dispersed Jews to have submitted themselves for the Lord's sake unto Kings and other Governours to have obey'd them and honour'd them if he had known them to have had temporal Authority because they did not acknowledge themselves to be his Vassals or that it did not proceed from the great Wisdom of God to abridge in the Apostles of Christ even in St. Peter himself that great Power and Authority which Christ had as appeareth by his words when he said that if he had thought it fit he could have twelve Legions of Angels at his Commandment to have defended him from all his Enemies the Scribes and Pharisees with all their partakers in that perhaps the Apostles even St. Peter himself might have abused it or that it is not more than probable that howsoever St. Peter would have used the said Power and Authority if he had had it if the Bishops of Rome had received it from him they would certainly have made great havock and confusion in the World with it or that if all the Kings and Sovereign Princes in the World had been subject to St. Peter and were thereupon in the like subjection to the Bishops of Rome they both St. Peter and his Successors might not have had ready at their Commandment if Kings and Princes had done their duties more than twelve Legions to have confounded all Men that should have disobey'd them or that therefore it is not as absurd an imagination and conceit for any Man to think that Christ did give so great temporal Authority either to St. Peter or any of his Successors over temporal Kings and Princes that they might have so great Armies when they list at their directions as if any Man should hold that because they are Christ's Vicars they may have twelve Legions from Heaven to do them service if perhaps temporal Kings and Princes should be negligent or refuse to be at such charges at their Commandment or that it is not a kind of madness the true nature of Christ's spiritual Kingdom and Church here upon Earth consider'd for any Man to conceive and thereupon maintain that any such Omnipotency of temporal Power in St. Peter ever was or ever shall be available to vanquish the Devil or remove him out of his Palace or to spoil him of all his Principalities or to beget Faith in the Children of God or to erect in their hearts a Tabernacle for Christ and the Holy Ghost which are only the peculiar and proper actions of our Saviour Christ as he is our Spiritual King and of St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles with all their Successors in their degrees and as they are his Spiritual Ministers He doth greatly Erre CAP. X. The Sum of the Chapter following That the Bishops of Rome have no temporal Authority indirectly over Kings and Princes throughout the Christian World to depose them from their Kingdoms for any cause whatsoever BEcause we have been bold to use the Authority of the Cardinaliz'd Jesuit against the ridiculous Canonists and their Companions the new Sectaries of the Oratory-Congregation concerning the Pope's temporal Authority over all Kings and Princes in the World directly We may not do him so much injury as once to pretend that he favoureth either us or any point of truth for our sakes that we defend It may rather be ascribed unto him for a singular virtue his bringing up and course of life consider'd if he study not to impugn it with all the strength that he hath either of his Wit or Learning Nevertheless albeit he hath travelled exceedingly in his Books de Romano Pontifice to advance the Papacy to his uttermost Ability and had no purpose therein we are well assured to give us any advantage who do oppose our selves against the whole drift of those his Books Yet he hath so muster'd and marshall'd his matters and Forces together as whilst he endeavours to fortifie the Pope's Authority and to encounter the Assaults that have been made against it he hath done more for us against his Will to the prejudice of his Master whom he laboureth to uphold than we could ever have expected at his hands Insomuch as we are verily perswaded the time will come before it be long that his Works will be thrust into the Catalogue Librorum prohibitorum because dealing with our Arguments as he did in the said Books de Romano Pontifice and thinking that he would no further yield to the truth by way of Objection than as he should be able sufficiently to refel it it hath often fall'n out with him as it will ever do with all Impostors that the very meaning of the truth according to the nature of it hath notwithstanding all his cunning very much prevail'd against him to the everlasting glory of her own name and forcible strength to discover Errors like to the Sun 's to expel Darkness We will not here otherwise make proof hereof than as by the matter we have in hand and are purposed to prosecute we are after a sort urged and compelled For albeit hitherto he hath seemed to have joined with us as he hath indeed more than now we are perswaded he doth well vouchsafe yet foreseeing what tempests he was otherwise like to have endured in affirming so peremptorily as he did that the Pope had no temporal Authority at all as he was either Christ's or St Peter's Vicar he minced his matter in the titles of his Chapters to that purpose with the word Directè whereof in his reasons he never made mention and then falleth upon this Issue That Indirectè the Pope hath Authority over all Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes to hurry them hither and thither to depose and remove them from their Regal Estates and Dignities to dispose of their Kingdoms according to his own Pleasure to release their Subjects of their Oaths and Obedience and to thrust them into all Rebellions Treasons Furies and what not against them In the which his course this is our comfort that by direct dealing the Cardinal did find no ways or means how to withstand the truth but is driven by indirect shifts and by-paths to oppose his labours we fear reclamante Conscientiâ how to save his own Worldly credit he might cast a mist upon the truth if not to depress it which was not in his power yet at the least to obscure it to darken it and perplex it Some of the principal Reasons which he hath used to this purpose mentioned are of this kind and consequence Bona corporis the good things that do appertain to the Body as health especially are to be preferr'd before Bona fortunae as the Philosophers call them that is Riches and all other Worldly Dignities and Preferments whatsoever Therefore the calling of Physicians the end whereof is the health of Mens Bodies is to be preferr'd before all other temporal Callings that are in the World Or thus Natural Parents be they Emperours Kings or Sovereign Princes do give unto their Children their
shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth Again The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things And again I will not leave you comfortless but I will come unto you Which he doth continually when he upholdeth his Church daily against Satan and all that do malign it So as we may far more rightly and safely term the Holy Ghost to be Christ's Vicar-General over all the Catholick Church than we may ascribe that title to the Pope the Holy Ghost being ever present and ready not only to defend the Church generally but to aid and comfort every particular Member of it wheresoever they are dispersed upon the face of the Earth which we suppose the Pope is not able to perform We have before laboured to make it manifest that our Saviour Christ is the Creator of the World and the Governour of it that he hath redeemed and sanctified unto himself his Church whereof he is the sole Monarch that he hath neither appointed any one Emperour under him to govern the whole World nor any one Priest or Archbishop to rule the whole Catholick Church that as in respect of Christ the Creator all the World is but one Kingdom whereof he is the only King so in respect of Christ our Redeemer all that believe in his name wheresoever they are dispersed are but one Catholick Church and that the said one Catholick Church is not otherwise visible in this World than is the said one Universal Kingdom of Christ the Creator of it viz. by the several and distinct parts of them as by this or that National Church by this or that temporal Kingdom For our Saviour Christ having made the external Government of his Catholick Church suitable to the Government of his Universal Monarchy over all the World hath by the Institution of the Holy Ghost order'd to be placed in every Kingdom as before in another place we have observed Archbishops Bishops and inferiour Ministers to govern the particular Churches therein planted Priests Ministers in every particular Parish and over them Bishops within their several Diocesses as likewise Archbishops to have the Inspection and charge over all the rest according to the Platform ordain'd in substance by himself in the Old Testament as he hath in like manner appointed Kings and Sovereign Princes with their inferiour Magistrates of divers sorts to rule and govern his People under him in every Kingdom Country and Sovereign Principality some of their said inferiour Magistrates having Authority from their Soveraigns in particular Parishes some in Hundreds some in Shires or Countries and some in Governments of larger extents there being amongst them all divers degrees of Persons one over another and their Kings and Soveraign Princes excelling them all in Power and Authority as the Persons appointed by God to rule and direct all their Subjects of what calling soever in the right use of the Authority and Magistracy which they have committed unto them And we cannot but wonder as well at our said Jesuit where he saith That although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless as likewise at our Countryman Harding who saith as is above-noted that if God had not deferred to one Man that is to Peter and his Successors the Rule and Government of the Church he should have brought amongst his faithful People that unruly Confusion which is called an Anarchy For were these their vain conceits and imaginations true then would it by the same reason follow that albeit there be but one and proper Monarch over all the World which is Christ that created it yet the same hath need of one visible Monarch or otherwise Emperours and all other Kings Princes and civil Magistrates were needless or otherwise Christ should have left amongst his People throughout the World that unruly confusion and destruction of all Common-wealths so much abhorred of Princes which the Grecians call an Anarchy which is a state for lack of order in Governours without any Government at all The fondness of which two consequents do so plainly argue the folly and falshood of the two former as we need no other refutation of them For if all Christian Kingdoms and Soveraign Princes would banish the Pope with his Usurped Authority as the Monarchy of Britany hath done and retain under them the Apostolical Form of Church-Government by Archbishops and Bishops with other degrees of Ministers as before we have divers times specified they should find the Churches in their several Dominions as well governed by them the said Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to rule the whole Catholick Church as they have experience of the sufficiency of their own Regal and Soveraign Form of Government in their several Kingdoms and Countries notwithstanding there be no one Monarch over all the World to command or direct them And for an Example not to be controlled to make this good that here we affirm we leave unto them God 's own Form both of Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government established by himself amongst his own people the Jews Nay why should we doubt but that Kings and Soveraign Princes notwithstanding the Mists and Darkness wherewith the Bishops of Rome have daily sought to dim their Eyes have had long since a Glimpse of this Light and Truth About 400. and some odd Years since in the latter end of the Reign of Henry the second and in the days of Richard the first both of them Kings of England first Baldwin and then Hubertus being Archbishops of Canterbury there was a mighty Controversy betwixt them and the Bishops of Rome about the erecting of a new Cathedral Church in Lambeth the said Kings and Archbishops having a resolution utterly to banish out of this Kingdom the Popes Authority if the Monks of Canterbury in their Allegation to Pope Celestine against the said Cathedral Church did inform him truly These are their Words as they are recorded by Reginaldus one of the said Monks as it seemeth then living who hath written a whole Book of that matter In tantum enim jam opus processit quod ibi ordinatur Decanus Praepositus plusquam quadraginta Canonici de Bonis Cantuariensis Ecclesiae fundati genere nobiles divitiis affluentes cognati Regum Pontificum Quidam ipsi Regi adhaerent quidam Fisci negotia administrantes familiares Episcopis iisdem confoederati Adversuss tantos tales quid poterit Ecclesia Cantuariensis Certè timendum est non solùm Cantuariensis Ecclesiae sed quod Deus avertat ne hujus rei occasione sedis Apostolicae Autoritati in partibus Anglicanis derogetur Quùm enim fundaretur Canonica illa vox erat omnium sententia singulorum ut ibi essent
such Lords and Princes and so addeth his Dicendum est Where dallying and shifting with his Distinctions the Answer which he maketh to the Words of St. Ambrose is this at that time the Church being in Her minority had not the power to bridle Princes and that therefore she suffered the Faithful to obey Julian the Apostata in those things Quae nondum erant contra Fidem Which were not then against Faith Vt majus periculum Fidei vitaretur That the greater danger of Faith might be eschewed And the second Objection He more slightly passeth over saying That there is not the like Reason of Infidels and Apostata's And thus this great Schoolman relying upon the Authority of Gregory the Seventh had adventur'd to oppose himself against the Examples alledged out of the Old Testament against the Practice of the Primitive Church and against the Judgment of St. Ambrose not caring how many Thousands by this Rebellious Doctrine might come to Destruction so as the Bishops of Rome might have the World at their commandment We here omit how as Thomas and divers others writ many large Volumes upon Peter Lombard the Master of the Sentences his Distinctions so afterward and especially of later Times Books upon Books have been published upon his the said Thomas's Works all of them pursuing as they come unto it this seditious and trayterous Doctrine so Clerk-like handled by their Master Only we observe this great Schoolman's Conscience how in labouring to shift off the Truth maintain'd by St. Ambrose he could pass over a Lye in Gregory the Seventh where he saith That in absolving of Subjects from their Oath of Obedience and in prohibiting them from performing their Duties and Fidelity towards their Soveraigns He followed the Statutes of his holy Predecessors Being himself the first that ever durst be so desperate As also that he confesseth it was not in St. Ambrose his time contra fidem for Subjects to obey their Soveraigns though they were either Infidels or Excommunicate and likewise how thankfully the Bishops of Rome accepted and approved this Man's Travels so resolutely undertaken on their behalf Vrbanus the Fourth did so admire him as he reputed his Doctrine Veluti coelitus delapsam As to have fallen from Heaven Innocentius so admired both Him and his great Learning Vt ei primum post Canonicam Scripturam locum tribuere non dubitaverat As he doubteth not to give unto Him and to his Works the next place after the Canonical Scriptures And John 22th made him a Saint in the Year 1329 about forty nine years after his Death He was born during the Reign of Henry the Third King of England died about the second Year of King Edward the First and was Canonized a Saint in the time of King Edward the Second so ancient is this Chief Pillar of Popery Placet eis John Overall CAP. XI JVstinian the Emperour about the Year 533. did so contract the Civil Law as he brought it from almost 2000 Books into 50 besides some others which he added of his own Howbeit shortly after it grew out of Use in Italy by reason of the Incursions of sundry barbarous Nations who neglecting the Imperial Laws did practise their own till after almost 600 Years that Lotharius Saxo the Emperour about the Year 1136 did revive again in that Countrey and in other places also the ancient Use and Authority of it Which Course of the Emperour did not much content as it seemeth the Bishops of Rome because it revived the Memory of the ancient Honour and Dignity of the Empire Whereupon very shortly after Eugenius the Third set Gratian in hand to compile a Body of Canon-Law by contracting into one Book the ancient Constitutions Ecclesiastical and Canons of Councils that the State of the Papacy might not in that behalf be inferiour to the Empire Which Work the said Gratian performed and published in the days of Stephen King of England about the Year 1151. terming the same Concordia discordantium Canonum a Concord of disagreeing Canons Of whose great pains therein so by him taken a Learned Man saith thus Gratianus ille Jus Pontificale dilaniavit atque confudit that fellow Gratian did tear in pieces the Pontifical Law and confound it the same being in our Libraries sincere and perfect But this Testimony or any thing else to the contrary that might truly be objected against that Book notwithstanding the Author's chief Purpose being to magnifie and extol the Court of Rome his said Book got we know not how this glorious Title Decretum aureum Divi Gratiani The Golden Decree of S. Gratian and he himself as it appeareth became for the time a Saint for his Pains Indeed he brake the Ice to those that came after him by devising the Method which since hath been pursued for the enlarging and growth of the said Body by some of the Popes themselves Gregory the Ninth about the Year 1236. and in the time of King Henry the Third after sundry Draughts made by Innocentius the Third and others of a second Volume of the Canon-Law caused the same to be perused enlarged and by his Authority to be published and being divided into 5 Books it is Entituled The Decretals of Gregory the Ninth Boniface the Eighth the great Augustus as before we have shewed commanded likewise another Collection to be made of such Constitutions and Decrees as had either been omitted by Gregory or were made afterward by other succeeding Bishops and Councils and this Collection is called Sextus Liber Decretalium the Sixth Book of the Decretals and was set out to the World in the Year 1298. in the Reign of K. Edward the First Clement the Fifth in like manner having bestowed great Travel upon a Fourth Work comprehending 5 Books died before he could finish it but his Successour John the 22th did in the Year 1317. and in the time of King Edward the Second make perfect and publish the same Work of Clement and gave it the Name of The Clementines Afterward also came out another Volume termed The Extravagants because it did not only comprehend certain Decrees of the said John the 22th but likewise sundry other Constitutions made by other Popes both before and after him which flew abroad uncertainly in many Mens hands and were therefore swept up and put together after the Year 1478. into one Bundle called Extravagant Decretals which came to light post sextum after the sixth By which Title the Compiler of this Work would gladly as it seemeth have had it accounted the seventh Book of the Decretals but it never attaining that Credit the same by Sixtus Quintus's Assent is attributed to a Collection of certain other Constitutions made by Peter Matthew of divers Popes from the time of Sixtus the Fourth who died in the Year 1484. To all these Books mentioned there have been lately added Three great Volumes of Decretal Epistles from St. Clement
serve or as St. Luke hath Christ's words Ye shall not be so that is Ye shall not live as Kings upon the Earth nor have such worldly Estates as that thereby ye might have occasion to vaunt in the World what great Benefactors you have been in advancing your Followers to this or that Dukedom according as great Kings and Monarchs are accustomed to deal with their Servants and principal Subjects but let the greatest amongst you be as the least and the chiefest as he that serveth For who is greater he that sitteth at the table or he that serveth Is not he that sitteth at the table and I am among you as he that serveth By which words of our Saviour it is very manifest how far he was from challenging to himself any worldly Kingdom and how much his Apostles were deceived in apprehending what great Men they should become by being his Followers and Disciples To this purpose much more might be here alledged by us as also it would not be forgotten what we have before observed in the former Chapter tending to the same effect in as much as Christ having made himself subject to the Obedience of the Fifth Commandment which tied him as well to be a Subject unto the Emperour under whom he was born as to the obedience of his Parents did thereby shew himself to be no temporal Monarch Howbeit all this notwithstanding there are some so much addicted in these days unto the said erroneous opinion of the Jews as for the advancement of the glory of the Bishop of Rome they will needs have Christ to have been here upon the Earth a Temporal King Affirming that upon his Nativity all the Kings in the World lost their Regal Power and Authority all their Kingdoms being devolved unto him and that they could no longer possess them by any Right Interest or Title until they had again resum'd them from him as he was Man and forsaken their ancient Tenures whereby they had held them of him as he was God Insomuch as some of them say in effect that neither Augustus Caesar nor Tiberius his Successor were lawful Emperours from the time of Christ's Birth for above the space of thirty years until our Saviour had required the Jews to pay Tribute to Caesar as if in so doing Tiberius had again received thereby his former right to the Empire and that thereupon he was from that time forward to hold it of Christ as he was Man In which erroneous conceits these Men proceed further than ever the Jews or the Apostles in their weakness did For the Jews never imagin'd of their Messiah that when he came into the World he should abolish all civil Government amongst the Gentiles and be a temporal King to Rule all Nations or that as many Soveraign Kings and Princes as should from that time forward desire to rule their Subjects by any lawful Power and Authority must receive and hold the same from the said Jews their temporal Kings but did restrain their conceits within more narrow bounds thinking that their Messiah should not have such intermedling with the Gentiles but only restore the Kingdom of Israel which had for a long time been miserably shaken and rent in pieces and live in that Country amongst them in a much more glorious form and state than any of their Kings before him had done And yet notwithstanding these the said Persons having inconsiderately so far overrun the Jews in their Follies are possessed nevertheless with some Imaginations no doubt that because the Pope doth either applaud or wink at their proceedings they may in time make it probable to the simpler sort who when force is to be used do bear the greatest sway that as all Emperours and Kings forsooth held their Kingdoms from Christ as he then was and still is Man so ought they now in these days to hold them of the Pope in that if Men might safely believe them our Saviour Christ did as they say after his Ascension bestow all such Worldly Dominions upon St. Peter and consequently upon his Successors the Bishops of Rome and that now all Worldly Principalities are theirs and must be held of them as they were before of Christ after his Incarnation by as many Kings and Princes as desire to hold their Kingdoms by any right title But these are Men not to be feared For to say the truth of them they are all of them in effect either but gross and unlearned Canonists or else but new upstart and sottish Nerians and of great affinity with the Canonists who meaning as it seemeth to outstrip the Jesuits do labour as much to make the Pope a Temporal Monarch as the Jesuits have done for his pretended Spiritual Soveraignty whose endeavours are altogether as we suppose to be contemned in that both the sorts of them as well Canonists as Nerians are more voluminous in their Writings than substantial filling them principally with very idle and ridiculous Canons and Decrees of the Pope's own making and having no true feeling or sense of Divinity do handle the Scriptures when they have leisure to come unto them with so foul and unwashed hands as that their Master either is or ought to be ashamed of them in that he permitteth their so absurd Books to come abroad into the World Besides it will not a little hinder their credit if it make them not a scorn to all Posterity even amongst such Men as have otherwise made themselves Vassals to the See of Rome because the said Jesuits and some others not to have been despis'd for their learning whilst they had strived to advance the Pope's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical have themselves in a manner broken the Neck of his fondly-conceited temporal Monarchy Some of the chiefest among them affirming very peremptorily That our Saviour Christ as Man was never a temporal King upon Earth nor ever had any such temporal Authority or Government as doth appertain unto Kings and Soveraign Princes We will set down some words of one that is of especial Authority amongst them not because we intend to ground any thing upon them but for that they are true and may perhaps be of more force than ours are like to be with some kind of People the rectifying of whose hearts in the truth we tender as much as we do our own Christ saith he did not take Kingdoms from them whose they were for Christ came not to destroy those things that were well setled but to make them better Therefore when a King is become a Christian he doth not lose his Earthly Kingdom but procureth a new Interest to a Kingdom that is Eternal Otherwise the benefit of Christ should be hurtful to Kings and Grace should destroy Nature And again Christ as he was Man whilst he lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any Temporal Dominion And again I say that Christ was always as the Son of God a King and Lord of all Creatures in such sort as his Father
dispose them all according to his divine pleasure Yet the Parasitical and sottish Crew of Romish Canonists with the new Sectaries their Companions will assuredly moil and repine thereat telling us by the Pen of one of their Fellows the veriest Idiot we think amongst them That all Power Dominion and Worldly Principality was left by Christ after his Ascension unto St. Peter That two times are to be considered in Christ the one before his Passion when propter humilitatem he refused to judge that is to shew himself a Temporal Magistrate the other after his Resurrection and then he said All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth That Christ after his Resurrection gave his Power to St. Peter and made him his Vicar and that ex potestate Domini the Power of his Vicar is to be measured And to advance that Power as highly as he can supposing that what he can say thereof doth belong to St. Peter he quoteth a number of places out of the Scriptures concerning the Dignity Honour Royalty and Majesty attributed to our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension by reason of the Unition so oft before by us mentioned and doth conclude That cessantibus rationibus humilitatis necessitatis atque paupertatis that the reasons of his former humility necessity and poverty ceasing Christ did shew himself to be the Lord of all ut ascensurus ad Patrem eandem potestatem Petro relinqueret And moreover he is peremptory that Peter did exercise this temporal Power in suâ propriâ naturâ temporaliter in the proper nature of it temporally for it is said in the Acts c. 5. that he condemn'd Ananias and Sapphira pro crimine facti ad panam civiliter for the crime of a fact to a punishment civilly Now if Peter were so great a Temporal Monarch whilst he lived what must we think of his Vicar the Pope and how royal is the Estate of all Archbishops and Bishops that have any dependency upon him For as the especial Jesuit and Cardinal an Enemy to the Canonists in this point doth infer Si Papa est Dominus totius orbis Christiani supremus ergo singuli Episcopi sunt principes temporales in oppidis suo Episcopatui subjectis If the Pope be Lord of all the Christian World then it followeth that all particular Bishops are temporal Princes in the Cities and Towns subject to their Bishopricks To the manifestation of all which the said Canonist his so absurd and gross assertions before we proceed any further We hold it not unfit for the reasons elsewhere specified by us when we shewed that Christ was no temporal Lord nor had any temporal Dominion after the manner of other Kings First to hear the Cardinal how he shaketh the very ground-work and foundation of all these Vanities For whereas his Opposites would make St. Peter and consequently the Pope his Successor to derive such their infinite Power and temporal Authority from Christ after his Resurrection as he was then a Man immortal and glorious having cast off his former infirmities and mortality The Cardinal is resolute to the contrary and doth reason in this sort Christus ut homo dum in terris vixit non accepit nec voluit ullum temporale Dominium Summus autem Pontifex Christi Vicarius est Christum nobis repraesentat qualis erat dum hic inter homines viveret Igitur summus Pontifex ut Christi Vicarius atque adeo ut summus Pontifex est nullum habet temporale Dominium Christ as he was Man and lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any temporal Dominion But the Pope is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us in that Estate and Condition that he lived in here amongst Men therefore the Pope as Christ's Vicar and so as he is the highest Bishop hath no temporal Dominion And again Dicimus Papam habere illud Officium quod habuit Christus dum in terris inter homines humano more viveret Neque enim Pontifici possumus tribuere officia quae habuit Christus ut Deus vel ut homo immortalis gloriosus sed solum ea quae habuit ut homo mortalis We say that the Pope hath that Office that Christ had when he lived in the Earth amongst Men after the manner of Men for we cannot ascribe unto him those Offices which Christ hath as he is God or as he is Man immortal and glorious but only those which he had as a mortal Man Neither doth he stay here but goeth on forward saying Add that the Pope hath not all that Power which Christ had as a mortal Man For He because he was God and Man had a certain Power which is called a Power of Excellency by the which he govern'd both faithful Men and Insidels but the Pope hath only committed unto him his Sheep that is such Persons as are faithful Again Christ had Power to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which things the Pope cannot do Also Christ might absolve Men from their Sins without the Sacraments which the Pope cannot Nay the Cardinal was so far from believing that all Power and Worldly Principality was left by Christ unto St. Peter and so unto his Successors as he confesseth in effect that neither St. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome nor any of his Successors can challenge so much as a rural Farm or any other kind of temporal Possessions which have not been given unto them by the Emperours and other Temporal Princes And lest such gifts might be held by any to be unlawful he to prove the contrary alledgeth that they were godly Princes who so endowed the Church of Rome These are his words Qui donaverunt Episcopo Romano aliisque Episcopis Principatus temporales pii homines fuerunt eâ de causâ praecipuè à totâ Ecclesiâ commendati sunt ut patet de Constantino Carolo magno Ludovico ejus silio qui inde Pius appellatus est They who gave to the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops temporal Principalities were godly Men and for that cause especially were commended by the whole Church as appeareth ofConstantine Charles the Great and Lewis his Son who in that respect was called Lewis the Godly Again That the Pope holdeth in right that Principality which he hath may easily be perceived quia dono Principum habuit because he had it by the gift of Princes Of which gifts he saith the Authentical Instruments remain still in Rome adding nevertheless that if they had been lost abunde sufficeret praescriptio octingentorum annorum that a prescription of 800. years were abundantly sufficient to prove the Pope's right And unto these words of Bernard Forma Apostolica haec est interdicitur Dominatio indicitur Ministratio he answereth that Bernard doth speak of the Bishop of Rome secundum id quod habet ex Christi institutione Also
Nero who was a Persecutor and shall we think that St. Peter and St. Paul had taught the Christians in those days to have thrust Nero from his Imperial Seat by force of Arms if they had been able Certainly it is a blasphemous assertion and worthy of as great a Censure as if he had termed those holy Men in plain terms Dissembling Traytors or denied the Scriptures to have been written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Again he himself is not ignorant how grosly he lieth even against his own Conscience in saying that it was for want of strength that the Christians in the days of the other persecuting Emperours did not rebel against them Tertullian in express terms affirming the contrary First that they the Christians in his times wanted no Forces to have born Arms and endanger'd the whole Empire And secondly That it was far from their hearts so to do because they had been taught otherwise by the Doctrine of Christ in his holy Gospel Besides it is apparent that in and about Tertullian's time these four were Bishops of Rome Victor Zephyrinus Calixtus and Vrbanus so as the Cardinal doth in effect cast a great Imputation upon them of negligence or insincerity that the Christians in their days wanting neither number nor strength to have bridled their bad Emperours they by their Papal Authority did not depose them Dioclesian began his Empire about the year 288. during the time of whose Government Gaius Marcellinus and Marcellus were Popes when the number of Christians was greatly encreased throughout all the World and yet for ought that appeareth to the contrary no Man living either Pope Priest or Prelate did so much as then dream of this damnable Doctrine Julian the Apostate began his Reign about the year of Christ 360. and Valens 8. years after him in whose times Liberius and Damasus were Bishops of Rome which Damasus was a Man that wanted no Courage nevertheless we do not read that either he or Liberius ever attempted to Excommunicate or depose either of those Emperours or that they held it lawful for them so to have done In the space of time betwixt Nero and Damasus the most principal Men of all the ancient Fathers lived as Justinus Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen Cyprian Athanasius Jerom and Augustin who never had learned nor did in their times teach it for sound Doctrine either that the Christians had Authority to bear Arms against their Soveraigns or that the Bishops of Rome might lawfully depose Kings and Princes either for Heresy or for Cruelty and thrust their Subjects to serve their turns into such furious and rebellious courses So as it was great boldness for the Cardinal of his own Head to broach so palpable an untruth especially seeing it carrieth with it so many Arguments to convince his want herein of all Honesty Sincerity and Conscience But why should we be so earnest with the Man considering that although it be certain that neither St. Peter not St. Paul nor any of the said ancient Fathers or Popes ever thought it lawful to depose such Emperours and Kings as before we have spoken of when they should be able through the Numbers and Forces of Christians so to do Yet the same did proceed in the most of them from their Ignorance and want of Learning For saith he that Christians if they had been able might so have done is apparent by the Apostle's words where it is plain that they had authority to make Judges and consequently that if they had been able they might have thrust the said wicked Emperours from their Thrones and have made to themselves new Kings of their own Assuredly the Devil himself did never abuse any place of Scripture for ought that we remember so palpably and grosly as the Cardinal doth this and therefore we will bestow no great Pains to refute him It shall be sufficient briefly to observe that in the Judgments of Jerom Austin Ambrose and Chrysostome the Judges which here the Apostle speaketh of were only such as might by way of Arbitrement end such Suits as arose amongst Christians in those days and not such Judges as by Law and Authority might have compelled them to have stood to their Sentences for that had been indeed to have encroached upon the Authority of the civil Magistrate which was far from the Apostle's intent and meaning And therefore saith Theodoret Sciendum est c. It is to be observed that these words of chusing Arbiters do not repugn to those things which are written to the Romans For here the Apostle doth not command Christians to resist the Magistrates but willeth them that are injured not to use the Magistrates meaning that it was fitter for Christians to compound their causes and quarrels amongst themselves rather than to the dishonour of their Profession contend before such Magistrates as were Infidels and were like enough to despise and contemn them because they could not better agree amongst themselves And the Cardinal 's own Doctor commenting likewise upon this place doth write in this sort Sed videtur c. But that which is here said by the Apostle doth seem to be contrary to that which St. Peter saith Be subject to every humane Creature for God whether to King as excelling or to Rulers as sent by him For it doth appertain to the Authority of a Prince to judge of his Subjects and therefore it is against the Law of God to prohibit that a Subject should submit himself to the Judgment-Seat of his Prince if he be an Infidel Sed dicendum c. But it is to be answered that the Apostle doth not here forbid but that faithful Men living under Princes that are Infidels may appear in their Judicial Seats if they be called for this were against the Subjection which is due unto Princes but he forbiddeth that faithful Men do not of their own accord voluntarily choose the Judgment-Seat of Infidels But if these Authorities will not serve we will be bold to present against him the Judgment of a whole College first published in Rhemes and then set out again the second time by the same College at Doway approved in both Places at Rhemes by Petrus Remigius Hubertus Morus Johannes Lebesque Guil. Balbus and at Doway by Will. Estius Barth Petrus Judocus Heylens all of them great Doctors of Divinity in those Places and one a Doctor of the Canon Law Vicar general of the Archbishoprick of Rhemes The said College writing upon these words But brother with brother contendeth in Judgment and that before Infidels saith thus To be given much to Brabling and Litigiousness for every trifle to spend a pound rather than lose a penny the Apostle much reprehendeth in Christian Men. For a Christian Man to draw another to the Judgment-Seats and Courts of Heathen Princes which then only raigned and not to suffer their Controversies and Quarrels to be taken up among themselves Brotherly and peaceably was a great
Churches for the space of 300. years brought the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as here it is termed unto her Spiritual End as directly and fully as either the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops have at any time done since and yet they took no Power and Authority upon them nor did challenge the same of disposing of temporal Kingdoms or Deposing of Princes Besides if such an indirect temporal Power be so necessary in these days for the upholding the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as that without the same she cannot attain the Spiritual End or be a perfect Ecclesiastical Commonwealth when there are so many Christian Kings and Princes then was the same much more necessary for the attainment of the same end in the said times of Christ of his Apostles and of the Churches in the Ages following for 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Pagans and Infidels and for the most part Persecutors of the truth But we hope we may be bold without offence to say that there appeared then no such necessity of this pretended temporal Power and Authority in any Ecclesiastical Persons over Kings and Kingdoms for the disposing of them and that nevertheless the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth in those times did attain her Spiritual End and was as perfect an Ecclesiastical Common-wealth as it is now under the Pope's Government notwithstanding all his temporal Sovereignty wherein he so ruffleth Again we are perswaded that it cannot be shewed out of any of the ancient Fathers or by any general Council for the space of above 500. years after Christ that the Bishops of Rome were ever imagin'd to have such temporal Authority to depose Kings as now is maintained much less was it ever dream'd of during that time that such Authority was necessary for the attaining the Spiritual End whereunto the true Church of Christ ought to aim or that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth ordain'd by Christ and his Apostles could not be perfect without it It were a miserable shift if any should either say that during all the times above-mention'd first the Apostles and then the holy Bishops Martyrs and Fathers after them were ignorant of this new temporal Power or at least did not so throughly consider of the necessity of it as they might have done or that whilst they lived there could indeed no such matter be collected out of the Scriptures for that in those days the Scriptures had not received such a sense and meaning as might support the same but that afterward when the Bishops of Rome did think it necessary to challenge to themselves such temporal Authority over both Kings and Kingdoms the sense and meaning of the Scripture was alter'd But be this shift never so wretched or miserable yet for ought we perceive they are in effect and still will be both in this cause and many others driven unto it the Scriptures being in their hands a very Rule of Lead and Nose of Wax as in another more fit place we shall have occasion to shew moreover if the Bishops of Rome have this great temporal Authority over Kings and Soveraign Princes to preserve the State of the Church here upon Earth that she may attain her Spiritual End assuredly he hath made little use of it to that purpose For it is well known and cannot be denied that for the first 300. years of Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel did flourish far and near in Greece Thracia Sclavonia Hungary Asia minor Syria Assyria Egypt and throughout the most part of Africk where there were many very worthy Apostolical and notable Churches in the most of which places there are scarce in these days any footsteps or visible Monuments of them And although afterward during the space of above 700. years much mischief was wrought in these parts of the World better known unto us than the rest by sundry sorts of Scythians and Northern People yet after the days of Gregory the Seventh when the Bishops of Rome did most vaunt of this their Soveraign Power over Kings and Princes the Turks gained and encroached more upon Christendom still retaining that which they then had so gotten than at any time before Whereby it is to us very evident that neither Christ nor his Apostles ever ordained that the means of building of the Church of Christ and the conservation of it should consist in the temporal Power or Authority of any of their Successors to deprive Emperours or Kings from their Imperial or Regal Estates and that the Bishops of Rome may be ashamed that having had so great Authority in their own hands extorted from the Emperours and other Kings per fas nefas since Gregory the Seventh's time they have made no better use of it but suffer'd so many famous Countries and Kingdoms to be utterly over-run and wasted by Pagans and Infidels considering that they pretend themselves to have so great an Authority for no other purpose but only the preservation of the Church that she might not be prevented of her Spiritual End But what should we speak of the shame of Rome whose forehead hath been so long since hardned or ever imagine that Almighty God either did or will bless her Usurpations and Insolencies against Emperours Kings and Princes for any good to his Church other than must accrue unto her through her Persecutions and Afflictions For it were no great labour to make it most apparent by very many Histories if we would insist upon it that the Bishops of Rome in striving first to get and then to uphold after their scrambling manner this their wicked and usurped Authority of troubling and vexing Christian Kingdoms and States with their manifold Oppressions and quarrels have been some special means whereupon the Saracens Turks and Pagans have wrought and by degrees brought so great a part of Christendom under their Slavery as now they are possessed of For it is but an idle and a vain pretence that the preservation of as much of Christendom as is yet free from the Turk and Paganism is to be ascribed to the Bishop of Rome and his Authority that so the Catholick Church might attain her Spiritual End which ought to be the planting of Churches and Conservation of 'em it being most manifest to as many as have any wit experience and sound Judgment that as the very situation of the said Countries which now Pagans enjoy made them very subject unto the Incursion and Invasions of Saracens and Turks God himself for his own Glory having his Finger and just operation therein so through his most merciful goodness and care of his Church he blessed the situation of the rest of Christendom being now free in that respect from those kind of violences and endowed the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes with such Courage and Constancy in defence of Christianity and of their Kingdoms as notwithstanding that the Popes did greatly vex them in the mean while they did mightily repel the Forces of their Enemies and most religiously uphold and maintain the
Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
to an House to a Ship and that therefore she must have but one Captain one humane Head one King one Pastor one Housholder and one Pilot that although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless that although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself but being absent doth usually appoint another under him who is called his Vice-Roy that every Diocess and Province hath her Bishops and Archbishops to govern the particular Churches under them within their several Charges and that therefore there must be one Bishop of the whole Catholick Church to rule and govern them all Lastly That as there is but one God one Faith and one Baptism so there must be in the Catholick Church but one chief Bishop and Judge upon whom all Men ought to depend Many more are the reasons grounded upon divers other similitudes which our Adversaries have heaped up together to uphold the Pope's Authority all of them being as vain and frivolous as the former For it is certain and manifest that as the Catholick Church is resembled in the Scriptures to an Host well ordered to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock of Sheep to an House and to a Ship so Christ only is intended thereby to be her only General her only Head her only King her only Shepherd her only Housholder and her only Pilot. Neither can any other thing be inforced from the words mentioned of one Faith and one Baptism but that as we are only justified through a lively Faith in Christ so there is but one Baptism ordain'd whereby we have our first entrance into his Spiritual Kingdom and are made particular Members of his Catholick Church Besides in the like sense that the Catholick Church is resembled to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock to an House to a Ship so may the Universal Kingdom of Christ over the whole World as he is the Creator of it be resembled to them all and the aforesaid Titles respectively attributed unto him The whole World is an Host under him well order'd and he is the General of it The whole World is but as one Body whereof he is the Head being the Life of all Men from whom as from their Head they have their Sense Understanding and Motion The whole Universal World is but his Kingdom and he is the King of it ruling and disposing it as seemeth best to his divine Wisdom The whole World is with him but one Flock and he is the Shepherd of it all Men in it being the Sheep of his Pasture to whom he giveth food and sustentation in due season Also he ordereth all the affairs in the World as a good Housholder doth order and direct all the businesses and troubles appertaining to his Family Likewife the whole World may aptly be compared to a Ship in that the State of all Mankind living in it is subject as a Ship on the Sea unto all manner of contrary Winds Tempests and Storms of which Ship were not Christ as he is the Creator of the World the only Pilot the World could not subsist And as the Catholick Church is resembled to a Fold which containeth in it all that believe in Christ so may the universal Kingdom of Christ over all the World be compared unto a Fold in that it containeth in it all Mankind generally his Heavenly Care and Providence evermore protecting them Moreover as there is but one Catholick Church one Head or Spiritual Ruler of it Christ our Redeemer one Christian Faith one Baptism one Gospel one Truth one and the self-same Form or Nature of all the several Theological Virtues and one Inheritance which are all of them to be taught embraced and expected by all that are true Members of the Catholick Church So there is but one Universal Kingdom in all the World the Creator of it being the sole Emperour and Governour of it one moral Faith one Nature of Truth to be observed amongst all one rule and nature of Justice one moral Law one nature of Equity one Kind Form or Nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual which are to be put in practice as occasion requireth in this one Empire by as many as expect from Christ their Emperour any happy success in their Worldly affairs But as all these Unities in the temporal Monarchy of Christ are no sufficient grounds to warrant this assertion that there ought to be one temporal King or Emperour under Christ to govern the whole World so the aforesaid Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Unities are not able to establish or uphold this Inference That one Pope must of necessity have the Government under Christ of the whole Catholick Church Also from the authority of Scripture that God made all Mankind of one Adam to signify that he would have all Men to depend upon one why may it not as well be collected that he meant that all the Men in the World should depend upon one Emperour for causes Temporal as upon one Pope in Causes Ecclesiastical Likewise it is a very absurd conceit that our Jesuit maintaineth when he saith That although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself and when he is absent appoint his Vice-Roy Of likelyhood this Fellow would perswade us that Christ is sometimes absent from his Church to the end that the Pope may be his grand Deputy For otherwise by his own Example Christ may govern the Catholick Church without the Pope as the King ruling himself in his own Kingdom needeth no Vice-Roy That Christ is never absent from his Church but doth by his Power Grace and Virtue of the Holy Ghost still defend and protect it It is plain by his own words where he saith Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World It is true that he told his Apostles that he was to depart from them meaning that they must be deprived of his Corporal presence but did he signify unto them that for their comfort he would leave St. Peter in his place and after him the Bishops of Rome St. Peter's Successors to govern his Church to the end of the World No such matter These are our Saviour Christ's words It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Again When he is come which is the Spirit of truth he will lead you into all truth Again I will pray to my Father and he
our Saviour Christ to be contented with that Form of Government in his Church which they think good to assign unto him and so make him to divide stakes as the Phrase is with the Bishops of Rome or else to be reputed amongst them for a Person of little Discretion and Providence and to have dealt absurdly in ordering and setling the external Government of his Church as he had ordered and setled the external Government of his Universal Kingdom over all the Kings and Princes in the World Which profane wicked and blasphemous proceedings with Christ will no doubt in short time receive a heavy Judgment in that although the Man of sin hath long wrought in a mystery and taken upon him for his time and so every one of his Successors during their Lives to sit in the Temple of God vaunting that the said Temple or Spiritual Kingdom of Christ is wholly at his Command yet now he beginneth to be revealed and disclosed to be that Impostor that by the assistance of Satan hath with power and signs and lying wonders in all deceiveableness and unrighteousness long abused the Christian World and is consequently to be consumed by our Saviour Christ with the Spirit of his mouth In the mean while and till this work be throughly effected we are not to censure Christ either for his Discretion or Divine Providence but indeed to admire and magnify them both considering that by his Government both of the Universal World as he is the Son of God and of his Catholick Church as he is the Redeemer of it in such manner and form as we have before expressed by several Kings and Priests within their Kingdoms Provinces and Diocesses he hath left unto them certain general rules and motives which being diligently observed do tend to the universal good and preservation both of the one and the other though they have no assistance therein from the Bishops of Rome For as it is an apt and good reason to perswade all Kings and Kingdoms to live quietly with their Neighbour Princes and Nations and to be at a firm League and Friendship with them because they have all but one Heavenly King are Members and Subjects of one Universal Kingdom have or ought to have but one moral Faith one rule of Justice one square for Equity one nature of Truth one moral Law one Kind Form and nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual one natural Instinct to know God and to worship him and one Form and Rule of mutual love and affection So the particular Churches dispersed over the World when they had small Comfort from the civil Magistrate held themselves bound to have a special care one over another that matters of Religion might proceed by one rule with mutual Agreement and Uniformity for avoiding of Schisms in that they well knew they had all but one Redeemer and Saviour one Heavenly Spiritual King or Archbishop were all of them Members of one mystical Body whereof Christ was the Head had all of them but one Faith one Baptism one Spiritual Food one Hope one Bond of Charity one Redemption and one Everlasting Inheritance in the Life to come Which were such Arguments of mutual Consociation in those days as when any great matters of importance did fall out in any one Country through the willfulness and obstinacy of Hereticks and crafty Seducers of the People which perhaps were countenanced with some of strength and greater power than could easily be withstood their Neighbour Churches adjoining did sometimes assist them by their Letters with the best counsel they could give them and sometimes did send some especial Learned Men unto them for the better suppressing of those Evils and sometimes when occasions fell out thereunto moving sundry Archbishops and Bishops of several Countries with other learned Priests and Persons of principal note did as they might for fear of danger meet together and upon due and mature deliberation did so order and determine of matters as thereby Heresies and Contentions were still suppressed and the Churches in those Countries received great comfort and quietness And if in those troublesome times the peace of the Church were thus preserved how much more now under Christian Magistrates may it be strengthned upheld and maintain'd without the Pope not only within their several Kingdoms but likewise throughout in effect all these Western Parts of the World if Christian Kings and Soveraign Princes would agree together for a general Council to the end that all those Heresies Errours Impostures and Presumptions wherewith the Church of Christ hath been long and is now miserably shaken and disturbed might be at the last utterly suppressed and extinguished Many other means might here be alledged to shew how the state of Christian Religion is to be upheld and maintained without any assistance from the Bishop of Rome But our purpose being in this place to resemble and compare the government of the Catholick Church with the Universal Government of the Son of God over the whole World We hold it sufficient to observe That every National Church may as well subsist of her self without one Universal Bishop as every KIngdom may do without one general Monarch Nevertheless we acknowledge that in this particular Tractate we have been very tedious and it may be thought perhaps by some that our pains therein is altogether superfluous because many of our Adversaries do in effect acknowledge that there is the like necessity of one Emperour to govern all the World as there is of one Pope to have the oversight and ordering of the whole Catholick Church Indeed upon the sifting of the usurped Authority of the Bishops of Rome our Adversaries finding that by their Arguments to bolster up his said Authority the Erection of one Man to govern the World in temporal Causes is as necessarily to be inforced as of one Pope to govern the whole Church in Ecclesiastical Causes they are grown to this most admirable Insolency and most high presumption as that they dare affirm and do take upon them without all modesty to maintain it That the Pope is both the Monarch of the Catholick Church and the Emperour of all the World Which mystery of theirs is thus managed and by piece-meal unfolded after this sort viz. That to ease the Pope lest he might be oppressed with multitude of affairs if he should take upon him in his own Person to govern the whole World as he doth direct the especial affairs of the Catholick Church they do assign unto him Power and Authority to create and delegate under him as his Feudatary or Vassal this one supposed Emperour to whom they say he may commit the special Execution of his temporal Sword to be drawn and put up at his direction and commandment And for this one base Emperour over all the World many are now as busy as others are to maintain the Pope's Supremacy over the whole Catholick Church Now to prove that the Pope hath
Clamour of the Canonists of the Glossographers and of the Schoolmen and Divines that took their part in the Pope's behalf upon whom all their Preferment Credit and Countenance did depend as they would needs by force carry the Bell away though their Opposites each of them were very confident that the common Opinion sway'd with their side more standing for them than were against them We have before briefly touched the chief Grounds and Reasons whereupon the Civil Lawyers divided amongst themselves did insist and therefore that we may not seem partial we thought it fit to hear the Canonists with their Adherents whilst they tell us That all the World is the Pope's at his disposition as well the Emperour as any other the meanest Person whosoever Because 1. that Christ had all Power given him 2. That the Pope blesseth the Emperour 3. That the Bishops of Rome do anoint them 4. That the Church Triumphant hath but one Prince 5. That Innocentius told the King of France that he did not intend to abate his Jurisdiction whereby it is collected that if he had pleased he might have so done 6. That in the Vacancy of the Empire the Pope hath the Government of it 7. That the Pope translated the Empire from the Grecians to the Germans 8. That the Papacy exceedeth the Empire as far as Gold doth Lead or as Men do Beasts 9. That Pope Nicholas saith Christ gave to St. Peter the Key-Carrier of Eternal Life Jura terreni simul coelestis Imperii The Authority both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire 10. That Optimum optima decent but the Monarchical Government is best and so fittest for the Pope 11. That no Man giveth that to another which he hath not himself but the Pope giveth Licence to chuse the Emperour and to govern in Temporal Causes 12. That as the Body is for the Soul so Temporal Government is for the Spiritual 13. That Reason teacheth us when an Office is committed to any that also is thought to be committed without the which it cannot be executed but except the Bishop of Rome may rule all the World he cannot discharge the Office that is committed unto him And 14. lastly to omit infinite such like Collections this Argument is reserved after many other by a great Clerk that it might strike home viz. because it is defined by Boniface the Eighth that No Man can be saved except he be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Argument is held so strong as it carries with it divers other of little less Force than it self as that St. Peter had a Sword because Christ bad him put up his sword 2. Ecce duo Gladii Behold here are two Swords One Sword must be under another the Temporal under the Spiritual 3. It is not agreeable to the general course of things that they should have all equally their immediate being 4. The Spiritual Power ought to institute the Temporal 5. The Spiritual Man judgeth all things and therefore what Catholick can deny that the Bishop of Rome hath both Swords the One actually the Other habitually to be drawn at his Commandment We have not quoted the several Authors that are Parties unto the Particulars which we have touched in this Chapter because twenty such Margents would not contain them Only we refer our selves in that behalf to these few which we have noted and selected from the rest Unto which Number if we shall add John of Paris Bellarmin and Covarruvias they altogether will furnish a Man with divers sorts of other Authors such as they are who have disputed these Points at large and in that manner as we are driven into a great admiration that any Men of Understanding could be so sottish either to write as they have done or to give any Credit to such ridiculous Janglings or rather indeed that ever Christian Kings and Princes should have endured such Impostors so long to seduce their Subjects and presumptuously to shake and dishonour the Royal Authority given them from God to have bridled such Insolency Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. XIII NOtwithstanding that the Bishops of Rome especially since Gregory the Seventh's time have ruffled and tyrannized as before we have shewed and that still they have been supported in all their wicked attempts partly by stirring up Subjects to rebel against their Soveraigns and partly by the Canonists School-men Monks Friers Hirelings and Flatterers Yet their Hypocrisy Pride Covetousness and Ambition were never so closely cover'd and cloaked with St. Peter's name and sundry other Flashoods Wringings and Wrestings but that their nakedness in that behalf with all their Deformities were clearly discover'd by the wiser sort and there were always some that spared not as there was occasion for the discharging of their Consciences to speak the truth When the said Gregory did so proudly encounter with the Emperour Henry the Fourth he was Condemn'd for a perjur'd Person and depos'd from his place by a Council held at Worms in the year 1076. by all the Bishops of Germany almost saving those of Saxony who in his Quarrel were become Traytors to the Empire And afterward also in the Year 1080. the said Gregory was more roughly handled in another Council of thirty Bishops at Brixia wherein he was declared to be a perturber of the Christian Empire a sower of Discord a Protector of Perjury a Murtherer a Necromancer one possess'd with a wicked Spirit a Man altogether unworthy of the Papacy and therefore to be deprived and expelled Henry the Fifth with his Council did easily discern the packings both of Paschal the Second and of his Predecessors When he complain'd of their thrusting him into Arms against his Father and how Genitore oppresso his Father being overborn they sought likewise his suppression and overthrow He charged them with great Unthankfulness in that being made rich by the Emperours they were never satisfied but under a Religious pretence of Ecclesiastical liberty desired still more and more and that by shaking off from their shoulders all duties and subjection they did affect the Empire it self and would not cease until they had it ended With this the Emperour's plainness the said Paschal being incens'd made certain unlawful Decrees against the said Emperour which Decrees the Divines of Fraxinum who were accounted the most learned men in all Germany did condemn and reverse as being contrary to the word of God Upon the insolent Speeches of Adrian the Fourth's Messenger one that was present had slain the said Messenger if the Emperour had not staid him And two Archbishops thereupon did write to Rome accusing the Priests there of Pertinacy Pride Covetousness and Faction against the Emperour requiring them to give Adrian their Pope some better Counsel Frederick the Second in one of his Letters to the Princes of Christendom in defence of himself against Gregory the Ninth does likewise most notably describe the ambitious aspiring hearts of the
Ecclesiastically and to instruct them in the Mysteries of their Salvation through the blessed Seed of the Woman according to the Doctrine of the Gospel which was from time to time in divers Manners delivered by the Son of God unto them This Priestly Office and Ecclesiastical Authority was yet joyned as before the Flood with the Office of the chief Fathers and civil Governours Noah himself was both a Prince and a Priest he built Altars offered Sacrifices and taught the Church after the Flood 350. Years all that which he had learnt from his Fathers concerning the Creation of the World the Fall of Man and of his Restitution by Christ and generally all that did concern necessarily either civil Societies and Government or Ecclesiastical Assemblies and Authority not omitting the very Ceremonies After Noah the chief Fathers Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob did execute that Office God himself renewing unto them this Promise of Salvation through the blessed Seed and not only confirming the same to Abraham and his Posterity by the Sacrament of Circumcision but likewise teaching and instructing them in that Heavenly Mystery sometimes by his own Voice and sometimes by Visions and divers other ways whereof the Scriptures make more plain mention than they do of the delivery of the same Evangelical Doctrine before the Flood CAN. VII IF any Man shall therefore affirm either that the Priestly Office and Authority Ecclesiastical which Noah had before the Flood was by that Deluge determin'd or that it was by the Election of his Off-spring confer'd again upon him or that Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob were neither Priests nor had any Ecclesiastical Authority until they were chosen thereunto by their Children and Nephews or that the Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Authority were not the Ordinances of God for the governing and instructing of the Church according to the Will and direction of God himself delivered and revealed unto them as is aforesaid he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. VIII AS before the Flood Cain and his Posterity were opposite to the Posterity of Seth and might therefore generally have been called the Church Malignant so fell it out after the Flood in the Generations of Japhet but especially of Cham against the Posterity of Sem in whose Lineage the true worship of God through the blessed Seed was especially continued and not that only but in like manner as the Children of Seth in process of time provok't against them the wrath of God by corrupting their ways and following in their Conversations the Generations of Cain and were in that respect all of them with the rest of Cain's Off-spring justly punisht and drown'd by the Flood saving eight Persons Noah and his Wife Sem Cham and Japhet and their three Wives so did the Posterity not only of Cham and Japhet as well before as after the confusion of Tongues and the death of Noah but likewise the Off-spring of Sem who were called more effectually to the knowledge of the Mysteries of Christ and right service of the true God leave the ways of Noah and Sem and gave just occasion to Almighty God had he not bound himself by his Covenant to the contrary to have drowned them all again Nimrod descended of Cham not contenting himself with the Patriarchal or Regal mild Government ordain'd of God by the Laws of Reason and Nature became a Tyrant and Lord of Confusion and by Histories it is apparent that within few Ages after the Death of Noah's Sons great Barbarism and confusion fell among their Generations through their Pride and dissoluteness in that they thought scorn to be govern'd either Civilly or Ecclesiastically as God himself by Noah had ordain'd or to be ruled otherwise than as they list themselves and touching the Service of God and the Ecclesiastical Authority they mingled with true Religion many false worships and chose Priests among themselves to serve God after their own Fashions or rather they devis'd to themselves many Gods and found out Priests accordingly such as were content to train them up in those kinds of Impiety In Chaldea it self and the places adjacent the Children of Sem were all of them almost grown to be Idolaters insomuch as God himself to keep a remnant more carefully that should through the publick profession of his name be partakers of his Mercies in Christ called Abraham with his Family from the habitation of his Fathers to become a Stranger in the Land of Canaan CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm That the said Posterity of Noah's Children did well in altering either the manner or form of civil Government which God had appointed by bringing in of Tyranny or factious Popularity or of the Ecclesiastical by framing unto themselves a new kind of Priesthood and worship after their own humours or that it was lawful for such as then served God upon any pretence to have imitated their Examples in either of those courses he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. IX IT is apparent in the Scriptures That although God was not pleased that the Issue of Jacob's Children should by the Example of the Sons of Noah grow up to become the heads of so many several Nations but continuing together should make one People and Nation to be ruled and governed by the same Laws and Magistrates yet it seemed good to his Heavenly Wisdom that in so great a People as should descend from Jacob's Children no one Tribe or Family should continue charg'd both with the Civil or Regal and Ecclesiastical Function and therefore Jacob making way to the fulfilling of the will of God herein did take just occasion moved thereunto by the Spirit of God to deprive his eldest Son Reuben of his Interest by Birthright in both those Prerogatives to be disposed afterward by God unto other of his Brethren Now after Jacob's Death the former thereof viz. the Scepter in process of time fell to Judah as Jacob before had Prophesied and the other also viz. the Priesthood was afterwards given to Levi by God's Ordinance CAP. X. AFter Jacob's Death till Moses was sent to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt there is little in the Scriptures touching either the Civil or Ecclesiastical Government It appeareth that Joseph being a great Prince in Aegypt by the King's Authority was whilst he lived chief amongst his Brethren but after his Death through the Tyranny of the Kings of Aegypt which God suffer'd to lie heavily upon them for many Years the civil Authority which any of the Tribes had was very small there was such jealousy of their number which daily encreast above all ordinary expectation as it is not likely that the Kings successively would suffer any great Authority to rest in them howbeit we think they had some either the chief heads of the Tribes generally or of the Tribe of Ephraim and Reuben for it may be Jacob's Prophecy of Reuben's losing the Prerogatives of his
Birthright was not presently executed which did in their civilaffairs appertaining to themselves bear some chief sway amongst them And touching the Priesthood although the People were then generally much polluted with Idolatry yet therein also they had some most likely the first-born who although they durst not there offer Sacrifices to God as they should in that servitude yet some of them we doubt not instructed the people in matters concerning the Promises of the blessed Seed and perform'd as they might the other Offices of their Priesthood although many of the People and of the Priests as it seemeth were then greatly polluted with Idolatry CANONES IX and X. IX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the uniting of the Children of Jacob into one Nation or the severing of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions the Prerogatives of Birthright from Reuben the first-born and dividing of them from one person was made by themselves X. Or that their servitude in Aegypt was unjustly suffer'd to lie upon them so long by Almighty God or that they being his Church he left them destitute of such comforts of direction and instruction as were necessary those times consider'd for their Civil or Ecclesiastical Estate or that the People took upon them the appointing of the heads of their Tribes and Families or the choice of their civil Superiours or of the Priests or that the Example of those wicked Kings may be any lawful Warrant for any other King so to oppress the People and Church of God he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XI WHen the time came that God in mercy was pleased to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt and to place them in the Land which he had promised them he raised up his Servants Moses and Joshua to take that charge upon them and accordingly Moses being made their Prince or as the Scripture speaks their King did not only by God's Appointment and Assistance lead them out of Egypt but governed them being 600000 Men on foot besides Women and Children forty years by his Authority in the Wilderness and Joshua likewise succeeding Moses in the same Princely Power and Authority did after many difficulties bring them into the Land of Canaan and gave them lawful possession thereof So that although formerly the Children of Israel were kept in such great Servitude and Bondage whilst they were in Aegypt as notwithstanding their number they were no way able like a free People to lift up their Heads yet now they are knit together in one Body and setled as a particular State and free Nation in their own Countrey being rul'd and govern'd successively after a mild and temperate manner first by Moses in the Wilderness as is aforesaid and then by Joshua in Canaan whilst he lived CAN. XI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Children of Israel were delivered out of Aegypt by their own strength and not by God's special Direction and mighty Power or that it had been lawful for them not warranted by God to have departed thence as they did without Licence first obtained of King Pharaoh or that Moses and Joshua were not called to that high Authority by God himself but received the same from the People as depending upon their choice or that Dathan and Abiram descended from Reuben can be justified in challenging of Moses that he took too much upon him in executing only that Authority which God hath given him he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XII AS Almighty God took order for the setling of his People in the Land of Canaan and established a Princely Authority to rule and govern them civilly so was he no less careful of his Church For however the Priesthood was disposed of before this time yet now it is apparent in the Scriptures that the same was after setled in the Tribe of Levi and Aaron was made by God's appointment for the better Government of the Church the Chief and High Priest the whole Priesthood being assigned to his Children and their Off-spring as well to succeed him in the said highest place as also to execute the other inferiour Functions belonging to Priests and the rest of the Tribe of Levi were to attend other Ecclesiastical Services CAN. XII IF any man therefore shall affirm either that the Tribe of Levi was assigned by the People to undertake the said Ecclesiastical Offices or that Aaron and his Posterity were chosen by the People to be their Priests or that they were not chosen directly by God himself or that the People had any lawful Interest at any time afterward either to chuse their Priests or they being appointed of God as is aforesaid to deprive them of their places or that Corah of the Tribe of Levi can be justified in saying That Aaron took too much upon him thereby repining either that Aaron was rather made High Priest than he himself or that the Priesthood was annexed to Aaron's Posterity whereas the rest of the Levites were to serve in inferiour places he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XIII BEfore Moses's Death God had appointed Joshua to succeed him but in Joshua's days he appointed none to follow him immediately whereupon after his Death the Israelites were left without a Chief Head or Prince to govern them They had then remaining the particular Officers and Judges appointed by Moses at Jethro's Council in their several Tribes as also the general Senate of Seventy Elders ordained by God upon Moses's complaint over all the Nation Yet there fell very great Disorders and Confusions amongst them for want of a chief Judge and Governour whereby they might see their own Disabilities and Errors and find by experience what it was to want a chief Governour and furthermore be moved when they were in distress to fly unto God and depend only upon him for the raising up of One from time to time to deliver and defend them and it is apparent that the People shortly after Joshua's time falling most strangely into gross Idolatry and being from time to time during the History of the Judges very grievously afflicted by the bordering Nations and such as dwelt amongst them when they found themselves still unable to withstand their Enemies using any great Force against them then they had for the most part recourse to God by Prayer who did at such times appoint one for their Prince chief Captain and Ruler to deliver them from their said Enemies we say for the most part because sometimes they attempted some matters of Importance without seeking any chief Governour from God as at one time the People of Sichem presumed to chuse them a Prince of their own after Gideon's Death which turned both to his Ruine and their Destruction And it is here generally to be observed that when there was the greatest liberty among the Israelites during the time from Joshua to Saul whatsoever the People thought of their own Courses
the Disorders and Idolatry in those days were ascribed by the Holy Ghost to the want of Judges Chief Rulers or Kings amongst them who should have reformed those Enormities not only in them but likewise in the Priests themselves if they did not their Duties especially in suppressing of Idolatry as they should have done CAN. XIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Israelites fell not into many Evils and Disorders by being left destitute of a certain chief Governour after Joshua's Death or that when God raised up Iudges to rule and govern them the Peoples consent was necessary thereunto or that the said Iudges being once appointed by God to those places received their Authority in that behalf from the People or that the fact of the Sichemites may lawfully be imitated by any Christian People in so chusing to themselves a King or Iudge according to their own humours or that the want of Kings Princes and Rulers in any Country is not the Mother of disorder and confusion he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XIV IT is manifest in the Scriptures That Moses directed by the Spirit of God did foresee that the time should come when the Israelites being quietly setled in the Land of Canaan should be govern'd by Kings after the manner of other Nations And therefore Almighty God did set down by Moses's Pen the Duty of all Kings and the Rules whereby they ought to govern Jacob also being illuminated by the same holy Spirit did not only foretel that it would come to pass that the Tribe of Judah should bear the Scepter and that the Kingdom or Government of Judah should be held by Succession according to the manner of other Nations but likewise tha the said Scepter or Government should not be taken away from that Tribe until the coming of Christ And it seemeth that the People were not altogether ignorant of this foreseen alteration when finding divers wants and confusions amongst them after the Death of one Judge before God was pleased to appoint them another they first offer'd rashly to Gideon their Prince that his Children and Off-spring should succeed him in that Government And afterward being weary of depending upon God's pleasure and misliking the rule of Samuel's Sons they urged him undutifully and unseasonably that they might have a King to rule over them as other Nations had meaning thereby principally as we suppose that such their Kings might by Succession govern them so as one being dead they might still have another We say that they urged Samuel to this purpose undutifully and unseasonably and that thereupon Saul was appointed to be their King because otherwise if they had expected God's good pleasure and time and contented themselves with his care over them in raising up when he thought meet their Judges to govern them they should have found shortly after that the Prophecy of Jacob should have been fulfilled and that God would have given the Scepter of Judah into the hands of David and of his Posterity according to their desire CAN. XIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the People of Israel did not grievously sin in being weary of Gods immediate Election and appointment of their chief Governors or that the peoples preposterous hast did any way prejudice the Dignity and Authority of Saul's Regal Power or afterward of the Scepter of Judah or that the People then had in themselves any Authority to set up a King over them for then they would not have been so earnest with Samuel to make them a King or that after David's advancement to that Kingdom he was not as truly call'd thereunto by God himself as Aaron was to the Priesthood or that David's Posterity had not by God's Ordinance as rightful an Interest to succeed him in his said Kingdom as either Aaron's Sons had to succeed him in the Priesthood or Moses Joshua and the rest of the Iudges notwithstanding that God himself did chuse and named them particularly had in their Governments or that the People then had any more Authority to have withstood either David or any of his Posterity from being their King than they had to have expelled either Moses or Joshua or any of the rest of the Iudges whom God by name did appoint to govern them he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XV. IT is manifest in the Scriptures that the Kings in the Old Testament notwithstanding that they had their Kingdoms by Succession were as strictly bound to the observation of God's Laws in their Government as Moses Joshua or any other the Judges or Princes elected named and appointed by God himself They knew well as Jethro said that it was impossible for themselves to hear and decide all the Causes and Controversies that might happen in their Kingdoms and by Moses's Example were not ignorant that they might appoint and have Judges to govern under them not only in every Tribe but generally over all their Kingdom and therefore they did therein accordingly follow the Example of Moses being approved by God himself no ways either diminishing their Regal Authority or purposing to puff up their Subjects with a conceit of any their own Interest in the Government which they had not from or under them but thereby ordering their Kingdoms with such a temperate and Fatherly Moderation as was most agreeable for the Government of God's People CAN. XV. IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Kings in the Old Testament were not bound as strictly to observe the Laws of God in their Governments as were Moses Joshua and the rest of the Iudges or that they had any greater liberty to do what they list than the others had or that they had no Authority by the Example of Moses and of all the rest of their Predecessors in their Princely Government to delegate and appoint such Iudges and Governours under them as the other Princes formerly under them had appointed or that because the said Kings did imitate the said Princes in appointing such Iudges to assist them in the Government of their Kingdoms therefore their Governments were to be judged rather Aristocratical than truly Monarchical he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVI WHen God first ordained civil Magistrates and gave them Authority his meaning was that the People whom they were to govern should be subject unto them From the beginning of the World till Moses's time whilst the People of God that profess'd his true Worship were governed by that Authority which was Potestas Patria and in a sort Regia their Children and Nephews were bound by the Law of Nature to honour reverence and obey them God having raised up Moses to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt and to govern them afterward as their King or chief Ruler they promised that they would hear him and do those things which he in the Name of God should command them Being in the Wilderness his
had not thereby sinned and unjustly opposed themselves against God or that the Kingdom of Judah by God's Ordinance going by Succession when one King was dead his Heir was not in Right their King however by some Athaliah he might be hindred from enjoying it or that the people were not bound without any further circumstance upon sufficient notice of their former King's Death to have obey'd his Heir Apparent as their lawful King he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVIII ALthough we doubt not but that the Priests and Levites in the Old Testament were reckon'd amongst the rest of such as were subject to their Princes Judges and Kings yet we have thought it fit to make the same more apparent by some particulars Aaron the chief Priest and the rest of the Levites after that Aaron was possest of the high Priesthood were at Moses's direction all the time that he lived and when he the said Aaron had in some sort forgotten his duty to Moses in joining with his Sister undutifully against him he found his offence therein and did humbly submit himself in this sort to him Alas my Lord I beseech thee lay not this sin upon us which we have foolishly committed It is likewise manifest in the Book of Joshua that Eleazer who succeeded Aaron with the rest of the Priests and Levites under him dispos'd of themselves and of their service as Joshua their Prince and Governour did command them And how obedient and humble both the Priests and the Levites and the Prophets themselves were to their Kings the Examples of Zadok Jehojadah Azariah Helchiah Nathan and divers others do declare they submitted themselves to their directions and when they came into their presence made Obeysance before them upon their Faces to the ground Likewise having Offices distributed and assigned severally unto them by sundry Kings they executed the same in the service of the Temple accordingly And as while they did their duties they were cherished so upon any notorious offence committed by them they were censur'd and punished Solomon deposed Abiathar from the High Priesthood and placed Zadok in his room And Josiah likewise thrust all the Priests from the Altar of the Lord in Hierusalem who had burnt Incense in the high places Placet eis CAN. XVIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Priests in the Old Testament were not as rightly and properly subjects to the civil Governours as the rest of the people or that when they any ways offended they might not be punished as lawfully by them as any others he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XIX AS we have said of the people that when the Kings of Judah were to succeed one another their Duty was to come together with joy and gladness to receive them for their Kings as sent unto them as from God himself and accordingly to submit themselves unto their Authority and Government so at such times the Priests for the most part besides their general duties as Subjects had some further service to be then by them perform'd the parts of which service are all of them manifest in the advancement of King Solomon to the Royal Throne of his Father King David where the Priests by King David's direction did give thanks to God and prayed for King Solomon they offered the peoples Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for their new King and Zadok the High Priest did himself anoint him Howbeit this their service thus by them perform'd did neither give to King Solomon any Right or Title to succeed his Father nor to themselves any priviledge or exemption from their subjection and Obedience unto him Abiathar the High Priest did anoint Adoniah to have succeeded King David and no Duty of likelyhood was omitted which was to be done in such a solemn action but thereby Adoniah received nothing but a badge of Treason against the King his Father which he carried with him to his Grave and Zadok the High Priest notwithstanding that he had anointed King Solomon was afterward as much subject and as dutiful unto him as he had been before unto his Father King David Nay the greater the services are of any persons to their Soveraigns the greater is and so ought to be their subjection and obedience unto them CAN. XIX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Adoniah was ever lawfully King of the Israelites because Abiathar the High Priest had anointed him or that King Solomon received from Zadok or from the holy Oyl which he poured upon his Head any Interest to his Fathers Kingly Seat which he had not before by the Ordinance of God and his Fathers appointment or that Abiathar might not justly have been condemn'd for a Traytor in that he anointed Adoniah as is aforesaid the Right of the Kingdom being then in King David and in him by God's appointment to be disposed of and bestow'd upon his younger Son Solomon or that it had not been a traiterous offence in Zadok if being commanded thereupon by King David to anoint King Solomon he should have refused so to have done or that either Zadok or any other Priest who afterward according to their duties anointed the Kings of Judah were thereby more exempted from their subjection and obedience unto them than were the rest of the people by their joy and applause when their Kings were newly advanced to their Kingdoms he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XX. AS it is apparent in the Scriptures that the Israelites generally as well the Priests as the People were equally bound as Subjects personally to honour reverence and obey their Kings So is it there also as manifest that the Authority of their Soveraigns over them did not only extend to civil Causes but in like manner to Causes Ecclesiastical For as it was then the duty of Parents so by the Law of Nature was it of good Kings and Civil Magistrates to bring up their Children and Subjects in the true service and worship of God as having a care committed unto them not only of their Bodies but likewise of their Souls In which respect the chief charge that all Subjects and inferiour Persons of what condition soever should diligently observe the said Law of Nature being the very same in substance that God writing with his own Finger gave unto Moses and stiled by the name of his Ten Commandments was principally imposed upon Kings and civil Rulers They were to provide that their Subjects had no other God but him who made Heaven and Earth that they made to themselves no graven Images nor bow'd down to them nor worship'd them that they did carefully meet at certain times to serve honour and magnifie the Name of God and that they might not be negligent in the observing of the rest of his Commandments And albeit through the sin of our first Parents both Kings and Subjects were become unable so to perform these their Duties of Piety
as they should have done and that therefore the Priesthood was not only to instruct them in the mysteries of their Salvation hid from Nature but likewise to teach them that Grace did not so evacuate the Law but that still they were bound to obey it with this addition or interpretation That their Faith being grounded upon the blessed Seed of the Woman if they endeavoured to do that which God had commanded them that which either they did amiss or omitted should upon their Repentance be forgiven and not imputed unto them Yet this mystical and Heavenly Doctrine did no way release or set at liberty Kings and Princes from their Charge before mentioned but rather laid a heavier burthen upon them to provide that their Subjects might be train'd up both in the Doctrine of Faith and in such Obedience to God as his said Commandments so qualified by Grace as is before-mentioned did require CAN. XX. IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Natural or Political Fathers Kings and Princes in the Old Testament had not a charge laid upon them by God to bring up their Children and Subjects in his fear or that the Institution of the Priesthood did more prejudice the Authority of natural Fathers or of Kings and Princes in that behalf than Grace did abrogate the Commandment and the Obedience of the Law or that Natural Parents Kings and Princes in those days were not more strictly bound by the Doctrine of Grace than they were before in respect of God's great Mercy unto them to provide that their Children and Subjects were not suffer'd either to have any false Gods among them or to bow unto or worship the likeness of any thing which they had made to themselves to blaspheme and take in vain the blessed name of God or to profane his Sabbaths or to neglect the observation of the rest of God's Commandments by committing of Murther Adultery Theft and such like Offences to the displeasure of God and disturbance of their Families Principalities and Kingdoms or that the Kings Princes or Governours of the Israelites being instructed in the Mysteries of their Salvation were not as much bound by the Law of Grace to bring up their Subjects in the true Doctrine that was grounded upon the blessed Seed as they were by the Law of Nature that they should carefully observe the moral Precepts and Commandments of God or that being so far bound they had not equal Authority to compel as need should require all their Subjects of every Calling and Condition whatsoever to keep and observe both the said Laws as well of Grace as of Nature He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXI ALthough it were sufficient to have shewed that godly Kings and Rulers amongst the Jews had Authority from God as well in causes of true Religion as in other of their temporal Affairs yet if they had never put the same in practice some scruple in the minds of the simpler sort might thereby have risen to the prejudice of it But this point also is manifest in the Scriptures and ought always with due thankfulness for the same to be remembered It is true that the Dignity of the Priests in the Old Testament but especially of the High-Priest was very great and eminent howbeit the same notwithstanding had it not been for godly Kings and Princes Religion among the Jews after the first publick establishment of it would not have continued so long as it did without very great and intolerable Corruptions Moses did blame Aaron for yielding to the making and worshipping of Idols and reformed the offence And again when Aaron being consecrated High-Priest had with his two Sons Eleazar and Ithamar done amiss in burning the Sin-offering which they should by God's appointment have eaten and Moses being angry with them reproved them for it In the days of the Judges when the People fell to the worshipping of Baalim and Ashtaroth the Scriptures are silent what became of the Priests but it is apparent that during the lives of the Judges the People were by them restrained in some sort from that Impiety whereunto still after their death they greedily returned When Jehosaphat came to his Kingdom he found the People so destitute of Teachers as that he was moved in zeal to send the Priests and many of the Levites through all the Cities of Judah to teach and instruct them Ahaz the King of Judah was a very great Idolater delighting himself altogether in the Abominations of the Heathen and Vriah the High-Priest was a fit Instrument for him For what the one did wickedly command the other to the intolerable Profanation of God's true Worship was ready to put the same in execution In the days of Manasses and Ammon Groves were planted hard by the Temple Horses were kept by the entrance of the House of the Lord either to be offered as 't is thought for Sacrifices to the Sun or else to carry the Picture of it as an Idol to be worshipped The Priests sundry of them served in high places and many of the People burnt incense unto Baal to the Sun to the Planets and to the Host of Heaven all which abominations the godly King Josiah did abolish reforming both the Priests and the People and afterwards when the Kings of Judah did altogether neglect their Duties in Church Causes Religion decreased and went to havock Insomuch as the Scriptures rehearsing the causes of the Destruction of Hierusalem do set down this among the rest for one viz. All the chief of the Priests had trespassed wonderfully according to all the abominations of the Heathen and polluted the house of the Lord which he had sanctified Much more might be alledged to this purpose as also to shew how King David King Solomon and King Jehosaphat distributed the Levites and Priests into their Orders and prescribed certain Rules for them to observe in the manner of their Attendance and Service But to the purpose in hand this is sufficient CAN. XXI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the godly Princes and Kings in the Old Testament did not practise their Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical or that in such their Practice of it they did not that which they were bound to do or that amongst the Jews the true Worship of God was not very much furthered and continued by the godly Care and Endeavours of their Princes and Kings or that the want of such godly Kings and Princes was not then an occasion and an opportunity taken both by the Priests and by the People to follow their own fancies and to run into many Disorders false Worships Idolatry and sundry such Abominations He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXII WHat we have said either of the Authority of Kings or of the practice of it in Causes Ecclesiastical among the Jews we would not have it extended so far as if we imagined that in matters of Religion Kings
might then lawfully command and do what they list In the separation of the Priesthood from the Regal Principality the same having been formerly in one Person they were then so by God distinguished as in some things appertaining to the Office of Kings no Priest as he was a Priest had any Authority to intermeddle as in some other things appertaining to the Office of Priests no King as he was a King might lawfully be an Actor both of them having their bounds and limits appointed unto them by God which without Sin they might not exceed And therefore as we greatly blame the High-Priest Vriah for obeying the wicked Command of King Ahaz in building by his direction an Altar in the Temple according to the Form of One that was in Damascus so do we greatly commend the godly Zeal of Azariah the High-Priest and of Eighty other Priests that were with him in withstanding as far as lawfully they might Vzziah King of Judah when in the Pride of his Heart he went into the Temple of the Lord and would have burnt Incense upon the Altar of Incense which none might lawfully do but Priests But it is to be observed that they did not withstand the King by force or Armies but told him that it did not appertain unto him but to the Priests to burn incense unto the Lord and therefore urged him to go forth of the Sanctuary Howbeit the King being angry with them for the same persisted as it appeareth in his former purpose and having Incense in his hand would have burnt it upon the Altar if God himself had not struck him in the Forehead with a Leprosie wherewith being terrified as also with a great Earthquake then happening as some learned Men have written from Amos 1. 1. he was constrained not only to desist from that rashness and to depart hastily out of the Sanctuary but likewise as a Leper to dwell in a house apart according to the Law and Jotham his Son as Viceroy ruled his Father's house and judged the People of the Land Vzziah himself during his life remaining King CAN. XXII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Uriah the High priest was bound to have built the said Altar because King Ahaz did command him or that Azariah and the other Priests did amiss in reproving King Uzziah so plainly or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the King's Person either in hindering him from burning of Incense or in thrusting him out of the Temple or in compelling him to dwell apart in a house as he did though he was a Leper if he had not of himself yielded to the observation of the law in that behalf or that he was deprived of his Kingdom either by the said stroke of God or by his dwelling in a house apart or that any thing which the Priests then did might have been a lawful Warrant to any Priest afterward in the Old Testament either to have deposed by sentence any of their Kings from their Kingdoms for the like offences or to have used Arms or repressed such their unlawful attempts by forcible ways though they had imagined the same might have tended to the preservation of Religion or that either before that time or afterward any Priest did resist by force of Arms or depose any of the Kings either of Israel or of Judah from their Kingdoms though the Kings of Israel all of them and fourteen of the Kings of Judah were open and plain Idolaters he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIII WE have shewed before that King Solomon did lawfully depose Abiathar from the Priesthood and placed Zadok in his room but that any Priests in the Old Testament as likewise we have before declared did ever depose from their Crowns any of their Kings how wicked soever or had any Authority so to do it can never be proved Howbeit one Example of Jehoiada the High-Priest is fit to be considered After the Death of Ahaziah King of Judah his Mother Athaliah finding his Children to be very young killed them all but the youngest and reigned by Usurpation six Years over the Land The said youngest Child whose Name was Joash was secretly conveyed away by his Aunt Jehoshabeth his Father's Sister and the Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest who kept him so secretly in the Temple as that Athaliah the Usurper could never hear of him Now after the said six Years that Joash the true and natural Heir apparent to the Crown had been so brought up he the said Jehoiada being the King's Uncle and the chief Head or Prince of his Tribe sent through Judah for the Levites and chief Fathers both of Judah and of Benjamin to come unto him to Hierusalem who accordingly repairing thither and being made acquainted by him with the Preservation of their Prince as is aforesaid and that it was the Lord's Will that he should reign over them they altogether by a Covenant acknowledged their Allegiance unto him as unto their lawful King and so disposed of things as presently after he was crowned and anointed which dutiful Office of Subjects being performed they apprehended the Usurper Athaliah and slew her as before it was by the said States resolved In all the process of which Action nothing was done either by Jehoiada the High-Priest or by the rest of the Princes and People of Judah and Benjamin which God himself did not require at their hands Joash their late King's Son being then their only natural Lord and Sovereign although Athaliah kept him for six years from the Possession of his Kingdom CAN. XXIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Athaliah did well in murthering her Son's Children or that Jehoiada and his Wife did amiss in preserving the Life of their King Joash or that Athaliah was not a Tyrannical Vsurper the right Heir of that Kingdom being alive or that it was neither lawful for Jehoiada and the rest of the Princes Levites and People to have yielded their subjection unto their lawful King nor having so done and their King being in Possession of his Crown to have joyned together for the overthrowing of Athaliah the Vsurper or that Jehoiada the High-Priest was not bound as he was a Priest both to inform the Princes and People of the Lord's Promise that Joash should reign over them and likewise to anoint him or that this fact either of the Princes Priests or People was to be held for a lawful warrant for any afterward either Princes Priests or People to have deposed any of the Kings of Judah who by right of Succession came to their Crowns or to have killed them for any respect whatsoever and to have set another in their places according to their own choice or that either this Example of Jehoiada or any thing else in the Old Testament did give then unto the High-Priest any Authority to dispute determine or judge whether the Children of the Kings of Judah should
either be kept from the Crown because their Fathers were Idolaters or being in possession of it should be deposed from it in that respect or in any other respect whatsoever he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIV ALmighty God foreseeing what Defects there would be sometimes in Kings and civil Magistrates and sometimes not only in the inferiour Priests but likewise in the High-Priests themselves did still as occasion required and for the benefit of his Church raise up and send unto them his Prophets Men indued by his holy Spirit with extraordinary Authority Knowledge Zeal and Courage who neither fear'd King nor Priest but told them plainly of their faults denounced the Judgments of God against them for their Sins and executed without respect of Persons such other parts of their duties as God himself immediately gave them in Charge Notwithstanding the Priests stood much upon their Authority and bragged that the Law should not perish from them flattering themselves and the people with lying words as appeareth by the peoples Speeches taught most likely by them The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord This is the Temple of the Lord yet the Prophets told them plainly That they erred that they were covetous receivers of Gifts and false Dealers that they had polluted the Temple of God that the Law should perish from them that God himself had found their wickedness in his own House that Hierusalem should be destroy'd and that they themselves should be carried into Captivity In respect of which their faithful bold and plain dealing according to God's Commandment and particular directions the Priests were for the most part greatly moved and incensed against them Pashur the High-Priest struck the Prophet Jeremy upon the Face and afterward cast him into Prison also his Death was conspir'd amongst the Priests and the rest from time to time were little better treated by them It is true that there were in those times very many false Prophets who pretending that they likewise were sent from God did greatly trouble that Church and State but their falshood and lewdness ought neither to have prejudiced the good Priests nor the true Prophets CAN. XXIV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Priests in the Old Testament from the highest to the lowest were not bound to have obey'd the directions which God himself delivered unto them by his Prophets notwithstanding that now and then some of them were of the Tribe of Levi and consequently in other Causes were subject unto them or that the Examples of the true Prophets were any lawful Warrant either for any false Prophets or for any other person or persons whatsoever to have railed libelled threatned or denounc'd the Iudgments of God against any of the said Priests according to their own malicious humours God himself having never given them any such Warrant or foreknowledge to pronounce of such particular Iudgments to come or that because the High-Priest and the rest of the Priests did amiss in the malicious prosecution of God's true Prophets they might not therefore lawfully take order for the punishment of false Prophets he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXV IT is apparent likewise in the Scriptures that as the godly Prophets in the Old Testament dealt with the Priests so did they in like manner deal with their Kings although otherwise they were their Subjects and owed them as much duty as any other Nathan the Prophet by God's particular direction spared not King David to tell him of his offences No more did Abijah Jeroboam nor Elias King Ahab they denounced God's Judgments boldly against them and accordingly they came to pass Also the Lord being not bound to those Laws which he prescribeth others to observe commanded Jehu a Subject to be anointed King over Israel of purpose to punish the sins of Ahab and Jezabel and accordingly Elizeus the Prophet caused Jehu to be anointed and God's Message to be delivered unto him who presently upon the knowledge of God's will and the submission of the Princes and Captains of Israel unto him as to their lawful King did put in execution the said Message by killing Joram before that time his Soveraign but then his Subject and by destroying and rooting out the whole Posterity Sons Familiars and Priests of Ahab In like manner Samuel a Prophet but the subject of King Saul did not refuse when God directly and in express terms bad him both to tell his Master the King That the Lord had rent the Kingdom of Israel from him and to anoint King David to succeed him We say to succeed him because we think that God's purpose only was to cut off Saul's Posterity from reigning after him and not actually while he lived to deprive him of his Kingdom but principally to provide that David might succeed him Certain it is that David lied not when notwithstanding that he himself was anointed to succeed King Saul yet he call'd him his Master and the Lord 's anointed also he prayed that God would keep him from laying his hands upon King Saul for that he was the Lords anointed Likewise when one of the Captains would have slain King Saul he said destroy him not for who can lay his hands upon the Lord 's anointed and be guiltless Furthermore when the Messenger brought him news of Saul's Death Was 't thou not afraid quoth he to put forth thy hand to destroy the anointed of the Lord and commanding the said Messenger to be kill'd for his offence therein Thy blood saith David be upon thine own head for thine own mouth hath witnessed against thee saying I have slain the Lord's anointed Besides it is manifest that the Tribes of Israel accounted Saul to be their lawful King during his life And also that they construed Samuel's words to be meant only of David's Interest to succeed him after his Death and Samuel himself notwithstanding all that he had done was by God's Commandment left the success thereof to the disposition of his Heavenly Providence and afterward both honoured Saul before the People as his King and likewise continued whilst he lived a dutiful Subject unto him CAN. XXV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Prophets were to blame for dealing so sharply with Kings and Princes being their Soveraigns as though God's express Commandments had not been sufficient to have authorized them so to have dealt or that the Example of God's Prophets in this behalf were a sufficient Warrant for any false Prophets or other lewd Persons to have railed and libelled against their Kings or to have denounced such judgments against them as they in malice either desired or vainly imagined or that any Prophets Priests or other Persons having no direct and express Command from God might lawfully imitate the said facts either of Samuel or of Elizeus in anointing and designing Successors to Kings which otherwise had no
just interest title and claim to their Kingdoms or that it is lawful for any Captain or Subject high or low whosoever to bear Arms against their Sovereign or to lay violent hands upon his Sacred Person by the Example of Jehu notwithstanding that any Prophet or Priest should incite them thereunto by Vnction or any other means whatsoever except first that it might plainly appear that there are now any such Prophets sent extraordinarily from God himself with sufficient and special Authority in that behalf and that every such Captain and Subject so incited might be assured that God himself had in express Words and by Name required and commanded him so to do He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVI FUrthermore that nothing may be omitted concerning the Authority and Dignity of God's Prophets in the Old Testament the Words of the Lord to Jeremy in that behalf are with due care and diligence to be observed Behold saith the Lord I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms that thou mayst pluck up and root out and destroy and throw down and build and plant Now for as much as it doth not appear in the Scriptures that the Prophet Jeremy did at any time as a Warriour and great Emperour dispose of Nations and Kingdoms or plucked up rooted out destroyed or threw down Kings or that he built or chose or set up Kings in the places of those that he had deposed or thrown down the ancient Writers do deliver the true sense and meaning of the said words when they expound them in sort and effect as followeth I have set thee over Nations and Kingdoms that is I have imposed upon thee the Office of prophesying not only against the people and Kingdom of Judah but likewise against the Nations and Empires viz. the Ammonites the Moabites the Egyptians and the Babylonians c. That thou mayst pluck up root out destroy and throw down that is that thou mayst pronounce that wicked Nations shall be pulled or carried away out of their own Provinces and that thou mayst prophesie that they shall be destroyed or killed and dispersed in divers places or consumed That thou mayst build and plant that is that thou mayst declare that both the Jews and other Nations shall after a just and due Castigation be repaired and restored to their own proper Countries So that the Prophet Jeremy and the rest of the Prophets in like manner although they were chosen of God to denounce to wicked Persons Countries Kingdoms and Nations his deserved Judgments for their Sins yet were they neither the Workers nor the Authors of those Judgments Noah denounced the Flood but it cannot therefore be truly affirmed that Noah drowned the World Daniel denounced Nebuchadnezzar's fall but it was not Daniel that took his heart and understanding from him nor that made him to eat Grass like an Ox. Samuel denounced the Judgments of God against King Saul but Samuel did not thrust him out of his Kingdom And even so although the Prophet Jeremy denounced the Bondage of Babylon and many other Judgments of God against the said Nations yet it cannot be either truly said that Jeremy delivered the whole Kingdom of Judah into Captivity or that he overthrew or destroyed any of the rest only he prophesied as God did command him and left the Executions of such Judgments to the Times and Persons which the Lord had designed and appointed for that purpose CAN. XXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm that the Prophet Jeremy had any Authority to depose Kings from their Kingdoms for any cause whatsoever and to bestow them upon others as he thought fit or that albeit the said words were spoken by the Lord to Jeremy and that he being otherwise an inferiour Priest had no Authority literally so to cast down and set up Kings yet the High-priests Men of greater Power and Dignity might then have used Kings in that manner and sort according to their Deserts the benefit and preservation of the Church so requiring or that any of the High priests as deriving their Authority either from the said words spoken to Jeremy or from any thing else that is written in the Scriptures either might or ever did take upon them to give this Neighbour Kingdom to one Man and that remoter Kingdom to another Man or to depose any of their own Kings either of Judah or of Israel from their Kingdoms though many of them as elsewhere we have said were exceeding great Idolaters and sundry ways stained with lamentable blots he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVII THE History of Jehu before-mention'd doth put us in mind what is written of Ahud one of the Judges of Israel We have elsewhere shew'd that from Joshua's Death to the time of Saul God himself when his People were opprest by their bordering Neighbours did still raise up unto them Governours and Leaders called Judges without respect either of any Tribe more one than another or of the dignity of any Person or of the Peoples pleasure choice and consent first required but simply according to his own choice and wisdom In which number the said Ahud was one the manner of whose entrance into that charge we could not our course consider'd pretermit with silence The Israelites had been eighteen years in subjection to the Moabites as they had been a little before eight years to the Aramites They knew that it was not lawful for them of themselves and by their own Authority to take Arms against the Kings whose Subjects they were though indeed they were Tyrants and therefore they cried unto the Lord for succour Who in compassion of their servitude and miseries appointed Othoniel to deliver them from the Aramites and afterward Ahud from the Moabites In the choice of which two Judges it is to be observ'd that the Scriptures do tell us that God raised them up and therefore 't is most certain he did so and also that in such raising of them to their places he made them Saviours to his People as the Scriptures speak giving them thereby Authority to save and redeem the Israelites from the Tyrants that oppressed them without both which Prerogatives it had been altogether unlawful for them to have done as they did Besides it appeareth in the Scriptures that when the Lord did thus chuse out and authorize the said Deliverers and Rulers he did not only give them by his holy Spirit full assurance of their lawful Callings but likewise did furnish them with such wisdom and courage as was necessary for them in those kinds of Services So as Ahud at whom we principally aim being thus both called and instructed from God how he should begin his Peoples deliverance from the Moabites by killing of Eglon their King he framed his course accordingly and preparing for himself a meet Weapon took a fit Opportunity and thereupon as God had directed him he wholly resting upon the Lord's assistance
executed that Judgment upon the said King and afterward so vanquished the Moabites and subdued them under the hand of Israel as the whole Land was at rest from the oppression of their Enemies eighty years Besides it is to be observ'd that as God's appointing by Name and Election of Moses Joshua and Saul and after that the Kingdom was held by Succession the very being of the King's Son and the true Heir Apparent after his Father's Death gave unto them all the actual Interest Right and Possession as Possession in those cases is to be expounded of their several Governments to do any act or acts as well before as after any subsequent Formalities and Ceremonies even so the said form of calling the Judges by God himself immediately made them also Judges actually and did give unto them a full and absolute Authority independent upon any but upon him that gave it them to undertake any thing that by God's direction appertain'd to their places Again there is one other Example of Jehu amongst the Kings of Israel which we have before touched like unto this of Ahud wherein it appeareth that he the said Jehu was of a Subject first made the King of Israel before it was lawful for him to have killed Joram As Ahud a Subject was first made the Judge Prince and Ruler of the People before he might have lawfully killed King Eglon. Both which Examples being but in number two throughout the Histories of all the Princes Judges and Kings either of Judah or Israel do make it known unto us That although the Lord both may and is able to overthrow any Kings or Emperours notwithstanding any claim right title or interest which they can challenge to their Countries Kingdoms or Empires yet foreseeing in his Heavenly Wisdom and Divine Providence what mischief private Men under colour of these Examples might otherwise have pretended or attempted against their Soveraigns as being either discontented of themselves or set into some fury by other Malitious Persons he did so order and dispose of all things in the Execution of these such his extraordinary Judgments as that thereby it might plainly appear to any that should not willfully hoodwink himself never to be lawful for any Person whatsoever upon pretence of any Revelation Inspiration or Commandment from his divine Majesty either to touch the Person of his Soveraign or to bear Arms against him except God should first advance the said Person from his private Estate and make him a King or an absolute Prince to succeed his late Master in his Kingdom or Principality CAN. XXVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that any godly or dutiful Subject in the Old Testament did ever by the direction of God's Spirit account this fact of Ahud to be a lawful Warrant for him to have murder'd the Kings under whose subjection he lived for any cause whatsoever though he should have had never so many motions in his heart thereunto or that the High-Priest himself or all the rest of the Priests who then lived join'd together with him could have given Authority to any Person born a Subject to have so dealt with his Soveraign though he had been never so wicked and that such his Death might have availed the Church in their Opinions never so greatly or that either the said High-Priest and all his Consistory of Priests might lawfully have encouraged any who being born Subjects should have pretended in their Zeal toward Religion never so many Illuminations Directions or Commandments from God to have laid violent hands upon their King the Lord 's anointed for their proceeding in that course or that any Person born a Subject and affirming by all the Arguments which Wit or Learning could devise that God had called him to murther the King de facto under whom he lived yea though he should have first procured himself to be proclaimed and anointed King as Adonijah did and should afterward have laid violent hands upon his Master ought therefore to have been believed of any that feared God except which is impossible he should first prove his Credit in so affirming to be equal with the Scriptures and that Men were bound as strictly to believe him in saying that God called and stirred him up to the perpetrating of that fact as we are bound to believe the Holy Ghost by whose Instinct the Scriptures were written when he telleth us that God raised up Ahud for a Saviour to his People He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVIII HItherto in the whole course of that mild and temperate Monarchical Government which it pleased God to establish among his own People the duty of Inferiour Persons and Subjects of all sorts was ever Obedience They neither took upon them to chuse their Governours nor to bear Arms against them Howbeit it happened otherwise amongst some other Nations Nimrod not contenting himself with the portion which by Noah's general direction appertained unto him could never have erected his Tyrannical Government if a number of rebellious and discontented Persons had not cleaved unto him as the factious Sichemites did to Abimelech and made him their King The Romans having Kings rebelled against them and took the Government into their own hands the execution whereof did trouble them exceedingly Sometimes they committed it to many and sometimes to fewer their two Annual Consuls pleased them long but at the last they thought it fit to have a Dictator till in the end Julius Caesar and Augustus reduced their Government again into a Monarchy And as the Romans dealt with their Kings so did the People in some other Countries with their Governours Whereupon divers other kinds of Governments termed according to their Temper Aristocratical Political Tyrannical Oligarchical or Democratical c. were afterwards setled in many places The Inconveniencies of which Forms of Government being found upon many occasions oftentimes to be very great the People have been driven of necessity in sundry Countries to frame them again as near as they could to the Monarchical Government either by electing to themselves Kings upon certain Conditions to reign over them or by appointment of Dukes or Princes to be the Managers of their chief Affairs according as they themselves should direct them Besides as the said rebellious Humours of the People declining from their Obedience did in many Countries alter that temperate and fatherly Government which Noah had prescribed unto his Off-spring and which God himself established afterward amongst his own People so did the ambitious and insatiable dispositions of sundry no less elsewhere impeach the same as by the beginning and progress of the four Monarchies it is most apparent In all which Abberrations from the said mild and temperate Government before specified Almighty God who for the Sins of any Nation or Country altereth their Governments and Governors transferreth setteth up and bestoweth Kingdoms as it seemeth best to his heavenly Wisdom did ever by his Foresight and Providence so
dispose both the Rebellion of Subjects and the Malice and Greediness of encroaching Kings upon their Neighbours as albeit such their attempts of all sorts were in themselves very wicked and detestable in his sight yet he having the skill to bring Light out of Darkness and to use wicked Instruments and Actions for a good purpose did always frame and apply them to execute his own just Judgments When the Sins of a Nation but principally of his own People were of that Nature Height and Ripeness as his Justice could not fitly be put in execution by any other but by the wicked for example in the overthrowing of Hierusalem God's own City in burning of the Temple that was the place of his Glory and carrying his own People into Captivity though never so much by them deserved no godly King could well have been employed but such a One only as the King of Babylon was In respect of which their Imployment such wicked Instruments to execute God's just Judgments are called sometimes his Servants and the Rods of his Wrath or as Attila termed himself the Scourge of God And when having attained their ungodly desires whether ambitious Kings by bringing any Countrey into their subjection or disloyal Subjects by their rebellious rising against their natural Sovereigns they have established any of the said degenerate Forms of Government amongst their People the Authority either so unjustly gotten or wrung by force from the true and lawful Possessor being always God's Authority and therefore receiving no impeachment by the wickedness of those that have it is ever when any such alterations are throughly setled to be reverenced and obeyed and the People of all sorts as well of the Clergy as of the Laity are to be subject unto it not only for fear but also for conscience sake the Israelites in Egypt after Joseph's death being oppressed very tyrannically many ways did never rebel against any of those Kings but submitted themselves to their Authority though their Burthens were very intolerable both in respect of the impossible works imposed upon them and because also they might not offer Sacrifices to the Lord a special part of God's Worship without apparent danger of stoning to death Besides it may not be omitted when God himself sent Moses to deliver them from that Servitude he would not suffer him to carry them thence till Pharaoh their King gave them licence to depart Afterward also when the Jews being brought into subjection to the Kings of Babylon did by the instigation of false Prophets rebel against them they were in that respect greatly condemned by the Prophet Jeremy and in their Captivity which shortly after followed they lived by the direction of the said Prophet in great subjection and Obedience they prayed not only for their Kings and for their Children that they might live long and prosper but likewise for the State of their Government the good success whereof they were bound to seek and regard as well as any other of the King 's dutiful Subjects And thus they lived in Babylon and other places of that Dominion till the King gave them leave to depart notwithstanding in the mean time they endured many Calamities and were destitute for many years of the publick Service and Worship of God which was tyed to the Temple and might not elsewhere be practised or attempted CAN. XXVIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Subjects when they shake off the Yoke of their Obedience to their Sovereigns and set up a Form of Government among themselves after their own humours do not therein very wickedly or that it is lawful for any bordering Kings through Ambition and Malice to invade their Neighbours or that the Providence and Goodness of God in using of Rebellions and Oppressions to execute his Iustice against any King or Countrey doth mitigate or qualifie the Offences of any such Rebels or oppressing Kings or that when any such new Forms of Government begun by Rebellion are after throughly settled the Authority in them is not of God or that any who live within the Territories of such new Governments are not bound to be subject to God's Authority which is there executed but may rebel against the same or that the Jews either in Egypt or Babylon might lawfully for any cause have taken Arms against any of those Kings or have offered any violence to their Persons He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIX ALthough the Jews upon their deliverance out of Captivity and restitution to their own Country received many favours from the Persian Kings and had liberty given them to live in a sort according to their own Laws yet they never recover'd their former Estate but liv'd in great subjection and servitude under them whilst that Monarchy endured The Temple and City of Hierusalem were again built but not with the magnificence which they had before Zorobabel first and then Nehemiah were made successively by the said Kings the Rulers and Governours of the Jews so restored but with divers restraints It was not forgotten what mighty Kings had ruled in Hierusalem and therefore the said Rulers were not permitted to govern any more in that Regal sort They were still subject to the direction of those Kings and paid unto them very large Tribute and Customs insomuch as when the Priests gave publick thanks unto God for his restoring unto them the state which they had they said thus withal unto him as bewailing their condition Behold we are Servants this day in the Land which thou gavest our Fathers it yieldeth much fruit unto the Kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins and they have dominion over our Bodies and over our Cattel at our pleasure and we are in great affliction The extraordinary favour which was shewed to any was principally extended toward the Priests over whom the said Kings had not so jealous an eye as they had over the Princes and the rest of the People Howbeit the same notwithstanding they the said Priests were subject to their own immediate Princes both in Temporal and Ecclesiastical Causes as formerly the Priests had been to the Kings of Judah before the Captivity Their Governours forbad certain who said they were Priests from eating of the most holy things Nehemiah ministred an Oath unto the Priests he reform'd the abuses of the Sabbath and prescrib'd Orders for the better observing thereof He appointed certain of the Priests to oversee the Tithes in the Treasury He commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves and to keep the Gates and to sanctifie the Sabbath Eliasib the High-Priest having defiled the Temple by letting Tobias a Stranger a Chamber in the Court of the House of God where in afore times the Offerings the Incense the Vessels and such other things used in God's Service had been kept Nehemiah the Governour was greatly offended with it and displacing the said Tobias cast forth all his stuff out
of his said Chamber and brought thither again the Vessels of the House of God with the Meat-offerings and Incense CAN. XXIX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Almighty God kept not his promise to the Iews made in his name by the Prophet Jeremy as touching their deliverance by Cyrus out of their Captivity because they were not restor'd to any such perfect liberty and Government as they had before or that the said Kings of Persia continuing still by God's appointment a supream Authority over the Jews so restor'd might by them for any cause or under any colour have been defrauded of their Tributes or resisted by force of Arms or otherwise impeach'd either in their States or Persons or that Zorobabel and Nehemiah were not lawful Princes over the Jews because they were placed in that Government without the Peoples Election or that they the said Princes by dealing in Cases Ecclesiastical as is aforesaid did take more upon them than by God's appointment appertain'd to their charge or that the Priests both high and low had not grievously sinned if they had not submitted themselves in the said Ecclesiastical Causes to the direction of those their civil Governours he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXX THE High-Priest as before we have said in that mild and temperate Government which God himself had Ordained was the second Person in the Kingdom Whereupon the same after the Captivity being turn'd as it were into a Dukedom and for ought that appeareth the Princes after Nehemiah's time growing poor by reason of their payments to those Kings to whom they were Tributary and receiving small assistance or countenance from them because they were still jealous of them whereas the Priests it seemeth being freed from all-Tributes and Impositions grew rich and were no way suspected it came to pass the sins of the people so requiring that the High-Priest did easily oversway both their Princes and their People and thereby attained very great Authority in that Principality Only they stood in awe for the time of the Kings of Persia to whose Obedience they were bound by an Oath when they were made High-Priests but otherwise for ought we find they had no great regard of any other Authority which so advanced the dignity of the Priesthood as afterward the practices of the High-Priest's Children to succeed their Father in that high dignity grew as troublesome to the People as was their servitude to the Persians For Jesus the younger Brother of John the second High-Priest after Eliasib mentioned by Nehemiah procured by corruption the favour of the chief Governour of the Persians in those Countries adjoining for his assistance to deprive his Brother that he himself might enjoy the High-Priesthood whereof his elder Brother having some notice did kill him in the Temple which the said Governour took in so evil part as he spoiled the said Temple being as he said profaned with Blood and laid an exceeding great Tribute in that respect upon the People to indure for seven Years But John the High-Priest continued in his place After whose Death his two Sons Jaddus and Manasses fell at great variance the younger to make himself strong against his elder Brother Married contrary to the Law of God with a Daughter of Sanballat another Chief Ruler in Samaria under the King of Persia For which offence Jaddus notwithstanding the Authority of Sanballat remov'd him from the dignity of Priesthood and thereupon he the said Manasses procured by Sanballat's means a Temple to be built in Mount Garizin near Samaria in form and magnificence like to that in Hierusalem where he flourished and whither all the lewd persons of Judah had daily recourse Upon which occasion much trouble arose afterwards betwixt the Samaritans and the Jews The said Jaddus lived till the Monarchy of the Grecians began who when Alexander having overthrown Darius the King of the Persians sent unto him that he should assist him in his Wars and become Tributary to the Macedonians as he had been to the Persians return'd for his Answer that he might not yield thereunto because he had taken an Oath for his true Allegiance to Darius which he might not lawfully violate whilst Darius lived being by flight escaped when his Army was discomfited We have here cited and shall hereafter cite some things out of the Books of the Maccabees and other ancient Historiographers of purpose to continue the manner of the Government of the Jews in what case they stood from time to time after the days of Nehemiah not meaning thereby to attribute any Canonical Authority unto them nor to establish any point of Doctrine out of them but only to proportion and measure the regiment and actions of that people by the rules and analogy of the holy Scriptures CAN. XXX IF any Man therefore shall affirm contrary to the grounds and truths of the said holy Scriptures either that albeit Kings of Persia had authorized some succeeding Princes as they did Zorobabel and Nehemiah and whether they did so or no is not certain yet the High Priests might afterward have lawfully born the sway that they did and not been subject unto them as their Predecessors had been to Zorobabel and Nehemiah or that if Nehemiah continued alive in that Government till Jaddus's time as it is probable he did he might not lawfully being authorized as before though he were old have reform'd any abuse in the Priests both high and low or that they were not bound in Conscience to have obey'd him therein or that the Jews might lawfully have rebelled for any cause against the Persians during their Government over them or that Jaddus the High-Priest did amiss in binding his Allegiance to King Darius by an Oath or that he had not sinned if he had refused being thereunto required so to have sworn or that having so sworn he might lawfully have born Arms himself against Darius or have sollicited others whether Aliens or Jews thereunto he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXI ALexander by God's Providence having vanquished the Persians the Jews amongst many other Nations became his Subjects He dealt favourably with them released them of some Payments granted them liberty to live according to their own Laws and left their Government in every point as he found it their Duties ordinary Tributes and some of their Royal Prerogatives always reserved to the Macedonians as they had been before to the Persians but this their tolerable Estate endured not long For upon Alexander's death his chief Captains conspiring together made such a scambling Division of the Empire amongst themselves as they could every one almost notwithstanding seeking how he might suppress the rest and attain the whole alone to himself So as thereupon the Jews were as free from the Macedonians as any other of their bordering Neighbours none of the said Captains having any lawful Interest or Title to Judah But that which turned to the benefit of some
by the Maccabees themselves because he was a Priest of the Seed of Aaron did traiterously notwithstanding and treacherously Murder sundry of the Jews and held the Government of that Country till Judas Maccabaeus put him to flight Howbeit accusing the Maccabees again of wicked things he urged afterward the said King to send a new Army against them and was himself as it seemeth in the Host when Judas Maccabaeus was slain Besides it is also reported of him how he commanded that the Walls of the Inner-Court of the Sanctuary should be destroy'd and how he pulled down the Monuments of the Prophets and how in that his so wicked and profane an attempt he was stricken with the Palsey and died with great torment Now concerning Onias who if he had been of lawful Age and might have had his right ought to have been High-Priest before both his Uncles Jason and Menelaus when he perceiv'd that Alcimus had gotten that place and saw no probability how he might get it from him he fled into Egypt and there procured a Temple to be built like unto that in Hierusalem whereof he was made the principal Ruler So greedy was he of the High-Priesthood that seeing he might not be High-Priest in Hierusalem he would needs be a High-Priest in Egypt against God's Command But perhaps the High-Priesthood amongst the Jews was better bestow'd afterwards Indeed now it came into the hands of the Maccabees but how they used it there is little mention It is probable that being so distracted as they were and so continually in a manner vexed with Wars they had no time to execute that office in such sort as otherwise divers of them no doubt would have done But it cannot be denied that some of that rank were greatly puffed up with that Authority and did thereby much forget themselves and the holy Duties appertaining to the High-Priesthood Else would not Aristobulus have so unnaturally famished his own Mother nor have suffer'd the cruel Murther of his Innocent Brother Antigonus nor would Alexander succeeding Aristobulus have committed the like Murther upon his younger Brother nor would afterward the two Sons of the said Alexander viz. Hircanus and Aristobulus have grown through their ambitious desires to such mortal hatred For Aristobulus thrusting his eldest Brother Hircanus from the High Priesthood and he the said Hircanus continuing still his claim they never ceased their Hostility till Pompey having subdued them both brought both them and the whole Country under the subjection of the Romans We omit what great sums of money they bestowed on either side to procure Pompey's favour to whom they had committed the deciding of their Causes and also how Hircanus assisted Pompey in his attempt against Hierusalem partly in hope thereby to get the High Priesthood and partly in malice against his Brother who as long as he could defended that City the Issue of all which strife was this Pompey subdued the City slew twelve thousand Men Aristobulus is put from the High Priesthood the civil Government is separated again from the High-Priesthood the High Priesthood is bestowed upon Hircanus for his Service and the civil Government thenceforth translated to strangers the Temple was spoiled and Hierusalem was made Tributary to the People of Rome Of all which Calamities falling in this sort upon the Jews the dissention betwixt Hircanus and Aristobulus was held in those days to have been the cause to the great blemish of their credits professing themselves to be God's High-Priests Besides while Jason Menelaus Alcimus and the Maccabees were busied in their said Un-Priestly Contentions and Greekish profanations divers Sects of Religion arose and encreased among the Jews especially that of the Pharisees a crafty and an arrogant kind of Men seditiously bent against their Kings and impugners without fear of their Authority In which course they were the rather animated because they found through their Hypocrisy that Women were generally addicted to them and that the People did so admire them as they believed in effect whatsoever they told them against any although it were never so false or maliciously devised by them And thus Religion went in those days when the Priests had gotten the Reins into their own hands although we doubt not but that there were some few notwithstanding both of the Priests and of the People who disliking of all their said hypocritical ambitious profane and wicked Practices cover'd sometimes with a pretence of Zeal and sometimes with the glorious name of the High Priesthood did truly from their hearts both fear and serve the Lord. CAN. XXXII IF any Man therefore because in the Law of God there was great obedience to the High-Priest prescribed and required or that it is said by the Prophet That the Priests Lips should preserve knowledge and that the People should seek the law of his mouth whereas the meaning of the Holy Ghost in those and such like places only is that the High-Priests were to be obeyed when they commanded that which was not repugnant to the law of God and that the Lips of the Priests ought to preserve knowledge shall affirm either that it was not wickedly done by their Priests to thrust the People into many imminent dangers for the maintenance of their lewd quarrels and factions or that they did not grievously offend God when they forsook his true worship and brought heathenish and profane Sacrifices into his Temple or that the People were bound to obey when they requir'd them to conform themselves to the Idolatrous worship of the Heathen or that it was lawful for any of the said High-Priests by injury bribery or cruelty to seek the High Priesthood or that the Priests and People that joined with them did not wickedly who assisted Pompey to invade Hierusalem and to bring their own Countrey in Bondage to the Romans or that any such Pharisaical Sects never ordained by God were lawfully then permitted to seduce the simpler sort of the People leading them into Factions and Dislike of their Superiours He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXIII THE Jews being subdued by the Romans and brought under their subjection about sixty years before the coming of Christ were used by them very kindly and with great respect They had liberty granted them to live according to their own Laws so as they paid their Tributes and framed their Behaviour to Quietness and Obedience Hircanus the High-Priest placed by Pompey lived long after in great Authority But nothing would satisfie them till in the end it came to pass that as the Ambition and Strife betwixt Hircanus and Aristobulus brought Pompey upon them so now their own Wickedness and rebellious Hearts were the cause of their greater Servitude Afflictions and Miseries The remnant of the Maccabees Aristobulus and his two Sons Alexander and Antigonus would never desist from their rebellious Attempts until they were all cut off Antipater the first Governour or Procurator appointed
Earth is the Lord's and all that therein is the round World and all that dwell therein Whereupon he was called ordinarily in the Old Testament Dominator Dominus the Lord of Hosts the God and Possessour of Heaven and Earth So as he being the universal Lord and Ruler over all the World the whole World was his Universal Kingdom in the Government whereof he ever used the Ministry of civil Magistrates as well in other Countries as amongst his own peculiar People of Israel without any desert of theirs but as in his Heavenly Providente he thought it most convenient I have made saith he the Earth the Man and the Beasts that are upon the ground and have given it to whom it pleaseth me and again the Prophet Daniel telleth us that God changeth the times and seasons that he hath power and beareth rule over the Kingdoms of men that he taketh away Kings and setteth up Kings and that it was the God of Heaven who gave unto Nebuchadnezzar so great a Kingdom Power Strength and Glory as then he had to rule with Majesty and Honour a very great Empire In respect whereof although Kings and Princes might have been satisfied with the Titles of Lieutenants or Vicegerents in Earth to the Son of God yet he did communicate and impart so much of his Power Authority and Dignity unto them as he was content to stile them with his own Name I have said You are gods and the Children of the most High Howbeit for all their said Dignity and Greatness he did not leave them at liberty to do what they list but held himself the Helm of every Kingdom and used their Services in such sort as were they good or bad and their designments holy or wicked he ever made them the Executioners of his own just Judgments Will and good Pleasure according as he was minded either to bless or to punish any Kingdom People or Countrey In regard of which his Might Providence and Wisdom whereby he ruleth them after that sort he is called the Lord of lords the King of Glory and the God of gods that is of Kings Princes Judges and Rulers of the Earth And it may not here be omitted which indeed ariseth of the Premisses that the Son of God in disposing of the Government under him of the Earth did not appoint any one man to be the sole Monarch of the world as from whom all other Kingdoms Governments Kings and Princes should receive their Directions and unto whom they should be subject It is true that Adam whilst he lived was the chief Governour under the Son of God over all his own Off-spring and that Noah likewise during his Life had the like Authority But when after the Flood the Issue of Sem Cham and Japhet grew to a great People their Father Noah did not commit to any one of them the Government of the rest and of all of their Posterity but divided the whole World amongst them three and from them no one sole Monarch or Monarchy but many Kings Principalities Kingdoms and Governments by God's Providence have descended It is more than probable that if the Son of God had been pleased to have committed to any one Man a Government of so large an extent he would have trusted his Servant King David with it being a Man according to his own Heart But the Kingdom of Israel wherein David reigned was bounded within the strait Limits assigned to the Twelve Tribes And such other Kings as swerved after that time from David's mild and temperate Government and took upon them the Titles of Monarchies having enlarged their Kingdoms by Injury and Oppression of their Neighbours where in their Pride and Greediness but the Scourges and Rods of God's Indignation and had their fatal Ends accordingly So as where the Prophet Daniel speaking of the Kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar calleth him King of kings and saith that he was the Ruler over all places wherein the Children of Men dwelt and Cyrus the King of Persia affirmeth that the Lord God of Heaven had given him all the Kingdoms of the Earth For as much as it is apparent both by the Scriptures and other Histories that neither of them both had the Tenth part of the World under their Jurisdiction and that there were very many Kings who had Absolute Government in their Kingdoms and were no ways subject unto them the said places of necessity must receive this Exposition That either they are to be understood Hyperbolically whereby to express the Greatness of a thing it is said to be bigger than it was or by a Synecdoche which useth the whole sometimes for a part or according to the usual Phrase of the Scriptures where All are often taken for Many or else both Daniel and Cyrus spake after the manner of the Chaldaeans and Persians who to extoll the Greatness of their Kings and the better to please them did peradventure so enlarge and amplifie the Style CAN. XXXV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Son of God according to the Doctrine of the Old Testament was not the Governour of all the World or that he did not appoint under him divers Kings Princes and civil Magistrates to Rule and Govern in the Kingdomes and Places assigned unto them or that having so appointed them he did not himself direct uphold and rule them by his Omnipotence according to his Divine Wisdom and might not in that respect be truly called The Lord of lords and The God of gods or that all the World and the particular Kingdoms and civil kinds of Government in the World were not in respect of the Son of God as he is the Governour of the World and the Lord of lords and God of gods one Kingdom Principality or Government thereby to impeach the mild and temperate Government which he had established amongst the Jews or that he ever committed the Government of all the World after Adam and Noah's times to any One Man to be the Sole and Visible Monarch of it or that the said Kingdom of Christ as he was the Lord of lords and God of gods and so govern'd the whole World was otherwise visible upon the Earth than per partes viz. by the particular Kingdoms and kinds of civil Government or perhaps by some Representation He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXVI AS there hath been from the beginning one Universal Kingdom throughout all the World whereof the Son of God was ever the sole though invisible Monarch as we have shewed in the former Chapter So it is generally agreed upon among all Christians That from the Creation of Mankind during the times aforesaid there hath always been One Universal or Catholick Church which began in Adam and afterward as his Posterity multiplied both before and after the Flood was dispersed over the face of the whole Earth and whereof the Son of God likewise was always the head
CAN. XXXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that during the continuance of the Old Testament the Merits of Christ's Death actually to come were not sufficient to save all true Believers or that there was then no Catholick Church or that at any time there was any other Rock but Jesus Christ the blessed Seed upon whom the Catholick Church was then built or that many of the Gentiles were not always for ought that is known to the contrary true Members of the Catholick Church or that Christ himself was not the sole Head or Monarch all that while of the whole Catholick Church or that the said Catholick Church after the Members of it were dispersed into all the places of the World was otherwise visible than per partes or that Noah did appoint any Man to be the visible Head of the said Catholick Church or that the High-Priest among the Jews had any more Authority over the Catholick Church of God than King David had over the Vniversal Kingdom of God or that the said High-Priest had not greatly sinn'd if he had taken upon him or usurped any such infinite Authority He doth greatly Erre Placet eis The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have passed with one Consent both the Convocation-Houses and so are approved R. Cant. The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have been diligently read and deliberately examin'd and thereupon have likewise passed with one Consent in the Convocation-House of the Province of York Jo. Bristol praeses Convocat Eborac LIB II. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended course through the Old Testament and until the Destruction of Jerusalem we over-slipped and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said course as we find the true Grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our entrance into which course we confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange Impediments and mighty Stumbling-blocks which through long Practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successours For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit Project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better ordered polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successours We can see no Authentical Ground nor sufficient Warrant in those Writings which ought to be the true Rule of every Christian Man's Conscience as not being there to be found for any Apostolical Priest or Bishop either to pretend that all the particular Churches in the World are under his Government or to tell the Subjects of any Christian King opposite in some points unto him That they are no longer bound to obey him their said King but until they shall be able by force of Arms or by some secret Practice to subdue him or to challenge to himself an Absolute and Universal Authority and Power over all Kings and Kingdoms in the World to bestow them in some cases under pretence of Religion when he shall think the same to be most available for the strengthning and upholding of such his pretended Universal Power and Dominion To the Proof whereof before we address our selves because the same doth much depend upon the admirable Humiliation of the Son of God in taking our Nature upon him and performing the Work of our Salvation in such a manner as he did We have thought it our Duties lest otherwise we might be mistaken either through Weakness Simplicity or Malice first briefly to observe notwithstanding our Saviour's said Humiliation the most wonderful Dignity Preheminency and Royalty of his Person It is many ways apparent that the mean Estate and Condition of our Saviour Christ here upon Earth was one especial Motive both to the Jews and Gentiles why in their carnal Judgments he was to the one sort a Scandal and to the other a Scorn as if he had been a Man out of his Wits and preached he knew not what In which respect partly not only the People of the Jews the Priests of all sorts the Scribes and Pharisees with the rest of their Hypocritical Orders but likewise the civil Governours as well Romans as Jews did utterly despise him hate him deride him beat him and put him to death Since which time sundry sorts of Hereticks have stumbled at the same stone labouring by all the means they could to impeach and dishonour the Person of Christ in regard of the mean shew of his humane Nature notwithstanding the many Arguments which they might have found in the Scriptures had not their Hearts been hardned of his Divinity On the other side we are not ignorant how the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents supposing it would too much impeach their Credits and worldly Reputations if they should be too much pressed to deduce the principal strength of their Estates and Callings from the said mean Condition of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World do thereupon attribute sundry Virtues Powers and Branches of Authority unto his humane Nature which do not in Truth belong properly unto it but are rather appertaining to his Person being both God and Man as hoping thereby to get some fair Pretences and Colours for the upholding of their usurped Greatness and pretended uncontroulable Sovereignty For the avoiding therefore of these Extremities and because such as deny the Pope's Supremacy are most falsly charged by sundry passionate and inconsiderate Persons to be Men that believe no one Article of the Christian Faith We have thought it meet to make it known to all the Christian World how detestable to the Church of England all such false Doctrine is as doth any way not only impeach the Sacred Person of our Saviour
hence as having all other Kings and Princes here in the World as Vassals in that respect and subject unto it He doth greatly Erre CAP. IV. The sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ in working our Salvation whilst he lived upon the Earth conformed himself wholly and his obedience unto the Ecclesiastical Government and Laws of the Church then in force inveighed not with any bitterness against the High-Priests though they were his Enemies and in many points faulty but had ever a great respect of them in regard of their Authority made no new Laws when he expounded the old erected no particular Congregations or Churches apart from the Congregations and particular Churches of the Jews but did together with his Apostles and Disciples join with the Church of the Jews in their publick worship and service of God omitting no one circumstance Ceremony or duty undertaken voluntarily by him which he did not very throughly perform even with the loss of his Life AS our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World did no way disturb the civil state but upon every fit occasion did submit himself unto it So may it be truly said of him concerning the State Ecclesiastical formerly by God himself established and remaining still among the Jews though in a very corrupt manner that he did in every thing thereunto by the Law of God appertaining conform himself unto it while it lasted I say while it lasted because upon his Death there was a great alteration According to the Ecclesiastical Laws then whilst he lived in force he was first Circumcised and so made himself subject to the fullfilling of the whole Law Then as the Law did likewise require he was brought by his Mother to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and to have an Oblation suitable to their poor Estate of a pair of Turtle-Doves or two Pigeons offered to God with the price of Redemption for him in that he was a Manchild and the first-born There were no kind of solemn Feasts appointed by the Law which he honoured not with his presence according to the Law Nay he was pleased to be present at the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple which was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus and his Brethren as well to teach all Posterity by his Example what godly Magistrates may ordain in such kind of Causes as also how things so ordain'd ought to be observed And as he was Circumcised so did he celebrate and observe the chief Feasts of the Passover omitting nothing which either on the behalf of the Jews or for our sakes he had undertaken to perform And although the Priests in those days were very far out of square and that our Saviour Christ had very just cause in that respect to have reprov'd them sharply as other Prophets had often dealt with their Predecessors yet he did so much regard them by reason of their Authority unless he should otherwise have seem'd to have contemned both them and it as he did rather choose to let them understand their offences by Parables than by any rough reprehension still upholding them in their credits and authority as by the Law of God in that behalf it was provided When amongst many other his wonderful great Miracles he had healed certain Lepers he bad them go show themselves to their Priests because they were appointed Judges by the Law to discern the curing of that Disease before the Parties though indeed healed of it might intermingle themselves with the rest of the People and did further require them to offer for their cleansing those things which Moses had commanded in testimonium illis that is that so the said Priests might plainly see both that he was a Keeper of the Law and also that he had healed them and so be driven to repent them of their incredulity or at the least prevented thereby from slandering either him as a Breaker of the Law or that which he had done for them as if he had not throughly healed them Neither is it any way repugnant hereunto that when our Saviour Christ found chopping and changing by buying and selling in the Temple he made a Scourge of small Cords and drave them thence with the Sheep Oxen Doves and Money-Bags forbidding them to make his Fathers House an House of Merchandise For he did not thereby in any sort prejudice the Authority of the Priests who should chiefly have prevented such gross abuses and traffick in the Temple as if he had done the same either as a chief Priest or a Temporal King according to some Mens fond imaginations by any Pontifical or Regal Authority but his fact therein howsoever it might shew the negligence of the said Priests did only proceed from his Divine Zeal as he was a Prophet and could not endure such an abominable profanation of God's House many Prophets before him having done matters very lawfully of greater moment through the like divine and extraordinary Zeal in them without any impeachment of any Power either Regal or Pontifical Howbeit that our Saviour Christ was oftentimes very vehement against the Scribes and Pharisees it is plain and manifest when joining them both together he termed them serpents the Generation of Vipers and denounceth against them in one Chapter eight Woes concluding thus How should you escape the damnation of Hell The reason that these Curses and hard censures were jointly laid upon them was because they themselves were joined together in all kinds of Impiety and Malice against Christ and were neither of them especially the Pharisees any Plants of God's Plantation For whilst not only the High-Priests were still in Faction and Fury one against another as well for the getting as the keeping that high preferment and that many of the inferiour Priests were either siding amongst themselves for one Party or other or else more idle and negligent in discharging of their duties than they ought to have been these two Sects thrust themselves into the Church and through their Hypocrisy so prevail'd with the People in short time as the Priests afterward either could not or would not be rid of them because on the one side they thought it in vain to strive with them they were so backed and on the other side they found them so diligent in discharging of those duties which did appertain to themselves and withal so careful to uphold the state and authority of the Priesthood By means whereof they grew very shortly into so great estimation that as one writeth of the Pharisees whatsoever did appertain to publick and solemn Prayers and to the worship of God it was done according to their interpretations and as they prescribed And the Scribes being likewise Doctors and Expounders of the Law and concurring still with the interpretations and prescriptions of the Pharisees came not by that policy in their credits and reputation had of them far short behind them The distinction between them may
Death of Christ to repair to their Priests and Sanhedrims if either they meant to be truly instructed in the Laws or to have such manner of Offences lawfully punished by those kind of Censures that Christ in the said place speaketh of But what should we insist so much upon this point to prove that all the Jews that either believed in Christ or did reject him were bound before the Passion of our Saviour Christ to be obedient to the Ecclesiastical Governours established by God himself in that visible Church considering how careful our Saviour Christ was upon every occasion offered for the preservation of their Authority whilst it was to endure and with what Humility he did submit himself unto it For being sent for by them he was content at that time to go unto them and to be examined by them when he had found them many ways before to be his mortal Enemies and knew how at that present they were plotting to take away his Life by corrupting of Judas to betray him into their hands and by suborning of false Witnesses to accuse him as also how after they had examined him they would use him most despitefully and scornfully spit in his Face and buffet him beat him with Rods carry him bound as a Malefactour and deliver him to Pilate the Civil Magistrate Likewise how they themselves would be his Accusers how they would practise with the People to prefer Barabbas's liberty being a Murtherer before his and to cry out with them to Pilate Let him be crucified Let him be crucified Crucify him Crucify him their Outrage and Fury being so bent against him as that they themselves would have put him to death if by the Laws of the Romans whereunto they were then subject they might have been permitted so to have done CAN. III. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived upon the Earth was not obedient to the State Ecclesiastical as he was to the Temporal or that all Christians by his Example are not bound to be as well obedient to their Church-Governours as they are to their civil Magistrates or that Christian Kings have not now as full Authority to appoint some Festival Days of publick thanksgiving to God in remembrance of some great and extraordinary mercies of his shew'd unto them upon those days as Judas Maccabaeus had to ordain the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple to be yearly celebrated or that where any such Festival Days are appointed the Subjects of every such King ought not by Christ's Example in celebrating the said Feast to observe and keep them or that all the true Members of the Church are not taught by Christ's Example in his observing of the Ceremonial Law being then in force that they likewise are bound to observe all such Constitutions and Ceremonies as for Order and Decency are with all due Cautions established in any particular Church by the chief Governours of it until it shall please them the said Governours to abrogate them or that all Christians are not bound by Christ's Example to refrain all bitterness of Calumniation and Detraction and to deal temperately and mildly with their Ecclesiastical Governours in respect of their Authority that it be not brought into contempt though they find some imperfections either in their Persons or in their Proceedings as he our said blessed Saviour in the same respect dealt with the Priests of the Jews though they had many ways transgressed and were his mortal Enemies or that Christ by whipping Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple did either impeach the Authority of the Priests or practise therein any Pontifical or Temporal Power as if he had been a temporal King or did the same by any other Authority than as he was a Prophet or that Christians are not now as strongly bound in doubts of Religion to repair unto the chief Ministers and Ecclesiastical Governours although they are not always tied to do as they do as were the Jews in such like Cases bound to repair to them that sate in Moses's Seat or that every true Christian when for the said Cause he repaireth to the chief Ministers and Governours of the Church to be resolv'd by them is any further now bound to depend upon such their Resolutions than they are able to shew them unto him out of the Word of God or than the Jews were bound to believe the Scribes and Pharisees though they sat in Moses's Chair when they taught them any thing which was not agreeable to that which Moses had commanded or that Christ's Example in condemning the false Interpretations and Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and in restoring to the Law the true sense and original meaning of it hath not ever since warranted learned and godly Men when they found the Scriptures perverted by those that govern the Church of purpose to make their own gain thereof and to maintain their great Vsurpations to free the same by searching the said Scriptures from all such false Interpretations and Glosses and to make plain as much as in them did lie the true sense and meaning of them or that our Saviour Christ when he purged divers parts of the Law from the gross and erroneous Expositions of the Scribes and Pharisees did give any other sense and meaning of them or infer upon it any new Rules of greater perfection either as he was Man or as he was a Prophet than they had and contained originally when he first gave them to the Israelites as he was God or that it is not an erroneous and fond conceit like unto that of the Sectaries among the Jews especially of the Pharisees for any sort of Persons no way able to perform their duties to God in such manner and sort as they ought once so much as to imagine that by the observation of their own rules they are able to attain to greater perfection than by the observation of God's rules or that it is not as vain and fond an imagination as the former for any Christian Man to think that the enjoying of such Possessions and Riches as God hath blessed him with is repugnant to that perfection which God hath required at his hands or that the same are otherwise incompatible with the said perfection than in such cases only when either they must leave their Worldly Estates or Christ their Saviour or that our Saviour Christ by laying of some grounds for the future estate of the Church after his Passion did thereby erect any new Churches apart from that Church which was to continue until his Death or that the Example of Christ and his Apostles in holding Society and Communion with the Jews in the outward worship and service of God doth not condemn all such Sectaries as do separate themselves from the Churches of Christ whereof they were once Members the same being true Churches by lawful Authority established under pretence of they
know not what new Christianity or that there ought not to be now amongst Christians Ecclesiastical Courts for Ecclesiastical Causes as well as there were such Courts amongst the Jews for such kind of Causes or that all Christians are not now bound to repair as well to Ecclesiastical Courts and Governours for reformation of such Offences as are of Ecclesiastical Counusance as the Jews were bound to repair to their Sanhedrims to have those Evils redressed that were to be reform'd by those Courts or that as many as do profess themselves to be true Imitators of Christ in their Lives and Conversation are not bound to such obedience unto their Princes and Rulers how evil-disposed soever they be yea though they seek their Lives as Christ shewed and performed both to the Ecclesiastical and Temporal State of the Iews at what time he knew they were plotting his Death He doth greatly Erre CAP. V. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not alter the form of temporal Government establisht by himself long before his Incarnation and that therefore Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes though they were then Infidels were nevertheless to be obey'd by the Subjects as formerly from the beginning they had been IT hath been before observ'd by us that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World was no temporal King nor had any temporal Dominion Court Possessions Regal State Dukes Earls Lords or any other Subjects as other temporal Kings had to obey and serve him But perhaps after his Resurrection it was for otherwise with him Indeed so it was For whereas the Son of God God himself equal to the Father by being made Man did cease to put in practice the Glory and Majesty of his Deity in his humane Nature otherwise than by doing such Miracles as he thought necessary for the Conversion of those who were to believe in him Now after his Resurrection and Ascension the state of his humane Nature was become as it may well be said much more glorious because his Divine Nature did communicate unto his Humane Nature So many divine Dignities and operations of his Deity in respect of the hypostatical Union betwixt them as the same was capable of without turning of his Divine Nature into his Humane Nature It being always to be understood that the said hypostatical and real Union notwithstanding there was never any Confusion betwixt the two Natures of Christ both of them always retaining their distinct and essential Proprieties Which ground observ'd we may truly say that the Attributes are admirable which in regard of the said Union are and may be ascribed unto our Saviour Christ as he is Man especially after his Resurrection and Ascension For some short proof hereof these following Places may suffice Before our Saviour Christ commanded his Apostles to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost he told them lest they should have doubted whether he had any Authority to make them so large a Commission that all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth He also was before as the Holy Ghost testifieth of him made Heir of all things and so had a true Interest in them and after his Resurrection had the full possession of them We see Jesus saith the Apostle crown'd with glory and honour And again When God raised up Jesus from the dead he set him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Domination and every Name that is named not in this world only but in that also which is to come and hath made all things subject under his feet And again The kingdoms of this world are our Lord's and his Christ's And again The lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings And to conclude He hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written The King of kings and Lord of lords Howbeit all that we have hitherto said notwithstanding though all the World doth actually appertain to our Saviour Christ now in Glory as he is Man in respect of the said Unition or hypostatical Union yet did he not alter after his Resurrection and Ascension the manner of temporal Government which he had ordained throughout the World before his Incarnation as he was God his humane Nature being invested by the power of his Divinity in manner before exprest with all his said Glory and Authority but doth still continue the sole Monarch over all distributing that his universal Kingdom as formerly he had done into divers Principalities and Kingdoms and appointing temporal Kings and Soveraign Princes as his Substitutes and Vicegerents to rule them all by the Rules and Laws of Nature if they be Ethnicks or if Christians then not only by those Rules but also as well by the Equity of the Judicial Laws which he gave to the Jews as by the Doctrine of the Gospel more throughly opened and delivered with all the parts of it by himself and his Apostles than in former times it had been Of Christian Kings we shall have fitter place to speak hereafter Now we will prosecute this point concerning the Regal Authority of Princes that are Infidels and consider more particularly Whether they did not and so consequently do not still as lawfully enjoy their Kingdoms and legal Soveraignties under our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension as they did before either of them and likewise as they did before his Incarnation according to that which we have delivered in the former Chapter And the especial Reason that moveth us so to do is the audacious temerity of the before-named ignorant Canonists and of their adherents the new Sectaries of the Oratory Congregation who with the like Ignorance and Folly that they told us how all Kings lost their Interest and Authority over their Kingdoms by the birth of our Saviour Christ do furthermore endeavour very wickedly and sottishly to pervert such especial places in the Apostles Writings as are most aparently repugnant to their said Fancy or rather Phrenzy To make their dealing with one place apparent is sufficient for our purpose Whereas St. Paul writing to the Romans willeth them to be subject to the higher Powers or teacheth them as a late absurd Canonist abridgeth the place Obediendum esse Principibus that Princes are to be obeyâ—d He speaketh not saith he de Ethnicis as that place is corruptly alledged sed quatenus de illis intellexit that is in such a sense as he meant it And what the Apostle meant he is not ashamed to tell us in this sort saying 1. the Apostle speaketh of the Roman Empire which Christ had approved when he bad the Jews pay Tribute to Caesar 2. the Text doth expound it self for he writeth to Christians whom he counselleth to be obedient to Princes lest they should sin for Princes are not to be feared for good works
but for evil therefore he doth not simply command Obedience to Ethnick Princes c. 3. The like manner of writing St. Paul used in exhorting Servants to honour their Lords etiam infideles though they were Infidels for the Reasons by him there mentioned 4. By those Monitions meaning the said Commandments of the Apostle concerning Obedience of Subjects to their Princes and of Servants to their Masters just Dominion is not founded in the Persons of Ethnicks nam Paulus qui hec dicit non erat summus Pontifex for Paul who said so was not the chief Bishop c. 5. Furthermore in that time of the Primitive Church the Church could not de facto punish Infidels and transfer their Kingdoms c. Thus far this audacious and unlearned Canonist the very citation of whose Words we hold sufficient to refute them although he alledgeth for himself to support them very grave Authors the Distinctions forsooth the Gloss Hostiensis Praepositus adding that some other Canonists do concur with him Only we will oppose against him and all his Fellows to shew their Follies by a proof of this Nature the Testimony of the Pope's chief Champion the only Jesuit without Comparison now a principal Cardinal who maintaineth in express Terms That Infidel Princes are true and supream Princes of their Kingdoms and writeth thus against the said Assertion of the Canonist directly saying God doth approve the Kingdoms of the Gentiles in both the Testaments Thou art King of kings and the God of Heaven hath given thee thy Kingdom and Empire c. Restore those things unto Caesar that are Caesar's Note that he saith not Give but Restore those things that are Caesar's that is those things which in right are owing unto him And Give unto all Men that which is due unto them Tribute to whom you owe Tribute and Custom to whom you owe Custom Et jubet ibidem etiam propter Conscientiam obedire Principibus Ethnicis At certè non tenemur in Conscientiâ obedire illi qui non est verus Princeps that is and we are commanded in the same place even for Conscience to obey Princes that are Ethnicks but assuredly we are not bound in Conscience to obey him who is no true lawful or right Prince Hitherto the Cardinal We would not have cited this Man's testimony thus at large were not All that he hath said therein throughly supported by all the Learned Men as we suppose of his Society and sufficient to refel the Vanity of the Canonists and their Fellows in that folly For if we should insist herein upon the Authority of Men all the ancient Fathers do fully concur with us that through the whole course of the Scriptures Obedience was and is as well prescribed in the Old Testament to Ethnick Princes as unto the Kings of Judah and so likewise in the New Testament as well to Infidel Princes as Christian the Precepts of the Apostles in that behalf being general and so to be applied as well to the one sort as to the other in that they hold their Kingdoms of Christ equally as is aforesaid and therefore ought to be equally obeyed by their Subjects with that general Caution which was ever understood viz. in those things which they commanded them and were not repugnant to the Commandments of God And therefore the Judgments of the ancient Fathers being in this sort only remember'd by us we will not much insist upon them but give that honour which is due especially in a matter so apparent unto the sole Authority of the Holy Apostles who writing by the direction of the Holy Ghost those things which Christ himself before had taught them do give unto all Christians and Subjects to what manner of Kings soever these Precepts following Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are Ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Judgment For Princes are not to be feared for good works but for evil Wilt thou then be without fear Do well So shalt thou have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God for thy Wealth But if thou do evil fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take Vengeance of him that doth evil Wherefore ye must be subject not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake For this cause ye pay also Tribute for they are God's Ministers applying themselves for the same thing In which words of the Apostle in saying that Princes have their Power from God and that he is God's Minister there is no repugnancy to that which we have abovesaid concerning the great honour and dignity of the humanity of our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension to prove that Kings do hold their Kingdoms under Christ as he is Man the Lamb of God and Heir of all the World For we were very careful to have it still remembred that all the said Power and Dignity which he hath as he is Man doth proceed from his Divinity and likewise that by reason of the real Union of the two Natures in our Saviour Christ that which doth properly belong to the one nature may very truly be affirmed of the other So as it may in that respect be very well said and truly that all Kings and Princes receive their Authority from Christ as he is Man and likewise that they receive their Authority from Christ as he is God and that they are the Ministers of Christ being Man and the Ministers of God without any limitation But it is plain that the said words of the Apostle do very throughly refute the vanity mentioned of the Canonists and their new Companions in that by the said words it appeareth very manifestly That Kings do not otherwise hold their Kingdoms of the humanity of Christ than they did before of his divine nature They have their Authority saith the Apostle from God and they are God's Ministers And there is nothing written either by St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles which swerveth in any point from this Doctrine where they write of the obedience due unto all Kings and Soveraign Princes whose testimonies in that behalf we are as we promised a little further to pursue I exhort saith St. Paul that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty And again Put them that is both old and young and all sorts of Persons that are purged to be a peculiar People unto Christ in remembrance that they be subject to the Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient and ready to every good work Also St. Peter saith to the same effect Submit
that the Priest of God meaning every such Bishop as he himself was in his own Diocess was not obey'd nor one Priest in the Church acknowledg'd for the time to be Judge in Christ's stead And again Vnde Schismata Haereses abortae sunt oriuntur nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur Whence have Schisms and Heresies sprung up and do spring but whilst the Bishop which is one and ruleth the Church is by the proud Presumption of certain men despis'd A third Father also though at some times he had a sharp tooth against Bishops as they carried themselves in his time doth confess nevertheless That when Schisms first began Bishops were ordain'd Vt Schismatum semina tollerentur and in another Place in Remedium Schismatis ne unusquisque ad se trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Also where the same Father doth write against the Luciferians and undertaketh the defence of Bishops in a right point untruly by them impugn'd he speaketh of their Authority within their several Diocesses after this sort Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet Cui si non exors quaedam ab hominibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes that is The safety of the Church doth consist in the dignity of the chief Priest unto whom if an extraordinary and eminent Power from other men be not yielded there will be as many Schisms in Churches as there are Priests Lastly it is to be observed that in the Apostles times the Roman Empire had wrought a great confusion in all the Kingdoms and Countries about it whilst in the greediness of Honour in that state they had subdued their Neighbour Kings and Princes and turn'd their Kingdoms and Principalities into Provinces and Consulships and divers other such like Forms of Regiment leaving the same to the Government of their own Substitutes to whom they gave sundry and different titles Which course held by that state caused the Apostles in their planting of Churches when they could not perform that which otherwise they would have done to frame their proceeding as near unto it as they could In the chief Cities which had been Heads of so many Kingdoms and were still the Seat then of the principal Roman Officers principal Persons were placed who were Bishops and more than Bishops as St. James at Jerusalem although Jerusalem notwithstanding it was honoured with the name and title of the See of St. James was not the Metropolitan Seat or Archbishoprick of that Province but Caesarea whose Right is saved in the giving that honour to Jerusalem in the first Nicene Council St. Peter first in Antioch and then in Rome and St. Mark in Alexandria who remain'd in those places as was then most behooveful for those Churches as so many principal Archbishops Patriarchs to rule and direct all the Bishops Priests and Christians in Palestine Syria Italy and Egypt And in other Cities also and Countries not so famous then as the said four there were appointed according to the largeness of their Extents in some Bishops to govern the Ministers which were in such Cities and in some others such as Timothy and Titus were who as we have shewed in the former Chapter had the oversight committed unto them as well of Bishops as of the rest of the Churches within their limits All which particulars so put in practice by the Apostles were very well know to the Primitive Churches and ancient godly Fathers that lived the first 300. years after Christ and gave them full assurance that they might lawfully pursue in those days that Form of Church-Government which the Apostles themselves had erected the state and condition of the times remaining still one and the same that it was when the Apostles lived Whereupon by their Example they did not only continue the Succession of Bishops and Archbishops in those places where the Apostles had setled them supplying other Churches either not throughly setled or not at all planted when the Apostles died as before hath been mention'd with the like Church-Governours but did likewise preserve and uphold in those parts of the World where Christianity did then chiefly flourish the Succession of Patriarchal Archbishops in the above-mention'd four most principal Cities Jerusalem Antioch Rome and Alexandria Insomuch as it is commonly held that this Apostolical Order was thus distributed and setled by the Fathers of the Primitive Church long before the Council of Nice and that then in that holy Assembly it was only but so acknowledged and continued idque ad Disciplinae conservationem as a very worthy Man hath observed The consideration of all which particular points concerning the placing of Archbishops and Bishops in the Territories of the Romans according to the Dignities and chief honours of the Cities and Countries where they were placed doth very throughly perswade us that as we observed in the former Chapter if all the said Kingdoms and Sovereign Principalities then in subjection to the Roman Empire had been freed of that servitude and governed by their own Kings and Princes as they had been before the Apostles though the said Kings and Princes had refused to receive the Gospel would notwithstanding as much as in them lay have setled in every one of them for the Government of the Church there the like Form that God himself did erect amongst the Jews and that they themselves did establish in their time in the like Heathenish places as is aforesaid that is in every such Kingdom Ministers in particular Churches or Congregations Bishops over Ministers and Archbishops to oversee and direct them all And assuredly if when Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes did free themselves from the Yoke of the Empire they had either known or regarded the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost for the Government of the Churches within their Kingdoms and Principalities they would have been as careful to have deliver'd their Churches from the bondage of the Bishop of Rome as they were their Kingdoms from subjection to the Empire For all that is commonly alledged to the contrary is but the fume of presumptuous Brains The chief Archbishops either in France or Spain have as full Power and Authority under their Sovereigns as the Bishops of Rome had in times past over Italy under their Emperour and by the Institution of Christ they ought to depend no more upon the See of Rome than they do now one upon the other or than the Archbishops of England under their most worthy Sovereign do depend upon any of them as it will hereafter more plainly we hope appear by that which we have to say of that infinite Authority which the Pope doth vainly challenge to himself CAN. VII AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Subscriptions or Directions of the second Epistle of St. Paul to
Gregory the First denouncing a Curse against that Bishop qui jubet alicui Agro more fiscali Titulum imprimi who doth challenge to hold any Possessions as an absolute Temporal Prince in right of his Church the Cardinal doth answer That it is not to be marvelled that Gregory would not have Bishops nor the prefects of the Patrimony of the Church of Rome to use More fiscali in recovering the Possessions of the Church For saith he Nondum habuerat Ecclesia politicum principatum sed possidebat Bona temporalia ad eum modum quo privati homines possident Itaque aequum erat ut Agros quos suos esse censebat Ecclesia si forte ab aliis occuparentur in Judicio legitimo eos repeteret non autem More fiscali propriâ sibi Autoritate vendicaret that is for as yet meaning when Gregorylived which was 600. years after Christ the Church had no political Principality but did possess her temporal goods in the same manner whereby other private Citizens possessed theirs And therefore it was agreeable to Equity that if perhaps the Possessions which the Church supposed to be hers were occupied by other men she was to require them Judicio legitimo in a temporal Court of the Prince of whom the same were held and might not challenge them to her self by her own proper Authority More fiscali as Sovereign Princes do when their right is detained from them Lastly the Cardinal is so far driven by a worthy Man and some others of our side who held it unlawful for the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops to be absolute Worldly Princes whosoever do bestow that Soveraignty upon them the same being directly against Christ's words Vos autem non sic and for many other reasons as he flieth to the times of the Maccabees when the Ordinances of God as touching the High-Priesthood were utterly neglected and nothing in effect left in the Church but Pride Presumption Blood and Confusion as we have declar'd in our first Book cap. 32. and would gladly thereby uphold the Pope's Regalities These are his words Although perhaps it were absolutely better that Bishops should deal with Spiritual matters and Kings with temporal Yet in respect of the malice of times experience doth cry that some temporal Principalities were not only profitable but also of necessity and by the singular Providence of God given to the Bishop ofRome and to other Bishops For if in Germany the Bishops had not been Princes none had continued to this day in their Seats As therefore in the Old Testament the High-Priests were for a long time without temporal Authority or Empire yet in the latter times Religion could not have continued and been defended except the High-Priest had been King that is in the time of the Maccabees So we see it hath faln out to the Church that she which in her first times had no need of temporal Principality to defend her Majesty doth now seem necessarily to have need of it As though he should have said Now that the Church of Rome hath in her Pride and Presumption determined still to Tyrannize over all Kings Priests Kingdoms and Churches contrary to the rules and prescription of our Saviour Christ and of his blessed Apostles the Popes must needs be temporal Kings Thus far we have followed the Cardinal who is bold to affirm That neither St. Peter nor the Popes his pretended Successors nor any other of the Apostles nor of their Successors Archbishops or Bishops nor any other Minister nor all the Ministers in the World if they were together do succeed Christ as he was after his Resurrection or Ascension a Man immortal and glorious but only as he was a mortal Man and lived here in that Estate upon the Earth without the enjoying of any temporal Kingdom or Regal Possessions contenting himself to be only a Spiritual King and to have in this World a Spiritual Kingdom that is his Church so termed because he ruleth only in those Mens hearts which are true Members of it the Gospel also being named Evangelium Regni because it containeth the Doctrine of our Messiah and Spiritual King and how he doth establish his Spiritual Kingdom in and amongst Men. Of which Spiritual Kingdom some little further consideration and how our Saviour Christ obtained it and then did and still doth govern it will make the folly of those Men more apparent which cannot apprehend the Excellency of it except it have joined with it all Worldly Principalities and Authority None is ignorant that hath any sense of Christianity how all Men by nature were the Children of wrath and how before they embraced Christ by Faith they walked according to the course of this World and after the Prince that ruleth in the air even the Spirit that still worketh in the Children of Disobedience Which wicked Spirit being termed the Spirit of darkness all his Subjects and Servants and whatsoever they take in hand are called the Children and works of darkness From whose Service had not our Saviour Christ delivered us and by subduing and vanquishing this wicked Prince taken actually the possession of our hearts where the Devil before raigned we had been still in the state of wrath and damnation Whereas now through Grace and by Faith Christ dwelling in our hearts we are no more darkness but light in the Lord nor are to hold any longer fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness or of the flesh but are bound being replenished with God's holy Spirit to bring forth the fruits and operations of the same To this vanquishment of Satan by our Saviour Christ these Scriptures following have relation If I by the Finger of God do cast out Devils doubtless the Kingdom of God is come unto you When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace the things which he possesseth are in Peace but when a stronger than he cometh upon him and overcometh him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth the spoils Again Now is the Judgment of this World now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And again We cease not to pray for you c. That you might walk worthy of the Lord c. Giving thanks to God the Father c. Who hath deliver'd us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have Redemption through his Blood Again Christ putting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us c. He took it out of the way and fastned it upon the Cross and hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them in himself And lastly He that committeth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose appeared the Son of God that he might loose the works of the Devil Now our Saviour Christ did by fullfilling the Law for
that in all likelyhood he hath received any greater commendation for his plain dealing in answer to another Objection which is grounded upon the Authority of Pope Nicholas Who in an Epistle of his to Michael the Emperour of Constantinople doth write thus Christus B. Petro vitae aeternae clavigero terreni simul coelestis Imperii Jura commisti Christ did commit to St. Peter the Key bearer of Everlasting Lise the right and interest both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire To which saying of Pope Nicholas the Cardinal maketh two answers Ad testimonium Nicolai dico Imprimis illud citari à Gratiano d. 22. Can. Omnes sed non inveniri inter Epistolas Nicolai Papae To the testimony of Pope Nicholas I answer First that the said is cited by Gratian but it is not to be found amongst the Epistles of Pope Nicholas As if he should have said That testimony is forged And the effect of his second Answer is That if any Man shall urge that Testimony of Pope Nicholas in the sense objected they make him directly repugnant to himself in the rest of the said Epistle And concerning the other Argument by our said Canonist alledged of the Death of Ananias and Sapphira the ancient Fathers in the Primitive Church would certainly have scorn'd it if ever they had heard of it Peter knowing by the instinct of the Holy Ghost that Satan had possessed both their hearts and how they lied not to Men but to God did only pronounce that Sentence of Death upon them which the holy Spirit did suggest unto him Wherein although there may appear what force the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God had when it was brandished by St. Peter through the Operation of the Holy Ghost there was assuredly no use of any material and civil Sword for if there had another manner of Form of outward Justice would first have been held before they had been Executed And to conclude this point We do freely profess That the nature of Christ his Spiritual Kingdom being throughly weighed we cannot find to what purpose either St. Peter or any of his Successors should have been made temporal Monarchs over all the Civil Magistrates in the World because all their temporal Forces and Swords joined together had not been able to have vanquished one wicked Spirit of the Air or have open'd the door of any one Man's heart for Christ or the Holy Ghost to have entered and have made their habitation in it CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ hath otherwise committed the World to be governed under him by Kings and Soveraign Princes but so as he himself with his Regal Scepter doth rule and govern them all according to his Divine Pleasure or that it is not a sound Argument that the Bishops of Rome in taking upon them to be temporal Kings have wholly perverted the Institution of Christ in that behalf in that they are driven to justify their facts therein by the Examples of the Maccabees and those times of so great confusion or that our Saviour Christ whilst he was here upon the Earth did not fully content himself to be only a Spiritual King to rule in Mens hearts or that to the end he might erect such a Spiritual Kingdom he did not conquer the Devil Sin Death and Hell and thereby took possession in the hearts of all true Believers or that before our Saviour Christ doth begin to reign in Man's heart he doth not first by the Ministry of his Word beget a lively Faith in it or that whilst he lived here in the World he did not satisfy himself for our sakes with a very mean and poor Estate being in himself most rich because he was God and in his humanity the Heir of all things or that he did not Institute and Ordain a Priesthood or Ministry to continue to the end of the World for the continuance and augmenting of his Spiritual Kingdom or that the Children of God notwithstanding that they are redeemed through Faith by Christ and delivered out of the Iaws of Hell and Satan are not still to take heed and beware of him and to arm themselves accordingly against his Forces or that our Saviour Christ when he told his Apostles and Disciples That the Servant is not above his Lord but that whosoever would be a perfect Disciple should be as his Master did not mean that his Apostles and after them their Successors Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Ministry should hold their Services and Offices under him to do as he did when he was a Mortal Man of poor Estate and subject to many bad Vsages and Injuries or that because our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension when he was become a Man Immortal and Glorious did then enlarge the Commission of his Apostles and ordain'd by them a succession of the Ministry for the government of the Church he did thereby make them any more partakers of his Regal Authority whereof his humane nature was then actually possessed for the state and exercise thereof by reason of the free and unrestrained Operation of his Deity than he made their natural and corruptible Bodies incorrupt and spiritual Bodies or endowed them in this life with any of that Glory Power and Heavenly Estate which they were to enjoy after their Deaths and blessed Resurrection or that the Apostles after Christ's Death not exempting St. Peter did not find their Estates in this World very suitable to their Master's whilst he lived with them all things happening unto them as he had foretold them or that either St. Peter or any of the Apostles or of their Successors either then or since that time could challenge so much as this or that one temporal farm by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Functions more than their Master had or that either they were themselves possessed with as their own before they were called to that Ministration or than was afterward given unto them by godly Emperors Kings and Princes and other devout and religious Persons or that if St. Peter had known himself to have been under Christ the sole temporal Monarch of the World it had not been his duty to have made the same known at least to the Apostles and such as were converted to Christ to the end they might have honour'd him accordingly as his dutiful and loyal Subjects or that it had not in all probability if St. Peter meant to shew himself to be a temporal King by the Deaths of Ananias and Sapphira been much more expedient for the success of the Gospel in those days if he had used such his Regal Authority against those civil Magistrates which were Enemies to Christ and to all that Preached in his name or that it may be rightly imagin'd with our dutiful regard of St. Peter's Sincerity that ever he would have been so earnest with the
natural Being only but Schoolmasters do adorn by Instruction and beautify their Minds therefore School-Masters are more to be honour'd by young Lords and Princes than are their Lords and Kings their natural Parents Or thus One end why Men were first Created and afterward born be they Kings or Princes Priests or private Persons was to live in the World but for the supporting of Mens Lives Husbandry and many other Occupations are of greater Importance and Necessity than are either Kings Princes Lords or civil Magistracy therefore those Mens base Callings are to be preferr'd before the Callings of the other Or as if a Man should reason thus They that have the chiefest charge of Souls committed unto them are to be esteem'd as Men in this World of the highest Calling but all Christians generally have every one of them a greater charge committed unto them of their own Souls than any sort of Priests or Ministers have therefore every Christian is in that respect in Calling and Dignity to be preferred before the Calling of any one Pastor Priest Prelate or Pope Now after he hath dallied with such sophistications and comparisons betwixt the Body and the Soul the Flesh and the Spirit he falleth upon some particulars the more fully as he saith to express what he had formerly delivered The sum of which particulars is That although the Pope as he is Pope cannot ordinariè ordinarily depose temporal Princes or make civil Laws or judge de rebus temporalibus yet in ordine ad Spiritualia he may do them all And this he taketh upon him to prove by five main reasons grounded God knoweth upon very weak Foundations Of which his odd number for the glory of them this which followeth is the first Civil Power is subject to Spiritual Power when they are both part of a Christian Commonwealth therefore the Spiritual Princes may command temporal Princes and dispose of their temporal affairs in ordine ad Bonum spirituale n order to a spiritual good The Antecedent of which Argument may briefly be refuted for ought that he hath said to justify it in manner as followeth For in saying that this subjection of the temporal Power to the Spiritual is but where both these Powers are part of one and the same Christian Commonwealth he maketh the Estate of Christian Kings and Princes inferiour and worse than the Estate of those that be Infidels Whose political Power being no part of any Christian Commonwealth is not subject to the Ecclesiastical Again to prefer the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Church for honour and dignity in this World before the temporal Authority of Kings and Princes is in effect to prefer the poor and base Estate of our Saviour Christ as he was a mortal Man here upon Earth subject to many wants oppressions and injuries before the glory and majesty of his Divine Nature in that Kings have their Authority and Calling from Christ as he is God Whereas all Ministers even St. Peter himself and consequently the Pope are but Christ's Vicars and Substitutes as he was Man subject to the said wants miseries and Oppressions Moreover in that every Soul by the testimony of St. Paul is subject to the Power and Authority of temporal Princes and that they must be so not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake forasmuch as the points of subjection there specified are commanded to all Men to be observed Sacerdotibus Monachis non solùm saecularibus to Bishops and Monks and not to secular Priests only as Chrysostom saith by our Interpretation adding to these words of the Apostle Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Etiamsi Apostolus sis si Evangelista si Propheta sive quisque tandem fueris although thou art an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet or whosoever thou art and because for ought we have read none of the ancient Fathers do herein dissent from Chrysostom We hold it to be very plain and evident to our understandings that the Ecclesiastical Authority to be exercis'd in this World by any manner of Ecclesiastical Persons whosoever is inferiour and of a lower degree than is the Authority and Power of temporal Kings and Princes For if the Authority of such Ecclesiastical Persons whether Apostles Evangelists Prophets Bishops or Priests either Regular or Secular cannot exempt them from the Authority of Kings it must follow of necessity that it is subject and inferiour to their temporal Power and Authority Another of the Cardinal's Reasons whereby he would gladly prove the Pope's indirect temporal Power to omit the rest of his absurd trifling about the first is built upon a very traiterous Position never heard of in the Church in the times of the principal ancient Fathers For how earnest soever he seem'd before in refuting their Opinions who hold That no Princes are to be obey'd if they be Infidels he thinketh he is able to shift off that in effect with his jugling and indirect Fetches These are his traiterous words It is not lawful for Christians to tolerate a King being an Infidel or an Heretick if he endeavour to draw his Subjects unto his Heresy or Infidelity but to judge whether a King doth draw his Subjects to Heresy or no doth belong to the Pope unto whom is committed the charge of Religion and therefore it belongeth to the Pope to judge whether a King is to be deposed or not Concerning the Assumption of this Argument touching the presupposed charge of the Pope in matters of Religion over all the Churches in the World we shall have a fitter occasion to touch it after a sort in the next Chapter Now we will only briefly handle the falshood of his Proposition Of the Power of Subjects over their Soveraigns Where after he hath abused a place in Deuteronomy and spent some idle conceits of his own he writeth in this sort Although Christians in times past did not depose Nero and Dioclesian and Julian the Apostate and Valens the Arrian and such like id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis it came to pass because Christians did then want temporal Forces For that otherwise they might lawfully so have done appeareth by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. Where he commandeth new Judges of temporal Causes to be appointed by Christians that Christians might not be compelled to plead their Cause before a Judge that was a Persecutor of Christ Upon which Text the Cardinal maketh this Gloss Sicut novi Judices constitui potuerunt ita novi Principes Reges propter eandem causam si vires adfuissent as new Judges might have been appointed so might new Princes and Kings for the same cause if the Christians then had been able by reason of their Forces to have created to themselves such new Kings and Princes Thus the Cardinal Who undoubtedly was brought into some hard streight or else he would never have written in this sort St. Peter and St. Paul lived and dyed under
fault What the Cardinal's Friends will say of his perverting the Apostle's meaning with so desperate an Exposition we are uncertain but of this we are sure that the Estate of that Church must needs be very miserable that cannot be upheld without so apparent injury done to the Holy Ghost Which observation we thought fit to make in this place because he once having past the bounds of all Modesty or rather Piety is grown to that presumption and hardness of heart against the truth as that he dareth to ground another of his Reasons to prove that the Pope hath Authority indirectly to depose Kings and Princes upon these words spoken to St. Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep Touching which words because we have a fitter place to entreat we will here be silent and address our selves to his fourth Reason as idle and as false as any of the rest These are his words When Kings and Princes come to the Church that they may be made Christians they are received cum pacto expresso vel tacito with a condition expressed or implied without any mention made of it that they do submit their Scepters unto Christ and do promise that they will keep and defend the Faith of Christ Etiam sub poenâ Regni perdendi even under pain of losing their Kingdoms Therefore when they become Hereticks or do hinder Religion they may be judged by the Church and also deposed from their Principality and there shall be no injury done unto them if they be deposed For answer whereof first we say That in all the Forms of Baptisms which hitherto have been published we cannot learn that there was ever any such express Covenant as the Cardinal here mentioneth required of any King when he came to be Christned Baptism is the Entrance ordain'd by Christ into the Church which is his spiritual Kingdom and agreeably to the nature of that Kingdom all who are thereby to enter into it of what Calling or Condition sover they are as well poor as rich private Persons as Princes are according to the Rules of Baptism practised in all the particular Churches in the World for ought that is known to the contrary either themselves in their own Persons or if they be Infants by their Sureties to profess their belief in Christ and to Promise that they will forsake the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World with all covetous desires of the same and carnal desires of the Flesh and that they do constantly believe God's holy word and that they will keep his Commandments The willful breach of any of which points and perseverance in it without Repentance doth indeed deprive every Christian Man of what Calling soever he be from the interest he had by his said profession and promise when he was Baptized to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ in this Life that is from being a true and lively Member of the Church and mystical Body of Christ and from the Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come But that any Man by the breach of any Promise made when he was Baptized should lose that which he gain'd not by his Baptism or that the Church did never receive any King or Prince to Baptism but either upon condition in express terms or by implication made either by himself or by his Godfathers that he would submit his Scepter unto Christ that is unto the Bishop of Rome as the Cardinal's drift sheweth his meaning to be and promise to keep and defend the Faith of Christ under pain of the loss of his Kingdom is certainly a Doctrine of Devils and was never heard of in the Church of Christ for many hundred years but is utterly repugnant to the Analogy of Scripture and to the true nature of Christian Baptism These secret intentions for as we have said there was never any Form of Baptism that contain'd any such express contract as the Cardinal speaketh of Mental Reservations and hidden Compacts such as Men were never taught in the Primitive Church nor ever dream'd of or suspected to be thrust into one of the holy Sacraments may well become the Impostors of Rome but are altogether contrary to the meaning of Christ and of his holy Apostles In whose days he that believed was baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost without any such jugling or snares laid to hazard and entangle Mens temporal Estates There is nothing in the Gospel whereof Men ought to be ashamed or which will not abide the touchstone of truth if it be compared with the rest of the Scriptures or that doth not promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ it being called in that respect Evangelium Regni the Gospel of the Kingdom Now whether this underhand bargaining be suitable or no with the sincerity of the Holy Ghost or whether if it had been known in the Primitive Church that all Men who would submit themselves to the Doctrine of the Gospel and be baptized did thereby bind themselves to be subject and at the Commandment of the Bishop of Rome for the time being under pain to lose all their Worldly Estates the knowledge thereof would not rather have hinder'd than either promoted or further'd the good success of the Gospel no Man is so simple but he may easily discern it Assuredly the Grecians who did so long oppose themselves against the Authority which the Bishops of Rome did challenge over all Churches were ignorant of this mystical point of Baptism and so were all the Churches in the World for many Ages or else there would not have been so great stirs in the World about the continual Usurpations and Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome as are many ways testified by sundry Ecclesiastical Histories But we insist too long upon this so ridiculous and impudent a fiction and therefore will come to the Cardinal 's principal reason of the Pope's said indirect temporal Authority to toss Kings and Kingdoms up and down as he list The Ecclesiastical Commonwealth saith he must be perfect and sufficient of her self in order to her own end for such are all Commonwealths that are well instituted and therefore she ought to have all necessary Power to the obtaining of her own end But the Power of using and disposing of temporal things is necessary to the Spiritual End because otherwise Evil Princes might without punishment nourish Hereticks and overthrow Religion and therefore the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth hath this Power Hitherto the Cardinal The substance of whose Argument is that the Church of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End except the Bishop of Rome have Authority to dispose of temporal Kingdoms and to punish Kings by deposing them from their Crowns if he hold it expedient For the refutation of which vain and false Assertion there are very many most direct and apparent Arguments We will only touch some few of them Our Saviour Christ in his days and the Apostles in their times and the Primitive
profession of Christ So as the preservation of the Gospel in these parts of the World may more truly be attributed to the working of the Spirit of God in them than to the Bishops of Rome who have been the chief Authors and occasions of many incredible mischiefs Now lastly and for conclusion of this point had not Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders so inveigled and seduced the hearts and minds of the adherents to the See of Rome as that by degrees they leaving the love of the truth are therefore given over by God unto such strong delusions that they should believe lyes as the Apostle speaketh amongst many other of the gross errours maintained by them we might marvel at this that ever they durst take upon them in these times of so great light to write and defend it with such resolution and confidence that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as they term it cannot be perfect nor attain her Spiritual End except the Pope may have the said temporal Power and Authority to depose Kings considering how far the true nature of the Church which is the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ and the true Means and Armour that Christ our Spiritual King hath indeed ordained and appointed for the Edification and Defence of this his Spiritual Kingdom and for the attainment of the supernatural and right end and beauty of it are repugnant to these their Carnal and Worldly conceits Touching the true nature of the Church and Spiritual Kingdom of Christ we have before spoken and the true Spiritual End of the Church being by teaching the ways of truth to bring as many as possibly they can to the knowledge of their Salvation through Christ so as by Faith they may become true Members of his Spiritual Kingdom in the Life to come the means ordain'd for that purpose do contain the full duty and office of all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Ministers who are furnished by Christ neither with temporal Swords nor Imperial Authority to depose Kings and Soveraign Princes but ought to carry themselves toward all Men especially towards Kings and Princes if they be either Pagans or Enemies to Religion as Christ himself and his Apostles did by Preaching and Praying for them by Humility and Patience to endure whatsoever punishment shall be thought fit to be imposed upon them for doing of their duties and never to intermit such their pains and diligence to the end that if it please God to bless those their Ministerial so great labours their Auditors of all sorts private Persons Kings and Prince may be brought to the knowledge of the truth that so Satan being expelled out of their hearts Christ by Faith may raign in them To the effecting of which so great and so divine an alteration and change in Mens Souls there is no Worldly Force nor temporal Sword which will serve the turn And therefore the Apostle speaking of this matter doth write in this sort The Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal as if he should have said We do not come with Troops of Men to promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ but with Weapons of another nature with the glad ridings of the Gospel with the Doctrine of Salvation to all Believers and with the Furniture of the Holy Ghost which Weapons are not weak but mighty through God and able to cast down holds that is all the carnal Forces of Men all Principalities and Powers that shall presume to rise up against Christ And through the assurance and experience which both St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles had in the force of these Weapons he saith further that with them they overthrew Councils and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledge of God and that they brought into Captivity all imagination or understanding to the obedience of Christ away then with the Pope's Carnal Weapons and with all their Illusions and Juglings that seek to uphold them for such Weapons were never ordain'd by Christ for his Apostolical Warfare CAN. IX AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the external Callings in this World of those Men as Ministers and Schoolmasters that have to deal with the information of Mens Minds and Souls are superiour and to be preferr'd in Honour and Wordly Dignities before the Callings of Kings and Soveraign Princes or that because health is better and more to be desired in this Life than any Worldly Preferments therefore the Calling of Physicians who are ordain'd for the health of Mens Bodies ought to be superiour to all other Worldly Callings or that the Regal and Political Power of the King when it is part of a Christian Commonwealth is thereby brought into greater servitude and thraldom than is the Regal and Political State of Ethnick Princes when the same are no parts of a Christian Kingdom or that to prefer the Ecclesiastical State for Worldly Authority before the State of Kings and Soveraign Princes is not in effect to prefer the humbled Estate of Christ as he was Man living here upon the Earth before his glorious Estate after his Ascension and before the glory and majesty of the Divine Nature or that any Ecclesiastical Authority which the Apostles ordained did either free them or any of their Successors from subjection to Kings and Princes and to their temporal Authority or that St. Peter being an Apostle and so subject to the civil Sword of Temporal Authority could lawfully by any indirect device challenge any temporal Power and Dominion over Kings and Princes for that had been to have extorted the temporal Sword out of their hands to whom it appertain'd and to have incurr'd again the commination of his Master when he told him how all that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword or that it is not a most profane impiety tending altogether to the discredit of the Scriptures for any Man to hold that St. Peter and St. Paul had so instructed the Christians in their times as that they knew if they had been able they might without offence to God have deposed Nero from his Empire or that the Christians in Tertullian's time when they professed that notwithstanding their numbers and forces were so great as they had been able to have distressed very greatly the Estate of the Emperours being then Persecutors they might not so do because Christ their Master had taught them otherwise ought not to be a sufficient Warrant for all true Christians to detest those Men in these days and for ever hereafter who contrary to the Example of the said Christians in the Primitive Church and the Doctrine of Christ which was then taught them do endeavour to perswade them when they shall have sufficient Forces to Rebel against such Kings and Emperours at the Pope's Commandment and to thrust them from their Kingdoms and Empires or that this Devilish Doctrine of animating Subjects to Rebellion when they are able against their
Episcopi quasi Cardinales Archiepiscopus sederet quasi Papa ibi omnis Appellatio subsisteret querela Hoc quidem Rex Henricus machinabatur approbant quamplures Episcopi hâc de causâ ut dictum est ut possent de sub jugo sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae colla excutere Now the building of the said Church is so forward that there is ordain'd there a Dean a Provost and more than 40. Canons founded of the Goods of the Church of Canterbury by birth Noblemen abounding in Wealth Allies of the King and of the Bishops Some of them do adhere to the King some have Offices in the Exchequer all of them familiar Friends to the Bishops and of a Confederacy with them Against such and so great Persons what is the Church of Canterbury able to do Certainly it is to be feared not only that the Church of Canterbury shall hereby be overthrown but that upon this occasion the Authority of the Apostolical See which God forbid shall in England be greatly diminish'd und prejudiced For when this Canonry or Cathedral Church was founded it was the common fame and the opinion of every Man that it was founded to this end that Bishops should be there as it were Cardinals and that the Archbishop should sit amongst them as Pope and that there all Appeals and complaints should be determined This assuredly was plotted by King Henry and the same very many Bishops do allow for this cause or end that so they might deliver their Necks from under the Yoke of the Holy Church of Rome Again after the Death of Celestin the Fourth the Cardinals being at so great a Dissention amongst themselves as that they could not agree for the space of a Year and nine Months who should succeed him both the Emperour and the French were greatly moved and offended therewith The Emperour finding his advice unto them to hasten their Choice to be despised and scorned and how dishonestly some of them had broken their Promises and Oaths unto him made in that behalf he gathered a great Host and dealt sharply with them And from France they received a Message that if they continued to dally as they did in prolonging the choice of a new Pope they would utterly leave Rome and choose to themselves a Pope of their own to govern the Churches on this side the Alps. Hereof Matthew Paris writeth thus Per idem tempus miserunt Franci solennes Nuncios ad Curiam Romanam significantes persuadendo praecisè efficaciter ut ipsi Cardinales Papam ritè eligentes Vniversali Ecclesiae solatium Pastorale maturiùs providerent vel ipsi Franci propter negligentiam eorum de sibi eligendo providendo summo Pontifice citra Montes cui obedire tenerentur quantocyùs contrectarent About that time the State of France did send their solemn Messengers to the Court of Rome signifying unto them and perswading them precisely and effectually that either the Cardinals should more speedily provide for the Vniversal Church her Pastoral Comfort by their due choice of a new Pope or else they themselves the French because of their negligence would forthwith fall into deliberation of choosing and providing for themselves a Pope on this side the Mountains whom they might be bound to obey Thus the said History Whereby as also by the former words of the Monks of Canterbury it is very evident that both England and France was long since in deliberation to have abandon'd the Authority of the Bishops of Rome out of both those Kingdoms as finding no necessity of the Universal overswaying power of the Roman Papacy and that the Churches within their several Countries and Territories might receive as great benefit and comfort by the Ecclesiastical Government of their own Archbishops in every respect as ever they had done from the Bishops of Rome For as it may truly be said not of one King to govern all the World but of every particular King in his own Kingdom so may it be truly affirmed not of one Pope to govern the whole Catholick Church but of every Archbishop in any National Church and Province to rule and direct the same that under the Government of one viz. of Kings for temporal Causes and of Archbishops for Ecclesiastical Causes there is the best order the greatest strength the most stability for continuance and the easiest manner and form of ruling We have spoken hitherto of the Government of the Church especially as it was in the Apostles times and afterward for the space of 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Enemies unto it Whereby we do infer that if the particular Churches setled then almost in every Country and Nation throughout the World had so good success when there were no Christian Magistrates nor had any assistance of the temporal Sword for the strengthning of their Ecclesiastical Government but only Ministers to teach and direct their Parishioners in the ways of Godliness and Bishops over them in every Diocess to oversee and rule as well the Ministers as the several People committed to their charge that they taught no new Doctrine or ran into Schisms and Archbishops over them all in every National Church and Province for the moderating and appeasing of such oppositions and dissentions as might otherwise have risen amongst the Bishops and so consequently have wrought great distraction betwixt their Diocesan Churches how much more then are the said particular Churches like to flourish and prosper under such a Form of Ecclesiastical Government wherein the Christian Magistrate is become to be as the chief Member of the Church so the chief Governour of it to keep as well the said Archbishops within their bounds and limits as all the rest of the Clergy and Christians Bishops Ministers and Parishioners that every one in their several places may execute and discharge their distinct Offices and Duties which are committed unto them We shall have fit occasion hereafter to speak of the Authority of Christian Princes in Causes Ecclesiastical here we do only still prosecute the Government of the Church when temporal Kings and Princes were her great and mortal Enemies and the Folly if not the obstinacy of our Adversaries who either see it not or will not acknowledge it that peace and quietness may as well be preserved in all the Churches in the World by Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to govern them all as by Kings and Sovereign Princes in all the Kingdoms and temporal Governments in the World without one temporal Monarch to rule and oversway them For our Adversaries shall never be able to prove that it may be ascribed as we have before said more to any want of discretion and due Providence in our Saviour Christ that he hath not appointed the Pope to govern the Catholick Church than that he hath not assigned the Government of the whole World to one King or Emperour Rather it is to be attributed to their audacious temerity and presumption that will either enforce
Universal Dominion over all the World temporaelitèr temporally and likewise sufficient Power to institute and appoint one Emperour under him as his Substitute to rule the whole World they use this Argument Summus Pontifex instituit ac confirmat Imperatorem sed Imperator habet Dominium universale temporaliter in toto Mundo Ergo Papa habet hoc idem Dominium temporaliter The Bishop of Rome doth ordain and confirm the Emperour but the Emperour hath universal Dominion temporally in the whole World therefore the Pope hath the very same temporal Dominion And about ten years since one Andrew Hoy the Greek Professor at Doway made an Oration De novae apud Europeos Monarchiae pro tempore utilitate taking upon him to prove that the King of Spain was the fittest Person of all the Kings and Princes in Europe to be advanced unto this great Monarchy But what should we trouble our selves with this point The King of Spain we suppose will greatly scorn to be the Pope's Vassal and the Emperour that now is or that shall succeed him hereafter as likewise all the Kings and Princes in the World may see most evidently how grosly and shamefully they are abused and how notably they neglect the greatness of their own Callings especially they who have been heretofore or shall be hereafter Emperours in that they do intermeddle any thing at all with the Pope or receive from him either their Confirmation or Coronation in that thereby he presumeth most ridiculously and without any shew of truth to challenge them for his Servants and Vassals It hath been before shewed by the Judgment of the Cardinalized Jesuit That the Bishops of Rome have no temporal Possessions at all but such as they have received from the Emperour and other Kings and Soveraign Princes In consideration whereof seeing that now they insult so notably over them all both Princes Kings and Emperours being so far from acknowledging themselves to be the Emperour's Subjects or to hold their said Possessions either of him or of any King that bestowed them upon them We do verily think that the said Princes Kings and Emperours who have been so beneficial to the said Bishops shall never shew themselves to be of that Princely Magnanimity and Prowess which their high places do require nor free their Sceptres from the thraldom and base subjection to their usurped Authority until either they take from them what before they gave them or bring them to a more dutiful acknowledgment of their Duties unto them And what we say of the Popes we likewise do hold concerning all the Clergy besides in Europe or elsewhere that if they shall either withdraw themselves from their subjection unto their temporal Soveraigns under whom they live or deny to hold the Possessions of their several Churches of their said Soveraigns or to do them Homage for the same they may lawfully in our Judgments not only resume the said Possessions into their own hands but likewise proceed against them as Rebels and Traytors according to the Form of their several Laws But this is a Digression For in the beginning of this Chapter we undertook to deal with those only who though they maintain the Popes general Supremacy over the Catholick Church yet they deny upon many weighty reasons that God did ever ordain any one Emperour to govern all the World But how long they will deny it we know not in that the principal Jesuit himself writeth thus Vtrum expediret omnes Provincias Mundi c. Whether it were expedient that all the Provinces in the World should be govern'd by one chief King in things Politick although the same be not necessary it may be a Question Mihi tamen omnino expedire videtur si possit eò perveniri sine injustitiâ bellicis cladibus Yet it seemeth to me expedient if such a Monarchical Government over all the World might be gotten without Injustice and such Calamities and Miseries as usually follow War What this Jesuit doth encline unto it is hereby evident But in that he confesseth that such a Monarchical civil Government is not necessary that is enough for our purpose because hereby it likewise followeth as before we have shewed that the Government of the Pope over the whole Church is in every respect as little necessary CAN. X. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures or that can be truly grounded upon natural Reason or Philosophy That our Saviour Christ should have shewed himself to have had no discretion except he had left one chief Bishop to have govern'd all the Churches in the World or that except he appointed one to the said end he should as a Person void of Providence have left his Faithful People in a miserable confusion and without any Government at all or that any of all the Arguments that may be deduced from Philosophy and natural Reason to prove that one Man ought to have the Government of the whole Catholick Church in spiritual Causes are not as forcible to prove that one King or Emperour ought to have the Rule and Government over the whole World in Causes temporal or that any of the Philosophers ever meant to have their reasons alledged by them to prove that in every particular Country the Monarchical Form of Temporal Government was the best to be extended to prove that there ought to be either one Bishop over all the Catholick Church whereof they had no knowledge or one Emperour over all the World or that because all Men have their beginning from Adam it doth not as well follow that there ought to be one Emperour to govern all the World as one Bishop over the whole Catholick Church or that Aaron was any more a Figure of St. Peter and his Successors that they severally in their times should govern the whole Church than King David was of Augustus the Emperour and his Successors that they severally in their times should have committed unto them the Government of the whole World or that the resemblances in the Scriptures of the Church unto an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Fold to an House to a Ship may not fitly be applied as well to the Vniversal Kingdom of Christ over all the World as unto the Church and so consequently as well to our Saviour Christ as he is the Governour of the whole World that he is the General of that Host the Head of that Body the King of that Kingdom the Shepherd of that Flock the Housholder of that Family and the Pilot of that Ship as may these Titles be ascribed unto him as he is the only Archbishop of the whole Church viz. That he is the only General of this Host the only Head of this Body the only King of this Kingdom the only Shepherd of this Flock the only Housholder of this Family and the only Pilot of this Ship or that the said Vnities concerning the
of our mind that he will omit how the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to St. Peter and so to the Roman Bishops his Successors and not to the Bishops of Constantinople and we likewise following his Example as a thing impertinent to our purpose will here omit the same Only we do observe that the contention betwixt the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople was de Primatu and that the Bishop of Rome obtain'd that place by Phocas his means which the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself Whereupon we offer to Mens Considerations these two Arguments Whosoever taketh upon him that Primacy or place in the Church which John Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself is the forerunner of Antichrist but the Bishops of Rome do take upon them that Primacy and place Ergo. Again Those Priests which do adhere unto him that taketh upon him that place and Primacy which John the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself are an Host prepared for the King of Pride but all the Priests that do adhere to the Bishop of Rome do adhere unto him that taketh upon him that Primacy and place which John the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself Ergo. But our purpose is not to dispute only this we add that till this time that the Bishop of Rome had prevailed so far with Phocas as is aforementioned his Predecessors notwithstanding their great Authority after Constantine's Reign and favour with the Emperours succeeding they behaved themselves dutifully toward them and acknowledged them to be their Lords and Masters But afterward in short time they left those Phrases and began to call the Emperours their Sons To which alteration a very worthy Man taking exception he is answered by another of many good parts it must be confessed after this sort St. Gregory might call Mauricius his Lord either of Courtesie or of Custom and yet our holy Father Pius the Fourth shall not be bound to do the like in consideration that the Custom hath long since been discontinued Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. V. ALthough when the Bishops of Rome after much opposition had obtain'd their desires for their Primacy beforementioned they might well enough as we suppose have been contented Yet forasmuch as still they remain'd in greater subjection to the Emperours than they thought was agreeable with their greatness their aspiring mind rested not there but began shortly after to cast about how they might in their places be independent and absolute For the compassing whereof they took hold of every occasion that might serve or be wrested and drawn to that purpose At the first receiving of the Gospel Men are ever for the most part very zealous and great Favourers of the Ministry In the Apostles times they sold their lands and possessions and laid the price of them at the Apostles feet St. Paul was received by the Galatians as an Angel of God yea as Jesus Christ and such was their love toward him that to have done him good they would have plucked out their Eyes and given them unto him When the Emperours of Rome became Christians they did exceed in this behalf especially towards the Bishops of that See bestowing upon them very great riches and ample possessions Of all which zealous Dispositions benefits and favours they ever made above all other Bishops their greatest advantage by imploying the same to the advancement of their greatness Wherein they were furthermore very much helped and further'd by the Authority which the Emperours gave unto them in temporal Causes holding them for their Gravity Learning and Discretion very meet and sit Persons in their own absence from Rome to do them that way very great service Besides if we shall deal sincerely and truly as we hold our selves always bound and more strictly in a cause of this Importance we must needs confess that it hath been the manner of Divines from the Apostles times almost to magnify and extol the worthiness and excellency of their own calling which was a very commendable and necessary course in many the ordinary contempt of the Ministry consider'd and had been so in all of them if they had not therewith depressed too much the Dignity and preheminence of Kings and Princes Comparisons in such Cases were ever worthily held to be odious Bishops and Priests might without any just reprehension have been resembled to Gold to the Sun and to what else is excellent without comparing the highest Magistrates under God in respect of themselves to the Moon to Lead and to some other things of such like base Estimation And we doubt not but that they would have refrain'd from such Comparisons if they could have foreseen how the Bishops of Rome would to the disgrace and dishonour of civil Authority have wrested and perverted them notwithstanding that their Inferences thereupon have ever had more shew and probability than substance and truth except we shall say that the Callings of Schoolmasters and Physicians are in Dignity to be preferr'd before all other Temporal Callings because the end of the one is the instructing of Mens understandings and of the other Health which either are or ought to be both of them in their kinds of greater Estimation than any other things whatsoever We shall not need to trouble our selves with the citing of any Authorities to prove how eagerly the Bishops of Rome especially after Boniface the Third had obtained of Phocas the said Supremacy have pressed the same Comparisons It is so evident both in their own Writings and likewise generally in all their Treatises who from time to time have laboured with all their force and might to advance above all other Authority upon Earth the Soveraignty of that See Placet eis John Overall CAP. VI. ALbeit the former occasions as they were handled and particularly the device last before specified wrought very much in the hearts of the simpler sort to the debasing of the Imperial and Regal Authority in respect of the Spiritual and that it was therefore prosecuted and amplified with all the skill and rhetorick that could be Yet there was another matter which troubled the Bishops of Rome exceedingly and never gave them rest until they had prevailed in it as if without it they had gained little by their Primacy It seemeth that Constantine the Great when he left Rome notwithstanding his especial benefits and favours to the Bishops of that See did in his wisdom think it fit that none should be advanced to that Bishoprick without the Emperour's consent For the better manifestation whereof it is to be observed that whilst the Bishops of Rome were labouring so earnestly for their Supremacy till Phocas's time the City of Rome had been four times surprised by divers barbarous Nations An. 413. by Alaricus the second King of the Goths Innocentius the First being then Bishop An. 457. by Gensericus the Leader of the Vandalls Leo the First being then Bishop An.
470. or thereabouts by Odoacer Simplicius being then Bishop An. 493. or thereabouts by Theodoricus and the East Goths Gelasius the First being then Bishop and was again by Belisarius the Captain of Justinian the Emperour recover'd out of their hands about the year 537. Sylverius being then Bishop By all which attempts of the said barbarous Nations although the Empire received great detriment yet the Bishops of Rome had leisure to contend for Superiority because the said barbarous Nations being Christians and very superstitious did sometimes greatly honour them and rather admired their Pomp and State than sought any ways to impeach it Which caused as it seemeth that the Bishops of Rome at the last began to favour them more than they did their Emperours Insomuch as An. 536. the said Sylverius obtained that Bishoprick as one noteth Theodohato Gothorum Rege jubente cùm anteà non Regum sed Imperatorum autoritas soleret intervenire by the Commandment of Theodohatus whereas before in the choice of the Bishops of Rome the Authority of the Emperours and not of those Kings had been usually obtained Whereupon when Belisarius had recovered the City from the Goths and was inform'd by certain sworn Witnesses that the said Sylverius was plotting how he might render it again unto the Goths he the said Belisarius removed him from the See and placed Vigilius in his room Whereof the Emperour being advertised did approve greatly that which Belisarius had done and took a strict Order with Vigilius that no Bishop of Rome should thenceforward be consecrated until the Emperour had approved of him and confirmed his Election So as thereby the Emperours having then their Residence at Constantinople might be always assured of the Qualities and Dispositions of the new Bishops whose Authority then began to be great Lest otherwise some factious Person or Enemy of the Emperours being advanced to that See the City of Rome and Italy it self might perhaps by his means revolt from the East Empire as a great Friend to Rome hath very well observed Who furthermore addeth thereunto unto that this Custom did afterward continue until the time of Benedict the Second that is for 150. years in which space Gregory the Great and Boniface the Third who had prevail'd with Phocas for the Supremacy of Rome and 18 Bishops more successively enjoyed that Bishoprick It was but touched before how in the time of Sylverius the Authority of the Bishops of Rome was grown great whilst by the Incursions of the said Barbarous Nations into Italy the Power of the Emperours in this West part of the world was greatly decayed And although Justinian the Emperour recovered in some good sort the former Estate of the Empire in these Parts Yet not many Years after the Lombards setting Foot into Italy did greatly impair the same But the utter ruin of it did principally proceed for ought we find to the contrary from the Bishops of Rome For when about the Year 686. the Emperour Constantine the Fourth greatly favouring Benedict the Second gave the Clergy and People of Rome licence to choose and admit from that time forward their Bishops without any further expectation of the Emperour's Authority to approve and confirm the same little remembring the Wisdom and Providence of Justinian they the said Bishops grew to great Presumption and Boldness against their succeeding Emperours until by their means Rome Italy and the Western Parts of the Empire were utterly cut off from the East Empire which Justinian and his Successors by keeping the Bishops of Rome in some due Subjection through their Authority in their Preferments to that See did seek to have prevented No sooner had the same Emperour given the Bishops of Rome this Immunity and Freedom but to omit what dangerous Quarrels arose amongst the Citizens of Rome in the choice of their Bishops scarce 20. Years were passed before they began to insult greatly over the Emperours It is noted for a great Commendation in Pope Constantine the first because he was the first that durst take upon him openly to resist Philippicus the next Emperour after the said Justinian in Os to his Face But the Opposition which Gregory the second made against Leo the third the next but one to the said Philippicus is indeed very memorable He proceeded so far against him for giving Commandment throughout all his Empire that for the avoiding of Idolatry Images should be removed out of all Churches as by his Letters sent abroad far and near he procured such passing hatred against Leo especially amongst the Italians as they brake out in divers places into open Rebellion Wherein they went so far that every City and Town rejected the Magistrates appointed by the Emperour's Authority and created Magistrates of their own whom they called Dukes entring into a course to have abrogated the Empire of Constantinople and to have set a new Emperour in Italy From which Course although the Pope disswaded them as disliking we suppose to have an Emperour so near him Yet he took such Order as both Rome and the rest of the Italîans withdrew from that time forward their Customs and Tributes which had beforetimes been paid to the Emperour And their Rebellion so increased every day against him that the Romans forsook him and submitted themselves by an Oath to the said Gregory the second to be order'd and govern'd by him in all things Whereby Rome and the Dukedom thereof was violently taken from the Emperour of Constantinople and bestow'd upon the Bishop of Rome In respect of which most irreligious and un-bishop-like Proceedings the Patrons of that See do greatly commend him One of them saith That the Bishops of Rome are either beholding to him or to none for their Principality For as he in the same Place further affirmeth he made his Successours great Princes the Beginning whereof was hard the Progress more easy and the Event prosperous and happy Tantae molis erat Romanam condere Gentem It was a matter of so great difficulty to erect the Papacy Indeed it is behoveful for them to measure the Pope's dealings by their Success and Events for otherwise they were in themselves very abominable Every Pope growing still one more insolent than another as appeared by the practices of Gregory the Third persisting in his Predecessors steps against the said Emperour and of Stephen the Second against Constantine the Son of Leo. Now whilst these famous Popes were playing their parts on the one side as we have shewed against the Emperour to withdraw the hearts of the Italians from him the Saracens were as busy against him on the other side Which might have moved their Holiness if they had had the fear of God before their Eyes rather to have procured some Assistance from the Italians to the Emperour in a Case of that Nature than to have drawn his own Subjects from him But their course was bent another way
For the Lombards beginning to trouble Rome and they being asham'd to crave Aid from the said Emperour whom they had so abused they left their own Soveraigns under pretence that in regard of their Wars with the Saracens they were not able to assist them and procured assistance from France First by Carolus Martellus and then by Pepin his Son the said Stephen the Second having bound the said Pepin as it seemeth by an Oath that if he overcame the Lombards all that appertained to the Exarchate of Ravenna which had lately been the Emperours might be annexed to the Bishoprick of Rome which was afterward by him performed accordingly Suitable hereunto were the proceedings of Pope Adrian the First Who being again troubled with the Lombards obtain'd help from Carolus Magnus by whose coming into Italy the Lombards were shortly subdued and the Pope's Estate greatly advanced but the Emperour 's was in effect utterly overthrown concerning his Interest and Authority which he had before in those Parts For the said Carolus having vanquished the Lombards and none else there being able to resist him he caused the said Pope to Anoint his Son Pepin King of Italy and so returned into France But aboâ—â— Four Years after Leo the Third being Pope and afterward faln into so great Hatred amongst the Romans as he hardly escaped them with his Life He the said Leo used such means as that he brought the said Charles again to Rome before whom Leo purged himself by his Oath from those Accusations wherewith the Romans charged him In Requital whereof and the rather because at that time Irene the Empress and Wife of Leo the Fourth Raign'd at Constantinople after her Husband's Death which the Romans disliked the said Charles was in Rome created Emperour over the Western Parts which belonged before to the ancient Empire Touching which Point an ancient Historiographer writeth in this sort The Romans who were in Heart long before faln from the Emperour of Constantinople taking this occasion and opportunity that a Woman had gotten the Dominion over them did with one general Consent proclaim King Charles for their Emperour and Crowning him by the Hands of Leo the Third Saluted him as Caesar and Emperour of Rome And this was the fruit of the Exemption which was granted to the Bishops of Rome by the Emperour Constantine the Fourth for their Preferment to that See without the Emperour's Approbation Rome and Italy are cut off from the ancient Empire a new Empire is erected by the Practices and Treacheries principally of the Bishops of Rome it being in a sort necessary that so notable a Treason against the said ancient Empire should be especially effected by such notorious Instruments Placet eis JO. OVERAL CAP. VII CHARLES the Great having possessed himself Jure Belli of the greatest part of Italy and made his Son King thereof although he bestowed much upon the Church of Rome and used Pope Vrban very honourably yet he being a wise and a very provident Prince could not be ignorant how insolently the Bishops of Rome had behaved themselves toward their former Emperours and how traiterously they had long sought to make them odious in Italy after they had gotten themselves to be released from the Emperour's Authority in their Advancement to that See That he might therefore prevent the like dangers for the time to come and secure both himself and his Posterity in that behalf He so used the matter with the said Vrban as he brought the Popes to their former Subjection The Relation whereof is thus recorded by a principal Upholder of that See Carolus being returned to Rome saith he appointed a Synod there with Pope Adrian in the Patriarchal Palace of Lateran Which Synod was Celebrated by One hundred and fifty three religious Bishops and Abbots At what time Adrian the Pope with the whole Synod deliver'd or yielded to Charles 's Interest and Power of choosing the Bishop of Rome and of ordering the Apostolical See Moreover He the said Adrian defined that all the Archbishops and Bishops through all particular Provinces should receive from the said Charles their Investiture and that none should be Consecrated by any except he were first commended and invested Bishop by the King under pain of Excommunication Howbeit when Charles being dead his Son Ludovicus was as it seemeth so wrought upon through the softness of his Nature as he was contented that the Romans according to their own Judgment should Create and Consecrate their new Bishop so it were done without Tumult or Bribery always provided that the new Bishop should advertise him by his Legats as touching his Consecration and conclude a Peace with him Or as another saith That Legats should be directed unto the Emperour and to his Successors Kings of France to make a League of Friendship Love and Peace betwixt them and the Bishops of that See With this Order though it tended much to the prejudice of the Empire the Bishops of Rome were not long satisfied as brooking no shew of any Superiority over them but were still shifting as they might to cast off likewise that Yoak Which Otho the First well perceiving when he came to the Empire sought to reform as knowing how dangerous their ambitious Humours were to his Estate by causing Leo the Eighth with all the Clergy and people of Rome to decree in a Synod about the Year 964. That he the Emperour and his Successors should have the power of Ordaining the Bishops of Rome that if any should attempt any thing against this Rule he should be subject to Excommunication and that if he repented not then he should be punished with irrevocable Banishment or be put to Death Afterward also about the Year 1046. Henry the Third finding those Bishops still to persist in their said aspiring Course of â—â—empting themselves from the Emperour's Authority and that thereby there grew divers Schisms and Quarrels in their Elections he held a Council at Sutrium not far from Rome wherein it was determined that the Romans should no more intermeddle with the Choice of their Bishops but that the same should always be referred to the Emperour At what time also the Emperour made the Romans to swear that from thence-forward they would neither Choose nor Consecrate any Pope but such a One as he should tender unto them By these and such like other means from the time of Charles the Great hitherto for about the space of 236 Years the Emperours kept the Bishops of Rome in some reasonable good Obedience towards them but not without their own great trouble and much kicking and repining by those Bishops at it as growing daily worse and worse Insomuch as there being Sixty of them if not more who succeeded in that See within the compass of the Years before-mention'd about Fifty of them did so degenerate from the Vertues of their Predecessors as a great Friend in his
time to the Papacy reporteth That they rather deserv'd to be termed Apotactaci Apostaticive potiùs quà m Apostolici Vnruly or Runnegates than Apostolical Bishops The last of which number was Leo the Ninth who within five or six years after the said Council of Sutrium renounced the Emperour's Favour whereby he was prefer'd to the Papacy being perswaded by one Hildebrand That it was unlawful per manum Laicam to take upon him that Government and was thereupon again chosen and admitted Pope by the Romans contrary to their former Oath and to the Decree of the said Council This Hildebrand being a man both of a great Wit and Courage and having an Eye himself unto the Papacy made his way in that behalf by thrusting five or six Bishops successively into Opposition against the Emperour of purpose that if it were his Fortune to come to that Place he might find the Ice broken by them to his own Rebellion and most traiterous Designments The said Leo became a Warriour and General of the Field against some troublesom Persons in Italy called Normans by Hildebrand's means as it seemeth Cujus Consiliis nutu Pontificatûs munus perpetuò administravit The like Sway he also bare with Pope Nicholas the Second who made him Archdeacon of Rome in requital for his helping of him to the Popedom and by whose Advice the said Nicholas held a Council in the Church of Lateran wherein it was Ordain'd That from thenceforth the Bishops of Rome should be chosen by the Cardinals with Approbation of the Clergy and People of Rome Also the said Hildebrand opposed himself against the Emperour and prevail'd therein for Alexander the Second the Emperour having appointed Honorius the Second to that Place Which Alexander so advanced made a Decree That no man should in time to come receive any Ecclesiastical Living or Benefice from a Layman because it was then called Symony so to do And thus these Popes by Hildebrand's Instigation decreed and did what they list to the great prejudice of the Emperour and of his Authority the same being now in respect of former times almost at the last cast Placet eis John Overall CAP. VIII IT was great Policy in the Emperours as we have shewed to do what they could for the Maintenance of their Authority in placing of the Bishops of Rome and in bestowing of other Bishopricks and Abbacies within their Dominions But such was the Ignorance Hypocrisie and Superstition of those Times so far spread by the inferiour Bishops and Priests and so rooted every where in men's Hearts by the Bishops of that See under colour of Religion and of their pretended Supremacy derived by them from St. Peter as they feared not to attempt any thing against any whosoever so the same might tend to the Advancement of their own Authority Again it was a great Oversight in Charles the Great considering his Wisdom and that he well knew the proud and aspring Minds of those Bishops that after his own Coronation at Rome by Leo the Third he did not provide for the benefit of his Successors that none of them after that time should ever be Crowned there or by the Bishop of that Place For that Slip and Omission being not well look'd to and Reform'd by any that did succeed him became at the last the great Bane of the Empire Besides the State of the Emperours shortly after the Days of the said Charles did very greatly decay Insomuch as within about Sixty Years Ludovicus the Second had but the Ninth part of the Empire the rest being diversly and by sundry Distractions and Divisions rent and drawn from it Which Weakness of the Empire being throughly known to the Bishops of Rome and it discern'd by them to decrease more and more they grew more insolent than ever they were and began to insist upon their Preheminence and great Superiority over the Emperours because forsooth they received at their hands the Diadem and Crown Imperial These things will appear manifestly by the Proceedings of those succeeding Bishops if we shall begin with Hildebrand before mention'd who after he had procured Six Bishops of Rome to be poyson'd by one Brazutus as many thought was upon the Death of Alexander II. Ann. 1073 or thereabout made Pope himself and termed Gregory the Seventh with the Consent of Henry the Fourth then Emperour as some say without it say others But whether with it or without it when he had gotten that Place so long by him expected he ruffl'd and bestir'd himself very notably in it About that time there was a great Rebellion against the Emperour in Germany by the Saxons who very well knowing the Pride and violent Disposition of the Pope against the Emperour and how apt he would be to take any Occasion that might tend to his own Glory and to the Honour of his Place desired his Assistance deprived the Emperour very shamefully and the rather to allure the Pope unto them told him by their Agents that the Empire was but Beneficium Vrbis and thereupon moved him that He and the People of Rome would together with them administer the Empire and take Order by a Decree of Council and Agreement of Princes who should be Emperour Grata admodùm Gregorio ist haec fuere These things pleased Gregory exceedingly as a Friend to Rome affirmeth He thought that in such a whirling of things he was not to sit idle as being perswaded that a fit time was come when he might free the Bishops of Rome from Servitude shake off the Yoak of the Emperour his Abilities being diminished abrogate his Authority lawfully translate the whole Powerto himself and so establish the Pontifical Principality And nothing seemed more Glorious for him than Fear being taken away to stand in dread of no mortal man and to enjoy the Liberty of the Church as he list himself there being an Emperour whose Arms and Force were not to be feared as who did Reign but at the pleasure of the Bishop of Rome Which Points thus debated with himself and probably resolved he joyned Friendship with the said Rebels and Traytors promising them his best Assistance agreeably to their own Desires and thereupon being furthermore strengthned by the Amity which he likewise had entertained with certain other Rebels in Italy and by the Purse of a great Lady in that Country one Machtilda his Concubine as it was supposed he following the traiterous Humours stirred up by himself and maintain'd a long time in sundry of his Predecessors did prosecute the Emperour with admirable Malice Pride and Contempt because he opposed himself in his own Right and for his own Defence against him Which the Pope took in such Scorn as he Cursed him by his Excommunication releas'd his Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and stir'd them up by all the means he could to take Arms and to enter into any wicked Practices that might tend to the Emperour's Overthrow
and throw down and build and plant And a little after You see who is this servant even the Vicar of Christ the Successour of Peter the Christ of the Lord the God of Pharaoh one plac'd in the midst betwixt God and Man short of God but beyond Man less than God but greater than Man Likewise from St. Peter's walking on the Water he maketh this Inference Forasmuch saith he as many Waters are many People and the Congregations of Waters are the Sea in that St. Peter did walk upon the Waters of the Sea he did demonstrate his Power over all the World Further this Innocentius having written a malapert Letter to the Emperour of Constantinople his Majesty in answer of it putteth him in Mind how St. Peter commandeth all Men to be subject to Kings whereunto the Pope replyed saying that St. Peter wrote so to his own Subjects and did not therein include himself and that moreover he might not only have remember'd that it was not said to any King but to a Priest Behold I have placed thee over Nations and Kingdoms and so followeth the words of the Text but likewise that as God made two lights in the Firmament of Heaven a greater and a less the one for the Day the other for the Night so for the Firmament of the Universal Church he made two dignities the Pontifical and the Regal the Pontifical resembling the Sun which is the great Light and the Regal the Moon which is the less Light to the end that thereby it might be known that there is a great difference betwixt Pontifical Bishops and Kings as there is betwixt the Sun and the Moon But here we must a little digress to observe that this Pope being swoln as big as the Sun cast his Beams not only into England and scorched King John exceedingly about the Year 1212. by thundering against him and interdicting the Kingdom and by exciting his Subjects to Rebellion and Treason the Weapons of those Bishops but likewise fired Otho the Emperour out of the Empire by raising up against him Frederick the Second And when he had played these two Feats amongst many other he held a Council at Lateran Anno 1215. wherein to strengthen such Traiterous Proceedings he caused it to be ordained as it is pretended That if any Temporal Lord being admonished by the Church should not purge his Countrey from Heresie the Metropolitan and other Comprovincial Bishops should excommunicate him and if within a Year he did not give satisfaction in that behalf the same should be signified to the Bishop of Rome that so he from thence forward might denounce his Vassals absolved from their Fidelity to him and expose his Land to Catholicks to be without Contradiction by them possessed Upon this Canon many in these days do much rely although indeed it was but a Project amongst many other to have been concluded in that Assembly wherein nothing could be clearly determined saith one of their Writers because by Wars it was broken off which the Pope labouring to suppress died in that Journey And now we return from whence we digressed and leaving Innocentius do address our selves to Boniface the Eighth who had as great dexterity as his said Predecessour in expounding of the Scriptures For whereas the Apostles upon a mistaking of Christ's meaning where he bad them to provide bags and scrips for themselves and that he who wanted a sword should sell his Coat and buy one they answered saying Lord we have two swords This Pope inferreth there is in the Church a Spiritual Sword and a Temporal and that consequently they are both at the Commandment of the Bishops of Rome Also to make the matter more clear touching the temporal Sword which should rule the World in all temporal Causes he saith Boniface that shall deny that St. Peter had this temporal Sword doth not well understand Christ's Words when he bad St. Peter after he had cut off Malchus's Ear that he should put up his Sword Again whereas the Apostle doth teach us that the spiritual Man judgeth all things but is judged by none this good Bishop doth ingross these words to the only Use of the Popes and thereupon concludeth that they have Power to judge and censure all Earthly Powers and Authorities but are themselves exempted from the Checks and Censures of any as being only subject to God and to his judgment And again that the Spiritual Authority may institute and judge the Terrestrial it is verified by the Prophecy of Jeremy Behold I have placed thee this day over Nations and Kingdoms for the perverting of which Portion of Scripture both this Pope and Innocentius the Third with all the Popes that since have followed were and are much beholding to Adrian the Fourth he being the first for ought we find that so did overstrain it Lastly That he might imitate as he seemeth the Governour of the Feast in the Gospel that brought forth his best wine in the end of the feast and likewise such skilful Rhetoricians as commonly build their principal Conclusions upon their most pinching Arguments His Holiness relying upon the Scriptures because it is not said In the beginnings but In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth Therefore except we will say with the Manichces That God did not Himself make all Things but that there was also another Creator as well as he It must needs be confessed that there is but One viz. St. Peter's Successor that is the chief and principal Ruler of all the World and so he cometh to his irrefragable Conclusion We declare we define and we pronounce that it is of the Necessity of Salvation for all humane Creatures to be subject to the Bishop of Rome We may not therefore marvel that having thus notably made perfect the rough Platform drawn out by Gregory the VIIth rubbed over by Hadrian the IVth and amended by Innocentius the IIId of so infinite a Soveraignty if He the said Boniface to make the Honour and Glory more conspicuous and memorable to all Posterity after He had thrice refused to yield the Crown of the Empire to Albertus Austriacus came forth one day amongst the people to be admired of them with a Sword by his Side and a Crown upon his Head saying That He and none but He was Caesar Augustus Emperour and Lord of the World It had been plain dealing if for the better strengthning of this his Greatness He had alledged the Words in the Gospel for the Honour of his Lord Paramount All these will I give thee because He did so worthily by his said Proceedings magnifie his Name and Authority Placet eis John Overall CAP. X. WE have hitherto followed the Bishops of Rome through many Windings from their mean and militant Condition like to their Brethren unto their Glorious Estate and as we may say Triumphant We found them at the first little better than their Master Who
Power unto others and writeth thus Whatsoever Emperours have they have it from Christ and therefore saith he the Bishop of Rome may either take from Kings and Emperours the execution of their Authority as being himself the highest King and Emperour or he may not If he may then is he greater than Christ If he may not Ergo he hath not in truth any Regal Power And he concludeth this Point with this Observation As the Sun did not make or institute the Moon but God himself so likewise the Empire and the Pontifical Dignity are not One neither doth the One absolutely depend upon the Other Lastly To prove his third Proposition That the Pope hath no Temporal Jurisdiction directly he reasoneth in this sort Christ as he was Man whilst he lived here upon Earth neither took nor would take any Temporal Dominion but the Bishop of Rome is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us qualis erat dùm hîc inter homines viveret as he was whilst he lived here amongst Men therefore the Bishop of Rome hath no Temporal Dominion Now before he comes to the Proof of the the first Proposition of this Argument and that he might make the Ground thereof more plain he saith 1. That Christ was always as he is the Son of God the King and Lord of all Creatures in the same sort that the Father is 2. That his Kingdom is Eternal and Divine and neither taketh away the Kingdoms of Men nor can agree to the Bishops of Rome 3. That Christ as he was Man was the Spiritual King of all Men and had most ample Spiritual Power over all Men as well faithful as Infidels 4. That this Spiritual Power of Christ shall after the Day of Judgment be sensible and manifest 5. That the Glory of this Kingdom did begin in our Head Christ when he arose from the dead Upon which Grounds he maketh these Inferences 1. That the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ the Glory whereof began after His Resurrection is not a Temporal Kingdom such as are the Kingdoms of our Kings 2. That the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ over all Men cannot be communicated to the Bishop of Rome because it pre-supposeth the Resurrection 3. That Christ as he was Man if he had list and had thought it expedient for him could have taken upon him a Kingly Authority but would not and therefore neither did receive any such Authority neither had not only the Execution of any Dominion or Kingdom but not the Authority or Power of any Kingdom Temporal And so he cometh to the Proof of his said Proposition saying That if Christ had any such Temporal Kingdom He had it either by hereditary Succession or by Election or by the Law of War or by the Especial Gift of God but He had it by none of these four ways Ergo He had no such Dominion For the Proof of all which Particulars he taketh good Pains and then cometh to the Explication of these words in his second Proposition of the first Argument concerning this point viz. That the Pope doth represent Christ unto us as he was when he lived here amongst Men and saith 1. We cannot attribute unto the Pope those Offices which Christ hath either as he is God or as he is an immortal and glorified Man but those which he had as he was a mortal Man 2. Neither hath the Pope all the Power which Christ had as he was a mortal Man For he because he was both God and Man had a certain Power which Men call the Power of Excellency whereby he ruled both Faithful and Infidels But the Faithful only are committed to the Pope 3. Christ had Authority to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which the Pope hath not 4. Christ had Power to absolve Men from their sins without the Sacrament which the Pope cannot do With Bellarmin that he may not bear this great burthen upon his own shoulders and undergo alone the Envy thereof ensuing an Army of Writers both old and new do concur He hath himself set down the names of some and for his better supportation we have thought it fit to assist him with two more viz. the Archbishop of Compsa one Ambrosius Catharinus and Boëtius Epon a Count Palatin whose Book of Heroical and Ecclesiastical Questions Printed at Doway 1588. a place wholly Jesuited is greatly approved by Tho. Stapleton our Countryman and Balthazar Seulin the Dean of Amate a Licentiate of the Pope's Law and the ordinary Visiter or Allower of such Books as are thought meet to be published Non desunt plerique c. There are many saith Catharinus who are not content with that that is sufficient Ne dicam nimiùm that I may not say It is too much Who either to flatter or of too gross simplicity do affirm that the temporal Dominion of the whole World doth belong of Right to the Bishop of Rome as being Christ's chief Vicar in Earth in that Christ said All things are given to me of my Father Verùm ridicula haec profectò quae neque ipsimet Pontifices auderent asserere But assuredly these are ridiculous Joys The Popes themselves dare not for shame so affirm Quòd autèm Papa sit Vicarius Christi c. For that the Pope is called Christ's Vicar what force hath it to perswade us that all the Kingdoms in the World are committed to be govern'd by him in temporal Causes Nay saith he it rather induceth us to believe that they are not committed unto him quoniam Christus abjecit ea ut Homo erat in Mundo non habuit because he cast them from him and as he was Man had them not himself And the said Boëtius Epon having set down the reasons why some have maintain'd the Pope's said Universal Dominion in temporal Causes and given a touch of the Jews Errour and of the Apostles oversight in that behalf he saith thus Neque nos forsitan Judaeis multò vel meliores vel minùs inepti sumus dum c. And we perhaps are not either much better or less foolish than the Jews whilst we do ridiculously mingle the temporal and Earthly Kingdom or Empire with the Kingdom Ecclesiastical or Spiritual by wresting to that purpose the Testimonies of the sacred Scriptures which do nothing less than make either Christ or Peter or the Pope the temporal Monarch either of the whole World or of the Christian World Digni profectò c. We are certainly worthy of this answer of Christ Nescitis quid petatis quidve disputetis you know not what you ask nor what you dispute of And thus it appeareth what Opposition there hath been ever since the days of Gregory the Seventh against the Insolency of the Bishops of Rome in challenging to themselves such eminent and Soveraign Authority temporal over all Kings and Emperours and how in these later times through the light of the Gospel Men of any good parts or
Bishops of that See affirming That they sought the overthrow of the Empire and to bring all Men in servitude under them to the end that they themselves might thereby be the more feared and reverenced than Almighty God But the Archbishop of Juvavia now called Saltzburg in an Oration which he made in a Council of State during the said Emperour's Reign 〈◊〉 this Argument where he affirmeth that 〈…〉 Libidine dominandi did trouble the whole World audendo fallendo bella ex bellis serendo Also Otho Regulus Boiorum the Prince of Bavaria in the days of Innocentius the Fourth told the Bishops that joined with the Pope that as they grew to their greatness by discord so being overcome with desire of honour in stirring up Wars they were worse than Turks or Saracens Moreover in the days of Honorius the Fourth the Bishop of Tulle when the Pope would have set the Emperour in War against the French and under that pretence required by his Legate of all the Clergy in Germany Non Decimas sed Quartas not the Tenth but the Fourth part of their Livings moved the said Clergy and many of the State then present that they should no longer submit themselves unto the Romish Vultures who had very long tyrannized and labour'd nothing more than to thrust Princes into War one against another adding thereunto that the Pope had arm'd the Scythians Arabians and Turks against them and that he verily thought that the Pope loved them better than he did the Germans And what Men thought when they durst speak of the Bishops of Rome and his Priests in the days of Nicholas the Fourth it may appear by the words of a Nobleman one Menardus Earl of Tyrol as we conceive when he said That he would never make himself a scorn to such effeminate Antichrists and prodigious Eunuchs who being indeed saith he our Servants do sight for superiority and would domineer over us that are their Lords They are worse than Turks Saracens Tartars and Jews and do more injury to Christian simplicity Dominationem arripiunt they will by force over-rule all In the time of Ludovicus Bavarus the Emperour although three Popes successively opposed themselves against him with all the mischievous practices that they could devise yet many learned Men both Divines and Civil Lawyers did justify the Emperour's Proceedings and condemn the Popes And some wrote Books to that effect saying to the Emperour Tu nos pugnis ense ferro c. Do thou deliver us from the Pope's servitude by force c. Nos te lingua c. And we will revenge our quarrel with our Tongues our Pens our Letters our stile our Books and words And thereupon accordingly as their own Author saith they proved by the testimony both of Divine and humane Laws Joannem libidine dominandi insanire that John the Pope was grown mad through his desire of Principality and Soveraignty Also the Emperour himself about the year 1324. speaking in scorn of the said John the 22 th saith That the Pope in taking upon him to be both Augustus and Pontifex shew'd himself therein to be Monstrum biceps a Monster with two heads and that it was apparent by Divinity and all Laws that the Bishop of Rome had no interest to both these Dignities Many notable things are contain'd in divers of this Emperour's Letters and Decrees as also in the said Orations and Writings above here mention'd which are very worthy to be perused and made more known than they are All of them labouring to suppress that Insolency of the Bishops of Rome in challenging to themselves the Right of the Empire and the Authority to confirm the same as they thought good making the Emperours thereby their Vicars or Substitutes But it is most of all worthy the diligent Observation That in these later times when the grossness of Popery hath been more throughly looked into and scann'd the Jesuits themselves are grown to be asham'd of the said most absurd and ridiculous challenge And therefore Cardinal Bellarmin hath written five Chapters against it wherein he first distinguisheth them from Catholick Divines who maintain'd that Opinion and then setting down these three Propositions as sure grounds of truth viz. Papam non esse Dominum totius Mundi That the Pope is not Lord of all the World Papam non esse Dominum totius mundi Christiani That the Pope is not Lord of all the Christian World Papam non habere ullam temporalem Jurisdictionem directè That the Pope hath no temporal Jurisdiction directly he confuteth their Arguments who are of another Judgment Where he shaketh off very lightly the chief places of Scripture and some other Testimonies whereupon the said Arguments are principally grounded as that of Two Swords and where Christ saith All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth And the Testimony likewise of Pope Nicholas affirming that Christ committed to Peter the Key-Carrier of Eternal Life terreni simul coelestis imperii Jura the Interest both of the Earthly and Heavenly Empire which he casteth away either as an Assertion forged by Gratian the same being not found in the said Pope's Writings or else to have another sense this as it is urged being against the said Pope's direct Words in one of his Epistles His first Proposition That the Pope is not Lord of all the World he justifieth in respect 1. That Infidels are not his Sheep 2. That he cannot judge Infidels 3. That Princes Infidels are true and supreme Princes of their Kingdoms because Dominion is neither founded in Grace nor Faith as it appeareth because God approved the Kingdoms of the Gentiles both in the Old and New Testament And upon these said Reasons he inferreth it to be a ridiculous Conceit for any Man to think That God gave to the Pope any Right over the Kingdoms of the whole World considering that he never gave unto him Ability to use any such Right And for the confirmation of his second Proposition That the Pope is not Lord of all the Christian World he proveth the same by these Reasons 1. Because if he had any such Dominion by the Law of God the same ought to appear either in the Scriptures or by some Apostolical Traditions but it appeareth by neither Ergo. And his second Reason is this Christ neither did nor doth take Kingdoms from any to whom they do appertain but doth rather establish them therefore when the King becometh a Christian he doth not lose his Terrene Kingdoms which lawfully before he enjoyed but he obtaineth new Right to the everlasting Kingdom Otherwise saith he the benefit received by Christ should be hurtful to Kings and Grace should destroy Nature Also he confuteth the ordinary Distinction amongst the Schoolmen and Canonists who affirm That the Pope hath both Powers in himself but doth commit the execution of the Civil