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
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
own Sister Miriam for using some undutiful speeches against him was strucken by God with an exceeding great Leprosie and so odious was the murmuring of Korab Dathan and Abiram and their Confederates as the Lord caused the Earth to open and to swallow some of them quick and the Fire to consume the rest Joshua succeeding Moses the People professed their Subjection and Obedience unto him saying All that thou hast commanded us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go as we obeyed Moses in all things so will we obey thee Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandment and will not obey thy Words in all that thou dost command him let him be put to death During the Reign of all the Judges though the People are noted for many great Enormities yet we do not find that they rebelled or shewed any great disobedience against them whom God had set over them to rule them except the particular murmuring and opposition of the Ephramites against Gideon and Jephtha at their first entrance upon conceit they had been contemned which opposition God punished with a great overthrow of them When the People had Kings according to the manner of other Nations to order and govern them their subjection was rather encreas'd than diminished according to Samuel's description of the King's Claim or manner of ruling which should reign over them To command not only over the Persons of his Subjects but also over their Goods which manner of ruling or dealing by any King without a just cause as it was Tyranny so to deny it when the necessity of the King and State did require it according to the Laws of the Kingdom was a great neglect of preserving the publick good and a high degree of disobedience Besides it is generally agreed upon that Obedience to Kings and civil Magistrates is prescribed to all Subjects in the Fifth Commandment where we are enjoyn'd to honour our Parents Whereby it followeth that subjection of Inferiours unto their Kings and Governours is grounded upon the very Law of Nature and consequently that the Sentences of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves disobedient and incorrigible to their Parents or cursed them or struck them were likewise due unto those who committed any such Offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonwealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by Example Practice and Precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lord 's Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King and where it is said Principi populi tui non maledices and again Ne maledicas Regi in corde tuo to which purpose more might be alledged CAN. XVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governours from the Creation till Moses's time or afterward for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Iudges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful Commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governours or to bear Arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men We will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil Authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence unto them or to have beaten them and much less to have murthered them He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVII WHen God appointed Princes Judges and Kings to Reign over his people the manner usually was that they had notice of it thereby to conform themselves to obedience Moses and Aaron acquainted the Israelites with God's pleasure for their deliverance out of Egypt by their service agreeably to his Promise formerly made to Abraham and they chearfully and with great thankfullness submitted themselves to be ruled by them God having appointed Joshua to succeed Moses the same was signified by Moses to the Israelites and they willingly protested their obedience unto him Likewise no sooner did the Lord assign Judges to defend and govern them but presently they followed and obeyed them Upon the people's request Samuel having anointed Saul for their King when the same was made apparent to them either by casting of Lots or by answer from the Lord they shouted when they saw him and said God save the King King David being anointed by Samuel at God's appointment to succeed King Saul and after Saul's Death coming thereupon by God's direction to Hebron the Tribe of Judah presently anointed him again for their King and yielded themselves to be governed by him Seven years after all which time King David had Wars with Ishbosheth Saul's Son the rest of the Tribes came unto David and acknowledged that God had ordained him to be their Governour King David growing old and having appointed by God's direction his Son Solomon to be anointed King in his own Life time when the people knew that Zadok the Priest had so anointed him they forthwith upon the blowing of the Trumpets said all with one Voice God save King Solomon Afterwards also the like course was held upon the Death of every King to make his Successor known to the people Sometimes they were so addicted unto new Kings as they expected no further Circumstance but submitted themselves to their Government and sometimes it was held fit for the young Princes to imitate King David's Example by kind usage and loving words to knit more firmly their Subjects hearts unto them Placet eis CAN. XVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the callings of Moses of Aaron of Joshua of the Iudges of Saul of David of Solomon or of any other of the Kings of Judah elected and named by God himself or coming to their Kingdoms by Succession according as Jacob by the Spirit of Prophecy had foretold did receive any such virtue or strength from the people their said notice presence and applause as that without the same the said callings of God either by Name or by Succession had been insufficient or that if the people had withstood any of them so called by God as is aforesaid they
others brought a great detriment for want of Ability unto them for one of the said Captains having gotten to himself a very strong Kingdom in Syria and another of them in Egypt the Jews dweling betwixt them both were miserably on every side vexed by them Sometimes the Egyptians by Oppression and Force brought them under their Subjection and imposed great Tributes upon them and sometimes the Syrians growing mightier than the Egyptians did likewise very greatly afflict them especially in the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes whose Invasion and Government was most unjust and Tyrannical He shed innocent Blood on every side of the Sanctuary spoiled the Temple erecting in it the Abomination of the Gentiles and caused it to be named the Temple of Jupiter Olympius The Books of the Law by his Commandment were cut in pieces and burnt and they with whom they were found were put to death A general Commandment was by him published that they should offer no more Sacrifices nor circumcise their Children nor execute any other parts of their own Law in the Service of God but wholly to conform themselves therein to the manner of the Gentiles Whereupon the People by heaps forsook the Lord and offered Sacrifices to Idols and such as refused so to do chusing rather to obey God than Man were most cruelly slain and murthered by thousands until Mattathias moved with the monstrous Cruelty and Tyranny of the said Antiochus made open Resistance the Government of that Tyrant being not then either generally received by submission or setled by continuance It is not pertinent to our purpose to intermeddle with sundry Questions which might here arise Only we observe that Mattathias undertook that charge that he commended the same afterwards to his Sons and that it continued in them and their Posterity until both they and their whole Countrey were vanquished by the Romans CAN. XXXI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Jews generally both Priests and People were not the Subjects of Alexander after his Authority was setled amongst them as they had been before the Subjects of the Kings of Babylon and Persia or that they might lawfully have born Arms against him or that they were not all bound to pray for the long life and prosperity both of Alexander and his Empire as they had been bound before to pray for the life and prosperity of the other said Kings and their Kingdoms whilst they lived under their subjection or consequently that they might lawfully upon any occasion whatsoever have offered violence and destruction either to their Persons or to their Kingdoms for the long continuance and prosperity whereof they were bound to pray or that after the Jews were delivered from their servitude under the Kings of Syria and the Government over them was settled in Mattathias's Posterity it was lawful for the People upon any occasion to have rebelled against them or to have offered violence to their persons He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXII THE afflictions which the Jews endured whilst the Government of the Grecians lasted were much the more grievous unto them by reason of the great disorders which were then amongst their Priests For whereas they should have been a stay and a comfort unto them in their greater miseries their negligence one way and their ambition another way in striving about the High Priesthood did so distract them into parts taking as that thereby great effusion of blood did oftentimes ensue shortly after Jaddus's time this was the general report which for their Wickedness was given out of them The Priests were now no more diligent about the Altar but despised the Temple and regarded not the Sacrifices They did not set by the honour of their Fathers but liked of the glory of the Gentiles most of all The Temple was full of dissoluteness and gluttony of the Gentiles which dallied with Harlots and had to do with Women within the circuit of holy places and brought in such things as were not lawful The Altar also was full of such things as were abominable and forbidden by the Law and two or three of the High Priests applauded thereunto Simon the High-Priest leaving three Sons behind him Onias Jason and Menelaus was not long dead but Jason for three hundred and sixty Talents of Silver procured such assistance of Antiochus King of Syria as he thrust his elder Brother Onias out of the High-Priesthood and not long after had the same measure repay'd unto him again by his younger Brother Menelaus who upon some cunning information and for six hundred and sixty Talents got the place himself Whereupon Jason assembled Forces drove Menelaus into a Castle slew the Citizens without Mercy and in the end being repulsed died abroad as an exile Menelaus afterward caused his Eldest Brother Onias to be Murder'd because he blamed him for stealing certain Vessels of Gold out of the Temple Next Menelaus succeeded Alcimus whereas Onias the Son of Onias before-mentioned should in right have had that dignity Of all which four Persons eminent in their time these things are left for Records unto Posterity Jason to get Antiochus's good will for the High-Priesthood promised him besides his great Bribe to set up a School of Gentilism likewise to build a Brothel-House by the Temple and that the People of Hierusalem should be named Antiochians after the Kings Name He drew his Kinsmen to the Custom of the Gentiles and sent to Tyrus three hundred Drachms of Silver for a Sacrifice to Hercules Menelaus also took the like course or rather a worse for besides that he conform'd himself wholly in effect to the manners of the Grecians it is further thus written of him Antiochus went into the most holy Temple having Menelaus that Traytor to the Laws and to his own Country to be his Guide He thrust himself into the Kings Army against Judas Maccabaeus and the City of Hierusalem hoping thereupon to have attain'd that Government But Lysias the King's Lieutenant crossed his purpose therein and inform'd the King that he the said Menelaus had been the cause of all the mischiefs which had ensued the Wars with the Jews as being the Man who perswaded his Father Antiochus Epiphanes to compel them to forsake the Laws of their Fathers adding thereunto that whilst Menelaus lived the Jews would never be quiet Whereupon the King commanding him to be put to Death he was smother'd in Ashes because he had committed many sins by the Altar whose fire and ashes were holy Alcimus the High-Priest next succeeding was no sooner in his place but he took upon him to be the Captain of all the ungodly Men of Israel and solicited King Demetrius to make War against Judas Maccabaeus complaining that he had killed all the King's Friends The King thus instigated sent an Army against Hierusalem with one Bacchides and Alcimus who pretending that they came in Peace and being thereupon trusted
Timothy of of his Epistle to Titus though they are found in the ancient Copies of the Greek Testament are of no Credit or Authority or that such an Impeachment and Discredit laid upon them is not very prejudicial to the Books and Writings of the Holy Ghost or that it is not great presumption for Men in these days to take upon them to know better Whether Timothy and Titus were Bishops than the Churches and godly Fathers did which were planted and lived either in the Apostle's times or presently after them except they have some especial Revelations from God or that whilst Men do labour to bring into discredit the ancient Fathers and Primitive Churches they do not derogate from themselves such credit as they hunt after and as much as in them lieth bring many parts of Religion into a wonderful uncertainty or that it is probable or was possible for Timothy to have observ'd those Rules that St. Paul gave him unto the coming of Christ except as the Fathers expound some of them he meant to have them first observed by himself and other Bishops in that Age and that afterward they should so likewise be observed by all Bishops for ever or that the ancient Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories when they Record it to all Posterity that these Men and those Men were made by the Apostles Bishops of such and such places are not to be held to be of more credit than any other Historiographers or Writers or that when the ancient Fathers did collect out of the Scriptures and practice of the Apostles the continuance for ever of that Form of Church-Government which was then in use they were not so throughly illuminated with the Holy Ghost as divers Men of late have been or that it was an idle course held by the Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers to keep the Catalogues of their Bishops or to ground Arguments in some Cases upon their Succession in that they were able to deduce their beginnings either from the Apostles or from some Apostolical Persons or that the Form of Government used in the Apostle's times for the planting and ordering of Churches was not in many respects as necessary to be continued in the Church afterward especially considering that many Churches were not left fully ordered nor in some places were at all planted when the Apostles died or that true and perfect Order grounded upon the very Laws of Nature and Reason and established by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles times was not fit for the Churches of God afterward to embrace and observe or that any Church since the Apostles time till of late years when it received the Gospel had not likewise Archbishops and Bishops for the Government of it or that divers of the ancient Fathers did not hold and that very truly for ought that appeareth to the contrary that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in establishing the Form of Church-Government amongst the Gentiles had an especial respect to that Form which God had setled amongst the Jews and did no way purpose to abrogate or abolish it or that any since the Apostles times till of late days was ever held to be a lawful Minister of the Word and Sacraments who was not Ordain'd Priest or Minister by the Imposition of the hands of some Bishop or that it is with any probability to be imagin'd that all the Churches of Christ and ancient Fathers from the beginning would ever have held it for an Apostolical Rule That none but Bishops had any Authority to make Priests had they not thought and judged that the same Authority had been derived unto them the said Bishops from the same Apostolical Ordination that was committed unto Timothy and Titus their Predecessors or that the Apostles and all the ancient Fathers were deceived when they judged the Authority of Bishops necessary at all times for the suppressing of Schisms and that without Bishops there would be in the Churches as many Sects as Ministers or that when Men find themselves in regard of their disobedience to their Bishops so fully and notably described and censured by all the ancient Fathers for Schismaticks and contentious Persons they have not just cause to fear their own Estates if they continue in such their willfulness and obstinacy or that the Church-Government by us above treated of is truly to be said to savour of Judaism more than the observation by godly Kings and Princes of the Equity of the Iudicial Law given to the Jews may truly be said to savour thereof or that it doth proceed from any other than the wicked Spirit for any sort of Men what godly shew soever they can pretend to seek to discredit as much as in them lieth that Form of Church-Government which was established by the Apostles and left by them to continue in the Church to the end of the World under Archbishops and Bishops such as were Timothy and Titus and some others then called to those Offices by the said Apostles and ever since held by the Primitive Churches and all the ancient Fathers to be Apostolical Functions or to term the same or any part of it to be Anti-Christian He doth greatly Erre CAP. IX The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven did not commit the Temporal Government of the whole World unto St. Peter That the Apostles and whole Ministry did succeed Christ not as he was a Person immortal and glorious after his Resurrection but as he was a Mortal Man here upon the Earth before his Passion That Christ left neither to St. Peter nor to the Bishops of Rome nor to any other Archbishops or Bishops any temporal Possessions all that since any of them have gotten being bestowed upon them by Emperours Kings and Princes and other their good Benefactors And that the Imagination of St. Peter's Temporal Sovereignty is very idle the same being never known unto himself for ought that appeareth and argueth great Ignorance of the true nature of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ for the erecting whereof the spiritual working of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles and the rest of the Ministry of the Gospel was and is only necessary IT hath been shewed by us before that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension became actually in the State of the Heir of all things Governour of all the World and King of kings even as he was Man his divine Nature working more gloriously in his Humanity than formerly it had done Howbeit although we also made it plain that notwithstanding the said Glory Power Rule Dominion and Majesty wherewith Christ is really possest sitting in Heaven at the right hand of his Father he made no alteration in the Form and manner of Temporal Government but left the whole World to be ruled by Kings and Soveraign Princes under him as it had been before himself retaining still in his own hands the Scepter and chiefest Ensigns of Royal and highest Majesty to direct and
to Gregory the Seventh's days also a huge Heap of the Pope's Bulls from the said Gregory's time to Pius Quintus and lastly no short summ of Papal Constitutions set forth a little before the said 7th Book of the Decretals So as all these Volumes being put together they exceed as far the Body of the Civil Law as the usurped Dignity of the Papacy exceedeth the mean Estate of the Empire Placet eis John Overall CAP. XII WE have in the former Chapter made mention of the new and later sort of Decretals Bulls and Constitutions not knowing what Credit the Popes will bestow upon them hereafter and therefore leaving them to their Chance we have thought it expedient to return to the ancient Canon-Law revived and approved not long since by Gregory the Thirteenth where we find a new Ocean of Questions Disputations Quarrels and Brabblements For as it happen'd with the Civil-Law that it no sooner was again renew'd and restor'd by Lotharius but sundry great Doctors began to write many Books and Commentaries upon it to explain it and to discuss the Difficulties which did arise in it So fell it out with the Canon-Law the number being almost infinite of Glossographers that made short Notes upon it and of Canonists who set forth large Discourses for the salving of Contradictions and many other Absurdities Amongst all which Lawyers Doctors Glossographers and Canonists assisted as every Man's Fancy led him with many Schoolmen and sundry Divines such as they were there did shortly after grow many great Controversies and endless Oppositions The Civilians of Italy perceiving by the body of the Civil Law how far the Empire was dejected from that Royal Estate and Majesty which once it enjoyed and finding also that many of the best Reasons in their Judgments which the Popes the Canon-Law the Glossographers the Canonists the Schoolmen and many more had brought to prove that the Pope ought to have Jurisdiction over all the Churches in the World as that Bees had a Captain that Beasts a Leader that One is fit to end Controversies that a Monarchy is the best Form of Government and that One must he over All to receive Appeals to give Direction unto All to punish all rebellious persons and many such like were fully as forcible and strong to prove that there ought to be one Emperour over all the World they did very stifly and resolutely insist upon that Point and went so roundly to work in it by force of the said Reasons and with many other Arguments that some of them would needs have it Heresie for any man to hold the contrary alledging a Text for their purpose where it is said That in those days there came a Commandment from Augustus Caesar that all the World should be taxed Against those Italian Civilians Vltramontane the Civilians on this side the Alpes Frenchmen Spaniards and of other Countries opposed themselves with all their force not in any dislike of the Honour due to the Emperours but because otherwise their Masters the Kings of France of Spain and of divers other Kingdoms who had freed themselves long before from the Empire should be brought again de jure at the least by the foresaid Reasons to be subject unto it Whereupon in Confutation of them and to strengthen their own Assertion they alledged that one Bee was never the Captain over all Bees nor one Crane the General of all Cranes nor one Beast the Leader of all Beasts that it was against the Law of God the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations that there was never any Monarchs so great but there were in the World many Kings who were never subject unto them that the place of Scripture is to be understood of all places in the World that were then under the Romans and ought to be extended no further That a Monarchy is then best when it is contain'd within such limits as it may well be govern'd that all Monarchies hitherto had ever their bounds which were well known That it is impossible for all men to fetch Justice from one place or to receive thence any benefit by their Appeals and so after many other such Arguments they do conclude that to think that the Emperour ought to have the Government of all the World is a vain an absurd and an untrue conceit Now we are to consider how in all these troubled Disputations and Oppositions the Glossographers Canonists School-men and Parasitical Divines that were sworn to the Pope behaved themselves As soon as the Civil Law began to flourish as being read by the Emperour's Commandment in sundry Universities Gregory the Ninth began to smell what was like to come of it and therefore did afterward forbid it to be read in Paris being the especial Place then as it seemeth where it was most esteemed But as touching the Point so controverted when these Champions of the Popes saw how the Matter went That either they must hold that there ought to be but one Emperour over all the Kingdoms in the World or else be forced to confess that there ought not to be One Pope over all the Churches in the World the same Reason being as pregnant for the one as for the other they joyned with the Italian Civilians that there ought to be but one Emperour Marry how Forsooth remembring Gregory the Seventh Adrian the Fourth Innocentius the Third and that great Augustus Caesar Boniface the Eighth and divers other Popes how Emperour-like they had demeaned themselves and what great Authority they challenged the said Pontifical Champions fell to this Issue That the Pope being Christ's Vicar who was Lord of lords and King of kings it must needs follow that the Pope was likewise that One Emperour who was to govern all the World in Temporal Causes as he did all the Churches in the World in Ecclesiastical Causes And thereupon they reasoned in this sort Christ is Lord of all the World but the Pope is Christ's Vicar on Earth therefore the Pope is Lord of all the World Again The Emperour is the Pope's Vicar and his Successour in all Temporal Causes therefore the Emperour is Lord of all the World all Temporal Jurisdiction being habitually in the Pope and from him derived to the Emperour And many of the Italian Lawyers especially such as mixed their Studies with the canon-Canon-Law were well enough content that so as the Emperour might be Lord of all how and whence he had it whether from God or from the Pope they stood indifferent But for all this the French and Spanish Lawyers stuck to their tackling and were peremptory That neither the Pope nor the Emperour had any such Universal Dominion over all the World And divers likewise of the said Italian Doctours that were not too much addicted to the Canon-Law were not afraid to hold and maintain That the Emperour held as well from God the Authority which he had as the Pope did his Papacy Howbeit such was the