Against the Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction, Part 2 · Chapter 4
Chap. 4. The Deceits that are Pleaded for an Vniversal Humane Soveraignty.
§ 1. THE great means by which the Popish Clergy have been themselves deceived, and then deceived much of the Christian World, are especially these following.
I. By a false Notion of the Vnity of the Catholick Church: As if it were Vnified by One Humane Political Soveraignty Monarchical or Aristocratical (Pope or Universal Council) which hath Power of Governing all Christians on Earth, by Universal Legislation and Judicature; and not only by Christ, who indeed is its only Universal Governour.
II. By extolling Monarchy as the best means of Unity; and so inferring the Papal Monarchy; so did Carolus Boverius to our late King Charles in Spain: As if Princes were so weak as not to distinguish a National and a Vniversal Monarchy? Let them try this Argument with any Papist King on Earth [Monarchy is the best Government. Ergo there should be One Monarch of all the Earth, whose Subject you and all other Kings must be] and see whether they will be so fooled into Subjection.
III. By dreaming of such a difference between Civil Government and Church Government, that though no man in his wits pleads for one Humane King (or Senate) to Govern the whole Earth by the Sword; yet it is our Religion to be for and under One Soveraign Church Governour (Pope or Senate) of all the Earth: whereas he is unfit to Govern one Church, who knoweth not that It is more impossible for the whole Earth to be Governed by One Church Soveraign (Pope or Council) than by one King or Parliament by the Sword.
IV. By confounding the Universal Roman Empire and Church, and the Vniversal World, and dreaming that what is said of the first was said of the last: and when the Church is called Catholick or Universal, and Councils General, only as to the Roman Empire, they would perswade men that it's meant of all the World.
V. By pleading that Possession which Pope and Patriarchs, and Councils had in the Empire, as if it obliged the same Countries to them when they are fallen under other Princes. And by pleading to the same Ends all the Possession which Popes, or Patriarchs, or Councils have got by deceiving any Nations of the World.
VI. By mistaking the Nature and Extent of the Pastoral Office; because as every Christian, so every Pastor is related to the Universal Church, therefore they gather that there is one College or Council consisting of all Bishops in the World (the Pope being President) who as an Aristocracy must soveraignly Govern all the Christian World, by Legislation and Judgment: As if because Physicions are Licensed to Practice any where in the Land, as they are called, therefore, they might gather into a General Council and Command all the Land to obey them as Law givers, in all Matters of Health and Physick? and might invade the Hospitals at their pleasure? And so all the Churches and Church Affairs on Earth must be governed by Priests of Foreign Lands.
VII. By first mistaking, and then falsly claiming Apostolical Power: Because Christ chose a few whom he first personally taught his Will, and then endowed with the Gift of Infallibility, by his Spirit, to Preach first and Record after, his Doctrine and Laws, to oblige all the World; therefore they pretend that ordinary Bishops who had no such Spirit, Office or Commission, may also make Laws to bind all the World. And when every single Apostle had this Office, Power and Spirit, but they yet a while lived together at Jerusalem, till their dispersion, they pretend that at Jerusalem they were a General Council, and that all Bishops therefore may Govern as a General Council: whereas the Apostles Mission was Indefinite, and not Universal, (else they had sinned in not going into all the World.) And it was easie to Guide the Universal Church, while it was almost all at Jerusalem or near them. And their Office as to Legislation differeth from common Pastors, as Moses the Legislator's did from the Priests, who were but to govern by his Laws, and not to make more.
VIII. By pretending a necessity of Judging and Ending Controversies, and therefore of having one deciding Judge or Judicature for all the World. As if any would be so mad as ever to expect that all Controversies about the Mysteries of Supernatural Revelation and the unseen World should be ended in this Life: As if Ignorance would be without Errour. And is he a Man that knoweth not how little it is that the wisest know? and how much Ignorance all Mankind is guilty of? Have these Pretenders yet ended Controversies? Are there not many Horse-Loads of Volumes of Controversies among themselves? Have they yet written any Infallible or Determining Commentary on the Bible? Did not St. Paul write, Rom. 14. & 15, &c. for bearing with tolerable Differences. Is it not the Great Wisdom and Mercy of God to lay mens Salvation upon a few plain things, though a multitude besides remain as Controversies. Christ will decide them all at the Great approaching Judgment: And is there any on Earth that can decide them all? that hath either so great Knowledge, or so Universal a decisive Power? Why is the Christian World these Thousand or Twelve hundred Years divided into Greeks, Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Papists, Protestants, &c. if there be a Humane Judicature to End all Controversies? And are such Popes as reigned from a Thousand to Fifteen hundred, and such Bishops as made up their Councils, (Men of Ignorance and Vice) fit to end all Controversies on Earth.
IX. In order to these Ends they make a great cry of the Sects and Divisions which are among Protestants, to draw men that love Unity to come for it to the Church of Rome.
And first they impudently falsifie the History of the Matter of Fact, and perswade Men that the Differences among Protestants are ten times greater than they are. They have thus pleaded it to my face when I had a Pastoral Charge at Kidderminster: where we were all of one Religion and lived in love and Peace, and had not one separating Assembly in a great Town and Parish; And where to this day they live in Piety, Love and Peace, and I hear not of one person that for any difference, breaketh this bond of brotherly love, and liveth in any opposition to the rest. Yet Strangers are told, that we are mad in religious Sects and Strife. Indeed zealous people that account all the Matters of the World, but trifles in Comparison of things everlasting, do make a greater Matter of them, than men of no Religion do. If among them one or two turn to any dangerous Sect or Course, it stirs up much censure and opposition, when in undisciplined Churches corrupted like the common World, multitudes in a Parish may abstain from Sacraments, and in Coffee-Houses or at Visits familiarly talk against the Immortality of the Soul, and against the Scripture and all serious Religion, and it maketh no great noise. An Act of Fornication once in many Years among chast religious persons, is a Scandal scarce ever to be expiated; when among known Stews it's little talkt of. Weeds are not suffered in a Garden: But in the Commons who pulls them up? And what wonder if they strive most about Religion who value it most? Dogs will fight for Bones and Carrion, and Swine for Draff: But Men will sooner fight for Gold and Pearls, while Dogs and Swine like peaceable Creatures pass them by, or tread them in the Dirt.
All true Christians are agreed in all that God hath made necessary to Christianity and Salvation: And no men on Earth were ever so wise, as to be agreed of the meaning of every word besides in the Bible▪ Much less in all that Usurping Universal Legislators will obtrude.
What a dismal noise and dangerous rupture doth the Controversie make now about Conformity in Brittain? And what is our difference▪ We are all agreed, 1. That there is only one God, the Governour of all the World, and of his Attributes. 2. That Man's Soul is immortal, and that he hath another life after this to live, and Heaven or Hell must be his end. 3. That Jesus Christ God and Man, is the only Saviour, and Lord of all. 4. That the Law of God is the chief indispensible Rule of our Faith and Life, by which we must be judged. 5. That we must live soberly, righteously and godly, loving God above all, and our neighbours as our selves, and doing as we would be done by, superiours Ruling for God, and inferiours obeying them under God; but none having power above him or against him. 6. That God only is the final Infallible Universal Judge of Controversies: That Magistrates are Judges who shall be punished or protected by the Sword. And Pastors are Judges who is fit for Communion in the Churches under their over-sight: And every man a discerning rational Judge of his own duty. 7. That without holiness, righteousness and temperance, (or mortifying the lusts of the flesh by the Spirit) no man can be saved. 8. That no man should sin wilfully for any price, or to avoid any danger even of death. 9. That the Soul should be more cared for than the Body. 10. That no man can love God and Holiness too much, nor obey him too faithfully. 11. That we should delight in the Law of the Lord (and his Gospel) and meditate in it day and night. 12. That serious, servent and faithful prayer is our daily ordinary duty. 13. That we should live as we would be judged, and daily prepare for death, that we may be found ready. 14. That we should use all worldly temporal things for spiritual everlasting ends, knowing that else they are but vanity, vexation and dangerous snares. 15. That we should fetch our joy from the hopes of Heaven more than from all the possessions, pleasures and hopes on Earth.
These, and abundance more, we are commonly as to Profession agreed on: And though this in sincerity will serve for our acceptance with God and our Salvation, it will not serve for our acceptance or toleration with some men, nor to avoid the cry of scandalous, intolerable Schism, Disobedience, Obstinacy, and what men mind to charge upon us: Yea, though we are agreed that Rulers in their several places must be obeyed in all things that are not against the Law of God in Nature or Scripture.
But what now is the difference, I will add that if every Conformist and Nonconformist in England were of so (unattainable) perfect knowledge as to be agreed of the sence of every Syllable in the Bible, it would not serve to end our Differences, nor keep us from Prisons, Silencing, and the present heavy Accusations.
Wonder not at it: It's an evident Truth. Our Difference is, 1. About the meaning of some Oaths, Declarations, and subscribed Professions and Promises imposed by Acts of Parliament. 2. About the meaning of several Rubricks and other Words in the Liturgy and Book of Ordination. 3. About the meaning and practice of several Canons.
Gods Law hath agreed us all that Lying deliberately is a sin, and so is Perjury, especially of thousands, and so is the wilful depraving of Baptism and other Ordinances of God, and so is the unjust Excommunicating of the Faithful, and denying them Baptism and the Lords Supper, and so is Sacriledge, and Renouncing the Sacred Ministry when we are Vowed to it; and so is Schismatical Dividing Christs Church by needless and unlawful Snares and Engines. All these we are agreed are heinous sins, not to be done for any Price. But we are utterly disagreed whether to Conform would make us guilty of these sins. But what! Are Learned men such miserable Casuists as not to know what Lying, Perjury, Sacriledge, Profaning Baptism, Sinful Excommunicating, &c. are? We differ about the sence of the Words Imposed, and of the Law and Canons: And then how should we know who is the Sinner?
But Qu. Who is it that wresteth them from their usual signification? And who is it that dare not do it?
But the Sacred part of the Imposers cry up the necessity of a Judge of Controversies, (yea an Universal Judge, some of them,) to Expound the Scriptures when men differ about the sence; and will not they procure you an Exposition of a few controverted sentences in the Laws, or endeavour it, if that be necessary to understand or end your Differences? Ans. No; whatever cometh of it, to Bodies or Souls, to Church or Kingdom, these Expositors of Scripture and Enders of Controversies will not so much as Petition the Law-makers to explain their words. Yea though the Conformists are much disagreed about it among themselves. Judges will decide particular Causes by the Law: But to know the sence of the Law antecedently as our Rule, which is required in one that Sweareth and Subscribeth to it, can be by no ones Exposition but the makers of the Law. Else the Judges were the only Law-makers: For the sence is the Law: And he maketh the Law that maketh the sence, and not they that make the words alone, which other men must put the sence on.
And if Popes, or Councils, Prelates or Priests, could on pretence of a Judicial Expository Authority be Judges to all the Earth in what sence every word of Scripture must be understood, it is they and not God that make the Law: For God made but the words, if this be true, and the Bishops make the sence by pretence of judging of it. To give an Universal Antecedent Obligatory Exposition, is an Act of Legislation, and none but the Law-maker himself can do it. But to judge by this Law who shall be received, and who shut out of their several Churches, the Pastors must do that.
X. Another great deceit is, by confounding Communion and Concord, with Government and Subjection: And arguing that because all Christians must have Concord and Communion, therefore they must be under one Supreme Humane Government: As if Christian Princes were not as much bound to Concord as any men on Earth? Or as if that Concord must be kept by one Supreme Universal Senate or Monarch, and mutual Consultation and voluntary Agreement would not serve.
Obj. But if God bind us to do all things in Concord, and General Councils and Patriarchs determine the matter of our Concord, it comes all to one, in point of Obligation?
Ans. 1. If it come all to one in the effect, why do you contend for so much more in the Cause?
2. God bindeth Princes and States as much to Concord, and yet their voluntary Treaties and Dyets, and a Supreme Government over them, do not come all to one.
3. God doth not bind all Churches or Christians to agree in more than he himself hath commanded them. And therefore hath given power to none on Earth, to determine what more all shall agree in.
4. The Greater the Councils are caeteris paribus the more all Protestants reverence them, because they signifie the Concord of many: But, 1. We know that there are none of them Universal as to the World, nor ever are like to be. 2. We know that the Greater part are usually the worst; and that at this day the far greater number of Christians on Earth (Papists, Greeks, Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, &c.) are lamentably degenerate, ignorant and corrupt. 3. And we know that as God hath not made the greater number the Governors of the lesser, so neither doth he bind or allow the less to consent to them to their hurt. 4. And when Councils for meer Agreement, will degenerate, and Usurp a Regiment over Dissenters, they change their Species, and bind us, not to obey them, but oppose them as Usurpers.
XI. The last deceit that I shall here name is, Their pretence of the mischief of letting Sinful or Heretical Kingdoms go unpunished, when singular Persons must not escape: Therefore there must be a Supreme Power on Earth to correct or punish National Churches or Kingdoms.
You may find the Argument in Dr. Sawell, (Bishop Guning's Chaplain, and Master of a College in Cambridge) and many others.
This is so plain dealing that one would think all Kings and Kingdoms should easily understand it.
But I answer it. 1. Why will this pretended necessity of correcting Kings and Kingdoms infer One Universal Church Soveraign any more than one King or Senate over all the Earth?
Perhaps you'le say, The Church is one, but Kingdoms are many. I answer, The whole World on Earth is One Kingdom of God, but particular Churches are many.
2. Kings and whole Kingdoms shall be punished as well as singular Persons: But only by God the Universal King; or by permitted Enemies, but not by any Humane Superior Governors. Kings are under the Laws of God and they shall be judged by those Laws: If you lived in the due expectation of Death and Judgment, you would not think them insignificant words, that the Just Universal Judge is as at the Door, who only can Judge Kings.
3. The Ministers of Christ who know them, and live under them, have sufficient Authority to admonish Kings and Kingdoms, and exercise Pastoral Care of their Souls, by Preaching and Applying the Word of God; as their own Physicians are fittest to take care of their Health, without sending to Rome, or over all the Earth for a Council of Physicians. What work these Universal Rulers have made by Excommunicating Kings and Interdicting Kingdoms, History acquainteth us: It hath not been such as should make any Man long for an Universal Church Governour of Kings and Kingdoms.
4. Those Foreigners that think Kings and Kingdoms Heretical, and prove it, may renounce Communion with them without pretending to be their Governors.
I have thought meet here briefly to repeat our Controversie, with the Reasons and Deceits of the Usurpers; our own Judgment is for true Catholicism, even one Catholick Head, Jesus Christ, one Catholick Church having no other Head or Soveraign, One Spirit, One Faith, One Baptism, One Hope of Glory, and One God and Father of all: And that all Christians should live in Love to others as themselves, and in their several Churches under the just conduct of their several Pastors, keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, Eph. 4.3. That they should all know those that labour among them, and are over them in the Lord, and highly esteem them in love for their work sake, and be at peace among themselves, 1 Thes. 5.12, 13. That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink, but Righteousness and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost: And he that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God and approved of men, (who judge as God would have them judge.) Rom. 14.17. But if God be forsaking the West as far as he hath done the East, and dementation prognosticate perdition, the Kingdom above shall never be forsaken. And we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness. And seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness, looking for and hasting to the Coming of the day of God? 2 Pet. 3.11, 12.