sort to be distinguished as God himself is not divided although the three Persons in Trinity are rightly held to be indeed distinguished and yet all the said actions and proprieties of the two Natures of Christ distinguished as we have expressed they are are notwithstanding very truly to be affirm'd of his sacred Person The reason whereof hath been before touched and it is this because seeing that both the Natures are joined together in the Person of the Son by an Hypostatical and consequently a true and essential Union so as Christ is thereby both true God in regard of his Divine Nature and true Man in respect of his humane Nature Whatsoever is the Propriety of the Divine Nature and of the humane Nature the same is wholly and altogether in Christ and is necessarily therefore to be affirmed of him both essentially and properly In respect whereof we say that Christ was dead and that he could not die that he is both finite and infinite eternal and temporal in every place and yet circumscribed in one place For of necessity whatsoever are the Properties of the humane Nature the same are truly and properly to be affirmed de vero homine and whatsoever are the Proprieties of the Divine Nature the same are likewise to be affirmed de vero Deo Christ being out of all Controversie amongst the Children of God verus homo verus Deus And thus we have after a sort both briefly and truly set down the Force and Efficacy of the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures of Christ being distinguished but no ways confounded as the same together with the true Doctrine of all other necessary Articles concerning the Blessed Trinity doth by the Scriptures most truly expounded in the Creeds above-mentioned many ways very notably appear To this purpose much more might have here been added by us if our Course considered we had thought it necessary Only we have thought it fit furthermore to profess and make it thereby known to all Men that there are some other Creeds made by other Councils and particular Bishops like to Athanasius and other worthy Persons as Irenaeus's Creed Tertullian's Creed as we may so term it Damasus's Creed the Creed ascribed to St. Ambrose and to St. Augustine Te Deum laudamus c. the Creed of the first Council of Toledo St. Jerome's Creed the Creed ascribed to Leo which was approved by the Council of Chalcedon and the Creed of the sixth Council of Constantinople against the Monothelites holding that in Christ both God and Man there was but One Will all of them tending to the setting forth the Orthodoxal and true Doctrine of One God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity not confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance and of One Christ true God and true Man not confounding his Natures nor dividing his Person Which Creeds we do receive embrace and reverence in such sorts as they have been received embraced and reverenced hitherto by all the particular Churches of the Christian World in as much as they agree both with the Scriptures with the Apostles Creed with the four Creeds mentioned of the four first general Councils and with the Athanasian Creed which contain in them that Faith which was then and so still ought to be accounted the true Catholick Faith nothing in effect being contained in all the Creeds before by us specified which may not be deduced by necessary consequence out of the said Athanasian Creed and the Conclusion of which Creed is in these words expressed This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved To which Conclusion that in sense is very consonant wherewith Damasus doth end his Creed in these words Read these things believe them retain them to this Faith submit thy Soul and thou shalt obtain Life and Reward from Christ In which Creeds containing the Catholick Faith in those days or in any of the rest we have thought it good here to remember that there is not any one Article to warrant or prove those new Articles which were coined long after the making of any of the said Creeds by the Bishops of Rome and are added to the Nicene Creed by Pius IV. in the professing of the Roman Faith especially that New Article of the Pope's Supremacy which is still so stifly maintained and urged upon many under pain of the loss of their Souls viz. that it is altogether necessary for them if they will be saved to be obedient to the Bishop of Rome Which New Article being but an extravagant Conclusion made by a very strange Man and built upon as strange Collections out of the Scriptures We leave it for a novelty unto all the Articles of the ancient Catholick Faith and will now address our selves to prosecute the same course and points in the New Testament which we held in the Old CAP. II. IT is a certain rule in Divinity that Grace doth not destroy Nature The Doctrine of the Seed of the Woman that was foretold should break the Serpents head did not abolish the Moral Law The Ceremonies in the Old Testament which shadowed and signified the mercies of God in Christ had no power to extinguish the Laws first imprinted in mens hearts and afterward ingraven in Tables of stone by the Finger of God The Prophets foretelling the coming of Christ and the merits of his Passion did likewise reprove all sins and offences committed against the Ten Commandments Christ testifieth of himself that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fullfil them By his Death he hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law but not from the obedience of it And St. Paul saith that the Apostles did not make the Law of none effect through Faith but they did thereby establish the Law For that Faith doth only apprehend Christ truly to Salvation which worketh by Charity that is which purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and bringeth forth by the Spirit Obedience to the Precepts and Laws of God It hath been shewed by us at large in the former Book that although the Son of God having made the World did by his mighty Power and divine Providence retain as it were in his own hands the general Rule and Government of it yet for a more visible benefit and comfort to Mankind he did divide and distribute the same into divers Countries Principalities and Kingdoms and ordaining civil Magistracy did not only appoint Soveraign Princes and Kings as his Deputies and Lieutenants upon Earth to rule and govern under him such Countries and Kingdoms as he had allotted unto them but did likewise tie Mankind by one of the Moral Laws ingraven in their hearts that they should honour them serve them and be obedient unto them Which particular Commandment was no more abolished by the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ than were all the rest Nay it was in truth of such force and publick note as that our
Imprimatur Junii 24. 1689. W. CANT Bishop OVERALL's Convocation-Book MDC VI. Concerning the GOVERNMENT OF God's CATHOLICK CHVRCH AND THE KINGDOMS OF THE Whole WORLD LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. AN Advertisement TO THE READER THat Convocation in which the Acts and Canons now Printed pass'd was first call'd An. 1603. 1 mo Jac. and continued by Adjournments and Prorogations to 1610. The Three following Books are publish'd from a Copy carefully and faithfully transcribed from the Original MS. which was Bishop Overall's and drawn up by him after whose Decease it came into the Possession of D r John Cosin sometime his Secretary and after Lord Bishop of Duresm who bequeathed it with other his Books both Printed and Manuscript to the Publick Library by him founded at Duresm for the use of that Church where it is suppos'd it is yet to be seen The First of these Three Books was also heedfully compar'd and in some casual defects supply'd from another MS which from the Attestation of Archbishop Bancroft who there presided at the end thereof under his own hand seems to have been the Original that then pass'd the Upper-House of Convocation And after his Decease it came to his Successors the Archbishops of Canterbury And among them to Archbishop Laud as appears under his own hand-writing in the last Page of it And is now or was lately in the Possession of D r Barlow the present Lord Bishop of Lincoln In the First and Second of these Books there were several Amendments made by the Upper-House of Convocation all placed at the end of Bishop Overall's MS. and according to such Amendments inserted in their proper places is the following Book Printed NOte That the Numeral Letters in the Margin throughout the First Book refer to the Pages in Bishop Overall's Original MS. at Duresm as in the second Page following ii p. in MS. means the second Page in that MS. sic de caeteris In the first Book of that MS. Placet is set at the bottom of every Page and in the Printed Copy that word is sometimes misplaced by a line or two as on the Margin p. 10. Placet is set against l. 8. which should have been against l. 10. ERRATA PAge 3. line 8. it be called read it be not called p. 15. marg r. Deut. 33. p. 17. marg r. Num. 27. p. 21. l. 26. expelled r. repelled p. 25. marg 1 K. 2. 9. p. 60. l. 25. our pleasure r. their pleasure p. 63. marg Joseph Antiq. l. 11. r. l. 2. p. 65. Artic. l. 7. of their r. other p. 75. marg Jos Ant. l. 15. r. l. 18. p. 77. l. 5. quia r. qui p. 88. l. 19. Priest r. Priests p. 103. marg r. Luc. 2. 51. p. 122. l. 21. unless r. and least p. 149. l. 13. were assured r. we are assured p. 165. l. 25. after did not add only p. 252. l. 27. But r. that p. 278. l. 19. Rulers r. rules p. 282. l. 14. Vrsinus r. Vrsicinus p. 296. l. 7. above r. about p. 297. l. 22. Charls's r. Charles p. 302. l. 21. deprived r. depraved p. 324. marg Cassan in catalog pro censid 28. r. consid 29. p. 332. l. 4. revenge our r. revenge thy p. 337. l. 7. ridiculous Joyes r. ridiculous Toies Bishop OVERALL's CONVOCATION-BOOK 1606. CONCERNING The Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole WORLD LIB I. CAP. I. AMongst those Attributes and Names of God which are common in the Scripture to all the blessed Trinity are these To be the Creator and Governour of the World the Lord of lords and King of kings which be there applied as well to the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the sacred Trinity as to God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Agreeably whereunto and not otherwise our chief purpose being to imitate the Scriptures in setting out and describing the Deity and Dignity of our Saviour Christ by his Almighty Power and universal Government of all the World as Heir of all things and Head of his Church we hold it fit to begin with his Divine Power of Creation and thereupon in the sense aforesaid do affirm That He in the beginning did create both Heaven and Earth and that amongst the rest of the Creatures which he then made he Created our first Parents Adam and Eve from whose Loins Mankind is descended CANON I. IF any Man therefore shall affirm with any Pagan Heretick Atheist or any other profane Persons which know not or believe not the Scriptures either that Heaven and Earth had no beginning or that the World was made by Angels or the Devil that the World was not otherwise made by Christ than as he was an Instrument of God the Father for the making of it or that he did not as God create our said Parents Adam and Eve he doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. II. TO him that shall duly read the Scripture it will be plain and evident That the Son of God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their Seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Off-spring to rule and govern them Ordaining by the very Law of Nature That their said Children and Off-spring begotten and brought up by them should fear reverence honour and obey them Which power and Authority before the Flood resting in the Patriarchs and in the chief Fathers because it had a very large extent not only for the Education of their said Children and Off-spring whilst they were young but likewise for the ordering ruling and governing of them afterwards when they came to Mens Estate And for that also it had no superiour Authority or power over or above it on Earth appearing in the Scriptures although it be called either Patriarchal Regal or Imperial and that we only term it Potestas Patria yet being well considered how far it did reach we may truly say that it was in a sort Potestas Regia as now in a right and true construction Potestas Regia may justly be called Potestas Patria CAN. II. IF any Man shall therefore affirm that Men at the first without all good Education or Civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild Creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no superiority one over another until they were taught by Experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Iurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the people and disorder'd multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduced by their consents naturally
executed that Judgment upon the said King and afterward so vanquished the Moabites and subdued them under the hand of Israel as the whole Land was at rest from the oppression of their Enemies eighty years Besides it is to be observ'd that as God's appointing by Name and Election of Moses Joshua and Saul and after that the Kingdom was held by Succession the very being of the King's Son and the true Heir Apparent after his Father's Death gave unto them all the actual Interest Right and Possession as Possession in those cases is to be expounded of their several Governments to do any act or acts as well before as after any subsequent Formalities and Ceremonies even so the said form of calling the Judges by God himself immediately made them also Judges actually and did give unto them a full and absolute Authority independent upon any but upon him that gave it them to undertake any thing that by God's direction appertain'd to their places Again there is one other Example of Jehu amongst the Kings of Israel which we have before touched like unto this of Ahud wherein it appeareth that he the said Jehu was of a Subject first made the King of Israel before it was lawful for him to have killed Joram As Ahud a Subject was first made the Judge Prince and Ruler of the People before he might have lawfully killed King Eglon. Both which Examples being but in number two throughout the Histories of all the Princes Judges and Kings either of Judah or Israel do make it known unto us That although the Lord both may and is able to overthrow any Kings or Emperours notwithstanding any claim right title or interest which they can challenge to their Countries Kingdoms or Empires yet foreseeing in his Heavenly Wisdom and Divine Providence what mischief private Men under colour of these Examples might otherwise have pretended or attempted against their Soveraigns as being either discontented of themselves or set into some fury by other Malitious Persons he did so order and dispose of all things in the Execution of these such his extraordinary Judgments as that thereby it might plainly appear to any that should not willfully hoodwink himself never to be lawful for any Person whatsoever upon pretence of any Revelation Inspiration or Commandment from his divine Majesty either to touch the Person of his Soveraign or to bear Arms against him except God should first advance the said Person from his private Estate and make him a King or an absolute Prince to succeed his late Master in his Kingdom or Principality CAN. XXVII IF any Man therefore shall affirm either that any godly or dutiful Subject in the Old Testament did ever by the direction of God's Spirit account this fact of Ahud to be a lawful Warrant for him to have murder'd the Kings under whose subjection he lived for any cause whatsoever though he should have had never so many motions in his heart thereunto or that the High-Priest himself or all the rest of the Priests who then lived join'd together with him could have given Authority to any Person born a Subject to have so dealt with his Soveraign though he had been never so wicked and that such his Death might have availed the Church in their Opinions never so greatly or that either the said High-Priest and all his Consistory of Priests might lawfully have encouraged any who being born Subjects should have pretended in their Zeal toward Religion never so many Illuminations Directions or Commandments from God to have laid violent hands upon their King the Lord 's anointed for their proceeding in that course or that any Person born a Subject and affirming by all the Arguments which Wit or Learning could devise that God had called him to murther the King de facto under whom he lived yea though he should have first procured himself to be proclaimed and anointed King as Adonijah did and should afterward have laid violent hands upon his Master ought therefore to have been believed of any that feared God except which is impossible he should first prove his Credit in so affirming to be equal with the Scriptures and that Men were bound as strictly to believe him in saying that God called and stirred him up to the perpetrating of that fact as we are bound to believe the Holy Ghost by whose Instinct the Scriptures were written when he telleth us that God raised up Ahud for a Saviour to his People He doth greatly Erre Placet eis CAP. XXVIII HItherto in the whole course of that mild and temperate Monarchical Government which it pleased God to establish among his own People the duty of Inferiour Persons and Subjects of all sorts was ever Obedience They neither took upon them to chuse their Governours nor to bear Arms against them Howbeit it happened otherwise amongst some other Nations Nimrod not contenting himself with the portion which by Noah's general direction appertained unto him could never have erected his Tyrannical Government if a number of rebellious and discontented Persons had not cleaved unto him as the factious Sichemites did to Abimelech and made him their King The Romans having Kings rebelled against them and took the Government into their own hands the execution whereof did trouble them exceedingly Sometimes they committed it to many and sometimes to fewer their two Annual Consuls pleased them long but at the last they thought it fit to have a Dictator till in the end Julius Caesar and Augustus reduced their Government again into a Monarchy And as the Romans dealt with their Kings so did the People in some other Countries with their Governours Whereupon divers other kinds of Governments termed according to their Temper Aristocratical Political Tyrannical Oligarchical or Democratical c. were afterwards setled in many places The Inconveniencies of which Forms of Government being found upon many occasions oftentimes to be very great the People have been driven of necessity in sundry Countries to frame them again as near as they could to the Monarchical Government either by electing to themselves Kings upon certain Conditions to reign over them or by appointment of Dukes or Princes to be the Managers of their chief Affairs according as they themselves should direct them Besides as the said rebellious Humours of the People declining from their Obedience did in many Countries alter that temperate and fatherly Government which Noah had prescribed unto his Off-spring and which God himself established afterward amongst his own People so did the ambitious and insatiable dispositions of sundry no less elsewhere impeach the same as by the beginning and progress of the four Monarchies it is most apparent In all which Abberrations from the said mild and temperate Government before specified Almighty God who for the Sins of any Nation or Country altereth their Governments and Governors transferreth setteth up and bestoweth Kingdoms as it seemeth best to his heavenly Wisdom did ever by his Foresight and Providence so
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
or that through Faith the said Law was not rather establisht than in any sort impeached or that because as many as believe are redeemed and made free from the Curse of the Law they are therefore exempted and free from the obedience of the Law or that by the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ obedience to the Fifth Commandment touching honour due to Parents and Princes was in any sort impeached the rest of the Law being established or that our Saviour Christ having undertaken the fullfilling of the whole Law as far forth at the least as ever Mankind was bound to have fullfilled it came short in this one Law by exempting himself from any obedience due to the civil Magistrate or that he having tied himself according to the said Commandment as well to the obedience of the civil Magistrate as the obedience which was due to his Parents did not whilst he lived in the World fullfil the Law wholly concerning them both or that he did any way or at any time encourage the Jews or any other directly or indirectly to Rebel for any cause whatsoever against the Roman Emperour or any of his subordinate Magistrates or that he did not very willingly both himself pay Tribute to Caesar and also advise the Jews so to do or that when he willed the Jews to pay Tribute to Caesar including therein their duty of obedience unto him he did not therein deal plainly and sincerely but meant secretly that they should be bound no longer to be obedient unto him but until by force they should be able to resist him or that he did not utterly and truly condemn all devices Conferences and resolutions whatsoever either in his own Apostles or in any other Persons for the using of force against civil Authority or that it is or can be more lawful for any private Persons either of St. Peter's calling or of any other Profession to draw their Swords against Authority though in their rash Zeal they should hold it lawful so to do for the preservation of Religion than it was for St. Peter for the preservation of his Masters Life or that by Christs's words above-mentioned all Subjects of what sort soever without exception ought not by the Law of God to perish with the Sword that take and use the Sword for any cause against Kings and Soveraign Princes under whom they were born or under whose Iurisdiction they do inhabit or that seeing our Saviour Christ would not have the Samaritans to be destroyed with Fire from Heaven although they were at that time divided in Religion from the Jews and refused to receive him in Person it is not to be ascribed to the Spirit of Satan for any private Men to attempt by Gunpowder and Fire from Hell to blow up and destroy their Soveraigns and the whole State of the Country where they were born and bred because in their conceits they refused some part of Christ's Doctrine and Government or that Christ did not well and as the said Fifth Commandment did require in submitting himself as he did to Authority although he was first sent for with Swords and Staves as if he had been a Thief and then afterward carried to Pilate and by him albeit he found no evil in him condemned to Death or that by any Doctrine or Example which Christ ever taught or hath left upon good Record it can be proved lawful to any Subjects for any cause of what nature soever to decline either the Authority and Iurisdiction of their Soveraign Princes or of any their lawful Deputies and inferiour Magistrates ruling under them He doth greatly Erre CAP. III. 'T IS many ways very plain and evident that the Jews did expound all those places of the Prophets which do notably set forth the spiritual Kingdom of our Saviour Christ to be meant of a temporal Kingdom which he should erect upon the Earth And upon that false ground they did imagine that when their expected Messiah should come into the World he was to advance them unto a glorious Estate here upon Earth and to reign in the midst of them as a most mighty and temporal Monarch Which erroneous conceit when Herod heard of the Birth of Christ made him to fear lest the new-born Babe should deprive him of his Kingdom and induced him thereupon to seek his destruction Thence also did proceed that when the People were so much moved with admiration of one of Christs Miracles as that they used these words This is of a truth the Prophet which should come into the World they presently devised how they should make him their King But Christ perceiving their drift prevented their purpose by departing from them as well observing and knowing that their erroneous imagination of him Nay the better sort of those that followed Christ were not free from this erroneous cogitation as it appeareth by the Petition that the Mother of Zebedee's Children made unto Christ saying Grant that these my two Sons may sit the one at thy right hand and the other at thy left hand in thy Kingdom It seemeth by St. Mark that her said two Sons James and John did join with their Mother and made likewise the same Petition themselves unto Christ in their own Names And it is plain that the rest of the Apostles having aspiring Minds to have been great Men in the World as dreaming of a Temporal Kingdom that Christ was in time to establish amongst them when they heard this Suit did begin as the Evangelists testifie to disdain at James and John for seeking in that sort to prefer themselves before them some of them perhaps thinking themselves more worthy of those two great Dignities than either of them were But our Saviour Christ finding these carnal Imaginations amongst them did throughly reprove them for those their vain conceits and did make it well known unto them how far they over-shot themselves when they supposed that he should become a Temporal King or that they themselves should be honoured by him with Temporal Principalities Which Course also our Saviour Christ held when as St. Luke saith There arose a strife amongst the Apostles which of them should be the greatest For then they persisting in their former Errour he did again renew his Reproof if this were a several contention from the former saying unto them The Kings of the Gentiles reign over them and they that bear rule over them are called Benefactors as using to reward their Servants with great and extraordinary worldly Preferments or as St. Matthew recordeth Christ's Words whether upon this or the former Occasion mentioned it is not greatly material because they are all one in sense Ye know that the Lords of the Gentiles have Dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but saith Christ it shall not be so among you But whosoever will be great among you let him be your servant even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to
well be exprest by comparing the Pharisees unto the Divines amongst our Adversaries who take upon them to search out more throughly the mysteries of the Scriptures and the Scribes to their Canonists who in respect of their said Divines are but Novices in God's word and Applauders to the Pope's Decrees as the Scribes were being compar'd to the Pharisees in that they held it for a principal part of their office to uphold and maintain as much as they could the Traditions of the Pharisees and did only take upon them to deal with the bark and literal sense of Moses's Law leaving the more profound knowledge and mystical Interpretation of them unto the said Pharisees But the Issue of the labours of both these Hypocritical Sects was such as being blinded with their own devices they became to be the speciallest Enemies that Christ found upon the Earth and opposed themselves most against him And yet notwithstanding because he found them in so great Authority and perceived how the knowledge of the Law which ought to have been received from the lips of the Priests did then depend upon the lips of the Scribes and Pharisees he did neither blame them for it nor impugn the said Authority Insomuch as the multitude being many ways factious and though very ignorant were become great Questionists touching the Points of the Law he referred them with a very good Caution to the Scribes and Pharisees to be instructed by them saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe and do that observe and do but after their works do not for they say and do not Whereby it appeareth how respectful our Saviour Christ was for the free passage and observation of Moses's Law in that he was content that the Scribes and Pharisees notwithstanding he knew their Hypocrisie and Corruption and how they had come by that Authority which they then enjoyed should yet instruct the People under them so as the People did beware of their wicked Conversation and approved no resolutions that they might receive from them which were not first proved unto them out of the Laws of Moses and were fit to proceed from his Seat Touching which last point of Moses's Law and how nothing ought to have been taught out of Moses's Seat but that which Moses by the direction of the Holy Ghost had prescribed for as much as our Saviour Christ did well see and understand how the Scribes and Pharisees had by their false Interpretations and Glosses perverted and corrupted the true sense and meaning of divers of Moses's Laws he was greatly moved therewith and did take great pains to refute the said false glosses and interpretations and to restore to the Laws mention'd their true sense and original meaning Wherein although by his strict Exposition of those Laws he might seem to some not well advis'd to have so extended and enlarged the meaning of them as if he had thereby prescribed some new points or laws of greater perfection than were originally contain'd in the true meaning of the old yet we cannot find how either the said points may otherwise be termed new than as Gold first purified and fined after it hath either in time grown rusty or been by false mixtures cunningly corrupted may be called new gold when it is again purged from the said false mixtures and refin'd Or how the observation of them can bring with it to Men any greater perfection in the New Testament than God himself did expect of his Servants in the Old Testament by their observing of the said Laws so expounded by Christ in their ancient sense and meaning which they first had when by his appointment Moses did give them unto them For if in proper Speech he had made any new Laws coming only to fullfil the old as himself in a true sense affirmed the Jews might have had some good colour to have blamed him in that during the continuance of their Ecclesiastical Government if any new Laws had been then to have been made touching the worship of God the Authority in that behalf was limited by God himself unto their own Church-Governours Again considering that the Son of God in taking our nature upon him did so make himself of no reputation as being of his own goodness towards Mankind a Servant to his Father he became to do his will obedient unto the death even the death of the Cross It cannot well be imagined by any that have any true understanding of the Scriptures that the Son of God having so debased himself as is aforesaid did ever think in that his so admirable humiliation of any Rules or new Laws of greater perfection than he had before required and prescribed unto his true Servants and Children as he was God in Majesty and Glory without any such Exinanition as the Apostle speaketh of The obedience and duty which Almighty God ever did or ever will require of his Servants was and is always to proceed as well from their hearts as from any other external actions Insomuch as if it fell out as it may at sometimes that they cannot perform their said duties in respect of some impediments that will hold them from Christ In that Case be it riches they are to leave them their Eyes their Hands or their Feet they are to cut them off Nay be it their Blood their Hearts and Lives they are rather than to forsake their God and his Christ to yield them all in this World with what ignominy soever to the end they may receive them again with glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Than which great obedience and perfection what can be imagin'd greater Or who is there in the World that truly professeth Religion who in that Case is exempted from it Certainly we think none of what Estate and Condition soever they be but do rather hold that as they who shall yield up their Lives under pretence of any extraordinary perfection saving in the Case above-expressed are far from that which they make shew of but are rather to be accounted desperate so are they in our Judgments to be reckoned Men of very extraordinary humours and most ignorant Persons if not such counterfeit Hypocrites as were the Scribes and Pharisees in professing extraordinary austerity of Life that they might be the better esteem'd amongst Men who shall without any necessity either pull out their Eyes or cut off their Feet and Hands or forsake their Riches and Worldly Estates as blessings of God not compatible but repugnant to that perfection which God doth require at any Man's hands It is not our purpose to prosecute all those particulars mention'd in the Evangelists wherein our Saviour Christ shew'd his Obedience there being in effect nothing that he did which was not either figur'd in the Law or foretold by the Prophets that he should perform The time of his Incarnation with the manner of it his Entertainment in the World his diligence in Preaching his whipping blows and
that in all likelyhood he hath received any greater commendation for his plain dealing in answer to another Objection which is grounded upon the Authority of Pope Nicholas Who in an Epistle of his to Michael the Emperour of Constantinople doth write thus Christus B. Petro vitae aeternae clavigero terreni simul coelestis Imperii Jura commisti Christ did commit to St. Peter the Key bearer of Everlasting Lise the right and interest both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire To which saying of Pope Nicholas the Cardinal maketh two answers Ad testimonium Nicolai dico Imprimis illud citari à Gratiano d. 22. Can. Omnes sed non inveniri inter Epistolas Nicolai Papae To the testimony of Pope Nicholas I answer First that the said is cited by Gratian but it is not to be found amongst the Epistles of Pope Nicholas As if he should have said That testimony is forged And the effect of his second Answer is That if any Man shall urge that Testimony of Pope Nicholas in the sense objected they make him directly repugnant to himself in the rest of the said Epistle And concerning the other Argument by our said Canonist alledged of the Death of Ananias and Sapphira the ancient Fathers in the Primitive Church would certainly have scorn'd it if ever they had heard of it Peter knowing by the instinct of the Holy Ghost that Satan had possessed both their hearts and how they lied not to Men but to God did only pronounce that Sentence of Death upon them which the holy Spirit did suggest unto him Wherein although there may appear what force the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God had when it was brandished by St. Peter through the Operation of the Holy Ghost there was assuredly no use of any material and civil Sword for if there had another manner of Form of outward Justice would first have been held before they had been Executed And to conclude this point We do freely profess That the nature of Christ his Spiritual Kingdom being throughly weighed we cannot find to what purpose either St. Peter or any of his Successors should have been made temporal Monarchs over all the Civil Magistrates in the World because all their temporal Forces and Swords joined together had not been able to have vanquished one wicked Spirit of the Air or have open'd the door of any one Man's heart for Christ or the Holy Ghost to have entered and have made their habitation in it CAN. VIII IF therefore any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ hath otherwise committed the World to be governed under him by Kings and Soveraign Princes but so as he himself with his Regal Scepter doth rule and govern them all according to his Divine Pleasure or that it is not a sound Argument that the Bishops of Rome in taking upon them to be temporal Kings have wholly perverted the Institution of Christ in that behalf in that they are driven to justify their facts therein by the Examples of the Maccabees and those times of so great confusion or that our Saviour Christ whilst he was here upon the Earth did not fully content himself to be only a Spiritual King to rule in Mens hearts or that to the end he might erect such a Spiritual Kingdom he did not conquer the Devil Sin Death and Hell and thereby took possession in the hearts of all true Believers or that before our Saviour Christ doth begin to reign in Man's heart he doth not first by the Ministry of his Word beget a lively Faith in it or that whilst he lived here in the World he did not satisfy himself for our sakes with a very mean and poor Estate being in himself most rich because he was God and in his humanity the Heir of all things or that he did not Institute and Ordain a Priesthood or Ministry to continue to the end of the World for the continuance and augmenting of his Spiritual Kingdom or that the Children of God notwithstanding that they are redeemed through Faith by Christ and delivered out of the Iaws of Hell and Satan are not still to take heed and beware of him and to arm themselves accordingly against his Forces or that our Saviour Christ when he told his Apostles and Disciples That the Servant is not above his Lord but that whosoever would be a perfect Disciple should be as his Master did not mean that his Apostles and after them their Successors Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Ministry should hold their Services and Offices under him to do as he did when he was a Mortal Man of poor Estate and subject to many bad Vsages and Injuries or that because our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension when he was become a Man Immortal and Glorious did then enlarge the Commission of his Apostles and ordain'd by them a succession of the Ministry for the government of the Church he did thereby make them any more partakers of his Regal Authority whereof his humane nature was then actually possessed for the state and exercise thereof by reason of the free and unrestrained Operation of his Deity than he made their natural and corruptible Bodies incorrupt and spiritual Bodies or endowed them in this life with any of that Glory Power and Heavenly Estate which they were to enjoy after their Deaths and blessed Resurrection or that the Apostles after Christ's Death not exempting St. Peter did not find their Estates in this World very suitable to their Master's whilst he lived with them all things happening unto them as he had foretold them or that either St. Peter or any of the Apostles or of their Successors either then or since that time could challenge so much as this or that one temporal farm by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Functions more than their Master had or that either they were themselves possessed with as their own before they were called to that Ministration or than was afterward given unto them by godly Emperors Kings and Princes and other devout and religious Persons or that if St. Peter had known himself to have been under Christ the sole temporal Monarch of the World it had not been his duty to have made the same known at least to the Apostles and such as were converted to Christ to the end they might have honour'd him accordingly as his dutiful and loyal Subjects or that it had not in all probability if St. Peter meant to shew himself to be a temporal King by the Deaths of Ananias and Sapphira been much more expedient for the success of the Gospel in those days if he had used such his Regal Authority against those civil Magistrates which were Enemies to Christ and to all that Preached in his name or that it may be rightly imagin'd with our dutiful regard of St. Peter's Sincerity that ever he would have been so earnest with the
Churches for the space of 300. years brought the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as here it is termed unto her Spiritual End as directly and fully as either the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops have at any time done since and yet they took no Power and Authority upon them nor did challenge the same of disposing of temporal Kingdoms or Deposing of Princes Besides if such an indirect temporal Power be so necessary in these days for the upholding the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as that without the same she cannot attain the Spiritual End or be a perfect Ecclesiastical Commonwealth when there are so many Christian Kings and Princes then was the same much more necessary for the attainment of the same end in the said times of Christ of his Apostles and of the Churches in the Ages following for 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Pagans and Infidels and for the most part Persecutors of the truth But we hope we may be bold without offence to say that there appeared then no such necessity of this pretended temporal Power and Authority in any Ecclesiastical Persons over Kings and Kingdoms for the disposing of them and that nevertheless the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth in those times did attain her Spiritual End and was as perfect an Ecclesiastical Common-wealth as it is now under the Pope's Government notwithstanding all his temporal Sovereignty wherein he so ruffleth Again we are perswaded that it cannot be shewed out of any of the ancient Fathers or by any general Council for the space of above 500. years after Christ that the Bishops of Rome were ever imagin'd to have such temporal Authority to depose Kings as now is maintained much less was it ever dream'd of during that time that such Authority was necessary for the attaining the Spiritual End whereunto the true Church of Christ ought to aim or that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth ordain'd by Christ and his Apostles could not be perfect without it It were a miserable shift if any should either say that during all the times above-mention'd first the Apostles and then the holy Bishops Martyrs and Fathers after them were ignorant of this new temporal Power or at least did not so throughly consider of the necessity of it as they might have done or that whilst they lived there could indeed no such matter be collected out of the Scriptures for that in those days the Scriptures had not received such a sense and meaning as might support the same but that afterward when the Bishops of Rome did think it necessary to challenge to themselves such temporal Authority over both Kings and Kingdoms the sense and meaning of the Scripture was alter'd But be this shift never so wretched or miserable yet for ought we perceive they are in effect and still will be both in this cause and many others driven unto it the Scriptures being in their hands a very Rule of Lead and Nose of Wax as in another more fit place we shall have occasion to shew moreover if the Bishops of Rome have this great temporal Authority over Kings and Soveraign Princes to preserve the State of the Church here upon Earth that she may attain her Spiritual End assuredly he hath made little use of it to that purpose For it is well known and cannot be denied that for the first 300. years of Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel did flourish far and near in Greece Thracia Sclavonia Hungary Asia minor Syria Assyria Egypt and throughout the most part of Africk where there were many very worthy Apostolical and notable Churches in the most of which places there are scarce in these days any footsteps or visible Monuments of them And although afterward during the space of above 700. years much mischief was wrought in these parts of the World better known unto us than the rest by sundry sorts of Scythians and Northern People yet after the days of Gregory the Seventh when the Bishops of Rome did most vaunt of this their Soveraign Power over Kings and Princes the Turks gained and encroached more upon Christendom still retaining that which they then had so gotten than at any time before Whereby it is to us very evident that neither Christ nor his Apostles ever ordained that the means of building of the Church of Christ and the conservation of it should consist in the temporal Power or Authority of any of their Successors to deprive Emperours or Kings from their Imperial or Regal Estates and that the Bishops of Rome may be ashamed that having had so great Authority in their own hands extorted from the Emperours and other Kings per fas nefas since Gregory the Seventh's time they have made no better use of it but suffer'd so many famous Countries and Kingdoms to be utterly over-run and wasted by Pagans and Infidels considering that they pretend themselves to have so great an Authority for no other purpose but only the preservation of the Church that she might not be prevented of her Spiritual End But what should we speak of the shame of Rome whose forehead hath been so long since hardned or ever imagine that Almighty God either did or will bless her Usurpations and Insolencies against Emperours Kings and Princes for any good to his Church other than must accrue unto her through her Persecutions and Afflictions For it were no great labour to make it most apparent by very many Histories if we would insist upon it that the Bishops of Rome in striving first to get and then to uphold after their scrambling manner this their wicked and usurped Authority of troubling and vexing Christian Kingdoms and States with their manifold Oppressions and quarrels have been some special means whereupon the Saracens Turks and Pagans have wrought and by degrees brought so great a part of Christendom under their Slavery as now they are possessed of For it is but an idle and a vain pretence that the preservation of as much of Christendom as is yet free from the Turk and Paganism is to be ascribed to the Bishop of Rome and his Authority that so the Catholick Church might attain her Spiritual End which ought to be the planting of Churches and Conservation of 'em it being most manifest to as many as have any wit experience and sound Judgment that as the very situation of the said Countries which now Pagans enjoy made them very subject unto the Incursion and Invasions of Saracens and Turks God himself for his own Glory having his Finger and just operation therein so through his most merciful goodness and care of his Church he blessed the situation of the rest of Christendom being now free in that respect from those kind of violences and endowed the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes with such Courage and Constancy in defence of Christianity and of their Kingdoms as notwithstanding that the Popes did greatly vex them in the mean while they did mightily repel the Forces of their Enemies and most religiously uphold and maintain the
Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
Noluit enim c. For he would not endure it as One saith that his Consent should be required in the Election of the Bishop of Rome nor that the Emperour according to his will should have the bestowing of the Bishopricks that were included within the limits of the Empire Surely it might have pleased him to have endur'd both the one and the other as sundry Popes his Equals had done before him And howsoever this Attempt of Gregory is eagerly maintain'd in these days and held to be Apostolical yet then it seem'd very strange to many Therefore an ancient Historiographer writeth in this sort Lego relego Romanorum Regum Imperatorum Gesta c. I read over and over again the Acts of the Roman Kings and Emperours but can find in no place that any of them before Henry the Fourth was excommunicated by the Bishop of Rome or deprived of his Kingdom And again the Empire was the more vehemently moved with Indignation through the Novelty of this Attempt because such a Sentence against the Emperour of Rome was never heard of before those times And another more ancient than the former and almost of 500. Years standing doth not only term the said Fact of the Pope a Novelty but saith in Effect that it was an Heresy These are his words Surely this Novelty I will not call it Heresy was never before heard of in the World viz. That Priests should teach the People that they owe no Subjection unto Evil Kings and that notwithstanding they have taken an Oath of Fidelity unto them yet they owe them no Fidelity nor are to be acounted perjur'd that violate the said Oath Nay that if any obey their King in that Case he shall be held for an excommunicate Person and he that attempteth any thing against such a King shall be absolved both from the Offence of Injustice and of Perjury To this Heretical Novelty and most insolent Attempt which since hath had many false Colours cast over it to cover the Lewdness and Deformity of it we might add the said Pope's very admirable Pride in permitting the said Emperour when he came unto him to be absolved from the said Excommunication to stand bare-footed in the Frost and Snow Three days at his Gates But that which ensued this Novelty or Heresie this Unpriestly and Inhumane dealing with so great a Person is most remarkable above all the rest viz. How he wound himself like a cunning Serpent into the Interest of the Empire and upon a sleight Occasion The said Rebels of Germany in their Fury against the Emperour having suggested unto him That the Empire was a Benefit belonging to the City of Rome to be bestowed where she thought fit although they added therewith that the same was to be done by the Bishop and by the People of Rome with the Consent of other Princes Yet he finding what would serve his turn and was most available to his own Designment did afterward of himself and by his own Authority take upon him to dispose of the Empire as being void by Virtue of a second Excommunication and did accordingly send a Crown of Gold to Rodulphus Duke of Suevia now also grown a Traytour with this Inscription Petra dedit Petro Petrus Diadema Rodulpho Christ gave St. Peter Authority to make Emperours and I his Successor do thereupon send you this Crown and by my Authority from St. Peter do give you the Empire It is plain and evident that many Emperours in former Ages bestowed the Papacy and sometimes took it from one and gave it to another but that ever Pope there before this Man did so dispose of the Empire we do not find it in any approved Author Neither can we conceive or easily believe that Christ ever gave St. Peter any such Authority as is here dreamed of Only we observe by the Report of One no Protestant That Gregory to justifie and colour his said Presumption bragged above measure that the West Empire was his that he was both Bishop and Emperour Christ having imposed upon him those two Persons that he had no Equal and much less any Superiour that he might take all Right and Honour from other Men and transfer the same unto himself and do much more than here we will mention But touching any Proof for all these great Prerogatives we find none Except this will serve his turn That St. Peter received power to bind and loose which we hold insufficient notwithstanding that the Papists now-a-days do allow them all and admire him for it It hath been a usual Custom for the Pope's Friends to extol those Bishops of Rome most who shewed themselves whilst they lived the greatest Practitioners and Traytors against the Emperours Agreeably whereunto One saith of him That he was a Man worthy of the Pontificalship because he depressed the Insolency of Politicks terrified Monarchs with the Glory of his Name and Zeal and delivered the Church from the Captivity and Servitude which it endured under Princes and that of all the Bishops of Rome he was One of chief Zeal and Authority and a Man verè Apostolicus truly Apostolical and most to be praised Proceres Populum sacramento praestito sanctè solvit ut Rodolpho adhaereant sanctius imperat he did godly absolve the Noblemen and People from their Oath of Allegiance to the Emperour and did more holily command them not to obey him What was thought long since of these so Godly and Holy Practices we have above touched and we must also of necessity confess that to be true which this Authour and his Fellows do write of Gregory's Greatness For it is further recorded of him that he did first erect Imperium Pontificium the Papal Empire But touching his Vertues if an ancient Cardinal that wrote his Life did know him there is no cause why any Man should be in love with them And as concerning this new and before unheard of Pontifical Empire if we may believe another of their own Authors it brought with it into the West Empire Wars Bloodshed Homicide Parricide Hatred Whoredome Theft Sacriledge Dissention and Sedition both Civil and Domestical Corruption of the Scriptures false and sycophantical Interpretations with many more Mischiefs there by him mentioned and yet saith he Gregory's Successours did uphold it by the space of 450. Years invito Mundo invitis Imperatoribus in spite of the World and of the Emperours and thereby drew both Heaven and Hell into their Subjecti on and Servitude Again In former times God as a most indulgent Father did often chastise the Western Christians by Saxons Hunns Normans Venetians Lombards and Hungarians Men differing from us in Religion but now as if God were become an angry Father towards us and we were neglected and dis-inherited by him we have for above 400. Years tyranniz'd amongst our selves worse than Turks We deceive we circumvent we kill we turn our