by Alexander and scoffed at the scrupulous caution of the Grecians who would passe no act without signing it and swearing to it Scythae colendo fidem jurant our Scythians faith is our band and our promise our oath Those who blush not to break their faith with men will make no scruple of conscience to forsweare themselves by their Gods An honest mans word is as good as his oath and a prophane persons oath is no more to be regarded then his word All these examples of the heathen may bee alleadged to good purpose to shame and confound those Christians in name who rap out oathes by no allowance who turn Christs meritorious sufferings in all his parts into blasphemies and wound his very wounds Assuredly if men shall give account at the day of judgment of every idle word much more of execrable oathes but it will not follow we may not sweare lightly or rashly to the great dishonour of God and scandall of religion and therefore wee may not honour God by an oath by calling him to witnesse in matters of greatest moment whereby we agnize his soveraigne Majesty we professe his all-seeing wisdom we invocate his sin revenging justice against all those who dare put his holy and dreadfull name to that which their conscience tells them is a falshood Whereas it is said that an honest man will have as well a care of his word as his oath and a dishonest man as little regard of his oath as his word this is but a vaine flourish for an honest man who will have a care of his word will have a greater care of his oath and a twist â—s stronger then a single string and although many dishonest men will falsifie their word for their advantage yet they will not so easily bee brought to forsweare themselves in regard of the severe penalty of the law and the infamy and horrour of the sinne of perjury whereof the Hebrewes write that at the giving of the tables in Mount Sinai when the law was proclaimed against perjury heaven and earth shook as it were trembling at so horrid a crime The issue and effect of all is this as God sweareth by himself for our comfort so we may swear by him for his glory nay the Prophet goeth farther we ought and it is our duty to take an oath in truth by the truth and for the truth in truth that is in a true and just cause by the truth that is by God who is the truth and for the truth that is for the manifestation and confirmation of truth The second difficulty concerning oathes is whether they may bee imposed I answer briefly they may both by supreame and inferiour Magistrates deriving their authority from him this I prove First by cleare testimony of Scripture Secondly by the examples of holy and religious men who have both administred and taken such oathes Thirdly by evidence of reason ARGUMENT I. In the charge that Ioshuah gave to the Elders Heads Iudges and other officers of Israel among other things there is this remarkeable passage Yee shall not make mention of the names of other Gods nor cause to sweare by them neither serve them nor bow your selves unto them but cleave to the Lord your God as you have done this day whence I thus frame my argument What the Rulers of Israel were forbidden to doe to other Gods this passage sheweth that they may and ought to doe to the true God But the Rulers of Israel are forbidden to make mention of or cause any to sweare by the Gods of the heathen Ergo they may and ought to make mention of the name of the true God and require and cause men to sweare by him when an oath shall be required of them ARGUMENT II. What the Saints of God are recorded to have done and they are no where reproved for the doing thereof in holy Scripture we may doe for all those things were written for our example 1. Cor. 10. 6. But the Saints of God are recorded in holy Scripture to have exacted and taken oaths imposed for Abraham Gen. 24. 23. maketh his servant sweare by the Lord God of heaven that he should not take a wife to his sonne of the daughters of the Canaanites David being urged by Saul sware 1. Sam. 24. 21. 22. that he would not cut off Sauls seed after him Ezra made the chiefe Priests and all Israel to sweare that they would put away their strange wives according to the commandement of God Ezrah 10. 5. Nehemiah 5. 12. called the Priests and tooke an oath of them that they should doe according to their promise that they should restore unto their brethren their lands their vinâ—-yards their olive-yards their houses and also the hundred part of their monie and of the corn wine and oile they exacted of them Ergo Christians may lawfully both impose and take oathes ARGUMENT III. All Christian Magistrates may command those who are subject to their authority such things as are lawfull and necessary for the discharge of their office and the preservation of humane society But oathes are things lawfull as is proved in the former question and they are necessary for the execution of the Magistrates office and the preservation of humane society For without such oathes the Common-wealth hath no sure tye upon publick officers and Ministers nor Kings upon their subjects nor Lords upon their tenants neither can mens titles be cleared in causes civill nor justice done in causes criminall nor dangerous plots and conspiracies be discovered against the State Ergo Christian Magistrates may command those that are under their authority to take oathes and this is the constant judgement of the reformed Churches But they object no man may be enforced to any act of Religion for Tertullian saith acutely and truly nec Religionis est Religionem cogere It is against Religion to compell or enforce Religion But the taking of an oath whereby we invocate God is an act of Religion Therefore no man may or ought to bee enforced to take an oath There are two sorts of acts of Religion inward and outward First inward as to adhere to God to love him to beleive in him and put our confidence and place our happinesse chiefly in him these and such like acts of Religion cannot be enforced Secondly outward as comming to Church receiving the Sacrament and making confession of our faith fasting and prayer these latter may be enforced as wee see by the example of Iosiah who compelled all Israel to serve the Lord and by the speech of the King in the Parable who made a great supper and bade many guests and when they had made their severall excuses said to his servant Goe to the high waies and hedges and compell them to come in that my house may be full Among these latter acts of Religion is the taking of an oath which though in all leagues and covenants and holy vowes it ought to be free
Kings and Christian Governours ARGUMENT VII Those for whom we are to offer up prayers and supplications in speciall their calling must needs bee warrantable by and agreeable to the Gospell But we are to offer prayers and supplications in speciall for Civill Magistrates 1 Timothy 2. 1. 2 3 4. Ergo their calling is warrantable by and agreeable to the Gospell ANABAP ANSWER We are to pray for their persons as men but not for their functions as they are Magistrates REPLY The Apostles instancing particularly in Kings and those that are in eminent authority sheweth that he hath an eye to their very function especially seeing he addeth that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honestie which we cannot doe unlesse God blesse their government over us Calvin rightly inferreth this to be the meaning of the Apostle from the reason he useth vers 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth By all men saith he the Apostle cannot understand ad unum omnes nemine excluso every man in particular none excepted sed omnes vitae conditiones status quia status Principum rejectus à Deo maledictus videri poterat eo quod omnes Evangelium infesto animo persequerentur Not all men universally and every man in particular for then none should be damned but all states and conditions of men and in that regard he names expressely Kings and Princes because their estate and condition might seem to be rejected of God and cursed by him by reason that all Princes at that time were ill-affected to the Gospell and persecuted it to bands and death Notwithstanding this mischiefe the Church then received by Civill Magistrates yet the Apostle teacheth us that it is good and acceptable in the sight of God to make supplications even for them because God excludeth no calling or conditions of men from salvation ARGUMENT VIII What Kings are required to doe under the Gospell can be no diminution of Evangelicall holinesse or perfection But Kings under the Gospell are commanded to imploy their power to the advancement of Christs Kingdome Psalme 2. 10 11 12. Ergo it can be no diminution of Evangelicall holinesse or perfection for Kings to imploy their regall power in the service of the Church ANABAPTISTS ANSWER King David in the second Psalme exhorteth Kings to embrace the Gespell and worship Christ not to exercise their regall authority amongst Christians REPLY When Saint Paul commandeth that every man after his conversion to the Christian faith to abide in the same calling whereunto they are called certainly hee excludeth not the best and most eminent calling which is that of Soveraign Princes and Magistrates and if they must not quit their calling undoubtedly they must imploy their power to the best end which is the advancing of Christs Kingdome in theirs 2 Saint Augustine by an acute distinction very well illustrateth the Text of the Psalmist Be wise O yee Kings serve the Lord with feare a King serves God two manner of wayes as a man by leading a godly life agreeable to the rules of the Gospell as a King he serves God by enacting lawes with convenient severity commanding just things and prohibiting the contrary so Hezekiah and Josiah and the King of Ninive◠and Datius and Nebuchadnezzar hee might have added and Constantine and Theodosius and all religious Christian Kings serve God for then properly Kings serve God as Kings when they doe those things in and for the service of the Lord which none can doe but Kings ANABAP OBIECT There is no Paradox so absurd saith the Oratour which meets not with some Patron among the learned and I may adde farther which hath not some varnish of reason yea and glosse also of Scripture put upon it For although as the Poets faine that Atlas beares up the heavens so the Civill Magistrates beare up the pillars of the earth and support the frame of all government yet the Anabaptists bid them Battaile and furnish themselves with weapons against their calling out of Scripture First they wrest to their wicked purpose the words of our Saviour Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this world Ergo say they no Christian ought to raigne as a King or rule as a Governour in this world But we answer that the inference is unsound themselves being Judges for as he here professeth that hee had no Kingdome here so elsewere that he had no house or possessions The Foxes saith he have dens and the Birds have nests but the Sonne of man hath not whereon to lay his head Yet the Anabaptists will not allow it for a good inference Ergo no good Christian may hold house or lands If then they will have Kings to quit their Earthly Crownes and Scepters because our Saviour had none such here let them give a good example and first quit all their houses goods and lands and follow Christ naked The meaning of our Saviours words is that though indeed hee bee a King yet his Kingdome is not a Temporall Kingdome in which hee swayeth a Temporall sword but a Spirituall Kingdome whereby hee ruleth the hearts of the faithfull or that he is a King and hath both his Throne and his Guard his Throne of glory and his Guard of Angels but this his Kingdome is an heavenly not an earthly Kingdome Notwithstanding it will not hence follow that earthly Kings and Princes hold not their Crownes from him For Solomon and Saint Iohn affirme the contrary Solomon speaking in the person of Christ saith By me Kings raigne and Saint Iohn saith He hath a name written upon his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords a Temporall Kingdom and a Spirituall are diversa not adversa diverse and distinct not adverse and contrary one to the other Christ in a different capacity hath right to both as God hee administreth all Temporall Kingdomes by Kings and Princes appointed by him and his Spirituall Kingdome by Bishops Pastors and Ministers of the Gospell Howsoever certain it is that he warranteth and approveth of the authority of Secular Kings and Magistrates for he commandeth all men to pay unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and himselfe paid tribute and acknowledgeth Pilats power over him to be from God Secondly they straine the words of our Saviour Matth. 20. 25. Luke 22. 25. The Kings of the Gentiles execute Lordship over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them but it shall not be so with you therefore say they no Christians may beare rule one over another To this objection the learned Divines both ancient and later shape a double answer first that Christ here speaketh not to all Christians but only to his Apostles and their successours whose office hee distinguisheth from Temporall Rule and Dominion You my Apostles shall not by vertue of your calling challenge to your selves Regall power or Coactive and Temporall authority or
harmonious sounds the Angels or Intelligencers as they call them turning as it were the broaches But this Celestiall musick they speak of is but a pleasing dreame a true Celestiall harmony may be heard in the confession of all the Reformed Churches wherewith now in the close I purpose to cheare up and recreate the Reader and lest any quarrell should be made or offence taken at the precedencie I will call the severall Churches in such order as they are ranked in the Latine edition of the Confessions printed at Geneva An. 1581. Concerning the Authour Office and Authority of the Civill Magistrate thus we read In the Helvetian confession The Magistracie of what kind soever is ordained of God for the peace and quietnesse of mankind and hee ought to have the first place in the world And a little afterwards As God doth work the safety of his people by the Magistrate whom hee hath given to bee as a Father to the world so all subjects are commanded to acknowledge this benefit of God in the Magistrate let them therefore honour and reverence him as the Minister of God love him and pray for him as their Father obey him in all his just and righteous commands the care of Religion chiefly appertaines to a godly Magistrate let him therefore draw his sword against all malefactours murderers theeves and blasphemous hereticks c. In this regard we condemn the Anabaptists who as they deny that a Christian may execute the office of a Magistrate so also they deny that any man may be lawfully put to death by him The Basill confession Let every Christian Magistrate bend all his forces this way that among all that are under him the name of God may be hallowed his Kingdome propagagated and his will in the rooting out of all wickednesse and vice may be fulfilled This duty was ever enjoyned even to the heathen Magistrates how much more is it required of a Christian Magistrate who is Gods true Vicar The Bohemian confession The Civill Magistrate is the ordinance of God and appointed by God who both taken his originall from God and by the effectuall power of his presence and continuall aid is maintained by him to governe the people in those things that appertain to thelife of the body here upon earth to whose power all and every one ought to be subject in those things that are not contrary to God first to the Kings Majesty then to all the Magistrates and such as are in authority under him whether they be of themselves good men or evill The French confession wee beleive that God would have the world to be governed Civilly and by Lawes that there may be certain bridles whereby the desires of men may bee restrained and that therefore he hath appointed Kingdomes Common-wealths and other kinds of Principalities whether they come by inheritance or otherwaies and because he is the authour of thiâ— order we must not only suffer them to rule whom he hath set over us but also yeild unto them all honour and reverence as to Deputies and Ministers assigned by him to execute their lawfull and holy function into their hands God hath put a sword to punish all breaches as well of the first Table as of the second The Low-Dutch confession We beleive that Almighty God by reason of the corruption and depravation of mankind did appoint Kings Princes and Magistrates and that it is his will that this world should bee governed by lawes and a Civill government and to this end hee hath armed Magistrates with a sword to punish the wicked and defend the good To these it appertaineth of duty not only watchfully to preserve the Civill State but also to endeavour that the holy Ministery of the word be maintained all Idolatry and false worship removed the Kingdome of Antichrist pulled downe and the Kingdome of Christ propagated Wherefore wee detest all Anabaptists and seditious persons who cast away all government and Magistracie pervert judgements and overthrow all mens rights make all mens goods common and lastly abolish and confound all orders and degrees appointed by God among men for honesty and comlinesse sake The High Dutch confession at Ausperge Civill governments and constitutions are good workes and ordinances of God as Saint Paul testifieth they condemne therefore the Anabaptists who forbid Civill offices to Christians they condemn also those who place Evangelicall perfection in abandoning all civill affaires whereas Evangelicall perfection is Spirituall and consisteth in the motions of the heart in the feare of God Faith Love and Obedience The Saxon confession Wee teach that in the whole doctrine of God delivered by the Apostles and Prophets that Civill government is maintained and that Magistrates Lawes tribunalls and the lawfull society of men sprung not up by chance but that all the good order that is left is preserved by the exceeding goodnesse of God for the Churches sake and all subjects owe to the civill Magistrate obedience as Saint Paul saith not only for wrath that is feare of corporall punishment wherwith the disobedient are rewarded by the Magistrate but also for conscience sake Contumacie being a sinne offending God and withdrawing the conscience from him And seeing Magistrates are the chiefe members of the Church let them see that Judgements in the Church and Ecclesiasticall censures be rightly executed as Constantine Theodosius Arcadius Marcianus Charle-Maine and many godly Kings took order in their times that Ecclesiasticall judicature and proceedings in spirituall Courts should be rightly carried The Suevick confession Our Churches teach that the office of a Magistrate is most sacred and divine whence it is that they who exercise this power are called Gods and our Preachers teach that the obedience which is performed to Magistrates is to bee placed among good works of the first rank and that by how much a man is a more sincere and faithfull Christian the more carefull hee is to observe the Lawes of the State I know not upon what ground the English and Scotch confession are left out of the Harmony of Confessions for they are as full as any of the rest for proofe of the point in question the Scotch runneth thus The Confession of Scotland Wee confesse and acknowledge Empires Kingdomes Dominions and Cities to be distincted and ordained by God that powers and authority in the same be it of Emperous in their Empires Kings in their Realmes Dukes and Princes in their Dominions and of other Magistrates in their Cities to be Gods holy Ordinance ordained for manifestation of his owne glory and for the singular profit and commodity of mankind so that whosoever goeth about to take away or confound the whole state of Civill policie now long established we affirm the same men not only to be enemies to mankind but also wickedly to fight against Gods expressed will The Confession of England Art 37. The Kings Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England and
those duties of not resisting evill nor revenging our selves and loving our enemies in which the Anabaptists as well as Papists place Evangelicall perfection were required by the law Deut. 32. 35. To me vengeance belongeth and recompence I will repay saith the Lord And Prov. 25. 21. If thine enemy hunger feed him if hee thirst give him drinke ARGUMENT II. A holy and divine office can be no derogation to Evangelicall perfection But such is the office of a Magistrate For they are stiled Gods Psalme 82. 1. 6. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the Gods I have said yee are Gods and 2 Chron. 19. 6. 7. You judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment and in the execution of their office they are the Ministers of God both to reward them that doe well and to execute wrath upon them that doe evill Rom. 13. 14. Ergo the execution of the office of a Civill Magistrate can be no derogation to Christian perfection ARGUMENT III. That dignity and power wherewith most holy and religious men and highest in favour have been invested may well stand with Evangelicall perfection But most holy and religious men have been invested with the dignity and power of Magistracie as namely Melchizedec a singular type of Christ Ioseph a man inspired by God and a revealer of his secrets Iob a perfect and upright man Moses the servant of God Ioshuah the Captaine of the Lords Host David a man after Gods own heart Daniel a man beloved of God Iedidiah Hezekiah and Iosiah after whom the Holy Ghost sendeth this testimony Like unto them there were no Kings before them that turned to the Lord with all their heart and all their soule and all their strength according to all the law of Moses nor after them arose any like unto them 2 Kings 23. 25. Ergo the dignity and power of Magistracie may stand with Evangelicall perfection ARGUMENT IV. That which was foretold and promised for a singular blessing to the Christian Church cannot be repugnant to the rules of the Gospell But the government and protection of Kings and their supporting and maintaining the Gospell is foretold and promised as a singular blessing to the Christian Church Psal. 68. 29. Kings shall bring presents unto thee Psalm 72. 9 10 11. They that dwell in the wildernesse shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents The King of Sheba and Saba shall bring gifts Esay 49. 23. Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and Queens shall bee thy nursing Mothers they shall bow downe to thee with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet Ergo the government and protection of Kings cannot be repugnant to the rule of the Gospell ARGUMENT V. The use of that authority must needs bee a blessing to a land the want whereof is noted by the Holy Ghost and threatned as a great plague fearfull judgement upon a people But the want of a civill Magistrate to sway the sword of justice is noted by the holy Ghost as a great plague and fearfull judgement Iud. 17. 6. 18. 1. 21. 25. Hâ— 3. 4. Ergo the use of the Civill Magistrate is a blessing to a land ANABAP ANSWER The people of the Iewes being stiffe-necked and stubborne needed to bee curbed and kept in by the power of the Civill Magistrate but Christians who are meek Lambes need not so REPLY 1 What meek Lambes the Anabaptists have beene it appeareth by Pontanus who relateth that by tumults raised by them in Germany Holsatia and Swethland there were slaughtered within a few yeares no lesse then 150000. 2 It is true that the Jewes were for the most part a stubborn and stiffnecked people and therefore are said by the Prophets to have sinews of iron and I pray God divers Christians at this day have not nerves in their neck of the same metall But yet the Holy Ghost in the places above quoted ascribeth not the great disorders in those dayes to the perverse and froward disposition of that people but to the want of a Soveraigne Magistrate In those dayes there was no King in Israel but every one did that which was right in his owne eyes which words are repeated verbatim c. 21. 25. that we should take speciall notice of them and they imply that whensoever there falls an Interregnum this mischiefe will ensue thereupon that every man will doe that which is right in his own eyes and his lust shall be his law Whence Calvin rightly inferres that the Anabaptists could not take a more ready way to ruine all Empires and Kingdomes and introduce all carnall liberty and villany then by wresting the sword out of the Magistrates hand ARGUMENT VI. Their authority is established by the Gospell to whom all are bound to submit and obey But all Christians are bound to obey the Civill Magistrate Rom. 13. 1. 4. 5. Tit. 3. 1. 1. Pet. 2. 13 14 15. Ergo the authority of the Magistrate is established by the Gospell ANABAP ANSVVER The Magistrates that then were were Infidels and Heathen to whom the Christians could not with a good conscience obey because they made many cruell edicts against the Christian faith the meaning therefore of the Apostle can be no other then that we should yeild them passive obedience REPLY Saint Augustine rightly distinguisheth between Dominum temporalem and Dominum aeternum the souldiers under Iulian the Apostata when the Emperour commanded them to advance in Battaile against the Persian they executed his commands and acquitted themselves valiantly against their enemy but when he commanded them to offer sacrifice to his Idols they preferred their Eternall Lord before their Temporall and absolutely refused to doe it In like manner all good Christians can put a difference between Civill Religious commands such things as appertaine to the government of the State and such things as belong to the immediate service of God In the former they yeild their obedience even to heathen Magistrates for God in the latter they comply not with them because such their commands are against God Although it bee true that the greatest part of our Christian duty which we owe to wicked Magistrates oppressing and tyrannizing over those that are truly religious making havock of the Church is to submit to their power and glorifie God by our sufferings yet the very Text of the Apostle requires more Tit. 3. 1. not only to bee subject to Principalities and Powers but to obey Magistrates and to bee ready to every good worke namely all such good works as tend to the Peace of the Common-wealth and well managing the affaires of the State If evill Magistrates may not bee resisted much lesse good if wee ought to honour and humbly obey and pay tribute to Princes and Governours that are averse from the Christian faith how much more to religious
cut off malefactors from the Church therewith But they weigh not the circumstances of the Text the Scribes and Pharisees intended not the execution of justice upon the woman but came a birding to catch our Saviour in a snare which they laid after this manner Will he judge this woman fit to be stoned according to the Law or not it he will not judge her we have a just quarrell against him for derogating from the Law of Moses if he judge her fit to suffer death and condemne her to be stoned wee shall have just cause to question him by what authority hee assumes to himselfe the office of a Judge Christ discerning the snare thus breakes it in sunder He that is without sinne among you saith he let him first cast a stone at her Which is as if he should have said The matter of fact is evident the woman is guilty and the law is as cleare shee ought to be stone◠but who are you who demand the rigour of the Law to be executed upon her are you free from this foule aspersion are you innocent from this great offence look into the book of your owne conscience or if not read what you see here written in the dust Thus touching on their sore they shrinke and withdraw themselves away one after another and the woman is left alone with our Saviour whom he dismisseth with a gracious admonition Goe and sinne no more vers 11. What will the Anabaptist conclude from hence that because Christ condemned not this woman to death according to Law that therefore no Christian may inflict corporall punishment for adultery by the same reason they might inferre against themselves and their owne practises that because Christ severed not this woman from the congregation that therefore no Minister of God or spirituall Magistrate may excommunicate for adultery or the like crimes That which we are from this example of our Saviour to learne for our instruction is first That Christ came not to destroy but to save not to punish but to forgive sinne not to bereave any of their Temporall life but to purchase for all true believers and penitent sinners a Spirituall and Eternall life Secondly that all they who are overtaken with any sinne or crime punishable by the Law ought not to prosecute the extremity against others who stick in the same mud with themselves The snuffers which were to mend the lights in the Sanctuary by Gods appointment were to be made of pure gold to teach us that they who take upon them to accuse and censure others ought themselves to be most free from blame especially in the same kind of transgression otherwise they are like to heare Physitian cure thy selfe or out of Rom. 12. 21. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe thou which preachest a man should not steale dost thou steale thou which saist a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery or as we have it Ioh. 8. 7. He that is without sinne ltt him cast the first stone Thirdly that the Ministers of the Gospell by the example of our blessed Saviour when sinners are brought before them confounded with shame in themselves and so strangled with their inward guilt that they are not able to speak a word in their own defence or for their excuse ought to have compassion on them and upon their repentance and humiliation send them away with some comfort aad godly admonitions as our Saviour doth here Hath none condemned thee neither doe I goe and sinne no more Lastly they argue very weakly ab authoritate negativè after this manner We read in holy Scripture of no Christians that ever sate upon the throne of Majesty or Bench of Justice neither in the age of the Apostles nor in the prime and best times doe we heare of any Civill Magistrate exercising any authority in the Church therefore Christians ought to exercise no such authority nor execute any such office But this argument like snow when the weather growes warme dissolves of it selfe For 1. As we read in the New Testament of no Christian Kings Judges Sheriffes or other Officers attending on Courts of justice so neither doe wee read of any that taught the Tongues Arts or Sciences or trades in foraine parts or exercised any kind of Manufactures now in use yet no man doubteth but many hundred did so and questionlesse Ministers of justice are as necessary in every City and Towne Corporate as Merchants or Artizens This argument therefore ab anthoritate negativè may justly bee answered negatively If there were no Christian Magistrates they could not bee recorded in Scriptures but it will not follow none are mentioned or recorded in Scripture Ergo there were none 2. Though the story of Abgarus King of Edessa his conversion to the Christian faith may be Apocryphall yet the story of the Eunuch related Acts 8. 27. A man of great authority under Candace Queene of Ethopia is Canonicall and Nicodemus a Ruler among the Iewes and Ioseph of Arimathea the Senatour and Theophilus to whom Saint Luke intitles his Gospell and Cornelius the Centurion and Publius the Governour of Melita and Sergius Paulus the Proconsull and Erastus the Chamberlaine and some of Neroes family whose names are registred in the book of life make good the observation of the Apostle that though not many Noble men not many mighty men not many in great place or authority yet some such were called even in the Apostles time which are sufficient to rebate the edge of this argument 3. Admit that there were few or no Converts in the Apostles dayes who held the place or executed the office of Magistrates yet that which is sufficient to prove the lawfulnesse and necessity of that calling Christ himselfe both acknowledged and submitted unto the authority of Pilat and paid tribute to Caesar and Saint Paul appeales to Augustus and complaines to Lysias of a conspiracy against him and was rescued by him Lastly though the Christian Church at the beginning was cast out as it were starke naked and lay in the open field weltring in her owne blood and no eye pitied her yet in processe of time the predictions of the Prophets were accomplished She had Kings to be her nursing Fathers and Queenes to be her nursing Mothers and all sorts of Civill Magistrates both supreame and subordinate to be her Gardians and Protectours And as the earth in Italy never bare so great a burthen on it nor yeilded so plentifull a crop as when it was turned up laureato ato vomere and the plough held by the hand of Camillus the Dictatour terra gestiente se coli à triumphali agricola so the Church and Common-wealth never so thrived as when religious Kings and Princes took the manuring and managing thereof Which happinesse God grant to these Realmes and Kingdomes even till Shilo come AMEN The Pythagoreans conceived the Celestiall Spheres to bee like Cymbals and by their regular motion to produce