mitted to them by Christ and to fulfil their Mafter's Will. They preached the Gospel, receiyed Profelytes, gathered and fettled Churches, appointed Overfeers of the People whom they converted, performing all the Parts and Fun&tions of Ecclefiaftical Governors: And God himself teftified his Approbation of their Proceedings in this Affair, by the wondrous Gifts and Graces he bestowed upon them, and the miraculous Works he enabled them to perform, The Church therefore and the Governors of it depend immediately on Chrift, and the Rulers of the Church received their Authority from him only yet this does not by any Means or in any refpect exempt all or any of them from the Government of the State, they are still Subjects, and owe the fame Obedience to the Higher Powers which other Subjects do, and that under the fame Penalty of Damnation if they refift. For the Power of the Church is meerly Spiritual, Chrift would never himself Luke 12.14. & John 18. 36. exercise any temporal Jurifdiction, neither † gave he any fuch Authority to his Apoftles: John 18. 11. or their Succeffors. But the Power which Christ himself in fome Part exercised here on Earth, and which at his Afcenfion into Heaven he gave by Commission to his Apostles and their Succef fors was fuch a Power as the Civil Magistrate never had, and therefore made no manner of Encroachment on the Temporal Prerogative. For the Temporal Power can reach no farther than to the Bodies and Goods of their Subjects, but the Church Power affects neither of thefe, but the Soul only. The Power of the Church and of the State are then wholly different from each other upon all accounts. The firft is purely Spiritual, and to be exercised only in Spiritual Matters, fuch as the Magiftrate

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meddles not with, as Preaching the Word, adminiftring the Sacraments to fuch as they deem worthy; and with-holding them from the Unworthy, admonishing fuch as do amifs, fufpending or depriving of Communion the obftinately Impenitent, abfolving the returning and repenting Sinner, ordaining fit Perfons for thefe Offices and fuch like: But the Magiftrate acts in other Matters, ufes the. Sword, punishes fuch as break the Temporal Laws with Fines, Confifcations, Imprifonments, Banifhments and Death it felf. The Magiftrate may justly punish even penitent Sinners, but the Church cannot when they have given due Teftimonies of Repentance: And he can Pardon or remit the Punishment of Impenitent Offenders, which the Ecclefiaftical Governors cannot do. The Magistrate may indeed Punish the Breach of God's Laws as well as the Rulers of the Church, but not in the fame way; He muft correct with the Sword and not with the Keys, which were never given to him. In a Word, these two Powers are co-ordinate and perfectly distinct from each other, and may very well exift the one without the other. There have been many Kingdoms in all Ages wifely governed where' Chrift has had no Church: And on the other fide, Chrift's Church ftood for Three Hundred Years, and his Minifters exercised the whole Ecclefiaftical Authority, which he committed to them before it received any Countenance of Protection from the State. However tho' Church-Power be not derived from the Civil Magiftrate, yet the Supreme Governor of the State is not excluded from Government over the Church, he has an Authority circa facra, tho' not in Sacris, as I hope to make appear in the next Chapter. CHAP.

CHA P. II.

Of the Regal Supremacy.

circa facra c. I.

T is certain that all Perfons are fubject to the Temporal Government under which they live, and owe all due Allegiance to the Supreme Magiftrate under whofe Protection they are. (a) Let every Soul, fays the Apostle, (4) Rom.13.1.′′] be fubject to the higher Powers. (b) Every Soul, (t) Grot. de ImLays St. Chryfoftom upon the Place, is to be fubject per. fum. Pot. to the higher Powers, altho' he be an Apostle, an 2. Evangelift or a Prophet. And St. Bernard writing to a certain Arch-Bifhop, quoting the fame Words of St. Paul, has this Expreflion: If every Soul, then yours alfo, for who has exempted you out of all Mankind. Neither does this Power depend on the Prince's Religion, this Precept was given when the Supreme Mag rate was an Infidel, and the Church it felf and its Minifters liable to Perfecution, if not actually labouring under it. Cyrus and Artaxerxes had this Authority no less than David and Solomon, and Dioclefian as well as Conftantine, If any Perfon might have been exempted from the fecular Power, certainly our Saviour himself had been fo, yet whilft he was here on Earth, he always fubmitted himself to it, and (c) paid Tribute (c) Mat. 17. 57. alfo in token of his Acknowledgment of that Authority. His Apoftles and all his faithful Servants in the Primitive Church, and all fuc ceeding Ages have followed his Example in this particular. Nay even the Roman-Catholicks themselves, fuch as have not pinned their Faith upon the Pope's Bulls have acknowledged all

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Perfons without Exemption to be fubject to the Supreme Magiftrate: Thus the Faculty of Paris, An. 1663, declared, That Subjects owed fuch an Allegiance to their King, as could upon no pretence whatever be difpenfed with. Even the Popish Miffionaries in thefe Kingdoms have made the like Declarations, and would not recant them, tho' they have been cenfured and excommunicated by the Pope for fo doing, as is evident from the Caufa Valefiana published at London by Peter Walsh a Francifcan Friar, and Printed by J. Brome An. 1684. I will give you from thence the Words of Part of a Proteftation made by the Roman-Catholick Clergy in Ireland, and prefented to King Charles the Second, about the Year 1661, and Signed by a Bishop and above twenty other Regulars and Seculars of that Communion. The Words are thefe. Moreover we profefs, that all abfolute Princes and Supreme Magiftrates of what Religion foever they be, are God's Vicegerents on Earth, and to them refpectively, according to the Laws of every Common-wealth, "Obedience is due in Civil and Temporal Matters. And for this Cause we here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the Contrary. And in the fame Inftrument alfo they Declare, That they do openly abdicate and renounce all foreign Power, be it Papal or Regal, Spiritual or Temporal, which fhall pretend to free, releafe or abfolve them from their Allegiance. Indeed I never heard of any but fuch as had given themselves up to a blind Obedience to the Court of Rome, that have ever pretended that any Subjects, whether Temporal or Ecclefiaftical Perfons could be exempted from their due Allegiance to their Sovereign, unless it were fome wild Sectaries in the time of the

late

late Rebellion, who founded all Dominion in Grace, (but I hope none of that pernicious Brood continue with us to this Day amongst any of our prefent Diffenters) and except Toland, De Foe, the Author of the Rights of the Chriftian Church, and their Adherents, who seem to be of no Religion. Briefly there can be but one Supreme Government in the fame Place, and all Perfons of all Orders and Conditions living within the Bounds of its Jurisdiction must be subject to it, and obedient to its Laws, † not only for Wrath, but also for Confcience Rom. 13.5. fake.

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It being therefore certain, that Spiritual Perfons are as well fubject to the Supreme Power as Temporal, it remains to be confidered what Power the Sovereign Magistrate has in Spiritual Caufes. The Articles of our Church confirmed by diverfe Parliaments and Convocations do affert, that, The Queen's Majefty (by which we understand the Sovereign Art. 37. Magiftrate, whether King or Queen of this Realm, has the chief Power in this Realm of England, and other her Dominions, unto whom the chief Government of all the Eftates of this Realm, whether they be Ecclefiaftical or Civil doth appertain, and is not, nor ought to be fubject to any foreign fu rifdiction. And in the Form of Prayer appointed to be faid before all Sermons, Lectures and Homilies, Preachers and Ministers shall require the People, most efpecially to pray for the Queen's Can. ss moft excellent Majefty, our Sovereign Lady Anne of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governor in thefe Her Majefties Realms, and all other Her Dominions, over all Perfons, and in all Causes as well Ecclefiaftical as Temporal, Temporal From whence it is

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