offended with the Popes Tertullian though persecuted for Montanism by that sea yet acknowledges the power 1. de pudicitia Audio edictum esse propositum et quidem peremptorium Pontifer scilicet maximus c. I understand that the Pope hath made a peremptory decree c. where he is angry at it because against his heresie but doubteth not of his power St. Cyprian as Erasmus in his notes confesseth everywhere acknowledgeth it even St. Stephen and Cornelius his adversaries Usher who boggles at all things because St. Cyprian calls Cornclius brother would seem to doubt but Erasmus less squintsighted will teach him that it is in respect of his conjunction in faith not equality of person St. Ireneus is so vulgarly known that all confess it Nay even Usher who seems to have sworn to corrupt the clearest passages of antiquity yet confesseth in the business of Easter that St. Victor Pope did then pretend his supremacy over the rest of the Churches as appears in his Catologue as he calls it in the second Century So that it is no new title of the Popes even according to Usher The full sway of this great Bugbear in every age according to the enlargment of Christian bounds appears still more gloriously in the Oeconomy of the Church before in after the four Councels to St. Gregory Therefore I touch this no more every Abodary controvertist forceth them to confess it to be truth Mr. Hobbs indeed c. 17. in the end of n. 26. denieth that there is or can be a Rector of the universal Church by whose authority the whole Church may be convocated He ventures also to prove it thus because to be a rector in that sense over the Church is to be rector and lord of all Christians in the whole world which is not granted to any but God If he had been a stranger in Christian principles it had been no wonder to have misunderstood so solemn and publick a Tenet The Supreme Pastor of the Church hath an acknowledged power for preservation of the Church in integrity of faith to convocate Bishops to a general deliberation and determination of things necessary to salvation and to this end he hath coactive power in the exercise of his spititual sword and no otherwise What connexion this hath with a Dominion over the world I know not which by God himself is denied him in holy Scripture and in this his power is distinguished from temporal principality His power is spiritual his weapons are spiritual the objects to which he tends are spiritual in this confinement he commands without prejudice to temporal rights wherein Princes are simply supreme and onely have the coactive sword of justice independently in respect of him and this onely is dominion He thinks this too much and therefore will not acknowledge that there is any subordination in Christianity out of each city or county but every city is supreme to it self in Spiritual and Ecclesastical matters and therefore no Prince or city or particular Church can be excommunicated or interdicted Supposing the antecedent the consequence would without much difficulty be proved for if the Prince is supreme in all things he cannot be excommunicated which is an act of superiority neither the common-wealth by it self for it were to dissolve it self into no city if it should deprive it self of mutual commerce which he acknowledgeth to be an effect of excommunication But he leapes over the proof of the Antecedent which had been indeed worth his doing by Topicks fit for him taken out of Scripture antiquity or reason subordinate to these principles At least he should have shewed an inconsistency of the publick welfare of a common-wealth with the spiritual subordination of particular Churches to a supreame seated out of the temporal confines Surely if there were not a most ordinate subordination all religion would turn to a Hidraes confusion which were to destroy Christs acquired spiritual kingdom on earth and is evidenlty against the light of reason and one main article of the Creed which he accepteth of communion of Saints The excellency of Christs kingdom is that though universal yet it troubleth not but much conserveth each kingdom in their particular Oeconomy though much different betwixt themselves St. Augustine in his city of God Orostus in his History and many others against the Gentiles demonstratively shew the benefits all places receive by this spiritual subjection to Christian principles Amongst which this was alwayes judged one of the most capital as St. Denise St. Ignatius and the rest shew of this Hierarchy instituted by God He would tell us not perswade us c. 17. n. 22. that all power which anciently the Church of Rome exercised over particular Churches or Cities was derived from the Soveraignty of the Emperors and was shaken off when their Empire was abdicated and in pursuit of this he saith that the Roman Church was indeed very large anciently but always confined within the limits of the Empire How false this is no man can be ignorant that hath perused antiquity Prosper assures us that Rome is made greater by the faith of Christ then by the civil Empire and so the rest of the Fathers but especially he de vacatione Gentium l. 2. c. 16. Roma per Apostolici Sacerdotij Principatum amplior facta est arce religionis quam solen Potestatis St. Ireneus indeed tells us that the reason why Rome was chosen for the head was because it had been the head of the Empire but none will say that it was confined by it or measured her spiritual territories by it Who knows not that even in the Apostles time and ever since vast Empires were reduced to this spiritual Empire of Rome which never had to do with the Romane Empire Our own countries ever acknowledged subjection to the Church of Rome under this title Scotland also and Ireland were most oxthodoxly subject to the mitre though not to the Scepter This is onely by the by to Mr. Hobbs But besides this the Patriarchal right which he hath over this our nation cannot be deposited by them for by the same causes authority should be destroyed by which it was set up as the Jurists agree seeing therefore that the Bishop of Rome hath had his Patriarchal power granted unto him by general Councels to wit by those four first which St. Gregory received as four Gospels and especially here by the Parlimentary lawes are esteemed sacred it followeth manifestly that by less power then a general Councel it cannot be abolished for our Britany is one of the seven provinces of the western Church which are the ancient bounds of the Roman Patriarchate as all know In times past I grant that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was called Patriarch by Pope Urbane the second with Anselme and Malmes and the Glosse c. Clero d. 21. as also the Bishop of Algar in the districts of Venice but this was for honors sake not for exemption as the thing it self speaketh and the
remaining obedient to the civil Magistrate can be guilty of Schism because they do so far subject Ecclesiastical persons and causes to civil magistracy that they do scarcely acknowledge any Ecclesiastical power at all contradistinct from the Temporal in a Christian Common-wealth except in things internal as Mr. Hobbs holds Chap. 17. n. 21 22. c. though afterwards he gives some smal nothings to them he will have the Prince supreme even in spirituals c. 18. n. 13. and therefore they must depend on the Prince in the use of all and at last in his last chapter and number he repeales all he had granted The truth is he is so zealous in his structure of a civil Common-wealth wherein he hath some excellent things that he either neglects or reduceth the spiritual common-weath or Church almost to a Platonical inexistent Idea Reason tells us that as natural so moral powers and offices are known to be specifically different and not onely numerically distinct by their several operations the difference of operations is known by their several objects or sometime by the very several tending to the same specifical object as Philosophers know Now the offices of ecclesiastical and civil magistracy are obviously known to have these ways to declare their real and specifical differences St. Paul in his fifth chapt to the Hebrews even from the very beginning sufficiently declares it from their operations and objects and tells us that the Priest is taken to his office from amongst men by men is understood the temperal power from whence this other power is severed by St. Paul I wish the ingenuous Reader to peruse it all and compare Mr. Hobbs his grounds to St. Paul and what I annex in the ensuing discourse I am sure besides scriptures the judgement oâ— ancient Christians was faâ— otherwise There were bounds for ecclesiastical and temporal magistracy alwayes acknowledged great Athanasius in his Epistle to these who observe Solitary life to this purpose reciteth and applaudeth anâ— epistle of Hosius of Cordubâ— to Constantius the Arriarâ— Emperor Cease I beseech thee and remember that thâ—â— art mortal fear the day of judgment intermeddle not with ecclesiastical matters neither do thou command us in this kinde but rather learn them of us to thee God hath committed the Empire to us he hath committed the things that belong to the Church and as he who with malicious eyes carpeth thine Empire gainsayeth the ordinance of God so do thou also beware least in drawing to thee Ecclesiastical matters thou be made guilty of a horrible crime It is written give ye the things that are Caesars to Caesar and the things that are Gods to God Therefore neither is it lawful for us in earth to hold the Empire neither hast thou O Emperor power over incense and sacred things This extent is far beyond internals or Mr. Hobb's limits St. Ambrose also to Valentinian in his fifth book of Epistles in his oration of delivering up of Churches Valentinian by ill advise of his mother Justina an Arrian required to have one Church deputed in Milan for the Arrians saith thus We pay that which is Caesars to Caesar and that which is Gods to God Tribute is Caesars it is not denied The Church is Gods it may not verily be yeelded to Caesar because the Temple of God cannot be Caesars right Which no man can deny but it is spoken with the honour of the Empire for what is more honorable then that the Emperor be said to be the Son of the Church for 〈◊〉 good Emperor is within the Church not above the Church He is diametpically opposite to Mr. Hobbs Out of these and infinite other texts or monuments of antiquity it is most clear that all Christians grounded upon Scriptures as they conceived did beleeve that the Church taken rigidly and strictly was understood to consist onely of spiritual men and a city or a common-wealth did and doth import a body of Christians considered as not consecrated to divine service and functions but as members of the civil or temporal body and that therefore though as civil persons they were subject onely to this or that city or country namely in civil or temporal things yet in Ecclesiastical they might be subject to Ecclesiastical power though sometimes seated in forrain countries Spiritual things are not circumscribed by place and consequently my own temporal Prince according to St. Ambrose might be a fellow subject with me in this which depends not at all upon the temporal power but is wholy of another and a higher nature though Mr. Hobbs denies it which I wonder at reason me-thinks will necessarily carry us to prefer spiritual before temporal and therefore St. Peter in his first Epistle Chap. 2. calls temporal magistracy a human creature that is in a peculiar way derived from man But St. Paul Acts 20. speaking of Ecclesiastical magistracy saith the Holy Ghost hath placed you to rule the Church of God and St. Ignatius contemporary to the Apostles gives us his own and the sense of Christians in those days when he exhorts the people of Smyrna in his Epistle to them first to honour God next the Bishop and then the King They are not therefore in the sense of Christians the same thing a Bishop and Christian King nor their office the same the one tending immediately to things which belong to God in order to souls The other immediatly to things of this world namely to the external peace of Subjects though secondarily with reference to God also but the Ecclesiastical by supernatural mediums the other properly by natural which is more remote and indirect and therefore St. Paul to the Hebrews cap. 5. saith this power is conversant circa ea quae ad Deum sunt which is no where simply asserted of the other and in the law those are called Sors Domini in a peculiar strain And to speak truth Mr. Hobbs had done very well if he had taken St. Paul along with him in framing his new model of a Christian City who distinguisheth each members office very often All authority is not in the Princes but Hebrews 13. lay people are commanded to obey their Provosts and to be subject to them c. where he sufficiently distinguisheth the Tribunals No Christian can be ignorant of the authority which the Holy Ghost giveth to Praelates regere Ecclesiam Dei to govern the Church of God so that this spiritual government is of God and it is a government and therefore not onely declarative or instructive as Mr. Hobbs saith even of Christ himself c. 17. n. 13. but it is a regitive power els S. Peter had most heavily transgressed his commission in adjudging Ananias and after his wife Saphira to present death for a spiritual crime St. Paul in his excommunicating the fornicator St. John and the rest had abused their power also which I touch in the seventh Chapter who went beyond pure declaration of their guilt expected not the cities sentence in it Mr.
Hobbs acknowledgeth indeed in Pastours a power to execute a spiritual sentence in case the Church that is the city judgeth of the offence and in like manner Priests may absolve if the city judgeth it fit else not St. Athan. in the place cited Quando ab avo condito auditum est Mark M. Hobbs Quando judicium Ecclesiae authoritatem suam ab Imperatore accepit It was never heard from the beginning of the world that the Church hath her power from temporal power In earnest I wish he had taken the sence of Christians along with him in his expounding holy Scriptures he should have read the old Councels in making Ecclesiastical lawes which power Christian Emperors submitted unto as from God Constantine in the Nicen Martian Leo and all others whom the Christian world esteemed not Antichristian as they did Constantius for intrenching St. Nazianzen in his oration concerning moderation in disputations tells us that Praelates have power to make lawes c. in order to the soul St. Damascen in his second oration of Images saith Kings have no power to prescribe lawes unto the Church and proves it out of St. Paul and therefore he shews that in framing the Church of God that is in declaring Christs model of his Church St. Paul never at all mentioneth Kings In fine I finde all Christianity from the infancy to these daies growth to have conveyed to us this sence as delivered from Christ without contradiction Which Topicks I insist upon by reason Mr. Hobbs will not be thought to reject them neither doth he use any other considerable principles though sometimes he glanceth at heavie inconveniences to a civil common-wealth if this be granted But I am not willing to take too much notice of it least any might fear his aim to be to destroy Christian Religion for surely the Romans insisted most upon that as the Roman Histories shew and it is clear in Julian the Apostate All which the very great Turk admits as a truth namely a spiritual power of governing among Praelats most consistent with his supreme rights over Christians and therefore stumbleth not at the spiritual power of the Patriarch of Constantinople which he exerciseth over Christians and corresponds with them in this kinde though not subject to the Turk and therefore Mr. Hobbs needs not fear in Christians what the Turk doubteth not Out of all this it followeth that there may be Schism in defect of obedience in order to the Church without breach of duty to the Prince Sacriledge of Schisms saith St. August l. 1. cont ep Far. c. 4. exceedeth all other crimes and St. Jerom gives the reason because they cut and divide the great and glorious body of Christ and as much as in them lieth kill it and therefore as he who should tear in peices the body or members of a man should be thought to do the greatest injury and damage So he who divideth the Church which is the body of Christ which he so loved that he gave himself for it doth commit a grievious fin against him Therefore we finde in holy scripture no crime more grievously punished or revenged with a more dreadful torment then Schism For when Core Dathan and Abiron by whom what other things is signified saith St. Ambrose l. de 42. mansi mans 15. then those who bring Schism Heresie into the Church had separated themselves by wicked Schism from Moses and Aaron not onely they but their wives and children with all their substance were swallowed up into the earth and descended alive into hell Numb 16. this truly happened to them visibly to be an argument to future ages how enormous the crime of Schism is before God to deter men from plotting or following the same Neither are present Schismaticks punish'd with lesser paines though they appear not to our eyes By the aforesaid example St. Augustine ep 164. writing to Emiritus the Schismatick gathereth how much this crime of Schism is esteemed in the divine judgment Read which I make no doubt you have read you shall finde Dathan and Abiron devoured by opening of the earth the rest who consented to them consumed with fire being in the midst of them Therefore our Lord God brandeth that sin with present punishment as an example to be avoided that whom he patiently spareth such he sheweth to reserve to the last punishment For as the same St. Augustine elsewhere saith whosoever is separated from the Gatholick Church although he thinketh he liveth laudably for this onely fin that he is disjoynted from the unity of Christ he shall not have life but the anger of God remains upon him and after him St. Fulgentius de fide ad Pet. c. 39. Hold certainly doubt not that what Schismatick or Heretick soever is baptised in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost if he be not joyned to the Catholick Church what alms soever he shall do though also he shall spill his blood for Christ can never be saved In fine we need not go further then to blessed St. Paul to learn the horror of Schism who in the 1 Cor. 13. If I should speak with the tongues of men and Angels and not have Charity I am but as brass sounding or a Cymbal gingling and if I have the gift of prophesie and shall know all misteries and all sciences and if I have so great faith as to remove mountains yet if I have not Charity I am nothing If I shall distribute all I have amongst the poor if I deliver my body up to the fire if I have not Charity that is if I shall adhere to Schism all is worth nothing A heavy sentence if deeply considered Alas what will follow out of this St. Pauls doctrin touching all those whom we have known and of others whom yet we do know who have been of untouched lives liberal to the poor of pious inclinations or what you will all is lost according to St. Paul being they were members of this Scismatical body Contrariwise who do not onely in themselves avoid Schism and keep inviolated the Church union but where they perceive any danger of breach each man in his rank and degree indeavouring with all his possible diligence to preserve it they piously and laudably bestow themselves and their endeavours and truly merit much of God and man Of such it may be truly said that the Charity of their neighbour doth urge them and the love of God as St. Augustine saith l. 15. de Trinit doth divide betwixt the children of the eternal kingdom and the children of eternal perdition thinking and worthily that they have not the charity of God who do not love his Church as much as in them do not procure her unity It is all one from what head insolent disobedience springeth from whence floweth Schism or I would say the reason of Schism is not altered in it self for the diverse motive of rebellion for whether from the ambition of Bishops as too often it happneth
to beleeve them though he doth not but he must profess them when he is required Is not this to put a lie upon himself for a man to profess to beleeve what he doth not beleeve Nay is not this to put a lie upon Christianity He adds that he cannot exclude such from heaven who internally do not assent to articles declared by the Church if they do not contradict but being commanded will grant them this last particle of external acknowledgement is more modest then I have yet found in any of our Country-men though it cannot be digested by a resonable man that I may profess what I do not beleeve The texts of Scripture whereby he proves the internal belief of Jesus to be Christ sufficient to salvation are very weak in principles of Christianity For besides whom I have named already who were condemned by the Apostles for beleeving false doctrin There were also the Nicolaitans in the Apocalips Chap. 2. Who following Nicolas one of the first seven Deacons who beleeving in Christ yet taught it lawful to commit fornication and to eat meat offered to Idols were heavily threatned from God by St. John so also those hereticks whom St. John signifieth by Jesabel who taught it lawful to do the same Neither will it help Mr. Hobbs his Tenet That Jesabel is said to teach that is not onely beleeve eternally those errors for those of the Church of Thyatira were threatned because they did beleeve those false doctrins and the Apostle St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy v. 3. useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he giveth to Timothy power to denounce to hereticks not to teach otherwise then they had been taught neither is his discourse of faith in Christ but of superstructures as the course of the text sheweth and in it he forbids any to beleeve them In fine it is clear in all Ecclesiastical monuments as well Historical as Doctrinal that from the Apostles to this day not onely such who denied Jesus to be Christ who were properly Infidels or Apostates but who beleeved not any other article propounded by the Church universal as necessary were esteemed hereticks and in state of damnation All the texts for the sufficiency to beleeve in Christ in order to salvation except in cases afore mentioned are understood of all things which belong to faith in him in which is comprehended his Church instructing in all necessaries or else the faith in Christ nakedly understood by Mr. Hobbs would exclude all those benefits which we beleeve to be obtained by him It is true that in particular cases as I noted an implicite faith of many of them might suffice as in the Thief where he had not time for other instruction or profession yet it is evident he beleeved in the whole when he cryed Memento Mei c. But these extraordinary cases are nothing to the ordinary course of Gods providence which we onely touch And thus the Church of God from and with the Apostles always understood this matter and accordingly in her Councels squared her practise But as I said before of the Thief so of the Eunuch and the two thousand converted by St. Peter it is evident that they beleeved in the substance of the whole Creed for the very children of Hierusalem knew the main doctrins which Christ taught as appeared in the publick process against him cryed up and down the streets and therefore these beleeving in him beleeved in all which he had taught which will come home to the Creed at least Mr. Hobbs will tell you in the upshot that the points now in controversy for the most part concern onely contention for a worldly Kingdom gain or victory in point of wit where he expounds them after his own gust and names onely such which may more plausibly be thought to have such appearance omitting the chiefest in agitation about the Sacraments c. Others which concern the principal end and effect of our redemption as free-will and justification he rejects as Philosophical Thus the high misteries of Christian Faith by a Christian are made subjects of division or rather of delusion or collusion Herod was afraid of Christ because he was jealous that his aim would be to get his Kingdom this jealousie was the cause of much innocent blood-shed I hope Mr. Hobbs hath no such design in stirring up this old false plea against Christianity for Christ hath assured all men that his Kingdom is not of this world That there hath been always subordination in Church judicatures is evident by St. Paul to Timothy and every where in holy Writ which hath hitherto been continued even in external government as all Histories shew and yet not prejudicial but auxilliary to temporal power But for any controversies is point of temporal power challenged by the Church I know none forasmuch as toucheth faith Yet Mr. Hobbs seems to desire though with much violence to draw even hearing confessions and interpreting scriptures to his new Eutopia as belonging to civil Magistracy There is yet another shift wherein as the Holy Ghost saith mentitur iniquitas sibi they frame an imaginary pillar of security saying that though the first openers of this breach were Schismaticks yet they having been born in this Church are not guilty of it As when a Kingdom is unjustly obtained yet it may be justly possessed by future heirs This I have weighed and answered before yet to the similitude I particularly answer that there is no parity at all to plead prescription against God because in some cases there may be among men else all Hereticks and Turks may more forcibly plead this right then they if naked countenance of possession can give title I might here question the supposition it self for even in temporals the civil and Canon law require more time for prescription in order to some persons then to others as for ordinary persons ten yeers in some forty in some an hundred Again there is a difference not onely in persons but the things possessed as Ecclesiastical require more time then civil and there is always required a quiet possession to begin the count of yeers that there may be titulus probabilis The reason is because then the true lords are thought virtually or implicitely to yeeld their right And thence begins the title in the unjust possessors namely when the ancient lord being able ceaseth to chalenge any right But as I say to let all this pass the disparity from man to God is manifestly clear and therefore admits of no consequence CHAP. 8. Protestants have made the Schism without any cause or ground THE often cited Protestant Doctor in the Treatise of Schism writeth that Schism doth not always make the lesser part culpable which recedeth or is driven out from the rest of the common-weale or body of the Church but the compulsive caus is here chiefly to be looked upon and not always the small number of the receding persons therefore the Protestants say it is