Society XVIII Last of all then we conclude all with this The Universal consent of nations about it also at this day viz that Religion is appointed by God That our Proposition here thus first asserted Viz That Religion is necessarily appointed by God and none else is the sense of all Nations present in the world as well as that it hath been so of those heretofore And if it be not such a common confession and supposition amongst them then what mean the mutual objections of Errour Superstition will-worship c. to be so vulgar in matters of Religion every where amongst men What mean also the so much adored names of Truth Divine authority the Will of God and the like to be the Helenaes that men contend for Truly these things will sufficiently evince the derivation of Religion only from divine authority to be still held as a common principle amongst men CHAP. III. The second Proposition asserted viz. That Government also is appointed by God The Question concerning the derivation of it from the People and the consequent doctrine of Rising in Armes in case of Male Administration and particularly in defence of Religion and the matters of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity stated and of the tendency of those Doctrines to the hurt of Religion and Humane Society I. THe causes of the want of Records in the world assigned II. The first state of men and the several ways of their coming together into Societies III. Whence the necessity of Laws and Government IV. The wayes by which men have arriv'd at Government V. The first and capital distinction of Government amongst men VI. The distinctions also of consent given to Government VII That the present lawfull Government is from God proved in the general and concerning the Church Government in particular VIII The two Constitutive causes assigned from whence the Civil Power is said to be deriv'd in the controversie concerning it IX The state of the Question concerning the derivation of the Civil Power from the People X. The grand principle of Natural freedom refuted XI The other propositions concerning the power of Magistracy fundamentally in the People and in the state of the Question considered XII The state of the Question on the Peoples part considered also from its effects XIII Last of all the prineiple of Rising in Armes particularly in defence of Religion and the matters of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity refuted XIV The proof of the Affirmative part of the Question that the Magistrates Power is from God And that XV. First from Scripture XVI Secondly from the voice of Nature and Nations XVII The tendency of the negative part of the Question to the good of Religion and Humane Society disputed XVIII That it doth not tend to the good of it proved First from Gods having stated it otherwise in Scripture XIX From the consent of the Civil Laws of Countries XX. From a comparison of things on both parts XXI From another Comparison XXII From another more particular comparison XXIII The General Conclusion I. ALL Effects under the Sun proceed ordinarily from Natural Causes And that is evident from hence The causes of the want of Records in the world because Miracles are but seldome and the difference betwixt Miracles and ordinary Effects is That the one proceeds from a Natural Cause as such and the other from a Supernatural in like manner The natural and ordinary causes of the defects of Records and Histories of former ages amongst men have been many and they either more general or more particular The greater and more general Plato assigns to have been necessarily either from Conflagrations by Fire or Inundations by Water In Timaeo cired princip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There have been and will be many and diverse destructions of men and there is a necessity that the greatest should happen by Fire and Water Which is therefore true because there are none other things in the world which can possibly and ordinarily be the causes of such destructions but the Elements and of them there are none other from which such a general Destruction both of the persons and writings of men can proceed but these two of Fire and Water and both these both Conflagrations and Inundations proceed either from natural causes as such purely or from Gods special appointment co-operating with them As to Gods special appointment such was the General Inundation in the time of Noah mentioned in the History of Moses De legib Dial. 3. in princip and pointed at by Plato and the fame of which was amongst the ancients and hath been found of later dayes remaining in many Countries Such also will be the general Conflagration at the last day Epist of Jude vers 14 15. prophesied of of old by Enoch and so often mentioned in the New Testament as also in the writings of the Sybils and Lucan the Poet and other Heathens And as to the proceeding of such more general desolations from purely natural causes In Timaeo ibid. Plato says that it comes to pass once after some long period and return of years That the Heavens and their Rotations come to such a position in respect to one another as that it is necessary for some vast and more general Conflagration to follow from it And the like may be said of Inundation And from hence the Fable of Phaeton's burning the world by the fall of the Charriot of the Sun and the like And there is no doubt but that considering the vastness of the Heavenly bodies in respect to the Earth either such Conflagrations or Inundations may follow from them The more particular causes of the like Destructions of Records In Timaeo ib. de legib ib. and Desolations of humane affairs Plato sayes also have been many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That such have hapned by a thousand other causes And they have been also of the same sorts as the former Gen. 19.4 Such as the Conflagration of Sodom proceeding from the special appointment of God concerning which some of the Greeks and Romans have said That it sprang from the sulphury vapours of the Earth drawn up by the Sun of which kind of matter the parts of that Country were full Which things may consist well enough although the denial of Gods special appointment as co-operating with those causes in Nature is rightly taxed by Interpreters Vid. Musculum in loc alios Such have been also the divers Wars and Earthquakes c. says Plato And Machiavil learned in all humane affairs except in the neglect of a Deity assigns Disputationum Lib. 2. Cap. 5. for the like causes the change of Religions and Languages the several Famines and Pestilences and especially Floods Apud Orosium Cedrenum c. that have been in the World and that these things are true also the many instances that may be given concerning them will evince Such were Ogyges and Deucalion's Floods mentioned in
hath suffered the debates concerning it to be ventilated in her Universities And as to these Doctrines and so farre forth as they are concerned here certainly that way of Tenent concerning them is to be looked upon as truth and as intended by the Scripture and accordingly to be chosen by all Churches which tends least to Division and most to the Promotion of the welfare of the Publick Charge of the Magistrate in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity X. In the mean time of all things in the world the Charge of the Magistrate is most likely to be invaded by these Lusts of men Of all things in the World the Charge of the magistrate is most likely to be invaded by them which have been mention'd in any Society and that because the places of Supreme Governours are alwayes accompanied in the most eminent manner with the great Adored Tria's of Riches Honours and Pleasures or at least are so commonly deemed to be and so the places of all other Governours also gradually and proportionably both in Church and State and the making use of the pretences of Religion and the rendering it inconsistent with Government is a most potent means for the wresting of a Governours Power out of his hands And the Heresiarks ordinarily in this Case as in all other are Ecclesiasticks or Churchmen for so sayes the Scripture it self as to matters concerning Religion That from the Prophets is Prophaneness gone forth into all the Land Jer. 23.15 And they are those that make all the stir in the World about these things Such Heresiarks heretofore in the primitive times of the Christian Church were Donatus Arrius Sabellius Servetus Samosatenus and the like mentioned in the Catalogues of Heresies and Ecclesiastical Histories and interdicted by the Code of Justinian Vid. C. Titulis De Hereticis manichaeis De Judaeis c. Et passim alibi and other parts of the new Civil Law The Ring-leaders of Sedition immediatly in matters Civil and whether taking occasion from these matters of Religion or other things ordinarily are Laicks and those aiming at the Supream Magistrates Throne and the things that are so Gay in their Eyes belonging to it And what is it that men will not do for a Kingdome Tullia sayes the Roman Historian Livius Decad. 1. lib. 1. stuck not to be the murtheress of her own Father and to drive her Goar-blood Chariot over his dead Body lying in the way to her Pallace that she might salute her Husband King in his stead And it is recited concerning Julius Caesar Apud Suâ—ton In Julio that he was wont alwayes to have in his mouth these two Verses of Euripides which he himself thus rendred sayes the Historian Nam si violandum est Jus regnandi causa Violandum est aliis rebus pietatem colas For if Right be to be violated for a kingdomes sakes It is to be violated in other things follow after piety Of all Persons in the World the Person of the Magistrate is most likely to be invaded by them also XI Of all Persons in the world also the Person of the supreme Magistrate is most likely to be invaded by the other sort of Corruptions conversant as was said about the Persons of men And so the Persons of all other Governours also gradually and Proportionally both in Church and State and that because Governours of all sorts and especially the supreme are the publick Persons that have to do with all sorts of men the life of the Lawes and the cause of the Execution of them the Formers of the Tempers of times and those that cross the grain of such as like not their Government And then it is no wonder if upon a thousand occasions there be the Spirits of male-contents rising up against them in all Societies The Conclusion drawn from all these things XII Last of all then All these things being so we must come to lay down but this one Conclusion from them And that is That how much reason then is there for the Supreme Magistrate in every Society to take all care possible and to use all due meanes for the securing his Charge from both these sorts of mischiefs which we have mention'd viz. Those which it is subject to both from the faults of Imprudence and faults of Malice and if he do not do it he cannot be said to discharge his Trust either towards God or towards his People either towards God in respect of his duty or towards his People in respect of their welfare and common good of his Society And this Supreme and Publick Charge of his also is the thing ultimately to be preserved by an Ecclesiastical Uniformity CHAP. VI. The more general Description of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers and which belong to the Cheif Magistrate and Ecclesiastical Ministry as their distinct Rights in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity I. THe First and Capital Distinction of the Persons concern'd in Government II. The Christian Church and Civil State are distinct Societies III. The necessity of difference of Order and Power in Governours IV. The distinction of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers flowes from the Divine Appointment according to the different quality of the affairs about which they are Conversant V. The Question stated Whether Church-men may have to do in the Administration of Civil Affairs VI. A Caution subjoyn'd VII The necessity of difference of Orders and Degrees of Churchmen and Ecclesiastical Persons in any Church-Society VIII The several Orders and Degrees of Ecclesiastical Persons mention'd in the Christian Scriptures and the Churches Power of varying concerning them IX The Rights and Powers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Persons as such X Erastus answer'd XI The Character of the Ecclesiastical Persons Function is Indelible XII The necessity of some Supreme amongst men XIII The Supreme Person defin'd as to his Political Qualification XIV And as to his Person and that is the Civil Magistrate XV. This Supreme Power is committed to him by God as Creator and Conserver of all things And what is the extent of such Power XVI For the discharge of his Trust in the exercise of such Power there is a necessity of his having an Indirect Power in Spirituals as a branch of such supreme Power conceded to him And the extent of such Indirect Power XVII That this Indirect Power is his Right both by the Law of Nature and Nations and the Divine Law XVIII First by the Law Natural XIX Secondly by the Divine Law XX. Thirdly and lastly by the Law of Nations also XXI The Question Answered Why the Ecclesiastical persons as such should not have Supremacy over all XXII By the Magistrate's Indirect Power in Spirituals he is appointed to be a Foster-father to the Church XXIII The Supreme Magistrate may commit the exercise of this Indirect Power in Spirituals to others The first and Capital Distinction of the Persons concern'd in Government Supra lib. 1. Cap. 3. §. 5. 1. HAving already distinguish'd Government
in the general into Ecclesiastical and Civil we come here to distinguish the Powers more generally belonging to each of those sorts of Government as their Rights both in relation to all Humane Society and also more particularly to an Ecclesiastical Uniformity And the Persons concern'd in those powers differently are the King and Priest who betwixt them rule the world as men in it are members either of the Church or State Duo sunt Parte primâ distinct 96. Rubric Autoritas Sacra c. Imperator Auguste sayes Pope Gelasius in the Decretum to the Emperour quibus Principaliter hic mundus regitur Authoritas Sacra Pontificium Regalis Potestas There are two things O Magnificent Emperour by which this World is Principally governed the sacred Authority of the Chief Bishop and the Kings Power The Christian Church and Civil State are distinct Societies II. The Christian Church and civil-Civil-State are in themselves distinct and different Societies and so they ought to be esteemed to be in every Ecclesiastical Uniformity the one being a Civil and the other a Spiritual Conjunction of men and God who hath appointed them both to have a being and continuance in the World hath also appointed distinct Governours and Governments for them Or else The necessity of difference of Order and Power in Governours if it were not so Government being necessary to Society they could not both subsist and continue apart in the World But it is not only convenient but necessary for the Benefit and well-being of mankind in relation to them both that they should be in a Capacity so to subsist and De facto they have so subsisted III. The difference of Order and Power in Governours is a thing necessary to the being of all Governments of these greater Societies Exod. 18.13 14 15 16 17 c. F. de Excusationibus Tutelarum Temporibus eorum L. Excusantur And that because neither is one man able to execute all offices in such Societies nor can many men so execute them either the same Persons at diverse times or else diverse persons at the same time without a difference and variety in their several Capacities both in respect to order and power according to the different nature and quality of their Affairs belonging necessarily to those Offices Jethro's advice to Moses was to divide the burthen of his Government amongst his deputed officers The distinction of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers flowes from the Divine appointment according to the different qualities of those Affairs about which they are conversant Polit. lib. 4. cap. 15. in princip ibid. vid. History of the Inquisition Chap. 28. because himself alone was not able to bear it And the Roman Civil Law suffered not four Guardianships at once to be laid upon one man And all Humane affairs are necessarily of a more or less eminent quality according to the diverse respects they have to things and Persons in the World IV. The distinction and proper extent of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers and Rights of Government in any Society flowes each of them from the appointment of God according to the distinct nature and quality of the things and affairs in which they have to do and in which it is necessary that they should have to do for the support of their distinct and several Societies Sacerdotes sayes Aristotle Genus sunt quoddam Ministrorum à Civilibus Magistratibus scil ex natura rei restinguendum separandum That Priests are a certain kind of Ministers viz. from the nature of their Office to be distinguished and separated from the Civil Magistrates And God whose works are perfect sayes Padre Paule and who is the Author of all Principalities gives to every one so much Power as is necessary for his governing well And these Powers in all Societies and the Ecclesiastical Uniformity of them act either in Conjunction one with another as when Religion is National and the Church incorporate into the State or else separately one from the other as in the contrary case But yet still the Ecclesiastical power ought to Act so as in subordination to the Civil and according to the will of God And that these Powers are alwayes and more particularly in every Ecclesiastical uniformity to be preserved distinct by the appointment of God and according to the different qualities of their Affairs it is evident from the Universal Consent of all Lawes and Nations that ever have been in the World So in the Polity of the Patriarks and first men in the World The Priestly office and the office of the Civil Magistrate although united in one Person as hath been said were ever reckoned as distinct Supra lib. 1. cap. 3. §. 4. and were conversant about distinct sorts of affairs Sacerdoti functum fuisse Adamum dubium non est tum in recipiendis atque offerendis Sacrificiis c. sayes Bertram De Repub Hebraeor ca. 2. It is no doubt but that Adam did discharge the Priestly Office and that both in his receiving and offering Sacrifices And so of Noah Ibid. Noachus ex Arca egressus ad Pristinos Ritus divini Culius redit eosque apud suos omnes nondum dispersos exercuit That Noah being come out of the Ark return'd to the Ancient Rites of Divine Worship Ibid. and exercis'd them in his Family before it was dispers'd And so of Abraham as Priest also Abrahamum sacrificasse apparet ex Gen. 15.19 and 22.2 7 9 and 13. Abrahamum docuisse apparet ex Gen. 18.19 atque adeo Prophetam fuisse ex Gen. 20.7 Gen. 15.19 c. That Abraham Sacrific'd it appears out of Gen. 15.19 and 22.2 7 9 and 13. And that he taught also it appears out of Gen. 18.19 And that he also was a Prophet out of Gen. 20.7 So that they still as Priests did the work of the Priestly Office So also in the Polity of Israel in the wilderness God himself established and assigned particularly the distinct office and affairs of Moses and Aaron Exod. 40.13 14. Numb 8.1 2 3 4 c. Numb 1.49 Num. 3.15 Numb 1.53 In loc And therefore Aaron and his Sons were annointed solemnly to their office And the Tribe of Levi was not mustered with the other Tribes And they only were to Pitch their Tents about the Tabernacle And the Hebrewes do observe on Numb 3.38 that there is a pause or distinction betwixt the names of Moses and Aaron To signifie sayes Baal Hatturim That Moses pitched in one place by himself and Aaron and his Sons in another place by themselves And so was it also afterwards in Canaan and all along downwards in the Generations of Israel while they held any National Communion in one settled Society The like also was ever amongst the Gentiles So amongst the Greeks they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meursius Elousin cap. 13 Those that prescribed what they were to do
admittebatur Rex sayes Schickardus out of Maimonides in Collegium Senatus excepto Davide at Pontifices Prophetae Caeteris paribus recipiebantur That for liberties sake of voting the King was not admitted into the Colledge of the Senate except it were David but the Chief Priests and Prophets if it were convenient in respect of things were received So that the High-Priest not necessarily but if he were a man able and faithful in affairs and the Prophets also were often admitted to it So we find the Priests and Levites mention'd together with the Judges that should be in those dayes for the determination of Civil Causes by Moses Exod. 17.8 9 10 11 12. And Controversies of Murther and the like to be tryed by the Priests Deut. 21.5 And in Davids time when he gave up the Kingdome to Solomon he called the Priests and Levites as Officers and Judges before him 1 Chron. 22.2 4. And in Jehoshaphat's Reformation 2 Chron. 19.5 He set Judges in the Land throughout all the fenced Cities of Judah City by City And vers 8. Moreover in Jerusalem did he set of the Levites and of the Priests and of the Chief of the Fathers for the Judgement of the Lord and for Controversies when they returned to Jerusalem So we find the Chief Priests and Elders often conjoyning in the New Testament Math. 21.23 Math. 26.3 c. And Josephus sayes Antiquitat lib. 4. cap. 8. that formerly in every City there were seaven Judges and for each of them two Levites who in conjunction one with another made up the several Benches of their Cities Thus then it was in Israel And the like were the Customes of the Gentiles concerning these things if any one will look into the Greek and Roman Histories and other the like writings And the like have been also in the Christian Church The Apostles at their first planting of Christianity nor their Successors along time after were not a Church Incorporated into the State But the Lawes and Customes of the first Christian Emperours went in the same Tract which we have mention'd and that for the very reasons mention'd also as is to be seen in the many places of the Code and Novels of Justinian the Theodosian Code and other Monuments of these things See the Titles De Judiciis De Nuptiis c. in the Code of Justinian And ut differentes Judices interpellantium allegationes c. in the Novels and the like in other Monuments The like also are the usages abroad both of late and at this day in the world up and down Clergy-men if of ability are great Officers to Princes and of Councel to them and the like So amongst the Abassine Christians De Aethiop Morib sub aliis literis ejusd David Aethiop Imp. c. De Abasinor Rebus lib. 1. Cap. 13 14 alibi In Confessione fidei Aethiop ad finem De omnium Gent. Morib Lib. 1. De Aethiopia c. Ibid. De Aegypt Cap. 19. Zaga Zabo one of their Bishops sayes Damianus a Goes was that Emperours Embassador to John the Third of Portugal and others and the like things are recited concerning their Clergy-mens being of Councel to the Emperour by Godignus and others And the same Zaga Zabo in Chytraeus calls himself Episcopus Sacerdos ac Bugana Raz nempe Pro-rex provinciae quae Bugana dicitur A Bishop and Priest and Bugana Raz i. e. a Viceroy of the Province which is called Bugana And Johannes Boemius recites it that of old it was the Custome of the Aethiopians to create one of their Priests King Quem ubi regem creaverint veluti numen insit c. Whom when they had created King as if there were a Deity in him c. And the like he recites also concerning the Aethiopians their neighbours and their Priests using to be of their Kings Councels The like other things are every where abroad at this day De Rom. Ven. magistratuum inter se Comparatione N 41. Ibid. N 30. The Cardinal Contarene sayes of the Venetian State Sed in Statu Ecclesiastico sunt plures Ordines militum Alii album amictum gestantes c. But also in the Ecclesiastical state there are several orders of Knights some wearing White Apparel c. And he endowes the Cardinals of the Roman Sea with the Secular Titles of Illustres and Illustrissimi Illustrious and most Illustrious and the like And that according to the Doctrine of Jason and Decius and other Canonists of the same Church The like sayes Cromerus of Poland Poloniae lib. 2. paulo post princip That the Kings Councel there consists partly of Ecclesiasticks and partly of Seculars And that from of the old Ecclesiasticks are Archiepiscopi duo septem Episcopi Two Arch-Bishops and Seaven Bishops The Seculars others the Nobles and Chief of the Realm and all these hold their places with certain Honours and Immunities annexed to them during life Ibid. post And Archiepiscopus Guesnensis perpetua quadam Pontificis maximi Legatione fungitur Legatus natus sedis Apostolicae appellatur Ibid. etiam And Habet etiam primatus honorem ab eadem Sede absque eo quod est antiquo gentis Instituto praerogativa Primas Regni Princeps Senatus The Arch-Bishop of Guesna is a perpetual Legate of the Pope and is called the Legate born of the Apostolick Sea He hath also the Honour of a Primate from the same Sea Besides that by Ancient custome of the Nation and Prerogative he is the Primate of the Kingdome Ibid. ad fin and President and Prince of the Senate And the like sayes he of the Senate and Great Counsel of Prussia afterwards And if we go farther the like course is held in the Turks and Persians and other the great Eastern Princes Affairs Amongst the Turks the Chief Mufti sits in the Divano And the like amongst others And last of all the like Course is held also in the Generality of the Territories of the more Westerly European Princes In Spain the Arch-Bishop of Toledo is Chancellor of Castile In Hispania Lib. 6. de bell Gallic sayes Damianus a Goes In France and Brittain as Caesar sayes of old the Druids were both their Priests and Judges in all sorts of Causes So at this day in France the Twelve Peers of France are Six of them Bishops and Six of them Nobles And of the Bishops three Bishops and Dukes and three Bishops and Counts And so the Courts consist partly of Clergy and partly of Lay-men And lastly In England the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dicitur Primus Par Regni Ecclesiae Anglie Politeia Tab. 2. A. Is said to be the first Peer of the Realm sayes Doctor Cosin And the other Bishops have their Baronies annexed to their Bishopricks and are sometimes several of them of Councel to the King and sit as one State in Parliament and the like And as this Course is thus generally held amongst Nations as to the greater
Can. 4. ibid. Vid. Canon Apost Can. 1.2 Baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost c. And the like concerning matters of Discipline John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained And the like also concerning Orders See Acts 1.23 24 25 26. And Acts 14.23 And the like also say the several Councels derivatively from the Scriptures concerning these things So the sixt General Councel of Constantinople in the 64 Canon Non oportet Laicum publicè disputare vel docere sed Ordini à Domino tradito cedere aurem iis qui docendi gratiam acceperint apperire Divina ab iis doceri That it doth not behove a Laick to dispute publickly or to teach but to give place to the Order delivered from the Lord and to open the Ear to those who have received the Grace of Teaching and to be taught by them Divine things So also in the Nicaene Councel of three hundred and eighteen Bishops under Constantine in the fourth Canon concerning the Ordination of a Bishop And in the Apostolical Canons in the first and second Canons concerning the Ordination of the other degrees of Ecclesiasticks and the like in all other Ecclesiastical Constitutions generally down all along the Ages of the Church Vid. Clement Roman Apostolic Constitut lib. 2. cap. 20 30 31 c. lib. 3. cap. 10 11 c. Let the Apostolical Constitutions of Clemens Romanus be looked into And the several Titles in the Sextum Clementines and other parts of the Canon Law concerning the Sentence of Excommunication and the other Censures of the Church and the pronouncing of them And these more general Powers and Rights are those which according to the Nature of them and the vote of all these things do only properly and externally belong to the Ecclesiasticks as such as the like also they have in all particulars whatsoever whether the Church be Incorporate into the State or not Incorporate into the State in any Community that are necessary as to them for the support and preservation of their Ecclesiastical Society And this is a grand Right both Natural and Divine belonging ordinarily to them as Governours in such a Society and he that shall deny them such Power must say that God hath denyed them the means to the end that he hath committed the preservation and support of the Church to them as Governours and Ministers of it and yet that he hath denied the power of doing those things which are necessary for such the preservation of it But yet by these means necessarily to be granted to them we are to be suppos'd to mean spiritual and lawful means De potestat Civili Ecclesiast cap. 3. ad fin Vid. De Imperiosum pot cap. 3. §. 6. 14. Supra lib. 1. cap. 3 §. 20. And in no case particularly that of rising in Armes against the present Lawful Magistrate that would be with Peter to take a Sword in an unlawful way sayes Triglaudius and that is not committed to them and that is against Humane Lawes and Divine and the Law of Nature c. sayes Grotius Although elsewhere he permit it even to any single person in case of extream danger to Rise as we have said heretofore Erastus Answered In Thesibus vid. Thes 74. et alibi X. Erastus hath here of late started a Question by his denial of any need of Church Censures their being executed by Clergy-men under a Christian Magistrate But he is to be answered with their being a purely Spiritual punishment and inflicted in a Spiritual way and for Spiritual ends and therefore that in the Nature and Quality of the thing they do properly belong to Spiritual Persons to use as a means for the support of their Spiritual Society and according to the appointment of Christ And this is to be observed farther That notwithstanding his seemingly favourable advice given to Magistrates in this particular yet no Magistrate since the time of his Writing hath followed it And it will be found true by any one that considers throughly of these things and as I have partly hinted already That he that shall so farre adventure to confound Divine Affairs with Humane as to put the business proper to the Function of the Ministry into the hands of the Laity to be managed Authoritatively by them shall do that which shall tend to the taking away the standing Ordinance of the very Ministerial Function it self and even of all Religion also whatsoever in the end especially if he shall make such confusion in this particular of inflicting Penalties which according to the different kinds of Penalties here pointed at is one Right necessarily belonging to the support of any Government or Society whatsoever either Ecclesiastical or Civil The Character of the Ecclesiastical person's Function is Indelible XI Last of all on the part of the Ecclesiastical Persons the Character also of their Offices impress'd upon them in their first Ordination to them is indelible as to any Humane Power It is in the Power of man to suspend degrade or depose them from the actual execution and discharge of their several Offices as all Lawes and Practices of the World except that of the Papal only have constantly affirmed but God only at first invested them with the Habitual Power belonging to their several Offices and he only can take them away from them again These things then being thus stated and describ'd on the Ecclesiastical Persons part I come next to the part of the Civil Magistrate and to the Rights and Powers belonging to him as such and which are here concern'd also The necessity of some supreme amongst men XII On the part of the Civil Magistrate then first of all this is certain that both in relation to all Humane Affairs more generally and in every Ecclesiastical Uniformity more particularly there must of necessity be some supreme amongst men in every Society For what from Nature the Philosophers say notionally and in the general Averro's Metaph 5. Tom. 6. That Ordo nan datur nisi cum relatione ad aliquid primum there is no order of things but with relation to some first The same also from Art say the Polititians practically and in particular concerning Humane Society that the order of Persons to be observed in every Society of men must necessarily terminate in some Supreme in that Society XIII He then is Supreme in every Society The Supreme person defin'd as to his Political Qualification who hath the Supreme Jurisdiction over all others in that Society And Jurisdiction is defin'd by the Civilians to be Potestatem Juris dicendi A power of giving Law to others XIV The Person Vid. F. Si qui Jus dicenti non obtemperaverit L. unica ¶ Is videtur alibi And as to his person and that is the Civil Magistrate Supra lib. 1. ca. 1. §. 11.
kind of the perpetual Church-officers and also by their appointing the Magistrates to chuse two of the Council to joyne with the two of the Congregation chosen by the Ministers in the ordinary Act of Visitation or supervising of affairs But those who thus mix the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers do practise against the Generality of Presidents of all former Churches and Ages and do so far forth as they thus mix their affairs do that which tends to the confounding of the distinct Societies of Church and State in the World The Ordinary Church-Office of a Bishop or Ecclesiastical Superintendent or Supervisor of affairs with the reference of things sometimes to a Synod hath been ever under Divers Modes and Polities and generally in all kinds of Churches whatsoever made use of and asserted and even in the Mahometan Church at this day they have their Cadii or Ordinary Bishops Vid. Leunclav Pandect Hist Turc cap. Gradus Legis c. Et in Supplement Annal. C. 1576. their Hoggiae or Prebyters and their Talis-mani or Deacons and the like have been also in other Ages and Churches not but that the welfare of the people which is the things certainly meant in the constitution of Lay-Elders and of the Common Society ought alwayes to be provided for and taken a care of in this matter of Church-Government as well as others but that is accordingly secur'd in this particular by the Liberty of Appeals to the Prince who is the supream Supervisor ore all and the powers attributed to the Lay-Elders are in the mean time misplaced in them And if the Consistency of the Ecclesiastical estate with the Civil be alleadged it is also supposed to be provided for by the supervision of the Chief Magistrate The matters to be supervis'd by these Supervisors VII The matters then to be supervis'd in every Ecclesiastical Uniformity are either Ordinary or Extraordinary The Ordinary do use to be comprehended within the Disciplinary constitutions or Canons of any National Church the extraordinary are according to the emergent and temporary Occasions of it and there are some of each of these which are of more moment and some of less in respect to the welfare of the Supreme Publick Charge The care to be taken in the supervising of them VIII And as to that great care also which ought alwayes to be taken about the Supervising of these matters the State both of Persons and Things ought to be taken cognizance of by the Supervisors in their several places Their Eye ought alwayes to be wakeful like that of the Dragon watching over the golden Apples of the Hesperides And last of all the first breakin gs out of any Fire of Contentions or of any other misdemeanours in the Church whatsoever ought to be timely stopped as the breakings out of Fire in the City were to be stopped by the Praefectus Vigilum amongst the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It behoves not a consultor of the Publick Good to sleep all night And Sciendum est autem Praefectum Vigilum per totam noctem vigilare debere D. De offiâ—io Praefecti vigilum L. 3. ¶ Sciendum est oberrare calceatum cum Hamis Dolabris c. sayes Paulus in the Civil Law That it behov'd the Praefectus Vigilum to watch all night and to walk on foot every where about the City with Hooks and Axes c. And Philosophus igitur iracundus volax robustus natura erit qui civitatis Custos optimus est futurus said Plato That he who is a seeker after knowledg and angry upon occasion and active stout by Nature De Rep. Dial. 2. prope fin is likely to be the best keeper of a City IX In order to these ends then and for the due application of their several powers accordingly the Supreme Ecclesiastical Supervisors ought to have the dispensing of Church Censures The Ecclesiastical Tribunals for the exercise of that Care and their Ordinary Tribunals and Consistories or Courts Ecclesiastical at which Causes may be heard and matters according to Truth and Piety may be determined The Sacrum Consistorium is many times mention'd in the Code and Novels of Justinian Vid. C. De Jure jurando propter Calumniam dando Principales personae ¶ Sed si Et alibi And the stated Circuits for Visitation And there are all the same reasons in nature for it in this matter which there are for all other Courts of Judicature in others X. The Ordinary Ecclesiastical Supervisors ought also to have their stated Circuits or Journeyes or Visitation And those whether Deputative or Personal whether more or less frequent according to the several Occasions and Constitutions of Countries And he that Travels in those Circuits is called Visitator aut Circuitor and the like in the Code of Justinian and those Circuits are in like manner common also to all National Churches XI Last of all then De Episcop Cler. L. Omnem adhibentes ¶ 9. Et alibi The last Appeals ought alwayes to be made to the chief Magistrate and in relation to all these matters which have been mentioned The cheif Magistrate in every National Church ought alwayes to retain the Right of receiving the last Appeals concerning them And in this there will be this Right nenessary for his Government done to him and Sanctuary also provided for his people And the Court of Rome then in this matter unjustly demands Appeals to be made out of the Dominions of Princes CHAP. XVI Of the Supreme Interpreter in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity I OF how great moment the Office of Supreme Interpretor is II. The Authentick Interpretors in any National Church distinguish'd And the Supreme Assigned III. The Right of the Supreme in respect to his Interpretorship asserted IV. The Opposers of it Taxed V. The Principal Assistances in respect to the Actual exercise of it assigned also VI. The Conclusion of the Whole Of how great moment the Office of Supreme Interpreter is I. HAving discoursed over all these preceeding matters relating one way or other to an Vniformity in Churches and the Constituting and rightly ordering of it I come here last of all to State the Office of Supreme Interpreter and to whom it doth belong Which Office and the discharge of it of how great moment it is in respect of all Humane Societies and the members of them it may be more then conjectured from hence viz. from such the Supreme Interpreter his becoming the Judge of Controversies and having it in his hands at any time to fix what Doctrines of Religion he pleaseth in any National Church which he that shall have the Faculty and Power of doing what influence may he not have both upon all Divine and Humane affairs and whether they relate either to Religion or Government or the consistency of each with either The Authentick Interpreters in any National Church Distinguish'd and the Supreme Assign'd II. The Authentick and Publick lawful
DE JVRE VNIFORMITATIS ECCLESIASTICAE OR Three Books OF THE RIGHTS Belonging to an UNIFORMITY in CHURCHES IN WHICH The chief things of the Lawes of Nature and Nations and of the Divine Law concerning the Consistency of the Ecclesiastical Estate with the Civil are unfolded ET EXCUTIT ICTIBUS IGNEM By HUGH DAVIS LL. B. Late Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxford and now Chaplain to the Lord Duke of BUCKINGHAM LONDON Printed by S. Simmons and to be sold by T. Helder at the Angel in Little Brittain and S. Lowndes over against Exeter house in the Strand 1669. To the HIGH and MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES the II. By the Grace of God KING of Great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. EXCELLENT SOVERAIGN WHile your Great Affairs are prosperously managing both abroad and at home behold here I present this Book as one meanes in its kind toward the settlement of the Peace of your Kingdomes The Rights of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity have been many times debated in the World with Fire and Sword And Your Kingdomes have been of late through the debates concerning them the dire Field of Blood Which Rights because it is of so great moment both to all Divine and Humane Affairs that they should be duely stated and because they have never yet been stated by any I have therefore here adventur'd the stating of them and that according to the evident dictates of the Lawes of Nature and Nations and of the Divine Lawes concerning them and as they make to the preserving and promoting the Publick and standing welfare both of Religion and Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government the Principal and Fundamental matters of all Humane Societies And I have made a search into the frame and fabrick of all Humane Affaires and have unravel'd the transactions of the former and present Ages of the Churches both of the Jewes and Gentiles Christians and Mahometans for the doing of it And I here Dedicate it particularly to the Peace of Your Majesties Kingdomes at least so far forth as a Book may be a means for the procuring the Publick Peace and where it may meet with men either of Reason or Conscience and not of furious Ignorance or temporal Interests Behold Great Prince I Present it at your feet most Humbly craving leave that I may light this Candle at the Sun and draw a Lustre upon this Discourse from Your Majesties Soveraign Patronage Herodotus relates it of Midas In Clio paulo post princip That of all things he chose to offer at Delphos his Regal Chair in which he was wont to sit and give Laws to his Kingdom It is because this Book concerns these great matters of Law and Publick Right that I presume to offer it thus in Duty to Your Majesty What the Church Historian tells the Excellent Emperour Theodosius Sozomen In Praefat. ad Imperatorem Theodosium That it was said of him that he spent the day and night in Councels and Causes in looking after his Religious and Civil and Military Affairs The like is said of Your Majesty that You are at all times ready at Your Councels and Deliberations That You go abroad to Visit Your Garrisons and Navies and that You spend your time in looking after the setling the Church and State the Charge committed to you by God May Religion and your Majesties Government long flourish together in your Dominions that the Divine Blessing may accompany you and there may never be wanting one to Sit upon the Throne of your Fathers so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure YOVR SACRED MAJESTIES Most Humble and most Obedient Subject Hugh Davis TO THE High Court OF PARLIAMENT AND To the rest of the Subjects of the KING of GREAT BRITTAINS Dominions THE Subject-matters of this Book Most Noble and Generous Patriots contain the summe and substance of Humane Affairs and which concerne the Peace and Tranquillity of the Dominions of Princes And they are those also which are now upon the Wheele and more particularly and principally in agitation amongst us like Balls of Fire thrown to and fro in the mid'st of us You have more then once Determin'd concerning them And Your determinations claime this Direction and Submission of them to you And the more peculiar respects which they bear to the occasions of his Majesties Subjects the like Direction of them also to them I have endeavour'd the impartial stating of them according to the dictates of the three sorts of Laws currant amongst men And where our Affairs Domestick have more particularly occurr'd have avoided what I could the intermixing with the Heats and Passions of the Times I do not presume in the least in these things Honourable and Renowned SENATOURS to interpose in your Great and Publick Councels those Soveraigne Balmes of ENGLAND Nor to undertake to instruct many of the able and sufficient minds of others those more Ethereal and Celestial Beings amongst men But only if it may be for Information if for Satisfaction where there is Occasion for the giving of it I have adventur'd the Representing of those great matters which do so highly concerne the Establishment and Preservation of the Peace of Your Country and of all Humane Societies THE PROLEGOMENA TO THE Three Books ENSUING DIverse have written of the diverse sorts of Laws amongst men Of the Laws of Nature and Nations and of the Divine Laws And that both more generally and particularly Diverse also have applyed those Laws diversly And that both in respect to the Civil and Ecclesiastical part of Humane Affairs But none yet hath applyed them to the Rights of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity viz. those of the Prince the Priest and the People belonging to it Nor digested those Rights into any due connexion and order viz. as they make to the preserving and promoting the publick welfare both of Religion and Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government And yet scarce any thing next to the Divine Law it self is of greater moment to Humane Societies Right is the Publick Cement of all Humane Affairs and that which all men contend about and expect even from God himself And Religion and Government and their mutual consistency are the things primarily fundamental to the very being and welfare of all Humane Societies besides what respects they have to another world Wherefore Plato calls In Gorgiā prope fin all preparations both of War and Peace which are made in a City Toys if Justice and Temperance be not preserved in it In Hercule furent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 paulò post princip And Amphitryo in Euripides cryes out to Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But dost thou not know how to save thy Friends Either thou art an unskilful God or else thou art not just And Cicero in his Books of Laws Nihil tam aptum est ad jus conditionemque naturae quam Imperium sine quo nec Domus ulla nec Civitas nec Gens
opposition to the Laws of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity in any State which is claimed by some both of the Priesthood and people Contrary to what Grotius and others of note have done in the stating of that Question But I have given the Reasons for the denial of it And no less then the whole conforming Clergie and others in publick imployment of the State at this day in England have subscribed to the very same matter And in the end of the stating of it I have more explicitly disputed the tendency of the derivation of Government from the people and of the Doctrine of Rising depending upon it to the good of Religion and Humane Society Which thing truly ought to have been done by Grotius and others who have stated that question although in a separate Notion from an Ecclesiastical Uniformity In the Second and Third Books I have treated of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity the necessary means mention'd for the accomplishing the Consistency of Religion with Government In the Second Book I have treated of it and the Rights belonging to it more Generally And in the Third Book of both of them more particularly And in both these Books I have taken In the several Cases Questions and Quere's belonging to the treating of both those sorts of things and in the stating both of those Cases and of other matters I have many times considered Humane Nature sometimes Tacitly and sometimes expresly and how it is to be dealt with And he that will not consider it in such things is never likely to govern the World Omnes De Natura Deor. lib. 1. naturâ duce vehimur sayes Cicero That we are all carried on powerfully by Nature And Bodin concerning the suiting the Government to the nature of the Country De Repub. lib. 5. cap. 1. in princip Haec porro Naturae consentana ratio spectanda in primis est ei qui Rempublicam fundare aut Civitatem optimè instituere volet That this agreeable respect of Nature is principally to be heeded by him who will found a Common-weal or set a City in order after the best manner And Nimium ipse durus est praeter aequumque bonum Mitio Senex apud Terent in Adelph Act. 1. Scen. 1. Et errat longè me a quidem sententia Qui imperium credat gravius esse aut stabilius Vi quod sit quam illud quod amicitia adjungitur Mea est sic Ratio sic animum induco meum He is too rigid and besides all Right and Reason And he err's much truly in my opinion Who believes that Government to be more firm and stable Which is framed by force them that which is cemented by love So is my sence of it and so I am apt to believe And the elegant Fabulist at the meeting of the two strangers at the Lake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But how wilt thou make me thy friend who am nothing alike to thee in nature And Thucydides in the case of Publick Commotions and stirrs in a Common-weal When a Common-weal is disturb'd Lib. 3. the nature of men leaping over the Lawes doth willingly shew it self to do unjust things against them Being transported by the greatness of Anger more prevalent then Right and an enemy to the more excellent things So that he that will well govern men must do it by first Governing humane nature In my stating the more particular Consistency then of Religion with Government I have taken the best care I could That Religion should have it's due Neither do I believe That the particulars concerning either of them as they stand mutually in this their relative Condition can well be stated otherwise then here they are And one great Reason of mens mistakes and doubts and dissatisfactions of Judgement and Conscience concerning the Ecclesiastical Lawes of Princes and their submission to them in all Societies is their not considering of the relation in which Religion ought alwayes in the World to stand to the being and exercise of Government both in Church and State In my Defence of the Rights of Princes there are two sorts of Adversaries chiefly which I have met with to be oppos'd and those are the Church-men of Rome and those of the late Scotch and English Presbitery who have trodden in the same steps with them in this matter though under different Notions and I have not spoken any thing concerning either of these either invidiously or at mine own pleasure but onely from the Testimonials of their own Writings and Practises And the like I have done where I have met with any who have opposed the Rights either of the Priest or People In my going through the whole There are three things which have caused me to descend the deeper into the Mines of Labour And those are 1. The invention of matter it being in several places wholly new and almost every where not applied by any other to my present purpose 2. The digesting of that matter into it's due Method It being very various and the places of connecting and disposing it into its Right Order recurring also frequently and in a very various manner 3. And lastly the numerous Books which I have been forc'd to consult with for the furnishing out of the whole body of this Discourse into the World but in some tolerable manner and according to the deserts of the weight of the matter And those Books which I have accordingly made use of have been of those professions which concerne the most substantial matters of the Publick Affairs amongst men The first of those Faculties or Professions is Divinity And in it first of all I have attended to the Books of God the Divine Law of the Old and New Testament And in the Old for the Interpretation of the Lawes and Ordinances of Moses and what was the external practice of them in Israel the writings of the Hebrew Rabbines are ordinarily produc'd and especially those of Moses Maimonides Of whom the Jewes have a saying A Mose ad Mosen non fuit similis Mosi That from Moses their Master to Moses the Sonne of Maimony there hath not been the like to Moses the Sonne of Maimony And the Rabbinical Age began about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the dissolution of the Jewish Polity by Titus De Bello Jud. Lib. 7 cap. 24. In whose Triumph afterwards at Rome Josephus mentions only the Book of the Jews Law amongst whatsoever other Writings they had to have been preserved and carried along with him in it Out of the Books of the Old Testament and the Writings of the Rabbies there are also many late Christian Writers who have made Systematical Collections of the Frame of the Jewish Polity such as Schickardus the Hebrew Professor at Tubingen Bertram and others The most staple and authentick Writers in the Christian Church and next to the new Testament it self are of divers sorts De Jure Belli lib. 1.
only that none of the works of Divine Plato ought to be detracted from and whose Books of Laws and his other works contain in them many things both of the Laws of Moses and Christ and of the ancient Laws of Greece Amongst the Moderns Jesuites or others the learned Bodine deserves an Asterisk as being so excellently well skilled both in the Civil Law and also in the particular Laws and Policies of Countries Besides those who have written just Tracts of Politicks are others also who have debated particular Questions in it such are Junius Brutus Buchanan the late English-man Milton and others in the question of Rising in Armes Next to Politicks and the prudences concerning the ordering the matters of Church or State follow the exemplary prudences of History and Poesie And last of all the subservient discipline and divers from all these mentioned of Oratory The Greeks and Roman Histories contain in them many of the notable examples of prudence in Governours in the ordering the affairs of those Mighty States The Histories of the Christian Church that follow Eusebius contain the like in Church affairs Of either the present or late condition both of Churches and States abroad in the world there are many who give an Historical account Such as Chytraeus the Messenger of Maximilian Georgeviz the Turkish Captive Damianus a Goes the Knight of Portugal the Venetian Cardinal Contrarene Leunclavius in his Annales Turcici his Pandects Historiae Turcicae and the like And those Books which principally concern the state of the Church of England in particular either as to matters Historical or Controversal I have given an account of in their places hereafter And of the principal of those which concern the more general and principal controversals only in the margent for the reasons in those places mentioned And in the last place who will deny but that the many admirable writings of the Greek and Roman both Poets and Orators are of singular use many times both for the professed and occasional both illustration and confirmation of things Nonne Sexcenti Scriptores tam Graeci quam Latini passim Homeri Hesiodi aliorum Poetarum exemplis testimoniis utuntur ut rei veritatem confirment horumque spoliis sua scripta ditent atque magnificè decorent Do not many hundreds of writers as well Greek as Latine make use of the examples and testimonies of Homer Hesiod and of other Poets up and down in their writings that they may confirm the truth of things and with the spoils of these enrich and magnificently adorn their writings sayes Emilius Portus And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hesiod and Theognis In Epistola Dedicatoria praefixa Euripidi and Phocylides these all men do confess to have left behind them the best precepts of life sayes Isocrates And as to the language that either these or others have written in I have in the citation of them Oratione ad Nicoclem Primo taken this course viz. for the English Readers sake generally I have rendred them all into English the Language in which I have written but yet for the satisfaction of others who might perhaps desire the present view of either the original Authorities or the Latine Translation of them I have where I thought there was occasion and it would not make too great an Hiatus and gap in the Text set them down also ordinarily before the English of them But otherwise I have generally either set them down only in English or else directed to them with an Et caetera after the recital of somewhat of them And last of all as to the stile in which I have written I have attended to the two things requisite and which ought principally to be heeded in it viz. its conciseness and plainness its conciseness that I might rather say much in little then be tedious and its plainness that I might be understood And in this manner then I have commended this whole ensuing work to the Reader And if any man think much of those Principles of which it consists behold the whole current of times the Authority of all Laws and the experiences and practises of all Ages at least generally and in the main attesting to them In the interim that I write not this Book to the vulgar amongst men it is sufficiently evident both from the matter and form of it They may where occasion requires and for satisfaction of conscience sake be more familiarly instructed in the Rights and Liberties belonging to them in the matters of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity but otherwise it hath always been their unhappiness and ever will be not to be capable neither in those matters nor others of being rationally dealt with The very nature then of this discourse directeth it to the other sort of men and particularly to those who have the guidance of others and the ordinary sway of affairs in Common-weals in their several Sphears of activity and stations belonging to them either in the Church or State that they may see the reasons of those things which are necessary for the supporting the welfare of Societies and make the several uses of the matters contain'd within the compass of this Discourse in order to the Publick Peace Last of all then this being the more general drift and intent of this whole work in that posture such such as it is in which it comes forth into the world if there be any thing said in it that is prejudicial either to Religion or Government or the consistency of each with either I wish it were unsaid again In the mean while I have for some time retir'd my self to write it and have only here further to say May it serve the King of Kings in his Universal Monarchy over men and Kings and Princes in their Governing of them THE General Contents OF THE WHOLE LIB I. CHAP. I. THe General Notion of an Vniformity and also those of Religion and Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government defin'd and distinguish'd CHAP. II. The first Proposition laid down viz. That Religion is appointed by God The rational Grounds of the Proposition given And the consent of Nations about it from whence the true Prescript of Religion is to be discerned And the general grounds of all Religions laid down and compared CHAP. III. The second Proposition asserted viz. That Government also is appointed by God The Question concerning the Derivation of it from the people and the consequent Doctrine of Rising in Armes in case of Male-administration and particularly in defence of Religion and the matters of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity stated And of the Tendency of those Doctrines to the hurt of Religion and Humane Society CHAP. IV. The third Proposition also asserted viz. That Religion and Government being both so appointed by God must needs be Consistent mutually amongst men And that their Consistency explicated and stated CHAP. V. To whom the charge and right of the preservation of the welfare of Religion and
Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government is committed in Humane Societies and of the means necessary for the accomplishing and preserving of it viz. An EcclesiasticalVniformity LIB II. CHAP. I. THE Relation of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity to things Sacred further and more particularly distinguish'd And that the Ecclesiastical Vniformity is judicated by the Civil CHAP. II. The healthfulness of Religion to Humane Societies The ordinary causes of Religious contests assigned From thence the necessity of some unity to be held as to matters of Religion The benefits of Charity and Peace ensuing upon it And how much they are commanded in Scripture CHAP. III. The description of the Rights directly belonging to men in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity And first of the Primitive Liberties both Civil and Ecclesiastical which belong to the People And first of the Civil and of its Right of being preserved CHAP. IV. Of the Primitive Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Liberties which belong to the People And of the several Obligations and Rights relating to them CHAP. V. A more particular consideration of the two Grand causes of all Mischiefs in Humane Affairs viz. The weakness and corruptions of men and more particularly of their Influence on the Publick charge of the Magistrate The thing to be preserved ultimately by an Ecclesiastical Vniformity CHAP. VI. The more general Description of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers and which belong to the chief Magistrate and Ecclesiastical Ministry as their distinct Rights in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity CHAP. VII The Proposition asserted that Humane condition in this world being considered there can be no such thing indulged really in any State or common Society of men as a loose and open Toleration of venting and disseminating of Opinions in matters of Religion without deadly Feuds and Contentions in that Society and the dissolution of it in the end by those Feuds and mens falling together by the ears and to warre one with another The dispraise of such and the like Feuds and contentions and how much they make to the hurt of Religion and also of Government and also of the Consistency of Religion with Government and how much they are forbidden in Scripture The Conclusion drawn from all these things CHAP. VIII The two Propositions asserted viz. 1. That there must of necessity be some Doctrine or Body of Doctrines for profession of assent to be made to and some Form or way of Worship to be used in Common and both these as a foundation for a medium or common means of procuring a charitative communion amongst men in matters of Religion in any Society 2. That there must of necessity also be a restraint held upon mens venting of their opinions as a means for the preventing and remova of Religious Contests And both these sorts of means t be used to these ends by the Chief Governour or Governours in such Society CHAP. IX Hence the way of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity viz. in outward profession and Publick Worship hath been alwayes endeavoured and made use of by the Governours of all Societies in their different wayes And that from the Dictates of the Laws of Nature and Nations and the Divine Law approving of and leading them to it CHAP. X. What are the Extreams in respect to this Ecclesiastical Vniformity and what are the faultinesses in it CHAP. XI From whence the just measures of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity sure to be taken and of the more particular Rights and Liberties relating to them LIB III. CHAP. I. OF the two Grand Instruments of an Ecclesiastical Vniniformity viz. a Canon of Doctrines and a Liturgy framed according to it CHAP. II. What are the general ends of such a Canon of Doctrines and Liturgy in any National Church CHAP. III. What are the more particular aimes or ends of the Canon of Doctrines and Liturgy in order to these three General CHAP. IV. Of the inward Vnity of Assent which is supposed to the outward unity of Profession and use of Publick Worship in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity CHAP. V. How the Canon and Liturgy ought to be composed in order to their answering to their general ends CHAP. VI. What are the Vses that are to be made of the Canon and Liturgy by the members of any National Church CHAP. VII What is the Doctrine of the Church in the Canon and Liturgy CHAP. VIII Of the interpretation of the Canon and Liturgy to be made by private persons and how it ought to proceed CHAP. IX Of the rewards and punishments belonging to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity and the Authorities and Rights concern'd in the dispensing of them CHAP. X. Of the Magistrates further intent in relation to the inward notions supposed to the External Profession and use of things And of the more particular latitudes belonging to those notions and the Assent included in them CHAP. XI Of the Testimonials to profession in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity And what they are CHAP. XII Of these Testimonials as Religious Bands and in what manner upon what grounds and to what things they oblige CHAP. XIII Of mens Liberty of opining and exercising their judgment of discerning concerning the matters of the Canon and Liturgy and how far it extends And some cautions concerning such the exercise and spending of it CHAP. XIV What are the more particular restraints and liberties and the Rights of the Magistrate relating to mens divulging of their opinions Especially concerning the matters of the Canon and Liturgy CHAP. XV. Of the Supervisors in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity CHAP. XVI Of the Supream Interpreter in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity DE Jure Vniformitatis Ecclesiasticae OR OF THE RIGHTS Belonging to an UNIFORMITY in CHURCHES BOOK I. CHAP. I. The General Notion of an Vniformity and also those of Religion and Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government defin'd and distinguished I AN Uniformity defin'd and the first and Capital distinction of it II The first and capital divivision also of all Affairs amongst men and the application of them to the general intent of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity III Religion defin'd IV The first distinction of it V The Second VI The Third VII The Fourth VIII The Fifth and last IX Government defin'd X The first distinction of it XI The Second XII The Third XIII The Fourth XIV The Consistency of Religion with Government defin'd XV The first distinction of it XVI The Second XVII The Third XVIII The Fourth XIX The Fifth XX The Sixth and Last XXI The Conclusion subjoyned to these preceding Matters The definition and first distinction of an Vniformity I. AN Vniformity from the common use and connotation of the term is nothing else but an Unity of the outward Form of things and it is either Ecclesiastical or Civil The Ecclesiastical is that which is Directly conversant about the Affairs of Churches And the Civil that which is in like manner conversant about the Civil State II. The first and capital division then of all affairs amongst men is according to this first
distinction of an Uniformity * The first and capital division also of all Affairs amongst men and the application of them to the general intent of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity D. de rerum divisione qualitat L. 1. Summa rerum divisio sayes Paulus the Civilian in duos Articulos diducitur nam aliae sunt Divini Juris aliae humani That the chief division of Affairs is derived into two parts for some of them are of Divine Right and the others of humane And the Divine Affairs are those which concern Religion The Humane those which concern Civil Government And God and Nature have appointed both these to Consist These three things then and the preservation of the wellfare of them viz. Religion and Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government are the general matter about which an Ecclesiastical Uniformity is conversant About the preservation of the welfare of Religion and it's consistency with Government primarily and directly and about the preservation of the wellfare of Government collaterally and by consequence And because in our following Discourse concerning this kind of Uniformity and the Rights belonging to it we shall have many things to say about these three more general matters which will be common to the whole therefore it is that they are here first of all to be unfolded accordingly and that for our clearer passage to the discussing and determination of other things founded upon them hereafter in their several Topicks and places properly belonging to them So then that which I shall do in the unfolding of them shall be 1. To define them severally 2. To distinguish them Religion defined III. Religion then is here first of all to be defined First of all because it is in our following Discourse the thing first in order which we treat of And to be defined viz. in the general notion of it Religion then is nothing else but the Law of God prescribed to men In respect to God the Law-giver and prescriber of it it is his Law and in respect to men the observers of it it is their Religion or Service and Worship So when the Book of God calls it on his part his Statutes his Word his Way Psal 119.48 105 37 c. and the like and when the Hebrews on man's part call it by the several names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reverence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith and the like all return in their several respects Etymol lib. 18. into the sense of the definition Religion sayes Isidore Dicta est ab eo quòd per eam uni soli Deo religamus animas nostras ad cultum divinum animo serviendi That Religion is called so from hence because by it we bind our souls to the one only God for the performance of Divine worship to him with a mind of serving him And Cicero sayes that it is it De Nat. Deor. Lib. 1. Per quam reverenti famulatu Ceremoniae divini Cultus exercentur By which with a reverend and servant-like deportment the Ceremonies of the Divine Worship are practised And St. Austine defines it to be De Civ Dei Lib. 26. Nihil aliud quà m cultus divinus Nothing else but the divine worship The application of the general notion of Religion to other things besides the worship of a Deity needs not here be mentioned And when the Latines use the term for any great care or respect that a man useth about any thing it is then used Metaphorically and abusively but then only properly and emphatically when it is applyed to the Divine Worship as we have mentioned So the old Roman Civilians ordinarily in their cases and the several texts of the Digests Religion towards God Pomponius calls the worship of some Deity De Justit jure L. Veluti Lib. 11. â—it 17. Lib 47. Tit. 13. c. which is common to all Nations And the several Titles De Religiosis sumptibus funerum de Sepulchro violato and the like will evidence the same thing IV. Religion then being thus defined The first distinction of Religion let us come to our distinguishing it according to the occasions of the body of our discourse hereafter And the first distinction of it is by disparates that it is to be considered either in the General or Special or individual In the General it is such as we have already mention'd the term being taken at large and not bounded by any special restrictions In the Special it is taken for this or that sort or kind of Religion and that whether it be more special as it lies at a farther distance or less as it lies at a lesser distance from the first general according to the rules of Logick Last of all in the Individual it is taken for this or that individual or particular part of the same sort of Religions as it is either exercised or professed by this or that part of the Professors of it And so is Rome one part and Verona or Florence another part of the same Roman Catholick in Italy and the like V. The second distinction of it is The Second distinction of it by the two opposite members of true and false and the effects of these in mens minds and actions are either natural or supernatural And this is most certainly true that any false Religion if it be but apprehended to be true will have per omnia the same natural effects in men together with that which is really true and as having such are any false and erronious sorts of Religion in the world considered by us when they are mentioned hereafter and applyed either separately or mixtly to things VI. The third distinction of Religion is that it is taken simply The Third or relatively simply when it is considered by it self and only in a simple and abstracted Notion and relatively when it is relating to other things And that Religion is to be considered in a relative notion by men very frequently for the guidance of their actions by it there needs no more said to evince it then that it is placed by God in the world together with other things which it may either commodate or incommodate according as it is apprehended of and used or practised by them in relation to those things Vicè cuncta reguntur Alternisque regunt Says Papinius That all things are Governed by vicissitudes of influences upon one another and he that considers not the respects of things in the world which they bear one towards another and acts accordingly will quickly by his actions bring all to Confusion VII In the fourth The Fourth place Religion is either National or not National and secluded National it is called by the usual application of the term when it is the Religion only publickly established by Authority in a Country and then the Church is said also to be incorporate into the State And not National is the contrary Of
the former of these Sorts is the Christian Religion in the most of the Dominions of Europe In the large Territories of Preister John in Affrica Of the latter is the Christian and Jewish Religion in Greece and in the most of the Dominions of Asia as is affirmed by Chytraeus Johannes Boemus Aubanus Georgieviz Godignus and others And although it be true in the mean time that sometimes De facto there are diverse sorts of Professors of Religion tollerated in the same State as will be further mentioned hereafter yet none of those have the priviledges nor extent ordinarily of that which is the National nor cannot properly be called so for those Reasons and because secluded from those more eminent endowments But notwithstanding still all of them have their respects severally to the State and the Government of it In Declaratione praefix ad Acta Synodi Dordrar Quia Ecclesia quamdiu hic vivimus vix separari possit a Republica Because the Church so long as we live here can scarce be separated from the State say the States General of the Vnited Provinces VIII In the first and last The first and last distinction of Religion place a Religion secluded is yet further to be distinguished And that as it is either secluded onely being at all practised or exercised in any Society Of the latter sort was the care of the Christian Religion in the dayes of the Apostles and afterwards under the Heathen Roman Emperours and of many Sects afterwards under the Roman Christian Emperours and such as are prohibited by them in the New Civil Law and the Code and Novells of Theodosius But this case is here only pointed at by us and comes not into ordinary consideration hereafter And that because it seldome or never happens that such a Religion subsists with any duration in any Society or that de jure the continuance of it ought to be endeavour'd in respect to such or such a Society unless where there is an immediate and particular command from Heaven for it as there was to the Apostles in respect to their first preaching in Jury otherwise the Divines and Civilians do rightly prescribe to the professors of such a Religion either present Martyrdome or else flight and change of the soyle by migration unto another Country And thus much of this first general Terme IX The Terme Religion then being thus explicated the like is to be said also concerning Government Government defin'd And first for its definition Government in the general is the disposition of the Affairs of humane Societies So Plato defines it to be Cura totius In Definitionibus De Repub. lib. 1. cap. 1. The care of the whole And Bodinus sayes That a Commonweal is Familiarum rerúmque inter ipsas Communium summa potestate ac ratione moderata multitudo A multitude of families and affairs common amongst themselves governed by the Power and Reason that is supream And here presently then for the unfolding of this definition will occurre the several Societies that are amongst men to be distinguished Any conjunct plurality of men is in nature a Society because they by their plurality and conjunction partake of the general nature of such a Society So there is a Society in Families in Corporations partaking of the same Municipal Laws amongst Merchants for their Trade's sake nay even amongst Robbers and Pyrates to a bad end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who rove like Theeves up and down the Seas sayes the Poet Homer Odyss 3. D. De Testibus L. Vbi §. 1. D. De Verbor Sig. L. Nerntius §. 2. D. Eodem L. Familiae §. 3. to infest Strangers But the Civil Law would have no Society to consist of less then three and that three at the least did facere Collegium make up a Society for Trade or the like And use and custome hath obtained yet farther that when humane Societies are mention'd the Termes be applied only ordinarily to States and Kingdomes and the like greater sorts of lawful humane Societies And so then is the terme Society understood by us generally in this Discourse And the Notion of Government mentioned is in like manner applied to it X. The first definition concerning Government The first Definition of Government is the same that was mentioned concerning Religion It is considered either in the General or in the Special or in the Individual the Termes being applied here in the same manner as before and the different respects of them onely being preserved XI The second The Second distinction is by opposite members that it is considered either as a faculty or else in the exercise of it As a faculty and so it denotes the power of him that Governes And so the Roman Civilians call that power Florentinus D. De statu hominum L. Libertas c. which a man hath over himself which is his Liberty or over others which is Dominion by the name of a Faculty Or else in the exercise of it and so it denotes the use and actual imployment of that power of Government And in both these sences it is applied hereafter sometimes Habitually and sometimes Actually taken The third Distinction XII The next distinction of Government is by disparates that it is to be considered either as a charge committed to the Governour by God and so it respects principally his obligation to God concerning it or else as the Right of him that Governes and so it respects his claime and title that he hath to it or as it intends the wellfare of humane Society and so it respects also the means which he is to use for the compassing such the wellfare of it And under these considerations also it will occur hereafter XIII The fourth and last The fourth and last definition of it is by opposite Members and that by the farther distinguishing it according to the last notion of it mentioned And so it is considered Either as it concernes the good of particular persons Eminently and that in Priviledges 12. Quaest 96. Act. 1. 2. quaest 90. Act. 2. or else of the Community and that in its Ordinary General intent as was said Privilegia dicuntur quasi privatae leges sayes Aquinas That Priviledges are so called as it were private Laws And further sayes he Because the Law is the Rule of humane Actions the last end of which so regulated by it in a Society is the good and happiness of all the members of that Society ideo necesse est eam semper ad bonum commune ordinari That therefore it must needs follow That the Law in its ordinary general respect must intend the common good Now the Law is that by which the Governour proceeds in Government Neither is that benefit of the Law which is common to all particular persons equally and as included in the whole to be called by the name of a Priviledge XIV In the third and last place we come to
penes Reges erat sayes the Historian That in the beginning of humane affairs of Countries and Nations the Dominion over them was in the hand of Kings And Plutarch affirms that the first that gave over Regal Power and framed a Popular State was Theseus And he quotes Aristotle as of the same mind And Theseus flourished about the year of the World Two thousand seven hundred and twenty Others date a popular State in Greece from others afterwards But it is certain that all the first writings of the World now extant Homer and others sound only of Kings the rightful Successors it is to be supposed a great many of them of the dispersed heads of families and all of them their partakers in the same kind of Government As to prophane Histories and other writings of the Heathens and the several kinds of causes of the changes and destructions of humane affairs which I have mentioned Hic Supra Sect. 1. and besides what are mentioned in Scripture the wayes by which men have arrived at Government in Countries after desolations made by those causes of destruction or otherwise when without such Calamities there hath hapned a change in their Government are ordinarily assigned in the like manner by those who write of these things Some have supposed men to have come together Ex terra geniti aut servati ex aliqua vastitate being born from the earth or having been sav'd out of some great desolation So Aristotle The like Herodotus Polit. lib. 2. cap. 6. and others recite concerning the Egyptians the fame of their springing from Nile The Ethiopians their being the first men formed by reason of the nearness of the Sun to them And the like is said by Acosta De natura Noâ— Orbis Lib. 1. cap. 25. of the West-Indians and their opinion concerning the original of Mankind and so of other Nations And as to their Arrival at Government some have arrived at it by the pure consent of others subjecting themselves to them voluntarily others by conquest and some one way some another according to the divers circumstances attending their several cases as hath been said The Capital Distinction of Government amongst men Lib. 1. c. 1. Sect. 1. Vid. Interdicti veneti Histor lâ—b 4. V. The first and capital distinction then of Government amongst men is according to the first division of their affairs above mentioned and that is by the two opposite members of Ecclesiastical and Civil in relation to Divine and Humane Affairs It was the summe of the preface to the Venetians Writings publickly countenanc'd against the Pope in the year one thousand six hundred and six Duplex à Deo Opt max in mundo Regimen Justitutum utrumque ab altero independens unum Spirituale Ministerii Ecclesiastici alterum Temporale Magistratûs Politici That there was a twofold Government in the World instituted by God and either of those Governments independent from the other viz. The one Spiritual of the ministry Ecclesiastical and the other Temporal of the Political Magistrate And therefore the reduction of all Laws is to one of these two sorts L. Justitia D. De justit jure either Divine or Humane Juris prudentia sayes Vlpian est Divinarum atque humanarum rerum notitia justi atque injusti scientia That skill in Law is the knowledge of Divine and humane Affairs Poloniae lib. 1. prop. fin the science of what is Just and Vnjust And as Cromerus sayes of the Poles that they are divided universally into the two states of Laicks and Ecclesiasticks so in all other Countries and in all former Ages there hath ever been the like division of men where they have been members of Regular Societies And both these forts of Government are again to be divided by disparates Cap. 1. Sect. 9. either into such in the General or in the Special or in the Individual as is above more generally mention'd The distinctions of consent also given to Government VI. The distinction also of consent given to both these sorts of Governments mentioned is that it is either Pure as in purely voluntrary Associations under one head or mixt as in Associations to which men are principally mov'd by the sence of Convenience or Necessity And both these are again as concurrent causes either to the making and constituting a Government or else to the establishing one already in the possession of Government And both these sorts of consent again are either personal as every one that is sui juris giveth it for himself or else obligatory of others as in Parents obliging their Children by their act of consent And both these yet again are either only tacitly signified as in acquiescence under Government either of the sorts of it but now mention'd or else which men are further oblig'd to by some overt Hic supra §. 5. and apparent Acts as in the case of their partaking more eminently in the benefits of Government of Subscriptions Church and State Oathes given in and taken by them and the like things common amongst men And that men are oblig'd to consent and submit to Government both in the general and in the special or any of the lawful sorts of it and also in the particular or individual it is both from the Law of Nature which dictates such their consent and submission to be yeelded by them and also from the express Divine Law which commands it from God And as it is thus concerning Government in the State so also it is concerning Government in the Church in any Society That men either entring into or else being already in the Society of any Christian Church are oblig'd to consent to the lawful Government of it in these wayes mention'd And they do also farther oblige themselves to consent and submit to it more specially and expressly by their particular Acts of receiving Baptisme in such a Church partaking in Church Priviledges by Subscriptions Church-Oathes and the like And the like is to be said every way concerning the State in it's capacity in relation also to these things in their several respects which they bear to it and as to their obliging men to acquiess under the Government of it And last of all that consent once given in all these sorts and respects of it doth oblige men to yeild their submission and obedience due to Governours and Government by it it is remarkeably evident from the dictate of the Law of Nature For where right accrues necessarily to another as in this case it doth to Government by a mans own voluntary Act That Act being once passed a man cannot reverse or revoke that right due by it again And the obligation induc'd upon men by consent in the general all lawes have ever Asserted and both in the Canon and Civil Law there is no appeale granted from Arbiters chosen by the parties Litigant And the Doctors of both Lawes do constantly adjust the same things Ab arbitris
with Government III. The distinctions of the Consistency of Religion with Government further explicated and applied IV. The Consistency of Religion with Government Prov'd V. First in the General VI. More particularly concerning the Christian Religion in particular VII Last of all the conclusion and consectary deduc'd from all these things The Distinctions of Government above mention'd apply'd to it's Consistency with Religion cap. 1. §. 8 9. I. WE have above defin'd Government both in the General Special and Individual And have said that it is to be considered either as a Faculty or else in the exercise of it And when we here treat of it's consistency with Religion it is meant of such in the exercise of it And that either Totally or Partially Fundamentally or in lesser matters So the Government of the Gentiles both in Church and State was inconsistent with the Religion of the Jewes Fundamentally and in the main particulars of it And so the Government of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat so frequently and eminently instanc'd in the Scriptures to have made Israel to sin was destructive of the particular precepts of the peoples Sacrificing solemnly at Jerusalem 1 Kin. 15.30 1 Kin. 16.26 c. 1 Kings 12.28 Whereupon the King took Counsel sayes the Text And made two Calves of Gold and said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt And he set the one in Bethel and the other put he in Dan. 1 K. Cap. 16 17 c Such also was the Government of Ahab and the Idolatrous Kings of Israel and of the Kings of Babylon at the Deportation and the like mentioned in the Scripture 2 K. Cap. 25. Such also that of Antiochus Epiphanes at the time of his Invasion and that of Vespatian and Titus at the time of their Destruction of the state of the Jews and the like the Governments of others mentioned by the same Jewish celebrated Historian Josephus Such also was the Government of the Roman Emperours in respect both to the Jewish Christian and some sorts also of the Heathen Religion both before and after the Crucifixion of Christ Of Tiberius in his time of whom Suetonius says That Externas Caeremonias In Tiberio §. 36. Aegyptios Judaicosque ritus compescuit c. He repressed the outward Ceremonies of Religion the Aegyptian and Jewish Rites And so of Claudius in his time of whom he says also that Judaeos In Claudio §. 25. impulsore Christo assiduè tumultu â—ites Roma expulit He drove the Jews daily tumultuating out of Rome Christ as he calls him being the stirrer up of them to it And that Druidarum Religionem Ibid. apud Gallos dirae immanitatis tantum Civibus sub Augusto interdictam penitus abolevit The Religion of the Druids amongst the Galls which was of horrid cruelty and prohibited only to the Citizens under Augustus he utterly abolished And so lastly of Nero in his time of whom he says also That Afflicti suppliciis Christiani In Nerone §. 16. genus hominum superstitionis novae ac maleficiae The Christians were afflicted with punishments a kind of men of an Vp-start says he and mischievous superstition And thus all of these particular Governments either in specie or individuo being in respect to these Religions either in the General or in some particular Precepts of them inconsistent with them But this consistency of Government with Religion by thus illustrating it from the contraries I here touch upon only as falling in my way to other things it not being the principal design of my Discourse as hath been before first of all mentioned Supra Cap. 1. §. 1. II. Religion also was above defined in like manner as Government And I distinguished it first into such either in the general The distinctions also of Religion applyed to its consistency with Government Cap. 1. §. 2. or special or individual And afterwards into either True or False And afterwards again I laid it down as considered either simply or relatively In its simple notion I have spoken of it principally already throughout the second Chapter In the Relative I shall handle it more principally both here and hereafter Ibid. §. 3. And when I here treat of the consistency of Religion with Government Ibid. §. 4. it is meant of it both in the general and special and individual Ibid. §. 5. And of the True totally and necessarily and of any False necessarily also so far forth as it partakes of the precepts of the true but only actually otherwise So the Gentile prescripts of Religion so far forth as they did partake either of the natural or positive prescripts of the true did either as to the one or other sort of them consist necessarily with the lawful particulars of their several Governments And so the Mahometan Religion in respect to the Mahometan Government at this day And in all Regions in the World generally it hath always been taken a care of that they should not in any of the Precepts of them inconsist with Government And if there have been Wars and Over-throws of Government and the like mischiefs at any time to Humane Societies hapning by them it hath been accidentally only as to the Religions themselves of the Countries generally in which such things have hapned and principally from other causes Wherefore that saying with application of it to this business also hath been true in all Ages and there are innumerable examples of the truth of it in all Histories and Records of Humane Affairs Natal Comes Hist Lib. 11. That Nunquam fere sola Religio fuit causa Bellorum c. Never almost hath Religion only been the cause of Wars But either a more loose and ample licentiousness of living furnished out by a semblance of Religion or else an immoderate affection of Ruling or some such kind of thing when the foulness of desire and the unlawful appetency of things not honest is cover'd over either by a simulation of defence of Religion or some more honest pretence by which both many adherents are acquired and many assistances flock into the design because there are but very few to be found who will imbrace manifest dishonesty And this consistency of Religion on its part with Government is the thing principally intended to be treated of by us both here and hereafter throughout this whole discourse Supra Cap. 1. §. 1. as hath been also first of all mention'd The distinctions of the consistency of Religion with Government further explicated apply'd Cap. 1. §. 13. Ibid. §. 14. Supra Cap. 3. §. 7. III. The consistency then of Religion with Government I also defin'd above And distinguish'd it into either Negative or Positive To consist totally negatively with Government is the least thing that any Religion can do And if it do not so it will not be
endured in Humane Societies nor ever own'd to be true and from God since Government is Gods Ordinance as abovesaid and taken by all to be intended as the great instrument for the good of all Humane Society But I shall here proceed further then to these things concerning the True Religion and evince it to be the property of it in particular to consist not only totally negatively but also positively and eminently as was above mention'd with any Lawful Government amongst men Supra Cap. 1. §. 14 15 17. Et hic §. 1 2. And to do these two things will be our task in the remaining part of this Chapter The consistency of Religion with Government proved IV. We proceed then to prove the total negative consistency of any True Religion in the general with Government And afterwards we shall descend to the positive and eminent consistency of the Christian Religion in particular V. First then First in the general this necessary negative consistency of any True Religion with Government in the general will be evident from this Categorical Syllogisme containing the sense of our former discourse concerning these things Viz. Those things which are appointed by God to have a being together in the World amongst men must needs be in themselves totally negatively consistent amongst them But the True Religion is so appointed by God to have such a being together with government in the world amongst men Ergo it must needs be in it self totally negatively consistent with it amongst them The Minor proposition in the present Argument is not taxable and he that will deny the Major and assert any two Ordinances of God whatsoever such as any True Religion and Government are to be in themselves although but in any one single respect and particular whatsoever mutually inconsistent in the world he must needs accuse God himself of a defect in his very act of placing them there For if God hath placed things in the world with an intent of their consisting Supra Cap. 1. §. ult and continuance there as was above concluded concerning Religion and Government and is from most weighty and apparent Reasons evident to all that he hath done so concerning those things and yet they will not consist then we must of necessity fall to the taxing his very attributes which were operative in the placing them there Where was his omnisciency that had no farther insight into what he did Where was his wisdome that could no better contrive Or where was his omnipotency that could no better effect If he were at any time deficient in these at that time he had not the Attributes of a God And if he had them not he was no God and if there were any time in which he was not a God it is impossible that at any time he should be a God without utter confusion denounced by him that will say the contrary to all the Right Philosophy and Divinity that ever concern'd a God in the world So that it appears in Sun Beams that he will enervate our present Argument must in the last result remove any such thing as a God-head out of the world but we will not imagine such a strain of Atheism So then the proof of this Argument in the general includes the proof of the necessary total negative consistency of the Christian Religion in particular with any Lawful Government And it evinceth the like consistency of any present Lawful Government also either in Church or State with the same Christian Religion upon supposition that the Governours in whose hands the exercise of such Government is do proceed rightly and by right rules in their administration of it Secondly more particularly concerning the Christian Religion in particular VI. We descend next then to the proof of both the positive and eminent consistency of the Christian Religion with the present Lawful Government in any Society And that either under the notion either of special or individual And for that 1. That it must needs consist positively will be evident from both its stamping the present Lawful Government both in Church and State as hath been mention'd with Divine Authority for the rendring of it more Sacred amongst men and also from its teaching men to be both Good Citizens and Subjects in all the Duties of the second Table which are the compleat duties of Humane Society Many things more particularly might be mention'd De Jure Belli Lib. 2. Cap. 20. §. 49. c. Vid. Ibid. But well saith Grotius concerning the whole System of the Doctrine of the Christian Religion in the general Nihil est in Disciplina Christiana quod Humanae Societati noceat immo quod non prosit We may be sure of that That there is nothing at all in any of the Precepts of the Christian Religion which doth any wayes hurt nay which doth not help and profit Humane Society 2. It 's positive eminent Consistency is as obvious to any man The Christian Religion being the very band and tye of Humane Society For whereas the Governour in his Humane Capacity can enjoyn the Duties of the second Table onely under Temporal Penalties God doth in the Christian Religion enjoyne them under Eternal And whereas the Governour in recompence to the observation of those Duties can promise onely Temporal Rewards God doth in the Christian Religion promise also Eterternal And whereas the Governour can take Cognizance only of the overt open acts of disobedience to his Commands God doth in the Christian Religion also take Cognizance of the very inward motions of the heart and first stirrings of it towards such acts of disobedience Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy thoughts c. saith the Scripture So that who sees not that the Christian Religion hath ribb'd Humane Society with Adamant and is the very Cement and Band and Bulwark of it in all respects and the Superlative and most Eminent Help and Support to the present Lawful Governour in any Society whatsoever The conclusion and consectary deduced from all these things VII And lastly then I have but this one last and short Conclusion and Consectary to lay down from these things And that is That if at any time the Christian Religion doth prove subversive of the present Lawful Government and by any occasion taken by men from it in any manner of way whatsoever it is from the Errours of those men and their humane mixtures obtruded upon it and not from any genuine Rules or Precepts of the Christian Religion it self The purer Sun containeth no such Clouds and the spects shewed in the Jewel are but spots of dirt God himself as he would never have appointed a Religion in it self subversive of his own Ordinance of Government so he could not ordinarily have expected that the Kings and Governours of the Earth if such and as rational men only should have received it as his We proceed then from hence to other things CHAP. V. To whom
2. Cap. 7. §. 9 10 11. Ibid. §. 9. And what occasions they give to Atheism and prophaneness I shall touch upon also And I shall here by and by give an account of the benefits of Charity and Peace on the contrary to humane Societies and how much also they are commanded in the Scriptures In the mean time an Unity in matters of Religion is that that all men would have in Churches and Publick Societies All Laws and Councels all the publick writings of Societies and the private of particular men have ever made mention of it and wish'd it but none yet have sufficiently described what manner and kind of Unity this should be The New Civil Law mentions the promotion of it a thousand times and in all the parts of the body of it And in the Code of Theodosius Edictum quod de unitate per Affricanas Regiones clementia nostra direxit per diversa proponi volumus ut omnibus innotescat c. The Edict concerning Vnity which our clemency did direct to be published throughout the Regions of Affrica we will have published by the dispersing of divers Coppies of it that all may take notice of it says the Emperours Arcadius Honorius and Theodosius Cod. Theodos Lib. 16. de Religione L. Edictum and the like in other places And in other particular Laws of Countries and Territories although never so small The Laws and Statutes of the City of Geneva take a care That the people be kept and conserv'd in peace and unity See p. 2 3. The manner and form of the oath c. and that the Ministers do keep the purity and concord of Doctrine and the like So also the Ecclesiastical Canons of Councels and the other writings mentioned XI That then that is to be said here concerning it is Unity the Mother of Charity and Peace That unity in the general is the mother of Charity and Charity the mother of Peace And what kind of Unity it is that may possibly and ordinarily be attain'd to in matters of Religion amongst men shall be hereafter evidenc'd In the mean time Infra Lib. 2. Cap. 8. §. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. it is for these reasons mention'd and because unity is the productrix of such excellent things to Humane Societies that it hath ever been endeavoured after and pressed upon men by all Laws both Divine and Humane as is said Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity says the sweet singer of Israel Psal 133.1 c. And the prosperity of Jerusalem is compared to that of a City which is united within it self Psal 122.3 Jo. 17.11 And it was the valedictory prayer of Christ himself for his Disciples that they might be one And the Precept of St. Paul to the Ephesians to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace To this purpose it is also and for the promoting this unity that the Imperial Lawes call the Faith The Catholick Faith Vid. C. lib. 1. De Episcop Cler. L. Deo nobis Ibid. De Episcopali Audient L. Nemo vel in foro C. lib. 1. de summa Trinit Epist Joh Pap. Inter Claris ibid. eodem in residuo Epist Liquet igitur and the Church The Catholick Church and the Christian Religion The Catholick Religion and the like viz. for the begetting in men an unity by putting them in mind of their being all wholly of one and the same only Church of God 'T is this unity that there is so frequently an express mention made of in those Lawes Custodientes statum unitatem sanctarum Dei Ecclesiarum Preserving the State and the Vnity of the holy Church of God Et quae apud vos est unitas sanctarum Ecclesiarum inturbata servabitur And that unity of the Holy Churches which is amongst you shall be kept undisturb'd Et ad unitatem Ecclesiae reverti voluerint That they would return to the Vnity of the Church And Deum autem salvatorem nostrum Jesum Christum exoramus quatenus vos dignetur Custodire in hac vera Religione unitate c. we pray God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that he would vouchsafe to keep you in the true Religion and unity And as to all that Communion which is so much mentioned upon all occasions in the Apostolical Canons the several famous Councels of the Primitive times c. That is one sort of it which is meant that flowes from this unity which we have mentioned So then how farre forth such unity may make to unity of minds and affections amongst Christians and to Charity and Peace consequent upon it it will be declared by us hereafter more particularly in the several places of this discourse proper to these things A Distinction of Charity XII In the interim Charity is twofold 1. That which may be called Negative i. e. so far forth as it may be called such where there is only an absence of dissention and the causes of dissention amongst men 2. Positive And that is that which proceeds from a Positive and particular union of minds and affections Amongst the one sorts of persons properly Amongst the other improperly there may be said to be Charity and Peace following upon it And how much it is to be wished that both these especially this last and most noble sort of Charity both whether it be Christian and as to matters of the True Religion or only common and as to other things were amongst men we shall next evidence from the more particular Assignation of the benefits which such Charity and Peace will bring to the publick affairs both of Religion and Government and the Consistency of Religion with Government and how much also they are commanded in Scripture The benefits of Charity and Peace amongst men to the Christian Religion In Homil. 11. XIII We shall first then instance in the benefits accruing from them to the Christian Religion and those are many every wayes Charitatis cum sit proprium saith St. Gregory nutrice concordiam servare Composita conjungere dissociata dirigere Prava virtutes caeteras perfectionis suae lumine solidare quisquis in ejus Radices se inserit nec a veritate deficit nec à fructu inanescit That since it is the property of Charity to nourish Concord to preserve things joyned together to conjoyne things separated to direct ill things and to consolidate the other vertues by the light of it's perfection whosoever doth insert himself into it's Rootes neither doth go aside from the Truth neither doth wax barren of fruit And the like is that of Guicciardine Hist lib. 16. concerning the mutual peace of the Christian Princes Nihil Sanctius nihil magis necessarium nihil Deo gratius communi inter Christianos Principes Pace futurum video Sine hac enim Religionem Pietatem hominum mores in apertissimum perniciem ruere vel manibus
faults in respect to it have been evident in all Churches and Religions How easie they have been to admit of any thing any the most absurd deceits and Impostures under the Sacred Notion of Worship and Divine precept So in the Ancient Heathen Religion and as the Scripture Records Testifie they worship'd Stocks and Stones i. e. not only Relatively but the vulgar those very things for Gods Horat. Serm. Lib. 1. Sat 8. Cum faber incertus Scamnum faceretne Priapum Maluit esse Deum When the workman uncertain whether he should make a Form or Priapus Would rather have it to be a God They held for Tenents all the other the most incongruous Precepts of their Religon and were easily led either by their Priests or others to the holding of them The like in the Religion of the Jewes at this day They have the Doctrines of their Religion deliver'd to them concerning the dayes of their Messiah That then they shall have a sumptuous Banquet provided for them viz. out of a Bull of the Mountains created and fatted for this very end which shall be able to eat up the Grass of a thousand Mountains in one day and every night it shall grow up again And out of the Fish Leviathan and the Bird Juckna one Egge of which is of that Bigness that if by chance it were cast out of the nest it were enough to beat down three hundred Cedars and to drown with it's liquor Sixty Villages The like Doctrine they have concerning other things And although Menasse Ben Israel and others their later more learned Rabbies De Resurectione lib. 11. cap. 19. interpret these things in a Parabolical and Spiritual sence yet the Common People in all Ages have made no Bones to swallow down the belief of the letter of them and to take it like the Mahometan's Paradise for their happiness in another World The like also in the Religion of the Turks Avierus lib. 2. cap. 12. Johan Leo lib. 3. cap. 12. Aphric Mahomet had but his Alcoran bound up in a handsome Volume and caused a Wild Ass to be taken and the book to be tyed about his neck and as he Preach'd upon a sudden fell into a Rapture as if something had been revealed to him from Heaven and so presently brake out and told the people That God had sent them a Written Law from Heaven and let them go to such a desert and they should find it tyed about an Asses neck and they presently received it And as for their Reward for the observation of his Law he delivered to them the low and homely Parable of the Ramm Bernard in Rosar part 1. Serm. 10. That at the end of the world he should be transform'd into the likeness of a mighty Ramm and all behung with Locks and long flieces of Wool and that they should be as Fleaes sheltering themselves in them and that he would give a leap into heaven and so convey them all thither And these things still as matters of Religion and Faith were so allowed well enough even in their gross and literal sence by the simple people Last of all the Christian Religion also is not free from the mixture of the like gross impostures in several parts of the World where it is professed He that will take a view of the wild practices of the late Anabaptists in Germany of the deceipts and fopperies of Rome of Muncer's laughing and crying out when he was pulled with red hot Pincers for deceiving the People that they would have it so of the weepings and Miracles of Images in the Romish Church of the Indulgences and Sales of Pardons up and down in the streets and market places of Spain and Italy and the like things will quickly acknowledg it And other Eastern Churches have the like in them also And finally abundance of these things are at this day experimented upon the simple people in other Religions also The Turkish and Persian Mahometans the several sorts of the Gentues or Gentiles dispersed up and down in all the Provinces of India both within and without Ganges the vast Kingdome of China the Isle of Japan and the like Eastern Countries ordinarily describ'd by Historians and Geographers are all of them great instances of these things Their Bramines or Priests teach them the Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration of Souls and they nourish Apes and Monkies to receive them at their Death They teach the women to be voluntarily burnt or buried alive at the Funerals of their Husbands and they also being so taught contend earnestly amongst themselves which of them shall take that cruel lot and so are zealous Suicides And the like other things are recited concerning them and their Customes also heretofore Vid. Polyhist Cap. 65. De Indiâ by Julius Solinus and others And any the like Doctrines which their Priests deliver to them are as easily digested by the simple vulgar So that thus it is with the vulgar as to the first part of the Magistrates Charge they being weak and fit to be lead And this is yet further observable concerning them that they are so alwayes rul'd by Shewes and Customes That when any where there happens a Change of Religion and be the change of it in it self never so absur'd and never so much oppos'd by them at it's first setting up yet if it be but accompanied with fair shewes and good pretences Custome sometimes in a very little time but alwayes ordinarily in one Age will make any Religion currant with them 2. The like Errors they are apt to run and be led into also in respect to Government either Ecclesiastical or Civil either of themselves or by these Pretences and Custome The Greek and Roman Histories in the several mutations and hazards of their Governments are full of examples in this kind And the People still have been drawn either to obedience by their Governours or to Rebellion by the Leaders of Factions by these things And the pretences of Reformation and liberty of Conscience and Christian liberty as to matters of Religion and of liberty of the Subject in matters Civil have been the common Lures of all Innovators by which they have drawn them to them in all Ages and Societies So in the Sacred Records and under the Government of Israel the people oftentimes ran themselves into Murmurings Tumults and the like Vid. Exod. 14.10 11. Exod. 16.2 3. Exod. 17.2 3. Exod. 32.1 4. Numb 14.1 2 3 4.5 6 c. Num 16 1 2 3. 1 Sam. 15.1 2 3.4 5 6. In Clio. against Moses and Aaron their Church and State Governours And although the Politicians use to say That a multitude without some one to lead them is not to be esteemed of yet when they are either in such actual madness or in a disposition to it it is seldome that there wants some head or other to lead them So also the company of Corah were led away by him under Pretence of Religion and
sort of Clerg-ymen so as to the lesser and more inferiour also proportionably So that thus then and with these Cautions and for these ends which we have mention'd The Supreme Magistrate in any Society may commit the discharge of Civil Offices to Church-men and they also may lawfully discharge them And since they as well as others are numbers of Humane Society in the Common as hath been said there can be no sufficient reason rendred why they also should not be under a general obligation to serve in that Capacity and he that shall assert and maintain the Contrary shall do it against the several Lawes and Practises of Nature and Nations which we have mentioned VI. In the mean time then their due respects are alwayes also to be preserved and performed to the other estates in any Society A Caution subjoyn'd To the Nobility who are umbrae Regis and Pares Regni the Shadowes of the Soveraigne Prince and Peers of the Realme And to the Gentry or second Nobles secondarily and in their places also We presume not to admonish Princes and Governours in this particular who understand their own affairs so well as to be careful to keep the estates of their Territories in their due Poize one towards another And both Laicks and Church-men in their several degrees and while thus intermix'd in Offices are to be mindful of the several respects to be perform'd to each other And it is never well and as it should be in any Society whatsoever till all these three Estates have their due and mutual respects perform'd to them both by the Soverain Prince and by themselves towards each other VII As we have said The necessity of difference of Orders and degrees of Churchmen and Ecclesiastical persons in any Church Society The several Orders and Degrees of Ecclesiastical persons mention'd in the Christian Scriptures and the Churches power of varying concerning them Vid. Canones Apostolor Can. 35 c. Concil Antioc Can. 9. Et Concil Nicaen Prim. Can. 6. c. Decrâ—ti part 1. distinct 21 23 25 79 c. Et Bezam in Matth. 2.4 Grot. in Math. 2.5 Spanhem in Dub. Evangel Gerhard in Harmon And Bp. Andrewes his Summary of the Government both of the Old and New Testament That there must of necessity be diverse degrees and orders of Governours in the general in any Society so here we say further and more particularly that for the same Reasons also there must of necessity be divers Orders and Degrees of Church Governours and Ecclesiastical Persons and Officers belonging to them in every Church-Society and Ecclesiastical Uniformity So there were alwayes amongst the Heathens in their Church Societies as we have partly already mention'd and as is to be seen in the several Heathen Histories and relations of these things And so there must of necessity be in all other Churches VIII As to the Christian Church there are divers sorts and degrees of Church Governours and Ecclesiastical Persons mentioned in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and asserted by all the Ancient Councels the Canon Law the generality of Interpreters of Scripture and the like Let the Canons of the Apostles The Councels of Antioch of Nice The several distinctions in the Decretum c. be looked into And there are divers Powers also necessarily belonging to these divers Orders of Church-men according to the diverse Nature and Quality of the Affairs proper to their Offices In the Old Testament there are mentioned High-priests Priests of the second Order 2 Kin. 23.4 or Priests simply taken Levites and others In the New Apostles Evangelists Bishops Presbiters or Priests Deacons and others In the Old Testament these Church Officers were perpetually fix'd to their several particular Imployments And although in those dayes the Old Testament Church-Polity was intended only for the Kingdome of Israel and the Lawes both of the Church and State were suited one to another and fixed thus for ever by God himself yet it was left to Humane Prudence to vary still in Circumstances and indifferent things concerning the Ecclesiastical Polity according as the present state of Affairs might at any time require the substance of that Polity ever remaining So in Moses Joshua's David's Nehemiah's and others times And so there was a necessity from the vicissitudes of Affairs that God had appointed to be in that Church as well as in the rest of the World that it should be In the New Testament the standing ordinary Church-officers were appointed to be perpetual also The Ordinary were those whose Offices were ordinarily necessary for the well being of the Christian Church the extraordinary those who were appointed pro Tempore and as the present state of affairs in the first times did require And that the Platform of the perpetual and ordinary Offices of Bishops Preists and Deacons was derived and taken from the Pattern of High-priests Preists and Levites in the Old Testament it will not at all be doubted by him that considers the Circumstances attending those things and the Parity betwixt them And last of all if the Jewes Church which was settled under one perpetual Government and confin'd to one only Nation had Power to vary however according to the occasions of times in Circumstances and things indifferent concerning their ordinary Church-Officers of Ecclesiastical Polity then much more for the same Reasons hath the Christian Church such power to vary which is laid open to be set up in all Nations and appointed to consist as to these Circumstances and things Indifferent with the several sorts of the Civil Policies of those Nations and Countries The Rights and powers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Persons as such IX The Church Governours and Ministers in every Christian Church and the Uniformity of it have a full power and distinct Right from Christ of doing all things properly as is said belonging to them and as such in their several Capacities in the Church viz. Of Ministry Jurisdiction and Order as they are usually call'd And as also the Divine Law of Christ saith concerning them and all Decrees Canons of Councels and Ecclesiastical Constitutions derivatively from it Of Ministry i. e. Of Preaching Administring the Sacraments and dispencing all matters of Doctrine Of Jurisdiction i. e. Of commanding forbidding inflicting Penalties executing Ecclesiastical Censures and dispencing all matters of discipline And lastly of Order i. e. of ordaining others to succeed them in their several Functions in the World And so saith the Scripture Matth. 28.18 19 20. That Christ gave Power to his Apostles and their Successors in the Ministry to go forth and teach all Nations See also Eph. 4.7 8 11 12 13 c. And 2 Cor. 5 20. 1 Cor. 4.1 2 3 4. Heb. 13.17 Mark 16.15 16. Luk. 24.47 48. See also Matt. 16.19 Math. 18.18 Luk. 10.2.11 16 c. See also the 1 Tim. 5.22 1 Tim 4.14 Tit. 1.5 6. c. Vid. Can. 64. apud Carranzam in Summâ Concilior Vid.
suffer the noise that the Pope makes of his Supremacy over them yet when it comes to Trial will not by any means grant it him in their Practice There have been two famous and notable examples in this matter that have appeared of late dayes The first is that of the State of Venice in the case of it's interdiction by Pope Paul the Fifth in which case all the Princes in their several Countries and their Embassadors both at Venice and in the Court of Rome it self those who were Residentiaries there declaimed against the Pope At Venice sayes Paulus Venetus Historia Interdict Venet. lib. 1. prope fin while the distance was yet growing betwixt his Holiness and the State were the imperial French and Spanish Embassadors and they openly voted against the Popes usurpations in the Church matters lay'd claim to by him In the Court of Rome when the Monitory was there afterwards published against the State the Residentiaries then present sayes he also were Ibid. lib. 2. in princip the Marquess of Castile from his Imperial Majesty Alincurius from the most Christian King The Count of Verva from the Duke of Savoy and all these endeavoured with great earnestness and even to the growing of hot words betwixt them with the Pope for either the quite taking away or else the Prorogation of the Monitory And they held Correspondence after the Publication of it by frequent visits and conferences with the Embassadors of the State The Princes themselves also who in their several Countries disgusted it and declar'd against it were the King of Poland who Ibid. Vid. lib. 2. paulo post princip when the Popes Nuncio sollicited for the Publication of the Monitory in his Dominions gave him an abrupt repulse After him the Emperour who both in his own Person and by his Ministers sided with the Venetian State and advised the Nuncio that some temper might be found out for the business and the like In the next place the Catholick King and his Court so soon as ever they knew the matter were presently sensible that that was a doing which equally concern'd all Princes c. In France that King also amongst other things advised the Nuncio there to a Composure What the sense of England and Holland and such other Protestant Princes was is to be presum'd and not here pertinent to be recited But the like entertainment that this affair had with these Catholick Princes mention'd had it also with all others With the Great Duke of Florence The Vice-Roy of Naples the Count of Millaine the Dukes of Mantua and Mutina and the like So that thus these Princes and their Embassadors would by no means endure any such thing as the Invasion of this Indirect Power mention'd in Spirituals The other great instance in this business were the Transactions of the late Councel of Trent See the Historie of the Councel of Trent Passim Where also the Embassadors of Princes would not suffer any thing derogatory from the Lawes of their Countries and their several Masters Supreme Authorities which they really held about Sacred things to be passed into Canons And the Prelates and Divines also of those Countries most of them complied no better with his Holiness Let the Actions of Five-Churches and others be viewed These two comprehensive instances then being given let us pass from hence a little further to the more particular affairs of Princes Let the Common-wealth of Venice in the matter of the Inquisition be considered of It hath lay'd several Laws and Restrictions upon that Office and the Jurisdictions belonging to it within their Territories to this purpose and notwithstanding the Pope's thundering against them as is to be seen in the Reasons of their so doing set forth by the Impartial hand of Father Paul in his History of the Inquisition See the Historie of the Inquisition Passim but now and sometimes heretofore mention'd The Kings of France the Emperours and others have oftentimes in like manner maintained this their power against the Pope 'T is that the Sorbon so often now adayes threaten him with determining on the part of their King And the further instances of these things are to be seen in the Collections of Records made concerning them by the Royal hand of the late wise King James of England The very Inquisition of Spain holds the like course It hath its own Lawes and proper Customes by which it is Govern'd See King James his Defence of the Right of Kings Passim See the Historie of the Inquisition cap. 28. and cap. 6. Ibid. In the Preface Neither is it altered or receiveth new Orders from Rome and there is an account given of all things treated of within the State to the King and advice sent no whither else and the King alwayes nameth an Inquisitor General throughout all his Kingdomes to have inspection over that office to the Pope and his Holiness doth confirm him and he being confirm'd nameth the particular inquisitors in every place which nevertheless cannot enter into their Charge without the Kings Approbation Thus then both the most Christian and the most Catholick King and be they who they will and let the Pope call them by what names he will and be they in never so strict a League and Amity with and professed subjection to the Church of Rome yet still I say thus all of them deal in respect to this indirect power in Spirituals As hath been already said The shadow of it may be conniv'd at in another but the reality and substance of it hath been of necessity alwayes retained in the Princes themselves Lastly The Inquisitors of Italy it self do particularly send word to Rome by every Post Ibid. cap. 6. what is done within their Office And we must conclude that if it were not so neither that part of his Holiness his Person which is the Temporal Prince nor that part of it neither which is the Roman Pontifex could be able long in either of their Capacities to support it self against it's own inquisitors And it is no wonder then that other Temporal Princes whose Dominions are distinct from those of the Sea of Rome and the Lands of the Church have not admitted of the Inquisition generally but by compact in the Original and first admission of it Thus then De Episcopatu â—onstantini Magni In praefat Si Magistratui sayes Vedelius eripiatur potestas Ecclesiastica as he calls it non integer amplius Magistratus sed ex parte tantum erit That if this indirect power in Spirituals be taken away from the Supreme Magistrate he shall be no more an whole but only half a Magistrate in his Society And what Constantine told his Bishops will be found everlastingly True 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Apud Euseb lib. 4. De vitâ Const an t cap. 24. That they were constituted Overseers or Bishops by God in their more particular kind and capacity within the Church and he in
his more general way and kind also as he stood in his capacity more without the Church And this is that grand Branch of the Magistrates Supreme Power over all here to be asserted and which is one main Pillar of this Discourse XXI The Question The Question answer'd why the Ecclesiastical person as such should not have Supremacy over all or Querie that is here made then by the Roman Canonists and others viz. Why the Ecclesiastical Person for the Churches sake committed more particularly and immediatly to him should not have Supremacy over all and the contrary indirect power in Temporals as a Branch of it and so consequently belonging to him as well as the Temporal Magistrate the like Supremacy and this consequent indirect power in Spirituals which we have mentioned will be after these previous considerations laid down the more plausibly and easily answer'd by us In the interim this Supreme Jurisdiction over all in Church-men is the thing driven at by the Doctrines of two sorts of Persons in the Christian Church viz. The Chair and Conclave of Rome and aspiring Consistories and Synods of Presbytery as they are stated and desired by some And by both these if not professedly yet at least in the issue and effect of things as hath been said already But we come to give only three weighty reasons for the Civil Magistrates Supremacy And those are 1. Because the natural intent of the Civil Magistrates office imports it Which primarily is the conservation of Humane Society specifically taken and as contradistinct to Church Society and the governing men in their primary capacity of men But Humane Society is the foundation of all Church Society and without which that Church Society cannot subsist And the Ecclesiastical Person governs men only in their secondary and additional Capacity of Church-members or Christians where the Christian Religion is professed And therefore the Supremacy from the nature of things inevitably and necessarily belongs to him who governs men in their Supreme and first Capacity Contra parmen lib. 3. Non enim Respublica est in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia in Respublica sayes Optatus Milevitanus The State is not in the Church but the Church in the State And Aristotle Polet lib. 3. cap. 1. n. 5. Atqui ridiculum fuerit absurdum putare ut ii Magistratu careant qui sint Authoritate summa praediti That it would be a ridiculous thing and absurd to think that they should want a Magistracy who are endued with the Supreme Authority Ibid. lib. 3 cap. 4. n. 26. in princip And elsewhere Maximus autem ubique Magistratus aestimatur civitatis administratione quae nihil aliud est quam ipsa Respublica That the Magistrate was accounted every where to be the uppermost in the Administration of the Citie which is nothing else but the Common-weal And so all that proceed by the light of Nature For the Superiority of the Ecclesiastick neither in all Humane Affairs nor consequently in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity was never known nor heard of in the World for ought appears by any extant Monuments of Humane Affairs 'till the claim laid to it by the Popedome and that by vertue of the pretended Divine Law on it's side 2ly The Divine Natural Law of God hath constituted the Civil Magistrate as Supreme over all accordingly also And so it was upon the account of the first Fathers being Fathers that they had by that Law and the voice of God from Heaven as was said above Dominion and Rule over their Children Lib. 1. Chap. 3. §. And it was upon the account of Moses his being Civil Magistrate that he was constituted Supreme over all Israel And so it was also in the succeeding Judges and Kings of Israel And the Prophets called Kings the Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing Mothers of the Church Isa 49.23 And cap. 60.13.16 c. And the like accordingly in the New Testament Christ himself the eternal Head of his Church and who is above all Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places Matth 17.24 25 26 27. Matth. 22.16 17 18 19 20 21. Mark 12.14 Rom. 13.4 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Lib. 1. cap. 3. §. 12. 1 Pet. 2.13 paid Tribute to Caesar and taught his Disciples that Lesson And St. Paul layes down the Universal good of mankind as the end of the Civil Magistrate his executing of his Office and exhorts that Prayers and Supplications be made first of all for Kings that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty And St. Peter as was said above calls Kings the Supreme amongst men And in all these and the like instances and places of both Testaments there is a concession of the Supremacy in Humane Societies either express or supposedly made to the Civil Magistrate 3. The third and last Argument for it is from the consequences of the contrary in respect to the Civil Magistrates Office For let but the Ecclesiastical Person be once constituted as Supreme and then presently he will and must of necessity claim an indirect Power in Temporals sufficient for the supporting of that his Supremacy 'T is the very thing which is done by the Roman Pontife◠at this day Vid. De pontif Rom. lib. 5. Cap. 5.6 c. and which is maintain'd by Bellarmine and the other Champions of that Sea and then this indirect power in Temporals being conceded to him it will give him ability of invading the Office of the Civil Magistrate And then the corruptions of men being considered and the Mundane Honours and interests which belongs to the Office of the Magistrate as was mentioned above being propos'd as a Temptation to the Ecclesiastical Person lib. 2. cap. 4. §. 7 8 9. he will be alwayes converting into the Civil Magistrate and injuriously usurping the Temporal Splendors of his office Nay he must of necessity possess them for the support of his Ecclesiastical Supremacy and so in the end the very Office it self of the Civil Magistrate will be quite extinguished and swallowed up by the Supremacy of the Ecclesiasticks In his Defence of the Right of Kings An instance of these things is to be seen also in the Bishop of Rome King James objects to him that at the first he was but the poor parish Priest of his Church in Rome but that now he was grown to a Supremacy over Kings an Universal Pastorship c. And this is also farther to be observed concerning him that although he possesseth all the splendors belonging to the office of the Civil Magistrate He dispenseth the great Offices of State he is serv'd in a more magnificent manner then most Temporal Princes in the World yet scarce any such thing as the Supreme Civil Magistrates Office is own'd to be sustained by his Person but all is absurdly and against the nature of things given out as belonging to him one way or other at least principally as St. Peters Successor But
now on the contrary if the Civil Magistrate hold the Supremacy there is no such danger of the like perpetual injury and of his usurping or extinguishing the Ecclesiastcal Persons Office There being no such worldly splendors belonging to it neither superiour nor equal to those of the Magistraties own Office to be a temptation to him to usurpe it So then this distinct order of Persons and Power which hath been mention'd and which is appointed by God and Nature being preserved and kept up in the World and particularly in the Uniformity of Churches there will follow no such confusion of things nor destruction of the right and natural order of them appointed for the governing of the World and the welfare of mankind in all Ages as hath been mention'd but if the contrary disorder be attempted the contrary confusions and absurdity in things accordingly will necessarily follow By the Magistrates indirect Power in Spirituals he is appointed to be Foster-father to the Church Is 49.23 Prov 8.15 16. Psal 2.12 Dan. 2.31 The Supreme Magistrate may commit the exercise of this Indirect Power in Spirituals to others XXII In the interim by this the Magistrates indirect Power in Spirituals which I have here all along mentioned he is appointed by God to be a Nursing Father to the Church Which he should never forget to be considering that it is by God that Kings Raign and by him that Princes distribute Justice He should kiss the Son least he be angry or else he that hath broken in pieces the Head of Gold the Brasse and the Iron and put a period to the greatest Monarchs in the World can also in a moment put a period to any temporal Princes power whatsoever XXIII Last of all the Supreme Magistrate in any Ecclesiastical Uniformity may commit the exercise of this his Indirect power in Spirituals to the Governours of the Church under him And there is a necessity of his acting by others in this kind as well as in any other because himself is not able to bear the whole burthen alone And the more directly things tend towards the nature of purely spirituals and the more neerly by consequence that they concerne the Church the more fit it is that where the Church is Incorporate into the State they should be put into the hands of Church-men to manage the respects only which have been mentioned Hic Supra §. 5. being kept up to humane Society in the mean time So then to Church-men principally they should be committed in Ordinary The power of inspection over the Church-men being only reserved to the Prince himself and the Liberty of Appeals to him from them in any case happening being granted to the Subject And this is the case of the Church Governours and the Index Ordinarius or Ordinary in England And of the like also in other Churches CHAP. VII The Proposition asserted that Humane Condition in this World being considered there can be no such thing indulged really in any State or Common Society of men as a loose and open Toleration of venting and disseminating of Opinions in matters of Religion without deadly Feuds and Contentions in that Society and the dissolution of it in the end by those Feuds and mens falling together by the Ears and to Warre one with another The dispraise of such and the like Feuds and Contentions And how they make to the hurt of Religion and also of Government and also of the consistency of Religion with Government and how much they are forbidden in Scripture The Conclusion drawn from all these things I. FIrst What is meant by an Opinion in matters of Religion explained II. What is meant by a loose and open toleration of divulging such Opinions explained also III. The things here to be considered of as accompanying Humane Condition in the World assigned IV. The proof of the main Proposition from three Considerations of things V. First from the Aptness of men to entertain opinions in matters of Religion VI. Secondly From the infinite variety of these Opinions amongst them VII Lastly From the Array in which they go forth to the propagating and defending of these their opinions VIII The more particular mischeifs of Opinion-Contests to the affairs of Humane Societies IX First To Religion X. Secondly To Government XI Thirdly To the Consistency of Religion with Government XII And Lastly How much they are forbidden also in Scripture XIII The general Conclusion subjoyn'd to all these things What is meant by an Opinion in matters of Religion explained Supra lib. 2. Cap. 1. §. 4 5 6 7 8. I. THe Causes of mens contesting their Opinions in matters of Religion being above described we come here to describe the effects of their divulging and such their consequent contesting of them in any Society And those we do assign to be deadly Feuds and Warres amongst men and finally by them the ruine and confusion of any such Society First of all then we shall explicate what we mean here by an Opinion it self in matters of Religion And an opinion is taken either properly De Repub Dial. 5. ad finem or improperly And strictly taken in the General sayes Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is a middle thing betwixt ignorance and knowledge And that because of the doubtfulness of the mind in assenting to the particular matter of such an opinion And if we farther distinguish it it is taken either effectively for the weak and doubtful assent of the mind it self to any Proposition and so Est actus Intellectus declinantis in unam partem contradictionis cum formidine alterius Secunda Secundae Quaest 1. Art 4. sayes Aquinas That it is an act of the intellect inclining to one part of the contradiction with a fear of the other its being true also Or else objectively for that sence of the Proposition which is so assented to But we understand not an Opinion here in this proper sence of it but improperly and more largely and that is for any Judgement whatsoever held by men concerning things in matters of Religion And the Truth is The vulgar heads amongst men in Relation to whom principally we mention contesting of opinions up and down in this discourse do seldome entertaine any Judgment in matters of Religion purely probably and opinionatively as the Terme is properly taken But partly from the shortness of their own Eyesight and their want of farther insight into things and Arguments pro and con concerning them and partly from the little experience they have of the uncertainty and difficulty of many matters of Knowledge and Study and how many times men do upon farther search and tryal of both sides recant their first thoughts concerning them and partly from the influence which the present sence they have of things hath upon them especially the Sacred Notion of Religion accompanying it and overbearing them from these and the like causes they judge all things that they have but any notion and
apprehension of to be certain and as if there were no opposition to be made against them and that because they have none to make themselves And these are the common Rout who have ordinarily these Judgements and Opinions sowed as a man would sow seed in a field upon any occasion amongst them and who are accordingly also hissed on by others to the contesting of them In the mean time they who are of deeper and abler heads in any Society and who ordinarily see cause in most things to be of more Temper either the one sort of them they do charitatively and honestly acquiesce and think that by doing so they do their duty for it is most certaine that as Mr. Chillingworth sayes there be many things in Religion Against Knot the certainty of which will not be known 'till the day of Judgement nor is it any great matter whether it be or not Or else the other sort of them like cunning men Heresiarks and Ringleaders of Sedition as we mentioned above they do gather a company with Corah Lib. 2. cap. 4. §. 6. c. and muster them up in the defence of the opinions entertained by them even to publick Feuds and Warres themselves and the other dire effects of these things just now pointed at by us So then such a Judgement of men in matters of Religion so confided in by the one sort of those mentioned and so ordinarily made use of by the other is that which we here first of all more expresly and hereafter in like manner frequently call an Opinion II. We shall explicate also What is meant by a loose and open toleration of divulging such opinions explicated also what we mean by a loose and open toleration of mens venting and divulging such their Opinions And by it is meant a Toleration over which there is no restriction nor Government held at all by the Governours either in Church or State in any Society No not so much as by a private under-hand ballancing of those opinions which are suffered so to be vented and disseminated And this kind of toleration is it also which we do oppose to that kind of unity in matters of Religion Lib. 2. cap. 1. §. 9 10. Infra Lib. 2. cap. 8. §. 5 6 c. which is above mentioned and which unity will be interpreted to be the same with an Ecclesiastical Uniformity which will be mentioned hereafter and treated of more particularly in the Third and last Book belonging to the Body of this Discourse And this Toleration it is which we do here affirm cannot the condition of men in the world being considered be permitted in any Society without those dire and dreadful effects mentioned following upon it III. The things to be here considered of as accompanying Humane Condition in the World assigned Lib. 2. cap. 4. §. 1 2 6 c. Lib. 2. cap. 1. §. 4 5 6 7 8. The things to be here considered of then as accompanying humane Condition in the World and in order to the proof of our proposition by and by from the consideration of them are more generally the two grand Causes of all mischiefs in humane affairs mentioned by us above viz. The Infirmities and Corruptions of men and more particularly the ordinary causes of Religious contests assigned as we said just now above also And that whether they proceed from either of those more general causes in men IV. We descend then from these things to the proof of our maine proposition The proof of the main Proposition from three Considerations of things That it is impossible for any purely loose toleration of divulging of opinions to be permitted in any Society without the destructive effects mentioned to be consequent upon it and that I shall prove from these three considerations of things in conjunction one with another First from the aptness of men to entertain opinions in matters of Religion V. First of all from the aptness and readiness of men to hearken after and conceive and entertain opinions in matters of Religion It is true in relation to all affairs in the World whatsoever That Humane Nature is greedy of Newes and delights to know any thing which is Rare and Curious Pythagoras olim quid senserit quid acutus Chrysippus vel quid Priscus Anaxagoras Scire etiam quid Protagoras Zenoque Platoque Tradiderint quid Magnus Aristotles Scire etiam quotnam fuerint Bacchique Jovesque c. What Pythagoras thought heretofore and what acute Chrysippus or what Ancient Anaxagoras To know also what Protagoras and Zeno and Plato Did deliver and what Great Aristotle To know also how many Bacchuses and Jupiters there were c. And if so in all other matters then much more in matters of Religion which some of them do indeed most of all things in the World concern men and belong to them to know viz. such as are Fundamental and necessary to their eternal welfare in another world and others which pro hic nunc are either in a lesser or greater degree requisite But the vulgar amongst men do use to entertain all things that bare but the name of matters of Religion and are cry'd up amongst men for such under these Notions and be they otherwise never so purely speculative or dubious or not enjoyned in Scripture or any wayes remote from the Foundation and the like and so impertinent for them to be so sollicitously busied about And no wonder then if they desire to know them and are so ready to entertain Opinions concerning them Secondly from the infinite variety of these opinions amongst them VI. Let us adde to this the consideration of the numerous multiplication and encrease of these Opinions in men which doth follow upon their thus greedily harkning after the entertaining them Scarce any thing is ever brought into question but there are presently several Opinions formed concerning it and those presently are again divided and subdivided by the variety of Heads amongst men Quot Capitum vivunt Horat. Serm. lib. 2. Satyr 1. totidem studiorum Millia And Mille hominum species rerum discolor usus Pers Satyr 5. Velle suum cuique est nec voto vivitur uno As many heads as are amongst men so many thousand there are of minds And There are a thousand diversities of men and a variously different use of things Every one hath his will neither do men live with one sort of Wish And this variety of Opinions amongst men will not at all be wondered at if we look but to that infinite variety which is in Nature in all things whatsoever And as in all other things so in the natural and ordinary causes of men's forming their Opinions And those Natural and Ordinary causes become necessary also Positis debitis circumstantiis and the circumstances attending mens several cases being weighed as belonging to them Such natural causes of mens varieties of Opinions in matters of Religion and those so
Vid. Epiphan Tom. 1. lib. 1. Haeres 4. See Weemes his Christian Synagogue pag. 147. and Jo. 4 9. and for little cause especially in the after Ages and later times of their separation and yet their hatreds and implacable differences arose betwixt them in all things and even beyond any due limits The Jewes would not at all converse with the Samaritans nor eat with them nor wear the same Apparel nor write the same Character The worst they thought they could say of Christ was that he was a Samaritan and had a Devil They excommunicated them yearly by sound of Trumpet Vid Drusium de Trib. Sect. lib. 3. cap. 11. ex Ilmedenus They cursed them in nomine Tetragrammato In the Name Jehovah They sealed their Curses on Tables and sent them throughout all Israel In the like kind hath their dealing been with us Christians as it was with their Neighbours the Samaritans They call us Goijm The Abominable and Christ the Hanged God c. And if we look into the Christian Church the like have been the bitter Feuds amongst Christians themselves even amongst those that have been of one Civil Community and Conjunction and have professed to have been of one and the same Church of Christ The Church Histories are full of these things in all times and Ages where opportunities of them have been given Hist Ecclesiast lib 2. cap. 22. and 26. Ibid. Cap. 23. The Historian Socrates is witness what wrackings of Joynts sales of Estates Banishments Deaths c. were inflicted by one party upon another how they contested their Judgments and Opinions with Fire and Stripes even to egregious Cruelties and the Barbarous depriving one anothers dead bodies of Burial and to the Mutilating and Banishing and Murthering the Ministers of Churches Ibi. cap. 30. and the like how they gagged the mouths of them that would not communicate with them in the Sacrament and forced the Sacramental Bread and Wine down their Throats and stretched forth the Womens Breasts with Instruments and and Pincers and Sawed them off Others they burnt off with red hot Irons and Eggs made burning hot in the Fire and the like How they pull'd down the Churches of some Ibid. Vid. made the others swim with blood and the like It is a shame and would irke any one to read of these and the like things and all these and many more such have been the effects of the contesting of Judgements even in the Primitive Christian Societies Finally the several Martyrologies of Countries contain these things in Folio The late Sacred flames and intestine Warres of Germany France Ireland England and other Territories have been recent and fresh examples of them And in all these the predominating Causes of mens contesting their Opinions which I have above mention'd have run away with them furiously and put the several Societies into a flame And thus is the proof of the Proposition The more particular mischeifs of Opinion Contests to the Affairs of Humane Societies Supra lib. 2. cap. 1. §. 12 13 14 15. VIII So then as I have above more particularly described the benefits of that Charity and Peace which accrue to Humane Affairs from that opposite Unity which may ordinarily be held in matters of Religion so here I shall in like manner describe also those mischeifs that flow from these Dissentions and publick contesting of Judgments which are the effects of this loose toleration in the same matters and how much also they are forbidden in Scripture First to Religion IX First then how much they make to the hurt of all Religion whatsoever which Feuds Warres and popular Contests alwayes prejudice more or less but in an especial manner to the hurt of the Christian Religion which we still eminently referre to And as to that they create Atheisme and Prophaness and all manner of Scandals and Offences amongst men They blemish the Christian Profession both as to those that are without and as to those that are within they drive both of them from the very Profession either of them in any serious manner of the Christian Religion which they think from their beholding them amongst Christians maintains so ill things as such bitter and passionate Feuds and Contentions are The Jewes have a saying That the Christians predicate their Messias to be the Prince of Peace but that they themselves are ever at Warres As if like to what is said of Semiramis they carryed a Dove in their Banners but with a bloody Sword in his Beak And it is a true saying of the Lord Verulam See his Essayes Ess 3. of Unity of Religion and which the several Ages of the Church will testifie to that in respect to Scandals and Offences Heresies and Schismes have done by far more harm in the Church then corruption of manners Alike hurtful also these contentions and Opinion-Feuds are to the Practice of the Christian Religion And briefly whatsoever benefits we have recited above to accrue by Charity and Peace to it Lib. 2. Cap. 1. §. 12 13 14 15. the contrary mischiefs in every respect we do assert here to accrue to it by these Contentions Instances and evidences of these things there have been ever abundance if I should stand to recite them Apud Socrat. Hist Ecclesiast Lib. 1 cap. 5. In his Politicks lib. 2. cap. 8. It was not for nothing that Famous Constantine burnt the Bills of Complaint that were brought to him by the Ministers in his time in the Christian Church And it is the saying of Contzen the Jesuite That all open Disputes amongst the Vulgar concerning either Points of Religion or Government do weaken the Authority of such Points at least by bringing them into doubt with men And the late Civil Warres of France were a great instance of these things See his History in the first and second Books and elsewhere the Warres lasted about fifty years and there were sayes Davila the Religious names of Lutherans and Calvinists Hugonots and Catholicks and the like to lead the front of them And it was said in a Proverb about Italy and in other Countries at the end of them That the Civil warres of France had made a Million of Atheists and thirty thousand Witches X. The like are the mischiefs also of these Opinion-Contests to Government both in Church and State in their several Spheres Secondly To Government They bring all the mischeifs and make all those several wayes to the hurting of the present lawful Governours and Government which are contrary to the benefits and to those several wayes by which those benefits accrue to them by the Charity and Peace above mention'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Aristotle Polit. lib. 5. cap. 3. n 17. Thirdly to the Consistency of Religion with Government And lastly how much they are forbidden also in Scripture That the States of Common-weals are sometimes changed without Sedition viz. by Contention XI And in like manner do they
make to the hurt of the consistency of Religion with Government XII And last of all in like manner also are they forbidden in Scripture and in both parts of the Divine Law of God See Deut. 7.2 3 4. Deut. 12.2 3. Deut. 13.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Prov. 6.19 17.11 18.6 30.33 and Matth. 12.25 Rom. 16.17 1 Cor. 1.10 11. The General conclusion subjoyn'd to all these things XIII We have then further but one consectary and conclusion to subjoyn to these things here in the end of this Chapter and that is that if it be so then that that Charity and Peace which we have mentioned make so much to the welfare of the Publick Charge of the Magistrate and are so much commanded in Scripture and that the contrary contentions hurt so much the same Publick Charge and are so much on the contrary prohibited then in how great a measure is it the Duty of the Supreme Magistrate and all Governours under him both in Church and State in their several Stations in every Society to take all care possible and to use all lawful means that their affairs will permit for the preventing and the removal of the one sort and for the cherishing and promotion of the other sort of these things in respect to their several Societies Vid. D. Ad legem Juliam De vi publica l. 3. l. 1. c. Et D. De poenis L. siquis aliquid fecerit L. si quis aliquid ex Metallo ¶ Authores Et D. De. Re Militari L. ult Et D. De operibus Publicis L. opus novum privato Et C. De Episcop Cler. L. Quicunque residentibus Et De Pagans sacrificiis et Templis L. Christianis qui vero sunt Et C. De his qui ad Ecclesiam Confugiunt c. L. Hac valiturâ et Ad Legem Juliam Majestatis L. quisquius Et vid. Novel Constitut 17. L. Deinde Conversus Et L. neque occasione c. Et sic in aliis Legum Codicibus et legibus passim ubicunque in orbe Conditu and for the welfare of the members of them It is upon the accounts mentioned that all Lawes have ever had these respects to these things And certainly he that will deny the evidence of this Conclusion must deny light to the Sun CHAP. VIII The two Propositions asserted viz. 1. That there must of necessity be some Doctrine or Body of Doctrines for profession of assent to be made to and some forme or way of worship to be us'd in Common and both these as a Foundation for a medium or common means of procuring a charitative Communion amongst men in matters of Religion in any Society 2. That there must of necessity also be a restraint held upon mens venting of their Opinions as a means for the preventing and removal of Religious Contests and both these sorts of means to be used to these ends by the Chief Governour or Governours in such Society I. THe Assignation of the means for the procuring a Charitative Communion and for the preventing Contentions as to matters of Religion in Humane Societies II. And first in order to the Assignation of the Means for the procuring such a Charitative Communion The matters of Religion Distinguished III. Those matters of Religion also Assign'd in Relation to which such a Charitative Communion is to be held IV. The state of the case concerning the holding that Charitative Communion in relation to them V. The Unity necessary to the holding of it describ'd VI. That Unity distinguish'd VII The Internal Unity defin'd and apply'd to the holding of that Charitative Communion VIII Nothing Internal can be a Medium for such a Charitative Communion amongst men IX The External Unity describ'd and distinguish'd diversly X. The more general Assignation of it as the Great Ordinary and stated Medium for the holding such a Charitative Communion XI The more particular Assignation of it as such also XII The great secondary Medium for the holding of such Charitative Communion assigned also XIII The things Fundamentally necessary to the being of these Mediums assign'd and the proof of the First Proposition following upon it XIV An Appendant Question resolv'd XV. The Proof of the Second Proposition also XVI The general Conclusion subjoyn'd to all these things The Assignation of the means for the procuring a Charitative Communion and for the preventing contentions as to matters of Religion in Humane Societies Supra lib. 2. cap. 1. §. 12 13 14 15. Lib. 2. cap 6. § 8 9 10 11. I. HAving above describ'd the benefits of Charity and Peace to Humane Societies and evidenc'd the necessity of some kind of Unity as to matters of Religion to be held amongst men in order to them and having also describ'd the mischeifs of Opinion-Feuds and Contentions on the contrary and evidenc'd their being the effect of a loose and open toleration of the venting of such opinions I come here to assigne the Meanes as for the preventing the one sort so also for the procuring the other sort of these things in such Societies And first in order to the Assignation of the means for the procuring such a Charitative Communion the matters of Religion Distinguished Supra lib. 2. cap. 1. § 12. II. And first of all then in order to our Assignation of the means for the procuring positive Charity and the most proper sort of Peace as was above mentioned flowing from it we must distinguish of the matters of Religion which those things have a respect to And all such matters of Religion are either matters of Doctrine or matters of Worship Those matters of Religion also assign'd in relation to which such a Charitative Communion is to be held III. About these then and under these Notions as all the Opinions mentioned are fram'd and contested so all hearty Charity and Peace doth use to be held And if there be not such Peace and Charity held and the means us'd for the holding of them the contrary Contentions about them will follow in Humane Societies At least the vulgar lie open to be led actually into them by any Heresiark Supra lib. 2. cap. 6. in princip passim Ibid §. 1. or Ringleader of Sedition at any time Their Property which was mention'd of judging all their Notions in Religion to be certain being consider'd But if there be such an hearty Charity and Peace held concerning these matters then there are no matters of Religion coming under any other Notions whatsoever from whence Contentions any wayes dangerous to the publick weale need to be feared And these things are evident from all times and Histories in the World Let the Church affairs of the Jewes Gentiles Christians and Mahometans be looked into Finally it is no wonder if it be so since all matters both of belief and practice in any Religion whatsoever which lead to the Eternal Salvation of men in another world come under one
is not sufficient to hold them together in their more particular associations Thus these two Grand Principles then of the Natural and Divine Law have led men to the practise of these Unities mention'd and so have accordingly dictated and approv'd of this Ecclesiastical Uniformity And if men have oppos'd it at any time where it hath been just and lawful it hath been either from their weaknesses or corruptions as hath been mentioned it hath been either from their ignorance or Ambition or Intemperate desire of Liberty or the like when men have considered themselves in an absolute notion and not as members of a Society of a Christian or other Church Incorporate into a State XI We come next then these things being said to assigne the Practises of men also in this matter The practises of Societies also Assign'd And they will be evident from the principal Instances mentioned to be given in it And for the assignation of them we will take into consideration 1. The Ecclesiastical Synods and Councels held in the Christian Church apart by themselves 2. The several Civil Lawes and Constitutions both of it and of other Ages and Countries And the consideration of these things will evidence the consent of Nations also in this matter XII In the first place then for the Councels First from the determination of Councels held in the Christian Church Acts 15.6 c. and these we shall find to have been very frequent in the injunction of these matters of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity We will begin with the first Councel held by the Apostles themselves and mentioned in the Scripture and in it they upon a Contest arising prescrib'd a Body of Doctrines proportionable to the present occasions for Profession of assent and consequent practise to be yeilded to Vers 20.29 viz. That the converted Gentile should abstaine from Pollutions of Idols and from Blood Vid. Canon 38. Apud Carranzam in summâ Concil Vid. Can. 15. apud Carranzam in summâ Concil Vid. Can. 20. De flectendo Genua vid. Socrat. Hyst Ecclesiast lib. 1. cap. 5. ibid. vid. Vid. Can. 2 3 5 20 c. Apud Justell Codin Canon Vid. Concil Laod. Can. 18. Afric Can. 103. Concil Carthag 3. Can. 23. Concil Milev 2. Can. 12. vid. Concil Tolet. 4. Can. 2. Vid. Concil Tolet 6. Can. 3. Concil Constantinop 6. Can. 62. Vid. etiam Concil Nicaen 2. Actionem 7. sub fine Et ejusdem Synod Can. 9. Et Lateran Concil Can. 3. c. apud Carranz De Pace inter Evangel procurand c. 1637 in princi See the Confession of Faith c. And the Act of the General Assembly c. prefac'd to it And the Directory and the Advice of c. concerning Church Government c. annex'd to it and from things strangled and from Fornication Let us pass on from hence to the Canons called the Apostles The thirty eighth Canon appoints Councels to be Celebrated in those first times of the Christian Church twice every yeare ut Dogmata Pietatis explorent emergentes Ecclesiasticas contentiones amoveant That they might search into the Doctrines of Piety and more emergent Ecclesiastical Contentions We will go unto the first Nicene Councel when the Christian Church began to be National under Famous Constantine And there we have Seditions and Tumults and perturbations in the Church forbidden by a Disciplinary Canon There we have also one Uniforme Posture of Body commanded in Prayer to be observed by all the Churches There we have also the so well known Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proposed and enjoyn'd for all to profess assent to and the Famous Nicene Creed or Confession of Faith to be subscrib'd to We will go on further to the Councel of Antioch The first Canon of it is for the Uniforme Observation of Easter And several of the following Canons were shap'd for the cutting off occasions of Contentions in that Church Let us go on to other the like Councels We shall find in several Forms of Liturgies appointed to be approv'd of by those Councels and to be propos'd and enjoyn'd to the Churches Let us go on to others We shall find one forme of singing of Praying of using other Customes and Ceremonies and that throughout all the Churches of one and the same Nation and that also because the Congregations and Churches contained in the Nation were all of the same National Religion We shall find also those of divers Professions ordained to be prohibited and the Feasts and Rites of the Gentiles not to be tolerated and many other the like Canons in many particulars tending all to the uniting men to one Profession and to the cutting off occasions of contests in matters of Religion as might be more particularly mention'd And thus then the Christian Church as it grew in Age and Settlement in divers places grew on also to further degrees of Uniformity Finally as it hath been of Old so of late All Pacificators would have some kind of Uniformity or other The Scotch Ministers themselves in their Advice mention'd to Arch Bishop Spotswood for the procuring Peace in the Church would have an Uniformity And in England the very Covenant Synod at Westminster and they also as by their Covenant they say they were bound and in Conjunction with the General Assembly of Scotch Divines at Edenburgh were for an Uniformity And they intended their Printed Confession of Faith and their Directory for Publick Worship and their Advice concerning Church Government to the then Lords and Commons sitting in the Houses of Parliament for the effecting that very thing Thus then hath this Uniformity been the common vote of the Divinity Chaire throughout all Ages in the Christian Church And he that will see further Vid. lib. 1. Const 6. and lib. 2. cap. 54.56 and lib. 2. cap. 1 2. and lib. 7. cap. 34 35 c. Secondly from the Civil and Ecclesiastical Lawes of Countries may look into the Apostolical Constitutions of Clemens Romanus and many other Ecclesiastical Records and Monuments that bear witness in this matter XIII Let us come also to the Civil Lawes and Constitutions of Countries in the same matter And we will begin first with those of Israel in their unparalell'd Theocracy And God himself appointed in it his several forms both of Doctrine and Worship as hath been mention'd Nay Miracles themselves were not to be believ'd against them and the establishment of them Hic supra modo §. 10. Lib. 1. cap. 2. §. 14. vid. as was above mentioned upon another occasion And they had also their ordinary Ecclesiastical Conventions and Synods for the determination of emergent Controversies concerning these things and the chief Magistrate making use of them to that End and many more particulars might be mention'd After Israel follow the Civil and Ecclesiastical Lawes and Constitutions of all Nations in like manner and so far forth as there are Records left concerning them In the Assyrian and Persian
but tolerating openly and ballancing together with other things all manner of Errors Blasphemies and Atheisme it self in his practising the latitude of it and which things the Judicial or Civil Lawes of Israel did and all Lawes whatsoever of other Societies are bound to prohibit And lastly this ballancing of Opinions cannot be artificially manag'd without perpetual difficulty to the Governour and every dayes danger of sudden eruptions of the more numerous and prevalent party into a Flame And for these and the like reasons it is then That it hath never ordinarily been made use of by setled Governours in any Societies nor by any others upon pure choise at any time but only by Innovators in States and Usurpers of Supreme Authority That while they were stealing up the more securely to the Helme they might busie others about picking of their Bones and ineffably amuse the vulgar The Extreme also of too much strictness assign'd Lib. 2. cap. 6. 5. 6 c. Infra lib. 3. cap. 3. ◠2 3 Infra ibid §. 3. 4 5 6 7. III. There is one extreame also of too much strictness on the other hand and that is the pressing upon men an universal inward unity of Opinion which besides that it is impossible to effect for the Reasons above given and as shall be hereafter mentioned is not neither a means of it self for the generating Peace and Charity amongst men And the Reasons also why it may not be pressed by the Magistrate upon any Society and how farre forth it may not shall be given an account of hereafter The faultiness in such an Uniformity Assign'd also IV. These extreams then being thus assign'd we come also to assign the faultiness in such an Uniformity i. e. Those Indebita and things taxable in it by which it may become accidentally hurtful either to Religion or Government or the consistency of each with other And those are The first of them V. First of all when it reacheth not the Governours occasions in any Society and in respect to the securing his supreme publick right and Charge For so it ought to do because it is a means and instrument appointed by God and Nature for the securing of it The Second VI. When the Magistrates Authority pressing such an Uniformity is urged under the Notion of Divine and his Determination even in all matters whatsoever is by consequence stated formally as the will of God See Dominion Cap. 12. Art 2. And Religion Cap. 16. Art 13 14 15 16 c. And Cap. 12. Art 17 18 c. This is the Assertion of Mr. Hobbs of Malmesbury up and down in his Philosophical Rudiments that it should be so But it consists not with the Divine Law of Christ wherein it is not revealed That God hath committed it to any man or Angel ordinarily to prescribe precepts of Religion but hath reserved that Royalty immediately to himself Indeed the Chair of Rome hath bidden fairly in this matter by the allegation of an infallibility its being annexed to it But concerning an infallible Interpreter in Churches It deserves to be considered whether such a thing be not for the most part needless in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity since in the thoughts of knowing men there will be in most things no more unity of Opinion about such Interpretations then others and also whether it be convenient for the state of Humane Affairs in this World and that upon several accounts And if the pretence of it be intended to amuse the vulgar that is not Honest But briefly since the Divine Law of Christ hath not appointed it to any man to prescribe Religious precepts neither Originally nor by Interpretation we must conclude that it is not so convenient for Humane Societies that there should be such an infallible interpretership constituted and established in them VII The third sort of faultiness in such an Uniformity is The Third when it is excessively comprehensive of things press'd in it And so it may be 1. Qualitatively 2. Quantitatively 1. Qualitatively viz. when it comprehends things simply and in themselves wicked and sinful and proposes and enjoyns them either to be believed or practised accordingly But then this is to be understood of such things as are simply and in themselves so as we say and not of things becoming so by accident For because nothing is so good and lawful in it self but that it may become sinful by accident and because also Cases in which such things may become so are infinite and cannot be foreseen by Humane Prudence or Circumspection therefore it is that Humane Lawes in the framing of them by the Legislative Authority have no respect to such things and as concern'd in the Cases in which they may so become Jura Constitui oportet ut dixit Theophrastus in iis quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accidunt non in iis quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Pomponius in the Civil Law That Lawes are to be Constituted as Theophrastus sayd in those things and Cases which happen out for the most part and not in those which come to pass but seldome And Celsus ex iis F. De legibus Senatus consult c. L. Jura Constitui Ibid. L. 4. Vid. D. Si quis Cautionibus c. Bart. in L. simili modo Et D. Mandati vel contra in L. Austoni item Bartus c. De legibus Dial. 4 paulo post prin Ibid. post quae forte uno aliquo casu accidere possunt Jura non constituuntur That Lawes are not constituted in those matters which may perhaps happen out in one single Case And the several Cases upon the Lawes are explicated and determined by the Doctors accordingly And lastly Plato dicturus eram nullum unquam hominum aliquid lege sancire sed fortunas casusque varios incidentes leges nobis per omnia ferre I was about to say that no man at any time doth establish any thing by Law but that accidents and various chances falling on us do give Law to us in all things And in Conclusion Deum quidem omnia fortunam oportunitatemque simul cum Deo Cuncta Humana Gubernare That God truly doth govern all things and all Humane Affairs Fortune and Opportunity together with God 2. Quantitatively when it proposeth and enjoynes a greater number of things indifferent and as adjuncts of Worship then is convenient There have been allwayes and ought to be and must needs be some Ceremonies in all Churches in the Jewes the Heathens the Christians and Mahometans Churches and are at this day as is to be seen in the several Records concerning these things But then the Ceremonies of Humane Constitution ought not to be to such a number in any Church as to eat up the Divine service it self and to take up more roome then the immediate Worship of God In this kind it is that the Uniformity of the Church of Rome is so faulty The Ceremonial Law as the Jewes say themselves
that which is meant here by a Canon of Doctrines is a Rule or Standard of Doctrines exhibited and propounded for profession of assent to be made to in any Church And such a Canon is either written or else unwritten and traditional And the written is either Systematical and collected unto one body of Doctrines The state of the case concerning its being the primary and principal of the two grand instruments in an Uniformity Lib. 2. Cap. 7. §. 4. or else diffused and dispersed amongst other things And either of these may be either Humane or Divine The Humane is that which is exhibited and propounded as such by Humane Authority the Divine by Divine Authority III. This Canon of Doctrine is the primary and principal of these two grand Instruments of an Uniformity And in our stating of it so we mean it also principally and ordinarily of a written Systematical and Humane Canon and not of the contrary And that because the traditional sort of Doctrines are less ordinarily found in Churches as hath been heretofore mentioned and also because the Systematical Humane Canon is the only Natural way for the procuring positive Peace and Charity in matters contested as hath been hinted also and shall hereafter be more expresly asserted It is true that it were better that their serving one and the same God or any the like fundamental single Doctrine if it might be and although not with the allowance of salvation perhaps to one another from him were a foundation for a medium of charitative communion betwixt Turk and Jew inhabiting in the same Neighbour-hood of Amsterdam or any the like part of a Society then that all Peace and Charity in matters of Religion should be utterly broken But where there is a National Church and where the Governour would procure any sort of positive Charity either Christian or common and any tolerable degree and measure of it amongst his People he must come to a more large and Systematical Canon of Doctrines IV. We come then to define also what we mean by a Liturgy A Liturgy defined and distinguished also the second of these main instruments in this Uniformity And by the use and customary application of the word in this Case That which is vulgarly meant by it also is more generally any publick form of Divine Service and more specially and particularly such a publick form of Prayer to be used in Divine Service and at the several occasions of it And so that which prescribes the matter only of the Publick Divine Service is called a Directory and that which prescribes the Form also a Liturgy and that which is bounded by the prescription of neither is purely an extemporary service V. It is convenient It is convenient that where a Liturgy is used there be as few other sorts of publick Services permitted to accompany it as may be that where there is a stated Liturgy made use of in any Church there be as few other sorts of Services either extemporary or directive permitted as may be And that not only because those other sorts of Services accompanying it should not come into competition with the Authorized Liturgy in the wild esteem of the people but also for many other Reasons which might be mentioned And this is to be construed more principally of services of the same kind and less principally also of Services of divers kinds The Church of England in this case hath contented her self ad minimum See the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical with the prescription of a Directory in the particular of Publick Prayer before the Sermon and with advice that it should be performed as briefly as conveniently may be And the like have been the constitutions in other Churches VI. The Liturgy also in any Church ought to be composed and framed according to the mind and tenour of the Canon of Doctrines And that because it is one Office of such a Liturgy The Liturgy also ought to be conformed to the Canon of Doctrines in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity to exhibit to the people the doctrine taught in any National Church and by its so doing to instruct them from their ordinary use of it in those Doctrines of the Christian Religion The Heathen Jewish and Apostolical Liturgies contested VII Amongst the several instruments of the Uniformities that have been heretofore in the world the Liturgies of all the three first Celebrated professions of Religion have been more especially contested And that the Heathen Liturgies in their circumstantials but the Jewish and Apostolical Liturgies of the Christian Church in the substance and very being of them As to the Heathen Liturgies it hath been alledged that they ought not to be accounted of as exemplary to Christians But the allegation hath err'd in sensu composito for although it be true that they ought not to be accounted of as such Quatenus Heathen Liturgies yet it doth not follow but that however and the light of Nature upon the grounds heretofore mentioned warranting it they ought to be accounted of as such Quatenus Liturgies But the Jewish and Apostolical Liturgies have born the principal brunt of the contest As to the Jewish State the occasions of it were two-fold either Eternal or Temporary The Eternal were in relation to its defence against Heathenism and the Nations of that Profession round about it The temporary in this case were in relation to Domestick Schismes and the mischiefs accruing to the publick from them And the constitutions in it concerning both these were either Divine or Humane As to its Eternal occasions and the serving of them I look upon the first Table of Moses as evidently directing to a Canon of Doctrines And as to its temporary occasions and the serving of them I look upon the Scriptural Temple-Service and the like prescript forms of Ceremonials in any of their times as standing in one part of the place of a Liturgy And these were the apparent Divine Constitutions concerning these matters But if it be enquired farther and more particularly either what were the Divine or Humane Constitutions either concerning the temporary or eternal occasions of Israel either as to its Temple or Synagogue Service in most things it is very hard certainly to determine That God approved of a form of Prayer as lawful in Israel it is evident from the customary Prayer of Moses Num. 10.35 36. at the setting forward and resting of the Ark and from many other particulars which might be mentioned And that there were forms of singing and of other Services used both in the Temple and in the Synagogues it is evident both from the ordinary use of Davids Psalmes and of the Hymnes of Asaph the Seer as such see 2 Chron. 29.30 and from the stated Sections and Lectures of the Law noted in the Hebrew Text and appointed to be read in the Synagogues by course upon every Sabbath throughout the year and from other particulars also which might be mention'd And but that
affairs bear to them these things So in the Church of Geneva The Laws and Statutes Lee the Laws and Statutes in Princip appoint their Evangelical Ministers to protest to receive and retain the Doctrines approved in the Church before they be admitted to the Ministry And in the Oath taken by them before the Syndieques and Councel Ibid. Paulo post p. 9. sub Tit. Here followeth the persons c. they are obliged to conserve and keep the Vnity and Concord of Doctrine and if any differences therein happen to refer them finally to the Magistrate and the like And although they prescribe a Directory onely both for their Church and Family Prayers in some particulars Ibid. in fine In the third Proclamation Ibid. sub Tit. The order which ought c. and as expecting by that sufficiently to provide for the Peace of their Little Territories yet of necessity they prescribe a form in other particulars and they no where declare against the use of Liturgy by other Churches The like is to be observed in the Churches of the Low Countries the Ministers are appointed to subscribe The confession of Faith and the Catechism used and authorized in the Reformed Churches of the Vnited Provinces See the Corpus Disciplinae Cap. 1. in princip Cap. 4. in princip Postea p. 12 13 14 c. and also the doctrinal Decrees of the Synod of Dordrecht in the Year 1619 and to submit themselves to the Synod And the Corpus Disciplinae sets down also their directive prescriptions for the celebrating of Divine Service and the forms of Prayer and of other things for the administration of Baptism and the performance of other Offices in the Church The like to these things also were those said to be presented to the High Court of Parliament for the Reforming of the Church of Scotland not long since In the pattern of Reformation See the Reformation of the Discipline and service of the Church c. Edit London 1643. was set down the confession of Faith used in the English Congregation at Geneva to be assented to and the prescript forms of Common Prayer and of other things to be used in the Publick Divine Service And the like things are to be observed in the publication of the Doctrine and Discipline of the same Kirk Printed by Robert Young Anno 1641. See the first Book of Discipline for prophesying c. alibi Curiosity of bringing in strange Doctrine is to be noted and the like And last of all the like things are in use in the present Church of England The Canon of Doctrine in that Church is that body of Doctrines which is ordinarily called the nine and thirty Articles and the Liturgy is framed according to it IX The History of the English Uniformity and of its Canon of Doctrines and Liturgy is here worthy the noting briefly The History of the English Uniformity and of its Canon of Doctrines and Liturgy See the Praeface to Rogers on the 39. Articles and by those that will the better understand the affairs of it The present Uniformity for the most part of it was at first set up by godly able and impartial men in the time of King Edward the sixth And they had this advantage at their then departing from the Uniformity of the Church of Rome That the Publick Affairs of the Kingdome and the present state of them did permit their fixing in a mean and betwixt the extreams in this matter And they endeavour'd it accordingly and have left their posterity to Glory in it to this day They were the words of a King who suffered Martyrdom in the defence of the English Church and the Religion establish'd in it and left this Advice and Testimony behind him to his present Royal Successour in the Throne See his Letter to the Prince of Wales I have tryed it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the community as Christian but also in the special Notion as reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of phantastick Anarchy And many the like Testimonies in this matter of meaner persons might be added After the days of Edward the sixth and in the time of Queen Mary this Uniformity being intermitted at the coming of Queen Elizabeth to the Throne it was again revived and promoted In her dayes first began the Domestick oppositions of some of those of the Reformed Profession to be made against it And they quickly were made Popular and the Effects of them are felt to this very day The Grand Posts of Controversie have been the Episcopacy the Liturgy and the Ceremonies And the two latter it is evident in order to the subversion of the former And the Original of those oppositions made against them is judged by wise men to have proceeded from impressions received abroad by some of Queen Maries Exiles and especially at Geneva So sayes the wise and moderate Discourse Re-printed in the year 1641. Vid. p. 42. said to be the Lord Bacons The fourth and last occasion sayes he of these Controversies is the partial affectation and imitation of Forraign Churches For many of our men during the time of Persecution and since having been conversant in Churches abroad and received a great impression of the Government there Ordained have violently sought to intrude the same upon our Church c. Vid. passim And first published Anno 1575. and reprinted 1642. See the first and second Admonitions Aano 1573. Supra Lib. 2. Cap. 1. §. 6 7 8 9. The Authors of them being Imprisoned See the Admonitions Answer See his modest and reasonable Examination c. Cap. 1. p. 21. c. See Mr. Sprints Cassander Anglicanus p. 1â—3 and his Reply annexed p. 269. And the History of these mens Conversation abroad is to be seen much of it in the Book called The Troubles at Frankford These Oppositions then being thus once made and made popular innumerable Pamphlets in the said Queens dayes flew about And amongst others those of the greatest note were the two Admonitions to the Parliament The Fallacies and other faults of the first of which were discovered by Dr. Whitgift in his Printed Answer to it And all these things being thus on foot the ordinary causes of such Religious contests heretofore in this Discourse mentioned must needs be supposed to work together with them on both sides viz. the Vulgars mistakes in Religion the collision of passions like Flints striking fire out of one another the mixture of worldly interests and the like and the weaknesses and corruptions of men were the oyl to all these flames Till the dayes of King James then these oppositions still grew on The opponents admonitions had been rejected before by Queen Elizabeth's Parliament the fallacies of them as is said discovered their making their Discipline a third Note of a Church derided with
subjoyn several Questione concerning the two grand Instruments of an Uniformity as such And the resolution of which belongs either more expresly or implicitely to the things already mentioned concerning them XI In the first place then the first of them is The first Question Whether a traditional and more ceremonial or else a written and more doctrinal prescript of Religion be in its self least subject to popular contests And as to it it is answered affirmatively concerning the former of these That it is in it self least subject to be popularly contested And the reasons of it are because a Traditional Prescript is more remote from the peoples view and so far forth as it is Ceremonial but secondarily and mediately doctrinal But then it is purely at the good pleasure of God whether he will constitute such an one for his prescript of the True Religion or not and when such an one is constituted by men it is but a double Artifice And God be-because the Light of the Gospel and the encrease of Knowledge under it was to be displayed hath constituted the Christian prescript almost totally Doctrinal And writings being the more certain way for the conservation of things he hath constituted his prescript also perpetually written And hath left it to Humane Prudence pro hic nunc and according to the divers occasions of Societies to secure it from noxious vulgar contestations by the Laws of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity XII The second Question is whether the Scripture The Second the Original Divine Canon be not sufficient and such as in its place for the attaining the ends of an Ecclesiasticol Vniformity The answer is No. And yet it detracts not at all from the Honour of the Scripture but only argues the weakness of men amongst whom it hath its being For the Christian Scripture being large and full of many and dispersed and diversly cloathed assertions concerning the same things it is evident that it wants a skilful and industrious explication Or else we will put the case in common concerning any pretendedly Original Divino Canon as well as it constituted in any Society whatsoever And still it will hold that when controversies arise concerning it a living Judge with his Humane systematical Canon is the onely natural way for the ordinary composing of them XIII We come to the Third The Third Question and that is whether the same specifical Ordinances only and extemporary Publick Services or else however the performance of the the Publick Divine Services in any National Church in the way of Directory may not be in some sort sufficient for the preservation of the Publick Peace in that Church The answer is Yes But not so sufficient as a Liturgy Lib. 2. Cap. 7. §. 14. For as was said above in the Question of the like nature concerning varieties of Communions as to some things permitted in any Church so here also it is to be said That either under a Directory or extemporary Publick Services the people will lye more open and ready either to fall into any sort of Religious Factions of themselves or else to be led into them by others And all Governours being bound to use all lawful means for the procuring of as much Peace and Christian Charity as may be amongst their people and a Liturgy being none of the extreams in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity but in the vulgar tongue being in it self lawful there is no reason in the world but that it should take place where it may and where the Publick Affairs will bear it before either of the two other sorts of Services XIV The fourth The Fourth appendant Question is whether a Liturgy do not transgress the Rules of Scripture Constitutions in hindring and laying a restraint upon the use of Spiritual Gifts to be exercised in publick by the Ministers or Spiritual Conducts in the performance of Divine Service in any Christian Church The answer to it also is No. And the state of this case is this 1. The Supream Magistrate in any Society hath in the general the power over the use of the Gifts of all Spiritual Persons in Publick And it is one particular part of his Indirect Power in Spirituals and necessary also to the preservation of the welfare of his Supream Publick Charge Since it is evident both in it self and from the experience of all Ages that by the undue use of those Gifts if it be permitted either Religion or Government or the consistency of Religion with Government may be ruin'd in any Society And upon these accounts it is that this Power of restraint over the use of these Gifts hath been ever claim'd and made use of by all Princes accordingly And he that shall deny it them shall deny them the means to the end 2. The Scriptural end of the use of all such Gifts is for the publick good and edification of the Church For so sayes St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall i. e. ut Ecclesia fructum inde percipiat In Loc. says Calvin and so others 3. The Gifts here principally concern'd and of which the use is to be made are those of Knowledge Invention and Elocution And if these are made use of either in Extemporary or Directorial Services so are they made use of also in the use of a Liturgy The Knowledge Wisdom and Invention of those that composed it in the composure of it and the Elocution of him that is imployed in the use of it in that his actual using of it The immediate effects of the use of these Ministerial Gifts in a Christian Church are either ordinary and natural or else extraordinary and supernatural The ordinary are the generating of Natural knowledge and affections in others the extraordinary the opposite And if the generating these extraordinary effects of Sanctification may be expected to accompany the use of either of the two sorts of the mentioned services so also it may be expected to accompany the due use of a Liturgy and that at least in an equal manner for ought appears either from the Divine or Natural Law either from any general or particular precepts of them or any promise of God annexed to them especially it being considered how much the use of a Liturgy tends to the excluding of Schisms and Heresies and to the generating of Christian Unity and Charity and Peace which are the consequential effects of such an use of it more at least then the use either of a Directory or Extemporary Service doth 5. And Lastly the conclusion in this matter then is evident from these positions and comparisons of things That the use of Ministerial Spiritual Gifts in the way of a Liturgy all things being considered which belong to the Case may be expected to be of more benefit to any Church and the Community in it then the use of those gifts in the other wayes mentioned The complaints then in this matter
are unjust That by the use of a Liturgy in a Church men are abridg'd of their Christian Liberty a part of which the use of mens gifts in Publick is not but it is one sort of outward actions And so also that the free use of their gifts is restrained and the like It is true variety and novelty delight Humane Nature And the more remote from Forms Publick Services in Religion are the more upon those accounts they are apt to take the vulgar and to seem diversly to them as Lovely Songs and the like And therefore they are the fitter Instruments for any Heresiark to make use of But he that will either settle a Church in the capacity of a Governour or else state his Case of Conscience aright◠in this matter in the capacity of a private person must consider the consequences of these things XV. The like to this also is the Question The Fifth Whether a Liturgy may be used with so much attention of mind and equal degrees of affection as a Directorical or Extemporary Service But the Question is not rightly put to argue the simple unlawfulness of a Liturgy For 1. Which of these two sorts of Services either Liturgical or Non-Liturgical may be attended at any time with the greater degrees of these things it is uncertaine according to mens several degrees of endowment with those spiritual gifts we mentioned just now If their invention of matter and elocution be so prompt as that it doth not take up their minds more then either the reading or the saying of a Liturgy by heart perhaps after a frequent and continued use of it then a Non-Liturgical Service may exceed otherwise not And as to the phrase of a Liturgy in this matter and its being Spiritual In some places it ought to attend comprehension of sense and Doctrinals and Gravity and solemne weightinesse of phrase to poise the mind in the use of it as well as altogether that which is affectionate or may be deemed Spiritual So the English Liturgy doth And so doth even the Scripture it self And last of all if the imployment of the mind may be supposed to be more Spiritual and within its self in the use of a Non-Liturgical then of a Liturgical Service it returns to this That in a Non-Liturgical Service the invention as it were hunts out for some present either phrase or matter which the eye hath formerly read and in a Liturgy the apprehension attends upon either the eyes present reading or the heart and memories present dictating to it And so what advantage may be from hence except on the Liturgies part we do not see It is true men are apt not to be so mindful of their imploying their affections and attention of mind in the use of a Liturgy as in Services where the faculty of invention is necessarily put upon action But then that is their own fault and not the fault of the Liturgy 2. But we will suppose the Concession of Liturgies not being in the simple use of it so capable of these things And yet however this doth not conclude rightly for the either unlawfulness or so much as inconveniency of a Liturgy Since all this and a great deal more will be abundantly recompensed to any Church by its being in its self such a means of Unity and Peace as hath been mentioned So that thus then and notwithstanding these exceptions to be made against it it doth not follow but that a Canon of Doctrines and Liturgy and in that kind of them and manner as they are here asserted by us are the two grand instruments of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity And that a Liturgy Secundum debitum Rationis and where affairs will permit is in its self to be preferred before either a Directory or Extemporary Services We come then but to two more Questions or Queries secondarily concerning these things and so we shall conclude this Chapter The Sixth XVI The sixth then and first of these Questions or Queries is What are the Rules that are to be proceeded by in the alteration of an Vniformity Lib. 2. Cap. ult §. 1. and of these two grand instruments of it And those are the very same that we said above were to be proceeded by in the first framing of it and the mention of which is here to be recalled viz. That the rights of all be preserved that to God his right be preserved by its crossing none of his Commands but assisting to the performance of them To the Supream Magistrate his Right by its being proportioned to his occasions and the discharge of his trust To the Church Governours also in their way their Rights by its affording to them the like means of the discharge of their function in their several places and capacities To the private Christian his Right by its preserving to him the enjoyment of his Christian Liberty and the use of his Liberty of Conscience and judgment of discerning To the Subject also his Rights by its enjoyning nothing upon him but by Lawful Legislative Authority And last of all to all these their Rights both mixtly and in their several respects by its cutting off occasions of contentions and of corrupt wicked mens abusing and invading these things and persons severally to the disorder and destruction of Humane Societies and the welfare of them And these things are to be heeded by all Princes and Synods of Divines in this matter And these general Rules are to be applyed to all particular Cases And although perhaps many times especially in times of present Factions in Societies there may be discontents arising and fomented and cryes made of scandals and offences given by such Princes proceedings and the like yet they ought not to heed those things so as to cause them at all to depart from these rules of distributive Justice in this affair XVII In the last place then the last Question or Querie The seventh and last is Why so great a latitude in preaching i. e. upon voluntary choice of Texts and Subjects and with mens own immediate invention of the matter on them is to be left open where notwithstanding perhaps other Publick Services are stinted and restrained either by the use of a Form and Liturgy or else by a more immediate and particular Directory And the Answer to this also is That 1. Such Preaching is to be kept open for great and weighty Reasons both special to Christian Churches and Common to others and both concerning Religion and Government and the consistency of each with other As to Religion it is the Ordinance of God And as to the Religious ends of the use and exercise of it it is appointed both for the propagation of Religion abroad and for the more particular occasional instruction of the members of any Church at home As to Government it is appointed to serve the just ends and emergent occasions of it also And so of the consistency of each of these with the other 2. And for
or any others do take a special care that according to the general Rules of the Divine Law mentioned all things be done to the promotion of the welfare both of Religion and Government and the consistency of each with either in this matter And it is convenient that there be one only form of using these things suitable to the other parts of the Ecclesiastical Uniformity throughout the Princes Dominions And it is of great moment that there be also Uniform Vogues or Voices made to pass currantly amongst the people concerning the observance of all of them XX. The second The Second Question or Querie then is concerning the simple use of these Ordinances of God more privately and that in respect to the great matter of the Conventus or Conventiculi the lesser meetings in houses or Conventicles as they are called at this day in England viz. Whether and how far forth such Convenings are Lawful and accordingly to be permitted by the Prince in any Society Answ 1. In the first place there is no doubt but that Prayer and Preaching and the like exercises of Religion which are made use of in those Conventicles are in themselves the Ordinances of God So that that need not to be pleaded for them with so great and popular a cry made amongst the vulgar as it useth to be and hath been in England by the supporters of them 2. But then all the Question is concerning the use of them in such a way whether when so used they are to be look'd upon as lawfully used and as continuing to be the Ordinances of God Truly this case as all others is to be judged from the diversities of circumstances attending it Things in themselves may be good but by the abuse of them made evill Things in themselves may be the Ordinances of God but by the use of them in such or such a way turn'd into the Engines of men to work their designs by It was a case like to this which was disputed against Pope Paul the fifth by the Reputed Father Paul the Venetian The State of Venice See in his Answer to the Bopes Bull. Pag. 12 13 14 15 16 17. c. it seems amongst other things finding the building of Churches Monasteries and the like at mens pleasure within her Territories to be inconvenient and dangerous to the Publick because of the multitudes of strangers who did resort to use and inhabit them and the like and who were contrary in their customes of Life and had ends divers from those of the Common-Wealth Vpon this the State made a Law That none should build any of those Religious places without License P. 17. Ibid. And who will not marvel sayes Father Paul to hear it objected against this Law that to build such Religious Houses it is in it self no wicked Act As though a work of its own nature and in it self good if it be performed without due circumstances were not vicious and did not deserve Chastisement Not from the Matter or Object only Ethic. 2. Cap. 6. sayes Aristotle and after him all the Divines is an action construed but from the integrity of all the circumstances The like prohibitions to this also are to be found in all Laws De operibus publicis L. opus Opus novum privato etiam sine Principis Authoritate facere licet sayes Macer the Civilian in the old Pandects That it was lawful for a private man to erect any new work without the leave of the Prince first obtained But Praeterquam si ad aemulationem alterius Civitatis pertineat vel materiam Seditionis praebeat Only excepting it should perhaps tend to emulation betwixt Cities or afford matter of Sedition Novel 67. in Tit. or the like And in the Novels of Justinian in the Title Vt nullus fabricet Oratorii domos praeter voluntatem Episcopi c. And elsewhere frequently the building of Monastries and Churches Ibid. Constit 5. Cap. 1. alibi and the like is forbidden before License obtained from the Bishop consecrating of the ground by him and such other things to be performed C. De sacro sanct Eccles L. Quoniam in plerisque Decret tertia part distinct 1. Capit. Lib. 5. l. 229. and 230 c. And in the Code the like is the Law of prohibiting any one to make Jesus Christ his Heir without the observance of due circumstances in it And in the body of the Canon Law the Rubrick De Consecratione in the Decretum and the like may be viewed And the like things are to be found in the Laws of Charlemaine and of others And last of all the like to these cases now is the case of prohibiting Conventicles in any Princes Dominions 3. The general Rule then from whence the goodness or evil of the circumstances accompanying them in this case is to be judged of is their tending either to the hurt or benefit of the Publick Charge of the Magistrate If they tend to the hurt of it it makes them unlawful if otherwise the contrary And the circumstances accompanying them may tend so evidently and eminently to the hurt of that charge that it cannot by any means be preserved without the suppression of them Let us but weigh the present case in England Suppose they are kept up in any Society in a time of Parties or Factions stirring in it Suppose those Factions only keep them up Suppose that the very Fame and Repute of those persons who perform the Acts of Praying and Preaching at them do work upon the others who frequent them to be of their Parties as it will most certainly do and prevail mightily with the weaker sort of men although those who are the Orators do not neither so directly or expresly Pray or Preach up their Parties in the mean time Suppose yet further that these Parties separate from the Publick Ordinances or National way of Administration of Religion in any Society Suppose that they have avowedly and openly declared their intents of altering the present Lawful and Established Government either in Church or State and so evidently these meetings tend to the publick contesting of opinions and the utter breach of the Peace both in Church and State and to the overthrow of the present Lawful Established Government in both Suppose that the Publick Magistrate hath had this long experience of them that they have been kept up for nothing else in the bottom or by any of the heads of those Parties and have tended to nothing else Suppose yet again that they are kept up at the time of the administration of the Publick Ordinances in the Church and do withdraw men from the partaking in them Suppose lastly that upon these and the like considerations they are strictly prohibited by Lawful Authority and Laws made by it Certainly these things being weighed no considerate man will concede such meetings to be lawful and the prayer and preaching that is used in them to be used in
Ibid. Etiam postea Amplius ait Concl. Catechism meaning the Council of Trent and the Catechismus ad Parochos locis citatis esse necessarium cognoscere ritus illorum significationem ratione quadam scilicet quia magna erit utilitas Caeremoniarum si earum significatio non ignoretur That the Councel and Catechism in the places cited sayes that it is necessary to know the Holy Rites and their signification in some manner viz. because great will be the profit of the Ceremonies if their signification be not unknown and the like others And the like also the Confessions of the Reformed Churches So the former Helvetian Quae media vocantur sunt proprie Sect. 17. De ritibus Caeremon med In Helvet priore iis uti vir pius quanquam libere ubique semper potest tamen scienter ex charitate nempe ad gloriam Dei ad Ecclesiae proximorumque aedificationem omnibus utetur solum That a Godly man may use those things which are called indifferent and are properly so although in all times and places freely but yet however he must use them intelligently out of charity viz. to the glory of God and the edification of the Church and his neighbours only So also that of Bohemia In Bohemica Ibid. Sed tantum pro ornamento Decore honestaque spccie laudabili Disciplinâ habeantur But let them be accounted only for an ornament Et in Gallicâ for decency and an honest shew and commendable Discipline and order And so the French Confession Et eas tantum admittimus quae fovendae Concordiae unicuique in obedientia debita retinendo subservient And we admit only those which serve to the cherishing of concord and to the retaining of every one in due obedience Et in Anglica Ibid. Etiam And so the English De multitudine otiosarum Caeremoniarum scimus Augustinum graviter suo tempore conquestum esse c. Retinemus tamen colimus non tantum ea quae scimus tradita fuisse ab Apostolis sed etiam alia quaedam quae nobis videbantur sine Ecclesiae incommodo ferri posse c. We know that St. Augustine in his time did grievously complain of the multitude of idle Ceremonies but yet we retain and practise not only those things which we know were delivered by the Apostles but also certain other things which did seem to us that they might be constituted without any dammage to the Church because we desire all things to be done in the Church as Paul sayes decently and in order But all those things which we saw to be either very superstitious or frigid or uncomly or ridiculous or contrary to the Holy Scriptures or else unworthy of sober men of which sorts there are an infinite at this day in the Popedom we have utterly and without any exception rejected because we will not have the worship of God to be defiled any longer with such kind of toys And the like the other confessions And there is no doubt but that an Uniformity in these things will conduce to order nor but that the peoples exercising themselves intelligently in their practise and use of them will put them in mind of the obedience they owe to Discipline and Government Nor but that their stirring up men in a common moral way suitable to their Humane Institution and according to the several intentions of their divers significations will conduce to edification and the like Other things might be said concerning them In the interim Pro. See Dr. Mortons Defence worthy to be read Con. The Reply to it both parts Pro. Dr. Burges his Rejoynder in answer to that Con. Dr. Ames his fresh suit in answer to that Also Altare Damascenum The English Popish Ceremonies said to be Gellespies c. See the Conference at Hampton Court by Dr. Barlow p. 70 71. the controversie concerning these matters in the Church of England hath been largely handled and debated and that by the first undertakers of it in the main their Books are to be seen both Pro Con but whosoever will read them let them weigh things on both sides according to the Laws and Rules of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity here laid down and in a due manner and then he will have afforded the Church her due In the mean time the Church is not worthy of blame for being tender of her Authority in this matter In the conference at Hampton Court when the impeachment of Christian Liberty was urged against the imposition of these things in England King James was much moved and told the Opponent That he would not argue that point with him but answer therein as Kings are wont to speak in Parliament Le Roy S'aviserá Adding withall That it smelled very rankly of Anabaptism c. And therefore charged him never to speak more in that point how far he was bound to obey when the Church had ordained Laws Last of all such Ceremonies or circumstances attending Divine Worship may by some advenient or extrinsical reasons and in some particular cases be made more or less particularly requisite to the support of the welfare of any part of the charge of the Magistrate in any National Church which is the case of the Church of England at present in respect to the continuation of the use of her Established Ceremonies And hath been heretofore both on that and the other part of these things in many other Churches The Second VIII We come to the second Rule then to be observed also in this business concerning the Canon and Liturgy And that is That the Magistrates and Churches Right of asserting their due and Establish'd Church Government be also conceded to them And that whether that Government be either of a later or more ancient date as to the actual erection of it in any National Church And this is a Right ordinarily of necessity belonging to the Supream Magistrate for the support of his Government in the State And by the Church Government in any Society we do not mean here onely the substance of it but also the way and manner in which it is exercised for by it it is that it useth to be more exactly fitted in all Societies to the Government in the State And ftom thence it follows that a change in this matter in the Church ordinarily is not without a change in the State Many instances might be given in which it hath been so And then much more also will a change in the substance of it make a change in the State King James at his first coming into England did often recite that saying No Bishop No King And in the Conference at Hampton Court he vouch'd it from his own experience that he had of the Presbyterial Government in Scotland and that which was endeavoured to be establish'd there See the Conference at Hampton Court p. 4. p. 20. That the Soveraignty of a Prince could not consist
these Rules are to be observed viz. That they do ordinarily express so much as they do intend decisely to say concerning these their enjoyn'd Ceremonies either in the Canon or Liturgy or else in some other Authentick writings of theirs explicatory of them And that where they do not make such impression they do reserve farther explication to themselves upon occasion as the light of Nature dictates to them to do in things so mainly concerning the publick welfare and not to leave them to others Lastly That in the mean time in both these cases mentioned They do leave men to use their due liberty of judgement of discerning and to resolve themselves concerning these and the like matters And that also in a greater Latitude in the last of these two cases viz. for that very reason because they have not defin'd nor particularly declar'd themselves Only men are still to look to it that they do not any ways vent such their judgments and resolutions to the hurt of the Publick Charge The case in the general concerning this use of Ceremonies in any National Church is evidently weighty in it self And it is sometimes made farther weighty by accidental contests And whether the Ceremonies in any Church be either established by written Law or Custome or of what sort soever they be this use is to be made and according to these Rules mentioned and that also either more immediately or mediately of the Canon and Liturgy concerning them VI. We come next to their Fourth Vse The Fourth common to them both also And that is For the like determination of mens minds about the form of Government used in any Church And under what notion and in what sense profession of assent is supposed and required to be made to it also viz. in any Oaths taken concerning it or subscriptions made to it or in any the like kind of testimonials of submission to be given in to it by the members of such a Church And concerning this also the same things are to be heeded and the same Rules are to be observed i. e. proportionably and according to their suitable respects to this matter as were mentioned just now concerning the other And the case concerning this also being in it self weighty and because it is many times contested therefore the third notion under which the Church requires the profession of assent to be made to her establish'd Government useth also to be expressed in some of her publick writings And where it is not the power of interpretation is however reserv'd The fifth and last VII The Fifth and last Vse thus to be made then of the Canon and Lyturgy is yet still common to them both also And as it is of great convenience to the people on their part so it is in like manner of very great moment towards the welfare of the publick charge of the Magistrate And that use to be made of them is For the Interpretation of the Magistrates mind and ends in all publick declarations and subscriptions propounded by him to be made in all Church and State Oaths and the like in like manner propounded by him to be taken within his Territories And as to this men may be sure that whatsoever the immediate matter and intent of such assurances taken of them may be yet still the Magistrates last and general ends in them are the same with those of the Canon and Lyturgy mentioned in his Ecclesiastical Uniformity viz. the welfare of Religion and Government and the consistency of Religion with Government And there is not any other centre for his publick actions aimes and endeavours whatsoever they be to tend to and terminate in in his management of his affairs And then Quoties idem Sermo duas sententias exprimit ea potissimum excipiatur quae rei gerendae aptior est De Reg. Jur. F. Reg. 67. says Julianus the Civilian That so often as the same form of speech expresseth seemingly two meanings that is rather to be understood which is more suitable to the affair it concerns And this use is to be made of the Canon and Liturgy in these matters whatsoever the present circumstances of mens cases may be at any time or in any juncture of humane affairs viz. the welfare of Religion and of the present Lawful Government and the consistency of Religion with it is to be attended to by them The Corolary subjoyn'd to these things VIII Last of all these concessions then of the peoples so making use of the Canon and Liturgy as hath been heretofore mentioned are some of those derivative Latitudes and Liberties belonging to them in order to their performance of obedience to the Laws of Princes and their Ecclesiastical Uniformities CHAP. VII What is the Doctrine of the Church in the Canon and Liturgy I. THe several sorts of Doctrines in the Canon and Liturgy assigned II. The Doctrine of the Church distinguished III. The Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy assigned in the general IV. The more particular distinction of them V. The first sort of them VI. The Second VII The conclusive Rule to be observed concerning the distinguishing of those Doctrines VIII Two conclusive Propositions subjoyned to the main matters of this Chapter IX The first of them X. The second I. WE have defined the Canon to be the Rule or Standard of Doctrines for profession of assent to be made to in any National Church The several sorts of Doctrines in the Canon Liturgy assigned And it hath been asserted That the Liturgy ought to be fram'd according to it We come here to assign what is the Doctrine of the Church in them both Supra Lib. 3. Cap. 1. §. 2. Ibid. §. 6. and in each of them in its several capacity And what are the several sorts of it that profession of assent may be made to it accordingly II. The Doctrine of any National Church then holding an Uniformity is such The doctrine of the Church distinguish'd either originally which is that expressed in the Canon or else by further explication and interpretation And that again is such either pro perpetuo and fixedly which is more principally and primarily that in the Lyturgy or else less principally and secondarily that in the more derivative publick writings or else it is such only pro tempore and upon occasion of emergent controversies And that again is such either as defin'd by the Church and Magistrate immediately or else by their Delegates upon any occasion requiring their resolution of cases And both those again are such either by word or by writing The most of these sorts of the Churches Doctrines we have given hints of here and there already and as we have proceeded in this Discourse But it is evident that that which we expresly enquire after here is the Original Doctrine of the Church primarily and its Doctrine by further explication which is in the Liturgy secondarily And what both these sorts of Doctrines are we shall
absolve presently and in a very few words And the like distinctions of Doctrines which are in the more derivative writings of the Church will be sufficiently imply'd in this our description of those two sorts only here The Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy assign'd in the general III. More generally then The whole Canon is the declared Doctrine of the Church That being the designed Office of it in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity as is said Systematically to comprehend such the professed Doctrines of any Church And so The whole substance of Doctrines also in the Liturgy are the declared Doctrines of any such Church in their way also The more particular distinction of them IV. More particularly the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy may be distinguished into divers sorts either such as concern Religion or Government either in the Church or in the state and that as they are in relation to all these either fundamental or not fundamental And the fundamental either as they are primarily or secondarily so But it is not these Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy as they concern either Religion or Government or both in the consistency of each with other that we are to consider of here But we are to consider of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy as such only and so formally as being set forth by the Church in them And so also in relation to the profession of assent that is to be given to them as such also by the members of any National Church And those Doctrines then are to be distinguished from the phrase and terms and the like in which they are set down and expressed in the Canon and Liturgy For Verba sunt nihil aliud quam notae rerum declarantes animi voluntatisque passiones says Cicero That words are nothing else but notes of things declaring the passions of the mind and will And Plato in his Definitions Dictio vox hominis quae scribi potest Post Med. signum quoddam commune rem declarans That a word is the voice of a man which may be written and a certain common signe Lipsius in Prefat ad Politic. declaring the thing And Vt Phrygiones e varii coloris filo unum aliquod aulaeum formant sic scriptores e mille aliquot particulis cohaerens opus As Broiderers do form some one piece of Tapestry out of a thread of divers colours so Writers do form also one cohering work out of some thousand particles and small portions of things And the distinctions then of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy as set forth by Authority Are The first sort of them V. In the first place The Doctrines expressed in plain and particular terms are the Doctrines of the Church in the particular and literal sense of those terms VI. And so in like manner The Second The Doctrines expressed in dubious and general terms are the Doctrines of the Church also in the dubious and general sense of those terms Neither is it to be wondered at that it is asserted here that they are so since it is supposed that both the Canon and Liturgy are regulated by the original Divine Canon of Scripture as was above mentioned that they ought to be and that God hath then revealed those Doctrines no further Lib. 3. Cap. 5. §. 4. Vid. nor in no other terms in Scripture VII And last of all Vnder whatsoever distinctions or sorts of phrases or terms or the like The conclusive Rule to be ob erv'd concerning the distinguishing of those Doctrines the doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy are set down under the very same still are they the Doctrines of the Church and they are so to be taken to be declared to be Just as the Scripture it self delivers the declared will of God sometimes in general sometimes in particular sometimes in literal sometimes in figurative terms and expressions and yet still all is the declared will of God in Scripture according to those several capacities of it Sic loquitur Scriptura sayes St. Augustine ut altitudine superbos irrideat profunditate attentos terreat virtute magnos pascat Lib. 2. in Gen. C. 19. affabilitate parvulos nutriat That the Scripture so speaks that it may contemn the proud by its sublimity affright the attentive by its profundity feed the strong by its vertue nourish the weak by its affability And again Ad dignitatem Scripturae pertinet De vera Relig. ut sub una litera multos sensus contineat ut sic diversis intellectibus hominum conveniens unusquisque miretur se in Divina Scriptura posse in venire veritatem quam mente conceperit ac facilius per hoc contra infideles defenditur dum si aliquid quod quisque ex Sacra Scriptura velit intelligere falsum apparuerit ad alium sensum recursum possit habere That It belongs to the dignity of Scripture that under one and the same form of words it should contain many senses that so it being agreeable to the divers understandings of men every one may wonder that he can find that truth in the Divine Scripture which he shall conceive in his mind And by this also it is defended the more easily against infidels whiles that if any thing appear false which every one would understand out of the Holy Scripture there may be recourse had to another sense VIII We come then to put a period to this matter by subjoyning two conclusive propositions to the two main sorts of things beforementioned in this Chapter Two conclusive propositions subjoyned to the main matters of this Chapter The first of them And those are the more general distinctions of the Doctrines of the Church and the more particular distinctions of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy IX The first of these in relation to the first of these sorts of things then is That those distinctions of the doctrines of the Church here above delivered are accordingly to be made for the salving the several sorts and degrees of Powers and Authorities which are ordinarily found in all Churches in this matter and the determination of it The Second X. The second is in like manner in relation to the more particular distinctions of the Doctrines of the Canon and Liturgy And that is also That according to the several sorts and distinctions of them so is the profession of assent to be made by the members of any National Church pro cujuslibet captu ratione intellectus According to every ones capacity and manner of understanding to be adapted to them also And this is that which is intended by the Church in their so setting down of those Doctrines as hath been mentioned and this is all that is intended or required by them just as mens devotions in the case of the Liturgy as such and in their publick use of it is to be adapted to the several sorts of the parts of the Offices of it CHAP.
pleaseth 2. And so to Doctrines and Forms of Worship seeming to him only probable only under the notion of such probable The Scripture Rule of acting from Faith still being proceeded by and the most probable of things either to be believed or done being fixed upon 3. And Lastly The sum of all in this matter is That all particular latitudes are conceded to a man in relation to these things which are not destructively contradictory to the third notions of the Canon and Liturgy their being true and lawful and so to the Magistrates Ecclesiastical Vniformity and so to his publick charge preserv'd by it in the latter end For as the Magistrate is not supposed to intend the denyal of that degree of liberty in this matter to any man which is onely just and of no evil consequence So also he must never be supposed at all to allow of that which shall be destructive to him and his publick affairs Neque enim quis sciens prudens vellet sui perditionem aut simul contradictora Neither doth any man being in his right wits and understanding what he doth will his own destruction or contradictories together and at the same time And these things and that they should be thus allowed to the people are their derivative natural rights in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity and that as flowing from their primitive right of the use of their judgment of discerning And they are also some of their derivative Latitudes or Liberties relating to their performance of obedience to the Ecclesiastical Laws of Princes An appendant question resolved VI. In the last place then the appendant Question or Querie that is here to be resolved concerning the negative part of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity and a man 's not divulging his Opinion and that particularly in the case of his down-right dissenting from any Doctrine in the Canon or form of worship in the Liturgy viz. How far forth a man should tollerate any such Doctrine Lib. 3. Cap. 4. §. 14. or Form of Worship in a National Church rather then as much as in him lies to oppose it by divulging the contrary and suffering in Testimony against it is of kin to the Question above mentioned of contending for the Faith but is the negative opposite to that positive and will be determined from the several following conclusive propositions And those are 1. That this Doctrine of Tolleration by private men takes no place in the positive part of an Uniformity i. e. in those things which a man either useth as to his practise or makes profession of assent to as to his belief And the reason is because such tolleration of such things includes a contradiction to the use and profession mentioned and so renders both of them sinful But a sinful either profession or use of things and that which is false and contrary to Faith is not that kind of either which is laid down as a medium for a charitative communion in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity 2. The use of things and forms of Worship as to the Liturgy is here supposed to be more general because the Liturgy being stated the use of it or one way or another the partaking in the use of it is supposed accordingly to be equally common to all But then profession of assent more specially in respect to the Canon of Doctrines is to be distinguished And it is either definite or indefinite i. e. in respect to the object matter of it or the Doctrines which profession is to be made to The indefinite is when it is not necessarily and definitely limited or determined either by any Act of a mans own or act or intent of the Magistrate to a certain number of things and the definite is the contrary And the one ordidarily takes place in the special sort of professors and such as are more strictly tyed up either by Oaths subscriptions or the like in any National Church And the other in the community and contrary sort of persons But it is the latter of these viz. the generality and common sort of Church-members who are here more principally and ordinarily concerned 3. The Doctrine of Tolleration by private men in any such case as this is in the general is expresly asserted and approved of by the Divine Law of Christ In that Text of St. Paul Rom. 14.22 Hast thou Faith Have it to thy self before God i. e. dost thou believe such or such a thing either to be true or not true lawful or not lawful Enjoy thine own belief for the satisfaction of thine own conscience And that is as far as thou art generally and without a more special Call and particular charitative obligation concern'd 4. The more particular qualification of this Doctrine and how far forth such a Tolleration in this particular case ought to be practised is stated by the dictate of the Law Natural And that from the General Rule for the determination of all such cases in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity and which hath been all along hitherto mention'd And that is So far forth as it may make to the publick welfare of the charge of the Magistrate which alwayes includes in it the sum of the two Tables of Moses so frequently mentioned by the Casuistical Divines and as being parallel to this in the stating their case in a notion separate from an Ecclesiastical Uniformity viz. the glory of God and the good of our Neighbour in any Society 5. The conclusion of all then from these prefatory positions is That from the measuring this case in relation to particular things or Doctrines in an Uniformity men are to consider the value and worth of such Doctrines in Religion The Service they may otherwise do to God in their Calling if they do not incur the penalties of an Uniformity by their divulging their Opinions against the present Ecclesiastical Lawes the high valuation that is to be had by every one of the welfare of the Magistrates Charge and of Charity and Peace in the Church and State in order to it and the like And if these things be but considered it is not ordinarily to be supposed that there are things of such weight and so unwarily proposed in any Canon of Doctrines in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity as first to deserve a mans totall dissent from them and after his violating the Common Peace and Profession and stirring up Contentions by reason of any real and so gross erroneousness that is in them And these things do also in a more eminent notion concern the case of Revolting in any Church and as that also hath its special reference to a presupposed definite profession Last of all then as to those many times found in all Churches who unwarily presume that they may vent their dissentings in both these sorts of cases mentioned when and how they please And that God and Conscience and the Lawes in any Society are sufficiently satisfied if they do but subject themselves in the mean time to the penalties annexed to an
comes to the Magistrates Charge every way by revoltings And because that therefore those testimonials are intended as cautions and obligations de futuro the welfare of the Church and State for the future being intended as well as that at any time for the present And such future welfare of them depending also upon the future deportment of the Conformists in relation to the Uniformity as well as the present upon that for the present And if any of those conformable practises which we last mentioned make to the welfare of the Uniformity then much more that profession upon which they are grounded And then if the continuance of such practises be required much more of such profession Lastly to the not divulging mens Opinions to the publick hurt XVI In the fourth and last place the giving in the testimonials both sorts of them doth oblige also to the not divulging of mens Opinions to the hurt of the Publick Charge And that either of their different notions about any of the matters of the Uniformity or else of any of their Notions in case of absolute dissent from any of the matters of it And as to the last of these things men are to take great care for the reasons up and down in this Discourse severally mentioned that they do not either lightly dissent or else publish their dissentings CHAP. XIII Of mens Liberty of opining and exercising their judgement of discerning concerning the matters of the Canon and Liturgy and how far it extends And some cautions concerning such the exercise and spending of it I. THe liberty of opining apply'd to the matters of the Canon and Liturgy II. The matters of the Canon and Liturgy distinguished III. The due extent of mens liberty of opining in relation to them stated IV. Lastly some cautions concerning such their opining laid down V. First of all Negatively VI. Secondly Positively The liberty of opining applyed to the Canon and Liturgy Lib 2. Cap. 3. §. 3 4. alibi I. THe liberty of mens exercise of their judgment of discerning being more generally and in its due latitudes asserted above we come here to apply it more particularly to the matters of the Canon and Liturgy And that the Church and the Magistrate do concede it in those due latitudes in respect to them it is evident from hence because they do not in their proposing of them intend to violate either the Divine or Natural Law by their unjustly infringing of it The matters of the Canon and Liturgy distinguished II. The Doctrines then of the Canon are either stated or occasional And so are the Formes of Worship in the Liturgy or any additionals made to it either temporary or perpetual And both these in any National Church of any kind of Religion whatsoever considered either in the special or individual notion of it And the Doctrines and Forms of Worship stated and ordinary in any of these Cases are ordinarily more plain and necessary as hath been all along supposed The due extent of mens liberty of opining in relation to them stated Vid. Lib. 2. Cap. 3. §. 4. although perhaps the occasional may be the contrary III. The Querie then concerning the due extent of mens opining concerning the matters of the Canon and Liturgy in particular is here and from hence to be resolved after the same manner that it was above in the general and concerning other things And that is that to persons intelligent and who are sufficient both in respect to prudence as well as perspicacity to judge of such things God and Nature have allowed the liberty of the ordinary exercise of their judgment of discerning universally and according to the latitude of its adequate object and in relation to all the sorts either of Doctrines or Forms of worship mentioned in any National Church And that for many reasons relating both to the good of Religion and Government and the consistency of Religion with Government But to the vulgar and persons insufficient actually and ordinarily not so And the reasons for this are evident viz. because that as the ordinary medling of such persons with matters purely speculative and opinionative as those terms are taken in their more ignoble sense is as to them impertinent so also is their actual medling with such matters of Religion less fundamental and doubtfully revealed generally and ordinarily of very ill consequence in many respects both to themselves and the publick charge of the Magistrate For it takes them off from looking after the fundamentals of Religion which must bring them to Heaven It influences their brains to an excess as mad-mens are with the too great nicity of notions It makes them a fit prepar'd matter for any Heresiark to work upon and lead away and the like both to the ruine of all substantial practise and sound Religion and of all Humane Society And for these and the like Reasons it is that the state of this case here laid down as it is asserted and countenanced by the Scriptures so also it hath been generally practised by the Governours in all Societies The Christian Scripture sayes Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the Faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations And concerning both St. Pauls Epistles and the other Scriptures That there are in them some things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3.16 which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction And the Laws of Countries have proceeded in the like manner So his present Majesty of England in his late Letter to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury appointed him to see See the Kings Letter that the Ministers did preach in their Pulpits the most Christian Doctrines of Repentance and Faith and of Humility and Charity and Good works and the like omitting unnecessary Controversies according to the Scripture Doctrine 2 Tim. 2.23 See Chap. 31. Of Ecclesiastical exercises in the Congregation See p. 3. So also the very Corpus Disciplinae appoints the after-noons Sermons to be for the Exposition of the Catechisme in a plain and familiar stile And the Laws of Geneva prohibit any strange manner of handling the Scriptures in publick which may turn to offence Curiosity to search vain Questions and the like And the state of this question laid down after this manner by us is suitable to the distinction of definite and indefinite profession already mentioned And the Divines do give their several Reasons why notwithstanding things difficult as well as plain and things speculative and remote from the foundation as well as things practical and more necessary are laid down in the Scriptures Lastly some cautions concerning such their opining laid down IV. In the next place then we come to lay down some cautions concerning mens opining in relation either to the matters of the Canon and Liturgy or others And that first negatively and secondly positively First of all Negatively V. First of all
others both Pro and Con concerning the matters mentioned are tolerated And in some both of those Churches and the other of the Roman communion there is a mixture of professions both tollerated and countenanced in their several degrees As in France Holland Poland and the like Countries at this day And every State Acts in this matter according to its present occasions III. But I intend not here only to give particular instances of these things The restraints and Liberties common to all Churches here to be laid down The position or removal of either of them will evidence the other The ways of mens divulging their opinions distinguished and referr'd to the restraints and liberties mentioned The Querie concerning the permission of mixtures of profession obviated but to lay down the restraints and liberties which are common and ordinary and ought to be so generally to all Churches IV. And because the matters of restraint and liberty are privately opposite therefore by the position or removal of either of them in relation to the members of Churches the other will be discern'd V. The ways of mens divulging their Opinions then are either more or less solemn The less solemn ways are by private Discourses Conferences and the like The more solemn by publick Preaching Printing and the like And concerning both these the restraints and liberties mention'd are to be assign'd VI. But first of all the Querie is here to be obviated Why outward profession taken in an abstracted sense in respect to either of these or the like particular ways of venting of Opinions mentioned since it is in it self one of the more solemn ways of such venting of them is in many Societies tollerated where perhaps either of the particular ways of either sort of them mentioned is not Answ The Answer will be from the consideration of the different effects of these several particular ways of divulging of Opinions upon the charge of the Magistrate and the state of humane affairs And that is that because that the ways of venting of Opinions by words either spoken or written are naturally apt and fit as to give men more particular informations so also to excite in them both more particular and also more vehement passions concerning things then general and abstracted profession is and so consequently where different matters of Religion are are more apt by far to hurle them into Religious contests so many ways dangerous to the publick Therefore it is that the way of contradictory divulging of Opinions by the mixture of professions is tollerated and that with safety to Societies as experience shews though not so compleat as it otherwise might be where notwithstanding the other wayes of so divulging them by words at least to the same degrees of solemnity are denyed to men For by particularities and vehemencies both in matters of Religion and others are the most irregular and dangerous passions stirred up amongst men Lib 2. Cap. 9. §. 8. ad fin And to this topick is the use of those extreams heretofore mention'd in the Roman Church viz. of prohibiting Books in the vulgar tongue of establishing the doctrines of the use of Images general devotion implicit faith and the like to be referred if any man will seek after a reason of them The more particular restraints and liberties laid down First as to the matter of mens opinions VII These things then being thus said we come next to the assignation of the more particular restraints and liberties mentioned And those are VIII First of all as to the matter of mens Opinions And so first in respect to the Canon and Liturgy some things perhaps are not defined neither by the Canon nor Liturgy nor otherwise And so are neither doctrines nor prescript forms of worship of the National Church And in such things there is in all Churches ordinarily a greater liberty of divulging mens Opinions supposed to be conceded to them so in the Church of Rome as to their learned mens actual debating points not defined and the like in other Churches proportionably and according to their several particular constitutions The general Rule still being heeded of the publick charge of the Magistrate it s not being damnified neither by the breach of the peace nor otherwise 2. Some Opinions perhaps are dissentings from the Canon proper to the case of indefinite profession and men are to be very wary of divulging them to the hurt of publick authority by which the whole Society is preserved 3. And lastly Some Opinions also are differences about the Canon proper to the case of definite profession And there is usually supposed to be a lesser degree of restraint held over the divulging of them Secondly the matter of mens Opinions is considerable also in respect to Religion And so 1. Some things are controversal and dubious and the like and so fit to be debated only ordinarily in Academies and places of Learning amongst Schollers and persons intelligent And it were no matter if such controversies were to a degree fitting permitted in Churches if it were but to keep wits in ure and imployment and to provide Champions for those Churches upon occasion Apud Flor. Lib. 2. Cap. 15. As Nasica gave Councel concerning Carthage That it was not to be raced That the Roman People might always have an Enemy to contend with But the great caution in this matter is that the people are not to be called down into these Sands in the mean time The common Adage were better for their Letany A medicorum Recipe A Juris Consultorum excipe A Theologorum distingue Libera nos Domine That they should pray to be delivered From the Receipts of Physicians The Cases of Lawyers And the distinctions of Divines Secondly some things are practical and such as concern good life and Godliness And Scripture and Reason and Prudence will allow a greater liberty about them Mens divers notions concerning them may tend to edification ordinarily and not to destruction IX In the second place we come to the liberties Secondly as to the manner of divulging them in respect to the manner of mens divulging their Opinions And so also 1. It should be with humility and submission and not on the contrary with pride and confidence and singularity and the like at least before the people 2. There is a less degree of liberty conceded to intemperate zeal and undue vehemence of assertion and the like Not that it is at all the intent of the Uniformity to extinguish the Noble and Generous heats of such zeal as is truly Christian but only to regulate it when it is unduly exerted Where is mens zeal for practical Godliness for the evident duties of the second Table The thoughts of these things do use to be buried many times as deep as the centre under the dusts of unprofitable and perhaps malignant Opinions which use to be raised when men have a mind to innovate in Societies and to gain the trophies of honour and
temporal emoluments out of the hands of others 3. Passionate expressions and sharp reflections on others should be laid aside also The Apostles themselves were fain to observe such rules as these for the preservation even of their first Christian Churches Phil. 3.15 If in any thing says St. Paul ye are otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you And reflections and passions when once grown popular and common are like the risings of the waves at Sea before a tempest and do argue commotions and storms to be approaching in Societies X. In the third and last place Thirdly as to persons divulging of them also the quality of the persons divulging Opinions is also to be heeded And so 1. Young men are supposed to be advised to a greater silence And men of mean and weak parts And for these principally is the use of Homilies appointed ordinarily in Churches 3. It is but reason that persons suspected or observ'd to be seditious disloyal and the like should be more narrowly watch'd over and more nearly restrained if there be occasion And then XI Fourthly and lastly all these sorts of persons and things Fourthly and lastly as to the time of divulging them and the like to them are then most of all to be heeded when the present temper of the people is seditious and any ways inflamed either by some encreasing or decreasing Sect or Sects in Churches Only in some cases the heats of them are rather to be permitted to coole by degrees then that at once there should be endeavours used to extinguish them XII In the last place then the Magistrate Last of all the Magistrate hath the Supream Right and Power in all these things who hath the Supream and ultimate power of laying a restraint upon the divulging of mens opinions in the general hath also the same power of doing the same thing as to all these particular ways and cases relating to the divulging of them which have been mentioned Especially as to the more ordinary solemn ways of divulging of opinions 1. By preaching Lib. 3. Cap. 1. §. 17. and 2. By Printing 1. By Preaching as was mentioned above So it is both amongst Turks and Christians and all kinds of professions See p. 4. c. And the Laws of Geneva prohibit the setting forth of strange Doctrine in the Church and the like as was mention'd And in Holland at this day he that medleth with State matters in the Pulpit after two admonitions hath two Stivers and a pair of Shooes sent him if he do it the third time and is forthwith banish'd the Country De Origine Imper Turk Cap. De Sacerdotibus eor 2. By Printing And the use of the Magistrates Right of laying his restraint upon this too is in like manner common to all Countries and Professions and to some in the extream so says Georgieviz a-amongst the Turks Apud illos sane nullos vidi Typographos c. Amongst them truly I saw no Printers De Gradibus Episcopor in Graecia c. And Chytraeus of the Constantinopolitan Greeks Typographiam nunquam habuisse creduntur That they are believed never to have had Printing amongst them And of the Jews there Ibid. Habent enim Judaei Prelum sed ut plurimum cessans That the Jewes have a Press indeed but for the most part not going And De Ruffor Rel. c. Davidi Chytraev Paulus Oderbornius of the Tartars Si Alcoranum vel alium quemvis librum Typis Editum hic videre licuisset eum certe vel magno pretio comparatum ad te misissem If I had here seen the Alcoran or other Book set forth in Print although I had given a great price for it truly I had sent to you And if we look nearer amongst the European Christians Capit. Lib. 1. Lege 78. Pseudographae dubiae Narrationes c. ne credantur nec legantur Let not libellous and offensive Papers either be believed Hist of Russia Chap. 21. or read say the Lawes of Charlemain And of the Russians Fletcher Some years past in the other Emperours time there came a a Press and Letters out of Polonia to the City of Mosko where a Printing house was set up with great liking and allowance of the Emperour himself But not long after the house was set on fire in the night time c. And in the Roman Church it is part of the Office of the Inquisition to regulate Books and Printing And in the Acts of the late Synod of Dort the regulating of Printing was one of the first things which the Synod took into consideration Putamus rem esse omnino necessariam saluberimam ut Licentia Typographorum reprimatur c. We think it to be a thing altogether necessary and most wholsome that the License of Printers be restrained say the English Divines Vid. Acta Synod Sessione 22. Chap. Of the Ministers Hist Inquisit Chap. 29. and so the others And the Discipline of the Dutch Churches If a Minister have the gift of writing any thing for publick Edification he shall not put it in Print without the examen and approbation of the Classis And last of all the matter of Books saith Father Paul in the case of Venice seems to be a small thing because it treats of words But through these words come opinions saith he into the world which cause partialities seditions and finally wars They are words it is true but such as in consequence draw after them Hosts of armed men CHAP. XV. Of the Supervisors in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity I. THe Reasons for the Supervisorship in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity II. The several sorts of the Supervisors distinguish'd III. The Supreme Supervisor assign'd And the Reasons for his being so IV. From whence he derives his Right V. The Deputative Supervisors further distinguish'd VI. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or office of a Bishop in the Christian Church VII The matters to be Supervis'd by these Supervisors VIII The care to be taken in the Supervising of them IX The Ecclesiastical Tribunals for the exercise of that care X. And the stated Circuits for Visitation XI The last Appeals ought alwayes to be made to the Cheif Magistrate I. THe matters of an Ecclesiastical Uniformity then being of so great weight as hath been all along hitherto declared The Reasons for the Supervisorship in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity and the corruptions and weaknesses of men being so apt to intermingle with them and to busie themselves about them it is but reason that a superiorship should be Constituted in relation to them and which is necessary to the Application of the more particular powers and to any due care to be taken about them Non tantum decenter leges ferre summo bono est sed etiam sancita accurate custodire ad effectum deducere C. In Constitutionibus Imperator Tiber. De Provinc Praesid Constitut 3. The several sorts of the Supervisors
distinguished sayes the Emperour Tiberius in the Civil Law That it is not onely for the Soveraine good of Societies that Lawes be well made but also that they be well kept and looked after and brought to effect II. The Supervisors then in an Ecclesiastical Uniformity are of divers sorts and degrees in relation to the affairs of it They are such either as Supream or Subordinate and by Deputation And those by Deputation again are such diversly and according to the several Modes of Ecclesiastical Polity in several Societies and the occasions of them The Supream Supervisor assign'd and the reasons for his being so III. The supreme Supervisor in every Ecclesiastical Uniformity is the Chief Magistrate or Soveraigne Prince And the Reasons for his being so are both because he hath the supream and universal charge of all and the management of the affairs of it committed to him by God as hath been heretofore evidenc'd and also because he is suppos'd then by consequence and from his actual Management of those affairs Supra Lib. 1. Cap. 5. lib. 2. cap. 6. §. 21. to have the best knowledge of all occasions both of Church and State and which concern his Supream Publick charge mentioned From whence he derives his Right IV. And he hath the Right to this his Supream Superiorship partly by vertue of his Supreme power over all and partly by vertue of his indirect power in Spirituals and by vertue of either from the immediate donation of God And this supream Supervisorship is one of the Magistrates more particular Rights above mentioned And he hath alwayes held it generally in all Ages and Societies The Aegyptian Hieroglyphick for Government was an Eye in a Scepter and the chief Magistrate is like a watchman upon a Tower who is to look down and view the general state of his people The Deputative Supervisors further distinguish'd V. The Deputative Supervisors then are those also who derive their Right of such their Supervisorship either from the Supream Supervisor mentioned or else from Christ And they also are either Supream or Subordinate and these again either more or less Subordinate either pro tempore or pro perpetuo And all of them are the Church Governours or Ecclesiasticks ordinarily although sometimes others also in any Societie either Christian or other and in their several degrees and Spheres of Order and Government and according to the several Modes of Ecclesiastical Polity in several Societies and the Occasions of them and who so far forth as they are invested by the Supream Magistrate derive their Right either mediatly or immediatly from him and so far forth as by Christ in like manner also from him And this Ecclesiastical matter of Supervisorship so far forth as it is Ecclesiastical and relates directly to Religion is alwayes ordinarily and most properly thus to be committed by the Supream Magistrate and so far forth as belongs to him to Ecclesiasticks or Churchmen because it belongs to them in the nature of the affair and in relation to their being such a peculiar sort of members of their distinct Church-Society as was above mentioned more in the general Lib. 2. cap. 6. §. 4. 10. alibi And these supervisors also have been accordingly alwayes divers in the divers sorts of Churches and Societies that have been in the World So in the state of the Jewes and in the Ancient Heathen Church-Societies both amongst the Greeks and Romans and others as hath been also partly mention'd under another notion above Lib. 2. cap. 6. §. 4. And in the Christian Church whether more Primitive or Papal the Records concerning these things are to be seen in the Code and Novels of Justinian in the Body of the Canon Law up and down in the Canons of Councels and the like In the Code and Novels there are mentioned Vid. C. Iâ—e Epis cap. Clâ—r L 6. p r Tit. alibi Novel Vid. Câ—â—stit 5 6. 28. 59. 67 123. alibi Vid. Sâ—xti lib. 1. Tit. 6. prope fin Et ibid. Tit. 15. Et lib. 5. De Haereticis Et Clementin lib. 5. Tit. De Haereticis Et alibi The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Office of a Bishop in the Christian Church as was partly abovesaid the Patriarchae Metropolitani Archi-Episcopi Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi Sub-Diaconi Exorcista Lectores Ostiarii and Artolythi The Patriarchs Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Deacons Sub-Deacons Exorcists nay even the Ostiarii or Door-keepers the Arolytes or more inferior orders of Servitors in Church affairs and the like others of divers sorts and degrees as may be seen And so also in the same Law there are to be seen the Papal Offices of Legate a latere of Inquisitions and the like describ'd and recorded and the like might be said also concerning other Monuments and Churches either more Ancient or Modern and as they have subsisted in their several times or manners in the World VI. As to the Christian Church then in particular and the offices constituted by Divine Authority in it we have here lighted upon the office of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop or Overseer Ecclesiastical of the affairs of it and who is so termed up and down in the new Testament by way of Emphasis and Eminency and in a way proper to himself and distinctly from others And he is the Supream Supervisor in every Ecclesiastical Vniformity who is purely Ecclesiastical and who by vertue of the Institution of Christ and according to his being indued with suitable Direct power in spirituals from him is bound ex officio to look after the affairs of the distinct Societie of the Christian Church in the General besides what more particular powers he may at any time and in any more particular Mode of National society derive from the supream Magistrate principally for the sake of the Consistency of Religion with Government In the interim this office he is ordinarily to spend his time in and to look after and to mannage it with great care and prudence and that because without a due oversight of affairs the particular Church Powers cannot be rightly applied and brought to effect as was said and without the Application of them aright Hic Supra §. 1. there can be no well-being for the Church-Societie So then the due discharge of this great office of trust is fundamental to the well-being of the Christian Church besides also what respect it may have to the welfare of Civil Government and all Humane Society in any state or Common-weale There are some who mix this supream Ordinary Ecclesiastical Supervisorship and who by constituting the persons called Lay-Elders to be Jure Divino do divide and share the Ecclesiastical Supervisorship betwixt Laicks and Ecclesiasticks So the Church of Geneva See the Lawes and Statutes pag. 1. pag. 10 11. both expresly and in effect both by their constituting their Elders or Commissioners for the Seniory to be one
being invaded 119 Charity distinguished 94. The benefits of it to Societies 94 95 96 c. And to the publick charge of the Magistrate Ib. To Religion 95 To Government 96. and to the consistency of Religion with Government 97. and how much it is commanded in Scripture 97 98. Charity and Peace in matters of Religion the means for the procuring the benefits of them in Societies assigned 160 Chief Priest amongst the Jews his sitting in the great Synedrion 128 129 Mr. Chillingworth his saying concerning the uncertainty of many matters in Religion 151 Mr. Chillingworth taxed 285 His saying concerning the appointment of an Infallible Judge of controversies 307 Christian Religion its positive and eminent consistency with Government 70 It is never subversive of the present lawful Government 70 71 Christian Church the Records of it defective 197. The Christian Church and civil state are in themselves distinct Societies 122 And God hath appointed them to be in a capacity of subsisting apart in the World 123 The Christian Church the distinct Ecclesiastical Orders in it 125 Church-men may intermix in the administration of Civil Affairs 126 127 128 c. Church-Government The Magistrates Right of establishing it in every National Church 240 c. The case concerning it in England 240 241 Circuits for visitation in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 301 Civillians Their complaints concerning the extinction of the Old Roman Doctors In Proleg post med Common Good The great end of all Laws and Government amongst men 58 59 Common People the one sort of persons ordinarily guilty of the faults committed against the publick charge of the Magistrate 111 Their particular faults instanc'd in Ib. In respect to Religion 111 112. And Government 114 and the consistency of Religion with Government 116 The frequency of their commission of those faults Ibid. Common-Weals the two famous ones of Greece In Proleg post med Communions in matters of Religion how far forth a mixture of them may consist with the welfare of Societies 164 Communication of Church Censures for money how far forth lawful 269 Composition of a Canon and Liturgy the rules to be observ'd in it 231 232 233 234 335 c. Consent given to Government the distinctions of it 36 37 Consistency of Religion and Government with each other intended by God and Nature 2. The consistency of Religion with Government defined 6 And distinguished 6 7 And the distinctions of it explicated and applyed 68 and that consistency proved 68 69 c. Constantinople its sacking and conflagration by the Saracens 31 Constantine his saying concerning the subordination of his Bishops to him 145 The appearance of Christ to him from Heaven 310 Contests about Religion distinguish'd 89 Contestation of Opinions in matters of Religion the means for the preventing the mischiefs of it in Societies assign'd 160 The effects of it 150 154 c. And that in respect to the particulars of the Magistrates charge 156 c. Conventicles or more private convenings for the exercise of Religion how far forth to be permitted by Princes stated 219 220 221 222 c. The present case concerning them in England 220 221. Council of Trent the preservation of the several powers of Princes in it 144 Councels the Celebration of them twice every year heretofore in the Christian Church and why 127 Creed of the Apostles was framed for a profession of assent to be made to it 197 Cromwel his pretences of Religion in England 115 D Delusions of the Heathens how permitted and inflicted by God 21 Dionysius Halicarnasseus his Story concerning Numa his suppressing of controversies and opinions in matters of Religion 177 Directory whether it be not sufficient for the preservation of the publick peace in any National Church 203 Discipline an Vniformity in it convenient in Churches 168 169 Divinity three sorts of it amongst the Heathen 14 Divulging of Opinions how far forth a duty in private persons 274 275 276 vid. venting of Opinion The more particular restraints and liberties and the rights of the Magistrate relating to it 292 c. The wayes of mens divulging their opinions distinguied 294 The Doctors upon both Laws In Prolegom prope fin Doctrines of Religion a distinction of them 91 Certaine doctrines in the Christian Religion made use of by the Demagogues Heresiarchs and Ring-leaders of sedition in Societies for their serving their several ends 118 Doctrines in religion distinguished 164 The several sorts of the Doctrines of Canons and Liturgies assigned 249 250 c. The Doctrines of any National Church distinguished Ibid. Druids amongst the Gaules the reason of their dispersing their doctrine of the immortality of the soul amongst the people 85 Their being distinct in their Orders of Ecclesiasticks 104 Their being both Priests and Judges heretofore amongst the Gauls and Brittains 130 E Earle of Portugal the Story concerning one lately in relation to an Inquisitor 272 Ecclesiastical person the Querie why he should not have the Supremacy resolved 145 Elector of Saxony his Acts of bearing the Sword before the Emperour c. in the Diet of Ausburg condemned 280 Empire the wayes by which men have arriv'd at it 34 The Ends of a Canon of doctrines and Liturgy in any National Church distinguished 211 The general Ends of them assign'd Ibid. An Objection against them answered Ibid. The more particular Ends of them 214 215 216 217 c. EnglishVniformity the History of it 199 200 English Canon of Doctrines the History of it 201 202 English Liturgy the History of it 202 Enthusiasme condemned 290 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Office of a Bishop in the Christian Church 299 300 Erastus concerning the authoritative Execution of Church censures by Laicks answered 134 Estates of men the first and Capital distinction of them 36 Euripides and Lycurgus compared 12 Euripides his saying concerning Jupiter In Prolegom in princip Eusebius and the other Histories of the Christian Church the notable instances of Regiment of Churches in them In Prolegom in fin Excommunication a caution concerning the inflicting of it 267 The complaint concerning its being inflicted for light matters in the Vniformities of Churches answered and for its being inflicted at first dash also 269 270 The Extreams in respect to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity distinguished 177 Those of too much loosness assign'd 177 178 And that also of too much strictness 178 F The Fathers of the Christian Church their derivation of the Magistrates Power from God 54 55 Faultinesses those in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity assigned 178 179 180 c. Fire of Sodom its natural causes 30 Five-Churches his actions in the Council of Trent 144 Flood of Noah the fame and dispersed report of it 30 Freedome the principle of natural Freedom refuted 39 40 41 42 c. Fragments those of the twelve Tables amongst the Romans now remaining In Prolegom post med G Georgians Their Liturgy 198 Georgievez His Turkish slavery sustained by him Gifts The use of spiritual gifts is under the
Magigrates Jurisdiction 204 The scriptural end of such use of them Ibid. The particular gifts concern'd in the performance of the Publick Divine Service in a Church Ibid. The immediate effects of the use of them Ibid. Golden Age of the Poets whence the Fiction of it 32 Government defined 5 and distinguished 5 6 the ways by which men have arrived at it 34. the power of Government at first lodged in the several heads of Families 34 35 the first and capital distinction of Government 36 Government the Ordinance of God 37 the Ecclesiastical Government Gods Ordinance 38 the two constitutive causes of the power of Government which are assigned in the Controversie concerning it 39 the state of the Case concerning the derivation of it from the people 39 the effects of it being derived from the people c. 45 46 47 c. the proof of the power of Government its being from God 51 52 53 54 55 56 c. Not to be proved to be so from the nature of that power 51 52 the distinctions of Government applyed to its consistency with Religion 66 67 Government the Bond of all Humane Societies In Prolegom in princip Governours the difference of Order and Power in them necessary to all Governments of the greater Societies 123 Greece from whence its first Governments were fetcht In Proleg in princip The Greeks called the rest of the World who spake not their language Barbarians In Prolegom post med their distinct orders of Ecclesiasticks 124 Greek Church its Liturgy 198 Its use of an unknown tongue in the Publick Divine Services 180 Grotius taxed 41 127 133 138 His saying concerning the doctrines of the Christian Religion 70 c. Gymnosophistae amongst the Indians their distinction of their Orders of Ecclesiasticks 104 105 H Hampton Court the conference at it betwixt King James of England and the dissentors from the EnglishVniformity 201 Hebrews their observation concerning the distinction of the Offices of Moses and Aaron 124 Heresie to be punished any where 87 and as a mixt fault both against the Church and State Ibid. Heresiarks the persons ordinarily guilty of the faults of malice against the publick charge of the Magistrate in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 117 Herodotus his saying concerning the divided Government and different Opinions of the Thracians 155 Hesiod his Admonition to Kings 58 59 Humane Affairs the first and capital division of them 1 Histories of the Greeks and Romans the notable examples of prudence in Governours in them In Proleg in fin Holiness of presons no rule to judge of the truth of their Opinions by 290 The pretence of holiness condemned Ibid. Homilies the use of them in Churches 295 I Jacobites their Liturgy 198 Jesuites their banishment from the Venetian Territories 65 Jesus Christ not admitted as a God by the Romane Senate 15 Jewes their parabolical doctrines 113 their Liturgy 198 their saying concerning the flourishing of Israel In Proleg in princip Their hatred of the Samaritans 155 their Law carried with Titus in Triumph In Prolegom circa med Jewish State the occasions of it twofold 196 Jewish Church the records of it defective 197 the diversity of the settlements of it 170 Imprudence the faults of it committed against the publick charge of the Magistrate and the persons guilty of the commission of them 111 their guilt evidenc'd 112 their particular faults instanced in in respect to the particulars of the Magistrates charge 112 113 114 c. Indirect Power in Spirituals that belonging to the Civil Magistrate in every Ecclesiastical Vniformity 136 and the extent of it 136 137. and the Magistrates Right to it 137 138 139 140 c. He may commit the exercise of it to others 147 148 Inquisition of Spain what course it holds as to the Kings Prerogative 144 and that of Italy as to the Pope Ibid. The Inquisition admitted in Dominions of Princes by compact 145 The Interdiction of Venice by Pope Paul the 5th the sense of the Princes about it 143 Interests temporal the mixing of them with mens zeal a cause of Religious contests 92 Interpretation the liberty of it in respect to the Canon and Liturgy in any National Church belongs to private persons as their right 253 That their Interpretation distinguished 253 254 the Rules by which they are to proceed in it assigned 254 255 256 c. Interpretorship in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity of how great moment the Office of Supream Interpretor is 302. The Authentick Interpretors in any National Church distinguished and the Supream assigned 302 303. His right to his Office asserted 303 304 c. the opposers of it 307 308 Josephus the principal Jewish Historian In Proleg circa med Israel the distribution of the rights of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity in it In Prolegom in princip Italy the variety of Religious Rites brought of old into it 14 Julian the Apostate his letter to Arsacius that he should take the form of Religion upon him 290 Jurisdiction in spirituals the rights of Ecclesiasticks 132 K King the notion of him in the Ancient Heathen writings 45 King and Priest why the same person hath so frequently been so in Societies 138 139 c. King James of England his Objection made to the Bishop of Rome concerning his Prerogative 147 The Kings of England Sweden Spain Denmark c. Soveraign Princes in their Dominions 135 Knights Ecclesiastical amongst the Venetians 130 L Law of the twelve Tables amongst the Romans concerning funerals 235 236 and concerning a bone broken 269 c. Law-givers the famous ones amongst the Greeks In Prolegom post med Laws from whence their necessity amongst men 33 34 Laws defined and distinguished 100 The great reason of the restraint of private persons by them 101 102 Lay-Elders their absurd mixture with Ecclesiasticks in the Ecclesiastical Regiment 299 300 Laynez his Answer in the Tridentine Council concerning reformation in the Court of Rome 240 Leunclavius his exhortation to Christian peace 309 Liberty defined 43 and distinguished 43 and defin'd in the most absolute notion of it 100 the worth of it 101 Liberty of the Subject defined 101 it ought to be preserved in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity Ib. Christian liberty defined and distinguished 104 Liberty of mens judgment of discerning in matters of Religion distinguished and defined Ibid. The exercise of it asserted 105 the due limitation of such the exercise of it Ibid. Liberty of profession and outward actions ought to be regulated by humane Laws 106 Liberty of opining applyed to the matters of the Canon and Liturgy in any National Church 288 Those matters distinguished and the due extent of it 288 289 Cautions concerning it 290 291 Liberties those of the people relating to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity distinguished 100 their primitive spiritual and Ecclesiastical liberties described and asserted 103 three sorts of them 104 the liberties and latitudes conceded to men in relation to the fixing their notions concerning things 273 A Liturgy defined and distinguished 195 should be accompanied with
as few other sorts of Services as may be Ibid. It ought to be conformed to the Canon of Doctrines in any Church Ibid. The Heathen Jewish and Apostolical Liturgies contested 196 the present Liturgies that are abroad in the world 197 198 199 Whether Liturgy doth not transgress the Rules of Scripture 204 the exceptions made against the Liturgies in the Church of England and the Salvoes to them referred to 246 A Liturgical or non-liturgical service which may be used with more attention or affection 205 206 Lycurgus his answer concerning his appointing small things to be offered to the Gods 85 his cunning 115 M Machiavel his assignation of the cause of the Imperial Power its failing in Italy 88 Magistrate the danger of his being invaded in his person 120 The Civil Magistrate is the Supream in every Society 135 viz. Not a Feudatory but the Soveraign Prince Ibid. and how that Supremacy is committed to him by God 136 and his indirect Power in spirituals which is a branch of it Ibid. Mahomet his Arts and Fictions in establishing his prescript of Religion 15 16. his second coming the Turks gulled concerning it 24 His oaths concerning the truth of his Doctrine 23 Mahometans their Liturgy 198 These have their Bishops Priests and Deacons 300 Malice the persons ordinarily guilty of the faults of it against the charge of the Magistrate 117 the causes exciting them to the commission of them Ibid. the impetuousness and violence of those exciting causes 118 c. Means those necessarily to be used for the preservation of the welfare of the Magistrates Publick charge 78 Means of Grace ought to be conceded in any Christian Church 107 and so those of knowledge Ibid. and what both sorts of them are 107 108 Men the supposition of their springing from the earth 35 36 The first state of them in the world 31 32 Mental reservation the doctrine of it condemned 279 Ministry of holy things the right of Ecclesiasticks 132 Minos King of Crete his trick for the establishment of his Laws 115 Miracles one of the primary Divine Testimonials to Religion 18 their attestation to Moses his Law 19 their pretended testimony to the Heathens Religion 21 and to Mahomets 22 23 and how the Christian Religion excelled in them 25 the difference betwixt them and ordinary effects 29. Not to be believed against Moses his established constitutions in Israel 176 Monarchy the most Ancient Government of the world 34 35 Monuments of Humane Affairs the most and most received from the Greek and Roman States In Proleg post med Moses his Books the most ancient System of Laws now extant In Prolegom Ib. His two Tables the intent of God in them in Israel 196 His Laws and Ordinances for the interpretation of them the Hebrew Rabbies are ordinarily produced In Prolegom circa med The testimonials from God to his Law 18 19 20 Moses Maimonides the Jews saying concerning him In Prolegom Ibid. Chief Mufti amongst the Turks sits in the Divano 130 his State and Authority 306 Muncer his laughing at the common people 113 Mustapha his trick for the leading a sedition 115 Mycipsa his Admonition to his Sons to be at Peace and Vnity 97 N Nasica his Councel concerning the not Racing of Carthage 294 National Church the more special notion of it and it distinguished 210 211 Its being supposed to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 211 Nature the description of the Law of it 16 that Law two-fold 42 It is the guide of Humane Actions In Prolegom prope med Natural causes their ordinary operation in the world 29 Nestorians their Liturgy 198 Nicene Creed the intent of the injunction of it 172 177 Noah his distribution of the world amongst his Sons 53 his exercising himself in the Priestly Office 124 Third Notions those in which Vnity of Assent in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity is to terminate 226 The Magistrates intent in mens inward Notions in relation to outward profession 271 272 c. Numa his exercise of himself in the Priestly Office 140 O Obedience to be performed by private persons to Princes in their establishments of their Ecclesiastical Vniformities 183 An Opinion in matters of Religion what it is explicated 150 Opinions the open contesting of them the cause of Atheisme and Prophaneness in Societies 88 The variety of them a cause of popular Religious contests 91 the readiness of men to entertain them in matters of Religion 152 the numerous increase of them in men 152 153 the posture in which they come forth to the venting and defending of them 153 154 Orators both Greek and Roman the singular use that that is to be made of their writings In Proleg in fin Orders of Ecclesiasticks the necessity of the diversity of them in every Ecclesiastical Vniformity 131 the Old Testament Orders of Ecclesiasticks 131 132 and also the like in the New Testament 132 the perpetual Orders of them in it Ibid. Ordinances the Publick Ordinances in any Church ought to be celebrated in the vulgar tongue 108 109 Whether the same specifical Ordinances only be not sufficient for the attaining the end of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 203 In what manner the Sacred Ordinances of God are to be made use of in the publick 218 219 Ordination of Ecclesiasticks to their Offices the Right of Ecelesiasticks 133 P Padre Paulo his saying concerning Government and the Powers belonging to it 137 138 his complaint concerning the estate of the affairs of Venice 241 242 Pandects of Justinian their revival from Amalphi and Florence 31 whence collected In Proleg post med Parents their power of life and death heretofore over their children whence 35 Passions their mixture with zeal a cause of popular Religious Contests 92 A distinction of such their mixture Ibid. Peace the benefits of it to Societies 94 95 96 c. And to the publick charge of the Magistrate Ibid. to Religion 95 to Government 96 and to the consistency of Religion with Government 97 and how much it is commanded in Scripture 97 98 Philosophical Prudences what they are In Proleg prope fin Phylacteries the intent of their being worn in Israel 170 Pisistratus his trick for the recovery of his Tyranny at Athens 114 Plato his charge concerning the instruction of the Citizens of his Common-weal in certain doctrines of Religion 87 his two grand sorts of Atheists 88 his saying concerning preparations of War and Peace in a City In Prolegom in princip the excellency of his works In Prolegom prope fin his pattern of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 176 his saying concerning the Government of humane affairs 301 Pluralities the case concerning them 266 267 Poets look'd upon of old as divinely inspired 14 Greek and Roman the singular use of their writings In Prolegom in fin Poland the Kings Councel in it its consisting partly of Ecclesiasticks 130 Politicks its dignity amongst the Philosophical prudences In Proleg prope fin Pontifies the Colledge of them and their authority amongst the Romans 305 Pope his possessing the
splendors of the Civil Magistrate 147. above all orders in the Church c. according to the Canonists 38 his stiles and ambition 64 65 Pope Paul the 5th his usual saying concerning Magistrates 65 Popular state when first erected 35 Powers Those belonging to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government distinguished 122 the persons concern'd in them assign'd Ibid. Praefectus Vigilum his Office amongst the Romans 300 301 Prayer a form of it was approved of by Christ 197 Preaching why so great a latitude of it generally is left open in national Vniformities 207 208 and the case stated concerning it Ib. the Magistrates power of laying a restraint upon it 296 Prelacy from God 38 Prescript of the Christian Religion it hath been most vexed with contests 194 whether a traditional and more Ceremonial Prescript of Religion or else a written and more doctrinal one be least subject to popular contests 203 Printing none amongst the Turks 180 the Magistrates power of laying a restraint upon it 296 and the ill consequence of licentiousness in it Ibid. Prophaneness to be expelled out of humane Societies 88 the greater and lesser degrees of it Ibid. Profession national how far forth the Magistrate may compel men to unite in it stated 228 229. External Profession the onely thing in relation to which all external Vnity as to matters of Religion is to be held amongst men 162 It is the only great stated medium for the holding a charitative communion as to those matters then Ibid. The Magistrates Right as to the injoyning an unity of it in Societies 165 166 Profession in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity distinguished 274 mixture of it why tollerated where otherwise of divulging of opinions are not 293 294 Prophesie one of the primary divine Testimonials to Religion 18 its pretended testimony to the Heathens Religion 20 21 and to Mahomets prescript 22 and how it testified to the truth of the Christian Religion in a more peculiar manner 23 Prophets those of the Old Testament 18 Proselites the proverbial saying concerning them in Israel 170 Protestant Churches their Liturgies 198 Publick Worship the Vnity of the use of it the great secondary medium for the holding a charitative communion amongst men as to matters of Religion 163 The Magistrates Right of injoyning an Vnity of it in Societies 165 166 Punishments their peculiar necessity to the regiment of humane Societies 261 the doctrine of them in respect to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity laid down the several sorts of them distinguished 267 Q Quintus Sectorius his trick for his encouragement of his Souldiers 115 R Rabbinical Age when it began In proleg circa med Records of humane affairs the causes of the defects of them 29 30 31 Reformed Churches their derivation of the Magistrates power from God 55 56 c. Religion its consistency with Government intended by God and Nature 2 Religion defin'd Ibid. and distinguish'd 3 4 It s divine appointment evidenc'd 9 It s Divine Original 9 10 c. And the grounds in nature and consent of Nations about it 10 11 12 c. Two only sorts of Precepts of which it can consist 16 how the true prescript of it is to be known 16 17. It s Divine Original the sense of all Nations present in the world 27 its propagation by Arms warranted by Mahomets Law 50 the distinctions of it applyed to its consistency with Government 67 such its consistency proved 68 69 c. Its healthfulness to Government and Civil Society 85 86 87 c. the damnifying it a publick crime 87 its being used as a politick instrument by the heathen Romans 88 the false application of the immortal notion of it the cause of Religious contests 89 that it is the bond of all humane Society In Proleg in princip about what matters of it is both all peace and contention 160 161 Revolting from profession in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity the mischiefs of it to Churches 275 286. Rewards the peculiar necessity of them to the regiment of humane Societies 261 the doctrine concerning them in respect to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity Ibid. the distinction of them Ibid. the original intents of them 262 and their opposites Ibid. the Rules to be held concerning the dispensing them 263 264 c. the mischiefs of the neglect of observance of them 264 265 Right that of God to his obliging man by Precepts of of religion two-fold 9 10 whose right the preservation of the welfare of religion and Government and the consistency of Religion with Government is 73 74 75 c. Right the publick cement of all humane affairs In Proleg in princip Rights those relating directly to an Ecclesiastical Vniformity the Tripartite division of them 99 and those Rights distinguished Ibid. the primitive Rights of the people 100 the Rights of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity dispersed up and down in the Greek and Roman writers In Proleg circa princ the Rights of Government the distinction and proper extent of them from whence they flow 123 c. the Rights of the Church Governours and Ministers in every Christian Church 132 133 Right Reason the great commendation of it as the ultimate and universal interpretor of all Laws 257 258 Rising in Armes against Princes and particularly in defence of Religion and the matters of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity not justifiable 47 48 49 50 51 its opposition to the common good of Societies 59 60 61 c. The Scotch and English Presbytery their following the principles of the Church-men of Rome in it 65 it 's not being the Right of Ecclesiasticks for the support of their Church Society 133 Romans their Orders of Ecclesiasticks 124 Roman Civil Law the body of it the largest and most compleat body of such Laws now extant In Proleg ad fin the reception of it in the dominions of Princes Ibid. Roman State its most ancient Laws fetcht from Greece In Prolegom circa princip Roman Church its Liturgies 198 Its emission of the doctrine of Rising in Armes against Princes into Christendome 64 Romulus his Law concerning the Senates taking care of Religion 141 Russians their Priests and Bishops of no learning 180 Russe Church its Liturgy 198 S Sanhedrim what things chiefly it took cognizance of in Israel 141 Scipio Africanus his custome of deceiving the multitude 115 Scripture whether it as the Original Divine Canon of Doctrines be not sufficient for the attaining the ends of an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 203 Sedition the Ring-leaders of it the persons ordinarily guilty of the faults of malice against the Magistrates publick charge in an Ecclesiastical Vniformity 117 Senate of Rome their trick for their with-holding the people from Sedition 115 their refusing to enroll Christ amongst their Gods 141 Society the term explicated and applyed 5 by what several ways men came first into Societies 31 Sophi of Persia his dismissing his horse c. kept for Mahomet against his second Coming 24 Sorbon their threatning against the Pope 144 A Subject defin'd 100 Submission to the Ecclesiastical Laws