whether they be Church-members or not And he may as a Keeper of the Churches Priviledges and Peace till forfeited restrain all excommunicate persons from forcing themselves into the Communion of the Church which did excommunicate them 90. So contentious are Pastors oft times and so necessary is the Magistrates Office to the publick peace that every Church should be under the eye of some Justices of the Peace or Censors appointed by force to silence intruding Bawlers and Railers and to restrain Ministers from making it their publick work unpeaceably to traduce and revile their Brethren and represent dissenters as odious to the flock And if such Magistrates had kept the Churches Order and Peace according to their Office it had prevented abundance of the Papal Usurpations which were the fruit of Magistrates neglects 91. Lay Chancellors exercising the Spiritual Power of the Keyes though they should pro forma use the stale of an Ordinaries pronunciation is such a sort of Church Government as I will never swear that in my place and Calling I will not at any time endeavour to alter by lawful means 92. The Parents are put in the fourth Commandment rather than the Magistrate or Pastor because their authority is the most plenary Image of the Divine Authority in these respects 1. Their Authority is not by Contract but by Nature 2. It is the primary radical power 3. It is most universally necessary to mankind 4. And it representeth Gods Government 1. In that it is founded in Generation as Gods in Creation 2. Because thence ariseth 1. The fullest Image of his Dominion in the Parents fullest Propriety in his Child 2. Of his sapiential Rule in the Parents Government as in presence 3. Of his Love which Parents are allowed to exceed all other Rulers in Therefore God calls himself Our Father 93. Q. What if the Magistrate Minister and Parents have opposite Commands Which of them is to be obeyed e. g. The Magistrate bids you meet in one place for publick Worship the Bishop in another and the Parent in a third The Magistrate bids you Learn one Catechism and no other the Bishop another and not that and the Parents a third The Magistrate bids you stand the Pastor bids you kneel the Parents bid you sit The Magistrate bids you pray by one form the Bishop by another and the Parents by a third or none The Magistrate commandeth one translation of the Scripture and the Bishop another The Bishop commandeth you to use a Ceremony or to keep a holy day and your Parents forbid it you In such cases which must you conform to and obey Answ. When I am desired and promised by those concerned in it that it will be well taken I will answer such kind of questions as these But till then I will hold my tongue that I may hold my peace 94. No contrary commands of Church-men as they are called nor any of our own Vows or Covenants can excuse us from obedience to the Higher Powers in lawful things which God hath authorized them to command that is which are belonging to their place of Government to regulate Though if the question be but e. g. What Medicine and Dose shall be given to a Patient or by what Medium a Philosopher shall demonstrate or what Subject and what Method and Words a Pastor shall use for the present edification of his flock or how a Surgeon shall open a Vein or a Pilot guide his Ship c. the Artist may be obeyed before an Emperour by him that careth for his life or his understanding But yet as all these are under the Government of the King so he may give them general Laws especially to restrain them from notorious hurtfulness Sir If all these Propositions be enow for the Concord of sober Christians in these matters I hope neither you nor I nor any lover of the Church and Peace shall need to use much sharpness against the Opinions of such dissenters But if they be not I know not when we shall have concord And yet that you may see that I am not over sollicitous of my Peace I will make up the number with these less pleasing Propositions 95. Because Corruptio optimi est pessima Magistrates and Ministers are of all men usually either the greatest Blessings or the greatest Burdens of mankind on earth Saith Campanella Metaph. Potentiae Corruptio est Tyrannis maxima mundi mala Sapientiae Corruptio est Haeresis maxima mundi mala Amoris Corruptio est Hypocrisis maxima mundi mala though indeed he might as well have named more As Tyranny is in the greatest part of the whole world which is Heathen Infidel and Popish the principal sin which hindereth the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ forbiddeth the preaching of the Word of life for mens salvation And therefore a sin which no Christian Magistrate or Preacher should think of but with great abhorrence and none by any palliation should befriend it so Prudent and Good Princes are under God the Pillars of the world For they are the Chief Officers of God to shew forth his Power Wisdom and Goodness Truth and Holiness Justice and Mercy in their Government And by their Laws to promote the obedience of his Laws And to encourage the Preachers and Practicers of Godliness Sobriety and Righteousness And to defend them against the Malignity of those that would silence oppress and persecute them on earth And by their examples and punishments to bring all ungodliness intemperance and injustice unto shame None therefore that possess so great a mercy should undervalue it or be unthankful 96. Wise Rulers will watch the Plots of such enemies as would use them as the Devil would have used Christ who carried him to the Pinnacle of the Temple in hope to have seen his fall the greater who would have them with Herod arrogate the praise of God unto themselves or with Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar to disdain to be under the Soveraignty of their Maker and ascribe to them the Divine Prerogatives And would make it seem their honour to have Power to do the greatest mischief that the pretence and claim may make them odious and so may debilitate and undermine them That like a draught of cold water to one in a Pleurisie they may kill them by pleasing them 97. It is an unchristian carnal craft for the Protestant Clergy of several Opinions to lay false charges on one another as being enemies to the Civil Government when really their principles therein are all the same Or to make the differences of Statesmen and Lawyers to be taken for differences in Religion purposely to make one another and their Religion odious and to strengthen themselves by the errors and passions of Princes till at last they have tempted the world to think as bad of all and of Religion it self as they have said of one another and by undermining others fall themselves 98. But yet that Party who really make a Religion of the Doctrine of
THE DIFFERENCE Between the POWER OF MAGISTRATES AND CHURCH-PASTORS AND THE ROMAN KINGDOM MAGISTRACY Under the Name of a CHURCH CHURCH-GOVERNMENT Usurped by the Pope or liberally given him by Popish Princes Opened by Richard Baxter To the Learned and Sincere Ludovicus Molinaeus Dr of Physick and Author of Jugulum Causae Papa Ultrajectinus and other Books on this subject For the Vindication of the true Pastoral Discipline exercised by the Ancient Churches and claimed but alas too little exercised by the Churches called Protestant and Reformed And to acquaint Posterity what we hold in this that false accusations misinform them not LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Sign of the three Crowns near Holborn Conduit 1671. READER THE first Epistle is now written upon the sight of Jugulum Causae The other with the Propositions was written about a year and half ago upon the sight of Papa ultrajectinus c. and the Paraenesis contra Aedificatores Imperii in Imperio And the design of all is to shew how little or nothing at all the sober moderate Protestants called Episcopal Presbyterian Independent and Political or Erastian are disagreed in all this business whilst I name you near a hundred Propositions in which they commonly consent That Princes and all Magistrates may see that they have no cause to be offended at the Christian and Protestant Doctrine or to judge the true Religion of any of these parties as such to be contrary to their interest when in very truth they are in that all one But that among all Sects and Parties there will be still some injudicious intemperate and unpeaceable men especially those whose Interest in the world is Great and cannot be upheld without encroaching on the rights of others As Great Trees must have much room and suffer nothing to prosper under them but Weeds and Bryars And it is to tell Politicians that the true Pastoral Power being a Power to labour and suffer in patient self-denyal for the Church of Christ and the souls of men is past all doubt of Christs appointment And to diminish that Power is but to diminish our obligation to labour and suffer and to gratifie our sloth and fleshly interest But to diminish that Secular Church-power which Clergie men claim as of Divine Right is but for Princes to be Princes whether the Clergie will or no. And as to the Learned Author Dr. Lud. Molinaeus my meaning is to second him in awakening Magistrates to reassume their proper power and to leave it in no Clergie mens hands of what party soever But as to his reflections on the Protestants Discipline lovingly to chide him for making the difference seem wider than it is and to RECONCILE the four Parties while I distinctly open the common Doctrine of them all excepting the rigid Opinions of some interessed or intemperate individuals My Learned Sincere and Worthy Friend WHEN I had hastily set down my judgement of the Cause which I found handled in your Papa Ultrajectinus and other Writings which you sent me I cast by that Script which I intended at the writing of it for your view that I might surely keep it from the notice of others in this Age wherein the prevalency of Interest Faction Passion and Injudiciousness doth make it so great a difficulty to say any thing for the cure of any mens errors enormities or impieties which shall not be charged with the same crime or greater which it would cure and be taken for a disturber of the Church and Peace which it would save or heal But now seeing that you renew your endeavours in the same Cause and finding your Jugulum Causae directed to so many hands by seventy particular Epistles and that you have honoured me with a place among those great and worthy persons I take my self obliged to render you some account of my judgement of your Writings and especially of the whole Cause by bringing into the open light those hundred Propositions which I had purposed to conceal And withal to tell you 1. That though you have much overvalued me in your recitation of their report who would have joyned me with so Great so Wise and Good a man as A Bishop Usher and that in so great a work and experience may tell you that other men have other thoughts of me as one unmeet to preach the Gospel in the Land of my Nativity much more unmeet to be a decider of the Churches Controversies yet you have truly described my judgement of your self and your undertaking I confess I hope not that ever you should make the Roman Usurpation more palpable than the falshood of their Doctrine of Transubstantiation where they maintain not only the Corporal Presence which is not it that I now mean but that Bread is not Bread and Wine is not Wine when all men see taste smell and feel them And if the Princes Doctors and great men of the world can thus obstinately deny or take on them to deny the judgement which is made of sensible objects by all mens senses you may gather what fruit you may expect of your labours or of any Cause how plain soever where prejudice and seeming interest are against you Can all the Writings or Reasonings in the world bring any thing to a more clear and sure decision than that of all the senses of all men in the world about the proper objects of sense If flesh so far conquer flesh it self and the interest of sensuality can cause such men and such multitudes to renounce the apprehension of all their senses what have we to do more for the cure of mankind You have made it plain enough that it is really a part of the Secular Government of Kings and States which is now commonly called Ecclesiastical among the Papists and as such is challenged and usurped by the Pope and that Princes that subject their Kingdoms to his Usurpation do take in a joint Ruler with them and divide their Kingdoms or Power between themselves and him But so they have done and so they will do till the Time of the Churches fuller Reformation and of the Coalition of the Christian world is come I know you may think that as Interest blindeth them so this great detection of the Invasion of their Interest is the way to bring them to the truth For who will have a Co-partner with him in his Kingdom that may choose Who had not rather Rule alone than divide his Kingdom with the Pope Undoubtedly they give away more of their own Interest hereby than you have opened When they deliver part of their power to one who by an approved General Council of their own which is the Religion of their Party Later sub Innoc. 3. Can. 2. 3. may depose Temporal Lords though no Protestants themselves that will not exterminate those that deny Transubstantiation out of their Dominions and may absolve their subjects from their fidelity and may give their Countryes unto others When their most Learned
difference as Christ hath appointed us to make And doth our Baptismal Covenant contain no promise and profession of godliness and obedience as well as of Belief and so of Repentance and a better life 2. Who would you have to be Judge in this matter Shall every one be Judge himself Then all Pagans Murderers Blasphemers may come in and turn Religion and the Church into a scorn If any must judge you would not sure set the Magistrates or people such a task on pain of damnation to leave their Calling to try and judge of the qualifications of expectants or Church-members 3. Whom do you think Christ committed this business to Who were the Judges of the Capacity of persons to be baptized or the desert of persons to be rejected Diotrophes could not have rejected Christians injuriously if he had not then had some Governing power 4. Hath not all Christs Church exercised such a Discipline as I have described since the Apostles days till now saving the corruption of it by ill additions or carnal neglects And hath all this Church been from the beginning under a false Government in the main Or is not Reformation a righter way than extirpation of Discipline as well as of Doctrine and Worship 5. Is it not the wickedness of Christians that is the chief hardening of Turks and other Infidels against Christianity And would they not encrease this pollution that would have the most vicious to be equally received with the best 6. Is not Faith for Holiness and did not Christ come to purifie a peculiar people and restore us to the Image of God And if for want of Discipline Saints and Swine be equally Church-members and partakers of holy things is that agreeable to this design of our Redeemer 7. If Oeconomical Government and School Government and Colledge Government be no wrong to Kings neither is the Church Government which Christ hath instituted I do not say all this to intimate that you say the contrary But because your Charge on Luther Calvin and other Protestants sheweth that you do sure mistake them And to tell you that I joyn with you in disowning the KINGDOM and Magistracy of the Mock-Church of Rome and of all that will imitate them But that I take the Enmity to and grosse neglect of true Church-Discipline to be one of Satans principal services that is done him upon earth against true Godliness The Churches and the Magistrates Power stated in matters of Religion In an hundred Propositions which almost all sober Protestant Teachers are agreed in A Reconciliation of the sober Episcopal Presbyterians Independents and Erastians To my very Learned sincere and worthy Friend Ludovicus Molinaeus Dr. of Physick The Author of many Treatises on this subject Dear Sir UPON the perusal of your Writings which you sent me the love of the Church and of Truth and Peace and you doth command me to tell you as followeth 1. That I make no question but that the Pride of the Clergy with their Covetousness hath for above twelve hundred years been a greater plague to the Churches throughout the Christian world than all the cruelties of the Laity And that the sensless forgetting the matter and manner of Christs decision of his Apostles Controversie Which of them should be the greatest hath divided the East and West and corrupted and kept down Religion whilest that the lives of the Prelates have perswaded the observers that they still took it for a more important Question Which of them should be the greatest than Whether they or their people should be saved And it hath ever been a matter of easie remarque that there have been seldom any dangerous Schisms on one side or any cruel Persecutions on the other side which the Clergy have not been the principal causes of And that the Laity would be more quiet if the Clergy did not delude them or exasperate them And that even the more mistaken and violent sort of Magistrates would have some moderation in their Persecutions if the Clergy did not make them believe that a burning killing Zeal is the mark of a good Christian and is the same that in Tit. 2. 14. is called a zeal of good works and that to destroy the bodies of men truly fearing God is the way to save their own souls or their Dominions at least when indeed the zeal of Christs commanding is a zealous Love to one another and a zealous doing good to others and the Devilish zeal as St. James distinguisheth it James 2. 15 16 17. is an envious hating hurting zeal 2. That in all this the Laity are not innocent but must thank themselves for the evil that befalleth them and that on two notable accounts 1. Because they have ordinarily the choosing of the dignified and beneficed Churchmen and they have but such as they choose themselves They think it is their wisdom as well as piety to make the Honour and Profit so great as shall be a very strong bait to Pride and Covetousness And when they have so done the Proudest and most Covetous will certainly be the Seekers and that with as much craft and diligence as an ambitious mind can use their parts to And he that seeketh by himself and friends is likest to find And the more humble and heavenly any one is and consequently most honest and fit to be a Pastor of the Church the further he will be from the Seekers way So that except it be where the world hath Rulers so wise and strangely pious as to seek out the worthy who seek not for themselves its easie to prognosticate what kind of Pastors the Church will have And verily they that choose them are the unfittest to complain of them Whereas if the Churches maintenance were such as might but prevent the discouragements of such as seek the Ministry for the works sake and for the love of souls that so Students might not make it a Trade for wealth but a self-denying dedication of themselves to God the Churches would be accordingly provided And they that intend the saving of souls would be the Candidates by their own and their Parents dedication as now they that intend a Trade to live and serve the flesh by in an honourable way are too great a part of them Or men might be further rewarded ex post facto for their Merits without being tempted to study principally for that reward And if we will needs have carnal men let us not wonder if they live carnally And if the carnal mind be enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 6 7. we may easily prognosticate how Christs enemies will do his work and guide his Church and whether their wills and wayes will be such as the conscionable can conform to 3. And the Laity are unexcusable because it is they in all those Countreys where Popery and Church-tyranny prevaileth who put their Sword into the Clergies hands and give away their own authority and set up men to vie