2. Taken

from the speeches

thers op

other.

Euseb. de Vita Constant. lib. iii.

Aug. Ep.

167.

sting appeareth again; for in a commonwealth he holdeth, that the church ought not to depend at all upon the authority of any civil person whatsoever, as in England he saith it doth. It will be objected, that the fathers do oftentimes mention the commonweal and the church of God by way of opposition. Can the same thing be opposed to itself? If one and of the fa- the same society be both church and commonwealth, what posing the sense can there be in that speech, "That they suffer and one to the flourish together?" What sense is that which maketh one thing to be adjudged to the church, and another to the commonweal? Finally, in that which putteth a difference between the causes of the province and the church, doth it not hereby appear that the church and the commonweal are things evermore personally separate? No, it doth not hereby appear that there is perpetually any such separation; we speak of them as two, we may sever the rights and the causes of the one well enough from the other, in regard of that difference which we grant is between them, albeit we make no personal difference. For the truth is, that the church and the commonwealth are names which import things really different: but those things are accidents, and such accidents as may, and always should, lovingly dwell together in one subject. Wherefore the real difference between the accidents signified by these names, doth not prove different subjects for them always to reside in. For albeit the subjects wherein they be resident be sometimes different, as when the people of God have their residence among infidels; yet the nature of them is not such, but that their subject may be one, and therefore it is but a changeable accident, in those accidents they are to be divers. There can be no error in our own conceit concerning this point, if we remember still what accident that is for which a society hath the name of a commonwealth, and what accident that which doth cause it to be termed a church. A commonwealth we name it simply in regard of some regiment or policy under which men live; a church for the truth of that religion which they profess. Now names betokening accidents unabstracted, betoken not only thea ccidents themselves, but also together with them subjects whereunto they cleave. As when we name a schoolmaster and a physician, those names do not only betoken two accidents, teaching and curing, but also some person or persons in whom those accidents are. For there is no impediment but

both may be in one man, as well as they are for the most part in divers. The commonweal and church therefore being such names, they do not only betoken these accidents of civil government and Christian religion which we have mentioned, but also together with them such multitudes as are the subjects of those accidents. Again, their nature being such as they may well enough dwell together in one subject, it followeth that their names, though always implying difference of accidents that hath been set down, yet do not always imply different subject also. When we oppose therefore the church and commonwealth in Christian society, we mean by the commonwealth that society with relation to all the public affairs thereof, only the matter of true religion excepted; by the church, the same society with only reference unto the matter of true religion, without any affairs. Besides, when that society which is both a church and a commonwealth doth flourish in those things which belong unto it as a commonwealth, we then say, the commonwealth doth flourish; when in both of them, we then say, the church and commonwealth do flourish together.

The prophet Esay to note corruptions in the common- Isai. wealth complaineth, "That where justice and judgment had i. 21. lodged now were murderers; princes were become companions of thieves, every one loved gifts and rewards, but the fatherless was not judged, neither did the widow's cause come before them." To shew abuses in the church, Malachy doth make his complaint: "Ye offer unclean bread upon Mal.i. mine altar: if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is not evil as 7, 8. ye think; if the lame and the sick, nothing is amiss." The treasure which David bestowed upon the temple did argue 1 Chron. the love which he bore unto the church: the pains which xxix. 3. Nehemiah took for building the walls of the city are tokens Nehem. of his care for the commonwealth. Causes of the common- ii. 17.

wealth, or province, are such as Gallio was content to be judge

of:

If it were a matter of wrong, or an evil deed (O ye Jews), Acts I would according to reason maintain you: " causes of the xviii, 14. church are such as Gallio there reciteth: "If it be a question of your law, look ye to it, I will be no judge thereof." In respect of this difference therefore the church and the commonwealth may in speech be compared or opposed aptly enough the one to the other; yet this is no argument that they are two independent societies.

3. Taken from the

effect of

punish

ment in

the one or

the other.

Some other reasons there are which seem a little more nearly to make for the purpose, as long as they are but heard and not sifted. For what though a man being severed by excommunication from the church, be not thereby deprived of freedom in the city, or being there discommoned, is not therefore forthwith excommunicated and excluded the church? what though the church be bound to receive them upon repentance, whom the commonweal may refuse again to admit? if it chance the same man to be shut out of both, division of the church and commonweal which they contended for, will very hardly hereupon follow. For we must note, that members of a Christian commonweal have a triple state; a natural, a civil, and a spiritual. No man's natural estate is cut off otherwise than by that capital execution: after which he that is none of the body of the commonwealth doth not, I think, remain fit in the body of that visible church. And concerning man's civil estate, the same is subject partly to inferior abatements of liberty, and partly to diminution in the highest degree, such as banishment is; sith it casteth out quite and clean from the body of the commonweal, it must needs also consequently cast the banished party even out of the very church he was of before, because that church and the commonweal he was of were both one and the same society so that whatsoever doth utterly separate a man's person from the one it separateth from the other also. As for such abatements of civil estate as take away only some privilege, dignity, or other benefit, which aman enjoyeth in the commonweal, they reach only to our dealing with public affairs, from which what may let but that men may be excluded and thereunto restored again without diminishing or augmenting the number of persons in whom either church or commonwealth consisteth? He that by way of punishment loseth his voice in a public election of magistrates, ceaseth not thereby to be a citizen. A man disfranchised may notwithstanding enjoy as a subject the common benefit of protection under laws and magistrates. So that these inferior diminutions which touch men civilly, but neither do clean extinguish their estates as they belong to the commonwealth, nor impair a whit their condition as they are of the church of God: these, I say, do clearly prove a difference of the one from the other, but such a difference as maketh nothing for their surmise of distracted societies.

And concerning excommunication, it cutteth off indeed from the church, and yet not from the commonwealth; howbeit so, that the party excommunicate is not thereby severed from one body which subsisteth in itself, and retained by another in like sort subsisting; but he which before had fellowship with that society whereof he was a member, as well touching things spiritual as civil, is now by force of excommunication, although not severed from the body in civil affairs, nevertheless for the time cut off from it as touching communion in those things which belong to the same body, as it is the church. A man having been both excommunicated by the church, and deprived of civil dignity in the commonwealth, is upon his repentance necessarily reunited into the one, but not of necessity into the other. What then? That which he is admitted unto is a communion in things Divine, whereof both parts are partakers; that from which he is withheld is the benefit of some human privilege or right which other citizens happily enjoy. But are not these saints and citizens one and the same people? Are they not one and the same society? Doth it hereby appear that the church which received an excommunicate, can have no dependency on any person which hath chief authority and power of these things in the commonwealth whereunto the same party is not admitted? Wherefore to end this point, I conclude; first, that under the dominions of infidels the church of Christ and their commonwealth were two societies independent. Secondly, that in those commonwealths where the bishop of Rome beareth sway, one society is both the church and the commonwealth; but the bishop of Rome doth divide the body into two divers bodies, and doth not suffer the church to depend upon the power of any civil prince and potentate. Thirdly, that within this realm of England the case is neither as in the one, nor as in the other of the former two: but from the state of pagans we differ, in that with us one society is both the church and commonwealth, which with them it was not; as also from the state of those nations which subjected themselves to the bishop of Rome, in that our church hath dependance from the chief in our commonwealth, which it hath not when he is suffered to rule. In a word, our state is according to the pattern of God's own ancient elect people, which people was not part of them the commonwealth, and part of them the church of God; but the selfsame peo

ple whole and entire were both under one chief governor on whose supreme authority they did all depend. Now the drift of all that hath been alleged to prove perpetual separation and independency between the church and the commonwealth is, that this being held necessary, it might consequently be thought fit, that in a Christian kingdom he whose power is greatest over the commonwealth, may not lawfully have supremacy of power also over the church, that is to say, so far as to order thereby and to dispose of spiritual affairs, so far as the highest uncommanded commander in them. Whereupon it is grown a question, whether government ecclesiastical, and power or dominion in such degrees as the laws of this land do grant unto the sovereign governor thereof, may by the said supreme governor lawfully be enjoyed and held. For resolution wherein, we are, first, to define what the power of dominion is: secondly, then to shew by what right thirdly, after what sort: fourthly, in what measure: fifthly, in what inconveniency; according to whose example Christian kings may have it. And when these generals are opened, to examine afterward how lawful that is which we in regard of dominion do attribute unto our own: namely, the title of headship over the church, so far as the bounds of this kingdom do reach. Secondly, the prerogative of calling and dissolving great assemblies, about spiritual affairs public. Thirdly, the right of assenting unto all those orders concerning religion, which must after be in force as law. Fourthly, the advancement of principal church-governors to their rooms of prelacy. Fifthly, judicial authority higher than others are capable of. And sixthly, exemption from being punishable with such kind of censures as the platform of reformation doth teach that they ought to be subject unto.

Luke

xi. 17.

1 Cor.

xiv. 40.

What the power of dominion is.

WITHOUT order there is no living in public society, because the want thereof is the mother of confusion, whereupon division of necessity followeth; and out of division destruction. The apostle therefore, giving instruction to public societies, requireth that all things be orderly done. Order can have no place in things, except it be settled amongst the persons that shall by office be conversant about them; and