our Queen, doth most plainly teftify: But that only Prerogative which we fee to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself, that is, that they fhould rule all Eftates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God, whether they be Ecclefiaftical or Temporal, and reftrain with the CIVIL Sword the Stubborn and Evil-Doers. Whereby the Regal Supremacy over Ecclefiaftical Caufes and Perfons is plainly declared to be no other than a Civil Power, and not that Spiritual Power which Chrift committed to his Apoftles, and is deriv'd from them to the Bishops. and Paftors of the Church, and which the Words Supreme Head of the Church feem'd to vest in the Crown. SXV. Since, then, that Title of Supreme Head of the Church was a Title alum'd by King Henry VIII. continu'd only by him and his Son, who liv'd and died in his Minority, and was then repeal'd by Act of Parliament, and never fince restored or made Part of the Regal Title; that it is also a Title never known or heard of till that Age, and liable to very ftrange Conftructions, even to the utter annulling and destroying all that Power which Chrift committed to his Apoftles, and from them to the Bishops and Paftors of his Church; I have often wonder'd, how fo many Learned Men have to this Day continu'd to give this Title to our Princes, and how fo many of the Clergy, in their Prayer before Sermon, fhould call our King, next and immediately under Chrift, Supreme Head: Since neither our Laws nor our Canons do at this time,or have for these hundred and fifty Years and upwards given him this Title. I am perfuaded, that nothing has more contributed to the fpreading of Eraftianifm, than this unwary Cuftom of ftyling our King Supreme Head of the Church, which I am affur'd has no Law or Canon now in Force to oblige us; and, I am well fatisfy'd, has nei ther ther Reafon, Religion, nor Gofpel to induce us to ufe it. For if the King be Supreme Head of the Church, then it is impoffible the Church fhould fubfift without the King; for no Body, (x) and fuch the Scripture tells us the Church is, can fubfift without its Head. But the Church,we all know,did fubfift during the Time of Chrift and his Apoftles, and above two. hundred Years after their Deaths, without having any Sovereign Prince of its Communion; and confequently, without any Headship of any Temporal Prince; for no Man can be Head of a Communion of which he is not fo much as a Member. And how a Prince can become Head of a Church, by being made a Member of it, I cannot fee. The Prince is admitted into the Church, juft as others are,by Baptifm; but that only makes him a Son or Member of the Church: But it is Confecration or Ordination alone, that makes Fathers or Heads. And therefore Religious Christian Princes have always esteemed Bishops as their Spiritual Fathers; and to this Day they, as well as other Members of the Church, call them their Right Reverend Fathers in Chrift. But are they Fathers to the Supreme Head of their Church? This feems to be a kind of Contradiction. S XVI. Kings then have a Civil, not a Spiritual Authority over all the Members of the Church. No Man, by becoming a Chriftian, gains any Exemption from that Obedience and Duty which every one owes his Prince, as he is a Subject. Even Bishops themselves, to whom Chrift, as Succeffors to the Apoftles, has committed the chief Government of his Church, are not thereby freed from that Allegiance, or any Part of it, which as Temporal Subjects (x) Eph. i. 22, 23. Eph. iv. 12. & v. 23, 30. Rom. xiii. 4, 5. 1 Cor. xii. 27. C 3 they they owe to their Sovereign: Much lefs therefore can the Inferiour Orders of Priefs and Deacons claim any fuch Exemption. They are all as much Subject to the Supreme Temporal Authority of the Country where they live, as they were or ought to have been before their Ordination. And they are bound to this Obedience even by the Rules and Precepts of that Gofpel which they are to preach to others. The fame Lord who has committed to them the Spiritual Authority over his Church, has alfo commanded them to be fubject to the State, not only for Wrath, but also for Confcience fake. Neither our Saviour nor his Apostles pretended to an Exemption from that Obedience which all Subjects owe to the Civil Powers; but upon all Occafions fubmitted to, and acknowledged their Authority, and put thofe in mind who were committed to their Charge, to be fubject to Principalities and Powers, and to obey Magiftrates. It is true, where their Religion was concern'd, where the Magiftrate commanded what God had forbidden, or where he forbad what God had commanded, they would not obey, because it is neceffary to obey God rather than Man; yet even in fuch Cafes they did not refift and oppofe the Higher Powers with the Sword, or with any Carnal Weapons which God had put into the Temporal Magiftrates Hands, and forbad them to take into their own Hands in Oppofition to them; but committing their Cause to God, fubmitted to, and patiently bore fuch Punishments as the Magiftrate thought fit to lay upon them, and counted it an Honour when they were thought worthy to fuffer Perfecution for the Name of Chrift; for they knew that he alone had the Power of the Sword, and that although he abufed that Power in the Perfecution of themfelves, and other Innocent or Well-deferving Perfons; yet they had no Commiffion or Authority to wreft the Sword out of of his Hands, and therefore were obliged peaceably to bear his unjuft Proceedings against them; which they always did readily and chearfully, as knowing that God, whom they had chofen to obey, was Lord alfo of the Magistrate, and would in his own Time, and by fuch Means as he thought beft, do Right to thofe that fuffer'd Wrong, and give that unjuft Magistrate Cause to wish that he had made a better Use of his Power. § XVII. And as Spiritual Perfons, fo neither are the Temporal Rewards or Punishments annex'd to Spiritual Caufes exempt from the Civil Jurifdiction. of the Magiftrate. It is he alone, that, by Civil Sanctions, can oblige his Subjects to receive even Christianity itself. For though Chrift defcended from Heaven, and took our Nature upon him that he might publifh this Religion to the World, and fettle and establish it by promifing the highest Rewards to thofe which should receive it, and live according to his Doctrine and Precepts; and threatning the feverest Punishments to thofe that fhould reject it, even to the Magiftrates as well as others; yet he took not upon him to make any Civil or Temporal Laws concerning his Religion, any more than concerning other Matters. The Rewards which he promifed, and the Penalties which he threatned, were not Temporal but Eternal, and related not to this Life,but to another; for his Kingdom is not of this World. Therefore Civil Rewards or Punishments cannot be given or inflicted even in Spiritual Caufes, but by the Magiftrate, and he must be the Judge whether it be proper to bestow the one, or to inflict the other, Thus, for Inftance, when the Arch-Heretick Arius was convened and tried before the Council of Nice, concerning a Spiritual Caufe, even an Article of Faith of the highest Confequence, as whether our Saviour was True and C 4 G4 Eternal Eternal God, of one Substance with the Father; though the Bishops were the only Judges whether this was an Herefy and Crime for which he deferved to be expelled from the Communion of the Church; yet Conftantine the Emperor was the fole Judge, whether he should also be expelled his Native Country, and fent into Banishment. It is true, the Bishops might represent to him how dangerous it would be to the Peace of the Church, to let fuch a Man return to Alexandria, where he had done fo much Mischief already, but if he would not have hearken'd to them, they had no Means to compell the Emperor to banish him, or to inflict that Punishment on him themfelves. As Banishment was a Penalty which none but Conftantine could lay upon Arius, fo was he the only Judge whether he should order that Penalty to be executed. For fince Chrift has annexed no Temporal Punishments to the Breach of his Laws, the Civil Magistrate is, and must be Judge of fuch Matters, i. e. whether it be proper to decree a Temporal Penalty against those who are only guilty of a Spiritual Offence, and likewife to determine what that Penalty fhall be. But whether the Magiftrate will decree in fuch a Cafe or not, or whether he decree according to Right or not, the Matter is ftill the fame; the Perfon expelled the Communion of the Church by the Bishops, to whom alone Chrift has committed his Keys, will continue an Alien from the Church, and lie under the Spiritual Cenfures of it, notwithstanding the Magistrate should directly declare the contrary. (y) Thus in the Cafe before-mentioned, when Conftantine thought fit to recall Arius from his Banishment, as believing him to have fincerely repented of his Herefy, yet he ) Socrat. Hift. Eccles. Lib. L. cap. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, |