the Princes side laid by those that set the Controversie on foot and with shews to disenthrall and enlarge him WHAT is the reason of such our misunderstandings § VII that we cannot think and discern with the Ages before us is it that this Power has been abused in later Ages of the Church as by those of the Roman and Geneva Discipline who out of a Plea to one took both Swords invaded Kings and Kingdoms by it Let but the same Rule take place here as in the other Points of the Reformation and all will soon be well again Return to such the beginning those first and purer Ages of the Church to be ruled and governed by where the Platform is plain the Model easie for any Capacity and the Aberrations of some cannot in reason prejudice it But this will not do the ground of the Quarrel has really another bottom and their Reasons are another thing as must be obvious to him that is conversant with the Writings either of the Principal Authors of these new started Opinions or such as were accidentally only their occasion or after Abettors of them They cannot see nor assent to any Government as existing in the World but what is visible and sensible has its Operations and Effects upon outward Sense and its Organs upon the Person or Estate the Life or Bodily Action of Mankind and this to be presently inflicted Men they are that will allow no Corporations or Societies but those of this World for Buying and Selling for Trading and Trafficking for the Belly and the Back for outward Peace and Ease to Preserve themselves from one another at Home and Invasions from Abroad for the present Mess of Pottage good and gain on Earth nor can any other Power but such as this or in order to it be apprehended We have above observed That Herod the King was the first Man that suggested this great Error and that the Kingdom of our Saviour must supplant and abolish the Kingdoms of this World his Power and Caesar's could not stand together And this was managed by the Jews all along after who united with Herod to destroy our Saviour as an Usurper allowing and owning no King but Caesar upon that one Design and Principle And these Men we have now to deal with are every ways as blind as gross and carnal in this particular Point as were the Jews their Predecessors and the Veil of Moses is it so over their Faces that they are stark Blind either beyond or besides it The Jews of old did not with more Zeal and Industry contend for his Temporal Canaan and Promises Ordinances and Administrations or with greater Blindness rest himself in them or with greater Malice scorn and pursue such as said they saw beyond it then do these Men now adays deride those that say there is a Spiritual Kingdom which is our Saviour's a Power originally from Christ derived by Succession to his Body the Church to remain till the Restitution of all things that there is or can be any King but Caesar resolving all Power whatever into that which is Secular and rejecting all other as Opposite to the Dignity and Prerogative of Princes IT is not much to be marvelled at the § VIII Pamphlets that went about of this Nature in 1641. 'T was the Design of that time to unhinge and overthrow every thing well established and the Argument was less odious that began with the Church and its Power particularly I have by me a small Treatise which came forth in that year call'd The true Grounds of Ecclesiastical Regiment c. but the Title within is The Divine Right of Episcopacy refuted the more to ingage the Reader for Episcopacy was first to be taken away and he had the most advantage to do it it being the particular quarrel but the after-game was at all Church-Power in general and which he endeavours to erase upon this score as against the Soveraign Dignity of Kings for which he seems Zealous when to Dethrone Church-men but at last sets a Thousand more upon the Throne with him his Princes in Parliament as he calls them nay he sets them above the King and says though to Princes on their lawful Tribunals something is more due than at other times but to Princes something is more due than at other times but to Princes in Parliament there is most of all due all Power being not derived to the King without them and whose Ecclesiastical Power he there discourses And which I therefore here repeat to shew what was designed for our Kings by these Men when so much Pleading for a Power belonging to them which is the Church's and his chief Argument all along against Church-Power independent to Princes is that it is not like nor does it enter into any Rivality with that solid sensible coercive Power wherewith God has invested his true Lieutenants upon Earth and therefore is it but Imaginary and Improper That Power which is proper must include not only a Power of Commanding but also an effectual Virtue of forcing Obedience to its Commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient that as among the Jews the Church and State was the same had the same Body the same Head the same Sword and that Head was Temporal and that Sword was Material and therefore 't is so with Christians nor have they any Sword or Head that is Spiritual Christians ought not to be so contrary to that excellent Discipline of the Jews which God himself ordered and to introduce I know not what Spiritual Rule in prejudice of Temporal Rule nor does he expect any Satisfaction from his Adversaries why there should be less Division betwixt Church and State among the Jews and less use of two several Swords and because Adultery was Punish'd with Death Christians ought not to be Excommunicated for it If God has given them sole Knowledge to Determine all Controversies and Power to Enact all Ecclesiastical Canons doubtless he has given them some binding Coercive force correspondent thereunto and if so why do they not expel all Dissention by it If their Virtue extend no further than to Exhortation why do they urge Commands upon us If they have a Commanding Power why do they not second it with due Compulsion it is plainly clear'd to us that Adultery by God's Law was Punish'd by the Temporal not Spiritual Sword and that the Abscissio animae amongst the Jews was only Corporal Punishment by Death the infliction whereof was only left to the Temporal Magistrate and that there was no difference observed between Crimes Spiritual and Crimes Temporal And therefore there ought to be none in the Church of Christ the form or essence of Law is that Coercive or Penal Virtue by which it binds all to its Obedience if Priests had any such Spiritual Sword doubtless it would have some sensible Efficacy and work to good Ends and Men would not nor could not choose but bow and submit themselves
Castelvetrus her second Husband as Mr. Selden suggests or by the Archbishop himself what is necessarily hence to be inferr'd I 'le here again give in the words of our always to be reverenced Mr. Herbert Thorndike of the Laws of the Church Cap. Vlt. Pag. 394. Neither is the Publishing Erastus his Book against Excommunication at London to be drawn into the like Consequence that those who allow'd and procur'd it allow'd the substance of what he maintain'd so long as a sufficient Reason is to be rendred for it otherwise for at such time as the Presbyterian Pretences were so hot under Queen Elizabeth it is no marvel if it was thought to shew England how they prevail'd at home first because he hath advanced such Arguments as are really effectual against them which are not yet nor never will be answered by them though void of the Positive Truth which ought to take place instead of their Mistakes and besides because at such times as Popes did what them listed in England it would have been to the purpose to shew the English how Machiavel observes they were hamper'd at home and for the like Reason when the Geneva Platform was cried up with such Zeal here it was not amiss to shew the World how it was esteem'd under their own Noses in the Cantons and the Palatinate § XVII I am now to shew the concurrency of our Doctors in the Church and who still go along with me and say the same thing that Church Power as such is not from the Civil Magistrate and his supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons infers it not an induction would be too numerous the Particulars being so many I 'le only instance in two the one is Thomas Bilson then Warden of Winchester and afterward Bishop there in his Book entituled The true difference between Christian Subjection and un-christian Rebellion perused and allowed by publick Autority and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and for writing of which he had his Bishoprick the other is Robert Sanderson then the King's Professor at Oxford and after Bishop of Lincolne in his Book called Episcopacie as establed by Law in England not prejudicial to the Regal Power written in the time of the long Parliament by the special Command of King Charles the I. but not published by reason of the Iniquity and Confusion of the Times and since printed and dedicated to our present gracious Soveraign King Charles II. two Divines as they flourished in our Church at a great distance of time from one another so are they at as great distance for their Worth and Merit beyond the generality of the Divines of their times and by which as we have the advantage of their greater Autority as to themselves to which add That they acted herein as publick Persons by Autority appointed to write in the Name of the Church of England and in such Cases Men generally are more careful how they vent their own private Niceties and Conceptions so also have we a farther benefit hereby that this was and is the continued constant Doctrine of our Church and Church-Men from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles II. Bishop Bilson thus speaks part 2d pag. § XVIII 124. printed at Oxford It is one thing who may command for truth and another who shall direct unto truth We say Princes may command for Truth and punish the refusers this no Bishop may challenge but only the Prince that beareth the Sword no Prelate has Autority from Christ to compel private Men much less Princes but only to teach and instruct them these two Points we stand on pag. 125. 126. he tells the Jesuite the Prince is Supreme to establish those things Christ has commanded and so he all along shews it the design of the Oath of Supremacy against the pretended outward Jurisdiction of the Pope claiming as Christ's Vicar on Earth a coercive Power in order to spiritual things over the Persons of all Christians whatsoever whose Subjects soever and in whatsoever Causes even our Kings themselves And that it is no more thence to be inferr'd that Princes because supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes are therefore supreme Judges of Faith Deciders of Controversies Interpreters of Scripture Appointers of Sacraments Devisers of Ceremonies and what not then if it should be inferr'd Princes are supreme Governors in all Corporal things and causes ergo they are supreme Guiders of Grammar Moderators of Logique Directors of Rhetorick Appointers of Musick Prescribers of Medicines Resolvers of all Doubts and Judges of all Matters incident any wayes to reason art or action We confess them to be supreme Governors of their Realms and Dominions and that in all Spiritual things and causes not of all Spiritual things and causes we make them not Governors of the Things themselves but of their Subjects we confess that her Highness is the only Governor of this Realm the Word Governor doth sever the Magistrate from the Minister and sheweth a manifest difference between their Office for Bishops be no Governors of Countries Princes be these bear the Sword to reward and punish those do not pag. 127. They have several Commissions which God signed those to dispense the Word and Sacraments these to prescribe by their Laws and punish by the Sword such as resist them within their Dominions pag. 128. That no Clergy-Man by God's Law can challenge an exemption from earthly Powers pag 129. Princes have full Power to forbid prevent and punish in all their Subjects be they Lay-Men Clerks or Bishops not only Murders Thefts Adulteries Perjuries and such like Breaches of the second table but also Schisms Heresies Idolatries and all other Offences against the first Table pertaining only to the Service of God and Matters of Religion pag. 130. as the Kings of Israel did who are the Christian Princes example pag. 132. and it is the duty of Christian Kings to compel from Heresies and Schisms to the confession of the truth consent of Prayer and Communion of the Lord's Table to compel Hereticks and Schismaticks to repress Schism and Heresie with their princely Power which they receive from above chiefly to maintain God's glory by the causing the Bands of Virtue to be preserved in the Church and the Rules of Faith observed pag. 133. this is the Prince's charge to see the Law of God fully executed his Son rightly served his Spouse safely nursed his House timely filled his Enemies duely punished and he tells the Jesuite if he grants this he will ask no more And these the causes and things that be Spiritual as well as Temporal the Princes power and charge doth reach unto or in the words of St. Austin that Princes may command that which is good and prohibit that which is evil within their Kingdoms not in Civil Affairs only but in Matters that concern divine Religion Cont. Crescon l. 3. c. 51. pag. 134. to page 145. and this or power of the like nature was what was claimed and used in causes Ecclesiastical which
Mr. Selden so much admires it must blemish our Saviour much to say he purposely call'd together a Church and design'd it none of its own to preserve it Sect. 4. The Jews Excommunication was not bodily Coercive and then there may be such a Punishment an Obligation to Obedience without force and that is not outward and this much more in the Christian Society Sect. 5. And this their Government abstracted from the Civil Magistrate is an Essay of Christ's Government so far of the same Nature to come into the World Sect. 6. The Christian Church might be both from Caesar and Christ as was the Jewish from God and Caesar and there is no thwarting The Jews and Christians distinct Sect. 7. In answer to his main Objection That all Government must be of this World Sect. 8. It is replied To assert Christ to have such a Kingdom is to thwart his design of coming into the World the whole course of his Actions and Government and those Ancients that expected him to come and Rule with them on Earth yet did not believe it to be accomplished till after the Resurrection Sect. 9. To say he therefore has no Power at all is as wide of Truth the way of Men in Error to run from one extreme to another and of Mr. Selden here Sect. 10. The Church is a Body of a differing Nature from others Sect. 11. With differing Organs and Members of its own in Subordination to one another Sect. 12. With different Offices and Duties Gifts and Endowments these either Common to all Believers or limited to particular Persons Sect. 13. As Christians in common they had one Faith into which Baptized and of which Confession was made the Apostles Creed and other Summaries of Faith and sound Doctrine Interrogatories in Baptism How Infants perform it Sect. 14. They had one and the same Laws and Rules for Obedience for which they Covenanted which is their Baptismal Vow the Abrenunciation of the World the Flesh and Devil Sect. 15. One Common Worship and Service and Religious Performance to God in their Assemblies the particular Offices and Duties there the Priest and People officiate interchangeably as in Tertullian Justin Martyr c. Sect. 16. Common Duties and Services as to God so to one another in supplying one anothers Necessities as occasion Sect. 17. In the supply of such as attended at the Altar by a Common Purse deposited in the hands of the Bishop Sect. 18. Of the Poor and Indigent whose Treasurer was the Bishop Sect. 19. The Power Offices and Duties not promiscuous but limited to particular Persons are those of the Ministry distributed into the three standing Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and which make up that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Gospel Priesthood to remain to the Restitution Sect. 20. This Power and Jurisdiction though limited to and residing in these three yet it is not in each of them alike in the same degree force and virtue the Deacon is lowest the Presbyter next the Bishop the full Orders and Vppermost Supreme and including all Sect. 21. Against this Primacy of Bishops that of Metropolitans Exarchy Patriarchy and the Supremacy of Rome is objected Sect. 22. The Metropolitan c. is in some Cases above the Bishop but not in the Power of the Priesthood 't is the same Power enlarged No new Ordination in Order to it Sect. 23. The Vniversal Primacy of the Bishop of Rome is but Pretended not bottom'd on either the Scriptures or Fathers or Councils Sect. 24. 25 26. The Bishops Superiority or full Orders and Power in the Church is reassumed and farther asserted He with his Presbyter or Deacon or some one of them are to be in every Congregation for the Presbyter or Deacon or both to assemble the People and Officiate and not under him is Schism The several instances of this Power of the Priesthood Sect. 27. To Preside in the Assemblies Pray give Thanks for Teach and Govern there No Extempore Prayers in those Assemblies Sect. 28. To Administer the Sacraments the Consecration of the Lords Supper by Prayer and Thanksgiving and Attrectation of the Elements Baptism by Lay-Persons Rebaptizations on what terms in the Ancient Church Confirmation Sect. 29. To Vnite and Determine in Council The use of Councils and Obligation Their Autority Declarative Autoritative Sect. 30. To impose Discipline the several instances and degrees of it in the Ancient Church Indulgencies and Abatements Sect. 31. To Excommunicate or cast out of the Church a Power without which the Church as a Body cannot subsist a natural Consequent to Baptism Priests not excommunicated but deposed Sect. 32. To Absolve and Re-admit into the Church this the design of Excommunication which is only a shutting out for a time in order to Mercy on whom to be inflicted It s certain force in the Execution Sect. 33. To depute others in the Ministry by Ordination the Necessity of it An instance in St. John out of Eusebius St. Clemens Romanus Calvin and Bezae's Opinion and Practice It s ill Consequences Only those of the Priesthood can give this Power to others Sect. 34. The Objection answered and 't is plain the Church is an Incorporation with Laws Rewards and Penalties of its own not of this World nor opposing its Government Sect. 35. The outward stroke is reserved to the Day of Judgment but the Obligation is present If the Church has no Power nor Obligation because not that present Power to Punish or any like it neither has any Law in the Gospel Mr. Hobbs the more honest Man says neither the Ecclesiastical or Evangelical Law obliges His and their Principles infer it Sect. 36. The Power of Christ and his Church cannot clash with the Civil Power because no outward Process till the Day of Judgment and then civil outward Dominion is to cease in its course the present Vnion and Power to be sure cannot this is clear from the several instances of it already reckon'd up Sect. 37. Their Faith is an inward act of the Soul acquitted by Mr. Hobbes and that which is more open Confession obliges if opposed but to dye and be Martyrs Sect. 38. That they Covenant against Sin makes them but the better Subjects Sect. 39. No Man that says his Prayers duly can be a Rebel because first of all to own his Prince and Pray for him The first Christians Innocency defended them when impleaded for Assembling without leave If this did not do they suffer'd Their Christianity did not exempt them from inspection Sect. 40. Charity not obstructive to Government when on due Objects a common Purse without leave dangerous not generally to be allow'd These Christians innocency indemnified them The Divine Right of Titles how asserted Nothing can justifie those Practices but their real Case The Profession of Christianity must otherwise cease Sect. 41 42. Presiding in the Church rises no higher than the Duties exercised 'T is Dr. Tillotson alone ever said To Preach Christ is to Affront Princes
are the Separate for the Ministry who are set apart by themselves and in Substitution and can produce their Seals and Credentials must first shew and give proof of their own Power derivative and that such was first given them of God deposited in their hands as the common Magazine or Store-house to be dispensed at their wills and discretion as the Harvest requires and the Labourers are sent forth into it and that for whom soever they shall lift up their hands or stretch them out to choose and make Election of shall receive the Holy Ghost the Powers of Sacred Orders or of the Keys in the same act be conferr'd upon them and which can never be prov'd that it was given to the People or Believers in common the gratia gratis data and the gratia gratum faciens the gifts of Sanctification and Edification as they speak as in their own Nature and Extent do not reach to and imply one another always place themselves together in one and the same Subject by any one Necessity whatsoever every man is not wise in the same degree that he is good nor Holy according to his Knowledge Power and Godliness do not still go together no more then do all those other Gifts and Charity mentioned and dislodged by Saint Paul 1 Cor. 12.13 the honest report of those seven Men full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom did not create them thereby and in the immediate Power and Virtue of it Church-Officers or Deacons till set before the Apostles and they pray'd and laid their hands on them Acts 6. and so in the Consecration of all other Orders So neither do we find under any one Dispensation since the World was that by any one positive superinduced Order and Constitution these Land-marks were removed that the separate Power of the Priesthood was ever laid common promiscuously and indefinitely placed in all Subjects in every one in particular all those that either owned its Use and Power that either pleaded or reaped any benefit by it Before the Law God placed it in and limited it to the Primogeniture the first-born and chief of the Family At the first giving and under the Law he brought it into lesser compass and subjected it in Aaron and his Family in Succession And our Saviour Jesus Christ ascending upon high and giving his Gifts unto Men when to plant and propagate his Church throughout the whole World he had rent indeed the Veyl of the Temple in sunder at his Death taken down the Partition-Wall betwixt Jew and Gentile the inclosure was laid open and the Aaronical Priesthood had an end but there was still to be Separates for the guiding and conducting Men to Heaven and officiating to that end before God a Priesthood was still to be continued though settled by a new Commission and of another Nature a Power devolved and limited to select special Persons also and not Universal as was to be the Believers And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the Faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Ephes 4.8 11 12 13 14 15 16. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers are all workers of miracles have all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret 1 Cor. 12.29 30. or could we admit of that absurder precarious state of Nature contended for by some supposing once an equality in all men and that to all things every one as coming into the world had a right and title to every thing a share and interest in each Benefit Office and Duty and suitably as their Maker was to be publickly served and worshipped so could each one officiate in and discharge the Performance or devolve and transfer his right on whom he please or as occasion a Mistake of the Learned Hugo Grotius himself in his Posthumous work De Imperio summarum potestatum in Sacris cap. 2. sect 4. though the fruit of his earlier and indigested Brain nor is Spalatensis to be acquitted in the point De Repub. Christ lib. 1. cap. 12. yet all this is superseded by an after-positive Institution and which is acknowledged by Grotius in the fore-quoted place and 't is the appointments of our Saviour that is to be our guide and rule especially since himself has put a perpetual Sanction in this our very case and to endure all along with his Kingdom as above Ephes 4. or if the obstinacy of some and such there are will still persist and tell it out That this inclosure was notwithstanding this yet made common and the Power resolved again into the Multitude they are to give Evidence both of the first Translation and after Matter of Fact how it so descended Church-Power nor indeed any other is not a private Presumption secretly infused whether on a Multitude or particular Persons 't is what was once deposited in certain hands the effect whereof is visible in the Succession of Persons deriving the Autority which they claim from the visible act of those Persons that are intrusted with it There must be some known Aera or publick visible date of its issuing out some distinctive mark of its coming some outward badge of its cognizance that the Conscientious Enquirer may receive Satisfaction when demanding in Sincerity what Zedekiah the Son of Chenaanah did of Micaiah in contempt and with reproach Which way went the spirit of the Lord to speak unto thee 1 Kings 22.24 thus to ask a sign had been no more to tempt the Lord then it had been in King Ahaz had he done it Isai 7. but on the contrary a Duty and St. Jerome gives the reason in his Commentaries on that place Tamen jussus ut peteret obedientia debet explere praeceptum therefore because God had commanded and expects it And St. Jerome there goes on and therefore compares Ahab to the Idol-Worshippers who are led by their own fancies that places his Altar in the corners of the Streets in each Mountain and Grove Et pro Levitis habebat Fanaticos non vult signum petere quod praeceptum est for Levites take Fanatiques to officiate in God's Worship such as were not sent nor called as was Aaron a word
to be of the Church but the Government it self is laid upon another upon the Shoulders of this Child and Son born and given unto us Isa 9.6 and which they are to nourish to protect and preserve with their Temporal Government and Scepters a Generative Procreative Power is not in them This Power given by the Father to the Son was in part and some instances of it finish'd in his own Person upon Earth in part and other instances he is now managing in Heaven what was to remain here among us after his Ascension was to be given to whomsoever the Son pleased this he deputed and committed to his Apostles some of which Power was to dye with their Persons was extraordinary and temporary only or at the most survived in some few only after them and during a small time what was designed and universally useful for all Mankind and for the lasting perpetual managing us in order to Heaven to continue to the end of the World and in the execution and discharge of which our Saviour has promised to be with us always unto the end of the World this was all transferred and devolved by the Apostles on their Successors in the Evangelical Priesthood the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons of the Church it was not demandated to Kings and Secular Powers which then and for some Hundred years after only Persecuted all that followed after that way and call'd upon that Name before whom they appeared only as Dlinquents if they came before them it was for a Mittimus to the Goal or as men appointed to be slain not for Commissions and Substitutions to Preach the Gospel and this is the state of the World at this day thus stand the Powers in it divided betwixt the King and the Priest each moving in his proper Sphere by virtue of his special particular Grant from Heaven and managing the two great Affairs of Heaven and Earth the Body and Soul both of so high a concern unto us THAT both these Powers have been residing § II at once in one and the same Subject and Person 't is most certain and so it may be again by a conflux of Providences or the immediate pleasure of him whose the Powers originally are and can give to the Sons of men as he pleases nothing but dissonant much more repugnant in it the King has been a Priest too not only with Power and Autority in order to Holy Things and Persons a due Behaviour and Discharge in and of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks Lib. 3. Polit. cap. 10 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them good Citizens and obedient to Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to engage their Souls to Virtue by Rewards and Penalties cap. 13. but the Prince has had that Power which is purely and strictly Hieratical and of the Priestly Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle cap. 10. abovementioned Rex Anuis Rex idem Phoebique Sacerdos and that such as of the Priestly Order have had also the Secular Power conjoyned and annexed to it it is most certain in all manner of History for Evidence of which I 'le only refer such as can enquire to Mr. Selden's First Book De Synedriis cap. 15. Hugo Grotius is of Opinion that the Priesthood was seldom found without some Secular Power added unto it in his Treatise De Sum. Potest Imper. in Sacris Cap. 9. Sect. 4. 30. And the ancient Canons of the Church imply that it was much in Use for the Clergy to be engaged in the Affairs of the World as appears by their several Cautions and Commands against it the Circumstances of the then present Church and particular Reasons moving them to it So Can. Apost 81.84 Can. 11. Concil 1 2. Constantinop Can. 16.18 Concil Carthag The King and the Priest as they are of the same Original so are both designed for the same great End and Purpose for the Care and Promotion Protection and Preservation of the Honor of God his Worship and Service in the ways of Virtue and Holiness and Obedience to his Institutions for the benefit of Mankind both here and hereafter and suitably have their names promiscuously and in common in Ecclesiastical Writers Thus Constantine many times calls himself a Bishop and by other Greek Writers is he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to an Apostle Many of these are to be seen in Potrus de Marca de Concord Sacerd. Imperii l. 2. c. 10. Sect. 6 7. Valentinian and Marcian the Emperors are styled Inclyti Apostoli famous Apostles and Constantine's Animus Sacerdotalis is mention'd and applauded in a Publick Council Vid. Observat Notas in Paenitentiale Theodori Cant. Archiep. pag. 138. with several Compellations of the like Nature And which Considerations or rather undue Consideration of these gives some little gloss upon their Error who fix the full Power of the Priesthood in the Prince renders it somewhat more plausible than that of theirs who place it in the People but the Truth is no more in reality on the one side than on the other These are given partly by way of Complement Magnificent Title or higher Eulogies not unusual to the Eminencies of such Personages as they honored and protected Religion to transfer upon them the Honors that go along with it of what value in themselves it matters not so be the best it hath Or where it has nearer answer'd the thing it self Constantine himself has shew'd in what Nature and Instances in the Fourth Book of his Life wrote by Eusebius cap. 24. Vos speaking to the Bishops in iis quae intra Ecclesiam Episcopi estis Ego vero in iis quae extra geruntur And again Ibid. the Historian also speaks to the same purpose Episcopus quasi Episcoporum erat Constantinus Curam habuit ut sint pii both which amount but to thus much That Constantine's Episcopacy only consisted in his outward care of the Church and promotion of the Duties that belong unto her it reacheth not to the inward Power the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Function or Office it self AND here now is the great Enquiry and § III this the main Case in Debate amongst us in this unhappy Age of ours Whether the Kingly and Priestly Offices and Charges immediately in their Natures and Constitutions imply and include each other Not that they agree in one design or more in some Externals but whether where the one is there the other as a necessary consequence is at the same time and by the same appointment existing and to which I am to answer in the Negative as to be a Priest has never inferr'd a Secular Power so nor to be a Prince the Spiritual For the full cleering of this point it will be necessary first to consider the Nature of Gifts Duties Offices and Power in general how far they include and infer one another how far each one in it self is attainable and from
what Principle flowing and 't is a Consideration so absolutely necessary for whoso engages in this or such-like Debates and their Resolutions that he must otherwise be at a loss and miss of the aim proposed To Virtue and Goodness in general there is in every Man an innate Power he has Faculties concreated and of his Constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this improveable by Industry and Care Notices and Experiences and God in course as he incourages and preserves whatever is his own gives more help The Art of a Physitian and Skill of a Divine are also attainable in the like way by a Progress of Study and continued Observations upon an hability or first stock within but this not equally given and ingraffed in each as is a Power to Goodness Wisdom Knowledge is not to all The Power of a Father over his Child is from God by virtue and force of the relation laid in the foundation of it because begetting him and by the general concourse of Providence the Power of a Husband over a Wife and a Master over a Servant is by the appointment of God upon a particular Covenant or Stipulation the Power of Government and Jurisdiction in the greater extent whether of a King in the State or a Priest in the Church enabling each to discharge the Publick Duties belonging to them comes quite different from each before 't is by no improvement of Nature or any thing within a Man concreated and a common concurse of Providence contributes not nor can common Notices or whatever particular Industry and Experience attain unto it no particular act of Man whether Moral or Natural is a foundation sufficient for these greater relations and higher instances of Power whether of his Person apart or by compact with others 't is as always lodged in several Persons or when it was once in one and the same so by discriminating marks distinct symbols in the conveyance and appropriation whereby to discern the one from the other the Secular Power by Descent or Votes or in some instances Conquest the Spiritual by the Deputations of the Bishop and the Acts and Offices are quite apart and different as is the design of this Discourse to make fully appear but in this they agree and are as one because immediate from God by a special concurse and devolution and so deposited into particular hands and Persons no Force no Virtue no Compositions or Overtures in any Action or Performance by any Person or Persons amounting to it they are both highest Powers in their kind and sphere and 't is something apart and solitary and which none else have which makes them so and consequently none else can give it them because supposed not to have it but only he who is transcendently the highest and eminently above all and does and can give to each Son of Man as he pleases And now since each of these Gifts and Offices and Powers are attain'd to convey'd and devolv'd in several courses methods and ways one and the same Symbol Compact or Act does not produce and evidence their existence in and to the World invest with the Power instate in the Possession enable and engage all men alike to the attainment the Duties and Offices of them hence the Consequence is as clear in the course and chain of things as it is in Matter of Fact the Practice and known every day's Experience of the World that they are not any but two much more all of them in any one degree of Necessity as to their coexistence they do not any ways include or infer each other one Virtue 't is true includes and infers another and all Virtues I speak of practical Virtues Bonum ex causa integrâ and Goodness is all of one chain and where true in any one instance is all together but yet this Goodness in the nature of it includes not Wisdom and Knowledge a Virtuous Man has not always the most Knowledge nor where this Knowledge is is it always Universal To be a Divine is not to be a Physitian or were it always Universal this infers no one branch of Power Solomon's poor Wise man had none at all and so it may be with the richest and wisest 't is too often so nor doth any instance of Autority and Power where existing infer all other instances of it To be the Husband of a Wife is not therefore to be the Father of a Child nor do Paternal and Despotick Government either necessarily go together to be a King indeed is usually to be all but to be a Priest is oft to be neither he is many times too poor to have Servants and his Marriage is by some judg'd unlawful at least by Church-Law forbidden and every one says he ought not to be a King to be sure he is not so because a Priest nor is the King a Priest either because a King they no more infer one another than do any of the former two or all of them nor is their co-existence otherways necessary than any of the other they indeed were once united in the Worlds Infancy and some Ages after both seated in the first born though by what special grant we know not the small account we have of those Ages hinders it only I cannot agree with Grotius De Imper. Sum. Potest in Sacris Cap. 2. Sect. 4. that it was assumed by themselves or that every man had a Natural right to it and the Elder in the Family limited it to himself but however it came there it was afterwards severed by God himself who took only the Tribe of Levi for his Service at the Altar and governed in State more by his own Person and therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself sometimes appearing and giving Laws sometimes immediately raising up one and sometimes another to go in and out before his People as from Moses and in the days of the Judges to King Saul And as I intimated before these things not throughly considered and digested these courses and bonds and limits of Offices and Gifts and Powers their Posts and Stages removed or taken down if once these Land-marks be displaced become promiscuous and common making inrodes on one another not only he will be at a loss that engages in the Debates and Resolutions in these cases but Mankind it self the Christian Part of the World to be sure can no more continue in Peace but with Invasions and Usurpations Disorders and Confusions here upon Earth than the earthy Globe it self can subsist or keep its Equilibrium should the Elements of which it is made lose their Native qualities and become blended together or should its two Poles unite and kiss each other and of this our own late Experience in our own particular Church and Kingdom gives Testimony in abundance when a pretence of Holiness or the reality of it was determined sufficient to invest in the Priesthood the same Plea was concluded as
good for the Crown it staid not at the Pulpit but went immediately to the Throne all manner of Dominion was bottom'd in Grace alone and their Saints were both the wisest upon Earth and had all Power were to Teach and to Rule and to possess the Earth All the links and contignations of Government were taken down or burst in sunder whether of the Father over his Child or Husband over his Wife or Master over his Servant or Sovereign over his Subjects or Priest over the People all were Christ's Freemen and to be Servants to none only the knack was found out at last that the King was to be a Priest when both King and Priest were first disabled and their Autority either in design or actually taken from them The Bible it self was then put into his hands with a Right to all Church-Offices when the Right to his Liege Subjects was denied him with a Power to make the Scriptures Canonical and to discharge all its Duties to lay limits by his Laws to Religion though a false one and it is not permitted openly to draw Men off from the Profession of it so Mr. Dean tells us in his Sermon when to govern his Subjects by Law is Tyranny and Usurpation So advantageously is this new Honor and higher Dignity that his entrance to the Priestly-Office placed on him and the consequence was only this both King and Priest was brought to a Morsel of Bread were brought to the Block the Saints in the Right of their Power cut off the Heads both of King Charles the First the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Father was against the Son and the Son against the Father as when the Sea-marks are removed the Walls Water-locks and Floodgates are broken down and pluckt up this greater present deluge of professed Atheism Prophaneness and Immorality is broken in upon us over-spread the face of our Earth in the natural course and consequence of it the Foundations are cast down and what can the Righteous do the Romanists will have their Pope to be a King because a Priest these will have their King to be a Priest and in effect no King and 't was only those that either first design'd or afterwards promoted the taking his Crown from his Head stuck this Feather in his Cap as in the late unnatural Rebellion § IV NOR are those more successful who found the Pleas to the Priesthood in the Unction of Kings or in that they are anointed at their solemner Inaugurations God Almighty meant nothing less when he said Cyrus Mine anointed nor do the outward Unctions of the Kings of Israel and Judah infer or prove any more the Priests were equally anointed as they and 't is no more to be concluded that a King by virtue of his anointing hath the Power of a Priest than that a Priest by his anointing hath the Power of a King which two Sacred offices every body knows were two quite different distinct things though in many things they united yet in several they did they might not it was Sacriledge on the one hand and Rebellion on the other to attempt it The Oyl that the Kings were anointed withal was made of the same Unguents that Moses had compounded to anoint both the Priests and the Holy Vessels and the Altar if we may believe De Marca in his second Preface to his Treatise De Concord c. and had its effects but as design'd and apply'd to each in particular and which suitably received thereby their several distinct Separations for differing uses had their peculiar respects and Services conferr'd upon them it did not imply all the Offices at once in the same either Thing or Person and it may be as well said that the Holy Vessels and Altar became Kings as that the Kings became Priests upon the alone general account of being anointed but admit it had been otherwise under the Jewish Policy and the King by his Unction had the full Extent and Latitude of Power and Offices conferr'd by the Ceremony of Oyl devolv'd and seated in him What is this to us in the Christian Church under another Head different Polity and several Dispensation or how doth it oblige us that our Kings must be Priests because the Kings of Israel were once so Surely no otherwise than it oblig'd the Jews that their first-born were to be either Kings or Priests or both because it was once so with their Ancestors and Predecessors and which is nothing at all unless to be a King originally and in its Nature included the Priesthood by a perpetual Force and Law never to be broken and which their own instances destroy and did not the design and frame of the Governments themselves forbid it for the Law of Moses is the foundation and direction of both Governments both Political and Ecclesiastical and which the Law of our Saviour is not Civil Power is it altogether and in every instance antecedent and independent to that Power which is from the Gospel the Law of Christ supposes it only adds by its Precepts of Justice and Virtue greater Awe and Reverence new Motives for Obedience and Subjection yet the particular very ill consequence could by no means be allow'd us to take and give Measures and Rules to the Powers and Offices of the Christian Church from the Pattern and Practice of the Jewish for then the Power and Extent of the Evangelical Priesthood must be such as Christianity will not bear nor any man in his wits claim for it the Power of the Priesthood among the Jews was mixed in some cases and the Priest and the Levite were in some instances civil Judges apart as betwixt stroke and stroke betwixt Plea and Plea c. Deut. 17. and the High-Priest in other Circumstances had no Jurisdiction at all but as elected a Member of the Sanedrim and which was at the choice of his Electors not by virtue of his Priesthood as such tell us that are skilled in their Customs and sure we are he was still to be consulted in the ordinary difficult Affairs of the Kingdom concerning Wars and Peace and gave his responses by Vrim and Thummim and which is so strenuously oppos'd as unfit for Christian Bishops and Church-men by those we have mostly to deal with in this point now under debate and which would be of worser consequence yet if apply'd unto Kings to have the Princes Power such only as had the Kings of Israel and Judah particularly according as is the Model we usually receive from these Men of their Government and is contended for as lapsed from Heaven for their Sanedrim is still described as an Autority foreign and independent from that of the Prince that could not question the King for his life but could lay lesser Punishments upon him if violating the Law And the great Selden himself is at a stand and leaves it to wiser heads than himself to determine whether the Sanedrim might whip their Kings or not De Syned lib. 2. cap. 9.
2. 5. or in what extent soever the Kings of Judah are proposed as Patterns to our Kings for the exercise of Power in the Christian Church in our Nine and thirty Articles and may authorize them in it to be sure they were never design'd Examples in this particular of Unction or whatever Power it was they were to have as from them our Church could not mean it should thus be derived Our Kings of England 't is plain owe no one instance of their Power to the Coronation it self much less to their being then anointed one but particular Ceremony in the Performance of it and all Jurisdictions and Rights they have as Kings they have before and are to enjoy their whole life-time Supposing they were neither anointed nor even Crown'd at all 't is all an high Ceremony Solemn and Magnificent Peculiar as is the Person and Power and Majesty of a Prince as is becoming a Crown Imperial when set on his Head and the anointing may be used as very lively significant and expressing that separation of his Person which was due and made and acknowledged before and really in him as has been the Custom by Oyl so to sever and set apart Persons and Things but that the thing it self is either commanded or expected by God or design'd and used by Man to any other end service or purpose I never could yet understand David Blondel in his Formula regnante Christo Pag. 119. tells us that the Unction or Custom of anointing Princes was not used among Christians till the year of our Lord 750. and the Consecration of their King Pippin and it was often repeated as twice four five times a year as he instances in several Princes and makes evident it is not look't upon as an initiating investing Ceremony whatever else use they appropriated to it though afterwards it was adjudged Sacriledge to iterate it by a growing Superstition and assum'd Opinion of it the famous Arch-Bishop of Paris De Marca in his Second Preface to his Book De Concord c. and in the Second Book Cap. 7. of the Treatise it self tells us of some in the Greek Church that were of the Opinion that the Prince had the Priestly Power by virtue of his Unction And it was defined in a Synod held at Constantinople in the year of our Lord Nine hundred and seventy that the anointing of the Emperor gives him the same Power to forgive Sins as has the Sacrament of Baptism and the Greeks out of the same Principle of flattery managed the same Opinion and gave their Emperor the same Power as hath the Patriarch but this as we are told depended mostly on a Faction then on foot as it was in it self precarious and Arbitrary so wee 'l leave it to its first bottom which is none at all nor needs it any farther Consideration § V NON est Respublica in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia in Republica 't is the saying of Optatus lib. 3. Contr. Parmen Donatist The Common-wealth is not in the Church but the Church in the Common-wealth under the Head and Government of the Powers of the World as to the Temporals and that instance of the Polity of it no Plea of Office and Deputation what Commission or Designation soever from God and Christ can or ever did exempt any one Man on Earth from it collate or invest therewithal a Power for Earth above it at least as binding Rules for continuance and a pattern for future Practice Our Saviour had it not who made me a Judge or a Divider and none can exercise it as from him but by Usurpation but the Common-wealth and the Church are no ways thus in Subordination and dependencies in another regard as the Church is a Body endow'd with Powers Spiritual thus they are different as the Soul and Body are in Man's Person in their distinct Orbs and Stations as are the Sun and the Moon in the Heavens have a quite diverse Orb and Powers Influences and Devolutions that are variant As the Church must be always in the World in that other sense subject to its governance to the accidents too oft the frowns and high displeasures of it till the World it self is no more So must the World be in the Church in this other sense if that World for whose Sins Christ died if coming to Heaven and Salvation be subject to its Head and Jurisdiction the World may not improperly be said to be as the Moon and the Church as the Sun receiving light and assistance splendor and glory and beauty from it thus influenced and increasing with the increase of God though the Metaphor needs not run any farther and as it has been stretcht too much by some and all this is demonstrable and will appear as evident as the Sun in its Zenith or at Noon day 't is wrote as with an Adamant a Pen of iron on a Rock on that Pillar the Church to be seen and read of all Men and to all Ages for evermore in the Original rise and succession of Church Power in all Transactions Records and Histories of it in the Matter of Fact as notorious to the common sense of Mankind as that one and two make three is to his reason and which is the only Rule in this case to be gone by I 'le begin with the Apostles and so come down to those Ages of the Church and Laws Imperial and Concessions whose Truth and Interest is believed by all to be such as not to engage them to be false in which all Parties agree and concenter § VI PVLCHERRIMA illa quae Ecclesia continet coagmentatio non ex Imperio Romano fluxit Christo monstrante sequentibus Apostolis Grot. in Animadvert Rivet ad Articul 7. That comeliness of Order and Degrees in the Church did not slow from the Roman Empire but from Christ Jesus the Apostles following and imitating of him and as he their chief great Master had not so neither had they his immediate Deputies and Successors their Power either from Man or the Will of Man they in no instance consulted with Flesh and Blood with any thing Humane and of the World in the first rise devolution and conveyance of it but still term themselves the Apostles and Ministers of Christ Jesus nor in the execution of this Power did they do otherwise they consulted only with themselves in the arduous difficult cases arising 't is to the Spirit of the Prophets the Prophets alone are to be subject they go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders there Acts 15. and 't is Peter James and John consult together upon the like occasion Gal. 2. 't is they ordain Elders and give Laws in all Churches leave Timothy and Titus in Ephesus and Crete and appoint for decency and order they are brought before Kings but 't is mostly if not always to suffer they there take the advantages to assent and plead this their Right and Power distinct and separate to give Rules and Exhortations but
him That he exalts the Church-Power above God and Christ and the Magistrate as all their Masters And indeed according to these Mens Notions to apply the Superlative to any Person or Thing is the height of Blasphemy For why God is not excepted And the most common Phrases of a most Mighty Prince a most Holy Place a most Wise Counsellor are all instances of it nor can any one Attribute of Gods be otherwise applyed to the Creature Whereas if the Word be understood and used as in common use it is to be and in complyance with things it must be suitable to the present Subject it is assign'd and limited to and the particular things it is conversant with as under such and such Heads and Orders all is easie and plain Thus God is the alone Supreme all Rule Governance and Autority being originally in him and eminently Christ is Supreme as Head of the Church to whom all Power is given of the Father for bringing Mankind to Heaven the Apostles and their Successors the Pastors of the Church were and are now Supreme on Earth in the same Power derived from Christ by the Apostles unto them The Prince is Supreme and hath all Power from God committed unto him as to Government relating to this World over all Things Persons and Causes to appropriate or alienate to Endow Limit Restrain Coerce or Compel as the alone Supreme Law-giver upon Earth and none may oppose and the great and gyant Objection that is only wrangling about and mistaking of words falls to the ground as it is in it self nothing CHAP. IV. Chap. 4. The Contents The Objections answer'd Selden's Error that there are to be no other Punishments by Christ than was before and under the Law the Query is to be what Christ did actually constitute He mixes the Temporal Actions of the Apostles and those design'd for Perpetuity Adam and Cain might have more than a Temporal Punishment Sect. 1. The great Disparity betwixt the Jewish and Christian State considered no Inferences to be drawn from the one to the other but what is on our side Sect. 2. Theirs is the Letter ours the Spirit They Punish'd by Bodily Death we by Spiritual Sect. 3. If Government was judged so absolutely necessary by the dispersed Jews that they then framed one of their own for the present Necessity and whose Wisdom in so doing Mr. Selden so much admires it must blemish our Saviour much to say he purposely call'd together a Church and design'd it none of its own to preserve it Sect. 4. The Jews Excommunication was not bodily Coercive and then there may be such a Punishment an Obligation to Obedience without force and that is not outward and this much more in the Christian Society Sect. 5. And this their Government abstracted from the Civil Magistrate is an Essay of Christ's Government so far of the same Nature to come into the World Sect. 6. The Christian Church might be both from Caesar and Christ as was the Jewish from God and Caesar and there is no thwarting The Jews and Christians distinct Sect. 7. In answer to his main Objection That all Government must be of this World Sect. 8. It is replied To assert Christ to have such a Kingdom is to thwart his design of coming into the World the whole course of his Actions and Government and those Ancients that expected him to come and Rule with them on Earth yet did not believe it to be accomplished till after the Resurrection Sect. 9. To say he therefore has no Power at all is as wide of Truth the way of Men in Error to run from one extreme to another and of Mr. Selden here Sect. 10. The Church is a Body of a differing Nature from others Sect. 11. With differing Organs and Members of its own in Subordination to one another Sect. 12. With different Offices and Duties Gifts and Endowments these either Common to all Believers or limited to particular Persons Sect. 13. As Christians in common they had one Faith into which Baptized and of which Confession was made the Apostles Creed and other Summaries of Faith and sound Doctrine Interrogatories in Baptism How Infants perform it Sect. 14. They had one and the same Laws and Rules for Obedience for which they Covenanted which is their Baptismal Vow the Abrenunciation of the World the Flesh and the Devil Sect. 15. One Common Worship and Service and Religious Performance to God in their Assemblies the particular Offices and Duties there the Priest and People officiate interchangeably as in Tertullian Justin Martyr c. Sect. 16. Common Duties and Services as to God so to one another in supplying one anothers Necessities as occasion Sect. 17. In the supply of such as attended at the Altar by a Common Purse deposited in the hands of the Bishop Sect. 18. Of the Poor and Indigent whose Treasurer was the Bishop Sect. 19. The Power Offices and Duties not promiscuous but limited to particular Persons are those of the Ministry distributed into the three standing Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and which make up that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Gospel Priesthood to remain to the Restitution Sect. 20. This Power and Jurisdiction though limited to and residing in these three yet it is not in each of them alike in the same degree force and virtue the Deacon is lowest the Presbyter next the Bishop the full Orders and Vppermost Supreme and including all Sect. 21. Against this Primacy of Bishops that of Metropolitans Exarchy Patriarchy and the Supremacy of Rome is objected Sect. 22. The Metropolitan c. is in some Cases above the Bishop but not in the Power of the Priesthood 't is the same Power enlarged No new Ordination in Order to it Sect. 23. The Vniversal Primacy of the Bishop of Rome is but Pretended not bottom'd on either the Scriptures or Fathers or Councils Sect. 24. 25 26. The Bishops Superiority or full Orders and Power in the Church is reassumed and farther asserted He with his Presbyter or Deacon or some one of them are to be in every Congregation for the Presbyter or Deacon or both to assemble the People and Officiate and not under him is Schism The several instances of this Power of the Priesthood Sect. 27. To Preside in the Assemblies Pray give Thanks for Teach and Govern there No Extempore Prayers in those Assemblies Sect. 28. To Administer the Sacraments the Consecration of the Lords Supper by Prayer and Thanksgiving and Attrectation of the Elements Baptism by Lay-Persons Rebaptizations on what terms in the Ancient Church Confirmation Sect. 29. To Vnite and Determine in Council The use of Councils and Obligation Their Autority Declarative Autoritative Sect. 30. To impose Discipline the several instances and degrees of it in the Ancient Church Indulgencies and Abatements Sect. 31. To Excommunicate or cast out of the Church a Power without which the Church as a Body cannot subsist a natural Consequent to Baptism Priests not excommunicated
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
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
he proves thoughout the Church Historians Fathers and Imperial Laws thus declaring assenting to and practising pag. 146. If by the Church you mean the Precepts and Promises Gifts and Graces of God preached in the Church and poured on the Church Princes must humbly obey them and reverently receive them as well as other private Men so that Prophets Apostles Evangelists and all other builders of Christ's Church as touching their Persons be subject to the Princes power Mary the word of God in their Mouths and Seals of grace in their hands because they are of God and not of themselves they be far above the Princes Calling and Regiment and in those Cases Kings and Queens if they will be saved must submit themselves to God's everlasting truth and testament as well as the meanest of their People and yet they are for all this Supreme and subject only to God as to outward Process either from the Pope or from any other Power And so pag. 147. he brings in those Passages of Tertullian Optatus and Chrysostom à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem parem super terram non habet c. the word Supreme was added to the Oath for that the Bishop of Rome taketh upon him to command and depose Princes as their lawful supreme Judg to exclude this wicked presumption we teach that Princes be supreme Rulers we mean subject to no superior Judg to give a reason of their doings but only to God pag. 164 165 166. it must be confessed he speaks not home as might be required when explaining how Kings as well as other Christians are comprized under the duty of obeying their Rulers and to be subject unto them c. surely there is a true real obedience due even from Princes to Church-Officers and their Power devolved from Christ and this learned Man seems here and in other places not to be rescued from that common prejudice and possession seized upon too many and all along continued upon casting of the Popes Superiority here in England that there can be no Church-Power at all universally obliging and requiring obedience but what implyes and infers corporal bodily subjection a change in Seculars 't is this puts him upon that great mistake that the Pastors of the Church are not influenced by the Kingly power of Christ and what is regal in him is given to the Civil Magistrate and who only succeed him in that Office perpetual Government of the Church cap. 10. and Arch-bishop Bancroft confounding these two Powers gives Beza and Cartwright as much advantage in that Particular as their Disciples and Followers can now really wish and because they say that Christ as a King prescribed the form of Ecclesiastical Government being a King the head of the Church doth administer his Kingdom per legitime vocatos pastores by Pastors lawfully called he runs them upon this absurdity that their Autority must be without any controul The Pastors must be all of them Emperors the Doctors Kings the Elders Dukes and the Deacons Lords of the Treasury c. survey of the holy pretended discipline c. cap 24. and yet after all 't is mostly Name◠and Titles that occasions this or the accidental pressing an argument as there will be occasion to consider anon and Bishop Bilson goes on and acknowledges all in effect only Bishops and Pastors are left out and tells us That the Church may be Superior and yet the Pope subject to Princes Princes be Supreme and the Church their Superior the Scriptures be superior to Princes and yet Princes supreme the Sacrament be likewise above them and yet that hindreth not their Supremacy Truth Grace Faith Prayer and other Ghostly Virtues be higher than all earthly States and all this notwithstanding Princes may be supreme Governors of their Countries and which though in over abating Terms and with too scrupulous a fear where no fear ought to be declares as fully as can be the thing it self viz. That Princes are to be subject to the Government in the Church settled by Christ in its Bishops and Pastors and which both as a Prophet a Priest and a King he derives unto them Church-Officers have a Power underived and independent to the Crown only 't is ill worded by the Warden Things Powers Gifts Virtues c. as standing and settled on Earth and not invested in Persons can really be of no force and command at all or rather and which at last will amount to the same will be what every one shall please to make them and the Prince will have as many Supremes as are pretenders to these Gifts of the Spirit and which will be enough as experience taught us this only then can be meant by these Circumlocutions and why it might not have been spoken in down-right terms I cannot imagine that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with the Bible put into their hands as it is at their Ordination with full autority given for the Offices ministerial have a real Power and are truly Rulers in the Church have a Supremacy and Superiority peculiarly theirs and all that will come to Heaven must come under this Ministry or Government it 's jurisdiction and discipline be they Princes or Subjects on Earth or what ever worldly Government they are possessed of unless he 'l say every Man hath these Ghostly Virtues which can urge a Text of Scripture and which cannot be conceived of him and to this purpose he goes farther pag. 167 168. Though the Members of the Church be subject and obedient to Princes yet the things contained in the Church and bestowed on the Church by God himself I mean the light of his Word the working of his Sacraments the gifts of his Grace and fruits of his Spirit be far superior to all Princes The plain meaning of which can be but this Certain separate Persons invested by God beyond Christians at large with such Gifts and Graces the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in which respect a good Emperor is within the Church and not above it as St. Ambrose is to this purpose here quoted by him pag. 171. You must distinguish the things proposed in the Church from the Persons that were Members of the Church the Persons both Lay-Men and Clerks by God's Law were the Princes Subjects the things comprized in the Church and by God himself committed to the Church because they were Gods could be subject to the Power and Will of no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince the Prince is above the Persons of the Church not above things in the Church pag. 173. 176. 178. you know we do not make the Prince Judg of Faith we confess Princes to be no Judges of Faith but we do not encourage Princes themselves to be Judges of Faith but only we wish them to discern betwixt truth and error which every private Man must do that is a Christian pag. 174 175 176. he approves of Ambrose's Answer to Valentinian that is was stout but lawful constant but
Oath we make Princes the only supreme Governors of all Persons in all Causes as well spiritual as temporal utterly renouncing all foreign Jurisdictions Superiorities and Autorities upon which Words mark what an horrible Confusion of all Faith and Religion ensueth if Princes be the only Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters then in vain did the Holy Ghost appoint Pastors and Bishops to govern the Church if they be Supreme then they are superior to Christ himself and in effect Christ's Masters if in all Things and Causes spiritual than they may prescribe to the Priests and Bishops what to preach which way to worship and serve God how in what Form to minister the Sacraments and generally how Men shall be governed in Soul if all foreign Jurisdiction must be renounced then Christ and his Apostles because they were and are Forreigners have no Jurisdiction nor Autority over England But this is what only the ill Nature and Malice of our Adversaries would have us to believe and assert and give out to the World we do 't is what is and all along has been repell'd with scorn and indignation both by our Princes in their single Persons and in their Laws in Parliament and though some of our Divines have wished the Oath had been more cautiously Penn'd and think it lies more open to little obvious Inferences of this nature than it needs and which amuse the unwary less discerning Reader yet all own and defend it as to the substance and design and intent of it and which is throughly and sufficiently done by the learned Warden in this Treatise as appears by this Specimen or shorter account is now given of it and he that peruses the whole Treatise will find more and John Tillotson Doctor in Divinity and Dean of Canterbury is if not the only yet one professed conforming Divine in our Church that publickly from the both Pulpit and Press has given the Romanist so much ground really to believe we are such as they on purpose to abuse us and delude others give it out we are and complyes so far with their Objection and Calumny just now recited as by Philander drawn up against us gives so much of Force and Autority to it § XIX BISHOP Sanderson in his Treatise now mentioned has a different task from Bishop Bilson the one was to vindicate the Prince that he invades not the Church the other the Bishops or Church that from usurping on the Prince Bishop Sanderson among many other things urged by him and as his Subject requires is express in these Particulars pag. 121. That there is a supreme Ecclesiastical Power which by the Law of the Land is established and by the Doctrine of our Church acknowledged to be inherent in the Church pag. 23. That regal and Episcopal Power are two Powers of quite different kinds and such as considered purely in those things which are proper and assential to either have no mutual relation unto or dependance upon each other neither hath either of them to do with the other the one of them being purely spiritual and internal the other external and temporal albeit in regard of the Persons that are to exercise them or some accidental Circumstances appertaining to the exercise thereof it may happen the one to be some wayes helpful or prejudicial to the other pag. 41. that the derivation of any Power from God doth not necessarily infer the non-subjection of the Persons in whom that Power resideth to all other Men for doubtless the power that Fathers have over their Children Husbands over their Wives Masters over their Servants is from Heaven of God and not of Men yet are Parents Husbands Masters in the exercise of their several respective Powers subject to the Power Jurisdiction and Laws of their lawful Soveraigns pag. 44. The King doth not challenge to himself as belonging to him by virtue of his Supremacy Ecclesiastical the Power of ordaining Ministers excommunicating scandalous Offenders the power of Preaching adminstring Sacraments c. and yet doth the King by virtue of that Supremacy challenge a Power as belonging to him in the right of his Crown to make Laws concerning Preaching administring the Sacraments ordination of Ministers and other Acts belonging to the Function of a Priest pag. 69 70 71. it is the peculiar reason he gives in behalf of the Bishops for not using the King's Name in their Process c. in the Ecclesiastical Courts the occasion of the whole discourse and which cannot be given for the Judges of any other Courts from the different nature and kind of their several respective Jurisdictions which is That the Summons and other Proceedings and Acts in the Ecclesiastical Courts are for the most part in order to the Ecclesiastical Censures and Sentences of Excommunications c. the passing of which Sentences and others of the like kind being a part of the Power of the Keys which our Lord Jesus Christ thought sit to leave in the hands of the Apostles and their Successors and not in the hands of Lay-Men The Kings of England never challenged to belong to themselves but left the exercise of that Power entirely to the Bishops as the lawful Successors of the Apostles and Inheritors of their Power the regulating and ordering of that Power in sundry Circumstances concerning the outward exercise thereof in foro exteruo the Godly Kings of England have thought to belong unto them as in the Right of their Crown and have accordingly made Laws concerning the same even as they have done also concerning other Matters appertaining to Religion and the Worship of God but the substance of that Power and the Function thereof as they saw it altogether to be improper to their Office and Calling so they never pretended or laid any claim thereunto but on the contrary renounced all claim to any such Power or Autority And for Episcopacy it self the Bishop sets down his opinion in a Postscript to the Reader the words are these My opinion is That Episcopal Government is not to be derived merely from Apostolical Practice or Institution but that it is originally founded in the Person and Office of the Messiah our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ who being sent by his Heavenly Father to be The great Apostle Heb. 3.1 Bishop and Pastor 1 Pet. 2.25 of his Church and anointed to that Office immediately after his Baptism by John with Power and the Holy Ghost Acts 10.37 38. descending then upon him in a bodily shape Luk. 3.22 did afterwards before his Ascension into Heaven send and impower his holy Apostles giving them the Holy Ghost likewise as his Father had given him in like manner as his Father had before sent him Joh. 20.21 to exercise the same Apostolical Episcopal and Pastoral office for the Ordering and Governing of his Church until his coming again and so the same office to continue in them and their Successors unto the Worlds end Mat. 28.18.20 this I take to be so clear from these and other like Texts of
Priests to Correct and Punish them to whom the Priests are to pay Tribute and this all along from the Examples of the Kings of Israel from our Saviour from St. Peter this contrary to the practice of the Pope who claims these Powers and Advantages to himself and in his own Power Person executes them 't is the Princes Province assign'd him in the Scripture to Punish and Coerce to enforce Penance and Restitution and that evil-doers be cut off according to St. Paul to prohibit and smite such as refuse to serve God according to the Priests instruction as did Hezekiah to the Worshippers in the Groves and high places destroying them as did the King of Nineveh compelling the whole City to Repentance forbidding for the future by terrible Laws as did Nebucadnezzar thus Justinian the Emperor gave Laws in Religion concerning Faith and Hereticks Churches Bishops and Church-men Marriages c. and the same and only this Power have the Kings of England assum'd to themselves as he instances all along to the End of the Book particularly in the Church Laws made by several Kings in this Island as Canutus Etheldred Edgar Edmund Adelstan Ive Oswin Egfrid William the Conqueror in his Letters for the Endowment of Battle with its Priviledges and Immunities and which Mr. Selden makes use of to his purpose though no ways serving it for he only exempts the Church from Episcopal Visitation but neither in this or any other of their Letters Rules Laws and Injunctions given to the Church is any thing of church-Church-Power as such own'd claimed appropriated or but pretended to by virtue of the Crown or Regal Power given them of God but the two Powers are supposed distinct and disparates and so in particular King Edgar in that his severer correptive Monitory-Oration or Letter to the Clergy of England their faults appearing then very notorious he at length thus addresses himself unto them Ego Constantini vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus jungawus dexteras gladium gladio copulemus ut ejiciantur extra castra leprosi ut purgetur Sanctuarium Domini ministrent in Templo silii Levi. I have the Sword of Constantine you have the Sword of Peter in your hands let us joyn right hands together let us couple Sword with Sword that the Leprous may be cast out of the Tents and the Sanctuary of the Lord be Purged and the Sons of Levi minister in the Temple And a little farther applying himself to Dunstan the Archbishop he tells him Contempta sunt verba veniendum est ad verbera urguisti obsecrasti atque increpasti Admonitions will do no more good he must come to blows and thereunto directs him to joyn with himself Edwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald Bishop of Worcester Vt Episcopali Censurâ regia Autoritate turpiter viventes de Ecclesia ejiciantur c. by the Episcopal Censure and Regal Autority the one assisting but neither usurping upon and destroying the other these evil Men be cast out of the Church and better placed in their rooms So unlucky is Mr. Selden in this first Quotation § XXII STEPHEN Bishop of Winchester in his Oration de vera Obedientiâ comes next but brings nothing more of advantage to his side and as it was Printed 1537. and but a year after the Opus eximium c. so does he as to the Substance copy after him and asserts Henry VIII Head of the Church i. e. all Christians within his Dominions as were the Kings of Israel over all the Jews i. e. to take care of their Morals and see that they do their Duty to God their Neighbour and themselves as Justinian gave Laws to the Church and the Causes of Heresies were agitated with the Caesars and Princes that were Christians and Laws made promulgated and enjoyn'd execution both by our Kings here in England and also by others elsewhere and particularly refers to that Oration of Edgar just now mentioned and adds farther out of it how Dunstan that most holy and excellent Archbishop of Canterbury submitted to this his Jurisdiction and most willingly embraced that word of the King Quâ se gladium gladio copulaturum edixit ut dissoluti Ecclesiae mores ad rectam vivendi normam aptarentur in which he engaged to joyn Sword to Sword in order to the reducing the Church to a just and due way of living meaning his Kingly Power to the Power of the Church assisting the Spiritual with the Temporal Arm for so the Bishop goes on and interprets these two Swords and instances in Excommunication as a branch of that which is in the Churches hands Altero gladio ad illud Pauli alludens quem verbi ministri docendo excommunicando exercent altero praeminentiam ostendens jure divino concessam cui omnes parere quotquot Principis ditioni subjecti Ecclesiam constituunt omnino debent By one Sword alluding to that of Paul which the Ministers of the Word exercise in Teaching and Excommunicating by the other shewing that Pre-eminence granted by God and to which all must obey that subjected to the Jurisdiction of a Prince constitute a Church within his Dominions and which two Powers though requiring different Obedience to divers Persons and Governors as to the Bishops and Ministers of the Word of God and to the King are not at all adverse to and against one another nor is any thing more detracted from or diminished thereby of the Obedience to the King than when a Wife obeys her Husband and a Servant his Master by the general Command of God and yet this is another of Mr. Selden's Autorities which with his usual forehead he brings for the sense of the Doctors of our Church in the days of Henry VIII and that the Church-Power is none at all but as derived from the Crown and the Prince can Excommunicate I wonder how he omitted the Oration of Richard Samson to this purpose and at the same time he being Dean of the Chappel to Henry VIII and which would have made a 〈◊〉 shew in his Margin which is the main thing he aims at it certainly came not to his hands and it would have serv'd his turn as well as any of the other there being in him not one word concerning the Power of the Church left by Christ and he only asserts the King Supreme Head of the Church of England the Church as made of so many Persons implying a Body politick too and they Subjects equally as Christians nor could any man think that is but ordinarily considering or designs not by Names and Attempts to deceive the unwary but credulous World and so is a Knave that the two Universities at that time or the eminenter of the Clergy at Court should assert the Supremacy upon other terms who in all Probability were a secretis of his intimate Council when designing for the Supremacy and to be sure could not be ignorant of the King 's Publick Declarations and the Statute in Parliament that
it self was not thought to be concerned 't was what was reputed only secular and the most eminent and very near all the Bishops were zealous Sticklers against the Pope or at least submitted to it then when zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion Doctrines and Worship and to which they adhered in King Edward's days and Queen Elizabeth's when the Reformation went on farther and was settled as now by Law in the Church The Supremacy was not then the Characteristical Mark though since to keep up the Parties it is so and which occasioned that warm Dialogue betwixt the Jesuite and Doctor Bilson of which I have given so large an account already the Doctor 's design being to vindicate our Church from the Opinions of Erastus urged in effect upon us by the Jesuite and that by asserting the Prince Supreme in all Causes over all Persons we give not to him any thing that is Church-Power enstated by Christ on the Apostles and by them derived to the Bishops their alone Successors herein this being thus settled and over-ruled against the Romanist another Enemy Man comes with his Tares and which are scattered in the seed-Plot and grow up together with it the Puritan starts up in the midst of us and the Point is That this Power of the Keys is in the Presbytery their Eldership made up of Lay-Men mostly call'd Lay-Elders and these for the greatest part as must be in abundance of Parishes Mechanicks and the meaner sort who have the Power of laying on of Hands Ordaining and Excommunicating nay more these inconsiderable Persons are not only invested with the Power of Bishops and Church-Men but with that Power and Supremacy is by us given to the Prince to Preside over and Govern all Persons and Causes by Process to Cite Summon and Convene before them to implead acquit or condemn amerce or punish even to confinement in their Consistories and no Cause or Person to be exempted if manageable in order to Religion they emulate and succeed the Pope himself and in the highest instances of his pretended Power and Soveraignty even to Summon and Censure Kings of whom Personal Attendance is required now against this it is these Worthies change and wield their Weapons accordingly as a good Fencer is ready at all against these New Popes as they call them and whoso please may read in Bishop Bancroft's Survey of the pretended holy Discipline cap. 22 23 24 25. and in his Book of Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within the Island of Britain under pretence for Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline In Bishop Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church Cap. 9 10. and Bishop Whitgift's Defence of the Answer to the Admonition Tract 17. pag. 627 628 629 630 c. against these it is their warmth and Argument is spent in Defence of the Rights of the King and Church in scorn and detestation of such those pretending Ignaro's Their words are these with a deal more to this purpose As though Christ's Soveraignty Kingdom and Lordship were no where acknowledged or to be found but where half a dozen Artisans Shoo-makers Tinkers and Taylors with their Preacher and Reader Eight or Nine Cherubins forsooth do rule the whole Parish So Bancroft Dangerous Positions c. l. 2. c. 2. That the King must submit to the Pastor and be content to be joyned in Commission with the basest sort of People if it please the Parish to appoint him and if over-ruled must be contented and the Prince loses all Autority in Ecclesiastical Matters and he must maintain and see executed such Laws Orders and Ceremonies as the Pastor with his Seniors shall make and decree So Bishop Whitgift ibid. p. 656 657. That the Church-warden and Syde-men in every Parish are the meetest Men that you can find to direct Princes in judging of Ecclesiastical Crimes and Causes a wretched state of the Church it must be that shall depend on such silly Governors as Husbandmen and Artisans Ploughmen and Craftsmen and we descend to the Cart for advice in Church-Government So Bishop Bilson Perpetual Government Cap. 10. and if thus in behalf of the Regal and Sacerdotal Power the Magistracy and the Ministry and which are the only Governors of the Church of Christ as they contend against these monstrous sort of People with their High-shoo'd feet and Clowns hands invading both the King and the Church be set as one man to oppose them and their distinct Powers not so nicely and distinctly stated at one time as they are and require an another and appear but as one Weapon that with present advantage it may be wellded against them this is to be imputed to the warmth and zeal of the Disputant whether as Aggressor or Defendant his settled particular judgment is to be fetch'd from his particular designed Decision and Determination in other Cases and when the naked Cause is alone and before him the immediate proper object of his Consideration and it must be confessed neither do I believe the great reason and choicer learning of that excellent Prelate were he now alive again could upon second thoughts extricate himself that Bishop Bilson's Argument against Lay-Elders Cap. 10. Pag. 148. and which Robert Parker so much twits him with is wide of a Conclusion and very ill laid it runs thus I cannot conceive how Lay-Elders should be Governors of Christ's Church and yet be neither Ministers nor Magistrates Christ being the Head and fulness of the Church which is his Body governeth the same as a Prophet a Priest and a King and after his Example all Government in the Church is either Prophetical Sacerdotal or Regal the Doctors have a Prophetical the Pastors a Sacerdotal and the Magistrates a Regal Power What fourth Regiment can we find for Lay-Elders All that can be said is this there appear'd an Argument against a Lay-Elder he was thought thus shut out from having any Place or Power as from Christ not considering the ill distribution of the offices of Christ in general and his bad-placed Successions and more especially the worser consequence that must attend a deriving the Magistrates Power from the Mediatorship and 't is what neither Whitgift nor Bancroft did Consider As a King Priest and Prophet he erected and settled his Church on Earth by virtue of that Commission and All Power given him of the Father Mat. 11. but he did not as such meddle with the Kingdoms on Earth as the Mediator he was himself a Subject and professed and practised Subjection and Obedience demanded only the Subjects right Protection by the Government he found established in the World by his Father But however the present Argument was wrong laid and whencesoever the Magistrates Power is derived 't is all along and by them all supposed and maintained quite different and apart from that of the Ministry or the Priesthood and they are asserted two quite diverse offices and their Powers do not reach to one another I 'le only now instance