sheweth that Councils have been against Councils and the Arrian Hereticks had more Councils than the Christians and sheweth their uncertainty Pag. 19. As to the Authority of Councils Augustine saith Ipsa plenaria Concilia saepe Priora ◠posterioribus emandantur And of the Succession and Ordination of Bishops he saith Pag. 131. If there were not one of them that turned from Popery or of us left alive yet would not therefore the whole Church of England fly to Lovaine Tertullian saith Nonne Laici sacerdotes sumus Ubi Ecclesiastici Ordinis non est Consessus offert tingit sacerdos qui est solus Sed ubi tres sunt Ecclesia est licet Laici And frequently he saith The Church is found among few as well as among many And he was for Lay Mens Baptizing X. The first Canon commandeth Preachers Four times a Year to declare That All usurped foreign Power forasmuch as the same hath no Establishment nor Ground by the Law of God is for most just Causes taken away and abolished And that therefore No manner of Obedience or Subjection within His Majesties Realms and Dominions is due to any such foreign Power The 12th Canon Excommunicateth ipso facto any that shall affirm That it is lawful for any 〈◊〉 of Ministers to joyn together and make 〈◊〉 Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical without the King's Authority and shall submit themselves to be ruled and governed by them Therefore none may go beyond Sea to Councils without his Authority And the Canons of Foreigners are not to be made a Rule without his Authority And is not other Princes Authority as necessary in their Dominions The Canon which bids Prayer 55th describeth Christ's holy Catholick Church to be the whole Congregation of Christian People dispersed throughout the whole World But such a Church hath no Legislative or Judicial Power XI The Controversie is about an Article of Faith I believe the holy Catholick Church The Humanists say It is an universal Political Society Governed by one humane Supream Monarch Aristocracy or mixt under Christ. Protestants say It hath no universal supream Ruler but Christ. Now the Generality of Protestant English and transmarine who write on the Creed expound this Article accordingly in the Protestant sence as he that will peruse their Books may find which sheweth what is the sence of the Church of England XII Though King Edw. VI. was but a Youth when he wrote his sharp Book against Popery lately printed It sheweth what his Tutors and the Clergy of his time who were called the Church then thought of these Matters XIII If the Parliaments of England all the days of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles I. and II. knew what was the Doctrine of the Church of England about a Forreign Jurisdiction it is easie to gather it in their Votes and Acts. Let him that would know whether they were for a Coalition with the French on such terms read Sir Simon Dewes Journals Rushworths Collections or Prins Introduction ad annum 1621. or any other true Historian and he will see how far they were from owning any Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction But the contrary minded would make the World believe that all these Parliaments were of some Sect differing from the Church of England But what call they the Church of England but that part of the Clergy who conform to the Laws And did not the Law-makers understand the Laws Or if they more regard the sence of the Clergy let them read A. Bishop Abbot's very plain and bold Letter to the King in Prin's Introduct pag. 39 40. and Dr. Hackwell's c. and they may know what was then the sence of the Clergy With whom concurred the Bishops of Ireland Insomuch that Bishop Downame expressing his sense of the Papists there and his contrary desires presumed to add And let all the people say Amen at which the Church rang with the Amen And though he was questioned in England for it he came safe off His Neighbour Bishops also declaring Popery to be Idolatry and the Pope Antichrist XIV The Bishops and chief Writers of England have taken the Pope to be the Antichrist Cranmer Whitguift Parker Grindall Abbot all A. Bishops of Canterbury Vsher Downame Jewel Andrews Bilson Latimer Hooper Farrar Ridley Robert Abbot Hall Allig and abundance more Bishops The Martyrs Sutcliffe Fulke Sharp Whittaker Willet Crakenthorp and most of our Writers against Popery Sure then they were for none of his Jurisdiction here XV. The Prayers have been and are to this day added in the end both to our Bibles and Common Prayer Books which shew how far the Church of England was from desiring a Coalition with the Papists by submitting to any Forreign Jurisdiction They say to God Confound Satan and Antichrist with all Hirelings whom thou hast already cast off into a reprobate sense that they may not by Sects Schisms Heresies and Errors disquiet thy little Flock And because O Lord we be fallen into the latter days and dangerous times wherein Ignorance hath got the upper hand and Satan by his Ministers seeketh by all means to quench the light of thy Gospel we beseech thee to maintain thy Cause against those ravening Wolves and strengthen all thy Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage Let not thy long-suffering be an occasion either to increase their tyranny or to discourage thy Children c. Though A. Bishop Laud put out all these Prayers from the Scots new Liturgy we had never had them still bound with ours to this day if the Church of England had not at first approved them There is also a Confession of Faith found with them describing the Catholick Church as we do XVI The Oath called Et Caetera of 1640. saith that The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England containeth all things necessary to Salvation Therefore Obedience to any Forreign Jurisdiction is not necessary to Salvation And therefore not necessary to the avoiding of Schism or any Damning Sin XVII The Church of England holdeth that no Forreigners Pope or Prelates have Judicial Power to pronounce the King of England a Heretick Or Excommunicate though as Bishop Andrews saith in Tortura Torti even a Deacon may refuse to deliver him the Sacrament if uncapable much more that Pastor whom he chuseth to deliver it him For it 's known by sad experience how dismal the Consequences are exposing the lives of the Excommunicate to danger among them that believe the Pope and his Councils and rendering them dishonoured and contemned by their Subjects We know how many Emperors have been deposed as Excommunicate and what Queen Elizabeth's Excommunication tended to And if our Laws make it Treason to publish such an Excommunication sure the Law-makers believed not that either Pope or Prelates had a Judicial Power to do it In Prin's Introduct p. 121. the Papists that were unwilling to be the Executioners had no better plea than That no Council had yet judged
Supremacy in these parts of Christendom which I conceive no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him It was also condescended to in the Name of the Pope that Marriage might be permitted to Priests that the Communion might be administred sub utraque specie and the Liturgy be officiated in the English Tongue And though the Author adds not long after that it was to be suspected that so far as the inferior Clergy and the People were concerned the after-performance was to be left to the Pope's discretion yet this was but his own suspicion without any ground at all And to obtain a Reconciliation on these Advantages the Archbishop had all the reason in the world to do as he did in ordering the Lord's Table to be set where the Altar stood and making the accustomed reverence in all approaches towards it and accesses to it and in beautifying and adorning Churches and celebrating Divine Service with all due Solemnities in taking Care that all offensive and exasperating Passages should be expunged out of all such Books as were brought to the Press and for reducing the extravagancy of some Opinions to an evener temper His Majesty had the like reason also for tolerating lawful Recreations on the Sundays and Holidays the rigorous restraint whereof had made some Papists think those most especially of the vulgar sort whom it most concerned that all honest Pastimes were incompatible with our Religion And if he approved auricular Confession and shewed himself willing to introduce it into the use of the Church as both our Authors say he did it is no more than what the Liturgy commends to the care of the Penitent though we find not the word Auricular in it and what the Canons have provided for in the point of security for such as shall be willing to Confess themselves But whereas we are told by one of our Authors that the King should say he would use force to make it be received were it not for fear of Sedition among the People yet it is but in one of our Authors neither who hath no other Author for it but a nameless Doctor And in the way to so happy an Agreement though they all stand accused for it by The English Pope p. 15 Sparrow may be excused for Pleading for Auricular Confession and Watts for Pennance Heylin for Adoration towards the Altar and Mountague for such a qualified Praying to Saints as his Book maintaineth against the Papists If you would know how far they had proceeded towards this happy Reconciliation the Pope's Nuntio will assure us thus That the Universities Bishops and Divines of this Realm did daily embrace Catholick Opinions though they professed not so much with Pen or Mouth for fear of the Puritans For example they held that the Church of Rome is a true Church that the Pope is Superior to all Bishops that to him it pertaineth to call General Councils that it 's lawful to Pray for the Souls of the Departed that Altars ought to be erected of Stone In sum that they believed all that is taught by the Church but not by the Court of Rome Another of their Authors tells us that those among us of greatest Worth Learning and Authority began to love Temper and Moderation that their Doctrines began to be altered in many things for which their Progenitors forsook the visible Church of Christ As for example The Pope not Antichrist Prayers for the Dead Limbus Patrum Pictures that the Church hath Authority in determining Controversies of Faith and to interpret Scripture About Free Will Predestination Universal Grace that all our Works are not Sins Merit of good Works inherent Justice that Faith alone doth not justifie Charity to be preferred before knowledge the authority of Traditions Commandments possible to be kept that in Exposition of Scripture they are by Canon bound to follow the Fathers And that the once fearful Names of Priests and Altars are used willingly in their Talk and Writings In which Compliances so far forth as they speak the truth for in some Points through Ignorance of the one and Malice of the other they are much mistaken there is scarce any thing which may not well consist with the established though for a time discontinued Doctrine of the Church of England the Articles whereof as the same Jesuit hath observed seem patient or ambitious rather of some sence wherein they may seem Catholick And such a sence is put upon them by him that calls himself Franciscus à Sancta Clara as before was said And if upon such Compliances as those before on the part of the English the Conditions offered by the Pope might have been Confirmed who seeth not that the greatest benefit of the Reconciliation must have redounded to this Church to the King and People His Majesty's Security provided for by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance so far as it concerned his Temporal Power The Bishops of England to be Independent on the Pope of Rome The Clergy to be permitted the use of Marriage the People to receive the Communion in both Kinds and all Divine Offices officiated in the English Tongue no Innovation made in Doctrine but only in qualifying some Expressions and discharging some Outlandish Glosses that were put upon them And seeing this what Man could be so void of Charity so uncompassionate of the Miseries and Distractions of Christendom as not to wish from the very bottom of his Soul that the Reconciliation had proceeded on so good terms as not to magnifie the Men to succeeding Ages who were the Instrument Authors of so great a Blesâ—ing So far Dr. Heylin who was the Archbishop's Intimate and Agent Archbishop Laud's own words as laid down in his Book defended by Dr. Stillingfleet § 1. The Archbishop disclaimeth the Divine Institution and the Infallibility of General Councils But he thinks we must allow them external Obedience and that honour and priviledge which all other GREAT COURTS have that there be a Declaration of the invalidity of their Decrees as well as of the LAWS of other Courts before private Men can take Liberty to refuse Obedience Part. 3. c. 2. And page 540. It doth not follow because the Church may erre that therefore she may not govern For the Church hath not only a Pastoral Power to Teach and Direct but a Praetorian Power to controul and censure too where Errors and Crimes are against fundamental Points or of great Consequence Thus the Archbishop It is the Universal Church and Councils that he speaks of But 1. There is no such thing on Earth as he calls the Church that is One Universal Aristocracy that hath Power of Governing all the Christian World in one Council or otherwise as one Supream 2. General Councils of divers Kingdoms o're all the World are no more a Court than the Assembly at Nimeguen was 3. No Obedience is due to them but only consent for Concord so far as their Canons tend to true Concord
is time enough to prove the death of a Power never since exercised were there a Seminal Virtue of Universal Regiment in the diffused Church a Thousand Years Sleep in reason must pass for a Death 6. Yea the diffusive Church hath since disowned the Universal Obligation of those same Councils and doth disown them to this day For it is not near half the Christian VVorld that own them yea none but Papists that I could ever be certified of do receive any such Councils at all as Legislators and Judges to all the Christian World but only as Reverenced Rules of Concord made by Contract And if Constantine Theodosius Martian c. called their Subjects to Councils 1000 Years ago why is our King and Kingdom now any more subject to the Subjects of those Emperors than to them But if you were content to endure us to unite in Christ and take his Laws for our Rule and bond of Peace and stay till the next General Council be against us we desire no more § 9. P. 347. Mr. B. saith It is a doleful thing to think on what account all these Men expect that all Christians Consciences can be satisfied c. D. S. answereth It is a doleful thing indeed to think how they should be satisfied that set up a Pope in every Congregation and follow him in opposition to the Catholick Church and General Councils Mr. B. knows he does this and deludes the poor People c. Answ. 1. If I know it methinks I should know that I know it Which if I do it 's I that am the Impudent Liar If not Somebody is mistaken Qu. Whether a Council of such Bishops be infallible or can make us a better Rule than the Scripture 2. Readers here you see that it is no wonder that these Reverend Fathers renounce Popery You see what a Pope is in their account It is a Minister of a single Church who taketh not their Lordships or Councils to be Law-givers and Judges over all the Earth We poor Protestants took him for a Pope that claimed such an Universal Rule alone or as the President of Councils But these Men take him for a Pope that denieth Popery and pretendeth to no Government beyond his Parish Yea not only so but in our Parishes we oblige none to take up any of their Religion Faith or Duty to God on our commanding Authority but to learn by the Evidence which caused our own Faith to believe by a Faith Divine 3. I have oft said that the Catholick Church is such by Faith and Subjection to Christ which I own and daily Preach But that there never was a General Council of the Christian World nor is there any such thing as a Catholick Church in the Popish sence that is having one Political humane Soveraignty And how did the Man make himself believe that I knowingly opposed that which my whole Writing labours to prove never had a being Reader Lament the Case of the Church on Earth when the most studious Leaders are so dark and rash and bad as either I or these Reverend Fathers are setting the World into ruinating Divisions by words of such a Dialect as is harsh to name § 10. P. 348. Dr. S. pretendeth to some Scripture Proofs viz 1 Cor. 14.32 33. The Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints Answ. Reader Do you think this proveth that the whole Church on Earth is under one humane Soveraignty that hath a Legislative and Judging Power 1. This Text speaketh only of the avoiding Disorder in particular Assemblies by the means which they had present there among them To keep them from speaking two at once and such like Disorders As the Archi-Synagogoi were used to do in the Jews Synagogue And must a Council from all the Earth be gathered to that Assembly to rebuke such Disorder If it must be but to make a General Law to forbid it that 's done already in Scripture and in Nature And must the World meet to do it again 2. Their Dr. Hamond saith that this Text speaketh of the Spirit in each Prophet being subject to himself that is to his own reason and that the Spirit moveth them not to speak irregularly and confusedly And what 's this to the Power of Councils 3. If it were spoken of the other present Prophets what 's this to Men that are no Prophets and that are dead 1000 Years ago Are not present Pastors fitter Moderators of their Assembly than a General Council of dead Men § 11. Next he that so condemneth me as an Opposite citeth my words as granting his Cause yet this reconcileth him not I am not so idle as to write him a Commentary of my own words for I can devise no plainer Only I may tell him that he too quickly forgot that God is not the Author of Confusion and therefore it is not lovely A Law should not be confounded with a Contract or amicable Agreement nor a Soveraign Government with a Peace-making Assembly of Equals nor a possible Council of those within reach with an impossible Council out of all the World Neither the King of France or of England were Subjects to the Assembly at Nimeguen § 12. P. 351. He saith he could give numberless Quotations of Protestants Melanchthon Bucer Calvin Bishop Andrews K. James Spalatensis Casaubon Bishop White Bishop Mountague Archbishop Dr. Hamond Dailee c. Answ. I cannot answer what you can do but what you do But the Reader may know how far to believe you that will but search these few 1. Read what I have cited out of Melanchthon to Bishop Guning or rather his own Epistle of the Conference at Ratisbone and that to King Henry the 8th 2. Read Bucer de Regno Dei and the rest of his Opera Angl. and judge as you see cause 3. I am ashamed to cite any words of Calvin to confute our Drs. intimation 4. Whether Spalatensis was a Protestant I dispute not but read his own words cited by me in my Treatise of Episcopacy and then read him of Councils and judge 5. Bishop Vsher as I have oft said told me himself That Councils are not for Government of the absent or the particular Bishops but for Concord What Mind Dr. Hamond was of I determine not But of the rest you may judge by these The Matter is All Protestants hold that we must Serve God in as much Concord as we can And that the Meeting of Pastors is a means of Concord And that it was the true Christian Faith which the Councils which he nameth owned and we are of the same Faith and therefore they reverence these Councils And they hold that still Concord being much of the Strength and Beauty of the Churches when there is any special reason for it as several Princes assemble by themselves or Messengers at Munster Ratisbone Francfort Nimeguen so Pastors even of several Kingdoms
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
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
and Monarchical Popery Ch. XII A humble Expostulation to the Zealous Antipapists Conformists and Nonconformists whether they have been innocent as to promoting Popery Ch. XIII VVhat is the Duty of all other Christians towards the Papists in order to the discharge of the Fundamental Duties of Love Concord and Peace and the promoting the common Interest of Christianity VVritten to keep Protestants from sinful Extreams and while we cannot come so near them as Cassander Erasmus Grotius and those that are for a Foreign Jurisdiction we may keep and use a Christian Zeal for the better way of Concord of Christs prescribing avoiding all injury to Papists and all others NB. To prevent misunderstanding Citations note That both some Episcopal Drs and some Presbyterians say That the Government of the Church is Aristocratical meaning only 1. Per partes as England is Governed by Justices and 2. Meeting in such Councils as they can for Concord But not as the summa potestas of the Universal Church which is una persona politica in pluribus naturalibus unifying the Body and so Ruling it They speak not properly in the Language of Politicks Chap. I. The true State and just Resolutions of the Controversies about a Foreign Jurisdiction in Sixty Evident or Proved Propositions § 1. HOW great advantage Satan maketh of the deceivableness of ignorant men and of the deceitfulness of the Crafty and of the aptitude of ambiguous or false or artificially-contrived Names and Words to deceive the sad Experience of the deceived World and corrupted and divided Churches openly declare and yet alas how few observe it and escape the snare § 2. If all Men were judicious and stablished Christians when serious Faith and Godliness is made a scorn by the false names of Hereticks Schismaticks Puritans Fanaticks Sectaries or any sensless jears it would no more turn them from the holy performance of their Baptismal Vow and Obedience to Christ than the raving of a Drunkard or a Bedlam or the crying of a Child But ignorant unresolved Persons that never yet know what the bearing of the Cross was nor have learned self-denial are stopt in their convictions good purposes and hopeful dispositions when they hear serious Piety made a common scorn and that by those that were themselves Baptized and profess Christianity Some of them think sure all this reproach is not laid on them for nothing and others that think it but the stinking breath of ulcerated malignant minds yet cannot bear it but draw back and shrink Therefore Christ pronounceth a dreadful Sentence against those that offend that is by such stumbling-blocks turn back and discourage even the least of these childish beginners It were better for that man that a Milstone were hanged about his Neck and he were cast into the Sea § 3. But no scandal or snare is so dangerous as those which are made by Rulers or Great Men or by Pastors and Teachers on the pretences of Religion and Divine Authority abusing the holy Name of Christ. § 4. And the same Artifice that Satan useth against Godliness in general he useth against particular Truths Duties and Persons And one of the most dangerous that I now perceive the Protestant Religion assaulted with is putting the Name of Nonconformists and Puritans and Schismaticks on Protestants as Protestants and the Name of Catholick the Church the Church of England the Clergy yea of the Reformed Church and of Protestants on the Papal Roman Sect. The Church of England King Parliament Archbishops Bishops and the rest were sixty years ago and less against that as Popery which now is obtruded on us as the sense of the Church of England against Popery Such Wonders can bare Names do with the ignorant And they go on without any great resistance § 5. Whereas there are great differences among the Papists about the degree of the personal Power of the Pope the Cheat is this To confine the Name of Papists to the one party and to own the Opinions of the other Party and to call them Presbyterians or Nonconformists that are against both and will be no Papists 1. The Italians are for the Popes Sole Supremacy and Councils being but his Counsellors 2. The French Lawyers are for the Councils Supremacy above the Pope as to Legislation and Judgment when they sit 3. The middle greater part are for the Supremacy in Pope and Council agreeing and the Popes Executive power in the intervals not absolute but according to the Church Laws or Canons But all for a visible Universal Supremacy and for the Papal Presidency in General Councils and his prime Patriarchship in the West If in England some be for the Kings Sole Legislative Power and Absoluteness and Parliaments being but his Counsellors and others for the Conjunction of King and Parliament in Legislation and the limiting of the Kings Executive Power by the Laws doth it follow that only the first sort are the Kings Subjects The Controversie is the same Yet the same men that are for Absolute Civil Monarchy take on them to be for Ecclesiastical Aristocracy § 6. Men love not to be tired with tedious Volumes nor can I find time to write more such therefore I shall here lay down what the Reader must necessarily know in some Theses or Aphorisms with so short but sound a proof as is necessary to capable willing Readers instead of puting them into distinct Chapters with numerous proofs to urge the unwilling I. The World is the Kingdom of God who is Eminently the King and all Reasonable Creatures his Subjects under Moral Government as all natural Agents are under Natural Potential Government No man will deny this but the Atheist whom I leave to be disputed with by Sun and Moon and Stars Heaven and Earth and common Reason II. God only is the Unifying as well as Specifying Governor of this Universal Kingdom and tho' all men be of one Nature Species Mould Interest c. yet it is only by their Relation to one God that they are one Kingdom III. God hath made no Universal Supreme Monarch or Aristocracy under him in the World But only appointed to each Soveraign his particular Province or Republick For 1. No Man or Senate is naturally capable of it They do not so much as know the Terra incognita nor can send to the Antipodes and all the Earth as Regiment requireth He would be thought as mad that should attempt it as he that claimed a Kingdom in the Moon 2. No Man or Senate had ever yet the madness to claim it IV. He that should Claim an Universal Supremacy must thereby make all Kings and States and all the World to be his Subjects V. He that doth so proclaimeth himself to be publicus hostis the publick Enemy of all Kings and States while he will make them his Subjects against their wills And therefore all Kings and States are allowed to resist and use him as their common Enemy VI. The whole World is now the rightful Dominion of