Vniversal Kingdom of Christ are not of as great validity to prove that there ought to be one temporal King under him to govern his Vniversal Kingdom over all the World as are the other Vnities touching the Church to prove that there must be one Bishop under him to govern all the particular Churches in the World or that because Kings when they have occasion to be absent from their Kingdoms do commonly appoint some Vice-Roy to Rule their People until their return it thereupon followeth that Christ supplying his corporal absence from his Spiritual Kingdom the Church by the comfortable presence of the Holy Ghost was of necessity to leave one carnal Man to be his Vicar-General over his said Spiritual Kingdom or that seeing our Saviour Christ held it expedient for his Catholick Church that he should deprive her of his corporal presence that she might be ruled by the Holy Ghost it is not to be thought great presumption for any Man to tell us that his corporal presence is necessary for the Government of the said Catholick Church as if he meant to put the Holy Ghost out of Possession or that either the said one Vniversal Kingdom of Christ the King and Creator of it is otherwise visible upon the Earth than by the particular Kingdoms and several kinds of Governments in it and perhaps in a sort and by Representation when some Neighbour Kings either in Person or by their Ambassadours may be met together for the good of their several Kingdoms or that the said one Catholick Church of Christ as he is the chief Bishop over all is otherwise visible on the Earth than by the several and particular Churches in it and sometimes by general and free Councils lawfully assembled or that it is a better consequent that if the Catholick Church have no visible Head all other Bishops Doctors Pastors and Ministers are needless than if one should say because there is no one King to govern all the World therefore there is no use of Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes or civil Magistrates or that it doth more follow that Christ should have left his Faithful People in a confused Anarchy except he had left St. Peter and his Successors to govern the whole Church than it doth that the whole World hath been left by him in a Confusion without any Government in it in that he hath not left one Vniversal Emperour or that the intolerable Pride of the Bishop of Rome for the time still being through the advancement of himself by many sleights stratagems and false Miracles over the Catholick Church the Temple of God as if he were God himself doth not argue him plainly to be the Man of Sin mentioned by the Apostle or that every National Church planted according to the Apostle's Platform may not by the means which Christ hath ordained as well subsist of it self without one Vniversal Bishop as every Kingdom may do under the Government of their several Kings without one general Monarch He doth greatly Erre The End of the Second Book LIB III. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended Course through the Old Testament and until the destruction of Jerusalem we overslipt 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 Successors 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 order'd polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successors We can see no sufficient Warrant or probable reason why the Bishop of Rome should take upon him as he doth so eminent and supream Authority over all the Kingdoms and Churches in the World to rule them direct them bestow them and chop and change them under pretence of Religion as he from time to time shall think fit Sure we are if the Scriptures may retain their ancient Authority and continue to be true Rulers and principal Directors to all Apostolical Bishops that in them there will not be found any shadows or steps of those so high and lofty conceits To the proof whereof before we address our selves We have thought it very expedient for the carriage of our course more perspicuously and clearly to make it apparent by what degrees and practices the Bishops of Rome have proceeded in aspiring to that Soveraignty and Greatness which now they have attained Placet eis John Overall Prolocutor CAP. II. AS it was said long since Religion brought forth Riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother So may it very truly be said in these days The Empire begat the Papacy and the Son hath devoured his Father For as we suppose by the Effects no sooner did the Bishops of Rome even in the first times of Persecution get any rest and courage but they began to think with themselves That they were as able to govern all the Churches in the Empire as the Emperours themselves were to govern all the Kingdoms and Nations then subject unto them and that Rome was as fit a Seat for such a Bishop as it was for so great an Emperour Some Seeds of this Ambition began to sprout there when Victor presumed to threaten the Greek Churches concerning the Feast of Easter although Irenaeus then living did greatly dislike it and the Bishops of Asia little regarding him in that behalf said They nothing cared for such his threats And it was not we suppose an idle conceit of one who writing
sort to be distinguished as God himself is not divided although the three Persons in Trinity are rightly held to be indeed distinguished and yet all the said actions and proprieties of the two Natures of Christ distinguished as we have expressed they are are notwithstanding very truly to be affirm'd of his sacred Person The reason whereof hath been before touched and it is this because seeing that both the Natures are joined together in the Person of the Son by an Hypostatical and consequently a true and essential Union so as Christ is thereby both true God in regard of his Divine Nature and true Man in respect of his humane Nature Whatsoever is the Propriety of the Divine Nature and of the humane Nature the same is wholly and altogether in Christ and is necessarily therefore to be affirmed of him both essentially and properly In respect whereof we say that Christ was dead and that he could not die that he is both finite and infinite eternal and temporal in every place and yet circumscribed in one place For of necessity whatsoever are the Properties of the humane Nature the same are truly and properly to be affirmed de vero homine and whatsoever are the Proprieties of the Divine Nature the same are likewise to be affirmed de vero Deo Christ being out of all Controversie amongst the Children of God verus homo verus Deus And thus we have after a sort both briefly and truly set down the Force and Efficacy of the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures of Christ being distinguished but no ways confounded as the same together with the true Doctrine of all other necessary Articles concerning the Blessed Trinity doth by the Scriptures most truly expounded in the Creeds above-mentioned many ways very notably appear To this purpose much more might have here been added by us if our Course considered we had thought it necessary Only we have thought it fit furthermore to profess and make it thereby known to all Men that there are some other Creeds made by other Councils and particular Bishops like to Athanasius and other worthy Persons as Irenaeus's Creed Tertullian's Creed as we may so term it Damasus's Creed the Creed ascribed to St. Ambrose and to St. Augustine Te Deum laudamus c. the Creed of the first Council of Toledo St. Jerome's Creed the Creed ascribed to Leo which was approved by the Council of Chalcedon and the Creed of the sixth Council of Constantinople against the Monothelites holding that in Christ both God and Man there was but One Will all of them tending to the setting forth the Orthodoxal and true Doctrine of One God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity not confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance and of One Christ true God and true Man not confounding his Natures nor dividing his Person Which Creeds we do receive embrace and reverence in such sorts as they have been received embraced and reverenced hitherto by all the particular Churches of the Christian World in as much as they agree both with the Scriptures with the Apostles Creed with the four Creeds mentioned of the four first general Councils and with the Athanasian Creed which contain in them that Faith which was then and so still ought to be accounted the true Catholick Faith nothing in effect being contained in all the Creeds before by us specified which may not be deduced by necessary consequence out of the said Athanasian Creed and the Conclusion of which Creed is in these words expressed This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved To which Conclusion that in sense is very consonant wherewith Damasus doth end his Creed in these words Read these things believe them retain them to this Faith submit thy Soul and thou shalt obtain Life and Reward from Christ In which Creeds containing the Catholick Faith in those days or in any of the rest we have thought it good here to remember that there is not any one Article to warrant or prove those new Articles which were coined long after the making of any of the said Creeds by the Bishops of Rome and are added to the Nicene Creed by Pius IV. in the professing of the Roman Faith especially that New Article of the Pope's Supremacy which is still so stifly maintained and urged upon many under pain of the loss of their Souls viz. that it is altogether necessary for them if they will be saved to be obedient to the Bishop of Rome Which New Article being but an extravagant Conclusion made by a very strange Man and built upon as strange Collections out of the Scriptures We leave it for a novelty unto all the Articles of the ancient Catholick Faith and will now address our selves to prosecute the same course and points in the New Testament which we held in the Old CAP. II. IT is a certain rule in Divinity that Grace doth not destroy Nature The Doctrine of the Seed of the Woman that was foretold should break the Serpents head did not abolish the Moral Law The Ceremonies in the Old Testament which shadowed and signified the mercies of God in Christ had no power to extinguish the Laws first imprinted in mens hearts and afterward ingraven in Tables of stone by the Finger of God The Prophets foretelling the coming of Christ and the merits of his Passion did likewise reprove all sins and offences committed against the Ten Commandments Christ testifieth of himself that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fullfil them By his Death he hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law but not from the obedience of it And St. Paul saith that the Apostles did not make the Law of none effect through Faith but they did thereby establish the Law For that Faith doth only apprehend Christ truly to Salvation which worketh by Charity that is which purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and bringeth forth by the Spirit Obedience to the Precepts and Laws of God It hath been shewed by us at large in the former Book that although the Son of God having made the World did by his mighty Power and divine Providence retain as it were in his own hands the general Rule and Government of it yet for a more visible benefit and comfort to Mankind he did divide and distribute the same into divers Countries Principalities and Kingdoms and ordaining civil Magistracy did not only appoint Soveraign Princes and Kings as his Deputies and Lieutenants upon Earth to rule and govern under him such Countries and Kingdoms as he had allotted unto them but did likewise tie Mankind by one of the Moral Laws ingraven in their hearts that they should honour them serve them and be obedient unto them Which particular Commandment was no more abolished by the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ than were all the rest Nay it was in truth of such force and publick note as that our
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
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
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
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
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
and sole though invisible Monarch The foundation of which Church was ever one and the same Rock to wit Christ Jesus the promised Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpents head and as many Persons Families Societies and Companies as truly believed in that blessed Seed without exception of any sort or distinction of People were the true Members and parts of the Catholick Church For the death of our Saviour Christ which long after did actually ensue was virtually through Faith as effectual to all Believers before his Passion as it hath been since In respect whereof the Holy Ghost did not only affirm That Jesus Christ was the same that is the Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption of those that believ'd in him yesterday that is before and after the Law as to day that is now in the time of the New Testament but likewise that he was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World because his Death and Passion being ever as present in the view and sight of God the Father before whom a thousand years are but as one day the same was typically represented by Sacrifices and effectual Sacraments and the merits thereof have from the beginning been communicated to all Believers So that although in imitation of the Scriptures we have spoken hitherto but of one particular Church and of the Succession of it in the Lines of Seth and Sem yet there have been other particular Churches in all Ages which were built upon the said Rock and promised Seed Cain offer'd his Sacrifice to God as well as Abel though it was not for his sins accepted and it is not to be doubted but that every chief Family of his Posterity had their Priests and publick worship of God albeit mingled with some such Superstition and Idolatry as offended God and made them less acceptable in his sight For as of the Posterity of Seth many perished so we are to judge on the other side that many of Cain's Line died in God's favour except we should think against the rules of Charity that the Curse which fell upon Cain killing his Brother Abel did cause his Off-spring to become as brute Beasts whereas having Adam their Grandfather it is more than probable he did better instruct them and prevail'd at least with some of them Likewise after the Flood all Noah's Off-spring being one Church under him and grounded upon Christ the true Foundation of it although afterward when they were setled in their several Countries allotted unto them they swerved greatly from that Purity in Religion which Noah had taught them yet they had still their Priests their Sacrifices and some outward worship of God amongst them Besides hitherto all the World being as one People if there were then any visible Churches at all upon the Earth it cannot be truly said that the calling of Abraham out of Chaldaea and the Erecting of the true worship of God in his Family did make them to be in worse case than they were before If Churches before they so continued after though Superstitious and Idolatrous Churches Again it is generally held that God did not therefore distinguish the Jews from other Nations and People and settle his publick worship amongst them as purposing thereby that his Catholick Church in their times should only consist of them and of their Nations and such other Proselytes as would be circumcised and join themselves unto them but much more because by that means the truth and certainty of all the Promises and Prophecies concerning the coming of the Messias might be faithfully and diligently observ'd and kept in one Nation and visible known place and People For it is plain in the Scriptures that after the said distinction many of the Gentiles served God and believed in Christ and were thereby made the true Members of the Catholick Church though they were not circumcis'd nor had any medling with or dependency upon the Jews Some are particularly named as Job Jethro Rahab the Ninevites the Widow of Sarepta Naaman Cornelius and some others by whom we are not only to judge of their Families and Governments that they were so many particular Churches but likewise that in every Country and People many such godly Men from time to time might have been found who with their Families and peradventure Subjects were so to be held and esteemed of We will not enter into the discussing of these places how far they may be extended Without Faith it is impossible to please God For he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him In the word was life and the life was the light of men Is God the God only of the Jews and not of the Gentiles also Yes of the Gentiles also for it is one God who doth justify Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcised through Faith I have other sheep which are not of this fold Only we do further observe that it was lawful for any of the Gentiles to come into the outward Court of the Temple to bring their Sacrifices unto the Lord and there to offer up their Prayers likewise unto him that accordingly they did often resort to the Temple for Devotion sake there to worship God as by the Examples of the Eunuch of Ethiopia and of certain Grecians that are mentioned in the Scriptures and that many of them were so addicted to the true service of God as the Prophet Haggai calleth our Saviour Christ Desiderium Gentium So that the Catholick Church consisting from the beginning till Abraham's time of such only as were afterward for distinction sake called Gentiles although God was then pleased to bestow his Mercies more plentifully upon that one particular Church of the Jews deduced from Abraham than upon any other or indeed upon all the rest for the principal Causes before-specified yet they were not utterly so rejected or cast out of God's favour but that many of them did continue as dutiful Children in the Lap and Bosom of the said Catholick Church Of which Catholick Church it is true that Adam and Noah for their times were under Christ the chief Governours Howbeit afterward the Posterity of Noah being mightily encreased when thereupon he distributed the whole World among his three Sons and their Issue he did not appoint any one of them to be the Ruler of the said Catholick Church but left the Government of every particular Family or Church unto their chief Heads Princes and Priests and of the whole to the Son of God and sole Monarch of it who only was able to undertake such a charge Neither do we read that Aaron or any of the High-Priests took upon them at any time to extend their Jurisdiction beyond the bounds and limits of the twelve Tribes or so much as once dream'd that the whole World was their Diocess that which they had being indeed more than they well ordered
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
Christ but likewise the other two Persons of the Blessed Trinity God the Father and God the Holy Ghost in that the dishonouring of One of them is the dishonouring of them all Three We do therefore for our selves and in the Name of all the rest of the Church of England acknowledge and profess from the bottom of our hearts the Truth of all that is written in the Sacred Scriptures and consequently and in more particular manner whatsoever is written in the same that doth appertain to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity Out of the Doctrine of which Sacred Writings because the Apostles and Churches of God moved thereunto by sundry sorts of Hereticks have long since most faithfully and learnedly deduced into certain Summaries rightly termed Creeds all those Points of true Doctrine which do concern God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and are necessarily to be believed under pain of condemnation We do resolutely embrace and stedfastly believe all and every one the Articles of the Apostles Creed and all and every one the Articles of the other Creeds made by sundry Councils for the further Declaration of the Christian Faith and Apostolick Creed as of the Nicene Creed made by the Council of Nice against Arius who denied the Divinity of the Son of God and of the next Creed made in the first Council of Constantinople ratifying and further declaring the Nicene Creed against Eudoxius the Arian and Macedonius who denied the Holy Ghost to be God and of the Creed made in the first Council of Ephesus against Nestorius who taught that the two Natures in Christ were not united together personally but that the Word which did take our Nature upon him for our Redemption did only assist Christ our Saviour as one Friend may assist another and of the Creed made in the Council of Chalcedon against Eutyches who did confound the two Natures of Christ Against any of which Articles whosoever doth oppose himself and doth willfully continue in such his Opposition we hold and judge them to be worthily subject to all those Censures and Anathematisms which the several Constitutions and Canons of the said Councils have justly laid upon them Also with the same Resolution and Faith before-mentioned we receive and believe all and every one the several Points and Articles of the Athanasian Creed made a little after the Council of Nice against such blasphemous Opinions as in those times were either directly or indirectly published in Corners and spread here and there to the seducing of many According to some Articles of the which Creed that do more nearly concern our Course We stedfastly believe and confess That our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man God of the substance of the Father begotten before all Worlds and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane flesh subsisting Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferiour to the Father as touching his Manhood who although he be both God and Man yet he is not two but One Christ One not by Conversion of the Godhead into Flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God One altogether not by Confusion of substance but by Unity of Person In respect of which Personal Union of the two Natures of our Saviour Christ without confusion or mixture of either of them thus described in the said Creed whatsoever is affirmed in the Scriptures as well of the one Nature as of the other the same is also truly to be affirmed de toto Composito that is of his most sacred Person being both God and Man the Essential Properties of them both remaining notwithstanding distinguished For as the said personal or hypostatical Union of the said two Natures doth not make the one Nature to be the other the divine Nature to be the humane Nature or the humane Nature to be the Divine Nature so doth it not make the Essential Proprieties of the one Nature to be the Essential Proprieties of the other Nature but as well the Proprieties and actions as the Natures themselves do remain distinguished though united in one Person both of them concurring together the Deity in working that which appertaineth to the Deity and the Humanity executing those Essential Proprieties and actions which do belong unto the Humanity For Example the Divine Nature appear'd in Christ by Miracles when his humane Nature was subject to many opprobries and injuries In that our Saviour Christ did satisfie 5000. Persons with 5. loaves did give Water of Life to the Woman of Samaria did walk upon the Sea dry-foot did by his Commandment calm the Winds he shewed thereby some effects and works of his Divine Nature because they were as one well saith verbi propria non carnis the Proprieties of the Word and not of the Flesh Again in that Christ brake Bread this was an Office of his humane Nature but in that he multiplied it the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that he cried out Lazarus come forth that was the office of his humane Nature but in that he quickned him and raised him from Death that did belong unto his Divine Nature In that he said Thy sins are forgiven thee that was an office of his humane Nature but in that such sins were indeed remitted the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that our Saviour Christ died the same did proceed from the Flesh but in that by his Death he did expiate our Sins that did proceed from the Spirit In that he was Buried did proceed from the Flesh but in that he did raise himself from the dead that was he Office of his Divinity In that he gave Bread to his Apostles in his last Supper he did it as Man but in that he made them partakers of his blessed Body he did the same as he was God In that now being in Heaven he doth possess that Kingdom in the name and behalf of his Elect that doth appertain to his humane Nature but that he doth now remain with us and dwell in our hearts that is an Office of his Divine Nature In that he maketh Intercession for us that doth belong to his humane Nature but in that he doth justifie us regenerate us work in us both to will and to perform in that he ruleth us and leadeth us in the way of his Commandments all these Offices do appertain unto his Divinity Lastly In that he shall come in the Clouds and say unto one sort of Persons Come ye blessed and unto the other sort Depart ye Cursed he shall do the same according to his humane Nature but in that he shall judge every Man according to his knowledge of all Mens hearts their cogitations desires and works that he shall do as God Nevertheless any thing by us thus affirmed notwithstanding Christ himself is not divided though the Proprieties and actions of his two Natures are in this
scorns offer'd unto him the Wounds of his hands feet and side the beginning and progress of his Spiritual Kingdom the seveal duties appertaining to him as he was a Prophet and likewise as he was our High-Priest the Institution of Baptism and of Christ's last Supper his Righteousness and Mercy his Death with the manner of it his Resurrection and Ascension with a number of other points they were all foreseen figur'd and described by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures and were accordingly with admirable Patience Humility Obedience Courage Zeal and Alacrity executed undergone and accomplished by him in such manner and sort with the observation of all necessary circumstances and by such degrees as from the beginning were limited and thought fit for so great a work For all things could not be done together by him and at once Although after his Baptism he Preached most diligently wrought strange Wonders and did chuse to assist him his Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples who did likewise preach baptize and wrought Miracles in his Name yet neither he nor they did collect any particular Church or Churches apart from the Synagogues of the Jews but held Society and Communion with them in all things that did belong to the outward Service and Worship of God because until his Passion as well the Ceremonies of the Law as the Aaronical Priesthood together with the Authority thereunto appertaining were all of them in force and therefore it was not lawful whilst the Old Church did stand to have erected a New Moreover it is not to be doubted but that as before Christ's Incarnation there were many faithful and godly Persons that believed in Christ to come and by that their Faith were saved so there were many such Believers after his Incarnation who were likewise the Children of God though they were ignorant for a time that Christ when he was come was the Messiah whom they expected none of the Jews so believing being in state of Damnation until after they had seen Christ heard him preach been present at his Miracles or at the least had received full instruction of them all from his Apostles and Disciples they did notwithstanding reject him In which respect the true Believers amongst the Jews in those days might not well have been distinguished into several and different Congregations or particular Churches without many great and apparent Inconveniencies but this Point is yet plainer in that the Jews who believed at that time that Christ whom they saw and heard was the true Messiah were notwithstanding subject to the Obedience of those Ceremonial and Levitical Laws which did concern them every one in his Calling which doth appear by the Examples of Christ himself and his Apostles who although they were baptized did not sever themselves from the manner of Worshipping of God in those times Insomuch as first they did celebrate together the Feast of the Passover before our Saviour Christ made them Partakers of his last Supper Neither is it to be questioned but that many who did believe in Christ their and our Saviour then amongst them had new born Children before his Passion which were as well circumcised as baptized For then as Circumcision was not repugnant to Baptism no more was Baptism any Impediment to Circumcision being both of them so united together and qualified as they could not well be sever'd during the Continuance of the Levitical Law and Priesthood We grant that upon our Saviour Christ's Birth and further proceedings in the execution of his Office not only the Jewish Ceremonies but in like sort their Priesthood began both of them to shake and did after a sort draw near to their End but until our Saviour Christ said upon the Cross It is finished and that the vail was rent in twain from the top to the bottom they neither of them had utterly lost their Levitical Natures Power and Authority And therefore it must be held that although by the preaching of our Saviour and of his Apostles many Mens hearts were drawn to believe that Christ was the Messiah whom they expected and that they were thereby made actually Partakers of many of those Mercies which by Figures and Sacrifices had been formerly set out unto them as also that in regard thereof they might be termed in a right good sense the beginning of a New Church yet did they neither in respect of their Faith and Baptism make any Separation but were only the better part of the old Church nor might they in regard of either of them have lawfully exempted themselves from the Government of it Which is further manifest by the words of our Saviour Christ himself when he saith thus If thy Brother trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he hear thee thou hast won thy Brother But if he hear thee not take yet with thee one or two that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be confirmed But if he will not vouchsafe to hear them tell it unto the Church For by the Church in this place the Ecclesiastical Courts establish'd amongst the Jews at that time must as we think be understood there being then no other Courts of that Nature amongst them which had any Authority to punish any such obstinate Persons as Christ there speaketh of So as our Saviour Christ did here refer the Parties offended by some of their Brethren to the said Ecclesiastical Courts in the same respect and sense and no otherwise then he sent the Lepers whom he had healed to the Priests according to the Law or when he referred the multitude to the Seribes and Pharisees to be instructed by them because they sate in Moses's Chair Besides whatsoever is spoken by the Evangelists of the Church that should he built upon a Rock so strongly as that the Gates of Hell should not be able to prevail against it or of the Power and Authority to bind and loose by Censures or otherwise that is no way to be applied to the said Church or Sanhedrim mentioned by St. Matthew or to any particular Assembly of Christians either before the Passion of Christ or afterwards but was only spoken and delivered by way of Prophecy of the Catholick Church which after the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Christ should be established in the World in a more conspicuous and universal sort than formerly it had been And yet we do not deny but that Christ in the said words Tell the Church meaning the Jews Courts or Sanhedrims might very well insinuate in that he called not those Courts by their own Names but termed them the Church that in such cases as there are by him mentioned the Christians in time to come should accordingly repair unto their Ecclesiastical Courts to be established among them throughout the Christian World for Reformation of Offenders and Satisfaction in Points of Religion as the Jews of all sorts whether Believers or not were bound until the
your selves unto all manner of Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be unto the King as unto the Superiour or unto Governours as unto them that are sent of him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well For so is the will of God that by well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men as free and not as having the liberty for a Cloak of Maliciousness but as the Servants of God Honour all Men love Brotherly Fellowship Fear God Honour the King And the same Apostle describing the nature of false Teachers which in times to come would thrust themselves into the Church and by feigned words make a Merchandise of their Followers amongst other impieties he noteth them with these That commonly they are despisers of Government presumptuous Persons and such as stand in their own conceits Men that fear not to speak evil of them that are in dignity but as brute Beasts led with sensuality and made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of those things which they know not And with St. Peter in this point the Apostle St. Jude doth concur where speaking of those who in future times should be Makers of Sects He termeth them Mockers and Men that had not the Spirit of God And speaking also of such like wicked Persons as were crept into the Church in the Apostles days he saith they did despise Government and speak evil of them that were in Authority In all which places thus by us noted concerning as well the dignity and Authority of Sovereign Kings and Princes as the fear duty and obedience which all their Subjects were truly and sincerely without murmuring or repining to yield and perform unto them though they were then Ethnicks When we consider the manner of their delivery of that Evangelical Doctrine and their grounds thereof as also how vehemently they have written against all such Persons as either did then or should afterward oppose themselves unto it by despising of civil Magistrates speaking evil of them or in any other sort whatsoever We are fully perswaded that they neither commanded taught or writ any thing therein but what they knew to be the will of God and did accordingly believe to be true for we hold it resolutely That whatsoever the Apostles did either write teach or command they writ taught and commanded it as they were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost because when our Saviour Christ was to leave the World he promised to send unto them the Holy Ghost the Comforter and spirit of truth which should lead them not into any By-ways or shifting conceits but into the direct and plain paths of all truths and did very shortly after perform that his Promise when upon the day of Pentecost they were all filled with the Holy Ghost as St. Luke witnesseth Besides the Apostle St. Paul himself doth profess both in his own name and in the behalf of the rest of the Apostles his Fellows that their Master being the truth it self after he had so mercifully and liberally perform'd his said Promise unto them they did not deal with the word of God as Vintners Regraters or Merchants do with their mixed Wines and adulterated Wares that is mingle it with any untruths or superstitious conceits or vent it out otherwise than the truth did therein warrant them or did apply it with fraud either to serve their own or any other mens designments or deliver'd it with any such inward Reservations and mental Evasions as when they did most seem to their hearers to speak one thing directly they had such another meaning as when time should serve they might make use of But whatsoever they said they spake it sincerely sicut ex Deo as God did guide them by the Holy Ghost coram Deo as in the sight of God unto whom one day they were to give an account of their said sincerity in Christo as their blessed Saviour himself had preached taught them and had commanded them CAN. IV. THerefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Deity of our Saviour Christ doth not since his Resurrection and Ascension otherwise execute the Majesty and Glory thereof in his Humanity than it did before his Passion or that Christ now in Glory is not actually the Heir of all things as he is Man so highly exalted and both King of kings and Lord of lords or that he now sitting at the right hand of God in Glory and Majesty as he is Man hath made an alteration in the manner of temporal Government ordain'd by himself long before as he is God or that now all the Kingdoms in the World being but one Kingdom in respect of himself he doth not allow the distributing of that his one Vniversal Kingdom into divers Principalities and Kingdoms to be ruled by so many Kings and absolute Princes under him or that such Kings and Sovereign Governours as were Ethnicks were deprived by Christ's Ascension into Heaven and most glorious Estate there from the true Interest and lawful Possession of the Kingdoms which before they enjoyed or that the ancient Fathers were deceived in holding and maintaining that all Christians in the Primitive Church were bound to obey such Kings and Princes as were then Pagans or that the Subjects of all the Temporal Princes in the World were not as much bound in St. Paul's time to be subject unto them as the Romans were to be subject to the Empire not only for Fear but even for Conscience Sake or that St. Paul's Commandment by virtue of his Apostleship and assistance of the Holy Ghost of Obedience to Princes then Ethnicks is not of as great force to bind the Conscience of all true Christians as if he had been then Summus Pontifex or that any Pope now hath power to dispense with the said Doctrine of St. Paul as the said Canonist by us quoted doth seem to affirm where after he hath said That the Apostle St. Paul commanding all Men to be obedient to superiour Powers was not the highest Bishop he addeth these words Papa major est administratione Paulo Papa dispensat contra Apostolum in his quae non concernunt Articulos fidei The Pope is greater in Authority than Paul the Pope doth dispense against the Apostle in those things that do not concern the Articles of Faith or that the Primitive Church was not as well restrain'd de jure by the Doctrine of Christ's Apostles as de facto from bearing Arms against such Princes as were then Ethnicks and transferring of their Kingdoms from them unto any others or that St. Peter himself who our Adversaries would make the World believe was then the highest Bishop concurring with the Apostle St. Paul when he commanded the Christians in those days to submit themselves unto the King as unto the Superiour they both of them were assured commanding therein as they
meant at all to erect it or that their expectation of fit opportunity to establish that kind of Government in the Churches of the Gentiles being converted to Christ hath any more force to discredit it than had the want of it for many years amongst the Jews to blemish the dignity of it when it was there established or that the Apostles had no further Authority of Church-Government committed unto them after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ than they had before his Passion or that there was not as great necessity of sundry degrees in the Ministry whilst the Apostles lived one to rule another to be ruled for the establishing and government of the Church as there was whilst the Priesthood of Aaron endured or that Christ himself did not after a sort approve of divers degrees of Ministers some to have preheminence over others in that having chosen to himself twelve Apostles he did also elect 70. Disciples who were neither superiour nor equal to the Apostles and were therefore their inferiours or that he did not very expresly after his Ascension appoint divers Orders and degrees of Ministers who had power and preheminence one over another Apostles over the Prophets and Evangelists and the Evangelists over Pastors and Doctors or that the Authority of Preaching of Administration of the Sacraments and of Ecclesiastical Government given to the Apostles was not to be communicated by the Apostles unto others as there should be good opportunity in that behalf or that because there were some personal Prerogatives belonging to the Apostles which they could not communicate unto others therefore they had not power to communicate to some Ministers as well their Authority of Government over other Ministers as their Authority to preach and administer the Sacraments or that in the Authority of Government so to be communicated unto others by the Apostles there are not included certain degrees to be in the Ministry some to rule and some to be ruled or that it was not lawful for the Apostles to choose unto themselves Coadjutors and to make them Ministers of the Word and Sacraments though they tied them for a space to no certain place more than they themselves and the Evangelists were limited or tied but kept them in their own Company as if they had been in a manner their Fellows and employ'd them in Apostolical Embassages as there were occasions or that the Apostles might not lawfully ordain a second Order of Ministers by Imposition of their hands to Preach and administer the Sacraments and to tie them to particular Churches and Congregations there to execute those their duties or that the Ministers of that second degree and Order so tied unto their particular Charges had any power committed unto them either at all to make Ministers or to pronounce the Sentence of Excommunication against any of their Congregation but by the direction of the Apostles when they had given the Sentence during all the time that the Apostles kept in their own hands the said two points of Ecclesiastical Authority or that it was not expedient for the Apostles to retain in their own hands the Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Government for a time and whilst they were able to execute the same in their own Persons or by their Coadjutors as they should direct them and not to communicate the same either to any their said Coadjutors or other Persons of the Ministry until they themselves had good experience and tryal of them and that the particular Churches also in every City found the want of such Men so authorized to reside amongst them or that when the said Ministers placed in divers particular Churches in sundry Cities fell at variance amongst themselves which of them should be most prevalent amongst the People and drew their Followers into divers Sects and Schisms it was not high time for the Apostles seeing by reason of their great affairs and business otherwise they could not attend those particular brawls and inconveniencies to appoint some worthy Persons in every City to have the rule government and direction of them or that when such Men were to be placed in such Cities the Apostles did not make especial choice of them out of the number of their said Coadjutors and likewise out of the rest of the Ministry to execute those Episcopal duties which did appertain to their Callings or that when they had so design'd and chosen them to be Bishops they did not communicate unto them as well their Apostolical Authority of Ordaining of Ministers and power of the Keys as of Preaching and Administring the Sacraments or that it was not the meaning of the Apostle St. Paul that such Persons as Timothy and Titus were ought to be made Bishops in such Cities and Countries as were that Province of Ephesus and Kingdom of Crete to have the like Authority and Power given them in their several Cities with their Suburbs Diocess or Province that was committed to Timothy and Titus for the ruling of those Ministers and Churches under them or that the Authority given by the Apostle St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles to Timothy and Titus and such like other Bishops or Archbishops did any more diminish the Power and Authority which the Apostles had in their own hands before they appointed any such Bishops and Archbishops to rule and govern them all than their giving Power and Authority of Preaching and Administring the Sacraments did impeach their own Authority so to do He doth greatly Erre CAP. VIII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Churches and godly Fathers that were immediately after the Apostles times and all the Ancient Fathers since did account the Form of Church-Government established by the Apostles of Priests and Ministers for more particular Charges of Bishops superiour to the said Priests and of Arch-Bishops to have the care and oversight of the said Bishops and Churches committed unto them not to have been ordain'd for their times only but to be continued to the End of the World the same reasons exacting the continuance of it which moved the Apostles by the Direction of the Holy Ghost first to erect it WE have pursued the Form of Ecclesiastical Government so far forth as it is expressed in the Scriptures and as it was put in practice during the Apostles times For the further proof whereof we have thought it expedient briefly to observe what the primitive Church Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Histories have in their Writings testified and said of this matter as whether they held that Timothy and Titus were Bishops in the Apostles times and had Authority over the Churches and Ministry committed to their Charge and whether that Form of Church-Government in the Apostles times wherein were divers Degrees of Ministers one sort to direct and rule viz. Bishops and the other to be directed and ruled was only necessary for the first plantation of the Churches but not so afterward when the Churches were planted as if it
had been a lawful Form of Government whilst the Apostles lived but upon their Deaths it became presently to be unlawful It is very apparent and cannot be denied That in many Greek Copies of the New Testament Timothy and Titus are termed Bishops in the Directions or Subscriptions of two Epistles which St. Paul did write unto them These are the words of the said Directions The second Epistle written from Rome unto Timotheus the first Bishop elected of the Church of Ephesus And again To Titus elect the first Bishop of the Cretians written from Nicopolis in Macedonia Moreover agreeable to the said Subscriptions the ancient Fathers generally having no doubt upon their due searching the Scriptures fully considered of the Form of Ecclesiastical Government whilst the Apostles lived do with one consent whensoever they expound the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus or have Occasion to speak of the Authority of those two Persons very resolutely affirm That they were by the Apostles made Bishops And the same also they do testifie of St. James the Apostle himself called the Lord's Brother that he was made by the rest of the Apostles his Colleagues Bishop of Hierusalem and so also of the Seven Angels of the Churches in Asia that they were so many Bishops of the Apostles Ordination Besides the said ancient Fathers did very well know that when St. Paul said to Timothy I charge thee in the sight of God and before Jesus Christ that thou keep this Commandment without spot and unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ that it was impossible for Timothy to observe those things till the coming of Christ he being to die long before and that therefore the Precepts and Rules which St. Paul had given unto him to observe in his Episcopal Government did equally appertain as well to Bishops his Successors as to himself and were to be executed by them successively after his Death unto the Worlds End as carefully and diligently as he himself whilst he lived had put them in Practice One of the said Fathers doth write as followeth With great Vigilancy and Providence doth the Apostle give Precepts to the Ruler of the Church for in his Person doth the safety of the People consist He is not so circumspect as fearing Timothy's care but for his Successors that after Timothy's Example they should observe the Ordination of the Church and begin themselves to keep that Form which they were to deliver to those that came after them Again it is evident by the Ecclesiastical Histories that not only St. James Timothy and Titus were made Bishops by the Apostles but that likewise Peter himself was Bishop of Antioch so termed because of his long stay there and that the Apostles likewise made Evodius Bishop of Antioch after St. Peter and St. Mark Bishop of Alexandria and Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and that St. John returning from Patmos to Ephesus went to the Churches round about and made Bishops in those places where they were wanting and also that divers others of the Apostles Coadjutors besides Timothy and Titus were made by them Bishops and did govern the Cities and Provinces where they were placed according to the same rules that were prescribed to Timothy and Titus as Dionysius the Areopagite was the first Bishop of Athens Caius the first Bishop of Thessalonica Archippus the first Bishop of the Colossians and we doubt not but many more by diligent reading may be found that were in the Apostles times made Bishops Furthermore it is apparent by the testimonies of all Antiquity Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories that all the Churches in Christendom that were planted and govern'd by the Apostles and by such their Coadjutors Apostolical Persons as unto whom the Apostles had to that end fully communicated their Apostolical Authority did think that after the Death either of any of the Apostles which ruled amongst them or of any other the said Bishops ordained by them it was the meaning of the Holy Ghost testified sufficiently by the practice of the Apostles that the same Order and Form of Ecclesiastical Government should continue in the Church for ever And therefore upon the death of any of them either Apostles or Bishops they the said Churches did always supply their places with others the most worthy and eminent Persons amongst them who with the like Power and Authority that their Predecessors had did ever succeed them Insomuch as in every City and Episcopal See where there were divers Priests and Ministers of the Word and Sacraments and but one Bishop only the Catalogues of the Names not of their Priests but of their Bishops were very carefully kept from time to time together with the Names of the Apostles or Apostolical Persons the Bishops their Predecessors from whom they derived their Succession Of which Succession of Bishops whilst the Succession of Truth continued with it the ancient Fathers made great account and use when any false Teachers did broach new Doctrine as if they had received the same from the Apostles choaking them with this that they were not able to shew any Apostolical Church that ever taught as they did Upon such an occasion Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons within 75. years or thereabout after St. John's Death doth write in this sort Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successores eorum usque ad nos qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab his deliratur And so likewise not long after him Tertullian to oppress some who as it seemeth drew Companies after them saith thus Edant Origines Ecclesiarum suarum Evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per Successiones ab initio decurrentem ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis aut Apostolicis viris qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraverit habuerit autorem Antecessorem Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Catholicae sensus suos deferunt And St. Augustin Radix Christianae Societatis per sedes Apostolorum Successores Episcoporum certâ per Orbem propagatione diffunditur Again forasmuch as it was thought by our Saviour Christ the best means for the building and continuing of his Church in the Apostles times to ordain sundry degrees of Ministers in Dignity and Authority one over another when such a kind of preheminence might have been thought not so necessary because the Apostles by working of Miracles might otherwise as it is probable have procured to themselves sufficient Authority How can it with any reason be imagined but that Christ much more did mean to have the same still to be continued after the Apostles days when the gifts of doing Miracles were to cease and when Mens Zeal was like to grow more cold than it was at the first It savoureth assuredly We know of what Faction Indiscretion or Affection for any Man either to think that Form of Church-Government to be unfit for our times
that was held necessary for the Apostles times or that Order so much commended amongst all Men and is most properly termed Parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribuens Dispositio should be necessary to build the Church but unfit to preserve it or that the same Artisans that are most meet to build this or that House are not the fittest both to keep the same in good Reparations and likewise to build other Houses when there is cause No Man can doubt who is of any reading but that when the Apostles died there were many defects in many Churches and that likewise there were a number of places in the World where the Apostles had never been and where there were no Churches planted or established Whereupon it followeth of necessity that if the said Form of Government in the Apostles days was then necessary for the planting and ordering of Churches that the same did continue to be as necessary afterward for the supplying of such defects as were left in some Churches and for the planting and ordering of other Churches in those places that had not received the Gospel whilst the Apostles lived And to this purpose it doth much avail that for ought we can find there can no one Nation or Country be named since the Apostles days neither in times of Persecution nor since but when it first received the Faith of Christ it had thereupon both Bishops and Archbishops placed in it for the Government of the Churches that were there planted imitating therein for their more certain direction the Government of the Churches that were erected by the Apostles and had been deduced from them agreeable in substance with the Form of Ecclesiastical Government that was once amongst God's own People the Jews Which was no new conceit amongst the ancient Fathers as it may appear by the words of one of them Who saith in effect that Bishops Priests and Deacons may challenge now that Authority in the Church which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites had in times past and that the Apostles in establishing of their Government in the New Testament had respect to that which was in the Old for as much as concern'd the Essential parts of that Priesthood Moreover the Primitive Churches presently after the Apostles times finding in the New Testament no one person to have been ordain'd a Priest or Minister of the Gospel mediately by Men but either by Imposition of the Apostles hands or of their hands to whom they gave Authority in that behalf as unto Timothy and Titus and such other Bishops as they were and knowing that the Church of Christ should never be left destitute of Priests and Bishops for the work of the Ministry they durst not presume upon their own heads to devise a new form of making of Ministers nor to commit that Authority unto any other after their own Fancies but held it their bounden duty to leave the same where they found it viz. in the hands of Timothy and Titus and consequently of other Bishops their Successors Whereupon it followeth very necessarily that none of the Primitive Churches or ancient Fathers did ever so much as once dream that the Authority given by St. Paul to Timothy and to Titus and to the rest who were then made Bishops as well for the ordering of Priests as for the further order and government of the Church did determine by the death of the Apostles Considering that presently after as long as they were in being and lived and ever since till very lately it was held by them altogether unlawful for any to ordain a Priest or Minister of the Word except he were himself a Bishop and no one approved Example for the space of above 1500. years can be shewed for ought we find to the contrary It is true that one Coluthus being himself but a Priest would needs take upon him to make Priests in spleen against his own Bishop the Bishop of Alexandria with whom he was then fallen at variance and that the like attempt was made by one Maximus supposing himself to have been a Bishop where he was indeed but a Priest as it was decided by the first Council of Constantinople Howbeit such their Ordinations were accounted void and utterly condemn'd as unlawful they themselves not escaping such just reproof as so great a Novelty and presumption did deserve We acknowledge that for the great dignity of the Action of Ordination it was decreed by another Council That Priests should lay their hands with the Bishop upon him that was to be made Priest but they had not thereby any Power of Ordination but only did it to testifie their consent thereunto and likewise to concur in the blessing of him neither might they ever in that sort impose their hands upon any without their Bishops Again the said Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers finding how the Apostles by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost had ordained Bishops Timothy Titus and such like for the ordering and appeasing of such Quarrels and Contentions as arise amongst the Ministers and People for want of some amongst them of Authority to govern them they might thereby have been confirmed more and more in their Judgments if at any time they had doubted of it concerning the necessity of that Apostolical Form of Government that it was for ever to continue to the end the Schisms and contentious Persons might be still by the same means suppressed that they were whilst the Apostles lived For they ever observed what the want of Bishops would work in the Church and how the contempt of them and disobedience to their directions was always a chief cause of Sects and Schisms Which made them easily to discern that if the Apostles had not provided for the continuance of their Apostolical Authority in Bishops who were to succeed them in the Government of the Church but had left an equality in the Clergy that every one might have proceeded in his own particular Church after his own Fashion there would have been nothing in the Church but Disorder Scandals Sects Schisms and all manner of Confusion One of the ancient Fathers perceiving in his time what Pride and Contempt certain unstaid and contentious Persons shewed toward their Archbishops did lay it upon them as a property of Hereticks and feared not to compare them to the Devils These are his words Quilibet haereticus c. loquens cum Pontifice nec eum vocat Pontificem nec Archiepiscopum nec Religiosissimum nec Sanctum sed quid Reverentia tua nomina illi adducit communia ejus negans autoritatem Diabolus hoc tum fecit in Deo Ero similis Altissimo Non Deo sed Altissimo And another Father long before the days of the former did accordingly observe that Hereticks and Schismaticks did usually spring from no other Fountain but his Quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesia ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur
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
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
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
great temporal Power in the Pope over Princes as without the which the Church of Christ could not attain her Spiritual End had been known to the Apostles and Ancient Fathers they would not have been as careful and zealous to have preached and divulged the same unto all Posterity as now the Bishops of Rome and their Adherents are or that we ought not rather to believe that the Bishops of Rome and their Adherents through their forsaking the love of the Truth are given over by God unto those strong Illusions that they should believe lies and maintain them as stifly as though they were true than once to conceive that the holy Apostles and ancient Fathers were either ignorant of this supposed temporal Authority to Depose Kings and Princes for the end so often mentioned or thought it fit to dissemble it or to write of it so darkly as for many Hundred years it could not be understood or that God hath not wonderfully blinded the hearts and understandings both of the Popes and all their Adherents in this particular matter amongst many others in that the nature of the Church and Spiritual Kingdom of Christ considered they dare presume to maintain it so confidently that the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End without the Bishop of Rome his Temporal Authority indirectly in some Cases to Depose Kings and Soveraign Princes or that the true Spiritual End of the Church consisting in this that the Devil being banished out of the hearts of all her true Members Christ may retain his Possession of them through their Faith and diligence to repel Satan who daily laboureth to regain to himself his own Possession it is not more than a kind of phrensy to hold and maintain that any temporal Authority managed by the Pope or by his Commandment against Kings and Princes hath any force or power to work or procure this Spiritual End either by expelling or repelling of Satan or to nourish Faith or to continue the reigning of Christ in any Mens hearts or that it is not an impious and a profane assertion for any Man to defend that the Weapons and Armour of this Spiritual Warfare undertaken by Christ and his Apostles and by all godly Bishops and true Priests and Ministers of the Gospel are not sufficient of themselves to procure to the Church her Spiritual End without the Pope's carnal Weapons or temporal Authority to Depose Kings when to him with the assistance of his Cardinals it shall seem expedient He doth greatly Erre CAP. XI The Sum of the Chapter following That there is no more necessity of one visible Head of the Catholick Church than of one visible Monarch over all the World IN the 35 th and 36 th Chapters of our first Book We have shewed at large that our Saviour Christ the Son of God having created the World and taken upon him to be the Redeemer of Mankind after their transgression through Adam's Fall did not only as he was the Son of God govern all the World the same being in that respect but one Universal Kingdom and appoint several Kings and Sovereign Princes as his Substitutes to rule the same under him in their several Countries and Kingdoms leaving no one Emperour or temporal Monarch to govern them all but likewise as he was the blessed Lamb slain from the beginning of the World he did for his own Glory and our endless Comfort erect for himself in this World a Spiritual Kingdom called his Church consisting of such Men dispersed throughout the World as did profess his name and being himself the only Head and Governour of it in which respect it is rightly to be termed but One Catholick Church did appoint no one Priest over the whole Catholick Church but several Priests and Ecclesiastical Ministers to rule and govern the particular Churches in every Province Country and Nation And in such manner and form as our Saviour Christ did rule and govern his Universal Kingdom and Catholick Church before his Incarnation So doth he still rule and govern the same notwithstanding any of those vain pretences and ridiculous Usurpations which the Bishops of Rome or any of their Adherents are able to alledge and maintain to the contrary In the Gloss of one of the Books of the Canon-Law not long since Printed and approved by Gregory the Thirteenth a Glossographer and now an Authentical Canonist doth write in this sort Dicò quod potestas Spiritualis debet dominari omni creaturae humanae I say that the Spiritual Power ought to domineer over every humane Creature And why saith he so Forsooth Per rationes quas Hostiensis inducit in summa for certain causes and reasons which Hostiensis another Canonist doth alledge in his sum But he stayeth not there he hath another motive which he setteth down thus Item quia Christus c. Also because Jesus Christ the Son of God when he was in the World and also from everlasting was the natural Lord and by the natural Law he might have given Sentences against the Emperour and any other whatsoever of Deposition and damnation and any other Sentences Vtpote in personas quas creaverat donis naturalibus gratuitis dotaverat etiam conservabat As against Persons whom he had created and endowed with natural and free gifts and also whom he did preserve eadem ratione Vicarius ejus potest and by one and the same reason saith he his Vicar may so do What would Pope Gregory by his Canonists make Men to believe that all Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are Persons of the Pope's Creation or that he doth bestow on them freely any gifts or benefits of Nature or that their preservation doth depend upon his good favour and Providence But the idle Canonist his Wit doth serve him no better than to make in effect this fond Collection Christ the Creator of all things doth govern rule dispose and preserve all his own Creatures therefore the Pope must likewise govern rule dispose and preserve them all though he created none of them And why must he so do he wanteth not a very substantial reason that moved him so to collect which followeth in his own words Nam non videretur Dominus discretus fuisse ut cum Reverentià ejus loquar nisi unicum post se talem Vicarium reliquisset qui haec omnia posset Fuit autem iste Vicarius ejus Petrus Et idem dicendum est de Successoribus Petri cùm eadem absurditas sequeretur si post mortem Petri humanam naturam à se creatam sine regimine unius personae reliquisset For Christ should not have been thought a Person of sufficient discretion that with his Reverence I may so speak except he had left behind him one such Vicar who might do all these things And this his Vicar was Peter And the same is to be said of the Successors of Peter seeing the same absurdity must follow if after Peter's Death he
had left Mankind created by himself without the regiment of one Person And Mr. Harding one of our own Countrymen doth wholly concur with this profound Canonist saving that he dealeth more civilly with Christ in using the word Providence instead of the Canonist's Discretion Thus he writeth Except we should wickedly grant that God's Providence doth lack to his Church reason may soon induce us to believe that to one Man the chief and highest of all Bishops the Successor of Peter the Rule and Government of the Church by God hath been deferred And he further doth express his opinion to this effect That if God had not ordain'd such a Monarchical Church-Government he should have brought in amongst his faithful People that unruly confusion and destruction of all Commonwealths 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 That our Saviour Christ is the sole Governour Head and Archbishop of his Catholick Church as he is the only Governour Ruler and Monarch over all the World and that his Discretion and Divine Providence is no more to be blemished or impeached by the Cavils of any Impostors in that he hath appointed no one Priest Archbishop or Pope to be his Vicar-General over the whole Catholick Church than for that he hath not assigned any one King Emperour or Monarch to rule the whole World under him this is the point that here we purpose to make good taking it in this place for granted that there was never any one Man in the World to whom our Saviour Christ did commit the Government of it after the time that it was Peopled and throughly inhabited that is from Noah's Flood at the least hitherto They that labour to prove that the Bishop of Rome is Head of the Universal Church and that Christ should have shewed little Discretion or Providence if he had not so ordain'd it do insist very much upon the grounds of natural reason and philosophy telling us out of Plato Aristotle Plutarch Isocrates Stobaeus Hesiodus Euripides Homer Herodotus and divers others That of all the kinds of Government that are the Monarchical Government is the best That in a great Host consisting of Souldiers of divers Nations and Countries and perhaps of many Soveraign Princes and Kings there must be one General to govern them all That all things naturally have a propension and aptness to Monarchical Government That Bees of every Hive have their King That in every Flock of Sheep there is a principal Ram That in every Herd of Cattel hath a Leader That Cranes do not fly promiscuously and in heaps but have one whom they do all very orderly follow That amongst Coelestial Spheres there is but one Primum Mobile That in the number of the lights of the World one is greater than the rest That there is a certain Principality in the Elements That the Fountain is but one from whence divers times there flow sundry Streams That into one Sea all Rivers do run and return That the thing which is most one is less easily divided That it is rather one which is simply one than a multitude conspiring in one And that for these and many other like reasons seeing the Monarchical Government is best and that we may be sure that Christ would have his Church governed by the best manner of Government except we should think him to have dealt absurdly as a Person void both of good Discretion and Providence It followeth therefore that Christ committed the Government of it unto one first to St. Peter and then to his Successor the Bishop of Rome for the time being If this one Jesuit and his Fellows would upon the said Philosophical premises have concluded thus That it therefore had followed that Christ himself doth not only retain in his own hands the sole Government of his Catholick Church as he is the only Redeemer of it but likewise the sole Government of the whole World as he is the Creator of it the Conclusion had been true although the premises had not enforced it But how stifly soever they meant to insist upon the said Conclusion without any regard of truth so they may blear the Eyes of the simpler sort with such their vain Illusions We may be bold as we hope resolutely to defend and maintain it that the said natural reasons are of as great strength to prove That there ought of necessity to be one temporal Monarch over all the World as one Ecclesiastical Monarch over the whole Catholick Church although in very deed they are far too feeble and weak to prove either the one or the other For who knoweth not that when the Philosophers did write in commendation of the Monarchical Government they only had Relation to particular Nations and Countries endeavouring to prove that it was better for them severally to be ruled by that Form of Government which is called Monarchical than by any of the rest Aristocratical Democratical or any other And it was so far from their meaning to have their said reasons wrested to prove that one mortal Man ought to have the Government of the Catholick Church the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ as they never dreamed for ought that appeareth that one Man in their Judgment was fit or able to take upon him the Temporal Government of the whole World To which purpose a principal Lawyer amongst our Adversaries doth write in this sort Naturâ ipsâ institutum non est quòd universus Orbis uni Principi subditus sit It is not ordain'd by nature that the whole World should be subject to one Prince If then it be an idle vanity for any Man to go about by natural reason to prove that one Man ought to be the temporal Monarch of all the World which nature her self did never intend it is then certainly a kind of madness or phrenzy to rely upon such proofs for the Popes spiritual Authority over the whole Catholick Church neither of them both being comprehensible or subject to the apprehensions of nature Again these Patrons for the Pope and his Primacy over the whole Catholick Church have not only such Arguments as we have heard drawn from natural reason but some likewise deduced from sundry similitudes and those out of the Scriptures upon which they rely with some more confidence as reason is they should saying that God made all Mankind ex uno Adamo of one Adam to signify thereby that he would have all Men to depend ab uno of one but the Old Testament was a figure of the new and that therefore as there was but one High-Priest amongst the Jews to govern that one Church so now there must be but one Pope to govern all the Churches in the World that Aaron was not only a figure of Christ but likewise of St. Peter that the Church is compared to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Fold
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
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
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