as Paradise was for Adam it is too streight a prison for his Godhead Gen. 3. then since Man is become like one of vs let vs turne him into the wide world out of Paradise from Paradise to a fooles Paradise a little Garden a small City will not comprehend his godhead So shall the Bishop of Rome be vniuersall and like to Lucifer in Heauen and Adam in Paradise take vp the Rome of the second person in Trinity because One. Consid 3. Cap 4. But Saint Bernard thought it not lawfull for him to dismember the Churches at his pleasure to confound Order and to breake open the bounds of the Church which his fathers before had made Rom. 13. power he giues him and thinkes it vnlawfull to resist him power he hath a principall power but not a singular power his meaning is he hath an head aboue him vnto which other eminent members of the Church haue a reference as well as he Euery one knowes how the Fathers runne vpon the difference betwixt praesum and prosum betwixt dominion and dispensation betwixt possession and Law and so his Lordship which was prayed for in their Letanies in the time of Pius Quintus by the name of Dominus Apostolicus amongst the rest is by this discouered to be nothing but truely worse then Octanus and Tiberius his predecessors which refused the name of LORD because it was a Title of power but not of Piety So then his Ecce duo Gladij The two swords the one for the Church the other of the Church the one from the mouth of the Priest the other from the hand of the Emperour It is enough it is too much as deuout Bernard speakes And by this time we see the reason why the Pope aboue Rome and Rome aboue all Citties Inter Caput extulit vrbes haue exalted themselues These 5. things considered will cleere it 1 A primacy in regard of the Empire 2 The chiefe men elected Popes excellent Schollers woorthy Martyrs This made the people wing on that side 3 The Emperour translated to the East The Pope getting the vpper hand of his deputy at Rome the Emperor curbing the Bishop of Constantinople the Latine Church grew strong and the Greeke weake 4 The leuity of the Greeke Church giuen to nouelties distracted with heresies suffering of Bishops opposite to their Church euen within their walls was the cause that compelled the better sort of Bishops to appeale to Rome for succour and of the credit of that Sea 5 The Emperour still withdrawing his forces the Cleargy of Rome ouer-ballancing the temporalty Propter imperium gaue aduantage as stirrups for the man of Pride to raise himselfe by the helpe of Phocas and such wicked Pages that lifted him vp into that seate where now hee sits Although all the Fathers that speake of Order and Gregory and Hierome themselues so much runne vppon that worde Aequaliter yet now ambition teares in peeces those brazen steppes where Deuotion before did weare it selfe and we are wearied with the weight of this great head that is vpon vs that neuer yet could bee set vppon the shoulders of Russia and Armenia and other places and now wee may pray with DAVID Lord saue vs from the Horne of the Vnicorne because this head hath made the most precious home of the Church an Instrument of Murther and of diuision rather then Vnion Be it so that will not content them to be Lords ouer vs but our Faith also They will haue an infallibility of Determination That must depend vpon that Chaire and to this we must be reconciled and so we must thinke vnder paine of damnation This Question was canuassed at Cambridge before the King It must determine and therefore necessary One Tribunall necessary to determine matters of Faith Non vnum vniuersum supremum Tribunal saide the King vppon that ground The Deane of Paules Loquebatur in puncto Doctor Cary. as the Prouer be is His wordes were like goades and nailes sharp and sure How wittily and substantially did hee prooue that there was to bee had the last resolution of Faith that Christ instituted that infallible that it was most expedient to be so that Christ foresaw it to be so expedient that the Church could not be one body without it that there could not be without it a iust vniting of the parts of the Church that there could be no vnity of Faith that without it Hereticks could not be conuinced nor lay men in the Church that the vnity of the Church was more preserued by it that no Heresies were condemned without that Bishops consent and that hce had the definitiue sentence If any were giuen by others yet they had recourse to the Pope for confirmation as in the Mileuitan Councell So pithily disputing that it was enough to haue plucked out a mans eyes as the preaching of Paul to the Galathians and led him by a blinde Iesuiticall obedience to thinke so The King certainly admired the frame of his arguments and therefore impatient of interruption bad them let the Deane goe on A frame indeed Aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achiui Aut aliquis latet error equo ne credite Teucri I had not spoken so much of him but in remembrance of S. Iohns That hath brancht out this goulden Candlesticke to beautifie one of the most famous Churches in this King dome Greg. ep Reg. 12. Indu 11. cp 7. S. Pauls in the time of Gregory the Great complained for want of light this cannot howsoeuer in the other I am sure not in the spirituall sence I haue done with him euen in his Relation something may be collected to vnsettle that opinion of dependance vpon the person of that One as cheefe in matters of faith because wee take our leuell of beleefe rather from the matter then the person you shall know him by his fruits Mat. 7.15 nnt his fruits by him It is Christs order not Quis but Quid. The Pope as a Graduate or Catholique Priest may erre not in his Chaire There is not Quid but Quis not what he speaks but what he is the order of Christ peruerted and so giue me at the last leaue to perswade you by the second point That this dependance vpon this one person may bee a cause rather of diuision and separation then of that Reconciliation that is so much implied and so furiously perswaded Now let vs looke backe and see whether wee can be reconciled to that Church which before that head could be set on that bodie caused more distractions and bloud-shed of the Lords seruants then was in any part of Christendome And why did Chrysostome complaine in his time that the Bishop of Rome had filled the Churches with bloud and defiled the holy Eucharist with murthers well it might haue beene preuented if Peters successour had done to his fellow Bishops as Peter to Paul Gal. 2.9 giuen the right hand of fellowship or if they would as Gregory doth
may be Mat. 13.45 they acquire all their knowledge by sitting no paines they take to purchase that pearle in the Gospell no wee presuppose they found it before they sought it Is it come to this Then to that Religion and vnto that Church which findes vs and we not them must we bee reconciled vnder paine of damnation Euseb 5. Let vs deale with them à posteriore Then was Irenaeus in the state of damnation which tooke vp Victor for censuring the Easterne Church Then those were blessed which Cyprian calles Desperate Ep 55. and hee in a woe case for condemning those that made appeale to Rome from Africke Then presently after Cyprian the Church of Carthage must bee damned for want of Reconciliation that excepted against the vniuersality in particular Ne quidem Romanus And St. Augustine as deepe in hell that was an assistant to that Councell Search the Councells Mileuitan and Nice nothing can be found in the Originals except as the Athenians made an Altar where the Beasts staid to the vnknowen God so where the Pope sits they will make relation to some vnknowen Originall in the time of Numa but Plus oculo quam oraculo Chrysost Hom 43. in Matth. we will see it before we receiue it vpon their bare report for we are sure the Greeke Church would not yeeld in Chrysostomes time hee writes against it and the other did excommunicate those that made an appeale to Rome because no good did issue from appeales but long iourneyes expence of money many miseries but no redresse no pitty no indignation at the wrongs and to those that did practise them it was not Refugium but Suffugium a refuge but a shift to slip off the punishment of some notorious crimes that they had committed in their own Church not for any care to religion but to be of that religion which did eyther permit vnlawfull things or dispense with great persons like the Magi that said vnto the Kings of Persia Wee haue a Law that it is not lawfull for a man to marry his sister we haue another Law Virgils Fglog that Kings may doe what they list Et quae tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi Libertas saith the Poet liberty and impunity was the cause of these appeales and though there were a necessity yet no fruite did grow from it The comparison which S. Ierome a Priest in Rome doth make betwixt Orbem and vrbem is well knowne and the place in which he paralels the merit Priesthood of Constantinople with Rome Ier. ep ad Euagr. Einsdem meriti et Sacerdotij I omitte the titles of Gregory the Pope himselfe enough to discouer his successors to be Antichristian not spoken onely for meere opposition to the pride of Iohn of Constantinople but for his owne part absit haec leuitas ab aurihus meis Iob. 7. he would not heare of it but because hee was but a sparke of mortality as others were he would not striue to flie the highest but shine the brightest and so we are come past the 600. yeares Then euery man knowes how Phocas killed Mauritius and vsurpt the Empire and to curry fauour with the Romanes made that dogge of the flocke Boniface the third vniuersall Bishop so they continued in hight of pride and cruelty as the ould Rome was built in bloud so was the supremacy gotten by parricide Psa 67.20 Non Jesuitarum suasu sed militum terrcre Eliens epis ad Bell. Apol. Resp cap. 1. we wish it did not so continue It was a saying Thou leadest thy people like sheepe by the hands of Moses and Aaron but now alas it is not Ducit but Trahit we must not be led but drawne by the necks not so much by the perswasion of Iesuites as the violence of Souldiers Ignatius turned from a Souldier to a Iesuite now turned from a Iesuite to a Souldier by bloudy inquisitions and by force of armes must wee be forced to reconciliation not violence vsed onely vpon Subiects but vpon Kings There haue beene some that haue giuen an vncertaine sound to the battell against this plea As that the Bishop of Rome is not aboue a Councell in Paris not aboue the Lawes and all Ecclesiasticall Persons by supreame power in Venice not aboue all by a direct temporall dominion in the consistory of Cardinals There haue beene in England fiue Kings that haue resisted the Pope in such vsurpations and now thanke God IAMES is the sixt but amongest them and vs the first which not long agoe in that famous disputation at Cambridge where the King Anne Dom 1614. Marke 8. Luke 2 6. Reu. 1 13. sitting like Christ among the Doctors keeping an Act not of approbation but of admiration or rather like the Sonne of God in the similitude of the Sonne of Man amongst the golden Candlestickes a King like a Doctor opposing answering determining not in the Maiestie of his person of which hee did but shew the lineaments but in the beauty of his administration in which he did communicate light to euery disputer and glory to himselfe When that profound Schooleman his professour vpon the Question Whether the Pope had any power in temporall things as they tended to a spirituall good Obiected that the Pope had power in disposing and transferring dominions in prescribing the ciuill Lawes of Nations to Kings as S. Ambrose might to Theodosius vnder paine of Excommunication The summe of the answer being that it was not by ciuill authority Non politica authoritate sed medicina spirituali c. but as by a spirituall medicine not by the power of constraint but prescription not by authority but by Councell The King added Concionando non cogendo It pleased him further to vse these words Quaestio est vtrum Ambrosius iure fecit Vtrum exemplum cius sit lex Nego planè Ambrosij factum fuisse licitum nimis arroganter se gessit Ambrosius plusquam decuit in ea re Spoken like a King Leuit. 10. for Moses must speake when Aaron must hold his peace S Ambrose might perswade him to defer the punishment 30. daies after the or of the Grecians he could not constrain him nay a little further since man is onely aboue beasts but Kings are aboue men because they are Gods there is no way but by turning to a greater God Psal 82 6. whose childrē they are though they bee wicked yet they are children of the most highest strange children Psa 18 76. c strange because they let go Iustice but children because they keep the image of God therefore when S. Gregory gaue aduice to that murtherer Phocas which had slaughtered Mauritius with his Sonnes and his Brother euen then when he might read the impiety of the fact in the very nature of the plague that followed which killed them before they had any time to bee sicke Ex Iudel 6 lib 1 c 1 2. as hee
claues where Obserue that the maine grunsels of that Church are vpon such places which are full of Metaphors As Purgatory is kindled out of that of the 1 Corin. 3. Wood Hay and Stubble 1 Cor. 3.12 and confirmed by the Metaphor of the Minister Iayler and Prison out of which they cannot come vntill they pay the vttermost farthing So the supremacy is founded vpon the Metaphor of the Rocke and keyes wee may climbe vp by a Metaphor well tentered higher then the boughes will well endure 1 Tibi Dabo Claues Aedificabo Dabo A promise here is made of that after was performed 2 By Keyes is expressed the chiefe authority in the Church It is fetcht from Esay 22.22 Esay 22.22 spoken to Eliakim to be steward in the steed of Shebne The key of the house of Dauid will I lay vpon his shoulder so hee shall open and no man shall shut and hee shall shut and no man shall open This key Christ had as the Master Reuel 3.7 in the third of the Reuelation and this say they committed he to Peter As the Master Christ had it so he commits it to the Apostles as stewards 1 Corin. 4.1 1 Corin. 4. Let euery one so thinke of vs as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards so the same word is vsed in Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faithfull Steward But Tibi now is Vobis True 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was first promised to Peter vpon his confession but if the same be performed after to all that is heere promised to Peter Luk. 12.42 is not the point then at an end 1 What is more in Key then a Metaphor of binding and loosing two metaphors one to explane another yes Caiet an and Stapleton say there 's more in keyes then binding and loosing we leaue them to Bellarmine hee confutes Caietan in that by the generall consent of Fathers What can the keyes doe but open and shut We shut men out of heauen by sinne by the Grace of the Gospell they are admitted So by sinne we are bound and bound ouer to eternall condemnation in the chaines of darkenesse By the Gospell we are loosed from sinne to the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God 1 In the keyes then the power is promised 2 The function is declared so saith the Catechisme vpon the Councell of Trent challenge them therfore vpon their Oath Sacram Scripturam nunquam nisi iuxta vnanimem consensum Patrum accipiam aut interpretabor This Scripture being taken according to common consent and interpretation of the Fathers as the Bull of Oath made by Pope Pius the fourth and annexed to the Councell of Trent doth witnesse all shall be well at length 2 What is heere promised to Peter that is not giuen to all Iohn the 20. and the 23. verse Sicut me pater As my Father hath sent me so send I you A larger commission cannot bee giuen in plaine words much lesse in a metaphor Then sicut me Pater misit The Father sent mee to open heauen to the penitent so send I you The Father sent me to preach liberty to the captiues and to them that are bound Esa 61.1 the opening of the prison so send I you Whose sinnes ye remitte they are remitted and whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained If this power were giuen by breathing Christ breathed no more vpon Peter then on the rest for ought we know If the Apostles were made Bishops by laying clouen tongues on their heads we finde no more vpon Peter then the rest If the Apostles be the twelue foundations wee finde not Peter greater then the rest If twelue precious stones in the Reuelation the first is esteemed no more precious vnlesse in our estimation Bellarmine vrged by Caluin Cal. lib. 4. Instit c. 6. Sect. 1. Bell. de Rom. pont l. 1. c. 9.2 Cor. 11.28 How Scripture still giueth the chiefe power to the Apostles equally without preferring Peter before the rest yeeldeth the Bucklers Summa potestas ecclesiastica non solum data est Petrosed etiam alijs Apostolis Omnes poterant dicere Instantia mea quotidiana solicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum fuit enim in illis Ecclesiae primordijs necessarium ad fidem toto orbe terrarum celeritèr disseminandam vt primis praedicatoribus Ecclesiae fundatoribus summa potestas concederetur Mortuis autem Apostolis Apostolica authoritas insola petrisuccessione permansit Is it come to this that their labour was alike that they were all equally the chiefe Preachers that they were all in the same degree founders of the Church and the disseminators of the Catholique Faith The streame of the texts and the current of Antiquity interpreting the same hath driuen him to that Ingenuity What doe wee contending about Peters supremacy amongst these texts Wee had thought hee would haue fetched it from Peter Peter neuer had it search it then from Linus or Clement he that succeeded Peter we do not know who it was 1 Obserue they vrge it as Ius Diuinum and perswade weakelings that of Conscience vnder paine of condemnation we acknowledge our selues members of that Vniuersall Bishop and that out of Scripture Scripture doth not once mention him much lesse giue any preheminence to him aboue the rest 2 Bellarmine belabors al the texts Super banc petram Tibi dabo claues c. as if still Peter had something more then the rest he hath spun such a thred in this point that no spiders thred is more subtill Peter had the grant but neuer to enioy it one houre It was to begin in his successors but after his death So they must haue it from Peter else not Iure diuino else not as the Vicar of Christ or from him yet Peter neuer had it himselfe Somewhat there was which was giuen to Peter in these Texts but to begin after his death and after the death of all the rest It is worth examining for wee neuer came to the maine point till now Goe on with these texts which they presse but you shall finde this to be the issue of all TRACT VII IOHN 21.16 Feede my sheepe LEt vs handle this text occasionally hauing the last Tearme propounded the maine point The Quere whereupon the resolution of mindes vnresolued in Religion do depend to wit whether a man stand bound in conscience to forsake this present Church in which we are baptized and Catechized to bee reconciled to the Church of Rome vnder paine of eternal condemnation so they propound it to their disciples Concerning which I haue made these demands 1 Wee demand some cleere euidence for our Conscience else it were not onely rashnesse but a great sinne in so great a matter that the Church of Rome is the onely Church wherein is saluation 2 Whereas to this testimony of the Church that is of Rome for other they will acknowledge none that shee alone is the onely true Catholicke Church we take exception in this point to
her testimony in her owne cause for if Christ were content to lay by his testimony let it seeme a reasonable demand If shee aske how long we take exception to her testimony we answer iust so long as she hath made the same challenge as she doth and no longer 3 Since other testimony there is none besides the Church and Scripture which they do pretend I demand whether this point that shee is the onely Church wherein saluation may be found be there expressed or by tract of consequent Not expressely 4 Because a man is not bound to beleeue euery thing that by consequent is drawne out of Scripture I demand some cleere consequent for according to the degrees of euidence must we frame our Faith Now this consequent is so farre fetched that before they can perswade a mans conscience that hee is bound to ioyne with them and become subiect to the Bishop of that Sea he must of necessity demonstrate these 5. points 1 That Christ beeing the visible head of his whole Church so as without his Church there was no saluation they must proue that he left this to his Apostle Peter aboue the rest 2 That this power giuen to Peter did not die with him as the Apostleship did with the rest but continued in his successors 3 That Peter at his death did not impart it vnto many after him though it was a great charge and like to grow farre greater but heaped it all vpon one and that that one was the Bishop of Rome 4 That this Bishop who doth now raigne is not onely lawfully chosen but doth vndoubtedly succeede Peter in a direct succession for these fifteene hundred yeeres and aboue without any materiall interruption 5 This proued wee are neuer the neerer by their owne rule except it appeare that this Pope and present Church of Rome doth succeed Peter and his Church as well in Faith and Doctrine as place and person for they doe not exclude vs for want of succession our Records are true and cleere but as heretickes for not obeying their Faith Therefore if they doe not obey the Faith of Peter all the former points are to no purpose Let me therefore make a motiue vnto him who is vnseted in his resolution that hee would rest his soule where it is content himselfe with the plaine text of Christ and his Apostles agreed vpon till these fiue points be made cleere to his Conscience and before that I hope his soule shall be in Abrahams bosome Now that Christ left this power to Peter alone aboue the rest which is the maine foundation which if it faile the whole building must needs fall It is laid vpon foure pillars in foure texts which are repeated before For the first I haue proued that Rocke not to be Peters person as the head of the Church but that which Peter discouered by confession The Sonne of the liuing God and that Christ named Peter alluding to the signification of his name for that hee made a firme confession answerable to his name and should therefore be as a liuing stone vpon that Rocke Blessed art thou Simon Bar-iona for flesh and bloud hath not reuealed this to thee This wee haue proued by the Analogy of place by exact difference obserued betweene Petrus and Petra our originall and their vulgar by the practise of Peter and the rest in building vpon this Rooke and by interpretation of Augustine Ambrose Hillary Cyrill Chrysostome Bede or else by Lyra the interlineall glosse Cusanus Petrus de Aliaco c. For Tibidabo claues that there is no more power meant in the Metaphor of the keyes promised to Peter then is after expressed in binding and loosing Bellarmine himselfe hath vndertaken it against Caittan and Stapleton whatsoeuer Christ did promise to Peter in Matthew is giuen to the rest in Iohn In sicut misit me Pater sic mitto vos As large a Commission and in as plaine termes as may bee As my Father sent mee Esay 61. To preach liberty to the Captiues and them that are bound the opening of the prison so send I you therefore whose sinnes ye remit they are remitted and whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained If there were power giuen by breathing where Christ breathed on all alike If in the sending of clouen tongues no more sate on Peters head then on the rest If as one of the twelue foundations Peter is no bigger then the rest If amongst the twelue precious stones he be no more precious then the rest vnlesse in our estimation Saphire as good as lasper then we may safely as yet determine against them that lay such snares on men soules concerning their saluation For Orabo pro te and confirma fratres Luk. 22.32 vpon examination we haue found no preheminence giuen to Peter at all sauing onely in the occasion which mooued Christ to speake particularly to Peter a prophecy of his denying of Christ in the 34 verse for Christ prayed for the rest as wel as for Peter in Iohn the 17. Father sanctifie them in thy trueth Ioh. 17.11 Now if Christ praied more for Peter it was not for his dignity but because he was in greater danger Christ tels him what neede there is that he should pray for him Confirma fratres He meanes all Christians to whom he preaches and writes as in the 2. of Peter 1. 10. If we will therefore haue Christ to meane his fellow Apostles doth not Paul confirme Peter more then euer Peter did Paul 4 Text. But Pasce Oues meas Galat. 2.11 is the place they lay the most weight on and it demonstrates three things faith Bellarmine 1 That it is directed to Peter alone by name Simon Ioanna and Diligis me plus his His excluding the rest and repeated three times 2 Pasce not onely to feede but also to gouerne expressed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath a third signification To eat It is well that Bellarmine leaues out that for Baronius against Segnorius of Venice an holy Father vses it for Kill and eate Acts 10.13 3 Oues meas there 's the Lambs that 's the Laity The little sheepe the Cleargy and the strong sheepe the Apostles Heretickes deny this diuision saith Bellarmine Nobis autem exploratum certumque est omnes omnino Christianos etiam Apostolos ipsos Petro tanquam ouiculas commendari cum ei dicitur Pasce Oues meas with all Christians and the Apostles themselues commended to his cure Then Peter and Peter alone must be the sole ordinary Pastor of the Church of Christ 1 True it is that this is spoken to Peter and onely to him and that three times The reason is because hee was singular in denying Christ and denying three times and if the place be rightly waighed it is rather a stay of his weakenesse then a note of his greatnesse Ominous it is that the Pope relieth most vpon those places which are grounded vpon Peters deniall 2 For Pasce heere 's no