accusaverit Of which Canon thus Dr. Field p. 518. Patriarchs were by the Order of the 8th General Council Can. 17. to confirm the Metropolitans subject unto them either by the imposition of hands or giving the Pall. And l. 5. c. 37. p. 551. ' Without the Patriarchs consent none of the Metropolitans subject unto them might be ordained And what they bring saith he proves nothing that we ever doubted of For we know the Bishop of Rome hath the right of confirming the Metropolitans within the Precincts of his own Patriarchship as likewise every other Patriarch had And thus Bishop Bramhal Vindic. c. 9. p. 259. c. What power the Metropolitan had over the Bishops of his own Province the same had a Patriarch over the Metropolitans and Bishops of sundry Provinces within his own Patriarchate And afterwards Wherein then consisteth Patiarchal Authority In ordaining their Metropolitans or confirming them δ. δ Bishop Carleton in his Treatise of Jurisdiction Regal and Episcopal 4. c. p. 42. § 14 External Jurisdiction is either definitive or mulctative Authority definitive in matters of Faith and Religion belongeth to the Church Mulctative power is understood either as it is with coaction i. e. using Secular force or as it is referred to Spiritual Censures As it standeth in Spiritual Censures it is the right of the Church and was practised by the Church when without Christian Magistrate and since But coactive Jurisdiction was always understood to belong to the Civil Magistrate whether Christian or Heathen Ibid. 1. c. p. 9. As for Spiritual Jurisdiction standing in Examination of Controversies of Faith judging of Heresies deposing of Hereticks Excommunications of notorious and stubborn offenders Ordination of Priests and Deacons Institution and Collation of Benefices and Spiritual Cures this we reserve entire to the Church which Princes cannot give to nor take from the Church And by this Power saith he 4. c. p. 39. without Coaction the Church was called Faith was planted Devils were subdued the Nations were taken out of the power of darkness the world reduced to the obedience of Christ by this Power without coactive Jurisdiction the Church was governed for 300 years together But if it be enquired what was done when the Emperors were Christian and when their coactive Power came in The Emperors saith he p. 178. never took upon them by their Authority to define matters of Faith and Religion that they left to the Church But when the Church had defined such Truths against Hereticks and had deposed such Hereticks then the Emperors concurring with the Church by their Imperial Constitutions did by their coactive Power give strength to the Canons of the Church § 15 Mr. Thorndike Rights of the Church 4. c. p. 234. The Power of the Church is so absolute and depending on God alone that if a Sovereign professing Christianity should forbid the profession of that Faith or the Exercise of those Ordinances which God hath required to be served with The judgment of which Faith and Ordinances what they are Protestants also affirm to belong to the Clergy or even the Exercise of that Ecclesiastical Power which shall be necessary to preserve the Unity of the Church it must needs be necessary for those that are trusted with the Power of the Church not only to disobey the Commands of the Sovereign but to use that Power which their Quality in the Society of the Church gives them to provide for the subsistence thereof without the assistance of Secular Powers A thing manifestly supposed by all the Bishops of the ancient Church in all those actions wherein they refused to obey their Emperors seduced by Hereticks refused to obey them in forbearing to teach still and publish the Catholick Doctrine when prohibited by them and to suffer their Churches to be regulated by them to the prejudice of Christianity Which actions whosoever justifies not he will lay the Church open to ruine whensoever the Soveraign Power is seduced by Hereticks And such a difference falling out i. e. between Prince and Clergy in Church matters as that to particular persons it cannot be clear who is in the right It will be requisite saith he for Christians in a doubtful case at their utmost perils to adhere to the Guides of the Church against their lawful Sovereign tho to no other effect than to suffer if the Prince impose it for the Exercise of their Christianity and the maintenance of the Society of the Church in Unity See the same Author Epilog 1. l. 19. c. The contents whereof touching this subject he hath briefly expressed thus That that Power which was in the Churches under the Apostles can never be in any Christian Sovereign That the interest of Secular Power in determining matters of Faith presupposeth the Society of the Church and the Act of it And there he giveth reasons why the Church is to decide matters of Faith rather than the State supposing neither to be infallible Ibid. c. 20. p. 158. he saith That he who disturbs the Communion of the Church remains punishable by the Secular power to inflict temporal penalties not absolutely because it is Christian but upon supposition that this temporal power maintaineth the true Church And afterward That the Secular Power is not able of it self to do any of those Acts which the Church i.e. those who are qualified by and for the Church are qualified by vertue of their Commission from Christ to do without committing the sin of Sacrilege in seizing into its own hands the Powers which by God's Act are constituted and therefore consecrated and dedicated to his own service not supposing the free Act of the Church without fraud and violence concurring to the doing of it Now among the Acts and Powers belonging to the Church which he calls a Corporation by divine right and appointment he names these 1. l. 16. c. p. 116. The Power of making Laws within themselves and then I suppose of publishing them made among all the Subjects of the Church in whatever Princes Dominions else why make them of electing Church Governors of which see 3. l. 32. c. p. 398. and of Excommunicating and 3. l. 32. c. p. 385. The Power to determine all matters the determination whereof is requisite to maintain the Communion of Christians in the service of God and the Power to oblige Christians to stand to that determination under pain of forfeiting that Communion The Power of holding Assemblies which must be by meeting together in some place or other and by some Church Authority calling them Of which he speaks thus 1. l. 8. c. p. 53. I must not omit to alledge the Authority of Councils and to maintain the Right and Power of holding them and the obligation which the Decrees of them regularly made is able to create to stand by the same Authority of the Apostles And afterward I that pretend the Church to be a Corporation founded by God upon a Priviledge of holding visible Assemblies for the common Service
have been still a Schismatick and an Usurper § 6 6. Hence also should a Christian Secular Power suppose Arian refuse to nominate and present any person to the Clergy to be admitted to such Office and Jurisdictions within his dominions save such as are Arians here the Church-Governors authorized by the Canons ought to take the same care for these Christian Provinces in such dominions in the times of Christian as they did in times of Heathen Princes in appointing such other Pastors over the Flocks of Christ there as will still preserve the Faith and Unity of the Catholick Church And should the Church-Governors de facto appoint none because they see the possession of such place is by violence hindred yet will he who in the manner aforesaid invades such office be as much an Usurper as if he entred upon a Chair already possessed when it is only by reason of him and such like that those men are kept out who might rightly possess it and it is to be reckoned the same delinquency as if such Chair had actually two Bishops § 7 7. They hold That to the Exercise of the Episcopal Function in any Province so that it may continue undevided from the Unity of the Church-Catholick and so that the Subjects of such Province may receive any benefit thereby two things are required according to the ancient Laws of the Church made for preserving Unity for ever 1. Three Bishops to confer the Order or in some dispensable cases one at least 2. The Consent at least non-opposition of the major part of the Bishops of the same Province to such Ordination and the Licence or Confirmation of the Metropolitan or yet higher of the Patriarch himself β it mattering little as to preserving the Church's Unity so long as the Metropolitans and their actions are subjected to their Patriarch whether one or both or the higher without the lower do ratify the Election of the Bishops So that any Ordination made by three or four Bishops of a Person wanting the foresaid Consent and Confirmation from Superiors tho it be valid the Order is frustrate from any Jurisdiction or lawful exercise thereof in the same manner as that of a true Bishop is frustrate when afterwards he is justly excommunicated as being given and received out of the Unity of the Church Catholick and as exposing the Church to all the divisions and factions which the Lust of two or three Ecclesiasticks assisted with a Secular Power seduced may please to set up § 8 8. It seems evident from Antiquity as likewise confessed by learned Protestants that as the Bishops could not exercise in any Diocess a lawful Spiritual Jurisdiction without the Metropolitans Licence and Confirmation so neither could the Metropolitan in any Province without that of the Patriarch γ. There seeming as great reason and necessity of this for preserving the Unity of the Church Catholick amongst the Metropolitans and Primates in the several Provinces thereof as amongst Bishops in the several Diocesses And therefore anciently these Metropolitans obtained also the consent of their Co-Metropolitans in other Provinces by the Literae Communicatoriae or formatae of those Bishops upon the sending to them a Copy of their Faith according as it was setled and professed in the several Articles thereof exclusively to Heresies in those present times and a Testimonial of their legitimate Election Which also may be said of the Patriarchs themselves who upon their sending the like Confessions and Informations received a Confirmation from the Primate of them the Roman Bishop and the other Co-Patriarchs § 9 9. As for the Supreme Bishop of the Catholick Church who therefore could not receive this his Authority and Jurisdiction from any Superior yet anciently neither was he conceived to have any lawful Jurisdiction unless possessed thereof by the designation and suffrage of the major part at least of the Clergy and Bishops of the Roman Province in later times for peace sake tranferred upon the Cardinals To which was usually added also the Communicatory Letters of other Patriarchs and Primates upon his professing to them if need were the Catholick Faith of his Ancestors and the legalness of his Election And if in latter times the manner of his Investiture with this Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction be not altogether the same yet since we find in all ages a major part of Christian Churches such as are guilty of no ancient condemned Heresy adhering to the Roman Bishop and Faith when as meanwhile several of the other Patriarchs have been condemned for Hereticks we may presume also that not only the Clergy of the Roman Province but all or at least a major part of the Governors of these Churches are and have been from age to age ready to afford the same Testimony to his just and Canonical Authority And these seem to be the necessary Foundations and Pillars that support the Unity of the Church Catholick α. α Bellarm de Rom. Pontif. 5. l. 3. c. Ex Scripturis nihil habemus nisi data Pontifici claves regni caelorum § 10 de clavibus regni terrarum nulla mentio fit Traditio Apostolica nulla Quando Rex fit Christianus non perdit regnum terrarum quod jam obtinebat Suitable to the Church Hymn Crudelis Herodes Deum Regem venire quid times Non eripit Mortalia c. And the same Cardinal quoting a Passage out of an Epistle of Pope Nicholaus Quicquid saith he Imperatores habent dicet Nicholaus a Christo eos habere Peto igitur vel potest summus Pontifex auferre a Regibus Imperatoribus hoc tanquam Summus ipse Rex Imperator aut non potest Si potest ergo est major Christo si non potest ergo non habet vere potestatem regiam Neither is any such power in Temporals absolutely necessary to the Church in order to Spirituals without the exercise of which power the primitive Church tho most grievously oppressed by Secular States yet enjoyed this Government in Spirituals perfect and entire And concerning the Obligation of the Clergy also tho sequestred to God's Service to the obedience of the Civil Laws of Princes together with their other Fellow Subjects Thus the same Cardinal De Clericis 1. l. 28. c. Clerici praeterquam quod Clerici sunt sunt etiam Cives Partes quaedam Reipublicae politicae igitur ut tales vivere debent civilibus legibus non sunt autem aliae ut nunc ponimus nisi quae a Politico Magistratu sunt latae igitur illas Clerici servare dehent alioqui magna perturbatio confusio in Republica oriretur c. quoting St. Chrysostome in 13. ad Rom. Christi Evangelio non tolli politicas leges ideo debere etiam Sacerdotes Monachos eis parere and parere not only in a directive but coactive way not only to be guided in their duty by the laws but forced to obedience of it But this Coaction to proceed not from the Civil but Ecclesiastical
Rights and Estates That the Clergy pass nothing prejudicial to these Rights for which there is all good reason Again The Emperors saith he in making use of their Authority in Councils took not upon them to be infallible Judges of Doctrine but only that they might see and judge whether Bishops did propound nothing in their Convocations and Consultations but most of all in their Determinations to undermine the Emperors Authority to disturb the tranquility of the Common-wealth i. e. in their medling in civil affairs and to cross the Determinations of precedent Councils Thus King James § 26 King Charles in his last Paper in the Isle of Wight p. 3. Speaking of the several Branches of Episcopal Authority practised under Heathen Princes Tho the Bishops saith he in the times of Pagan Princes had no outward coercive Power over mens Persons or Estates as also no more have they now except from and during the Princes pleasure yet in as much as every Christian man when he became a Member of the Church did ipso facto and by that his own voluntary Act put himself under their Government So Christian men do still Princes and all They then exercised a very large Power of Jurisdiction in Spiritualibus In making Ecclesiastical Canons receiving Accusations conventing the accused examining Witnesses judging of Crimes against the Evangelical Law excluding such men as they found guilty of scandalous offences from the Lord's Supper enjoining Penances upon them casting them out of the Church receiving them again upon their Repentance c. I subsume the same making of Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons the same Examinations Excommunications and casting out of the Church c. are and must be allowed still in Christian States also being things which as Bishop Carleton Princes can neither give to nor take from the Church And therefore they must also be allowed all those means absolutely without which no such things can be done As convening keeping intelligence one with another Promulgation of their Acts and Decrees c. And when the Christian Prince or State becomes to them such as the Heathen were in his with-holding or prohibiting these necessary things then may they resume that behaviour as was practised formerly in Heathenisme i. e. do these things without the States leave or against its Prohibitions § 27 After this copious Account given you of learned and judicious Protestants touching so weighty a matter let us now look back upon them and see in what Posture things are left The Ecclesiastical Supremacy that is commonly attributed to the Civil Power seems to consist chiefly in all or in some one of these three 1. His strengthning and promoting the Acts of the Church and its Governors with the assistance of the Secular Sword and his making their laws the Laws also of the State One Branch of which power consequently is The opposing and suppressing by the hand of Civil Justice any such Ecclsiastical Acts of Inferior and Uncanonical and illegal Persons or Synods as go against the Superior and legal the Church being always the Judge in this matter what Acts are against and disowned by her which is indeed the Princes not opposing but defending the Church § 28 2. Or 2dly His opposing and abrogating some of the Churches Canons and Laws of Government in purely Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Affairs for in Civil all Princes Heathen also and Heretical may rescind any such Ecclesiastical Acts as do any prejudice to the temporal Power which God hath committed immediately into their hands as pretended contrary to the Law of Christ or to Christian liberty c. 3. Or 3dly His declaring and reforming against their Decrees in matters of Faith and Manners as some way contrary to God's Truth and the Doctrine of the Scriptures § 29 For the first of these It is an Ecclesiastical Supremacy or a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters which the Church hath never denied to belong to Secular Princes but as obliged to them for it and many Acts thereof may be and sometimes have been performed even by Princes Heathen or Heretical Many Instances thereof are collected by Mason De Ministerio Anglicano p. 313. in Nabuchadonosor Cyrus Darius under the Old Testament Tiberius Adrian Antoninus Pius c. And afterward of several of the Gothick Kings under the New For the other two These Protestant Authors forecited grant That so often as any Prince falls into Heresy or in general opposeth the Christian Faith the exercise of such Supremacy concerning matters of Faith and Church Government returns to the Church alone as it was in the Church alone before Constantine Again the judgment of Heresy and consequently when Princes are Heretical and so fallen from the exercise of any such Supremacy is by several of the former quotations See before § 21 22. c. granted to belong to the Church But suppose the Christian Prince to be also Catholick yet the limitations of several of the forecited Authors seem hardly to allow him any such Branches of Supremacy For touching Errors of Faith or Aberrations in the performance of God's worship and service Dr. Field before § 20. saith That ordinarily and regularly Princes are to leave the judgment thereof to the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in these things to judge according to their former resolutions or in any new matter whereof no former Definition hath been made the Prince saith Dr. Heylin before § 20. is to follow the new Resolutions that shall be made not of some few tho never so learned but of the whole body of his Clergy and by consequence to follow also not that but the Resolution of a higher Body of Clergy if this oppose that of his Clergy the one being necessarily subordinate to and conclusive by the other for preservation of the Unity and Peace of the Catholick Church So Bishop Bramhal grants That the Bishops were always esteemed the proper Judges of the Canons i. e. such as related only to Ecclesiastical not Civil matters both for the composing and executing of them Only to make these Canons Laws i. e. accompanied with a politick and coactive Power the Prince's Confirmation was required And Mr. Thorndike saith before § 15. That should the Prince forbid it yet the Church still ought to use that Ecclesiastical Power therein that shall be necessary to preserve the Unity of the Church of which necessity also they not the Prince are by our Lord constituted the Judges The like saith Dr. Taylor of the Subordination of inferior Clergy to their Superiors and Bishop Bishop Carleton before § 14. of the Ordinations of the Clergy and Institution and Collation of Benefices and Spiritual Cures that they are proper Laws and Rights of the Church not to be changed or taken away by Princes § 30 It seems too late therefore now or in Henry the Eighth's days to project a Repeal of any of those forementioned ancient Ecclesiastical Customes and Canons which we find made or practiced by the Church under the
to help themselves I cannot determine By what is said it may appear how improper the foresaid Instances are to prove in Christian Princes a Power to reform the supposed Errors of the Clergy in their Doctrines of Faith or Manners the second thing they have urged § 50 3. Again They urge That it is not fit nor safe that the Clergy should be able by their Constitutions and Synodical Acts to conclude both Prince and People in Spiritual matters until the Stamp of Royal Authority be imprinted on them Dr. Heylin Reformation Justified p. 86. Dr. Fern Exam of Champ. p. 295. Where were the Princes knowledge and assent required only on this account relating to the State that so nothing be passed in these Synods prejudecial to his Civil Rights it is willingly allowed but if required on another account relating to Religion that so he may prohibit and suppress so much of them as is not evidenced to him to be juxta legem Christi or as he apprehends is also against it of which thing he is not the Judge yet which hath been the Pretence of reforming Princes medling with the most speculative points in Divinity it seems not reasonable And thus an Heretical Prince will strangle as he pleaseth within his Dominions the Catholick Verities § 51 4. They urge the case of the Act of a National Clergy passing away their Spiritual Authority to a Sccular Prince 4. and investing him or whom he shall nominate and elect with that Power which formerly they enjoyed in their own capacity After which they say the Princes Act or their's he nominates have virtually the power of the Clergy or their Synod and do oblige as much as if they in terminis had agreed upon it To give you it in Dr. Heylin's words Reform Justified p. 89. The Kings of England saith he had a further Right as to this particular which is a Power conferred upon them by the Clergy whether by way of Recognition or Concession I regard not here by which the Clergy did invest the King with a supreme Authority not only of confirming their Synodical Acts not to be put in Execution without his consent but in effect to devolve on him all that Power which formerly they enjoyed in their own capacity amongst which Powers p. 85. he nameth this to reform such Errors and Corruptions as are expresly contrary to the word of God And to this we have a parallel Case in the Roman Empire in which the Supreme Majesty of the State was vested in the Senate and People of Rome till by the Law which they call Lex Regis they transferred all their Power on Caesar and the following Emperors which Law being past the Edicts of the Emperors were as binding as the Senatus-Consulta had been before The like may be affirmed of the Church of England The Clergy had self Authority in all matters which concerned Religion and by their Canons and Determinations did bind all the Subjects till by acknowledging King Henry the Eighth for their supreme Head and by the Act of Submission not long after follwing they transferred that Power upon the King and his Successors After which time whatsoever the King or his Successors did in the Reformation as it had virtually the Power of the Convocation so was it as good in Law as if the Clergy in their Convocation particularly and in terminis had agreed upon it Thus Dr. Heylin And upon this ground and title it was that the XLII Articles since reduced to XXXIX were first introduced into the Church of England being composed by certain Persons appointed by the Prince and then without any review or Confirmation of the Synod published as the Act thereof as appears by Philpot's Plea and arguing in the Synod 10. Mariae when the Clergy questioned these Articles and subscribed that they were wrongfully entitled to the Synod which had never passed them See for this matter Fox Act p. 1282. And Ib. p. 1704 Arch-bishop Cranmer's Tryal And Fuller's Hist Ecclesiast 7. l. p. 420. And Dr. Fern Exam. Champny p. 74. § 52 To all which may be answered That the Canons of the Church permit no such Translation of the Clergy's Authority to the Secular Power neither yet is the supreme Power of composing or changing Articles of Faith and Religion or making other Ecclesiastical Laws as to any Nation vested in the National Synod thereof as appears at length from the Sub-ordinations of Clergy both Persons and Synods in the Catholick Church which in several States is only one for preserving of the Churches Faith and Government for every in unity of which see more Head 6. Thes 1. c. 2 Discourse concerning the Guide in Controversies § 24. c. Consid on Council of Trent § 9. c. And so such National Synods cannot give away what they have not Nor were it so have they any Power of Alienating this Authority for which they are personally set a part from the rest of the world by our Lord with a successive solemn Ordination and of which well or ill managed they themselves must give account to our Lord No such Power of Alienation being contained in the original Grant thereof But if without such express Licence they can give away some Part to the Laity where also no necessity is pretended then why not any part of their office and so depute Laicks to ordain Ministers also and consecrate the holy Encharist To which may be added That no part of the Clergy Duty depends more on their personal Abilities and long preparation by study then this we speak of The composing of Articles and Canons the reforming of Errors c. Least of all therefore seems this committable to the Prince either that he himself should perform it whose Regal imployments require a far different Education or that he should delegate it to others by which the Clergy authorizeth they know not whom perhaps some persons heretical if such happen to be Favourites of the Prince to establish in Religion the Clergy knows not what for this Concession is made by the English Clergy without any Reservation of a Revisal § 53 5. They urge to give you it in Bishop Bramhal's words Vindic. of the Church of England 5. p. 257. ' That since the Division ' of Britain from the Empire i. e. since Brittain's being governed by Princes of its own who therefore in their Territories have the same Authority that the Roman Emperors formerly had in the Empire See Dr. Hammond Schism p. 124. No Canons are or ever were of force with us further then they were received and by their incorporation became Brittannick Laws Which as they cannot or ever could be imposed upon the King and Kingdome by a forreign Patriarch by constraint so when they are found by experience prejudicial to the publick Good they may as freely by the same King and Kingdome be rejected And so Dr. Hammond Of Schism p. 125. The Canons of Councils have mostly been set out and received
or express Tradition Apostolical but only educible de novo by most necessary and certain consequence from those which are so delivered which are necessary to be determined and delivered by the Church of later Ages when contrary Errors happen to appear 4. Accordingly they affirm That upon the appearance of several such dangerous Errors the Church did lawfully in the four first General Councils make and deliver some new Definitions in matters of Faith new taken in the sense expressed above Num. 2. did lawfully enlarge the former Creed and require assent or belief in the sense explained above Num. 3. unto these new Definitions under pain of Anathema 5. They maintain that all such dangerous Errors have not appeared within the times of the four first General Councils nor those Councils defined all divine Truths contrary to such Errors and therefore that the Church in later Ages may use against these her Authority to do the same things in her following Councils as in the four first 6. And consequently that it is not reasonable to require of the Church that her Definitions be shewed I say not in their necessary Principles on which she grounds them but in their formal Terms either in the Scriptures or her four first Councils or in the now extant Writings of the first Ages 7. Nor necessary that every explicite Tradition Apostolical and Principle that hath descended to the Church of later Ages most certainly thro all the former must therefore be shewed to be asserted or mentioned in the Writers of the former especially where these very few HEAD VI. Concerning Subordination of Ecclesiastical Authorities Concerning Subordination of Ecclesiastical Authorities 1. CAtholicks maintain a due Subordination both of Ecclesiastical Persons among themselves viz. Of Presbyters to Bishops Bishops to Metropolitans Metropolitans to Primates Primates to Patriarchs And of Ecclesiastical Synods viz. Diocesan to Provincial Provincial to Patriarchal Patriarchal to General 2. They willingly grant That any particular Church or Provincial or National Synod may lawfully make Definitions in matters of Faith Reformations of Errors and Manners and other Ecclesiastical Constitutions for it self without the concurrence or conjuncture at the same time of any other Church or Synod therewith But 3ly They deny that any particular Church or Provincial or National Synod may make such Determinations or Constitutions contrary to those of any present or former Authority or Synod or maintain them made contrary to such Synod present or future reversing them to which Authority either Divine or Ecclesiastical Constitution hath made them Subordinate For without destroying Government no Ecclesiastical Law can be dissolved but by the same or an equal Power to that which made it nor can a part suppose a Church Arian or Donatist as it thinketh meet from time to time free it self from the Acts of the whole especially in such things wherein it can shew in it self no particular difference or disparity from the rest of the whole And therefore 4ly They affirm that when Ecclesiastical Persons or Synods happen to oppose one another Christian Obedience is still due only to the Superiour HEAD VII Concerning Ecclesiastical Supremacy Concerning Ecclesiastical Supremacy 1. THE Catholick Church here on Earth is but one united State and Body which all seem to confess in that when any separation is made every side endeavours to remove the cause thereof from themselves And it cannot reasonably be denyed that All the Christian Churches in the world are capable of a Monarchical Government under one Bishop as well as several Nations under one Emperor or Secular Prince and that such Government much conduceth to the Church's Peace and to the preventing and suppression of Heresies and Schisms 2. Catholicks perswaded therein both by the Scriptures and Tradition do acknowledge 1. That St. Peter was made by Christ President and Head of the College of the Apostles Matt. 16.19 Jo. 21.15 being compared with Gal. 2.7 And 2dly That the Bishop of Rome is his Successor in such Supremacy as likewise Successor to St. Paul the Great Apostle of the Gentiles in that See wherein the two great Apostles last resided anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sedes Apostolica And 3dly That this Bishop hath by Divine Right or if it were only by Ecclesiastical Constitution and by ancient Tradition and Custome it were sufficient committed to him a Supreme Authority over the Universal Church of Christ here on Earth in the calling of Councils and in the approving and confirming their Definitions before they can be universally obligatory and in taking care in the Intervals of such Councils of the due execution and observance of their Decrees and in receiving Appeals from all parts of the Church in some matters of greater concernment And 4ly That as no temporal Power may lawfully change or annul any Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Decrees made concerning the Government of the Church or other matters meerly Spiritual so neither may such temporal Power in particular abrogate this Ecclesiastical Authority tho it were only conferred on the Bishop of Rome by the Church so far as using a Jurisdiction meerly Spiritual in Matters that are so 3dly They willingly confess That the Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority cannot dispense with any Divine Law now without such Dispensation obliging but only with Ecclesiastical Laws Nor hath any Power over Princes or their Subjects in Temporal matters but only in Spiritual over all those whether Princes or Subjects who are Members of the Church 4ly That there is no Decree of the Church or Council obliging any to maintain this Supreme Magistrate of the Church to be infallible in his Decrees nor on the other side just cause for any therefore to withdraw their obedience to his Decrees because they hold him not infallible HEAD VIII Lastly Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council IN which the Supreme Judgment of this united Body is placed 1. It is not necessary to the composition of a lawful General Council that all the Clergy of the Christian world be assembled therein or all the Bishops of this Clergy or amongst the Bishops some sent thither the Delegates by the rest from all particular Churches professing Christianity For 1 upon these terms the four first Councils cannot be allowed General 2 Again Thus it would be in the power of any particular Church in detaining its Bishops to hinder the Being and the Benefit of a General Council 3 Again Heretical or Schismatical Churches being no part of the Church Catholick the absence of their Bishops hinders not but that the representative of the Church Catholick in such Council may be still compleat 2. The Presence of the Delegated Bishops of all particular Catholick Churches or Provinces is not necessary in such Council to denominate it lawfully General it being provided that all are called to it and none that come excluded because this Absence of some may either be necessitated from
Poverty distance of Place Le ts of temporal Magistrate or voluntary also out of some unlawful respect Which Absence of some few in comparison of the whole if it can hinder the necessary Generality of the Council it is probable that there will never want within the Confines also of the Church Catholick now spread thro the Dominions of several Princes of contrary interests some either Bishops or Secular Governours that are averse from the meeting of such Council in respect of some Circumstances belonging to it at least those of time place c. 3. For these reasons therefore 3 such Council seems to be unquestionably General not to say here that none less their such can justly be so where are present in person or by his Legates the Bishop of the Prime Apostolick See without whom no such Council can be held and by their Lieutenants at least all or most of the other Patriarchs such as are in Being and have some considerable part of the Church Catholick subjected unto them It is said most of them for the presence and concurrence of all of them was not thought necessary neither in the third nor fourth of the allowed General Councils And the Representatives of a considerably major part of the Catholick Provinces and more especially the Representatives of the largest and most dignified of these Provinces 4. In the Absence of some Patriarchs or chief Churches in such Council or in the presence there only of a smaller number of Delegates from the greater and more numerous Provinces and of a greater number from other less as five or six Bishops only delegated from the Western Churches were present in the Council of Nice or in any other deficiency of the representment of the greatest part of the Church Catholick in this Assembly yet when the Decrees and Acts of such smaller part being sent and made known to the Absent are both confirmed by the Bishop of Rome the Primate of the Patriarchs and of the universal Church and accepted also by the much major part of the Catholick Provinces tho these be not accepted by some others of them such Council ought either to be received as General or as equivalent thereto and the Acts thereof are obligatory to the whole Church Catholick For seeing that if all the Provinces had convened in one Place and Body the disagreeing votes of some Provinces in such Councils being fewer and lesser could not have justly hindred but that the contrary votes of the other much major part would have stood in force and obliged all to obedience then neither can their dissent out of the Council be rationally pretended to hinder the same And what engagement the several Provinces of the present Age have to such Council the same also all future seem to have for the same reason till an equal Authority to that which established such Ecclesiastical laws reverse them which in matters of necessary Faith will never happen So the Arian Churches of the fifth Age are as much obliged to the Definitions of the Nicene Council as those of the fourth And in any Age what means can there be of Preservation of Unity for matter of Faith in the Church Catholick if a few in comparison will neither be regulated by any one Person or Head Nor yet concluded by the much major part Here by acceptation of the much major part of Catholick Provinces is understood none other necessary then only a peaceful acquiescence in and conformity to the Decrees of such Councils and a not declaring against them tho such Acceptation proceed not so farr as to the passing of an Act to this effect in Provincial or National Synods For this last hath not been done to those Acts of Councils universally held General 5. To go yet a little further Considering the present Condition both of the Eastern Churches and of such Patriarchs as are yet left besides the Roman such now rather in name than in power the paucity poverty and illiterature necessitated by their great oppressions of their Clergy their incapacity to assemble themselves even in lesser Synods for consultation to say nothing here whether any of these Churches have declined from the former Definitions of the Church Catholick and so are become Heretical and so uncapable of sitting in Ecclesiastical Synods in these times a General Council such as ought to oblige may be well apprehended to receive narrower bounds than formerly And such a Council where those who are Catholick in Eastern Churches are wished for invited and if any come not excluded and to which all the Western Provinces yet flourishing in Religion and not obstructed from meeting are called and in which the Representatives of the greatest part of them joined with the Prime Patriarch are assembled such Council I say ought either to receive the denomination of General especially as to these Doctrines wherein the Eastern Churches consent or of the most General that the present times will afford or at least of a Patriarchal and lawful Superiour Council and so in the same measure accepted obligeth all the Provinces of the West to yield obedience thereto and therefore in such an Age for any Person or Church that is a Member of this Western Body to call for a larger Council than can be had is only an Artifice to decline Judgment and for any to Appeal to a future Council which can be no larger than that past to whose sentence they deny Submission what is this but to renounce the Authority they appeal to To which may be added that any Appeal to a future Council concerning such Controversies wherein one knoweth the unanimous Doctrine of the much major part of the present Christian Churches as well Eastern as Western to be against him seems bootless and affording no relief Because such Council can consist only of the Governours and so of the judgments of such particular Churches put to together and therefore such as the present Doctrine is of the major part of these Christian Churches and of the several Bishops presiding in them especially now after the cause reasons pretended demonstrations of the dissenting Party for so many years divulged pleaded considered such we may presume will be that of the Council For what can effect a Mutation of opinion in these Persons joined which altereth nothing now in them severed HEAD IX Concerning the Vnity of the Church and of its Government and Succession in respect of Seculars § 1 1. CAtholicks affirm That the Church and Civil Societies are two distinct Bodies Concerning the Unity of the Church and of its Government and Succession in respect of Seculars subject to their distinct Superiors and that the Church Catholick is but one in many States Again That the Civil State entring into the Body of the Church cannot thereby justly take from it any of its former Rights which are instated upon it by our Lord and which it did or might justly exercise in such Civil State before this State submitted it self to the
Christian Faith Nor yet the Church entring into any State take away any of the Civil Rights or Authority thereof which is given to the Governours of this State by God and which it was justly possessed of before the Church entred into it Takes away I say none of these Rights where Persons or Things formerly Civil do not by their Dedication to God become Sacred Nor the Church callenge any Temporal Right or Authority as to the use of the Secular Sword which the State doth not first invest it with α And That therefore these two Bodies may always without any jealousy most peaceably consist together Because the Principles of Christianity do most entirely secure and preserve all the Secular Rights of Princes And because in leaving only to Princes the use of the Temporal Sword the Church can never in any difference that happens be the invading but only the suffering Party § 2 2. Therefore 2dly in consequence hereof They hold That the Subordinations of Ecclesiastical Government such as are necessary for the exclusion of Heresies and Schisms and conservation of the Churches Unity Uniformity and Peace throughout several Nations And these which are instituted by Christ or his Apostles or are afterward established in the Church Catholick by Ecclesiastical Canons made by the chief Representative thereof I mean such Canons as can no way be justly pretended to do any wrong to the Civil Government They hold That such Subordinations of Church-Government cannot justly be changed nor the observance of such Constitutions be abrogated or prohibited by any Secular Supreme Christian or Heathen within their own Dominions § 3 3. Since it is clear That Christ sent his Ministers to preach the Gospel and do other meerly Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Offices in all Nations and in those Nations too then as now under some Supreme Civil Governor which Offices also those Ministers did accordingly perform for three hundred years tho the said Governors prohibited and opposed them So for Example the Apostles and other Church-Governors in those times assembled themselves in a Council at Jerusalem to consult and give orders throughout the Churches concerning the Abrogation of former Legal Ceremonses So St. Paul in those times gave Commission to Timothy for the of the Christian Church in Ephesus to Titus for the governing those in Creet to ordain Clergy thro the Cities there and in these Provinces to receive Accusations hear Witnesses promulgate the Doctrines formerly received silence False-teachers excommunicate Offenders c. 1 Tim. 1.3 5.19 2. Tim. 2.2 Tit. 1.5.11 3.10 And so he gave order also to them to hold publick Assemblies 1. Cor. 5.4 Heb. 10.25 for the common Worship of God and for the exercising of the forenamed Acts. And so the Successors of these first Church Governors also used the same authority for those three first Centuries in all dominions distributed into several Provincial and Parochial or Diocesan Governments tho the Secular Powers frequently resisted imprisoned executed the Church Officers for it These things therefore thus granted and allowed hence they infer that as a Heathen Prince cannot justly prohibit all Christian Clergy so neither can a Christian Prince amongst this Clergy justly prohibit all those whom only these Ecclesiastical Magistrates do judge Orthodox and worthy from professing and publishing the Orthodox Faith and otherwise officiating in Divine matters within his Dominions Else as where the Prince is Heathen Christianity cannot be propagated in his Territories against Infidelity so where the Christian Prince happens to be Heretical suppose an Arian as the Emperour Constantius was the Truth of Christianity cannot be preserved in his dominions against Heresy or where he Schismatical the Unity of the Churches Communion cannot be preserved against the Sects in his dominion For Confirmation of these three preceedent Theses see at large the Protestant Concessions in letter δ. To which is annexed an Answer to all their Pleas and Defences made by them for a lawful Reformation of Ecclesiastical Persons and Matters by the Secular Power § 4 4 Consequently to the Precedents seeing that as there are many temporal Jurisdictions descending on the Church originally from the Secular Power so there are also other spiritual Jurisdictions primitively belonging to and exercised by the Church and held from the donation of our Lord such as the forementioned viz. To hold publick Religious Assemblies to promulgate the Doctrines formerly delivered to administer the Sacraments of the Church to receive Accusations hear Witnesses in point of Heresy and Schism to bind absolve to silence False-teachers excommunicate obstinate Offenders and that in all Nations and within any Princes Dominions whatever They accordingly affirm 1. That no Secular Power can bestow or derive their spiritual Jurisdictions on any person but that to be in such dominions by any person lawfully executed these must first be conferred on him by the Clergy 2dly That the act only of some inferior Clergy against their Canonical Superiors or of the minor part of Clergy against the major can be no legitimate act of the Clergy for conferring such spiritual Jurisdictions but the contrary to it is so § 5 And hence 5ly They gather That tho Princes for the greater security of their Civil Government and the many secular obligations which the Church hath to them may nominate and present to the Clergy and Ecclesiastical Magistrates such persons as they think most meet to receive from the Church these spiritual Jurisdictions within their dominions yet if any Secular Power should possess such person of these Jurisdictions in any Province either by his own sole authority or by the concurrence of some inferior Clergy or minor part of such Province whom the major part of the Clergy of such Province or the due Ecclesiastical Superiors to whom according to Church Canons the conferring of such Jurisdiction doth belong to judge uncapable or unfit and therefore refuse the collation of them on such a subject They affirm such an Act of the Prince or Clergy assisting him to be unlawful and that it must needs open a way to all Heresy and Schism and dissolve the Faith and Unity of the Church Catholick Neither can any such Person so introduced tho he be validly ordained justly exercise such spiritual Jurisdictions neither do all such people as know receive any salvifical benefit by his unlawful administration to them of the Church's Sacraments or at least of the Sacrament of Penance and Absolution by reason of a defect of a right disposition in the Suscipients and the great guilt they contract in applying themselves to such a Person unless this be done in a case of necessity when there is no Catholick Clergy to repair to for such Offices So had Novatianus ordained and adhered to by three or four Bishops been upon this setled by a Christian Emperor in the Apostolick Chair against Cornelius ordained and confirmed in these Jurisdictions by all the rest of the Body of the Roman Episcopal Clergy yet Novatianus would no less for this
Controversies of Faith to a General Council and the supreme Power of Spiritual Censures which are coactive only in the Court of Conscience and suitably in the interval of General Councils he must allow to National Synods the same Judicature and Censures abstracting from the Prince Ibid. p. 92. he saith We see the Primitive Fathers did assemble Synods and make Canons before there were any Christian Emperors And then may not they do the same still Both assemble Synods as the Apostles did at Jerusalem Act. 15. And make Canons and then also publish them made as the Apostles did when an Heretical Prince concurreth not with or also opposeth them Provided that there be no apparent danger to the Prince or State of any Sedition by such meeting But they had no coactive Power to compel any man against his will This therefore is the Power which Emperors when become Christian and her Subjects bring in and add to the Church without taking away from it any of that Power which before from Christ's time it was possessed of under Heathen Princes The Summe is He challengeth for the Prince only a double coactive Power with his temporal Sword which is either executed by himself or committed to the Church Governors one for constraining of the Laity to the obedience of the Church the other of the inferior Clergy to the obedience of their Superiors in all Spiritual matters § 18 The same saith Dr. Fern Answer to Champny 9. c. p. 284. It is a mistake that the Prince by his supreme Power in Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things is made supreme Judge of Faith and Decider of all Controversies thereunto belonging and may ordain what he thinks fit in matters of Religion Who also in his Discourse of Presbytery and Episcopacy p. 19. Grants That no Secular Prince can justly prohibit within his Dominions the exercise of Ordination and of Judicature so far as the Keys left by Christ in his Church do extend nor prohibiting is to be obeyed and Christ's Substitutes herein being denied the assistance of the Civil Power are to proceed without it And Exam. Champny p. 290. saith That the Bishops and chief Pastors of the Church are the immediate proper and ordinary Judges in defining and declaring what the Laws of Christ be for Doctrine and Discipline That they have a coercive Power in a spiritual restraint of those that obstinately gain-say So Dr. Fern. § 19 Mason de Ministerio Anglicano 3. l. 3. c. asketh the Question Quis enim nostrum unquam affirmavit Principes in causes Fidei Religionis supremos esse Cognitores Judices De hac a Cardinale Bellarmino aliis Pontificiis Ecclesiae Anglicanae illata injuria sic olim conquestus est Doctissimus Whitakerus c. § 20 Dr. Field Of the Church p 667. The State of the Christian Church the good things it enjoyeth and the felicity it promiseth being Spiritual is such that it may stand tho not only forsaken but greatly oppressed by the great men of the world And therefore it is by all resolved on That the Church hath her Guides and Rulers distinct from them that bear the Sword and that there is in the Church a Power of convocating these her Spiritual Pastors to consult of things concerning her welfare tho none of the Princes of the world do favour her And p. 81. Touching Errors of Faith or Oberrations in the performance of God's worship and service saith he There is no question but that Bishops and Pastors of the Church to whom it pertaineth to teach the Truth are the ordinary and fittest Judges and that ordinarily and regularly Princes are to leave the judgment thereof unto them And below We do not attribute to our Princes with their Civil Estates power newly to adjudge any thing to be Heresy without the concurrence of the State of their Clergy but only to judge in those matters of Faith that are resolved on i. e. in former Councils according to former resolutions And the same much what is said by Dr. Heylin Reformation Justified p. 80 81. in affirming That if the Reformation be in such Points of Doctrine as have not been before defined in such manner i. e. in a General Council or in a particular Council universally received The King only with a few of his Bishops and learned Clergy tho never so well studied in the Point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted By these Expressions the Reformation allowed to Christian Princes seems only of Errors first declared such either by the Resolutions of former lawful Councils or of a new lawful Council of Clergy first had which will easily be granted them Provided that Councils be understood in their due Subordinations and according to their due votes not the Decree of some inferior Synod preferred by such Prince to the Decree of a Superior nor the vote of a Minor part in a Synod or of some Clergy out of it before that of a Major part But if they mean the Princes taking the Guidance of some Council against a Superior or of some part of the Clergy opposed by a Major this is only deluding the Reader and in effect granting nothing § 21 Again thus Dr. Field of the entring of any person into or his Deposition from the Ecclesiastical Ministry Ibid. p. 681. It is resolved that none may ordain I add or force the Clergy to ordain any to serve in the work of Ministry but the Spiritual Pastors and Guides of the Church 2dly That none may judicially degrade or put any one lawfully admitted from his Degree and Order but they alone else had the Secular Magistrate no other Power yet if he may place and displace Clergy at his pleasure within his Dominions he may hereby advance or depress what Sect of Religion what Doctrines what Discipline he pleaseth Next of the Power of the Prelates of the Church to call Councils independently on Princes p. 668. It is evident saith he that there is a Power in Bishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs to all Episcopal Provincial National and Patriarchal Synods and that neither so depending on nor subject to the Power of Princes but that when they are Enemies to the Faith they may exercise the same without their consent and privity and subject them that refuse to obey their Summons to such punishments as the Canons of the Church do prescribe in cases of such contempt or wilful negligence To which may be added that of Bishop Bilson Government of Christ's Church 16. c. When the Magistrate doth not regard but rather afflict the Church as in times of Infidelity and Heresy who shall then assemble the Pastors of any Province to determine matters of doubt or danger To which Question he Answers The Metropolitan When they are Enemies to the Faith saith Dr. Field I understand him either when Enemies to the Christian Faith as Heathen Princes or if Christian
of proving that these Kings did reform against the Clergy it be urged that at least they might have done it because no way subjected in matters of Religion to the judgment of the Priest many Texts may be produced evincing the contrary as particularly that Deut. 17.8 9. c. where the Judge named beside the Priest may either respect those extraordinarily sent by God and sanctified in a special manner with his Spirit as Samuel and some others or also in general the supreme Civil Power joined for the Execution with the Ecclesiastical or as for the Decision the one judging for the Civil and Regal the other for God's Laws but however it be the Judge in such a Conjunction is no way authoriz'd to give Sentence in a matter of God's Law without or against the judgment of the Priest Which appears more clearly if this Text in Deut. be compared with those other relating to it 2. Chron. 19.8 9 10. Ezek. 44.24 Haggai 2.11 Mal. 2.7 8. Hos 4.4 or if these Texts will not evince such an Ecclesiastical Supremacy belonging to the Priest in the Old Testament at least other Texts do in the new From which Texts the former Protestant Concessions grant such a Power as to the judging of Controversies of Faith and of Heresy and that without the Civil Power 's having herein a Negative Voice This to the Kings of Judah To β. That urged concerning Aaron To β. I answer That this Sin of his was before his being enstalled High-Priest § 46 and at such time as Moses was appointed by God the supreme Judge in Ecclesiastical Affairs Yet that the Tribe of Levi following Moses remained then not only constant but valiant and zealous Professors of the true Religion for which God afterward chose this Tribe for the sacred Ministery See Exod. 32 27. Deut. 33.8 9. That the High-Priest should be suspected or accused of Idolatry the judgment of this as also of Heresy and the expelling of him found guilty out of the Church by Excommunication belongs to the Clergy united in their supreme Council and the punishing him by other temporal Censures to the Prince To γ. St. Panl's Act To γ. I answer that the supreme Court for deciding Ecclesiastical Controversies in St. Paul's time § 47 was that newly established by our Lord the Council of the Apostles not the Sanedrim of the Jews That St. Paul's Appeal to Caesar was in no such Ecclesiastical Cause but in an accusation of raising Sedition of which he was charged as well as of being a Sectary Act. 24.5.12.18 wherein brought hefore Festus's Tribunal he pleaded Not-guilty and upon his Adversaries seeking to kill him before judgment given appealed to Caesar's i.e. from one Civil Tribunal to another higher To. δ. The Acts of the Emperors To δ. and that especially of Thedosius § 48 I answer That these being mentioned before for Branches of the Royal Primacy in Ecclesiasticals as to confirm those Acts in Spiritual matters which the Church owneth as legal and canonical so to suppress and annul the illegal and uncanonical Acts of any Ecclesiasticks contrary to those of the Church in both which the temporal Powers equally assist the Church those Acting of the Emperors in Church matters that are here urged are only in these two kinds and so are allowed and such in particular was that Act of Theodosius in dis-avowing the Decree of the second Ephesine Council which Decree being opposed by the Bishop of Rome's Legates in the Council and by himself and all the Western Churches and divers of the Eastern Bishops out of it and several of those who voted for it in the Council being with threats forced thereto as appears by their complaint made hereof in the following Council of Chalcedon Contil Chalced. Act. 1. was illegal and not obliging and upon this ground or motive the Emperor's assistance requested by Leo for the nulling of its Acts as may be seen in the beginning of the Epistle he writ to him wherein upon such reasons given he desires the Emperors favour Epist 43. To ε. The Practice of later Christian Princes preceding the times of Henry the Eighth much pressed by Bishop Brambal in Vindication of the Church of England To ε. 5th and 7th Chapters I answer § 49 that all oppositions whatever of Civil States to the Ecclesiastical Power are not denyed to be just or lawful but only those which oppose his Decrees Canons or Government relating to matters purely Spiritual and Ecclesiastical that the most of those which the Bishop instanceth in are not so not about matters of Faith and Manners or Church Discipline or the Sub-ordinations of the Churches Judicatures and Execution of her Laws and Censures as to these but Contests either about those things which the Church possessed not by her own right but Princes former Donations or in matters apprehended by Princes some way hurtful or prejudicial to their Civil Rights and Liberties As for Example About the Patronage of Bishopricks and Investiture of Bishops several Revenues and Pensions given to or exacted by the Church and Exemption of Lands and Estates from Tribute Exemption of the Clergy from Secular Courts in Civil or also Criminal matters Appeals made to or Bulls brought from Rome relating to matters the Cognizance whereof belongs to the King's Court and therefore these matters to be considered by the Prince whether not such before that his Subject may submit to them Of which may be used the Bishops forecited § 17. Observation on the 37th Article of the Church of England You see that all here is Political But then granting that some other instances are such as offend against the Churches native Rights as some Contests here in England did for opposing which some holy Bishops here suffered much Persecution yet the proving such Facts to have been done even before the times of Henry the Eighth proves not their lawfulness to be done and next how far soever such Acts may be shewed to have passed in restraining some claims of the Church yet the Bishop confesseth that for Henry the Eighth's abolishing the usurped Jurisdiction as he calls it of the Bishop of Rome or Western Patriarch he finds no Pattern in these former Acts of Christian Princes His words are Vindication of the Church of England p. 184. Lastly Henry the Eighth abolished the usurped Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome within his it Dominions The Emperors did not so Whether saith he conjecturing at the reasons of that they thought it not fit I add or lawful to leave an old Patriarch or because they did not sufficiently consider the right bounds of imperial power especially being seconded with the Authority of an Occidental Council but no such Council would second them or did Henry the Eighth in this business or because they did not so clearly distinguish between a beginning of Unity and an universality of Jurisdiction for if they had they had wronged this Patriarch or because they had other remedies wherewith
their Authority by the Emperors I answer All this is true 1. That the Church Canons are not of force as to any Coactive Power to he used in the Execution of them by Clergy or Laity before made the Emperor's or other Princes Laws For which take the same Bishop Bramhal's Exposition when I believe he had better considered it Schism Guarded p. 92. We see the Primitive Fathers did assemble Synods and make Canons before there were any Christian Emperors but that was by Authority meerly Spiritual They had no Coactive Power to compel any man against his will And p. 119. We acknowledge that Bishops were always esteemed the proper Judges of the Canons both for composing of them and for executing of them but with this caution That to make them Laws the Confirmation of the Prince was required and to give the Bishop a Coactive Power to execute them The Prince's Grant or Concession was needful 2. That the Church Canons are not of force at all when these Canons relate to any civil Right without the secular Magistrate's precedent admission of them of whose proper Cognizance such Rights are But meanwhile all Ecclesiastical Canons whether concerning the Faith or Government and Discipline of the Church so far as they do not encroach on any such civil Rights as I presume all those made by the Church when under Heathen Governors will be granted to be are in force in whatever Princes Dominions so as to render all the disobedient liable to the Church's Censures tho the Christian Prince never so much oppose and reject them And this granted more is not desired for thus no Members of the Church at any time can be free from the strict observance of such Canons by any secular Authority or Patronage § 54 6. They urge That in any Princes Dominions the Clergy's liberty to exercise actually their Function 6. and the application of the matter on which it worketh viz. of the Subjects of such a Dominion are held from the Crown so that a Christian Prince by denying this lawfully voids the other as he thinks fit We draw saith Bishop Bramhal Vindic. p. 268. or derive from the Crown Liberty or Power to exercise actually and lawfully upon the Subjects of the Crown that habitual Jurisdiction which we receive at our Ordination And in his Reply to Chalced. p. 291. he makes Ecclesiastical Persons in their excommunicating and absolving the King's Substitutes i. e. as he expounds himself afterward by the King's Application of the matter namely of his Subjects to receive their Absolution from such Ecclesiastical Persons I answer This again if meant of the liberty of the Clergy's exercising their Functions with a Coactive Power or of some persons among that Clergy which the Church owns as Catholick being admitted to exercise their Function absolutely in such Dominions and not others is very true but little to their Purpose that urge it But if understood absolutely as to the liberty of any such Clergy at all to exercise their Function at all in any Christian Prince's Dominions upon his Subjects without his leave in which sense only it besteads them is most false Neither may a Christian Prince be thought to have any priviledge herein which a Heathen hath not And as such Priviledge is most pernicious to the propagation of the Christian Religion where the Prince is Heathen So to the Conservation of the Catholick Religion where the Christian Prince happens to be Heretical or Schismatical § 55 7. They urge For the abrogating Church Canons That Ecclesiastical are only humane Institutions 7. that Authority given by the men and abused may be again suppressed by them So Rivet Grot. Discuss Dialys p. 173. in Answer to Grotius Discussio Rivet Apol. p. 69. who alledged a Jus Ecclesiasticum for the Pope's Primacy to be conceded by Protestants And ' Tho Inferiors are not competent Judges of their Superiors yet as to subordinate Superiors in matters already defined by the Church the Sentence of the Judge is not necessary the Sentence of the Law and Notoriety of the Fact are sufficient So Bishop Bramhal Vindic. of the Church of England p. 253. from whence seems to be inferred the lawfulness for a Prince within his Dominions or for a Church National totally to abrogate the forementioned Canonical Sub-ordination of such Kingdome or Church to the Patriarchal Authority when this abused § 56 To which 1st it is willingly granted That both Ecclesiastical Offices and Canons may be abrogated for abuses happening by them only that this may not be done by Inferiors or by every Authority but by the same Authority that made or set them up 2. Next for Abuses and the Notoriety of them that no Practices may be stiled so where neither Church-Definitions are found against them much less where these found for them nor where a major part of those subject to them acknowledge them as Abuses but continue their obedience therein as their Duty 3ly For such things as are notorious Abuses or most generally agreed on for such and so Obedience withdrawn herein yet none may therefore substract his obedience absolutely from such an Authority for such other matters where their Obedience is due and due it is still that was formerly so till such Power reverse that Authority and its Injunctions as set it up But whilst Obedience in the one is denyed in the other it ought still to be yielded Therefore should the Patriarch make a breach upon the Civil Rights of Princes or their Subjects these may not justly hence invade his Ecclesiastical And if the Priest Patriarch or Bishop would in some things act the Prince therefore may not the Prince justly take upon him to act the Priest or to alter any thing of that Spiritual Hierarchy established by Christ or by the Church much to the good but nothing at all to the damage of temporal States If any thing happen to be unjustly demanded it excuseth not from paying just debts The Office must not be violated for the fault of the Person And herein may the Example of other Nations be a good Pattern to ours who having made resistance to their Patriarch in some Injunctions conceived by them not Canonical yet continue still their Obedience in the rest as appears in the late Contest of the State of Venice and those Opposals both of France and Spain and England before the times of Henry the Eighth of which Bishop Bramhal In Vindic. 3d. Book 7th Chap. hath been a sufficiently diligent Collector but at last found them all to come short of Henry the Eighth's Proceedings See before § 49. Neither indeed need any Prince to fear any Ecclesiastical Tyranny so far as to pluck up the Office by the roots who holding the Temporal Sword still in his own hands can therewith divide and moderate it as he pleaseth § 57 8. The endeavour to void the Pope's Patriarchal Authority and the Canonical Priviledges belonging to it 8. by his claiming an Universal Headship by
Succession to St. Peter whereby they say that the Western Provinces do now become released from their Obedience due to him as Patriarch and then that they never owed any Obedience to him as the Universal Head to which purpose thus Bishop Bramhal Vindic. p. 250. They the Popes quitted their pretended Patriarchal Right when they assumed and usurped to themselves the name and thing of Universal Bishops Spiritual Sovereigns and Sole Monarchs of the Church To be a Patriarch and to be an Universal Bishop in that sense are inconsistent and imply a contradiction in adjecto the one professeth humane the other challengeth divine Institution The one hath a limited Jurisdiction over a certain Province the other pretendeth to an unlimited Jurisdiction over the whole world And so Reply to S. W. p. 69. To claim a Power paramount a Sovereign Monarchical Regality over the Church is implicitly and in effect to disclaim a Patriarchal After the same manner argues Dr. Hammond concerning the Pope claiming a Jurisdiction over England as Patriarch upon the supposed Conversion thereof I add or claiming such Jurisdiction upon Ecclesiastical Constitution and claiming it from his Universal Pastorship that these two are incompatible Because saith he Answer to Catholick Gent. p. 101. compared with Schism p. 107. the one supersedes the other and the same Right cannot be held by two Tenures In all which I see no true arguing § 58 To Bishop Bramhal I say The Pope may have an universal Head-ship by divine Institution as to certain Superintendencies over all the Church and a Patriarchal by humane Institution as to some other extending only to a part of the Church and thus may have limited Jurisdiction as to Place for the one unlimited for the other without any Contradiction As also the same Person hath the subordinate Jurisdictions of a Bishop and also in some poor Bishopricks of the Rector of a Parish too of a Metropolitan and of a Primate all well consisting So one may be by a Prince made Governour of a whole Province in respect of some command which he hath over it all and may be made by the same King or by any other to whom the King hath given the bestowing of such a Dignity Governour also of one City in that Province in respect of some other Offices diverse from the former which Offices he may exercise over that Town only and not likewise over the Province Next suppose the Popes claim of the universal Pastor-ship unjust he cannot cease thereby to be what he is because he claimeth something more than he is no more to be Patriarch still than to be Metropolitan or Primate still nor can the Obedience Canonically due to him as such be with-held because on a wrong Title he claims somewhat more not due or some other way abuseth his Office No more then a Prince's Oppressions or other misdemeanors discharge their Subjects Allegiance To Dr. Hammond The universal Pastor-ship and Patriarch-ship are not one but two Rights and something held by the Patriarch-ship over the West which is not by the other over the whole Church But were it otherwise the same Right may be held by many Tenures A Kingdome by Inheritance and by Conquest supposing Conquest a Good Title against an Heir when these two are in several persons A parcel of Land by Donation and by Purchase By many Tenures I say so that as long as these are inherent in the same person when one is judged to fail the right may be challenged by another and so that no other can dispossess such person unless he prove not one but all his titles faulty § 59 9. If they cannot quit or make forfeit the Roman Patriarchship by one of these two last Allegations 9. Next they seek to dissolve themselves from it by transferring it or erecting a new Patriarch-ship instead thereof which thing they say is in the Power of any Prince at any time to do within his own Dominions and so after this that a National Church is freed from their Obedience to the former Of which thus Bishop Bramhal Vindic. p. 256. Tho the Roman Bishops had sometimes a just Patriarchal Power and had forfeited it neither by Rebellion nor abuse yet the King and the whole Body of the Kingdome by their legislative Power substracting their Obedience from them and erecting a new Patriarchate within their own Dominions it is a sufficient warrant for all Englishmen to suspend their Obedience to the one and apply themselves to the other for the welfare and tranquility of the whole Body Politick And Reply to Chalced. p. 238. Suppose saith he that the Brittanick Churches have been subjected to the Bishop of Rome by General Councils yet upon the great Mutation of the State of the Empire and the great variation of Affairs since that time it had been very lawful for the King and the Church of England to substract their Obedience from the Bishops of Rome tho they i. e. the Bishops of Rome by claiming the Title of universal Pastor had not quitted their Patriarchate and to have erected a new Primate at home among themselves So He. But much more copiously Dr. Hammond Who relies very much on and frequently recurrs to this Relief for rendring the Church of England's departure from this their former Patriarch free from Schism Schism p. 115. To put this whole matter saith he out of Controversy i. e. concerning the Pope's Supremacy upon the title of Conversion of England it is and it hath always been in the Power of Christian Emperors and Princes within their Dominions to erect Patriarchates or to translate them from one City to another and therefore whatever Title is supposable to be acquired by the Pope in this Island upon the first planting of the Gospel here this cannot so oblige the Kings of England ever since but that they may freely remove that Power from Rome to Canterbury and subject all the Christians of this Island to the Spiritual Power of this Arch-Bishop or Primate independently from any Forreign Bishop And p. 142. Thus certainly the King being the Fountain of all Power and Authority A Supposition unproved and denyed as to Ecclesiastical Authority and so what he builds on it unsound as he is free to communicate this Power to one so he is equally free to recall and communicate it to another And therefore may as freely bestow the Power of Primate and chief Metropolitan of England or which is all one of a Patriarch on the Bishop of Canterbury having formerly thought fit to grant it to the Bishop of Rome as he or any of his Ancestors can be deemed to have granted it to the Bishop of Rome And this takes off all obligation of Obediencs in the Bishops to the Pope at the first minute that he is by the King divested of that Power Which freedome from that Obedience immediately clears the whole business of Schism as that is a departure from the Obedience of a lawful Superior Again p.
cum nullam in talibus Potestatem quenquam potestatum vel Caeterorum Laicorum habore conveniat Unless here perhaps the Concession of the particular Clergy of such a Prince be urged but none such can be valid against the Canons of their Superiors Dr. Hammond being asked this Question How Princes come by such a Right of Translating Patriarchs by S. W. Answers thus Answer to Schism Disarm'd p. 174. I that meant not to dispute of such Mysteries of State c. finding the same things assumed by Kings as their Right and yielded by the Church to be enjoyed by them both which Catholicks deny nor do his Instances prove it thought I might hence conclude this to be unquestionably their due but whether it were by God immediately conferred on them and independently from the Church or whether the Church in any Nation were the Medium that God used now under the Gospel to confer it on them truly I neither then was nor now am inclin'd either to enquire or to take upon me to determine Not knowing you see which way safely to take For if this Priviledge were conceded by the Church may not the Church according to their Principles resume it when abused But if this originally a Civil Right the Church hath usurped their Power in her making Constitutions concerning it § 63 3. Such Priviledge granted to Princes would utterly overthrow the Unity of Church-Government there seeming for preserving this as great a necessity of subjecting the Prelates of several Regions and Countries to one Patriarch as of several Bishops in the same Country to one Metropolitan or Primate or more In that Church-Divisions are apter to arise between States totally independent on one another than in the same State united at least in one Secular Head And that which is urged for a reason to induce the independency of National Primates viz. the Division of the Empire into so many absolute Principalities infers rather the contrary that the universal Government of the Church which is but one in all these Kingdomes should be now if possible closer linked together then formerly and the more likely that Sects and Distractions are to grow in the Church by reason of so many States some of which may be perverted by Heresy or Schisme the more need of an union in some one Ecclesiastical Head As the Roman Common-wealth in more dangerous Invasions of Enemies chose a Dictator and Armies are thought freest from Mutinies and Seditions when committed to one General § 64 Not can it be faid that it is a sufficient guard of this Unity that in a General Council all these Primates and other Members of the Church Catholick are collected and joined For 1st if it lye within a Prince's Power to free his National Clergy from a Patriarch and his Synods why not also from a General Council i. e. so far as that the Acts thereof shall not conclude such National Clergy without their consent And if the Church-Canons ordering the contrary bind them not for the one Submission to Patriarchs when the Prince orders otherwise why for the other Submission to General Councils But next were a General Council a standing Court or often or easily convened there might indeed be some remedy from thence but these hapning so seldome and that on the terms Protestants require them perhaps can be never the standing Superiority and Jurisdiction not moveable at pleasure of Patriarchs over Primates and so of Primates over inferior Bishops seems a means of Unity most necessary in the long intervals of the other highest Courts Else supposing That a Valentinian or a Constantius having the Power to translate and erect Primates and Patriarchs shall transfer Ambrose his Primacy or Siricius or Athonasins his Patriarchship to the Bishop of some other City so as Henry the Eighth is supposed to have translated Clement the Seventh's Patriarch-ship to the Bishop of Canterbury and what Heresy may not such Emperor advance as he pleaseth if he can find at least some Clergy on his side And what wrong did those Popes and Councils to the Emperor Constantius in their maintaining Athanasius still in his former Authority and Jurisdiction against him § 65 The Doctor 's Instances will not much trouble us Concerning α α the first and chiefest the Bishop of Justiniana Prima The Emperor Justinian's Novel 131. runs thus Sancimus per tempus beatissimum Primae Justinanae Archiepiscopum habere semper sub sua jurisdictione Episcopos Provinciarum Daciae c. Et in subjectis sibi Provinciis locum obtinere sedis Apostolicae Romae secundum ea quae definita sunt a sanctissimo Papa Vigilio Where it is said That this Bishop should locum obtinere Sedis Apostolicae Romae not that he should have the Place or Dignity of an Apostolical Seat As Dr. Hammond p. 103. would have it but the Place of the Apostolical See of Rome viz. as his standing Delegate for those parts subordinate to him the Phrase being frequently used in this but I think never in the other Sense which is acknowledged by Dr. Field who saith Of the Church p. 563. He was appointed the Bishop of Rome's Vice-gerent in those Parts to do things in his name and by his Authority Naming there many other Bishops in other places executing the like Vicar-ship for the Pope The Bishop of Sevil Arles Thessalonica and others and this also the words following in the Novel Secundum ea quae definita sunt a Sanctissimo Papa Vigilio do sufficiently declare To which may be added the Request of this Deputation of the Bishop of Justiniana made by the Emperor Justinian to Agapetus Vigilius his Predecessor who delaying his Grant of it returned him this Answer Epist. 4. De Justiniana Civitate gloriosi Natalis vestri conscia necnon de nostrae Sedis vicibus injungendis quid servato beati Petri quem diligitis Principatu vestrae Pietatis affectu plenius deliberari contigerit per cos quos ad vos dirigimus Legatos Deo Propitio celeriter intimamus If you would have yet more Evidence see the Pope's continued Confirmation of this Primate or Arch-Bishop tho consecrated by his own Bishops as usual by sending him the Pall and his deputing the judgment of Causes to him in his stead Greg. Ep. 4. l. Indic 13. Ep. 15. And 10. l. 5. Indic Ep. 34. And 2. l. Ep. 6. The same things may be said of the Primate of Carthage pretended only to be admitted to the like Priviledges with the Bishop of Justiniana Prima Concerning β the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Ravenna β As the Pallium is taken for an Archiepiscopal Ornament derived from the Emperors own habit to add the more Honour to such Prelates § 66 for which see Dr. Hammond in Schism disarmed p. 149. So it might be solely in the Emperors Donation but as it is a Ceremony used at the Instalment of a Bishop in the Archiepiscopal Jurisdictions so it belongs only to the Spiritual Superiors who
guess what a poor harvest there will be of good Works where they are thus only Free-will-offerings 12ly Their depressing the righteousness and true worth of good Works flowing from Grace infused and by this undervaluing the true Power of God's Grace given unto us and so by this again inconsiderately lessening the effects of Christ's merits also as purchasing this infusion of Grace whereby to forbear sinning as much as they seem to extol them in the pardoning of us whilst doing nothing but sinning lessening also the same merits in the removing of Sin whilst they make it in their Justification rather covered than the strength and habit deleted and eradicated misapplying Rom. ch 7. 13ly Their affirming that the pretended restoring of the once justified and afterwards faln from Grace to the State of Grace again taught and used in the Church is a thing meerly imaginary See Dr. Field Append. 3. l. p. 312. for that he who is once justified can never be unjustified and who are once assured of their Justification are also assured of perseverance in it happen afterwards what sin will happen Which sins also consequently tho of the same kind must not be in these persons of the same guilt as in others i. e. losing the Kingdome of Heaven 1. Cor. 6. and so these persons being indeed though they perswade themselves otherwise by such sins faln from Grace Now are the Keys of the Church and those Sacraments and such a measure of repentance neglected whereby they might have been restored and so the last state of these men worse than the first that before their justification and their end miserable because too much conceited and secure These are the Tenents of some more rigid Protestants in the Point of Justification in opposition to the Roman Doctrines In some of which if perhaps their meaning may by a charitable construction be reconciled to truth yet do their expressions seem very pernicious to a good life and easily misunderstood by the vulgar or those who take them in the most obvious sense HEAD XVI Of Merit Of Merit COncerning the Merits of Grace inhabitant or of the good Works that proceed from it 1. Catholicks do generally disclaim any merit of them in such a sense as the word Merit is explained by Protestants See Field Append. 3. l. p. 324. Forbes de Justifica 5. l. 3. c. p. 197. viz. First Ut opus sit nostrum non ejus a quo mercedem expectamus 2ly Ut sit indebitum 3ly Ut nihil unquam faciendum omittatur nec omittendum committatur sive quoad partes sive gradus 4ly Ut sit aequalitas inter opus mercedem Or yet as Merit is taken in the former Covenant of Works involving the first and third of these Conditions They willingly granting That as there are no works of our's done by Grace assistant tho having some worth in them that can merit our Justification so neither any Works of the already justified proceeding from Grace infused and inhabitant tho having yet a greater worth in them that can merit the future divine reward promised to them as condigne i. e. as any way in strict justice equalling it α. α. Bellarm. de Justific 5. l. 14. c. Opera bona si considerentur ex natura sua remota promissione dignitate principii operantis nullam habent proportionem ad beatitudinem illam supernaturalem proinde non eis debetur ex justitia merces aeternae vitae quoting Rom. 8.18 Luk. 19.17 Matt. 19.29 centuplum 2. Cor. 4.17 and in his using the Phrase ex condigno for this reason because their Works have not only a promise made to them of a reward but also a dignity by reason of the divine principle of them God's Grace in us that hath some correspondency or similitude to the reward as the Seed to the fruit a lesser degree of Grace here to a higher measure there-of here and hereafter in the next world yet he disclaims any equality in a sense strictly taken as most clearly appears in his answer to the Objection made against condignity viz. the great inequality of our present Works tho proceeding from Grace and life eternal especially taken for the Object thereof Deus merces nostra magna nimis as also the inequality of the imperfect knowledge and charity we have here to that perfect we shall receive for it hereafter To which he answers Ibid. c. 18. Negari non potest quin beatitudo longe excellat actioni meritoriae cum in illa sit coguitio charitas perfecta in ista vero sit cognitio charitas imperfecta And That Non requiritur absoluta aequalitas inter meritum praemium secundum justitiam distributivam ut dici possit praemium ex condigno etiam ex parte operis sed sufficit ut sit proportio quaedam secundum quam is qui meretur dici possit dignus eo praemio And That Ideo dicimus ex condigno deberi fidei formatae per charitatem visionem cum ardentissima charitate quia dignum est ut res a Deo inchoata disposita tandem aliquando perficiatur absolvatur Granting also there that God doth always remunerare justorum opera supra condignum This account gives this Cardinal of the Word Condignum See the like in Scotus 1. l. 17. d. 1. q. Praemium speaking of aeterna beatitudo est majus bonum merito justitia stricta non reddit melius pro minus bono ideo bene dicitur quod Deus semper praemiat ultra meritum condignum See more Testimonies tending to this purpose below ε. and Head _____ Letters χ. Ï. Ï„. Ï…. φ. Or Secondly As nostra or ex nobis or 3ly As indebita γ. 1. or 4ly All of them quoad partes gradus perfect and free from faults See Head XV. of Justification Further also conceding that these good Works in order to that meriting which is by Catholicks ascribed to them do stand in need of the supply or support of the Merits of our Lord and that in many several respects 1st Both for procuring the gift of that Grace to us which in us procures or produceth these good Works β. 2ly And for procuring the Pact and Promise which God hath made to them without which whatsoever their worth had been they could have claimed from God no such reward 3ly And for the remission of the imperfections and Venial Sins accompanying many of them pardoned to us for Christ's not their Merit see Head XV. 4ly And lastly For the exhibiting to God an Obedience which in its true worth equalizeth or if you will exceeds the reward for Catholicks affirm a meritorious cause as of our Justification so of our Glorification perfectly equalling life eternal and the highest degrees thereof which any one receiveth but this not in us or our Works α but in Christ the effect of whose merits is dispenced to us for this end according to the measure of these our Works which as the