those who abominate the natural and direct consequences are thence to be drawn where the Civil Power is return'd into the Mediator but it throughly answers their Expectations who contend to have their Prince a Priest too and would delight more to see him in his Rochet and at the Altar Blessing and Consecrating than on his Throne and with his Scepter sweying and governing his People and for which latter they believe themselves equally capacitated and enabled as he and their belief on these Grounds is well bottomed for Christ when ascending up on high gave no other Gifts to Men than what either enabled to the work of the Ministry and which alone were for peculiar Persons or what made Christians good and virtuous men only and which were to all promiscuous and common And had our Church in her Article given to Kings that only Prerogative they saw given to Aristotles Prince and which is extended to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also as is above shew'd to the things of Religion it had been the same though less popular and perswading I shall only add the Autority of Doctor Hammond in his Practical Catechism Lib. 2. Sect. 11. that Christ in his Sermon on the Mount medled not with the Fifth Commandment Though he were as God the King of all Kings and might have changed and disposed of their Dominions as he pleased yet he was not pleased to make any Alteration but to continue and settle all in that course wherein it formerly had been placed by God himself What he added to Moses in this Matter was only greater reverence and aw to the Father or Magistrate or Civil Power he left the Woman taken in Adultery and other Offenders to the ordinary legal course and would not upon any importunity usurp or take upon him any thing in that Matter and more considerate Papists as he goes on and tells us discerning this and yet unwilling to devest the Pope of his so long usurped Power have found it necessary to pretend another tenure for him and therefore style the Pope not the Vicar of Christ for that would give him no Power so much as of a Civil Judge but the Vicar of God whom he hath set up to be the Vicegerent of all the World The whole Discourse might not unfitly be here transcribed only 't is as it ought to be in every bodies hands BUT what if these Doctors were in the design § XXVII against us as we do not resolve our Faith into one Doctor or Bishop at Rome So neither do we into three or twice so many at home of what Order and Autority soever and which adds in it self just nothing to the Skill of a Divine nor is the Tradition of Truth broken by it And indeed there are so many Accidents in the World and with so great force upon Mankind so often influencing and over-ruling that Christianity in its particular Articles and sometimes the highest of them would be but in a bad Condition were it responsible for what every particular Doctor has said or wrote and which comes not up unto them whether out of a tenderness of Disposition a mistaken Zeal for Union and to reconcile Moderation and Comprehension a keeping present Peace or a design of working more effectually for the future or whether through a fear and impotency of Nature averse to and unable for Struglings wearied out by daily Provocations or a foresight of some Calamities foreseen and approaching and every one is not an Athanasius always undaunted or real misapprehension in the understanding or which is a thing very frequent upon the rise of an Heresie to set up for a middle way and which is as injurious to gratifie either lust in general or that itch of Ambition in particular and to become the Head of a Party whether out of peevishness or revenge or to magnifie their own Parts and Eloquence lead by the Autority of Names or by self-interest blinded by one or more of which ways errors and differences in Religion are either occasioned or started managed and pursued No sooner was his Master Justin Martyr dead but Tatianus grew Proud and puffed up with an opinion of being uppermost in the School turn'd Heretick Iren. adv Haeres cap. 31. l. 1. Basilides was a Master of luxury and was to do something extraordinary to disguise it as St. Jerone Tom. 3. l. 2. adv Jovinian and so was Marcion as Tertullian Prescript Cap. 51. and Lactantius tells us of several others who affecting the highest Order in the Church studying Honour and Greatness and sailing of it made a Secession from the Church not enduring Subjection Lib. 4. Sect. ult and so did Valentinus because he lost a Bishoprick Tertul. adv Valent. cap. 4. as did Aerius Novatius c. and Theodorit describes Hereticks in general ambitioni vanae gloriae mancipatos Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 2. and Sozomen complains of a worser effect they have yet in God's Church Nonnullos in vias medias adigunt Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. occasion the setting up somewhat like Truth which is not Truth when they write Irenicums and set up for Reconcilers make a hotch-potch of Truth and Falshood together a sure way to elude and baffle Truth and insinuate Error the abatement being still on Truth 's side and the Error is brought to become tolerable and which would not in plain terms have been endured but thus gets ground onward and so much of Truth is destroyed and erased to give place to the Falshood This was the most devilish Plot of Julian the Apostate by which he baffled Christianity he mixed his Paganism with it complied in many instances of its Performances that the less discerning might be the easier carried over to it a very ill consequence of Error mostly ruining Truth and mostly to be abominated the Ape is the more deformed because like a Man and is not one Tertullian turn'd Montanist in disdain of the Pride of the greater Clergy at Rome as inter fragmenta Tertull. and Hieron Catalog Script Ecclesiast no one stands fairer in the Church Story for Piety and Morals than Pelagius and he and his Scholars Julianus Celestius c. seduced many by it designed and perverted it to that alone purpose even Men of great Fame and Learning became thereby inclined to them as Sixtus at Rome John of Jerusalem Cyril in Egypt and Sulpitius Severus in France And particularly the Rich and Potent Women whom he strangely insinuated into by all manner of Flatteries Hypocrisies and Delusions and which generally are the Engines Hereticks have work'd by as in Church Story and for which Austin and Jerome sufficiently shrape him as an account is given at large by Joannes Garnerus the late Publisher of the Works of Marius Mercator Dissert 4. De Subscript c. Cap. 3. who was or who could be more stout and couragious for the Nicene Faith than was Liberius Bishop of Rome and which appeared in his behaviour all along particularly in his
some Cases of Heresie in the Ordainer 16. Cod. Theodos Tit. 5. Lex 12.14.57 Yet amidst these and such like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illegal Ordinations and defective complain'd of by Eusebius which were during the Persecution of Dioclesian in his twelfth Chapter De Martyribus Palestinae and against which the Church still provided for the future there is no one Caution concerning Ordinations by the People such a thing being never presumed and attempted nor is there any one instance of but voiding any one Ordination that was made without their but Votes and Hands lift up and concurring in order to it and which certainly there would have been had the Church adjudg'd their pre-elections or concurrency so necessary especially upon so many failures as David Blondel acknowledges there were one of which was enough to have awakened the Church-Governors to alike care they used on such Occasions or had she but placed their concurrency with those but Circumstantials of Orders many of which are just now mentioned and the Church there made particular provision relating to them SO that David Blondel's design of a Divine § X and Immutable Right in the defence of which he has took so great pains is only writing in the Dust nor is any one inference due that he has made in order to it 'T is true his Argument is well laid had the Performance been accordingly and the concurrency of ten Centuries immediately upon the Apostles and Scriptures attesting any one Truth or Practice is as authentique and ought to be so received as any Grounds and Motives of Faith can make it to be nor can any thing be required more which can be thought to concur to the making a full perswasion of the Truth under Debate But alas the chief Ingredient for a thorow Tradition is absent Universality it was so neither in all places not at all times nor in any one time or Century of the best and first Ages of the Church in every instance of it but still changed upon accidents often and more upon Industry and Choice and last of all wholly abolished and in good times of the Church without any care or design for a restitution taken even out of the hands of the Magistrate and limited to the Bishops Can. 3. Concil Sept. Gen. Niceae and it may be much questioned whether his Brethren and Friends both in France and Holland and England especially such of them as have took up the Cudgels after him have more reason to be ashamed of his ill Success then to be down-right angry with him for the Way and Method and Grounds he laid for proving the Divine and immutable right of it Surely if this be admitted the disadvantage will be their own in a point of a higher concern if Apostolical Ecclesiastical practice still amount to a Divine immutable Law And indeed it would be of real ill consequence in many considerable cases that would arise in the true Church of Christ for although the matter of Fact be evident it has been receiv'd and practised in the Churches first and best Ages yet it may be a doubt what the Obligation was to them who then receiv'd it and whose practice it was whether as absolute and immutable and consequently how it now reaches us every Truth and Matter of Fact has not the same degree of Necessity in its Nature and Use nor do his Brethren more go against him here than he against himself I might refer to his own Text but the Irenicum has done it before me p. 401. joyning him with Bochart and Amiraldus in the cause of which his Triumvirate as he calls them Blondel is there placed in the head and all to make good that one great Truth by their Autority which is vast and unquestionable and to defend which is the great business of that Treatise of Church-Government nor has that Author as yet declared his Judgment to be otherwise or rather corrected that his first and early Mistake there obtruded on the World to pass a perpetual Sanction upon it That no form of Government or Polity in the Church is immutable though by the Apostles themselves recommended and yet Apostolical practice is here binding and eternal pag. 473. Apol. and the Power of the People is thus transmitted from Heaven as the alone House and Pedegree of its descent and so immutably is it stablish'd that no accident or ill circumstance whatever or with what ill consequences soever foreseen and foreknown no consideration of the Peoples ignorance even duncery it self at eos omnes non modo imperitos sed imperitissimos demus pag. 501. no miscarriages or other seeming inconsistencies are to be considered or can they weigh down against the Eternal antecedent Command either abolish the Power or cease but alter in but one instance the custom and practice of their Votes and Elections to the Office of the Ministry nothing can remain but for common Prudence for all was known at first to our Saviour whence the Apostles received it to the succeeding Church who left no such reserve allow'd not to us nor have we reason to take it ill for they did not to themselves any such Considerations pag. 51 52. and what Exceptions there have been to this first and great Rule as he tells us there was some few arose from the Pride and Usurpations of the Bishops who so soon as they had taken to themselves Titles and Power above the Presbyters they engrossed the Right of Ordaining them and never required the concurrency of the Clergy and the People spurr'd on by Fame and Vain-glory and Secular Interest and that is the reason why there is no Canons express and very few examples of the Peoples choosing Presbyters and Deacons Nor does it in the original right diminish their Power because wrested from them pag. 469 470. and all which is one among the many Fictions and Romances the whole Apology is stuffed withal and every ways like himself who according to his usual good Nature and Malice to the Order it self still lays what dirt he can at the doors of the most eminent Christians the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of Christ not considering or rather not caring what injury the common Christianity thereby receives through the sides of these its known Martyrs and Confessors so be he can but fill up his private Congregation a guilt not easily to be removed from too many of the French Reformation especially from Dailee in his Book of the Use of the Fathers and the abundance of Irreligion in general in these parts of the World ows it self in a great measure to it And to see the unluckiness of it and how his ill Nature returns unavoidably upon himself what he attributes to the Bishops Pride and Arrogancy and Self-interest in assuming and engrossing to themselves a Power which was not theirs that they ordained Presbyters and Deacons without the People and Clergy that the dependency of both might be the surer upon them and certainly
of the Church every ways dishonour'd and displaced § IX I know it will be here reply'd and 't is so generally All this was when the Emperors were Heathens nay more Opposers and Persecutors of Christianity how could the Offices Managery and Concerns of Religion be intrusted with them who did who would not understand it who scorned and affronted it who to their power endeavour'd to suppress it by all manner of Cruelties executed on its Professors the Church then did as well as she could and exercised her own Prudence and Strength that Power and Jurisdiction which they agreed upon and assum'd by particular compact among themselves and which became an Escheat to the Crown when the Empire became Christian and Kings then executed it in their own Right as inherent to their Secular Power designed and appointed and expected from them by God Almighty And in Answer to which groundless Plea and Objection I shall add farther either the Bishops and Doctors and Confessors of the Christian Church understood this Case as thus stated That this Power was not really in themselves and their execution of it was but accidental forced under the present Circumstances and to return to such Governors in State as should become Christians as its proper Seat or Subject or they did not understand it To say they did not understand it is to implead and represent them to all Ages succeeding guilty of Ignorance gross and inexcusable to give that for certain Truth which some of our Reformers have made their Libel and Objection against these first and Holy Christians That they were more Zealous than Wise Pious but imprudent less discerning men and from whom Truth is not to be had nor expected and which is in effect to put a baffle upon our whole Christianity in general and to lay a ground for mistrust upon each of its particulars it must receive a great blow upon such Supposals when reflected upon and considered that those who alone propagated our Faith for Three hundred years together did not understand the Power and Autority they were invested with in order to it or the true tenor or state of it To say they did understand it then surely it had been stated by them a Model of it drew up and left at least for Posterity a thing so in course and most usual in other cases thus to give Specimens Schemes and Draughts of the Design and Purpose especially when to propose attempt and carry on something that is but new not before received much more when thwarting to the common Sentiments and Apprehensions of Mankind That no Men but such as the Christians were given out to be by their Opposers and Persecutors Mad-men and Fools the followers of a Carpenter and a few Fishermen can be supposed guilty of Certainly the occasion and meaning of that particular Power they then exercised in the Church different from the Secular nay when enjoyned and commanded the contrary by those Powers that they act and speak no more in that Name when Persecuted to Bonds and Imprisonment moreover unto Death for it had been declared and published to such those Governors a Manifesto or Remonstrance made of it to all Princes of the World certainly among the many Apologies that were made to the Empire in their own behalf this had had a share a room at least in some one of them That what Jurisdiction was then exercised by them the Pastors of the Church was only under the present Necessity a present contrivance of their own to keep their Followers and Adherents in some tolerable Peace and Order to awe and restrain as they could better an assumed Usurped Government than none at all that the real and whole Government was laid upon theirs the Magistrates shoulders alone would they but be pleased to come in to the Faith and sustain and execute it What a plausible even cogent Argument is here all along omitted to let the Powers of the World know what a considerable Portion of their Birth-right as Princes they neglect and disown abdicate and relinquish what a real damage and disadvantage they receive in not coming in to the Church what a principal Jewel would be added to their Crown in so doing So great and considerable a number as they which are Christians and which grow upon the World and increase daily Vestra omnia implevimus Vrbes Insulas Castella Municipia Conciliabula Castra ipsa Tribus Decurias Palatium Senatum Forum cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus etiam impares Copiis as Tertullian in his Apology cap. 37. Vast Multitudes every where of all sorts in all Places and Offices who as they professed all manner of Allegiance and Duty to them in Seculars so would they acquit resign into their hands their Power Spiritual nay it is really theirs already and the execution falls in course upon them an accession that must be advantageous cannot be accounted mean and inconsiderable to a Government Thus to be the Fountain and Head of all Rule and every Jurisdiction to invest or abdicate to oblige or punish so great so considerable a Sect as are the Christians to constitute and influence to depose and remove every way to govern at Pleasure their Bishops and Pastors who thus grow upon the World and influence all Men the Motive could never have been neglected the Argument must have had a great deal of room in their several Apologies and Embassies to the Empire in behalf of themselves and their Religion who spared nothing like an Argument that might but ingratiate and insinuate into their good favour and liking as 't is evident from such their Writings and yet there is not one word there of any such Pleadings or any thing like it but the quite contrary as it hath been already made to appear I 'le go on farther and assert that 't is very improbable if not our Saviour himself yet that the Apostles should not have done all this and thus stated the case down to the World and yet no man sets these two Powers of the Church and State more apart than does St. Paul and so leaves them To instance in no more at present he often exhorts That they obey Magistrates and that they also remember those that have rule over them who have spoken to them the Word of God and his Bishop has his distinct care over the Church of God 1 Tim. 3.5 has his things to set in order Tit. 1.5 a Power to Summon by Process to receive Accusations as in Court as upon a Seat of Judicature before witnesses 1 Tim. 5.19 20. though no Power to lay either Confinement or any other corporal outward Punishment on their Persons The Powers of the World becoming Christian it must needs make a great alteration as to its Worship and great was the advantage the Gospel received thereby but so great a translation of Power from one Body to another must in all likelihood have been forewarn'd of and declared by such as had a
farther that he pretends to have the judicial Determination of Bishops but really manages and does all himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. and evidently again distinguishes between the work of a Bishop and the work of an Emperor he goes on and is more daring and positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any such thing was heard of from the beginning of the World that the Judgment and Decision of the Church had its Autority and Measures from the Empire or was ever any such Determination known at all many Church Decisions have been made but never did the Presbyters perswade the Emperor to any such thing neither did the Prince intermeddle with the things of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And all this is recorded by Athanasius of the Divine and most Excellent Hosius in that his Epistle Ad Solitarium c. Pag. 840 repeating there Hosius his Epistle to 〈◊〉 on the same occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who drew up the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that was heard and submitted to by all his own words are these to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not interpose thy self nor meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs nor do you Command in these things but rather learn them of Vs to Thee God hath committed the Empire to Vs he hath deputed what is the Churches and as he that undermines the Government opposes the Ordinance of God so do thou take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest forcing to thy self the things which are of the Church you become liable to as great a guilt for it is written give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods It is neither lawful for us to have the Government upon Earth nor hast thou the Power of Holy things O King St. Jerome speaks of the evil Bishops only the Character is upon them De Ecclesiae Principibus qui non dignè regunt oves Domini as of Princes in the Church with Power of Jurisdiction in themselves in his Comments on Jeremiah cap. 23. Sacerdos est Caput the Priest is the Head an Original devolving upon others Comment in 1 Cor. 12. and upon Romans 13. Apostolus in his quae recta sunt judicibus obediendum non in illis quae Religioni contraria sunt the things of Religion are not to be subjected to Kings nor any in Autority under them And to this purpose he says again in Isai 1. Apostolos à Christo constitutos Principes Ecclesiarum the Apostles were constituted by Christ Princes of the Churches And the same is said in his Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians and particularly on Psal 44. Fuere O Ecclesia Apostoli Patres tui quia ipsi te genuere c. The Apostles O Church were thy Fathers that begot thee now because they are gone out of the World you have in their room Bishops Sons which are created of thee and those are thy Fathers by whom thou art governed The Gospel being spread in all Parts of the World in which Princes of the Church i. e. Bishops are constituted This Holy Father assigning all Church-Power to and in it self and if it be suspected whether these Comments on the Psalms be St. Jerome's own I have yet here repeated this passage out of them as most fully appearing his sense to whoso pleases to consult his Works especially his Commentary St. Augustine's Opinion we have already in part spoke of and he that will undertake an Enquiry will find him all along of the same Opinion I 'le only instance in the differences occasion'd by the Donatists and what Power the Empire assum'd to it self in those great and many Controversies and their Decisions related by him which he tells us is only to make outward Laws in defence of what appears to be Truth and says he it falls out sometimes Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore contra veritatem leges ferunt that they make Laws against Truth themselves being in Error and good Men are only prov'd thereby as evil Men by their good Laws are amended Tom. 7. l. 3. Cont. Crescon Gramat cap. 51. they command that which is Good and forbid that which is Evil Non solum quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem verùm etiam ad divinam Religionem in things which belong not only to Humane Society but to Divine Religion he has Power to enquire into debates and to provide for Truth and Peaco by the Bishops to assign the Persons Time and Place Vt superstitionem manifesta ratio confutaret that Reason may gain upon Superstition and Truth be made manifest Collat. 1. diei 3. cum Donatist Nor was Cecilianus purg'd and set free but by Judiciis Ecclesiasticis Imperialibus by the Ecclesiastical as by the Imperial Judgment and Determinations Ibid. nor will it appear that the Powers of the Empire have concern'd themselves any farther in those quarrels than by abetting or discouraging by outward Laws and Punishments what was represented as Truth unto them and which the Church alone hath not Power to do either to award at first or after mitigate but by Prayers and Arguments and therefore the Civil Laws and Indulgences have been sometimes severer and sometimes too indulgent as Accidents or Truth over-ruled as is to be seen in his Third and Fourth Books ad Cresconium and when these Laws went too hard upon these Donatists and pinched their Faction too sorely then they cried out of Persecution denied the Empire this Power in Divine things and that they were to stand at no humane Judicature as is the way of all such Factions when themselves only persecute and invade and whose Insolencies and Rapines are at large told us by St. Austin in his Forty eighth Epistle and by Optatus in his Treatise against Parmenius the Donatist Hence that of Donatus lib. 3. ibid. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church whom Optatus there sharply upbraids as well as reproves for it tells Donatus of his Pride and unheard of insolency in so doing in lifting up himself above him who is second to God alone Cum supra Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus who sits as God in all forensick outward Judicatures and no man can withstand him but Church-Power is still supposed a quite differing thing I mean that which our Saviour left immediately to his Church it falls not under this head of things 't is derived in another stream as the design of his whole Book declares nor is Optatus for this or any other like Expression to be thought to refer all Church-Power into the Empire than those other Fathers did using much the same Expressions and which is above observed and he in particular returns the rise and devolution of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter by whose Successors it was then in Siricius the Bishop in his days in his Second Book against Parmenius and so St.
Austin has done on the same occasion in his Hundred and sixty fifth Epistle and the breach of this Succession is the Charge and Crime of Schism they both object against the Donatists as guilty of a Church as well as a State-transgression and both on several accounts as two distinct Impieties are they proceeded against I 'le give but one instance out of St. Chrysostom and 't is so full there needs no more of those many others are producible 't is in his 86th Homily on St. John where he says Christ did invest his Apostles with Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a King sends forth his Praefects and Governors with a Power immediately from himself to imprison and release to bind and to loose to execute of themselves all Power and Jurisdiction so receiv'd and belonging to the Deputation And what was the Judgment of St. Ambrose the particular case alone betwixt him and the Emperor Theodosius makes abundantly appear occasioned by that cruel Massacre committed in Thessalonica by his at least connivance the Holy Bishop remov'd him from the Prayers and Altar durst not Communicate with him in those Holy Duties whose hands were so full of Blood not that St. Ambrose could impose these things by force and that his Person be so absented by any thing like a Coercive Power or did design or pretend to it and that Penance which he laid upon him and the Emperor accepted of upon his Re-entrance was it suited to his Imperial Power no ways abating of or detracting from his Majesty and Soveraignty it was to enact a Law that no Penal Decree or Edict that comes forth be executed till Thirty days after its first Sanction to avoid the fury of such Proceedings for the future No St. Ambrose upon the either Plea or Execution of this Power does not attempt his either Purple or Scepter to Depose him from his Crown or Absolve his Subjects of their Allegiance he only executes upon him his Pastoral Charge and which is in order to the World to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as he reverenced his Kingly Power so did he take care also not to transgress the Law of his God had the Emperor been less a Christian and return'd upon him with violence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could receive the stroke with Pleasure he did discharge his Duty as a Bishop and he was secure within he only lets the Emperor know that his Purple makes him a Prince not a Priest that it doth not exempt him from the Laws and Discipline of God's Church and for this he appeals to his own Education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nourish'd up in the Divine Oracles and in which it was clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was the Priests and what the Princes peculiar Office and which were there notoriously distinguish'd all this was no Pragmatick newly started particular extravagant attempt in St. Ambrose but a commonly receiv'd and owned Right and Truth what the whole Age had been taught and bred up in And Theodosius in particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knew it by his Education and which caused his displeasure to some who were willing to abate of their Church Right whether out of Court-flattery or for what other Reason for which on the contrary he so highly valued and honoured St. Ambrose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who alone was worthy of the Name of a Bishop all which with more is to be read in our Church Histories particularly those of Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 25. and Theodoret lib. 5. cap. 18. and that which gave St. Ambrose a particular advantage in the asserting and execution of such his Power was that he had the Autority of Valentinian on his side for that good Emperor had own'd all this before and he Sang this Hymn at his Consecration St. Ambrose being then a lay Governor of that Province deputed to it by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave thanks to God and Christ that as he had committed the Power of Mens Bodies to him in that Province so from them he had now the Power of Souls by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there mentioned his Episcopal Character then conferr'd upon him Theodorit Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 7. § XII And he that begins again where we left off in Eusebius and goes along our first Church History to Constantine downward will find all along the same Church-Power continued and asserted and expressed in the same words too as is that of the Empire Nor can any man any more doubt that there was Ecclesiastical Power seated in some measure in every Order of the Church but primarily and chiefly in the Bishop then that there was a Civil Power placed by God first of all in the Empire and from him derived to his Praefects and inferiour Magistrates and Damasus Bishop of Rome had as real a Power in his Diocese and which can no more be questioned upon the score of those publick Records than that Valentinianus his Contemporary had a real Autority in the Empire of the World the Bishop is still represented in his Chair as the Emperor is upon his Throne or can be by words declared they are still called and acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 10. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Vita Constantini lib. 2. c. 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Presbyteris suis l. 3. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Eustathio dicitur quòd Concilium Niceae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nimirum Antiochiae cum eodem tempore Capite dicit quod Constantinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen l. 1. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacerdotes Vocat lib. 2. cap. 12. and he gives this account why the Bishops are Buried at Constantinople with the Emperors in the Church which is call'd The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Episcopis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Imperatore lib. 6. c. 4. Philip who held a Praefecture or some kind of Government under the Empire is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Constantinople and which implies his Mission and Deputation from and under the Emperor But this word is never applied to the Bishops or any one of them who are no Deputies of his receive nothing like a Commission nor have any derived Power from him they are not the King's Ministers or Vicegerents as are those in Temporals and they owe their Autority alone to Christ Jesus Cap. 9. And so again lib. 4. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when mentioning the Officers of the Crown under Deputation and all along in the History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romae Sylvester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiochiae Vitalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post illum Phlagonius Theodorit lib. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constantinopoleos
only Regnante Christo and the Reign of the Empire is left out though it do no ways infer and prove that all Empire is originally in Christ both as to Spirituals and Seculars and that he that is his Succession the Church has the disposal of the Kingdoms of the World too Primarily and Originally in him as some zealous Parasites of the Roman Faith thence it seems have inferr'd and against whom the main Plot of D. Blondel in this his Book is laid and very well yet this it infers and evidently proves That our Saviour and his Succession the Church have been always supposed to have had a Kingdom in the World not to supplant and overturn to usurp and encroach upon but to bless that other of the World to render it Prosperous on Earth and by her holier Laws and Discipline to bring all to the Kingdom of Heaven when the Reign on Earth is at an end But this D. Blondel could not or would not see himself and therefore a thing too usual with him runs into the opposite extreme to his Adversaries is angry when this very Church-Power and its existence of which himself gives so evident a Demonstration is asserted solitary and not in the Empire as no ways flowing and included in its Constitution as the other will have no Empire but from and in the Church so hard a matter is it for some Men to contend for Truth and against the Church of Rome at once and as has above been observed but these Oversights if no worse are usual with him 't is like his ill luck in other cases § XVIII AND he that duly consults and considers the sundry Proceedings and Laws and judiciary Acts of the Empire about Church-Matters either as interspersed in our Church Histories or as Collected and United in the two Codes the Theodosian and Justinian in their several Laws Novels and Constitutions will readily grant all this and more that the Church and State the Worldly or Secular and Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Power were still consider'd reputed and proceeded on as quite distinct Bodies and Powers though both flowing from the same Original and Fountain yet as diverse as the Soul and Body with several Offices and Duties on each incumbent in different Channels convey'd and all aiming at the great and ultimate end the general advantage of Mankind and each individual both with their faces to the same Jerusalem but in several Paths and Determinations judiciary in order to it Hee 'l find that as the Church the Councils and Bishops were ever Conscientious and Industrious that they entrenched not on the Empire withheld not from it what was its due usurped not any thing was not their own paid all manner of Observances to Kings and Secular Governors in all manner of Duties as Prayers Thanksgiving Instructions Directions Admonitions Tribute Loyalty c. So again did the Empire preserve their Functions Persons and Estates give them Liberties Enfranchisements Protestations unless where Apostates as Julian where overmuch favouring Heresies as some time Constantius c. countenanced and provided for Truth and Holiness and sound Discipline according to the Rules Canons Directions Interpretations and Determinations given by the Bishops assembled in Council or occasionally otherways made and recommended unto them the Church still Petitioned and Supplicated the Empire when by the Affronts and Insolencies the greater Impieties and Obstinacies of the World the edge of their Spiritual Sword was dulled and blunted when Coercive outward Punishments alone could hope to prevail for Peace and Amendment of this we have several Instances upon Record as for the deposing Dioscorus in Evagrius his Ecclesiastical History l. 2. c. 4. in placing Proclus in the Episcopal Throne Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 4. which was immediately by Theodosius Maximinianus the defuncts Body being not yet laid in the Ground to prevent the Tumults of the People To this purpose we have the Case of one Cresconius a Bishop who left his own and invaded another's Church and upon a remand from the Council refusing to return the President of the Country is Petitioned and his Secular arm which alone has a Coercive Power over Mens Persons sends him back again according to the Constitutions Imperial Concil Carthag Can. 52. just such another Case as that of Paulus Samosetanus in the days of Aurelian the Emperor above-mentioned and the course of Proceedings we see is the same now as then both in Church and State as that Laws may be made to restrain such as were fled to the Church for refuge Can. 60. that the Riot and Excess be taken away on their Festivals which drew Men to Gentilism again by the obscener Practices and which were without shame and beyond Modesty Can. 65 66. that the Secular Power would come in eò quod Episcoporum autoritas incivitatibus contemnitur because the Power of the Bishops is contemn'd in the Cities Can. 70. ut Ecclesiae opem ferat to assist the Church against these Impieties so strenuous and prevailing Can. 78. as in the Case of the unrulier Donatists Can. 95 96. and the Thanks of the Bishops were given for their Ejection Can. 97. and the Emperor is Petitioned to grant Defensors to the Church Can. 10.109 and as the Church thus supplicated the Empire in these arduous Cases and when its assistance was wanting so on the other side did the Empire still advise with the Church when designing to make Religion the Municipal Law of the Empire to imbody it with the World under the same Sanctions either as to Punishments or Rewards to make it the Religion of the State also they still consulted antecedent Canons or present Bishops in Council or some Ecclesiastical Autority they created nothing anew gave the help of the World for Countenance Assistance and Confirmation to stablish what the Church had put its Sanction upon And those Emperors that designed to discountenance Christianity or set up some particular Heresie and stifle it in part or depose any great Church-men and some such there was they attempted it not but by the Clergy though of their own the Power as in themselves alone was not pretended to they had their own Synods and Bishops in order to it and what they did was done in their Names also and all this will readily appear to any one acquainted with the Canons of the Church and Laws of the Empire or if it seem too hard a task he 'l find it at least attempted to his hand and with Care and Industry reduced to a little room by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Book therefore called the Nomo-Canon to shew the concurrency of the Laws and Canons the Canons still placed first as in course anteceding And in this sense only that of Socrates can be understood in the Proem to his Fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reges viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as Kings began to be Christians the things of the Church were managed and accomplished
extraordinary Commissions have ceased which the Apostles and firsh Publishers of the Gospel had though by present Miracles not to be justified And this equally enabling and warranting the Church of God such as can evidence the Succession of Power in its own and appointed way as when Miracles were annexed to affront is an improper Speech but to Teach Declare and Protest against the Establish'd Religion of a Nation if a false one openly to draw Men off from the Profession of it in Contempt is again an ill Expression but in different ways and rules of Duty then those false ones of the Law and Magistrate though the Men of the World do Publish their dislike and threaten and punish and go on into a Law against them as they did when Christianity was first Taught and Church-Power first came down was setled and professed in the World though the Kings of the Earth stand up together and the Rulers take Council they rise up as one Man as did Herod and Pontius Pilate and all the Gentiles against the Child Jesus as it was then the Apostles so is it no less our Duty thus to speak before Kings and not be ashamed Church-Power came first into the World as not from the School of Gamaliel so nor from the Thrones of Kings and 't is independant and distant as in its rise so in its execution though embellish'd assisted and strengthened advantaged much by the outward favours of Princes their many Adjuncts and royal Appendages and which where conferr'd will equally embellish and add to their own Crowns to be sure in Heaven And upon these terms to suffer will be our Duty if what we profess be not received it will amount to Martyrdom If the King's wrath be the return and our Doctrine with our selves be cast out and if we do not this it will come too near the Traditores in the days of the Donatists or to those that offer'd at Heathen Shrines in the Persecutions before what will it be but to give up our Bibles and Profession upon the Summons of any prevailing Party to give up to be sure our Church-Power and which amounts to in effect the same nor can Christianity continue without it when upon Perswasion of the Arians first upon point as he thought of interest receiving his Father's Will from an Arian Priest and then by the Miletians joyning with them Constantius the Emperor engaged against the Faith of one Substance and great and rigorous Persecutions were its consequent Athanasius and his followers that adhered to the Nicene Faith in that Doctrine did not therefore in point of Conscience submit and say nothing with but silence give over and desert the Truth but the rather were more vigorous and active for it even to the greatest Calumnies and Distresses which through the malicious instigations of the Arians and Meletians as evil Men always unite against Truth the Emperor laid upon them And though Liberius of Rome and Hosius of Corduba this latter the ancientest Bishop then in the Christian World and who was one of the Council of Nice and Penned that Creed and Gregory Nazianzen and others even the whole World becoming Arians as St. Jerome complain'd by the height of Threats and succession of Miseries after sharp trials and resistancies did at length submit and subscribe to their Doctrines yet it cost them both repentance and tears as Gregory Nazianzen declares in particular in the Life of Athanasius And all this they did and thought themselves bound in Conscience to do not as extraordinarily Commissioned as the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel were as warranted and justified by Miracles but as commissionated in course by their Holy Orders instated with the same Autority though not in so open a shew and equally bound to render an account to God of such their trust and charge committed then and therewith unto them as the same Stewards of his Mysteries and this not upon the receipt of any new Revelation from Heaven but upon the score of their ordinary Ministry contending for the Faith once delivered to the Saints guided and directed by the Tradition of Faith delivered by the Apostles and conserv'd in the Church by a continued devolution and to which St. Athanasius and all the Catholick Bishops which strove against Arianism always referr'd themselves and is evident on all Occasions from Church History as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 46. l. 3. c. 7. Athanasius ad Serapion ad Epictet Ep. that Faith into which when recommended to him and explain'd the Emperor Theodosius was Baptized Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 6. upon which rule all the Councils proceeded in their Conciliary Acts and Determinations as Can. 13. Conc. Nic. 1. Can. 19. Conc. Hab. in Trullo Can. 2. Conc. 2. Nic. Athanas Orat. 1. Cont. Arios and they proceeding upon this bottom what they Decreed is to be receiv'd for Truth by all Christians is to be subscribed and assented to is to be taught before Kings when denying of it 't was this Theodosius himself acknowledged at his Death 't is reputed as the Law the Voice of God himself as St. Basil ad Diodorum among his Canons apud Pandect Can. Beverig and so by Constantine the Emperor in Socrates Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 9. Sozom. l. 1. cap. 20. 25. and in particular it will be expected that that common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that usual shift be omitted so usual among us when this known Power of the Church is urged That 't is accidental only in its Original introduced by the present necessity and upon a common consent and compact the Christians being then under Heathen Governors to whose Judicatures it was neither for their Safety nor Honor to Appeal and stand their Trial and Verdict and therefore they resolv'd it all into the chief Church-men and which Power Constantine becoming Christian and so the succeeding Emperors confirmed by his Royal Autority and continued of his own choice and motion unto them This is the common tattle of the wiser Men as they think and are generally so reputed reporting it to the World with much Confidence and yet upon no other ground than old Womens Stories are told and bottom'd at the farthest they 'l tell you that Mr. Selden and Mr. Hobs said so and every one is as secure of its Autority and Credit as if they had read it in the Gospel of our Saviour or in one of St. Paul's Epistles when 't is all as false as the Gospel it self is true Great and many were the Priviledges Royal Favours and Immunities that Constantine bestow'd upon the Church and Church-men he receiv'd them with both hands and with him in the Comedy could he have found a third he would have gave it them He annex'd to them Adjuncts and Appendages which their Lord and Master Christ Jesus did not could not would not do his Kingdom being not of this World nor was it his business to divide Inheritances and he had all the reason in the world
Government nor Jurisdiction at all And the reason he backs it with is this Christ did not invest his Apostles with the Power of worldly and civil Magistrates when he sent them out to Preach If so he should have adjoyned to them so many Lictors and Apparitors furnished them with Whips and Axes and not having done it there is no Magistracy at all nothing of Power residing because able to engage none by Violence neither Corporal nor Pecuniary Mulcts can be inflicted by them And so in his Dissertation De Episcopis Presbyteris contra Petavium under the Name of Walo Messalinus he concludes Episcopacy to be Curatio only and which he distinguishes à Magistratu Potestate Imperio from all sorts of Government And says expresly That any Jurisdiction of one Clergy-man above another came from Constantine Cap. 6. and so Zealous is he to make Episcopacy but an Humane Disposition that he delivers it as his Opinion and takes a great deal of pains to prove it That the Presbyters themselves are no other than Lay-men have nothing of a Distinction or of a Power different from the Laity as the Priesthood of old had amongst the Jews That as Lay-men did Baptize as well as any and which is acknowledged so that Bishops and Presbyters do Administer the Sacraments of Christ 't is only as dedicated to it by the choice of the People and in whose absence Laicks may Consecrate all Believers and not only the Apostles receiving the Commission and Power at Christ's Institution and suitably was it done in every Family and after Supper for some Ages and the difference betwixt the Order Ecclesiastical and the People in common has nothing of Divine Institution That Ordination by Imposition of hands gives nothing at all of new Power only ranks them in such a Body and Order as First Second and Third And the Door-Keepers have as much a place and order in the Church as either Deacon Presbyter or Bishop the Bishop and Presbyter were only the more Honorable and Honest part of the People And thus he brings in his Lay-Elders to have an equal Right and Government in Church Matters with them by a Primitive Devolution and which Officers once were in every Church but now remains only in the Affrican though with the addition of the Order of Presbyters for which there is no footstep in the Primitive Apostolical Church And at last is angry with Petavius that he perstringes the Waldenses and Luther because they retained no Priesthood at all under the Gospel but believe that just and faithful Laicks may do all that is needful in the Church of God and discharge every Ecclesiastical Office receiving a Power by the Imposition of the hands of the Presbytery that is the Senate not Ecclesiastical but Laick in which whether Petavius injures the Waldenses and Luther or not is not the matter now to be enquired after sure it is Salmasius adopts these their imputed Opinions and they are his And he thinks it the Mind of St. Peter too whom he cites Cap. 2. calling the Laicks that are faithful an Holy Priesthood to offer Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ Jesus a Royal Priesthood Ibid. and all which Petavius the Jesuite makes no small advantage of to the Infamy of the Reformation Neither have I done Claudius Salmasius any injury in ranking him among those that deny all Church-Power as from Christ Jesus for he is worse than those I have mentioned before him he takes the civil assignation from the hands of the Prince and puts it into the People So that every Man may as well Ordain himself as in the days of Jeroboam And hence we cannot but take notice with what furious inconsiderate malicious purposes some Men have pursued Episcopacy and rather than have it stand they 'l fall themselves deny what is otherwise their Diana and great Delight the Divine Right of Presbytery take away all Church-Power for ever with it And indeed the Principles that these Men go upon are such when to throw down Episcopacy that they strike at our whole Christianity with the same blow as does his Friend David Blondel in particular and there cannot under their Guiding and Conduct be any such thing as either Truth or Heresie the one to be convincingly Vindicated or the other solidly confuted as might be easily made appear BUT what is mostly to be admired the § XII great Hugo Grotius goes along with them in part and can apprehend only a Power that is outward and compulsive and working by sensible force And whatsoever Power is erected in the Church independent to the Secular is an abating its Arm an Usurpation a sharing with the Prince in his Government De Imper. Sum. Potest in Sacris Sect. 3. cap. 1. cap. 5. Sect. 9. That there is no Empire by Divine Right granted to the Church The Ministry of the Empire is the Sword but the Weapons of the Church are not Carnal Cap. 4. Sect. 9. And again argues That there is no Jurisdiction belonging to the Church because none that is Coactive or Commanding Cap. 9. Sect. 3. with more to this purpose all along there As also in his Ordinum Holland Pietas c. Orat. Habit. in Senat. Amstelodam bona fides Sibrandi Lubberti c. and yet that this was not his constant lasting through digested opinion 't is again as certain he going quite t'other way and fully thwarting even in that very Discourse of his of the Power of the Supreme Magistrate in Holy Things and much oftner in his other Writings He will not allow the Pastors to be Vicars of those very Powers any otherwise then as Subjects and that besides their Pastoral charge they receive aliquid Imperii Jurisdictionis something of Empire and Jurisdiction Cap. 1. Sect. 3. cap. 4. Sect. 1. that Kings are the Object of this Power not only as the Gospel is tendred unto them in the way of Preaching but by the application of the use of the Keys Cap. 4. Sect. 3. Cap. 9. Sect. 18. That the Church is Coetus a Body and Association not only permitted but instituted by Divine Right and whatever naturally belongs to any other Body this belongs also to the Church Cap. 4. Sect. 9. That the Church destitute of the Protection of the outward Government doth not cease to be a Church Cap. 8.2 He asserts a Church-Power to exclude from their Congregations for either Heresie or Immorality and that distinct from the Magistrate who constrains for fear of Punishment Annot. in Mat. 13.41 which Annotations he proposes for the Pattern of all his other and if from any Writings of his we may hence conclude his maturated Judgment And again in his Annotations on St. Luke 6.22 he instances in two Branches of this Power Baptism and Excommunication And in St. Joh. 20.23 and when the Apostle only advises to shun Evil Men he concludes the Presbyterium or Association was not then setled at Rome otherwise he had order'd
not know how better to give an account of this Kingdom of Christ than in the answer of those Kindred of our Saviours to Domitian the Tyrant related by Eusebius Eccl. hist l. 3. c. 20. Domitian was afraid of Christ's Kingdom as Herod had been before him he had the same apprehension that still is in the World derived from most excellent Presidents Herod and Domitian that Christ's Kingdom and Caesar's could not stand together whereupon such Christ's Kindred were summoned and accused as of the stock of David who upon demand acknowledging they were so and giving an account of their Meanness and Poverty as to this World and shewing their hands which were hard and callous with the assiduity of labour for a daily sustenance and not to be suspected to be Invaders of the Kingdomes here they were at length demanded concerning Christ and his Kingdom what the nature and quality of it was and when and in what places he was to appear and to which they also answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Christ's Kingdom is not of this world or earthy but heavenly and Angelical to be accomplished in the conclusion of Ages when coming in Glory he shall Judge the living and the dead and retribute to every one according to his works IN the mean time and till such his Personal § XXXVI Appearance in Glory with outward Power and force as well as splendor to sit visibly as a Judge and every one to receive in his Body by way of Punishment what evil he hath done in the flesh to say his Power is none at all because not of the same quality in the same form of Process and by sensible Awards is to discourse as those that are equally ignorant of the Reasons of such God's terrible Proceedings at the end of the World that Fire and Brimstone in Hell as they are of the nature of his Church and Association its Rules and Laws and Discipline here on Earth And our Saviour therefore and then personally and bodily afflicts for ever because his Moral spiritual Laws his Church Injunctions so often urged have been believed on these mens Principles to be of no account to have no edge or force because no present destruction of the flesh nothing sensible restraining or coercing had they been received and obey'd as in the design from God such his fearful doom had never reached them and to contend that the Ecclesiastical Church Power is now none at all because not such as at that great Day or not the same as of a secular Judge at an Assize to send to Prison Whip or put to Death is with the same Argument to contend that there is no force or obligation in any one oâ— all the Gospel moral Precepts either whose utmost return by way of outward Penalty upon such as receiv'd them not was to casâ— off the dust of their Shoes upon them As the Seventy we know were by our Saviour alonâ— enjoyn'd who had neither Whips or Axeâ— Goals nor Gallows committed unto them whâ— could only deny them the advantage of thaâ— Gospel which themselves refused when it was Preached unto them To say Church Power can be none at all upon this score is to deny all Evangelical Power for present Judgment is not there speedily executed and the Law of Love and Virtue are alike precarious and of no Autority and Jurisdiction that 's engaging as are the Laws Ecclesiastical if their reason be good they give against the latter because voluntary in the submission to and acceptance of them and no one is forced except he please to covenant at first or if he does covenant he 's as much free from all outward force whether he pleased or not to put his part in practice he may renounce and rescind it at his liberty Surely no Cords tye no Irons bind like those that enter into the Soul whether it be by Love or Fear by Punishments or Rewards by the Comforts and Hopes of the one or the Terrors and Consternations of the other a wounded Conscience who can bear its burdens are insupportable and which comes not by Weights and Engines inventions of Man pressing and over-powering and according to the Principles of these men there can be no other but by reflex actions and a sense of non-performance of Duty and the horrid black guilt annexed from a sense of that loss which like the Conscience it self is spiritual and which over-bears and over-rules very oft to the neglecting of the flesh to the undergoing any Tortures and Cruciatings of the Body as we know despairing Persons do when as with Esau the Blessing is sought and 't is too late there 's no room for Repentance but which is not the first and immediate punishment and burden and surely a sence of Duty performed and the Expectations of a good man are no less binding on the other side â—ngage and tye the Soul that is not feared with an hot iron is sensible and considering and he that believes and is fully possessed that without the Pale of the Church if not a Member of this Body and Association as above described there is no Gospel advantages here nor life hereafter no other way revealed to us by God in his Word to follow and adhere unto he needs no other Motive and Boâ—d for his keeping within this Pale for his submission to the Laws and Discipline of it and if any one does not believe it he is to be dealt with as those are that say the flames of Hell are painted also that deny the reality and truth of those eternal Punishments and 't is the great folly of those men who first suppose there can be no Association but by outward ties and then upon this begg'd Principle of their own conclude against this of the Church and which is only spiritual The sum of this Section is this if the Church on Earth has no Power because no outward coercion neither has any one instance of the Gospel if these Men's reasons conclude any thing And Mr. Hobbâ—… is to be done thus much right in the case that he speaks so like an Honest man that is to one that is true to his Principles and all along asserts That the New Testament is only Canonical and Law as made so by the Civil Magistrate and to say it is a Law in any place where the Law of the Common-wealth has not made it so is contrary to the Nature of a Law and more particularly as to the present point in hand that the Decrees of the Council at jerusalem Acts 15.28 were no more Laws than are those other Precepts Repent be Baptized keep the Commandments believe the Gospel come unto me sell all that thou hast give it to the Poor and follow me which are not Commandments but Invitations and Callings of Men to Christianity the Kingdom which they acknowledged and to which they invited being not present but to come and they that have no Kingdom can make no Laws nor did
were made Law and establish'd by the Civil â—…veraign and they were to thank God it was no worse and did the King command to adore the Linnen or Font or Tables themselves they are not to gain-say and affront because affronting Laws and Magistracy to pretend to a farther obligation from Conscience and to oppose even a false Religion or to make Proselytes to their own though they be never so sure they are in the right is to be guilty of gross hypocrisie without an extraordinary Commission from God to that purpose they are no more obliged to do it here at home than to go into Spain or Italy or Turkey and there make Converts and which no Protestant holds himself obliged to do Sure I am the Bishops had had more Justice done them than they found in the Sermon and it seems very unequal that they should be supposed to redress and be left wide open to a popular Odium because not doing what never was in their Commission what would have been their gross hypocrisie in attempting because having neither an extraordinary Commission for it nor hath the Providence of God made way by the Permission of the Magistrate and all that can be reply'd is this that Mr. Dean chang'd his Judgment upon the writing his next Sermon which he hath declared to be by Nature mutable and thereby has this advantage is always ready for better information or rather to act the Aecebolius as occasion and to do him all the right I can this is to be said for him that he dissents from Mr. Hobbs something in this very passage of his Sermon for the inference on his side is strong that where extraordinary Commission by Miracles is evidenced a false Religion is to be opposed and the true one to be Preach'd though the Magistracy and Law be otherwise which Mr. Hobs will by no means allow he will not permit it to the Apostles Leviathan Part 3. Cap. 42. but then how Mr. Dean will avoid this Consequence that there is no Church Power on Earth nor is it lawful for any one to Preach the Gospel when it is not Law by the Civil Soveraign since those Miracles which alone were in the Apostles time and which is though less of it every whit as rank Hobbism I have not sagacity enough to see that he desires to do it is not very certain all that can be said for him is that he seems to have been but raw in the Controversie and is ready as all such ought to be to submit upon better Information and to which if these Papers contribute they so far answer the design of the Author BUT whatever either Mr. Hobs or his Adherents § VII have wrote or preached sure we are our Saviour calls for Confession before Men for the owning asserting and publishing his Truths and most of all then and most publickly when mostly opposed with the greatest hazard and jeopardy even before Kings and not to be ashamed when the Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Council together against us and Christ risen from the Dead is not only to be believed in the Brain and Heart but to be confessed too with the Mouth if Salvation the effect of it as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 10. whatever anteceding Law against us or what Power soever enacting 't is our very case now as was St. Peter's in the Acts and we are to obey God and not Man And as sure I am also that this was the Practice of the succeeding Holy Fathers and Professors of the Church in the best Ages of it who still opposed whatever Religion was false by what Law soever established and abetted and still possessed and preached the true in opposition to it with the hazard of whatsoever was merciless from this World could attend them for it Nor was it then thought a Contempt or Affront to the Persons or Laws or Offices of the Civil Magistrate nor was it believed so to be by the Empire it self where satisfaction desired or enquiry made as appears particularly in the days of Trajan who ceased his Persecutions and Jealousies too being well assured that they met before day to Pray and give Thanks to and Praise God and Christ covenanting against Adultery Murder and such like Iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they acted nothing at all against the Laws and the Government was not affronted nor endanger'd by it an account of which is to be seen Tertul. Apol. c. 1. and in Eusebius his Church History Lib. 3. c. 33. and not to Profess Christianity was to deny it and nothing but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that second Baptism as 't is call'd in Sozomen's Church History that initiation or entrance by a new Engagement a thorow Change and severe Repentance could give again a Name or Interest in Christ replace such among the Candidates for Heaven And those that offered at the Heathen shrines at the Command of the Emperor that fell away and disown'd the Faith in the time of Persecution were not received nor had their Libellum Pacis admitted to a Reconciliation and Unity with the Church but upon severest Penance and a larger trial of after-adherency and such were never admitted into Holy Orders to any Charge or Publick Power in the Church or if in Holy Orders before he was deposed for ever of so much blacker a guilt was it not to Preach Christ than not barely only to confess him however Mr. Dean places no Duty at all in it but the quite contrary as appears all along in the Story of those times and the Rules and Canons of the Church made occasionally on such accounts And we have instances in some that when dragg'd to the Idol with Cenfers in their Hands and there forced to offer as it was one of the Devices of the Devil thus outwardly to gain Countenance to his Worship Men of greater Eminency in Christianity being reserv'd for this purpose and whose Examples were more prevailing and apter to perswade being represented as such that had freely offer'd these Christians did not satisfie themselves in their own innocency and that the Church did so repute and receive them but when released openly declared the force in the face of the Magistracy and their greatest Conventions and were again laid hold of for it went immediately to the stake or the Beasts suffer'd Martyrdom for it though the Laws of the Land Prohibited it and the doing of it was Death though indulged by the Church and the present Circumstances indemnified if not done yet all did not perswade when but in shew to the World their Christianity was not own'd and to the appearance of many denied by them they could on no other terms believe themselves Christians nor consequently design to live upon Earth than as on Earth they confessed their Saviour before Men on this account only did they expect that Christ should own them before his Father which is in Heaven And they were only the worst of
has not made that the immutable term of Man's Salvation but what is in his own Power and of which if he fails 't is his own perverse will and choice that is debauch'd and betrays him to it the Carved works of the Temple may be beaten down the Church-Discipline be weakned and her Laws and Rules for Holiness become of less force her Towers and Bulwarks be taken away and the Secular Protection be withdrawn I may have neither tongue to speak nor hands to lift up in prayer nor feet to walk to the House of God there may be no Houses of God in our Land the Tyrant may pull out or cut off the one or pull down the other the daily Sacrifice my cease and the Priest-hood too as to particular Persons and when we say where Episcopal Power is not there is no Church we do not so mean that where it is not Men cannot go to Heaven these all may be supplyed by an upright heart and due intentions God accepts of a Man according to what he hath and not according to what he hath not The Sacraments are only generally necessary to Salvation and so of other duties in the same Order of Sanction God does not oblige us to the Tyranny of Impossible Commands to climb up to Heaven and go down into the Deep and fetch thence our Eternity ask of us ten thousand Rams or a thousand of Rivers of Oyl or those Cattel upon a thousand Hills for a Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Clement argues to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is our own Lust not others we are to answer for if not Subdued and Conquered he does not bind us to go to Heaven when we have no Legs Move without Faculties Act without Strength Live when Dead Men and with Paralytick Joynts Enfeebled by Irrecoverable Weakness to work out our own Salvation every Brick-bat will then make an Altar and Prayers are to be made every where with Holy Hands lift up or but Devout Hearts without Wrath and without Doubting nor is it by Subduing Kings and Conquering Worldly Powers we are to go to Heaven Faith Love Dependence upon God c. are among those acts of the Soul usually called Elicitae whose Practice depends on no outward Faculty and if some Virtues equally indispensable are otherways seated and among those Acts call'd Imperatae and to be perform'd by the outward Organs of the Body yet are they equally free from outward Force so seated in each ones Self and lodg'd in his Person that no Violence but from a Man 's own self can reach them those the only Enemies that are of his own House and 't is every ones own hand that draws his Sword and makes him a Rebel his alone Adulterous Eyes and Heart Promote and Actuate whatever of uncleanness is from him and 't is neither Person nor Object nor Quality any thing that comes cross or is of force from within or without himself whether Devil or Tyrant or Lust any one accident or contingency that can either dismember him from the Church or disunite him from his God deprive him of sufficient Means here or Eternal Life hereafter even the Tyrannies and Deaths here will but Advance the Crown and these lighter Afflictions work for us that more Eternal Weight of Glory and which Considerations are to be the great Support and Comfort of all Christians Should it so happen in the courses of Providence and Kings and Queens cease to be Nursing Fathers and Mothers unto us Should a Nero or a Domitian a Parliament of forty two a Cromwel or a Committee of Safety or what Association soever be set up against and Tyrannize over us plane volumus pati verùm eo modo quo Bellum miles nemo quippe libens Bellum patitur cum et trepidari periclitari necesse sit tamen praeliatur omnibus viribus et vincens in praelio gaudet qui de praelio querebatur quia Gloriam consequitur praedam they are the words of Tertullian Apol. c. 5. to those Scoffers of the Heathens in his days and whom Julian the Apostate after imitated telling the Christians Afflictions was their Advantage and to be Loved by them because their Martyrdom and Crown We must willingly suffer and engage as the Souldier does in War and 't is the expectation of Victory and that recompence of Reward makes us fight on and Rejoyce under that Banner which otherwise the present Difficulties and Dangers working on our fears would engage us to avoid and run from 't was the constancy and evenness of the Christians for the Truth and in Gods Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with their Gravity Sincerity their Freedom and Modesty of Conversation gain'd upon their Enemies both Greeks and Barbarians and silenced their baser Slanders and Calumnies against them thus together with the learned discourses and endeavours by Writing and which were not few the Church grew and multiplied as Eusebius tells us Hist l. 4. c. 7. These the Weapons of a Christian Warfare and the many Shields of the Mighty these the Spoyls and Trophies they contended for I know not how in fitter words to conclude this Chapter than in those of our Noble Historian Eusebius in his Preface to his fifth Book of his Church History giving an account of those many and Eminent Martyrs in the days of Antoninus Verus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Others making Historical Narrations have delivered in their Writings Victories in War and Trophies over their Enemies the great Actions of Captains and the Valour of Souldiers that had stained their hands in Blood and a thousand Battels for their Children their Country and their Fortunes but the History or the Narrative of the Divine Common-wealth and Enrollment which is of Heaven writes on Eternal Pillars those Peace Designing Battels in order to the Peace of the Soul or that are Spiritual Those that fight in these Battels for Truth rather than their Country for Religion rather than their Children The constancy of the Contenders for Piety and their Fortitude in their manifold Sufferings their Trophies against Devils and Victories obtain'd against the Invisible Powers or Enemies making publick their Crown for an Everlasting Remembrance CHAP. VI. Chap. 6. The Contents The last general of the Discourse Sect. 1. What the Autority of our particular Church and Kingdom is in this Controversie where not Apostolical and Primitive there not obliging Their Doctrine Laws and Practice all along on our side Sect. 2. The People are only Testimonies of the Manners of such as are to be Ordained in our Book of Ordination Sect. 3. No Autority in any but those of the Priesthood to Ordain Excommunicate c. as in our Rubricks Articles c. Sect. 4. Our Kings claim'd it not in their Acts Declarations c. in the days of Henry VIII in the Act of Submission He is declared a Lay-man nothing in Religion made Law but by him He defends Religion His
personal Conference with our Emperor suffering Banishment for it an account of which is given by Athanasius Apol. pag. 833. Ed. Paris Sozomen Eccles Hist l. 4. c. 11. and yet lassus injuriis provoked and tired out by oppressions he forsook Athanasius and went over to the Sect of the Arians Pag. 837. ibid. and so did the Divine Hosius then ancientest Bishop in the Christian World and who was in a manner the Author of the Determinations of the first Council of Nice Sulpitius Severus suspects he might be in his dotage and there is ground enough for the Suspition being an hundred years old as 't is in his Historia Sacra lib. 2. a Man if any that ever lived could be to be exempted one would think from so great an Apostasie as will appear by the Character Athanasius gives him Ep. ad solitariam vitam agentes pag. 840. and yet tormenta longaevus plagasque perpessus est unde etiam necessitate vehementi expositionibus tunc editis Syrmiensi Synodo consensit atque subscripsit Hist Tripartit l. 5. c. 9. being of a great Age and by reason of his many Sufferings through a more than usual force he consented and subscribed to the Expositions set forth in the Synod at Syrmium Gregory Nazianzen says in the Life of Athanasius that there was very sew to be found that were not contemptible for their obscurity or very eminent for virtue as the seed and root remaining in Israel whence the Truth was to spring out and reflourish as it did upon the return of Athanasius which did not for fear or gain by flattery or through ignorance tempori obsequi qui quamvis mente haudquaquam prolapsi fuerint subscribe with their hand amongst whom he confesses himself to be one but withal and which is not usual obliges the World with his Publick Acknowledgment and Recantation This is the time when St. Jerome adv Luciferian and in his Comments in Ps 133. says Totum orbem fuisse Arianum that the whole World was Arian and which only can be understood as St. John must be when he tells us if all that our Saviour did were written the whole World could not contain the Books i. e. there would be a great many and for this St. Jerome himself will become his own avoucher who in his Comments on Ezekiel cap. 48. thus bespeaks the Catholick Priests Audiat hoc sacerdotalis gradus c. that though over-power'd by the Arians yet as holding the true Faith so their manners be accordingly and that the Homousians were numerous and visible even then might be made to appear were I now to write that History I 'le add but one more way by which particular Persons are seduced and misled into Heresie 't is by Lies underhand Dealings and downright Forgeries obtruded upon Mankind Thus the Pelagia grew and was numerous still making use of the Names and feigned Counterfeit Letters of Bishops and Eminent Men in his Commendations and the savour of his Heresie as the same Publisher of Marius Mercator gives us an account also Ibid. And then since so much uncertainty in the Autorities of particular Doctors since liable to so many failures and under so many ill and provoking Circumstances and to many of which good Men are liable are over-sweigh'd and over-ruled thereby for some time how unequal unjust a thing is it to urge them each Circumstance not considered but most of all when an accidental saying or pressing a present Argument is reported to the World the sense and judgment of a Doctor against the whole course and design of all his other Writings and the publickly declared Doctrines of that Church of which he is a Member which he owns and professes submits and subscribes to That of Tertullian in his Prescriptions Cap. 3. is the more substantial and rational way Quid ergo si Episcopus si Diaconus lapsus à regula suit ideò haereses veritatem vidâ—bantur obtinere ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas what if a Bishop or a Deacon or whoever he be falls from the Rule shall Heresie thence obtain Truth shall we prove the Faith by the Persons or the Persons by the Faith if Theodosius the Great design'd any more than a Committee of Triers when appointing such a set number of Bishops to examine every one that was admitted to a benefice in the Church as so many Doctores Probabiles as he terms them in Communion with whom all must be that are instituted or inducted or whatsoever was the way and expression of then giving Titles and Possession Cod. Theodos 16. Tit. 1. l. l. 2 3. his Rule is unsafe and the Church may be imposed upon by it though the Bishop of Rome was one for Liberius once subscribed to Arianism nor indeed did he design any more and they were only as so many Examiners according to the Nicene Faith and which the Piety and Zeal of that Holy Emperor did design and endeavour to have took place throughout his Dominions and which is express in the Laws Nor was that so great a Secession from this Faith in the days of Constantius and then much less of one or two particular Doctors of the time thought to break off the Succession of such the Doctrine or render it less Catholick but it is notwithstanding declared to have continued from St. Peter the Apostle by Damasus and Peter Bishops of Rome and Alexandria usque nunc to his days that then Period of time safe and inviolated FINIS