noble and renowned citizens should see to the right ordering of the Common-wealth and the most religious to the right interpreting of religious matters the frame of the Commonwealth might be preserved and secured But I will not enter farther into this large subject handled by others CHAPTER XXV That ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as it is held by the Romish church better agreeth with reason and the letter of the Scripture then that of the presbyterian brethren That some Romanists have ascribed more power to the magistrate in sacred things then the presbyterian brethren THat ecclesiasticall power of deposing excommunicating and making lawes authoritatively as it is assumed by the Pope and the Romish clergy is not only more consonant to reason and the literall sense of the Scripture but also very agreeable with their corrupt principles in doctrine and practise whereas quite contrary the ecclesiasticall power with all its appurtenances as it is assumed and held by the presbyterians is altogether dissonant from the holinesse of their life and doctrine and is more repugnant to reason the letter of the Scripture 1. Neither the papists nor the presbyterians have any expresse place of Scripture for a double jurisdiction except they both make use of that of St. Luc. 22. v. 38. alledged by Bonifacius the 8. behold here are two swords 2. Though the Popes speak big of their jurisdiction as distinct from the magiâ—…trates jurisdiction yet de facto they make of two but one in that they subordinate the temporall jurisdiction to the spirituall conceiving it altogether inconvenient to constitute two coordinate powers since one must be supreme and the supreme must include the inferiour and that the end of the temporall being subordinate to the end of the spirituall those that have the managing of the temporall jurisdiction must likewise be subordinate and subject to the spirituall jurisdiction These are the arguments of Bonifacius and Bellarmin and upon these grounds all states and magistrates being but ministers of God in managing the temporall power must be obedient to all acts and sentences of the spirituall jurisdiction which the ministers of God in the Gospell are entrusted with so that the magistrates power being subordinate to the ecclesiasticall all appeals from civil judicatories must be valid and so all sentences of excommunications of what persons soever But the same ecclesiasticall power as it is challenged by the presbyterians to be coordinate to the power of the magistrate rendreth all acts of excommunication altogether unreasonable and unwarrantable For it is but reasonable that a man should submit to a power that is either subordinate to another or that hath no supreme or collateral but it would trouble one to be sentenced by a power that is neither soveraign nor subordinate as is the ecclesiasticall Neither is it lesse unreasonable that the same man subject both to the ecclesiasticall and the civil power being condemned by one of the powers cannot so much as seek for remedy in the court of that power that ought to give him defence and protection The Pope well foresaw he could not depose a King except the power of the King were subordinate to that of the Pope But Zanchius and some others though they do not make the temporall power subordinate to the spirituall yet they hold that Kings and magistrates are no lesse subject to the censure of excommunication then the meanest member of a church 3. The denosing of a King or other magistrate is a result 〈…〉 flowing from excommunication for if by excommunication a man is made a member of Satan whose addresse conversation company is to be avoided by all good men it comes much to one pass either to depose him or to put him into such a condition in which he hath but the name of a King which is done by excommunication And therefore Emanuel Sa well expresseth the sense of the Romanists and with it the true consequence of excommunication which indeed if there be such a thing must be as he defines it aphoris verbo excommunicationis An excommunicated person is suspended from his office and benefice and cannot judge accuse or witnesse § 27. But that excommunication held by presbyterians by which Kings excommunicated may still retain their authority and power as before is altogether inconsistent with reason Can a man delivered to Satan make lawes obliging for conscience sake Can a soveraign put to shame and confusion yea execration by a sentence of excommunication be trusted by his subjects or can a subject excommunicated and rejected by such a solemn act as unworthy to have any communion with Christians be entrusted by his soveraign with the managing of the great affairs of state by which union communion is maintained among all ranks of people 4. Excommunication is very agreeable with the headship of the Pope under Christ in the government of the Catholick church for he doth but expell a man out of the pale that bounds his jurisdiction But a minister or a presbytery excommunicating either a King or any other man cannot say that their excommunication extendeth as far as the bounds of their jurisdiction since they have not yet defined how far it extendeth surely not so far as and no further then the jurisdiction of the magistrate under which they live for the ecclesiasticall and spirituall jurisdiction is not limited by mens bounds for it is like the place of the Angels one may say they are here but one cannot say that they are not there If it reacheth all over the world then a presbytery of Scotland may as well excommunicate a man in Germany as in Scotland 5. The Papists arguments namely Bellarmin's and others are very urging that supposing there be but one true church and body of Christ and that that church and body is the Româ—sh church there cannot be a Common-wealth within another Commonwealth and a jurisdiction within another jurisdiction except one be subordinate to the other and one depend on the other therefore that either the spirituall power must depend on the temporall or the temporall on the spirituall for fear of a continuall clashing and conflict But our brethren not allowing the necessity of dependance of one jurisdiction on the other do unavoidably run upon many rocks of inconveniences which the papists prudently avoid such as is an endlesse crossing and thwarting of contrary laws commands and orders one of the other while men do not know which to obey first as I have largely shewed in the 15. chapter of my Paraenesis 6. Besides it doth very well stand to reason what the Romanists would have that one body of a church should have one governour and one government which is that of Christ but so doth it not that the presbyterian government should be the government of Christ and yet not be received by all the members of the church of Christ as they cannot deny but that there are many churches which yet do not hold presbytery to be the government of Christ
naturall power right liberty and prudence in ordering all kinds of affairs societies and families are no otherwise distinct in kind or species then a yard that measured cloth differs from that which measured searge as a yard is alike appliable to silk and thred and the same hammer will knock in an iron naile and a wooden pin so the same power and prudence governeth the church and a colledge It is also observable that a man being at once a member of a family hall city Parliament church doth not act alwaies according to the quality of his relation function and place publick or private not acting as a physitian father or husband but as a judge and not as a church-member but as a free member of a society Thus a member of a colledge of physitians joyneth in consultation with his brethren in a case of physick as a physitian but in making lawes regulating the practise of physick and the apothecaries entrenching upon the physitians he doth not act as a physitian but as a judge and as a person invested with judiciall power from the state The same physitian in a Parliament upon the matter and question of physick and of physitians to be regulated may speak pertinently of his art as a physitian but doth not vote give his consent to the making of a law about physick as a physitian but as a judge of the land Likewise to be sure by what right pastors and people act in the church the acts and actions of a pastor or church-member are to be considered either as acts of pastors and of church-members or as they are acts of rulers and members of a society The act of a pastor as pastor is to discharge all ministeriall function commanded in the revealed word and not declared by any dictate of nature In those acts I see no right of jurisdiction but over the inward man when by the power of the word the sinner is brought to the obedience of the crosse of Christ The acts of church-members as such are either in relation to the pastor or of one member to another In relation to the pastor the acts are to submit to the minister ruling them and dispensing unto them the word They may have that liberty to try his doctrine and to do as they of Beroea who searched the Scriptures to know whether it was so as St. Paul preached unto them this is also an act of every faithfull member of the church not to assent to any doctrine because it hath been assented unto by the major part of suffrages but in things that concern order and discipline to yield to the constitutions agreed on by the major part of the assembly so that by them the bond of charity and the truth of the doctrine be not violated and perverted The acts of church-members relating one to another are to bear one anothers burthens to forgive and edifie one another to preferre another before himself The acts of pastors and church-members as they are endowed with a power common to all other societies are 1. to do all things orderly 2. to make a discipline sutable to time and place since there is not in the Scripture a positive precept concerning the same 3. to oblige every member to the lawes of the discipline voted by the major part of the members 4. to admit and expell the members which by the major part are thought fit so to be Many other acts are performed by the same members not as church-members as to appeal to a superiour tribunall as magistracy or synod in case of wrong sustained for they do not oppose a just defence to wrong by any other right then a member of any society should do Thus an assembly of Christians meeting in a church way being persecuted or assaulted in their temple by rude and wicked men doth not oppose a just defence by weapons or otherwise as church-members but as men invested with naturall power against an unjust violence In short ministers and people have many actâ—ngs within the sphear of Christian duties which are not proper to them as Christians and members of churches being like in that to a physitian who doth not build as a physitian or to a counsellor of State carrying a letter to a friend who acts then the part of a letter-bearer thus a father hath a power over his son by a naturall paternall right but he doth instruct him in a Gospell way by a paternall Christian right and duty grounded upon a positive precept of the Scripture thus Queen Mary of England established a religion by a naturall right power and duty annexed to all soveraignty to order sacred things with a soveraign authority but Queen Elizabeth did overthrow the false worship and did set up Protestant religion not only by the same right that Queen Mary had but also by a positive right as principall church-member as Ezechiah Iosiah c. appointed by God to be heads and nursing fathers and mothers of the churches The same things lawes and constitutions that are of divine right are also of humane right and likewise the things that are of humane right in a good sense may be said to be of divine right Things are said to be of divine or humane right either because the matter of right is concerning Gods worship or humane policie or because God or man is the author of them Thus the lawes of the Iewes regulating their Commonwealth are said both to be of divine and humane right divine because God is the authour of them humane because they order all affairs about mine and thine right and wrong and betwixt man and man Likewise many things have been instituted with great wisedome by magistrates and councils which may well be said to be both of divine and humane right Divine because they further the purity of worship and power of godlinesse humane because they were instituted by men and may suffer alteration and reformation So things that are every way of divine right both for the matter and institution as the eating of the passeover and the observation of the Sabbath may be said to be of humane right because commanded and enjoyned by humane authority The very calling of synods which they say is of divine institution both for their institution which is Apostolick and for the matter that is handled in them none but a papist did yet deny to be the Emperours and magistrates right Thus fasting prayer publick humiliation though duties to be performed by divine right and precept are also of humane right as commanded and ordered by the magistrate in a publick way Thus it was the good Kings of Iuda's right and none can blame them for it to command fasting and prayers Lastly things that are every way of humane right and made by man and have for their object the regulating of humane affairs as are the lawes concerning conduit-pipes buildings forests chases c. may conveniently be said to be of divine right because by divine right they
many constitutions about regulating the power of fathers masters and husbands and yet allowing them their authority at home are an argument that their fatherly power is consistent with their subordination to the magistrate 4. There be as I shewed above two kinds of acts to be performed in a church one as they are church-members the other as they are a society that for their government must assume some part of jurisdiction of the same nature with the magistrates power In the managing of the acts of the first kind there is no subordination of the church to the magistrate but only in the second for preaching hearing the word of God administring the sacraments walking holily submitting one to another are no acts of power subordinate to the magistrate and under that consideration I will grant the right of churches not to depend on the magistrate but as these acts in a church-way cannot be exercised without a power of magistracy assumed in this regard a church may be said to be subordinate to the fountain of magistracy For it is with these two kinds of acts in subordination to God and the magistrate as with the body and the soul For none doubts but the faculty and gifts of reasoning apprehending truth loving God and our neighbour believing in Christ are no acts subordinate to the power of the magistrate but as reasoning faith love must be supposed resident in the body of man and that the man in doing acts subordinate to the magistrates power as going ordering commanding and obeying doth carry along his reason faith and love in like manner as it is not possible to consider a man performing the acts of reason faith and love and not being the while subordinate to the power of the magistrate so a church even performing those acts of church-members as such in as much as the second kind of acts that are subordinate to the magistrate must be joyned with the first cannot be considered without it be subordinate to the magistrate 5. If the power of churches were not subordinate to the magistrate many inconveniences would follow 1. That some churches gathered by the magistrate and his acts of appointing time place and stipends should not be subordinate to him 2. Or if he should gather none and besides appoint no publick worship to take place in all parts of his dominions but leave that wholly to the will of those that congregate of their own accord this I say would in a very short time breed irreligion or heathenisme in most places and most tanks of men for then it must be conceived that not one of 20. would congregate of themselves that the 19. parts not being called upon nor any way invited by publick ordinances set up in all places of mens abode atheisme or neglect of all religion would soon ensue in most parts And a persecuting magistrate as in the primitive church were ten times rather to be wished then one carelesse and neglecting to set up ordinances for by one of these two wayes either by persecution or by countenancing and commanding the worship of God the magistrate causeth religion to flourish by doing neither one nor the other he takes the way to abolish it as Julian the apostate was about to do if God had not the sooner cut him off 6. But suppose it be granted on all sides that the magistrate is bound to do what King Edward did or Queen Elizabeth to banish popery to set up protestantisme and an orthodox ministery in all parishes throughout England which acts cannot be performed by a few particular churches with all their church power sure it must be also granted that all those acts of a magistrate in ordering affairs of religion are in his disposall and depending on him 7. Since then the magistrate must have the ordering of those affairs of religion which he himself hath constituted if he should not likewise be the supreme governour of those churches which he hath not erected but were gathered by the members of churches of their own accord there could not but a great confusion arise in mens minds as well as in the state it being no small businesse to distinguish the power of the churches that are subordinate to the magistrate and the power of those churches that are not From reason I descend to the authority of the rever brethren both in old and new England dissenting from the presbyterians In old England the reverend pious Jeremie Burroughs will be in stead of all the rest of his brethren for in the eleventh chapter of his Irenicum he professeth to deliver not only his own judgement but also that of his brethren with whom he had occasion to converse Whoever shall peruse his book throughout specially the fifth chapter will find that he attributeth as much power to the magistrate over churches as any of the opposites to the presbyterian brethren Which power of the magistrate while he asserteth he never conceives it should overthrow his other positions namely in the seventh chapter concerning the right and power of churches or that his stating the right liberty and power of churches could not consist with the power of the magistrate over them Now he is very expresse in the said chapter for the power of the magistrate in sacred things Pag. 21. he saith that magistrates in their magistracy are specially to ayme at the promoting of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the mediatour and there and throughout that long chapter you have these conclusions 1. That the church and Commonwealth of Israel were mixed in one that there is no reason it should be now otherwise 2. That the power of the magistrate is alike in the times of the old and new Testament and were it so that nothing were set down of it in the new Testament that it is enough it is a law not only granted to the Israelites but also of the light given to the very heathens whose power of magistracy was to govern religion as well as other things 3. That it is most unreasonable that a magistrate turning either from the heathenish or Jewish religion should enjoy lesse power in matters of religion then he had when he was a Jew or heathen An infidel magistrate saith he converted to Christian religion is thereby better inabled to perform the duty of his place then before but he had the same authority before 4. He holds that the magistrate hath a soveraign judgement of his commands though unskilfull in the things commanded A magistrate that is not skilfull in physick or in navigation yet he may judge physitians and mariners if they wrong others in their way 5. He asserts largely the power of the magistrate in matters of religion by the example of the Kings of Judah and Israel yea of the Kings of Niniveh and of Artaxerxes interposing his power in matters of religion for which Ezra blesseth God whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the King let judgement be executed upon
publick judgement he had been a publican and a heathen not only to the offended party but to all others But Jesus Christ seemeth to a private offence and a private way of proceeding to give a private counsell how the party wronged ought to behave himself to wards the offender Learned Mr. Lightfoot thinketh that in all the context there is nothing intended either of Jewish or Christian excommunication that there was no judiciall sentence pronounced nor constraint put upon the offending party but only shame and that not publick but only within the walls of the synagogue or of the school As if a man would not provide for his family after a first and second admonition he was put to shame in the synagogue by these or like words Such a one is cruell and will not nourish his children 2. This makes way to know both what power that church in the Text had and what is meant by it Calvin upon the place hath some remarkable concessions much to our purpose 1. That Jesus Christ alluded to the custom of the Jewes and had respect to the form of discipline among them 2. That the power of excommunication belonged to the elders of the people who represented the church Which concessions are convincing arguments to prove 1. that Iesus Christ by the word Church did not mean an assembly of men whose power was distinct from that of the magistrate since no such thing as was called Church Kahal Gnedah in the old Testament was ever taken for an assembly of churchmen invested with jurisdiction and distinct from those of the Commonwealth 2. Since the elders of the Iewes were no more elders of the church then of the Commonwealth and that they had the sole power of excommunicating it followeth that the act of excommunicating was not more an act of church then of state and therefore if Christ speaking of the Christian excommunication alluded and had a regard to the custome of the Iewes that likewise their excommunication must be like that of the Iewes and be as well an act of magistracy as an act of the church Which is confirmed by what he faith upon the 18. verse speaking of the government of the church where he makes two kinds of elders in the Christian church answerable to two kinds of elders in the Iewish church Now as these were not invested with a power called ecclesiasticall distinct from the civil so may we conclude of the elders in the Christian church These be his words Legitimam Ecclesiae gubernationem presbyteris injunctam fulsse non tantum verbi ministris sed qui ex plebe morum censores illis adjunctierant But above all he is expresse upon the 17. verse where he saith that the Lord Iesus Christ in modelling the churches discipline sendeth them to the institution under the law admonuit in ecclesia sua tenendum esse ordinem qui pridem sub lege sancta institutus fuerat If we all stand to Calvin the quarrell is ended and the church Matth. 18. will prove such a church as was in Moses Ioshua and Davids time by which is never meant a congregation of Priests or church-elders distinct from the commonwealths elders So then we see even according to Calvin if Iesus Christ spoke in the context of a church Christian as I do not believe he did it must be a church of the same nature with the Iewish in which excommunication being an act of magistracy so must it also be in the Christian church But I do not believe that in this whole context there is any thing meant either of the Iewes or Christians excommunication or of such a church as our opposites would have to be understood by the word church viz. an ecclesiasticall senat or presbytery being certain that neither in the old nor in the new Testament the word church in Greek or Hebrew is taken in that sense Is it likely that Iesus Christ would mention a church that was never recorded in all the old Testament and whereof neither the Evangelists nor the Apostles speak Doubtlesse Christ speaketh here of such a church or assembly of men who were as Calvin saith Morum Censores censors of manners much used among the Iewes and Romans not invested with any judiciall power but yet of such authority and gravity that whoever did reject their wholesome advice and counsell was as much discredited as if he had suffered corporall punishment It may be those censors of manners were rectors and teachers of schools men who for their gravity and learning were highly esteemed among the people and such a school some say Christ and his Apostles made up much like those schools of the Prophets in use in Samuels time in which the scholars or young Prophets did sit at the feet of the Rabbies as Mary at the feet of Iesus who for that was called Rabbi-However those words if he neglect to hear the church do argue that the church spoken of in this context was not invested with a power of censuring the offender as Bilson and Sutliffe do judiciously conclude from the words For thus speaketh Dr. Sutliffe in his 9. chapter de presbyterio Christ speaketh of a church that had no power to constrain and which one might despise without insurring punishment for if it had had power to constrain in vain had he added if he will not hear the church for the church would have constrained him In short these words tell it unto the church are made like regula Lesbia a nose of wax by Papists Episcopall men and presbyterians it is to them a wood which if a thousand men go into none will fail to shape himself a stick a mallet or a hammer Bellarmin will tell us that tell it unto the church signifieth tell it unto the Romish church or tell it the Pope Mr. Gillespie will expound it tell it unto the presbytery Dr. Hammond tell it to the Bishops called by Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not urge much the words let him be to thee an heat hen or a publican which if they do not make void excommunication I am sure they do not help it much seeing that neither a publican nor a heathen were the object or subject of excommunication I conceive that the true pataphrase of these words may be this and that this was the meaning of the Lord Jesus If the offender refusech all honest wayes to right thee then prosecute him in the court of the magistrate where heathens and publicans have their own judges deal with thy brother as if he were and as thou wouldst do with an heathen or a publican for since thou must now repute thy brother as to thee as an heathen or a publican and since thou wouldst not scruple to implead an heathen or a publican so neither must thou scruple to sue thy brother For sure neither Jesus Christ in this place nor St. Paul in the 1 Cor. ch 6. forbiddeth Saints to go to law against an heathen before an heathen
turned the Eucharist into an idoll and this into a sacrifice hoping that these mysteries taking once Gods place the pastors would be soon respected with a veneration beyond and above that which is due to magistrates having with the dignity of their function a speciall priviledge and power to distribute those mysteries particularly the Eucharist to such as they should count worthy from whence came excommunication But before excommunication could come to be the standard of an ecclesiasticall jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate the corruption of the Eucharist must precede which was a work of many hundred years 1. The Fathers though they had no intention of contributing to the working of the mystery of iniquity have occasionally given a rise to it for either because they lived among the Jewes and heathens or because they newly came from amongst those who thought there could be no religion without sacrifices and altars condescending to the capacity weaknesse both of Jewes and Gentils they borrowed many rites and ceremonies from them yea their very discipline they called the Eucharist by the name of sacrifice and gave the name of altar to the communion-table to the bread the name of the body of Jesus Christ and to the wine the name of his blood All which made way for Transubstantiation which hath taken so deep root that the very reformers amongst the rest Luther thought it too great a leap to recede too far from Transubstantiation but stuck in the mid-way and kept to Consubstantiation yea the best of ours though they took away both Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation and have allowed no reall presence of Christ but in the believer yet to the dislike of some of their brethren they have retained the very out-side phrases which clothed Transubstantiation borrowed from the 6. chapter of St. John of eating the flesh of Christ and drinking of his blood and feeding on the substance of his body which expressions Bullinger wholly disalloweth as he openly professeth in an Epistle to Beza and finds fault that in a synod at Rochell where Beza was president in the year 1571. a canon was made which condemned all such as would not grant that the faithfull in the Eucharist were fed with the substance of the body of Christ all which we are beholden for to the Fathers Tertullian lib. de oratione cap. 6. saith that the body of Christ is in the bread Ambrose upon the 17. of St. Luke besides the body that suffered saith that there is also a body whereof it is said my flesh is meat indeed The Fathers usually make three bodies of Christ a body naturall mysticall and Sacramentall yea Justin Martyr and Hilary make a mysticall union of the divinity of Christ with the bread in the Sacrament 2. Next came the crying up of the vertue of the Eucharist near upon to as great an height as that of baptisme Thus St. Austin the best of the Fathers thought the Eucharist was needfull to children for their salvation which when they had made more mysterious then ever the holy Ghost intended they devised severall degrees of penance 1. of hearers or catechumeni 2. then of competents 3. of penitents and lastly of faithfull men and Christians thus making themselves judges and arbiters of ranks and places that men ought to hold in the church all which brought along with them excommunication which from a law of confederate discipline answerable to that practised among the Jewes grew to such ripenesse as to passe for a law of Christ for a spirituall sword an arrow to be kept in the quiver of the church and to be shot at the will and pleasure of the ministers This is the weapon that hath proved so effectuall in the hands of the Pope that with it and by it he hath built up his mystery of iniquity and founded an empire within the empire of Emperours Kings and States By the same weapon the great church-judicatory in Scotland keepeth all inferiour judicatories and churches in awe and subjection for were this taken away from them or were the people well informed of the fond and panick dread they have of it then they would upon more rationall grounds be subject to order and discipline But whatever height the power of excommunication arose to it could never yet be had but one of these two things ever attended the possession of it for either the Pope had it by a power of magistracy of his own by which he kept all magistrates in awe or it was alwayes disputed and controlled by the magistrate of the place where the Popes agents did endeavour to exercise their jurisdiction This may be proved by the practise of all states within the communion of Rome specially of France where the Popes Bulls of excommunication have been often disannulled and evacuated by acts of Parliament and inferiour judicatories yea by synods convocated by the King I will produce but one example which I have read in an old French Historie of the life of Lewis the ninth written by Ionville above 400. years agone cap. 82. where when a Prelat did desire of the King the help of the secular power for making his excommunications good the King answered that with all his heart he would do it but that first â—t was fit he should be acquainted with the validity of the excommunication Which evinceth 1. that all excommunications are null without a power of magistracy to put them in execution 2. that in the darkest time of ignorance and Popery magistrates could disannull and make void the Popes censures and that they did not conceive themselves obliged to hold his censures valid with a blind judgement and obedience but were to judge of them and so either to confirm them or abrogate them for so did the Emperours before the Popes grew up to their height from Constantine the great to Justinian and did regulate order and disannull or make void excommunications CHAPTER XXXI The History of excommunication from the first reformation from Popery how it was received in Geneva but not settled without disputes and clashings betwixt the consistory and the magistrate THus the abuse of the doctrine of the Eucharist went hand in hand with the use of excommunication untill that in Luthers fuller reformation the first was reformed the other not taken away but by some of the reformers retained upon the same grounds of Scripture that the Romish was though not in that height yet not with moderation which in vain is lookt for in an action that in its very use and practise is altogether unlawfull as excommunicat on is But neverthelesse excommunication aâ—ongst other practises of the Romish church was also abrogated by Luther and all thoughts of it weâ—e quite cast off as of a yoak and relick of Popery for above 20. years after Luther first preached against the Pope and it was near to miscarrying at its first new birth for in the year 1538. he having sounded the minds of his hearers how it might