Against the Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction, Chapter 17

Against the Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction · Chapter 17

p. 207Chap. XVII. The Third Letter to Bishop Guning.

To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Ely.

My Lord,

THough in Conference I told you the Sense which I had of your words, yet judging it my duty to think of them over and over again, I also judge it my duty in Writing to leave with you the sum of such a Judgment as I am able to pass on them, on my best Consideration, leaving it now to your self whether you will by word or writing return any further Answer, my hopes of Satisfaction thereby being very low.

The sum of your Speech which I am concerned in, is as followeth:

I. That certainly a Supream Vicarious Governing Power there is in the Bishops by Christ's Institution, 1. Because it is Prophesied, Isai. 60.12. That the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve p. 208the Church shall perish; And the word Church is never put for Christ. 2. And the Apostles only were admitted by Christ to his last Supper, and so the Power of Administring that Sacrament till Christ come, is given only to them, and such as they shall give that Power to. 3. And it was not Paul and Barnabas that had the infallible judgment of that Case decided, Act. 15. but the College of the Apostles.

II. That this Supream Vicarious Governing Power over the whole Church on Earth is, 1. In all the Christian Bishops of the World, 2. And the Major part goeth for the whole, 3. And General Councils are their Representatives, and so have this Power. 4. And that to such Councils it is enough that all be called, though all be not there. 5. And it is their reception by the Church Vniversal, which must prove their Vniversal Power, and the Obligation of their Laws. 6. And though the Vniversality of Bishops be not always in such a Council, they have always that Power which in Councils is to be used: as the Judges out of Term time. 7. And that if I, or any will publish a Heresie, we shall know where that Church is by their Censure. 8. But as Promulgation is necessary to the Obligation of Laws, so many that never can or do hear of the foresaid Vniversal Church-Governing Power or what their Laws are, or what is the sence of them, may be saved without them, by the reading of the Word; as many that have not the Scriptures may be saved without them.

And this you say answers three parts of my last Papers. 9 Of these General Councils it is only six that you own as such, Nice 1. Const. 1. Eph. 1. Chalced. Const. 2. (de tribus Capitulis) & Const. 3. against the Monothelites.

p. 209III. "You say that These six things are the Governing Acts of this Chief Power.

1. To judge which are the true Books of Scripture, "and the true Copies and Readings.

2. To judge what is the sence of the Fundamentals, Baptism, Creed, whose words misunderstood will not save any.

3. To judge and declare what is the true Church Government instituted by Christ and his Apostles, or delivered by them.

4. To judge and declare what are the instituted Ordinances e. g. Confirmation as it is a giving of the Holy Ghost by Imposition of Hands, and not only an owning of our Baptismal Covenant, which we do in every Sacrament: and so of other Ordinances.

5. A Judicial Power, not of all individual Cases, but that those e. g. that hold or do this or that be Excommunicate.

6. A Legislative Power, to make alterable Canons or Orders of the Church Vniversal. This is the sum of all your Explicatory Discourses: To which I answer.

§. I. To your proofs that such a Universal Governing Church there is instituted. 1. To Isai. 60.12. I say, 1. It is not safe stretching dark Prophetical Texts, farther than we can prove they are intended. The New Testament plainlier tells us the Church State and Power than the Old.

2. The Universal Church hath not expounded the Text, whether it speak of the state of the Jews after the Captivity, or of the State of the Catholick Church now, or of the more Blessed State of it at the last, when it is more perfected, Therefore how are you sure that you have the true sence of it without the Churches Exposition?

p. 2103. The words indeed are nothing for a Vicarious Soveraign Power. Every Political Body is essentiated by the Pars imperans, and the Pars subdita: Christ is the only essentiating Pars imperans in Supream Power: Christ then is the Prime part of the Church: The word [Church] then is not put for [Christ] alone, but for the Society consisting of King and Subjects, and sometimes for the Subjects alone. It's oft said that many Nations served the Israelites: we say, many Countreys were subject to the Romans, the Medes, Persians, Greeks, Turks: and we do not mean that either the Turkish, Roman, Persian, &c. Common Subjects did govern all these Nations, nor that their Bashaws, Judges, Magistrates, &c. as one Persona Politica in summa potestate ruled them by a Major Vote: If the King will say that all the Corporations in Middlesex shall be under London, or obey or serve it: Who would feign such a sense of it, as to say that there must be therefore some Power to rule them by a Vicarious Supremacy beside the ordinary Government, or that all the City must Govern by a Major Vote. The sense is plain. As we all 1. Obey the King as the Universal Constitutive Head, 2. And the Judges, Justices, Mayors, as ruling under him per partes, in their several Places. 3. And we serve all the Kingdom, as we serve its common good, which is the finis regiminis; So other Countries served the Romans, Greeks, Turks, &c. And so all Kingdoms should serve the Church or Kingdom of Christ; that is, 1. Christ as the only Head and Universal Governour: 2. All his Officers as particular Governours in their several Limits and Places (but none as Rulers of the whole) p. 2113. And the bonum Commune, or all the Church as the End of Government. And how can we feign another sence?

§. 2. To your second Proof I answer, 1. The 70 Disciples were Christ's constant Attendants as his Family, with whom he was to Eat the Passover.

2. We all grant that none have Power to Celebrate the Eucharist, or Govern the Church but the Apostles, and those to whom the Spirit of Christ in them did Communicate it. But we say that they Communicated it to the Order of Presbyters, as I thought all had Confessed (as some Councils do.) 3. The Apostles were not appointed as one Supream ruling College to give the Sacrament by their Votes to all the World, but each one had Power to do it in his place: Nor did they Ordain only as a College by such Vote (as Vna persona Politica) but each one had Power to do it alone: Nor did they write the Scriptures as one Collective Person by Vote, but each one had the Spirit and Power to do it, (as Paul did, &c.) nor did they sit on one Throne, or had the promise so to do, to Judge the Tribes of Israel, as one College by Vote, but to sit on twelve Thrones Judging the twelve Tribes, as under Christ the only Universal Head and Governour.

§. 3. To your third I answer, 1. I answered to that Act. 15. in my last to you. 2. Paul and Barnabas had the same Infallible Spirit, and had before said the same against the keeping of Moses Law: But 1. Recipitur ad modum recipientis: No wonder if among those that quarrelled with Paul ▪ the Consent of those that had received Christ's Mind from his own Mouth and Spirit, did better p. 212satisfie the doubtful, than one Man's word alone. 2. And Christ's Work was to be done in Unity.

§. 4. II. As to the Seat of this Power I answer, 1. All the true Bishops of the World Govern the particular Churches as Kings Govern all the Kingdoms of the World, under God, one Universal Monarch: But there is neither one, Universal Monarchical, Aristocratical or Democratical Soveraign, Civil or Ecclesiastical under Christ: But each hath his own part.

§. 5. 2. I have shewed the impossibility of our judging of the Major Votes at our distances in most controverted Cases.

§. 6. 3. And I have, where I told you, proved that there never were, must or will be true Universal Councils, much less are such the standing Governours of the Church. But in Cases of need, such as can well do it, should come to help each other by Council and Concord, without pretending to Universal Governing Power.

§. 7. 4. 1. Who called them to Nice, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople, &c. out of the Extra-Imperial Countries?

2. Who shall call them now out of the Empire of the Turk, Abassia, the Mogul, Tartary, and the rest?

3. If calling Men make the Council Universal though they come not, is it a Council if none come? or how many must it be to ascertain us that it is Universal? Hath the Pope the Calling Power? or who is it, and how proved, that they that obey it not may be unexcuseable?

§. 8. 5. I have told you how unable I am to know what the Major part of all Christians or Bishops in the World receive, save only by uncertain p. 213fame, saving that while I know otherwise what is necessary truth, I know that they are not the Church that receive it not, whoever they be. I am a Stranger to Abassia, Armenia, Georgia, India, Russia, Mexico, &c. And what if I never knew that there are such Countries in the World?

2. I can easily prove what I told you, how oft the Major Part hath changed, yea, the same Bishops upon the change of Princes, and cried, Omnes Peccavimus. And who knoweth by Majority of Votes, which Years they were in the right?

3. Either the Canons of Councils were obligatory upon the Promulgation before the absent Bishops in all Countries received them, or not; If yea, then it is not Universal Reception that made them so: If not, then the absent are not bound to receive them.

4. How many Years will it be after a Council before we can know whether all or most of the Christian World receive it? By all that I can read in History, I cannot tell, e. g. whether more Bishops were for the Council of Chalcedon, or against it, for the time of seven or eight Emperors Reign; Nor whether more now be for or against the second Nicene Council (which the Lutherans so much favour) and so of many more. And every one cannot know it, nor fetch his Faith, or Religion from a Catalogue of all the Christian Bishops in the World, or a Calculation of their numbred Votes.

§. 9. 6. Frustra est Potentia quae non reducitur, nec reducenda est in actum. 1. Indeed as the Pope is naturally uncapable of Governing all the Christian World, All Bishops on Earth are much more uncapable as one Collective Voting Power, but only p. 214per partes in their several Limits. 2. How can I obey a Power that acteth not?

§. 10. 7. Alas what abundance of Heresies have been Published since the Six Councils which you own? yea, by Ranters, Quakers, Familists, &c. in our times, besides Beckman's Catalogue of German Fanaticks. And yet what Universal Council, or Literae formatae of all the World, have given us sufficient notice of their Evil? How foolishly have the Papists done about Jansenianisms, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, &c. to seek the Pope's Determination, if the sense of all the Bishops of the World can be known to decide the Case? How many Heresies have been Condemned in Councils since the Sixth Council, of which the whole Church hath no otherwise notified their sence (as in the Case of Philoponus of Images, of Elipandus, and Faelix, of Abbot Joachims Abeilard, of Gilbert Porretane, of Wecilo; of Berengarius, Wickliffe, Husse) whether it was Heresie or not? You say, If I broach a Heresie, the Vniversal Church will soon tell me where they are by Condemning it: When Multitudes have been broached these last Thousand Years, of which those in Abassia, Syria, Egypt, Armenia, and most of the Christian World, have never told us that ever they were Judged, or so much as heard? Shall no Bishops or Provincial Council condemn new Heresies, but leave e. g. Swenkfeldius, David George, Serv…tus, Pomponatius, Vaninus, and a hundred such to pass for good Christians, till they hear from all the Bishops of the World? And what need General Councils be gathered to Condemn such, if we can know the sence of all without them?

p. 215§. 11. 8. If one that cannot know the sence of all the Bishops on Earth, may ordinarily be a good Christian, and saved by the Scripture only, then why should they be sent to enquire of all the Bishops on Earth, when a sure and nearer way is at hand.

2. And then such may be of the Church and have Christ's Spirit, that obey not such a Vicarious Church Head.

3. And if want of Promulgation nullifie the Obligation, that is no Governing Vicarious Soveraign to all the Christian World, which cannot Promulgate his Laws to all. Neither I, nor any that ever I knew, can tell how to know the Minds of all the Bishops on Earth, or gather their Votes, so as to rule our Obedience; If the Scripture could not be commonly made known, it could be no common Rule; as it is not to them that have it only in unknown Tongues.

§. 12. 9. What shall satisfie any Man that the Six Councils owned by you are the Acts of a Supream Vicarious Universal Church Power, and no other? but those, 1. If the Pars imperans in Supremacy be (as Politicks say) a Constitutive Essential part of the Society, then since the sixth Council, the Church hath been no Church for want of an Essential part, if Councils were that part: But if it be all the dispersed Bishops, the Head hath been in nudâ Potentiâ, unactive these Thousand Years, as the Socinians say the separated Soul is till the Resurrection, or as one in an Apoplexy.

2. This favoureth the Seekers, who say that the Church this Thousand Years hath been lost in the Wilderness, or asleep.

p. 2163. The same Councils have done and undone. That at Const. 1. in the beginning set up Greg. Naz. and in the end forced him to resign going about to depose him; which part was obligatory? That at Ephes. first, was first one, and after two, and Nestorius, Cyril and Memnon, were all Condemned, and after two of them restored, and Joh. Antioch: and Cyril by Theodosius threats were brought to confess that they had differed but in Words, and did not know it: Which part was Obligatory? That at Chalcedon consisted of many, yea most that had gone contrary in Ephes. 2. and cried, Omnes peccavimus, and so did many others, and most Bishops were oft and long against it after. That at Const. de Tribus Capitulis, is noted commonly as a meer Cheat and abuse put on Justinian by an Eutychian, and condemned three dead Mens Words before at Chalcedon absolved, set the World (even Italy) into a greater Schism. If you are sure all these are Universally Obligatory, prove it, and prove that no other are as much so. Divers others were as numerous, and called by as good Authority. If you say, as of Ephes. 2. they were Latrocinia and forced; I answer, No more than many others. At Const. …. Nazianzen tells you they raged like Mad Men: At Ephes. 1. they fought it out even before the Emperors Commissioners. Theodosius 2d. used his over-ruling Power at both Eph. 1. & 2. What force was used in that under Philippicus, and many others that erred and were more numerous than such as you receive. Sola navicula Petri, saith Binius, scaped Drowning at Eph. 2. so Concordant were they all; What have you against even Constance and Basil on your Grounds? If you say they erred, I grant it: and p. 217how shall we know that none of the Six did so? It was not their Number nor Consent that proved them in the right. Tell us how to know the Councils that we must obey from all the rest? Is it by other Councils Testimony? that is, to run in a Vain Circle: How know we that the later is right other way than of the former? Is it by Scripture or by Reason. Tell us how, without subverting your own Foundation, the Soveraignty of Councils.

4. Do you hold all the Six Councils still obligatory as the Rule of our Obedience and Communion E. g. 1. That at Nice 1. and the Quini Sextum at Trull forbid Adoring by genuflexion on any Lords Day, &c. And no General Council hath revoked it, but above a Thousand Years after it wore out by degrees in most Churches: And yet Thousands of Christians are here to be denied Sacramental Communion, if they keep these Canons even in the reception of the Eucharist: and Hundreds, yea Thousands of Christ's Ministers shall be silenced, ejected, and ruined if they will not Assent and Consent so to use them. How many Canons in the Six Councils can I name which do not now bind us?

§. 13. As to the work of Councils and Bishops named by you; I. As to our receiving the true Scripture from an Universal Church-Governing Authority. 1. Paul's Epistles were received otherwise. Yea, there is no mention of any part of the New Testament that was not received till such Universal Government required it.

2. If I must first know the said Church Authority before I receive the Scripture, how shall I know it? Not by the Scriptures; for that is supposed p. 218yet not received: If by the Assertors Authority, that is to know they have it, because they have it, which is the Question. If by some fore-known Character of Infallibility, what is it? unless with Knot you come to the Miracles of the present Church, I know not what can be said.

3. But is not the common Protestant way (which you call Chillingworth's) much surer? 1. VVe first receive the Matter of Fact Historically, (that such Persons were, and wrote such Books, and did such Deeds) from the Concurrent Testimony of all Credible VVitnesses▪ some Enemies, some Hereticks, the generality of Lay-Christians, Presbyters that in all Churches received and used them, and Bishops also as credible entrusted Keepers of these Records: As we know the Laws of the Land, by Judges, Lawyers, People, and all that make up a full Historical Certainty, and not from some fore-known Universal Governing Bishops Judicial Sentence. 2. And the Matter of Fact being known by certain Historical Evidence, I have so largely shewed how the rest is known in my Reasons of Christian Religion, and Life of Faith, &c. that I will not repeat it: Do you think that most (or any) Christians before they received the Scriptures, did first otherwise know that all the Bishops on Earth are by God authorized to be a Supreme Collective Sovereign to the Church, and to judge infallibly which are the true Scriptures for all the People, and that they are now most of them true Bishops? &c. Which way are all these things to be known?

We deny not that Ministers are by Office entrusted to keep, expound and preach the S. Scriptures: But we use against the Papists herein, to p. 219distinguish the Authority of a Teacher or Embassador, from the Authority of a Judge; and the Authority of an Official limited Judge, in proprio foro, from that of an Universal Judge to all the World. Indeed it is commonly granted, that it is proper to the Law-makers to judge of the sense of their own Law, so as Universally to oblige the Subjects: For it is part of Legislation it self, the sense of the Law being the very Law: Else Judges might make us what Law they please, by expounding the Words as they please. But the Power of Judicatures is limitedly to expound and apply the Law only to the decision of particular Cases that come before them.

If the Question be, Whether our Statutes were really made by those Kings and Parliaments whose Names they bear? And are not altered or corrupted since? How shall we be sure? By a Natural Certainty from such Concurrent Testimonies as cannot be false; viz. 1. The Judges have still judged by them; and, 2. The Councellors plead them; 3. Justices and all Officers execute them; 4. All the People hold their Estates and Lives by them, and stand to the Determination made according to them; 5. The Records attest them. And it is not possible were they forged or corrupt, but that the Interests of Multitudes would have led them to plead that, and appeal from the Corruption: And yet none of these named are Supreme Governours of all the Kingdom, who thus Historically assure us.

4. It may be questioned, What is the Law of Nature? And it is known much by the Agreement of all Mankind, and that is known Historically: But neither of them is known by any Humane p. 220Soveraign-Authority appointed to Govern all the World. And so it is in the present Case.

The Agreement of all Christians, Ministers and People, Friends and Adversaries, of contrary Opinions and Interests, contending against each other about the Rule of their Expositions, is a full Historical Evidence of Fact, when no considerable Contradiction, even of Jews or Heathens, is made against it.

5. It is notorious, 1. That regularly our first Reception both of Creed and Scripture, is by Gods appointment to be by Children from their Parents, before ever they hear a Preacher, Deut. 6. and 11. Thou shalt teach them thy Children, lying down and rising up, &c. And God will bless his appointed Means. Timothy learned the Scripture when he was a Child. If you say, Parents received it first from the Church: I answer, Our Parents regularly were to receive it as we did, even from their Parents, and they from theirs, and so on to those that had it from the Apostles, or first Preachers. And all Parents are not a Colledge of Sovereign Rulers of all the World.

2. And private Christians by Conference convert many. 3. And those that have not their Faith either of these ways, usually have it by the teaching of particular Presbyters where they dwell. And yet none of these are the Collective-Soveraign to all the Christian World; any more than Tutors in Law, Physick, or Theology are. Three and twenty Years ago I read most that you say in a Paris Doctor H. Holden's Analys. S. fid. who yet (though mixt with injurious passages against the S. Scripture) acknowledgeth, that it is by such an Universal Consent of all Christians, Lay and p. 221Clergy, that we receive the Scriptures, that it is a Natural Historical Evidence that the Matter of Fact is resolved into, and not of Supernatural Infallibility by Authority. 4. And when Vinc-Lirinensis turneth us to quod ab omnibus ubique & semper receptum est, and the Papists that go with Holden lay most on the Consent of all Christians, they never thought that the Laity through all the Christian World are one Universal Collective Soveraign. Nor do you think so of all the Consenting Priests, while you appropriate this Collective-Soveraignty to the Bishops.

6. I would know, whether it be only the Scripture, or also our Christianity and Creed, which must be received as from a Soveraign Church-Power? If you say it's only Scripture, why may we not receive the Scripture otherwise, if we may otherwise receive our Christianity, Creed and Baptism? But I doubt not but you will say, It is both. If so, then a Child (or Man) must know and believe that Christ hath authorized a Vicarious Soveraign Prelacy, before he can believe that there is a Christ that had any Authority himself. 2. And he must be so good a Casuist as to know what maketh a true Bishop. 3. And so well acquainted with all the World, as to know what parts of the Earth have true Bishops, and what they hold. And is this the way of making Christians?

Perhaps you will say, That Parents, Tutors and Priests tell them what all the Bishops of the World hold as a Soveraign Judicature. I answer, 1. If they did, Holden confesseth that the Certainty of Faith can be no greater than our Certainty of the Medium. And the Child, or Hearer, that knoweth not that his Parent and Teacher, therein p. 222saith true, can no more know that the Creed or Scripture is true, on that account.

2. The generality of Protestants believe not an Universal-Governing Soveraign under Christ, but deny it; Therefore they never Preach any such Medium of Faith: And can you prove that those that are brought to Christianity by Protestant Parents, Tutors or Preachers, are all yet Unchristened, or have no true Faith? 7. Why should we make Impossibilities necessary, while surer and easier Means are obvious? It is impossible to Children, to the Vulgar, to almost all the Priests themselves, to know certainly what the Major Vote of Bishops in the whole World, now think of this or that Text or Article, (save only consequently when we first believe the Articles of Faith, we next know that he is no true Bishop that denieth them. And it is impossible to know that Christ hath authorized a Soveraign Colledge, before we believe Christs own Authority and Word. But the Protestant Method is obvious: viz. To hear Parents, Tutors and Preachers, as humble Learners: To believe them Fide humana first, while they teach us to know the Divine Evidence of Certain Credibility in the Creed and Scriptures; and when they have taught us that, to believe Fide Divinâ, by the Light of that Divine Evidence which they have taught us: What that is, I have opened as aforecited, and also in a small Treatise against the Papists, called, [The Certainty of Christianity without Popery;] in which also I have confuted your way: Besides what I have said in the Second Part of The Saints Rest,] and my [More Reasons for the Christian Religion.]

8. I cannot by all your Words understand how p. 223you can have any Faith, on your Grounds. 1. You that renounce Popery, I suppose take not the Popish Prelates for any part of the Soveraign Colledge. 2. I perceive that you take not the Southern and Eastern Christians for a part, who are called Nestorians, Eutychians or Jacobites. 3. I find that you take not the Protestant Churches that have no Bishops for any part, (for the Soveraignty is only in Bishops.) 4. I find that you take not the Lutheran Churches, or any other, for a part, whose Bishops Succession from the Apostles hath not a Continuance uninterrupted, (which Rome hath not.) 5. And me thinks you should not think better of the Greeks than of such Protestants, on many accounts, which I pass by. Where then is that Universal Colledge on whose Judging-Authority you are a Christian? Sure you take not our little Island for the Universal Church. I would I knew which you take for the Universal Church, and how you prove the Inclusion and Exclusion.

9. I find not that the Universal Church hath so agreed as you suppose of the Canon of Scripture, and the Readings, Translations, &c. Four or five Books were long questioned by many; General Councils have not agreed of the Canon: Bishop Cousins hath given us the best account of the Reception of the true Canon: Provincial Councils have said most of this. Even the fullest at Laodicea hath left out the Rev…lations: The Romanists take in the Apocrypha: Many Churches have less or more than others: What Grotius himself thought of Job and the Canticles, I need not tell you: Nor how Augustine and most others strove for the Septuagint against Jerome: And if p. 224the Universal Judicature have decided the many Hundred Doubts about the Various Lections, I would you would tell us where to find it; for I know not.

§. II. Your second Use of the Soveraign Power, is to judge of the Sense of Fundamental Articles of Faith; because the Words may be taken in a false Sense.]

1. This is very cautelously spoken: Is it only Fundamentals that they are to expound by Soveraign Judgment? How then shall we know the Sense of all the rest of the S. Scriptures? And how will this end a Thousand Controversies? 2. And why may not the same Means satisfie us about Fundamentals, which satisfieth us about the Integrals of Religion? Yea, we have here far better help. The first Christians Catechized and taught the Sense of Baptism before they were Baptized: They and their Tutors and Preachers taught the same to their Children, and so on: Baptism and the Fundamentals have been constantly repeated in all the Churches of the World. There are as many Witnesses or Teachers of these, as there are Understanding Christians. And yet must all needs hear from the Antipodes, or know the Sense of a Humane Soveraign of the World, before they receive them?

3. Can this Supreme Colledge speak the Fundamentals plainlier than God hath done, and than the Parish Priest can do? Are they necessary to tell us that Christ died, rose, ascended because Scripture speaketh it not plain enough? We know that no Words of Creed or Scripture, falsly understood, make a true Believer. But is not that as true of a Councils Words, as of the Creed? p. 225And are there any Words that Men cannot misunderstand? Why hath [Filioque] continued such a Distraction in the Churches, and Councils yet end it not? To say nothing of foreign, and other such: Have we a necessity of a Soveraign Judicature, to be to all Men in stead of a Schoolmaster, to tell them what is the meaning of Greek and Hebrew Words? And could not one Origen or Jerom tell that better than a General Council of Men that understand not those Tongues? I must confess that what understanding of the Words of Creed or Scripture, I have received, was more from Parents, Tutors, Teachers and Books, than from Soveraign Councils, or Colledge of Bishops, (though Dr. Holden say he is no true Believer and Catholick that believeth an Article of Faith, because his Reason findeth it in Scripture, and not rather because all the Christian World believeth it.) There is more skill in Cosmography, Arithmetick, and History necessary to such a Faith, than I have attained, or can attain. I can tell E. g. by Lexicons and other Books what foreign ▪ signifieth in the Creed, better than how all the Bishops in the World interpret it by an Authoritative Sentence.

§. III. Your third Work of this Soveraign Power is, [Authoritatively to declare what Government of the Church was delivered by the Apostles.] 1. As I said of Scripture, we know such Matter of Fact better by Universal Consent of all Christians, and true History, than by such a Judicature of all the Bishops of the VVorld. 2. But Protestants do so strongly prove that the S. Scripture is the entire Regulating VVord of God, without defect or supplement by Unwritten Tradition, as that p. 226nothing is left out of it which is of Divine Obligation to all the Christian VVorld in all Ages: And therefore that all that the Spirit instituted as Universally Necessary in Church-Government, is there.

3. If it were not so, this Gap of Unwritten Necessary Supplemental Tradition, will let in, no Man knoweth what, besides Church-Power, on the like Pretences. 4. Tradition hath been oft pretended by General Councils against each other, (as I undertake to prove.) 5. All that is not in Scripture of Church-Offices and Government have been so far new, or changed up and down, as proveth that the Church never took them as Universal Necessary Institutions of Christ delivered by the Apostles. I need not instance in Patriarcks, and such like, nor such difference of Seats as Nazianzen and Isidore Pelusiota wish levelled; when if General Councils themselves had been this Necessary Church-Government, the Church had not been Three Hundred Years without them, (yea, and to this Day indeed.)

6. As the King by his Laws, and by his Officers, Judges and Justices, Lawyers, &c. without another Vicarious Soveraign or Vice-King, doth tell the Subjects what is the Constituted Government of the Kingdom, and all Official Powers, which they must obey, so doth Christ by his Written Law, and by his Ministers teaching us in their several places, tell us what is his Church-Government, without an Universal Vicarious Soveraign.

7. When Leo the First called himself Caput Ecclesiae Vniversalis, and Boniface was called Vniversal Bishop, (much more long after for many Hundred p. 227Years) so great a part of the Empire judged the Roman Bishop to be the prime in the Empire, and in Councils, and Principium Vnitatis, as Archbishop Bromhal speaketh, as that it seemeth then to have been the Major part of the Bishops of the whole World, the Empire being then the far greatest part of the Universal Church: And even Salmasius (liberally) granteth that the Pope was not a meer Patriarch, but the Heads of the Patriarchs and Church Universal (in the Empire) de Eccles. Suburbicar. prope fin. And I understand not how he is Principium Vnitatis in a Governed Society as such, who is not Principium Regens. But it followeth not that it was so from the Apostles, nor that it must continue so when the Empire is overthrown, or the Emperor will change it. If most of the Church be in one Empire, and the Prince think he should form the Government to that of the State, (as the Chalcedon Council that magnified Leo yet witnesseth) doth this make one of his Subjects Ruler of all other Christian Kings, or subject the World to Foreigners? Yea, and that when the Empire and its Laws are overthrown, and most of the Church is without the Empire, enlarged more over other Lands. Must we turn Papists, if they can but prove that once a General Council, or the Major part of Bishops was for them by Corruption, or Secular Advantage? What Changes have the Majority oft made?

§. IV. Your fourth VVork of Universal Supremacy, is [To declare what Ordinances were received from the Apostles, as Imposition of Hands to give the Holy Ghost, and such others.

1. I acknowledge that Baptism and the Eucharist were known by practice before the New Testament p. 228was written, and the continued practice hath been as sure a Tradition of the substance of them, as the Scripture it self hath had: But it is all Christians, Lay and Clergy, that assure us of this, yea Hereticks and Enemies with them, by Universal Historical Concord, and not the Authority of a Supreme Universal Judicature: And yet it was all recorded in the Scripture, that without those sure sufficient Records, the Tradition might not, as Oral or practical only, be continued. So that all that is Universally Necessary is now in Gods written Law. And, if it had not been so, the Papists changes of the Eucharist, (which yet Holden with others pleadeth Current Tradition for) tell us how little security we should have had of them. If there be more Sacraments than two in the Scripture, we will receive them: Or if more could be proved instituted by Christ, and delivered from the Apostles, than the Scripture mentioneth, we should not refuse them: But we are perswaded there is no such proof. The Papists plead Scripture for all their seven Sacraments; and we quarrel not at the Name, but expect better proof of all that is Obligatory to the whole Church on Earth, than an unproved Universal Judicature.

VVhat Confirmation is, I now pass by.

§. V. Your fifth VVork for the Soveraign Power is, Judicial Sentencing (not Individuals ordinarily, but) by Description such as are to be cast out by Excommunication.] 1. This is not part of Judicial Government, but Legislative: To say, [He that is impenitent in Drunkenness or Heresie, shall be cast out,] is the Penal part of the Law. And Gods Law hath already told us who shall be p. 229cast out: There are Sins enough enumerated to this use.

2. If all the Necessary Doctrine and Practice be expressed in Scripture, then so is the Necessary Cause of Excommunication: For that Cause is [bringing other Doctrine, or Impenitence in breaking Gods Law. But the Antecedent is true: Ergo.

3. How happy had it been for the Church, if there had been no Hereticating or Anathematizing but for violating Scripture, Doctrine and Law impenitently? Alas, what Work have Hereticators and Anathematizers made in the Church?

4. How know we what Curses are valid, when General Councils have cursed per Vices almost all the Christian World? And the same Bishops in one Council cursed one party, and in the next the contrary; and cursed their own Councils.

5. As there needeth no Vicarious Monarch of the whole World, (no nor of one Kingdom under the King) to tell who shall be Fined or Hanged, but the Kings Law as the Rule, and the Judges and Justices in their several Limits to pass Sentence in particular Cases; so there needs no Church-Vicarious-Judicature of all the Earth, to judge who shall be cursed and cast out: Christs Laws, and the Pastors respectively in the several Churches, are enough: And in doubtful Cases, and for Concord, Neighbor-Bishops in Synods must Consult.

§. VI. Your sixth Use of an Universal Supremacy, is to make mutable Church-Laws.

1. God is the only Lawgiver to all the World: Christ to all the Church. We deny any such Church on Earth as hath an Universal Soveraign p. 230under Christ, and can make Laws for all the Christian World.

2. How is Gods Law sufficient in s…o Genere, if it leave out that which is to be commanded to all the World of Christians? How is Mans Universal Legislative Power proved, (any more than an Universal Civil Soveraignty?) Or how differeth it from Gods?

3. Mutable Things are not of Universal Need or Use: These By-Laws (like those of Corporations) are only the Work of particular Churches or Countries. E. g. One Translation of Scripture, one Metre or Tune of Psalms, &c. will not fit all the World that have several Languages, &c.

Upon the whole, I am more confirmed by longer Considerations, 1. That to assert a Soveraign Vicarious Church-Power over all the Christian World, is to make a Church which Christ never made.

2. And Treasonably to set up an Usurpation of his Prerogative.

3. And to plead for that which de facto never was in being.

4. And to lay the Ground of heinous Schism and Persecution, by prosecuting impossible Terms of Concord and Communion.

5. And to make this the necessary Medium of our believing in Christ, or knowing his Word and Will, is to subvert the Christian Faith and Scripture.

6. And as one Pope cannot possibly, through Natural Incapacity, Govern all the Earth in Religion, one Collective and Aristocratical Soveraign of all the Bishops on Earth, is so incomparably more uncapable, that I wonder that any p. 231Considerate Man can believe it. Pighius well tells us of the Novelty and Vanity of Heading all the Churches by General Councils.

7. And if the French, and the Councils of Constance, and Basil, and Cassander, and Grotius, and such Papists as set Councils over the Pope, had not taken in the Pope as the ordinary Governing, Executive Head, to Rule by the Councils Laws, they had been far more gross and incredible than the Italian Papists, who prefer the Pope.

8. And that Civil Government may so much easier be exercised by Officials than the Spiritual, that a Civil Monarch of all the Earth is far more congruous and possible, than a Humane Visible Church-Head under Christ, Personal or Collective.

9. That if this was the Principle from which you disputed at the Savoy, and in the Convocation, and from which our late Changes, and the silencing of Two Thousand Ministers have been made, it's no wonder that the Effects were such: But if ever we be healed, it must be by other Terms and Hands.

R. B. Jan. 12. 1679.

This Feb. 13. Being with the Bishop again, he disclaimeth the Names of Supreme, Summa Potestas Vicaria, as Invidious, and chuseth the Name of [a Ruling Collegium Pastorum Ministerialium, who are the Church, which is the Mother which all must receive their Faith from and obey, and so must know their Consent.