Popes school he trumpets out every where the power of the Apostolicall Keyes with so great pride of Jurisdiction and of commanding power that the Popes Keyes and those of Apolonius seem to bee made by the same Vulcan which want nothing but a little better polishing which in time will be done For who ever will turne over the Papists writings and these of Apolonius shall see that whatsoever the Pope proudly bragges of concerning his Hierarchy in the right of Peters succession the same doth Apolonius and the new Walachrian Papists proudly challenge in right of Apostolicall succession Nor do I deny but this hath been too common among divers reformed teachers to be somewhat superstitiously affected with this right of the Keyes and of Excommunication which is not to be wondred at seeing some of the Reformers had been bred in the Romish Church whose Botchers shop was filled with such old trash of Jurisdiction it could scarce be otherwise but that the most part being born there must smell of that mother But afterwards some others treading in their foot-steps and prouder then the former did too much advance this Ecclesiastick power of the Keyes So that we must confesse it hath fallen out with many Reformers as it doth with those who goe about to purge out the Garlick which they have eate who though they doe what they can to purge and remove it yet they cease not to smell more or lesse of it This may bee seen in many chiefly in our Walachrian Stilt-walker who above all others delighting in the menstruous blood of his Romish mother and smelling so rank of it boasts so proudly every where of the power of the Keyes that you shall scarce find his equall whose fooleries that I may now refell this I say That there is nothing more certaine then that Christ in promising the Keyes to Peter and the Apostles did conferre on them no vulgar thing but what was both new rare and excellent and by which he would exalt them above humane reach as it were when he gave them this power of heavens Keyes Whence it is not likely that by these is meant so small and easie a matter as the Church at this day exerciseth For what great or rare matter is this if a Church-Ruler or Preacher say at this day the Kingdome of Heaven is open to thee if thou beleeve if thou beleevest not it is shut against thee Not onely was this the ancient preaching but almost every ordinary man in the Church can say so Yea whoever reads the Scripture or heares but a childe reading them hee exerciseth this judgement of himselfe and useth the Key For if he see any disobedient hee will judge that heaven is shut against him if hee repent not If again hee see him convert he will judge that heaven is opened and so will use this Key Neither must Church-men think that they have now more power in using this Key For we finde by experience that Clergy Assemblies Consistories Classes or Synods are no more powerfull in denouncing this judgement then any private man being intent on the thing and carefull to search out the truth so that wee find by experience that one Lay-man hath judged better and hath made better use of this Key then a whole Synod For though Apolonius prate much concerning the speciall assistance of the holy Ghost yet we finde no other effects thereof then what the Pope boldly bragges concerning his infallibillity and yet hee is the lyingest faisister that ever the world saw So then these Church-men are very oftentimes deceived who bragge so much of the power and certitude of the Keyes Let Apolonius witnesse then which no man is a more impudent bragger of this power of the Keyes except the Pope and yet by his preaching Key he hath produced so many lies that he may seem to carry not the Key of Heaven but of Hell with Apollion And that you may not think this to be a personall errour except he will also â—e in this lo the whole Walachrian Classis hath coÌ„ ented to these fictions so that hence appears the false judgement of the Church in the use of the preaching Key because not onely it is not of greater force then a private Christian mans iudgement but oftentimes of lesse validity For at this day the iudgement of Church-men is so corrupted with affections that we may beleeve many whom they condemn to hell shall surely enioy heaven and on the contrary they shall goe to hell whom they iudge worthy of heaven by their Key How ever the matter be it cannot be evidently proved that now Church-men have any greater power in using the Keyes of Heaven then any particular member of the Church whilst in their Sermons their threatnings and promises of life eternall are conditionall Whence it is not likely that Christ gave so little right as this to the Apostles under the glorious title of the Keyes of heaven and of so solemne a promise but that there was in this some high matter and peculiar to the Apostles onely which I place in this because they were the first Heralds of salvation performed now by Christ and of heaven opened by him which was never proper before nor after to any of Gods Embassadours Before the work of salvation was performed salvation was hoped for but then heaven was in a manner shut as yet After Christs Ascension it was truly opened And this priviledge the Apostles had that they were the first witnesses hereof Besides before that time heaven was shut against the Gentiles who as it were by a partition wall were debarred from entring thither so that no man nay not the greatest Prophets before this had power to open heaven promiscuously to all Gentiles the Jewes being forsaken This matter was so high and rare that even the Apostles though illuminate by Gods Spirit came to know this when it was late and not without Miracles too which being understood they without wearisomnesse by a divine wonderful rapture contemning all dangers carried the Gospel almost through all the world so that Thomas himselfe as grave Authours witnesse preached and travelled as farre as India Which indeed was notable and nothing else but the opening of heaven To this was added their infallible power of preaching that they sayd nothing but by Gods prescription For the preaching Key which Christ promised and gave to his Disciples was so excellent and divine that with it he gave unto those first Patriarchs of the Church graces by which they delivered the truth infallibly so that not onely did they shew Heaven opened but by their infallible doctrine as with a Key did open it to every one and declared it infallibly by their divine power of judging to whom it was opened or shut so that what they bound and shut on earth was truly bound and shut in heaven And contrarily This power after the Apostles ceased For what they once opened remaines open nor can it be shut again by any The Pope
speake truth knowes that hee obtained this speciall right of Sanctity by the like mysterie of Vocation and that hee hath no other wayes almost bestowed it upon others I know that somtimes things are carried more conscionably and that the abuse of a thing takes not still away the use thereof yet this I dare say that because at this day are wanting men divinely inspired to call and because the bestowing of spirituall gifts is separate at this day from Imposition of hands though it be done by Christs command and for a spirituall end yet in respect of the manner modern vocation is meerly humane because the whole manner is fallible humane and oftentimes corrupted whence the effects must be also humane and oftentimes most vitious so that we have instead of Apollo Apollonius a Sophister for a Prophet a Sycophant for a Bishop But because this vocation is with Apollonius the chiefe Originall of moderne Church-spiritualitie least we should believe there is more in the effect then in the adequate cause I conclude that the power of excercising Church-affaires at this day is not of divine but of humane right and therefore Apollonius playes the Impostor who prates so at random of the sanctity of his Church-affaires and of the speciall spirituall right of exercising them he is not unlike to them that falsifie coyne who wash brasse leaden or iron pieces with a little silver or gold to impoverish others and inrich themselves I confesse that this is the old Popish garlick sticking close to many but he who will looke over the writings of all Divines as hee brags hee hath done may perceive that the most quick-sighted Reformers have found out long since that whatsoever is so highly talked of the speciall right of sanctity is nothing else but the secondine of the Romish mother and the pollution adhering to her sons since their nativity there is none more stubborne then the Stilt-walker who above all others delights in the polluted blood of that Romish Whore and sips up againe her excrements not being content with common Elogies he prides himselfe so much in the right of this priviledge that he affirmeth every where that the Ecclesiastick power is a kind of Majesty and hath in it some thing that is Regall I confesse that the name of Christians puts us in mind of our Kingly Office which as the Catechist saith consisteth in this that we strive against sin and subdue the lusts of the flesh and this is common to all Christians but the Stilt-walker not content with this Priviledge of a Ministeriall right of vocation he makes a right of commanding and raigning in the Church and that speciall censoriall and nomotheticall so that many times he calls this power under Christ imperiall selfe-sufficient absolute and regall I confesse they are but trifles which he spreads every where yet least he should seeme to be neglected because he is not laughed at it will not bee unpleasing to rub his eares a little Par. 1. p. 8. 25 c. Mat. 13. c. He is wonderfully pleased that Christ calls the Church his Kingdome which is not of this world but heavenly and the Kingdome of heaven whence he concludes that the visible Church is a Kingdome and that the Government thereof is like that of a Kingdome and because the power of this Government is in the Church-Rulers that therefore their power is in a manner Kingly such are the Popish enthymemes concerning a spirituall and Ecclesiastick Kingdome I answer here is a fallacy in the ambiguity of the word when they meane every where by the Church the visible Church for when Christ saith that his Kingdome is not of this world but heavenly he meanes the Catholike Church the greatest part whereof is in heaven and there raignes with Christ But because for the accomplishing of this Kingdome the visible Church here on earth is appointed and her Ministery therefore Christ transfers the name of the Kingdome of heaven to the affaires of the visible Church not as if he meant that the visible Church or her Ministery should be held for a Kingdome or for the Kingdome of heaven but by a knowne Metonymie he transfers the name of the effect and end to the efficient which leads to that end no other wayes then we use to say that a man labours for food and rayment whereas he workes for money not as if money were food and rayment but because by it these things are procured he deserves to be laughed at who in silver seeketh properly for food and rayment because figuratively it is called food and rayment as ridiculous are the Papists when they seeke in the visible Church a regall and celestiall Power and dominion because it is called the Kingdome of heaven for no other reason but because it is the medium by which we attain to that blessed Kingdome in heaven This is the old Papists Logick to seek for literall conclusions out of figurative speeches which art almost every where the Walachrian Bapist borrowes from them and chiefly in this Argument for because Christ calls the visible Church and its Government a Kingdome and of heaven figuratively he concludes that the Church-Rulers have a regall power and that they are really and simply heavenly Kings although I suspect that he wrote this and many other things but in jest yet I will drive out this joculary naile with another naile that any one may see the absurdity If the visible Church be the Kingdome of heaven truly and simply as Apollonius saith then I will infer that of necessity the Church of Midleburg is also literally the Kingdome of heaven which if so then I will conclude with another consequence that that Church is literally heaven for England and France are the Kingdomes of England and France Hence further I conclude that as often as the visible Church meeteth in the temple of Middleburg there heaven is literally and by another consequence as often as the Stilt-walker preacheth in that Church he preacheth in heaven then it must follow that while he is there with his Hearers he is not properly on the earth except he will mingle heaven and earth together And againe it will follow that because he is a Ruler in that Church and hath the power of censuring he is not only a King but the King of heaven too as Rhadamanthus is of hell How blessed then is Apollonius who if he doth not reigne in the earthly Consistory of Middleburg yet he is King of Middleburgian heaven Are not then the Magistrates of Middleburg stupid who yet doubt whether the Stilt-walker be worthy of the earthly Kingdome of his Consistory whom long ago they see to be King of heaven That he may reconcile these absurdities he will be forced to confesse that this word of the Kingdome of heaven is figuratively and improperly attributed to the visible Church But if Apollonius may with Papists expound figurative words literally there will be nothing certain in Divinity but Christians
bragges that this right remaines onely for him as being Peters successor and so commonly his subjects beleeve But this is an impudent lye fit for Antichrist Our Apellonians doe indeed convince the Pope of sacriledge for his bragging thus and yet they themselves are more impudently puffed up with this power of the Keyes For they confesse and in effect prove that they cannot preach infallibly and yet they cry out that he is guilty of sacriledge who doubts of their possessing their Key now Which impudency is farre greater then that of the Pope For he assumes to himselfe the right of opening heaven because he saith that he hath an infallible Key and truly Apostolicall But these will have the same right ascribed to them and yet doe confesse that they are not infallible Although hee bee an Impostor who promiseth to open the Treasure making shew of having that Key which hee hath not yet hee is a more impudent Impostor who cries out that hee will open the Treasure and yet confesseth that either he hath no Key or if he shewes any Key it is so unfit and rusty that it cannot open the Lock For because the moderne preaching Key wants true spirituality which is the infallibility of truth it is to be accounted a dead body or like a Clock which is moved about with wheels But these are set on work by the weight of honour and gain No otherwise can wee think of the Judiciall or Censoriall Key which in the Apostles by reason of their gifts and power was alwayes just and effectuall For they had a most divine certitude of Judicature so that they conferred Heaven upon none nor debarred any from it but by a sure knowledge and revelation so that assuredly Heaven was shut against them whom they bound and whose sins were retained on earth and it was certainly opened to them whom they loosed and pardoned It is sufficiently evident that these gifts and power were in the Apostles All which as most rare and exceeding humane reach were promised to the Apostles under the power of the Keyes which is apparent to all who will not shut their eyes wilfully against the light of truth Whence it is cleare that the Keyes are terminated in the Apostles because those conditions with the gifts which I spoke and which make up the Jurisdiction of the Keyes are ceased with them So with as great right they make the Apostles Office permanent and perpetuall in the Church as the use of these heavenly Keyes So that it is frivolous and ridiculous for Apolonius and the Pope to bragge so much of the power of the Keyes as though hee had power to shut and open heaven to binde and loose on Earth what is bound and loosed in Heaven Whereas hee knowes not whom he shall certainly shut out of heaven or shut in And oftentimes perversly hee looseth and judgeth worthy of heaven whom God bindeth and shutteth out of heaven And contrarily he excludes from heaven whom God thinkes worthy of Heaven so that he who compares the vizard of our moderne Censure and Excommunicacion to that of the Apostles seemes no otherwise to play the foole then the Jewes did who were wont to prate strange things of the sanctity of their Temple and fought for the honour thereof against Titus till they were destroyed And yet they might have known had they not been blind that that was not the old Temple of Solomon because it wanted Urim and Thummim and all the benefites of Divine presence and assistance which made up the particular sanctity of that Temple But there seemes to bee a plainer place Matth. 18.17 Tell the Church and if hee heares not the Church let him bee to thee as a Publican and Heathen In which words they say Christ hath given to the Church Judiciall Ecclesiastick power of excommunication which at this day is in use both amongst the old and new Papists The vanity of this conceit will bee easily seen if wee doe but observe that Christ in these words doth not instruct his Disciples as they were to be the over-seers and Rulers of the Church but onely taught ordinary things which are common to all Christians by the right of fraternity according to that generall Rule given to all by GOD Deuter. 17.19 Thou shalt not hate thy brother but sharply reprove him neither shalt thou suffer any evill in him Which Law CHRIST here sheweth must be kept not onely when a brother shall offend God or others but then also when he wrongs us which brotherly duty Christ will have wisely to bee exercised and with moderation lest this reproofe may seem to proceed from revenge or evill words by which the mind of the injuring brother may bee exasperated hee will have the brothers offence to be covered and not to be divulged but will have the difference to be taken up in private between brother and brother by two other brothers whose admonitions if the offending brother slight Christ permits not that the brother offended shall forsake the brother offending but then will have the brothers offence brought out in publicke that it may be made known to all the Church not to stirre up all odiously against him but that they might save him and that he who could not be brought to concord by the reproofe of one or more brothers may be brought to it by the admonitions of some in the Church or all Which endeavour of the Church being brotherly and charitable if the offending brother goe on to contemne the offended brother is not onely permitted but also commanded to esteem of the other at a Publican and Heathen that is that he shall have no private commerce with him as the Apostle describes and declares this act 1 Cor. 5.9.11 and 2 Thess 3.6.14 For Christ alludes to the custome that then was among the Jewes and of which we have already spoken Hence now it appeares that the old and new Papists have shamefully corrupted this place in turning this brotherly and charitable duty into an authoritative and judiciall Office and very insolently have appropriated the word CHURCH to the Rulers and Over-seers of the Church onely Tell the Church that is saith the Papist tell the Bishop which is truly a foolish interpretation unworthy of refutation Tell the Church that is say our new Papists tell the Rulers of the Church which is an unaccustomed acception of this word For they cannot produce one place out of Scripture in which the word CHURCH is appropriated to the Rulers onely I know the Walachrian Stilt-Walker babbles much every where of the Church representative and that the word Church is given to the Rulers thereof because they represent the Church But because hee learned this not out of Scripture but out of Popish writings the inventors of this I answer him briefly That to him who sayes much and proves nothing of right no priviledge belongs which as it is true in humane things so much more in Divine and sacred matters Whence I now
as though God as Creator only were the Author thereof but the Ecclesiastick power to the Kingdome of the Mediator and hath Christ the Mediator for its Author and as he is exalted because it is said Eph. 4. that Christ being exalted gave gifts to the Church some to be Apostles c. but not secular Magistrates I answer that I wonder at the mans drunkennesse who seekes for diversity in things well compared For what matter is it whether God as Creator or as Mediator do appoint or command any thing If this mincing of Divinity into small parcels be admitted innumerable fooleries will arise But I have hitherto answered principally that all secular Magistrates have been instituted in the New Testament by Christ as Mediator and exalted and there are dayly such For I will aske whether he thinks not that Paul by the gifts and command of Christ the Mediator did affirme the secular power which carrieth the sword to be esteemed for Gods Vicegerent Rom. 13. and every soule to be subject to it except he will say that Paul wrote this by the command of God the Creator not the Mediator it followes necessarily that the secular Power and Government in that place is established by Christ the Mediator as Paul his divine Embassadour affirmes So that now no doubt is to be made whether Christ as Mediator and exalted hath ordained the secular Power For it is expresly said by Paul whatsoever power there is it is ordained of God and he that resists it resisteth the Ordinance of God But that the Stilt-walker may not thinke that by God here is meant the Creator let him remember that I shewed before in 1 Cor. 15. that Christ the Mediator after his exaltation hath received the full power of reigning and therefore of ordaining upon earth For as Mediator he hath received of his Father all power deposited by him till the consummation of the world which then he shall give up againe to the Father whence I conclude that now there is no secular Prince who hath not his Authority from Christ the Mediator because he alone in heaven earth and under the earth conquereth reigneth and triumpheth whence the first difference taken from the Author falls The other he placeth in the end for thus he writes As for the ends of these powers God hath placed apart the secular power in order to naturall things Fine par 1 p. 62 61 c. p. 51. p. 58. and Ecclesiastick apart to supernaturall so that both cannot extend themselves to these things alone which are are of another order And because Vedelius said that the Civill Magistrate had for its chiefe end the eternall salvation of the people he answers boldly but we deny that is spoken of the proximate and immediate end which the Magistrate by himselfe in the force and power of his office aimes at or cares for p. 52. and elsewhere more plainely so wee must confesse in Christian Common-wealths that the Civill Power doth not touch nor can by it self or of its owne nature doe any thing towards the attaining of eternall blisse except we will be Pelagians Because this saying is most absurd and monstrous therefore I was willing that the Reader might see it in the Stilt-walkers owne words the impiety and falsity of which I will now briefly touch First observe the madnesse of this brawler in calling it Pelagianism if the Magistrate by the nature of his Civill function should touch or meddle with the affaires of moderne Church Discipline it seemes he is ignorant what was Pelagius his opinion Pelagius thought that a naturall man without grace could attaine to true faith which opinion is as false as if one should say that Lazarus being halfe rotten could rise by himselfe though Christ had not called him Wherefore this opinion hath been justly rejected but what is this to the question now in hand First he shewes his mad malice against Christian Magistrates because he considers them in respect of their office of Magistrateship and as secular men as in the state of nature the property of which is to be blind in their minds perverse in their wills the enemies of God and sons of wrath so the Scripture speakes of a naturall man of whose power Pelagius disputed Is not this to blaspheme potentates and to curse the Rulers of the people To make them in respect of their holy office which God himselfe ordained and appointed men blind in their mind perverse in their will the sons of wrath and of hell Was there ever any Anabaptist that durst so raile against Magistrates as this night-bird doth Another of his fictions is that he equalls the externall works of moderne Church-Discipline to the most holy divine and spirituall worke of true faith For true faith is a worke of that difficulty that none of the holiest Apostles had any power to conferre it much lesse can a naturall man attaine to it for Paul saith of himselfe hee that plants and he that waters is nothing 1 Cor. 3. but it is God that giveth the encrease and elsewhere the circumcision of the heart is not in the letter but in the spirit true circumcision is that whose praise is of God not of men Rom. 2. so that they are mad indeed who think with Pelagius that man by himselfe can acquire true faith or confer it being the worke of God alone Now let the Stilt-walker here see his owne perversnesse who that he may despise the Magistrates compares them to a naturall man and that he may extoll the affaires of his Church-Discipline among ignorant people compares them to the most divine worke of faith from which they are infinitely distant For no man can truly believe but he that is truly spirituall holy and the child of God But the outward Church-Discipline as it is now hath so little excellency in it that Judas himselfe a Devill Nicolas the Deacon false Apostles and innumerable wicked men could performe them with profit and praise For Paul saith that in his time all did not preach Christ sincerely Phil. 5.16 but some for honour some for profit and yet he confesseth that their preaching was fruitfull it is then so farre that the Civill Magistrate in respect of his secular power should be debarred as sacrilegious from the outward Church-Discipline that scarce can there be found any Impostor so wicked any Brawler so perverse any Stage-player so impudent who may not if he will dissemble performe these Church-businesses and sometimes too have with applause performed them We need not go farther then this Walachrian for an example who will not have us doubt but he hath a long time performed these spirirituall workes of Discipline and Doctrine with authority and power and yet we see he is an impudent blasphemer of Magistrates but this by the way I principally answer that he is a manifest corrupter of Scripture and a blasphemous falsifier in saying that secular Magistrates as secular that is in
to sense then certainly the Stilt-walker the Metropolitan of the Walachrian Church should be very heavenly whom yet by these his patched peeces wee see to bee very earthly so that the leprosie of the earth sticks not only close to him but is also very familiar to most Kings of this heaven that if that heavenly Kingdome were not contained within compasse by the civill earthly Kingdome those Heavenly Kings would quickly destroy one another so that I may truly say that the earthly Kingdome sustaines that heavenly Kingdome or else it would fall to the ground Another fraud of his is in the other place where Christ saith my Kingdome is not of this world Christ was asked by Pilate if he were a King he confesseth that hee was a King but not of this world that iâ— hee would not exercise his Kingdome in this world hee addes a reason if my Kingdome were such my souldiers would fight for mee whence it appeares that Christ spoke plainly because hee said that he had such a Kingdome which hee did not exercise upon the earth as openly and properly hee did not but in Heaven when hee sat down at Gods right hand The Stilt-walker thinks that by this Kingdome of Christ is to be understood the government of the visible Church which if true then Christ had answered Pilate intricately and captiously because so taking it Christs Kingdom had been properly in the world and a part of the world yea in this Kingdome hee had his souldiers and in processe of time he got more for Kings and Emperours were made the defenders of this Kingdome and Church of Christ although then I should yeeld that in some respect the title of Christs Kingdome and of Heaven belong to the visible Church yet it were absurd in this place so to take it whereas it is here absolutely denied that this Kingdome is of this world but the visible Church chiefely that which the Walachrian deviseth is in the world and of the world and is too full of worldly corruptions And there is no lesse fraud in corrupting that place of Paul which hee preposterously cites with the Pontificians no man warring to God doth intangle himselfe with secular cares the words properly sound thus no man that warreth intangles himselfe with the affaires of this life that hee may please his Generall in which words the Apostle compares to souldiers the Preachers of the Word and also what hee saith that Elders who labour in the Word which consecrate themselves to the Ministery of the Word ought not to intangle themselves in the affaires of this life to wit in merchandizing husbandry and such like so that they intangle themselves and bee so carried away with the businesse and sweetnesse of them as with Demas to forsake their station for the love of this present world This is the plaine sense of that place in Paul how perversly it is corrupted I will now shew out of this place hee concludes that it is altogether unlawfull and unseemly for a Minister of the Word to care for the affaires of this world or any way to meddle with them which not only is repugnant to Scripture but is also a meer Popish fiction Paul indeed would not have preachers intangle themselves that is altogether involve themselves in secular businesse but not to touch them at all or totally to forbeare them hee commands no where Yet the practise of Christ and of his Apostles shew the contrary for I will ask whether fishing be a secular work of this life I think no man will deny it but the Apostles for the three yeares together that they were Christs disciples did still exercise their fishing yea they went to fishing after Christs Resurrection and who knowes whether they did not fish after the Holy Ghost was sent truly Paul himselfe after hee had long exercised his Apostleship at Corinth whilst hee was a preacher with Aquila hee exercised his mechanicall trade of making tents If Paul understood his law as this Walachrian wrests it then hee was a manifest breaker of his own law therefore it is a Popish fiction which this new Papist hath borrowed from the old ones when hee interprets these words so as if it were altogether unlawfull for preachers to meddle with secular businesse this error in length of time hath made Preachers idle and dainty yea it occasioned Antichrist for rich Christians considering with themselves that the taske of preaching was a difficult businesse and required a whole man by degrees they furnished them with so many things out of their own estates that they would have them bee altogether free from the care of things necessary belonging to their food or lively-hood For which end they built Monastries and cloystures and endowed them with great revenues in which the preaching Monkes might live plesantly and commodiously being free from all cares that so they might the more freely give themselves to their studies This institution at first though worldly yet was not evill but in processe of time covetousnesse possessed the minds of the Clergy that like spirituall harpyes they still affected and craved for more untill their covetousnesse grew to that height that the Pope alone became richer then all the Kings of the earth from which vice at last proceeded pride then lasinesse and neglect of theologicall studies and lastly all kinde of luxurie so that these Monasteries became brothell-houses and swine-styes of Sodomites all which sprung up out of the mis-understanding of that place which now the Stilt-walker goeth about to wrest against the Magistrate for because he thinks hee can by these delude ignorant people by perswading them that it is unlawfull and unseemly for preachers to meddle with secular affaires hence hee concludes as in a round that therefore it is unlawful for secular men to handle Church-matters for hee faines them to bee hogges only addicted to worldly things and of this life in which they are still intangled thus not only doth he injure godly Magistrates but impudently patroniseth his Ecclesiasticks for as it is known that many godly Magistrates have been very moderate both in mannaging of secular affaires and also matters belonging to Religion very zealous so experience teacheth that not a few preachers having neglected and contemned their duty in preaching have been so intangled with worldly businesse that as at this day it must not offend Christian eares if some preachers having broke their estates with Merchandizing and taking up money upon use have cheared godly Christians by turning bankerupts which shewes that this Walachrian is an impudent vermine who under pretence of avoiding secular affaires puts so great a difference between Civill Magistrates and Church-Men seeing he is convicted by these Walachrian examples and his own conscience that there is nothing which busie Church-men more affect then the affaires of this world Like to this is another which he is alwayes prating of The civill Power is Monarchicall the Ecclesiasticall should be alwayes Aristocratical ergo Civâ—â—
they be sent Neither doth he send any Embassadour but such as hee furnisheth with sufficient gifts and not without great reason For hee will have his Legats to be of such Authority that he will have absolute obedience to be yeelded to them and not to depart from them either to the right or the left hand under pain of destruction as may be seen by Moses Deut. 17. Deut. 17. Vpon which place Galvin commenting how-ever he may seem a little to doubt or stick yet at last he plainly writes We are not to doubt but God hath furnished those whom he will have excell in Authority with the spirit of understanding and of uprightnesse lest they should utter any perverse opinion which also the promise sheweth they shall answer thee in judgement for it had been absurd that the people should obey God in vaine and to their own destruction 1 Cor. 4.1.2 To this Paul agreeth Let a man so esteem of us as of the Ministers of Christ and dispensers of the Misteries of God Now this is required in Ministers that some may be found faithfull which faithfulnesse saith Calvin signifieth both the right knowledge of truth without error as also a faithfull and godly mind If modern Ministers be examined according to this exact Rule of Gods Embassadors they will be found to come very short of them The Antichristian Popes a bold kind of Vermine as ever the world saw say impudently that they over-flow with these gifts of Gods Embassadours but long since they have been refuted both by the writings of reformed Divines and by experience This Stilt-walker doth in lying exceed the Pope in bragging himselfe to be Gods Embassadour whereas he should confesse as he doth by his writings prove that he is both fallible and fallacious and destitute of the gifts of Gods Embassadours worthy to be checked by the Pens of all Orthodox men Nor will this availe him any thing in saying that the Church hath made him Gods Embassadour by vocation and imposition of hands If the modern Church hee of this mind she is as foolish as the foolish Stilt-Walker For God never gave this power to the Church to conâ—erre the right and dignity of a Legat on whem God hath not before bestowed necessary gifts So that the most excellent Church in the Apostles time by whose imposition of hands oftentimes followed notable gifts of Gods Spirit could doe no more but declare by election and consecration him to be Christs Legat whom they saw to be furnished before by God with the gifts of such an Embassie Which appeares by that famous election of Paul and Barnabas to call the Gentiles where God himselfe commands to set Paul and Barnabas a-part but presently addeth To the work to which I have called them Act. 13.2 so that the Church in calling doth nothing else but subscribe to Gods call declare them to be called whom God manifests hee hath called and this he sheweth by necessary gifts bestowed on them which I will make appeare to be true not only in extraordinary but also in ordinary callings in Calvins words rather then mine which are extant in his Commentaries on this place God commands Paul and Barnabas by the Churches Suffrages to be sent abroad to that he had ordained them Hence we collect That there is no lawfull election of Pastors but where God hath the chiefest voyce For in that he hath commanded the Church to chuse Pastors and Bishops he hath not permitted so much liberty to men as not to be chiefe President and Moderator himselfe Indeed this ordinary election of Pastors differs from that of Paul and Barnabas because it was behoofefull that they who were to bee the Apostles of the Gentiles should be designed by divine Oracle which was not needfull to be done daily in the ordination of Ministers only this is common to both that as God witnessed Paul and Barnabas to be ordained particularly by him to preach the Gospel even so none ought to be called to teach but such as God hath already in some sort chosen himselfe Besides it is not necessary that the Spirit from Heaven should proclaime him to be called of whom we speake because whom God furnisheth with necessary gifts seeing they are fitted and formed by his hand we receive them delivered from him as it were from hand to hand Thus he Hence the Walachrian may see his own fraud that being destitute not onely of the Badges of Christs Embassadours but likewise of ordinary Pastorall gifts supposeth that he is made Christs Legat by the Churches mission or confirmation and therefore demands with authority and power to be heard as an Embassador sent from Christ All which are so many impostures and wrongs offered to the Divine Majesty What Prince I pray will not punish such an Impostor Paraus writes that such a thing happened in his time that one in the name of an Embassadour from England came to the Prince Elector whom the first day the Prince received in State The next day the fraud being detected because he wanted the Badge of his Embassie was cast in prison and thence in chaines was sent to England to be punished If this cheating Walachrian be not thus punished here let him be assured he shall be punished hereafter by Christ the Title of whose Embassie he so contumeliously abuseth as in other things so in the Popes fictions he is fleshed and hardned to wit that it is in Divine and Ecclesiasticall Callings as in Civill that they who have may have and who possesse may possesse that is if any as fit for an Office as an Asse for a Harp yet being chosen and imployed by the Prince acquites this right from God that hee must bee acknowledged for the Princes Legat and must be obeyed no otherwise then the Prince himselfe And thus doth the Pope esteeme of his Offices But we have now seen that God acknowledgeth no man for his Embassadour but he whom he hath first called and then sufficiently gifted Which being wanting in the Stilt-walker wee need not doubt but that the Church in choosing him was deceived through Ignorante but he sinnes doubly and maliciously that being void of gifts dare bragge himselfe to bee CHRISTS Legat and in a higher strain then the Church could be her election afford him Next to preaching is the administration of the Sacraments which at this day is held so holy and in a speciall manner Ecclesiastick that from it as from a Sanctuary they keep off Proponents endowed with the gift of Preaching Which speciall sanctity is not taken out of Gods Word but first coyned in Antichrists Shop and by an indelible contagion is crept upon our Churches in which as men doe most smell of Popish Garlicke so they extoll it as we see in the Stilt-walker who having crawled through the Papists Dunghill more diligently then others he cries out that this part of his Church-furniture is in such a speciall manner holy as that the Leviticall
Office of sacrificing was not more But he is much deceived For under the Levits the right of circumcising was in common and not proper to the Levites they killed and ate the Passeover when no Levit was present Iohn 4.1.2 1 Cor. 3. Acts 6. In the New Testament Christs Disciples are said to baptize without any difference Paul in expresse and plain tearmes sayth that he was not sent to baptize and rejoyced that hee had not baptized many of them The Apostles laying aside the Deacons Office did claime to themselves the Function of praying and preaching but never a word of Baptisme or administration of the Supper Neither hath this any shew of truth which commonly they object that Christ Matth. 28.19 did joyne preaching and Baptisme by an indissoluble knot For I ask To what preaching did Christ tye Baptisme Whether to the Apostolicall alone which hee there solemnly instituted or simply to publick preaching If to the former then our modern Preachers are too blame in that they preach not Apostolically and yet challenge the speciall right of baptizing out of this place but if to this they offend in taking away the right of preaching from Proponents and publick Preachers And whreas wee have proved that God hath debarred no man from publick preaching if he be gifted it followeth that the right of baptizing doth not belong to Church-Preachers alone Iure Divine So that hence it is plain that our modern Divines doe out of this place argue no otherwise then if heretofore the Princes of the Jewes had sayd that to them alone the right of circumcising was given by God because it was solemnly sayd to Prince Ioshua by God Jos 6.2 Make to thy selfe knives of stone and circumcise the Children of Israel c. The same reason is of the Supper I confesse Christ instituted and celebratad the first Supper but it is no where sayd that this was made a perpetuall Law that no man might doe so but he who is specially sanctified yea the contrary appeares rather in celebration of the Supper which was then usuall in Corinth when as yet corruptions had not crept in among them For as in divers places they met together to worship so there they celebaated the Supper and Love-feasts so that the richer sort among them brought from home their meat and drink by which first the rich and poore feasted together in common then breaking the bread and distributing it with the wine among themselves they did solemnly declare the Lords death which simple way of celebrating the Supper without ceremony so long as it wanted scandall was never reproved by the Apostles nor after but for scandals and abuses Whence I collect that then ceremoniall sanctity was not knowne among them for want of which they suppose the Sacrament to bee prophaned consisting in this that none but the Bishop alone who labours in the Word must consecrate the Bread break and distribute it for it is not likely that the Bishop was present in all these meetings for if he had been present the Corinthians had not beene so exorbitant as to prophane the use of the Supper with drunkennesse and other sinnes or if such disorder had happened upon the connivence of their Rulers doubtlesse the Apostle had severely reproved such Bishops as the authors and fautors of all that mischiefe But whereas there is no foot-step of any such matter it is likely that even under the Apostles the Rulers were not alwayes present in their Churches nor alwayes president at the administration of the Supper And therefore our modern sacramentall sanctity of speciall right was not known to them Hence I say that custome hath conferred many things upon the Church-Rulers which have been common among Christians for order sake and decency Upon this grew the pride of the Rulers that they challenged that to themselves of right which they enjoyed upon meere courtesie whence at last sprung up that violence and superstition which begot Antichrist This may bee seen in the Pope who though he was so bountifull of Baptisme that hee granted it to Midwives yet of the Supper he made an Idoll and a Sacrifice by whose mysticall Spirituality he so befooles the world that upon the priviledge of bestowing this which hee claimes solely to himselfe hath subjected to him all the Princes of the earth too superstitiously fearfull From his institution ariseth whatsoever the Moderne new Papists tumultuously struggle for about the right of administring the Sacraments that they perswade ignorant men that they are shut out of heaven and out of the Church if they bee debarred from the use of them The right of conferring which because with tooth and naile they maintaine belongs to them alone that by this pretence they might dominere over the soules and consciences of all men every one nill he will he being desirous to save his soule is forced at last to fawn upon Church-men as the guardians of sacred things and the arbitrators of the eternall salvation of soules This is not much unlike the insolency of a bold and deceitfull Butler who will threaten the Cash-keeper yea the Master of the House himselfe that he shall have no victuals or drinke except hee will give him leave to put his hand in the Money-bagge as often as he pleaseth That the great Romish Antichrist by such trickes hath attained to his tyranny experience doth shew That our Stilt-walker is his very Ape I have already declared and shall more fully make it appeare in what followeth Censura disciplina Ecclesiastica The right of preaching praying publickly and administring the Sacraments is not so sacred to Apolonius as the priviledge of censuring and the right of Ecclesiastick Discipline of which he bragges every where and chiefly Part 2. page 1 2 3 c. For this he sayth is the spirituall meanes of Reformation and jurisdiction of the outward Ecclesiastick Court the noblest act of which is Excommunication He calls that a free power which is subject to no mans pleasure a Regall power a spirituall compelling power a spirituall Rod and Sword to which all Magistrates are bound to submit themselves what is theirs So that none is better seen in the Records of the Popes Hierarchy then this Treverian He deserves a Calfe of the Pope but being not yet cleane from Grammaticall filth hath rashly broke in upon the subtilties of Scotus or Dionysius for he distinguisheth out of Cluto Bellarmine Cicestriensis and other Patriarchs of his Divinity Church-discipline into the lesser censure which he calls that of the Publican of the inward Court of the preaching Keyes of loosing and binding but of juridiciall and of Ecclesiastick Discipline The Jesuits would be glad to see Apolonius well knockt about the head with his monstrous distinctions hee is so fine and well versed in these that no Trichotomist can bee more acute Although I am content in this Art to yeeld to the Stilt-walker yet it will bee no hard matter this way to make out
warned the Church of Geneva and other Churches afterward by his writings not to strive about that or any other ceremonies If the Bishop of Rome according to these Rules be examined it will easily appeare that hee is Antichrist For not onely without Scrripture doth he burthen Christians with innumerable decrees and lawes but he is so rigid in maintenance of his Lawes that hee is more severely punished for the most part who denieth obedience to his Statutes then he that transgresseth Gods expresse commands The Stilt-walker followes him close at the heeles whilst he doth so eagerly contend for the right of making Church-lawes so that he cries out Christs blood and all holy things to be prophaned if this power be granted to Lay-men or if Church-men in this be any wayes hindered For who but an Impostor will goe about to perswade men that there is such a mysticall holinesse in ordaining things indifferent as whether we may pray covered or uncovered standing kneeling or sirting with our eyes looking upward or downward what day the congregation must meet whether early or late in what place in what garments must men pray and preach whether at night after Christs example or by day the communion must be given whether the wine must bee powred out into silver or glasse whether levened or unlevened bread must be used whether onely the Preacher must give the Sacraments or the Elders also and any religious man as it was in use among the Apostles whether he only is to preach that is called by imposition of hands or others also who sometimes are better able though accounted but Lay-men whether the right of consecration that is of imposition of hands belongs onely to the Minister or to all the Elders also and other members of the Church so that confusion be avoided and innumerable other things which touch not the substance nor necessary rites of divine worship in ordaining of which whereas there is nothing so eminent but may not be determined easily by lay-men as they call them especially by civill Magistrates yet he so swels with the pretended sanctity of this unspeakable mystery that he wil have us bleeve they overthrow religion and piety who think or doe otherwise in this then he pleaseth Besides in this also hee imitates the Pope for that he is almost more rigid in arguing and venting his Ecclesiastick Lawes then those that are truly Divine This hee upbraids elswhere to the Pope as Antichristian but in this he runs from the Limepit and falls still into the Coal-pit or as wee say he leaps out of the frying-pan into the fire For they say that it is ordinary for this Treverian to beget new dreames especially such as serve for establishing the majesty of the Church and treading downe that of the State in which hee is so zealous that hee contends more about the not observation of Christs Nativity and other Festivall dayes about driving the Harmony of Organs out of the Church about the most spirituall holinesse of Deaconship and other trifles then he is about the whole passion of Christ or urging of his merits so that a whore doth not scold more against an honest woman then hee doth against both Magistrates and Ministers if they crosse him in his trifles On the contrary he offends not that abuseth Magistrates openly or privatly though he be never so infamous seditious an extortioner a cheater and the sink of all wickednesse Yet he is not so cunning in hiding his Popish leprosie but the scabs which he covers in one place he discovers in another He inveighs much against the Pope for making such lawes as bind Christian mens consciences and yet such is his giddinesse not only doth he lavishly extoll the sanctity of Legislative power but every where so prates of the necessity of his lawes that he openly matcheth them with the Lawes of Christ For he cries out that the Lawes and Statutes of the Church at this day are of such authority that if any refuse to obey them he is to be punished with the greater and lesser censure by the Church which every man my see toucheth mens consciences For what more grievous punishment can he denounce against a whoremaster an adulterer a Blasphemer and an open despiser of divine lawes but to punish him with his censuring Rod and excommunication Besides there can be no greater punishment then to be excluded from heaven but if we will credit Apolonius he is excluded from heaven whom he excommunicates I beleeve the Stilt-walker laughs here within himself as often as he affeights simple men with the terrours of his censure which hee knowes to be mockeries and used by him for no other end then to reigne over mens estates bodies and consciences But I now esteem of this thing as it is and as each holy man can judge of it Surely if the greater excommunication be the punishment of Ecclesiastick lawes if excommunication be the Key that truly shuts heaven as the Walachrians say who sees not that the conscience is touched with this when he shall find that heaven is locked against him with the Popes or Stilt-wakers Key except he will subscribe to the ordinances and devices of the Walachrians I confesse Apolonius is not so unskilfull an actor in this Papall Stage-play but he can with a fine distinction cleare himselfe of this blemish for he sayth That punishment is not inflicted for a Law or thing which is indifferent but for contumacie As if a Magistrate should say that the murtherer is not executed for cutting the innocent mans throat but because he died y upon it But I deny that this is contumacy when one resists stoutly and constantly the idle devices of Church-men whether they be obtruded by Apolonius or the Walashrians or the Pope there was never such authority in a lyer as to make a lye become a truth Therefore when the Church obtrudes a falshood or commands a thing indifferent as necessary because she deceiveth he is not contumacious who in this case resisteth the Church but the Church is contumacious herselfe which perseveres in her falshoods So this Walachrian Mom is alwayes dancing upon the Popes Scaffold inlarging the borders or fringes not onely of his preaching and censuring but also of his legislative garment so farre that he would perswade us that he offends as grievously who obeyes not the corrupted word and decrees of his Church as he that resisteth the plain Oracles of Christ He feignes that there is an unseparable subordination between himselfe and other modern preachers of his stamp and Christs and consequently such a selfe-commanding and imperious power of teaching and charging Gods people with no lesse authority then if Christ himselfe commanded so that it is commmon with these pratlers to perswade men with the Pope That they heare Christ who hear them and reject Christ who reject them That the Stilt-walker may see this rash assertion to be taken out the Popes Schoole hee shall doe well to
that no otherwise then among Papists despair makes a Monk for many at this day for fear of poverty and out of a desire to raise their fortunes apply themselves to Divinity as to some Mechanicall trade neither have they any other intention more spiritual then to enjoy a fat Benefice and may be freed from the stink of Mechanical sweat and fear of starving Presently aspiring higher they insinuate themselves under pretence of sanctity into rich mens houses and so stuffe themselves with worldly wealth more wary then Christ who did not allow so much as one bag to the Apostles his ambassadors but these arm themselves against poverty both with publike and private bags The hope of which good fortune arising from the Calling of the Church or Imposition of hands it s no wonder that they place in them a spirituall power which so suddenly change their fortune But it is plain to them that will look into this more narrowly that the whole force and sap of Ecclesiastick dignity floweth from the Magistrate for except from them the Treasurer receive a command to pay them their Stipend scarce would any Vocation or Consecration of the Church move so effectually the Ecclesiastick spirit but it would be easily stopped and choked as it were with the silver quinsey I will instance the truth of this by one example of the Stilt-walker which was here told us The Senate of Middleburg had resolved some years ago to pacifie those superlatively spirituall Bees at that time making a strange tumult within the hive with a silver or money-medicine in which Marnixius saith Church-bees take wonderfull delight giving order to the Treasurer to bestow on each Minister of their City 100 Florens for an extraordinary gratuity This bounty comming so unlooked for did exceedingly please them hoping it would prove annuall or hereditary but these Governours of the City had made an expresse law That no reward or benefit should be bestowed out of the publike stock upon any man for his life or for ever but upon condition of recalling it if it stood with the publike good Yet there is no certain or perpetuall possession there of any gift which is conferred by the Town-bounty but whosoever enjoys any such benefit he is bound yearly to petition for the continuation thereof which if out of pride or carelesnesse it be neglected ipso facto the benefit ceaseth and another may beg it This law was prudently made for by long experience it was observed that these perpetuall possessions of offices or benefits in subjects caused pride and carelesnesse so that they seemed to despise their benefactors This law then not being observed and the necessity of burthens comming on occasioned a cessation of this benefit in Ministers There the Stilt-walker as if he had been fed with garlick and his underlings sent messengers to the Magistrates to sollicite them then they began to check them and in their pulpits at last yea in the streets and high-wayes and in every house and conventicle to rage and raile and revile them as wicked Atheists and enemies to Religion and such as indirectly went about to overthrow all Divine worship by withdrawing food from the Ministers and in muzling the mouth of the Oxen that tread out their corn lastly plotting all means to cause sedition But the Magistrate being nothing moved at all this their spirituall pride and anger at last grew calâ— and all their froth vanished into the air If this be true which I will not assever it shewes that the principall foundation of Ecclesiastick spirituality among the Walachrians is not in the heart or mouth or in the head on which there was Imposition of hands but there where Judas his devotion lay in the bag For every Philosopher knows that the chief organ or sense is there which when it is moved â—â—iveth all the other organs Nâ—w because the Ecclesiastick bag being touched all the preaching censuring and thundring spirits grew so quickly hot in these Walachrian Clergy-men that they wrong all sorts and functions I am of Erasmus his judgement of whom Sleiden writes that being asked of the Duke of Saxony why there was so much trouble in the world at Luthers preaching answered that Luther undertook a hard task for he touched the Popes crown and the Monks belly shewing that the whole spirituall heat of old popery consisted in the honour and pride of the Pope and great Bishops and in the belly or food of inferior Priests and Monks And now let this my jesting discourse serve for a preface to what I am now to speak in this last Tract in which Apollonius hath opened all the boxes of subtleties that he might make a formall and specificall distinction between Ecclesiastick and Secular officers or as he speaks between the Ecclesiastick and Secular power which he so divides that he placeth this as a star in heaven but the other on the ground which two he thinks can no more be united then heaven and earth so that secular men as secular can no more meddle with Church-businesse then one standing upon the ground can touch the heaven Thus like an Exorcist he makes a circle of Ecclesiastick internals and of internall externals as he speaks within which if any Lay-man offer to set his foot he shall be presently smitten with Vzziahs leprosie or vexed with a devil Upbraiding the Magistrate if he venture to break in upon the preaching censuring legislative chiefly Sacramentary busines that he is Simoniacall wicked a Tyrant a trampler upon the right and laws of Christ a violator of Christs spouse yea a trampler on Christs blood lastly a Monster and a Secular Antichrist These he every where sets down as orthodoxall Dictator-like and therefore saith that Musculus Macovius Vedelius and so many as disagree from him contradict sound doctrine have wide shooes they cover their shame with figleaves as Adam and that they ere the parasites and flatterers of Magistrates the poysonable betrayers of the Churches rights and liberties So that no stable can be fuller of dung then this work is of Apollonian flowres of railings against godly Magistrates the Fathers of their Country And although to speak freely these are childish toyes what he utters here with such eagernesse yet I will gather together in a heap all his foolish chantings upon this businesse that the Reader may see in an epitome all to be of no validity what he spues out here against Magistrates The summe of his Arguments tends to this That he may shew Ecclesiastick functions to differ generically and totally from those of the secular power because they differ in the Author end object meanes part 1. p. 47. p. 4â— 94. subject and other things Now he proves all by asking still the things in question that is meer fictions and chimaeraes which he borroweth without judgement from Papists and sellers of trifles As for the Author he saith that the secular power and Government belongs onely to the Kingdome of God as Creator
Parker But he is there faulty â—n that he vapours such great matters of his modern Câ—â—rch gâ—vernemt which he knows to be so corrupted that it may he turly said what the Prophet saith of the worship in his 〈…〉 and thy Wins is mixed with mitter if Apolleniâ—â— should be 〈◊〉 to a feast where looking to drink Theologicall 〈…〉 should receive from his Hoast wine mixed with much water or pisse would he not complaine of wrong done him and of his cheasing Hoast who thrust upon him such stoffe for good 〈◊〉 after the same 〈◊〉 doth this Night-bird cheat Christians 〈…〉 of this corrupted Church government with that 〈◊〉 the Apostâ—es for his preaching is fallible yea in many things â—ugaâ—orie lying and blasphemous the use of the Sacraments cheifly of the Supper is vendible and serviceable to humane affections oftentimes he 〈◊〉 them to the impure and denies them to the worthie his preaching key is rustie and most unfit to open or 〈…〉 heaven against them to whom God faith in is open and openeth it to them against whom God saith it is sâ—â—t 〈…〉 Key such is he affects is nothing but an incroaching indirectly upon mens fame and estares and the corturer of the conscience in simple and superstitious men as for his legislative power it is nothing else but a spring of novelties childish scruples and feminary of strife or law sutes so that what one approves the other reproves what is ratified to day is abrogated to morrow and so one sute begets another alwayes For because these Walachrian whirlewinds have no certaine starres to direct them or rules of equity and justice which they may follow in working but doe all things at their pleasure so that he shall carry it who with fraud clamours and pertinacie drawes most votes to him hence it falls out very seldome as we see also among Papists that truth and equity prevailes amongst them but rather opinion which depending on the whirligig of mens dispositions and perverse affections with which they boile it s no wonder as experience sheweth if out of this legislative dependencie nothing proceed but what is prejudiciall to the Churches peace directly to the Civill indirectly Lastly their vocation as it is at this day is not only humane but also if the Walachrian be considered as the Stilt-walker useth it it is Simonaicall and defiled with much fraud and perversenesse and to speak freely the Stilt-walker hath no reason to upbraid Magistrates with the carnality of their meanes because he is forced to confeesse that there is no lesse carnality in his Ecclesiastick meanes and indeed in the end and intention of spirituality it yeelds to the Civill which though they use corporall meanes yet there is found in them such as directly tends to Gods worship and mans salvation In the Stilt-walker and such like vermine there is never any direct intent to Gods worship or mans salvation but properly to maintenance worldly honour and a fulfilling of their humours in such as obey or disobey them He scrapes together many things out of certaine circumstances which befell not to the Ecclesiastick but to the Civill power of which if these things be true that he saith he may constitute as formal a difference between the Ecclesiastical and Civill power as he can make between a Crow and a Swan out of their blacknesse and whitenesse yea between one Hen and another for an accident can make no essentiall difference especially such a one as may be common to both subjects The Civil power saith he may be in a child womâ—â— or wicked man it may bee also hereditary all which cannot befall the Ecclesiastick power hence he concludes that there is a formall difference between both these powers I answer if thence a formall or genericall difference should arise then doubtlesse the Kingdomes of France and England should differ formally because there only men here women also reign so these two Kingdomes should generically differ from the Kingdome of Poland because this is elective and not hereditary but those are successive this fiction should have some shew if hee spoke of such accidents as are not to bee found in Ecclesiastick power but most of them are found in Ecclesiasticks those great Ecclesiastick Levits from whom he is still borrowing his sanctity were they not born Levits and being children they had right to this sanctity Samuel the children of the Prophets Jeremie Christ John and Timothy were not hindred from the Church-service because they were children or as yet very young being furnished with gifts for that service it is not the infancy of yeares but of knowledge and piety that debars men from Church-functions in which how much Apollonius is defective this his unsavoury writing shewes who being now many years a Church-man yet is indeed but an old boy who hath not lived long Seneca but hath been long By the Prophetesses Anna Mary and others it appears that God hath not altogether debarred women from Church-affairs as this trifler perswades but when hee saith that Gentiles and wicked men could perform civill offices well hee saith nothing for in the end of the world many shall say have wee not prophesied in thy name and yet Christ will say to them I know you not Apollonius knowes that there are many preachers who are impious and hypocrites whom notwithstanding hee keeps not off from Ecclesiastick functions why then should Magistrates be kept off he hath much more such stuffe which I passe by as being of no validity His chiefe and most beautifull argument which hee often delights in is this Ecclesiastick power and government is heavenly because it is called the Kingdome of Heaven it is not of this world Mat. 13. Joh. 18.13 2 Tim. 24. â—or Christ saith my Kingdome is not of this world lastly no man that warreth intangleth himselfe with the affairs of this life hence hee concludes that the civill government is altogether distant from Ecclesiasticall because that is earthly and of this world and they who serve the common-wealth intangle them selves with the affairs of this life yea as wee saw before like hogges they should wallow in them alone I answered before somewhat by the way to this fiction now I will more narrowly look into it for both the members of the antecedent is false and fallacious First I deny that visible Churches are the Kingdome of Heaven for then the Church of Middleburg should be Heaven indeed which is False as may appeare by this marke in that Christ saith men doe not marry nor give in marriage in that Kingdome but in that Apollonian heaven of Middleburg there are marriages daily I confesse that in the visible Church men are instructed and taught concerning the Kingdome of heaven that at length they may obtain it which businesse metonymically is called the Kingdome of Heaven but to conclude thence that the visible Church is properly the Kingdome of Heaven or that the things thereof are heavenly is two childish and repugnant