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Ch. xxiv.

882

Peculiar Hardship of Church Property.

BOOK VII. Overthroweth itself after by its own greatness; neither doth the ruin thereof cease with the only fall of that which hath exceeded mediocrity, but one part beareth down another, till the whole be laid prostrate. For although the state ecclesiastical, both others and even bishops themselves, be now fallen to so low an ebb, as all the world at this day doth see; yet, because there remaineth still somewhat which unsatiable minds can thirst for, therefore we seem not to have been hitherto sufficiently wronged. Touching that which hath been taken from the Church in appropriations known to amount to the value of one hundred twenty-six thousand pounds yearly, we rest contentedly and quietly without it, till it shall please God to touch the hearts of men, of their own voluntary accord, to restore it to him again; judging thereof no otherwise than some others did of those goods which were by Sylla taken away from the citizens of Rome, that albeit they were in truth male capta, unconscionably taken away from the right owners at the first, nevertheless, seeing that such as were after possessed of them held them not without some title, which law did after a sort make good," repetitio eorum proculdubio labefactabat compositam civitatem." What hath been taken away as dedicated unto uses superstitious, and consequently not given unto God, or at the least wise not so rightly given, we repine not thereat. That which hath gone by means secret and indirect, through corrupt compositions or compacts, we cannot help. What the hardness of men's hearts doth make them loth to have exacted, though being due by law, even thereof the want we do also bear. Out of that which after all these deductions cometh clearly unto our hands, I hope it will not be said that towards the public charge we disburse nothing. And doth the residue seem yet excessive? The ways whereby temporal men provide for themselves and their families are fore-closed unto us. All that we have to sustain our miserable life with, is but a remnant of God's own treasure, so far already diminished and clipped, that if there were any sense of common humanity left in this hard-hearted world, the impoverished state of the clergy of God would at the length even of very commiseration be spared. The mean gentleman that hath but a hundred pound land to live on, would not be hasty to change his worldly estate

Flor. lib. iii. c. 13.

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Ch. xxiv.

and condition with many of these so over-abounding prelates; Book VII. a common artisan or tradesman of the city, with ordinary pastors of the Church.

It is our hard and heavy lot, that no other sort of men being grudged at, how little benefit soever the public-weal reap by them, no state complained of for holding that which hath grown unto them by lawful means; only the governors of our souls, they that study night and day so to guide us, that both in this world we may have comfort, and in the world to come endless felicity and joy (for even such is the very scope of all their endeavours; this they wish, for this they labour, how hardly soever we use to construe of their intents): hard, that only they should be thus continually lifted at for possessing but that whereunto they have, by law both of God and man, most just title. If there should be no other remedy, but that the violence of men in the end must needs bereave them of all succour, further than the inclinations of others shall vouchsafe to cast upon them, as it were by way of alms, for their relief but from hour to hour; better they are not than their fathers, who have been contented with as hard a portion at the world's hands: let the light of the sun and moon, the common benefit of heaven and earth, be taken away from bishops, if the question were, whether God should lose his glory, and the safety of his Church be hazarded, or they relinquish the right and interest which they have in the things of this world. But sith the question in truth is, whether Levi shall be deprived of the portion of God or no, to the end that Simeon or Reuben may devour it as their spoil, the comfort of the one, in sustaining the injuries which the other would offer, must be that prayer poured out by Moses, the prince of prophets, in most tender affection to Levi, "Bless, O Lord, his substance, accept Deut. thou the work of his hands; smite through the loins of them xxxiii. 11. that rise up against him, and of them which hate him, that they rise no more."

384

On the Power of Supreme Jurisdiction.

BOOK VIII.

CONTAINING THEIR SEVENTH ASSERTION, THAT TO NO CIVIL PRINCE OR

GOVERNOR THERE MAY BE GIVEN SUCH POWER OF ECCLESIASTICAL
DOMINION, AS BY THE LAWS OF THIS LAND BELONGETH UNTO THE
SUPREME REGENT THEREOF.

xiv. 4.

BOOK VIII WE come now to the last thing whereof there is controversy Ch.1 moved, namely, The power of supreme jurisdiction; which for distinction's sake we call, The power of ecclesiastical dominion. It was not thought fit in the Jews' commonwealth, that the exercise of supremacy ecclesiastical should be denied unto him, to whom the exercise of chiefty civil did appertain; and there1 Maccab. fore their kings were invested with both. This power they gave unto Simon, when they consented that he should be their prince, not only to set men over their works, and country, and weapons, but also to provide for the holy things; and that he should be obeyed of every man, and that the writings of the country should be made in his name, and that it should not be lawful for any of the people or priests to withstand his words, or to call any congregation in the country without him. And if haply it be surmised, that thus much was given to Simon, as being both prince and high-priest, which otherwise (being their civil governor) he could not lawfully have enjoyed; we must note, that all this is no more than the ancient kings of that people had, being kings and not priests. By this power David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Josias, and the rest, made those laws and orders which sacred history speaketh of, concerning matters of mere religion, the affairs of the temple, and service of God. Finally, had it not been by the virtue of this power, how should it possibly have come to pass, that the piety or impiety of the kings did always accordingly change the public face of religion, which things the prophets by themselves never did, nor at any time could, hinder from being done? Had the priests alone been possessed of all power in spiritual affairs, how should any thing concerning matter of religion have been made but only by them? In them it had been, and not in the

The Jewish Supremacy a Precedent for the Anglican. 385

king, to change the face of religion at any time; the altering Book VIII of religion, the making of ecclesiastical laws, with other the like actions belonging unto the power of dominion, are still termed The deeds of the king; to shew, that in him was placed the supremacy of power in this kind over all, and that unto their priests the same was never committed, saving only at such times as the priests were also kings and princes over them.

According to the pattern of which example the like power in causes ecclesiastical is by the laws of this realm annexed unto the crown: and there are which do imagine, that kings, being mere lay-persons, do by this means exceed the lawful bounds of their callings; which thing to the end that they may persuade, they first make a necessary separation perpetual and personal between the Church and the commonwealth. Secondly, they so tie all kind of power ecclesiastical unto the Church, as if it were in every degree their only right who are by proper spiritual functions termed church-governors, and might not unto Christian princes in any wise appertain. To lurk under shifting ambiguities and equivocations of words in matter of principal weight, is childish. A church and a commonwealth we grant are things in nature one distinguished from the other. A commonwealth is one way, and a church another way, defined. In their opinions the Church and commonwealth are corporations, not distinguished only in nature and definition, but in substance perpetually severed; so that they which are of the one can neither appoint nor execute in whole nor in part the duties which belong to them which are of the other, without open breach of the law of God, which hath divided them, and doth require that so being divided they should distinctly or severally work, as depending both upon God, and not hanging one upon the other's approbation for that which either hath to do. We say that the care of religion being common to all societies politic, such societies as do embrace the true religion have the name of the Church given unto every one of them for distinction from the rest; so that every body politic hath some religion, but the Church that religion which is only true. Truth of religion is the proper difference whereby a church is distinguished from other politic societies of men; we here mean true religion in gross, and not according to every 20

VOL. II.

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386

How a Church differs from other Societies.

BOOK VIII particular. For they which in some particular points of religion do sever from the truth, may nevertheless truly (if we compare them to men of a heathenish religion) be said to hold and profess that religion which is true. For which cause, there being of old so many politic societies established through the world, only the commonwealth of Israel which had the truth of religion was in that respect the Church of God: and the Church of Jesus Christ is every such politic society of men as doth in religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity. As a politic society it doth maintain religion, as a Church that religion which God hath revealed by Jesus Christ. With us therefore the name of a church importeth only a society of men, first united into some public form of regiment; and, secondly, distinguished from other societies by the exercise of religion. With them on the other side, the name of the Church in this present question importeth not only a multitude of men so united and so distinguished, but also further the same divided necessarily and perpetually from the body of the commonwealth; so that even in such a politic society as consisteth of none but Christians, yet the Church and commonwealth are two corporations independently subsisting by themเรย selves.

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We hold, that seeing there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the commonwealth, nor any member of the commonwealth which is not also of the Church of England; therefore as in a figure trianglolas the base doth differ from the sides thereof, and yet one and the self-same line is both a base and also a side; a side simply, a base if it chance to be the bottom and underlie the rest: so, albeit properties and actions of one do cause the name of a commonwealth, qualities and functions of another sort the name of the Church, to be given to a multitude, yet one and the self-same multitude may in such sort be both, Nay, it is so with us, that no person appertaining to the one can be denied also to be of the other: contrariwise, unless they against us should hold, that the Church and the commonwealth are two, both distinct and separate societies; of which two one comprehendeth always persons not belonging to the other (that which they do), they could not conclude out of the difference

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