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fecond Thoughts to confider, if this late Doctrine, which affirms that the fpiriturl, or Ecclefiaftical Power belongs to our Kings, and Queens as fuch, and by confequence is inherent in the Crown, be agreeable to the preamble before mentioned of 24 Hen. viii. Cap. xii, or to the favourable Senfe, and intendment of 26 Henry VIII. Cap. i. as reftricted by the Words at the latter end of it, or to the King's Ecclefiaftical Supremacy as it hath been explained by our Kings, and Queens fince that time, or by other Perfons by their Confent, or Permiflion, as I have hereafter obferved, in a Senfe not contrary to the original, and inherent Power of the Church. Nay, I beseech you to confider, if it is reconcileable to the Senfe, and Language of former Ages of Christianity, and the Doctrines, Reafonings, and Authorities, which I have produced out of the best Chri ftian Writers. For if it be inherent in the Crown, then, as I conceive, it must belong to it, whether it be Chriftian, or not Chriftian, and when it is Christian, it alfo matters not in what Senfe it is fo, or of what fort, or kind of Chriftians, Kings and Queens, and let me add, Sovereign States, fhall be. For according to your Opinion if I mistake not, they may execute all Ecclefiaftical Power, and Jurifdiction without any new Law, but if it be not fo inherent in the Crown, then I pray you to confider how much Wrong the Church of God, may come to fuffer by that Doctrine, when it is taught and received in a Chriftian Kingdom, or State.

This, and other Affertions of Sir Edward Coke are in my humble Opinion throughly refuted in a Book entituled, An Anfwer to the fifth Part of Reports lately fet forth by Sir Edward Coke, Knight, printed 1606. Sir Edward then Attorney General never made any Reply to it, but only in a Preface before the fixth Part of his Reports, which I believe you'll think fçarce deferves the Name of a Reply, or that

it is worthy of Sir Edward's mighty Name.. His Adverfary did not fail to return him, I think, a full and folid Answer to what he hath faid in that Preface, in the 8th Chapter of his Answer to Mr. Tho. Moreton, entituled, A quiet and fober Reckoning with Mr. Tho. Moreton which was printed MDCIX. Nor hath any Lawyer that I have heard of, fince reply'd to either of thofe Anfwers in the defence of that great Man. And, if it were not Prefumption in a Man of my Profeffion, I would recommend them to your Reading, for your better Information in this Controverfie, which however it hath been long laid afleep, I take to be of greater Moment, and Importance to Chriftianity, than moft Men feem to think it is. I muft acknowledge there are two great Errors in them, whereof one is that the Author being a Roman Catholick makes the Pope, and Papal Hierarchy exclufive of all others, the Governing Church, contrary to all found Doctrine, and Tradition; and the other is, that he endeavours to exempt the Perfons and Goods of the Clergy from the Temporal Powers, and your Tribunals, afferting that when they offend against Temporal Laws, they are firft to be judg'd and condemi'd by the Ecclefiaftical Judges, and not before to be deliver'd up to the Secular Power to inflict upon them the Punifhment of the Temporal Laws; which are intolerable Ufurpations of the Church in any Chriftian State, and contrary to that Code of Canons which Pope Adrian 1 fent to Charles the Great under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclefia Romana.

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VIII. I have now, I think, fully anfwered the firft Objection, except that I have not yet faid any thing to the Text, Matth. xx. 25, 26, 27. which you thought did not favour the calling Bishops Lords. But that Text, and the whole Context only fhews the Differences that were to be between Spiritual, and Temporal Princes: But it shall not

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be so among you, as aming the Princes of the Gentiles, but whofsever will be great among you, let bing be your Minister, and tohofiever will be Chief among you, let him be your Servant; after my Example, who, tho' I am a King, and have a Kingdom, and am exalted above all Principalities, and Powers, and even King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, yer I came not to be minifter'd unto, but to minifer, and give my Life a Ranfom for many. Wherefore as this Place fuppofes Chrift to be a King, tho' not of fuch a Nature as Temporal Kings are: So it fupposes the Apoftles to be Princes under him, tho' Princes of another Intention, and very unlike the Princes of the Earth. The very Name of an Apoftle is a Name of Grandeur, and Honour, and Princely Truft, as I fhew'd before out of St. Chryfoftom. For what can be more great, and honourable upon Earth, than to be Legate, and Vicegerent of our Lord in Heaven, who fits at God's Right-hand, who hath given him a Name above every Name, that at the Name of Jefus every Knee fhou'd bow, and of whom he hath faid by the Prophet David, Thy Throne, O God is for ever and ever, a Sceptre of Righteousness is the Sceptre of thy Kingdom? As his Father fent him, fo fent he them, and by Virtue of their Miffion they acted, and tranfacted with Men in his Name. Which made St. Hierom write on these words, Paul an Apoftle of Fefus Chrift: on this manner he begins with the Authority of that Name and Office for your fakes to whom he was to write; and upon Titus, 1. faith he, ftyling himself the Apostle of FeJus Chrift, it feems fuch a way of Speaking, as Prefectus Prætorio Augufti Cæfaris, Magifter excrcitus Tiberii Imperatoris. For as the Judges of this World, that they may feem the more noble, take Names from the Kings they ferve, and from the Dignity of the

I Tim. I.

Office unto which they are exalted; fo the Apostle, challenging to himself great Authority among Chrifti ans, did fignifie beforehand that he was the Apostle of Chrift, that by the Authority of the Name he might create Reverence in bis Readers, and thereby fhew that all Believers in Chrift ought to be fubject to him. And as Apoftle, fo is Bishop a Name of no lefs Honour and Dignity, for Chrift under God is the Shepherd, and Bishop of our Souis, and as he deputed that truft, and Offices to the Apoftles, fo he comitted to their Succeffors. He is our High-Prielt in Heaven, and they our High-Priefts upon Earth. Nay they reprefent him both as King and Prieft, in both thefe Capacities they prefide over us, and in the former they are po lefs than his Viceroys in the feveral Principalities of his Kingdom. To this purpofe fpeaks an Author, who lived in the Time of K. Henry I. or K. Henry II. (who both had Differences with the Archbishops of Canterbury, Anfelm and Becket,) and as it were Arbitrates the Difference between both Parties in a Book intituled, as in the Margin, which he dedicates Henrico Regi Anglorum Gloriofiffimo, and as far, as he then could, favours the King's Side. He thews himself to have been a Learned Man for those dark times, and well verfed in the Latin Fathers, and thus he writes: Nam & Regalem dignitatem habere Sandte Scriptura teftimonio videtur Epifcopus. Ait enim Dom. Jefus Chriftus Apoftolis fuis, eorumque fequacibus: Ego difpono vobis, ficut difpofuit mihi pater meus regnum. Et Apoftolus: Vos eftis genus electum, Regale facerdotium.Vices enim Chrifti filii Dei fummi in terra videtur obtinere unde inter nos & deum mediator debet exiftere. Ipfe eft

Hugonis Floriacenfus tractatus de Regia poteftate, & facerdotali dignitate. In Mifcellaneorum Steph. Baluzii Libro quarto. Parifiis MDCLXXXIII.

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fan&tus fan&torum Clericorum fcilicet, ac Presbyterorum, quibus omnibus eminet, ac præcellit. Hic eft Ecclefia fponfus, bic Chrifti vicarius-Honorandi igitur funt omnes Epifcopi, ficut regni Caleftis clavicularii, &c. Cap. ix. p. 34. Nunc autem fan&orum prophetarum vicem in Ecclefia Chrifti retinent facerdotes. Sic enim Dominus ad ipfam loquitur: Ecce conftituam principes tuos ficut antea, & confiliarios tuos ficut ab initio. Et Pfalmifta: pro patribus tuis nati funt tibi filii; conftitues eos Principes fuper omnem terram. Igitur Regiam & facerdotalem dig nitatem Deus in terra ordinavit, &c.

This indeed is an Author of Popish Times. But long before the beginning of Popery they spoke of Bishops in this manner, as of Spiritual Lords. Not to repeat what was cited above out of the xxth Chap. of the 11 Book of the Apoftolical Conftitutions, the Title of which is this, ὅπως χρὴ τὰς ἀρχομύες πειθαρχείν τοῖς ἄρχεσιν ἐπισκόποις, How the Subjelis [of the Church ought to obey their Governours the Bishops: In that Chap. we read thus: Let the Lay man Honour, Love and Fear a good Shepherd, as his Lord, and DeSpot, and the High-Prieft of his God, and his Præceptor in Religion. For he that bears him hears Chrift; and he that doth not obey him doth not obey Chrift, and he that doth not receive Chrift, doth not receive his Father, as it is written, He that heareth you heareth me, and be that defpifeth you defpileth me, and he that defpifeth me,defpifeth him that fent me. The first of thofe Titles Kue is a Title of great Dignity, both in it's fecular, and facred Signification. In its fecular Signification, it is ufed to denote the Emperor; and in it's facred Signification, it is given to God, and to Chrift, whofe Legates, and Vicegerents the Bifhops are, and to the Holy Ghost whofe Difpenfers they are, In like manner AoTóns is a Title of God, and the Emperor, and his Regal Relations, and the great Princes, and Magiftrates under the En

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