the Civil Power or that Power of the State to erect an Autority against it because not of and under it that Prince cannot be said to be Supreme if a differing Power within him To be Supreme is to be above all there must be no Power apart from his who is the Supreme if so he is not Supreme This they urge with a great deal more to the same purpose and is the Stone that the great Hugo Grotius stumbles at in the entrance to his Treatise De jure Summarum Potestatum in Sacris and which occasions so many more falls he has all along in that Discourse it being stuffed with inconsistencies to it self throughout and no wonder when bottomed on so false a Principle that the Power of our Saviour is an Usurpation on the State nor does one absurdity go alone A Suspition upon Church-Government that has not the Honor to be new 't is as old as our Saviour in the Flesh and Herod we know started it against him so soon as Born in the World and his Title as King was known unto him for this he sought to kill him when an Infant and the little Children in Bethlehem were barbarously Murdered hoping the Babe Jesus might have died in the croud distrusting if he escaped he would have supplanted him of his Kingdom Nor did his Apostles after him escape the Suspition and Censure and yet our Saviour all along his life-time upon Earth and notoriously at his death still clear'd himself of the Aspersion asserting and maintaining his Power and Kingdom delivered him of the Father that All Power in Heaven and Earth and so did his Apostles too retain and exercise the same Power and with the same Innocency Nor do I doubt but to Vindicate his Body the Succeeding Church still claiming the like Power and that to every rational considering Person to each one that with Herod has not a design and believes it his interest to kill our Saviour to blot out his Power and Name and Memory on Earth § IV AND indeed to pass by the particular Answers to the Objection which will follow in course upon our Procedure the Objection must fall of it self to any one of common sense that exercises not his Enquiries more about Tricks and Phrases to wheedle delude and carry on his own particular Plot and Party then about that which is notorious Matter of Fact certain Truths and realities One thing I know that whereas I was blind I now see a Man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said unto me Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash And I went and washed and I received sight He put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and do see This was the Answer of the Man that was born Blind and cured by our Saviour John 9.11.15.25 and this great notoriety to common sense baffled all the Malice and Purposes superseded all their trifling Enquiries designed to obscure the Power and Miracle of our Saviour's working that mighty Cure upon him as whether it was done on the Sabbath Day the Person was a Sinner c. and the same common sense and notoriety of Matter of Fact will be our Evidence and Avoucher in this our particular Case also and is the alone Answer we need to give in able indeed to baffle whatever the Skill of an Objector can lay or whatever inconsistencies the wit of Man may urge against us Can any even a Pharisaical race of Men ill-natur'd and Perverse give out and believe That that Body of Christians their Bishops and Governors should Assert and Maintain a Kingdom and Jurisdiction upon Earth destructive to that of the Empire or Secular by whose breath they in their Persons professed to subsist for whose Persons and Government and the Prosperity of both they always Pray'd and in the first place as by whose Influences they were to live Godly lives in all Godliness and Honesty whose Battels they fought whom they Honoured with all the titles of Power and Majesty and Magnificence whom but to think Evil of to Curse in their Hearts in their Bed-Chambers much more openly to Defame and speak Evil of was their Sin and Irreligion whom they acknowledged upon Earth as under God alone and to God alone accountable for all their Actions and Designs nor could any Man say what doest thou And all this they still Remonstrated and Publish'd to the World under the deepest sense of Religion and Zeal with the most solemn Protestations as in all their Apologies Defences and Writings does appear who made it a term of their Communion to Serve Support and Assist the Emperor to shew themselves Faithful and Just and Conscientious towards him equally as to serve their God and Saviour as to say their Prayers for themselves and live Righteously and Soberly in the World and the contrary was a just occasion for their Censures an Intermination upon the Offender who too often died under their Tyranny came peaceably to the Stake neither accusing nor reviling as under the stroke of God himself sealing with their Blood such their Obedience Nor in all our first Church-Story do we find the Catholick Christian engaged in any thing like a Plot or Council against his Governor his either Person or Power much less an open Rebel against him when either an Heathen or Heretick and his professed Persecutor for an Heretick has been no less Cruel than an Heathen and when to make up the Charge by their Malice as in the particular case of Athanasius accused as designing against the Empire by the Arians and Meletians to be accused was his great trouble to be under the Suspition of so foul a Crime being otherways able to acquit himself and so he did and indeed so generally received a Truth was it that a Christian could not be a Rebel or attempt any thing upon the Empire So much was it concluded of the Essence of his Profession that when his Enemies thought effectually to blemish and make him appear no Christian they libell'd him as a Rebel the more and the better a Christian the more did his Prince confide in him and 't is very well urg'd by our Adversaries that Constantine did look upon them as his great Support and Preservers nor could the Empire in all Probability have been continued to him without their Aid and Fidelity and for which his Favours and Temporalities were deservedly large unto them but this is their Error when they tell the World that all Church-Power was then and is still continued upon this score and by the alone favour of Princes IF it be said that all this was the effect § V alone of common Prudence and usual Wisdom they thus provided for their interest the Security in general of their both Religion and Persons and which all Wise Men do in the first place take care of they were wanting both of Power and Opportunity to do otherwise and had it not been so the Hypocrisie had ceased they had both appeared and
as old as St. Jerome's days in the true sense of Fanaticism when the visible beaten way set out by God himself as was the Order of the Levites is slighted and deserted and they take to them Levites of their own Temulentos fanaticos nescire quid dicerent as St. Jerome farther in his Comments on Osea Men drunk but not with Wine not able to give a reason of their Profession to him that asks it NOR is there that in the Greek word § III 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is contended for and on which indeed their whole Fabrick is erected and designs advanced I know not how to give the due sense of this word thereby to undeceive such as generally lye under the prejudice of its perverted Signification than in the words of our learned Doctor Hammond in his Query of Imposition of hands for Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A word that literally signifies to stretch out or hold up the hand but being used among the Heathens for choosing or any sort of Suffrage or giving of Sentence which among them in popular Judicatures or Choyces was wont to be done by that ceremony of stretching out or lifting up hands it is in vulgar use among Heathens and Jewish but especially among Christian Writers brought to signifie without any respect to giving of Suffrages indifferently whether by one or by more constituting or ordaining and of which whoso wants farther satisfaction may go on in that Excellent discourse and have it and also in his Annotations on Acts 14.23 I 'le only add here as the word is used but three times in the New Testament in none is it appliable to what they design from it The one place is Acts 10.41 where a multitude in voting to be sure is excluded for 't is said only of Gods Election and Ordination of the Apostles The other is Acts 14.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is rendred when they had Ordained them Elders in every City Where nothing to do sure with the Multitude the People or Laity The last is 2 Cor. 8.19 and will amount to no more than the former and whosoever was the particular person there said to be chosen of the Churches the meaning can only be That the Apostles had assigned and appointed him to go along in that particular affair AND 't is farther observable that where-ever any Election by Suffrage or Vote is § IV either pretended to be made by the Multitude or really is so in the New Testament and some there were 't is not the naked Voting or giving up the Assent in their behalf gives what is to be or what can be supposed to be conferr'd that constitutes and sixes in any one designed Order but something farther is super-added and supervenes collates and instals makes the separation and inclosure it is pleaded at the Ordination of Matthias Acts 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communibus calculis annumerabatur by common Consent Votes and Suffrage he was added to that Number to the Eleven Apostles i. e. the whole Multitude the Hundred and twenty Disciples or Believers all concurr'd in the choice and assignation and which if granted though it needs not be yet nothing is gain'd on their side for that which constituted and gave Matthias his Portion in the Ministry and which Barsabas had not though he had his first Appointment by the whole Society as well as he was the lot falling upon him by which God not they are said to choose him i. e. to delegate unto and invest him with the Order and Power of an Apostle by the sensible Medium or Determination by lots and this the Prayer makes plain And they pray'd and said Lord thou which knowest the hearts of all men shew whether of these two thou hast chosen that he may take part of this Ministry and Apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go unto his own place and they gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbred among the eleven Apostles They all with one accord acknowledged him a Man separate for the Ministry Another Ordination we find Acts 6. though to a much lower Office and Order in the Church when the Seven Deacons receiv'd their first Constitution where 't is plain the Apostles call'd the Multitude together told them the occasion of the designed Order such the People were to look out the Men and see and enquire that they be sit for the present Office and so they did they chose Stephen and Philip c. but it follows when they had done so they set them before the Apostles who were to give them the Power designed to accept and invest them And when the Apostles had prayed they laid their hands on them where the Multitude are allow'd to choose and here they might have an especial reason for it for their Estates in part so much as was assign'd for the Poor was to be entrusted in their hands and good reason that they approv'd of their personal Integrity yet had they not Power to constitute in the lowest degree of the Priesthood 't is the Apostles alone who had receiv'd the Power from on high and on whose Persons it was enstated could and did do it And whatever Beza supposes at the Ordination made by Barnabas and Paul that they had the joynt-suffrages of the People in order to it Acts 14.23 and which he doth in the same precarious way in all the Ordinations we meet with in Scripture though the Apostles and Presbyters are still alone mentioned as here yet 't is evident that they were the hands of Paul and Barnabas that were laid on them as of the Presbytery in other places and by which not the Votes and Elections of the People at least not without them were the Ordinations performed 't is not to be sure in the Believers in common to do it THAT not only Election but Vocation § V differ from Ordination and 't is one thing to look out cull choose and design for the Office of the Ministry and another actually to give the Power of the Keys to enstate and six in it nothing more clear than this from the Practice of our Saviour himself who first called Andrew and Peter c. then elected and chose them into the number of the Twelve yet all this while whatever of Power was given in the mean time the full to be sure and complete Power of an Apostle was not given to any one of them that was not devolved and transmitted till after his Ascension and then only they received that Power by the Holy Ghosts coming upon them at the Feast of Pentecost Acts 2. and the same has been the Sense and Practice of the succeeding Church in all Ages that the People had Votes in the choice of Bishops all must grant and it can be only Ignorance and Folly that pleads the contrary but this never was thought to create the Bishop and he must be as ignorant and stupid on the other
only Regnante Christo and the Reign of the Empire is left out though it do no ways infer and prove that all Empire is originally in Christ both as to Spirituals and Seculars and that he that is his Succession the Church has the disposal of the Kingdoms of the World too Primarily and Originally in him as some zealous Parasites of the Roman Faith thence it seems have inferr'd and against whom the main Plot of D. Blondel in this his Book is laid and very well yet this it infers and evidently proves That our Saviour and his Succession the Church have been always supposed to have had a Kingdom in the World not to supplant and overturn to usurp and encroach upon but to bless that other of the World to render it Prosperous on Earth and by her holier Laws and Discipline to bring all to the Kingdom of Heaven when the Reign on Earth is at an end But this D. Blondel could not or would not see himself and therefore a thing too usual with him runs into the opposite extreme to his Adversaries is angry when this very Church-Power and its existence of which himself gives so evident a Demonstration is asserted solitary and not in the Empire as no ways flowing and included in its Constitution as the other will have no Empire but from and in the Church so hard a matter is it for some Men to contend for Truth and against the Church of Rome at once and as has above been observed but these Oversights if no worse are usual with him 't is like his ill luck in other cases § XVIII AND he that duly consults and considers the sundry Proceedings and Laws and judiciary Acts of the Empire about Church-Matters either as interspersed in our Church Histories or as Collected and United in the two Codes the Theodosian and Justinian in their several Laws Novels and Constitutions will readily grant all this and more that the Church and State the Worldly or Secular and Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Power were still consider'd reputed and proceeded on as quite distinct Bodies and Powers though both flowing from the same Original and Fountain yet as diverse as the Soul and Body with several Offices and Duties on each incumbent in different Channels convey'd and all aiming at the great and ultimate end the general advantage of Mankind and each individual both with their faces to the same Jerusalem but in several Paths and Determinations judiciary in order to it Hee 'l find that as the Church the Councils and Bishops were ever Conscientious and Industrious that they entrenched not on the Empire withheld not from it what was its due usurped not any thing was not their own paid all manner of Observances to Kings and Secular Governors in all manner of Duties as Prayers Thanksgiving Instructions Directions Admonitions Tribute Loyalty c. So again did the Empire preserve their Functions Persons and Estates give them Liberties Enfranchisements Protestations unless where Apostates as Julian where overmuch favouring Heresies as some time Constantius c. countenanced and provided for Truth and Holiness and sound Discipline according to the Rules Canons Directions Interpretations and Determinations given by the Bishops assembled in Council or occasionally otherways made and recommended unto them the Church still Petitioned and Supplicated the Empire when by the Affronts and Insolencies the greater Impieties and Obstinacies of the World the edge of their Spiritual Sword was dulled and blunted when Coercive outward Punishments alone could hope to prevail for Peace and Amendment of this we have several Instances upon Record as for the deposing Dioscorus in Evagrius his Ecclesiastical History l. 2. c. 4. in placing Proclus in the Episcopal Throne Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 4. which was immediately by Theodosius Maximinianus the defuncts Body being not yet laid in the Ground to prevent the Tumults of the People To this purpose we have the Case of one Cresconius a Bishop who left his own and invaded another's Church and upon a remand from the Council refusing to return the President of the Country is Petitioned and his Secular arm which alone has a Coercive Power over Mens Persons sends him back again according to the Constitutions Imperial Concil Carthag Can. 52. just such another Case as that of Paulus Samosetanus in the days of Aurelian the Emperor above-mentioned and the course of Proceedings we see is the same now as then both in Church and State as that Laws may be made to restrain such as were fled to the Church for refuge Can. 60. that the Riot and Excess be taken away on their Festivals which drew Men to Gentilism again by the obscener Practices and which were without shame and beyond Modesty Can. 65 66. that the Secular Power would come in eò quod Episcoporum autoritas incivitatibus contemnitur because the Power of the Bishops is contemn'd in the Cities Can. 70. ut Ecclesiae opem ferat to assist the Church against these Impieties so strenuous and prevailing Can. 78. as in the Case of the unrulier Donatists Can. 95 96. and the Thanks of the Bishops were given for their Ejection Can. 97. and the Emperor is Petitioned to grant Defensors to the Church Can. 10.109 and as the Church thus supplicated the Empire in these arduous Cases and when its assistance was wanting so on the other side did the Empire still advise with the Church when designing to make Religion the Municipal Law of the Empire to imbody it with the World under the same Sanctions either as to Punishments or Rewards to make it the Religion of the State also they still consulted antecedent Canons or present Bishops in Council or some Ecclesiastical Autority they created nothing anew gave the help of the World for Countenance Assistance and Confirmation to stablish what the Church had put its Sanction upon And those Emperors that designed to discountenance Christianity or set up some particular Heresie and stifle it in part or depose any great Church-men and some such there was they attempted it not but by the Clergy though of their own the Power as in themselves alone was not pretended to they had their own Synods and Bishops in order to it and what they did was done in their Names also and all this will readily appear to any one acquainted with the Canons of the Church and Laws of the Empire or if it seem too hard a task he 'l find it at least attempted to his hand and with Care and Industry reduced to a little room by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Book therefore called the Nomo-Canon to shew the concurrency of the Laws and Canons the Canons still placed first as in course anteceding And in this sense only that of Socrates can be understood in the Proem to his Fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reges viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as Kings began to be Christians the things of the Church were managed and accomplished
sancto profecta as Tertullian Apol. c. 30. and 't is Prayer out of a chast Body an innocent Mind and an Holy Soul is the Sacrifice of fat things Qui justitiam Deo libat qui fraudibus abstinet propitiat Deum qui hominem periculo surripit opimam victimam caedit haec nostra Sacrificia haec Dei Sacra sunt as Minutius Foelix to the same purpose And Justin Martyr Respons ad Quaest 101. ad Orthodoxos or whoever was the Author calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel in the Prophecy or Pre-published and the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law fulfill'd or in its Completion Origen calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Flesh of the Scriptures speaking of the literal sense of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 1. Ed. Spencer and divides the Scriptures into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body and Soul and Spirit The Body as to the Jews the Soul to Christians and the Spirit relating to life Eternal And again That there was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Writings of the Old Testament which the Jews understood not Lib. 2. adv Celsum Nova veteris adimpletio So Lactantius l. 4. And Tertullian says l. 4. adv Marcion That the Earthly Promises of Wine and Oyl and Corn in Spiritualia figurari à Creatore did prefigure Spiritual things In illa Vmbram in hoc veritatem esse dicimus the Law is the Shadow the Gospel is the Truth So St. Jerome in his first Book against Pelagius Imò singulae penè Syllabae c. ad Paulinum he makes every Letter there almost of the same Nature and he more than once asserts the Three Orders of the High Priest Priest and Levite to be the fore-runners of the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon under the Gospel-Priesthood And St. Clemens in his Epistle to the Romans said the same before him And though St. Augustine seem'd to blame some that all things there are involved in Allegorical Expressions as 't is too usual to outdo things yet he admits of such as duly thence draw Spiritual Senses Civ Dei l. 17. c. 3. But that which Hugo Grotius cites out of him and receives and Publishes as his own in his Annotations ad Deut. 17.12 is more full and apposite to our purpose Hoc nunc agit in Ecclesia Excommunicatio quod agebat tunc interfectio quaest super Deut. 5. c. 38. Excommunication does now the same in the Church as putting to Death did under the Law And De fide Operibus Cap. 6. Phinehes Sacerdos Adulteros simul inventos ferro ultore confixit quod utique Degradationibus Excommunicationibus significatum est esse faciendum hoc tempore Phinehes the Priest stroke through the Belly with a Dart the Adulterers when found by him together and which signified what is to be done now by Degradations and Excommunications in the same Case So that the summ is this If Mr. Selden will say That the Levitical Law and the other Judicial Acts among the Jews concern us not at all and therein affront the concurrency of Christianity then all his Design and Labour declaring what their Acts and Punishments were his main Plot falls to the Ground is altogether to no purpose and he needs no answer If it does concern us and thus typifies the Gospel and which I think cannot be denied then all he has done is against himself and his particular design for it flings it unavoidably upon him that the Spiritual part is now ours as theirs was Carnal they punish'd by bodily Mulcts and Death we punish by Spiritual either Suspension Degradation particular Penances for a time or total cuttings off as by Excommunication § IV THAT as Government is absolutely necessary for the continuance of any one Body or Community and such as live without Laws are defined by Aristotle Polit. l. 1. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Beast or a God incapable in their Natures or above the Inconveniencies of it though God himself does not manage the World by his Supremacy alone and higher incontrollable Power but according to his Justice and Equity and Mercy and other Attributes and which perhaps Aristotle did not consider And this the Jews were so sensible and aware of that when their Power was given over into the Enemies hands and they had lost the Advantages and Protection of it to keep their Body together and entire and to which they thought themselves obliged by the antecedent Bonds of their Religion they framed and submitted to an Institution of their own in order to their present Preservation And can we then but suspect the incomparable Wisdom of our Saviour to have so far failed in this Point to institute a particular Society and leave it originally and in its design in the hands of its Enemies under the deepest Obligations of a visible Prosession to continue so imbodied but without any Laws and enforcements of its own only what is to be received of its Enemies this certainly cannot fix upon the thoughts of a seriously considering Person at least upon theâ—rs we have now to do with who so much admire the Policy of the dispersed Jews in this particular and even obtrude it as the Pattern for succeeding Government for our Saviour Christ to do this is so far from out-doing all the Law-givers that have been before him as it is justly contended he did that it sinks him below the meanest and most inconsiderable The words of the Learned Grotius seem here most apposite Quando quidem Ecclesia coetus est Divina lege non permissus tancum sed institutus De aspectabili coetu loquor sequuntur ea omnia quae coetibus legitimis naturaliter competunt etiam Ecclesiae competere De Imper. Sum. Potest c. Cap. 4. Sect. 9. that since the Church is a Company not permitted only but constituted by God I speak of a Company that is visible all those things which naturally belong to lawful Associations do also belong unto her And again Omne Corpus Sociale jus habet quaedam constituendi quibus membra obligentur hoc etiam jus Ecclesiae competere apparet ex Act. 15.28 Heb. 13.17 Rivet Apol. Discuss every associated Body has a right of constituting such things by which its Members may be obliged and that this right does belong to the Church is apparent from the Fifteenth of the Acts the Twenty eight and the Thirteenth to the Hebrews the Seventeenth § V THAT as these Jews by the naked influence and force of this their Excommunication where nothing outward and violent to coerce and constrain them for such Power is supposed to be gone when this took place the Empire cared not for it as relating to their Religion did oblige their Members to preserve that unity they believ'd themselves oblig'd unto did govern and reduce them upon each occasion and upon this one score are they continued as one Body in the World at this day the Secular Power giving them no
Priesthood is one and the same in all and this shall not be called the chief Priest and that a Priest less Perfect but all are equally Priests all equally Bishops as who all have equally receiv'd the Gift of the Holy Spirit the Metropolitan Bishop as having the first Chair with addition shall be called Bishop Metropolitan or which seems mostly apposite for a present Conclusion if any thing can be more than that which is already brought in the sense of those three Bishops Can 8. Conc. Gen. Ephes Whatsoever is nominated contrary to the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Canons of the Holy Fathers and which toucheth the common liberty of Christians is to be renounced and rejected § XXVII I shall now therefore resume what I have already laid down and prov'd at large that those of the Bishop are the full Orders every one instance of Power design'd for the standing lasting use of the Church is in his and consequently is he uppermost in the Church can there be no one branch or design of Power above and beyond him this his Power in some instances of it hath been by consent and for weighty Reasons moving intermitted and suspended in the execution as to the Persons of particular Bishops where the Church increased and multiplied into various Bishopricks and occasions grew and causes arose betwixt one and the other or sometimes arose in one alone and within it self which could not be heard and determined but by different Persons thus Metropolitans were constituted but with no new Power which was not in Episcopacy nor was there any new Consecration only so much devolved upon one for the occasional business An occasion of which we have in part set down by Hosius in the entrance of the Council of Carthage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. if by chance an angry Bishop though such an one ought not to be is over-sharp against a Presbyter or Deacon or over-sudden care is to be taken for better satisfaction and he may appeal to a neighbour-Bishop who is not to deny him audience And that Bishop who first gave Sentence whether right or wrong is to bear the Examination and his Animadversions to be either confirmed or corrected as occasion or else the Bishop derives so much of this Power to the two Orders below him as the Presbyter and Deacon whose Power is more solemnly conveigh'd by laying on of Hands and Prayer and then conferr'd so fixing a Character indelible save only by that Power which devolved it and upon a succeeding Guilt and which for themselves to lay down and desert is Sacriledge and these sent out by the Bishop as is the Harvest great or small so more or less in number in subjection to and dependency upon him So that the standing Church Officers are these the Metropolitan which is only a Bishop with larger Jurisdiction and with the execution of a Power the Bishop has not and the naked Bishop with his Presbyter and Deacon in the ordinary course of officiating in order to Salvation and which three or some one or more of them as is the occasional Service are still to be present and in their spheres and courses according to their several proper Provinces and Offices as already described and particularized to attend and officiate in each Holy Assembly in every Congregation that is Publick and Christian where the Worship and Service of God is so performed as by the rules of the Gospel is order'd and appointed Thus Tertullian among the many absurdities of his time reckons up this Laicis munia sacerdotalia injunâ—unt the Lay-men undertake the Priestly office De Praescript cap. 41. the 〈…〉 the People united Sacerdoti suo to their Priest and a Flock with their Pastor Cypr. lib. 4. Ep. 9. that is no Church quae non habet Sacerdotem which has no Priest as St. Jerom. adv Luciferianos And he that reads over St. Austin's Sermon super gestis cum Emerito Donatist Episcopo Col. 631. will there find a great many Divine Services and all without acceptance and advantage because thus extra Ecclesiam without the Church no one belonging to the Priesthood there officiating for them The Church of God is either Episcopatus unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate dâ—ffusus as St. Cyprian again speaks Ep. 52. that one Episcopacy diffused and overspreading the World in the Union and Concord of its numerous Bishops and these either make a general Council or are under their several Metropolitans and are the Church representative or else it is in Episcopo clero omnibus stantibus constituta as Cyprian again Ep. 27. Cum Episcopis Presbyteris Diaconis stantibus Ep. 31. in the Bishop and Clergy the Presbyter Deacon and Laity the latter expressed by the stantes the People standing without in the time of officiating according to the ancient Ecclesiastical Custom And so also Optatus lib. 1. adv Parmen Donatist speaks of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and turbam fidelium the Believers in general Si tantummodo Christianus es hoc est non Apostolus Tertul. adv Marc. cap. 2. such as were Christians at large and not Publick Officers nor of the Priesthood and this as Members of a particular Church Parish or Congregation or however as relating to the publick Service of God to be discharged by all Christians and which cannot duly be perform'd without the Bishop in Person or in his Proxies by his Power lodged in the Presbyter or Deacon Thus he is called a Schismatick that erects an Altar without the consent of the Bishop Can. 3. Apost even though the Confession of Faith is otherwise sound If thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if thus dividing from and meeting against his Autority Can. 6. Conc. gen Constantinop the very Clergy themselves are not to administer in their Oratories without license had of the Bishop Can. 31. Conc. 6. in Trullo And to the same purpose is Schism again desined a recession from the Bishop erecting an Altar against an Altar Can. 13 14 15. Conc. 1 2. Constantin Can. 57. Conc. Carthag and Can. 6. Conc. Gangrens as the Church is there defined a Congregation of the Faithful with their Bishop so is it there peremptorily determined that the Anathema or Curse is due to those that privately and apart from these do convene and congregate themselves Nor is it Schism only but Heresie also so reputed by the imperial Constitution Sacram Communionem in Ecclesia Catholica non percipientes à Deo amabilibus Episcopis Hereticos justè vocamus We justly call them Hereticks that do not receive Communion in the Catholick Church from the Bishops which are beloved of God for as such they were then look'd upon and that more eminently than others in the then Christian account and it was the Bishop's common Epithete Deo amabiles Episcopi however the opinion and style of them is now alter'd Justinian Novel 109. Praefat. And now these Church-Officers being thus set out and enumerated what their peculiar
are the Separate for the Ministry who are set apart by themselves and in Substitution and can produce their Seals and Credentials must first shew and give proof of their own Power derivative and that such was first given them of God deposited in their hands as the common Magazine or Store-house to be dispensed at their wills and discretion as the Harvest requires and the Labourers are sent forth into it and that for whom soever they shall lift up their hands or stretch them out to choose and make Election of shall receive the Holy Ghost the Powers of Sacred Orders or of the Keys in the same act be conferr'd upon them and which can never be prov'd that it was given to the People or Believers in common the gratia gratis data and the gratia gratum faciens the gifts of Sanctification and Edification as they speak as in their own Nature and Extent do not reach to and imply one another always place themselves together in one and the same Subject by any one Necessity whatsoever every man is not wise in the same degree that he is good nor Holy according to his Knowledge Power and Godliness do not still go together no more then do all those other Gifts and Charity mentioned and dislodged by Saint Paul 1 Cor. 12.13 the honest report of those seven Men full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom did not create them thereby and in the immediate Power and Virtue of it Church-Officers or Deacons till set before the Apostles and they pray'd and laid their hands on them Acts 6. and so in the Consecration of all other Orders So neither do we find under any one Dispensation since the World was that by any one positive superinduced Order and Constitution these Land-marks were removed that the separate Power of the Priesthood was ever laid common promiscuously and indefinitely placed in all Subjects in every one in particular all those that either owned its Use and Power that either pleaded or reaped any benefit by it Before the Law God placed it in and limited it to the Primogeniture the first-born and chief of the Family At the first giving and under the Law he brought it into lesser compass and subjected it in Aaron and his Family in Succession And our Saviour Jesus Christ ascending upon high and giving his Gifts unto Men when to plant and propagate his Church throughout the whole World he had rent indeed the Veyl of the Temple in sunder at his Death taken down the Partition-Wall betwixt Jew and Gentile the inclosure was laid open and the Aaronical Priesthood had an end but there was still to be Separates for the guiding and conducting Men to Heaven and officiating to that end before God a Priesthood was still to be continued though settled by a new Commission and of another Nature a Power devolved and limited to select special Persons also and not Universal as was to be the Believers And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the Faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Ephes 4.8 11 12 13 14 15 16. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers are all workers of miracles have all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret 1 Cor. 12.29 30. or could we admit of that absurder precarious state of Nature contended for by some supposing once an equality in all men and that to all things every one as coming into the world had a right and title to every thing a share and interest in each Benefit Office and Duty and suitably as their Maker was to be publickly served and worshipped so could each one officiate in and discharge the Performance or devolve and transfer his right on whom he please or as occasion a Mistake of the Learned Hugo Grotius himself in his Posthumous work De Imperio summarum potestatum in Sacris cap. 2. sect 4. though the fruit of his earlier and indigested Brain nor is Spalatensis to be acquitted in the point De Repub. Christ lib. 1. cap. 12. yet all this is superseded by an after-positive Institution and which is acknowledged by Grotius in the fore-quoted place and 't is the appointments of our Saviour that is to be our guide and rule especially since himself has put a perpetual Sanction in this our very case and to endure all along with his Kingdom as above Ephes 4. or if the obstinacy of some and such there are will still persist and tell it out That this inclosure was notwithstanding this yet made common and the Power resolved again into the Multitude they are to give Evidence both of the first Translation and after Matter of Fact how it so descended Church-Power nor indeed any other is not a private Presumption secretly infused whether on a Multitude or particular Persons 't is what was once deposited in certain hands the effect whereof is visible in the Succession of Persons deriving the Autority which they claim from the visible act of those Persons that are intrusted with it There must be some known Aera or publick visible date of its issuing out some distinctive mark of its coming some outward badge of its cognizance that the Conscientious Enquirer may receive Satisfaction when demanding in Sincerity what Zedekiah the Son of Chenaanah did of Micaiah in contempt and with reproach Which way went the spirit of the Lord to speak unto thee 1 Kings 22.24 thus to ask a sign had been no more to tempt the Lord then it had been in King Ahaz had he done it Isai 7. but on the contrary a Duty and St. Jerome gives the reason in his Commentaries on that place Tamen jussus ut peteret obedientia debet explere praeceptum therefore because God had commanded and expects it And St. Jerome there goes on and therefore compares Ahab to the Idol-Worshippers who are led by their own fancies that places his Altar in the corners of the Streets in each Mountain and Grove Et pro Levitis habebat Fanaticos non vult signum petere quod praeceptum est for Levites take Fanatiques to officiate in God's Worship such as were not sent nor called as was Aaron a word