such Lords and Princes and so addeth his Dicendum est Where dallying and shifting with his Distinctions the Answer which he maketh to the Words of St. Ambrose is this at that time the Church being in Her minority had not the power to bridle Princes and that therefore she suffered the Faithful to obey Julian the Apostata in those things Quae nondum erant contra Fidem Which were not then against Faith Vt majus periculum Fidei vitaretur That the greater danger of Faith might be eschewed And the second Objection He more slightly passeth over saying That there is not the like Reason of Infidels and Apostata's And thus this great Schoolman relying upon the Authority of Gregory the Seventh had adventur'd to oppose himself against the Examples alledged out of the Old Testament against the Practice of the Primitive Church and against the Judgment of St. Ambrose not caring how many Thousands by this Rebellious Doctrine might come to Destruction so as the Bishops of Rome might have the World at their commandment We here omit how as Thomas and divers others writ many large Volumes upon Peter Lombard the Master of the Sentences his Distinctions so afterward and especially of later Times Books upon Books have been published upon his the said Thomas's Works all of them pursuing as they come unto it this seditious and trayterous Doctrine so Clerk-like handled by their Master Only we observe this great Schoolman's Conscience how in labouring to shift off the Truth maintain'd by St. Ambrose he could pass over a Lye in Gregory the Seventh where he saith That in absolving of Subjects from their Oath of Obedience and in prohibiting them from performing their Duties and Fidelity towards their Soveraigns He followed the Statutes of his holy Predecessors Being himself the first that ever durst be so desperate As also that he confesseth it was not in St. Ambrose his time contra fidem for Subjects to obey their Soveraigns though they were either Infidels or Excommunicate and likewise how thankfully the Bishops of Rome accepted and approved this Man's Travels so resolutely undertaken on their behalf Vrbanus the Fourth did so admire him as he reputed his Doctrine Veluti coelitus delapsam As to have fallen from Heaven Innocentius so admired both Him and his great Learning Vt ei primum post Canonicam Scripturam locum tribuere non dubitaverat As he doubteth not to give unto Him and to his Works the next place after the Canonical Scriptures And John 22th made him a Saint in the Year 1329 about forty nine years after his Death He was born during the Reign of Henry the Third King of England died about the second Year of King Edward the First and was Canonized a Saint in the time of King Edward the Second so ancient is this Chief Pillar of Popery Placet eis John Overall CAP. XI JVstinian the Emperour about the Year 533. did so contract the Civil Law as he brought it from almost 2000 Books into 50 besides some others which he added of his own Howbeit shortly after it grew out of Use in Italy by reason of the Incursions of sundry barbarous Nations who neglecting the Imperial Laws did practise their own till after almost 600 Years that Lotharius Saxo the Emperour about the Year 1136 did revive again in that Countrey and in other places also the ancient Use and Authority of it Which Course of the Emperour did not much content as it seemeth the Bishops of Rome because it revived the Memory of the ancient Honour and Dignity of the Empire Whereupon very shortly after Eugenius the Third set Gratian in hand to compile a Body of Canon-Law by contracting into one Book the ancient Constitutions Ecclesiastical and Canons of Councils that the State of the Papacy might not in that behalf be inferiour to the Empire Which Work the said Gratian performed and published in the days of Stephen King of England about the Year 1151. terming the same Concordia discordantium Canonum a Concord of disagreeing Canons Of whose great pains therein so by him taken a Learned Man saith thus Gratianus ille Jus Pontificale dilaniavit atque confudit that fellow Gratian did tear in pieces the Pontifical Law and confound it the same being in our Libraries sincere and perfect But this Testimony or any thing else to the contrary that might truly be objected against that Book notwithstanding the Author's chief Purpose being to magnifie and extol the Court of Rome his said Book got we know not how this glorious Title Decretum aureum Divi Gratiani The Golden Decree of S. Gratian and he himself as it appeareth became for the time a Saint for his Pains Indeed he brake the Ice to those that came after him by devising the Method which since hath been pursued for the enlarging and growth of the said Body by some of the Popes themselves Gregory the Ninth about the Year 1236. and in the time of King Henry the Third after sundry Draughts made by Innocentius the Third and others of a second Volume of the Canon-Law caused the same to be perused enlarged and by his Authority to be published and being divided into 5 Books it is Entituled The Decretals of Gregory the Ninth Boniface the Eighth the great Augustus as before we have shewed commanded likewise another Collection to be made of such Constitutions and Decrees as had either been omitted by Gregory or were made afterward by other succeeding Bishops and Councils and this Collection is called Sextus Liber Decretalium the Sixth Book of the Decretals and was set out to the World in the Year 1298. in the Reign of K. Edward the First Clement the Fifth in like manner having bestowed great Travel upon a Fourth Work comprehending 5 Books died before he could finish it but his Successour John the 22th did in the Year 1317. and in the time of King Edward the Second make perfect and publish the same Work of Clement and gave it the Name of The Clementines Afterward also came out another Volume termed The Extravagants because it did not only comprehend certain Decrees of the said John the 22th but likewise sundry other Constitutions made by other Popes both before and after him which flew abroad uncertainly in many Mens hands and were therefore swept up and put together after the Year 1478. into one Bundle called Extravagant Decretals which came to light post sextum after the sixth By which Title the Compiler of this Work would gladly as it seemeth have had it accounted the seventh Book of the Decretals but it never attaining that Credit the same by Sixtus Quintus's Assent is attributed to a Collection of certain other Constitutions made by Peter Matthew of divers Popes from the time of Sixtus the Fourth who died in the Year 1484. To all these Books mentioned there have been lately added Three great Volumes of Decretal Epistles from St. Clement
and throw down and build and plant And a little after You see who is this servant even the Vicar of Christ the Successour of Peter the Christ of the Lord the God of Pharaoh one plac'd in the midst betwixt God and Man short of God but beyond Man less than God but greater than Man Likewise from St. Peter's walking on the Water he maketh this Inference Forasmuch saith he as many Waters are many People and the Congregations of Waters are the Sea in that St. Peter did walk upon the Waters of the Sea he did demonstrate his Power over all the World Further this Innocentius having written a malapert Letter to the Emperour of Constantinople his Majesty in answer of it putteth him in Mind how St. Peter commandeth all Men to be subject to Kings whereunto the Pope replyed saying that St. Peter wrote so to his own Subjects and did not therein include himself and that moreover he might not only have remember'd that it was not said to any King but to a Priest Behold I have placed thee over Nations and Kingdoms and so followeth the words of the Text but likewise that as God made two lights in the Firmament of Heaven a greater and a less the one for the Day the other for the Night so for the Firmament of the Universal Church he made two dignities the Pontifical and the Regal the Pontifical resembling the Sun which is the great Light and the Regal the Moon which is the less Light to the end that thereby it might be known that there is a great difference betwixt Pontifical Bishops and Kings as there is betwixt the Sun and the Moon But here we must a little digress to observe that this Pope being swoln as big as the Sun cast his Beams not only into England and scorched King John exceedingly about the Year 1212. by thundering against him and interdicting the Kingdom and by exciting his Subjects to Rebellion and Treason the Weapons of those Bishops but likewise fired Otho the Emperour out of the Empire by raising up against him Frederick the Second And when he had played these two Feats amongst many other he held a Council at Lateran Anno 1215. wherein to strengthen such Traiterous Proceedings he caused it to be ordained as it is pretended That if any Temporal Lord being admonished by the Church should not purge his Countrey from Heresie the Metropolitan and other Comprovincial Bishops should excommunicate him and if within a Year he did not give satisfaction in that behalf the same should be signified to the Bishop of Rome that so he from thence forward might denounce his Vassals absolved from their Fidelity to him and expose his Land to Catholicks to be without Contradiction by them possessed Upon this Canon many in these days do much rely although indeed it was but a Project amongst many other to have been concluded in that Assembly wherein nothing could be clearly determined saith one of their Writers because by Wars it was broken off which the Pope labouring to suppress died in that Journey And now we return from whence we digressed and leaving Innocentius do address our selves to Boniface the Eighth who had as great dexterity as his said Predecessour in expounding of the Scriptures For whereas the Apostles upon a mistaking of Christ's meaning where he bad them to provide bags and scrips for themselves and that he who wanted a sword should sell his Coat and buy one they answered saying Lord we have two swords This Pope inferreth there is in the Church a Spiritual Sword and a Temporal and that consequently they are both at the Commandment of the Bishops of Rome Also to make the matter more clear touching the temporal Sword which should rule the World in all temporal Causes he saith Boniface that shall deny that St. Peter had this temporal Sword doth not well understand Christ's Words when he bad St. Peter after he had cut off Malchus's Ear that he should put up his Sword Again whereas the Apostle doth teach us that the spiritual Man judgeth all things but is judged by none this good Bishop doth ingross these words to the only Use of the Popes and thereupon concludeth that they have Power to judge and censure all Earthly Powers and Authorities but are themselves exempted from the Checks and Censures of any as being only subject to God and to his judgment And again that the Spiritual Authority may institute and judge the Terrestrial it is verified by the Prophecy of Jeremy Behold I have placed thee this day over Nations and Kingdoms for the perverting of which Portion of Scripture both this Pope and Innocentius the Third with all the Popes that since have followed were and are much beholding to Adrian the Fourth he being the first for ought we find that so did overstrain it Lastly That he might imitate as he seemeth the Governour of the Feast in the Gospel that brought forth his best wine in the end of the feast and likewise such skilful Rhetoricians as commonly build their principal Conclusions upon their most pinching Arguments His Holiness relying upon the Scriptures because it is not said In the beginnings but In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth Therefore except we will say with the Manichces That God did not Himself make all Things but that there was also another Creator as well as he It must needs be confessed that there is but One viz. St. Peter's Successor that is the chief and principal Ruler of all the World and so he cometh to his irrefragable Conclusion We declare we define and we pronounce that it is of the Necessity of Salvation for all humane Creatures to be subject to the Bishop of Rome We may not therefore marvel that having thus notably made perfect the rough Platform drawn out by Gregory the VIIth rubbed over by Hadrian the IVth and amended by Innocentius the IIId of so infinite a Soveraignty if He the said Boniface to make the Honour and Glory more conspicuous and memorable to all Posterity after He had thrice refused to yield the Crown of the Empire to Albertus Austriacus came forth one day amongst the people to be admired of them with a Sword by his Side and a Crown upon his Head saying That He and none but He was Caesar Augustus Emperour and Lord of the World It had been plain dealing if for the better strengthning of this his Greatness He had alledged the Words in the Gospel for the Honour of his Lord Paramount All these will I give thee because He did so worthily by his said Proceedings magnifie his Name and Authority Placet eis John Overall CAP. X. WE have hitherto followed the Bishops of Rome through many Windings from their mean and militant Condition like to their Brethren unto their Glorious Estate and as we may say Triumphant We found them at the first little better than their Master Who
Ecclesiastically and to instruct them in the Mysteries of their Salvation through the blessed Seed of the Woman according to the Doctrine of the Gospel which was from time to time in divers Manners delivered by the Son of God unto them This Priestly Office and Ecclesiastical Authority was yet joyned as before the Flood with the Office of the chief Fathers and civil Governours Noah himself was both a Prince and a Priest he built Altars offered Sacrifices and taught the Church after the Flood 350. Years all that which he had learnt from his Fathers concerning the Creation of the World the Fall of Man and of his Restitution by Christ and generally all that did concern necessarily either civil Societies and Government or Ecclesiastical Assemblies and Authority not omitting the very Ceremonies After Noah the chief Fathers Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob did execute that Office God himself renewing unto them this Promise of Salvation through the blessed Seed and not only confirming the same to Abraham and his Posterity by the Sacrament of Circumcision but likewise teaching and instructing them in that Heavenly Mystery sometimes by his own Voice and sometimes by Visions and divers other ways whereof the Scriptures make more plain mention than they do of the delivery of the same Evangelical Doctrine before the Flood CAN. VII IF any Man shall therefore affirm either that the Priestly Office and Authority Ecclesiastical which Noah had before the Flood was by that Deluge determin'd or that it was by the Election of his Off-spring confer'd again upon him or that Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob were neither Priests nor had any Ecclesiastical Authority until they were chosen thereunto by their Children and Nephews or that the Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Authority were not the Ordinances of God for the governing and instructing of the Church according to the Will and direction of God himself delivered and revealed unto them as is aforesaid he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. VIII AS before the Flood Cain and his Posterity were opposite to the Posterity of Seth and might therefore generally have been called the Church Malignant so fell it out after the Flood in the Generations of Japhet but especially of Cham against the Posterity of Sem in whose Lineage the true worship of God through the blessed Seed was especially continued and not that only but in like manner as the Children of Seth in process of time provok't against them the wrath of God by corrupting their ways and following in their Conversations the Generations of Cain and were in that respect all of them with the rest of Cain's Off-spring justly punisht and drown'd by the Flood saving eight Persons Noah and his Wife Sem Cham and Japhet and their three Wives so did the Posterity not only of Cham and Japhet as well before as after the confusion of Tongues and the death of Noah but likewise the Off-spring of Sem who were called more effectually to the knowledge of the Mysteries of Christ and right service of the true God leave the ways of Noah and Sem and gave just occasion to Almighty God had he not bound himself by his Covenant to the contrary to have drowned them all again Nimrod descended of Cham not contenting himself with the Patriarchal or Regal mild Government ordain'd of God by the Laws of Reason and Nature became a Tyrant and Lord of Confusion and by Histories it is apparent that within few Ages after the Death of Noah's Sons great Barbarism and confusion fell among their Generations through their Pride and dissoluteness in that they thought scorn to be govern'd either Civilly or Ecclesiastically as God himself by Noah had ordain'd or to be ruled otherwise than as they list themselves and touching the Service of God and the Ecclesiastical Authority they mingled with true Religion many false worships and chose Priests among themselves to serve God after their own Fashions or rather they devis'd to themselves many Gods and found out Priests accordingly such as were content to train them up in those kinds of Impiety In Chaldea it self and the places adjacent the Children of Sem were all of them almost grown to be Idolaters insomuch as God himself to keep a remnant more carefully that should through the publick profession of his name be partakers of his Mercies in Christ called Abraham with his Family from the habitation of his Fathers to become a Stranger in the Land of Canaan CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm That the said Posterity of Noah's Children did well in altering either the manner or form of civil Government which God had appointed by bringing in of Tyranny or factious Popularity or of the Ecclesiastical by framing unto themselves a new kind of Priesthood and worship after their own humours or that it was lawful for such as then served God upon any pretence to have imitated their Examples in either of those courses he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. IX IT is apparent in the Scriptures That although God was not pleased that the Issue of Jacob's Children should by the Example of the Sons of Noah grow up to become the heads of so many several Nations but continuing together should make one People and Nation to be ruled and governed by the same Laws and Magistrates yet it seemed good to his Heavenly Wisdom that in so great a People as should descend from Jacob's Children no one Tribe or Family should continue charg'd both with the Civil or Regal and Ecclesiastical Function and therefore Jacob making way to the fulfilling of the will of God herein did take just occasion moved thereunto by the Spirit of God to deprive his eldest Son Reuben of his Interest by Birthright in both those Prerogatives to be disposed afterward by God unto other of his Brethren Now after Jacob's Death the former thereof viz. the Scepter in process of time fell to Judah as Jacob before had Prophesied and the other also viz. the Priesthood was afterwards given to Levi by God's Ordinance CAP. X. AFter Jacob's Death till Moses was sent to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt there is little in the Scriptures touching either the Civil or Ecclesiastical Government It appeareth that Joseph being a great Prince in Aegypt by the King's Authority was whilst he lived chief amongst his Brethren but after his Death through the Tyranny of the Kings of Aegypt which God suffer'd to lie heavily upon them for many Years the civil Authority which any of the Tribes had was very small there was such jealousy of their number which daily encreast above all ordinary expectation as it is not likely that the Kings successively would suffer any great Authority to rest in them howbeit we think they had some either the chief heads of the Tribes generally or of the Tribe of Ephraim and Reuben for it may be Jacob's Prophecy of Reuben's losing the Prerogatives of his
Birthright was not presently executed which did in their civilaffairs appertaining to themselves bear some chief sway amongst them And touching the Priesthood although the People were then generally much polluted with Idolatry yet therein also they had some most likely the first-born who although they durst not there offer Sacrifices to God as they should in that servitude yet some of them we doubt not instructed the people in matters concerning the Promises of the blessed Seed and perform'd as they might the other Offices of their Priesthood although many of the People and of the Priests as it seemeth were then greatly polluted with Idolatry CANONES IX and X. IX IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the uniting of the Children of Jacob into one Nation or the severing of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions the Prerogatives of Birthright from Reuben the first-born and dividing of them from one person was made by themselves X. Or that their servitude in Aegypt was unjustly suffer'd to lie upon them so long by Almighty God or that they being his Church he left them destitute of such comforts of direction and instruction as were necessary those times consider'd for their Civil or Ecclesiastical Estate or that the People took upon them the appointing of the heads of their Tribes and Families or the choice of their civil Superiours or of the Priests or that the Example of those wicked Kings may be any lawful Warrant for any other King so to oppress the People and Church of God he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XI WHen the time came that God in mercy was pleased to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt and to place them in the Land which he had promised them he raised up his Servants Moses and Joshua to take that charge upon them and accordingly Moses being made their Prince or as the Scripture speaks their King did not only by God's Appointment and Assistance lead them out of Egypt but governed them being 600000 Men on foot besides Women and Children forty years by his Authority in the Wilderness and Joshua likewise succeeding Moses in the same Princely Power and Authority did after many difficulties bring them into the Land of Canaan and gave them lawful possession thereof So that although formerly the Children of Israel were kept in such great Servitude and Bondage whilst they were in Aegypt as notwithstanding their number they were no way able like a free People to lift up their Heads yet now they are knit together in one Body and setled as a particular State and free Nation in their own Countrey being rul'd and govern'd successively after a mild and temperate manner first by Moses in the Wilderness as is aforesaid and then by Joshua in Canaan whilst he lived CAN. XI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Children of Israel were delivered out of Aegypt by their own strength and not by God's special Direction and mighty Power or that it had been lawful for them not warranted by God to have departed thence as they did without Licence first obtained of King Pharaoh or that Moses and Joshua were not called to that high Authority by God himself but received the same from the People as depending upon their choice or that Dathan and Abiram descended from Reuben can be justified in challenging of Moses that he took too much upon him in executing only that Authority which God hath given him he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XII AS Almighty God took order for the setling of his People in the Land of Canaan and established a Princely Authority to rule and govern them civilly so was he no less careful of his Church For however the Priesthood was disposed of before this time yet now it is apparent in the Scriptures that the same was after setled in the Tribe of Levi and Aaron was made by God's appointment for the better Government of the Church the Chief and High Priest the whole Priesthood being assigned to his Children and their Off-spring as well to succeed him in the said highest place as also to execute the other inferiour Functions belonging to Priests and the rest of the Tribe of Levi were to attend other Ecclesiastical Services CAN. XII IF any man therefore shall affirm either that the Tribe of Levi was assigned by the People to undertake the said Ecclesiastical Offices or that Aaron and his Posterity were chosen by the People to be their Priests or that they were not chosen directly by God himself or that the People had any lawful Interest at any time afterward either to chuse their Priests or they being appointed of God as is aforesaid to deprive them of their places or that Corah of the Tribe of Levi can be justified in saying That Aaron took too much upon him thereby repining either that Aaron was rather made High Priest than he himself or that the Priesthood was annexed to Aaron's Posterity whereas the rest of the Levites were to serve in inferiour places he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XIII BEfore Moses's Death God had appointed Joshua to succeed him but in Joshua's days he appointed none to follow him immediately whereupon after his Death the Israelites were left without a Chief Head or Prince to govern them They had then remaining the particular Officers and Judges appointed by Moses at Jethro's Council in their several Tribes as also the general Senate of Seventy Elders ordained by God upon Moses's complaint over all the Nation Yet there fell very great Disorders and Confusions amongst them for want of a chief Judge and Governour whereby they might see their own Disabilities and Errors and find by experience what it was to want a chief Governour and furthermore be moved when they were in distress to fly unto God and depend only upon him for the raising up of One from time to time to deliver and defend them and it is apparent that the People shortly after Joshua's time falling most strangely into gross Idolatry and being from time to time during the History of the Judges very grievously afflicted by the bordering Nations and such as dwelt amongst them when they found themselves still unable to withstand their Enemies using any great Force against them then they had for the most part recourse to God by Prayer who did at such times appoint one for their Prince chief Captain and Ruler to deliver them from their said Enemies we say for the most part because sometimes they attempted some matters of Importance without seeking any chief Governour from God as at one time the People of Sichem presumed to chuse them a Prince of their own after Gideon's Death which turned both to his Ruine and their Destruction And it is here generally to be observed that when there was the greatest liberty among the Israelites during the time from Joshua to Saul whatsoever the People thought of their own Courses
own Sister Miriam for using some undutiful speeches against him was strucken by God with an exceeding great Leprosie and so odious was the murmuring of Korab Dathan and Abiram and their Confederates as the Lord caused the Earth to open and to swallow some of them quick and the Fire to consume the rest Joshua succeeding Moses the People professed their Subjection and Obedience unto him saying All that thou hast commanded us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go as we obeyed Moses in all things so will we obey thee Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandment and will not obey thy Words in all that thou dost command him let him be put to death During the Reign of all the Judges though the People are noted for many great Enormities yet we do not find that they rebelled or shewed any great disobedience against them whom God had set over them to rule them except the particular murmuring and opposition of the Ephramites against Gideon and Jephtha at their first entrance upon conceit they had been contemned which opposition God punished with a great overthrow of them When the People had Kings according to the manner of other Nations to order and govern them their subjection was rather encreas'd than diminished according to Samuel's description of the King's Claim or manner of ruling which should reign over them To command not only over the Persons of his Subjects but also over their Goods which manner of ruling or dealing by any King without a just cause as it was Tyranny so to deny it when the necessity of the King and State did require it according to the Laws of the Kingdom was a great neglect of preserving the publick good and a high degree of disobedience Besides it is generally agreed upon that Obedience to Kings and civil Magistrates is prescribed to all Subjects in the Fifth Commandment where we are enjoyn'd to honour our Parents Whereby it followeth that subjection of Inferiours unto their Kings and Governours is grounded upon the very Law of Nature and consequently that the Sentences of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves disobedient and incorrigible to their Parents or cursed them or struck them were likewise due unto those who committed any such Offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonwealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by Example Practice and Precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lord 's Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King and where it is said Principi populi tui non maledices and again Ne maledicas Regi in corde tuo to which purpose more might be alledged CAN. XVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governours from the Creation till Moses's time or afterward for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Iudges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful Commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governours or to bear Arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men We will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil Authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence unto them or to have beaten them and much less to have murthered them He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XVII WHen God appointed Princes Judges and Kings to Reign over his people the manner usually was that they had notice of it thereby to conform themselves to obedience Moses and Aaron acquainted the Israelites with God's pleasure for their deliverance out of Egypt by their service agreeably to his Promise formerly made to Abraham and they chearfully and with great thankfullness submitted themselves to be ruled by them God having appointed Joshua to succeed Moses the same was signified by Moses to the Israelites and they willingly protested their obedience unto him Likewise no sooner did the Lord assign Judges to defend and govern them but presently they followed and obeyed them Upon the people's request Samuel having anointed Saul for their King when the same was made apparent to them either by casting of Lots or by answer from the Lord they shouted when they saw him and said God save the King King David being anointed by Samuel at God's appointment to succeed King Saul and after Saul's Death coming thereupon by God's direction to Hebron the Tribe of Judah presently anointed him again for their King and yielded themselves to be governed by him Seven years after all which time King David had Wars with Ishbosheth Saul's Son the rest of the Tribes came unto David and acknowledged that God had ordained him to be their Governour King David growing old and having appointed by God's direction his Son Solomon to be anointed King in his own Life time when the people knew that Zadok the Priest had so anointed him they forthwith upon the blowing of the Trumpets said all with one Voice God save King Solomon Afterwards also the like course was held upon the Death of every King to make his Successor known to the people Sometimes they were so addicted unto new Kings as they expected no further Circumstance but submitted themselves to their Government and sometimes it was held fit for the young Princes to imitate King David's Example by kind usage and loving words to knit more firmly their Subjects hearts unto them Placet eis CAN. XVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the callings of Moses of Aaron of Joshua of the Iudges of Saul of David of Solomon or of any other of the Kings of Judah elected and named by God himself or coming to their Kingdoms by Succession according as Jacob by the Spirit of Prophecy had foretold did receive any such virtue or strength from the people their said notice presence and applause as that without the same the said callings of God either by Name or by Succession had been insufficient or that if the people had withstood any of them so called by God as is aforesaid they
might then lawfully command and do what they list In the separation of the Priesthood from the Regal Principality the same having been formerly in one Person they were then so by God distinguished as in some things appertaining to the Office of Kings no Priest as he was a Priest had any Authority to intermeddle as in some other things appertaining to the Office of Priests no King as he was a King might lawfully be an Actor both of them having their bounds and limits appointed unto them by God which without Sin they might not exceed And therefore as we greatly blame the High-Priest Vriah for obeying the wicked Command of King Ahaz in building by his direction an Altar in the Temple according to the Form of One that was in Damascus so do we greatly commend the godly Zeal of Azariah the High-Priest and of Eighty other Priests that were with him in withstanding as far as lawfully they might Vzziah King of Judah when in the Pride of his Heart he went into the Temple of the Lord and would have burnt Incense upon the Altar of Incense which none might lawfully do but Priests But it is to be observed that they did not withstand the King by force or Armies but told him that it did not appertain unto him but to the Priests to burn incense unto the Lord and therefore urged him to go forth of the Sanctuary Howbeit the King being angry with them for the same persisted as it appeareth in his former purpose and having Incense in his hand would have burnt it upon the Altar if God himself had not struck him in the Forehead with a Leprosie wherewith being terrified as also with a great Earthquake then happening as some learned Men have written from Amos 1. 1. he was constrained not only to desist from that rashness and to depart hastily out of the Sanctuary but likewise as a Leper to dwell in a house apart according to the Law and Jotham his Son as Viceroy ruled his Father's house and judged the People of the Land Vzziah himself during his life remaining King CAN. XXII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Uriah the High priest was bound to have built the said Altar because King Ahaz did command him or that Azariah and the other Priests did amiss in reproving King Uzziah so plainly or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the King's Person either in hindering him from burning of Incense or in thrusting him out of the Temple or in compelling him to dwell apart in a house as he did though he was a Leper if he had not of himself yielded to the observation of the law in that behalf or that he was deprived of his Kingdom either by the said stroke of God or by his dwelling in a house apart or that any thing which the Priests then did might have been a lawful Warrant to any Priest afterward in the Old Testament either to have deposed by sentence any of their Kings from their Kingdoms for the like offences or to have used Arms or repressed such their unlawful attempts by forcible ways though they had imagined the same might have tended to the preservation of Religion or that either before that time or afterward any Priest did resist by force of Arms or depose any of the Kings either of Israel or of Judah from their Kingdoms though the Kings of Israel all of them and fourteen of the Kings of Judah were open and plain Idolaters he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIII WE have shewed before that King Solomon did lawfully depose Abiathar from the Priesthood and placed Zadok in his room but that any Priests in the Old Testament as likewise we have before declared did ever depose from their Crowns any of their Kings how wicked soever or had any Authority so to do it can never be proved Howbeit one Example of Jehoiada the High-Priest is fit to be considered After the Death of Ahaziah King of Judah his Mother Athaliah finding his Children to be very young killed them all but the youngest and reigned by Usurpation six Years over the Land The said youngest Child whose Name was Joash was secretly conveyed away by his Aunt Jehoshabeth his Father's Sister and the Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest who kept him so secretly in the Temple as that Athaliah the Usurper could never hear of him Now after the said six Years that Joash the true and natural Heir apparent to the Crown had been so brought up he the said Jehoiada being the King's Uncle and the chief Head or Prince of his Tribe sent through Judah for the Levites and chief Fathers both of Judah and of Benjamin to come unto him to Hierusalem who accordingly repairing thither and being made acquainted by him with the Preservation of their Prince as is aforesaid and that it was the Lord's Will that he should reign over them they altogether by a Covenant acknowledged their Allegiance unto him as unto their lawful King and so disposed of things as presently after he was crowned and anointed which dutiful Office of Subjects being performed they apprehended the Usurper Athaliah and slew her as before it was by the said States resolved In all the process of which Action nothing was done either by Jehoiada the High-Priest or by the rest of the Princes and People of Judah and Benjamin which God himself did not require at their hands Joash their late King's Son being then their only natural Lord and Sovereign although Athaliah kept him for six years from the Possession of his Kingdom CAN. XXIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that Athaliah did well in murthering her Son's Children or that Jehoiada and his Wife did amiss in preserving the Life of their King Joash or that Athaliah was not a Tyrannical Vsurper the right Heir of that Kingdom being alive or that it was neither lawful for Jehoiada and the rest of the Princes Levites and People to have yielded their subjection unto their lawful King nor having so done and their King being in Possession of his Crown to have joyned together for the overthrowing of Athaliah the Vsurper or that Jehoiada the High-Priest was not bound as he was a Priest both to inform the Princes and People of the Lord's Promise that Joash should reign over them and likewise to anoint him or that this fact either of the Princes Priests or People was to be held for a lawful warrant for any afterward either Princes Priests or People to have deposed any of the Kings of Judah who by right of Succession came to their Crowns or to have killed them for any respect whatsoever and to have set another in their places according to their own choice or that either this Example of Jehoiada or any thing else in the Old Testament did give then unto the High-Priest any Authority to dispute determine or judge whether the Children of the Kings of Judah should
executed that Judgment upon the said King and afterward so vanquished the Moabites and subdued them under the hand of Israel as the whole Land was at rest from the oppression of their Enemies eighty years Besides it is to be observ'd that as God's appointing by Name and Election of Moses Joshua and Saul and after that the Kingdom was held by Succession the very being of the King's Son and the true Heir Apparent after his Father's Death gave unto them all the actual Interest Right and Possession as Possession in those cases is to be expounded of their several Governments to do any act or acts as well before as after any subsequent Formalities and Ceremonies even so the said form of calling the Judges by God himself immediately made them also Judges actually and did give unto them a full and absolute Authority independent upon any but upon him that gave it them to undertake any thing that by God's direction appertain'd to their places Again there is one other Example of Jehu amongst the Kings of Israel which we have before touched like unto this of Ahud wherein it appeareth that he the said Jehu was of a Subject first made the King of Israel before it was lawful for him to have killed Joram As Ahud a Subject was first made the Judge Prince and Ruler of the People before he might have lawfully killed King Eglon. Both which Examples being but in number two throughout the Histories of all the Princes Judges and Kings either of Judah or Israel do make it known unto us That although the Lord both may and is able to overthrow any Kings or Emperours notwithstanding any claim right title or interest which they can challenge to their Countries Kingdoms or Empires yet foreseeing in his Heavenly Wisdom and Divine Providence what mischief private Men under colour of these Examples might otherwise have pretended or attempted against their Soveraigns as being either discontented of themselves or set into some fury by other Malitious Persons he did so order and dispose of all things in the Execution of these such his extraordinary Judgments as that thereby it might plainly appear to any that should not willfully hoodwink himself never to be lawful for any Person whatsoever upon pretence of any Revelation Inspiration or Commandment from his divine Majesty either to touch the Person of his Soveraign or to bear Arms against him except God should first advance the said Person from his private Estate and make him a King or an absolute Prince to succeed his late Master in his Kingdom or Principality CAN. XXVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that any godly or dutiful Subject in the Old Testament did ever by the direction of God's Spirit account this fact of Ahud to be a lawful Warrant for him to have murder'd the Kings under whose subjection he lived for any cause whatsoever though he should have had never so many motions in his heart thereunto or that the High-Priest himself or all the rest of the Priests who then lived join'd together with him could have given Authority to any Person born a Subject to have so dealt with his Soveraign though he had been never so wicked and that such his Death might have availed the Church in their Opinions never so greatly or that either the said High-Priest and all his Consistory of Priests might lawfully have encouraged any who being born Subjects should have pretended in their Zeal toward Religion never so many Illuminations Directions or Commandments from God to have laid violent hands upon their King the Lord 's anointed for their proceeding in that course or that any Person born a Subject and affirming by all the Arguments which Wit or Learning could devise that God had called him to murther the King de facto under whom he lived yea though he should have first procured himself to be proclaimed and anointed King as Adonijah did and should afterward have laid violent hands upon his Master ought therefore to have been believed of any that feared God except which is impossible he should first prove his Credit in so affirming to be equal with the Scriptures and that Men were bound as strictly to believe him in saying that God called and stirred him up to the perpetrating of that fact as we are bound to believe the Holy Ghost by whose Instinct the Scriptures were written when he telleth us that God raised up Ahud for a Saviour to his People He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVIII HItherto in the whole course of that mild and temperate Monarchical Government which it pleased God to establish among his own People the duty of Inferiour Persons and Subjects of all sorts was ever Obedience They neither took upon them to chuse their Governours nor to bear Arms against them Howbeit it happened otherwise amongst some other Nations Nimrod not contenting himself with the portion which by Noah's general direction appertained unto him could never have erected his Tyrannical Government if a number of rebellious and discontented Persons had not cleaved unto him as the factious Sichemites did to Abimelech and made him their King The Romans having Kings rebelled against them and took the Government into their own hands the execution whereof did trouble them exceedingly Sometimes they committed it to many and sometimes to fewer their two Annual Consuls pleased them long but at the last they thought it fit to have a Dictator till in the end Julius Caesar and Augustus reduced their Government again into a Monarchy And as the Romans dealt with their Kings so did the People in some other Countries with their Governours Whereupon divers other kinds of Governments termed according to their Temper Aristocratical Political Tyrannical Oligarchical or Democratical c. were afterwards setled in many places The Inconveniencies of which Forms of Government being found upon many occasions oftentimes to be very great the People have been driven of necessity in sundry Countries to frame them again as near as they could to the Monarchical Government either by electing to themselves Kings upon certain Conditions to reign over them or by appointment of Dukes or Princes to be the Managers of their chief Affairs according as they themselves should direct them Besides as the said rebellious Humours of the People declining from their Obedience did in many Countries alter that temperate and fatherly Government which Noah had prescribed unto his Off-spring and which God himself established afterward amongst his own People so did the ambitious and insatiable dispositions of sundry no less elsewhere impeach the same as by the beginning and progress of the four Monarchies it is most apparent In all which Abberrations from the said mild and temperate Government before specified Almighty God who for the Sins of any Nation or Country altereth their Governments and Governors transferreth setteth up and bestoweth Kingdoms as it seemeth best to his heavenly Wisdom did ever by his Foresight and Providence so
dispose both the Rebellion of Subjects and the Malice and Greediness of encroaching Kings upon their Neighbours as albeit such their attempts of all sorts were in themselves very wicked and detestable in his sight yet he having the skill to bring Light out of Darkness and to use wicked Instruments and Actions for a good purpose did always frame and apply them to execute his own just Judgments When the Sins of a Nation but principally of his own People were of that Nature Height and Ripeness as his Justice could not fitly be put in execution by any other but by the wicked for example in the overthrowing of Hierusalem God's own City in burning of the Temple that was the place of his Glory and carrying his own People into Captivity though never so much by them deserved no godly King could well have been employed but such a One only as the King of Babylon was In respect of which their Imployment such wicked Instruments to execute God's just Judgments are called sometimes his Servants and the Rods of his Wrath or as Attila termed himself the Scourge of God And when having attained their ungodly desires whether ambitious Kings by bringing any Countrey into their subjection or disloyal Subjects by their rebellious rising against their natural Sovereigns they have established any of the said degenerate Forms of Government amongst their People the Authority either so unjustly gotten or wrung by force from the true and lawful Possessor being always God's Authority and therefore receiving no impeachment by the wickedness of those that have it is ever when any such alterations are throughly setled to be reverenced and obeyed and the People of all sorts as well of the Clergy as of the Laity are to be subject unto it not only for fear but also for conscience sake the Israelites in Egypt after Joseph's death being oppressed very tyrannically many ways did never rebel against any of those Kings but submitted themselves to their Authority though their Burthens were very intolerable both in respect of the impossible works imposed upon them and because also they might not offer Sacrifices to the Lord a special part of God's Worship without apparent danger of stoning to death Besides it may not be omitted when God himself sent Moses to deliver them from that Servitude he would not suffer him to carry them thence till Pharaoh their King gave them licence to depart Afterward also when the Jews being brought into subjection to the Kings of Babylon did by the instigation of false Prophets rebel against them they were in that respect greatly condemned by the Prophet Jeremy and in their Captivity which shortly after followed they lived by the direction of the said Prophet in great subjection and Obedience they prayed not only for their Kings and for their Children that they might live long and prosper but likewise for the State of their Government the good success whereof they were bound to seek and regard as well as any other of the King 's dutiful Subjects And thus they lived in Babylon and other places of that Dominion till the King gave them leave to depart notwithstanding in the mean time they endured many Calamities and were destitute for many years of the publick Service and Worship of God which was tyed to the Temple and might not elsewhere be practised or attempted CAN. XXVIII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Subjects when they shake off the Yoke of their Obedience to their Sovereigns and set up a Form of Government among themselves after their own humours do not therein very wickedly or that it is lawful for any bordering Kings through Ambition and Malice to invade their Neighbours or that the Providence and Goodness of God in using of Rebellions and Oppressions to execute his Iustice against any King or Countrey doth mitigate or qualifie the Offences of any such Rebels or oppressing Kings or that when any such new Forms of Government begun by Rebellion are after throughly settled the Authority in them is not of God or that any who live within the Territories of such new Governments are not bound to be subject to God's Authority which is there executed but may rebel against the same or that the Jews either in Egypt or Babylon might lawfully for any cause have taken Arms against any of those Kings or have offered any violence to their Persons He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXIX ALthough the Jews upon their deliverance out of Captivity and restitution to their own Country received many favours from the Persian Kings and had liberty given them to live in a sort according to their own Laws yet they never recover'd their former Estate but liv'd in great subjection and servitude under them whilst that Monarchy endured The Temple and City of Hierusalem were again built but not with the magnificence which they had before Zorobabel first and then Nehemiah were made successively by the said Kings the Rulers and Governours of the Jews so restored but with divers restraints It was not forgotten what mighty Kings had ruled in Hierusalem and therefore the said Rulers were not permitted to govern any more in that Regal sort They were still subject to the direction of those Kings and paid unto them very large Tribute and Customs insomuch as when the Priests gave publick thanks unto God for his restoring unto them the state which they had they said thus withal unto him as bewailing their condition Behold we are Servants this day in the Land which thou gavest our Fathers it yieldeth much fruit unto the Kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins and they have dominion over our Bodies and over our Cattel at our pleasure and we are in great affliction The extraordinary favour which was shewed to any was principally extended toward the Priests over whom the said Kings had not so jealous an eye as they had over the Princes and the rest of the People Howbeit the same notwithstanding they the said Priests were subject to their own immediate Princes both in Temporal and Ecclesiastical Causes as formerly the Priests had been to the Kings of Judah before the Captivity Their Governours forbad certain who said they were Priests from eating of the most holy things Nehemiah ministred an Oath unto the Priests he reform'd the abuses of the Sabbath and prescrib'd Orders for the better observing thereof He appointed certain of the Priests to oversee the Tithes in the Treasury He commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves and to keep the Gates and to sanctifie the Sabbath Eliasib the High-Priest having defiled the Temple by letting Tobias a Stranger a Chamber in the Court of the House of God where in afore times the Offerings the Incense the Vessels and such other things used in God's Service had been kept Nehemiah the Governour was greatly offended with it and displacing the said Tobias cast forth all his stuff out
is but this Eternal and Divine Kingdom doth not abollish the Dominions of Men. Again I affirm not saith he that Christ as he was Man could not though he would and had thought it expedient for him have received Regal Authority but yet I say that he would not and therefore that he did not receive nor had not only the Execution of any Lordship or Regality but neither the Authority or Power of any Temporal Kingdom Again Christ as he was Man had no Temporal Kingdom neither by Inheritance nor by Election nor by Conquest nor by any special Gift of God and therefore he concludeth that Christ had no Temporal Kingdom at all because every such Kingdom is gotten by one of the said four means Again saith he Christ never used in this World any Regal Power He came to minister and not to be ministred unto to be judged and not to judge And again Regal Authority was neither necessary nor profitable to Christ but plainly idle and unprofitable For the End of his coming into the World was the Redemption of Mankind but to this end Temporal Power was not necessary but only Spiritual Lastly All the places of Scripture almost saith he where is a Treaty of the Kingdom of Christ ought necessarily to be understood of his Spiritual and Eternal Kingdom and therefore it cannot be deduced out of the Scriptures that Christ had any Temporal Kingdom So as in this Man's Judgment neither St. Peter for his time nor since any of his Successours did ever receive any Temporal Kingdoms from Christ he himself being never possest of any as he was Man either to retain in their own hands or to commit the Execution of them as in their Right to other Kings and Temporal Monarchs But to omit the further prosecution of this Loyolist's said Positions delivered truly in this point more at large and proved by sundry Arguments in his Book quoted by us because he is a Man though he be a Cardinal and of great Estimation with his own Society whose Credit seemeth to decay especially with the said Canonists and others of that like Crew For if the rest shall hereafter proceed with him as One of them hath already done by perverting the whole drift of his Disputation in that behalf very childishly and grosly he will be driven e'er it be long to range himself in the Troops of some who are falsly supposed Hereticks in that the said grave Canonist is so couragious as he dareth to adventure the pronouncing of a Curse of the greatest nature against him by name even Anathema sit and therefore We will clear our hands of him and drawing to an end in this matter leave the Conclusion of it unto Christ himself who knew his own Estate when he lived here in the World as well as any Canonist either by Birth of Padua Naples or Rome or of any other City or Countrey whatsoever It is true that our Saviour Christ as soon as he was born was a Spiritual King not only over the Jews but also over all Nations And therefore when at the time of his Arraignment before Pilate though in scorn the Jews termed him King and that indeed he could not truly have denied it yet he did not equivocate therein but confessed unto them what manner of King he was For Pilate saying unto him Art thou the King of the Jews and telling him that the Jews and High-Priests had delivered him into his hands Jesus answered thus My kingdom is not of this World if my kingdom were of this World my Servants would surely fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my kingdom not from hence As if he should have said I am no Temporal King nor have any Temporal Kingdom in this World for if I had my Subjects no doubt would never have suffered me to come to this distress or if it had been my hap so to have been dishonoured as now I am they would out of all doubt have fought on my behalf as all dutiful Subjects are bound to do when the Persons of their Sovereigns shall be in any danger But my Kingdom is of another Nature it is no Temporal Kingdom either of this World that is such a Kingdom as those who are Temporal Kings do possess or from hence that is my Kingdom requireth no worldly Assistance the World hath given me no Subjects neither have I any worldly Estate or Possessions so as it might be affirmed truly either of me or of my Kingdom that either for the Dignity of my Person or the strengthning of my Government I have any thing hence that is from the World CAN. II. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Jews did not erre in conceiving that their Messiah when He came into the World should as a Temporal Monarch reign amongst them or that the Apostles themselves were not somewhat tainted with such like imaginations or that Christ's Answers to his said Apostles did not sufficiently shew unto them that he came not into the World to erect for himself a temporal Kingdom and that therefore they were not to expect from him such worldly preferments as they had dreamed of or that the Son of God in that he was made Man did by his blessed Nativity deprive all the Civil Magistrates in the World of that power and Authority which he had formerly given unto them as he was God or that Christ as he was Man was by his birth made a Temporal King over all the World or that all Temporal Princes and Sovereign Kings were thenceforth bound to hold their several Countries aud Kingdoms no more under Christ as he was God but as being Man he was become a Temporal Monarch over all Nations or that the Emperour Tiberius who then reigned did govern the Empire for the space of above fifteen Years without any lawful Authority until our Saviour Christ willed the Jews to give unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's or that Christ having willingly undertaken for our sakes the fulfilling of all the Law and consequently of the Fifth Commandment did not hold it to be a part of his Office to obey the Emperour upon whom he had as he was God bestowed such lawful Authority as did appertain unto his Government or that either Christ's fact in paying of Tribute or his words in willing the Jews to give unto Caesar those things that were Caesar's did then import that neither Obedience Tribute Custom nor any other Duty of Subjection did until that time belong to the Emperour as being thitherto by Christ's Birth deprived of all his Regal Authority or that it is not a great Impiety in any Political Respect whatsoever for any Man to maintain when Christ saith his Kingdom is not of this World that it was a Worldly and Temporal Kingdom or when Christ saith his Kingdom was not from hence that it was notwithstanding as a Worldly Kingdom from
Churches for the space of 300. years brought the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as here it is termed unto her Spiritual End as directly and fully as either the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops have at any time done since and yet they took no Power and Authority upon them nor did challenge the same of disposing of temporal Kingdoms or Deposing of Princes Besides if such an indirect temporal Power be so necessary in these days for the upholding the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as that without the same she cannot attain the Spiritual End or be a perfect Ecclesiastical Commonwealth when there are so many Christian Kings and Princes then was the same much more necessary for the attainment of the same end in the said times of Christ of his Apostles and of the Churches in the Ages following for 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Pagans and Infidels and for the most part Persecutors of the truth But we hope we may be bold without offence to say that there appeared then no such necessity of this pretended temporal Power and Authority in any Ecclesiastical Persons over Kings and Kingdoms for the disposing of them and that nevertheless the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth in those times did attain her Spiritual End and was as perfect an Ecclesiastical Common-wealth as it is now under the Pope's Government notwithstanding all his temporal Sovereignty wherein he so ruffleth Again we are perswaded that it cannot be shewed out of any of the ancient Fathers or by any general Council for the space of above 500. years after Christ that the Bishops of Rome were ever imagin'd to have such temporal Authority to depose Kings as now is maintained much less was it ever dream'd of during that time that such Authority was necessary for the attaining the Spiritual End whereunto the true Church of Christ ought to aim or that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth ordain'd by Christ and his Apostles could not be perfect without it It were a miserable shift if any should either say that during all the times above-mention'd first the Apostles and then the holy Bishops Martyrs and Fathers after them were ignorant of this new temporal Power or at least did not so throughly consider of the necessity of it as they might have done or that whilst they lived there could indeed no such matter be collected out of the Scriptures for that in those days the Scriptures had not received such a sense and meaning as might support the same but that afterward when the Bishops of Rome did think it necessary to challenge to themselves such temporal Authority over both Kings and Kingdoms the sense and meaning of the Scripture was alter'd But be this shift never so wretched or miserable yet for ought we perceive they are in effect and still will be both in this cause and many others driven unto it the Scriptures being in their hands a very Rule of Lead and Nose of Wax as in another more fit place we shall have occasion to shew moreover if the Bishops of Rome have this great temporal Authority over Kings and Soveraign Princes to preserve the State of the Church here upon Earth that she may attain her Spiritual End assuredly he hath made little use of it to that purpose For it is well known and cannot be denied that for the first 300. years of Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel did flourish far and near in Greece Thracia Sclavonia Hungary Asia minor Syria Assyria Egypt and throughout the most part of Africk where there were many very worthy Apostolical and notable Churches in the most of which places there are scarce in these days any footsteps or visible Monuments of them And although afterward during the space of above 700. years much mischief was wrought in these parts of the World better known unto us than the rest by sundry sorts of Scythians and Northern People yet after the days of Gregory the Seventh when the Bishops of Rome did most vaunt of this their Soveraign Power over Kings and Princes the Turks gained and encroached more upon Christendom still retaining that which they then had so gotten than at any time before Whereby it is to us very evident that neither Christ nor his Apostles ever ordained that the means of building of the Church of Christ and the conservation of it should consist in the temporal Power or Authority of any of their Successors to deprive Emperours or Kings from their Imperial or Regal Estates and that the Bishops of Rome may be ashamed that having had so great Authority in their own hands extorted from the Emperours and other Kings per fas nefas since Gregory the Seventh's time they have made no better use of it but suffer'd so many famous Countries and Kingdoms to be utterly over-run and wasted by Pagans and Infidels considering that they pretend themselves to have so great an Authority for no other purpose but only the preservation of the Church that she might not be prevented of her Spiritual End But what should we speak of the shame of Rome whose forehead hath been so long since hardned or ever imagine that Almighty God either did or will bless her Usurpations and Insolencies against Emperours Kings and Princes for any good to his Church other than must accrue unto her through her Persecutions and Afflictions For it were no great labour to make it most apparent by very many Histories if we would insist upon it that the Bishops of Rome in striving first to get and then to uphold after their scrambling manner this their wicked and usurped Authority of troubling and vexing Christian Kingdoms and States with their manifold Oppressions and quarrels have been some special means whereupon the Saracens Turks and Pagans have wrought and by degrees brought so great a part of Christendom under their Slavery as now they are possessed of For it is but an idle and a vain pretence that the preservation of as much of Christendom as is yet free from the Turk and Paganism is to be ascribed to the Bishop of Rome and his Authority that so the Catholick Church might attain her Spiritual End which ought to be the planting of Churches and Conservation of 'em it being most manifest to as many as have any wit experience and sound Judgment that as the very situation of the said Countries which now Pagans enjoy made them very subject unto the Incursion and Invasions of Saracens and Turks God himself for his own Glory having his Finger and just operation therein so through his most merciful goodness and care of his Church he blessed the situation of the rest of Christendom being now free in that respect from those kind of violences and endowed the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes with such Courage and Constancy in defence of Christianity and of their Kingdoms as notwithstanding that the Popes did greatly vex them in the mean while they did mightily repel the Forces of their Enemies and most religiously uphold and maintain the
Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
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
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