Churches tore them all to pieces and all upon two occasions 1. WHO SHOULD BE GREATEST or please the greatest for worldly Interest 2. WHO SHOULD PASS FOR ORTHODOX when after the Arian and Macedonian Heresies much of the strife was about ambiguous words Till at last the Division of the Churches the Degeneracy of the Clergy the Badness of Emperors and the Rebellion of Generals and Mutinies of Souldiers delivered up the Empire to the Infidels And the Bishop of Rome became the Chief Rebel and set up the French in the Western Empire against his Lawful Prince and furthered the Division of the Empire to its Ruine But this Division occasioned an Universal Claim § V. In all the old Contests it never came into the mind of the Emperors or the Councils to set up a Government over all the World but only in the Empire They never Summoned the Bishops of all the World but only of the Empire and not most of them As I have oft said The Subscriptions yet tell us that it was the Bishops of the Roman Provinces But the Empire being large they used sometime the swelling phrase of totius Orbis meaning Orbis Romani And the Greek Patriarchs never dreamed of a Jus Divinum or Establishment by Christ or his Apostles much less of an Universal Power For they all knew that Constantinople had no such pretence being a new Erected Seat And they were not so impudent as to profess to set a Humane Law against a Divine And the Roman Bishop long went no higher nor ever used that Argument against Constantinople My Power is of God and yours but of Men which had been most obvious and unresistible and therefore would have been used had it been true and then believed But at last from the Name of Saint Peter's Successor the Pope began a double new Claim 1. TO A DIVINE RIGHT 2. TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ALL THE WORLD of Christians at least And the breaking of the Empire necessitated him to this pretence which his ambition had obscurely before begun For else 1. His old power had died when he was no Member of the Empire and so from under the ancient Government and Laws And all must have been built on a new uncertain Foundation 2. And when all the old Eastern Empire was gone his Power and Primacy would have been confined to a narrow compass VVherefore he served his present interest 1. By setting up the French Empire and 2. By pretending to a right of Universal Soveraignty over the VVorld as the Successor of St. Peter For a General hath no strength without his Army who must have their Part in the Fight the Victory and the Prey Popes always ruled but in and by these Councils These therefore must as Church Parliaments have their Power in the Universal Soveraignty and the Pope as Universal Monarch must Rule not absolutely but in and by these Law-makers and their Laws How this Land was brought to Popery by degrees and how much the most Religious Men did towards it I must not tell Historically lest I be too long He that readeth but Beda and Malmesbury and Huntington and Hoveden and Matthew Paris may see how the Roman Grandeur drew on the change and how good people took the advancement of the Bishops in Wealth and Power and the Number and Endowments of Monasteries to be the chief strength of the Christian Church while Princes were hardly restrained from Rapacity Sacriledge and from the Crimes that commonly breed in worldly Power Wealth and Pleasure The wickedness of some Princes made the Power of the Prelates seem necessary to bridle them And then better Princes took it for their Chief Piety to advance them who were all taken for sacred Persons Men of God And after the Saxons overthrow of the Brittains the Countrey being Heathens and long in Converting it must needs be that ignorance must be predominant for a long time And the Cure of it was greatly hindered by the continual Wars of the Saxon Kings among themselves and after by the Danish Wars and Conquest And under the
what was to be done for Councils and Popular Humours would never know where to stop but would break down all the Churches strength and glory 2. Luther's Party after their riper thoughts were for such a Reformation as consisted in a nullifying of the Papal Church and Separation from it as no True Church but the Seat of Antichrist 3. A moderate sort of Papists were for reforming of many things in the Roman Church but not for nullifying it They were for reconciling the two Parties and for submissive Conformity but not for Separation Such were Julius Pslug Sidonius and Agricola who drew up the Interim and also Erasmus Cassander Ar. Baldwin Wicelius c. And in France the great Chancellor Michael Hospitalias Thuanus and many of their most excellent Lawyers and Parliament-men and some Bishops and Divines These men being offended at the Separating part of the Reformation were taken with the notion of Unity and Government but understood not the true state of the Controversie and were of two minds among themselves 1. Some had long had an untryed notion by Tradition that the Church throughout the World was One Body Politick under one Humane Government 2. Others never thought of that but having seen a submission of all the Western Churches to the Pope thought a Separation unlawful § X. But the case of the Separation which they understood not who blamed it was this The Reformers took the Universal Church in all the Earth to have no Head King or Soveraign Governour but Christ none else having the least shew of true capacity or right and therefore that none had an Universal Legislative Judicial or Executive Power And a Church-Soveraignty was a more irrational conceit than a Civil Soveraignty over all the Earth And an Aristocracy of Bishops more irrational than a Papal Monarchy Therefore they professed not to separate from Papists as Christians or from any of their Societies as parts of Christ's Church but to renounce deny and separate from their new Vsurped Church-Species or Form as it is feigned to be an Vniversal Humane Soveraign with his Subjects Had they never corrupted other Doctrine or Worship this Church-Species of Universal Soveraignty is to be separated from 2. And with all the Reformers found that though they could have submitted to Patriarchs as a Humane Power set up by Princes had they Governed according to the Laws of Christ yet 1. It being but a Humane Power 2. And one Prince having no right to set up a Patriarch over another Princes Subjects 3. And the Roman Patriarch claiming also the Universal Soveraignty or part of it in Councils 4. And having corrupted Doctrine Worship and Discipline they took it to be their duty to renounce also the Pope's Patriarchal Government and for all Christians to obey Christ's Universal Laws alone and the Local Laws circa sacra left to man's Legislation of the particular Princes and States where they live And not to place Universal Unity or Concord in any Usurping Humane Soveraign or their Laws or mutable circumstances And had those excellent moderate Papists before-named well studied this point of Universal Soveraignty it 's like they had forsaken Rome § XI When the Pope thought to satisfie the World and confound the Reformation by the Council of Trent the Cardinal of Lorain and the French consented not to much that they there did but stuck to the Councils of Constance and Basil lest they should lose the Liberties of the Gallican Church So that it was long e're that Nation seemed to own the Council of Trent and never did it heartily and universally but continued at some further distance from the Absoluteness of the Pope than Italy or Spain And to this day they continue to maintain 1. That the Pope hath no Power over the King in Temporals 2. That he hath no Power to Depose Kings 3. That General Councils are so far above him as to reform him and his disorders 4. That he is not Infallible alone but in conjunction with the Church or Councils And though some have spoken and written against the first and second Barclay and many others have confuted them and the Parliaments have burnt their Books And this is the Moderate Popery of France Well may I call them Papists still for 1. They renounce not a Humane Universal Church Soveraignty 2. They allow the Pope to call Councils and Preside and to be the principium Vnitatis and Patriarch of the West 3. They know that when no Church-Parliaments are in being the Universal Executive Power must be continued or the Universal Policy be dissolved Therefore they allow the Pope a Right of Universal Government according to the Canons but not Arbitrary and therefore not above Councils So that if those that are for the King Ruling by Law and making Laws only in and by Parliaments be yet for Monarchy then Concil Constan. Basil and the French are yet for Popery As to our Reformation it is so fully recorded by many and newly by that excellent and moderate Historian Dr. Burnet that for the time he writes I shall only transcribe a few Notes out of his Abridgment Page 87. The Oaths which the Bishops swore to the Pope and the King were found so inconsistent as it appeared both could not be kept which caused the Popes to be dismist Page 113. An Act was made for Election and Consecration of Bishops in short The King to name one and the Dean and Chapter in twelve days to return an Election of the person named by the King Page 138. Cranmer Tonstall Clark and Goodrik Bishops being called to give their Opinion of the Emperors Power to call Councils said That though ancient Councils were called by the Roman Emperors yet that was done by reason of the extent of their Monarchy that was now ceased But since other Princes had an entire Monarchy within their Dominions Yet if one or more of those Princes should agree to call a Council to a good intent and desire the concurrence of the rest they were bound by the rule of CHARITY to agree to it Page 139. Cranmer said that this Authority of General Councils flowed not from the Number of Bishops but from the Matter of their decisions which were received with an Universal Consent for there were many more Bishops at Arimini than at Nice or Constantinople c. Christ had named no Head of the whole Church as God had named no Head of the World In Queen Elizabeth's Reign 1559. the Divines appointed to dispute against the Papist Bishops in their second paper maintain That every Church had power to reform it self This they founded on the Epistles of Paul to the particular Churches and St. John to the Angels of the Seven Churches In the first three Ages there were no General Councils but every Bishop in his Diocess or such few Bishops as could assemble together condemned Heresies determined Matters that were contested so did also the Orthodox after Arrianisme had so overspread the World that even
the See of Rome was defiled with it Page 358. A Bill that came to nothing was for empowering thirty two Persons to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws But as this last was then let fall so to the great prejudice of this Church it hath slept ever since For before this p. 129 130. l. 2. In King Edward's Reign Bucer's Opinion was asked about the review of the Common Prayer Book He wished there might not be only a denunciation against scandalous Persons that came to the Sacrament but a Discipline to exclude them That the Habits might be laid aside c. At the same time he understood that the King expected a New Years Gift from him of a Book written particularly for his own use So he made a Book for him concerning the Kingdom of Christ He prest much the setting up a strict Discipline the Sanctification of the Lords day the appointing many days of Fasting and that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned that Children might be Catechized that the reverence due to Churches might be preserved that the Pastoral Function might be restored to what it ought to be that Bishops might throw off Secular Affairs and take care of their Diocesses and Govern them by the advice of their Presbyters that there might be Rural Bishops over twenty or thirty Parishes and that Provincial Councils might meet twice a year that Church Lands be restored and a fourth part assigned to the poor that care be taken for Education of Youth and for repressing Luxury that the Law be reformed and no Office sold but given to the most deserving that none be put in Prison upon slight offences The young King was much pleased with these advices And upon that began himself to form a Scheme for amending many things c. It appears by it that he intended to set up a Church Discipline and settle a Method for breeding Youth Page 361 362 li. 4. To return to Queen Elizabeth the Changes are recited and he addeth The liberty given to explain in what sence the Oath of Supremacy was taken gave a great evidence of the Moderation of the Queens Government that she would not lay snares for her people which is always a sign of a Wicked and Tyrannical Prince But the Queen reckoned that if such comprehensive Methods could be found out as would once bring her people under any Vnion though perhaps there might remain a great diversity of Opinion that would wear off with the present Age and in the next Generation all would be of one mind Page 363. The Empowering Lay men to deprive Church-men or Excommunicate could not be easily excused but was as justifiable as the Commissions to Lay-Chancellors for those things were There are 9400 Benefices in England but of all these the Number of those viz. Papists who chose to resign rather than take the Oath was very inconsiderable Fourteen Bishops Six Abbots Twelve Deans Twelve Archdeacons Fifteen Heads of Colledges Fifty Prebendaries and Eighty Rectors was the whole number of those that were turned out But it was believed that the greatest part complied against their Consciences and would have been ready for another turn if the Queen had died while that Race of Incumbents lived and the next Successor had been of another Religion Read what he saith of Mr. Parker's great unwillingness to be A. Bishop and the threatning else to Imprison him p. 363 364 c. I conclude with that honest Note p. 369. There was one thing yet wanting to compleat the Reformation of this Church which was the restoring a Primitive Discipline against scandalous Persons the stablishing the Government of the Church in Ecclesiastical hands and taking it out of Lay hands who have so long profaned it So that the dreadfullest of all Censures is now become most scorned and despised See the rest The Papists in Queen Elizabeth's days sometime strove by Treasons the recovery of their Power and secretly strove by Policy to divide the Protestants and to root out those that were most against them The Ministers unhappily fell into these Parties 1. Some were for the Grandeur of the Bishops and for strict observance of Liturgy and Ceremonies and against Parochial Discipline and these prevailed with the Queen 2. Some were against Diocesan Bishops and Ceremonies and some things in the Liturgy and were for Parish Discipline And these were called Nonconformists and Puritans 3. Melancthon and Bucer had prevailed with some others who were indifferent as to Bishops and most of the Ceremonies and Forms but Zealous for Parish Discipline and a godly Life and for using things indifferent only indifferently to Edification and not to the hinderance of the Ministry of refusers And Bucer's Scripta Anglicana written for K. Edward which urged this Parish Discipline with great Zeal and Judgment prevailed with a great part of the Queens Council and of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry but most of the Clergy were of the two first mentioned Opinions called Extreams by others § 4. All the Parliaments that were called in Queen Elizabeth's time were still suspicious that Popery would keep too much strength by the peoples Ignorance and Impiety for want of good Preaching and godly Living in the Ministry And therefore were usually complaining of the Bishops especially Whitguift for silencing so many Nonconforming Preachers and keeping up so many Pluralists and so many meer Readers And they were oft attempting a Reformation of this and to have restored the Nonconformists and united the godly Protestants But by the Bishops Counsel the Queen still restrained them and charged them not to meddle with Ecclesiastical Matters as belonging to her In Sir Simond Dewes Journals you may see the many attempts and her constant prohibition and restraint And Parliaments were loth to offend her or make any breach remembering how great a deliverance they had by her from Queen Mary's Persecutions Though they grudged at the Imprisonment of Mr. Strickland and others that had spoke earnestly for Reformation of Bishops Affairs and the Ministry yet they bore it patiently because of what they did enjoy One of their strongest attempts you may read in their Petition of Sixteen Articles in Sir Sim. Dewes An. 1584 and 1585. page 357. which is well worth the reading But it was not endured But she long endured the Popish Bishops in their Seats though in Parliament the A Bishop of York the Bishop of London the Bishops of Worcester Landaff Coventree Oxford Chester the Abbot of Westminster were against the Bill for the Supremacy and abolishing Popery See Sir S. Dewes p. 28. and p. 23. also the Bishops of Winchester Carlile Exceter Which patience of hers mentioned put Sir S. D. the Historian on the recital of so large a Catalogue of Records for the Kings Power against the Pope and Usurping Bishops as is worth the reading page 24. § 5. Also for many years the Papists came to our Temples till the Pope forbad them But the Parliament men much differed about this Some would
have all men forced to the Sacrament Others would have them forced to hear some allowed Teachers but not to be compelled to the Sacrament because it is the investing of men in the Pardon of sin and right to Salvation which no unwilling Person is capable of Of this see in the foresaid Author p. 177. the Excellent Speech of Mr. Aglionke and of others I mention this because the late Reconcilers have made the mixture of Papists and Protestants in Communion the first ten years of the Queen to be the desireable state to which they would have had us reduced Of which more anon But the Queen here also restrained them and would have all left to her and the Bishops Mr. Yelverton told them how perillous a President it might prove for worser times for the Parliament to be so restrained Where saith he there was such fulness of Power as even the right of the Crown was to be determined and by warrant whereof we had so resolved that to say the Parliament had no Power to determine of the Crown was High Treason Ibid. page 176. § 6. The Invasion 1588 and many Treasons and the Popes Excommunications increased the Parliaments Zeal against Popery and the Clergies also And when the Case of the Queen of Scots was referred to the Council of the Parliament they earnestly urged the Queen by many Reasons to execute the Sentence of Death which was past upon her seeing while the Papists hoped for her Reign neither the Life of the Queen nor the Kingdom could be safe See Sir S. D' Ewes page 400 c. These were their apprehensions then of Popery § 7. In K. James's time the horrid Powder Plot to have blown up King and Parliament and the Murder of Two Kings in France successively H. 3. and H. 4. and other Inhumanities increased this Kingdoms Zeal against Popery As the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were made for their discovery so multitudes of Learned Men were employed in confuting their pretended Sovereignty and manifold Errors And the common Preachers had ordinarily in their Sermons One Vse as they called it for the Confutation of the Papists Besides that the Homilies and Jewels writings against them were to be in every Church And as many of the Bishops in Queen Elizabeth's first time were such as had been Exiles and Suffered by the Papists so many both in her days and K. James's were Learned and Godly Men who remembred former times and were greatly desirous of the Extirpation of Popery and of the increase of able Preachers and of the Concord of Protestants to that End And the Books of Martyrs written by John Fox being common in all parts of the Land increased the peoples hatred of Religious cruelty But some few Bishops specially A. Bishop Whitguift and Bancroft exceeded the rest in their prosecution of the Nonconformists And though before by connivance they had enjoyed more quietness yet when once the Canon was made and Executed for Subscribing that there is nothing contrary to the Word of God in the Liturgy c. and the Excommunicating Canons five six seven c. the reconciliation of the Protestants seemed hopeless Yet even the hottest prosecuting Bishops were firm Adversaries to Popery yea Whitguift thought Arminianism came so near it as made him consent to the ill-framed Lambeth Articles And that unhappy Controversie called Arminian which I have largely proved to be over-aggravated on both sides for want of a distinct way of Examination in my Cath. Theol. increased the Division much The Jesuits being most hated by the Protestants the Arminians were taken to incline to Popery though the Dominicans who had been on the contrary side had been the Bloody Masters of the Inquisition And when our English Arminians were accused of approaching Popery it inclined some of them to think more favourably of a Reconciliation with those whom they were likened to And the Papists never ceased their diligence secret or open for the restoration of their Forreign Jurisdiction and their Errours § XII The Councils at the Laterane Lyons and others having so set up the Pope above Kings as that those whom he Excommunicates may be deposed and are then no Kings And their Most Learned Doctors writing this the Pope came to lay much of his strength upon King-killing and it hath proved too successful Had it been only against Rebellion Kings had their defence But what can one do against a Desperado who is promised Preferment if he escape and taught if he so die for the service of the Church to look for as much greater a Reward than Martyrs as his service is more voluntary and of more publick benefit than theirs When Henry the Third was so murdered in France Henry the Fourth turned Papist it 's like much for fear And when the first Knife had but struck out his Teeth the next dispatcht him King James here was not a fearless man He had known of the many Treasons which Queen Elizabeth escaped The Powder-Plot thundred to him though it took not fire King Henry's Stabs did yet speak louder He was told This shall be your End think not to escape Instruments will be found who prefer the Church before their Lives if you repent not What a strait now is a King in whose Life is thus at the mercy of a thousand deluded desperate Slaves of the Pope That which kindleth revenging anger in a Kingdom or Senate may rationally cause fear in a single man For it is easier to kill a King than a Kingdom or a multitude § XIII The unhappy Differences about the five Articles in Belgio in which I am past doubt both Parties there were much to be blamed involved the Learned Hugo Grotius in sufferings The Contra-Remonstrants were too violent and trusted to the Sword of the Prince of Orange and Grotius being condemned to Imprisonment and by his Wife got out in a Trunk on pretence of carrying away his Books becoming the Queen of Swedens Resident Embassador in France no doubt exasperated and falling into intimate acquaintance with the French Jesuits especially Petavius grew to that approbation of the Moderate French Popery which I have here after proved and to that desire of reducing the Protestants to them which not only Valesius Orat. in Obit Petavii but his own Writings fully testifie And his design was to bring Rome as the Mistress Church to Rule not arbitrarily but by the Canons of Councils securing the Right of Kings and Bishops and casting aside the Schoolmens subtil vain Disputes and reforming the bad lives of the Clergy and some small mutable things and in this to draw in the Church of France and England to agree and the Queen of Sweden and if possible the Lutherans and to crush the Calvinists as unreconcileable And he tells us how many in England favoured what he did though those whom he miscalleth Brownists were against it § IV. The Church of England and the Parliament being before discontented at the Marriage-Articles as to
such Alterations of the Liturgy as were necessary to tender Consciences and the Bishops and their Drs. yielded not to the least but to the last maintained that none were necessary for them I saw in the Manner and the Issue with whom it was that we had to do and consequently what England must expect I easily perceived that much more would be imposed For I saw what some intended and I could conjecture what must be the Means But others went further than they If I my self had been of the opinion that a Syncretism or Coalition with the Church of France on Grotius's terms had been the way of Church Concord most pleasing to God and that all were intolerable Schismaticks that united not on these terms as Members of one Universal Church under one humane Soveraignty It 's like I should have done my best to accomplish these things following at least if I were also of the temper of those of that Mind which I have known I. I should have laboured to render all those as odious and contemptible as I could that had been against the Coalition II. It 's like I should have done what I could to Silence all those Ministers that were likest to hinder my Design III. It 's like I should have desired if less would not do this that more might be imposed on them that it might be effectually done IV. It 's like I should have done all that I could to Banish them far enough from the Ears and Presence and Acquaintance of Rulers that we might represent them at our pleasure and they might not answer for themselves V. If all this would not do were I sufficiently hardened It 's like I should endeavour to break all those that will not bend and to ruine them utterly and lay them in Jailes with Rogues and make men believe that they are intollerable Persons deserving worse and that all this is Mercy to them VI. It 's like that were I of that mind and temper I should make it my chief design to make a tender Conscience a Scorn and to drive it out of Esteem and Power and then there would be little in the rest to hinder my desires I might expect that they would all take my Pills whom I could first get to swallow as big a thing VII I would make the great noise about Episcopacy Liturgy and Conformity and not say a word till all were ready of a Coalition with the French Papists or Roman Church VIII I would as Dr. Heylin call this a Drawing in the Papists to us when we had opened the Door wide enough for their Universal Soveraignty and I would not call it a going over to them IX It 's like I should learn of Grotius to call none Papists but only those that count all good and lawful that the Popes do or as Dr. Saywell disown none but the Jesuited Party and then I would detest and rant against Papists as hotly as any of them all X. I would not put any Oath or Profession of Popery or of an Universal foreign Jurisdiction on any of the Lay Communicants nor on the Inferior Clergy till they were ripe for it It 's gently said of Dr. Saywell What Bishop puts you to own the Power of General Councils before he will give you the Sacrament If the Bishops will but own and be subject to a foreign Jurisdiction and the Clergy only to the Bishops at first and the Laity to that Clergy and Bishop the Chain is strong enough at present we need no more XI I will Prognosticate no further conditionally of my self but whoever is engaged in such work above all cannot spare the Engine of Historical Vntruths Against those that may not be heard speak for themselves nor be acquainted with them that hear the report this must do the greatest part of the work it cannot be probably done without it Perjury is a thing that I will not meddle with XII They must make the Differences of Protestants as odious as they can and make men believe that they are running mad for want of Catholick Government and Unity and as a late Book called An Address c. tell them that lately there were an Hundred and forty several Sects and if it be denied it is but proving so many Complexions XIII Above all they must say nothing for the Pope himself but only for General Councils advancing their Honour by making odious all that they Condemned and by the Reverence that Protestants have exprest to the best as means of Concord And they must be sure to confound Concord and Government Communion and Subjection XIV And they must be sure to keep the Ministry partly in hope of Preferment and partly in servile Dependance and specially to Corrupt the Vniversities that part may be Ignorant and Vicious and part ambitious Militants And when once all these have got into Church Livings let the Dislikers get them out if they can XV. Some have ever found it of great use to Altering-designs to represent all that are against it as Rebellious and make Rulers believe that they are their Enemies And when our King here hath done so much by the Act of Oblivion and advancing the late Duke of Albemarle and acknowledging the Service of him and his Army and many others who formerly fought against him I cannot but suspect some Altering design in them that would still rub the old Sores and fetch thence Materials for all their Purposes If I may mix ridiculous things with terrible that as the Drunken Man easing his Bladder by a running Conduit stood half the day there in a mingent posture complaining to Passengers that his Water would not stop because he still heard the Conduit run so if they can but make the Nation Drunk or Melancholick the noise of nothing but War and Rebellion and Blood will make them think that their Blood is still running XVI And beyond Sea the Papists have found it the greatest Expedient to their Successes to keep Great Men from Study and Learning yea and from Conscience and Sobriety and train them up with Sport and Wine and Women and Debauchery and ranting Jollity and scorns at Conscience and Preciseness that they may not discern their own interest nor have understanding enough to see the Snare but may tamely put their foot in the Stocks under pretence of Universal Concord and Government make themselves the Subjects of a foreign Usurpation And if the Pope may but govern till the next General Council it will be like a Lease of many Hundred Years as good as a Fee-simple And may he but Rule all as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis by the Canons already made it will be as good as the Guardianship of Infants that will never call the Guardian to Account § XIX I must say after all this that I love the French Church much better than the Italian and if we must all be Papists had rather we were French Papists of the two And yet that I more fear the
whole Church under an impossible and non-existent unifying and governing Power 3. That which may be proved a Duty out of God's Word was such before any Pope or Council made Laws for it So that if their Commands herein are any more than declarative and subservient to God's Laws as the Crying of a Proclamation or as a Justices Warrant God hath forestalled them by his Laws and theirs come too late And if all the Power that Councils or Bishops have as to Legislation be to make Laws unnecessary to Salvation it were to be wished they had never made those that are hinderances to Salvation and set the Churches together by the Ears and have divided them these 1200 Years and more Surely our English Canons 5 6 7 8 which Excommunicate so many faithful Christians do much hinder Salvation if they be not necessary to it But it 's apparent that they take their Laws to be necessary to Salvation 1. Who say All are Schismaticks that obey them not and that such Schismaticks are Mortal Sinners in a state of Damnation They that make their Canonical Obedience necessary to avoid Schism and that necessary to Salvation make the said Canonical Obedience necessary to Salvation But c. 2. And one would think that they that torment and burn Men and silence Ministers for not obeying their Canons made them necessary to Salvation The 34th Article saith That every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change or Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying And if so they that may abolish the Rites ordained by General Councils or Popes are not their Subjects nor is this Power of making and abolishing Rites reserved to them nor can they deprive any National or Particular Church of this their own Power The 36th Article saith That The Book of Consecration of arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops and Ordaining of Priests c. doth Contain all things necessary thereto But nothing in that Book doth make it necessary that English Bishops or Priests receive their Power or Office from any Foreigners Pope Council or Bishops which yet must be necessary if they be their Subjects The 37th Article saith That Though the Queen hath not the Power of administring the Word and Sacraments yet she is not nor ought not to be subject to any foreign Jurisdiction And that the Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England And if so then he hath no Patriarchal Jurisdiction here nor have foreign Councils any IV. King Edw. 6. Injunctions say That No manner of Obedience or Subjection is due to the Bishop of Rome within this Realm Therefore not as to a Patriarch President or Principium Vnitatis V. Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions say No manner of Obedience or Subjection is due to any such foreign Power And Admonit No other foreign Power shall or ought to have any Authority over them VI. The Reformatio Legum Ecclesiast c. 9 10 11.14 15. are full proof There the Reformers professing reverence to the 4 first General Councils as holding sound Doctrine add Quibus tamen non aliter fidem nostram obligandam esse censemus nisi quateâ—us ex S. Scripturis confirmari possint Nam concilia nonnulla interdum errasse contraria inter se desinivisse partim in actionibus juris partim etiam in fide manifestum est Itaque legantur Concilia quidem cum honore Christiana reverentia sed interim ad Scripturarum piam certam rectamque regulam examinentur C. 15. Orthodoxorum Patrum etiam authoritatem minime censemus esse contemnendam sunt enim permulta ab illis praeclare utiliter dicta ut tamen ex eorum Sententia de Sacris Literis judicetur non admittimus Debent enim sacrae literae nobis omnis Doctrinae Christianae regulae esse judices Quin ipsi Patres tantum honoris sibi deferri recusarunt saepius admonentes lectorem ut tantisper suas admittat sententias interpretationes quoad cum sacris literis consentire eas animadverterit Et de Haeres c. 1. Illorum intolerabilis est error qui totius Christiani orbis universam Ecclesiam solius Episcopi Romani principatu contineri volunt Nos enim eam quae cerni potest Ecclesiam sic definimus ut omnium coetus sit fidelium hominum in quo S. Scriptura sincerè docetur Sacramenta saltem his eorum partibus quae necessaria sunt juxta Christi praescriptum administrnetur Et de Judic Cont. Haeres c. 1. Appellatio reo conceditur ab Episcopo ad Archiepiscopum ab Archiepiscopo aâ— Regiam personam but no further Vid. de Eccles. c. 10. de Episc. Potestate Et pag. 190. Rex tam in Archiepiscopos Episcopos Clericos alias Ministros quà m in Laicos intra sua regna dominia plenissimam jurisdictionem tam civilem quà m Ecclesiasticam habet exercere potest Cum omnis Jurisdictio tum Ecclesiastica tum secularis ab eo tanquam ex uno eodem fonte derivantur Et de Appell c. 11. There 's no Appeal to any above or beyond the King judging by a Provinâ—ial Council or Select Bishops Though the King died before these were made Laws they tell us the Church of England's since VII To save transcribing I desire the Reader â—o peruse that notable Letter of King Henry the â—th to the Archbishop of York It is the first in the second Part of the Caballa of Letters well worth the reading to our purpose VIII The Liturgy for Nov. 1. called the Pope Antichrist And the Homilies to the same since And the Convocation in Ireland Art 8. 1615. So doth the Parliament of England in the Act â—or the Subsidy 3 Jacobi of the Clergy And â—ure they that took him for Antichrist thought 〈◊〉 not that as Pope or Patriarch he had any ruling â—ower here IX The Apology of the Church of England â—n Jewel's Works ordered to be kept in all the â—arish Churches saith Pag. 708. Of a truth even those greatest Councils and where most Assemblies of People ever were whereof these Men use to make such exceeding reckoning compare them with all the Churches which throughout the World acknowledge and profess the Name of Christ and what else I pray you can they seem to be but certain Private Councils of Bishops and Provincial Synods For admit peradventure Italy France Spain England Germany Denmark Scotland met together If there want Asia Greece Armenia Persia Media Mesopotamia Egypt Ethiopia India Mauritania in all which Places there be both many Christians and many Bishops how can any Man being in his right Mind think such a Council to be a General Council Pag. 629. It 's proved that Councils have been so factious and tyrannical that good Men have justly refused to come at them Pag. 593. But the Gospel hath been carried on without and against Councils and Councils been against the Truth And Jewel Pag. 486.
Rule delivered by himself and by the Council of Trent c. P. 239. The Augustane Confession commodiously explained hath scarce any thing which may not be reconciled with those Opinions which are received with the Catholicks by Authority of Antiquity and of Synods as may be known out of Cassander and Hoffmeister And there are among the Jesuits also that think not otherwise P. 71. The Churches that join with Rome have not only the Scriptures but the Opinions explained in the Councils and the Popes decree against Pelagius c. They have also received the egregious Constitutions of Councils and Fathers in which there is abundantly enough for the Correction of Vices But all use them not as they ought And this is it that all the Lovers of Piety and Peace would have corrected as Borromaeus did Page 18. Speaking of false Doctrine These are the things which thanks be to God the Catholicks do not thus believe though many that call themselves Catholicks so live as if they did believe them But Protestants so live by force of their Opinions and Catholicks by the decay of Discipline Page 95. What was long ago the judgment of the Church of Rome the Mistress of others we may best know by the Epistles of the Roman Bishops to the Africans and French to which Grotius will subscribe with a willing mind Page 7. They accuse the Bull of Pius Quintus that it hath Articles besides those of the Creed but the Synod of Dort hath more But these in the Bull are New as Dr. Rivet will have it But very many Learned Men think otherwise that they are not new if they be rightly understood and that this appeareth by the places both of Holy Scripture and of such as have ever been of great Authority in the Church which are cited in the Margin of the Canons of Trent Page 35. And this is it which the Synod of Trent saith That in that Sacrament Jesus Christ true God and truely Man is really and substantially contained under the form of those sensible things Yet not according to the Natural manner of existing but Sacramentally and by that way of existing which though we cannot express in words yet may we by Cogitation illustrated by Faith be certain that to God it is possible The Councils expressions are that There is made a change of the whole substance of the Bread into the Body and of the whole substance of Wine into the Blood Which Conversion the Catholick calleth Transubstantiation Page 79. When the Synod of Trent saith That the Sacrament is to be adored with Divine Worship it intends no more but that the Son of God himself is to be adored Page 14. Grotius distinguisheth between the Opinions of School men which oblige no Man for saith Melchior Canus our Church alloweth us great liberty and therefore could give no just cause of departing as the Protestants did and between those things that are defined by Councils Even by that of Trent The Acts of which if any Man read with a mind propense to peace he will find that they may be explained fitly and agreeably to the places of Holy Scripture and of the ancient Doctors that are put in the Margin And if besides this by the care of Bishops and Kings those things be taken away which contradict that holy Doctrine and were brought in by evil Manners and not by Authority of Councils or old Tradition then Grotius and many more with him will have that with which they may be content Val. pro pace That which he blameth is 1. The School-mens liberty of disputing and Opinions not agreeable to Councils 2. And the Pride Covetousness and ill Lives of the Prelates and others which all sober Jesuits and Papists blame Page 16. That the labours of Grotius for the peace of the Church were not displeasing to many equal Men many know at Paris and many in all France many in Poland and Germany and not a few in England that are placid and Lovers of peace For as for the now-raging Brownists and others like them with whom Dr. Rivet better agreeth than with the Bishops of England who can desire to please them that is not touched with their Venom And whereas you may find Grotius and his Adherents yet disclaiming Popery and saying They are no Papists he tells you his meaning Ib. p. 15. In that Epistle Grotius by Papists meant those that without any difference do approve of all the sayings and doings of the Pope for Honour and Lucres sake as is usual By this description I suppose that many Popes even of late were no Papists such as condemned the Acts and Persons of their Predecessors and such as censured Liberius and Honorius nor Adrian the sixth that saith a Pope may be a Heretick nor Baronius Binnius Genebrard that exclaim against many of them Nor Bellarmine nor Queen Mary nor More or Fisher nor Bonner nor Gardiner nor any that ever I met with But others more moderately call only those Papists that are for the Popes Power above Councils And so the French are none nor the Councils of Constance and Basil were none Grotius addeth p. 45. that By Papists he doth not mean them that saving the Rights of Kings and Bishops do give to the Pope or Bishop of Rome that Primacy which ancient Customs and Canons and the Edicts of ancient Emperors and Kings assign them which Primacy is not so much the Bishops as the Roman Churches preferred before all other by common consent So Liberius the Bishop being so lapsed that he was dead to the Church the Church of Rome retained its right and defended the Cause of the Universal Church Ans. If it be a Primacy of Name and Honour only without any Governing Power it 's nothing to our case But seeing it 's a Governing Primacy that he means 1. It 's against the right of Kings and Kingdoms that Foreigners claim Jurisdiction over them 2. Emperors never gave Popes or Councils power over other Princes Dominions nor could give any such 3. Nor did ancient Councils nor could do Who gave it them And who knows to what Councils he will limit this power Councils these thousand years have been for much of Popery 4. If Common Consent give this power it binds not the Dissenters The Judgment of others concerning Grotius 1. Vincentius wrote a Book called Grotius Papizans 2. Claud. Saravius an Eminent Parliament-man in Paris in his Epistles p. 52 53. ad Gron. saith Heri invisi Legatum De ejus libro libello postremis interrogatus respondet plane Mileterio consona Romanam fidem esse veram sinceram solosque clericorum mores degeneres schismati dedisse locum Adferebatque plura in hanc sententiam Quid dicam Merito quod falso olim Paulo Festus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sed haec tibi soli Infensissimus est Riveto Est sanè in praecipiti in quo diu stare non licet Deploro veris lacrymis tantam jacturam Deumque ex
and that by virtue of Christ's Law for Peace and Concord Obedience hath no formal Object but Authoritatem Imperantis But Assemblies for Concord have no Imperium 4. No Clergyman as such hath any but Pastoral and Teaching Power and as a Tutor to order his own School The Power of the Keys is no other 5. Mens holding and renouncing of Communion with other Persons or Churches may be without Governing Power I am not Governor of all that I hold or renounce Communion with No Bishops have power Judicially to determine of Individuals who shall have Communion with every Parish Church on Earth If they have they must hear them all speak for themselves before they judge them in or out They are not Governors of foreign Kings and Kingdoms though in their Government of their particular Churches they must all agree to observe one Rule that is Christ's Laws 6. There never was an Universal Council of all the Churches but only of one Empire a part of that nor ever will be till the Church be so destroyed as to be brought into a narrow space which God forbid As to Dr. Stillingfleet's Defence of all this I take him not to approve of all that he blameth not And if he did I believe on second thoughts he will more retract this than he did his Irenicon Chap. X. Dr. Peter Heylin's own Judgment § 1. BEcause we come newly from repeating Dr. Heylin's words of Archbishop Laud though they fully shew his own Judgment I will â—â—ere annex some more 1. There is a Book written by a Papist called Historical Collections of the Reformation gathered most out of Dr. Heylin's own words and some â—ut of others describing the Reformers and Reformation so odiously as greatly serveth the Priests to turn Protestants to their Church And â—s the Jesuit Maymbourgh maketh Dr. Heylin's Writings to have Converted the late Dutchess of York it 's like it was this Collection out of him 2. In his Book on the Creed speaking of the Catholick Church he saith Pag. 407. Such is the Ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned a Church at all And yet this is of the two the Lovelier Error Better the Church be all Head than no Head at all And such a Church that is all Body and no Head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their late Platforms Answ. Is Christ no Head at all Or is any other Person or Court capable of Governing all Christians on Earth All Protestants hold that the whole Church hath no Head but Christ. Pag. 408. Speaking still of the Catholick Church he saith The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters of the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practice and their Platform it must be Aristocratical Answ. This is a gross Slander of the Presbyterians and Independents Did ever the Presbyterians or Independents say that All Christians on Earth must Govern the whole Church in one Meeting or by Delegates where be the Laws that any of them pretend all Christians made Or the Judgments they past on any Persons after exploration The Presbyterians are for an Aristocratical Government of National Churches and some few Independents are for popular Government in single Congregations but no further 2. Is the Church now Governed by One Aristocracy that is per Optimates that are One Persona Politica by Vote ruling all the Christian World Where is their Meeting What be their Laws Whom do they so try and judge An Universal Governing Aristocracy is more impossible and irrational than an Universal Monarchy Civil or Ecclesiastical Every Bishop and Presbytery Governing his own Church and these keeping Concord by just Correspondency is no liker an Universal Aristocracy than an Assembly of Princes for Concordant Government of their Dominions or than all the Mayors and Justices ruling their several Corporations and Provinces make the Government of England Aristocratical Pag. 409. Saith he Every Bishop where-ever he be fixt and resident hath like St. Paul an universal Care over all the Churches which since they could not exercise by personal Conferences they did it in the Primitive times before they had the benefit of General Councils by Letters Messengers and Agents for the Communicating of their Counsel and imparting their Advice one to another as the emergent Occasions of the Church did require the same These Letters they called Literas formatas Communicatorias Answ. Thus Bishop Gunning and others But 1. St. Paul's Apostolick Power enabled him to do the Work of an Apostle which is to plant Churches in as much of the World as they could and deliver them Christ's Doctrine and Laws infallibly as receiving them by sight and hearing or miraculous revelation And this Power each Apostle could exercise singly and not only by Voting as part of a College the Spirit of Christ teaching them all the same Doctrine But Bishops have no such Office or Power 2. There are several ways of expressing a Care of all the Churches Every Christian must do it by private Endeavours Every Official Preacher by Preaching where he is called Every Pastor by guiding his Flock in Concord with all true Christians in the things which Christ hath made necessary to their Concord And if Archbishops have right to a larger Province they must do it in their proper Province per partes not as one Aristocracy 3. It is granted that as all Christians and Bishops must have a Love to all the Churches and a Care to do them good in their several Places so Concord in things necessary is a great means of that good and the ancient Pastors endeavoured it by Messages Letters and Synods and so must we But what Universal Laws were made by Literae formatae What formal Judgments were past by them Where did the Writers meet first to hear the Accused and examine Witnesses Or must all believe the report of every single Pastor And was it all the Bishops on Earth or a major part that wrote these Legislative and Judicial Letters What strange things can some Men gather from meer Communion and Concord Bishops had then a Necessity of getting the common consent of as many of their Order as they could to make their Government of force to the People that were all Volunteers and not constrained by any Magistrate And it 's useful still to the same end 4. And we grant them that every Bishop and Presbyter that giveth counsel to other Churches doth not do it as a meer private Man but as a Bishop that is One that by Office is authorized to give such Pastoral advice to such as he is called to give it to But not as one that hath the charge of Governing other Mens Flocks or is a Member of an Aristocratical Supream Senate Parliament Court or Voting States Suppose each Hospital
have its allowed Physitian who in doubtful Cases consulteth with many others Their counsel is the counsel of Physitians that is of Men licensed for that Work and Care But it proveth them not to have any proper Governing Power over his Hospital or Patients 5. If every Bishop be a Governor not only in but of the whole World or Church it is either Singly or Collectively as part of a Governing Company If singly it 's a monstrous Body that hath so many thousand Universal Heads If collectively then no one is a Supream Governor but a part of that Body which is such And no one on Earth can act as such a part of One Aristocracy without presence with the rest hearing what they say and what Actors and Witnesses say and gathering Votes Pag. 411. He confesseth out of Socrates about the Emperors Power in Church Matters that from the time in which Emperors received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex eorum nutu pendere vis◠sunt Socr. l. 5. Proem And if so why is Mr. Morice angry with me for saying That Bishops used in Councils much to follow the Emperors minds 2. And then it will be but an odd Universal Legislative and Judicial Soveraign Power over all the World which dependeth on the consent of so many Princes Protestants Papists Mahometans Heathens Jacobites Nestorians c. as a General Council must be called by or depend on And it will be an endless Controversie what Princes have or have not a Power to consent or dissent that their Subjects shall go to such Councils But also Consultation is not Government Chap. XI The Judgment of Mr. Herbert Thorndike a late Eminent Divine of the Church of England § 1. MR. Thorndike hath written so much on this Subject that I need no more than refer the Reader to his Books for the discovery of his mind The sum of his late Writings these thirty years past is to call us all into one visible Catholick Church which is unified by one Humane Government of all out of which nothing will excuse us from Schism or make our failing tolerable His arguments for an Universal Aristocracy answered by Dr. Izaak Barrow in the end of his Treatise of Supremacy I will not here recite because they are there so fully and learnedly confuted § 2. In his Just Weights and Measures he tells us that the Church of Rome being a true Church Reformation lyeth in Restoration and not in Separation Page 5. he saith Who will take upon him to shew us that the Worship of the Host in the Papists is Idolatry Page 6 7. They that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God For in plain terms we make our selves Schismaticks by grounding our Reformation on this pretence Should this Church declare that the Change which we call Reformation is grounded on this supposition I must then acknowledge that we are Schismaticks Ch. 2. Is to disprove them that make the Pope Antichrist and Papists Idolaters and shew that the supposition of one Catholick Visible Church is the ground of all Communion and supposed to Reformation And Ch. 3. Nothing to be changed but on that Ground of such Visible Unity Ch. 5. If our Lord trust his Disciples and their Successors with the Rule of his Church he trusteth them also to make Laws for the Ruling of it These Laws are as Visible as the Laws of any Kingdom or Common-wealth that is or ever was are Visible I maintain the Popes Canon Law and the same is to be said of the Canon Law by which the Patriarch of Constantinople now Governs the Eastern Church to be derived from those Rules whereby the Disciples of our Lord and their Successors governed the Primitive Church in Unity The power of Giving Laws to the Church the power of Dispensing the Exchequer which God hath provided for the Church are in the Governors of the Church and the power of admitting into and excluding out It 's a Visible Society founded by God under the Name of the Catholick Church on the command of holding Communion with it Page 41. The Church in the form which I state it is a standing Synod able by the consent of the Chief Churches containing the consent of their resorts to conclude the whole Page 48. The Church of Rome hath and ought to have when it shall please to hear reason a Regular pre-eminence over the rest of Christendom in these Western parts And he that is able to judge and willing to consider shall find that Pre eminence the Only Reasonable means to preserve so great a Body in Unity And therefore I am not my self tyed to justifie Henry the Eighth in disclaiming all such pre-eminence Page 48. That the difference may be visible between the Infinite and the Regular Power of the Pope Page 91. The perpetual Rule of the Church makes them Hereticks to the Church that Communicate with Hereticks and Schismaticks that Communicate with Schismaticks Page 94. The Flesh and Blood of Christ by Incarnation the Elements by Consecration being united to the Spirit that is the Godhead of Christ become both One Sacramentally by being both One with the Spirit or Godhead to the conveying of Gods Spirit to a Christian. Page 125. The worshipping the Host in the Papacy is not Idolatry Page 132. He saith that the Oath of Supremacy is but to exclude the Popes Temporal power But because the words seem to exclude the power of General Councils of which the Pope is and ought to be the chief Member of necessity the Law gives great offence And that offence is the sin of the Kingdom and calls for Gods Vengeance on it which though all are involved in the account in the other World will lye on them which may change it and will not Page 134. But the authority of those Divines of this Church who have declared the sence of the Oath of Supremacy with publick allowance are now alledged by the Papists themselves to infer that the matter of it is lawful as excluding only the Popes Civil Power Page 141. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ and by consequence his Spirit Hypostatically united to the same to inable us to perform Page 149. The Church of Rome cannot be charged with Idolatry The Pope cannot be Antichrist Ch. 22. The Reformation pretended is abominable and Apostasie and the usual Preaching a hinderance to Salvation and new Homilies to be formed to restrain Preaching Page 146. I confess I can hope for no good end of any dispute without supposing the sence of the Articles of One Catholick Church which hath carried us through this discourse for the Principle on which all matter in debate is to be tryed P. 214. And oft he professeth that Presbyters not ordained by Bishops baptize and give the Eucharist void of the Effect of a Sacrament and only by Sacriledge speaketh against killing and and banishing But this will require the like Moderation to be extended to the
Recusants of the Church of Rome p. 234. The Recusants being for the most part of the Good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in their Religion if they understand themselves Whereas the Sectaries being people of mean quality for the most part cannot be presumed to stand on their reputation so much In his Book called The Forbearance of Penalties c. 3. p. 12 13. he makes the foundation of all Union to be the Government and Laws of the Church as visibly Catholick which Laws must be one and the same the violating whereof is the forfeiture of the same Communion And here I crave leave to call All Canons All Customs of the Church whether concerning the Rites of God's Service or other Observations by one and the same name of Laws of the Church P. 23. As for the Canons of the Church it was never necessary to the maintenance of Commumunion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary the several Customs should be held by the same Authority That the same Authority instituted several Customs for so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the acts of it be agreeable to ☞ God 's Law or not how should Unity be maintained It is manifest that they the Fathers could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if God's Law had been infringed by it It followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to God's Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church Page 27. He saith as Mr. Dodwell It is agreed on by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism that is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated yet it is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Pag. 28. The promise of Baptism is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church nor to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the promise deposited with it Page 33. It is out of love to the Reformation that I insist on such a Principle as may serve to reunite us with the Church of Rome being well assured that we can never be well reunited with our selves otherwise Yet not only the Reformation but the common Christianity must needs be lost in the divisions which will never have an end otherwise Pag. 111. If it be said that it is not visible where those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which the Code of the Canons contains which Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great pag. 128. which I would have this Church to own In Mr. Thorndike's large folio Book there is yet much more for his Universal Legislative Aristocracy mixt with Regular Papacy The sum of all is The Pope Governing at least in the West by the Canons in the intervals of General Councils that is alwaies and as the chief Member with Councils making Laws for all the World Thus the French and Italian Papists differ whether the Pope shall Govern the World as the King of Poland doth his Land or say some as the Duke of Venice or rather as the King of France But Protestants know no such thing as an Universal Legislative Church nor owns any Universal Laws but Gods unless you mean Nationally Vniversal as in the Empire Councils and Laws were called I refer you again to Dr. Barrows Confutation of the rest of Mr. Thorndikes Chap. XII The Judgment of Dr. Sparrow Bishop of Norwich and divers others BIshop Sparrow Pref. to Collect. As my Father sent me so send I you Here committing the Government of the Church to his Apostles our Lord Commissions them with the same Power that was committed to him for that purpose when he was on Earth with the same necessary standing Power that he had exercised as Man for the good of the Church Less cannot in reason be thought to be granted than all Power necessary for the well and peaceable Government of the Church And such a power is this of Making Laws This is a Commission in general for making Laws Then in particular for making Articles and Decisions of Doctrines controverted the power is more explicite and express Mat. 28. All power is given me Go therefore and teach all Nations that is with authority and by virtue of the power given me And what is it to teach the Truth with authority but to command and oblige all people to receive the Truth so taught And this power was not given to the Apostles persons only for Christ then promised to be with them in that Office to the end of the World that is to them and their Successors in the Pastoral Office To the Apostles or Bishops that should succeed them to the end of the World To this One holy Church our Lord committed in trust the most holy Faith c. commanding under penalties and censures all her Children to receive that sence and to profess it in such expressive words and forms as may directly determine the doubt Thus she did in the great Nicene Council This authority in determining Doubts and Controversies the Church hath practised in ALL AGES and her constant practice is the best Interpreter of her right I shall not tire the Reader with the needless recitation of many more late Divines that lived since 1630. enough are known Those that have defended Grotius of late I pass no judgment on you may read their own Books and judge as you see cause viz. Dr. Thomas Pierce now Dean of Salisbury and the famous Preface to Archbishop Bromhall's Book against me c. I fear all this History is needless Men now laugh at me for proving by Mens writings their endeavours to subject the King and Kingdom to a Foreign Jurisdiction when they say it is more sensibly and dreadfully proving it self Chap. XIII Dr. Parker's Judgment since Bishop of Oxford THE last mentioned Author Dr. Sam. Parker besides what he hath said against me in his large Preface before Archbishop Bromhall's Book hath since gone so far beyond all his Fellows that finding himself unable to answer this Argument otherwise The World must not have one Universal Humane Civil Governor King or Aristocracy ergo It must not have one Humane Priest or Church Governor desperately denieth the Antecedent and saith that though de facto the Kings of the Earth have not one Soveraign over them all that is meer Man they ought to have Audite Reges I cannot conjecture who he meaneth unless it be the Pope and he be of Cardinal Bertrand's mind that God had not been wise if he had not made one Man
a Vice-God or his Deputy to Rule all the World For sure he never dreamed that all Kings and States on Earth would meet or voluntarily agree to chuse one Universal King over them I met newly with an extraordinary Wit who saith that after the Conflagration in the Millennium of the New Heaven and Earth Christ or his Vice-Roy will triumphantly Rule c. But 1. I never read before of a Vice-Roy after the Conflagration which he saith will first consume Antichrist 2. I know not how much of the New World he assigns to this Vice-Roy's Government for if Gog and Magog after cover the Earth and the New Generation be numerous which he thinks the Earth will bring forth like lower Animals it may be the New Jerusalem may be so small that one Vice-Roy may Rule it 3. But sure that holy Generation will make Government and Obedience far easier things than now they are Chap. XIV Dr. Saywell's Arguments for a Foreign Jurisdiction considered § 1. THis Dr. who I may well suppose speaketh his Lord and Masters sence is so open as to let us know 1. That it is the Popes Power above General Councilâ— which they call Popery 2. And that they join with the conciliar Party in point of Church Government and so take not them for Papists who hold not that Soveraignty of the Pope but only his Primacy 3. That it is but the Jesuited Party of the Church of Rome which they renounce 4. That they also renounce all Nonconforming Protestants as a Jesuited Party So that he would tempt us to believe what some affirm that their design hath long been to subdue the Jesuits and Reformed Churches or rather destroy these and to strike up a Union with the French and maintain that they are no Papists as to Government But though the Power of old Protestants in England were never so much subdued to them methinks the Jesuits Interest in France should resist them unless the Jesuits themselves be as some vainly think faln out with the Pope and then it will be the Jesuited Party which these Men will own § 2. But to his Arguments Page 342. Mr. B. saith I have earnestly desired and searched to know tâ—e proof of such a Legislative Vniversal Power and I cannot find it But if Mr. B. would seriously consider these Texts he might find that obedience is due to the Church Mat. 18. If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Now as one private Man may neâ—lect to hear the Episcopal Church to which he belongs so the Episcopal Provincial and National Church may also prove Heretical and neglect to hear the Catholick Church but the Vniversal Church can never faâ—l for the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it And if more Persons or particular Churches give offence by Heresie Schism c. the Church Vniversal or the rest of the Bishops may reprove them for it and then there is no reason why one Man should be censured and many go frâ—e and consequently our Saviour hath established the Authority of his Church over all Christians as well particular Churches as private Men. Ans. 1. Let us try this Argument by the like God hath commanded obedience to Kings and said He that will not hear the King and Judge shall be put to death But Kings and their Kingdoms may be Criminal And if private men must obey Authority or be put to death so must Kings and Kingdoms Why should they escape Therefore all Kings and Kingdoms must obey One Universal Humane King or Kingdom under Christ. Do you think this is true No There is no such Universal Humane Empire Monarchical or Aristocratical No Mortal Men are capable of it any more than of Ruling the World in the Moon or the Fish in the Sea but of a part only So there is no such Universal Church Power but particular there is As to your reason I answer God is the Universal King and he only is the punisher of all Soveraign Powers whether Monarchs Aristocracies or Mixt. which I have ever asserted though the Lying Spirit hath feigned the contrary God hath several ways to Rule and Judge them here and his final Judgment is at hand And the case is like with National Churches save that their own Princes may punish offending Clergy-men 2. One Person or Nation may renounce Communion with another as Heretical without any Ruling Power over them And the other may do the same by them deserving it Am I a Governor or Legislator over every one that I may refuse to eat or pray with as a Brother 3. That there is no Humane Universal Church which hath power to Govern a National Church as the Bishops may their Flocks is proved 1. They cannot have the Authority who have not so much as a Natural Capacity But none have a Natural Capacity to Govern all the Christian World Ergo none have such Authority 2. They have not the Authority who have not the Obligation to use it in such Government For an Office containeth Authority and Obligation But none are obliged to Govern all the Christian World Ergo c. For the Minor 1. None are obliged to Impossibilities But c. 2. None are obliged without some obliging Law But there is no Law obliging any to Govern all the Christian World Ergo. 3. If they are obliged they are condemned if they do it not But none do Rule all the Christian World He confesseth none have done it since the sixth General Council that is these thousand years and more by one And doth he not Damn the Bishops of all the World then for neglecting their great Duty a thousand years together If he say that Others made Canons enough before I answer 1. If they have had no such work to do these thousand years then there was no Office or Obligation or Power to do it 2. It was then only those that made the Laws that had that Soveraignty The Dead are no Rulers and so the Church hath had no Soveraign since 2. If he say They since Ruled by the old Laws I answer 1. That was not by Legislation but Execution 2. They never Ruled the Universal Church as one Soveraign Power by the old Laws but only per partes in their several Provinces as Justices and Mayors Rule the Kingdom without Soveraignty Arg. 3 That which never was claimed till the Papal Usurpation was not instituted by God But a Soveraign Government of the Univeâ—sal Church on Earth was never claimed till the Papal Usurpation Ergo. That Councils were only General as to one Empire and called only in one Empire and pretended to Govern that Empire and not all the World I have fully proved against Johnson Arg. 4. Those that must Rule all the Christian World must teach them For the Pastoral Government is by the Word But no one Person or Aristocracy are the Teachers of all the World Who have pretended to it but the Papacy Arg.
5. If any Soveraign may Rule England and all other Churches as a Bishop ruleth his Flock then that Soveraign Power may when they judge it deserved Excommunicate the King and all the Kingdom and silence all the Bishops and Ministers and forbid all Church Communion as Popes and their Councils have done But the consequence is false Ergo Arg. 6. If any have such power they must be such as people may have access to to decide their Causes and may hear their Accusations Defences Witnesses But so cannot the Universal Church of Bishops They confess these thousand years they met not in Council and whither else should we carry our Witnesses and where else should we expect their sentence Paul's charge was 1 Thes. 5.12 13. Know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake But we cannot know all the Bishops over the Earth that never were among us An unknown Judge cannot be obeyed That is One whom we cannot know to be indeed our Judge But it 's impossible for us now to know what number of Bishops and who must be called the Universal Judge And an unknown sentence cannot be obeyed but it 's impossible for us to know the sentence of the Majority of the Bishops on Earth about any case to be judged by them these thousand years But enough is said of this already And Dr. Barrow hath utterly confounded your pleas for Foreign Jurisdiction Pastors and Churches may Reprove one another who Govern not one another And do you think we are so sottish as not to see that your Colledge and Council must have some to call them together or to gather Votes and preside and approve And that the question will be only of the Degree of the Popes power and whether the French sort of Popery be best § 2. Dr. S. addeth p. 343. So the Scripture plainly tells us elsewhere that Churches of Kingdoms and Nations have a Soveraignty over them to which they must yield Obedience Isa. 60 12. where the Prophet speaking of the Christian Church saith The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted If Nations and Kingdoms must serve the Church then she hath Authority to Command their Obedience in things that belong to Peace and Holiness Ans. I confess Campanella de Reâ—no Dei doth thus make the Papacy the Fifth Monarchy and confidently brings many such Texts for their Clergies Universal power But 1. Is it the King of the Church or the People that must be obeyed The people have no Ruling Power And if it be the Soveraign the question is Who that is Protestants say It is only Christ And the Text plainly meaneth The Nation that will not serve Christ the Head of the Church for the good of his Body shall perish But the Italians say It is the Pope and Council and the French That it is the Council and Pope as President and Prime Patriarch that is here meant 2. This may be discerned by considering Who it iâ— that is to destroy such Nations It is Christ as the second Psalm sheweth If it were the Pope and Council you threaten all Nations as terribly as Bellarmine doth 3. And what is the perishing and wasting here meant No doubt their Souls that rebel against Christ shall perish and he will also punish Bodies and Kingdoms as such Put doth any of all this belong to the Bishops None of it 1. Excommunicating is their destroying work But the Heathen and Infidel Nations are not to be Excommunicated What have you to do to judge them that are without Will you cast them out that never were in 2. And destruction by the Sword is no Bishop's Work 4. And when is it that all Nations that obey not shall utterly perish We see that 19 parts in 30 saith Brierwood of the World are Heathens and Mahometans and yet prosper Ever since Abraham's days till now the Church is a small part of the World And it is not by any Power of the Church Governours that the Souls of Infidels perish but by themselves And their Kingdoms are unlikely to be destroyed till Christ's second coming And if it be his destroying them at his Judgment that is meant that proveth no Power in the Church against them But I confess you tell us what to fear and whence it is that the French Protestants suffer They must utterly perish that obey not a Governing Universal Soveraignty Nay not only French Subjects by their Lawful King but Protestants States and Kingdoms that thought they had no Soveraign but their own proper one and Christ But this is in Ordine ad Spiritualia Yet O you intend no Cruelty § 3. Pag 344. He tells us of the Churches Power to decide Controversies and of the Council Act. 15. Answ. A multitude of Protestant Writers have long ago answered all this 1. The word Church is ambiguous When Christ and his twelve Apostles were on Earth they were the Church as to Rule And then the Vniversal Church met in a House together celebrated the Sacrament together c. Must they do so now It was no General Council that met Act. 15. unless you will say that there dwelt a General Council at Jerusalem as long as the Apostles dwelt there None of the Bishops of the Churches planted by Paul Barnabas and others about the World are said to be there nor any at all but the Inhabitants of Jerusalem save Paul and Barnabas who were sent as Messengers and were not the Men sent to And you now say that none but Bishops have decisive Votes 2. And there are more ways of deciding Controversies than one We doubt not but every Pastor may decide them by Evidence of Scripture and Reason And many assembled may contribute their Reasons and be helpful to each other and may see more than one if they be meet Men. And Pastors thus by Teaching Evidence do that as Authorized Officers as Tutors and Schoolmasters which Private Men do but as Private Men and not as Officers so that even theiâ— Teaching Decision is an act of Authority as well as of Skill And so far as Humane authority must go the concurrent Judgment of a multitude of Divines as of Physitians Lawyers c. Cateris paribus deserveth more reverence than a singular opinion But for all that 1. An Assembly of Lay Men have no Authority but from their Evidence and Parts 2. An Assembly of Bishops have no deciding Authority but by an office by which they are entrusted as fallible Men to teach others what they know themselves by the same Evidence which convinced them and to guide their particular Congregations in mutable Circumstances 3. But an Assembly of Apostles had Power to say It seemeth good to the Hâ—ly Ghost Obj. 1. There were the Brethren also 2. Single Apostles had the Holy Ghost yet they did it in an Assembly Answ. 1. The Inspiration
this College of Pastors to Rule while General Councils sit or but in the intervals If sedente Concilio which of them is Supream If only between Councils have they a Legislative Power or only the Judicial and Executive If the former where are their Laws to be found that all the Church may know them And I ask all the Questions before askt of the Laws of Councils How shall we know which be Current and necessary and which are not If not then they are no Supream Rulers that have no Legislative Power 2. Who be these Men that make this College we cannot obey them till we know them Are they all the Bishops in the World or but part If but part which part and who and where shall we find them I know you will not say they are the upstart College of Cardinals nor the Roman Clergy only And I never heard of any others besides Councils that pretended to it viz. To be Universal Governours If it be All the Bishops of the World 1. Do they meet to Consent or do they not If they do and must when where how was there ever such a meeting which was no Council No you say It is per literas formatas 2. Are these Literae formatae Legislative Judicial or Executive If none of these they are no Acts of Government And I asked where shall we find them if they are our Laws If they be Judicial and Executive whither is it that the Accusers Accused and Witnesses must come to be heard speak before the Sentence was passed per literas formatas e. g. Theodoret and the rest de tribus Capitulis when it must be judged 1. Whether they wrote such words 2. What the sence was 3. Whether they were Heretical 4. Whether they repented and must we go to all the Bishops in the World one by one for tryal or be judged without being ever heard 3. I cannot imagine what can be here said unless it be that some Bishops first do the thing and then others do per Literas consent But 1. Do some Bishops first make Laws for all the World and then the rest consent or only for their own Churches By what Authority do they the first 2. Or do some Bishops try and judge a Man e. g. in this or that Country and Parish and then all the rest in the World consent that never hear them or hear of them Every Man nor any is not Excommunicated per Literas formatas by all the Bishops in the World or most 3. But it is not the Executive or Judicial Acts that our Question is concerned in but the Rule of Obedience which is a Law As it was never known that Men must not be taken in by Baptism or cast out by Excommunication till all the Bishops on Earth agree to it so no Universal Laws are extant that were made by such Letters 4. And how can this be the Rule and Test of Christianity or Church-membership or Concord when no Christians much less all can possibly know that all or most Bishops have per Literas consented to such obliging Laws 1. How can we prove that ever any went over all the World to them Drake or Candish did it not 2. And that they opened the Case aright to them 3. And that these Laws had the Major Vote 4. And that they are not forged or corrupted since 5. And that these were true Bishops themselves that did it in America Ethiopia Armenia Greece c. out of our reach 6. Yea What possibility is there of any such known Agreement when it 's known that almost all the Christian World is divided into Parties which disagree and censure one another The English Diocesans and Church differeth from the Roman and the most or many of the Reformed The Lutherans from the Calvinists The Papists from us all and from the Greek and the Greek from them and us and all from the Abassines Copties Syrians called Jacobites Nestorians c. and from the Armenians Georgians Circassians Mengrelians Russians c. How shall I and all the Ministers on Earth yea and all Christians know that all these have per Literas formatas made Laws which all must necessarily obey But if it be only the Sound Part that hath this Universal Government how can I and all Men know which and who that is Hearsay of Adversaries report will not tell us and almost all on Earth are condemned or accused by the rest or most or many And we must hear them that dwell at the Antipodes or Jerusalem c. before we judge them so far as to exclude them from the Sacred Power If it be said That it is not the making of New Laws that is done by this Collegium Pastorum all over the world but their Consent to those that Councils made I answer 1. Are they not Valid upon the Councils making them Then Councils have not Legislative Power 2. If it be left impossible to most to know which were true Councils and which are their Valid Laws when the present Assemblies have best opportunity to signifie Consent how impossible will it be to know which Councils and which Laws and in what sense are approved by all the Bishops in the World or by most And that the Votes were faithfully gathered And by whom And that the Major part are the Rulers of the Minors Will. Johnson saith That it is a General Judicial Sentence De Speciebus and not De Individuis that Councils use E. g. We Anathematize all that hold or do this or that But 1. It 's known that they Anathematized many Individuals 2. No Man can be bound by it till it fall upon Individuals Condemning Arrians proveth no Man to be an Arrian Forbidding us to hear Hereticks obligeth none not to hear him that is not proved a Heretick Judgment must be of Individuals before it can be executed He that must obey the Universal Church must be commanded by the Universal Church and must know that they command him and what they command him which is to me and to most impossible 4. William Johnsons and his Parties last Answer is That the People must Believe their own individual Pastors telling them what the Universal Church commandeth And indeed there is no other way practicable But then 1. This is but a trick to make every Pastor the Lord of our Faith and Souls on pretence of obeying the Universal Church And if this be your sense it will amount to this No man is a Christian that believeth not his Pastor telling him what the Vniversal Church commandeth 2. But I find most Teachers are as ignorant as I am who know not such Universal Authority or Laws 3. Archbishop Vsher and many other Bishops thought that General Councils were not for Regiment but Concord And he that believeth no such Governing Power cannot declare it to his Flock nor obey it 4. By this way most Christians shall be bound on pain of Damnation to believe Untruths and things contrary to what others
must believe e. g. In Abassia Egypt Syria c. they will be bound to believe one thing and at Constantinople another c. Those called now Nestorians are by Travellers said to own none of that Heresie but to Condemn the Council of Chalcedon and Eph. 1. for wronging Nestorius as Innocent did them that condemned Chrysostome Those called Jacobites and Eutychians are said to have no more of the Heresie but to condemn the said Chalcedon Council for wronging Dioscorus and to own the second Ephesine Council some will be bound to be for Images in Churches and some against them some for Constantinople and some for Rome's Supremacy and all in their Countries to be Papists for their Pastors tell them that the Catholick Church is on their side yea in the same Country as in England some must be for Arminianism as it is called and some against it some for the imputation of Christ's righteousness and some against it some for free Prayer in the Pulpit and some against it c. For on both sides their differing Pastors plead the Authority of the Church Few Christians can thus agree in any thing but Christ's plain Laws which I shewed are the terms of Concord If we must appeal from particular Pastors to whom is it If to Councils to whom must we appeal from disagreeing Councils If to the whole Church on Earth how shall we hear from them and know their mind I never saw nor knew any Man that saw any literas formatas subscribed by all Bishops scattered through the Earth 5. You that are Zealous against Popery I presume would not have me be a Papist But I cannot avoid it if I receive your Doctrine that there is a church-Church-Power in a Council or College of Pastors to Govern the Universal Church and that none are in the Church nor have the Spirit that obey not this Universal Church of Pastors and that to obey them is the only means or terms of Concord For 1. I then yield them the fundamental difference That there is one Universal summa Potestas or Visible Head Collective under Christ. 2. And if so I cannot deny it to be the Pope as the Principium Vnitatis and the Chief Executor of the Laws and the first Bishop in Councils For Councils are rare and the Church is a Church when there are no Councils And the Pope is a known Person and Rome a known Place and accessible and no other pretendeth to this Power that I know of And the Executive Power must be Constant And any other Supream accessible College is unknown to me and all that I can speak with and I can no more obey them than a College of Angels unknown to me If the Church have a visible Vicarious Supream the Pope is likest to be he as to the constant Executive Power and the President of Councils I suppose you take the Councils of Constance and Basil and the French for Papists though they set a Council above the Pope 6. The World hath no Universal Civil Government under God neither a Monarch nor a College or Council of Kings All the World is Governed by Men per partes in their several Dominions as all England is under the King by all the Mayors Bailiffs and Justices But there is no Council of Justices that are One Vniversal Governour Collective Nor is the Dyet of Princes or any Council of Kings one Supream Government of the Earth A Logical universality there is as all Rulers considered notionally rule all the World by Parts but no Political Head or Universal Governour over the whole whom all the Parts must obey I. If now I am in the right and you mistaken then you wrongfully deny the Spirit Church-Membership and consequently Salvation as well as Concord to all Protestants that ever I knew or read who deny a visible Universal Church Head Personal or Collective And I think to most in the World And what Schism that is I need not say II. If I am in the wrong I am no Christian nor Church Member nor can be saved For you say This Body so governed only hath the Spirit And I cannot help it not knowing possibly how to know 1. Who this College is 2. What Councils 3. Or which be the Laws which I must obey 4. Nor with what degree of Obedience 5. Nor that they have such Power How great need have I then earnestly to beg your speedy help for my Information Which will oblige Your Servant Ri. Baxter Decemb. 27. 1679. Chap. XVII The Third Letter to Bishop Guning To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Ely My Lord THough in Conference I told you the Sense which I had of your words yet judging it my duty to think of them over and over again I also judge it my duty in Writing to leave with you the sum of such a Judgment as I am able to pass on them on my best Consideration leaving it now to your self whether you will by word or writing return any further Answer my hopes of Satisfaction thereby being very low The sum of your Speech which I am concerned in is as followeth I. That certainly a Supream Vicarious Governing Power there is in the Bishops by Christ's Institution 1. Because it is Prophesied Isai. 60.12 That the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve the Church shall perish And the word Church is never put for Christ. 2. And the Apostles only were admitted by Christ to his last Supper and so the Power of Administring that Sacrament till Christ come is given only to them and such as they shall give that Power to 3. And it was not Paul and Barnabas that had the infallible judgment of that Case decided Act. 15. but the College of the Apostles II. That this Supream Vicarious Governing Power over the whole Church on Earth is 1. In all the Christian Bishops of the World 2. And the Major part goeth for the whole 3. And General Councils are their Representatives and so have this Power 4. And that to such Councils it is enough that all be called though all be not there 5. And it is their reception by the Church Vniversal which must prove their Vniversal Power and the Obligation of their Laws 6. And though the Vniversality of Bishops be not always in such a Council they have always that Power which in Councils is to be used as the Judges out of Term time 7. And that if I or any will publish a Heresie we shall know where that Church is by their Censure 8. But as Promulgation is necessary to the Obligation of Laws so many that never can or do hear of the foresaid Vniversal Church-Governing Power or what their Laws are or what is the sence of them may be saved without them by the reading of the Word as many that have not the Scriptures may be saved without them And this you say answers three parts of my last Papers 9 Of these General Councils it is only six that you own as such
Nice 1. Const. 1. Eph. 1. Chalced. Const. 2. de tribus Capitulis Const. 3. against the Monothelites III. You say that These six things are the Governing Acts of this Chief Power 1. To judge which are the true Books of Scripture and the true Copies and Readings 2. To judge what is the sence of the Fundamentals Baptism Creed whose words misunderstood will not save any 3. To judge and declare what is the true Church Government instituted by Christ and his Apostles or delivered by them 4. To judge and declare what are the instituted Ordinances e. g. Confirmation as it is a giving of the Holy Ghost by Imposition of Hands and not only an owning of our Baptismal Covenant which we do in every Sacrament and so of other Ordinances 5. A Judicial Power not of all individual Cases but that those e. g. that hold or do this or that be Excommunicate 6. A Legislative Power to make alterable Canons or Orders of the Church Vniversal This is the sum of all your Explicatory Discourses To which I answer § I. To your proofs that such a Universal Governing Church there is instituted 1. To Isai. 60.12 I say 1. It is not safe stretching dark Prophetical Texts farther than we can prove they are intended The New Testament plainlier tells us the Church State and Power than the Old 2. The Universal Church hath not expounded the Text whether it speak of the state of the Jews after the Captivity or of the State of the Catholick Church now or of the more Blessed State of it at the last when it is more perfected Therefore how are you sure that you have the true sence of it without the Churches Exposition 3. The words indeed are nothing for a Vicarious Soveraign Power Every Political Body is essentiated by the Pars imperans and the Pars subdita Christ is the only essentiating Pars imperans in Supream Power Christ then is the Prime part of the Church The word Church then is not put for Christ alone but for the Society consisting of King and Subjects and sometimes for the Subjects alone It 's oft said that many Nations served the Israelites we say many Countreys were subject to the Romans the Medes Persians Greeks Turks and we do not mean that either the Turkish Roman Persian c. Common Subjects did govern all these Nations nor that their Bashaws Judges Magistrates c. as one Persona Politica in summa potestate ruled them by a Major Vote If the King will say that all the Corporations in Middlesex shall be under London or obey or serve it Who would feign such a sense of it as to say that there must be therefore some Power to rule them by a Vicarious Supremacy beside the ordinary Government or that all the City must Govern by a Major Vote The sense is plain As we all 1. Obey the King as the Universal Constitutive Head 2. And the Judges Justices Mayors as ruling under him per partes in their several Places 3. And we serve all the Kingdom as we serve its common good which is the finis regiminis So other Countries served the Romans Greeks Turks c. And so all Kingdoms should serve the Church or Kingdom of Christ that is 1. Christ as the only Head and Universal Governour 2. All his Officers as particular Governours in their several Limits and Places but none as Rulers of the whole 3. And the bonum Commune or all the Church as the End of Government And how can we feign another sence § 2. To your second Proof I answer 1. The 70 Disciples were Christ's constant Attendants as his Family with whom he was to Eat the Passover 2. We all grant that none have Power to Celebrate the Eucharist or Govern the Church but the Apostles and those to whom the Spirit of Christ in them did Communicate it But we say that they Communicated it to the Order of Presbyters as I thought all had Confessed as some Councils do 3. The Apostles were not appointed as one Supream ruling College to give the Sacrament by their Votes to all the World but each one had Power to do it in his place Nor did they Ordain only as a College by such Vote as Vna persona Politica but each one had Power to do it alone Nor did they write the Scriptures as one Collective Person by Vote but each one had the Spirit and Power to do it as Paul did c. nor did they sit on one Throne or had the promise so to do to Judge the Tribes of Israel as one College by Vote but to sit on twelve Thrones Judging the twelve Tribes as under Christ the only Universal Head and Governour § 3. To your third I answer 1. I answered to that Act. 15. in my last to you 2. Paul and Barnabas had the same Infallible Spirit and had before said the same against the keeping of Moses Law But 1. Recipitur ad modum recipientis No wonder if among those that quarrelled with Paul the Consent of those that had received Christ's Mind from his own Mouth and Spirit did better satisfie the doubtful than one Man's word alone 2. And Christ's Work was to be done in Unity § 4. II. As to the Seat of this Power I answer 1. All the true Bishops of the World Govern the particular Churches as Kings Govern all the Kingdoms of the World under God one Universal Monarch But there is neither one Universal Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical Soveraign Civil or Ecclesiastical under Christ But each hath his own part § 5. 2. I have shewed the impossibility of our judging of the Major Votes at our distances in most controverted Cases § 6. 3. And I have where I told you proved that there never were must or will be true Universal Councils much less are such the standing Governours of the Church But in Cases of need such as can well do it should come to help each other by Council and Concord without pretending to Universal Governing Power § 7. 4. 1. Who called them to Nice Ephesus Chalcedon Constantinople c. out of the Extra-Imperial Countries 2. Who shall call them now out of the Empire of the Turk Abassia the Mogul Tartary and the rest 3. If calling Men make the Council Universal though they come not is it a Council if none come or how many must it be to ascertain us that it is Universal Hath the Pope the Calling Power or who is it and how proved that they that obey it not may be unexcuseable § 8. 5. I have told you how unable I am to know what the Major part of all Christians or Bishops in the World receive save only by uncertain fame saving that while I know otherwise what is necessary truth I know that they are not the Church that receive it not whoever they be I am a Stranger to Abassia Armenia Georgia India Russia Mexico c. And what if I never knew that there are such
Countries in the World 2. I can easily prove what I told you how oft the Major Part hath changed yea the same Bishops upon the change of Princes and cried Omnes Peccavimus And who knoweth by Majority of Votes which Years they were in the right 3. Either the Canons of Councils were obligatory upon the Promulgation before the absent Bishops in all Countries received them or not If yea then it is not Universal Reception that made them so If not then the absent are not bound to receive them 4. How many Years will it be after a Council before we can know whether all or most of the Christian World receive it By all that I can read in History I cannot tell e. g. whether more Bishops were for the Council of Chalcedon or against it for the time of seven or eight Emperors Reign Nor whether more now be for or against the second Nicene Council which the Lutherans so much favour and so of many more And every one cannot know it nor fetch his Faith or Religion from a Catalogue of all the Christian Bishops in the World or a Calculation of their numbred Votes § 9. 6. Frustra est Potentia quae non reducitur nec reducenda est in actum 1. Indeed as the Pope is naturally uncapable of Governing all the Christian World All Bishops on Earth are much more uncapable as one Collective Voting Power but only per partes in their several Limits 2. How can I obey a Power that acteth not § 10. 7. Alas what abundance of Heresies have been Published since the Six Councils which you own yea by Ranters Quakers Familists c. in our times besides Beckman's Catalogue of German Fanaticks And yet what Universal Council or Literae formatae of all the World have given us sufficient notice of their Evil How foolishly have the Papists done about Jansenianisms the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary c. to seek the Pope's Determination if the sense of all the Bishops of the World can be known to decide the Case How many Heresies have been Condemned in Councils since the Sixth Council of which the whole Church hath no otherwise notified their sence as in the Case of Philoponus of Images of Elipandus and Faelix of Abbot Joachims Abeilard of Gilbert Porretane of Wecilo of Berengarius Wickliffe Husse whether it was Heresie or not You say If I broach a Heresie the Vniversal Church will soon tell me where they are by Condemning it When Multitudes have been broached these last Thousand Years of which those in Abassia Syria Egypt Armenia and most of the Christian World have never told us that ever they were Judged or so much as heard Shall no Bishops or Provincial Council condemn new Heresies but leave e. g. Swenkfeldius David George Servâ—tus Pomponatius Vaninus and a hundred such to pass for good Christians till they hear from all the Bishops of the World And what need General Councils be gathered to Condemn such if we can know the sence of all without them § 11. 8. If one that cannot know the sence of all the Bishops on Earth may ordinarily be a good Christian and saved by the Scripture only then why should they be sent to enquire of all the Bishops on Earth when a sure and nearer way is at hand 2. And then such may be of the Church and have Christ's Spirit that obey not such a Vicarious Church Head 3. And if want of Promulgation nullifie the Obligation that is no Governing Vicarious Soveraign to all the Christian World which cannot Promulgate his Laws to all Neither I nor any that ever I knew can tell how to know the Minds of all the Bishops on Earth or gather their Votes so as to rule our Obedience If the Scripture could not be commonly made known it could be no common Rule as it is not to them that have it only in unknown Tongues § 12. 9. What shall satisfie any Man that the Six Councils owned by you are the Acts of a Supream Vicarious Universal Church Power and no other but those 1. If the Pars imperans in Supremacy be as Politicks say a Constitutive Essential part of the Society then since the sixth Council the Church hath been no Church for want of an Essential part if Councils were that part But if it be all the dispersed Bishops the Head hath been in nudâ Potentiâ unactive these Thousand Years as the Socinians say the separated Soul is till the Resurrection or as one in an Apoplexy 2. This favoureth the Seekers who say that the Church this Thousand Years hath been lost in the Wilderness or asleep 3. The same Councils have done and undone That at Const. 1. in the beginning set up Greg. Naz. and in the end forced him to resign going about to depose him which part was obligatory That at Ephes. first was first one and after two and Nestorius Cyril and Memnon were all Condemned and after two of them restored and Joh. Antioch and Cyril by Theodosius threats were brought to confess that they had differed but in Words and did not know it Which part was Obligatory That at Chalcedon consisted of many yea most that had gone contrary in Ephes. 2. and cried Omnes peccavimus and so did many others and most Bishops were oft and long against it after That at Const. de Tribus Capitulis is noted commonly as a meer Cheat and abuse put on Justinian by an Eutychian and condemned three dead Mens Words before at Chalcedon absolved set the World even Italy into a greater Schism If you are sure all these are Universally Obligatory prove it and prove that no other are as much so Divers others were as numerous and called by as good Authority If you say as of Ephes. 2. they were Latrocinia and forced I answer No more than many others At Const. â— Nazianzen tells you they raged like Mad Men At Ephes. 1. they fought it out even before the Emperors Commissioners Theodosius 2d used his over-ruling Power at both Eph. 1. 2. What force was used in that under Philippicus and many others that erred and were more numerous than such as you receive Sola navicula Petri saith Binius scaped Drowning at Eph. 2. so Concordant were they all What have you against even Constance and Basil on your Grounds If you say they erred I grant it and how shall we know that none of the Six did so It was not their Number nor Consent that proved them in the right Tell us how to know the Councils that we must obey from all the rest Is it by other Councils Testimony that is to run in a Vain Circle How know we that the later is right other way than of the former Is it by Scripture or by Reason Tell us how without subverting your own Foundation the Soveraignty of Councils 4. Do you hold all the Six Councils still obligatory as the Rule of our Obedience and Communion E. g. 1. That at Nice 1. and
the Quini Sextum at Trull forbid Adoring by genuflexion on any Lords Day c. And no General Council hath revoked it but above a Thousand Years after it wore out by degrees in most Churches And yet Thousands of Christians are here to be denied Sacramental Communion if they keep these Canons even in the reception of the Eucharist and Hundreds yea Thousands of Christ's Ministers shall be silenced ejected and ruined if they will not Assent and Consent so to use them How many Canons in the Six Councils can I name which do not now bind us § 13. As to the work of Councils and Bishops named by you I. As to our receiving the true Scripture from an Universal Church-Governing Authority 1. Paul's Epistles were received otherwise Yea there is no mention of any part of the New Testament that was not received till such Universal Government required it 2. If I must first know the said Church Authority before I receive the Scripture how shall I know it Not by the Scriptures for that is supposed yet not received If by the Assertors Authority that is to know they have it because they have it which is the Question If by some fore-known Character of Infallibility what is it unless with Knot you come to the Miracles of the present Church I know not what can be said 3. But is not the common Protestant way which you call Chillingworth's much surer 1. VVe first receive the Matter of Fact Historically that such Persons were and wrote such Books and did such Deeds from the Concurrent Testimony of all Credible VVitnesses some Enemies some Hereticks the generality of Lay-Christians Presbyters that in all Churches received and used them and Bishops also as credible entrusted Keepers of these Records As we know the Laws of the Land by Judges Lawyers People and all that make up a full Historical Certainty and not from some fore-known Universal Governing Bishops Judicial Sentence 2. And the Matter of Fact being known by certain Historical Evidence I have so largely shewed how the rest is known in my Reasons of Christian Religion and Life of Faith c. that I will not repeat it Do you think that most or any Christians before they received the Scriptures did first otherwise know that all the Bishops on Earth are by God authorized to be a Supreme Collective Sovereign to the Church and to judge infallibly which are the true Scriptures for all the People and that they are now most of them true Bishops c. Which way are all these things to be known We deny not that Ministers are by Office entrusted to keep expound and preach the S. Scriptures But we use against the Papists herein to distinguish the Authority of a Teacher or Embassador from the Authority of a Judge and the Authority of an Official limited Judge in proprio foro from that of an Universal Judge to all the World Indeed it is commonly granted that it is proper to the Law-makers to judge of the sense of their own Law so as Universally to oblige the Subjects For it is part of Legislation it self the sense of the Law being the very Law Else Judges might make us what Law they please by expounding the Words as they please But the Power of Judicatures is limitedly to expound and apply the Law only to the decision of particular Cases that come before them If the Question be Whether our Statutes were really made by those Kings and Parliaments whose Names they bear And are not altered or corrupted since How shall we be sure By a Natural Certainty from such Concurrent Testimonies as cannot be false viz. 1. The Judges have still judged by them and 2. The Councellors plead them 3. Justices and all Officers execute them 4. All the People hold their Estates and Lives by them and stand to the Determination made according to them 5. The Records attest them And it is not possible were they forged or corrupt but that the Interests of Multitudes would have led them to plead that and appeal from the Corruption And yet none of these named are Supreme Governours of all the Kingdom who thus Historically assure us 4. It may be questioned What is the Law of Nature And it is known much by the Agreement of all Mankind and that is known Historically But neither of them is known by any Humane Soveraign-Authority appointed to Govern all the World And so it is in the present Case The Agreement of all Christians Ministers and People Friends and Adversaries of contrary Opinions and Interests contending against each other about the Rule of their Expositions is a full Historical Evidence of Fact when no considerable Contradiction even of Jews or Heathens is made against it 5. It is notorious 1. That regularly our first Reception both of Creed and Scripture is by Gods appointment to be by Children from their Parents before ever they hear a Preacher Deut. 6. and 11. Thou shalt teach them thy Children lying down and rising up c. And God will bless his appointed Means Timothy learned the Scripture when he was a Child If you say Parents received it first from the Church I answer Our Parents regularly were to receive it as we did even from their Parents and they from theirs and so on to those that had it from the Apostles or first Preachers And all Parents are not a Colledge of Sovereign Rulers of all the World 2. And private Christians by Conference convert many 3. And those that have not their Faith either of these ways usually have it by the teaching of particular Presbyters where they dwell And yet none of these are the Collective-Soveraign to all the Christian World any more than Tutors in Law Physick or Theology are Three and twenty Years ago I read most that you say in a Paris Doctor H. Holden's Analys S. fid who yet though mixt with injurious passages against the S. Scripture acknowledgeth that it is by such an Universal Consent of all Christians Lay and Clergy that we receive the Scriptures that it is a Natural Historical Evidence that the Matter of Fact is resolved into and not of Supernatural Infallibility by Authority 4. And when Vinc-Lirinensis turneth us to quod ab omnibus ubique semper receptum est and the Papists that go with Holden lay most on the Consent of all Christians they never thought that the Laity through all the Christian World are one Universal Collective Soveraign Nor do you think so of all the Consenting Priests while you appropriate this Collective-Soveraignty to the Bishops 6. I would know whether it be only the Scripture or also our Christianity and Creed which must be received as from a Soveraign church-Church-Power If you say it 's only Scripture why may we not receive the Scripture otherwise if we may otherwise receive our Christianity Creed and Baptism But I doubt not but you will say It is both If so then a Child or Man must know and believe that Christ
hath authorized a Vicarious Soveraign Prelacy before he can believe that there is a Christ that had any Authority himself 2. And he must be so good a Casuist as to know what maketh a true Bishop 3. And so well acquainted with all the World as to know what parts of the Earth have true Bishops and what they hold And is this the way of making Christians Perhaps you will say That Parents Tutors and Priests tell them what all the Bishops of the World hold as a Soveraign Judicature I answer 1. If they did Holden confesseth that the Certainty of Faith can be no greater than our Certainty of the Medium And the Child or Hearer that knoweth not that his Parent and Teacher therein saith true can no more know that the Creed or Scripture is true on that account 2. The generality of Protestants believe not an Universal-Governing Soveraign under Christ but deny it Therefore they never Preach any such Medium of Faith And can you prove that those that are brought to Christianity by Protestant Parents Tutors or Preachers are all yet Unchristened or have no true Faith 7. Why should we make Impossibilities necessary while surer and easier Means are obvious It is impossible to Children to the Vulgar to almost all the Priests themselves to know certainly what the Major Vote of Bishops in the whole World now think of this or that Text or Article save only consequently when we first believe the Articles of Faith we next know that he is no true Bishop that denieth them And it is impossible to know that Christ hath authorized a Soveraign Colledge before we believe Christs own Authority and Word But the Protestant Method is obvious viz. To hear Parents Tutors and Preachers as humble Learners To believe them Fide humana first while they teach us to know the Divine Evidence of Certain Credibility in the Creed and Scriptures and when they have taught us that to believe Fide Divinâ by the Light of that Divine Evidence which they have taught us What that is I have opened as aforecited and also in a small Treatise against the Papists called The Certainty of Christianity without Popery in which also I have confuted your way Besides what I have said in the Second Part of The Saints Rest and my More Reasons for the Christian Religion 8. I cannot by all your Words understand how you can have any Faith on your Grounds 1. You that renounce Popery I suppose take not the Popish Prelates for any part of the Soveraign Colledge 2. I perceive that you take not the Southern and Eastern Christians for a part who are called Nestorians Eutychians or Jacobites 3. I find that you take not the Protestant Churches that have no Bishops for any part for the Soveraignty is only in Bishops 4. I find that you take not the Lutheran Churches or any other for a part whose Bishops Succession from the Apostles hath not a Continuance uninterrupted which Rome hath not 5. And me thinks you should not think better of the Greeks than of such Protestants on many accounts which I pass by Where then is that Universal Colledge on whose Judging-Authority you are a Christian Sure you take not our little Island for the Universal Church I would I knew which you take for the Universal Church and how you prove the Inclusion and Exclusion 9. I find not that the Universal Church hath so agreed as you suppose of the Canon of Scripture and the Readings Translations c. Four or five Books were long questioned by many General Councils have not agreed of the Canon Bishop Cousins hath given us the best account of the Reception of the true Canon Provincial Councils have said most of this Even the fullest at Laodicea hath left out the Revâ—lations The Romanists take in the Apocrypha Many Churches have less or more than others What Grotius himself thought of Job and the Canticles I need not tell you Nor how Augustine and most others strove for the Septuagint against Jerome And if the Universal Judicature have decided the many Hundred Doubts about the Various Lections I would you would tell us where to find it for I know not § II. Your second Use of the Soveraign Power is to judge of the Sense of Fundamental Articles of Faith because the Words may be taken in a false Sense 1. This is very cautelously spoken Is it only Fundamentals that they are to expound by Soveraign Judgment How then shall we know the Sense of all the rest of the S. Scriptures And how will this end a Thousand Controversies 2. And why may not the same Means satisfie us about Fundamentals which satisfieth us about the Integrals of Religion Yea we have here far better help The first Christians Catechized and taught the Sense of Baptism before they were Baptized They and their Tutors and Preachers taught the same to their Children and so on Baptism and the Fundamentals have been constantly repeated in all the Churches of the World There are as many Witnesses or Teachers of these as there are Understanding Christians And yet must all needs hear from the Antipodes or know the Sense of a Humane Soveraign of the World before they receive them 3. Can this Supreme Colledge speak the Fundamentals plainlier than God hath done and than the Parish Priest can do Are they necessary to tell us that Christ died rose ascended because Scripture speaketh it not plain enough We know that no Words of Creed or Scripture falsly understood make a true Believer But is not that as true of a Councils Words as of the Creed And are there any Words that Men cannot misunderstand Why hath Filioque continued such a Distraction in the Churches and Councils yet end it not To say nothing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and other such Have we a necessity of a Soveraign Judicature to be to all Men in stead of a Schoolmaster to tell them what is the meaning of Greek and Hebrew Words And could not one Origen or Jerom tell that better than a General Council of Men that understand not those Tongues I must confess that what understanding of the Words of Creed or Scripture I have received was more from Parents Tutors Teachers and Books than from Soveraign Councils or Colledge of Bishops though Dr. Holden say he is no true Believer and Catholick that believeth an Article of Faith because his Reason findeth it in Scripture and not rather because all the Christian World believeth it There is more skill in Cosmography Arithmetick and History necessary to such a Faith than I have attained or can attain I can tell E. g. by Lexicons and other Books what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth in the Creed better than how all the Bishops in the World interpret it by an Authoritative Sentence § III. Your third Work of this Soveraign Power is Authoritatively to declare what Government of the Church was delivered by the Apostles 1. As I said of Scripture we
Gods 3. Mutable Things are not of Universal Need or Use These By-Laws like those of Corporations are only the Work of particular Churches or Countries E. g. One Translation of Scripture one Metre or Tune of Psalms c. will not fit all the World that have several Languages c. Upon the whole I am more confirmed by longer Considerations 1. That to assert a Soveraign Vicarious Church-Power over all the Christian World is to make a Church which Christ never made 2. And Treasonably to set up an Usurpation of his Prerogative 3. And to plead for that which de facto never was in being 4. And to lay the Ground of heinous Schism and Persecution by prosecuting impossible Terms of Concord and Communion 5. And to make this the necessary Medium of our believing in Christ or knowing his Word and Will is to subvert the Christian Faith and Scripture 6. And as one Pope cannot possibly through Natural Incapacity Govern all the Earth in Religion one Collective and Aristocratical Soveraign of all the Bishops on Earth is so incomparably more uncapable that I wonder that any Considerate Man can believe it Pighius well tells us of the Novelty and Vanity of Heading all the Churches by General Councils 7. And if the French and the Councils of Constance and Basil and Cassander and Grotius and such Papists as set Councils over the Pope had not taken in the Pope as the ordinary Governing Executive Head to Rule by the Councils Laws they had been far more gross and incredible than the Italian Papists who prefer the Pope 8. And that Civil Government may so much easier be exercised by Officials than the Spiritual that a Civil Monarch of all the Earth is far more congruous and possible than a Humane Visible Church-Head under Christ Personal or Collective 9. That if this was the Principle from which you disputed at the Savoy and in the Convocation and from which our late Changes and the silencing of Two Thousand Ministers have been made it 's no wonder that the Effects were such But if ever we be healed it must be by other Terms and Hands R. B. Jan. 12. 1679. This Feb. 13. Being with the Bishop again he disclaimeth the Names of Supreme Summa Potestas Vicaria as Invidious and chuseth the Name of a Ruling Collegium Pastorum Ministerialium who are the Church which is the Mother which all must receive their Faith from and obey and so must know their Consent Chap. XVIII The Fourth Letter to Bishop Guning To the Lord Bishop of Ely Dr. Guning My Lord THough I intended to trouble you no more by Writing yet observing how apt you are to mistake me and because time streightened our Discourse Lest I be mistaken and consequently mis-reported I thus send you the sum of what I said to your last as far as it concerned me I. Whereas you are offended at my Applicatory Conclusion I must still say it that ☞ If these were the Principles upon which our Changes were made by your Endeavour 1661 and 1662. it is no wonder that Two thousand Ministers were Silenced and Cast out And is it more offence to you to hear what you did towards it than to them and their Flocks to suffer it Is this impartiality II. My naming Holden as saying what you say was not invidiously to intimate that you differ not from him in any thing else but to tell you that these thoughts are not new to me and that even a Papist pleading rather Historical Natural-Evidence in Vniversal Tradition than judicial Authority in this is further from the common Papists than you III. You are offended at my comparing Bishops to Kings only in this respect that they both govern only their proper Provinces and neither are Rulers of all the World And your reason is because it intimateth that Bishops rule like Kings Who can Dispute on these terms Did I not in the stating of our Question agree that it is not the Power of the Sword but only Ecclesiastical Power of the Word and Keys that we Dispute of Did I not still profess to you to speak only of this And doth comparing Princes Coactive Government with it only in the extent neither of them being over all the World contradict this or wrong you by unjust intimations IV. You take the words Aristocratical-Supream Vicarious under Christ Legislative to be invidious and you disown them 1. Because they intimate a forcing Power like Princes 2. Because Christ only is Supream But 1. It is not de nomine that we dispute but de re and I understand all this while that we had no other question to debate 2. I desired still nothing more than that you would state your assertion in your own words that I might use no other You tell me your own words are Collegium Pastorum I tell you again that nameth only the subject Matter of the Power where our question is de formâ what is their Power which we must obey You next tell me It is a College of Pastors having a Ministerial Ruling Judicial Power over the Vniversal Church I take up with your own words Only remember that before you asserted a Legislative Power of mutable Laws and now it is but judicial If so then we owe no Obedience to their Laws but to their Sentence according to Christ's Law How then is obeying them the only way of Concord But say you It is but mutable Laws that they make Answ. And are mutable Laws no Laws And is he no Legislator that maketh but mutable Laws Neither King nor Parliament will believe this But you say Canons are not Laws I thank you for that Concession So saith Grotius de Imp. sum Potest If so then they are but either Counsels or Agreements Contracts It is not de nomine that we contend A Law saith Grotius is Regula actionum Moralium More fully A Law is the signification of a Ruler's Will making the Subjects Duty If a Canon be none then Literae formatae are none And where there is no Law there is no Transgression Then no Obedience is due to the Laws of the College of Bishops And then obeying them is not the only way of Concord Authoritas imperantis est objectum formale Obedientiae you disown also the word Pars imperans I take your own Pars Regens which to me is of the same Signification as to Ecclesiastical Power Jus regendi is that which I mean by Authority and Debitum Obediendi by Subjection But I think that indeed authorized Pastors may make proper Laws e. g. At what Places and Hours to meet what Translations Version Metre and such Orders to use but only to their proper Subjects and not to all the Christian World V. You Copiously blame us for denying that Obedience to the Universal Church which we give to every single Pastor and thought that I owned no Power but Parochial I tell you still 1. I maintain that there were in the first Age and perhaps
except two Churches for the second Age and more no Bishops distinct from Archbishops but Parochial and I described them at large 2. But though Cyprian and the Carthage Council said Nemo nostrum se dicit Episcopum Episcoporum yet I deny not such as may be called Archbishops Would you but restore Parish Churches or at least make true Discipline a practicable thing I should never quarrel against your Government 3. I still tell you that I am for Councils and that as large when requisite as they can well be made And Pastors there agreeing oblige us to obey their true Authority far before a single Pastor's For it is Authoritas Doctoris and it is Discipuli Obedientia that is due And a Teacher's Authority is founded in his Credibility and that on his Skill Oportet discentem credere And a thousand Historians Philosophers Physitians agreeing oblige me to greater belief than a single one And a Dissenters singularity obligeth me to suspition and suspension of my belief Besides that God bindeth us to do his work in as much Love and Concord as we can And the Canons or Agreements of Councils when Just do determine the Matter of that Concord 4. But that which I still repeat to you is that I deny the being of any such Church as you tell me I must necessarily obey That is one Ruling Ministerial College of Pastors over the whole Christian World I remember no Protestants that own such a thing but you and some such of late Mr. Thorndike and Mr. Dodwell do imply it but they speak not fully out What an unedifying way of Discourse is it for you so Copiously to call out for our Obedience when we only desire you to prove that there is any such Governing College to obey I deny the subject of your Question and you largely prove the Predicate If you would spend many hours to tell me I must obey Gabriel the Angel as the Ruler of this Kingdom I only beg of you to prove that he is such a Ruler and then to tell me how I shall know his Mind will your Exhortation to Obedience profit me VI. Your Copious instances of difficult Texts of Scripture that need a sure Exposition are no Proof to me that Ergo There is a College of all the Bishops on Earth that must be the Expositor I told you the Eunuch Act. 8. was not so resolved of the sence of Isai. 53. It was not the Ancient way A single Teacher may resolve a Doubter by Expository Evidence An agreeing Provincial or National Council may do more without knowing the Mind of all the World And many Texts will be difficult when all the World have done their best VII But you urge that no Scripture is of private Interpretation A. 1. All is not Private Interpretation which is made by Persons Pastors or Councils which are not a College authorized to Rule all the Christian World or Church If it be 1. I confess I never received one Article of my Faith or Exposition of one Text of Scripture aright For I never believed one of them upon the Authoritative-Ruling-Judicial-Vniversal Power of all Bishops on Earth as an authorized College 2. And I know not one Man living then that expoundeth not Scripture by Private Interpretation 3. And I know not that any one these Fifteen hundred Years have not done the same 2. And it is certain that there is no Commentary on the Scripture yet written by the Universal College of Bishops And it 's harder to deliver it down by Memory than by Writing Therefore all Scripture is in this sence of Private Interpretation yea such Councils as are called General have expounded little more than the Articles of the Creed with sad dissention as to their Votes But I confidently think that you follow a wrong Exposition of the Text and that it speaketh not of an Efficient Interpretation but an Objective a Passive and not an Active Q. d. you must not interpret Scripture Prophecies narrowly and privately as if they spake but of such or such a private Person that was but a present typical object of them For holy Men spake as moved by the Spirit which looked farther and meant Christ to come e. g. you know how many Prophecies are meant of David and Solomon proximately and of Christ ultimately And you know what Grotius thinks of the proximate sence of A Virgin shall bring forth a Son And of Isa. 53 c. which yet ultimately by the Holy Ghost is meant of Christ and whether the Prophet himself knew it always many doubt Josias or Jeremy may be meant as types and yet Christ Principal as typified when David saith My God why hast thou forsaken me They pierced my hands and my feet They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my vesture c. and so many Texts cited by St. Matthew these are to have no Private Interpretation as of the private Persons only the first Objects for the Holy Ghost intended them to be Prophecies of Christs when you bring me any Literae formatae from all the Bishops on Earth for another sence the reverence of their Concord will do much to make me forsake this Just so the Papists and too many others distort that 1 Tim. 3.15 which I wonder that I heard not from you when the Text plainly calleth the Church The House of the living God and telleth Timothy how to behave himself in it as a Pillar and Basis of the Truth it is but putting The Pillar for a Pillar and then saying that it is not the title of Timothy but of the Church and so it becometh useful to some mens Opinions Therefore still that which I am more confirmed in by your failing to prove your Affirmative is That there never was instituted and never was existent and is not now existent in the World any one Ecclesiastical Ruling Persona Collectiva Civilis or Governour authorized by Christ to Rule under him all the Christian World that is all the Church by Legislation and Judgment or either of them and to Constitute the Vniversal Church visible as one by relation to that One Governour Especially that all the Bishops on Earth Governing per literas formatas never were nor are such a Power nor yet as Congregate in an Universal Council If such a College of all Bishops on Earth ruling all the Christians on Earth by Consent be the Church which you mean that all must obey that will have Concord I say There is no such Church on Earth nor ever will be before the Day of Judgment After all this sure you cannot mistake the Question 1. It is only of an Ecclesiastical Power by the Word and Keys 2. It is not whether all Bishops ruling by Parts in their several Provinces and keeping Concord in convenient Meetings or Councils may be said to Govern all the Church as all the Magistrates in England Govern all England in Subordination to the King But it is of One Persona Ecclesiastica
in whom the Church is relatively called One as Venice is one Common-wealth with relation to one Supream Senate which ruleth the whole 1. Shew me any Literas formatas of all Bishops in the World before the Council of Nice yea or ever since to this day 2. What need the Council meet if all Bishops could know each others Mind and Consent without it e. g. Did they all agree about Easter-Day before Or about the extent of Patriarchs Jurisdictions 3. There was never a General Council in the World It was called General only as to one Empire The Emperors that called them had no Power elsewhere The Subscriptions shew you that none other came yea and but a part of the Empire Few out of the West were at any great Councils 4. Heticks have had as great Councils as ever had the Orthodox and as much Consenting And the disallowed have been as great as the approved Sola navicula Petri as I said out of Binnius escaped Drowning at Eph. 2. 5. There never must nor will be an Universal Council of all the Church hereafter as I have elsewhere proved And is the Universal Regent Ministerial Church extinct these Thousand Years How can we obey a Power that is not 6. But you say I confess that the Roman Empire was seven Parts of the Church Answ. Your haste overlooked my exception of the Empire of Abassia which Brierwood saith is now as great as Italy Germany France and Spain and was incomparably greater heretofore And you may gather from Damianus a Goes Alvarez and especially Godignuus de rebus Abassinorum that they had Christianity from the Eunuch mentioned Act. 8. And it 's certain that their case was much unknown to Rome it self till the Portugals and Oviedo's late access And though now they give some Preeminence to the Patriarch of Alexandria that is but since the Banishment of Nestorius and Dioscorus who thereupon carried the Interest of their Parties without the Empire into other Lands Of Abassia see more in Ludolphus since come out 7. Either this Vnum Collegium Omnium Episcoporum must rule the Church Universal by a Major Vote or by Consent of all Bishops in the World If the former where shall they meet to Vote who shall gather them how many Years or Ages will it be doing How shall all Christians know that they are truly gathered Shall we till we know the Major Vote of all Bishops on Earth suspend our Obedience and have no Faith no Concord till then If all must Consent or almost all the case will be still harder how to procure and how to know it May the Heretick keep his Heresie till all the Bishops on Earth condemn him per literas formatas or otherwise When e. g. the Nestorians or Eutychians or Monothelites have the greater number of Bishops one Year or Age and the lesser the next Is Bishops Consent the determining ruling Power 8. Either this One ruling Church is necessary in all Ages or only in some or at least the exercise of their Power If in all the Church is extinct or ungoverned either these 1500 Years except during your Six Councils or all the time that we have had no Universal Government by them If but in some Ages why not in the rest as well And is not the Church still the same thing in specie and for the same use and ends VIII You say all Heresies are Condemned already Answ. 1. Yes Virtually by God's Word Rectum est index sui Obliqui 2. But if you say Actually in their form How great is your Mistake The Devil could invent a Thousand more yet My long Catalogue of Errors to be forbidden in my Book of the Churches Concord will tell you of enow that are too possible 2. If the use of your Ruling Church ended so long ago why doth not the Church end or how are we to be Governed by it when it doth not Govern I never heard from it since I was born by any Literae formatae To say I must obey the old Canons is to say I must obey a Government that was and not one that now is and Governeth The Pope I could possibly send to Old Councils I can read But how to hear from a College of all the Bishops on Earth that never see or hear of one another or me and that are broken into so many Sects I know not I have my self with some Wise and Able Divines Pleaded the Cause that you Plead for to try what they could say to me And they answer me with Laughter as if I were Distracted for talking of all being Governed by all the Bishops on Earth as one ruling College by Consent or Vote IX You lay much stress on the Church being our Mother And Solomon saying Obey the Law of thy Mother Answ. 1. You may possibly believe that Solomon by Mother meant an universally Governing College of Bishops but when will you prove it 2. You cannot name one Text that I know of that calleth the Church our Mother except Gal. 4.26 And there 1. You suppose that by Hierusalem which is above is meant the Church which is on Earth which I know many others think But it is uncertain 2. And when will you prove that by Hierusalem is meant your Ruling College 3. Or that it speaketh of any one Universal Government The word Mother is a Metaphor And Similitudes prove nothing but the Point of Assimilation The Text expresly saith that It is called our Mother because she hath many Children But these Children are not begotten by All the Bishops in One Voting College as Universal Rulers but by particular Pastours And so that one Church of Christ hath many begotten and ruled per partes X. You still lay much on The Nation that will not serve thee shall Perish And you bring three or four Fathers to prove that spoken of the Christian Church And you say still the Church is no where taken for Christ. I answer 1. As the Kingdom includeth the King and Magistrates as the only Governours so doth the Church include Christ and his Ministers 2. I believe that it is meant of the Universal Church But three Fathers Interpretation or threescore is a Private one compared to your College 3. All Power is given to Christ Princes are his Ministers Infidels that are Converted to serve the Church must serve Christian Magistrates as well as Bishops And it 's as likely to be specially meant of Magistrates For Bishops destroy not the Disobedient nor so much as Excommunicate the Infidel World What have we to do to Judge them that are without But Princes conquer and destroy resisting Enemies So that this Text will no more prove One ruling College of Bishops over all than one Monarch or College of Kings to rule all the World nor so probably 4. The Nations serve the Church 1. When they Obey the King of all the Church 2. and his Universal Laws 3. And his Officers ruling per partes in their several Provinces by
High Priest It is his School and we are his Disciples I suppose that God the Father and Christ is the only Rightful Universal Civil and Church-Monarch and none else can give Laws or exercise Judgment over the whole Earth but that Magistrates and Pastors are Commissioned by God to their several Provinces Governing the whole only per partes between them and God as the Monarch maketh them such Universal Laws as they must Rule and be Ruled by And that there is no more proof of one Ecclesiastick Humane Judicature to Rule all the World than of one Civil one and less probability But that Princes and Pastors must do all by the best Advantages of Unity Love and Concord and keep such Synods and Correspondencies as are necessary to that end I suppose that every Kingdom hath its own King and Inferiour Magistrates Ruling by their several Courts and Circuits and by the Kings Laws but not Ruling all the Kingdom as one College of a Voting Synod of Judges Justices and Majors If Senates have any where a Supremacy it is from the peculiar Constitution of that Commonwealth and there is no Institution of a College of Kings or one Monarch to Rule all the Earth But their Unity is centred in God that is one I suppose that the King hath ordained that all Free-Schools in England Scotland and Ireland shall have each their proper Schoolmasters one to a small School and to a great one a Chief Master with under Schoolmasters and he hath made an Order that they shall teach E. g. Lilly's Grammar and faithfully perform their Trust or be put out by them that have the Power And if any School-Difficulty occur they may do well to consult for their Mutual Help But you seem to add g. d. as if 1. All the World is one Humane School though under several Kings 2. None is a Member of this School that is not under the College of Schoolmasters that dwell all over the World and never know one another and that doth not live in Obedience to that College 3. All these Schoolmasters of the whole World must meet by themselves or Delegates in General Councils 4. All Schools must receive Canons from these Councils and be judged by them and bring their Accusation at least Appeals to them from all Nations of the Earth 5. All the Schoolmasters of the several Kingdoms must hold National Assemblies in those Kingdoms or Provinces as a College of Governors to the whole Land 6. A Thousand or many Hundred or Scores Local particular Schools must be Schools but equivocally so called and have all but one proper Schoolmaster who alone must have the Keys of them and judge of each Scholar that is 1. admitted 2. corrected 3. or put out 7. All these Schools under this Diocesan Schoolmaster shall have his Ushers and no proper Schoolmasters who shall have Power to teach those that will learn and to tell the proper Schoolmaster perhaps One Hundred Eighty or Twenty Miles off of every Boy that deserveth to be corrected or put out But none of these Ushers shall have Power 1. To judge whom to take or refuse or what Boys to correct nor to correct them till commanded by the Diocesan Master 3. Nor to put out any till he bids him 4. Nor to forbear correcting or casting out any when commanded though he know them to be the best I think this 1. Deposeth all the Inferiour Schools and robs them of proper Schoolmasters which are their due 2. And deposeth the Ushers that should be mostly Schoolmasters 3. And maketh School-Government an impossible thing while one only in a Diocess is to use that which he cannot do 4. And thereby overthroweth Learning and introduceth Barbarousness 5. And bringeth in a new sort of Diocesan Schoolmasters who will undo the Scholars and themselves by undertaking Impossibilities But I disallow not 1. A Chief Schoolmaster in each School 2. Nor needful Overseers or Visitors to see that all Schoolmasters do their Duty 3. Nor that the King and Justices keep them all to their Duty and make Laws that they truly teach the Sacred Scriptures and correct those Schoolmasters who by their Insufficiency or Unfaithfulness deserve it Again I tell you 1. Make us no Universal Governor but Christ. 2. And restore the Power of necessary Discipline to the Parish-Churches or at least make Christs Church-Discipline a possible practicable thing and you will reconcile many Nonconformists to you But to say only one Schoolmaster with meer Teaching-Ushers shall Govern many Hundred Schools or one Bishop many Hundred Churches or rather Oratories and Chappels that are made but parts of one true Church infimae specici this is in English to say that there shall be no considerable Government of such Schools or Churches at all and to put it down on pretence of having the Power to do it And yet by the Charity and Justice of many that now Write and Preach against us we are all unruly intolerable rebellious Schismaticks and against Bishops for desiring more Bishops at least one to every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corporation that Discipline might be a possible thing I have in many Years of Liberty tryed without Rigour so much as all Church-Canons agree to be necessary in a Congregation that had not Three Thousand Souls and was unable for it with the assistance of Three Presbyters when one Parish about London hath Thirty Thousand and Forty Thousand if not Sixty Thousand Souls and most or many far less Governable XVII The Essentials of the Sacred Office are 1. Power or Right 2. Obligation to 3. The Work 1. The Work you say is to Rule the Church Universal on all the Earth not only separately per partes but as Vnum Collegium which is Vna Persona Politica 2. The Power is Jus Regendi 3. The Obligation maketh it their Duty The Apostles were sent first to Preach the Gospel to every Creature or all Mankind and make them Christians and after to Teach them all Christs Doctrine and Law and to Rule them by Pastoral Guidance thereby 2. If the College of Bishops be their Successors are they bound to that Work in uno Collegio which the Apostles did each one apart That is deliver Christs Commands and guide the Churches If yea are they not bound in uno Collegio to Preach to all the Heathen World And then are they not guilty of the Damnation of most of the World for not so Preaching to them 3. If you say that it is only a Regiment that they must do in uno Collegio or per Literas formatas do you not make the whole Pastoral Church guilty of perfidious Negligence as a Pastor would be that never guided his Flock for not at all performing any such Government What one Act of Government hath the College performed in our Age or in the Age foregoing or in any Age according to your self since Constant. Pogonatus his sixth or seventh Council And was it only the Church of those Ages
England unless we right the Papists by altering the Oath of Supremacy so I conclude with another Request That seeing Dr. Heylin and many others of you honour Melanchthon you will read his Epistle to King Henry the VIII Epistolarum Vol. 1. per Pencer Edit Anno 1570. pag. 59.60 c. But especially Ep. de Ratisb act p. 188. c. de Wormat. Colloq p. 201. c. where he speaketh against Eccius and other Papists over-valuing Councils and making them Legislators and Judges to us and tying the Church to the ordinary succession of Bishops and Obedience to their Laws and imagining the Church to be like Civil Polities Pag. 191. 1. Humano more Constituit in Ecclesia Potestatem interpretationis propemodum ut de praetoria potestate interpretandarum Legum Jurisconsulti Loquuntur 2. Addit amplius non licere privatis non paucioribus reprehendere judicia Majoris partis seu dissentire à suffragiis plurimorum 3. Majorum Synodorum sententiis decretis parendum esse c. In Ecclesia longe alia res est In hoc coetu non potest as alligata est certis personis aut certae multitudini sed donum est aliquorum piorum Id est lumen divinum quo intelligunt sapientiam in Evangelio traditam quae est supra rationis humanae judicium Posita Pag. 195. addit Vinculum dilectionis à Paulo Vocari Obedientiam Praestandam Episcopis Ordinaria successione regnantibus eorum legibus Yet Synods and Discipline he was for by present faithful Pastors And Luther Lib. de Conciliis speaketh as was his way more sharply of Councils telling us what their Work is and is not and that one Augustine hath taught the Church more than all the Councils that ever were yea one Catechism And that before the Council of Nice Arianism was but a Jest in Comparison of what it grew to afterward though doubtless the Council did well in condemning it and he justifieth Nazianzen's Words of Councils And except the undeniable Evidence of David Derodon he saith more than I have seen in any to vindicate Nestorius as certainly holding one Person and sound Doctrine in sense but for want of Learning taking it for an improper Speech to say that God was begotten of Mary killed risen c. And that the Controversie of the Ephes. Council and him was but about Words And I think he that readeth but Derodon's Citations of the Words of Cyril will think me rather charitable than injurious for saying that though his Words were Eutychian he meant also better than he spake Ri. Baxter REader The Bishop's repetition in Conference before and with Dr. Beveridge and Dr. Saywell occasioned my over-tedious Repetitions But you may perceive they have not been wholly in vain while at the last the Bishop was forced I. To deny Canons to be Laws And then what is their Churches Legislative Power and how can we obey a Law that is no Law And why are we called to Swear Canonical Obedience or why are we called Schismaticks for not obeying them And if they might be called Laws to their proper Subjects can Usurping Foreigners therefore make us Laws II. He is put to disown the Names of Vniversal Soveraignty and Summa Potestas but only as Invidious that is as opening that which they would hide by other Names fitted to deceive And yet maintaineth the thing and calls them Rectors and Vniversal Governors As if Jus regendi in Supream Rectors were not the same thing and that which he knew we were to dispute III. When he hath oft pleaded for Obedience to the Vniversal Church and its Laws and made Law-making its work he is fain at last to reduce it almost to Sentence and Execution And in his many instances of such Judging Powers to name not one that requireth an Universal Human Judge IV. He was angry at the Argument fetcht from the incapacity of an Universal King or Civil Senate But why Only as invidious that is As detecting their Error And saith that it intimateth that they claim a Kingly forcing Power whereas he knew that I profest the contrary of them and only brought a comparing Argument But if they had claimed no forcing Power or made Princes believe that they were bound to be their Hangmen or Executioners the World had suffered less and they know that their Curses would have been despised as bruta fulmina and Protestants would have said Procul à Jove Procul à fulmine V. He could never be got to give up the least shew of a Satisfactory account where his Collegium Pastorum out of Councils was to be found or whom it consisted of They dare not go to Patriarchs whatever they think as knowing how farr and where they long have been and most against them VI. Nor could he be got to answer my instances of the incapacity of Councils nor my proof that they were not of terrestrial but only of National Imperial Universality VII Nor would he answer my proof of the utter incapacity either of one Man or one College for Universal Government of all the World VIII Nor to answer my proof that his Universal Soveraignty is the most essential Point of that which Protestants call Popery IX Nor my Reasons that a Pope's Headship is not so impossible as this same tho' both are impossible X. Nor the plain Evidence that this way must needs bring us under the Government of the Pope himself and every King and Kingdom under the Government of foreign Subjects and of those Princes whose Subject-Bishops make the greatest Number in Councils XI And we cannot be informed how their Form of Government differeth from the French and that the French are no Papists And that they that since Laud's time have studied a Coalition would not receive them to our cost XII Nor yet how the Nation and Clergy shall be saved from Perjury that are all Sworn against all Foreign Jurisdiction For it is a vain Argument that saith The Oath of Supremacy renounceth no Jurisdiction but what the King owneth But the King disowneth Ecclesiastical Spiritual Jurisdiction For 1. Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Jurisdiction are expresly named 2. The Oath renounceth it as Foreign because it is against the King to be under the Power of Foreigners The King chooseth his own Pastors and Ruleth them by the Sword as he doth his Physitians though he profess not to be a Pastor himself nor to Administer the Word Sacraments or Keys And the new Oath called the Test expresly abjureth the Foreign Jurisdiction of any Prince Prelate c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical It 's ludicrous jesting with Oaths for any to say by Prelate is not excluded Many Prelates in a College or Council but some one If One much more many as Prince and Potentate excludeth many And all our present Clergy that are in the Parliament and Convocation have taken this Oath or Test and they call themselves the Church-representative And if after this they should be for a Foreign Jurisdiction and
singly is counted so if it be done in unlawful Assemblies And sure none can think it reasonable to ratifie the acts of Rebells And if the Society be not represented by unlawful Assemblies how can it in justice be obliged by them How can any of its Rights be disposed of by them who are not its Legal Representatives P. 513. The most natural way is by abrogating the acts of such Assemblies Therefore the Jurisdiction of the Assembly by the President is a right consequent of the Office of a President as a President and a circumstance requisite to make the Assembly it self lawful specially where no certain places or periods of times are agreed on for the keeping of any There must be some who have the power of Assembling them when they judge it convenient for the publick and who may be allowed for competent Judges of that convenience Every one is not permitted to judge of the occasion But there is none concerning whom this Power can so probably be presumed None to whom all undisposed Power does by the common Rules of all Societies so naturally Escheat as the President of the Assemblies Even in the Assemblies a Veneration is due to him for his Office above all other Members but much more so out of the Assemblies where none is in a likely way to be able to oppose him He who calls an Assembly must have some advantage over all the Members called by him that he may oblige them to convene and it is necessary to the Publick that they be obliged to meet when they are so called that is when the IVDGE of Circumstances thinks it necessary c. But there is none who can pretend to this advantage I do not say of Jurisdiction but even of Authority and Reverence above his fellow Members besides the President Besides the Power of such Assemblies expires with the Assemblies themselves so that in the intervals of Assemblies there remains no more of that Power c. But the Convening of Assemblies is an act of Authority in that very interval and therefore cannot agree to any but the President whose Authority alone can be antecedent to the meeting of the Assemblies so that if it be the right of any it must be his because none besides him is capable of it Answ. 1. Did Hosius of Corduba or Eustathius Antiochenus or Cyril Alexandr Anatolius Const. c. call the Councils of Nice Ephesus c. or had an Antecedent right to it 2. Hath no King or Parliament a right to call a Convocation in England 3. Have not K. James Jewel Crakenthorpe Buckeridge Bilson Carlton Abbot Field Andrews and other English Bishops and Divines and Chamier Sadeel Chemnisius and the rest abroad fully proved that the Emperors called the General Councils as did the Spanish and French Kings and the Emperor Provincial ones 4. Doth not every Conformist Subscribe to the Articles of Religion which say that General Councils may not be called but by the Will of Princes Though Mr. Dodwell have the plain Honesty not to be Ordained or Subscribe these English Articles Mr. Thorndike Bishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Dr. Saywell Dr. Parker c. I suppose did But let us hear him further And this is more certainly true of him who has a right to preside in Assemblies when they are convened by Virtue of his General Right to preside over the whole Society as well when Assemblies are not Convened as when they are than of him who is chosen by the particular Assemblies for their particular Occasions And he who has his Precedency not by virtue of any particular Election but for term of Life must have such a Presidency as I am speaking of Not only the Assemblies convened by him are in this regard lawful but also no Assemblies are lawful but what are called by him because there is no other way of making them lawful but the lawfulness of their Call nor any Power to Call them distinct from that of such a President Do you wonder that this Man Conformeth not Or do you not wonder that those Subscribe and are called Protestants that are of his Mind If they can answer the Articles the King and Parliament that say the King hath Power to call Synods what do they make of their Readers that obtrude such Baronian fictions on us without once attempting to answer Protestants who with all credible Historians prove it past all modest Contradiction that Emperors were the ordinary Callers of the General Councils and not the Presidents or Pope Pag. 516 517. He goeth on asserting Assemblies called without the President to be unlawful nullities and by the highest common interest to be punished so far must we think the Councils of Nice Ephesus c. to be from binding us and saith Indeed the Bishops could not renounce this Power without dissolving the Society by making the Exercise of Government unpracticable or without changing the whole frame of Government For who must have it If none had had it how could the Society be secured that Assemblies should meet if none had Power to oblige particular Members to be present at them when called If at any time no meeting were ascertained the Government would be dissolved Ans. 1. Did this reading Man never hear of the Claim of Princes to call Councils in their Dominions Did he not know where he lived Did he never read the late Act of Parliament in Scotland that asserts all Church-Power in Exteriors to be in the King Nor any of the Protestants Confessions or Divines Should I think he had quite forgotten all this or that he had the craft to take no notice of it as that which was too hot to handle 2. And was it not a piece of Wit to take it for granted that such Assemblies as he calleth the Councils are so Essential to the Church that the Government and Society is dissolved without them or without a Ruling Presidents Power to call them And the Pope must have a Power to oblige all particulars to come when he calleth them And no wonder when unless Men be Cheaters the whole Power Escheateth into the Presidents hands when the Council is dissolved which is when ever his Holiness please And long enough may you Petition him for these Church Parliaments when to call them is to surrender part of his Power Answ. 3. But what if all these Church Councils as such have no Governing Power at all over any of the particular Bishops any more than a Synod of Schoolmasters have over each others Persons and Schools but meet only by Christ's general Obligation to do all their work with greatest Prudence for Mutual Help and Concord He hath been told on both Ears oft enough that this is not only his Adversaries Judgment but such great Bishops as I have oft named yea and of Grotius his Friend when he wrote de Imp. sum Potest And where do you find this Disputant once attempt in all this begging presuming Volume to prove any
them And he thinks it probable that it was in imitation of the Philosophers Successions that these Ecclesiastical Successions were framed And when the Philosophers failed to nominate their own Successors then the Election was in the Schools Ans. What could be said more gently by such a man 1. Then the first Churches were like Philosophers Schools very good not many score or hundred Schools as the first and least Order 2. The Government of Churches was much like that of Philosophers in their Schools 3. Bishops and much more Presbyters might be made then without Bishops by the Election and Consecration of Presbyters 4. This was the old way in time of Persecution 5. This alteration was not for want of Power in the Particular Churches c. 6. But it was made to secure Observance in the Colleagues 7. And Church Successions framed in imitation of Philosophers We shall in due time enquire whether we are all bound to stand to these changes on pain of all the scorn and sufferings that the followers of them will lay upon us Will you know more of this Self-confutation In his Preface he saith P. 4. I suppose all Churches Originally equal and that they have since submitted to prudential Compacts But are not all we poor nothings then obliged on pain of damnation to stand to all that our Fore-fathers did And must we not take the Imperial Subjects of Asia Africa and Europe we know not who for our Fore-fathers in Brittain and be of that Heathens mind that drew back from Baptism when he heard his Fore-fathers were in Hell and said that he would be where they were No this moderate man tells you Though they may oblige them as long as the reason of these Compacts lasts and as far as the equity of those Compacts may hold as to the true design of those that made them and as far as those Compacts have meddled with the alienable Rights of Particular Churches yet where any of these Conditions fail there the Particular Churches are at liberty to resume their Antient Rights Obj. Yea but who shall judge when any of of these Conditions fail He answers next And I suppose the power of judging when these Conditions fail to be an unalienable Right of Particular Churches and not only to judge with the Judgment of private discretion but such a Judgment as may be an authentick measure of her own practice We thank you Sir that you give us so fair quarter But if you had not had we known where we should have commenced a Suit for our Native and Christian Birth-right and put you to prove quo jure John Thomas Peter c. meeting a thousand years ago we know not why nor when nor by what Authority did give away the Birth-right and the Souls of an hundred millions not then in being that never consented or heard of their names nor were bound to know that there was such a City as Rome Nice c. or such men as Leo Tharasius c. in the World And if you had answered us according to the Roman genius with Gaols or Fire and Faggot we would have appealed to God whether you and all such will or not and when God judgeth do your worâ—t But would you think what a stress this Humane Catholick layeth on innovating Prelates Compacts He adds after all this P. 6. Whoever they were that nominated the persons whether the People the Clergy or the Prince or the Pope yet still they were the Bishops that performed the Office of Consecration which was that which was then thought immediately to confer the Power Ans. You were not then in being and therefore did not then think it And you know mens thoughts so long before you were born no better than others Oportet fuisse memorem Had you not memory enough to make your Preface meet with your Book where you say that Presbyters did Consecrate Bishops and yet did not give them the Power and say that as to the Supreme President we know his name it must still be otherwise Yet this fundamental Humanist concludeth p. 11. They must be guilty of disobedience to the Divine Government Guilty of giving or abetting a Divine Authority in Men to whom God has never given such Authority nay in opposition to all the Authority he has really established among men They must be guilty of forging Covenants in Gods Name and counterfeiting the great Seals of Heaven in ratification of them And what can be more Treasonable by all the Principles of Government What is more provoking and more difficultly pardonable They must be guilty of sinning against the Holy Ghost and unto Death and of the sins described in the passages of the Epistle to the Hebrews with which none do terrifie the Consciences of ignorant unskilful persons more than they do They must be guilty of such sins which as they need pardon more than others so do they in the nature of the things themselves more effectually cut off the offender from all hopes of pardon in an ordinary way By being disunited from the Church he loses his Union with Christ and all the Mystical benefits consequent to that Vnion He has therefore no Title to the Sufferings or Merits or Intercession of Christ or any of those other blessings which were purchased by those Merits or which may be expected from those Intercessions He has no Title to pardon of sin to the gifts and assistants of the blessed Spirit or to any Promises of future Rewards though he should perform ALL OTHER PARTS OF HIS DVTY besides this of uniting himself again to Christ's Mystical Body in a VISIBLE COMMVNION Till then there are no promises of acceptance of any Prayers which either he may offer for himself or others may offer for him And how disconsolate must the condition of such a person be And pag. 20. Suppose I were mistaken why should they take it ill to be warned of a danger Ans. 10. What harm was it for those Act. 15. to say Except ye be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses ye cannot be saved And yet did Paul rail when he said Beware of evil-workers beware of Dogs beware of the Concision What Sect cannot easily without a Doctors degree thus dispute You are all damned that be not of our mind or Sect. But the Devil hurts those most whom he least affrighteth Ans. 2. What if we put this to wise men to tell us 1. How he can prove that all the Christian World agreed to the Compacts that bring us under these hellish consequences I provoke him again to answer my proof against Terret that they were the Compacts but of one Empire 2. How proveth he that we Brittains are under such Compacts when our Ancestors and the Scots renounced Communion with the Romanists 3. If our Ancestors after turned to Popery or Church-Tyranny how proveth he that we are any more bound to sin as they did than if they had turned to Arianism or Turcism when Ezek. 18. 33.
speak for the clean contrary 4. What if we prove that Christ hath himself given the Church in the Scriptures an account of his own Institution of Church-Form and Government as much as is necessary to its Essence Unity and Salvation and that all altering Compacts contrary to this are diabolical Will Christ damn us for not breaking his Laws and serving the Devil Is it the sin against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable not to despise Christ's Laws and not to obey the Devil 5. What if we prove to him that the very Species of his Prelacy and specially of a Supreme Catholick Jurisdiction is condemned by Christ and Treason against him Are we Traytors for not being Traytors 6. What if we prove to him that according to his very Canons the Pope and Bishops that he damns us for not owning are no Bishops having no true Call and Title to that which they pretend to Will you have yet another of his Self-contradictions P. 7. I cannot but look on it as an Argument that God never intended to oblige Particular Churches to as great a dependence on other Churches as that is wherein he has obliged Subjects to depend on their own Churches because by his contrivance of things it does not follow that Separating Churches must be left as destitute of the ordinary means of Salvation on their separation from other Churches as particular Subjects are on their separation from their own Churches Abating what obligations they have brought on themselves by their own Compacts God has made them equal There is no way of judging who is in the right but by the intrinsick merit of the Cause I really believe that the true original design of those Compacts whereby particular Churches have voluntarily submitted to restrictions of their original Power was ONLY that every particular Church might have her Censures confirmed in all other Churches in reference to those who were originally her own Subjects not to gain a Power over any other Subjects but her own nor to submit to any other Power c. Alas And have Compacts by we know not who brought us all into the snare of the unpardonable sin Though Christ died for the World he saveth none but Consenters And can Men in Asia in Towns whose Names we poor Countreymen never heard of make Laws to Damn all to the Worlds end that obey them not and this without our own Consent To conclude this Gentleman hath yet an easie remedy against all this He doth indeed frequently prove if you will believe him that though you have Faith that works by Love and do all other duty that is in Love to God and Man you cannot be saved without external Communion that is subjection to this humanly compacted Catholick Church so said Pope Nicholas long ago yea and Aeneas Sylvius when Pius 2d that all other Graces and Duties will not save a Man that is not subject to the Bishop of Rome But saith this Man p. 13. They may easily avoid the danger only by returning to the Catholick Vnity Mark Catholick Vnity National Unity will not serve We grant it But what Catholick Vnity is and whether Catholick Councils with a Catholick President that hath an Antecedent Power to call and oblige them without which they are null rebellious and punishable and to whom all Power escheateth in the Intervals of Councils whether I say this be necessary to Catholick Unity or to Antichristian Church Tyranny is the doubt I will conclude this with Dr. Iz. Barrow's Theses p. 255. 1. Patriarchs are an Humane Institution 2. As they were erected by the Power and Prudence of Men so they may be dissolved by the same 3. They were erected by the leave and confirmation of Princes and by the same they may be dejected if great reason do appear 4. The Patriarchate of the Pope beyond his own Province or Diocess doth not subsist upon any Canon of a general Synod 5. He can therefore claim no such Power otherwise than upon his Invasion or Assumption 6. The Primates and Metropolitans of the Western Church cannot be supposed otherwise than by force or one of fear to have submitted to such an Authority as he doth Vsurp 7. It is not really a Patriarchal Power like that granted by the Canons and Princes but another sort of Power which the Pope doth Exercise 8. The most rightful Patriarch holding false Doctrine or imposing unjust Laws or Tyrannically abusing his Power may and ought to be rejected from Communion 9. Such a Patriarch is to be judged by a free Synod if it may be had 10. If such a Synod cannot be had by consent of Princes each Church may free it self from the mischiefs induced by his perverse Doctrine and Practice 11. No Ecclesiastical Power can interpose in the management of any Affairs within the Territory of any Prince without his Concession 12. By the Laws of God and according to ancient Practice Princes may model the Bounds of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction erect Bishopricks enlarge diminish or transfer them as they please 13. Wherefore each Prince having Supream Power in his own Dominion and equal to the Emperors in his may exclude any Foreign Prelate from Jurisdiction in his Territories 14. It is expedient for the publick peace and good that he should do thus 15. Such Prelate according to the Rules of Christianity ought to be content with his doing so 16. Any Prelate Exercising Power in the Dominion of any Prince is eatenus his Subject as the Popes and all Bishops were to the Roman Emperor 17. Those Joints of Ecclesiastical Discipline Established in the Roman Empire by the Confirmation of Emperors were as to necessary continuance dissolved by the dissolution of the Roman Empire 18. The Power of the Pope in the Territories of any Prince did subsist by his Authority and Favour 19. By the same Power as Princes have curbed the Exorbitancy of Papal Power in some Cases of entertaining Legates making Appeals disposing of Benefices c. by the same they might exclude it 20. The practice of Christianity doth not depend on the subsistence of such a form instituted by man As to Mr. Dodwell's fundamental Opinion that the Minister can have no Power which the Ordainer intended not to give him He overthroweth by it all the Reformation and all the English reforming Ministry as derived from the Roman Ordination For it 's certain that the Roman Bishops intended not to give them Power to reform or to Worship God as they have done And the Protestants are against him Saith Dr. Challoner in his Credo Eccles. Cath. p. 95. However the Priest at the Baptizing or the Bishop at the Ordination had another meaning yet the words wherewith they Baptized and Ordained being the words of Christ are to be taken in Christs meaning in as much as he which receiveth from another is to receive it according to the intention of the Principal Giver and not the Instrumental Giver He which confers Baptism and Orders as the Principal Donor
Italian Papists 2. Nor with the moderate Papists that are for the Councils of Constance and Basil For he takes them for Papists with whom he hath no Communion 3. Nor with the Church of France because they have Communion with Papists Though many of them are no Papists in their Principles 4. He hath no Communion with any Protestant Churches that have not Bishops 5. Nor with any Protestants that have Bishops not Ordained by Canonical uninterrupted Succession from the Apostles at lest presumptively 6. With none of the Greek Church that have Communion with the Church of Rome or with any Schismaticks or that want such Succession or refuse the Laws of the Church which is all 7. With none of the remote Nations called Jacobites Nestorians c. Because they are judged Hereticks or Schismaticks or Communicate with such or have a notorious interruption of Succession 8. Not with the Maronites or any Sect that Communicate with Papists 9. Not with the Nonconformists of the Church of England whom he endeavoureth to prove Damnable Schismaticks 10. Not with the true and old Church of England who professed to hold Communion with those Foreign Protestants whom he calleth Schismaticks Nor with any of the present Bishops and Conformists who profess the same Communion For his Rule is that they are Schismaticks who Communicate with Schismaticks Who then hath he Communion with It seems none but those few new Men in England of his own Mind who perhaps may call themselves the Church of England 11. Nay not with those among them who profess Communion with the Church of Rome except with the Jesuited part 12. And with those of them who are for one Supreme Universal Aristocracy or Legislative College Council and Judicature over the Universal Church And now can you tell which is the Church that he is of Or is there a more notorious Separatist or Schismatick than he § 6. And now can any Man tell which is that Church which he speaketh such wonderful things of as the One Body Politick of Christ with one visible human Government Which be the Bishops and Church that have all that Leviathan-like Power of Heaven and Hell which he describeth and asserteth Is it only the uncertain relicts of all these § 7. Mr. D. hopeth justly that none or few of his friendly Readers will read what I write against him and therefore when I detect his Fraud and putid Errors he puts it off with saying I do but put many new Questions and answer nothing accurately But for the sake of them that will read I will ask him 1. Whether his little invisible Church be a Body meet for the Glorious Elogies which he giveth the Church of Christ I profess I know not one Bishop that is of his professed Principles Archbishop Laud was not that took a General Council to be a Court of Pretorian Power to be externally obeyed by all the Church Bishop Guning is not as the foresaid Evidence sheweth 2. And I would ask him whether his Church have all the Power of Heaven and Hell which he describeth over those that are without the Church or only over those within Paul saith What have we to do to judge them that are without And if so how narrow is the Power of his magnified little Church Let their own Subjects escape their Damning Power how they can it seems none of all the people on Earth whom he counteth Schismaticks or Hereticks are within their reach For these with him are all without If it be said They were within when they were Baptized I answer 1. What they were and what they are is not all one 2. But he saith that the Sacraments are but Sacrilegious Acts and Nullities that are done by such And if so they were never Baptized and so never in the Church § 8. But let us come to his new Book and Method And first I will tell him once more what our different Church Principles are that he may not accuse he knows not what 1. Christ is the only Head Prophet Priest and King to the whole Church on Earth both of Influence and Government Constitutive Specifying and Unifying and hath no Deputy or Vicar under him Aristocratical or Monarchical that hath any such Capacity Power or Obligation 2. Therefore the Church though Compaginated in all its parts is only one Politick Body of Christ and not of Man and hath no other Soveraign 3. Therefore neither Pope Council or College of Bishops have any Legislative or Judicial Power over the whole Church Collective but only the several Pastors are such to their several Churches 4. Yet are they obliged to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and Love and to do all in Concordant Observation of Christs Laws And all Churches and Christians to help others to their Power 5. And when they afford such Counsel or help for Concord to other Churches they do it not as Lay-men but as Pastors in the Universal Church though not as Pastors to other Mens Flocks As Physicians of several Hospitals and Judges of several Courts or Mayors of several Corporations or Kings of several Kingdoms may advise for Concord without Usurping each others Government 6. As God only by Moses made the Jewish Law and the Priests were not to make more but only to Rule by it it being a Prophetical and Mediatorial Work So Christ only by himself and his Spirit of Infallibility and Miracles in the Apostles made the Christian Universal Law and no Men are to make more such but to Rule by that so made 7. As Gerson truely told the Pope Christs own Law is sufficient for the Government of the Church Universal else Christ had not been a perfect Law-giver And they that pretend by Supplements or Emendations to add or do better are not his Ministers but Accusers 8. Therefore those Popes and Councils that have presumed to make Laws for the whole Church have Usurped Christs Prerogative and are false Prophets or Traytors against Christ. 9. Therefore none should own them as such nor is it Schism but Duty so far to disown them 10. Nor should any own these Bishops as such who own this their Usurpation As no Soldiers of the Kings Army should follow those Captains who subject themselves to and take Commissions from an Enemy Usurper or Foreign Princes 11. The Power of Bishops under Christ as to Laws is only to keep and teach Christs Laws and Rule by them and determine themselves of undetermined circumstances or accidents which vary as time and emergent occasions vary and are unfit for Universal Obligation and this Power they have only over their single Flocks though by contract they may join in such things with others for Concords sake 12. When the case of many Churches is alike and their common good requireth Concord in any such accidents all are bound to observe such Concordant Agreements by virtue of Christs command for Concord 13. But if on this pretence Pastors will turn Agreements for Concord
were and therefore that he should be more for them than for the Jesuites And withal that they would begin where Laud was interrupted and would attempt a Coalition or if that failed would yield to Liberty for the Popish Religion which joined with their power would soon prevail § 5. At that time Mr. Calamy and I motioned a Treaty with the Prelatists for Union and Concord with which the Earl of Manchester and the Lord Orery acquainted the King which he presently accepted as an Opportunity to quiet Men till his Absoluteness was settled He promised us that the Church Bishops should meet us in the mid-way if we would come as far as we could without Sin The Drs. that were for the nearer approach to Rome and the defenders of Grotius his design were the chief Agents Commissioned by the King to Treat with us viz. Dr. Sheldon Dr. Guning Dr. Peter Cousins Dr. Sparrow Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Tho. Pierce Dr. Hinchman Dr. Lany Dr. Stern and such other but by their Power with the Lord Chancellor Hyde Dr. Morley Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Guning over-ruled all the Work When we told them how great a number of the most Godly and Loyal people of the Land would be undone for nothing by the Impositions which they seemed to resolve for and how unavoidable a Division it would cause throughout the Nation and what Encouragement Prophaneness and Popery would thence take and what mischievous Effects among the Clergy and People would unavoidably follow and how easily all this might be by them prevented and the Love and Honour of their Persons and Order hereby won Dr. Guning and others told us plainly that they had a greater party than we are to consider that must not be alienated to please us And when Dr. Bates said that abundance more of the Popish Ceremonies might be introduced by the same Reasons as were pleaded for those imposed Dr. Guning answered They must have more and not fewer And Dr. Morley told me That he had good reason to believe that most of the Roman Church on this side the Alpes that is France would have joined with us were it not for the stumbling Blocks that Calvin had laid in the way They charged us with Sedition for telling them how many would dissent and suffer and what a weakening such a Division and the Penalties that must enforce it would be to the Protestant Interest and to the Land And they all agreed save Dr. Gauden that they would not abate one Ceremony to prevent all this Yea lest they should not cast out enough of the Ministers they put in more and harder Impositions and made the Terms of Concord and Ministry such as they knew would turn out more Sheldon and others of them saying They were afraid too many would Conform and if this much would not turn them out there should be more for Enemies in the Church were more dangerous than without § 6. It is likely that the Drs. and Bishops that had been with him beyond Sea knew the King's Religion and Designs and to keep up their worldly Greatness Dominion and Wealth resolved to please him that he might please them What Religion King Charles the Second was of at his Death his Brother hath told us And what he was before his Return I marvel not that Huddleston tells us so obscurely But I had rather believe his own words and deeds than the reports or conjectures of others It was the Opinion of the wisest Papists that Liberty for all Religions with the Power of Disposing of all Offices of Government and Preferments would be enough to bring in Popery and that there was no other way And that till the King could safely declare himself for Popery his way was to do all as a Protestant that might advantage them Especially to divide and break the Protestants and root out those of them who were most unreconcileable to Rome and to engage the other to persecute and destroy them that it might not be doneas by the Papists but they might seem their Fellow-Dissenters and might come whenever the Necessity of others should open the Door The King had the Choice of the Bishops and Deans and other Church Preferments and of the Masters of Colleges and of the Judges and other Civil Powers and Honours Accordingly he made those Bishops Deans Masters of Colleges c. who were known to be the most obedient to his Will and the greatest Enemies to those called Puritans and those that Philanax the Papist called Protestants of Sincerity And by the help of the Lord Chancellor Morley Sheldon and the rest got the mastery of all the Dependent Clergy when it was seen that all their preferments came much by their Wills And that those called Puritans and Presbyterians might end with that Generation they laboured to place all the Students in the Universities under such as would possess them with the greatest contempt and hatred of those men and to perswade them that all that Conformed not to all their Oaths Covenants and Impositions were but a pack of Fanaticks Schismaticks and Rebels And by their great Industry the Universities Dignities and Clergy in most Power were much thus constituted And the Nonconformists being men who were noted for more seriousness in Religion than the common sort of men and accordingly for a more serious way of Praying Preaching Discoursing and Living than the Multitude of Hypocrites that are Religious but as far as pleaseth their Bellies their Purses and their Masters it unhappily fell out that the doors of Preferment being open to those that had no Scruple of Conscience against any of the imposed Covenants or Practices the main Body of those that had truly no Religion became an engaged Party against the Nonconformists and took the powerful Bishops for their Captains and so Prelacy and Hypocrisie and Prophaneness united their Interests and became the strength of one another And this is become the fatal Odium of Prelacy among the most Religious of the Land and I fear will either finally root it out or a Worldly Prelacy confederating first with the Prophane and after with the Papists will root out from the Publick Churches true serious Religion § 7. From first to last King Charles shewed his own Judgment I. In his Declaration for Toleration at Breda II. When he granted us his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs which was to try whether we would consent to a commoner Toleration In the Conclusion of the Day the distaste fell on me The Lord Chancellor drew out another Paper desiring a Liberty of Religion for all others that lived peaceably And said He knew not what to think of it himself but desired the Company to speak their Minds Neither Lords or Bishops or any of their Drs. said a word to it After twice or thrice asking no one answered Dr. Wallis standing next me said I pray thee say nothing It is an odious Business I forbore till I perceived that they would take our Silence for Consent
fully proved to them that it signified no Councils above the Imperial or National But distinguished those that were Universal in that one Empire from the Provincial 2. The Reformed Church of England taketh the Parish Communicants to be true Churches and the Pastors to have as much of the Oversight as is necessary to the Constitution of a true Political Church Though their Canons sinfully fetter them in the Exercise But the Foreigners hold the Diocesses to be the least or lowest Churches and the Parishes to be no true Churches for want of Bishops in them but only Parts of a Church that hath a Bishop over them all 3. The Old Church of England owned the Foreign Protestant Churches as true Churches and their Ministers as true Pastors and own Communion with them But the Innovators say that they have no true Bishops because they have not Diocesans and are no true Pastors if they have not an uninterrupted Succession of Diocesane Ordination from the Apostles whereas for some Hundred Years after the Apostles there was no such Bishops known in the World as were not either Congregational Parochial Bishops or Apostolick Overseers of such and no Diocesans over many Hundred or Score Parish Churches that had no Bishops under them § 12. When you consider what Power the New Foreigners had at Court and with the Parliament that made the Act of Uniformity and required Re-ordination and that made all the other persecuting Acts and with the Justices that executed them And when we see how they promoted the Roman Interest and when we see how potently and obstinately they frustrated all attempts of the Protestant Union here and read how they reviled the old Reforming Bishops from Parker to Abbots and the Parliaments as going too far from Rome And when we consider that we have not one Bishop but who was chosen by K. Charles II. and K. James and what Men they may be supposed to choose we Contradict not these Men when they call themselves the Church of England But when we consider that the old Homilies Apology Articles Liturgy Canons c. were never yet repealed and that they are all Sworn to Endeavour no Alteration of Government of Church or State we have cause to think that the old Party have more right to be called The Church the altering Endeavours having not changed its Essentials By this much the Reader may Expound whom I speak of in my Treatise of Episcopacy § 13. The Church is nothing but the Men that constitute the Church If 1. It be denominated by their Numbers no man can tell which Party hath the greater Number till they are further put upon the tryal 2. If they are denominated by Laws the better part are rather to be called the Church because the Old Laws against Popery are not yet Repealed Though yet some late Laws are to the Old as poyson to a living Man So if they be Denominated by Power the Innovators have been the Church at least these 31 Years For that Party Ruled and had the Countenance of the Kings who chose them And indeed in the Days of the differing Emperors Constantine Constantinus Valens Theodosius Arcadius Marcian Leo Zeno and the rest that usually went for the Church or Orthodox party which the Emperor owned The uppermost will have the Name § 14. Though the French and English aforesaid designed a Coalition the long possession of their different ways unavoidably hindered them from an immediate Union But they were forced to approach by leisurely Degrees England would not suddenly turn the Liturgy to a Mass-Book nor France suddenly turn the Mass-Book Corrected into French But what fair Approaches were made and what further intended Grotius his Counsel Magnified by both Churches and the present practices of the French declare The Council of Grotius was to bring down the Pope to Moderation that he might Rule but by the Canons and not be above Councils nor deprive Kings nor Bishops of their Rights and that the Lives of the Clergy be Reformed and School Niceties left indifferent and the Lutheranes as Reconcileable Courted to a Concord and the unreconcileable Calvinists brought down by force But the Lutheranes are not so Reconcileable as they imagined Princes that are once free are loth to become Subjects to a Foreign Priesthood § 15. And how much the French meant to bring down the Pope their late Transactions shew a little but their Doctrines much more Mr. Jurieu himself in his Posteral Letters Engl. p. 216.217 thus Describeth them 1. That the Church of Rome is no more than a Particular Church as other Churches are 2. That St. Peter had nothing but a Primacy of Order and Presidence above the Apostles 3. That St. Peter could give to his Successor over other Bishops no more but that Primacy which he had over the Apostles 4. That the Bishop of Rome Originally and by Divine Right had no Power over the Universal Church 5. That he did not receive Appeals in the first Age of the Church 6. That he had no Right to Assemble General Councils 7. That he could take Cognizance of the Affairs of no other Provinces but his own no not by Appeals 8. That he had no Right to take Knowledge of Matters of Faith to make Decisions therein which should oblige the whole Church 9. That before the Council of Nice and after he had no inspection over other Churches but those which were in the Neighbourhood of Rome 10. That he could not Excommunicate other Bishops otherwise than the other Bishops could Excommunicate him 11. That a Man might separate himself from the Bishop of Rome without being a Schismatick and out of the Church 12. That the Pope had no Right over other Bishops 13. That the Council of Sardica is the Fountain of that Right of receiving Appeals which the Pope claimeth 14. That the Rights which the Pope hath at this Day excepting his Primacy are by Human Laws and because he hath assumed them to himself and because they have bin conceded to him 15. To which they add he is not Infallible nor Superior to Councils nor Master to the Temporalities of Kings This is the French Religion and who would think that this is Popery No wonder if the Pope be more hearty for other Friends than for France § 15. Lay all this together and it 's Notorious that though Whetgift and some other Calvinists were too much guilty of the Persecutions to keep up the Dominion and Preferments which they were jealous of yet it was the French Reconcilers that have set and to this Day kept on foot our present increased Divisions and Dangers Since Le Strange new-named them the old Church Protestants are called Trimmers and are Men that love not Division or Persecution and would fain see a Coalition of Protestants though they have not zeal enough save too few to put it on openly lest they provoke the opposites But the Laudians called Tories are still as much against the Removal of the Dividing
of a more speedy way of Success So that he resolved to put it to a speedy upshot and would have all or none which brought the Changes which we have since seen § 8. But is the Church of England yet delivered from all the Inclination to a Foreign Jurisdiction and the French Government The Oath of Supremacy made it seem hard to perjure the whole Land that had renounced all foreign Jurisdiction But many devised an Expository Evasion that only a Civil Jurisdiction was meant though the Ecclesiastick also was named Should there be but a new attempt by such as the former Rulers probably made is it not like that Men of the French or Grotian Principles will promote it yea and be glad of French assistance I doubt they that would Perjure the Kingdom by a foreign Jurisdiction will debate this odd Question Qu. Whether all that Profess or Swear that it is Vnlawful on any Pretence whatever to resist the King or any Commissioned by him in the Execution of that Commission may resist a French Army if they Invade the Land by K. J 's Commission Or will they turn Nonconformists Chap. XXIII Postscript to the Reverend Dr. Beveridge SIR § 1. THough you were Bishop Guning's Witness with Dr. Saywell his Chaplain when he conferred with me I was not willing to believe that you were of his mind for a Foreign Jurisdiction either Aristocratical or Democratical or Monarchical but to my grief am now convinced of it by your published Convocation Sermon Having too copiously here and elsewhere confuted it specially in my two Books against William Johnson alias Terret the Papist I shall go on the supposition that you will there take notice of it Especially of these two Reasons against it 1. That the Kingdom and Church is sworn against it 2. That a pretended Universal Humane Soveraignty or Legislative and Judicial Power over the whole Church on Earth is the Grand Usurpation of Christs Prerogative which no Mortal Men are capable of And if this be not Popery there is no such thing as Popery And if the Pope be justly called Antichrist or at least a Trayterous Usurper against the Right of Christ and Kings it is by this And if such a Power be really given to any the Pope cannot be excluded at least from the Universal Primacy § 2. I doubt not but the Love of Unity and the sense of the woful case of the Church by Sects and sad Dissentions engaged Bishop Guning and you in the Opinions you took up And no doubt but the Consciencious part of the Learned and Religious Papists are fixed by the same Motives in their way I may say fixed and very confident or else they durst not carry it on as they have done in France and all other Popish Countreys And I can say that I have not fixed on the denial of a Humane Universal Jurisdiction without thinking seriously Forty years of what I could find said for it as well as against it nor out of an inclination to any contrary extreme Could I have found but any Humane capacity in One or Many for such a Soveraignty Legislative and Judicial and but a possibility of such a thing and any probability that it was of Christs Institution the Love of Unity and Hatred of Unruliness and Divisions and their Effects had long ago made me a hot defender of it But the contrary Truth had contrary Effects § 3. That you may not think that I differ from you more than I do I here premise I. That I doubt not but that the Universal Church visible is One Body or Society of professed Christians As the Universal Church as Regenerate and Spiritual is One Body of sincere Christians II. That the Unity and Concord of it as Professors and as sincere must be maintained to the utmost of our power by all due lawful means III. That a wise Correspondency between all those Churches which by nearness are capable of Acquaintance and Communication is a due means to preserve their Love and Concord IV. That seasonable and duly chosen Synods of many conjunct that live within the reach of such Acquaintance and Communication may in case of true need be a fit means of such Concord V. That where such Synods cannot be had with due equality Letters and Messengers from the several Nations or Provinces or Churches may be used to that end VI. That the General Law of Christ commanding Love Concord and Edification maketh it a sin for any to affect causless singularity and to chuse any way which tendeth to Division And that where there is an Equality and no Regent power yet just Contracts for Concord ought to be observed VII That if in National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms or Commonwealths the Soveraign Power give one Seat or Bishop a Primacy or peculiar Priviledge in the Circa Sacra the Circumstantials of Sacred Offices which are within the Magistrates Power it ought to be obeyed VIII If I had lived in the Christian Empire when it sometime gave the Bishop of Rome and sometime the Bishop of Constantinople this preheminence of degree and the other Patriarchs of Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem their several Priviledges and Powers not contrary to the Word of God I would have obeyed that which the Emperor by his Law preferred IX The Roman Empire was so great a part of the known Civilized World and so Potent that I quarrel not with the Titles of Orbis Romanus and Ecclesia Vniversalis given to that Dominion and Church which was meerly National or Imperial so be it we understand the true meaning X. Had the Empire continued one Polity and had made the Bishop of Rome the Primate as to his Seat in Councils and the said Bishop had been a capable Person and had not Challenged the Government or Primacy in order of Regiment over the whole Christian World but in the Empire only as the Archbishop of Canterbury doth in England I would have been none of his opposers All this I grant you § 4. But premising for the Explication of Terms that we take the words Regiment Laws Authority c. in the proper political sense and not equivocally for meer advice or consent I add as followeth 1. That as the Universal Church on Earth hath but one Soveraign Jesus Christ so it is one Body Politick in relation to no one Vnifying Head but Christ and hath no one Substitute Vicarious Christ or Substitute Soveraign Government Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or Mixt. II. The Soveraignty of one Christian King Emperor or Senate in Aristocracy over an United or Confederate Christian Clergy and Laity as Subjects each keeping to their own Place and Work is the Unifying Headship of a National Church which is nothing but such a Christian Kingdom or Republick And that Christ hath owned such National Church Power and hath instituted and owned no Power of Humane Government over it on Earth And therefore as pretending to Universal Jurisdiction is Treason against Christ so the claim
of Foreign Jurisdiction is Hostility against Kings and States III. That Foreign Councils of Bishops and Dyets of Soveraign Princes are Authorized for Communion for mutual Counsel and Concord by Contract and Agreement and have no just Jurisdiction or Political Regiment over particular Soveraigns or their subject Congregations Though in Councils they retain their proper Power at home IV. The Foreign Councils agreeing on things profitable to the common benefit of all Gods own Law of Love Unity Concord Edification and publick Regard and Peace forbiddeth the particular Bishops and Churches causlesly to dissent and affect singularity But if they agree on things hurtful and dangerous to any of the particulars they are not to be obeyed nor yet if they claim Jurisdiction instead of Communion and Contract But every Prince and Pastor must Rule their own As Kings will not own a Foreign King or Council of Kings who shall Usurp a Soveraignty over them much more if over all V. That all Forcing Power that the Clergy can claim by Canons or Mandates in Christian Kingdoms is only from the Prince or State as they are authorized by him as his Officers who only hath the power of the Sword and not at all any part of their Pastoral Office And therefore as Grotius in that excellent Book de Imperio sum Potest circa Sacra hath shewed Clergy-Canons are no Laws but directing Agreements VI. The Canons of the Greatest Councils called General were Laws to none without the Empire unless Foreign Princes or Pastors made them so Nor to any within the Empire but by the Soveraigns Act as they are forcing and the particular Pastors as Directing VII Before the Division and Ruine of the Empire the Name of a General Council signified but an Imperial or National Council They being called by the Emperors who had no further power and only out of the Imperial Provinces unless any odd Person came voluntarily in for help and advantage which was rare This I have at large proved in my two Books against W. Johnson alias Terret And Ecclesia Vniversalis usually signified no more than Vniversal National or Imperial Leo meant no more when he called himself Caput Ecclesiae Universalis nor Phocas when he gave Boniface the Title of Universal Bishop And when the Empire was divided it was the Treasonable Erection of Popery to feign that Orbis Romanus was Orbis Universalis and that Concilia Generalia and Ecclesia Vniversalis meant extra Imperial and Vniversal Over-foreigners and all the World And this is still as the Foundation of Popery so the common Cheat that pleadeth for Foreign Jurisdiction VIII Though Rome was a meet Seat for Imperial Church Primacy while Emperors would have it so as it hath no just pretence to the Government of Foreigners so it is of all others most unfit for a Primacy or Presidentship in the Councils of Foreign Confederate Princes and Churches because it claimeth so much more even Foreign and Universal Regiment Nor are Councils of such Bishops or Princes to be trusted with General Contracts who claim such Jurisdiction A Primacy in Lawful Councils of Confederates would strengthen their claim of an Universal Jurisdiction till they openly renounce it And so would the use of a Senate or Council that pretendeth to the like power IX Patriarchs and Metropolitans and Provincials or Diocesans in one Empire or Kingdom can for Number Seat or Precedency justly claim no power of Governing Foreigners nor subject Bishops of that Nation but from the Soveraign X. Legislation is the first Essential power of Regiment Therefore none can be an Universal Legislator that is not an Universal Rector XI As an Universal Monarch Ecclesiastical or Civil is the absurd claim of an Impossible thing and open Hostility to all Christian Kings and Churches so an Universal Aristocracy in Councils or Patriarchs and Bishops is yet more absurd as claiming a more notorious Impossibility than the Pope doth XII An Universal power of Expounding or Judging of Christs Laws by Regent Authority or of being such Keepers of unwritten Laws seemeth the most Eminent part of Legislation it being more to be Judge what is Law and to make or determine of the sence than to make the bare words And so the Bishops should have a higher Regency than Christ Official Judges Expound the Laws only in their limited Provinces and for the deciding of particular Cases but not to be the Universal Determiners of the sence to all others None but the Law-makers can make an Universally obliging Exposition XIII The instance of the Apostles power will not prove an Institution of a stated Universal Legislative Aristocracy or Monarchy For 1. It is evident that Christ first chose and instituted them as his National Ministers by the number of Twelve related to the Twelve Tribes and by the keeping up just that number after the coming down of the Holy Ghost And by his special Mission of Paul Barnabas and others to the Gentiles distinguishing their Apostleship from Peter's and the rest to the Jews 2. When Persecution and the fall of the Jewish state made the Apostles Office more Extensive it was rather Indefinite than Universal They were to go as far as they were sent and were able 3. The Church was then in so narrow Bounds as made that Extent easie when now an Universal Humane Regiment is of Natural Impossibility and so past rational Controversie 4. Their power was not any further Legislative than as they were Promulgators of Christs Laws and Determiners of mutable undetermined Circumstances or Accidents 5. They have no Successors in those extraordinary parts of their Office which looketh like any part of Legislative power Which parts are 1. Being Eye and Ear-witnesses of what Christ did and said committed to their Testifying and Predicating Trust. 2. Having a special Commission to teach all Nations his Laws or what he commanded as the prime Promulgators 3. As having the promise of the Spirit to Teach them all things and bring all to their remembrance 4. And having the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost to attest their Witness As Moses had Successors in Executive Regency but not as a Mediatorial Deliverer of Gods Law which Aaron Samuel David and Solomon must obey and rule by but had no power to alter words or sence nor add any thing but undetermined Circumstances Yet as the Laws of Christ promulgate by the Apostles bind all Nations to whom they are revealed so we grant that the same Laws of Christ declared by Councils or Preached by any single Minister bind all to whom they come And that every Minister and Christian being a Member of the Church Universal his Doctrine tendeth to Universal Benefit which yet giveth him no Universal Regent Jurisdiction As I remember I have said all this before in my Letters to Bishop Guning when you were his Second or Witness of our Conference But the Invitation of your Discourse which I shall now give you my thoughts of maketh me think that this
this Land 6. It is contrary to the subscribed 39 Articles that tell us of the Errors and Fallibility of Councils 7. It is contrary to the Canons especially those of 1640. that determined Kingly Power to be of God's Institution 8. It is contrary to all the Writers and Fighters that were against Parliaments resisting the King Michael Hudson hath most strongly wrote against it Dr. Hammond against John Goodwin hath proved that the People have neither ruling Authority to Vse nor to Give How far then were Bishop Morley and such others from your Mind who write that the Parliament themselves have no Essential part in Legislation but only to prepare Matter which the King only maketh to be a Law All the Clergy have subscribed to the King 's unresistible Power and a Law made to that purpose by the Parliament that setled your Conformity and Church 9. Do you take the Major part of your Congregation to be your Governours Or the Major part of the Diocess to Rule the Diocesane Or are these no Societies 10. Is it not contrary to the Oath of Canonical Obedience 11. Are our Universities of this Mind when Oxford burnt my Political Aphorisms and Dr. Whitbye's Book and Mr. I. Humfrey's as derogating from the Regal Power when yet I abhord such a derogation as your Majority of the Society 12. In a word it is destructive of all Government For the truth is that Democracy in a large Kingdom is an Impossibility The People cannot all meet to try who hath the Major Vote They can but choose their Governours though called Representatives And that is an Aristocracy For to choose Governours is not to Govern Even Rome was not a true Democracy For the People had but a Negative part in Legislation S. P. Q. R. conjunct having the Supremacy And what were the People of one City to the whole Empire which was the Politick Body But how shall we know who constitute this Voting Society which you call the Church I know that the Papists appropriate that title to the Clergy But when it cometh to Practice in Councils or out how small a part have any but the Bishops Our Canons condemn those who deny the Convocation to be the Representative Church Who are the real Church which they represent Do they represent the Laity Or are they none of the Church How can they represent those that never choose them Patrons choose the Incumbents and the People choose neither Bishops Deans Arch-deacons or Proctors Is it the King and Parliament that they represent I confess the King that chooseth Bishops may most plausibly be pretended to be represented by them But are they indeed his Rulers and Lawgivers and he their Subject Was Moses so to Aaron or Solomon to Abiathar The King chooseth Justices and Constables mediately but not to be his Governours but his Ministers Or is the King and Parliament no Part of the Church of England Say so then that we may understand you But if indeed you confess the Laity 〈◊〉 be of this Voting Church whose Major part by Nature Reason and the Consent of all the World must Govern us I beseech you help us at last after all our lost importunity to know which of the Laity it is Is it all that are in the Parishes I doubt then that the Atheists Papists Sadduces Deists Hobbists Ignorant Irreligious Debauchees and Lads will be our Rulers Is it only Communicants Then the Parish Priest of one place will have a Church of one sort and another of another sort And how knoweth he in great Parishes who are his Communicants when he knoweth not who or what they are or whence they come nor whether ever they came before The Law is the likest test which obligeth all to Communicate that will have a License to sell Ale or Wine or that will not lie in Jail a place that few Love and many would avoid at so cheap a rate as eating a bit of Bread and drinking a little Wine And shall the Majority of these be Rulers of Kings Bishops and Pastors But what if you mean but the Major Vote of Bishops which it seems our Lower House of Convocation mean not Verily Sir you must not too sharply blame the King of England Sweden Denmark c. if they be loth to be Subjects in so great a Matter as their Religion to the Clergy of Italy France Spain Poland Germany Moscovy Constantinople and Asia Africa c. while we know what Power their own Princes have over them And do not we know that there is no one common Language which they can use to understand one another as a College Even of our great Learned Schoolmen few understood Greek And few of the Greeks understand Latin or true Greek either And few Abassines Armenians Syrians Moscovites c. understand either If Christ hath been so defective a Legislator as to leave us to a necessity of Universal Humane Legislation O let us not have them made by such Babel Builders Let us have those that can meet together in less than an Age whether their Princes will or no and can learn in an Age to speak to one another Or if you first prove that Mortal Men are capable of such an Universal Government try it first on Kings and settle one King or Senate of Kings to Rule all the World by Legislation and Judgment For verily more of Sword-Government may be done per alios than of Priestly Government else you may appoint Presbyters to Ordain and Lay-men to celebrate the Sacraments And if we must have a Vice-Christ let him be a Monarch that we may know where to find him and not a Chimera called a Collective Person or College of Bishops Or at least if it must be Patriarchs let us know who shall make them and where they are and what we shall now do when of five so called Four are called Schismaticks and are under the Turk Christ hath instituted National Church Politie Prove more if you can VI. And I should rejoyce if you could prove what you affirm that the Major part of the Church even in Rites and Discipline is guided by the Spirit of God 1. It was not so in necessary Doctrine in the Arians reign 2. If it be so at this day England is Schismatical 3. If it be not always so in General Councils as the Articles of our Church say how much less in the diffusive Body of People or Clergy 4. It is not so in any one Kingdom or National Church yet known in the World no not the World And what is the whole but the Parts Conjunct Dr. Dillingham in a late Book against Popery concludeth that there was never yet any Kingdom known where the tenth part were truly Godly And I think you take the Church of England to be the best in the World And how many Thousands would rejoyce if you could prove that the Major part even of their Teachers were guided by the Spirit of God And is it better with
to be the authoriser of the Majority for Government For they will think that they have more of the Holy Ghost than you and therefore must Govern you I would all Rulers had the Holy Ghost but it 's somewhat else that must give them Authority XV. Your instance of the Easter Controversie is against you The difference undecided for 300 Years and Apostolical Tradition urged on both sides tells us that it was no Apostolick Law And Socrates and Sozomen tell us that in that and many such like things 〈◊〉 Churches had freely differed in Peace 〈◊〉 you seem to intimate contrary to them and to Irenâ—â—us that the Asians were Schismaticks till they Conformed And why name you Asia alone Were our Brittish Churches and the Scottish no Churches Or do you also Condemn them as Schismaticks for about 300 Years after the Nicene Council What could the Papists say more against them XVI How impossible a thing do you make Church Union to be while the Essentials or great Integrals of Religion are made insufficient to it and so many Ceremonies and Church Laws are feigned necessary which no man ever comes to the true knowledge of that he hath the right ones and all XVII If the Patriarchs must be the Soveraign College I beseech you give us some proof in a Case so weighty 1. How many there must be 2. Where seated 3. Who must choose and make them 4. And quo jure 5. And whether we have now such a College or is there no Church XVIII What Place will you give the Pope in the College I suppose with your Brethren you will call him 1. Principium Vnitatis But that 's a Name of Comparative Order what is his work as such a Principium How is he the Principium if he have no more Power than the rest Must not he call the Councils Though our Articles say General Councils may not be gathered without the Will of Princes Shall he not choose the Place and Time Tell us then who shall Must he not be President Must he not be Patriarch of the West And so Govern England as our Patriarch and Principium unitatis Vniversalis also XIX I pray tell us whether the French be Papists And how their Church-Government as Described from themselves by Mr. Jurieu differeth from that which you are for Tell me not of their Mass and other Corruptions It is Government that is the Form of Popery And they will abate you many other things And must we be Frenchified If the French restore those that we called Papists will disowning the Name and calling them the Church of England chosen by Papist Princes make us sound and safe And when we find Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Dr. Saywell Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Bishop S. Parker and many more were for a Foreign Jurisdiction can we think if the French bring in the late Governours that such Churchmen would not embrace the French Church Government and call it the Church of England when since Lauds days they have endeavoured a Coalition If they be Defeated we may thank King James who could not bear delays and would have all or none when Grotius way would have been a surer Game XX. You tell us of Penalties made by Church Laws Deposing Ministers and Anathematizing the Laity But while the Clergy hath no power of the Sword who will feel such Penalties When Rome Excommunicates the Greeks the Greeks will Excommunicate them again What Penalty is it to Protestants to be Excommunicated by the Pope or his Council How commonly did they that were for and against the Chalcedon Council Excommunicate each other And those that were for and against Images And for Photius and for Ignatius Cheat not Magistrates to be your Lictors and Cursing will go round as Scolding at Billingsgate Who is hurt by a causeless curse but the Curser I confess that Dr. Saywell sayeth well If single persons must be punished shall not Nations also Yes But by whom By God the Universal King and not by an Universal Human Soveraign whether a King or Pope or a Senate of Foreign Subjects XXI We are promised by a trifling Pamphleteer that some of you are answering Mr. Clerksons two Books about the Primitive Episcopacy and Liturgies I pray you procure them also to answer my Treatise of Episcopacy and my English Non-conformity and not with the Impudent Railing Lyars to say it is answered already while we can hear of no such thing And see that they prove that all these things following are Traditions of the Vniversal Church received from the Apostles and used ab omnibus ubique semper 1. That most particular Churches for two Hundred or three Hundred years and so down consisted of many Congregations that had no personal presential Communion 2. That Churches infimi ordinis were Diocesan having many Hundred or Score Parishes under them 3. That these Diocesans undertook the sole Pastoral Care of all these Parishes as to Confirmation Censure Absolution and the rest 4. That all these Parishes were no true Churches as having no Bishops but the Diocesans and were but Chappels or parts of a Church 5. That the Incumbents were no true Pastors or Bishops but one Bishops Curates And that there were not then besides Diocesan arch-Arch-Bishops in each single Church Episcopi Gregis and Episcopi praesides 6. That Bishops Names were used by Lay-men that had the Decretive Power of Excommunication and Absolution 7. That such Secular Judicatories far from the Parishes rather than the particular Pastors Tryed and Judged the unknown people 8. That Parish Ministers Swear Obedience to the Diocesans and they to Metropolitans 9. That all People that would have Licenses to keep Ale-houses or Taverns or that would not lye in Jail were Commanded to receive the Sacrament as a Sealed Pardon of their Sins 10. That from the beginning all Churches were forced to use the same form of Liturgy and not every Church or Bishop to choose as he saw Cause 11. That Kings chose Bishops and Deans without the Consent of the Clergy and People 12. That all Ministers were to be Ejected and forbidden to Preach the Gospel that durst not Subscribe that there is nothing contrary to Gods Word in such as our three imposed Books 13. That all Lords Magistrates Priests and People that affirm the contrary be ipso facto Excommunicate 14. That Lay-Patrons that are but Rich enough to buy an Advowson how Vicious soever did choose all the Incumbent Ministers to whom the People must commit the Ministerial Care of their Souls 15. That they that dare not trust such Pastors as are chosen by Kings though Papists and such Patrons and dare not Conform to every imposition like ours must live like Atheists in forbearance of all publick Worship and Church Communion 16. That all may Swear that an Oath or Vow of Lawful and Necessary things bindeth not our selves or any others if it be but unlawfully imposed and taken and had any unlawful part
of the Matter 17. That the Church ever held it unlawful for a whole Kingdom to defend it self against a Prince that would deliver up half the Government to a Foreiner and force them to a Religion which requireth them to be Damned or to Dye When the Clergy and Church at Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch Rome c. did so oft by force and Blood resist even Christian Emperors such as Theodosius II. Zeno Anastasius and many others 18. That all the Churches held it lawful to Swear and Covenant never to endeavour any Amendment or Alteration of any such as the forementioned Church Government If all these things be contrary to the constant judgment or practice of the Church Quaere whether Dr. Beveridge and his Approvers pronounce not the Church of England Schismatical as so far separated from the Church Universal But again I conclude O! What must the Christian World suffer even by Learned and I hope pious Doctors I. Because they will not distinguish National or Imperial Vniversality of Church and Councils from those of the whole World II. Nor Communion from Regiment nor Contracts from Laws nor a Regent Excommunication from a Renunciation of Communion by Equals III. Nor Divine Obligations to Concord and human demands of obeying Usurpers or the hurtful Agreements of an injurious Majority of equal Votes IV. And by their Deposing Christian Kings and Magistrates from their Sacred Power over Bishops in Church-Government and for Mens Souls as if they were made only for the base things of the World and Flesh and Priests only were trusted with Religion and Souls And Kings were not Heads of National Churches V. And their shameless calling them Adversaries to Episcopacy that would have one Hundred Bishops for one and are for the old three sorts Episcopi Gregis Episcopi praesides and Arch-Bishops and calling those the Episcopal part that put down all the Bishops in a Diocess save one As for your self I profess to be so far from Censuring any thing of you save these Mistakes that as I have long so I do still Love and Honour you as a Man fearing God and of a good and blameless Conversation as far as ever I Credibly heard And I thought the like of Bishop Guning though as it is with many Religious Papists his Opinions more prevailed against his Charity for that Mischievous hurtfulness in which he served the Subtilty of Sheldon and the fierceness of Morley and the Designs of Papal Courtiers But I hear that your Piety and Charity prevaileth against the evil tendency of your mistaken Doctrine Though Mr. Thorndike threaten England unless they Reform the Oath of Supremacy I confess I wish it restored and am Displeased with those Scots that have causelesly quarrelled with it and so helpt to open a Door to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is Sworn against Since the writing of all beforegoing I first read your two great Volumes of Canons and your Answer to Dallaeus In the Prolegomena of the first to my Grief I find you more express for an Universal Legislative Power and Foreign Jurisdiction than in your Sermon And yet not at all telling us where to have access to this Universal Soveraignty for Judicature out of the times of General Councils nor how to know but by believing your bare word what Councils are our Universal obliging Laws when you confess the vast difference of the Eastern and Western numbers nor how to know what our Religion is while we know not what be our Laws Nor how to know whether the Church be extinct when it hath no human Head by the Cessation of such Councils nor who must call them nor whence nor what is their Constitutive Matter only you say they must be called out of all the Christian World But need not all be there And will a Call make a General Council if the Men come not And can they come from all the Dominions of the Abassines Armenians Turks Persians Muscovites c. And who hath right to call them hath the Pope Or our Emperors or Kings what power hath he over all other Princes Subjects You confess they were called out of the Imperial Provinces And how few if any other Names are Subscribed But I am sorry that you still so contrary to all Evidence take National or Imperial Universality for Terrestrial Universality of Church and Councils I beseech you if we must be Papists let us be of the more reasonable sort that know where to find a Papal Monarch or Vice-Christ and not sent to seek a Church-Parliament Universal or Universal Aristocratical College that is no where extant in the World nor can be especially now the five Patriarchs are what and where they are How much more Rational to be Governed by the Pope as Patriarch of the West only till we can find out the Aristocratical Head But since the Empire was turned into many Kingdoms who can prove that those many must have all one Human Head But I am yet more sorry that you joyn with Hildebrand in making Princes to be but for the Body and Civil Peace and Bishops and Priests to be the Church and for the Soul Which God willing as I have oft done I shall fullier Confute in a Treatise for true National Churches proving that Christ hath made no Higher Visible Humane Church Power or Form And that Christian Kings are as Sacred Persons and Ministers of Christ as Bishops and Superior Heads of National Churches though the Power of the Keys belong only to the Clergy And that a true National Church is but a Christian Kingdom as such the King being the Head and Confederate Pastors and Churches the Subject Body The Second Part. The Stating of the Controversie and full Confutation of the Pretences for a Foreign Jurisdiction The CONTENTS CHap. I. The clear stating of the Controversie and Confutation of the Pretenders In 60 Propositions proving it a perjurious alteration of Government c. Ch. II. Why Parliaments and the Church of England before Bishop Laud were so much against such a Coalition with the Papal Church Ch. III. The said Coalition is not the way to Catholick Union Ch. IV. The Deceits that are pleaded for an Universal Humane Soveraignty Ch. V. A Foreign Jurisdiction by College or Counsels unmaskt Ch. VI. The Grand Consequential Case Whether it be lawful for Presbyters to Swear or Profess Obedience to those Bishops who profess Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction or for the people to own them Ch. VII Of the second part of the design to bring the Papists to our Churches as in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's days Ch. VIII Why it will not serve for a Coalition for the Papists to abate their last 400 years corruptions as Archbishop Bromhall maintaineth Ch. IX Whether the instance of the Apostles Church Government prove an Universal Soveraignty in man Ch. X. Many Questions about Councils to be resolved before we can take them for an Universal Aristocracy Ch. XI A Breviate of both the Aristocratical
Catholick Church and makes that the Body of the Pope which should be but the Body of Christ. 17. It is a certain means of Schism while thereby they separate that humane Society of the Usurper from all the Church that will own no Head but Christ. 18. This Idol Head or Vice-Christ in plain Pride setting up himself as the Governour of the World and setting the World together by the Ears about his Title by Usurping the Government over them must needs make it a hard question at least to Christians whether this Idol be not the Antichrist that is the Pro-Christ while he makes himself the Vice-Christ And especially when it 's considered what men abundance of the Popes have been and how much they have done against the Doctrine Worship Discipline and faithful Servants of Christ. 19. They have no way to give the World any satisfactory certainty who is Pope and who not How then can the World be ruled by him 1. They cannot tell whether the Electors or Consecrators be they that necessarily give him his Power or make him Pope 2. If it be the Electors they cannot tell us who those must be If any will serve the Turk may make a Pope And then ten sort of Electors may make ten Popes If it be tied to any one sort of Men the Papacy hath long been extinct for in some Ages the People of Rome chose with the City Clergy In some Ages the Neighbour Bishops and People chose In some the Emperors In some Cardinals And sometimes General Councils If God had appointed one Vnifying Head to his Church he would have determined who should choose him and told us how to know him If it be Consecration that maketh him Pope God would have authorized some to Consecrate him If any will serve some may Consecrate one and some another and some a third Every one may have three Bishops If it must be both a just Election and Consecration the uncertainty will be the greater when neither of them is certain And none can give Power but they that have it to give But Electors and Consecraters being Inferiors have none to give If they say that God only giveth the Power and the Electors do but choose the Receiver and the Consecrators invest him I answer It is so indeed in the true Colâ—ation of Church-offices and Power Whether Mr. Dodwell and such others will or not But that 's here all one as to our uncertainty Who is the Man 2. And this is no feigned case when in such a multitude of Schisms there have been two or three Popes at once and once six alive at once that were or had been Popes And these made Bishops and Cardinals and those Bishops made Priests and no man yet knows which of them if either had the right 3. And is it the Name of a Roman Bishop or the Thing that is necessary to the being of an Universal Pastor If the Name a Hundred may be so called And bare Names give not so great Power If the Thing how were those Bishops of Rome that divers Score Years did dwell in France and never did any Bishop's Work at Rome nor had Rome's Consent Might not one in Armenia have been as truly called the Bishop of Rome But if it be Possession that gives validity to the claim then the strongest hath the best title And they that have by turns driven out each other were all true Popes And who was Possessor when one was at Rome and another that carried it at last at Avignion or in Germany 20. Tying an Unifying Head of all the Church on Earth to Rome doth leave it in the Power of any Infidel or Arian that can get Rome to set a Head of the Christian Religion on the Church that is To un-church it destroy it or corrupt it For all that know the World know how ordinarily the Present Powers can prevail with their Subjects to Elect whom they please As Theodoricus and other Arians at Rome have done And if the Turk should conquer Rome how easily could he keep them from having any Bishop at all and so the Church were dead as headless 21. Yea Rome hath long been without any true Bishop And the Church is no Church without it's Constitutive Head In divers times of Wars Desolations and Persecutions yea long by the Disagreement of the Electors and many ages by the nullity of uncapable Popes some set up by Whores and Tyrants and some deposed by General Councils as Hereticks and yet continuing as Eugen. 4. And long much of Italy it self deposed the Roman Bishop and set up a Patriarch at Aquileia and took him for their Head 22. Yea it is certain by their Doctrine of necessary uninterrupted Succession that there is now no Pope nor ever can be For when so many false Elections Incapacities by Simony Heresie Schism Infidelity Councils Depositions have interrupted the Succession it can never by their way be restored 23. By all the Canons every City should choose their own Bishop And so Rome oft a Nest of Wickedness would be made the Mistriss or Head of all the World when as Cosmography is not so necessary to Christianity that all the World should be bound ever to know that there is such a place as Rome in the World And it were a strange thing that God should make it necessary to Salvation for them at the Antipodes and all the Earth to obey one City and him that they elect Was it ignorance or craft in Pope Zachary to Excommunicate one for saying there were Antipodes If he knew of no Men on the other side of the Earth he was unlike to Govern them If he perswaded Men that one half of the Earth was uninhabited that he might not be known to be no Governor of them it was vain Craft But it 's liker it was Ignorance He that would have more Proof may find enough in Dr. Barrow XXVIII The Pope by this Claim of Universal Government claimeth so much Power unjustly from and over all Princes on Earth as obligeth them all to take him for a Publick Enemy as one would do that should claim an Universal Monarchy and tell them on pain of Deposition they must be all his Subjects as the Pope doth on pain of Excommunication Deposition and Damnation None ever had the madness to dream of an Universal Schoolmaster or Physicion Gregory long ago made the claim of Universal Bishop to be a mark of Antichrist XXIX Christ bindeth all Christians to live in Communion as Saints as making up one Body Politick of a transcendent Species of which Christ is the Supreme Governor or Head This therefore is none of the Controversie between us All Christians are agreed that as many Members of different shape use and honour make up one Natural Body so do Christians that differ in Gifts Office and Grace make up one Body of Christ. And as every Member contributeth to the good of the whole Body so must every Christian to the good of
And yet he may own most or all other Pastors of the Catholick Church as such He that thinks the Subscriptions Forms or Ceremonies of the Greek Roman or English Church unlawful doth not therefore think Christianity or Catholick Communion unlawful XXXVIII All Christians are not bound to be fixed Members of particular Churches subordinate to National but those that can enjoy it ought The Negative I have so fully proved against Dr. Stillingfleet that for Dr. Sherlock to go on to harp on the same string and give no answer to it doth but tell us with what Men we have to do I will not repeat the Proofs I gave that some Ambassadors some Merchants some wandering Beggars or Tradesmen some Travellers and some where no Churches yet are gathered some Soldiers and some in times of Confusion are not obliged to be fixed Members of any particular Church but only to be Christians in Communion with the Church Catholick and to hold transient Communion with the Churches where they come He that yet will deny this words will not make him see it XXXIX Many of these Churches in one Kingdom have so great advantage by the Unity of Soveraignty civil Interest and Laws to be strengthening helpers to one another that they should accordingly associate and live in as much concord as their various conditions Auditors and Imperfections will allow And accordingly as Neighbours owe some more Charity to each other than to Strangers so Christians under the same Prince united by Civil Government Laws and Interest should be so far from persecuting and destroying each other for that which in various Kingdoms is allowable in Religion that they should exercise more love compassion and forbearance of one another XL. Christian Princes are true Parts of the Kingdom of Christ and eminent Integral Parts of the Universal Church as well as Pastors And are bound by Christ to do their best to make all their Kingdoms the Kingdoms of Christ that is to bring all their Subjects to consent to be Christians and to live in concordant Obedience to the Laws of Christ. And so all Nations should be discipled as far as they can procure it And such National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms we must all desire XLI Supreme Christian Princes or States are authorized and obliged to drive on by just means all Pastors and People to the Duties of their several Places and correct them for their Crimes XLII Christian Princes and States being Members of the Universal Church are bound to contribute their best endeavours to its welfare And therefore so far to Unite and Agree as is necessary to their mutual strengthening for the Universal good XLIII Therefore so far as Civil Councils or Dyets of many Princes or their Delegates or Ambassadors are necessary to this Concord for the common good they are bound by God to keep such And where Meetings cannot be kept to use all meet correspondency by Ambassadors and Letters for the same End So that this is no duty proper to Bishops but common to Christian Princes And if their sinful omission make it strange it is nevertheless their duty as God will make them know XLIV Thy Synods of Pastors duly ordered are of great use for their mutual advice strength and concord in order to the universal good So far are we from being against them that we think the right use of them of great importance That they may keep a right understanding of the Faith which they agree in and bear down Heresies the better by their joynt opposition and may keep up Christian Love and work out the disaffections which strangers and the calumnies of backbiters are apt to breed And even in Integrals and meet Accidents may do as much in Concord as they can XLV The Obligation which lieth on Particular Pastors to observe the Agreements of such Synods is from the general command of Love and Concord and the means thereto And he that stands not to such Agreements as make for the Strength and Concord of the Churches violateth this Common Law But such Agreements of Synods as make not for this common end but are against it no man is obliged to observe For it is no means that is not for the End but against it Therefore every Canon which enjoyneth sin or is not to the Churches good but hurt must not be kept XLVI It is not true that the Diocesan is by Office the Representer of the whole Church in Synods and Presbyters have no place or decisive Votes Protestants have at large confuted this in their Confutations of Popery and so have many French Papists and some others The Convocation in England hath a lower House of Presbyters Else in Abassia one Bishop were instead of all the Clergy of the Empire And two or three were a National Synod in a Nation that hath no more Diocesses They can shew no Commission for such a Representative Power therefore they have none such XLVII Much less have five Patriarchs and a few Metropolitans or such near them as they will call Authority to pass for the Representatives of all the Christian World and to constitute a General Council XLVIII No Pastors or Churches can give power to any to represent them absolutely but only limitedly to lawful things for common good And to oblige them no further or longer to stand to what they do than the common good requireth it What a man may not do himself he may not authorize another to do for him And no man may himself oppose Truth or Duty or cross the common good or assert any falshood or consent to any sin And that which accidentally maketh for the common good in one Age or Countrey may be against it in the next And then we are obliged against it whatever our Delegates Ancestors or selves did for it before XLIX There was never in the World a General Council of all the Bishops on Earth nor of the Representatives of all the Churches Even the six or eight or more old Councils now most honoured were General but as to One Empire yea far from that and not as to all the Christian World This I have fully proved in my second Book against Johnson 1. From the Subscriptions to the said Councils 2. From the Authority of the Emperors that called them 3. From the rest of the History and Acts 4. And from the Testimony of the Historians of those Times Yet A. Bishop Bromhall with the Papist Priest Johnson maintaineth the contrary pag. 110. saying This Exception was made in the dark c. and saith it abounds with Errours and that the Abuna of Ethiopia submitteth to the Patriarch of Alexandria and they all acknowledge the Pope the first Patriarch c. Ans. 1. If such a cant as this go with any man for a satisfactory answer to the full proof aforesaid which I have given and my Confutation of ten times more of Johnsons I have done with that man Ans. 2. Our Question is Whether any or all the
Extra-Imperial Churches had Bishops in those Councils or were there represented yea or ever called Doth he prove a word of this Not one word but saith The Ethiopians now submit to them Ans. 3. The Question is not what they do now but what they did then Christian Reader admire the gracious Providence of God The Custom then was for the Major Vote of the Bishops in Council when they anathematized any as Hereticks to get them banished Many of these banished men enlarged the Church and encreased the numbers of Christians where they came but they propagated a Condemnation of the Councils that condemned them Nestorius but specially Dioscorus and Jacobus Syrus and many of the Eutychians turned multitudes in the East and South and some in Tartary to their minds herein Among others the Abyssines were taken with the Reverence and Authority of Dioscorus condemning the Council at Chalcedon and the rest that were against him And all the Extra-Imperial Churches honoured those of the Empire above themselves living under Infidels except Abassia and rejoyced in the Power of the Christian Empire but never joyned in their Councils nor received them as their Laws but rejoyced as Consenters to all that they thought good He cannot prove that before Dioscorus Banishment the Abassines obeyed Alexandria And to this day their Abuna is chosen by the Monks at Jerusalem say some but say others chosen and confirmed by the titular Patriarch of Alexandria and ruleth Abassia himself and they all condemn the foresaid Councils and the Pope Godignus tells you and Ludolphus more fully what respect they have for the Pope and our Councils Ans. 4. The truth is all that ever I heard yet that can be said for the Subjection of the Abassines or other Exterior Churches to the Council even of Nice or the Patriarchs before is but a Word in the Canons lately Divulged by Pisanus which are novel of no Authority nor to be Credited by any that Credit not the Roman Forgeries And it 's contrary to the true Nicene Canon that saith Egypt only is Subject to Alexandria when this Forgery addeth Ethiopia And yet it 's said of Trajan that he went far into Ethiopia to Enlarge the Roman Power So if the Romans had any skirt there as they had oft in Persia and Scythia that 's nothing to the Abassines nor proveth any Exteriors much less all represented in the General Councils of old Ans. 5. Many Countries and Parties did for Concord and some Advantages put themselves under particular Patriarchs and also profess their voluntary consent to the Nicene and some other Councils Canons or Creed who yet never took a General Council for the Rightful Soveraign of the Christian Churches through the World At this day one Sect obeyeth only the Patriarch of Constantinople and rejecteth all the rest and another the Patriarch of Alexandria and three others the three pretending Patriarchs of Antioch rejecting the rest and they reject as aforesaid some of the four first Councils and all that followed By which it appeareth that they take not the four or five Patriarchs Essential to Catholick Unity nor General Councils to have a supream Regiment over all Most Protestants receive the four first General Councils saving some mutable accidentals And yet they hold not their Universal Soveraignty L. It is neither lawful nor possible to call a Vniversal Council to Exercise Vniversal Soveraignty nor ever like to be I have fully proved this in the Second part of my Key for Catholicks Consider 1. It must be Grave Experienced Men who are fit to be trusted in so great a Matter And such are Aged and usually weak 2. From Abassia Mexico Armenia c. they must be a year or near in receiving the Summons and as long in preparing and coming to Europe if this be the place 3. They must it's like be some years absent at the Council 4. They cannot if they are sufficient Representatives come all into one Room to hear Debates 5. They cannot most of them understand one anothers Language 6. They will hardly live to bring back the Decrees 7. There is no Person or Senate in the World that hath an obliging Authority to call them 8. It is not like that they will ever agree Voluntarily to meet in one place without such Authority The Abassines Armenians Syrians c. will think we should come to them and we shall think they should come to us 9. If possibly they should agree a Mans Age is little enough to go all over the World to Sollicite and bring them to such Agreement 10. Who and how many will undertake that task 11. How few can bear the Charges of all this 12. It were sinful Cruelty to Separate the Wisest Men so long from their Charges to the Peoples loss as well as by the Voyages and Journeys to kill them 13. It is certain that most of the Princes on Earth under whose power the Bishops live would not give leave to go out of their Dominions to such Synods most being Infidels many Heterodox and many in Wars or Enmity with each other and almost all in Jealousies and without their leave they cannot come 14. The great Numbers of the nearer Bishops and the paucity of the most remote would make it no true Representative as to Votes 15. There is no one on Earth Antecedently Authorized to be their President what ever the Papists pretend And to choose a President it 's like so many such would hardly agree 16. It 's already known that they account one another Hereticks or Schismaticks or Usurping Tyrants before hand Some are called Nestorian Hereticks some Eutychian or Jacobite Hereticks some Melchites some one thing and some another and most take the Papists for Tyrants and Hereticks both And will all these ever meet in Council 17. Men are naturally so much for their own ease and so much against Works of so vast difficulty charge and hazard that a competent number of fit Men would never undertake it it being almost equal to a Martyrdom which even the best Men will not undergo till they are better Convinced of the Duty and Necessity than any Man can truly be of such Universal Councils 18. It 's known that all the Protestants if not allmost all other Christians save Papists do believe no such Councils to be necessary no nor lawful but to be usurping Tyranny as challenging the Universal Church-Government as a Senate So that as there never was so there never will be must be or can be such a Council unless which God forbid all the Church should be again Reduced to a narrow Room LI. They that would make such Councils possible by pretending that a few Patriarchs and such Bishops as they will bring with them are the Sufficient and Authorized Representers of all the rest do but more grossly deceive and abuse the Christian World For 1. They never proved nor can prove that ever Christ Authorized such Patriarchs much less to such a Power 2. And whereas Arch-Bishop
Bromhal saith that God doth it by the Law of Nature enabling Men to do it and to deny this is to overthrow all Government I answer 1. We know of no such Law of Nature nor that he is a Credible Expositor of it We take the Law of Nature on the Reasons before and after mentioned to be plainly against the very being of such Councils and especially against such trusting our Religion with them and supposing them to be the Governors of all the Christian Princes and People on Earth 2. What Men be they that have given these Patriarchs this Power If Men dead 1300. years ago they have no Authority now Dead Men have no ruling Power The Laws of the Land bind us not now by any power that the Dead Kings and Parliaments have over us But though made by them they bind us now only as the Laws of our present Governours By the Constitution the Successive Kings are still by consent to make them Their Laws till by consent of King and Parliament they are Dissolved Unless some present power over us make them Their Laws no old Church Canons can bind us 3. If they say that God binds us to stand to what our Ancestors did I want the proof of that If we will have the benefit of our Ancestors Contract we must stand to them else we may choose A Father cannot bind his Child to his hurt but only to his Benefit Let them prove the Obligation 4. But we deny that any made those Patriarchs who would have had any power over us had we been then alive The Subjects of one Prince made them in his Empire and he Confirmed them But neither that Prince nor his Subjects were our Rulers here what if the King or Convocation make Canterbury and York Metropolitans Doth it follow that they have Church-power over other Lands 5. These Patriarchs had never the Government of any given them by the old Councils but within the Empire And after of some Volunteers that for Advantage chose it 6. Who be these Patriarchs they talk of Are they not all turned into Names and Shadows Condemning one another and must these five fighting Shadows Represent and Rule the Christian World 7. To return to the twelve Apostles is Impertinent The Apostles were prime Ministers and more Represented Christ than the Church The Church chose them not Christ made them Foundations Bases and Pillars in his Church but not Representatives of it And if he had they chose none to Succeed them as Apostles But as ordinary Ministers all Ministers Succeed them and as Superior Ministers some say Bishops Bellarmine confesseth and proveth that the Apostles as such have no Successors and that the Pope Succeedeth not Peter as an Apostle but as he Dreams as an ordinary Supream Pastor Had the Apostles setled twelve or thirteen Successors or appointed any Churches to be Rulers of the rest we must have obeyed these Rulers But who have called them a General Council None but Rome Antioch and Alexandria claimed Succession from the Apostles and all these claimed it but from one Apostle Peter Rome and Antioch as his pretended Seats and Alexandria that he set St. Mark over them sure the Apostles rose not from the dead to make Constantinople and Jerusalem Patriarchates And if they had four of the five Patriarchs are all now Subjects to the Turk And experience telling us what Power Princes have in the Choice and Ruling of the Clergy All this doth but say that the Turk is the Chief Governour of the Religion and Consciences of all the Christian World If they plead for new Power to make Patriarchs let them prove who hath that Power over all the World and how they came by it and how they now use it Will all the Christian World who fear the guilt of obeying Usurpers and disobeying Christians ever unite in the obedience of Patriarchs who cannot be known by the wisest much less by all to have any Authority to command them LII The Pope hath done much of his mischiefs to the Church and World by the Councils of Bishops They have been his Army and he their General Without them he could have done little or nothing By them the most of Church Corruptions have been made Laws By them Emperors have been deposed Rebellions maintained the Pope enabled to give away their Kingdoms absolve Subjects from their Oaths to make it a Heresie called Henrician to be Loyal to dig dead Bishops out of their graves as Hereticks that were for Loyalty Yea the Councils of Bishops without if not against the Pope deposed the good Ludovicus Pius and have done much to the corruption and confusion of the Churches as I have elsewhere proved LIII General Councils are not the authorized or lawful Supreme Government of the Universal Church nor have an Universal Legislative or Judiciary Power This many Protestants and after all Dr. Barrow have unanswerably proved Arg. 1. If there never was nor must be nor can be a true Universal Council then such a Council is not the Churches Supreme Governour But the antecedent I have before proved Arg. 2. That Government which the Church was without for three hundred years is not the just Supreme Government of the Universal Church For the Church is not the Church without its Supreme Government But the Church was without a General Council at least for three hundred years Arg. 3. That Government which rarely existeth and hath not existed near an hundred years or as some of our Adversaries say a thousand is not the Supreme Government of the Church For then the Church would be dead and no Church in all that time of vacancy for the Species depends on the Supreme Government But the Church hath so rarely had that which our present Adversaries themselves take for a true General Council If the Council of Trent were any they have had none since Yea Bishop Guning owneth but the six first Councils called General And if there were none since then the Church hath had no Supreme Council just a thousand years And was it this thousand years no Church or of another Species Or can the Church be a thousand years without its Supreme Government Arg. 4. If General Councils be the Supreme Legislative Power then the Church hath had no such Councils-Laws for all the foresaid vacancies 300 years first and since 601 a thousand years after But the Adversaries will not allow the consequent that all the Canons of General Councils were no Laws so long But the antecedent is proved from the definition of Laws which are the signification of the Soveraigns Will to be the Rule of the Subjects Right actions and dues There is no Law which is not the Rulers Law and if the Ruler be dead the Law is dead For a dead man hath neither Authority nor Will. Obj. Our Laws die not with the King nor at the dissolution of Parliaments Ans. 1. The Law saith Rex non moritur As soon as he is dead the next Heir
a Judiciary Executive Power which is ever subsequent to the Subjects actions but it is a part of the antecedent Power If it be but Instructing it is the act of a Teacher If generally obliging it is the act of the Legislator's For it is his Prerogative to be the universally obliging Expositor of the Law who is the Maker of it And it 's more to Give the sence than to endite the bare words So that here is no Universal Legislation or Jurisdiction left for a Soveraign Council Nor any that they are capable of LV. Much less can all the Bishops out of Council living all over the Earth as one College Senate or Aristocracy be the Supreme Governing Power of all the Churches and Christians on Earth having no possible Capacity thereof If our new Church Bishops and Drs. had not fixed on this as the Universal Supremacy I should have expected a sharp censure for judging any so as to own it The same Arguments forementioned confute it Arg. 1. The diffused College of Bishops out of Council never did make Laws for the Church Universal Therefore they are not its Law-makers or Supreme Legislative Rulers Arg. 2. They have never much less always exercised an Vniversal decisive Judiciary Power Therefore they were never appointed to exercise it The Church could not obey that Power that was never used by such as Judges Arg. 3. If God had given them this Power he would somewhere have plainly told us of it and directed them and us how to use it But this he hath not done Arg. 4. The Assertors of this while they would extoll the Clergy cruelly Judge them by Consequence to Damnation for never performing so great a Duty as Universal Legislation and Jurisdiction if God did oblige them to it Arg. 5. For the diffusive Clergy or Bishops of all the Earth out of Council to Govern all Christians on Earth as one College or Senate which all must obey is a thing of such notorious natural Impossibility that I once thought I should never have heard a Man much less a Christian yea a Dr. and Bishop yea many maintain 1. For must they all agree that their acts may be valid in Legislation or Decisive Judgment or must it be a Major Vote No doubt they 'l say the latter And who shall propose and draw up the Laws 2. Who shall carry them all over the World to procure Votes 3. Who shall gather the Votes and Judge of the Majority 4. Shall they Vote and Judge without ever consulting each other and hearing what be said on every side 5. How many Messengers must there be to go into all the World And who shall bear their Charges 6. How shall we be sure when they come home that they have truly taken the Votes Will not all our Faith be resolved into the Credit of these Messengers 7. Must accused Persons and Witnesses travel all over the World to be Judged or must all the Bishops on Earth come to them 8. How many Millions of Criminals will a Bishop have to hear at once or Judge The Case is so gross that I am afraid you will say I feign Reverend Men to be Mad. That which they say is That there is no Concord to be had nor avoiding of Schism but by obeying the Universal Governing Church which is the College of all the Pastors and Bishops on Earth who have as such a Supreme Power under Christ of Legislation and Judgment which they exercise per literas formatas There is no way to excuse this but by feigning that this College of Bishops is to do these great works not by themselves but by a College of Delegates or Representatives viz. Either Cardinals or Patriarchs or else by reducing the whole Church on Earth to the narrow compass of some little Sect and condemning most of the Christian World that they may not seem to need them for Legislation or Judgment And these I have sufficiently confuted before LVI The Universal Supreme Government either of Council or the College of the diffused Clergy is more impossible and unpracticable and much worse than the Soveraignty of the Pope For 1. The Pope is a known Person and it 's possible to find him to send to him to hear from him 2. He is One and it 's possible to know his Mind without gathering Votes or Literas formatas all over the Earth 3. Most may send to him and hear his decision at least in an Age. 4. What he cannot do by himself he can depute others to do 5. He is almost always in being and the Church need not be so many Hundred Years headless or without it's Soveraign Power 6. He hath some Cob-web shadow of right in the Tu es Petrus and Tibi dabo Claves and Pasce oves But as to the said College and Council all this and more is contrary So that I do deliberately profess that if I did believe that there were any Universal Supreme Rector or Ministerial specifying Vnifying Constitutive Head or Governour under Christ I should soon resolve that it is the Pope there being no Competitor so little uncapable as he And all the Papists save a few Flatterers acknowledge that the Popes Power is not absolute and unlimited and that he hath need of Councils as the King hath of Parliaments not for constant Government but partly for Legislation which belongs not to the Pope alone and partly for Medicinal reparation and execution when the Church is diseased So that they that are for the Pope as the stated Supreme are for Councils also and would use Councils better than the Aristocratical that give them the Supreme Government would use them All men know that they are rarely in being Even Bishop Guning saith he receiveth but the first Six General Councils To say the Church hath been headless or without it's Supreme Government just a Thousand Years and is so still is to make it invisible in an Essential Part. Is there now a visible Catholick Church or is there none If none why would they silence and damn us all for not obeying that which is not If there be where and what is the Pars regens the constitutive visible Supremacy If in a Council there is none If in the College of diffused Bishops all over the World they are no Governors they never so made Laws they Govern not as such and so are no such Governors They only Govern per partes in their several Precincts as all the English Justices of the Peace Mayors Bailiffs and Judges do and not as an Aristocracy But if it be a Church now because there is a Pope say so and hide not your opinion We say It is a Church because there is a Christ and Christians and we know no other Matter and Form LVII They that assert a Supremacy in a Council or College of Bishops do unavoidably introduce a Pope If they will call none a Pope but him that is absolute and unlimited and no Man a King but an absolute
unlimited Monarch we will speak according to common use and let them speak as their Interest dictates to them but remember that the Controversie is but about the Name and not the Thing We take the French Church for Papists If they will call them Protestants they are free But if we are agreed what a Pope is the case is plain as followeth I. Mr. Dodwell their most Learned defender if number of words or greatest self-conceit be the chief strength tells you that if the Council be not lawfully called it obligeth you rather to bring them to Punishment as a Rout or Rebels than to obey them And that none but the President hath Power to call them And remember yet that this good Man is no Papist And indeed who else but the Pope should call Universal Councils The King in Scotland may call a Scotch General Assembly and in England a Convocation and Parliaâ—ent And 1. The Emperor of Rome or Constantinople might call such Councils in the Empire as were then called General and did so But who now shall call one out of France Spain Portugal Italy Germany Britain Denmark Sweden Poland Moscovie the Turkish Empire Armenia Georgia Mengrelia Tartary Abassia Mexico Peru China c. We are awake and therefore cannot Dream of Princes doing it by Agreement We are yet out of Bedlam and cannot conclude that all the Bishops in the World will come together by common consent or as the Atomists say the World was made by a fortuitous concourse of Atomes 2. How shall lawful Councils be known from unlawful if none have Authority to call approve and difference them If only ex factis by their good or bad Deeds half the World will Judge as they have done and do one Council to be spurious which another obeyeth 3. What order shall be kept among them if none have Authority to appoint the Place the Time to Preside and Moderate and to dissolve them and who pretends to this but the Pope 4. When Councils Contradict Condemn and Curse each other who shall tell us which of them to receive believe and obey II. And if we must have a visible Supreme Power we must have one that successively existeth that the Church be not dissolved And none pretendeth to this but the Pope III. And if all National Patriarchal Churches be but Parts of a visible Catholick Church with a Humane Supremacy then there must be some Power still existent to give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power Mr. Dodwell saith it overthrows all Government to appeal to Scripture as a Charter or Law of Christ None hath more than the Giver intended him None can give that which he hath not to give The Inferior hath not Power to give to the Superior Who then but a Pope can give Patriarchs and Metropolitans their Power If for want of Authoritative Collation of Power all the Presbyterian Ordinations Sacraments and Covenant-hopes of Salvation are Nullities and Sins against the Holy Ghost as Mr. Dodwell and his Tribe say what better are all the Bishops and Archbishops for want of a Superior conferring Power which none pretendeth to but the Pope IV. And who else shall judge Patriarchs Metropolitans and National Churches when they prove Hereticks or Schismaticks Their Heresie and Schism is far more heinous and dangerous than single Persons or Congregations And Councils are not extant And we cannot send all over the Earth to gather Bishops Votes against them unheard It must be a Pope or no body on Earth that must by Governing Authority Judge them V. And who else shall be the stated Judge of new started Controversies You say such there must be shall they be undecided till the World have a true general Council VI. And who shall an injured Person appeal to from a Tyrannical Metropolitan or National Church but to the Pope Many more clear Necessities there will be of a Pope on their Principles I blamed the Author of the Divine Hierarchy for naming such without an Antidote lest it should make men Papists But I understand he is a worthy Protestant But verily there is no avoiding a Pope by any that assert an Vniversal humane Church Supremacy VII And indeed I must not suppose them so immodest as to deny it For it is but the Pope's Absolute Power above the Councils and their Laws and not Simple Popery or the Pope's limited Power that they deny 1. They confess that they hold Rome for the Mistriss Church as Grotius calls it 2. And that the Pope is Patriarch of the West and the prime Patriarch 3. And that he is Principium Vnitatis to all the Church on Earth And if so they are out of the Church which is One that deny this 4. That he is authorized to call General Councils 5. And to be their President 6. And to be the chief Governor when there are no General Councils and that is indeed always 7. And that they are all Schismaticks that do not thus far submit to him And how much more Mr. Dodwell giveth the President I have shewed you in his own words VIII As Mr. Thorndike threateneth England with God's Judgments if they do not amend the Oath of Supremacy by making it acceptable to the Papists that renounce not a foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so others labour to prove that the meaning of it is only to renounce the Pope's Jurisdiction here in Temporals which belongs to the King and not a Papal and Foreign Jurisdiction properly Ecclesiastical by the Keys As you may see partly in Mr. Hutchinson's alias Berry's Book who on that Supposition took the Oath as many do and publickly profest himself of the Church of England IX In the Description of the Reconciliation with the Pope endeavoured by Archbishop Laud in Heylin's History of his Life Pag. 414 415 c. All that the Pope was to abate was 1. That the Oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity may be taken I told you in what sense 2. And that the Pope's Jurisdiction here but no where else be declared to be of Humane Right that is say ours by the Fathers in General Councils not without the Apostles by whose Church-Laws we are all bound 3. That all should be really performed to the King so far as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be independent both from King and Pope but not from subjection to either This saith he no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him 4. Marriage permitted to Priests 5. The Communion in both kinds 6. The Liturgy in English I ask any sober man now Qu. 1. Whether the Pope did himself think that by this bargain he ceased to be Pope and all Papists to be Papists 2. Whether if the King had been thus far equalled with other Catholick Princes the Pope would not have supposed him and his Bishops and Church to be of the same Roman Catholick Church as they 3. Whether in all this here be any
Charges from next to the Antipodes or from Abassia Mexico c. Must they be old Men fit for Council or Boys fit for Travel when the age of a Man will scarce serve for their coming together their business and their return and execution And what 's all this to do Is it to make new Universal Laws Hath not Christ in Nature and Scripture given us enow for the Practice of Christianity without all this ado of Congregating Bishops for Legislation all over the World Oh that these Law-makers would keep Christ's Laws And if it be for mutable Circumstances is not every Church or Countrey sufficient for such variable Determinations Must men come from the Antipodes Ethiopia or Turky to tell me here what Cloaths I must wear or what place or time I shall Preach in or what Tune to Sing in c. But if they must not meet what Messengers must be sent to them all over the World to gather their Votes How shall we be sure that they truly state all the Cases to them And that they truly bring us back their Judgments And that those Judgments were truly past without hearing what could be said against them And is every single Bishop infallible or the Majority only and how shall it be known what the Majority said And whither shall all their collected Votes be carried and to whom Is it to every Christian or to every Bishop And how many Ages will this require And if it be not for Legislation but Judgment if the Question be whether A. B. be a Heretick or C. D. be a Fornicator c. who shall bear the Messengers Charges that must go through the World to all the Bishops to decide it And shall the Cause be tryed without witnesses or hearing the defence of the accused And must the accused and witnesses go through all the World Reader is it not a shame to confute such Dreams Had not I tryed in with the Leading Men I should have taken him for a Slanderer that had said that any English Dr. and Bishop should maintain that the Collegium Pastorum through the World is that summa Potestas under Christ which hath the Chief Government of the Vniversal Church in Vnity per literas formatas and that our Concord lyeth only in obeying this Power and it's Schism not to unite in such Obedience § 3. II. Moreover the former Church of England and Parliaments thought that the Oath of Supremacy which excluded a Foreign Jurisdiction did mean as well the Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope as President of a Council and that Council with him and of the Pope as Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis and of the Bishops of Italy Spain France Poland Mexico Turky c. as of a Pope above Councils And they were not willing again to Subject the King and Kingdom to Foreign Priests nor to be cheated into Slavery by the bare Name of the Catholick Church and the Ecclesiastical Government § 4. III. And they indeed took the Pope to be the Antichrist specially for his Usurping an Universal Kingdom or Governing Power proper to Christ And therefore were angry with Archbishop Laud and his Chaplains for leaving out all such words from the Liturgy to avoid the Pope's displeasure of which Dr. Heylin ubi sup giveth you an account See but Bishop Downame's large Latine Book to prove the Pope Antichrist who yet hath written the strongliest for Diocesan Bishops of any man in my Judgment that ever I read § 5. IV. And they thought that the Doctrinal differences were very many and very great and in divers Points I believe they thought them greater than they are see the huge Catalogue gathered by Bishop Downame in the End of the foresaid Book Morton White Whitaker Abbot Field Sutliffe Chaloner Bernard Crakenthorpe and abundance more chief Drs. of the old Church of England have opened them at large But how small the new Drs. made them to be Dr. Heylin fully tells you And Archbishop Bromhall saith ubi sup p. 72 73. when all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly Mustered c. See the rest § 6. V. But none doubted but the Differences about Worship were unreconcileable till one Party much changed their Forms of Worship Their great Mass of superstitious Inventions if not Idolatry as the Church of England thought and Dr. Stillingfleet even of late hath charged on them Protestants could never be reconciled to But of A Bishop Laud's reconciling attempts in Worship See Heylin Vbi supra in his Life And Archbishop Bromhall saith P. 141. Speaking against Chillingworth's true way of Concord That Form which the Protestants would allow the Romanists cry out on as defective in Necessary Duties and particularly wanting five of their Sacraments Nay certainly to call the whole frame of the Liturgy into Dispute offers too large a Field for Contention and is nothing so likely a way for Peace as either for us to accept of their Form abating some such Parts of it as are Confessed to have been added since the Primitive times and are acknowledged not to be simply necessary but such as charitable Christians ought to give up and Sacrifice to an Vniversal Peace and would do it readily enough if it were not for mutual Animosities of both Parties and particular Interests of some Persons § 7. VI. And they thought it as unlawful to obey the Pope as Patriarch of the West or as President with his Council if he imposed on us the Mass or the Worship of Angels Dead Men or Images or any new Sacraments or unlawful things as if he did it as above General Councils § 8. VII And they made no doubt but if the Pope and his Foreign Councils and all his attendant Trumpery were once received as Principium Vnitatis Vniversalis and the President of Councils he would soon come in in the same Capacity that other Popish Countries do receive him § 9. VIII For they knew that it is that same Man that is more absolute in Popish Kingdoms who would submit to some restraint in this And that by Possession Agents and that foreign help he would easilier reduce this to the Case of others than the Case of any others to this § 10. IX They had not lost the Remembrance of the Spanish Invasion the Gunpowder Plot and the many Treasons of late by such committed and it made them fear both the Power and the Company of such a sort of men § 11. X. They remembred the heavy Taxes Oppressions and the Rebellions and Wars that had been in the times of Popery in England And they had felt the ease and sweetness of Deliverance and were loth to return to that Captivity again 12 XI They had not forgotten Queen Maries Days Fox's Book of Martyrs was in the hands of many Nor had they forgot the French Massacre or the greater Murders formerly committed by Wolves in Sheep-skins who were known by
of the Vnity of the Catholick Church As if it were Vnified by One Humane Political Soveraignty Monarchical or Aristocratical Pope or Universal Council which hath Power of Governing all Christians on Earth by Universal Legislation and Judicature and not only by Christ who indeed is its only Universal Governour II. By extolling Monarchy as the best means of Unity and so inferring the Papal Monarchy so did Carolus Boverius to our late King Charles in Spain As if Princes were so weak as not to distinguish a National and a Vniversal Monarchy Let them try this Argument with any Papist King on Earth Monarchy is the best Government Ergo there should be One Monarch of all the Earth whose Subject you and all other Kings must be and see whether they will be so fooled into Subjection III. By dreaming of such a difference between Civil Government and Church Government that though no man in his wits pleads for one Humane King or Senate to Govern the whole Earth by the Sword yet it is our Religion to be for and under One Soveraign Church Governour Pope or Senate of all the Earth whereas he is unfit to Govern one Church who knoweth not that It is more impossible for the whole Earth to be Governed by One Church Soveraign Pope or Council than by one King or Parliament by the Sword IV. By confounding the Universal Roman Empire and Church and the Vniversal World and dreaming that what is said of the first was said of the last and when the Church is called Catholick or Universal and Councils General only as to the Roman Empire they would perswade men that it 's meant of all the World V. By pleading that Possession which Pope and Patriarchs and Councils had in the Empire as if it obliged the same Countries to them when they are fallen under other Princes And by pleading to the same Ends all the Possession which Popes or Patriarchs or Councils have got by deceiving any Nations of the World VI. By mistaking the Nature and Extent of the Pastoral Office because as every Christian so every Pastor is related to the Universal Church therefore they gather that there is one College or Council consisting of all Bishops in the World the Pope being President who as an Aristocracy must soveraignly Govern all the Christian World by Legislation and Judgment As if because Physicions are Licensed to Practice any where in the Land as they are called therefore they might gather into a General Council and Command all the Land to obey them as Law givers in all Matters of Health and Physick and might invade the Hospitals at their pleasure And so all the Churches and Church Affairs on Earth must be governed by Priests of Foreign Lands VII By first mistaking and then falsly claiming Apostolical Power Because Christ chose a few whom he first personally taught his Will and then endowed with the Gift of Infallibility by his Spirit to Preach first and Record after his Doctrine and Laws to oblige all the World therefore they pretend that ordinary Bishops who had no such Spirit Office or Commission may also make Laws to bind all the World And when every single Apostle had this Office Power and Spirit but they yet a while lived together at Jerusalem till their dispersion they pretend that at Jerusalem they were a General Council and that all Bishops therefore may Govern as a General Council whereas the Apostles Mission was Indefinite and not Universal else they had sinned in not going into all the World And it was easie to Guide the Universal Church while it was almost all at Jerusalem or near them And their Office as to Legislation differeth from common Pastors as Moses the Legislator's did from the Priests who were but to govern by his Laws and not to make more VIII By pretending a necessity of Judging and Ending Controversies and therefore of having one deciding Judge or Judicature for all the World As if any would be so mad as ever to expect that all Controversies about the Mysteries of Supernatural Revelation and the unseen World should be ended in this Life As if Ignorance would be without Errour And is he a Man that knoweth not how little it is that the wisest know and how much Ignorance all Mankind is guilty of Have these Pretenders yet ended Controversies Are there not many Horse-Loads of Volumes of Controversies among themselves Have they yet written any Infallible or Determining Commentary on the Bible Did not St. Paul write Rom. 14. 15 c. for bearing with tolerable Differences Is it not the Great Wisdom and Mercy of God to lay mens Salvation upon a few plain things though a multitude besides remain as Controversies Christ will decide them all at the Great approaching Judgment And is there any on Earth that can decide them all that hath either so great Knowledge or so Universal a decisive Power Why is the Christian World these Thousand or Twelve hundred Years divided into Greeks Armenians Nestorians Jacobites Papists Protestants c. if there be a Humane Judicature to End all Controversies And are such Popes as reigned from a Thousand to Fifteen hundred and such Bishops as made up their Councils Men of Ignorance and Vice fit to end all Controversies on Earth IX In order to these Ends they make a great cry of the Sects and Divisions which are among Protestants to draw men that love Unity to come for it to the Church of Rome And first they impudently falsifie the History of the Matter of Fact and perswade Men that the Differences among Protestants are ten times greater than they are They have thus pleaded it to my face when I had a Pastoral Charge at Kidderminster where we were all of one Religion and lived in love and Peace and had not one separating Assembly in a great Town and Parish And where to this day they live in Piety Love and Peace and I hear not of one person that for any difference breaketh this bond of brotherly love and liveth in any opposition to the rest Yet Strangers are told that we are mad in religious Sects and Strife Indeed zealous people that account all the Matters of the World but trifles in Comparison of things everlasting do make a greater Matter of them than men of no Religion do If among them one or two turn to any dangerous Sect or Course it stirs up much censure and opposition when in undisciplined Churches corrupted like the common World multitudes in a Parish may abstain from Sacraments and in Coffee-Houses or at Visits familiarly talk against the Immortality of the Soul and against the Scripture and all serious Religion and it maketh no great noise An Act of Fornication once in many Years among chast religious persons is a Scandal scarce ever to be expiated when among known Stews it 's little talkt of Weeds are not suffered in a Garden But in the Commons who pulls them up And what wonder if they strive most about
our Concord it comes all to one in point of Obligation Ans. 1. If it come all to one in the effect why do you contend for so much more in the Cause 2. God bindeth Princes and States as much to Concord and yet their voluntary Treaties and Dyets and a Supreme Government over them do not come all to one 3. God doth not bind all Churches or Christians to agree in more than he himself hath commanded them And therefore hath given power to none on Earth to determine what more all shall agree in 4. The Greater the Councils are caeteris paribus the more all Protestants reverence them because they signifie the Concord of many But 1. We know that there are none of them Universal as to the World nor ever are like to be 2. We know that the Greater part are usually the worst and that at this day the far greater number of Christians on Earth Papists Greeks Armenians Nestorians Jacobites c. are lamentably degenerate ignorant and corrupt 3. And we know that as God hath not made the greater number the Governors of the lesser so neither doth he bind or allow the less to consent to them to their hurt 4. And when Councils for meer Agreement will degenerate and Usurp a Regiment over Dissenters they change their Species and bind us not to obey them but oppose them as Usurpers XI The last deceit that I shall here name is Their pretence of the mischief of letting Sinful or Heretical Kingdoms go unpunished when singular Persons must not escape Therefore there must be a Supreme Power on Earth to correct or punish National Churches or Kingdoms You may find the Argument in Dr. Sawell Bishop Guning's Chaplain and Master of a College in Cambridge and many others This is so plain dealing that one would think all Kings and Kingdoms should easily understand it But I answer it 1. Why will this pretended necessity of correcting Kings and Kingdoms infer One Universal Church Soveraign any more than one King or Senate over all the Earth Perhaps you 'le say The Church is one but Kingdoms are many I answer The whole World on Earth is One Kingdom of God but particular Churches are many 2. Kings and whole Kingdoms shall be punished as well as singular Persons But only by God the Universal King or by permitted Enemies but not by any Humane Superior Governors Kings are under the Laws of God and they shall be judged by those Laws If you lived in the due expectation of Death and Judgment you would not think them insignificant words that the Just Universal Judge is as at the Door who only can Judge Kings 3. The Ministers of Christ who know them and live under them have sufficient Authority to admonish Kings and Kingdoms and exercise Pastoral Care of their Souls by Preaching and Applying the Word of God as their own Physicians are fittest to take care of their Health without sending to Rome or over all the Earth for a Council of Physicians What work these Universal Rulers have made by Excommunicating Kings and Interdicting Kingdoms History acquainteth us It hath not been such as should make any Man long for an Universal Church Governour of Kings and Kingdoms 4. Those Foreigners that think Kings and Kingdoms Heretical and prove it may renounce Communion with them without pretending to be their Governors I have thought meet here briefly to repeat our Controversie with the Reasons and Deceits of the Usurpers our own Judgment is for true Catholicism even one Catholick Head Jesus Christ one Catholick Church having no other Head or Soveraign One Spirit One Faith One Baptism One Hope of Glory and One God and Father of all And that all Christians should live in Love to others as themselves and in their several Churches under the just conduct of their several Pastors keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 That they should all know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and highly esteem them in love for their work sake and be at peace among themselves 1 Thes. 5.12 13. That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men who judge as God would have them judge Rom. 14.17 But if God be forsaking the West as far as he hath done the East and dementation prognosticate perdition the Kingdom above shall never be forsaken And we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting to the Coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Chap. V. What a Foreign Jurisdiction by Councils or the College of Bishops is the Mask being taken off MEthinks Princes and States and Churches should not be cheated into a state of Subjection without ever considering or examining what it is And methinks no honest Bishops should be unwilling that it be truely understood I. Consider what an Universal Legislative Power includeth It plainly implyeth the insufficiency of Gods Words and Laws to those Ends for which this power is pretended Whereas this is the very point of the Protestant Cause as differenced from Popery that God being the only Ruler of the whole World none else can make Laws for the whole but only such By Laws for their particular Provinces as Corporations do under the King for undetermined Circumstances in which Kingdoms and Churches may freely differ II. By this the Peace of the Christian World will be laid on these variable Circumstances As if all the World were bound to wear such Garments as France or England wear c. III. By this the Legislative Power of every Kingdom is taken away in all matters of Religion which are our greatest things For it is the summa potestas only that hath the Legislative Power At least no Inferior hath any but from and under the Supreme nor may contradict them VVhereas even the Decrees of our National Clergy are no Laws with us till the King shall make them Laws IV. By this no Man can tell what degree of Power these Foreigners will assume As the Popes Ecclesiastical Power is now extended to Testaments Matrimony Adulteries Church Lands c. Among Christians to whom all things are sanctified they may challenge almost all And when it becomes a Controversie who shall judge Certainly the Supreme Power is the Supreme Judge of their own Rights V. I think it will oblige Kings Lords and all when Summoned to Travel out of their own Kingdoms as Malefactors to answer what accusations are brought against them For certainly a Supreme Judicature must have its Forum where men must be heard before they are Judged and where all that are Summoned must answer Or else Kings and Kingdoms must become poor Subjects to any
to him after 3. Between a Bishop whose revolt is professed and one that denieth it or keeps it secret 4. Between living peaceably and owning the Right of the Bishops Authority 5. Between obeying him as a Magistrate and as a Church Pastor 6. Between obeying him as a meer Bishop and as the Subject of a Foreign Power 7. Between obeying such a one when the Church accepteth him or when he is but an intruder against their consent 8. Between subjection in necessary cases where no better can be had and in cases unnecessary where we may have better § 6. And I shall speak my thoughts as in a dreadful case in these Conclusions I. If the Bishops revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction be unknown it maketh not that Obedience to him unlawful which was his due II. If a few Bishops revolt to a Foreign Usurper it 's easie to see that no one should follow them against the contrary judgment of all the rest in the Nation and so forsake the National Concord III. If one or more Bishops be known to revolt to a Foreign Soveraign a Minister is not bound therefore to renounce Communion with all the Christians or Churches in his Diocess who are innocent No nor with all that renounce not Communion with him For we know not whether they know his case and have had means to understand and do their Duty IV. So far as a Bishop exerciseth the Power of the Sword as an Officer of the King we must obey him though he be a Papist in all things which he hath true power to command V. One that was Ordained by him before his revolt may go on with his work and live peaceably and not openly renounce the revolting Bishop till he have a particular Call for the Churches safety or the preservation of his own innocency VI. If a man be necessitated to live where no other Ministry or Christian Communion can be had one that renounceth the Bishops Subjection to an Universal Usurper may yet be subject to him and receive Baptism from him or administer it and other Ordinances of God in his Diocess and acknowledge his Office so far as it is described by Christ and conveyed by just means and hath the consent of the Church A man may have two Commissions to one Office of which one is currant and the other null If one that hath Christs Commission shall also take one from a Forreign Usurper the latter is void and the taking of it is his heinous sin but it doth not nullifie all his Administrations to the Church because his better Commission may so far stand good as that his Baptizing Ordination and other Administration of Gods own Ordinances shall not be null And therefore we use not to Rebaptize such as Papists Baptize nor Re-ordain all that they ordain to the Ministry in general VII But it is rather a Duty to forbear all Church Assemblies where no other can be had than to profess conâ—â—nt to a Foreign Usurpation or pretended Universal Soveraignty For no sin must be done on pretence of necessity nothing being indeed necessary which must be got by sinful means VIII If a Nation as France be subject to the Usurpers of an Universal Soveraignty or if a Nation shew themselves to be designing such a Subjection or if one Bishop or more declare themselves for it It is the Duty of Ministers openly to disown and oppose such attempts and ordinarily to disown the proper Church Government Ordinations and Communion of such Bishops And it is the peoples Duty to disown the Pastoral Conduct of such Ministers as openly follow them For 1. The design of this Universal Usurpation is Treason against Christ by setting up men to possess his Prerogative and pretend to be his Vicars or Chief Substitutes without his Commission And it is a design to divide all the Churches by false means of Union and so to cast them all into that miserable War which the Romanists these Thousand years have done And consequently to introduce an intolerable corruption of Discipline and Worship Doctrine and Life And no man may lawfully join in so wicked a design nor be so much as neutral If with single Fornicators Railers Drunkards c. we may not eat in familiarity much less with such Subverters of the Christian World 2. And no Christian is actually a Church-member under any one as his Pastor without mutual Consent And it is not lawful to consent to take a Traytor against Christ and the Church for our Pastor He that is no Pastor should not be taken for a Pastor But if he either want any Essential Qualification as to be Christs Minister for the Churches good or the Consent of the Flock he is no Pastor to them 3. The resolution of the Case against Martial and Basilides by the Carthage Council with Cyprian fully decideth the Case proving by Scripture and Reason if the people forsake not an uncapable Bishop though other Bishops are for them they greatly sin against God And those that were but Libellatick came far short of the guilt of the Universal Usurpation 4. And it is not the danger of suffering that will justifie Subjection to such Designers For suffering must not seem intolerable to Believers None are true Christians but dispositive Martyrs 5. Many old Canons were made against Presbyters Swearing or Promising Obedience to Bishops as a thing dangerous to the Church much more is it sinful to do it to such Church Enemies 6. And Magistrates commands will not excuse it because it is a thing forbidden of God and which no Man hath right to command IX The restriction of in licitis honestis maketh it not lawful to Swear or Promise Obedience to such 1. Because even to subject our selves to Usurpers is not licitum aut honestum tho' they command nothing else but good 2. A Lawful Ruler must be obeyed only in licitis honestis And a Usurper must not be as much owned as a Lawful Ruler If an Usurper should set up in England and should falsly pretend the Kings Commission and should sollicite the Kings Army to take Commissions from him a Loyal Subject might be deceived by him believing that he had the Kings Commission when he had none And might at once be true to the King in Heart and do the things that Traytors do But if he know that he hath none of the Kings Commission but raiseth Arms against his Will and Law to strengthen himself every Subject ought to renounce him and to renounce the Commanders that follow him and neither to Swear Obedience to them in licitis honestis nor yet to bear Arms under them And this is as true of a Parliament or any Senate as of a single Usurper should they falsly pretend that the King or Law doth make them the Governors of the Kingdom and so Usurp the Kings proper Power And specially if the Total Legislative and Judicial Supreme Power be absolutely in the King alone as it is in God
of Bishops in France depose the best of Kings Ludov. Pius XV. Another Council at Aquisgrane deposeth Lotharius XVI Theodora's Council at Constantinople is again for Images XVII They so far deceived Kings that Carolus Calvas in a Council at Tullum saith That no man may depose him without the hearing and judgment of the Bishops who are called the Throne of God by whom God decreeth Judgment and to whom he subjecteth himself XVIII An. 868. In a Council at Rome under Hadrian 2d to detect the Thieves in Monasteries they are to be made receive Christ's Body and Blood XIX An. 869. The Constantinople Council called by the Papists the 4th and the 8th General one C. 3. Curseth those that think Images are not to be Worshipped with the same honour as the Gospel as teaching by colours what the Scripture doth by words saying They shall not see Christ's face at his second coming that adore not his Image Yet C. 8. They depose Bishops that made men Swear to be true to them And so our Bishops must be deposed for the Oath of Obedience to them XX. The C. 11. is that All Bishops bearing on Earth the Person and Form of the Celestial Hierarchy shall with all Veneration be worshipped by all Princes and Subjects And shall not go far from Church to meet any Commanders or Nobles Nor shall light from their Horses like Supplicants or Abjects that feared them nor fall down and Petition them Else the Bishop shall be separated a Year from the Sacrament and the Princes Dukes or Captains two Years Is this like the Law of Christ Are all Princes under it XXI C. 12. Princes as Prophane may not be Spectators of that which Holy Persons do and therefore Councils are held without them Who would think that our Bishops or Priests could subscribe to these and to the 39 Articles and the Oath of Supremacy also XXII Can. 14. saith That a Lay-man shall have no Power to Dispute by any reason of Ecclesiastical Sanctions For though a Lay-man excel in the praise of Piety and Wisdom yet he is a Lay-man and a Sheep and not a Pastor But a Bishop though it be Manifest that he is destitute of ALL VIRTUE OF RELIGION yet he is a Pastor as long as he exerciseth the office of a Bishop and the Sheep must not resist the Shepherd Princes and Parliaments must note this XXIII An. 876. A Concilium Titin. maketh Charles Emperor against Ludovicus the Popes expresly claiming the Power of electing approving and making Emperours as his right And Stephen 5 alias 6. with Bishops and Lords depose the Emperour Carolus Crassus after as too dull And the Pope telleth the Emperour Basil that the Sacerdotal Dignity is not subject to Kings and that Kings are authorized to meddle only with worldly Matters and Popes and Priests with Spiritual Therefore their Place is more excellent than Emperours as Heaven is above Earth And the Disciple is not above his Lord. XXIV An. 888. A Council at Mentz saith That a King ruling impiously and unjustly is a Tyrant and not a King XXV Ibid. Whereas Clergymen were accused for getting their own Sisters with Child it was decreed that no Presbyter accuse a Bishop nor any Deacon a Presbyter And that no Prelate be Condemned but under Seventy two Witnesses and that the chief Prelate be Judged of no Man And a Cardinal Presbyter under Forty two Witnesses and a Cardinal Deacon under Twenty six and Sub-deacons Acoluthes Exorcists Readers Door-keepers not under Seven Witnesses and all these without Infamy having Wives and Children O secure Wickedness XXVI Ibid. The Punishment of one Murdering even a Priest is To forbear Flesh and Wine and not to be carried in a Coach and not to come to Church in Five years nor to the Sacrament in Twelve XXVII An. 895. In Concil Tribur If the Bishop command the people to meet in one place and the Magistrate in another they must obey the Bishop and not the Magistrate He and all his Company shall obey the Bishop C. 10. No Bishop shall be deposed but by Twelve Bishops nor no Presbyter but by Six Bishops XXVIII An. 912. A Council at Confluence decree that none Marry within the Seventh degree XXIX An. 1049. Leo 9th and his Council of Bishops sit at Rhemes though the King forbad them But they decree that no man be promoted to Church Government without the election of the Clerks and the People XXX An. 1050. Two Councils condemn Berengarius and Jo. Scotus's Doctrine of the Sacrament As others after did at Rome and forced him to recant and profess Transubstantiation in sense XXXI The Pope and Bishops An. 1055. Interdict the whole Kingdom of Castile unless King Ferdinand submit to the Emperour Henry where they require him The choice of Popes by Cardinals introduced No man is to hear Mass of a Priest that he knoweth to have a Concubine a Wife Pope Alexander declareth King Harold a Usurper and set up William the Conquerour as in Right He brings in the Payment of Peter Pence to the Pope XXXII Greg. 7. Claimeth Presentations and Investitures Excommunicateth and deposeth the Emperour in a Roman Council and Excommunicateth all Bishops that were for him Absolveth his Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance Saying It is meet that he be deprived of Dignity who endeavoureth to diminish the Majesty of the Church Commandeth that no King dare to resist his Legates Calls the King of France a ravening Wolf Declares in Council their Power to put down Kings Challengeth Spain as St. Peter's Patrimony Threatens the ruine of the Prince of Calaris if he make not his Bishops shave their Beards Challengeth Peter Pence of France I would transcribe out of Binnius the Pope's 27 Dictates or Determinations containing all the Papal Usurpations or most but that it is tedious and you may there see them or in my Summary of the Bishops Councils pag. 356 translated XXXIII An. 1074. In a Council at Rome Priests are not only forbidden Marriage but commanded to put away their Wives XXXIV An. 1078. A Roman Council pronounceth all Ordinations null not made by the common Consent of Clergy and People And must we agree to nullifie almost all the Church of England XXXV An. 1079. A Council forced Berengarius to Recant And An. 1080. another Excommunicateth and deposeth the Emperour XXXVI An. 1085. A Council at Quintilenburg maketh the Emperour's Claim of Investitures and not obeying the Pope to be Heresie and calls it by the Name of the Henrician Heresie that is Loyalty or not being against Kings at the Pope's Command And this Heresie is after oft Condemned XXXVII Victor's Council An. 1087. declareth that Simoniacks are Hereticks and Infidels and all Lay Patrons are Simoniacks with them that claim Presentations and Investitures and not to be communicated with and that it 's better communicate with God only in secret than with such XXXVIII An. 1090. A Council at Melâ—ia decree that no Lay-man hath Right or Authority over a
Clergy-man or may invest any XXXIX An. 1094. A Council at Constance decree against Married Priests XL. An. 1095. A Council at Clermont command that no Bishop or Priest make any Promise of Allegiance to a King or any Lay-man And that every Lay-labourer abate or pay the Tenth of his Wages to the Clergy XLI About 1100. a Council decreed that all Bishops of the Henrician Heresie for Loyalty be deposed and if dead dig'd up and burnt XLII An. 1108. A Council at Benevent decree that if any take a Benefice from a Lay-man's Presentation the Giver and Taker shall be Excommunicate XLIII An. 1180. A General Council as they call it at Laterane under Alexander the 3d called the Eleventh General Council condemning those whom they call Catharoi Puritans absolve Inferiours from all Duty and Fidelity to them and promise Indulgence to those that fight against them XLIV An. 1215. was the great Fourth Laterane General Council under Pope Innocent 3d. which obligeth Princes to exterminate all that are against Transubstantiation c. and else deposeth excommunicateth and damneth them Thus you see what must be the Protestant Religion when our present Church of England is United with the Roman Obj. Some of these were but Provincial Councils Ans. And are you not in England for obeying Provincial Councils I 'le then omit transcribing Spelman's Chap. IX Whether the Instance of the Apostles Church Government prove an Vniversal Soveraignty in the Bishops further considered § 1. THE pretence of all the Bishops in the World to the Government of all the Church on Earth as one Aristocratical Senate College or Court is so monstrous a fiction that were it not for that shadow of an Argument which they fetch from the instance of the Apostles and their pretended Succession I should think it would expose the pretenders to be taken for distracted men And therefore whether this instance will prove them in their wits let us further try § 2. The Apostles Commission is contained in Matth. 28.18 19 20. All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alwaies even unto the end of the World Here 1. Christ's proper Universal Power is both the cause of their Commission and the matter which they must Preach 2. Their appointed work is 1. To make Nations Christ's Disciples 1. By Teaching 2. By Baptizing them 2. To Teach them when they are Disciples That which they must teach them when they are Disciples is To observe all Christ's Commands These Laws or Commands are but what Christ himself commanded these Disciples To the performance of this Commission he promised them to give them the Holy Spirit to bring all things to their remembrance and to lead them into all Truth and to be with them even to the end The Spirit thus eminently given for this special work was Christ's promised Substitute or as Tertullian calls him his Vacarius and Agent so that what the Spirit so commanded Christ commanded Christ's Commission to them contained much proper to themselves viz. By this extraordinary help of the Spirit to Remember what Christ had commanded them and what they had seen him do and to deliver it with special Power and seal it with special Gifts and Miracles and to Record it Sufficiently and Infallibly as his History Doctrine and Law for the use of the whole World unto the end And so he was with them to the end of their Age and is with their recorded Word to the end of the World And his Commission contained much common to others that is To Preach the same Christ and gather Disciples and Baptize them and to teach the Disciples all those Commands which Christ had delivered to his Apostles by his Mouth or Spirit And with these also in this Work Christ will be to the end of the World § 3. Here we must first consider what was the Apostles Power and Work 2. And then whether all Bishops have the same 3. And what the extent of their Work was when they are sent to all Nations or all the World § 4. 1. It is plain that All Power is not theirs but Christs They are but his Ministers 2. They are not Authorized to be Legislators themselves so as to make any Universal Law as their own But only to be Teachers of the Laws of Christ even such only as they received from him Accordingly they never made any Universal Law as their own But only told the World what Christ Commanded by his Word and Spirit 3. They were not made an Aristocratical College to do this by the authority of a Major Vote For as the same Spirit of Truth was given to every one of them singly so singly they were herein as Infallible as altogether 4. Accordingly they Preached abroad the World the same Gospel by the same Infallible Spirit Paul did not so much as speak or consult with any Apostles before he Preached as receiving his Gospel not from Man but from God Gal. 1. and 2. 5. The Universal Laws Promulgate by them are the matter of the several Books of the New Testament And there is not one of all these written in the Name of the College or Senate of the Apostles but every one of them by that single person whose name they bear or imply If Christs Law had been to have been made or delivered by the authority of a College as such some one of the Gospels or Epistles would have been so written 6. Yet while they abode together at Jerusalem no doubt they lived in Concord and held the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and believed and spake the same things And so they did when they were dispersed abroad the World And no doubt but their consent was more useful to convince others that they spake Truth than themselves who otherwise knew it 7. In cases not revealed by the Spirit they had the same use for consulting and reasoning the case and learning of others as all other men In this case reasoning was to help them to know But in case of Inspiration Reasoning did but express and exercise their Knowledg 8. As that Act. 15. was no more a General Council than the other Sacred Converse of the Apostles till they dispersed themselves so in their determination they lay it upon the Holy Ghost And Paul and Barnabas had before by the same Spirit accordingly determined But because they were not of the men that had received their knowledge from Christs own works and mouth in converse with him on Earth no wonder if the Jewish Christians desired fuller satisfaction § 5. II. From hence it is apparent 1. That ordinary Pastors or Bishops who have not the same Commission nor the same Inspiration or promise of it nor the same gift of Tongues and Miracles to
bounds of Civil jurisdiction The many Councils which have been for Arians Eutychians Nestorians Monothelites Adoration of Images Papal tyranny c. and the many that have contradicted and condemned them tell us that the Right of Councils must have a better proof than their own affirmation And the far greater number of Christians that have approved or received the Erroneous tell us that they need a better proof than the reception of the greater part How great a part received Greg. 7th dictates and the Councils that Hereticated Royalists as Henricians But that proved not that these things were just Pope Vrbans Letter to King Lewis 13th of France 1629. in the 2d part of the Cab. p. 213. saith Your Ancestors have ever born as much respect to the exhortations of Popes as to the Commandment of God But do these words prove that this is true No more doth it that Leo the first was Caput Ecclesiae Vniversalis because he so called himself The Grand Signiour in his Defiance of Maximilian the Emperor ibid. p. 12. calls himself God in Earth Great and High Emperor of all the World the Great Helper of God King of Kings the only Victorious and Triumphant Lord of the World and of all Circuits and Provinces thereof And more Persons are Mahometans than Christians and more Heathens than either or both and yet none of this proveth Truth and Right § 10. I have marvelled that Carol. Boverius should think it a fit Argument to move our late King Charles 2d in Spain to turn Papist that Monarchy is the best Government in the State Ergo the Papal Monarchy in the Church Did he think the King so dull that he could not distinguish Particular Kingdoms and Monarchs from Vniversal How would the King have taken it if he had said Sir an Vniversal Monarchy is the best humane Government therefore you must subject your self and Kingdom to one Vniversal Monarch But the pretence of an Universal Democracy Aristocracy or Church-Parliament is more absurd and worse as I have proved § 11. Do our Changers of Government think that it is a small matter of which King and People will take no notice but be decoyed into by degrees in the dark to make King Lords Bishops and all the Kingdom the Subjects of a Foreigner and of a Parliament of Prelates who are themselves the Subjects of a Multitude of Foreign Princes Mahometans Heathens Greeks Papists c. As the Child said My Mother ruleth my Father and I rule my Mother and my Father ruleth the City Therefore I rule the City So we may then say the King ruleth England and a Council of Foreign Prelates rule the King and Heathen Mahometan Moscovian Armenian Papist c. Princes rule most of the Bishops in Council Ergo these Princes rule the King Do they know what it is for Pope or Prelates abroad to be made Judges Ecclesiastical of all persons and causes here and to have Power to Excommunicate King and Lords and depose Bishops and silence Ministers and Hereticate Dissenters and Interdict the Kingdom c. Again and again I say that I wonder if those men that have promoted so many Oaths and Promises in the Acts of Corporations Uniformity Vestries Confinement Conventicles Militia never to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State can possibly blind the Nation to think it no alteration to Subject King Church and Kingdom to a Foreign pretended Universal Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction Whether it be Perjury or Treason is no debate for me but I am sure that in ordine ad Spiritualia great temporal power will follow and Excommunicating and Anathematizing Kings and People hath not hitherto been a Toothless thing But quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat § 12. And what if they had found Ancient Councils Excommunicate some men without the Empire What pitty is it that any where Lords yea Bishops and Clergy men should be bred up in such Ignorance as to think that all Excommunicating is an act of Government I said before any Neighbour Prince Nation or People any number of Bishops when they hear another Nation turned notorious Hereticks may renounce Communion with them and declare the reason of it because they have made themselves uncapable Governing Excommunication per judicium publicum id est per personam publicam seu Rectorem is one thing and a declared renunciation and refusal of Communion per judicium privatum that is by an equal or private person is another thing I am not bound to stay till Turk or Pope is Excommunicated by their Governours before I renounce Christian Communion with them Paul's charge 1 Cor. 5. With such a one no not to eat and Tit. 3.10 A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid and St. John's Bid him not good speed c. may bind equals that have but judicium privatum discretionis when no Superior Ruler Excommunicateth the Sinner Chap. X. Some Questions about General Councils to be resolved before all the World can subject Kings Kingdoms Souls and Scripture to their Government or Decrees and take them for the Vnifying Ruling-Power over the Vniversal Church NOthing can be more necessary to all Christians Learned and Unlearned than to be sure of the truth of that which must be the foundation of all our obedience and our hopes And therefore if it be the General Councils Actual or Virtual in the chief Patriarchs and Metropolitans or supposed College of Bishops which is the Unifying or Constitutive Regent part of the Universal Church and on whose credit we must take the Scripture to be God's Word and from whose Judgment we must not appeal to Scripture or to God it 's the primum necessarium that we be sure of the Authority and Infallibility or Credit of such Councils And first we are to consider the matter of their Determining Power 1. There are Things 2. Words 3. The signification of words to be judged of 2. There are Truths of Natural and of Supernatural Revelation to be judged of 3. There are the Essentials of Christianity the Integrals and the Accidents to be judged of 4. And the Judgment is 1. Witnessing 2. Teaching 3. Or judicially Deciding We must first know who are the Judges 2. What is their work 3. How certain they are Qu. 1. Did not Apostles and other Preachers singly convert men even thousands before there was any General Council and that by such evidence as the single Preacher brought Or was it by the Argument of Universal Consent that every one then was converted e. g. the Eunuch Act. 8. The Jailor and Lydia Act. 16. Cornelius and his house Act. 10. The three thousand Act. 2.37 c. Q. 2. Did none that St. Paul wrote his Epistles to believe them till they were told that all the Teachers and Bishops of the Churches gave them their Authority Were the Gospels written by Matthew Mark Luke and John received only by the Argument of the Councils or Colleges Authority Q.
3. Did not Christ that sent out his Preachers by two and two and bid them shake off the dust of their feet as a Witness against those that did not receive them expect that they should be received and believed without the Authority of a Council Q. 4. Did Christ or his Apostles ever institute a General Council or Unifying College of Bishops to be the standing Aristocratical Government of all the Universal Church as one Q. 5. Would not this have been plainly done if the certainty of Scripture and Salvation and the Churches Unity had been founded on it Q. 6. If thousands were then made Christians without the knowledge of Councils or College may they not be so now Q. 7. Was the Church no Church or ungoverned for the first 300 years when there was no General Council Q. 8. And were not Christians all that while sure that the Scripture was true And were they not of the same Faith as now Q. 9. Was it not Constantine that called the first General Council at Nice and had he any Authority to call any but his Subjects Q. 10. Do not the Subscriptions of the Antient Councils shew that they were General only as to the Roman Empire and not to all the World Q. 11. How shall we be sure that the Council of one Nation or Empire is Ruler of all the other Kingdoms of the World Q. 12. When Councils of equal number and called by equal Authority of Emperors condemned one another in the days of Constantius Valens Valentinian Gratian Arcadius and Honorius Theodosius senior and junior Martian Zeno Basiliscus Leo Philippicus Anastasius Justinian c. how were all men and women sure which was of Conciliar Power and which not As to their faulty carriage each accused other Q. 13. Seeing so many then erred and are called Hereticks at this day as the Councils of Tyre Ephes. 2. Arimin Sirmium Milane Constantinople Alexandria Antioch Jerusalem Rome c. how shall we now be sure which err not Q. 14. If we must believe Scripture on the credit of Councils must we not also believe which Councils are true upon the credit of Councils And if so is it on the Authority of that same Council or another If of the same then must every Council even the Heretical be so believed or which and how known If of another must the Church suspend its belief of one Council till anoâ—her is called to attest it And on what account is that other to be believed And what if the later condemn the former and the next condemn that as Florence and Pisa Constance and Basil Q. 15. Is it all the Council agreeing or the major Vote against the rest that hath the credit or authority aforesaid Q. 16. How shall we be sure that the minor part are not in the right Q. 17. How shall all the distant World be sure the Votes were truly taken Q. 18. Why was the major Vote counted invalid if the Patriarchs were against it And are those Patriarchs of Divine Authority infallible Q. 19. What if one or two Votes turn the scales for a majority and what if afterward more come in on the other side and turn it back the other way as the Constantinopol Council did in Nazianzens case are both the sides infallible or authoritative So at Eph. 1. Q. 20. Who must call a valid Council What if the Pope call one and the Patriarch of Alexandria another and the Emperor another which is valid Q. 21. Is the Church no Church in the long intervals of Councils Q. 22. If it be where is the Visible Constitutive Supremacy or Power If in the Patriarchs and Metropolitans they are divided and account each other sometime Hereticks and sometime Schismaticks Q. 23. Who hath Authority to make Patriarchs now or Metropolitans for all the Christian World Q. 24. Must we now obey the major part of the old Patriarchal Seats Q. 25. If it be in all the Bishops of the Earth 1. Who shall go to them all over the World with all our Church cases 2. Who shall judge which of them are Hereticks while they hereticate each other 3. Who shall assure us that their Votes are truly gathered 4. Who shall bring them from all over the Earth to the person to be judged 5. Can they judge truly without hearing the accused and their witnesses 6. Where at this day may we find their Decrees by which they Rule except in Councils Q. 26. Must a General Council or this College consist of all the Bishops of the World or but of part Q. 27. If of all is such a Council possible or lawful Q. 28. If of part who shall chuse them And seeing undoubted experience tells us that most of the Clergy every where in such cases obey the Power that hath the Sword whether the choice that is made in the Turks Empire will not be made by the Turk and in other Kingdoms of Heathens Infidels Papists Hereticks by their several Kings and Magistrates And can we be sure such are infallible Q. 29. If the Empire of Abassia have but one Bishop the Abuna shall that Empire have but one Vote in Councils and be ruled by the rest And is it not certain that those next the Antipodes and remotest Kingdoms can send but few and must they therefore be ruled by those near the place who will be many Q. 30 Yea is it not wickedness or madness to attempt to call aged Bishops or any from all the Christian World to displease prohibiting Princes to hazard their lives in travel many years to forsake their Flocks so long and by differing Languages not able to understand each other nor like to live long enough to bring home the Decrees when perhaps they must sit so many years in Council as they did at Trent wearing out the lives of many Popes And what is the necessity of all this Q. 31. If those few that are sent do that which the rest at home dissent from is it valid e. g. King James chose Six to go to the Synod at Dort and most then consented and most now dissent The Parliament chose a Synod of one Mind and the King by his Clergy one of another And how shall we know that the Churches own the Acts of their Delegates and dissent not as the Greeks did after the Council of Florence Can all Men and Women rest on things no better known to them Q. 32. Seeing that it is notorious that the Bishops of almost all the Christian World except part of Europe are very unlearned ignorant Men Armenians Georgians Iberians Mengrelians most of the Greeks Moscovites and the numerous Easterns called Nestorians and Jacobites and Copties c. and abundance of the Papists also in Europe How shall we be sure that so many Ignorant Men and too vicious will do the work of Wise or Infallible Judges of the Christian World if they do but meet together in Council much less as scattered and called a College Must not this
for such when divers Churches and Countries may have divers such Accidentals and the same Churches may change them as they see cause Q. 80. If it be not Legislation but Judicature that we must have an Universal Judge or Power for what are the Cases that they must Judge Sure it is not whether John or Thomas shall be judged capable of Baptism or of the Lord's Supper or whether he be an Adulterer a Drunkard and impenitent therein and so to be Excommunicate Must all the World come before all the World Shall Millions of Sinners be unjudged till all the Bishops of the World Judge them If it be Persons accused of Heresie Schism or any Sin that must be judged must they not be heard and their witness heard before they can be judged justly But if they Judge not of Persons but of Doctrines whether they be Heresie or not this will make no Alteration or Reformation till it be judged what persons are guilty of such Errors or Heresies And if particular Pastors on the place must judge all such persons is not the Scripture the Rule of Faith a sufficient Rule to judge of Heresie by Q. 81. If it be whole Churches that are to be judged will not a brotherly power of disowning their Communion serve without a Governing Power Had every one a Governing Power to whom the Apostles commanded with such not to eat nor bid them good speed May not Princes renounce Communion with Neighbour Princes and Nations without being their Governour Q. 82. In conclusion doth it not remain that this pretended Universal Soveraignty Monarchical or Aristocratical is the device of the Prince of Pride a Treasonable Usurpation over all Princes disobedience to Christ Luke 22. and Antichristian Usurpation of his Prerogative and a base Captivating of the Souls and Reason of Mankind to a pretended Power which common sense reason and experience fully proveth to be a natural impossibility or that which in practice no Mortal Man or College is capable of Chap. XI A Breviate of the Papists Faith and Church Doctrine both the Monarchical and Aristocratical sort § 1. WE must believe that Christ hath a Church before we believe that he is Christ the Redeemer § 2. VVe must believe that this Church is Infallible or our Governour before we can believe that Jesus is Christ and our Governour § 3. We must believe that Christ Promised Infallibility or Governing Authority to this Church before we can believe that he is Christ. § 4. We must believe that this Promise is true and shall be fulfilled before we believe the Gospel Promise of Pardon and Salvation that is before we are Christians or believe the Scripture § 5. We must believe that the Pope is Christ's Vicegerent or Vicar General or General Councils at least before we can believe that Christ is Christ. § 6. We must believe that the Words of the Apostles were Intelligible else why did they speak but their Writings are not till a General Council make them so by an Exposition § 7. We must believe that it is intelligible which be true Bishops and Councils and what is the meaning of their Voluminous Decrees but it is not intelligible what is the sense of the Scripture till Councils tell us § 8. We must believe that God is the great Deceiver of the World by sense and things sensible e. g. by sense which takes Bread to be Bread and Wine to be Wine § 9. We must believe that all men are Hereticks who deny not their senses and all that believe sense even of all the sound men in the World shall be Damned That is All that believe God speaking by things sensible § 10. We must believe that God who is the great Deceiver of the World even to and by the senses yet hath given a Spirit of Infallibility to those Popes and Prelates in Council who live in worldliness and wickedness § 11. We must believe that an unlearned Pope and Prelates who never understood the Original Tongue but are ignorant men are by Miracle in Council inspired with the gift of right expounding the Scriptures which they never studied or understood before § 12. We must believe that every Priest how ignorant or wicked soever doth by pronouncing the bare words of Consecration work many Miracles turning Bread into no Bread Wine into no Wine making quantity and other Accidents to exist without Substance c. And that he can work such Miracles every hour of the day and if he can but get into a Bakers Shop or Vintners Celler to say Mass may in malice undo the poor men when he will by turning all their Bread and Wine into none § 13. We must believe that the Roman Empire was all the Christian VVorld or that a Council General as to that Empire was General as to all the VVorld And that the Roman Emperor or the Pope called the Bishops of all the VVorld together And that the humane Primate of one Empire was Governour of all the VVorld § 14. VVe must believe that now that Empire is dissolved the Laws then made bind all the Princes and Churches on Earth viz. that a defunct power still ruleth even those that never owed them obedience § 15. VVe must believe that we in England are rightfully under a Foreign Church Jurisdiction contrary to the Oath of Supremacy § 16. VVe must believe that all Temporal Lords must be sworn to extirpate all Protestants and to perform it if able on pain of Excommunication Deposition and Damnation And that if they do not the Pope may execute this penalty of Excommunicating and Deposing them and giving their Dominion to others and may Absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance Concil Later sub Innoc. 3. Can. 1 2 3. § 17. VVe must Swear never to expound the Scripture but according to the Concordant sense of the Ancient Fathers who never expounded much at all much less ever agreed in any Exposition of them all § 18. VVe must believe that God hath given the Church that is the Pope and Councils a Power to Expound hard Scriptures and to end Controversies and that this is a great Blessing to us VVhen yet neither Pope nor Councils will give us a Commentary on the Bible or exposition of hard Texts nor will determine most of the Controversies that now trouble us § 19. VVe must believe that the Governing part of the Church is to be obeyed and Gods VVord received but by their Proposal when yet it is not known who is the Governing part Pope or Council nor which Councils be true and which but false Conventions nor can they assure us how we may ever come to know it § 20. VVe must believe those Councils to be true and credible which contradict and condemn each other and that both are in the right § 21. VVe must believe both that all Gods VVord in the Sacred Scripture is true and that Councils and Popes say Truth when they contradict it § 22. VVe must believe
that those Popes were true Popes and continued the valid succession and were Governours of all Christian Souls whom General and Provincial Councils condemned as Simonists Hereticks Infidels Atheists or Devils Incarnate and yet that Councils are to be believed as the Proposers of our Faith § 23. VVe must believe that General Councils have Universal Jurisdiction when there are none such nor ever can be nor ever were § 24. VVe must stay for the ending of our controversies till we know that which cannot be known viz. what the Major Vote of all the Bishops on Earth Judge of them or till such Councils end them as caused them their continuance § 25. When we have such Infallible Proof of the Scripture History as we have of the former Kings and Laws of the Land by evidence of Natural certainty we must exchange it for the uncertain determination of Popes and Councils depending on their Authority Knowledge and Honesty And the Infallibility of these who in all their lives else do shew much fallibility And were either Pope or Council Infallible no man that is not Infallible himself in judging of their Infallibility and also in knowing what it is that they propose as de fide is ever the nearer an Infallible Faith § 26. They must make it necessary to us to know that the Greeks the Armenians and all oâ—her Christians who are twice as many as the Papists have some way forfeited their Authority and Credit or else how shall we know that they being the Majority are not to be believed before the Pope and his VVestern Councils § 27. They make more Cosmography and History necessary to Salvation than God made or Vulgar Heads are capable of The name of Rome is not in the Creed It is not necessary to Salvation to know that there is such a place as Rome in the World Much less to know all Countreys on Earth where Christians dwell and which of them are of this Opinion or that and which part hath the major Vote of Bishops and is to be believed If you say They are Nestorians Jacobites Greeks c. the People be not bound to know what any of these names signifie Chap. XII A humble Expostulation to the zealous Antipapists Conformists and Nonconformists whether they are innocent as to promoting Popery THIS is not written to cast on you any contempt or reproach I acknowledge that I take you for the best Ministry that any Nation on earth enjoyeth But it is to try if it may be to promote our common Repentance and to Reform the Nominal mistaken Reformation of those that have sinned by extreams which by the assumed name of Reformation have wronged God and Truth and mens Souls with the greater advantage and success But especially if it may be yet to stop such from a sinful progress that they may not ignorantly set up Popery by crying down the name and persons § I. We have not sufficiently considered how the Popes came to the Greatness that they have attained and how and by whom it is kept up I mean how much the zealous Godly Christians did and do contribute thereto 1. It was the great shame of other Churches by multitudes of Heresies Sects and Contentions that made Rome seem as a Post for those to hold by that had by turning round become so giddy that they could not stand 2. When the best Pastors were persecuted by proud Courtiers erroneous Councils factious Bishops and Arrian Hereticks because Rome had more Concord Quietness and Power they used to seek help from the Bishop of Rome in their necessity and he was ready to take the advantage by helping them to get the reputation of Supremacy So did he by Athanasius and Chrysostom and the Eastern Bishops under Valens and Constantius though Basil complaineth of the Western Bishops for minding them no more The Popes owning of Augustine and Prosper was a great help to him against Pelagius 3. When the Bishops under the Pagans had endured Martyrdom and Torments and Banishments for Christ their godly Flocks when Christianity had conquered thought none so fit for honour and power to govern and protect them as the tryed survivers And who could then be so fit And so it was first the most pious Christians that advanced the Bishops and over-advanced them And specially the Roman Bishops because very many of their Predecessors had been Martyrs and Confessors Tho' we had many able Lay-Magistrates here which Constantine had not quickly yet those that put down Bishops were glad that the Power of Institution and Induction and of Universities and Church Maintenance should be in the hands of Dr. John Owen Dr. T. Goodwin Mr. P. Nye Mr. Bridge Mr. Sydrach Sympson and such other And if the disposing of such advantages for Religion were now committed to Dissenters whom would they sooner chuse for Power therein than their most esteemed Pastors 3. When Emperors Kings and Lords did pill and oppress the poor Commons as in England in the Reign of William the Conqueror W. Rufus c. the Bishops were the only men that by the Power of the Pope were able to controul them and for the honour of their Office oft attempted it And therefore the innocent oppressed People were glad of the Pope's help and theirs to ease their yoke 4. It was the Godly People to promote Christianity and honour the memory of the Martyrs and Saints that bring in the Praying at their Graves and building Altars first and Churches after to retain the honour of their names and that carried and kept their bones and cloaths as honourable Relicts and recited their names in their Service and kept and honoured their Pictures and after prayed to them Much of that Superstition that is now most decried by us was brought by the most religious sort 5. Almost all the Societies of Fryers and Nuns Benedictines Franciscans Dominicans Carthusians Jesuits Oratorians c. have been set up by the most zealously Religious when any fancied a peculiar way of strictness the Bishops being against it they made friends to the Pope to give them his Licence to serve God in their own devised way and to have Government in their own Society without the Bishops controul And the Pope craftily granted it that they might all be his own and maintain his Power which they were necessitated to depend on So Dr. Goodwin and Dr. Owen told King Charles 2. that they desired of him but what the Religious Orders had of the Pope To serve God according to their judgment and hold their Liberty from the King and not to be under the Bishops or Presbytery More such instances I might produce to shew you by what sort of men much of Popery came in but Pride and Worldliness did most § II. I humbly desire it may be thought on whether some have not ignorantly given up the whole Cause to a Foreign Jurisdiction by their Prophetical Exposition of Christ's Epistles to the seven Asian Churches Rev. 2. 3. while they
take them to mean seven Ages and States of the Catholick Church and two of them to mean the blessed Thousand years State For whether by the Angel be meant the Bishop alone or the Bishop with his Elders or the Presbyters as a College it is plain one Governing Power over each Church whether Monarch or Aristocracy is there mentioned by the word Angel And if the Universal Church have such in all Ages and that by Christ's Institution should we be against it Even that which the Thousand years shall have § III. It is a very ordinary Doctrine with us that the Jewish Church was the Universal then in Infancy or at least a Type of it And if so that Church had one summa Potestâ—s both in Magistracy and Ministry sacredly Civil and Ecclesiastical And Christ plainly offered to gather them under him and continue their Polity tho' not their Laws and set up twelve and seventy over them accordingly You I say Though one Aaron was their Head yet Christ is now the only High Priest it followeth not that the Universal Church must have one Humane Priest or King I answer By your way it will follow that it must have one Vniting Specifying Humane Soveraignty Civil and Ecclesiastical If Aaron be down so is not the Sanedrim Civil or Priestly Christ plainly offered to continue them in one Visible Body by his choice of twelve and seventy And it is an Aristocratical Universal Jurisdiction that is as bad as the Monarchical 2. Christ was not a Priest according to the Order of Aaron but of Melchizedeck 3. Christ is Universal King as well as Priest and hath National Kings under him supreme Therefore his being King or Priest in Israel would not exclude the necessity of a supreme King or Priest under him And if Israel was the Catholick Church in Type or Infancy it would follow that it also must have one such Head § IV. Too few Protestants have sufficiently answered the Papists Argument fetcht from the instance of the Apostles viz. The College of Apostles Peter called Primus were one Aristocratical Governing Power over the Universal Church Ergo such a Polity was instituted by Christ. And Christ never revoked this institution Government as well as Word and Sacraments is an ordinary work to be continued And not as Miracles Writing Scripture Witnessing what they saw and heard the extraordinary part of the Apostles VVork Ergo in this they have Successors This is the plausiblest of all Arguments for an Universal Jurisdiction I have shewed you how it prevailed with Bishop Guning and other New Church-men I am not willing to say The new Church How it is to be answered I have before shewed and more fully in my Treatise of National Churches § V. Have not the old and many later Nonconformists advantaged Popery by decrying all Episcopacy or Imparity of Ministers VVhen it is so plain that Christ did set Twelve above Seventy and kept up the number by Matthias and gave power to Apostles and they to other to be exercised over other Churches and Pastors And when it is apparent that all the Churches for many hundred years had Episcopal Government though not such as Popery and Tyranny hath since brought in Those called Hereticks and Schismaticks were for it The Novatians and Donatists over zealous for it Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites Macedonians Acacians and all the Sects in the time of Heathen Persecution I find not that Aerius alone excepted did ever call it unlawful or saw that it was better for the Churches to be with them But that the Bishops and Presbyters Officers were equal And will it not greatly confirm the Papists to find such Protestants reject the judgment and practice of all the ancient Churches and differ from the rest of the Christian VVorld § VI. But it advantaged them much more than our opinion when the Scots Covenant was imposed as the necessary terms of Ministry and Magistracy Thereby weakening the Protestants by a doleful Division that by opinions were divided too much before VVhen so great a part of the Kingdom Clergy Gentry and Vulgar were for the renounced Prelacy to shut all these and all of their mind that ever should come after from Ministry and Magistracy such men as Vsher Beadle Downame Davenant Brownrig Ward Prideaux Field c. Oh how many and how great was this to unite the Protestants and to strengthen them against the United Papists § VII And alas how greatly have those Zealous Protestants confirmed the Papists and dishonoured the Church and Christ their King that maintain that the Church became Antichristian in Anno 300 or 400 or at least 606 if not as soon as Christ by Constantine took possession of the Imperial Visible Government I will not aggravate this as it deserveth But I wonder not if it make thousands of Papists § VIII And Protestants too many have greatly hardened Papists by too bold and forced Expositions of the Apocalyps and laying too much of the stress of their Cause on it as that Pagan Rome is not the Babylon there meant nor that Rome as the Mother or Nurse of Pagan Idolatry the Whore nor the Pagan Empire the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns nor the Pontifical Oracular Foretelling and Literate Tribe the Beast with two Horns nor the Jew and Gentile Miracle-working persecuted Christians radically Epitomized in Peter and Paul the two Witnesses and that Antichrist is spoken of in the Revelations and that Christ intended it as a Prophecy of all the great Affairs and Changes of the Church to the end of the World I say laying the stress of our Cause on these is next to giving it away When a Papist shall call for the proof of this and ask whether John and the seven Churches understood it and what one man on Earth so expounded it of a Thousand years or a Thousand four hundred after Christ and why Mr. Mede saith That the Waldenses were the first of all Mortals that took the Pope to be Antichrist And whether the Book was written for none but a few men that agree not of the sence of it so near the End of the World It will puzzle the Hearers before all these and many such Questions are well Answered When we have so much plain Evidence against Popery in the whole Bible to lay it mainly on these Expositions of the Revelation where I find not three men in thirty that differ not in great Material Points is almost to betray it when such a man as John Fox P. 111. Vol. 1. Sweareth that he had a Revelation contrary to much of this which he repeateth in his Comment on Revelations Specially those that venture to foretel thence the Year of Antichrist's fall and other particulars which time confuteth do expose us to the Scorn of Confirmed Papists § IX Protestants have too often advantaged Popery by ill answering the Question Where was your Church before Luther Pleading the Catholick Churches invisibility When non apparere and non esse
all Children be taught to read and learn Catechisms and Scripture and use the Lords day in pious Exercises and submit to their Teachers and forbear profane contempt or abuse of Persons or Things I think the whole Matter is decided in these ten Particulars § 4. II. Now de nomine the question is what is to be called the FORM and what but the MATTER of the Church as National For of a Church as Congregational or as Diocesan or a Provincial we have no controversie No more than of a City or School And seeing every Politick Society consisteth of the Pars Imperans and Pars Subdita all grant that the Pars Imperans as related to the Pars Subdita is the Specifying or Unifying Form and Head it is then clear that all the Clergy being but the Pars Subdita under the Government of the summa potestas whether Kings alone or King and Parliament or an Aristocracy they can be but the Matter of the Church as National and not the Formal Head For a Body Politick of one Species can have but one Head of that Species So that to make a Primate or two Metropolitans or a Synod of Diocesans or a Convocation representing all the Clergy to be more than the Matter of a Church as National is to make them the summa potestas or Soveraign and to depose King and Parliament § 5. Obj. But the Regiment being of two Species so is the Policy Society and Supremacy Each is Supreme in sua specie Ans. 1. So then you would have two National Churches and Soveraigns If you 'll extend the Controversie but to the Name it may be the better born But then acknowledge the Equivocation and give us the definition of each Church and use not the Name of the Church of England for your own Form only 2. But a Subject Policy is not the Supreme and denominating Policy It 's private and subordinate as to National The Physicions the Soldiers the Marriners c. though they are in hoc fit to over-rule the King and Parliament are not therefore the Soveraign Power of the National Body Politick § 6. Obj. But their 's are matters of small moment but the Clergy are Rulers in matters of Salvation Ans. Unhappy dividing Rulers they have been here and in most of the Churches But 1. I have proved that Kings are Rulers also in matters of Salvation as great as theirs and over them 2. Was not Moses and David and Solomon and Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah and Josiah c. the Soveraign Rulers of Church and Priests though an Vzziah might not offer Sacrifice or Incense 3. The proper Governing power of Bishops is but over their own Flocks and they may not Rule in other Mens Diocesses much less over King Parliament and Kingdom further than the Soveraign giveth them Political Power § 7. Obj. They may command Kings and Kingdoms in Christs Name to obey God and forbear Sin Ans. True so did every Prophet so may any one Minister Yea a Foreigner a Salvian a Luther c. But this is Gods Government Nunciative and not Political And so if the Metropolitans Diocesans Convocation or a General Council command as in Christs Name and prove their Commission as Messengers from him we will obey Christ in them But if one Man bring better proof from Scripture that he speaketh from Christ he is to be obeyed before a Council that proveth no such thing This sort of Divine Authority lyeth in Evidence which most Bishops on Earth now have not of the truth of their Message and is but Nunciative and worketh only on voluntary Believers and Consenters And if the Controversie de nomine be whether a Christian Kingdom as such may be called A CHURCH what pretence have the deniers Not à notatione nominis The Church in the Wilderness is a Scripture Name And sure the Jews Church was not denominated from the Priests only Moses is ofter named as its Head than Aaron § 8. Obj. But are not Judges and Bishops a part of the Pars Imperans as well as the Soveraign Ans. Only subordinate in their Provinces They are but as the Kings Hands and Tongue They are Subjects themselves and have no Political Power but what he giveth them 2. If you might so far distinguish of them as Imperant under the King and as Subjects as to say that Judges and Bishops are as the Wife in the Family that hath a Governing power over Children and Servants that maketh her not the denominating Head of the Family but a Subject of the highest Rank § 9. Qu. What if a Christian Kingdom had no Pastors Ans. Then they were but an Embrio or half Christian and not materia disposita for a full formation The Matter and Privation that is Dispositio receptiva are Essential to the Body though they be not the Form 10. Qu. But what if under an Infidel King a Christian Nation be confederate under Bishops Ans. They are no Christian Kingdoms but a Christian Nation and are many confederate Churches and may be called One Church equivocally and secundum quid as confederate Kingdoms may be one Kingdom But they are but materia disposita sine forma as to a National Church properly so called and as such § 11. Qu. Are those of the Church of England that are not Conformists Yes if they conform to Christianity and are Subjects of the same King § 12. There is an odd Writer that hath lately published a book to prove that the Act of Toleration freeth not Nonconformists from the guilt of Schism Doleful is the case of such a Church and Land where the Learned men after near thirty years silencing imprisoning and ruining multitudes know not to this day what they are or what they hold and who it is that they do all this against How can such wink so hard as not to know that we took it for no Schism to assemble for Gods Worship before the Act of Toleration while they have done all this against us for so doing Could they think us so mad as to suffer Jails and Ruine and Scorn and Death to many for known Schism And if we took it for a duty before how can we take the Act of Toleration to be it that must justifie us But such men Englanâ— suffers by that cannot distinguish between Foâ—m Divinum and Humanum We believe that Goâ—s Command justifieth us in foro Divino for obeying it But the Law justifieth us in foro humano Gâ—ds Law and Judgment will keep us from Hell aâ—d at last silence our silencers But the Kings Laws bring us and keep us out of Jails and from thâ— Jaws of them that envy our Liberty and Lives § 13. It 's a question considerable whether England be a Protestant Church or not if it have a Papist King To which I say we must distinguish between a profest Papist and a concealed one 2. And between a King that hath the total Soveraignty and Legislative Power and one that hath but
Apostolick power which was to teach whatever Christ commanded them He is with them to the end of the World 1. In blessing the Word delivered and recorded by them 2. In blessing those that teach it But not those that add to it the supplement of their own Universal Laws And which is the Church that in all Ages thâ—se thousand years have had this power Three parts of the Christian World say It is not the Roman The Roman Church say It is not the Greeks Both say It is not they in Abassiâ— Egypt Mesopotamia Armenia Georgia c. The Protestants confess it is not they And is obedience to an unknowable Power necessary to Concord and Salvation (a) Paul saith I was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel of Christ Mat. 28. And Paul to Timothy tell us of other parts as Essential They can include or exclude none but those that include and exclude themselves which shall be effectual whatever the Priest say or do He is but a Minister Invester and Declarer of it (b) Then a Moscovian Priest may serve or such as Optandus Bishop of Geneva was illiterate and one may be taken from any Shop or Cart that understands the Dealings of the World But how much more requireth Paul to Timothy and Chrysostom c. 2. And yet I and all of my Degree yea all the Ministers or the Reformed Churches that disown his Leviathan are uncapable of Ministry or Christian Communion by our ignorance 3. But is the Nature of the Covenant-Benefits Duties c. so easily known as he talks And yet must we Perish for not knowing them (c) Note here that tho' his Priesthood have the Power of saving or damning Men yet he confesseth the very office in Specie is not of God's making For if it be not stated in Scripture it is not in the meer Law of Nature And our Church-Changers are no Prophets And if God made not the office then the arrogated Power is not his Gift (d) Note that he speaketh of God's Church in the singular Number and not of national Churches which are many (e) He hath constituted a Species of visible Governors over the several Parts but no one Personal or Collective over the whole (f) Is it no Obedience unless it be absolute Is none due to God above Man Must not his Law be undorstood * Or Papal say others * And the Papal * Representing his Person is a high word But he never enabled them to change his Laws or Church-Offices but only as Servants to deliver that same Power by way of Investiture which he had instituted and described in his Law and was in their Commission As the Londoners may not change the Lord Mayor's Office but put him in that which the Charter maketh (a) Yes If the Bishops had been Makers of the Office and Donors with absolute Power and not only Servants entrusted to deliver their Masters Gifts and Offices * I am wholly of your Mind specially as to the Pope and his Bishops But I 'll judge of their Power by the Will of God * The Church is the Bishops and Council the Pope being President * That is in Scripture times Dr. Hammond confesseth the same And yet we are all no Ministers and have no Sacraments nor right to Salvation if we have not uninterrupted successive Episcopal Ordination from those times * What an happy advantage hath the Pope that can get forty Italians together at Trent seven years before he can send to and they come from Mexico Abassia Armenia and all the World There is an Art in all things and men live by their wits †Sir God will not learn of you But God hath made no such Government at all Monarchy or Aristocracy * A General Council meeting without the Call of the Pope their Established Governour are Rebels * 1. Hath the King no power but as a Representative If yea why not others 2. Who made Pope or Prelates the Representatives of those that never consented to them * Now we know what Councils have Authority Only those appointed by the President * The Mass Book * The Mass Book