Pastors or society of Christians get an increase of power of Jurisdiction and Legslation if they be a Law unto themselves and practise the duties of piety and exhort one another so to do Plinius the younger in the 97 Epistle to Trajan and the tenth book where he speaks of Christians saith that one of their crimes was that they joyned themselves in a covenant to live unblameably not to steal not to commit fornication not to defraud his neighbour and the like I believe that none will from that practise of the Christians argue that they took upon them more power for so doing then they durst under a Christian Magistrate except he were of the mind of some of late in Authority in England who disliked and endeavoured to suppresse all godly private meetings under pretence of Factions Sure if I mistake it not it will be found that the Pastors power of the Keyes had no life to compell the disobedient to Gods ordinances till they received it from the Soveraigne Magistrate when he gave his name to Christ who both more honoured and exalted Gods ordinances raising them from the dust and added weight to the heavenly messages by the mouth of the Ministers by being a terrour to the evil and punishing the ungodly To the power of persuasion and declaration he addeth that of coaction in which the Pastors have nothing to do The Bishop saith Saint Paul must not be a striker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hereupon Chrysostome saith well If a man is drawn from the faith the Priest must undertake with patience to exhort him for he cannot redresse him by force onely he must strive to perswade him to bring him to the right Faith Pastors saith the same Father are appointed to preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to rule or command with authority Letter HEre I dare say that the Reformers of the Doctrine of the Pope have not retained the Keys that were under Popery In reforming the Doctrine they have also reformed the abuses cleaving to the Keyes which are abominable for in the Romish Church they extend the power of the Keyes so farre as pardoning sinnes in a judiciall way saying to the sinner I absolve thee from thy sinnes The Priest renders himself Judge in a cause wherein God is the party offended By vertue of these Keyes the Pope drawes souls out of Purgatory he looseth those he never bound and which are none of his flock he doth loose under earth because Jesus Christ hath said what ever you shall bind on earth he doth loose and dispence with oaths and vows and freeth Subjects from the obedience due to their Soveraigne Prince he separates marriages exempting also children from the obedience they owe to their Father and Mother These holy men of God who have reformed the Doctrine have left off those Keyes and kept those which Jesus Christ hath given to his Disciples and their successors I will give thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven it was also impossible to reform the Doctrine without reforming the Keyes since those Keyes are a part of the Doctrine they have retained to themselves the power to bind and loose which Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples Math. 16. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth c which power goeth no further then Ecclesiasticall censures as the Lord Jesus Christ teacheth in the same place giving to understand that by this binding the rebellious sinner is put among the Publicanes and sinners who were excluded from the Communion of the Church Thus we must understand the power of remitting or reteining sinnes given by Jesus Christ to his Disciples The faithfull Pastors do remit sinnes when they release men of Ecclesiacall penalties and receive to the Communion of the Church the repenting sinner who was excluded Consideration THe Reformers have done as Richard the third in usurping a power which yet he exercised with moderation and making of good Lawes so did Augustus Caesar and some more Thus the Reformers have reteyned the Keyes to which they had no more right then the Pastors of the Romish Church but have taken away those adjuncts of abuses and abominations adhering to the power of the Keyes In that sence as Richard the third may be said to have usurped the Crowne as well as he who to usurpation hath added a tyrannicall Government and making of wicked and unjust Lawes so may it be said that the Reformers in reforming the Doctrine have reteined the power of the Keyes the Article thus speaking having no further meaning then to say that the Reformers in reforming the Doctrine have still challenged to themselves an Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction not belonging to the Civil Magistrate even as the Pastours of the Romish Church have donc though not the same for qualifications As for the meaning of the words dic Ecclesiae tell it unto the Church it cannot have much strength what ever interpretation one may give to the words whether by the word Church we understand a Synagogue or judicatory as was that of the Iewes amongst which there was no difference between Church and State or Common-wealth or a society of faithfull men and though by the Church Pastours should be understood I do not see here any Iudiciall sentence binding him that trespasseth against his neighbour but still he may if he will hearken without fear of any coercive power seated in the Ministers and the words Let him be to thee a heathen or a publican have no further meaning then have him for such a one in thy thoughts and estimation a Publicans office was lawfull neither yet could he be excluded from the communion nor from the congregation the very heathen not being excluded from the latter for how else could they have been converted Letter THE Reformers then in reforming the abuses in the Doctrine and Keyes have retained the Keyes and power to bind and unbind committed to them by Jesus Christ The Author of the Articles acknowledgeth that the Pastors of the Church have well done to retain that power under the heathen Emperors that is almost for the space of 350 yeares from Christ to Constantine the first Christian Emperour since which Emperour the said Author thinks that the Bishops and Pastors were to part with that Power and that the Soveraigne Power of the Keyes did no longer belong to them but that they were to desert it in obedience to God which yet they have not done for all the ancient Councels although convened by the will of the Emperours are full of penitentiall canons prescribing the forme time and degrees for publique pennances in the execution of which canons the consent of the Emperours nor of their Lieutenants was never expected Consideration WE have seen before that the power of the Ministers is neither increased nor diminished whether the Magistrate be Orthodox or no and that the power of the keyes given them by God hath more lively actings under the Orthodox Magistrate To that part of the Letter which saith that in
wrath sets the most contemptible amongst men and children for Kings even children in judgement over the people that they may depend more on the King of Heaven Yet the most part what they want in personall abilities to act of themselves they recompence in judgement and discretion about the choice of Counsellours many unlearned Fathers and unacquainted in the wayes of education of children will have a good sagacity in choosing able Tutours for their children In like manner the Soveraigne Magistrate may wisely order the course of Law Sciences Arts Trades Manufactures though he be litttle or nothing versed at all in any of them And if it were required that the Soveraigne power should be exactly conversant in all the actions they order there had need to be in a State so many Soveraigne powers as there be acts and disciplines and were they never so capable yet they will do wisely to choose able Counsellours much more in a matter of so high importance as is the deciding of controversies in Religion and ordering the actions belonging to the Kingdome of heaven ubi magna negotia magnis egent adjutoribus and amongst those Counsellours none will be so fit as Divines men of Learning Gravity and Piety Thus if the Soveraigne power goeth about to reform the abuses of severall Professions and Arts within his Dominions as for example of Physick no doubt but he will joyn with his Counsell the most skilfull of that Art But that the Pastours or Ministers are not the fittest to have a Supream Iurisdiction over persons and causes they call Ecclesiasticall reason and the sad experience of former times teacheth us for were they endowed with knowledge by Revelation and had Ecclesiasticall Assemblies compounded meerely of Divines a non-erring gift not communicable to any other Assemblies of men I should willingly and necessarily admit that Divines ought to be assisting the Christian Magistrate not onely as Counsellours but also as Iudges coequall to them yea Superiours in that Iurisdiction which they challenge to themselves but the gifts of Government being not inseparably joyned with those of preaching and the Ministers not being endowed with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or infallibility more then those that sit at the Stern of the State can be I do not see but that their proper place and employment is to be counsellours to the Soveraigne power in matters belonging to the Kingdome of heaven But being falne insensibly upon the rank and station that Ministers ought to keep in a Christian Common-wealth because it is a matter complicate with the question in hand concerning the pretended Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction distinct from the Civil it will not be amisse to discusse which of the Governments either by Bishops or onely Presbyters is most consistent and compatible with the peace and safety of a Christian Protestant State If it be admitted on all sides that there is but one power of Legislation and Jurisdiction in all causes and over all persons belonging to the Supream Magistrate I conceive that then Bishops overseers set over many Congregations besides that they are more agreeable with the Primitive institution will much ease the Supream power of the care they must take in ordering persons and causes nearer concerning the Kingdome of heaven for his inspection being but over the Bishops Factions and Heresies will not so easily spread among the multitude of the Christian people as if he were immediately to overlook the actions of the great body of Presbyters who being numerous may easily escape his eyes and have a greater freedome to innovate Therefore Moses being Supream in all causes and over all persons It was a wise counsel of Jethro his father in Law to wish him to set under him men over the people who besides that they bore the burden with him those men being far lesse for number then the people it was easie for Moses to oversee them But under those Magistrates who should condescend to a divided and distinct Iurisdiction one being civill and exercised by themselves the other Ecclesiasticall and of Divine right belonging to the Ministers of the Gospell In that case I do conceive that few Bishops set over Presbyters and being Independent from any other power have a greater opportunity to Lord and tyrannize over the Christian people then a numerous company of Presbyters of the same rank and equall Authority can have Letter NOw for that the Author of the articles would have this distinction of civill and spiritual abolished 't is a thing very hard to change and alter the nature of things as if one would take away the distinction betwixt black and white Let men doe what they can and say what they will the questions about Faith will be still spirituall things and suites in Law for money or houses will be still civill and temporall matters If we change the words the nature of things cannot suffer alteration Consideration THe Magistrate is no more head of two things Church State then of thousand kinds of actions in a Christian Common-wealth which for every one of them needs not a particular Soveraign a Power Now these two things Christian Church and Common-wealth cannot be so much as conceived to have a reall being without each other for as every man is a reasonable creature and every reasonable creature a man so every Christian Common-wealth is a Church and every Christian Church a Common-wealth I speak of those Churches that have as large and spacious extent of place as the Common-wealth it selfe for in some other sence a family in a house is called a Church and according to that acception every Church should not be a Christian Common-wealth I think the Church is not different from the Christian Common-wealth more then the understanding is from the Soul for as powers and faculties are believed by great Philosophers not to be distinguished really from the Soul however though there should be a difference it cannot be so distinct as that the power can have a distinct being from the Soul but that at least all powers are subaltern and subordinate to the chief power called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sits at the stern of all faculties and directs and modifies all actions though never so severall contributing as well to ratiocination and vision as to the coction and expulsion In the like manner that Soveraigne power in a State though one in essence hath its severall faculties or powers from which severall actions do stream tending to the ordering of the whole man in his being and well-being as well in things of the inward man as the outward And to follow he analogy between the body of man and the State it is no little illustration to beget belief that as the primum movens or Soveraigne power is one and extends it self as far as it is circumscribed by the cuticula or thin skin there being not one Soveraigne power for the head another for the lower regions and a third for the hands and feet So in
constrained to obedience but as they were ratified by the seale or supreame will of the Soveraigne Magistrate who usually did call and dissolved them VII Although all power and jurisdiction in all things be annexed to the Soveraigne Magistrate by that we doe not meane to diminish any thing of the nature of the Empire and jurisdiction which the Lord Iesus Christ even in this world hath over his Church whose members he knoweth by name and which he doth governe by his Word and Spirit VIII But to beleeve that the body of those that make an externall profession of the true Religion must be governed by Lawes made by persons distinct in jurisdiction or legislation from that power which belongeth to the Soveraigne Magistrate t is a thing which cannot be found in the Scripture where we doe read that the Church and Kingdome of the Iewes were the same thing and that in the Synedrium all causes were decided and all kinds of persons convented IX These things being premised as afore t is not understood that the government by Presbyteries Synods Classes or even by Bishops must therefore be abolished but onely that all their jurisdiction is like a branch or rivolet streaming from the fountain of power residing in the Soveraign Magistrate X. Neither is it understood that the Magistrate ought to give orders or preach the Word although magistracy and ministry be things very consistent no more then to create Doctrors of physick or the like but onely that the power to exercise any profession or calling externally is conferred by him and cannot be done without him XI That the calling of Lay-Elders is not of necessary use in a Country where the Magistrate is of the same Religion with the body of the people it being more then reasonable that so much or more power be granted to the Orthodox Christian Magistrate then they yeeld to the Elders in France XII Now because some think it unfit that the ministers and the causes which they maintaine to be of their cognizance should in all things be subalterne to the Soveraign Magistrate the only expedient if we beleeve them to make the Church and State to be one Christian Common-wealth under one Soveraigne power were that the Rulers and Over-seers of the Church as Ministers and Elders should have also the Common-wealth committed to them in the manner as the Waldenses or Albigenses were governed for it seemeth that such Ministers would be contented that the Church and Common-wealth were one so that they might have the whole rule and Government but rather then to misse a share they become strong assertors of a distinct jurisdiction whereof they may appropriate one unto themselves Sic hisuperiorem illi parem non ferunt A Letter Examining the foregoing Positions Sir YOu sent me certaine articles touching the Ecclesiastical policy and thereupon are earnest to know my opinion the which I was long in debate whether I should deliver or no questioning whether the declaring of my sence in this matter be of any weight or moment but since by your last you presse it further upon me telling me that some persons of wisdome and gravity and in authority in the state are earnest to know my sence and opinion thereon I have at length given way to your importunity leaving to your discretion either the suppressing of this writing or making of it publike The two first articles do lay down for a foundation that all humane actions ought to be done in faith and referred to the soveraign end which is to glorifie God and to obtaine salvation and that the duty of the soveraign visible power is to declare unto the people the will of the great Legislator and that the laws of the said soveraign power ought to be conformable at least no way repugnant to the Law of God All this is just and honest and it were a sinne against piety to contradict it The second article saith that the soveraign Magistrate hath right to regulate all humane actions which are tending to that soveraign end and that he alone ought to sway and preside over all meanes Lawes offices places and persons appertaining to the said actions else if there were two supreme Magistrates one over the actions they call Ecclesiasticall and another over the civill a great deal of confusion would ensue And that heresies schismes and wars did arise for the most part from the Popes dividing the said actions challenging to themselves the regulating of one part of them leaving the other to the Emperour and Kings thus setting up Imperium in imperio I am of opinion that there cannot be in a well composed State and so doth the scripture teach us more then one soveraign power and that all persons of what quality and condition soever are subject to the soveraign Magistrate and that the Pastors of the Church cannot be excepted or exempted from that subjection their duty being to exhort and dispose the people to be faithfull and obedient to that power by Gods providence set over them and chalk them the way by their example 1. Iosh all the people the Levites and the Priests being comprised speak thus to Ioshua All that thou commandest us will we do and whithersoever thou sendest us we wil go 1 King 1. v. 33. David saith to Bethsheba Take with you the servants of your Lord. The context shewes that Zadok the high Priest was of the servants of the King 2. King 23. v. 4. And the King commanded Helkiah the high Priest and the Priests of the second order And there he chideth them for not obeying his command in repairing of the temple S. Paul doth appeal to Cesar acknowledging him his Iudge Consideration NOte that S. Paul appeales to Caesar as to the supreme competent Iudge not onely in relation to his private person and cause but the cause of the Gospel for the question was whether there was any crime in preaching the Gospel and the Apostles acknowledge the worst of the Emperours the supreme power and Iudge Had Festus not been a competent Iudge in Ecclesiasticall matters but onely in civill instead of saying I am judged for the hope c. that is for the resurrection of the dead the chief point of Christianity he would have said I am not to be judged before thee in these matters Letter THe same Apostle Rom. 13. enjoyneth that all persons be subject to the higher powers acknowledging the powers that have the present rule to be given of God that is such as by a speciall act of his providence have the soverain power in hand St. Pet. 1.2 v. 13. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake and note that the Emperour to whom obedience is commanded to be rendred was a tyrant and a most wicked man Nebuchadnezzar had subdued Iudea and lead the Iews captives yet Ieremiah speakes thus to the remnant of the Iewes not yet transported Submit your neck under the yoak of the King of Babylon and serve him
administer justice impartially though any or all of them may faile in the discharge of their duty The King being a persecutor of the christian people instead of being their nursing Father the Father leaving his children to the wide world and the Judge taking bribes and being prepossessed with prejudices If mens sins should exempt exempt them from their duty a wicked mans duty should be never to be converted None will say 't is not the duty of a Governor of a strong hold to defend it although he lets in the enemy without resistance That 't is not the office of a Magistrate to look to the safety of the high wayes because he either neglects that care or conniveth at such as doe commit robbery For the second ground Suppose that the Soveraigne Power doth not impose any Law or rather suppose his Lawes are unjust shall a man under such a power live lawlesse or shall not rather such a man being a Christian be tied to be a Law unto himselfe or rather to make the word of God a Law to his conscience Sure such a man must not expect the commands of the Soveraign Power to abstain from stealing or fornication which may be are authorised by Law but must avoid these not for wrath that is not for fear of punishment but for conscience sake as the Apostle speaketh thus when Christ commandeth the Ministers to preach baptise c. and the people not to forsake their mutuall Assembly no doubt but that both the Christian Pastor and people are bound to all Church duties though they have the Soveraign power opposite and threatning all kind of punishment to those that exercise them If those in authority be wanting to their duty I have no reason or ground to be deficient in mine As for the third ground concerning meetings assemblies c. I say that they may be such as though it should be granted on all sides that the Church and States Jurisdiction were but one that the very Soveraign power needs not to pretend to have an eye over them It being a kind of right of nature for Merchants trading in the same commodity to meet for acquaintance to appoint a Randezvous A man being a feciable creature it is no marvell if men are naturally desirous to converse together without expecting any order for so doing Were not the Heteries and Meetings of the ancient Christians of the same nature And upon that account I see not but the Meetings of congregations of those called Independents are very commendable and not to be enquired after by the Soveraigne Magistrate nor by Synods which cannot be proved to be of Divine institution but have taken their originall from those kinds of naturall and innocent meetings which when they were about things which were neither plots nor conspiracy to disturb the peace of the State needed not to be looked after by the Magistrate except when being converted to the Christian Religion he became himself a principall member of those meettings for then specially when the meetings are not onely in houses but in publick places and are tending to have the holy Ordinances set up and published as the main rule of life and ground-work of humane society his chief duty was to govern the Empire as Christian contributing his whole endevour towards the defence maintenance and encrease of the Christian Religion Thus Leo Bishop of Rome Ep. 75. to Leo the Emperour Debes incunctanter advertere Regiam potestatem tibi non solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse collocatam Thou oughtest soberly to consider that the Royall power is not onely committed to thee for the Government of the world but chiefly for the defence of the Church Letter ALL the difficulty then is concerning the Orthodox Magistrate and one that is endowed with the true knowledge of God such as by the mercies of God the Magistrate of England is upon that the fifth Article saith that the Reformers have indeed purged the Popish Doctrine but have reserved to themselves the Soveraigne cognizance of the actions they call Ecclesiasticall challenging the power of the Keyes which when all is said is reduced to this sentence that God must be rather obeyed then men The Authour of the Articles thinks that the Reforming Pastors in retaining the power of the Keyes have not obeyed God he doth indeed acknowledge that under a Prince of contrary Religion the Christian people have done well to establish a government which they call purely Ecclesiasticall and create Elders who are deputies of the people but he is of that opinion that where the Magistrate is of the same Religion with the body of the people there ought not to be any further distinction of Jurisdiction the Church and State concurring into one Christian common-wealth To be short all his discourse is tending to that viz. that in a State where the Magistrate is Orthodox the Keyes and power which the Pastors had under Magistrates of contrary Religion doth no longer belong to them but doth onely belong to the Soveraigne Magistrate whose power is over all persons and things and that in all Assemblies Synods and Classes the conclusions have no force if they be not ratified by the will of the Supreme Magistrate by whom they usually are assembled Consideration VVHat he saith from the Author of the articles that where the Supream Magistrate becomes Orthodox the power of the Keyes doth no longer belong to the Ministers ought to be understood with some explication for the power of the Keyes is still and ought to be the same whether the Magistrate be orthodox or no there is not in the Ministers any addition of that power under the heathen Magistrate nor any substraction of it under a Christian suppose that the Christian Magistrate and Orthodox should turn Apostate I do not conceive that it follows thereupon that the power which the Christian Magistrate hath over the Church is through his Apostacy devolved unto the Ministers for that Legislation or Iurisdiction practised in Christian Congregations Synods or Assemblies under the heathen Magistrate is no more then a harmony of minds affections and actions to holy ordinances and orders by which Christians may worship God more purely and walk more closely with him which ordinances are either Gods word or such as encrease the power of piety and as they are published by common consent as the best rule to walk by so are they in the practise of them willingly and unanimously consented unto and every member of a Christian society submitteth himself to the rules exhortations and censures of that society or Church not being awed or compelled by any coercive power which they cannot avoid if they listed but led by voluntary submission to which by promise and pact they are in a manner already engaged Besides suppose that the Magistrate doth not impose any Lawes to restrain ungodlinesse or the currant sins in the world yea suppose that vices are authorised by Law doth either
a State bounded as England by certain limits no doubt if it be one State or Comon-wealth it hath one Soveraigne power reaching as well to Cumberland as to Kent and Cornwall over all persons actions and causes for if some persons or causes were exempted as for example the persons and causes they call Ecclesiasticall within the same limits of Land I do not conceive that there can be any such power nor can I Imagine where that power in matters Ecclesiasticall or ordering Church wayes should reside by which the Supreame Civill Magistrate is bounded but there may be as well ten thousand Supream powers and Courts Ecclesiasticall within England as one single generall power for the Civill Magistrates Jurisdiction being distinct from the Ecclesiasticall he may not hinder that multiplication of powers every one of these powers assuming to be sui Juris in sacred things or if he hinders it and prevaileth to have but one Soveraign power in Church matters in all his Dominions this very act of prevailing will be a sufficient demonstration that there is but one Soveraigne power over all causes and persons Ecclesiasticall and Civill indeed the taking away the branch of the Jurisdiction and power of the Christian Soveraign Magistrate in things pertaining to the Kingdome of heaven is as much as to destroy all Ecclesiasticall power and Jurisdiction for besides that this makes the Magistrate but a cipher or zero in sacred things it abolisheth all Ecclesiasticall Discipline Parish meetings publick and uniforme exercises of the ordinances which cannot be performed but by the supreame Magistrates ordering permission or at least connivence and it reduceth all Church wayes to the congregational which way though it cannot be disproved all men naturally having a power to associate themselves upon their ordinary affairs without the Supreame Powers leave or ordering much more when those meetings are pious innocent and without danger to the publick weale yet if there be no other Church-way within all the Dominions of the Soveraigne Magistrate then the Congregationall not onely all Power of the Keyes and Jurisdiction in Church-matters is quite taken away from the Christian Magistrate but also all Presbyteries Classes Synods and with them their Power and Jurisdiction vanisheth and comes to nothing and in truth it will come to nothing if you doe not make that publique ordering of Church-way setting up of Ordinances uniformity of Catechising confession of Faith discipline censures to be a branch of the Legislation and Jurisdiction which the Soveraign Christian Magistrate is to have over all causes persons and actions for in Gods name where can that Power in Church matters be seated but in the Christian Magistrate May be you will seat it in all the Christian people within the Magistrates Dominions But by this the Christian people having the Soveraign Power in Ecclesiasticall shall have the liberty not onely as I said before to make as in England either one two or more yea ten thousand Nationall Churches as far differing one from the other in Rites and Constitutions as the Scottish Church is from the English and the English from the French the word of God not stinting whether associated Christians ought to be many or few in one body or whether many bodies or few in one Nation as England and whether they must be a collection of Churches joyned in one body of a Nationall Church or not And which is more this absurdity and great inconvenience will follow from this dividing of Powers that it will be free for Christians to erect in two contiguous Countryes under two distinct Magistrates as France and the Territory of Geneva one collective body of Churches ruled by the same Synods and Decrees under one Soveraigne Power in Ecclesiasticall and thus shall you have not Imperium in Imperio but Imperium in duobus Imperijs a confusion of Empires for who may have right to keep them from so doing If you say that both the neighbour Soveraigne civill Powers may hinder them to that I say either it is an usurpation in them to doe so or if not then that Power by which the Church is ordered is subordinate to the Soveraigne Christian Magistrate which is all I intended to make good But it may be said againe that all the Christians or all the Congregations who are big enough to make a Church such as the little number of two or three of Christ in the Gospel gathered together in Christs name within the Dominions of the Soveraign civill Power will have that humane wisedome as to erect but one Nationall Church and of the same latitude and extent that the Dominions are To that I say that this very liberty and humane wisedome which they make use of without a certaine prescript from God doth sufficiently evidence that they make use of the same guide which the Supreame Power doth imploy in the governing of the State and that since humane wisedome must be be called to help for the ordering of these two things they will have to be distinct viz. the Church and State none can be better trusted with them then the Supream Power of the State where the Church must be constituted and indeed the Christian Emperours have always modelled the Church after the fashion of the State or if you will the State after the Church because they were to depend of one supreame Power for as they had Bishops in every City whose bounds and extent was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Parish so had they a Defensor Civitatis and in every Province the Arch-bishop or Metropolitan was answerable to the Praeses or Proconsul and in every Diocesse the Primate or Patriarch was like the Lieutenant or Vicarius or Legatus To summe up all as the primum movens in the naturall body extendeth it selfe to all parts and functions of the body so the Soveraigne Power in a State hath an equall Jus Imperij in Ecclesiasticall and civill matters And as the sensitive and vitall parts are equally extended and circumscribed by the same limits so all the causes of what kind soever they be are bounded by the same supreame Power within the same limits of land as if on the North side Barwick is the bound of the civill Power of England so is it of the Ecclesiasticall But it may be demanded how the soveraigne Power may be said to have Jus Imperij in Divine Lawes I answer that properly the office of a Soveraigne Power is only ministeriall and in regard of God it is rather an administration then a power but in regard of men because it bindeth to obedience 't is a Power and Authority Now his Law is either just or unjust if unjust yet the obedience to it being not sinfull it must be obeyed as a Law in force for the strength of a Law doth not consist in that it is just but in this because 't is a Law ordained by him who hath Authority Now if this Law be just it must be obeyed for two reasons
persons are subject to the Soveraigne Magistrate in whose hands God hath put the Sword and that he hath power over the lives and goods of the Pastours of the Church and may iustly punish them when they are perturbators of the publick peace and become obnoxious by their wicked lives that the duty of the Magistrate is to restrain them if they behave themselves tyrannically in the use of the Keyes and break the peace of the State Consideration THis alone is sufficient to evince that in a Christian Common-wealth there can be but one Soveraigne power over all persons causes and actions for it is absurd to conceive that the Supream Magistrate hath power over the person of the Minister and not over the actions and causes for which he may and must be punished by the said Magistrate and 't is no lesse absurd to conceive that the Magistrate may justly put to death a Minister or punish him with banishment yet may not have the power to degrade him it being a rule in philosophy that if the whole be in the power much more a part of the whole and if the same Supream Magistrate may justly degrade him who doubts but he may as justly challenge to himself the right of choosing him else which is all one as if he had chosen the Pastour himself he may put by not onely the said Pastour but so many one after another as are substituted by the power they call Ecclesiasticall till the Pastor chosen be according to his owne mind Letter ANd because it might fall out that in Nationall and Provincial Synods the overseers of Churches should transgresse the limits of their calling and meddle with civill affaires in which the Civill Magistrate is interessed it stands with reason that these Synods be not convened without the will and consent of the Soveraign the ancient Emperours have yet done more then that for in the universall Councils they have been present as Constantine in the Council of Nicaea and Marcian at the opening of the Chalcedoine Council or in their stead they have sent Earls Patrices or Consuls as we may see in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedoine and the II. Councill of Nicaea in the said Acts we see that the said Patrices and Earles abated the insolency of some Bishops and commanded them absolutely The title given them by the Councill was Gloriosissimi Iudices Consideration THis likewise proveth the necessity of one Soveraigne power over all persons meetings causes and actions Synods being assemblies of wise and learned Councellours to advise the Supream power in matters of Doctrine and Discipline as the Supream Magistrates power is to call them so to determine the members that are called to it as Marsilius Patavinus saith Generale concilium convocare personas ad hoc idoneas determinare pertinet ad Legislatoris authoritatem part 2. cap. 20. and not onely so he only doth preside and reserveth himself the facultie of approving disproving examining and rejecting what he thinks fit even after the Synod is broken up and their conclusions and Canons are ratified by him as the Ecclesiasti-Historie tells us Letter AS for decisions of points touching Doctrine of faith although the Emperours never iudged of these matters yet did they maintain their authority giving Judges to whom they commanded to decide the differences as Constantine did when the Donatists came to complain to him for he gave them some Bishops for Judges to whose Judgement they not yielding he called a Councill to pronounce a definitive sentence but these Judges which the Emperour gave to decide matter of Doctrine were alwayes Bishops and Ecclesiasticall persons by that means the Emperonr kept his authority over Bishops Consideration OBserve that not the Churches nor the Synods but the Emperour nameth the Judges The difference was betwixt the Donatists and other Bishops of Africa the Donatists with a great deale of submission besought the Emperor to give them Judges out of France The Emperour gave them 3 French and with them Miltiades Bishop of Rome 'T is here further to be observed that as the Letter saith the Donatists did not condescend to the determinations of the 4 Judges which is not to be understood as if they rejected the sentence of the Judges or of the Emperor as issued from incompetent Judges or appealed to a Synod for quite contrary they appealed to the Emperour who indeed thereupon called another Synod to compose the controversie which was about Caecilianus accused by the Donatists of many crimes and to have been unduly elected from that Synod in which they were condemned they appealed againe to the Emperor who for the second time called another Councill at Arles of which the Donatists not being satisfied that Caecilianus should be confirmed in his Sea of Carthage appealed the third time from the Councill to the Emperour who condemned the Donatists and banished them Neither were the Donatists ignorant that the decision of the Emperour should be the ultimate definitive judgment And the very Bishops did use to give account of what passed in Synods Thus Constantine called the Bishops convened at Tyr to him to give an account of what passed in the Assembly Among the Councils of France we read that the heads of the debates in Synods were referred ad sacratissimum judicium that is the counsell of the King or rather the King himselfe and that in the year 813. the addresses to Charles the Great doe refer the determinations of the Councell to be examined amended and confirmed by him and that by his wisedome he would vouchsafe to supply what had beene wanting on their part Letter IF the Soveraigne Counsill be minded to reserve to himself the decision of points of Doctrine and of all Ecclesiasticall affaires it were in that case needfull that the Councill should be composed partly of Pastors and Doctors and Ecclesiasticall persons skilled in these matters as it was practised in the Palatinate afore the late troubles which is confirmed by the example alledged by the Author of the Articles We find saith he that in the Common-wealth of the Jewes in one onely Synedrium all causes were decided and all kinds of persons might be convented In this Synedrium the Nasi was President who usually was the High Priest and most in it were Priests or Levites The same thing was practised in England before these late alterations there being a Soveraign Counsell called the High Commission in which the Arch-bishop was President to whom were joyned in Commission as Assessors some Counsellors at Law of the Country Consideration 'T Is sufficiently granted that though it be admitted that Ecclesiasticall and Civill causes are belonging to two distinct Jurisdictions yet they may confluere in unum and be made of two one under one single Soveraign Power That the Powers were not divided in the Common-wealth of the Jewes it may be easily gathered by the Story of the Jewes from Moses to the Captivity Moses himselfe was a Soveraigne Judge in all causes
not change termes the Master becoming a Servant and the Servant a Master 10. Whether the Duke of Normandy did break his Allegeance to Chilperick his heires and successours when he did homage of his Dukedom to Charles Martel who expelled the lawful line 11. Whether in case the Turk should make such a conquest of England as he hath done of Constantinople an English man minded to tarry in England is not tied to engage to be true and faithfull to him and consequently freed from former engagements 12. Or if the Englishman may wave and suspend his engaging so soon after the conquest how long time may be allowed to him afore he do it 13. Suppose an Englishman had 15 yeares ago foreseen and foretold by probable and possible conjectures such a turne of State as ours is whether it had not been a sinne in him to take without some condition implyed the oath of Allegeance 14. Whether in case the King had as it was once very doubtfull clear overcome the Parliament and had as it is likely he would have done abolished all future thoughts of Parliaments and had thereupon made a Proclamation and publick Declaration of his will and pleasure whether I say in that case he commanding a generall subscription to be true and faithfull to him in the maintenance of his Domination every Englishman had not been obliged in conscience and obedience to Gods word to submit unto it and thereby been loosed from his former tyes and obligations to maintain the priviledges of Parliament the liberties of the Kingdome the extirpation of the English Hierarchie and the like These quaeries are of themselves so satisfactory that they need no answer for even in all oaths which are not of Allegiance contracts promises though they be uttered or written in absolute terms there is always some condition implyed and included as is the mutuall promise the first day of marriage and Seneca in his fourth Book de Beneficijs Chap. 35. giveth many pregnant instances Tunc fidem fallam tunc inconstantiae crimen audiam si cum omnia eadem sint quae erant promittente me non praestitero promissum alioqui quicquid mutatur libertatem facit de integro consulendi meam fidem liberat That is I shall then break my faith and incurre the crime of inconstancy if I doe not fulfill my promise all the things being the very same that they were when I made the promise And having made that good by examples headdeth omnia debent esse eadem quae fuerint cum promitentes ut promittentis fidem teneas That you may keep the faith every thing must be the same it was when you promised And in the 39 Chapter he is very full and saith that in all promises subest tacita exceptio si potero si debebo si haec ita erunt effice ut idem status sit cum exigitur qui fuit cum promitterem si aliquid intervenit novi quid miraris cum conditio promittentis mutata sit mutatum esse consilium eadem mihi omnia praesta idem sum There is a tacite exception if I can if I ought to doe it if the things be thus make that good that the same state doe continue when it is demanded that it was when I made promise if some new things come in the interim why doe you marveil that the resolution is changed since the condition of him that promised is also changed see that all be as they were and I am the same This very subject that promises and contracts are conditionally to be interpreted though the interpretation is not expressed is handled by Queene Elizabeth in a controversie betweene her selfe and the Hollanders in the clearing of which She maketh use of this very place of Seneca The whole passage is worth setting down briefly being more largely related by learned cambden in his Annals in the year 1595. The Queen being in a manner weary with the length of the warre that the States of the Low Country had with Spaine and the greatnesse of the expences shewed this unto the States by her Ambassador Sir Thomas Bodley resident in Holland particularly that England being exhausted of wealth and military men She required not onely ease of the charge of the charge of maintaining Auxiliary Forces but also that they would repay some part of her expences They after some complements and a demonstration to the Queene of the great losses they lately sustained and the heavy burden that lay upon them in prosecuting a warre against so potent an Enemy desired forbearance but so that they promised to pay a part of the money when the Queen required a greater proportion they stood stifly upon the Contract in the year 1585. by which the money was not to be repaid before the warre was finished and pressed her upon her Honour not to start back from Her Contract But She by the advice of her Counsellours of State replyed That all Contracts with a Prince are understood to admit an interpretation of sincere fidelity and no publick dâ—triment caused by the Contract That 't is no breach when it is done by accident of a new case concerning which other provision would have been made if it had been thought upon That every Contract though sworne is understood if matters continue in the same state but not if they be changed That a man is bound more strongly to the Common-wealth then to his own promise and out of the authority of Seneca that a wise man doth not change his determination all things continuing which were when he took it Letter Moses by the same power by which he plagued Aegypt was able to take the people out of Aegypt which yet he never attempted without Pharaohs permission Consideration FOr although God commanded the Sacrifice yet since the place was not defined they could not be exempted from obeying the King Letter ANd because some might say that the Christian people was bidden to obey the Emperours meerly out of necessity and to avoyd persecution the Apostles words alledged commanding obedience to the higher Powers for Gods sake takes away any such thought And St. Paul bids us to yeeld obedience to the higher Powers not only for wrath but also for conscience sake that is not only for feare of punishment but because conscience and Gods Word doth bind us thereunto Jesus Christ himselfe appearing before Pontius Pilate to be judged by him by that acknowledeth that Pilate had received that Power from God Consideration WEre it not too much to disgresse from the subject in hand which is of the power of the Christian Magistrate in sacred things this part of the Letter strongly asserting out of the words of the Apostle Rom. 13. That obedience and submission is due to that Magistrate which by Gods providence hath got the Supremacie would lead me to a further consideration of it but having but now taken liberty to digresse upon the same I shall onely observe upon this part of the
besides the death of Christ then such commands were not to be obeyed Nor doe I say that therefore the State must be embroiled and the Magistrate resisted but that one is rather to endure martyrdome or all kind of persecution then to lose his soule in giving obedience to such commands Thus have the three friends of Daniel done and all the faithfull martyrs We see in the Apologetick of Tertullian that in his time the Christians did fill the greatest part of the Roman Empire which might have been very empty had they gone about to flee for persecution into a remote Country Read St. Austin upon the 124 Psalme Valentinian the II. was laboured to take away the Temples from the Orthodoxes and give them to the Arrians but Ambrosius Bishop of Milan withstood him but how he tels you himselfe Dolere potero potero flere potero gemere adversus arma milites Gottos lachrymae meae arma sunt talia enim sunt munimenta Sacerdotis aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere To this exception I would adde another that the Magistrate must be obeyed in the actions in which he acts as Magistrate and for such a one taken For if a Soveraign Prince be in a Ship and a storme happens I doe beleeve that the Master Pilot ought rather to follow the rules of his art than the will of the Prince who is not versed in navigation The Magistrate indeed may forbid the mariners to lanch out of the Port and to saile into Spain or the Indies or to import or export such and such wares but it doth not belong to him to order how the Ship must be steered or the sailes hoised up Thus a Prince learning to ride ought if he meanes to learn to obey the Master of the horses yea as a Saveraign Prince he hath power over the person life and goods of the Master of the horses yea I say that the yielding of the Prince to the Rider is a kind of a command to the Rider so to deale with him I say the same of a Magistrate sick obeying the prescripts of a Physitian he doth obey as a man and not as a Magistrate whereupon a question may be moved whether the Magistrate being at publique prayers and partaker of the Sacraments is there as a Magistrate or as a Christian Consideration THis similitude or relation betwixt a Prince in a storm and the Pilot and betwixt a Prince sick and a Physitian is very pertinent to declare that the power of the Pastor over the Soveraign Magistrate is of the same nature and proportionable to that power which the Physitian hath over the Soveraign Prince being sick or that of a skilfull Pilot in a storme over him who may be his King but unskilfull in the art of navigation This power is rather a friendly counsell though exercised and uttered in a commanding way specially in the mouth of a Minister who in the name of God may command a Soveraigne Prince to redeem his sins by a speedy repentance for in effect 't is but declaring unto him what be the commands of God for the good of his soule Thus a Physitian following the rules of his art and his long experience may charge a King his patient as he tenders his owne health which he must not obstinately cast away to refraine from such and such meates and doubtless that King would grievously sinne against God who rejecting the counsell of the Physition and wilfully obeying his owne lust and appetite should thereby fall into a relapse It might happen in a storme or shipwrack that the Pilot should use a kinde of compulsion and violence towards his Soveraign pulling him as it were out of danger and forcing him to hearken to the meanes of his preservation for which he ought not to be blamed Letter I Think also that we should make a distinction between a Magistrate that is faithfull and orthodox and one that is an Ethnick or an Heretick for under a heathen Magistrate I doe not see how it can belong to any but the Pastors of the Church to manage the Church for shall a heathen Magistrate and persecutor be a judge of the articles of the Christian faith or make use of suspension or excommunication Whence it followeth that the state of the Church may subsist although the power of the Keyes and the governing of the Church be not in the Magistrate If the heathen Magistrate should forbid the Pastors upon paine of death to hold councels or Ecclesiasticall assemblies or to preach the Gospel or if there be such an urgent necessity of calling a Councell to stop the current of a pestilentiall heresie or to degrade some Pastors that disturbe the peace of the Church or that have crept in forcibly may the Pastors be condemned if they doe privately convene themselves contrary to the will of the Magistrate Consideration THis is one of the strongest arguments that can be alledged for the power of the Keys and Ecclesiasticall Courts and Jurisdiction different and independent from the civill Magistrate because there hath beene sometimes Church-government calling of Synods and exercise of Jurisdiction against the will of the soveraigne Power and not complicate with the civill Power But in mine opinion it hath no strength all for first I lay down this for a ground that the Magistrate whether Orthodox or not doth retaine still the same supream power over all persons and causes of what kind soever Secondly that in all persons and actions of men under the soveraigne Power this grand rule must be first observed that God must rather be obeyed then man Thirdly that many actions of all kinds naturall or voluntary even meetings assemblies and orders obliging some men or society may be done without the cognizance of the soveraigne Magistrate For first If heathenisme or heresie could devest a man of the power he hath over all persons and causes by that unjust lawes should be no lawes a diseased man by the same reason should cease to be a man and a wicked Emperour as Heliogabalus should not have beene ranked among the Emperors nor acknowledged for the supreame Judge of the Land because a bad one I confesse that a Heathen or hereticall Soveraigne cannot but judge amisse of persons and causes either out of ignorance or malice but ignorance of what is right doth not devest him of his right neither doth a wicked managing of his owne right hinder it to be a right still Depraved actions in nature continue to be actions still An Orthodox Soveraign Magistrate falling into heathenisme or heresie as Julian the Apostate loseth no part of his supreame power he that over all causes and persons no more doth the Soveraigne Magistrate get any addition or extent of power if from heresie or heathenisme he is converted to the Christian Religion 'T is the duty of a Magistrate to defend and propagate Christian Religion It is the Fathers duty to provide for his children the part of the Supreame Judge to
the execution of the canons the consent of the Emperours was never expected I say that the Emperours themselves understood that their consent was not required in the execution of the canons which as they were Acts of his so might he disannull them adde to them or repeale them by his Soveraign Authority he had over all persons and causes In the year 815. Charles the great is said to have added something of his owne to the decrees of the Synod held in Theodon Towne hoc de nostro adijcimus and for the authority of the supreame Magistrate in altering changing or expunging the decrees of Synods Bochellus saith that Charles the Bald did reject a great part of what was set forth in Synods by the Bishops in the yeare 856. and that it was the usuall custome when ever Synods were assembled that their decrees were not ratified till the King in his Privy Councell had approved of them the said King taking away what he disliked as it was practised by the Councels of Tours and Cabilon under Charles the Great and as P. Pithoeus hath proved fully And for the Power of the Soveraigne Magistrate to make his Laws as valid as canons and as authenticall as Synods decrees I would goe no further for a witnesse then what is related by the Agents and Orators of the Councell of Trent as may be seen amongst the Acts. The most Christian Kings say they have made many decrees about sacred things following the examples of Constantine Theodosius Valentinian Justinian and other Christian Emperors and ordained severall Ecclesiastical Lawes which they have put amongst their owne decrees But that the execution of the ancient canons were as much acts of the Emperours as the execution of decrees made in Chancery or other Courts are acts of the Soveraign Magistrate though he never heares of it It can be easily proved by the liberty that the Soveraigne Powers have always kept to themselves to dispence with pennances imposed by the canons Gervasius a Bishop being excommunicated was againe received to the communion by Juo Carnutensis by the order and appointment of the King of France Philip the 1. This scandalized other Bishops whereupon Juo though a great friend to the Popes in a letter to his fellow-Bishops justifieth himselfe and the King saying That the Assembly of Priests and people ought to receive to the communion whom the Kings piety hath thought worthy of it In the like language speaketh John Bishop of Rome in the 181 Epistle to Justinian I beseech your Clemency to receive them to the unity of the Church and to your communion if they will forsake their errour Letter THose Reformers have believed that the change of Religion in Soueraign Princes could not take away what Jesus Christ had given them although it was a change for the better They remembred Christs words commanding him that hath received an offence of his neighbour to tell it to the Church that is to the assembly of Pastors and Rulers of the Churches and they were perswaded that this comand was perpetuall and to remaine in force to the end of the world When the Lord bestowed upon his Disciples the gift of working Miracles and speaking Tongues In this gift they have not had any successors because the miracles done by the Apostles are usefull to this day to confirme and strengthen the Gospel but the graces and callings granted for the peace of conscience and for reconciling penitent sinners and maintaining the Church in good order ought to be perpetuall and the Apostles were meerly trusted with them that they should transmit them to Posterity and it is certain that the pardon granted by the Apostles to some in their times namely to the Corinthian incestuous person cannot be of use to sinners of these dayes these graces and actions being personall The same Reformers have considered that as there are various turns of the things of this world and the wils of the great ones of the world are subject to mutability it may fall out that in a country where the Magistrate is Orthodox the same Magistrate may come to be an heretick idolater or persecutor and therefore it is not expedient that the spirituall graces and callings should depend of the instability of temporall things and of the changes which may happen in States and Common-wealths If so be the Pastors under an Orthodox Magistrate had resigned to him the power of the keyes no doubt but the Magistrate Idolater who succeedeth would not permit the Pastors of the Church to resume the authority which they so willingly did forgoe Consideration VVHether the Magistrate be Orthodox or no the maine duty and action of a Christian depends not of the Magistrate as to feare God and keep his commandements to bebeleeve in Jesus Christ yea even when the Magistrate is most averse he cannot hinder the last action of martyrdome from being an honourable badge of Jesus Christ sealing the truth of the Gospel with his bloud Now whereas the letter saith that had the Pastors quitted the power of the keyes to an Orthodox Magistrate a succeeding Magistrate that were an idolater would not permit them to resume it there can be no such fear for as an orthodox Magistrate permitting for some reasons of State an Idolatrous religion wil either disdain or make a scruple of conscience to have a hand in regulating an Idolatrous worship but will leave to the Professours the whole ordering of their Religion so it be not to the disturbance of the State In like manner will an Idolatrous Magistrate deal with Orthodox Christians within his Dominions and not so much vouchsafe to know what is that power of the Keyes much lesse to have the handling of them If he can but hold the Sword it matters little to him who handles the Keyes Letter I Wish the Authour of the Articles had explained himself more fully and since he is of opinion that the Pastours under a faithfull and orthodox Magistrate ought in obedience to God to render to him that power which they had under a Magistrate of contrary Religion he had alledged some places of Scripture proving that such a command is laid upon them that God may be obeyed Consideration COmmon sence teacheth us that when a Prince either through incapacity ignorance or minority knoweth not the extent of his just power he may upon knowledge thereof extend it further and behave himselfe otherwise upon better thought or instruction Thus if a Prince being a heathen knoweth not that his chief duty and office is to govern adorn and defend the Christian Religion and people and to promote the salvation of those which are under his Government who doubts but afterwards giving his name to Christ he is above all other cares obliged to care what heretofore he did not know to concern his care and if when he was a heathen the Pastours did supply that wherin he was deficient there is no question to be made when afterwards he is a Christian but