scorns offer'd unto him the Wounds of his hands feet and side the beginning and progress of his Spiritual Kingdom the seveal duties appertaining to him as he was a Prophet and likewise as he was our High-Priest the Institution of Baptism and of Christ's last Supper his Righteousness and Mercy his Death with the manner of it his Resurrection and Ascension with a number of other points they were all foreseen figur'd and described by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures and were accordingly with admirable Patience Humility Obedience Courage Zeal and Alacrity executed undergone and accomplished by him in such manner and sort with the observation of all necessary circumstances and by such degrees as from the beginning were limited and thought fit for so great a work For all things could not be done together by him and at once Although after his Baptism he Preached most diligently wrought strange Wonders and did chuse to assist him his Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples who did likewise preach baptize and wrought Miracles in his Name yet neither he nor they did collect any particular Church or Churches apart from the Synagogues of the Jews but held Society and Communion with them in all things that did belong to the outward Service and Worship of God because until his Passion as well the Ceremonies of the Law as the Aaronical Priesthood together with the Authority thereunto appertaining were all of them in force and therefore it was not lawful whilst the Old Church did stand to have erected a New Moreover it is not to be doubted but that as before Christ's Incarnation there were many faithful and godly Persons that believed in Christ to come and by that their Faith were saved so there were many such Believers after his Incarnation who were likewise the Children of God though they were ignorant for a time that Christ when he was come was the Messiah whom they expected none of the Jews so believing being in state of Damnation until after they had seen Christ heard him preach been present at his Miracles or at the least had received full instruction of them all from his Apostles and Disciples they did notwithstanding reject him In which respect the true Believers amongst the Jews in those days might not well have been distinguished into several and different Congregations or particular Churches without many great and apparent Inconveniencies but this Point is yet plainer in that the Jews who believed at that time that Christ whom they saw and heard was the true Messiah were notwithstanding subject to the Obedience of those Ceremonial and Levitical Laws which did concern them every one in his Calling which doth appear by the Examples of Christ himself and his Apostles who although they were baptized did not sever themselves from the manner of Worshipping of God in those times Insomuch as first they did celebrate together the Feast of the Passover before our Saviour Christ made them Partakers of his last Supper Neither is it to be questioned but that many who did believe in Christ their and our Saviour then amongst them had new born Children before his Passion which were as well circumcised as baptized For then as Circumcision was not repugnant to Baptism no more was Baptism any Impediment to Circumcision being both of them so united together and qualified as they could not well be sever'd during the Continuance of the Levitical Law and Priesthood We grant that upon our Saviour Christ's Birth and further proceedings in the execution of his Office not only the Jewish Ceremonies but in like sort their Priesthood began both of them to shake and did after a sort draw near to their End but until our Saviour Christ said upon the Cross It is finished and that the vail was rent in twain from the top to the bottom they neither of them had utterly lost their Levitical Natures Power and Authority And therefore it must be held that although by the preaching of our Saviour and of his Apostles many Mens hearts were drawn to believe that Christ was the Messiah whom they expected and that they were thereby made actually Partakers of many of those Mercies which by Figures and Sacrifices had been formerly set out unto them as also that in regard thereof they might be termed in a right good sense the beginning of a New Church yet did they neither in respect of their Faith and Baptism make any Separation but were only the better part of the old Church nor might they in regard of either of them have lawfully exempted themselves from the Government of it Which is further manifest by the words of our Saviour Christ himself when he saith thus If thy Brother trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he hear thee thou hast won thy Brother But if he hear thee not take yet with thee one or two that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be confirmed But if he will not vouchsafe to hear them tell it unto the Church For by the Church in this place the Ecclesiastical Courts establish'd amongst the Jews at that time must as we think be understood there being then no other Courts of that Nature amongst them which had any Authority to punish any such obstinate Persons as Christ there speaketh of So as our Saviour Christ did here refer the Parties offended by some of their Brethren to the said Ecclesiastical Courts in the same respect and sense and no otherwise then he sent the Lepers whom he had healed to the Priests according to the Law or when he referred the multitude to the Seribes and Pharisees to be instructed by them because they sate in Moses's Chair Besides whatsoever is spoken by the Evangelists of the Church that should he built upon a Rock so strongly as that the Gates of Hell should not be able to prevail against it or of the Power and Authority to bind and loose by Censures or otherwise that is no way to be applied to the said Church or Sanhedrim mentioned by St. Matthew or to any particular Assembly of Christians either before the Passion of Christ or afterwards but was only spoken and delivered by way of Prophecy of the Catholick Church which after the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Christ should be established in the World in a more conspicuous and universal sort than formerly it had been And yet we do not deny but that Christ in the said words Tell the Church meaning the Jews Courts or Sanhedrims might very well insinuate in that he called not those Courts by their own Names but termed them the Church that in such cases as there are by him mentioned the Christians in time to come should accordingly repair unto their Ecclesiastical Courts to be established among them throughout the Christian World for Reformation of Offenders and Satisfaction in Points of Religion as the Jews of all sorts whether Believers or not were bound until the
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
and sole though invisible Monarch The foundation of which Church was ever one and the same Rock to wit Christ Jesus the promised Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpents head and as many Persons Families Societies and Companies as truly believed in that blessed Seed without exception of any sort or distinction of People were the true Members and parts of the Catholick Church For the death of our Saviour Christ which long after did actually ensue was virtually through Faith as effectual to all Believers before his Passion as it hath been since In respect whereof the Holy Ghost did not only affirm That Jesus Christ was the same that is the Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption of those that believ'd in him yesterday that is before and after the Law as to day that is now in the time of the New Testament but likewise that he was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World because his Death and Passion being ever as present in the view and sight of God the Father before whom a thousand years are but as one day the same was typically represented by Sacrifices and effectual Sacraments and the merits thereof have from the beginning been communicated to all Believers So that although in imitation of the Scriptures we have spoken hitherto but of one particular Church and of the Succession of it in the Lines of Seth and Sem yet there have been other particular Churches in all Ages which were built upon the said Rock and promised Seed Cain offer'd his Sacrifice to God as well as Abel though it was not for his sins accepted and it is not to be doubted but that every chief Family of his Posterity had their Priests and publick worship of God albeit mingled with some such Superstition and Idolatry as offended God and made them less acceptable in his sight For as of the Posterity of Seth many perished so we are to judge on the other side that many of Cain's Line died in God's favour except we should think against the rules of Charity that the Curse which fell upon Cain killing his Brother Abel did cause his Off-spring to become as brute Beasts whereas having Adam their Grandfather it is more than probable he did better instruct them and prevail'd at least with some of them Likewise after the Flood all Noah's Off-spring being one Church under him and grounded upon Christ the true Foundation of it although afterward when they were setled in their several Countries allotted unto them they swerved greatly from that Purity in Religion which Noah had taught them yet they had still their Priests their Sacrifices and some outward worship of God amongst them Besides hitherto all the World being as one People if there were then any visible Churches at all upon the Earth it cannot be truly said that the calling of Abraham out of Chaldaea and the Erecting of the true worship of God in his Family did make them to be in worse case than they were before If Churches before they so continued after though Superstitious and Idolatrous Churches Again it is generally held that God did not therefore distinguish the Jews from other Nations and People and settle his publick worship amongst them as purposing thereby that his Catholick Church in their times should only consist of them and of their Nations and such other Proselytes as would be circumcised and join themselves unto them but much more because by that means the truth and certainty of all the Promises and Prophecies concerning the coming of the Messias might be faithfully and diligently observ'd and kept in one Nation and visible known place and People For it is plain in the Scriptures that after the said distinction many of the Gentiles served God and believed in Christ and were thereby made the true Members of the Catholick Church though they were not circumcis'd nor had any medling with or dependency upon the Jews Some are particularly named as Job Jethro Rahab the Ninevites the Widow of Sarepta Naaman Cornelius and some others by whom we are not only to judge of their Families and Governments that they were so many particular Churches but likewise that in every Country and People many such godly Men from time to time might have been found who with their Families and peradventure Subjects were so to be held and esteemed of We will not enter into the discussing of these places how far they may be extended Without Faith it is impossible to please God For he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him In the word was life and the life was the light of men Is God the God only of the Jews and not of the Gentiles also Yes of the Gentiles also for it is one God who doth justify Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcised through Faith I have other sheep which are not of this fold Only we do further observe that it was lawful for any of the Gentiles to come into the outward Court of the Temple to bring their Sacrifices unto the Lord and there to offer up their Prayers likewise unto him that accordingly they did often resort to the Temple for Devotion sake there to worship God as by the Examples of the Eunuch of Ethiopia and of certain Grecians that are mentioned in the Scriptures and that many of them were so addicted to the true service of God as the Prophet Haggai calleth our Saviour Christ Desiderium Gentium So that the Catholick Church consisting from the beginning till Abraham's time of such only as were afterward for distinction sake called Gentiles although God was then pleased to bestow his Mercies more plentifully upon that one particular Church of the Jews deduced from Abraham than upon any other or indeed upon all the rest for the principal Causes before-specified yet they were not utterly so rejected or cast out of God's favour but that many of them did continue as dutiful Children in the Lap and Bosom of the said Catholick Church Of which Catholick Church it is true that Adam and Noah for their times were under Christ the chief Governours Howbeit afterward the Posterity of Noah being mightily encreased when thereupon he distributed the whole World among his three Sons and their Issue he did not appoint any one of them to be the Ruler of the said Catholick Church but left the Government of every particular Family or Church unto their chief Heads Princes and Priests and of the whole to the Son of God and sole Monarch of it who only was able to undertake such a charge Neither do we read that Aaron or any of the High-Priests took upon them at any time to extend their Jurisdiction beyond the bounds and limits of the twelve Tribes or so much as once dream'd that the whole World was their Diocess that which they had being indeed more than they well ordered
natural Being only but Schoolmasters do adorn by Instruction and beautify their Minds therefore School-Masters are more to be honour'd by young Lords and Princes than are their Lords and Kings their natural Parents Or thus One end why Men were first Created and afterward born be they Kings or Princes Priests or private Persons was to live in the World but for the supporting of Mens Lives Husbandry and many other Occupations are of greater Importance and Necessity than are either Kings Princes Lords or civil Magistracy therefore those Mens base Callings are to be preferr'd before the Callings of the other Or as if a Man should reason thus They that have the chiefest charge of Souls committed unto them are to be esteem'd as Men in this World of the highest Calling but all Christians generally have every one of them a greater charge committed unto them of their own Souls than any sort of Priests or Ministers have therefore every Christian is in that respect in Calling and Dignity to be preferred before the Calling of any one Pastor Priest Prelate or Pope Now after he hath dallied with such sophistications and comparisons betwixt the Body and the Soul the Flesh and the Spirit he falleth upon some particulars the more fully as he saith to express what he had formerly delivered The sum of which particulars is That although the Pope as he is Pope cannot ordinariè ordinarily depose temporal Princes or make civil Laws or judge de rebus temporalibus yet in ordine ad Spiritualia he may do them all And this he taketh upon him to prove by five main reasons grounded God knoweth upon very weak Foundations Of which his odd number for the glory of them this which followeth is the first Civil Power is subject to Spiritual Power when they are both part of a Christian Commonwealth therefore the Spiritual Princes may command temporal Princes and dispose of their temporal affairs in ordine ad Bonum spirituale n order to a spiritual good The Antecedent of which Argument may briefly be refuted for ought that he hath said to justify it in manner as followeth For in saying that this subjection of the temporal Power to the Spiritual is but where both these Powers are part of one and the same Christian Commonwealth he maketh the Estate of Christian Kings and Princes inferiour and worse than the Estate of those that be Infidels Whose political Power being no part of any Christian Commonwealth is not subject to the Ecclesiastical Again to prefer the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Church for honour and dignity in this World before the temporal Authority of Kings and Princes is in effect to prefer the poor and base Estate of our Saviour Christ as he was a mortal Man here upon Earth subject to many wants oppressions and injuries before the glory and majesty of his Divine Nature in that Kings have their Authority and Calling from Christ as he is God Whereas all Ministers even St. Peter himself and consequently the Pope are but Christ's Vicars and Substitutes as he was Man subject to the said wants miseries and Oppressions Moreover in that every Soul by the testimony of St. Paul is subject to the Power and Authority of temporal Princes and that they must be so not because of wrath only but also for Conscience sake forasmuch as the points of subjection there specified are commanded to all Men to be observed Sacerdotibus Monachis non solùm saecularibus to Bishops and Monks and not to secular Priests only as Chrysostom saith by our Interpretation adding to these words of the Apostle Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Etiamsi Apostolus sis si Evangelista si Propheta sive quisque tandem fueris although thou art an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet or whosoever thou art and because for ought we have read none of the ancient Fathers do herein dissent from Chrysostom We hold it to be very plain and evident to our understandings that the Ecclesiastical Authority to be exercis'd in this World by any manner of Ecclesiastical Persons whosoever is inferiour and of a lower degree than is the Authority and Power of temporal Kings and Princes For if the Authority of such Ecclesiastical Persons whether Apostles Evangelists Prophets Bishops or Priests either Regular or Secular cannot exempt them from the Authority of Kings it must follow of necessity that it is subject and inferiour to their temporal Power and Authority Another of the Cardinal's Reasons whereby he would gladly prove the Pope's indirect temporal Power to omit the rest of his absurd trifling about the first is built upon a very traiterous Position never heard of in the Church in the times of the principal ancient Fathers For how earnest soever he seem'd before in refuting their Opinions who hold That no Princes are to be obey'd if they be Infidels he thinketh he is able to shift off that in effect with his jugling and indirect Fetches These are his traiterous words It is not lawful for Christians to tolerate a King being an Infidel or an Heretick if he endeavour to draw his Subjects unto his Heresy or Infidelity but to judge whether a King doth draw his Subjects to Heresy or no doth belong to the Pope unto whom is committed the charge of Religion and therefore it belongeth to the Pope to judge whether a King is to be deposed or not Concerning the Assumption of this Argument touching the presupposed charge of the Pope in matters of Religion over all the Churches in the World we shall have a fitter occasion to touch it after a sort in the next Chapter Now we will only briefly handle the falshood of his Proposition Of the Power of Subjects over their Soveraigns Where after he hath abused a place in Deuteronomy and spent some idle conceits of his own he writeth in this sort Although Christians in times past did not depose Nero and Dioclesian and Julian the Apostate and Valens the Arrian and such like id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis it came to pass because Christians did then want temporal Forces For that otherwise they might lawfully so have done appeareth by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. Where he commandeth new Judges of temporal Causes to be appointed by Christians that Christians might not be compelled to plead their Cause before a Judge that was a Persecutor of Christ Upon which Text the Cardinal maketh this Gloss Sicut novi Judices constitui potuerunt ita novi Principes Reges propter eandem causam si vires adfuissent as new Judges might have been appointed so might new Princes and Kings for the same cause if the Christians then had been able by reason of their Forces to have created to themselves such new Kings and Princes Thus the Cardinal Who undoubtedly was brought into some hard streight or else he would never have written in this sort St. Peter and St. Paul lived and dyed under