if he would but have applyed to the case of the Christian Church it would have prevented the pains of all his ensuing Discourses for that being a Society of it self as founded upon Divine Right and Power of governing it self being necessary to Society what can be more evident from the nature of things themselves than that the Church must be endued with such a Power So that once supposing Society that alone infers Government and all the acts of it and to this purpose our Authour observes out of the Jewish Doctors if their Authority be to any purpose that whereas there were six Laws given by God to our first Parents to oblige all mankind the last was de Judiciis for as much as without that all the rest would have been ineffectual thus whereas Idolatry and Blasphemy which refer only to the Worship of God were forbidden by the two first they could never have had the force of Laws among mankind unless some Persons were indued with a power of judging of the nature of those Crimes and inflicting punishments in pursuance of their Sentence which he styles not only the Soul of Government but the noblest faculty of that Soul and the noblest act of that faculty And therefore when our Authour disputes whether the Christian Excommunication were taken from the Jews or the Heathen and leaves the case doubtful in that it was in Use among most nations civil and barbarous as well as the Jews as he proves by a vast collection out of the Records of the Greeks the Romans Arabians Germans Gauls Britans and others his most proper conclusion would have been That so universal a Practice could be derived from nothing less than the common sense of mankind The two next Periods are from Moses to the Captivity when the Jews enjoyed the civil jurisdiction of their own Common-wealth and from the Captivity to our Saviour when they were either wholy deprived of it or limited in its exercise according to the pleasure of the Princes to whom they were subject In the first interval he proves at large that they had no such punishment as Excommunication strictly so called but that all Officers whatsoever were punished with a loss or abatement of their civil Liberties But being deprived of the power of the Sword or the civil Government in the time of their Captivity they were forced having no more effectual way to punish Offenders against their Law by shame and dishonour As pregnant proofs both these of the necessity of Excommunication in the Christian Church as a modest man could well have desired For what can follow with greater clearness of Reason than that If the Jewish state had no Use of meer Excommunication whilst it was indued with a power of restraining vice by the civil Sword and that when it was deprived of this Power it was forced by the meer necessity of the thing to make Use of this punishment that therefore the Society of the Church having no Power of temporal coercion to punish offences against the Laws of the Society must be vested with some other power of punishment suitable to the nature and end of its Constitution Otherwise it would be a Society founded by God himself without sufficient means to govern that is preserve it self And if it have a Right or power of Discipline within it self that is the only thing that the Church demands and that our Authour denies But of these two long Periods the account as to our purpose is very short for as for the first it is granted on all hands That the Rights of Church and State were granted by the same Charter and the power of Government vested in the same Persons and therefore all their acts of jurisdiction carried in them according to the nature of the Society both a civil and Ecclesiastical Authority Whereas the Christian Church is of a quite different Constitution It is a Kingdom indeed but not of this world indued with no temporal power and instituted purely for spiritual ends and therefore its Government if it have any must be suitable to its Institution distinct from that of the civil State and enforced by such penalties as are peculiar to the Society the greatest whereof is to be cast out of it which answers to putting to death by the civil Sword So that the different constitution of these two Societies being consider'd it unavoidably follows Because the Jewish Magistrates had a compleat jurisdiction in all things that therefore the jurisdiction proper to the Church that has no civil Power must be meerly spiritual and if it have any jurisdiction proper to it self that is enough to our purpose against them who say it has none As for the second that Excommunication was taken up in the time of the Captivity meerly to supply the want of the civil Sword it is as clear an Instance as could have been produced of the necessity of this or the like punishment in all Society where there is no other coercive Power But here by the way though I do not doubt that this punishment was then first made Use of upon this ground yet I must confess that I am not satisfied of the Account that our Authour and other learned men give of it out of the Talmudical Writers For beside that they all writ when their Nation was debauched with Misnical and Talmudical Fables than which it is hard to invent any thing more absurd and silly they who were in comparison but very modern Writers had no other means of knowing what was done from the time of the Captivity but from the writings of the Prophets and the Histories of those times and therefore their Reports can have no Authority but as justified by those ancient Records And whereas Mr. Selden tells us for the Reputation of his own Learning Si cui hic dubium forsan occuâ—rat utrum corpori scriptoribus talmuaiâ—is hujusmodi in rebus quatenus historicae sunt id est quatenus in eis pro jure qualicunque Ebreis veteribus recognito atque usitato traâ—untur fides sit habenda eo scilicet quod corpus illud quo jam habetur contextum scriptoresque illi caeteri saeculorum sunt Templi urbisque excidio recentiorum is for san etiam dubitabit de Justiniani seu Triboniani fide dum Modestini Papiniani Florentini Alpheni Proculi Celsi ejusmodi aliorum qui trecentis aut circiter sunt Justiniano annis vetustiores sententias atque scita juris alibi non reperta He might have observed that these two cases were vastly different for there were certain Records and Reports of those famous Lawyers which were conveyed by writing from age to age as were the writings of other Authors Whereas there are no footsteps of any Monuments for the Rabinical Fable and as they have no ancient Authority so they discover themselves by their own foolishness to have been the inventions of a very barbarous and degenerate Age. so that our Authour if he would have found a parallel
under him and gives the Keys of his Kingdom into their hands what can that possibly signifie but their Power of Government in and over the Society especially when it was so familiar a thing in Scripture to express power by Keys and our Author himself has observed it and proved it by a multitude of Instances But then says he this Power of opening and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven is exercised by preaching the Doctrine of the Gospel by administring the Sacraments by admitting fit Persons into it by Baptism and by not admitting such as are unfit and by retaining such as are already admitted That is to say our Author will allow the Governors of the Church all other Acts of Jurisdiction but only this one of Excommunication notwithstanding that it is evidently implyed in them all Thus if the Governours of the Church be entrusted with a Power of Judging what Persons are fit to be admitted then certainly if they perform not those conditions upon which alone they are admitted it must be in the Power of those who let them in to turn them out So plainly does the Power of Baptism infer that of Excommunication and the Power of judging who are fit members of the Church infer both So that the Gentlemen of the Erastian persuasion would have been much more consistent with themselves when they would not give the Church all the Acts of Power if they would have given it none at all for they are inseparable And therefore the learned and pious Mr. Thorndike has very judiciously observed that the Leviathan has done like a Philosopher in making the question general that is general indeed though by so freely and generously declaring himself he has made his Resolution more subject to be contradicted But yet they that only dispute the Power of Excommunication as they are of the same opinion so are they pressed with greater difficulty only they express not so much of their meaning for they are nevertheless to give an account what Right the secular Power can have to appoint the Persons that shall either determine or execute matters of Religion to decide controversies of Faith to administer the Sacraments than if they resolved and maintain'd all this as expresly as the Leviathan hath done And in the same manner does the following Text explain it self If he hear not the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican if we will observe upon what subject our Saviour was then discoursing for though our Author to make the matter appear the more ambiguous has given us a large Critical account of the words that signifie Church in all Languages if instead of that he had only minded our Saviour's Discourse he must have seen that by the Church here could be understood nothing but the Christian Church this being one of the Laws whereby he would have the Subjects of his Kingdom to be govern'd But our Author tells us that the Notion of the Christian Church was not then understood it being a thing to come and it is not likely that our Saviour in a matter of familiar and daily use should direct them to such a means as no mortal man could possibly understand To which it is very easie to answer that all our Saviour's Discourses procede upon the supposition of the being of his Church He began at preaching the Kingdom of Heaven and all his Sermons and Instructions after that are but so many Laws and Institutions for its Government and therefore our Saviour's Words are so far from being doubtful or obscure that they were not capable of being applied to any other Society than that which he was now establishing in the World And whatsoever was the vulgar meaning of the word Ecclesia yet when used by our Saviour it can be applied to no other company of men but that of his Church and it was so far from being then a new word or a new notion to the Apostles that our Saviour had sometime before used the same Expression to St. Peter Upon this Rock I will build my Church which he promised him as a peculiar reward of his forward Faith Now it cannot be supposed that our Saviour would make his promises to his Friends and Servants in unintelligible Language and therefore it must be supposed that the Notion of the Christian Church was an intelligible thing But if this will not do our Author proceeds that this Text gives no jurisdiction to the Church but only directs private Christians how they shall behave themselves toward Offenders as if the Emperour should have made an Edict that if any Subject should not submit to the decree of his Prefect he should be accounted by his fellow Subjects as no member of the Common-wealth this gives the Prefect no new Power but only concerns the opinion of the People Very true but it supposes his old Power and so if our Saviour had antecedently vested his Church with this Power this was no new grant but only a supposition of a former one if he had not then this was their Patent when he refers his Subjects to their Judicature But whatever may be the Notion of the Church what is there says our Author in the following words Let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican that sounds like Excommunication either in the Jewish or Christian use of it Nothing at all in the Jewish for Heathens were never Excommunicate as having never been of the Society neither were Publicans put out of the Synagogue upon the account of their being Publicans But though Heathens were not Excommunicate Persons yet Excommunicate Persons were as Heathens and that is so plainly the meaning of the words that nothing but meer peevishness could have made the exception and it is the same as if our Saviour should have said of an Apostate let him be unto thee as an Infidel and our Author should have replied upon him How can that be When an Infidel is one that was never a Member of the Church and an Apostate once was And then as for the Publicans though they durst not at that time Excommunicate them for that reason for fear of the Romans yet it is notorious that they thought them worthy of it and that they were esteem'd as no better than scandalous Sinners Heathens and Idolaters But this supposed too it is no act says he of the Church but every private man who was hereby permitted to treat the Offender as a vile Person But this act of his supposes the power of Judicature in the Church for this advice relates to the known power of the Sanhedrin that were wont to Excommunicate refractory Offenders and thereby to put them into the state of Heathen Men And such it seems was to be the Authority of the Apostles who were the great Sanhedrin in the Christian Church as appears by the plain design of our Saviour's discourse when he refers all Christians to their Judicature and commands them that if any man be
the Prerogatives of Princes unless they misuse it and if they do as they go beyond their Commission so they deserve their punishment in this lâ—fe among the worst of Rebels and Traytors and are sure to have it in the next For as their Power is not only purely spiritual void of all temporal force and coercion so are they in the first place and above all things forbidden to use any violence or raise any disturbance against Government So that if any Prince think good to oppose them in the Execution of their Office and to punish them for so doing they are not to oppose him but only to sacrifice their lives in justification of their cause and submission to his will and for so doing they shall have their Reward But if they shall make use of any other Weapons whatsoever beside Prayers and Tears and Sufferings they then suffer deservedly as disturbers of the publick Peace And so much the more in that they have been so expresly forewarned by our Saviour that whosoever shall draw the Sword in his cause shall be sure to perish by it And as upon this principle he founded his Church so upon it his Apostles built it when in pure obedience to his command they preached the Gospel all the World over And if any Prince were pleased to countermand them they did not plead any exemption from the Government much less did they Libel it but only represented the Innocence and Justice of their Cause and if he were not satisfied declared their readiness to submit to his pleasure and the penalty of the Law And in this they enjoyed no other exemption from the Prerogative of Princes than what is or ought to be chalenged by every private Christian who is indispensably bound to make profession of his Christian Faith and if the Laws of his Country so require to seal it with his Blood This was the constitution of the Church and the practice of it in its first profession and is the constitution of the Church of England in its Reformation For whereas a foreign Italian Bishop had for a long time usurped wel-nigh all both secular and spiritual Power into his own hands and by an exorbitant abuse of it had enslaved the Prince and empoverished the people only to enrich himself and his own Courtiers they that were concern'd after long patience and much provocation at last resolved upon what motives concerns not us to resume their Rights The King that Power which was exercised by the Kings of Judah of old and by Christian Kings and Emperours in the primitive Church And the Bishops that Power wherewith they were as immediately entrusted by virtue of our Saviours general commission to the Apostolical Order as any other foreign Bishop or Bishops within their respective Diocesses whatsoever And to prevent all jealousie in the Prince lest they should play him the same game that his Holiness had done who in ordinc ad spiritualia had finely stript him of almost all his Temporal Jurisdiction by excepting all Ecclesiastical both Persons and Causes from his cognizance They therefore freelv declare him Supreme Governour first Over all Persons so that no Ecclesiastical Subject might as formerly appeal from his Tribunal And in all Causes so that every Subject whatsoever was bound to submit to his Decrees and Determinations so far forth as either to obey his Laws as long as he own'd and protected true Christianity as the Christian Bishops of old did to the Christian Emperours Or if he opposed it chearfully and peaceably to submit to their Penalties as they did to the Roman Persecutors And whereas from the Precedent of the Apostles in the first Council at Jerusalem the Governours of the Church in all Ages enjoyed a power of making Canons and Constitutions for Discipline and good Order yet by the example of the Primitive Church they submitted the exercise thereof to his sovereign Authority protesting in verbo sacerdotis as it is stated in that famous Act called The Submission of the Clergy That they will never from henceforth presume to attempt alledg claim or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances provincial or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be call'd in the Convocation unless the King 's most royal Assent and License may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majesty do give his Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf Whereby they do not pass away their power of making Ecclesiastical Canons but only give security to the Government that under that pretence they would not attempt any thing tending to the disturbance of the Kingdom or injurious to the Prerogative of the Crown Which in truth is such a submission as all the Clergy in the World ought in duty to make to their Sovereign at least in gratitude for his Protection and that without any abatement or diminution of their own Authority viz. The standing Laws of Christianity being secured to submit all other Matters to his sovereign Will and Pleasure Whereby as they would bring no damage to the Church in that this power is exercised meerly in matters of Order and Discipline if the Prince did not approve of their Constitutions it would be no difficult thing to provide for Decency some other way so they would bring great security to the State when the Prince was assured that under that pretence they would not as the Roman Clergy had done distuâ—b or undermine his Authority And as they parted not with their Spiritual Legiâ—lative Power so not with any other Power proper to their Function as the Power of preaching the Christian Religion administring the holy Sacraments and conferring holy Orders Neither did any Prince in the least ever claim or exercise any of them And because the Romanists in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth made a mighty noise with this Objection as if by virtue of her Supremacy her Majesty had challenged a Spiritual or Ministerial Power in the Church the Queen has with great indignation disown'd any such Power and defied the Calumny And yet when she had made her disclaimour of any Spiritual Power in the Church she parted not with her Royal Supremacy over those that had it as we are particularly instructed by our Church in her 37th Article Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Title we understand the minds of some dangerous Folks to be offended we give not our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or the Sacraments the which things the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers And lastly to mention
no more whereas the witty and learned Cardinal Perron run upon the same mistake and it is a mistake that they all wilfully run upon King James in his Reply le ts him know that though Christian Kings and Emperours never arrogated to themselves a power of being Sovereign Judges in matters and controversies of Faith yet for moderation of Synods for determinations and orders establisht in Councils and for discipline of the Church they have made a good and full use of their Imperial Authority And that for this very good reason that very much concerns all Princes that they might see and judg whether any thing were done to the prejudice of their Power or the disturbance of the Commonwealth And much more to the same purpose And therefore for further satisfaction I shall refer the Reader to the excellent Discourse it self It is enough that I have given a plain and easie account of the distinct powers of Church and State and shewn that whoever denies the distinction disowns Christianity that our Saviour has vested his Church with a Power peculiar to it self that the Church has in all Ages exercised it that the Christian Emperours never denied it and lastly that the Church of England and the Reformed Princes thereof have remarkably own'd it But Thirdly Constantine and his Successors took upon them the Title of Pontifex Maximus to which according to the Constitution of the Roman Empire appertain'd the supreme Ecclesiastical Jurisdâ—ction By virtue of which Authority they granted to the Church among other Priviledges this power of Excommunication in the same manner as Claudius and other Heathen Emperours gave leave both to Jews and Christians to govern themselves by their own Laws and Customs And though the Emperour Gratian refused to wear the Pontifical Habit as a piece of Pagan Superstition yet it no where appears that he refused the Dignity it self And this Discourse our Author prosecutes with much Zeal and Learning But what do these men make of the Christian Church or rather of Christ himself that he should make no other provision for its Government than to leave it wholly to the superintendency of Heathen Priests This is such a wild conceit in it self that I must confess I could never have imagin'd any learned man could ever have made use of it against the Constitution of the Christian Church And yet this learned Gentleman is not only serious but vehement and confident in it he urges it over and over and though he repeats every thing that he says so that indeed one half of his Discourse is nothing but a Repetition of the other yet here he doubles his Repetitions and every where lays this Principle as the foundation of the practice of all After times But can any man believe that Constantine the Great took upon him the power of Government in the Christian Church if he really believed in Christ himself by virtue of a Power derived from the Usurpation of Julius Caesar Or that he could imagine that the Heathenish Priestly Power belong'd to him after his owning Christianity when by that the whole frame of the old Roman Religion was declared to be Idolatrous so that the Roman High Priest was nothing better than the supreme Head of Idolatry An Honour certainly which no Christian Emperour would be very fond of astuming to himself Julian indeed challenged both the Title and the Dignity as the greatest Ornament of his Imperial Crown but the Reason was because he was so vainly fond of the Pagan Religon But how any man of common sense that had renounced Paganism should yet own himself High Priest by virtue of that Religion that he had renounced seems too great a Contradiction for any man of common sense to believe But what if they accepted of the Title as our Author very well knows they did of Divinity it self or rather what if it were customarily given to them by others For I met with no other Monuments of it but some old Complemental Inscriptions so that it being a customary Title of Honour it might easily for a time pass in the crowd of the other Imperial Titles For it seems it continued not long being rejected by Gratian who lived about fifty Years after the Conversion of Constantine And though our learned Author affirms that the pious Emperour only refused the Vestment but not the Dignity it is very obvious to any man of much less understanding than himself that the Emperour could have no reason to refuse one but for the sake of the other for the Case is plain that there was no superstition in the Vestment but only upon the account of the Office and for that reason there was little if any use of the Title afterwards But lastly the Power of Judicature was first granted to the Bishops by the favour of the Christian Emperours and especially by an Edict of Constantine the Great whereby he grants the Bishops a full Power of hearing and determining all causes Civil as well as Ecclesiastical and withal declares their Decrees to be more firm and binding than the sentence of any other Judicature and from this great indulgence of the Emperour it is not to be doubted but that among other forensique penalties they made use of Excommunication Of the inference I shall give an account by and by but as for the Edict it self if it could do any service to our Authors design it at last proves supposititious as is fully proved by Gothofred in his excellent Edition of the Theodosian Code his reasons are too many to be here recited I will give but one for all viz. That this Law is contrary to all the Laws of the Roman Empire for though several Emperours do in their several Novels give the Bishops Power to decide causes by way of Arbitration or the consent of both parties which Power they enlarged or contracted as they pleased and to this all the other precedents produced by our Author relate yet that one party should have liberty of appeal from the civil Court at any time before judgment given without the consent of his Adversary is such a wild and extravagant priviledg as is inconsistent with all the rules of the Imperial Law And yet that is the only design of that Edict Quicunque itaque litem habens sive possessor sive petitor erit inter initia litis vel decursis temporum curriculis sive cum negotium peroratur sive cum jam coeperit promi sententia judicium eligit sacro-sanctae legis Antistitis ilico sine aliqua dubitatione etiamsi alia pars refragatur ad Episcopum cum sermone litigantium dirigatur Which I say is such an absurd liberty as would utterly destroy all the Power of the civil Magistrate if the humour or perversness of any man could so easily baulk their sentence But beside the absurdity of the Law it self there is no such Edict extant in the Justinian Code nor any mention of it in any ancient Writers of Ecclesiastical History For as for
confined my self to the discourses of men of sense and learning i. e. no Smectymnuans and have distinctly considered and I hope confuted all their material pretences against the Episcopal superiority in the Premises But as for Grammatical Criticisms and Historical Digressions they concern not us because they concern not our Enquiry And if learned men would but come up roundly and keep ingenuously to the main point of the Controversie they must rub their foreheads pretty hard to out-face the evidence of our cause But alas the custom of them all is to range up and down through the whole field or rather wood of Antiquity and pursue every thing little or great that starts within their view And they seem to make choice of this Subject rather from it to take occasion of shewing the variety of their Reading than with any design to make good the undertaking of their Title Page And it is very observable that among the many thousand Pages that have been of late years wasted in the Anti-episcopal cause it will be very hard to find half an hundred directly to the purpose And that of it self is Argument enough that they have but very little to say against it And what that is I have in the Premises fully represented for I protest that as I will answer it to Almighty God I know no other pretences that are at all pertinent or material besides those that I have considered But in the last place beside the direct and positive Argument that I have thus far pusued from ourSaviours own express Institution the undoubted practice of the Apostles and the most unquestionable Records of the Primitive Church I come to the last Topick propounded those enormous inconveniences that unavoidably result from the contrary Opinion I shall represent only two The first is this that if the Form of Government in the Christian Church be not setled by the Founder of it that then we are at a loss to know by whom it may or ought to be determined For the Society of the Church being founded upon an immediate Divine Right no Person can justly challenge any Authority in it as such unless by vertue of some Grant or Commission from the divine Founder of it If therefore those Commissions that were granted by our Saviour to his Apostles do not descend to some certain Order of men as their Successours in that Authority wherewith they were invested who shall challenge the exercise of it after their decease To this we never received any certain Answer but are only told in the general That the particular Form of Government in the Church is left wholly to the prudence of those in whose power and trust it is to see that the peace of the Church be secured on lasting foundations But then I would fain know who those are that are intrusted with this Power It would have been very well worth their pains to have determined the particular Persons expresly appointed by God to this Office Especially when it is laid down as a fundamental Principle that all things necessary to the Churches peace must be clearly revealed in the Word of God and if so then no one particular Form may be established in it by any Authority whatsoever because no one particular Form as is all along pleaded is prescribed by the Word of God and yet it is plainly necessary to the Churches peace if Government be so that it be governed by some one particular Form But yet however when we come to enquire after these Trustees to whose power it is left to see the peace of the Church secured on lasting foundations the answer is ever ambiguous and unconstant Sometimes it is the Civil Magistrate and sometimes the People But this very uncertainty where this Power is lodged is both in it self and according to the fundamental Notion of the Hypothesis that we oppose a manifest confutation of the whole design For if our Saviour have not determined to whom it appertains that is evidence enough that he never intended by this way to provide for the peace and settlement of his Church For if he had appointed such Feoffees in Trust as is imagined he would at least have left it certain who they were that he intended which not having done that is demonstration enough that it was never his intention to set any such pretended Guardians over his Church But be it where it will it is very strange that these Learned men should be so intent upon the fineness of their Model as never to consider the wild consequences of either way when reduced to practice For be it in the Civil Magistrate they would first have done very well according to their own Rule ro have searched for some Commission in the Word of God whereby our Saviour entrusted this power with him We find indeed Prophesies and Predictions that Princes should become Patrons and Protectors of his Church but that they should be vested with a Power of instituting and abolishing Church Orders and Offices at pleasure is such a wild conceit as will not find any the least countenance from the Word of God Secondly By what Authority was the Church governed from our Saviour to the Reign of Constantine when if he had appointed the Civil Magistrate Overseer of his Infant Church there was then none that cared to execute his Office Beside thirdly If Church-Officers derive their Authority in the Church from the meer appointment of the Civil Magistrate they are then only of Humane Institution and derive not their Power from any appointment of our Saviour and so are only Ministers of State and not of the Gospel But to put it into the power of any mortal man to alter the whole frame of Government in the Church as he pleases is the most improper way in the world to provide for its peace and settlement For by this means it will be ever in the power of any Common-wealth lawfully to overturn all manner of Ecclesiastical Order at pleasure If to day perhaps the Bishops either by chance or by vertue of some Grant from the Civil Government enjoy the Supreme Power in the Church it may with good Authority to morrow depose them and translate their Power to the Presbyters from the Presbyters to the Deacons from the Deacons to the People and from the People to the Pope and it would be very consistent no doubt with the wisdom of Christ in founding his Church and providing for the peace and settlement of it to leave its whole frame of Government thus at the Mercy of any mans Power or Will We have one example of this project put in practice upon Record in the Long Parliaments Midsummer-Model of Reformation when they vote June 12. 1641. that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction should be put into the hands of such Commissioners as their Worships should think fit In pursuance of which they vote June 21. that six of the Clergy and six of the Laity should be appointed in every County for the
the opposition of the times the worse they are the more they require our zeal to oppose and to reform them And it is never more seasonable to assert the Rights of the Christian Church than when they are most disowned Let us but do our duty and God will do his work and let us not betake our selves to tricks and shifts upon any pretences if any such there are of loss or danger the Church of Christ subsists upon no other Politicks than Courage and Integrity Let us then be true to those two fundamental Principles of Christianity and our Saviour has undertaken for the event that the Gates of Hell much less Rome or Geneva shall never be able to prevail against it POSTSCRIPT I Have thus far adventured to state the Case of the Protestant Religion as it is established by Law in the Church of England Thereby to declare what it is that we contend for in our Disputes against all sorts of Recusants and Dissenters For it is not at all material what we oppose but what we assert and there would be no harm in Errour were it not for its Contrariety to Truth So that before we defend the Church of England it is necessary to define the true state of its cause otherwise we contend about we know not what For as for the general Term of Protestancy it is an indefinite thing so that if all the men in England that are Enemies or no Friends to the Pope of Rome may be listed under that name we have some Protestants that believe there is a God and some that believe there is none some that believe they have a Saviour and a Soul to save and some that laugh at both there are Hobbian Protestants Muggletonian Protestants Socinian Protestants Quaker Protestants Rebel Protestants Protestants of 41 and Protestants of 48. All or most of which are as different as Popery it self from the true Protestancy of the Church of England And therefore it is necessary to stick close to that both as it is established by the Law of the Land and by the Law of Christ. For unless we limit it to the Law of the Land we may in time have a Church consisting of nothing but Protestants dissenting from the established Religion that is a Church not only without but against it self And unless we derive the Authority of that Religion that is by Law established from the antecedent Law of Christ we may quickly be as we are in a fair way to be a Reformed Church of Protestant Atheists that is a Church without Religion And therefore all must be built upon this one Boâ—â—om that the Church owned by the Law of England is the very same that was established by the Law of Christ. For unless we suppose that the Church was originally setled by our Saviour with divine Authority we deny his Supremacy over his own Church and unless we suppose that the supreme Government of the Kingdom has power to abett and ratifie our Saviours establishment by Civil Laws we deny his Majesties Supremacy over his Christian Subjects and therefore both together must be taken in to the right State and Constitution of the Church of England And that do what we can will involve the Leaders of our present Separation in the guilt both of Schism and Sedition of Schism in the Church in that they withdraw themselves and their obedience from those who are vested with a power to command them by vertue of a Divine Commission of Sedition in the State in that they needlesly and without any justifiable pretence violate the Laws of the Common-wealth Though the truth is their Dissension is somewhat worse For as they manage it it is not only Sedition but Rebellion in that they do not only disobey the Laws but disavow their obligation standing resolutely upon that one Principle that no Magistrate whatsoever has any power of establishing any thing relating to the Worship of God So that the Act of Uniformity is not so much faulty for the particular matters contained in it as for the unlawful and usurped Authority of it And when the King and Parliament enjoyned the Book of Common-Prayer to be used in all Churches they challenged a Power to which they had no right and invaded the Prerogative of God himself This is the first ground of the Separation as it is stated by the chief Ring-leaders of it and it is a plain renunciation of their Allegiance as well as Conformity I can with all the streinings of Charity make no better of it and should be heartily glad if I could see them without shufling and prevarication clear themselves of so pernicious a Principle To conclude methinks Religion has been long enough trifled with in this Kingdom and after so long and so sad experience of our folly it is time to return to some sense of discretion and sobriety Before the late barbarous War we had the Scepter of Jesus Christ and the divine right of Presbytery to advance but now after the murder of an hundred thousand men that Cause has proved so ridiculous as that it is grown ashamed of it self However the pretence was great and solemn but at this time the People are driven into the same excesses against the Church no body knows for what unless it be that some men among us are too proud or too peevish to recant their Follies And therefore I conjure them in the name of God to lay their hands upon their hearts and without passion seriously to consider what it is for which they renounce the Church in which they were baptised into the Communion of the Catholick Church tear and rend it into numberless pieces and factions scare multitudes of silly and well-meaning People out of it as they tender the salvation of their souls and put the whole Kingdom into perpetual tumults and combustions about Religion and when they have considered it I shall only bind it upon their Consciences so to answer it to themselves now as they hope to answer it to their Saviour at the last day As for the foreign Reformed Churches I have said nothing of them because they are altogether out of the compass of my Argument which is confined within the four Seas and concerns only those that either are or ought to be members of the Church of England But if in any thing any other Churches deviate from the Primitive Institution they must stand and fall to their own Master And God forbid we should be so uncharitable as to go about to un-church them or renounce brotherly communion with them or to think that our blessed Saviour should withdraw the promise of his Grace and Protection from them For if every defect from his Institution should forfeit the Rights of a Christian Church there never was as we may find by the Apostles account of the Churches in their times nor ever will be such a thing as a Church in the world For in this life it is not to be expected that any thing
THE CASE OF THE Church of England Briefly and truly stated In the three first and fundamental PRINCIPLES Of a Christian Church I. The Obligation of Christianity by Divine Right II. The Jurisdiction of the Church by Divine Right III. The Institution of Episcopal Superiority by Divine Right By S. P. a Presbyter of the Church of England LONDON Printed for Henry Faithorne and John Kersey and sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner 1681. A Scheme of the general CONTENTS PART I. THree popular Principles destructive of the Church of England Page 1. The absurdity of Mr. Hobb's Principle that the Sovereign Power is the only founder of all Religion in every Commonwealth p. 7 Mr. Seldens account of the Jurisdiction of the Church to be meerly Civil p. 27 His account of Excommunication from Adam to Moses considered p. 37 The same from Moses to the Captivity and from the Captivity to the time of our Saviour p. 42 The same in our Saviours time and first as to its Usage p. 54 Secondly as to the Right which is proved to have been neither Judicial nor Imperial but purely Divine p. 62 Excommunication in the Christian Church proved to have been of Apostolical Antiquity p. 71 The Texts of Scripture upon which it is grounded carry in them true and proper Jurisdiction and appropriate its exercise to the Church p. 76 And that by Divine Institution not meer voluntary Confederacy p. 89 All Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction left entirely by the Christian Emperours to the Ecclesiastical State and that the Imperial Laws extant both in the Theodosian Code and Justinian are no new Laws but only the Canons of the Church ratified with temporal Penalties p. 91 PART II. AN account of the birth of the Opinion that there was no Form of Government setled in the Christian Church by Divine Institution Page 117 That our Saviour founded his Church in an imparity of Ecclesiastical Officers demonstrated this imparity proved to consist in a superiority of Power as well as Order and the Institution of it shewn to be of perpetual obligation p. 124 The Authority of the Apostolical Practice vindicated against divers exceptions The vanity and absurdity of the Objection from the ambiguity of the names Bishop and Presbyter The divine Obligation of Apostolical practice in this matter proved p. 135 The practice of the Primitive Church in the Ages next and immediately after the Apostles The pretence of the defect of the Records of the Church in the first Age falls as foul upon Christianity it self as the Form of Government p. 143 The Argument first from the defect as to places considered and confuted p. 148 Secondly front the defect as to Times and Persons p. 150 The constant Tradition of the Church proved first by the Testimony of St. Clement of Rome Secondly of Ignatius his Epistles demonstrated to be genuine p. 155 The same proved from the Apostolical Canons and the Canons proved to be of Primitive Antiquity p. 177 The Testimonies of the Ancients vindicated from the pretence of ambiguity and first in that they have not informed us whether the Succession were only of Order or of Power p. 183 Secondly In that it is not universal but whether it be or not it is sufficient in that there are no Records against it and the Records of all the chiefest Churches are clear for it p. 189 Thirdly In that this Succession is sometimes attributed to Presbyters this shewn to be apparently false and if it were true frivolous p. 203 That the ancient Church owned Episcopacy as of Divine Institution and not Ecclesiastical p. 213 St. Jeroms Authority throughly considered and turned upon himself so as to make this Objection out of him against it the strongest Argument to prove the Divine Institution of Episcopacy p. 216 The Custom of the Church of Alexandria of the Ordination of their Bishop by Presbyters refuted and the Story of Eutychius concerning it shewn to be false and foolish p. 231 If we take away the Divine Right of some Form of Church-Government it unavoidably resolves the Church into Independency and Confusion p. 243 The Government of the Church by Episcopacy as setled by Divine Right the only effectal Bulwork against Popery p. 252 A Postscript p. 263 PART I. WHEN I consider on one side with what triumph the Church of England was together with His Majesty restored with what Laws guarded with what Vigour asserted with what Zeal defended and on the other with what folly and peevishness opposed that none of its implacable Enemies have ever been able to discover any the least real Defects or Corruptions in its Constitution That by the confession of all wise men it approaches nearest of any Church in the World to the primitive Purity that it is free from all Impostures and Innovations that it does not abuse its Children with Pious Frauds and Arts of Gain nor sacrifise the Interests of Souls to its own Wealth and Grandeur that it asserts the Rights of Princes against all Priestly Usurpations that it does not enrage the People with Enthusiasm on one hand nor enslave them with Superstition on the other That its Doctrins are Pure Simple and Apostolical and its Discipline Easie Prudent and Merciful In a word that it is a Church that wants nothing but only that we would suffer her to be what she professes and desires to be When I say I considered all this with my self it could not but strike me with wonder and amazement that a Church so unanimously owned so powerfully protected so excellently constituted so approved by all wise and good men should in all this time be so far from obteining any true and effectual settlement that it should be almost stript naked of all the Rights and Priviledges of a Christian Church exposed to scorn and contempt deserted by its Friends trampled upon by its Enemies and truly reduced to the state of the Poor despised Church of England But then considering farther with my self what might be the grounds and occasions of such a wild and seemingly unaccountable Apostasie I quickly found three very prevailing Principles utterly inconsistent with the being of a Christian Church wherewith the generality of mens minds are possest and especially those that have of late appeared the most Zealous Patriots of the Church of England No wonder then if the building be so weak and tottering when it is erected upon such false and rotten Foundations so that whilst these treacherous Principles lie at the bottom of the Work it is plainly impossible to bring it to any sure and lasting settlement And t is these false and unhappy Principles that I shall now endeavour to represent and by plain reason to remove They are chiefly these three the first is that of Mr. Hobbs and his Followers that own the Church of England only because it is Establisht by the Law of England and allow no Authority either to that or any other Religion than as it is injoined by the Sovereign Power Though a Religion
that claims no higher Obligation confesses it self to be no Religion for none it is unless Enacted by Divine Authority The second is that of Mr. Selden and his Followers that acknowledges the standing Laws of the Christian Church to have been derived from a Divine Institution but derives all manner of Government and Authority in it from the Civil State The third is the Opinion of some Learned and Moderate Divines both at home and abroad that grant indeed the necessity of some kind of Government in the Church but deny it to have been setled and fixed by our Saviour in any one Form or upon any certain Order of men and leave it wholly at some-bodies disposal though who that somebody is they have not as yet clearly determined to appoint Officers and Governours as shall be thought most prudent and suitable to the present Circumstances of things Now upon any of these Principles it is not at all material whether we assert any such thing as a Church of England or not for they are all but so many Contradictions both to the being of a Church and to themselves at least if we pursue each party to the bottom of their Opinion they only assert the Shadow or Ghost of a Church upon such Principles as are directly inconsistent with the Fundamental Constitution of all Christian Churches and so have as it were stoln away the Church of England from itself setting up the name against the thing the Idea against the Reality and the Notion against the Practice For the first supposes a Church without Religion the second a Society without Government the third a Government without Governours And what can be more absurd and inconsistent For a Church without Religion is no Church a Society without Government is no Society and a Government that is not lodged somwhere is no Government So that though these Opinions are not equally wicked in themselves the first being open and avowed Atheism yet are they equally destructive to the Fundamental Constitution of the Christian Church as it is a Society founded not by any human Authority but Divine Right With Mr. Hobbs and his Church I shall be very brief because his Notions here as indeed they are every where are no better than gross and palpable Contradictions Neither should I spend much pains upon the second opinion because the absurdity of it is so easily demonstrable from the Nature of Society it self but seeing Mr. Selden a very Learned Person has taken infinite pains in the Argument searched all Authors and all Records to heap together every thing that might serve his cause I shall wait upon him through all the material parts of his Discourse But with the third sort I intend to treat more largely because that is the Church at this present in fashion and is become popular and plausible by the Authority of some Learned men that have owned and asserted it And therefore I shall carefully demonstrate its vanity and falsehood from our Saviours express Institution from the certain practice of the Apostles from all the most undoubted Records of the Church and lastly from the great inconveniences that would unavoidably follow upon it And when we have gained these three Fundamental points we may then and not till then proceed to farther proposals for the true settlement of the Church of England for without them whatever men may talk of it all their Discourse of a Church is no more than a Notion and a Phantasm a Platonick Common-Wealth and a World in the Moon First then as for Mr. Hobbs his Opinion it is scarce worth any mans Confutation because it so plainly confutes itself For what can be more absurd and ridiculous than to make as he does the serious Belief of Religion necessary to the security of Government and yet discover to all those that he would have brought under the Power of this persuasion that it is in reality nothing but an useful and necessary Imposture And yet into this preposterous course of Politicks does Mr. Hobbs suffer himself to be driven by his pedantick Pride and Vanity That though it be above all things necessary to the Empire of our Sovereign Lord Leviathan that the common people be abused with the Belief and scared with the dread of invisible Powers yet lest they should be tempted to think the great Philosopher himself so weak as to be betrayed into the same Opinion he Publishes a Book to all the World to no other purpose beside Flattering the Tyrant Cromwel than to declare that neither himself nor any wise man ought to regard the Tales of Religion and that they are only designed to abuse the ignorant and the silly Just as if this great Statesman should go about to fright Birds from his Corn as he speaks with an empty Doublet an Hat and a crooked Stick but yet lest the Jack-Daws should take him for one of their own silly Flock he should take special care to inform them that himself knows it to be only a man of Clouts This alone is sufficient to discover the vanity and the danger of the Hobbian Religion when it is nothing else but an open Declaration of Atheism and Impiety Though indeed this way of trifling is so natural to Mr. Hobbs that as much as he loves his own Opinions he always contradicts them And this is a plain Demonstration of the Ignorance of the pretenders to Wisdom in this Age that so Inconsistent and Unphilosophical a Writer should obtain so much Credit and Authority among them For though he have a very facetious Wit and is the Author of many pleasant sayings yet he was never Master of one Philosophick Notion But for their conviction I shall challenge them to shew me more incoherent and inconsistent reasonings than are his undoubted and Mathematical Demonstrations against the Being of God and the Principles of Religion First then would you believe that there is a God or not Mr. Hobbs gives you your choice Choose which you please he will demonstrate either by the same Topick Will you have no Deity It is manifest there can be none because there can be no first Mover because nothing can move itself and therefore when men go about to prove a Deity from the succession of Causes and Effects they prove nothing but the necessity of Eternal motion for as it is true that nothing can move itself so is it true that nothing can move any thing else unless itself be first moved Here then the Demonstration is pregnant that there can be no first Cause because nothing can move it self and because all motion is Eternal But will you have a Deity The Demonstration of it is as undeniable For he that from any effect he seeth come to pass should reason to the next and immediate Cause thereof and from thence to the Cause of that Cause and plunge himself profoundly in the pursuit of Causes shall at last come to this that there must be as even the Heathen Philosophers
whereby he has obliged all the Members of it to the open profession of the Christian Faith and to Communicate in the Sacraments and all other Ordinances of publick Worship which Society is so far from having the least Dependence upon the Civil Power that it was at first Erected not only without the Allowance but against the Edicts and Decrees of all the Powers of the Earth and subsisted so apart from all Kingdoms and Common-wealths for above 300 years all which time though it borrowed no Force or Assistance from the Imperial Laws yet by vertue of our Saviours Divine Authority it obliged all Christians to embody together into a visible Society Which Obligation is not only distinct from but antecedent to all humane Laws that require the same thing And therefore in a Christian state men are not Christians by vertue of the Law of the Common-wealth but it is the Law of God that constitutes the Being and Formality of a Christian Church Now this being granted me which cannot be denyed without denying the foundations of the Christian Faith the whole cause of Erastianism is run upon a palpable Contradiction For if the Church be a Society founded upon Divine Right it must have at least as much Power of Government within it self as is necessary to its own Peace and Preservation otherwise it is no Society much less of any Divine Appointment And if it be indued with a Power of Government it must have a Power of inflicting penalties upon Offenders because without that the common sense of mankind will tell us that all Government is ineffectual And then as it is a Society so it is no civil Society as appears by our Saviours own Declaration that his Kingdom is not of this World and by the fundamental Principle of these men that for that very reason maintain it cannot be indued with any juridical Authority From all which viz. That it is a Society but no civil Society that every Society must have Government and all Government a Power of inflicting Penalties what can more demonstratively follow than That its Penalties are distinct from those that are inflicted by the civil Power and if so that then Excommunication in the Christian Church whatever it is must be something distinct from all civil Inflictions So that methinks Mr. Hobbs his Notion is much more Coherent with it self for whilst he allows the Church no Right of Society but what is granted it by the civil Government it is but reasonable that the Power upon whose Charter it subsists should retain to it self the Authority of governing it according to the Laws and Rights of its own â—â—stitution But to derive all its Rigâ—â— of Society from God and at the same time allow it no Power of Government but from the State is that gross Contradiction I charge them with in that Society without Government is no Society So that this one Notion That the Church is a spiritual Corporation distinct from the Common-wealth and antecedent to its being embodied to it prevents and anticipates all the Erastian Arguments because that alone plainly infers that it must be endued with a jurisdiction distinct from the civil Government And indeed the main Dispute depends upon this one Principle Whether the Church be a Society founded by Divine Institution if it be that alone vests it with a Power of Excommunication if it be not it is in vain to strugle against Conclusions when we have once own'd the Premises for then are we clearly return'd back to the Church of Leviathan that stands uponno other Foundation than that of humane Laws Now upon this immoveable Principle I joyn Issue with our learned Authour and shall wait upon him through all parts of his Discourse and through all Ages of the world as he has divided them into six Epochas 1 From Adam to Moses 2 From Moses to the Captivity 3 From the Captivity to our Saviour 4 From our Saviour to the end of the first Century 5 From the end of the first Century to the Reign of Constantine 6 From Constantine to our own Age of all which he has endeavour'd severally to prove that there was either no such thing as Excommunication in Use or if there were that it was a meer humane Invention First he undertakes to prove that there was no such punishment as Consistorian Excommunication in all the interval from the Creation to Moses For whereas it is the custom of some zealous men to fetch all things from the beginning of the World they have here it seems exemplified this matter in the Fall of Lucifer from Heaven in the expulsion of Adam from Paradise and in the banishment of Cain from the Society of mankind Now in answer to these he replies two things First that these punishments were not properly Excommunication Secondly that if they were examples are not enough to make a Divine Law I will freely grant him both and yet infer from hence what is enough to my purpose The necessity of Government to the preservation of Society and of inflicting penalties to the preservation of Government When it appears from hence that even God himself who is endued with infinite Wisdom and Power has no other moral way but this to govern the world And that is all that in this part of the Dispute can be material to our present Argument for the Dispute being divided into two parts Whether there be such a punishment as Excommunication and Whether the Power of inflicting it be appropriate to certain Officers of our Saviours appointment I suppose no man ever pretended to prove that our Saviour at the beginning of the World instituted an Apostolical order of men for the government of Religion so that here all the Controversie that can be is Whether there were not an absolute necessity of some jurisdiction in this as well as all other matters of humane life and for it we have our Authour 's full suffrage proving in his first and second Chapters that the sons of Noah and the Patriarchs who lived before the Law must have had their Courts of judicature tam circa Sacra quà m Profana from the nature and end of Society in that without this Power it must unavoidably fall into disorder and confusion Utrum aurem praefecturae fuerint illis tunc temporis juridicae tametsi nulla omnino restarent earundem in sacris literis alibive vestigia non magis esset dubitandum quà m utrùm in societatem vitae civilem coalescerent tunc ipsi atque animalia ut genus humanum reliquum essent politica rectèque ac honestè pro seculi persuasione vivendi rationem omnino inirent atque ut Dubia Lites Controversiae cum effectu civili i. e. judiciorum executione dirimerentur scelera ac delicta cohiberentur adeoque in Officiis contineretur quisque suis curaret And therefore he makes all Government to be establisht by the Law of Nature as being absolutely necessary to the preservation of all humane Society Which
all cases that came in upon the account of their new Persuasion that is to say all cases that concern the Christian Church So p. 207. Et qui annis proximius sequentibus è Gentilibus sine Judaismi Proselytismi Christi disciplinam amplexati sunt Judaeorum nihilominus nomine ita simul cum reliquis Judaeis paritâ—r veniebant eorumque diu juribus aliis non paucis ita utebantur ut non videatur omnino dubitandum quin inter jura illa etâ—am hoc de excommunicatione Judaica quantum ad species ejus seu gradus nam quantum ad causas necessum erat ut alitâ—r se res haberet quod nemo non videt pariter à cunctis ut ante pro re nata adhiberetur But if the causes for which Excommunication was inflicted in the Christian Church were as the Parenthesis informs us of a different nature from those for which it was inflicted among the Jews then without any farther dispute it is evident that the exercise of the Christian Excommunication was distinct from that of the Jews So lastly to mention no more p. 225. Nec disciplina illa apud eos alia quam Judaismus vere reformatus sen cum fide in Messiam seu Christum rite conjunctus Unde Judaei omnimodi quantum ad hanc rem in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non credentes tribui solebant We are here proving that there was no discipline in the Christian Church but what was in the Jewish state before Christianity but now it is the discipline of reform'd Judaism i. e. of Christianity But passing by these humble concessions or rather contradictions it is enough to our purpose that though all Christians were Jews all Jews were not Christians so that though the Christians enjoyed the same Rights in common with the Jews yet they must have some Rights peculiar to themselves as Christians Non aliter as our Author expresses it atque is qui Civis Romani aliusve Reipublicae seu sodalitii aliâ—ujus socius jura pristina retinet utcunque in persuasionem aliquam inter suos singularem pro libitu transeat In the same manner as a Citizen of Rome retains his former Rights notwithstanding he enters himself into any new Society to which ought to be added that the rights of the Society into which he enters himself are distinct from those wherewith he was antecedently vested as a Citizen of Rome And therefore all this long discourse is quite beside the purpose that because the Christians enjoyed the same priviledges with Jews that therefore they enjoyed none as Christians which is to say that there are no Christian Priviledges And so is that of the Edicts of the Roman Emperors who it seems knew nothing of the difference between Christians and Jews What then was there none because the enemies or strangers to the Church were unacquainted with its peculiar Constitutions And yet here too our Author is quite beside the purpose not only in matter of Right but in matter of Fact as to the Authorities he alledges the first and chiefest whereof is the Edict of the Emperour Claudius for the banishment of all Jews from Rome by vertue whereof says he Aquila who was a Christian was banisht too and very good reason because he that was a Christian was a Jew too and if he was banisht as a Jew it is no matter whether he were a Christian or not when the Edict was made against the whole nation of the Jews His other instance is out of Celsus who objects it both against the Christians and Jews that all that great difference they made about their Messias was about a very trifle But does Mr. Selden think that Celsus his Authority is sufficient to prove it so If he does then I must confess that Celsus and himself seem to have been much of the same opinion for he frequently tells us that the Christians and Jews were the same men only that those were believers these unbelievers as if the difference were as inconsiderable as Celsus made the coming of the Messias But if his Authority be not sufficient as I suppose no good Christian will grant it is especially in this case then it 's here alledged apparently to no purpose And whereas he adds that Origen answers that the Jews who believe in Jesus do not withstanding live according to the Laws of their Nation he ought to have added too that they live according to the Laws of their Messias For it was that great and sacred Law of the Gospel that made a vast difference between a Jew and a Christian which was so great that it was not greater between a Jew and a Gentile But however if there were any difference at all it spoils all our Authors discourse that proceeds upon this only principle that there was none which is so absurd that it has all along forced him upon the forementioned cowardly contradiction viz. That there was none but what was made by Christianity But suppose that the Christians exercised a Jurisdiction among themselves by vertue of the imperial Edicts to the Jews as he tells us what if they had never been authorised by any such Edicts would they have had no Authority to censure or Excommunicate scandalous Offenders Did St. Paul proceed against the incestuous Corinthian by the grant of Claudius to the Jews to govern themselves by their own Laws and Customs If he did not then he acted by vertue of some other Authority if he did then when any of the following Emperours reverst this Edict the Authority of St. Paul in this matter had ceased What then became of the Church when Nero presently after forbad the exercise of Christianity or any part of it in the Roman Empire was not then Excommunication in the Christian Church an unlawful thing No says our Author because this Decree was made against the Christian Church in particular and therefore did not deprive them of those priviledges that belonged to them in common with the Jews But however upon this principle it is manifest that it debarred them of this Power as peculiar to the Christian Church and then whatever Jurisdiction they exercised as Jews they had no right of exercising any Discipline in the name of the Lord Jesus as St. Paul commands the Corinthians And then all the Ecclesiastical Discipline that was executed in the times of their several Persecutions was open Rebellion against the State But beside what if he had been pleased to reverse all priviledges granted to the Jews then the power of Ecclesiastical Discipline must have ceased among Christians And lastly when he adds for his last reserve for keeping up a Discipline in the Church contrary to the commands of the civil Power the confederacy of the primitive Christians who obliged themselves by mutual compacts and covenants to submit to the Discipline of the Church he should have consider'd that all such confederations were upon his principles nothing less than conspiracies
arises from meer consent or voluntary confederacy for beside as I have shewn that all such Confederacies are upon his principles downright Rebellion it is manifest that if our Saviour appointed Officers over his Church and vested them with a power of Government that then he has brought all the members of it under an Obligation to submit to their Authority antecedent to their own consents But though we had no such clear evidence of this Divine Institution yet I am sure we have not the least footsteps in Antiquity of this confederate Discipline He tells us indeed of Compacts and Covenants that the Primitive Christians are said to have made among themselves but he could have told us too that these Compacts were nothing else but the celebration of the Eucharist at which they were wont as all devout men do to renew their vows and resolutions of Obedience to the Laws of their Religion And this Confederacy we all know is founded upon a Divine Institution and not only this but all other Assemblies for the publick Worship of God To which all Christians are bound by an Obligation higher than meerly their own consent and such a Confederation we grant the Church still to be a company of men Covenanting among themselves to worship God according to the Ordinances and obey him according to the Laws of the Gospel But then they are bound by the Command of God both to take this Covenant and to keep it And this is all the confederacy I know of unless we must believe Celsus his Calumnies for he too is quoted upon this occasion in the Primitive Church so that whereas our Author every where compares the confederate discipline of the Christians with that of the Jews in their dispersions it is manifest that the Jews had no other engagement beside their own mutual consent whereas the Christians were particularly obliged to enter into their Confederacy by God himself and this difference is so manifest that I shall say no more of it And now having thus firmly establisht the Churches Power upon Divine Right that supersedes all farther enquiry into the practice of after-Ages For in matters that are determined by Law all Presidents are either nothing to the purpose or to no purpose if they are against the Command they are nothing to the purpose being only so many Violations of the Law If they are for it they are to no purpose because they derive all their goodness and authority from the Law it self and therefore can give it none Thus if the power of Excommunication be founded upon the Command of God the contrary practice of all the Princes in Christendom is of no weight against the Word of God if it be not the practice of all the Churches in the World can never establish a Divine Command So that the controversie concerning matters of fact from the Reign of Constantine to our own Times the matter of Law being already clear'd from our Saviour's Time carries in it more of Ostentation than Usefulness But because our Author has been pleased to prosecute it so largely and with so much learning and confidence we are obliged to follow him especially when it is so notorious even from his own relations that the whole practice of Christendom unless perhaps in some enormities of the worst and most barbarous Times runs directly cross to his design First then he presents us with many Instances out of the Imperial Law whereby the Emperors exercised this Authority themselves but to all this himself immediately gives a sufficient Answer without making any Reply viz. That such Excommunications were meerly declaratory whereby they only declared their detestation of such Persons or Doctrines or rather declared their assent to the Sentence already denounced by the Church for I do not find that they ever made any new Ecclesiastical Laws of their own but only adopted the Canons of Councils into the Laws of the Empire and added to the Anathema's of the Church what civil Penalties they deem'd most sutable to the Offence The Theodosian Code is an excellent collection of the Constitutions of sixteen Emperours ab Anno Dom. 312. or the first Year of Constantines Conversion ad Annum 438. when it was compiled by the command of Theodosius junior in all which I think I may safely challenge any man to assign one Law relating to Religion that was not antecedently determin'd by some Council Almost all the Laws of this nature are contain'd in the 16th Book under their several Titles De fide de haereticis de apostatis c. in all which whoever will be pleased to peruse them he will find that the several Emperors enacted nothing but meerly in pursuance of Ecclesiastical Canons adding for the most part to Excommunication in the Church the punishment of Outlawry in the State Thus for example Theodosius the Great in that famous Ecclesiastical Edict published by him in the second year of his Reign and the first of his Baptism and therefore stiled by the Interpreters of the Justinian Code filiam primogenitam only established the Nicene Faith Ut secundum Apostolicam disciplinam evangelicamque doctrinam Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti unam deitatem sub parili Majestate sub piâ Trinitate credamus And when the Year after he published another Edict to the same purpose he vouches his Law by the Authority of the Nicene Council as may be seen Tit. 5. de Haereticis Leg. 6. So that his design was not to make any new Law but only to abet an ancient Law of the Church with a civil Penalty as he concludes his Edict that Offenders against it should not only be obnoxious to the Divine Veneance denounced by the Council but should also be punished at the Emperors pleasure for that I suppose to be the meaning of Motûs nostri ultione plectendos But the most express Ratification of the Canons of the Church is that Edict of Theodosius the Younger to the Governour of the Eastern Illyricum Anno Domini 421. Omni innovatione cessante vetustatem Canones pristinos Ecclesiasticos qui nunc usque tenuerunt per omnes Illyrici Provincias servari praecipimus Tum si quid dubietatis emerserit id oporteat non absque scientiâ viri reverendissimi sacrosanctae legis Antistitis urbis Constantinopolitanae quae Romae veteris praerogativâ laetatur conventui sacerdotali sanctoque judicio reservari 'T is not material whether this Law refer to the Canons of the General Councils or to the particular Canons of that Province which is a Dispute among learned men For be it this or that it is manifest that the Emperor design'd to follow the Decrees of the Church and to refer Ecclesiastical Controversies to its own judgment and determination Having intimated this account of the Theodosian Code I need add nothing of the Justinian because it only repeats all the Laws of the former that were not obsolete as may be seen not only by comparing the Books themselves but
that passage of Sozomen l. 1. c. 9. in which some learned men fancy they find some footsteps of this Law it is quite to the other purpose that I but now mentioned viz. the Bishops Power of determining causes by the mutual consent of Parties When this Edict was forged and by whom it is uncertain but it is probably conjectur'd by Gothofred from the Barbarity of its stile and great likeness of it to that of Constantines Donation to have been forged in the same Shop and by the same hand But if this Edict were as true as the rest are which give Bishops Power to sentence causes praeeunte vinculo compromissi yet where do we find any Edict for enabling them to enforce their decrees by Excommunication Not one syllable of that in all the Roman Laws but on the contrary the Civil Magistrates and their Officers are commanded to put the Bishops Sentence in execution Is it not then a very forced way of Arguing that because the Roman Emperours granted the Christian Bishops some jurisdiction they must of necessity have granted them the Power of Excommunication though there is no such Edict extant in all their Laws They conferr'd many Priviledges upon the Clergy in the Titles De Episcopis Ecclesiâ—s Clericis de Religione yet there is nothing in both the Codes and all the Novels to vest them with any power of Excommunication and therefore as those other they enjoyed by the Emperours favour not by any antecedent Right so seeing they exercised this Power and that not by vertue of any Imperial grant it is evident that they received their Authority from some other hand So that to conclude there cannot be a more pregnant Argument against our Author's opinion than the body of the Imperial Law in which there is not one Instance recorded that ever any Emperour pretended to this Power himself or granted it to his Bishops for from thence it unavoidably follows that if they had it at all they had it from some other Commission And thus am I come to the conclusion of this Argument for though there are many Precedents of latter Times yet I am not concern'd to justifie what was done by Huns Goths and Vandals whose practices were the meer effects of Ignorance and Barbarity and oblige us rather to pity than to follow their Examples PART II. HAving hitherto treated with the false Pretenders to the Church of England I come now in the last place to treat more amicably with some of its mistaken Friends and they are those that own a Government in it but without Governours allowing indeed that there ought to be some sort of Government establish'd in the Church but then they deny any particular Form of it to have been settled by Divine Right or Apostolical Constitution and leave it wholly to the choice and determination of Humane Authority So that though the Church of England happen to be at present govern'd by Bishops and though upon that account we may owe duty and subjection to them as our lawful Superiours yet they are not set over us by any Divine Commission but purely by his Majestie 's good Will and Pleasure who at his Restitution to his Kingdoms might have forborn to restore the then Abolish'd Order of Bishops and instead of that have establish'd some other Form of Government that he judged most suitable to the present state of things which if he had done that then had been the Church of England Now the Birth of this Opinion seems to have happened on this manner Mr. Calvin having founded his Geneva Platform upon Divine Institution as he particularly does in the Fourth Book of his Institutions Chap. 11. though some men that are more his Disciples than they are willing to own are pleased to deny it And in pursuance of this Decree Beza and all the other first Apostles of his Church having spent all their pains in endeavouring to make it good out of the Word of God the learned men that came after them both in the French and Dutch Churches because they must needs go beyond those that went before them proceeded to advance the Argument from Scripture to Antiquity and have with infinite industry sifted all the Writings of the Ancients to prove that there was no other Form of Government in the Church but by Presbyters in the first Ages of it next and immediately after the Apostles The chief Labourers in which Cause among many other less learned were Blondel Salmasius and Dallé who spent the greatest part both of their Life and Learning upon this Argument But they proceeding for the most part in a sceptical and destructive way not so much relying upon the Testimony as impairing the credit of Antiquity which it seems they supposed the best way to maintain their Argument this soon gave occasion to some Learned men conversant in their Writings to conclude against all pretences to the Divine or Apostolical Institution of any unalterable and perpetual Form of Church-Government whatsoever and so to think of allaying those Controversies about a Jus Divinum that had been lately and still were managed among us with so much heat and noise by leaving it as they say our Saviour and his Apostles did to the prudence of every particular Church to agree upon its own Form as it judgeth most conducing to the end of Government in that particular Church This is the state of the Question as they determine it and the Opinion is grown popular and plausible in great Vogue both among the Learned and Unlearned and is almost become the Rule and Standard of all our Ecclesiastical Polity In so much that there are many worthy Gentlemen as any one may observe in his ordinary Conversation that were stout and loyal Confessors to the Church of England under its Sufferings that at this time look upon it as an Arbitrary and indifferent thing And therefore in pursuance of my design in behalf of the Church of England I am obliged to examine the reasons and Principles upon which it is founded and to shew that it is so far from tending to the Peace of an Establish'd Church that it is destructive to the Being and Settlement of all the Christian Churches in the World And though here I have many learned worthy men for my Adversaries yet I hope to manage the Dispute with that Candour and Integrity that none shall have any reason to complain of any more unkindness than what is absolutely necessary to my doing right to the Church of England And this I am sure can give no Offence to good men how much soever I may chance to cross with their particular Sentiments and Opinions And as for bad men for there are of both sorts engaged in the Opinion I were not true to my own Integrity if I suffered my self to be in the least swayed by their good or bad Opinion for I write not to please but to convince them which I know as long as they continue bad is but
And therefore these Persons that relie so much on this distinction would have done very well to have considered with themselves wherein consists the Essence of Order when separated from Power which if they had done they would soon have discerned that they had only deceived themselves with an idle and an empty Word However it were worth their while to define what it was that was peculiar to the Apostolical Order beside the Supreme Government of the Church especially when as it is acknowledged by all Parties the Apostles enjoyed during their own lives the supreme Power in the Government of the Church and that the Parity of Presbyters arose not till after their Deaths they having appointed no Successors in their Apostolical Supremacy From whence what can be more apparent than that their Office could not possibly consist in any thing less than a superiority of Power over all the other Pastors of the Church And now when our Saviour himself has thus expresly Establish'd the Government of his Church in an imparity of Order and Power what farther Prescript would men have for the continuance of his own Establishment That alone is sufficient to prescribe to all Ages and Nations and if any man shall dare to remonstrate to its Obligation he must have confidence enough to presume that he is indued with more Wisdom or entrusted with more Authority than our Saviour himself For otherwise he cannot but think that he is obliged in Conscience and Modesty too rather to esteem this Model than any one of his own or any others Contrivance Yes but though it be proved that the Apostles had superiority of Order and Jurisdiction over the other Pastors of the Church by an Act of Christ yet it must further be proved that it was Christ's intention that Superiority should continue in their Successors or it makes nothing to the purpose For a bare Divine Command say they is not sufficient to make a Law immutable unless there be likewise expressed that it is the Will of God that it should always continue No no you are too nice and shie of your Obedience in this particular Case and may upon the same ground set your selves loose from all the Laws of the Gospel that are not enjoyn'd with an express declaration of their being Immutable and thereby you have quit your selves of the greatest part of your Christian Duty For we shall find but very few Precepts either of our Saviour or his Apostles tied with this double Knot and it seems without that they are not strong enough to tie any man to Obedience Neither do I see how upon this Principle we can avoid that frivolous Objection of the Socinians against the perpetual necessity of the Sacrament of Baptism viz. That seeing it was Instituted by our Saviour only to pass men from Judaism and Gentilism to Christianity it is therefore now of no necessity among Christians unless our Saviour had declared that it was his Will and Intention that it should always continue in his Church Especially when this Ceremony was taken up from the practice of the Synagogue where when any man had once renounced Heathenism and entred himself into the Jewish Church it was never after repeated in any of his Posterity but they were all by vertue of their Fore-fathers Baptism esteem'd as born in a state of Holiness and Regeneracy But however this general Principle is so far from Truth and Sobriety that it is a plain thrusting our own Presumptions upon the Will of God which being once declared it binds us for ever till himself is pleased to reverse it his meer Institution is its own perpetual Obligation and whatever he commands no Power can take it off but that which bound it on And therefore it is a vain scrupulosity if I may call so sceptical a pretence by that name to require of him not only to fasten his Laws by enacting them but as it were to clinch them too by declaring their perpetuity In all other Cases but this it is supposed that whatever he commands he commands for ever till he declares the contrary for though his Positive Laws be revocable in themselves yet being revocable only by God himself and his own Power since he hath already in his Word fully revealed his Will unless therein he hath declared when their Obligation shall cease they continue Irreversible It therefore being once granted that the Apostles had a superiority of Jurisdiction by an Act of Christ it plainly follows that without any farther declaration of its perpetuity their Power is irreversible Especially when the Rule whereby we are left to judg of the mind and intention of the Law-giver is the Reason of the Law viz. That the Reason continuing the Law should remain in force though I cannot see of what use this should be to those who will give leave to demand no other reasons of any Divine Positive Laws beside the Will of the Law-giver For if that be the only reason of the Law then it is in vain to pretend to judg of it by any other But yet however I shall close with them upon their own Principle and to save farther trouble I would only put them to assign what particular Ground and Reason there was of establishing a Superiority and Subordination of Church-Officers then that is ceased for all succeeding Ages of the Church and till they can give themselves and us some competent satisfaction in this desire them to acquiesce in our Saviour's Institution But alas this was never so much as attempted and is manifestly impossible to be perform'd for that man no doubt would make wise work of it that should undertake to give the World a satisfactory Account of the particular Grounds and Reasons that should make an inequality of Power in Ecclesiastical Officers necessary in our Saviour's Days and needless ever since But if this cannot be done as it is certain at first view that it never can then certainly the meer Institution of our Saviour in a matter of so great moment to the Church is sufficient of it self to pass a perpetual and indispensible Obligation upon all Ages of it And now upon these Grounds that I have already obtain'd from our Saviour's express Institution I need not dispute with our Adversaries for that is one of their little shifts whether the Missions of the Apostles and the Seventy were only Temporary For whether they were or were not it is from thence evident what Model of Government our Saviour framed for his Church and that is all that is needful to my purpose And therefore I will freely grant that our Saviour's design in Life-time seems to have been not so much to found Churches himself as to have prepared and instructed his Disciples how to do it after his departure So that he rather made a Specimen of the Constitution of his Church than erected any standing Fabrick of it For the Foundations of it were to be laid in the evidence of his Resurrection from the dead
began the breach the lopping off of that infinite power and by consequence the stopping of those vast treasures that continually flowed from all parts of Christendom into the Popes Coffers Though many other corruptions that were crept into the Church partly by the negligence of the Popes while they alone governed in it partly by the Incursions of barbarous Nationâ— they as justly complained of and might probably have had them all reformed if they would have yielded to him his two fundamental points Wealth and Empire And as that was then their just complaint so is it still of all the Bishops that are by force kept in his Communion Not only all their Revenues but which is much more dishonourable all their Power being taken from them they being every where unless such as retain to the Court of Rome little better than the Popes Curates nay not so much being stript of all Authority and the Government of their Diocesse wholly put into other hands And here comes in the great Mystery of Jesuitism for this complaint was so Universal that it was impossible for the Pope alone to withstand it and therefore this project was at last fixed upon being at first started by a fanatique Souldier to set up a new Order of Ecclesiasticks exempt from all other Jurisdiction and immediately dependent upon and absolutely subject to the Pope and by them chiefly to manage all the Affairs of Christendom And there lies all the strength of the Jesuits in their Vow of absolute Obedience to their Superiour and of their Superiour to the Pope so that whatever they are commanded be it never so unaccountable to their own Consciences they are implicitely bound to execute upon pain of damnation And this device has taken so successfully that notwithstanding all that opposition that has been made to the Order they have for many years exercised an absolute Tyranny not only over all the People but almost all the Governours of that Church And to justifie these irregular proceedings the Bishops are by little tricks and senseless distinctions of the School-men degraded into the same Order with the Presbyters and then the Priests of the Jesuits Order are as well qualified to exercise Jurisdiction as themselves especially if licensed thereto by the Popes Dispensation according to the Decree of Innocent the IV. Ex delegatione Domini Papae quilibet Clericus potest quicquid habet ipse conferre So that by this device they may be enabled to give Priests Orders as well as exercise Episcopal Jurisdiction This design was all along aimed at in the Institutions of their Regular Priests but never effectually compassed till the foundation of this Society So that you see that the whole mystery of Jesuitism at last resolves it self into Presbytery and the fundamental Principle of both consists in slighting and opposing the Episcopal Order And therefore it is a little observable that they were both born into the World at the same time it being the year 1541. when Calvin made himself Pope of his Lay-Cardinals at Geneva and Ignatius obtained to be made Superiour of his Order at Rome Since which time between them both Christendom has enjoyed very little peace or quiet and particularly by their joynt-malice was wrought just that time an hundred years viz. 1641. the overthrow and destruction of the Church of England And if the Church of Rome could but get rid of the Church of England by the help and zeal of the other Factions she would quickly scorn and defie all their little Pretences For when they have run into all their sub-divisions there can be no more than two other Forms of Government either the Genevian of Presbytery or the Racovian of Independency but both being so palpable Innovations in the Christian Church and withall of so very late a date it will be no difficult matter for the Church of Rome to defend her own Title how bad soever against such upstart and absurd Competitors But when they have to do with the Church of England they are then apparently bafled with the undeniable practice and constitution of the Primitive Church And this is so observable that I do not remember any learned Writer of the Church of Rome that has undertaken to charge any fault or defect upon the Constitution of our Church it self Here their only Topick is to upbraid her with those abuses that have been put upon her by other by-designs in which indeed she is very much concerned as a Sufferer but no way guilty as an Actor For what is that to me if when I see gross and scandalous abuses in the Church I endeavour to remove or reform them other men that pretend to come in to my assistance shall under that pretence design nothing but Plunder and Sacriledge That lies wholly upon their Conscience but I am innocent and it is very disingenuous and foolish too to load me with their wickedness Let them prove that there were no corruptions in their Church that needed Reformation and then I must confess I am convicted but if they cannot then the baffle lies plainly at their own doors and it is in vain to charge me with the miscarriage of other men This I say is the state of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome as to this point and whilst we keep to this Station nothing is more easie than to maintain our ground but if once we quit it we fall under all the disadvantages of Innovators And however we may afterwards annoy the Enemy we can never defend our selves And that I say is the case of all other parties in their opposition to the Church of Rome excepting the Church of England and those that stick to the same Primitive Constitution As therefore we are concerned to fortifie our selves against the Romans let us secure this Bulwark that they can never force but if we once forsake it we have nothing left but to encounter Innovation with Innovation and then when both Parties are in the wrong it is not much material who overcomes This is all I think good at this present to propound in the behalf of the Church of England and when these Principles are laid at the foundation of the building it will then and not till then be seasonable to proceed to more practicable Propositions and therefore I shall say no more at present than only to summon in all good and honest men to the maintenance of this just Cause as they will one day answer it to Almighty God against all the present open and wicked attempts of Atheism and Superstition and as they have any fear of God or man as they love their Country or their Posterity as they have any sense of Interest or Honour or Conscience neither by their carelesness nor their cowardise to betray the best Church in the world to the fury and the folly of the worst of men And in this case let no man make excuses or raise difficulties from the badness or
obstinate against their Authority every man should look upon him as an Excommunicate Person and by the sentence of the Court reduced into the state of Idolaters But also by the words immediately following Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Which words plainly declare a Power of binding in the sentence of the Church and withall who the Church is viz. The Apostles or Governours of it to whom our Saviour addresses his speech and vests them and them alone with that Authority in which he had before enstated St. Peter and promises to ratifie not the opinion of the People but their acts of Judicature when the People appeal to their Authority But neither Secondly says our Author can these words relate to the Christian Excommunication for what punishment could there then be in being accounted of as an Heathen when a great number of the primitive Christians were Heathens or such as came into the Church without Circumcision What in our Saviours time did you not take a great deal of pains in the foregoing Chapter to prove not only that then but during all the time of the Apostles all Christians were Jews but now it will serve your turn the greatest part of them were Heathens But not to insist too much upon such weak pretences it is certain that in our Saviours time all that were not Jews by Circumcision were esteemed as Heathens i. e. Idolaters and vile Persons not fit to be admitted into their Church or Common-wealth and therefore it can be of no other Import in the Christian Church Our Saviour here accommodating as he does every where the known customs of the Synagogue to the Constitution of his Church so that considering the vulgar manner of speaking at that time I cannot understand if our Saviour had design'd to establish this Power in what other words he could have expressed himself with more plainness and less ambiguity even to the capacities of the People Of the Third Text Math. 18. 18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth c. Though it is answer'd already as appertaining to the second our Authors account is briefly this that the words of binding and loosing are either to be taken in their large sense of all manner of binding but then it seems very strange to express one act of it by such comprehensive words and it is like describing the Ocean by a drop of Water or the Universe by an Atom Or if they are taken in the peculiar sense of the Jewish Writers they then do not signifie any Jurisdiction but only declaring what is lawful what not or answering cases of Conscience To which I answer that in whatever sense the words are taken they will include in them the power of Excommunication In the larger sense they signifie Jurisdiction and all the parts branches and appendages of it and then the Power of inflicting penalties which as is well known and our Author has often observed gives force to all the rest is to be understood in the first place And therefore he might have spared his wonder that so large a word should be taken in so narrow a sense when that narrow sense necessarily infers all other things that it does or can signifie But however to prevent this vain objection for the time to come these words are not insisted upon as limited meerly to Excommunication but as a general donation of Power and therefore of this in particular which is so considerable a branch of it And that is it which we assert that seeing by the Power of the Keys the Scripture so often expresses greatness of Power therefore the Power that is exercised by vertue of them must carry with it the full force of obligation So that the words mutually explain each other for if by the Keys given in the Sixteenth verse is signified Authority then by binding and loosing by which the acts of them are expressed in the Eighteenth verse must be understood authoritative obligation for though the word binding simply put may not infer Authority yet binding by the Keys signifies the same thing as binding by Authority And this would have prevented our Authors other notion of which some learned men are so very fond of binding only by answering cases of Conscience because though binding alone may signifie only so much yet binding by the Keys must signifie more But it is notorious that the word it self no where in the old Testament signifies any other binding than by Legislative or judicial Obligation and whereas it is pretended that in the Talmudical Writers it signifies only an interpreting of Laws without jurisdiction it is so palpable a mistake that in them it can signifie nothing less than authoritative Obligation when it is so evident that their Rabbies equal'd their interpretations to the Law it self and bound them upon the Consciences of men by vertue of the Divine Authority and under penalty of the Divine displeasure But however if our Saviour constituted his Apostles to be only Doctors and Casuists yet he has annexed Authority to their Office by the promise made at their Instalment that whatever they bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven for I am sure all binding there is Obligatory so that it seems if they are Casuists they are authoritative Casuists and that is the same thing as if they were endued with proper Jurisdiction And now having as I suppose sufficiently vindicated these Texts I cannot but remark it as some defect of Ingenuity in this learned Gentleman to have wholly omitted one Text more which he could not be ignorant to have been as commonly as any of the other insisted upon in this Argument and if he would have taken notice of it would have prevented his Evasions And that is St. John Chap. 20. v. 21 22 23. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this â—e breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Here our Saviour gives his Apostles the same Power that he had received from his Father and then for the discharge of it the same Ability wherewith himself acted and lastly declares to them wherein lay the Exercise of it and what were the Effects of it forgiving and retaining of Sins which answers to the power of Binding and Loosing in the other Gospel And this if attended to would have prevented that poor slender Notion that the power of Binding and Loosing signifies only the Office of Interpreting or declaring what is lawful what unlawful for to retain or remit Sins as the truly pious and learned Dr. Hammond observes will not be to declare one mans sins unlawful anothers lawful which it must do if this interpretation be applied to this place After all this it will be but superfluous industry to spend pains upon our Author's Conceit wherewith he concludes this Chapter viz. That the Authority of the Church