just interest title and claim to their Kingdoms or that it is lawful for any Captain or Subject high or low whosoever to bear Arms against their Sovereign or to lay violent hands upon his Sacred Person by the Example of Jehu notwithstanding that any Prophet or Priest should incite them thereunto by Vnction or any other means whatsoever except first that it might plainly appear that there are now any such Prophets sent extraordinarily from God himself with sufficient and special Authority in that behalf and that every such Captain and Subject so incited might be assured that God himself had in express Words and by Name required and commanded him so to do He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVI FUrthermore that nothing may be omitted concerning the Authority and Dignity of God's Prophets in the Old Testament the Words of the Lord to Jeremy in that behalf are with due care and diligence to be observed Behold saith the Lord I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms that thou mayst pluck up and root out and destroy and throw down and build and plant Now for as much as it doth not appear in the Scriptures that the Prophet Jeremy did at any time as a Warriour and great Emperour dispose of Nations and Kingdoms or plucked up rooted out destroyed or threw down Kings or that he built or chose or set up Kings in the places of those that he had deposed or thrown down the ancient Writers do deliver the true sense and meaning of the said words when they expound them in sort and effect as followeth I have set thee over Nations and Kingdoms that is I have imposed upon thee the Office of prophesying not only against the people and Kingdom of Judah but likewise against the Nations and Empires viz. the Ammonites the Moabites the Egyptians and the Babylonians c. That thou mayst pluck up root out destroy and throw down that is that thou mayst pronounce that wicked Nations shall be pulled or carried away out of their own Provinces and that thou mayst prophesie that they shall be destroyed or killed and dispersed in divers places or consumed That thou mayst build and plant that is that thou mayst declare that both the Jews and other Nations shall after a just and due Castigation be repaired and restored to their own proper Countries So that the Prophet Jeremy and the rest of the Prophets in like manner although they were chosen of God to denounce to wicked Persons Countries Kingdoms and Nations his deserved Judgments for their Sins yet were they neither the Workers nor the Authors of those Judgments Noah denounced the Flood but it cannot therefore be truly affirmed that Noah drowned the World Daniel denounced Nebuchadnezzar's fall but it was not Daniel that took his heart and understanding from him nor that made him to eat Grass like an Ox. Samuel denounced the Judgments of God against King Saul but Samuel did not thrust him out of his Kingdom And even so although the Prophet Jeremy denounced the Bondage of Babylon and many other Judgments of God against the said Nations yet it cannot be either truly said that Jeremy delivered the whole Kingdom of Judah into Captivity or that he overthrew or destroyed any of the rest only he prophesied as God did command him and left the Executions of such Judgments to the Times and Persons which the Lord had designed and appointed for that purpose CAN. XXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm that the Prophet Jeremy had any Authority to depose Kings from their Kingdoms for any cause whatsoever and to bestow them upon others as he thought fit or that albeit the said words were spoken by the Lord to Jeremy and that he being otherwise an inferiour Priest had no Authority literally so to cast down and set up Kings yet the High-priests Men of greater Power and Dignity might then have used Kings in that manner and sort according to their Deserts the benefit and preservation of the Church so requiring or that any of the High priests as deriving their Authority either from the said words spoken to Jeremy or from any thing else that is written in the Scriptures either might or ever did take upon them to give this Neighbour Kingdom to one Man and that remoter Kingdom to another Man or to depose any of their own Kings either of Judah or of Israel from their Kingdoms though many of them as elsewhere we have said were exceeding great Idolaters and sundry ways stained with lamentable blots he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVII THE History of Jehu before-mention'd doth put us in mind what is written of Ahud one of the Judges of Israel We have elsewhere shew'd that from Joshua's Death to the time of Saul God himself when his People were opprest by their bordering Neighbours did still raise up unto them Governours and Leaders called Judges without respect either of any Tribe more one than another or of the dignity of any Person or of the Peoples pleasure choice and consent first required but simply according to his own choice and wisdom In which number the said Ahud was one the manner of whose entrance into that charge we could not our course consider'd pretermit with silence The Israelites had been eighteen years in subjection to the Moabites as they had been a little before eight years to the Aramites They knew that it was not lawful for them of themselves and by their own Authority to take Arms against the Kings whose Subjects they were though indeed they were Tyrants and therefore they cried unto the Lord for succour Who in compassion of their servitude and miseries appointed Othoniel to deliver them from the Aramites and afterward Ahud from the Moabites In the choice of which two Judges it is to be observ'd that the Scriptures do tell us that God raised them up and therefore 't is most certain he did so and also that in such raising of them to their places he made them Saviours to his People as the Scriptures speak giving them thereby Authority to save and redeem the Israelites from the Tyrants that oppressed them without both which Prerogatives it had been altogether unlawful for them to have done as they did Besides it appeareth in the Scriptures that when the Lord did thus chuse out and authorize the said Deliverers and Rulers he did not only give them by his holy Spirit full assurance of their lawful Callings but likewise did furnish them with such wisdom and courage as was necessary for them in those kinds of Services So as Ahud at whom we principally aim being thus both called and instructed from God how he should begin his Peoples deliverance from the Moabites by killing of Eglon their King he framed his course accordingly and preparing for himself a meet Weapon took a fit Opportunity and thereupon as God had directed him he wholly resting upon the Lord's assistance
to an House to a Ship and that therefore she must have but one Captain one humane Head one King one Pastor one Housholder and one Pilot that although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless that although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself but being absent doth usually appoint another under him who is called his Vice-Roy that every Diocess and Province hath her Bishops and Archbishops to govern the particular Churches under them within their several Charges and that therefore there must be one Bishop of the whole Catholick Church to rule and govern them all Lastly That as there is but one God one Faith and one Baptism so there must be in the Catholick Church but one chief Bishop and Judge upon whom all Men ought to depend Many more are the reasons grounded upon divers other similitudes which our Adversaries have heaped up together to uphold the Pope's Authority all of them being as vain and frivolous as the former For it is certain and manifest that as the Catholick Church is resembled in the Scriptures to an Host well ordered to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock of Sheep to an House and to a Ship so Christ only is intended thereby to be her only General her only Head her only King her only Shepherd her only Housholder and her only Pilot. Neither can any other thing be inforced from the words mentioned of one Faith and one Baptism but that as we are only justified through a lively Faith in Christ so there is but one Baptism ordain'd whereby we have our first entrance into his Spiritual Kingdom and are made particular Members of his Catholick Church Besides in the like sense that the Catholick Church is resembled to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock to an House to a Ship so may the Universal Kingdom of Christ over the whole World as he is the Creator of it be resembled to them all and the aforesaid Titles respectively attributed unto him The whole World is an Host under him well order'd and he is the General of it The whole World is but as one Body whereof he is the Head being the Life of all Men from whom as from their Head they have their Sense Understanding and Motion The whole Universal World is but his Kingdom and he is the King of it ruling and disposing it as seemeth best to his divine Wisdom The whole World is with him but one Flock and he is the Shepherd of it all Men in it being the Sheep of his Pasture to whom he giveth food and sustentation in due season Also he ordereth all the affairs in the World as a good Housholder doth order and direct all the businesses and troubles appertaining to his Family Likewife the whole World may aptly be compared to a Ship in that the State of all Mankind living in it is subject as a Ship on the Sea unto all manner of contrary Winds Tempests and Storms of which Ship were not Christ as he is the Creator of the World the only Pilot the World could not subsist And as the Catholick Church is resembled to a Fold which containeth in it all that believe in Christ so may the universal Kingdom of Christ over all the World be compared unto a Fold in that it containeth in it all Mankind generally his Heavenly Care and Providence evermore protecting them Moreover as there is but one Catholick Church one Head or Spiritual Ruler of it Christ our Redeemer one Christian Faith one Baptism one Gospel one Truth one and the self-same Form or Nature of all the several Theological Virtues and one Inheritance which are all of them to be taught embraced and expected by all that are true Members of the Catholick Church So there is but one Universal Kingdom in all the World the Creator of it being the sole Emperour and Governour of it one moral Faith one Nature of Truth to be observed amongst all one rule and nature of Justice one moral Law one nature of Equity one Kind Form or Nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual which are to be put in practice as occasion requireth in this one Empire by as many as expect from Christ their Emperour any happy success in their Worldly affairs But as all these Unities in the temporal Monarchy of Christ are no sufficient grounds to warrant this assertion that there ought to be one temporal King or Emperour under Christ to govern the whole World so the aforesaid Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Unities are not able to establish or uphold this Inference That one Pope must of necessity have the Government under Christ of the whole Catholick Church Also from the authority of Scripture that God made all Mankind of one Adam to signify that he would have all Men to depend upon one why may it not as well be collected that he meant that all the Men in the World should depend upon one Emperour for causes Temporal as upon one Pope in Causes Ecclesiastical Likewise it is a very absurd conceit that our Jesuit maintaineth when he saith That although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself and when he is absent appoint his Vice-Roy Of likelyhood this Fellow would perswade us that Christ is sometimes absent from his Church to the end that the Pope may be his grand Deputy For otherwise by his own Example Christ may govern the Catholick Church without the Pope as the King ruling himself in his own Kingdom needeth no Vice-Roy That Christ is never absent from his Church but doth by his Power Grace and Virtue of the Holy Ghost still defend and protect it It is plain by his own words where he saith Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World It is true that he told his Apostles that he was to depart from them meaning that they must be deprived of his Corporal presence but did he signify unto them that for their comfort he would leave St. Peter in his place and after him the Bishops of Rome St. Peter's Successors to govern his Church to the end of the World No such matter These are our Saviour Christ's words It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Again When he is come which is the Spirit of truth he will lead you into all truth Again I will pray to my Father and he
Imprimatur Junii 24. 1689. W. CANT Bishop OVERALL's Convocation-Book MDC VI. Concerning the GOVERNMENT OF God's CATHOLICK CHVRCH AND THE KINGDOMS OF THE Whole WORLD LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. AN Advertisement TO THE READER THat Convocation in which the Acts and Canons now Printed pass'd was first call'd An. 1603. 1 mo Jac. and continued by Adjournments and Prorogations to 1610. The Three following Books are publish'd from a Copy carefully and faithfully transcribed from the Original MS. which was Bishop Overall's and drawn up by him after whose Decease it came into the Possession of D r John Cosin sometime his Secretary and after Lord Bishop of Duresm who bequeathed it with other his Books both Printed and Manuscript to the Publick Library by him founded at Duresm for the use of that Church where it is suppos'd it is yet to be seen The First of these Three Books was also heedfully compar'd and in some casual defects supply'd from another MS which from the Attestation of Archbishop Bancroft who there presided at the end thereof under his own hand seems to have been the Original that then pass'd the Upper-House of Convocation And after his Decease it came to his Successors the Archbishops of Canterbury And among them to Archbishop Laud as appears under his own hand-writing in the last Page of it And is now or was lately in the Possession of D r Barlow the present Lord Bishop of Lincoln In the First and Second of these Books there were several Amendments made by the Upper-House of Convocation all placed at the end of Bishop Overall's MS. and according to such Amendments inserted in their proper places is the following Book Printed NOte That the Numeral Letters in the Margin throughout the First Book refer to the Pages in Bishop Overall's Original MS. at Duresm as in the second Page following ii p. in MS. means the second Page in that MS. sic de caeteris In the first Book of that MS. Placet is set at the bottom of every Page and in the Printed Copy that word is sometimes misplaced by a line or two as on the Margin p. 10. Placet is set against l. 8. which should have been against l. 10. ERRATA PAge 3. line 8. it be called read it be not called p. 15. marg r. Deut. 33. p. 17. marg r. Num. 27. p. 21. l. 26. expelled r. repelled p. 25. marg 1 K. 2. 9. p. 60. l. 25. our pleasure r. their pleasure p. 63. marg Joseph Antiq. l. 11. r. l. 2. p. 65. Artic. l. 7. of their r. other p. 75. marg Jos Ant. l. 15. r. l. 18. p. 77. l. 5. quia r. qui p. 88. l. 19. Priest r. Priests p. 103. marg r. Luc. 2. 51. p. 122. l. 21. unless r. and least p. 149. l. 13. were assured r. we are assured p. 165. l. 25. after did not add only p. 252. l. 27. But r. that p. 278. l. 19. Rulers r. rules p. 282. l. 14. Vrsinus r. Vrsicinus p. 296. l. 7. above r. about p. 297. l. 22. Charls's r. Charles p. 302. l. 21. deprived r. depraved p. 324. marg Cassan in catalog pro censid 28. r. consid 29. p. 332. l. 4. revenge our r. revenge thy p. 337. l. 7. ridiculous Joyes r. ridiculous Toies Bishop OVERALL's CONVOCATION-BOOK 1606. CONCERNING The Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole WORLD LIB I. CAP. I. AMongst those Attributes and Names of God which are common in the Scripture to all the blessed Trinity are these To be the Creator and Governour of the World the Lord of lords and King of kings which be there applied as well to the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the sacred Trinity as to God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Agreeably whereunto and not otherwise our chief purpose being to imitate the Scriptures in setting out and describing the Deity and Dignity of our Saviour Christ by his Almighty Power and universal Government of all the World as Heir of all things and Head of his Church we hold it fit to begin with his Divine Power of Creation and thereupon in the sense aforesaid do affirm That He in the beginning did create both Heaven and Earth and that amongst the rest of the Creatures which he then made he Created our first Parents Adam and Eve from whose Loins Mankind is descended CANON I. IF any Man therefore shall affirm with any Pagan Heretick Atheist or any other profane Persons which know not or believe not the Scriptures either that Heaven and Earth had no beginning or that the World was made by Angels or the Devil that the World was not otherwise made by Christ than as he was an Instrument of God the Father for the making of it or that he did not as God create our said Parents Adam and Eve he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. II. TO him that shall duly read the Scripture it will be plain and evident That the Son of God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their Seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Off-spring to rule and govern them Ordaining by the very Law of Nature That their said Children and Off-spring begotten and brought up by them should fear reverence honour and obey them Which power and Authority before the Flood resting in the Patriarchs and in the chief Fathers because it had a very large extent not only for the Education of their said Children and Off-spring whilst they were young but likewise for the ordering ruling and governing of them afterwards when they came to Mens Estate And for that also it had no superiour Authority or power over or above it on Earth appearing in the Scriptures although it be called either Patriarchal Regal or Imperial and that we only term it Potestas Patria yet being well considered how far it did reach we may truly say that it was in a sort Potestas Regia as now in a right and true construction Potestas Regia may justly be called Potestas Patria CAN. II. IF any Man shall therefore affirm that Men at the first without all good Education or Civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild Creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no superiority one over another until they were taught by Experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Iurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the people and disorder'd multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduced by their consents naturally
CAN. XXXVI IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that during the continuance of the Old Testament the Merits of Christ's Death actually to come were not sufficient to save all true Believers or that there was then no Catholick Church or that at any time there was any other Rock but Jesus Christ the blessed Seed upon whom the Catholick Church was then built or that many of the Gentiles were not always for ought that is known to the contrary true Members of the Catholick Church or that Christ himself was not the sole Head or Monarch all that while of the whole Catholick Church or that the said Catholick Church after the Members of it were dispersed into all the places of the World was otherwise visible than per partes or that Noah did appoint any Man to be the visible Head of the said Catholick Church or that the High-Priest among the Jews had any more Authority over the Catholick Church of God than King David had over the Vniversal Kingdom of God or that the said High-Priest had not greatly sinn'd if he had taken upon him or usurped any such infinite Authority He doth greatly Erre Placet eis The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have passed with one Consent both the Convocation-Houses and so are approved R. Cant. The said XXXVI Chapters with the Constitutions made upon them have been diligently read and deliberately examin'd and thereupon have likewise passed with one Consent in the Convocation-House of the Province of York Jo. Bristol praeses Convocat Eborac LIB II. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended course through the Old Testament and until the Destruction of Jerusalem we over-slipped and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said course as we find the true Grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our entrance into which course we confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange Impediments and mighty Stumbling-blocks which through long Practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successours For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit Project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better ordered polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successours We can see no Authentical Ground nor sufficient Warrant in those Writings which ought to be the true Rule of every Christian Man's Conscience as not being there to be found for any Apostolical Priest or Bishop either to pretend that all the particular Churches in the World are under his Government or to tell the Subjects of any Christian King opposite in some points unto him That they are no longer bound to obey him their said King but until they shall be able by force of Arms or by some secret Practice to subdue him or to challenge to himself an Absolute and Universal Authority and Power over all Kings and Kingdoms in the World to bestow them in some cases under pretence of Religion when he shall think the same to be most available for the strengthning and upholding of such his pretended Universal Power and Dominion To the Proof whereof before we address our selves because the same doth much depend upon the admirable Humiliation of the Son of God in taking our Nature upon him and performing the Work of our Salvation in such a manner as he did We have thought it our Duties lest otherwise we might be mistaken either through Weakness Simplicity or Malice first briefly to observe notwithstanding our Saviour's said Humiliation the most wonderful Dignity Preheminency and Royalty of his Person It is many ways apparent that the mean Estate and Condition of our Saviour Christ here upon Earth was one especial Motive both to the Jews and Gentiles why in their carnal Judgments he was to the one sort a Scandal and to the other a Scorn as if he had been a Man out of his Wits and preached he knew not what In which respect partly not only the People of the Jews the Priests of all sorts the Scribes and Pharisees with the rest of their Hypocritical Orders but likewise the civil Governours as well Romans as Jews did utterly despise him hate him deride him beat him and put him to death Since which time sundry sorts of Hereticks have stumbled at the same stone labouring by all the means they could to impeach and dishonour the Person of Christ in regard of the mean shew of his humane Nature notwithstanding the many Arguments which they might have found in the Scriptures had not their Hearts been hardned of his Divinity On the other side we are not ignorant how the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents supposing it would too much impeach their Credits and worldly Reputations if they should be too much pressed to deduce the principal strength of their Estates and Callings from the said mean Condition of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World do thereupon attribute sundry Virtues Powers and Branches of Authority unto his humane Nature which do not in Truth belong properly unto it but are rather appertaining to his Person being both God and Man as hoping thereby to get some fair Pretences and Colours for the upholding of their usurped Greatness and pretended uncontroulable Sovereignty For the avoiding therefore of these Extremities and because such as deny the Pope's Supremacy are most falsly charged by sundry passionate and inconsiderate Persons to be Men that believe no one Article of the Christian Faith We have thought it meet to make it known to all the Christian World how detestable to the Church of England all such false Doctrine is as doth any way not only impeach the Sacred Person of our Saviour
or that through Faith the said Law was not rather establisht than in any sort impeached or that because as many as believe are redeemed and made free from the Curse of the Law they are therefore exempted and free from the obedience of the Law or that by the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ obedience to the Fifth Commandment touching honour due to Parents and Princes was in any sort impeached the rest of the Law being established or that our Saviour Christ having undertaken the fullfilling of the whole Law as far forth at the least as ever Mankind was bound to have fullfilled it came short in this one Law by exempting himself from any obedience due to the civil Magistrate or that he having tied himself according to the said Commandment as well to the obedience of the civil Magistrate as the obedience which was due to his Parents did not whilst he lived in the World fullfil the Law wholly concerning them both or that he did any way or at any time encourage the Jews or any other directly or indirectly to Rebel for any cause whatsoever against the Roman Emperour or any of his subordinate Magistrates or that he did not very willingly both himself pay Tribute to Caesar and also advise the Jews so to do or that when he willed the Jews to pay Tribute to Caesar including therein their duty of obedience unto him he did not therein deal plainly and sincerely but meant secretly that they should be bound no longer to be obedient unto him but until by force they should be able to resist him or that he did not utterly and truly condemn all devices Conferences and resolutions whatsoever either in his own Apostles or in any other Persons for the using of force against civil Authority or that it is or can be more lawful for any private Persons either of St. Peter's calling or of any other Profession to draw their Swords against Authority though in their rash Zeal they should hold it lawful so to do for the preservation of Religion than it was for St. Peter for the preservation of his Masters Life or that by Christs's words above-mentioned all Subjects of what sort soever without exception ought not by the Law of God to perish with the Sword that take and use the Sword for any cause against Kings and Soveraign Princes under whom they were born or under whose Iurisdiction they do inhabit or that seeing our Saviour Christ would not have the Samaritans to be destroyed with Fire from Heaven although they were at that time divided in Religion from the Jews and refused to receive him in Person it is not to be ascribed to the Spirit of Satan for any private Men to attempt by Gunpowder and Fire from Hell to blow up and destroy their Soveraigns and the whole State of the Country where they were born and bred because in their conceits they refused some part of Christ's Doctrine and Government or that Christ did not well and as the said Fifth Commandment did require in submitting himself as he did to Authority although he was first sent for with Swords and Staves as if he had been a Thief and then afterward carried to Pilate and by him albeit he found no evil in him condemned to Death or that by any Doctrine or Example which Christ ever taught or hath left upon good Record it can be proved lawful to any Subjects for any cause of what nature soever to decline either the Authority and Iurisdiction of their Soveraign Princes or of any their lawful Deputies and inferiour Magistrates ruling under them He doth greatly Erre CAP. III. 'T IS many ways very plain and evident that the Jews did expound all those places of the Prophets which do notably set forth the spiritual Kingdom of our Saviour Christ to be meant of a temporal Kingdom which he should erect upon the Earth And upon that false ground they did imagine that when their expected Messiah should come into the World he was to advance them unto a glorious Estate here upon Earth and to reign in the midst of them as a most mighty and temporal Monarch Which erroneous conceit when Herod heard of the Birth of Christ made him to fear lest the new-born Babe should deprive him of his Kingdom and induced him thereupon to seek his destruction Thence also did proceed that when the People were so much moved with admiration of one of Christs Miracles as that they used these words This is of a truth the Prophet which should come into the World they presently devised how they should make him their King But Christ perceiving their drift prevented their purpose by departing from them as well observing and knowing that their erroneous imagination of him Nay the better sort of those that followed Christ were not free from this erroneous cogitation as it appeareth by the Petition that the Mother of Zebedee's Children made unto Christ saying Grant that these my two Sons may sit the one at thy right hand and the other at thy left hand in thy Kingdom It seemeth by St. Mark that her said two Sons James and John did join with their Mother and made likewise the same Petition themselves unto Christ in their own Names And it is plain that the rest of the Apostles having aspiring Minds to have been great Men in the World as dreaming of a Temporal Kingdom that Christ was in time to establish amongst them when they heard this Suit did begin as the Evangelists testifie to disdain at James and John for seeking in that sort to prefer themselves before them some of them perhaps thinking themselves more worthy of those two great Dignities than either of them were But our Saviour Christ finding these carnal Imaginations amongst them did throughly reprove them for those their vain conceits and did make it well known unto them how far they over-shot themselves when they supposed that he should become a Temporal King or that they themselves should be honoured by him with Temporal Principalities Which Course also our Saviour Christ held when as St. Luke saith There arose a strife amongst the Apostles which of them should be the greatest For then they persisting in their former Errour he did again renew his Reproof if this were a several contention from the former saying unto them The Kings of the Gentiles reign over them and they that bear rule over them are called Benefactors as using to reward their Servants with great and extraordinary worldly Preferments or as St. Matthew recordeth Christ's Words whether upon this or the former Occasion mentioned it is not greatly material because they are all one in sense Ye know that the Lords of the Gentiles have Dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but saith Christ it shall not be so among you But whosoever will be great among you let him be your servant even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to
but for evil therefore he doth not simply command Obedience to Ethnick Princes c. 3. The like manner of writing St. Paul used in exhorting Servants to honour their Lords etiam infideles though they were Infidels for the Reasons by him there mentioned 4. By those Monitions meaning the said Commandments of the Apostle concerning Obedience of Subjects to their Princes and of Servants to their Masters just Dominion is not founded in the Persons of Ethnicks nam Paulus qui hec dicit non erat summus Pontifex for Paul who said so was not the chief Bishop c. 5. Furthermore in that time of the Primitive Church the Church could not de facto punish Infidels and transfer their Kingdoms c. Thus far this audacious and unlearned Canonist the very citation of whose Words we hold sufficient to refute them although he alledgeth for himself to support them very grave Authors the Distinctions forsooth the Gloss Hostiensis Praepositus adding that some other Canonists do concur with him Only we will oppose against him and all his Fellows to shew their Follies by a proof of this Nature the Testimony of the Pope's chief Champion the only Jesuit without Comparison now a principal Cardinal who maintaineth in express Terms That Infidel Princes are true and supream Princes of their Kingdoms and writeth thus against the said Assertion of the Canonist directly saying God doth approve the Kingdoms of the Gentiles in both the Testaments Thou art King of kings and the God of Heaven hath given thee thy Kingdom and Empire c. Restore those things unto Caesar that are Caesar's Note that he saith not Give but Restore those things that are Caesar's that is those things which in right are owing unto him And Give unto all Men that which is due unto them Tribute to whom you owe Tribute and Custom to whom you owe Custom Et jubet ibidem etiam propter Conscientiam obedire Principibus Ethnicis At certè non tenemur in Conscientiâ obedire illi qui non est verus Princeps that is and we are commanded in the same place even for Conscience to obey Princes that are Ethnicks but assuredly we are not bound in Conscience to obey him who is no true lawful or right Prince Hitherto the Cardinal We would not have cited this Man's testimony thus at large were not All that he hath said therein throughly supported by all the Learned Men as we suppose of his Society and sufficient to refel the Vanity of the Canonists and their Fellows in that folly For if we should insist herein upon the Authority of Men all the ancient Fathers do fully concur with us that through the whole course of the Scriptures Obedience was and is as well prescribed in the Old Testament to Ethnick Princes as unto the Kings of Judah and so likewise in the New Testament as well to Infidel Princes as Christian the Precepts of the Apostles in that behalf being general and so to be applied as well to the one sort as to the other in that they hold their Kingdoms of Christ equally as is aforesaid and therefore ought to be equally obeyed by their Subjects with that general Caution which was ever understood viz. in those things which they commanded them and were not repugnant to the Commandments of God And therefore the Judgments of the ancient Fathers being in this sort only remember'd by us we will not much insist upon them but give that honour which is due especially in a matter so apparent unto the sole Authority of the Holy Apostles who writing by the direction of the Holy Ghost those things which Christ himself before had taught them do give unto all Christians and Subjects to what manner of Kings soever these Precepts following Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God for the Powers that be are Ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Judgment For Princes are not to be feared for good works but for evil Wilt thou then be without fear Do well So shalt thou have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God for thy Wealth But if thou do evil fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take Vengeance of him that doth evil Wherefore ye must be subject not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake For this cause ye pay also Tribute for they are God's Ministers applying themselves for the same thing In which words of the Apostle in saying that Princes have their Power from God and that he is God's Minister there is no repugnancy to that which we have abovesaid concerning the great honour and dignity of the humanity of our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension to prove that Kings do hold their Kingdoms under Christ as he is Man the Lamb of God and Heir of all the World For we were very careful to have it still remembred that all the said Power and Dignity which he hath as he is Man doth proceed from his Divinity and likewise that by reason of the real Union of the two Natures in our Saviour Christ that which doth properly belong to the one nature may very truly be affirmed of the other So as it may in that respect be very well said and truly that all Kings and Princes receive their Authority from Christ as he is Man and likewise that they receive their Authority from Christ as he is God and that they are the Ministers of Christ being Man and the Ministers of God without any limitation But it is plain that the said words of the Apostle do very throughly refute the vanity mentioned of the Canonists and their new Companions in that by the said words it appeareth very manifestly That Kings do not otherwise hold their Kingdoms of the humanity of Christ than they did before of his divine nature They have their Authority saith the Apostle from God and they are God's Ministers And there is nothing written either by St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles which swerveth in any point from this Doctrine where they write of the obedience due unto all Kings and Soveraign Princes whose testimonies in that behalf we are as we promised a little further to pursue I exhort saith St. Paul that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty And again Put them that is both old and young and all sorts of Persons that are purged to be a peculiar People unto Christ in remembrance that they be subject to the Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient and ready to every good work Also St. Peter saith to the same effect Submit
your selves unto all manner of Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be unto the King as unto the Superiour or unto Governours as unto them that are sent of him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well For so is the will of God that by well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men as free and not as having the liberty for a Cloak of Maliciousness but as the Servants of God Honour all Men love Brotherly Fellowship Fear God Honour the King And the same Apostle describing the nature of false Teachers which in times to come would thrust themselves into the Church and by feigned words make a Merchandise of their Followers amongst other impieties he noteth them with these That commonly they are despisers of Government presumptuous Persons and such as stand in their own conceits Men that fear not to speak evil of them that are in dignity but as brute Beasts led with sensuality and made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of those things which they know not And with St. Peter in this point the Apostle St. Jude doth concur where speaking of those who in future times should be Makers of Sects He termeth them Mockers and Men that had not the Spirit of God And speaking also of such like wicked Persons as were crept into the Church in the Apostles days he saith they did despise Government and speak evil of them that were in Authority In all which places thus by us noted concerning as well the dignity and Authority of Sovereign Kings and Princes as the fear duty and obedience which all their Subjects were truly and sincerely without murmuring or repining to yield and perform unto them though they were then Ethnicks When we consider the manner of their delivery of that Evangelical Doctrine and their grounds thereof as also how vehemently they have written against all such Persons as either did then or should afterward oppose themselves unto it by despising of civil Magistrates speaking evil of them or in any other sort whatsoever We are fully perswaded that they neither commanded taught or writ any thing therein but what they knew to be the will of God and did accordingly believe to be true for we hold it resolutely That whatsoever the Apostles did either write teach or command they writ taught and commanded it as they were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost because when our Saviour Christ was to leave the World he promised to send unto them the Holy Ghost the Comforter and spirit of truth which should lead them not into any By-ways or shifting conceits but into the direct and plain paths of all truths and did very shortly after perform that his Promise when upon the day of Pentecost they were all filled with the Holy Ghost as St. Luke witnesseth Besides the Apostle St. Paul himself doth profess both in his own name and in the behalf of the rest of the Apostles his Fellows that their Master being the truth it self after he had so mercifully and liberally perform'd his said Promise unto them they did not deal with the word of God as Vintners Regraters or Merchants do with their mixed Wines and adulterated Wares that is mingle it with any untruths or superstitious conceits or vent it out otherwise than the truth did therein warrant them or did apply it with fraud either to serve their own or any other mens designments or deliver'd it with any such inward Reservations and mental Evasions as when they did most seem to their hearers to speak one thing directly they had such another meaning as when time should serve they might make use of But whatsoever they said they spake it sincerely sicut ex Deo as God did guide them by the Holy Ghost coram Deo as in the sight of God unto whom one day they were to give an account of their said sincerity in Christo as their blessed Saviour himself had preached taught them and had commanded them CAN. IV. THerefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Deity of our Saviour Christ doth not since his Resurrection and Ascension otherwise execute the Majesty and Glory thereof in his Humanity than it did before his Passion or that Christ now in Glory is not actually the Heir of all things as he is Man so highly exalted and both King of kings and Lord of lords or that he now sitting at the right hand of God in Glory and Majesty as he is Man hath made an alteration in the manner of temporal Government ordain'd by himself long before as he is God or that now all the Kingdoms in the World being but one Kingdom in respect of himself he doth not allow the distributing of that his one Vniversal Kingdom into divers Principalities and Kingdoms to be ruled by so many Kings and absolute Princes under him or that such Kings and Sovereign Governours as were Ethnicks were deprived by Christ's Ascension into Heaven and most glorious Estate there from the true Interest and lawful Possession of the Kingdoms which before they enjoyed or that the ancient Fathers were deceived in holding and maintaining that all Christians in the Primitive Church were bound to obey such Kings and Princes as were then Pagans or that the Subjects of all the Temporal Princes in the World were not as much bound in St. Paul's time to be subject unto them as the Romans were to be subject to the Empire not only for Fear but even for Conscience Sake or that St. Paul's Commandment by virtue of his Apostleship and assistance of the Holy Ghost of Obedience to Princes then Ethnicks is not of as great force to bind the Conscience of all true Christians as if he had been then Summus Pontifex or that any Pope now hath power to dispense with the said Doctrine of St. Paul as the said Canonist by us quoted doth seem to affirm where after he hath said That the Apostle St. Paul commanding all Men to be obedient to superiour Powers was not the highest Bishop he addeth these words Papa major est administratione Paulo Papa dispensat contra Apostolum in his quae non concernunt Articulos fidei The Pope is greater in Authority than Paul the Pope doth dispense against the Apostle in those things that do not concern the Articles of Faith or that the Primitive Church was not as well restrain'd de jure by the Doctrine of Christ's Apostles as de facto from bearing Arms against such Princes as were then Ethnicks and transferring of their Kingdoms from them unto any others or that St. Peter himself who our Adversaries would make the World believe was then the highest Bishop concurring with the Apostle St. Paul when he commanded the Christians in those days to submit themselves unto the King as unto the Superiour they both of them were assured commanding therein as they
it and as all the particular Kingdoms in the World are called but one Kingdom as he is the Only King and Monarch of it or that our Saviour Christ hath not appointed under him several Ecclesiastical Governours to rule and direct the said particular Churches as he hath appointed several Kings and Sovereign Princes to rule and govern their several Kingdoms or that by his Death he did not abolish the Ceremonial Law and the Levitical Priesthood so far forth as it was Typical and had the Execution of the said Ceremonial Law annexed unto it or that he did any more abrogate by his Death Passion Resurrection and Ascension the Power and Authority of Church-Government than either he did the other two Essential parts of the said Priesthood or Ministry or the Power and Authority of Kings and Sovereign Princes or that he did more appoint any one chief Bishop to rule all the particular Churches which should be planted throughout all Kingdoms than he did appoint any one King to rule and govern all the particular Kingdoms in the World or that it was more reasonable or necessary as hereafter it shall be further shewed to have one Bishop to govern all the Churches in the World than it was to have one King to govern all the Kingdoms in the World or that it was more necessary or convenient to have every Parish with their Presbyteries absolute Churches independent upon any but Christ himself than that every such Parish should be an absolute Temporal Kingdom independent of any Earthly King or Sovereign Magistrate or that the Government of every National Church under Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes by Archbishops and Bishops is not more suitable and correspondent to the Government of the National Church of the Jews under their Soveraign Princes and Kings than is either the Government of one over all the Churches of the World or the setling of the Form of that National Church-Government in every particular Church He doth greatly Erre CAP. VII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Form of Church-Government which was ordained by Christ in the New Testament did consist upon divers degrees of Ministers one above another Apostles in Preeminence and Authority superiour to the Evangelists and the Evangelists superiour to Pastors and Doctours And that the Apostles knowing themselves to be mortal did in their own Days by the Direction of the Holy Ghost as the numbers of Christians grew establish the said form of Government in other Persons appointing several Ministers in sundry Cities and over them Bishops as also over such Bishops certain worthy Persons such as Titus was who were afterward termed Arch-Bishops to whom they did commit so much of their Apostolical Authority as they held then necessary and was to be continued for the Government of the Church WE had in our former Book the Scriptures at large containing the Histories and Doctrine both of the Law and the Gospel after the manner that was then prescribed from the time of the Creation until the days of the Prophet Malachy that is for above 3500. years Whereupon we did ground the particular Points by us therein handled concerning the Government as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal And for the Supply of the other years following till the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ we observed some things to the same purpose out of the Apocryphal Books second to the Scriptures and to be preferr'd before all other Writers of those times But now forasmuch as the New Testament is but in effect a more ample Declaration the Old shewing withal how the same was most throughly fulfilled by our Saviour Christ without the impeachment of any kind of Government by himself ordain'd as before we have exprest and because the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles do only contain the Acts and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ and his Apostles with the Form and Use both of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government during the time whilst they lived here upon the Earth St. John who lived the longest of them all dying about sixty six Years after Christ's Passion although the Holy Ghost did judge the said Books and Writings sufficient for the Church and all that profess Christianity to teach and direct them in those things which should appertain either to their Temporal or Ecclesiastical Government or should be necessary unto their Salvation Yet for the said Reasons we were induced for the upholding of the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Government in the New Testament to insist so much as we have done upon the Precedents and Platforms of both those kinds of Governments established in the Old Testament albeit we want no sufficient Testimonies in the New to ratify and confirm as well the one as the other First therefore we do verily think That if our Saviour Christ or his Apostles had meant to have erected in the Churches amongst the Gentiles any other Form of Ecclesiastical Government than God himself had set up amongst the Jew they would have done it assuredly in very solemn manner that all the World might have taken publick notice of it considering with what Majesty and Authority the said Form was erected at God's Commandment by his Servant Moses But in that they well knew how the Form of the Old Ecclesiastical Government in substance was still to continue and to be in time establish'd in every National Kingdom and Soveraign Principality amongst Christians as soon as they should become for number sufficient Bodies and ample Churches to receive the same as before the like opportunity it was not established amongst the Israelites they did in the mean while and as the time did serve them attempt the erecting of it in such sort and by such fit and convenient Degrees as by the direction of the Holy Ghost they held it most expedient without intermission till such time as the work was in effect accomplished It hath been before touched how our Saviour Christ here upon Earth did not only chuse to himself for the business he had in hand twelve Apostles who were then design'd in time to come to be the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all Christians with some Resemblance as it hath been ever held of the twelve Sons of Jacob who had been in their days the Patriarchs and chief Fathers of all the Israelites But likewise he took unto him over and besides his said Apostles 70 or as some read 72 Disciples to be in the same manner his Assistants in imitation of Moses when he chose 70. Elders to be helpers unto him for the better Government of the People committed to his charge None of these either Apostles or Disciples had then any other Duties committed to them but only of Preaching and Baptizing for the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment they might not then intermeddle with because it did appertain to the Priests and Courts of the Jews But afterward that want and some other defects in them were throughly supplied when our Saviour Christ upon his Resurrection and a little
Gregory the First denouncing a Curse against that Bishop qui jubet alicui Agro more fiscali Titulum imprimi who doth challenge to hold any Possessions as an absolute Temporal Prince in right of his Church the Cardinal doth answer That it is not to be marvelled that Gregory would not have Bishops nor the prefects of the Patrimony of the Church of Rome to use More fiscali in recovering the Possessions of the Church For saith he Nondum habuerat Ecclesia politicum principatum sed possidebat Bona temporalia ad eum modum quo privati homines possident Itaque aequum erat ut Agros quos suos esse censebat Ecclesia si forte ab aliis occuparentur in Judicio legitimo eos repeteret non autem More fiscali propriâ sibi Autoritate vendicaret that is for as yet meaning when Gregorylived which was 600. years after Christ the Church had no political Principality but did possess her temporal goods in the same manner whereby other private Citizens possessed theirs And therefore it was agreeable to Equity that if perhaps the Possessions which the Church supposed to be hers were occupied by other men she was to require them Judicio legitimo in a temporal Court of the Prince of whom the same were held and might not challenge them to her self by her own proper Authority More fiscali as Sovereign Princes do when their right is detained from them Lastly the Cardinal is so far driven by a worthy Man and some others of our side who held it unlawful for the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops to be absolute Worldly Princes whosoever do bestow that Soveraignty upon them the same being directly against Christ's words Vos autem non sic and for many other reasons as he flieth to the times of the Maccabees when the Ordinances of God as touching the High-Priesthood were utterly neglected and nothing in effect left in the Church but Pride Presumption Blood and Confusion as we have declar'd in our first Book cap. 32. and would gladly thereby uphold the Pope's Regalities These are his words Although perhaps it were absolutely better that Bishops should deal with Spiritual matters and Kings with temporal Yet in respect of the malice of times experience doth cry that some temporal Principalities were not only profitable but also of necessity and by the singular Providence of God given to the Bishop ofRome and to other Bishops For if in Germany the Bishops had not been Princes none had continued to this day in their Seats As therefore in the Old Testament the High-Priests were for a long time without temporal Authority or Empire yet in the latter times Religion could not have continued and been defended except the High-Priest had been King that is in the time of the Maccabees So we see it hath faln out to the Church that she which in her first times had no need of temporal Principality to defend her Majesty doth now seem necessarily to have need of it As though he should have said Now that the Church of Rome hath in her Pride and Presumption determined still to Tyrannize over all Kings Priests Kingdoms and Churches contrary to the rules and prescription of our Saviour Christ and of his blessed Apostles the Popes must needs be temporal Kings Thus far we have followed the Cardinal who is bold to affirm That neither St. Peter nor the Popes his pretended Successors nor any other of the Apostles nor of their Successors Archbishops or Bishops nor any other Minister nor all the Ministers in the World if they were together do succeed Christ as he was after his Resurrection or Ascension a Man immortal and glorious but only as he was a mortal Man and lived here in that Estate upon the Earth without the enjoying of any temporal Kingdom or Regal Possessions contenting himself to be only a Spiritual King and to have in this World a Spiritual Kingdom that is his Church so termed because he ruleth only in those Mens hearts which are true Members of it the Gospel also being named Evangelium Regni because it containeth the Doctrine of our Messiah and Spiritual King and how he doth establish his Spiritual Kingdom in and amongst Men. Of which Spiritual Kingdom some little further consideration and how our Saviour Christ obtained it and then did and still doth govern it will make the folly of those Men more apparent which cannot apprehend the Excellency of it except it have joined with it all Worldly Principalities and Authority None is ignorant that hath any sense of Christianity how all Men by nature were the Children of wrath and how before they embraced Christ by Faith they walked according to the course of this World and after the Prince that ruleth in the air even the Spirit that still worketh in the Children of Disobedience Which wicked Spirit being termed the Spirit of darkness all his Subjects and Servants and whatsoever they take in hand are called the Children and works of darkness From whose Service had not our Saviour Christ delivered us and by subduing and vanquishing this wicked Prince taken actually the possession of our hearts where the Devil before raigned we had been still in the state of wrath and damnation Whereas now through Grace and by Faith Christ dwelling in our hearts we are no more darkness but light in the Lord nor are to hold any longer fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness or of the flesh but are bound being replenished with God's holy Spirit to bring forth the fruits and operations of the same To this vanquishment of Satan by our Saviour Christ these Scriptures following have relation If I by the Finger of God do cast out Devils doubtless the Kingdom of God is come unto you When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace the things which he possesseth are in Peace but when a stronger than he cometh upon him and overcometh him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth the spoils Again Now is the Judgment of this World now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And again We cease not to pray for you c. That you might walk worthy of the Lord c. Giving thanks to God the Father c. Who hath deliver'd us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have Redemption through his Blood Again Christ putting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us c. He took it out of the way and fastned it upon the Cross and hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them in himself And lastly He that committeth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose appeared the Son of God that he might loose the works of the Devil Now our Saviour Christ did by fullfilling the Law for
fault What the Cardinal's Friends will say of his perverting the Apostle's meaning with so desperate an Exposition we are uncertain but of this we are sure that the Estate of that Church must needs be very miserable that cannot be upheld without so apparent injury done to the Holy Ghost Which observation we thought fit to make in this place because he once having past the bounds of all Modesty or rather Piety is grown to that presumption and hardness of heart against the truth as that he dareth to ground another of his Reasons to prove that the Pope hath Authority indirectly to depose Kings and Princes upon these words spoken to St. Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep Touching which words because we have a fitter place to entreat we will here be silent and address our selves to his fourth Reason as idle and as false as any of the rest These are his words When Kings and Princes come to the Church that they may be made Christians they are received cum pacto expresso vel tacito with a condition expressed or implied without any mention made of it that they do submit their Scepters unto Christ and do promise that they will keep and defend the Faith of Christ Etiam sub poenâ Regni perdendi even under pain of losing their Kingdoms Therefore when they become Hereticks or do hinder Religion they may be judged by the Church and also deposed from their Principality and there shall be no injury done unto them if they be deposed For answer whereof first we say That in all the Forms of Baptisms which hitherto have been published we cannot learn that there was ever any such express Covenant as the Cardinal here mentioneth required of any King when he came to be Christned Baptism is the Entrance ordain'd by Christ into the Church which is his spiritual Kingdom and agreeably to the nature of that Kingdom all who are thereby to enter into it of what Calling or Condition sover they are as well poor as rich private Persons as Princes are according to the Rules of Baptism practised in all the particular Churches in the World for ought that is known to the contrary either themselves in their own Persons or if they be Infants by their Sureties to profess their belief in Christ and to Promise that they will forsake the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World with all covetous desires of the same and carnal desires of the Flesh and that they do constantly believe God's holy word and that they will keep his Commandments The willful breach of any of which points and perseverance in it without Repentance doth indeed deprive every Christian Man of what Calling soever he be from the interest he had by his said profession and promise when he was Baptized to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ in this Life that is from being a true and lively Member of the Church and mystical Body of Christ and from the Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come But that any Man by the breach of any Promise made when he was Baptized should lose that which he gain'd not by his Baptism or that the Church did never receive any King or Prince to Baptism but either upon condition in express terms or by implication made either by himself or by his Godfathers that he would submit his Scepter unto Christ that is unto the Bishop of Rome as the Cardinal's drift sheweth his meaning to be and promise to keep and defend the Faith of Christ under pain of the loss of his Kingdom is certainly a Doctrine of Devils and was never heard of in the Church of Christ for many hundred years but is utterly repugnant to the Analogy of Scripture and to the true nature of Christian Baptism These secret intentions for as we have said there was never any Form of Baptism that contain'd any such express contract as the Cardinal speaketh of Mental Reservations and hidden Compacts such as Men were never taught in the Primitive Church nor ever dream'd of or suspected to be thrust into one of the holy Sacraments may well become the Impostors of Rome but are altogether contrary to the meaning of Christ and of his holy Apostles In whose days he that believed was baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost without any such jugling or snares laid to hazard and entangle Mens temporal Estates There is nothing in the Gospel whereof Men ought to be ashamed or which will not abide the touchstone of truth if it be compared with the rest of the Scriptures or that doth not promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ it being called in that respect Evangelium Regni the Gospel of the Kingdom Now whether this underhand bargaining be suitable or no with the sincerity of the Holy Ghost or whether if it had been known in the Primitive Church that all Men who would submit themselves to the Doctrine of the Gospel and be baptized did thereby bind themselves to be subject and at the Commandment of the Bishop of Rome for the time being under pain to lose all their Worldly Estates the knowledge thereof would not rather have hinder'd than either promoted or further'd the good success of the Gospel no Man is so simple but he may easily discern it Assuredly the Grecians who did so long oppose themselves against the Authority which the Bishops of Rome did challenge over all Churches were ignorant of this mystical point of Baptism and so were all the Churches in the World for many Ages or else there would not have been so great stirs in the World about the continual Usurpations and Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome as are many ways testified by sundry Ecclesiastical Histories But we insist too long upon this so ridiculous and impudent a fiction and therefore will come to the Cardinal 's principal reason of the Pope's said indirect temporal Authority to toss Kings and Kingdoms up and down as he list The Ecclesiastical Commonwealth saith he must be perfect and sufficient of her self in order to her own end for such are all Commonwealths that are well instituted and therefore she ought to have all necessary Power to the obtaining of her own end But the Power of using and disposing of temporal things is necessary to the Spiritual End because otherwise Evil Princes might without punishment nourish Hereticks and overthrow Religion and therefore the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth hath this Power Hitherto the Cardinal The substance of whose Argument is that the Church of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End except the Bishop of Rome have Authority to dispose of temporal Kingdoms and to punish Kings by deposing them from their Crowns if he hold it expedient For the refutation of which vain and false Assertion there are very many most direct and apparent Arguments We will only touch some few of them Our Saviour Christ in his days and the Apostles in their times and the Primitive
profession of Christ So as the preservation of the Gospel in these parts of the World may more truly be attributed to the working of the Spirit of God in them than to the Bishops of Rome who have been the chief Authors and occasions of many incredible mischiefs Now lastly and for conclusion of this point had not Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders so inveigled and seduced the hearts and minds of the adherents to the See of Rome as that by degrees they leaving the love of the truth are therefore given over by God unto such strong delusions that they should believe lyes as the Apostle speaketh amongst many other of the gross errours maintained by them we might marvel at this that ever they durst take upon them in these times of so great light to write and defend it with such resolution and confidence that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as they term it cannot be perfect nor attain her Spiritual End except the Pope may have the said temporal Power and Authority to depose Kings considering how far the true nature of the Church which is the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ and the true Means and Armour that Christ our Spiritual King hath indeed ordained and appointed for the Edification and Defence of this his Spiritual Kingdom and for the attainment of the supernatural and right end and beauty of it are repugnant to these their Carnal and Worldly conceits Touching the true nature of the Church and Spiritual Kingdom of Christ we have before spoken and the true Spiritual End of the Church being by teaching the ways of truth to bring as many as possibly they can to the knowledge of their Salvation through Christ so as by Faith they may become true Members of his Spiritual Kingdom in the Life to come the means ordain'd for that purpose do contain the full duty and office of all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Ministers who are furnished by Christ neither with temporal Swords nor Imperial Authority to depose Kings and Soveraign Princes but ought to carry themselves toward all Men especially towards Kings and Princes if they be either Pagans or Enemies to Religion as Christ himself and his Apostles did by Preaching and Praying for them by Humility and Patience to endure whatsoever punishment shall be thought fit to be imposed upon them for doing of their duties and never to intermit such their pains and diligence to the end that if it please God to bless those their Ministerial so great labours their Auditors of all sorts private Persons Kings and Prince may be brought to the knowledge of the truth that so Satan being expelled out of their hearts Christ by Faith may raign in them To the effecting of which so great and so divine an alteration and change in Mens Souls there is no Worldly Force nor temporal Sword which will serve the turn And therefore the Apostle speaking of this matter doth write in this sort The Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal as if he should have said We do not come with Troops of Men to promote the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ but with Weapons of another nature with the glad ridings of the Gospel with the Doctrine of Salvation to all Believers and with the Furniture of the Holy Ghost which Weapons are not weak but mighty through God and able to cast down holds that is all the carnal Forces of Men all Principalities and Powers that shall presume to rise up against Christ And through the assurance and experience which both St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles had in the force of these Weapons he saith further that with them they overthrew Councils and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledge of God and that they brought into Captivity all imagination or understanding to the obedience of Christ away then with the Pope's Carnal Weapons and with all their Illusions and Juglings that seek to uphold them for such Weapons were never ordain'd by Christ for his Apostolical Warfare CAN. IX AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the external Callings in this World of those Men as Ministers and Schoolmasters that have to deal with the information of Mens Minds and Souls are superiour and to be preferr'd in Honour and Wordly Dignities before the Callings of Kings and Soveraign Princes or that because health is better and more to be desired in this Life than any Worldly Preferments therefore the Calling of Physicians who are ordain'd for the health of Mens Bodies ought to be superiour to all other Worldly Callings or that the Regal and Political Power of the King when it is part of a Christian Commonwealth is thereby brought into greater servitude and thraldom than is the Regal and Political State of Ethnick Princes when the same are no parts of a Christian Kingdom or that to prefer the Ecclesiastical State for Worldly Authority before the State of Kings and Soveraign Princes is not in effect to prefer the humbled Estate of Christ as he was Man living here upon the Earth before his glorious Estate after his Ascension and before the glory and majesty of the Divine Nature or that any Ecclesiastical Authority which the Apostles ordained did either free them or any of their Successors from subjection to Kings and Princes and to their temporal Authority or that St. Peter being an Apostle and so subject to the civil Sword of Temporal Authority could lawfully by any indirect device challenge any temporal Power and Dominion over Kings and Princes for that had been to have extorted the temporal Sword out of their hands to whom it appertain'd and to have incurr'd again the commination of his Master when he told him how all that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword or that it is not a most profane impiety tending altogether to the discredit of the Scriptures for any Man to hold that St. Peter and St. Paul had so instructed the Christians in their times as that they knew if they had been able they might without offence to God have deposed Nero from his Empire or that the Christians in Tertullian's time when they professed that notwithstanding their numbers and forces were so great as they had been able to have distressed very greatly the Estate of the Emperours being then Persecutors they might not so do because Christ their Master had taught them otherwise ought not to be a sufficient Warrant for all true Christians to detest those Men in these days and for ever hereafter who contrary to the Example of the said Christians in the Primitive Church and the Doctrine of Christ which was then taught them do endeavour to perswade them when they shall have sufficient Forces to Rebel against such Kings and Emperours at the Pope's Commandment and to thrust them from their Kingdoms and Empires or that this Devilish Doctrine of animating Subjects to Rebellion when they are able against their
great temporal Power in the Pope over Princes as without the which the Church of Christ could not attain her Spiritual End had been known to the Apostles and Ancient Fathers they would not have been as careful and zealous to have preached and divulged the same unto all Posterity as now the Bishops of Rome and their Adherents are or that we ought not rather to believe that the Bishops of Rome and their Adherents through their forsaking the love of the Truth are given over by God unto those strong Illusions that they should believe lies and maintain them as stifly as though they were true than once to conceive that the holy Apostles and ancient Fathers were either ignorant of this supposed temporal Authority to Depose Kings and Princes for the end so often mentioned or thought it fit to dissemble it or to write of it so darkly as for many Hundred years it could not be understood or that God hath not wonderfully blinded the hearts and understandings both of the Popes and all their Adherents in this particular matter amongst many others in that the nature of the Church and Spiritual Kingdom of Christ considered they dare presume to maintain it so confidently that the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ cannot attain to her Spiritual End without the Bishop of Rome his Temporal Authority indirectly in some Cases to Depose Kings and Soveraign Princes or that the true Spiritual End of the Church consisting in this that the Devil being banished out of the hearts of all her true Members Christ may retain his Possession of them through their Faith and diligence to repel Satan who daily laboureth to regain to himself his own Possession it is not more than a kind of phrensy to hold and maintain that any temporal Authority managed by the Pope or by his Commandment against Kings and Princes hath any force or power to work or procure this Spiritual End either by expelling or repelling of Satan or to nourish Faith or to continue the reigning of Christ in any Mens hearts or that it is not an impious and a profane assertion for any Man to defend that the Weapons and Armour of this Spiritual Warfare undertaken by Christ and his Apostles and by all godly Bishops and true Priests and Ministers of the Gospel are not sufficient of themselves to procure to the Church her Spiritual End without the Pope's carnal Weapons or temporal Authority to Depose Kings when to him with the assistance of his Cardinals it shall seem expedient He doth greatly Erre CAP. XI The Sum of the Chapter following That there is no more necessity of one visible Head of the Catholick Church than of one visible Monarch over all the World IN the 35 th and 36 th Chapters of our first Book We have shewed at large that our Saviour Christ the Son of God having created the World and taken upon him to be the Redeemer of Mankind after their transgression through Adam's Fall did not only as he was the Son of God govern all the World the same being in that respect but one Universal Kingdom and appoint several Kings and Sovereign Princes as his Substitutes to rule the same under him in their several Countries and Kingdoms leaving no one Emperour or temporal Monarch to govern them all but likewise as he was the blessed Lamb slain from the beginning of the World he did for his own Glory and our endless Comfort erect for himself in this World a Spiritual Kingdom called his Church consisting of such Men dispersed throughout the World as did profess his name and being himself the only Head and Governour of it in which respect it is rightly to be termed but One Catholick Church did appoint no one Priest over the whole Catholick Church but several Priests and Ecclesiastical Ministers to rule and govern the particular Churches in every Province Country and Nation And in such manner and form as our Saviour Christ did rule and govern his Universal Kingdom and Catholick Church before his Incarnation So doth he still rule and govern the same notwithstanding any of those vain pretences and ridiculous Usurpations which the Bishops of Rome or any of their Adherents are able to alledge and maintain to the contrary In the Gloss of one of the Books of the Canon-Law not long since Printed and approved by Gregory the Thirteenth a Glossographer and now an Authentical Canonist doth write in this sort Dicò quod potestas Spiritualis debet dominari omni creaturae humanae I say that the Spiritual Power ought to domineer over every humane Creature And why saith he so Forsooth Per rationes quas Hostiensis inducit in summa for certain causes and reasons which Hostiensis another Canonist doth alledge in his sum But he stayeth not there he hath another motive which he setteth down thus Item quia Christus c. Also because Jesus Christ the Son of God when he was in the World and also from everlasting was the natural Lord and by the natural Law he might have given Sentences against the Emperour and any other whatsoever of Deposition and damnation and any other Sentences Vtpote in personas quas creaverat donis naturalibus gratuitis dotaverat etiam conservabat As against Persons whom he had created and endowed with natural and free gifts and also whom he did preserve eadem ratione Vicarius ejus potest and by one and the same reason saith he his Vicar may so do What would Pope Gregory by his Canonists make Men to believe that all Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are Persons of the Pope's Creation or that he doth bestow on them freely any gifts or benefits of Nature or that their preservation doth depend upon his good favour and Providence But the idle Canonist his Wit doth serve him no better than to make in effect this fond Collection Christ the Creator of all things doth govern rule dispose and preserve all his own Creatures therefore the Pope must likewise govern rule dispose and preserve them all though he created none of them And why must he so do he wanteth not a very substantial reason that moved him so to collect which followeth in his own words Nam non videretur Dominus discretus fuisse ut cum Reverentià ejus loquar nisi unicum post se talem Vicarium reliquisset qui haec omnia posset Fuit autem iste Vicarius ejus Petrus Et idem dicendum est de Successoribus Petri cùm eadem absurditas sequeretur si post mortem Petri humanam naturam à se creatam sine regimine unius personae reliquisset For Christ should not have been thought a Person of sufficient discretion that with his Reverence I may so speak except he had left behind him one such Vicar who might do all these things And this his Vicar was Peter And the same is to be said of the Successors of Peter seeing the same absurdity must follow if after Peter's Death he
had left Mankind created by himself without the regiment of one Person And Mr. Harding one of our own Countrymen doth wholly concur with this profound Canonist saving that he dealeth more civilly with Christ in using the word Providence instead of the Canonist's Discretion Thus he writeth Except we should wickedly grant that God's Providence doth lack to his Church reason may soon induce us to believe that to one Man the chief and highest of all Bishops the Successor of Peter the Rule and Government of the Church by God hath been deferred And he further doth express his opinion to this effect That if God had not ordain'd such a Monarchical Church-Government he should have brought in amongst his faithful People that unruly confusion and destruction of all Commonwealths so much abhorred of Princes which the Grecians call an Anarchy which is a state for lack of order in Governours without any Government at all That our Saviour Christ is the sole Governour Head and Archbishop of his Catholick Church as he is the only Governour Ruler and Monarch over all the World and that his Discretion and Divine Providence is no more to be blemished or impeached by the Cavils of any Impostors in that he hath appointed no one Priest Archbishop or Pope to be his Vicar-General over the whole Catholick Church than for that he hath not assigned any one King Emperour or Monarch to rule the whole World under him this is the point that here we purpose to make good taking it in this place for granted that there was never any one Man in the World to whom our Saviour Christ did commit the Government of it after the time that it was Peopled and throughly inhabited that is from Noah's Flood at the least hitherto They that labour to prove that the Bishop of Rome is Head of the Universal Church and that Christ should have shewed little Discretion or Providence if he had not so ordain'd it do insist very much upon the grounds of natural reason and philosophy telling us out of Plato Aristotle Plutarch Isocrates Stobaeus Hesiodus Euripides Homer Herodotus and divers others That of all the kinds of Government that are the Monarchical Government is the best That in a great Host consisting of Souldiers of divers Nations and Countries and perhaps of many Soveraign Princes and Kings there must be one General to govern them all That all things naturally have a propension and aptness to Monarchical Government That Bees of every Hive have their King That in every Flock of Sheep there is a principal Ram That in every Herd of Cattel hath a Leader That Cranes do not fly promiscuously and in heaps but have one whom they do all very orderly follow That amongst Coelestial Spheres there is but one Primum Mobile That in the number of the lights of the World one is greater than the rest That there is a certain Principality in the Elements That the Fountain is but one from whence divers times there flow sundry Streams That into one Sea all Rivers do run and return That the thing which is most one is less easily divided That it is rather one which is simply one than a multitude conspiring in one And that for these and many other like reasons seeing the Monarchical Government is best and that we may be sure that Christ would have his Church governed by the best manner of Government except we should think him to have dealt absurdly as a Person void both of good Discretion and Providence It followeth therefore that Christ committed the Government of it unto one first to St. Peter and then to his Successor the Bishop of Rome for the time being If this one Jesuit and his Fellows would upon the said Philosophical premises have concluded thus That it therefore had followed that Christ himself doth not only retain in his own hands the sole Government of his Catholick Church as he is the only Redeemer of it but likewise the sole Government of the whole World as he is the Creator of it the Conclusion had been true although the premises had not enforced it But how stifly soever they meant to insist upon the said Conclusion without any regard of truth so they may blear the Eyes of the simpler sort with such their vain Illusions We may be bold as we hope resolutely to defend and maintain it that the said natural reasons are of as great strength to prove That there ought of necessity to be one temporal Monarch over all the World as one Ecclesiastical Monarch over the whole Catholick Church although in very deed they are far too feeble and weak to prove either the one or the other For who knoweth not that when the Philosophers did write in commendation of the Monarchical Government they only had Relation to particular Nations and Countries endeavouring to prove that it was better for them severally to be ruled by that Form of Government which is called Monarchical than by any of the rest Aristocratical Democratical or any other And it was so far from their meaning to have their said reasons wrested to prove that one mortal Man ought to have the Government of the Catholick Church the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ as they never dreamed for ought that appeareth that one Man in their Judgment was fit or able to take upon him the Temporal Government of the whole World To which purpose a principal Lawyer amongst our Adversaries doth write in this sort Naturâ ipsâ institutum non est quòd universus Orbis uni Principi subditus sit It is not ordain'd by nature that the whole World should be subject to one Prince If then it be an idle vanity for any Man to go about by natural reason to prove that one Man ought to be the temporal Monarch of all the World which nature her self did never intend it is then certainly a kind of madness or phrenzy to rely upon such proofs for the Popes spiritual Authority over the whole Catholick Church neither of them both being comprehensible or subject to the apprehensions of nature Again these Patrons for the Pope and his Primacy over the whole Catholick Church have not only such Arguments as we have heard drawn from natural reason but some likewise deduced from sundry similitudes and those out of the Scriptures upon which they rely with some more confidence as reason is they should saying that God made all Mankind ex uno Adamo of one Adam to signify thereby that he would have all Men to depend ab uno of one but the Old Testament was a figure of the new and that therefore as there was but one High-Priest amongst the Jews to govern that one Church so now there must be but one Pope to govern all the Churches in the World that Aaron was not only a figure of Christ but likewise of St. Peter that the Church is compared to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Fold
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
Episcopi quasi Cardinales Archiepiscopus sederet quasi Papa ibi omnis Appellatio subsisteret querela Hoc quidem Rex Henricus machinabatur approbant quamplures Episcopi hâc de causâ ut dictum est ut possent de sub jugo sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae colla excutere Now the building of the said Church is so forward that there is ordain'd there a Dean a Provost and more than 40. Canons founded of the Goods of the Church of Canterbury by birth Noblemen abounding in Wealth Allies of the King and of the Bishops Some of them do adhere to the King some have Offices in the Exchequer all of them familiar Friends to the Bishops and of a Confederacy with them Against such and so great Persons what is the Church of Canterbury able to do Certainly it is to be feared not only that the Church of Canterbury shall hereby be overthrown but that upon this occasion the Authority of the Apostolical See which God forbid shall in England be greatly diminish'd und prejudiced For when this Canonry or Cathedral Church was founded it was the common fame and the opinion of every Man that it was founded to this end that Bishops should be there as it were Cardinals and that the Archbishop should sit amongst them as Pope and that there all Appeals and complaints should be determined This assuredly was plotted by King Henry and the same very many Bishops do allow for this cause or end that so they might deliver their Necks from under the Yoke of the Holy Church of Rome Again after the Death of Celestin the Fourth the Cardinals being at so great a Dissention amongst themselves as that they could not agree for the space of a Year and nine Months who should succeed him both the Emperour and the French were greatly moved and offended therewith The Emperour finding his advice unto them to hasten their Choice to be despised and scorned and how dishonestly some of them had broken their Promises and Oaths unto him made in that behalf he gathered a great Host and dealt sharply with them And from France they received a Message that if they continued to dally as they did in prolonging the choice of a new Pope they would utterly leave Rome and choose to themselves a Pope of their own to govern the Churches on this side the Alps. Hereof Matthew Paris writeth thus Per idem tempus miserunt Franci solennes Nuncios ad Curiam Romanam significantes persuadendo praecisè efficaciter ut ipsi Cardinales Papam ritè eligentes Vniversali Ecclesiae solatium Pastorale maturiùs providerent vel ipsi Franci propter negligentiam eorum de sibi eligendo providendo summo Pontifice citra Montes cui obedire tenerentur quantocyùs contrectarent About that time the State of France did send their solemn Messengers to the Court of Rome signifying unto them and perswading them precisely and effectually that either the Cardinals should more speedily provide for the Vniversal Church her Pastoral Comfort by their due choice of a new Pope or else they themselves the French because of their negligence would forthwith fall into deliberation of choosing and providing for themselves a Pope on this side the Mountains whom they might be bound to obey Thus the said History Whereby as also by the former words of the Monks of Canterbury it is very evident that both England and France was long since in deliberation to have abandon'd the Authority of the Bishops of Rome out of both those Kingdoms as finding no necessity of the Universal overswaying power of the Roman Papacy and that the Churches within their several Countries and Territories might receive as great benefit and comfort by the Ecclesiastical Government of their own Archbishops in every respect as ever they had done from the Bishops of Rome For as it may truly be said not of one King to govern all the World but of every particular King in his own Kingdom so may it be truly affirmed not of one Pope to govern the whole Catholick Church but of every Archbishop in any National Church and Province to rule and direct the same that under the Government of one viz. of Kings for temporal Causes and of Archbishops for Ecclesiastical Causes there is the best order the greatest strength the most stability for continuance and the easiest manner and form of ruling We have spoken hitherto of the Government of the Church especially as it was in the Apostles times and afterward for the space of 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Enemies unto it Whereby we do infer that if the particular Churches setled then almost in every Country and Nation throughout the World had so good success when there were no Christian Magistrates nor had any assistance of the temporal Sword for the strengthning of their Ecclesiastical Government but only Ministers to teach and direct their Parishioners in the ways of Godliness and Bishops over them in every Diocess to oversee and rule as well the Ministers as the several People committed to their charge that they taught no new Doctrine or ran into Schisms and Archbishops over them all in every National Church and Province for the moderating and appeasing of such oppositions and dissentions as might otherwise have risen amongst the Bishops and so consequently have wrought great distraction betwixt their Diocesan Churches how much more then are the said particular Churches like to flourish and prosper under such a Form of Ecclesiastical Government wherein the Christian Magistrate is become to be as the chief Member of the Church so the chief Governour of it to keep as well the said Archbishops within their bounds and limits as all the rest of the Clergy and Christians Bishops Ministers and Parishioners that every one in their several places may execute and discharge their distinct Offices and Duties which are committed unto them We shall have fit occasion hereafter to speak of the Authority of Christian Princes in Causes Ecclesiastical here we do only still prosecute the Government of the Church when temporal Kings and Princes were her great and mortal Enemies and the Folly if not the obstinacy of our Adversaries who either see it not or will not acknowledge it that peace and quietness may as well be preserved in all the Churches in the World by Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to govern them all as by Kings and Sovereign Princes in all the Kingdoms and temporal Governments in the World without one temporal Monarch to rule and oversway them For our Adversaries shall never be able to prove that it may be ascribed as we have before said more to any want of discretion and due Providence in our Saviour Christ that he hath not appointed the Pope to govern the Catholick Church than that he hath not assigned the Government of the whole World to one King or Emperour Rather it is to be attributed to their audacious temerity and presumption that will either enforce
our Saviour Christ to be contented with that Form of Government in his Church which they think good to assign unto him and so make him to divide stakes as the Phrase is with the Bishops of Rome or else to be reputed amongst them for a Person of little Discretion and Providence and to have dealt absurdly in ordering and setling the external Government of his Church as he had ordered and setled the external Government of his Universal Kingdom over all the Kings and Princes in the World Which profane wicked and blasphemous proceedings with Christ will no doubt in short time receive a heavy Judgment in that although the Man of sin hath long wrought in a mystery and taken upon him for his time and so every one of his Successors during their Lives to sit in the Temple of God vaunting that the said Temple or Spiritual Kingdom of Christ is wholly at his Command yet now he beginneth to be revealed and disclosed to be that Impostor that by the assistance of Satan hath with power and signs and lying wonders in all deceiveableness and unrighteousness long abused the Christian World and is consequently to be consumed by our Saviour Christ with the Spirit of his mouth In the mean while and till this work be throughly effected we are not to censure Christ either for his Discretion or Divine Providence but indeed to admire and magnify them both considering that by his Government both of the Universal World as he is the Son of God and of his Catholick Church as he is the Redeemer of it in such manner and form as we have before expressed by several Kings and Priests within their Kingdoms Provinces and Diocesses he hath left unto them certain general rules and motives which being diligently observed do tend to the universal good and preservation both of the one and the other though they have no assistance therein from the Bishops of Rome For as it is an apt and good reason to perswade all Kings and Kingdoms to live quietly with their Neighbour Princes and Nations and to be at a firm League and Friendship with them because they have all but one Heavenly King are Members and Subjects of one Universal Kingdom have or ought to have but one moral Faith one rule of Justice one square for Equity one nature of Truth one moral Law one Kind Form and nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual one natural Instinct to know God and to worship him and one Form and Rule of mutual love and affection So the particular Churches dispersed over the World when they had small Comfort from the civil Magistrate held themselves bound to have a special care one over another that matters of Religion might proceed by one rule with mutual Agreement and Uniformity for avoiding of Schisms in that they well knew they had all but one Redeemer and Saviour one Heavenly Spiritual King or Archbishop were all of them Members of one mystical Body whereof Christ was the Head had all of them but one Faith one Baptism one Spiritual Food one Hope one Bond of Charity one Redemption and one Everlasting Inheritance in the Life to come Which were such Arguments of mutual Consociation in those days as when any great matters of importance did fall out in any one Country through the willfulness and obstinacy of Hereticks and crafty Seducers of the People which perhaps were countenanced with some of strength and greater power than could easily be withstood their Neighbour Churches adjoining did sometimes assist them by their Letters with the best counsel they could give them and sometimes did send some especial Learned Men unto them for the better suppressing of those Evils and sometimes when occasions fell out thereunto moving sundry Archbishops and Bishops of several Countries with other learned Priests and Persons of principal note did as they might for fear of danger meet together and upon due and mature deliberation did so order and determine of matters as thereby Heresies and Contentions were still suppressed and the Churches in those Countries received great comfort and quietness And if in those troublesome times the peace of the Church were thus preserved how much more now under Christian Magistrates may it be strengthned upheld and maintain'd without the Pope not only within their several Kingdoms but likewise throughout in effect all these Western Parts of the World if Christian Kings and Soveraign Princes would agree together for a general Council to the end that all those Heresies Errours Impostures and Presumptions wherewith the Church of Christ hath been long and is now miserably shaken and disturbed might be at the last utterly suppressed and extinguished Many other means might here be alledged to shew how the state of Christian Religion is to be upheld and maintained without any assistance from the Bishop of Rome But our purpose being in this place to resemble and compare the government of the Catholick Church with the Universal Government of the Son of God over the whole World We hold it sufficient to observe That every National Church may as well subsist of her self without one Universal Bishop as every KIngdom may do without one general Monarch Nevertheless we acknowledge that in this particular Tractate we have been very tedious and it may be thought perhaps by some that our pains therein is altogether superfluous because many of our Adversaries do in effect acknowledge that there is the like necessity of one Emperour to govern all the World as there is of one Pope to have the oversight and ordering of the whole Catholick Church Indeed upon the sifting of the usurped Authority of the Bishops of Rome our Adversaries finding that by their Arguments to bolster up his said Authority the Erection of one Man to govern the World in temporal Causes is as necessarily to be inforced as of one Pope to govern the whole Church in Ecclesiastical Causes they are grown to this most admirable Insolency and most high presumption as that they dare affirm and do take upon them without all modesty to maintain it That the Pope is both the Monarch of the Catholick Church and the Emperour of all the World Which mystery of theirs is thus managed and by piece-meal unfolded after this sort viz. That to ease the Pope lest he might be oppressed with multitude of affairs if he should take upon him in his own Person to govern the whole World as he doth direct the especial affairs of the Catholick Church they do assign unto him Power and Authority to create and delegate under him as his Feudatary or Vassal this one supposed Emperour to whom they say he may commit the special Execution of his temporal Sword to be drawn and put up at his direction and commandment And for this one base Emperour over all the World many are now as busy as others are to maintain the Pope's Supremacy over the whole Catholick Church Now to prove that the Pope hath
Universal Dominion over all the World temporaelitèr temporally and likewise sufficient Power to institute and appoint one Emperour under him as his Substitute to rule the whole World they use this Argument Summus Pontifex instituit ac confirmat Imperatorem sed Imperator habet Dominium universale temporaliter in toto Mundo Ergo Papa habet hoc idem Dominium temporaliter The Bishop of Rome doth ordain and confirm the Emperour but the Emperour hath universal Dominion temporally in the whole World therefore the Pope hath the very same temporal Dominion And about ten years since one Andrew Hoy the Greek Professor at Doway made an Oration De novae apud Europeos Monarchiae pro tempore utilitate taking upon him to prove that the King of Spain was the fittest Person of all the Kings and Princes in Europe to be advanced unto this great Monarchy But what should we trouble our selves with this point The King of Spain we suppose will greatly scorn to be the Pope's Vassal and the Emperour that now is or that shall succeed him hereafter as likewise all the Kings and Princes in the World may see most evidently how grosly and shamefully they are abused and how notably they neglect the greatness of their own Callings especially they who have been heretofore or shall be hereafter Emperours in that they do intermeddle any thing at all with the Pope or receive from him either their Confirmation or Coronation in that thereby he presumeth most ridiculously and without any shew of truth to challenge them for his Servants and Vassals It hath been before shewed by the Judgment of the Cardinalized Jesuit That the Bishops of Rome have no temporal Possessions at all but such as they have received from the Emperour and other Kings and Soveraign Princes In consideration whereof seeing that now they insult so notably over them all both Princes Kings and Emperours being so far from acknowledging themselves to be the Emperour's Subjects or to hold their said Possessions either of him or of any King that bestowed them upon them We do verily think that the said Princes Kings and Emperours who have been so beneficial to the said Bishops shall never shew themselves to be of that Princely Magnanimity and Prowess which their high places do require nor free their Sceptres from the thraldom and base subjection to their usurped Authority until either they take from them what before they gave them or bring them to a more dutiful acknowledgment of their Duties unto them And what we say of the Popes we likewise do hold concerning all the Clergy besides in Europe or elsewhere that if they shall either withdraw themselves from their subjection unto their temporal Soveraigns under whom they live or deny to hold the Possessions of their several Churches of their said Soveraigns or to do them Homage for the same they may lawfully in our Judgments not only resume the said Possessions into their own hands but likewise proceed against them as Rebels and Traytors according to the Form of their several Laws But this is a Digression For in the beginning of this Chapter we undertook to deal with those only who though they maintain the Popes general Supremacy over the Catholick Church yet they deny upon many weighty reasons that God did ever ordain any one Emperour to govern all the World But how long they will deny it we know not in that the principal Jesuit himself writeth thus Vtrum expediret omnes Provincias Mundi c. Whether it were expedient that all the Provinces in the World should be govern'd by one chief King in things Politick although the same be not necessary it may be a Question Mihi tamen omnino expedire videtur si possit eò perveniri sine injustitiâ bellicis cladibus Yet it seemeth to me expedient if such a Monarchical Government over all the World might be gotten without Injustice and such Calamities and Miseries as usually follow War What this Jesuit doth encline unto it is hereby evident But in that he confesseth that such a Monarchical civil Government is not necessary that is enough for our purpose because hereby it likewise followeth as before we have shewed that the Government of the Pope over the whole Church is in every respect as little necessary CAN. X. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures or that can be truly grounded upon natural Reason or Philosophy That our Saviour Christ should have shewed himself to have had no discretion except he had left one chief Bishop to have govern'd all the Churches in the World or that except he appointed one to the said end he should as a Person void of Providence have left his Faithful People in a miserable confusion and without any Government at all or that any of all the Arguments that may be deduced from Philosophy and natural Reason to prove that one Man ought to have the Government of the whole Catholick Church in spiritual Causes are not as forcible to prove that one King or Emperour ought to have the Rule and Government over the whole World in Causes temporal or that any of the Philosophers ever meant to have their reasons alledged by them to prove that in every particular Country the Monarchical Form of Temporal Government was the best to be extended to prove that there ought to be either one Bishop over all the Catholick Church whereof they had no knowledge or one Emperour over all the World or that because all Men have their beginning from Adam it doth not as well follow that there ought to be one Emperour to govern all the World as one Bishop over the whole Catholick Church or that Aaron was any more a Figure of St. Peter and his Successors that they severally in their times should govern the whole Church than King David was of Augustus the Emperour and his Successors that they severally in their times should have committed unto them the Government of the whole World or that the resemblances in the Scriptures of the Church unto an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Fold to an House to a Ship may not fitly be applied as well to the Vniversal Kingdom of Christ over all the World as unto the Church and so consequently as well to our Saviour Christ as he is the Governour of the whole World that he is the General of that Host the Head of that Body the King of that Kingdom the Shepherd of that Flock the Housholder of that Family and the Pilot of that Ship as may these Titles be ascribed unto him as he is the only Archbishop of the whole Church viz. That he is the only General of this Host the only Head of this Body the only King of this Kingdom the only Shepherd of this Flock the only Housholder of this Family and the only Pilot of this Ship or that the said Vnities concerning the
Vniversal Kingdom of Christ are not of as great validity to prove that there ought to be one temporal King under him to govern his Vniversal Kingdom over all the World as are the other Vnities touching the Church to prove that there must be one Bishop under him to govern all the particular Churches in the World or that because Kings when they have occasion to be absent from their Kingdoms do commonly appoint some Vice-Roy to Rule their People until their return it thereupon followeth that Christ supplying his corporal absence from his Spiritual Kingdom the Church by the comfortable presence of the Holy Ghost was of necessity to leave one carnal Man to be his Vicar-General over his said Spiritual Kingdom or that seeing our Saviour Christ held it expedient for his Catholick Church that he should deprive her of his corporal presence that she might be ruled by the Holy Ghost it is not to be thought great presumption for any Man to tell us that his corporal presence is necessary for the Government of the said Catholick Church as if he meant to put the Holy Ghost out of Possession or that either the said one Vniversal Kingdom of Christ the King and Creator of it is otherwise visible upon the Earth than by the particular Kingdoms and several kinds of Governments in it and perhaps in a sort and by Representation when some Neighbour Kings either in Person or by their Ambassadours may be met together for the good of their several Kingdoms or that the said one Catholick Church of Christ as he is the chief Bishop over all is otherwise visible on the Earth than by the several and particular Churches in it and sometimes by general and free Councils lawfully assembled or that it is a better consequent that if the Catholick Church have no visible Head all other Bishops Doctors Pastors and Ministers are needless than if one should say because there is no one King to govern all the World therefore there is no use of Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes or civil Magistrates or that it doth more follow that Christ should have left his Faithful People in a confused Anarchy except he had left St. Peter and his Successors to govern the whole Church than it doth that the whole World hath been left by him in a Confusion without any Government in it in that he hath not left one Vniversal Emperour or that the intolerable Pride of the Bishop of Rome for the time still being through the advancement of himself by many sleights stratagems and false Miracles over the Catholick Church the Temple of God as if he were God himself doth not argue him plainly to be the Man of Sin mentioned by the Apostle or that every National Church planted according to the Apostle's Platform may not by the means which Christ hath ordained as well subsist of it self without one Vniversal Bishop as every Kingdom may do under the Government of their several Kings without one general Monarch He doth greatly Erre The End of the Second Book LIB III. CAP. I. IN pursuing our intended Course through the Old Testament and until the destruction of Jerusalem we overslipt and passed by the fulness of that time wherein the Son of God the Maker and Governour of all the World our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary So as now we are to return back and prosecute our said Course as we find the true grounds thereof are laid down confirmed and practised in the New Testament At our Entrance into which Course We confess our selves to be indeed greatly astonished considering the strange impediments and mighty stumbling blocks which through long practice and incredible Ambition are cast in our way in that we find the Estate of that Church which would rule over all to be degenerated in our days as far in effect from her primary and Apostolical Institution and Rules as we have shewed before the Estate of the Jewish Church to have swerved through the like Pride and Ambition from that excellent Condition wherein she was first established and afterward preserved and beautified by Moses and King David with the rest of his most worthy and godly Successors For except we should condemn the Old Testament as many ancient Hereticks have done and thereupon overthrow all which hitherto we have built and not that only but should furthermore either approve of their gross Impiety who read the Scriptures of the New Testament as if they were falsified and corrupted and by receiving and rejecting as much of them as they list do prefer before them as not containing in them all necessary Truth for Man's Salvation certain obscure and Apocryphal Writings Or should our selves impiously imagine that the New Testament as now we have it was but a rough Draught and a fit project compiled for the time by the Apostles to be afterward better order'd polished and supplied with certain humane Traditions and Doctrines by some of their Successors We can see no sufficient Warrant or probable reason why the Bishop of Rome should take upon him as he doth so eminent and supream Authority over all the Kingdoms and Churches in the World to rule them direct them bestow them and chop and change them under pretence of Religion as he from time to time shall think fit Sure we are if the Scriptures may retain their ancient Authority and continue to be true Rulers and principal Directors to all Apostolical Bishops that in them there will not be found any shadows or steps of those so high and lofty conceits To the proof whereof before we address our selves We have thought it very expedient for the carriage of our course more perspicuously and clearly to make it apparent by what degrees and practices the Bishops of Rome have proceeded in aspiring to that Soveraignty and Greatness which now they have attained Placet eis John Overall Prolocutor CAP. II. AS it was said long since Religion brought forth Riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother So may it very truly be said in these days The Empire begat the Papacy and the Son hath devoured his Father For as we suppose by the Effects no sooner did the Bishops of Rome even in the first times of Persecution get any rest and courage but they began to think with themselves That they were as able to govern all the Churches in the Empire as the Emperours themselves were to govern all the Kingdoms and Nations then subject unto them and that Rome was as fit a Seat for such a Bishop as it was for so great an Emperour Some Seeds of this Ambition began to sprout there when Victor presumed to threaten the Greek Churches concerning the Feast of Easter although Irenaeus then living did greatly dislike it and the Bishops of Asia little regarding him in that behalf said They nothing cared for such his threats And it was not we suppose an idle conceit of one who writing
Earth is the Lord's and all that therein is the round World and all that dwell therein Whereupon he was called ordinarily in the Old Testament Dominator Dominus the Lord of Hosts the God and Possessour of Heaven and Earth So as he being the universal Lord and Ruler over all the World the whole World was his Universal Kingdom in the Government whereof he ever used the Ministry of civil Magistrates as well in other Countries as amongst his own peculiar People of Israel without any desert of theirs but as in his Heavenly Providente he thought it most convenient I have made saith he the Earth the Man and the Beasts that are upon the ground and have given it to whom it pleaseth me and again the Prophet Daniel telleth us that God changeth the times and seasons that he hath power and beareth rule over the Kingdoms of men that he taketh away Kings and setteth up Kings and that it was the God of Heaven who gave unto Nebuchadnezzar so great a Kingdom Power Strength and Glory as then he had to rule with Majesty and Honour a very great Empire In respect whereof although Kings and Princes might have been satisfied with the Titles of Lieutenants or Vicegerents in Earth to the Son of God yet he did communicate and impart so much of his Power Authority and Dignity unto them as he was content to stile them with his own Name I have said You are gods and the Children of the most High Howbeit for all their said Dignity and Greatness he did not leave them at liberty to do what they list but held himself the Helm of every Kingdom and used their Services in such sort as were they good or bad and their designments holy or wicked he ever made them the Executioners of his own just Judgments Will and good Pleasure according as he was minded either to bless or to punish any Kingdom People or Countrey In regard of which his Might Providence and Wisdom whereby he ruleth them after that sort he is called the Lord of lords the King of Glory and the God of gods that is of Kings Princes Judges and Rulers of the Earth And it may not here be omitted which indeed ariseth of the Premisses that the Son of God in disposing of the Government under him of the Earth did not appoint any one man to be the sole Monarch of the world as from whom all other Kingdoms Governments Kings and Princes should receive their Directions and unto whom they should be subject It is true that Adam whilst he lived was the chief Governour under the Son of God over all his own Off-spring and that Noah likewise during his Life had the like Authority But when after the Flood the Issue of Sem Cham and Japhet grew to a great People their Father Noah did not commit to any one of them the Government of the rest and of all of their Posterity but divided the whole World amongst them three and from them no one sole Monarch or Monarchy but many Kings Principalities Kingdoms and Governments by God's Providence have descended It is more than probable that if the Son of God had been pleased to have committed to any one Man a Government of so large an extent he would have trusted his Servant King David with it being a Man according to his own Heart But the Kingdom of Israel wherein David reigned was bounded within the strait Limits assigned to the Twelve Tribes And such other Kings as swerved after that time from David's mild and temperate Government and took upon them the Titles of Monarchies having enlarged their Kingdoms by Injury and Oppression of their Neighbours where in their Pride and Greediness but the Scourges and Rods of God's Indignation and had their fatal Ends accordingly So as where the Prophet Daniel speaking of the Kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar calleth him King of kings and saith that he was the Ruler over all places wherein the Children of Men dwelt and Cyrus the King of Persia affirmeth that the Lord God of Heaven had given him all the Kingdoms of the Earth For as much as it is apparent both by the Scriptures and other Histories that neither of them both had the Tenth part of the World under their Jurisdiction and that there were very many Kings who had Absolute Government in their Kingdoms and were no ways subject unto them the said places of necessity must receive this Exposition That either they are to be understood Hyperbolically whereby to express the Greatness of a thing it is said to be bigger than it was or by a Synecdoche which useth the whole sometimes for a part or according to the usual Phrase of the Scriptures where All are often taken for Many or else both Daniel and Cyrus spake after the manner of the Chaldaeans and Persians who to extoll the Greatness of their Kings and the better to please them did peradventure so enlarge and amplifie the Style CAN. XXXV IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that the Son of God according to the Doctrine of the Old Testament was not the Governour of all the World or that he did not appoint under him divers Kings Princes and civil Magistrates to Rule and Govern in the Kingdomes and Places assigned unto them or that having so appointed them he did not himself direct uphold and rule them by his Omnipotence according to his Divine Wisdom and might not in that respect be truly called The Lord of lords and The God of gods or that all the World and the particular Kingdoms and civil kinds of Government in the World were not in respect of the Son of God as he is the Governour of the World and the Lord of lords and God of gods one Kingdom Principality or Government thereby to impeach the mild and temperate Government which he had established amongst the Jews or that he ever committed the Government of all the World after Adam and Noah's times to any One Man to be the Sole and Visible Monarch of it or that the said Kingdom of Christ as he was the Lord of lords and God of gods and so govern'd the whole World was otherwise visible upon the Earth than per partes viz. by the particular Kingdoms and kinds of civil Government or perhaps by some Representation He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXXVI AS there hath been from the beginning one Universal Kingdom throughout all the World whereof the Son of God was ever the sole though invisible Monarch as we have shewed in the former Chapter So it is generally agreed upon among all Christians That from the Creation of Mankind during the times aforesaid there hath always been One Universal or Catholick Church which began in Adam and afterward as his Posterity multiplied both before and after the Flood was dispersed over the face of the whole Earth and whereof the Son of God likewise was always the head
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
well be exprest by comparing the Pharisees unto the Divines amongst our Adversaries who take upon them to search out more throughly the mysteries of the Scriptures and the Scribes to their Canonists who in respect of their said Divines are but Novices in God's word and Applauders to the Pope's Decrees as the Scribes were being compar'd to the Pharisees in that they held it for a principal part of their office to uphold and maintain as much as they could the Traditions of the Pharisees and did only take upon them to deal with the bark and literal sense of Moses's Law leaving the more profound knowledge and mystical Interpretation of them unto the said Pharisees But the Issue of the labours of both these Hypocritical Sects was such as being blinded with their own devices they became to be the speciallest Enemies that Christ found upon the Earth and opposed themselves most against him And yet notwithstanding because he found them in so great Authority and perceived how the knowledge of the Law which ought to have been received from the lips of the Priests did then depend upon the lips of the Scribes and Pharisees he did neither blame them for it nor impugn the said Authority Insomuch as the multitude being many ways factious and though very ignorant were become great Questionists touching the Points of the Law he referred them with a very good Caution to the Scribes and Pharisees to be instructed by them saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe and do that observe and do but after their works do not for they say and do not Whereby it appeareth how respectful our Saviour Christ was for the free passage and observation of Moses's Law in that he was content that the Scribes and Pharisees notwithstanding he knew their Hypocrisie and Corruption and how they had come by that Authority which they then enjoyed should yet instruct the People under them so as the People did beware of their wicked Conversation and approved no resolutions that they might receive from them which were not first proved unto them out of the Laws of Moses and were fit to proceed from his Seat Touching which last point of Moses's Law and how nothing ought to have been taught out of Moses's Seat but that which Moses by the direction of the Holy Ghost had prescribed for as much as our Saviour Christ did well see and understand how the Scribes and Pharisees had by their false Interpretations and Glosses perverted and corrupted the true sense and meaning of divers of Moses's Laws he was greatly moved therewith and did take great pains to refute the said false glosses and interpretations and to restore to the Laws mention'd their true sense and original meaning Wherein although by his strict Exposition of those Laws he might seem to some not well advis'd to have so extended and enlarged the meaning of them as if he had thereby prescribed some new points or laws of greater perfection than were originally contain'd in the true meaning of the old yet we cannot find how either the said points may otherwise be termed new than as Gold first purified and fined after it hath either in time grown rusty or been by false mixtures cunningly corrupted may be called new gold when it is again purged from the said false mixtures and refin'd Or how the observation of them can bring with it to Men any greater perfection in the New Testament than God himself did expect of his Servants in the Old Testament by their observing of the said Laws so expounded by Christ in their ancient sense and meaning which they first had when by his appointment Moses did give them unto them For if in proper Speech he had made any new Laws coming only to fullfil the old as himself in a true sense affirmed the Jews might have had some good colour to have blamed him in that during the continuance of their Ecclesiastical Government if any new Laws had been then to have been made touching the worship of God the Authority in that behalf was limited by God himself unto their own Church-Governours Again considering that the Son of God in taking our nature upon him did so make himself of no reputation as being of his own goodness towards Mankind a Servant to his Father he became to do his will obedient unto the death even the death of the Cross It cannot well be imagined by any that have any true understanding of the Scriptures that the Son of God having so debased himself as is aforesaid did ever think in that his so admirable humiliation of any Rules or new Laws of greater perfection than he had before required and prescribed unto his true Servants and Children as he was God in Majesty and Glory without any such Exinanition as the Apostle speaketh of The obedience and duty which Almighty God ever did or ever will require of his Servants was and is always to proceed as well from their hearts as from any other external actions Insomuch as if it fell out as it may at sometimes that they cannot perform their said duties in respect of some impediments that will hold them from Christ In that Case be it riches they are to leave them their Eyes their Hands or their Feet they are to cut them off Nay be it their Blood their Hearts and Lives they are rather than to forsake their God and his Christ to yield them all in this World with what ignominy soever to the end they may receive them again with glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Than which great obedience and perfection what can be imagin'd greater Or who is there in the World that truly professeth Religion who in that Case is exempted from it Certainly we think none of what Estate and Condition soever they be but do rather hold that as they who shall yield up their Lives under pretence of any extraordinary perfection saving in the Case above-expressed are far from that which they make shew of but are rather to be accounted desperate so are they in our Judgments to be reckoned Men of very extraordinary humours and most ignorant Persons if not such counterfeit Hypocrites as were the Scribes and Pharisees in professing extraordinary austerity of Life that they might be the better esteem'd amongst Men who shall without any necessity either pull out their Eyes or cut off their Feet and Hands or forsake their Riches and Worldly Estates as blessings of God not compatible but repugnant to that perfection which God doth require at any Man's hands It is not our purpose to prosecute all those particulars mention'd in the Evangelists wherein our Saviour Christ shew'd his Obedience there being in effect nothing that he did which was not either figur'd in the Law or foretold by the Prophets that he should perform The time of his Incarnation with the manner of it his Entertainment in the World his diligence in Preaching his whipping blows and
know not what new Christianity or that there ought not to be now amongst Christians Ecclesiastical Courts for Ecclesiastical Causes as well as there were such Courts amongst the Jews for such kind of Causes or that all Christians are not now bound to repair as well to Ecclesiastical Courts and Governours for reformation of such Offences as are of Ecclesiastical Counusance as the Jews were bound to repair to their Sanhedrims to have those Evils redressed that were to be reform'd by those Courts or that as many as do profess themselves to be true Imitators of Christ in their Lives and Conversation are not bound to such obedience unto their Princes and Rulers how evil-disposed soever they be yea though they seek their Lives as Christ shewed and performed both to the Ecclesiastical and Temporal State of the Iews at what time he knew they were plotting his Death He doth greatly Erre CAP. V. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not alter the form of temporal Government establisht by himself long before his Incarnation and that therefore Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes though they were then Infidels were nevertheless to be obey'd by the Subjects as formerly from the beginning they had been IT hath been before observ'd by us that our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World was no temporal King nor had any temporal Dominion Court Possessions Regal State Dukes Earls Lords or any other Subjects as other temporal Kings had to obey and serve him But perhaps after his Resurrection it was for otherwise with him Indeed so it was For whereas the Son of God God himself equal to the Father by being made Man did cease to put in practice the Glory and Majesty of his Deity in his humane Nature otherwise than by doing such Miracles as he thought necessary for the Conversion of those who were to believe in him Now after his Resurrection and Ascension the state of his humane Nature was become as it may well be said much more glorious because his Divine Nature did communicate unto his Humane Nature So many divine Dignities and operations of his Deity in respect of the hypostatical Union betwixt them as the same was capable of without turning of his Divine Nature into his Humane Nature It being always to be understood that the said hypostatical and real Union notwithstanding there was never any Confusion betwixt the two Natures of Christ both of them always retaining their distinct and essential Proprieties Which ground observ'd we may truly say that the Attributes are admirable which in regard of the said Union are and may be ascribed unto our Saviour Christ as he is Man especially after his Resurrection and Ascension For some short proof hereof these following Places may suffice Before our Saviour Christ commanded his Apostles to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost he told them lest they should have doubted whether he had any Authority to make them so large a Commission that all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth He also was before as the Holy Ghost testifieth of him made Heir of all things and so had a true Interest in them and after his Resurrection had the full possession of them We see Jesus saith the Apostle crown'd with glory and honour And again When God raised up Jesus from the dead he set him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Domination and every Name that is named not in this world only but in that also which is to come and hath made all things subject under his feet And again The kingdoms of this world are our Lord's and his Christ's And again The lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings And to conclude He hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written The King of kings and Lord of lords Howbeit all that we have hitherto said notwithstanding though all the World doth actually appertain to our Saviour Christ now in Glory as he is Man in respect of the said Unition or hypostatical Union yet did he not alter after his Resurrection and Ascension the manner of temporal Government which he had ordained throughout the World before his Incarnation as he was God his humane Nature being invested by the power of his Divinity in manner before exprest with all his said Glory and Authority but doth still continue the sole Monarch over all distributing that his universal Kingdom as formerly he had done into divers Principalities and Kingdoms and appointing temporal Kings and Soveraign Princes as his Substitutes and Vicegerents to rule them all by the Rules and Laws of Nature if they be Ethnicks or if Christians then not only by those Rules but also as well by the Equity of the Judicial Laws which he gave to the Jews as by the Doctrine of the Gospel more throughly opened and delivered with all the parts of it by himself and his Apostles than in former times it had been Of Christian Kings we shall have fitter place to speak hereafter Now we will prosecute this point concerning the Regal Authority of Princes that are Infidels and consider more particularly Whether they did not and so consequently do not still as lawfully enjoy their Kingdoms and legal Soveraignties under our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension as they did before either of them and likewise as they did before his Incarnation according to that which we have delivered in the former Chapter And the especial Reason that moveth us so to do is the audacious temerity of the before-named ignorant Canonists and of their adherents the new Sectaries of the Oratory Congregation who with the like Ignorance and Folly that they told us how all Kings lost their Interest and Authority over their Kingdoms by the birth of our Saviour Christ do furthermore endeavour very wickedly and sottishly to pervert such especial places in the Apostles Writings as are most aparently repugnant to their said Fancy or rather Phrenzy To make their dealing with one place apparent is sufficient for our purpose Whereas St. Paul writing to the Romans willeth them to be subject to the higher Powers or teacheth them as a late absurd Canonist abridgeth the place Obediendum esse Principibus that Princes are to be obeyâ—d He speaketh not saith he de Ethnicis as that place is corruptly alledged sed quatenus de illis intellexit that is in such a sense as he meant it And what the Apostle meant he is not ashamed to tell us in this sort saying 1. the Apostle speaketh of the Roman Empire which Christ had approved when he bad the Jews pay Tribute to Caesar 2. the Text doth expound it self for he writeth to Christians whom he counselleth to be obedient to Princes lest they should sin for Princes are not to be feared for good works
Shadows Sacrifices and whatsoever else was typical in the true Worship of God and Priesthood of Aaron were truly fulfilled and had their several Accomplishments according to the Natures of them Yet we are further to understand that as from the beginning there was a Church so there was ever a Ministry the Essential parts of whose Office howsoever otherwise it was burdened with Ceremonies did consist in these three Duties viz. 1. Preaching of the Word 2. Administration of Sacraments and 3. Authority of Ecclesiastical Government and that none of all the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices or any other Ceremony of the Levitical Law had any such relation to any of the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry as if either they the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry had only been ordain'd for their continuance until the coming of Christ or that the accomplishment or fulfilling of the said Ceremonies had in any sort prejudiced or impeached the Continuance of them or any of them So as the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry were in no sort abolished by the Death of Christ but only translated from the Priesthood under the Law to the Ministry of the New Testament Where in the judgment of all Learned Men opposite in divers points one to another they do or ought for ever to remain to the same End and Purpose for the which they were first ordain'd Now concerning the two first Essential Parts of this our Ministry or Priesthood of the New Testament there are no Difficulties worthy the insisting upon how they are to be used Only the third Essential Part of it as touching the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment is very much controverted and diversly expounded extended and applied For some Men relying upon one Extremity do affirm That it was in the Apostles time radically inherent only in St. Peter and so by a certain consequence afterwards in his supposed Vicar the Bishop of Rome to be derived from St. Peter first to the rest of the Apostles and other Ministers while he lived and then after his Death in a fit proportion to all Bishops Pastors and Ministers to the end of the World from the Bishops of Rome and that St. Peter during his time and every one of his Vicars the Bishops of Rome successively then did and still do occupy and enjoy the like Power and Authority over all the Churches in the World that Aaron had in the Church established amongst the Jews There are also another sort of Persons that run as far to another extremity and do challenge the said Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment to appertain to a new Form of Church-Government by Presbyteries to be placed in every particular Parish Which Presbyteries as divers of them say are so many compleat and perfect Churches no one of them having any dependency upon any other Church So as the Pastor in every such Presbytery representing after a sort Aaron the High Priest there would be by this project if it were admitted as many Aarons in every Christian Kingdom as there are particular Parishes And the Authors of both these so different and extream conceits are all of them most resolute and peremptory that they are able to deduce and prove them out of the Form of Church-Government which was established by God himself in the Old Testament Howbeit notwithstanding all their vaunts and shews of Learning by perverting the Scriptures Councils and ancient Fathers the Mean betwixt both the said extreams is the truth and to be embraced viz. That the administration of the said Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment under Christian Kings and supream Magistrates doth especially belong by the Institution of Christ and of his Apostles unto Arch-Bishops and Bishops This Mean bearing the true Pourtraicture and infallible Lineaments of God's own Ordinance above-mentioned and containing in it divers Degrees of Priests agreeable to the very order and light of Nature some superiour to rule and some inferiour to be ruled as in all other Societies and civil States it hath been ever accustomed So as we are bold to say and are able to justify it That as our Saviour Christ as he is God had formerly ordain'd in his National Church amongst the Jews Priests and Levites of an inferiour Order to teach them in every City and Synagogue and over them Priests of a superiour degree termed Principes Sacerdotum and lastly above them all one Aaron with Moses to rule and direct them So he no ways purposing by his Passion more to abrogate or prejudice this Form of Church-Government ordain'd by himself than he did thereby the temporal Government of Kings and Sovereign Princes did by the direction of the Holy Ghost and Ministry of his Apostles ordain in the New Testament that there should be in every National Church some Ministers of an inferiour degree to instruct his People in every particular Parochial Church or Congregation and over them Bishops of a superiour degree to have a care and inspection over many such Parochial Churches or Congregations for the better ordering as well of the Ministers as of the People within the limits of their Jurisdiction And lastly above them all Archbishops and in some especial places Patriarchs who were first themselves with the advice of some other Bishops and when Kings and Sovereign Princes became Christians then with their especial aid and assistance to oversee and direct for the better Peace and Government of every such National Church all the Bishops and the rest of the particular Churches therein established And for some proof hereof We will conclude this Chapter with the testimony of one of no mean account and desert Who when Archbishops and Bishops did most obstinately oppose themselves as being the Pope's Vassals to the Reformation of the Church was the principal Deviser of the said Presbyteries though not in such a manner as some have since with too much bitterness urged whereof out of all Question he would never have dream'd if the said Bishops had not been so obstinate as they were for the maintenance of such Idolatry and Superstition as were no longer to be tolerated That every Province had amongst their Bishops one Archbishop that also in the Nicene Council Patriarchs were appointed who were in Order and Degree above Archbishops that did appertain to the preservation of Discipline And a little after speaking of the said Form of Government so framed although he shewed some dislike of the word Hierarchia yet saith he Si omisso Vocabulo rem intueamur reperiemus Veteres Episcopos non aliam regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Dominus verbo suo praescripsit CAN. V. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ was not the Head of the Church from the beginning of it or that all the particular Churches in the World are otherwise to be termed One Church than as he himself is the Head of
particular Congregations Ministers and People in one City and in the Towns that did belong unto it but likewise over all the Churches in certain whole Provinces and Countries as unto Timothy all that were in Asia the less and unto Titus all that were planted throughout the Island of Crete And this sort of Bishops who had so large Jurisdictions over the Bishops themselves in particular Cities were afterward called Archbishops Over whom in like manner as likewise over all the rest Bishops and Ministers and particular Churches the Apostles themselves as the chief Fathers and Patriarchs of all Churches had whilst they lived the chief preheminence and oversight to direct and over-rule all as they knew it to be most convenient and behoofull for the Church communicating notwithstanding unto the said Bishops and Archbishops now their Substitutes but in time to be their Successors as full Authority in their absence with the limitations mention'd for the ordering of Ministers for the use of the Keys and for the further Government of all the Churches committed to their charges by the good advice and counsel of the inferiour sort of Priests or Ministers under them when Causes so required as if they the Apostles themselves had been present or could have always lived to have performed those duties in their own Persons their Patriarchal Authority for Government not ceasing or dying with them Of this Authority of Ordination and Government given to Bishops by the holy Apostle St. Paul he himself hath left to all Posterity most clear and evident Testimonies where writing to two of his said Bishops Timothy and Titus he describeth very particularly the Essential parts of their duties and Episcopal Office in manner and sort following For this cause I left thee at Crete that thou shouldst continue to redress the things that remain and shouldst Ordain Priests or Elders in every City as I appointed thee Lay hands hastily on no Man neither be Partaker of other Mens Sins Let them first be proved then let them minister if they be found blameless Against a Presbyter or Priest receive no accusation but under two or three Witnesses Them that sin rebuke openly that the rest may fear I pray thee to abide at Ephesus to command some that they teach no strange Doctrine neither that they give heed to Fables and Genealogies which are endless and do breed Questions rather than godly Edification which is by Faith They would be Doctors of the Law and yet understand not what they speak neither whereof they affirm There are many disobedient and vain Talkers and Deceivers of Minds whose Mouths must be stopped which subvert whole Houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake Stay foolish questions and contentions reject him that is an Heretick after one or two warnings These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority See that no Man despise thee What things thou hast heard of me the same deliver to faithful Men which shall be able to teach others also Put them in remembrance and protest before the Lord that they strive not about words which is to no profit but to the perverting of the Hearers Stay profane and vain bablings for they shall encrease unto more ungodliness Put away all foolish and unlearned Questions knowing that they engender strife I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one to another and do nothing partially Divers other particulars might be hereunto added were it not that these are sufficient for our purpose to show as well what Power was given to the said Timothy and Titus two Apostolical Bishops newly designed unto their Episcopal Functions as also what Authority the Apostle himself had whilst he lived both of prescribing rules unto them and also of exacting the due observation of them He retaining still in his own hands as full power and ample Jurisdiction over them as they the said Bishops had received from him over the rest of the Ministry within their several charges And thus we see how by degrees the Apostles did settle the Government of the Church amongst the Gentiles converted to Christ most suitable and agreeing with the Platform ordain'd by God himself amongst the Jews Ministers are placed in particular Congregations as Priests or Levites were in their Synagogues Four and twenty Priests termed Principes Sacerdotum had in that Kingdom the charge over the rest of the Priests and amongst Christians one sort of Priests named Bishops or Arch-Bishops as their Jurisdictions were extended had the oversight of the rest of the Ministry or Priesthood Lastly as over all the Priests of what sort soever and over the rest of all the Jews Aaron had the chief preeminence so had the Apostles over all the Bishops and Priests and over the rest of all Christians There was only this want to the full accomplishment of such a Church-Government as was settled amongst the Jews that during the Apostles times and for a long season afterward it wanted Christian Magistrates to supply the rooms of Moses King David King Solomon and of the rest of their worthy Successors There is no mention in the Scriptures of the particular success that the rest of the Apostles had in planting of Churches throughout all Africa and Asia the great and a great part of Europe but we doubt not but that they followed that same course in those parts nearer or better known to us they proceeding within their limits as St. Paul did within his And moreover we have sufficient warrant by the said Practice of our Apostles to judge that if all the Kings and Soveraign Princes of the World would have received the Gospel whilst the Apostles lived they would have setled this Platform of Church-Government under them in every such Kingdom and Sovereign Principality that as the three Essential parts of the Priesthood under the Law were translated to the Ministry or Priesthood in the New Testament so the external shew or practice of them might have been in effect the same under Christian Princes that it was under the godly Kings and Princes of Judah Christians of particular Congregations to be directed by their immediate Pastors Pastors to be ruled by their Bishops Bishops to be advised by their Archbishops and the Archbishops with all the rest both of the Clergy and Laity to be ruled and governed by their godly Kings and Sovereign Princes CAN. VI. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Platform of Church-Government in the New Testament may not lawfully be deduced from that Form of Church-Government which was in the Old or that because the Apostles did not once for all and at one time but by degrees erect such a like form of Ecclesiastical Government as was amongst the Jews therefore it is not to be supposed that they
that the Priest of God meaning every such Bishop as he himself was in his own Diocess was not obey'd nor one Priest in the Church acknowledg'd for the time to be Judge in Christ's stead And again Vnde Schismata Haereses abortae sunt oriuntur nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur Whence have Schisms and Heresies sprung up and do spring but whilst the Bishop which is one and ruleth the Church is by the proud Presumption of certain men despis'd A third Father also though at some times he had a sharp tooth against Bishops as they carried themselves in his time doth confess nevertheless That when Schisms first began Bishops were ordain'd Vt Schismatum semina tollerentur and in another Place in Remedium Schismatis ne unusquisque ad se trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Also where the same Father doth write against the Luciferians and undertaketh the defence of Bishops in a right point untruly by them impugn'd he speaketh of their Authority within their several Diocesses after this sort Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet Cui si non exors quaedam ab hominibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes that is The safety of the Church doth consist in the dignity of the chief Priest unto whom if an extraordinary and eminent Power from other men be not yielded there will be as many Schisms in Churches as there are Priests Lastly it is to be observed that in the Apostles times the Roman Empire had wrought a great confusion in all the Kingdoms and Countries about it whilst in the greediness of Honour in that state they had subdued their Neighbour Kings and Princes and turn'd their Kingdoms and Principalities into Provinces and Consulships and divers other such like Forms of Regiment leaving the same to the Government of their own Substitutes to whom they gave sundry and different titles Which course held by that state caused the Apostles in their planting of Churches when they could not perform that which otherwise they would have done to frame their proceeding as near unto it as they could In the chief Cities which had been Heads of so many Kingdoms and were still the Seat then of the principal Roman Officers principal Persons were placed who were Bishops and more than Bishops as St. James at Jerusalem although Jerusalem notwithstanding it was honoured with the name and title of the See of St. James was not the Metropolitan Seat or Archbishoprick of that Province but Caesarea whose Right is saved in the giving that honour to Jerusalem in the first Nicene Council St. Peter first in Antioch and then in Rome and St. Mark in Alexandria who remain'd in those places as was then most behooveful for those Churches as so many principal Archbishops Patriarchs to rule and direct all the Bishops Priests and Christians in Palestine Syria Italy and Egypt And in other Cities also and Countries not so famous then as the said four there were appointed according to the largeness of their Extents in some Bishops to govern the Ministers which were in such Cities and in some others such as Timothy and Titus were who as we have shewed in the former Chapter had the oversight committed unto them as well of Bishops as of the rest of the Churches within their limits All which particulars so put in practice by the Apostles were very well know to the Primitive Churches and ancient godly Fathers that lived the first 300. years after Christ and gave them full assurance that they might lawfully pursue in those days that Form of Church-Government which the Apostles themselves had erected the state and condition of the times remaining still one and the same that it was when the Apostles lived Whereupon by their Example they did not only continue the Succession of Bishops and Archbishops in those places where the Apostles had setled them supplying other Churches either not throughly setled or not at all planted when the Apostles died as before hath been mention'd with the like Church-Governours but did likewise preserve and uphold in those parts of the World where Christianity did then chiefly flourish the Succession of Patriarchal Archbishops in the above-mention'd four most principal Cities Jerusalem Antioch Rome and Alexandria Insomuch as it is commonly held that this Apostolical Order was thus distributed and setled by the Fathers of the Primitive Church long before the Council of Nice and that then in that holy Assembly it was only but so acknowledged and continued idque ad Disciplinae conservationem as a very worthy Man hath observed The consideration of all which particular points concerning the placing of Archbishops and Bishops in the Territories of the Romans according to the Dignities and chief honours of the Cities and Countries where they were placed doth very throughly perswade us that as we observed in the former Chapter if all the said Kingdoms and Sovereign Principalities then in subjection to the Roman Empire had been freed of that servitude and governed by their own Kings and Princes as they had been before the Apostles though the said Kings and Princes had refused to receive the Gospel would notwithstanding as much as in them lay have setled in every one of them for the Government of the Church there the like Form that God himself did erect amongst the Jews and that they themselves did establish in their time in the like Heathenish places as is aforesaid that is in every such Kingdom Ministers in particular Churches or Congregations Bishops over Ministers and Archbishops to oversee and direct them all And assuredly if when Christian Kings and Sovereign Princes did free themselves from the Yoke of the Empire they had either known or regarded the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost for the Government of the Churches within their Kingdoms and Principalities they would have been as careful to have deliver'd their Churches from the bondage of the Bishop of Rome as they were their Kingdoms from subjection to the Empire For all that is commonly alledged to the contrary is but the fume of presumptuous Brains The chief Archbishops either in France or Spain have as full Power and Authority under their Sovereigns as the Bishops of Rome had in times past over Italy under their Emperour and by the Institution of Christ they ought to depend no more upon the See of Rome than they do now one upon the other or than the Archbishops of England under their most worthy Sovereign do depend upon any of them as it will hereafter more plainly we hope appear by that which we have to say of that infinite Authority which the Pope doth vainly challenge to himself CAN. VII AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Subscriptions or Directions of the second Epistle of St. Paul to
us and the Sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross vanquish both the Devil Death and Hell to the end that as many as believed in him might not perish but have life everlasting And therefore knowing Faith to be the Means of so unspeakable a Benefit he vouchsafed not only to be our Priest but our heavenly Prophet labouring by Preaching and Miracles to beget Faith in the Hearts of his Hearers that Satan being expel'd thence he himself with his Father might abide and make their Mansion in them To the performance of which most admirable work how our Saviour Christ being equal with his Father became a Servant for our sakes as it was the will of God whereunto of his own accord he conform'd himself and what a poor Estate he held whilst he was upon the Earth how he was born in Poverty lived in Poverty and died in Poverty how maliciously and scornfully he was oftentimes entreated how as when he spake the truth his Enemies said he blasphemed So when he cast out Devils they told him that he cast them out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils how in the whole course of his Life he was so far from being a temporal King or having possession of any Regal State as he had not so much as an House of his own to rest his head in but was glad to lodge now with one man and then with another as the Occasions and Times served and how in the end he was content to satisfie the Malice of his Enemies by submitting himself for our sakes unto the Death of the Cross it were a needless labour for us to pursue the Evangelists have so plainly set down all these particulars and many more besides to that purpose Likewise it shall be sufficient for us sparingly to recount how our Saviour Christ was not only content to preach and work Miracles himself for the conversion o◠those that heard him but did to the same end as well before his Passion as after authorize likewise his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to preach and work strange Miracles and furthermore ordain a Succession of the Ministry for the encreasing of this his Kingdom unto the end of the World himself never forsaking his Church and Ministers but still assisting them in that their spiritual Charge which he had committed unto them For although that he himself by his Death and Passion hath vanquished Satan and ruleth in the Hearts of the Faithful yet by reason of our Infirmities and Weakness of Faith and through the Malice of the Devil who never ceaseth like a roaring Lyon to seek whom he may devour this spiritual Kingdom of Christ is but now begun in us and upheld in us by the most merciful hand of our Saviour Christ through the operation of the Holy Ghost and by the labour of the Ministry But in the end through the Virtue of Christ's Passion shall be brought to pass that which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be unto God who hath given us victory thrô our Lord Jesus Christ And again Death Hell and the Devil shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone In the mean while and during the time of this our Pilgrimage we are for the continuance of Christ's dwelling in our Hearts to follow the Counsel and Direction of the Holy Ghost That in no sort we give any place to the Devil but that we resist him with all the force we are able for in so doing he will fly from us And for our better Resistance that we might be able to stand against the Assaults of Satan we have a notable and compleat armour appointed us by the said Holy Spirit which is agreeable to the Nature of the Enemies we have to fight with For saith the holy Apostle we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers and against worldly governors the princes of darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses which are in the high places And thus we have a brief and short Idea of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ Whereof when the Apostles after they were replenished with the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost had full understanding and notice they never dreamed for ought that appeareth to the contrary in the Scriptures of any Worldly preheminence or Principalities who should sit here and who should sit there but contented themselves with the same estate and condition of life that their Master had led before them remembring how he had described the same unto them when he first sent them to preach amongst the Jews Behold saith he unto them I send you as sheep in the midst of Wolves Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and will scourge you in the Synagogues And ye shall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my sake in witness to them and the Gentiles And ye shall be hated of all Men for my sake When they persecute you in this City flee into another the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more them of his Houshold Whosoever will be a perfect Disciple shall be as his Master Verily Verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament and the World shall rejoice The time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And as Christ did thus foretel them so it came to pass For no sooner did they begin to Preach the Gospel after the Ascension of Christ but they were whipped scourged cast into Prison bound with Chains and most cruelly entreated St. Paul doth testify somewhat hereof when writing in the name both of himself and of the rest of the Apostles and Ministers he saith thus In all things we approve our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in prisons in tumults in labours by watchings by fastings by long sufferings by dishonour by evil report as Deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet known as dying and behold we live Besides that which he speaketh of his own particular condition doth argue the estate and condition of his Fellows though one would have thought that little more could have been added to the barbarous Cruelty last mentioned to have been Executed upon them For comparing himself and his pains with certain false Brethren that were crept into the Church amongst the Apostles and sought for their own commendation to impair the credit of this our Apostle he writeth in this manner They are Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in Prison more plenteously Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one I was thrice beaten
that in all likelyhood he hath received any greater commendation for his plain dealing in answer to another Objection which is grounded upon the Authority of Pope Nicholas Who in an Epistle of his to Michael the Emperour of Constantinople doth write thus Christus B. Petro vitae aeternae clavigero terreni simul coelestis Imperii Jura commisti Christ did commit to St. Peter the Key bearer of Everlasting Lise the right and interest both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire To which saying of Pope Nicholas the Cardinal maketh two answers Ad testimonium Nicolai dico Imprimis illud citari à Gratiano d. 22. Can. Omnes sed non inveniri inter Epistolas Nicolai Papae To the testimony of Pope Nicholas I answer First that the said is cited by Gratian but it is not to be found amongst the Epistles of Pope Nicholas As if he should have said That testimony is forged And the effect of his second Answer is That if any Man shall urge that Testimony of Pope Nicholas in the sense objected they make him directly repugnant to himself in the rest of the said Epistle And concerning the other Argument by our said Canonist alledged of the Death of Ananias and Sapphira the ancient Fathers in the Primitive Church would certainly have scorn'd it if ever they had heard of it Peter knowing by the instinct of the Holy Ghost that Satan had possessed both their hearts and how they lied not to Men but to God did only pronounce that Sentence of Death upon them which the holy Spirit did suggest unto him Wherein although there may appear what force the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God had when it was brandished by St. Peter through the Operation of the Holy Ghost there was assuredly no use of any material and civil Sword for if there had another manner of Form of outward Justice would first have been held before they had been Executed And to conclude this point We do freely profess That the nature of Christ his Spiritual Kingdom being throughly weighed we cannot find to what purpose either St. Peter or any of his Successors should have been made temporal Monarchs over all the Civil Magistrates in the World because all their temporal Forces and Swords joined together had not been able to have vanquished one wicked Spirit of the Air or have open'd the door of any one Man's heart for Christ or the Holy Ghost to have entered and have made their habitation in it CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ hath otherwise committed the World to be governed under him by Kings and Soveraign Princes but so as he himself with his Regal Scepter doth rule and govern them all according to his Divine Pleasure or that it is not a sound Argument that the Bishops of Rome in taking upon them to be temporal Kings have wholly perverted the Institution of Christ in that behalf in that they are driven to justify their facts therein by the Examples of the Maccabees and those times of so great confusion or that our Saviour Christ whilst he was here upon the Earth did not fully content himself to be only a Spiritual King to rule in Mens hearts or that to the end he might erect such a Spiritual Kingdom he did not conquer the Devil Sin Death and Hell and thereby took possession in the hearts of all true Believers or that before our Saviour Christ doth begin to reign in Man's heart he doth not first by the Ministry of his Word beget a lively Faith in it or that whilst he lived here in the World he did not satisfy himself for our sakes with a very mean and poor Estate being in himself most rich because he was God and in his humanity the Heir of all things or that he did not Institute and Ordain a Priesthood or Ministry to continue to the end of the World for the continuance and augmenting of his Spiritual Kingdom or that the Children of God notwithstanding that they are redeemed through Faith by Christ and delivered out of the Iaws of Hell and Satan are not still to take heed and beware of him and to arm themselves accordingly against his Forces or that our Saviour Christ when he told his Apostles and Disciples That the Servant is not above his Lord but that whosoever would be a perfect Disciple should be as his Master did not mean that his Apostles and after them their Successors Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Ministry should hold their Services and Offices under him to do as he did when he was a Mortal Man of poor Estate and subject to many bad Vsages and Injuries or that because our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension when he was become a Man Immortal and Glorious did then enlarge the Commission of his Apostles and ordain'd by them a succession of the Ministry for the government of the Church he did thereby make them any more partakers of his Regal Authority whereof his humane nature was then actually possessed for the state and exercise thereof by reason of the free and unrestrained Operation of his Deity than he made their natural and corruptible Bodies incorrupt and spiritual Bodies or endowed them in this life with any of that Glory Power and Heavenly Estate which they were to enjoy after their Deaths and blessed Resurrection or that the Apostles after Christ's Death not exempting St. Peter did not find their Estates in this World very suitable to their Master's whilst he lived with them all things happening unto them as he had foretold them or that either St. Peter or any of the Apostles or of their Successors either then or since that time could challenge so much as this or that one temporal farm by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Functions more than their Master had or that either they were themselves possessed with as their own before they were called to that Ministration or than was afterward given unto them by godly Emperors Kings and Princes and other devout and religious Persons or that if St. Peter had known himself to have been under Christ the sole temporal Monarch of the World it had not been his duty to have made the same known at least to the Apostles and such as were converted to Christ to the end they might have honour'd him accordingly as his dutiful and loyal Subjects or that it had not in all probability if St. Peter meant to shew himself to be a temporal King by the Deaths of Ananias and Sapphira been much more expedient for the success of the Gospel in those days if he had used such his Regal Authority against those civil Magistrates which were Enemies to Christ and to all that Preached in his name or that it may be rightly imagin'd with our dutiful regard of St. Peter's Sincerity that ever he would have been so earnest with the
dispersed Jews to have submitted themselves for the Lord's sake unto Kings and other Governours to have obey'd them and honour'd them if he had known them to have had temporal Authority because they did not acknowledge themselves to be his Vassals or that it did not proceed from the great Wisdom of God to abridge in the Apostles of Christ even in St. Peter himself that great Power and Authority which Christ had as appeareth by his words when he said that if he had thought it fit he could have twelve Legions of Angels at his Commandment to have defended him from all his Enemies the Scribes and Pharisees with all their partakers in that perhaps the Apostles even St. Peter himself might have abused it or that it is not more than probable that howsoever St. Peter would have used the said Power and Authority if he had had it if the Bishops of Rome had received it from him they would certainly have made great havock and confusion in the World with it or that if all the Kings and Sovereign Princes in the World had been subject to St. Peter and were thereupon in the like subjection to the Bishops of Rome they both St. Peter and his Successors might not have had ready at their Commandment if Kings and Princes had done their duties more than twelve Legions to have confounded all Men that should have disobey'd them or that therefore it is not as absurd an imagination and conceit for any Man to think that Christ did give so great temporal Authority either to St. Peter or any of his Successors over temporal Kings and Princes that they might have so great Armies when they list at their directions as if any Man should hold that because they are Christ's Vicars they may have twelve Legions from Heaven to do them service if perhaps temporal Kings and Princes should be negligent or refuse to be at such charges at their Commandment or that it is not a kind of madness the true nature of Christ's spiritual Kingdom and Church here upon Earth consider'd for any Man to conceive and thereupon maintain that any such Omnipotency of temporal Power in St. Peter ever was or ever shall be available to vanquish the Devil or remove him out of his Palace or to spoil him of all his Principalities or to beget Faith in the Children of God or to erect in their hearts a Tabernacle for Christ and the Holy Ghost which are only the peculiar and proper actions of our Saviour Christ as he is our Spiritual King and of St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles with all their Successors in their degrees and as they are his Spiritual Ministers He doth greatly Erre CAP. X. The Sum of the Chapter following That the Bishops of Rome have no temporal Authority indirectly over Kings and Princes throughout the Christian World to depose them from their Kingdoms for any cause whatsoever BEcause we have been bold to use the Authority of the Cardinaliz'd Jesuit against the ridiculous Canonists and their Companions the new Sectaries of the Oratory-Congregation concerning the Pope's temporal Authority over all Kings and Princes in the World directly We may not do him so much injury as once to pretend that he favoureth either us or any point of truth for our sakes that we defend It may rather be ascribed unto him for a singular virtue his bringing up and course of life consider'd if he study not to impugn it with all the strength that he hath either of his Wit or Learning Nevertheless albeit he hath travelled exceedingly in his Books de Romano Pontifice to advance the Papacy to his uttermost Ability and had no purpose therein we are well assured to give us any advantage who do oppose our selves against the whole drift of those his Books Yet he hath so muster'd and marshall'd his matters and Forces together as whilst he endeavours to fortifie the Pope's Authority and to encounter the Assaults that have been made against it he hath done more for us against his Will to the prejudice of his Master whom he laboureth to uphold than we could ever have expected at his hands Insomuch as we are verily perswaded the time will come before it be long that his Works will be thrust into the Catalogue Librorum prohibitorum because dealing with our Arguments as he did in the said Books de Romano Pontifice and thinking that he would no further yield to the truth by way of Objection than as he should be able sufficiently to refel it it hath often fall'n out with him as it will ever do with all Impostors that the very meaning of the truth according to the nature of it hath notwithstanding all his cunning very much prevail'd against him to the everlasting glory of her own name and forcible strength to discover Errors like to the Sun 's to expel Darkness We will not here otherwise make proof hereof than as by the matter we have in hand and are purposed to prosecute we are after a sort urged and compelled For albeit hitherto he hath seemed to have joined with us as he hath indeed more than now we are perswaded he doth well vouchsafe yet foreseeing what tempests he was otherwise like to have endured in affirming so peremptorily as he did that the Pope had no temporal Authority at all as he was either Christ's or St Peter's Vicar he minced his matter in the titles of his Chapters to that purpose with the word Directè whereof in his reasons he never made mention and then falleth upon this Issue That Indirectè the Pope hath Authority over all Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes to hurry them hither and thither to depose and remove them from their Regal Estates and Dignities to dispose of their Kingdoms according to his own Pleasure to release their Subjects of their Oaths and Obedience and to thrust them into all Rebellions Treasons Furies and what not against them In the which his course this is our comfort that by direct dealing the Cardinal did find no ways or means how to withstand the truth but is driven by indirect shifts and by-paths to oppose his labours we fear reclamante Conscientiâ how to save his own Worldly credit he might cast a mist upon the truth if not to depress it which was not in his power yet at the least to obscure it to darken it and perplex it Some of the principal Reasons which he hath used to this purpose mentioned are of this kind and consequence Bona corporis the good things that do appertain to the Body as health especially are to be preferr'd before Bona fortunae as the Philosophers call them that is Riches and all other Worldly Dignities and Preferments whatsoever Therefore the calling of Physicians the end whereof is the health of Mens Bodies is to be preferr'd before all other temporal Callings that are in the World Or thus Natural Parents be they Emperours Kings or Sovereign Princes do give unto their Children their
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
Weapons into our own Bowels we are left to our own Lust we live as we list we behave our selves proudly covetously without Punishment and we are not ashamed to give God the lie Placet eis John Overall CAP. IX IT were impertinent to our Purpose to enter into any particular Relation of the great Stirrs and Troubles which through the Pride of the Bishops of Rome after Gregory the Seventh's time were moved throughout all Christendom during the said Term above mentioned of 450. Years whilst the Emperors with their Adherents endeavoured still to have retained their ancient Authority both in the Choice of the said Bishops and of bestowing of other Ecclesiastical Peferments in the Empire which the Popes with their Friends did withstand with all their Mights and possible Means and Practices that they could devise and put in execution by their Excommunications and stirring up the Emperours Subjects to rebel against them In which Garboils and bloody Oppositions when the Emperours prevailed the Popes were deposed and others set up in their Rooms betwixt whom the Parties displaced to recover their Dignity and the others possessed of it to retain it no Cruelty or cunning Stratagems were omitted And on the other side when the Popes got the upper hand of the Emperours for the most part by Treason and Rebellion and always by Constraint and violent Usurpation they did not spare to use them most dishonourably and with all the Reproach and Contempt that might be well devised Some Examples whereof may be these Whereas before Pope Paschal the Second's time the former Bishops of Rome were accustom'd to add the Years of the Emperours to their Bulls Epistles and Libels He the said Paschal a little after Gregory the Seventh's Days alter'd that course and withdrawing the Years of the Emperour Henry the Fifth whom he had otherwise greatly vexed added the number of his own Papacy which was a very insolent and proud attempt and yet ever since for ought we remember the same hath still been continued by all his Successours Innocentius the Second having brought Lotharius the Emperour to some dishonourable Compacts and Conditions before he would crown him caused the story thereof not without a great Blemish to the Imperial Majesty to be painted on the Wall of his Palace with these two reproachful Verses under it Rex venit ante fores jurans priùs Vrbis Honores Post homo fit Papae sumit quo dante Coronam Alexander the Third when Frederick the Emperour was driven through Rebellion of his Subjects to come unto him for his Absolution set his Foot upon his Neck and applied these Words of the Psalm unto himself Super Aspidem Basiliscum ambulabis conculcabis Leonem Draconem It is reported of Caelestinus the Third that with his Feet he set the Crown upon the Head of Henry the Sixth and with one of them struck it off again shewing thereby That he could make and unmake Emperours at his Pleasure But we will omit these insolent Facts as also the great and dishonourable Servitude whereunto by Extremity they brought the Emperours and whereof the Pope's Records and Books do make mention as of carrying up their first Dish giving of them Water bearing up their Trains leading their Horses holding their Stirrup and kissing their Feet and will apply our selves to the consideration of their Divinity how they have dealt with the Scriptures to uphold these Presumptions and Apostatical and no way Apostolical Seditions Rebellions Murders and Treasons One of their own Friends observing how shortly after Gregory the Seventh's time his Successours by his Example behaved themselves in this behalf writeth thus The most Holy Philosophy delivered from Heaven by the Holy Ghost they make apt or fit to their own Conditions by their Interpretations they compel it to serve their Ambition the Determinations and Decrees of Christ they will not keep but make them to serve their own Humours We have shewed before how by sundry Councils it was decreed That the Emperours should have the investing of Bishops within their own Dominions and Paschal the Second himself yielded as much to Henry the Fifth being then present but after his departure from Rome the Case was alter'd For then he could affirm with shew of great Devotion that such a Priviledge was against the Holy Ghost And another Bishop as it were to uphold him therein affirmed that it contained Wickedness and Heresy To which purpose we suppose some Places of the Scriptures were notably perverted In which Course Hadrian the Fourth presumed very far when he durst write thus Whence hath the Emperour his Empire but from Vs By the Election of Princes he hath the Name of King by our Consecration he hath the Name of Emperour Augustus and Caesar Ergo per Nos imperat therefore he raigneth by Vs and that which he hath he hath from Vs Behold it is in our Power to bestow the Empire on whom we list And how doth he prove all this By the words of the Lord to the Prophet Jeremy proptereà constituti à Deo c. We are to that End saith he placed by God over Nations and Kingdoms that we may destroy and pull up and build and plant Herein Innocentius the Third likewise had an especial Gift For speaking of Sylvester he saith he was both a Bishop and King relying not only upon the Scriptures where Christ is called King of kings and Lord of lords but upon another place of St. Peter You are a Chosen Generation and Royal Priesthood which words he affirmeth may be spiritually understood of Sylvester's Successours because saith he the Lord hath chosen them to be both Priests and Kings And to prevent an Objection lest any Man should ask where it might be found that the Lord had so chosen them to both those great Dignities he telleth us that Constantine by a Divine Revelation gave unto Sylvester with a Crown of Gold the whole Kingdom of the West But yet he hath some better proofs to this purpose For whereas Christ said unto S. Peter Duc in altum launch out into the Deep this Deep saith Innocentius is Rome which had then the Primacy and Principality over all the World and therefore where the Lord saith Launch out into the Deep it is as though he should have said Vade Romam go to Rome the Seat both of the Priesthood and the Empire Again expounding these words Who is a faithful Servant and wise whom his Master hath made Ruler over his House he applieth them to St. Peter and therefore thus testifieth of himself Of truth I am appointed over this Family but who am I to sit higher than Kings and to hold the Throne of Glory Mihi namque dicitur in Prophetâ c. For to me it is said in the Prophet I have appointed thee over Nations and Kingdoms that thou mayst pluck up and root out and destroy
to Gregory the Seventh's days also a huge Heap of the Pope's Bulls from the said Gregory's time to Pius Quintus and lastly no short summ of Papal Constitutions set forth a little before the said 7th Book of the Decretals So as all these Volumes being put together they exceed as far the Body of the Civil Law as the usurped Dignity of the Papacy exceedeth the mean Estate of the Empire Placet eis John Overall CAP. XII WE have in the former Chapter made mention of the new and later sort of Decretals Bulls and Constitutions not knowing what Credit the Popes will bestow upon them hereafter and therefore leaving them to their Chance we have thought it expedient to return to the ancient Canon-Law revived and approved not long since by Gregory the Thirteenth where we find a new Ocean of Questions Disputations Quarrels and Brabblements For as it happen'd with the Civil-Law that it no sooner was again renew'd and restor'd by Lotharius but sundry great Doctors began to write many Books and Commentaries upon it to explain it and to discuss the Difficulties which did arise in it So fell it out with the Canon-Law the number being almost infinite of Glossographers that made short Notes upon it and of Canonists who set forth large Discourses for the salving of Contradictions and many other Absurdities Amongst all which Lawyers Doctors Glossographers and Canonists assisted as every Man's Fancy led him with many Schoolmen and sundry Divines such as they were there did shortly after grow many great Controversies and endless Oppositions The Civilians of Italy perceiving by the body of the Civil Law how far the Empire was dejected from that Royal Estate and Majesty which once it enjoyed and finding also that many of the best Reasons in their Judgments which the Popes the Canon-Law the Glossographers the Canonists the Schoolmen and many more had brought to prove that the Pope ought to have Jurisdiction over all the Churches in the World as that Bees had a Captain that Beasts a Leader that One is fit to end Controversies that a Monarchy is the best Form of Government and that One must he over All to receive Appeals to give Direction unto All to punish all rebellious persons and many such like were fully as forcible and strong to prove that there ought to be one Emperour over all the World they did very stifly and resolutely insist upon that Point and went so roundly to work in it by force of the said Reasons and with many other Arguments that some of them would needs have it Heresie for any man to hold the contrary alledging a Text for their purpose where it is said That in those days there came a Commandment from Augustus Caesar that all the World should be taxed Against those Italian Civilians Vltramontane the Civilians on this side the Alpes Frenchmen Spaniards and of other Countries opposed themselves with all their force not in any dislike of the Honour due to the Emperours but because otherwise their Masters the Kings of France of Spain and of divers other Kingdoms who had freed themselves long before from the Empire should be brought again de jure at the least by the foresaid Reasons to be subject unto it Whereupon in Confutation of them and to strengthen their own Assertion they alledged that one Bee was never the Captain over all Bees nor one Crane the General of all Cranes nor one Beast the Leader of all Beasts that it was against the Law of God the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations that there was never any Monarchs so great but there were in the World many Kings who were never subject unto them that the place of Scripture is to be understood of all places in the World that were then under the Romans and ought to be extended no further That a Monarchy is then best when it is contain'd within such limits as it may well be govern'd that all Monarchies hitherto had ever their bounds which were well known That it is impossible for all men to fetch Justice from one place or to receive thence any benefit by their Appeals and so after many other such Arguments they do conclude that to think that the Emperour ought to have the Government of all the World is a vain an absurd and an untrue conceit Now we are to consider how in all these troubled Disputations and Oppositions the Glossographers Canonists School-men and Parasitical Divines that were sworn to the Pope behaved themselves As soon as the Civil Law began to flourish as being read by the Emperour's Commandment in sundry Universities Gregory the Ninth began to smell what was like to come of it and therefore did afterward forbid it to be read in Paris being the especial Place then as it seemeth where it was most esteemed But as touching the Point so controverted when these Champions of the Popes saw how the Matter went That either they must hold that there ought to be but one Emperour over all the Kingdoms in the World or else be forced to confess that there ought not to be One Pope over all the Churches in the World the same Reason being as pregnant for the one as for the other they joyned with the Italian Civilians that there ought to be but one Emperour Marry how Forsooth remembring Gregory the Seventh Adrian the Fourth Innocentius the Third and that great Augustus Caesar Boniface the Eighth and divers other Popes how Emperour-like they had demeaned themselves and what great Authority they challenged the said Pontifical Champions fell to this Issue That the Pope being Christ's Vicar who was Lord of lords and King of kings it must needs follow that the Pope was likewise that One Emperour who was to govern all the World in Temporal Causes as he did all the Churches in the World in Ecclesiastical Causes And thereupon they reasoned in this sort Christ is Lord of all the World but the Pope is Christ's Vicar on Earth therefore the Pope is Lord of all the World Again The Emperour is the Pope's Vicar and his Successour in all Temporal Causes therefore the Emperour is Lord of all the World all Temporal Jurisdiction being habitually in the Pope and from him derived to the Emperour And many of the Italian Lawyers especially such as mixed their Studies with the Canon-Law were well enough content that so as the Emperour might be Lord of all how and whence he had it whether from God or from the Pope they stood indifferent But for all this the French and Spanish Lawyers stuck to their tackling and were peremptory That neither the Pope nor the Emperour had any such Universal Dominion over all the World And divers likewise of the said Italian Doctours that were not too much addicted to the Canon-Law were not afraid to hold and maintain That the Emperour held as well from God the Authority which he had as the Pope did his Papacy Howbeit such was the
Bishops of that See affirming That they sought the overthrow of the Empire and to bring all Men in servitude under them to the end that they themselves might thereby be the more feared and reverenced than Almighty God But the Archbishop of Juvavia now called Saltzburg in an Oration which he made in a Council of State during the said Emperour's Reign 〈◊〉 this Argument where he affirmeth that 〈…〉 Libidine dominandi did trouble the whole World audendo fallendo bella ex bellis serendo Also Otho Regulus Boiorum the Prince of Bavaria in the days of Innocentius the Fourth told the Bishops that joined with the Pope that as they grew to their greatness by discord so being overcome with desire of honour in stirring up Wars they were worse than Turks or Saracens Moreover in the days of Honorius the Fourth the Bishop of Tulle when the Pope would have set the Emperour in War against the French and under that pretence required by his Legate of all the Clergy in Germany Non Decimas sed Quartas not the Tenth but the Fourth part of their Livings moved the said Clergy and many of the State then present that they should no longer submit themselves unto the Romish Vultures who had very long tyrannized and labour'd nothing more than to thrust Princes into War one against another adding thereunto that the Pope had arm'd the Scythians Arabians and Turks against them and that he verily thought that the Pope loved them better than he did the Germans And what Men thought when they durst speak of the Bishops of Rome and his Priests in the days of Nicholas the Fourth it may appear by the words of a Nobleman one Menardus Earl of Tyrol as we conceive when he said That he would never make himself a scorn to such effeminate Antichrists and prodigious Eunuchs who being indeed saith he our Servants do sight for superiority and would domineer over us that are their Lords They are worse than Turks Saracens Tartars and Jews and do more injury to Christian simplicity Dominationem arripiunt they will by force over-rule all In the time of Ludovicus Bavarus the Emperour although three Popes successively opposed themselves against him with all the mischievous practices that they could devise yet many learned Men both Divines and Civil Lawyers did justify the Emperour's Proceedings and condemn the Popes And some wrote Books to that effect saying to the Emperour Tu nos pugnis ense ferro c. Do thou deliver us from the Pope's servitude by force c. Nos te lingua c. And we will revenge our quarrel with our Tongues our Pens our Letters our stile our Books and words And thereupon accordingly as their own Author saith they proved by the testimony both of Divine and humane Laws Joannem libidine dominandi insanire that John the Pope was grown mad through his desire of Principality and Soveraignty Also the Emperour himself about the year 1324. speaking in scorn of the said John the 22 th saith That the Pope in taking upon him to be both Augustus and Pontifex shew'd himself therein to be Monstrum biceps a Monster with two heads and that it was apparent by Divinity and all Laws that the Bishop of Rome had no interest to both these Dignities Many notable things are contain'd in divers of this Emperour's Letters and Decrees as also in the said Orations and Writings above here mention'd which are very worthy to be perused and made more known than they are All of them labouring to suppress that Insolency of the Bishops of Rome in challenging to themselves the Right of the Empire and the Authority to confirm the same as they thought good making the Emperours thereby their Vicars or Substitutes But it is most of all worthy the diligent Observation That in these later times when the grossness of Popery hath been more throughly looked into and scann'd the Jesuits themselves are grown to be asham'd of the said most absurd and ridiculous challenge And therefore Cardinal Bellarmin hath written five Chapters against it wherein he first distinguisheth them from Catholick Divines who maintain'd that Opinion and then setting down these three Propositions as sure grounds of truth viz. Papam non esse Dominum totius Mundi That the Pope is not Lord of all the World Papam non esse Dominum totius mundi Christiani That the Pope is not Lord of all the Christian World Papam non habere ullam temporalem Jurisdictionem directè That the Pope hath no temporal Jurisdiction directly he confuteth their Arguments who are of another Judgment Where he shaketh off very lightly the chief places of Scripture and some other Testimonies whereupon the said Arguments are principally grounded as that of Two Swords and where Christ saith All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth And the Testimony likewise of Pope Nicholas affirming that Christ committed to Peter the Key-Carrier of Eternal Life terreni simul coelestis imperii Jura the Interest both of the Earthly and Heavenly Empire which he casteth away either as an Assertion forged by Gratian the same being not found in the said Pope's Writings or else to have another sense this as it is urged being against the said Pope's direct Words in one of his Epistles His first Proposition That the Pope is not Lord of all the World he justifieth in respect 1. That Infidels are not his Sheep 2. That he cannot judge Infidels 3. That Princes Infidels are true and supreme Princes of their Kingdoms because Dominion is neither founded in Grace nor Faith as it appeareth because God approved the Kingdoms of the Gentiles both in the Old and New Testament And upon these said Reasons he inferreth it to be a ridiculous Conceit for any Man to think That God gave to the Pope any Right over the Kingdoms of the whole World considering that he never gave unto him Ability to use any such Right And for the confirmation of his second Proposition That the Pope is not Lord of all the Christian World he proveth the same by these Reasons 1. Because if he had any such Dominion by the Law of God the same ought to appear either in the Scriptures or by some Apostolical Traditions but it appeareth by neither Ergo. And his second Reason is this Christ neither did nor doth take Kingdoms from any to whom they do appertain but doth rather establish them therefore when the King becometh a Christian he doth not lose his Terrene Kingdoms which lawfully before he enjoyed but he obtaineth new Right to the everlasting Kingdom Otherwise saith he the benefit received by Christ should be hurtful to Kings and Grace should destroy Nature Also he confuteth the ordinary Distinction amongst the Schoolmen and Canonists who affirm That the Pope hath both Powers in himself but doth commit the execution of the Civil
Power unto others and writeth thus Whatsoever Emperours have they have it from Christ and therefore saith he the Bishop of Rome may either take from Kings and Emperours the execution of their Authority as being himself the highest King and Emperour or he may not If he may then is he greater than Christ If he may not Ergo he hath not in truth any Regal Power And he concludeth this Point with this Observation As the Sun did not make or institute the Moon but God himself so likewise the Empire and the Pontifical Dignity are not One neither doth the One absolutely depend upon the Other Lastly To prove his third Proposition That the Pope hath no Temporal Jurisdiction directly he reasoneth in this sort Christ as he was Man whilst he lived here upon Earth neither took nor would take any Temporal Dominion but the Bishop of Rome is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us qualis erat dùm hîc inter homines viveret as he was whilst he lived here amongst Men therefore the Bishop of Rome hath no Temporal Dominion Now before he comes to the Proof of the the first Proposition of this Argument and that he might make the Ground thereof more plain he saith 1. That Christ was always as he is the Son of God the King and Lord of all Creatures in the same sort that the Father is 2. That his Kingdom is Eternal and Divine and neither taketh away the Kingdoms of Men nor can agree to the Bishops of Rome 3. That Christ as he was Man was the Spiritual King of all Men and had most ample Spiritual Power over all Men as well faithful as Infidels 4. That this Spiritual Power of Christ shall after the Day of Judgment be sensible and manifest 5. That the Glory of this Kingdom did begin in our Head Christ when he arose from the dead Upon which Grounds he maketh these Inferences 1. That the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ the Glory whereof began after His Resurrection is not a Temporal Kingdom such as are the Kingdoms of our Kings 2. That the said Spiritual Kingdom of Christ over all Men cannot be communicated to the Bishop of Rome because it pre-supposeth the Resurrection 3. That Christ as he was Man if he had list and had thought it expedient for him could have taken upon him a Kingly Authority but would not and therefore neither did receive any such Authority neither had not only the Execution of any Dominion or Kingdom but not the Authority or Power of any Kingdom Temporal And so he cometh to the Proof of his said Proposition saying That if Christ had any such Temporal Kingdom He had it either by hereditary Succession or by Election or by the Law of War or by the Especial Gift of God but He had it by none of these four ways Ergo He had no such Dominion For the Proof of all which Particulars he taketh good Pains and then cometh to the Explication of these words in his second Proposition of the first Argument concerning this point viz. That the Pope doth represent Christ unto us as he was when he lived here amongst Men and saith 1. We cannot attribute unto the Pope those Offices which Christ hath either as he is God or as he is an immortal and glorified Man but those which he had as he was a mortal Man 2. Neither hath the Pope all the Power which Christ had as he was a mortal Man For he because he was both God and Man had a certain Power which Men call the Power of Excellency whereby he ruled both Faithful and Infidels But the Faithful only are committed to the Pope 3. Christ had Authority to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which the Pope hath not 4. Christ had Power to absolve Men from their sins without the Sacrament which the Pope cannot do With Bellarmin that he may not bear this great burthen upon his own shoulders and undergo alone the Envy thereof ensuing an Army of Writers both old and new do concur He hath himself set down the names of some and for his better supportation we have thought it fit to assist him with two more viz. the Archbishop of Compsa one Ambrosius Catharinus and Boëtius Epon a Count Palatin whose Book of Heroical and Ecclesiastical Questions Printed at Doway 1588. a place wholly Jesuited is greatly approved by Tho. Stapleton our Countryman and Balthazar Seulin the Dean of Amate a Licentiate of the Pope's Law and the ordinary Visiter or Allower of such Books as are thought meet to be published Non desunt plerique c. There are many saith Catharinus who are not content with that that is sufficient Ne dicam nimiùm that I may not say It is too much Who either to flatter or of too gross simplicity do affirm that the temporal Dominion of the whole World doth belong of Right to the Bishop of Rome as being Christ's chief Vicar in Earth in that Christ said All things are given to me of my Father Verùm ridicula haec profectò quae neque ipsimet Pontifices auderent asserere But assuredly these are ridiculous Joys The Popes themselves dare not for shame so affirm Quòd autèm Papa sit Vicarius Christi c. For that the Pope is called Christ's Vicar what force hath it to perswade us that all the Kingdoms in the World are committed to be govern'd by him in temporal Causes Nay saith he it rather induceth us to believe that they are not committed unto him quoniam Christus abjecit ea ut Homo erat in Mundo non habuit because he cast them from him and as he was Man had them not himself And the said Boëtius Epon having set down the reasons why some have maintain'd the Pope's said Universal Dominion in temporal Causes and given a touch of the Jews Errour and of the Apostles oversight in that behalf he saith thus Neque nos forsitan Judaeis multò vel meliores vel minùs inepti sumus dum c. And we perhaps are not either much better or less foolish than the Jews whilst we do ridiculously mingle the temporal and Earthly Kingdom or Empire with the Kingdom Ecclesiastical or Spiritual by wresting to that purpose the Testimonies of the sacred Scriptures which do nothing less than make either Christ or Peter or the Pope the temporal Monarch either of the whole World or of the Christian World Digni profectò c. We are certainly worthy of this answer of Christ Nescitis quid petatis quidve disputetis you know not what you ask nor what you dispute of And thus it appeareth what Opposition there hath been ever since the days of Gregory the Seventh against the Insolency of the Bishops of Rome in challenging to themselves such eminent and Soveraign Authority temporal over all Kings and Emperours and how in these later times through the light of the Gospel Men of any good parts or
hence as having all other Kings and Princes here in the World as Vassals in that respect and subject unto it He doth greatly Erre CAP. IV. The sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ in working our Salvation whilst he lived upon the Earth conformed himself wholly and his obedience unto the Ecclesiastical Government and Laws of the Church then in force inveighed not with any bitterness against the High-Priests though they were his Enemies and in many points faulty but had ever a great respect of them in regard of their Authority made no new Laws when he expounded the old erected no particular Congregations or Churches apart from the Congregations and particular Churches of the Jews but did together with his Apostles and Disciples join with the Church of the Jews in their publick worship and service of God omitting no one circumstance Ceremony or duty undertaken voluntarily by him which he did not very throughly perform even with the loss of his Life AS our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in the World did no way disturb the civil state but upon every fit occasion did submit himself unto it So may it be truly said of him concerning the State Ecclesiastical formerly by God himself established and remaining still among the Jews though in a very corrupt manner that he did in every thing thereunto by the Law of God appertaining conform himself unto it while it lasted I say while it lasted because upon his Death there was a great alteration According to the Ecclesiastical Laws then whilst he lived in force he was first Circumcised and so made himself subject to the fullfilling of the whole Law Then as the Law did likewise require he was brought by his Mother to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and to have an Oblation suitable to their poor Estate of a pair of Turtle-Doves or two Pigeons offered to God with the price of Redemption for him in that he was a Manchild and the first-born There were no kind of solemn Feasts appointed by the Law which he honoured not with his presence according to the Law Nay he was pleased to be present at the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple which was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus and his Brethren as well to teach all Posterity by his Example what godly Magistrates may ordain in such kind of Causes as also how things so ordain'd ought to be observed And as he was Circumcised so did he celebrate and observe the chief Feasts of the Passover omitting nothing which either on the behalf of the Jews or for our sakes he had undertaken to perform And although the Priests in those days were very far out of square and that our Saviour Christ had very just cause in that respect to have reprov'd them sharply as other Prophets had often dealt with their Predecessors yet he did so much regard them by reason of their Authority unless he should otherwise have seem'd to have contemned both them and it as he did rather choose to let them understand their offences by Parables than by any rough reprehension still upholding them in their credits and authority as by the Law of God in that behalf it was provided When amongst many other his wonderful great Miracles he had healed certain Lepers he bad them go show themselves to their Priests because they were appointed Judges by the Law to discern the curing of that Disease before the Parties though indeed healed of it might intermingle themselves with the rest of the People and did further require them to offer for their cleansing those things which Moses had commanded in testimonium illis that is that so the said Priests might plainly see both that he was a Keeper of the Law and also that he had healed them and so be driven to repent them of their incredulity or at the least prevented thereby from slandering either him as a Breaker of the Law or that which he had done for them as if he had not throughly healed them Neither is it any way repugnant hereunto that when our Saviour Christ found chopping and changing by buying and selling in the Temple he made a Scourge of small Cords and drave them thence with the Sheep Oxen Doves and Money-Bags forbidding them to make his Fathers House an House of Merchandise For he did not thereby in any sort prejudice the Authority of the Priests who should chiefly have prevented such gross abuses and traffick in the Temple as if he had done the same either as a chief Priest or a Temporal King according to some Mens fond imaginations by any Pontifical or Regal Authority but his fact therein howsoever it might shew the negligence of the said Priests did only proceed from his Divine Zeal as he was a Prophet and could not endure such an abominable profanation of God's House many Prophets before him having done matters very lawfully of greater moment through the like divine and extraordinary Zeal in them without any impeachment of any Power either Regal or Pontifical Howbeit that our Saviour Christ was oftentimes very vehement against the Scribes and Pharisees it is plain and manifest when joining them both together he termed them serpents the Generation of Vipers and denounceth against them in one Chapter eight Woes concluding thus How should you escape the damnation of Hell The reason that these Curses and hard censures were jointly laid upon them was because they themselves were joined together in all kinds of Impiety and Malice against Christ and were neither of them especially the Pharisees any Plants of God's Plantation For whilst not only the High-Priests were still in Faction and Fury one against another as well for the getting as the keeping that high preferment and that many of the inferiour Priests were either siding amongst themselves for one Party or other or else more idle and negligent in discharging of their duties than they ought to have been these two Sects thrust themselves into the Church and through their Hypocrisy so prevail'd with the People in short time as the Priests afterward either could not or would not be rid of them because on the one side they thought it in vain to strive with them they were so backed and on the other side they found them so diligent in discharging of those duties which did appertain to themselves and withal so careful to uphold the state and authority of the Priesthood By means whereof they grew very shortly into so great estimation that as one writeth of the Pharisees whatsoever did appertain to publick and solemn Prayers and to the worship of God it was done according to their interpretations and as they prescribed And the Scribes being likewise Doctors and Expounders of the Law and concurring still with the interpretations and prescriptions of the Pharisees came not by that policy in their credits and reputation had of them far short behind them The distinction between them may