THE ALLEGEANCE OF THE CLEARGIE A Sermon preached at the meeting of the whole Clergie of the Dyocesse of Rochester to take the Oath of Allegeance to his most excellent Maiestie at Greenewich Nouem 2. 1610. By SAMVEL PAGE Doctor in Diuinitie LONDON Printed by Nicholas Okes for Simon Waterson dwelling in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Crowne 1616. ¶ TO THE MOST Reuerend Father in God my most Honourable good Lord the Lord Bishop of London MOst reuerend and my honorable good Lord in these fruitful times wherin so many painfull in Gods husbandrie doe make daily Presents to the Church of their profitable Labours I thought my selfe behinde-hand too much to sit out so long without giuing some testimony of my equall desire to aduance so good a Worke. I am too cōscious of my insufficiencies to presse in with the first and I feare to doe nothing These days afford plenty of readers if plenty of writers ouer-charge variety may delight These my meditations haue hope of welcome from the Argument which is our own loiall Allegeance to his Maiestie who are the Preachers of Loyalty to our People and from your Honorable protection and countenance to whom the Church of God here owes many acknowledgements of honorable seruice hy you performed to her to whom I best know how much my selfe in particulars doe stand obliged I pray God for the encrease of his best blessings on you and yours and rest wishing your Lordsh S. P. THE ALLEGEANCE OF THE CLEARGIE The first Sermon ROM 13.2 And they that resist shal receiue to themselues Iudgement GOD is a God of Order against the Anabaptisticall doctrine of Anarchie and cōfusion he hath made men on earth as hee hath distinguished the starres in the firmament one starre differing from another in glorie hee hath taken the aduauncement of men into his owne hands his wisedome saith By me Princes reigne Pro. 8.15 and Dauid saith Preferment commeth not from the Est c. he confesseth that Gods hand is in that work as Paul in this chap. saith the powers that be are ordained of God The Relatiue to these Powers is Submission Extent of this Submission omnis anima euery Soule I thinke Saint Paul preuentingly and by propheticall spirit prouided in this caution against all Aequinocators and Mentalists who are ready to tender their Soueraignes some outward and formall Submission without the Soule and inward affection therefore hee saith Let euery soule submit The foundation of this Law of Loyaltie is laid in the conscience of a Christian man not because of wrath onely but for conscience sake The illation following on the premises is my Text. The proposition wherof is indefinite equiualent to an vniuersal They that resist all they shall receiue iudgement If any aske what is the Extent of this power which God giueth to his annointed seruants the Kings Princes of the earth let them learne of Israel who tendred this Allegeance to Ioshua All that thou hast commaunded vs we will do and whither-soeuer thou sendest vs wee will goe as wee obeyed Moses in all things so will we obey thee only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Iosh 1.16.17 So farre then as GOD is with our Princes and that their commaunds bee no preiudice to the superior ordinances of God euery soule doth owe them submission and must sweare them their obedience for whatsoeuer the person of the Prince is the power is of God euen Pilates power is of God though hee armed it against Christ by our Sauiours owne testimonie Iohn 19 11. saying Thou couldst haue no power against mee except it were giuen thee from aboue therefore Christ submitted himselfe to that power euen hee that could say To mee is giuen all power in heauen and in earth Matt. 28.18 Our gratious soueraigne King reading in the bloudy practises of his rebel-Popish-subiects the danger of his owne royall person of his hopefull posteritie hath with the most honourable Parliament deuised a Shiboleth euen this oath of Allegeance which is how tendered to vs of his Cleargie of this Diocesse to distinguish betwixt his Israelites and his Ephraimites betweene his faithfull louing and peaceable Protestants and the tumultuous factious and Popish Incendiaries who desire to see our Ierusalem turned to dust and ashes This Oath wil shew him who hath most disciples in his kingdome this Paul our Apostle that taught the Romans omnis anima let euery soule submit or Paul the fift that now teacheth the Romans and all his Romish Catholiques the Contradictorie to his doctrine Non omnis anima let not euery soule be so obliged I wonder at Burgese of Rome that being so opposite to Saint Paul he would vsurpe his name at his investiture in the Papacie except hee meant to set Paul against Palu Romans against Romans his Breues against Saint Paules Epistles our Apostle cast off a name vpon his conuersion that would become his Holinesse of Rome much better But concerning the power of Secular Princes by this Paul the fift and his vsurping Predecessors strangely restrained to make their peace with S. Paul they doe thus vnderstand my Text They that resist that is They of the Laity that resist for saith their Glosse Ecclesiasticall persons and Ecclesiasticall causes are exempt The quarrell is wel knowne between the Pope and the State of Venice for their iudiciall processe pursued to the execution and death of a sowle malefactor of their Cleargie and the Pope if he had been strong enough to reuenge such a quarrell would haue made it knowne much better Therefore it concerneth his most excellent Maiesty to vnderstand how his Cleargie affect his gouernement and what subiection and Allegeance they will performe to him which shall discouer whether we follow the example of the old Romans who in their purer and Primitiue times gaue vnto Caesar that which was Caesars or whether we resist with the late Roman Catholiques turning Caesar all into Name and diuesting him of all his Roialties Saint Bernard epist 42. to the Archbishop of Senona vrgeth that place of Saint Paul omnis anima Let euery soule be subiect thus Si omnis vestra quis vos excipit ab vniuersitate Si quis tentat excipere conatur decipere If euery soule must bee subiect then yours that is those persons who are Ecclesiasticall who excepteth you when hee nameth All hee that assayes to except you of the Church goeth about to deceiue you Therefore to sort this Preface to the occasion and to the present hearing more properly I learne of S. Bernard thus to limit to my selfe they of the Cleargie Ecclesiasticall persons that resist shal receiue to themselues damnation And heerein wee haue our high Priest for an example of whom S. Bernard saith Conditor Caesaris non cunctatus est reddere censum Caesari exemplum enim dedit vobis vt vos ita faciatis He that made Caesar payed tribute to Caesar for therein he gaue ensample to you
them fully pressed by most learned and iudicious Diuines which expresse the power of Princes ouer the Church First their inuention of generall Counsells so Pighius himselfe confesseth Constantinus primus authâ—r fuit conuocandi generalia consilia Constantine was the first who deuised to assemble generall Counsells but the power heereof was by GOD himselfe giuen to Moses to whom hee committed the making and vsing of the two siluer Trumpets and from him deriued to all Princes and States imperiall And the Church storie since Christ maketh it plaine how Emperours and Kings in their seuerall dominions haue both called Counsells and sate Presidents to order the meeting to censure and punish offendours to keepe them to the point that would digresse and in their absence to depute secular Iudges in their places and at last to dissolue their meeting at their pleasure Yea sometimes the great Bishop of Rome hath made request to the Emperour as Leo for example for the calling a Counsell in Italie and preuailed not And lastly the Canons of Counsells were by the imperiall power ratified and without that soueraigne approbation had no strength Secondly for Appeales the Princes haue bin in the Church the end of them all euen in causes Ecclesiasticall More Socrates reporteth libr. 5. cap. 10. That many Bishops differing in iudgement concerning the Doctrine of the Trinitie Theodosius the Emperour conuented them before himselfe hee tooke the seuerall Coppies of their Doctrines and praying first to God to assist him in that holy businesse that he might choose and maintaine his truth against all heretical opinions after mature aduice hee resolued vpon the truth of Doctrine and in the presence of all the Assembly hee tore in peeces all the rest and this truth he did not measure by the depth of his own iudgement but by comparison with that Canon of Faith which both holy Scriptures and former Counsells had sufficiently maintained And this was in a matter meerely Ecclesiasticall And for Ecclesiasticall persons the law of Appeales in our Land when Popery passed for true religion in the reigne of King Henry the second had this Processe from the Archdeacon to the Bishop of the Diocesse from the Bishop of the Diocesse to the Archbishoppe of the Prouince and from him to the King which was the finall hearing and determination beyond which there was no further prouocation but to leaue all to God Therefore we determine that our Causes and our Persons are all vassalles and subiect to our Soueraignes and the immunities and liberties which wee possesse wee holde them of the indulgence and gracious fauour of our most worthie and louing Princes and our Salomon our Ecclesiastes requireth of his Cleargie no vndue obedience that the iudgement remaineth most iust They that resist euen of the Cleargie shall receiue vnto themselues damnation They resist this power who refuse this Oath of Loyaltie to his most excellent Maiestie as all Popish Recusants do who set vp a demy-god as Bellarmine his Parasite fawneth and faineth De Pontif. 5.6 qui potest mutare conferre auferre principibus regna who hath power to change to giue and take away Kingdomes from Princes Our Soueraigne doth not set vp an Inquisition to finde out Papists as Rome doth to discouer Protestants hee doth not make bare suspition quarrell enough to apprehend conuent imprison racke and torture men to force them to selfe-accusation hee onely deuiseth to know sheepe from goates loyall subiects from hereticall rebells he is the Image of that King of whom wee reade Matt. 21.5 Ecce rextuus venit tibi mansuetus Thy King commeth to thee meeke and gracious It is the glorie of a King to passe by an offence How many Princes of the earth would haue put vp such an attempt as the Gun-powder treason was with such patience Might not Christian Princes haue thought his anger iust if it had drawne his Sword against all of that Religion till none of them had beene left and it had beene no more then the equitie of my Text for they that resist must receiue iudgement heere by iust Magistrates who beare not the Sword in vaine and heereafter damnation by the Sentence of the great Iudge of Quicke and Dead The Israelites thought this Sentence iust for thus they say to Ioshua Whosoeuer will rebell against thy Commaundements let him be put to death And God gaue a fearefull example hereof in the rebellion of Corah The reason is giuen by the Almightie himselfe in this case of opposition to soueraigne dominion why he taketh it so to heart For hee said to Samuel They haue not cast thee away but they haue cast me away that I should not raigne ouer them In these cases of resisting GOD is most sensible for his owne Scepter of Rule is touched in them For by mee Princes raigne saith his Wisedome Therefore the vsurping pride of Rome struggling and wrastling with the Holy one of Israel for the Scepter of Regiment may now looke that the censure of Saint Gregorie the Great then Bishop giuen vpon the Patriarch of Constantinoples ambition of the name of Oecumenicall may turne into a prophesie of these times and then Elatio tanto citius rumpitur quanto magis inflatur And we may all expect the breaking of the head of Leuiathan in the great waters Dauid said they that hate thee haue lifted vp the head Saint Augustine vpon that place saith Nec capita sed caput quando eo peruenturi sunt vt etiam illud caput habeant quod extollitur super omne quod dicitur Deus quod colitur quod Deus interficiet spiritu oris sui that is he saith not their heads but they shall lift vp the head seeing they shall come to that passe that they shall haue that head which is lifted vp aboue all that is called God or is worshipped which GOD shall destroy with the breath of his mouth The time of my warning to this place and the time limited to this short Preface to a long businesse are both impatient of prolixitie Let mee therfore addresse my speech to you my reuerend Brethren in the holy Ministery of the word of God to stirre you vp not onely to expresse and approoue your owne vndoubted loyalty to your Soueraigne by your oath publiquely giuen for the same but further to employ the vttermost of your wittes and tongues and pennes to recouer so many of our recusant brethren as are not frozen in their dregges of superstition but led in blindenesse for want of light to the vnitie of our Church and the obedience of our Soueraigne and withall to stirre vp the Magistrate to zeale and feruour in the cause of God to detect and pursue recusant Papists and to lay them at the foote of our gracious Lord the King For Salomon saith right well A King that sitteth in the throne of Iudgement chaseth away all euill with his eye Prou. 20.8 or if they be so grounded in their disloyalty that they dread not the
to you of the Cleargie that you should also doe the like thus did Saint Bernard teach who flourished eleauen hundred yeares after Christ Origen interpreting this Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans vpon this Chapter lib. 9. giueth a reason why the Apostle in an Epistle to the Brethren in Antiochia Syria and Cilicia Acts 15.29 doth only admonish them to abstaine from things sacrificed to Idoles from the strangled and from bloud not adding any prohibition of adulterie murther theft c. Superfluum videbatur ea diuina lege prohibere quae sufficienter humana lege plectuntur It seemed to him more then needed by diuine decrees to inhibite those things which humane lawes did sufficiently punish His collection from hence is very notable and sorteth with my present Argument Ex quo apparet iudices mundi partē maximā Dei legis implere omnia enim crimina quae vindicari vult Deus non per antistites principes Ecclesiarum sed per mundi iudices voluit vindicari Hence it appeareth that the Secular Iudges doe fulfill the greatest part of the Lawe of GOD for all crimes which GOD will haue punished hee referreth to the vindication of these and not of the Prelates and chiefe Priests in his Church And heerein he hath met with the Church of Rome in an euasion learnd of the Donatists and detected and despised by Saint Augustine contra Parmenianum Donatistam Episcopum libr. 1. saying Nisi forte quemadmodum nonnulli eorum sane imperitissimi intelligere solent de honoribus Ecclesiasticis dictum esse velint vt gladius intelligatur vindicta spiritualis cùm prouidentissimus Apostolus satis aperiat quid loquatur dicens propter hoc tributa praestatis Vnlesse perchance as some most foolishly are wont to interprete these words they would vnderstand Saint Paul as speaking of Ecclesiasticall powers that by the Sword is meant Excommunication whereas the Apostle wisely prouided to preuent any such interpretation and expresseth himselfe plainely when hee sayth For this cause pay you tribute and Tribute is not due but to Secular powers And Saint Ambrose maketh good this interpretation Tom. 5. vpon this place saying Principes hos reges dicit qui propter corrigendam vitam prohibenda aduersa creantur Dei habentes imaginem vt sub vno sint caeteri The Apostle Paul in this place meaneth Kings who are created for the correction of mens liues and the defending of them from aduersitie bearing the Image of God that one should sit aboue the rest And Theophilact as for the most part he doth followeth Saint Chrysostome in the interpretation of this Text saying Vniuersos erudit siue Sacerdos sit ille siue Monachus siue Apostolus vt se principibus subdant Hee teacheth all sorts of men whether he be Priest Monke or Apostle hee must submitte himselfe to his Soueraigne Prince And the holie Apostle Saint Peter whom the Roman Vsurpers boast to succeede taught the same generall doctrine 1. Pet. 2.13 c. Submit your selues to all maner ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as superiour or vnto gouernours as sent of him c. for so is the will of God Saint Gregory the great who sate Bishop of Rome sixe hundred yeares after our Lord and Sauiour Christ knew no other nor taught none other doctrine for hereof his Epistles giue good witnesse Mauritius the Emperour had made a Decree That no olde Souldiers should be admitted or receiued into anie of the Monasteries because hee perceiued that many of them vsed this as a shift to shunne and escape from going to the warres and hee was thereby likely to bee the worse serued such power had that Christian Emperour to decree in matters concerning the Church and Gregorie then Bishoppe of Rome grieued at this constitution of the Emperor did not conuent the Emperour to his Consistorie drew not out against him the sword of Excommunication did not menace him with interdiction depriuation or any other shew of Papall iurisdiction but as an humble and duetifull subiect addressed to him his earnest petition by an Epistle wherein he pleadeth for the Church and as if it became him ill to contest with his Soueraigne hee bringeth in Christ Iesus thus expostulating with him Ego te de notario comitem excubitorum de comite Caesarem de Caesare imperatorem patrem imperatorum feci In a word I haue aduaunced thee from lowe to high degree Sacerdotes meos tuae manni commisi I haue giuen thee charge and gouernement of my Priests Registr lib. 3. epist 61. And to make his suite more possible he wrote an earnest Letter to Theodorus the Emperours Physician to intreate him who might best chuse an opportune time to sollicite this request in which he complayneth saying Epist 64. Valde mihi durum videtur vt ab eius seruitio milites prohibeat qui dominari illum non solum militibus sed etiam Sacerdotibus concessit It seemeth hard to mee that hee whom God hath made to rule not only Souldiers but Priests also should restraine Souldiers from doing seruice to that GOD So making Theodorus his competitor to the Emperour for repeale of that Law But this Gregorie the first of that name was so farre from the present Antichristian pride of his successor as that he would not suffer the Title of Oecumenicall Bishop to be put vpon him herein following Pelagius his most worthy predecessour He writ an angry reprehension to Eulogius Patriarch of Alexandria for stiling him Vniuersall Bishop in an Epistle sent to him And when Iohn Patriarch of Constantinople had vsurped that title he wrot to him to rebuke him for it And to Mauritius the Emperour whose loue to him and the Church could haue affoorded him so honorable a title he said whosoeuer assumeth to himselfe or admitteth of any such title Elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit he doth fore-runne Antichrist in his pride He calleth that title Ne fandum stultum superbum vocabulum a wicked foolish and proud title He saith that the counsell of Calcedon offered it to his predecessors to bee so stiled sed tamen nullus sibi hoc temerarium nomen arripuit none of them took this rash and in considerate name vpon him He would haue staid the pride of that Roman See at the first for when in respect of the Empire seated at Rome the chamber of that great Monarchie there was giuen the first place in Councels to the Bishop of Rome the next ambition was to be chiefe Bishop and then to be vniuersall ouer all the Church as Hart saith the Pope cannot be non resident for all the world is his Diocesse and what was then left but to intrude vpon the rights of temporall Princes as in succeeding times they did and at this day doe But we heare God promising Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queenes thy nurces not Bishops not Popes and Prelates Esay 49.23 Two proofes let mee but name because we haue
power of that Sword which hee beareth and not in vaine if they be so blinded with superstition that they cannot see in the Maiestie of Soueraigne gouernment the ordinance and Vicegerencle of God A wise King as a wise King saith scattereth the wicked and maketh the wheele to turne ouer them verse 26. Our King hath Wisedome like an Angell of God to dispute with them and confute them Euen a diuine Sentence is in the mouth of our King Prouer. 16.19 He hath Iustice like the Deputy of of the most High to punish them that are obstinate hee hath mercy like the Sonne of God to manage Iustice with moderation and to pardon those that offend not of malitious and precipitate rebellion but of ignorant and mis-led ouersight And his search tending to the detection of Gods enemies I wish my Text written by the finger of Gods spirit in the royall heart and hand of our most gracious Lord the King that all his faithfull subiects may reade it in his practise They which resist shall receiue to themselues iudgement For what greater discouragement to our Ministery then this to see the bold freedome of recusant Papists daring to affront our Church to impugne our doctrine to despise our Bishops to scorne our Ministery and to pronounce vs all damned to the second death without hope of redemption and all this with such assurance as if they had no law to contradict them or no Magistrate to see the lawe executed vpon them God himselfe hath written a law against such in their bloud and let Gods subordinate Deputies on earth from the King that sitteth vpon the throne to the lowest Magistrate trusted with the Sword of Iustice lay to heart the speech of God by his Prophet to Ahab 1. Reg. 20.42 Because thou hast let goe out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to die thy life shall goe for his life Let this sentence fall vpon the Kings enemies and rather then one haire should fall from the head of the Lords annoynted for his remissenes herein to those whom God hath appoynted to die let his milke-white mercy be dyed into a crimosin tincture of iudgement Exurgat Deus dissipentur inimici Let God arise let his enemies be scattered VVhat their mercy is the day shall declare it the fift of Nouember shall declare it to posteritie their vault their powder their barres of yron their logges and billets of wood euen all their instruments of sodaine and cruell death which if men should forgot God would remember for though men winke and sleepe the holy one of Israel seeth and God the auenger will arise and They that resist shal receiue to themselues condemnation The Pope that absolueth others herein cannot be absolued Saint Paul hath sealed Paul the fift now liuing dying in his present Religion to condemnation and my Text is sufficient proofe that no Romish Catholique liuing and dying in the obedience of the Bishop of Rome and in disloyal rebellion and resistance to their lawfull Soueraignes can hope by the reuealed will of God to bee saued for his sinne is resistance to Gods ordinance which is flatte Theomachie Let vs all therefore be instant and earnest in the maintenance of this truth our tepidity and luke-warmenesse in religion maketh vs iustly tataxed to resemble the church of Laodicea which is threatned to be cast out of Gods mouth It is the cause of God it is the cause of Iesus Christ the cause of the Church the cause of the Common-wealth It is the cause of the supreame head of the Church and Common-wealth next vnder Iesus Christ our wise learned gracious and peaceable Salomon He is neither good Christian nor good subiect that is not stowe and confident in so religious and loyall a quarrell I presume I haue but spoken the thoughts and affections of all my reuerend and learned brethren in the holie Ministerie and I say no more but Amen Let God ratifie and confirme it euen so be it for Iesus Christ his sake to whom with the Father and the holie Spirit be giuen all glorie and power and dominion now and euermore AMEN Laus Deo Ioshua 1.18 1. Sam. 8.7