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
Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
Ecclesiastically and to instruct them in the Mysteries of their Salvation through the blessed Seed of the Woman according to the Doctrine of the Gospel which was from time to time in divers Manners delivered by the Son of God unto them This Priestly Office and Ecclesiastical Authority was yet joyned as before the Flood with the Office of the chief Fathers and civil Governours Noah himself was both a Prince and a Priest he built Altars offered Sacrifices and taught the Church after the Flood 350. Years all that which he had learnt from his Fathers concerning the Creation of the World the Fall of Man and of his Restitution by Christ and generally all that did concern necessarily either civil Societies and Government or Ecclesiastical Assemblies and Authority not omitting the very Ceremonies After Noah the chief Fathers Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob did execute that Office God himself renewing unto them this Promise of Salvation through the blessed Seed and not only confirming the same to Abraham and his Posterity by the Sacrament of Circumcision but likewise teaching and instructing them in that Heavenly Mystery sometimes by his own Voice and sometimes by Visions and divers other ways whereof the Scriptures make more plain mention than they do of the delivery of the same Evangelical Doctrine before the Flood CAN. VII IF any Man shall therefore affirm either that the Priestly Office and Authority Ecclesiastical which Noah had before the Flood was by that Deluge determin'd or that it was by the Election of his Off-spring confer'd again upon him or that Sem Abraham Isaac and Jacob were neither Priests nor had any Ecclesiastical Authority until they were chosen thereunto by their Children and Nephews or that the Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Authority were not the Ordinances of God for the governing and instructing of the Church according to the Will and direction of God himself delivered and revealed unto them as is aforesaid he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. VIII AS before the Flood Cain and his Posterity were opposite to the Posterity of Seth and might therefore generally have been called the Church Malignant so fell it out after the Flood in the Generations of Japhet but especially of Cham against the Posterity of Sem in whose Lineage the true worship of God through the blessed Seed was especially continued and not that only but in like manner as the Children of Seth in process of time provok't against them the wrath of God by corrupting their ways and following in their Conversations the Generations of Cain and were in that respect all of them with the rest of Cain's Off-spring justly punisht and drown'd by the Flood saving eight Persons Noah and his Wife Sem Cham and Japhet and their three Wives so did the Posterity not only of Cham and Japhet as well before as after the confusion of Tongues and the death of Noah but likewise the Off-spring of Sem who were called more effectually to the knowledge of the Mysteries of Christ and right service of the true God leave the ways of Noah and Sem and gave just occasion to Almighty God had he not bound himself by his Covenant to the contrary to have drowned them all again Nimrod descended of Cham not contenting himself with the Patriarchal or Regal mild Government ordain'd of God by the Laws of Reason and Nature became a Tyrant and Lord of Confusion and by Histories it is apparent that within few Ages after the Death of Noah's Sons great Barbarism and confusion fell among their Generations through their Pride and dissoluteness in that they thought scorn to be govern'd either Civilly or Ecclesiastically as God himself by Noah had ordain'd or to be ruled otherwise than as they list themselves and touching the Service of God and the Ecclesiastical Authority they mingled with true Religion many false worships and chose Priests among themselves to serve God after their own Fashions or rather they devis'd to themselves many Gods and found out Priests accordingly such as were content to train them up in those kinds of Impiety In Chaldea it self and the places adjacent the Children of Sem were all of them almost grown to be Idolaters insomuch as God himself to keep a remnant more carefully that should through the publick profession of his name be partakers of his Mercies in Christ called Abraham with his Family from the habitation of his Fathers to become a Stranger in the Land of Canaan CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm That the said Posterity of Noah's Children did well in altering either the manner or form of civil Government which God had appointed by bringing in of Tyranny or factious Popularity or of the Ecclesiastical by framing unto themselves a new kind of Priesthood and worship after their own humours or that it was lawful for such as then served God upon any pretence to have imitated their Examples in either of those courses he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. IX IT is apparent in the Scriptures That although God was not pleased that the Issue of Jacob's Children should by the Example of the Sons of Noah grow up to become the heads of so many several Nations but continuing together should make one People and Nation to be ruled and governed by the same Laws and Magistrates yet it seemed good to his Heavenly Wisdom that in so great a People as should descend from Jacob's Children no one Tribe or Family should continue charg'd both with the Civil or Regal and Ecclesiastical Function and therefore Jacob making way to the fulfilling of the will of God herein did take just occasion moved thereunto by the Spirit of God to deprive his eldest Son Reuben of his Interest by Birthright in both those Prerogatives to be disposed afterward by God unto other of his Brethren Now after Jacob's Death the former thereof viz. the Scepter in process of time fell to Judah as Jacob before had Prophesied and the other also viz. the Priesthood was afterwards given to Levi by God's Ordinance CAP. X. AFter Jacob's Death till Moses was sent to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egypt there is little in the Scriptures touching either the Civil or Ecclesiastical Government It appeareth that Joseph being a great Prince in Aegypt by the King's Authority was whilst he lived chief amongst his Brethren but after his Death through the Tyranny of the Kings of Aegypt which God suffer'd to lie heavily upon them for many Years the civil Authority which any of the Tribes had was very small there was such jealousy of their number which daily encreast above all ordinary expectation as it is not likely that the Kings successively would suffer any great Authority to rest in them howbeit we think they had some either the chief heads of the Tribes generally or of the Tribe of Ephraim and Reuben for it may be Jacob's Prophecy of Reuben's losing the Prerogatives of his
Christ but likewise the other two Persons of the Blessed Trinity God the Father and God the Holy Ghost in that the dishonouring of One of them is the dishonouring of them all Three We do therefore for our selves and in the Name of all the rest of the Church of England acknowledge and profess from the bottom of our hearts the Truth of all that is written in the Sacred Scriptures and consequently and in more particular manner whatsoever is written in the same that doth appertain to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity Out of the Doctrine of which Sacred Writings because the Apostles and Churches of God moved thereunto by sundry sorts of Hereticks have long since most faithfully and learnedly deduced into certain Summaries rightly termed Creeds all those Points of true Doctrine which do concern God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and are necessarily to be believed under pain of condemnation We do resolutely embrace and stedfastly believe all and every one the Articles of the Apostles Creed and all and every one the Articles of the other Creeds made by sundry Councils for the further Declaration of the Christian Faith and Apostolick Creed as of the Nicene Creed made by the Council of Nice against Arius who denied the Divinity of the Son of God and of the next Creed made in the first Council of Constantinople ratifying and further declaring the Nicene Creed against Eudoxius the Arian and Macedonius who denied the Holy Ghost to be God and of the Creed made in the first Council of Ephesus against Nestorius who taught that the two Natures in Christ were not united together personally but that the Word which did take our Nature upon him for our Redemption did only assist Christ our Saviour as one Friend may assist another and of the Creed made in the Council of Chalcedon against Eutyches who did confound the two Natures of Christ Against any of which Articles whosoever doth oppose himself and doth willfully continue in such his Opposition we hold and judge them to be worthily subject to all those Censures and Anathematisms which the several Constitutions and Canons of the said Councils have justly laid upon them Also with the same Resolution and Faith before-mentioned we receive and believe all and every one the several Points and Articles of the Athanasian Creed made a little after the Council of Nice against such blasphemous Opinions as in those times were either directly or indirectly published in Corners and spread here and there to the seducing of many According to some Articles of the which Creed that do more nearly concern our Course We stedfastly believe and confess That our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man God of the substance of the Father begotten before all Worlds and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane flesh subsisting Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferiour to the Father as touching his Manhood who although he be both God and Man yet he is not two but One Christ One not by Conversion of the Godhead into Flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God One altogether not by Confusion of substance but by Unity of Person In respect of which Personal Union of the two Natures of our Saviour Christ without confusion or mixture of either of them thus described in the said Creed whatsoever is affirmed in the Scriptures as well of the one Nature as of the other the same is also truly to be affirmed de toto Composito that is of his most sacred Person being both God and Man the Essential Properties of them both remaining notwithstanding distinguished For as the said personal or hypostatical Union of the said two Natures doth not make the one Nature to be the other the divine Nature to be the humane Nature or the humane Nature to be the Divine Nature so doth it not make the Essential Proprieties of the one Nature to be the Essential Proprieties of the other Nature but as well the Proprieties and actions as the Natures themselves do remain distinguished though united in one Person both of them concurring together the Deity in working that which appertaineth to the Deity and the Humanity executing those Essential Proprieties and actions which do belong unto the Humanity For Example the Divine Nature appear'd in Christ by Miracles when his humane Nature was subject to many opprobries and injuries In that our Saviour Christ did satisfie 5000. Persons with 5. loaves did give Water of Life to the Woman of Samaria did walk upon the Sea dry-foot did by his Commandment calm the Winds he shewed thereby some effects and works of his Divine Nature because they were as one well saith verbi propria non carnis the Proprieties of the Word and not of the Flesh Again in that Christ brake Bread this was an Office of his humane Nature but in that he multiplied it the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that he cried out Lazarus come forth that was the office of his humane Nature but in that he quickned him and raised him from Death that did belong unto his Divine Nature In that he said Thy sins are forgiven thee that was an office of his humane Nature but in that such sins were indeed remitted the same did appertain to his Divine Nature In that our Saviour Christ died the same did proceed from the Flesh but in that by his Death he did expiate our Sins that did proceed from the Spirit In that he was Buried did proceed from the Flesh but in that he did raise himself from the dead that was he Office of his Divinity In that he gave Bread to his Apostles in his last Supper he did it as Man but in that he made them partakers of his blessed Body he did the same as he was God In that now being in Heaven he doth possess that Kingdom in the name and behalf of his Elect that doth appertain to his humane Nature but that he doth now remain with us and dwell in our hearts that is an Office of his Divine Nature In that he maketh Intercession for us that doth belong to his humane Nature but in that he doth justifie us regenerate us work in us both to will and to perform in that he ruleth us and leadeth us in the way of his Commandments all these Offices do appertain unto his Divinity Lastly In that he shall come in the Clouds and say unto one sort of Persons Come ye blessed and unto the other sort Depart ye Cursed he shall do the same according to his humane Nature but in that he shall judge every Man according to his knowledge of all Mens hearts their cogitations desires and works that he shall do as God Nevertheless any thing by us thus affirmed notwithstanding Christ himself is not divided though the Proprieties and actions of his two Natures are in this
Saviour having most willingly subjected himself to the obedience of the whole Law did very carefully upon every occasion shew himself most observant of this one Law amongst the rest For in the whole course of his Life here upon Earth we find not any alteration that he made in the Civil State where he was conversant which he must of necessity have done if his coming into the World had any way impeached the Authority of the civil Magistrates It is expresly recorded of him that he lived in subjection to his Parents herein fullfilling the said Fifth Commandment which containeth as well the subjection due to Authority Civil as Paternal He was made of the Seed of David according to the flesh as the Apostle speaketh and so had no doubt according to his Manhood great natural compassion of those Miseries and Afflictions which the Jews at that very time endur'd under the Romans Howbeit as knowing the duties of their Allegiance he neither moved nor any way encouraged them to take Arms against the Emperour nor filled their heads with shifts and distinctions how Subjects in this Case and that Case were superiour to their Soveraigns nor did any way approve of those rebellious courses in them whereunto they were of their own dispositions very greatly addicted He was so far from these exorbitant and bad Humours as still he shewed when there was cause his great detestation of them He did himself very willingly pay Tribute when it was demanded and upon fit Occasion gave all the Jews this following Rule that they living under Caesar were bound to pay unto him those things that were his meaning such Obedience Custom Tributes Tolls Taxation and Payments as by the Laws both Divine and Imperial were due unto Caesar And certainly if ever it had and might have been lawful for private Men in respect of their own Zeal to have used Force against Authority it seemeth to us that it might have been born with in the Apostles upon some such Accidents as then fell out Judas had betrayed their Master and thereupon a Multitude was sent with a publick Officer to apprehend him Which the Apostles perceiving conferred together as it seemeth how to make Resistance and said in their Zeal Master shall we smite them with the sword But Peter seeing of likelyhood the Haste Violence and Fury that was used by the said Multitude did upon the sudden pluck out his Sword and without any expectation what Christ would answer to the said Question smiting one of the Company did cut off his Ear. Now if we shall consult with Flesh and Blood who would not approve this Fact of St. Peter But our Saviour Christ being void of any Heat or Passion and only respecting the Will of God and the due Observation of the said particular Law did utterly condemn in St. Peter that violent and unlawful Attempt because he being but a private Man had nothing to do with the Temporal Sword which belonged to the Civil Magistrate and much less should have used it against Authority And therefore as well to let St. Peter see his Offence as also to leave a Caution for the bridling from thence forwards of all future rash Zeal in such a Case he justified the Law of God and did leave the same for a Rule to all Posterity saying All that take the sword shall perish with the Sword meaning all private Persons that shall at any time abuse after that sort the civil Sword which doth in no wise appertain unto them Besides it is manifest that our Saviour Christ if as he was God he had been disposed was able to have defended himself against all the World Nay as he was Man he might by Prayer to his Father have procured sufficient Assistance against the Force of all his Enemies had he not well known that Course to have been repugnant to the Obedience which he had undertaken of the said Commandment and no way agreeable to the Vocation and Work which he had in hand and therefore persisting in his Reproof of St. Peter Thinkest thou saith he unto him that I cannot now pray to my Father and he will give me more than Twelve Legions of Angels but it is ever apparent in all the Proceedings of our Saviour Christ whilst he lived in this World that he never liked in any the Resistance of Civil Authority by Force or approved of any inconsiderate and rash Zeal bent against Magistrates or any other Persons but was always ready to blame and check the same as he did when he found it in two other of his Apostles who to revenge an Injury offered to their Master sought to have had it punished from Heaven For when the Samaritans refused upon conference and direction we doubt not of those that were in Authority over them to give Christ entertainment and lodging in one of their Cities James and John were so moved therewith as they would needs have licence of him to command that Fire should come down from Heaven as Elias did shewing thereby that in their Heat if they had been able they would have had them all destroyed But our Saviour Christ disliking such fiery and rash Zeal rebuked them and said You know not of what spirit you are that is in effect as if he should have said You may pretend Elias's Fact but you are far from Elias's Spirit He only executed the Judgment of God as by the Spirit he was extraordinarily directed whereas Ye have received no such direction but are only in your Passion and Heat stirred up to Revenge The Conclusion hereof is That Christ our Lord all the time he remained here upon Earth did not only in his own Person shew himself obedient to civil Authority according to the said fifth Commandment but did likewise utterly condemn in others upon every occasion offered to him throughout the Four Evangelists all inconsiderate Zeal and Opposition against Temporal Magistracy Insomuch as concerning his own said Obedience when he was apprehended notwithstanding Peter's Sword he submitted himself to the publick Officer that was then sent for him and likewise being afterward carried to Pilate the Civil Magistrate at that time under the Emperour and before him falsly charged by his malicious Adversaries with Treason he behaved himself in such dutiful manner as was fit and convenient for him that truly had professed subjection and did in no sort seek to decline his Power and Authority either by alledging that he was not the Emperour 's Subject or that Pilate was not his competent Judge or by using any other Tergiversation or Evasion but acknowledged very freely his said Authority to be lawful and yielding himself thereunto did confess that it was given him from above CAN. I. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Doctrine of Grace in the New Testament doth more abolish the rules of Nature or Moral Law of God than it did in the Old
were inspired by the Holy Ghost did leave this Doctrine so jointly taught to be dispensed with afterward by any Pope his Vicar led by what Spirit is easy to be discern'd being so far different from the Holy Ghost which spake as is aforesaid by the said Apostles or that it is not a most wicked and detestable assertion for any Man to affirm That the Apostles in commanding such obedience to the Ethnick Princes then did not truly mean as their plain words do import but had some mental Reservations whereby the same might be alter'd as occasion should serve or that the Apostles at that time if they had found the Christians of sufficient force for Number Provision and Furniture of Warlike Engines to have deposed those Pagan Princes that were then both Enemies and Persecutors of all that believed in Christ would no doubt have moved and authorized them to have made War against such their Princes and absolved them from performing any longer that Obedience which they as Men temporizing had in their Writings prescribed unto them or that when afterward Christians were grown able for number and strength to have opposed themselves by force against their Emperours being wicked and Persecutors they might lawfully so have done for any thing that is in the New Testament to the contrary or that these and such like Expositions of the meaning of the holy Apostles when they writ so plainly and directly are not very impious and blasphemous as tending not only to the utter discredit of them and their Writings but likewise to the indelible stain and dishonour of the whole Scriptures in that they were written by no other Persons of any greater Authority than were the Apostles nor by the Inspiration and direction of any other Spirit He doth greatly Erre CAP. VI. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not in Effect alter the Form of Ecclesiastical Government amongst the Jews the essential parts of the Priesthood under the Law otherwise than as the said Priesthood was typical and had the Execution of Levitical Ceremonies annexed unto it being instituted and appointed by God to continue not for a time but until the End of the World WE have deduced in our former Book the joint Descent of the State as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal from the Beginning of the World unto the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ Since whose Birth seeing we have found no alteration in the Temporal Government of the World either while Christ lived here upon the Earth or during the time of his Apostles assuredly we shall not find that the alteration which upon Christ's Death fell out in the Church was so great as some have imagined For as our Saviour Christ according unto his Divine Nature having created all the World was the sole Monarch of it and did govern the same visibly by Kings and Soveraign Princes his Vicegerents upon Earth so he in the same Divine Nature being the Son of God and foreseeing the Fall of Man and how thereby all his Posterity should become the Children of Wrath did of his infinite Mercy undertake to be their Redeemer and presently after the Transgression of Adam Eve put that his Office in practice Whereby as he was Agnus occisus ab origine Mundi he not only began the Erection of that one Church selected people and Society of Believers which eversince hath been and so shall continue his blessed Spouse for ever but also took upon him thenceforward and for ever to be the sole Head and Monarch of it ruling and governing the same visibly by such Priests and Ministers under him as in his heavenly Wisdom he thought fit to appoint and as we have more at large expressed in our said former Book Especially when he settled amongst the Jews a more exact and eminent Form of Ecclesiastical Government than before that time he had done In the which his so exact a Form he first did separate the civil Government from the Ecclesiastical as they were both jointly exercised by one Person restraining the Priesthood for a time unto the Tribe of Levi and the civil Government unto temporal Princes and shortly after more particularly unto the Tribe of Judah Concerning the Priesthood thus limited we need to say little because the Order and Subordination of it is so plainly set down in the Scriptures Aaron and his Sons after him by succession had the first Place and were appointed to exercise the Office of Highpriests and under their soveraign Princes and temporal Governours as we have shewed in our said first Book cap. 18. did bear the chief sway in matters appertaining to God Next unto Aaron there were 24. Priests of an inferiour Degree that were termed Principes Sacerdotum that governed the third sort of Priests allotted unto their several Charges and this third sort also had the rest of the Levites at their direction In like manner these Levites neither wanted their chief Rulers to order them according as the said third sort of Priests did command which Rulers were termed Principes Levitarum in number 24. Nor their Assistants the Gabionites otherwise called Nethinaei to help them in the Execution of their baser Offices Of this notable Form of Ecclesiastical Government it may be truly said in our Judgments That the same being of God's own framing it is to be esteem'd the best and most perfect Form of Church-Government that ever was or can be devised and that Form also is best to be approved and upheld which doth most resemble it and cometh nearest unto it We said upon a fit Occasion That by the Death of our Saviour Christ the Church-Government then amongst the Jews was greatly altered and therefore do think it very convenient in this place more fully therein to set down our meaning It is very true that before the Death of Christ the outward Service of God did much consist in Figures Shadows and Sacrifices the Levitical Priesthood itself as it was to Aaron and his Stock and in some other Respects being only a Type of our High Priest Jesus Christ But afterward when by his Passion upon the Cross he had fulfilled All that was signified by the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices and had likewise not only abolished them but freed the Tribe of Levi of the charge of the Priesthood and removed the High Priesthood as it was typical from the said Priestly Tribe unto the Regal Tribe of Judah the same being now setled in himself our only High Priest according to the Order not of Aaron but of Melchizedech He hath by that his Translation of the Priesthood freed his Church from the Ceremonial Law which contained in it little but Patterns Shadows and Figures of that one Sacrifice offer'd by him upon the Cross which doth sanctifie all the faithful and purge their Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Nevertheless in this so great an alteration although all the said Figures
before his Ascension enlarging their Commission did commit unto his Apostles the Administration of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and shortly after furnished not only them but the said Disciples also according to their several Functions most abundantly with all such Gifts and Heavenly Graces as were necessary for them in those great Affairs which were imposed upon them Whereby we find already two compleat Degrees of Ecclesiastical Ministers ordained by Christ himself immediately viz. His 12. Apostles and his 70. Disciples the one in Dignity and Authority above the other the Disciples in that respect being termed Secondary Apostles and were the same as 't is most probably held who were afterward called Evangelists We will not intermeddle with the Prophets in those times of whom the Scriptures make mention because divers of them were no Ministers of the Word and Sacraments of whom only we have here taken upon us to intreat leaving in like manner the said 70. Disciples or Evangelists as before they had been assistants unto Christ so now to be directed by his Apostles Touching whose blessed calling it is to be observed that the end of it was not that they should only for their own times by Preaching the Word Administring the Sacraments and likewise by their Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment draw many to the embracing of the Gospel and afterward to rule and order them as that they might not easily be drawn again from it but were in like sort to provide for a Succession in their Ministry of fit Persons sufficiently Authorized by them to undertake that charge and as well to yield some further assistance unto them whilst they themselves lived as afterward also both to continue the same in their own Persons unto their lives end and in like manner to ordain by the Authority of the Apostles given unto them other Ministers to succeed themselves that so the said Apostolical Authority being derived in that sort from one to another there might never be any want of Pastors and Teachers for the work of the Ministry and for the Edification of the Body of Christ unto the end of the World This being the duty of the said Apostles and that it may be evident what it was which they did communicate unto the Ministry it is to be observed that some things in the Apostles were essential and perpetual and was the substance of their Ministry containing the three Essential Parts before mentioned of Preaching administring the Sacraments and of Ecclesiastical Government and that some were but personal and temporary granted unto them for the better strengthning and approving of the said Ministry with all the Parts of it there being then many Difficulties and Impediments which did many ways hinder the first Preaching and Plantation of the Gospel In the number of the said personal or temporary Gifts or Prerogatives these may be accounted the Chief 1. That they were called immediately by Chirst himself to lay the Foundation of Christian Faith among the Gentiles 2. That their Commission to that purpose was not limited to any Place or Country 3. That they had power through Imposition of their hands to give the Holy Ghost by visible Signs 4. That they were directed in the performance of their Office by the especial Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and lastly That their Doctrine which they deliver'd in Writing was to be a Canon and Rule to all Churches for ever All which personal Prerogatives although they did then appertain and were then adherent to the Essence of the Apostolick Function and were necessary at the first for the establishing of the Gospel yet it is plain that they did not contain in them any of the said Essential Parts of the Ministry and likewise that they could not be communicated by the Apostles unto any others So as either the Apostles for the Propagation and Continuance of the Eccelesiastical Ministry did communicate to others the said three Essential Parts of it viz. Power to Preach to Administer the Sacraments and Authority of Government wherein must be Degrees some to direct and some to be directed or else they died all with them which were a very wicked and an idle conceit the Apostles having Power to communicate them all alike as by their Proceedings it will appear At the first they themselves with the Evangelists and so many of the Prophets as were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments after they had converted many to the Faith did execute in their own Persons agreeably to their several Callings all those Ecclesiastical Functions as were afterward of necessity and in due time to be distinguished and setled in some others Whereby it came to pass that the Church in Jerusalem during that time had no other Deacons Priests nor Bishops but the Apostles the Evangelists and the said Prophets But afterwards the Harvest growing great as to disburthen themselves of some charge they Ordained Deacons So their own Company Apostles Disciples or Evangelists and Prophets coming short of that number of Labourers which the said Harvest required they did for their future aid chuse unto themselves by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost certain other new Disciples and Scholars such as they found meet for that work and after some good experience had of them made them by the Imposition of their hands Priests and Ministers of the Gospel but did not for a time tie them to any particular places as having design'd them to be their Fellow-Labourers and Coadjutors These Men the Apostles had commonly in their Company and did not employ their Pains and diligent Preaching for the speedier Propagation of the Gospel which was their first and most Principal Care but likewise did use to send them hither and thither their Occasions so requiring to the Churches already planted as their Messengers and Legates sufficiently authorized for the dispatching of such Affairs as were committed unto them Of this number were Timothy Titus Marcus Epaphroditus Sylvanus Andronicus and divers others who in respect of such their Apostolical Employments and because also the Apostles did oftentimes commend them greatly and join'd their Names with their own in the beginnings of sundry their Epistles to divers Churches were Men of great Reputation and Authority amongst all Christians in those days and had the name it self of Apostles given unto them as formerly it hath been observ'd of the 70. Disciples And these were the Persons who were afterward when they were tied to the oversight of divers particular Churches or Congregations termed Bishops as it will afterward appear Now because these Apostolical Persons were still to attend upon the Apostles and their Designments as is above mentioned and for that the number of Christians every where did still encrease the Apostles held it necessary to ordain by imposition of their hands a second degree of Ministers who were thereupon still to remain in the particular Churches or Congregations that were already planted in divers Cities for in those
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
meant at all to erect it or that their expectation of fit opportunity to establish that kind of Government in the Churches of the Gentiles being converted to Christ hath any more force to discredit it than had the want of it for many years amongst the Jews to blemish the dignity of it when it was there established or that the Apostles had no further Authority of Church-Government committed unto them after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ than they had before his Passion or that there was not as great necessity of sundry degrees in the Ministry whilst the Apostles lived one to rule another to be ruled for the establishing and government of the Church as there was whilst the Priesthood of Aaron endured or that Christ himself did not after a sort approve of divers degrees of Ministers some to have preheminence over others in that having chosen to himself twelve Apostles he did also elect 70. Disciples who were neither superiour nor equal to the Apostles and were therefore their inferiours or that he did not very expresly after his Ascension appoint divers Orders and degrees of Ministers who had power and preheminence one over another Apostles over the Prophets and Evangelists and the Evangelists over Pastors and Doctors or that the Authority of Preaching of Administration of the Sacraments and of Ecclesiastical Government given to the Apostles was not to be communicated by the Apostles unto others as there should be good opportunity in that behalf or that because there were some personal Prerogatives belonging to the Apostles which they could not communicate unto others therefore they had not power to communicate to some Ministers as well their Authority of Government over other Ministers as their Authority to preach and administer the Sacraments or that in the Authority of Government so to be communicated unto others by the Apostles there are not included certain degrees to be in the Ministry some to rule and some to be ruled or that it was not lawful for the Apostles to choose unto themselves Coadjutors and to make them Ministers of the Word and Sacraments though they tied them for a space to no certain place more than they themselves and the Evangelists were limited or tied but kept them in their own Company as if they had been in a manner their Fellows and employ'd them in Apostolical Embassages as there were occasions or that the Apostles might not lawfully ordain a second Order of Ministers by Imposition of their hands to Preach and administer the Sacraments and to tie them to particular Churches and Congregations there to execute those their duties or that the Ministers of that second degree and Order so tied unto their particular Charges had any power committed unto them either at all to make Ministers or to pronounce the Sentence of Excommunication against any of their Congregation but by the direction of the Apostles when they had given the Sentence during all the time that the Apostles kept in their own hands the said two points of Ecclesiastical Authority or that it was not expedient for the Apostles to retain in their own hands the Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Government for a time and whilst they were able to execute the same in their own Persons or by their Coadjutors as they should direct them and not to communicate the same either to any their said Coadjutors or other Persons of the Ministry until they themselves had good experience and tryal of them and that the particular Churches also in every City found the want of such Men so authorized to reside amongst them or that when the said Ministers placed in divers particular Churches in sundry Cities fell at variance amongst themselves which of them should be most prevalent amongst the People and drew their Followers into divers Sects and Schisms it was not high time for the Apostles seeing by reason of their great affairs and business otherwise they could not attend those particular brawls and inconveniencies to appoint some worthy Persons in every City to have the rule government and direction of them or that when such Men were to be placed in such Cities the Apostles did not make especial choice of them out of the number of their said Coadjutors and likewise out of the rest of the Ministry to execute those Episcopal duties which did appertain to their Callings or that when they had so design'd and chosen them to be Bishops they did not communicate unto them as well their Apostolical Authority of Ordaining of Ministers and power of the Keys as of Preaching and Administring the Sacraments or that it was not the meaning of the Apostle St. Paul that such Persons as Timothy and Titus were ought to be made Bishops in such Cities and Countries as were that Province of Ephesus and Kingdom of Crete to have the like Authority and Power given them in their several Cities with their Suburbs Diocess or Province that was committed to Timothy and Titus for the ruling of those Ministers and Churches under them or that the Authority given by the Apostle St. Paul or by any other of the Apostles to Timothy and Titus and such like other Bishops or Archbishops did any more diminish the Power and Authority which the Apostles had in their own hands before they appointed any such Bishops and Archbishops to rule and govern them all than their giving Power and Authority of Preaching and Administring the Sacraments did impeach their own Authority so to do He doth greatly Erre CAP. VIII The Sum of the Chapter following That the Churches and godly Fathers that were immediately after the Apostles times and all the Ancient Fathers since did account the Form of Church-Government established by the Apostles of Priests and Ministers for more particular Charges of Bishops superiour to the said Priests and of Arch-Bishops to have the care and oversight of the said Bishops and Churches committed unto them not to have been ordain'd for their times only but to be continued to the End of the World the same reasons exacting the continuance of it which moved the Apostles by the Direction of the Holy Ghost first to erect it WE have pursued the Form of Ecclesiastical Government so far forth as it is expressed in the Scriptures and as it was put in practice during the Apostles times For the further proof whereof we have thought it expedient briefly to observe what the primitive Church Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Histories have in their Writings testified and said of this matter as whether they held that Timothy and Titus were Bishops in the Apostles times and had Authority over the Churches and Ministry committed to their Charge and whether that Form of Church-Government in the Apostles times wherein were divers Degrees of Ministers one sort to direct and rule viz. Bishops and the other to be directed and ruled was only necessary for the first plantation of the Churches but not so afterward when the Churches were planted as if it
Timothy of of his Epistle to Titus though they are found in the ancient Copies of the Greek Testament are of no Credit or Authority or that such an Impeachment and Discredit laid upon them is not very prejudicial to the Books and Writings of the Holy Ghost or that it is not great presumption for Men in these days to take upon them to know better Whether Timothy and Titus were Bishops than the Churches and godly Fathers did which were planted and lived either in the Apostle's times or presently after them except they have some especial Revelations from God or that whilst Men do labour to bring into discredit the ancient Fathers and Primitive Churches they do not derogate from themselves such credit as they hunt after and as much as in them lieth bring many parts of Religion into a wonderful uncertainty or that it is probable or was possible for Timothy to have observ'd those Rules that St. Paul gave him unto the coming of Christ except as the Fathers expound some of them he meant to have them first observed by himself and other Bishops in that Age and that afterward they should so likewise be observed by all Bishops for ever or that the ancient Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories when they Record it to all Posterity that these Men and those Men were made by the Apostles Bishops of such and such places are not to be held to be of more credit than any other Historiographers or Writers or that when the ancient Fathers did collect out of the Scriptures and practice of the Apostles the continuance for ever of that Form of Church-Government which was then in use they were not so throughly illuminated with the Holy Ghost as divers Men of late have been or that it was an idle course held by the Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers to keep the Catalogues of their Bishops or to ground Arguments in some Cases upon their Succession in that they were able to deduce their beginnings either from the Apostles or from some Apostolical Persons or that the Form of Government used in the Apostle's times for the planting and ordering of Churches was not in many respects as necessary to be continued in the Church afterward especially considering that many Churches were not left fully ordered nor in some places were at all planted when the Apostles died or that true and perfect Order grounded upon the very Laws of Nature and Reason and established by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles times was not fit for the Churches of God afterward to embrace and observe or that any Church since the Apostles time till of late years when it received the Gospel had not likewise Archbishops and Bishops for the Government of it or that divers of the ancient Fathers did not hold and that very truly for ought that appeareth to the contrary that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in establishing the Form of Church-Government amongst the Gentiles had an especial respect to that Form which God had setled amongst the Jews and did no way purpose to abrogate or abolish it or that any since the Apostles times till of late days was ever held to be a lawful Minister of the Word and Sacraments who was not Ordain'd Priest or Minister by the Imposition of the hands of some Bishop or that it is with any probability to be imagin'd that all the Churches of Christ and ancient Fathers from the beginning would ever have held it for an Apostolical Rule That none but Bishops had any Authority to make Priests had they not thought and judged that the same Authority had been derived unto them the said Bishops from the same Apostolical Ordination that was committed unto Timothy and Titus their Predecessors or that the Apostles and all the ancient Fathers were deceived when they judged the Authority of Bishops necessary at all times for the suppressing of Schisms and that without Bishops there would be in the Churches as many Sects as Ministers or that when Men find themselves in regard of their disobedience to their Bishops so fully and notably described and censured by all the ancient Fathers for Schismaticks and contentious Persons they have not just cause to fear their own Estates if they continue in such their willfulness and obstinacy or that the Church-Government by us above treated of is truly to be said to savour of Judaism more than the observation by godly Kings and Princes of the Equity of the Iudicial Law given to the Jews may truly be said to savour thereof or that it doth proceed from any other than the wicked Spirit for any sort of Men what godly shew soever they can pretend to seek to discredit as much as in them lieth that Form of Church-Government which was established by the Apostles and left by them to continue in the Church to the end of the World under Archbishops and Bishops such as were Timothy and Titus and some others then called to those Offices by the said Apostles and ever since held by the Primitive Churches and all the ancient Fathers to be Apostolical Functions or to term the same or any part of it to be Anti-Christian He doth greatly Erre CAP. IX The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven did not commit the Temporal Government of the whole World unto St. Peter That the Apostles and whole Ministry did succeed Christ not as he was a Person immortal and glorious after his Resurrection but as he was a Mortal Man here upon the Earth before his Passion That Christ left neither to St. Peter nor to the Bishops of Rome nor to any other Archbishops or Bishops any temporal Possessions all that since any of them have gotten being bestowed upon them by Emperours Kings and Princes and other their good Benefactors And that the Imagination of St. Peter's Temporal Sovereignty is very idle the same being never known unto himself for ought that appeareth and argueth great Ignorance of the true nature of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ for the erecting whereof the spiritual working of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles and the rest of the Ministry of the Gospel was and is only necessary IT hath been shewed by us before that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension became actually in the State of the Heir of all things Governour of all the World and King of kings even as he was Man his divine Nature working more gloriously in his Humanity than formerly it had done Howbeit although we also made it plain that notwithstanding the said Glory Power Rule Dominion and Majesty wherewith Christ is really possest sitting in Heaven at the right hand of his Father he made no alteration in the Form and manner of Temporal Government but left the whole World to be ruled by Kings and Soveraign Princes under him as it had been before himself retaining still in his own hands the Scepter and chiefest Ensigns of Royal and highest Majesty to direct and
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
with Rods. I was once stoned I suffered thrice Shipwrack Night and day have I been in the deep Sea In Journying I was often in perils of Water in perils of Robbers in perils of mine own Nation in perils amongst the Gentiles in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false Brethren In weariness and painfulness in watching often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides these things which are outward I am cumber'd daily and have the care of all the Churches Much is not written of St. Peter by the Evangelist St. Luke but it is not to be doubted that his Case was as bad as any of his Fellows When he began to Preach he was call'd in question with great eagerness and vehemently threatned Also with some other of the Apostles he was cast into Prison and beaten Likewise when James was killed by Herod's Commandment Peter was again Imprisoned and loaden with Irons and had assuredly in all likelyhood escaped hardly with his Life but that the Angel of the Lord delivered him In a word after many Afflictions Injuries Calamities and Miseries endured by the Apostles whilst they lived in this World they were in the end as well St. Peter as almost all the rest most spitefully and cruelly by the Enemies of Christ and of their own Salvation put to Death During the course of whose lives in so great dangers and manifold distresses out of question they would greatly have marvelled their hard Estates consider'd but especially St. Peter if he had known himself to be the sole Monarch under Christ over all the World and that the Emperour and all other Kings had been at that time his Vassals and that likewise they the rest of the Apostles had been under St. Peter so many Soveraign and Temporal Princes to have commanded and ruled amongst them throughout the whole World Neither do we see any true cause that might have moved St. Peter to have concealed that his so eminent temporal Power and Authority if he had thought it to have been the Ordinance of God or at least if he for modesty would have been silent why the rest of the Apostles should not have published it that the civil and temporal States in those times who knew no such Ordination made by Christ might have been left inexcusable Besides the concealing of a truth of so great importance was an injury offered to all the faithful in those days who had they been truly taught in these Mens conceits ought to have left their Obedience to the Emperour in all temporal Causes and for the dignity of the Gospel to have adher'd unto St. Peter to have been directed in them by him their temporal Monarch The consideration of all which inconveniences and consequents doth perswade us to think that none of the Apostles ever dreamed of any such temporal Soveraignty notwithstanding that they knew well the Scriptures how Christ told them That All Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto him how St. Peter had two Swords and how Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost were stricken suddenly from Heaven with Death Touching the two first of which places the same being notoriously abused and wrested by the Canonists and their Adherents to prove the Popes temporal Monarchy the said Cardinal doth very resolutely reject the Arguments which are thence by them deduced And to the first he answereth Potestatem de quâ hic loquitur Dominus non esse potestatem temporalem ut Regnum terrenorum sed vel tantùm spiritualem ut B. Hieronymus B. Anselmus exponunt qui hunc esse volunt sensum eorum verborum Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo in terrâ i.e. ut sicut in coelo Rex sum Angelorum ità per fidem regnem in cordibus hominum vel ut addit Theophylactus esse potestatem quandam summam in omnes creaturas non temporalem sed divinam vel divinae simillimam quae non potest communicari homini mortali That the Power whereof the Lord here speaketh is not a temporal Power like the Power of terrene Kings but it is either a spiritual Power as St. Hierom and St. Anselm do expound the said place who will have this to be the sense of those words All Power is given me in Heaven and Earth which is to say that as in Heaven I am King of Angels so by Faith I do reign in the hearts of Men or as Theophylact addeth it is a certain supream Power not temporal but divine or most like to the Divine Power which cannot be communicated to any mortal Man And for the second Argument drawn from St. Peter 's two Swords the same is set down by our said Cardinal in these words Secundò objiciunt Scripturam Luc. 22. Vbi Dominus duos gladios Petro concedit Cùm enim Discipuli dicerent Ecce duo gladii hic Dominus non ait nimis est sed satis est Quare B. Bernardus 4. 4. de Consid Bonifacius octavus in Extravag Vnam sanctam de Majoritate Obedientiâ ex hoc loco deducunt Pontisicem duos gladios ex Christi institutione habere that is Secondly they object the Scriptures Luc. 22. Where the Lord doth grant two Swords to Peter For when the Disciples said Behold here are two Swords the Lord answered not they are too many but they are sufficient Therefore St. Bernard and Boniface the eighth do hence deduce that the Bishop of Rome by Christ's Institution hath two Swords Unto which objection our Cardinal saith thus Respondeo ad Literam nullam fieri mentionem in eo loco Evangelii de gladio spirituali vel temporali Pontificis sed solum Dominum illis verbis monere voluisse Discipulos tempore Passionis suae in iis angustiis metu ipsos futuros fuisse in quibus esse solent qui tunicam vendunt ut emant gladium ut ex Theophylacto aliisque Patribus colligitur I answer that according to the Letter there is no mention made in that place of the Gospel either of the spiritual or temporal Sword of the Bishop of Rome but that Christ meant only in those words to admonish his Disciples how they should be in the time of his Passion in those straights and fear wherein Men are accustomed to be who sell their Coat to buy them a Sword as it is to be collected out of Theophylact and other Fathers And for Bernard and Boniface he saith They did expound the said place mystically and meant not to have their words so far extended as the Objector would have them Which answer it is likely Bernard if he were now alive would take in good part but assuredly if any Cardinal in Bonifacius 's days had made it he would have smarted for it and might perhaps have tried the depth of Tiber. Neither do we suppose that the now Pope will give him any great thanks for it nor
Nero who was a Persecutor and shall we think that St. Peter and St. Paul had taught the Christians in those days to have thrust Nero from his Imperial Seat by force of Arms if they had been able Certainly it is a blasphemous assertion and worthy of as great a Censure as if he had termed those holy Men in plain terms Dissembling Traytors or denied the Scriptures to have been written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Again he himself is not ignorant how grosly he lieth even against his own Conscience in saying that it was for want of strength that the Christians in the days of the other persecuting Emperours did not rebel against them Tertullian in express terms affirming the contrary First that they the Christians in his times wanted no Forces to have born Arms and endanger'd the whole Empire And secondly That it was far from their hearts so to do because they had been taught otherwise by the Doctrine of Christ in his holy Gospel Besides it is apparent that in and about Tertullian's time these four were Bishops of Rome Victor Zephyrinus Calixtus and Vrbanus so as the Cardinal doth in effect cast a great Imputation upon them of negligence or insincerity that the Christians in their days wanting neither number nor strength to have bridled their bad Emperours they by their Papal Authority did not depose them Dioclesian began his Empire about the year 288. during the time of whose Government Gaius Marcellinus and Marcellus were Popes when the number of Christians was greatly encreased throughout all the World and yet for ought that appeareth to the contrary no Man living either Pope Priest or Prelate did so much as then dream of this damnable Doctrine Julian the Apostate began his Reign about the year of Christ 360. and Valens 8. years after him in whose times Liberius and Damasus were Bishops of Rome which Damasus was a Man that wanted no Courage nevertheless we do not read that either he or Liberius ever attempted to Excommunicate or depose either of those Emperours or that they held it lawful for them so to have done In the space of time betwixt Nero and Damasus the most principal Men of all the ancient Fathers lived as Justinus Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen Cyprian Athanasius Jerom and Augustin who never had learned nor did in their times teach it for sound Doctrine either that the Christians had Authority to bear Arms against their Soveraigns or that the Bishops of Rome might lawfully depose Kings and Princes either for Heresy or for Cruelty and thrust their Subjects to serve their turns into such furious and rebellious courses So as it was great boldness for the Cardinal of his own Head to broach so palpable an untruth especially seeing it carrieth with it so many Arguments to convince his want herein of all Honesty Sincerity and Conscience But why should we be so earnest with the Man considering that although it be certain that neither St. Peter not St. Paul nor any of the said ancient Fathers or Popes ever thought it lawful to depose such Emperours and Kings as before we have spoken of when they should be able through the Numbers and Forces of Christians so to do Yet the same did proceed in the most of them from their Ignorance and want of Learning For saith he that Christians if they had been able might so have done is apparent by the Apostle's words where it is plain that they had authority to make Judges and consequently that if they had been able they might have thrust the said wicked Emperours from their Thrones and have made to themselves new Kings of their own Assuredly the Devil himself did never abuse any place of Scripture for ought that we remember so palpably and grosly as the Cardinal doth this and therefore we will bestow no great Pains to refute him It shall be sufficient briefly to observe that in the Judgments of Jerom Austin Ambrose and Chrysostome the Judges which here the Apostle speaketh of were only such as might by way of Arbitrement end such Suits as arose amongst Christians in those days and not such Judges as by Law and Authority might have compelled them to have stood to their Sentences for that had been indeed to have encroached upon the Authority of the civil Magistrate which was far from the Apostle's intent and meaning And therefore saith Theodoret Sciendum est c. It is to be observed that these words of chusing Arbiters do not repugn to those things which are written to the Romans For here the Apostle doth not command Christians to resist the Magistrates but willeth them that are injured not to use the Magistrates meaning that it was fitter for Christians to compound their causes and quarrels amongst themselves rather than to the dishonour of their Profession contend before such Magistrates as were Infidels and were like enough to despise and contemn them because they could not better agree amongst themselves And the Cardinal 's own Doctor commenting likewise upon this place doth write in this sort Sed videtur c. But that which is here said by the Apostle doth seem to be contrary to that which St. Peter saith Be subject to every humane Creature for God whether to King as excelling or to Rulers as sent by him For it doth appertain to the Authority of a Prince to judge of his Subjects and therefore it is against the Law of God to prohibit that a Subject should submit himself to the Judgment-Seat of his Prince if he be an Infidel Sed dicendum c. But it is to be answered that the Apostle doth not here forbid but that faithful Men living under Princes that are Infidels may appear in their Judicial Seats if they be called for this were against the Subjection which is due unto Princes but he forbiddeth that faithful Men do not of their own accord voluntarily choose the Judgment-Seat of Infidels But if these Authorities will not serve we will be bold to present against him the Judgment of a whole College first published in Rhemes and then set out again the second time by the same College at Doway approved in both Places at Rhemes by Petrus Remigius Hubertus Morus Johannes Lebesque Guil. Balbus and at Doway by Will. Estius Barth Petrus Judocus Heylens all of them great Doctors of Divinity in those Places and one a Doctor of the Canon Law Vicar general of the Archbishoprick of Rhemes The said College writing upon these words But brother with brother contendeth in Judgment and that before Infidels saith thus To be given much to Brabling and Litigiousness for every trifle to spend a pound rather than lose a penny the Apostle much reprehendeth in Christian Men. For a Christian Man to draw another to the Judgment-Seats and Courts of Heathen Princes which then only raigned and not to suffer their Controversies and Quarrels to be taken up among themselves Brotherly and peaceably was a great
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