Thus, Sir, you fee the Doctrine of Church-Power, and Independency is to be diftinguished from the Abufe of it; and the Abuse of it whether by Presbyterians, or the Clergy of the Church of Rome, is no Reflection upon the pure, pure, and innocent Doctrine, but upon them, who make fo ill ufe of it, contrary to the Intention of our bleffed Lord, and the Ends for which he gave it to the Church. Wherefore I fay of this Doctrine, as St. Paul faid of the Law, it is fpiritual, holy, juft, and 'good; tho' like the Law it hath been much abused with Mixtures, as other Doctrines have been. But in my Propofitions, you know, it is delivered in its primitive original Purity, without Presbyterian,or Popifh Mixtures, and fecured as much as it can be in Writing, from being perverted, and abused. If you would fee how much it is corrupted with Presbyterian Mixtures, you need but confult the fixth Book of Spotfwood's Church Hiftory, from pag. 289 to pag. 302 But nevertheless there are many Truths afferted there concerning the Church Church-Government, to which I give my full Affent. They are fuch as thefe, The Church, as it is taken for them who exercife the fpiritual Function (i.e. for the Church-governing) bath a certain Power granted by God, according to which, it ufeth a proper Furifdiction, or Government. This Power Ecclefiaftical, is an Authority granted by God the Fa ther, thro the Mediation of Jefus Chrift to be put in Execution by them, unto whom the fpiritual Government of the Church, by lawful Calling, is committed.

and

This Power, and Polity is different, and diftin& in its own Nature, from that Power, and Polity which is called the Civil Power. For this Power Ec clefiaftical floweth immediately from the Mediator Fefus Chrift, and is fpiritual, not having a temporal Head in the Earth, but only Chrift, the only fpiritual King, and Governour of the (Univerfal) Church.

As the Minifters, and others of the Ecclefiaftical State are fubject to the Magiftrate civilly, fo ought the Perfon of the Magiftrate to be subject to the Church Spiritually.

The Civil Power is called the Power of the Sword, and the other Power the Power of the Keys.

The Cruil Magiftrate getteth Obedience by the Sword, and external means, but the Minifter by the Spiritual Sword, and Spiritual means. As Minifters are fubject to the Judgment, and Punishment of Magifirates in external things, if they offend, fo ought the Magiftrates to fubmit themselves to the Difcipline of the Church, if they tranfgrefs in matters of Confcience, and Religion.

It pertains to the Office of a Chriftian Magiftrate to fortifie, and affift the godly Proceedings of the Church, to affift, and maintain the Difcipline of it, without confounding the one Furifdiction with the other; or ufurping any thing that belongs not to the civil Sword, but belongs to the Offices meerly Ecclefiaflical, as the Miniftry of the Word, and Sacraments, ufing Ecclefiaftical Difcipline, and the Execution thereof, or any part of the Spititual Keys which the Lord Jefus gave to the Apostles, and their true Succefors.

So in the Weftminfler Confeffion, Chap. xxv. §. 3. Chrift hath given to the Catholick visible Church the Miniftry, as well as the Oracles, and Ordinances of God. So Chap. xxx. §. 1. The Lord Jefus, as King, and Head of bis Church, hath therein appointed a Government in the Hand of Church Officers, diftin&t from the Civil Magiftrate. §. 2. To thefe Officers the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed, &c. Not to tranfcribe many other Paffages ut of that Confeffion, and two or three Presbyterian ooks more, viz. Jus divinum regiminis Ecclefiaftici, jus divinum minifterii Evangelici, jus divinum minifterii

minifterii Anglicani, which affert Church-Power to be feated in Chrift the Head of the Church, and from bim committed to the Apoftles, and from them to Church Officers, and that they alone who received it from the Apostles (which I have fhew'd were Bifhops fuperior to, and diftin&t from Presbyters) can derive, and tranfmit it to others; and that this tranfmiffion, and derivation of Church-Power by continued lineal Succeffion, as well as the Power itself, was founded on pofitive divine Inftitution. For the Proof of all which, they cite fuch Texts of Scrip. ture, as I made ufe of in the former Letter you. gave me leave to write to you.

This Diftinction of the Power, and Polity of the Church from that of the State, by divine Inftitu. tion, which the Presbyterian Writers infift fo much upon, is indeed not only like to what I laid down in my Former Letter to you, but the very fame, and the Doctrine is never the worfe, no more than other found Doctrines, for being taught in the Kirk, though as they have mifapplyed, and abufed it, it is to be abhorred, and deteited by all good Chriftians, as contrary to the Holy Gofpels, and the DoEtrine, and Practice of the holy Catholick Church, and utterly inconfiftent with the Civil Order, and Peace of Kingdoms, and fovereign States. The Peace, and Quiet of a Nation, where there is fuch a Church or Churches, is not to be preferved without a standing Army; but the Diftinction between the two Powers, Jurifdictions, and Governments, as I have taught it, as it was ordained by the Wisdom from above; fo is it pure, peaceable, and gentle, without Hypocrifie, and full of the Fruits of Righteoufnefs, and good Works. It is a Diftinction not of Man, neitherby Man, but by Fefus Chrift, and God the Father, who raifed him from the Dead. It is a real Diftinction, and Difference, not invented by Priefts, but ordained by Jefus Chrift, S difting

diftinguish his Kingdom from the Kingdoms of the World, and the things which belong to God, from thofe which belong to Cafar, or betwixt the things which belong to the Empire, and those that belong to the Church. A real Diftinction, I fay it is, by all the Rules of Logick, which teacheth us, that different Subjects, and the Accidents of different Subjects are really different from one another; and that thofe things are really diftin&t, of which one can exift without the other. Thus the Church fubfifted without the State for 300 Years together. There was then nothing more vifible, than the Diftinction, or rather Oppofition between it, and the Empire, or between the Kingdom of Chrift, and that of Cefar. The two Societies, and Governments, were all that time as diftinguishable, as Light from Darkness to every vulgar Eye, while the Apoftles, and their Succeffors preached against the Jewish, and Gentile Religions, planted, and formed Chriftian Societies, or Churches in the greatest Cities of the World, and thereby turned it upfide down, doing all things contrary to the Decrees of Cæfar, and the Laws of the Empire, and vouching all they did by the Authority of another King, one Fefus, who was dead, but whom they affirmed to be alive. Sir, he that liveth, and was dead, but is alive for evermore, is the Founder of the Church. He who hath the Keys of Hell, and Death, gave the Power of the Keys to Minifters of his own, to govern his Kingdom unto the end of the World, to admit in, and to exclude out of it, to bind, and to loofe, to chaftife, and correct with fpiritual Cenfures, to humble, and exalt, to fufpend, deprive, degrade, and reftore, and finally to cut off the incorrigible with the fpiritual Sword. If this be Presbyterian, or Popifh Doctrine, I own my felf to be fo unhappy, as to believe both, and bound in Confcience to maintain them in behalf of

the

the Church against the World. Here, Sir, my Confcience faith unto me, as St. Ignatius faid to Polycarp,siga 3s änμwν TUTтóμ, stand fleady, and faft like a beaten Anvil. Indeed, Sir, the Inftitutions of Chrift, without making Comparison between them, are dear, and facred to me, as well as his Revelations, and I have no more Power to do any thing against the Doctrines, which I think relate to the Being, and Government, or Difcipline of the Church, as a Society, than thofe, which relate unto it, as a Sect.

If you had pleafed, you might have objected as well against my Propofitions about the Diftinction of the Church from the State, for containing a Doctrine fo like that of the Independents. For there is not a little of that Doctrine in P. Nye's Book, entituled, Of the Oath of Supremacy, and Power of the King in Ecclefiaftical Affairs, printed at London 1683. In that Book you'll find the Author, in the Words of other Writers, afferting, That Government, and Difcipline, (as well as Doctrine) is intrinfick to, and infeparable from the Effence of a Church, and not the Grant, and Conftitution of any fecular Prince, and State, that the Church is endued with a Fudicature immedi ately derived from Chrift, and independent upon any earthly Power, or any Power whatsoever upon Earth, whether Spiritual, (i. e. Papal) or Temporal, that the things comprifed in the Church, and by God himfelf commanded to the Church, as the Word, Sacraments, and ufe of the Keys, or Ecclefiaftical Power, and Cure of Souls (of which, let me add, the Epifco pal certainly is the greateft) are fubject to no mortal Creature, Pope, or Prince; that the Church hath the Keys from Chrift equally independent upon any mortal Man, in Difcipline, as in Doctrine; that all grant there is Government Jure Divino, and by the Appointment of Fefus Chrift; that it is deny'd